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#12 How can a prospective college student eliminate some of the tuition cost of going to college? 

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#12 How can a prospective college student eliminate some of the tuition cost of going to college? 

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Students can sign up for FASFA which is a Student loan organization to help decrease college tuition. Its ran by the government so the faster students sign up the more money they are given out for college tuition.

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Pier 1 Imports ( PIR) has performed much like the rest of the retail sector in the past year. Struggling with increasing competition from Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN), Home Depot (NYSE: HD) and those liquidating, Pier 1 is a good name to short. Management has done whatever it can to prevent the stock from falling farther, but the strong downtrend has more room to run. As the market rallies, people are abandoning names that just aren't working, chasing the runners in search of outsized returns.

While many plays in the retail sector might offer good value, PIR is not one of those plays. Companies like Wayfair ( W) and Amazon are eating their lunch as the home furnishing area improves online. PIR is trying its hand in the online market as well, but is unable to find significant traction there, all the while paying a large dividend that's becoming more at risk. On top of that, on Sept. 27 PIR reported poor Q2 results for its fiscal 2018, which I will examine. The short thesis is intact and no light is at the end of the tunnel for Pier 1 going forward.

One of the most important metrics for a growing strong company is revenue. Pier 1 managed to increase Q2 revenue a paltry 0.4% over last year at $407.6m. This is in an environment with job growth up, home buying strong, and PIR's core demographic spending more. Yet Pier 1 has only managed a lackluster 1.8% comparable-sales growth. The stronger retail names have been able to post around 10% same-store sales on the back of a powerful brand. Pier 1 doesn't have that branding power, as many retail stores fail.

Keep in mind also that Pier 1 is has a dividend yield of 6.68%, which is quite large for a company struggling like this. As earnings continue to decline, it's quite likely that a dividend cut is in the cards within the next year. The payout ratio is 68.30%, which might need to be cut for a turnaround in 2018. It is very hard to invest in this retail environment with such a high payout ratio. Expect more downside if that comes to fruition, with many value investors buying this name for the dividend at these levels.

One of the more bearish indicators is that while Pier 1 continues to increase its online presence, revenue growth still eludes it. Pier 1 has increased its online sales from 20% in Q2 of fiscal-year 2017 to 27% in Q2 for this year. Even while they continue to penetrate online more effectively, the stores themselves are becoming weaker and not contributing any growth. UBS analyst Michael Lasser noted that "it's essentially cannibalizing customers from its stores with added delivery and fulfillment expenses. As such, its top-line growth has stagnated and its profitability has declined. We just don't see this reversing any time soon."

Even while they continue to shut down weaker stores, the ones left are not able to turn a profit. Also, as the company focuses more on the online side, they will be forced to see more margin compression with shipping and other online promotions. This competitive environment does not bode well for a specialized retailer such as Pier 1. Also, wages continue to rise among the lowest paid workers, which can be a big issue for a company with razor-thin profit margins like Pier 1. Any increases to the minimum wage could further pressure the retailer, adding to the growing fulfillment costs to increase losses. So while the stock is now "cheap," it will continue to get cheaper on these multiple headwinds.

PIR data by YCharts

Technically, Pier 1 Imports is struggling to say the least, down 39.5% over the past year. This is happening while the retail sector as a whole has struggled, but has managed to lose only 1.8%. When you look at the impressive bull run the market has had since the Trump win in November, you need to wonder why anyone would be long such a weak retail name. Until PIR crosses over its 200-day moving average, it is a strong short candidate.

The dividend is at risk, with the environment for PIR getting more competitive going forward. Shorting here, even at these levels, is a very profitable trade with a target price of $3. Management says it's going to have a "turnaround plan" within the next six months, but the stock will continue to decline while we wait for any changes. While PIR has seen its short interest wane as it gets closer to its book value, you still have some juice to squeeze out of this retail lemon.

Disclosure: I am/we are short PIR.

I wrote this article myself, and it expresses my own opinions. I am not receiving compensation for it (other than from Seeking Alpha). I have no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article.

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Pier 1 Imports ( PIR) has performed much like the rest of the retail sector in the past year. Struggling with increasing competition from Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN), Home Depot (NYSE: HD) and those liquidating, Pier 1 is a good name to short.

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#11 Add a news article to your padlet for the companies you selected 

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#11 Add a news article to your padlet for the companies you selected 

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Here are the keys to Best Buy's turnaround, according to Mr. Joly:

1. Price, price, price

When Mr. Joly took over in 2012, Best Buy was bleeding out. A former chief had resigned after admitting to an improper romantic relationship with an employee. The company's systems were outdated and many stores were losing money. Many of the products that drew customers to stores, such as new CD and DVD releases, were becoming obsolete.

The most worrisome trend in big-box retail was "showrooming" - customers were testing new products in stores before buying them for less money online from another retailer. To combat showrooming and persuade customers to complete their purchases at Best Buy, Mr. Joly announced a price-matching guarantee.

"Until I match Amazon's prices, the customers are ours to lose," Mr. Joly said.

Price-matching costs Best Buy real money, but it also gives customers a reason to stay in the store, and avoids handing business to competitors.

2. Focus on humans

Mr. Joly also realized that if Best Buy was going to compete with Amazon, which has spent billions building a speedy delivery system and plans to use drones to become even more efficient, it needed to get better at things that robots can't do well - namely, customer service.

In his first months on the job, Mr. Joly visited Best Buy stores near the company's Minnesota headquarters to ask rank-and-file employees about the struggles they encountered. (Among their gripes: an internal search engine that was returning bad data about which items were in stock.)

Best Buy fixed the search engine. It also restored a much-loved employee discount that had been suspended and embarked on an ambitious program to retrain its employees so they could answer questions about entirely new categories of electronics, such as virtual reality headsets and smart home appliances.

"The associates in our stores are much more engaged now, much more proficient," Mr. Joly said.

Customers had always loved Best Buy's Geek Squad, its army of specially trained tech support experts who could be hired to mount TVs and install other appliances at a customer's home. But sometimes, people needed help before they bought big and expensive gadgets. So it started an adviser program that allows customers to get free in-home consultations about what product they should buy, and how it should be installed. The service started as a pilot program last year and is now being rolled out nationwide.

Best Buy has "really come through the valley by making investments around the customer experience," said Peter Keith, a retail analyst with Piper Jaffray.

3. Turn brick-and-mortar into showcase-and-ship

When Mr. Joly arrived at Best Buy, the company's online ordering system was completely divorced from its stores. If a customer placed an order on the website, it would ship from a central warehouse. If that warehouse didn't have the item in stock, the customer was out of luck.

Mr. Joly realized that with some minor changes, each of Best Buy's 1,000-plus big-box stores could ship packages to customers, serving as a mini warehouse for its surrounding area. Now, when a customer orders a product on Best Buy's website, the item is sent from the location that can deliver it the fastest - a store down the street, perhaps, or a warehouse five states away. It was a small, subtle change, but it allowed Best Buy to improve its shipping times, and made immediate gratification possible for customers. Now, roughly 40 percent of Best Buy's online orders are either shipped or picked up from a store.

Best Buy also struck deals with large electronics companies like Samsung, Apple and Microsoft to feature their products in branded areas within the store. Now, rather than jamming these companies' products next to one another on shelves, Best Buy allows them to set up their own dedicated kiosks. (Apple's area inside a Best Buy, for example, has the same sleek wooden tables and minimalist design as an Apple Store.) It's a concept borrowed from department stores, and it's created a lucrative new revenue stream. Even Amazon has set up kiosks in Best Buy stores to show off its voice-activated Alexa gadgets.

Granted, Best Buy has a last-man-standing advantage in these partnership deals. Many of its big-box rivals (Circuit City, Radio Shack, HH Gregg) have gone bankrupt or shut down completely. Which means that if Samsung wants to show off its newest line of tablets in a big-box electronics store, it has basically one choice.

4. Cut costs quietly

Almost every business turnaround plan includes cutting costs. Under Mr. Joly, Best Buy has used the scalpel as quietly as possible, gradually letting leases expire for unprofitable stores and consolidating its overseas divisions. He trimmed a layer of middle managers in 2014, and reassigned roughly 400 Geek Squad employees within the company. But he has never announced a huge, public round of layoffs, which can crater employee morale and create a sinking-ship vibe.

"Taking people out is the last resort," Mr. Joly said in 2015. "Because you need to capture the hearts and minds of the employees."

Best Buy has also found more creative penny-pinching methods. Once, the company noticed that an unusually high number of flat-screen TVs were being dropped in its warehouses. It revamped the handling process, reducing the number of times TVs were picked up by a clamp lift and adding new carts to prevent TV boxes from falling over. The changes resulted in less broken inventory and bigger profits.

5. Get lucky, stay humble and don't tempt fate

Mr. Joly didn't explicitly tell me this, but it is obvious: Best Buy has benefited from some serious good fortune.

It's lucky that the products it specializes in selling, like big-screen TVs and high-end audio equipment, are big-ticket items that many customers still feel uncomfortable buying sight unseen from a website. It's lucky that several large competitors have gone out of business, shrinking its list of rivals. And it's lucky that the vendors who make the products it sells, like Apple and Samsung, have kept churning out expensive blockbuster gadgets.

"They're at the mercy of the product cycles," said Stephen Baker, a tech industry analyst at NPD Group. "If people stop buying PCs or they don't care about big-screen TVs anymore, they have a challenge."

Mr. Joly knows that despite Best Buy's recent momentum, it's not out of the woods yet. To succeed over the long term, it will need to do more than cut costs and match prices. Walmart, another big-box behemoth, is investing billions of dollars in a digital expansion with the acquisition of e-commerce companies like Jet and Bonobos, and could prove to be a fierce rival. Amazon has been expanding into brick-and-mortar retail with its acquisition of Whole Foods, and is moving into Best Buy's home installation and services market.

Mr. Joly is optimistic about Best Buy's chances against these Goliaths, but he's not ready to celebrate yet.

"Once you've had a near-death experience," he said, "arrogance, if you had it in your bones, has disappeared forever."

Correction: September 18, 2017

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Best Buy's Secrets for Thriving in the Amazon Age

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Here are the keys to Best Buy's turnaround, according to Mr. Joly: 1. Price, price, price When Mr. Joly took over in 2012, Best Buy was bleeding out. A former chief had resigned after admitting to an improper romantic relationship with an employee. The company's systems were outdated and many stores were losing money.

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#10 Compare the two companies and determine which company is a better short term investment

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#10 Compare the two companies and determine which company is a better short term investment

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Although both best buy and Pier 1 have their specific values. The best one for short term would definitely have to be Best Buy for it is around the holidays. Which concludes to more and more people buying for their families. I even got my brother something from best buy so thats how i know it is a smart investment

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#9 Pick two publicly traded companies. Give investment summaries for each company you pick.

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#9 Pick two publicly traded companies. Give investment summaries for each company you pick.

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Best Buy Inc. could be a great investment for this era always needs new electronics. its better because new electronics come out around every year so the business couldn't die down.

Pier 1 imports is a risky but smart move to invest in. Its a sort of small company with many stores across the country. Maybe around the holidays people will go to this store and start to buy more products of it.

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#8 Pick an investment strategy and explain how it works

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#8 Pick an investment strategy and explain how it works

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Bonds are considered a more stable investment compared to stocks because they usually provide a steady flow of income. Bonds can sometimes outperform a stock’s rate of return.

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#7 List 3 investment concepts that you learned during this semester

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#7 List 3 investment concepts that you learned during this semester

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1. Stocks
2.  bonds
3. Cash equivalent

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#6 Explain how the video does or does not apply to your group's business 

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#6 Explain how the video does or does not apply to your group's business 

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First we would only have machines bottle our hot sauce but we would hand make it so that we can measure just how much of each pepper is in each serving. Also we wouldn't have it in such high bottles since its so expensive to make a bottle it would be in small containers.

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#5 Add a business video about the industry your group's business was involved in.

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#5 Add a business video about the industry your group's business was involved in.

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How hot sauce is made and bottled

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Hot Sauce Being Made And Bottled From The Hot Sauce Masters.

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Go order some Fletchers Hot Sauce now http://fletcherssauceco.com Jeff Panagos and Dave Sevier making a batch of their famous hot sauce. They talk about why they like, and what makes Fletchers Hot Sauce different. You can also catch them bottling some of this chili sauce right from the kettle to the bottle.

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#4 describe your group's business and summarize your group's business plan

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#4 describe your group's business and summarize your group's business plan

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My groups business is a Hot sauce Company mainly known for its spicy well known sauce Hell's Fire.
We are a company that is settled in L.A and have a partner ship with Mexican restaurants across the city of Los Angeles. We Grow our own crops and hope in the next year or two we can spread out more north of California.

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#3 Explain in detail what you learned about each of the concepts you have listed

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#3 Explain in detail what you learned about each of the concepts you have listed

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1.  I learned how marketing worked so that our business can make profit from our products and can keep a stable business.
2.Manufacturing taught me to spread out my business, how to make connections with other companies, and how to make my product more commonly known.
3. Accounting really helped out with bringing all the numbers together. How much rent would cost, or even learn how much i would need yearly to keep my company going.

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#2 List business concepts you learned from your groups business projects.

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#2 List business concepts you learned from your groups business projects.

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1. Marketing
2. Manufacturing
3.Accounting