Short Interest in Polymet Mining Corp (PLM) Rises By 22.8%

Polymet Mining Corp (NYSEAMERICAN:PLM) (TSE:POM) was the target of a significant growth in short interest in June. As of June 15th, there was short interest totalling 1,483,743 shares, a growth of 22.8% from the May 31st total of 1,208,433 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 731,789 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 2.0 days.

A number of large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in PLM. Renaissance Technologies LLC boosted its holdings in Polymet Mining by 185.2% in the fourth quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 308,600 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $265,000 after purchasing an additional 200,400 shares during the period. Deutsche Bank AG boosted its holdings in Polymet Mining by 174.8% in the fourth quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 297,368 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $255,000 after purchasing an additional 189,168 shares during the period. All Terrain Financial Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Polymet Mining in the fourth quarter valued at $118,000. Finally, Cahill Financial Advisors Inc. purchased a new position in Polymet Mining in the first quarter valued at $168,000.

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Polymet Mining traded up $0.03, reaching $1.00, during midday trading on Wednesday, MarketBeat.com reports. The company had a trading volume of 600 shares, compared to its average volume of 542,719. Polymet Mining has a 12-month low of $0.58 and a 12-month high of $1.36.

About Polymet Mining

PolyMet Mining Corp. explores for and develops natural resource properties. Its primary mineral property is the NorthMet project that includes NorthMet copper-nickel-precious metals ore body covering an area of approximately 4,300 acres located in northeastern Minnesota. The company was formerly known as Fleck Resources Ltd.

Visa Takes Over as Dow's Top-Performing Stock

Credit card giant Visa Inc. (NYSE: V) last week took over the top spot as the best performing Dow Jones industrial average stock for the year to date. The stock posted only a slight gain, one of only eight Dow stocks to show some life in what was a down week for the index. Visa shares added just 0.2% last week but have gained 18.7% for the year to date.

The second-best performer among the Dow index equities so far this year is Nike Inc. (NYSE: NKE), which is up 17.39%. That is followed by Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT), up 17.38%, UnitedHealth Group Inc. (NYSE: UNH), up 19.4%, and Boeing Co. (NYSE: BA), up 14.9%. Of the 30 Dow stocks, 11 have managed to post a gain to date in 2018.

The Dow struggled through a tough week and dropped more than 500 points to close at 24,580.89, down about 2%. For the year to date, the consumer discretionary sector has added 12.9%, displacing tech as the best market sector so far this year.

Looking back over the news for the week it’s hard to see any single event that made much difference to Visa’s share price. There wasn’t even any significant economic news that would have moved the stock much.

What does seem to boost investors’ spirits is the robust U.S. economy and Visa’s position to benefit from that economic boomlet. More Americans are working, wages are inching up and the tax cut has put a little more cash in the average person’s wallet. And they’re spending that cash on something other than higher-priced gasoline.

Consumer discretionary companies are now topping the list of best-performing equities sector. Retail sales have been up for the past two months. The link to credit card and financial services companies is not difficult to discern.

So even though Visa’s share price growth was modest, the company appears well-situated as the summer vacation season kicks into high gear. Spending on travel and discretionary goods is likely to rise, and Visa should�get a nice chunk of the action.

Visa’s shares closed up about 0.6% Friday to $135.33, in a 52-week range of $93.19 to $136.69. The consensus 12-month price target on the stock is $144.36, and the forward price-earnings ratio is 25.78.

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General Electric Exits the Dow as Year’s Worst Performing Stock

Roth IRA Conversion: What's the Benefit?

If it's the last week of the month, odds are Alison Southwick and Robert Brokamp are going to amble over to the Motley Fool Answers mailbag to find out what it is their listeners really want to know. And for added gravitas and expertise, they've brought in reinforcements: Naima Barnes, a financial planner with Motley Fool Wealth Management, a sister company of The Motley Fool.

In this segment of the podcast, they tackle one of the fundamental questions about Roth IRA conversions, which is: Why would you want to do one in the first place? In large measure, the answer comes down to taxes -- when you'll pay them, and how much.

Naima Barnes is an employee of Motley Fool Wealth Management, a separate, sister company of The Motley Fool, LLC. The information provided is intended to be educational only, and should not be construed as individualized advice. For individualized advice, please consult a financial professional.

A full transcript follows the video.

This video was recorded on May 29, 2018.

Alison Southwick: Let's get into it. Our first question comes from the Twitters. The question is, "If the conversion of funds from a traditional IRA to a Roth IRA is counted as income and taxed, then what is the benefit of doing this?"

Robert Brokamp: So, whenever you convert money that's in a traditional account to a Roth, that amount gets added to your taxable income. If you convert $10,000 you have to add that $10,000 to your income, so you're going to pay more taxes this year. The benefit is that ideally you are in a lower tax bracket this year and you'll be in a higher tax bracket in retirement. Basically, you're paying taxes today, or prepaying them, really, at a low rate so that you can get a better benefit when you retire.

There are all kinds of calculators on the internet that will help you analyze the situation. I found one at calcxml.com. Just very quickly a little hypothetical, here. Let's say you're 35 and you're in the 12% tax bracket today. You convert that $10,000 to a Roth. Let's say you're in the 22% tax bracket in retirement. What's the difference? Well, if you do the conversion, that account will provide $8,700 a year in retirement. If you don't do the conversion on an after-tax basis, the traditional IRA will just provide $7,500 a year. You're getting more than $1,200 a year in after-tax income by doing the conversion.

Obviously, this takes some assumptions. You don't really know what the future's going to look like, so there are other reasons to do a conversion. One is a traditional IRA or 401(k), you have to take out required minimum distributions at age 70 and a half. The Roth IRA, you do not, so that's another benefit. You can let that money grow a little longer.

Also, it gives you what's called tax diversification. When you're in retirement, if you have a year in which you have high taxes for any reason [maybe you got a lump sum investment of some kind, a big capital gain], you can tap the Roth, then, to counteract being driven up even higher into a higher tax bracket.

One word of caution, though, is let's say you're in a low tax bracket today and you decide that the conversion makes sense. When you do the conversion, that money gets added to your taxable income which could drive you up into a higher tax bracket, so you only want to convert so much so that you stay in the current tax bracket and not get driven up into the next one.