News

The following are today's upgrades for Validea's Small-Cap Growth Investor model based on the published strategy of Motley Fool. This strategy looks for small cap growth stocks with solid fundamentals and strong price performance.

FOREIGN TRADE BANK OF LATIN AMERICA INC (BLX) is a small-cap value stock in the Consumer Financial Services industry. The rating according to our strategy based on Motley Fool changed from 65% to 72% based on the firm’s underlying fundamentals and the stock’s valuation. A score of 80% or above typically indicates that the strategy has some interest in the stock and a score above 90% typically indicates strong interest.

Company Description: Banco Latinoamericano de Comercio Exterior, S.A. (the Bank) is a specialized multinational bank. The Bank is established to support the financing of trade and economic integration in Latin America and the Caribbean. The Company operates in two segments: Commercial and Treasury. The Bank's Commercial segment incorporates all of the Bank's financial intermediation and fees generated by the commercial portfolio activities, such as origination of bilateral and syndicated credits, short- and medium-term loans, acceptances and contingent credits. The Bank's Treasury segment incorporates deposits in banks and all of the Bank's trading assets, securities available-for-sale and held-to-maturity, and the balance of the investment funds. The Bank serves a range of sectors, including oil and gas, agribusiness, food processing and manufacturing. Its products and services are categorized into three main areas: Financial Intermediation Business, Structuring and Syndications Business and Treasury.

The following table summarizes whether the stock meets each of this strategy's tests. Not all criteria in the below table receive equal weighting or are independent, but the table provides a brief overview of the strong and weak points of the security in the context of the strategy's criteria.

Detailed Analysis of FOREIGN TRADE BANK OF LATIN AMERICA INC

MERCHANTS BANCORP (MBIN) is a small-cap value stock in the Money Center Banks industry. The rating according to our strategy based on Motley Fool changed from 65% to 72% based on the firm’s underlying fundamentals and the stock’s valuation. A score of 80% or above typically indicates that the strategy has some interest in the stock and a score above 90% typically indicates strong interest.

Company Description: Merchants Bancorp is a diversified bank holding company. The Company conducts its business primarily through its direct and indirect subsidiaries, Merchants Bank of Indiana, Merchants Capital Corp., Merchants Capital Investments, LLC, Merchants Capital Servicing, LLC, Merchants Asset Management, LLC, and Merchants Mortgage, a division of Merchants Bank of Indiana. The Company's segments include Multi-family Mortgage Banking that offers multi-family housing and healthcare facility financing and servicing (through this segment it also serves as a syndicator of low-income housing tax credit and debt funds); Mortgage Warehousing that offers mortgage warehouse financing, commercial loans, and deposit services, and Banking that offers portfolio lending for multi-family and healthcare facility loans, retail and correspondent residential mortgage banking, agricultural lending, Small Business Administration (SBA) lending, and traditional community banking.

The following table summarizes whether the stock meets each of this strategy's tests. Not all criteria in the below table receive equal weighting or are independent, but the table provides a brief overview of the strong and weak points of the security in the context of the strategy's criteria.

Detailed Analysis of MERCHANTS BANCORP

About Motley Fool: Brothers David and Tom Gardner often wear funny hats in public appearances, but they're hardly fools -- at least not the kind whose advice you should readily dismiss. The Gardners are the founders of the popular Motley Fool web site, which offers frank and often irreverent commentary on investing, the stock market, and personal finance. The Gardners' "Fool" really is a multi-media endeavor, offering not only its web content but also several books written by the brothers, a weekly syndicated newspaper column, and subscription newsletter services.

About Validea: Validea is aninvestment researchservice that follows the published strategies of investment legends. Validea offers both stock analysis and model portfolios based on gurus who have outperformed the market over the long-term, including Warren Buffett, Benjamin Graham, Peter Lynch and Martin Zweig. For more information about Validea, click here

The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.