Amid the rash of bullish articles on AAL, our analyst presents a bear case for investors to consider. Although American is affordable, it may be more of a value trap than a value. While American certainly has strengths, their balance sheet, lack of growth, and operational performance all leave something to be desired.

And while we’re on the subject of airline stocks...Alaska has the best operating performance of the 7 largest American carriers so far this year, a fortress of a balance sheet, and they just reported the best quarter in their history. Unlike legacy carriers, ALK is actively growing and looking to the future. Find out why our analyst thinks this is the best airline to own right now.

The popular Novy-Marx quant screener (shown at left, available for download from Stock Rover's Library) combines quality and value strategies. Using multiple regression, guest author Allan Smith attempts to identify which criteria in the screener is most important to 5-year performance.

The country's five largest health insurers are now down to three, or will be, if regulators allow the deal to go through. Aetna (AET) bought Humana (HUM) for $37 billion of cash and stock, giving Aetna a larger slice of the growing Medicare Advantage market. Anthem (ANTM) bought Cigna (CI) for $54 billion, creating the country's largest insurer by individuals covered. Whether or not the deals go through is critical to investment strategy. See what our anaylst recommends.