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The best-performing U.S. stock over the past 30 years isn’t a household name like Costco Wholesale Corp. or Johnson & Johnson. It’s Balchem Corp. [stckqut]BCPC[/stckqut], up 107,099% since the end of 1985, according to FactSet Research Systems.

You’d never heard of Balchem? I have been an investor in the company for quite some time and it has been on my Watch List on this site. I don’t blame you for not know about the stock though; stocks don’t come much more obscure than this. Based in Wawayanda, N.Y. (population 7,266), about 70 miles northwest of New York City, Balchem makes flavorings, fumigating gases and nutritional additives for animal feed. Its total stock market value is about $1.7 billion.

Since the end of 1985, Balchem has gained an average of 26.2% annually, compared with 10.3% for the S&P 500 and 15.7% for Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc.

Source: The Best Stock Over the Last 30 Years? You’ve Never Heard of It – MoneyBeat – WSJ

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Helmerich & Payne, Inc. [stckqut]HP[/stckqut] issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday. The company reported $0.15 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the Thomson Reuters’ consensus estimate of ($0.07) by $0.22, Market Beat.com reports. During the same period last year, the firm posted $1.70 earnings per share.

An institutional investor recently raised its position in Helmerich & Payne stock. Simplex Trading raised its position in Helmerich & Payne, Inc. by 302.2% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 14,670 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 11,023 shares during the period. Simplex Trading’s holdings in Helmerich & Payne were worth $785,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Scotiabank raised Helmerich & Payne from a “sector perform” rating to a “sector outperform” rating in a report on Friday, October 9th. Stephens lowered Helmerich & Payne from an “outperform” rating to an “equal weight” rating and cut their price target for the company from $79.00 to $74.00 in a research note on Tuesday, November 3rd. Zacks Investment Research lowered Helmerich & Payne from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 15th. Guggenheim upgraded Helmerich & Payne from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $70.00 price target for the company in a research note on Monday, November 30th. Finally, Scotia Howard Weill upgraded Helmerich & Payne to a “sector outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 8th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, fourteen have assigned a hold rating, nine have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. The stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $60.38.

Source: Helmerich & Payne, Inc. (HP) Releases Quarterly Earnings Results, Beats Estimates By $0.22 EPS – Zolmax

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Amazon.com reported its highest quarterly profit ever. Wall Street made the mistake of expecting even more.

The e-commerce giant reported fourth-quarter sales and earnings late Thursday that fell short of analyst expectations. Investors haven’t historically given much thought to profits at Amazon. They have instead focused on top-line growth with the expectation the company’s heavy investment would pay off at some undetermined point in the future.

But that had changed in recent quarters as Amazon’s rapidly growing cloud business, Amazon Web Services, posted significantly higher operating margins than the retail business. Now those profit hopes appear to have gotten ahead of themselves.

There is no question Amazon has become more profitable. Operating income was $2.2 billion in 2015 versus only $178 million in 2014. And operating margins at Amazon’s cloud business expanded to 28.6% from 25% in the third quarter and 16.9% in the fourth quarter of 2014.

Source: Amazon Doesn’t Deliver to Wall Street

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Under Armour [stckqut]UA[/stckqut] shares soared 16.08% to $79.61 on Thursday after the athletic apparel maker reported its fourth quarter fiscal 2015 financial results that topped analysts’ expectations.

Profit came in at 48 cents a share, 2 cents higher than estimates. Revenue of $1.17 billion was also above forecasts of $1.12 billion.

The company saw a double-digit growth in earnings as profit increased 20% and revenue surged 31% year-over-year. This was largely helped by robust footwear and apparel sales increasing 95% and 22%, respectively.

Overall, demand for its sports footwear and apparel was boosted by the company’s sponsorship deals with basketball star Stephen Curry and golfer Jordan Spieth.

Under Armour projects 2016 revenue to be $4.95 billion, above analysts’ forecasts of $4.91 billion.

Source: Under Armour (UA) Stock Soars on Quarterly Earnings, Upbeat 2016 Guidance – TheStreet

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Facebook [stckqut]FB[/stckqut] is doing a darn good job of living up to lofty expectations.

The social network reported fourth-quarter earnings and revenue that handily exceeded estimates. Indeed, Facebook’s sales rose 57% from a year earlier to $5.6 billion—their fastest growth rate since the third quarter of 2014. Mobile advertising was 80% of total advertising revenue, up from 69% in 2014’s fourth quarter. And Facebook’s average revenue per user was $3.73, a 33% year-over-year increase, even as its monthly active-user base climbed 14% to 1.59 billion.

That kind of growth is impressive for any company. It is even more so for one with $18 billion in annual sales and an immense user base. Yet Facebook has continued to churn out quarter after quarter of consistently strong results.

Of course, investors are still paying a fairly steep price for that consistency. Facebook trades at 52 times 2016 consensus estimates for its earnings on the basis of generally accepted accounting principles. That is considerably pricier than it looks when using the adjusted earnings metrics the company and Wall Street prefer. On that basis, it trades at only 33 times.

Source: Facebook: It’s Hard to Argue With Results Like These