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I am not a bit surprised that Leno is in trouble at NBC. Moving that format to 10P in the 21st century was foolish. It may have been okay in the 50s or 60s but that show was doomed the day that Jay Leno walked on to the stage.

Of course, it doesn’t help that Conan is a flop in the 11:30 time slot.

The executives that put this together should be fired. It should be the first thing that Comcast does now that they have control of the company from GE. Fire the buffoons that did this. Talk about destroying a valuable commodity! Warren Buffet says that you should only invest in companies that can be profitable even if idiots run them. I don’t know if I agree with that advice but I definitely don’t think you should invest in companies that are run by buffoons!

This must be why GE does so badly in my Confident Investor Rating – they simply do not know how to drive the value of their products.  Hopefully, Comcast will do better.

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Blogging Stocks reports that Barclay analyst Ben Reitzes has raised his price target on Apple (AAPL) to $260 from the previous $235.

This agrees with my own personal calculation of $259 for Apple. I think there is a reasonable chance that the stock will go higher than that and could break $300 if their revenue growth continues in the next couple quarters. That growth will be dependent on iPhone growth and growth of any new computer such as an eReader or tablet.

Caution is advised though. My more conservative estimations shows that the growth may be over and AAPL could top at $220.

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The money that you invest in stocks needs to be money that you don’t need immediately. This does not mean that it is not necessarily money that you won’t need for 20-30 years. If you have money that you are confident that you will not need for decades, you should probably invest that money in your own home. Follow the old Benjamin Franklin saying “A penny saved is a penny earned.”

If you currently pay 7% interest on your home loan, any extra money that you apply to your mortgage will immediately give you a 7% return for the balance of your mortgage time. Therefore if you pay a one-time extra $1,000 on a 7% mortgage that has 23 years left on it, then it will result in $5,002.04 that you didn’t have to pay over the course of the 23 years. This is an absolutely guaranteed return – over the course of 23 years you will be over $5,000 wealthier due to that one-time investment.

Your home mortgage is the safest “buy and hold” investment that you can make! You already know that you pay a certain percentage. If you pay the loan off early, you effectively make that loan percentage as an investment return.

Also, the same logic goes for your car loan and definitely your credit cards. This is typically more short-term debt than your home. Quick payoff on any short-term debt will guarantee you the quickest and best investment strategy simply because you do not spend those pennies, you save them. Benjamin Franklin will be proud of your efforts to quickly and efficiently pay off your short-term and long-term debt.

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In the past, I have rated XTO Energy (NYSE:XTO) as a Good company. It is no surprise that Exxon Mobile (NYSE:XOM) has agreed to buy the company. XTO management has traditionally done a great job of running the company. Actually, I think XTO could have done better since my analysis back on October 20 showed that the company was worth at least $57 a share and could have broken $100 if their revenue and profitability would have continued to grow at their traditional rate.

Since this appears to be a friendly merger, it is not likely that XTO Energy will continue as an independent concern. While I will leave the posting from the past in place, I will no longer list XTO on the Watch List.

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There is no company analysis today even though it is a weekday. We are taking the day off in celebration of Thanksgiving. We hope that you have a great deal this year to be thankful for and we hope that some of the hints we give you here will make you even more thankful next year.