Before the opening bell, NetworkNewsWire (NNW), a multifaceted financial news and publishing company that delivers a new generation of social communication solutions for business, announced the online availability of an exclusive interview with National Waste Management Holdings, Inc. (OTC: NWMH).

NNW’s communications solutions include social communications, news aggregation and syndication as well as enhanced news release services designed to introduce private and public companies to a wide range of audiences. Leveraging a network of more than 5,000 key distribution outlets, NNW gives its clients a voice – be it through audio interview, video production or other tailored means – to better communicate with the investment community.

National Waste CEO Louis “Tiny” Paveglio and CFO Dali Kranzthor capitalized on the platform provided by NNW by speaking toward National Waste’s rapidly growing presence in the East Coast solid waste management industry, which is being spurred on by an aggressive, acquisition-based business model.

The full interview can be heard by visiting http://nnw.fm/nwmh-interview-dec-2016

“Our goal is to do one acquisition a quarter, and we are going to meet that goal,” Paveglio told host Stuart Smith in the interview. “We plan on finishing one up here in the fourth quarter and in 2017 we already have a couple acquisitions that we are doing due diligence on and we intend to roll those in on the first two quarters of 2017.”

CFO Dali Kranzthor echoed this sentiment by highlighting some of the advantages presented by two key acquisitions the company completed in 2015. He also reflected on National Waste’s current corporate goal of becoming vertically integrated.

“We had two key acquisitions that occurred at the end of 2015; two that we did in rapid succession … each one of those almost doubled the company and it also gave us a giant geographic footprint in upstate New York,” Kranzthor added. “The other goal here is to become completely vertically integrated. The highest profitability and the highest margins are when you can take the garbage collection all the way cradle to grave. Very few players in this market have the ability to vertically integrate and have the funds and infrastructure … Only the biggest and the best have the ability to pull that off and so we’re emulating that with our current acquisitions.”

Looking toward 2017, the National Waste executives spoke to the importance of maintaining and broadening relationships with financiers in order to fund acquisitions while continuing to relay the company’s corporate message to investors.

“The exciting thing is that this industry of waste management has a lot of eyes on it and we’ve seen … some amazing acquisitions at the very top level,” concluded Kranzthor. “As a leading company in this space we see that we’re going to basically stumble upon many more opportunities … It’s a very exciting industry and I think over the next couple of years we’re going to see a lot of highlights in this area and a lot more people are going to see us high on the radar.”

National Waste is a growing solid waste management company serving Florida’s west coast and upstate New York with comprehensive solutions for full waste diversion. The company’s current operations center on its 54-acre landfill facility located in Hernando, Florida, which handles average disposals of roughly 240,000 cubic yards of construction debris each year and is already permitted for future expansion. National Waste also offers ancillary services, such as roll-off dumpster services, recycling and retail mulching services.

For more information, visit the company’s website at www.nationalwastemgmt.com

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Daktronics, Inc. (NASDAQ: DAKT), a company that designs, manufactures, and sells electronic display systems and related products on a global scale, has been the topic of several reports since the company announced breaking into a new 52-week high on November 25, 2016. Equities.com (http://dtn.fm/hgd4G) announced shares for the company reached a peak of $10.78, closing at $10.64 after opening at $10.46, a move of over 2% is just one day.

As a result, Zacks Investment Research upgraded the company from a ‘Hold’ rating to a ‘Strong Buy’, with a target price of $12 per share. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a ‘Buy’ rating, with a target price of $11, up from $9.50 previously. Lastly, The Street raised the company’s rating from a ‘Hold’ rating to a ‘Buy’ rating.

Daktronics, Inc. released its second quarter fiscal 2017 results on November 22, 2016, reporting earnings of $170 million, over $8 million more than estimates set by analysts. The revenue for this quarter was up 7.8% compared to the same quarter last year, and DAKT reported a return on equity of just under 5% with a net margin of 1.64%, all according to The Cerbat Gem Market News and Analysis (http://dtn.fm/G5mK3).

In addition, various hedge funds have increased their stakes in the company. BlackRock Fund Advisors and BlackRock Institutional Trust Company N.A. have both increased their stakes in Daktronics, by 11% and 0.9%, respectively, giving them ownership of more than two million and 900,000 shares each. Vanguard Group, Inc. and Dimensional Fund Advisors LP also increased their stakes, giving them ownership of more than 1.8 million shares each. Lastly, State Street Corp. increased its stake in DAKT, giving it stock worth over $4.5 million. As a result, institutional investors and hedge funds now own over 46% of Daktronics stock.

On December 2, 2016, Daktronics announced that its board of directors approved a regular quarterly cash dividend of $0.07 per share, payable on December 23. This announcement was made very shortly after the company was awarded a multi-million dollar project by the state of Nevada, project NEON, which involves widening Interstate 15, the busiest road in Nevada.

For more information, visit the company’s website at www.daktronics.com

eXp World Holdings, Inc. (OTCQB: EXPI) is a corporation of the times and parent company to a selection of notable subsidiaries that are making a lasting impact, both commercially and socially. The most notable of these companies is eXp Realty LLC, a rapidly-growing, cloud-based brokerage with an agent base featuring more than 2,000 members.

The eXp Realty business model is a thing of beauty. The model has helped accelerate eXp Realty’s already significant growth throughout North America (since January 1, 2016, eXp Realty has added over 1,000 real estate professionals to its ranks and more than doubled its staff numbers) and led to eXp Realty being cited as a ‘brokerage of the future’ (http://dtn.fm/Y8P6p).

eXp Realty runs all of its operations remotely. From agent training to lead generation, leadership meetings, exchanges of ideas and experiences, IT services and more, every aspect of the business is run through a virtual reality platform. This complete embrace of ground-breaking technology, including virtual and augmented reality advancements, has helped the company form a close-knit community of real estate professionals who serve over 40 markets across the United States and Canada.

eXp Realty does a lot of things differently. Through its 3-D, fully-immersive, cloud office environment, agents and brokers can collaborate, train and socialize anywhere and anytime. Courtesy of their around-the-clock access to this office environment, they can stay connected from the comfort of their homes or while traveling abroad and, at the same time, erase all of the expenses typically linked to owning and running a physical office. This way, brokerage members are able to increase their profit margins without spending too much out of pocket and, simultaneously, provide more cost-effective services to their customers.

On the revenue side, the eXp Realty business model goes several steps further through aggressive and profitable revenue sharing programs. It offers its members the opportunity to earn equity rewards in exchange for their contributions to the company’s growth. Plus, both eXp Realty and eXp Realty of Canada pay agents a percentage of the gross commission income earned by colleagues they bring into the company.

For more information, visit the company’s website at www.eXpWorldHoldings.com

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The business model proposed by Monaker Group, Inc. (OTCQB: MKGI) and the group’s innovative approach to the alternative vacation rental market are discussed in depth by leading financial news and information portal SECFilings.com (http://dtn.fm/A5Mjn). Noting that Monaker Group, a technology-driven tourism company offering comprehensive travel solutions and personalized tours, has a unique position and approach to real-time alternative travel lodging reservations, the article goes on to explain how this business model is different and more efficient than others on the market.

According to Euromonitor data quoted by the article, global tourism is expected to have a modest compound annual growth rate of only four percent through 2019. However, the industry currently sits at $2.7 trillion and is ripe for innovative solutions and approaches. Some industry players have already begun to change their approach in their drive to engage and retain customers and drive sales. For instance, Priceline Group Inc. (NASDAQ: PCLN) has already changed how travelers book hotels and airfare, while Airbnb is questioning the need to actually use hotels when traveling and instead focusing on alternative lodging solutions.

While Airbnb remains an innovator in the field, the problem with its system is that most of the properties listed are not bookable in real time, the SECFilings.com article says. This means travelers looking for accommodation through the website must first wait for property owners to reply and confirm their bookings. While many budget travelers might not have a problem with that, tourists who have a tendency to plan their vacations in great detail usually look for a more seamless travel and accommodation experience, such as the one offered by a hotel.

Monaker Group, via its NextTrip.com booking platform, provides a solution to this dilemma by offering real-time booking options to travelers. The group has over 1.4 million alternative lodging rentals in its portfolio, properties spread throughout Asia, Europe, South America and the United States. By offering real-time booking, the group wants to solve a major problem on the alternative rentals market and to eventually integrate with airlines and online travel agencies so that they can provide access to alternative lodging options outside of the traditional hotel listings.

The NextTrip platform, launched in February of this year, offers travelers access to a large inventory of alternative lodging options, as well as hotels, tours, airlines, rental cars, and more. The NextTrip planner also allows users to import their bookmarks from other websites, look for tourist attractions in their vicinity, and even split the costs among their traveling party members based on each person’s participation.

Monaker Group has already sealed various partnerships with other travel industry companies to expand and integrate the NextTrip platform. Back in August, Monaker signed a deal with Mark Travel’s travel technology division, Trisept Solutions, to integrate its booking platform. Another step toward integrating real-time vacation rentals into the mainstream travel industry was taken earlier this month, when Monaker announced a new loyalty program and travel service as part of its partnership with Recruiter.com.

The SECFiling.com article further notes that Monaker Group’s ambitions don’t stop here, as the company’s management has plans to offer solutions for every challenge travelers face, with the goal of making the travel experience more seamless for every tourist using their services.

For more information, visit www.MonakerGroup.com

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FTE Networks (OTCQX: FTNW) this morning said it has formed a strategic advisory board to provide senior counsel as it identifies and executes opportunities to advance the deployment of its disruptive multi-edge computing services. A leading network infrastructure company for Fortune 500 companies, FTE Network is filling this advisory board with a powerful caliber of experienced professionals.

“The establishment of our Strategic Advisory Board represents our commitment to build on the company’s recent momentum and pursue smart, strategic growth opportunities,” Michael Palleschi, FTE Networks’ chairman of the board and CEO, stated in the news release. “Each member brings extensive cloud and open compute expertise, and will be a tremendous asset as we develop our next generation business of data center and multi-edge computing services.”

Initial members of the Multi-Edge Computing Strategic Advisory Board include John Morgan, a 25-year veteran in the communications and IT industries. Morgan currently works with operators to improve network coverage and capacity through the adoption of open source hardware and software. He previously worked for Accenture (NYSE: ACN), where he was global technical lead for legacy network migrations, working with operators on product rationalization and simplification, copper to fiber migration platform implementations, and decommissioning strategies for copper and central office equipment. Prior to Accenture, Morgan held executive positions with several software start-up firms in the communications industry, as well as with leading operators such as Verizon (NYSE: VZ), Level 3 Communications (NASDAQ: LVLT), and Genuity. His background includes various roles in network planning and engineering, product management, OSS/BSS development, finance and operations.

David Kalinske has also been named to FTE Network’s new board. Kalinske is the chief of staff for A3 by Airbus Group (OTC: EADSY) and is a former aide to President Barack Obama and former President George W. Bush – a role in which he received the Defense Superior Service Medal for superior meritorious service. He also served as a research engineering leader with Lockheed Martin Aeronautics (NYSE: LMT) and founded Global Hybrid Company, an airborne logistics provider utilizing the revolutionary Hybrid Airship. A TOPGUN graduate and a Marine Corps fighter squadron commanding officer, Kalinske was selected via scholarship into the Harvard University, Kennedy School of Government, National Security Fellow program with a focus in the study of cybersecurity policy.

Also joining the board is Eric Salzman, senior managing director of Monarch Capital Group, LLC and independent director on several technology company boards. Salzman has 20 years of experience improving operations and finances of communications and software companies. He previously spent eight years at Lehman Brothers as a managing director in the Private Equity and Principal Investing Group, as well as a managing director in the Global Trading Strategies Division, including three years managing the operational and financial restructuring of dozens of companies within the Lehman Bankruptcy. Prior to Lehman Brothers, Salzman was a senior investment professional focused on the technology and communications industry at a multi-strategy hedge fund and at two growth-oriented private equity funds.

For more information, visit: www.ftenet.com

With diversity being both a legal and popular factor in business, and with businesses facing a more diverse customer base, companies are making a conscious effort to develop and maintain a more culturally diverse workforce. Immigration, politics, new generations, women in leadership, family dynamics, income, and a shift in religious beliefs are just some of the factors affecting diversity. According to the Pew Research Center (http://dtn.fm/9AhWg), America is expected to become significantly more ethnically diverse in the next 50 years, due partially to new Asian and Hispanic immigration.

With the U.S. and other countries becoming more diverse, new research has been underway surveying over 450 multi-million dollar companies across the globe looking at a total of 128 different aspects of talent management. According to a Forbes (http://dtn.fm/6KfWP) article, research shows that gender and ethnically diverse companies are more likely to outperform competitors by 15% and 35%, respectively. In addition, companies with women on their boards statistically outperform peers over longer time frames.

The mission of Professional Diversity Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ: IPDN) is to provide professionals a trusted network that pairs members with employers who are serious about creating a more diverse workforce, employers that value diversity within their companies. Professional Diversity Networks works off the principle that companies seek to meet the needs of an increasingly diverse customer base.

Network members looking for jobs can get started on their search with three simple steps: creating a profile, applying for jobs, and finding hiring employers. The technology IPDN offers allows for a more creative and productive job search due to the fact that employers on the site are looking to hire aspiring employees from a diverse range of backgrounds.

For more information, visit the company’s website at www.prodivnet.com

Before the opening bell, OurPet’s Company (OTCQX: OPCO) announced that it has been awarded a 2016 Industry Recognition Award by the trade publication Pet Business for its innovative OurPets® Switchgrass Natural Cat Litter™ (http://dtn.fm/Ohb71). Originally unveiled at this year’s SuperZoo pet industry convention in Las Vegas, the company’s Switchgrass Natural Cat Litter with Biochar is a biodegradable, all natural, sustainable and non-food-based alternative to current offerings on the cat waste disposal market. Switchgrass, which is a core component of the cat litter, is a plant that is native to North America and does not require the use of fertilization or chemicals during growth. Additionally, when combined with natural, wood-based biochar, switchgrass has been shown to offer superior clumping strength alongside strong moisture and odor absorbency.

The benefits offered by OPCO’s natural waste management solution has caught the attention of those in the pet industry since its launch back in August, and the company’s recognition in Pet Business continues to build on this trend. The publication’s Industry Recognition Awards have been awarded annually for well over a decade to place a spotlight on “the most exciting and functional products on the market.” For OPCO, gaining coverage from Pet Business should help the company continue to increase brand awareness and build on its recent financial growth in the rapidly expanding pet industry, which the American Pet Products Association expects to surpass the $62 billion mark by the end of this year.

In October, OPCO gave prospective investors some insight into its recent growth through the release of its third quarter financial results. Among the highlights, the company recorded quarterly revenue of $7.26 million, marking a 21 percent increase over the similar period of 2015. Driven by initial shipments of both its Switchgrass Natural Cat Litter and its groundbreaking Intelligent Pet Care product line (http://dtn.fm/88Wjw), OPCO’s sales through the first nine months of 2016 were up nearly 10 percent year-over-year, growth that more than doubled the pet industry average.

“With the resumption of shipments to our major specialty pet retail customer, we were firing on all cylinders this past quarter,” Dr. Steven Tsengas, president and chief executive officer of OPCO, stated in the October news release. “Beyond 2016, our strategy is to achieve double-digit growth in sales and net income with an emphasis on developing and launching proprietary, innovative products and entering appropriate new market segments… We have many ‘irons in the fire’ and are very excited about the future.”

For more information, visit the company’s website at www.OurPets.com

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In real estate, it’s all about building relationships. From the moment clients get in touch with real estate agencies, a relationship is started. Agents are taught to create pathways to successful relationships and to be proactive in their quest for new clients. The first step in relationship management is relationship marketing.

Today, technology continues to change the way that companies do business and how they communicate, both internally and externally, including how they approach marketing. Aside from the traditional goals of building trust, ensuring positive personal interactions, and staying in contact with clients, agents are now forced to master technology in order to stay ahead of the game. With brick and mortar operations trying to compete with online ones, real estate agents are now required to use new and creative technological tools to build sustainable relationships with their clients, developing ways to keep clients for future business even when they are not in the market. To do this, agents must increasingly personalize relationship marketing.

GainClents, Inc. (OTC: GCLT) is taking strides toward making personalized relationship marketing more accessible and manageable to agents. GainClients is a software service company whose primary focus is the development and commercialization of marketing services for real estate professionals that provide consumers with valuable home search and information tools.

The chief goal of GainClients is to help real estate agents better serve their clients. The use of modern technology to organize and communicate information has become a key success factor for organizations, which is why GCLT invented the GCard, a progressive networking system designed to help agents and companies build and promote strong relationships among themselves and with clients. With the GCard, agents can now offer lending, title, and real estate services information through a web-based network.

The GCard offers a number of critical features, including the monitoring of client activity, a dashboard showing activity from the previous week, account preferences and graphs, as well as partner referrals and a handy newsletter feature that gives real estate agents the chance to write, schedule, and send regular newsletters to their customers. The GCard is currently available as an application for both iPhone and Android users.

For more information, visit the company’s website at www.gainclients.com

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In the ‘Advancing Sustainable Materials Management: 2014 Fact Sheet’ (http://dtn.fm/JH1hf) published last month, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released statistics on the amount of municipal solid waste (MSW) and construction and demolition (C&D) debris generated by U.S. households and businesses. The rising amounts pose a growing risk to the environment and to our health. The range of materials requiring disposal is also increasing.

Since the dawn of the electronic and digital ages, varieties of electronic waste (e-waste), which include computers and associated devices and materials, have multiplied. This mountain of waste poses a troubling challenge to the health of the planet and its inhabitants. Thankfully, it is a challenge that has been taken on by Florida-based National Waste Management Holdings (OTC: NWMH). National Waste is a growing solid waste management company that provides compliant, comprehensive solutions for full waste diversion while managing long-term partnerships with municipal, institutional, commercial and industrial customers.

The EPA Fact Sheet shows that, in 2014, the last year for which comprehensive data is available, Americans generated 258 million short tons (2,000 lbs) of MSW. MSW includes residential waste (including waste from multi-family housing) and waste from commercial and institutional locations, such as businesses, schools and hospitals. About 13 percent, or 33 million short tons, of that was burned as part of an energy recovery scheme. Another 89 million short tons, representing about 35 percent, was recycled and composted, and 136 million short tons, or 52.7 percent, went into landfills.

In addition to the mound of MSW, huge quantities of C&D debris are being generated. In 2014, 534 million tons of C&D debris were disposed of. Concrete composed the largest portion of this assortment, accounting for about 70 percent. Asphalt or blacktop comprised some 14 percent, and wood products made up seven percent. Other products accounted for nine percent combined. Over 90 percent of total C&D debris comes from demolition, naturally, while construction activities generate the other 10 percent. This is all good news for National Waste. When it comes to environmental protection, the company has a range of services that mark it out as decidedly green.

National Waste operates a licensed 54-acre landfill in Hernando, Florida, that disposes of roughly 240,000 cubic yards of construction debris annually. Landfill services include the disposal of C&D debris, asphalt and rock, lumber and wood, brick, wallboard, drywall and plaster, pallets, rock concrete, dirt, sand and uncontaminated soil, plumbing fixtures, non-asbestos insulation, roofing materials and shingles, glass, piping, waste metal, brush and land clearing, yard and tree waste and many electrical and wiring components.

To complement these landfill services, National Waste offers a range of roll off containers for rental. Containers with 20, 30 and 40 cubic yard capacity are available. The company also carries a line of recycled wood mulch and garden mulch, for which it provides bulk delivery service if needed. National Waste’s mulch is proprietary, manufactured from reclaimed and recycled wood at its landfills and transfer stations.

National Waste is also in the vanguard of the thrust by the state of Florida to achieve 75 percent recycling by 2020. The company is looking to transform its services, as well as its fundamental business model, to include a portable picking station in order to meet that objective. The implementation of a portable sorting line at the landfill will enable National Waste to increase its recyclables rate.

National Waste will also start picking clean dimensional lumber, which can be sold to wood pellet producers. The picking station will increase its concrete recycling program by about 25 percent. Additionally, cardboard and shrink-wrap plastic will be baled. The company believes the market for shingles as a fuel and asphalt blend will be growing with momentum in the next year and is dedicated to recycling as much as it can from all of its services.

This aggressive strategy is already showing signs of success. Revenues for the third quarter ended September 2016 were $1.8 million. This represented a 269 percent rise over the third quarter 2015 figure of $0.5 million. Revenues for the nine-month period ended September 2016 were $4.9 million, representing similar growth over 2015 same period revenues of $1.3 million.

For more information, visit the company’s website at www.nationalwastemgmt.com

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The management at OurPet’s Company (OTCQX: OPCO) is driven by animal spirits. They’ve taken the quite mundane business of pet care and turned it into a high tech, high touch enterprise. Products now range from the groundbreaking OurPets® Big Dog Feeder® (http://dtn.fm/hG4WS) to the Intelligent Pet Care™ line (http://dtn.fm/dK3Al), which uses digital technologies to enhance communication with pets. In an industry that is growing twice as fast as the economy, OurPet’s Company is racing ahead at double the industry pace. In its third quarter 10-K, published November 14, 2016, the company shows that this pace has not lessened. Revenues for 2016 through the first three quarters were about 10% greater than for the same period a year ago.

When, in 1936, John Maynard Keynes coined the term ‘animal spirits’ in his magnum opus “The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money”, he was describing the ‘spontaneous optimism’ on which ‘a large proportion of our positive activities depend’. The great man opined that ‘if the animal spirits are dimmed and the spontaneous optimism falters, leaving us to depend on nothing but a mathematical expectation, enterprise will fade and die’. In other words, however businesslike we may consider ourselves to be, in the end, we are irrational creatures, moved by sentiment and plagued by lack of information.

The animal spirits driving OPCO are not just pie in the sky, however. They are grounded in ‘mathematical expectation’, as the company’s latest quarterly report indicates. Net revenue for the nine months to September 2016 was $18.9 million, increasing by about $1.7 million over same period sales the year before. Net revenue for the third quarter of 2016 was $7.3 million, 21 percent higher than third quarter 2015 revenue of $6.0 million. Income after taxes for the nine-month period was also about 21% higher than the year before, and diluted earnings per share rose from $0.04 to $0.05.

OPCO continues its marketing focus on the pet specialty; food, drug and mass retail; and e-commerce distribution channels. Third quarter sales to pet specialty customers accounted for 48 percent of the company’s total, while mass retail sales and e-commerce sales made up 39 percent and eight percent, respectively. The other five percent of sales took place mostly through the value and closeout channels.

The strategy to implement a renewed marketing push was set in motion last year, when OPCO initiated its dual-branding approach. The OurPets® brand is targeted at the pet specialty channel, while the Pet Zone brand is sold to the food, drug and mass retail channel. Both brands are sold online through the company’s e-commerce effort.

Pet care is becoming big business as Americans lavish care and attention on their animals. The industry is expected to grow to almost $63 billion by the end of 2016. If pet care were a country, it would rank around #70 in economic size out of 196 economies. That, maybe, accounts for the animal spirits at OurPet’s Company.

For more information, visit the company’s website at www.OurPets.com

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