Hot Dow Dividend Stocks To Watch For 2014

Janet S. Carter/AP Dollar General (DG) upped its bid for the rival Family Dollar chain and addressed an earlier roadblock, saying that it will more than double the number of stores it would shed to tamp down the antitrust concerns of its takeover target. The newest bid is worth $9.1 billion, or $80 a share, up from $78.50 a share in the previous offer. Family Dollar (FDO), based in Matthews, North Carolina, rejected the earlier bid in favor of a lesser offer of $8.5 billion from Dollar Tree (DLTR), saying that regulators were less likely to stand in the way. On Tuesday Dollar General, the country's largest dollar-store chain, said it would divest as many as 1,500 stores, well above the 700 that it had originally agreed to, in order to sidestep any anti-monopoly actions that regulators might pursue. The Goodlettsville, Tennessee, company has also said it will pay a $500 million reverse break-up fee to Family Dollar Stores if the deal hits antitrust roadblocks. Dollar General Chairman and CEO Rick Dreiling said that a second antitrust review supported its prior bid, but that its offer was revised "to demonstrate the seriousness of our commitment." The businesses of Family Dollar and Dollar General are more similar than Dollar Tree's. The first two sell items at a variety of prices while at Dollar Tree, all items are a buck. Family Dollar has been looking for a lifeline after running into some financial stress, shuttering stores and cutting prices. In June one big shareholder, Carl Icahn, urged the company to put itself up for sale. Family Dollar acted one month later, accepting an offer from Chesapeake, Virginia-based Dollar Tree of $59.60 in cash and the equivalent of $14.90 in shares of Dollar Tree for each share held. The companies valued the transaction at $74.50 a share at the time. Including debt and other costs, Family Dollar and Dollar Tree estimated the deal to be worth approximately $9.2 billion. Shares of Family Dollar added 54 cents to $80.37 in premarket trading, while Dollar General's stock gained 86 cents to $64.85.

Top 10 High Tech Stocks For 2015: Sony Corp Ord(SNE)

Sony Corporation designs, develops, manufactures, and sells electronic equipment, instruments, and devices for consumer, professional, and industrial markets worldwide. The company offers consumer products and devices, including televisions, video cameras, compact digital cameras and interchangeable single-lens cameras, Blu-ray Disc players/recorders, DVD-video players/recorders, home theaters and audio systems, and portable audio and car audio products. It also provides charged coupled devices, complementary metal-oxide semiconductor image sensors, system LSIs, small- and medium-sized LCD panels, and other semiconductors; and components, such as batteries, optical disk drives, chemical products, audio/video/data recording media, storage media, and optical pickups. In addition, the company develops, produces, markets, and distributes games, such as PlayStation3, PlayStation Portable, and PlayStation 2 hardware and related software; and PCs and flash memory digital audio pl ayers, as well as manufactures broadcast- and professional-use products, Blu-ray discs, DVDs, and CD discs. Further, it produces and distributes motion pictures and television programs, and home entertainment; creates and distributes digital content; operates television networks and studio facilities; and develops entertainment products, services, and technologies. Additionally, the company engages in the music publishing business, as well as provision of various financial services, including insurance, savings products, loans, and credit financing services; and a network service business and an advertising agency business. It also involves in research, development, design, production, marketing, sales, distribution, and servicing mobile phones, accessories, services, and applications. The company was formerly known as Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha and changed its name to Sony Corporation in 1958. Sony Corporation was founded in 1946 and is based in Tokyo, Japan.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Evan Niu, CFA]

  Last year, Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL  ) ranked as the top smartphone vendor in Japan by Counterpoint Research. That was an impressive feat considering Japanese consumer preferences for local brands. That's changed since though, as Sony (NYSE: SNE  ) has doubled its market share in the past month to gobble up 36% of the market, according to Bloomberg, citing data from researcher BCN.

• [By Evan Niu, CFA and Eric Bleeker, CFA]

  As far as a Sony� (NYSE: SNE  ) or a Microsoft� (NASDAQ: MSFT  ) , and how a Steam Box and a Steam OS might affect them, I think it will remain for the most part relatively a niche product. It appeals very well to the high end of gamers.

Hot Dow Dividend Stocks To Watch For 2014: First Capital Bancorp Inc.(VA)

First Capital Bancorp, Inc. operates as the holding company for First Capital Bank that offers a range of banking and related financial services to small and medium-sized businesses, professionals, and individuals in Richmond, Virginia metropolitan area. The company?s deposit products include checking, individual retirement, negotiable order of withdrawal, and savings accounts, as well as other time deposits of various types, ranging from daily money market accounts to longer-term certificates of deposit. Its loan portfolio comprises short-to-medium term commercial loans, such as secured and unsecured loans for working capital, business expansion, and purchase of equipment and machinery; and consumer loans comprising secured and unsecured loans for financing automobiles, home improvements, education, and personal investments. The company also originates fixed and floating-rate mortgage, and real estate construction and acquisition loans. In addition, it offers safe deposi t boxes, cash management services, traveler?s checks, direct deposit of payroll and social security checks, automatic drafts for various accounts, online banking services, small and medium-sized businesses courier services, and automated teller machine services. As of May 10, 2011, the company operated seven branches. First Capital Bancorp, Inc. is headquartered in Glen Allen, Virginia.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Tiernan Ray]

  Shares of hip carrier�Virgin America (VA) are flying, up $4.15, or almost 12%, at $39.96, after underwriters of its November 14th�initial public offering were freed up to initiate coverage and responded with mostly positive notes.

  Of the eight underwriters — Barclays, Deutsche, Merrill, Cowen, Goldman, Imperial Capital, Loyal3 Securities, and Raymond James — I see five Buy-equivalent ratings today, and one Hold, from Raymond James.

  Virgin, which began its U.S. operations in 2007, generated $56 million in net income off $1.12 billion in revenue in the first nine months of this year, according to its IPO prospects. That was up from a $4 million loss last year on revenue of $1.06 billion in the same nine-month period. As of September, the company had amassed a deficit of $334 million.

  The shares have a heavy concentration of top stockholders, with the biggest chunk owned by Cyrus Aviation Holdings, at 39.9% before the IPO and an expected 33% following it; VX Holdings, with 22% pre-IPO and 25% post-IPO; and PAR Investments with 6.5%.

  Cyrus, which as recently as 2010 held as much as 55.5% of the stock, is held by�Cyrus Capital Partners, a distressed-debt fund manager. VX is the employee holding company for employee share interests in the stock.

  Imperial Capital‘s Bob McAdoo starts coverage with an Outperform rating, and a $52 price target, writing that after losing money its first six years in business, because of startup costs and the need to grab market share, Virgin changed focus last year to making money:

  The company has since�reduced or even suspended service in various underperforming markets. More recently, five of the�past six quarters have produced net profits, a trend we expect to continue given management���current focus and with recent significantly lower jet fuel prices. Later in this report, we provide more�detail regarding some of the specific steps taken to improve profitabilit

Hot Dow Dividend Stocks To Watch For 2014: Art's-Way Manufacturing Co. Inc.(ARTW)

Art?s-Way Manufacturing Co., Inc., together with its subsidiaries, engages in the manufacture and sale of agricultural equipment in the United States. It offers portable and stationary animal feed processing equipment and related attachments used to mill and mix feed grains into custom animal feed rations; a crop production line that includes grain drill equipment; hay and forage equipment consisting of forage boxes, forage blowers, running gears, dump boxes, rotary rakes, finger wheel rakes, and mergers; stalk shredders; portable grain augers; manure spreaders; sugar beet harvesting equipment; land maintenance equipment; and moldboard plows, as well as provides hay blowers to original equipment manufacturers. The company also manufactures and supplies pressure steel vessels and steel containment systems for water treatment, air receivers, refineries, co-generation, chemical, petrochemical, storage tanks, agriculture, marine, refrigeration, hydro pneumatic, heavy equipmen t, pharmaceuticals, and mining industries. In addition, it provides services, such as custom CAD drawing; welding; interior linings and exterior finishing; passivation of stainless steel; hydrostatic and pneumatic testing; design, build and finishing of skids; installation of piping; and non-destructive examination and heat treating, as well as offers after-market service parts. Further, the company produces and sells modular buildings that are used for animal containment and research laboratories. Art?s-Way Manufacturing Co., Inc. sells its products through independent farm equipment dealers primarily under the Art?s-Way, Miller Pro, and Badger brand names. The company was founded in 1956 and is based in Armstrong, Iowa.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Monica Gerson]

  Art's-Way Manufacturing Co (NASDAQ: ARTW) is estimated to post its quarterly earnings.

  Packaging Corporation of America (NYSE: PKG) is projected to post its Q3 earnings at $0.89 per share on revenue of $831.79 million.

Hot Dow Dividend Stocks To Watch For 2014: Cadus Corp (KDUS)

Cadus Corporation (Cadus), incorporated in January 23, 1992, has a wholly owned subsidiary, Cadus Technologies, Inc. (the Subsidiary), which holds all patents, patent applications, know how, licenses and drug discovery technologies of the Company. The Company maintains all its strains, as well as a biological database that catalogues its collection of cells, cell lines, yeast strains and genetic engineering tools. This database has approximately 30,000 entries, which include the phenotype and the genotype of the cell or yeast strain and its storage site. As of December 31, 2011, the Company had no internal or external drug discovery operations.

Yeast

The Company has developed technologies based on yeast that are useful in identifying drug discovery candidates targeted at G Protein-coupled receptors. Yeast is a single-celled microorganism that is used to make bread, beer and wine. Both yeast and human cells consist of a membrane, an intracellular region and a nucleus containing genes. The genes in yeast express proteins, including cell-surface receptors, such as G Protein-coupled receptors and signaling molecules, such as protein kinases, that are similar to human proteins.

Hybrid Yeast Cells

The Company developed a technology to insert human genes into yeast cells to create hybrid yeast cells. Its scientists created hybrid yeast cells by replacing yeast G Protein-coupled receptor genes and certain signaling molecules with their human equivalents. As a result, these hybrid yeast cells express a human G Protein-coupled receptor and a portion of its signaling pathway. These hybrid yeast cells can be used to identify those compounds that act as agonists or antagonists to that receptor or a molecule that is in its signaling pathway. The Company designed and developed more than 25 thousand genetically different yeast strains that can be used to build hybrid yeast cells (the Yeast System).

The Company competes with Glaxo Smith Kline, Plc.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Geoff Gannon] cash producing business like ADDvantage (AEY) that happens to be overcapitalized. I'd much rather own a business with real earnings rather than wait for something to happen with a pile of cash.

  My question is this: How cheap is cheap enough? Clearly (to me), George Risk (RSKIA) is cheap at or even just above book value. It's a darn good business so I'm getting high quality assets and earnings power. That gets less clear when looking at lower quality businesses.

  For example:

  Solitron (SODI) sells at 74% of NCAV, has decent z- and f-scores, a FCF margin of 5.3% and an ROA of 12%.

Hot Dow Dividend Stocks To Watch For 2014: Signature Bank (SBNY)

Signature Bank (the Bank) is a full-service commercial bank with 25 private client offices located in the New York metropolitan area serving the needs of privately owned business clients and their owners and senior managers. The Bank offers a variety of business and personal banking products and services through the Bank, as well as investment, brokerage, asset management and insurance products and services through its wholly owned subsidiary, Signature Securities Group Corporation (Signature Securities), a licensed broker-dealer and investment adviser. Through Signature Securities, it also purchases, securitizes and sells the guaranteed portions of the United States Small Business Administration (SBA) loans. The Bank offers a variety of deposit, escrow deposit, credit, cash management, investment and insurance products and services to its clients. As of December 31, 2011, the Bank maintained approximately 78,000 deposit accounts, 6,900 investment accounts, 8,600 loan accounts and 14,300 client relationships. In April 2012, it formed a new subsidiary, Signature Financial, LLC.

The Bank offers a range of products and services oriented to the needs of its business clients, including deposit products, such as non-interest-bearing checking accounts, money market accounts and time deposits; escrow deposit services; cash management services; commercial loans and lines of credit for working capital and to finance internal growth, acquisitions and leveraged buyouts; permanent real estate loans; letters of credit; investment products to help better manage idle cash balances, including money market mutual funds and short-term money market instruments; business retirement accounts, such as 401(k) plans, and business insurance products, including group health and group life products. It offers a range of products and services oriented to the needs of its high net worth personal clients, including interest-bearing and non-interest-bearing checking accounts, with optional features, such as debit/ autom! ated teller machine (ATM) cards and overdraft protection and, for its clients, rebates of certain charges, including ATM fees; money market accounts and money market mutual funds; time deposits; personal loans, both secured and unsecured; mortgages, home equity loans and credit card accounts; investment and asset management services, and personal insurance products, including health, life and disability.

Lending Activities

The Bank�� commercial and industrial (C&I) loan portfolio is consisted of lines of credit for working capital and term loans to finance equipment, company owned real estate and other business assets, along with commercial overdrafts. Its lines of credit for working capital are generally renewed on an annual basis and its term loans generally have terms of 2 to 5 years. The Bank�� lines of credit and term loans typically have floating interest rates, and as of December 31, 2011, approximately 61% of its outstanding C&I loans were variable rate loans. As of December 31, 2011, funded C&I loans totaled approximately 15% of its total funded loans. The Bank�� real estate loan portfolio includes loans secured by commercial and residential properties. It also provides temporary financing for commercial and residential property. As of December 31, 2011, funded real estate loans totaled approximately $5.74 billion, representing approximately 80% of its total funded loans. It issues standby or performance letters of credit, and can service the international needs of its clients through correspondent banks. As of December 31, 2011, its commitments under letters of credit totaled approximately $235.7 million. Its personal loan portfolio consists of personal lines of credit and loans to acquire personal assets. As of December 31, 2011, its consumer loans totaled $11.8 million, representing less than 1% of its total funded loans.

Investment and Asset Management Products and Services

Investment and asset management products and services are ! provided ! through the Bank�� subsidiary, Signature Securities. Signature Securities is a licensed broker-dealer. Signature Securities is an introducing firm and, as such, clears its trades through National Financial Services, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Fidelity Investments. Signature Securities is also registered as an investment adviser in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Florida. It offers an array of asset management and investment products, including the ability to purchase and sell all types of individual securities, such as equities, options, fixed income securities, mutual funds and annuities. The Bank offers transactional, cash management type brokerage accounts with check writing and daily sweep capabilities. It also offers retirement products, such as individual retirement accounts (IRAs) and administrative services for retirement vehicles, such as pension, profit sharing, and 401(k) plans to its clients. Signature Securities offers wealth management services to its high net worth personal clients. Together with its client and their other professional advisors, including attorneys and certified public accountants, it develops a financial plan that can include estate planning, business succession planning, asset protection, investment management, family office advisory services, bill payment, art and collectible advisory services and concentrated stock services.

Sources of Funds

The Bank offers a variety of deposit products to its clients. Its business deposit products include commercial checking accounts, money market accounts, escrow deposit accounts, lockbox accounts, cash concentration accounts and other cash management products. Its personal deposit products include checking accounts, money market accounts and certificates of deposit. The Bank also allows its personal and business deposit clients to access their accounts, transfer funds, pay bills and perform other account functions over the Internet and through ATM machines. As of December 31, 2011, it main! tained ap! proximately 78,000 deposit accounts representing $11.70 billion in client deposits, excluding brokered deposits.

Insurance Services

The Bank offers its business and private clients an array of individual and group insurance products, including health, life, disability and long-term care insurance products through its subsidiary, Signature Securities. The Bank does not underwrite insurance policies. It only acts as an agent in offering insurance products and services underwritten by insurers.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Ben Levisohn]

  Each month, Credit Suisse’s small-cap strategists ask the firm’s analyst to name their favorite small- and mid-cap stocks. This month, six new stocks made the list: RPM International (RPM), SunCoke Energy (SXC), Zions Bancorp (ZION), Signature Bank (SBNY), Edwards Lifesciences (EW) and�Rexnord (RXN).

Hot Dow Dividend Stocks To Watch For 2014: Yahoo! Inc.(YHOO)

Yahoo! Inc., together with its subsidiaries, operates as a digital media company that delivers personalized digital content and experiences through various devices worldwide. It offers online properties and services to users; and a range of marketing services to businesses. The company?s communications and communities offerings include Yahoo! Mail, Yahoo! Messenger, Yahoo! Groups, Yahoo! Answers, Flickr, and Connected TV, which provide a range of communication and social services to users and small businesses enabling users to organize into groups and share knowledge, common interests, and photos. Its search products comprise Yahoo! Search and Yahoo! Local, available free to users to navigate the Internet and discover content. The company?s marketplaces offerings and services include Yahoo! Shopping, Yahoo! Travel, Yahoo! Real Estate, Yahoo! Autos, and Yahoo! Small Business, which allow users to research specific topics, products, services, or areas of interest by review ing and exchanging information, obtaining contact details, or considering offers from providers of goods, services, or parties with similar interests. Its media offerings comprise Yahoo! Homepage, Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Sports, Yahoo! Finance, My Yahoo!, Yahoo! Toolbar, Yahoo! Entertainment & Lifestyles, Yahoo! Contributor Network, and Yahoo! Pulse, which are designed to engage users with online content and services on the Web. The company also offers marketing services, such as display and search advertising, listing-based services, and commerce-based transactions to advertisers. In addition, it provides software and platform offerings for third-party developers, advertisers, and publishers, such as Yahoo! Developer Network, Yahoo! Open Strategy, Yahoo! Application Platform, Yahoo! Updates, Yahoo! Query Language, and Yahoo! Search BOSS. The company has strategic alliances with Nokia and ABC News, Inc. Yahoo! Inc. was founded in 1994 and is headquartered in Sunnyvale, Californi a.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Monica Gerson]

  Yahoo! (NASDAQ: YHOO) is projected to post its Q3 earnings at $0.33 per share on revenue of $1.08 billion.

  The Coca-Cola Company (NYSE: KO) is estimated to report its Q3 earnings at $0.53 per share on revenue of $12.05 billion.

• [By MONEYMORNING.COM]

  Munster said he'd rather see Apple spend its copious cash on something in the Internet services space such as Yelp Inc. (Nasdaq: YELP), Twitter Inc. (NYSE: TWTR), Square, or Yahoo! Inc. (Nasdaq: YHOO).

• [By Paul Ausick]

  Big Earnings Movers: Bank of America Corp. (NYSE: BAC) is up 2.3% at $14.56 on decent results. MGIC Investment Corp. (NYSE: MTG) is up 14.9% at $8.34. PepsiCo Inc. (NYSE: PEP) is up 2.1% at $82.27 on better snack sales. Intel Corp. (NASDAQ: INTC) is up 1.3% at $23.68 on modest results. Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO) is down 0.9% at $33.09 and probably deserves more love than it�� getting.

• [By Chris Hill, Jason Moser, and Charly Travers]

  Yahoo's (NASDAQ: YHOO  ) first-quarter revenue was flat, but display advertising dropped 11%. Bank of America upgraded Yahoo! based on the company's Alibaba stake. But Yahoo! continues to lose ground to Google (NASDAQ: GOOG  ) and Facebook (NASDAQ: FB  ) . In this installment of MarketFoolery, our analysts talk about the future of Yahoo! and explain why CEO Marissa Mayer's leadership may be undervalued.

Judge Allows Chevron (CVX) Suit To Go Forward

Hot Media Stocks To Watch For 2015

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Chevron (CVX) was given the green light to counter sue law firm Patton Boggs by U.S. District Court Judge Lewis Kaplan in a ruling Monday afternoon.

Chevron alleges that the influential Washington D.C. lobbying firm engaged in fraud while it attempted to enforce a multibillion-dollar judgement against the oil company on behalf of a group of Ecuadorean villagers.

Must Read: Warren Buffett's 10 Favorite Stocks

STOCKS TO BUY: TheStreet Quant Ratings has identified a handful of stocks that can potentially TRIPLE in the next 12 months. Learn more.

A U.S. court ruled earlier this month that the judgement by Ecuadorean courts against Chevron was invalid due to clear evidence that the Patton Boggs legal team had used bribery, fraud and extortion to obtain the ruling. 

Chevron accuses Patton Boggs of hiding the fact that consultants hired by the plaintiff's legal team had written large parts of the report supporting the damage award.

The villagers had alleged that Texaco, which was subsequently acquired by Chevron, contaminated an oil field in the country between 1964 and 1992. The Ecuadorean court had awarded the plaintiffs in that case $18 billion in damages which the Ecuadorean Supreme Court later cut to $9.5 billion. 

Chevron closed trading Monday up 0.4% to $118.91. TheStreet Ratings team rates CHEVRON CORP as a Buy with a ratings score of A-. TheStreet Ratings Team has this to say about their recommendation: "We rate CHEVRON CORP (CVX) a BUY. This is based on the convergence of positive investment measures, which should help this stock outperform the majority of stocks that we rate. The company's strengths can be seen in multiple areas, such as its largely solid financial position with reasonable debt levels by most measures and attractive valuation levels. We feel these strengths outweigh the fact that the company shows low profit margins." Highlights from the analysis by TheStreet Ratings Team goes as follows: CVX's debt-to-equity ratio is very low at 0.14 and is currently below that of the industry average, implying that there has been very successful management of debt levels. Along with the favorable debt-to-equity ratio, the company maintains an adequate quick ratio of 1.16, which illustrates the ability to avoid short-term cash problems. Regardless of the drop in revenue, the company managed to outperform against the industry average of 7.9%. Since the same quarter one year prior, revenues slightly dropped by 4.3%. Weakness in the company's revenue seems to have hurt the bottom line, decreasing earnings per share. CHEVRON CORP's earnings per share declined by 30.5% in the most recent quarter compared to the same quarter a year ago. The company has suffered a declining pattern of earnings per share over the past two years. However, we anticipate this trend to reverse over the coming year. During the past fiscal year, CHEVRON CORP reported lower earnings of $11.09 versus $13.32 in the prior year. This year, the market expects an improvement in earnings ($11.19 versus $11.09). The change in net income from the same quarter one year ago has exceeded that of the Oil, Gas & Consumable Fuels industry average, but is less than that of the S&P 500. The net income has significantly decreased by 31.9% when compared to the same quarter one year ago, falling from $7,245.00 million to $4,930.00 million. You can view the full analysis from the report here: CVX Ratings Report STOCKS TO BUY: TheStreet Quant Ratings has identified a handful of stocks that can potentially TRIPLE in the next 12 months. Learn more.

Stock quotes in this article: CVX 

5 Best Blue Chip Stocks To Own Right Now

Japan was back at the center of financial news today, not because the Nikkei is still getting rocked back and forth, but because the island-nation's central bank refused to adjust monetary policy today in the midst of a huge market correction. In April, the Bank of Japan had announced a $1.4 trillion stimulus program with room for additional funding if needed, but today passed on that opportunity, though Bank of Japan governor Haruhiko Kuroda did say that the bank could unleash further stimulus if borrowing costs rise.

World markets were down on the news, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJINDICES: ^DJI  ) finishing down 117 points, or 0.8%, in a volatile session, as the blue chips opened down 1% before climbing to breakeven at midday, and finally tanking in afternoon trading. As stocks pulled back, treasuries hit a 14-month high, with the 10-year yield climbing to 2.29% at one point.

Among the Dow's biggest losers today was Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT  ) , which fell 1.8% as rival Sony introduced its PlayStation 4 last night and said would be priced at $399, $100 less than Microsoft's Xbox One. The two are major competitors in the gaming arena, and Sony's moves could put pressure on Microsoft. In addition to beating the Xbox on price, the PS4 also allows users to sell or reuse second-hand games and does not require a fixed Internet connection. Both consoles are due out this fall in time for the holiday season.

Top 5 European Stocks To Own For 2015: McDonald's Corporation(MCD)

McDonald?s Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, operates as a worldwide foodservice retailer. It franchises and operates McDonald?s restaurants that offer various food items, soft drinks, coffee, and other beverages. As of December 31, 2009, the company operated 32,478 restaurants in 117 countries, of which 26,216 were operated by franchisees; and 6,262 were operated by the company. McDonald?s Corporation was founded in 1948 and is based in Oak Brook, Illinois.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By AnnaLisa Kraft]

  A chicken-wing upstart
  But with success comes competition.�McDonald's (NYSE: MCD  ) is debuting its own Mighty Wings nationally, chicken wings seasoned similarly to Popeye's New Orleans style with cayenne and chili pepper. The huge quantity of wings that McDonald's will need likely driving up prices from $1.44 a pound most recently will of course, affect the entire space including Yum! Brands, AFCE, and chicken focused Buffalo Wild Wings (NASDAQ: BWLD  ) ��

• [By Ben Levisohn]

  Darden’s shares dropped 0.6% to $54.01 today, even as McDonald’s (MCD) gained 0.3% to $96.54, Yum! Brands (YUM) rose 0.2% to $74.10 and Chipotle Mexican Grill (CMG) advanced 0.4% to $533.11.

• [By Dividends4Life]

  Taken to the next level, certain stocks in my dividend growth portfolio tend to be purchased more often than others. This will often push the limit on my maximum allocation limit of 5% per holding in the portfolio. Sometimes, the high allocations are a result of buying up to the limit when the price is down. While other times it is a conscious decision to slightly exceed the 5% threshold. Below are my five largest Dividend Growth Stocks based on market value, along with their percentage of my dividend growth portfolio and lifetime return:Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) is a leader in the pharmaceutical, medical device and consumer products industries. The company has paid a cash dividend to shareholders every year since 1944 and has increased its dividend payments for 52 consecutive years. Yield: 2.8% | % of DG Portfolio: 5.2% | Lifetime Return 17.1%McDonald's Corporation (MCD) is the largest fast-food restaurant company in the world, with nearly 35,000 restaurants in 119 countries. The company has paid a cash dividend to shareholders every year since 1976 and has increased its dividend payments for 37 consecutive years. Yield: 3.2% | % of DG Portfolio: 4.7% | Lifetime Return 14.2%General Dynamics (GD) is the world's fourth largest military contractor and also one of the world's biggest makers of corporate jets. The company has paid a cash dividend to shareholders every year since 1979 and has increased its dividend payments for 23 consecutive years. Yield: 2.1% | % of DG Portfolio: 4.7% | Lifetime Return 32.5%ConocoPhillips Co. (COP) is one of the largest independent oil and gas exploration and production (E&P) companies in the world, COP spun off its downstream assets in May 2012. The company has paid a cash dividend to shareholders every year since 1934 and has increased its dividend payments for 14 consecutive years. Yield: 3.5% | % of DG Portfolio: 4.4% | Lifetime Return 21.2%Raytheon Company (RTN), the world's sixth largest military contractor, specializes

5 Best Blue Chip Stocks To Own Right Now: Chevron Corporation(CVX)

Chevron Corporation, through its subsidiaries, engages in petroleum, chemicals, mining, power generation, and energy operations worldwide. It operates in two segments, Upstream and Downstream. The Upstream segment involves in the exploration, development, and production of crude oil and natural gas; processing, liquefaction, transportation, and regasification associated with liquefied natural gas; transportation of crude oil through pipelines; and transportation, storage, and marketing of natural gas, as well as holds interest in a gas-to-liquids project. The Downstream segment engages in the refining of crude oil into petroleum products; marketing of crude oil and refined products primarily under the Chevron, Texaco, and Caltex brand names; transportation of crude oil and refined products by pipeline, marine vessel, motor equipment, and rail car; and manufacture and marketing of commodity petrochemicals, plastics for industrial uses, and fuel and lubricant additives. It a lso produces and markets coal and molybdenum; and holds interests in 13 power assets with a total operating capacity of approximately 3,100 megawatts, as well as involves in cash management and debt financing activities, insurance operations, real estate activities, energy services, and alternative fuels and technology business. Chevron Corporation has a joint venture agreement with China National Petroleum Corporation. The company was formerly known as ChevronTexaco Corp. and changed its name to Chevron Corporation in May 2005. Chevron Corporation was founded in 1879 and is based in San Ramon, California.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Taylor Muckerman]

  Chevron (NYSE: CVX  ) has obviously taken notice, because it now has plans to invest up to $1.5 billion with YPF to develop its Vaca Muerta field. One would be hard pressed to fault Chevron for its interest here. The industry believes that as much as 308 trillion cubic feet of natural gas and 16 billion barrels of oil rest in this formation alone. That's more shale oil in one field than all of Venezuela is forecast to have and more shale gas than Russia's predicted bounty.�

5 Best Blue Chip Stocks To Own Right Now: Visa Inc.(V)

Visa Inc., a payments technology company, engages in the operation of retail electronic payments network worldwide. It facilitates commerce through the transfer of value and information among financial institutions, merchants, consumers, businesses, and government entities. The company owns and operates VisaNet, a global processing platform that provides transaction processing services. It also offers a range of payments platforms, which enable credit, charge, deferred debit, debit, and prepaid payments, as well as cash access for consumers, businesses, and government entities. The company provides its payment platforms under the Visa, Visa Electron, PLUS, and Interlink brand names. In addition, it offers value-added services, including risk management, issuer processing, loyalty, dispute management, value-added information, and CyberSource-branded services. The company is headquartered in San Francisco, California.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Jim Jubak]

  And it's easy to understand why. Alibaba's offering��ikely in New York rather than Hong Kong��ould well come in as the biggest IPO ever, easily surpassing the $16.1 billion Facebook (FB) raised in 2012 and the $19.65 billion raised in Visa's (V) 2008 offering.

• [By DailyFinance Staff]

  Investors took a wait-and-see attitude Tuesday, but airline stocks lost altitude. The market is in a holding pattern until 2 p.m. Wednesday, when the Fed reveals details of this week's FOMC policy meetings, and whether it's ready to begin cutting back on its main economic stimulus program. If it does begin to taper, the next debate will begin immediately: Is that good or bad for investors? On Wall Street today, the Dow Jones industrial average (^DJI) edged down 9 points, the Nasdaq composite (^IXIC) fell nearly 6, and the Standard & Poor's 500 index (^GPSC) lost 5 points. The Dow's gainers were led by a pair of companies hiking their dividends. 3M (MMM), which makes everything from Post-It notes to medical equipment, rose 3 percent after increasing its payout by 35 percent. And Boeing (BA) rose 1 percent. It boosted the dividend by 50 percent and announced a big stock buyback. The other big blue chip winner was Visa (V), which gained another 2.5 percent. Its stock is now up 43 percent from a year ago. On the downside, Verizon (VZ), IBM (IBM), McDonald's (MCD) and Microsoft (MSFT) all lost about one percent. Microsoft says it will not name a new CEO until next year. And airline stocks were broadly lower. United (UAL) and Delta (DAL) both fell 3 percent. American Airlines (AAL), which completed its merger with U.S. Airways last week, fell 2 percent. And Southwest (V) also lost 2 percent. Brokerage recommendations gave a boost to several issues. Data storage companies Seagate (STX), up 3 percent, and Western Digital (WDC), up 2.5 percent, following JP Morgan upgrades. And iRobot (IRBT) surged 17 percent after Raymond James gave it a 'strong buy.' Shares of Facebook (FB) rose 2 percent, hitting an all-time high. The social media giant is rolling out new video ads this week. That's expected to boost revenue. The question is, will it alienate users? On the downside, Targacept (TRGT) lost more than a third of its value. A clinical trial of its schizophreni

5 Best Blue Chip Stocks To Own Right Now: Philip Morris International Inc(PM)

Philip Morris International Inc., through its subsidiaries, engages in the manufacture and sale of cigarettes and other tobacco products in markets outside of the United States. Its international product brand line comprises Marlboro, Merit, Parliament, Virginia Slims, L&M, Chesterfield, Bond Street, Lark, Muratti, Next, Philip Morris, and Red & White. The company also offers its products under the A Mild, Dji Sam Soe, and A Hijau in Indonesia; Diana in Italy; Optima and Apollo-Soyuz in the Russian Federation; Morven Gold in Pakistan; Boston in Colombia; Belmont, Canadian Classics, and Number 7 in Canada; Best and Classic in Serbia; f6 in Germany; Delicados in Mexico; Assos in Greece; and Petra in the Czech Republic and Slovakia. It operates primarily in the European Union, Eastern Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Asia, Canada, and Latin America. The company is based in New York, New York.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Laura Brodbeck]

  Thursday

  Earnings Expected From: United Health Group Incorporated (NYSE: UNH), Mattel, Inc. (NASDAQ: MAT), General Electric Company (NYSE: GE), Fifth Third Bancorp (NASDAQ: FITB), Philip Morris Inc (NYSE: PM), Pepsico, Inc. (NYSE: PEP), Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (NYSE: GS), Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc. (NYSE: CMG), American Express Company (NYSE: AXP) Economic Releases Expected: �German PPI, Canadian CPI, Chinese house price data

  Friday

Top 5 New Companies To Own In Right Now

Top 5 New Companies To Own In Right Now: Green Technology Solutions Inc (GTSO)

Green Technology Solutions Inc (GTSO), incorporated on February 22, 1991, is in the business of identifying and acquiring rights in early stage, green technologies, with the plan to develop these technologies into marketable products. The Company has identified several technology endeavors.

As of December 31, 2011, the Company has identified the advancement of mining technologies, with an emphasis on rare earth and precious metals mining applications, the development of additional markets for existing paint products that are being marketed in the United States, and smart grid technology. GTSO has also identified additional joint venture in China and South America.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By CRWE]

  Today, GTSO surged (+10.29%) up +0.0035 at $.0375 with55,329 shares in play thus far (ref. google finance Delayed: 12:20PM EDT August 27, 2013).

  Green Technology Solutions, Inc. is negotiating a potentially lucrative spot transaction with joint venture partner Chilerecicla to export a large quantity of e-waste to one of the largest smelters in the world.

  According to the terms of the spot transaction, GTSO joint venture partner Chilerecicla will collect several metric tons of e-waste from suppliers based in Bolivia and Chile, and then ship materials to a smelter overseas. The buyers consist of the worlds largest smelter, who has meticulously screened Chilerecicla to become one of its suppliers. The smelter has noted that its capacity to purchase e-waste from Chilerecicla exceeds our partners current e-waste forecast for the near and present future

• [By CRWE]

  Today, GTSO has shed (-5.66%) down -0.0018 at $.0300 with22,150 shares in play thus far (ref. google finance Delayed: 11:34AM EDT July 3, 2013), but dont let this get you down.

  Previously after forging a new joint venture, Green Technology Solutions, Inc. and Chilerecicla are already ! hard at work identifying new Latin American companies and locales ideally suited to the partnerships ambitious expansion plans.

  The partnership has targeted Latin America for expansion because its a key emerging market in the booming global e-waste recycling and reuse services industry, which Transparency Market Research predicts accounted for more than $9 billion in 2012. The firm expects the worldwide e-waste market to reach $18 billion in 2017, growing at a compound annual growth rate of 13.2 percent from 2012 to 2017.

source from Top Penny Stocks For 2015:http://www.topstocksforum.com/top-5-new-companies-to-own-in-right-now-2.html

Increase in Consumers' Revolving Credit Hits 12-Month High

Total consumer credit outstanding increased $19.6 billion (0.7%) to $2.84 trillion from April to May, according to a Federal Reserve report (link opens a PDF) released today.

After bumping up 0.4% in April, analysts had expected a slight $13 billion increase for May.

Revolving credit (no fixed number of payments, e.g., credit cards) packed the most punch, increasing a seasonally adjusted 9.3% for May. After March's 1.1% dip and April's 1.1% recovery, this month's increase is the largest in 12 months, according to The Wall Street Journal, and puts revolving credit on a sharp upward trend.

Non-revolving credit (fixed installments, e.g., car payments) also recorded a significant jump, up a seasonally adjusted 7.9%.

Non-revolving credit has generally improved at a faster rate than revolving credit, up 8.5% in 2012 compared to revolving credit's 0.4% bump. More recently, revolving credit clocked in at a seasonally adjusted 1.5% gain for Q1 2013, while non-revolving credit recorded a 7.8% increase.

10 Best Defensive Stocks To Watch For 2014

Popular Posts: Avoid These So-Called Defensive Stocks3 Bargain Energy Stocks to Buy Amid Weak Oil PricesPut On Your Private Equity Lenses and Buy These Stocks Recent Posts: Buybacks at Small Banks Mean Big Profits Ahead 3 Bargain Energy Stocks to Buy Amid Weak Oil Prices Avoid These So-Called Defensive Stocks View All Posts

I am an enormous fan of the small banks. The economic and regulatory trends faced by these banks are going to force a lot of smaller institutions around the country to put themselves on the auction block and sell to a larger institution. Those that survive as a standalone bank will have proved their ability to take on the larger banks head-to-head and earn higher returns for their shareholders by stealing business from the too-big-to-fail banks like Bank of America (BAC), Wells Fargo (WFC) and Citigroup (C).

Top 5 Internet Companies To Invest In Right Now: LSI Industries Inc.(LYTS)

LSI Industries Inc. provides corporate visual image solutions primarily in the United States, Canada, Australia, and Latin America. It operates in three segments: Lighting, Graphics, and Technology. The Lighting segment manufactures and markets outdoor and indoor lighting, canopy lighting, landscape lighting, light emitting diodes (LED) lighting, light poles, and photometric layouts products, as well as lighting analysis services. The Graphics segment manufactures and sells exterior and interior visual image elements for use in visual image programs. It offers signage and canopy graphics; pump dispenser graphics; building fascia graphics; decals; interior signage and marketing graphics; aisle markers; wall mural graphics; fleet graphics; prototype program graphics; and solid state LED video screens for the sports and advertising markets, as well as installation services for graphics products. The Technology segment designs, produces, and supports light engines and large fo rmat video screens using LED technology; and specialty LED lighting. Additionally, the company offers menu board systems. It serves commercial, industrial, and multi-site retail markets; petroleum/convenience stores; sports and advertising; and entertainment markets. The company sells its products through regional sales managers, independent sales representatives, and distributors. LSI Industries was founded in 1976 and is headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Dan Caplinger]

  In Daktronics' report, be sure to look at how the company compares to results that industrial-lighting and display competitor LSI Industries (NASDAQ: LYTS  ) announced late last month. Even with a 5% gain in revenue for its March quarter, LSI posted a loss, showing the difficulty in producing high-margin business in the industry. For its part, if Daktronics can keep pushing past its operational challenges, it should be in better position to stay profitable both this quarter and well into the future.

10 Best Defensive Stocks To Watch For 2014: Science Applications International Corp (SAIC)

Science Applications International Corporation, formerly SAIC Gemini, Inc., incorporated on February 1, 2013, is a scientific, engineering, and technology applications company. The Company uses its domain knowledge to solve problems in national security, energy and the environment, critical infrastructure, and health. The Company serves customers in the United States Department of Defense, the intelligence community, the United States Department of Homeland Security, other United States Government civil agencies and selected commercial markets. The Company provides services in two segments: government segment and commercial segment. Its government segment provides an array of technical services and solutions, primarily to United States federal, state and local government agencies and foreign governments. Its commercial segment provides technology-driven consulting, systems integration and outsourcing services and solutions in selected commercial markets.

Services

The Company provides systems development, technical and consulting services to federal, state, local law enforcement and criminal justice agencies, further promoting efficiency and effectiveness in preventing and controlling crime through systems, such as CODIS and LEO. The Company safeguards business-critical information, systems, and Websites with information security assessments and public key infrastructure solutions. The Company simplifies access to government goods and services through pre-negotiated federal contract vehicles. It provides government, commercial, and international clients with solutions to complex financial and resource problems. The Company provides geospatial products, services, and solutions for several industries, including agriculture, utility and defense. It provides a comprehensive portfolio of technology and domain specific solutions to its federal, state and local government and commercial health customers.

The Company helps companies to y operate, maintain, and manage wid! ely dispersed assets through consulting, enterprise asset management (EAM), help desk services and network services. The Company supports all phases for drug development: discovery, pre-clinical and clinical development and operations and compliance. It develops technologies, engineer solutions and provide analytical systems for maritime markets. It helps organizations improve product quality, more accurately determine product development or production schedule/cost, and increase productivity. The Company helps National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the military, space and intelligence communities transition to faster, better and cheaper business processes through applied research & technology; information systems, and modeling and simulation. The Company offers corporate and individual training services ranging from elearning to training evaluation.

Aviation

The Company supports commercial and government customers with the latest aviation technology products. The Company�� products include Model 3800 Autopilot, FODetect , AeroPlanner, Memory Unit Tactical Air Crew Training System (MUTACTS), and SAIC Mission Planning System (MPS). The Model 3800 Autopilot is designed for installation in high-performance jet and turboprop aircraft but will function well in a range of fixed-wing aircraft. FODetect is an automated system that provides continuous monitoring with high-resolution and high-speed detection of foreign object debris (FOD) on critical aircraft operating areas. AeroPlanner provides a common tactical picture between control and combat systems by accessing parallel data from naval tactical data systems and retransmitting serially into multiple formats. SAIC's MUTACTS provides quick, accurate and post-flight review and analysis of military aircraft training missions. SAIC MPS consists of a line of simple to use computerized aircraft mission planning systems available for aircraft around the world.

Geospatial Products

The Company o! ffers a f! amily of geospatial solutions to support and gather GIS information for defense, intelligence and commercial customers. Its products include AeroPlanner.com, GRGlobe, GeoRover Software Products, ike 504, Percept, and WebCentric Geospatial Collaboration. AeroPlanner.com is a comprehensive flight-planning application for pilots of all levels. The GRGlobe desktop application brings core GIS functionality to a three dimensional (3D) globe environment providing the ability to create, edit, and visualize GIS data natively while supporting multiple formats such, as KML, shapefile and geodatabase. GeoRover geospatial software products are designed and sold as extensions of plug-in to the ArcMap component of Esri ArcGIS software versions 8.x and 9.x. The ike 504 is a handheld, GIS-related device that provides operators with methods to collect geospatial information on a target, including GPS coordinates and a photograph from a position up to 1,000 meters (3,280 feet) away. The SAIC Percept suite connects essential business information with real-world infrastructure and properties data. WebCentric Geospatial Collaboration is a Web-based, commercial-off-the-shelf geospatial presentation tool providing to dimensional (2D), 3D, and four dimensional (4D) views.

Ocean and Marine Systems

The Company develops marine products. These products monitor global climate change and marine meteorology, chart and analyze hydrographic data, and help to manage waste and control pollution. iTs products include COBIA Buoy, SAIC Tsunami Buoy (STB) Systems, ISS-2000, Survey Analysis and area Based EditoR (SABER), Incident Command Tool for Drinking Water Protection (ICWater), Plastics Waste Processor (PWP), Compress Melt Unit (CMU) Mod 0, Compress Melt Unit (CMU) Mod 1: Plastics Waste Processor, Large and Small Pulpers, Large and Small Pulpers, 10 GPM Oily Waste Polishing Unit, Topside and Dockside Chlorinators, and Ship Dechlorinator. COBIA Buoy is designed as a modular and fully reconfigurable buoy platform b! ased on t! echnologically advanced maritime expertise. SAIC Tsunami Buoy (STB) Systems are an enhanced version of the buoy system in use by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's DART detection system. The ISS-2000 Integrated Survey System was designed for professional hydrographers and surveyors and supports a range of high-performance, shallow-water survey operations. SABER is a tool for processing, editing, updating, viewing and analyzing hydrographic survey data. ICWater is designed to model drinking water contamination in real-time for a rapid, effective emergency response.

Rugged Hardware

The Company�� rugged hardware provides a range of commercial off-the-shelf equipment, as well as specialized custom-designed solutions, for installation into harsh tactical and industrial environments. Its products include Quicklock Cargo Restraint System, Passive LINK Tap (PLT), 1RU 8 Circuit Rugged Power Distribution Assembly (PDA), 1RU Fixed Expansion Chassis, 2RU Rugged cPCI Chassis High-Security Firewall System, Rugged Large liquid-crystal display (LCD) Color Flat Panel Displays (FPDs), Rugged Small LCD FPDs, Neptune 2 Rack Unit Workstation Consoles, and Rugged TigerShark Workstation Consoles. PLT provides a common tactical picture between control and combat systems by accessing parallel data from naval tactical data systems and retransmitting serially into multiple formats. The Quicklock Cargo Restraint System allows for secure tie-down of almost any cargo shape and is designed to prevent damage to and loss of equipment while in transit.

Safety and Security

The Company offers a variety of products to enhance safety and security in transportation, military, emergency response and other applications. Its product includes VACIS Cargo and Vehicle Inspection Systems, VACIS IP6500 FullScan Integrated Inspection System, VACIS XPL Passenger Vehicle Scanning System, and All-Terrain VACIS Imaging System. The Company�� VACIS systems scan cargo containers, tru! cks, cars! and other vehicles to help authorities search for weapons, nuclear material, narcotics, undeclared goods and other contraband at cargo terminals, border crossings, military facilities and other checkpoints. The VACIS IP6500 system safely scans occupied trucks and other vehicles of all sizes. The VACIS XPL system safely scans occupied cars and and other light vehicles.

Simulation

The Company provides a range of simulation products using in system engineering, software engineering, component engineering, signal and image processing, and custom system integration. Its products include OLIVE: On-Line Interactive Virtual Environment, RADSIM Radar Simulation 3.0, Reconfigurable Tactical Operations Simulator (RTOS), Non-Rated Crew Member Manned Module (NCM3), RC-12X Cockpit Procedural Trainer (CPT), Common Driver Trainer (CDT) Product Line, Combat Training Center-Instrumentation Systems (CTC-IS), STK/Missile Modeling Tools (STK/MMT), Tactical Engagement Simulation (TES) Systems, Common Vehicle System (CVS) Kit, CVS Abrams Adapter Kit, CVS Bradley Adapter Kit, Wireless Independent Target System (WITS), MK-19 Simulator Player Unit, Wireless Individual Weapon System (W-IWS), Mini MILES, Air Defense Weapons Systems (ADWS) MILES Kits, and Aviation Tactical Engagement Simulation System (AV-TESS). The Aviation Tactical Engagement Simulation System (AV-TESS) provides a flexible, training solution, tracking and weapons simulation system, and supports live force-on-force and force-on-target training and the evaluation and testing of new air vehicles and weapons systems. The Wireless Independent Target System (WITS) provides noncombat vehicles and targets, such as trucks, bridges and buildings, with a high-fidelity detection system for real-time casualty assessment.

Software

The Company is an SEI Partner for the Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI) project, a collaborative effort to provide models for achieving product and process improvement. Its products inc! lude Voic! e Identity Biometric Services (VIBES), Scale2Insight, Secure Multi-Tenancy, Advanced Analytics Suite, TeraText Database System, SIAM, Antfarm, EMTOOLS, MICHELLE, Enterprise Energy Dashboard, GeoRover Software Products, GeoViz- WebCentric GeoSpatial Collaboration, ISS-2000, Survey Analysis and area Based EditoR (SABER), AIMES, ISRCrossCue, RAVE, Omnifluent Suite of Human Language Technology Products, Flexible Tax Manager, SCOPTIMA Supply Chain Software, and Supply Operations Control System (SOCS). The Supply Operations Control System (SOCS) is a personal computer (PC) based inventory management system, and provides asset visibility, inventory control and supply support. SCOPTIMA Supply Chain Software is a secure, Web-enabled inventory system planner that provides demand forecasting to support efficient management and replenishment of large inventories of spare parts for aircraft and other platforms.

Transportation Products

The Company�� transportation systems helps companies and government agencies around the world improve efficiency, enhance safety and security, reduce errors and cut costs. Its products include Integrated Container Information System (ICIS), Intelligent Intermodal Solutions (IIS), Gatestand Driver Kiosk, CraneView Crane-Mounted OCR System, RailView Digital Video Recording System for Locomotives, and Transportation Visibility and Metrics System (TransVM). The RailView system continuously records digital video and key events as the locomotive travels, providing a reliable record for analysis of rail incidents. The CraneView system automatically identifies containers and records stow positions as the containers are moved by quay cranes in real time.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By alicet236]

  Science Applications International Corp (SAIC) Reached the Five-Year Low of $32.20

  The prices of Science Applications International Corp (SAIC) shares have declined to close to the five-year low of $32.20, which is 26.3% off the five-year high of $39.88. Science Applications International Corp is owned by one Guru we are tracking. Among them, 1 have added to their positions during the past quarter. Zero reduced their positions. Science Applications International Corp has a market cap of $2.76 billion; its shares were traded at around $32.20 with a P/E ratio of 18.50 and P/S ratio of 0.45. The dividend yield of Science Applications International Corp stocks is 0.87%.

• [By John Reese]

  Indeed, in 2013, the Greenblatt-based portfolio has bounced back strong, returning more than 50%. Below is a look at its current holdings.

  EBIX, Inc. (EBIX)
  
  Western Refining (WNR)
  
  DirecTV (DTV)
  
  ITT Educational Services (ESI)
  
  Science Applications International (SAIC)
  
  Weight Watchers International (WTW)
  
  ConocoPhillips (COP)
  
  AmSurg Corp. (AMSG)
  
  PDL BioPharma (PDLI)
  
  AFC Enterprises (AFCE)
  
  

  Subscribe to Validea here��/p>

• [By John Kell and Lauren Pollock var popups = dojo.query(".socialByline .popC"); ]

  Science Applications International Corp.(SAIC) said its fiscal fourth-quarter earnings fell 23%, as the government contractor posted weaker revenue that was partly offset by lower expenses related to its spinoff by the former SAIC Inc. last year and other one-time items.

10 Best Defensive Stocks To Watch For 2014: Continental Resources Inc. (CLR)

Continental Resources, Inc. engages in the exploration, development, and production of crude oil and natural gas primarily in the north, south, and east regions of the United States. The company primarily sells its oil and natural gas production to end users, as well as to midstream marketing companies or oil refining companies at the lease. As of December 31, 2011, its estimated proved reserves were 508.4 million barrels of crude oil equivalent, with estimated proved developed reserves of 205.2 million barrels of crude oil equivalent. The company had interests in 3,255 wells and served as the operator of 2,082 of these wells. Continental Resources, Inc. was founded in 1967 and is headquartered in Enid, Oklahoma.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Paul Ausick]

  Independent producer Continental Resources Inc. (NYSE: CLR) is also down about 2% at $107.67 in a 52-week range of $72.35 to $121.78. The stock�� annual high was posted in mid-October. Continental just reported a 38% increase in its proved reserves to 1.08 billion barrels, primarily in the Bakken play in North Dakota. The stock�� price target is $131.45 and at the current price that implies a potential gain of 22%. The forward P/E ratio is 15.24 based on 2014 earnings.

• [By Matt DiLallo]

  In Pioneer Natural Resources' case, the company reported that its EURs in the Permian Basin continue to average 1 million BOE in the Wolfcamp B zone. That's a lot of oil and gas. In fact, it is well above what companies in the Bakken Shale and Eagle Ford Shale are seeing these days. For example, the average EUR of Continental Resources' (NYSE: CLR  ) oil wells in the Bakken Shale is just 603,000 BOE. Meanwhile, Devon Energy's (NYSE: DVN  ) top wells targeting the Eagle Ford shale in DeWitt County and Lavaca Texas see EURs of 850,000-950,000 BOE and 400,000-500,000 BOE, respectively.

• [By Arjun Sreekumar]

  For instance, Continental Resources (NYSE: CLR  ) , the leading Bakken driller, has seen tremendous initial success from testing tighter spacing between its wells. The company recently drilled 14 horizontal wells spaced 1,320 feet apart in the in the southern part of its Three Forks acreage that produced 50% more oil and gas in their first three months of production than the company's average Bakken well.

10 Best Defensive Stocks To Watch For 2014: Universal Display Corp (OLED)

Universal Display Corporation, incorporated on April, 24, 1985, is engaged in the research, development and commercialization of organic light emitting diode (OLED) technologies and materials for use in flat panel display, solid state lighting and other product applications. The Company�� primary business strategy is to develop and license its OLED technologies to product manufacturers for use in these applications. Its primary business is to develop and license its OLED technologies to manufacturers of products for display applications, such as cell phones, portable media devices, tablets, laptop computers and televisions, and specialty and general lighting products; and develop new OLED materials and sell the materials to those product manufacturers. The Company sells its OLED materials to customers for evaluation and use in commercial OLED products. As of December 31, 2012, the Company owns, exclusively license or have the sole right to sublicense more than 3,000 patents issued and pending worldwide. On July 23, 2012, the Company entered into a Patent Sale Agreement (the Agreement) with FUJIFILM. Under the Agreement, FUJIFILM sold more than 1,200 OLED related patents and patent applications.

Phosphorescent Organic Light Emitting Diode Technologies

Phosphorescent OLEDs utilize specialized materials and device structures that allow OLEDs to emit light through a process known as phosphorescence. Traditional fluorescent OLEDs emit light through an inherently less efficient process. Theory and experiment show that phosphorescent OLEDs exhibit device efficiencies up to four times higher than those exhibited by fluorescent OLEDs. Phosphorescence substantially reduces the power requirements of an OLED and is potentially useful in displays for hand-held devices, such as Smartphone��, where battery power is often a limiting factor. Phosphorescence is also important for area displays such as televisions, where higher device efficiency and lower heat generation may enable longer ! product lifetimes and increased energy efficiency.

Additional Proprietary Organic Light Emitting Diode Technologies

Additional OLED Technologies include FOLED Flexible OLEDs, Thin-Film Encapsulation, UniversalP2OLED Printable Phosphorescent OLEDs, OVJP Organic Vapor Jet Printing, OVPD Organic Vapor Phase Deposition and TOLED Transparent OLEDs. The Company is working on a number of technologies required for the fabrication of OLEDs on flexible substrates. As of December 31, 2012, it was conducting research and development on FOLED technologies internally, under several of its United States government programs and in connection with the government-sponsored Flexible Display Center at Arizona State University (ASU). The Company announced its, patented encapsulation technology for the packaging of flexible OLEDs and other thin-film devices, as well as for use as a barrier film for plastic substrates. Its approach for manufacturing a small molecule OLED, including a PHOLED, is based on a vacuum thermal evaporation (VTE) process.

The Company has partnered with Aixtron AG, which is a manufacturer of metal-organic chemical vapor deposition equipment, to develop and qualify equipment for the fabrication of OLED displays utilizing the OVPD process. It has developed a technology for the fabrication of OLEDs that have transparent cathodes. TOLEDs use a transparent cathode and either a transparent, reflective or opaque metal anode.

Organic Light Emitting Diode Materials Supply Business

The Company supplies its proprietary UniversalPHOLED materials to display manufacturers and others. The Company qualifies its materials in OLED devices before shipment in order to ensure that they meet required specifications. During 2012, the Company continued supplying its proprietary UniversalPHOLED materials to SDC for use in its commercial AMOLED display products and for its development efforts. During 2012, the Company also supplied its UniversalPHOLED materials to! LG Displ! ay for use in its commercial AMOLED display products, to Tohoku Pioneer for use in its commercial PMOLED display products, and Konica Minolta for its manufacture of commercial OLED lighting products. During 2012, the Company also supplied its proprietary OLED materials to these and various other product manufacturers for evaluation and for purposes of development, manufacturing qualification and product testing.

The Company competes with Eastman Kodak Company (Kodak), Cambridge Display Technology, Ltd. (CDT), Sumitomo Chemical Company (Sumitomo), Idemitsu Kosan Co., Ltd. (Idemitsu Kosan), Merck KGaA and BASF Corporation.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Dan Caplinger]

  Finally, organic LED specialist Universal Display (NASDAQ: OLED  ) has risen 6.7% after getting an upgrade from analyst firm Needham. The stock remains well off its lows, as the company has waited for display makers to adopt its OLED technology in larger applications, especially big-screen TVs. With plans to ramp up production in the next year, though, Universal Display remains a valid long-term play on the future of OLED use in mainstream tech products.

• [By Steve Symington]

  Hold on to your hats, Universal Display Corp. (NASDAQ: OLED  ) investors, because it's time to delve into what to expect from your favorite OLED technologist in 2014.

10 Best Defensive Stocks To Watch For 2014: Market Vectors Russia ETF (RSX)

Market Vectors-Russia ETF (the Fund) seeks to replicate as closely as possible the price and yield performance of the DAXglobal Russia+ Index (the Russia+ Index). The Russia+ Index includes a basket of securities of 30 of the most heavily traded Russian companies that have listings on global exchanges, either through an American depository receipt (ADR), a global depository receipt (GDR) or local Russian shares. The Russia+ Index, which was launched in March 2007, is a modified market capitalization-weighted index designed to track the movements of certain depository receipts (DRs) and stocks of publicly traded companies that are domiciled in Russia, and traded in Russia and on global exchanges. The Russia+ Index consists of companies with market capitalization greater than $150 million that have a daily average traded volume of at least $1 million over the past six months. The Russia+ Index includes energy companies, such as Lukoil, OAO Gazprom and Surgutneftgaz; utility company, Unified Energy Systems; steel manufacturing firms, such as Mechel OAO and Evraz Group SA; mining firm, JSC MMC Norilsk Nickel; communications firms, such as Mobile TeleSystems OJSC and Vimpel-Communications, and Sberbank.

The Fund will normally invest at least 80% of its total assets in stocks and depositary receipts (DRs) of publicly traded companies that are domiciled in Russia. Publicly traded companies that are domiciled in Russia means companies organized in, or for which the principal trading market is in Russia; companies that, alone or on a consolidated basis, have 50% or more of their assets invested in Russia, or companies that alone or on a consolidated basis derive 50% or more of their revenues primarily from either goods produced, sales made or services performed in Russia. The Fund, utilizing a passive or indexing investment approach, attempts to approximate the investment performance of the Russia+ Index by investing in a portfolio of securities that generally replicate the Russia+ Index. The Fund! will hold all of the securities that comprise the Russia+ Index in proportion to their weightings in the Russia+ Index. The Fund will normally invest at least 95% of its total assets in securities that comprise the Russia+ Index. The Russia+ Index is calculated and maintained by the Deutsche Borse (the Index Provider).

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Dan Caplinger]

  The Dow Jones Industrials (DJINDICES: ^DJI  ) celebrated the apparent lessening of tension along the Ukraine-Russia border Tuesday, climbing almost 228 points and more than regaining all of the ground the average lost Monday. Whipsaws in the Russian market were even more dramatic, as the Market Vectors Russia ETF (NYSEMKT: RSX  ) gained 4% today after falling almost 7% Monday. As confusing as wildly thrashing markets can be for investors, the Dow's moves over the past two days serve as valuable experience that every investor can learn from. Let's take a look at three lessons from the Dow so far this week.

• [By Charles Sizemore]

  But what exactly are you buying when you buy Russian stocks? Let�� take a look under the hood at the ETFs that track the Russian market: the Market Vectors Russia ETF (RSX), the iShares MSCI Russia Capped Index (ERUS) and the SPDR S&P Russia (RBL).

• [By Steven Russolillo]

  The Market Vectors Russia ETF Trust(RSX) (ticker symbol RSX) dropped 9% to $22.25, on more than three times its average daily trading volume, according to FactSet.

• [By Matthew McCall]

  Market Vectors Russia ETF (NYSE: RSX)

  The Ukraine/Russia conflict heightened this weekend and some experts are predicting an all-out war over Crimea. On Monday morning the MICEX Index was lower by eight percent and the Russian Ruble was tumbling. The largest Russian ETF in the U.S. is RSX, which was already down 2.4 percent last Friday. Investors can expect massive selling for the ETF today on the open.

10 Best Defensive Stocks To Watch For 2014: Stanley Black & Decker Inc.(SWK)

Stanley Black & Decker, Inc. manufactures tools and engineered security solutions worldwide. The company?s Security segment provides a range of mechanical and electronic security products and systems, as well as various security services consisting of security integration systems, software, and related installation, maintenance, monitoring services; automatic doors, door closers, and exit devices; healthcare storage and supply chain solutions; patient protection products; hardware; and locking mechanisms. This segment sells its products to retailers; educational, financial, and healthcare institutions; and commercial, governmental, and industrial customers through direct sales forces and third party distributors. Its Industrial segment offers mechanics tools and storage systems, including wrenches, sockets, electronic diagnostic tools, tool boxes, and industrial storage and retrieval systems; engineered healthcare storage and retrieval systems; hydraulic tools and accessor ies; plumbing, heating, and air conditioning tools; assembly tools and systems; and specialty tools. This segment sells its products to industrial customers through third party distributors and direct sales forces. The company?s Construction & Do-It-Yourself segment manufactures hand tools, including measuring and leveling tools, planes, hammers, demolition tools, knives and blades, saws, chisels, and consumer tackers; consumer mechanics tools; storage units comprising plastic and metal tool boxes; and pneumatic tools and fasteners for use in construction, remodeling, furniture making, pallet and manufacturing applications. This segment sells its products to professional end users and consumers through retailers, including home centers, mass merchants, hardware stores, and retail lumber yards. The company was formerly known as The Stanley Works and changed its name to Stanley Black & Decker, Inc. in March 2010. Stanley Black & Decker was founded in 1843 and is based in New B ritain, Connecticut.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Motley Fool Staff]

  Power tools for the handy pop
  As much as I'd love to fill my closet with another dated paisley print tie off the discount rack, what I'd really like are some new tools in the shed and shares of�Stanley Black & Decker� (NYSE: SWK  ) in my portfolio.�

10 Best Defensive Stocks To Watch For 2014: News Corporation(NWSA)

News Corporation operates as a diversified media company worldwide. Its Cable Network Programming segment produces and licenses news, business news, sports, general entertainment, and movie programming for distribution through cable television systems and direct broadcast satellite operators primarily in the United States, Latin America, Europe, and Asia. The company?s Filmed Entertainment segment produces and acquires live-action and animated motion pictures for distribution and licensing in entertainment media, as well as produces and licenses television programming worldwide. Its Television segment operates 27 broadcast television stations in the United States. The company?s Direct Broadcast Satellite Television segment distributes programming services via satellite and broadband directly to subscribers in Italy. Its Publishing segment provides newspapers and information services, such as publishing national newspapers in the United Kingdom, approximately 146 newspapers in Australia, and a metropolitan and a national newspaper in the United States; book publishing services, including the publishing of English language books worldwide; and integrated marketing services comprising the publishing of free-standing inserts, which are marketing booklets containing coupons, rebates, and other consumer offers, as well as provides in-store marketing products and services, primarily to consumer packaged goods manufacturers in the United States and Canada. The company also sells advertising, sponsorships, and subscription services on the company?s various digital media properties and outdoor advertising space on various media primarily in Russia and eastern Europe; and provides data systems and professional services that enable teachers to use data to assess student progress and deliver individualized instructions. News Corporation was founded in 1922 and is headquartered in New York, New York.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By WALLSTCHEATSHEET]

  News Corp. provides highly sought entertainment and information through a wide range of mediums to interested consumers and companies worldwide. The stock has been on a surge higher, in recent years, but is now digesting gains from the first half of this year. Over the last four quarters, investors have been optimistic about the company as earnings and revenue figures have been rising. Relative to its strong peers and sector, News Corp. has been a year-to-date average performer. Look for News Corp. to continue to OUTPERFORM.

• [By Brian Stelter]

  Of Murdoch's two companies, News Corp (NWSA). would be the one interested in more newspapers. It already owns Wall Street Journal publisher Dow Jones and the New York Post.

• [By Lisa Levin]

  Move (NASDAQ: MOVE) shares jumped 36.82% to touch a new 52-week high of $20.92 after the company agreed to be acquired by News Corp (NASDAQ: NWSA) for $21 per share, or $950 million.

Hot Net Payout Yield Companies To Own For 2015

Hot Net Payout Yield Companies To Own For 2015: AAR Corp.(AIR)

AAR CORP. provides products and services to aviation, government, and defense markets worldwide. The company?s Aviation Supply Chain segment purchases and sells new, overhauled, and repaired engine and airframe parts and components. It also repairs, overhauls, and sells avionics, electrical, electronic, fuel, hydraulic, and pneumatic components and instruments, as well as internal airframe components; and provides customized inventory supply and management programs for engine and airframe parts and components. In addition, this segment sells and leases commercial jet engines and used commercial aircraft; and provides advisory services, including assistance in remarketing aircraft, records management, and storage maintenance. Its Government and Defense Services segment involves in fixed- and rotary-wing flight operations; and performs engineering and design modifications on rotary-wing aircraft for government customers. This segment also provides customized performance-base d logistics programs in support of the U.S. Department of Defense and foreign governments; and engineering, design, manufacturing, and system integration services. The company?s Maintenance, Repair, and Overhaul segment provides airframe maintenance inspection and overhaul, painting, line maintenance, airframe modifications, structural repairs, avionic service and installation, exterior and interior refurbishment, and engineering services, as well as support for commercial and military aircraft; and repairs and overhauls landing gears, wheels, and brakes. Its Structures and Systems segment designs, manufactures, and repairs airdrop and other transportation pallets, and containers and shelters used in support of military and humanitarian tactical deployment activities. This segment also designs, manufactures, and installs in-plane cargo loading and handling systems fo! r commercial and military aircraft and helicopters. AAR CORP. was founded in 1951 and is headquartered in Woo d Dale, Illinois.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Monica Gerson]

  AAR Corp. (NYSE: AIR) is estimated to post its Q2 earnings at $0.37 per share on revenue of $485.30 million.

  Cintas Corporation (NASDAQ: CTAS) is projected to post its Q2 earnings at $0.78 per share on revenue of $1.11 billion.

• [By Jake L'Ecuyer]

  AAR (NYSE: AIR) shares tumbled 9.01 percent to $28.14 after the company reported a drop in its Q3 profit and lowered its FY14 forecast.

  Nike (NYSE: NKE) was down, falling 3.33 percent to $76.63 after the company issued a cautious forecast for 2015 earnings. Nike posted its quarterly adjusted profit of $0.73 per share on revenue of $6.97 billion.

• [By Jake L'Ecuyer]

  AAR (NYSE: AIR) shares tumbled 6.23 percent to $28.99 after the company reported a drop in its Q3 profit and lowered its FY14 forecast.

  Nike (NYSE: NKE) was down, falling 3.89 percent to $76.19 after the company issued a cautious forecast for 2015 earnings. Nike posted its quarterly adjusted profit of $0.73 per share on revenue of $6.97 billion.

source from Top Stocks For 2015:http://www.topstocksblog.com/hot-net-payout-yield-companies-to-own-for-2015-2.html

Best Internet Stocks To Watch Right Now

Best Internet Stocks To Watch Right Now: IAC/InterActiveCorp (IACI)

IAC/InterActiveCorp engages in the Internet business in the United States and internationally. The company's Search segment develops, markets, and distributes various downloadable toolbars; provides search, reference, and content services through its destination search and other Websites, including Ask.com and Dictionary.com; and aggregates and integrates local advertising and content for distribution to publishers on Web and mobile platforms, as well as markets and distributes mobile applications through which it provides search and additional services. Its Match segment offers subscription-based and advertiser-supported online personals services through its Websites comprising Match.com, Chemistry.com, OurTime.com, BlackPeopleMeet.com, and OkCupid.com, as well as through mobile applications and Meetic-branded Websites. The company's ServiceMagic segment offers Market Match service that matches consumers with service professionals; Exact Match service, which enables con sumers to review service professional profiles and select the service professional that meets their specific needs; and 1800Contractor.com, an online directory of service professionals. This segment also offers Website design and hosting services. Its Media and Other segment operates CollegeHumor.com, an online entertainment Website that targets young males; Vimeo, a Website on which users can upload, share, and view video; and Pronto.com, a comparison search engine. This segment also engages in the creation of video content for various distribution platforms; and operates as an Internet retailer of footwear and related apparel and accessories, as well as focuses on multimedia business. The company was formerly known as InterActiveCorp and changed its name to IAC/InterActiveCorp in July 2004. IAC/InterActiveCorp was founded in 1986 and is headquartered in New York, New! York.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Brian Stelter]

  I hesitated, but she insisted that I come to the headquarters of Barry Diller's IAC (IACI) for an in-person demonstration of the product, which she called an "online TV platform." Once I was there, I understood. "Surprisingly high-quality signal," I scribbled in my notebook. "Place- and time-shifting!"

• [By Lawrence Meyers]

  Rather than pick the obvious candidates, I also like to look for great stocks to buy that might not be on most investors' radar. Here are three such stocks to buy:

  InterActiveCorp (IACI)

  InterActiveCorp (IACI) is Barry Diller's conglomerate of internet companies, not terribly different from John Malone's Liberty Interactive (LINTA). The strategy for IACI stock has been to wait for a leader in a given sector to emerge and then buy it up, or at least a portion of it. These businesses either have a history of generating lots of cash flow, or have the potential to do so.

source from Top Stocks For 2015:http://www.topstocksblog.com/best-internet-stocks-to-watch-right-now.html

Top 5 China Companies To Own For 2015

Top 5 China Companies To Own For 2015: 51job Inc.(JOBS)

51job, Inc. provides integrated human resource services primarily in the People?s Republic of China. . The company provides recruitment related advertising services, including print advertising services through 51job Weekly, which is a city-specific recruitment advertising publication that is published once a week and is distributed as an insert in local newspapers and/or on a stand-alone basis; and online recruitment services through its Website, www.51job.com. It also offers other human resource related services, such as business process outsourcing, which consist of social insurance and welfare payment processing, regulatory compliance, and payroll processing; and executive search services, as well as conducts training seminars in the areas of business management, leadership, sales and marketing, human resource, negotiation skills, financial planning and analysis, public administration, manufacturing, secretarial, and other skills for the general public and corporate cl ients. In addition, the company provides campus recruitment services; conducts salary, employee retention, and other human resource related surveys; organize and host annual human resource conferences and events, which include lectures, seminars, workshops, and networking opportunities for human resource professionals; and provides assessment tools to assist human resource departments in evaluating capabilities and dispositions of job candidates and existing employees, aiding employee placement, and allocating employee resources, as well as hiring and support services to employers on select recruitment projects. It provides recruitment and other human resource related services to employers through its sales offices, as well as through its sales and customer service call center. The company was founded in 1998 and is based in Shanghai, the People?s Republic of China.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Ben Rooney]!

  51job (JOBS), an online job search website similar to Monster.com (MWW), has surged more 60% this year.

  But there is one notable Chinese dot-com stock that's sitting out the big rally. Shares of Renren (RENN), the social network known as China's Facebook (FB, Fortune 500), are down 3% for the year.

• [By John Udovich]

  As US and global economies recover, hiring should increase with overlooked recruitment related stocks like Cornerstone OnDemand, Inc (NASDAQ: CSOD), 51job, Inc (NASDAQ: JOBS) and Staffing 360 Solutions Inc (OTCBB: STAF) being among the first to benefit aside from those who have found employment:

source from Top Penny Stocks For 2015:http://www.seekpennystocks.com/top-5-china-companies-to-own-for-2015-2.html

Top 5 China Companies To Own For 2015

Top 5 China Companies To Own For 2015: 51job Inc.(JOBS)

51job, Inc. provides integrated human resource services primarily in the People?s Republic of China. . The company provides recruitment related advertising services, including print advertising services through 51job Weekly, which is a city-specific recruitment advertising publication that is published once a week and is distributed as an insert in local newspapers and/or on a stand-alone basis; and online recruitment services through its Website, www.51job.com. It also offers other human resource related services, such as business process outsourcing, which consist of social insurance and welfare payment processing, regulatory compliance, and payroll processing; and executive search services, as well as conducts training seminars in the areas of business management, leadership, sales and marketing, human resource, negotiation skills, financial planning and analysis, public administration, manufacturing, secretarial, and other skills for the general public and corporate cl ients. In addition, the company provides campus recruitment services; conducts salary, employee retention, and other human resource related surveys; organize and host annual human resource conferences and events, which include lectures, seminars, workshops, and networking opportunities for human resource professionals; and provides assessment tools to assist human resource departments in evaluating capabilities and dispositions of job candidates and existing employees, aiding employee placement, and allocating employee resources, as well as hiring and support services to employers on select recruitment projects. It provides recruitment and other human resource related services to employers through its sales offices, as well as through its sales and customer service call center. The company was founded in 1998 and is based in Shanghai, the People?s Republic of China.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Ben Rooney]!

  51job (JOBS), an online job search website similar to Monster.com (MWW), has surged more 60% this year.

  But there is one notable Chinese dot-com stock that's sitting out the big rally. Shares of Renren (RENN), the social network known as China's Facebook (FB, Fortune 500), are down 3% for the year.

• [By John Udovich]

  As US and global economies recover, hiring should increase with overlooked recruitment related stocks like Cornerstone OnDemand, Inc (NASDAQ: CSOD), 51job, Inc (NASDAQ: JOBS) and Staffing 360 Solutions Inc (OTCBB: STAF) being among the first to benefit aside from those who have found employment:

source from Top Penny Stocks For 2015:http://www.seekpennystocks.com/top-5-china-companies-to-own-for-2015.html

10 Best Value Stocks To Own For 2015

10 Best Value Stocks To Own For 2015: Tupperware Corporation(TUP)

Tupperware Brands Corporation operates as a direct seller of various products across a range of brands and categories through an independent sales force. The company engages in the manufacture and sale of kitchen and home products, and beauty and personal care products. It offers preparation, storage, and serving solutions for the kitchen and home, as well as kitchen cookware and tools, children?s educational toys, microwave products, and gifts under the Tupperware brand name primarily in Europe, Africa, the Middle East, the Asia Pacific, and North America. The company provides beauty and personal care products, which include skin care products, cosmetics, bath and body care, toiletries, fragrances, nutritional products, apparel, and related products principally in Mexico, South Africa, the Philippines, Australia, and Uruguay. It offers beauty and personal care products under the Armand Dupree, Avroy Shlain, BeautiControl, Fuller, NaturCare, Nutrimetics, Nuvo, and Swissgar de brand names. The company sells its Tupperware products directly to distributors, directors, managers, and dealers; and beauty products primarily through consultants and directors. As of December 26, 2009, the Tupperware distribution system had approximately 1,800 distributors, 61,300 managers, and 1.3 million dealers; and the sales force representing the Beauty businesses approximately 1.1 million. The company was formerly known as Tupperware Corporation and changed its name to Tupperware Brands Corporation in December 2005. The company was founded in 1996 and is headquartered in Orlando, Florida.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By James Brumley]

  CSCO stock might be one of the market’s dark-horse stories of 2014; the dividend yield is the icing on the cake.

  Dividend Stocks to Buy: Tupperware Brands (TUP)

  Dividend Yield: 3.2%

!
• [By Jonathan Berr]

  Multilevel marketing (MLM) groups such as Herbalife operate through independent sales representatives, who earn money both through the sales of product and by recruiting other people to join their team. This business model — which is used by scores of companies, including Pampered Chef, which is owned by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.B), Tupperware (TUP) and Mary Kay Cosmetics — is legal provided that actual products are sold.

• [By Johanna Bennett]

  Corporate earnings took a back seat today to the Fed's latest policy decision. Still, quarterly financial results, and other news sent shares of McCormick & Co. (MKC) and Tupperware (TUP), falling during regular market hours Here's a rundown of several of today's moves:

source from Top Stocks For 2015:http://www.topstocksblog.com/10-best-value-stocks-to-own-for-2015-2.html

Top Freight Stocks To Own Right Now

UPS’s (UPS) big miss got the attention today–sending its shares down 1%–but that’s nothing compared to what’s happened to Atlas Air Worldwide (AAWW).

Atlas Air’s shares have plunged today after British Airways abruptly cancelled the leases on three planes and said that it would return them to Atlas, which is in the business of renting them out to shippers and the like. Reuters explains:

Atlas Air Worldwide Holdings Inc, a provider of outsourced aircraft and aviation operating services, said British Airways Plc terminated a lease agreement ahead of schedule.

The company said the lease for three 747-8 freighter aircraft operated by Atlas’ UK subsidiary Global Supply Systems Ltd (GSS) was terminated, following British Airways’ decision to exit dedicated cargo-freighter service.

Cowen’s Helane Becker and Conor Cunningham see trouble ahead for Atlas Air Worldwide and downgrade its shares to Market Perform from Outperform. They explain why:

Top 5 Industrial Disributor Stocks To Own Right Now: Knight Transportation Inc (KNX)

Knight Transportation, Inc. (Knight), incorporated on August 31, 1989, is a provider of multiple truckload transportation services, which generally involve the movement of full trailer or container loads of freight from origin to destination for a single customer. The Company is a provider of multiple truckload transportation services with a nationwide network of service centers through which it operates one of the tractor fleets. In addition to its own fleet, the Company also partners with third-party equipment providers to provide truckload capacity and a broad range of solutions to truckload shippers. The Company has five operating segments comprised of three asset-based operating segments: dry van truckload, temperature-controlled truckload and port services and two non-asset-based operating segments brokerage and intermodal services. Through its asset-based and non-asset-based capabilities the Company is able to transport, or can arrange for the transportation of, general commodities for customers throughout the United States and parts of Canada and Mexico.

The Company's asset-based businesses generally include dry van truckload, refrigerated truckload, dedicated truckload, and drayage services. Its non-asset-based services generally include rail intermodal and truckload brokerage services. However, within its asset-based services, the use of independent contractors to provide tractors lowers the capital investment in its dry van and refrigerated operations. In addition, drayage operations generally involve less expensive tractors with longer lives and do not require a investment in trailering equipment. As of December 31, 2012, it operated 3,627 company-owned tractors with an average age of 1.9 years. It also had under contract 507 tractors owned and operated by independent contractors. Its trailer fleet consisted of 9,564 53-foot long trailers with an average age of 5.5 years and includes 1,092 temperature-controlled trailers.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Sean Williams]

  Swift Transportation (NYSE: SWFT  ) , for example, delivered a 4% increase in revenue this past quarter in spite of having fewer trucks in service. The company was able to realize better utilization of its existing fleet and actually saw fuel prices fall from the previous year. The results were even more robust for Knight Transportation (NYSE: KNX  ) , whose shareholders saw revenue rise by 7% as the company grew from the year-ago quarter for the 14th straight time and delivered growth from each of its business segments.

• [By Seth Jayson]

  Calling all cash flows
  When you are trying to buy the market's best stocks, it's worth checking up on your companies' free cash flow once a quarter or so, to see whether it bears any relationship to the net income in the headlines. That's what we do with this series. Today, we're checking in on Knight Transportation (NYSE: KNX  ) , whose recent revenue and earnings are plotted below.

Top Freight Stocks To Own Right Now: Werner Enterprises Inc (WERN)

Werner Enterprises, Inc., incorporated on September 14, 1982, is a transportation and logistics company engaged primarily in hauling truckload shipments of general commodities in both interstate and intrastate commerce. The Company also provides logistics services through its value added services (VAS) division. As of the year ended December 31, 2012, the Company had a fleet of 7,150 trucks, of which 6,505 were Company-operated and 645 were owned and operated by independent contractors. The Company operates in two segments: Truckload Transportation Services (Truckload) and VAS.

Truckload segment

The Company's Truckload segment consists of the One-Way Truckload and Specialized Services units. One-Way Truckload includes the operating fleets: the regional short-haul (Regional) fleet transports a variety of consumer nondurable products and other commodities in truckload quantities within geographic regions across the United States using dry van trailers; the medium-to-long-haul van (Van) fleet provides comparable truckload van service over irregular routes, and the expedited (Expedited) fleet provides time-sensitive truckload services utilizing driver teams.

Specialized Services provides truckload services dedicated to a specific customer, generally for a retail distribution center or manufacturing facility, including services for products requiring specialized trailers such as flatbed or temperature-controlled trailers. The Company's Truckload fleets operate throughout the 48 contiguous United States, both common and contract, granted by the United States Department of Transportation (DOT). The Company also has authority to operate in several provinces of Canada and to provide through-trailer service into and out of Mexico. The principal types of freight the Company transports include retail store merchandise, consumer products, grocery products and manufactured products. The Company focuses on transporting consumer nondurable products that generally ship.

!

VAS segment

The Company's VAS segment is a non-asset-based transportation and logistics provider. VAS is consists of four operating units that provide non-trucking services to the Company's customers: truck brokerage (Brokerage) uses contracted carriers to complete customer shipments; freight management (Freight Management) offers a range of single-source logistics management services and solutions; the intermodal (Intermodal) unit offers rail transportation through alliances with rail and drayage providers as an alternative to truck transportation, and Werner Global Logistics international (WGL) provides complete management of global shipments from origin to destination using a combination of air, ocean, truck and rail transportation modes. The Company's Brokerage unit had transportation services contracts with approximately 9,400 carriers as of December 31, 2012.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Jake L'Ecuyer]

  Equities Trading DOWN
  Shares of Outerwall (NASDAQ: OUTR) were down 16.03 percent to $47.00 after the company lowered its forecast for the third quarter and full year. Werner Enterprises (NASDAQ: WERN) shares tumbled 4.71 percent to $23.26 after the company issued a weak third-quarter profit forecast. Bank of America downgraded the stock from Buy to Neutral. Pandora Media (NYSE: P) down, falling 1.71 percent to $23.58 as the company announced its plans to sell 14 million shares of common stock, including 4 million shares from current stockholders.

Top Freight Stocks To Own Right Now: PostNL NV (PNL)

PostNL NV is a Netherlands-based Company active in delivery sector. The Company is engaged in the delivery of documents, small packages and standard parcels. The Company�� business is organized into three segments: Mail in the Netherlands, responsible for mail services in the Netherland, documents management, direct marketing and fulfillment services, and operating over 2,600 shop-in-shop post offices; Parcels, providing parcel services in the Netherlands and Belgium for both domestic and cross-border parcel distribution, and International, operating in the postal markets of the United Kingdom, Germany and Italy, and focusing on domestic addressed mail services. The Company also provides marketing and communication services, fulfillment solutions and e-commerce related solutions. Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Inyoung Hwang]

  PostNL (PNL) sank 11 percent to 2.48 euros, the biggest decline since Jan. 14. The Amsterdam-based company said sales in the second-quarter were 1.03 billion euros ($1.37 billion), falling short of the 1.04 billion euros predicted by analysts on average. PostNL forecast addressed mail volume in 2013 will drop as much as 11 percent, greater than its previous forecast of no more than 10 percent.

Top Freight Stocks To Own Right Now: Con-way Inc (CNW)

Con-way Inc. (Con-way), incorporated in 1958, provides transportation, logistics and supply-chain management services for a wide range of manufacturing, industrial and retail customers. Con-way�� business units operate in regional and transcontinental less-than-truckload and full-truckload freight transportation, contract logistics and supply-chain management, multimodal freight brokerage, and trailer manufacturing. Con-way is divided into four segments: Freight, Logistics, Truckload, and Other. At December 31, 2011, Con-way Freight operated 286 freight service centers, of which 144 were owned and 142 were leased. At December 31, 2011, Con-way Freight owned and operated approximately 9,200 tractors and 26,400 trailers, including tractors held under capital lease agreements.

Freight

The Freight segment consists of the operating results of the Con-way Freight business unit. Con-way Freight is a less-than-truckload (LTL) motor carrier that utilizes a network of freight service centers to provide day-definite regional, inter-regional and transcontinental less-than-truckload freight services throughout North America. LTL carriers transport shipments from multiple shippers utilizing a network of freight service centers combined with a fleet of line-haul and pickup-and-delivery tractors and trailers. Freight is picked up from customers and consolidated for shipment at the originating service center. Freight is consolidated for transportation to the destination service centers or freight assembly centers. At Freight assembly centers, freight from various service centers can be reconsolidated for transportation to other freight assembly centers or destination service centers. From the destination service center, the freight is delivered to the customer. Typically, LTL shipments weigh between 100 and 15,000 pounds. In 2011, Con-way Freight�� average weight per shipment was 1,305 pounds.

Logistics

The Logistics segment consists of the operating results o! f the Menlo Worldwide Logistics business unit. Menlo Worldwide Logistics develops contract-logistics solutions, which can include managing complex distribution networks, and providing supply-chain engineering and consulting, and multimodal freight brokerage services. Menlo Worldwide Logistics��supply-chain management offerings are primarily related to transportation-management and contract-warehousing services. Transportation management refers to the management of asset-based carriers and third-party transportation providers for customers��inbound and outbound supply-chain needs through the use of logistics management systems to consolidate, book and track shipments. Contract warehousing refers to the optimization and operation of warehouses for customers using technology and warehouse-management systems to reduce inventory carrying costs and supply-chain cycle times. For several customers, contract-warehousing operations include light assembly or kitting operations.

Menlo Worldwide Logistics provides its services using a customer- or project-based approach when the supply-chain solution requires customer-specific transportation management, single-client warehouses, and/or single-customer technological solutions. However, Menlo Worldwide Logistics also utilizes a shared-resource, process-based approach that leverages a centralized transportation-management group, multi-client warehouses and technology to provide scalable solutions to multiple customers. Additionally, Menlo Worldwide Logistics segments its business based on customer type. At December 31, 2011, Menlo Worldwide Logistics operated 76 warehouses in North America, of which 55 were leased by Menlo Worldwide Logistics and 21 were leased or owned by clients of Menlo Worldwide Logistics. Outside of North America, Menlo Worldwide Logistics operated an additional 63 warehouses, of which 48 were leased by Menlo Worldwide Logistics and 15 were leased or owned by clients. Menlo Worldwide Logistics owns and operates a small fleet of tr! actors an! d trailers to support its operations, but primarily utilizes third-party transportation providers for the movement of customer shipments.

Truckload

The Truckload segment consists of the operating results of the Con-way Truckload business unit. Con-way Truckload is a full-truckload motor carrier that utilizes a fleet of tractors and trailers to provide short- and long-haul, asset-based transportation services throughout North America. Con-way Truckload provides dry-van transportation services to manufacturing, industrial and retail customers while using single drivers as well as two-person driver teams over long-haul routes, with each trailer containing only one customer�� goods. This origin-to-destination freight movement limits intermediate handling and is not dependent on the same network of locations utilized by LTL carriers. On average, Con-way Truckload transports shipments more than 800 miles from origin to destination. Under its regional service offering, Con-way Truckload transports truckload shipments of less than 600 miles, including local-area service for truckload shipments of less than 100 miles.

Con-way Truckload offers through-trailer service into and out of Mexico through all major gateways in Texas, Arizona and California. For a shipment with an origin or destination in Mexico, Con-way Truckload provides transportation for the domestic portion of the freight move, and a Mexican carrier provides the pick-up, linehaul and delivery services within Mexico. At December 31, 2011, Con-way Truckload operated five owned terminals with bulk fuel, tractor and trailer parking, and in some cases, equipment maintenance and washing facilities. In addition, Con-way Truckload also utilizes various drop yards for temporary trailer storage throughout the United States. At December 31, 2011, Con-way Truckload owned and operated approximately 2,700 tractors and 8,000 trailers, including tractors held under capital lease agreements.

Other

! The Other! reporting segment consists of the operating results of Road Systems, a trailer manufacturer, and certain corporate activities for which the related income or expense has not been allocated to other reporting segments, including results related to corporate re-insurance activities and corporate properties. Road Systems primarily manufactures and refurbishes trailers for Con-way Freight and Con-way Truckload.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Ben Levisohn]

  Shares of Atlas Air have plunged 15% to $37.13 today at 1:48 p.m., on what has been a lousy day for shippers and those involved with shipping. Trucking company Con-Way (CNW) has fallen 2.5% to $40.38 after it said earnings would be unchanged from a year ago, well short of analyst forecasts. FedEx (FDX) has dropped 0.7% following UPS’s miss.

• [By Rich Smith]

  Consider: According to YRC, the $150.9 million it currently pays in annual interest exceeds the $92.6 million in interest obligations paid by "all [of its] competitors combined." Con-Way (NYSE: CNW  ) , for example, sports a debt load about half of YRC's, yet pays only about one-third �as much in interest on that debt. Old Dominion Freight (NASDAQ: ODFL  ) has 12% the debt �of YRC, but only 7% of the interest expense.

• [By Ben Levisohn]

  Shares of Heartland Express have gained 50% this year, trumping the 38% rise in Con-Way (CNW) and the 29% advance in J.B. Hunt Transport Services (JBHT) but lagging Old Dominion Freight Lines (ODFL) and Swift Transportation (SWFT).

• [By Dan Caplinger]

  Navistar hasn't been entirely locked out of the trucking market, though. The company won several contracts from the Defense Department in support of its military vehicles, including its MaxxPro mine-resistant, ambush-protected armored vehicle. On the commercial front, Navistar won part of an order in May from trucking company Con-Way (NYSE: CNW  ) , which purchased 200 ProStar vehicles from the company. Still, the fact that rival Paccar (NASDAQ: PCAR  ) got an even bigger portion of the Con-Way order is just one more sign of the ongoing struggles Navistar faces.

Top Freight Stocks To Own Right Now: Marten Transport Ltd (MRTN)

Marten Transport, Ltd. is a temperature-sensitive truckload carrier. The Company specializes in transporting and distributing food and other consumer packaged goods that require a temperature-controlled or insulated environment. It operates throughout the United States and in parts of Canada and Mexico. The Company operates in two segments: Truckload and Logistics. During the year ended December 31, 2011, approximately 81% of its truckload revenue resulted from hauling temperature-sensitive products and 19% from hauling dry freight. Its long-haul traffic lanes are between the Midwest and the West Coast, Southwest, Southeast, and the East Coast, as well as from California to the Pacific Northwest. It provides regional truckload carrier services in the Southeast, West Coast, Midwest, South Central and Northeast regions.

The Company derives truckload revenue from fuel surcharges, loading and unloading activities, equipment detention and other ancillary services. Its operating revenue also includes revenue reported within its Logistics segment, which consists of revenue from its internal brokerage and intermodal operations, and through its 45% interest in MW Logistics, LLC (MWL), a third-party provider of logistics services to the transportation industry. Brokerage services involve arranging for another company to transport freight for the Company�� customers, while it retains the billing, collection and customer management responsibilities. Intermodal services involve the transport of its trailers on railroad flatcars for a portion of a trip, with the balance of the trip using its tractors or, to a lesser extent, contracted carriers. It focuses on large food and consumer-packaged goods companies whose products require temperature-sensitive services and who ship multiple truckloads per week. As of December 31, 2011, its customers were General Mills and Kraft.

As of December 31, 2011, the Company operated a fleet of 2,281 tractors, including 2,233 company owned tractors and 48 t! ractors supplied by independent contractors. The average age of its company owned tractor fleet at December 31, 2011 was approximately 2.6 years. As of December 31, 2011, it operated a fleet of 4,124 trailers. Most of its trailers are equipped with Thermo-King refrigeration units, air ride suspensions and anti-lock brakes. The average age of its trailer fleet as of December 31, 2011 was approximately 2.4 years.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Monica Gerson]

  Marten Transport (NASDAQ: MRTN) is estimated to post its Q3 earnings at $0.23 per share on revenue of $168.28 million.

  CSX (NYSE: CSX) is expected to post its Q3 earnings at $0.43 per share on revenue of $2.95 billion.

Top Freight Stocks To Own Right Now: Hub Group Inc (HUBG)

Hub Group, Inc., incorporated on March 8, 1995, is an asset-light freight transportation management companies. The Company offers intermodal, truck brokerage and logistics services. The Company operates distinct business segments: Mode, which includes the acquired Mode business acquired by the Company on April 1, 2011, and Hub, which is all business other than Mode. Both segments offer intermodal, truck brokerage and logistics services. Hub operates through a network of operating centers throughout the United States, Canada and Mexico. Hub services a diversified customer base in a broad range of industries, including consumer products, retail and durable goods. Mode markets and operates its freight transportation services primarily through its network of independent business owners (IBOs) who enter into contracts with Mode. Mode's company managed operation includes a business arranging for the transportation of raw materials and finished products for a food producer and, to a lesser extent, other highway brokerage, intermodal and logistics operations.

Intermodal

As an intermodal marketing company (IMC), the Company arranges for the movement of its customers freight in containers and trailers, typically over long distances of 750 miles or more. The Company contracts with railroads to provide transportation for the long-haul portions of the shipment and with local trucking companies, known as drayage companies, for pickup and delivery. As part of the Company's intermodal services, the Company negotiates rail and drayage rates, electronically tracks shipments in transit, consolidate billing and handle claims for freight loss or damage on behalf of its customers.

The Company uses its network to access containers and trailers owned by leasing companies, railroads and steamship lines. The Company is able to track trailers and containers entering a service area and reuses that equipment to fulfill the customers' outbound shipping requirements. As of December 31, 2012, ! Hub had access to approximately 9,111 rail-owned containers for the Company's dedicated use on the Union Pacific (UP) and the Norfolk Southern (NS) rails. In addition to these rail-owned containers, as of December 31, 2012, the Company had a total of 14,756 53-inch private containers for use on the UP and NS. The Company financed 6,167 of these containers with operating leases and the Company owns 8,589 containers.

As of December 31, 2012, approximately 66% of the Company's drayage needs were met by its subsidiary, Comtrak Logistics, Inc. (Comtrak), which assists its customers. Comtrak has terminals in Atlanta, Birmingham, Charleston, Charlotte, Chattanooga, Chicago, Cleveland, Columbus (OH), Dallas, Harrisburg, Huntsville, Indianapolis, Jacksonville, Kansas City, Milwaukee, Memphis, Nashville, Newark, Los Angeles, Perry (FL), Philadelphia, Savannah, Seattle, St. Louis, Stockton, and Titusville (FL). As of December 31, 2012, Comtrak owned 260 tractors, leased or owned 448 trailers, employed 296 drivers and contracted with 2,178 owner-operators.

Truck Brokerage (Highway Services)

The Company is a truck broker in the United States. As part of the truck brokerage services, the Company negotiates rates , track shipments in transit and handle claims for freights loss and damage on behalf of its customers.

Logistics and Other Services

Hub's logistics business operates under the name of Unyson Logistics. Unyson Logistics consists of a network of logistics professionals dedicated to developing, implementing and operating customized logistics solutions. Unyson offers a range of transportation management services and technology solutions, including shipment optimization, load consolidation, mode selection, carrier management, load planning and execution and Web-based shipment visibility. Unyson Logistics operates throughout North America, providing operations through its main operating location in St. Louis with additional support locations in Bosto! n, Chicag! o, Cleveland and Minneapolis. Certain Mode agents provide logistics services. The Company's multi-modal transportation capabilities through both the Hub and Mode segments include small parcel, heavyweight, expedited, less-than-truckload, truckload, intermodal and railcar.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Vera Yuan]

  ��reight transportation management company Hub Group, Inc. (HUBG) rose as investors began to focus on margin improvement opportunities due to indications of improving intermodal pricing as well as company-specific cost improvement initiatives.

• [By cody56]

  During the third quarters these holdering were the worse performers for Diamond Hill Small Cap Fund. Rosseta Resources Inc. (ROSE) , TriMas Corp. (TRS) , Tenneco Inc. (TEN) , Popular Inc. (BPOP) and Hub Group (HUBG).

• [By Lisa Levin]

  Hub Group (NASDAQ: HUBG) surged 3.13% to $44.20. The volume of Hub Group shares traded was 388% higher than normal. Hub Group reported its Q1 earnings of $0.33 per share on revenue of $848.40 million. Longbow Research upgraded Hub Group from Neutral to Buy.