10 Best Forestry Stocks To Own For 2014

The British mobile operator Vodafone (VOD) confirmed the acquisition of Spanish cable operator ONO for ��7.2 billion ($ 10 billion), including around ��3.3 billion in debt. By so doing, Vodafone continues its strategy of expanding operations to fixed-line, pay-tv and broadband services, while saving money through the operations of its own networks.

With the recent acquisition, financed by the $ 130 billion sale of Verizon Wireless (VZ) in the US, Vodafone adds 1.9 million clients to its customer base in Spain totaling 17.2 million, second to Tel茅fonica (TEF), which counts 24.9 million, and ahead of ORANGE (ORAN), that has 14.4 million customers. According to Antonio Coimbra, Vodafone麓s CEO in Spain, there are strong indicators that favor the acquisition:

Clients tend to prefer an operator with a value proposition that includes more than one service. The business complemented each other through technological and commercial convergences. Economies of scale and upside potential in the market.

In addition to that, it is worth mentioning that mobile revenues are declining in Europe due to intense competition, the willingness of customers to pay for voice services is decreasing, and regulatory restrictions on call-termination rates are cutting into sales. All of them are good reasons to look for new, though related, businesses.

Hot Solar Companies To Own In Right Now: Chindex International Inc.(CHDX)

Chindex International, Inc. engages in the provision of healthcare services; and sale of medical equipment, instrumentation, and products. The company operates in two segments, Healthcare Services and Medical Products. The Healthcare Services segment owns and operates the United Family Healthcare network of private hospitals and clinics in the Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou markets. This segment also operates a managed clinic in the city of Wuxi, south of Shanghai. It offers a range of family healthcare services, including 24/7 emergency rooms, intensive care units, and neonatal intensive care units, operating rooms, clinical laboratory, radiology, and blood banking services for men, women, and children. The Medical Products segment markets, distributes, and sells medical capital equipment, instrumentation, and other medical products for use in hospitals in China and Hong Kong. It offers diagnostic color ultrasound imaging devices, robotic surgical systems and instrument ation, mammography and breast biopsy devices, and lasers for cosmetic surgery. This segment sells its products through its direct sales force. The company was founded in 1981 and is based in Bethesda, Maryland.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Jake L'Ecuyer]

  Leading the sector was strength from Forest Laboratories (NYSE: FRX) and Chindex International (NASDAQ: CHDX) on acquisition news. In trading on Tuesday, non-cyclical consumer goods & services shares were relative laggards, down on the day by 0.2%.

10 Best Forestry Stocks To Own For 2014: Ormat Technologies Inc.(ORA)

Ormat Technologies, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, engages in the geothermal and recovered energy power business in the United States and internationally. The company operates in two segments, Electricity and Product. The Electricity segment develops, builds, owns, and operates geothermal and recovered energy-based power plants; and sells the electricity. The Product segment designs, manufactures, and sells power units for geothermal and recovered energy-based electricity generation; fossil fuel powered turbo-generators; and heavy duty direct-current generators. It also provides services relating to the engineering, procurement, construction, operation, and maintenance of geothermal and recovered energy power plants. This segment serves contractors and geothermal power plant owners and operators; and interstate natural gas pipeline owners and operators, gas processing plant owners and operators, cement plant owners and operators, and companies in other energy-intens ive industrial processes. The company was founded in 1965 and is based in Reno, Nevada. Ormat Technologies, Inc. is a subsidiary of Ormat Industries Ltd.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By John Udovich]

  Small cap Ocean Power Technologies Inc (NASDAQ: OPTT) just sank 34% on news that they have fired their CEO "for cause,��meaning its worth taking a closer look at the stock to see if there is anything to salvage (shares were rising more than 6% in after hours) plus take a look at the performance of potential renewable energy related peers like Ormat Technologies, Inc (NYSE: ORA), Broadwind Energy Inc (NASDAQ: BWEN) and China Ming Yang Wind Power Group Ltd (NYSE: MY).

• [By Amy Thomson]

  AT&T has examined takeover candidates including Vodafone�� assets, U.K. mobile carrier EE -- a venture of Deutsche Telekom AG (DTE) and Orange SA (ORA) -- and parts of Spain�� Telefonica SA (TEF), people familiar with the company�� plans said in June. AT&T is attracted to Europe because of its relatively recent introduction of faster, fourth-generation networks, which have been available for years in the U.S.

10 Best Forestry Stocks To Own For 2014: S&W Seed Company(SANW)

S&W Seed Company engages in contracting the production of alfalfa seed varieties, processing the seeds, and marketing the certified seed to agribusiness firms and farmers worldwide. It also involves in the production of stevia leaf. The company primarily offers high fall dormancy (FD) alfalfa seed varieties, as well as markets and sells other varieties, including FD 7, 6, and 4 varieties. It sells the seed primarily to dealers and distributors who, in turn, sell primarily to hay and dairy farmers who grow hay for dairy cattle and other livestock; and through brokers. The company was founded in 1980 and is headquartered in Five Points, California.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Glenwoods]

  �PureCircle does not grow its own product, but is more of a holding company as it contracts farms scattered around the globe to grow stevia to certain specifications.� One such farm is the S&W SEED Co. (NASDAQ:SANW).� Toward the end of 2011, PureCircle, with a goal of developing stevia in the U.S. for the U.S market, entered into a five-year agreementwith the California-based grower of high-yield alfalfa seeds, to grow stevia to the company�� specifications.� Unfortunately the results have not matched expectationsas reported by S&W Seed:

• [By Monica Gerson]

  S&W Seed Company (NASDAQ: SANW) announced its plans to acquire all of DuPont Pioneer's alfalfa production and research facility assets, as well as all conventional (non-GMO) alfalfa germplasm for up to $42 million. S&W Seed shares jumped 1.40% to close at $3.61 on Friday.

10 Best Forestry Stocks To Own For 2014: SP Bancorp Inc.(SPBC)

SP Bancorp, Inc. operates as the holding company for SharePlus Federal Bank that provides community banking products and services to individuals, families, and businesses in the United States. The company offers various deposit products, including noninterest-bearing and interest-bearing demand accounts, savings accounts, money market accounts, and certificates of deposit. Its loan portfolio includes residential mortgage loans secured by residential real estate; commercial real estate and home equity loans, including lines of credit and home improvement loans; consumer loans consisting primarily of automobile loans; and commercial business loans. The company also provides brokerage services for the purchase and sale of non-deposit investment and insurance products through a third-party brokerage arrangement. It provides its services through seven branches, four of which are located near the Bank's headquarters in Plano, Texas; two branches are located in Louisville, Kentuc ky; and one branch is located in Irvine, California. The company was founded in 2010 and is headquartered in Plano, Texas.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Lisa Levin]

  SP Bancorp (NASDAQ: SPBC) shares touched a new 52-week high of $28.90 after the company agreed to be acquired by Green Bancorp for $46.2 million in cash.

10 Best Forestry Stocks To Own For 2014: Tesoro Petroleum Corporation(TSO)

Tesoro Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, engages in refining and marketing petroleum products in the United States. It operates in two segments, Refining and Retail. The Refining segment refines crude oil and other feed stocks into transportation fuels, such as gasoline, gasoline blendstocks, jet fuel, and diesel fuel, as well as other products, including heavy fuel oils, liquefied petroleum gas, petroleum coke, and asphalt. This segment also sells refined products in the wholesale market primarily through independent unbranded distributors; and in the bulk market primarily to independent unbranded distributors, other refining and marketing companies, utilities, railroads, airlines and marine, and industrial end-users. It owns and operates 7 refineries with a combined crude oil capacity of 665 thousand barrels per day. The Retail segment sells gasoline, diesel fuel, and convenience store items through company-operated retail stations, and third-party branded dea lers and distributors in the western United States. As of December 31, 2011, this segment had 1,175 branded retail stations under the Tesoro, Shell, and USA Gasoline brands. The company was formerly known as Tesoro Petroleum Corporation and changed its name to Tesoro Corporation in November 2004. Tesoro Corporation was founded in 1939 and is headquartered in San Antonio, Texas.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Ben Levisohn]

  That might explain why refiners are holding up better than expected today. Valero (VLO) has gained 3% to $35, while Tesoro (TSO) has risen 1.6% to $41.19.

• [By Aimee Duffy]

  Hawaii only has two operating oil refineries. Tesoro (NYSE: TSO  ) plans to close the one it owns, Chevron (NYSE: CVX  ) owns the other, and the cost of shipping crude oil out there is the main reason that gas is so expensive. California is ranked second largely because it has the highest taxes on gas in the country. The combined local, state, and federal taxes tack on just shy of $0.69 per gallon, according to the American Petroleum Institute.

• [By Arjun Sreekumar]

  The Whiting modernization project is part of BP's efforts to revamp its U.S. downstream operations, which have so far included upgrades at refining facilities in Cherry Point, Wash., and Toledo, Ohio, as well as a sale of its Carson, Calif., refinery and other assets to Tesoro (NYSE: TSO  ) for $2.4 billion last month. From Tesoro's perspective, the transaction will help the company further integrate its West Coast refining, marketing, and logistics network.

10 Best Forestry Stocks To Own For 2014: Sandridge Energy Inc.(SD)

SandRidge Energy, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, operates as an independent natural gas and oil company in the United States. The company engages in the exploration, development, and production of oil and gas properties. Its Exploration and Production segment explores for, develops, and produces natural gas and oil reserves with focus on the Mid-Continent and Permian Basin. This segment also operates leasehold positions in the West Texas Overthrust (WTO), Gulf Coast, and Gulf of Mexico. The company?s Drilling and Oil Field Services segment is involved in the contract drilling of oil and natural gas wells primarily in the west Texas region. This segment also offers oil field services, including providing pulling units, trucking, rental tools, location, and road construction and roustabout services. Its Midstream Gas Services segment engages in purchasing, gathering, treating, and selling natural gas in west Texas. As of December 31, 2011, its estimated proved reserv es were 470.6 million barrels of oil equivalent, of which approximately 52% were oil. The company also had interests in 5,043 gross producing wells, as well as in approximately 2,695,000 gross acres under lease. In addition, it had 21 rigs drilling in the Mid-Continent and 15 rigs drilling in the Permian Basin. SandRidge Energy, Inc. is headquartered in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Matt DiLallo]

  Risk is something that no one really talks about until its too late. That's why I want to stay ahead of the game and take a look a three of the specifics risks facing SandRidge Energy (NYSE: SD  ) . These are the three areas, in my opinion, are where the current risk is the highest.�

• [By Matt DiLallo]

  Not only are there increased risks but this wastewater disposal infrastructure doesn't come cheap. SandRidge Energy (NYSE: SD  ) , for example, has spent more than $450 million to build out a disposal system in the Mississippian Lime formation. The company has constructed 700 miles of pipeline and has 116 active disposal wells.

10 Best Forestry Stocks To Own For 2014: Micron Technology Inc.(MU)

Micron Technology, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, engages in the manufacture and marketing of semiconductor devices worldwide. Its products include dynamic random access memory (DRAM) products that provide data storage and retrieval, which include DDR2 and DDR3; and other specialty DRAM memory products, including DDR, SDRAM, DDR and DDR2 mobile low power DRAM, pseudo-static RAM, and reduced latency DRAM. The company also offers NAND flash memory products, which are electrically re-writeable and non-volatile semiconductor devices that retain content when power is turned off. In addition, it provides NOR flash memory products that are electrically re-writeable and non-volatile semiconductor memory devices; phase change memory products; and image sensor products. Micron Technology?s products are used in a range of electronic applications, including personal computers, workstations, network servers, mobile phones, flash memory cards, USB storage devices, digital still c ameras, MP3/4 players, and in automotive applications. It sells its products to original equipment manufacturers and retailers through internal sales force, independent sales representatives, and distributors, as well as through a Web-based customer direct sales channel. The company was founded in 1978 and is headquartered in Boise, Idaho.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Sue Chang and Saumya Vaishampayan]

  Micron Technology (MU) �rose 5.1%. The chip maker said after the closing bell that it swung to a profit of 30 cents a share in the first quarter from a loss of 27 cents a share a year ago.

• [By Garrett Cook]

  Micron Technology (NASDAQ: MU) shares were also up, gaining 6.28 percent to $33.69 after the company posted better-than-expected fiscal fourth-quarter results and issued a strong revenue forecast for the fiscal first quarter.