5 Best Defense Stocks To Watch Right Now

The Maryland-based aerospace and defense manufacturer, Lockheed Martin (LMT), announced on Monday that it may have to revise its outlook for the year ahead depending on whether or not Congress passes the proposed two-year budget deal.
Marillyn Hewson, the company’s CEO, is hopeful that the U.S. Senate will approve the proposed agreement that passed through the House of Representatives last week. The proposed budget deal would call for roughly half of the $52 billion in automatic spending cuts facing the Pentagon in 2014. Hewson went on to state�”We had factored sequestration in, so now that we have more input … assuming that the budget gets approved, we’ll have an opportunity to revisit what our outlook is.”

Top 10 Stocks To Watch Right Now: Airbus Group NV (EADSF)

Airbus Group NV, known as European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company EADS NV, is a Netherlands-based company active within the aerospace and defense sector. The Company manufactures aircrafts, helicopters, commercial space launch vehicles, missiles, satellites, defense systems and defense electronics, and offers services related to these activities. The Company oprates four divisions. The Airbus division comprises the Airbus Commercial and Airbus Military segments, which develop, manufacture, market and sell commercial jet aircrafts, military transport aircrafts and special mission aircrafts, among others. The Eurocopter division develops, markets and sells civil and military helicopters. The Astrium division develops, manufactures and sells satellites, orbital infrastructures and launchers, as well as provides space-related services. The Cassidian division develops, manufactures and sells missiles systems, military combat and training aircrafts, among others. Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Rich Smith]

  European plane maker and EADS (NASDAQOTH: EADSF  ) subsidiary Airbus announced Monday that one of its biggest, and most expensive planes, has just secured a big place in the airplane lineup at British Airways (BA).

• [By Alanna Petroff]

  Last month, Airbus, which is owned by the European aerospace group EADS (EADSF), predicted the number of aircraft worldwide would double over the next 20 years, spurred by rising demand from emerging markets.

5 Best Defense Stocks To Watch Right Now: Safran SA (SAF)

Safran SA is a France-based high-technology company which produces aircraft and rocket engines and propulsion systems. It divides its work into three segments: Aerospace, Aircraft, Defense and Security. The Aerospace Propulsion division provides engines, turbines and parts for aircraft, and rocket boosters for civil, military and spatial markets through several subsidiaries, including Snecma, among others. The Aircraft Equipment division produces landing gear, wheels and carbon brakes, aircraft engine nacelles and airborne power electronics through its subsidiaries, including Aircelle, among others. The Defense division includes the subsidiary, Sagem, and makes systems and equipment for inertial navigation and other defense applications to be used on military transport and combat aircraft, helicopters, warships, armored vehicles and artillery systems. In October 2013, the Company completed the sale of its United States-based subsidiary, Global Motors Inc to Allied Motion Inc. Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Sofia Horta e Costa]

  Vivendi SA climbed 2.7 percent after posting better-than-estimated third-quarter profit and saying it plans to spin off its French phone carrier SFR by July 2014. Serco Group Plc (SRP) increased 1.7 percent as UBS AG upgraded the stock. Safran SA (SAF) lost 3.2 percent as its largest shareholder sold a stake.

5 Best Defense Stocks To Watch Right Now: Cubic Corp (CUB)

Cubic Corporation (Cubic), incorporated on December 13, 1984, is an international provider of systems and solutions that address the mass transit and global defense markets. The Company operates in three segments: Cubic Transportation Systems (CTS), Mission Support Services (MSS) and Cubic Defense Systems (CDS). As of the September 30, 2012, the Company�� CTS business accounted for approximately 37%; MSS and CDS accounted for approximately 36% and 27% of its net sales respectively. CTS specialize in the design, development, production, installation, maintenance and operation of automated fare payment and revenue management infrastructure and technologies for transit operators. As part of its turnkey solutions, CTS also provides these customers with a suite of business process outsourcing (BPO) services and expertise, such as card and payment media management, central systems and application support, retail network management, passenger call centers and financial clearing and settlement support. In March 2014, the Company acquired Intific Inc.

Mission Support Services

MSS is a provider of live, virtual and constructive training services to all four branches of the United States military, including the special operations communities, as well as to allied nations. In addition, MSS offers a range of national security solutions to the intelligence community. CDS is a provider of air and ground combat training systems for the United States and allied nations and a key supplier of secure communications solutions, including asset tracking and cyber products and intelligence surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) data links. Services provided include live, virtual and constructive training, real-world mission rehearsal exercises, professional military education, intelligence support, information technology, information assurance and related cyber support, development of military doctrine, consequence management, infrastructure protection and force protection, as well as support to f! ield operations, force deployment and redeployment and logistics.

Cubic Transportation Systems

CDS focuses on two primary lines of business: training systems and secure communications. CTS is a systems integrator that develops and provides fare collection infrastructure, services and technology for public transport authorities and operators worldwide. The Company offers fare collection devices, software, systems and multiagency, multimodal integration technologies, as well as a suite of operational services. As of September 30, 2012, the Company installed over 90,000 devices and deployed several central systems which in total process approximately 10 billion fare-related transactions per year for approximately seven billion transit passengers.

As of September 30, 2012, the Company had 400 projects in 40 markets on five continents. The Company has implements and, in many cases, operates automated fare payment and collection systems for some of the mass transit systems, such as London, the San Francisco Bay Area and the Los Angeles region. It offers a range of services for transit authorities in transit markets worldwide, including computer hosting services, call center and Web services, payment media issuance and distribution services, retail point of sale network management, payment processing, financial clearing and settlement, software application support and outsourced asset operations and maintenance. The Company provides its services in regions, including London, Sydney, Brisbane, Sweden, Washington district of Columbia, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Atlanta. CTS operate full service operation centers in North America, Europe and Australia. As of September 30, 2012, the Company was designing and building new systems in Chicago, Sydney and Vancouver.

Mission Support Services

MSS provides services within the scope of small-to large-scale military training exercises, including live, virtual and constructive training exercises and suppor! t. Traini! ng services include full life-cycle support from planning through after action reviews as well as the associated support, such as operational, technical and logistical support. In addition, the segment provides a broad range of national security solutions, including subject matter and operational expertise, advanced tactical training and cyber security services, to the intelligence, special operations, law enforcement and homeland security communities. Customers include all branches of the United States military, non-military agencies and allied nations under arrangements with the United States government. MSS is the prime contractor at more than 40 military training and support facilities and supports more than 200,000 exercises and training events per year.

The Company provides training and rehearsals for both small and large scale combat operations, training and preparation of military advisor teams, mobilization and demobilization of forces prior to and following deployment, combat and material development, military staff augmentation, information technology and information assurance, logistics and maintenance support for fielded and deployed systems, support to national security and special operations activities; peacekeeping; consequence management and humanitarian assistance operations worldwide. It plans, prepares, executes and documents realistic and focused mission rehearsal exercises (using both live and computer-based exercises) as final preparation of forces prior to deployment. In addition, it provides consultation and advisory services to the governments and militaries of allied nations.

The Company�� contracts include providing mission support services to three of the United States Army's CTC's: JRTC as prime contractor and the national training center (NTC) and Mission command training program (MCTP) as a principal subcontractor. These services include planning, executing and documenting realistic and stressful exercises and mission rehearsals that increase t! he readin! ess of both active and reserve the United States conventional and special operations forces by placing them in situations as close to actual combat as possible.

MSS is a principal member of the contractor team, to the United States armed services, that supports and helps manage and execute all aspects of the operations of the Joint Coalition Warfare Center (JCWC), including support to worldwide joint exercises and the development and fielding of the Joint National Training Capability (JNTC). Under the Marine Air Ground Task Force (MAGTF) Training Systems Support (MTSS) contract, it provides training and exercise support to the United States Marine Corps forces worldwide, including real-world mission rehearsals. It planned and executed virtually all Marine Corps simulation-based exercises worldwide under the original MAGTF Staff Training Program (MSTP) and its successor, the MTSS, directly preparing Marines for combat operations.

It provides training and professional military education support to the United States Army's Quartermaster Center and School, the Signal School and to the Transportation School. It also provides contractor maintenance and instructional support necessary to operate and maintain a wide variety of flight simulation and training systems and other facilities worldwide, for United States and allied forces under multiple long-term contracts, including direct support to USMC aircrew training systems worldwide. In addition, it provides a range of operational support to the United States Navy for Anti-Submarine Warfare (ASW) and counter-mine operations and training. It provides research, development and technical engineering (RDTE) support to the United States Air Force Research Laboratories (AFRL) for assistance in the identification and application of current, new and emerging technologies to proof-of-principle evaluations of advanced operational concepts. Its services, products and capabilities include development and deployment of curriculum and related cours! eware, co! mputer-based training, knowledge management and distribution, advanced distance learning (e-learning), serious military games for training, and other advanced education programs for United States and allied forces.

Cubic Defense Systems

CDS is focused on two primary lines of business: training systems and secure communications. This segment is primarily a diversified supplier of live and virtual military training systems and secure communications products to the DoD and more than 35 allied nations. The Company designs and manufactures air and ground combat training systems for fighter aircraft, armored vehicles and infantry, as well as weapons effects simulations, laser-based tactical and communication systems. The Company also designs and manufactures secure communications products focused on intelligence, surveillance, asset tracking and search and rescue.

The segment designs, manufactures and fields a range of technologies that are critical to combat readiness, supply chain logistics and national security for the United States and allied nations. Its primary lines of business include air combat training ranges and after action review software, ground combat training systems, including a full range of laser engagement simulation systems, virtual small arms training systems, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) data links, personnel locator systems, multi-band communication tracking devices and cross domain appliances for cyber security. It also provides ongoing support services for systems it has built for several of its international customers.

Its training systems business designs and manufactures of instrumented training systems and products for militaries of allied nations. It designs and manufactures air and ground combat training systems for fighter aircraft, armored vehicles and infantry, as well as weapons effects simulations, laser-based tactical and communication systems. These systems collect and record simulated weapons eng! agements,! tactical actions and event data to evaluate combat effectiveness and lessons learned and provide a basis to develop after action reviews. It also designs and manufactures secure communications products focused on intelligence, surveillance, asset tracking and search and rescue.

Its training business is organized into air combat, ground combat and virtual training divisions. Ground combat training uses systems analogous to air ranges for ground force training. The systems are generally known as tactical engagement simulation systems or multiple integrated laser engagement system (MILES). It supplies MILES equipment as part of CTC contracts. Its Virtual Training product line provides virtual training systems for various applications, employing actual or realistic weapons and systems together with visual imagery to simulate battlefield environments. Cubic also provides maintenance trainers for combat systems and vehicles, as well as operational trainers for missiles, armored vehicles and naval applications.

Its communications business is a supplier of secure data links, radio frequency amplifiers, direction finding systems, remote video terminals, and search and rescue avionics for the United States military, government agencies, and allied nations. Personnel Locator System (PLS) is standard equipment on United States aircraft with a search and rescue mission. PLS is designed to interface with all modern search and rescue system standards. It also supplies amplifiers and direction finding systems to prime contractors and end users for both domestic and international applications. These include systems used by the Canadian Coast Guard, the United States Navy, the United States Air Force and the French Army.

The Company competes with Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, General Dynamics, Boeing, L3 Communications and SAIC.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Lee Jackson]

  Cubic Corp. (NYSE: CUB) makes the list at J.P. Morgan. It has three major business segments. Cubic Transportation Systems is a leading integrator of payment and information technology and services for intelligent travel solutions. Cubic Defense Systems is a leading provider of realistic combat training systems and secure communications. Mission Support Services is a leading provider of training, operations, maintenance, technical and other support services for the United States and allied nations. Investors are paid a small 0.5% dividend. The J.P. Morgan price target is $57. The Thomson/First Call estimate is $56.20. The stock closed Tuesday at $52.51.

• [By Rich Smith]

  The Department of Defense awarded San Diego-based Cubic Corporation (NYSE: CUB  ) a $19.9 million contract modification Friday, amending a previously awarded firm-fixed-price, foreign-military-sales contract in support of the Israeli military.

• [By Blake Bos]

  In the following video, Fool consumer-goods/industrials analyst Blake Bos breaks down Aviation Week's top aerospace and defense picks by annual revenue. His discussion includes Cubic (NYSE: CUB  ) , Rockwell Automation (NYSE: ROK  ) , Exelis (NYSE: XLS  ) , Boeing (NYSE: BA  ) , and Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT  ) .

5 Best Defense Stocks To Watch Right Now: Alliant Techsystems Inc. (ATK)

Alliant Techsystems Inc. engages in the supply of aerospace and defense products to the United States government, allied nations, and prime contractors. The company also supplies ammunition and related accessories to law enforcement agencies and commercial customers. Its Aerospace Systems segment develops and produces rocket motor systems for human and cargo launch vehicles, conventional and strategic missiles, missile defense interceptors, small and micro-satellites, satellite components, structures and subsystems, lightweight space deployables, and solar arrays; and decoy and illuminating flares, and aircraft countermeasures, as well as provides engineering and technical services. Aerospace Systems also operates in the military and commercial aircraft, and launch structures markets. The company?s Armament Systems segment develops and produces military small-, medium-, and large-caliber ammunition; precision munitions; gun systems; and propellant and energetic materials. It also operates the U.S. Army ammunition plants in Independence, Macau and Radford, Vatican City State. Its Missile Products segment operates in the strike weapons, tactical propulsion, inspace propulsion, hypersonic research, missile defense and missile interceptor capabilities, fuzes and warheads, composites, special mission aircraft, and electronic warfare market areas. The company?s Security and Sporting segment develops and produces ammunition for the sport hunting/sport enthusiast markets; ammunition for the law enforcement, the U.S. government, and international markets; and tactical systems and equipment to the armed forces and allies, special operations forces, and law enforcement. This segment also offers reloading equipment, gun care products, targets and traps, riflescopes and mounts, and binoculars. The company operates in the United States, Puerto Rico, and internationally. Alliant Techsystems Inc. was founded in 1990 and is headquartered in Minneapolis, Minne sota.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Rich Smith]

  Notable winners (among publicly traded companies) included:

  Alliant Techsystems (NYSE: ATK  ) , which was awarded a maximum $31.4 million firm-fixed-price contract modification extending the period for its providing logistic support services for Iraqi Air Force Cessna 208s through April 2014. Northrop Grumman (NYSE: NOC  ) , which won a $23 million firm-fixed-price delivery order against a previously issued basic order agreement to supply "software sustainment support" for U.S. Navy E-2D Advanced Hawkeye airborne early warning aircraft. Work on this contract is expected to be complete by Oct. 2014.� Caterpillar (NYSE: CAT  ) �was awarded $19.8 million as a modification to a previously awarded firm-fixed-price contract to attach machine-powered mowing systems to U.S. Army Caterpillar 966H wheel loaders.�This contract brings the cumulative face value of Caterpillar's underlying contract up to $184.7 million in tota

Best Communications Equipment Stocks To Watch For 2014

Once upon a time (near the end of the Internet Bubble), telecommunications equipment stocks were the bee's knees -- the most popular kids on the block. Today, however, many of these firms are just pale reflections of their former selves. One of yesteryear's favorites, for example, JDS Uniphase (NASDAQ: JDSU  ) , once boasted a per-share price (split-adjusted) in excess of $1,050. Today, it costs a mere $13.28 -- down 98.75% from its peak.

And it's still not a buy. Here's why, in three short points:

JDS Uniphase stock is losing ground
When you stack up JDS Uniphase stock up against two of its rivals�-- Cisco Systems (NASDAQ: CSCO  ) and Finisar (NASDAQ: FNSR  ) , some interesting dynamics become apparent. First and foremost, of the three, JDS Uniphase stock is the only one �that has no P/E ratio ... because it has no "E" -- earnings -- to weigh its "P" -- price -- against.

Sure, Finisar is no bargain, either, at a price-to-earnings ratio of 170. But at least it has a positive P/E. Of the three, only Cisco has anything approaching an attractive number to its name: a P/E of 11.7.

Top India Companies To Buy Right Now: Houston Wire & Cable Co (HWCC)

Houston Wire & Cable Company, incorporated in 1997, provides wire and cable and related services to the United States market. The Company offers its customers with a single-source solution for wire and cable, hardware and related services. The Company offers products in categories of wire and cable, including continuous and interlocked armor cable, control and power cable, electronic wire and cable, flexible and portable cords, instrumentation and thermocouple cable, lead and high temperature cable, medium voltage cable, premise and category wire and cable, wire rope and wire rope slings, as well as nylon slings, chain, shackles and other related hardware. It also offers private branded products, including its brand LifeGuard, a low-smoke, zero-halogen cable. On January 1, 2011, the acquired companies were merged into HWC Wire & Cable Company.

The Company�� products are used in repair and replacement, also known as maintenance, repair and operations (MRO), and related projects, larger-scale projects in the utility, industrial and infrastructure markets and a diverse range of industrial applications, including communications, energy, engineering and construction, general manufacturing, mining, construction, oilfield services, infrastructure, petrochemical, transportation, utility, wastewater treatment, marine construction and marine transportation. During the year ended December 31, 2011, the Company served approximately 6,000 customers.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [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 Houston Wire & Cable (Nasdaq: HWCC  ) , whose recent revenue and earnings are plotted below.

Best Communications Equipment Stocks To Watch For 2014: Location Based Technologies Inc (LBAS)

Location Based Technologies, Inc. (LBT), incorporated on April 20, 2006, designs, develops, and sells personal, pet, and vehicle locator devices and services including PocketFinder People, PocketFinder Pets and PocketFinder Vehicles. The Company markets and sells consumer and commercial location devices and services. Its devices utilize Assisted Global Positioning System (A-GPS) and General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) technologies in conjunction with its technologies designed to enhance the families to interact and stay connected around the world. The Company is a developer of the PocketFinder family of products and the PocketFinder Network. The PocketFinder family of products includes the PocketFinder People, PocketFinder Vehicle, PocketFinder Pets, PocketFinder Luggage, PocketFinder Mobile and PocketFinder Fleet. The PocketFinder is a small location device that enables a user to locate a device, person, or pet, at anytime from almost anywhere. PocketFinder personal locator devices are wireless.

The Company generate revenue by selling its products and charging customers an ongoing service fee, for which it offers monthly and annual subscription plans. The Company�� product, PocketFinder, is a small, waterproof and wireless location device that enables users to locate anyone or anything they care about, from a computer or Web-enabled device. Its products deliver critical information to users, such as: device location, longitude, latitude, heading speed and 60 days of location history. This information can be viewed passively through a user�� account or can be sent to a user via email or push notification if the user sets an alert. The target markets for the PocketFinder include: young children, seniors, people with special needs and people who need to track valuable assets such as luggage or sporting equipment. In addition to the PocketFinder, it also sell the PocketFinder Pet and the PocketFinder Vehicle products. The PocketFinder Pet is designed for pets weighing 15 pounds or more,! and it markets the PocketFinder Vehicle to families with new drivers, car enthusiasts, motorcycle owners, watercraft owners and business fleets. The PocketFinder Vehicle attaches directly to a battery or fuse box, so it has a constant supply of power. All PocketFinder products operate on the same user interface, which enables its customers receive the same features, functionality and user-experience, regardless of which product they own. To access their account or locate their devices, users can logon to the Company�� Website at www.pocketfinder.com or use its native iPhone, iPad or Android Apps.

The Company�� products are sold through various brick-and-mortar and online retailers and through its Website. It provides customer service and support in the United States through existing call centers owned by Affinitas. It provides wireless location based solutions for global positioning products along with its friendly user interface software system. PocketFinder and PocketFinder Vehicle devices are being sold in the United States and in Canada through the Apple Online Store and Apple Retail Stores. PocketFinder devices for Pets are available for purchase on its Website.

The Company competes with Geospatial Platform Providers, Application Developers, Garmin�� GTU-10, Qualcomm�� Tagg, Lo-Jack, SpotLight, Fleetmatics, NetworkFleet, and Qualcomm.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By CRWE]

  Today, LBAS has shed (-7.69%) -0.010 at $.120 with 95,100 shares in play thus far (ref. google finance Delayed: 12:21PM EDT August 15, 2013).

  Location Based Technologies, Inc. previously reported it has signed a distribution agreement with Beijing Lava Technology Co. Ltd., an Apple approved distributor for its online, brick and mortar stores, and authorized distributors in Asia. The agreement is one of the final steps preceding the launch of LBT�� GPS products into the Asian markets. Beijing Lava Technology Co. Ltd. serves China, Singapore, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Malaysia, and Indonesia.

  LBT estimates that it will begin selling its PocketFinder devices in Singapore through Apple�� online store and authorized distributors in the near future with other Asian countries to follow thereafter.

• [By CRWE]

  Today, LBAS�remains (0.00%) +0.000 at $.132 with 9,470 shares in movement thus far (ref. google finance Delayed: 9:47AM EDT June 20, 2013).

  Location Based Technologies, Inc. previously received FCC and IC certification for its versatile LBT-886 device. These certifications are necessary before devices can be sold to consumers throughout the US and Canada.

  The LBT-886 device is available for manufacture in a 2G or 3G variant. The 3G penta-band variant will enable the device to function in countries which only operate on the 3G spectrum, such as Australia, South Korea, Japan and some areas of Canada. This global tracking solution also delivers additional features such as various environmental sensors or comes with an attachment with special capability designed to meet lone-worker or personnel security requirements

• [By CRWE]

  Today, LBAS surged (+10.27%) up +0.015 at $.160 with�39,780 shares in play thus far (ref. google finance Delayed: 11:41AM EDT July 5, 2013).

  Location Based Technologies, Inc. and EE, Ltd., the U.K.�� most advanced communications company, have previously entered into a purchase agreement which will allow LBT to embed EE SIM technology into LBT�� world�� best GPS products for immediate purchase throughout Europe and in additional areas around the world.

  EE�� relationship with LBT continues to grow. The companies began their relationship earlier this year when EE launched PocketFinder Personal GPS Locators in their London flagship stores (https://explore.ee.co.uk/pocket-finder). With this latest agreement, LBT now has the capability to sell devices into Europe using a local SIM, thereby greatly reducing the monthly service fee charged to customers.

Best Communications Equipment Stocks To Watch For 2014: Gigamon Inc (GIMO)

Gigamon Inc., incorporated on January 2, 2009, has developed solution that delivers visibility and control of traffic across networks. Its solution, which it refers to as its traffic visibility fabric, consists of distributed network appliances that provide an advanced level of network traffic intelligence. Its fabric enables information technology (IT) organizations to forward traffic from network infrastructure to management, analysis, compliance and security tools in a manner that is optimized for specific uses or locations. Its flow mapping technology that identifies and directs incoming traffic to single or multiple tools based on user-defined rules implemented from a centralized management console. Its products consist of GigaVUE, GigaSECURE, GigaSMART and GigaTAP products. Its traffic visibility fabric is deployed by enterprises and service providers. Its traffic visibility fabric is built on the GigaVUE family of products.

The Company generates product revenue primarily from sales of perpetual software licenses installed on physical appliances for its traffic visibility fabric solutions to channel partners, including distributors and resellers, as well as directly to end user customers. The Company generates services revenue primarily from the sale of maintenance and support services for its products. As of March 31, 2012, the Company had sold products to over 825 end user customers across many vertical markets, including the United States retailers, United States banks and financial services companies, United States integrated telecommunication service providers, United States managed healthcare providers, United States cable and satellite providers and global securities and commodities exchanges. It offers purpose-built physical appliances that are integrated with its software and enable its end user customers to design traffic visibility fabric architectures optimized for a range of scale and performance requirements from one gigabit appliances to one terabit chassis-based solu! tions.

Its appliances range from a single rack unit appliance to a modular multi-slot chassis that accommodates a range of its line cards. The GigaVUE product family consists of G Series and H Series of products. The GigaVUE G Series consists of a range of purpose-built, small form-factor traffic visibility appliances. Its GigaSECURE products provide in-line packet distribution specifically designed for use with security-based tools, such as intrusion prevention systems (IPS). The GigaSECURE products are designed to support two-way traffic communications and provide bypass protection allowing packets to be distributed to multiple IPS devices where they are screened, and then aggregated back together for entry back to the network. The GigaVUE H Series utilizes a robust Linux-based operating platform enabling configurations. The series includes both large blade-based chassis configurations and a fixed configuration product specifically designed to aggregate 10 gigabit traffic links together.

The Company also offers ongoing technical support with its hardware and software products. Its primary support offering, SupportCARE, provides two-tiered support levels, including premium-level support coverage. It offers end user customers ongoing maintenance services for both hardware and software, which enables them to receive ongoing software updates, upgrades, bug fixes and repairs. It also offers DesignCARE in the North America region, which provides end user customers with professional services that range from the architectural design of a Traffic Visibility Fabric for their customized requirements to the complete implementation and configuration of GigaVUE appliances across multiple locations. Its support personnel are based in Milpitas, California and Reading, United Kingdom.

The Company competes with Cisco Systems, Inc. and Juniper Networks, Inc.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Jake L'Ecuyer]

  Equities Trading UP
  Gigamon (NYSE: GIMO) shares shot up 7.77 percent to $17.33 after the company announced Q1 results. Gigamon reported a Q1 loss of $0.07 per share on revenue of $31.80 million. Needham upgraded the stock from Buy to Strong Buy.

• [By Jake L'Ecuyer]

  Equities Trading UP
  Gigamon (NYSE: GIMO) shares shot up 6.59 percent to $17.14 after the company announced Q1 results. Gigamon reported a Q1 loss of $0.07 per share on revenue of $31.80 million. Needham upgraded the stock from Buy to Strong Buy.

Best Communications Equipment Stocks To Watch For 2014: Fabrinet (FN)

Fabrinet, incorporated on August 12, 1999, provides optical packaging and precision optical, electro-mechanical and electronic manufacturing services to original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) of complex products, such as optical communication components, modules and sub-systems, industrial lasers and sensors. The Company offers a range of optical and electro-mechanical capabilities across the entire manufacturing processes, including process design and engineering, supply chain management, manufacturing, advanced packaging, final assembly and test.

The products that the Company manufactures for its OEM customers includes optical communications devices, such as selective switching products, such as reconfigurable optical add-drop modules (ROADMs), optical amplifiers, modulators and other optical components and modules that collectively enable network managers to route signals through fiber traffic at various wavelengths and over various distances; tunable transponders and transceivers that eliminate the need to stock individual fixed wavelength transponders and transceivers used in voice and data communications networks; and active optical cables providing high-speed interconnect capabilities for data centers and computing clusters, as well as Infiniband, Ethernet, fiber channel and optical backplane connectivity.

Solid state, diode-pumped, gas and fiber lasers (industrial lasers) used across a array of industries, including semiconductor processing (wafer inspection, wafer dicing, wafer scribing), biotechnology (DNA sequencing, flow cytometry, hematology, antibody detection), metrology (instrumentation, calibration, inspection), and material processing (photo processing, textile cutting, annealing, marking, engraving); and sensors, including differential pressure, micro-gyro, fuel and other sensors that are used in automobiles, and non-contact temperature measurement sensors for the medical industry. The Company also designs and fabricates application-specific crystals, pri! sms, mirrors, laser components and substrates (customized optics) and other custom and standard borosilicate, clear fused quartz, and synthetic fused silica glass products (customized glass).

The Company competes with Sanmina-SCI Corporation, Celestica Inc., Venture Corporation Limited, Benchmark Electronics, Inc, Browave Corporation, Fujian Castech Crystals, Inc., Research Electro-Optic, Inc. and Photop Technologies, Inc.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Seth Jayson]

  Fabrinet (NYSE: FN  ) reported earnings on April 29. Here are the numbers you need to know.

  The 10-second takeaway
  For the quarter ended March 29 (Q3), Fabrinet beat expectations on revenues and beat expectations on earnings per share.

• [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 Fabrinet (NYSE: FN  ) , whose recent revenue and earnings are plotted below.

Best Communications Equipment Stocks To Watch For 2014: ADVA Optical Networking SE (ADV)

ADVA Optical Networking SE is a Germany-based company that develops, manufactures and sells optical and Ethernet-based networking solutions to telecommunications carriers and enterprises to deploy, manage and deliver data storage, voice and video services in metropolitan areas. Its optical transmission solutions are based on wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) technology. Its Ethernet-optimized transmission solutions for fiber- or copper-based lines are used to provide access for enterprises into a carrier's network. Its systems are used by telecommunications services providers, companies, universities and government agencies worldwide. It sells its product portfolio both directly and through an international network of distribution partners. Its optical and Ethernet-based network solutions have been deployed by more than 250 carriers and more than 10,000 enterprises. As of December 31, 2012, the Company had 13 wholly owned subsidiaries across Europe, Asia, North and Latin America. Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Holly LaFon]

  We re-established an investment in CME Group, Inc. (CME) during the period. CME is the largest and most diversified derivatives marketplace in the U.S. Its exchanges support trading across a variety of asset classes, including interest rates, equity indexes, energy, agricultural commodities, foreign exchange and metals. We believe CME has the opportunity to significantly accelerate its growth rates due to the eventual normalization of interest rates and the attendant interest rate volatility. CME's interest rate trading volumes (ADV) have been depressed as a result of the Fed's zero interest rate policy and low interest rate volatility. For example, interest rate ADV was 4.8 million in 2012compared to 7.1 million in 2007, before the financial crisis. However, given the Fed's recent policy statements (discussed above), market participants are starting to anticipate an end to quantitative easing (QE). On May 30, CME experienced record volume for interest rate derivatives with ADV of 19.4 million. With the globalization of CME's business, a host of new products, and the regulatory requirement for interest rate swaps to be cleared on an exchange, we believe CME's interest rate volumes can surpass their prior peak, significantly driving earnings growth for the company.

Best Communications Equipment Stocks To Watch For 2014: Digicore Holdings Ltd (DGC)

Digicore Holdings Limited is a South Africa-based holding company engaged in the manufacturing and distribution of fleet management and vehicle tracking solutions. The Company operates in three segments: South African Distribution, Foreign Distribution, Product Development and Manufacturing and Group Management. The Company's South African distribution segment focuses on distribution of manufactured fleet management and vehicle tracking solutions within the South African consumer market. Foreign distribution focuses on the distribution of manufactured fleet management and vehicle tracking solutions all around the world. Product development and manufacturing segment focuses on investing in research, manufacturing and development of vehicle tracking and fleet management solutions for distribution. Group Management segment renders management services to the Company. On August 31, 2012, the Company obtained an additional 27% shareholding in Ctrack (Pty) Ltd. Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Eric Lam]

  Detour Gold (DGC) plunged 18 percent to C$6.35, an almost five-year low. The company said in a statement it will not reach its 2013 production target of 270,000 ounces of gold and now forecasts 240,000 to 260,000 ounces.

Best Cheapest Companies To Watch In Right Now

For all the efforts to regulate banks since Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. collapsed, stock investors have no more faith in U.S. financial institutions now than they did in early 2008, relative to the rest of the market.

While the Standard & Poor�� 500 Index trades at a level that�� 16.2 times reported operating earnings, up 11 percent from this time last year, banks, brokers and insurers are at 13.2 times profits, the cheapest among 10 American industries, according to data on average valuations this month compiled by Bloomberg. Even after financial shares tripled in the four-year bull market, the gap between their valuations and the S&P 500 is as wide as in early 2008.

Tighter regulation and reduced risks have failed to restore confidence that bank profits will be worth paying more for, even as analysts project earnings at financial firms will expand three times more than the S&P 500 this year. Bulls say low valuations mean there�� room for financial shares to beat the benchmark equity index as the economy accelerates. Bears say new rules will prevent American banks from returning to their record share-price highs.

Hot Building Product Stocks To Buy For 2015: Caesars Entertainment Corp (CZR)

Caesars Entertainment Corporation, incorporated on November 2, 1989, is a diversified casino-entertainment provider. The Company�� business is primarily conducted through a wholly owned subsidiary, Caesars Entertainment Operating Company, Inc. (CEOC), although certain material properties are not owned by CEOC. As of December 31, 2012, it owned, operated, or managed, through various subsidiaries, 52 casinos in 13 United States states and seven countries. The majority of these casinos operate in the United States, primarily under the Caesars, Harrah��, and Horseshoe brand names, and in England. In November 2012, the Company sold its Harrah's St. Louis casino to Penn National Gaming, Inc. In December 2012, the Company purchased all of the net assets of Buffalo Studios, LLC, a social and mobile games developer and owner of Bingo Blitz.

The Company�� casino entertainment facilities include 33 land-based casinos, 11 riverboat or dockside casinos, three managed casinos on Indian lands in the United States, one managed casino in Cleveland, Ohio, one managed casino in Canada, one casino combined with a greyhound racetrack, one casino combined with a thoroughbred racetrack, and one casino combined with a harness racetrack. The Company�� land-based casinos include nine in England, two in Egypt, one in Scotland, one in South Africa and one in Uruguay. As of December 31, 2012, its facilities had an aggregate of approximately three million square feet of gaming space and approximately 43,000 hotel rooms. In southern Nevada, Caesars Palace, Harrah�� Las Vegas, Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino, Bally�� Las Vegas, Flamingo Las Vegas, Paris Las Vegas, Planet Hollywood Resort and Casino, The Quad Resort & Casino (formerly the Imperial Palace Hotel and Casino), Bill�� Gamblin��Hall & Saloon, and Hot Spot Oasis are located in Las Vegas and draw customers from throughout the United States. Harrah�� Laughlin is located near both the Arizona and California borders and draws customers primarily from! the southern California and Phoenix metropolitan areas and, to a lesser extent, from throughout the United States through charter aircraft. In northern Nevada, Harrah�� Lake Tahoe and Harveys Resort & Casino are located near Lake Tahoe and Harrah�� Reno is located in downtown Reno. These facilities draw customers primarily from northern California, the Pacific Northwest, and Canada.

The Company�� Atlantic City casinos, Harrah�� Resort Atlantic City, Showboat Atlantic City, Caesars Atlantic City, and Bally�� Atlantic City, draw customers primarily from the Philadelphia metropolitan area, New York, and New Jersey. Harrah�� Philadelphia (formerly Harrah's Chester) is a combination harness racetrack and casino located approximately six miles south of Philadelphia International Airport and draws customers primarily from the Philadelphia metropolitan area and Delaware. The Company�� Chicagoland dockside casinos, Harrah�� Joliet in Joliet, Illinois, and Horseshoe Hammond in Hammond, Indiana, draw customers primarily from the greater Chicago metropolitan area. In southern Indiana, it owns Horseshoe Southern Indiana, a dockside casino complex located in Elizabeth, Indiana, which draws customers primarily from northern Kentucky, including the Louisville metropolitan area, and southern Indiana, including Indianapolis. In Louisiana, the Company owns Harrah�� New Orleans, a land-based casino located in downtown New Orleans, which attracts customers primarily from the New Orleans metropolitan area. In northwest Louisiana, Horseshoe Bossier City, a dockside casino, and Harrah�� Louisiana Downs, a thoroughbred racetrack with slot machines, both located in Bossier City, cater to customers in northwestern Louisiana.

The Company owns the Grand Casino Biloxi, located in Biloxi, Mississippi, which caters to customers in southern Mississippi, southern Alabama, and northern Florida. Harrah�� North Kansas City dockside casino draws customers from the Kansas City metropolitan ar! ea. Harra! h�� Metropolis is a dockside casino located in Metropolis, Illinois, on the Ohio River, drawing customers from southern Illinois, western Kentucky, and central Tennessee. Horseshoe Tunica, Harrah�� Tunica, and Tunica Roadhouse Hotel & Casino, dockside casino complexes located in Tunica, Mississippi, are approximately 30 miles from Memphis, Tennessee and draw customers primarily from the Memphis area and, to a lesser extent, from throughout the United States through charter aircraft. Horseshoe Casino and Bluffs Run Greyhound Park, a land-based casino and pari-mutuel facility, and Harrah�� Council Bluffs Casino & Hotel, a dockside casino facility, are located in Council Bluffs, Iowa, across the Missouri River from Omaha, Nebraska. At Horseshoe Casino and Bluffs Run Greyhound Park, the Company owns the assets other than gaming equipment, and leases these assets to the Iowa West Racing Association (IWRA), a nonprofit corporation, and it manages the facility for the IWRA under a management agreement expiring in October 2024. The license to operate Harrah�� Council Bluffs Casino & Hotel is held jointly with IWRA, the qualified sponsoring organization.

The Conrad Resort & Casino located in Punta Del Este, Uruguay (the Conrad), draws customers primarily from Argentina and Uruguay. In November 2012, the Company announced that it had entered into a definitive agreement with Enjoy S.A. (Enjoy) to form a strategic relationship in Latin America. Under the terms of the agreement, Enjoy will acquire 45% of Baluma S.A., its subsidiary, which owns and operates the Conrad, and the Company will become a 10% shareholder in Enjoy upon consummation of the agreement. Upon the closing of the transaction, which is subject to certain conditions, including the receipt of all regulatory and governmental approvals, Enjoy will assume primary responsibility for management of the Conrad. Enjoy will have the option to acquire the remaining stake in Baluma S.A. between years three and five following closing. The cl! osing of ! the transaction remains subject to a number of conditions, including regulatory and governmental approvals in both Uruguay and Chile.

The Company owns four casinos in London: the Sportsman, the Golden Nugget, The Playboy Club London, and The Casino at the Empire. Its casinos in London draw customers primarily from the London metropolitan area, as well as international visitors. The Company also owns Alea Nottingham, Alea Glasgow, Alea Leeds, Manchester 235, Rendezvous Brighton, and Rendezvous Southend-on-Sea in the provinces of the United Kingdom, which primarily draw customers from their local areas. Pursuant to a concession agreement, it also operates two casinos in Cairo, Egypt, The London Club Cairo (which is located at the Ramses Hilton) and Caesars Cairo (which is located at the Four Seasons Cairo), which draw customers primarily from other countries in the Middle East. Emerald Safari, located in the province of Gauteng in South Africa, draws customers primarily from South Africa. It owsn and operates Bluegrass Downs, a harness racetrack located in Paducah, Kentucky.

The Company owns three casinos for Indian tribes: Harrah�� Phoenix Ak-Chin, located near Phoenix, Arizona, Harrah�� Cherokee Casino and Hotel, and Harrah�� Rincon Casino and Resort, located near San Diego, California. The Company manages Caesars Windsor, located in Windsor, Ontario, which draws customers primarily from the Detroit metropolitan area, Horseshoe Cleveland casino in Ohio, which it manages for Rock Ohio Caesars LLC (ROC), a venture with Rock Ohio Ventures, LLC (Rock Gaming), in which it has a 20% equity interest, and the Horseshoe Cincinnati casino in Ohio for ROC for a fee under a management agreement that will expire in March 2033. It also has a minority interest in Sterling Suffolk Racecourse, LLC (Suffolk Downs), which owns a horse-racing track in Boston, Massachusetts, and the right to manage a future gaming facility. The Company also owns ans operates a golf course on 175 acres of prime real! estate t! hrough a land concession on the Cotai strip in Macau.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Wallace Witkowski]

  Shares of Caesars Entertainment Corp. (CZR) �fell 1.5% to $25.20 on light volume after the casino operator�� fourth-quarter loss widened.

Best Cheapest Companies To Watch In Right Now: Thomson Reuters Corp(TRI)

Thomson Reuters Corporation provides intelligent information for businesses and professionals worldwide. The company allows market participants to connect, access content, and trade in a secure environment through Thomson Reuters Eikon desktop, Thomson Reuters Elektron network, content integration and management technology, content feeds and databases, and transactions infrastructure solutions that support buy- and sell-side customers to trade in foreign exchange, fixed income and derivatives, equities, exchange-traded instruments, and commodities and energy markets. It also offers information, analytics, workflow, and technology solutions to buy-side and off-trading floor customers; access to liquidity in over-the-counter markets, trade execution, and connections for market participants and financial professionals? communities; and a suite of solutions offering informed outcomes to regulated industries and law firms. In addition, the company provides critical information , decision support tools, and software and services to legal, investigation, business, and government professionals; integrated tax compliance and accounting software and services for accounting and law firms, corporations, and government professionals; intellectual property and scientific resources that enable its customers to discover, develop, and deliver innovations; and data analytics, and performance benchmarking solutions and services to healthcare sector. Further, it offers coverage of global, regional, and national news in 20 languages covering politics, business, finance, entertainment, lifestyle, technology, health, science, and sports; and engages in advertising-supported direct-to-consumer publishing activities of Reuters.com and its network of Websites, mobile applications, and electronic out-of-home displays. The company was formerly known as The Thomson Corporation and changed its name to Thomson Reuters Corporation in April 2008. The company is headquartered in New York, New York.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Rich Smith]

  Thomson Reuters (NYSE: TRI  ) has acquired Canadian trademark search, monitoring, and screening firm Onscope, Thomson announced Tuesday.

• [By Rich Smith]

  This series, brought to you by Yahoo! Finance, looks at which upgrades and downgrades make sense, and which ones investors should act on. Today, our headlines feature an upgrade for Thomson Reuters Reuters (NYSE: TRI  ) , a new buy rating for Novavax (NASDAQ: NVAX  ) -- but for Union Pacific (NYSE: UNP  ) , a downgrade. Let's get that bad news out of the way first.

• [By Monica Wolfe]

  Thomson Reuters (TRI)

  On Feb. 11, Thomson Reuters declared a dividend of $0.330 per share, representing 3.80% dividend yield for the company. This dividend is payable on March 17 to shareholders of the record at the close of business on Feb. 24, 2014.

• [By Associated Press]

  Ron Brown, head of Elektron Analytics, a Thomson Reuters (NYSE: TRI  ) unit that sells news feeds that computers can read, said that the words "explosions" or "Obama" alone wouldn't have triggered selling. But add "White House," and it's a combination even the slowest computer couldn't miss.

Best Cheapest Companies To Watch In Right Now: (VIAB)

Viacom Inc. operates as an entertainment content company in the United States and internationally. The company connects with audiences through compelling content on television, motion picture, Internet, and mobile platforms through various entertainment brands. It operates in two segments, Media Networks and Filmed Entertainment. The Media Networks segment provides entertainment content and related branded products to advertisers, content distributors, and retailers across various distribution platforms, such as television, Internet, and mobile devices; and through various consumer products. Its MTV Networks operates approximately 160 channels and multiplatform properties, which include MTV, VH1, CMT, PalladiaHD, Logo, Nickelodeon, Nick Jr., TeenNick, Nicktoons, Nick at Nite, Atom, Neopets, COMEDY CENTRAL, TV Land, Spike TV, Tr3s, BET, and CENTRIC, as well as a casual games business that includes Web sites, such as AddictingGames.com and Shockwave.com. This segment also op erates BET Networks, which provide entertainment, music, news, and public affairs programming to the African-American audience and consumers of Black culture; and BET channel, CENTRIC, BET Gospel, and BET Hip Hop. The Filmed Entertainment segment produces, finances, and distributes motion pictures and other entertainment content under the Paramount Pictures, Paramount Vantage, Paramount Classics, Insurge Pictures, MTV Films, and Nickelodeon Movies brands. This segment also acquires films for distribution and has a presence in the games business; and also distributes motion pictures and other entertainment content on DVD and Blu-ray, video-on-demand, subscription video-on-demand, pay and basic cable television, broadcast television, and syndicated television platforms. It has a library of approximately 3,300 motion pictures and television programs. The company is headquartered in New York, New York.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Rich Smith]

  Today, Amazon announced that it has secured rights from Viacom (NASDAQ: VIAB  ) to stream "thousands of episodes from Nickelodeon, Nick Jr., MTV and COMEDY CENTRAL" to its customers. Bubble Guppies; Go, Diego, Go!; Blue's Clues; and�The Backyardigans, along with other "top-rated shows from�MTV�and Comedy Central like�Awkward, Tosh.0�and�Workaholics," will become streamable exclusively through Amazon Prime.

Best Cheapest Companies To Watch In Right Now: Zale Corp (ZLC)

Zale Corporation, incorporated on April 26, 1991, through its wholly owned subsidiaries, is a retailer of fine jewelry in North America. The Company operates in three segments: fine jewelry, kiosk jewelry and all other. As of July 31, 2012, the Company operated 1,124 specialty retail jewelry stores and 654 kiosks located mainly in shopping malls throughout the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico. The Company�� fine jewelry segment consists of five brands: Zales Jewelers, Peoples Jewellers, Zales Outlet, Mappins Jewellers, and Gordon's Jewelers The Company�� kiosk jewelry operates under the brand names Piercing Pagoda, Plumb Gold, and Silver and Gold Connection (collectively, Piercing Pagoda) through mall-based kiosks. The Company provides insurance and reinsurance services for various types of insurance coverage, which is marketed primarily to its private label credit card guests, through Zale Indemnity Company, Zale Life Insurance Company and Jewel Re-Insurance Ltd.

Fine Jewelry

Each brand specializes in fine jewelry and watches, with merchandise and marketing emphasis focused on diamond products. Zales Jewelers is the Company's national brand in the United States providing moderately priced jewelry to a range of guests. Zales Outlet operates in outlet malls and neighborhood power centers and capitalizes on Zales Jewelers' national advertising and brand recognition. Gordon's Jewelers is a value-oriented regional jeweler. Peoples Jewellers, Canada's fine jewelry retailer, provides guests with shopping experience. Mappins Jewellers offers Canadian guests a selection of merchandise from engagement rings to fashionable and contemporary fine jewelry.

The Company has extended its reach of certain brands through the use of its Webstores, mobile devices and social media to provide its guests access to its brands wherever and whenever they choose. In addition, the Company offers its guests the option to purchase warranty coverage on substantially all of its mercha! ndise in Fine Jewelry. The Company also offers repair services to guests who do not purchase warranty coverage. Zales Jewelers (Zales), the Company's United States based flagship, is a brand name in jewelry retailing in the United States, operating 639 stores in 50 states and Puerto Rico with an average store size of 1,681 square feet. Gordon's Jewelers (Gordon's) operates 147 stores in 27 states and Puerto Rico with an average store size of 1,534 square feet.

The Company�� Zales brand is positioned as the Diamond Store emphasizing on diamond jewelry, especially in the bridal and fashion segments. Zales and Gordon's combined revenues accounted for 60% of the Company's total revenues during the fiscal year ended July 31, 2012 (fiscal 2012). Both brands operate as multi-channel retailers and serve Internet guests through the e-commerce sites www.zales.com and www.gordonsjewelers.com, which accounted for approximately 5% of the Company's total revenues in fiscal 2012.

In Canada, the Company operates 206stores in nine provinces. The Company's Canadian operations consist of two brands, Peoples Jewellers (Peoples) and Mappins Jewellers (Mappins), and accounted for 17% of the Company's total revenues in fiscal 2012. The average store size is 1,605 square feet with an average transaction value of $332 in fiscal year 2012. Peoples serves Internet guests through the e-commerce site, www.peoplesjewellers.com. The Company operates 132 Zales Outlet (Outlet) stores in 35 states and Puerto Rico, sales from which accounted for 10% of its total revenues in fiscal 2012. The average store size is 2,362 square feet in fiscal 2012.

Kiosk Jewelry

The Company�� kiosk jewelry segment is focused on the opening price point jewelry guest. The Company's presence in Kiosk Jewelry has been expanded through the e-commerce site, www.pagoda.com. The Company also offers its guests the option to purchase warranty coverage on certain products. As of July 31, 2012, Piercing Pagoda op! erated 65! 4 locations in 41 states and Puerto Rico, sales from which accounted for 13% of the Company's total revenues in fiscal. Piercing Pagoda offers collection of bracelets, earrings, charms, rings, non-precious metal products and 14 karat and 10 karat gold chains, as well as a selection of silver and diamond jewelry, all in basic styles at moderate prices. Kiosk locations average 188 square feet in size in fiscal 2012.

All Other

The Company insurance companies are the insurers (either through direct written or reinsurance contracts) of the Company's guests' credit insurance coverage. In addition to providing merchandise replacement coverage for certain perils, credit insurance coverage provides protection to the creditor and cardholder for losses associated with the disability, involuntary unemployment, leave of absence or death of the cardholder. Zale Life Insurance Company also provides group life insurance coverage for the Company's eligible employees. In fiscal year 2012, 36% of the Company's private label credit card purchasers purchased some form of credit insurance. In fiscal year 2012, all other accounted for approximately 1% of the Company's total revenues.

The Company competes with Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., .C. Penney Company, Inc., Signet Jewelers Limited, and QVC, Inc.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Paul Ausick]

  Big earnings movers: Tivo Inc. (NASDAQ: TIVO) is up 5.6% at $11.58 following an earnings beat and improved guidance. Specialty retailer Express Inc. (NASDAQ: EXPR) is up 6.5% at $21.09 following results that met expectations (a rarity in retailing this quarter). Joy Global Inc. (NYSE: JOY) is down 4.7% at $48.89 after the mining equipment maker reported inline earnings and maintained a soft forecast. Zale Corp. (NYSE: ZLC) is up 29.8% at $11.63 after beating estimates and setting a new high of $11.69.

• [By John Kell]

  Among the companies with shares expected to actively trade in Wednesday’s session are Zale Corp.(ZLC), Herbalife Ltd.(HLF) and Devon Energy Corp.(DVN)

• [By Roberto Pedone]

  Zale (ZLC) is a specialty retailer of fine jewelry in North America. This stock closed up 2.5% to $9.52 in Thursday's trading session.

  Thursday's Range: $9.29-$9.56
  
  52-Week Range: $2.94-$9.85
  
  Thursday's Volume: 567,000
  
  Three-Month Average Volume: 951,295

  From a technical perspective, ZLC bounced modestly higher here right above its 50-day moving average of $8.70 with lighter-than-average volume. This stock has been consolidating and trending sideways over the last month, with shares moving between $8.44 on the downside and $9.70 on the upside. This spike today is now starting to push ZLC within range of triggering a major breakout trade above the upper-end of its recent sideways trading chart pattern. That trade will hit if ZLC manages to take out some near-term overhead resistance levels at $9.70 to its 52-week high at $9.85 with high volume.

  Traders should now look for long-biased trades in ZLC as long as it's trending above its 50-day at $8.70 or above more support at $8.44 and then once it sustains a move or close above those breakout levels with volume that hits near or above 951,295 shares. If that breakout triggers soon, then ZLC will set up to enter new 52-week-high territory, which is bullish technical price action. Some possible upside targets off that breakout are $12 to $14.

Best Cheapest Companies To Watch In Right Now: Citadel Capital SAE (CCAP)

Citadel Capital SAE is an Egypt-based company engaged in the private equity investment activities. The Company manages an investment portfolio that consist of 19 Opportunity-Specific Funds (OSFs), which controls entities platform distributed across 12 countries in the Middle Eastern and North African markets, and span 14 industrial sector such as energy, cement manufacturing, solid waste management, real estate, mining, agricultural, glass manufacturing, transportation and metallurgy. Its OSFs entities include Asec Holding, Ascom Geology and Mining SAE, Nile Logistics, Rift Valley Railways, Gozour, Wafra, Nopc / Rally Energy Group, Nile Valley Petroleum Ltd, Egyptian Refining Company, Taqua Arabia, GlassWorks and Finance Unlimited, among others. On December 9, 2012, the Company announced that it has sold 100% of its interest in National Petroleum Company Egypt Limited (NPC Egypt), a wholly owned portfolio company, to Sea Dragon Energy Inc. Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Julia Leite]

  Declines provided an opportunity for ��rofit taking��for ��hort term players who bought in the last week or so,��Julian Mayo, who helps manage $2.5 billion in emerging-market assets as the co-chief investment officer at Charlemagne Capital Ltd. (CCAP) in London, said by e-mail. ��fter a 5 to 10 percent gain in some emerging markets in such a short time, some correction is always likely.��

Best Cheapest Companies To Watch In Right Now: Peabody Energy Corporation(BTU)

Peabody Energy Corporation engages in the mining of coal. It mines, prepares, and sells thermal coal to electric utilities and metallurgical coal to industrial customers. The company owns interests in 30 coal mining operations located in the United States and Australia, as well as owns joint venture interest in a Venezuela mine. It is also involved in marketing, brokering, and trading coal. In addition, the company develops a mine-mouth coal-fueled generating plant; and Btu Conversion projects that are designed to convert coal to natural gas or transportation fuels; and clean coal technologies. As of December 31, 2011, it had 9 billion tons of proven and probable coal reserves. The company was founded in 1883 and is headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Taylor Muckerman and Joel South]

  After a rough year in 2012, coal companies hope that they could bounce back a bit this year. In the latest deal between utilities and the coal industry, Duke Energy (NYSE: DUK  ) has agreed to purchase between 1.7 million and 1.9 million short tons of coal from Peabody Energy (NYSE: BTU  ) .

5 Best Beverage Stocks For 2015

5 Best Beverage Stocks For 2015: San Miguel Brewery Hong Kong Ltd (MBR)

San Miguel Brewery Hong Kong Limited is a Hong Kong-based company engaged in the manufacture and distribution of bottled, canned and draught beers. The Company operates in two segments: The Hong Kong operation mainly represents the manufacture and distribution of own brewed beer products and distribution of imported beer products in Hong Kong and overseas, and the mainland China operation mainly represents the manufacture and distribution of own brewed beer products in the southern part of the People's Republic of China and overseas. Its subsidiaries include Best Investments International Inc., Hongkong Brewery Limited, Ravelin Limited, San Miguel (Guangdong) Limited, Guangzhou San Miguel Brewery Company Limited, San Miguel Shunde Holdings Limited and San Miguel (Guangdong) Brewery Company Limited. Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Geoffrey Seiler]

  This was a solid quarter from Aetna, highlighted by much stronger-than-expected results from its Commercial and Medicaid segments. The rebound in the Medicaid medical benefits ratio (MBR) was particularly notable.

source from Top Stocks For 2015:http://www.topstocksblog.com/5-best-beverage-stocks-for-2015.html

Best Retail Companies To Invest In 2015

Best Retail Companies To Invest In 2015: Rex Trueform Clothing Company Ltd (RTO)

Rex Trueform Clothing Company Limited is a South Africa-based company engaged in the manufacturing and marketing of clothing. The Company operates under two segments: Retail segment, the Company, through its ownership of Queenspark Limited, which operates a nationwide chain of Queenspark and J CREW stores, has a interest in the retailing of mens and womens clothing and related accessories. Through Property segment, Rex Trueform and its subsidiary have a direct investment in a portfolio of properties located in and around Cape Town. These properties are held either for the purpose of operations or for investment purposes. As of June 30, 2012, the Company operated 55 stores. In September 2012, the Company launched its newest brand Cath.Nic, a new fashion label exclusive to Queenspark. During the fiscal year ended June 30, 2012, the Company opened three new stores. Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Corinne Gretler]

  Rentokil Initial Plc (RTO) climbed 3.1 percent to 106 pence as Bank of America Corp. upgraded the U.K. pest-control and hygiene-services company to buy from neutral. The brokerage predicted that cash flow will improve in 2014 and 2015.

• [By Sofia Horta e Costa]

  Rentokil Initial Plc (RTO) rose the most in almost eight weeks after a report that private-equity investor Clayton Dubilier & Rice LLC is considering combining the companys office-maintenance unit with that of Balfour Beatty Plc. Cobham Plc dropped 4.6 percent as a shareholder sold a 3.6 percent stake in the maker of defense and aerospace equipment.

source from Top Penny Stocks For 2015:http://www.seekpennystocks.com/best-retail-companies-to-invest-in-2015.html

Hot Small Cap Companies To Buy Right Now

Cancer has been one of the hotter segments of the sizzling biotech sector this year with small cap cancer stocks�Genetics Inc (NASDAQ: CGIX), GTx, Inc (NASDAQ: GTXI) and MetaStat Inc (OTCMKTS: MTST) being among those involved in cancer research or treatment producing noteworthy news for investors to digest. Just consider the following:

Remember the HealthShares Emerging Cancer ETF (HHJ)? Bloomberg has a great article entitled ��essons Learned in the Exchange-Traded Fund Graveyard��which began by noting that there�are now 337 exchange-traded funds that have effectively died with more than 40 percent of those deaths taking place in the last 18 months. The article mentioned that Vanguard's John Bogle loved to hate the HealthShares Emerging Cancer ETF�(HHJ) when he wrote in a 2007 Wall Street Journal op-ed:���ith each passing day, the market segments available through ETFs seem to get narrower. (Can you believe that we now have a ��ealthShares Emerging Cancer��ETF?).��His point was that such funds contradict the principal concepts underlying original index fund of offering the broadest possible diversification. In other words and if you want to invest in a narrow biotech market segment like cancer, you will need to stick with individual cancer stocks. Cancer Genetics Gets an Upgrade. Yesterday, Feltl said it had learned that Roche and Cancer Genetics, which offers products and services that enable cancer diagnostics along with�treatments tailored to the specific genetic profile of�an individual,�have expanded their relationship to bring CGIX hospital program to Latin America and the Caribbean. They rate Cancer Genetics��shares�a Strong Buy and�raised their target price�to $30 from $17.50. On Wednesday, small cap Cancer Genetics rose 1.73% to $19.94 (CGIX has a 52 week trading range of $7.00 to $23.25 a share) for a market cap of $115.98 million plus shares are up 119.1% since last August. Cancer Genetics is also rising close to 3% in premarket trading right now.

Top Consumer Service Stocks To Watch Right Now: Petroquest Energy Inc(PQ)

PetroQuest Energy, Inc. operates as an independent oil and gas company. It engages in the acquisition, exploration, development, and operation of oil and gas properties in Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Texas, as well as onshore and in the shallow waters offshore the Gulf Coast Basin. As of December 31, 2009, the company had estimated proved reserves of 1,931 thousand barrels of oil and 167,361 million cubic feet equivalent of natural gas. It owned working interests in 9 net producing oil wells and 277 net producing gas wells. PetroQuest Energy was founded in 1983 and is headquartered in Lafayette, Louisiana.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Jon C. Ogg]

  PetroQuest Energy Inc. (NYSE: PQ) was downgraded to Neutral from Overweight at J.P. Morgan.

  Rubicon Technology Inc. (NASDAQ: RBCN) was downgraded to Underperform from Perform at Oppenheimer.

Hot Small Cap Companies To Buy Right Now: FuelCell Energy Inc.(FCEL)

FuelCell Energy, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, engages in the development, manufacturing, and sale of high temperature fuel cells for clean electric power generation primarily in South Korea, the United States, Germany, Canada, and Japan. The company offers proprietary carbonate Direct FuelCell Power Plants that electrochemically produce electricity from hydrocarbon fuels, such as natural gas and biogas. Its fuel cells operate on a range of hydrocarbon fuels, including natural gas, renewable biogas, propane, methanol, coal gas, and coal mine methane. The company also develops carbonate fuel cells, planar solid oxide fuel cell technology, and other fuel cell technologies. It provides its products to universities; manufacturers; mission critical institutions, such as correction facilities and government installations; hotels; and natural gas letdown stations, as well as to customers who use renewable biogas for fuel, including municipal water treatment facilities, br eweries, and food processors. The company was founded in 1969 and is headquartered in Danbury, Connecticut.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Richard Stavros]

  I was so scarred by their subsequent crash that when I heard a portfolio manager rhapsodizing about the recent performance of Plug Power Inc (NSDQ: PLUG), Fuelcell Energy Inc (NSDQ: FCEL) and Capstone Turbine Corp (NSDQ: CPST), I could scarcely believe it. These were names that I had not heard in years, names that many investors would like to forget. Indeed, even with the recent run-up in their share prices, the value of these firms today is just a small fraction of what it was back then.

• [By Paul Ausick]

  Since the beginning of the year, fuel cell makers Plug Power Inc. (NASDAQ: PLUG) and FuelCell Energy Inc. (NASDAQ: FCEL) have posted share price gains of around 289% and 76%, respectively, with most of the spike coming since the middle of February. A year ago, Plug Power stock was trading at $0.25 on its way down to $0.15. The stock closed Monday night at $5.69, after peaking at $11.72 on March 10.

• [By James E. Brumley]

  Back on March 11th, yours truly opined that the wild bullishness that had carried names like ZBB Energy Corporation (NYSEMKT:ZBB), Plug Power Inc. (NASDAQ:PLUG), FuelCell Energy Inc. (NASDAQ:FCEL), and Ballard Power Systems Inc. (NASDAQ:BLDP) to triple digit gains (in just a few days) was coming to a close, and taking profits on any and all of these stocks would be a good idea. It was an idea that went over like a lead balloon, judging from the responses I got. How ridiculous of me to turn bearish on those names! FCEL, PLUG, ZBB, and BLDP were all flying high, and obviously since they soared over the course of the two weeks leading up to that date, they could only keep going higher forever.

• [By Monica Gerson]

  FuelCell Energy (NASDAQ: FCEL) tumbled 4.99% to $2.51 after falling 4.00% on Wednesday.

  Posted-In: market losersNews Movers & Shakers Intraday Update Markets

Hot Small Cap Companies To Buy Right Now: Hot Topic Inc.(HOTT)

Hot Topic, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, operates as a mall- and Web-based specialty retailer in the United States. The company operates Hot Topic and Torrid store concepts, as well as an e-space music discovery concept, ShockHound. Its Hot Topic stores sell music/pop culture-licensed merchandise, including tee shirts, hats, posters, stickers, patches, postcards, books, novelty accessories, CDs, and DVDs; and music/pop culture-influenced merchandise comprising women?s and men?s apparel and accessories, such as woven and knit tops, skirts, pants, shorts, jackets, shoes, costume jewelry, body jewelry, sunglasses, cosmetics, leather accessories, and gift items for young men and women primarily between the ages of 12 and 22. The company?s Torrid stores sells casual and dressy jeans and pants, fashion and novelty tops, sweaters, skirts, jackets, dresses, hosiery, shoes, intimate apparel, and fashion accessories for various lifestyles for plus-size females primarily betw een the ages of 15 and 29. As of July 30, 2011, it operated 636 Hot Topic stores in 50 states, Puerto Rico, and Canada; 145 Torrid stores; and Internet stores, hottopic.com and torrid.com. The company was founded in 1988 and is headquartered in City of Industry, California.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Marshall Hargrave]

  In May True Religion (TRGL) announced a buyout offer from TowerBrook Capital for $826 million. Also in May, Rue21 decided to sell itself to Apax Partners for $2.2 billion. Before that, in March, Hot Topic (HOTT) announced that Sycamore Partners was buying out it out for $600 million.

Hot Small Cap Companies To Buy Right Now: EZchip Semiconductor Limited(EZCH)

EZchip, a fabless semiconductor company, engages in the development and marketing of Ethernet network processors for networking equipment. Its products include network processor chips, evaluation boards and network-processor based systems, and development software toolkits. The company offers network processors for use in forming the silicon core of networking equipment, such as switches and routers; and for voice, video and data integration in various applications. Its network processors are single-chip solutions, which enable its customers to design multi-port line cards, such as processing and classification engines, traffic managers, media access controllers, as well as a range of specialized hardware blocks that accelerate various functions. The company offers Evaluation systems which enable customers to test NPU-based systems; and toolkits that assist customers in creating, verifying, and implementing solutions based on its network processors. It provides a library f eaturing data plane code for a range of applications, which include Metro Ethernet protocols, Multi-Protocol Label Switching, IPv4 and IPv6 routing, Access Control Lists, GPON/EPON OLT functionality, Network Address Translation, and Server Load Balancing. The company sells its products directly, and through contract manufacturers and distributors to network equipment vendors. It markets its products in Israel, China, Hong Kong, the Far East, Canada, the United States, and Europe. The company was formerly known as LanOptics Ltd. and changed its name to EZchip Semiconductor Ltd. in July 2008. EZchip Semiconductor Ltd. was founded in 1989 and is based in Yokneam, Israel.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Paul McWilliams]

  Paul McWilliams: Oh, absolutely. Another company that most investors probably have never heard of is a tiny little Israeli semiconductor company named EZChip (EZCH).

Best Growth Stocks For 2015

Best Growth Stocks For 2015: Nordstrom Inc.(JWN)

Nordstrom, Inc., a fashion specialty retailer, offers apparel, shoes, cosmetics, and accessories for women, men, and children in the United States. It offers a selection of brand name and private label merchandise. The company sells its products through various channels, including Nordstrom full-line stores, off-price Nordstrom Rack stores, Jeffrey? boutiques, treasure & bond, and Last Chance clearance stores; and its online store, nordstrom.com, as well as through catalog. Nordstrom also provides a private label card, two Nordstrom VISA credit cards, and a debit card for Nordstrom purchases. The company?s credit and debit cards feature a shopping-based loyalty program. As of September 30, 2011, it operated 222 stores, including 117 full-line stores, 101 Nordstrom Racks, 2 Jeffrey boutiques, 1 treasure & bond store, and 1 clearance store in 30 states. The company was founded in 1901 and is based in Seattle, Washington.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Dan Caplinger]

  On Tuesday, Ulta Salon, Cosmetics & Fragrance (NASDAQ: ULTA  ) will release its quarterly report, and shareholders haven't been able to recover from steep losses toward the end of 2013. But with department-store retailers Macy's (NYSE: M  ) and Nordstrom (NYSE: JWN  ) working hard to capture their own share of the beauty market, Ulta Salon will have to work even harder to woo customers into its doors and make the most of the opportunity once they arrive.

• [By Will Ashworth]

  In the same period, Nordstrom (JWN) has seen net income increase by 83% on a 46% jump in revenue. True, Nordstrom is luxury while Kohl’s isn’t, but Mansell has a lot of work regardless to do if he wants Kohl's to even be in the same league as Nordstrom from an operational standpoint.

• [By Rich Bieglmeier]

  [Relat! ed -Nordstrom, Inc. (JWN) Q4 Earnings Preview: Trends Say Strong Quarter, But So What!]

  A few brokers upped their opinions and price-targets on the fashion specialty retailer following the well-received announcement.

• [By Erin McCarthy]

  Nordstrom Inc.(JWN) said Thursday its fiscal first-quarter profit slipped 3.5%, but the high-end department-store operator’s earnings and sales still outpaced expectations. The company also said it will seek a financial partner for its Nordstrom credit card receivables, which totals approximately $2 billion.

source from Top Stocks For 2015:http://www.topstocksblog.com/best-growth-stocks-for-2015.html

5 Best Dow Dividend Stocks To Invest In 2014

Voices: High time to unrig the stock market

The bombshell that best-selling author Michael Lewis has dropped on Wall Street with his exposé of how high-frequency traders rig the stock market is having the impact he hoped for.

His new book, Flash Boys: A Wall Street Revolt, instantly became the talk of Wall Street. It has led to reports of FBI investigations, SEC rulemaking, investor relief.

It's high time. Investors large and small have suspected for some time that, as Lewis put it Sunday on CBS' 60 Minutes, the stock market is "rigged."

Ever since the market changes in 2007 that shifted stock trading to a new slew of electronic platforms — and certainly since the "flash crash" in May 2010, when the market suddenly dipped 600 points before bouncing back — it's been obvious to many investors that something is seriously wrong.

The heart of the problem? We've got "computers entirely replacing the people," as Lewis writes. Algorithms flash stock orders milliseconds before slower-moving customer orders. That allows the high-frequency traders to skim off profits by making buyers pay a little bit more.

Our idea of how the stock market works, with its picture of men in colored coats matching buy and sell orders, is hopelessly obsolete. "The world clings to its old mental picture of the stock market because it is comforting," Lewis writes, "because it is so hard to draw a picture of what has replaced it."

Hot Stocks To Watch Right Now

Michael Lewis, author.(Photo: handout)

Accompanying all the buzz about the book were some audible sighs of relief.

"We want to see a spotlight shined on this area, so the SEC can finally look at it," Meridian Equity Partners' Jon Corpina! told The Street. "So finally Washington can stand up and say, 'You know what, the market structure is broken, and we need to do something about it.' "

It's not that abuse and fraud on Wall Street are entirely new. High-frequency trading, it turns out, is just a high-tech version of front-running, a classic form of insider trading in which a broker buys the stock you have just ordered, so you have to buy it at a markup. (One difference: The high-tech version is apparently legal.)

Over the decades, regulators have been able to identify abuses, make rules outlawing them, track down violators and punish them.

But since the market shifted to warp speed, regulators have been trying to catch up with the smart guys via horse and buggy.

The few people who understood what was going on used the new technology for their own profit, rather than illuminating the rest of us.

That is, until the "revolt" Lewis cites in his title, when a small team of Wall Street insiders, led by a transplanted Canadian, Brad Katsuyama, nailed down what was happening. Lewis chronicles their detective work and how they set up their own trading platform, IEX, last October, with built-in safeguards to stymie high-frequency traders.

He notes that it is up to the big Wall Street banks to support efforts to keep things fair.

The regulators may lag the market, but that doesn't mean they have no role to play. Unless they keep digging and trying to fix things, too many unscrupulous players will continue to exploit flaws in the system.

Darrell Delamaide(Photo: H. Darr Beiser, USA Today)

By opening up the black box Wall Street has become, Lewis' book has lit a fire under the regulators and brought public pressure to bear on a p! roblem th! at has been neglected for far too long.

Darrell Delamaide has covered financial markets and economic policy from New York, Paris, Berlin and Washington. He writes a weekly column for USATODAY.com.

Does Risk Tolerance Merely Track the Market?

Do risk tolerance scores plummet to zero, then rise as the market recovers?

This commonly voiced suspicion in financial planning circles does not find support in a comprehensive study of risk tolerance.

But the evidence does show a link between market sentiment and changes in risk tolerance in a way that all but assures investor underperformance.

The new study, in the Journal of Financial Planning, is based on a sample of 341,782 individual risk tolerance scores covering period immediately before, during and after the global financial crisis — from January 2007 to May 2012.

Personal financial planning experts Michael Finke and Michael Guillemette combed through the data provided by risk tolerance questionnaire provider FinaMetrica, and arrived at a subtle distinction.

They found that estimates of client risk tolerance were not biased by current market conditions but observed changes in risk tolerance were broadly influenced by changing market conditions.

These estimates of risk tolerance, i.e. the questionnaires, showed stability. While the S&P 500 fell 51.70% from low to high during the financial crisis, the monthly risk tolerance surveys fell just 7.14%.

Whereas S&P 500 values exhibited a volatile standard deviation of 17.27%, the standard deviation for risk tolerance scores was just 1.86%.

And yet, despite these very different magnitudes between risk tolerance results and S&P 500 results, we find that risk tolerance surveys and the S&P 500 have a quite high correlation (.70) and risk tolerance surveys and are even more highly correlated with the bear market (.90).

With seemingly such close tracking, how are the survey estimates so much more stable than stock market returns?

A revealing table of standard deviation broken out by year provides a clue. As the market recovery took root, and stock values swung less wildly — S&P 500 standard deviation fell from 15.86% in 2008 to 4.48% in 2010 — client risk tolerance standard deviations little changed between those same years (1.60% and 1.55% respectively).

So, as the economic recovery proceeded, scarred investors revised attitudes quite slowly.

“When the stock market is falling, average monthly investor risk tolerance scores are strongly correlated with changes in the S&P 500,” the authors write. “However, when stock prices start to rise, changes in average risk tolerance seem to be largely uncorrelated with the market. 

The implication for financial planners is that investors seem to be willing to take market risk precisely when valuations become less favorable — when price-to-earnings ratios are high and dividend yields low.

The authors suggest this tendency found in risk tolerance questionnaires as a source for the short-term market volatility and long-term mean reversion in stock prices that has been theorized in academic finance studies.

In real-world terms, investors lose 1.56% in average annual returns as a result of this sentiment cycle.

So while market movements “are not likely to bias client risk tolerance scores,” the personal financial planning experts say their appetite for risk will vary through market cycles, influencing them to seek safety after periods of market declines.

The authors’ conclusion:

“Employing a long-run strategy that reduces the temptation to buy high and sell low can be a significant source of value provided by a financial planner.”

---

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10 Best Internet Stocks To Own Right Now

Internet Software & Services has been the place to be in 2013. In addition to Shutterstock (SSTK), just take a look at these constituents of this red-hot sub-industry: Pandora Media (P), Facebook (FB), j2 Global (JCOM), Yelp (YELP), CoStar Group (CSGP),LinkedIn (LNKD), etc. The list of superb stocks in the Internet Software & Services space goes on and on. Focusing on stocks in the top-performing sub-industries usually helps bullish trades, so today, let's take a closer look at Shutterstock Inc for a short-term long trade.

While the 176.61 percent YTD figure on SSTK is a cause for concern, the stock's technical chart on a daily basis presents a favorable entry opportunity and enough upside to take a shot on this high-flyer. SSTK doesn't report earnings until Nov. 14, so there is no reason to expect heightened volatility until then, despite the weekly chart being extended. SSTK went through a modest consolidation phase from mid-July through early September, but has since made a strong push to the upside, breaking through old resistance and establishing another leg higher on its long-term up-trend.

10 Best Internet Stocks To Own Right Now: eBay Inc.(EBAY)

eBay Inc. provides online platforms, services, and tools to help individuals and merchants in online and mobile commerce and payments in the United States and internationally. Its Marketplaces segment operates ecommerce platform eBay.com; vertical shopping sites, such as StubHub, Fashion, Motors, and Half.com; and classifieds Websites, including Den Bl�Avis, BilBasen, Gumtree, Kijiji, LoQUo, Marktplaats.nl, mobile.de, Alamaula, Rent.com, eBay Anuncios, eBay Kleinanzeigen, and eBay Annunci, as well as provides advertising services. The company?s Payments segment offers payment and settlement services for consumers and merchants on and off eBay Websites and other merchant Websites. This segment operates PayPal, which enables individuals and businesses to send and receive payments online and through mobile devices; Bill Me Later that enables the United States merchants to offer, the United States consumers to obtain, credit at the point of sale for ecommerce and mobile tra nsactions; Zong, which allows users with mobile phones to purchase digital goods and have the transactions charged to their phone bill; and BillSAFE that enables customers pay for purchases upon receipt of an invoice. Its GSI segment offers an ecommerce services suite for enterprise clients that operate in general merchandise categories, including apparel, sporting goods, toys and baby, health and beauty, and home; and marketing services comprising full-service digital agency, enterprise email marketing, mobile advertising, affiliate marketing, advertisement retargeting, and in-depth analytics services. The company also offers X.commerce platform that provides software developers access to the company?s applications programming interfaces to develop functionality for various merchants; and Magento Connect, which allows developers to market and sell add-on functionality and solutions to merchants that use a Magento storefront. eBay Inc. was founded in 1995 and is headquarter ed in San Jose, California.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By MONEYMORNING.COM]

  The CEO of e-commerce giant eBay Inc. (Nasdaq: EBAY), John Donahoe, told CNBC last week he doesn't necessarily see Bitcoin as a threat to the company's PayPal service.

• [By Dimitra DeFotis]

  Among other retail stocks this morning, shares in the online world are moving at a faster clip than brick-and-mortar stores: �Ebay (EBAY) is up nearly 2% this morning just after the open, while Amazon.com (AMZN) is up about 1.2%. Higher-end retailers�Coach (COH), Tiffany (TIF)�and Nordstrom (JWN) are up less than a point. Shares of�Wal-Mart Stores�(WMT), T.J. Maxx/Marshalls parent TJX Companies (TJX), and�Target (TGT) were each up about half a point.

• [By WWW.DAILYFINANCE.COM]

  Alamy SAN FRANCISCO -- Apple (AAPL) has cut in half the time it takes to give refunds to online store customers who want to return their iPhones and other gadgets, a small but crucial step to try to get more people to buy direct from its website. The move is a big upfront expense on Apple's part, but could pay off in the long run if the company can lure online customers away from retailers such as Amazon.com (AMZN) and Best Buy (BBY), industry experts say. According to retail-intelligence firm StellaService, customers who buy a product from Apple's online store can get a refund in under a week, versus 10 days previously. Apple is processing refunds at a faster rate because the company now uses an expedited service, FedEx 2Day, to let customers ship returned items with prepaid labels to its warehouse in three days. StellaService researchers first noted the improvement in refund processing times in November, but chalked it up to a temporary measure for the busy holiday season. The company, which orders items from Apple's website several times a day for research purposes, also discovered that packages were stamped with FedEx 2Day, rather than a Newgistics prepaid label. A source with knowledge of the new procedure confirmed that customers will incur no additional cost. "This is the first time we're seeing an investment like this on the returns side," Kevon Hills, StellaService's vice president of research, told Reuters. StellaService does business with Amazon-owned Zappos, but declined to disclose whether its customer base included Apple, Amazon or eBay (EBAY). Amazon remains the frontrunner in online retail, but the race is heating up. Trade publication Internet Retailer estimated that Apple recently took the No. 2 spot from Staples (SPLS) in worldwide sales. These rankings don't include sales by third parties. Apple experienced a 24 percent increase in online sales to $18.3 billion in 2013, Internet Retailer estimated. E-commerce experts say Apple

10 Best Internet Stocks To Own 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 John Kell]

  IAC/InterActiveCorp(IACI). said its fourth-quarter earnings jumped 89% as the Internet firm managed to offset a decline in search and media revenue with cost cutting. Revenue missed estimates, sending shares down 5.6% to $65 in light premarket trading.

10 Best Solar Stocks To Own Right Now: 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 WWW.DAILYFINANCE.COM]

  Julie Jacobson/APYahoo CEO Marissa Mayer SAN FRANCISCO -- Yahoo (YHOO) is still prospering from its lucrative investments in Asia while the Internet company's listless advertising sales are picking up, if ever so slightly, under CEO Marissa Mayer. The positive signs in the Yahoo's first-quarter report overshadowed a 20 percent decline in the company's earnings during the opening three months of the year. The results released Tuesday highlight the contrasting performances of Yahoo's investment portfolio and the company's main business of running ad-supported online services. Yahoo Inc. is making most of its money from its holdings in two Asian Internet companies -- China's Alibaba Group and Yahoo Japan. Meanwhile, the Sunnyvale, Calif., company has been struggling to sell more ads, even as marketers divert more of their budgets to the Internet. Most of those digital dollars, though, have been flowing toward Google (GOOG), the Internet's search leader, and Facebook (FB), the online social networking leader. Yahoo's share of the worldwide market for digital advertising is expected to shrink to 2.5 percent this year, down from 3.4 percent in 2012, while Google's share climbs to 33 percent and Facebook's share rises to 8 percent, according to the research firm eMarketer. A 24 percent stake in Alibaba has turned into Yahoo's crown jewel as the Chinese company prepares to go public on the New York Stock Exchange later this year. Since selling Yahoo its stake for $1 billion in 2005, Alibaba has built a massive e-commerce network that caters to businesses and consumers in the world's most populous country. Yahoo's report provided that latest tantalizing peek at how rapidly Alibaba has been growing. The numbers covered Alibaba's fourth quarter from last year because there is a three-month lag before Yahoo books its portion of Alibaba's income. Alibaba's fourth-quarter earnings more than doubled from the previous year to $1.35 billion while its revenue surged

• [By Douglas A. McIntyre]

  Equally difficult as the issue of editorial independence is what will happen to joint ventures between Time Inc. magazine online operations and CNN.com. As an example, for many years, Fortune.com and Money.com have been under the umbrella of CNNMoney.com. Neither of these Time Inc. properties has any traffic of its own to speak of. Time Inc. will need to not only build independent Web operations for Fortune and Money (sources say that this process will begin in late May), it will need to drive readers to them in the extremely crowded online business and financial sector. This sector includes the financial content sites of the AOL Inc. (NYSE: AOL), Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO) and MSN, as well as the sites of news services Reuters and Bloomberg. It should be pointed out that Time Inc. and CNN did severe their Sports Illustrated partnership in the second quarter of 2012, apparently with satisfactory results for Time, Inc.

10 Best Internet Stocks To Own Right Now: Amazon.com Inc.(AMZN)

Amazon.com, Inc. operates as an online retailer in North America and internationally. It operates retail Web sites, including amazon.com and amazon.ca. The company serves consumers through its retail Web sites and focuses on selection, price, and convenience. It also offers programs that enable sellers to sell their products on its Web sites, and their own branded Web sites. In addition, the company serves developer customers through Amazon Web Services, which provides access to technology infrastructure that developers can use to enable virtually various type of business. Further, it manufactures and sells the Kindle e-reader. Additionally, the company provides fulfillment; miscellaneous marketing and promotional agreements, such as online advertising; and co-branded credit cards. Amazon.com, Inc. was founded in 1994 and is headquartered in Seattle, Washington.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Jason Moser]

  Amazon.com (NASDAQ: AMZN  )
  This is a polarizing stock thanks to its lofty valuation and a leader who seems to really like spending money. I understand the concern some have that Jeff Bezos has too many things going on and is taking his eye off the proverbial ball. However, I choose to see it differently. In fact, I think that Amazon and Bezos really only have one iron in the fire, and that's the company's stated mission: "We seek to be Earth's most customer-centric company for four primary customer sets: consumers, sellers, enterprises, and content creators."

• [By Louis Navellier]

  There is tendency among most investors to want to own the hot well known stocks, like Amazon (AMZN) and eBay (EBAY).

  There is a certain comfort factor in owing the same stocks everyone else does, and companies like EBAY and AMZN that are being talked about every day on the financial new networks.�That�� not necessarily a bad thing, as many of the really hot stocks are those that have the type of superior fundamentals that attract buying pressure form the large institutions and hedge funds.

10 Best Internet Stocks To Own Right Now: Symantec Corporation(SYMC)

Symantec Corporation provides security, storage, and systems management solutions internationally. The company?s Consumer segment delivers Internet security, PC tune-up, and online backup solutions and services to individual users and home offices. Its Security and Compliance segment provides solutions for endpoint security and management, compliance, messaging management, data loss prevention, encryption, and authentication services to large, medium, and small-sized businesses, as well as offers solutions through its software-as-a-service (SaaS) security offerings. This segment?s products enable customers to secure, provision, and remotely manage their laptops, PCs, mobile devices, and servers. The company?s Storage and Server Management segment provides storage and server management, backup, archiving, and data protection solutions across heterogeneous storage and server platforms, as well as solutions delivered through its SaaS offerings to large, medium, and small-s ized businesses. Symantec?s Services segment offers implementation services and solutions, including consulting, business critical services, education, and managed security services. The company also provides various enterprise support offerings, such as annual maintenance support contracts, including content, upgrades, and technical support. It sells its products through its eCommerce platform, as well as through distributors, direct marketers, Internet-based resellers, system builders, ISPs, and retail locations worldwide. Symantec markets and sells its products through distributors, retailers, direct marketers, Internet-based resellers, original equipment manufacturers, system builders, and Internet service providers; and its e-commerce channels, as well as direct sales force, value-added and large account resellers, and system integrators. The company was founded in 1982 and is headquartered in Mountain View, California.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Tom Taulli]

  In a sudden move, Symantec (SYMC) has terminated its CEO, Steve Bennett. And Wall Street is definitely concerned, as SYMC stock is off about 12% in today�� trading.

10 Best Internet Stocks To Own Right Now: Google Inc.(GOOG)

Google Inc. maintains an index of Web sites and other online content for users, advertisers, and Google network members and other content providers. It offers AdWords, an auction-based advertising program; AdSense program, which enables Web sites that are part of the Google Network to deliver ads from its AdWords advertisers; Google Display, a display advertising network that comprises the videos, text, images, and other interactive ads; DoubleClick Ad Exchange, a real-time auction marketplace for the trading of display ad space; and YouTube that provides video, interactive, and other ad formats for advertisers. The company also provides Google Mobile that optimizes Google?s applications for mobile devices in browser and downloadable form; and enables advertisers to run search ad campaigns on mobile devices, as well as Google Local that provides local information on the Web; and Google Boost for small businesses to participate in the ads auction. In addition, it offers And roid, an open source mobile software platform; Google Chrome OS, an open source operating system; Google Chrome, a Web browser; Google TV, a platform for the consumers to use the television and the Internet on a single screen; and Google Books platform to discover, search, and consume content from printed books online. Further, the company provides Google Apps, a cloud computing suite of message and collaboration tools, which includes Gmail, Google Docs, Google Calendar, and Google Sites; Google Search Appliance that offers real-time search of business and intranet applications, and public Web sites; Google Site Search, a custom search engine; Google Commerce Search for online retail enterprises; Google Checkout to make online shopping and payments streamlined and secure; Google Maps Application Programming Interface; and Google Earth Enterprise, a firewall software solution for imagery and data visualization. Google Inc. was founded in 1998 and is headquartered in Mountain View, California.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By MONEYMORNING]

  This microchip player's existing businesses are zooming along at 40% and 50% annual rates. And the firm just announced a pact with Internet-search giant heavyweight Google Inc. (Nasdaq: GOOG), which we'll find out more about at the massive Consumer Electronics Show (CES) opening in Las Vegas Tuesday.