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.