Saturday, June 20, 2015

Top Computer Hardware Stocks To Invest In Right Now

Top Computer Hardware Stocks To Invest In Right Now: Imation Corp (IMN)

Imation Corp. (Imation) is a global scalable storage and data security company. The Company's portfolio includes tiered storage and security offerings for business and products designed to manage audio and video information in the home. The Company's global brand portfolio includes the Imation brand, the Memorex brand, the XtremeMac and MXI Security brands. Imation is also the exclusive licensee of the TDK Life on Record brand. Its three product categories include traditional storage, secure and scalable storage, and audio and video information. It operates in four geographic segments: Americas, Europe, North Asia and South Asia. On February 28, 2011, it acquired all of the assets of Encryptx Corporation. On June 4, 2011, it acquired the assets of MXI Security, from Memory Experts International Inc. On October 4, 2011 it acquired the secure data storage hardware assets of IronKey Systems Inc. In December 2011, it acquired the data deduplication technology from Nine Tec hnology.

The Americas segment includes North America, Central America and South America. The Europe segment includes Europe and parts of Africa. North Asia segment includes Japan, China, Hong Kong, Korea and Taiwan. The South Asia segment includes Australia, Singapore, India, the Middle East and parts of Africa.

Imation brand products include magnetic tape media, recordable compact discs (CDs), digital versatile Discs (DVDs) and Blu-ray discs, flash products and hard disk drives. The Imation brand includes the DataGuard Data Protection Appliances, InfiniVault Storage appliances and removable disk technology (RDX) removable hard disk storage systems. Imation Defender products include secure storage flash drives and external hard drives. Imation brand products are sold throughout the worldwide and target the commercial user and i! ndividual consumer. Imation Defender products include secure storage flash drives and external hard drives. TDK Life on Reco rd brand products include recordable CDs, DVDs and Blu-ray d! iscs, flash drives, tape cartridges, headphones and computer speakers which are sold to commercial customers and individual consumers. TDK Life on Record brand products is sold throughout the world.

XtremeMac brand products include cases, chargers and audio solutions to protect, power and play Apple iPad, iPod, iPhone and other devices. XtremeMac products are developed for Apple enthusiasts and are available worldwide. Its MXI Security brand includes secure storage flash drives and external hard drives, as well as software solutions to help manage portable security devices on the network.

Traditional Storage

The Company's optical media products consist of CDs, DVDs and Blu-ray recordable media. It sells Blu-ray discs, which are used primarily for recording high-definition video content. Its recordable optical media products are sold through a variety of retail and commercial distribution channels and sourced from manufacturers primari ly in Taiwan and India. Optical storage capacities range from 650 megabyte CD-R (recordable) and CD-RW (rewritable) optical discs to 9.4 gigabyte double-sided DVD optical discs and Blu-ray discs with 25 gigabyte to 100 gigabyte of capacity. Its optical media is sold throughout the world under brands it owns or controls, including Imation, Memorex and TDK Life on Record and under a distribution agreement for the Hewlett Packard brand.

The Company's magnetic tape media products are used for back-up, business and operational continuity planning, disaster recovery, near-line data storage and retrieval and for mass and archival storage. Other traditional storage products include primarily optical drives and audio and video tape media.

Secure and Scalable Storage

Secure storage products and software include univ! ersal ser! ial bus (USB) flash drives and external hard drives designed to meet the security standards to protect data at rest with F ederal Information Processing Standard (FIPS) validation, pa! ssword an! d biometric authentication, including biometric USB drives, encrypted and biometric hard disk drives, secure portable desktop solutions and software solutions. It also sells standard USB flash drives and external hard disk drives throughout the world under its Imation, Memorex and TDK Life on Record brands. It sources these products from manufacturers primarily in Asia and the United States and sell them through a variety of retail and commercial distribution channels around the world. Scalable storage products include data protection appliances, such as DataGuard network attached storage backup appliances and InfiniVault active archive appliances.

Audio and Video Information

The Company's audio and video information products include Apple iPad, iPod and iPhone accessories, headphones, CD players, alarm clocks, portable boom boxes, moving picture experts group layer-3 audio (MP3) players, and speakers sold under the Memorex, TDK Life on Record and XtremeMac brands. It designs products to meet user needs and source these products from manufacturers throughout Asia.

The Company competes with Maxell, JVC, Sony, Verbatim, Fuji, HP, SanDisk, Lexar, PNY and Kingston.

Advisors' Opinion:
  • [By John Udovich]

    As cyber theft and hacking continues to grow, mir or small cap stocks like Splunk Inc (NASDAQ: SPLK), Imation Corp (NYSE: IMN) and Staffing 360 Solutions Inc (OTCBB: STAF) are some overlooked, indirect or just plain interesting plays on cybersecurity that investors might want to take note of:

  • [By Geoff Gannon] g>4. Tuesday Morning (TUES)
    5. Pacific Biosciences (PACB)
    6. Maxygen (MAXY)
    7. Westell (WSTL)
    8. Volt Information Sciences (VISI)
    9. Yasheng Group (YHGG)

    I don't love that list. I like the 1! 4 past pi! cks in the Ben Graham Net-Net Newsletter's model portfolio much better. The newsletter only owns 1 of those 9 net-nets. Remember, we have 9 net-nets out of the 14 picked for the newsletter that are trading below where we picked them. So, obviously I like those 9 net-nets a lot better than these 9 net-nets.

    Like I said, I wouldn't encourage you to buy those nine net-nets shown here — even if you're looking to put a lot of money into net-nets. Instead you should look at your favorite net-nets — or the net-nets in the Ben Graham: Net-Net Newsletter — and use them as a buy list you are constantly placing orders from month after month.

    Building a diversified collection of net-net through many months of purchasing is a better way to invest a lot of money in net-nets than trying to focus on the biggest net-nets.

    Read Geoff's Other Articles
    Ask Geoff a Question
    Check out the Buffe

  • source from Top Stocks For 2015:http://www.topstocksblog.com/top-computer-hardware-stocks-to-invest-in-right-now.html

Thursday, June 18, 2015

National Advisors Trust to Provide Trust Services for Mercer Advisors

National Advisors Trust Company, which claims to be the nation’s largest independent RIA-owned trust company, announced Monday that it has been chosen by Mercer Advisors to provide trust and trustee services for its clients.

NATC was founded in 2001 and $8 billion in assets under administration through 135 RIA firms throughout the United States. Mercer, founded in 1985, has $4.5 billion in assets under management for 3,700 clients in branch offices in 15 cities.

“We chose NATC to be our provider because they have excellent trust services and a unique business model that allows Mercer Advisors to continue to enhance and preserve client relationships,” Dave Barton, resident and CEO of Mercer Advisors, said in a statement. “NATC’s trust and trustee services are comprehensive, and they do not compete with advisors. We’ve received numerous requests from clients for trustee services, and are looking forward to using NATC’s offering. It’s a natural fit for our needs and for the needs of our clients.”

Jim Combs, CEO of NATC, added “The model of combining an RIA like Mercer Advisors with a national trust company that provides conflict-free trust administration services, is a more attractive wealth management solution when compared to other trust services options on the market today. NATC trust solutions offer RIAs the flexibility and customization they need to meet the diverse needs of their client base, while trust services offered by large bank trust companies are becoming increasingly inflexible, often requiring high asset minimums and lacking a personalized approach.”

“Clearly, being principally owned by RIAs, we understand the RIAs’ need to be able to offer a wide range of personalized trust services,” Combs continued. “RIAs want to be named in trust documents as the investment advisor so they can honor clients’ requests to continue managing client assets when assets pass to family members. That kind of continuity and high-touch service can only be achieved by working with a non-competitive trust partner like NATC.  We see this trend growing, and expect it to continue in the coming decade.”

Wednesday, June 17, 2015

Hot Wireless Telecom Stocks To Watch For 2016

Hot Wireless Telecom Stocks To Watch For 2016: Ruckus Wireless Inc (RKUS)

Ruckus Wireless, Inc (Ruckus), incorporated August 19, 2002, is a provider of Wi-Fi solutions. The Companys solutions, which it calls Smart Wi-Fi, are used by service providers and enterprises to solve network challenges. The Companys products include gateways, controllers and access points. These products incorporate its technologies, including Smart Radio, Smart QoS, Smart Mesh, SmartCell and Smart Scaling. The Company sells its products to service providers and enterprises globally, and as of December 31, 2012, had sold its products to over 21,700 end-customers worldwide. During 2012, the Company added over 10,100 new end-customers. The Companys enterprise end-customers are typically mid-sized organizations in a variety of industries, including hospitality, education, healthcare, warehousing and logistics, corporate enterprise, retail, state and local government and public venues, such as stadiums, convention centers, airports and outdoor public areas. Effectiv e July 23, 2013, Ruckus Wireless Inc acquired YFind Technologies Pte Ltd.

The Company sells directly and indirectly to a range of service providers, including mobile operators, cable companies, wholesale operators and fixed-line carriers. As of December 31, 2012, the Company had over 65 service provider end-customers, including Bright House Networks, The Cloud (a BSkyB Company), KDDI, Tikona Digital Networks, Time Warner Cable and Towerstream. The Companys Smart Wi-Fi solutions are marketed under the SmartCell, ZoneDirector, ZoneFlex and FlexMaster brands and include a range of indoor and outdoor access points (APs), long range point-to-point and point-to-multipoint bridges, wireless local area network (LAN), controllers, network management software and gateway systems with integrated advanced wireless software.

The Companys core Smart Wi-Fi technologies include Smart Radio, Smart QoS, Smart Mesh, SmartCell and Smart Scaling. Smart ! Radio is a set of advanced hardware and software capabilities that automatically adjust Wi-Fi signals to changes in environmental conditions. A primary component of Smart Radio technology is BeamFlex, a smart antenna system that makes Wi-Fi signals stronger by focusing them only where they are needed and dynamically steering them in directions that yield the highest throughput for each receiving device. Another component is ChannelFly, a performance optimization capability that automatically determines, which radio frequencies or channels deliver the network throughput based on actual observed capacity, a key benefit for high-density, noisy Wi-Fi environments.

Smart QoS is a software technology that manages traffic load to enhance the user experience. Smart QoS was developed to handle the increasing volumes of voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) and streaming video traffic. Smart QoS offers automatic prioritization of different traffic types through intelligent analytics t hat classify, prioritize and schedule traffic for transmission. Smart QoS employs advanced queuing techniques and dedicated software queues on a per device basis to ensure fairness and optimize overall system performance. Smart QoS includes its band steering, rate limiting, client load balancing and airtime fairness techniques.

Smart Mesh is software technology that uses advanced self-organizing network principles to create Wi-Fi backbone links between access points. Smart Mesh automatically establishes wireless connections between individual access points using patented smart antenna technology and self-heals in the event of a failed link.

SmartCell is a key technology behind the Companys SmartCell Gateway platform that integrates software and specialized hardware deployed at the edge of service provider networks to facilitate the integration of Wi-Fi and cellular infrastructures. SmartCell includes a set of modular software components ,as well as standard network interfaces into the mobile! core tha! t enable Wi-Fi to become a standard access mechanism for service providers. Management components provide configuration, user management, analytics, accounting and other operational and maintenance functions.

Smart Scaling uses advanced database management techniques to enable the support of hundreds of thousands to millions of client devices across the Wi-Fi network. Smart Scaling employs intelligent data distribution techniques to extend client information, statistics and other vital user information across any number of nodes within the system without a single point of failure and with linear scalability. Smart Scaling is incorporated in its purpose-built hardware and software, making it capable of supporting hundreds of thousands of access points and user session workloads at the scale required by service providers.

SmartCell Gateway is a platform that integrates software and specialized har dware deployed at the edge of service provider networks to facilitate the integration of Wi-Fi and cellular infrastructures. The Companys SmartCell Gateway is designed to be vendor-agnostic and can control third-party APs. SmartCell Gateway provides standard-based interfaces into existing and future mobile networks to simplify integration.

SmartCell access point addresses the capacity and density needs of service providers deploying networks within urban environments. SmartCell APs employ modular multimode architecture to enable service providers to deploy Wi-Fi, 3G/4G small cell cellular technology and Wi-Fi mesh backhaul within a single device. This provides operators with the ability to enhance and extend their macro networks, injecting much needed capacity into high traffic user environments with the flexibility to deploy Wi-Fi with Smart Mesh backhaul and upgrade to Wi-Fi with 3G/LTE when and where desired without any mounting or backhaul changes.

The Companys ZoneDirector Smart WLAN controllers use a intuitive Web user interface to make configuration a! nd admini! stration extremely simple. This software includes a variety of advanced capabilities such as adaptive meshing, integrated client performance tools, authentication support, simplified guest access and user policy, wireless intrusion prevention, automatic traffic redirection, integrated Wi-Fi client performance tools and robust network management. ZoneFlex access points incorporate BeamFlex adaptive antenna array technology to deliver robust Wi-Fi performance, reliability and capacity. These devices support multiple virtual wireless LANs, Wi-Fi encryption and advanced traffic handling. The Companys ZoneFlex outdoor Smart Wi-Fi access points and point-to-point and multipoint bridges can be deployed as stand-alone APs or be centrally managed.

In addition to the Companys hardware products, the Company also sells software products. FlexMa ster is a Linux-based Wi-Fi management service platform used by enterprises and service providers to monitor and administrate networks. FlexMaster provides configuration, fault detection, audit, performance management and optimization of remote Ruckus access points or wireless LAN controllers. It offers a single point for management and a number of automated and customized facilities such as an intuitive dashboard. FlexMaster is designed to operate with existing operational support system and features tiered administration to provide managed wireless LAN or cloud-based wireless services.

The Company competes with Cisco Systems, Ericsson; Hewlett-Packard, Motorola and Aruba Networks.

Advisors' Opinion:
  • [By Rick Munarriz]

    Monday
    The market kicks off a new trading week with Ruckus Wireless (NYSE: RKUS  ) reporting quarterly results on Monday. The provider of wireless systems for the mobile Internet infrastructure market went public in November at $15. It moved lower initially, but the stock has crept into the high teens ahead of Monday's report.

  • [By Garrett Cook]

    Toward the end ! of tradin! g Friday, the Dow traded down 0.60 percent to 16,947.43 while the NASDAQ declined 0.75 percent to 4,557.59. The S&P also fell, dropping 0.83 percent to 1,980.97.

    Leading and Lagging Sectors Cyclical consumer goods & services shares fell by just 0.50 percent in trading on Friday. Top gainers in the sector included ULTA Salon, Cosmetics & Fragrance NASDAQ: (ULTA), up 17.5 percent, and 1-800-Flowers.com (NASDAQ: FLWS), up 4.5 percent. In trading on Friday, utilities shares were relative laggards, down on the day by about 1.89 percent. Meanwhile, top decliners in the sector included Companhia Energética de Minas Gerais - CEMIG (NYSE: CIG), down 4.7 percent, and CPFL Energia SA (NYSE: CPL), off 4.3 percent. Top Headline Darden Restaurants (NYSE: DRI) reported better-than-expected fiscal first quarter earnings. The Orlando, Florida-based company reported a quarterly loss of $19.3 million, or $0.14 per share, versus a year-ago profit of $42.2 million, or $0.32 per share. Excluding non-recurring items, the company earned $0.32 per share. Its sales surged to $1.6 billion versus $1.53 billion. However, analysts were expecting earnings of $0.30 per share on revenue of $1.6 billion. Equities Trading UP Conversant (NASDAQ: CNVR) shares shot up 30.25 percent to $34.79 after Alliance Data Systems (NYSE: ADS) announced its plans to buy Conversant for $35 per share. Shares of ULTA Salon, Cosmetics & Fragrance (NASDAQ: ULTA) got a boost, shooting up 17.69 percent to $114.72 after the company reported upbeat second-quarter results and raised its outlook. The company also unveiled a five-year plan for impressive growth. Sportsman's Warehouse Holdings (NASDAQ: SPWH) shares were also up, gaining 15.89 percent to $7.00 after the company reported stronger-than-expected fiscal second-quarter results. Equities Trading DOWN Shares of Ruckus Wireless (NASDAQ: RKUS) were down 5.19 percent to $14.35. Buckingham
  • [By Garrett Cook]

    Shares of Ruckus Wireless! (NASDAQ:! RKUS) were down 5.09 percent to $14.36. Buckingham Research downgraded Ruckus Wireless from Buy to Neutral and raised the price target from $15.00 to $16.00.

  • source from Top Penny Stocks For 2015:http://www.seekpennystocks.com/hot-wireless-telecom-stocks-to-watch-for-2016.html

Sunday, June 14, 2015

Hot Information Technology Stocks To Own For 2015

This year has shaped out to be quite kind for equity investors as bullish price action remains the dominant theme on Wall Street. iShares is looking to take advantage of all the euphoria with their latest product launch aimed at investors in search of �a ��ore��holding to fill out their portfolio�� equity component; the latest addition to the issuer�� towering lineup of nearly 300 exchange-traded products is the MSCI USA Quality Factor ETF (QUAL) .�

What Is ��uality��The newly launched QUAL is actually a twist on an existing benchmark, the broad MSCI USA Index.��The iShares fund takes a factor-based approach in trimming down the starting universe by employing a series of fundamental metrics screens to narrow down only the highest-quality of companies. The methodology behind QUAL is based on three metrics of quality: high return on equity, stable year-over-year EPS growth, as well as low debt-to-equity .

The result is a portfolio comprised of roughly 125 U.S. large and mid-cap securities with a tilt towards the consumer discretionary, energy, and information technology sectors. QUAL is expected to be seeded with Arizona State Retirement System funds, similar to the three other factor-based ETFs that the firm rolled out this past April which are also based around the MSCI USA Index. QUAL is also expected to charge 0.15% in annual expense fees, similar to the previously mentioned sister ETFs which are:

5 Best Trucking Stocks For 2016: Astec Industries Inc.(ASTE)

Astec Industries, Inc. engages in the design, engineering, manufacture, and marketing of equipment and components for road building, utility, and related construction activities worldwide. The company?s Asphalt Group segment offers hot-mix asphalt plants, concrete mixing plants, and related components; heating and heat transfer processing equipment; and thermal fluid storage tanks for asphalt paving and other non-related industries. Its Aggregate and Mining Group segment provides jaw, cone, and impact crushers; vibrating feeders; inclined and horizontal screens; various crushing plants; digital crusher controllers; aggregate and ore processing equipment; mobile screening plants; screen structures; vibrating screens; stationary rockbreaker systems; articulated production and utility vehicles; hydraulic breakers; compactors; demolition attachments; and bulk material handling and minerals processing equipment primarily for the aggregate, metallic mining, and recycling market s. The company?s Mobile Asphalt Paving Group segment provides asphalt pavers, asphalt material transfer vehicles, milling machines, and asphalt reclaiming and soil stabilizing machinery; asphalt paver screeds; windrow pickup machines; asphalt rollers and screeds primarily for road construction markets; and dirt and asphalt compaction equipment. Its Underground Group segment produces heavy-duty trenchers, compact horizontal directional drills, high pressure diesel powered pump trailers; maxi drills, auger boring machines, and down-hole tooling for these units; and vertical drills, water well drills, oil and gas drilling rigs, material handling trailers, and tools for the oil and gas, geothermal, and water well industries. The company also offers whole-tree pulpwood chippers, biomass chippers, horizontal grinders, and blower trucks. Astec Industries, Inc. sells its products through sales agents, distributors, and dealers. The company was founded in 1972 and is based in Chatta nooga, Tennessee.

Advisors' Opinion:
  • [By James E. Brumley]

    What do Prospect Capital Corporation (NASDAQ:PSEC), Astec Industries, Inc. (NASDAQ:ASTE), and First Financial Corp. (NASDAQ:THFF) have in common? Not much, on the surface. In fact, were it not for something very specific to one particular person (me), they'd have nothing in common at all. This week though, THFF, ASTE, and PSEC all have at least one thing in common, and that's the fact that they're all going into my mental/hypothetical portfolio.

  • [By GURUFOCUS]


    John Maynard Keyes once opined: ��uccessful Investing is anticipating the anticipation of others.��That notion applies in spades when it comes to theme investing. Typically, a stock moves upwards long before its improvement in earnings comes to fruition. Warren Buffett colorfully observed: ��f you wait for the robins, spring will be over.��Should an investor wait for an earnings confirmation to validate his/her theory, then the time to invest will have already passed. I will end today�� discussion by profiling two successful investments I made in high quality cyclical companies during the period of the mid-2000s. The companies are: Maverick Tube (formerly MVK) and Astec (ASTE).

Hot Information Technology Stocks To Own For 2015: Marchex Inc.(MCHX)

Marchex, Inc. operates as a call advertising and small business marketing company. The company?s products, services, and technologies enable advertisers to reach consumers across mobile, online, and offline sources. It offers call advertising products and services to national advertisers, advertising agencies, and small advertiser reseller partners, which include pay-for-call through the Marchex Pay-For-Call Exchange and call analytics solutions comprising phone number and call tracking, call mining, keyword-level tracking, click-to-call, Website proxying, and other call-based products that enable customers to utilize mobile, online, and offline advertising. The company also offers small business marketing products that enable reseller partners of small business advertisers, such as Yellow Pages providers and vertical marketing service providers to sell call advertising and/or search marketing products through their existing sales channels, which are fulfilled across the c ompany?s distribution network, such as mobile sources, search engines, and traffic sources. In addition, it offers pay-per-click advertising to online users in response to their keyword search queries or on pages they visit throughout the company?s distribution network of search engines, shopping engines, third party verticals, local Websites, mobile distribution, and publishing network. Further, the company offers publishing network, which includes the company?s owned and operated Websites that help users to make decisions about the availability of local products and services. The Websites in the company?s publishing network include small business listings, as well as expert and user-generated reviews on small businesses. Marchex, Inc., through its products and services distributes advertisements from various advertisers and its reseller partners? advertisers. The company was founded in 2003 and is headquartered in Seattle, Washington.

Advisors' Opinion:
  • [By Roberto Pedone]

     

    Marchex (MCHX) operates as a mobile and call advertising technology company in the U.S. and Canada. This stock closed up 5.8% to $4.19 in Tuesday's trading session.

     

    Tuesday's Range: $3.94-$4.35

    52-Week Range: $3.92-$12.84

    Tuesday's Volume: 1.35 million

    Three-Month Average Volume: 501,856

     

    From a technical perspective, MCHX ripped higher here right above its new 52-week low of $3.92 with heavy upside volume flows. This stock recently gapped down sharply from just over $7.50 to below $4 with heavy downside volume. Following that move, shares of MCHX have now started to rebound off that $3.92 low and it's quickly moving within range of triggering a major breakout trade. That trade will hit if MCHX manages to clear its gap-down-day high of $4.50 with high volume.

     

    Traders should now look for long-biased trades in MCHX as long as it's trending above its new 52-week low of $3.92 and then once it sustains a move or close above $4.50 with volume that hits near or above 501,856 shares. If that breakout triggers soon, then MCHX will set up to re-fill some of its previous gap-down-day zone that started just above $7.50.

     

  • [By Seth Jayson]

    Marchex (Nasdaq: MCHX  ) reported earnings on May 8. Here are the numbers you need to know.

    The 10-second takeaway
    For the quarter ended March 31 (Q1), Marchex beat expectations on revenues and beat expectations on earnings per share.

Hot Information Technology Stocks To Own For 2015: Envision Healthcare Holdings Inc (EVHC)

Envision Healthcare Holdings, Inc., incorporated on February 28, 2011, is a provider of physician-led, outsourced medical services in the United States. The Company offers a range of clinically-based and coordinated care solutions across the patient continuum from medical transportation to hospital encounters to comprehensive care alternatives in various settings. The Company conduts its business primarily through two operating subsidiaries, EmCare Holdings, Inc. (EmCare) and American Medical Response, Inc. (AMR). The Company markets its services primarily under the EmCare and AMR brands. EmCareis a provider of integrated facility-based physician services, including emergency, anesthesiology, hospitalist/inpatient care, radiology, tele-radiology and surgery. EmCare also offers physician-led care management solutions outside the hospital. AMR is a provider and manager of community-based medical transportation services, including emergency (911), non-emergency, managed transportation, fixed-wing air ambulance and disaster response.

EmCare is a provider of integrated facility-based physician services to healthcare facilities, communities and payors in the United States. During the year ended December 31, 2012 (fiscal 2012), EmCare had approximately 10.5 million weighted patient encounters in 44 states and the District of Columbia. The Company segregates patient encounters into four categories:ED visits, hospitalist encounters, radiology reads and anesthesiology cases due to the differences in reimbursement rates for and associated costs of providing the various services. In fiscal 2012, AMR treated and transported approximately 2.8 million patients in 40 states and the District of Columbia. As of December 31, 2012, AMR had more than 3,700 contracts with communities, government agencies, healthcare providers and insurers to provide ambulance transport services. The Company segregates transports into two categories: ambulance transports (including emergency, as well as non-emergency, critical! care and other interfacility transports) and wheelchair transports to the differences in reimbursement rates for and associated costs of providing ambulance and wheelchair transports.

The Company competes with Team Health, Hospital Physician Partners, The Schumacher Group, Sheridan Healthcare, California Emergency Physicians, National Emergency Services Healthcare Group, IPC, Rural/Metro Corporation, Falck, Southwest Ambulance, Paramedics Plus and Acadian Ambulance.

Advisors' Opinion:
  • [By alicet236]

    According to GuruFocus Insider Data, these are the largest CEO sales during the past week: VF Corp, Infinera Corp, Eaton Vance Corp, and Envision Healthcare Holdings Inc.VF Corp (VFC): Chairman, President & CEO Eric C Wiseman sold 454,800 SharesChairman, President & CEO of VF Corp (VFC) Eric C Wiseman sold 454,800 shares during the past week at an average price of $66.76. V.F. Corporation, a Pennsylvania corporation was organized in 1899. Vf Corp has a market cap of $29.18 billion; its shares were traded at around $67.68 with a P/E ratio of 24.00 and P/S ratio of 2.56. The dividend yield of Vf Corp stocks is 1.55%. Vf Corp had an annual average earnings growth of 8.90% over the past 10 years. GuruFocus rated Vf Corp the business predictability rank of 4-star.VF Corp announced its 2014 third quarter results. The Company reported revenues of $3.5 billion and net income of $470.5 million.Chairman, President & CEO Eric C Wiseman sold 454,800 shares of VFC stock in October. CFO Robert K Shearer sold 63,407 shares of VFC stock in August and October. Sr. Vice President - Americas Steven E Rendle, VP-VF Direct/Customer Teams Michael T Gannaway, Director Bedout Juan Ernesto De, and Director Raymond G Viault sold 65,852 shares of VFC stock in October.Infinera Corp (INFN): CEO Thomas J Fallon sold 220,000 SharesCEO of Infinera Corp (INFN) Thomas J Fallon sold 220,000 shares on 10/27/2014 at an average price of $13.56. Infinera Corporation or Infinera was founded in December 2000, originally operated under the name 'Zepton Networks'. Infinera Corp has a market cap of $1.82 billion; its shares were traded at around $14.53 with and P/S ratio of 2.91.Infinera Corp. reported revenues of $165.4 million and net income of $4.8 million for its 2014 second quarter financial results.CEO Thomas J Fallon sold 440,000 shares of INFN stock from August to October. CFO Brad Feller bought 25,000 shares of INFN stock on 05/16/2014 at the average price of 8.25. President David F W

  • [By John Kell]

    Envision Healthcare Holdings Inc.(EVHC) lowered its 2013 earnings outlook but also projected an adjusted profit for the recently started new year that topped expectations. The company said results improved in the latter part of the quarter, mostly the result of higher flu-related activity and seasonal volume. Shares rose 6.3% to $34.60 premarket.

Hot Information Technology Stocks To Own For 2015: Exterran Holdings Inc. (EXH)

Exterran Holdings, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, provides operations, maintenance, service, and equipment for oil and natural gas production, processing, and transportation applications. The company�s Contract Operations segment offers natural gas compression and production, and processing services, as well as engages in the engineering, procurement, and on site construction of natural gas compression stations and/or crude oil or natural gas production and processing facilities. As of December 31, 2011, this segment provided contract operations services primarily using a fleet of 8,485 natural gas compression units with an aggregate capacity of approximately 3,632,000 horsepower in North America; and a fleet of 1,063 units with an aggregate capacity of approximately 1,260,000 horsepower internationally. Its Aftermarket Services segment sells parts and components; and provides operation, maintenance, overhaul, and reconfiguration services for compression, productio n, treating, and oilfield power generation equipment. The company�s Fabrication segment engages in the design, engineering, installation, fabrication, and sale of natural gas compression units, and accessories and equipment used in the production, treatment, and processing of crude oil and natural gas; provision of engineering, procurement, and fabrication services primarily related to the manufacturing of critical process equipment for refinery and petrochemical facilities; and fabrication of tank farms, and evaporators and brine heaters for desalination plants. Its products include line heaters, oil and natural gas separators, glycol dehydration units, condensate stabilizers, dewpoint control plants, water treatment, mechanical refrigeration and cryogenic plants, and skid-mounted production packages designed for onshore and offshore production facilities. The company was founded in 1990 and is based in Houston, Texas.

Advisors' Opinion:
  • [By Seth Jayson]

    Exterran Holdings (NYSE: EXH  ) is expected to report Q1 earnings on May 2. Here's what Wall Street wants to see:

    The 10-second takeaway
    Comparing the upcoming quarter to the prior-year quarter, average analyst estimates predict Exterran Holdings's revenues will grow 21.6% and EPS will turn positive

Hot Information Technology Stocks To Own For 2015: Fortress Investment Group LLC (FIG)

Fortress Investment Group LLC (Fortress) is a global investment management firm. Its offering of alternative investment products includes private equity funds, liquid hedge funds and credit funds. In addition, it offers traditional investment products. As of December 31, 2011, it managed alternative assets in three businesses: Private Equity, Liquid Hedge Funds and Credit Funds. Private Equity is a business, which manages assets under management (AUM) consisted of two business segments: private equity funds, which make investments in debt and equity securities of public or privately held entities in North America and Western Europe, and publicly traded alternative investment vehicles, which it refer to as Castles, which invest in real estate and real estate related debt investments. Liquid Hedge Funds invest globally in fixed income, currency, equity and commodity markets and related derivatives. Credit Funds is a business, which manages AUM consisted of two business segments: credit hedge funds which make investments in assets, opportunistic lending situations and securities, on a global basis and throughout the capital structure, as well as non-Fortress originated funds, for which Fortress has been retained as manager as part of an advisory business, and credit private equity (PE) funds, which are consisted of a family of credit opportunities funds focused on investing in distressed and undervalued assets, a range of long dated value funds focused on investing in undervalued assets with cash flows and long investment horizons, a range of real assets funds focused on investing in tangible and intangible assets in four principal categories (real estate, capital assets and natural resources), a family of Asia funds, including Japan real estate funds and an Asian investor based global opportunities fund, and a range of real estate opportunities funds.

Private Equity Funds

The Company�� private equity business is made up of a series of funds named the Fortress Investment Funds! and organized to make control-oriented investments in cash flow generating, asset-based businesses in North America and Western Europe. Investors in its private equity funds contractually commit capital at the outset of a fund, which is then drawn down as investment opportunities become available, generally over a one to three year investment period. Management fees of 1% to 1.5% are generally charged on committed capital during the investment period of a new fund, and then on invested capital (or net asset value (NAV), if lower). It also earns a 10% to 25% share of the profits on each realized investment in a fund.

The Company manages two companies: Newcastle Investment Corp. and Eurocastle Investment Limited, which it calls its Castles. It earns management fees from each Castle equal to 1.5% of the company�� equity. In addition, it earns incentive income equal to 25% of the company�� funds from operations (FFO) in excess of specified returns to the Company�� shareholders. In addition to these fees, it also receives from the Castles, for services provided, options to purchase shares of their common stock in connection with each of their common stock offerings.

Liquid Hedge Funds

The Fortress Macro Funds, and Fortress�� legacy macro-strategy funds, the Drawbridge Global Macro Funds, apply an investment process based on macroeconomic fundamental, market momentum and technical analyses. The funds have the flexibility to allocate capital dynamically across a range of global strategies, markets and instruments as opportunities change, and are designed to take advantage of a range of sources of market, economic and pricing data to generate trading ideas. The fund invests in developed markets; they also invest in emerging markets if market conditions present opportunities for attractive returns. The funds pursue global macro directional and relative value strategies. Management fees are charged based on the AUM of the Fortress Macro Funds at a rate between 1.5%! and 2% a! nnually, depending on the investment and liquidity terms elected by investors. It earns incentive income of between 15% and 25% of the fund�� profits, generally payable annually, depending on the investment and liquidity terms elected by investors. In other words, an incentive income payment establishes a high water mark, such that the fund must earn a cumulative positive return from that point forward in order for Fortress to earn incentive income. Investors in the Fortress Macro Funds may invest with the right to redeem without paying any redemption fee either monthly, quarterly, or annually after three years. Investors with three-year liquidity may redeem annually before three years, subject to an early redemption fee payable to the funds.

The Fortress Asia Macro Funds invest in global fixed income, commodities, currency and equity markets, and their related derivatives, thematically related to the Asia-Pacific region through a fundamental macroeconomic strategy, which focuses on liquid investments. The funds��investment program focuses on global trading and capital flows. Management fee rates for these funds range from 1.5% to 2% and it earns incentive income equal to 20% of their profits. Commodities Funds invests across multiple sectors within the commodity asset class ranging from energy to metals to agriculture and within the cyclical, industrial, and commodity equity universe. Management fee rates for these funds range from 1.5% to 2% and it earns incentive income equal to 20% of their profits. The Fortress Partners Fund�� investments are made both in Fortress Funds and in funds managed by other managers, and in direct investments that are sourced either by Fortress personnel or by third parties with whom it has relationships. Management fee rates for these funds range from 1% to 1.5% and it earns incentive income generally equal to 20% of the profits from direct investments only.

Credit Funds

The Company�� credit hedge funds are designed to exploi! t pricing! anomalies, which exist between the public and private finance markets. It has developed a network consisted of internal and external resources to source transactions for the funds. The funds are able to invest in a range of financial instruments, ranging from assets, opportunistic lending situations and securities throughout the capital structure with a value orientation.

The Drawbridge Special Opportunities Funds form the core of the Company�� credit hedge fund investing strategy. The funds acquire a portfolio of investments throughout the United States, Western Europe and the Pacific region. Management fees are charged based on the AUM of the Drawbridge Special Opportunities Funds at a rate generally equal to 2% annually. It earns incentive income of 20% of the fund�� profits, payable annually, and subject to achieving cumulative positive returns since the prior incentive income payment. Investors in the Drawbridge Special Opportunities Funds may redeem annually on December 31. The Worden Funds invest in a portfolio of undervalued and distressed investments in North America and Western Europe, but also in Australia, Asia and elsewhere on an opportunistic basis. Management fees are charged based on the AUM of the Worden Funds at a rate generally equal to 2% annually. It earns incentive income of 20% of the funds��profits.

The Company�� credit PE funds are of families of funds. They have management fee rates between 1% and 1.5% and generate incentive income of between 10% and 20% of a fund�� profits subject to the fund achieving a minimum return as a whole. Fortress through Fortress Credit Opportunities Funds make opportunistic credit-related investments. In addition to its Fortress Investment Fund family of funds, it has a private equity fund product, the Long Dated Value family of funds, which focuses on making investments with long dated cash flows. Its Real Assets Funds invest in tangible and intangible assets. The investment program of these funds focuses on di! rect inve! stments in four principal investment categories: real estate, capital assets and natural resources, but also may include indirect investments in the form of interests in real estate investment trusts (REITs), master limited partnerships, corporate securities, debt securities and debt obligations, including those that provide equity upside, as well as options, royalties, residuals and other call rights. The investments are located in North America and Western Europe. Fortress Japan Opportunity Funds focus to invest in Japanese real estate-related performing, sub-performing and non-performing loans, securities and similar instruments. Real Estate Opportunities Funds make opportunistic commercial real estate investments.

Advisors' Opinion:
  • [By Inyoung Hwang]

    He currently has buy recommendations on private-equity firm Fortress Investment Group LLC (FIG) and Zions Bancorporation. (ZION)

    Analysts Surveyed

    To compile the ranking, Stamford, Connecticut-based Greenwich Associates surveyed 945 buy-side analysts at 190 investment management firms, mutual funds, hedge funds, pension funds and insurers from December to March. The analysts were asked to name the Wall Street research teams they considered their most important sources of advice on investments.

Hot Information Technology Stocks To Own For 2015: Optical Cable Corporation (OCC)

Optical Cable Corporation designs, manufactures, markets, and sells fiber optic, and copper data communications cabling and connectivity solutions primarily for the enterprise market in the United States and internationally. The company offers fiber optic cables for military field applications, and indoor and outdoor use; and copper datacom cables, including unshielded and shielded twisted pair for copper network installations. It also provides fiber optic connectivity products, such as fiber optic wall mounts, cabinet mounts and rack mount enclosures, pre-terminated fiber optic enclosures, fiber optic connectors, splice trays, fiber optic jumpers, plug and play cassette modules, pre-terminated fiber optic cable assemblies, adapters, and accessories; and copper connectivity products, including category compliant patch panels, jacks, plugs, patch cords, faceplates, surface mounted boxes, distribution and multi-media boxes, copper rack mount and wall mount enclosures, cable assemblies, cable organizers, and other wiring products for datacenter, telecommunications closet, equipment room, and workstation applications. In addition, the company offers data cabinets, wall-mount enclosures, cable management systems, and open frame relay racks for commercial and residential use; various enclosures, modules, and modular outlets for single dwelling and multiple dwelling residential uses; and cellular distribution system, a distributed antenna system for in-building enhancement of wireless communications signals. Further, it provides applied interconnect systems, such as specialty fiber optic connectors and connectivity components, ruggedized copper datacom connectors, and related systems and solutions for military and harsh environment applications. The company sells its products to distributors, original equipment manufacturers, value-added resellers, and end-users. Optical Cable Corporation was founded in 1983 and is headquartered in Roanoke, Virginia .

Advisors' Opinion:
  • [By Ning Jia]

    First Security entered into a Consent Order with the Bank's primary regulator, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) during April 2010 and a Written Agreement with the Federal Reserve Bank during September 2010.

Saturday, June 13, 2015

Top 5 High Dividend Companies To Invest In 2016

Top 5 High Dividend Companies To Invest In 2016: Thompson Creek Metals Company Inc.(TC)

Thompson Creek Metals Company Inc., through its subsidiaries, engages in mining, milling, processing, and marketing molybdenum products in the United States and Canada. The company?s principal properties include the Thompson Creek Mine and mill in Idaho; a metallurgical roasting facility in Langeloth, Pennsylvania; and a joint venture interest in the Endako Mine, mill, and roasting facility in British Columbia. It also holds interests in development projects comprising the Davidson molybdenum property and the Berg copper-molybdenum-silver property located in northern British Columbia; the Howard?s Pass property, a lead and zinc project situated in the Yukon territory-northwest territories border; and the Maze Lake property, a gold project located in the Kivalliq district of Nunavut. The company produces molybdenum products, primarily molybdic oxide and ferromolybdenum, as well as soluble technical oxide, pure molybdenum tri-oxide, and high purity molybdenum disulfide. As o f December 31, 2010, its consolidated recoverable proven and probable ore reserves totaled 462.2 million pounds of contained molybdenum in the Thompson Creek Mine and the Endako Mine. The company was formerly known as Blue Pearl Mining Ltd. and changed its name to Thompson Creek Metals Company Inc. in May 2007. Thompson Creek Metals Company Inc. is based in Denver, Colorado.

Advisors' Opinion:
  • [By Jon C. Ogg]

    Thompson Creek Metals Co. Inc. (NYSE: TC) was at 54% discount to its book value of $8.30 per share at the time, and the stock price of $3.90 is up from $3.03 Deutsche Bank’s team nailed upside of more than 28% here. Its price target was $4 at the time versus a consensus target of $4.50 at the time. The 52-week range here is $2.42 to $4.55, but we would point out that the consensus price target is $3.93.

  • [By Garrett Cook]

    Basic materials shares fell 1.04 percent o! n Friday. Top losers in the sector included Cliffs Natural Resources (NYSE: CLF), down 5.5 percent, and Thompson Creek Metals Company (NYSE: TC), off 5.4 percent.

  • source from Top Penny Stocks For 2015:http://www.seekpennystocks.com/top-5-high-dividend-companies-to-invest-in-2016.html

Tuesday, June 9, 2015

We Could Prevent Europe's Energy Scare

Imagine your energy bill increasing by 50% in one day. Pretty scary, eh?

Back in March, this is exactly what happened... in England. In a single day, natural gas prices spiked by 50% there, all because of a failed water pump. As much as this could be considered a fluke accident, there were several factors that led to this single, minute event causing the worlds eighth largest natural gas market to its knees. Let's take a look at what happened, how the U.S. can prevent this from happening at home, and what it will mean for U.S. gas companies. 

Blame it on the rain  
Or the cold, rather. March of 2013 was the second coldest March ever recorded in the U.K. The unusually cold weather that late in the season led to higher than normal gas consumption. With so much in use and a rather fixed supply, U.K. gas supplies were dwindling. On March 22, a water pump failed and halted deliveries from the UK-Belguim Interconnector, a pipe that delivered about 40 million cubic meters of gas to Great Britain. The shutdown of this gas pipe was simply the straw that broke the camel's back. Gas supplies were so short that storage was down to less than two days' worth of supply, which ultimately led gas prices to surge 50% within hours of trading on the London exchanges.

Ultimately, the pipe got back up and running again, and prices subsided. For many people in the U.K., there was a big sigh of relief. What Europe should consider, though, is the much deeper underlying threat: the delicacy of global energy markets and the threats it poses if a country is not energy independent. Russia's Gazprom and Norway's Statoil (NYSE: STO  )  supply 40% of Europe's natural gas. With so much supply coming from only two sources, Europe is at severe risk if either of these companies suffers a technical (or political) problem. The only way that Europe can solve this problem is to find a more diverse source of natural gas. 

Enter stage left: America
Today, 95% of U.S. imports for natural gas come from Canada. Reliance on a single country this much may be alarming, but our dependence on imports has dwindled rapidly. In 2012, the U.S. imported 32% less natural gas than in 2007, and we anticipate becoming a net natural gas exporter by 2020.

The large uptick in domestic production will have some major implications on natural gas markets. With ConocoPhillips (NYSE: COP  ) just receiving approval for LNG exports to countries not in free trade agreements with the U.S. at its Freeport facility, and Cheniere Energy's (NYSEMKT: LNG  ) facility due to come on line in 2015, the U.S. natural gas market will have something it doesn't have right now: an outlet for excess supply. U.S. LNG exports, plus all the Canadian gas we are using today, could be an opportunity for European countries to diversify its natural gas sources and in turn reduce the risk of repeating an incident like the U.K. suffered back in March.

Of course, Europe will not be the only ones that could benefit from a U.S. natural gas supply. Natural gas producers in the U.S. could stand to benefit greatly as well. The problem for natural gas producers in the U.S. today is that they have to play a delicate production game: produce enough to keep revenue growing, but don't produce too much as to flood the market. (See April 2012 gas prices to see what happens when gas companies overproduce.) With a export outlet, this could help to make the gas market more fluid and stabilize gas prices. 

Right now, natural gas spot prices are in the $4.00 range. For low-cost natural gas producers like Ultra Petroleum (NYSE: UPL  ) and Exco Resources (NYSE: XCO  ) , a $4 price for gas will be a welcome sight. Exco had written down so many assets because of low gas prices, the company expects profits as long as gas remains above $2.15. Once LNG exports do come on line, an uptick in natural gas prices is expected, but not one that is so severe. More importantly, companies like Ultra and Exco that deal exclusively with natural gas will not have to worry as much about wild price swings. 

What a Fool believes
With Freeport receiving its export license this month, it is likely that there are other facilities around the U.S. that will also receive permission to export as well. But, there are enough companies proposing LNG export terminals in the U.S. to export 41% of total production, so it is highly unlikely that all of these facilities will be granted a license. There are still some detractors who would like to see natural gas remain in the U.S., but this situation is unlikely as well. Somewhere in the middle is a balance point that will allow the U.S. to export enough LNG to stabilize prices, and countries around the world will want to get a piece of the action. It's unclear when another price spike like the one in the U.K. will happen again, but with the U.S. playing a bigger role in the natural gas market, the chances of this are less likely.

There are many different ways to play the energy sector, and The Motley Fool's analysts have uncovered an under-the-radar company that's dominating its industry. This company is a leading provider of equipment and components used in drilling and production operations, and poised to profit in a big way from it. To get the name and detailed analysis of this company that will prosper for years to come, check out the special free report: "The Only Energy Stock You'll Ever Need." Don't miss out on this limited-time offer and your opportunity to discover this under-the-radar company before the market does. Click here to access your report -- it's totally free.

Monday, June 8, 2015

10 Best Japanese Stocks To Buy Right Now

Panasonic's (NASDAQOTH: PCRFY  ) not the first company you may think of in the health-care field, but this Japanese electronics maker's a player in blood glucose monitors and other fields. With Panasonic's sales under fire across the board, however, this company's looking to sell off its health-care business to refocus on its core segments. Toshiba (NASDAQOTH: TOSBF  ) reportedly has expressed interest in a buy, and private equity-firms are also in the hunt to get on board with Asia's health-care rise.

Buying into the Asian health-care scene isn't anything new. Stryker (NYSE: SYK  ) made waves earlier this year by purchasing Chinese spine and trauma firm Trauson for $764 million, and with China's health-care industry still in a state of transition, this is a potent grow opportunity for device firms. But is Panasonic's business worth all that much to buyers? Motley Fool contributor Dan Carroll and health-care analyst Max Macaluso discuss what you need to know in the following video.

Hot Defense Companies To Own For 2016: EXCO Resources NL(XCO)

EXCO Resources, Inc., an independent oil and natural gas company, engages in the exploration, exploitation, development, and production of onshore North American oil and natural gas properties with a focus on shale resource plays. The company holds interests in various projects located in East Texas, North Louisiana, Appalachia, and the Permian Basin in west Texas. As of December 31, 2010, it had proved reserves of approximately 1.5 trillion cubic feet equivalent; and operated 7,276 wells. The company was founded in 1955 and is based in Dallas, Texas.

Advisors' Opinion:
  • [By Victor Selva]

    This first month of the year has been successful for EXCO Resources Inc. (XCO) as three hedge fund managers have invested in it. They are: Prem Watsa (Trades, Portfolio), which added the stock at an average price of $4.88 and currently holds 17.538.912 shares, Wilbur Ross (Trades, Portfolio) also added the stock at $4.74 holding 51.107.800 shares and finally, Howard Marks (Trades, Portfolio) at an average price of $4.99 and 45.251.182 shares of the stock.

10 Best Japanese Stocks To Buy Right Now: CVR Partners LP(UAN)

CVR Partners, LP engages in the production of nitrogen fertilizers including ammonia and urea ammonium nitrate. The company was incorporated in 2007 and is based in Sugar Land, Texas. CVR Partners, LP operates as a subsidiary of CVR Energy, Inc.

Advisors' Opinion:
  • [By Eric Volkman]

    A sizable block of units of�CVR Partners (NYSE: UAN  ) is on the move. A subsidiary of the company, Coffeyville Resources, is offering 12-million common units of its parent in a secondary public offering priced at $25.15 per unit. Also, the offering's underwriters have been granted a 30-day option to buy up to an additional 1.8 million units from the seller.

  • [By Robert Rapier]

    Enter CVR Partners LP (NYSE: UAN), the only company in the US to produce fertilizer from petroleum coke (petcoke). Petcoke is a byproduct of petroleum refining, and prices are usually set off coal prices, since these two products compete in the same niche. Thus the same dynamics that currently threaten the distributions of Rentech Nitrogen Partners and Terra Nitrogen Company play in CVR Partners’ favor.

  • [By Cameron Swinehart]

    Going forward I will be looking to add investments on my watchlist and trim other positions. It will be interesting to see how an overweight commodity portfolio will perform relative to the rest of the market.

     Cost Basis# SharesCurrent Price% of PortfolioCurrent ValueReturnMetal/Miners      Sprott Physical Gold Trust (PHYS)$12.4985$11.043.75%$938.40-13.13%Sprott Physical Silver Trust (PSLV)$7.95125$8.744.37%$1,092.509.04%FreePort-McMoran (FCX)$31.6731$33.874.20%$1,049.976.50%Ishares MSCI Global Gold Miners ETF (RING)$13.0695$10.644.04%$1,010.80-22.74%Energy      Statoil ASA(STO)$21.7940$22.683.63%$907.203.92%Vanguard Natural Resources LLC (VNR)$27.5636$27.874.01%$1,003.321.11%ConocoPhillips (COP)$63.6822.43$71.006.37%$1,592.5310.31%Agriculture      CVR Partner LP (UAN)$26.3630.9$18.932.34%$584.94-39.25%Adecoagro$6.78125$7.443.72%$930.008.87%Archer-Daniels Midland (ADM)$34.8030$37.244.47%$1,117.206.55%Mixed Commodity      Powershares DB Commodity Index (DBC)$26.3540$25.954.15%$1,038.00-1.54%Sprott Resource Corp$3.34400$2.714.34%$1,084.00-23.25%    Total % of portfolio49.40%               Cost Basis12,666.00      Current Value12,348.86      Return-2.50%  Source: Investing For The Future Surge In Commodity Prices

    Disclosure: I am long ADM, FCX, UAN, AGRO, RING, VNR, SCPZF.PK, COP, DBC, PHYS, PSLV. I wrote this article myself, and it expresses my own opinions. I am not receiving compensation for it (other than from Seeking Alpha). I have no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article. (More...)

  • [By Brian Pacampara]

    Based on the aggregated intelligence of 180,000-plus investors participating in Motley Fool CAPS, the Fool's free investing community, nitrogen fertilizer producer CVR Partners (NYSE: UAN  ) has earned a coveted five-star ranking.

10 Best Japanese Stocks To Buy Right Now: Vanguard FTSE All World ex US Index Fund Investor Shares (VEU)

Vanguard FTSE All-World ex-US ETF (the Fund) is an exchange-traded class of shares of Vanguard FTSE All-World ex-US Index Fund. The Fund seeks to track the performance of an index that measures the investment return of stocks of companies located in developed and emerging markets worldwide. The Fund employs a passive management or indexing investment approach designed to track the performance of the FTSE All-World ex US Index (the Index), a free-float-adjusted, market capitalization-weighted index designed to measure equity market performance of international markets.

The Index includes approximately 2,200 stocks of companies located in 47 countries, including both developed and emerging markets. The Fund typically holds 1,200 to 1,300 stocks in the Index (covering nearly 95% of the Index�� total market capitalization) and a representative sample of the remaining stocks. The Fund holds a range of securities that, in the aggregate, approximate the full Index in terms of key characteristics. These key characteristics include industry weightings and market capitalization, as well as certain financial measures, such as price/earnings ratio and dividend yield. The Fund�� investment advisor is The Vanguard Group, Inc.

Advisors' Opinion:
  • [By Philip Springer, President, Retirement Wealth Management, Inc.]

    Our favorite is Vanguard FTSE All-World ex-US (VEU). This all-in-one ETF combines broad diversification, a high yield (4.7%) and a rock-bottom expense ratio (0.15%).

10 Best Japanese Stocks To Buy Right Now: NYSE Euronext Inc.(NYX)

NYSE Euronext, through its subsidiaries, operates securities exchanges. It operates various stock exchanges, including the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), NYSE Arca, Inc., and NYSE Amex LLC in the United States; and five European-based exchanges that comprise Euronext N.V. ? the Paris, Amsterdam, Brussels, and Lisbon stock exchanges, as well as the NYSE Liffe derivatives markets in London, Paris, Amsterdam, Brussels, and Lisbon. The company?s Derivatives segment provides access to trade execution in derivatives products, options, and futures; offers clearing services for derivative products; and sells and distributes market data and related information. NYSE Euronext?s Cash Trading and Listings segment engages in offering access to trade execution in cash trading and settlement of transactions in European markets; obtaining new listings and servicing existing listings; selling and distributing market data and related information; and providing regulatory services. Its Info rmation Services and Technology Solutions segment operates sell side and buy side connectivity networks for its markets and for other market centers, and market participants in the United States, Europe, and Asia; provides trading and information technology software and solutions; sells and distributes market data and related information to data subscribers for proprietary data products; and offers asset management services, and consultancy services to exchanges and liquidity centers. The company is headquartered in New York, New York.

Advisors' Opinion:
  • [By Alex Planes]

    The New York Stock Exchange -- the larger part of NYSE Euronext (NYSE: NYX  ) -- moved into its present home on 18 Broad Street (on the corner of Broad and Wall Street) on April 22, 1903. It was an architectural marvel for its time, with a massive open trading floor without any supporting columns, huge windows, six miles of pneumatic tubes for routing orders, and one of the world's first air-conditioning systems. Even if you've never visited this iconic location, you're probably well-acquainted. It is one of the most famous buildings in the world:

  • [By Dave Michaels]

    Such systems, or SIPs, are owned by the two major exchange operators -- The Nasdaq OMX Group Inc. (NDAQ) and NYSE Euronext. (NYX)

    The SEC�� rule proposal, known as Regulation SCI, would require exchanges, SIPs and clearing firms to adopt policies to prevent failures, stress test their systems to ensure trading continues through a disruption, such as a software glitch or natural disaster, and report the disruptions to the SEC. The rule also would cover exchange competitors known as alternative trading systems, including dark pools. The SEC has said 10 dark pools are large enough to be subject to the regulation, based on data from 2012.

10 Best Japanese Stocks To Buy Right Now: Rigel Pharmaceuticals Inc.(RIGL)

Rigel Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a clinical-stage drug development company, engages in the discovery and development of small-molecule drugs for the treatment of inflammatory/autoimmune diseases, as well as for certain cancers and metabolic diseases. Its product development programs include R788, which completed a phase 2 clinical trial for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis; and is in phase 2 clinical trials for B-cell lymphoma, T-cell lymphoma, immune thrombocytopenia purpura, and certain solid tumors. The company?s product development programs also comprise R343, which is in phase 1b clinical trial for the treatment of asthma. In addition, its preclinical programs include oral JAK3 inhibitor program for research in the area of immunology/inflammation; adiponectin mimetics for the treatment of type 2 diabetes mellitus and other potential indications; and muscle atrophy program for muscle homeostasis. Further, the company is evaluating R763/AS703569 compound in its aurora kinase inhibition program targeting cancer cell proliferation. Rigel Pharmaceuticals, Inc. has collaboration agreements with AstraZeneca AB; Pfizer, Inc.; and Daiichi Pharmaceuticals Co., Ltd. The company was founded in 1996 and is based in South San Francisco, California.

Advisors' Opinion:
  • [By Max Macaluso, Ph.D.]

    Early Tuesday morning, Rigel Pharmaceuticals� (NASDAQ: RIGL  ) and its now-ex-partner, AstraZeneca (NYSE: AZN  ) , reported late-stage clinical trial results for the experimental rheumatoid arthritis drug Fostamatinib. In the following video, health-care analyst Max Macaluso discusses why Rigel dropped 18% after the news was released and the risks that lie ahead for Rigel Pharmaceuticals.

  • [By Sean Williams]

    It wasn't nearly as exciting a week for Rigel Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: RIGL  ) , which regained full rights to rheumatoid arthritis pill Fostamatinib from AstraZeneca�on Tuesday. The pair actually reported a statistically significant ACR20 response rate at 24 weeks in two trials, but the data isn't expected to be conclusive enough to gain FDA approval. AstraZeneca, not wanting to spend any more on the program, took a $140 million charge and returned all licensing back to Rigel. With the prospect of high trial costs and a drug which did well, but perhaps not well enough to compete with competition already on the market, Rigel is now in a tough position and is worth avoiding at all costs.

10 Best Japanese Stocks To Buy Right Now: Susquehanna Bancshares Inc.(SUSQ)

Susquehanna Bancshares, Inc., through its subsidiaries, provides retail and commercial banking, and financial services in the mid-Atlantic region. Its retail banking services include checking, savings, and club accounts, as well as check cards, debit cards, money market accounts, certificates of deposit, individual retirement accounts, home equity lines of credit, residential mortgage loans, home improvement loans, automobile loans, personal loans, and Internet banking services. The company?s commercial banking services comprise business checking accounts, cash management services, money market accounts, land acquisition and development loans, commercial loans, floor plan, equipment and working capital lines of credit, small business loans, and Internet banking services. It also offers commercial, property, and casualty insurance; and risk management programs for medium and large sized companies. In addition, it provides traditional trust and custodial services, as well a s acts as an administrator, executor, guardian, and managing agent for individuals, businesses, and non-profit entities. Further, the company offers investment advisory, asset management, and brokerage services for institutional and high net worth individual clients; and provides retirement planning services. Additionally, it engages in the equity management of assets for institutions, pensions, endowments, and high net worth individuals; and provides consumer vehicle financing services. The company operates 221 branches and 26 free-standing automated teller machines. Susquehanna Bancshares, Inc. was founded in 1982 and is based in Lititz, Pennsylvania.

Advisors' Opinion:
  • [By Rich Duprey]

    Financial services holding company�Susquehanna Bancshares (NASDAQ: SUSQ  ) announced yesterday its third-quarter dividend of $0.08 per share, the same rate it paid last quarter after raising the payout 14%, from $0.07 per share.

  • [By Johanna Bennett]

    BB&T Corp. (BBT) agreed to buy Susquehanna Bancshares (SUSQ) for about $2.5 billion in cash and stock. Shares of BB&T fell 1.7%, while shares of Susquehanna surged 32.5% to end at $13.12.

10 Best Japanese Stocks To Buy Right Now: Insmed Inc.(INSM)

Insmed Incorporated, a biopharmaceutical company, focuses on the development of inhaled pharmaceuticals for the site-specific treatment of serious lung diseases. The company primarily focuses on the development of inhaled antibiotic therapy delivered via proprietary advanced pulmonary liposome technology in areas of high unmet need in lung diseases. Its lead product candidate includes ARIKACE, an inhaled antibiotic supported by positive phase 2 results for treating serious lung infections due to susceptible bacteria. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has cleared the company's investigational new drug application to conduct a pivotal Phase 3 clinical trial of ARIKACE in nontuberculous mycobacteria lung infections. Insmed Incorporated was founded in 1999 and is based in Monmouth Junction, New Jersey.

Advisors' Opinion:
  • [By Jake L'Ecuyer]

    Leading and Lagging Sectors
    Monday morning, the healthcare sector proved to be a source of strength for the market. Leading the sector was strength from Nordion (NYSE: NDZ) and Insmed (NASDAQ: INSM).

  • [By Eric Volkman]

    Insmed (NASDAQ: INSM  ) will have nearly $60 million at its disposal if a new public stock offering goes as planned. The company is floating 6 million shares of its common stock in a public issue that has been priced at $10.40 per share. The gross take will be $62.4 million, which the firm said should net it around $58 million after fees and expenses.

Top 5 New Stocks To Invest In Right Now

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) As the Fed pulls away the easy-money punch bowl, maybe this bull market needs a "holiday" to keep the party going.

No, not another federal holiday to honor a dead president. (Coolidge, perhaps?) We're talking about an IRS holiday from Congress that would allow U.S. companies to bring back some of the $2 trillion in cash they've been stashing overseas to avoid paying taxes.

Such a move would give companies fresh powder to deploy on M&A, stock buybacks and even hire new workers.

"It could potentially act as a very potent market stimulus," Jeff Kleintop, chief market strategist at LPL Financial, wrote in a recent note. He compared the impact to a fourth round of quantitative easing from the Fed and even dubbed it QE4.

While a tax holiday doesn't appear imminent, it has recently been floated by some leaders in Congress.

10 Best Regional Bank Stocks For 2016: Ameresco Inc (AMRC)

Ameresco, Inc. incorporated in April 2000, is a provider of energy efficiency solutions for facilities throughout North America. The Company�� services include upgrades to a facility's energy infrastructure and the construction and operation of small-scale renewable energy plants. Its principal service is the development, design, engineering and installation of projects that reduce the energy and operations and maintenance (O&M) costs of its customers' facilities. These projects include a variety of measures customized for the facility and designed to improve the efficiency of major building systems, such as heating, ventilation, air conditioning and lighting systems. It also serves certain customers by developing and building small-scale renewable energy plants located at or close to a customer's site. Ameresco, Inc. provides its services primarily to governmental, educational, utility, healthcare and other institutional, commercial and industrial entities. The Company operates in four segments: U.S. federal, central U.S. region, other U.S. regions and Canada. In August 2011, the Company acquired APS Energy Services Company, Inc. from Pinnacle West Capital Corporation. In December 2011, it acquired the xChange Point and energy projects businesses, including automated demand response, of Energy and Power Solutions, Inc. In August 2012, the Company acquired FAME Facility Software Solutions Inc. In February 2013, it purchased all of the assets of Ennovate Corporation. In June 2013, Ameresco Inc acquired ESP, an energy management consulting company consisting of the Energy Services Partnership and ESP Response, located in Castleford, United Kingdom.

Ameresco, Inc. offers a set of services that includes the design and installation of upgrades to a facility�� energy infrastructure, the design and construction of renewable energy plants, the sale of other renewable energy products and the arranging of financing for customer projects. In September 2010, the Company acquired Quantum Engineer! ing and Development, Inc. In July 2011, the Company acquired Applied Energy Group.

Energy Efficiency Services

The Company�� services includes the design, engineering and installation of, and the arranging of financing for, equipment to improve the efficiency, and control the operation, of a building�� heating, ventilation, cooling and lighting systems. In certain projects, it also designs and constructs a central plant or cogeneration system providing power, heat and/or cooling to a building. Its projects generally range in size and scope from a one-month project to design and retrofit a lighting system to a more complex 30-month project to design and install a central plant or cogeneration system.

Renewable Energy Projects and Products

The Company�� services offering includes the development, construction and operation of, and the arrangement of financing for, small-scale renewable energy plants, as well as the sale and integration of solar energy products and systems. It has constructed and is designing and constructing a range of renewable energy plants using landfill gas (LFG), wastewater treatment biogas, solar, wind, biomass, food waste, animal waste and hydro sources of energy. As part of its renewable energy offering, it also distributes and integrates solar energy products manufactured by several vendors. Ameresco, Inc. is a distributor of photovoltaic (PV) panels, solar regulators, solar charge controllers, inverters, solar powered lighting systems, solar powered water pumps, solar panel mounting hardware and other system components. It also integrates its PV products and system components into solar solutions designed specifically for customers. It provides solar energy solutions for both on- grid applications where the solar power is used in a building connected to a utility distribution system, and for off-grid applications where the power is used directly in the device using the electricity, such as traffic signs.

Amere! sco, Inc.! also designs and constructs renewable energy plants based on wind power. In many parts of the country, available wind resources, utility net metering and local incentives can make on-site wind generation a viable solution for meeting a portion of customers' energy needs. As of December 31, 2010, the Company had completed two projects that included a wind turbine. In addition, it has constructed and was constructing, small-scale renewable energy plants based on biomass.

As of December 31, 2010, Ameresco, Inc. had constructed more than 28 renewable energy projects, and owned and operated 22 small-scale renewable energy plants. Of the owned plants, 19 are renewable LFG plants, two are waste water biogas plants and one is a solar PV installation. These 22 small-scale renewable energy plants have the capacity to generate electricity or deliver LFG producing an aggregate of 106 megawatts (MW) or megawatt-equivalents (MWE). As of December 31, 2010, the Company had signed contracts for the construction, operation and ownership of an additional six LFG plants, two biomass power and cogeneration plants and five biomass boiler projects.

The Company competes with Chevron Energy Solutions, Constellation Energy, Honeywell, Johnson Controls, Siemens Building Technologies and TAC Energy Solutions.

Advisors' Opinion:
  • [By Brian Pacampara]

    Based on the aggregated intelligence of 180,000-plus investors participating in Motley Fool CAPS, the Fool's free investing community, energy efficiency technologist Ameresco (NYSE: AMRC  ) has earned a coveted five-star ranking.

  • [By Sara Murphy]

    Ameresco (NYSE: AMRC  ) is one of the few large, independent energy efficiency service providers. The company's principal service is the development, design, engineering and installation of projects that reduce the energy and operations and maintenance costs of its customers' facilities. Ameresco has seen declining revenues recently because of unusually long lag times in getting its projects funded, but this seems a temporary setback.

Top 5 New Stocks To Invest In Right Now: Extreme Biodiesel Inc (XTRM)

Extreme Biodiesel Inc., formerly Book Merge Technology, Inc., incorporated on February 28, 2008, is engaged in manufacturing of home biodiesel processors. The Company focuses to produce alternative fuel. The Company has a bio diesel refinery and factory for refining diesel oil and manufacturing bio diesel processors. On October 11, 2010, the Company acquired a 51% interest in EGT. on October 11, 2010, the reverse acquisition was effected. On March 31, 2011, the Company completed the acquisition of EGT.

The Company�� products include standard extractor, extreme extractor, extreme mini-refinery, extreme purification system, titration kit, dispensing pump with meter and oil collection pump. The standard extractor is a biodiesel processor, which requires a water-wash process to purify the biodiesel. Extreme extractor is a waterless purification system. The Mini Refinery is the waterless system, which can make 600 gallons of quality biodiesel per day.

Advisors' Opinion:
  • [By Peter Graham]

    Small cap resource or green stocks Paradigm Resource Management Corp (OTCMKTS: PRDC), Extreme Biodiesel Inc (OTCMKTS: XTRM) and Pan Global Corp (OTCMKTS: PGLO) have all been getting some attention lately thanks in part to a few paid stock promotions. However, two of these small cap appear to be the subject of minimal paid promotion activity, but even a small paid promotion or investor relations campaign can increase a stock�� volatility. So do these three small cap resource or green stocks have what it takes to deliver some Christmas cheer for investors and traders alike? Here is a quick reality check:

Top 5 New Stocks To Invest In Right Now: Aventine Renewable Energy Holdings Inc (AVRW)

Aventine Renewable Energy Holdings, Inc. (Aventine) is engaged in marketing and distributing ethanol to energy and trading companies in the United States. In addition to producing ethanol, the Company�� facilities also produce several by-products, such as distillers grain, corn gluten meal and feed, corn germ and grain distillers dried yeast. During the year ended December 31, 2011, the Company�� facilities had a combined total ethanol production capacity of approximately 312 million gallons annually with corn processing capacity of approximately 115 million bushels.

The Company�� principal product is fuel-grade ethanol, an alcohol,l which is derived in the United States principally from corn. Ethanol is sold primarily for blending with gasoline to meet mandates for the required consumption and use of biofuels, as an octane enhancer, as an oxygenate additive for the purpose of meeting fuel emission standards and as a fuel extender.

The Company is also engaged in the sale of by-products, both co-products and bio-products, which result from the ethanol production process. The volume of by-products it produces varies with the level of the Company�� equity production. Scheduled maintenance, along with other non-scheduled operational difficulties, affects the volume of by-products produced. The Company also shift the mix of these by-products.

The Company�� Illinois wet mill facility produces co-products, such as corn gluten feed (both wet and dry), corn gluten meal, corn distillers with soluble (CCDS) and corn germ. In addition, the fermentation process yields carbon dioxide. The Company�� dry mill facilities in Pekin, Illinois, Mt. Vernon, Indiana and Aurora, Nebraska produce co-products, such as DDGS, wet distillers grains with soluble and carbon dioxide. These co-products are sold for various consumer uses into commodity markets. Corn gluten feed, corn gluten meal, CCDS and distillers grains are used as animal feed ingredients, corn germ is sold for t! he extraction of corn oil for human consumption, and carbon dioxide is sold for food-grade use, such as beverage carbonation and dry ice. Along with co-products, its Illinois wet mill facility also produces bio-products, Kosher and Chametz freegrain distillers dried yeast, which is processed into a growing variety of products for use in animal and human food and fermentation applications.

Advisors' Opinion:
  • [By Johanna Bennett]

    Pacific Ethanol (PEIX) rose almost 6% after it agreed to buy Aventine Renewable Energy (AVRW) Holdings Inc. for about $190 million in stock. Aventine jumped 11.5% on the news.

Top 5 New Stocks To Invest In Right Now: SunPower Corp (SPWR)

SunPower Corporation, incorporated in April 1985, is a vertically integrated solar products and services company that designs, manufactures and delivers solar electric systems worldwide for residential, commercial, and utility-scale power plant customers. The Company operates in two business segments: the Utility and Power Plants (UPP) Segment and the Residential and Commercial (R&C) Segment. The UPP Segment refers to its solar products and systems business, which includes power plant project development and project sales, turn-key engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) services for power plant construction, and power plant operations and maintenance (O&M) services. UPP Segment also sells components, including huge volume of sales of solar panels and mounting systems to third parties, sometimes on a multi-year, firm commitment basis. The R&C Segment focuses on solar equipment sales into the residential and small commercial market through its third-party global dealer network, as well as direct sales and EPC and O&M services in the United States and Europe for rooftop and ground-mounted solar power systems for the new homes, commercial and public sectors. In May 2012, K Road Power Holdings, LLC (K Road) and SunPower Corp announced that K Road acquired the 25-megawatt (AC) McHenry Solar Project, which the Company designed. In January 2013, the Company MidAmerican Solar acquired the 579-megawatt Antelope Valley Solar Projects (AVSP), two co-located projects in Kern and Los Angeles Counties in Calif from SunPower.

In January 2012, the Company completed its acquisition of the wholly owned Total SA subsidiary Tenesol SA, a global solar provider. In September 2011, NRG Energy Inc. acquired 250 megawatt California Valley Solar Ranch (CVSR) project from SunPower. In June 2011, the Company introduced SunPower E20 Series Solar Panel (E20) series. The Company�� customers in its UPP Segment include investors, financial institutions, project developers, electric utilities, and independent po! wer producers in the United States, Europe, and Asia. In its R&C Segment, the Company primarily sells its products to commercial and governmental entities, production home builders, and its third-party global dealer network serving residential owners and small commercial building owners.

Solar Cells

The A-300 solar cell is a silicon solar cell with a specified power value of 3.1 watts and a conversion efficiency averaging between 20.0% and 21.5%. The Company�� A-330 solar cell delivers 3.3 watts with a conversion efficiency of up to 22.7%.

Solar Panels

The Company�� SunPower solar panel series include solutions, such as SunPower E18 Series Solar Panel (E18), SunPower E19 Series Solar Panel (E19), and SunPower E20 Series Solar Panel (E20). Available in a 72-cell configuration, the E18 series panel uses its A300 all back-contact solar cells and delivers a total panel conversion of 18.1% to 18.5%. Available in a 72, 96, and 128-cell configuration, the E19 series panel uses its A300 all back-contact solar cells and delivers total panel conversion of 19.3% to 19.7%. Available in a 96-cell configuration, the E20 series panel uses its A-330 all back-contact solar cells and delivers total panel conversion of up to 20.1%.

Inverters

The Company sells a line of SunPower branded inverters. The inverters are manufactured by third parties.

Roof Mounted Products

The roof mounted products include SunPower T-5 Solar Roof Tile System (T-5), SunPower T-10 Commercial Solar Roof Tiles (T-10), PowerGuard Roof System (PowerGuard) and SunTile Roof Integrated System (SunTile). Tilted at a 5-degree angle, the T-5 roof tile is a non-penetrating photovoltaic rooftop product that combines solar panel, frame, and mounting system. The T-5 solar roof tile systems are primarily sold through its R&C Segment.

Tilted at a 10-degree angle, the T-10 commercial solar roof tiles is a non-penetrating panel interlock system! . Dependi! ng on geographical location and local climate conditions, this can allow for the generation of up to 10% more annual energy output than traditional flat roof-mounted systems. The T-10 commercial solar roof tile is primarily sold through its R&C Segment.

PowerGuard is a non-penetrating roof-mounted solar panel that delivers electricity while insulating and protecting the roof membrane from ultraviolet rays and thermal degradation. The PowerGuard roof system is primarily sold through its R&C Segment. SunTile solar shingles are designed to replace multiple types of roof panels, including the common concrete flat, low and high profile S tile and composition shingles. The SunTile roof system is also sold through its R&C Segment.

Ground Mounted Products

The ground mounted products include SunPower T-0 Tracker (T-0) & SunPower T-20 Tracker (T-20), SunPower Oasis Power Plant (SunPower Oasis), SunPower C-7 Tracker (C-7), and Fixed Tilt and SunPower Tracker Systems for Parking Structures. The T-0 and T-20 trackers are single-axis tracking systems that automatically pivot solar panels to track the sun's movement throughout the day. This tracking feature increases the amount of sunlight that is captured and converted into energy by up to 30% over flat or fixed-tilt systems, depending on geographic location and local climate conditions. A single motor and drive mechanism can control 10 to 20 rows, or more than 200 kilo watts of solar panels. The T-0 and T-20 trackers have been installed in a range of geographical markets principally in the United States, Germany, Italy, Portugal, South Korea, and Spain. The T-0 and T-20 trackers are sold through both its UPP and R&C Segments.

The Oasis is a solar power block that scales from 1 mega watts distributed installations to central station power plants. Oasis provides a way to deploy utility-scale solar power systems, streaming the development and construction process while optimizing the use of available land. The SunPow! er Oasis ! is sold through its UPP Segment. The C-7 combines a horizontal single-axis tracker with rows of parabolic mirrors, reflecting light onto linear arrays of its solar cells. The C-7 tracker is sold through its UPP Segment. SunPower has developed designs for solar power systems for parking structures in multiple configurations. These dual-use systems typically incorporate solar panels into the roof of a carport or similar structure to deliver onsite solar power while providing shade and protection. They are suited for parking lots adjacent to facilities. Fixed Tilt and SunPower Tracker Systems for parking structures are sold through both its UPP and R&C Segments.

Other System Offerings

SunPower�� metal roof system is designed for sloped-metal roof buildings, which are used in some winery and warehouse applications. This solar power system is designed for rapid installation. It also offers other architectural products, such as day lighting with translucent solar panels.

Balance of System Components

Balance of system components are components of a solar power system other than the solar panels. It includes SunPower branded inverters, mounting structures, charge controllers, grid interconnection equipment, and other devices depending on the specific requirements of a particular system and project.

The Company competes with Canadian Solar Inc., JA Solar Holdings Co., Kyocera Corporation, Mitsubishi Corporation, Q-Cells AG, Sanyo Corporation, Sharp Corporation, SolarCity Corporation, SolarWorld AG, Sungevity, Inc., SunRun, Inc., Suntech Power Holdings Co. Ltd., Trina Solar Ltd., Yingli Green Energy Holding Co. Ltd., Abengoa Solar S.A., Acconia Energia S.A., AES Solar Energy Ltd., Chevron Energy Solutions, EDF Energy plc, First Solar Inc., NextEra Energy, Inc., OPDE Group, NRG Energy, Inc., Recurrent Energy, Sempra Energy, Skyline Solar, Inc., Solargen Energy, Inc., Solaria Corporation, SolFocus, Inc., SunEdison and Tenaska, Inc.

Advisors' Opinion:
  • [By Travis Hoium]

    Solar power accounted for 100% of the power added to the grid in March and has accounted for as much as 50% of the additions in the first quarter. Giant projects from solar heavies First Solar (NASDAQ: FSLR  ) and SunPower (NASDAQ: SPWR  ) are driving the utility industry, and SolarCity (NASDAQ: SCTY  ) is building residential solar at a fevered pace. Erin Miller sat down with Motley Fool contributor Travis Hoium to see what this trend means for our energy future.

  • [By Dan Caplinger]

    Finally, outside the Dow, SunPower (NASDAQ: SPWR  ) hit a 52-week high, rising 3% in follow-through on last Friday's upgrade and news that it had started construction of its California-based solar project with MidAmerican Solar. As the largest solar development under construction, the project not only will provide power to 400,000 homes but also represents a key step forward for an industry that has struggled under overcapacity and concerns about falling subsidies.

Sunday, June 7, 2015

Top New Stocks To Buy For 2016

Top New Stocks To Buy For 2016: HyperSolar Inc (HYSR)

Hypersolar, Inc., incorporated on February 18, 2009, is developing renewable hydrogen using sunlight and any source of water, including seawater and wastewater. Unlike hydrocarbon fuels, such as oil, coal and natural gas, where carbon dioxide and other contaminants are released into the atmosphere when used, hydrogen fuel usage produces pure water as the only byproduct. The Companys technology includes HyperSolar H2Generator. Its nano-size particle is designed to mimic photosynthesis and contains a solar absorber that generates electrons from sunlight, as well as integrated cathode and anode areas to readily split water and transfer those electrons to the molecular bonds of hydrogen.

The HyperSolar H2Generator consists of the following primary stages: Reactor Vessels, Hydrogen Compressor and Hydrogen Storage. The reactor vessels resemble transparent rectangular boxes containing water and billions of nanoparticles suspended in solution. When exposed to sunli ght, hydrogen gas will bubble up into an air gap on top for separation and collection. Produced hydrogen gas will be compressed for space efficient storage. Hydrogen can be stored in compressed gas tanks or chemical canisters depending on the application. The HyperSolar H2Generator will be a self-contained renewable hydrogen production system that requires only sunlight and any source of water.

The Company competes with Air Products and Chemicals Inc. and Air Liquide.

Advisors' Opinion:
  • [By John Udovich]

    Small cap hydrogen fuel stocks Hydrogenics Corporation (NASDAQ: HYGS), FuelCell Energy Inc (NASDAQ: FCEL), HyperSolar Inc (OTCMKTS: HYSR) and HydroPhi Technologies Group, Inc (OTCMKTS: HPTG) are some of the lesser known small caps that areworking with hydrogen fuel or hydrogen fuel cell related technology. I should say that small cap hydrogen stocks are not for risk adverse investors as there are considerable unanswered question! s about hydrogen fuel related technology and whether it can be a viable green technology given the fueling infrastructure needed along with theenergy and expense involved in creating hydrogen(Note: None of these small capstocks are profitable at ). But any new technology will pose the same types of risks for early stage investors especially if its so-called green technology.

  • source from Top Penny Stocks For 2015:http://www.seekpennystocks.com/top-new-stocks-to-buy-for-2016.html

Thursday, June 4, 2015

Why Rogers Stock Plunged

Although we don't believe in timing the market or panicking over market movements, we do like to keep an eye on big changes -- just in case they're material to our investing thesis.

What: Shares of specialty materials maker Rogers Corp. (NYSE: ROG  ) fell as much as 13% in early trading after the company updated first-quarter guidance.

So what: The company now expects sales from continuing operations to be around $126 million, compared to guidance from two months ago of $129 million-$133 million. On the bottom line, non-GAAP earnings per share are expected to be $0.44, below the previous estimate of $0.57-$0.61.  

Now what: It's never a good sign when a company lowers guidance, particularly so close to when the original guidance numbers were given. Management said lower than expected demand for tablet devices and lower military spending affected sales. The company will report earnings at the end of April -- more detail will be given then. Keep in mind that revenue is growing slightly and the stock trades at just 10 times trailing earnings, so this isn't a disaster of a quarter given the value built into the stock.

Interested in more info on Rogers Corp.? Add it to your watchlist by clicking here.

Wednesday, June 3, 2015

Whoa! What Just Happened to My Stock?

The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 48 points yesterday and ended the session at 14,613, within striking distance again of its all-time high, as Alcoa kicked off the official start of the earnings season and beat analyst expectations. Despite weaker revenues, profits surged 59%, but with the aluminum sector still uncertain, whether the progress signals a turnaround still to come remains to be seen.

The two following stocks did better than either the Dow or the aluminum producer, both rising by double-digit percentages, but you should still resist the urge to high-five everyone in the cubicles next to you. Smart investors won't celebrate until they know why their stock surged, because without a fundamental basis for the bounce, these stocks could just as quickly make the return trip down.

Going in reverse
Chipmaker Advanced Micro Devices (NYSE: AMD  ) apparently is getting a big vote of confidence from Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT  ) after Bloomberg reported that it will use the chipmaker's processors in its next generation of Xbox game consoles. That would be a huge deal, considering AMD's chips will also be appearing in Sony's new PlayStation console.

Intel (NASDAQ: INTC  ) had previously provided the chip architecture for the Xbox, so this land grab comes at a crucial juncture for the chipmakers. The PC is dying a slow, painful death, and despite the weakness in the video-game market as developers move on to mobile platforms, the console remains an important growth outlet and AMD's new apparent dominance breathes new life into it.

One hitch, however, as TechCrunch notes, is that the new architecture probably renders Xbox 360 games unusable on the new console. Although that could spur a new round of game and console buying, it also might create significant backlash, as backwards compatibility is always a sought-after feature. Regardless, AMD will be savoring this finger in the eye to its chief rival for some time to come.

Hanging up on mobile growth
If there's been one stock suffering from a bout of manic investor behavior, it's Internet security specialist VirnetX Holdings (NYSEMKT: VHC  ) , which has found its stock bouncing all over the market. Following a patent infringement win over Apple late last year, shares soared, only to crash miserably after losing a similar case to Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO  ) , with its shares losing nearly a quarter their value. It was as if all the wheels had fallen off the gravy train it was riding to collecting royalties on its wireless patents.

It at least got a bit of a bounce higher yesterday, after it said it filed an update to specifications in the 3GPP LTE, SAE project that it says are or may become essential with an additional specification. It has now identified 18 specifications or developing specifications in the project. Apparently, investors see this as an opportunity to regain some of its lost momentum and it will be able to strengthen the club it's been using to beat the wireless crowd.

The 3GPP LTE, SAE project is the wireless industry's next-generation communications that seeks to improve the service provisioning and reduce user and operators cost. VirnetX has contended that it owns most of the critical patents related to security across the spectrum, and it has gone after most of the top names in the industry to enforce them. Until the recent decision with Cisco, VirtnetX had an unbroken string of wins, but that was clouded in the aftermath of the loss. In fact, many expect Apple to go back and appeal its loss as a result.

With new, updated claims, however, perhaps VirnetX is trying to prevent future losses and minimize the chance others will want to revisit their cases as well.

Whoa, Nelly!
When it comes to dominating markets, it doesn't get much better than Intel's position in the PC microprocessor arena. However, that market is maturing, and Intel finds itself in a precarious situation longer term if it doesn't find new avenues for growth. In this premium research report on Intel, our analyst runs through all of the key topics investors should understand about the chip giant. Click here now to learn more.