Thursday, September 4, 2014

Best Cheap Companies To Own For 2014

LAS VEGAS ��One of the reasons investors are concerned about Apple can be found in the back booths of this year's International CES technology conference: cheap, powerful smartphones that are a viable alternative to the iPhone for some consumers, especially in Europe and fast-growing developing markets.

These phones are often made by Chinese manufacturers for other companies, which put their own brand names on the devices. Some brands mentioned by these manufacturers included Polaroid in Europe, Fly in Russia, Yezz and BLU in Latin America.

Some of the phone makers here said they are also selling their phones under their own brands too, mostly in China.

The phones run Google's Android operating system and often feature multicore processors from Taiwanese chip company MediaTek. They cost less than $200, and some are priced below $100. This compares with more than $500 for Apple's iPhone 5s.

10 Best Biotech Stocks To Buy Right Now: AeroVironment Inc.(AVAV)

AeroVironment, Inc. designs, develops, produces, and supports unmanned aircraft systems (UAS), and efficient energy systems for various industries and governmental agencies. Its UAS provide intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance, including real-time tactical reconnaissance, tracking, combat assessment, and geographic data to the small tactical unit or individual war fighter. The UAS wirelessly transmit critical live video and other information generated by their payload of electro-optical or infrared sensors directly to a hand-held ground control system, enabling the operator to view and capture images during the day or at night on a hand-held ground control unit. AeroVironment also provides spare equipment, alternative payload modules, batteries, chargers, repair services, and customer support for the UAS. In addition, the company produces industrial productivity and clean transportation solutions for commercial and government customers, develops potential clean t ransportation solutions, and performs contract engineering services; offers PosiCharge electric vehicle charging systems for industrial electric material handling fleets, electric vehicle charging systems for passenger and fleet vehicles, and power cycling and test systems for developers and manufacturers of plug-in electric and hybrid vehicles, as well as battery packs, electric motors, and fuel cells; and supplies power cycling and test systems to research and development organizations that focus on developing electric propulsion systems, electric generation systems, and electricity storage systems. It supplies its UAS primarily to the organizations within the United States department of defense. AeroVironment, Inc. was incorporated in 1971 and is headquartered in Monrovia, California.

Advisors' Opinion:
  • [By Lauren Pollock]

    AeroVironment Inc.'s(AVAV) fiscal second-quarter profit fell 81% on a sharp decline in revenue and margins. However, shares were up 4.4% at $28.10 in premarket trading as the maker of pilotless drones and rechargeable-batteries reported adjusted earnings and revenue that topped expectations.

  • [By Brian Pacampara]

    Based on the aggregated intelligence of 180,000-plus investors participating in Motley Fool CAPS, the Fool's free investing community, unmanned aerial vehicle specialist AeroVironment (NASDAQ: AVAV  ) has earned a coveted five-star ranking.

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

    AeroVironment Inc.'s(AVAV) fiscal third-quarter profit nearly tripled as the pilotless-drones maker reported a sharp jump in revenue and booked a gain on an investment. Adjusted profit and revenue results for the latest quarter easily exceeded Wall Street’s expectations. Shares climbed 10% to $34.90 in light premarket trading.

  • [By Blake Bos]

    In the video below, Blake observes how smaller companies like iRobot� (NASDAQ: IRBT  ) and AeroVironment (NASDAQ: AVAV  ) , as well as huge defense contractors such as Lockheed Martin� (NYSE: LMT  ) and Northrop Grumman� (NYSE: NOC  ) , are positioned to benefit from this trend.

Best Cheap Companies To Own For 2014: Oracle Corporation(ORCL)

Oracle Corporation, an enterprise software company, develops, manufactures, markets, distributes, and services database and middleware software, applications software, and hardware systems worldwide. It licenses of database and middleware software, including database management software, application server software, service-oriented architecture and business process management software, data integration software, business intelligence software, identity and access management software, content management software, portals and user interaction software, development tools, and Java; and applications software comprising enterprise resource planning, customer relationship management, enterprise performance management, supply chain management, business intelligence applications, enterprise portfolio project management, Web commerce, and industry-specific applications software. The company also offers customers with rights to unspecified software product upgrades and maintenance releases; Internet access to technical content; and Internet and telephone access to technical support personnel. In addition, its hardware systems products consist of computer server and hardware-related software, including the Oracle Solaris Operating System; and storage products, such as tape, disk and networking solutions for open systems and mainframe server environments. Its hardware systems support solutions include software updates for the software components. Further, the company offers consulting solutions in business and IT strategy alignment, enterprise architecture planning and design, initial product implementation and integration, and ongoing product enhancements and upgrades; cloud services, including Oracle Cloud Services and Advanced Customer Services; and education solutions comprising instructor-led, media-based, and Internet-based training in the use of its software and hardware products. The company was founded in 1977 and is headquartered in Redwood Ci ty, California.

Advisors' Opinion:
  • [By Anders Bylund]

    This quarter was a though slough for most enterprise IT specialists. Oracle (NYSE: ORCL  ) disappointed in its latest report, citing poor sales execution against a difficult macroeconomic backdrop. IBM (NYSE: IBM  ) followed suit, blaming its unusual miss on soft government orders and a "once-every-10-year event" in China. Both stocks plunged after reporting results, 8% in IBM's case and more than 10% for Oracle.

  • [By Dividends4Life]

    Memberships and Peers: MSFT is a member of the S&P 500. The company's peer group includes: Apple Inc. (AAPL) with a 2.5% yield, Oracle Corp. (ORCL) with a 1.5% yield and Google Inc. (GOOG) with a 0.0% yield.

  • [By fedezaldua]

    From a valuation standpoint the stock looks progressively cheap even when its top line growth has been more and more disappointing. IBM sells for 2014 10 times earnings and 7.8 times EV/EBITDA at a time when the company is growing EPS and its operating cash flow per share. Other IT giants such as Oracle (ORCL) sell for 2014 13 times earnings and 8.8 times EV/EBITDA. Vmware (VMW), a leader in cloud computing and a competitor to IBM in that segment, sells for 2014 27 times earnings and 19 times EV/EBITDA.

Best Cheap Companies To Own For 2014: Ur Energy Inc(URG)

Ur-Energy Inc., an exploration stage junior mining company, engages in the identification, acquisition, evaluation, exploration, and development of uranium mineral properties. The company has 13 projects located in Wyoming and Nebraska, the United States; and 3 exploration projects located in the Northwest Territories and Nunavut, Canada. Its landholdings cover approximately 90,000 acres in the United States and approximately 140,000 acres in Canada. The company was founded in 2004 and is headquartered in Littleton, Colorado.

Advisors' Opinion:
  • [By The Energy Report]

    DS: Two of our top picks are Cameco Corp. (CCJ) and Ur-Energy Inc. (URG). For Cameco, we've got a $25/share target and an outperform rating. This company is the industry's go-to, the blue chip uranium company. It's organically growing very low-cost operations, which are for the most part in very safe jurisdictions. It has a lower-risk approach to contracts, with a targeted pricing mix of about 40% fixed-pricing and 60% market-related pricing in the contract book. The company's got a solid balance sheet. We think it's going to end Q3/13 with about $800M in working capital and another $2 billion [$2B] in undrawn lines of credit. It's also diversified across the nuclear fuel chain, with exposure not only to its core uranium mining business but also with nuclear fuel services, like conversion and fuel fabrication. It's got a stake in the Bruce nuclear power plant as well as a newly bolted-on uranium trading business, so it's quite diversified. On top of that, Cameco pays a 2% dividend. We think it offers a very attractive risk/reward proposition at these levels.

  • [By James E. Brumley]

    You know, were it just Uranium Resources, Inc. (NASDAQ:URRE) or just Ur-Energy Inc. (NYSEMKT:URG) or just Uranerz Energy Corp. (NYSEMKT:URZ) making a decided bullish move, I might be able to dismiss it. Similarly, if URZ had only been moving higher for one or two days (or only URG or only URRE), it might be easy to not be impressed. Neither of those situations has been the actual case, however. All three stocks have been moving upward for several days now, quite a bit, on noticeably higher volume. There's something "going on", as it were, and if prior group-wide movements are any clue, it's the kind of move worth tapping into.

  • [By James Brumley]

    PLAB’s per share income is expected to double next year, from 2013′s profit of 30 cents per share to 60 cents per share in 2014.

    Ur-Energy (URG)

    12/2 Price: $1.15

  • [By Bryan Murphy]

    If you listened to my bullish calls from December 27th and/or February 24th about Uranerz Energy Corp. (NYSEMKT:URZ), Uranium Resources, Inc. (NASDAQ:URRE), and Ur-Energy Inc. (NYSEMKT:URG), then congratulations - you're now up as much as 50%, depending on when you stepped into a trade, and which stock you chose. Now get out. See, as well as URZ and URG have done and are doing (URRE not so much), it looks like the short-term rally I first spotted a little more than a couple of months ago has fully run its course, and now these names are setting up a pullback.

Best Cheap Companies To Own For 2014: Progress Software Corporation(PRGS)

Progress Software Corporation operates as an enterprise software company worldwide. Its products include Progress OpenEdge platform, which offers development tools, application servers, application management tools, and an embedded database; Progress Orbix to address enterprise integration problems with standards-based solutions; and Progress ObjectStore, an object data management system to store data faster than relational database management system or file-based storage system. The company?s products also comprise Progress Responsiveness Process Management suite for business users; Progress Control Tower, an interactive business control panel; Progress Sonic, which comprises an enterprise messaging system and the enterprise service buses; Progress Actional that provides operational and business visibility, root cause analysis, and policy-based security and control of services; Progress Apama, which offers tools for creating, testing, and deploying strategies for applicat ions, including algorithmic trading, market aggregation, smart order routing, market surveillance and monitoring, and risk management; Progress Savvion BusinessManager, a business process management software; and Fuse products that provide customers with access to professional open source integration and messaging software. In addition, it offers Progress DataDirect Connect products, which provide data connectivity components; Progress DataDirect Shadow to provide foundation architecture for standards-based mainframe integration; and Progress Data Services product set that offers data integration for distributed applications. Further, the company provides maintenance, consulting, training, and customer support services. Progress Software Corporation sells its products to independent software vendors, original equipment manufacturers, and system integrators through direct sales force and independent distributors. The company was founded in 1981 and is based in Bedford, Massac husetts.

Advisors' Opinion:
  • [By Garrett Cook]

    In trading on Friday, technology shares were relative leaders, up on the day by about 0.15 percent. Top gainers in the sector included Aware (NASDAQ: AWRE), up 15.9 percent, and Progress Software (NASDAQ: PRGS), up 10.5 percent.

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

    Progress Software Corp.'s(PRGS) fiscal first-quarter profit fell 64% as the business-software provider’s revenue slipped due to the timing of certain deal closures.

  • [By Rich Duprey]

    Believing it should have a single, cohesive platform for the development of�cloud and mobile application development technologies, Progress Software (NASDAQ: PRGS  ) announced this morning it was selling its�Apama�complex event processing solution to Software AG for an undisclosed sum.

Best Cheap Companies To Own For 2014: Express-1 Expedited Solutions Inc.(XPO)

XPO Logistics, Inc. provides third-party logistics services using a network of relationships with ground, sea, and air carriers in the United States, Mexico, and Canada. It operates in three segments: Express-1, Concert Group Logistics, and Bounce Logistics. The Express-1 segment offers ground expedited surface transportation services for freight. It operates a fleet ranging from cargo vans to semi tractor trailer units. The Concert Group Logistics segment provides domestic and international freight forwarding services through a network of independently owned stations. Its domestic freight forwarding services include air charter, expedites, and time sensitive services, as well as cost sensitive services comprising deferred delivery, less than truckload, and full truck load services; and international freight forwarding services consist of on-board courier and air charters, time sensitive services, less-than-container and full-container-loads, and vessel charters. This segm ent also offers documentation on international shipments, customs clearance and banking, trade show shipment management, time definite and customized product distributions, reverse logistics and on site asset recovery projects, installation coordination, freight optimization, and diversity compliance support services. The Bounce Logistics segment provides premium freight brokerage services for truckload shipments. The company serves approximately 4,000 retail, commercial, manufacturing, and industrial customers through 6 U.S. operations centers and 22 agent locations. It offers its services to the automotive manufacturing, automotive components and supplies, commercial printing, durable goods manufacturing, pharmaceuticals, food and consumer products, and high tech sectors. The company was formerly known as Express-1 Expedited Solutions, Inc. and changed its name to XPO Logistics, Inc. in September 2011. XPO Logistics, Inc. was founded in 1989 and is based in Buchanan, Michi gan.

Advisors' Opinion:
  • [By Vera Yuan]

    We initiated a new position in Aircastle Ltd. (AYR), an aircraft leasing company with a flexible business model and a rational capital allocation philosophy. We took advantage of an opportunity to purchase shares in the heavily capitalized Georgia bank State Bank Financial Corp. (STBZ) as the depressed stock price reflected investors��lack of patience with a slower than expected pace of capital deployment. We like State Bank�� management team led by Georgia banker Joe Evans. This management team has experience successfully building and selling other Georgia banks. We also received shares of transportation infrastructure company XPO Logistics, Inc. (XPO) as a result of its acquisition of holding Pacer International, Inc.

  • [By Travis Hoium]

    What: Shares of XPO Logistics (NYSE: XPO  ) jumped 13% today after announcing an acquisition.

    So what: The company will pay $365 million for logistics provider 3PD, consisting of $357 million in cash an $8 million in XPO restricted stock. Is will use its own cash and borrow $195 million from Credit Suisse Group for the remainder of the purchase. �

  • [By Jake L'Ecuyer]

    XPO Logistics (NYSE: XPO) shot up 7.06 percent to $30.01 after the company announced its plans to acquire Pacer International (NASDAQ: PACR) in a deal valued at $335 million.

Best Cheap Companies To Own For 2014: Merck & Company Inc.(MRK)

Merck & Co., Inc. provides various health solutions through its prescription medicines, vaccines, biologic therapies, animal health, and consumer care products. The company?s Pharmaceutical segment provides human health pharmaceutical products, such as therapeutic and preventive agents for the treatment of human disorders in the areas of bone, respiratory, immunology, dermatology, cardiovascular, diabetes and obesity, infectious diseases, neurosciences and ophthalmology, oncology, vaccines, and women's health and endocrine. This segment also offers human health vaccines, such as preventive pediatric, adolescent, and adult vaccines. Its Animal Health segment discovers, develops, manufactures, and markets animal health products. This segment offers antibiotics, anti-inflammatory products, vaccines, products for the treatment of fertility disorders, and parasiticides for cattle, swine, horses, poultry, dogs, cats, salmons, and fish. The Consumer Care segment develops, manufac tures, and markets over-the-counter, foot care, and sun care products. Its over-the-counter product line includes non-drowsy antihistamines; treatment for occasional constipation; decongestant-free cold/flu medicine for people with high blood pressure; nasal decongestant spray; and treatment for frequent heartburn. This segment?s foot care products comprise topical antifungal, and foot and sneaker odor/wetness products; and sun care products include sun care lotions, sprays and dry oils; and sunburn relief products. The company serves drug wholesalers and retailers, hospitals, government agencies, physicians, physician distributors, veterinarians, animal producers, and managed health care providers, as well as food chain and mass merchandiser outlets in the United States and Canada. Merck & Co., Inc. was founded in 1891 and is headquartered in Whitehouse Station, New Jersey.

Advisors' Opinion:
  • [By Dan Carroll]

    Nearly every big pharma player has been hit with patent expirations that have hit hard on sales lately, and Merck (NYSE: MRK  ) is no exception. Merck's one of the industry's biggest giants, but the loss of patent protection on former top blockbuster drug Singulair and other leading medications has threatened this company's future. While leading drugs such as Januvia are holding up Merck's foundation, the company's pipeline will make or break its long-term success.

  • [By Dan Caplinger]

    Only a couple of stocks posted losses today. Merck (NYSE: MRK  ) fell 0.1% in light of a Supreme Court decision that gave the Federal Trade Commission the power to challenge arrangements between primary-drug developers and generic-drug manufacturers that involve upfront payments in exchange for delays in releasing generic versions of name-brand drugs. Clearly, Merck and its peers have incentives to keep brand-name profits going as long as possible, and FTC challenges could reduce their ability to do so going forward.

  • [By Dan Caplinger]

    Dealing with drug pipelines
    The third highest payout ratio belongs to Merck (NYSE: MRK  ) , which pays out about 85% of its earnings as dividends. Here, concerns are arguably more justified, as the company has seen net income stagnate in recent years. Although reported earnings bounce around sharply because of restructuring costs, asset writedowns, and one-time gains or losses from sales of business units, Merck's earnings overall have remained largely flat from 2005 until now. The company hasn't raised its dividends frequently, but last year, a roughly 10% increase started pushing payout ratios higher.

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