Hot Performing Companies To Watch In Right Now

The eurozone's economy continues to improve gradually, observes Yiannis Mostrous; in the Capitalist Times, he highlights four favorite stocks to bet on a continued recovery.

Netherlands-based ING Groep (IM:INGA) (OTC:ING) was formed in 1991 by the merger of Nationale-Nederlanden and NMB Postbank Group.

The financial conglomerate continues to deliver on a restructuring plan that aims to simplify its operations and refocus on the company's core strengths. The effort began four years ago, when the company announced plans to dispose of its sprawling insurance operations.

ING Groep's net interest margins have improved steadily in recent quarters, a trend that should continue to support earnings growth.

Credit quality remains a concern, but as long as unemployment remains in check, ING Groep should be able to keep its nonperforming loans to manageable levels. Buy ING Groeop's American depositary receipt (ADR) up to US$15.

With more than 6,000 branches and a 20% share of its domestic market, Intesa Sanpaolo (ISP:IM) (OTC:ISNPY) is one of Italy's largest banks.

Hot Performing Companies To Watch In Right Now: Peabody Energy Corporation(BTU)

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

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Matt DiLallo]

  Kinder Morgan is filling a vital role for companies like Arch Coal (NYSE: ACI  ) and Peabody Energy (NYSE: BTU  ) . Both companies have signed long-term export deals with the company. These export deals represent the quickest and least-expensive options for coal producers as it saves them millions in up-front capital expenditures.

• [By Justin Loiseau]

  Wall Street wasn't aiming high with this corporation. Sales are down a seasonally adjusted 8.5%, while adjusted EPS plummeted 50% as mining companies continually find themselves between a rock and a hard place. But considering Cliff's newest report and Peabody Energy's (NYSE: BTU  ) earnings win earlier this week, it seems that mining companies aren't out of steam yet. Yesterday's report coincided with a new International Energy Outlook report predicting a 56% uptick in global energy use over the next three decades. Mining companies' share prices have trailed the Dow over the past 12 months, with Peabody down 37% and Cliffs lagging a whopping 78%.

• [By Dimitra DeFotis]

  Alpha Natural Resources�(ANR) and�James River Coal�(JRCC) each rose nearly 12%. The largecap U.S. coal players also rallied: Arch Coal�(ACI) was up 10%,�Peabody Energy�(BTU) jumped nearly 9% . �

• [By Travis Hoium]

  Coal stocks have been bludgeoned again this week, after President Obama gave little indication he was going to give the industry leeway in new environmental regulations. Arch Coal (NYSE: ACI  ) , Alpha Natural Resources (NYSE: ANR  ) , and Peabody Energy (NYSE: BTU  ) are all facing long-term challenges finding demand for thermal coal, and they're not dissipating any time soon. In the following video, Fool contributor Travis Hoium covers why he thinks coal stocks are a bad buy.�

Hot Performing Companies To Watch In Right Now: New York & Company Inc.(NWY)

New York & Company, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, operates as a specialty retailer of women's fashion apparel and accessories in the United States. The company offers a range of wear-to-work, and casual apparel and accessories, including pants, jackets, knit tops, blouses, sweaters, denim, T-shirts, activewear, handbags, and jewelry. It sells its products under the New York & Company, Lerner, Lerner New York, New York Style, City Stretch, City Style, and NY&C brand names. The company sells its branded merchandise through its network of retail stores and E-commerce store at nyandcompany.com. As of March 15, 2012, it operated 532 stores in 43 states. The company, formerly known as NY & Co. Group, Inc., was founded in 1918 and is headquartered in New York, New York.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Jeremy Bowman]

  What: Shares of New York & Company (NYSE: NWY  ) were looking sharp, gaining as much as 10% two market days after reporting earnings, as Janney Montgomery Scott today reaffirmed its buy rating and upped its price target by 50% to $6.

Best Penny Stocks To Watch For 2014: Prestige Brand Holdings Inc.(PBH)

Prestige Brands Holdings, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, engages in marketing, selling, and distributing over-the-counter healthcare and household cleaning products primarily in North America. The company?s Over-The-Counter Healthcare segment offers a portfolio of OTC products under nine core OTC brands, including Chloraseptic sore throat remedies, Clear Eyes eye drops, Compound W wart removers, Dramamine motion sickness products, Efferdent and Effergrip denture products, Little Remedies pediatric healthcare products, Luden's cough drops, PediaCare pediatric healthcare products, and The Doctor?s brand of oral care products. This segment also provides other significant brands that include Dermoplast first-aid products, Murine eye and ear care products, NasalCrom allergy relief product, New-Skin liquid bandage, and Wartner wart removers. Its Household Cleaning segment markets household cleaning products, such as abrasive and non-abrasive tub and tile cleaner, scrubb ing pads and sponges, dilutables, anti-bacterial hard surface spray for counter tops, and glass cleaners under the Comet, Chore Boy, and Spic and Span brands. Prestige Brands Holdings distributes its products through various retail channels, including drug, food, dollar, and club stores, as well as supermarkets and mass merchandisers. The company was founded in 1996 and is headquartered in Irvington, New York.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Seth Jayson]

  Calling all cash flows
  When you are trying to buy the market's best stocks, it's worth checking up on your companies' free cash flow once a quarter or so, to see whether it bears any relationship to the net income in the headlines. That's what we do with this series. Today, we're checking in on Prestige Brands Holdings (NYSE: PBH  ) , whose recent revenue and earnings are plotted below.

• [By Eric Volkman]

  Prestige Brands (NYSE: PBH  ) is reaching to the other side of the world for its latest acquisition. The company announced that it has purchased the privately held Care Pharmaceuticals, based in New South Wales, Australia. The terms of the deal were not disclosed, although Prestige Brands did admit that it would be funded by monies drawn from an existing credit facility combined with cash on hand.

• [By Ben Levisohn]

  Castor believes the cash has disappeared into working capital, which has grown from 23% to more than 50% since 2008. Comparable company Prestige�Brand (PBH) uses 11%; Unilever�(UL) and Colgate-Palmolive�(CL) far less.

Hot Performing Companies To Watch In Right Now: BlackRock Municipal Income Trust (BFK)

BlackRock Municipal Income Trust is a closed ended fixed income mutual fund launched by BlackRock, Inc. It is managed by BlackRock Advisors, LLC. The fund invests in fixed income markets. It invests in companies operating across industrial and pollution control, hospital, tobacco, housing, transportation, education, water and sewer, and power industries. BlackRock Municipal Income Trust was formed on July 31, 2001 and is domiciled in United States.

Hot Performing Companies To Watch In Right Now: Smiths Group(SMIN.L)

Smiths Group plc engages in the development, manufacture, sale, and support of products and services for the threat and contraband detection, energy, medical devices, communications, and engineered components markets worldwide. The company offers security equipment, including trace detection, millimetre-wave, infrared, biological detection, and diagnostics that detect and identify explosives, narcotics, weapons, chemical agents, biohazards, nuclear and radioactive material, and contraband. It also provides mechanical seals, seal support systems, engineered bearings, power transmission couplings, specialist filtration systems, and other hardware products for the oil and gas, chemical, pharmaceutical, pulp and paper, and mining sectors. In addition, the company offers medical devices aligned to specific therapies, primarily airway, pain and temperature management, infusion, needle protection, critical care monitoring, and vascular access. Further, it provides electronic and radio frequency products that connect, protect, and control critical systems for the wireless telecommunications, aerospace, defense, space, medical, rail, test, and industrial markets; and engineered components comprising ducting, hose assemblies, and heating elements that move and heat fluids and gases for the aerospace, medical, industrial, construction, and domestic markets. The company was founded in 1851 and is headquartered in London, United Kingdom.