Saturday, November 29, 2014

5 Best Transportation Stocks To Buy For 2015

5 Best Transportation Stocks To Buy For 2015: Norfolk Souther Corporation(NSC)

Norfolk Southern Corporation, through its subsidiaries, engages in the rail transportation of raw materials, intermediate products, and finished goods primarily in the United States. The company transports coal products, such as coal, coke, and iron ore; automotive products, including finished vehicles and auto parts; chemicals products consisting of sulfur and related chemicals, petroleum products, chlorine and bleaching compounds, plastics, rubber, industrial chemicals, chemical wastes, and municipal wastes; metals and construction products comprising steel, aluminum products, machinery, scrap metals, cement, aggregates, bricks, and minerals; and paper, clay, and forest products, including lumber and wood products, pulp board and paper products, wood fibers, wood pulp, scrap paper, and clay. It also transports agriculture, consumer, and government products, such as soybeans, wheat, corn, fertilizer, animal and poultry feed, food oils, flour, beverages, canned goods, swee teners, consumer products, ethanol, and items for the military. In addition, it engages in the intermodal operations that include moving of shipments in trailers, the United States and international containers, and roadrailer equipment. Further, the company transports overseas freight through various Atlantic and Gulf Coast ports, as well as provides a range of logistics services; and operates passenger and commuter trains. Additionally, it involves in the acquisition, leasing, and management of coal, oil, gas, and minerals; the development of commercial real estate; telecommunications; and the leasing or sale of rail property and equipment. As of December 31, 2010, the company operated approximately 20,000 route miles in 22 states and the District of Columbia. The company was founded in 1883 and is based in Norfolk, Virginia.

Advisors' Opin! ion:
  • [By Johanna Bennett]

    Norfolk Southern (NSC), Toll Brothers (TOL) and J.C. Penney Co. (JCP) are just some of the stocks moving during today’s market action: Here's a rundown:

    Toll Brothers rose 3.3% to $33.29 after the home builder posted better-than-expected revenue for the quarter ended Oct. Sales surged 29% to $1.35 billion, lifted by strong demand in the home builder’s West Coast division to top the $1.31 billion expected by analysts. Leucadia National (LUK) has been among the worst performers of the S&P's 85 financial stocks. Today, the shares gained 1.4% to $24.13 after Barron's editor Andrew Bary referred to the company as "A Mini-Berkshire At a Bargain Price." The stock has been hurt by low returns outside Jefferies, the investment bank it bought early y last year. Still, many of its other business arte valuable, including Berkadia, a 50/50 joint venture with Berkshire How about the real Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.B)? Warren Buffett’s holding company rose 0.75% to $144.68 after it posted Friday a drop in profit tied to an investment loss. Still, results overall beat expectations as the company's railroad arm and other units continued to ride a rebounding U.S. economy. J.C. Penney dropped 5.6% to $7.38 after Barron's writer Jack Hough warned readers that the troubled retailer may have set unrealistic financial goals. At its Oct. 8 analyst day, Penney set a goal of $1.2 billion in earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization, by 2017, or close to four times this year's estimate. To get there, requires lifting sales at longstanding stores by 5.4% a year, boosting gross margins, and holding spending flat. Norfolk Southern surged 2.6% to $115.89 after Barron's writer Robyn Goldwyn Blumenthal weighed in bullishly on the stock amid merger talks within the railroad industry. Talks have circulated of a deal between Canadian Pacific (CP) and CSX (CSX) but fell apart last week. On Friday, hedge fund manager Bill Acker! man specu!
  • [By Teresa Rivas]

    This could eventually cut the number of North American Class Is in half, something that the regulators will take under very serious consideration before giving their blessings on the first merger. If a CP-CSX union occurs, Norfolk Southern (NSC) would be the next target, in our opinion, as Canadian National Railway (CNI), Union Pacific (UNP), and [Berkshire Hathaway's (BRKB)] BNSF could each contemplate forming their own transcontinental railway. CP's reported offer to merge with CSX could boost the latter's stock price on Monday, while CP shares may underperform the group.

  • [By Dan Caplinger]

    Shareholders are happy with the performance that railroad giant Norfolk Southern Corporation  (NYSE: NSC  ) has put in recently, climbing to record highs as the industry emerges from an especially difficult period. But even with things looking brighter for rail transportation, Norfolk Southern has some obstacles to overcome to convince investors that its strong stock performance is justified. Let's look at three of the most significant factors that could send shares of Norfolk Southern falling in the near future.

  • source from Top Stocks For 2015:http://www.topstocksblog.com/5-best-transportation-stocks-to-buy-for-2015-3.html

Sunday, November 23, 2014

Top 10 Transportation Stocks To Watch Right Now

Current price: ��5.4
Shares outstanding: 304 mn
Pension liability: ��.6 bn
Net Cash: -2.3 bn
EV: ��1.5 bn
P/S: 0.4 P/B:1.5
FCF: ��51 mn (2012)

Business: Alstom (XPAR:ALO) is active in three segments - power transmission, power generation and transportation.

It designs and installs services for generating and transmitting power (turbines, windmills, plants, grid installations). It also designs and provides service for trains, trams and metros. It maintains leadership in rail transportation and it is among the top three companies in power generation and transmission.

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The following is the revenue breakup from 2012.

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Top 5 Electric Utility Companies To Watch In Right Now: FedEx Corporation(FDX)

FedEx Corporation provides transportation, e-commerce, and business services in the United States and internationally. It operates in four segments: FedEx Express, FedEx Ground, FedEx Freight, and FedEx Services. The FedEx Express segment offers various shipping services for the delivery of packages and freight. This segment also provides international trade services specializing in customs brokerage, and ocean and air freight forwarding services; customs clearance services, as well as global trade data, an information tool that allows customers to track and manage imports; and international trade advisory services, including assistance with the customs-trade partnership against terrorism program, as well as publishes customs duty and tax information in various customs areas. In addition, it offers supply chain solutions, including critical inventory logistics, transportation management, fulfillment, and fleet services. The FedEx Ground segment provides business and reside ntial ground package delivery services. It primarily serves customers in the small-package market in North America. The FedEx Freight segment offers less-than-truckload freight services, as well as freight-shipping services. As of May 31, 2010, this segment operated approximately 60,000 vehicles and trailers from a network of 492 service centers. The FedEx Services segment provides sales, marketing, information technology support, and customer service support services; and access to copying and digital printing through retail and Web-based platforms, signs and graphics, professional finishing, computer rentals, and a range of ground shipping and time-definite express shipping services. The company was founded in 1971 and is headquartered in Memphis, Tennessee.

Advisors' Opinion:
  • [By Ben Levisohn]

    Meanwhile, competition in the shipping industry is likely to increase as a number of retailers like�Amazon.com�Inc. (AMZN) and�Wal-Mart Stores�Inc. (WMT) test their own delivery networks.�FedEx�Corp. (FDX) likely added fuel to that fire when it unveiled plans last month to change the way it charges to ship bulky packages, effectively increasing prices on more than a third of its U.S. ground shipments.

Top 10 Transportation Stocks To Watch Right Now: QEP Midstream Partners LP (QEPM)

QEP Midstream Partners, LP (QEP), incorporated on April 19, 2013, is a limited partnership formed by QEP Resources, Inc. to owns, operates, acquires and develops midstream energy assets. The Company�� primary assets consist of ownership interests in four gathering systems and two Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC)-regulated pipelines, through which it provides natural gas and crude oil gathering and transportation services. The Company�� assets are located in, or are within close proximity to, the Green River Basin located in Wyoming and Colorado, the Uinta Basin located in eastern Utah, and the portion of the Williston Basin located in North Dakota. As of December 31, 2012, the Company�� gathering systems had 1,475 miles of pipeline and an average gross throughput of 1.8 million british thermal units per hour of natural gas and 18,224 barrels of crude oil.

Green River System

The Company�� Green River System, located in western Wyoming, consists of three complimentary systems owned by Green River Gathering, Rendezvous Gas and Rendezvous Pipeline and gathers natural gas production from the Pinedale, Jonah and Moxa Arch fields. In addition to gathering natural gas, the system also gathers and stabilizes crude oil production from the Pinedale Field, transports the stabilized crude oil to an interstate pipeline interconnect, and gathers and handles produced and flowback water associated with well completion activities in the Pinedale Field. The Green River Gathering assets are comprised of 405 miles of natural gas gathering pipelines, 61 miles of crude oil gathering pipelines, 81 miles of water gathering pipelines and a 60-mile, FERC-regulated crude oil pipeline located in the Green River Basin. The Rendezvous Gas assets consist of three parallel, 103-mile high-pressure natural gas pipelines, with 1,032 million cubic feet per day of throughput capacity and 7,800 basic hydrogen peroxide of gas compression. Rendezvous Pipeline�� sole asset is a 21-mile, FERC-regu! lated natural gas transmission pipeline that provides gas transportation services from QEP�� Blacks Fork processing complex in southwest Wyoming to an interconnect with the Kern River Pipeline.

Vermillion Gathering System

The Vermillion Gathering System consists of gas gathering and compression assets located in southern Wyoming, northwest Colorado and northeast Utah, which, when combined, include 454 miles of low-pressure, gas gathering pipelines and 23,197 basic hydrogen peroxide of gas compression. The Vermillion Gathering System is primarily supported by life-of-reserves and long-term, fee-based gas gathering agreements with minimum volume commitments, which are designed to ensure that it will generate a certain amount of revenue over the life of the gathering agreement by collecting either gathering fees for actual throughput or payments to cover any shortfall. The primary customers on our Vermillion Gathering System include Questar, Samson Resources Corporation (Samson Resources), QEP and Chevron USA, Inc. (Chevron).

Three Rivers Gathering System

Three Rivers Gathering is a joint venture between QEP and Ute Energy Midstream Holdings, LLC (Ute Energy) that was formed to transport natural gas gathered by Uintah Basin Field Services, L.L.C., an indirectly owned subsidiary of QEP (Uintah Basin Field Services), and other third-party volumes to gas processing facilities owned by QEP and third parties. The Three Rivers Gathering System consists of gas gathering assets located in the Uinta Basin in northeast Utah, including approximately 50 miles of gathering pipeline and 4,735 basic hydrogen peroxide of gas compression.

Williston Gathering System

The Williston Gathering System is a crude oil and natural gas gathering system located in the Williston Basin in McLean County, North Dakota. The Williston Gathering System includes 17 miles of gas gathering pipelines, 17 miles of oil gathering pipelines 239 basic hydrogen peroxide o! f gas com! pression, and a crude oil and natural gas handling facility, located primarily on the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation.

The Company competes with Enterprise Products Partners, L.P., Western Gas and The Williams Companies, Inc.

Advisors' Opinion:
  • [By Dimitra DeFotis]

    But things aren’t all bad. A spate of initial public offerings traded at nice prices Friday. Among them was QEP Midstream Partners (QEPM), an energy master limited partnership. (Press release here). More on IPOs from Bloomberg here.

  • [By Lauren Pollock]

    QEP Resources Inc.(QEP) plans to separate its midstream business, QEP Field Services Co., into a separate entity, including its interest in QEP Midstream Partners LP(QEPM).

  • [By Jon C. Ogg]

    QEP Midstream Partners L.P. (NYSE: QEPM) was started as Buy at Janney Capital, and note that four other firms started coverage earlier this week.

    ServiceNow Inc. (NYSE: NOW) was started as Buy with a $55 price target at Canaccord Genuity.

Top 10 Transportation Stocks To Watch Right Now: Kirby Corp (KEX)

Kirby Corporation, incorporated on January 31, 1969, is a domestic tank barge operator, transporting bulk liquid products throughout the Mississippi River System, on the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway, and along all three United States coasts and in Alaska and Hawaii. The Company transports petrochemicals, black oil products, refined petroleum products and agricultural chemicals by tank barge. The Company, through its subsidiaries, conducts operations in two business segments: marine transportation and diesel engine services. Through the diesel engine services segment, the Company provides after-market service for diesel engines and reduction gears used in marine and power generation applications. The Company also distributes and services diesel engines and transmissions, pumps and compression products, and manufactures oilfield service equipment, including hydraulic fracturing equipment, for land-based pressure pumping and oilfield service markets. The Company, through its marine transportation segment, is a provider of marine transportation services, operating tank barges and towing vessels transporting bulk liquid products throughout the Mississippi River System, on the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway, and along all three United States coasts and in Alaska and Hawaii. On December 15, 2011, the Company completed the purchase of the coastal tank barge fleet of Seaboats, Inc. and affiliated companies (Seaboats). On July 1, 2011, the Company completed the acquisition of K-Sea Transportation Partners L.P. (K-Sea). On April 15, 2011, the Company purchased United Holdings LLC (United), a distributor and service provider of engine and transmission related products for the oil and gas services, power generation and on-highway transportation industries, and manufacturer of oilfield service equipment. On February 24, 2011, the Company acquired 21 inland and offshore tank barges and 15 inland towboats and offshore tugboats from Enterprise Marine Services LLC (Enterprise). On February 9, 2011, the Company acquired from ! Kinder Morgan Petcoke, L.P. (Kinder Morgan).

The Company transports petrochemicals, black oil products, refined petroleum products, and agricultural chemicals by tank barge. The Company also owns and operates fits offshore dry-bulk barges and tugboats engaged in the coastal transportation of dry-bulk cargoes. It is a provider of transportation services for its customers. The Company, through its diesel engine services segment, sells replacement parts, provides service mechanics to overhaul and repair diesel engines, transmissions, reduction gears, pumps and compression products, maintains facilities to rebuild component parts or diesel engines, transmissions and reduction gears, and manufactures oilfield service equipment, including hydraulic fracturing equipment. The Company services the marine, power generation, oilfield service, and land-based oil and gas operator and producer markets.

Marine Transportation

The marine transportation segment is a provider of transportation services by tank barge for the inland and coastal markets. As of February 22, 2012, the equipment owned or operated by the marine transportation segment consisted of 819 inland tank barges, 236 inland towboats, 59 coastal tank barges, 65 coastal tugboats, fits offshore dry-cargo barges, fits offshore tugboats and one docking tugboat. The 236 inland towboats, 65 coastal tugboats, fits offshore tugboats and one docking tugboat provide the power source and the 819 inland tank barges, 59 coastal tank barges and fits offshore dry-cargo barges provide the freight capacity for the marine transportation segment. The Company�� coastal and offshore tows consist of one tugboat and one tank barge or dry-cargo barge.

During the year ended December 31, 2011, the Company�� inland marine transportation operation moved over 50 million tons of liquid cargo on the United States inland waterway system. Products transported for its customers along the inland waterway system consisted of petrochemi! cals, bla! ck oil products, refined petroleum products and agricultural chemicals. Bulk liquid petrochemicals transported include, such products as benzene, styrene, methanol, acrylonitrile, xylene and caustic soda, all consumed in the production of paper, fibers and plastics. During 2011, the transportation of petrochemical products represented 59% of the segment�� revenues. Customers shipping these products are refining and petrochemical companies. Black oil products transported include products, such as asphalt, residual fuel oil, No. 6 fuel oil, coker feedstock, vacuum gas oil, carbon black feedstock, crude oil and ship bunkers (engine fuel). During 2011, such products represented 20% of the segment�� revenues. During 2011, refined petroleum products transported include the various blends of finished gasoline, gasoline blendstocks, jet fuel, No. 2 oil, naphtha, heating oil and diesel fuel, and represented 16% of the segment�� revenues. The Company also classifies ethanol in the refined petroleum product category. Customers are oil and refining companies, marketers and ethanol producers.

During 2011, agricultural chemicals transported represented 5% of the segment�� revenues. They include anhydrous ammonia and nitrogen-based liquid fertilizer, as well as industrial ammonia. Agricultural chemical customers consist of domestic and foreign producers of such products. As of December 31, 2011, the marine transportation segment operated a fleet of 819 inland tank barges and 236 inland towboats, as well as 59 coastal tank barges and 65 coastal tugboats. The segment also owns and operates fits offshore barge and tug units transporting dry-bulk commodities in coastal trade. As of December 31, 2011, the marine transportation segment operated a fleet of 819 inland tank barges and 236 inland towboats, as well as 59 coastal tank barges and 65 coastal tugboats. The segment also owns and operates fits offshore barge and tug units transporting dry-bulk commodities in coastal trade.

The Canal ! fleet tra! nsports petrochemical feedstocks, processed chemicals, pressurized products, black oil products and refined petroleum products along the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway, the Mississippi River below Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and the Houston Ship Channel. The Linehaul fleet transports petrochemical feedstocks, chemicals, agricultural chemicals and lube oils along the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway, Mississippi River and the Illinois and Ohio Rivers. Loaded tank barges are staged in the Baton Rouge area from Gulf Coast refineries and petrochemical plants, and are transported from Baton Rouge to waterfront terminals and plants on the Mississippi, Illinois and Ohio Rivers, and along the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway. The River fleet transports petrochemical feedstocks, chemicals, refined petroleum products, agricultural chemicals and black oil products along the Mississippi River System above Baton Rouge. Petrochemical feedstocks and processed chemicals are transported to waterfront petrochemical and chemical plants, while black oil products, refined petroleum products and agricultural chemicals are transported to waterfront terminals.

The marine transportation inland operation moves and handles a range of cargoes. As of December 21, 2011, of the 819 inland tank barges operated, 618 were petrochemical and refined products barges, 123 were black oil barges, 63 were pressure barges, 10 were refrigerated anhydrous ammonia barges and five were specialty barges. Marine transportation services for inland movements are conducted under long-term contracts, ranging from one to five years. Kirby Inland Marine, LP (Kirby Inland Marine) operates commercial tank barge fleeting service (temporary barge storage facilities) in ports, including Houston, Corpus Christi and Freeport, Texas, Baton Rouge and New Orleans, Louisiana and other locations on the Mississippi River. Included in the fleeting service is a 51% interest and management control of a shifting operation and fleeting service for dry cargo barges and tank barges ! on the Ho! uston Ship Channel. Kirby Inland Marine provides service for its own barges, as well as outside customers, transferring barges within the areas noted, as well as fleeting barges.

Kirby Logistics Management (KLM) is a division of Kirby Inland Marine providing shore-based tankerman and support services to the Company and third parties. Services provided by KLM include barge tankermen, marine terminal, refinery and chemical plant dock operators, and terminal management services. KLM�� services to the Company and third parties cover the Gulf Coast, mid-Mississippi Valley, and the Ohio River Valley. The Company owns a 66% interest in Osprey Line, L.L.C. (Osprey), which transports project cargoes and cargo containers by barge on the United States inland waterway system. The segment�� coastal operations are conducted through wholly owned subsidiaries, K-Sea Transportation Partners LLC and Kirby Ocean Transport Company (Kirby Ocean Transport). K-Sea provides marine transportation of refined petroleum products and black oil products in each coastal region of the United States. The coastal operations consist of the Atlantic, New York, Pacific and Hawaii Divisions. The Atlantic Division operates along the eastern seaboard of the United States and along the Gulf Coast. The Atlantic Division vessels call on coastal states from Maine to Texas, servicing refineries, storage terminals and power plants. The Atlantic Division also operates equipment on the Great Lakes, in the Caribbean, and in Venezuela and the Eastern Canadian provinces.

The New York Division operates in the New York Harbor, close to container terminals, cruise piers, refineries and petroleum storage facilities. The New York Division also performs coastal voyages between Maine and Norfork, Virginia and manages operations in Philadelphia. The New York Division�� fleet consists of tank barges in the 10,000 to 89,000 barrel capacity range and tugboats in the 1800 to 3400 horsepower range, transporting refined petroleum produ! cts for l! ocal and regional customers, black oil products to power generation customers and the delivery of bunker fuel to ships. The Pacific Division operates along the Pacific coast of the United States, servicing refineries and storage terminals from Southern California to Washington State, throughout Alaska, including Dutch Harbor, Cook Inlet and the Alaska River Systems, and from California to Hawaii. The Pacific Division�� fleet consists of tank barges in the 13,000 to 185,000 barrel capacity range and tugboats in the 1000 to 11800 horsepower range, transporting refined petroleum products.

The Hawaii Division services local petroleum retailers and oil companies distributing refined petroleum products and black oil products between the Hawaiian islands and provides other services to the local maritime community. As of December 31, 2011, the Hawaii Division�� fleet consisted of tank barges in the 52,000 to 86,000 barrel capacity range and tugboats in the 1200 to 7200 horsepower range, transporting refined petroleum products for local and regional customers, black oil products to power generation customers, and the delivery of bunker fuel to ships. The Hawaii Division also provides service docking, standby tug assistance and line handling to vessels using the Single Point Mooring installation at Barbers Point, Oahu, a facility for tankers to load and discharge their cargos through an offshore buoy and submerged pipeline without entering the port. As of December 31, 2011, the coastal fleet consisted of 59 tank barges, 56 of which were double hull and three of which were single hull, with 3.8 million barrels of capacity, transporting refined petroleum products and black oil products. As of December 31, 2011, the Company operated 65 Company-owned coastal tugboats ranging from 1000 to 11800 horsepower. Tugboats in the 1800 to 3400 horsepower classes provide power for barges used in the New York Division. Tugboats in the 1000 to 11800 horsepower classes provide power for barges used in the Atlantic! , Pacific! and Hawaii Divisions. Kirby Ocean Transport owns and operates a fleet of fits offshore dry-bulk barges, fits offshore tugboats and one docking tugboat. Kirby Ocean Transport also has a contract with Holcim (US) Inc. (Holcim) to transport Holcim�� limestone requirements from a facility adjacent to the PEF facility at Crystal River to Holcim�� plant in Theodore, Alabama. Kirby Ocean Transport is also engaged in the transportation of coal, fertilizer and other bulk cargoes on a short-term basis between domestic ports and occasionally the transportation of grain from domestic ports to ports primarily in the Caribbean Basin.

Diesel Engines

The Company, through wholly owned subsidiary Kirby Engines Systems, Inc. (Kirby Engine Systems), is engaged in the overhaul and repair of medium-speed and high-speed diesel engines and reduction gears, and related parts sales used in marine and power generation applications, and distributes and services high-speed diesel engines and transmissions, pumps and compression products, and manufactures oilfield service equipment, including hydraulic fracturing equipment, used in land-based pressure pumping, oilfield service, power generation and transportation applications.

For the marine market, the Company sells Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEM) replacement parts, provides service mechanics to overhaul and repair engines and reduction gears, and maintains facilities to rebuild component parts or entire engines and reduction gears. For the power generation market, the Company provides service and parts capabilities and safety-related products to power generation operators and to the nuclear industry, and manufactures engine generator and pump sets for the power generation operators and municipalities. The Company expanded its diesel engine services operation with the purchase of United, a manufacturer, diesel engine and transmission distributor and service provider for the land-based oil and gas services market, oil and gas operat! ors and p! roducers, compression companies, power generation companies, on-highway transportation companies and agricultural markets. United�� principal businesses are the distribution and service of diesel engines, pumps and transmissions, the manufacture and remanufacture of oilfield service equipment, including hydraulic fracturing equipment, and the manufacture of compression equipment for natural gas transmission and for natural gas fired power generation plants.

The Company is engaged in the overhaul and repair of medium-speed and high-speed diesel engines and reduction gears, line boring, block welding services and related parts sales for customers in the marine industry. The Company services medium-speed and high-speed diesel engines utilized in the inland and offshore barge industries. It also services marine equipment and offshore drilling equipment used in the offshore petroleum exploration and oil service industry, marine equipment used in the offshore commercial fishing industry and vessels owned by the United States government. The Company has marine operations throughout the United States providing in-house and in-field repair capabilities and related parts sales. The medium-speed operations are located in Houma, Louisiana, Chesapeake, Virginia, Paducah, Kentucky, Seattle, Washington and Tampa, Florida. The operations based in Chesapeake, Virginia and Tampa, Florida are authorized distributors for 17 eastern states and the Caribbean for Electro-Motive Diesel, Inc. (EMD). The marine operations based in Houma, Louisiana, Paducah, Kentucky and Seattle, Washington are nonexclusive authorized service centers for EMD providing service and related parts sales. The Houma, Louisiana operation concentrates on the inland and offshore barge and oil services industries. The Tampa, Florida operation concentrates on Gulf of Mexico offshore dry-bulk, tank barge and harbor docking operators. The Paducah, Kentucky operation concentrates on the inland river towboat and barge operators and the Great Lake! s carrier! s. The Seattle, Washington operation concentrates on the offshore commercial fishing industry, tugboat and barge industry, the United States Coast Guard (USCG) and Navy, and other customers in Alaska, Hawaii and the Pacific Rim. The high-speed operations are located in Houma, Baton Rouge, Belle Chasse and New Iberia, Louisiana, Paducah, Kentucky, Mobile, Alabama and Houston, Texas. The Company serves as a factory-authorized marine dealer for Caterpillar diesel engines in Alabama, Kentucky and Louisiana. The Company also operates factory-authorized full service marine dealerships for Cummins, Detroit Diesel and John Deere diesel engines, as well as Allison transmissions and Twin Disk marine gears.

During 2011, the Company was engaged in the overhaul and repair of diesel engines and reduction gears, line boring, block welding service and related parts sales for power generation customers, which represented 9% of the segment�� revenues. The Company is also engaged in the sale and distribution of parts for diesel engines and governors to the nuclear industry. The Company services users of diesel engines, which provides standby, peak and base load power generation, as well as users of industrial reduction gears, such as the cement, paper and mining industries. The Company provides in-house and in-field repair capabilities and safety-related products to power generation operators from its Rocky Mount, North Carolina, Paducah, Kentucky and Seattle, Washington locations. The Rocky Mount operation is also the distributor of EMD products to the nuclear industry, the global distributor for Woodward Governor products to the nuclear industry, the global distributor of Cooper Energy Services, Inc. products to the nuclear industry, and owns the assets and technology necessary to support the Nordberg medium-speed diesel engines used in nuclear applications. In addition, the Rocky Mount operation is a distributor for Honeywell International Incorporated industrial measurement and control products to the ! nuclear i! ndustry, an distributor for Norlake Manufacturing Company transformer products to the nuclear industry and a non-exclusive distributor of analog Weschler Instruments metering products and distributor of digital Weschler metering products to the nuclear industry. The Paducah, Kentucky operation provides in-house and in-field repair services for Falk industrial reduction gears in the Midwest. The Seattle, Washington operation provides in-house and in-field repair services for Alco engines located on the West Coast and the Pacific Rim.

The Company�� power generation customers are domestic utilities and the global nuclear power industry. The Company is engaged in the distribution and service of diesel engines, pumps and transmissions, the manufacture and remanufacture of oilfield service equipment and the manufacture of compression equipment for natural gas transmission and for natural gas fired power generation plants. The Company offers a range of custom fabricated oilfield service equipment, fully tested and field ready. The Company manufactures products or components that are purchased by a company and marketed under the purchasing company�� brand name. The Company distributes, sells parts and services diesel engines and transmissions for on and off-highway use, and provide in-house and in-field service capabilities. The Company is also the exclusive distributor for Daimler for engines and related equipment in Oklahoma, Arkansas and Louisiana. The Company manufactures and re-manufacturers oilfield service equipment, including hydraulic fracturing equipment, pressure pumping units, nitrogen pumping units, cementers, hydration equipment, mud pumps and blenders. The Company also manufactures and packages custom compressor systems, including electric motor driven systems, natural gas driven systems and industrial air systems, and manufactures natural gas General Motors and Isuzu diesel-powered engines for a range of applications from 40 to 500 horsepower. The Company is a dealer of Thermo K! ing refri! gerated systems for trucks, railroad cars and other land transportation markets in south and central Texas. The Company�� land-based customers include oilfield service providers, oil and gas operators and producers, compression companies, domestic utilities, on-highway transportation companies and companies associated with the agricultural markets.

Advisors' Opinion:
  • [By Aimee Duffy]

    The role of the barge can't be underestimated. Barge receipts increased more than two percentage points year over year, and this is a great place for investors to look for opportunity. Companies with maritime resources benefit from this trend, as well as growth in exports. Three such companies that are worth a look are:

    Kirby Corporation (NYSE: KEX  ) , which operates 30% of the coastal tank barges in the U.S.� Oiltanking Partners (NYSE: OILT  ) , which has storage capacity of 12.1 million barrels and six deepwater docks on the Houston Ship Channel Martin Midstream Partners (NASDAQ: MMLP  ) , which operates a large fleet of inland barges and controls 31 marine terminals�

    These companies won't be the only winners, but they are a good place to start your research.

Top 10 Transportation Stocks To Watch Right Now: Snam SpA (SRG)

Snam SpA is an Italy-based company engaged in the management of natural gas services. The Company is diversified into four operating segments. The Transportation segment covers transportation-related gas services, including capacity management and transportation of the gas at the entry points of the gas network to the redelivery points. It owns transportation infrastructures of gas pipelines. The Regasification segment is focused on extraction activities of natural gas, its liquefaction for transport by ship and subsequent regasification. The Storage segment covers deposits, gas treatment plants, compression plants and the operational dispatching system. The Distribution segment engages gas distribution through local transportation networks from delivery points at the metering and reduction stations to the gas distribution network redelivery points at the end customers. Additionally, Snam SpA as the parent company, focuses on planning, management, coordination and control of the group. Advisors' Opinion:
  • [By Victor Selva]

    The Specialty Restaurant Group (SRG), which includes Bahama Breeze and The Capital Grille, has grown over the last couple of quarters. Eddie V's Restaurants and Yard House might be meaningful long-term drivers, as we think most of the growth in the next years will come from the acquisition of those restaurants.

Top 10 Transportation Stocks To Watch Right Now: Expeditors International of Washington Inc.(EXPD)

Expeditors International of Washington, Inc. provides logistics services in the United States and internationally. The company?s services include consolidation or forwarding air and ocean freight; distribution management; vendor consolidation; cargo insurance; purchase order management; and customized logistics information. Its airfreight services comprise the procurement of shipments from its customers; determination of the routing; consolidation of shipments bound for a particular airport distribution point; and selection of the airline for transportation to the distribution point. The company also offers breakbulk services that include receiving and breaking down consolidated airfreight lots and arranging for distribution of the individual shipments. Its ocean freight and ocean services include ocean freight consolidation; and handling full container loads. In addition, the company acts as a customs broker, who assists importers to clear shipments through customs by pre paring required documentation, calculating and providing for payment of duties on behalf of the importer, arranging for any required inspections by governmental agencies, and arranging for delivery; and provides other value added services at destination, such as warehousing and product distribution, time definite transportation, and inventory management. Further, it offers custom clearances for goods moving by rail and truck between the United States, Canada, and/or Mexico; and customs consulting services The company?s customers primarily include retailers, distributors of consumer electronics, department store chains, clothing and shoe wholesalers, manufacturers, and catalogue stores. Expeditors International of Washington, Inc. was founded in 1979 and is based in Seattle, Washington.

Advisors' Opinion:
  • [By Rich Duprey]

    Global logistics specialist Expeditors International (NASDAQ: EXPD  ) announced yesterday that the company's CEO would retire effective�March 1.�

  • [By Inyoung Hwang]

    Graseck�� Morgan Stanley colleague Bill Greene ranks No. 1 in transportation. One of his best calls was a sell in March 2010 on Expeditors International (EXPD) of Washington Inc., which assists companies in shipping goods across international borders. Most of Expeditors��business is on trade routes across the Pacific Ocean, especially between China and the U.S. Greene predicted that the company�� growth would stumble as freight flows shifted to emerging markets -- between China and Vietnam, for example. In addition, companies were increasingly near-shoring, or relocating factories and offices closer to headquarters, resulting in fewer international shipments.

Top 10 Transportation Stocks To Watch Right Now: Rhino Resource Partners LP(RNO)

Rhino Resource Partners LP produces, processes, and sells coal of various steam and metallurgical grades in the United States. The company holds interests in various surface and underground coal mines located in Central Appalachia, Northern Appalachia, the Illinois Basin, and the Western Bituminous region. As of December 31, 2010, it operated 10 mines, including 5 underground and 5 surface mines located in Kentucky, Ohio, and West Virginia. The company markets its steam coal primarily to electric utility companies as fuel for their steam-powered generators; and metallurgical coal for steel and coke producers. It also engages in mining limestone from reserves located at its Sands Hill mining complex and sells it as aggregate to various construction companies and road builders. The company was founded in 2003 and is based in Lexington, Kentucky.

Advisors' Opinion:
  • [By Namitha Jagadeesh]

    Peugeot gained 3.7 percent to 10.61 euros after two people familiar with the matter said CEO Philippe Varin plans to step down next year and hire former Renault SA (RNO) Chief Operating Officer Carlos Tavares as his replacement. Pierre-Olivier Salmon, a Peugeot spokesman, declined to comment. Europe�� second-largest carmaker is also likely to benefit from the Iran accord. Peugeot sold 458,000 vehicles in Iran in 2011, before the trade sanctions, making it the company�� second-biggest market after France.

  • [By Rich Duprey]

    Coal producer�Rhino Resource Partners� (NYSE: RNO  ) announced yesterday its third-quarter dividend of $0.445 per share, the same rate it's paid for the past four quarters after cutting the payout 7% from $0.48 per share.

  • [By Alexis Xydias]

    Investors are regaining confidence, squeezing pessimists who say the economy remains sluggish outside of Germany and point to record-low trading volume as a lack of conviction in the Euro Stoxx�� 61 percent rally of the past two years. Besides gains in stocks from Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria SA to Renault SA (RNO), yields on Spanish and Italian bonds have declined to a two-year low compared with German bunds and the euro has strengthened 4.6 percent to $1.35 in the past six months.

Top 10 Transportation Stocks To Watch Right Now: GasLog Ltd (GLOG)

GasLog Ltd. (GasLog), incorporated on July 16, 2003, is an owner, operator and manager of liquefied natural gas (LNG) carriers. The Company is a holding company. Its subsidiaries conduct all of its operations and own all of its operating assets, including its ships. The Company operates in two segments: vessel ownership and vessel management. In the vessel ownership segment, the services provided primarily consist of chartering out company-owned LNG carriers, and in the vessel management segment the services provided consist of LNG carrier technical management services, as well as LNG carrier construction supervision services and other vessel management services provided to the Company�� vessel ownership segment and to external third parties.

In February 2011, GasLog Carriers Ltd. established two vessel-owning companies, GAS-five Ltd. and GAS-six Ltd. In March 2011, GasLog Carriers Ltd. established two vessel-owning companies, GAS-seven Ltd. and GAS-eight Ltd. In June 2011, GasLog Carriers Ltd. established two additional vessel-owning companies, GAS-nine Ltd. and GAS-ten Ltd. In June 2011, Ceres Shipping Ltd. (Ceres Shipping) transferred its interest in GasLog Ltd. to Blenheim Holdings Ltd. (Blenheim Holdings). In June 2011, an entity jointly owned by the Livanos and Radziwill families (Joint Venture Partner) sold its 49% interest in GAS-three Ltd., GAS-four Ltd., GAS-five Ltd. and GAS-six Ltd. to Ceres Shipping. Ceres Shipping contributed the 49% interest in GAS-three Ltd., GAS-four Ltd., GAS-five Ltd. and GAS-six Ltd. to Blenheim Holdings, who in turn contributed the 49% interest in these four vessel-owning companies to GasLog Ltd., which contributed the same to GasLog Carriers Ltd. As of December 31, 2011, the Company owned 100% interest in GAS-three Ltd., GAS-four Ltd., GAS-five Ltd. and GAS-six Ltd. On July 11, 2011 and September 5, 2011, the Company transferred its interest of two dormant subsidiaries, GasLog Holdings Limited and GasLog Services Limited, respectively, to Ceres Shi! pping.

As of December 31, 2011, the Company�� owned fleet consisted of 10 wholly owned LNG carriers. As of December 31, 2011, the Company managed and operated 14 LNG carriers, which included its owned ships, as well as 11 ships owned or leased by BG Group plc (BG Group), a participant in the worldwide energy and natural gas markets, and one additional LNG carrier in which it had a 25% interest. As of December 31, 2011, the Company owned a 25% interest in Egypt LNG Shipping Ltd. (Egypt LNG), whose principal asset is the LNG carrier Methane Nile Eagle. The Company�� owned fleet includes the GasLog Savannah, the GasLog Singapore, four LNG carriers on order at Samsung Heavy Industries Co., Ltd. (Samsung Heavy Industries) in South Korea, two LNG carriers on order at Samsung Heavy Industries in South Korea, and two LNG carriers on order at Samsung Heavy Industries in South Korea.

The Company�� wholly owned subsidiary, GasLog LNG Services Ltd., (GasLog LNG Services) handles the technical management of its fleet. Through GasLog LNG Services, it provides technical ship management services for 12 LNG carriers owned by third parties in addition to management of the two LNG carriers operating in its owned fleet. The Company provides the services of its owned ships under time charters. The Company�� subsidiaries include GasLog Investments Ltd., GasLog Monaco S.A.M., Ceres LNG Employee Incentive Scheme Ltd., GasLog Carriers Ltd., GAS-one Ltd., GAS-two Ltd., GAS-three Ltd., GAS-four Ltd., GasLog Shipping Company Ltd., GasLog Shipping Limited and Egypt LNG Shipping Ltd.

Advisors' Opinion:
  • [By Value Investor]

    GasLog (GLOG) is the parent company of GasLog Partners. The company is an owner, operator and manager of LNG carriers and works as a part of LNG logistics chain. In April 2012, the company had a fleet of 10 LNG carriers and since then GasLog has increased its capacity by 111% to 21 fully owned ships.

  • [By Stephen Quickel]

    Gaslog Limited (GLOG)

    This Monaco-based company owns and operates a sizeable fleet of ocean-going liquefied natural gas (LNG) carriers, which it charters out and manages for others. Earnings are expected to grow 32% a year. Thirteen of 14 analysts rate it a Strong Buy or Buy.

Friday, November 21, 2014

Top 10 Restaurant Stocks To Invest In 2015

Top 10 Restaurant Stocks To Invest In 2015: Ignite Restaurant Group Inc (IRG)

Ignite Restaurant Group, Inc., incorporated on February 4, 2002, operates two restaurant brands, Joe's Crab Shack (Joe's) and Brick House Tavern + Tap (Brick House). The Companys Joe's Crab Shack and Brick House Tavern + Tap operate in a diverse set of markets across the United States. Joe's Crab Shack is a national chain of casual seafood restaurants serving a variety of seafood items, with an emphasis on crab. Brick House Tavern + Tap is a casual restaurant brand that provides guests a gastro pub experience by offering a blend of menu items. As of December 31, 2012, the Company owned and operated 144 restaurants in 33 states. In September 2013, Ignite Restaurant Group Inc announced the opening of its newest Joe's Crab Shack restaurant, located in Newark, New Jersey.

Joe's Crab Shack

The Companys Joe's Crab Shack offers an outdoor patio for guests to enjoy eating and drinking and a children's playground. Joe's also has many locatio ns that are located on waterfront property. Interior design elements include a nautical, vacation theme to invoke memories of beach vacations and a genuine crab shack experience. Joe's Crab Shack restaurants have over 200 seats. Many of the Companys restaurants also include a small gift shop where guests can purchase souvenirs to commemorate their dining experience. Joe's Crab Shack also leverages its crab-forward menu with other crab items, including Made-From-Scratch Crab Cakes, Crab Nachos and Crazy-Good Crab Dip. In addition to its core crab-focused menu, Joe's also offers a range of entrees featuring a variety of seafood, including the Get Stuffed Snapper, Surf 'N Turf Burger and The Big Hook Up, as well as a range of traditional seafood entrees like the Fisherman's Platter. Joe's also offers several out of water options, such as Pan Fried Cheesy Chicken and Whiskey Smoked Ribs. In addition, alcoholic beverages include the Shark Bite, Category 5 ! Hurricane and Mason J ar cocktails emerging as guests' top choices. Joe's menu inc! ludes more than 29 items made with either Queen, Snow, Dungeness or King Crabs sourced from government regulated and sustainable fisheries. Its menu offers 14 appetizers, including Made-From-Scratch Crab Cakes, Crab Nachos and Crazy-Good Crab Dip, and over 50 entrees, including Steampots, Crab in a Bucket, Skillet Paella, Stuffed Snapper and out of water options like Whiskey Smoked Ribs.

Brick House Tavern + Tap

The Companys Brick House's interior decor includes custom lighting, dark mahogany woods, open sight lines, high definition television (HD TVs), and an inviting fireplace. In addition to a traditional dining room and bar area, Brick House also offers large communal tables and a section of leather recliners positioned in front of large HD TVs, where guests receive their own TV tray for dining. Outdoor seating is also available on the patio or around an open fire pit at nearly all locations. Both food and beverages are served by personable and engaging service staff. The typical Brick House restaurant is approximately 8,500 square feet and averages approximately 250 seats, which includes both traditional tables and seating options. Brick House offers its guests a selection of contemporary tavern food. Brick House's menu includes 17 appetizers and over 53 entrees. Handcrafted appetizers include Deviled Eggs, Meatloaf Sliders, Brick Pizza, Meat and Cheese Board and Fried Stuffed Olives. Brick House offers an array of burgers, including The Kobe, which is hand formed from American Wagyu beef. Guests can also choose from a selection of homemade entrees, such as Drunken Chops, BBQ Baby Backs, Chicken & Waffles, and its Prime Rib Sandwich. In addition, Brick House's Brick Burgers, include the Gun Show Burger and the Black & Bleu Burger. Brick House's beverage selection includes imported and domestic beers along with hand-pulled cask beer. All Brick House restaurants have a bar that supports! a variet! y of liquor drin ks, wine and beer cocktails like the Shandy and Bee Sting, a! s well as! specialty cocktails like the Dark & Stormy, Moscow Mule and The Zombie.

The Company competes with Red Lobster, Bonefish Grill, Landry's Seafood, Bubba Gump Shrimp Company, BJ's Restaurants, Yard House, Cheesecake Factory, Bravo Brio and Buffalo Wild Wings, Applebee's, Chili's, T.G.I. Friday's, Texas Roadhouse and Outback Steakhouse.

Advisors' Opinion:
  • [By Seth Jayson]

    Margins matter. The more Ignite Restaurant Group (Nasdaq: IRG  ) keeps of each buck it earns in revenue, the more money it has to invest in growth, fund new strategic plans, or (gasp!) distribute to shareholders. Healthy margins often separate pretenders from the best stocks in the market. That's why we check up on margins at least once a quarter in this series. I'm looking for the absolute numbers, so I can compare them to current and potential competitors, and any trend that may tell me how strong Ignite Restaurant Group's competitive position could be.

  • [By Victor Selva]

    The firm is currently Zacks Rank # 3 - Hold, and it also has a longer-term recommendation of Underperfom. For investors looking for a Zacks Rank # 1 Strong Buy, Ignite Restaurant Group Inc. (IRG) and The Wendy's Company (WEN) could be the options.

  • source from Top Penny Stocks For 2015:http://www.seekpennystocks.com/top-10-restaurant-stocks-to-invest-in-2015-2.html

Thursday, November 20, 2014

Hot Canadian Stocks To Own Right Now

Trina Solar (NYSE: TSL  ) is one of the leaders in the Chinese solar industry, but now it looks like it's following the downward path of Suntech Power and LDK Solar, who have both defaulted on loans. Trina updated first-quarter guidance yesterday and said it shipped between 390 MW and 400 MW versus a previous guidance of 420 MW and 430 MW, another sign that Chinese solar is slowly going out of favor. �

If Chinese manufacturers experience lower shipments it will translate to lower margins, which is their core financial problem right now. Trina Solar expects gross margin to be between 1% and 3%, which is about in line with expectations for low-single digits. But this level of gross margin isn't enough to make a profit or pay for billions of dollars in debt. The debt-fueled expansion of Chinese solar is being squeezed financially and more companies will have to fall if this continues.

Shipment and margin trends aren't usually isolated to one Chinese solar manufacturer so it's easy to assume that other companies will see disappointing numbers in the first quarter. The first two to watch are Yingli Green Energy (NYSE: YGE  ) and Canadian Solar� (NASDAQ: CSIQ  ) , who round out the top three Chinese solar module suppliers with Trina. All three have high debt, low margins, and massive losses. �

5 Best International Stocks For 2015: Piper Jaffray Companies(PJC)

Piper Jaffray Companies provides investment banking, institutional brokerage, asset management, and related financial services to corporations, private equity groups, public entities, non-profit entities, and institutional investors in the United States, Asia, and Europe. The company raises capital through equity financings; provides advisory services, primarily relating to mergers and acquisitions for its corporate clients; underwrites debt issuances; and offers financial advisory and interest rate risk management services. Its public finance investment banking capabilities focus on state and local governments, as well as healthcare, higher education, housing, hospitality, transportation, and commercial real estate industries, as well as operates in business and financial services, clean technology and renewables, consumer, and industrial growth, as well as media, telecommunications, and technology industries. The company also offers equity and fixed income advisory and t rade execution services for institutional investors, and government and non-profit entities; and is involved in proprietary trading, as well as has equity sales and trading relationships with institutional investors. In addition, it provides asset management services to separately managed accounts, private funds or partnerships, and open-end and closed-end registered investment companies or funds; and offers an array of investment products comprising small and mid-cap value equity, and master limited partnerships focused on the energy industry, as well as fixed income. Further, the company engages in merchant banking activities, which comprises proprietary debt or equity investments in late stage private companies, and investments in private equity and venture capital funds, as well as other firm investments and forfeiture of stock-based compensation. Piper Jaffray Companies was founded in 1895 and is headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

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

    Top losers in the sector included Alto Palermo SA (NASDAQ: APSA), off 5.5 percent, and Piper Jaffray Companies (NYSE: PJC), down 3.5 percent.

    Top Headline
    J.P. Morgan Chase & Co (NYSE: JPM) reported a 19% drop in its first-quarter profit. J.P. Morgan's quarterly profit declined to $5.3 billion, or $1.28 per share, versus a year-ago profit of $6.53 billion, or $1.59 per share. Its revenue slipped 8% to $22.99 billion versus $25.12 billion. J.P. Morgan's investment banking net income dropped 15%. However, analysts were estimating earnings of $1.39 per share on revenue of $24.43 billion.

  • [By Rich Smith]

    Investment banker Piper Jaffray (NYSE: PJC  ) expanded its municipal debt business Wednesday, when it purchased Seattle-Northwest Securities in a transaction valued at approximately $21 million.

  • [By Sean Williams]

    What: Shares of investment banking and asset management firm Piper Jaffray (NYSE: PJC  ) sank as much as 11% after reporting disappointing second-quarter earnings results.

Hot Canadian Stocks To Own Right Now: Cornerstone Progressive Return Fund(CFP)

Cornerstone Progressive Return Fund is a closed-ended equity fund of fund launched and managed by Cornerstone Advisors, Inc. The fund invests funds investing in the public equity markets of the United States. It invests in stocks of companies operating across diversified sectors. Cornerstone Progressive Return Fund was formed on April 26, 2007 and is domiciled in the United States.

Advisors' Opinion:
  • [By Dan Caplinger]

    But you can see in several places the consequences of the stampede toward high yield. Here are just a few:

    Closed-end funds Cornerstone Progressive (NYSEMKT: CFP  ) and Pimco High Income (NYSE: PHK  ) both make fixed payments back to fund shareholders on a monthly basis, and their distribution yields are truly extraordinary, at about 17% and 12%, respectively. Those dividends have enticed shareholders to pay $1.30 to $1.40 or more for each $1 of assets in the funds. Yet during most months, a substantial portion of those distribution payments has simply been a return of investor capital rather than true income from the funds' investments. A recent study discussed in The Wall Street Journal found that returns on a portfolio with a combined value and dividend-income strategy outperformed a strategy focused more exclusively on maximizing dividends by an average of 1.7 percentage points per year, a huge edge in long-run returns. In the dividend ETF arena, most funds tend to focus on maximizing yield. Although the popular Vanguard Dividend Appreciation (NYSEMKT: VIG  ) ETF bucks the trend by screening first for consistent dividend growth and only then looking at yield as a factor, many rival ETFs start with high-yielding stocks as their baseline and only then consider other desirable traits. Others focus solely on high-dividend niches of the market, such as iShares FTSE NAREIT Mortgage-Plus (NYSEMKT: REM  ) and its concentration on high-yield mortgage REITs.

    When dividend stocks get too popular, their prices get out of line with both their dividend income and the fundamentals of the businesses that underlie those stocks. In simpler terms, when dividend stocks become bad values, it's time to consider looking elsewhere for a margin of safety.

Hot Canadian Stocks To Own Right Now: PPL Corporation(PPL)

PPL Corporation, an energy and utility holding company, generates and sells electricity; and delivers natural gas to approximately 5.3 million utility customers primarily in the northeastern and northwestern U.S. The company operates in four segments: Kentucky Regulated, International Regulated, Pennsylvania Regulated, and Supply. The Kentucky Regulated segment engages in the generation, transmission, distribution, and sale of electricity; and the distribution and sale of natural gas to approximately 1.3 million customers in Kentucky, Virginia, and Tennessee. The International Regulated segment owns and operates electricity distribution businesses in the United Kingdom that deliver electricity to 7.7 million customers. The Pennsylvania Regulated segment delivers electricity to approximately 1.4 million customers in eastern and central Pennsylvania. The Supply segment owns and operates power plants to generate electricity using coal, uranium, natural gas, oil, and water res ources; markets and trades electricity and other purchased power to wholesale and retail markets; and acquires and develops domestic generation projects. It controls or owns a portfolio of generation assets of approximately 11,000 megawatts in Montana and Pennsylvania. As of December 31, 2010, the company?s distribution system included 649 substations with a capacity of 25 million kVA, 28,838 circuit miles of overhead lines, and 24,131 cable miles of underground conductors in the United Kingdom. It also operated 377 substations with a capacity of 31 million kVA, 33,122 circuit miles of overhead lines, and 7,368 cable miles of underground conductors in Pennsylvania. The company was founded in 1920 and is headquartered in Allentown, Pennsylvania.

Advisors' Opinion:
  • [By Garrett Cook]

    Utilities shares fell 0.35 percent on Friday. Top losers in the sector included Huaneng Power International (NYSE: HNP), down 1.9 percent, and PPL Corp (NYSE: PPL), off 1.2 percent.

Hot Canadian Stocks To Own Right Now: Aercap Holdings N.V. (AER)

AerCap Holdings N.V., through its subsidiaries, operates as an integrated aviation company worldwide. It engages in leasing and trading aircraft and engines; and selling parts. The company also provides aircraft management services, as well as aircraft and limited engine MRO services, and aircraft disassembly services through its repair stations. In addition, it offers aircraft services, including remarketing aircraft; collecting rental and maintenance payments, monitoring aircraft maintenance, monitoring and enforcing contract compliance, and accepting delivery and redelivery of aircraft; conducting ongoing lessee financial performance reviews; inspecting the leased aircraft; coordinating technical modifications to aircraft to meet new lessee requirements; conducting restructurings negotiations in connection with lease defaults; repossessing aircraft; arranging and monitoring insurance coverage; registering and de-registering aircraft; arranging for aircraft and aircraft engine valuations; and providing market research. The company?s management services include leasing and remarketing, cash management and treasury, technical advisory, and accounting and administrative services. As of March 31, 2011, it owned 272 aircraft and 95 engines, which it leased under operating leases to 118 lessees in 53 countries. The company was founded in 1995 and is headquartered in Schiphol, the Netherlands.

Advisors' Opinion:
  • [By Tess Stynes]

    AIG confirmed it will sell its stake in International Lease Finance Corp to aircraft-leasing company AerCap Holdings N.V(AER). for $5.4 billion in cash and stock.

  • [By Ben Levisohn]

    Finally. Finally American International Group (AIG) has disposed of its ILFC unit by selling it to AerCap Holdings (AER).

    Bloomberg News

    The Wall Street Journal has the details on the deal:

Tuesday, November 18, 2014

5 Best Financial Stocks For 2014

LONDON (CNNMoney) Investors may still believe a U.S. default is unthinkable but the people who run financial markets appear much less comfortable in taking that risk.

The Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME), which operates the world's biggest derivatives market, is asking investors to stump up more cash to trade in financial products that provide protection against rising interest rates.

Trade in these "interest rate swaps" is one of the most liquid markets around, with outstanding notional volumes of about $490 trillion at the end of 2012, according to the Bank for International Settlements.

The contracts are often cleared through exchanges such as CME and Eurex, operated by Deutsche Boerse (DBOEF).

CME said it would gradually apply an additional "event risk" margin of 12% to all over-the-counter interest rate swaps due to the "additional uncertainty brought by the debt ceiling debate."

5 Best Up And Coming Stocks To Buy Right Now: Morgan Stanley(MS)

Morgan Stanley, a financial holding company, provides various financial products and services to corporations, governments, financial institutions, and individuals worldwide. It operates in three segments: Institutional Securities, Global Wealth Management Group, and Asset Management. The Institutional Securities segment offers financial advisory services on mergers and acquisitions, divestitures, joint ventures, corporate restructurings, recapitalizations, spin-offs, exchange offers, and leveraged buyouts and takeover defenses, as well as shareholder relations, capital raising, corporate lending, and investments. This segment also engages in sales, trading, financing, and market-making activities, including equity trading, commodities, and interest rates, credit, and currencies, as well as financing services, such as prime brokerage, consolidated clearance, settlement, custody, financing, and portfolio reporting services. The Global Wealth Management Group segment provide s brokerage and investment advisory services covering various investment alternatives comprising equities, options, futures, foreign currencies, precious metals, fixed income securities, mutual funds, structured products, alternative investments, unit investment trusts, managed futures, separately managed accounts, and mutual fund asset allocation programs; education savings programs, financial and wealth planning services, and annuity and insurance products; credit and other lending products; cash management services; retirement services; and trust and fiduciary services. The Asset Management segment offers products and services in equity, fixed income, and alternative investments, such as hedge funds, fund of funds, real estate, private equity, and infrastructure to institutional and retail clients through proprietary and third party distribution channels. This segment also involves in investment and merchant banking activities. The company was founded in 1935 and is headq uartered in New York.

Advisors' Opinion:
  • [By Shauna O'Brien]

    On Wednesday, UBS reported that it has raised its rating on financial services company Morgan Stanley (MS).

    The firm has upgraded MS from “Neutral” to “Buy” due to its transition to a wealth management business. UBS currently has a price target of $33 on MS. This price target suggests a 15% upside from the stock’s current price of $28.04.

    Morgan Stanley shares were up 20 cents, or 0.71%, during pre-market trading Wednesday. The stock is up 47% YTD.

  • [By Teresa Rivas]

    Fellow financial names Goldman Sachs (GS) and Morgan Stanley (MS) also reported on Thursday, while Citigroup (C) delivered a beat earlier in the week.

5 Best Financial Stocks For 2014: Ryman Hospitality Properties Inc (RHP)

Ryman Hospitality Properties, Inc. (Ryman), incorporated on June 21, 2012, is a real estate investment trust (REIT). The Company�� segments consist of Hospitality, which include its hotel properties and the results of hotel operations, and Opry and Attractions, which includes its Grand Ole Opry assets, WSM-AM and its Nashville attractions. During the year ended December 31, 2012, Ryman�� owned assets included a network of four upscale, meetings-focused resorts totaling 7,795 rooms that were managed by lodging operator Marriott International, Inc. (Marriott) under the Gaylord Hotels brand. These four resorts, Gaylord Hotels properties, consist of the Gaylord Opryland Resort & Convention Center in Nashville, Tennessee (Gaylord Opryland), the Gaylord Palms Resort & Convention Center near Orlando, Florida (Gaylord Palms), the Gaylord Texan Resort & Convention Center near Dallas, Texas (Gaylord Texan) and the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center near Washington D.C. (Gaylord National). Other owned assets managed by Marriott include Gaylord Springs Golf Links (Gaylord Springs), the Wildhorse Saloon, the General Jackson Showboat (General Jackson) and the Inn at Opryland, a 303-room overflow hotel adjacent to Gaylord Opryland. It also owns and operates a ranger of media and entertainment assets, including the Grand Ole Opry, the weekly showcase of country music�� performers for nearly 90 years; the Ryman Auditorium, the storied former home of the Grand Ole Opry located in downtown Nashville; and WSM-AM, the Opry�� radio home.

Gaylord Opryland Resort and Convention Center - Nashville, Tennessee

Gaylord Opryland is a convention destinations in the United States based upon number of rooms, exhibit space and conventions held. Designed with gardens and expansive atrium areas, the resort is situated on approximately 172 acres in the Opryland complex. As of Gaylord Opryland has a range of themed restaurants, retail outlets, and a full-service spa with 27,000 square feet of sp! ace and 12 treatment rooms. It also serves as a destination resort for vacationers due to its proximity to the Grand Ole Opry, the General Jackson Showboat, the Gaylord Springs Golf Links (Gaylord�� 18-hole championship golf course), and other attractions in the Nashville area. Gaylord Opryland has 2,882 signature guest rooms, four ballrooms with approximately 127,000 square feet, 111 banquet/meeting rooms, and total meeting, exhibit and pre-function space of approximately 640,000 square feet.

Gaylord Palms Resort and Convention Center - Kissimmee, Florida

During 2012, Gaylord Palms had 1,406 signature guest rooms, three ballrooms with approximately 76,000 square feet, 76 banquet/meeting rooms, and total meeting, exhibit and pre-function space of approximately 400,000 square feet. The resort is situated on a 65-acre site in Osceola County, Florida. Gaylord Palms has a range of themed restaurants, retail outlets and a full-service spa, with 20,000 square feet of dedicated space and 25 treatment rooms. It also has a resort pool and a 2-story sports bar complex opened at Gaylord Palms. Hotel guests also have golf privileges at Falcon�� Fire Golf Club.

Gaylord Texan Resort and Convention Center - Grapevine, Texas

Gaylord Texan is situated on approximately 85 acres and is located approximately six minutes from the Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport. The hotel features an expansive atrium, 1,511 signature guest rooms, three ballrooms with approximately 85,000 square feet, 70 banquet/meeting rooms, and total meeting, exhibit and pre-function space of approximately 400,000 square feet. The property also includes a range of themed restaurants, retail outlets and a full-service spa with 25,000 square feet of dedicated space and 12 treatment rooms. Guests also have access to the adjacent Cowboys Golf Club. The Company has Glass Cactus entertainment complex, an approximately 39,000 square feet venue with a performance stage, dance floor, and a two-story! outdoor ! deck, on land we own adjacent to the hotel.

Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center - National Harbor, Maryland

Gaylord National is situated on approximately 42 acres of land located on the Potomac River in Prince George�� County, Maryland, eight miles south of Washington. During 2012, the hotel had 1,996 signature guest rooms, four ballrooms with approximately 103,000 square feet, 82 conference and breakout rooms, and total meeting, exhibit and pre-function space of approximately 470,000 square feet. The hotel complex includes an 18-story glass atrium, a 20,000 square foot spa and fitness center with 12 treatment rooms, and entertainment options, such as restaurants, shops, and a two-story rooftop nightclub.

Inn at Opryland

The Company also owns the Inn at Opryland, which is located across the street from Gaylord Opryland. During 2012, the hotel had 303 rooms and approximately 14,000 square feet of meeting space.

The Grand Ole Opry

The Grand Ole Opry is a platform for country music. The Opry features a live country music show with performances every Friday and Saturday night, as well as additional weekly performances on a seasonal basis. The Opry House, home of the Grand Ole Opry, seats approximately 4,400 and is located in the Opryland complex. Each week, the Grand Ole Opry is broadcast live to millions of country lifestyle consumers on radio via WSM-AM and Sirius/XM Radio and streamed on the Internet. Special episodes of the Grand Ole Opry are also broadcast on television via the Great American Country network. The show has been broadcast since 1925 on WSM-AM, making it the longest running live radio program in the United States. In addition to performances by its members, the Grand Ole Opry presents performances by many other country music artists.

Ryman Auditorium

The Ryman Auditorium is designated as a National Historic Landmark. The former home of the Grand Ole Opry, the Ryman Auditor! ium re-op! ened for concerts and musical productions.

The General Jackson Showboat

The Company owns the General Jackson Showboat, a 300-foot, four-deck paddle wheel showboat, on the Cumberland River, which flows past the Gaylord Opryland complex in Nashville. Its Victorian Theatre can seat 600 people for banquets and 1,000 people for theater-style presentations. The showboat stages Broadway-style shows and other theatrical productions. The General Jackson is one of many sources of entertainment that is available to conventions held at Gaylord Opryland. During the day, it operates cruises, primarily serving tourists visiting the Gaylord Opryland complex and the Nashville area.

Gaylord Springs

Gaylord Springs consists of 40,000 square-foot antebellum-style clubhouse offers meeting space for up to 500 guests. Marriott assumed the management of the day-to-day operations of Gaylord Springs.

The Wildhorse Saloon

The Company has owned the Wildhorse Saloon, a country music performance venue on Second Avenue in downtown Nashville. The three-story facility includes a dance floor of approximately 2,000 square feet, as well as a restaurant and banquet facility that can accommodate up to 2,000 guests.

WSM-AM

WSM-AM is broadcast from the Gaylord Opryland complex in Nashville and has a country music format. WSM-AM station�� signal transmits 50,000 watt transmitter.

Advisors' Opinion:
  • [By Jim Royal]

    The latest buy for my Special Situations portfolio is Ryman Hospitality (NYSE: RHP  ) . The company operates four of the top 10 largest convention hotels in the U.S., and it converted to a REIT late last year, making it more likely to trade for a higher multiple. In March, I bought $2,000 of the stock, and it has since done little but go down. But Ryman is a solid company with premier properties that deserves to trade at a premium to peers, rather than a steep discount. So I'm adding another $1,000 to my position.

5 Best Financial Stocks For 2014: EMC Insurance Group Inc. (EMCI)

EMC Insurance Group Inc., an insurance holding company, engages in property and casualty insurance, and reinsurance activities. It operates in two segments, Property and Casualty Insurance, and Reinsurance. The Property and Casualty Insurance segment writes commercial and personal lines of insurance with a focus on medium-sized commercial accounts. Its commercial lines of insurance products comprise automobile, property, workers� compensation, and liability, as well as other products that provide protection against burglary and theft loss, aircraft, marine, and other types of losses; and personal lines of insurance products include automobile, property, and liability. The Reinsurance segment provides reinsurance for other insurers and reinsurers. The company serves small to medium-sized businesses, institutions, and individual consumers. EMC Insurance Group Inc. sells its products through independent insurance agents. The company was founded in 1974 and is headquartered i n Des Moines, Iowa. EMC Insurance Group Inc. is a subsidiary of Employers Mutual Casualty Company.

Advisors' Opinion:
  • [By Caroline Bennett]

    EMC Insurance (NASDAQ: EMCI  ) this week declared plans to keep its quarterly dividend payout steady at $0.21 per share of common stock.

5 Best Financial Stocks For 2014: Infinity Property and Casualty Corporation(IPCC)

Infinity Property and Casualty Corporation, through its subsidiaries, provides personal automobile insurance with a concentration on nonstandard auto insurance in the United States. The company offers personal automobile insurance to individuals; mono-line commercial vehicle insurance to businesses; and classic collector insurance, which provides protection for classic collectible automobiles. It products provide coverage to individuals for liability to others for bodily injury and property damage, and for physical damage to an insured?s own vehicle from collision and various other perils. Infinity distributes its products primarily through a network of independent agencies and brokers. The company was founded in 2002 and is headquartered in Birmingham, Alabama.

Advisors' Opinion:
  • [By John Udovich]

    Auto sales continue to rise and that is good news for small cap auto insurers Infinity Property and Casualty Corp (NASDAQ: IPCC), First Acceptance Corporation (NYSE: FAC) and Atlas Financial Holdings Inc (NASDAQ: AFH) which are focused on niche auto insurance markets.�A Yahoo! Autos blog post�recently noted that in August, automakers sold 1.5 million new vehicles for the highest rate in years. Moreover,�most industry forecasters expect sales to�return to the level they hit before the 2008 recession of 16 million vehicles a year. The blog post then went on to note the three forces driving auto sales:

Monday, November 17, 2014

Where Does Facebook (FB) See Itself in 3, 5, and 10 Years?

Facebook's (NASDAQ: FB  ) ultimate goal is to connect and understand the world. On its way there, it has some intermediate and long-term goals that will contribute to the overall aspiration. In the company's most recent conference call with analysts, CEO Mark Zuckerberg talked about the company's ambitions in three-year, five-year, and 10-year goals.

This information can help investors understand Facebook's strategies and investments over the next few years. They can then determine if the $19 billion acquisition of WhatsApp, for example, actually helps Facebook achieve its goal.

Here's where Facebook sees itself in the next three, five, and 10 years, according to comments Zuckerberg made in the Oct. 28 conference call.

Three years

Over the next three years, our main goals are around continuing to grow and serve our existing communities and businesses and help them reach their full potential.

When Zuckerberg talks about "existing communities" he's talking about Facebook products that have close to 1 billion users because, as he noted later in Facebook's earnings call, things don't get interesting "until they have about a billion people using them." So, Facebook is looking to grow and serve its main social networking product, along with components such as Groups, Pages, and News Feed.

Videos on Facebook. Source: Facebook

To that end, the company plans to increase the amount of content organized around public events like the Superbowl  and users' interactions with public figures such as athletes, actors, and musicians. More public content and interactions mean better engagement and more advertising opportunities.

The company is also investing heavily in video to improve its News Feeds. This year, Facebook rolled out autoplay videos in News Feeds, and it purchased LiveRail, which could help the company monetize the growing number of embedded videos on its website. Facebook still has work to do to take on YouTube and get more high-quality native video uploads, but it's certainly reasonable to expect that video will generate a significant amount of revenue for Facebook in three years.

Finally, Atlas -- Facebook's new demand-side ad platform -- will play a big part in helping the company improve its ad relevancy and digital ad campaign measurements. The result ought to be sustained growth in Facebook's price per ad, which increased a whopping 274% last quarter. While part of the increase in price per ad involves changes to Facebook's advertising formats, the company is also seeing an increase in mobile ad prices. Atlas will help drive mobile ad prices higher by providing better tracking capabilities across devices.

Five years

Over the next five years, our goals are around taking our next generation of services, Instagram, Messenger, WhatsApp, and Search and helping them connect billions of people and become important businesses in their own right.

Earlier this year, Facebook forced its mobile users to download the Messenger app in order to continue using the service on mobile. The move paid off, and Facebook recently announced that Messenger had surpassed 500 million active users.

Will Facebook Messenger reach 1 billion users before WhatsApp? Source: Facebook

Messenger is well on its way to 1 billion users, and at this point it's really a question of whether it will get there before the company's newly acquired WhatsApp property. Facebook sees the two messaging services attracting different user bases -- Messenger is for friends, and WhatsApp is to get in touch with people you wouldn't want to friend on Facebook. Facebook is also looking to add voice calling to WhatsApp's service; that service is already available on Facebook Messenger. International calling could be how Facebook monetizes WhatsApp.

Instagram is still a long way away from 1 billion users, but it is growing quickly. Instagram users now spend an average of 21 minutes per day on the platform, which presents a significant opportunity for advertising. The company has been slow to roll out ads, and its new video ads have been uninspiring thus far. Hopefully, Facebook can figure out how to monetize its users better within five years.

The most interesting product from Zuckerberg's list is Search. The company's current Search product, Graph Search, is underwhelming, and remains largely unused except to find other users. If Facebook develops a better search product that uses its social graph to help improve results, it could attract a larger audience to the product, and get them to stay on Facebook longer.

10 years

For the next 10 years our focus is on driving the fundamental changes in the world that we need to achieve our mission, connecting the whole world, understanding a world with big leaps in [artificial intelligences] and developing the next generation of platforms.

Facebook is helping more people connect to the Internet and Facebook. Source: Facebook.

Facebook's biggest effort over the next decade is the company's Internet.org initiative, a partnership whose founding members also include Ericsson, MediaTek, Nokia, Opera, Qualcomm, and Samsung and whose stated goal is to "make Internet access available to the two-thirds of the world who are not yet connected, and to bring the same opportunities to everyone that the connected third of the world has today."

The Internet.org app has already launched in Zambia, Tanzania, and Kenya, and it provides free Internet access to a set of basic services. It's not completely altruistic, of course. The company's efforts result in more people using its service, with Facebook becoming many people's introduction to the Internet.

The company also sees its investment in virtual reality specialist Oculus having a major impact in 10 years. While many laughed at Facebook for spending $2 billion on the acquisition, Zuckerberg thinks it has the potential to become the next major computing platform. It already made a deal with Samsung to create the Gear headset, and it has shipped more than 100,000 developer kits for the platform. Going forward, the company plans to invest aggressively in the platform.

Thinking long term
Zuckerberg's outline of three-, five-, and 10-year goals is a prime example of Facebook's long-term thinking that has allowed the company to grow its flagship product to 1.35 billion monthly active users, and will allow it to grow numerous other products to 1 billion-plus users.

If every business decision and investment moves the company closer to achieving one of the goals outlined in this article, investors should rest easy that the move will pay off at some point in the future. So far, Facebook has made very few missteps, no matter how misguided they seemed at the time.

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Top 5 Construction Material Companies To Invest In Right Now

Through a recently inked agreement, Viacom Inc. (VIAB) will gain full control over Telecom Italia Media owned MTV Italia -- a division of Telecom Italia S.p.A. (TI). The company will buy a 51% stake in the music channel for a total consideration of ��0 million ($12.825 million).

The deal is expected to close by the end of Sep 2013, subject to regulatory approval. In addition, Viacom has not only renewed its multi-year broadcasting agreement with the media company but was also waived off from Telecom Italia Media�� ��.7 million ($12.44 million) loans to MTV Italia.

Despite telecasting original hits like Very Victoria, Italo-Francese, Avere Ventanni and Hitlist Italia along with the Italian version of Total Request Live, LoveLine and Brand New, MTV Italia�� revenues dropped 25% to $70.5 million in 2012 as compared to $94 million in 2011. The continuous fall in the advertisement business coupled with a highly volatile European economy have resulted in such a drop in MTV�� business.

Hot Trucking Companies To Buy For 2015: Boral Ltd (BLD)

Boral Limited (Boral), is engaged in the manufacture and supply of building and construction materials in Australia, the United States and Asia. The Company�� operating segments include Construction Materials & Cement, Building Products, Boral Gypsum, and Boral USA. The Construction Materials & Cement is engaged in quarries, concrete, asphalt, transport, landfill, property, cement and concrete placing. The Building Products segment is engaged in Australian bricks, roof tiles, masonry, timber products and windows. The Boral Gypsum involves Australian and Asian plasterboard. The Boral USA is engaged in Bricks, cultured stone, roof tiles, fly ash, concrete and quarries. Advisors' Opinion:
  • [By Eric Lam]

    Ballard Power (BLD), which designs and manufactures hydrogen fuel cells, slumped 15 percent to C$1.42, the biggest decline since March. The company yesterday said it will sell about 9 million units at $1.40 a unit for proceeds of about $12.6 million. The cash generated will be used to fund working capital, support growth and general corporate purposes, the company said.

Top 5 Construction Material Companies To Invest In Right Now: Texas Industries Inc (TXI)

Texas Industries, Inc., incorporated on April 19, 1951, is a supplier of construction materials in the southwestern United States. The Company operates in three segments: cement, aggregates and consumer products. Its cement segment produces gray portland cement and specialty cements. The Company�� cement production and distribution facilities are concentrated primarily in Texas and California. Its aggregates segment produces natural aggregates, including sand, gravel and crushed limestone. The Company�� consumer products segment produces ready-mix concrete. It is also a supplier of natural aggregates and ready-mix concrete in Texas and northern Louisiana and in Oklahoma and Arkansas. As of May 31, 2013, the Company had 123 manufacturing facilities in five states.

Cement Segment

The Company produces specialty cements, such as masonry and oil well cements. Its cement production facilities are located at Midlothian, Texas, south of Dallas/Fort Worth, Hunter, Texas, between Austin and San Antonio, and Oro Grande, California, near Los Angeles. It also operates a cement terminal and packaging facility at its Crestmore plant near Riverside, California, and the Company operates its gray portland cement grinding facility on an as needed basis. During the fiscal year ended May 31, 2013 (fiscal 2013), it produced approximately 4.3 million tons of finished cement. The Company shipped approximately 4.4 million tons during fiscal 2013, of which 3.8 million tons were shipped to outside trade customers.

Aggregates Segment

The Company�� operations are conducted from facilities primarily serving the Dallas/Fort Worth and Austin areas in Texas; the southern Oklahoma area, and the Alexandria and Monroe areas in Louisiana. The Company produced approximately 14.2 million tons of natural aggregates during fiscal 2013. It shipped approximately 14.8 million tons of natural aggregates during fiscal 2013, of which 11.3 million tons were shipped to outside trade customers! . The Company shipped approximately 1.0 million cubic yards of lightweight aggregates during fiscal 2013, of which approximately 0.9 million cubic yards were shipped to outside trade customers.

Consumer Products Segment

The Company�� ready-mix concrete operations are situated in three areas in Texas (the Dallas/Fort Worth/Denton area of north Texas, the Austin area of central Texas and from Beaumont to Texarkana in east Texas), in north and central Louisiana, and in southwestern Arkansas. It is also a 40% partner in a joint venture that has ready mix concrete operations in the northern part of central Texas area centered around Waco, Texas. It shipped approximately 2.8 million cubic yards of ready-mix concrete during fiscal 2013. The Company manufacture and supply a substantial amount of the cement and aggregates raw materials used by our ready-mix plants. The Company also marketed its Maximizer packaged concrete mixes in southern California.

Advisors' Opinion:
  • [By Ben Fox Rubin]

    Building materials company Texas Industries Inc.(TXI) is considering a sale, Bloomberg News reported, citing three people familiar with knowledge of the matter. Shares of the company jumped 12% premarket to $65.50.

Top 5 Construction Material Companies To Invest In Right Now: Holcim Ltd (HOLN)

Holcim Ltd (Holcim) is a Switzerland-based holding company that specializes in the manufacture, distribution and marketing of building materials. The Company operates four business segments, including Cement, Aggregates, Other construction materials and services, and Corporate. The Cement segment is engaged in the development of cement and comprises clinker and other cementitious materials, among others. The Aggregates business segment includes crushed stone, gravel and sand. The Other construction materials and services business segment comprises ready-mix concrete, concrete products, asphalt, construction and paving, and trading, among others. Additionally, other construction materials and services segment provides environmental services, including waste management, among others. The Corporate segment is engaged in holding activities and general management. It operates through subsidiaries in Asia Pacific, Latin America, Europe, North America, Africa and Middle East regions. Advisors' Opinion:
  • [By Sofia Horta e Costa]

    Holcim Ltd. (HOLN) lost 0.9 percent to 68.15 francs in Zurich. Bank of America Corp.�� Merrill Lynch unit cut its rating on the world�� largest cement maker to underperform, similar to a sell recommendation, from neutral. Merrill Lynch cited the company�� exposure to emerging markets.

Top 5 Construction Material Companies To Invest In Right Now: CEMEX SAB de CV (CX)

CEMEX, S.A.B. de C.V. (CEMEX), incorporated on January 20, 1931, is a global cement manufacturer with operations in North America, Europe, South America, Central America, the Caribbean, Africa, the Middle East and Asia. The Company is a holding company engaged through the operating subsidiaries in the production, distribution, marketing and sale of cement, ready-mix concrete, aggregates and clinker. As of December 31, 2009, the Company�� cement production facilities were located in Mexico, the United States, Spain, the United Kingdom, Germany, Poland, Croatia, Latvia, Colombia, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Panama, Nicaragua, Puerto Rico, Egypt, the Philippines and Thailand.

The Company manufactures cement through a closely controlled chemical process, which begins with the mining and crushing of limestone and clay, and, in some instances, other raw materials. The clay and limestone are then pre-homogenized, a process which consists of combining different types of clay and limestone. The mix is typically dried, then fed into a grinder, which grinds the various materials in preparation for the kiln. The raw materials are calcined, or processed, at a very high temperature in a kiln, to produce clinker. Clinker is the intermediate product used in the manufacture of cement.

Ready-mix concrete is a combination of cement, fine and coarse aggregates, admixtures (which control properties of the concrete including plasticity, pumpability, freeze-thaw resistance, strength and setting time), and water. The Company is a supplier of aggregates primarily the crushed stone, sand and gravel, used in virtually all forms of construction.

Mexican Operations

During the year ended December 31, 2009, the Mexican operations represented approximately 21% of the Company�� net sales. CEMEX Mexico is a direct subsidiary of CEMEX and is both a holding company for some of the operating companies in Mexico and an operating company involved in the manufacturing and ma! rketing of cement, plaster, gypsum, groundstone and other construction materials and cement by-products in Mexico. CEMEX Mexico, indirectly, is also the holding company for the international operations. The Company owns Tolteca, Monterrey, Maya, Anahuac, Campana, Gallo, and Centenario brands in Mexico. As of December 31, 2009, the Company owned 100% of CEMEX Mexico.

The Company competes with Holcim Ltd., Sociedad Cooperativa Cruz Azul, Cementos Moctezuma, Grupo Cementos Chihuahua and Lafarge Cementos in Mexico.

U.S. Operations

As of December 31, 2009, the Company�� operations in the United States represented approximately 19% of the Company�� net sales. As of December 31, 2009, the Company held 100% of CEMEX, Inc. As of December 31, 2009, CEMEX had a cement manufacturing capacity of approximately 17.9 million tons per year in the United States operations. As of December 31, 2009, the Company operated 14 cement plants located in Alabama, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee and Texas. As of December 31, 2009, it also had 48 rails or water served active cement distribution terminals in the United States. As of December 31, 2009, the Company had 336 ready-mix concrete plants located in the Carolinas, Florida, Georgia, Texas, New Mexico, Nevada, Arizona, California, Oregon and Washington and aggregates facilities in North Carolina, South Carolina, Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, New Mexico, Nevada, Oregon, Texas, and Washington.

Spanish Operations

As of December 31, 2009, the operations in Spain represented approximately 5% of the Company�� net sales. As of December 31, 2009, the Company held approximately 99.8% of CEMEX Espana, the main operating subsidiary in Spain. The cement activities in Spain are conducted by CEMEX Espana. The ready-mix concrete activities in Spain are conducted by Hormicemex, S.A., a subsidiary of CEMEX Espana, and the aggregates activities in Spain ar! e conduct! ed by Aricemex S.A., also a subsidiary of CEMEX Espana.

U.K. Operations

As of December 31, 2009, the Company�� operations in the United Kingdom represented approximately 8% of the Company�� net sales. As of December 31, 2009, it held 100% of CEMEX Investments Limited, the holding subsidiary in the United Kingdom. The Company is a provider of building materials in the United Kingdom with vertically integrated cement, ready-mix concrete, aggregates and asphalt operations. It is also a provider of concrete and precast materials solutions, such as concrete blocks, concrete block paving, roof tiles, flooring systems and sleepers for rail infrastructure.

The Company competes with Lafarge, Heidelberg, Tarmac, and Aggregate Industries in the United Kingdom.

German Operations

As of December 31, 2009, the operations in the Rest of Europe consisted of the operations in Germany, France, Ireland, Poland, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Latvia, Austria and Hungary, as well as the other European assets. The Company is a provider of building materials in Germany, with vertically integrated cement, ready-mix concrete, aggregates and concrete products operations (consisting mainly of prefabricated concrete ceilings and walls). It maintains a network for ready-mix concrete and aggregates in Germany. As of December 31, 2009, the Company held 100% of CEMEX Deutschland AG, the holding subsidiary in Germany.

The Company competes with Heidelberg, Dyckerhoff, Lafarge, Holcim and Schwenk in Germany.

French Operations

As of December 31, 2009, the Company held 100% of CEMEX France Gestion (S.A.S.), the holding subsidiary in France. It is a ready-mix concrete producer and aggregate producer in France. As of December 31, 2009, the Company operated 239 ready-mix concrete plants in France, one maritime cement terminal located in LeHavre, on the northern coast of France, 20 land distribution centers and 42 aggregates quarries.

The Company competes with Lafarge, Holcim, Italcementi, Vicat, Lafarge, Italcementi, Colas (Bouygues) and Eurovia (Vinci) in France.

Irish Operations

As of December 31, 2009, the Company held approximately 61.2% of Readymix Plc, the operating subsidiary in the Republic of Ireland. The operations in Ireland produce and supply sand, stone and gravel, as well as ready-mix concrete, mortar and concrete blocks. As of December 31, 2009, we operated 43 ready-mix concrete plants, 27 aggregates quarries and 15 block plants located in the Republic of Ireland, Northern Ireland and the Isle of Man. The Company imports and distributes cement in the Isle of Man.

The Company competes with CRH, the Lagan Group and Kilsaran in the Republic of Ireland.

Polish Operations

As of December 31, 2009, the Company held 100% of CEMEX Polska Sp. z.o.o. (CEMEX Polska), the holding subsidiary in Poland. It is a provider of building materials in Poland serving the cement, ready-mix concrete and aggregates markets. As of December 31, 2009, CEMEX operated two cement plants and one grinding mill in Poland, with a total installed cement capacity of three million tons per year. As of December 31, 2009, the Company also operated 39 ready-mix concrete plants and nine aggregates quarries in Poland. As of December 31, 2009, the Company also operated 10 land distribution centers and two maritime terminals in Poland.

The Company competes with Heidelberg, Lafarge, CRH and Dyckerhoff in Poland.

Southeast European Operations

As of December 31, 2009, the Company held 100% of CEMEX Hrvatska d.d. (Hrvatska), the operating subsidiary in Croatia. As of December 31, 2009, it operated three cement plants in Croatia, with an installed capacity of 2.4 million tons per year. As of December 31, 2009, the Company also operated ten land distribution centers, three maritime cement terminals, eight ready-mix concrete facilities and one aggregates quarry! in Croat! ia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Slovenia, Serbia and Montenegro.

Advisors' Opinion:
  • [By GuruFocus]

    George Soros (Trades, Portfolio) just reported his first quarter portfolio. He buys Citrix Systems Inc, Baker Hughes Inc, Comcast Corp, Spansion Inc, etc during the 3-months ended 03/31/2014, according to the most recent filings of his investment company, Soros Fund Management LLC. As of 03/31/2014, Soros Fund Management LLC owns 305 stocks with a total value of $10.1 billion. These are the details of the buys and sells.New Purchases: BHI, CODE, CTRP, CLI, AVB, COMM, CNQ, AGO, AUY, ATML, ASH, BXMT, CSTM, AEM, CMA, ARE, CHKP, AUQ, BEAV, CX, ADSK, AALCP, BLK, AIG, BIIB, ADEP, AMRI, ARWR, ATHX, BALT, BCRX, BEAT, CFX, CLFD, CUR, CODE,Added Positions: CTXS, CMCSA, CNP, ALTR, BRCD, CBS, CRM, CHTR, CCJ, CIEN, BIDU, ALLE, ABT, CDNS, ACT,Reduced Positions: AAPL, CCI, AMT, ABBV, AAL, BITA, AL, ANGI, ARIA, CBST, BA, BIRT, EXAR,Sold Out: C, BAC, CRI, AMZN, AGN, CF, BRCM, COTY, BMY, AMCX, CAR, A, ADBE, AFL,For the details of George Soros (Trades, Portfolio)'s stock buys and sells, go to http://www.gurufocus.com/StockBuy.php?GuruName=George+SorosThis is the sector weightings of his portfolio:Technology18.9%Energy14%Healthcare8.3%Consumer Defensive8.2%Communication Services8.1%Consumer Cyclical5.4%Industrials5.1%Basic Materials4.9%Financial Services2.5%Real Estate1.9%Utilities0.5%These are the top 5 holdings of George Soros (Trades, Portfolio)1. Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd (TEVA) - 10,310,041 shares, 5.4% of the total portfolio. Shares added by 10.67%2. Herbalife Ltd (HLF) - 4,901,337 shares, 2.8% of the total portfolio. Shares added by 52.9%3. EQT Corp (EQT) - 2,573,814 shares, 2.5% of the total portfolio. Shares added by 3.27%4. Adecoagro SA (AGRO) - 25,915,076 shares, 2.1% of the total portfolio.5. Halliburton Co (HAL) - 3,596,353 shares, 2.1% of the total portfolio. Shares reduced by 20.73%New Purchase: Baker Hughes Inc (BHI)George Soros (Trades, Portfolio) initiated holdings in Baker Hughes Inc. His purchase prices were between $51.82 and $65.27, with an estimated