O’er The River, Airline Shares Sink

Agence France-Presse/Getty Images A Japanese plane flying over disputed islands in China’s newly-declared air zone.

Shares of airlines are trading lower this morning, despite speculation that the skids are greased for a merger between American Airlines and U.S. Airways.

On Wednesday, a federal judge cleared the way for American Airlines parent AMR (AAMRQ) to exit bankruptcy, which hastens the merger of American Air and U.S. Airways Group (LCC). Shares of AMR are down nearly 1% this morning, while U.S. Air stock dropped nearly 2%. The merged airline would be up against United Continental Holdings (UAL) and Delta Air Lines (DAL), which merged with Northwest. Shares of each are down 1%.

The big transport input cost, fuel, is a factor. Crude oil prices are up about 1.5% today to $93.69 per barrel.

In case you missed it, Barron’s columnist Randall Forsyth is among those of us dreading the cacophany in the skies if cellphone calls become the norm on airplanes. See “That Airline Racket,” Nov. 23.”(subscription required). He noted that airline stocks have …

“… taken off over the past year as the industry’s ‘rationalization’ has meant higher fares, reduced capacity, and fewer amenities for passengers. Some measure of competition still comes from discounters such as Southwest (LUV), JetBlue (JBLU), and Spirit (SAVE). What’s left of antitrust enforcement ought to prevent these cut-rate carriers being scooped up by the big three of the skies, although Jack Hough noted … that Alaska Air (ALK) could draw takeover interest over the long haul (“Merger Mania May Soon Be on the Way,” Nov. 21) (subscription required).

From aerospace and transport analysts at RBC Capital Markets, a brilliant Turkey-Day tidbit written by Robert Stallard, Steven Cahall and Karl Oehlschlaeger:

“Airlines for America is anticipating 1.5% more passengers will fly this Thanksgiving period or ~31k more travelers/day. Load factors are expected to be ~85%. Who’s in the other seats? Maybe some Yukon Golds. Not mashed taters though - Boeing (BA) has been using sacks of potatoes to test signal strength on aircraft for in-flight wifi. To test coverage on aircraft Boeing needed full planes for accurate results but couldn’t get people to sit motionless for days at a time … [but]  potatoes are good human stand-ins due to their water content and chemistry. So if anyone is being obnoxious at your Thanksgiving table consider replacing them with a tater. “

Cyberscammers take aim at Black Friday, Cyber M…

SEATTLE — 'Tis the season for cyberscams — and it's stacking up to be one of unprecedented plunder for cybergrinches.

Crooks go where the money is, and cybercriminals are concentrating their cleverness this year on mobile devices and social media.

With Black Friday and Cyber Monday just around the corner, cybercriminals have begun to flood e-mail, social media postings and search results with tainted web links, offers for worthless products and pitches for all variety of scams.

"All these things have something in common: social engineering and greed," says Sorin Mustaca, security analyst at anti-malware firm Avira.

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The crooks count on one in 10 recipients of holiday-themed phishing lures to click on a poisoned link, or fill out a bogus form. "We're human; we're compelled to click," says David Knight, Proofpoint executive vice president. "And we're even more human during the holiday season."

Holiday shopping has come to mean fielding recommendations from our Facebook friends and Twitter followers, and using our smartphones and touch tablets to hunt for bargains and make purchases. That all translates into a gift-wrapped bonanza for the bad guys.

"We tend to trust our mobile devices because nobody else can touch it," says Daniel Cohen, RSA cybersecurity strategist. "But our hyper-connectivity, together with a small screen, make it easier for fraudsters to come at us."

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And the cyberscammers are coming, drawn like zombies to live flesh. Identity verification firm Signifyd dissected 10 million transactions made on computing devices in the past six months and found 25% of retail traffic coming from mobile devices. Of that grouping, 10% originated from tablets, 14% from smartphones.

At the moment, smartphones are t! he least secure purchasing platform. Signifyd discovered that 1.3% of e-commerce sales on phones are fraudulent, compared with just 0.8% for sales via desktops and 0.5% from tablets.

"Companies are trying to get the mobile experience to be as frictionless as possible, so they're putting less checks at the point of checkout to give the customer that terrific experience," says Rajesh Ramanand, Signifyd's chief executive. "Fraudsters are finding ways to exploit this hole."

Consumers should use robust passwords, pay close attention to where sensitive information gets stored and patronize only trusted Web properties. And a healthy dose of holiday skepticism also is in order.

"It's OK to be a little paranoid," says Ronnie Flathers, of security consultancy Neohapsis. "Modern phishing techniques are subtle and dangerous. It's OK to mistrust e-mail and links. If something seems phishy, exit out."

CyberTruth video: MyPermissions seeks to manage abusive apps

It's also a good time to think about privacy. The voracious tracking systems deployed by Google, Facebook, LinkedIn, Microsoft and others, which correlate your online behaviors for advertisers, also inform the NSA's surveillance programs, as we now know thanks to Edward Snowden.

On Monday, privacy solutions vendor Abine released version 3.0 of its acclaimed DoNotTrackMe browser tool used by some 2 million people to block hidden tracking mechanisms. This free service, and others like it, such as AVG's PrivacyFix and Virtual World Computing's Cocoon, are powerful, though they require you to give up a sliver of convenience.

"Consumers can control who knows where they shop, who can charge them, and, importantly, have complete peace of mind if a site where they shopped ever loses their information or has it stolen by a hacker," says Abine co-founder Rob Shavell, referring to DoNotTrackMe.

Also worth checking out are Hotspot Shield and TunnelBear, two free virtual private networks that establish a secure tunnel b! etween yo! ur computing device and the Internet. Your information remains inside this tunnel, which also protects your computer or mobile device from malware and phishing scams.

Too easy for brokers to clean records, lawyers say

Brokers who are the subject of investor arbitration cases can clear their record of any wrongdoing too easily, according to a lawyers' group that represents plaintiffs.

A study released on Wednesday by the Public Investors Arbitration Bar Association shows that so-called expungement was granted in at least 90% of the time in the 1,625 cases in which it was mentioned between 2007 and 2011.

the Public Investors Arbitration Bar Association shows that so-called expungement was granted in at least 90% of the time in the 1,625 cases in which it was mentioned between 2007 and 2011.

Between January 2007 and May 2009, expungement was granted 89% of the time in cases resolved by stipulated awards or settlement and 96.9% of the time between May 2009 and December 2011.

From 2007 through 2011, a total of 17,635 cases were filed at the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority Inc., which conducts arbitration proceedings. Brokers can request expungement from Finra arbitrators, who must find and document that their cases meet certain criteria for false claims. If expungement is granted, the claim is removed from the broker profile in Finra's BrokerCheck system.

Originally established to protect brokers who are the targets of false claims, removing any evidence of a claim from a broker's record is now becoming a routine part of broker settlements with investors, the plaintiffs' organization asserted in a media conference call.

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“Investors who rely on public records of stockbrokers are unlikely to be getting a clear picture,” PIABA president Scott Ilgenfritz said. “Finra is allowing the disclosure information in the regulatory record to be for sale. Regulators need to step in and crack down on expungement, particularly in settled cases.”

PIABA recommends that Finra strengthen training of its 6,462 arbitrators regarding the expungement process, approve a rule preventing expungement from being part of settlements and scrutinize expungement requests more closely.

“Finra needs to take more action to protect investors,” said Jason Doss, the incoming PIABA president. “We have the hard data to prove that point.”

Finra attributed the recent increase in expungement requests to a 2009 change in U4 and U5 forms that increased the number of claims against brokers. The regulator noted that Finra granted 838 expungements following court orders between 2007 and 2011, or less than 5% of the cases filed during t! hat time..

“In addition to the steps it is taking to provide additional guidance and training to arbitrators, Finra is reviewing its rules and interpretations, and will consider changes to provide clarity as to what actions in connection with conditions on settlements violate conduct rules,” the organization said in a statement.

On Monday, the broker-dealer regulator posted expungement guidance on its website reminding arbitrators that the process should occur “only under appropriate circumstances,” including instances in which “the claim, allegation or information is factually impossible or clearly erroneous ... or false.” A broker who was involved in a sales practice violation or the theft of investor funds is not eligible for expungement.

The Finra guidance emphasized that expungement is an “extraordinary remedy.” It directed arbitrators to gather information they believe is relevant to the expungement request, review the broker’s BrokerCheck report and consider whether the investor participated in the expungement hearing.

Bryan Ward, a partner at Sutherland Asbill & Brennan LLP, said the Finra guidance goes too far.

“I find it disconcerting that Finra is trying to add to and amend the expungement rule without going through the rulemaking process,” Mr. Ward said.

He also said that arbitrators should not delve into the details of the settlement process.

“It’s irrelevant, it’s confidential and it’s often outside the knowledge of the broker, who may not have been involved at all in the settlement negotiations,” Mr. Ward said.

A major problem with the expungement process is that investors don’t pay attention because they’ve already got an award in the settlement.

“Claimants still have no real incentive to show up at these hearings for expungement,” said Robert Banks Jr., owner of Banks Law Office PC. “The only solution is to get rid of expungement. An inaccurate ! [BrokerChe! ck] report is worse than having no report at all because it gives investors a false sense of security.”

Mr. Ilgenfritz said that Finra should be more forceful in preventing expungement.

“Finra needs to take a more active role in the front end of the expungement process,” he said.

Costco Wholesale Corporation (COST) Q4 Earnings Preview: What To Watch?

Costco Wholesale Corporation (NASDAQ: COST) plans to release its operating results for the fourth quarter and fiscal year ended Sept. 1, 2013, on Oct. 9, 2013. A conference call to discuss these results is scheduled for 7:00 a.m. (PT) that day.

Costco currently operates 634 membership warehouses, including 451 in the United States and Puerto Rico, 85 in Canada, 33 in Mexico, 25 in the United Kingdom, 18 in Japan, 10 in Taiwan, nine in Korea and three in Australia.

The warehouse club business model is based on ultra-low mark-up on products, with the majority of profits generated from membership fees charged to customers. Costco derives more than 70 percent of operating income from membership fees received from its 37 million paid-up members.

Wall Street expects Costco to earn $1.46s a share, according to analysts polled by Thomson Reuters. The consensus estimate implies an increase of 5 percent from last year's $1.39 cents a share.

Costco has managed to beat Street view in all of the past four quarters, at a rate between 1 and 6 percent. The consensus view remained unchanged in the past 90 days.

Last month, Costco reported fourth quarter net sales of $31.8 billion, an increase of one percent from $31.5 billion in the same period last year. Comparable store sales, a key retail metric, rose 5 percent during the quarter.

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The company's solid traffic and membership renewal rates are unique within a space wrought with uncertainty of late. The uniqueness could help Costco post a solid quarterly print. However, investors could focus on forex fluctuations, volatile gas prices, and lapping the benefits provided by the extra week last year could impact both gross profit and SG&A margins.

Costco reported a strong comp in August (core SSS of 6.0 percent) as solid traffic gains of over 5 percent paved the way for the rebound aft! er a sub-par July period.

"Looking ahead to September, we believe COST likely saw another solid month, led by strong traffic. Specifically, we are forecasting Core SSS of +5.5%, which is in-line with the trailing 12 month average of 5.6%," Deutsche Bank analyst Paul Trussell wrote in a note to clients.

Traffic gains would be close to 4 percent, with the negative impact from FX/gas hampering ticket, as was the case last month. Overall, September will again see solid performance in both Food categories as well as Softlines.

The membership fee income is another key focus in Costco print. Membership growth per store will be solid because comparable traffic growth in the fourth quarter was about 5 percent.

"We estimate membership fee income (MFI) at $730m, 6% above last year, or 12% excluding the extra week last year and FX. This is driven by 4% more stores y/y, 2% new members per store and the final full quarter of accrual from the membership fee rate increase in Nov 2011," UBS analyst Jason DeRise said in a client note.

For the third quarter, Costco reported net income of $1.04 per share, up from 88 cents per share last year. The consensus estimate was for EPS of $1.03. Total revenues rose to $24.08 billion from $22.32 billion last year but came below analysts' estimate of $24.21 billion.

Shares of Costco, which trade 22 times its forward earnings, have gained 12 percent this year. They traded between $93.51 and $120.20 during the past 52-weeks.

Ex-NBA Star Detlef Schrempf: He Shot, He Scored, He Managed (a Fund)

Detlef Schrempf has always been a man on the move.

From the time his family moved to Washington state from his native Germany when he was 17, to college and professional basketball stardom and a new career in the financial and philanthropic worlds, the three-time NBA all-star has never stopped.

As his basketball career was nearing its end, Schrempf, who is now director of business development at Coldstream Capital Management, realized he needed to find something to fill his days.

“I understood I wouldn’t be playing forever,” he said. “I saw some big stars retire and I started to think about what I could do next.”

He also has seen many players make big-time money and still be left with nothing at far too young an age. He expresses understanding for their plight.

“It’s hard to blame them. They are young and have lots of money,” Schrempf said, adding that most players are unprepared to make the right financial decisions.

More players today, he said, might have a better chance to remain in good financial standing.

“I think the money today is so big that I think they have a chance to keep some,” Schrempf said.

Toward the end of his playing days, Schrempf started looking around and didn’t see “a lot of options,” but realized he could find his path through the relationships he had developed over the years. It didn’t hurt that he had earned a degree in international business from the University of Washington.

Armed with that background, Schrempf co-founded Athlon Ventures, a private equity firm, in 2000. Schrempf handled fundraising, deal flow, strategic partnerships and marketing for the fund, which invested in, among other instruments, venture capital and real estate. Athlon is fully invested.

The kind of success Schrempf found at Athlon was a continuation of his on-court triumphs. As a high school senior in Centralia, he led his team to the state championship. During his playing days at the University of Washington, the Huskies won Pac-10 championships in 1984 and 1985. With Schrempf as the team’s leading scorer, the team advances to the NCAA tournament’s Sweet Sixteen in 1984.

Part of a wave of tall players (he’s 6-foot-9) who could handle a ball and shoot like guards, Schrempf’s skills translated to 16 years in the NBA, mostly with the Indiana Pacers and the Seattle SuperSonics.

Originally selected as the eighth pick in the NBA draft, Schrempf lived up to his promise. He was named the league’s top sixth man in 1991 and 1992 while with the Pacers. He was named to those three All-Star Games and played in one NBA finals series with the SuperSonics in 1996. The Sonics fell to Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls in six games. After retiring, Schrempf moved on to Athlon. After the fund was fully invested, it was time for a new challenge, so in 2007 he joined Coldstream, a Bellevue, Wash.-based firm founded in 1996. Coldstream provides financial planning and personalized client services to high-net-worth individuals and families, among other services. It has more than $1.1 billion in assets under management.

Schrempf, 50, is clear about what is behind his success in the financial world.

“It’s mostly about building relationships,” he said. “That’s what I’m most interested in.”

Schrempf built on those relations with his namesake foundation, started two decades ago to help families and children in the Northwest. Mainly through an annual golf tournament, a St. Patrick’s Day Dash and a fashion show it has raised more than $13 million. The foundation has supported more than 100 charities and it partners with Camp Fire USA Central Puget Sound, Seattle Children’s Autism Center, Inspire Youth Project and the Healing Center.

When Schrempf feels the need to get away from his everyday routine, he heads for the wide-open spaces of North Dakota.

“I like to ride horses,” he said. “I go to a friend’s ranch once a year,” even participating in cattle drives.

Perhaps it’s fitting that a man who loves horses and country-western music (he says there are so many great artists, and names Darius Rucker as among his favorites) had a song by the group Band of Horses named for him.

The Seattle band, which before writing the song had no connection to Schrempf other than as basketball fans, has said the title was accidental.

In an interview with Artistdirect.com, the front man Ben Bridwell said the song on its 2007 album “Cease to Begin” took on its working title because of its Seattle themes. When the song was complete, the name stuck.

Bridwell and Schrempf have since corresponded by email and become friends. The musician was quoted as saying “he’s the most famous friend I have.”

Schrempf has started looking ahead to retirement. He is eligible for a lump-sum payout from the NBA pension fund, which he said is seriously underfunded.

As he waits for the information he needs to make the right financial decision about his basketball pension, Schrempf will no doubt keep moving forward.

He said he knows he’s lucky to have his financial house in order but said he worries about other players.

“Most people work 30 years and hopefully have a retirement plan,” he said. “An NBA career is short. The other guys need the pension.”

---

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Profit From 5 Trades Warren Buffett Made

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BALTIMORE (Stockpickr) -- What's Warren Buffett buying? As usual, when Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.B) released its 13F filing to the public on Friday, people went nuts.

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How nuts? Berkshire's biggest buy for the quarter picked up another $8 billion in valuation as new buyers piled into shares. But Wall Street got a lot of the details wrong about the Oracle of Omaha's stock spending spree. That's why we're taking a closer look today.

It's not understating things to say that it was another quiet quarter at Berkshire. The $92 billion portfolio only increased stakes in six stocks in the third quarter, and none of those positions were new. Instead, Todd Combs and Ted Weschler, Buffett's team of two portfolio managers, stuck with increasing stakes in their favorite names in 2013.

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That's fine as far as Buffett is concerned: Both managers beat the S&P 500 by double digits last year.

Even though the buying has been cautious, it tells us a whole lot more about the stocks that these guys like than if they'd been buying with both hands. And buys aren't the only telling trades going on at Berkshire. The stocks that Berkshire unloaded are pretty informative too.

So, want to profit from the trades that Buffett made? Today we're taking a closer look at five conviction trades from Berkshire Hathaway's portfolio.

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That word -- conviction -- is an important distinction for the folks poring over Berkshire's latest 13F filings with the SEC.

Exxon Mobil

Berkshire's purchase of shares of Exxon Mobil (XOM) has been generating a lot of buzz in the last few days -- but one detail that most are getting wrong is the idea that this is a new position. It's not. Berkshire actually picked up most of its 40 million share stake last quarter, even though the SEC allowed Buffett and company to keep the move confidential as they accumulated shares. "Only" 8.85 million shares were added to the position.

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That's not the first time Buffett has secretly bought shares of Exxon -- Berkshire did the same thing back in 2009. But what's interesting is that you didn't need to see the 13F filing to know what was going on. Warren Buffett has been singing XOM's praises in Berkshire shareholder letters since last year.

Exxon Mobil is an integrated oil and gas supermajor with more than 18.2 billion barrels of oil equivalent in its proven reserves. That's enough scale to make Exxon the world's biggest refiner and one of the biggest makers of processed commodity products. In recent years, Exxon has been focused on reducing production costs and shifting its product mix more towards nat gas, which has helped to solidify the fortress-like double-digit margins that XOM currently sports.

It's not surprising that Buffett likes Exxon -- the firm has a strong history of returning value to shareholders, thanks to a 2.6% dividend yield and a share buyback program. With a low earnings multiple priced into shares and around 5% of the firm's market capitalization covered by cash and investments, XOM is looking cheap too. A technical turnaround in shares since early October rounds out the picture in Exxon; you could do a lot worse than to follow Berkshire Hathaway into this stock.

Suncor Energy

Exxon wasn't the only energy name that Berkshire picked up last quarter -- Suncor Energy (SU) was another. Buffett and company bought 240,500 shares of the Canadian oil firm, building its stake in the stock to $644 million.

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Suncor is the biggest oil and gas name in Canada, with 550,000 barrels of oil equivalent coming out of the ground every day. The firm is a major oil sands operator, exposure that the firm was able to acquire relatively cheaply and is now leveraging for bigger margins than most of its peers. Investments in new extraction technology have helped to bust through plateaus in production at SU's oil projects, squeezing more cash from older assets.

Like Exxon, Suncor is an integrated energy firm. That means that the company is involved with every step of the process, from pulling commodities out of the ground to transporting, refining, and retailing fuel at Petro-Canada gas station locations. While operations downstream are dilutive to margins (holding SU's net profit margins sub-10%), they give the firm a heftier top-line than a standalone E&P stock would have. Despite the upside, Suncor isn't a very exciting energy name; investors are better off in Exxon.

ConocoPhillips

Based on the two big oil buys, it's easy to think that Bershire Hathaway made a big bet on the energy sector last quarter -- but that ignores the huge sale of ConocoPhillips (COP) shares, which flushed more than $519 million worth of the Houston-based E&P from Berkshire's portfolio. The trade nearly halved Buffett's stake in ConocoPhillips, almost offsetting the Exxon and Suncor trades entirely.

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There's a big difference between ConocoPhillips and the energy stocks that Berkshire actually bought: COP spun off its downstream operations into Phillips 66 (PSX) in May 2012. The result is one of the biggest pure-play oil and gas producers with 8.6 billion barrels of proven reserves. But the fact of the matter is that a lack of refineries and gas stations actually makes COP more attractive, not less. Without the paper thin margins those businesses provide, ConocoPhillips converted twice as many sales dollars into profit as Exxon did last quarter.

Around half of ConocoPhillips' reserves come from natural gas. That's an attractive mix, especially given how the firm's supermajor peers have been falling all over themselves to boost exposure to nat gas by acquiring big producers in recent years. With oil prices holding onto the high end of their historic range, nat gas prices are starting to see some buoyancy as consumers substitute one fuel for the other.

With Buffett selling COP right now, I'd be buying.

DaVita HealthCare Partners

Enough about energy. DaVita HealthCare Partners (DVA) is another name that should sound familiar to Buffett disciples. And the Oracle of Omaha is buying more in 2013. Berkshire Hathaway added 1.5 million shares to its portfolio in the latest quarter, boosting its total stake to $1.79 billion.

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DaVita operates more than 1,850 dialysis clinics and in-patient hospital dialysis units across the U.S., serving patients who suffer from chronic kidney failure. The long-term nature of dialysis treatment makes DVA's business pretty predictable, since kidney transplants are scare. DaVita has been cautious about its relationship with Buffett's firm -- the two parties agreed to a deal in May that limits Berkshire Hathaway's ownership of DVA to 25%. The latest trade brings the DVA stake to 14.8%.

A $4.4 billion merger with HealthCare Partners changed DVA's business dramatically in the past year, putting medical practices, hospitals, and pharmacy services under DVA's umbrella for a 25% contribution to corporate revenues. But none of that changes the fact that DVA trades for a premium right now. While demographic tailwinds should keep a steady stream of patients at DVA's doors, much of that upside is already priced into shares.

GlaxoSmithKline

Last up on Berkshire's conviction trade list is GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), a $130 billion pharmaceutical name that Buffett's stock pickers unloaded en masse in the last quarter. With the $1.13 million share selloff in Berkshire's portfolio, the firm owns a "meager" $17 million stake in the firm. GSK isn't the only big pharma name that got sold off in the third quarter; the firm also dumped nearly 160,000 shares of Sanofi (SNY).

GlaxoSmithKline owns a broad portfolio of drugs and vaccines that span nearly every category. Even though crown jewel Advair lost patent protection in 2010, generic competition has been far less than the bear case proposed by Wall Street. Going forward, Glaxo's investment case looks a lot like most of its peers: big R&D investments into rare diseases hold orphan drug potential for GSK, at the same time that longer-running efforts on more mainstream drugs get closer to market.

Glaxo is currently in the middle of a major cost-cutting initiative that should take some of the pressure off of the firm's pipeline until more new offerings hit the top of the income statement. But that hasn't stopped investors from pricing in black clouds over a 4.58% dividend yield at current price levels. Buffett and company are all but out of this stock at this point, but with decent fundamentals and rapidly improving technicals, GSK actually looks much better positioned than DaVita does right now.

To see the rest of Berkshire Hathaway's plays -- including a complete list of which stocks the firm added or sold off -- check out the Warren Buffett Portfolio on Stockpickr.

-- Written by Jonas Elmerraji in Baltimore.

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Follow Stockpickr on Twitter and become a fan on Facebook.

At the time of publication, author had no positions in stocks mentioned.

Jonas Elmerraji, CMT, is a senior market analyst at Agora Financial in Baltimore and a contributor to

TheStreet. Before that, he managed a portfolio of stocks for an investment advisory returned 15% in 2008. He has been featured in Forbes , Investor's Business Daily, and on CNBC.com. Jonas holds a degree in financial economics from UMBC and the Chartered Market Technician designation.

Follow Jonas on Twitter @JonasElmerraji

Best Buy and Campbell Dampen the Dow's Run at 16,000

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

It was another middling day for stocks, as the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJINDICES: ^DJI  ) again broke 16,000 this morning but finished short of the big, round number, closing down 9 points, or 0.06%. A disappointing holiday forecast from Best Buy (NYSE: BBY  ) weighed on the market, while investors also reacted to a record $13 billion settlement between JPMorgan Chase (NYSE: JPM  ) and the Department of Justice, which puts to rest the bank's and its acquisition's legal malfeasance dating back to the financial crisis. JPMorgan shares are up about 5% in the last week in anticipation of the deal. At a speech tonight to the National Economists Club, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke seemed to imply that the stimulus program would continue over the near term, saying: "The economy has made significant progress since the depths of the recession. However, we are still far from where we would like to be, and, consequently, it may be some time before monetary policy returns to more normal settings."

Best Buy shares finished down 11% despite beating earnings estimates, as the big-box retailer warned that a heavily promotional holiday retail environment would put pressure on its fourth-quarter margins. Even with the sell-off, Best Buy shares have tripled this year as new CEO Hubert Joly's "Renew Blue" turnaround strategy has taken hold. The initiative features cutting of up to $725 million in annual costs, partnering with vendors such as Samsung to open store-in-store kiosks, and retraining employees to provide better service. The strategy seems to ne paying off as domestic same-store sales improved 1.7%, even as overall revenue was flat, and adjusted per-share profits jumped from $0.04 a year ago to $0.18.

Campbell Soup (NYSE: CPB  ) was also cooling off the market, as its shares fell 6.2% after an unappetizing earnings report. The world's largest soup-maker badly missed estimates, reporting earnings per share of $0.63 against expectations of $0.86, while revenues fell 1.8% to $2.17 billion, missing the analysts' mark at $2.3 billion. Guidance was also below estimates. Campbell blamed a late Thanksgiving, marketing expenses, and a change in retailer buying patterns for the earnings shortfall, but broader food shopping patterns may also be at play, as fresh produce and organic packaged goods have gained favor with the population amid the rise of Whole Foods Market and other natural-foods grocers.

Finally, Home Depot (NYSE: HD  ) managed to score a win for retailers, gaining 0.9% after a solid earnings report this morning. Sales at the home-improvement retailer improved 7.4% to $19.5 billion, topping estimates of $19.17 billion, as same-store sales jumped 7.4%, indicating the housing market continues to heat up. That sales improvement was good for a 28.4% increase in adjusted earnings per share to $0.95, cruising past the analyst mark at $0.89. Home Depot also lifted its full-year EPS guidance to $3.72, slightly ahead of the consensus. The results bode well for fellow home-improvement retailer, Lowe's, which reports earnings tomorrow morning.

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3 Stocks Going All Out on Stock Buybacks

Don’t knock share repurchase programs just because you love your dividends.

The big criticism of share buybacks is that too often companies overpay for their own stock. However, buybacks are tax-advantaged (dividends are taxed once as corporate earnings, then again as dividend income), and they make each share in the company more valuable. After all, earnings per share automatically increase when there are fewer shares outstanding.

But just because a board authorizes a mega-billion-dollar buyback doesn’t mean the company is actively scooping up shares. Heck, more than a dozen companies announced new programs or additions of more than $1 billion since June 30, according to data from FactSet. But it doesn’t mean those companies went into the market and actually bought stock.

That’s why when it comes to buybacks, it pays to see which companies are, in fact, deploying their cash. Stocks that follow this two-pronged approach of returning cash to shareholders — buybacks and dividends — can generate superior, market-beating returns for long-term (that means patient) investors.

These three companies spent the most on share repurchases over the past year, according to FactSet. We’ve also included dividend yields and the total value of dividends paid to shareholders:

#3: AT&T

Cash Spent on Buybacks (TTM): $17.4 billion
Change in Shares Outstanding: -8.1%
Dividend Yield: 5.2%
Dividends Paid: $10 billion

Telecoms are supposed to be dividend stalwarts, but one way in which AT&T (T) differentiates itself from rivals is by shelling out lots of cash for share buybacks. Verizon’s (VZ) authorization for up to 100 million shares expires in February, and it didn’t crack the top 10 in repurchases over the last year.

True, AT&T might be boring, but it’s been an excellent long-term holding. A total return of 153% over the past decade beats the S&P 500 by 50 percentage points.

#2: Apple

Best Energy Stocks To Buy For 2014

Cash Spent on Buybacks (TTM): $18 billion
Change in Shares Outstanding: -3.1%
Dividend Yield: 2.6%
Dividends Paid: $10.3 billion

Apple (AAPL), the world’s biggest company, started returning some of its gargantuan cash pile to shareholders only last year — but it did so in a big way. It’s a bittersweet change, however, signaling that the company’s days of outsized growth are over.

AAPL generated a total return of more than 4,000% over the last decade. Now that it’s paying dividends and buying stock, sure, it can still be a market-beater — but more muted gains almost certainly lay ahead.

#1: Exxon Mobil

Cash Spent on Buybacks (TTM): $20 billion
Change in Shares Outstanding: -4.6%
Dividend Yield: 2.8%
Dividends Paid: $10.6 billion

The world’s second-largest company by market capitalization has a long history of epic buybacks. Indeed, during the past 10 years, Exxon Mobil (XOM) has spent more than $200 billion on share repurchases.

That has helped make the integrated energy major an outstanding holding for any long-term portfolio. Between price appreciation, buybacks and dividends, XOM is smoking the S&P 500 during the past 10 years, gaining 196% vs. 103% for the broader market.

As of this writing, Dan Burrows did not hold a position in any of the aforementioned securities.

Top Dividend Companies To Watch In Right Now

Restaurant operator�Brinker International� (NYSE: EAT  ) �announced yesterday�its second-quarter dividend of $0.20 per share, the same rate it's paid for the last three quarters when it raised the payout 25% from $0.16 per share.

The board of directors said the quarterly dividend is payable on June 27 to the holders of record at the close of business on June 14. �Brinker has paid a dividend every year since 2009 and has increased the payout every year since then.

Brinker owns, operates, or franchises 1,588 restaurants under the names Chili's Grill & Bar (1,544 restaurants) and Maggiano's Little Italy (44 restaurants).

The regular dividend payment equates to a $0.80-per-share annual dividend, yielding 2% based on the closing price of Brinker International's stock on May 30.

EAT Dividend data by YCharts.

link

Top Dividend Companies To Watch In Right Now: (TELNY)

Telenor ASA operates as a telecommunication company worldwide. It provides mobile communication, fixed line communication, and television (TV)-based services. The company?s mobile communication services include voice, data, Internet, content, and electronic commerce services, as well as customer equipment, such as telephone sets, mobile phones, smart phones, computers, and PABX?s. Its fixed line services comprise analogue PSTN, digital ISDN, broadband telephony, xDSL, Internet, and leased lines, as well as communication solutions. The company?s TV-based services consist of pay-TV services via satellite dish, cable TV-networks, satellite master antenna TV-networks systems, broadband access services to cable TV-subscribers, and broadcasting rights, as well as security solutions to pay-TV operators. It also provides consulting and information technology services; maritime and aircraft telecommunications services; Internet protocol services; and mobile marketing agency service s, as well as manages two funds. The company has approximately 120 million mobile subscriptions. Telenor ASA was founded in 1885 and is headquartered in Fornebu, Norway.

Top Dividend Companies To Watch In Right Now: Becton Dickinson and Company(BDX)

Becton, Dickinson and Company, a medical technology company, develops, manufactures, and sells medical devices, instrument systems, and reagents worldwide. The company?s BD Medical segment produces medical devices that are used in various healthcare settings. This segment?s products include needles, syringes, and intravenous catheters for medication delivery; prefilled IV flush syringes; syringes, pen needles, and other drugs to treat diabetes; prefillable drug delivery systems; anesthesia needles and trays; sharps disposal containers; and closed-system transfer devices. Its BD Diagnostics segment provides products for the safe collection and transport of diagnostics specimens, as well as instrument systems and reagents to detect various infectious diseases, healthcare-associated infections, and cancers. This segment?s products consist of integrated systems for specimen collection; safety-engineered blood collection products and systems; automated blood culturing systems; molecular testing systems; microorganism identification and drug susceptibility systems; liquid-based cytology systems for cervical cancer screening; rapid diagnostic assays; and plated media. The company?s BD Biosciences segment produces research and clinical tools that facilitate the study of cells and their components. This segment?s products comprise fluorescence-activated cell sorters and analyzers; monoclonal antibodies and kits for performing cell analysis; reagent systems for life science research; cell imaging systems; laboratory products for tissue culture and fluid handling; diagnostic assays; and cell culture media supplements for biopharmaceutical manufacturing. It markets its products through independent distribution channels and independent sales representatives to healthcare institutions, life science researchers, clinical laboratories, the pharmaceutical industry, and the general public. The company was founded in 1897 and is headquartered in Franklin Lakes, New Jersey.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Rich Duprey]

  Medical device maker�Becton, Dickinson� (NYSE: BDX  ) gave investors a shot in the arm today reporting strong financial results for its second fiscal quarter and raising its guidance for the full year.

• [By Geoff Gannon]

  Someone who reads my articles sent me this question: My��uestion has to do with the type of investments you tend to put your energy toward. Evaluating a net-net is a whole lot different than evaluating a company that has a competitive advantage and trades at much higher multiples. To me, the net-net evaluation process is a whole lot more straightforward, as there are fewer intangibles (if any) and less prediction about the future involved. I don't have to worry about whether GTSI (GTSI) has any competitive advantage ��I know it doesn't. Then again, I look at a company like Becton Dickenson (BDX) and I see a highly predictable company with a decent moat selling at a reasonable price. I can look at BDX and figure I might earn 10-15% annually over a long time frame. That's really different from thinking about investing in a net-net where I can see how it's 30-50% undervalued now, but it's not something I'm going to hold onto for decades. It's more of a matter of waiting for that one-time "pop" that will happen sometime in the next 1-5 years. How do you decide where to put your energy?

Hot Dividend Stocks To Own For 2014: Waste Management Inc.(WM)

Waste Management, Inc., through its subsidiaries, provides waste management services to residential, commercial, industrial, and municipal customers in North America. It offers collection, transfer, recycling, and disposal services. The company also owns, develops, and operates waste-to-energy and landfill gas-to-energy facilities in the United States. Its collection services involves in picking up and transporting waste and recyclable materials from where it was generated to a transfer station, material recovery facility, or disposal site; and recycling operations include collection and materials processing, plastics materials recycling, and commodities recycling. In addition, it provides recycling brokerage, which includes managing the marketing of recyclable materials for third parties; and electronic recycling services, such as collection, sorting, and disassembling of discarded computers, communications equipment, and other electronic equipment. Further, the company e ngages in renting and servicing portable restroom facilities to municipalities and commercial customers under the Port-o-Let name; and involves in landfill gas-to-energy operations comprising recovering and processing the methane gas produced naturally by landfills into a renewable energy source, as well as provides street and parking lot sweeping services. Additionally, it offers portable self-storage, fluorescent lamp recycling, and medical waste services for healthcare facilities, pharmacies, and individuals, as well as provides services on behalf of third parties to construct waste facilities. The company was formerly known as USA Waste Services, Inc. and changed its name to Waste Management, Inc. in 1998. Waste Management, Inc. was incorporated in 1987 and is based in Houston, Texas.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Arjun Sreekumar]

  Others are using it right here in the U.S. to power trucks and other vehicles. Waste Management (NYSE: WM  ) , for instance, has amassed a sizable fleet consisting of 2,000 trucks powered by compressed natural gas, or CNG. It even recently opened a new CNG fueling station in Bristol, Pa., to help fuel its growing fleet, as well as to provide fueling options for the public. �

• [By Helix Investment Research]

  We note that Keating Capital's co-investors in many of its portfolio companies are not simply other venture capital or existing investors, but strategic investors as well. Examples include Agilyx, where Waste Management (WM) is a co-investor, BrightSource, where Chevron (CVX) and BP (BP) are co-investors, Kabam, where Google (GOOG) and Intel (INTC) are co-investors, or Tremor Video (TRMR), where Time Warner (TWX) is a co-investor. As of the end of Q2 2013, 9 (excluding Jumptap) of Keating Capital's portfolio companies had unrealized gains, with an average gain of 25.6% (again excluding Jumptap, which had unrealized gains of 8% as of the end of Q2 2013). The remaining 6 companies had an average loss of 44.46%. However, on an overall basis, Keating Capital's portfolio currently has an average unrealized gain of 2.15%. While this is not a large gain, we note that the bulk of Keating Capital's profits are realized upon exiting an investment in conjunction with the portfolio company's IPO or sale. Furthermore, portions of Keating Capital's portfolio are defended by structurally protected appreciation clauses that the company has struck with its portfolio companies, clauses that are not reflected on its balance sheet. These clauses, which are negotiated between Keating Capital and its portfolio companies, allow the company to receive shares in the portfolio company's IPO at a discount, or grant it warrants to purchase additional shares in an IPO for a nominal price. Since inception, Keating Capital has negotiated structurally protected appreciation clauses in 11 of the 20 companies it has invested in. As of the end of Q2 2013, 6 of Keating Capital's 15 portfolio companies were protected by structurally protected appreciation clauses, representing $22 million in total capital (almost 43% of the company's invested capital), thereby entitling Keating Capital to a weighted-average aggregate value of 1.9x its investment at the time of an IPO.

Top Dividend Companies To Watch In Right Now: Lorillard Inc(LO)

Lorillard, Inc., through its subsidiaries, engages in the manufacture and sale of cigarettes in the United States. The company offers 43 different product offerings under the Newport, Kent, True, Maverick, and Old Gold brand names. Lorillard, Inc. sells its products primarily to wholesale distributors, who in turn service retail outlets, chain store organizations, and government agencies, including the United States? Armed Forces. The company was founded in 1760 and is headquartered in Greensboro, North Carolina.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Jacob Roche]

  Because cigarette manufacturers in the U.S. are allowed to have more ornate packaging that is harder to duplicate, counterfeits are less of a problem here. However, Altria (NYSE: MO  ) has noted that counterfeits do account for part of the trade and are a problem for American manufacturers like itself, Lorillard (NYSE: LO  ) , and Reynolds American (NYSE: RAI  ) .

• [By Rich Duprey]

  Cigarette maker Lorillard (NYSE: LO  ) announced yesterday its second-quarter dividend of $0.55 per share, the same rate it paid last quarter after it increased it 6% from $0.517 per share on a split-adjusted basis.

Top Dividend Companies To Watch In Right Now: Amphenol Corporation(APH)

Amphenol Corporation engages in the design, manufacture, and marketing of electrical, electronic, and fiber optic connectors; interconnect systems; and coaxial and specialty cables worldwide. Its Interconnect Products and Assemblies segment produces connectors and connector assemblies primarily for the communications, aerospace, industrial, and automotive markets. This segment provides connector and cable assembly products used in communication applications; smart card acceptor and other interconnect devices used in mobile telephones; set top boxes to facilitate reading data from smart cards; fiber optic connectors used in fiber optic signal transmission; backplane and input/output connectors and assemblies used for servers and data storage devices and linking personal computers and peripheral equipment; sculptured flexible circuits used for integrating printed circuit boards; and hinge products used in mobile phone and other mobile communication devices. It also designs a nd produces radio frequency connector products and antennas used in telecommunications, computer and office equipment, instrumentation equipment, local area networks, and automotive electronics. The company?s Cable Products segment produces coaxial cable and connector products used in cable television systems, including full service cable television/telecommunication systems; radio frequency and fiber optic interconnect components for full service cable television/ telecommunication networks; and data cables and specialty cables used to connect internal components in systems with space and component configuration limitations. Amphenol Corporation markets its products directly, as well as through manufacturers? representatives and distributors to original equipment manufacturers, contract manufacturers, cable system operators, and telecommunication companies. The company was founded in 1932 and is headquartered in Wallingford, Connecticut.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Sally Jones] % over 12 months, Amphenol Corporation has a market cap of $12.88 billion and is traded at a P/E of 21.70. The dividend yield is 0.60%.

  The current share price is around $80.94.

  Incorporated in 1987, Amphenol Corporation designs, manufactures and markets electrical, electronic and fiber optic connectors, interconnect systems and coaxial and specialty cable. The markets for the global company's products are communication systems for the converging technologies of voice, video and data communications and a wide range of industrial applications including factory automation and motion control systems, medical and industrial instrumentation, and commercial aerospace and military applications, and many more.

  Guru Action: As of June 30, 2013, Columbia Wanger reduced its position by 0.69%, selling 29,000 shares at an average price of $76.60, gaining 7.5%.

  Columbia Wanger is the top guru stakeholder with 4,184,650 shares or 2.63% of shares outstanding.

  Over a phenomenal five-year trading history, the firm averaged a gain of 215% on 828,250 shares bought at an average price of $25.71 per share. Columbia Wanger also gained 56% selling 1,608,300 shares at an average price of $51.91 per share.

  Check out the very active insider selling and seven gurus holding APH.

  Track share pricing, revenue and net income:

  [ Enlarge Image ]

Fertilizer Comeback Takes Hold For Now

Potash and fertilizer stocks found their shares murdered over the summer after Russian potash producer OAO Uralkali announced that it was ending its marketing ventures in a cartel agreement. Now it appears that at least some of the decision is being reverse, or at least that it could be reversed.

A report came out of Dow Jones showing that Uralkali would consider any proposition that would create a new selling partnership with Belarus or another producing partner. This report is one which we would say is going to be very difficult to confirm or refute. What is not hard to refute is that potash and fertilizer stocks are rallying in appreciation mode.

Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan Inc. (NYSE: POT) was up 25 at $33.12 in Monday afternoon trading. Monday’s gain puts shares up within striking distance of its breakout point from the aftermath this summer that took shares from $38 to $31 and ultimately back under $30 before recovering.

Gains are being seen elsewhere as well, except in shares of The Mosaic Company (NYSE: MOS). Agrium Inc. (NYSE: AGU) was up almost 3% at $91.95 in late Monday trading, although this one held up much better in the destructive news phase when the alarming news roiled these stocks. The big winner is Intrepid Potash, Inc. (NYSE: IPI), with a gain of 7% to $16.20 in late-Monday trading.

It was back in July when Uralkali ended its marketing venture with Belarus. It was almost entirely unexpected by US investors in these companies. Even the Market Vectors Agribusiness ETF (NYSE MKT: MOO) is trading higher with the ETF’s shares up 1.4% at $52.30 in late-Monday trading.

In all honesty, the move in July and August was literally shocking. Then the news became even stranger with a corporate arrest reported. Maybe there is simply just too much money to walk away from.

Target: Still chic and cheap?

The discount retailer is facing stiff competition from cheaper and cooler online players.

(Money Magazine) For years the Minneapolis-based discounter used a mix of low prices and playful style to make big-box bargain shopping cool. That allowed "Tarjay" to hold its own against the 800-pound gorilla, Wal-Mart.

Lately, though, the chain finds itself in a struggle. Target (TGT, Fortune 500) may have bitten off more than it can chew by following Wal-Mart (WMT, Fortune 500) into the slow-growing, low-margin grocery business. Meanwhile, competition from cheaper, cooler online players like Amazon.com (AMZN, Fortune 500) is heating up. Some investors, though, think the retailer's stock itself is now looking like a bargain.

Amazon's price war Forget Wal-Mart. Target faces stiff competition from Amazon.com. Amazon discount Competition

7.7% cheaper	Target
6.3% cheaper	chain-store average
2.7% cheaper	Wal-Mart

NOTE: Discount based on basket of goods before tax.
SOURCES: William Blair, company filings, Bloomberg

A tougher price war

Just as Wal-Mart and Target disrupted Main Street retailers two decades ago, Amazon is now threatening these two discounters. The competition is likely to hit Target harder. William Blair analyst Mark Miller compared prices at all three places and found that, where Amazon's offerings overlapped, the online giant undercut Target more than it did Wal-Mart.

There's also the cool factor. Amazon's brand is built around being cutting-edge and cheap, which overlaps directly with Target's cheap-chic message. To drive more sales, Amazon is turning to Kindle tablets and streaming video. Target, for its part, is relying on, um, groceries. "Target has lost momentum," says Miller. "Amazon changed the game."

Facing challenges abroad

Groceries, which now account for a fifth of Target's $73 billion in sales, were a calculated risk to drive more foot traffic. The result thus far: lower profitability. Morningstar forecasts that Target's return on invested capital over the next five years will slip from 12.7% to 10.5%.

  Wal-Mart vs. the minimum wage

Where can the company turn to find more growth? Unlike Wal-Mart, with more ! than 6,000 stores abroad, Target has largely been U.S.-centric. Management hopes a plan to open more than 120 stores in Canada by year-end will change that.

So far, not so good. Weaker-than-expected sales and losses up north have knocked about 13% from Target's share price since July. "They underestimated the competition," argues William Blair's Miller.

Pumping up payouts

Target may not be the sexy growth stock it once was, but the company's shares are still coveted by value-minded investors, says Drew Weitz, analyst at Weitz Investments, whose mutual funds own the stock.

Target is already yielding more than the broad market, but the gap should widen after a 19% dividend increase set to boost the stock's yield to 2.7%. What's more, thanks to about $1.5 billion in share buybacks this year, the company has managed to raise its earnings per share even as profit margins have narrowed.

There's also the fact that starting next year, Target won't be spending as much to build out its business in Canada. "We're expecting a healthy amount of cash to come back to shareholders," Weitz says.

New Technologies Can Facilitate Foundation Collaboration

As foundations increasingly collaborate with their fellow funders to leverage their impact as they address complex public problems, the logistical challenges to working together can be daunting.

Last week, the Monitor Institute and the Foundation Center released a report on their research into how new technologies can facilitate collaborations and reduce inefficiencies.

The research was included an extensive literature review on collaboration in philanthropy, detailed analyses of trends from a Foundation Center survey of the largest U.S. foundations, interviews with 37 leading philanthropy professionals and technology experts and a review of more than 170 online tools, according to a statement.

The report includes an introduction to emerging technologies and the changing context for philanthropic collaboration, an overview of collaborative needs and tools and recommendations for improving the collaborative technology landscape.

An interactive tool finder developed by GrantCraft, a joint service of the Foundation Center and the European Foundation Centre, presents seven distinct collaborative needs (including finding partners, designing strategies and assessing progress) and 17 types of tool functionalities (ranging from data gathering to project management) in an online matrix that facilitates intuitive exploration of available resources.

This free resource is designed to help users generate custom results that provide details on recommended solutions, including their cost; whether they are best for small, medium or large collaborations; their ease of use; and whether a mobile-friendly version exists.

“In a time when the challenges of repairing the world seem to know no bounds, working together as a global community of problem-solvers is more important than ever,” Lisa Philp, vice president for strategic philanthropy at the Foundation Center, said in the statement.

“Technology is helping funders harness the power of collaboration, opening up new opportunities for strategic partnerships and making it easier to build effective relationships across organizations and geographies.”

Recent research revealed that not all foundations are buying into the collaborative trend, however. The survey found some U.S. foundations ambivalent about working with other funders, though none that had said they were disinclined to do so again.

10 Best Heal Care Stocks To Watch Right Now

At the end of summer, there was nearly $1.5 trillion in assets under management across the U.S. universe of exchange-traded products, including ETFs and ETNs. And while traditional market capitalization weighted funds still rule the roost, ETFs that use alternative weighting strategies deserve attention.

Through mid-2013, non-market cap weighted funds captured 42% of equity ETP flows YTD, more than two times their share of equity assets compared to 2012, according to BlackRock. Key drivers to this trend are dividend income and minimum volatility funds.

It should be noted the universe of non-market cap weighted ETFs includes equal weight funds, low and high volatility products along with fundamentally weighted products that use one or multiple factors for screening and weighting securities. To be sure, investors, professional and retail, have already displayed plenty of adulation for equal weight ETFs.

For example, the Guggenheim S&P 500 Equal Weight ETF (RSP) has outperformed the SPDR S&P 500 (SPY) and related S&P 500 tracking funds by significant margins for some time. Over the past 10 years, RSP has delivered a 9.74% return compared to 7.47% for SPY.

10 Best Heal Care Stocks To Watch Right Now: Stewart Enterprises Inc.(STEI)

Stewart Enterprises, Inc., through its subsidiaries, provides funeral and cemetery products and services in the death care industry in the United States and Puerto Rico. The company also offers a range of funeral merchandise and services, as well as cemetery property, cremation, merchandise, and services. Its funeral homes provide various services and products, including the family consultation, removal and preparation of remains, usage of funeral home facilities for visitation, worship and funeral services, transportation services, flowers, and caskets. The company also sells cemetery property and related merchandise, which includes lots, lawn crypts, family and community mausoleums, monuments, markers, and burial vaults; and provides burial site openings and closings and inscriptions. In addition, it maintains cemetery grounds under cemetery perpetual care contracts and local laws. As of January 31, 2011, the company owned and operated 218 funeral homes and 141 cemeterie s. Stewart Enterprises, Inc. was founded in 1910 and is based in Jefferson, Louisiana.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Chris Katje]

  Service Corporation (SCI), the largest funeral home operator in the United States, made news last week with its large acquisition of Stewart Enterprises (STEI). The acquisition was well received by investors, as shares rose 8% on the day of the announcement. Together, the two companies will see huge cost savings advantages and a backlog that is currently undervalued.

10 Best Heal Care Stocks To Watch Right Now: Flaherty & Crumrine Preferred Income Opportunity Fund Inc(PFO)

Flaherty & Crumrine Preferred Income Opportunity Fund Incorporated is a close-ended equity mutual fund launched and managed by Flaherty & Crumrine Incorporated. The fund invests in the public equity markets of the United States. It invests in stocks of companies operating in the finance and utility sector. The fund primarily invests in preferred stocks. It typically invests in securities with an average credit rating of BBB- by Standard & Poor's Corporation and Baa3 by Moody's Investors Services, Inc. The fund benchmarks the performance of its portfolio against S&P 500 Index and Barclays Capital U.S. Aggregate Index. Flaherty & Crumrine Preferred Income Opportunity Fund Incorporated was formed on December 10, 1991 and is domiciled in the United States.

Best Warren Buffett Companies To Own In Right Now: Powerlan Ltd(PWR.AX)

Clarity OSS Limited provides information technology products and services to the telecom industry in Australia and internationally. The company supplies software and related deployment services for operations automation to communications services providers. It offers a suite of products, including Clarity Infrastructure Management used to realize operational efficiency in infrastructure management, from project planning to ongoing asset and estate management; and Clarity Marketplace used to support retail, wholesale, and partner channels for customer account management, self-care, product ordering, settlements, and billing. The company also provides Clarity Fulfillment product to simplify the operational management of multi-technology and multi-vendor networks across inventory, provisioning, and activation; and Clarity Assurance product to monitor and manage networks performance and incidents for resolution. In addition, it offers a range of professional services, includin g software deployment services, education, and customer support. The company was formerly known as Powerlan Limited and changed its name to Clarity OSS Limited in January 2012. Clarity OSS Limited was founded in 1994 and is headquartered in North Sydney, Australia.

10 Best Heal Care Stocks To Watch Right Now: Premier Gold Mines Ltd (PIRGF)

Premier Gold Mines Limited (Premier) is an exploration companies with a pipeline of gold projects focused in mining jurisdictions in Canada and the United States. Premier�� portfolio includes assets in gold mining districts, such as Red Lake, Musselwhite and Geraldton in Ontario and the Carlin Trend in Nevada. It projects include Rahill-Bonanza Project, East Bay Project, PQ North Project, Trans-Canada Project and Redgold Project. Its subsidiaries include Premier Gold Mines USA Inc., 2295196 Ontario Inc., 2295197 Ontario Inc. and Roxmark Mines Ltd. On January 16, 2012, Premier sold its interest in the Newman-Madsen property in Red Lake to Sabina Silver Corporation. On November 18, 2011, the Company incorporated a Canadian subsidiary Premier Royalty Corporation. On August 16, 2011, it acquired Goldstone Resources Inc. On June 6, 2012, the Company acquired the Cove Gold Project, located within the Eureka-Battle Mountain Trend of Nevada, of Victoria Gold Corp.

10 Best Heal Care Stocks To Watch Right Now: Global-Tech Advanced Innovations Inc. (GAI)

Global-Tech Advanced Innovations Inc., an investment holding company, manufactures and sells consumer electrical products primarily in the United States, Europe, and the People�s Republic of China. Its Electronic Components segment produces complementary metal oxide semiconductor camera modules primarily for sale to cellular phone and tablet manufacturers in Mainland China. The company�s Electronic Manufacturing Services segment engages in the provision of surface mount technology processing services for printed circuit boards; and assembly services for cellular phone marketers in Mainland China. Its Others segment is involved in the manufacture and sale of disposable medical devices. Global-Tech also engages in the trading of raw materials, and electronic and optical components; and in the provision of consultation services. The company was formerly known as Global-Tech Appliances Inc. and changed its name to Global-Tech Advanced Innovations Inc. in December 2008. Globa l-Tech Advanced Innovations Inc. was founded in 1963 and is based in Aberdeen, Hong Kong.

10 Best Heal Care Stocks To Watch Right Now: Exone Co (XONE.W)

The ExOne Company, incorporated on December 21, 2012, is engaged in manufacturing and selling three-dimensional (3D) printing machines and printing products to specification for its customers using its in-house 3D printing machines. The Company provides 3D printing machines, 3D printed products and related services to industrial customers in the aerospace, automotive, heavy equipment, energy/oil/gas and other industries. It offers pre-production collaboration and print products for customers through its production service centers (PSCs), which are located in the United States, Germany and Japan. On January 1, 2013, the Company merged its predecessor company, The Ex One Company, LLC, with and into EXO Acquisitions Inc., which changed its name to The ExOne Company.

The Company produces an array of materialization systems to support a range of customer needs and facility requirements. It offers two printers on the world market for 3D printing of sand and metal materials, offering build sizes as large as 1800 x 1000 x 700 mm (70 x 39 x 27 in.) for sand and 780 x 400 x 400 mm (30.7 x 15.75 x 15.75 in.) for metal. It also offers Orion short pulse laser systems, utilizing a five-axis machine tool with four additional axes available on the trepanning head. The Company builds 3D printing machines at its facilities in the United States and Germany. The Company also supplies the associated products, including consumables and replacement parts, and services, including training and technical support, necessary for purchasers of its machines to print products. The Company�� 3D printing machines are able to manufacture casting molds and cores from specialty silica sand and ceramics, which are the traditional materials for these casting products.

The Company competes with 3D Systems Corporation, Stratasys Inc., Solidscape, Inc. and Objet Ltd., EOS Optronics GmbH, EnvisionTEC GmbH, and Solid Model Ltd.

10 Best Heal Care Stocks To Watch Right Now: Rolls Royce Group(RR.L)

Rolls-Royce Holdings plc engages in the provision of power systems and services for civil and defense, aerospace, marine and energy, and nuclear markets worldwide. It develops, manufactures, markets, and sells commercial aero engines, including aircraft engines and helicopter engines for passenger and cargo jets, and corporate and regional aircrafts; and military aero engines comprising engines for combat jets, helicopters, transporters, trainers, tactical aircrafts, and unmanned aerial vehicles. The company also offers marine power propulsion systems, such as automation and control systems, bearings and seals, electrical power systems, deck machinery solutions, marine gas turbines, diesel engines, gas engines, propulsors, ship lifts and transfer systems, reduction gears, and stabilization and maneuvering systems, as well as provides ship design and systems for offshore oil and gas, merchant, and naval vessels. In addition, it offers power systems consisting of gas engines , gas turbine engines, gas compressions, diesel engines, fuel cells, and automation and control systems to support the production of oil and gas, and power generation; and nuclear products, which include safety instrumentation and controls, components and systems manufacture, special purpose machinery and tooling, and remote vision systems, as well as steam generator services. Further, the company provides a range of services that comprise engine support services, helicopters services, financial services, training, technical publications, field shop services, spares and tools, technical support, upgradation, and repair and overhaul services, as well as safety licensing and environmental engineering, mechanical systems and component engineering, instrumentation and control, and reactor support services. Rolls-Royce Holdings plc was founded in 1971 and is headquartered in London, the United Kingdom.

10 Best Heal Care Stocks To Watch Right Now: Olam International Limited (O32.SI)

Olam International Limited engages in sourcing, processing, packaging, merchandising, and exporting agricultural products. The company operates in five segments: Edible Nuts, Spices and Beans; Confectionery and Beverage Ingredients; Industrial Raw Materials; Food Staples and Packaged Foods; and Commodity Financial Services. The Edible Nuts, Spices and Beans segment offers cashews, peanuts, almonds, hazelnuts, spices and vegetable ingredients, sesame, dehydrated vegetables, tomatoes, and specialty vegetables, as well as beans comprising pulses, lentils, and peas. The Confectionery and Beverage Ingredients segment provides cocoa, coffee, and shea nuts. The Industrial Raw Materials segment offers cotton, wool, wood products, and rubber products, as well as agri inputs, such as fertilizers. This segment is also involved in the development of a special economic zone project. The Food Staples and Packaged Foods segment provides rice, sugar and natural sweeteners, palm and dairy products, and packaged foods, as well as grains, including wheat, barley, and corn. The Commodity Financial Services segment offers market making and volatility trading, risk management solutions, and commodity funds management services. The company serves various customers worldwide. Olam International Limited was founded in 1989 and is headquartered in Singapore.

10 Best Heal Care Stocks To Watch Right Now: Susquehanna Bancshares Inc.(SUSQ)

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

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Rich Duprey]

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

10 Best Heal Care Stocks To Watch Right Now: SatCon Technology Corporation(SATC)

Satcon Technology Corporation, a clean energy technology company, provides utility-grade power conversion solutions for the renewable energy market, primarily the large-scale commercial and utility-scale solar photovoltaic markets worldwide. The company designs and delivers power conversion solutions that enable producers of renewable energy to convert clean energy into grid-connected electrical power. It also offers system design services and solutions for management, monitoring, and performance measurement to improve capital investment, and quality and performance over the lifespan of an installation. The company?s products include PowerGate Plus, a utility-ready photovoltaic inverter; Equinox, a power conversion solution built on the foundation of PowerGate Plus; Prism, an integrated 1 or 1.25 megawatt medium voltage solution; Solstice, a power harvesting and array management solution; Energy Equity Protection, which comprises Satcon design services, APEX project manag ement, preventative maintenance and warranty programs, and system uptime guarantees; and other legacy power products, including static transfer switches, static voltage regulators, frequency converters, and AC arc furnace line controllers from 5 kilowatts to 100 megawatts. It sells its products and services through direct sales personnel, as well as distributor arrangements. Satcon Technology Corporation was founded in 1985 and is headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts.

6 Machinery Stocks to Buy Now

Popular Posts: 6 Biotechnology Stocks to Buy Now7 “Triple A” Stocks to Buy5 Pharmaceutical Stocks to Buy Now Recent Posts: 5 Oil and Gas Stocks to Buy Now 6 Machinery Stocks to Buy Now 5 Electrical Equipment Stocks to Sell Now View All Posts

Six Machinery stocks are moving up in their overall rating this week, according to the Portfolio Grader database. Every one of these is graded an “A” (“strong buy”) or “B” overall (“buy”).

This week, Edwards Group Ltd. ADR (NASDAQ:) is making solid headway. The company’s rating improves to an A (“strong buy”) from last week’s B (“buy”) rating. Edwards Group is an industrial technology company that manufactures and sells vacuum products and abatement systems. In Portfolio Grader’s specific subcategories of Earnings Growth, Earnings Momentum, Earnings Surprise, Cash Flow, and Sales Growth, EVAC also gets A’s. .

Westinghouse Air Brake Technologies Corporation (NYSE:) earns an A this week, jumping up from last week’s grade of B. Westinghouse Air Brake Technologies is a provider of value-added, technology-based products and services for the global rail industry. .

Watts Water Technologies, Inc. Class A (NYSE:) is bumping up its rating from a C (“hold”) to a B (“buy”) this week. Watts Water Technologies designs, manufactures and sells a line of water safety and flow control products for the water quality, water conservation, water safety and water flow control markets. The stock price has risen 7.3% over the past month, better than the 1.7% decrease the S&P 500 has seen over the same period of time. .

This is a strong week for Energy Recovery, Inc. (NASDAQ:). The company’s rating climbs to A from the previous week’s B. Energy Recovery develops and manufactures energy recovery devices utilized in the water desalination industry. .

Tecumseh Products Company Class A’s (NASDAQ:) ratings are looking better this week, moving up to an A from last week’s B. Tecumseh Products is a full-line, independent, global manufacturer of hermetically sealed compressors for residential and commercial refrigerators, freezers, water coolers, dehumidifiers, window air conditioning units and residential and commercial central system air conditioners and heat pumps. .

This week, Alamo Group (NYSE:) pushes up from a C to a B rating. Alamo Group is a designer, manufacturer, distributor, and service provider for high-quality equipment for right-of-way maintenance and agriculture. .

Louis Navellier’s proprietary Portfolio Grader stock ranking system assesses roughly 5,000 companies every week based on a number of fundamental and quantitative measures. Stocks are given a letter grade based on their results — with A being “strong buy,” and F being “strong sell.” Explore the tool here.

Church & Dwight Co., Inc. (CHD), Inc: Deal Or No Deal?

Management commentary of Church & Dwight Co. Inc. (NYSE:CHD) clearly suggests another accretive deal is forthcoming, with debt capacity, rising cash balance, halted share repurchase in the fourth quarter and lower capex signaling management is poised to strike while conditions are favorable.

Church & Dwight is a leading manufacturer of sodium bicarbonate, used in consumer and specialty products sold under the ARM & HAMMER brand name. Product lines include household deodorizers and cleaners, laundry detergent, dryer sheets, oral care, deodorants and antiperspirants.

While organic growth trends for the laundry category and the company are clearly tepid and likely getting worse as other players position their brands ahead of P&G's well telegraphed mid-priced Tide launch, we continue to see a path to solid margin expansion and EPS acceleration going forward.

"As management clearly points out, the basic drivers of value creation are firmly in place and as we alluded to above, another accretive acquisition is likely in the short-term, which should again be a catalyst for a stock that has underperformed the market and peers this year," Deutsche Bank analyst Bill Schmitz wrote in a note to clients.

Even without a deal, there is compelling upside to expectations, driven by a benign commodity environment; relatively undemanding organic growth comparisons and sales and margin benefits from Avid gummy vitamin acquisition, which is now part of organic growth and should continue to boost gross margin as business are fully integrated.

Valuation is always the pushback on this one, but have a clear line of sight to further earnings potential upside from here, which means the optically high multiple on next year's estimates should come down as the company exceeds expectations.

Additionally, the pricing wheels are coming off the bus as growth-starved competitors like Henkel and Sun lower prices, forcing Church to follow to keep their fair share, even if it is negativel! y impacting category and company organic growth in the interim.

"In the near-term, it seems 4Q guidance is highly achievable with Avid joining the base this quarter, acquisition costs in the base period lapping and moderating commodity costs lifting gross margin," Schmitz said.

With likely upside in the quarter, the company should have decent momentum heading into 2014 with ample flexibility to respond to P&G mid-tier Tide launch and continue to believe this product if successful, will negatively impact Sun's Wisk and All brands more than Church's most lower prices (and going lower) Arm & Hammer and Xtra brands.

To be sure, there are clearly omnipresent challenges, including share losses and price competition in cat litter, generally weak consumption trends across the US Nielsen database and the aforementioned price wars in mid and value tier laundry.

"We believe these are reflected in valuation and management has promised a very active new product pipeline and potentially the accretion from another strategic bolt-on deal," Schmitz said.

With the addition of Avid, the company has added an OTC platform to build upon like it did historically in laundry (buying Xtra and OxiClean brands) and oral care (Mentadent, Close Up, Pepsodent, Spin Brush and Tooth Tunes) to add scale to its Arm & Hammer brands.

Looking closer at laundry, which is the overhang on the shares given forthcoming P&G launch activity and recent aggressive pricing, it doesn't seem like a sustainable strategy and one that likely irks the trade.

"The broader question in laundry remains what Sun/Huish plans to do strategically which clearly has implications for the company. Currently, the company's Wisk, All and Surf brands are entrenched in the mid price tier that is ceding share to premium brands at the high end and value brands like Arm & Hammer and Xtra on the low end," Schmitz said.

The risk over the medium term is what Sun decides to do to free itself from the shackles of! the mid-! tier and while it would create a profit squeeze that its balance sheet might have a tough time absorbing, the company may ultimately decide that the best positioning for its struggling brands is in the value tier, which would put incremental pressure on Church and Henkel.

Of course, retailers would have to decide that they need another brand in this tier that is already somewhat crowded and would likely drive category value growth lower, but it is certainly something to think about.

"Looking at the stock and despite the recent category challenges in laundry where management has promised to fight to the death and noting that we still believe P&G and Church are "frenemies" in the category competing for a different demographic, we still see upside potential in the name from here," Schmitz said.

Top 10 Value Companies To Watch For 2014

While another acquisition and accretion associated with it would be a welcome development, the standalone company and the growth tailwind from its vitamin business remains a compelling investment proposition.

While valuation doesn't look that compelling on first blush, there is potential upside to 2014 estimates and believe the multiple should hold and stock should track double-digit EPS growth in a moderating cost environment, with further return upside from dividend yield and potential acquisition accretion.

Likes and Tweets

To isolate the best of the best in the growth stock world, Mike Cintolo of Cabot Market Letter, assesses both fundamental and technical criteria; here, he looks at some leading players in social media.

Steve Halpern: We're here today with Mike Cintolo, chief analyst of Cabot Market Letter. How are you doing, Mike?

Mike Cintolo: I'm doing great. Thanks for having me, Steve.

Steve Halpern: You look for what you call best of the best growth stocks. In fact, a lot of the big wins on your buy list are young companies showing all rapid growth. What fundamental criteria do you focus on when you're looking for these types of stocks?

Mike Cintolo: Well, in terms of things you can measure, I mean, we love to see fast revenue growth. Earnings are great, too, obviously, and most of the big winners we've had do have earnings; but triple digit revenue growth has always been one of our best criteria.

But a lot of it, too, is more subjective, and that's really where it comes down to serving mass markets with some sort of new, and ideally revolutionary, new product—whether it's a medical device or just something where a company is dominantly, Google (GOOG) was, or obviously Apple (AAPL) is an easy example. Those are really the stocks that tend to do the best in the market, and for us.

Steve Halpern: In addition to the fundamentals, you put a good deal of attention into technical factors. Can you expand on that?

Mike Cintolo: Yeah, well, technical factors are important. We think, you know, a lot of people either focus on fundamentals or technicals. We really think you need to do both. We've been doing that for 30 years.

On the technical side, it's really, the footsteps of institutional investors. No matter what you or I think of a stock, you know, Fidelity, or T. Rowe Price, or whoever, or pension funds for that matter, don't like it and they're not going to be buying it, it's not going to help us at all.

We're really looking for the stocks to have both the fundamental criteria of past big winners, but also are showing major accumulation by those funds, and that's how we use charts. Not so much in patterns, but really more just supply/demand analysis and knowing how institutions go about their accumulation campaigns.

Steve Halpern: So, to help our listeners understand how to combine both the fundamental and the technical factors, perhaps we can walk through a specific recommendation. One of the stocks that you added to your buy list is Facebook (FB), which is now up over 30% since you first recommended it. Would you tell us a little about what went into that recommendation, so listeners could understand how you applied both of those criteria in selecting and then holding a stock.

Mike Cintolo: Sure. On the fundamental side, Facebook, obviously, the story tells itself. I mean, one of the biggest mass markets out there. More than a billion people use it regularly every month. The sales growth was great. The earnings, actually, were solid too; so the story was great.

Obviously the IPO came out. It was too high, the stock fell, and it fell on hard times for more than a year. We never stopped following it or stopped following the company; we kept track of the stock, and eventually, this summer, the company came out with a great earnings report, beat sales estimates and all that, and that's when you really saw a huge earnings gap.

An earnings gap is one of those technical criteria, a sudden change in perception for the better. The volume was huge. That wasn't me and you buying 200 or 300 shares. That was Fidelity trying to get hold of 4,000,000, 5,000,000, 6,000,000 shares.

In fact, I think the stock traded something like $30 billion or $40 billion the day it capped up on earnings in stock. That sort of move—with such a big liquid institutional company, with all the sales growth, with all the earnings growth, with all the future projections, with everyone already knowing the story. The institutions are familiar with it. That is really classic.

The way I sort of expressed it, actually, in one of our investors' conference earlier this was, if you're a passing football team and you have a one-on-one coverage, you have to throw the ball. You're going to throw it to your best receiver.

You have a great quarterback. It's sort of what you do. If you're growth stock investing and you see a company like a Facebook that has all the criteria of past big winners and then shows the blastoff, you kind of have to take that trade and obviously it has worked out so far. I'm quite bullish going forward on that company.

Steve Halpern: Let's look at Twitter, which is going to have an IPO this week. You note that the company is an emerging blue chip and it has the fundamental characteristics that you like, but you're not recommending jumping on the stock right after the IPO. Could you explain the reasons behind that?

Mike Cintolo: Yeah, we're students of the market. Coming out when it first come public, of course, some stocks come public and just go up and that sort of thing.

But usually the most typical ones—Facebook was the extreme example—but usually most typical ones will take some time to digest their sort of pre-opening games, if you will, in a pattern that's really just called an IPO base or whatever you want to call it.

A stock will come out, usually will gap up from its official listing price of, you know, 22 or will open at 30. It might go up a little further, but then it will take two, three, four weeks, sometimes longer; but a lot of the times the best ones will just pause for two or three or four weeks.

Google did this. A lot of others have one this and then they'll take off again. That's really what we'll be looking for.

The point is, though, you don't really know what the institutions are thinking until you let the stock trade for a little bit and just see, do they already own too much, do they want to sell it, they think it's too expensive, or conversely, they're thinking, hey this is a bull market and it's an emerging blue chip and we need to build the position.

That's what we'll be watching for. I am quite bullish on it, speaking of mass markets. It's huge. The potential there is huge. The revenue growth is triple digits, but we'd like to see how the stock trades before recommending it to subscribers.

Steve Halpern: Okay, we'll check back in with you after it has traded for a few weeks. We really appreciate you joining us today.

Mike Cintolo: Thanks, Steve.

Steve Halpern: Thanks.

Subscribe to Cabot Market Letter here...

The expert featured in this column, Michael Cintolo, may or may not own positions in any investment vehicle mentioned here. The views and opinions expressed are his or her own.

Outrage over Kmart's Thanksgiving decision

Kmart will open at 6 a.m. this Thanksgiving and stay open for 41 hours straight.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) Kmart had barely announced its decision to stay open for 41 hours straight, starting at 6 a.m. on Thanksgiving Day, when people started lashing out.

Hundreds of Kmart customers took to social media and threatened to boycott the store if it didn't reverse its decision, so that its employees can spend Thanksgiving with their families. People called the decision "heartless," "greedy," "shameful" and "disgusting."

Kmart has opened at 6 a.m. on Thanksgiving for the past three years. Last year, however, stores closed for a few hours at 4 p.m. to let shoppers and employees get to their Thanksgiving dinners.

"Shame on you, Kmart. I will never set foot in any of your stores again," wrote Tracy Lane on Kmart's Facebook (FB, Fortune 500) page. "I have family members that work in retail and because of greedy retailers like you, will not be able to spend the day with us."

Many customers expressed how upset they were for Kmart workers who would have to work through the holiday.

"Maybe Kmart should have shown they are thankful for their loyal employees and let them be with their families on Thanksgiving," Jenn Tayrien wrote. "I realize you are a corporation and your goal is to make money...but sometimes you need to show and prove that people are important, too."

One shopper said he hoped the retailer would go bankrupt because it has "proven [to be] morally bankrupt" by being open all day.

Kmart, which is owned by Sears (SHLD, Fortune 500), responded to a number of these negative comments, saying it will staff stores with volunteers and seasonal associates whenever possible.

"This gives associates the opportunity to make some some additional money this holiday season,! " the retailer wrote.

A Kmart spokeswoman said the company made the decision to extend the hours based on feedback from customers, who wanted more "flexible holiday in-store shopping times" and were eager to shop for deals.

Many stores are opening on Thanksgiving Day, but are waiting until the evening to throw open their doors to deal hunters. Toys R Us is by far the earliest among those, announcing Tuesday that it would open at 5 p.m., three hours earlier than last year. Macy's (M, Fortune 500), Kohl's (KSS, Fortune 500), J.C. Penney (JCP, Fortune 500) and Sears will let customers in at 8 p.m.

5 Best Biotech Stocks To Buy For 2014

Harry Boxer, author of The Technical Trader, provides some of his favorite picks in the biotech and solar sector and fills you in on why he's so excited about them.

SPEAKER 1:  I’m talking trends with Harry Boxer.  Hi, Harry, and thanks for being here.

HARRY:  My pleasure.

SPEAKER 1:  So what do you see these days?  We talked a little bit about 3-D printing.  I mean that’s amazing today.

HARRY:  It is.  More than 10 years, I visited 3-D systems and saw a demo, and it was like whoa.  They weren’t even public then.  Of late, SSYS (Stratasys), Proto Labs (PRLB), EX1; those are the four big ones in the industry.  There is a little buy-out tech company called Orvganovo (ONVO) that is now bio-printing organs for testing.

SPEAKER 1:  That’s amazing.

HARRY:  That could be something, I think that down the road could be quite interesting.  That stock when I first bought it, it recommended to my scrubbers it went from 4.25 to 8.5.  It doubled in two weeks.

5 Best Biotech Stocks To Buy For 2014: ViroPharma Incorporated(VPHM)

ViroPharma Incorporated, a biotechnology company, develops and commercializes therapeutic products that address serious diseases in the United States and internationally. It focuses on developing products used by physician specialists or in hospital settings. The company markets and sells Cinryze, a C1 esterase inhibitor therapy for the routine prophylaxis against angioedema attacks in adolescent and adult patients with hereditary angioedema, a life-threatening genetic disorder; and Vancocin HCl capsule, an oral capsule formulation for the treatment of C. difficile-associated diarrhea (CDAD) and to treat enterocolitis caused by staphylococcus aureus, including methicillin-resistant strains. It also offers Plenadren, an orphan drug for treatment of adrenal insufficiency in adults; Buccolam, a oromucosal solution for treatment of prolonged, acute, and convulsive seizures in infants, toddlers, children, and adolescents; and maribavir, an antiviral compound for the treatment o f CMV disease through a license agreement with GlaxoSmithKline. The company?s primary development programs include Cinryze, a C1 esterase inhibitor for management of hereditary angioedema; and VP 20621, a non-toxigenic strain of C. difficile. Its clinical stage drug candidate comprises VP-20629 for the treatment of Friedreich?s Ataxia. The company sells its products directly to wholesale drug distributors and specialty pharmacies/distributors. ViroPharma Incorporated was founded in 1994 and is headquartered in Exton, Pennsylvania.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Max Macaluso and David Williamson]

  At the end of last week, a Bloomberg article revealed that Shire (NASDAQ: SHPG  ) and pharmaceutical giant Sanofi� (NYSE: SNY  ) may be circling ViroPharma� (NASDAQ: VPHM  ) . The the following video, from The Motley Fool's health care show Market Checkup, analysts David Williamson and Max Macaluso take a close look at ViroPharma and discuss the recent interest in this small biotech company.

5 Best Biotech Stocks To Buy For 2014: Neoprobe Corporation(NEOP)

Neoprobe Corporation, a biomedical company, engages in the development and commercialization of precision diagnostics that enhance patient care and improve patient benefit. The company is developing and commercializing targeted agents aimed at the identification of occult (undetected) disease. Neoprobe?s two lead radiopharmaceutical agent platforms, Lymphoseek and RIGScan are intended to help surgeons better identify and treat certain types of cancer. Lymphoseek is a diagnostic imaging agent intended for radiolabeling and administration in radiodetection and visualization of the lymphatic system draining the region of injection for delineation of the lymphatic tissue; and RIGScan is an intraoperative biologic targeting agent consisting of a radiolabeled murine monoclonal antibody. The company has a biopharmaceutical development and supply agreement with Laureate Biopharmaceutical Services, Inc. to support the initial evaluation of the viability of the CC49 master working c ell bank, as well as the initial steps in re-validating the commercial production process for the biologic agent used in RIGScan CR. The company was founded in 1983 and is based in Dublin, Ohio.

Top 5 Dividend Companies To Own For 2014: Oncolytics Biotech Inc (ONCY)

Oncolytics Biotech Inc. (Oncolytics), incorporated on April 2, 1998, is a development-stage company. The Company is focused on its research and development of REOLYSIN, which is its cancer therapeutic. REOLYSIN is developed from the reovirus. This virus has been demonstrated in tumour cells bearing an activated Ras pathway. Oncolytics is directing a clinical trial program with the focus of developing REOLYSIN as a human cancer therapeutic. The clinical program includes clinical trials, which it sponsors directly along with Third Party Clinical Trials. Third Party Clinical Trials are clinical trials that are being sponsored by other institutions. As of December 31, 2011, the United States National Cancer Institute (NCI), the University of Leeds and the Cancer Therapy & Research Center at the University of Texas Health Center in San Antonio (CTRC) were sponsoring part of its clinical trial program.

The Company�� clinical trial program has included human trials using REOLYSIN alone, and in combination with radiation and chemotherapy, and delivered via local administration and/or intravenous administration. Oncolytics uses contract toll manufacturers to produce REOLYSIN. On December 31, 2011, the Company had two wholly owned subsidiaries, Oncolytics Biotech (Barbados) Inc. (OBB) and Valens Pharma Ltd. Oncolytics Biotech (US) Inc. and Oncolytics Biotech (U.K.) are wholly owned subsidiaries of OBB.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Sean Williams]

  With this in mind, I feel it'd be prudent of biotech-savvy investors to give Oncolytics Biotech (NASDAQ: ONCY  ) a closer look.

  The big risks
  I'm quite aware that there are a lot factors that'd raise a red flag with Oncolytics. Similar to Affymax, you could say that Oncolytics has put all of its eggs in one basket with its lead experimental drug, reolysin. According to Oncolytics' website, including its U.K., Canadian, and U.S. studies, reolysin as either a monotherapy or combination therapy is the basis for all 31 clinical trials! Obviously, if reolysin proves ineffective or unsafe, Oncolytics is going to be a world of hurt.

• [By Maxx Chatsko]

  T-VEC is not your traditional biologic drug. It is actually a bioengineered form of the herpes virus that, once injected into cancerous tumors, replicates, and produces an immune-stimulating protein that puts a bulls eye on cancer cells throughout the body. Despite its promise and intriguing mechanism of action, T-VEC is not in further development at Amgen. However, Oncolytics (NASDAQ: ONCY  ) has shown promising results for its bioengineered form of reovirus called Reolysin. Initial phase 3 results showed that 86% of patients taking the drug had reduced tumor mass or growth after six weeks of treatment. �

5 Best Biotech Stocks To Buy For 2014: Cannabis Science Inc (CBIS)

Cannabis Science, Inc., incorporated on May 4, 2007, is a development-stage company. The Company is engaged in the creation of cannabis-based medicines, both with and without psychoactive properties, to treats disease and the symptoms of disease, as well as for general health maintenance. On February 9, 2012, the Company acquired GGECO University, Inc. (GGECO). On March 21, 2012, the Company acquired Cannabis Consulting Inc. (CCI Group).

The Company is engaged in medical marijuana research and development. The Company works with world authorities on phytocannabinoid science targeting critical illnesses, and adheres to scientific methodologies to develop, produce, and commercialize phytocannabinoid-based pharmaceutical products.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By John Udovich]

  Although its summer, there has been a steady stream of good news about medical marijuana even though important small cap marijuana stocks�Medical Marijuana Inc (OTCMKTS: MJNA) and Cannabis Science Inc (OTCMKTS: CBIS) have been fairly quietly lately while Growlife Inc (OTCBB: PHOT), a more indirect play on the spread of legalized marijuana, has produced�some news for investors:

• [By Bryan Murphy]

  The difference between Growlife's leadership and, say that of competitors like Cannabis Science Inc. (OTCMKTS: CBIS) or Medical Marijuana Inc. (OTCMKTS: MJNA), has been relatively well documented here at the SmallCap Network site. I think the way I - well, someone else - put it back on June 25th says it best...."Growlife is sort of the demure girl in the corner who doesn't do shots off her navel in the bar." It may not have sizzle, but it does have substance.

5 Best Biotech Stocks To Buy For 2014: Telik Inc (TELK)

Telik, Inc. (Telik), incorporated in 1988, is a clinical-stage drug development company focused on discovering and developing small molecule drugs to treat cancer. The Company discovers its product candidates using the Company�� drug discovery technology, Target-Related Affinity Profiling (TRAP). TELINTRA, its principal drug product candidate in clinical development, is a small molecule glutathione analog inhibitor of the enzyme glutathione S-transferase P1-1 (GST P1-1). TELCYTA, its other product candidate, is a small molecule cancer drug product candidate designed to be activated in cancer cells.

Clinical Product Development

TELINTRA is the Company�� lead small molecule product candidate in clinical development for the treatment of blood disorders, including cancer. It has a mechanism of action and acts by inhibiting GST P1-1, an enzyme that is involved in the control of cellular growth and differentiation. Inhibition of GST P1-1 results in the activation of the signaling molecule Jun kinase, a regulator of the function of blood precursor cells. Preclinical tests show that TELINTRA is capable of causing the death or apoptosis of leukemic or malignant blood cells, while stimulating the growth and development of normal blood precursor cells. TELINTRA has been studied in Myelodysplastic Syndrome (MDS) using two formulations. A liposomal formulation was developed for intravenous administration of TELINTRA and was used in Phase I and Phase II studies in MDS patients. The results from the Phase II intravenous liposomal TELINTRA clinical trials demonstrated that TELINTRA treatment was associated with improvement in all three types of blood cell levels in patients with all types of MDS, including those in intermediate and high-risk groups. An oral dosage formulation (tablet) was subsequently developed and results from a Phase I study with TELINTRA tablets showed clinical activity and the formulation to be well tolerated. In June 2011, the Company initiated a Phase II clinical ! trial to evaluate TELINTRA tablets. In October 2011, the Company initiated an additional Phase IIb clinical trial to evaluate TELINTRA tablets. '

The activity and safety profile of tablet formulation allowed the Company to complete a Phase II trial of TELINTRA tablets in MDS. The primary objective of the Phase II TELINTRA tablet study was to determine the efficacy of TELINTRA. A multivariate logistic regression analysis was conducted to identify MDS disease prognostic factors associated with erythroid improvement response rates, including prior MDS treatment, age, gender, the international prognostic scoring system (IPSS), risk, Eastern Cooperative Group performance status, years from MDS diagnosis, MDS World Health Organization subtypes, anemia only versus anemia plus other cytopenias, dose schedule and starting dose. Results from this study show that TELINTRA is the first GSTP1-1 enzyme inhibitor shown to cause clinically reductions in red blood cell transfusions, including transfusion independence in low to intermediate-1 risk MDS patients, as well as improvement in platelet count and white blood cell levels in certain patients. TELINTRA, administered orally twice daily, appeared to be convenient and flexible for chronic treatment administration.

TELCYTA is a small molecule drug product candidate that the Company is developed for the treatment of cancer. TELCYTA binds to GST. TELCYTA has been evaluated in multiple Phase II and Phase III clinical trials, including trials using TELCYTA as monotherapy and in combination regimens in ovarian, non-small cell lung, breast and colorectal cancer. Results from these clinical trials indicate that TELCYTA monotherapy was generally well-tolerated, with mostly mild to moderate side effects, particularly when compared to the side effects and toxicities of standard chemotherapeutic drugs. When TELCYTA was evaluated in combination with standard chemotherapeutic drugs, the tolerability of the combinations was similar to that expected of each! drug alo! ne.

Clinical activity including objective tumor responses and/or disease stabilization was reported in the TELCYTA Phase II trials; however, TELCYTA did not meet its primary endpoints in the Phase III studies. Positive results from a Phase I-IIa multicenter, dose-ranging study of TELCYTA in combination with carboplatin and paclitaxel as first-line therapy for patients with non-small cell lung cancer, or NSCLC, were published in a peer reviewed publication. Clinical data demonstrated positive results of TELCYTA in combination with carboplatin and paclitaxel in the treatment of first-line lung cancer followed by TELCYTA maintenance therapy. As of December 31, 2011, the Company had an on-going investigator-led study at a single site of TELCYTA in patients with refractory or relapsed mantle cell lymphoma, diffuse B cell lymphoma, and multiple myeloma.

Preclinical Drug Product Development

The Company has a small molecule compound, TLK60404, in preclinical development that inhibits both Aurora kinase and VEGFR kinase. Aurora kinase is a signaling enzyme whose function is required for cancer cell division, while VEGF plays a key role in tumor blood vessel formation, ensuring an adequate supply of nutrients to support tumor growth. These lead compounds prevented tumor growth in preclinical models of human colon cancer and human leukemia by inhibiting both Aurora kinase and VEGFR kinase. A development drug product candidate, TLK60404, has been selected.

The Company, using its TRAP technology has discovered TLK60357, a novel, potent small molecule inhibitor of cell division. TLK60357 inhibits the formation of microtubules that are necessary for cancer cell growth leading to persistent G2/M cancer cell cycle block and subsequent cell death. This compound demonstrates potent broad-spectrum anticancer activity against a number of human cancer cells. This compound also displays oral efficacy in multiple, standard preclinical models of cancer. TLK60596, a potent VG! FR kinase! inhibitor, blocks the formation of new blood vessels in tumors. Oral administration of TLK60596 to animal models of human colon cancer reduced tumor growth.