Top 10 Machinery Companies To Buy For 2015

Top 10 Machinery Companies To Buy For 2015: Emak SpA (EM)

Emak SpA is an Italy-based company primarily engaged in the manufacture of outdoor power equipment for gardening, forestry, agriculture and industry. The Company's portfolio includes chainsaws, brush cutters, lawnmowers, garden tractors, water pumps, high pressure washers, transporters, rotary cultivators, motor hoes and power cutters, among others. It also manufactures spare parts, accessories and protective clothing. The Company sells its products under various brand names, such as Oleo-Mac, Efco, Bertolini, Nibbi and Staub. Emak SpA directly manages distribution in the Italian market and it sells products, through its commercial subsidiaries, in France, Germany, the United Kingdom, Spain, the countries of Benelux, Poland, Ukraine, among others.The Company is controlled by Yama SpA, which is an industrial holding company. Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Canadian Value]

  For 20+ years there has been a coherent growth story around Emerging Markets (EM), where the label "Emerging Market" had real meaning within a common knowledge perspective. Today … not so much. Today the story is that it was easy money from the Fed that drove global growth, EM or otherwise. Today the story is that Emerging Markets are just the levered beneficiaries or victims of Fed monetary policy, no different than anyone else….

• [By Holly LaFon]

  As true value investors, Brandes oft en moves against the crowd amid markets' constantly changing performance cycles. Take the recent equity market weakness in a number of emerging market (EM) countries for example. Over the last year, while macroeconomic and geopolitical concerns cast a cloud of uncertainty over the asset class in general, we started to see some interesting investment opportunities at the company level as a result of such market weakness.

• [By Federico Zal! dua]

  Brookfield Infrastructure has a number of potentially profitable areas for investment around the world but, above all, in infrastructure hungry Emerging Markets (EM) such as Brazil. According to Credit Suisse analysts, in Brazil, funds can be invested at Funds From Operations (FFO) yields above 12%. Therefore, the company's ability to grow its distribution yield, whether through acquisitions or organically, is critical to evaluate the company's value. Moreover, the currently conservative dividend payout ratio should allow Brookfield Infrastructure to self-finance on going opportunities.

source from Top Stocks For 2015:http://www.topstocksblog.com/top-10-machinery-companies-to-buy-for-2015.html

Top 10 Semiconductor Stocks To Watch Right Now

Top 10 Semiconductor Stocks To Watch Right Now: Analog Devices Inc (ADI)

Analog Devices, Inc. (Analog Devices), incorporated on January 18, 1965, is engaged in the design, manufacture and marketing of a range of analog, mixed-signal and digital signal processing integrated circuits (ICs). The Company produces a range of products, including data converters, amplifiers and linear products, radio frequency (RF) ICs, power management products, sensors based on micro-electro mechanical systems (MEMS) technology and other sensors, and processing products, including DSP and other processors, which are designed to meet the needs of a base of customers. The Company's products are embedded inside many different types of electronic equipment, including industrial process control systems; instrumentation and measurement systems; wireless infrastructure equipment, and aerospace and defense electronics. The Company designs , manufactures and markets a range of ICs, which incorporate analog, mixed-signal and digital signal processing technologies. The Company 's product portfolio includes both general-purpose products used by a range of customers and applications, as well as application-specific products. On March 30, 2012, the Company acquired Multigig, Inc.

Analog Products

The Company's product portfolio includes several thousand analog ICs. The Company's analog IC customers include original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and customers who build electronic subsystems for integration into larger systems. The Company is a supplier of data converter products. Data converters translate real-world analog signals into digital data and also translate digital data into analog signals. The Company is also a supplier of amplifiers. Amplifiers are used to condition analog signals. The Company provides precision, instrumentation, intermediate frequency/radio frequency (RF), broadband, and other ! amplifiers. The Company also offers a range of precision voltage references, which are used in a range of applications. The Company's analog product line also includes a range port! folio of RF ICs covering the RF signal chain, from RF function blocks, such as phase locked loops, frequency synthesizers, mixers, modulators, demodulators, and power detectors, to broadband and short-range single chip transceiver solutions.

The Company's RF ICs support the requirements of cellular infrastructure and a range of applications in the Company's target markets. Also within the Company's analog technology portfolio are products, which are based on MEMS technology. This technology enables the Company to build small sensors, which incorporate an electromechanical structure and the supporting analog circuitry for conditioning signals obtained from the sensing element. The Company's MEMS product portfolio includes accelerometers used to sense acceleration, gyroscopes used to sense rotation, inertial measurement units used to sense multiple degrees of freedom combining multiple sensing types along multiple axis, and MEMS microphones used to sense audio. T he Company's current revenue from MEMS products is derived from the automotive end market. In addition to the Company's MEMS products, its other analog product category includes isolators. The Company's isolators have been designed for applications, such as universal serial bus isolation in patient monitors, where it allows hospitals and physicians to adopt the advances in computer technology to supervise patient health and wirelessly transmit medical records. In smart metering applications, the Company's isolators provide electrostatic discharge performance. In satellites, where any malfunction can be catastrophic, the Company's isolators help protect the power system while enabling designers to achieve small form factors. Power management & reference products make up the balance of the Company's analog sales. Those products, which include functions! such as ! power conversion, driver monitoring, sequencing and energy management, are developed to complement analog signal chain components across core market segments from micro power, en! ergy-sens! itive battery applications to power systems in infrastructure and industrial applications.

Digital Signal Processing Products

Digital Signal Processing products (DSPs) complete the Company's product portfolio. DSPs are optimized for numeric calculations, which are essential for instantaneous, or real-time, processing of digital data generated, from analog to digital signal conversion. The Company's DSPs are designed to be fully programmable and to execute specialized software programs, or algorithms, associated with processing digitized real-time, real-world data. Programmable DSPs are designed to provide the flexibility to modify the device's function using software. The Company's DSP IC customers write their own algorithms using software development tools provided by the Company and third-party suppliers. The Company's DSPs are designed in families of products, which share common architectures and therefore can execute the same software across a r ange of products. The Company's customers use the Company's products to solve a range of signal processing challenges across its core market and segment focus areas within the industrial, automotive, consumer and communications end markets. As an integrated part of the Company's customers' signal chain, there are other Analog Devices products connected to its processors, including converters, audio and video codecs and power management solutions.

The Company competes with Broadcom Corporation, Maxim Integrated Products, Inc., Cirrus Logic, Inc., Microchip Technology, Inc., Freescale Semiconductor, Inc., NXP Semiconductors, Infineon Technologies, ST Microelectronics, Intersil Corporation, Silicon Laboratories, Inc., Knowles Electronics, Texas Instruments, Inc. and Linear Technology Corporation.

Advisors' Opinion:

!
• [! By Ben Levisohn]

  The market doesn’t necessarily want to go higher–it just can’t seem to help itself. Walt Disney (DIS), Analog Devices (ADI) and Idenix Pharmaceuticals (IDIX) gained.

• [By Maria Armental and Tess Stynes var popups = dojo.query(".socialByline .popC"); ]

  Analog Devices Inc.'s(ADI) fiscal second-quarter profit rose 14% as the chip maker reported higher revenue and stronger margins bolstered by secular and seasonal strength in the industrial, communications infrastructure, and automotive markets. Shares rose 1.3% to $52.65 premarket.

• [By Tyler Laundon]

  Analog Devices (ADI) is one of the largest semiconductor companies in the motion-sensing space, with a market cap of $15.87 billion. STM Electronics (STM) is a slightly smaller manufacturer; its market cap is $7.6 billion.

• [By Lauren Pollock]

  Analog Devices Inc.'s(ADI) fiscal fourth-quarter earnings rose 13% as stronger margins and asset-sale gains and other items offset the chip maker’s lower revenue.

source from Top Stocks For 2015:http://www.topstocksblog.com/top-10-semiconductor-stocks-to-watch-right-now.html

N.Y. Attorney General Accuses Barclays of 'Dark Pool' Fraud

Simon Dawson/Bloomberg via Getty Images Barclays CEO Antony Jenkins NEW YORK-- The New York state attorney general has filed a securities fraud lawsuit against Barclays , accusing the British bank of giving an unfair edge in the United States to high-frequency trading clients even as it claimed to be protecting other customers from such traders. The lawsuit, which relates to Barclays' LX Liquidity Cross "dark pool" alternative trading system, alleges that the bank promised to get the best possible prices for customers looking to buy or sell shares but instead took steps that maximized the bank's profits and executed nearly all of its customers' stock orders on LX instead of on exchanges or other venues that might have offered better prices. The New York Attorney General's action is the highest profile case yet to emerge in the U.S. authorities' efforts to ensure that dealers aren't ripping off investors in increasingly automated stock markets. These probes have been progressing for up to a year, but took on additional urgency in recent months, after best-selling author Michael Lewis released the book "Flash Boys: A Wall Street Revolt," which contends that markets were rigged. Dark pools were originally created to allow investors to execute big trades without tipping off the market. But ever-larger volumes of trades have been shunted into dark pools and their critics say the opacity of the markets may be resulting in more and more investors getting ripped off. Barclays' London-listed shares were down 4.5 percent at 219.65 pence by 0753 GMT (3:53 a.m. Eastern time) on Thursday, their lowest level since November 2012 and extending their fall this year to 20 percent. The lawsuit delivers another blow to Chief Executive Officer Antony Jenkins' efforts to restore the bank's reputation after a series of scandals. He has said its culture, which has been criticized as high-risk, high-reward, had to change and that systems and controls are improving, but the emergence of past sins are hampering his efforts. New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman said Barclays told customers who chose to trade in its dark pool that they would be protected from "predatory traders," which use their speed advantage to deprive other investors of small profits on every trade. But in fact customers weren't protected at all, and the bank in fact courted predatory high-frequency traders in part by charging them virtually nothing, Schneiderman alleged. "Barclays grew its dark pool by telling investors they were diving into safe waters," Schneiderman said. "Barclays' dark pool was full of predators -- there at Barclays' invitation." "We take these allegations very seriously," Barclays said in an emailed statement. It added that it was cooperating with the authorities, looking at the matter internally, and that the integrity of markets was a top priority for the bank. Schneiderman is looking at dark pools, which are typically owned by brokers, including all of the big banks, and where participants are anonymous and trading information is hidden until after the trades are completed. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has also taken an increased interest in issues surrounding dark pools and high-frequency trading. SEC Chair Mary Jo White earlier this month said her agency was developing a series of rules that would seek to make markets more transparent and fair for all investors, and the agency has also stepped up enforcement actions against dark pool operators. Banks have admitted to bad behavior in other markets, after probes showed collusion in currency trading and short-term interest rate products, among other areas. No Air Bag, No Brakes Jenkins took over as Barclays chief executive in August 2012, replacing Bob Diamond who was ousted after the bank was fined for the alleged manipulation of Libor benchmark interest rates. Jenkins is trying to improve profitability by cutting costs, including the axing of around a quarter of investment bank jobs, while pushing for the change in culture. But the bank continues to be dogged by issues around past conduct, however, and last month it was fined 26 million pounds ($43.8 million) for past failures in internal controls that allowed a trader to manipulate the setting of gold prices. The New York Attorney General's complaint against Barclays, which is based on internal communications provided by former employees, says while the firm told its clients it would keep high-frequency traders that engage in "predatory" trading practices out of its dark pool it never actually prevented any trader from participating. For example the complaint alleged that Barclays falsified marketing material it said showed the extent and type of high-frequency traders in its dark pool by not including high-frequency trading firm Tradebot Systems. Barclays had already identified Tradebot, which at the time was the largest participant in the dark pool, as having been engaged in aggressive trading behavior. A spokeswoman for Tradebot, of Kansas City, Missouri, said the firm had no comment. Barclays wooed high-frequency traders by disclosing detailed, sensitive information about other customers to the firms to help ensure their aggressive trading strategies were effective, and by charging them almost nothing, the complaint said. HFT accounts for around half of all U.S. trading volume. The complaint didn't specify the amount of damages being sought from Barclays. Barclays also told its clients it doesn't favor its own dark pool when routing client orders to trading venues, when in reality it was doing just that, the complaint said. One former Barclays employee told the Attorney General's office that based on the high amount of client orders Barclays was sending to its own dark pool, better trading opportunities may have been missed elsewhere. There was a lot going on in the dark pool that was not in the best interests of Barclays clients, one former director said, according to the complaint. "The practice of almost ensuring that every counterparty would be a high-frequency firm, it seems to me that that wouldn't be in the best interest of their clients ... It's almost like they are building a car and saying it has an air bag and there is no air bag or brakes." The SEC is considering forcing dark pools and firms that match customers' orders internally to tell regulators and the public how they operate. In early June, the SEC filed a civil lawsuit against dark pool operator Liquidnet for allegedly improperly using its subscribers' confidential trading information to market its services. The SEC declined to comment on the lawsuit. -.

Best Bank Companies To Invest In 2015

Swiss bank UBS blames a rogue trader at its London office for a $2.3 billion loss that is Britain's biggest-ever fraud at a bank. Kweku Adoboli, the 32 year old trader, is sentenced to seven years in prison. Britain's financial regulator fines UBS after finding its internal controls were inadequate and allowed Adoboli, a relatively inexperienced trader, to make vast and risky bets.

Best Safest Stocks For 2014

The New York Times called it a "moment of reckoning." Widely followed commodities trader Dennis Gartman in a note to his clients wrote that he's "never...ever...EVER" seen anything quite like it.

The references, of course, are to March 15's collapse in the price of gold, the largest single-day percentage drop in 30 years, capping a two-day decline of 13%.

The selling was triggered in part by worries that Cyprus and possibly other European nations might have to dump their gold holdings to raise funds or satisfy bailout requirements. Also, after acting as a commodities tailwind for much of the past two years, the Fed's quantitative easing program looks to be winding down, which would relax inflationary pressure.

Suddenly, the "safest" investment no longer seemed so safe. In fact, there's a good chance that gold's 12-year streak of uninterrupted gains will come to an end this year.

Best Communications Equipment Companies For 2015: MCG Capital Corporation(MCGC)

MCG Capital Corporation is a private equity firm specializing in investments in middle market companies. The firm does not prefer investments in highly cyclical and volatile industry sectors and businesses with significant volatility exposure. It seeks to invest in small to mid sized companies. The firm prefers to invest in acquisitions, growth financings, organic growth, recapitalization, and leveraged buyouts. It invests in companies based in the United States. The firm seeks to invest upto $75 million in debt and equity in companies having revenues between $20 million and $200 million and EBITDA between $3 million and $25 million. It seeks to invest in the form of senior debt, including amortizing, bullet maturity, term loans, and revolving credit facilities; institutional sub debt, including junior capital; second lien debt, that includes term loans on sole source and participant basis; secured and unsecured subordinate loans structured as current interest, deferred in terest, and equity linked components; mezzanine debt and equity that includes minority equity investments. The firm may invest in minority or control equity positions. It was formerly known as MCG Credit Corporation. MCG Capital Corporation was founded in 1990 and is based in Arlington, Virginia.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Equities Lab]

  The stocks that currently pass the stock screen in order of market cap are Frontier Communications Corp , Crown Media Holdings (CRWN), Vonage Holding (VG), MCG Capital Corp (MCGC), 1-800-FLOWERS.COM (FLWS), MTR Gaming Corporation (MNTG), Alaska Communications (ALSK), and Enzon Pharmaceuticals (ENZN).

Best Safest Stocks For 2014: Apollo Investment Corporation(AINV)

Apollo Investment Corporation is business development company and operates as a closed-end management investment company. The company invests in middle market companies. It provides direct equity capital, mezzanine and senior secured loans, and subordinated debt and loans. It also seeks to invest in PIPES transactions. The company may also invest in public companies that are thinly traded and may acquire investments in the secondary market. It prefers to invest in warrants, makes equity co-investments, and may also invest in cash equivalents, U.S. government securities, high-quality debt investments that mature in one year or less, high-yield bonds, distressed debt, non-U.S. investments, or securities of public companies that are not thinly traded. The company typically invests in building materials, business services, cable television, chemicals, consumer products, direct marketing, distribution, energy and utilities, financial services, healthcare, manufacturing, media, publishing, retail and transportation. It primarily invests between $20 million and $250 million in its portfolio companies. The company seeks to make investments with stated maturities of five to ten years.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Tim Melvin]

  Here are a couple private equity-powered dividend stocks on my radar right now:

  Apollo Investment (AINV)

  Apollo Global Management (APO) is one of the world�� largest asset management and private equity firms with more than $100 billion under management. Its largest publicly offered vehicle is Apollo Investment (AINV), a business development company that invests in and ends to middle-market companies and pays out 90% of its net income to shareholders.

• [By MONEYMORNING]

  He's much better off in "total return" holdings, like Apollo Investment Corp. (Nasdaq: AINV) which we covered right here, and Kinder Morgan Energy Partners LP (NYSE: KMP), another long-term winner.

• [By James Brumley]

  The seller will let up as soon as the news is a fading memory, which should be soon.

  Apollo Investment Corp. (AINV)

  AINV Dividend Yield: 9.7%

• [By Rich Bieglmeier]

  Expensive or not, dividend investors might be interested in this week's highlighted insider buying candidate: Apollo Investment Corporation (AINV).

Best Safest Stocks For 2014: SEACOR Holdings Inc (CKH)

SEACOR Holdings Inc, incorporated on November 7, 1989, is a global provider of equipment and services primarily supporting the offshore oil and gas and marine transportation industries. The Company offers customers a diversified suite of services, including offshore marine, aviation, inland river, marine transportation, crisis and emergency management preparedness and response solutions, commodity trading and logistics and offshore and harbor towing. On March 19, 2012, J.F. Lehman & Company acquired National Response Corporation and its affiliated businesses NRC Environmental Services, SEACOR Response, and SEACOR Environmental Products (collectively NRC) from the Company. In January 2013, the Company sold its energy trading division, SEACOR Energy Inc. to Par Petroleum Corporation. On January 31, 2013, it completed the spin off its Era Group Inc unit (Era).

Offshore Marine Services

The Company�� Marine operates a diversified fleet of vessels, servicing the offshore oil and gas exploration, development, and production industry worldwide.The Company�� marine provides its customers with the assembly of offshore vessel services in the global offshore oil and gas industry, including transport of personnel, platform supply, offshore accommodation, intervention, maintenance and repair support, standby safety services, anchor handling and mooring services, wind farm support, lift boat services, offshore construction support, well enhancement support, and lightering services.

Aviation Services

The Company�� aviation services subsidiary, Era Group (Era), is the helicopter operators globally. ra supports the oil and gas industry in the United States Gulf of Mexico, Alaska, and internationally. Era provides air medical services, firefighting support, flightseeing tours in Alaska, and Search and Rescue and Emergency Medical Services. Era's affiliate, Era Training Center, offers flight training services. Era also markets and distributes specialty helicopter! equipment and accessories.

Inland River Services

The Company�� Inland River Services group owns and operates modern river transportation equipment; owns covered and open hopper barges, 10,000 and 30,000 barrel tank barges, deck barges, inland river towboats and smaller harbor boats; and provides ancillary services along the United States Inland River Waterways and the Parana-Paraguay and the Magdalena River Systems in South America. SCF Marine operates a fleet of hopper barges along the United States Inland River Waterways and South America, transporting agricultural, industrial, and project cargoes. The liquid division, Supercritical Fluid (SCF) Liquids, is a integrated towboat and tank barge company, specializing in the transportation of chemical, clean, and dirty products. Gateway Terminals is among the newest ethanol and petroleum storage terminals on the Mississippi River, with a capacity of 400,000 barrels and the ability to receive and transfer products by barge, unit train, and truck.

Marine Transportation Services

The Company�� ocean shipping and harbor towing subsidiary, SEACOR Ocean Transport, is an owner and operator of equipment engaged in oil transportation, bunkering, harbor towing, Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) terminal support, short sea shipping and logistics, and third-party ship management services. Through all aspects of its operations, SEACOR Ocean Transport focuses to provide its customers with marine transportation solutions.

Commodity Trading and Logistics

The Company�� Commodity Trading and Logistics group specializes in the purchase, storage, transportation, and sale of agricultural and energy commodities, which include renewable fuels, blendstocks, sugar, rice, and salt. The Agricultural group is primarily focused on the global sourcing and logistics of sugar, rice, salt, and other dry bulk products. The Energy group is primarily focused on the domestic trading and transportation of physical e! thanol an! d clean blendstocks.

Harbor and Offshore Towing Services

The Company�� ocean shipping and harbor towing subsidiary, SEACOR Ocean Transport, is an operator of equipment engaged in oil transportation, bunkering, harbor towing, LNG terminal support, short sea shipping and logistics, and third-party ship management services. The harbor towing services group, Seabulk Towing, is a tugboat operator with operations along the Gulf Coast and Southeastern seaboard port system from Cape Canaveral, Florida, to Port Arthur, Texas. Seabulk Island Transport owns and operates four ocean tugs and five ocean liquid tank barges.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Seth Jayson]

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

Best Safest Stocks For 2014: Cytori Therapeutics Inc(CYTX)

Cytori Therapeutics, Inc. engages in the development, manufacture, and sale of medical products and devices to enable the practice of regenerative medicine. Regenerative medicines focus on repairing or restoring lost or damaged tissue and cell function. Its principal products include the Celution family of products, which processes patients' adipose-derived stem and regenerative cells (ADRCs) at the point of care. The Celution family of products consists of a central device, a related single-use consumable used for each patient procedure, proprietary enzyme reagents, and related instrumentation. Its core product, the Celution System, provides physicians with clinical grade stem and regenerative cells for use in the cosmetic and reconstructive surgery market. The company also provides PureGraft, a consumable product that provides grafts for use in aesthetic body contouring procedures. In addition, it sells the StemSource family of products worldwide, including in the United States, for research, as well as for the cryopreservation and storage of ADRCs. It offers the StemSource System as a standalone product, or as a part of a comprehensive suite of systems, equipment, and protocols collectively referred to as a StemSource Cell Bank. Further, the company develops Celution System, which has completed two clinical trials for applications in cardiovascular disease, wound healing, gastrointestinal disorders, stress urinary incontinence, liver and renal disease, spinal disc degeneration, and pelvic health conditions. It has strategic development and manufacturing joint venture agreement, and other related agreements with Olympus Corporation. The company was formerly known as MacroPore Biosurgery, Inc. Cytori Therapeutics, Inc. was founded in 1996 and is headquartered in San Diego, California.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By James E. Brumley]

  If you're reading this, then odds are you already know that Cytori Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ:CYTX) is up a whopping 8% today. In some ways that's encouraging, as it proves there's a lot of trade-worthy momentum to be tapped. In other ways, however, it's bad, because CYTX is overbought and ripe for a pullback. No matter how you're seeing Cytori Therapeutics in the short run, though, when you take a step back and look at the longer-term picture, there's a lot to like.

Best Safest Stocks For 2014: China Unicom (CHU)

China Unicom (Hong Kong) Limited (Unicom), incorporated on February 8, 2000, is an integrated telecommunications operator in China providing mobile voice and value-added, fixed-line voice and fixed-line broadband, data communications and other telecommunications services to its customers. The Company operates in two business segments consisting of mobile services and fixed-line services. The Company is engaged in global system for mobile communications (GSM) and wideband code division multiple access (WCDMA) cellular business in 31 provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions in China, the provision of fixedline voice, broadband and other Internet-related services, information and communications technology services, business and data communications services, and other related telecommunication value-added businesses. As of 30 June 2011, Unicom Group held 57.81% of the shares in the Company through China United Network Communications Limited (A Share Company), China Unicom (BVI) Limited and China Netcom Group Corporation (BVI) Limited, and Telefonica Internacional S.A.U. held 9.01% of the shares in the Company.

Mobile Business

Unicom�� mobile business consists of GSM and third generation (3G) mobile business. As of December 31, 2010, the Company had a total of 167.43 million mobile subscribers. As of December 31, 2010, its total number of mobile subscribers included 167.43 million. Unicom operates the 3G business based on the WCDMA technology nationwide in China. As of December 31, 2010, the total number of its 3G subscribers included 14.06 million, and had 1.35 million wireless data card subscribers, 2.41 million mobile television (TV) subscribers and over seven million mobile reading subscribers. During the year ended December 31, 2010, the total 3G voice usage was 55.47 billion minutes and the average data usage per subscriber per month was 178M. GSM mobile business primarily consists of GSM voice business and value-added business.

The Company�� mobile ! voice business enables its subscribers to make and receive phone calls with a mobile handset at any point within the coverage area of its mobile telecommunications networks. Its mobile voice business includes local calls, domestic long distance calls, international long distance calls, intra-provincial roaming, inter-provincial roaming and international roaming. As of December 31, 2010, the Company�� total number of GSM mobile subscribers was 153.37 million. Unicom offers a range of GSM value-added services nationwide, including short message service (SMS), Cool Ringtone (a personalized ring-back tone service), mobile Internet and other wireless information services. During 2010, a total of 78.31 billion SMSs were transmitted by its GSM mobile subscribers. As of December 31, 2010, the Company had a total number of 67.26 million subscribers to its Cool Ringtone service. In addition, as of December 31, 2010, it had a total number of 55.81 million mobile Internet subscribers.

Fixed-Line Business

Unicom is a fixed-line broadband and communications operator in northern China. The Company offers a range of fixed-line services nationwide in China, including fixed-line broadband services and data communications services; fixed-line voice services, include local and long distance fixed-line voice services and value-added services, and other services. The Company is a provider of fixed-line broadband services in its fixed-line northern service region. Unicom is a provider of data communications services in its fixed-line northern service region. It offers managed data products, such as those based on digital data networks (DDN), frame relay, asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) and Internet protocol-virtual private network (IP-VPN). The Company also offers leased line products, including domestic and international leased circuits. Its customers for these services include government entities, large financial institutions and other domestic and multinational businesses, Internet service prov! iders and! other telecommunications operators.

As of December 31, 2010, the Company had established business cooperation relationships with more than 160 overseas operators to provide various international data communications products and services, such as international voice and data services. During 2010, it continued to offer full-scale data communications services to international operators and domestic and international corporate customers. The Company�� fixed-line voice services consist of local voice, domestic long distance, international long distance, value-added, interconnection and personal handyphone system (PHS) services. In addition to fixed-line telephone voice services, it offers a range of value-added services on its fixed-line networks. The Company�� fixed-line, value-added services include Personalized Ring and caller identification services. Personalized Ring services enable its fixed-line subscribers to personalize the ring-back tone for incoming calls. As of December 31, 2010, the number of its Personalized Ring subscribers reached 23.79 million.

Interconnection and Roaming Arrangements

The Company earns interconnection fees for terminating or transiting calls that originate from other domestic telecommunications operators��networks and pay interconnection fees to other operators for calls originating from its networks that are terminated on their networks. It earns and pays such fees in respect of mobile calls, local and domestic and international long distance calls and Internet services, except for the interconnection by fixed-line subscribers calling its mobile subscribers in the same region where no interconnection fee will be charged.

The Company provides roaming services, which allow its subscribers to access its mobile services while they are physically outside of their registered service area or in the coverage areas of other mobile networks in other countries and regions with which it has roaming arrangements. As of April 30! , 2011, U! nicom had roaming arrangements for GSM international voice and SMS services with 242 operators in 521 countries and regions; GPRS international inbound data services with 179 operators in 400 countries and regions and for international GPRS outbound data services with 164 operators in 357 countries and regions, and 3G services with 104 WCDMA operators in 245 countries and regions.

Mobile Networks

The Company�� mobile network consists of cell sites, which are physical locations, each equipped with a base station that houses transmitters, receivers and other equipment used to communicate through radio channels with subscribers��mobile handsets within the range of a cell; base station controllers, which connect to, and control, the base stations, and mobile switching centers, which control the base station controllers and the routing of telephone calls. Its mobile network also consists of a transmission network, which links the mobile switching centers, base station controllers, base stations and the public switched telephone network. It has deployed GSM and WCDMA mobile networks. The Company�� GSM mobile network mainly operates at 900 megahertz. It has also deployed GSM technology that operates at 1,800 megahertz in metropolitan areas to supplement the capacity of its existing mobile network. As of December 31, 2010, the Company had approximately 329,000 GSM base stations.

The Company competes with China Mobile and China Telecom.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Jake L'Ecuyer]

  Leading and Lagging Sectors
  Telecommunications services shares gained around 0.83 percent in the US market on Monday. Top gainers in the sector included China Telecom Corp. (NYSE: CHA),Turkcell Iletisim Hizmetleri AS (NYSE: TKC), and China Unicom (Hong Kong) Limited (NYSE: CHU). In trading on Monday, basic materials shares were relative laggards, down on the day by about 0.75 percent.

Hot Heal Care Stocks To Watch Right Now

Jin Lee/Bloomberg Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York. The Standard & Poor�� 500 Index has risen 146 percent since bottoming in 2009. The 53-month gain has surpassed the average length of bull markets since 1946 by about four months, data compiled by Bloomberg show.

Price gains of stocks in the Standard & Poor�� 500 Index (SPX) are outpacing profits by the fastest rate in 14 years as the bull market extends beyond the average length of rallies since Harry S. Truman was president.

The benchmark gauge for U.S. equities has risen 14 percent relative to income over the past 12 months to 16 times earnings, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Valuations last climbed this fast in the final year of the 1990s technology bubble, just before the index began a 49 percent tumble. The rally that started in March 2009 has now outlasted the average gain since 1946, the data show.

Hot Mid Cap Companies To Invest In Right Now: MGM Resorts International(MGM)

MGM Resorts International, through its subsidiaries, primarily owns and operates casino resorts in the United States. The company?s resorts offer gaming, hotel, dining, entertainment, retail, and other resort amenities. It also owns and operates golf courses and a golf club. As of December 31, 2010, the company owned and operated 15 properties located in Nevada, Mississippi, and Michigan; and has 50% investments in 4 other casino resorts in Nevada, Illinois, and Macau. In addition, MGM Resorts International has an agreement with the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation, which owns and operates a casino resort in Connecticut, to carry the ?MGM Grand? brand name. The company was formerly known as MGM MIRAGE and changed its name to MGM Resorts International in June 2010. MGM Resorts International was founded in 1986 and is based in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Matt Thalman]

  In the following video, Fool contributor Matt Thalman discusses why he believes MGM Resorts' (NYSE: MGM  ) recent move to partner with both Southwest Airlines (NYSE: LUV  ) and Hyatt Hotels (NYSE: H  ) will greatly benefit not only MGM but also its two new partners.

• [By Monica Wolfe]

  MGM Resorts International (MGM)

  Paulson�� fifth largest holding is in MGM Resorts where he maintains 29,800,000 shares of the company�� stock. His position makes up for 3.9% of his total portfolio and 6.09% of the company�� shares outstanding.

• [By Rich Smith]

  On Friday, Amazon announced that its European LOVEFiLM subsidiary is teaming up with MGM (NYSE: MGM  ) Television to bring the hit new History Channel television show VIKINGS to viewers in the U.K., and Germany as well. Beginning May 24, LOVEFiLM will be the only service offering streaming video of all nine episodes of Vikings' first season to viewers in the U.K. and Germany. (Season 2 is scheduled to arrive in 2014). Additionally, Amazon points out that it will be streaming the show through LOVEFiLM before Vikings even goes into broadcast in Europe.

• [By Jayson Derrick]

  How to invest
  Several key international players have legitimate shots of receiving gaming licences in Japan. Las Vegas Sands would be the top pick along with Melco Crown. (NASDAQ: MPEL  ) �Meanwhile�MGM Resorts� (NYSE: MGM  ) �is unlikely to emerge a winner.

Hot Heal Care Stocks To Watch Right Now: Robert Half International Inc.(RHI)

Robert Half International Inc. provides staffing and risk consulting services in North America, South America, Europe, Asia, and Australia. Its Accountemps division offers temporary staffing in the fields of accounting, tax, and finance. The company?s OfficeTeam division places temporary and full-time office and administrative personnel, ranging from word processors to office managers. Its Robert Half Finance & Accounting division specializes in the placement of full-time accounting, financial, tax, and banking personnel. The company?s Robert Half Technology division specializes in providing information technology contract consultants; and placing full-time employees in the areas, ranging from multiple platform systems integration to end-user support, including specialists in programming, networking, systems integration, database design, and help desk support. Its Robert Half Legal division places temporary and full-time employees in attorney, paralegal, legal administrati ve, and legal secretarial positions. The company?s Robert Half Management Resources division offers senior level project professionals in the accounting and finance fields comprising chief financial officers, controllers, and senior financial analysts for various tasks, such as financial systems conversions, expansion into new markets, business process reengineering, and post-merger financial consolidation. Its Creative Group division serves clients in the areas of advertising, marketing, and Web design; and places project consultants in various positions consisting of creative directors, graphics designers, Web content developers, Web designers, media buyers, and public relations specialists. The company?s Protiviti division provides experts specializing in risk, advisory, and transactional services. Robert Half International was founded in 1948 and is based in Menlo Park, California.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By John Udovich]

  The government's closely watched jobs report today is expected to show that nonfarm payrolls increased by 218,000 positions and may have finally returned employment to its pre-recession level, but executive search or staffing stocks like Hudson Global Inc (NASDAQ: HSON), Robert Half International Inc (NYSE: RHI) and up and coming Staffing 360 Solutions Inc (OTCBB: STAF) have already made investors winners since the official end of the recession:

• [By Mark Hulbert]

  Apple�� profitability is in the middle of the pack among nonfinancial companies in the S&P 500 (SPX) �. The most profitable, according to AQR Capital Management, a money-management firm in Greenwich, Conn., with more than $80 billion in assets, is staffing firm Robert Half International (RHI) �, whose gross profitability is 119%. In second place is cosmetics giant Est茅e Lauder (EL) �, at 114%.

• [By James E. Brumley]

  The fact that temporary staffing is creating the bulk of the job growth since we dug our way out of the 2008 recession bodes well for the likes of staffing firms like Kelly Services, Inc. (NASDAQ:KELYA) and Robert Half International Inc. (NYSE:RHI). Investors seeking strategic opportunities can do better than concentrating on proven-but-broad growth arenas, though. There's another trend within the employment arena that actually favors small newcomer (relatively) Staffing 360 Solutions Inc. (OTCBB:STAF)... the huge and fast-growing need for more and better information technology workers. IT positions are opening up faster than any other industry is creating jobs, and it doesn't look like the trend is going to change anytime soon.

• [By Keith Speights]

  Temporary staffing agencies also felt the brunt of the employer mandate push-back. Shares of�Robert Half International (NYSE: RHI  ) , for example, slipped 5% on the day after the Obamacare delay was announced. The staffing agency reported earlier this year that it was receiving lots of inquiries from employers with around 50 employees, with the implication being that companies would use temporary workers to avoid meeting the 50-employee threshold for the Obamacare mandate.

Hot Heal Care Stocks To Watch Right Now: StellarOne Corporation(STEL)

StellarOne Corporation operates as the bank holding company for StellarOne Bank that provides various retail and small business banking, commercial banking, consumer lending, mortgage banking, and wealth management services to individuals, and small and middle-market businesses in Virginia. It generates various deposit products, including demand and time deposit accounts, money market accounts, checking accounts, certificates of deposit, and savings accounts. The company?s loan portfolio comprises consumer and commercial real estate loans, real estate and construction loans, commercial lines of credit, commercial term loans, home equity loans, consumer loans, and commercial, financial, and agricultural loans. It also provides credit cards, automated teller machine networks, and telephone and Internet banking, and online bill payment services. In addition, the company provides various wealth management and personal trust services, including estate administration and employ ee benefit plan administration, and planning specifically addressing the investment and financial management needs of its customers. As of December 31, 2009, StellarOne Corporation operated 56 financial centers, 1 loan production office, and approximately 60 automated teller machines in New River Valley, Roanoke Valley, Shenandoah Valley, and central and north central Virginia. The company was formerly known as Virginia Financial Group, Inc. and changed its name to StellarOne Corporation in February 2008. StellarOne Corporation was founded in 1911 and is headquartered in Charlottesville, Virginia.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Sean Williams]

  What: Shares of StellarOne (NASDAQ: STEL  ) , a commercial, mortgage, and wealth management bank servicing small and medium-sized businesses in Virginia, jumped as much as 20% after agreeing to be purchased by Union First Market Bancshares (NASDAQ: UBSH  ) .

Hot Heal Care Stocks To Watch Right Now: Crown Holdings Inc (CCK)

Crown Holdings, Inc., incorporated on February 7, 2003, is engaged in designing, manufacturing and sale of packaging products for consumer goods. Its business is organized within three divisions: Americas, Europe and Asia Pacific. Its segments within the Americas Division are Americas Beverage and North America Food. Its segments within the European Division are European Beverage and European Food. Americas Beverage includes beverage can operations in the United States, Brazil, Canada, Colombia and Mexico. North America Food includes food can and metal vacuum closure operations in the United States and Canada. European Beverage includes beverage can operations in Europe, the Middle East and North Africa. European Food includes food can and metal vacuum closure operations in Europe and Africa. Its Asia Pacific Division consists of beverage and non-beverage can operations, primarily food cans and specialty packaging. As of December 31, 2012, it acquired Superior Multi-Packaging Ltd.

The Company supplies beverage cans and ends and other packaging products to a range of beverage and beer companies, including Anheuser-Busch InBev, Carlsberg, Coca-Cola, Cott Beverages, Dr Pepper Snapple Group, Heineken, National Beverage and Pepsi-Cola, among others. The Company manufactures a range of food cans and ends, including two-and three-piece cans in numerous shapes and sizes, and sells food cans to food marketers, such as Bonduelle, Cecab, ConAgra, Continentale, Mars, Simmons Foods, Nestle, Princes Group and Stockmeyer, among others.

The Company offers a range of metal vacuum closures and sealing equipment. The Company�� customers for aerosol cans and ends include manufacturers of personal care, food, household and industrial products, including Colgate Palmolive, Procter & Gamble, SC Johnson and Unilever, among others. The Company�� customers for aerosol cans and ends include manufacturers of personal care, food, household and industrial products, including Colgate Palmolive, Procte! r & Gamble, SC Johnson and Unilever, among others.

Americas Division

The Americas Division includes operations in the United States, Brazil, Canada, the Caribbean, Colombia and Mexico. These operations manufacture beverage, food and aerosol cans and ends, specialty packaging and metal vacuum closures and caps. The Americas Beverage segment manufactures aluminum beverage cans and ends and steel crowns, referred to as bottle caps. The North America Food segment manufactures steel and aluminum food cans and ends and metal vacuum closures.

European Division

The European Division includes operations in Eastern and Western Europe, the Middle East and North Africa. These operations manufacture beverage, food and aerosol cans and ends, specialty packaging and metal vacuum closures and caps. The European Beverage segment manufactures steel and aluminum beverage cans and ends. The European Food segment manufactures steel and aluminum food cans and ends, and metal vacuum closures.

Asia Pacific division

The Company's Asia Pacific Division consists of beverage can operations in Cambodia, China, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam and non-beverage can operations, primarily including food cans and specialty packaging in China, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. As of December 31, 2012, the division operated 32 plants in six countries.

The Company competes with Ardagh Group, Ball Corporation, BWAY Corporation, Can-Pack S.A., Metal Container Corporation, Mivisa Envases S.A.U., Rexam PLC and Silgan Holdings Inc.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Lauren Pollock]

  Crown Holdings Inc.(CCK) cut its third-quarter earnings guidance on lower end-user demand in some of the food-and-beverage packaging company’s markets, including European food cans and North American beverage cans.

10 Best Up And Coming Stocks To Invest In Right Now

Believe it or not, energy efficiency is big business, and it's only getting bigger. HSBC estimates that the market could grow from $87 billion today to $245 billion per year by 2020. Numbers like that are hard to ignore, especially given that investors are by and large ignoring the energy efficiency opportunity right now.

One thing is for sure, though: Wall Street stalwarts such as Bank of America and Goldman Sachs are not.�In this video, Fool.com contributor Aimee Duffy looks at the recent energy investments at these banks, and what investors should take away from their specific initiatives.

Companies such as Goldman Sachs have been getting rich on trading floor tips for decades -- and for decades, those tips have been "for industry insiders only." But not anymore. Our top technology analyst recently infiltrated one of the finance world's most exclusive gatherings and left with three incredible investment opportunities, straight from the CEOs. These are profit-building strategies Main Street isn't meant to hear about -- so act now before someone shuts us up. Click if you want "industry insider" earnings -- now!

Hot Long Term Companies For 2015: Basic Energy Services Inc. (BAS)

Basic Energy Services, Inc. provides various well site services to oil and natural gas drilling and producing companies in the United States. Its Completion and Remedial Services segment provides pumping services, such as cementing, acidizing, fracturing, coiled tubing, nitrogen, and pressure testing; rental and fishing tools; snubbing services; thru-tubing; cased-hole wireline services; and underbalanced drilling in low pressure and fluid sensitive reservoirs. This segment operates 228 pressure pumping units. It also operates 14 coiled tubing units; 49 air compressor packages; 12 wireline units; and 34 snubbing units. The company�s Fluid Services segment offers oilfield fluid supply, transportation, storage, and construction services, which comprise the transportation of fluids and salt water; sale and transportation of fresh and brine water; rental of portable frac tanks and test tanks; operation of company-owned fresh water and brine source wells and non-hazardous wast ewater disposal wells; and preparation, construction, and maintenance of access roads, drilling locations, and production facilities. This segment owns and operates 955 fluid services trucks with a fluid hauling capacity of up to 150 barrels apiece. Its Well Servicing segment provides various services performed with a mobile well servicing rig and ancillary equipment, such as maintenance work, hoisting tools and equipment required by the operation, and plugging and abandonment services, as well as manufactures and sells workover rigs. It operates a fleet of 425 well servicing rigs. The company�s Contract Drilling segment employs drilling rigs and related equipment to penetrate the earth to a desired depth and initiate production. This segment owns and operates 12 land drilling rigs. The company was formerly known as Sierra Well Service, Inc. and changed its name to Basic Energy Services, Inc. in 2000. Basic Energy Services, Inc. was founded in 1992 and is based in Fort Wort h, Texas.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Sara Murphy]

  Basic Energy Services (NYSE: BAS  ) derived more than a quarter of 2012 revenues from its fluid services unit. Its operations rely heavily on the legacy model of hauling water. Superior Energy Services (NYSE: SPN  ) counts on its traditional fluid services offerings for about 20% of revenues.

10 Best Up And Coming Stocks To Invest In Right Now: ChemoCentryx Inc (CCXI)

ChemoCentryx is a biopharmaceutical company focused on discovering, developing and commercializing orally-administered therapeutics to treat autoimmune diseases, inflammatory disorders and cancer. The Company targets the chemokine system, a network of molecules, including chemokine ligands and their associated receptors, as well as related chemo-attractant receptors, all of which are known to drive inflammation. As of December 31, 2011, the Company had four drug candidates in clinical development. Its drug candidates include Traficet-EN (CCX282, GSK'786 or vercirnon), CCX140, CCX354, CCX168, CCX872, CCX507 and CCX662. The Company is also advancing several additional independent drug candidates through preclinical development. The Company�� wholly owned subsidiary is ChemoCentryx Limited.

The Company's drug candidate Traficet-EN (CCX282, GSK'786), is to control the inflammatory response underlying IBD by targeting the chemokine receptor known as CCR9. The Company has completed nine clinical trials with Traficet-EN in a total of 785 subjects, including five Phase I clinical trials (three in the United States and two in the United Kingdom), one thorough QT study in the United States (an assessment of cardiovascular safety which is required for regulatory approval), and three Phase II clinical trials (one in the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and the United States, one in Finland and one (PROTECT-1) in Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, the Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Hungary, Israel, the Netherlands, Poland, South Africa, Sweden and the United Kingdom). As of December 31, 2011, the Company�� Traficet-EN drug candidate is in four pivotal Phase III clinical trials being conducted by its partner Glaxo Group Limited (GSK).

The Company's independent drug candidate CCX140, targets the chemokine receptor known as CCR2. CCX140 is a potent and selective antagonist of CCR2 that is found on subsets of monocytes and macrophages, which are cells of th! e immune system. In January 2011, the Company completed a 159-patient randomized Phase II clinical trial, conducted in Australia, the Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary and New Zealand, to assess the safety and tolerability of CCX140 in patients with type 2 diabetes. In addition, CCX140 demonstrated biological activity through a dose-dependent decrease in fasting plasma glucose.

CCX354 targets the chemokine receptor known as CCR1. Synovial fluid from the joints of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients contains high levels of activated CCR1 chemokine ligands. The Company completed two Phase I clinical trials in a total of 84 healthy subjects, conducted in Switzerland followed by a Phase I/II clinical trial in 24 patients with stable RA, conducted in Belgium and Romania, and a Phase II proof-of-concept clinical trial in 160 patients with moderate-to-severe RA, conducted in Belgium, the Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, Poland, Romania and the Ukraine. GSK exercised its option to further develop and commercialize CCX354 in November 2011 and had an exclusive right to initiate a Phase II b clinical trial for CCX354 in RA.

CCX168 targets the chemo-attractant C5a receptor (C5aR), which binds to a biologically activated fragment of the complement protein known as C5. As of December 31, the Company completed a Phase I clinical trial for CCX168, conducted in Switzerland. The Company initiated a Phase II proof-of-concept clinical trial in AAV in the fourth quarter of 2011. Its CCX872 is an independent next generation CCR2 drug candidate for the treatment of metabolic diseases, its CCX507 is an independent drug candidate for the treatment of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and CCX662 is an independent drug candidate for the treatment of glioblastoma multiforme (GBM).

The Company competes with Abbott Laboratories, Amgen Inc, AstraZeneca plc, Biogen Idec Inc, Bayer AG, Elan Corporation plc, Glaxo Group Limited, Merck & Co Inc, Merck Serono, Takeda Pharmaceutical Co Ltd, Novartis AG! , Pfizer ! Inc, Reata Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Sanofi SA, Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Incyte Corp and UCB Pharma.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By CRWE]

  ChemoCentryx, Inc. (Nasdaq:CCXI), reported that Thomas J. Schall, Ph.D., President and Chief Executive Officer, will present at the BioCentury NewsMakers in the Biotech Industry Conference on Friday, September 7, 2012, at 9:30 a.m. Eastern Time at the Millennium Broadway Hotel & Conference Center in New York, NY.

• [By James E. Brumley]

  The last few weeks haven't been particularly encouraging for Crohn's disease sufferers. In August, GlaxoSmithKline (NYSE: GSK) and ChemoCentryx (NASDAQ:CCXI) reported that a jointly-developed Crohn's drug, vercirnon, had failed to meet its late-stage trial endpoints. Though the in-development drug isn't dead in the water (GSK and CCXI could rework the drug, the testing regimen, or use it for other indications), it doesn't look good. Then this month - just a few days ago - Coronado Biosciences Inc. (NASDAQ:CNDO) reported that its Phase 3 trials of Crohn's disease drug TSO had also failed to meet its primary endpoints as well. Like vercirnon, CNDO isn't completely out of luck here with the treatment, but forging ahead with further development of the treatment is grasping at straws. Crohn's sufferers don't need to give up home just yet, however - TNI Biotech Inc. (OTCMKTS:TNIB) appears to have a Crohn's treatment that works, and should be able to sidestep the problems that plagued ChemoCentryx, GlaxoSmithKline, and Coronado Biosciences.

10 Best Up And Coming Stocks To Invest In Right Now: The Advisory Board Company(ABCO)

The Advisory Board Company, together with its subsidiaries, engages in the provision of best practices research and analysis, business intelligence and software tools, and management and advisory services primarily in the United States. The company offers various programs and services, including best practices research services that focus on identifying best-demonstrated management practices, critiquing widely-followed but ineffective practices, and analyzing emerging trends in the health care and education industries; business intelligence and software tools, which allow members to pair their own operational data with the best practices insights; and management and advisory services programs for assisting member institutions to adopt and implement best practices to enhance performance. As of June 30, 2011, it provided 51 distinct membership programs to hospitals, health systems, colleges, universities, pharmaceutical and biotech companies, health care insurers, medical de vice and supply companies, and other educational institutions. The company was founded in 1979 and is headquartered in Washington, District of Columbia.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Seth Jayson]

  Advisory Board (Nasdaq: ABCO  ) is expected to report Q4 earnings on May 9. Here's what Wall Street wants to see:

  The 10-second takeaway
  Comparing the upcoming quarter to the prior-year quarter, average analyst estimates predict Advisory Board's revenues will grow 17.4% and EPS will grow 21.7%.

• [By Jeremy Bowman]

  What: Shares of The Advisory Board Company (NASDAQ: ABCO  ) were up as much as 12% today, after the consulting firm beat top and bottom-line estimates in its quarterly report.

10 Best Up And Coming Stocks To Invest In Right Now: RF Micro Devices Inc.(RFMD)

RF Micro Devices, Inc. designs, develops, manufactures, and markets radio frequency (RF) components and compound semiconductor technologies in the United States and internationally. Its products enable mobility, as well as provide connectivity and support functionality in the cellular handsets, wireless infrastructure, wireless local area networks, cable television /broadband, Smart Energy/advanced metering infrastructure, and aerospace and defense markets. The company offers products that range from single-function components to highly integrated circuits and multi-chip modules (MCMs). Its integrated circuit products include gain blocks, low noise amplifiers, power amplifiers (PAs), receivers, transmitters, transceivers, modulators, demodulators, attenuators, switches, frequency synthesizers, and voltage-controlled oscillators (VCOs); MCM products consist of PA modules, switch-filter modules, active antenna products, VCOs, phase-locked loops, coaxial resonator oscillators , active mixers, variable gain amplifiers, hybrid amplifiers, power doublers, and optical receivers; and passive components consist of splitters, couplers, mixers, and transformers, as well as isolators and circulators. The company markets its products to original equipment manufacturers and original design manufacturers. RF Micro Devices, Inc. was founded in 1991 and is headquartered in Greensboro, North Carolina.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By MONEYMORNING]

  Chipmaker Surges: We urged you buy shares of RF Micro Devices Inc. (Nasdaq: RFMD) in a report back on Dec. 26, reasoning that the maker of the so-called "radio-frequency" chips used in smartphones and other devices was poised for a rebound.

10 Best Up And Coming Stocks To Invest In Right Now: Addus HomeCare Corporation(ADUS)

Addus HomeCare Corporation provides a range of social and medical services to individuals in the home. The company serves individuals with special needs who are at risk of hospitalization or institutionalization, such as the elderly, chronically ill, and disabled. It offers various health services that include personal care and assistance with activities of daily living, skilled nursing and rehabilitative therapies, and adult day care. The company?s Home and Community Services division offers assistance with bathing, grooming, dressing, personal hygiene and medication reminders, and other activities of daily living on a long-term, continuous basis, with an average duration of 20 months per consumer. Its Home Health Services division comprises physical, occupational, and speech therapy, as well as skilled nursing services, which are offered on a short-term, intermittent, or episodic basis to individuals recovering from an acute medical condition, with an average length of care of 80 days. The company?s payor clients include federal, state, and local government programs, such as Medicaid funded programs and Medicaid waiver programs; other state agencies and Medicare; and the Veterans Health Administration, commercial insurers, and private duty consumers. The company was formerly known as Addus Holding Corporation and changed its name to Addus HomeCare Corporation in September, 2006. Addus HomeCare Corporation was incorporated in 2006 and is headquartered in Palatine, Illinois.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Monica Gerson]

  Addus HomeCare (NASDAQ: ADUS) is projected to post its Q4 earnings at $0.25 per share on revenue of $68.07 million.

  magicJack VocalTec (NASDAQ: CALL) is expected to post its Q4 earnings at $0.41 per share on revenue of $35.93 million.

10 Best Up And Coming Stocks To Invest In Right Now: Textainer Group Holdings Limited(TGH)

Textainer Group Holdings Limited, through its subsidiaries, engages in the purchase, ownership, management, leasing, and resale of a fleet of marine cargo containers worldwide. The company leases dry freight containers, as well as special-purpose containers to shipping lines, freight forwarding companies, and the United States military; manages a fleet of containers for and on behalf of the owners; and buys and resells used containers. It operates a fleet of approximately 1.6 million containers. The company was founded in 1979 and is headquartered in Hamilton, Bermuda. Textainer Group Holdings Limited is a subsidiary of Halco Holdings Inc.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Joseph Hogue]

  There is one particular shipping company of which investors are being especially fearful, to the point of hating it. I'm talking about Textainer Group Holdings (NYSE: TGH), a container leasing company with 2.6 million 20-foot equivalent containers, the largest fleet among its peers.

• [By Selena Maranjian]

  Textainer (NYSE: TGH  ) is in the business of leasing big containers for use in intermodal shipping. The shipping business can be expected to pick up as the global economy gets back on its feet. Textainer has recently been expanding into the leasing of tanks, as well. The company offers not only an appealing dividend yield of 4.9%, but it also has been raising that payout significantly, more than doubling it over the past five years. Its payout ratio is below 50%, too, suggesting plenty of room for further growth. Textainer's stock seems reasonably or attractively priced, too, with its forward P/E ratio of 8.0 below its five-year average of 8.5. Bears don't like its rising debt or negative free cash flow, though (which is partly a result of beefing up its supply of containers), but there's still a lot to like about it.

• [By Ong Kang Wei]

  Another example of such a company is Textainer Group Holdings (TGH). Besides having a great container leasing service that is needed by shipping companies, like Digital Realty, it is the undisputed leader in its industry. Being the largest of its kind in the world, the company has a significant economies of scale benefit. This means that Textainer will get the lion's share of the profits, which is proven by the company's outsized profit margin of 42.10%.

10 Best Up And Coming Stocks To Invest In Right Now: Under Armour Inc.(UA)

Under Armour, Inc. develops, markets, and distributes performance apparel, footwear, and accessories for men, women, and youth primarily in the United States, Canada, and internationally. It offers products made from moisture-wicking synthetic fabrics designed to regulate body temperature and enhance performance regardless of weather conditions. The company provides its products in three fit types: compression (tight fitting), fitted (athletic cut), and loose (relaxed) extending across the sporting goods, outdoor, and active lifestyle markets. Its footwear offerings comprise football, baseball, lacrosse, softball, and soccer cleats; slides; performance training footwear; and running footwear. The company also provides baseball batting, football, golf, and running gloves, as well as licenses bags, socks, headwear, custom-molded mouth guards, and eyewear that are designed to be used and worn before, during, and after competition. Under Armour sells its products through retai l stores, as well as directly to consumers through its own retail outlets and specialty stores, Website, and catalogs. The company was founded in 1996 and is headquartered in Baltimore, Maryland.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Rich Duprey]

  Athletic apparel maker�Under Armour� (NYSE: UA  ) �reported first-quarter earnings that�fell 50% year over year�but handily beat the Capital IQ consensus estimates�by $0.03 per share. Revenues surged 22% year over year, coming in well ahead of estimates.�

Top 10 Value Stocks To Watch Right Now

Life insurance stocks have gotten a boost from Dai-ichi Life�� deal to purchase Protective Life (PL) for $70 a share, or $5.7 billion. Protective Life is up 18%, to $69.30 at 11:55 a.m., trading just below the deal value.� While the deal has been rumored for a few days, the actual price is about 16% higher than the $4.9 billion price that had been discussed in the media.

Bloomberg

Life stocks are up more than 2% on average, making them one of the strongest groups in the S&P 500 today. The Protective Life deal highlights the discounted valuation in the sector, where leading stocks have some of the lowest valuations in the S&P 500. MetLife (MET) is up 3% to $54.80; Prudential Financial (PRU) has risen 2.8% to $88.44 and Lincoln National (LNC) has gained 2.6% to $51.25.

Dai-ichi Life is paying 1.3 times book value for Protective and nearly 1.7 times book excluding investment gains. Protective�� first quarter book was $54.09 and its book excluding accumulated other comprehensive income (AOCI) was $41.71. Many investors focus on book excluding AOCI as a conservative measure of shareholder equity.

Top 10 Growth Companies To Invest In 2015: Tupperware Corporation(TUP)

Tupperware Brands Corporation operates as a direct seller of various products across a range of brands and categories through an independent sales force. The company engages in the manufacture and sale of kitchen and home products, and beauty and personal care products. It offers preparation, storage, and serving solutions for the kitchen and home, as well as kitchen cookware and tools, children?s educational toys, microwave products, and gifts under the Tupperware brand name primarily in Europe, Africa, the Middle East, the Asia Pacific, and North America. The company provides beauty and personal care products, which include skin care products, cosmetics, bath and body care, toiletries, fragrances, nutritional products, apparel, and related products principally in Mexico, South Africa, the Philippines, Australia, and Uruguay. It offers beauty and personal care products under the Armand Dupree, Avroy Shlain, BeautiControl, Fuller, NaturCare, Nutrimetics, Nuvo, and Swissgar de brand names. The company sells its Tupperware products directly to distributors, directors, managers, and dealers; and beauty products primarily through consultants and directors. As of December 26, 2009, the Tupperware distribution system had approximately 1,800 distributors, 61,300 managers, and 1.3 million dealers; and the sales force representing the Beauty businesses approximately 1.1 million. The company was formerly known as Tupperware Corporation and changed its name to Tupperware Brands Corporation in December 2005. The company was founded in 1996 and is headquartered in Orlando, Florida.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Johanna Bennett]

  Corporate earnings took a back seat today to the Fed�� latest policy decision. Still, quarterly financial results, and other news sent shares of McCormick & Co. (MKC) and Tupperware (TUP), falling during regular market hours�Here�� a rundown of several of today�� moves:

Top 10 Value Stocks To Watch Right Now: Caterpillar Inc.(CAT)

Caterpillar Inc. manufactures and sells construction and mining equipment, diesel and natural gas engines, industrial gas turbines, and diesel-electric locomotives worldwide. It operates through three lines of businesses: Machinery, Engines, and Financial Products. The Machinery business offers construction, mining, and forestry machinery, including track and wheel tractors, track and wheel loaders, pipelayers, motor graders, wheel tractor-scrapers, track and wheel excavators, backhoe loaders, log skidders, log loaders, off-highway trucks, articulated trucks, paving products, skid steer loaders, underground mining equipment, tunnel boring equipment, and related parts. It also manufactures diesel-electric locomotives; and manufactures and services rail-related products and logistics services for other companies. The Engines business provides diesel, heavy fuel, and natural gas reciprocating engines for Caterpillar machinery, electric power generation systems, marine, petrol eum, construction, industrial, agricultural, and other applications. It offers industrial turbines and turbine-related services for oil and gas, and power generation applications. This business also remanufactures Caterpillar engines, machines, and engine components; and offers remanufacturing services for other companies. The Financial Products business provides retail and wholesale financing alternatives for Caterpillar machinery and engines, solar gas turbines, and other equipment and marine vessels, as well as offers loans and various forms of insurance to customers and dealers. It also offers financing for vehicles, power generation facilities, and marine vessels. The company markets its products directly, as well as through its distribution centers, dealers, and distributors. It was formerly known as Caterpillar Tractor Co. and changed its name to Caterpillar Inc. in 1986. Caterpillar Inc. was founded in 1925 and is headquartered in Peoria, Illinois.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By WALLSTCHEATSHEET]

  While Caterpillar has experienced several difficult quarters, the causes have been external rather than internal��amely, a depressed mining sector leading to inventory problems. By underselling demand for the rest of the year, Caterpillar is exchanging short-term sales weakness for an attractive inventory position in the future leading to sales growth beginning in 2014. Moreover, investors thinking about going long Caterpillar can use recent weakness to buy the stock at a more attractive level than before.

• [By Adam Levine-Weinberg]

  Biggest losers
  Illinois saw the biggest year-over-year jump in unemployment in the U.S. last month. At 9.5%, the Illinois unemployment rate is at a level last seen in 2011. Even worse, the labor force shrank last month, suggesting that tens of thousands of people gave up looking for work. The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate has risen by nearly a full percentage point since December. Moreover, things may not get better anytime soon; earlier this month, Caterpillar (NYSE: CAT  ) announced that it would permanently lay off 460 workers in the state due to falling demand for mining equipment.

Top 10 Value Stocks To Watch Right Now: Dollar Tree Inc.(DLTR)

Dollar Tree, Inc. operates discount variety stores in the United States and Canada. Its stores offer merchandise primarily at the fixed price of $1.00. The company operates its stores under the names of Dollar Tree, Deal$, Dollar Tree Deal$, Dollar Giant, and Dollar Bills. Its stores offer consumable merchandise, including candy and food, and health and beauty care, as well as household consumables, such as paper, plastics, household chemicals, in select stores, and frozen and refrigerated food; variety merchandise, which includes toys, durable housewares, gifts, party goods, greeting cards, softlines, and other items; and seasonal goods, such as Easter, Halloween, and Christmas merchandise. As of April 30, 2011, it operated 4,089 stores in 48 states and the District of Columbia, as well as 88 stores in Canada. The company was founded in 1986 and is based in Chesapeake, Virginia.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Paul Ausick]

  Dollar General�� share price is up less than 6% in the past 12 months, but since the beginning of the year shares have risen more than 22%. And even then, Dollar General�trails Dollar Tree Inc. (NASDAQ: DLTR) in share price growth since January 1. Dollar Tree stock is up 30%.

Top 10 Value Stocks To Watch Right Now: Schlumberger N.V.(SLB)

Schlumberger Limited, together with its subsidiaries, supplies technology, integrated project management, and information solutions to the oil and gas exploration and production industries worldwide. The company?s Oilfield Services segment provides exploration and production services; wireline technology that offers open-hole and cased-hole services; supplies engineering support, directional-drilling, measurement-while-drilling, and logging-while-drilling services; and testing services. This segment also offers well services; supplies well completion services and equipment; artificial lift; data and consulting services; geo services; and information solutions, such as consulting, software, information management system, and IT infrastructure services that support oil and gas industry. Its WesternGeco segment provides reservoir imaging, monitoring, and development services; and operates data processing centers and multiclient seismic library. This segment also offers variou s services include 3D and time-lapse (4D) seismic surveys to multi-component surveys for delineating prospects and reservoir management. The company?s M-I SWACO segment supplies drilling fluid systems to improve drilling performance; fluid systems and specialty tools to optimize wellbore productivity; production technology solutions to maximize production rates; and environmental solutions that manages waste volumes generated in drilling and production operations. Its Smith Oilfield segment designs, manufactures, and markets drill bits and borehole enlargement tools; and supplies drilling tools and services, tubular, completion services, and other related downhole solutions. The company?s Distribution segment markets pipes, valves, and fittings, as well as mill, safety, and other maintenance products. This segment also provides warehouse management, vendor integration, and inventory management services. Schlumberger Limited was founded in 1927 and is based in Houston, Texas.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Editor , DividendChannel.com]

  ENB operates in the Oil & Gas Equipment & Services sector, among companies like Schlumberger (SLB), and Enterprise Products Partners L.P. (EPD).

• [By DAILYFINANCE]

  Alamy HOUSTON -- Halliburton says it lost $18 million in the first quarter, pulled down by $637 million in charges related to its role in the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill. But it made money if unusual items are excluded, beating Wall Street expectations. The oil services company's loss amounted to 2 cents a share. That compares with net income of $627 million, or 68 cents a share, a year earlier. Halliburton Co. (HAL), which is in talks to settle claims against it related to the oil spill, said that excluding the charges it posted adjusted earnings of 67 cents a share. That beat the 57 cents that analysts expected. The Houston company, which provides a variety of services for the petroleum industry, is benefiting from a boom in U.S. oil production, which is at the highest level in more than two decades. At the same time, Halliburton's natural gas business has slowed as drillers slowed production due to falling prices for the fuel. Revenue rose slightly to $6.97 billion from $6.87 billion. Analysts expected $6.88 billion. Halliburton shares jumped $1.44, or 3.9 percent, to $38.65 in premarket trading an hour before the market opening. Halliburton is the biggest provider of oil field services in North America, including hydraulic fracturing, a technology that has helped unlock large supplies of oil and natural gas from shale rock formations in the U.S. North American revenue fell 11 percent to $3.71 billion, while operating income tumbled 43 percent to $605 million. Dave Lesar, the company's chairman, president and CEO, said a drop in Halliburton's rig count and pricing pressures in North America were more than offset by the company's growing international business. International revenue increased 21 percent from a year ago. For the full year, Halliburton still expects total international revenue growth in the "low teens," he said. Rival Schlumberger Ltd. (SLB), which has a larger international business, said Friday that its revenue climbed in region

• [By P.I.A.]

  This Libra story only involves one location out of several around the globe that are favorable to offshore drillers. Some say the industry itself is poised to outperform. The Market Vectors Oil Services ETF (OIH) could make sense to investors. The fund tracks 25 international companies, with Schlumberger Ltd (SLB) comprising 20.6% of its holdings, compared to 4.3% SDRL. Even with the heavy weighting toward SLB, diversification provides safety.

Best Healthcare Technology Stocks To Buy For 2014

The U.S. Department of Defense awarded Raytheon (NYSE: RTN  ) a pair of contracts Wednesday -- one big, one small.

The big one -- in fact, the biggest contract the Pentagon awarded to anyone Wednesday -- is worth $83.8 million to Raytheon. A sole-source, cost-plus-incentive-fee, and cost-plus-fixed-fee foreign military sales contract modification, it hires Raytheon to perform software updates, radar repairs, logistics, and other work on AN/TPY-2 radars being provided to the government of the United Arab Emirates for use as part of Lockheed Martin's (NYSE: LMT  ) new Terminal High Altitude Area Defense, or THAAD, system.�

�Lockheed Martin won the $2 billion contract to build a THAAD system for the UAE in 2011. Raytheon will be working on this contract through Sept. 30, 2018.�

The smaller award, worth $19.1 million to Raytheon, hires the company to provide engineering and technical services to the U.S. Navy, other U.S. government agencies, and also foreign governments -- all related to Raytheon's Standard Missiles, models 2, 3, and 6. Foreign governments for which Raytheon will be doing work under this contract include Japan, Australia, South Korea, Germany, the Netherlands, Taiwan, Canada, and Spain. Work on this contract should be completed by next July.

Top 10 Small Cap Companies To Watch In Right Now: ArcelorMittal SA (MT)

ArcelorMittal, incorporated on June 8, 2001, is a global steel producer. During the year ended December 31, 2010, ArcelorMittal had steel shipments of approximately 85 million tons and crude steel production of approximately 90.6 million tons. ArcelorMittal produces a range of finished and semi-finished products. ArcelorMittal produces flat products, including sheet and plate, long products, including bars, rods and structural shapes, and stainless steel products. The Company operates in five segments: Flat Carbon Americas; Flat Carbon Europe; Long Carbon Americas and Europe; Asia, Africa and Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) (AACIS), and Distribution Solutions. ArcelorMittal also produces pipes and tubes for various applications. ArcelorMittal sells its products in local markets and through its centralized marketing organization to a range of customers in approximately 174 countries, including the automotive, appliance, engineering, construction and machinery industries. On February 18, 2011 ArcelorMittal and Nunavut Iron Acquisition Inc. announced they had taken up over 93% of the Baffinland Iron Mines Corporation (Baffinland) under their joint offer. On January 25, 2011, ArcelorMittal approved the spin-off of ArcelorMittal�� stainless and specialty steels business into Aperam. On September 20, 2010, ArcelorMittal Poland completed the acquisition of Zaklady K Zdzieszowice. On July 23, 2010, the Company completed the acquisition of ArcelorMittal Ostrava. On July 5, 2010, the Company completed a disposition of the Anzherskaya coal mine in Russia.

Flat Carbon Americas

ArcelorMittal�� Flat Carbon Americas segment has production facilities in both North and South America, including the United States, Canada, Brazil and Mexico. As of December 31, 2010, ArcelorMittal USA had 18 production facilities, consisting of four integrated steel-making plants, one basic oxygen furnace/compact strip mill, six electric arc furnace plants, five finishing plants, and two coke-makin! g operations. ArcelorMittal USA�� operations include both flat carbon and long carbon production facilities. ArcelorMittal USA�� main flat carbon operations include integrated steel-making plants at Indiana Harbor, Burns Harbor and Cleveland. ArcelorMittal USA, through various subsidiaries, owns interests in joint ventures, including ArcelorMittal Tek, ArcelorMittal Kote, Double G Coatings, PCI Associates, and Hibbing Taconite Company. ArcelorMittal USA also owns several short-line railroads that transport materials among its facilities, as well as raw material assets. ArcelorMittal USA operates an iron ore mine through its wholly owned subsidiary ArcelorMittal Minorca. ArcelorMittal Coal Group USA, LLC and its subsidiaries operate surface mines and deep mines in McDowell County, as well as a surface mine in Tazewell County.

ArcelorMittal Tubarao (AMT), a wholly owned subsidiary of ArcelorMittal Brasil, has two production facilities: the Tubarao integrated steel making facility and the Vega finishing complex. ArcelorMittal Lazaro Cardenas (AMLC) is a steel producer in Mexico. AMLC operates a pelletizer plant, two direct reduced iron plants, electric arc furnace-based steel-making plants and continuous casting facilities. ArcelorMittal Dofasco Inc. (Dofasco) is a North American steel solution provider and manufacturer of flat rolled steels. Its products include hot-rolled, cold rolled, galvanized and tinplate, as well as tubular products and laser-welded blanks. ArcelorMittal Mines Canada is a North American producer of iron ore products, including concentrate and several types of pellets. During 2010, the mines in aggregate produced 15.1 million tons of pellets and concentrates.

Flat Carbon Europe

ArcelorMittal�� Flat Carbon Europe segment has production facilities in Western and Eastern Europe, including Germany, Belgium, France, Spain, Italy, Luxembourg, Romania, Poland, Macedonia, Estonia and the Czech Republic. ArcelorMittal�� Flat Carbon Europe segm! ent has p! roduction facilities in Western and Eastern Europe, including Germany, Belgium, France, Spain, Italy, Luxembourg, Romania, Poland, Macedonia, Estonia and the Czech Republic. During 2010, ArcelorMittal Bremen GmbH produced 3.3 million tons of crude steel. The facilities of ArcelorMittal Liege Upstream are located in two main plants along the Meuse River: the Seraing-Ougree plant, which includes a coke plant, a sinter plant and two blast furnaces, and the Chertal plant, which includes a steel shop with three converters, a ladle metallurgy, two continuous caster machines and a hot strip mill. During 2010, ArcelorMittal Liege Upstream produced 0.9 million tons of crude steel. ArcelorMittal Atlantique is part of ArcelorMittal Atlantique et Lorraine, which is wholly owned by ArcelorMittal France. It has four plants in the north of France, located in Dunkirk, Mardyck, Montataire and Desvres. During 2010, ArcelorMittal Atlantique et Lorraine S.A.S. produced 5.3 million tons of crude steel.

During 2010, ArcelorMittal Eisenhuttenstadt GmbH produced 1.9 million tons of crude steel. It produces and sells a range of products, including hot-rolled, cold-rolled, electrical and hot dip galvanized and organic-coated rolls to automotive, distribution, metal processing, construction and appliances industry customers in Germany, Central and Eastern Europe. ArcelorMittal Mediterranee S.A.S. operates a flat carbon steel plant in Fos-sur-Mer. It also operates a finishing facility for electrical steel located in Fos-sur-Mer. ArcelorMittal Mediterranee S.A.S.�� principal equipment consists of one coke oven plant, one sinter plant, two blast furnaces, two basic oxygen furnaces, two continuous slab casters, one hot strip mill, one pickling line, one cold rolling mill and two continuous annealing lines. ArcelorMittal Mediterranee�� products include coils to be made into wheels, pipes for energy transport and coils for finishing facilities for exposed and non-exposed parts of car bodies, as well as the constructio! n, home a! ppliance, packaging, pipe and tube, engine and office material industries. ArcelorMittal Gent is an integrated coastal steelworks. ArcelorMittal Liege produces a range of steel grades, including a range of construction steels and micro-alloyed grades.

ArcelorMittal Piombino manufactures galvanized and organic-coated steel products. During 2010, it operated one pickling line, four-stand tandem mill, three hot dip galvanizing lines and three organic coating lines. ArcelorMittal Piombino�� products are sold to European customers, primarily in the distribution, appliance and construction industries. During 2010, ArcelorMittal Dudelange operated two hot dip-coating lines, producing Alussi and Aluzinc, and two electro galvanizing lines for appliances and industries. ArcelorMittal Sagunto is a flat steel finishing products. The facilities consist of a pickling line, a regeneration plant for hydrochloric acid and a full continuous five stands tandem mill. ArcelorMittal Sestao�� equipment consists of two electric arc furnaces, two continuous slab casters, one hot rolling mill and one pickling line. During 2010, ArcelorMittal Sestao produced 1.3 million tons. ArcelorMittal Sestao is a supplier of hot-rolled, pickled and oiled coils to the Spanish market. Its range of production includes cold forming and drawing steels, structural steels, cold for re-rolling, direct galvanization, dual phase, weather resistance and floor plates.

ArcelorMittal Poland S.A. (AMP) is a steel producer in Poland. AMP�� Zdzieszowice Coke Plant produces and supplies coke to ArcelorMittal subsidiaries and third parties. AMP produces coke and a range of steel products, including both long products and flat products. Its product range includes slabs, billets, blooms, sections, rails, hot-rolled sheets and strips, cold rolled sheets and strips, galvanized sheets, heavy plates, wire-rods, wires and other wire products and coated sheets and coils. During 2010, ArcelorMittal Galati S.A. produced 1.9 million tons! of crude! steel which were sold as plates, hot-rolled coil, cold rolled coil and galvanized products for the Romanian, Turkish and Balkan markets. ArcelorMittal Ostrava a.s. produces both flat and long carbon products. ArcelorMittal Annaba produces both flat and long carbon products.

Long Carbon Americas and Europe

ArcelorMittal�� Long Carbon Americas and Europe segment has production facilities in North and South America and Europe, including the United States, Canada, Brazil, Argentina, Costa Rica, Mexico, Trinidad, Spain, Germany, France, Luxembourg, Poland, Romania, Morocco, Algeria, Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Czech Republic. ArcelorMittal Brasil S.A. is a long-rolled steel producer and the wire steel producer in Latin America in terms of both capacity and sales. During 2010, ArcelorMittal Brasil S.A.�� steel production facilities included one integrated plant, one semi-integrated steel plant, three mini-mills, nine wire plants and three plants that produce transformed steel products. In addition, ArcelorMittal Brasil S.A., through its subsidiary, produces charcoal from eucalyptus forestry operations that is used to fuel its furnaces in Juiz de Fora and or to exchange for pig iron with local producers, and through the jointly controlled entity Guilman Amorin, produces energy used to supply the Joao Monlevade plant. During 2010, it produced 3.4 million tons of crude steel and a total of 3.3 million tons of rolled products, of which 0.6 million tons were processed to manufacture wire products. Andrade Mine is an iron ore producer located in the Minas Gerais state of Brazil. In 2010, Andrade Mine produced 1.6 million tons of iron ore.

ArcelorMittal Mineracao Serra Azul is an iron ore producer located in the Minas Gerais state of Brazil. It supplies sinter feed to ArcelorMittal plants in Europe and domestic market and also lump ore for local pig iron producers and certain ArcelorMittal Brasil integrated plants. During 2010, ArcelorMittal Mineracao Serra Azul produ! ced 3.3 m! illion tons of iron ore. It produces rebars, wire rod, merchant bars, special bar quality (SBQ), wires, wire mesh, cut and bend and drawn bars. Acindar�� own distribution network can also service end-users. ArcelorMittal Point Lisas Ltd. is a steelmaker in the Caribbean. During 2010, ArcelorMittal Point Lisas exported substantially all of its wire rod shipments, to steel manufacturers in South and Central America, the Caribbean and the United States. ArcelorMittal USA produces both flat and long carbon products. During 2010, ArcelorMittal Montreal Inc. produced 1.8 million tons of crude steel. ArcelorMittal Duisburg GmbH�� production facilities are located in Ruhrort and Hochfeld, Germany. During 2010, ArcelorMittal Duisburg GmbH produced 1.2 million tons of crude steel. During 2010, ArcelorMittal Hamburg GmbH produced one million tons of crude steel. ArcelorMittal Poland S.A. produces both flat carbon and long carbon products. ArcelorMittal Ostrava�� production facilities are located in Ostrava, Czech Republic. As of December 31, 2010, ArcelorMittal Energy Ostrava had 11 boilers. During 2010, ArcelorMittal Rodange & Schifflange produced 0.7 million tons of crude steel. During 2010, ArcelorMittal Warszawa S.p.z.o.o. produced 0.5 million tons of crude steel. During 2010, ArcelorMittal Madrid produced 0.4 million tons of crude steel.

ArcelorMittal Zaragoza is located in Aragon, in northeastern Spain. During 2010, ArcelorMittal Zaragoza produced 0.5 million tons of crude steel. During 2010, ArcelorMittal Zenica produced 0.6 million tons of crude steel. During 2010, ArcelorMittal Prijedor produced 1.4 million tons of iron ore. ArcelorMittal Annaba produces both long and flat products. Its flat product range includes slabs, hot rolled and cold-rolled coils and sheets, hot-dipped galvanized products and tin plates, and its long product range includes billets, wire-rods, rebars and seamless tubes. Societe Nationale de Siderurgie (Sonasid) is a steel producer in Morocco and has facilities in! Nador, J! orf and Lasfar. Its facilities consist of one electric arc furnace, one continuous caster, one wire rod and one bar mill. Sonasid produces steel bars and rods. These products include reinforcing bars, wire rods and merchant bars. During 2010, Sonasid produced 0.5 million tons of crude steel. ArcelorMittal Hunedoara�� facilities are located in Romania. Its production facilities are one electric arc furnace, two continuous casters and a sections rolling mill. During 2010, Arcelor Mittal Hunedoara produced 0.1 million tons of crude steel. During 2010, ArcelorMittal Tubular Products division operated 19 operating units in Europe, North America, South America, CIS and Africa. The division caters to the energy, mechanical and automotive tubing and components markets. The facilities include four facilities producing seamless tubes, three facilities producing large diameter welded tubes, 10 facilities producing electric resistance welded (ERW) tubes, one facility producing cold drawn tubes and two facilities producing automotive components using welded tubes.

AACIS

ArcelorMittal�� AACIS segment has production facilities in Asia and Africa, including Kazakhstan, Ukraine, South Africa and Russia. During 2010, ArcelorMittal South Africa Ltd. produced 5.5 million tons of crude steel. OJSC ArcelorMittal Kryviy Rih�� integrated steel plant consists of six coke oven plants, three sintering plants, six blast furnaces, six basic oxygen furnaces, two open hearth furnaces, two blooming mills and six light section / bar mills and three wire rod mills. ArcelorMittal Temirtau�� wholly owned integrated steel plant located in the Karaganda region of Kazakhstan, consists of six coke oven batteries of which six are operating, three sinter plants, four blast furnaces (three of which are operational), three basic oxygen furnaces, two continuous slab casters, one hot strip mill, two cold rolling mills and three tinning lines, one hot dip galvanizing and one aluminum-zinc coating lines, one color ! coating l! ine, two welded pipe mills and a bar mill.

JSC ArcelorMittal Temirtau�� products includes pig iron, continuous caster slabs, hot- and cold-rolled coils and sheets, black plates, covers, tin plates, hot dipped galvanized products, color coated products and welded pipes, bars, sections and re-bars. JSC ArcelorMittal Temirtau has four iron ore mines in central Kazakhstan. ArcelorMittal Northern Kuzbass in Siberia, Russia includes the Berezovskaya and Pervomayskaya mines, as well as the Severnaya coal washery. The main consumers of the coking coal produced are OJSC ArcelorMittal Kryviy Rih and some local coke producers.

Distribution Solutions

Distribution Solutions is primarily the in-house trading and distribution arm of ArcelorMittal. It also provides steel solutions. It services a range of customer industries, including automotive, construction, household appliances, public works, civil engineering and general industry. The range of Distribution Solutions is offered through a network covering 30 countries, while specific solutions are dispatched in five business units: ArcelorMittal Construction Solutions, ArcelorMittal International, ArcelorMittal Projects, ArcelorMittal Total Offer Processing, ArcelorMittal Wire Solutions. The range of distribution solutions is organized across geographical areas through locally empowered management: Benelux, Central and Eastern Europe, France, Germany/Switzerland, Iberia, Italy, the Maghreb, Turkey/Mediterranean, South America, Poland, the United Kingdom/Scandinavia. The processing facilities provide services for flat and long carbon steel, as well as for specialty products, from light finishing work on beams to an integrated offer of slit coils, sheets and blanks.

ArcelorMittal Construction Solutions provides its customers with steel-based solutions for cladding, roofing, flooring and structure. ArcelorMittal International is the global sales network supplying ArcelorMittal products from over 30 mills outside ! of their ! home markets. ArcelorMittal Projects provides distribution solutions and services for projects in foundation solutions, infrastructure, oil and gas and building related steel constructions. ArcelorMittal Total Offer Processing provides a global offer in steel processing, ranging from design to production and from the logistics of steel components to steel solutions for industrial accounts. ArcelorMittal Wire Solutions is a global industrial wiredrawer, serving sectors, such as agriculture, automotive, construction, energy and general industry.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Ben Levisohn]

  Shares of U.S. Steel have dropped 2.9% to 25.57 at 10:03 a.m. but don’t seem to have impact other steel stocks much, if at all. Steel Dynamics (STLD) has dropped 0.6% to $18.07, while Nucor (NUE) has dipped 0.2% to $51.56. ArcelorMittal (MT), however, has gained 0.2% to $16.15 and AK Steel (AKS) has risen 0.6% to $6.92.

• [By Dan Caplinger]

  U.S. Steel (NYSE: X  ) will release its quarterly report on Tuesday, and investors have hoped that the worst could be over for the steel industry. Yet even as rivals Nucor (NYSE: NUE  ) and ArcelorMittal (NYSE: MT  ) have seen some signs of relative strength, U.S. Steel recently had some bad news that could force it to play catch-up to participate in a long-awaited steel recovery.

• [By Rich Duprey]

  Taking a siesta
  Time magazine labeled the French factory in Amiens as Goodyear's "nightmare." Despite trying to work with the unions over the years to change work hours or eliminate redundancies and prevent just such an outcome, the unions thwarted every entreaty. The government has a heavy-handed way of dealing with closures and layoffs, for example castigating ArcelorMittal (NYSE: MT  ) for also having the temerity to want to close down an unprofitable facility.�So just because Goodyear says it wants to end the bloodletting doesn't mean it will happen anytime soon. �

• [By Jonathan Yates]

  ArcelorMittal (NYSE: MT) is the world's largest steel company, and it is a mess.

  It expanded at the worst possible time and its shareholders have paid the price. The company's stock plunged during the Great Recession -- from over $100 in June 2008 to under $18 now. It has started to recover, up more than 13 percent for 2013. But there is tremendous potential in both ArcelorMittal and the steel sector, which makes it an ideal investment for a family office.

5 Best Logistics Stocks To Invest In Right Now: Newpark Resources Inc (NR)

Newpark Resources, Inc., incorporated on June 3, 1988, is a diversified oil and gas supplier providing products and services primarily to the oil and gases exploration (E&P) industry. The Company operates in three segments: fluids systems and engineering, mats and integrated services, and environmental services. The Company's Fluids Systems and Engineering segment provides customized drilling fluids solutions to E&P customers globally, operating through four geographic regions: North America, Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA), Latin America, and Asia Pacific. The Company's Mats and Integrated Services segment provides composite mat rentals, well site construction and related site services to oil and gas customers at well, production, transportation and refinery locations in the United States. The Company's Environmental Services segment processes and disposes of waste generated by E&P and industrial activity, primarily along the United States Gulf Coast. On December 31, 2012, it acquired operations of Alliance Drilling Fluids, LLC

Fluids Systems and Engineering

The Company's Fluids Systems and Engineering business offers customized solutions, including technical drilling projects involving complex subsurface conditions, such as horizontal, directional, geologically deep or deep water drilling. These projects require increased monitoring and critical engineering support of the fluids system during the drilling process. The Company provides drilling fluids products and technical services to markets in North America, EMEA, Latin America, and the Asia Pacific region. The Company also provides completion services and equipment rental to customers in Oklahoma and Texas. The Company has industrial mineral grinding operations for barite. The Company grinds barite and other industrial minerals at facilities in Houston and Corpus Christi, Texas, New Iberia, Louisiana and Dyersburg, Tennessee. The Company uses the resulting products in its drilling fluids business, and also sell! s them to third party users, including other drilling fluids companies. The Company also sells a variety of other minerals, principally to third party industrial (non oil and gas) markets, from its main plant in Houston, Texas and from the plant in Dyersburg, Tennessee.

Mats and Integrated Services

The Company provides mat rentals, location construction and related well sites services to E&P customers in the Northeast United States, onshore United States Gulf Coast, and Rocky Mountain regions, and mat rentals to the petrochemical industry in the United States and the utility industry in the United Kingdom. These mats provide environmental protection and ensure all-weather access to sites with unstable soil conditions. The Company manufactures its DuraBase Advanced Composite Mats for sales, as well as for uses in its domestic and international rental operations. The Company's marketing efforts for this product remain focused in principal oil and gas industry markets which include the Asia Pacific, Latin America, EMEA, as well as markets outside the E&P sector in the United States and Europe.

Environmental Services

The Company processes and disposes of waste generated by its oil and gas customers. Primary revenue sources include onshore and offshore Gulf of Mexico drilling waste management, as well as reclamation services. Additionally, the Company provides disposal services in the West Texas market. The Company operates six receiving and transfers facilities located along the United States Gulf Coast. E&P waste is collected at the transfer facilities from drilling and production operations located offshore, onshore and within inland waters. Waste is accumulated at the transfer facilities and moved by barge through the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway to the Company's processing and transfer facility at Port Arthur, Texas, and, if not recycled, is trucked to injection disposal facilities. Any remaining material is injected, after further processing, into envir! onmentall! y secure geologic formations. Under permits from Texas state regulatory agencies, the Company operates waste disposal facilities in Jefferson County, Texas (Fannett and Big Hill). The Fannett site is the Company's primary facility for disposing of E&P waste. Utilizing this same technology, the Company also receives and disposes of non-hazardous industrial waste at the Big Hill facility, principally from generators in the United States Gulf Coast market, including refiners, manufacturers, service companies and industrial municipalities that produce waste. These non-hazardous waste streams are injected into a separate well utilizing the same low-pressure injection technology. The Company also disposes of non-hazardous industrial waste.

The Company competes with Schlumberger, Halliburton and Baker Hughes.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Travis Hoium]

  What: Shares of energy service provider Newpark Resources (NYSE: NR  ) jumped 17% today after the company released earnings.

  So what: Revenue was up 7.7%, to $283 million in the first quarter, and net income jumped 11.1%, to $17.4 million, or $0.18 per share. Analysts only expected $278 million in revenue, and earnings of $0.17 per share, and the slight beat was enough to send shares higher. It didn't hurt that the report was accompanied by a $50 million share repurchase plan, which indicates that management is bullish on the company's long-term future.�

5 Best Logistics Stocks To Invest In Right Now: Towers Watson & Co (TW)

Towers Watson & Co. operates as a global professional services company that provides human capital, and financial consulting services worldwide. The company operates in four segments: Benefits, Risk and Financial Services, Talent and Rewards, and Exchange Solutions. The Benefits segment offers benefits consulting and administration services, such as retirement solutions, which support organizations in designing, managing, administering, and communicating retirement plans; and health and group benefits that provides advice on the strategy, design, financing, delivery, ongoing plan management, and communication of health and group benefit programs. This segment also offers its technology and administration solutions to deliver benefit outsourcing solutions; and international consulting services, which provide expertise in dealing with international human capital management and related benefits, and compensation advice. The Risk and Financial Services segment offers risk cons ulting and financial modeling software solutions primarily to the insurance industry; reinsurance and insurance brokerage services; and investment consulting and solutions covering investment strategy risk assessment, asset allocation, and investment manager selection to institutional investors. The Talent and Rewards segment provides executive compensation advisory services; employee rewards, talent management, and communication and change management services; and data, analytics, survey, and technology solutions. The Exchange Solutions segment operates the private Medicare insurance exchange in the United States that enables employers to transition their retirees to individual, defined contribution health plans. The company was formerly known as Watson Wyatt Worldwide, Inc. and changed its name to Towers Watson & Co. in January 2010 as a result of merging with Towers, Perrin, Forster & Crosby, Inc. Towers Watson & Co. was founded in 1871 and is headquartered in New York, N ew York.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Keith Speights]

  Towers Watson (NYSE: TW  ) wasn't far behind in announcing several large health insurers signing up to participate in its OneExchange private health insurance exchange. Participating insurers include Aetna, Anthem, Kaiser Permanante, and UnitedHealthcare. Towers Watson also recently bought Extend Health, which runs the largest private Medicare exchange in the nation.�

• [By Benjamin Shepherd] The US health care industry is among the heaviest regulated in the nation. Most health care-related companies must answer to federal, state and, in many cases, local regulators.
  
  That regulatory burden will only grow more complex, as myriad new rules under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, or “Obamacare,” come into effect over the next few months. In just 22 days, the first insurance exchanges are supposed to come online. On January 1, the individual mandate and changes in coverage standards become effective.
  
  Many health care businesses and organizations were dragging their feet in complying with Obamacare’s provisions, waiting to see how the Supreme Court would come down on the law. The court didn’t rule on Obamacare until June 2012, a decision in which it upheld the law almost in its entirety.
  
  Given that delayed decision, a study conducted by the Government Accountability Office this past June found that only 44 percent of key activities required for full compliance had been completed, particularly where health insurance exchanges were concerned.
  
  As a result, there’s a massive scramble underway to achieve minimum compliance levels with the law. But there’s a paucity of workers with the requisite knowledge of federal and insurance regulations required to help companies and state governments navigate the labyrinth of regulations.
  
  That’s creating a lot of work for consultancies such as Huron Consulting Group (NSDQ: HURN), which focuses almost exclusively on the health care sector.
  
  While the company also works in the legal, financial, education and life sciences arenas, it primarily helps hospitals, health systems and physician groups reduce costs, maximize reimbursements from both federal and private insurers and transition towards the value-based care mandated under Obamacare. In future years, reimbursements will transition towards rewarding health care organizations tha
• [By Teresa Rivas]

  Towers Watson & Co. (TW) is down slightly today, but analysts are optimistic that the stock can climb higher, given its acquisition of privately held Liazon Corporation for $125 million.

  Liazon develops private benefit exchanges and online benefit markets for employees, an area where human resources and benefit solutions provider Towers Watson has already built a name for itself.

  Analysts are looking at the acquisition favorably, even if the market is skeptical today. Deutsche Bank analysts Paul Ginocchio and Ato Garrett today reiterated their Buy rating on Towers Watson and raised their target price by $5 to $130.

  From the note:

  TW has gotten more bullish on the adoption rate of exchanges: The adoption rate of exchanges is happening faster than TW expected just 6 months ago. TW agrees with forecasts of 35-70m covered lives (employees + dependents) on an exchange in 5-yrs. TW expects middle market companies to potentially adopt faster than large market companies, thus it has acquired Liazon to meet that need now. OneExchange Active will continue to focus on the large market (>10,000 employees) while Liazon focuses on the mid-market (1,000 to 10,000) via its insurance brokerage sales network.

  Liazon should help TW close the gap in the active exchanges: On 1/1/14, TW will have about 140,000 lives on its two active exchange platforms (40,000 on OneExchange Active and 100,000 on Liazon) and is targeting up to 1m lives for 1/1/15. AON has stated it will have over 600,000 covered lives on its exchange on 1/1/14, Bucks (Xerox) will have 400,000 and Mercer 165,000. The Liazon acquisition moves TW�� size much closer to Mercer and puts TW in a position to capture 25-33% market share longer-term.

  MKM Partners is also bullish about Towers��prospects. Analysts Darren Marcus and Harry Fong reiterated a Buy rating and $140 price target on the stock writing: ��hile Towers had an existing presence in the active employee excha

5 Best Logistics Stocks To Invest In Right Now: Xilinx Inc (XLNX)

Xilinx, Inc. (Xilinx), incorporated on February 5, 1984, designs, develops and markets programmable platforms. These programmable platforms have a number of components, including integrated circuits (ICs) in the form of programmable logic devices (PLDs), including Extensible Processing Platforms (EPPs); software design tools to program the PLDs; targeted reference designs; printed circuit boards, and intellectual property (IP), which consists of Xilinx and various third-party verification and IP cores. In addition to its programmable platforms, Xilinx provides design services, customer training, field engineering and technical support. The Company�� PLDs include field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), complex programmable logic devices (CPLDs) that its customers program to perform logic functions, and EPPs. Xilinx�� products are offered to electronic equipment manufacturers in end markets, such as wired and wireless communications, industrial, scientific and medical, aerospace and defense, audio, video and broadcast, consumer, automotive and data processing. The Company sells its products globally through independent domestic and foreign distributors and through direct sales to original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) by a network of independent sales representative firms and by a direct sales management organization. In January 2011, the Company acquired AutoESL Design Technologies, Inc. In August 2012, the Company acquired embedded Linux solutions provider PetaLogix.

Product Families

The 7 series devices that comprise the Company�� 28-nanometer (nm) product families are fabricated on a high-K metal gate 28-nm process technology. These devices are based on an architecture, which enables design and IP portability and re-use across all families, as well as provides designers the ability to achieve the appropriate combination of I/O support, performance, feature quantities, packaging and power consumption to address a range of applications. The 7 series devices consist of! three families: Virtex-7 FPGA, Kintex-7 FPGAs and Artix-7 FPGAs. The Zynq-7000 family is the family of Xilinx EPPs. The Virtex-6 FPGA family consists of 13 devices and is the sixth generation in the Virtex series of FPGAs.

Virtex-6 FPGAs are fabricated on a high-performance, 40-nm process technology. There are three Virtex-6 families: Virtex-6 LXT FPGAs, Virtex-6 SXT FPGAs and Virtex-6 HXT FPGAs. The Spartan-6 family is the PLD industry�� 45-nm high-volume FPGA family, consisting of 11 devices in two product families: Spartan-6 LX FPGAs and Spartan-6 LXT FPGAs. The Virtex-5 FPGA family consists of 26 devices in five product families: Virtex-5 LX FPGAs for logic-intensive designs, Virtex-5 LXT FPGAs for high-performance logic with serial connectivity, Virtex-5 SXT FPGAs for high-performance DSP with serial connectivity, Virtex-5 FXT FPGAs for embedded processing with serial connectivity and Virtex-5 TXT FPGAs for high-bandwidth serial connectivity. Prior generation Virtex families include Virtex-4, Virtex-II Pro, Virtex-II, Virtex-E and the original Virtex family. Spartan family FPGAs include 90-nm Spartan-3 FPGAs, the Spartan-3E family and the Spartan-3A family. Prior generation Spartan families include Spartan-IIE, Spartan-II, Spartan XL and the original Spartan family.

Design Platforms and Services

The Company offers three types of programmable platforms. The Base Platform is the delivery vehicle for all of its new silicon offerings used to develop and run customer-specific software applications and hardware designs. The Base Platform consists of FPGA silicon; Integrated Software Environment (ISE) Design Suite design environment; integration support of optional third-party synthesis, simulation, and signal integrity tools; reference designs; development boards and IP. The Domain-Specific Platform targets one of the three primary Xilinx FPGA user profiles: the embedded processing developer; the DSP developer; or the logic/connectivity developer. The Market-S! pecific P! latform enables software or hardware developers to build and run their specific application or solution. Built for specific markets, such as automotive, consumer, aerospace and defense, communications, audio, video and broadcast, industrial, or scientific and medical, the Market-Specific Platform integrates both the Base and Domain-Specific Platforms.

During April 2012, Xilinx introduced the Vivado Design Suite. Vivado supports Xilinx 7 series FPGAs and Zynq EPPs. Xilinx and various third parties offer hundreds of no charge and fee-bearing IP core licenses covering Ethernet, memory controllers Interlaken and PCIe interface, as well as domain-specific IP in the areas of embedded, DSP and connectivity, and market-specific IP cores. The Company also offers development kits, including hardware, design tools, IP and reference designs. Xilinx offers a range of configuration products, including one-time programmable and in-system programmable storage devices to configure Xilinx FPGAs. These programmable read-only memory (PROM) products support all of the Company�� FPGA devices. Xilinx and certain third parties have developed and offer a ecosystem of IP, boards, tools, services and support through the Xilinx alliance program. Xilinx also works with these third parties to promote its programmable platforms through third-party tools, IP, software, boards and design services. Xilinx engineering services provide customers with engineering, ranging from hands-on training to full design creation and implementation.

The Company competes with Altera Corporation, Lattice Semiconductor Corporation and Microsemi Corporation.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Jon C. Ogg]

  Xilinx Inc. (NASDAQ: XLNX) was raised to Outperform from Sector Perform with a $55 price target (versus $a 46.54 close) at Pacific Crest.

  Last week we featureed�top stocks to buy trading under $10 as a Wall Street analyst montage. We now have more of those under $10 stock picks.

• [By kcpl]

  Altera�(ALTR)'s performance has been weak as shares are down almost 9% so far this year as compared to peers such as Xilinx (XLNX) and Lattice Semiconductor.

• [By Lee Jackson]

  Xilinx Inc. (NASDAQ: XLNX) was recently raised to an overweight rating at Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) and should be able to contain any earnings degradation as a result from lowered orders from Cisco. The consensus price target for the stock stands at $47, and investors are paid a 2.2% dividend.