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.
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