Top Valued Stocks For 2014

Shares of Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL  ) recently broke $500 a share for the first time since January, but it looks as if the rollercoaster ride is far from over for the company and its shareholders. In fact, compared with the first half of the year, in which the company's share price lagged significantly but little happened, we're heading into the half of the year that matters most for the tech giant. As we now know, we're less than a month away from Apple's first big product launch of the year. This has clearly helped boost its share price somewhat. However, the tech power still remains patently undervalued in the eyes of tech and telecom analyst Andrew Tonner, as he explains in the following video.

As Apple gets set for a big-time refresh of its iPhone, investors are learning again that Apple has a history of cranking out revolutionary products and then creatively destroying them with something better. Read about the future of Apple in the free report "Apple Will Destroy Its Greatest Product." Can Apple really disrupt its own iPhones and iPads? Find out by clicking here.

5 Best Performing Stocks For 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 Ben Levisohn]

  Shares of Herbalife have gained 0.9% to $79.51 this morning in pre-open trading. Its shares have gained 139% this year, a nice gain, but lagging Nu Skin Enterprises 271% rise. Avon Products�(AVP), another multi-level marketer, has gained 21% so far this year, while Tupperware Brands�(TUP) has risen 49%.

Top Valued Stocks For 2014: 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 Terri Stridsberg]

  Dollar Tree (DLTR), has had a banner 2013, gaining 45.3% year-to-date, and tagging a new record high of $59.68. Nevertheless, short interest skyrocketed by close to 398% over the most recent reporting period, and now accounts for a healthy 6.7% of the equity's available float.

• [By Teresa Rivas]

  Dollar General (DG) ended up on news it may bid for Family Dollar (FDO), which also logged gains at the expense of its current suitor, Dollar Tree (DLTR). Walgreen (WAG) gave up earlier gains on its July sales update to end the day in the red

Top Valued Stocks For 2014: 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 Taylor Muckerman and Joel South]

  Gulf of Mexico delivering boatloads of profit
  Already, several companies have spoken glowingly about activity levels in the Gulf of Mexico. Not just drillers like Noble Corp (NYSE: NE  ) �but also equipment and service companies like Halliburton (NYSE: HAL  ) and Schlumberger (NYSE: SLB  ) . What we are seeing here is a steady increase in both dayrates and utilization rates, which are both�very�positive signs for drillship operators.

• [By Daniel Gibbs]

  The consumption of oil worldwide isn't going�anywhere anytime soon, so the activities of oil companies in these areas must increase as more conventional fields steadily decline. As the oil companies steadily increase their activities in the offshore space, particularly in ultra-deepwater areas, contractors will be forced to construct more rigs. They will thus require equipment produced by National Oilwell Varco and its peers Cameron International (NYSE: CAM  ) and Schlumberger (NYSE: SLB  ) .

• [By Lee Jackson]

  Schlumberger Ltd. (NYSE: SLB) is another mega cap oil field services stock to buy for 2014. Strong offshore drilling activity combined with a seasonal rebound in Western Canadian activity have driven Schlumberger’s recent growth. Going into 2014, Schlumberger sees five markets providing strong growth: Russia, Sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East, China and Australia. Shareholders are paid a 1.4% dividend. The Deutsche Bank price target is $124, and the consensus is lower at $110. Schlumberger closed Monday at $89.17.

• [By Jonas Elmerraji]

  Most of the selling last quarter took place in the energy sector -- and within it, no single stock got sold off as hard by funds as Schlumberger (SLB). All told, funds unloaded more than 4.57 million shares of the oil field servicer, a stake that's worth close to $430 million at current price levels. So, should you sell too? Not so fast.

  Schlumberger is the biggest oil service company on the planet. The firm's revenues come from a menu of specialized field services such as seismic surveys and well drilling and positioning. In a nutshell, SLB's job is to pull oil out of the ground as efficiently as possible -- and with oil prices in freefall, SLB's value proposition matters more now than it did when crude was trading in the triple-digits. Oil firms turn to Schlumberger because the tasks they need to accomplish are too nuanced or proprietary to pull off in-house. And that gives the firm a deep economic moat.

  Another part of SLB's deep moat comes from boots on the ground. Because Schlumberger is on-site at its clients' well locations, the firm is able to sell more complementary services at one time. The energy sector has gotten shellacked in the last few months, and frankly, that downward pressure isn't showing any signs of letting up. That said, SLB's revenues don't ebb and flow exactly in step with crude prices (unlike its clients), and shares look oversold here.

Top Valued Stocks For 2014: 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 Arjun Sreekumar]

  General Electric (NYSE: GE  ) and Caterpillar (NYSE: CAT  ) , the biggest manufacturers of locomotives in the world, are all too eager to take part. If the transition gains momentum, it could mark the most radical change in the industry since the 1950s, when diesel replaced steam as the fuel of choice.

• [By Dan Caplinger]

  Moreover, Manitowoc has managed to maintain a healthy backlog of orders that show the company's potential to sustain its long-term growth. With $776 million of outstanding crane orders as of March, the backlog represents about four months' worth of revenue for the segment, roughly in line with what industry giant Caterpillar's (NYSE: CAT  ) $20.4 billion in order backlog equates to as a proportion of its much larger total revenue. Yet Manitowoc hasn't seen Caterpillar's substantial contraction in sales recently, pointing to the crane-maker's greater resiliency.

Will Whole Foods’ Ongoing Investment Boost Its Store Sales?

The U.S. organic foods firm, Whole Foods Market (WFM), is currently facing intense competition from rivals which has been driving its comparable store sales on a downhill ride in the fiscal year 2014. In the entire year, same-store sales stood at 4.3%, down from 6.9% reported in the previous fiscal year. Hence, as a venture to boost sales in the next fiscal years the Fortune 500 company is ready to invest around $20 million on a national ad campaign. So, what is the campaign all about and how is the company expecting it to rejuvenate the slack in sales? Will it really aid the company in achieving the goal to improve its sales? Let's take a peek into the details of the campaign to understand how it can actually pull up the comparable store sales as well as the stock which has already plunged around 30% year to date. Investors are also highly concerned with the drop in the chain's sales growth amid increased organic grocery competition.

Campaign linked to sustainability

For years, Whole Foods proudly acclaimed that it is the sole retailer that has minimum expenditure on advertising and marketing than other retailers as it relied heavily on "word-of-mouth advocacy" by its customers, which it felt was far more valuable than "traditional advertising."

Back in the 1990s, Whole Foods was acquiring one company after another and shaping itself in the organic retail industry with almost no competition. But, now it's facing the heat from competitors who are more candid with their advertising strategies and, thus, Whole Foods has started to feel the pinch in the store sales count that is drastically affected by lack of marketing efforts. So, now, the company is trying to adapt to the reality in the marketplace. 

What is the campaign like?

The Austin-based organic supermarket giant has recently launched its first ever nationwide ad campaign in the U.S., in its desperate attempt to reverse the sales slump and share price slide.

Analysts' have estimated that the company would be spending up to $20 million on the campaign which would be run on television, in print, online, outdoors and in its 399 stores until December. In fact this represents almost four times more than what the company had spent in the previous fiscal year on advertising. The natural foods retail giant is now seeking to buck up the downward trajectory by putting its values at the center of the group's largest ever brand marketing campaign in its 35-year history.

In the 60 second "Values Matter Anthem" the company declares – "We are hungrier for better than we ever realised. We want to know where our food comes from. We want to trust our sources. We want people and animals and the places our food comes from to be treated fairly. The time is ripe to champion the way food is grown and raised and caught. So it's good for us, and for the greater good, too. This is where it all comes to fruition. This is where values matter. Whole Foods Market, America's healthiest grocery store."

Top 10 Beverage Companies To Watch In Right Now

This central narrative plays a number of separate ads such as in a com

10 Best Gas Stocks To Invest In Right Now

With up to half the nation facing subzero cold and some areas facing the chilliest temperatures in nearly two decades, utility companies are bracing for fallout, adding extra energy-generating capacity and repair crews, urging customers to limit power use and warning others that they're likely to see higher heating bills.

Demand for natural gas prompted Xcel Energy to ask 850 businesses in Minnesota and North Dakota to reduce their reliance on the utility and switch to propane tank supplies so the utility can meet higher demand from other customers. Natural gas use has surged nearly 50% over year-ago levels, says spokeswoman Patti Nystuen. Montana-Dakota Utilities, which services 130,000 customers in four states, was experiencing similar increases.

Dominion Power, whose service areas include Virginia and the Carolinas, has readied 11 seldom-used power generators to handle increased demand. They usually run less than 25% of the year and are used to supplement energy needs in the hottest and coldest periods, says spokesman Dan Genest.

Top Dow Dividend Stocks To Buy For 2015: Dejour Energy Inc (DEJ)

Dejour Energy Inc. is engaged in the business of acquiring, exploring and developing energy projects with a focus on oil and gas exploration in Canada and the United States. The Company holds approximately 113,000 net acres of oil and gas leases in the Peace River Arch of northwestern British Columbia and northeastern Alberta, Canada and the Piceance, Paradox and Uinta Basins in the United States Rocky Mountains. The Company has 71.43% working interest in this 3,014 acre (gross) project located south of Roan Creek. The Company also has 71.43% working interest in this 18,000 acre (gross) project located north of the Rangely Field, is prospective for oil in the Lower Mancos (Niobrara), Dakota, Morrison and Phosphoria formations. Advisors' Opinion:

• [By CRWE]

  Vancouver, BC, Dec. 16, 2013 — (CRWE Press Release) — Dejour Energy Inc. (NYSE MKT:DEJ) (TSX:DEJ), an independent oil and natural gas exploration and production company operating in North America’s Piceance Basin and Peace River Arch regions, today announces that it has signed a Letter of Intent to create a strategic joint venture partnership with a private Singapore based energy company (��ECO�� to develop the company�� Colorado oil and gas assets.

  Upon completion of due diligence, legal documentation and requisite approvals expected prior to January 31, 2014, SECO will invest an initial sum of up to $27.5mm in 2014 and 2015 to earn an 85% share in Dejour�� interests in its Colorado properties, primarily Kokopelli, subject to certain interest claw backs available to Dejour. Following this capital investment by SECO, the partners will continue to judiciously develop the reserves on a pro rata basis.

  The terms of the agreement include a capital injection to Dejour of approximately US$ 4.5mm, including cash and assumption of certain liability agreements on outstanding debt and the 100% development funding of an initial $10.5mm in capital expenditures in 2014 with a further $12mm in 2015, targeting Kokopelli, subject to certain provisions. Additionally, SECO will assume 85% of the ongoing overhead of Dejour�� U.S. operations and joint project management during the initial period. SECO will also share responsibility to maintain the other Dejour U.S. leases in good standing on a pro rata ownership basis or return them to Dejour in a timely fashion. Dejour will remain the operator of record.

  ��ECO shares Dejour�� value proposition relating to the company�� U.S. E&P portfolio. This partnership will bring many strategic advantages to Dejour: minimizing capital requirement in the short term, bolstering the company�� balance sheet and long term US cash flow, the provision of flexibility for Dejour to pursue new

10 Best Gas Stocks To Invest In Right Now: Emerald Oil Inc (EOX)

Emerald Oil, Inc. (Emerald) incorporated on May 31, 2011, is an independent oil and natural gas exploration and production company. The Company focuses on developing oil wells in the Williston Basin of North Dakota and Montana primarily targeting the Bakken and three forks shale oil formations. Emerald controls approximately 35,000 net acres in the Williston Basin. In February 2014, Emerald Oil Inc acquired core Bakken and Three Forks producing properties and undeveloped leasehold in McKenzie and Williams Counties, North Dakota.

Emerald holds positions in the Rocky Mountain oil and natural gas plays. It has approximately 14,500 net acres in the Sand Wash Basin in northwest Colorado prospective for oil in the Niobrara formation. It has approximately 33,500 net acres in central Montana prospective for oil in the Heath formation. The Company also has approximately 72,800 net acres in the Tiger Ridge Field located in Blaine, Hill, and Chouteau Counties, Montana, prospective for natural gas, and another approximate 1,700 net acres in the Denver-Julesburg (DJ) Basin in Weld County, Colorado, prospective for oil in the Niobrara formation.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Monica Gerson]

  Emerald Oil (NYSE: EOX) is projected to post a Q4 loss at $0.02 per share on revenue of $18.04 million.

  Callon Petroleum Company (NYSE: CPE) is estimated to post its Q4 earnings at $0.00 per share on revenue of $26.83 million.

• [By Bret Jensen]

  Emerald Oil (EOX) is a small (~$330mm) capitalization Bakken producer that I think has significant upside. It has fast growing production with sales tracking to better than a 70% gain this fiscal year and analysts' consensus for FY2014 have revenue more than doubling. A beneficial owner obviously finds the shares attractive as the entity took more than a $16mm stake in the firm in late May.

• [By John Udovich]

  Small cap Triangle Petroleum Corporation (NYSEMKT: TPLM), just like its peers Emerald Oil Inc (NYSEMKT: EOX) and Kodiak Oil & Gas Corp (NYSE: KOG), is focused on the Williston Basin�� Bakken and Three Forks formations and the company is scheduled to release second quarter fiscal year 2014 financial results after the close of trading�next Monday.�And the last time earnings were reported, shares jumped around 10% plus management gave some rosy commentary for investors. With that in mind, should investors in Triangle Petroleum Corporation be ready for another earnings report that excites the bulls?

10 Best Gas Stocks To Invest In Right Now: Newfield Exploration Co (NFX)

Newfield Exploration Company (Newfield), incorporated on December 5, 1988, is an independent energy company engaged in the exploration, development and production of crude oil, natural gas and natural gas liquids. The Company�� domestic areas of operation include the Mid-Continent, the Rocky Mountains and onshore Texas. Internationally, it focuses on offshore oil developments in Malaysia and China. As of December 31, 2011, it was in the process of drilling 16 gross (9.6 net) exploitation wells and 24 gross (19.7 net) development wells domestically. As of December 31, 2011, internationally, it was drilling one gross (0.6 net) exploratory well in Malaysia. In May 2011, the Company acquired assets in the Uinta Basin of Utah.

Resource Plays

As of December 31, 2011, the Company owned an interest in approximately 825,000 net acres in the Rocky Mountains area. Its assets are oil. It is an operator in the state of Utah, consisting approximately 30% of the state�� total oil production. It has approximately 230,000 net acres in the Uinta Basin and its operations in the Basin can be divided into two areas: its legacy Monument Butte and its position in the Central Basin, located immediately north and adjacent to Monument Butte. It has approximately 1,800 oil wells in the Green River formation in its Monument Butte field. Its acquisition of acreage north of Monument Butte added approximately 65,000 net acres, including the Uteland Butte and Wasatch formations. During the year ended December 31, 2011, it had drilled approximately 20 wells in these new plays with encouraging results. As of December 31, 2011, its net production from the Uinta Basin was approximately 22,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day.

The Company has approximately 65,000 net acres under development on the Nesson Anticline of North Dakota and west of the Nesson. In addition, it has about 40,000 net acres in the mature Elm Coulee field, located in Richland County, Montana. As of December 31, 2011, it had! drilled 67 wells in North Dakota with production from the Bakken formation. Its acreage is also prospective for the Sanish/Three Forks formation. As of December 21, 2011, its net production was approximately 7,500 barrels of oil equivalent per day. It has approximately 340,000 net acres in the Southern Alberta Basin of northern Montana. Its activities in the Mid-Continent have been focused on two natural gas plays - the Arkoma Woodford and the Granite Wash. As of December 31, 2011, it had approximately 480,000 net acres in the Mid-Continent and its production was approximately 330 millions of cubic feet equivalent per day.

The Company has more than 300,000 net acres in Oklahoma�� Woodford play. Approximately 170,000 net acres are in the Arkoma Woodford Basin. As of December 31, 2011, its net daily production in the Arkoma Woodford was approximately 180 millions of cubic feet equivalent per day. As of December 31, 2011, it had more than 125,000 net acres in the Cana Woodford play, located in the Anadarko Basin. The Company has approximately 50,000 net acres in the Granite Wash, located in Oklahoma and the Texas Panhandle. As of December 31, 2011, its net production from the region was approximately 101 millions of cubic feet equivalent per day. Its producing field in the Granite Wash includes Stiles/Britt Ranch, where it operates and owns 17,000 net acres. During 2011, it ran three to four operated rigs in the Granite Wash. It has approximately 317,000 net acres in the Eagle Ford and Pearsall shales in the Maverick Basin, located in Maverick, Dimmit and Zavala counties, Texas. As of December 31, 2011, it completed a total of 54 wells in the basin and its production was approximately 3,800 barrels of oil equivalent per day. The acreage includes multiple geologic horizons, including the Georgetown, Glen Rose, Pearsall, Austin Chalk and the Eagle Ford.

Conventional Plays

The Company has operations in conventional plays onshore Texas, offshore Malaysia and China and! in the G! ulf of Mexico. As of December 31, 2011, it owned an interest in approximately 147,000 net acres in conventional onshore Texas plays with net production of approximately 88 millions of cubic feet equivalent per day. Its international activities are focused on offshore oil developments in Southeast Asia and China. It has production and active developments offshore Malaysia and the People�� Republic of China. As of February 21, 2012, its net production from Malaysia was at 29,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day. It has an interest in approximately 925,000 net acres offshore Malaysia and approximately 290,000 net acres offshore the People�� Republic of China.

As of December 31, 2011, the Company owned interests in 91 deepwater leases and approximately 275,000 net acres. As of December 31, 2011, its net production from the Gulf of Mexico was approximately 75 millions of cubic feet equivalent per day. In February 2012, production commenced from its deepwater Pyrenees development, with net daily production of approximately 3,300 barrels of oil equivalent per day.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Travis Hoium]

  What: Shares of Newfield Exploration (NYSE: NFX  ) jumped 10% today after the company released earnings.

  So what: Domestic liquids production rose 9% and net production reached 11.7 million barrels of oil equivalent, at the high end of estimates. Earnings per share were $0.45, which was two cents ahead of estimates, ending a string of three straight earnings misses. �

10 Best Gas Stocks To Invest In Right Now: Matador Resources Co (MTDR)

Matador Resources Company is an independent energy company engaged in the exploration, development, production and acquisition of oil and natural gas resources in the United States, with an emphasis on oil and natural gas shale and other unconventional plays. Its operations are focused primarily on the oil and liquids-rich portion of the Eagle Ford shale play in South Texas and the Wolfcamp and Bone Spring plays in the Permian Basin in Southeast New Mexico and West Texas. The Company also operates in the Haynesville shale and Cotton Valley plays in Northwest Louisiana and East Texas. In addition, it has a large exploratory leasehold position in Southwest Wyoming and adjacent areas of Utah and Idaho where it is testing the Meade Peak shale.

As of December 31, 2012, the Company owned a 100% working interest in approximately 26,900 gross acres and 24,100 net acres in Gonzales, Karnes, LaSalle, Wilson and Zavala Counties and a 50% working interest in approximately 2,800 gross and 1,400 net acres in DeWitt County and are the operator of this acreage. It also owns an approximate 21% working interest in approximately 12,800 gross acres in Atascosa County operated by EOG Resources, Inc.

South Texas

The Company focuses on the exploration and development of its Eagle Ford shale properties in South Texas. During 2012, the Company completed and began producing oil and natural gas from 28 gross/24.5 net operated Eagle Ford shale wells, including 25 gross/23.7 net operated and 3 gross/0.8 net non-operated Eagle Ford shale wells. During 2012, 43% of its daily production, or 3,908 barrels of oil equivalent (BOE) per day, including 3,246 one stock tank barrel (Bbl) of oil per day and 4.0 one million cubic feet of natural gas (MMcf) of natural gas per day, was produced from the Eagle Ford shale in South Texas. During 2012, the Company drilled and completed a total of 32 gross/30.5 net Eagle Ford wells on its operated properties. As of December 31, 2012, its aggregate leasehold int! erests consisted of approximately 42,500 gross acres and 27,900 net acres in the Eagle Ford shale play in Atascosa, DeWitt, Gonzales, Karnes, LaSalle, Wilson and Zavala Counties in South Texas.

Northwest Louisiana and East Texas

During 2012, bout 56% of its average daily production, or 5,042 BOE per day, including 31 Bbl of oil per day and 30.1 MMcf of natural gas per day, was from its leasehold interests in Northwest Louisiana and East Texas. For the year ended December 31, 2012, about 76% of its daily natural gas production, or 26.0 MMcf of natural gas per day, was produced from the Haynesville shale, with another 12%, or 4.1 MMcf of natural gas per day, produced from the Cotton Valley and other shallower formations in this area. As of December 31, 2012, the Company had leasehold and mineral interests in approximately 22,300 gross and 14,200 net acres prospective for the Haynesville shale.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Ben Levisohn]

  Heading into today, Matador Resources (MTDR) had gained 40% so far this year, as the competitor to Anadarko Petroleum (APC) and EOG Resources (EOG) has boosted oil & gas revenue and oil production. Make that 32% after Matador Resources announced a secondary offering.

10 Best Gas Stocks To Invest In Right Now: Pacific Drilling SA (PACD)

Pacific Drilling S.A., incorporated on March 22, 2011, is an international offshore drilling Company. The Company is a provider of ultra-deepwater drilling services to the oil and natural gas industry through the use of high-specification drilling rigs. The Company�� primary business is to contract its ultra-deepwater drilling rigs, related equipment and work crews, primarily on a dayrate basis, to drill wells for its customers. The Company is primarily focused on the ultra-deepwater market. The Company generally consider ultra-deepwater to begin at water depths of more than 7,500 feet and to extend to the maximum water depths, in which rigs are capable of drilling, which is approximately 12,000 feet.

The Company operates four drillships and has four drillships under construction, two of which are under customer contract. In connection with the Restructuring, the Company�� Predecessor was contributed to a wholly owned subsidiary of the Company by a subsidiary of Quantum Pacific International Limited.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Ben Levisohn]

  Land drillers / pressure pumpers may be approaching valuation support levels and could be triggered to consolidate if current weakness persists. The theme could nevertheless be premature in offshore drilling as larger players (Diamond Offshore Drilling (DO)/Transocean/Seadrill) are still addressing dividend concerns while smaller companies (Atwood Oceanics (ATW)/Pacific Drilling (PACD)) still trade close to replacement value.

• [By Aaron Levitt]

  Management recently announced a hefty 50% hike in its quarterly dividend to 37.5 cents per share of NE stock. And with a 4.8% dividend yield, NE stock is now one of the best-paying dividend stocks in the energy sector.

  Dividend Stocks To Buy #5 — Pacific Drilling (PACD)

  Estimated Dividend Yield: 6.5%

• [By Ben Levisohn]

  On the surface, offshore drilling stocks appear inexpensive with multiples at the low end of historical ranges and many stocks trading below book values. While contrarian and deep value players are beginning to nibble, we believe the offshore floating rig companies are still in the early innings of a cyclical downturn in utilization and dayrates. After a decade of good times, the deepwater drilling rig market is facing a multiyear down-cycle. Historically, most offshore drilling cycles have been short-lived as there have usually been sudden demand shocks that tend to self correct relatively quickly. This time, it is more of a new rig supply problem compounded by a moderation in offshore spending from the suddenly ��eturn driven��multinational major oil companies. That means this down-cycle should be more drawn out than usual. Specifically, we think the downturn will take about three years to play out with average floater day-rates falling about 25% with over 60 floating rigs needing to be stacked (either warm stacked or cold stacked). More importantly for investors, we think consensus 2016 floater estimates (on average) are still about 25% too high. Put another way, earnings multiples are not as attractive as some now think, in our view. Obviously, the lower-end, older floating assets will be hit the hardest. While everyone loses in this environment, we are more comfortable in owning companies with higher-quality assets that also carry higher floater contract coverage, as we expect this to provide relative safety during this downturn. Specifically, we relatively favor Ocean Rig UDW (ORIG), Pacific Drilling (PACD), and Rowan, given their high-specification exposure. Of course, this downturn is not limited to the floater side of the offshore arena. Next week, we will detail our expectations for the timing and magnitude of the utilization and dayrate declines for the offshore jackup space.

10 Best Gas Stocks To Invest In Right Now: Pacific Coast Oil Trust (ROYT)

Pacific Coast Oil Trust is a statutory trust formed by Pacific Coast Energy Company LP (PCEC) to own interests in the Underlying Properties. As of December 31, 2011, the Underlying Properties consisted of the proved developed reserves on the Underlying Properties, which it refers to as the Developed Properties, and all other development potential on the Underlying Properties, which it refers to as the Remaining Properties. The Underlying Properties are located in California in the Santa Maria and Los Angeles Basins. PCEC produces oil and natural gas from its Orcutt properties in the Santa Maria Basin. The production in the Orcutt oilfield is produced from formations utilizing conventional production methods.

PCEC is engaged in the production and development of oil and natural gas from properties located in California. As of December 31, 2011, PCEC held interests in approximately 276 gross (215 net) producing wells, and had proved reserves of approximately 34.1 million barrels of oil equivalent. The Underlying Properties consist of producing and non-producing interests in oil units, wells and lands located onshore in California in the Santa Maria Basin, which contains PCEC�� Orcutt properties, and the Los Angeles Basin, which contains PCEC�� West Pico, East Coyote and Sawtelle properties. As of December 31, 2011, there were 37 producing wells and six waterflood injection wells in the West Pico Unit. West Pico also includes three wells held by the Stocker JV, a joint venture between PCEC and PXP.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Rich Duprey]

  Perpetual royalty trust�Pacific Coast Oil Trust (NYSE: ROYT  ) announced yesterday its July distribution of $0.15721�per unit. The amount of the trust's monthly distributions will fluctuate depending on the proceeds it receives from its owner, Pacific Coast Energy, as a result of actual production volumes, oil and gas prices, and development expenses.� The current distribution relates to net profits and overriding royalties generated during May 2013.

• [By Robert Rapier]

  We do follow them, but generally don�� like the risk/reward ratio for most MLP investors. I have had some conversations with investors who were chasing the 12-14% yields on these trusts without really appreciating the underlying risks. As you note,�Pacific Coast Oil Trust�(NYSE: ROYT) is near its 52-week low after declining by 25% over the past year. Those high yields provide little consolation given that sort of downside risk.

• [By Jake L'Ecuyer]

  Pacific Coast Oil Trust (NYSE: ROYT) down, falling 7.13 percent to $16.70 after the company priced a public offering by Pacific Coast Energy Company LP and other selling unitholders of 13,500,000 trust units at a price of $17.10 per unit.

10 Best Gas Stocks To Invest In Right Now: Neste Oil Corp (NES1V)

Neste Oil Corp is a Finland-based company engaged in the refining and marketing of petroleum and petroleum products. The Company has two business areas and four reporting segments. The business areas are: Oil Products & Renewables and Oil Retail. The reporting segments are: Oil Products, Renewable Fuels, Oil Retail and Others. The Oil Products & Renewables area produces and sells petroleum products such as gasoline, diesel fuel, aviation and bunker fuel, heating oil, heavy fuel oil, base oil, gasoline components, specialty fuels, fuels, liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) and bitumen as well as renewable diesel and aviation fuel under the brand name NExBTL. The Oil Retail area operates a network of 1,136 stations in Finland, the Russian Federations, the Baltic states and Poland, selling own products as well as lubricants and chemicals. The Company owns fuel refineries and production plants in Finland, Singapore and the Netherlands. Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Sarah Jones]

  Neste Oil Oyj (NES1V) gained 4.8 percent to 12.04 euros. CA Cheuvreux SA upgraded Finland�� only refiner to outperform, the equivalent of a buy recommendation, from underperform, saying it expects it to report resilient first-quarter results this month.

• [By Corinne Gretler]

  Neste Oil Oyj (NES1V) declined 9.1 percent to 14.25 euros after Citigroups Inc. cut Finland�� only oil refiner to sell from neutral, citing a deterioration in key profitability drivers for both renewables and refining divisions.

Top 10 Logistics Stocks To Watch Right Now

On Jul 5, we maintained our Neutral recommendation on United Parcel Service Inc. (UPS). The company�� improved business-to-customer (B2C) services, rate hikes, planned investment program and profitable alliances bear evidence to its strength. However, several headwinds could impede its operating results going forward. This transportation and logistics service provider holds a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).

Why Maintained?

We believe that United Parcel stands tall with a focused approach towards expansion, various strategic measures, collaborations with other leading firms, a well-defined business model and constant technology upgrades. The company�� policy of increasing freight and general rates on a regular basis remains a key driver for yield expansion in the current market scenario.

United Parcel is targeting to tap the growing opportunities in the health care business sector. With distribution units dedicated to health care in the key markets of North and South America, the company now plans to open health care distribution facilities in the emerging markets of China, India and Japan. To fortify its presence in Europe, United Parcel is set to acquire Hungary-based pharmaceutical logistics company CEMELOG Zrt.

Top 10 Industrial Conglomerate Companies To Own For 2015: Euro Tech Holdings Company Limited(CLWT)

Euro Tech Holdings Company Limited, through its subsidiaries and associated companies, engages in marketing and trading air, water, and waste water related process control, analytical, and testing instruments, as well as disinfection equipment and related automation systems. The company distributes a range of advanced air and water pollution control equipment, chlorination equipment, laboratory instruments, analyzers, test kits, and related supplies; and power generation related equipment, including recorders and power quality analyzers. It also manufactures air and water analytical instruments and testing equipment, as well as undertakes air, water, and waste-water treatment engineering projects. Euro Tech primarily sells its products through its retail shops and representative offices, as well as through independent sub-distributors to commercial customers, governmental agencies, or instrumentalities in Hong Kong and the People?s Republic of China. The company was found ed in 1971 and is headquartered in Hong Kong, Hong Kong.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By James E. Brumley]

  If you're like most investors, you've probably never heard of Euro Tech Holdings Co. Ltd. (NASDAQ:CLWT). I have a confession to make - until a few days ago, I hadn't heard of it either. Yet, in just the few short days I've had to get to know CLWT, I've come to the conclusion that if you're the kind of person who would be just as comfortable taking an extra $1000 to the casino as you would be in putting that money into a brokerage account and putting into a crazy stock, then Euro Tech Holdings may be worth a shot to you.

Top 10 Logistics Stocks To Watch Right Now: Sterling Bancorp(STL)

Sterling Bancorp operates as a bank holding company for Sterling National Bank that provides a range of banking and financial products and services in the Untied States primarily in New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut. It accepts various deposit products, including checking accounts, money market accounts, negotiable order of withdrawal accounts, savings accounts, rent security accounts, retirement accounts, and certificates of deposits; and deposit services comprising account management and information, disbursement, reconciliation, collection and concentration, ACH, and others. The company also provides business and consumer lending, asset-based financing, factoring/accounts receivable management services, equipment leasing, commercial and residential mortgage lending and brokerage, and trade financing services for commercial, industrial and financial companies, and government and non-profit entities. In addition, it offers financing and human resource business process outsourcing support services for the temporary staffing industry, which comprise full back-office, computer, tax, and accounting services, as well as financing to independently-owned staffing companies. The company operates 12 offices, including 9 offices in New York City, two branches in Nassau County, and 1 branch in Yonkers, New York. Sterling Bancorp was founded in 1929 and is based in New York, New York.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Jon C. Ogg]

  The M&T Bank Corp. (NYSE: MTB) and Hudson City Bancorp Inc. (NASDAQ: HCBK) transaction is the only pending deal of 2012 vintage due to various regulatory concerns. MTB currently has 9% short interest outstanding and PACW 15%. Another merger covered is the deal between Provident New York Bancorp (NASDAQ: PBNY) and Sterling Bancorp (NYSE: STL), and the balance are simply too small for us to warrant effort.

• [By Corinne Gretler]

  Statoil ASA (STL) rose 4.2 percent to 137.60 kroner. Norway�� biggest energy company made its third oil discovery off the coast of Canada in the Flemish Pass basin. Bank of America Corp. raised the stock to buy from neutral.

Top 10 Logistics Stocks To Watch Right Now: Salix Pharmaceuticals Ltd (SLXP)

Salix Pharmaceuticals, Ltd., incorporated on December 31, 2001, is a specialty pharmaceutical company dedicated to acquiring, developing and commercializing prescription drugs and medical devices used in the treatment of a variety of gastrointestinal disorders, which are those affecting the digestive tract. As of December 31, 2012, the Company�� products included XIFAXAN, MOVIPREP, APRISO, RELISTOR, OSMOPREP, SOLESTA, DEFLUX, FULYZAQ, GIAZO, METOZOLV ODT, AZASAN, ANUSOL-HC, PROCTOCORT, PEPCID, DIURIL and COLAZAL. As of December 31, 2012, its primary product candidates under development included Rifaximin, Methylnaltrexone bromide oral, Budesonide foam and Rifaximin EIR. In January 2014, Salix Pharmaceuticals, Ltd. acquired Santarus, Inc.

Xifaxan (rifaximin) tablets

Xifaxan is a gastrointestinal-specific oral antibiotic. The Food and Drug Administration ( FDA) approved Xifaxan 200 milligram for the treatment of patients 12 years of age and older with travelers��diarrhea caused by noninvasive strains of E coli. Xifaxan 550 milligram was approved by the FDA for reduction in risk of overt hepatic encephalopathy (HE), recurrence in patients 18 years of age or older.

It launched Xifaxan 200milligram in the United States and Xifaxan 550 milligram using its own direct sales force. The Company is exploring potential additional indications, formulations, clinical trials and co-promotion arrangements to capitalize on the potential for Xifaxan, including its development program in irritable bowel syndrome.

In October 2012, the USPTO declared an interference action to determine the priority of invention between Cipla�� application related to amorphous rifaximin and Solmag SpA�� application directed to amorphous rifaximin. In February 2012, the FDA posted draft bioequivalence guidance for rifaximin 550 milligram tablets. The draft guidance for rifaximin 550 milligram tablets recommends that in addition to conducting the program outlined in the FDA posted ! draft guidance document for rifaximin 200 milligram tablets discussed above, a single-dose, three-way crossover in-vivo study of fasting bioequivalence with pharmacokinetic endpoints in both fasting and fed states be performed in the 550 milligram tablets. Additionally, the guidance stipulated that the formulation of the 550 milligram strength should be proportionally similar to that of the 200 milligram strength in order to file an ANDA for approval of a generic rifaximin 550 milligram tablet for the treatment of hepatic encephalopathy.

MoviPrep (PEG 3350, sodium sulfate, sodium chloride, potassium chloride, sodium ascorbate and ascorbic acid) oral solution

MoviPrep is a patent-protected, liquid polyethylene glycol-salt, or PEG, bowel cleansing product that the FDA approved. MoviPrep is indicated for bowel cleansing prior to colonoscopy, intestinal surgery and barium enema X-ray examinations.

Apriso (mesalamine) extended-release capsules 0.375 gram

Apriso is a locally-acting aminosalicylate and is the only delayed and extended release mesalamine product approved by the FDA for once-a-day dosing for the maintenance of remission of ulcerative colitis. Apriso is designed to provide for the distribution of the active ingredient beginning in the small bowel and continuing throughout the colon. The product�� prolonged release mechanism might allow them to expand the range of treatment options for ulcerative colitis.

Relistor (methylnaltrexone bromide)

Relistor Subcutaneous Injection is indicated for the treatment of opioid-induced constipation (OIC) in patients with advanced illness who are receiving palliative care, when response to laxative therapy has not been sufficient. Relistor is approved for use in over 55 countries worldwide.

OsmoPrep and Visicol (sodium phosphate monobasic monohydrate, USP, sodium phosphate dibasic anhydrous, USP) tablets

Visicol and OsmoPrep tablets are indicated for clean! sing of t! he colon as a preparation for colonoscopy in adults 18 years of age or older. Visicol and OsmoPrep are the only, tablet bowel cleansing products approved by the FDA and marketed in the United States. OsmoPrep is a patented, second-generation tablet bowel cleansing product that the FDA approved. OsmoPrep offers potential benefits compared to Visico,l such as its lack of microcrystalline cellulose, smaller tablet size and possible lower dose administration.

Solesta

Solesta is a biocompatible tissue bulking agent, consisting of dextranomer microspheres and stabilized sodium hyaluronate. Solesta is indicated for the treatment of fecal incontinence in patients 18 years and older who have failed conservative therapy, such as diet, fiber therapy and/or anti-motility medications. It is the only injectable gel for this indication to be administered in an outpatient setting without the need for surgery or anesthesia.

Deflux

Deflux is a medical device indicated for children affected by Grades II-IV vesicoureteral reflux, a malformation of the urinary bladder that can result in severe infections of the kidneys and irreversible kidney damage. Deflux was granted premarket approval application (PMA) approval, and has been on the market in the United States.

Fulyzaq (crofelemer) delayed-release tablets

On December 31, 2012, the FDA granted marketing approval for this product, under the trade name Fulyzaq. Fulyzaq is indicated for the symptomatic relief of non-infectious diarrhea in adult patients with HIV/AIDS on anti-retroviral therapy. Fulyzaq should also be eligible for five years of marketing exclusivity from the date of FDA approval, and the product might be entitled to patent term restoration.

Giazo (balsalazide disodium) tablets

February 3, 2012, the FDA granted marketing approval for this product under the trade name Giazo. Giazo is indicated for the treatment of mildly to moderately active ulcerative col! itis in m! ale patients 18 years of age and older. It shipped Giazo to wholesalers in 2012.

Metozolv ODT (metoclopramide hydrochloride) 5 milligrams and 10 milligrams orally disintegrating tablets

METOZOLV ODT is indicated for the relief of symptomatic gastroesophageal reflux or short-term (4-12 weeks) therapy for adults with symptomatic, documented gastroesophageal reflux who fail to respond to conventional therapy and diabetic gastroparesis or the relief of symptoms in adults associated with acute and recurrent diabetic gastroparesis.

Azasan (azathioprine) tablets

Azasan is an FDA-approved drug that suppresses immune system responses and is indicated for preventing rejection of kidney transplants and treatment of severe arthritis. It launched the 75 and 100 milligrams dosage strengths of Azasan in the United States.

Anusol-HC and Proctocort (hydrocortisone) creams and suppositories

The Company acquired the right to sell Anusol-HC 2.5% (hydrocortisone USP) cream, Anusol-HC 25 milligrams (hydrocortisone acetate) rectal suppositories, Proctocort 1% (hydrocortisone USP) cream and Proctocort 30 mg (hydrocortisone acetate) rectal suppositories from King Pharmaceuticals, Inc. The two cream products are topical corticosteroids indicated for relief of the inflammatory and pruritic, or itching, manifestations of corticosteroid-responsive dermatoses. The two suppository products are indicated for use in inflamed hemorrhoids and postirradiation proctitis, as well as an adjunct in the treatment of chronic ulcerative colitis and other inflammatory conditions.

Pepcid (famotidine) for Oral Suspension and Diuril (Chlorothiazide)

Pepcid Oral Suspension is a widely known prescription pharmaceutical product indicated for several gastrointestinal indications, including the treatment of duodenal ulcer, benign gastric ulcer and gastro-esophageal reflux disease. Pepcid Oral Suspension and Diuril Oral Suspension, both liquid form! ulations ! of their solid dosage form counterparts, compete in a combined annual United States market concentrated in pediatric and hospitalized patient populations.

Colazal (balsalazide disodium) capsules

The Company launched Colazal to physicians in the United States. FDA approved Colazal for use in pediatric patients between 5 to 17 years of age with ulcerative colitis. The pediatric use of Colazal has been granted orphan drug designation. The Office of Generic Drugs, or OGD, approved three generic balsalazide capsule products.

The Company competes with GlaxoSmithKline plc, Giuliani S.p.A., Axcan Pharma, Inc., Abbott Laboratories, Warner Chilcott plc, Shire Pharmaceuticals Group plc, Pharmacia & Upjohn, Inc., Alaven Pharmaceutical LLC, Ferring Pharmaceuticals, Inc, Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited, Cumberland Pharmaceuticals, Inc, Prometheus Laboratories, Inc., Ranbaxy Pharmaceuticals, Ferndale Laboratories, GATE Pharmaceuticals , Nycomed , Medtronic, Inc., and Cubist Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Garrett Cook]

  Salix Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: SLXP) shares shot up 4.52 percent to $167.05 on report of takeover talks with Allergan. Allergan (NYSE: AGN) is set to acquire Salix Pharmaceuticals in a deal probably worth more than $10 billion, according to Dow Jones Newswires.

• [By Garrett Cook]

  Salix Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: SLXP) shares shot up 5.52 percent to $168.66 on report of takeover talks with Allergan. Allergan (NYSE: AGN) is set to acquire Salix Pharmaceuticals in a deal probably worth more than $10 billion, according to Dow Jones Newswires.

• [By Ben Levisohn]

  Salix Pharmaceuticals (SLXP) has jumped 5.9% to $160� on reports it was in talk to sell itself to Actavis (ACT). It was also upgraded to Neutral from Underperform at Credit Suisse.

Top 10 Logistics Stocks To Watch Right Now: Amarok Energy Inc (AMR)

Amarok Energy Inc.(Amarok ), formerly Drako Capital Corp. (Drako) is Canada-based company, engaged in oil and natural gas exploration and development in North America and Colombia. The Company operates in Canada, United States and Colombia. On February 27, 2012, Drako announced the completion of the Qualifying Transaction. On August 22, 2012, Drako Capital Corp. acquired Trilateral Energy Ltd. As part of the business acquisition of Trilateral a net carried working interest of 5% in Block LLA-21 for the two oil wells to be drilled on the Block LLA-21 property was acquired. As part of the business acquisition of Trilateral, oil and gas lease rights located in Montana, USA were acquired. 6,204 net acres (6,949 gross acres) of leases have been secured and approximately seven miles of two-dimensional (2D) seismic was acquired. Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Holly LaFon]

  Question (From Bill Miller of Legg Mason): The airline industry is plagued with terrible economics. With the pending merger with U.S. Air (LCC) and American (AMR)��the industry has been consistently profitable with double-digit returns. Do you think the industry�� improved economics are likely to improve?

• [By Dimitra DeFotis]

  A more temporary phenomenon beset airline stocks, with passenger revenue affected internationally by World Cup soccer mania. Leading the airline stocks lower were United Continental Holdings�(UAL),�Delta Air Lines (DAL) and American Airlines (AMR).

Top 10 Logistics Stocks To Watch Right Now: Cadiz Inc.(CDZI)

Cadiz Inc. engages in the acquisition and development of land and water resources in the United States. It focuses on water resource, agricultural, and solar energy development operations. The company owns approximately 35,000 acres of land in the Cadiz and Fenner valleys of eastern San Bernardino County; and approximately 10,800 additional acres in the eastern Mojave Desert, including the Piute and Danby Lake properties. It also engages in the cultivation of lemons, grapes/raisins, and spring and fall plantings of vegetables. Cadiz Inc. was founded in 1983 and is based in Los Angeles, California.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By James E. Brumley]

  At first glance, today's action from Cadiz Inc. (NASDAQ:CDZI) just looks like a little bad luck, or a well-deserved break following a very strong, uninterrupted runup. The longer one looks at CDZI, however, the more red flags start to wave... red flags suggesting a substantial pullback may have just begun.

Top 10 Logistics Stocks To Watch Right Now: eGain Corp (EGAN)

eGain Corporation (eGain), formerly eGain Communications Corporation, incorporated in September 1997, provides multichannel customer service and knowledge management software for in-house or cloud deployment. The Company�� application suite, eGain Service, is available through both licensed and hosted models. It includes integrated applications for social customer service, Web self-service, e-mail management, paper and fax management, chat, co-browsing, short message service (SMS), call tracking and resolution, proactive notifications, cross-channel knowledge management, case management and service fulfillment. These robust applications are built on the eGain OpenCIH platform. The eGain OpenCIH platform enables end-to-end service process management and multichannel, multisite contact center management, and includes certified out of the box integrations with call center, content and business systems. Its applications and platform are built on a service-oriented architecture. It serves a global customer base across a range of industry sectors, including telecommunications, financial services, insurance, outsourced services, retail, technology, manufacturing and consumer goods.

Products and Services

eGain Service 9 is a customer service management solution. It consists of a multichannel customer interaction hub (CIH) platform, eGain OpenCIH Platform, and the eGain Web Customer Experience Suite and the eGain Unified Contact Center Suite, which includes applications for social customer service, Web self-service, and the contact center. The eGain OpenCIH Platform centralizes business rules, interactions, knowledge bases, workflow, analytics, administration and integrations in one common foundation. eGain Mail is a solution for processing inbound customer e-mails and providing mission-critical e-mail customer service. Secure messaging, lifecycle audits and real-time archival are some of the features that provide its customers e-mail management platform for their enterprises. Addi! tional modules include eGain Fax to route, track and respond to faxes with the same infrastructure that is used to handle e-mails and Web form submissions.

The Company�� eGain CallTrack is a phone call logging system. Together with eGain KnowledgeAgent, it provides an integrated solution for phone call logging, tracking and resolution, as well as follow-on task management for service fulfillment. eGain Chat gives contact center agents a range of tools for serving customers in real-time. eGain Chat supports two-way, follow me Web browsing so that agents and customers can lead each other to specific Web pages. Its eGain CoBrowse enables contact center agents to provide live collaboration options to online customers and prospects. It gives companies the ability to deliver real-time assistance. The capabilities include enabling the agent and the customer to fill out forms together, creation of business rules for specific Web pages, and allowing phone agents to provide experience by conducting a co-browse session.

The Company�� eGain SelfService is a solution supporting dynamic frequently asked questions (FAQs), topic-based browsing, natural language search, guided help, virtual assistant technology and case tracking. eGain SelfService offers multi-access self-service capabilities built on a collaborative knowledge management framework within eGain OpenCIH Platform. The modules of this solution are eGain Portals, eGain Guided Help and eGain MessageCenter. eGain Portals deliver a secure and personalized Web self-service gateway, through which customers can retrieve information. This online customer service portal delivers to customers the personal information they want, the way they want to see it, and when they want to see it. Customers can view FAQs, manage their own accounts, review open service tickets, and review their communications with the company within a secure, personalized environment. Its eGain Guided Help gives customers interactive access to the company�� knowl! edge base! , allowing them to find answers and troubleshoot problems by themselves at their convenience. It uses patented search and reasoning technology, coupled with natural language and advanced linguistic processing to search, suggest additional questions and recommend solutions.

The Company�� eGain MessageCenter enables secure and authenticated messaging between a business and its customers. eGain MessageCenter is a secure Web-based portal for customers to read confidential messages, including attachments. Based on a business-configurable option, agent responses to customer inquiries are automatically replaced with a dynamically generated universal resource locator (URL), which directs the customers to the eGain MessageCenter where they authenticate themselves to read the message details. Customers can also send messages to the business through this secure site. All messages are stored within the eGain Platform as part of the multichannel customer history. Its eGain Chatbot is used to create virtual assistants to engage Website visitors, answer their queries, escort them on the Website, and escalate seamlessly to live agents. Chatbots help deflect phone calls to Web self-service, provide memorable and brand-aligned customer service experiences, and increase online sales conversion.

The Company�� eGain Social helps a business monitor the Web and social media sites for conversations about itself. It enables the business to identify and respond to customer inquiries or complaints. It also helps harvest useful content from experts in these channels and develops it into knowledge base articles that can be shared with their other customers. Its eGain Adviser empowers agents handle complex customer interactions. Agents receive guided help for providing contextual up-sell and cross-sell, follow-on service fulfillment and value-added advice through conversations that are compliant with regulations. The solution includes a user interface, integrated workflow and interactive process guida! nce, powe! red by the eGain Inference Reasoning Engine.

The Company�� eGain KnowledgeAgent uses patented search and reasoning technology coupled with natural language and advanced linguistic processing to search, suggest additional questions, and recommend solutions. This solution, in conjunction with eGain Content Adapter, also allows agents to access information stored in external systems. Its eGain IVR enables phone self-service experiences by adding intelligence to interactive voice response, (IVR) and unifying it with other interaction channels, including Web self-service. It offers intelligent dialogs driven by eGain�� case-based reasoning technology and seamless movement across channels.

The Company�� eGain Notify is a flexible, easy-to-use application for managing and delivering automatic reminders, alerts, and updates at all stages of the customer relationship cycle. It is used to provide proactive customer service by sending alerts to customers through multiple interaction channels, such as e-mail, phone and SMS. Its eGain AutoClassify enables companies to increase response turnaround and improve problem resolution by categorizing and routing incoming e-mail and other inquiries. It can also be set up to provide auto-suggestions and auto-responses. eGain AutoClassify understands the customer�� issue and routes inquiries to queues based on categories and the confidence level assigned to those categories. Customer interactions can be placed into multiple independent categories.

The Company�� eGain AutoWorkflow enables businesses to automate complex fulfillment processes that require little or no agent interaction once initiated. Tasks initiated from either e-mails, Webforms, or time-driven processes are automatically handled using the capabilities of the eGain Workflow engine. Its eGain SME is an enterprise collaboration tool that allows subject matter experts (SMEs), to participate in the process of resolving customer queries. SMEs, both internal in the contact ! center an! d external in other departments or companies, are able to fully participate in both solving ongoing problems and suggesting new solutions for inclusion in the knowledge base.

The Company�� eGain Adapters include a set of out-of-the-box integration modules for connecting eGain applications with content repositories, call center telephony solutions, databases and business applications. Its offers three integration modules: eGain Content Adapter, eGain CTI Adapter, and eGain Data Adapter. Its eGain Widgets (Web and Mobile) provides contextual access to the knowledge base and customer accounts from various parts of the businesses��Websites, as well as mobile interfaces.

eGain OnDemand

eGain OnDemand, the software as a service version of the Company�� software suite, is a robust and scalable solution that is used by enterprises to build customer interaction hubs. It hosts applications on servers located in its third party SAS 70 Type II data center. The hosting solution allows rapid deployment of eGain products, including seamless secure access to customer�� in-house data systems; round the clock management of infrastructure, security, servers, operating systems and databases; management systems to monitor servers and applications allowing for availability and performance; easy migration from eGain OnDemand to in-house option and vice-versa. Its value-added services include e-mail spam and virus cleaning, post office services, virtual private networks, remote data access, encrypted backups, and test/reporting/warm spare servers.

eGain SLaaS

eGain SLaaS, the solution-as-a-service version of the Company�� software suite. It is designed to take the risk out of mission-critical customer interaction software deployments and enables companies to validate and realize business value with usage-based pricing and no long-term contracts.

Consulting and Education Services

The Company�� global professional services ! organizat! ion provides consulting and education services designed to facilitate customer success and build customer loyalty. Its consulting services group offers rapid implementation services, custom solution development and systems integration services. It provides these services independently or in partnership with systems integrators who have developed consulting expertise on its platform. The Company�� consulting strategy is to increase margins by providing customers with a range of pre-packaged solutions built on top of our product line.The Company�� education services group provides a range of basic and customized training programs to its customers and partners. Training programs are offered either in-person at the customer site, or at one of its global training centers.The Company�� education services strategy is to provide training and delivery methods for its customers and partners.

eGain Customer Support Service

The Company offers a range of support services designed to rapidly respond to inquiries. Its technical support services are available to customers globally under maintenance agreements. Its customer support service strategy is to provide customer support account managers for large enterprise customers. The customer support service team uses eGain�� own software suite to provide services to its customers through customer support service centers located in California, the United Kingdom, and India.

The Company competes with Art Technology Group, Inc., Avaya, Inc., Consona Corporation, Alcatel, InQuira, Inc., Kana Software, Inc., Live Person, Inc., nGenera Corporation, RightNow Technologies, Inc., Microsoft Corporation, Oracle Corporation, Salesforce.com Inc. and SAP Inc.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Monica Gerson]

  eGain (NASDAQ: EGAN) shares fell 3.76% to reach a new 52-week low of $6.40. eGain's trailing-twelve-month ROE is -8.92%

  Aeropostale (NYSE: ARO) shares tumbled 6.81% to reach a new 52-week low of $4.57. Aeropostale shares have dropped 65.05% over the past 52 weeks, while the S&P 500 index has gained 15.37% in the same period.

• [By John Udovich]

  Small cap cloud contact software provider Five9 Inc (NASDAQ: FIVN) saw a small pop when it debuted in an IPO last Friday but its now trended back down to its debut price, meaning its worth taking a closer look at the stock along with some potential peers or benchmarks like Incontact Inc (NASDAQ: SAAS), eGain Corp (NASDAQ: EGAN) and LivePerson, Inc (NASDAQ: LPSN).

Top 10 Logistics Stocks To Watch Right Now: The Ultimate Software Group Inc.(ULTI)

The Ultimate Software Group, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, designs, develops, and markets unified human capital management software-as-a-service solutions to businesses in the United States and Canada. Its UltiPro software solution offers businesses with cloud-based functionality to manage the employment life cycle from recruitment to retirement. The UltiPro solution includes feature sets for talent acquisition and onboarding, human resource management and compliance, benefits management and online enrollment, payroll, performance management, salary planning and budgeting for compensation management, succession management, reporting and analytical decision-making tools, and time and attendance, as well as role-based access for executives, managers, administrators, and employees. The company offers its products and services for various industries, including manufacturing, food services, sports, technology, finance, insurance, retail, real estate, transportation, com munications, healthcare, and other services. It also provides implementation, training, maintenance, and technical support services. The Ultimate Software Group, Inc. markets its products under the UltiPro Enterprise and UltiPro Workplace brand names through its direct sales teams. The company was founded in 1990 and is headquartered in Weston, Florida.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By MONEYMORNING.COM]

  Jeff Bezos at Amazon.com Inc. (Nasdaq: AMZN), Steve Singh of Concur Technologies Inc. (Nasdaq: CNQR), and Scott Scherr at Ultimate Software Group Inc. (Nasdaq: ULTI) are all tied at 18 years. And Reed Hastings of Netflix Inc. (Nasdaq: NFLX) is right behind them with a 16-year stint.

• [By Alexandra Scaggs]

  Then the bank appeared to backpedal a bit in its note yesterday, cutting back on its recommended holdings in Ultimate Software Group(ULTI) and Mastercard(MA) and adding to its recommended positions in Anadarko Petroleum Corp.(APC), an energy stock, and Philip Morris International Inc.(PM), a consumer-staples stock. Morgan Stanley strategist Adam Parker �and his�team found that times when value stocks outperform growth stocks by such a wide margin “are typically followed by periods where value outperforms.”

• [By Seth Jayson]

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

• [By Jeremy Bowman]

  What: Shares of Ultimate Software (NASDAQ: ULTI  ) were screaming "Ultimate!" today, gaining as much as 17% after topping estimates in its quarterly report.

Best Construction Material Companies To Buy Right Now

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Hot Chemical Companies To Watch For 2015: Societe Libanaise des Ciments Blancs SAL (CBN)

Societe Libanaise des Ciments Blancs SAL is a Lebanon-based joint stock company that operates in the construction materials industry sector. The Company is engaged in the production and sale of white cement. The Company is a 65.99% owned by Holcim (Liban) SAL. Advisors' Opinion:

• [By CanadianValue]

  Nigeria�� reformed banking system has provided many foreigners with an attractive means to invest in the fast-growing domestic economy. The banking industry is important, not only because of the rise of microfinance, but because of the move by banks into consumer banking. Until recently, banks were mainly financing large businesses or the government through bond purchases. Following a banking crisis in 2008, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) conducted an audit of the commercial banking sector. All banks that failed the audit had their CEOs replaced. The state-owned Asset Management Corporation (AMCON) was created to purchase non-performing loans and recapitalize the unhealthy banks. A recent review of the country�� banks by the IMF showed a dramatic increase in profits for the industry in 2012, while the capital adequacy ratio was above the minimum requirement of 10% and non-performing loans were below the mandated threshold of 5%5.

Best Construction Material Companies To Buy Right Now: Boral Ltd (BLD)

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

• [By Eric Lam]

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

Best Construction Material Companies To Buy Right Now: Texas Industries Inc (TXI)

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

Cement Segment

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

Aggregates Segment

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

Consumer Products Segment

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

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Ben Fox Rubin]

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

• [By Sean Williams]

  Texas Industries (NYSE: TXI  )
  In spite of the steady rebound in the construction industry, certain companies look predisposed to underperform. Take Texas Industries as a perfect example. It provides heavy construction aggregates to the commercial construction industry while also acting a cement supplier to the consumer segment. Although its orders, and even to some remote extent its pricing power for cement, has improved modestly as the housing sector has rebounded, Texas Industries is still turning only marginal profits. In fact, looking toward next year you'd see a forward P/E approaching 500!

Best Construction Material Companies To Buy Right Now: Ply Gem Holdings Inc (PGEM)

Ply Gem Holdings, Inc. (Ply Gem Holdings), incorporated on January 23, 2004, is a manufacturer of residential exterior building products in North America. The Company operates in two segments: Siding, Fencing, and Stone and Windows and Doors. These two segments produce a product line of vinyl siding, designer accents, cellular polyvinyl chloride (PVC) trim, vinyl fencing, vinyl and composite railing, stone veneer and vinyl windows and doors used in both new construction and home repair and remodeling in the United States and Western Canada. It also manufactures vinyl and aluminum soffit and siding accessories, aluminum trim coil, wood windows, aluminum windows, vinyl and aluminum-clad windows and steel and fiberglass doors, enabling it to bundle complementary and color-matched products and accessories with its core products. The Company�� subsidiaries includes including Ply Gem Industries, MWM Holding, AWC Holding Company, MHE, and Pacific Windows. On July 30, 2012, Ply Gem acquired substantially all of the assets of Greendeck Products, LLC.

Siding, Fencing, and Stone Segment

In the Siding, Fencing, and Stone segment, its principal products include vinyl siding and skirting, vinyl and aluminum soffit, aluminum trim coil, J-channels, wide crown molding, window and door trim, F-channels, H-molds, fascia, undersill trims, outside/inside corner posts, rain removal systems, injection molded designer accents, such as shakes, shingles, scallops, shutters, vents and mounts, vinyl fence, vinyl and composite railing, and stone veneer. It sells its siding and accessories under its Variform, Napco, Mastic Home Exteriors, and Cellwood brand names and under the Georgia-Pacific brand name through a private label program. It also sells its Providence line of vinyl siding and accessories to Lowe�� under its Durabuilt private label brand name. Its vinyl and vinyl-composite fencing and railing products are sold under its Kroy and Kroy Express brand names. Ply Gem Holdings stone veneer produ! cts are sold under its United Stone Veneer brand name.

The Company sells the siding and accessories to specialty distributors (one-step distribution) and to wholesale distributors (two-step distribution). Its specialty distributors sell directly to remodeling contractors and builders. Its wholesale distributors sell to retail home centers and lumberyards who, in turn, sell to remodeling contractors, builders and consumers. In the specialty channel, it has developed a network of approximately 800 independent distributors, serving over 22,000 contractors and builders nationwide.

Windows and Doors Segment

In the Windows and Doors segment, its principal products include vinyl, aluminum, wood and clad-wood windows and patio doors, and steel, wood, and fiberglass entry doors that serve both the new home construction and the repair and remodeling sectors in the United States and Western Canada. Its products in its Windows and Doors segment are sold under the Ply Gem Windows, Great Lakes Mastic by Ply Gem, and Ply Gem Canada brands.

The Company competes with Alsco, Gentek, U.S. Fence, Homeland, Westech, Bufftech, Royal, Azek., Eldorado Stone, Coronado Stone, Jeld-Wen, Simonton, Pella and Andersen, MI Home Products, Atrium, Weathershield, Milgard, Jeld-Wen, Gienow, All Weather and Loewen.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Matt Jarzemsky]

  Installed Building Products��debut follows mixed performance from shares of some newly public building-products companies. Through Tuesday, siding manufacturer Ply Gem Holdings Inc.(PGEM)�� shares were down 39% from the offer price in its $381 May debut. Wood-products maker Boise Cascade Co.(BCC) was up 46% from its $284 million February IPO.

• [By Lisa Levin]

  Ply Gem Holdings (NYSE: PGEM) shares reached a new 52-week low of $11.48 after the company reported wider-than-expected Q4 loss and issued a weak Q1 revenue forecast.

Best Construction Material Companies To Buy Right Now: CEMEX SAB de CV (CX)

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

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

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

Mexican Operations

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

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

U.S. Operations

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

Spanish Operations

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

U.K. Operations

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

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

German Operations

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

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

French Operations

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

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

Irish Operations

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

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

Polish Operations

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

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

Southeast European Operations

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

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Dan Caplinger]

  Even now, though, it's far from clear whether the recent rebound has staying power. Earlier this month, peer Vulcan Materials (NYSE: VMC  ) reported 5% lower shipments of aggregates, although rising prices helped offset the impact, and the company noted double-digit-percentage increases in shipments to hot housing areas including Arizona, California, and Florida. Similarly, Cemex (NYSE: CX  ) posted a substantial loss for its March quarter on with 5% lower revenue, but the Mexican company pointed to strength in the U.S. and Asian markets as offsetting weakness in Mexico, Europe, and Latin America.

Best Construction Material Companies To Buy Right Now: Amcol International Corp (ACO)

AMCOL International Corporation (AMCOL), incorporated on December 3, 1959, is focused on the development and application of minerals and technology products and services to various industrial and consumer markets. It operates in five segments: performance materials, construction technologies, energy services, transportation and corporate. Its performance materials segment previously referred to as its minerals and materials segment is a supplier of bentonite related products. Its construction technologies segment previously referred to as its environmental segment provides products for non-residential construction, environmental and infrastructure projects worldwide. Its energy services segment previously referred to as its oilfield services segment offers a range of patented technologies, products and services for both upstream and downstream oil and gas production. Its transportation segment serves domestic subsidiaries, as well as third parties, is a dry van and flatbed carrier and freight brokerage service provider.

Performance Materials Segment

The Company supplies chromite and leonardite, and operates more than 25 mining or production facilities worldwide. It mines chromite, an iron chromium oxide, from open cast mines in South Africa and transport it to our nearby processing facility. Its primary uses include metalcasting, drilling fluid additive, and agricultural applications. Its performance materials segment conducts its business through wholly owned subsidiaries and investments in affiliates and joint ventures throughout the world. It consists of four product lines: metalcasting; specialty materials; basic minerals, and pet products. Its principal products are marketed under various registered trade names, including VOLCLAY, PANTHER CREEK, PREMIUM GEL, ADDITROL, ENERSOL, and Hevi-Sand.

The Company�� metalcasting products include blended mineral binders containing sodium and calcium bentonite and organic additives sold under the trade name ADDITROL. I! n the ferrous casting market, the Company specializes in blending bentonite of various grades by themselves or with mineral binders containing sodium bentonite, calcium bentonite, seacoal and other ingredients. It also has a line of formulated additives that introduce silicon and carbon in the melt phase of the casting process. In the steel alloy casting market, it sells a chromite product with a particle size distribution specific to a customer�� needs.

The Company�� specialty materials products contain bentonite and synthetic additives offering solutions for consumer and industrial applications. It also offers products for bio-agricultural applications. The markets and applications of its specialty materials products include fabric care, personal care, basic materials and pet products. It supply high-grade, agglomerated bentonite and other mineral additives used in fabric care products. It manufactures adsorbent polymers and purified grades of bentonite for sale to manufacturers of personal skin care products. The adsorbent polymers are used to deliver high-value actives in skin-care products. Microsponge and Poly-Pore are the principal trade names under which these products are sold. Its basic minerals product line supplies minerals to a variety of markets and industrial applications, including drilling fluid additives, ferro alloys and other industrial.

The Company�� pet products include sodium bentonite-based scoopable (clumping), traditional and alternative cat litters, as well as specialty pet products sold to grocery and drug stores, mass merchandisers, wholesale clubs and pet specialty stores throughout the United States. It is primarily a private-label producer of cat litter, and its products are marketed under various trade names. These products are sold solely in the United States from three principal sites from which it package and distribute finished goods. Its transportation segment provides logistics services and is a component of its capability in supplyi! ng custom! ers on a national basis.

Construction Technologies Segment

The Company�� construction technologies segment serves customers engaged in a range of construction projects, including site remediation, concrete waterproofing for underground structures, liquid containment on projects ranging from landfills to flood control, and drilling applications including foundation, slurry wall, tunneling, water well and horizontal drilling. Its construction technologies segment conducts its business through wholly owned subsidiaries and joint ventures throughout the world. This segment consists of four product lines: building materials; contracting services; drilling products, and lining technologies.

The Company sells lining and other products for a variety of applications, most of which are directed to preserving or remediating environmental issues. It helps customers protect ground water and soil through the sale of geosynthetic clay liner products containing bentonite. It market these products under the BENTOMAT and CLAYMAX trade names principally for lining and capping landfills, mine waste disposal sites, water and wastewater lagoons, secondary containments in tank farms, and other contaminated sites. It also provides associated geosynthetic materials for these applications, including geotextiles and drainage geocomposites.

The Company�� lining technologies product line also includes specialized technologies to mitigate vapor intrusion in new building construction. It also provides reactive capping technologies and solutions to contain residual contamination, reduce costs associated with ex-situ remedies, and aid in environmental protection. Products offered include Liquid Boot, a liquid applied vapor barrier system; REACTIVE CORE-MAT, an in-situ sediment capping material; ORGANOCLAY, which absorbs organic containments, and QUIK-SOLID, a super absorbent media.

The Company offer a variety of active and passive waterproofing and greenroof technolog! ies for u! se in protecting the building envelope of non-residential constructions, including buildings, subways, and parkway systems. Its products include VOLTEX, a waterproofing composite comprised of two polypropylene geotextiles filled with sodium bentonite; ULTRASEAL, an advanced membrane using a active polymer core, and COREFLEX, featuring heat-welded seams for protection of critical infrastructure. In addition to these membrane materials, it also provides roofing products and a variety of sealants and other accessories required to create a functional waterproofing system.

The Company drilling products are used in environmental and geotechnical drilling applications, horizontal directional drilling, mineral exploration and foundation construction. The products are used to install monitoring wells, facilitate horizontal and water well drilling, and seal abandoned exploration drill holes. VOLCLAY GROUT, HYDRAUL-EZ, BENTOGROUT and VOLCLAY TABLETS are among the trade names for products used in these applications. It also offer a range of drilling products used in the excavation of foundations for large buildings, bridges and dams; these products include SHORE PAC and PREMIUM GEL. Contracting services, which involve installation of products, are occasionally offered to customers for select projects.

Energy Services Segment

The Company�� energy services segment provides services to improve the production, costs, compliance, and environmental impact of activities performed in the oil and gas industry. Operating as CETCO Energy Services, it offer a range of patented technologies, products and services for all phases of oil and gas production, transportation, refining, and storage throughout the world. It provide both land-based and offshore water treatment, well testing, pipeline separation, nitrogen, coil tubing and other services to the oil and gas industry. The Company provides its services through subsidiaries located in Australia, Brazil, Malaysia, Nigeria, the United Ki! ngdom, an! d the United States, principally in the Gulf of Mexico and the surrounding on-shore area. Its principal services include water treatment, coil tubing, well testing, nitrogen services and pipeline. The Company helps customers comply with regulatory requirements by providing equipment, technologies, personnel and filtration media to treat waste water generated during oil production.

The Company's coil tubing services utilize metal piping, which comes spooled on a large reel. It provide both equipment and operating personnel to perform services ranging from acid stimulation, reverse circulation, cementing, pressure control, nitrogen injection, and other operations that involve pumping fluids into a well. Horizontal wells and shale completions are a large component of its operations. It provide equipment and personnel to help customers control well production, as well as to clean up, unload, separate, measure component flow, and dispose of fluids from oil and gas wells. Nitrogen services are provided in jetting wells that are loaded with fluid; stimulating wells, including fracturizing and acidizing; displacing completion fluids prior to perforating; inflating flotation devices for offshore installations, and pressure testing and other maintenance activities.

Transportation Segment

The Company operates a long-haul trucking business through Ameri-Co Carriers, Inc., and a freight brokerage business through Ameri-Co Logistics, Inc. primarily for delivery of finished products throughout the continental United States. These services are provided to its subsidiaries, as well as third-party customers.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Jake L'Ecuyer]

  Leading and Lagging Sectors
  In trading on Friday, Basic Materials shares were relative leaders, up on the day by 0.78 percent. Top gainer in the sector was AMCOL International (NYSE: ACO), up 9 percent.

Best Construction Material Companies To Buy Right Now: Eagle Materials Inc (EXP)

Eagle Materials Inc., incorporated on January 27, 1994, manufactures and distributes gypsum wallboard and also manufactures and sells cement. Gypsum wallboard is distributed throughout the United States with particular emphasis in the geographic markets nearest to its production facilities. The Company sells cement in six regional markets, including northern Nevada and California, the greater Chicago area, the Rocky Mountain region, the Central Plains region and Texas. Its gypsum wallboard business is supported by its recycled paperboard business, while its cement business is supported by its concrete and aggregates business. The Company operates in Cement and Concrete and Aggregates, and Gypsum Wallboard and Recycled Paperboard segments. As of March 31, 2013, the Company operated six cement plants (one of which belongs to its joint venture company), five gypsum wallboard plants, one recycled paperboard plant, seventeen concrete batching plants and four aggregates facilities. The Company�� products are used in the construction and renovation of houses, roads, bridges, commercial and industrial buildings and other, newer generation structures like wind farms.

Cement, Concrete and Aggregates Operations

The Company�� cement production facilities are located in or near Buda, Texas; LaSalle, Illinois; Laramie, Wyoming; Sugar Creek, Missouri; Tulsa, Oklahoma and Fernley, Nevada. The Company�� cement subsidiaries are wholly-owned except the Buda, Texas plant, which is owned by Texas Lehigh Cement Company LP, a limited partnership joint venture owned 50% by the Company and 50% by Lehigh Cement Company LLC, a subsidiary of Heidelberg Cement AG. Its LaSalle, Illinois plant operates under the name of Illinois Cement Company; the Laramie, Wyoming plant operates under the name of Mountain Cement Company; the Fernley, Nevada plant operates under the name of Nevada Cement Company and its Sugar Creek, Missouri and Tulsa, Oklahoma plants operate under the name Central Plains Cement Com! pany. The Company produces and distributes ready-mix concrete from Company-owned sites north of Sacramento, California; Austin, Texas and the greater Kansas City area. The Company�� activities in its frac sand business are in the Utica, Illinois area and in south Texas. The Company sells aggregates to building contractors and other customers engaged in a variety of construction activities.

Gypsum Wallboard and Recycled Paperboard Operations

The Company owns five gypsum wallboard manufacturing facilities. As of March 31, 2013, the Company�� gypsum wallboard production totaled 1,950 million square feet. Total gypsum wallboard sales were 1,909 million square feet during the fiscal year ended March 31, 2013 (fiscal 2013). The Company also manufactures alternative products, including containerboard grades (such as linerboard and medium) and lightweight packaging grades (such as bag liner). In addition, recycled industrial paperboard grades (tube/core stock and protective angle board stock) are produced to maximize manufacturing efficiencies. The Company�� manufactured recycled paperboard products are sold to gypsum wallboard manufacturers and other industrial users.

The Company competes with USG Corporation, National Gypsum Company and Koch Industries.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Jake L'Ecuyer]

  Top decliners in the sector included Newmont Mining (NYSE: NEM), off 6.3 percent, and Eagle Materials (NYSE: EXP), down 4.3 percent.

  Top Headline
  Forest Laboratories (NYSE: FRX) announced its plans to buy Furiex Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: FURX) for up to $1.46 billion. Forest will pay around $95 per share, or around $1.1 billion in cash. Forest Labs will also pay up to $30 per share, or around $360 million in a contingent value right. The deal is projected to close in the second or third quarter of 2014.

• [By Jake L'Ecuyer]

  Top decliners in the sector included Newmont Mining (NYSE: NEM), off 6.3 percent, and Eagle Materials (NYSE: EXP), down 4.3 percent.

  Top Headline
  Forest Laboratories (NYSE: FRX) announced its plans to buy Furiex Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: FURX) for up to $1.46 billion. Forest will pay around $95 per share, or around $1.1 billion in cash. Forest Labs will also pay up to $30 per share, or around $360 million in a contingent value right. The deal is projected to close in the second or third quarter of 2014.

• [By Rich Duprey]

  Cement and building materials maker�Eagle Materials� (NYSE: EXP  ) �announced yesterday�its second-quarter dividend of $0.10 per share, the same rate it's paid since 2008.

• [By Dan Caplinger]

  Tomorrow, Eagle Materials (NYSE: EXP  ) will release its latest quarterly results. The key to making smart investment decisions on stocks reporting earnings is to anticipate how they'll do before they announce results, leaving you fully prepared to respond quickly to whatever inevitable surprises arise. That way, you'll be less likely to make an uninformed knee-jerk reaction to news that turns out to be exactly the wrong move.