Small Cap Business Intelligence Stocks Looking Like a Smart Portfolio Addition: MSTR, BIRT & QLIK

Yesterday, small cap business intelligence stock MicroStrategy Incorporated (NASDAQ: MSTR) surged 18.44% after reporting better-than-expected third quarter earnings – meaning it might be a good idea to take a closer look at it along with small cap peers Actuate Corporation (NASDAQ: BIRT) and Qlik Technologies Inc (NASDAQ: QLIK) to see what they might offer small cap investors. After all, everyone is being inundated with huge amounts of data from multiple sources, but its the following small cap stocks that provide software platforms to help customers try to make sense of it all: 

MicroStrategy Incorporated. Founded in 1989, MicroStrategy Incorporated calls itself a leading worldwide provider of enterprise software platforms that provide the most flexible, powerful, scalable and user-friendly platforms for analytics, mobile, identity and loyalty — either on premises or in the cloud. With operations in 26 countries worldwide, MicroStrategy Incorporated serves millions of business users at nearly 4,000 companies across 20 industries around the world. On Monday after the market closed, MicroStrategy Incorporated reported a 4% revenue increase to $141.9 million, a 6% product license revenue increase $33.8 million and a 4% product support and other services revenue increase to $108.2 million. However and what really blew investors away was the massive expectations beat on net income as the company reported $17.1 million (or $1.52 per share on a diluted basis) verses net income of $4.8 million (or $0.43 per share on a diluted basis). A closer look though reveals the net income boost came from a $12.7 million release of liabilities for unrecognized tax benefits; but even with the tax benefit, MicroStrategy Incorporated still soundly beat earnings expectations for the bottom line. It should also be noted that earlier this month, MicroStrategy Incorporated unveiled its new MicroStrategy Analytics Platform, a comprehensive family of powerful, easy-to-use analytics solutions that is the company's most important new software release in years which it says is the culmination of over two decades of innovation in analytics and business intelligence. On Tuesday, MicroStrategy Incorporated rose 18.44% to $119.17 (MSTR has a 52 week trading range of $82.72 to $120.77 a share) for a market cap of $1.35 billion plus the stock is up 27.4% since the start of the year, up 8.5% over the past year and up 193.7% over the past five years.

Actuate Corporation. The founder and co-leader of the BIRT open source project, which is used by more than 2.5 million developers around the globe and serves as the foundation of Actuate Corporation's commercial offerings, applications built with BIRT and BIRT iHub deliver "more business and consumer insights to more people than all BI companies combined." Actuate Corporation has over 5,000 customers globally in a diverse range of business areas that include financial services, technology and the public sector. Early last August, Actuate Corporation announced a twelve month $40 million share repurchase program thanks to the "continued solid performance associated with Actuate's BIRT and BIRT iHub business, as well as management's confidence in the future of this business." The last time Actuate Corporation reported earnings, it had reported $34.9 million in revenue verses $36.2 million; license revenues of $16.2 million as compared to $15.7 million; and service revenues of $18.7 million verses $20.5 million reported (it should be noted that the fiscal first quarter of 2013 marked the end of the quarterly revenue stream from the Company's June 2010 settlement agreement with Oracle which involved the recognition of $1.3 million in revenues for each quarter from Oracle). Non-GAAP net income came in at $4.4 million verses non-GAAP net income of $6.3 million for the same period last year and the CEO noted:

"Continued solid double digit growth of total BIRT iHub-based business and iHub-based license business provides momentum for Actuate. In addition, we are seeing solid momentum for BIRT Analytics less than a year after its acquisition."

Otherwise, Actuate Corporation is scheduled to report third quarter 2013 financial results on Tuesday, November 5. On Tuesday, Actuate Corporation rose 0.63% to $8.04 (BIRT has a 52 week trading range of $4.97 to $8.23 a share) for a market cap of $385.43 million plus the stock is up 46.2% since the start of the year, up 25.8% over the past year and up 240.7% over the past five years.

Qlik Technologies Inc. Founded in Sweden in 1993, Qlik Technologies is the company behind QlikView, a leading Business Discovery platform that delivers user-driven business intelligence to more than 29,000 customers in 100 countries. Late last week, Qlik Technologies was sinking after third-quarter revenue came in lower than analysts had expected and after the company cut its guidance for full-year revenue and profit. Specifically, Qlik Technologies reported a 21% revenue increase to $104.1 million as license revenue increased 12% to $54.5 million, but there was also a weaker than expected performance in Europe and Asia Pacific. Net income came in at $3 million (or 3 cents per share) - up from $151,000 (or break-even per share) a year earlier. The CEO noted:

"We continued to advance further into the enterprise space as reflected by the increase in large deals that we closed, and our view of the long-term market opportunity is unchanged. However, our continued success in attracting enterprise-level sales opportunities is adding complexity to our overall sales process, which needs to be better aligned with the market dynamics we are experiencing. We are taking action to bring more discipline to the management of our growing pipeline, and we expect these changes to take some time to fully impact our results, which is reflected in our fourth quarter guidance."

However, Pacific Crest pointed out Qlik Technologies' sales in the Americas jumped 35% last quarter and sees strong evidence that its positive thesis on the company remains intact. Moreover, Pacific Crest thinks that the company can be acquired. On Tuesday, Qlik Technologies fell 1.70% to $26.06 (QLIK has a 52 week trading range of $16.71 to $37.56 a share) for a market cap of $2.29 billion plus the stock is up 21.7% since the start of the year, up 39.2% over the past year and up 103.6% over the past five years.

With that in mind, it should also be mentioned that MicroStrategy Incorporated has a trailing P/E of 21.31 and a forward P/E of 58.70; Actuate Corporation has a trailing P/E of 75.14 and a forward P/E of 17.87; and Qlik Technologies has no trailing P/E and a forward P/E of 62.05.

Finally, here is a look at the performance of all three small cap business intelligence stocks:

As you can see from the above chart, all three small cap business intelligence stocks have put in a pretty respectable performance for investors over the long term.

The mystery of Google’s floating barges

SAN FRANCISCO — A mysterious four-story barge floating near Treasure Island here has people wondering what Google is up to.

A local TV station and CNET offer two theories behind the contents of the boat, which is stacked with shipping containers.

CBS-affiliate KPIX, citing an unnamed source close to the project, says Google is constructing an Apple Store-like marketing center for Google Glass.

CNET says it might be a water-based data center, citing a patent filed by Google for such a thing in 2007.

Google had no comment.

A barge similar to the one in San Francisco is in the waters off Portland, Maine.

The search giant plans to have the barge towed to San Francisco's nearby Fort Mason, where it will be open to the public, the unnamed source told KPIX.

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CNET, quoting an anonymous source identified as an independent marine engineer, says Google wants to build a backup data center in the event of a natural disaster. The barge in San Francisco would be one of a dozen data centers worldwide, the source said.

The Case Against Apple (AAPL)

First and foremost (and just for the record), no, I don't have a short position in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL). It's a point that needs to be made clear early, to stave off the lynch mob that will most assuredly develop after I dare to suggest AAPL is anything but a perfect stock. This isn't a "hit piece". It's just a handful of things for everyone - bulls as well as bears - to consider before making any long-term conclusions about Apple.

With that out of the way, here goes ... AAPL has become a company with some systemic problems that will be difficult to overcome. Although it hasn't gravely impacted the stock's price yet, eventually (and sooner than later), Apple's share price are going to be affected.

The overarching problem, but in a way the overarching symptom too, is the fact that Apple has decided to compete on price. Case(s) in point: The lower-cost iPhone 5C, and the decision to give away - rather than sell - the upgrade to its Mac operating system.

As for the 5C, what's interesting is that the pricier (by $100) 5S counterpart has found more demand than expected, while the 5C has been met with a lukewarm reception; Apple Inc. has already cut orders for the lower-end version of the newest iPhone iteration. Point being, the company was (relatively) wrong about the low-end consumer.

That's not necessarily a bad thing. If nothing else it underscores the fact that Apple is a premium brand that can still command a premium price ... though not everywhere the company was supposed to want to do well, and needed to do well. I'm talking about China, where the price of the 5S is about $870, versus the 5C's price of about $730. For only $140 more, those consumers can buy a considerably more powerful machine, yet both are still at the extreme high end of the price range most Chinese consumers are willing able to pay. Domestically - and this is telling - the now-cheaper 4S is being seen as a better device than the 5C, negating the need for an upgrade for some users who were on the fence, depending on price.

The numbers in themselves won't kill the company. But, the fact that Apple worked so diligently to bring a phone to the market that it didn't really need to forces an investor to wonder what else the company could be wrong about, marketing-wise.

(Side note: For all the discouraging numbers I could poke and prod here, none of them changes the fact that the debut-weekend sales of the 5C and 5S were record-breakers for the company's iPhone division. It's an admittedly-conflicting factoid, though it doesn't alter the bigger message here.)

The decision to offer a free operating system upgrade is no less questionable. Oh, it's a convenient and polite offer, though also a tad gimmicky. This isn't a full-blown "reformat the drive and install the new OS" kind of thing that we saw between Window 95, 98, Me, XP, Vista, 7, and 8 (or between NT and 2000); comparing the way Apple offers new operating systems to the Windows' naming and delivering of new OS's is like comparing apples to oranges; the iOS upgrades and updates aren't nearly as dramatic. But, that didn't prevent the company from polishing and presenting the news as a game-changer. Most likely, the upgrade is designed to get and keep users more deeply engrained in Apple's digital content ecosystem. It's not a bad idea, but not a game-changing one either. Indeed, in many ways it will quell the need for current Mac owners to buy all new hardware.

And in that light, one has to wonder if Apple's decision to offer OS X 10.9 was a "want to" situation, or a "have to" situation. Indeed, some onlookers are suggesting that Mac products are nothing more than a side project now. Perhaps Apple is giving it away because there's no point in trying to sell it.

The bigger point is (and this has been the much-debated 800 pound gorilla in the room for a while now), AAPL isn't innovating. It's reiterating. The functional and meaningful difference between the 5S and the 4S - from an end-user's perspective anyway - isn't that significant. A lower-priced version of the phone doesn't exactly scream creativity.  Ditto for the iPad and the iPad mini. The mini has been cannibalizing sales of the full-size iPad for a while as well. More over, while the newly-unveiled versions of both are superior to their predecessors, the wow-factor of each subsequent update or newer version is getting sequentially smaller.

Point being, Apple is slowly losing its luster. Maybe it's because Steve Jobs is no longer around. Maybe it's because the competition finally caught up with Apple. Maybe it's because the company stopped innovating and just kept regurgitating newer versions of older products. Or (and this is most likely), maybe it's a combination of all three.

Whatever the case, there are numbers to support the philosophical idea that AAPL is now longer growing, but instead is simply treading water. Mark Rogowsky over at Forbes has the details, in a set of simple charts, that explain how newer and better products hasn't actually helped the company much in a couple of years. Growth seems to have peaked in 2012, even though we've seen several key product launches since then. Revenue is rising a little, but earnings are falling a lot. An iPhone 6 or an iPad 6 (maybe in 2014?) isn't going to change that; the next version of those products is likely to create less excitement than the recent unveilings did, because - and despite all the technical upgrades - consumers have an increasingly "been there, done that" perception.

To be fair, Apple could still coast for years on its name alone. But, it's not the growth company it once was, and it won't be again until it starts to create new products rather than rehash the old ones. In the meantime though, know that 2013 is starting to look like the year where a lack of innovation is really starting to take a measurable toll on the accounting statements... especially in terms of profit margins. The most recent quarter should be a decent one, as it will include 5S and 5C sales. If history is any indication, however, that revenue and any corresponding profits will start to wane - a lot - by the following (current) quarter, leaving growth-hungry investors waiting for an encore they may not get. Holiday gift-buying may be all that prevents the current quarter from being anemic, which sets up a really tepid beginning to 2014.

Apple's going to need to really wow us in 2014. Otherwise, it's just another consumer tech stock.

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Was the Debt Ceiling Crisis Useful?

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The debt ceiling crisis was not entirely bad, says MoneyShow's Jim Jubak, who points out the few advantages it did provide, and the new areas to worry about next.

Well, you know, you cannot say that the debt ceiling crisis, manufactured as it was, has not been useful. We now have a little better sense of how the world central banks will react to this crisis, because we have seen how they reacted to the current one, and now that gives us some guidance for how they will react to the next one, when this comes up again in, say, February, according to current legislation that is likely to pass.

The thing that we have seen is that way back in the depths of the global financial crisis in 2008, the Fed opened a lot of credit lines. They were basically willing to lend dollars to any central bank that needed it around the world, so that the global financial system would keep going. They closed some of those lines at the height, there were about 14 in operation, but what they did in 2010, and what they have kept going now, and extended is, they still have major credit lines out to the Bank of England, the Bank of Canada, and the European Central Bank. This gives these banks a chance to borrow as many dollars as they need, to keep their own monetary systems going, and also gives them the dollars that they might need to buy treasurys. If you are looking at a place where the system might fail, and I think that is what we are trying to figure out from this iteration of the debt crisis, we are not looking at the treasury market as really being one place that would happen. It looks like we are going to have plenty of liquidity in the world's most liquid market, thanks to the Fed, and other central banks.

The question then, is really, "Well, if that is not our worry, where else can we worry?" We should put that behind us, but I think that leaves us with a lot of other worries, because we still do not know who in the system might be unwilling to hold treasuries as collateral. We do not know where liquidity might freeze up. We know that it is not going to happen in the treasury market per se, but we have already seen money market funds decide they are not going to hold short treasuries and that means that that part of the market has sort of seized up. We can say, with a great deal of confidence, I think at this point, as much as there is any confidence in the system at all, the problem is not going to be at central bank level. It is not going to be in the dollar market, it is probably not going to be in the treasury market, so we can take those off our list and start looking for other places where it all might go to hell in a hand basket.

This is Jim Jubak for the Money Show.com Video Network.

A Day of Firsts: Home Depot, Private Spaceflight, and More

On this day in economic and business history...

The first two Home Depot (NYSE: HD  ) warehouse stores opened to the public on June 21, 1979. That day, the Atlanta area got its first glimpse of a truly colossal retail future: Each store was stocked with more than 250,000 different products and was so large that a local radio personality quipped, "If these stores were any bigger, they'd be paying Alabama sales tax." Home Depot's own corporate blog recounts the extreme eagerness of co-founders Arthur Blank and Bernie Marcus to get people in and shopping:

Bernie and Arthur handed their kids 700 $1 bills and sent them into the parking lots of the stores. Yup, they were paying people to go in and spend money. After a slow day, the kids still had $1 bills in their hands. ...

In addition to filling an important need in the marketplace, the company took a "whatever it takes" approach to customer service from the very beginning. "We had so few customers that if I saw someone leaving a store empty-handed, I took it personally," Bernie Marcus wrote in Built from Scratch, the book that chronicles the company.

He'd follow the would-be customer out into the parking lot, asking what they were looking for that we didn't carry, then offer to hand-deliver the item himself. (After ordering the item for future stock, he would head to a competitor or wholesaler to pick it up, taking care to scrape off the stickers.)

The co-founders' persistence paid off. Five years later, Home Depot began trading on the Big Board, and it was already a billion-dollar company with 19 stores and roughly $250 million in annual sales. There were 100 Home Depots by 1990 and 1,000 stores by 2000.

The year before it crossed the four-digit store mark, Home Depot joined the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJINDICES: ^DJI  ) as only the second retail-store enterprise out of 30 components. In the 13 years that followed, Home Depot became the best-performing addition out of a rather ill-timed group, more than doubling the gains of both the next-best addition and the Dow itself. Today, Home Depot is widely considered one of the housing industry's most important bellwethers, and its earliest shareholders have enjoyed one of the greatest rides of all time: In the first 20 years of Home Depot's life as a public company, a single share (with dividends reinvested) gained more than 123,000%.

Desalting the seas
The first desalination plant in the world began operating on June 21, 1961 after a ceremonial button-press from the desk of President John F. Kennedy gave suitable pomp to the historic moment. The term for this new technology hadn't been settled yet -- The Washington Post called it a "water factory," and The New York Times used the popular phrase "desalting plant" in its headline -- but its importance was nevertheless notable enough to draw participation from the highest levels of American government. Kennedy himself called it:

An important stride toward the achievement of one of the oldest dreams of man -- extracting fresh water from the seas. ... The American people are ready and willing to share the fruits of our research -- and the knowledge of our technicians -- with those nations and peoples who wish to work side by side with us to enlarge the supplies of water available to mankind.

The plant, built and operated by Dow Chemical (NYSE: DOW  ) , was to purify a million gallons of seawater each day at a cost ranging from $1 to $1.25 per thousand gallons. The government had agreed to subsidize the plant's operation at a modest loss, expending between $0.70 and $0.95 per thousand gallons to distribute the water to the city of Freeport and to Dow's operations. At its costliest, the plant would cost the government about $350,000 per year.

Today, there are roughly 15,000 desalination plants at work around the world, and by 2016 there may be enough processing capacity for 107 million cubic meters of water per day -- equal to approximately 28.3 billion gallons of fresh water. However, an innovation in graphene-sheet production developed by Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT  ) could significantly improve both the efficiency and the capacity of the world's desalination plants within the next few years. Click here to read more about this promising breakthrough.

Catch a cab to the cosmos 
On June 21, 2004, SpaceShipOne became the first privately financed spacecraft to exit the Earth's atmosphere. Wired recounts the historic event:

With self-taught civilian test pilot Mike Melvill at the controls, SpaceShipOne was released by its carrier craft and fired its hybrid rocket motors at an altitude of 47,000 feet over California's Mojave Desert. As Melvill steered the ship outside the atmosphere, he spent about three minutes in weightlessness.

To help dramatize the moment, Melvill opened a bag of M&M's and watched the candy float around the cockpit. "It was amazing," he said later.

SpaceShipOne reached an altitude of 62 miles, putting it into suborbital space.

Financed by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen to the tune of $25 million and designed by pioneering aerospace engineer Burt Rutan, SpaceShipOne was built in part to claim victory in the $10 million Ansari X Prize competition. It won this prize several months later and was retired from active service.

Today, a growing range of ambitious private companies compete for the prestige (and potential profit) of sending things and people into outer space. Elon Musk's SpaceX is perhaps the most well-known, but Rutan's Scaled Composites is also working with Virgin's Richard Branson to develop and promote private space-tourism ventures. Bigelow Aerospace is another major player, and it may have the most ambitious (though still realistic for the next few years) goal of all: a privately developed commercial space station.

Reaping the rewards of innovation
The name Cyrus McCormick is indelibly linked to the mechanical reaper, which -- along with the cotton gin -- is widely considered one of the most important technological advances in farming during the early Industrial Revolution. McCormick was not the first to develop a reaper, but his tireless tinkering and relentless promotion of the machine finally brought a viable product to market -- several years after he gained his first patent for the reaper on June 21, 1834.

McCormick's father Robert had worked to develop a reaper for more than two decades, but it fell to Cyrus to develop the first one that could handle the varying field conditions of a typical farm. The McCormick reaper was one of the first to combine several steps of harvesting into one machine, and its horse-drawn design was more efficient than others of its generation that were pushed, rather than pulled behind the team. After demonstrating an early version in 1831, McCormick raced against other inventors to patent his device, as a rival announced the construction of a similar reaper in 1833.

The shortcomings of McCormick's first patented reaper and the Panic of 1837 proved major setbacks, but the McCormick family forged ahead, finally beginning to sell machines in 1840. Cyrus' continuous improvements to the 1834 design resulted in another patent in 1845, and two years later McCormick and his brother Leander moved their manufacturing operations to Chicago, which was an ideal distribution point to the vast grain fields of the American Midwest. From then on, McCormick's business grew rapidly, owing in no small part to his innovative business practices, as recounted by PBS' American Experience website:

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Sales improved as [McCormick] guaranteed performance ("15 acres a day" or your money back), allowed farmers to buy on credit and pay over time, educated his customer base with demonstrations, and advertised with satisfied customer testimonials. He set a fixed price of $120 ("take it or leave it!") and removed the hassle of dickering over more money. He developed interchangeable replacement parts and had them readily available. He trained men on the mechanics of his machine and on his business and then sent them out as the first traveling salesmen. McCormick's motto was "One Price to All and Satisfaction Guaranteed."

By 1860, McCormick's company was selling more than 4,000 reapers a year despite a major patent-suit loss in 1855, which saw future President Abraham Lincoln join the defense against McCormick's suit (Lincoln was not a factor in the case).

This highly successful company became one of financier J. P. Morgan's major consolidation successes in 1902, when it was merged with several other agricultural equipment firms to form International Harvester. It became a member of the Dow in 1925 and remained until 1991, a few years after changing its name to Navistar (NYSE: NAV  ) . The current descendant of McCormick's reaping innovations bears little resemblance to the company he founded: International Harvester's agricultural-machinery division was sold off in 1984, and Navistar is now known primarily for producing trucks and buses.

Investors and pundits alike are skeptical about future growth in the American markets. They shouldn't be. Many global regions are still stuck in neutral, and their resurgence could result in windfall profits for select companies. A recent Motley Fool report, "3 Strong Buys for a Global Economic Recovery," outlines three companies that could take off when the global economy gains steam. Click here to read the full report!

Google is winning online ad war by going mobile

SAN FRANCISCO – Google is losing the battle against falling ad prices, but still winning the online advertising war.

In its earnings report Thursday, the company revealed the decline of a key pricing metric has once again accelerated, as its cost-per-click fell 8% from a year earlier.

The reason is a surge in mobile ads, which cost less per unit and have lower click rates than those served onto desktop computers.

Google CEO Larry Page said almost 40% of the traffic on the company's YouTube video site now comes from mobile device users, up from just 6% two years ago.

Yet the search giant more than made up for lower prices with higher volume, as its number of paid clicks climbed 26% year-over-year. That was higher than the 21% jump reported by rival Yahoo earlier this week.

The net result was a 19% jump in quarterly revenue (or 12% including its lagging Motorola handset unit) and a 36% surge in net income.

Google's ad numbers suggest that changes the company has made to how it sells advertising have merely slowed -- not stopped -- the downward pricing pressure caused by a surge in mobile ad traffic.

Close Google watchers will remember that the impact of mobile ads on Google's business first revealed itself 15 months ago, during its quarterly earnings report in July 2012.

That's when the company reported its cost-per-click dropped 16% from a year earlier, alarming Wall Street and prompting a short-term drop in its stock price.

In response, Google made changes to how it deals with professional online ad buyers, essentially stripping them of the ability to target ads at either desktop, tablet or smartphone users.

Instead, the company's technology now determines where and when to place text and video ads onto those different platforms, based on where Google thinks is best.

John Shinal, technology columnist for USA TODAY.(Photo: USA TODAY)

Thanks to the new method, which Google has dubbed "enhanced campaigns," the company earlier this year had slowed the annual rate of decline in its cost-per-click to 4%.

Yet the decline has accelerated during the last two quarters, and for the period ended in September prices were falling at twice that rate.

The reason is mobile.

Google's algorithms can't change the fact that most mobile device users think cheap-looking text ads that pop up on smartphones or tablets are more annoying than enticing.

Annoying ads aren't clicked on as frequently as relevant ones, which is one reason mobile ads are so cheap per unit.

The click-through rate for ads served on Android-powered tablets fell to 2.3% in the third quarter, from 3.2% a year earlier, according to a report released this week my market researcher The Search Agency.

For smartphone users, the rate dropped to 3.1% from 3.9%.

Sheer volume is another reason for the decline. The number of these ads is exploding as more consumers make the switch from desktop computers to mobile devices.

That same report from The Search Agency showed that one-third of the clicks on Google search ads in the U.S. now come from mobile users.

No wonder mobile ad revenue skyrocketed 145% during the first half of this year to $3 billion, compared to the same period in 2012, according to the latest report from the Interactive Advertising Bureau, a trade group.

That's eight times faster growth than the overall online ad market.

Those findings were echoed in the data from The Search Agency, which found that click volume on tablets in the U.S. surged 63% during the third quarter and tablet advertising spending, 68%.

The surge came even though the cost-per-click for all ads displayed on tablets in the U.S. fell 10.4% in the third quarter, compar! ed to a y! ear earlier, as the report said.

Clearly, there's money to be made in mobile ads, and Google – no surprise – is capturing a large chunk of it, even as the average unit price of its search ads continues to fall.

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The battle between the Chevy Silverado from General Motors (NYSE: GM  ) and the Ford (NYSE: F  ) F-150 has been heating up lately, with GM trying to challenge Ford's long dominance atop the best-selling vehicle list. But despite some concerns about the Silverado launch, GM recently got some good news that could help give it an edge against Ford and its other competitors.

Research company ALG made its forecast for projected residual values for full-sized pickup truck lines earlier this month, and its figures for GM's biggest truck lines were unexpectedly strong. ALG projects that 2014 Silverados will retain 55% of their value after 36 months, compared to just 47% for the 2013 model. That forecast also puts the Silverado ahead of its most important rivals in the segment, including the F-150. ALG found that only Toyota's (NYSE: TM  ) Tundra weighed in with slightly better residual values.

To understand why the boost in residual value represents an important edge, you need to understand the basics of vehicle leasing. In essence, higher residual values give GM a lot more flexibility in offering attractive deals for customers who want to take home a Silverado as inexpensively as possible.

10 Best Heal Care Stocks To Watch Right Now: Meru Networks Inc.(MERU)

Meru Networks, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, provides wireless local area network (LAN) solutions in the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and the Asia Pacific. It offers a virtualized wireless LAN solution based on its System Director Operating System, which runs on its controllers and access points to enable enterprises to deliver business-critical applications over wireless networks. The company?s System Director Operating System provides centralized coordination and control of various access points on the network; controllers synchronize access points to optimize the user experience and manage traffic on the network; and Wi-Fi certified access points to provide network connectivity for wireless devices. It also offers Meru Networks E(z)RF application suite comprising E(z)RF Network Manager, E(z)RF Service Assurance Manager, E(z)RF Location Manager, E(z)RF OnTheGo, Spectrum Manager, and wired and wireless management solutions, which enable enterprises to configure, monitor, troubleshoot, secure, and operate virtualized wireless LAN solution. In addition, the company provides Identity Manager that simplifies enterprise network access and identity management; Wireless Intrusion Prevention System to recognize and mitigate threats; Compliance Manager to reduce the risk of security breach by protecting customer and employee personal information by extending security to the wireless network; AirFirewall to intercept and block unwanted communications as they transmit over the air, stopping them before they reach the network; and Security Gateway SG1000 to meet the demands of the Federal Information Processing Standard, 140-2 Level 3 security required by federal government agencies and other security-conscious organizations. It serves the education, healthcare, hospitality, manufacturing, retail, technology, finance, government, telecom, transportation, and utility markets. The company was founded in 2002 and is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Eric Volkman]

  Meru Networks (NASDAQ: MERU  ) isn't wasting any time in finding a successor to one of its top executives. The company announced Monday it had appointed Brian McDonald to be its new CFO to replace the resigning Brett White. McDonald took up his position today, although White will remain at the firm through July 1 in order "to effect a smooth transition."

10 Best Heal Care Stocks To Watch Right Now: Ezion Holdings Limited (5ME.SI)

Ezion Holdings Limited, an investment holding company, provides marine logistics and support services to the offshore oil and gas industries primarily in Singapore, Australia, the Far East, and the ASEAN countries. It is also involved in the development, ownership, and chartering of strategic offshore assets, such as multi-purpose self-propelled jack-up rigs, which are used in well-servicing, commissioning, maintenance, and decommissioning of offshore platforms. As of November 6, 2012, the company owned a fleet of 30 vessels consisting of tugs, ballastable barges, offshore support vessels, and self-propelled barges. Ezion Holdings Limited provides offshore marine logistics and support services. In addition, it offers a range of marine consulting services related to the development and construction; and marine logistics solutions for marine offshore facilities. Further, the company provides logistics, supercargo, engineering, and freight forwarding services. Ezion Holdings Limited is based in Singapore.

Top Value Stocks To Own Right Now: G&K Services Inc.(GKSR)

G&K Services, Inc. provides branded uniform and facility services programs in the United States and Canada. Its facility services programs include floor mat offerings, such as traction control, logo, message, scraper, and anti-fatigue; shop, kitchen, bar, bath, dish, continuous roll, and microfiber towel products; dust, microfiber, and wet mops; fender covers; selected linen items; and restroom hygiene products. The company also manufactures work apparel garments that are used to support garment rental and direct purchase programs. G&K Services, Inc. serves automotive, warehousing, distribution, transportation, energy, manufacturing, food processing, pharmaceutical, retail, restaurants, hospitality, government, and healthcare industries. The company was founded in 1902 and is headquartered in Minnetonka, Minnesota.

10 Best Heal Care Stocks To Watch Right Now: Randgold Res Ltd Ord(RRS.L)

Randgold Resources Limited, together with its subsidiaries, engages in the exploration and mining of gold deposits in west and central Africa. The company holds a 80% controlling interest in the Loulo mine and Gounkoto mine, as well as a 50% interest in Morila mine located in Mali; a 89% controlling interest in the Tongon mine located in the neighboring country of C�e d?Ivoire; a 83.25% controlling interest in the Massawa project in Senegal; and a 45% interest in the Kibali project, which is located in the Democratic Republic of Congo. As of December 31, 2011, it had proven and probable reserves of 16.28 million ounces of gold. The company was founded in 1995 and is based in St. Helier, the Channel Islands.

10 Best Heal Care Stocks To Watch Right Now: Chesapeake Energy Corporation(CHK)

Chesapeake Energy Corporation engages in the acquisition, development, exploration, and production of natural gas and oil properties in the United States. It also provides marketing and other midstream services. The company?s properties are located in Alabama, Arkansas, Colorado, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Michigan, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, New York, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, West Virginia, and Wyoming. As of December 31, 2010, it had interests in approximately 45,800 gross productive wells. The company?s proved reserves include 17.096 trillion cubic feet of natural gas equivalent. Chesapeake Energy Corporation was founded in 1989 and is based in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Doug Ehrman]

  Thanks largely to the antics of former CEO Aubrey McClendon, Chesapeake Energy (NYSE: CHK  ) has been one of the most maligned names in the energy sector. McClendon leveraged the company's future with debt, intertwined his personal finances with the company's, and engineered a land-buying program that received significant amounts of bad press topped off with negative portrayal of the industry in Matt Damon's movie, "Promised Land." The result has been a nearly 40% slide in Chesapeake Energy stock over the past two years.

• [By Tyler Crowe, Taylor Muckerman, and Joel South]

  On the other side of the balance sheet, you have the poster child for debt problems, Chesapeake Energy (NYSE: CHK  ) . Despite massive sell-offs to clean up the debt situation, the company is still sporting a debt-to-equity ratio greater than 50%. Learn more about�Chesapeake's debt situation and its enormous potential�by�checking out The Motley Fool's brand-new premium report�available here.

• [By Paul Ausick]

  Chesapeake Energy Corp. (NYSE: CHK) is up 1.9%. at $26.40 in a 52-week range of $16.23 to $27.46.

  EOG Resources Inc. (NYSE: EOG) is up 1.4%, at $173.91 in a 52-week range of $107.76 to $174.86.

• [By Matt DiLallo]

  This has taken its toll on investors who have subsequently taken out their frustrations on these management teams. So far this year we've seen embattled Chesapeake Energy (NYSE: CHK  ) CEO Aubrey McClendon "retire" with the likelihood that SandRidge Energy (NYSE: SD  ) CEO Tom Ward will soon be following suit. McClendon's retirement didn't last very long as he's already lined up new work, but it still begs the question of whether or not we've seen the end of the wildcatter CEO.

10 Best Heal Care Stocks To Watch Right Now: TAL International Group Inc.(TAL)

TAL International Group, Inc. engages in the lease of intermodal containers and chassis. It operates in two segments, Equipment Leasing and Equipment Trading. The Equipment Leasing segment involves in the acquisition, lease, re-lease, and sale of various intermodal transportation equipment, such as dry freight containers, which are used for general cargo, including manufactured component parts, consumer staples, electronics, and apparel; refrigerated containers that are used for perishable items, such as fresh and frozen foods; and special containers, which are used for heavy and oversized cargo, such as marble slabs, building products, and machinery. It also leases chassis, which are used for the transportation of containers and tank containers that are used to transport bulk liquid products, such as chemicals, as well as finances port equipment, which includes container cranes, reach stackers, and other related equipment. The Equipment Trading segment purchases container s from shipping line customers and other sellers of containers, and resells these containers to container traders and users of containers for storage or one-way shipment. As of December 31, 2009, it had a fleet of 701,946 containers and chassis, including 31,137 containers under management for third parties, representing 1,139,523 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEU). The company was founded in 1963 and is headquartered in Purchase, New York.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Brian Pacampara]

  Based on the aggregated intelligence of 180,000-plus investors participating in Motley Fool CAPS, the Fool's free investing community, freight container lessor TAL International (NYSE: TAL  ) has earned a coveted five-star ranking.

10 Best Heal Care Stocks To Watch Right Now: PVF Capital Corp.(PVFC)

PVF Capital Corp. operates as the holding company for Park View Federal Savings Bank that provides various banking products and services in Ohio. Its deposit products include checking, money market, and regular savings accounts, as well as certificates of deposit. The company?s loan portfolio comprises commercial real estate and business loans, commercial non-real estate business loans, residential and commercial construction loans, consumer loans, land loans, and equity line of credit loans; fixed and adjustable-rate mortgage loans for the acquisition or refinancing of single-family residential homes; and permanent mortgage loans on condominiums, multi-family, and nonresidential properties. It also engages in land acquisition and real estate leasing activities. PVF Capital Corp. operates through 17 offices located in Cuyahoga, Summit, Medina, Lorain, Lake, Portage, and Geauga Counties in Ohio. The company was founded in 1920 and is headquartered in Solon, Ohio.

10 Best Heal Care Stocks To Watch Right Now: Cobalt Coal Corp (CBT.V)

Cobalt Coal Ltd. engages in the acquisition, exploration, development, and operation of coal properties in West Virginia, the United States. The company produces metallurgical coal, which is used in the production of steel. It owns and operates two coal projects, The Westchester Coal Mine and The Westchester Expansion. The company was formerly known as Cobalt Coal Corp. and changed its name to Cobalt Coal Ltd. in June 2011. Cobalt Coal Ltd. is headquartered in Calgary, Canada.

10 Best Heal Care Stocks To Watch Right Now: Virginia Mines Inc (VGQ.TO)

Virginia Mines Inc. engages in the acquisition, exploration, development, and exploitation of various mining exploration properties in Canada. The company primarily explores for gold and base metal deposits primarily in James Bay area, Quebec. It has a strategic alliance with Wemindji Exploration Inc. to carry out geological reconnaissance, sampling, and exploration work in middle north Quebec; and KGHM International Ltd. to carry out geological reconnaissance, sampling, and exploration work in northern Quebec. The company is headquartered in Quebec, Canada. As of March 31, 2006, Virginia Mines Inc. operates as a subsidiary of Goldcorp Inc.

10 Best Heal Care Stocks To Watch Right Now: MCG Capital Corporation(MCGC)

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

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Equities Lab]

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

Top 5 Value Companies To Watch In Right Now

Our Quadrix Value score reflects a stock�� percentile rank on more than 20 variables, but four of the most effective metrics are the price/earnings, price/sales, price/cash flow and the enterprise ratio.

Screening for standouts on these four measures, Coinstar (CSTR) and Dillard�� (DDS) are two especially cheap stocks.

Coinstar faces numerous questions regarding the future of DVDs and Blu-ray discs as faster cable speeds make streaming video an attractive alternative.

And though Coinstar and partner Verizon have launched a subscription service for streaming video, competitors Amazon and Netflix are already firmly entrenched in the business.

Top 5 Value Companies To Watch In Right Now: Dollar Tree Inc.(DLTR)

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

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Lawrence Meyers]

  As a convenience store, it doesn’t have direct competition from�Dollar Tree (DLTR) or Family Dollar (FDO) because these dollar stores aren�� exclusively focused on food (and they have no gasoline or cigarette sales), and they��e targeted at the folks who are trying to save money over convenience, not vice versa. The convenience angle is another reason why�Walmart (WMT) and Costco (COST)�aren’t competitors, since those behemoths are about a total shopping experience.

• [By Demitrios Kalogeropoulos]

  Costly market share gains
  The problem is that Family Dollar has had to pay up for its increasing market share and sales levels. The company's gross profit margin fell by more than a full percentage point, to 34.7% last quarter. In contrast, Dollar Tree (NASDAQ: DLTR  ) booked an expansion of profits, to 35.2%, continuing a trend that's seen it pull away from Family Dollar.

• [By Paul Ausick]

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

• [By Jon C. Ogg]

  Dollar Tree Inc. (NASDAQ: DLTR) was maintained as a Buy but was removed from the prized Conviction Buy list at Goldman Sachs.

  Duke Energy Corp. (NYSE: DUK) was raised to Buy from Hold with a $79 price target at Argus.

Top 5 Value Companies To Watch In Right Now: Caterpillar Inc.(CAT)

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

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Matt Thalman]

  This past week, eight of the Dow Jones Industrial Average's (DJINDICES: ^DJI  ) 30 components reported earnings: McDonald's, DuPont (NYSE: DD  ) , AT&T, Travelers (NYSE: TRV  ) , United Technologies, Caterpillar (NYSE: CAT  ) , Boeing, and 3M (NYSE: MMM  ) .

• [By ANUP SINGH]

  Coal consumption growth in China is estimated to have slowed down to 4% year on year in 2012, down from 10% in 2011. An economic slowdown in�the country�has affected demand, and this has been one of headwinds for Joy because it has substantial exposure to China. Caterpillar (NYSE: CAT  ) , one Joy's competitors, is also facing trouble in China of late.

• [By Rebecca McClay]

  Building roads and bridges takes a lot of heavy equipment, and that's exactly what Caterpillar (CAT) makes. Whether a project needs backhoes, excavators, pavers or the articulated trucks to get asphalt and other building materials from one location to another, the Peoria, Ill., manufacturer is the industry leader both in the U.S. and abroad.

• [By Jeremy Bowman]

  Oddly enough, Alcoa's strong report did nothing for itself but sent shares of fellow traveler Caterpillar (NYSE: CAT  ) up 2.6%. The two are the worst-performing Dow stocks this year, as they are subject to many of the same market forces, including the vagaries of the business cycle, construction demand, and growth in China. Consequently, Alcoa's earnings beat is a good reason to bet Caterpillar could also top expectations. Analysts are projecting earnings per share of $1.72 and revenue of $15.04 billion, both sharply down from a year ago, when the heavy equipment manufacturer reports on July 24.

Top 5 Insurance Stocks To Buy Right Now: 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 Eric Volkman]

  Tupperware Brands (NYSE: TUP  ) is reaching into its corporate bowl for a fresh payout to shareholders. The company has declared a quarterly dividend of $0.62 per share. This will be paid on July 8 to stockholders of record as of June 19. That amount matches the firm's previous distribution, which was paid in early April. Prior to that, Tupperware Brands was rather less generous, handing out $0.36 per share.

• [By John Udovich]

  Everyone is familiar with�the Tupperware brand from�consumer products stock Tupperware Brands Corporation (NYSE: TUP) and you are probably familiar with the brands�of mid cap stock Jarden Corp (NYSE: JAH) along with small cap stocks Libbey Inc (NYSEMKT: LBY) and Lifetime Brands Inc (NASDAQ: LCUT); but what about the stocks themselves? Chances are, their brands or products are right under your nose at home and you probably don�� know anything about the mid cap or small cap stock behind them.

Top 5 Value Companies To Watch In Right Now: Schlumberger N.V.(SLB)

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

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By WWW.DAILYFINANCE.COM]

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

• [By Tyler Crowe]

  Talk to your CFO if you experience bloating
  This quarter, Nabors, Halliburton (NYSE: HAL  ) , and Schlumberger (NYSE: SLB  ) have all struggled in their pressure-pumping businesses because of oversupply in the current market. According to Nabors CEO Anthony Petrello, this has led to a very competitive market: "It is not unusual to bid frac jobs against 20 other pumpers, and sometimes as many as 35 show up. We have seen some instances of competitors winning bids with economics that at least from our perspective appear to be near cash break-even."

• [By Dan Caplinger]

  Halliburton has focused much of its attention on the booming U.S. market, giving it more exposure to domestic production than more globally focused rival Schlumberger (NYSE: SLB  ) . With domestic drilling activity having been fairly weak lately, Halliburton's U.S. concentration has raised concerns among investors, as land-based rig counts have fallen sharply. But with efficiency gains from multi-pad drilling and multi-stage hydraulic fracturing, bulls hope that rig counts don't accurately reflect actual production activity and therefore that Halliburton's earnings will hold up better than some expect.

Here's What You Didn't Know About TNI Biotech (TNIB)

If you're reading this, then odds are you already know TNI Biotech Inc. (OTCMKTS:TNIB) is an exciting biotech outfit working on a handful of immunotherapies .... drugs that induce an individual's own immune system to fight a variety of illnesses. As is the case with so many other biotech companies, however, it's what you don't know about TNIB that makes it so compelling. A great deal of what you may not have realized about TNI Biotech was published today, in the latest edition of Micro Cap Review magazine.

One of the more interesting pieces of "color" unveiled in the write-up is how and why the company began.

The name Noreen Griffin may ring a bell with current and would-be TNIB shareholders. She's the founder of the company. More than that, though, she was one of the earliest beneficiaries of the company's technology, even before TNI Biotech existed. See, as a victim of ovarian and cervical cancer looking for options when there weren't many great ones, Griffin was able to piece together a combination of LDN (low-dose naltrexone) and MENK ... the core components of the company's drug pipeline now, though again, there was no TNIB when Griffin was seeking solutions.

The treatments worked, too. But, having realized this particularly immunology was too tough for the average cancer victim to find - and create - for themselves, Griffin went on a mission to find a way to bring in all the right biotechnologies as well as all the right people under one roof to focus on creating an organization that could properly win the approval for and begin marketing these two very potent solutions. The net result of that effort is the TNI Biotech we know and love today.

The company's history isn't even the most exciting part of the Micro Cap Review write-up, however.

One of the upsides of an immunotherapy is that it can be broad-based. Where as many traditional drugs target a specific cancer or virus or bacteria, immunotherapies enhance a body's innate ability to fight all sorts of diseases. Though there are a variety of ways of enhancing that disease-fighting capability, MENK and LDN have been found to be some of the more effective, broad-based approaches of improving a patient's immune system. The end result is a drug that shows potential as a treatment for several ailments. While most TNI Biotech Inc. shareholder were aware that several diseases are in play here, for the first time ever the company has not only provided a list of all the diseases it's going to be targeting, but also a timeline for when the drugs' major milestones might be hit. Even more surprising is that it's got a couple of Phase 2 and Phase 3 items in the pipeline.

Bottom line? You may have thought you knew TNI Biotech, but of you really want to know TNIB, go to page 56 of the most recent edition of Micro Cap Review. You might be pleasantly surprised about how much you didn't know.

Kellogg: Healthy Balance Between Snacks And Cereal

Kellogg (K) hasn't been participating in the recent market euphoria, for the simple reason that it's a cash cow/bond substitute and interest rates seem likely to rise further. At current prices in the $61 area, looking out five years, a combination of dividends and capital appreciation totaling 9% annually comes into view.

Overview

The company describes itself as follows, in press releases:

At Kellogg Company, we are driven to enrich and delight the world through foods and brands that matter. With 2012 sales of $14.2 billion, Kellogg is the world's leading cereal company; second largest producer of cookies and crackers; a leading producer of savory snacks; and a leading North American frozen foods company. Every day, our well-loved brands nourish families so they can flourish and thrive. These brands include Kellogg's®, Keebler®, Special K®, Pringles®, Frosted Flakes®, Pop-Tarts®, Corn Flakes®, Rice Krispies®, Kashi®, Cheez-It®, Eggo®, Coco Pops®, Mini-Wheats®, and many more.

In the 10-K, the company presents 9 operating segments - a mix of product lines and geographical classifications. They also present supplemental information - a 3 way split among cereals, snacks and other. It's useful to note that cereals and snacks, after the Pringles acquisition, are both less than 50% of the mix. It's an over simplification to think of Kellogg strictly in terms of cereal.

Pringles Acqusition

On 5/31/2012 the company completed the acquisition of Pringles from Procter & Gamble (PG). It will have a material effect on EPS, and pro forma data is presented in the 10-K. The acquisition is expected to be accretive by 22 to 25 cents in 2013.

The strategic rationale is good - Kellogg increased its snack business and improved access to foreign markets. The US Cereals segment hasn't been performing well and the company needs to look elsewhere for growth.

The company will suspend its repurchase program (other than moppin! g up after share-based compensation) until the debt from the acquisition is brought down to the desired level.

Accounting Change

From the 10-K:

Pension and nonpension postretirement benefits. In the fourth quarter of 2012, the Company elected to change its policy for recognizing expense for pension and nonpension postretirement benefits. Previously, the Company recognized actuarial gains and losses associated with benefit obligations in accumulated other comprehensive income in the consolidated balance sheet upon each plan remeasurement, amortizing them into operating results over the average future service period of active employees in these plans. Under the new policy, the Company has elected to immediately recognize actuarial gains and losses in operating results in the year in which they occur, eliminating the amortization. Experience gains and losses will be recognized annually as of the measurement date, which is the Company's fiscal year-end, or when remeasurement is otherwise required under generally accepted accounting principles. The Company believes the new policy provides greater transparency to on-going operating results and better reflects the Company's obligations to its employees and the impact of the current market conditions on those obligations.

I regard the change as favorable due to the improvement in transparency. It reduced Q4 2012 earnings to 2 cents. As such, TTM P/E at 23.28 is not useful information.

Valuation

When increasing pension liabilities are hiding out in AOCI, I frequently adjust the computation of 5 year average EPS to include the missing information. Now that Kellogg has changed their accounting, I still make a small adjustment to account for the change in AOCI over the past 5 years.

Reading guidance on the Pringles acquisition, I see the deal as accretive to the tune of 22 cents per year.

5 year average EPS works out to $3.35 after adding 22 cents for Pringles. Applying a PE5 multiple of 20, typical of high quality co! mpanies o! f this type, I arrive at a FMV and target price of $67.

A Sour Note on Advertising

While advertising is an expense, and booked as such, it's conventionally thought of as an investment in brand equity. Looking at five years financial data, advertising as a percentage of revenue has decreased from 8.4% to 7.9%.

Reading the shareholder letter from the 2012 Annual Report, there is a fairly long discussion of brand-building, very positive on the power of advertising to increase sales. If this assertion is correct, the question comes up, why is the expense declining over the years?

Managing Cash Flow

The shareholder letter also includes an extended discussion of Operating Principles. In order of priority, cash is expended to increase sales and profitability, then comes capex at 3% to 4% of revenue, followed by the dividend and financial flexibility considerations, i.e. reducing debt or doing buybacks.

As mentioned earlier, buybacks will be curtailed until the debt from the Pringles acquisition is reduced to the proper level.

Dividend

The dividend has been increased for 9 consecutive years, most recently by 4.5% to 46 cents quarterly, yielding 3% at recent prices.

The company acknowledges the importance of the dividend, and moderate increases can be expected to continue.

Reservations

In recent years the company has experienced difficulties with high commodity costs, consumer weakness, competitive pressures, and failures of innovation.

Kellogg has ample resources and good market positions. Over time headwinds may be expected to abate. The ability to spend approximately 8% of net revenue on demand creation, and still show very respectable margins, can't be underestimated.

Investment Implications

Buying Kellogg at today's prices, an investor has a reasonable expectation of receiving an increasing flow of dividend income, and eventual share price appreciation.

Estimating future growth at 4% annually, and assuming that applies! to the t! arget price, if it takes 5 years for share price to hit target, capital appreciation will amount to 6% annualized, to which the dividend of 3% can be added, for a total of 9%. Sixty month beta is 0.48, producing a favorable risk/reward profile.

Source: Kellogg: Healthy Balance Between Snacks And Cereal

Disclosure: I am long K, GIS. I wrote this article myself, and it expresses my own opinions. I am not receiving compensation for it (other than from Seeking Alpha). I have no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article. (More...)

Winners and Losers: A Good Week for Tech, but Not for Online Learning

Bloomberg via Getty Images Companies can make brilliant moves, but there are also times when things don't work out quite as planned. From an online educator getting schooled to a PC dinosaur showing signs of coming back to life, here's a rundown of the week's best and worst in the business world. Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) -- Winner PC sales continue to slide, but market leader HP is turning things around. Industry tracker IDC may have served up some grim metrics for the state of desktops and laptops -- global PC shipments were down by nearly 8 percent, making this the sixth consecutive quarter of slipping sales -- but IDC estimates that HP bucked the trend by shipping more computers than it did a year earlier. The trend is even better domestically. HP was already having a good week when CEO Meg Whitman explained why she felt her company was well-positioned to thrive in the future. The IDC report suggests that HP's rosy future is now. K12 (LRN) -- Loser Online learning has come under fire in recent years. Are the students engaged enough? Is the education effective? Are the cost savings worth the shortcomings of the virtual classroom? We still don't have all of the answers, but we may be seeing enrollments peaking. Shares of K12 were slammed this week after the provider of Web-based curriculums for grade school students posted a disappointing outlook. K12 saws enrollments increased by a softer than expected 6 percent in its latest quarter. K12 also now sees revenue for the entire fiscal year that ends in June clocking in between $905 million and $925 million. Analysts were perched at $988 million. Ouch. That's not a passing grade. Microsoft (MSFT) -- Winner HP wasn't the only winner in IDC's review of the PC industry during the third quarter. Four of the five largest PC makers in this country saw their shipments increase. The lone holdout was Apple (AAPL) experiencing an 11 percent slide in Mac and MacBook sales during the period. That's sweet news for Microsoft as it struggles to keep up with Apple in tablets and smartphones. Microsoft's Windows is still the platform of choice for desktops and laptops, and it's welcome news that the four leading PC makers that are growing in this country happen to rely largely on the Windows operating system software. Ruby Tuesday (RT) -- Loser Shares of the struggling casual dining chain plunged 17 percent on Thursday after it posted a dreadful quarterly report. Ruby Tuesday posted a steep deficit, and same-restaurant sales plunged 11 percent. Casual dining in general has been struggling as it fends off the challenge of faster and cheaper fast casual darlings. However, you don't see too many chains outside of Ruby Tuesday posting double-digit declines in comps. Naturally Ruby Tuesday's guidance isn't all that encouraging. How do you bounce back when you're that far gone? There may be a harbinger in the way The Rolling Stones' "Ruby Tuesday" ends. It fades out -- quickly. Sirius XM Radio (SIRI) -- Winner Satellite radio is as popular as ever, and that's sending a lot of money to the business that has a monopoly in extra-terrestrial tunes. Sirius XM announced on Thursday that it would be buying another $2 billion of its stock in the coming months and years. Back in December, it announced its original $2 billion repurchase authorization, and it wasn't lip service. Sirius XM has bought back $1.6 billion worth of the stock. Buybacks aren't the best way for a company to spend money, but they are effective in improving a stock's value by giving the company fewer shares to divide earnings into, boosting profitability on a per-share basis.

The Winners Circle: America's Best Small Companies

True Religion, founded in 2002, sells luxury denim in 124 stores domestically and 31 overseas.

America's Best Small Companies: Newcomers 2013

Other organizations that graduated to the next level or took a healthy exit include…

Metropolitan Health Networks: The Florida-based healthcare company was acquired by Humana in late 2012 for about $500 million.

United Therapeutics Corp: After declaring over $900 million in revenue at year's end 2012, the biotech firm saw its stock climb over 60%.

DXP Enterprises: By the closing of 2012, DXP had topped one billion revenue for the first time. In 2013 stocks have grown in value by over 64%.

Middleby: It was a good year to be a stockholder in this food service equipment firm. Final 2012 figures showed the company generated over $1 billion on the year and since then share prices have riser 65%.

EDAC Technologies Corp.: The company was acquired by GB Aero Engine – an affiliate of Greenbriar Equity Group – in May for $17.75 per share.

Hot Warren Buffett Companies To Invest In Right Now

Atwood Oceanics:  Declared $787 million in revenue in 2012, netting $272 in income. Since then shares have swelled over 10% in value.

Copart: This past July the online auction and vehicle remarketing firm declared it had generated over $1 billion in its fiscal year. In the past 12 months the company's shares have added 20% of value.

Keynote Systems: This summer the and mobile services company was acquired by investment firm Thoma Bravo for $395 million in cash—a 48 percent premium over the price of the company's shares at market.

Shuffle Master: The gaming products company was acquired by electronic gaming giant Bally Technologies for $1.3 billion in a deal announced this past summer.   

Attorney general meets with JPMorgan’s Dimon

WASHINGTON — JPMorgan chief executive Jamie Dimon met Thursday with Attorney General Eric Holder about an investigation into the company's handling of mortgage-backed securities in the run-up to the recession.

Holder declined to characterize the discussions, but a government official familiar with ongoing negotiations said an $11 billion national settlement is under review to resolve claims against JPMorgan.

"I did meet with representatives of JPMorgan," the attorney general said during a news conference being held on another topic.

"We have matters that are under investigation. I expect to be making further announcements in the coming weeks, the coming months," Holder said. His comment was a general reference to probes the Justice Department has been carrying out for several years involving some of the nation's largest financial institutions, including JPMorgan.

Before and after the meeting with Holder, Dimon declined to answer when asked about the state of the discussions.

The Department of Justice is taking the lead on the proposed $11 billion deal, which would include $7 billion in cash and $4 billion in consumer relief, said the government official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because a settlement hasn't been reached and the official wasn't authorized to discuss it publicly.

The mortgage-backed securities lost value after a bubble in the housing market burst and helped spur the financial crisis.

In January 2012, a task force of federal and state law enforcement officials was established to pursue wrongdoing with regard to mortgage securities.

In other cases, the Justice Department last month accused Bank of America Corp. of civil fraud in failing to disclose risks and misleading investors in its sale of $850 million in mortgage bonds in 2008. The Securities and Exchange Commission filed a related lawsuit. The government estimates that investors lost more than $100 million on the deal. Bank of America is disputing the allegations.

Hot Penny Companies To Watch For 2014

Last week, JPMorgan agreed to pay $920 million and admitted that it failed to oversee trading that led to a $6 billion loss last year. That combined amount, in settlements with three U.S. regulators and a British one, is one of the largest fines ever levied against a financial institution.

JPMorgan came through the financial crisis in better shape than most of its rivals, and CEO Dimon had charmed lawmakers and commanded the attention of regulators in Washington.

A number of big banks, including JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs and Citigroup, previously have been accused of abuses in sales of securities linked to mortgages in the run-up to the crisis. Together they have paid hundreds of millions of dollars in penalties to settle civil charges brought by the SEC, which accused them of deceiving investors about the quality of the bonds they sold.

JPMorgan settled SEC charges in June 2011 by agreeing to pay $153.6 million and reached another such agreement for $296.9 million in November.

Three Small Cap Tech Stocks to Bring Out the Luddite in You? TCPS, USRC & STBV

Small cap tech stocks TechnoConcepts, Inc (OTCMKTS: TCPS), Unisource Corporation (OTCMKTS: USRC) and Strategic Global Investments, Inc (OTCMKTS: STBV) have been getting some attention lately in various investment newsletters thanks to promotions. Of course, there is nothing wrong with properly disclosed promotions, but they can backfire on the unwary as its really up to investors or traders alike to do their own due diligence before investing or trading. With that in mind, here is a quick reality check about three small cap tech stocks getting a bit of attention lately:

TechnoConcepts, Inc (OTCMKTS: TCPS) Has the Yield Sign Replaced on Its OTC Page

Small cap TechnoConcepts is a wireless technology company currently holding patents and other intellectual property. On Friday, TechnoConcepts fell 0.45% to $15.58 for a market cap of $415.28 million plus TCPC is up 1.1% over the past year and up 6% since April 2012 according to Google Finance.

What's the Catch With TechnoConcepts, Inc? According to various disclosures, transactions of $3k, $10k and $15k have or will occur to mention TechnoConcepts in various investment newsletters. Last Wednesday, TechnoConcepts provided an update where it noted that the company was recently upgraded from the Yield Sign on OTCMarkets to Current Information after "following through" on its plan to provide complete disclosure to all shareholders. However, the most recent financials posted on Google Finance reveal no revenues, no cash and $2.21M in current liabilities along with $1.01M in long-term debt. Otherwise, the update noted that several debtors and preferred stockholders of the company had recognized last year that TCPS's proprietary technology (including True Software Radio™ and Lycon™ chip), were once again "commercially viable" when the FCC agreed with President Obama's directive to the Commerce Department to create a "shared-use spectrum superhighway" in the 500 to 1000 MHz spectrum. Hence, TechnoConcepts will continue to develop its technology and find an appropriate licensing partner.

Unisource Corporation (OTCMKTS: USRC) Announces a New Deal and Comments on Its Financials

Small cap Unisource Corporation is a holding enterprise whose strategy is to acquire and combine third party logistics service providers and logistics technology providers in order to offer a unique, cost effective Cloud-based SaaS solution for the global logistics marketplace. On Friday, Unisource Corporation rose 4.91% to $0.470 plus USRC is up 370% since last November and down 27.7% in intermittent trading since October 2008 according to Google Finance.

What's the Catch With Unisource Corporation? According to various disclosures, transactions of $500, $1.5k and $2k have or will occur to mention Unisource Corporation in various investment newsletters. Last Wednesday, Unisource Corporation announced that Box Brothers, Inc. had signed a license platform agreement with its subsidiary Visionship, Inc, to deploy the Visionship G3 Transportation Management System (TMS) as a Software as a Service (Saas) to all Box Brother locations. In addition and on Monday, Unisource Corporation commented on its recent financials and pointed out a revenue growth rate that exceeded 270% between Q1 and Q2 for 2013. However, a quick look at Unisource Corporation's financials reveals revenues of $133k (Q2) and $47K (Q1) along with net losses of $1,438k (Q2) and $102k (Q1). At the end of June, Unisource Corporation had $60k in cash to cover $707k in current liabilities – hardly as exciting as the revenue growth figures mentioned in the press release.

Strategic Global Investments, Inc (OTCMKTS: STBV) Announces Deals But Leaves Out the Important Details

Small cap Strategic Global Investments provides live streaming video content and related digital advertising via its websites and social media with the company's online business being divided into two segments: Wazillo and Wazillo Media. Wazillo is an online network of live video streaming from destination venues (i. e. restaurants, nightclubs and bars) while Wazillo Media utilizes its live streaming media and content management and distribution technologies to create an Internet Talk-TV network of topical shows. On Friday, Strategic Global Investments fell 10% to $0.009 for a market cap of $1.10 million plus STBV is down 93.6% over the past year and down 96.4% since October 2008 according to Google Finance.

What's the Catch With Strategic Global Investments, Inc? According to various disclosures, transactions of $1k, $1.5k, $1.7k, $2k, $4k and $15k have or will occur to mention Strategic Global Investments in various investment newsletters. Last Wednesday, Strategic Global Investments announced an Asset Purchase Agreement with DGI, LLC of Rancho Santa Fe, California, to acquire the intellectual property and assets commonly known as TuVozOnline, which allows users to access internet phone service anywhere in the world through their broadband Internet connection; but no financial details about the deal were given. Otherwise and in late July, Strategic Global Investments announced that it had secured a $2,000,000 Equity Financing Term Sheet with Phoenix Group Capital Markets, a UK holding company, through its wholly-owned microcap investment fund with no further deal details provided. A quick look at Strategic Global Investments' financials reveals revenues of $6k (most recent reported quarter), $47k, $19k and $2k for the past four quarters along with net losses of $195k (most recent reported quarter), $70k, $136k and $91k. At the end of March, Strategic Global Investments had $69k in cash to cover $395k in current liabilities. Given that and the lack of details regarding the Asset Purchase Agreement and the financing, investors may want for some more details to appear.

Funds that win in bull and bear markets

Ancient people spent an awful lot of time piling up large rocks, in part to discover just how long it took Earth to go around the sun. Modern people have (generally) dispensed with the large rocks and settled on 365.25 days. We use that unit to measure many things, such as our own age and the amount of time it seems to take Congress to reach a budget agreement.

Whether or not you should measure your mutual fund's performance by the time it takes Earth to cycle around the sun is another question. In fact, you might be better measuring how your fund fares in a full market cycle — from bull to bear and back, or vice versa.

Of the 663 large-company stock funds from the top of the last bull market in September 2007 to today, 225 posted above-average performance in both the 2007-2009 bear market and the bull market that continues (possibly) to this day. Let's take a look at a few of them and see what they have in common.

Lipper divides large-company funds into three categories:

• Value funds, which look for beaten-down stocks that have the potential to return to Wall Street's favor. In theory, since these funds buy stocks that have already been clobbered, these stocks will get clobbered less in a bear market. Many value funds also have above-average dividend yields, which help soften the effect of a downturn. But value managers generally won't buy the stocks that really fly in a bull market.

• Growth funds, which look for stocks of companies with high potential earnings growth. These funds buy stocks that soar in good times, and land like Wile E. Coyote at the bottom of Dry Gulch when the bull market ends.

• Core funds, which look for companies with GARP: growth at a reasonable price. In theory, this should be the best of both worlds, although it's much harder in practice than in theory.

No categories are as neat as people would like them to be. Few growth managers will admit that they don't give a fig about a stock's price, relative to earnings. And few value! managers will say they have never given a thought to a stock's earnings prospects. But the classifications do give you some idea of how a manager invests.

In the value camp, the winner is John Hancock Disciplined Value Fund (ticker: JVLAX). The fund fell 47.8% from the end of September 2007 through February 2009. Bad as that seems, it's better than the 54.1% tumble the Standard & Poor's 500 took during the same period, with dividends reinvested. The fund has gained 161% since the bear market bottom, for a round-trip gain of 36.4%. (The S&P's round-trip record was 25.8%.)

Not surprisingly, managers Mark Donovan and David Pyle aren't hard-core value managers: They look at industry earnings trends as well as traditional value metrics, such as price-to-book ratios.

Interestingly, an index fund, PowerShares Dynamic Large Cap Value Portfolio (PWV), also made the cut. While expensive for an index fund — it charges 0.59% in expenses a year — it's cheaper than the John Hancock offering, which charges 1.20% a year, as well as a front-end sales charge.

Laudus Growth Investors U.S. Large Cap Growth Fund (LGILX) was the best round-trip fund in the growth camp, racking up a 56% round-trip gain. Both managers are new — they started at the helm in November 2012 — so it's hard to give the fund in its current incarnation too much credit.

A better bet might be the ancient Putnam Voyager fund (PVOYX), launched in 1969. Current manager Nick Thakorehas been at the helm since November 2008. The fund has scored a 49.6% gain during the full market cycle.

The top growth fund is — again — an index fund. PowerShares QQQ Trust (QQQ), which tracks the Nasdaq 100 index, has gained 59.2% for the cycle, thanks in large part to its biggest holding, Apple.

And the world according to GARP, the winner is the Managers AMG Yacktman fund (YACKX), up 89.6% in the round trip. Don Yacktman, the chief manager, has been at the helm since 1992, and his son has worked on the fund since 2! 002.

No word on the grandchildren's role as yet, but they could do worse than learning at their grandfather's knee. The fund trades rarely — its turnover rate is just 7% — and tends to hold a relatively concentrated portfolio of high-quality, reasonably priced names like Procter & Gamble, Microsoft and Coca-Cola. The fund lost 39.7% during the bear market and gained 214.5% during the bull phase.

As the Securities and Exchange Commission likes to remind us, past performance is no guarantee of future returns. But looking at a fund's record in bull and bear markets gives you an idea of what you can expect in a bad market and a good one.

Of course, we can only hope that few people put their entire fortune into a fund at the start of the bear market in 2007. Those who started investing $100 a month into funds at the end of September of 2007 did pretty well, though. In the case of the Yacktman fund, $100 a month — $7,300 total — would have become $11,740. It's not easy to hang onto a fund in a bear market. But it is easier than piling up large rocks.

Top Cheap Companies To Invest In 2014

HONG KONG (CNNMoney) Apple is looking into claims of poor working conditions at a supplier in China that is said to be working on a new, cheaper iPhone.

China Labor Watch, a New York-based watchdog, accused the supplier of forcing employees to work excessive overtime in violation of Apple's 60-hour workweek limit.

The factory is owned by Jabil Circuit, an American electronics manufacturing company based in Florida. According to China Labor Watch, the plant is currently producing the rear plastic covers for a less expensive iPhone that Apple may launch as early as next week.

China Labor Watch said that workers at the plant would stand for more than 11 hours a day, and alleged that new employees were forced to sign contracts stating their overtime would be considered voluntary.

Top Cheap Companies To Invest In 2014: Whole Foods Market Inc.(WFM)

Whole Foods Market, Inc. engages in the ownership and operation of natural and organic food supermarkets. The company offers produce, seafood, grocery, meat and poultry, bakery, prepared foods and catering, coffee and tea, nutritional supplements, and vitamins. It also provides specialty products, such as beer, wine, and cheese; body care and educational products, such as books; and floral, pet, and household products. As of February 9, 2011, the company operated 302 stores in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom. Whole Foods Market, Inc. was founded in 1978 and is headquartered in Austin, Texas.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Andrew Marder]

  The land's lay
  With its falling sales, negative operational income, and lackluster brands, SUPERVALU�isn't going to win a beauty contest anytime soon. The line of better choices is long, and investors are quick to move to the new hot thing in the sector. Right now, Kroger (NYSE: KR  ) and Whole Foods (NASDAQ: WFM  ) both represent more interesting ways to make some money in the grocery store business.

Top Cheap Companies To Invest In 2014: Express-1 Expedited Solutions Inc.(XPO)

XPO Logistics, Inc. provides third-party logistics services using a network of relationships with ground, sea, and air carriers in the United States, Mexico, and Canada. It operates in three segments: Express-1, Concert Group Logistics, and Bounce Logistics. The Express-1 segment offers ground expedited surface transportation services for freight. It operates a fleet ranging from cargo vans to semi tractor trailer units. The Concert Group Logistics segment provides domestic and international freight forwarding services through a network of independently owned stations. Its domestic freight forwarding services include air charter, expedites, and time sensitive services, as well as cost sensitive services comprising deferred delivery, less than truckload, and full truck load services; and international freight forwarding services consist of on-board courier and air charters, time sensitive services, less-than-container and full-container-loads, and vessel charters. This segm ent also offers documentation on international shipments, customs clearance and banking, trade show shipment management, time definite and customized product distributions, reverse logistics and on site asset recovery projects, installation coordination, freight optimization, and diversity compliance support services. The Bounce Logistics segment provides premium freight brokerage services for truckload shipments. The company serves approximately 4,000 retail, commercial, manufacturing, and industrial customers through 6 U.S. operations centers and 22 agent locations. It offers its services to the automotive manufacturing, automotive components and supplies, commercial printing, durable goods manufacturing, pharmaceuticals, food and consumer products, and high tech sectors. The company was formerly known as Express-1 Expedited Solutions, Inc. and changed its name to XPO Logistics, Inc. in September 2011. XPO Logistics, Inc. was founded in 1989 and is based in Buchanan, Michi gan.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Travis Hoium]

  What: Shares of XPO Logistics (NYSE: XPO  ) jumped 13% today after announcing an acquisition.

  So what: The company will pay $365 million for logistics provider 3PD, consisting of $357 million in cash an $8 million in XPO restricted stock. Is will use its own cash and borrow $195 million from Credit Suisse Group for the remainder of the purchase. �

Best Oil Stocks To Watch For 2014: Lattice Semiconductor Corporation(LSCC)

Lattice Semiconductor Corporation designs, develops, manufactures, and markets programmable logic products and related software. The company offers field programmable gate array (FPGA) products, including LatticeECP family for deployment in wireless infrastructure and wireline access equipment, as well as in video and imaging applications; and LatticeXP for the security, surveillance, and display markets. It also provides programmable logic device (PLD) products comprising various versions of ispMACH4000 in-system programmable complex programmable logic device family; MachXO family that is designed for a range of low density applications; platform manager, power manager, and ispClock programmable mixed signal devices; and software development tools and intellectual property cores. The company sells its products directly to end customers through a network of independent manufacturers? representatives and indirectly through a network of independent sell-in and sell-through distributors. It primarily serves original equipment manufacturers in the communications, computing, consumer, industrial, military, automotive, and medical end markets. The company was founded in 1983 and is headquartered in Hillsboro, Oregon.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Lee Jackson]

  Lattice Semiconductor Corp. (NASDAQ: LSCC) is a top chip stock to buy at Jefferies. The company announced last month three new complete reference designs that will make it easier for electronic OEMs to deliver media-rich experiences to their end users by taking advantage of low-cost, industry-standard MIPI (Mobile Industry Processor Interface) camera, application processor and display technologies. The Jefferies price objective for the stock is $6.50, and the consensus is also at $6.50. Lattice closed yesterday at $4.63.

Top Cheap Companies To Invest In 2014: Hewlett-Packard Company(HPQ)

Hewlett-Packard Company and its subsidiaries provide products, technologies, software, solutions, and services to individual consumers and small- and medium-sized businesses (SMBs), as well as to the government, health, and education sectors worldwide. Its Personal Systems Group segment offers commercial personal computers (PCs), consumer PCs, workstations, calculators and other related accessories, and software and services for the commercial and consumer markets. The company?s Services segment provides consulting, outsourcing, and technology services to infrastructure, applications, and business process domains. Its Imaging and Printing Group segment provides consumer and commercial printer hardware, supplies, media, and scanning devices, such as inkjet and Web solutions, laser jet and enterprise solutions, managed enterprise solutions, graphics solutions, and printer supplies. The company?s Enterprise Servers, Storage, and Networking segment offers industry standard s ervers, business critical systems, storage platforms, and networking products, including switches, routers, wireless LAN, and TippingPoint network security products. Its HP Software segment provides enterprise IT management software, information management solutions, and security intelligence/risk management solutions. The company?s HP Financial Services segment offers leasing, financing, utility programs, and asset recovery services; and financial asset management services for enterprise customers, as well as specialized financial services to SMBs, and educational and governmental entities. Hewlett-Packard Company also provides business intelligence solutions that enable businesses to standardize on consistent data management schemes, connect and share data across the enterprise, and apply analytics, as well as licenses its specific technology to third parties. The company was founded in 1939 and is headquartered in Palo Alto, California.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Reuters]

  Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg via Getty ImagesThe Dow Jones news ticker in Times Square, New York City. NEW YORK -- Investment bank Goldman Sachs Group (GS), credit-card company Visa (V), and footwear Nike (NKE) will join the blue chip Dow Jones industrial average (^DJI) Dow Jones industrial average, the index managers said Tuesday, in the biggest shake-up for the 30-stock average in nearly a decade. The three companies will replace Bank of America (BAC), Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) and Alcoa (AA), all lower-priced stocks that exert a lesser pull on the price-weighted index. The changes will be effective on Sept. 23, S&P Dow Jones Indices said in a statement. The average, first established in 1896, includes 30 stocks, but very little money is indexed to its performance, unlike the broader Standard & Poor's 500 (^GSPC) or other indexes. In addition, because it is weighted by price, companies that are smaller in value with higher prices have more influence on the average. "Wow, those are big changes," said Tim Ghriskey, chief investment officer of Solaris Group in Bedford Hills, N.Y. "The Dow is really an antiquated index. It is price-weighted, which makes no sense. But there are still are some people that pay attention to it, and some technicians, so it has an influence on some people." Google (GOOG) and other names were considered for inclusion but passed over because of high stock prices, David Blitzer, managing director and chairman of the S&P Index Committee, told CNBC. The index manager said the changes were prompted by the low stock price of the three companies slated for removal and a desire to diversify the make-up of the index. Alcoa, in particular, has been seen as a candidate for elimination for some time, as the stock's market value of $8.5 billion is easily the lowest in the average. It is the first three-for-three change to the index since April 8, 2004, when American International Group (AIG), Pfizer (PFE) and Verizon (VZ) replaced AT&

• [By WALLSTCHEATSHEET.COM]

  Hewlett-Packard provides essential technology products and services to growing consumer populations, companies, and countries across the globe. The is seeing a modest bounce after witnessing a few years of increased selling. Earnings and revenue have been decreasing, over the last four quarters, which has produced mixed feelings among investors. However, relative to its peers and sector, Hewlett-Packard has led in year-to-date performance. WAIT AND SEE what Hewlett-Packard does this coming quarter.

Top Cheap Companies To Invest In 2014: S&P GSCI(GD)

General Dynamics Corporation, an aerospace and defense company, provides business aviation; combat vehicles, weapons systems, and munitions; military and commercial shipbuilding; and communications and information technology products and services worldwide. Its Aerospace group designs, manufactures, and outfits various large and mid-cabin business-jet aircraft; provides maintenance, repair work, fixed-based operations, and aircraft management services; and performs aircraft completions for aircraft. The company?s Combat Systems group offers tracked and wheeled military vehicles, weapons systems, and munitions. Its product lines include wheeled combat and tactical vehicles; battle tanks and infantry vehicles; munitions and propellant; rockets and gun systems; and axle and drivetrain components and aftermarket parts. This group also manufactures and supplies engineered axles, suspensions, and brakes for heavy-load vehicles for military and commercial customers. The company Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Rich Smith]

  Don't look now, but General Dynamics (NYSE: GD  ) may be about to win another multimillion-dollar weapons contract.

  That's the upshot of a new report out of DefenseNews.com, which itself cites a report in Germany's Handelsblatt newspaper warning that Saudi Arabia is about to cancel a deal to pay Germany $6.5 billion to acquire 270 new Leopard main battle tanks. According to DefenseNews.com, the Saudis are considering giving the contract to General Dynamics, and buying that company's Abrams main battle tanks, instead.

• [By Rich Smith]

  Even discounting Boeing as an "outlier," though, literally every other major defense firm in the U.S. far outclasses Northrop in the competition to win foreign business. Raytheon (NYSE: RTN  ) , essentially a pure-play military contractor, gets more than $1 in $4 from abroad -- 25.5%. General Dynamics (NYSE: GD  ) gets more than $1 in $5 (20.7%). Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT  ) does 17.1% of its business internationally.

• [By Rich Smith]

  Principal contractors, should the sales be approved, include Textron (NYSE: TXT  ) for the helicopter sale and General Dynamics (NYSE: GD  ) for the Strykers. No single principal contractor has been identified as associated with the spare parts sale, but both the HETTs and the HEMTTs, for example, are manufactured by Oshkosh (NYSE: OSK  ) , while Britain's BAE Systems (NASDAQOTH: BAESY  ) builds the recovery vehicles, howitzers, and M113s.

• [By Jon C. Ogg]

  General Dynamics Corp. (NYSE: GD) is down the least of defense stocks with a late-Tuesday drop of 1.4% at $83.08 against a 52-week trading range of $61.70 to $87.85. According to Thomson Reuters, its consensus analyst target is $95.80.

Top Cheap Companies To Invest In 2014: S&P Smallcap 600(PH)

Parker Hannifin Corporation manufactures fluid power systems, electromechanical controls, and related components worldwide. Its Industrial segment offers pneumatic and electromechanical components, and systems; filters, systems, and instruments to monitor and remove contaminants from fuel, air, oil, water, and other liquids and gases; connectors that control, transmit, and contain fluid; hydraulic components and systems for builders and users of industrial and mobile machinery and equipment; critical flow components for process instrumentation, healthcare, and ultra-high-purity applications; and static and dynamic sealing devices. This segment sells its products to original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and their replacement markets in the manufacturing, transportation, and processing industries. The company?s Aerospace segment provides flight control systems and components, including hydraulic, electrohydraulic, electric backup hydraulic, electrohydrostatic, and electro -mechanical components for precise control of aircraft rudders, elevators, ailerons, and other aerodynamic control surfaces. It also provides electronics thermal management heat rejection systems, and single-phase and two-phase heat collection systems for radar, ISAR, and power electronics. This segment markets its products primarily to OEMs in the commercial, military, and general aviation markets, as well as to end users. Its Climate and Industrial Controls segment offers systems and components primarily for use in the mobile and stationary refrigeration, and air conditioning industry; and in fluid control applications in various industries, such as processing, fuel dispensing, beverage dispensing, and mobile emissions. This segment serves OEMs and their replacement markets. Parker-Hannifin Corporation markets its products through direct-sales employees, independent distributors, wholesalers, and sales representatives. The company was founded in 1918 and is headquartered i n Cleveland, Ohio.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Mani]

  Parker-Hannifin Corporation (NYSE:PH) has significant opportunities to expand its operating margins, especially within the Aerospace segment where significant longer term business has already been won, and aftermarket opportunities should increase.

• [By Charles Mizrahi, President and CEO, Hampton Investors, Inc.]

  Parker Hannifin (PH) generates strong revenue from its aerospace division, while its primary industrial segment is lagging.

  Overall, we like the company's balanced portfolio. PH had solid order rates this past year with backlog of $3.6 billion between its industrial and aerospace segments.

Top Cheap Companies To Invest In 2014: SMTC Corporation(SMTX)

SMTC Corporation provides advanced electronics manufacturing services to original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) worldwide. The company?s services include product design and engineering services, printed circuit board assembly production, enclosure fabrication, systems integration, testing, and configuration services. It also provides enclosure and precision metal fabrication, cable assembly, interconnect, and engineering design services. The company offers its integrated contract manufacturing services to OEMs and technology companies primarily in the industrial, computing and networking, communications, consumer, and medical market segments. SMTC Corporation was founded in 1985 and is based in Markham, Canada.

Top Cheap Companies To Invest In 2014: Ur Energy Inc(URG)

Ur-Energy Inc., an exploration stage junior mining company, engages in the identification, acquisition, evaluation, exploration, and development of uranium mineral properties. The company has 13 projects located in Wyoming and Nebraska, the United States; and 3 exploration projects located in the Northwest Territories and Nunavut, Canada. Its landholdings cover approximately 90,000 acres in the United States and approximately 140,000 acres in Canada. The company was founded in 2004 and is headquartered in Littleton, Colorado.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By The Energy Report]

  JH: There are several companies that are in production that we follow in the U.S., such as Cameco Corp. (CCJ). Cameco produces at the Smith Ranch-Highland in the Powder River Basin. There's Uranium One, also in the Powder River Basin. There's Uranium Energy Corp. (UEC). A few near-term producers are rapidly coming online. Ur-Energy Inc. (URG) is one company we like in Wyoming.

• [By John Udovich]

  Since the start of the week, small cap nuclear fuel stock USEC Inc (NYSE: USU) more than doubled for investors, something that has not happened for investors in uranium stocks like Uranium Resources, Inc (NASDAQ: URRE), Denison Mines Corp (NYSEMKT: DNN), Ur-Energy Inc. (NYSEMKT: URG) and Uranerz Energy Corp (NYSEMKT: URZ). To recap: USEC Inc closed at the $6 level on Friday, but then it surged to the $15 level on Monday only to open at the $10 level on Tuesday when it ultimately closed at $12.46. So what in the world is going on with USEC Inc and is it time to revisit nuclear fuel and uranium stocks?