Exelon gets Pepco in $6.8B power deal

CHICAGO — Energy provider Exelon is buying Pepco Holdings Inc. for $6.83 billion to create a large electric and gas utility in the Mid-Atlantic region.

In pre-market trading Wednesday, shares of Pepco skyrocketed 16.7%.

The deal will combine Exelon Corp.'s electric and gas utilities BGE, ComEd and PECO with Pepco's Atlantic City Electric, Delmarva Power and its namesake utility.

The combined utility businesses will serve approximately 10 million customers and have a rate base of approximately $26 billion.

Under terms of the deal, Exelon will pay $27.25 per Pepco share, an 18% premium to the company's $23.10 closing price on Tuesday.

Chicago's Exelon will put $100 million into a customer investment fund to be used across the Pepco utilities' service territories as each state public service commission feels is appropriate for customer benefits, such as rate credits, assistance for low income customers and energy efficiency measures.

Exelon President and CEO Chris Crane will serve in those roles for the combined company. Pepco Chairman, President and CEO Joseph Rigby will stay in his positions until the transaction closes. He had announced in January that he plans to retire in the first half of 2015. To help ease the transition, he'll step down as CEO near the end of this year after his successor is chosen.

The deal is expected to significantly add to Exelon's adjusted earnings in the first full year after the acquisition is complete.

Both companies' boards unanimously approved the transaction, which is targeted to close in 2015's second or third quarter. The deal needs approval from Pepco shareholders and regulatory approvals.

Exelon also announced mixed first-quarter results on Wednesday. The company reported adjusted earnings of 62 cents per share on revenue of $7.24 billion. Analysts surveyed by FactSet predicted earnings of 69 cents per share on revenue of $6.56 billion.

Comcast Offers to Shed Customers to Get OK for TWC Merger

Susan Walsh/APComcast CEO Brian Roberts at The Cable Show 2013 convention in Washington. Comcast offered to sell 1.4 million pay TV subscribers to Charter Communications for $7.3 billion as part of a transaction aimed at winning regulatory approval for its proposed $45 billion takeover of Time Warner Cable. Comcast (CMCSA) also said it would divest another 2.5 million subscribers into a new publicly traded company, dubbed SpinCo for now, to be one-third owned by Charter (CHTR) and two-thirds by Comcast shareholders. The deal would make Charter -- whose own bid for Time Warner Cable (TWC) was thwarted by Comcast's higher offer -- the second-biggest U.S. pay TV company with 5.7 million customers, overtaking Cox Communications. Charter's shares rose as much as 10 percent to $142.70 in early trading Monday. Comcast shares were up 1.4 percent at $51.70. Comcast would have less than 30 percent of the U.S. residential cable or satellite TV market after the deal, the company said in a statement. The agreement is contingent on Comcast's Time Warner Cable deal being approved by the Justice Department and the U.S. Federal Communications Commission, a process that could take many months. Analysts said the deal was a pre-emptive move by Comcast ahead of a review of the deal by regulators. "Comcast wanted to do this deal now with Charter so it could get in front of regulators at the Justice Department and the FCC at the same time as the Time Warner Cable deal," a source familiar with the matter said. The source said there was a standstill agreement with Charter stipulating that it can't gain full control of SpinCo for four years. Comcast will have no ownership in SpinCo. SpinCo would have an estimated enterprise value of $14.3 billion and an equity value of $5.8 billion, Charter and Comcast said in an investor presentation. The divestments, mostly in the U.S. Midwest, would deliver about $19.5 billion in value to Comcast shareholders, the companies said. "For Charter, this deal is a transformative event and sets them up over time to consolidate the balance of the rest of the cable industry," Pivotal Research Group analyst Jeff Wlodarczak told Reuters, adding that the deal was good for both parties. More Clout for John Malone Charter's deal with Comcast marks an acceleration of John Malone's effective return to cable through his investment vehicle Liberty Media (LMCA), which owns about 27 percent of Charter, Wlodarczak said. Liberty Media got involved in working with Comcast but Charter did the nuts and bolts of the deal, the source said. Cable pioneer Malone, who set up the largest cable operator in the U.S. before selling it to AT&T (T) in 1999, returned to the U.S. cable market with Liberty's investment in Charter in March 2013. In addition to the divestments, Charter and Comcast will swap about 1.6 million customers. Charter will get the Detroit and Minneapolis-St. Paul markets, the companies said in the presentation. Comcast will get parts of the Los Angeles, New York state, western Massachusetts, North and South Carolina and parts of Texas and Georgia markets. Time Warner Cable had 11.2 million residential video subscribers as of March 31, while Comcast had 22.6 million. Charter, which also reported better-than-expected first-quarter revenue, said it expected to fund the purchase of 1.4 million customers through debt. Time Warner Cable shares were up 1 percent at $141.01. -.

Can Google Stock Make It to $1,000?

Analysts in Google's (NASDAQ: GOOG  ) $1,000 club were probably hoping for some upside surprise when the company announced second-quarter earnings on July 18. Unfortunately, the report didn't get the Street excited. Could a dull earnings release prevent Google stock from reaching that big number?

Crunching the numbers
Analysts are rallying behind Google stock, with a median price target of $998. Among the 38 analysts covered by Yahoo! Finance, the high target is $1,175 and the low target is $810. At $885, these targets mean very little downside risk and excellent upside potential... at least according to this group of analysts.

Are they right? Let's double check.

Ultimately, the value of a business is a function of its future earnings potential. So let's first make sure that those' price targets are truly functions of their earnings estimates.

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For the next five years, analysts, on average, expect EPS to grow at about 14.5% per annum. Given these EPS growth rates for the first five years, an average of 7.5% for the next five years, and a 3% for years beyond 10 years, a discounted cash flow valuation yields a fair value of about $958 per share -- not too far off analysts' median target of $998. So at least we know these analysts aren't fudging some other factor beyond earnings in order to reach a pretty target.

Now, let's check their growth assumptions based on historical non-GAAP year-over-year growth rates.

Source: Data from SEC filings for respective quarters shown.

Google's year-over-year EPS growth rates are certainly declining. The mobile and multi-screen operating environment is hurting the company's profitability. But a purely objective look at this trend suggests that analysts' average estimate for 14.5% EPS per annum for the next five years seems fairly conservative -- especially when you take into account Google's cash hoard that could be used to buy back shares during those five years.

Furthermore, Google's non-core businesses, particularly its hardware business, present other potential areas for future earnings growth.

Then there's the company's clear competitive advantage as both the world's largest search engine and digital ad network. Its search volume, advertising reach, and digital knowledge base give the company meaningful scale advantages that should protect the company's earnings for decades.

Are analysts right?
The analyst consensus for a $1,000 price appears to be on the right track. But stocks can do just about anything in a given 12-month period. So I don't like to speak in terms of 12-month price targets like analysts do. Foolish investors prefer to zoom out much further. In periods of five years or more, price typically follows value. On that note, here is the takeaway: I definitely think Google is worth $1,000 per share. Even more, I would even say that for investors with a time horizon greater than five years, Google is an excellent option to consider.

To read more about Google, check out The Motley Fool's latest free report: "Who Will Win the War Between the 5 Biggest Tech Stocks?" It details the knock-down, drag-out battle being waged by the five kings of tech. Click here to keep reading.

Top Healthcare Technology Companies To Invest In 2014

Top Healthcare Technology Companies To Invest In 2014: Dime Community Bancshares Inc.(DCOM)

Dime Community Bancshares, Inc. operates as the holding company for The Dime Savings Bank of Williamsburgh that provides financial services and loans primarily for multifamily housing. The company accepts various deposit products, including savings accounts, certificates of deposit, money market accounts, interest bearing checking accounts, and non-interest bearing checking accounts. Its loan products comprise multifamily residential mortgage loans, commercial real estate loans, one- to four-family residential mortgage loans, construction and land acquisition loans, and consumer loans. In addition, the company, through its other subsidiaries, involves in the management and ownership of real estate; the sale of non-FDIC insured investment products; and investing in multifamily residential, one to four-family, and commercial real estate loans. As of January 26, 2012, it operated 26 branches located throughout Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx, and Nassau County, New York. The comp any was founded in 1864 and is headquartered in Brooklyn, New York.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Tim Melvin]

  I always find it very interesting to see what long-term investors are selling in a given quarter. Kahn Brothers lightened up on many financials that have shot up and now trade above book value. The firm sold out of Flushing Financial (FFIC), TCF Financial (TCB) and Dime Community Bank (DCOM). Khan apparently shares my views on the large-cap drug stocks, easing up on both Pfizer (PFE) and Bristol Meyers (BMY) over the summer. Khan Brothers also sold the last of the Travelers shares (TRV) it has owned since 2008 at more than twice the purchase price.

source from Top Stocks Blog:http://www.topstocksblog.com/top-healthcare-technology-co! mpanies-to-invest-in-2014.html

How to Cool a Home (And Save the Planet While You're At It)

Keeping your home cool is easy when you blast your air conditioner all day. If you want to keep your home cool while saving the planet, though, you have to consider alternatives to reduce wastefulness. These tips can help you cool your home without burning a lot of excess energy.

Use Blinds to Block the Sun

Direct sunlight will make your home hotter. By keeping your blinds closed, you prevent those rays from coming inside. You'll get the best results from closing the blinds tightly with the opening facing up.

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Use Ceiling Fans Properly

Most ceilings fans have summer and winter settings. The winter setting moves the blades clockwise to push cold air to the ceiling while pulling warm air down. During the summer, set your fan to move counter-clockwise. This will create a better breeze that cools the room and helps sweat evaporate so your body stays cooler.

Change Your Air Filter Once a Month

Air filters prevent debris from circulating through your home. If those filters get too dirty, they make it harder for your air conditioner to do its job. That means it stays on longer and uses more electricity. You can cut about one to two percent off your energy bill by replacing your filters once a month during the summer.

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Use Solar Windows

You don't have to avoid solar panels just because you think they look ugly. Solar windows offer a new option that will help you cool your home without pulling more energy from the grid.

Solar windows create electricity from the sunlight that shines through them. You can then use the electricity to power your home.

Companies are working on a variety of solar window products, including those made for commercial and residential properties. If you don't want to purchase new windows for your home, you can get a clear solar window film that attaches to your window.

What Exactly is Precycling?

Use a Programmable Thermostat

A programmable thermostat makes it easy to keep your home comfortable without burning excess energy. For instance, you can program the thermostat to let the indoor temperature get warmer during the day while you're at work. An hour before you come home, the thermostat will adjust to a more pleasant temperature. You won't even notice that your AC isn't running all day. That could save you $65 to $100 by the end of summer.

Place Plants Strategically

Knowing where to place plants outside can lower the amount of energy you use by controlling the temperature inside your home.

If possible, plant deciduous trees on your home's west and south sides. Three strategically placed trees could help you save up to $250 a year.

You will also use less energy by plating shrubs that give your AC unit some shade. Those that operate in shaded areas use less energy cooling homes. Make sure the plants won't clog the unit when they drop their leaves in fall.

What other eco-friendly methods do you use to keep your home cool while protecting the environment?

Can VMware Meet These Numbers?

VMware (NYSE: VMW  ) is expected to report Q2 earnings on July 23. Here's what Wall Street wants to see:

The 10-second takeaway
Comparing the upcoming quarter to the prior-year quarter, average analyst estimates predict VMware's revenues will grow 9.7% and EPS will grow 13.2%.

The average estimate for revenue is $1.23 billion. On the bottom line, the average EPS estimate is $0.77.

Revenue details
Last quarter, VMware logged revenue of $1.19 billion. GAAP reported sales were 13% higher than the prior-year quarter's $1.06 billion.

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Source: S&P Capital IQ. Quarterly periods. Dollar amounts in millions. Non-GAAP figures may vary to maintain comparability with estimates.

EPS details
Last quarter, non-GAAP EPS came in at $0.74. GAAP EPS of $0.40 for Q1 were 9.1% lower than the prior-year quarter's $0.44 per share.

Source: S&P Capital IQ. Quarterly periods. Non-GAAP figures may vary to maintain comparability with estimates.

Recent performance
For the preceding quarter, gross margin was 84.7%, 90 basis points better than the prior-year quarter. Operating margin was 18.7%, 190 basis points worse than the prior-year quarter. Net margin was 14.6%, 350 basis points worse than the prior-year quarter.

Looking ahead

The full year's average estimate for revenue is $5.17 billion. The average EPS estimate is $3.25.

Investor sentiment
The stock has a four-star rating (out of five) at Motley Fool CAPS, with 2,158 members out of 2,338 rating the stock outperform, and 180 members rating it underperform. Among 471 CAPS All-Star picks (recommendations by the highest-ranked CAPS members), 438 give VMware a green thumbs-up, and 33 give it a red thumbs-down.

Of Wall Street recommendations tracked by S&P Capital IQ, the average opinion on VMware is outperform, with an average price target of $97.70.

Software and computerized services are being consumed in radically different ways, on new and increasingly mobile devices. Many old leaders will be left behind. Whether or not VMware makes the coming cut, you should check out the company that Motley Fool analysts expect to lead the pack in "The Next Trillion-dollar Revolution." Click here for instant access to this free report.

Add VMware to My Watchlist.

5 Stocks With Ugly Earnings Momentum — FNBN GYRO PNX CPN SHLD

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This week, these five stocks have the worst ratings in Earnings Momentum, one of the eight Fundamental Categories on Portfolio Grader.

FNB United () is a bank holding company. FNBN also gets F’s in Equity and Cash Flow. .

Gyrodyne Company of America, Inc. () leases industrial and commercial real estate to diversified entities. GYRO also gets F’s in Earnings Growth, Equity, Cash Flow and Operating Margin Growth. .

Phoenix Companies, Inc. () operates as a holding company, which offers life insurance and annuity solutions for its customers’ retirement and protection needs. PNX gets F’s in Earnings Growth and Sales Growth as well. Shares of the stock have declined 19.5% since January 1. This is worse than the S&P 500, which has remained flat. .

Calpine Corporation () is an independent wholesale power generation company engaged in the ownership and operation of natural gas-fired and geothermal power plants in North America. CPN also gets F’s in Earnings Growth and Operating Margin Growth. The stock currently has a trailing PE Ratio of 657.60. .

Sears Holdings Corporation () is a broadline retailer with full-line and specialty retail stores in the United States and Canada. SHLD gets F’s in Analyst Earnings Revisions, Equity, Cash Flow and Sales Growth as well. The price of SHLD is down 16.6% since the first of the year. .

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

Aereo review: Paying for free TV?

Can this controversial startup convince you to pay for over-the-air television?

More than 5 million Americans have already cut the cord on cable, and continued improvements in video streaming tech have made the prospect of permanently ditching an expensive cable subscription more enticing than ever.

Many cord-cutters watch live TV via old-fashioned, over-the-air (OTA) broadcasts from local stations—and these days they're even in HD. Aereo wants to bring that OTA content into the streaming fold. Its concept is genius, ridiculous, and/or patently illegal, depending on whom you ask: The company uses huge arrays of tiny digital antennas to record the local broadcasts, then charges a fee to stream that content directly to your PC, iPhone, iPad, Android device (4.1+), or Roku box.

MORE REVIEWS: Tips on the latest TVs, set-top boxes, streaming services

If you're like us, you might have a hard time getting over the psychological barrier of paying for free content ($8 or $12, depending on the plan). But really, that's a straw-man dilemma. With Aereo, you're not paying for the content; you're really paying for a DVR and mobile access to that content.

For the moment, the service is only available in 11 markets: New York City, Boston, Detroit, Baltimore, Atlanta, Dallas, Houston, Austin, San Antonio, and Miami. (The company lists another 16 cities as "coming soon.")

When Aereo flipped the switch in Beantown last June, we signed up for a trial account to see what all the fuss was about.

A SEAMLESS EXPERIENCE

Aereo's web-based interface is simple and easy to use. Signup is a familiar three-step process—choose your plan, choose your username, provide payment info. The programming guide is just like what you're used to from recent cable and satellite boxes, but vastly improved due to its mouse and touch-driven interface.

Jumping into a live broadcast from the guide is quick—on our speedy broadband connection it took about 10 seconds on average—and you get HD! (720p) video right away. You can manually choose between three quality levels or leave it to Aereo to figure out what your connection can handle.

The video itself is perfectly acceptable, though a little less smooth and slightly mushier than an identical cable broadcast. The only time we noticed any significant pixilation was when there were a ton of details on screen—explosions, fast-moving action sequences, and the like. Sound quality is similarly solid, though those with expensive surround-sound setups might be disappointed that it's limited to stereo output.

We tested the service on a Windows desktop PC, Apple MacBook Pro, iPhone 5, and Roku 2 XS. Basic video playback worked splendidly on each and every one of them.

INTUITIVE DVR OPTIONS

The baseline entry fee of $8 per month gets you 20 hours of DVR space, though you can record only one show at a time and can't watch one show while recording another.

If you need a bit more room, you can opt for a $12 per month plan that gets you 60 hours of storage and the ability to record two shows at once. With this plan, you can also watch and record different shows at the same time.

Aereo's DVR implementation has a lot in common with modern cable DVRs: You can change starting and ending times, record shows on a recurring basis, assign priorities in the recording queue, and choose how many episodes of each show you want to keep before the oldest is deleted.

Navigating through a recording is simple. When using the web-based player you can click and drag on a timeline slider at the bottom of the video window. You can also skip back and forward in 30-second increments using your arrow keys. As with most other streaming services, there are no traditional fast-forward and rewind controls—only the slider and arrow keys.

JUST A FEW EXTRAS

Beyond live and recorded TV viewing, there isn't much else to Aereo.

The built-in search function mostly does what you want it to do. On the plus side, it searches both! show tit! les and descriptions for your search term, maximizing possible results. On the downside, multi-word searches bring up results for one word or the other; in just one example, searching for "Formula One" brings up all kinds of results that happen to have "one" in their title or description. Aereo tries to sort by relevance, but the signal-to-noise ratio can be an issue.

The channel guide can be customized, hiding stations you're not so interested in. (Don't speak Spanish? You can hide Univision!) You can also select optional, non-broadcast channels, though so far the only one available is Bloomberg TV.

CAN'T I DO THIS MYSELF FOR LESS MONEY?

Well, maybe. Parts of it. But whether you want to go to the trouble is another question.

You could write a book on the dozens of devices that can either provide local DVR service or send live TV to your phone and tablet. If you have a cheap HD antenna, you can hook it up to a TV tuner card on your PC, or plug the cable into a device like the $80 SiliconDust HDHomeRun. Then there's the granddaddy of time-shifted video, TiVo, which asks $150 for the device itself and another $15 in monthly fees. All of these provide DVR functionality of some sort, but don't re-transmit video to your mobile devices.

The real wildcard is Slingbox. Unlike the other options, it doesn't provide DVR functionality (though you can hook it up to a DVR device). Instead, it can broadcast live TV (either OTA or cable/satellite) to your mobile devices. Equally important, it lets you control your digital antenna or cable box remotely when you're away from home.

The Slingbox is a really versatile and powerful device, but its cost of entry is significantly higher than Aereo's: $180 for the cheapest Slingbox and then $15 for the mobile app. And there's a different app for phones and tablets, so if you want to use both an iPhone and an iPad, that'll be $30. (Got Android devices, too? Get ready to spend more.)

You could eventually save a bit of money with most of t! hese solu! tions (TiVo excepted), but it would take at least a year of Aereo service to cover the up-front cost of even the cheapest option. Then there are the inevitable headaches involved in getting them up and running; if you're not technologically inclined, the alternatives may be more trouble than they're worth.

That's where Aereo really shines—it's simple enough for anyone to use.

A COUPLE OF GLITCHES

Though Aereo's web-based interface is truly gorgeous, there a few bugs that wriggle to the surface when you shrink it down to smartphone size. Play, stop, and record buttons on the phone are quite small and difficult to hit on the first try. We also found we were unable to get back to the main menu from the program guide; we'd have to select a channel to get the menu button to appear again.

But those are minor quirks that Aereo can easily patch. The only significant letdown—and one that will be harder to fix—was the Roku app, which simply isn't as beautiful or intuitive as the website. The channel guide is particularly annoying on the Roku. Instead of the intuitive grid layout, you're stuck with either a side-scrolling list of channels or a list of currently airing shows. It's a pain to navigate, and ugly as well.

There's one last hiccup to consider: If you leave your local broadcast area, Aereo stops working. That's by design, probably a safeguard against legal action from the networks. So if you go on vacation or travel for work, you won't be able to access live broadcasts or DVR recordings. (Slingbox, it should be mentioned, has no such limitations.) If you're particularly internet-skilled, you can probably set up a proxy network to skirt the issue, but most users will simply be out of luck until they get back home.

WORTH A TRY?

There's no question that Aereo has put together a beautiful and supremely functional service. It does what it says—no muss, no fuss.

Frankly, the chances that Aereo will be right for the average TV-watcher are pretty slim.Whethe! r it's ri! ght for you is another, very personal question. There are many potential use-cases, each presenting a slightly different value proposition. But frankly, the chances that Aereo will be right for the average TV-watcher are pretty slim.

Who would it work for? We can think of three major possibilities. First, there are those who are already on an OTA-only diet and want inexpensive DVR functionality, a more convenient interface, and an easy way to watch TV on their mobile devices. Second, there are those already interested in cutting the cord, looking for any excuse to pull the trigger. And then there are those who have already made the move to a streaming-only setup—for them, it's just icing on the cake.

While we'd wager that plenty of curiosity-seekers will sign up just to see what the fuss is about, we just can't imagine too many of them will stick around for the long haul. Not many of the United States' 116 million TV-viewing households have a genuine need for the service that Aereo provides.

Medicare vs. private insurance: Which costs less

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) Wonder why some doctors grumble when a Medicare patient walks in the door? It's likely because the government program typically pays only 80% of what private insurers do.

Medicare has the bad rap of being a big, bloated government program, but it's not because it's overpaying doctors.

CNNMoney analyzed the "allowed charges" for five common procedures, using data provided the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and Truven Health Analytics, a research firm.

The differences can be stark. Private insurers allow an average of $1,226 for low-back disc surgery, while Medicare will only permit $654, for instance.

And the gap can grow wider depending on where the patient is. In New York, insurers allow $1,352 for a gall bladder removal, compared to $580 for Medicare.

Some services are more comparable. For office visits by established patients, for instance, Medicare will allow 92% of what insurers do.

Overall, Medicare's allowed charges are roughly 80% of the charges allowed by private insurers - about the same as they have been since 1999.

  Obamacare in a Texas insurance desert

Sometimes, however, the government does reimburse health care providers more. In Florida, for instance, a doctor doing a colonoscopy in his office will receive $395 for a Medicare patient, but only $342 for one covered by private insurance.

How does Medicare get away with paying less?

"Medicare doesn't negotiate rates. It sets them," said Stuart Guterman, vice president at The Commonwealth Fund, an independent health policy research group.

And doctors might be okay getting less per procedure because Medicare patients tend to need a lot of care. As a result, the total bill can add up. Nearly 4,000 doctors were paid more than $1 million from Medicare, according to data released this month.

Private insurers, meanwhile, can't cut rates that deeply or they risk a revolt by doctors, who may opt to leave the carrier.

"When you want to market your health plan, you want t! o say all the great doctors are in your network," said Anne Fischer, director of Truven's Center for Healthcare Analytics.

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This balancing act became evident when the Obamacare exchanges launched in October. In order to keep premiums low, insurers offered plans with more limited access to doctors and hospitals. Many health care providers complained that insurers' rates for exchange plans were too low, so they opted not to participate.

Why, then, is Medicare considered bloated?

It's more about use than prices, with the government under more pressure to pay for whatever services the doctor prescribes or the patient wants, Guterman said.

Insurers, meanwhile, have more tools to limit potentially unnecessary procedures. These include pre-authorization requirements to determine whether a treatment plan is medically justified.

"Medicare spending goes up because people use it more," he said.

Alcoa Expands Aluminum-Lithium Production

Alcoa (NYSE: AA  ) is expanding production capacity at its Kitts Green facility in the United Kingdom.

On Tuesday, the aluminum giant announced that it has completed a project that will help it soon quadruple the amount of third-generation aluminum lithium alloys it produces for the aerospace industry. According to the company, its revenues derived from the alloy are about $50 million annually today, but within six years' time could become a $200 million business.

The company notes that it's also expanded production of the new alloy at a plant in Pennsylvania, and will have a new facility for the metal's production set up in Lafayette, Ind., by the end of next year.

Alcoa said the new alloy will help airframers "build more fuel efficient and lower-cost airplanes vs. composite alternatives." Thus, these expansions could be characterized as moves by Alcoa to protect its market share in an industry that's increasingly shifting toward the use of advanced carbon composites for use in building its airplanes.

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In a recent story, the The Wall Street Journal said composites -- formerly a niche product -- now make up 50% of the materials used to build Boeing's 787 Dreamliner, and 53% of the Airbus A350. Aluminum, in contrast, makes up only 20% of the 787, and 19% of the A350.

link

Your Internet security relies on a few volunteers

The Heartbleed bug revealed limitations with the software protecting banks and other key websites.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) Last week's Heartbleed Internet bug revealed a startling fact. The software protecting banks, email, social media and government is maintained by only a few people.

They're all volunteers. And only one does it as a full-time job.

Their labor of love is OpenSSL, a free program that secures a lot of online communication. And it was a tiny coding slip-up two years ago that caused the Heartbleed bug, a hole that allows attackers to peer into computers. The bug forced emergency changes last week at major websites like Facebook (FB, Fortune 500), Google (GOOG, Fortune 500) and Yahoo (YHOO, Fortune 500).

But security experts say OpenSSL is severely underfunded, understaffed and largely ignored.

The bug wasn't caught until recently, because the OpenSSL Software Foundation doesn't have the resources to properly check every change to the software, which is now nearly half a million lines of code long. And yet that program guards a vast portion of our commerce and government -- including weapon systems and smartphones, the foundation claims.

Related story: Heartbleed Bug explained

"The mystery is not that a few overworked volunteers missed this bug; the mystery is why it hasn't happened more often," Steve Marquess, the foundation's president, said in an open letter.

When weighed against its critical importance to Internet security, OpenSSL has a shoestring budget. It has never received more than $1 million a year, Marquess said. The only federal support listed online was a single $20,000 renewal contract from the Department of Defense.

While the foundation receives money from the Department of Homeland Security, Citrix (CTXS) and others, the ! vast majority of its funding is from specific work-for-hire contracts. A company wants a certain feature added here, a specific function there. It keeps developers busy. But Marquess said there's no money going toward reviewing the code or performing audits.

In fact, the only person working on this full-time is Stephen Henson, an extremely private mathematician living in England who referred to Marquess for comment. Only a handful of other developers pitch in with any consistency, and Marquess told CNN their total labor amounts to maybe two full-time workers.

  How hackers beat the Heartbleed bug

Even in the aftermath of Heartbleed, the foundation has received only $9,000 -- sparking Marquess to publicly call out companies that use OpenSSL for free.

"I'm looking at you, Fortune 1000 companies," he wrote.

In the wake of Heartbleed, this lack of funding for OpenSSL may prove a wake-up call.

Startups and major corporations frequently use open-source software because it's freely distributed and costs nothing. But they rarely contribute back in dollars or donated time. Without significant outside help -- donating dedicated staff and money without strings attached -- open-source projects like this are at risk of fizzling out or blowing up in our faces, said Azorian Cyber Security founder Charles Tendell.

"If you bought your car and knew it was put together by volunteers, how would you feel about that?" Tendell asked.

A select few firms provide some help. Facebook and Microsoft sponsor bug bounties via the HackerOne program -- essentially paying hackers to find mistakes that need fixing. And it was a Google security researcher, Neel Mehta, who discovered the Heartbleed bug.

Others are convinced it's time to chip in. The initial r! esponse b! y Marc Gaffan, cofounder of cloud-security provider Incapsula, was: "What do you expect? You got this for free. You get what you pay for." But it turns out his company relies on OpenSSL too. When asked if he would lead by example, Gaffan promised his firm would make its first donation.

Related story: Post-Heartbleed, change these passwords now

This recent scare has gotten the White House's attention. The Obama administration is now "taking a hard look at widely used tools such as OpenSSL to see if there is more that the federal government needs to do -- including supporting research and development," said National Security Council spokeswoman Laura Lucas Magnuson.

There's a catch, however. The government can only get so close without triggering fears that it's actually undermining the security of online communications, especially after Edward Snowden's disclosures about the National Security Agency's extensive surveillance programs. Former NSA crypto engineer Randy Sabett, now a tech privacy attorney at the Cooley law firm, expects the open-source community will be apprehensive.

"The public does not want the government involved in the design of the commercial Internet," he said. "They don't want back doors put in."

Hot Supermarket Stocks To Own For 2014

Hot Supermarket Stocks To Own For 2014: Green Dot Corporation (GDOT)

Green Dot Corporation operates as a bank holding company. It offers general purpose reloadable prepaid debit cards, and cash loading and transfer services in the United States. The company's products include Green Dot MasterCard, Visa-branded prepaid debit cards, and various co-branded reloadable prepaid card programs; Visa-branded gift cards; and MoneyPak and swipe reload proprietary products that enable cash loading and transfer services through its Green Dot Network. Its Green Dot Network enables consumers to use cash to reload its prepaid debit cards or to transfer cash to any of the company's Green Dot Network acceptance members, including competing prepaid card programs, and other online accounts. The company markets its cards and financial services to banked, underbanked, and unbanked consumers. Green Dot Corporation offers its products and services through retail distributors, including mass merchandisers, drug store and convenience store chains, and supermarket chains; the Internet; and relationships with other businesses. Its prepaid debit cards and prepaid reload services are available to consumers at approximately 60,000 retail locations nationwide and online at greendot.com. The company was formerly known as Next Estate Communications, Inc. and changed its name to Green Dot Corporation in October 2005. Green Dot Corporation was incorporated in 1999 and is headquartered in Pasadena, California.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Lauren Pollock]

  Green Dot Corp.(GDOT) posted better-than-expected third-quarter results and lifted the lower end of its full-year guidance, touting more customers receiving recurring direct deposits. The company’s chief executive also said it was well positioned to return to double-digit revenue growth as Green Dot looks towards 2014.

• [By Rich Bieglmei! er]

  Green Dot Corporation (GDOT) will host a conference call to discuss third quarter 2013 financial results on Thursday, October 31, 2013 at 4:30pm ET. A press release with third quarter 2013 financial results will be issued after the market closes that same day.

• [By Dan Newman]

  Even with Radiohead's questionable outcome with the scheme, Green Dot's  (NYSE: GDOT  ) GoBank, launched in January, is offering checking accounts where its members decide what to pay as a monthly fee, between $0 and $9. Does this make any sense for the company to think customers will voluntarily pay?

• [By Rich Smith]

  This series, brought to you by Yahoo! Finance, looks at which upgrades and downgrades make sense, and which ones investors should act on. Today, our headlines include upgrades for both Denny's (NASDAQ: DENN  ) and Green Dot (NYSE: GDOT  ) . But stocks can reach buy ratings in ways other than actual upgrades. So before we get to those two, let's first take a quick look at why ...

source from Top Stocks Blog:http://www.topstocksblog.com/hot-supermarket-stocks-to-own-for-2014.html

GM creating new global safety organization

NEW YORK — General Motors is creating a new organization within the company to focus on safety across all of its vehicle lines, CEO Mary Barra said Tuesday.

The Global Product Integrity organization will be modeled on a similar group within GM that is centered on product quality.

"We will mirror this approach to focus on safety performance," Barra told the NADA/J.D. Power Automotive Forum in New York. "Our goal is to ensure the highest levels of execution consistently across all our vehicles."

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The new organization will report directly to Mark Reuss, GM's global product development chief, and will incorporate the team under Jeff Boyer, the safety chief recently appointed by Barra.

She says the goal is to "provide the highest levels of safety, quality and customer service … and ensure that a situation like the ignition-switch recall doesn't happen again."

Her appearance on the eve of the New York Auto Show once again put her center stage on a recall that of 2.6 million small cars worldwide for faulty ignition switches. The switches are blamed for 12 deaths in the U.S. and one in Canada, and GM is the target of multiple government investigations.

In a Q&A after her remarks, Barra was asked about why GM quietly upgraded the switch design in 2006 without assigning a new part number and without a recall of earlier vehicles. She said it is "not good engineering" and that future problems will be dealt with as soon as they are evident. While she talked of putting two switch engineers on paid leave last week "while we seek the truth about what happened," she declined to discuss the departure this week of GM's global public relations chief.

She lamented that the recall has overshadowed progress GM has made on other fronts — from sales growth to positive reviews for its new vehicles. But she said GM is committed to the recall! and lauded efforts of GM dealers to go to extra lengths to fix recalled cars and provide customers with loaners.

Although on the job as CEO only months, the debacle has put Barra in a national — if unfavorable — spotlight and made her a target for late-night comedy.

The most personal, perhaps, was an opening skit on NBC's Saturday Night Live a week ago. Barra, a regular SNL watcher, said that she saw the skit. Asked about it, she said, "I think it's important to maintain your sense of humor." Asked to rate how well actress Kate McKinnon captured her, she replied, "There are probably better people than me to judge."

Mid-Afternoon Market Update: Markets Trade in Mixed Session as Organovo Falls

Top 10 Gas Companies To Own In Right Now

Related BZSUM Market Wrap For April 14: Markets Surge on Positive Retail Data, Citi Earnings Mid-Day Market Update: WebMD Surges On Strong Outlook; Medtronic Shares Slip

Toward the end of trading Monday, the Dow traded up 0.65 percent to 16,130.04 while the NASDAQ rose 0.23 percent to 4,009.75. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.55 percent to 1,825.32.

Leading and Lagging Sectors
In trading on Monday, technology shares were relative leaders, up on the day by about 1.18 percent. Among the leading sector stocks, gains came from WebMD Health (NASDAQ: WBMD) and 21Vianet Group (NASDAQ: VNET). Telecommunications services shares gained by just 0.35 percent in the US market today.

Top losers in the sector included NQ Mobile (NYSE: NQ), off 5.8 percent, and Lumos Networks (NASDAQ: LMOS), down 2.9 percent.

Top Headline
Citigroup (NYSE: C) reported better-than-expected first-quarter results. Citigroup's quarterly profit surged to $3.94 billion, versus a year-ago profit of $3.81 billion. On a per-share basis, it earned $1.23. Excluding one-time items, its earnings rose to $1.30 versus $1.29. Its revenue declined to $20.12 billion. However, analysts were projecting earnings of $1.14 per share on revenue of $19.37 billion.

Equities Trading UP
Aspen Insurance Holdings (NYSE: AHL) shares shot up 11.05 percent to $43.72 after Endurance Specialty Holdings (NYSE: ENH) offered to buy Aspen Insurance for $47.50 per share in a cash and stock deal.

Shares of Goodrich Petroleum (NYSE: GDP) were also on the rise, gaining 27.83 percent to $23.52 after the company announced it had completed a new well, which was now producing at peak rates.

WebMD Health (NASDAQ: WBMD) shares were also up, gaining 15.50 percent to $43.51 after the company lifted its forecast. The company now expects Q1 results above the high end of its earlier outlook.

Equities Trading DOWN
Shares of Antero Resources (NYSE: AR) were down 5.41 percent to $59.74 after the company announced a 105% y/y gain in its Q1 preliminary gas production.

Medtronic (NYSE: MDT) shares tumbled 2.23 percent to $57.88 on Federal District Court ruling preventing the company from selling its CoreValve System in the US as a result of Edwards Lifesciences (NYSE: EW) patent infringement verdict.

Organovo Holdings (NYSE: ONVO) was also down, falling 11.45 percent to $6.43 as the 3D group showed broad weakness on the session.

Commodities
In commodity news, oil traded down 0.09 percent to $103.65, while gold traded up 0.55 percent to $1,326.20.

Silver traded down 0.06 percent Monday to $19.98, while copper fell 0.15 percent to $3.04.

Eurozone
European shares were mostly higher today.

The Spanish Ibex Index fell 0.17 percent, while Italy's FTSE MIB Index gained 0.55 percent.

Meanwhile, the German DAX rose 0.26 percent and the French CAC 40 climbed 0.43 percent while U.K. shares gained 0.24 percent.

Economics
US retail sales rose 1.1% to $433.9 billion in March, versus an upwardly revised 0.7% gain in February.

Economists were estimating total sales to increase 0.9%.

US business inventories rose 0.40% in February, versus economists' expectations for a 0.50% gain.

Posted-In: Earnings News Guidance Eurozone Futures Forex Global Econ #s Economics Intraday Update Markets Movers Tech

© 2014 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.

  Most Popular Earnings Expectations For The Week Of April 14: Coca-Cola, Goldman Sachs, Google And More Weekly Highlights: iPhone 6 Hype, iPad Air 2 Concepts, Twitch Popularity Skyrockets And More Barron's Recap: The Tech Bust GM Confirms Howell, Bingol Leaving Co., John Quattrone Named as Senior VP, Global Human Resources UPDATE: Endurance Specialty Offeres to Buy Aspen Insurance for $47.50/Share in Cash, Stock GrowLife's Commitment and Dedication to the Market: An Open Letter to Shareholders Related Articles (AHL + AR) Market Wrap For April 14: Markets Surge on Positive Retail Data, Citi Earnings Mid-Afternoon Market Update: Markets Trade in Mixed Session as Organovo Falls Mid-Day Market Update: WebMD Surges On Strong Outlook; Medtronic Shares Slip Benzinga's Volume Movers UPDATE: Aspen Insurance Announces Board Has Rejected Unsolicited Bid from Endurance

Is Viad Corp's Cash Machine Shutting Down?

Although business headlines still tout earnings numbers, many investors have moved past net earnings as a measure of a company's economic output. That's because earnings are very often less trustworthy than cash flow, since earnings are more open to manipulation based on dubious judgment calls.

Earnings' unreliability is one of the reasons Foolish investors often flip straight past the income statement to check the cash flow statement. In general, by taking a close look at the cash moving in and out of the business, you can better understand whether the last batch of earnings brought money into the company, or merely disguised a cash gusher with a pretty headline.

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

Source: S&P Capital IQ. Data is current as of last fully reported fiscal quarter. Dollar values in millions. FCF = free cash flow. FY = fiscal year. TTM = trailing 12 months.

Over the past 12 months, Viad Corp generated $32.4 million cash while it booked net income of $12.9 million. That means it turned 3.1% of its revenue into FCF. That sounds OK.

All cash is not equal
Unfortunately, the cash flow statement isn't immune from nonsense, either. That's why it pays to take a close look at the components of cash flow from operations, to make sure that the cash flows are of high quality. What does that mean? To me, it means they need to be real and replicable in the upcoming quarters, rather than being offset by continual cash outflows that don't appear on the income statement (such as major capital expenditures).

For instance, cash flow based on cash net income and adjustments for non-cash income-statement expenses (like depreciation) is generally favorable. An increase in cash flow based on stiffing your suppliers (by increasing accounts payable for the short term) or shortchanging Uncle Sam on taxes will come back to bite investors later. The same goes for decreasing accounts receivable; this is good to see, but it's ordinary in recessionary times, and you can only increase collections so much. Finally, adding stock-based compensation expense back to cash flows is questionable when a company hands out a lot of equity to employees and uses cash in later periods to buy back those shares.

So how does the cash flow at Viad Corp look? Take a peek at the chart below, which flags questionable cash flow sources with a red bar.

Source: S&P Capital IQ. Data is current as of last fully reported fiscal quarter. Dollar values in millions. TTM = trailing 12 months.

When I say "questionable cash flow sources," I mean items such as changes in taxes payable, tax benefits from stock options, and asset sales, among others. That's not to say that companies booking these as sources of cash flow are weak, or are engaging in any sort of wrongdoing, or that everything that comes up questionable in my graph is automatically bad news. But whenever a company is getting more than, say, 10% of its cash from operations from these dubious sources, investors ought to make sure to refer to the filings and dig in.

With 49.2% of operating cash flow coming from questionable sources, Viad Corp investors should take a closer look at the underlying numbers. Within the questionable cash flow figure plotted in the TTM period above, other operating activities (which can include deferred income taxes, pension charges, and other one-off items) provided the biggest boost, at 32.9% of cash flow from operations. Overall, the biggest drag on FCF came from capital expenditures, which consumed 46.8% of cash from operations.

A Foolish final thought
Most investors don't keep tabs on their companies' cash flow. I think that's a mistake. If you take the time to read past the headlines and crack a filing now and then, you're in a much better position to spot potential trouble early. Better yet, you'll improve your odds of finding the underappreciated home-run stocks that provide the market's best returns.

Looking for alternatives to Viad Corp? It takes more than great companies to build a fortune for the future. Learn the basic financial habits of millionaires next door and get focused stock ideas in our free report, "3 Stocks That Will Help You Retire Rich." Click here for instant access to this free report.

We can help you keep tabs on your companies with My Watchlist, our free, personalized stock tracking service.

Add Viad Corp to My Watchlist.

Tax returns go from post office to digital

April 15 will mark a digital first for Internal Revenue Service Commissioner John Koskinen. It will be the first year ever he won't be heading to the post office to drop off his tax return.

"I remember you just didn't want to be at the post office on the 14th or 15th," says Koskinen, 74, who took over as head of the IRS in December. "Now, whenever you're ready to file, you just file."

Koskinen has plenty of company. Electronic filing has overwhelmingly become the preferred method of completing tax returns. And so instead of receiving a hefty manila envelope from his tax preparer and heading to a downtown Washington, D.C., post office, Koskinen will complete the once arduous and stressful process in seconds with the click of a button.

Three decades ago, April 15 was like a marathon national block party. As millions of Americans swarmed post offices to file their tax returns at the eleventh hour, vendors handed out free coffee, IRS representatives were on hand to provide advice, and jazz bands sometimes set the mood. Lines lingered for hours, and branches stayed open past midnight to accommodate the overflow crowds.

But those days have faded into the realm of archaic, pre-Internet traditions; the yearly ritual of fingering through rumpled receipts and W2s has gradually experienced its digital awakening. This year, electronic filings are expected to reach 85% of total tax returns, "a new American record," Koskinen says.

At the start of the millennium, e-filing made up 23.5% of total tax returns, a little more than 30 million. By the end of 2014, the IRS expects that number to reach more than 125 million.

Even though electronic filing became available for the first time, though to a limited number of professionals, in 1986, it was 16 years before the process became entirely paperless. The transition since then has turned the cumbersome task into one that can be accomplished with the click, or tap, of a button. And it's significantly cheaper. In 2011, the most recent year ! for which the IRS has data, e-filing cost the agency 15 cents to process; paper returns cost $3.50. Plus, e-file has cut down on mistakes, the IRS says. The error rate associated with e-filed returns is 1%, compared with a nearly 20% error rate for paper returns.

Paying the government in taxes you owe no longer requires sending a check either — although it's still an option. The IRS offers several online payment systems.

But when the Internet was first gaining traction, "it was almost as if you were kind of going rogue if you filed electronically," says Sue Brennan, a spokesperson for the United States Postal Service and head of operations. She remembers when many Americans were skeptical of Internet security and would never have trusted it with something as important, and personal, as the documents involved in filing taxes.

So what changed? "It became easy," Brennan says. Eventually, as with most things in the Internet age, convenience won. And technology became sophisticated enough to ensure security.

Refunds now come within weeks, not months — the IRS tries to issue them within 21 days. And manila envelopes full of tax documents no longer travel through the postal service, often making multiple trips, between individuals and their tax preparers; instead they're electronically dropped onto cyber portals in a matter of minutes.

Brennan personally filed online for the first time in 2002. But as a clerk at the Merrifield, Va., post office and sorting facility in the Washington suburbs in the early 1990s, she remembers lines of cars forming on the streets while postal service employees walked around with large bins on April 15, creating a makeshift tax return drive-through. At other locations across the country, vendors sold food and coffee, bands played and IRS officials were on hand to help people finish their forms.

"It was very festive," Brennan says. "April 15 used to be a major postal event across the country. At least in the last 10 years for sure, it's all b! ut gone a! way."

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Overall, yearly single-piece first-class mail volume, which includes tax returns, has declined nearly 60% since 1999, according to USPS data. This year, the Merrifield office will close at its normal time, 8 p.m., on tax day — though some larger offices across the country still stay open until midnight.

Don Mingo, a 57-year-old pastor from Grand Rapids, Minn., will wake up to another regular Tuesday; he and his wife filed their return weeks ago and already received their refund. They're using it to go on a vacation to visit their grandchildren. Michael Brooke-Gay, a high school chemistry teacher, did his and his wife's taxes on his iPad two months ago in the span of about four hours.

Mingo remembers spending months mailing tax forms back and forth to his tax preparer in the 1990s. If something was missing or needed clarification, his tax preparer would send the forms back. Mingo would have to identify the correct form or furnish the missing information and put the packet back in the mail.

"It was a nightmare," he says. "More than once we needed an extension because we ran out of time."

For the past two years, Brooke-Gay, who turns 30 on Monday and lives in Hilton, N.Y., has used his iPad to file his taxes with the TurboTax app. He even calls the experience enjoyable.

"I actually almost trusted the iPad experience more because it was all self-contained in the app," he says. "The website gets kind of cluttered because there's different advertisements."

H&R Block and TurboTax both provide smartphone apps that allow users to file by taking pictures of their W2s. The tax forms automatically fill in based on the image. Tablets have also become an increasingly popular way of completing at least some of the filing process.

Last year, H&R Block noticed a significant increase in the number of people! using a ! combination of phones, tablets and desktop computers to prepare their returns. So this year the company overhauled all 6,000 pages of its website so that the content could shrink or grow to fit the screen of any device.

"We're seeing explosive growth in the number of people who use their tablet as an extension of the experience," says Jason Houseworth, president of global digital tax software at H&R Block.

The one thing the move to digital filing hasn't changed: the need for professional tax help. Thanks to a tax code that only seems to grow in complexity, the split between those who seek help and those who file on their own has remained around 60/40 for the past decade, Houseworth says.

Lonnie Gary, a partner at the CPA firm Young, Craig & Co., in Mountain View, Calif., says the firm has gained clients at a rate of 1% to 2% a year in the past five years, chalking it up to a tax code that's "too complicated." Even so, the process has been stripped of many of its time-consuming moments.

When Gary needed to fill out an uncommon tax form for a client while working for H&R Block in the late 1980s, he had to Xerox it from a massive book of forms, then fill it out by hand with a pencil. Now, he has clients submit documents through a cyber portal and e-files with the IRS through his company's tax software.

Still, it seems no amount of technological ease can alleviate the dread of tax season for the majority of Americans.

"It doesn't change the need of the assisted filer," Houseworth says. "Regardless of the amount of technology, they still are frightened by taxes and have no interest in doing them."

The week in Tech: 5 must-know things

LOS ANGELES — Weekend project: Let's start changing all of our passwords.

The top five tech headlines this week are highlighted by a huge undertaking for all of us: password changing, thanks to the discovery of Heartbleed, a security bug that could make Internet surfing less safe as websites patch up holes.

Security researchers who uncovered the threat are worried because the lapse went undetected for more than two years.

Many popular sites, including Google, Yahoo, Facebook, YouTube and Tumblr, said that they fixed vulnerabilities this week or were not affected and that new passwords are recommended for those sites. Apple and Amazon said their consumer sites were not vulnerable.

The bottom line: Experts say it's imperative to update your passwords ASAP and to use effective ones that aren't simply "123456" or "Password." Try combinations of letters, numbers and symbols.

Here's more from the week in Tech:

A MOVE FOR MESSENGER

Sorry, Facebook fans, but that messenger program we all use on the social network to instantly reach out to folks is leaving the mobile Facebook. If you want to connect with someone, you'll need to leave Facebook soon and open up the free-standing Messenger app. The reason for the change? Facebook says messaging is a better experience on the app, so it wants to put the emphasis there.

FAREWELL TO XP

Another big change came to users of Windows XP, the 12-year-old operating system that no longer will get security updates from Microsoft, which wants you to stop using XP and buy new software. But guess what — Tuesday came and went, and millions of XP machines kept on running. So far, so good, but folks: XP without security has been described as a hacker's paradise. Best to join the modern era with more current software.

HELLO TO A NEW GALAXY

Speaking of contemporary, Samsung this week brought out the latest state-of-the-art Galaxy smartphone. The S5 has a slightly larger screen and built-in heart-rate monitor, is wate! rproof and — oh! — takes a pretty cool picture, too. In his review, USA TODAY's Ed Baig called the Galaxy S5 "a solid device" that didn't break much major ground.

WHAT'S UP IN APPS

Finally, in app news, the numbers puzzle 2048 is No. 1 on the free iTunes app chart for the third week in a row, but bubbling under is the mind game What's the Difference?, another fun time-waster. Tops for Android is Cut the Rope 2, a character-based adventure game.

Readers: Have you changed your passwords yet? Any questions about password management? Let's chat about it on Twitter, where I'm @jeffersongraham.

Feeling Fashionable: Urban Outfitters Gains as Wedbush Predicts Sentiment Shift

Looks like retailer Urban Outfitters (URBN) is slightly fashionable again…at least for today.

After sinking to a 52 week low on Feb. 4 and reporting a mixed fourth quarter on March 10, shares are advancing today after Morry Brown of Wedbush upgraded the price target to $46 from $44 in a note.

Brown’s increase came following a meeting with CFO Frank Conforti and Director of Investor Relations Oona McCullough, from which he emerged confident of a third-quarter turn. He writes:

1) We believe current challenges at Urban are not driven by secular trends in teen spending, but by poor product execution; 2) category expansion presents a meaningful growth opportunity in the coming years, one that is not available to most peers; and 3) fears of a potential slowdown at Anthropologie lack a catalyst and conflict both with current merchandise execution and quarter-to-date same-store sales results, which show ongoing strength at the division. Over the next three-to-six months, we expect sentiment to shift on these topics, likely driving increases in second half of 2014 estimates and valuation.

Brown also praised Urban for its category expansion opportunities, strength in e-commerce penetration and strong brands:

Beyond near-term execution and sentiment shifts, we continue to view Urban as the best-in-class specialty retailer, and one of the few that remain well positioned for longer-term growth

Shares of Urban Outfitters have gained 1.6% to $37.87 at 3:49 p.m., while Abercrombie & Fitch (ANF) has risen 0.3% to $37.24 and the Gap (GPS) has dropped 1.4% to $40.16.

5 Best Restaurant Stocks To Watch For 2015

Just as Las Vegas boomed years ago, Macau is booming today for the same reason; it�� the only place in China where gambling is legal.

All the big names in the industry are there, including Las Vegas Sands, Wynn Resorts and MGM Resorts. And Melco Crown Entertainment (MPEL) -- our latest stock of the month pick -- is thriving right along with them.

The big driver of revenue for Melco is its City of Dreams resort casino complex, a massive conglomeration of casinos, hotels, theaters, 20 restaurants and bars, 175,000 square feet of high-end shopping venues and 550 gambling tables and 1,500 gaming machines.

5 Best Restaurant Stocks To Watch For 2015: Planet Platinum Ltd (PPN)

Planet Platinum Limited is an Australia-based company engaged in the operation of Showgirls Bar 20 and the on-going rental of property in Elsternwick. The Company operates in two segments: hospitality and entertainment and property rental businesses. The Company�� hospitality and entertainment segment comprises operations of Showgirls Bar 20 in Melbourne and is engaged in the nightclub through the provision of beverages and adult entertainment. Property segment comprise maintaining of rental property at Home Street, Elsternwick. The Company continues to receive lease rentals from its Home Street property. The investment property is located at 12 Home Street, Elsternwick Victoria. Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Tabitha Jean Naylor]

  Americans consume a lot of chicken. It estimated that Americans consume about 81 pounds of poultry per year, per capita. With there being upwards of 310 million people living in the United States, it is no wonder why poultry production is big business. Two of the biggest names in poultry production are Tyson Foods (NYSE: TSN) and Pilgrim's Pride (NASDAQ: PPN).

5 Best Restaurant Stocks To Watch For 2015: Brinker International Inc (EAT)

Brinker International, Inc. (Brinker), incorporated on September 30, 1983, owns, develops, operates and franchises the Chili�� Grill & Bar (Chili��) and Maggiano�� Little Italy (Maggiano��) restaurant brands. As of June 27, 2013 (fiscal 2013), the Company's system of Company-owned and franchised restaurants included 1,591 restaurants located in 50 states, and Washington, D.C. It also has restaurants in the Bahrain, Brazil, Canada, Columbia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Germany, Guatemala, Honduras, India, Indonesia, Japan, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Malaysia, Mexico, Oman, Peru, Philippines, Qatar, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Korea, Syria, Taiwan, United Arab Emirates and Venezuela.

Chili�� Grill & Bar

Chili�� operates in the Bar and Grill category of casual dining. The Company has operations worldwide, with locations in 32 foreign countries and two United States territories. Chili�� menu features items, such as Baby Back Ribs smoked in-house, Big Mouth Burgers, Sizzling Fajitas, hand-battered Chicken Crispers and house-made Chips and Salsa. The all-day menu offers a range of appetizers, entrees and desserts. A special lunch section is available on weekdays. In addition to its flavorful food, Chili�� offers a line of alcoholic beverages available from the bar, including Margaritas and draft beer. During fiscal 2013, food and non-alcoholic beverage sales constituted approximately 86.1% of Chili�� total restaurant revenues, with alcoholic beverage sales accounted for the remaining 13.9%.

Maggiano�� Little Italy

Maggiano�� is a full-service, casual dining Italian restaurant brand. Its Maggiano�� restaurants feature individual and family-style menus, and its restaurants also have banquet facilities designed to host party business or social events. It has lunch and dinner menu offering chef-prepared, classic Italian-American fare in the form of appetizers, entrees with portions of pasta, ch! icken, seafood, veal and prime steaks, and desserts. The Company�� Maggiano�� restaurants also offer a range of alcoholic beverages, including wines. In addition, Maggiano�� offers a full carryout menu, as well as local delivery services. During fiscal 2013, food and non-alcoholic beverage sales constituted approximately 83.0% of Maggiano�� total restaurant revenues, with alcoholic beverage sales accounted for the remaining 17.0%.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Jake L'Ecuyer]

  Equities Trading UP
  Brinker International (NYSE: EAT) shot up 6.40 percent to $49.68 as the company reported upbeat FQ2 earnings.

  Shares of Textron (NYSE: TXT) got a boost, shooting up 7.51 percent to $38.81 after the company reported a 13% rise in its fourth-quarter income.

• [By Rich Smith]

  Grin and bear it
  Darden did its best to put a bright face on the numbers. CEO Clarence Otis took pains to point out that at least Darden's same-restaurant sales are growing, and "well above industry average" this quarter. He's right about that. If Darden's sales look weak this week, then the numbers coming out of rivals Bloomin' Brands (NASDAQ: BLMN  ) and Brinker (NYSE: EAT  ) -- growth of just 3.5% and 0.1%, respectively -- are downright depressing.

Hot Gas Utility Stocks To Invest In Right Now: Blue Water Global Group Inc (BLUU)

Blue Water Global Group, Inc. (Blue Water), incorporated on March 3, 2011, is a development-stage company. The Company focuses on developing a chain of casual dining restaurants in tourist destinations throughout the Caribbean region. The Company's initial restaurant is going to be called Blue Water Bar & Grill and will be located in St. Maarten, Dutch West Indies.

As of February 7, 2013, the Company did not operate any restaurant properties, and did not have any ownership or leaseholds in any restaurant properties. As of February 7, 2013, the Company did not have any ownership or leaseholds in any restaurant properties.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Peter Graham]

  Last Friday, small cap Digital Brand Media & Marketing Group Inc (OTCMKTS: DBMM) surged 22.22% while Blue Water Global Group Inc (OTCBB: BLUU) sank 18.42% and Medina International Holdings, Inc (OTCMKTS: MIHI) sank 50%. However, one of these small caps (Blue Water Global Group) appears to be reversing course in early morning trading today. So with it and the rest of these small cap stocks either sink or swim in trading this week? Here is a closer look to help you decide on an investing or trading strategy:

5 Best Restaurant Stocks To Watch For 2015: BAB Inc (BABB)

BAB, Inc., incorporated on July 12, 2000, franchises and licenses bagel and muffin retail units under the Big Apple Bagel (BAB) and My Favorite Muffin (MFM) trade names. At November 30, 2012, the Company had 100 franchise units and 6 licensed units in operation in 24 states. The Company additionally derives income from the sale of its trademark bagels, muffins and coffee through nontraditional channels of distribution including under licensing agreements with Kohr Bros. Frozen Custard, Kaleidoscoops, Green Beans Coffee, Sodexo and through direct home delivery of specialty muffin gift baskets and coffee. The Company has two wholly owned subsidiaries: BAB Systems, Inc. (Systems) and BAB Operations, Inc. (Operations). At November 30, 2012, the Company had 100 franchise units and six licensed units in operation in 24 states.

The Company additionally derives income from the sale of its trademark bagels, muffins and coffee through nontraditional channels of distribution including under licensing agreements with Kohr Bros. Frozen Custard, Kaleidoscoops, Green Beans Coffee, Sodexo and through direct home delivery of specialty muffin gift baskets and coffee. The BAB franchised brand consists of units operating as Big Apple Bagels, featuring daily baked bagels, flavored cream cheeses, premium coffees, gourmet bagel sandwiches and other related products. Licensed BAB units serve the Company's par-baked frozen bagel and related products baked daily. BAB units are primarily concentrated in the Midwest and Western United States. The MFM brand consists of units operating as My Favorite Muffin, featuring a variety of freshly baked muffins, coffees and related products, and units operating as My Favorite Muffin and Bagel Cafe, featuring these products as well as a variety of specialty bagel sandwiches and related products.

The Company�� BAB offering franchises in all 50 states, its initial development focus is targeted for the Midwest, specifically Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin and Ohio. A! s part of its introductory development plan, BAB will be donating 10% of the initial franchise fee from its 50 SweetDuet units to the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, of which BAB is a corporate sponsor. SweetDuet, as its name implies, is a fusion concept, pairing self-serve frozen yogurt with BAB's exclusive line of My Favorite Muffin gourmet muffins, broadening the shop's offering and therefore differentiating itself from the numerous frozen yogurt outlets already populating the market. SweetDuet shops include BAB's Brewster's Coffee and a streamlined breakfast menu. The concept is designed to work in 1600 square feet of space.

BAB franchised stores daily bake a variety of fresh bagels and offer up to 11 varieties of cream cheese spreads. Stores also offer a variety of breakfast and lunch bagel sandwiches, salads, soups, various dessert items, fruit smoothies, gourmet coffees and other beverages. A typical BAB store is in an area with a mix of both residential and commercial properties and ranges from 1,500 to 2,000 square feet. The Company's current store design is approximately 1,800 square feet, with seating capacity for 20 to 30 persons, and includes approximately 750 square feet devoted to production and baking. A satellite store is typically smaller than a production store, averaging 800 to 1,200 square feet. Although franchise stores may vary in size from other franchise stores, store layout is generally consistent.

MFM franchised stores daily bake 20 to 25 varieties of muffins from over 250 recipes, plus a variety of bagels. They also serve gourmet coffees, beverages and, at My Favorite Muffin and Bagel Cafe locations, a variety of bagel sandwiches and related products. The typical MFM store design is approximately 1,800 square feet, with seating capacity for 20 to 30 persons.The Company advertises its franchising opportunities in directories, newspapers and the Internet.

The Company competes with Einstein Noah Restaurant Group, Panera Bread Company and Brue! gger's Ba! gel Bakery.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By CRWE]

  Today, BABB remains (0.00%) +0.000 at $.800 thus far (ref. google finance July 11, 2013).

  For the quarter ended May 31, 2013, BAB had revenues of $658,000 and net income of $125,000, or $0.02 per share, versus revenues of $826,000 and net income of $267,000, or $0.04 per share, for the same quarter last year. For the quarter ended May 31, 2012, the Company received a $171,000 payment for the buyout of the Franchise Agreement from its Minot, ND franchisee so the franchisee could pursue its other business interests associated with the local energy boom. In that acceptance by the Company of the voluntary buyout is unique, no such transaction occurred nor was such income earned in the quarter ended May 31, 2013.

5 Best Restaurant Stocks To Watch For 2015: Ignite Restaurant Group Inc (IRG)

Ignite Restaurant Group, Inc., incorporated on February 4, 2002, operates two restaurant brands, Joe's Crab Shack (Joe's) and Brick House Tavern + Tap (Brick House). The Company�� Joe's Crab Shack and Brick House Tavern + Tap operate in a diverse set of markets across the United States. Joe's Crab Shack is a national chain of casual seafood restaurants serving a variety of seafood items, with an emphasis on crab. Brick House Tavern + Tap is a casual restaurant brand that provides guests a gastro pub experience by offering a blend of menu items. As of December 31, 2012, the Company owned and operated 144 restaurants in 33 states. In September 2013, Ignite Restaurant Group Inc announced the opening of its newest Joe's Crab Shack restaurant, located in Newark, New Jersey.

Joe's Crab Shack

The Company�� Joe's Crab Shack offers an outdoor patio for guests to enjoy eating and drinking and a children's playground. Joe's also has many locations that are located on waterfront property. Interior design elements include a nautical, vacation theme to invoke memories of beach vacations and a genuine crab shack experience. Joe's Crab Shack restaurants have over 200 seats. Many of the Company�� restaurants also include a small gift shop where guests can purchase souvenirs to commemorate their dining experience. Joe's Crab Shack also leverages its crab-forward menu with other crab items, including Made-From-Scratch Crab Cakes, Crab Nachos and Crazy-Good Crab Dip. In addition to its core crab-focused menu, Joe's also offers a range of entrees featuring a variety of seafood, including the Get Stuffed Snapper, Surf 'N Turf Burger and The Big Hook Up, as well as a range of traditional seafood entrees like the Fisherman's Platter. Joe's also offers several out of water options, such as Pan Fried Cheesy Chicken and Whiskey Smoked Ribs. In addition, alcoholic beverages include the Shark Bite, Category 5 Hurricane and Mason Jar cocktails emerging as guests' top choices. Joe's menu inc! ludes more than 29 items made with either Queen, Snow, Dungeness or King Crabs sourced from government regulated and sustainable fisheries. Its menu offers 14 appetizers, including Made-From-Scratch Crab Cakes, Crab Nachos and Crazy-Good Crab Dip, and over 50 entrees, including Steampots, Crab in a Bucket, Skillet Paella, Stuffed Snapper and out of water options like Whiskey Smoked Ribs.

Brick House Tavern + Tap

The Company�� Brick House's interior decor includes custom lighting, dark mahogany woods, open sight lines, high definition television (HD TVs), and an inviting fireplace. In addition to a traditional dining room and bar area, Brick House also offers large communal tables and a section of leather recliners positioned in front of large HD TVs, where guests receive their own TV tray for dining. Outdoor seating is also available on the patio or around an open fire pit at nearly all locations. Both food and beverages are served by personable and engaging service staff. The typical Brick House restaurant is approximately 8,500 square feet and averages approximately 250 seats, which includes both traditional tables and seating options. Brick House offers its guests a selection of contemporary tavern food. Brick House's menu includes 17 appetizers and over 53 entrees. Handcrafted appetizers include Deviled Eggs, Meatloaf Sliders, Brick Pizza, Meat and Cheese Board and Fried Stuffed Olives. Brick House offers an array of burgers, including The Kobe, which is hand formed from American Wagyu beef. Guests can also choose from a selection of homemade entrees, such as Drunken Chops, BBQ Baby Backs, Chicken & Waffles, and its Prime Rib Sandwich. In addition, Brick House's Brick Burgers, include the Gun Show Burger and the Black & Bleu Burger. Brick House's beverage selection includes imported and domestic beers along with hand-pulled cask beer. All Brick House restaurants have a bar that supports a variety of liquor drinks, wine and beer cocktails like the Shandy and Bee Sting, a! s well as! specialty cocktails like the Dark & Stormy, Moscow Mule and The Zombie.

The Company competes with Red Lobster, Bonefish Grill, Landry's Seafood, Bubba Gump Shrimp Company, BJ's Restaurants, Yard House, Cheesecake Factory, Bravo Brio and Buffalo Wild Wings, Applebee's, Chili's, T.G.I. Friday's, Texas Roadhouse and Outback Steakhouse.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Seth Jayson]

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

Renaissance Technologies Continues to Bid on This Stock, But You Should Not

Midstream companies have seen a boom in activities recently that has paid increasing dividends to shareholders. Cash distributions in the industry, however, have not been equal, and some firms have disbursed greater amounts than others. Moreover, financial institutions have highlighted Enbridge Energy Partners (EEP) as a potential market outperformer, granting the stock a "Buy" rating. Morgan Stanley and Credit Suisse are the two institutions in question, raising the target price to the low $30s, barely above the $29 value assigned by Zacks last month. The upside to this side of the oil and gas industry is cash flow, and high return on capital invested, coupled with a high-yield offering a good opportunity for a long-term investment. But, will the trend last long enough to make the investment worthwhile?

Safe Issues Contradict Analysts' Opinions

For fiscal year 2013, Enbridge Energy reported a decline in net income. The report manifesting the figure eliminates the impact of: (a) additional environmental costs, net of insurance recoveries, associated with the Line 6B incident; (b) non-cash, mark-to-market net gains and losses; and (c) other adjustments.

Additionally, higher deliveries and associated revenues from the liquids segment were more than offset by the combination of: lower natural gas liquids prices impacting the margins; the inclusion of the deferred distribution of $22.4 million relating to the preferred units issued in the second quarter of 2013; and higher non-controlling interest resulting from the Midcoast Energy Partners LP initial public offering.

In all, Enbridge Energy's performance throughout 2013 has been disastrous. Moreover, the company's image has been tarnished by activists who highlighted deficiencies at construction sites, and lack of proper security. Additional protests were carried out by Michigan citizens due to the firm's plan to expand the pipeline that spilled out into the Kalamazoo River. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, the incident allowed an excess of 1 million U.S. gallons of tar sands to flow in the vicinity of the Talmadge Creek, a contributor of the Kalamazoo River.

Changes in management and a $7 billion replacement plan were announced, but such reforms are to have little effect over Enbridge Energy's performance. Unlike Cameron International (CAM) which escaped public outcry related to the Deepwater Horizon, Enbridge Energy has been pointed out and repudiated publically for the pipeline burst. Plans for expansion have only angered the public, after the EPA found that warning signs were ignored and operations continued.

Upside and Downside to an Environmental Crisis

Enbridge Energy holds a diversified business portfolio, stable fee-based operating income and strong liquidity position. Exposure to the Bakken Shale, the Haynesville Shale and Granite Wash is another positive characteristic when looking forward. Most importantly, the firm is committed to returning value to shareholders. The challenge is to sustain such model amid great criticism and continued legal issues related to the last spill.

So far, divestiture of non-core business for raising money have succeeded and Enbridge Energy raised $354.9 million. Additional funds are to be obtained from the sale of its gas business ownership interests to Midcoast Energy Partners. Moreover, great capital investment have been announced on the oil pipeline system. The effort plans to secure the company an access to new markets in North America to grow yield from Western Canada and the Bakken.

Future prospects for Enbridge Energy are good as capital investment continues to find founding. However, its image has been tarnished and remains under heavy public scrutiny, limiting fund raising capacities. More importantly, the U.S. governmental agencies have discovered great irresponsibility over operating safety. That is a strong argument for staying away from this stock when thinking about a long-term investment, especially when the largest shareholder continues to purchase and sell stock in a cyclical manner, while aiming to make profits in the short term.

Disclosure: Vanina Egea holds no position in any of the mentioned stocks.

About the author:Vanina EgeaA fundamental analyst at Lone Tree Analytics

Visit Vanina Egea's Website

Currently 5.00/512345 Rating: 5.0/5 (1 vote)

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Hot Clean Energy Companies To Watch In Right Now

J.C. Penney� (NYSE: JCP  ) potentially destroyed huge amounts of shareholder wealth last week with a 44% dilution of shareholders in what could be management's last chance to return the company to relevance with close to $1 billion in new cash. Just a few weeks prior,�Clean Energy Fuels� (NASDAQ: CLNE  ) issued $220 million in convertible notes, paying 5.25% interest to bondholders while also seeing CEO Andrew Littlefair buy almost $1.5 million in shares.�

While dilution through new share offerings and the accumulation of debt can both be detrimental, but not always. What was the result of J.C. Penney and Clean Energy Fuels' recent actions, and what should shareholders look for?

Paying for growth
Clean Energy is in full growth mode with its "America's Natural Gas Highway," and its use of convertible notes to raise capital, while not directly dilutive, still carries the potential to dilute shareholders if the notes are converted to shares. Per the press release:

Hot Clean Energy Companies To Watch In Right Now: Durect Corporation(DRRX)

DURECT Corporation, a specialty pharmaceutical company, develops pharmaceutical products and therapies based on its proprietary drug formulations and delivery platform technologies. The company sells ALZET osmotic pumps for animal research use; LACTEL biodegradable polymers, which are used as raw materials in pharmaceutical and medical products; and excipients for pharmaceutical and medical device clients for use as raw materials in their products. Its product pipeline consists of Remoxy, an oral oxycodone gelatin capsule for the treatment of chronic pain under approval stage with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration; POSIDUR, a Phase III clinical stage sustained-release formulation of bupivacaine for the treatment of post-surgical pain; ELADUR, a Phase II clinical stage transdermal bupivacaine patch intended to provide continuous delivery of bupivacaine for up to three days from a single application for pain; and TRANSDUR, a Phase II clinical stage transdermal sufentanil patch intended to provide continuous delivery of sufentanil for up to seven days from a single application for chronic pain. The company?s Phase II clinical stage products comprise ORADUR-based opioid for the treatment of pain; and ORADUR-ADHD for the treatment of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. It also conducts various research programs covering diseases and medical conditions of the central nervous system, cardiovascular disease, and cancer. The company has strategic agreement with Hospira, Inc.; Alpharma Ireland Limited; Nycomed Danmark ApS; Pain Therapeutics, Inc.; Pfizer Inc; Endo Pharmaceuticals Inc.; and EpiCept Corporation. DURECT Corporation was founded in 1998 and is headquartered in Cupertino, California.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Roberto Pedone]

  One under-$10 name that's starting to move within range of triggering a major breakout trade is Durect (DRRX), which develops pharmaceutical products based on its proprietary drug delivery technology platforms. This stock is off to a hot start in 2013, with shares up sharply by 41%.

  If you take a look at the chart for Durect, you'll notice that this stock has been trending sideways for the last two months and change, with shares moving between $1 on the downside and $1.34 on the upside. Shares of DRRX have now started to flirt with that $1.34 major resistance level on Thursday, since the stock has hit an intraday high of $1.35 a share with strong upside volume flows. This could be signaling that shares of DRRX are ready to break out above the upper-end of its recent range and trend substantially higher.

  Traders should now look for long-biased trades in DRRX if it manages to break out above some near-term overhead resistance levels at $1.34 to $1.35 a share with high volume. Look for a sustained move or close above those levels with volume that hits near or above its three-month average action of 679,480 shares. If that breakout triggers soon, then DRRX will set up to re-fill some of its previous gap down zone from May that started near $1.80 a share. If DRRX gets into that gap with volume, then this stock could easily trend north of $2 a share.

  Traders can look to buy DRRX off any weakness to anticipate that breakout and simply use a stop that sits right below some key near-term support levels at its 50-day moving average of $1.16 a share or its 200-day moving average at $1.11 a share. One can also buy DRRX off strength once it clears those breakout levels with volume and then simply use a stop that sits a comfortable percentage from your entry point.

Hot Clean Energy Companies To Watch In Right Now: Compressco Partners LP (GSJK)

Compressco Partners, L.P. is a provider of wellhead compression-based production enhancement services (production enhancement services). The Company provides its services to a base of natural gas and oil exploration and production companies operating throughout many of the onshore producing regions of the United States, as well as in Canada and Mexico. Its production enhancement services primarily consist of wellhead compression, related liquids separation, gas metering, and vapor recovery services. It also provides ongoing well monitoring services, and, in Mexico, automated sand separation services in connection with its primary production enhancement services. It design and manufacture most of the compressor units it use to provide its production enhancement services. Compressco Partners GP, Inc. is the general partner of the Company. In January 2014, the Company announced that it has completed the acquisition of Compression assets for gas lift markets as part of its defined strategic growth objectives.

GasJack unit fleet

The Company�� GasJack unit allows it to perform compression, liquids separation and optional gas metering services all from one skid. The Company focuses on the natural gas wells in its operating regions that produce between 30,000 and 300, 000 cubic feet of natural gas per day (Mcf/d) and less than 50 barrels of water per day. The Company primarily utilize its natural gas powered GasJack compressors, or GasJack units, to provide wellhead compression services. Its GasJack units increase gas production by reducing surface pressure, which allows wellbore fluids that would normally block gas flow to produce up the well. The 46-horsepower GasJack unit is an integrated power/compressor unit equipped with an industrial 460-cubic inch, V-8 engine that uses natural gas from the well to power one bank of cylinders that, in turn, powers the other bank of cylinders, which provide compression. As of December 31, 2011, the Company had a fleet of 3,145 GasJack units.!

VJack unit fleet

The Company utilizes its electric VJack compressors, or VJack units, to provide its production enhancement services on wells located in larger, mature oil fields, such as the Permian Basin in West Texas and New Mexico, and in environmentally sensitive markets, such as California, when electric power is available at the production site. Its VJack unit is designed for vapor recovery applications (to capture natural gas vapors emitting from closed storage tanks after production and to reduce storage tank pressures) and backside pumping applications on oil wells (to reduce pressures caused by casing head gas in oil wells with pumping units). Based on GasJack unit technology, the VJack unit is capable of full wellbore stream production, and can handle up to 50 barrels per day of liquids on a standard skid package. As of December 31, 2011, it had a fleet of 50 VJack units. Its GasJack and VJack compressor units are mounted on steel skids.

ePumper system

Utilizing its ePumper system, SCADA satellite telemetry-based reporting system, it remotely monitor in real time, whether its services are being continuously provided at each well site. The ePumper system improves the response time of its field personnel.

Well Monitoring and Automated Sand Separation Services

The Company also provides ongoing well monitoring services and, in Mexico, automated sand separation services. Its well monitoring services consist of ongoing testing and evaluation of wells to determine how its wellhead compression services are optimizing the production from a well.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Jake L'Ecuyer]

  Energy sector gained 0.85 percent in the US market today. Among the energy stocks, McDermott International (NYSE: MDR) was down more than 9.3 percent, while Compressco Partners LP (NASDAQ: GSJK) tumbled around 5.3 percent.

Top 10 High Dividend Stocks To Buy For 2014: Ashmore Group PLC (ASHM)

Ashmore Group plc (Ashmore) is engaged in providing investment management services. The Company is a fund manager across six core investment themes, such as external debt, local currency, corporate debt, blended debt, equities, multi-strategy, alternatives and overlay/liquidity. External debt is a diversified portfolio of emerging market debt assets. Local currency takes advantage of the expanding local currency and local currency denominated debt market. Corporate debt focuses on the developing corporate debt asset class. Blended debt mandates specifically combine external, local currency and corporate debt measured against tailor-made blended indices. Multi-strategy is a dynamic asset allocation across other investment themes. Equities Focuses on liquidity and top down macro country selection in publicly traded. Overlay/liquidity helps to separate and centralize the currency risk of an underlying emerging market asset class. Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Inyoung Hwang]

  Ashmore Group Plc (ASHM) jumped 5.3 percent to 382.2 pence. The U.K. fund manager that invests in emerging markets reported full-year pretax profit and revenue that exceeded estimates. The London-based company also raised its dividend.

Hot Clean Energy Companies To Watch In Right Now: Sao Martinho SA (SMTO3)

Sao Martinho SA is a Brazil-based holding company primarily engaged in the sale and production of sugar and ethanol. It is engaged in the cultivation of sugar cane and production and sale of sugar, ethanol and other sugar cane products. The Company is also involved in the cogeneration of electricity and cattle breeding, as well as the provision of agricultural products. The Company produces hydrous ethanol, anhydrous ethanol, industrial ethanol, ribonucleic acid, fuel oil, yeast, sugar and sugarcane biogases, used to generate steam and electricity. Through its subsidiary Omtek, the Company produces ribonucleic acid (RNA) sodium salt, which is used in the pharmaceutical and food industries as a raw material and flavor enhancer. The Company operates through a numerous subsidiaries, including Vale do Mogi Empreendimentos Imobiliarios SA, SMA Industria Quimica SA, Usina Santa Luiza SA, Sao Martinho Energia SA and Santa Cruz SA, among others. Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Ney Hayashi]

  Sugar and ethanol producer Sao Martinho SA (SMTO3) fell 1.8 percent to 25.53 reais after posting a quarterly profit that missed analysts��estimates.

Hot Clean Energy Companies To Watch In Right Now: W.R. Berkley Corporation(WRB)

W. R. Berkley Corporation, an insurance holding company, operates as commercial lines writers in the property casualty insurance business primarily in the United States. The company operates in five segments: Specialty, Regional, Alternative Markets, Reinsurance, and International. The Specialty segment underwrites third-party liability risks, primarily excess, and surplus lines, including premises operations, professional liability, commercial automobile, products liability, and property lines. The Regional segments provide commercial insurance products to small-to-mid-sized businesses, and state and local governmental entities primarily in the 45 states of the United States. The Alternative Markets segment develops, insures, reinsures, and administers self-insurance programs and other alternative risk transfer mechanisms. This segment offers its services to employers, employer groups, insurers, and alternative market funds, as well as provides a range of fee-based servic es, including consulting and administrative services. The Reinsurance segment engages in the underwriting property casualty reinsurance on a treaty and a facultative basis, including individual certificates and program facultative business; and specialty and standard reinsurance lines, and property and casualty reinsurance. The International segment offers personal and commercial property casualty insurance in South America; commercial property casualty insurance in the United Kingdom and continental Europe; and reinsurance in Australia, Southeast Asia, and Canada. The company was founded in 1967 and is based in Greenwich, Connecticut.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Laura Brodbeck]

  Earnings reports expected on Monday include:

  Netflix, Inc. (NASDAQ: NFLX) is expected to report third quarter EPS of $0.48 on revenue of $1.10 billion, compared to last year�� EPS of $0.13 on revenue of $905.09 million. Discover Financial Services (NYSE: DFS) is expected to report third quarter EPS of $1.19 on revenue of $2.07 billion, compared to last year�� EPS of $1.21. W.R. Berkley Corporation (NYSE: WRB) is expected to report third quarter EPS of $0.71 on revenue of $1.57 billion, compared to last year�� EPS of $0.61 on revenue of $1.42 billion. Gannett Co., Inc. (NYSE: GCI) is expected to report third quarter EPS of $0.44 on revenue of $1.27 billion, compared to last year�� EPS of $0.56 on revenue of $1.31 billion.

  Economics

• [By Monica Gerson]

  W.R. Berkley (NYSE: WRB)is estimated to report its Q3 earnings at $0.74 per share on revenue of $1.57 billion.

  V.F. Corp (NYSE: VFC) is projected to report its Q3 earnings at $3.78 per share on revenue of $3.34 billion.

• [By Rich Duprey]

  Insurance holding company�W.R. Berkley� (NYSE: WRB  ) �announced yesterday�its second-quarter dividend of $0.10 per share, an 11% increase over the $0.09 per share it paid last quarter.