Top 10 Railroad Companies To Watch For 2015

I've been following the remarkable rise of the railroads as the preferred shipment option for our increased crude oil production. Last year, crude oil and petroleum products delivered by rail rose by over 30%. This was driven primarily by the rise in production coming out of North Dakota's Bakken region.

Bakken producers like Continental Resources (NYSE: CLR  ) seem to have a sweet spot for this age-old mode of transportation. The company and its peers had been producing more oil than the current pipeline infrastructure could handle. That created a huge differential between the price of Bakken crude and that of U.S. benchmark West Texas Intermediate. However, thanks to the rails, that differential has come down significantly.

In one of the best quotes from earlier this year, Continental President and COO Rick Bott told investors: "We've recently seen a significant improvement in Bakken oil price differentials, reflecting higher volumes being shipped by rail to the coasts and the anticipation of increased pipeline capacity ... We now have excess transportation capacity in both pipe and rail, and, with additional infrastructure projects in the planning and construction stages, capacity should remain ahead of Bakken production growth."

Top 10 Railroad Companies To Watch For 2015: Unifirst Corporation(UNF)

UniFirst Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, provides workplace uniforms and protective work wear clothing in the United States, Canada, and Europe. The company designs, manufactures, personalizes, rents, cleans, delivers, and sells a range of uniforms and protective clothing, including shirts, pants, jackets, coveralls, lab coats, smocks, and aprons; and specialized protective wear, such as flame resistant and high visibility garments. It also rents industrial wiping products, floor mats, facility service products, and restroom supplies comprising air fresheners, paper products, and hand soaps, as well as other non-garment items. In addition, the company provides first aid cabinet services and other safety supplies; decontaminates and cleans work clothes that may have been exposed to radioactive materials; and services special clean room protective wear. Further, it offers a range of garment service options, including full-service rental programs in which garment s are cleaned and serviced; lease programs in which garments are cleaned and maintained by individual employees; and purchase programs to buy garments and related items directly. The company serves automobile service centers and dealers, delivery services, food and general merchandise retailers, food processors and service operations, light manufacturers, maintenance facilities, restaurants, service companies, soft and durable goods wholesalers, transportation companies, and others who require employee clothing for image, identification, protection, or utility purposes, as well as government agencies, research and development laboratories, high technology companies, and utilities operating nuclear reactors. The UniFirst Corporation was founded in 1936 and is based in Wilmington, Massachusetts.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Seth Jayson]

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

Top 10 Railroad Companies To Watch For 2015: CDW Corp (CDW)

CDW Corporation (CDW), incorporated on May 25, 2007, is a provider of integrated information technology (IT) solutions in the United States and Canada. Its range of offerings range from discrete hardware and software products to integrated IT solutions, such as mobility, security, data center optimization, cloud computing, virtualization and collaboration. The Company has two segments: Corporate and Public. Corporate segment consists of primarily of private sector business customers. Public segment consists of government agencies and education and healthcare institutions. CDW also has two other operating segments, CDW Advanced Services and Canada (combined together as Other). The Company is a sales channel partner for many original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and software publishers (collectively, its vendor partners), whose products it sells or include in the solutions CDW offers. The Company helps its customer base of more than 250,000 small, medium and large business, government, education and healthcare customers by delivering solutions to their IT needs.

The Company�� Corporate segment is divided into a medium-large business customer channel, primarily serving customers with more than 100 employees, and a small business customer channel, primarily serving customers with up to 100 employees. The CDW Advanced Services business consists primarily of customized engineering services delivered by technology specialists and engineers and managed services that include infrastructure as a service (IaaS) offerings. The Company�� product portfolio includes more than 100,000 products from more than 1,000 brands. Revenues from the sale of hardware, software, custom configuration and third-party provided services are recorded within its Corporate and Public segments.

The Company�� revenue from professional services is either recognized as incurred for services billed at an hourly rate or recognized using a proportional performance model for services provided at a fixed fee.! Revenue from software as a service (SaaS) arrangements, IaaS arrangements, and data center services, including Internet connectivity, Web hosting, server co-location and managed services, is recognized over the period service is provided. The Company also sells certain products for which it acts as an agent. Products in this category include the sale of third-party services, warranties or software assurance (SA) or third-party-hosted SaaS and IaaS arrangements. The Company offer over 1,000 brands, from companies, such as APC, Apple, Cisco, EMC, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Lenovo, Microsoft, NetApp, Symantec and VMware, to vendor partners, such as Drobo, Fusion-io, Meraki, Nimble Storage, Salesforce.com, Sophos and Splunk.

The Company competes with Dimension Data, ePlus, Insight Enterprises, PC Connection, PCM, Presidio, Softchoice, World Wide Technology, Dell, Hewlett-Packard, Apple, Amazon, Newegg, TigerDirect.com, Buy.com, IBM, Accenture, Staples, Office Depot and Office Max.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Rich Smith]

  Just over six years after leaving the public stock markets in a $7.3 billion leveraged buyout, IT equipment supplier CDW (NASDAQ: CDW  ) is back on the Nasdaq again!

• [By Jon C. Ogg]

  Before you consider this just to be a bit of IPO pondering, take a step back and understand that some of this list membership already has�filed to come public or actually has�made it public recently. Boise Cascade Co. (NYSE: BCC), CDW Corp. (NASDAQ: CDW), Coty Inc. (NYSE: COTY), Global Brass and Copper Holdings Inc. (NYSE: BRSS), Noodles & Company (NASDAQ: NDLS), Restoration Hardware Holdings Inc. (NYSE: RH), Sprouts Farmers Market Inc. (NASDAQ: SFM) and many others are on the list and have made it to the post-IPO stage in the stock market.

Top 10 Undervalued Companies To Own For 2015: Pearson Plc(PSO)

Pearson plc engages in education, business information, and consumer publishing businesses worldwide. The company?s North American Education segment provides higher education services, such as higher education publishing; MyLab digital learning, homework, and assessment programs; and LearningStudio, a suite of learning management technologies, including eCollege and Fronter. This segment also offers assessment and information services; school curriculum services consisting of school publishing; enVisionMATH, a digital math curriculum; America's Choice school reform services; online learning platform for teachers and students; Poptropica video game; digital programs, such as digits, a digital middle school math?s program; Writing Coach, a blended print and online program; and Online Learning Exchange, a personalized digital learning program. Its International Education segment provides educational content, assessment, technologies, and related services to educational inst itutions. This segment offers spoken English training for adults, as well as provides eCollege and Fronter learning management systems. It also offers MyLab digital learning, homework, and assessment programs. The company?s Professional segment focuses on publishing, training, testing, and certification for professionals. Its Financial Times group segment provides business and financial news, data, comment, and analysis in print and online formats to the international business community. Its products include Financial Times newspaper; FT.com Website; financial magazines and online services; and Mergermarket, which provides forward-looking insights and intelligence to businesses and financial institutions. The company?s Penguin Group segment engages in book publishing business, under the Hamish Hamilton, Putnam, Berkley, Viking, Dorling Kindersley, Puffin, and Ladybird imprints. It also offers ebooks. The company was founded in 1844 and is headquartered in London, the Unite d Kingdom.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Mike Arnold]

  Collectively, Glacier generated $21.2 million EBITDA in the first-half of 2013, of which 56% represents $11.9 million, or $23.8 million annualized. Comparables such as Daily Journal Corp. and to a lesser extent, Pearson plc (PSO) trade at EV/EBITDA multiples of 12x and 11.5x, respectively. If we assume 10x for the Glacier's business information services is a better proxy of value, we arrive at $238 million valuation for the segment.

Top 10 Railroad Companies To Watch For 2015: International Tower Hill Mines Ltd (THM)

International Tower Hill Mines Ltd. (ITH) is an exploration-stage company. The Company is engaged in the business of acquiring, exploring and evaluating mineral properties, and either joint venturing or developing these properties further or disposing of them when the evaluation is completed. As of December 31, 2011, the Company controlled a 100% interest in its Livengood project in Alaska, the United States. The Livengood property is located approximately 115 kilometers northwest of Fairbanks, Alaska in the Tolovana Mining District within the Tintina Gold Belt. The property is approximately 145 square kilometers and consists of fee land leased from the Alaska Mental Health Trust. The project area is centered on Money Knob. Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Anthony Mirhaydari]

  For now, I continue to recommend investors maintain a cautious stance, focusing on the buying interest coming into safe-haven assets like U.S. Treasury bond and precious metals while booking profits in biotech stocks that have been red hot this month. The leveraged Direxion 3x Treasury Bond Bull (TMF) is up nearly 7% in my Edge Letter Sample Portfolio since it was added on Jan. 10. I just sold Tower Hill Mines (THM) and Rosetta Genomics (ROSG) for gains of 46% and 18% respectively.

Top 10 Railroad Companies To Watch For 2015: Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company(PHI)

Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company provides telecommunication services in the Philippines. Its Wireless segment offers cellular mobile services; Internet broadband distribution and services; call center services; mobile applications development and services; software development and sale of maintenance and support services; mobile commerce solutions; mobile commerce platforms; mobile applications development and services; solutions and systems integration services; satellite communications services; and satellite information and messaging services. This segment also involves in the promotion of the sale and/or patronage of debit and/or charge cards; offshore financing and risk management activities for smart; international trade of satellites and global system for mobile communication, or GSM enabled global telecommunications; and delivery of GSM communication capability for the maritime sector, as well as operates as a content provider. The company?s Fixed Line s egment provides fixed line telecommunication services, such as local exchange, international long distance, national long distance, data and other network services, as well as infrastructure and related services. Its Information and Communications Technology segment offers integrated information and communications technology services focusing on infrastructure and solutions for Internet applications, Internet protocol based solutions, and multimedia content delivery. This segment also provides knowledge processing solutions, customer relationship management, Internet and online gaming services, and information technology consulting and professional services; and operates Internet data center under the Vitro brand name. As of December 31, 2010, the company had served approximately 49 million subscribers. It also resells software licenses, server solutions, networking products, storage products, and data security products. The company was founded in 1928 and is based in Makati City, the Philippines.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Jonathan Yates]

  The economy is also expected to recover quickly from the storm's devastation, making Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company (NYSE: PHI) more attractive to long-term investors than other communications firms such as BCE (NYSE: BCE), AT&T (NYSE: T) and Verizon Communications (NYSE: VZ).

Top 10 Railroad Companies To Watch For 2015: Prosensa Holding NV (RNA)

Prosensa Holding N.V., formerly Prosensa Holding B.V., is a biotechnology company engaged in the discovery and development of ribonucleic acid-modulating (RNA)-modulating, therapeutics for the treatment of genetic disorders. The Company�� primary focus is on rare neuromuscular and neurodegenerative disorders with a large unmet medical need, including Duchenne muscular dystrophy, myotonic dystrophy and Huntington�� disease. The Company�� clinical portfolio of RNA-based product candidates is focused on the treatment of Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD). The Company�� platform technology allows the development of RNA-modulating therapeutics that either interferes with splicing (exon skipping, exon inclusion, or splice mutation correction), remove mutant RNA, or block RNA expression, for different indications.

DMD is a rare, severe muscle wasting disease that occurs in up to 1 in 3,500 male births. It is commonly diagnosed between the ages of three to five, when boys begin to show signs of impaired motor development. PRO044, the Company�� product candidate, addresses a separate sub-population of DMD patients. The Company developed PRO044 using its exon-skipping technology to generate a product candidate with the same mechanism of action that is used by drisapersen.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By John Udovich]

  It should also be mentioned that earlier in the week, GlaxoSmithKline plc (NYSE: GSK) returned full rights of Duchenne muscular dystrophy drug drisapersen to their partner�Prosensa Holding NV (NASDAQ: RNA) and that news sent shares down 12.48% on�Monday. Moreover,�Prosensa Holding also sank some 70% last fall when Drisapersen failed a phase 3 trial by missing a primary endpoint measuring for how far patients could walk over the course of six minutes (the improvement�wasn't significantly better than the placebo).�However, Prosensa Holding also rose 24.37% yesterday after announcing�initial findings from further analyses from the aggregate data for drisapersen, with the CEO saying:

• [By Keith Speights]

  An "alley-oop" from the opponent
  Prosensa (NASDAQ: RNA  ) shares made something of a slam dunk this week, jumping more than 16%. That dunk was made with what amounts to an "alley-oop" from its primary rival, Sarepta Therapeutics (NASDAQ: SRPT  ) .

• [By Leo Sun]

  However, these three biotech stocks -- Amarin (NASDAQ: AMRN  ) , Dendreon (NASDAQ: DNDN  ) , Prosensa (NASDAQ: RNA  ) -- don't fit that category at all. Read on to understand why these dogs of the sector should never be mistaken as underdogs.

• [By Sean Williams]

  What: Shares of Prosensa (NASDAQ: RNA  ) , a clinical-stage developer of RNA-modulating therapeutic agents for genetic disorders, jumped as much as 50% after reporting additional clinical findings on drisapersen at the JPMorgan Healthcare Conference.

Top 10 Railroad Companies To Watch For 2015: Northrim BanCorp Inc(NRIM)

Northrim BanCorp, Inc., through its subsidiaries, which provides a range of banking products and services to businesses, professionals, and individuals in Alaska. Its deposit services include noninterest-bearing checking accounts and interest-bearing time deposits, checking accounts, and savings accounts. The company?s loan portfolio comprises commercial and real estate lending, construction and land development lending, and consumer loans. Northrim BanCorp also offers other customer services, including telebanking, faxed account statements, Internet banking, automated teller services, personalized checks at account opening, overdraft protection from a savings account, extended banking hours, commercial drive-up banking with coin service, automatic transfers and payments, wire transfers, direct payroll deposit, electronic tax payments, automated clearing house origination and receipt, and cash management services. In addition, it provides investment advisory, insurance br okerage, trust, and wealth management services. As of December 31, 2009, the company operated 11 branches, including 7 in Anchorage, 2 in Fairbanks, and 1 each in Eagle River and Wasilla. Northrim BanCorp, Inc. was founded in 1990 and is headquartered in Anchorage, Alaska.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By GURUFOCUS]

  Northrim BanCorp Inc. (NRIM) operates as the bank holding company for Northrim Bank that provides commercial banking products and services to businesses, professionals, and individuals primarily in Alaska. August 16th the company increased its quarterly dividend 13% to $0.17 per share. The dividend is payable Sept. 13 to shareholders of record as of the close of business on Sept. 5, 2013. The yield based on the new payout is 2.8%.

Top 10 Railroad Companies To Watch For 2015: Life Technologies Corporation(LIFE)

Life Technologies Corporation operates as a global life sciences company. The company?s Molecular Biology Systems division offers molecular biology-based technologies, including basic and real-time PCR, RNA interference, DNA synthesis, sample preparation, transfection, cloning and protein expression profiling, protein analysis, and thermo-cycler instrumentation technologies. Its Cell Systems division provides cell culture media and sera, stem cells and related tools, cellular imaging products, antibodies, drug discovery services, and cell therapy related products used in the study of cell function. The company?s Genetic Systems division offers capillary electrophoresis systems and reagents, and next generation sequencing systems and reagents comprising SOLiD and Ion Torrent systems, as well as reagent kits developed specifically for applied markets, such as forensics and food safety, pharmaceutical quality monitoring, and animal health markets. Life Technologies Corporat ion also provides repair and maintenance services; and custom services, such as cell line development, custom media modification, and primers and custom assays development services. Its products offer research tools for genomics studies, proteomics studies, gene splicing, cellular analysis, and other research applications required by laboratories associated with universities, medical research centers, and government and other research institutions, as well as biotechnology, pharmaceutical, and chemical companies; and serves clinical labs, medical institutions, medical researchers, and various industries through sales and service professionals, e-commerce capabilities, and onsite supply center solutions. The company was founded in 1987 and is headquartered in Carlsbad, California.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Alex Planes]

  It's been only a few trading days since Illumina surged on a strong earnings report, showing that there's still plenty of life in the sequencing sector. However, competition is only bound to increase now that erstwhile rival Life Technologies (NASDAQ: LIFE  ) has found its white knight in Thermo Fisher Scientific (NYSE: TMO  ) . I've been optimistic on Life Tech's prospects for some time -- you can read more about my opinions in an analyst debate I held with fellow Fools Travis Hoium and Sean Williams last year -- and that opinion hasn't changed now that Life Tech has even deeper pockets to dip into for research dollars:

• [By David Williamson]

  Shares of Life Technologies (NASDAQ: LIFE  ) jumped in January, when the company announced it was looking for a potential buyer, and it may now be close to a decision, with solid offers having come in both from Blackstone Group (NYSE: BX  ) and Thermo Fisher Scientific (NYSE: TMO  ) . What will this biotech decide, and how will it affect investors? In this video, Motley Fool health-care analyst David Williamson gives us a breakdown of the offers on the table, and how investors could be affected depending on the outcome.

• [By guruek]

  Weekly 52-week high companies: Cigna Corp (CI), Seadrill Ltd (SDRL), Harley-Davidson Inc. (HOG), Life Technologies Corp. (LIFE), and Vodafone Group PLC (VOD).

Top 10 Railroad Companies To Watch For 2015: Capex SA (CAPX)

Capex SA is an Argentina-based company primarily engaged in the energy sector. The Company�� main activities include the generation and sale of electric energy; the exploration and exploitation of oil and gas, and the production, distribution and marketing of propane, butane and gasoline. The Company operates a liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) plant which is located in the province of Neuquen. As of December 31, 2011, the Company owned such subsidiaries as Hychico SA and Servicios Buproneu SA. Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Dividends4Life]

  Fair Value: In calculating fair value, I consider the NPV MMA Differential Fair Value along with these four calculations of fair value, see page 2 of the linked PDF for a detailed description: 1. Avg. High Yield Price 2. 20-Year DCF Price 3. Avg. P/E Price 4. Graham Number CVX is trading at a discount to only 3.) above. The stock is trading at a 44.9% premium to its calculated fair value of $82.00. CVX did not earn any Stars in this section. Dividend Analytical Data: In this section there are three possible Stars and three key metrics, see page 2 of the linked PDF for a detailed description: 1. Free Cash Flow Payout 2. Debt To Total Capital 3. Key Metrics 4. Dividend Growth Rate 5. Years of Div. Growth 6. Rolling 4-yr Div. > 15% CVX earned two Stars in this section for 2.) and 3.) above. The stock earned a Star as a result of its most recent Debt to Total Capital being less than 45%. CVX earned a Star for having an acceptable score in at least two of the four Key Metrics measured. The company has paid a cash dividend to shareholders every year since 1912 and has increased its dividend payments for 27 consecutive years. Dividend Income vs. MMA: Why would you assume the equity risk and invest in a dividend stock if you could earn a better return in a much less risky money market account (MMA) or Treasury bond? This section compares the earning ability of this stock with a high yield MMA. Two items are considered in this section, see page 2 of the linked PDF for a detailed description: 1. NPV MMA Diff. 2. Years to > MMA The NPV MMA Diff. of the $256 is below the $800 target I look for in a stock that has increased dividends as long as CVX has. The stock's current yield of 3.37% exceeds the 3.31% estimated 20-year average MMA rate. Memberships and Peers: CVX is a member of the S&P 500, a Dividend Aristocrat, a member of the Broad Dividend Achievers��Index and a Dividend Champion. The company's peer group includes: BP plc (BP) with a 4.7% yield, Exxon Mobil

Top 10 Railroad Companies To Watch For 2015: GigOptix Inc (GIG)

GigOptix, Inc. (GigOptix), incorporated on March 2008, is a supplier of semiconductor and electro-optical component products that enables high-speed end to end data streaming over optical fiber and wireless telecommunications and data-communications networks globally. The Company's products convert signals between electrical and optical formats for transmitting and receiving data over fiber optic networks and between electrical and high speed radio frequencies to enable the transmission and receipt of data over wireless networks. The Company is creating both optical telecommunications and data-communications applications for fast growing markets in 10 giga bytes per second (Gbps), 40Gbps and 100Gbps drivers, receiver integrated circuits (IC), electro-optic modulator components and multi-chip-modules (MCM), as well as E-band wireless data-communications applications for high speed mobile backhaul and other high capacity wireless data transport applications. During the year ended December 31, 2011, the Company shipped over 150 products to over 200 customers.

The Company offers a portfolio of 10Gbps and 40Gbps electro-optical products and is developing market for 100Gbps products. The Company provides bundled solutions that consist of a few of its products, such as modulator and driver. The Company also offers a comprehensive portfolio of Monolithic Microwave Integrated Circuit (MMIC) and application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) products to support E-band wireless communication and defense markets. The Company has also developed 10Gbps vertical cavity surface-emitting laser (VCSEL) drivers and receivers for aerospace as well as outdoor, non-temperature controlled environments that enables higher capacity in its customers' next generation flight and data center systems.

The Company has a portfolio of products for telecommunications , data-communications, defenses and industrial applications designed for optical speeds from 3Gbps to over 100Gbps and for wireless frequencies! from zero giga hertz (GHz) to 86GHz. The Company's products support a range of data rates, protocols, transmission distances and industry standards.

The Company's portfolio consists of the product ranges, such as laser and modulator drivers for 10Gbps, 40Gbps and 100Gbps applications; receiver amplifiers or Trans-impedance Amplifiers (TIAs) for 10Gbps, 40Gbps and 100Gbps applications; VCSEL driver and receiver chipsets for 14 and 12 channel parallel optics applications from 3Gbps to 10Gbps; Electro-optic modulators based on the Company's TFPS technology suitable for various 40Gbps and 100Gbps modulation schemes, such as differential phase shift keying (DPSK), differential quadrature phase shift keying (DQPSK), RZ-DQPSK and DP-QPSK; wideband monolithic microwave integrated circuit (MMIC) amplifiers with flat gain response; high frequency MMIC Power Amplifiers with high gain and output power; high frequency passive attenuators and filters in small form factors, and standard cell, and structured ASIC and hybrid ASIC designs and manufacturing service for multiple markets offering information technology acquisition review (ITAR) compliance for defense applications. The Company designs and market products that amplifies electrical signals during both the transmission (amplifiers and optical drivers) and reception (TIAs) of optical signals as well as modulate optical signals in the transmission of data.

The Company's optical drivers amplify the input digital data stream that is used to modulate laser light either by direct modulation of the laser or by use of an external modulator that acts as a precise shutter to switch on and off light to create the optical data stream. The Company supplies an optimized component for each type of laser, modulator and photo-diode depending upon the speed, reach and required cost. The Company's microwave and millimeter wave amplifiers amplify small signal radio signals into more signals that can be transmitted over long distances to establish high t! hroughput! data connections or enable radar based applications. The Company's ASIC solutions are used in a number of applications such as defense and test and measurement applications to enable the high speed processing of complex signals.

The Company's product portfolio is designed to cover the range of solutions needed in these different modules. The Company's product portfolio consists of five product lines: GX Series, which includes serial drivers and TIA ICs devices for telecom and data-com markets; HX Series, which includes multi-channel driver and TIA ICs for short reach data-com and optical interconnect applications; LX Series, which includes TFPS modulators for high speed telecom and defense applications; EX Series, which includes amplifiers, filters and attenuators for microwave applications in defense and instrumentation, and CX Series, which includes family of ASIC solutions for custom integrated circuit design.

GX Series

The GigOptix GX Series of products services both the telecom and data-com markets with a broad portfolio of drivers and transimpedence amplifiers that address 10Gbps, 40Gbps and 100Gbps speeds over distances that range from 100 meters to 10,000 kilometers. The GX Series devices are used in FiberChannel, Ethernet, synchronous optical networking (SONET)/ synchronous digital hierarchy (SDH) components and those based upon the optical internetworking forum (OIF) standards.

HX Series

The GigOptix HX Series of products service the high performance computing (HPC), data-com and consumer markets with a portfolio of parallel VCSEL drivers and TIAs that address 3Gbps, 5Gbps,10Gbps, 14Gbps, 16Gbps and 25Gbps channel speeds over 100-300 meters distances in four and 12 channel configurations. The HX Series devices are used in HPC formats, Infiniband, Ethernet and optical high definition multimedia interface (HDMI) components.

LX Series

The GigOptix LX Series of products service the 40Gbps and above telecom! market f! or Mach-Zehnder modulators. The LX Series devices are based on the Company's TFPS EO material technology.

EX Series

The GigOptix EX Series of products leverages the high performance products acquired in the Endwave acquisition. In addition, it also includes the die and design techniques developed for the GX Series telecom and data-com drivers for related defense and instrumentation applications.

CX Series

The GigOptix CX Series of products offers a portfolio of distinct paths to digital and analog mixed signal ASICs with the capability of supporting designs of up to 10M gates in technologies ranging from 0.6 through 65nm. The CX Series uses the Company's technology in Structured and Hybrid ASICs to enable a generic ASIC solution that can be customized for a customer using only a few metal mask layers. The CX Series also offers ASIC services, including Analog and Mixed Signal IP into designs and taking customers designs from RTL or gate-level net list definitions to volume production with third party foundries.

The Company competes with TriQuint, Rohm, InPhi, Centellax, Semtech, Vitesse, M/A-Com, Avago, Emcore, Tyco Electronics, IPtronics. Avago, Emcore, Tyco Electronics, JDSU, Oclaro, Sumitomo, Fujitsu, Emcore, Oclaro, Hittite, Sumitomo, Hittite, RFMD, Northrop Grumman, On -Semiconductor, eSilicon, Open Silicon, Faraday, Toshiba and eASIC.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Bryan Murphy]

  It's admittedly overbought and due for a slight dip thanks to today's surge. But when you take a step back and look at GigOptix Inc. (NYSEMKT:GIG), there's actually a lot to be excited about if you've been mulling a trading in GIG. The trick will be getting the timing right.