Best Sliver Companies To Invest In 2014

Callers that manage to get an IRS person, might have had to wait as long as 25 minutes.

WASHINGTON (CNNMoney) Got a question for the Internal Revenue Service? Keep calling, and be prepared to wait.

With the April 15 tax filing deadline around the corner, an estimated 18 million callers seeking help from the IRS won't be able to reach a real person this year. That's about 40% of all tax season callers, according to IRS data.

Those that manage to get a person, might have had to wait as long as 25 minutes.

And lines at walk-in taxpayer assistance centers are also long; some have reported 90-minute waits.

"Millions of taxpayers are finding unacceptably long wait times on the phone and at our taxpayer assistance centers to get basic questions answered," said IRS Commissioner John Koskinen at a House panel this week on the IRS budget.

10 Best Managed Healthcare Stocks To Invest In 2015: Basic Energy Services Inc. (BAS)

Basic Energy Services, Inc. provides various well site services to oil and natural gas drilling and producing companies in the United States. Its Completion and Remedial Services segment provides pumping services, such as cementing, acidizing, fracturing, coiled tubing, nitrogen, and pressure testing; rental and fishing tools; snubbing services; thru-tubing; cased-hole wireline services; and underbalanced drilling in low pressure and fluid sensitive reservoirs. This segment operates 228 pressure pumping units. It also operates 14 coiled tubing units; 49 air compressor packages; 12 wireline units; and 34 snubbing units. The company�s Fluid Services segment offers oilfield fluid supply, transportation, storage, and construction services, which comprise the transportation of fluids and salt water; sale and transportation of fresh and brine water; rental of portable frac tanks and test tanks; operation of company-owned fresh water and brine source wells and non-hazardous wast ewater disposal wells; and preparation, construction, and maintenance of access roads, drilling locations, and production facilities. This segment owns and operates 955 fluid services trucks with a fluid hauling capacity of up to 150 barrels apiece. Its Well Servicing segment provides various services performed with a mobile well servicing rig and ancillary equipment, such as maintenance work, hoisting tools and equipment required by the operation, and plugging and abandonment services, as well as manufactures and sells workover rigs. It operates a fleet of 425 well servicing rigs. The company�s Contract Drilling segment employs drilling rigs and related equipment to penetrate the earth to a desired depth and initiate production. This segment owns and operates 12 land drilling rigs. The company was formerly known as Sierra Well Service, Inc. and changed its name to Basic Energy Services, Inc. in 2000. Basic Energy Services, Inc. was founded in 1992 and is based in Fort Wort h, Texas.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Travis Hoium]

  What: Shares of oil and gas industry service company Basic Energy Services, Inc (NYSE: BAS  ) fell as much as 12% after reporting earnings.

• [By Simon Casey]

  Dow is investing $4 billion to expand production in the U.S., where an abundance of natural gas from drilling in shale formations has made U.S. plastics production competitive with the Middle East. The company, founded in 1897 as a bleach maker, is the world�� biggest producer of chlorine, epoxy resins and polyethylene plastic. It�� the world�� second-biggest chemical maker after Germany�� BASF SE. (BAS)

Best Sliver Companies To Invest In 2014: Peabody Energy Corporation(BTU)

Peabody Energy Corporation engages in the mining of coal. It mines, prepares, and sells thermal coal to electric utilities and metallurgical coal to industrial customers. The company owns interests in 30 coal mining operations located in the United States and Australia, as well as owns joint venture interest in a Venezuela mine. It is also involved in marketing, brokering, and trading coal. In addition, the company develops a mine-mouth coal-fueled generating plant; and Btu Conversion projects that are designed to convert coal to natural gas or transportation fuels; and clean coal technologies. As of December 31, 2011, it had 9 billion tons of proven and probable coal reserves. The company was founded in 1883 and is headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Sean Williams]

  Despite no company-specific news, coal miner Peabody Energy (NYSE: BTU  ) took the reins of leading the S&P 500 higher with a gain of 4.9%. Coal stocks have been beaten down mercilessly by declining demand and encouragement from the Obama administration for companies to seek out alternative and cleaner energy sources. Electric utilities, for instance, have been converting some of their coal-powered electric plants to natural gas-powered, curbing coal demand, hurting pricing, and creating a coal supply glut. Peabody's rise today could be a reminder to investors that coal still plays a vital role in U.S. electricity generation and isn't going to disappear overnight. It isn't my favorite company in the sector, but I do think it merits a deeper dive by value-seeking investors.

• [By Ben Levisohn]

  Shares of Walter Energy have dropped 17% to $7.54 at 1:$1 p.m. today, Peabody Energy (BTU) has fallen 1.4% to $15.52, Alpha Natural Resources (ANR) has declined 3.2% to $4.31 and Arch Coal (ACI) is off 1.2% at $43.0.

• [By Doug Ehrman]

  While coal-to-gas switching -- the practice in which power plants use natural gas to create electricity rather than coal -- is expected to continue in the aggregate over the next several decades, you shouldn't count coal out of the fight anytime soon. In fact, many coal stocks ��including Arch Coal (NYSE: ACI  ) , Peabody Energy (NYSE: BTU  ) , and Alpha Natural Resources (NYSE: ANR  ) look poised for a significant recovery on a near-term reversal in the coal-to-gas transition. Ultimately, while natural gas has shown strength recently and the explosion in shale gas production has increased the importance of gas, the U.S. is not likely to move away from coal as a critical source of power.

Best Sliver 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.

Best Sliver Companies To Invest In 2014: Nintendo Co Ltd (NTDOY)

Nintendo Co., Ltd. is a Japan-based company mainly engaged in the leisure machine business. The Company operates in two business segments. The Leisure Machine segment is engaged in the development, manufacturing and sale of portable and console game machines as well as game software. The Others segment is engaged in the manufacture and sale of poker cards and karuta (Japanese-style playing cards), the sale of Pokemon (a Japanese animation character) goods, the management of intellectual property rights and the provision of electronic registration services of home use console machines, among others.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Leo Sun]

  A multiplayer mode allows players to team up on some massive projects, including a life-size U.S.S Enterprise, an entire recreation of Hyrule from Nintendo's (NASDAQOTH: NTDOY  ) The Legend of Zelda: The Ocarina of Time, and even a virtual version of Disney World.

• [By Sam Mattera]

  Discontinuing video-game consoles is far from unprecedented. Sega released, and then rapidly abandoned, four consoles between 1992 and 1999, before ultimately exiting the hardware business entirely. Nintendo (NASDAQOTH: NTDOY  ) has had its own failure -- it gave up on the Virtual Boy after just seven months.

• [By Dan Carroll]

  Nintendo (NASDAQOTH: NTDOY  ) has struggled mightily with its newest console, the Wii U, but its latest product also supports�used games. That gives GameStop a route to continue its current business with two of the three major consoles of this next generation. However, investors shouldn't count on Nintendo being a huge player in the future once Microsoft and Sony launch their new systems. The Wii U sold just 75,000 consoles in April, a double-digit fall from March. Worse, the console, released just last year, sold less than half the number of Xbox 360s or PlayStation 3s sold during the month -- and each of those consoles are at least six years old.