Top 10 US Stocks To Own For 2014

Don’t call it a comeback. No really. Don’t. Sure, Kevin Costner’s new flick 3 Days to Kill hits theaters this week. The thriller’s reviews, however, have been lukewarm–it has a 27% rating on Rotten Tomatoes–and should make about $9 million at the box office, well behind Lego Movie, which should take in about $32 million, and Pompeii’s $12 million expected gross. As personable as he still is, it’s hard to imagine Costner returning as a box-office force.

Everett

The S&P 500, too, tried for a comeback this week, but after coming within just 0.1% of a new high this year, it dropped 0.2% to 1,836.25 on Friday, leaving it down 0.7% on the year. The Dow Jones Industrial Average, meanwhile, fell 0.3% this week to 16,103.30. The blue-chip index is off 2.9% in 2014.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average was dragged down by Coca-Cola (KO), which fell 4.5% to $37.18 this week after its fourth-quarter earnings report lacked fizz, and Wal-Mart (WMT), which dropped 3.5% after it offered below-consensus guidance and said it would pursue a small-store strategy. The S&P 500′s big losers included US Steel (X), which plunged 8.2% after the US decided that South Korea hadn’t sold steel pipes below cost, Waste Management (WM), which fell 6.1% to $40.99 after lower-than-forecast guidance caused investors to dump its share like garbage, and Cliffs Natural Resources (CLF), which dropped 5.1% to $21.97 as analysts debated whether the iron miner had done enough to turn itself around.

Top 10 Regional Bank Stocks To Invest In 2015: Oak Ridge Energy Technologies Inc (OKME)

Oak Ridge Energy Technologies, Inc., formerly Oak Ridge Micro-Energy, Inc., incorporated on August 15, 1986, is a development-stage company. The Company licenses thin-film, solid-state batteries for industrial, government, and medical applications. The Company�� thin-film battery is rechargeable, lithium-based, and the active battery layers are thinner than common plastic wrap.

The Company�� batteries are intended for applications, such as wireless smart sensors, which operate in harsh environments, security cards, radio frequency identification (RFID) tags, semiconductor non-volatile memory chips, and implantable medical devices. Its prototype cells on ceramic substrates supplied to customers are 0.024 of an inch (0.62 millimeters) thick. Thin-film lithium and lithium-ion batteries are ideally suited for a variety of applications where a small power source is needed.

The Company competes with Infinite Power Solutions, Inc., Front Edge Technology, Inc., Cymbet Corporation, Teledyne Electronic Technologies, Excellatron and Planar Energy Devices, Inc.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By CRWE]

  Today, OKME has shed (-7.69%) down -0.050 at $.600 with 2,446 shares in play thus far (ref. google finance Delayed: 9:56AM EDT July 15, 2013), but don�� let this get you down.

  Oak Ridge Micro-Energy, Inc. previously reported a strategic US $2.5M investment by Precept Fund Management SPC�� on behalf of Prescient Fund SP into the revitalised US battery company Oak Ridge Micro-Energy.

  Mr. Steve Barber, Principal of Precept Investment Management Limited, the investment manager of Precept Fund Management SPC said:

  ��lobally the energy storage sector is projected to be a US$60 Billion market by 2020. Precept�� $2.5m placement into OKME is a strategic move by the fund to secure a significant share of this exciting company and the growth potential of the battery market. Our opinion is that OKME has a world leading technical and commercial team, a focused business development strategy and the reputation to be a key player in the US and global battery market. OKME is one of only two investment targets the Fund identified after an in-depth analysis of the energy storage market. The other is a Swiss battery company named Leclanche. Precept is a long-term, active participation, value investor, and we look forward to a long and rewarding relationship with OKME.��/p>

Top 10 US Stocks To Own For 2014: The Dixie Group Inc.(DXYN)

The Dixie Group, Inc. engages in the manufacture, marketing, and sale of carpets and rugs to residential and commercial customers primarily in the United States. It also offers broadloom and modular carpets for the specified commercial marketplace. The company sells its products under the Fabrica International, Masland Carpets, and the Dixie Home brands. It also processes yarns, and provides carpet dyeing and finishing services to other carpet manufacturers. The company primarily serves interior decorators and designers, selected retailers and furniture stores, luxury home builders, and manufacturers of luxury motor coaches and yachts. The Dixie Group, Inc. was founded in 1920 and is based in Chattanooga, Tennessee.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Roberto Pedone]

  Dixie Group (DXYN) markets, manufactures and sells carpet and rugs to high-end residential and commercial customers through its various sales forces and brands. This stock closed up 10.9% at $11.48 in Thursday's trading session.

  Thursday's Volume: 218,000
  
  Three-Month Average Volume: 82,425
  
  Volume % Change: 198%

  From a technical perspective, DXYN ripped sharply higher here right above some near-term support around $10 with strong upside volume. This stock has been trending sideways inside of a consolidation pattern for the last month, with shares trending between $10 on the downside and $12.05 on the upside. This consolidation pattern is occurring after a strong uptrend for shares of DXYN, which took the stock from $4.99 in March to $10 in August. This spike is now starting to push shares of DXYN within range of triggering a big breakout trade. That trade will hit if DXYN manages to take out Thursday's intraday high at $11.99 and then once it clears its 52-week high at $12.05 with high volume.

  Traders should now look for long-biased trades in DXYN as long as it's trending above $11 or Thursday's low of $10.43, and then once it sustains a move or close above those breakout levels with volume that hits near or above 82,425 shares. If that breakout triggers soon, then DXYN will set up to enter new 52-week-high territory, which is bullish technical price action. Some possible upside targets off that breakout are $15 to $16.

• [By David Goodboy]

  The company I discovered astounded me: It's up more than 220% in the past year, and shares are trading for around $11. It is high-end carpet maker The Dixie Group (Nasdaq: DXYN). Founded in 1919, this carpet manufacturer and marketing company has a market cap of about $143 million and annual revenue of just over $296 million. It sells carpets with the Fabrica International, Masland Residential and Dixie Home brands. 

Top 10 US Stocks To Own For 2014: Devon Energy Corporation(DVN)

Devon Energy Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, engages in the acquisition, exploration, development, and production of natural gas and oil in the United States and Canada. It also involves in transporting oil, gas, and natural gas liquids (NGL); and processing natural gas. The company owns oil and gas properties in the mid-continent area of the central and southern United States; the Permian Basin in Texas and New Mexico; the Rocky Mountains area of the United States; and the onshore areas of the Gulf Coast, principally in south Texas and south Louisiana. It also owns oil and gas properties in the provinces of Alberta, British Columbia, and Saskatchewan, Canada. In addition, the company offers marketing and midstream services, including marketing of gas, crude oil, and NGL, as well as constructing and operating pipelines, storage and treating facilities, and natural gas processing plants. As of December 31, 2010, it had 2,042 million barrel of oil equivalent of proved developed reserves. The company sells its gas production to various customers, such as pipelines, utilities, gas marketing firms, industrial users, and local distribution companies; crude oil production to refiners, remarketers, and other companies; and NGL production to customers in petrochemical, refining, and heavy oil blending activities. Devon Energy Corporation was founded in 1971 and is headquartered in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Matt DiLallo]

  3. Execute its plan
  Once the company can get past all this uncertainty it needs to execute on its plan to grow production and eventually turn the company that can generate significant free cash flow. It has a long way to go, but clarity here could be coming soon. For example, the company just started drilling its first well into the Utica Shale. The play isn't turning out how some producers had hoped which is adding to the company's risk. Devon Energy (NYSE: DVN  ) , for example is bailing on the play after its first few wells didn't turn out that well. The risk for Magnum Hunter is that its wells turn out to be duds. It doesn't have Devon's balance sheet strength, nor vast portfolio of opportunities to be drilling dry holes.

• [By Richard Zeits]

  It is also worth noting that joint venture transactions (the highly lucrative promoting business that has become a major source of income and almost an addiction for North American operators), have potential to cover, often by a very high factor, the cost of leasing and testing a large block of acreage. Proceeds received from JV monetizations in the play by just three operators - SandRidge, Chesapeake, and Devon - approach $3 billion in aggregate. This figure alone vastly exceeds all losses to all operators across the play from lease expirations.

  SandRidge raised $1.5 billion in cash and drilling carries in their two JV transactions, with Repsol and Atinum;Chesapeake Energy received $1 billion in cash from selling an interest in a Mississippian Lime JV to Sinopec;Devon Energy (DVN) raised $2.5 billion in cash and drilling carries in a "Five Emerging Plays" Joint Venture with Sinopec, which included Mississippian Lime ($0.5 billion allocated to Miss Lime for the purposes of this discussion).

  While the extension area may have lost, at least for the time being, the sponsorship of several important operators, drilling activity in the play's core, including southern Kansas counties, has continued unabated. Kansas well statistics through June (the latest month available) show a healthy pace of growth in total production volumes and the number of wells being turned in-line.

• [By Alyce Lomax]

  This past proxy season, more investors have apparently seen the light when it comes to majority voting, and believe it will be a good thing at their companies. Check out the following significant vote results.

  ExxonMobil (NYSE: XOM  ) is a massive and popular blue chip company. However, a sizable 45% of its shareholders voted in favor of majority voting. Devon Energy (NYSE: DVN  ) shareholders pretty much split in half on the majority voting issue, with 51% voting for the policy. In that case, individual investors who sat on the sidelines and didn't vote (and we know that many still do) could have made a difference in a victory that barely squeaked by. Aetna (NYSE: AET  ) experienced a landslide -- a landslide defeat on this issue, that is. John Chevedden's proposal for majority voting received 76% of shareholders' votes.

  Significant shareholder revolts
  Executive compensation remains the less esoteric issue, and it's alive and well in 2013 as majority voting gains more traction. This year, a few high-profile say-on-pay defeats or squeakers should grab our attention.

Top 10 US Stocks To Own For 2014: ProShares Short MSCI Emerging Markets (EUM)

ProShares Short MSCI Emerging Markets (the Fund) seeks daily investment results that correspond to the inverse (opposite) of the daily performance of the MSCI Emerging Markets Index. The MSCI Emerging Markets Index adjusts the market capitalization of index constituents for free float and targets for index inclusion 85% of free float-adjusted market capitalization in each industry group in global emerging markets countries. The Fund takes positions in securities and/or financial instruments that, in combination, should have similar daily return characteristics as -100% of the daily return of the MSCI Emerging Markets Index. The MSCI Emerging Markets Index is a price return index. The Fund�� investment advisor is ProShare Advisors LLC. Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Anthony Mirhaydari]

  Editor�� note: This column is part of our Best Stocks for 2014 contest. Anthony Mirhaydari’s pick for the contest is the�ProShares Short MSCI Emerging Markets ETF�(EUM).

Top 10 US Stocks To Own For 2014: Vistaprint NV (VPRT)

Vistaprint N.V., incorporated on June 5, 2009, is an online provider of coordinated portfolios of customized marketing products and services to micro businesses worldwide. The Company offers a range of brand identity and promotional products, marketing services and digital solutions. While the Company focuses on micro business marketing products and services, consumers also purchases its products, such as invitations and announcements, greeting cards, photo books and calendars. Customers visiting the Company's Websites can select the type of product they wish to design from its range of available products and services for the business and home and family markets, including paper based, non-paper based, and digital and marketing services. Paper based products include brochures, business cards, data sheets, desk and wall calendars, envelopes, flyers, folded business cards, folded cards, holiday cards, and invitations and announcements. Its non-paper based products include banners, bottle openers, calculators, car door magnets, decals, drink koozies, embroidered apparel, hats, iphone cases, key chains, lawn signs, letter openers and luggage tags. Its digital and marketing services include blogs, custom Facebook pages, design tools and content, e-mail marketing services and logos.

When a product type has been selected, the customer can initiate the design process by using the Company's predefined industry styles and theme categories, by entering one or more keywords in its image search tool, or by uploading the customer's own design. If the customer chooses to do a keyword search, the Company's automated design logic will, in real time, create and display to the customer a variety of product templates containing images related to the customer's keyword. When the customer chooses a particular template for personalization, the Company's user-friendly, browser-based application enables the customer to quickly and easily perform a wide range of design and editing functions on the selected design,! for example, cropping images or entirely replacing images with other images or uploading customer images or logos.

Once customers choose a pre-designed template or upload their own content for a product, they can instantly see what their design looks like on a range of other Vistaprint products and related services, including signage, Websites and e-mail marketing, business identity, direct mail services, apparel and promotional gifts. Customers who need help with their design or ordering process are able to reach the Company's customer service agents through phone, e-mail, and chat. The Company has six customer service facilities: Montego Bay, Jamaica; Berlin, Germany; the Hague, the Netherlands; Tunis, Tunisia; Sydney, Australia; and Mumbai, India. These centers provide phone, email and chat support for customers who speak English, Dutch, German, French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Polish, Czech, Swedish, Norwegian, Finnish, Danish, Turkish, Japanese and Hindi. Using the Company's design software applications, combined with voice over Internet protocol telephone transmission technology and call center management tools, its agents and designers provide customer service. Customers purchasing products check out either through a standard e-commerce self-service shopping basket or by providing their order and payment information through telephone to one of the Company's service agents.

The Company's design creation technologies enable customers, by themselves or together with the assistance of the Company's design support staff, to design and create marketing materials from their homes or offices. The Company's document model architecture and technology employs Internet-compatible data structures to define, process and store product designs as a set of separately searchable, combinable and modifiable component elements. The Company's auto-matching design software generates customized product designs in real-time based on key-word searches. VistaStudio is the Company's product ! design an! d editing software suite, which is downloaded to its customer's computer from its server and runs in the customer's browser. This browser-based software provides real-time client-side editing capabilities. A range of layouts, color schemes and fonts are provided and a selection of photographs and illustrations are available for use by customers in product design. Customers can also upload their own images and logos for incorporation into their product designs. The Company's Internet-based, remote, real-time, co-creativity and project management application and database enables customers and the Company's design agents to design a product across the Internet in real-time, while engaging in voice communication.

Albumprinter Downloadable and Online Editors enable the creation of a range of photo products, such as calendars, canvas prints, and greeting cards through an intuitive user interface. These editors allow the Company's customers the choice of creating their personalized products on their own computer or utilizing their preferred browser and enable functionality, such as auto generated layouts, creation of content, and font selection. Features available to the Company's customers include adding personal images, maps, electronic payment processing, downloadable files and contact forms. Pagemodo offers small businesses to create a professional looking custom Facebook page. Pagemodo allows customers to select from a range of templates to create custom tabs for their Fanpage, including welcome tabs, lead capture tabs and video tabs. Pagemodo also offers a template driven cover image designer, which lets customers create cover images for their Facebook pages through a simple click and edit interface.

The Company's pre-production and production technologies process and aggregate customer orders, prepare orders for high-quality production and manage production, addressing and shipment of these orders. DrawDocs is the Company's automated pre-printing press technology that prepares ! customer ! documents received over the Internet for high-resolution printing. The Company's VistaBridge technology allows the Company to store and process. The Company's aggregation software scans these pending jobs and analyzes a range of production characteristics, including quantity, type and format of raw material, color versus black and white, single or double-sided print, delivery date, shipping location, type of production system being used and type of product. For printed products, the VistaBridge software then automatically aggregates orders with similar production characteristics from multiple customers into a single document image that is transferred to either a digital press or to an automated plating system that produces offset printing plates. Viper is the Company's workflow and production management software for tracking and managing its global production facilities on a networked basis. Viper monitors and manages bar-code driven production batch and order management, pick and pack operations, and addressing and shipping of orders.

The Company uses its marketing technologies to generate and display additional products incorporating the customer's initial designs, facilitating the cross-sale of related products and services. VistaMatch Software generates and displays one or more additional customized product designs based upon a customer's existing design. Design elements and customer information are automatically transferred to the additional design.

Automated Cross-Sell and Up-Sell technology permits the Company to show a customer, while the customer is in the process of purchasing a product, marketing offers for one or more additional or related products. Localization/Language Map is the Company's content management system that permits all of its localized Websites, and the changes to those Websites, to be managed by the same software engine. Text and image components of the Company's Web pages are separated, translated and stored in its managed content database.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Geoff Gannon] f="http://www.gurufocus.com/news/161732/glenn-greenbergs-new-buys-growth-stocks-for-value-investors">your article on Glenn Greenberg.

  I didn't realize that you also look at this type of company.

  Looking through some investor presentations, I�� not really convinced that they can maintain current growth rates of 20%.

  Their production facilities are all based in high cost developed nations.

  Why could this not be copied in Asia?

  I just don't see the moat.

  Current valuation assumes double digit performance for several years, one small dip and the stock dives, no margin of safety here...

  Regards,

  Rijk

  You bring up an interesting point about cost. But I�� not sure how much a small price differential matters to customers in this kind of business. I would have to look into that. Any logistical problems would lose you a customer. Also, that assumes the lowest labor costs lead to the lowest production costs ��I�� not sure that�� true in the printing industry.

  I��e had business cards printed. And screwed up (not by Vistaprint). As long as the price was reasonable, I would��e gone with ��he best�� And I would��e had no way to know who ��he best��was other than the most recognized name. Actually, I remember that being the problem when I needed some business cards, company stationary, etc., printed. I had to visit a couple websites. Look at them. Try to guess which was the best. Or at least decent. It was like getting a plumber or something. I had very little ability to separate the good guys from the bad guys. I wasn�� spending time thinking about price ��many printers had prices that seemed awfully similar to me. Instead I was just overwhelmed how frustratingly identical all the choices were.

  I had no way to make an informed decision.

  I can certainly imagine ways of saving money. But I really doubt labor is a good place to try to find those savings. Small orders to small custome

• [By Jon C. Ogg]

  Vistaprint N.V. (NASDAQ: VPRT) was started with an Underweight rating and a $48 price target (versus $54.21 close) at Barclays.

  Friday’s analyst upgrades had many more names than the downgrades.

• [By John Udovich]

  Printing and the various forms of marketing communications that need to be printed (like business cards and stationary) are fundamental to the needs of every business, meaning the recent share surge of small cap Standard Register Co (NYSE: SR) after it announced an acquisition along with its long-term performance against better known peers like RR Donnelley & Sons Co (NASDAQ: RRD) and VistaPrint Limited (NASDAQ: VPRT) is worth taking a closer look at. After all, Standard Register is up 363.2% since the start of the year verses a return of 113.4% for RR Donnelley & Sons Co and�75.9% for VistaPrint Limited.

• [By Anna Prior]

  VistaPrint NV(VPRT) agreed to acquire most of e-commerce printing firm Pixartprinting SRL for roughly EUR127 million ($175 million), expanding the breadth of the online printing-services provider’s range of product offerings.

Top 10 US Stocks To Own For 2014: Robogroup TEK Ltd (ROBO)

RoboGroup T.E.K Ltd. is a global, diversified enterprise with proprietary technologies on the forefront of robotics, motion control and technology education. RoboGroup's activities are organized in two related business operations: Yaskawa Eshed Technology (YET) and Intelitek.

YET, a joint venture with Japan's Yaskawa Electric Corp., which provides industrial motion controls, particularly those based on its algorithms. Intelitek, which develops, manufactures and markets training products and e-learning systems. Intelitek�� broad educational product line covers subjects such as computer-aided design, computer-aided manufacturing, configurable network computing, robotics, machine vision, hydraulics, pneumatics, sensors, process control and data acquisition. Intelitek also designs and produces integrated and customized manufacturing workcells, ranging from small-scale flexible manufacturing systems to complete computer integrated manufacturing systems.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Matt Krantz]

  Another way for investors to play the robotics industry is a new exchange traded fund, Robo-Stox Robotics & Automation (symbol: ROBO). The ETF owns a basket of robotics and automation stocks. One major caution, though, is that not all the stocks in the ETF are those investors traditionally think of when it comes to robotics. The largest weighting is in 3D Systems, a maker of a 3D printer, and Faro Technologies, which makes measurement devices. But none of the stocks in the ETF account for more than 4% of the total value, so the diversification helps give investors a way to play the speculative industry.

Top 10 US Stocks To Own For 2014: Konsortium Transnasional Bhd (KTB)

Konsortium Transnasional Berhad (KTB) is principally involved in investment holding. The Company, along with its subsidiaries, is engaged in the provision of public bus transportation comprising stage and express bus operations within Peninsular Malaysia. The Company operates in two segments: public transportation services, which is engaged in the provision of stage and express bus services across Peninsular Malaysia, and trading of vehicles, which through its subsidiary, PT Indonadi, is involved in the activity of trading of buses in Indonesia. The public transportation services segment includes revenue from the rental and charter of buses to third parties. Some of its wholly owned subsidiaries include Syarikat Kenderaan Melayu Kelantan Berhad, Syarikat Tanjung Keramat Temerloh Omnibus Berhad, Kenderaan Langkasuka Sdn. Bhd., Kenderaan Klang Banting Berhad, Kenderaan Labu Sendayan Sdn. Bhd., Starise Sdn. Bhd. and Syarikat Rembau Tampin Sdn. Bhd. Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Anuchit Nguyen]

  The SET Index, which rose 328 percent from October 2008 to this year�� high on May 21, has since dropped 13 percent through yesterday as shares of Krung Thai Bank Pcl (KTB) and billionaire Dhanin Chearavanont�� CP All Pcl (CPALL) tumbled. Stock swings in Thailand have almost tripled in the past six months while trading volumes fell 52 percent, the most among 45 emerging and developed markets.