Hot Companies To Watch For 2014

Thanks to a recent court ruling, earnings for green-energy utilities may soon be on the rise.

In late August, a major obstruction to greater sales of renewable energy was lifted when a court upheld an order issued by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC).

The rule–known as Order 1000–mandates states and utilities to consider regional green-energy policies when building out the electrical grid network.

We see the recent court ruling as part of a continuing trend of state and federal regulation that favors those utilities that are investing in clean technologies and developing new business strategies for the changing energy landscape.

This is also clearly good news for the renewables industry in general, especially since more markets–both regulated and unregulated–will be more fully open to renewables.

The ruling not only calls for the expansion of the electrical grid superhighway, but will build off-ramps into regulated markets, which means potentially new renewables customers in those states.

Top 5 Machinery Stocks To Watch For 2015: Cray Inc(CRAY)

Cray Inc. engages in the design, development, manufacture, marketing, and service of high-performance computing (HPC) systems, known as supercomputers. Its product line includes Cray XE6 system, a massively parallel processing system; Cray XE6m supercomputer that incorporates its Cray Gemini network; Cray XMT supercomputer, a scalable massively multithreaded platform with a shared memory architecture that is suited for tasks, such as pattern matching, complex searches, scenario development, behavioral prediction, anomaly identification, and graph analysis; and Cray CX1 and CX1000 systems that are purpose-built for laboratories and university departments. The company?s products under development comprise Cray XE6 System enhancements; and next generation Cray XMT System. It also offers engineering services related to HPC systems and solutions, such as maintenance support services and technology-led professional services. Cray Inc. provides its products and services to gover nment agencies, academic institutions, and commercial entities in the United States, Canada, Europe, Japan, and the Asia-Pacific. The company was formerly known as Tera Computer Company and changed its name to Cray Inc. in 2000. Cray Inc. was founded in 1987 and is headquartered Seattle, Washington.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Jonathan Fishman]

  2. Their new product, the ClusterStor, will grow at the rate of 24%-53% a year according to the expectations of Cray (CRAY), a reseller of the ClusterStor.

• [By Alex Planes]

  What: Shares of Cray (NASDAQ: CRAY  ) have fallen by over 13% today after the company reported earnings that, in spite of narrowly beating analyst expectations, still showed a tremendous decline that may well have spooked some short-term investors.

Hot Companies To Watch For 2014: Blucora Inc (BCOR)

Blucora, Inc., formerly InfoSpace, Inc., is a provider of online solutions for consumers and business partners. The Company owns and operates two Internet businesses. Through its InfoSpace business, the Company provides online search and monetization solutions to a network of more than 100 global partners. Through TaxACT, The Company provides online tax preparation solutions to consumers and professional preparers. The Company's search business consists primarily of a business to business offering that provides its search technology, aggregated content and services to its distribution partners. The search business also offers search services directly to consumers through its own Internet search properties. On June 22, 2011, InfoSpace sold its Mercantila e-commerce business to Zoo Stores, Inc. On January 31, 2012, InfoSpace acquired TaxACT Holdings, Inc. and its subsidiary, 2nd Story Software, Inc. In August 2013, the Company announced that it has completed the acquisition of Monoprice.

InfoSpace primarily offers search services through the Web properties of its distribution partners, which are generally private-labeled and customized to address the requirements of each distribution partner. The search business also distributes aggregated search content through its own Websites, such as Dogpile.com and WebCrawler.com. The Search segment consists of the Company�� search services operations and the Tax Preparation segment is the TaxACT business. The Company�� revenues are generated primarily from its Web search services. The Company�� metasearch technology offers users a search experience, which combines the results of several search engine content providers, including Google, Yahoo!, and Bing, among others, and aggregates, filters, and prioritizes the results. This combination provides a more relevant search results page and leverages the investments made by its Search Customers to continually improve the user experience. Partner versions of its Web offerings are private-labeled and d! elivered with each distribution partner�� requirements.

The Tax Preparation segment generates its revenue through three primary methods: the sale of state and upgraded federal income tax preparation software and online services to consumers, the sale of ancillary services to any user, paid or not, and the sale of its professional edition income tax preparation software to professional tax preparers. The ancillary services include, among other things, additional support, data archiving, a deferred payment option, and a bank card product.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Canadian Value]

  Position % of Fund Assets 1) First American Financial Corp. (FAF) 7.0% 2) Apple, Inc. (AAPL) 6.5% 3) Coinstar, Inc. (CSTR) 4.8% 4) EMC Corp. (EMC) 4.4% 5) Coach, Inc. (COH) 4.4% 6) Kohl's Corp. (KSS) 4.1% 7) Blucora, Inc. (BCOR) 4.0% 8) Tetra Tech, Inc. (TTEK) 3.1% 9) OM Group, Inc. (OMG) 3.0% 10) American International Group, Inc. (AIG) 2.8% TOTAL 44.1% One area that we believe still offers some value in the market is in high quality, large��ap technology stocks that may be momentarily out��f��avor as they transition from rapid growth to slower growth. In particular, we become interested when that transition is also accompanied by a change in capital allocation policies designed to return more cash to shareholders in the form of dividends and share repurchases. We believe that Apple and EMC are two of the absolute highest quality technology businesses in the world and both have recently announced very material, shareholder��friendly changes to how they will allocate capital.

Hot Companies To Watch For 2014: Market Vectors Russia ETF (RSX)

Market Vectors-Russia ETF (the Fund) seeks to replicate as closely as possible the price and yield performance of the DAXglobal Russia+ Index (the Russia+ Index). The Russia+ Index includes a basket of securities of 30 of the most heavily traded Russian companies that have listings on global exchanges, either through an American depository receipt (ADR), a global depository receipt (GDR) or local Russian shares. The Russia+ Index, which was launched in March 2007, is a modified market capitalization-weighted index designed to track the movements of certain depository receipts (DRs) and stocks of publicly traded companies that are domiciled in Russia, and traded in Russia and on global exchanges. The Russia+ Index consists of companies with market capitalization greater than $150 million that have a daily average traded volume of at least $1 million over the past six months. The Russia+ Index includes energy companies, such as Lukoil, OAO Gazprom and Surgutneftgaz; utility company, Unified Energy Systems; steel manufacturing firms, such as Mechel OAO and Evraz Group SA; mining firm, JSC MMC Norilsk Nickel; communications firms, such as Mobile TeleSystems OJSC and Vimpel-Communications, and Sberbank.

The Fund will normally invest at least 80% of its total assets in stocks and depositary receipts (DRs) of publicly traded companies that are domiciled in Russia. Publicly traded companies that are domiciled in Russia means companies organized in, or for which the principal trading market is in Russia; companies that, alone or on a consolidated basis, have 50% or more of their assets invested in Russia, or companies that alone or on a consolidated basis derive 50% or more of their revenues primarily from either goods produced, sales made or services performed in Russia. The Fund, utilizing a passive or indexing investment approach, attempts to approximate the investment performance of the Russia+ Index by investing in a portfolio of securities that generally replicate the Russia+ Index. The Fund! will hold all of the securities that comprise the Russia+ Index in proportion to their weightings in the Russia+ Index. The Fund will normally invest at least 95% of its total assets in securities that comprise the Russia+ Index. The Russia+ Index is calculated and maintained by the Deutsche Borse (the Index Provider).

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Steven Russolillo]

  The Market Vectors Russia ETF Trust(RSX) (ticker symbol RSX) dropped 9% to $22.25, on more than three times its average daily trading volume, according to FactSet.

• [By Louis Navellier]

  It is surreal to see how depressed Russian shares are, in general. They are still underwater since 2007, as measured by the Market Vectors Russia ETF (RSX) ��charted above vs. the S&P 500 ETF (SPY). The Russian economy has grown significantly since then, and so have the earnings and revenues of the mainstream Russian companies.

• [By Jeff Reeves]

  This pick is even riskier than China, so your best bet is the diversified Market Vector Russia ETF (RSX).

  But if you want to roll the dice on a risky but high-reward play, consider telecom giant Yandex (YNDX). This company is actually based in the Netherlands, but operates the leading Russian web portal, with search and email services. It�� essentially the Google (GOOG) of Russia.

• [By Charles Sizemore]

  But what exactly are you buying when you buy Russian stocks? Let�� take a look under the hood at the ETFs that track the Russian market: the Market Vectors Russia ETF (RSX), the iShares MSCI Russia Capped Index (ERUS) and the SPDR S&P Russia (RBL).

Hot Companies To Watch For 2014: TRI Pointe Homes Inc (TPH)

Tri Pointe Homes, Inc., formerly TRI Pointe Homes, LLC, incorporated on August 5, 2010, is engaged in the design, construction and sale of single-family homes in planned communities in metropolitan areas located throughout Southern and Northern California. During the year ended December 31, 2012, the Company�� operations consist of 13 communities, eight of which are actively selling, containing 695 lots under various stages of development in Southern and Northern California. In June 2013, TRI Pointe Homes Inc announced that the acquisition of 202 lots in two California locations- Irvine (Orange County) and Vacaville (Solano County).

The Company�� business focused primarily on fee building projects in Southern California, in which it built, marketed and sold homes for independent third-party property owners, marketed under the TRI Pointe Homes brand name. During the year ended December 31, 2012, the Company has sold over 350 homes (including fee building projects).

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Travis Hoium]

  What: Shares of TRI Pointe Homes (NYSE: TPH  ) jumped as much as 15.7% today after announcing the acquisition of Weyerhaeuser's (NYSE: WY  ) residential real estate unit.

• [By Paul Ausick]

  Tri Pointe Homes Inc. (NYSE: TPH) has a market cap of $564.3 million and the stock is down about 5% over the past 12 months. Shares have traded in a 52-week range of $13.43 to $21.25 and closed Friday at $17.51. The consensus price target is $19.60, yielding an implied gain of 12%. Tri Pointe has beaten EPS estimates in each of the past four quarters, and the shares were trading nearly 2% higher early Monday morning. Tri Pointe is expected to post EPS of $0.25 on revenues of $100.04 million when it reports results in late March.

• [By James Fink]

  One small-cap name in the housing sector is TRI Pointe Homes. That's a New York Stock Exchange stock, ticker symbol (TPH). It's controlled by Barry Sternlicht, who's a very wildly successful real estate entrepreneur.

Hot Companies To Watch For 2014: Express Scripts Holding Co (ESRX)

Express Scripts Holding Company, incorporated in 2011, provides healthcare management and administration services on behalf of its clients, which include health maintenance organizations (HMOs), health insurers, third-party administrators, employers, union-sponsored benefit plans, workers compensation plans, and government health programs. The Company operates in two segments: Pharmacy Benefit Management (PBM) and Emerging Markets (EM). PBM services include network claims processing, home delivery services, patient care and direct specialty and fertility home delivery to patients, benefit plan design consultation, drug utilization review, formulary management, drug data analysis services, distribution of injectable drugs to patients homes and physicians offices, bio-pharma services, and fulfillment of prescriptions to low-income patients through manufacturer-sponsored patient assistance programs. EM segment provides distribution of pharmaceuticals and medical supplies to providers and clinics, healthcare account administration and implementation of consumer-directed healthcare solutions. In September 2013, it announced the acquisition of the SmartD Medicare Prescription Drug Plan (PDP).

On July 20, 2011, Express Scripts, Inc. (ESI) entered into a merger agreement (the Merger Agreement) with Medco Health Solutions, Inc. (Medco). During the year ended December 31, 2011, it reorganized its FreedomFP line of business from its EM segment into its PBM segment. On April 2, 2012, the Company completed the Merger Agreement, and after which ESI and Medco became the wholly owned subsidiaries of the Company. The Company�� customers include HMOs, health insurers, third-party administrators, employers, union-sponsored benefit plans, government health programs, office-based oncologists, renal dialysis clinics, ambulatory surgery centers, primary care physicians, retina specialists and others.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Ben Levisohn]

  Express Scripts (ESRX) has fallen 2.7% to $62 in after-hours trading after it reported a profit of $1.08, in line with analyst forecasts, but said the fourth quarter would come in between $109 and $1.13. Analyst had forecast $1.12.

Hot Companies To Watch For 2014: QLogic Corporation(QLGC)

QLogic Corporation engages in the design and supply of storage networking, high performance computing networking, and converged networking infrastructure solutions. It offers various host products, including fiber channel and Internet small computer systems interface (iSCSI) host bus adapters; fiber channel over Ethernet (FCoE) converged network adapters; and intelligent Ethernet adapters. The company also provides network products, which consist of fiber channel switches, including stackable edge switches, bladed switches, virtualized pass-through modules, and high-port count modular-chassis switches; Ethernet pass-through modules; and storage routers for bridging fiber Channel, FCoE, and iSCSI networks, as well as for migrating data between storage devices. In addition, it offers silicon products comprising fiber channel, iSCSI, converged network, and Ethernet controllers. Further, the company involves in the design and development of application-specific integrated circ uits, adapters, and switches based on fiber channel, iSCSI, FCoE, and Ethernet technologies. Its products are used in server, workstation, and storage subsystem solutions that are used by small, medium, and large enterprises with various business data requirements. The company sells its products to original equipment manufacturers and distributors worldwide. QLogic Corporation was founded in 1992 and is headquartered in Aliso Viejo, California.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Monica Gerson]

  QLogic (NASDAQ: QLGC) appointed Tony Carrozza as the senior vice president of worldwide sales. The company also announced its plans to report its FQ1 results after the closing bell on July 24, 2014. QLogic shares declined 0.10% to close at $10.24 yesterday.

• [By Eric Volkman]

  Benck, who will also occupy a seat on the board, had been Emulex's COO since joining the company in 2008. He was appointed its president in 2010. Before Emulex, Benck had served in both capacities at QLogic (NASDAQ: QLGC  ) . Earlier, he worked for 18 years at IBM (NYSE: IBM  ) , where he helped establish the storied tech giant's blade server line.

Hot Companies To Watch For 2014: STARWOOD PROPERTY TRUST INC.(STWD)

Starwood Property Trust, Inc., a real estate investment trust, primarily focuses on originating, investing in, financing, and managing commercial mortgage loans and other commercial real estate debt investments, commercial mortgage-backed securities, and other commercial real estate-related debt investments. It also focuses to invest in commercial properties subject to net leases, residential mortgage loans, and residential mortgage-backed securities. SPT Management, LLC serves as the manager of Starwood Property Trust, Inc. The company qualifies as a real estate investment trust for federal income tax purposes and would not be subject to federal corporate income taxes, if it distributes at least 90% of its taxable income to its stockholders. Starwood Property Trust was founded in 2009 and is headquartered in Greenwich, Connecticut.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Amanda Alix]

  Other companies are currently mulling single-family REIT IPOs, too. Colony recently announced�that it plans to spin off its Colony American Homes, which owns over 9,500 homes with average monthly rents of $1,277. Barry Sternlicht, CEO of commercial mortgage investment REIT Starwood Property Trust (NYSE: STWD  ) has also said that he is seriously considering�spinning off his company's real estate holdings into a single-family REIT within the next few months.