Hot Rising Companies To Buy For 2015

U.S. crude oil supplies fell 600,000 barrels for the week ending May 10, according to an Energy Information Administration report (link opens in PDF) released today. That's a dip of about 0.15%.

While imports remained virtually unchanged from the previous week, a slight increase in refinery input pushed overall supply to 394.9 million barrels. After rising 200,000 barrels the previous week to hit record highs for the second week in a row, this latest news is a welcome downturn in inventories. However, the report notes that inventories continue to remain "well above the upper limit of the average range for this time of year."

Source: eia.gov.

Total motor gasoline inventories increased 2.6 million barrels, pushing supply out of the middle ground�and into the upper half of its seasonally adjusted range. Gasoline demand remains weak, even as pump prices headed higher for the second straight week. The national average hit $3.603 per gallon on May 13, up $0.065 from the previous week but $0.151 below the average last May.

Hot Rising Companies To Buy For 2015: TrueBlue Inc.(TBI)

TrueBlue, Inc. provides temporary blue-collar staffing services in the United States. It supplies on demand general labor to various industries under the Labor Ready brand; skilled labor to manufacturing and logistics industries under the Spartan Staffing brand; and trades people for commercial, industrial, and residential construction, and building and plant maintenance industries under the CLP Resources brand. The company also provides mechanics and technicians to the aviation maintenance, repair and overhaul, aerospace manufacturing, and assembly industries, as well as to other transportation industries under the Plane Techs brand; and temporary drivers to the transportation and distribution industries under the Centerline brand. It primarily serves small and medium-size businesses. The company was formerly known as Labor Ready, Inc. and changed its name to TrueBlue, Inc. in December 2007. TrueBlue, Inc. was founded in 1985 and is headquartered in Tacoma, Washington.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By idahansen]

  The entire demand labor industry should do well as the US Department of Labor just reported that 169,000 more jobs were added to the American economy. The more work there is, the more demand there is for the services of staffing solutions firms such as Labor SMART, Paychex (NASDAQ: PAYX), TrueBlue (NYSE: TBI), and Robert Half International (NYSE: RHI).

• [By Travis Hoium]

  What: Shares of staffing agency TrueBlue (NYSE: TBI  ) jumped 10% today after the company reported earnings.

  So what: Revenue jumped 19%, to $422.3 million, and beat estimates of $420.2 million from Wall Street. Adjusted earnings per share were also up 19%, to $0.31, outpacing estimates by $0.05.�

• [By Jonathan Yates]

  For those looking to invest in real estate stocks, highly recommended is the Dr. Housing Bubble blog. In a recent posting, the "Dr." pointed out that there was a "Lost Generation" when it came to household income. That has not happened for those investing in staffing industry stocks such as Paychex (NASDAQ: PAYX), Robert Half International (NYSE: RHI), TrueBlue, Inc. (NYSE: TBI), and Labor SMART (OTCBB: LTNC).

Hot Rising Companies To Buy For 2015: Mdu Res Group Inc (MDU)

MDU Resources Group, Inc. operates as a diversified natural resource company in the United States. The company�s Electric segment generates, transmits, and distributes electricity in Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Wyoming. As of December 31, 2012, this segment provided its electric services to approximately 131,000 residential, commercial, industrial, and municipal customers in 177 communities and adjacent rural areas. Its Natural Gas Distribution segment distributes natural gas in Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Wyoming, as well as in Idaho, Minnesota, Oregon, and Washington. This segment served approximately 859,000 residential, commercial, and industrial customers in 334 communities and adjacent rural areas. The company�s Pipeline and Energy Services segment provides natural gas transportation, underground storage, processing, and gathering services, as well as oil gathering through regulated and nonregulated pipeline systems primarily in the Rocky Mountain and northern Great Plains regions of the United States. This segment also provides cathodic protection and other energy-related services. Its Exploration and Production segment engages in the acquisition, exploration, development, and production of oil and natural gas in the Rocky Mountain and Mid-Continent regions of the United States and in and around the Gulf of Mexico. The company�s Construction Materials and Contracting segment mines, aggregates, and markets crushed stone, sand, gravel, and related construction materials, including ready-mixed concrete, cement, asphalt, liquid asphalt, and other value-added products. This segment also provides utility excavation services and inside electrical wiring, cabling, and mechanical services; sells and distributes electrical materials; and manufactures and distributes specialty equipment. MDU Resources Group, Inc. was founded in 1924 and is based in Bismarck, North Dakota.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By David Dittman]

  Question: I have been a fan of MDU Resources Inc (NYSE: MDU) because of its many operations including oil and gas, materials, construction, and now refining. Long-term thoughts?

• [By Richard Stavros]

  Created with YCharts

  
  In addition to beating the market since the beginning of the year, diversified energy utilities, such as MDU Resources Group Inc (NYSE: MDU), Dominion Resources Inc (NYSE: D) and Sempra Energy (NYSE: SRE), significantly outperformed pure-play or predominantly all-electric utilities, such as Duke Energy Corp (NYSE: DUK) and Entergy Corp (NYSE: ETR), by as much as several percentage points (See Chart B).
  
  Interestingly, among top performers, there was no dominant strategy for exploiting natural gas demand, as these firms were involved in all aspects of the value chain–from exploration and production to distribution and storage. These companies have not only been benefiting from a natural gas surplus, but also from the pressing need to expand US energy infrastructure to deliver this newfound bounty to businesses and households.
  
  

  Chart B: Diversified Energy Utilities Outperformed Electric-Only Peers

Top Food Stocks To Own Right Now: Bollore SA (BOL)

Bollore SA is a France-based holding company which operates in 110 countries. The Company is active in several divisions: Bollore Africa Logistics, including freight forwarding, stevedoring, shipping lines and railways; Bollore Logistics with a presence in five continents; Bollore Energie which supplies domestic fuel and petroleum products; IER which designs, manufacture and markets terminals for controlling and reading tickets; Plastic Films for condensers, capacitors and packaging; Batteries and Supercapacitors, Electric Vehicles; Autolib��which offers a network of electric car rental; Communication and Media, which launched Digital Terrestial Television (DTT); Plantations because the Company owns oil palm and rubber plantations, through the Socfin Group and Financial Assets. As of September 27, 2012, the Company acquired minority stake in Vivendi SA and sold Direct 8 and Direct Star to Canal Plus SA. In January 2014, it acquired the outstanding 51% stake of LCN. Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Sofia Horta e Costa]

  Rio Tinto Group climbed 2.9 percent after saying it will cost $3 billion less than projected to increase iron ore output capacity. Boliden AB (BOL) added 3.1 percent as Morgan Stanley raised its rating on the stock. Thomas Cook Group Plc (TCG) rose 13 percent after the travel operator posted a 49 percent increase in full-year earnings. British tobacco companies slipped following a report that after a U.K. minister announced the review of cigarette packaging.

Hot Rising Companies To Buy For 2015: Fifth Street Finance Corp (FSC)

Fifth Street Finance Corp. is a specialty finance company that lends to and invests in small and mid-sized companies in connection with investments by private equity sponsors. The Company�� investment objective is to maximize its portfolio's total return by generating current income from its debt investments and capital appreciation from its equity investments. As of September 30, 2011, 90.9% of its portfolio consisted of debt investments that were secured by first or second priority liens on the assets of its portfolio companies. As of September 30, 2011, it held equity investments consisting of common stock, preferred stock or other equity interests in 27 out of 65 portfolio companies. It is managed and advised by Fifth Street Management LLC. In June 2013, Fifth Street Finance Corp. announced that it has closed its portfolio company acquisition of Healthcare Finance Group, LLC (HFG).

Investments

The Company tailors the terms of its debt investments to the facts and circumstances of the transaction and prospective portfolio company. As of September 30, 2011, it directly originated a majority of its debt investments. It is focusing its origination efforts on first lien, second lien and subordinated loans. Its first lien loans have terms of four to six years, provide for a variable or fixed interest rate, contain prepayment penalties and are secured by a first priority security interest in all existing and future assets of the borrower. Its first lien loans may take many forms, including revolving lines of credit, term loans and acquisition lines of credit. Its second lien loans have terms of four to six years, provide for a fixed interest rate, contain prepayment penalties and are secured by a second priority security interest in all existing and future assets of the borrower. Its second lien loans often include payment-in-kind (PIK), interest, which represents contractual interest accrued and added to the principal that generally becomes due at maturity. Its unsecured inve! stments have terms of five to six years and provide for a fixed interest rate. It may make unsecured investments on a stand-alone basis, or in connection with a senior secured loan, a junior secured loan or a one-stop financing. Its unsecured investments may include payment-in-kind (PIK), interest, which represents contractual interest accrued and added to the principal that becomes due at maturity, and an equity component, such as warrants to purchase common stock in the portfolio company.

In addition, the Company from time to time non-control, equity co-investments in connection with private equity sponsors. It structures equity investments, such as direct equity co-investments, to provide the Company with minority rights provisions and event-driven put rights. The Company make investments in the private equity funds of certain of its equity sponsors. It makes these investments where it has a long term relationship and is comfortable with the sponsor�� business model and investment strategy. As of September 30, 2011, it had investments in six private equity funds, which represented less than 1% of the fair value of its assets as of such date.

Portfolio Management

As a business development company, the Company offers managerial assistance to its portfolio companies and to provide it if requested. It monitors the financial trends of each portfolio company to assess the appropriate course of action for each company and to evaluate overall portfolio quality. It has several methods of evaluating and monitoring the performance of its investments, which includes review of monthly and quarterly financial statements and financial projections for portfolio companies; periodic and regular contact with portfolio company management; attendance at board meetings; periodic formal update interviews with portfolio company management, and assessment of business development, including product development, profitability and the portfolio company�� overall adherence to its busine! ss plan.

In addition to various risk management and monitoring tools, the Company uses an investment rating system to characterize and monitor the credit profile and expected level of returns on each investment in itd portfolio. It uses a five-level numeric rating scale. In the event that it determines that an investment is underperforming, or circumstances suggest that the risk associated with a particular investment has significantly increased, it monitors the effected portfolio company.

Valuation of Portfolio Investments

As a business development company, the Company invests in illiquid securities, including debt and equity investments of small and mid-sized companies. The Company perform valuations of its debt and equity investments on an individual basis, using market, income, and bond yield approaches as appropriate. Under the market approach, it estimates the enterprise value of the portfolio companies, in which it invests. To estimate the enterprise value of a portfolio company, it analyze various factors, including the portfolio company�� historical and projected financial results. It requires portfolio companies to provide annual audited and quarterly and monthly unaudited financial statements, as well as annual projections for the upcoming fiscal year.

Under the income approach, the Company prepares and analyze discounted cash flow models based on projections of the future free cash flows of the business. Under the bond yield approach, it uses bond yield models to determine the present value of the future cash flow streams of its debt investments. It reviews various sources of transactional data, including private mergers and acquisitions involving debt investments with similar characteristics, and assess the information in the valuation process.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Matthew Frankel]

  Fifth Street Finance Corp. (NASDAQ: FSC  ) is a business development company (BDC) that mainly lends to and invests in small and medium-sized companies. Despite its diversity, stable monthly dividend payments, and excellent yield, shares are actually trading at very nice discount.

• [By Dan Caplinger]

  But one concern is that investors are paying too much for BDCs. Like Ares, peers Prospect Capital (NASDAQ: PSEC  ) and Fifth Street Finance (NASDAQ: FSC  ) also carry share prices that are higher than the net value of the assets on their books. Yet Ares trades at a substantially higher premiums to NAV than Prospect or Fifth Street, suggesting that they're more comfortable with the quality of Ares' assets compared to its rivals.

• [By Amanda Alix]

  With higher interest rates in the air, some of these companies point out that they have taken steps to plan for just such an occurrence. Fifth Street Finance (NASDAQ: FSC  ) , in its June newsletter, tells its investors that its portfolio stands to gain from an upswing in short-term rates, since the loans they make tend to be of the floating rate variety, and the company's borrowing costs are fixed.

Hot Rising Companies To Buy For 2015: Argo Group International Holdings Ltd.(AGII)

Argo Group International Holdings, Ltd. underwrites specialty insurance and reinsurance products in the property and casualty market worldwide. The company?s Excess and Surplus Lines segment underwrites casualty, property, transportation, and binding authority for commercial enterprises, including restaurants, contractors, day care centers, apartment complexes, condominium associations, manufacturers, and distributors; and offers policies for medical facilities within the social services, miscellaneous healthcare, and long term care markets, as well as for lawyers, miscellaneous professions, employment practices, and real estate related accounts. This segment also provides package policies for environmental consultants and contractors, storage tanks, dry cleaners pollution liability, as well as other environmental related liability exposures; and coverage for architects and engineers, accountants, and insurance agents. Its Commercial Specialty segment offers property casu alty and surety coverages; and underwrites business coverage for small commercial businesses comprising office, retail operations, light manufacturing, services, and restaurants. This segment also provides general and automobile liability, automobile physical damage, property, inland marine, crime, public official?s and educator?s legal liability, employment practices, law enforcement liability, environmental and lawyers professional liability, student accident, police and firefighters accident, workers compensation, inmate medical, and tax interruption coverages. In addition, the company?s International Specialty segment covers claims arising from catastrophic events, such as hurricanes, windstorms, hailstorms, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, fires, industrial explosions, freezes, riots, floods, and other man-made or natural disasters. Further, its Syndicate 1200 segment underwrites property and non-U.S. liability insurance. The company was founded in 1986 and is based in Pembroke, Bermuda.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By CRWE]

  Argo Group International Holdings, Ltd. (Nasdaq:AGII), an international underwriter of specialty insurance and reinsurance products, reported that its board of directors has declared a quarterly cash dividend of 12 cents per share on the company’s common stock.

Hot Rising Companies To Buy For 2015: Canadian Mining Co Inc (CNG)

Canadian Mining Company Inc. (Canadian Mining) is engaged in the evaluation, acquisition, exploration, development and operation of mineral properties in British Columbia, Arizona, the United States and Sonora, Mexico. The Company�� projects include Bullard Pass Property, and Raquel 3 Concession. During the fiscal year ended June 30, 2012 (fiscal 2012), the Company had interests in two mineral properties located in British Columbia: Sun Group and Bromley Creek. In British Columbia, the Company�� principal property interest is its Bromley Creek zeolite project, which consists of a total of one mineral lease and six mineral claims. The Company has contiguous claim, number 305975, located in the Similkameen Mining District of British Columbia. The total claim area includes 843.468 hectares. During fiscal 2012, Canadian Mining completed phase one of a drilling program in Bullard Pass Gold Property. Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Tyler Laundon]

  It has a vision of building America's Natural Gas Highway. The project consists of a compressed natural gas (CNG) and liquefied natural gas (LNG) fuel-station network connecting 48 states.

Hot Rising Companies To Buy For 2015: SunCoke Energy Inc (SXC)

SunCoke Energy, Inc. (SunCoke), incorporated on December 8, 2010, is an independent producer of coke, a principal raw material in the integrated steelmaking process. The Company has United States cokemaking operations in Virginia, Indiana, Ohio and Illinois. Outside the United States, SunCoke has cokemaking operations in Vitoria, Brazil and Odisha, India. The Company�� coal mining operations, which have more than 110 million tons of proven and probable reserves, are located in Virginia and West Virginia. In January 2012, SunCoke Energy, Inc. was spun off from Sunoco, Inc.

The Company has designed, developed and built, and owned and operated five cokemaking facilities in the United States (U.S.) and designed and operate one cokemaking facility in Brazil under licensing and operating agreements on behalf of its customer. The cokemaking facility operated in Brazil has cokemaking capacity of approximately 1.7 million tons of coke per year. As of December 31, 2012, its mining area consisted of 13 active underground mines and two active surface and highwall mine in Russell and Buchanan Counties in Virginia and McDowell County, West Virginia. As of December 31, 2012, the Company�� coal mining production was 1.5 million ton.

As of December 31, 2012, the Company owned approximately 66 acres in Vansant (Buchanan County), Virginia, on which the Jewell coke making facility is located, along with an additional 2,550 acres. As of December 31, 2012, the Company owned approximately 250 acres in Russell County, Virginia owned by the HKCC Companies. As of December 31, 2012, the Company owned approximately 400 acres in Franklin Furnace (Scioto County), Ohio. As of December 31, 2012, the Company owned approximately 41 acres in Granite City (Madison County), Illinois, adjacent to the U.S. Steel Granite City Works facility. As of December 31, 2012, the Company owned approximately 250 acres in Middletown (Butler County), Ohio near AK Steel�� Middletown Works facility. The Company leas! ed approximately 88 acres of land located in East Chicago (Lake County), Indiana. As of December 31, 2012, the Company leased approximately 22 acres of land located in Buchanan County, Virginia The Company owns and operates coal mining operations in Virginia and West Virginia that sold approximately 1.3 million tons of metallurgical coal (including internal sales to its cokemaking operations) and 0.2 million tons of thermal coal in 2012. During the year ended December 31, 2012, 69% of the coal the Company sold was used at its Jewell cokemaking facility and 8% was used at its other domestic cokemaking facilities. In addition, through its Jewell coal affiliates and the HKCC Companies, the Company lease small parcels of land, mineral rights and coal mining rights for approximately 127 thousand acres of land in Buchanan and Russell Counties, Virginia and McDowell County, West Virginia.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Ben Levisohn]

  Buy restructuring stories, including Buy-rated [SunCoke Energy (SXC)]. We see high potential that SXC drops down coke-making assets from the parent to its MLP in 1Q2014, as suggested by management commentary.

• [By Ben Levisohn]

  Mehta and Joshi also maintained their Sell rating on Arch Coal (ACI) and see the most upside in Buy-rates SunCoke Energy (SXC), which they see hitting $26, and Peabody Energy (BTU), which could hit $21.

Hot Rising Companies To Buy For 2015: USmart Mobile Device Inc (UMDI)

USmart Mobile Device Inc., formerly ACL Semiconductors Inc., incorporated on September 17, 2002, the Company is engaged primarily in the business of distributing memory products under the Samsung brand name, which consists of Dynamic Random Access Memory (DRAM), Graphic Random Access Memory (Graphic RAM) and Flash for the Hong Kong and Southern China markets. The primary products the Company distributes and sells include Synchronous Dynamic Random Access Memory (SDRAMs), DDRs (DDR1, DDR2 and DDR3), Flash memory, Graphic RAM and LCD panels. In September 2012, the Company acquired Jussey Investments Limited.

Synchronous Dynamic Random Access Memory (SDRAMs), or mobile SDRAM, are used semiconductor memory component in computer peripherals, such as Hard Disk Drives (HDD), Digital Still Camera (DSC), Modems, ADSL Applications, DVD player, Set-top Box (STB), Digital TV, High Definition TV (HDTV) and Portable Multimedia Players (PMP). DDRs (DDR1, DDR2 and DDR3) are random access memory components that transfer data on both 0-1 and 1-0 clock transitions, theoretically yielding twice the data transfer rate of normal RAM or SDRAM.

Flash memory is a specialized type of memory component used to store user data and program code; it retains this information even when the power is off. Although Flash is predominantly used in mobile phones and tablets, it is commonly used in multi-media digital storage applications for products, such as moving picture experts group layer-3 audio (MP3) players, digital still camera DSC, Digital Voice Recorders, universal serial bus (USB) Disks and Flash Cards. Graphic RAM is a special purpose DDR (GDDR1, GDDR2, GDDR3, GDDR4) that is used in graphic products which require high-speed 3-dimensional calculation performance and a memory size to be used as data storage buffer for digital versatile disc (DVD) and computer game displays. LCD panels are a component in consumer electronics, such as LCD TVs, tablets, smartphones, notebooks, digital phone frames and por! table game consoles.

The Company competes with Toshiba, Hynix, Nanya, PSC, Promos, ISSI and ESMT.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Peter Graham]

  Last Friday, small cap stocks MedCAREERS Group Inc (OTCMKTS: MCGI), USmart Mobile Device Inc (OTCMKTS: UMDI) and Drinks Americas Holdings, Ltd (OTCMKTS: DKAM) were all over the place with the first two sinking 54% and 48.05%, respectively, while the last one rose 10.81%. It should be mentioned that all three small cap stocks have been the subject of paid promotions albeit none of these stocks have been over promoted. So where can investors and traders expect these stocks to head this week? Here is a quick look at what you might expect: