Hot US Stocks To Watch Right Now

LONDON -- The shares of�Carpetright� (LSE: CPR  ) rose 2.4% to 265 pence in early afternoon trading yesterday after the FTSE 250 mid cap revealed like-for-like U.K. sales had jumped 5.6%.

Carpetright, the biggest seller of carpets and floor coverings in Britain, met market expectations by confirming gross margins were likely to improve by 0.2% this year.

The company's performance in the rest of Europe was less impressive, however, with total sales declining 10.2%, mostly due to "deteriorating economic conditions" in the Netherlands.

After suffering a disastrous blow to margins following the housing crisis, Carpetright said it would continue its plans to refurbish its U.K. stores, increase its product range, and focus on digital media marketing.

Chief executive Darren Shapland commented:

Hot US Stocks To Watch Right Now: Monarch Cement Co(MCEM.OB)

The Monarch Cement Company, together with its subsidiaries, engages in the manufacture and sale of portland cement under the MONARCH brand name. It also offers ready-mixed concrete, concrete products, and sundry building materials that are used in residential, commercial, and governmental construction. The company sells its products primarily to contractors, ready-mixed concrete plants, concrete products plants, building materials dealers, and governmental agencies in Kansas, Iowa, Nebraska, Missouri, Arkansas, and Oklahoma. The Monarch Cement Company was founded in 1908 and is based in Humboldt, Kansas.

Hot US Stocks To Watch Right Now: Automatic Data Processing Inc.(ADP)

Automatic Data Processing, Inc. provides technology-based outsourcing solutions to employers, and vehicle retailers and manufacturers worldwide. It operates in three segments: Employer Services, Professional Employer Organization Services, and Dealer Services. The Employer Services segment offers a range of human resource (HR)information, payroll processing, and tax and benefits administration solutions and services, including traditional and Web-based outsourcing solutions. Its solutions enable employers to staff, manage, pay, and retain their employees. The Professional Employer Organization Services segment provides employment administration outsourcing solutions, including payroll, payroll tax filing, HR guidance, 401(k) plan administration, benefits administration, compliance services, health and workers? compensation coverage, and other supplemental benefits for employees. The Dealer Services segment offers integrated dealer management systems (DMS) and other busines s management solutions to automotive, truck, motorcycle, marine, recreational vehicle, and heavy machinery retailers. This segment also provides a suite of additional integrated applications to address department and functional area of the dealership, including customer relationship management applications, front-end sales and marketing/advertising solutions, and an IP Telephony phone system integrated into the DMS to help dealerships drive sales processes and business development initiatives, as well as offers computer hardware, hardware maintenance services, software support, system design, and network consulting services. In addition, it designs, establishes, and maintains communications networks for its dealership clients that allow interactive communications among various site locations, as well as links between franchised dealers and their vehicle manufacturer franchisors. The company was founded in 1949 and is headquartered in Roseland, New Jersey.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Lowell]

  ADP offers a range of human resource (HR), payroll, tax and benefits administration solutions to its clients in United States, Canada, Europe, South America (primarily Brazil), Australia and Asia. As of June 30, 2010, the company had 520,000 clients listed for its employer based services such as processing the payroll for their employees. Payroll services include the preparation of client employee paychecks, electronic direct deposits and stored value payroll cards, along with employee pay statements, supporting journals, summaries and management reports.

  The company's stock is trading at a price to earnings ratio of 22 which is slightly above average. The stock has a 2.83% dividend yield and a market capitalization of $22.3 billion. The intriguing factors are that the company has $1.3 billion in Cash while only $35 million in long term debt, making the Balance sheet rock. If we calculate the dividend payout ratio, the company pays 36 cents a quarter in dividends x 4 = $1.44 per share. If we divide this number by earnings per share, $1.44 / $2.32, the payout ratio equals 62% which is very good.

Top Electric Utility Companies To Own For 2014: Real Goods Solar Inc.(RSOL)

Real Goods Solar, Inc. operates as a residential and commercial solar energy integrator primarily in California and Colorado. The company provides engineering, procurement, and construction services. It offers various turnkey solar energy services, including design, procurement, permitting, build-out, grid connection, financing referrals, and warranty and customer satisfaction services. The company installs residential and small commercial systems that range between 3 kilowatts and 1 megawatt output. It also engages in the retail sale of renewable energy products. The company was founded in 1978 and is based in Louisville, Colorado.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Matthews]

  Real Goods Solar, Inc.(NASDAQ: RSOL) closing price in the stock market Tuesday, Jan. 3, was $1.50. RSOL is trading 8.97% above its 50 day moving average and -25.21% below its 200 day moving average. RSOL is -50.98% below its 52-week high of $3.06 and 51.52% above its 52-week low of $0.99. RSOL‘s PE ratio is N/A and its market cap is $26.93M.

  Real Goods Solar, Inc. operates as a residential and commercial solar energy integrator primarily in California and Colorado.

Hot US Stocks To Watch Right Now: Mohawk Industries Inc. (MHK)

Mohawk Industries, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, engages in the production and sale of floor covering products for residential and commercial applications primarily in the United States and Europe. The company operates through three segments: Mohawk, Dal-Tile, and Unilin. The Mohawk segment designs, manufactures, sources, distributes, and markets floor covering product lines, which include carpets, ceramic tiles, laminates, rugs, carpet pads, hardwood, and resilient. This segment offers its products under the brand names of Mohawk, Aladdin, Mohawk ColorCenters, Mohawk Floorscapes, Portico, Mohawk Home, Bigelow, Durkan, Horizon, Karastan, Lees, and Merit. In addition, this segment markets and distributes its soft and hard surface products through independent floor covering retailers, home centers, mass merchandisers, department stores, commercial dealers, and commercial end users, as well as through private labeling programs. The Dal-Tile segment designs, manufactur es, sources, distributes, and markets a line of ceramic tile, porcelain tile, and natural stone products. This segment offers its products primarily under the Dal-Tile and American Olean brand names through company-owned service centers, independent distributors, home center retailers, tile and flooring retailers, and contractors. The Unilin segment offers laminate and hardwood flooring under the brand names of Quick-Step, Columbia Flooring, Century Flooring, and Universal Flooring through retailers, independent distributors, and home centers. This segment also produces roofing systems, insulation panels, and other wood products. Mohawk Industries, Inc. was founded in 1988 and is headquartered in Calhoun, Georgia.

Hot US Stocks To Watch Right Now: Oracle Corporation(ORCL)

Oracle Corporation, an enterprise software company, develops, manufactures, markets, distributes, and services database and middleware software, applications software, and hardware systems worldwide. It licenses of database and middleware software, including database management software, application server software, service-oriented architecture and business process management software, data integration software, business intelligence software, identity and access management software, content management software, portals and user interaction software, development tools, and Java; and applications software comprising enterprise resource planning, customer relationship management, enterprise performance management, supply chain management, business intelligence applications, enterprise portfolio project management, Web commerce, and industry-specific applications software. The company also offers customers with rights to unspecified software product upgrades and maintenance releases; Internet access to technical content; and Internet and telephone access to technical support personnel. In addition, its hardware systems products consist of computer server and hardware-related software, including the Oracle Solaris Operating System; and storage products, such as tape, disk and networking solutions for open systems and mainframe server environments. Its hardware systems support solutions include software updates for the software components. Further, the company offers consulting solutions in business and IT strategy alignment, enterprise architecture planning and design, initial product implementation and integration, and ongoing product enhancements and upgrades; cloud services, including Oracle Cloud Services and Advanced Customer Services; and education solutions comprising instructor-led, media-based, and Internet-based training in the use of its software and hardware products. The company was founded in 1977 and is headquartered in Redwood Ci ty, California.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Bill]  

  Larry Ellison has created a winner in Oracle. This stock has great numbers, cash on hand, and upbeat expectations. All the above are things I like.

• [By Fabian]

  Oracle. This software service giant, which deals in a slew of databases, applications, product support, and other services, has also made some smart acquisitions, Resendes says. "The companies they've acquired--PeopleSoft, BEA, and Seibold--really round out the product line." What's more, Oracle's database business has been steadily gaining market share, he says, which is "a positive sign because they're starting to eat up competitors." Oracle's stock, recently $18, is trading slightly below what it was a year ago. Resendes thinks that share price could rise 25 percent.

• [By Goodwin]

  Oracle (ORCL), a software enterprise company, is the only Overweight-rated company in this market segment. With the introduction of a new Exadata product line, Oracle is set to enjoy a positive secular trend. Its current market price of $29.58 has fluctuated in the range of $24.72 to $36.50. Earnings per share of $1.76 have been posted and market capitalization stands at $149.47 billion. Its recent P/E ratio was 16.88x and the company showed a net profit margin of 23.99%.