Business lessons from the dot-com bubble

POV Magazine's 1999 list of the top 100 websites takes us back to a time when connecting to the Internet was noisy, slow, and dazzlingly new. Before Facebook. Before Wikipedia. Business, reference, and entertainment sites were popping up everywhere, to be indexed on Lycos and Yahoo! and fawned over by investors looking for the hot new thing. And then came the Internet's first great mass extinction—the rupture of the dot-com bubble in 2001.

The Internet is still relatively young, but business is business: Booms and busts tend to be cyclical, and tech is hot these days. So we took a long look at that Top 100 list from 1999. Which sites survived and thrived? Which were consumed by competitors? Which enterprises have evolved so much that they're almost totally different animals today? And what can investors learn by studying the e-commerce fossil record?

Of 1999's Top 100 sites, 40 are no longer around. Some were killed by the dot-com crash, others built their businesses on now-obsolete technology, and many just plugged along until their creators or audiences lost interest. Some of the biggest media and entertainment names from 1999 were bought by competitors or sidelined by legal issues, and we'll look at those in the next part of this series. In this first part, we'll look at some of the business sites that went extinct and examine why they didn't survive.

Survivors held onto their money and diversified their revenue streams.

Would-be blockbuster health website DrKoop.com (#34 on the POV list) and its investors learned this the hard way as the company went from IPO darling to the business morgue in just two and a half years, taking more than $88 million in investor funds and a long-term AOL content deal with it. With the name of the country's most respected Surgeon General and a huge IPO, DrKoop.com should have dominated the medical information niche.

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But the company spent fast and relied on a single source of revenue—advertising, which presented at least the appearance of a conflict of interest. Surviving competitors like WebMD Health Corp. (NASDAQ: WBMD ) have a more diverse income base that adds paid sponsorship and professional services for physicians, employers, and health plans to its advertising revenue.

Survivors evolved successfully with the environment—or changed environments.

Sometimes what looks like a world-beating technology is soon beaten by something better. Palm (#52) and Kodak (#18) were both knocked out by the rise of the smartphone. Palm kept producing PDAs for a shrinking customer base and tried unsuccessfully to get into the smartphone game; it was eventually bought by HP in 2010 and its products rebranded under the HP label. Today you won't find any PDAs for sale on HP's website. Smartphones and tablets have rendered them obsolete.

Kodak (EKDKQ ) , on the other hand, may turn out to be a survivor. Long the dominant brand in film photography, Kodak in 1999 was a leader in digital photography for consumers, turning out cameras, printers, and portals to help people take, print, and share their photos. (For those of you who are too young to have ever seen camera film, let alone waited a week for your vacation pictures to come back from the lab, trust us: Digital cameras were truly revolutionary.) But there was no point in carrying—or purchasing—a separate camera once the iPhone and Android phones hit mass-market price points.

Rather than continue trying to compete in the consumer digital device market, Kodak declared bankruptcy in January 2012. The company has reemerged as an imaging, digital printing, and product-packaging provider to business customers.

A cool idea is not enough.

This sums up pretty much all the other extinct sites from POV's 1999 Top 100. From FasTV's (#73) film-clip collection to the build-your-own-online-radio-station ImagineRadio.com (#8), aggregators, art! ists, spo! rts fans, creative writers, and comedians dropped out in droves as funds dried up, larger companies like Viacom snapped up smaller sites, and visitors moved on to the next new thing. Even the once-mighty HotWired.com (#49), Wired magazine's online site, was consumed by Conde Nast and left to fossilize as Wired Extra, which hasn't been updated since November 2012.

And POV Magazine, the source of our nifty list? Shuttered, like so many print magazines that were wiped out by the tidal wave of content online.

The Motley Fool is a USA TODAY content partner offering financial news, analysis and commentary designed to help people take control of their financial lives. Its content is produced independently of USA TODAY.

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CEO Elon Musk gets charged up as feds probe Tes…

As federal investigators announced a formal safety probe Tuesday, fledgling electric car maker Tesla Motors is getting a quick lesson in what it's like to be treated like a big, mainstream automaker.

The crisis over two reported battery fires on its acclaimed Model S sedan comes at a difficult time for the company, which is trying to keep the momentum going after impressive sales, profitable quarters and a seesawing stock price this year. Instead of letting the probe simply unfold, CEO Elon Musk quickly fired off blog posts and tweets to defend the car and aggressively address the fire issue.

Brash as always, he wrote that Tesla has invited the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to fully examine its cars. NHTSA shot back in a statement that it doesn't work by invitation. "NHTSA's decision to open any formal investigation is an independent process," the agency said, adding that it followed standard procedure.

The agency says it is looking at two incidents, one in Washington state and the other in Tennessee, in which "undercarriage strikes" of debris in the roadway resulted in fires. In each case, the occupants escaped unharmed, which Musk says is proof of the car's safety. Another Tesla Model S caught fire after a serious crash in Mexico. That driver, too, escaped unharmed.

"Since the Model S went into production mid last year, there have been over 400 deaths and 1,200 serious injuries in the United States alone due to gasoline car fires, compared to zero deaths and zero injuries due to Tesla fires anywhere in the world," Musk wrote on his blog.

But auto industry observers and safety experts question Musk's combative response. Karl Brauer, a senior analyst at auto pricing service Kelley Blue Book, says the three fires in Tesla are three more than have occurred with rival electric cars.

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"Is there a design flaw in Tesla'! s battery pack that makes it more prone to fires compared to other cars?" Brauer asks. "That's what NHTSA is determining."

Some question Musk's aggressiveness on the fire issue.

"They are acting as if this problem is going to put them out of business," says Clarence Ditlow, executive director for the Center for Auto Safety. He says Tesla needs to realize it has a problem and face it head-on. "The way to handle it isn't to stonewall, it's to recall."

While defending the vehicle, Musk announced that Tesla has already wirelessly sent orders to the computers of all Model S electric cars on the road to adjust the suspension so they ride higher on the highway and are less likely to take a hit from debris. He also says Tesla is extending its warranty to include fire damage.

Though unconventional, the tough stand is vintage Musk, always quick to defend his upstart operation based near Silicon Valley.The company walks a fine line between the worlds of technology and automaking.

Musk has a lot at stake. He has had Tesla on track to sell about 20,000 cars this year at prices starting at $70,000.

And though it's known to motorists for its breakthrough, long-range electric cars, the company has taken investors on a roller-coaster ride. After Tesla stock started the year at about $35, shares rocketed to a high of $194.50 before starting to settle, then cascaded due to the fires. On Tuesday, shares actually rallied in the face of the probe, rising $4.51, or 3.7%, to close at $126.09

Breaking into the hidebound auto industry is no easy task, so some find it almost refreshing to see an automaker that follows a different path.

"It's not like they act in traditional ways," says Ron Cogan, publisher of the Green Car Journal, which tracks environmentally sound vehicles. "They don't want to. They want to be known as being different."

Google is winning online ad war by going mobile

SAN FRANCISCO – Google is losing the battle against falling ad prices, but still winning the online advertising war.

In its earnings report Thursday, the company revealed the decline of a key pricing metric has once again accelerated, as its cost-per-click fell 8% from a year earlier.

The reason is a surge in mobile ads, which cost less per unit and have lower click rates than those served onto desktop computers.

Google CEO Larry Page said almost 40% of the traffic on the company's YouTube video site now comes from mobile device users, up from just 6% two years ago.

Yet the search giant more than made up for lower prices with higher volume, as its number of paid clicks climbed 26% year-over-year. That was higher than the 21% jump reported by rival Yahoo earlier this week.

The net result was a 19% jump in quarterly revenue (or 12% including its lagging Motorola handset unit) and a 36% surge in net income.

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Google's ad numbers suggest that changes the company has made to how it sells advertising have merely slowed -- not stopped -- the downward pricing pressure caused by a surge in mobile ad traffic.

Close Google watchers will remember that the impact of mobile ads on Google's business first revealed itself 15 months ago, during its quarterly earnings report in July 2012.

That's when the company reported its cost-per-click dropped 16% from a year earlier, alarming Wall Street and prompting a short-term drop in its stock price.

In response, Google made changes to how it deals with professional online ad buyers, essentially stripping them of the ability to target ads at either desktop, tablet or smartphone users.

Instead, the company's technology now determines where and when to place text and video ads onto those different platforms, based on where Google thinks is best.

John Shinal, technology columnist for USA TODAY.(Photo: USA TODAY)

Thanks to the new method, which Google has dubbed "enhanced campaigns," the company earlier this year had slowed the annual rate of decline in its cost-per-click to 4%.

Yet the decline has accelerated during the last two quarters, and for the period ended in September prices were falling at twice that rate.

The reason is mobile.

Google's algorithms can't change the fact that most mobile device users think cheap-looking text ads that pop up on smartphones or tablets are more annoying than enticing.

Annoying ads aren't clicked on as frequently as relevant ones, which is one reason mobile ads are so cheap per unit.

The click-through rate for ads served on Android-powered tablets fell to 2.3% in the third quarter, from 3.2% a year earlier, according to a report released this week my market researcher The Search Agency.

For smartphone users, the rate dropped to 3.1% from 3.9%.

Sheer volume is another reason for the decline. The number of these ads is exploding as more consumers make the switch from desktop computers to mobile devices.

That same report from The Search Agency showed that one-third of the clicks on Google search ads in the U.S. now come from mobile users.

No wonder mobile ad revenue skyrocketed 145% during the first half of this year to $3 billion, compared to the same period in 2012, according to the latest report from the Interactive Advertising Bureau, a trade group.

That's eight times faster growth than the overall online ad market.

Those findings were echoed in the data from The Search Agency, which found that click volume on tablets in the U.S. surged 63% during the third quarter and tablet advertising spending, 68%! .

Th! e surge came even though the cost-per-click for all ads displayed on tablets in the U.S. fell 10.4% in the third quarter, compared to a year earlier, as the report said.

Clearly, there's money to be made in mobile ads, and Google – no surprise – is capturing a large chunk of it, even as the average unit price of its search ads continues to fall.

Twitter IPO Reveals the Company Has a Lot of Work To Do

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Twitter’s IPO filing contains a lot of bad news for people who might be interested in buying the stock when it goes public.

User growth is slowing.

Revenue growth will slow in the future, the company warns.

And employee costs are out of control.

Clearly, the company is going public despite its problems, not because it has overcome them.

Management at Facebook (FB), Twitter’s main competitor, are likely to read this S-1 and breathe a sigh of relief.

I’m not saying the company is screwed, or that the IPO will fail. Twitter has likely learned a lesson from the Facebook IPO, which was priced to high, and saw its stock value halved in the months after the launch.

CEO Dick Costolo has in fact built a robust and growing business. Hats off to him and his team. Twitter is on course for greater than $500 million in revenues this year.

That’s huge. Building a business like that is not easy.

But … the books are kinda ragged-looking and contain a number of ringing alarm bells.

These are the fires that Twitter will have to fix if it wants to mature, the way Facebook did, into a growing company with a rising stock.

Twitter has 218 million active users, and already user growth is slowing. In the last quarter, Twitter added only 1 million monthly active users in the U.S. All its remaining growth was abroad. Among Americans, Twitter looks like it has fully tapped out the market, or close to.

To put that in perspective, Facebook has more than 1 billion users and is still growing. It’s adding way more than 1 million users per quarter in the U.S., too.

So the first takeaway is that Twitter is much smaller than Facebook — not a surprise — but already has a growth problem, which is a surprise.

Twitter is basically a competitor to Instagram in size, not Facebook.

That’s not too worrying, because as Facebook has demonstrated its not user growth that counts its revenue growth — the two are not linked, as investors once feared. Yet Twitter warns its revenue growth may also be limited:

Although our revenue has grown rapidly, increasing from $28.3 million in 2010 to $316.9 million in 2012, we expect that our revenue growth rate will slow in the future as a result of a variety of factors, including the gradual slow down in the growth rate of our user base.

Hmm.

Twitter must make these warnings for legal reasons, as a caution to investors. But still. The optics are bad, as they say.

On top of that, Twitter is not profitable. This chart shows you all you need to know — revenues keep rising, but Twitter’s costs are such that it doesn’t make money. It lost $69 million on $254 million in revenue through the first six months of the year.

Again, that’s not a problem — the losses are proportionately much smaller than the revenue as time goes by, strongly suggesting that Twitter can pull back on its costs anytime it wants and become profitable. Right now, it’s growing its user base and paying for that.

But the largest portion of Twitter’s costs is R&D, which it defines in large part as salaries for engineers. Twitter has 2,000 employees — a massive number for such a simple-looking product. Twitter says, “From January 1, 2010 to June 30, 2013, we increased the size of our workforce by more than 1,800 employees.”

Eighteen hundred! For a device that publishes 140 characters at a time. What are they all doing?

They’re not all engineers, but R&D/engineering costs are the major reason Twitter loses money every quarter.

So getting staff costs under control will have to be a long-term strategic priority if Twitter is to ever actually make money.

The next issue is Twitter’s vulnerability to Facebook, and other apps and social media, which it warns about specifically in the S-1:

… following Facebook's acquisition of Instagram, Facebook disabled Instagram's photo integration with Twitter such that Instagram photos are no longer viewable within Tweets and users are now re-directed to Instagram to view Instagram photos through a link within a Tweet. As a result, our users may be less likely to click on links to Instagram photos in Tweets, and Instagram users may be less likely to tweet or remain active users of Twitter. Any similar elimination of integration with Twitter in the future, whether by Facebook or others, may adversely impact our business and operating results.

It is not likely that Apple or Google (via Android) will suddenly switch off Twitter integrations in their products. But again, they might. Twitter depends on its partners, not the other way around.

The bottom line is this: Twitter is a growing company with robust revenues. It may yet still have a ways to go.

But its opening financials and metrics are messy, and they compare poorly to Facebook’s S-1 a year ago, which showed a wildly profitable company with no major problems in front of it.

Good luck, Mr. Costolo. You probably won’t need it. But putting a price on your new stock while warning that growth is limited is a challenge I don’t envy.

Disclosure: The author owns Facebook stock.

See Also:

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What Is Citigroup's Secret Sauce?

Fellow Fools, operating under the assumption you can't properly evaluate a company as an investment if you don't know what makes that company tick, for the last few weeks we've been examining superbank Citigroup (NYSE: C  ) from top to bottom.

So far, we've looked at how Citi generates its revenue and how profitable it is. Today we're going to investigate what sets Citi apart from its peers to try to find out what its "secret sauce" is. Because every good investment has some angle or competitive edge that lets it stand out from the pack.

It's a small world, and a potentially profitable one
A look at Citi's first-quarter 2013 earnings supplement shows a surprising fact: The superbank generated $10.9 billion of its $20.5 billion in total revenue from overseas operations. That's 53.1%.

For the record, "overseas" means anything outside of North America, which Citi defines specifically as: EMEA (Europe, Middle East, Africa); Latin America; and Asia. In those geographical areas:

For Global Consumer Banking, Citi generated $4.9 billion in revenue overseas out of a total of $10.0 billion, or 49%. For Securities and Banking, Citi generated $4.0 billion in revenue overseas out of a total of $7.0 billion, or 57.1%. For Transaction Services, Citi generated $2.0 billion in revenue overseas out of a total of $2.6 billion, or 76.9%. 

This global capability and global reach in an undeniably global world is Citi's secret sauce. Even in the wake of the worldwide financial crisis, planet finance doesn't look like it's going to decouple anytime soon, and Citi is well positioned to make the most of it.

The competition
When it comes to international operations and revenue breakdowns, it's very hard to get apples-to-apples comparisons on specific numbers and metrics between two companies. This is because different companies report said numbers and metrics differently. And different business organize their lines of business differently.

Suffice it to say that both Bank of America (NYSE: BAC  ) and JPMorgan Chase (NYSE: JPM  ) both see themselves as global banks. And each in their own way are committed to competing globally. So Citi won't automatically have the world to itself.

In its first-quarter earnings press release, B of A specifically called out that "Global Wealth and Investment Management report[ed] record post-merger revenue, net income, and long-term assets under management." Total revenue from this line of business alone was a hearty $4.4 billion for the first quarter.  In its first-quarter press release, JPMorgan specifically called out that "Corporate & Investment Bank[ing] reported strong performance across products and maintained its #1 ranking for Global Investment Banking fees." 

Foolish bottom line
Every good company, and therefore every good investment, has a secret sauce: the thing that lets it stand out from the pack. From this Fool's perspective, Citi's secret sauce is its global reach, capability, and commitment. 53.1% of total revenue coming from overseas operations is a serious commitment. The connected world isn't going away, and Citi is going to be there to reap the ongoing rewards of this connectedness.

Though some countries may be trying hard to ring-fence their banking systems, to keep them safe from the kind of cross-border contamination that let America's bursting real-estate bubble infect the world's economy, the fact is, globalization is here to stay. Banks that get this -- and are putting their time, money, and resources into maximizing the related capabilities -- are here to stay as well. 

Looking for in-depth analysis on Citi?
Then look no further than our new premium report. Inside, the Motley Fool's Senior Banking Analyst Matt Koppenheffer will give you both reasons to buy and reasons to sell Citigroup. He'll also clue you in on what areas investors need to watch going forward. And with quarterly updates included, this could quite literally be the last source of Citigroup investment research you'll ever need. For instant access to Matt's personal take on Citi, simply click here now.

When Will You Forgive Wal-Mart?

Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT  ) is hoping to win back its good name. The world's largest retailer kicked off a new ad campaign over the weekend, using Saturday's Kentucky Derby as a way to begin its own race to the finish line.

The odds-on favorite Orb won the race in a muddy track at Churchill Downs, and Wal-Mart itself knows that it, too, will have to get dirty if it wants to emerge victorious.

Yes, Wal-Mart is the odds-on favorite. The retailer estimates that 60% of the country shops at the discounter in any given month. Wal-Mart accounts for nearly 10% of the country's non-car sales.

However, it also sees that union-backed attacks and some unflattering developments in recent years are tarnishing the Wal-Mart brand. The retailer is ready to do a better job in getting its point of view across.

"I'm part of an American success story," the ad begins, going on to promote the company's advanced distribution network, efficient trucking fleet, and the realized costs savings it achieves -- and passes on to consumers -- by dealing directly with manufacturers and local farmers.

Another spot in "The Real Walmart" series of television ads showcases shoppers, highlighting the things that they hope to accomplish by saving money at Wal-Mart. Yet another ad offers the employee perspective, pointing out that more than 75% of store managers began as hourly associates. That spot also promotes the education benefits for degree-seeking associates and the quarterly bonuses paid out when particular stores perform well.

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One can argue that the ultimate "American success story" is that Wal-Mart rang up more than $469 billion in revenue worldwide in its fiscal year that ended in January, 5% ahead of the prior year. Comps at its namesake stores rose a modest 1.8% on the year.

In short, Wal-Mart isn't broken. The knocks -- some fair -- may sting, but consumers continue to flock to the discount department store chain because saving money's always fashionable.

It's better to be Wal-Mart than J.C. Penney (NYSE: JCP  ) , which saw its sales plunge 25% in a rudderless attempt to re-establish its retail identity. Smaller rival Target (NYSE: TGT  ) bears the "cheap chic" label, but it matched Wal-Mart's 5% pop on the top line this past year.

Wal-Mart bulls will argue that no one's forcing people to work at the retailer if they don't want to, and that shoppers are welcome to go elsewhere if lower prices aren't worth the hassle.

However, Wal-Mart's doing the right thing in making sure that it casts its practices and opportunities in a favorable light. Some of the criticisms of Wal-Mart are fair. The chain has gotten into hot water overseas as it expands its global presence. There have also been plenty of shots closer to home concerning its struggles against organized labor when it comes to wages, holiday hours, and health-care provisions.

Thankfully for Wal-Mart, it didn't become the world's largest retailer by accident. It may as well strike now before the attacks actually start pulling away potential associates and shoppers.

The world is Wal-Mart's orb -- and its Orb.

To learn about two retailers with especially good prospects, take a look at The Motley Fool's special free report: "The Death of Wal-Mart: The Real Cash Kings Changing the Face of Retail." In it, you'll see how these two cash kings are able to consistently outperform and how they're planning to ride the waves of retail's changing tide. You can access it by clicking here.

Top 5 Bank Companies To Watch In Right Now

Large regional bank Synovus Financial (NYSE: SNV  ) has released its second-quarter earnings report, a week earlier�than previously stated. The report contained much good news for the troubled bank, but the early release was likely timed to coincide with an exciting announcement: The bank also revealed that it has a plan to finally repay its nearly $1 billion portion�of Troubled Asset Relief Program funds.

Lagging behind peers
Synovus isn't the only bank�that still has TARP money on its books, but it does owe the greatest amount. The financial crisis hit Synovus particularly hard, because it had a greater concentration of problematic commercial loans�on its balance sheet than bigger banks.

Megabanks�like Bank of America, Citigroup, and Wells Fargo, anxious to escape the additional scrutiny that accompanied bailout funds, received the green light in late 2009 to repay their own TARP debt. Fellow regional BB&T Corp. was able to repay its bailout money earlier that year, probably due to its unusually healthy�crisis-era balance sheet.

Top 5 Bank Companies To Watch In Right Now: Fifth Third Bancorp(FITB)

Fifth Third Bancorp operates as a diversified financial services holding company in the United States. The company?s Commercial Banking segment offers credit intermediation, cash management, and financial services; lending and depository products; and foreign exchange and international trade finance, derivatives and capital markets services, asset-based lending, real estate finance, public finance, commercial leasing, and syndicated finance for business, government, and professional customers. Its Branch Banking segment provides deposit and loan, and lease products to individuals and small businesses. This segment?s products include checking and savings accounts, home equity loans and lines of credit, credit cards, loans for automobile and personal financing needs, and cash management services. The company?s Consumer Lending segment engages in the mortgage and home equity lending activities, such as origination, retention, and servicing of mortgage and home equity loans ; and other indirect lending activities, which include loans to consumers through mortgage brokers and automobile dealers. Its Investment Advisors segment offers investment alternatives for individuals, companies, and not-for-profit organizations. It offers retail brokerage services to individual clients, and broker dealer services to the institutional marketplace. This segment also provides asset management services; holistic strategies to affluent clients in wealth planning, investing, insurance, and wealth protection; and advisory services for institutional clients, as well as advises the company?s proprietary family of mutual funds. As of December 31, 2011, the company operated 1,316 full-service banking centers, including 104 Bank Mart locations; and 2,425 automated teller machines in 12 states in the midwestern and southeastern regions of the United States. The company was founded in 1862 and is headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Rich Smith]

  Few regional banking stocks in the U.S. today cost more than BB&T (NYSE: BBT  ) stock. Indeed, the stock's biggest distinguishing factor is probably its priciness. Valued at 14.1 times trailing earnings, shares of BB&T cost 14% more than bigger rival US Bancorp (NYSE: USB  ) , and 33% more than smaller Fifth Third Bancorp (NASDAQ: FITB  ) . But is there a good reason for investors to pay up for BB&T stock?

• [By Monica Gerson]

  Fifth Third Bancorp (NASDAQ: FITB) is expected to report its Q3 earnings at $0.41 per share on revenue of $1.55 billion.

  Stryker (NYSE: SYK) is projected to post its Q3 earnings at $1.00 per share on revenue of $2.15 billion.

Top 5 Bank Companies To Watch In Right Now: HDFC Bank Ltd (HDB)

HDFC Bank Limited (HDFC Bank), incorporated in August 1994, is a banking company engaged in providing a range of banking and financial services, including commercial banking and treasury operations. The Bank has overseas branch operations in Bahrain and Hong Kong. The Bank operates in four segments: treasury, which primarily consists of net interest earnings from the Bank�� investment portfolio, money market borrowing and lending, gains or losses on investment operations and on account of trading in foreign exchange and derivative contracts; retail banking, which serves retail customers through a branch network and other delivery channels; wholesale banking, which provides loans, non-fund facilities and transaction services to corporate, public sector units, government bodies, financial institutions and medium scale enterprises, and other banking business, segment includes income from para banking activities, such as credit cards, debit cards, third party product distribution, primary dealership business and the associated costs. Revenues of the retail banking segment are derived from interest earned on retail loans, net of commission (net of subvention received) paid to sales agents and interest earned from other segments for surplus funds placed with those segments, fees from services rendered, foreign exchange earnings on retail products.

Retail Banking

The Bank is a financial services provider of various deposit products, of retail loans (auto loans, personal loans, commercial vehicle loans, mortgages, business banking, loan against gold jewellery), credit cards, debit cards, depository (custody services), investment advisory, bill payments and several transactional services. Apart from its own products, the Bank distributes third party financial products, such as mutual funds and life and general insurance. As of March 31, 2012, the Bank had 2,544 branches in 1,399 Indian cities. The Bank had 8,913 automated teller machines (ATMs) during the fiscal year ended March 31,! 2012. In addition to the Bank does home loans in conjunction with HDFC Limited. Under this arrangement the Bank sells loans provided by HDFC Limited through its branches. HDFC Limited approves and disburses the loans, which are booked in their books, with the Bank receiving a sourcing fee for these loans. HDFC Limited offers the Bank an option to purchase up to 70% of the fully disbursed home loans sourced under this arrangement through either the issue of mortgage backed pass through certificates (PTCs) or by a direct assignment of loans; the balance is retained by HDFC Limited. It also distributes life, general insurance and mutual fund products through its tie-ups with insurance companies and mutual fund houses.

Wholesale Banking

The Bank provides its corporate and institutional clients a range of commercial and transactional banking products. The Bank�� commercial banking business covers the corporate sector, the emerging corporate segments and some small and medium enterprises (SMEs). The Bank has a number of business groups catering to various segments of its wholesale banking customers with a range of banking services covering their working capital, term finance, trade services, cash management, foreign exchange and electronic banking requirements. The Bank�� financial institutions and government business group (FIG) offers commercial and transaction banking products to financial institutions, mutual funds, public sector undertakings, central and state government departments. The main focus for this segment is offering various deposit and transaction banking products to this segment besides offering funded, non-funded treasury and foreign exchange products.

The Bank provides its customers both working capital and term financing. The Bank�� corporate banking business includes cash management and vendor and distributor (supply chain) finance products. The Bank has a wholesale banking branch in Bahrain, a branch in Hong Kong and two representative offic! es in the! United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Kenya. The branches offer the Bank�� suite of banking services including treasury and trade finance products to its corporate clients. The Bank offers wealth management products, remittance facilities and markets deposits to the non-resident Indian community from its representative offices.

Treasury

The treasury group is responsible for compliance with reserve requirements and management of liquidity and interest rate risk on the Bank�� balance sheet. On the foreign exchange and derivatives front, revenues are driven primarily by spreads on customer transactions based on trade flows and customers��demonstrated hedging needs. The Bank offers Indian rupee and foreign exchange derivative products to its customers. The Bank enters into foreign exchange and derivative deals with counterparties after it has set up appropriate counterparty credit limits based on its evaluation of the ability of the counterparty to meet its obligations in the event of crystallization of the exposure. The Bank also deals in Indian rupee derivatives on its own account, including for the purpose of its own balance sheet risk management.

Other banking business

The Bank has two subsidiaries: HDFC Securities Limited (HSL) and HDB Financial Services Limited (HDBFS). HSL is primarily in the business of providing brokerage services through the Internet and other channels. As of March 31, 2012, HSL had a network of 184 branches across the country. HDBFS is a non-deposit taking non-bank finance company (NBFC). Apart from lending to individuals, it grants loans to small and medium business enterprises and micro small and medium enterprises, the principle businesses of HDBFS include loans, which offers a range of loans in the secured and unsecured loans space that fulfill the financial needs of its target segment; insurance services, HDBFS is a corporate agent for HDFC Standard Life Insurance Company and sells insurance products ,as well as products, ! such as L! oan Cover and Asset Cover, and collections-BPO services, which runs six call centres. These centres cover collection requirements at over 200 towns through its calling and field teams. As on March 31, 2012, HDBFS had 180 branches in 135 cities in order to distribute its products and services.

Hot Cheap Companies To Invest In 2014: J P Morgan Chase & Co(JPM)

JPMorgan Chase & Co., a financial holding company, provides various financial services worldwide. Its Investment Bank segment provides various investment banking products and services, including advising on corporate strategy and structure, capital-raising in equity and debt markets, risk management, market-making in cash securities and derivative instruments, prime brokerage, and research services serving corporations, financial institutions, governments, and institutional investors. The company?s Commercial Banking segment provides lending, treasury, investment banking, and asset management services to corporations, municipalities, financial institutions, and not-for-profit entities. Its Treasury & Securities Services segment offers cash management, trade, wholesale card, and liquidity products and services to small and mid-sized companies, multinational corporations, financial institutions, and government entities. It also holds, values, clears, and services securities, cash, and alternative investments for investors and broker-dealers, and manages depositary receipt programs worldwide. JPMorgan?s Asset Management segment provides investment and wealth management to institutions, retail investors, and high-net-worth individuals. This segment offers investment management in equities, fixed income, real estate, hedge funds, private equity, and liquidity products, as well as trust and estate, banking and brokerage services, and retirement services. Its Retail Financial Services segment offers retail banking and consumer lending services that include checking and savings accounts, mortgages, home equity and business loans, and investments through ATMs, online banking, and telephone banking, as well as auto dealerships and school financial-aid offices. The company?s Card Services segment issues credit cards and processes various credit card payments. JPMorgan Chase & Co. was founded in 1823 and is headquartered in New York, New York.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Matt Thalman]

  Bank of America's (NYSE: BAC  ) 1.3% loss likely owes to the slowing mortgage business as well. Since the financial crisis ended and the big banks came under tougher regulations and restrictions, we have seen Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase (NYSE: JPM  ) move more into the mortgage business and reduce their exposure to other parts of banking and investing. Both the Dow's banking stocks now rely heavily on the revenue they derive from the mortgages, so if the business begins to falter, we will likely see revenue and profits from the large banks slow and even decline. Shares of JPMorgan are down 0.5% at the time of writing.

• [By Amanda Alix]

  Some of the larger banks are becoming more concerned about the dangers of cyber assaults, and Wells Fargo has acknowledged�that DDoS attacks are likely a method for hackers to test banks' security before more sophisticated onslaughts take place. With that kind of threat looming, banks need to bump up staffing, as well as network security, according to regulators. JPMorgan Chase� (NYSE: JPM  ) , for instance, has over 600 workers that are trained specifically in security issues -- and plans to add more.

• [By Jon C. Ogg]

  Moody’s signaled that the four on review for downgrade are Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (NYSE: GS)�and Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS), both of which are bank holding companies with no retail banking operations, as well as J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM)�and Wells Fargo & Co. (NYSE: WFC).

Top 5 Bank Companies To Watch In Right Now: New York Community Bancorp Inc (NYCB.N)

New York Community Bancorp, Inc. is a bank holding company and a producer of multi-family mortgage loans in New York City, with an emphasis on apartment buildings that feature below-market rents. It has two bank subsidiaries: New York Community Bank (the Community Bank),New York Commercial Bank (the Commercial Bank. The Community Bank has 241 branches and operates through seven divisional banks. The Commercial Bank has 34 branches in Manhattan and operates 17 of its branches under the divisional name Atlantic Bank.

During the year ended December 31, 2011, all of the one-to-four family loans the Company originated was sold to government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs). In New York, the Company serves its Community Bank customers through Roslyn Savings Bank, with 55 branches on Long Island; Queens County Savings Bank, with 34 branches in the New York City borough of Queens; Richmond County Savings Bank, with 22 branches in the borough of Staten Island, and Roose velt Savings Bank, with eight branches in the borough of Brooklyn. As of December 31, 2011, in the Bronx and neighboring Westchester County, the Company had four branches that operated directly under the name New York Community Bank.

In New Jersey, the Company serves its Community Bank customers through 51 branches that operate under the name Garden State Community Bank. In Florida and Arizona, where it has 25 and 14 branches, respectively, the Company serves its customers through the AmTrust Bank (AmTrust) division of the Community Bank. In Ohio, the Company serves its Community Bank customers through 28 branches of Ohio Savings Bank. Customers of the Community Bank and the Commercial Bank have access to their accounts through 261 of its 285 automatic teller machines (ATMs) locations in five states. The Company also serves its customers through three Websites, which include www.myNYCB.com, www.NewYorkCommercialBank.com and www.NYCBfamily.com.

Lendi ng Activities

The Company�� principal asset i! s loans. Its loan portfolio consists of three components: covered loans, non-covered loans held for sale and non-covered loans held for investment. As of December 31, 2011, the balance of covered loans was $3.8 billion, of which $3.4 billion were one-to-four family loans. Non-covered loans held for sale consists of the one-to-four family loans that are originated for sale, primarily to GSEs. At December 31, 2011, the held-for-sale loan portfolio totaled $1.0 billion

As of December 31, 2011, loans held for investment consisted of loans that it originates for its own portfolio, and totaled $ 25.5 billion.

In addition to multi-family loans, loans held for investment include commercial real estate loans (CRE); acquisition, development and construction (ADC) loans; commercial and industrial loans (C&I), and one-to-four family loans. As of December 31, 2011, its multi-family loans represented $17.4 billion, or 68.3%, of total loans held for investment, and repr esented $5.8 billion, or 64.1%, of the total loans that it originated for investment. The multi-family loans it originates are typically secured by non-luxury apartment buildings in New York City. It also makes multi-family loans to property owners who are seeking to expand their real estate holdings by purchasing additional properties.

As of December 31, 2011, CRE loans represented $6.9 billion, or 26.9%, of total held for investment; ADC loans represented $445.7 million, or 1.7%, of total loans held for investment. Its ADC loan portfolio consists of loans that were originated for land acquisition, development, and construction of multi-family and residential tract projects in New York City and Long Island.

C&I loans represented $600.0 million, or 2.4%, of total held for investment. It also offers a range of loans to small and mid-size businesses for working capital (including in! ventory a! nd receivables), business expansion, and the purchase of equipment a nd machinery. Non-covered one-to-four family loans totaled $! 127.4 mil! lion at December 31, 2011.

Investment Activities

The Company�� securities portfolio primarily consists of mortgage-related securities, and debt and equity (other) securities. Its investments include GSE certificates, GSE collateralized mortgage obligations (CMOs) and GSE debentures. The Community Bank and the Commercial Bank are members of the Federal Home Loan Bank of New York (FHLB-NY), one of 12 regional Federal Home Loan Banks (FHLBs) consisting of the FHLB system. As of December 31, 2011, the Company�� securities represented $4.5 billion, or 10.8%, of total assets. As of December 31, 2011, 93.7% of its securities portfolio consisted of GSE obligations; held-to-maturity securities represented $3.8 billion, or 84.0%, of total securities, and its investment in bank-owned life insurance (BOLI) was $769.0 million.

Source of Funds

The Company has four primary funding sources. These include the deposits that it added thr ough its acquisitions or gathered through its branch network, and brokered deposits; wholesale borrowings, primarily in the form of FHLB advances and repurchase agreements with the FHLB and various brokerage firms; cash flows produced by the repayment and sale of loans, and cash flows produced by securities repayments and sales. As of December 31, 2011, deposits totaled $ 22.3 billion, which included certificates of deposit (CDs) of $7.4 billion; negotiable order withdrawal (NOW) and money market accounts of $8.8 billion; savings accounts of $ 4.0 billion, and non-interest-bearing accounts of $2.2 billion. As of December 31, 2011, the Company�� borrowed funds totaled $14.0 billion, loan repayments and sales generated cash flows of $15.0 billion, and securities sales and repayments generated cash flows of $4.2 billion.

Subsidiary Activities

As of December 31, 2011, C! ommunity ! Bank had 34 subsidiary corporations. Of these, 22 are direct subsidiaries of the Community Bank and 12 are subsidiaries of Community B! ank-owned! entities. The 22 direct subsidiaries of the Community Bank include DHB Real Estate, LLC, Mt. Sinai Ventures, LLC, NYCB Community Development Corp., NYCB Mortgage Company, LLC, Eagle Rock Investment Corp., Pacific Urban Renewal, Inc., Somerset Manor Holding Corp., Synergy Capital Investments, Inc., 1400 Corp., BSR 1400 Corp., Bellingham Corp., Blizzard Realty Corp., CFS Investments, Inc., Main Omni Realty Corp., NYB Realty Holding Company, LLC, O.B. Ventures, LLC, RCBK Mortgage Corp., RCSB Corporation, RSB Agency, Inc., Richmond Enterprises, Inc. and Roslyn National Mortgage Corporation.

The 12 subsidiaries of Community Bank-owned entities include Bronx Realty Funding Company, LLC, Columbia Preferred Capital Corporation, Ferry Development Holding Company, Peter B. Cannell & Co., Inc., Roslyn Real Estate Asset Corp., Walnut Realty Funding Company, LLC, Woodhaven Investments Inc, Your New REO, LLC, Ironbound Investment Company, Inc.,The Hamlet at Olde Oyster Bay, LLC, The Hamlet at Willow Creek, LLC and Richmond County Capital Corporation.

The two direct subsidiaries of the Commercial Bank include Beta Investments, Inc., and Gramercy Leasing Services, Inc. The two subsidiaries of Commercial Bank-owned entities include Omega Commercial Mortgage Corp. and Long Island Commercial Capital Corp.

Top 5 Bank Companies To Watch In Right Now: KeyCorp (KEY)

KeyCorp is a bank holding company for KeyBank National Association (KeyBank). Through KeyBank and certain other subsidiaries, the Company provides a range of retail and commercial banking, commercial leasing, investment management, consumer finance and investment banking products and services to individual, corporate and institutional clients through two business segments: Key Community Bank and Key Corporate Bank. As of December 31, 2011, these services were provided through KeyBank�� 1,058 full-service retail banking branches in 14 states, additional offices, a telephone banking call center services group and a network of 1,579 automated teller machines (ATMs) in 15 states. On January 17, 2012, the Company opened another national bank subsidiary.

In addition to the banking services of accepting deposits and making loans, the Bank and trust company subsidiaries offer personal and corporate trust services, personal financial services, access to mutual funds, cash management services, investment banking and capital markets products, and international banking services. Through its bank, trust company and investment adviser subsidiaries, the Company provides investment management services to clients that include corporate and public retirement plans, foundations and endowments, individuals and trust funds. The Company provides other financial services - both within and outside of its primary banking markets - through various nonbank subsidiaries. These services include community development financing, securities underwriting and brokerage. It is also an equity participant in a joint venture that provides merchant services to businesses.

Lending Activities

As of December 31, 2011, the Company�� Commercial, Financial and Agricultural loans, also referred to as Commercial and Industrial, represented 39% of its total loan portfolio. As of December 31, 2011, commercial real estate loans represented approximately 19% of its total loan portfolio. These loans include bo! th owner and nonowner-occupied properties and constitute approximately 27% of its commercial loan portfolio. Its commercial real estate lending business is conducted through two primary sources: its 14-state banking franchise, and Real Estate Capital and Corporate Banking Services. The Company conducts financing arrangements through its equipment finance line of business. Commercial lease financing receivables represented 17% of commercial loans at December 31, 2011. The home equity portfolio is the largest segment of its consumer loan portfolio.

Investment Activities

The Company�� securities portfolio totaled $18 billion at December 31, 2011. Available-for-sale securities were $16 billion at December 31, 2011. Held-to-maturity securities were $2.1 billion at December 31, 2011. At December 31, 2011, it had $2.1 billion in collateralized mortgage obligations (CMOs) in its held-to-maturity securities portfolio. At December 31, 2011, the Company had $15.9 billion invested in CMOs and other mortgage-backed securities in the available-for-sale portfolio. Federal Agency CMOs constitute most of its held-to-maturity securities along with foreign bonds and preferred equity securities. The investments in equity and mezzanine instruments made by its principal investing unit represented 61% of other investments at December 31, 2011. They include direct investments (investments made in a particular company), as well as indirect investments (investments made through funds that include other investors).

Sources of Funds

Domestic deposits are the Company�� primary source of funding. During the year ended December 31, 2011, these deposits averaged $58.5 billion and represented 80% of the funds it used to support loans and other earning assets. Wholesale funds, consisting of deposits in its foreign office and short-term borrowings, averaged $3.4 billion during 2011. At December 31, 2011, the Company had $4.7 billion in time deposits of $100,000 or more.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Eric Volkman]

  KeyCorp (NYSE: KEY  ) is continuing to unlock shareholder payouts, declaring a set of dividends for its Q3. The payout for its common stock will be $0.055 per share, to be paid on September 13 to shareholders of record as of August 27. That amount matches the financial service firm's previous distribution; this was paid last month. Prior to that, KeyCorp handed out $0.05 per share.

• [By David Hanson]

  However, some regional banks are posting more impressive numbers and flying under the radar. In this video, Motley Fool banking analyst David Hanson discusses recent results from PNC Financials Services (NYSE: PNC  ) , KeyCorp (NYSE: KEY  ) , and Huntington Bancshares (NASDAQ: HBAN  ) .

• [By Eric Volkman]

  Bank of America's (NYSE: BAC  ) Merrill Lynch, Wells Fargo's (NYSE: WFC  ) Securities unit, KeyCorp (NYSE: KEY  ) subsidiary KeyBanc Capital Markets, and Bank of Montreal's (NYSE: BMO  ) BMO Capital Markets are the joint book-running managers of the issue.

Big Oil Sees Big Opportunity in Mexico Oil Deregulation

The next frontier for big oil is just across the U.S. border, in Mexico.

As Bloomberg recently reported, the prospect of up to $20 billion a year in foreign investment prompted the Mexican Congress to overturn a 75-year old law banning foreign oil companies from drilling in the country.

If approved by Mexico's state legislatures, the law will give oil and gas companies such as Exxon Mobil (NYSE: XOM), Chevron (NYSE: CVX), Apache Corp (NYSE: APA), BHP Billiton (NYSE: BHP) and ConocoPhillips (NYSE: COP) access to the largest unexplored oil fields south of the Arctic Circle.

Best Oil Stocks For 2014

Mexico is the world's ninth largest oil producer, and oil production in Mexico is dominated by the government-owned oil company Pemex. Pemex's production has been falling in recent years.

Major U.S. oil and gas fields, such as the Permian Basin and the Eagle Ford Shale, have seen massive increases in drilling and production in recent years.They extend across the border into Mexico, BHP Billiton's head of petroleum Tim Cutt told Reuters. Billiton has been making major investments in North America gas and oil in recent years.

Political observers in Mexico, meanwhile, think state legislatures there will pass the required changes to Mexico's charter because most of them are controlled by allies of President Enrique Pena Nieto and his PRI party. Pena has made economic liberalization one of his main goals.
 

Posted-In: Enrique Pena Nieto. Mexico Mexican politics oil exploration oil industry PemexLong Ideas News Sector ETFs Emerging Markets Commodities Politics Psychology Events Global Markets Media Trading Ideas ETFs General Best of Benzinga

(c) 2013 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.

  Most Popular Five Star Stock Watch: Twitter, Inc. PlayStation 4 vs. Xbox One November Sales AT&T vs. Verizon: Which Is the Better Investment? Four Apple Headlines From Tuesday You Might Have Missed Ford Says Expecting 'Outstanding 2013,' Issues 2014 Guidance Slideshow: The Top 10 'Highs & Dives' Of S&P 500 Stocks In 2013 Related Articles (APA + BHP) Big Oil Sees Big Opportunity in Mexico Oil Deregulation Benzinga's Top Downgrades Market Wrap For December 10: Fed Meeting One Week Away Fitch Affirms Apache's Long-Term Ratings at 'BBB+'; Revises Outlook to Positive Will China's Economic Reforms Benefit BHP Billiton? Benzinga's M&A Chatter for Monday November 11, 2013 Around the Web, We're Loving... Lightspeed Trading Presents: Thunder and Tubleweeds: Trading Techniques for the New Market Enviroment Pope Francis Rips 'Trickle-Down' Economics Come See How the Pro's Trade in this Exclusive Webinar Wynn, MGM, Other Casino Giants Vying For U.S. Turf What Should You Know About AMZN? View the discussion thread. Partner Network var ads_url = ""+"";

Ocean Power: Small-Cap Makes Big Waves

Wave power is the most concentrated form of renewable energy; it is predictable and dependable, explains Konrad Kuhn, editor of the small-cap advisory The KonLin Letter.

Ocean Power Technologies (OPTT) is a pioneer in wave energy technology that harnesses ocean wave resources, to generate clean and environmentally-beneficial electricity.

Its proprietary PowerBuoy system is based on modular, ocean-going buoys that capture and convert wave-energy into clean electricity. The company has a strong track record, with 15 years of in-ocean experience.

Working in conjunction with the US Navy and Hawaii Electric Co., Ocean Power's 40 kilowatt PowerBuoy—located at the Marine Corps Base in Hawaii—became the first-ever grid-connected wave energy device in the US.

Ocean Power and Lockheed Martin entered into a teaming agreement, with the goal of developing a 19 megawatt wave energy project, to provide power to up to 10,000 local residents in Portland, Oregon, and in the state of Victoria, Australia, which would be one of the largest wave energy projects in the world.

Revenues for fiscal 2013 (ended April) declined to $3.6 million, with a decrease in the net loss to $1.42 per share. The decline in revenues, and favorable decrease in net loss, related primarily to its Oregon project.

Meanwhile, Ocean Power and Mitsui Engineering & Ship Building (MIESF) announced an agreement to commercialize OPTT's PowerBuoy technology. On October 31, 2013, OPTT was awarded a $2.6 million contract by MIESF, for development of a Japan Utility PowerBuoy system.

In addition, Ocean Power's project in Spain achieved an important milestone. The development of a new wave prediction model assesses the characteristics of incoming waves before they reach the PowerBuoy, thereby providing more time for OPTT's electronic timing capability to react.

This is expected to boost the power output of their cutting-edge PowerBuoys and reduce cost-per-megawatt hour of energy produced.

We originally recommended the stock at $2.91 a share in February 2012. It has been in a bottoming process, making higher lows, and we re-recommended the shares at $1.70 in October. We continue to recommend purchase up to $2.10 a share.

Subscribe to The KonLin Letter here…

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Five Media stocks are moving up in their overall rating this week, according to the Portfolio Grader database. Every one of these is graded an “A” (“strong buy”) or “B” overall (“buy”).

This week, Knology (NASDAQ:) is making solid headway. The company’s rating improves to an A (“strong buy”) from last week’s B (“buy”) rating. Knology is a fully integrated provider of video, voice and advanced communications services to residential customers in the southeastern United States. In Portfolio Grader’s specific subcategories of Equity and Margin Growth, KNOL also gets A’s. .

Hot Growth Stocks To Invest In 2014: Eastern Insurance Holdings Inc.(EIHI)

Eastern Insurance Holdings, Inc., through its subsidiaries, provides workers compensation insurance and reinsurance products in the United States. The company?s Workers Compensation Insurance segment provides traditional workers compensation insurance coverage products, including guaranteed cost policies, policyholder dividend policies, retrospectively-rated policies, deductible policies, and alternative market products to employers. This segment distributes its workers? compensation products and services through its independent insurance agents primarily in Pennsylvania, Delaware, North Carolina, Maryland, Indiana, and Virginia. Its Segregated Portfolio Cell Reinsurance segment offers alternative market workers compensation solutions comprising program design, fronting, claims administration, risk management, segregated portfolio cell rental, asset management, and segregated portfolio management services to individual companies, groups, and associations. Eastern Insurance Holdings, Inc. is headquartered in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Lauren Pollock]

  ProAssurance Corp.(PRA) agreed to acquire Eastern Insurance Holdings Inc.(EIHI) for about $205 million, expanding the insurance company’s casualty insurance offerings. Eastern Insurance is a domestic casualty insurance group specializing in workers’ compensation products and services, among other things. ProAssurance plans to pay $24.50 in cash for each outstanding Eastern share, a 16% premium over Monday’s closing price.

Hot Growth Stocks To Invest In 2014: Buffalo Wild Wings Inc.(BWLD)

Buffalo Wild Wings, Inc. engages in the ownership, operation, and franchise of restaurants in the United States. The company provides quick casual and casual dining services, as well as serves bottled beers, wines, and liquor. As of July 26, 2011, it had 773 Buffalo Wild Wings locations in 45 states in the United States, as well as in Canada. The company was founded in 1982 and is headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Rick Munarriz]

  Buffalo Wild Wings (NASDAQ: BWLD  ) may have come up short on the bottom line for the fourth quarter in a row, but comps are picking up nicely at the chain of family-friendly sports bars.

• [By AnnaLisa Kraft]

  A chicken-wing upstart
  But with success comes competition.�McDonald's (NYSE: MCD  ) is debuting its own Mighty Wings nationally, chicken wings seasoned similarly to Popeye's New Orleans style with cayenne and chili pepper. The huge quantity of wings that McDonald's will need likely driving up prices from $1.44 a pound most recently will of course, affect the entire space including Yum! Brands, AFCE, and chicken focused Buffalo Wild Wings (NASDAQ: BWLD  ) ��

Top 5 Warren Buffett Stocks For 2014: CNO Financial Group Inc. (CNO)

CNO Financial Group, Inc., through its subsidiaries, engages in the development, marketing, and administration of health insurance, annuity, individual life insurance, and other insurance products for senior and middle-income markets in the United States. The company markets and distributes Medicare supplement insurance, interest-sensitive and traditional life insurance, fixed annuities, and long-term care insurance products; Medicare advantage plans through a distribution arrangement with Humana Inc.; and Medicare Part D prescription drug plans through a distribution and reinsurance arrangement with Coventry Health Care. It also markets and distributes supplemental health, including specified disease, accident, and hospital indemnity insurance products; and life insurance to middle-income consumers at home and the worksite through independent marketing organizations and insurance agencies. In addition, the company markets primarily graded benefit and simplified issue life insurance products directly to customers through television advertising, direct mail, Internet, and telemarketing. It sells its products through career agents, independent producers, direct marketing, and sales managers. CNO Financial Group, Inc. has strategic alliances with Coventry and Humana. The company was formerly known as Conseco, Inc. and changed its name to CNO Financial Group, Inc. in May 2010. CNO Financial Group, Inc. was founded in 1979 and is headquartered in Carmel, Indiana.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By David Fried, Editor, The Buyback Letter]

  Insurance holding company CNO Financial Group (CNO) and its insurance subsidiaries��rincipally Bankers Life and Casualty Company, Washington National, and Colonial Penn Life Insurance Company��erve pre-retiree and retired Americans.

• [By Vanin Aegea]

  I have heard many people comment about the insurance policies for cars, houses, life, assets, etc. The arguments always revolve around the same issue: Is it really necessary? What are the chances to be hit by a Hurricane, or to meet a sudden death? Well, nobody really knows. Some individuals however, sleep better when they know a policy backs their life investments. Here, I will look into three insurance companies that concentrate on different policies, or geographies. These are: China Life (LFC), and Conseco (CNO).

• [By Jonas Elmerraji]

  Up first is CNO Financial Group (CNO), a mid-cap financial stock that's rocketed close to 60% higher since the calendar flipped over to January. Yup, it's been a great year for the market, but it's been a far better one for investors who own CNO. But that strong performance isn't showing any signs of slowing yet. In fact, CNO looks primed for even more upside in the fourth quarter.

  That's because CNO is currently forming a bullish pattern called an ascending triangle. The ascending triangle pattern is formed by a horizontal resistance level above shares -- in this case at $14.75 -- and uptrending support to the downside. Basically, as CNO bounces in between those two technical price levels, it's getting squeezed closer and closer to a breakout above that $14.75 resistance level. When that breakout happens, it's time to become a buyer.

  ACCO's price action isn't exactly textbook. After all, the pattern is coming in at the bottom of a downtrend, not after an uptrend. But ultimately, that doesn't change the trading implications of a move through that $7.50 level.

  Whenever you're looking at any technical price pattern, it's critical to think in terms of those buyers and sellers. Ascending triangles and other pattern names are a good quick way to explain what's going on in a stock, but they're not the reason it's tradable. Instead, it all comes down to supply and demand for shares.

  That $7.50 resistance level is a price where there has been an excess of supply of shares; in other words, it's a place where sellers have been more eager to step in and take gains than buyers have been to buy. That's what makes a breakout above it so significant. The move means that buyers are finally strong enough to absorb all of the excess supply above that price level.

  Don't be early on this trade.

Hot Growth Stocks To Invest In 2014: Checkpoint Systms Inc.(CKP)

Checkpoint Systems, Inc. manufactures and markets identification, tracking, security, and merchandising solutions for the retail and apparel industry worldwide. The company operates in three segments: Shrink Management Solutions, Apparel Labeling Solutions, and Retail Merchandising Solutions. The Shrink Management Solutions segment provides shrink management and merchandise visibility solutions. It offers electronic article surveillance systems, such as EVOLVE, a suite of RF and RFID-enabled products that act as a deterrent to prevent merchandise theft in retail stores; and electronic article surveillance consumables, including EAS-RF and EAS-EM labels that work in combination with EAS systems to reduce merchandise theft in retail stores. This segment also provides keepers, spider wraps, bottle security, and hard tags, as well as Showsafe, a line alarm system for protecting display merchandise. In addition, it offers physical and electronic store monitoring solutions, incl uding fire alarms, intrusion alarms, and digital video recording systems for retail environments; and RFID tags and labels. The Apparel Labeling Solutions segment provides apparel labeling solutions to apparel retailers, brand owners, and manufacturers. It has Web-enabled apparel labeling solutions platform and network of 28 service bureaus located in 22 countries that supplies customers with customized apparel tags and labels. The Retail Merchandising Solutions segment offers hand-held label applicators and tags, promotional displays, and queuing systems. The company serves retailers in the supermarket, drug store, hypermarket, and mass merchandiser markets through direct distribution and reseller channels. Checkpoint Systems was founded in 1969 and is based in Thorofare, New Jersey.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Rich Smith]

  Three months after settling upon a new chief executive officer, it looks like Thorofare, N. J.-based Checkpoint Systems (NYSE: CKP  ) will soon have itself a new CFO as well.

Hot Growth Stocks To Invest In 2014: MEDIFAST INC(MED)

Medifast, Inc., through its subsidiaries, engages in the production, distribution, and sale of weight management and disease management products, and other consumable health and diet products in the United States. The company?s product lines include weight and disease management, meal replacement, and vitamins. It also operates weight control centers that offer Medifast programs for weight loss and maintenance, customized patient counseling, and inbody composition analysis. The company markets its products under the Medifast and Essential brand names, including shakes, appetite suppression shakes, women?s health shakes, diabetics shakes, joint health shakes, coronary health shakes, calorie burn drinks, calorie burn flavor infusers, antioxidant shakes, antioxidant flavor infusers, bars, crunch bars, soups, chili, oatmeal, pudding, scrambled eggs, hot cocoa, cappuccino, chai latte, iced teas, fruit drinks, pretzels, puffs, brownie, pancakes, soy crisps, crackers, and omega 3 and digestive health products. Medifast Inc. sells its products through various channels of distribution comprising Web, call center, independent health advisors, medical professionals, weight loss clinics, and direct consumer marketing supported via the phone and the Web; Take Shape for Life, a physician led network of independent health coaches; and weight control centers. The company was founded in 1980 and is headquartered in Owings Mills, Maryland.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Ben Levisohn]

  Shares of Nutrisystem have gained 20% to $18.05 at 1:34 p.m., while Weight Watchers (WTW) has risen 3.6% to $39.42. Medifast (MED), however, has dropped 1.9% to $24.94.

• [By Holly LaFon] ast produces, distributes and sells weight and health management products with the brand names Medifast, Take Shape for Life, Hi-Energy Weight Control Centers and Woman�� Wellbeing.

  Its return on assets in the third quarter of 2011 was 19.6%, which has been increasing in the past several years. The average return on assets for the specialty retail industry is 10.48% for the trailing 12 months.

  The company�� total assets amounted to $94 million in 2010, which increased from $62.8 million in 2009. Net income also increased to $19.6 million in 2010 from $12 million in 2009.

  Boston Beer Inc. (SAM)

  Boston Beer Inc. is the largest brewer of handcrafted beers in America. Boston Beer is a growing company that recently saw a large increase in its return on assets. It increased from 19.3% in 2010 to 29.7% in 2011, and was negative as recently as 2008. The average return on assets for the beverages industry in the trailing 12 months is 9.47%.

  In 2011, the company�� total assets increased to $272.5 million from $258.5 million in 2010. Net income increased to $66 million from $50 million.

  Alliances Resources Partners (ARLP)

  Alliance Resources Partners is a coal producer and marketer primarily in the eastern U.S. Its ROA has been increasing since 2008 and increased to 22.5% in 2011 from 21.4% in 2010. The average return on assets for the oil, gas & consumable fuels industry in the trailing 12 months is 24.47%.

  In 2011, its total assets increased to $1.7 billion from $1.1 billion in 2010. Its net income increased to $389 million from $321 million.

  Factset Research Systems Inc. (FDS)

  Factset researches global market trends and develops analytical tools for investors. Of all of GuruFocus��5-star predictable companies, it has the highest return on assets at 27%. ROA has been increasing over the past several years. The average return on assets for the software industry for the trailing 12 m

Housing Starts up 7% for March

Housing starts jumped 7% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.036 million for March, according to a Commerce Department report (link opens in PDF) released today.

Market analysts had expected a slight 1.4% month-to-month increase. After a 7.3% dip in January and a 0.8% bump for February, these newest numbers tentatively put housing starts back on an upward trend.

Source: Census.gov. 

On a regional level, the South and Midwest carried the nation's starts, up 10.9% and 9.6%, respectively. Housing starts in the West bumped up 2.7%, while Northeast numbers came in 5.8% below February's.

Top 10 Value Stocks To Invest In 2014

Housing completions for March hit a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 800,000, 11% above February's numbers. March building permits fell a seasonally adjusted 3.9% to an annual rate of 902,000 after a 4.6% rise in February. Analysts had expected a rate of 942,000.

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Top Financial Companies To Buy For 2014

Small cap stocks Alliance Creative Group Inc (OTCMKTS: ACGX), Dale Jarrett Racing Adventure Inc (OTCMKTS: DJRT), Inscor Inc (OTCMKTS: IOGA) and Solar Thin Films Inc (OTCMKTS: SLTZ) have all been getting some attention lately in various investment newsletters and it should come as no surprise that two out of four of these stocks have been the subject of paid promotions ��which tend to benefit traders. However, two out of four of these stocks also have pretty good financials for being small cap OTC stocks and that might make them attractive to investors with a long term time horizon. So which of these stocks might make traders some profits in the short term and investors some profits over the longer term? Here is a closer look to help you decide:

Alliance Creative Group Inc (OTCMKTS: ACGX) Has Pretty Good Financials for an OTC Stock

Small cap Alliance Creative Group is a printing, packaging, product development, management and procurement company. On Friday, Alliance Creative Group rose 3.70% to $0.0028 for a market cap of $41,439 plus ACGX is down 89.8% over the past year and up 600% over the past five years according to Google Finance.

Top Financial Companies To Buy For 2014: Waddell & Reed Financial Inc. (WDR)

Waddell & Reed Financial, Inc., through its subsidiaries, provides investment management, investment product underwriting and distribution, and shareholder services administration to mutual funds, and institutional and separately managed accounts in the United States. The company acts as an investment adviser for institutional and other private investors, and provides sub advisory services to other investment companies; underwrites and distributes registered open-end mutual fund portfolios; distributes business partners� variable annuity products, and retirement and life insurance products to advisors channel customers; sells life insurance and disability products underwritten by various carriers; and offers fee-based asset allocation investment advisory products to advisors channel customers. It distributes investment products through independent financial advisors, broker/dealers, registered investment advisors, and various retirement platforms; and markets investment a dvisory services to institutional investors directly or through consultants. Waddell & Reed Financial, Inc. was founded in 1937 and is based in Overland Park, Kansas.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Rich Duprey]

  Mutual fund complex�Waddell & Reed Financial� (NYSE: WDR  ) announced today its third-quarter dividend of $0.28 per share, the same rate it's paid for the past two quarters after raising the payout 12% from $0.25 per share.

Top Financial Companies To Buy For 2014: Charles Stanley Grp(CAY.L)

Charles Stanley Group Plc, together with its subsidiaries, provides investment and financial services in the United Kingdom. The company operates in three segments: Private Clients, Financial Services, and Charles Stanley Securities. The Private Clients segment offers investment management services to individuals, trusts, and charities. The Financial Services segment provides corporate finance and wealth management services; pension administration services; and markets unit trusts, open ended investment company units, and packaged financial products to private clients. The Charles Stanley Securities segment offers stock broking, financial planning and benefit consultancy, and small and mid-cap advisory and institutional broking services. The company also provides life and health assurance, and tax advisory services. Charles Stanley Group Plc was founded in 1792 and is headquartered in London, the United Kingdom.

5 Best Small Cap Stocks To Invest In 2014: Clifton Savings Bancorp Inc.(CSBK)

Clifton Savings Bancorp, Inc. operates as the holding company for Clifton Savings Bank that provides various financial services to consumers and businesses in northeast New Jersey. It offers liquid and term deposit instruments, such as free checking accounts, business checking accounts, negotiable order of withdrawal accounts, high yield checking accounts, money market accounts, passbook and statement savings accounts, and club and certificates of deposit. The company?s loan portfolio includes one to four-family residential loans; multi-family and commercial real estate loans; residential construction loans; and consumer loans, including second mortgage loans, loans secured by passbook or certificate accounts, and home equity lines of credit. It operates 12 full-service banking offices. The company was founded in 1928 and is headquartered in Clifton, New Jersey. Clifton Savings Bancorp, Inc. is a subsidiary of Clifton MHC.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Tim Melvin]

  Price appears to share my enthusiasm for smaller bank stocks, as he currently own 19 small regional and community banks. He has been buying them consistently over the past few years, and I think he sees the same consolidation wave and shareholder value increase in the future that I do. He added to one position this quarter, buying more shares of Clifton Savings Bank (CSBK), the mutual holding company for the 11-branch bank in northern New Jersey. It looks like the bank trades for 1.9 times book value, but after the second-step conversion process is completed, the shares will trade at a slight discount to book. The bank is in excellent condition with an equity-to-assets ratio of almost 18 and nonperforming assets at just 0.53% of total assets.

Top Financial Companies To Buy For 2014: Towne Bank(TOWN)

TowneBank, through its subsidiaries, provides retail and commercial banking products and services in the Greater Hampton Roads region in southeastern Virginia. The company operates in three segments: Banking, Realty, and Insurance. The Banking segment provides various deposits products, including checking accounts, demand deposits, negotiable order of withdrawal accounts, savings accounts, money rate savings, certificates of deposit, and individual retirement accounts; personal loans, including secured and unsecured loans for financing automobiles, home improvements, education, and personal investments; commercial loans comprising secured and unsecured loans for working capital, business expansion, and equipment and machinery purchases; and fixed- and floating-rate mortgage loans, as well as real estate construction and acquisition loans. This segment also provides safe deposit boxes, cash management services, travelers? checks, direct deposit of payroll and social securi ty checks, and automatic drafts for various accounts, as well as Internet and on-call banking services. In addition, it offers documentation to accomplish tax deferral to investors; and financial, retirement, and estate planning services, as well as assistance on various investment options, including alternative investments, annuities, margin accounts, convertible bonds, and pension and profit sharing plans. The Realty segment provides residential real estate, resort property management, and commercial residential title insurance services, as well as originates mortgage loans. The Insurance segment provides life, property, casualty, and vehicle insurance services; travel, medical, and baggage protection insurance for travelers; and employee benefit programs, including medical, dental, vision, and disability insurance, as well as serves as an administrator for health care and dependent care flexible benefit plans. The company was founded in 1998 and is headquartered in Portsm outh, Virginia.

Top Financial Companies To Buy For 2014: Encore Capital Group Inc(ECPG)

Encore Capital Group, Inc., through its subsidiaries, engages in consumer debt buying and recovery business primarily in the United States. The company purchases and manages portfolios of defaulted consumer receivables, such as consumers? unpaid financial commitments to credit originators, including banks, credit unions, consumer finance companies, commercial retailers, auto finance companies, and telecommunication companies; and receivables subject to bankruptcy proceedings or consumer bankruptcy receivables. It also provides bankruptcy services to the finance industry, such as negotiating bankruptcy plans, monitoring and managing consumer?s compliance with bankruptcy plans, and recommending courses of action to clients in case of a deviation from a bankruptcy plan. The company was founded in 1998 and is headquartered in San Diego, California.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By John Udovich]

  Small cap debt collection stocks like�Asta Funding, Inc (NASDAQ: ASFI), Encore Capital Group, Inc (NASDAQ: ECPG) and Portfolio Recovery Associates, Inc (NASDAQ: PRAA) could be the latest target of a government shakedown or crackdown as the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau said this week that�before it formally proposes any rules for debt collection, it wants to hear how collectors verify borrowers' information and communicate with consumers. In other words, debt collectors could be restricted from using text messages, social media or other Internet-based tools in their pursuit to collect debts. With about one in 10 Americans coming out of the financial crisis with some debt in collection, investing in small cap�debt collection stocks has been profitable for investors. However, there is no timeline for when any new rules might be released for review or come into effect.

• [By Sally Jones]

  Today�� diverse companies were chosen for their speculative enterprises. Both companies deal in the territory of what if. If Encore Capital Group Inc. (ECPG) can collect more from a huge portfolio of consumer debt, the company would grow. If Sophiris Bio Inc. (SPHS), a 10-person biopharm, is successful in competing to provide relief for prostate BPH symptoms, the company would soar.
  

Top Financial Companies To Buy For 2014: Prudential Corp(PRU.L)

Prudential plc, together with its subsidiaries, provides retail financial products and services, and asset management services to individuals and businesses in Asia, the United States, and the United Kingdom. It offers life insurance, health and protection products, and mutual funds, as well as selected personal lines property and casualty insurance, group insurance, institutional fund management, and consumer finance. The company has distribution relationships with approximately 75 institutions in Asia; and distributes its insurance products primarily through an agency sales force together with selected banks, and mutual funds through banks and brokers. It also offers fixed annuities, variable annuities, life insurance, managed accounts, and investment products, as well as institutional products, including guaranteed investment contracts, medium term note funding agreements, and funding agreements through independent insurance agents; independent broker-dealers; regional broker-dealers; wirehouses; registered investment advisers; a small captive agency channel, consisting of approximately 100 life insurance agents; and banks, credit unions, and other financial institutions. In addition, it provides retail financial products and services, including long-term insurance, asset accumulation and retirement income products, retail investment and unit trust products, and fund management services through financial advisers, partnership agreements with banks and other financial institutions, and direct marketing. The company was founded in 1848 and is based in London, the United Kingdom.

Top Financial Companies To Buy For 2014: Liontrust Asset Management(LIO.L)

Liontrust Asset Management plc is a publicly owned investment manager. The firm primarily provides its services to individuals and institutional investors through its subsidiaries. Through its subsidiaries, it manages equity portfolios, unit trusts, individual savings accounts, offshore funds, absolute return funds, pooled pension funds, and segregated institutional accounts for its clients. The firm invests in the public equity markets of United Kingdom and Europe through its subsidiaries. Through its subsidiaries, it primarily invests in growth stocks of companies to create its equity portfolios. Liontrust Asset Management plc was founded in 1994 and is based in London, United Kingdom.

Top Financial Companies To Buy For 2014: S&T Bancorp Inc.(STBA)

S&T Bancorp, Inc. operates as the holding company for the S&T Bank, which provides community banking services in Pennsylvania. The company accepts time and demand deposit accounts, including interest and noninterest-bearing demand, money market, and savings accounts, as well as certificates of deposit. It also originates commercial and consumer loans; and offers letters of credit and credit card services. In addition, the company operates as a reinsurer of credit life, accident, and health insurance policies; distributes life insurance and long-term disability income insurance products; and provides insurance agency services. Further, it offers discount brokerage, personal financial planning, cash management, estate planning and administration, employee benefit investment management and administration, and corporate and other fiduciary services; provides wealth management services that comprise executor and trustee under wills and deeds, employee benefits guardian and cust odian, and other trust and brokerage services; and operates as a registered investment advisor, which manages private investment accounts for individuals and institutions, as well as advises the Stewart Capital Mid Cap Fund. The company operates a network of 51 offices located in Allegheny, Armstrong, Blair, Butler, Clarion, Clearfield, Indiana, Jefferson, and Westmoreland counties of Pennsylvania. S&T Bancorp, Inc. was founded in 1902 and is headquartered in Indiana, Pennsylvania.

Startup bets on cheap price for 84-mpg three-wh…

LOS ANGELES -- If you want to be seen as a bonafide automotive maverick, there's no better way than to pull up in a three-wheel car.

But engineering executive Paul Elio thinks the time has come for the commuter "car" he has shown here. He hopes to sell it for as little as $6,800 and claims gas mileage as high as 49 miles per gallon in the city, 84 mpg on the highway. It has one door, two seats and three wheels. The driver sits in front of the passenger.

The Elio, as the three-wheeler is called, targets people who might not have been been shopping for a new car. "We're creating this segment that doesn't exist," Elio says. "America is ready for this."

If the country is ready, it will be a sharp departure from the past attempts to produce three-wheelers. Elio says he is addressing objections that sank others:

•Safety. Like all three wheelers, Elio would be regulated by the government as a motorcycle, but Elio says he aims to meet car five-star safety standards. It will have three airbags and energy-absorbing zones for crashes.

•Features. The vehicle would have standard air conditioning, audio and power windows. With its three-cylinder, 55-horsepower engine, it has a top speed of 100 miles per hour.

•Affordability. Elio envisions a financing plan for buyers to pay little or no money up front and get credit card that would charge them triple for gasoline with the surplus used to pay down the loan. He says high fuel economy would offset the gas price.

Though the idea might seem three-wheel lunacy, Elio is not easily dismissed. He says he has raised $47 million, secured a former General Motors' plant in Shreveport, La., for production and taken 5,563 reservations as of last week, for which buyers plunked down $100 to $1,000.

"There is tremendous momentum now," he says. "Everything is falling into place."

All he needs is $200 million.

That's what he says he'll need to start production late next year. He says continued interest in the car will ! draw investors. "Money will come in when we need it."

But he faces big hurdles. Though others have tried, few have gotten three-wheel projects off the ground. "It's an uphill battle," says Ron Cogan, publisher of the Green Car Journal. "Anyone who starts a new automobile company faces incredible odds. To start out with a three-wheel vehicle is already having one hand tied behind your back."

People worry about about safety, noise and small size compared to other vehicles. "They don't see it as a car. They see it as an enclosed three-wheel motorcycle," Cogan says. Others agree.

Then there is practicality. "It's fine if you're going to use it as a moderate-distance commuter (car). It's not something you'd take on a long trip," says Joe Phillippi of AutoTrends Consulting.

Elio committed to the idea during the 2008 gas price spike and says his marketing surveys show enthusiasm still high despite critics and lower gas prices.

"They want this thing. There is huge impatience."

Markets Break Five-Session Losing Streak, End Week With Gains

After all the debate about whether or not good economic news is good news for the market, the U.S. stocks closed on Friday afternoon with a definitive answer: goods news is, indeed good news.

The Dow, Nasdaq and S&P 500 all finished with gains Friday noon, breaking a losing streak that stretched five consecutive sessions. The Dow returned to 16,000 territory with a closing price a little over 16,020, representing a 1.26% gain for the day. The Nasdaq finished for a gain of 0.73%, or 4062.52 points. And the S&P 500 closed with 1805.09 points, or a gain of 1.12%. While it briefly crossed positive weekly territory Friday afternoon, the S&P's closing price ultimately gives it a 0.16% loss for the week, breaking an 8-week streak of gains.

10 Best Casino Stocks To Invest In 2014

The markets were boosted by a stronger-than-expected jobs report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, which early on Friday announced that 203,000 jobs were added in November, well above economist predictions of a 180,000 gain. The unemployment rate dropped to 7% in November, down from 7.3% in October. The jobs report comes on the heels of better-than-expected private-sector job growth, GDP growth and jobless claims, and with all the news added together, investors seemed to take it as a sign that the economy is ready for the Fed to begin tapering its monthly $85 billion stream into the economy.

Earlier in the week, good economic news was not good news for the markets, which tumbled after the release of the ADP payroll report on Wednesday and again after Thursday's GDP upwards revision. Friday's jobs report was enough confirmation of consistent economic growth for investors to feel more confident about a Fed taper; this confidence helped the markets almost entirely recoup the losses from earlier in the week.

Also adding to the rosier economic picture was the Michigan consumer sentiment index, which rose from 75.1 in November to 82.5 in early December, well above the 76-point consensus. While this is down from the 85.1-point high in July, High Frequency Economics chief U.S. economist Jim O'Sullivan said in a note on Friday that "the ongoing improvement in the labor market should lead to further gains in coming months."

Top Canadian Companies To Watch For 2014

Every quarter, many money managers have to disclose what they've bought and sold, via "13F" filings. Their latest moves can shine a bright light on smart stock picks.

Today, let's look at Atalanta Sosnoff, which was founded�in 1981 and is based in New York City. Its investment style�is oriented toward growth stocks, as its managers seek earnings growth and multiple expansion. The firm's large-cap equity strategy has outperformed�the S&P 500 handily since its inception, growing 10.2-fold, vs. 7.3-fold for the S&P 500. In 2010, U.S. investment bank Evercore Partners�bought a 49% stake in Atalanta Sosnoff.

The company's reportable stock portfolio totaled $4.1 billion�in value as of June 30, 2013.

Interesting developments
So what does Atalanta Sosnoff's latest quarterly 13F filing tell us? Here are a few interesting details:

The biggest new holdings are Canadian Pacific Railway�and Allstate. Other new holdings of interest include Pinnacle Foods (NYSE: PF  ) and Eaton (NYSE: ETN  ) . Pinnacle Foods debuted via an IPO earlier this year, and soon after, initiated�a dividend, which yields about 2.8%. Its brands�include Birds Eye, Aunt Jemima, Hungry-Man, Van de Kamp's, Armour, Lender's, Mrs. Paul's, Vlasic, Log Cabin, Mrs. Butterworth, and Duncan Hines, among others. With the company carrying significant debt, it's reasonable that some worry about its interest in acquiring Unilever's�Wish-Bone salad dressing brand and Del Monte Foods' canned foods.

Top Canadian Companies To Watch For 2014: 3M Company(MMM)

3M Company, together with subsidiaries, operates as a diversified technology company worldwide. The company?s Industrial and Transportation segment offers tapes, coated and non-woven abrasives, adhesives, specialty materials, filtration products, energy control products, closure systems for personal hygiene products, acoustic systems products, and components and products that are used in the manufacture, repair, and maintenance of automotive, marine, aircraft, and specialty vehicles. Its Health Care segment provides medical and surgical supplies, skin health and infection prevention products, inhalation and transdermal drug delivery systems, dental and orthodontic products, health information systems, and food safety products. The company?s Display and Graphics offers optical film solutions for LCD electronic displays; computer screen filters; reflective sheeting for transportation safety; commercial graphics sheeting and systems; and mobile interactive solutions, includin g mobile display technology, visual systems products, and computer privacy filters. The company?s Consumer and Office segment provides office supply products, stationery products, construction and home improvement products, home care products, protective material products, certain consumer retail personal safety products, and consumer health care products. Its Safety, Security and Protection Services segment offers personal protection products, safety and security products, cleaning and protection products for commercial establishments, track and trace solutions, and roofing granules for asphalt shingles. The company?s Electro and Communications segment provides packaging and interconnection devices; fluids that are used in the manufacture of computer chips, and for cooling electronics and lubricating computer hard disk drives; high-temperature and display tapes; insulating materials, including tapes and resins; and related items. The company was founded in 1902 and is based in St. Paul, Minnesota.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Dividends4Life]

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• [By Dan Caplinger]

  Moreover, it's not as if Dow stocks haven't delivered some solid dividend increases lately. Just earlier this week, Procter & Gamble (NYSE: PG  ) declared a payout 7% higher than what it paid in the previous quarter, marking its 57th straight annual dividend increase. Back in February, Coca-Cola (NYSE: KO  ) came through with an even more aggressive increase of 10% in its quarterly payout, while 3M (NYSE: MMM  ) hiked its dividend by 8%. Both companies also have half-century streaks of increasing payouts annually.

• [By John Maxfield]

  Alternatively, shares of 3M (NYSE: MMM  ) continue to drag on the blue-chip index. The industrial conglomerate reported its earnings yesterday, sending shares in the company down nearly 3%. Like many of its peers on the Dow, 3M saw its revenue decline on a year-over-year basis, and felt compelled to lower its forward earnings guidance for the remainder of the year.

• [By The Small Investor]

  My maxim as a small investor is "the future belongs to the youth." That holds true during a recovery or despite a recession. I consult my young adult children to reach mutual investment decisions, or give a little seed money to co-opt their interest as stakeholders. We buy name-brand commodities (such as beverages or drugs), entertainment, new products, and those companies in their supply chains that carve new needs and emerging domestic and global markets. I am not buying so long as the government is shutdown. Innovation is the common thread. I will look for long buying opportunities in innovative companies such as 3-D Systems (DDD), 3-M (MMM), Corning (GLW), GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), Google (GOOG), Nike (NKE), Sam Adams (SAM), Viacom (VIA), Samsung.

Top Canadian Companies To Watch For 2014: PennyMac Mortgage Investment Trust(PMT)

PennyMac Mortgage Investment Trust is based in the United States.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Jon C. Ogg]

  Sterne Agee’s team said, “We continue to prefer credit risk oriented Mortgage REITs over their Agency-only focused counterparts. Among the larger cap names in our coverage, our top picks are MFA Financial, Inc. (NYSE: MFA) and PennyMac Mortgage Investment Trust (NYSE: PMT).”

Top Dividend Companies To Own For 2014: Abbott Laboratories(ABT)

Abbott Laboratories engages in the discovery, development, manufacture, and sale of health care products worldwide. The company offers adult and pediatric pharmaceuticals for rheumatoid and psoriatic arthritis, ankylosing spondylitis, psoriasis, and Crohn's disease; dyslipidemia; HIV infection; prostate cancer, endometriosis and central precocious puberty, and anemia caused by uterine fibroids; respiratory syncytial virus; adult males who have low or no testosterone; secondary hyperparathyroidism; hypothyroidism; and pancreatic exocrine insufficiency, as well as anesthesia products. It also provides diagnostic products, such as immunoassay systems; chemistry systems; assays used for screening and/or diagnosis for drugs of abuse, cancer, therapeutic drug monitoring, fertility, physiological, and infectious diseases; instruments that automate the extraction, purification, and preparation of DNA and RNA from patient samples, and detect and measure infections agents; genomic-b ased tests; hematology systems and reagents; and point-of-care diagnostic systems and tests for blood analysis. In addition, the company offers a line of pediatric and adult nutritional products. Further, it provides coronary, endovascular, vessel closure, and structural heart devices, such as drug-eluting stent systems, coronary metallic stents, balloon dilatation products, coronary guidewires, vessel closure devices, carotid stent systems, percutaneous valve repair systems, and drug eluting bioresorbable vascular products. Additionally, the company provides blood glucose monitoring meters, test strips, data management software, and accessories for people with diabetes; and medical devices for the eye, including cataract surgery, lasik surgery, contact lens, and dry eye products, as well as branded generic pharmaceutical products. Abbott primarily serves retailers, wholesalers, hospitals, and health care facilities. Abbott was founded in 1888 and is headquartered in Abbott Park, Illinois.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Keith Speights]

  1. Medical device companies
  Several medical device companies have already slashed jobs or are planning to do so because of Obamacare. Abbott Labs (NYSE: ABT  ) began shedding the first of 1,900 jobs a few years ago. The company attributed the cuts partially to new fees and pricing pressures resulting from the Affordable Care Act.

• [By Rick Munarriz]

  2. Abbott Labs (NYSE: ABT  )
  Babies have to eat, and mother's milk isn't always an option. There are plenty of big companies in the baby formula market. Mead Johnson Nutrition is a major player with Enfamil, but Abbott is no slouch with Similac. Abbott is also the company behind the electrolyte-restoring Pedialyte and the flavored drinks and shakes of PediaSure.

• [By Dan Caplinger]

  AbbVie has just completed its first quarter as an independent publicly traded company, having left Abbott Labs (NYSE: ABT  ) with the company's generic drugs, diagnostics, nutrition, and medical-device segments. Now that AbbVie can focus solely on pharma, will it find ways to face its huge coming patent cliff? Let's take an early look at what's been happening with AbbVie over the past quarter and what we're likely to see in its quarterly report.

• [By Brian Orelli]

  After completing a $5 billion buyback program started late 2008, Abbott Labs (NYSE: ABT  ) is ready to buy another $3 billion worth of Abbott Laboratories stock.

Top Canadian Companies To Watch For 2014: KBR Inc. (KBR)

KBR, Inc. operates as an engineering, construction, and services company supporting the energy, hydrocarbon, government services, minerals, civil infrastructure, power, and industrial sectors worldwide. Its Downstream business unit provides front end engineering design; detailed engineering; engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC); EPC management; and program management services to petrochemical, refining, coal gasification, and syngas markets. The company?s Government and Infrastructure business unit provides program and project management, contingency logistics, operations and maintenance, construction management, engineering, and other services to military and civilian branches of governments and private clients. Its Services business unit delivers engineering, construction, construction management, fabrication, maintenance, and turnaround services. It also offers maintenance, construction, and drilling support services for offshore oil and gas producing facili ties using semisubmersible vessels. This segment serves oil, gas, petrochemicals, and hydrocarbon processing industries, as well as power, alternate energy, pulp and paper, industrial and manufacturing, and pharmaceutical industries. The company?s Technology business unit offers various process technologies, including value-added technologies in the coal monetization, petrochemical, refining, and syngas markets. Its Upstream business unit constructs liquefied natural gas, gas-to-liquids, onshore oil and gas production facilities, offshore oil and gas production facilities, and onshore and offshore pipelines. The company?s Ventures business unit invests in and manages projects, where the company provides engineering, construction, construction management or operations, and maintenance services. KBR, Inc. was founded in 1901 and is based in Houston, Texas.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Rich Smith]

  The larger of the two awards, and by a few orders of magnitude, went to government contractor KBR (NYSE: KBR  ) , which won a firm-fixed-price, option-filled contract valued at up to $134.2 million to develop and construct a land-based missile defense system to be built in Deveselu, Romania. According to Time magazine, the missile base will be constructed on 430 acres of property located -- and we quote -- "125 miles southwest of Count Dracula's castle."

Top Canadian Companies To Watch For 2014: Progressive Waste Solutions Ltd. (BIN)

Progressive Waste Solutions Ltd. operates as a vertically integrated non-hazardous solid waste management company in North America. It operates through three segments: Canada, the U.S. south, and the U.S. northeast. The company provides waste collection, transfer, recycling, and disposal services to commercial, industrial, municipal, and residential customers in 13 U.S. states, the District of Columbia, and 6 Canadian provinces. It also owns and operates a power generating plant fuelled by landfill gas; and generates and sells methane gas. The company was formerly known as IESI-BFC Ltd. and changed its name to Progressive Waste Solutions Ltd. in May 2011. Progressive Waste Solutions Ltd. was founded in 2001 and is based in Vaughan, Canada.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Sean Williams]

  Keep in mind, though, this is a sectorwide problem, not just one affecting Waste Management. Canada's Progressive Waste Solutions (NYSE: BIN  ) delivered an 11% increase in first-quarter revenue but succumbed to a decrease of 0.5% in recycling revenue because of lower realized metal prices. �