10 Best Oil Service Stocks To Watch Right Now

Is a big merger brewing in the oil services field?

Citing people familiar with the deal, the Wall Street Journal reports that Halliburton (HAL) is in talks to buy Baker Hughes (BHI). The talks are reportedly moving quickly and the two could soon reach an agreement.

What about a price? The newspaper couldn�� get a number, but argues that any deal would have to bring a premium to Baker Hughes�� $21.6 billion market capitalization.

Investors seem to approve. Baker Hughes surged 15.2% to close at $58.75 shortly before today�� closing bell, while Halliburton jumped just over 1% to end at $53.79.

If it happens, Halliburton buying Baker Hughes would be one of the biggest acquisitions for the industry in recent memory. �It comes at a time when companies related to the oil industry ��from major producers to offshore drillers — have been battered by slipping crude oil prices.

Crude oil for December delivery fell below $75 a barrel today for the first time in more than three years, and dragged energy stocks along for the ride.

Hot Recreation Companies To Watch For 2015: Twin Disc Incorporated(TWIN)

Twin Disc, Incorporated engages in the design, manufacture, and sale of marine and heavy duty off-highway power transmission equipment. The company?s product portfolio includes marine transmissions, surface drives, propellers, and boat management systems, as well as power-shift transmissions, hydraulic torque converters, power take-offs, industrial clutches, and controls systems. It sells its products to customers primarily in the pleasure craft, commercial, and military marine markets, as well as in the energy and natural resources, government, and industrial markets through direct sales force and distributor network worldwide. Twin Disc, Incorporated was founded in 1918 and is headquartered in Racine, Wisconsin.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Eric Volkman]

  It was chief executive election time at Twin Disc (NASDAQ: TWIN  ) , with a familiar name emerging as the winner. The company's board of directors has chosen John Batten to be its new CEO and president, effective Nov. 1. Batten replaces his father, Michael, who is to retire effective Dec. 31. The elder Batten will continue to serve in his present capacity as board chairman.

10 Best Oil Service Stocks To Watch Right Now: Intel Corporation(INTC)

Intel Corporation engages in the design, manufacture, and sale of integrated circuits for computing and communications industries worldwide. It offers microprocessor products used in notebooks, netbooks, desktops, servers, workstations, storage products, embedded applications, communications products, consumer electronics devices, and handhelds. The company also provides system on chip products that integrate its core processing functionalities with other system components, such as graphics, audio, and video, onto a single chip. In addition, it offers chipset products that send data between the microprocessor and input, display, and storage devices, including keyboard, mouse, monitor, hard drive, and CD, DVD, or Blu-ray drives; motherboards designed for desktop, server, and workstation platforms, and that has connectors for attaching devices to the bus; and wired and wireless connectivity products consisting of network adapters and embedded wireless cards used to translate and transmit data across networks. Further, the company provides NAND flash memory products primarily used in portable memory storage devices, digital camera memory cards, and solid-state drives; software products comprising operating systems, middleware, and tools used to develop, run, and manage various enterprise, consumer, embedded, and handheld devices; and software development tools that enable the creation of applications. Additionally, it develops computing platforms, which are integrated hardware and software computing technologies designed to offer an optimized solution. The company sells its products principally to original equipment manufacturers, original design manufacturers, PC components and other products users, and other manufacturers of industrial and communications equipment. It has a strategic alliance with Scientific Conservation Inc. Intel Corporation was founded in 1968 and is based in Santa Clara, California.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Paul Ausick]

  Among heavily traded DJIA stocks, Intel Corp. (NASDAQ: INTC) traded about 7 million shares below its daily average today, but we think there is value and growth in the world’s largest chip maker. Shares traded over $25 for a while today before slipping back a bit to close at $24.93, up 0.44%, in a 52-week range of $19.98 to $25.98.

10 Best Oil Service Stocks To Watch Right Now: Accelrys Inc.(ACCL)

Accelrys, Inc. develops and commercializes scientific business intelligence software and solutions in the United States, Europe, and the Asia Pacific. The company offers Pipeline Pilot, Accelrys enterprise R&D platform, which allows users to aggregate, integrate, and mine structured and unstructured scientific data, such as chemical structures, biological sequences, and complex digital images; and filters, normalizes, and performs statistical analysis on the scientific data and provides visual reports to scientists and scientific managers. It also provides computer aided design modeling and simulation software that allows scientists to perform computations of chemical, biological, and materials properties to simulate, visualize, and analyze chemical and biological systems, as well as communicate the results to other scientists; and data management and informatics software to capture, store, manage, and mine scientific data information. In addition, the company offers Enter prise Lab Notebook, which provides a digital environment to plan, execute, record, store, back-up, and share daily research activities; lab execution systems; and content databases to support research activities through a collection of factual databases and reference works. Further, it provides software wrappers that allows customers to run their own algorithms on the company?s R&D platform; enterprise-wide informatics systems, which integrate customers? internal systems with software from various vendors; contract research services; onsite training and implementation, Web-based training, and data migration services; and support services. The company serves pharmaceutical, biotechnology, agricultural, energy, chemicals, aerospace, consumer packaged goods, and industrial product industries, as well as government and academic entities through direct sales force, telesales, and distributors. Accelrys, Inc. was founded in 1993 and is headquartered in San Diego, California.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Seth Jayson]

  Calling all cash flows
  When you are trying to buy the market's best stocks, it's worth checking up on your companies' free cash flow once a quarter or so, to see whether it bears any relationship to the net income in the headlines. That's what we do with this series. Today, we're checking in on Accelrys (Nasdaq: ACCL  ) , whose recent revenue and earnings are plotted below.

• [By Alex Planes]

  What: Shares of Accelrys (NASDAQ: ACCL  ) are down by over 20% today after the company took a big, ugly swing and a miss on its first-quarter earnings and upcoming guidance.

10 Best Oil Service Stocks To Watch Right Now: Nokia Oyj (NOK)

Nokia Corporation (Nokia) has three operating segments: Devices & Services; NAVTEQ, and Nokia Siemens Networks. Devices & Services is responsible for developing and managing the Company�� portfolio of mobile products, as well as designing and developing services, including applications and content. NAVTEQ is a provider of digital map information and related location-based content and services for mobile navigation devices, automotive navigation systems, Internet-based mapping applications, and government and business solutions. Nokia Siemens Networks provides mobile and fixed network infrastructure, communications and networks service platforms, as well as professional services and business solutions, to operators and service providers. In April 2010, the Company completed the acquisition of Novarra, Inc. and MetaCarta Inc. In September 2010, Nokia acquired Motally, Inc. In December 2010, Renesas Electronics Corporation acquired Nokia�� Wireless Modem business. In August 2012, the Company sold a portfolio consisting of over 500 patents and patent applications worldwide to Vringo Inc.

Mobile Phones

Nokia produces a range of mobile phones based on the Series 30 and Series 40 operating systems. These products have voice capability, basic messaging and calendar features, and, increasingly, color displays, radios, basic cameras and Bluetooth functionality. Series 30-based mobile phones do not provide Internet connectivity, access to Ovi or offer opportunities for application development by third parties. During 2010, its portfolio of Series 30-based mobile phones included the Nokia 1616, equipped with a long-lasting anti-dust keypad, frequency modulation (FM) radio, a flashlight, and a display that makes viewing information on the small screen easier. Its Series 40 operating system powers the mobile phone models and supports more functionalities and applications, such as Internet connectivity and access to its services.

Series 40 is open to third-party developers! to build Java and Adobe Flash Lite applications and content, which they can make available through the Ovi Store. It combines a touchscreen and a traditional phone keypad, is equipped with a five megapixel camera, quad-band for voice calling and third generation (3G), high speed packet access (HSPA) and wireless fidelity (WiFi) connectivity for data in a bushed aluminum finish. Other additions to the Company�� portfolio included the Nokia C3 Touch & Type, a stainless steel device, which also combines the touch screen and traditional phone keypad, and the Nokia 2690, memory card slot, and which gives access to Ovi Mail and features an FM radio and video graphics array (VGA) camera. It is also incorporating some of the software features and related services popular in its smartphones into the Series 40-based mobile phones. These include the new Ovi Web browser, which is based on the browser technology. It also offers Ovi Mail, a free e-mail service designed for users in emerging markets with Internet-enabled devices.

Smartphones

Nokia�� smartphones are based on the Symbian operating system, which supports an array of functionalities and provides opportunities for the development of applications and content by third parties. During 2010, Nokia also offered a product built on the Linux-based Maemo operating system. The Company makes smartphones for a range of consumer groups, offering Internet access, entertainment, location-based and other services, applications and content. With smartphones, its product categories include music players, cameras, pocketable computers, gaming consoles and navigation devices.

During 2010, the Company introduced a family of smartphones based on a new generation of the Symbian operating system. These were the Nokia N8, a smartphone crafted from anodized aluminum and available in a range of colors, and which offers imaging, video and entertainment capabilities; the Nokia C7, a sleek, full-touch smartphone crafted from stainless stee! l and gla! ss that is designed to appeal to social networkers; the Nokia C6-01, a smaller, full-touch smartphone that features Nokia ClearBlack display technology for outdoor visibility; and the Nokia E7, a business smartphone equipped with a full keyboard and 4-inch touchscreen display also featuring Nokia ClearBlack technology.

During 2010, the Company introduced a number of models based on the Symbian operating system, including the Nokia C6-00, a messaging-optimized smartphone with a 3.2-inch high definition (HD) touchscreen display, a slide out four-row QWERTY keyboard and a five megapixel camera; and the Nokia E5, a messaging-optimized QWERTY smartphone that builds on the Nokia E71 and Nokia E72. The Company also manufactures and sells luxury mobile devices under the Vertu brand. Vertu has more than 600 points of sale globally, including more than 90 Vertu boutiques, in almost 70 countries worldwide.

NAVTEQ

NAVTEQ Corporation (NAVTEQ) offers context and geographical services through Ovi Maps to a range of location-based services, such as pedestrian navigation, traffic and public transport information, local services and city guides, integration with social networks and contextual advertising. In January 2010, Nokia introduced a new version of Ovi Maps for its smartphones, which includes navigation to the user, and it is using NAVTEQ�� digital map information and related location-based content in this offering. This new version of Ovi Maps includes car and pedestrian navigation features, such as turn-by-turn voice guidance. During 2010, the Company�� NAVTEQ launched its new advanced mapping collection technology, NAVTEQ True. During 2010, its NAVTEQ launched Natural Guidance, a product to enable guidance in a human manner through the use of descriptive reference cues.

NAVTEQ�� map database enables the Company�� customers to offer navigation, route planning, location-based services and other geographic information-based products and services to con! sumer and! commercial users. NAVTEQ provides its database to mobile device and handset manufacturers, automobile manufacturers and dealers, navigation systems manufacturers, software developers, Internet portals, parcel and overnight delivery services companies and governmental and quasi- governmental entities, among others. The products and services incorporating NAVTEQ map data include Advanced Driver Assistance Systems, Dynamic navigation, Route planning, Location-based services and Geographic information systems. Advanced Driver Assistance Systems are in-vehicle applications that require geographic data, such as curve, slope, speed limits and highly detailed geometry. Dynamic navigation is real-time, detailed turn-by-turn route guidance, which can be provided to end-users through vehicle navigation systems, as well as through Global Positioning System (GPS)-enabled handheld navigation devices, and other mobile devices.

Route planning consists of driving directions, route optimization and map display through services provided by Internet portals and through computer software for personal and commercial use. Location-based services include location-specific information services, providing information about people and places that is tailored to the proximity of the specific user. The applications using NAVTEQ�� map database include points of interest locators, mobile directory assistance services, emergency response systems and vehicle-based telematics services. Geographic information systems render geographic representations of information and assets for management analysis and decision making. In addition, NAVTEQ has a traffic and logistics data collection network in which it processes traffic incident and event information, along with traffic flow data collected through its network of roadside sensors and from GPS data records from Nokia devices and other NAVTEQ customers, in order to provide detailed traffic information to radio and television stations, in-vehicle and mobile navigation systems! , Interne! t sites and mobile device users.

NAVTEQ�� map database is a representation of road transportation networks in Europe, North America, Australia, Asia and other regions around the world. This database offers geographic coverage, including data at various levels of detail for 84 countries on six continents, covering more than 19 million miles of roadway worldwide. The most detailed coverage includes road, route and related travel information, including attributes collected by road segment that are essential for routing and navigation, such as road classifications, details regarding ramps, road barriers, sign information, street names and addresses and traffic rules and regulations. In addition, the database includes over 50 million points of interest, such as airports, hotels, restaurants, retailers, civic offices and cultural sites.

Nokia Siemens Networks

Nokia Siemens Networks has three business units: network systems; global services; and business solutions. Nokia Siemens Networks is jointly owned by Nokia and Siemens. Nokia Siemens Networks is a provider of telecommunications infrastructure hardware, software and professional services globally. Nokia Siemens Networks��customers include network operators, such as Bharti Airtel, Deutsche Telecom, France Telecom, Telefonica O2 and Vodafone, as well as service providers, such as Unitech and XO Communications. Nokia Siemens Networks has a products and services portfolio designed to address the needs of communication service providers. Nokia Siemens Networks provides its products and services to more than 600 communication service providers in over 150 countries and has systems serving in excess of 1.5 billion subscribers.

Network systems offers communication service providers both fixed and mobile network infrastructure, including Nokia Siemens Networks��Flexi Multiradio base stations, a software defined radio supporting global system for mobile (GSM), 3G and LTE radio technologies, packet product! s, optica! l transport systems and broadband access equipment. For wireless networks, Network Systems develops and manufactures GSM/EDGE and WCDMA/HSPA radio access networks for network operators. It also develops products, such as I-HSPA and new technologies, such as LTE to support the uptake of mobile data services. For fixed line networks, Network Systems focuses on transport networks. Network Systems provides the fundamental elements for high-speed transmission through optical and microwave networks, including packet-oriented technologies, such as Carrier Ethernet and traditional protocols, such as time-division multiplexing (TDM).

Global services business unit offers network operators a range of professional services, including network planning and optimization, the management of network operations and the care and maintenance of software and hardware, and a range of network implementation and turnkey solutions. As of December 31, 2010, 180 million global subscribers were managed througt Nokia Siemens Networks��global delivery hubs. Global services consists of three businesses, which include managed services, which offers network planning and optimization and the management of network operations, with the market share position in India, Latin America and the Middle East and Africa; care, which offers software and hardware maintenance, proactive and multi-vendor care and competence development services, dealing with one million global hardware service transactions, and network implementation, which offers project management and turnkey implementations and energy efficient sites, remotely activating a site every two minutes, 365 days per year.

Business solutions offers products to communication service providers for business and operations support systems and customer experience management, such as charging and billing software, service management software and subscriber database management, and products that enable enhancement and delivery of services across multiple networks and d! evices an! d convergent service control and network security, together with services related to consulting, product implementation, support and care, systems integration and managed services. Business solutions offer products for five areas, as well as services relating to consulting, product implementation, support and care, systems integration and managed services includes business support systems; operations support systems; customer experience management; service enablement and delivery, and converged service control.

The Company competes with Google, HTC, LG, Motorola, Samsung, Sony Ericsson, Apple, Tele Atlas, CISCO, NEC and Motorola.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By reports.droy]

  A month ago in one of our articles in Guru Focus titled: Is The Nokia Lumia 2520 Competing With Microsoft Surface 2 In The Market? we mentioned the ongoing competition between the Lumia and Surface brand both from the Microsoft (MSFT) stable post acquisition of Nokia (NOK) handset business by Microsoft and had predicted a trend of the Lumia outperforming the Surface.

• [By Abu Bakr Hussain]

  Nokia (NOK) jumped 4% in heavy volume after-hours trading on Wednesday night (6/19/13) after the Wall Street Journal reported that Microsoft (MSFT) had been in talks to acquire Nokia's phone business as recently as this month. Coming the day after Huawei's reported interest in Nokia (later half-heartedly retracted), I believe this represents fantastic news for Nokia shareholders and here's why. Just by these reports circulating, the market will start waking up to the true underlying value of Nokia's assets and start to re-adjust its valuation upwards accordingly. In this article, I give a review of Nokia's assets and just what may have happened between Nokia, Microsoft and Huawei in the past month.

• [By WALLSTCHEATSHEET]

  Nokia provides mobile communication products to a large user base around the world. Its products were once considered innovative but have taken the backseat in recent times. The stock has not performed well as earnings and revenue figures are not meeting investor expectations. Relative to its peers and sector, Nokia stock has trailed, in year-to-date performance, by a significant margin. STAY AWAY from Nokia stock for now.

• [By John Udovich]

  On Wednesday, Reuters reported that Nokia Corporation (NYSE: NOK)�was discussing internally whether to approach Alcatel Lucent SA about a tie-up according to unnamed sources. However, speculation over a Nokia and Alcatel Lucent SA combination�goes back several years while Nokia has reportedly held "on again, off again" discussions about buying Alcatel's wireless business as recently as late 2012. Naturally, neither company has commented on the rumors or reports.

10 Best Oil Service Stocks To Watch Right Now: E2open Inc (EOPN)

E2open, Inc., incorporated in September 2003, is a provider of cloud-based, on-demand software solutions. The Company�� software applications allow network participants to input, access and share data and execute business processes across internal operating units and external entities. Its E2open Business Network supports operational business processes of its customers and their trading partners, including supply chain management, procurement, sales and finance functions. The E2open Business Network enables integrated planning and execution across trading partner networks. The Company offers on-demand software solutions, which enable its customers to have constant access to its solutions.

The Company houses the hardware and software in third-party facilities, and provides its customers with access to the software applications, along with data security and storage, backup, and recovery services. It invoices its customers for subscription and support in advance for annual use of its software solutions. The Company�� professional services revenue is primarily derived from fees for enabling services, such as solution consulting, solution deployment, B2B on-boarding and solution support that help its customers deploy, manage and support our solutions. These services are sold in conjunction with the sale of its on-demand software solutions or on a standalone basis. It provides professional services both on a fixed fee and a time and materials basis, and invoices its customers in advance, monthly, or upon reaching project milestones.

The Company competes with Infor, Oracle, SAP, GXS Corporation, IBM/Sterling Commerce, SPS Commerce and JDA Software Group, Inc.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By The GeoTeam]

  Our recent 2013 articles on SaaS companies Selectica (SLTC), E2open (EOPN), Responsys (MKTG), Vocus (VOCS), and ExactTarget (ET) highlighted such opportunities. The average return since the inception of our coverage currently stands at around 34% (55% at their highs).

• [By Evan Niu, CFA]

  What: Shares of E2open (NASDAQ: EOPN  ) have plunged today by as much as 28% after the company reported fourth-quarter results.

  So what: Non-GAAP revenue in the fourth quarter totaled $18.1 million, shy of the $19.7 million in adjusted sales that investors were expecting. The bottom line also registered a miss, with the adjusted loss of $0.06 coming in below the consensus estimate of a $0.05 per share non-GAAP net loss. CEO Mark Woodward's comments about the company adding a record number of new customers in the quarter didn't make investors feel any better.

• [By Anna Prior]

  Cloud-based software provider E2open Inc.'s(EOPN) loss widened in its fiscal first quarter as operating expenses continued to rise.

  NGL Energy Partners LP(NGL), which bought oil-storage company TransMontaigne Inc. from Morgan Stanley (MS) (MS) last week, said it is offering to buy the outstanding units of TransMontaigne Partners LP(TLP) (TLP) in a one-for-one exchange of common units.

• [By Monica Gerson]

  E2open (NASDAQ: EOPN) is projected to post a Q2 loss at $0.15 per share on revenue of $17.23 million.

  Bank of the Ozarks (NASDAQ: OZRK) is expected to post its Q3 earnings at $0.60 per share on revenue of $69.57 million.

10 Best Oil Service Stocks To Watch Right Now: Opexa Therapeutics Inc.(OPXA)

Opexa Therapeutics, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company, develops patient-specific cellular therapies for the treatment of autoimmune diseases. Its principal product includes Tovaxin, a personalized cellular immunotherapy treatment that completed Phase IIb clinical study for multiple sclerosis. Tovaxin is derived from T-cells isolated from peripheral blood, expanded ex vivo, and reintroduced into the patients via subcutaneous injections. The company was formerly known as PharmaFrontiers Corp. and changed its name to Opexa Therapeutics, Inc. in June 2006. Opexa Therapeutics, Inc. was founded in 2003 and is based in The Woodlands, Texas.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By CRWE]

  Opexa Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:OPXA), a biotechnology company developing a novel T-cell therapy for multiple sclerosis (MS), reported that the Company is rebranding its leading MS therapy with the new name Tcelna(TM).

10 Best Oil Service Stocks To Watch Right Now: Cutwater Select Income Fund (CSI)

Rivus Bond Fund (the Fund), formerly known as 1838 Bond-Debenture Trading Fund, is a diversified closed-end management investment company. The primary objective of the Fund is to maintain high level of income. Its portfolio includes long-term debt securities, including mortgage-backed securities and asset-backed securities. Effective July 7, 2006, the 1838 Bond-Debenture Trading Fund merged with and into the Rivus Bond Fund.

The Fund invests in various sectors, including automotive, chemicals, diversified financial services, energy, insurance, media, mining, real estate investment trusts, telecommunications, utilities and transportation. MBIA Capital Management Corp. serves as the investment advisor of the Fund.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Sold At The Top]

  Today's release of the S&P/Case-Shiller (CSI) home price indices for August reported that the non-seasonally adjusted Composite-10 price index rose a notable 1.33% since July while the Composite-20 index also increased 1.32% over the same period.