Hot Supermarket Companies To Own For 2014

LONDON --�The shares of�Moneysupermarket.com� (LSE: MONY  ) �fell 6 pence to 202 pence during early London trade this morning after the FTSE 250 mid-cap said it would pay a 12.92 pence per share special dividend during July.

Moneysupermarket, which operates one of the country's leading financial comparison websites, said the payment reflected the company's confidence in its "ability to generate cash on an on-going basis."

The special dividend will cost the company 拢70 million and will be funded through existing cash balances and extra loans.

Published in March, Moneysupermarket's 2012 results showed the business enjoying cash of 拢19 million and no debt. The figures also showed adjusted earnings up 28% and the ordinary dividend up 27%.

Alongside the special dividend announcement, Moneysupermarket also revealed this morning that its group revenues for the year to date had advanced more than 10% on the same period last year.

10 Best European Stocks To Invest In 2015: Sinovac Biotech Ltd.(SVA)

Sinovac Biotech Ltd., a biopharmaceutical company, engages in the research, development, manufacture, and commercialization of vaccines against the hepatitis A, hepatitis B, and influenza viruses in the People's Republic of China. It offers Healive, an inactivated hepatitis A vaccine; Bilive, a combination of hepatitis A and B vaccine; Anflu, a split virus influenza vaccine; and Panflu, a vaccine against the influenza A H1N1 virus. The company's pipeline vaccine candidates include a split viron vaccine, which completed Phase II clinical trials for the H5N1 influenza virus; and a SARS vaccine, which completed Phase I clinical trials for the SARS virus. In addition, its pipeline vaccine candidates that completed the pre-clinical trials comprise human vaccines for EV71, pneumococcal conjugate, haemophilus influenzae type b, meningitis, Japanese encephalitis, chickenpox, mumps, and rubella diseases, as well as rabies vaccine for humans and animals. The company markets and sell s its vaccine products directly to the provincial and municipal disease control and prevention centers. It has a patent license agreement with the National Institutes of Health; distribution agreements with LG Life Sciences, Ltd. and Glovax C.V.; and a pandemic influenza vaccine co-development agreement with the China Center for Disease Control and Prevention. Sinovac Biotech Ltd. was founded in 1999 and is headquartered in Beijing, the People's Republic of China.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Louis Navellier]

  LGND is a strong buy at today�� price.

  Biotech Stocks to Buy: Sinovac Biotech (SVA)

  Sinovac Biotech LTD (SVA) is a Chinese biotech company that makes drugs to treat conditions such as hepatitis A, hepatitis B, and influenza viruses. The just announced that the phase three trials of a new drug to fight a virus called EV-71 that causes neurological conditions such hand foot and mouth disease showed great promise. Phase III trial results� EV71 vaccine show that the drug had a 94.8% efficacy rate against EV71-related hand, foot, and mouth disease, and a 100% efficacy rate against EV71-associated hospitalization and against HFMD with neurologic complications.

• [By Monica Gerson]

  Sinovac Biotech (NASDAQ: SVA) shares touched a new 52-week high of $7.60 after the company reported unaudited Q4 results. Sinovac Biotech posted its quarterly net income of $5.8 million, or $0.10 per share, versus a year-ago net loss of $4.6 million, or $0.08 per share.

• [By Brian Pacampara]

  Based on the aggregated intelligence of 180,000-plus investors participating in Motley Fool CAPS, the Fool's free investing community, biopharmaceutical company Sinovac Biotech (NASDAQ: SVA  ) has received the dreaded one-star ranking.

Hot Supermarket Companies To Own For 2014: Pebblebrook Hotel Trust(PEB)

Pebblebrook Hotel Trust, through Pebblebrook Hotel, L.P., operates as a real estate investment trust. The company acquires and invests primarily in hotel properties located in the United States. It holds interests in the Doubletree Bethesda Hotel and Executive Meeting Center located in Bethesda, Maryland; Sir Francis Drake Hotel located in San Francisco, California; and InterContinental Buckhead Hotel located in Atlanta, Georgia. As a REIT, the company is not subject to federal income tax to the extent that it distributes at least 90% of its taxable income to its shareholders. The company was founded in 2009 and is based in Bethesda, Maryland.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Jonas Elmerraji]

   

   

  First up is Pebblebrook Hotel Trust (PEB), the $2.2 billion hotel owner with 14 hotels under its umbrella. The firm started off the year rallying hard, climbing more than 14% from the start of January to early March. Since then, shares have been slugging sideways. But the sideways moves are laying the framework for a second rally leg in PEB this May. Here's how to trade it:

   

  Pebblebrook is currently forming an ascending triangle pattern, a bullish setup that's formed by a horizontal resistance level above shares at $35, and uptrending support to the downside. Basically, as PEB bounces in between those two technical price levels, it's getting squeezed closer to a breakout above that $35 price ceiling. When that breakout happens, we've got a buy signal.

   

  Momentum adds some confidence to the staying power in PEB's eventual breakout -- 14-day RSI has been making higher lows since early February, well before the triangle pattern started forming in Pebblebrook's price. That said, it's crucial to wait for this stock to catch a bid above $35 before putting cash in the trade.

   

• [By Rich Duprey]

  Hotel operator�Pebblebrook Hotel Trust (NYSE: PEB  ) announced today its second-quarter dividend of $0.16 per share, the same rate it paid last quarter after raising the payout 33% from $0.12 per share.

• [By James E. Brumley]

  In a perfect world, an investor could simply look at a company's history and its plausible earnings forecasts, and jump in (or out) knowing the stock's current price basically made sense with respect to past and future performance. We don't live or trade in a perfect world though. In the world we're actually in right now, most stocks, sectors, and industries have run up far beyond a justifiable value... perhaps except for hotel and lodging REIT stocks Host Hotels and Resorts Inc. (NYSE:HST), Strategic Hotels and Resorts Inc. (NYSE:BEE), and Pebblebrook Hotel Trust (NYSE:PEB).

• [By Jonas Elmerraji]

  Small-cap hotel investment REIT Pebblebrook Hotel Trust (PEB) is setting up a similar pattern to the one in EXR -- with a few exceptions.

  PEB isn't forming an ascending triangle; support isn't in the same sort of uptrend in this stock. Instead, PEB is forming a rounding pattern with resistance at $28. Rounding patterns look just like they sound -- they indicate a shift in control from sellers to buyers. While this setup is most common as a "bottoming" pattern, PEB's price action doesn't change the implications if shares can break out above $28. That's our buy signal.

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

  That resistance line at $28 is a price where there's an excess of supply of shares; in other words, it's a place where sellers have been more eager to take recent gains and sell their shares than buyers have been to buy. That's what makes the move above it so significant -- a breakout indicates that buyers are finally strong enough to absorb all of the excess supply above that price level. Wait for that signal to happen before you jump into this stock.

Hot Supermarket Companies To Own For 2014: Tsakos Energy Navigation Ltd(TNP)

Tsakos Energy Navigation Limited, together with its subsidiaries, provides seaborne crude oil and petroleum product transportation services worldwide. The company offers marine transportation services for national and independent oil companies and refiners under long, medium, and short-term charters. As of August 16, 2011, its fleet consisted of 50 vessels comprising 59 tankers, including 2 dynamic positioning 2 (DP2) shuttle tankers under construction, and 1 liquefied natural gas carrier. The company was formerly known as MIF Limited and changed its name to Tsakos Energy Navigation Limited in July 2001. Tsakos Energy Navigation Limited was founded in 1993 and is based in Athens, Greece.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Rick Munarriz]

  We can start with Tsakos Energy Navigation Limited (NYSE: TNP  ) . Shares of the energy transporter moved 27% higher last week after surprising the market with a quarterly profit. Business isn't great at Tsakos. Revenue dipped slightly during the period, and a profit of $0.02 a share may not turn heads. However, analysts were bracing for a loss of $0.08 a share on a sharper decline in revenue.

• [By Travis Hoium]

  What: Shares of energy transporter Tsakos Energy Navigation Limited (NYSE: TNP  ) jumped 17% today after the company released earnings.

Hot Supermarket Companies To Own For 2014: Applied Materials Inc.(AMAT)

Applied Materials, Inc. provides manufacturing equipment, services, and software to the semiconductor, flat panel display, solar photovoltaic (PV), and related industries worldwide. The company?s Silicon Systems Group segment offers a range of manufacturing equipment used to fabricate semiconductor chips or integrated circuits. This segment provides systems that perform primary processes used in chip fabrication, including atomic layer deposition, chemical vapor deposition, physical vapor deposition, electrochemical deposition, rapid thermal processing, chemical mechanical planarization, wet cleaning, and wafer metrology and inspection, as well as systems that etch or inspect circuit patterns on masks used in the photolithography process. Its Applied Global Services segment offers products and services designed to enhance the performance and productivity, and reduce the environmental impact of the fab operations of semiconductor, liquid crystal displays (LCDs), and solar P V manufacturers. The company?s Display segment provides products for manufacturing thin film transistor LCDs for televisions, personal computers (PCs), tablet PCs, smartphones, and other consumer-oriented electronic applications. Its Energy and Environmental Solutions segment offers manufacturing systems for the generation and conservation of energy, as well as manufacturing solutions for wafer-based crystalline silicon applications. This segment also provides roll-to-roll vacuum Web coating systems for deposition of a range of films on flexible substrates for functional, aesthetic, or optical properties; and roll-to-roll machine for depositing ultra-thin aluminum films for flexible packaging applications. The company serves manufacturers of semiconductor wafers and chips, flat panel LCDs, solar PV cells and modules, and other electronic devices. Applied Materials, Inc. was founded in 1967 and is headquartered in Santa Clara, California.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Stephen Simpson, CFA]

  Ultratech isn't the only game in town, though, and there are multiple technologies and process steps that are going to play significant roles in the production of FinFETs and 3D circuits. With that, I would take a look at Mattson Technologies (MTSN), as this company has already accomplished the not-so-easy task of gaining meaningful share in the dry strip, rapid thermal processing (RTP), and etch markets despite competing with giants like Lam Research (LRCX), Applied Materials (AMAT), and Tokyo Electron (TOELY.PK).

Hot Supermarket Companies To Own For 2014: Stanley Black & Decker Inc (SWJ)

Stanley Black & Decker Inc., June 4, 1901, is a diversified global provider of power and hand tools, mechanical access solutions (automatic doors, commercial and residential locking systems), electronic security and monitoring systems and products and services for various industrial applications. The Company�� operations are classified into three business segments: Construction & Do-It-Yourself (CDIY), Security, and Industrial. In September 2011, Stanley Black & Decker acquired Niscayah Group AB. In September 2011, the Company acquired Microtec Enterprises, Inc. In January 2011, the Company acquired InfoLogix, Inc. In December 2012, Spectrum Brands Holdings Inc acquired Hardware & Home Improvement Group (HHI) of the Company. In February 2013, the Company completed its acquisition of Infastech.

CDIY

The CDIY segment consists of the professional power tool and accessories business, the consumer power tool business, which includes outdoor products, plumbing (Pfister) and the hand tools, fasteners and storage business. The segment sells its products to professional end users, distributors and retail consumers. The majority of sales are distributed through retailers, including home centers, mass merchants, hardware stores, and retail lumber yards. During the year ended December 31, 2011, annual revenues in the CDIY segment represented 50% of the Company�� total revenues. The professional power tool and accessories business sells professional grade corded and cordless electric power tools and equipment, including drills, impact wrenches and drivers, grinders, saws, routers and sanders. The business also sells power tool accessories, which include drill bits, router bits, abrasives and saw blades.

The consumer power tool business sells corded and cordless power tools sold under the Black & Decker brand, lawn and garden products and home products. Lawn and garden products include hedge trimmers, string trimmers, lawn mowers, edgers and related accessories. Home pro! ducts include hand held vacuums, paint tools and cleaning appliances. The hand tools, fasteners and storage business sells measuring and leveling tools, planes, hammers, demolition tools, knives, saws and chisels. Fastening products include pneumatic tools and fasteners including nail guns, nails, staplers and staples. Storage products include tool boxes, sawhorses and storage units.

Security

The Security segment consists of the electronic security solutions and the mechanical access solutions businesses. Annual revenues in the Security segment represented 26% of the Company�� total revenues in 2011. The electronic security solutions business designs, supplies and installs electronic security systems and provides electronic security services, including alarm monitoring, video surveillance, fire alarm monitoring, systems integration and system maintenance. Purchasers of these systems typically contract for ongoing security systems monitoring and maintenance at the time of initial equipment installation. The electronic security business also sells healthcare solutions, which includes medical carts and cabinets, asset tracking solutions, infant protection, pediatric protection, patient protection, wander management, fall management, and emergency call products.

The electronic security solutions business sells to consumers, retailers, educational, financial and healthcare institutions, as well as commercial, governmental and industrial customers. Products are sold predominantly on a direct sales basis. The mechanical access solutions business sells and installs automatic doors, residential and commercial hardware, locking mechanisms, electronic keyless entry systems, keying systems, tubular and mortise door locksets. The mechanical access solutions business sells to both residential and commercial customers, with distribution through direct sales, through retailers (including home centers) and, through third party distributors.

Industrial

!

The In! dustrial segment consists of the industrial and automotive repair tools, engineered fastening and infrastructure businesses. Annual revenues in the Industrial segment represented 24% of the Company�� total revenues. The industrial and automotive repair business sells hand tools, power tools, and engineered storage solution products. The business sells to industrial customers in a variety of industries and geographies. The products are distributed through third party distributors, as well as a direct sales force. The engineered fastening business primarily sells engineered fasteners designed for specific applications. The product lines include stud welding systems, blind rivets and tools, blind inserts and tools, drawn arc weld studs, engineered plastic fasteners, self-piercing riveting systems and precision nut running systems.

The business sells to customers in the automotive, manufacturing, and aerospace industries, amongst others, and the Company's products are distributed through direct sales forces. The infrastructure business consists of the CRC-Evans business, and the Company�� hydraulics business. The business�� product lines include custom pipe handling machinery, joint welding and coating machinery, weld inspection services and hydraulic tools and accessories. The business sells to the oil and natural gas pipeline industry and other industrial customers. The products and services are primarily distributed through a direct sales force.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Ben Rooney]

  Stanley Black & Decker (SWJ) tumbled roughly 10% after the power tools maker lowered its full-year earnings outlook. The company said it expected "uncertainty created by the U.S. government's sequestration and shutdown" to hurt business and consumer spending.

Hot Supermarket Companies To Own For 2014: NK Lukoil OAO (LKOH)

NK Lukoil OAO (Neftyanaya Kompaniya LUKOIL OAO or NK LUKOIL OJSC) is a Russia-based integrated oil and gas company. The Company is engaged in the business of oil exploration, production, refining, marketing and distribution. It is an owner of refineries, gas processing, petrochemical plants and gas stations network located in Russia, Eastern and Western Europe, as well as Africa. The Company�� petroleum products are sold in the Russian Federation, the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) countries, Eastern and Western Europe, Asia and the United States. NK Lukoil OAO operates through numerous subsidiaries and affiliated companies. In April 2013, the Company acquired a 100% of Samara-Nafta ZAO and completed acquisition of CJSC Kama-Oil. In June 2013, it sold a 99.57% stake in Lukoil Odes'kyi NPZ PAT. The Company�� major shareholder is NKO ZAO NRD with a stake of 91.60%. In December 2013, it consolidated a 100% stake in ISAB Srl. Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Rajhkumar K Shaaw]

  Russian stocks rose as oil, the nation�� main export earner, climbed. OAO Lukoil (LKOH) gained for the first time this week. Benchmark gauges in Hungary and Turkey also advanced. Tofas Turk Otomobil Fabrikasi AS, the Turkish carmaker part-owned by Fiat SpA, climbed for a second day on bets plans to roll out a new vehicle will boost revenue from exports.

• [By Maria Levitov]

  Russia�� Micex Index extended a five-day drop to 3.4 percent, led by OAO Lukoil (LKOH) and OAO Gazprom. Ukraine�� dollar-denominated bonds gained, sending yields to the lowest this week, as President Viktor Yanukovych announced possible investments from China. The PX Index slid to a seven-week low in Prague as Vienna Insurance Group AG plunged 4.2 percent.

• [By Julia Leite]

  Brazil�� Ibovespa (IBOV) fell to a six-week low, while the real slid to its weakest level in four years, spurring central bank intervention. Housing Development Finance Corp. drove India�� S&P BSE Sensex down, while the rupee completed its worst month in a year. OAO Lukoil (LKOH), Russia�� second-largest oil producer, slipped 2.3 percent as crude slumped.

Hot Supermarket Companies To Own For 2014: CVS Corporation(CVS)

CVS Caremark Corporation operates as a pharmacy services company in the United States. The company?s Pharmacy Services segment provides a range of pharmacy benefit management services, including mail order pharmacy services, specialty pharmacy services, plan design and administration, formulary management, and claims processing; and drug benefits to eligible beneficiaries under the Federal Government?s Medicare Part D program. This segment primarily serves employers, insurance companies, unions, government employee groups, managed care organizations and other sponsors of health benefit plans, and individuals. As of December 31, 2010, it operated 44 retail specialty pharmacy stores, 18 specialty mail order pharmacies, and 4 mail service pharmacies located in 25 states, Puerto Rico, and the District of Columbia. This segment operates business under the CVS Caremark Pharmacy Services, Caremark, CVS Caremark, CarePlus CVS/pharmacy, CarePlus, RxAmerica, Accordant, and TheraCom names. The company?s Retail Pharmacy segment sells prescription drugs, over-the-counter drugs, beauty products and cosmetics, seasonal merchandise, greeting cards, and convenience foods through its pharmacy retail stores and online, as well as offers film and photo finishing, and health care services. This segment operated 7,182 retail drugstores located in 41 states, Puerto Rico, and the District of Columbia; and 560 retail health care clinics in 26 states and the District of Columbia under the MinuteClinic name. It has a strategic alliance with Alere, L.L.C. for the management of disease management program offerings that cover chronic diseases, such as asthma, diabetes, congestive heart failure, and coronary artery disease. CVS Caremark Corporation was founded in 1892 and is based in Woonsocket, Rhode Island.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Bloomberg]

  Matthew Staver/Bloomberg via Getty Images Cerberus Capital Management's $9 billion deal to merge Safeway (SWY) with Albertsons is a bet that a larger supermarket chain can better fend off an attack on the grocery business by big-box stores and online retailers. Safeway, the No. 2 grocery-store operator in the U.S., agreed Thursday to be acquired by Cerberus's Albertsons for about $40 a share. The deal will unite two chains with locations across the country -- especially in the West -- and narrow Kroger's (KR) lead as the nation's top supermarket company. Cerberus, a private-equity firm that has spent years investing in the supermarket industry, will use the new company's heft to combat a growing array of threats. Big-box retailers such as Walmart Stores (WMT) and warehouse clubs are increasingly targeting grocery customers, using their size and breadth of products to attract shoppers. Online food sellers and delivery services, including Amazon.com (AMZN), also have made neighborhood supermarkets less essential than before. "This merger will improve our competitive position," Safeway Chief Executive Officer Robert Edwards, who will be in charge of the combined company, said Thursday on a conference call. "Our customers will benefit from significant cost saving synergies and a stronger management team." Safeway shares fell as much as 6.3 percent to $37 in extended trading, reflecting concerns the deal may not close at the current price. The shares had increased 21 percent this year through the close of regular trading Thursday, outpacing the 1.6 percent gain of the Standard & Poor's 500 Index. Blackhawk Network As part of the agreement, investors will get $32.50 a share in cash, plus stock in Safeway's gift-card unit Blackhawk Network Holdings (HAWK), according to a statement Thursday. Safeway, based in Pleasanton, Calif., had said last month that it was in talks about a sale of the company. Assuming a diluted share count of about 235 million shares,

• [By Ben Brody]

  The companies -- Wal-Mart (WMT), Costco (COST), Walgreens (WAG), FreshDirect, CVS (CVS) and Drugstore.com -- agreed to add unit prices to their product pages over the next nine months.

• [By Holly LaFon] aremark is the nation's premier integrated pharmacy services provider, combining one of the nation's leading pharmaceutical services companies with the country's largest pharmacy chain.

  Owens had a relatively small holding of 200,000 shares which he purchased in the third quarter of 2011 at about $36 per share. In the fourth quarter, he increased his holding by 50%, adding 100,000 shares at about $37 per share. CVS�� share price has actually increased more than 20% in the last year, and more than 21% in the fourth quarter alone.

  Record-setting third-quarter earnings results, announced Nov. 3, 2011, contributed to the rise. Net revenues increased 12.5% to a record $26.7 billion. Revenues in its Pharmacy Services segment rose 25.8% to $14.8 billion, due primarily with the addition of a previously unannounced, long-term contract with Aetna Inc., and its acquisition of the Medicare prescription drug business of Universal American Corp. in the second quarter of 2011.

  In the first nine months of 2011, the company also returned over $3 billion to shareholders in the form of dividends and share repurchases.

  CVS has been growing over the long term as well. Its revenue per share increased at a 10-year annual rate of 11.5%, and its free cash flow per share increased at a 10-year annual rate of 21.4%. GuruFocus rated CVS Caremark the business predictability rank of 4.5-star. Steven Romick did an extensive analysis of CVS here.

  Boston Scientific Corp. (BSX)

  Boston Scientific Corporation is a worldwide developer

• [By WALLSTCHEATSHEET]

  CVS Caremark provides healthcare and general products and services to consumers across the nation. The company recently reported earnings that left investors satisfied. The stock has been rising higher and it is now consolidating at all time high prices. Over the last four quarters, earnings and revenue figures have been increasing leaving investors pleased about CVS Caremark�� earnings announcements. Relative to its peers and sector, CVS Caremark has been an average year-to-date performer. Look for CVS Caremark to OUTPERFORM.