Hot Forestry Companies To Own For 2015

When looking for promising candidates for your stock portfolio, certain big names might easily come to mind, such as IBM, General Electric, or Coca-Cola. But there are plenty of other possibilities, many of which we often overlook.

Consider supermarket giant Kroger (NYSE: KR  ) , for example. You might be inside one of its stores, thinking about investing in the companies that produce the items it sells (pudding, chicken, paper towels), without thinking of investing in the market itself. You might want to add Kroger stock to your portfolio, though. Why? Well, check this out: Kroger stock has appreciated by more than 50% over the past year. It has gained, on average, about 14.4% annually over the past 30 years, enough to turn $10,000 into about $566,000.

Of course, that's not enough to base an investment decision on, so let's take a closer look at the Kroger company and Kroger stock.

Meet Kroger
Kroger was launched in 1883, fully 130 years ago, when Barney Kroger put his life savings of $372 into a Cincinnati grocery store. Kroger stores were the first to have their own bakeries, which reduced the cost of bread for shoppers. Kroger was also the first to sell meats along with groceries in the same building. The company still makes many of its own products -- almost half of the 14,400 private-label products in its stores. These generate 26% of Kroger's grocery sales and boost its profit margins, as name-brand products tend to be more expensive at the wholesale level, in part due to manufacturers investing in advertising.

Top 5 Dow Dividend Companies For 2016: ASA Gold and Precious Metals Limited (ASA)

ASA Gold and Precious Metals Limited is a self management investment trust. The firm invests in the public equity markets across the globe. It primarily invests in stocks of companies engaged in the exploration, mining or processing of gold, silver, platinum, diamonds, or other precious minerals. ASA Gold and Precious Metals Limited was founded in 1958 and is based in San Mateo, California.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Joe Eqcome]

  Actionable Items:

  Highest Positive Spread: Nuveen Mortgage Opportunity Term Fund (JLS)Focus Stock: LMP Real Estate Income Fund (RIT)Last Week's Focus Stock: ASA Gold and Precious Metals (ASA)

  ECB cuts its rates: The European Central Bank (ECB) will cut its benchmark rate a quarter-of-a-point to 0.5%.

Hot Forestry Companies To Own For 2015: Suntech Power Holdings Co. LTD.(STP)

Suntech Power Holdings Co., Ltd., a solar energy company, engages in the design, development, manufacture, and marketing of photovoltaic (PV) products. The company also provides engineering, procurement, and construction services to building solar power systems for certain related party and third party customers. Its products include monocrystalline and multicrystalline silicon PV cells; PV modules; and building-integrated photovoltaics products. In addition, the company provides PV system integration services, including designing, installing, and testing PV systems used in lighting for outdoor urban public facilities, as well as in farms, villages, and commercial buildings; and project development services. Its products are used to provide electric power for residential, commercial, industrial, and public utility applications. The company sells its products through value-added resellers, such as distributors and system integrators; and to end users, such as project develo pers primarily in Germany, Italy, Spain, France, Benelux, Greece, the United States, Canada, China, the Middle East, Australia, and Japan. Suntech Power Holdings Co., Ltd. is headquartered in Wuxi, the People?s Republic of China.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Travis Hoium]

  What: After a two-day run-up in solar stocks, the party ended quickly, and every stock in the industry is dropping like a rock. Suntech Power (NYSE: STP  ) led the declines by falling 23%, and LDK Solar (NYSE: LDK  ) , Yingli Green Energy (NYSE: YGE  ) , and JA Solar (NASDAQ: JASO  ) all dropped at least 15%.

• [By Travis Hoium]

  Is Suntech still alive?
  Rumors swirled this week that Suntech Power (NYSE: STP  ) would be acquired by Warren Buffett's subsidiary MidAmerican Energy. Suntech has defaulted on U.S. loans, and its Chinese operations are in insolvency, so it's unknown exactly what Buffett would be buying. Then there's the fact that Suntech doesn't meet any of Buffett's normal investing rules, so there are few industry observers who think an acquisition would go through.

Hot Forestry Companies To Own For 2015: Snam SpA (SRG)

Snam SpA is an Italy-based company engaged in the management of natural gas services. The Company is diversified into four operating segments. The Transportation segment covers transportation-related gas services, including capacity management and transportation of the gas at the entry points of the gas network to the redelivery points. It owns transportation infrastructures of gas pipelines. The Regasification segment is focused on extraction activities of natural gas, its liquefaction for transport by ship and subsequent regasification. The Storage segment covers deposits, gas treatment plants, compression plants and the operational dispatching system. The Distribution segment engages gas distribution through local transportation networks from delivery points at the metering and reduction stations to the gas distribution network redelivery points at the end customers. Additionally, Snam SpA as the parent company, focuses on planning, management, coordination and control of the group. Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Victor Selva]

  The Specialty Restaurant Group (SRG), which includes Bahama Breeze and The Capital Grille, has grown over the last couple of quarters. Eddie V's Restaurants and Yard House might be meaningful long-term drivers, as we think most of the growth in the next years will come from the acquisition of those restaurants.

• [By Tom Stoukas]

  Snam SpA (SRG) dropped the most in almost a year as Eni SpA sold an 11.7 percent stake in the owner of Italy�� biggest natural-gas network. Wm Morrison Supermarkets Plc tumbled the most in more than 14 months. Experian Plc jumped to a record after the world�� largest credit-checking company raised its dividend and announced a share buyback.

Hot Forestry Companies To Own For 2015: Inphi Corporation (IPHI)

Inphi Corporation provides high-speed analog and mixed signal semiconductor solutions for the communications, datacenter, and computing markets worldwide. Its analog and mixed signal semiconductor solutions offer high signal integrity at data speeds while reducing system power consumption. The company�s semiconductor solutions are designed to address bandwidth bottlenecks in networks, maximize throughput and minimize latency in computing environments, and enable the rollout of next generation communications, datacenter, and computing infrastructures. Its solutions provide a high-speed interface between analog signals and digital information in high-performance systems, such as telecommunications transport systems, enterprise networking equipment, datacenters and enterprise servers, storage platforms, test and measurement equipment, and military systems. The company also provides 40G and 100G high-speed analog semiconductor solutions for the communications market and high- speed memory interface solutions for the computing market. Its products include amplifiers and modulator drivers, clock and data recovery, isolation memory buffer, register, and SerDes products that perform a range of functions, such as amplifying, encoding, multiplexing, demultiplexing, retiming, and buffering data and clock signals at speeds up to 100 Gbps. Inphi Corporation sells its products directly through its sales force, as well as through a network of sales representatives and distributors to original equipment manufacturers. The company was formerly known as TCom Communications, Inc. and changed its name to Inphi Corporation in February 2001. Inphi Corporation was founded in 2000 and is headquartered in Santa Clara, California.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Roberto Pedone]

  Inphi (IPHI) provides high-speed analog and mixed signal semiconductor solutions for the communications, datacenter and computing markets. This stock closed up 4.7% at $13.25 in Monday's trading session.

  Monday's Volume: 838,000
  
  Three-Month Average Volume: 202,080
  
  Volume % Change: 378%

  From a technical perspective, IPHI jumped higher here right above some near-term support at $12.44 with heavy upside volume. This stock has been uptrending strong for the last five months, with shares soaring higher from its low of $8.62 to its intraday high of $13.85. During that uptrend, shares of IPHI have been consistently making higher lows and higher highs, which is bullish technical price action. That move briefly pushed shares of IPHI into breakout territory, since the stock flirted with some near-term overhead resistance at $13.50.

  Traders should now look for long-biased trades in IPHI as long as it's trending above some near-term support at $12.44 and then once it sustains a move or close above its new 52-week high at $13.85 with volume that hits near or above 202,080 shares. If we get that move soon, then IPHI will set up to enter new 52-week-high territory, which is bullish technical price action. Some possible upside targets off that move are its next major overhead resistance levels at $14.79 to $16.94, or possibly even $18.

• [By Garrett Cook]

  Inphi (NASDAQ: IPHI) shares were also up, gaining 26.11 percent to $16.14 after the company announced its plans to acquire Cortina Systems.

  Equities Trading DOWN

• [By Garrett Cook]

  Inphi (NASDAQ: IPHI) shares were also up, gaining 33.19 percent to $17.04 after the company announced its plans to acquire Cortina Systems.

  Equities Trading DOWN