My top idea for conservative, income-oriented investors in the coming year is a closed-end fund that invests in public and privately-held companies doing work in the life sciences arena, writes Nate Pile of Nate's Notes.
The life sciences industry includes stocks in biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, diagnostics, managed healthcare and medical equipment, and healthcare information technology and services.
This recommended fund��ambrecht & Quist Life Sciences Fund (HQL)��as also our top pick last year, and the fund rose 44% in 2013.
In addition to rising in value, the fund has a dividend policy of paying out 2% of its net asset value of each quarter.
By choosing to take this payout in the form of a dividend reinvestment, rather than cash, investors have done very well for themselves as they've watched, both the size of their holdings, and the share price itself, increase as the years have rolled by.
To be sure, you will always be able to get more bang for your buck by owning individual biotech stocks.
Top Consumer Service Stocks To Own For 2015: Tableau Software Inc (DATA)
Tableau Software, Inc., incorporated on July 19, 2004, is a computer software company. The Company�� products are used by people across all kinds of organizations, including Fortune 500 corporations, small and medium-sized businesses, government agencies, universities, research institutions and non-profits. Organizations employ its products in a range of use cases, such as increasing sales, streamlining operations, improving customer service, managing investments, assessing quality and safety, studying and treating diseases, completing academic research, addressing environmental problems and improving education. The Company�� product helps a single user on a laptop analyze data from a simple spreadsheet, or to enable thousands of users across an enterprise to execute queries against databases.
The Company�� technology includes VizQL and its Hybrid Data Architecture. VizQL, translates drag-and-drop actions into data queries and then expresses that information visually. VizQL unifies the formerly disparate tasks of query and visualization and allows users to transform questions into pictures without the need for software scripts, chart wizards or dialogue boxes that inhibit speed and flexibility. The Company�� Hybrid Data Architecture combines the power and flexibility of its Live Query and In-Memory Data Engines. The Company�� Live Query Engine allows users to instantaneously connect to volumes of data in its existing format and location, reducing the need for time-consuming data transformation processes that only technical specialists can perform. In addition, this capability allows customers to leverage investments in their existing data platforms and to capitalize on the capabilities of high performance databases. The Company�� In-Memory Data Engine enables users to import amounts of data into its own in-memory database.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Dan Caplinger]
In addition, the IPO of Tableau Software (NYSE: DATA ) has returned attention to the sector. With Tableau having gained 64% on its first day of trading, investors clearly have strong expectations for the company, which specializes in data visualization. In particular, Tableau has gross margins that put even Splunk's near-90% figures to shame, and if Tableau can retain that advantage, it could pose a long-term threat to Splunk.
10 Best Life Sciences Stocks To Invest In 2014: LSI Industries Inc.(LYTS)
LSI Industries Inc. provides corporate visual image solutions primarily in the United States, Canada, Australia, and Latin America. It operates in three segments: Lighting, Graphics, and Technology. The Lighting segment manufactures and markets outdoor and indoor lighting, canopy lighting, landscape lighting, light emitting diodes (LED) lighting, light poles, and photometric layouts products, as well as lighting analysis services. The Graphics segment manufactures and sells exterior and interior visual image elements for use in visual image programs. It offers signage and canopy graphics; pump dispenser graphics; building fascia graphics; decals; interior signage and marketing graphics; aisle markers; wall mural graphics; fleet graphics; prototype program graphics; and solid state LED video screens for the sports and advertising markets, as well as installation services for graphics products. The Technology segment designs, produces, and supports light engines and large fo rmat video screens using LED technology; and specialty LED lighting. Additionally, the company offers menu board systems. It serves commercial, industrial, and multi-site retail markets; petroleum/convenience stores; sports and advertising; and entertainment markets. The company sells its products through regional sales managers, independent sales representatives, and distributors. LSI Industries was founded in 1976 and is headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Dan Caplinger]
In Daktronics' report, be sure to look at how the company compares to results that industrial-lighting and display competitor LSI Industries (NASDAQ: LYTS ) announced late last month. Even with a 5% gain in revenue for its March quarter, LSI posted a loss, showing the difficulty in producing high-margin business in the industry. For its part, if Daktronics can keep pushing past its operational challenges, it should be in better position to stay profitable both this quarter and well into the future.
10 Best Life Sciences Stocks To Invest In 2014: Laredo Petroleum Inc (LPI)
Laredo Petroleum, Inc., formerly Laredo Petroleum Holdings, Inc., incorporated in August 12, 2011, is an independent energy company focused on the exploration, development and acquisition of oil and natural gas in the Permian and Mid-Continent regions of the United States. The Company�� activities are primarily focused in the Wolfberry and deeper horizons of the Permian Basin in West Texas and the Anadarko Granite Wash in the Texas Panhandle and Western Oklahoma, where it has assembled 134,680 net acres and 37,850 net acres, respectively, as of December 31, 2011.
Permian Basin
The Permian Basin, located in west Texas and southeastern New Mexico, is an onshore oil and natural gas producing regions in the United States. The Company�� Permian activities are centered on the eastern side of the basin approximately 35 miles east of Midland, Texas in Glasscock, Howard, Reagan and Sterling Counties. As of December 31, 2011, it held 134,680 net acres in over 300 sections with an average working interest of 96% in wells drilled as of that date. The overall Wolfberry interval, the principal focus of its drilling activities, is an oil play that also includes a liquids-rich natural gas component. Its production/exploration fairway extends approximately 20 miles wide and 80 miles long. While exploration and drilling efforts in the southern half of its acreage block has been centered on the shallower portion of the Wolfberry (Spraberry, Dean and Wolfcamp formations) the emphasis in the northern half has been on the deeper intervals, including the Wolfcamp, Cline Shale, Strawn and Atoka formations.
As of December 31, 2011, the Company had drilled and completed approximately 600 gross vertical wells and had defined the productive limits on its acreage throughout the trend. It has expanded its drilling program to include a horizontal component targeting the Cline and Wolfcamp Shales. The Company has drilled four gross horizontal Wolfcamp Shale wells as of December 31, 2011. A! s of December 31, 2011, it had drilled a total of 27 gross horizontal wells in the Wolfcamp and Cline formations, of which 23 are in the Cline Shale and four in the Wolfcamp Shale. It had over 5,600 total gross identified drilling locations (both vertical and horizontal) in the Permian, all of which are within the Wolfberry and Cline Shale interval during the year ended December 31, 2011.
Anadarko Granite Wash
Straddling the Texas/Oklahoma state line, its Granite Wash play extends over a large area in the western part of the Anadarko Basin. As of December 31, 2011, it held 37,850 net acres in Hemphill County, Texas and Roger Mills County, Oklahoma. The Company�� play consists of vertical and horizontal drilling opportunities targeting the liquids-rich Granite Wash formation. As of December 31, 2011, it had drilled and completed over 150 gross vertical wells. During 2011, its horizontal Granite Wash program was in the development phase. As of December 31, 2011, it had approximately 100 gross identified potential drilling locations for the horizontal Granite Wash, which included both its Texas and Oklahoma acreage.
Other areas
The Company, in addition to its Permian Wolfberry and Anadarko Granite Wash plays, evaluated opportunities in three other areas within its core operating regions during 2011. The Dalhart Basin is located on the western side of the Texas Panhandle. As of December 31, 2011, the Company held 83,295 net acres in the Dalhart Basin. As of December 31, 2011, it had drilled two gross vertical wells in the Dalhart Basin. The second area is centrally located in the Central Texas Panhandle, where its operations were conducted through its joint venture with ExxonMobil as of December 31, 2011. As of December 31, 2011, it held 46,915 net acres in the Central Texas Panhandle. The third area is located in the eastern end of the Anadarko Basin, in Caddo County, Oklahoma. As of December 31, 2011, the Company held 33,306 net acres in the Eastern An! adarko. Advisors' Opinion:
- [By Tony Daltorio]
Other companies already drilling in the Cline include Apache Corp. (NYSE: APA), Gulfport Energy Corp. (Nasdaq: GPOR), and another pioneer in the region, Laredo Petroleum Holdings Inc. (NYSE: LPI).
- [By Tyler Crowe]
Who's doing it the best?
Company % Liquids in�Portfolio Oil Production Replacement Rate (3 Years) Reserve Replacement Costs (3-Year Average) Per boe Rosetta Resources� (NASDAQ: ROSE ) 57% 846% $6.99 Continental Resources� (NYSE: CLR ) 72% 827% $12.61 Laredo Petroleum� (NYSE: LPI ) 52% 1,042% $13.51 SM Energy� (NYSE: SM ) 53% 392% $14.67 SandRidge Energy� (NYSE: SD ) 58% 704% $14.85
It can be pretty handy to evaluate the entire industry on how efficiently it's replacing reserves, but reserve replacement costs can be more effective in evaluating individual companies. The lower the costs, the better it is. According to Ernst & Young, the most effective company at controlling reserve replacement costs is private company�Antero Resources, with a three-year average reserve replacement cost of about $2.88 per barrel of oil equivalent. Antero, and four of the other top five companies on Ernst & Young's list, are almost pure natural gas plays. If we've learned one thing over the past couple of years, it's that oil reserves and natural gas reserves are two totally different things when it comes to value. The five following companies have more than 50% liquids on�their�reserves and had the lowest reserve replacement costs for 2012.Sources: Ernst & Young and S&P Capital IQ; author's calculations.
10 Best Life Sciences Stocks To Invest In 2014: Health Care REIT Inc (HCN)
Health Care REIT, Inc., incorporated on April 4, 1985, is a real estate investment trust (REIT). The Company�� portfolio has range of seniors housing and healthcare real estate, including seniors housing communities, skilled nursing/post-acute facilities, medical office buildings, inpatient and outpatient medical centers and life science facilities. The Company operates in three segments: seniors housing triple-net, seniors housing operating and medical facilities. Its properties primarily consists of land, building, improvements and related rights. The Company�� hospitals and seniors housing triple-net properties are leased to operators under long-term operating leases. Its medical office building portfolio is primarily self-managed and consists principally of multi-tenant properties leased to health care providers. On January 9, 2013, the Company acquired Sunrise Senior Living, Inc. property portfolio, and the sale of the Sunrise management company. In October 2013, the Company announced the acquisition of the Willows at Hamburg from Health Care REIT, Inc.
Seniors Housing Triple-Net
The Company�� seniors housing triple-net properties include independent living facilities, continuing care retirement communities, assisted living facilities, Alzheimer��/dementia facilities, skilled nursing/post-acute facilities and combinations thereof. It invests primarily through acquisitions and development. Its properties are primarily leased to operators under long-term, triple-net master leases. Its properties include stand-alone facilities that provide one level of service, combination facilities that provide multiple levels of service, and communities or campuses that provide a range of services. Independent living facilities are age-restricted, multifamily properties with central dining facilities that provide residents access to meals and other services, such as housekeeping, linen service, transportation and social and recreational activities. Continuing care retirement comm! unities include a combination of detached homes, an independent living facility, an assisted living facility and/or a skilled nursing facility on one campus.
Assisted living facilities are state regulated rental properties that provide the same services as independent living facilities, but also provide supportive care from trained employees to residents who require assistance with activities of daily living, including, but not limited to, management of medications, bathing, dressing, toileting, ambulating and eating. Certain assisted living facilities may include state licensed settings that specialize in caring for those afflicted with Alzheimer�� disease and/or other types of dementia. Skilled nursing/post-acute facilities are licensed daily rate or rental properties where the majority of individuals require 24-hour nursing and/or medical care. All facilities offer some level of rehabilitation services. Some facilities focus on higher acuity patients and offer rehabilitation units specializing in cardiac, orthopedic, dialysis, neurological or pulmonary rehabilitation. The Company leases 177 facilities to Genesis HealthCare, LLC pursuant to a long-term, triple-net master lease.
Seniors Housing Operating
The Company has relationships with eight operators to own and operate 154 facilities (plus 39 facilities in an unconsolidated joint venture). In each instance, its partner provides management services to the properties pursuant to an incentive-based management contract.
Medical Facilities
The Company�� medical facilities include medical office buildings, hospitals and life science facilities. It leases its medical office buildings to multiple tenants and provides varying levels of property management. The Company�� hospital investments are structured similar to its seniors housing triple-net investments. The medical office building portfolio consists of health care related buildings that include physician offices, ambulatory surgery! centers,! diagnostic facilities, outpatient services and/or labs. Approximately 92% of its medical office building portfolio is affiliated with health systems by having buildings on hospital campuses or serving as satellite locations for the health system and their physicians.
The Company�� hospitals include acute care hospitals, inpatient rehabilitation hospitals, and long-term acute care hospitals. Acute care hospitals provide a range of inpatient and outpatient services, including, but not limited to, surgery, rehabilitation, therapy and clinical laboratories. Inpatient rehabilitation hospitals provide inpatient services for patients with intensive rehabilitation needs. Long-term acute care hospitals provide inpatient services for patients with complex medical conditions that require more intensive care, monitoring or emergency support than is available in most skilled nursing facilities. The life science portfolio consists of laboratory and office facilities designed and constructed for use by biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Michael Flannelly]
Early on Tuesday, Goldman Sachs analysts resumed coverage on Health Care REIT, Inc (HCN), giving the company a tepid rating due to lower-than-average earnings growth expectations.
The analysts rate HCN as “Neutral” and see shares reaching $61. This price target suggests a slight downside to the stock’s Monday closing price of $62.81.
Goldman Sachs analyst Andrew Rosivach said, “The price target is based on a target 2018E AFFO multiple in line with our sector average, which is warranted given the company�� high-quality portfolio, but an estimated lower-than-average earnings growth.”
Health Care REIT shares were up 25 cents, or 0.40%, during early morning trading on Tuesday. The stock is up 2.37% year-to-date.
10 Best Life Sciences Stocks To Invest In 2014: Express-1 Expedited Solutions Inc.(XPO)
XPO Logistics, Inc. provides third-party logistics services using a network of relationships with ground, sea, and air carriers in the United States, Mexico, and Canada. It operates in three segments: Express-1, Concert Group Logistics, and Bounce Logistics. The Express-1 segment offers ground expedited surface transportation services for freight. It operates a fleet ranging from cargo vans to semi tractor trailer units. The Concert Group Logistics segment provides domestic and international freight forwarding services through a network of independently owned stations. Its domestic freight forwarding services include air charter, expedites, and time sensitive services, as well as cost sensitive services comprising deferred delivery, less than truckload, and full truck load services; and international freight forwarding services consist of on-board courier and air charters, time sensitive services, less-than-container and full-container-loads, and vessel charters. This segm ent also offers documentation on international shipments, customs clearance and banking, trade show shipment management, time definite and customized product distributions, reverse logistics and on site asset recovery projects, installation coordination, freight optimization, and diversity compliance support services. The Bounce Logistics segment provides premium freight brokerage services for truckload shipments. The company serves approximately 4,000 retail, commercial, manufacturing, and industrial customers through 6 U.S. operations centers and 22 agent locations. It offers its services to the automotive manufacturing, automotive components and supplies, commercial printing, durable goods manufacturing, pharmaceuticals, food and consumer products, and high tech sectors. The company was formerly known as Express-1 Expedited Solutions, Inc. and changed its name to XPO Logistics, Inc. in September 2011. XPO Logistics, Inc. was founded in 1989 and is based in Buchanan, Michi gan.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Travis Hoium]
What: Shares of XPO Logistics (NYSE: XPO ) jumped 13% today after announcing an acquisition.
So what: The company will pay $365 million for logistics provider 3PD, consisting of $357 million in cash an $8 million in XPO restricted stock. Is will use its own cash and borrow $195 million from Credit Suisse Group for the remainder of the purchase. �
10 Best Life Sciences Stocks To Invest In 2014: Responsys Inc.(MKTG)
Responsys, Inc. provides on-demand software and professional services primarily in North America, the Asia Pacific, and Europe. The company offers Responsys Interact suite, a software-as-a-service platform that provides marketers with a set of integrated applications to create, execute, optimize, and automate marketing campaigns in various channels, including email, mobile, social, and the Web. Its platform also leverages third-party applications and data from real-time sources allowing customers to deliver targeted content to its customers and known prospects as part of their interactive marketing campaigns. In addition, it provides professional services, such as strategic, creative, deliverability, campaign, and education services. The company offers its on-demand software and professional services to retail and consumer, travel, financial services, and technology industries through a direct sales force. Responsys, Inc. was founded in 1998 and is headquartered in San Bru no, 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 Responsys (Nasdaq: MKTG ) , whose recent revenue and earnings are plotted below.
10 Best Life Sciences Stocks To Invest In 2014: Salesforce.com Inc (CRM)
Salesforce.com, inc., incorporated in February 1999, is a provider of enterprise cloud computing and social enterprise solutions. The Company provides a customer and collaboration relationship management (CRM), applications through the Internet or cloud. Cloud computing refers to the use of Internet-based computing, storage and connectivity technology to deliver a variety of different services. The Company delivers its service through Internet browsers and mobile devices. It markets its social enterprise applications and platforms to businesses on a subscription basis, primarily through its direct sales efforts and indirectly through partners. In January 2011, it acquired Heroku, Inc. and DimDim, Inc. In May 2011, the Company acquired Radian6 Technologies Inc. In September 2011, the Company acquired Assistly. In August 2012, the Company acquired Buddy Media. In May 2013, SalesForce.com Inc acquired Clipboard Inc.
The Company introduced Chatter, a collaboration application for the enterprise to connect and share information securely and in real-time. It serves its customers from third-party data center hosting facilities located in the United States and other countries. The Company�� primary applications are sales cloud, service cloud, salesforce chatter, Salesforce Radian6 and Salesforce Data.com.
The Company�� customers are able to establish a system and process for recording, tracking, and sharing information about sales opportunities, sales leads, sales forecasts, the sales process, and closed business, as well as managing sales territories. Customers are able to create social profiles of their customers, based on information from social networking services like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. Its customers are also able to manage unstructured information, such as sales collateral, presentations, price lists, and video assets. In addition, the Sales Cloud encompasses partner relationship management functionality (including channel management and partner portals) and m! arketing automation (including campaigns, and return-on-investment tracking).
The Company�� customer service and support automation features are marketed under its Service Cloud brand and allow its customers to service and engage with their customers. Using the Service Cloud, companies can access a solution for their customer service interactions across every service channel: call centers with phone, email, and chat; Web portals for self-service and customer collaboration; and community interactions within social networks. In addition, built-in collaboration tools enable customer service agents to share information on how to better service customers.
The Company�� Chatter application enables customers to create private employee social networks for companies of all sizes in order to improve employee collaboration. For customers of its Sales and Service Cloud editions, Chatter is included free for all subscribers. In addition, it offers Chatter Plus edition, designed to provide access to Chatter for employees in customers��organizations who are not subscribers of a Sales or Service Cloud edition. It delivered features, including Chatter Now for real-time collaboration, and Chatter Customer Groups enabling users to invite people outside their organizations, such as customers and partners, into their Chatter network to collaborate in a secure environment. Chatter is a core attribute of its Force.com platform and its social capabilities are an integral part of each of its application offerings and its Social Enterprise solution.
The Company�� Radian6 application provides its customers a tool for social media monitoring and marketing. The application allows companies to listen, analyze, engage and measure their brand�� presence within social media. It provides companies with a database of business contacts, company profiles and social insights. Delivered as a service, data.com integrates with its applications to provide the business data that helps companies in! crease th! eir pipeline of sales leads.
The Company�� cloud platforms provide application developers access to new capabilities that can be built into their business applications. These platforms include features popularized by social networking companies, such as profiles, status updates and feeds, and also the capability to extend applications for use on mobile devices. In addition, they run on its Database.com offering, an open enterprise database built for social and mobile computing. Its cloud platforms allow both information technology (IT) departments and independent software vendors (ISV) developers to use several programming languages to build their applications. Developers are able to use the programming languages on its cloud platforms, such as Java and Ruby, to build their applications, and its cloud platforms support multiple other languages to provide developers openness and choice.
The Company has two platform offerings: Force.com and Heroku, and offer additional developer tools, such as Database.com and the AppExchange. The Force.com cloud computing platform provides a feature set and technology environment for building business applications, including data models and objects to manage data, a workflow engine for managing collaboration of data between users, a user interface model to handle forms and other interactions, and a Web services API for programmatic access and integration. Heroku is a cloud platform for application developers to build and deploy social and mobile applications. Built on open standards, Heroku supports multiple frameworks, databases, and languages, including Java and Ruby. The AppExchange is an online directory that provides customers a way to browse, sample, share, and install applications developed on its Force.com platform. Partners and developers can offer their applications and services for a fee on the AppExchange directory. This directory gives its users a way to find and install applications to expand their use of the Force.com platform t! o areas t! hat are complementary to its social enterprise solution.
The Company offer consulting, deployment and training services to our customers to facilitate the adoption of its social enterprise services. Consulting services consist of services, such as business process mapping, project management services and guidance on best practices in using its service. Deployment services include systems integration, technical architecture and development, configuration and data conversion, as well as developing and delivering customized education programs for its customers. Most of its consulting and deployment engagements are billed on a time and materials basis. It offer a number of traditional classroom and online educational classes that address topics, such as deploying, using, administering and developing on its service. It also offers classes for its partners who deploy its service on behalf of its customers.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Jason Cunningham]
"Whether it's LinkedIn (NYSE: LNKD), Pandora (NYSE: P), Yelp (NYSE: YELP), you go back to Salesforce (NYSE: CRM), Workday (NYSE: WDAY), NetSuite (NYSE: N), I think we've proven to the clients in that industry we're a better partner, and now it's up to us to execute, 'cause Thursday is all about Twitter and the investors. It's not about us."
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