Top 10 Cheap Companies To Watch In Right Now

Income-oriented investors love master limited partnerships because of their high cash payouts. Over the past few years, there has been a deluge of MLP initial public offerings, as companies try to make the most of cheap capital while quenching investors' thirst for yield.

Some of the best MLP investments, however, have been on the market for quite some time now, rewarding shareholders with clockwork-like distribution increases and market-thumping returns. Today I'll take a look at three energy MLPs that have not only posted remarkable consistency in their investor payouts, but have crushed the market at the same time.

The top three
The three MLPs listed below are tops among all energy MLPs in maintaining a quarterly streak of increasing their distribution payouts to investors:

Company

Quarterly Streak

Current Yield

Five-Year Total Return

Hot Gold Stocks To Own Right Now: Popular Inc.(BPOP)

Popular, Inc., through its subsidiaries, provides a range of retail and commercial banking products and services primarily to corporate clients, small and middle size businesses, and retail clients in Puerto Rico and Mainland United States. It offers deposit products; commercial, consumer, and mortgage loans, as well as lease finance; and finance and advisory services. The company also offers trust and asset management, brokerage and investment banking, and insurance and reinsurance services. As of December 31, 2010, it owned and occupied approximately 94 branch premises and other facilities in Puerto Rico; and 119 offices, including 20 owned and 99 leased in New York, Illinois, New Jersey, California, Florida, and Texas. Popular, Inc. was founded in 1917 and is headquartered in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By John Udovich]

  For investors looking for exposure to the US commonwealth of Puerto Rico, banking stocks Doral Financial Corp (NYSE: DRL), First Bancorp (NYSE: FBP), OFG Bancorp (NYSE: OFG) and Popular Inc (NASDAQ: BPOP) offer the best bet as these Puerto Rico stocks trade on major US exchanges rather than the OTC. However, it should be mentioned that there has been a slowdown in Puerto Rico�� economy which has also shrunk in five of the past seven fiscal years. Then last�February, Puerto Rico�� debt was cut to speculative grade by the three largest credit-rating companies while�Governor Alejandro Garcia Padilla has proposed a series of budget cuts to help tackle the island�� mounting debt load -including the freezing public workers��salaries and the closing about 100 schools.

• [By Maria Armental var popups = dojo.query(".socialByline .popC"); popups.forEach]

  Popular Inc.(BPOP), Puerto Rico’s largest bank, said Wednesday that regulators approved its plan to repay the $935 million rescue package it received during the financial crisis. Popular was the U.S. government’s largest remaining crisis-era bailout after auto-lender Ally Financial Inc.(ALLY), which has paid back more than the $17.2 billion bailout it received during the financial crisis as a result of going public in April.

Top 10 Cheap Companies To Watch In Right Now: The Travelers Companies Inc.(TRV)

The Travelers Companies, Inc., through its subsidiaries, provides various commercial and personal property and casualty insurance products and services to businesses, government units, associations, and individuals primarily in the United States. The company operates in three segments: Business Insurance; Financial, Professional, and International Insurance; and Personal Insurance. The Business Insurance segment offers property and casualty products and services, such as commercial multi-peril, property, general liability, commercial auto, and workers? compensation insurance. It operates in six groups: Select Accounts, which serves small businesses; Commercial Accounts that serves mid-sized businesses; National Accounts, which serves large companies; Industry-Focused Underwriting that serves targeted industries; Target Risk Underwriting, which serves commercial businesses requiring specialized product underwriting, claims handling, and risk management services; and Special ized Distribution that offers products to customers through licensed wholesale, general, and program agents. The Financial, Professional, and International Insurance segment provides surety and financial liability coverage, which uses a credit-based underwriting process; and property and casualty products primarily in the United States., the United Kingdom, Ireland, and Canada. The Personal Insurance segment offers property and casualty insurance covering personal risks, primarily automobile and homeowners insurance to individuals. It distributes its products through independent agents, sponsoring organizations, joint marketing arrangements with other insurers, and direct marketing. The company was founded in 1853 and is based in New York, New York.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Dan Caplinger]

  Yet the industry is going through a time of transition right now. The devastating tornado that hit an Oklahoma City suburb in May sent shares of Progressive, Allstate (NYSE: ALL  ) , and Travelers (NYSE: TRV  ) tumbling in anticipation of greater property and casualty losses. On the other hand, greater losses have helped support rising premiums, helping to bolster long-term profits. Moreover, rising yields in the bond market are helping insurance companies earn more income from their investments, helping bring loss ratios down and improve profits.

• [By Alex Planes]

  Perhaps it could. On June 8, 2009, the Dow's editors tapped Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO  ) to replace the belly-up automaker, and also replaced floundering Citigroup (NYSE: C  ) with Travelers (NYSE: TRV  ) , its onetime subsidiary. When the change was announced, Dow Jones editor-in-chief Robert Thomson noted that Cisco was the right choice "because its communications and computer-networking products are vital to an economy and culture still adapting to the Information Age��-��ust as automobiles were essential to America in the 20th century." Citigroup's ouster was necessary as well, since its financial-crisis struggles had left the government with a substantial stake, and had left the bank in the midst of a "substantial restructuring."

• [By Dan Carroll]

  Finally, Travelers (NYSE: TRV  ) managed to report above-average results today after net income jumped 85% for the quarter, with price increases helping to boost that number. However, shares have fallen to the bottom of the Dow, currently down 3.8%. What's the culprit? Blame the company's conference call, during which Travelers leadership said those price increases have led to reduced volume. The company won't be able to keep up this success if that's the case, and with a potentially active hurricane season upon the Atlantic, Travelers' next quarter may not be as stellar as this past one.

• [By Eric Volkman]

  Travelers (NYSE: TRV  ) has traveled north of the border for its latest large-scale asset purchase. The company announced Monday that it has agreed to a deal with Canada's E-L Financial to acquire The Dominion of Canada General Insurance.

Top 10 Cheap Companies To Watch In Right Now: Uranium Resources Inc.(URRE)

Uranium Resources, Inc. engages in the acquisition, exploration, development, and mining of uranium properties, using the in situ recovery or solution mining process. It owns developed and undeveloped uranium properties in South Texas; and undeveloped uranium properties in New Mexico. The company?s primary customers include utilities who utilize nuclear power to generate electricity. Uranium Resources, Inc. was founded in 1977 and is based in Lewisville, Texas.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By John Udovich]

  Since the start of the week, small cap nuclear fuel stock USEC Inc (NYSE: USU) more than doubled for investors, something that has not happened for investors in uranium stocks like Uranium Resources, Inc (NASDAQ: URRE), Denison Mines Corp (NYSEMKT: DNN), Ur-Energy Inc. (NYSEMKT: URG) and Uranerz Energy Corp (NYSEMKT: URZ). To recap: USEC Inc closed at the $6 level on Friday, but then it surged to the $15 level on Monday only to open at the $10 level on Tuesday when it ultimately closed at $12.46. So what in the world is going on with USEC Inc and is it time to revisit nuclear fuel and uranium stocks?

Top 10 Cheap Companies To Watch In Right Now: Hewlett-Packard Company(HPQ)

Hewlett-Packard Company and its subsidiaries provide products, technologies, software, solutions, and services to individual consumers and small- and medium-sized businesses (SMBs), as well as to the government, health, and education sectors worldwide. Its Personal Systems Group segment offers commercial personal computers (PCs), consumer PCs, workstations, calculators and other related accessories, and software and services for the commercial and consumer markets. The company?s Services segment provides consulting, outsourcing, and technology services to infrastructure, applications, and business process domains. Its Imaging and Printing Group segment provides consumer and commercial printer hardware, supplies, media, and scanning devices, such as inkjet and Web solutions, laser jet and enterprise solutions, managed enterprise solutions, graphics solutions, and printer supplies. The company?s Enterprise Servers, Storage, and Networking segment offers industry standard s ervers, business critical systems, storage platforms, and networking products, including switches, routers, wireless LAN, and TippingPoint network security products. Its HP Software segment provides enterprise IT management software, information management solutions, and security intelligence/risk management solutions. The company?s HP Financial Services segment offers leasing, financing, utility programs, and asset recovery services; and financial asset management services for enterprise customers, as well as specialized financial services to SMBs, and educational and governmental entities. Hewlett-Packard Company also provides business intelligence solutions that enable businesses to standardize on consistent data management schemes, connect and share data across the enterprise, and apply analytics, as well as licenses its specific technology to third parties. The company was founded in 1939 and is headquartered in Palo Alto, California.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By John Udovich]

  "The advance of APU processor design, the Surround Computing era, and the Internet of Things has created the demand for embedded devices that are low power but also offer excellent compute and graphics performance. AMD Embedded G-Series SOC products offer unparalleled compute, graphics and I/O integration, resulting in fewer board components, low-power use, and reduced complexity and overhead cost."

  New Global Design Center in Hyderabad Inaugurated. Advanced Micro Devices has inaugurated a new 175,000-sft facility global design center in Hyderabad, India, that will further both software and hardware innovations at the heart of AMD's APUs. Business Standard noted that the company spends around $1-billion each year to develop products and�employs over 10,000 people globally, including 6,000 engineers. Of these, around 550 engineers will work out of the Hyderabad center and an equal number in the Bangalore facility. Confusion Over Kaveri. There appears to be some confusion over whether or not Advanced Micro Devices��Kaveri accelerated processing unit will be delayed or not as xbitlabs.com has reported that�it looks like Kaveri will be formally unleashed at the Consumer Electronics Show 2014 to reach the market in late Q1 or early Q2 next year���meaning a one year delay compared to the original schedule. VR-Zone.com also reported that documents they have seen show that OEMs were told at Computex to expect the chip to be launched into channel by mid-February 2014 but AMD has responded by saying: ��MD�� ��averi��high-performance APU remains on track and will start shipping to customers in Q4 2013, with first public availability in the desktop component channel very early in Q1 2014�� Goldman Sachs Goes Bearish.�Goldman Sachs��David Kostin and his research team recently came out with their monthly chartbook about the economy and stocks that includes a list of forty stocks with the greatest upside and downside potential based upon the firm�� tar
• [By Travis Hoium]

  The big headline of the day was Hewlett-Packard's (NYSE: HPQ  ) surprise earnings beat and the stock's 16.4% jump today. After the market closed last night the company reported�adjusted earnings per share of $0.87 and a 10% decline in fiscal second-quarter revenue to $27.6 billion. Both were enough to beat estimates, and the $0.06 earnings beat was the big driver of the stock's move today. Better-than-expected earnings from HP are great, but let's not forget that every operating segment is in decline, and profit only beat expectations by virtue of massive cost-cutting efforts.�

Top 10 Cheap Companies To Watch In Right Now: Bank of America Corporation(BAC)

Bank of America Corporation, a financial holding company, provides banking and nonbanking financial services and products to individuals, small- and middle-market businesses, large corporations, and governments in the United States and internationally. The company?s Deposits segment generates savings accounts, money market savings accounts, certificate of deposits, and checking accounts; and Global Card Services segment provides the U.S. consumer and business card, consumer lending, international card and debit card services. Its Home Loans & Insurance segment offers consumer real estate products and services, including mortgage loans, reverse mortgages, home equity lines of credit, and home equity loans. It also provides property, disability, and credit insurance. The company?s Global Commercial Banking segment offers lending products, including commercial loans and commitment facilities, real estate lending, leasing, trade finance, short-term credit, asset-based lending, and indirect consumer loans; and capital management and treasury solutions, such as treasury management, foreign exchange, and short-term investing options. Its Global Banking & Markets segment provides financial products, advisory services, settlement, and custody services; debt and equity underwriting and distribution, merger-related advisory services, and risk management products; and integrated working capital management and treasury solutions. The company?s Global Wealth & Investment Management segment offers investment and brokerage services, estate management, financial planning services, fiduciary management, credit and banking expertise, and asset management products. Bank of America Corporation serves customers through a network of approximately 5,900 banking centers and 18,000 automated teller machines. It was formerly known as NationsBank Corporation and changed its name on October 1, 1998. Bank of America Corporation was founded in 1874 and is based in Charlott e, North Carolina.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Fede Zaldua]

  Citi, which could increase its tangible book value by 3% quarter-over-quarter, is relatively cheap. The bank, which is expected to produce a ROE of 7.35% for the current financial year, trades at 91% its tangible book value and 2014 9.3 times earnings. A comparable bank such as Bank Of America (BAC), which is expected to produce a ROE of 5.43% for the current financial year, sell for 109% its tangible book value and 2014 10.9 times earnings.

• [By Dan Caplinger]

  This time around, though, there's a new dynamic that's changing the supply-and-demand equation for stocks. During the financial crisis, even the largest companies suffered from liquidity problems. Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS  ) , General Electric (NYSE: GE  ) , and Bank of America (NYSE: BAC  ) were just a few of the major companies that went to extraordinary lengths to get the financing they needed, tapping both private-sector funds and government sources provided by bailout legislation. That experience taught companies the value of cash, and in the ensuing recovery, cash has reigned as king, once again.

• [By John Maxfield]

  A pending lawsuit against Bank of America (NYSE: BAC  ) and Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC  ) shows they aren't off the hook just yet for the robo-signing scandal. Over the weekend, the New York state attorney general said he will announce new enforcement actions against the banks as part of his effort to "protect New York homeowners." The suits purportedly allege that the banks violated a $25 billion nationwide settlement that they entered into last year with lawmakers in 49 states and the federal government.�In the following video, Motley Fool contributing writer John Maxfield discusses what this means for investors in the two megabanks.

Top 10 Cheap Companies To Watch In Right Now: Freeport-McMoran Copper & Gold Inc.(FCX)

Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc. engages in the exploration, mining, and production of mineral resources. The company primarily explores for copper, gold, molybdenum, silver, and cobalt. It holds interests in various properties, located in North and South America; the Grasberg minerals district in Indonesia; and the Tenke Fungurume minerals district in the Democratic Republic of Congo. As of December 31, 2010, the company?s consolidated recoverable proven and probable reserves totaled 120.5 billion pounds of copper, 35.5 million ounces of gold, 3.39 billion pounds of molybdenum, 325.0 million ounces of silver, and 0.75 billion pounds of cobalt. The company was founded in 1987 and is headquartered in Phoenix, Arizona.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Ben Levisohn]

  Last year, Barrick Gold (ABX) lost 48%, Newmont Mining (NEM) fell 48%, Goldcorp (GG) declined 39%. Iron miner Cliff’s Natural Resources (CLF), meanwhile, finished the year down 30%, while Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold (FCX) gained 17%.

• [By John Divine]

  Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold (NYSE: FCX  ) rounds out the list of today's laggards, with a 2.3% loss. This is the third straight day of declines for the copper miner, which continues to struggle with market repercussions from a deadly mining disaster at one of its locations in Indonesia. The lost production from the closed mine is estimated to be around $15 million per day.

• [By Paul Ausick]

  The country�� two largest copper miners, Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc. (NYSE: FCX) and Newmont Mining Corp. (NYSE: NEM) have refused to pay the new tax claiming that it violates their existing contracts. The government backed off a bit last week, saying that it would ��onsider reducing the duty for miners who are ��erious��about smelting their mineral concentrates in the country before shipping the metals to buyers abroad,��according to report in The Wall Street Journal.

Top 10 Cheap Companies To Watch In Right Now: Ford Motor Credit Company(F)

Ford Motor Company primarily develops, manufactures, distributes, and services vehicles and parts worldwide. It operates in two sectors, Automotive and Financial Services. The Automotive sector offers vehicles primarily under the Ford and Lincoln brand names. This sector markets cars, trucks, and parts through retail dealers in North America, and through distributors and dealers outside of North America. It also sells cars and trucks to dealers for sale to fleet customers, including daily rental car companies, commercial fleet customers, leasing companies, and governments. In addition, this sector provides retail customers with a range of after-sale vehicle services and products in the areas, such as maintenance and light repair, heavy repair, collision repair, vehicle accessories, and extended service contracts under the Ford Service, Lincoln Service, Ford Custom Accessories, Ford Extended Service Plan, and Motorcraft brand names. The Financial Services sector offers vari ous automotive financing products to and through automotive dealers. It offers retail financing, which includes retail installment contracts for new and used vehicles; direct financing leases; wholesale financing products that comprise loans to dealers to finance the purchase of vehicle inventory; loans to dealers to finance working capital, purchase real estate dealership, and/or make improvements to dealership facilities; and other financing products, as well as provides insurance services. Ford Motor Company was founded in 1903 and is based in Dearborn, Michigan.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Jake L'Ecuyer]

  Top Headline
  Ford Motor Co (NYSE: F) reported a rise in its fourth-quarter profit. Ford's quarterly profit surged to $3.04 billion, or $0.74 per share, from a year-ago profit of $1.60 billion, or $0.40 per share. Its adjusted earnings came in at $0.31 per share. Its revenue surged to $37.6 billion versus $36.3 billion. However, analysts were expecting a profit of $0.28 per share on revenue of $34.96 billion. For 2014, Ford projects a pretax profit of $7 billion to $8 billion.

• [By John Rosevear]

  General Motors (NYSE: GM  ) is still one of the world's biggest automakers -- but lately, its profits have been far behind those of rivals. GM outsold every automaker but Toyota (NYSE: TM  ) last year -- but Volkswagen (NASDAQOTH: VLKAY  ) and Ford (NYSE: F  ) , among others, earned more money.

• [By John Rosevear]

  Given GM's size and sales, $865 million isn't a big profit. It's much less than the $1.6 billion first-quarter profit that smaller rival Ford (NYSE: F  ) reported last week.

• [By MONEYMORNING]

  But Robinson said the best choice would be current Ford Motor Co. (NYSE: F) CEO Alan Mulally, based on his knowledge of Microsoft and his reputation as a turnaround specialist.