Best Electric Utility Companies For 2015

NEW YORK ��How will we watch TV in five years?

It's an apropos question fresh off the International CES trade show in Las Vegas, where lust-worthy Ultra High-Definition 4K televisions were ubiquitous. CES is also where I moderated a panel on that very topic, with top TV executives from Starz, Twitter and Verizon.

The question goes beyond the physical TV that will anchor your home theater. It touches on how you'll find what to watch, how you'll pay to watch it, and how and where it will be delivered. The broadband pipe will be faster. Your social networks will remain major influences. And you can expect the usual mix of pricey-to-produce glitz and popular series, cheaper homegrown-type videos and everything in between ��including, of course, live news and sports.

TV TECH: These Vizio sets could soon be the most advanced on the market

Best Electric Utility Companies For 2015: Nexans SA (NEX)

Nexans SA is a French company engaged in the cable industry. It provides copper and fiber-optic cables and cabling systems to the Energy Infrastructure, Industry, Building and Local Area Network (LAN) markets. It operates under three segments: Energy, Telecom and Electrical Wires and has six main product lines: indoor cabling, which includes rugged industrial, fire-performance and standard domestic cables; industrial cabling, which comprises a variety of cables for the automotive, aerospace and defense industries, among others; power network cabling, which offers low, medium and high-voltage cables; telecom network cabling that includes a range of copper and optical fiber cables and associated interconnect solutions and cable maker supply, which includes the provision of conductors and superconductive materials for making cables. The LAN Segment provides cables for business networks and offers integrated solutions combining cables, connectors, administration and security. Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Michael Lewis]

  Bloomberg via Getty Images William 'Bill' Ackman founder and CEO of Pershing Square Capital Management (left) Daniel Loeb, founder and CEO of Third Point: Two activist investors taking big positions in large public companies and demand even bigger changes. Is activist investing a force for good when it comes to shareholders? Recent events, namely the Bill Ackman-J.C. Penney (JCP) debacle, have left investors and analysts tired of the outspoken hedge-funders of the world. There are, of course, plenty of activists whose actions have enhanced not just their funds' portfolios, but those of passive, minority shareholders. They've forced companies to make positive changes -- to restructure, elect new board members, and get back on track toward healthier operations. Then again, others end up like J.C. Penney -- a seemingly lost business, rich with legacy yet left crippled by boardroom drama. That leaves us -- the average consumers and investors -- with a pressing question: Are these megaphoned power players trying to effect change that will benefit all, the company included? Or are they just after results that will juice their own returns? The Age of Activism While many activist investors consider themselves to be molded in the image of a certain Omaha-based super-investor, many of today's hedge fund superstars have taken a very different approach to the craft of identifying mispriced securities. Like the old guard -- raiders like Carl Icahn and Nelson Peltz -- young guns such as Daniel Loeb and Bill Ackman take substantial positions in large public companies and demand change in an approach that is about as far from Warren Buffett's investor behavior as one can get. Their style can be best described as personality-driven activism. The practice is on the rise, too. According to FactSet, 2012 saw 21 activist campaigns in companies with market caps larger than $1 billion. In 2010, the number was 11. In 2003, there were four. While some passive shareholders may

Best Electric Utility Companies For 2015: Newpark Resources Inc (NR)

Newpark Resources, Inc., incorporated on June 3, 1988, is a diversified oil and gas supplier providing products and services primarily to the oil and gases exploration (E&P) industry. The Company operates in three segments: fluids systems and engineering, mats and integrated services, and environmental services. The Company's Fluids Systems and Engineering segment provides customized drilling fluids solutions to E&P customers globally, operating through four geographic regions: North America, Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA), Latin America, and Asia Pacific. The Company's Mats and Integrated Services segment provides composite mat rentals, well site construction and related site services to oil and gas customers at well, production, transportation and refinery locations in the United States. The Company's Environmental Services segment processes and disposes of waste generated by E&P and industrial activity, primarily along the United States Gulf Coast. On December 31, 2012, it acquired operations of Alliance Drilling Fluids, LLC

Fluids Systems and Engineering

The Company's Fluids Systems and Engineering business offers customized solutions, including technical drilling projects involving complex subsurface conditions, such as horizontal, directional, geologically deep or deep water drilling. These projects require increased monitoring and critical engineering support of the fluids system during the drilling process. The Company provides drilling fluids products and technical services to markets in North America, EMEA, Latin America, and the Asia Pacific region. The Company also provides completion services and equipment rental to customers in Oklahoma and Texas. The Company has industrial mineral grinding operations for barite. The Company grinds barite and other industrial minerals at facilities in Houston and Corpus Christi, Texas, New Iberia, Louisiana and Dyersburg, Tennessee. The Company uses the resulting products in its drilling fluids business, and also sell! s them to third party users, including other drilling fluids companies. The Company also sells a variety of other minerals, principally to third party industrial (non oil and gas) markets, from its main plant in Houston, Texas and from the plant in Dyersburg, Tennessee.

Mats and Integrated Services

The Company provides mat rentals, location construction and related well sites services to E&P customers in the Northeast United States, onshore United States Gulf Coast, and Rocky Mountain regions, and mat rentals to the petrochemical industry in the United States and the utility industry in the United Kingdom. These mats provide environmental protection and ensure all-weather access to sites with unstable soil conditions. The Company manufactures its DuraBase Advanced Composite Mats for sales, as well as for uses in its domestic and international rental operations. The Company's marketing efforts for this product remain focused in principal oil and gas industry markets which include the Asia Pacific, Latin America, EMEA, as well as markets outside the E&P sector in the United States and Europe.

Environmental Services

The Company processes and disposes of waste generated by its oil and gas customers. Primary revenue sources include onshore and offshore Gulf of Mexico drilling waste management, as well as reclamation services. Additionally, the Company provides disposal services in the West Texas market. The Company operates six receiving and transfers facilities located along the United States Gulf Coast. E&P waste is collected at the transfer facilities from drilling and production operations located offshore, onshore and within inland waters. Waste is accumulated at the transfer facilities and moved by barge through the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway to the Company's processing and transfer facility at Port Arthur, Texas, and, if not recycled, is trucked to injection disposal facilities. Any remaining material is injected, after further processing, into envir! onmentall! y secure geologic formations. Under permits from Texas state regulatory agencies, the Company operates waste disposal facilities in Jefferson County, Texas (Fannett and Big Hill). The Fannett site is the Company's primary facility for disposing of E&P waste. Utilizing this same technology, the Company also receives and disposes of non-hazardous industrial waste at the Big Hill facility, principally from generators in the United States Gulf Coast market, including refiners, manufacturers, service companies and industrial municipalities that produce waste. These non-hazardous waste streams are injected into a separate well utilizing the same low-pressure injection technology. The Company also disposes of non-hazardous industrial waste.

The Company competes with Schlumberger, Halliburton and Baker Hughes.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Travis Hoium]

  What: Shares of energy service provider Newpark Resources (NYSE: NR  ) jumped 17% today after the company released earnings.

  So what: Revenue was up 7.7%, to $283 million in the first quarter, and net income jumped 11.1%, to $17.4 million, or $0.18 per share. Analysts only expected $278 million in revenue, and earnings of $0.17 per share, and the slight beat was enough to send shares higher. It didn't hurt that the report was accompanied by a $50 million share repurchase plan, which indicates that management is bullish on the company's long-term future.�

Top Promising Companies To Buy Right Now: Tencent Holdings Ltd (TCEHY.PK)

Tencent Holdings Limited is an investment holding company. The Company and its subsidiaries are principally engaged in the provision of Internet value-added services, mobile and telecommunications value-added services and online advertising services to users in the People�� Republic of China. The Company operates in four segments: Internet value-added services, Mobile and telecommunications value-added services, Online advertising, and Others. As of December 31, 2011, its subsidiaries included Tencent Cyber (Tianjin) Company Limited, Tencent Asset Management Limited, Tencent Technology (Beijing) Company Limited, Tencent Cyber (Shenzhen) Company Limited, Tencent Technology (Shanghai) Company Limited and others. Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Shareholders Unite]

  The main on-line competitors are:

  Qunar.com, a travel website owned by Baidu (BIDU) and a few venture fundseLong (LONG), backed by Tencent (TCEHY.PK) and Expedia (EXPE). Analyst expect it to generate $163M in revenue next year

  That is pretty serious competition, needless to say. Having the backing of Baidu or Expedia offers several advantages, but Ctrip is the biggest and most established company. It's quite difficult to compare Qunar.com to Ctrip, for the simple sake that Qunar is a private company. However, there can be little doubt that it constitutes serious competition:

• [By Matthew Smith]

  Shares in Sohu.com (SOHU) continued their rapid rise, hitting yet another fresh 52-week high during the session, as the company announced the special dividend from Sohou yesterday (press release located here). Sohu.com will receive nearly $161.2 million in the transaction which is part of the overall $400 million deal with Tencent (TCEHY.PK) which was announced not too long ago. These are exciting times in the internet space as we move from computers to mobile devices, but China's internet landscape looks like the 'Wild West' right now and we expect to see further deals as companies jockey for position in their respective niches and consolidation begins as the larger players look to step up growth and gain exposure to new business segments.

Best Electric Utility Companies For 2015: Affymax Inc.(AFFY)

Affymax, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company, engages in the development of drugs for the treatment of serious and life-threatening conditions. It develops peginesatide (Hematide), which has completed Phase III clinical trial for the treatment of anemia associated with chronic renal failure. Hematide is a synthetic peptide-based erythropoiesis stimulating agent designed to stimulate production of red blood cells. The company has strategic alliance agreements with Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited and Nektar Therapeutics AL, Corporation to develop and commercialize Hematide. Affymax, Inc. was founded in 2001 and is based in Palo Alto, California.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Kanak Kanti De]

  Amgen needed an Onyx-like acquisition badly. For one, sales of Aranesp and Epogen, its flagship drugs for anemia, are dropping on concerns of safety, and loss of monopoly in 2012 to Affymax (AFFY), which received FDA approval for a rival anemia drug. (Note though, that after Omontys was recalled this year, that problem is resolved for Amgen.) Secondly, four of its top selling products go off patent in 2015.

• [By Alpha Exposure]

  Investors in Affymax (AFFY) would like you to believe that Omontys will make a miraculous comeback and that Affymax will be a major winner. My belief is that the last AFFY article contained multiple factual errors that when refuted show that the future for Omontys is in fact dire. At the conclusion of this article all doubt should be removed regarding the low likelihood that Omontys returns to market.

Best Electric Utility Companies For 2015: DUSA Pharmaceuticals Inc.(DUSA)

DUSA Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a vertically integrated dermatology company, develops and markets Levulan photodynamic therapy (PDT) and other products for common skin conditions primarily in the United States, Canada, and Korea. Its products include Levulan Kerastick 20% Topical Solution with PDT and the BLU-U brand light source for the treatment of non-hyperkeratotic actinic keratoses of the face or scalp. The company also markets the BLU-U without Levulan for the treatment of moderate inflammatory acne vulgaris and general dermatological conditions; and non-PDT drug products, such as ClindaReach and AVAR products. DUSA Pharmaceuticals, Inc. was founded in 1991 and is based in Wilmington, Massachusetts.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By CRWE]

  DUSA Pharmaceuticals, Inc.(r) (Nasdaq:DUSA), a dermatology company that is developing and marketing Levulan(r) Photodynamic Therapy (PDT), reported that Bob Doman, President and Chief Executive Officer, will present a corporate overview at the Rodman & Renshaw 14th Annual Healthcare Conference on Monday, September 10, 2012 at 11:15 a.m. ET at The Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York City.

Best Electric Utility Companies For 2015: Beazer Homes USA Inc. (BZH)

Beazer Homes USA, Inc. designs, builds, and sells single-family and multi-family homes. The company offers homes for entry-level, move-up, or retirement-oriented buyers. It also engages in rental of previously owned homes that are purchased and improved by the company. The company sells its homes through commissioned new home sales counselors and independent brokers. It operates in 16 states, including Arizona, California, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Maryland, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia. Beazer Homes USA, Inc. was founded in 1985 and is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Jacob Roche]

  Sherwin-Williams, along with some other home-improvement stocks, benefits from being part of that rare breed of stocks that do well when times are good, and still do well when times are bad. If the housing market is good, new homes get built en masse, and those homes need to be painted and floored. Hence, with U.S. housing starts up nearly 90% over the past couple of years, homebuilders KB Homes (NYSE: KBH  ) and Beazer Homes (NYSE: BZH  ) have seen revenues finally starting to recover, and companies such as Sherwin-Williams and Lumber Liquidators (NYSE: LL  ) are being pulled along for the ride.

• [By Sean Williams]

  While this is good news from the perspective that the Fed thinks the market is strong enough to move forward without any additional stimulus, it's terrible news for the housing sector, which has relied on low lending rates to drive loans. It's no surprise that last week was the worst one we've witnessed in the housing sector in more than a year -- especially for homebuilders still on the shakiest of ground, like Beazer Homes (NYSE: BZH  ) . Beazer, which is still losing money on an annualized basis, fell 10% on the week, despite seeing its revenue surge 50% in its most recent quarter.

• [By Federico Zaldua]

  Beazer Homes USA (BZH), the diversified home-builder which is held by Mario Gabelli from GAMCO Investors, is my top play among single-family and multi-family home builders. While I believe higher interest rates should slow the pace of margin expansion for Beazer, I also believe higher top line growth will more than compensate interest rate effects on net earnings. As a matter of fact, I think gross margins are going to go north of 17.5% by the end of 2014 while top-line should keep on growing at a rate of 25%.

Best Electric Utility Companies For 2015: Agent155 Media Corp (AGMC)

Agent155 Media Corp., formerly Freshwater Technologies Inc., incorporated on December 10, 1999, is a development-stage company. It will offer a free, online presence for the global artistic and athletic communities through its Website, Agent155.com. Agent155.com provides fashion, performer, art, sports, music, film, writer professionals and amateurs a multi-media content management solution, enabling a collaborative forum to network and develop through www.agent155.com. It also provides talent agencies, agents, producers, directors, and recording companies a location to search and view the profiles. It also re-distributes member content through traditional media channels, such as television, radio, film and print. It will produce films, music tours, commercials, and various events using talent from Agent155.com.directors, and recording companies a location to search and view the profiles and work of talent. In addition, the Company will provide targeted advertising opportunities for members and businesses.

Agent155 Media Corp fulfills the role of a matchmaker allowing talented individuals direct access to those who seek specific talents. Agent155 Media Corp provides talent agencies, agents, producers, directors and recording companies a location to search and view pool of profiles and work of talent.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Peter Graham]

  Small cap stocks Profitable Developments Inc (OTCMKTS: PRDL), Dynamic Applications Corp (OTCMKTS: DYAP) and Agent155 Media Corp (OTCMKTS: AGMC) have been getting some attention lately in various investment newsletters. One of these small caps has been getting attention thanks to paid promotions while another saw a trading volume spike for the first three days of last week and the last one has seen a steady rise in share price over October. So what�� going on with these small cap stocks? Here is a quick reality check to help you decide how hot they might be or become:

Best Electric Utility Companies For 2015: iShares 3-7 Year Treasury Bond ETF (IEI)

iShares Lehman 3-7 Year Treasury Bond Fund (the Fund) seeks investment results that correspond generally to the price and yield performance of the intermediate-term sector of the United States Treasury market as defined by the Lehman Brothers 3-7 Year U.S. Treasury Index (the Index). The Index includes all publicly issued the United States Treasury securities that have a remaining maturity of greater than or equal to three years and less than seven years, and have $250 million or more of outstanding face value. In addition, the securities must be denominated in United States dollars, and must be fixed-rate and non-convertible securities. Excluded from the Index are certain special issues, such as flower bonds, targeted investor notes, and state and local government series bonds, and coupon issues that have been stripped from assets that are already included in the Index.

The Index is a market capitalization-weighted index. The Fund invests in a representative sample of the securities in the Index, which has a similar investment profile as the Index. The Fund�� investment advisor is Barclays Global Fund Advisor.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Donald van Deventer]

  Shorter-duration Treasury Exchange-Traded Funds: (SHY), (SHV), (IEI), (BIL), (TUZ), (FIVZ), (DTUL), (VGSH), (DTUS), (DFVS), (DFVL), (SST), (ISTB), (TBZ).

Best Electric Utility Companies For 2015: Kleangas Energy Technologies Inc (KGET)

Kleangas Energy Technologies, Inc., incorporated on January 7, 2008, is a development-stage company. The Company is engaged in designing, manufacturing and selling oxy-hydrogen systems. These systems function by creating oxygen and hydrogen from distilled water through electrolysis and injecting these gases into the mixture of fuel and air used in gasoline and diesel internal combustion engines. In August 2013, the Company acquired a Patent Pending Oxy-Hydrogen Generator Technology for all types of gas and diesel internal combustion engines. In December 2013, the Company announced that it has completed the acquisition of Green Day Technologies, Inc.

The Company designs, develops and markets a range of technologies, including oxy-hydrogen on-demand generators, reverse fuel cells, hydrogen powered devices, welding and cutting systems and other products to deliver a clean gas. The Company�� technology can separate these two basic life giving elements or recombine them into a clean source of gas that can be implemented in a wide variety of applications

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Peter Graham]

  Small cap green stocks Vision Industries Corp (OTCMKTS: VIIC), Bravo Enterprises Ltd (OTCMKTS: OGNG) and Kleangas Energy Technologies Inc (OTCMKTS: KGET) have reported recent news and/or they are being promoted. Of course, it goes without saying that small cap green stocks tend to be more volatile that other types of investments. So will investors and traders alike see some greenbacks from these green stocks? Here is a quick reality check:

• [By Peter Graham]

  Small cap green stocks Essential Innovations Technology Corp (OTCBB: ESIV), Building Turbines Inc (OTCMKTS: BLDW) and Kleangas Energy Technologies Inc (OTCMKTS: KGET) have all been getting some attention lately in various investment newsletters ��either because they were sinking, because of paid promotions or a combination of both. However, there aren�� many green stocks out there that have actually produced some green for investors in the form of profits. With that in mind, here is a quick reality check about all three green small cap stocks to help you decide whether any have the potential for long-term success: