Our top pick for conservative investors is also Canada's top entry in the transportation category, explains Canadian stock expert Gordon Pape, editor of Internet Wealth Builder.
CN Rail (TSX:CNR) (NY:CNI) operates in both Canada and the States, with a large percentage of its track running through the American Midwest to the Gulf Coast.
CN Rail is the most cost-efficient railroad on the continent—in fact, no one else is even close to its 59.8% operating ratio.
The company's earnings are steadily growing—third-quarter profit was $705 million ($1.67 a share, fully diluted), up from $664 million ($1.52 per share) in the same period last year.
The shares split two-for-one recently. Since we originally recommended the stock back in 2002, at a split-adjusted price of $12.98, we have enjoyed a capital gain of 350%, plus steadily increasing dividends.
The company continues to benefit from increased oil-by-rail transportation, as the pipeline squeeze has forced producers to look for alternative ways to move product to market.
Top Railroad Companies To Watch For 2015: John Hancock Premium Dividend Fund (PDT)
John Hancock Patriot Premium Dividend Fund II (the Fund) is a diversified closed-end management investment company. The Fund's investment objective is to provide high current income together with capital growth. The Fund invests in a diversified portfolio of dividend-paying preferred and common stocks. It invests at least 80% of its net assets in dividend-paying securities. The Fund will normally invest more than 65% of its total assets in securities of companies in the utilities industry. Preferred stocks and debt obligations in which the Fund invests are rated investment grade (at least BBB by Standard & Poor�� or Baa by Moody�� Investors Service) at the time of investment, or will be preferred stocks of issuers of investment-grade senior debt, or if not rated, will be of comparable quality as determined by the Fund�� investment advisor. The Fund will invest in common stocks of issuers, whose senior debt is rated investment grade, or in the case of issuers that have no rated senior debt outstanding, whose senior debt is considered by its advisor to be of comparable quality. Its portfolio includes common stocks, preferred securities and short-term investments.
In May 2007, the Fund completed the acquisition of John Hancock Patriot Preferred Dividend Fund. In June 2007, the Fund acquired Hancock John Patriot Global Dividend Fund and John Hancock Patriot Premium Div Fund I. On October 10, 2007, the Fund completed the acquisition of John Hancock Patriot Select Dividend Trust Fund.
The Fund invests in industries, such as multi-utilities, electric utilities, investment banking and brokerage, other diversified financial services, oil and gas exploration and production, gas utilities, consumer finance, life and health insurance, and integrated telecommunication services. John Hancock Patriot Premium Dividend Fund II�� investment advisor is John Hancock Advisers, LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of John Hancock Financial Services, Inc., which is a subsidiary of Manulife Fina! ncial Corporation. The Fund�� sub-advisor is MFC Global Investment Management (U.S.), LLC.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Ari Charney]
John Hancock Premium Dividend Fund (PDT) tends to allocate roughly 30% to 40% of the portfolio to equities and 60% to 70% to preferred stock, with the utilities and financial sectors as its main focus.
Top Railroad Companies To Watch For 2015: Principal Financial Group Inc(PFG)
Principal Financial Group, Inc. provides retirement savings, investment, and insurance products and services worldwide. The company?s Retirement and Investor Services segment provides retirement savings and related investment products and services, including a portfolio of asset accumulation products and services primarily to small and medium-sized businesses and individuals in the United States. This segment offers products and services to businesses for defined contribution pension plans, including 401(k) and 403(b) plans, defined benefit pension plans, nonqualified executive benefit plans, and employee stock ownership plan consulting services; and annuities, mutual funds, and bank products and services to the employees of its business customers and other individuals. Principal Financial Group?s Principal Global Investors segment offers a range of equity, fixed income, and real estate investments, as well as specialized overlay and advisory services to institutional inve stors. The company?s Principal International segment offers retirement products and services, annuities, mutual funds, institutional asset management, and life insurance accumulation products in Brazil, Chile, China, Hong Kong SAR, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Mexico, Singapore, and Thailand. Principal Financial Group?s U.S. Insurance Solutions segment offers individual life insurance, as well as specialty benefits in the United States. Its individual life insurance products include universal and variable universal life insurance and traditional life insurance; and specialty benefit products comprise group dental and vision insurance, individual and group disability insurance, and group life insurance, as well as fee-for-service claims administration and wellness services. The company was founded in 1879 and is based in Des Moines, Iowa.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Patricio Kehoe] ts newest deal with private benefits company Liazon Corp., through which the firm will offer employer-sponsored group benefit plans to small and medium businesses. While the company already sells ancillary benefit plans, this deal will now also include dental, life insurance, disability insurance and critical illness coverage in an attempt to stay on top of the insurance industry. As an industry leader, Principal has over $466 billion in assets under management and 19 million customers, fragmented among small and medium-size businesses. Furthermore, its solid fourth quarter results have encouraged investment gurus like Paul Tudor Jones (Trades, Portfolio) and Steven Cohen (Trades, Portfolio) to recently acquire large amounts of the company�� shares. So, let�� see what this insurer has in store for the future.
Broadening Horizons
Although Principal�� core business is in life insurance, the company has been pursuing a more diverse growth strategy lately, and is now focused on expanding its position in the retirement service and asset management segment. With almost 30,700 pension plans covering over 3.4 million customers, this business��growth rate has not only boosted overall profitability, marked by a 31% annual increase in operating earnings for fiscal 2013, but also helped offset the headwinds of low interest rates and volatility in the emerging markets. In fact, the fourth quarter showed a 65% boost in premium and fee income for the segmenta , consequence of the rollout of total retirement suite products.
Moreover, Principal�� emphasis on retirement products and its use of capital salesforce for distribution has added on to the natural switching cost advantage in the insurance industry. Since plan sponsors provided with pension assets rarely switch providers, the company will likely benefit in the long term from its persistency, as seen in the quarterly 9% bump in recurring deposits.
On another note, Principal�� fee-based b
Top Food Companies To Buy Right Now: Volt Information Sciences Inc (VISI)
Volt Information Sciences, Inc., incorporated in 1957, provides staffing services, and telecommunications and information solutions. The Company is organized in two businesses: Staffing Services and Telecommunications and Information Solutions. Staffing services segment provides a range of employee staffing services to a range of customers throughout North America, Europe and Asia/Pac, and has expanded operations in Latin America. Telecommunications services provide telecommunications and other services, including design, engineering, construction, installation, maintenance and removal of telecommunications equipment for the outside plant and central offices of telecommunications and cable companies. In September 2008, the Company sold the net assets of its DataNational and Directory Systems divisions.
Staffing Services
Services offered by the Staffing Services segment fall within three major functional areas: staffing solutions, information technology (IT) solutions and e-procurement solutions. Staffing solutions provides managed staffing, temporary/contract personnel employment and workforce solutions. This functional area comprises the Technical Resources (Technical) division and the Administrative and Industrial (A&I) division. This functional area also provides direct placement services and, upon request from customers, subject to contractual conditions, is focused to allow the customer to convert the temporary employees to full-time customer employees under negotiated terms. In addition, the Company's Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO) services deliver end-to-end recruitment and hiring outsourced solutions to customers. The Technical division provides skilled employees, such as computer and other IT specialties, engineering, design, life sciences and technical support. The A&I division provides administrative, clerical, accounting and financial, call center and light industrial personnel.
E-procurement solutions provide global bid human capital acquisiti! on and management solutions by combining Web-based tools and business process outsourcing services. IT solutions provides a range of services, including consulting, outsourcing and turnkey project management in the software and hardware development, IT infrastructure services and customer contact markets.
Telecommunications and Information Solutions
This segment is divided into three sub segments: telecommunications services, computer systems, and printing and other. Telecommunications Services segment designs, engineers, constructs, installs and maintains voice, data, video and utility infrastructure for public and private businesses, military, and government agencies.
Computer Systems segment provides directory and operator systems and services primarily for the telecommunications industry and provides IT maintenance services. The segment also sells information systems to its customers and, in addition, provides an application service provider (ASP) model, which also provides information services, including infrastructure and database data services to others. This segment consists of Volt Delta Resources LLC, Volt Delta International, LSSiData and the Maintech computer maintenance division.
Printing and other segment provides printing services and publishes telephone directories in Uruguay. The telephone directory revenues of this segment are derived from the sales of telephone directory advertising for the books it publishes.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Geoff Gannon]
1. Steel Excel (SXCL)
2. FormFactor (FORM)
3. Imation (IMN)
4. Tuesday Morning (TUES)
5. Pacific Biosciences (PACB)
6. Maxygen (MAXY)
7. Westell (WSTL)
8. Volt Information Sciences (VISI)
9. Yasheng Group (YHGG)
Top Railroad Companies To Watch For 2015: Luxottica Group SpA (LUX)
Luxottica Group S.p.A. (Luxottica), incorporated in 1961, is an Italy-based company engaged in the design, manufacture and distribution of prescription frames and sunglasses in the mid-and premium-price categories. It operates in two segments: manufacturing and wholesale distribution and retail distribution. Through its manufacturing and wholesale distribution segment, it is engaged in the design, manufacture, wholesale distribution and marketing of house and designer lines of mid-to premium-priced prescription frames and sunglasses. The Company operates its retail segment principally through its retail brands, which include, among others, LensCrafters, Pearle Vision, Sears Optical, Target Optical and its Licensed Brands (Sears Optical and Target Optical), as well as through the retail brands of its business, Oakley, which include, among others, Oakley O Stores and Vaults, David Clulow e nel segmento Licensed Brand. Among its subsidiaries there are: Air Sun, Bazooka Inc, David Clulow Brighton Ltd and Ecotop Pty Ltd.
In May 2010, the Company acquired a 35.16% interest held by minority stockholders in Luxottica Gozluk Endustri ve Ticaret Anonim Sirketi, (Luxottica Turkey). On July 30, 2010, Luxottica acquired a 34% interest held by minority stockholders in Sunglass Hut (UK) Limited. On November 26, 2010, it acquired the Optifashion Australia Pty Limited group from HAL Optical Investments B.V. The acquisition included 47 corporate stores (40 optical and seven sun) and nine franchises, trading under brands including Just Spectacles. During the year ended December 31, 2010, the Company completed the acquisition of the David Clulow chain, bringing its ownership in the subsidiary to 100%. Luxottica�� house brands include Ray-Ban, Oakley, Arnette, Persol, REVO, Vogue, Oliver Peoples, K&L, Luxottica, Mosley Tribes, Sferoflex and Eye Safety Systems (ESS). Its licensed designer brands include Anne Klein, Brooks Brothers, Bvlgari, Burberry, Chanel, Dolce & Gabbana, D&G, Donna Karan, DKNY, Fox, Miu ! Miu, Paul Smith, Polo Ralph Lauren, Prada, Salvatore Ferragamo, Stella McCartney, Tiffany & Co, Tory Burch and Versace. Polo Ralph Lauren includes Chaps, Polo, Ralph and Ralph Lauren Purple Label. Product design, development and manufacturing takes place in six production facilities in Italy, two wholly owned factories in China and two sports sunglasses production facilities in the United States. Luxottica also has a small plant in India serving the local market.
During 2010, the Company produced approximately 56.6 million units. In North America, the Company operates the points of sale for its Licensed Brands, with over 1,140 stores under the Sears Optical and Target Optical brands. During 2010, it distributed approximately 20.4 million prescription frames and approximately 38.4 million sunglasses, in approximately 5,900 different styles. During 2010, it announced the signing of a license agreement with Coach, Inc. (Coach) for the design, manufacturing and global distribution of sun and prescription eyewear under the Coach, Coach Poppy and Reed Krakoff brands. Essilor S.A. (Essilor) is the supplier of the Company�� retail operations.
Luxottica�� distribution system is globally integrated and supplied by a centralized manufacturing programming platform. The network linking the logistics and sales centers to the production facilities in Italy and China also provides daily monitoring of global sales performance and inventory levels so that manufacturing resources can be programmed and warehouse stocks re-allocated to meet local market demand. This integrated system serves both the retail and wholesale businesses with 18 distribution centers worldwide, of which eight are in the Americas, seven are in the Asia-Pacific region and three are in the rest of the world. It has three main distribution centers (hubs) in locations serving its markets: Sedico in Europe, Atlanta in the Americas and Dongguan in the Asia-Pacific region. They operate as centralized facilities, offering custo! mers a au! tomated order management system. During 2010, it managed over 13,500 orders per day, including eyeglasses and spare parts. Sedico ships over 170,000 units daily to customers in Europe, the Middle East and Africa and to its distribution centers in the rest of the world, from which they are then shipped to local customers.
Wholesale Distribution
The Company�� wholesale distribution network, covering 130 countries across five continents, has 18 logistics centers and 42 commercial subsidiaries providing direct operations in key markets. Luxottica also distributes certain brands, including Oakley, to sporting goods stores and specialty sports stores, including bike, surf, snow, skate, golf and motor sports stores.
Retail Distribution
The retail portfolio offers a range of differentiation points for consumers, including the latest in designer and sun frames, lens options, eye care and everyday vision care health benefits. As of March 31, 2011, the Company�� retail business consisted of 5,911 corporate stores and 514 franchised or licensed locations. In its retail sun business, Luxottica operates over 2,480 retail locations in North America, Asia-Pacific, South Africa, Europe and the Middle East, mainly through the Sunglass Hut brand. Luxottica�� retail stores sells not only prescription frames and sunglasses that it manufactures but also a range of prescription frames, lenses and other ophthalmic products manufactured by other companies. During 2010, units manufactured with its brand names or its licensed brands represented approximately 80.2% of the total sales of frames based on units sold by the retail division.
Luxottica�� optical retail operations are anchored by brands, such as LensCrafters and Pearle Vision in North America, and OPSM, Laubman & Pank and Budget Eyewear, which are available in Australia and New Zealand. It also has a retail presence in China, where the Company operates in the eyewear market with LensCrafters. As of ! March 31,! 2011, the Company�� optical retail business consisted of approximately 3,650 retail locations globally. As of March 31, 2011, it operated a retail network of 1,191 LensCrafters stores, of which 989 are in North America and 202 stores are in China and Hong Kong. LensCrafters stores offer a range of selection of prescription frames and sunglasses, mostly made by Luxottica, in addition to a range of lenses and optical products made by other suppliers. LensCrafters' products include lenses, such as FeatherWates (lightweight, thin and impact-resistant lenses), DURALENS (super scratch-resistant lenses), Advanced View Progressive (free-form, digitally surfaced progressive lenses), Invisibles (anti-reflective lenses) and MVP Maximum View Progressives (multi-focal lenses without visible lines).
Pearle Vision is a optical retail chain in North America. As of March 31, 2011, Pearle Vision operated 330 corporate stores and had 350 franchise locations throughout North America. The Company also operates a network of retail locations in North America operating as Sears Optical and Target Optical, its Licensed Brands, which uses the brand names of their respective American department store. As of March 31, 2011, it operated 828 Sears Optical and 323 Target Optical locations throughout North America. OPSM includes three optical chains that it operates in Australia and New Zealand. In July 2010, the brand launched its new flagship store OPSM Eye Hub and in September 2010, the brand launched its new OPSM Loves Eyes marketing campaign. As of March 31, 2011, the Company owned 357 OPSM corporate stores throughout Australia. OPSM also has 43 corporate-owned stores in New Zealand, mainly in large urban areas.
Laubman & Pank focuses on the independent optical shopper looking for eyecare and service. As of March 31, 2011, Luxottica owned 65 Laubman & Pank corporate stores throughout Australia. As of March 31, 2011, the Company owned 92 Budget Eyewear corporate stores throughout Australia and had nine! franchis! e locations. Budget Eyewear also has 14 corporate stores in New Zealand. EyeMed Vision Care is a managed vision care operators in the United States, serving over 28.5 million members in large and medium size companies and government entities and through insurance companies. EyeMed has a network of over 24,000 locations, including opticians, ophthalmologists, optometrists and chains operated by Luxottica. Together with LensCrafters' over 900 in-store labs, Luxottica operates five central lens finishing labs in North America. In addition, it operates Oakley optical lens laboratories in the United States, Ireland and Japan. As of March 31, 2011, Sunglass Hut had 2,385 stores worldwide, of which 2,329 are corporate stores and 56 are franchise locations. As of March 31, 2011, the Company operated approximately 590 Sunglass Hut departments in Macy's.
ILORI is Luxottica's fashion sunwear retail brand, with 24 stores in North America, as of March 31, 2011, including flagship stores in the SoHo neighborhood of New York City and in Beverly Hills, California. As of March 31, 2011, the Company operated 24 Optical Shop of Aspen stores in locations throughout the United States. Luxottica operates six luxury retail stores under the Oliver Peoples brand. The Oliver Peoples brand retail stores only offer Oliver Peoples, Mosley Tribes and Paul Smith branded optical products. Two additional Oliver Peoples retail locations are operated under license in Tokyo and Los Angeles. In Europe, it operates David Clulow, an optical retailer operating in the United Kingdom and Ireland. As of March 31, 2011, David Clulow operated 39 corporate-owned locations (including nine joint ventures), four franchise locations and 36 sun stores/concessions. As of March 31, 2011, Bright Eyes operated 51 corporate store locations and 73 franchise locations. As of March 31, 2011, the Company operated 159 Oakley O Stores and Vaults worldwide, offering a range of Oakley products, including sunglasses, apparel, footwear and accessories. An! other sal! es channel is e-commerce, including the Oakley and the Ray-Ban Websites (www.oakley.com, www.Ray-Ban.com).
The Company competes with De Rigo S.p.A., Marchon Eyewear, Inc., Marcolin S.p.A., Safilo Group S.p.A., Silhouette International Schmied AG, Maui Jim, Inc., Wal-Mart, Eye Care Centers of America, Vision Service Plan (VSP), Davis Vision and Spectera.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Nicolas Johnson]
Another stock Mr. Lin likes is Luxottica Group SPA (LUX), which owns or has licenses to sunglass and eyeglass brands, including Ray-Ban, Oakley, Prada, and Dolce & Gabbana. The company, which trades in New York and Milan, also operates the LensCrafters and Sunglass Hut retail stores, among others.
Top Railroad Companies To Watch For 2015: BB&T Corp (BBT)
BB&T Corporation (BB&T) is a financial holding company. BB&T conducts its business operations primarily through its commercial bank subsidiary, Branch Banking and Trust Company (Branch Bank), which has offices in North Carolina, Virginia, Florida, Georgia, Maryland, South Carolina, Alabama, West Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, Texas, Washington D.C and Indiana. In addition, BB&T�� operations consist of a federally chartered thrift institution, BB&T Financial, FSB (BB&T FSB), and a number of nonbank subsidiaries, which offer financial services products. BB&T�� operations are divided into six business segments: Community Banking, Residential Mortgage Banking, Dealer Financial Services, Specialized Lending, Insurance Services, and Financial Services. Branch Bank provides a range of banking and trust services for retail and commercial clients in its geographic markets, including small and mid-size businesses, public agencies, local Governments and individuals, through 1,779 offices as of December 31, 2011. During the year ended December 31, 2011, BB&T announced the acquisitions of Liberty Benefit Insurance Services, Atlantic Risk Management Corporation and the Precept Group. In April 2012, it acquired the life and property and casualty insurance operating divisions of Roseland, New Jersey - based Crump Group Inc. On July 31, 2012, it acquired BankAtlantic.
As of December 31, 2011, the principal operating subsidiaries of BB&T included Branch Banking and Trust Company, Winston-Salem, North Carolina; BB&T Financial, FSB, Columbus, Georgia; Scott & Stringfellow, LLC, Richmond, Virginia; Clearview Correspondent Services, LLC, Richmond, Virginia; Regional Acceptance Corporation, Greenville, North Carolina; American Coastal Insurance Company, Davie, Florida, and Sterling Capital Management, LLC, Charlotte, North Carolina. Branch Bank�� principal operating subsidiaries include BB&T Equipment Finance Corporation, BB&T Investment Services, Inc., BB&T Insurance Services, Inc., Stanley, Hunt, DuPree! & Rhine (a division of Branch Bank), Prime Rate Premium Finance Corporation, Inc., Grandbridge Real Estate Capital, LLC, Lendmark Financial Services, Inc., CRC Insurance Services, Inc. and McGriff, Seibels & Williams, Inc.
Community Banking
BB&T�� Community Banking serves individual and business clients by offering a range of loan and deposit products and other financial services. As of December 31, 2011, Community Banking had a network of 1,779 banking.
Residential Mortgage Banking
Residential Mortgage Banking segment retains and services mortgage loans originated by Community Banking, as well as those purchased from various correspondent originators. Mortgage loan products include fixed and adjustable rate Government and conventional loans for the purpose of constructing, purchasing or refinancing residential properties. Substantially all of the properties are owner occupied. BB&T retains the servicing rights to all loans sold. Residential Mortgage Banking earns interest on loans held in the warehouse and portfolio, fee income from the origination and servicing of mortgage loans and recognizes gains or losses from the sale of mortgage loans. BB&T�� mortgage originations totaled $23.7 billion in 2011. BB&T�� residential mortgage servicing portfolio, which includes both retained loans and loans serviced for third parties, totaled $91.6 billion in 2011.
Dealer Financial Services
Dealer Financial Services originates loans to consumers on a prime and nonprime basis for the purchase of automobiles. Such loans are originated on an indirect basis through approved franchised and independent automobile dealers throughout the BB&T market area and nationally through Regional Acceptance Corporation. This segment also originates loans for the purchase of boats and recreational vehicles originated through dealers in BB&T�� market area. In addition, financing and servicing to dealers for their inventories is provided through a ! joint rel! ationship between Dealer Financial Services and Community Banking.
Specialized Lending
BB&T�� Specialized Lending consists of eight business units that provide specialty finance products to consumers and businesses. The internal business units include Commercial Finance that contains commercial finance and mortgage warehouse lending; and, Governmental Finance that is responsible for tax-exempt Government finance. Operating subsidiaries include BB&T Equipment Finance which provides equipment leasing within BB&T�� banking footprint; Sheffield Financial, a division of FSB Financial, a dealer-based financer of equipment for both small businesses and consumers; Lendmark Financial Services, a direct consumer finance lending company; Prime Rate Premium Finance Corporation, which includes AFCO and CAFO, insurance premium finance business units that provide funding to businesses in the United States and Canada and to consumers in certain markets within BB&T�� banking footprint, and Grandbridge Real Estate Capital, a commercial mortgage banking lender providing loans on a national basis.
Insurance Services
BB&T Insurance Services provides property and casualty, life and health insurance to businesses and individuals. It also provides small business and corporate products, such as workers compensation and professional liability, as well as surety coverage and title insurance. In addition, Insurance Services also underwrites a limited amount of property and casualty coverage.
Financial Services
Financial Services provides personal trust administration, estate planning, investment counseling, wealth management, asset management, employee benefits services, corporate banking and corporate trust services to individuals, corporations, institutions, foundations and Government entities. Financial Services also offers clients investment alternatives, including discount brokerage services, equities, fixed-rate and variable-rate annuiti! es, mutua! l funds and governmental and municipal bonds through BB&T Investment Services, Inc., a subsidiary of Branch Bank. Financial Services includes Scott & Stringfellow, LLC, a brokerage and investment banking firm. Scott & Stringfellow provides services in retail brokerage, equity and debt underwriting, investment advice, corporate finance and equity research and facilitates the origination, trading and distribution of fixed-income securities and equity products in both the public and private capital markets. Scott & Stringfellow also has a public finance department that provides investment banking services, financial advisory services and municipal bond financing. Scott & Stringfellow�� investment banking and corporate and public finance areas conduct business as BB&T Capital Markets. This segment includes BB&T Capital Partners that is a group of BB&T-sponsored private equity and mezzanine investment funds that invest in privately owned middle-market operating companies. Financial Services also includes the Corporate Banking Division that originates and services corporate relationships, syndicated lending relationships and client derivatives.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Jay Jenkins]
It doesn't matter if the bank is a mega bank like Bank of America (NYSE: BAC ) , a regional player like BB&T (NYSE: BBT ) , or a third-party software provider like Jack Henry and Associates (NASDAQ: JKHY ) , the capabilities and usability of online banking services are noticeably stuck in the mud.�
- [By Amanda Alix]
It's not hard to understand why banks such as BB&T (NYSE: BBT ) , PNC Financial (NYSE: PNC ) , and Discover Financial Services (NYSE: DFS ) might fear Walmart's entry into full-blown banking. As it turns out, this trepidation is long-lived, and the industry has worked tirelessly over the years to keep the giant retailer out of its neck of the woods.
Top Railroad Companies To Watch For 2015: Liberty Property Trust (LRY)
Liberty Property Trust is a publicly owned real estate investment holding trust. Through its subsidiary, it provides leasing, property management, development, acquisition, and other tenant-related services for a portfolio of industrial and office properties. The firm invests in industrial properties including various warehouse, distribution, service, assembly, light manufacturing, and research and development facilities. Its office properties include multi-story and single-story office buildings located principally in suburban mixed-use developments or office parks. Liberty Property Trust was founded in 1972 and is based in Malvern, Pennsylvania.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Brad Thomas]
Other REITs mentioned: (O), (NNN), (STAG), (DCT), (EGP), (PDM), (DRE), (LRY)
Source: Chambers Street: More Liquidity Magic On The Way In REIT-DomDisclosure: I have no positions in any stocks mentioned, and no plans to initiate any positions within the next 72 hours. I wrote this article myself, and it expresses my own opinions. I am not receiving compensation for it (other than from Seeking Alpha). I have no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article. (More...)
Top Railroad Companies To Watch For 2015: Archer-Daniels-Midland Company(ADM)
Archer Daniels Midland Company procures, transports, stores, processes, and merchandises agricultural commodities and products in the United States and internationally. It operates in three segments: Oilseeds Processing, Corn Processing, and Agricultural Services. The Oilseeds Processing segment engages in originating, merchandising, crushing, and processing oilseeds, such as soybeans, cottonseed, sunflower seeds, canola, rapeseed, peanuts, flaxseed, and palm into vegetable oils and protein meals. This segment also produces edible soy protein products, including soy flour, soy grits, soy protein concentrates, soy isoflavones, and soy isolates that are used in processed meats, baked foods, nutritional products, snacks, and dairy and meat analogs. The Corn Processing segment involves in corn wet milling and dry milling activities; and produces alcohol, amino acids, and other specialty food and animal feed ingredients, as well as ethyl alcohol. This segment also produces citr ic and lactic acids, lactates, sorbitol, xanthan gum, and glycols that are used in various food and industrial products, as well as astaxanthin, a product used in aquaculture to enhance flesh coloration. The Agricultural Services segment buys, stores, cleans, and transports agricultural commodities, such as oilseeds, corn, wheat, milo, oats, rice, and barley, as well as resells these commodities as food and feed ingredients for the agricultural processing industry. This segment also processes and distributes edible beans, formula feeds, and animal health and nutrition products. In addition, the company engages in milling wheat, corn, and milo into flour, as well as produces bakery products and mixes, wheat starch, gluten, and cocoa products that are sold to the baking industry; and involves in financial activities related to private equity fund investments, and futures commission merchant activities. Archer Daniels Midland Company was founded in 1898 and is based in Decatur, Illinois.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Ari Charney]
Following the Australian government’s recent rejection of Archer Daniels Midland Co’s (NYSE: ADM) AUD3.2 billion bid to acquire GrainCorp Ltd (ASX: GNC, OTC: GRCLF), we noted that some skeptics were wondering whether Australia is still open for business, as the country’s new Prime Minister Tony Abbott boldly proclaimed on election night back in early September.
- [By Chad Fraser]
This agriculture ETF gives you exposure to a wide range of businesses within the farming sector, from fertilizer makers like The Mosaic Company (NYSE: MOS) to food producers like Archer Daniels Midland (NYSE: ADM) and equipment makers like Kubota Corp. (OTC: KUBTY) and Deere.
- [By Alexis Xydias]
ADM (ADM) rose 0.5 percent to $41.69 in European composite trading. Australia�� rejection of the agricultural commodities producer�� takeover prompted a record 22 percent drop in GrainCorp, the biggest crop handler on Australia�� east coast, and a slide in the local currency.
Top Railroad Companies To Watch For 2015: Imperva Inc (IMPV)
Imperva, Inc. (Imperva), incorporated on April 2002, is engaged in providing data security solutions focused on providing visibility and control over business data across systems within the data center. The Company�� securesphere data security suite is a solution designed to prioritize and mitigate risks to high-value business data, protect against hackers and malicious insiders and address and streamline regulatory compliance. SecureSphere is an integrated, modular suite, which provides database, file and Web application security and secures all business data across a range of systems in data centers, including traditional on-premise data centers as well as private, public and hybrid cloud computing environments. The Company also offers on-demand, cloud-based security services. The Company has two segments: Imperva, which is comprised of its financial position and results of operations and those of the Company�� wholly owned subsidiaries, and Incapsula, which is comprised of the financial position and results of operations of the Company�� majority owned subsidiary. In February 2014, Imperva Inc acquired real-time mainframe security auditing agents from Tomium Software.
The Company�� products include SecureSphere data security suite for enterprise data centers and its cloud-based security services that it provides through Incapsula for mid-market enterprises and small and medium business (SMBs). The Company�� solution includes database security, file security and Web application security.
Database Security
Database security provides full visibility and control over structured business data repositories, including database data usage, vulnerabilities and access rights and enables security, audit, risk and information technology (IT) professionals to improve data security and address compliance requirements. The database products cover the enterprise database platforms, including Oracle, MS-SQL, IBM DB2, Sybase, Informix, MySQL, Progress, Teradata and ! Netezza. The database security products include discovery and assessment server, database activity monitoring, database firewall, user rights management for databases and analog-to-digital converter (ADC) insights. The discovery and assessment server automates the process of discovering databases and other business data on the network and performs a security assessment to identify risks to high-value business data. Database activity monitoring includes all discovery and assessment server functionality. Database firewall includes database activity monitoring functionality. User rights management for databases enables the management of user rights across heterogeneous enterprise databases by aggregating user rights to illustrate what rights users have to business data. ADC Insights provides user tracking for identifying the real end user behind database transactions.
The Company competes with International Business Machines Corporation, McAfee, Inc. and Oracle Corporation.
File Security
File security provides full visibility and control over unstructured business data repositories, including file ownership, usage and access rights and enables security, audit, risk and information technology (IT) professionals to improve file data security and address compliance requirements. The file security products are designed to secure files, including spreadsheets, presentation slides, word processing documents and portable document format (PDFs) containing high-value business data that its customers store in unstructured repositories, such as file servers, network attached storage and storage area network devices. The File security products include user rights management for files, file activity monitoring and file firewall. User rights management for files enables the management of user access rights across multiple different file storage systems by aggregating user rights based on organizational context and actual file usage to illustrate what rights users have to sensitive ! files. Fi! le activity monitoring includes all user rights management for files functionality. File firewall includes all file activity monitoring functionality, and provides real-time blocking of suspicious activity that violates corporate policies.
The Company competes with EMC Corporation and Symantec Corporation.
Web Application Security
Web application security protects Web applications from large scale cyber attacks, adapts to evolving threats to prevent data breaches and addresses compliance requirements. Its product includes Web application firewall (WAF), which fortifies Web defenses with research-driven intelligence on current threats.
The Company competes with Citrix Systems, Inc. and F5 Networks, Inc.
Cloud-Based Services
The Company�� cloud-based service offerings are its Incapsula service, the Imperva Cloud WAF Service and its ThreatRadar subscription service. The Incapsula service is designed to be easy to deploy and to be accessible to small and medium size businesses that need data security and compliance solutions, but do not have the size or resources to deploy its SecureSphere WAF appliances into their own Website infrastructure. Incapsula�� security and optimization offerings include the services, including Web application firewall services, content delivery optimization and distributed denial of service-attack prevention. Web application firewall services provide enterprise-grade blocking of attacks against Web applications to help ensure Website safety and availability; enhanced security through real-time and centralized threat detection across all protected Websites; allows customers to address compliance requirements. Content delivery optimization optimizes Website performance by reducing page load times, server load and bandwidth consumption. Distributed denial of service-attack prevention blocks malicious attack traffic and allows filtered, legitimate traffic to flow to the customer Website allowing its b! usiness t! o run without interruption.
Imperva Cloud WAF powered by Incapsula, bundles the incapsula service with managed support services from our security operations center (SOC). Managed services include provisioning, security alert notifications and tuning, incident response, real time service dashboard and statistics, customer support and weekly reports on alerts and attack trends. ThreatRadar is an add-on, premium subscription service for the Company�� SecureSphere WAF appliance that recognizes attack sources and dynamically adjusts Web security policies within its SecureSphere WAF appliance to provide protection against them.
The customers include four of the telecommunications companies, three of the commercial banks in the United States, three of the financial data service firms, three of the computer hardware companies, two of the food and drug store companies, over 150 government agencies worldwide and more than 100 Fortune 1000 companies. The Company primarily sells its products and services through its network of over 350 channel partners worldwide, including both distributors and resellers. The Company derives its revenue from sales and licenses of its products and sales of its services. Services revenue consists of maintenance and support, professional services and training and subscriptions. A majority of the Company�� revenue is derived from customers in the Americas region. As of December 31, 2010, 66% of its total revenue was generated from the Americas, 24% from Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) and 10% from Asia Pacific, and for the six months ended June 30, 2011, 63% of its total revenue was generated from the Americas, 24% from EMEA and 13% from Asia Pacific.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Monica Gerson]
Imperva (NYSE: IMPV) shares tumbled 37.68% to $30.99 after the company cut its first-quarter outlook. Imperva now expected a loss of $0.40 to $0.44 per share, on revenue of $31 million to $31.5 million.
- [By Monica Gerson]
Imperva (NYSE: IMPV) shares tumbled 41.52% to touch a new 52-week low of $29.08 after the company cut its first-quarter outlook. Imperva now expected a loss of $0.40 to $0.44 per share, on revenue of $31 million to $31.5 million.
- [By Jake L'Ecuyer]
Equities Trading DOWN
Shares of Imperva (NYSE: IMPV) were down 38.35 percent to $30.66 after the company cut its first-quarter outlook. Imperva now expected a loss of $0.40 to $0.44 per share, on revenue of $31 million to $31.5 million.
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