Monday, January 5, 2015

Top Consumer Service Companies To Invest In Right Now

South Korean conglomerate Samsung is dead set on ditching its perception as nothing more than a commoditized hardware vendor. To that end, the company has been aggressively focusing on software and services, even though that inevitably entails undermining Google's own.

When Samsung unveiled the Galaxy S4 in March, there was literally no direct mention of Google or Android during the presentation, although their presence was understood. Many of Samsung's new features are exact duplicates of some built into Android.

Shortly after the event, much of the tech press derided some of these new features as little more than novelties with little to no real-world use cases. For example, AllThingsD's influential Walt Mossberg called Sammy's software "gimmicky" and "duplicative."

Well, Samsung has released a new ad again targeting Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL  ) directly, showcasing some of these new features while demonstrating two indisputable instances where the Galaxy S4 will always triumph over the iPhone 5.

Top 10 Life Sciences Companies To Buy Right Now: Kinder Morgan Energy Partners L.P. (KMP)

Kinder Morgan Energy Partners, L.P. operates as a pipeline transportation and energy storage company in North America. Its Products Pipelines segment delivers gasoline, diesel fuel, jet fuel, and natural gas liquids to various markets through approximately 8,600 miles of refined petroleum products pipelines; and operates 62 associated product terminals and petroleum pipeline transmix processing facilities. The company�s Natural Gas Pipelines segment gathers, transports, stores, treats, processes, and sells natural gas through approximately 33,000 miles of natural gas transmission pipelines and gathering lines, as well as natural gas storage, treating, and processing facilities. Its CO2 segment produces, markets, and transports carbon dioxide through approximately 1,500 miles of pipelines to oil fields. This segment also owns and operates 7 oil fields, and a 450 mile crude oil pipeline system in west Texas. The company�s Terminals segment transloads, stores, and delivers bulk, petroleum, petrochemical, and other liquids products through approximately 113 liquids and bulk terminal facilities; and approximately 35 rail transloading and materials handling facilities. Its Kinder Morgan Canada segment transports crude oil and refined petroleum products through approximately 2,500 miles of pipelines from Alberta, Canada to marketing terminals and refineries in British Columbia, the state of Washington, and the Rocky Mountains, as well as in the central regions of the United States. This segment also operates the Jet Fuel aviation turbine fuel pipeline that serves the Vancouver (Canada) International Airport. Kinder Morgan G.P., Inc. serves as the general partner of the company. Kinder Morgan Energy Partners, L.P. was founded in 1992 and is headquartered in Houston, Texas.

Advisors' Opinion:
  • [By Aimee Duffy]

    Master limited partnerships are not like other stocks, and the metrics we use to compare an MLP to its peers differ from the metrics we use to compare regular companies. For example, instead of the traditional P/E ratio, we emphasize MLP-specific metrics like distribution coverage ratio and today's focus: price to distributable cash flow (P/DCF). I'll use Enterprise Products Partners (NYSE: EPD  ) , Kinder Morgan Energy Partners (NYSE: KMP  ) , and Buckeye Partners (NYSE: BPL  ) to illustrate the concept.

  • [By Johanna Bennett]

    The specific details are all in today�� WSJ story. But basically, Kinder Morgan, the parent company, will acquire Kinder Morgan Energy Partners (KMP), Kinder Morgan Management (KMR) and El Paso Pipeline Partners (EPB) in a series of transactions valued at $71 billion, including debt.

  • [By Chad Fraser]

    One way for investors to tap into rising gas demand is through pipeline operators like Kinder Morgan Energy Partners LP (NYSE: KMP).

    Kinder Morgan is North America’s largest pipeline operator, with more than 80,000 miles of pipelines and about 180 storage terminals. The master limited partnership (MLP) ships natural gas, refined petroleum products, crude oil and other chemicals.

  • [By Matt DiLallo]

    What has been moving the needle for coal producers is to look outside our borders to export other more prevalent forms of coal. China and India are two top destinations. CONSOL Energy, for example, ships its coal through its wholly-owned Baltimore coal export terminal, while Alpha Natural Resources has been working with Kinder Morgan Energy Partners (NYSE: KMP  ) to export coal through its dry bulk terminals along the Gulf Coast. All three companies have been expanding export capacity to take advantage of demand from markets abroad. Exports really are crucial to the coal business as U.S. coal consumption has been plummeting, and last year alone our consumption dropped by 11.9% over the previous year.

Top Consumer Service Companies To Invest In Right Now: Jinpan International Limited(JST)

Jinpan International Limited engages in the design and manufacture of cast resin transformers for voltage distribution equipment. Its cast resin transformers allow high voltage transmissions of electricity to be distributed to various locations in lower, more usable voltages. The company provides medium voltage cast resin transformers for various end uses and applications, including industrial, infrastructure, and municipal projects, such as factories, real estate developments, airports, and subway systems. It also offers switchgears, which enable operators of a power distribution network to switch equipment in and out of the network; line reactors that limit current, filter waveforms, and attenuate electrical noise and harmonics associated with the inverter and driver output of wind powered turbines; and unit substations, which are integrated assemblies comprising high voltage switchgear, a transformer, a low voltage switchgear, a power meter, and a power factor compensat ion device interconnected with cables or buss bars. The company?s unit substations function as miniature power distribution stations and are used in applications related to the construction and maintenance of city power networks. Jinpan International sells its products in the People?s Republic of China, the United States, and Europe. The company was founded in 1993 and is headquartered in Haikou, the People's Republic of China.

Advisors' Opinion:
  • [By CRWE]

    Jinpan International Ltd (Nasdaq:JST), a leading designer, manufacturer, and distributor of cast resin dry type transformers, recently reported that its subsidiary Hainan Jinpan Electric Co. Ltd. successfully developed a 40,000KVA / 35KV cast resin dry type power transformer. The Company has shipped the transformer to the customer’s site in China’s Anhui province for installation in a transformer substation that will deliver power to gas liquification systems.

Top Consumer Service Companies To Invest In Right Now: InnerWorkings Inc (INWK)

InnerWorkings, Inc. (InnerWorkings), incorporated on September 26, 2001, is a provider of global print management and promotional solutions to corporate clients across a ranges of industries. The Company's software applications and database create a solution that stores, analyzes and tracks the production capabilities of the Company's supplier network, as well as quote and price data for print jobs. The Company offers a range of print, fulfillment and logistics services. The Company procures printed products for clients across a range of industries, such as retail, financial services, hospitality, non-profits, healthcare, food and beverage, broadcasting and cable, education, transportation and utilities. Utilizing the Company's technology and database, the Company provides its clients a global solution to procure and delivers printed products. In March 2013, InnerWorkings Inc acquired DB Studios. In August 2013, InnerWorkings Inc. acquired Professional Packaging Services Ltd. In July 2013, the Company announced that it has acquired EYELEVEL, a global provider of permanent retail displays and store fixtures.

The Company's network of more than 10,000 global suppliers offers a range of printed products and a full range of print, fulfillment and logistics services. The Company's technology is a solution that stores equipment profiles for the Company's supplier network and price data for jobs the Company quotes and executes. The Company's technology allows the Company to match print jobs with the suppliers in the Company's network that are optimally suited to produce a job. The Company's technology also allows the Company to efficiently manage the critical aspects of the print procurement process, including gathering job specifications, identifying suppliers, establishing pricing, managing print production and coordinating purchase and delivery of the finished product.

The Company's database stores the production capabilities of the Company's supplier network, as well as price and! quote data for bids the Company receives and transactions the Company executes. The Company's solution automatically generates customized data entry screens based on product type and guides the production manager to enter the required job specifications. The Company's solution reconciles supplier invoices to executed print orders to ensure the supplier adhered to the pricing and other terms contained in the print order. In addition, it includes checks and balances that allow the Company to monitor important financial indicators relating to a print order, such as projected gross margin and job alterations.

The Company's solution generates transaction reports that contain quote, supplier capability, price and customer service information regarding the print jobs the client has completed with the Company. The Company's solution creates a work order checklist that sends e-mail reminders to the Company's production managers regarding the time elapsed between certain milestones and the completion of specified deliverables. These automated notifications enable the Company's production managers to focus on more critical aspects of the print process and eliminate delays. Some of the Company's clients provided the Company with pricing data for print jobs they completed before they began to use its solution. The Company procures printed products for corporate clients across a range of industries, such as retail, publishing, financial services, hospitality, non-profits, healthcare, food and beverage, broadcasting and cable, education, transportation and utilities.

The Company offers a range of print, fulfillment and logistics services in more than 60 different print categories, which allows the Company to procure printed products on virtually any substrate. The printed products the Company procures for its clients may is printed with any of the eight types of printing, which include offset sheet-fed, Web offset, digital offset, letterpress, screen printing, waterless, flexography and grav! ure, as w! ell as several forms of specialty printing. The Company offers a range of fulfillment and logistics services, such as kitting and assembly, inventories management and pre-sorting postage. These services are often essential to the completion of the finished product. The Company also provides creative services, including copywriting, graphics and Website design, identity work and marketing collateral development, and pre-media services, such as image and print-ready page processing and proofing capabilities.

The Company's eStores empower the Company's clients with branded self-service ecommerce Websites that prompt quick and easy online ordering, fulfillment, tracking and reporting.The Company's network of more than 10,000 global suppliers includes printers, graphic designers, paper mills and merchants, digital imaging companies, specialty binders, finishing and engraving firms and fulfillment and distribution centers.

The Company competes with Williams Lea, Logisource, Cirqit and Noosh.

Advisors' Opinion:
  • [By Monica Gerson]

    InnerWorkings (NASDAQ: INWK) shares dipped 34.83% to touch a new 52-week low of $6.19 after the company reported downbeat Q3 results and issued a weak FY13 outlook.

  • [By Roberto Pedone]

    Another stock that insiders are loading up on here is InnerWorkings (INWK), which is a provider of managed print and promotional procurement solutions to corporate clients across a range of industries. Insiders are buying this stock into significant weakness, since shares are off by 49% so far in 2013.

    InnerWorkings has a market cap of $357 million and an enterprise value of $425 million. This stock trades at a fair valuation, with a trailing price-to-earnings of 23.20 and a forward price-to-earnings of 23.20. Its estimated growth rate for this year is -75.6%, and for next year it's pegged at 200%. This is not a cash-rich company, since the total cash position on its balance sheet is $19.22 million and its total debt is $91.50 million.

    A beneficial owner just bought 32,000 shares, or about $214,000 worth of stock, at $6.69 to per share. That same beneficial owner also just bought 108,700 shares, or about $727,000 worth of stock, at $6.69 to $6.70 per share.

    From a technical perspective, INWK is currently trending below both its 50-day and 200-day moving averages, which is bearish. This stock gapped down sharply in November from $9.75 to $5.54 a share with heavy downside volume. Following that gap down, shares of INWK have reversed its bearish trend and entered an uptrend, with the stock moving higher from its low of $5.54 to $7.21 a share. That move has now pushed shares of INWK within range of triggering a major breakout trade.

    If you're bullish on INWK, then I would look for long-biased trades as long as this stock is trending above some key near-term support at $6.42 and then once it breaks out above some near-term overhead resistance levels at $7.07 to $7.21 a share with high volume. Look for a sustained move or close above those levels with volume that hits near or above its three-month average volume of 530,297 shares. If that breakout hits soon, then INWK will set up to re-fill some of its previous gap down zone from Novembe

Top Consumer Service Companies To Invest In Right Now: PostNL NV (PNL)

PostNL NV is a Netherlands-based Company active in delivery sector. The Company is engaged in the delivery of documents, small packages and standard parcels. The Company�� business is organized into three segments: Mail in the Netherlands, responsible for mail services in the Netherland, documents management, direct marketing and fulfillment services, and operating over 2,600 shop-in-shop post offices; Parcels, providing parcel services in the Netherlands and Belgium for both domestic and cross-border parcel distribution, and International, operating in the postal markets of the United Kingdom, Germany and Italy, and focusing on domestic addressed mail services. The Company also provides marketing and communication services, fulfillment solutions and e-commerce related solutions. Advisors' Opinion:
  • [By Inyoung Hwang]

    PostNL (PNL) sank 11 percent to 2.48 euros, the biggest decline since Jan. 14. The Amsterdam-based company said sales in the second-quarter were 1.03 billion euros ($1.37 billion), falling short of the 1.04 billion euros predicted by analysts on average. PostNL forecast addressed mail volume in 2013 will drop as much as 11 percent, greater than its previous forecast of no more than 10 percent.

Top Consumer Service Companies To Invest In Right Now: Springleaf Holdings Inc (LEAF)

Springleaf Holdings, Inc. (Springleaf), incorporated on May 8, 2013, is a consumer finance company providing loan products to customers through it's nationwide branch network and through iLoan, it's Internet lending division. The Company originates consumer loans through it's network of 834 branch offices in 26 states and on a centralized basis as part of it's iLoan division. As of June 30, 2013, the Company�� segments include: Consumer, Insurance, Portfolio Acquisitions, and Real Estate.

Consumer

Springleaf originate and service personal loans (secured and unsecured) through two business divisions: branch operations and it's iLoan division. Branch operations primarily conduct business in 26 states, which are it's core operating states. The iLoan division processes and underwrites loan applications that it receives through an Internet portal. If the applicant is located near an existing branch, it's iLoan division makes the credit decision regarding the application and then refers the customer to a nearby branch for closing, funding and servicing. If the applicant is not located near a branch, it's iLoan division originates the loan.

Insurance

Springleaf offer credit insurance (life, accident and health insurance, and involuntary unemployment insurance), non-credit insurance, and ancillary products, such as warranty protection. The Company also require credit-related property and casualty insurance, when needed, to protect it's interest in the property pledged as collateral.

Portfolio Acquisitions

Springleaf acquired the SpringCastle Portfolio. This SpringCastle Portfolio was acquired from HSBC through a newly-formed joint venture in which it owns a 47% equity interest and which it consolidates in it's financial statements. The loans in the SpringCastle Portfolio vary in form and substance from it's typical branch serviced loans.

Real Estate

Springleaf service and hold real estate loans secured by! first or second mortgages on residential real estate. Real estate loans previously originated through it's branch offices are either serviced by it's branch personnel or by it's centralized servicing operation. Real estate loans previously acquired or originated through centralized distribution channels are serviced by one of it's indirect wholly owned subsidiaries, MorEquity, all of which are subserviced by Nationstar, except for certain securitized real estate loans, which are serviced and subserviced by third parties.

Advisors' Opinion:
  • [By Peter Graham]

    Small cap installment loan and consumer finance�stock World Acceptance Corp (NASDAQ: WRLD), a potential peer of small cap Regional Management Corp (NYSE: RM) and�mid cap�Springleaf Holdings Inc (NYSE: LEAF), has elevated short interest of 38.72% according to Highshortinterest.com. However, World Acceptance Corp got on the radar of the shorts when the company disclosed that its being investigated by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau�for its lending practices. ��

Top Consumer Service Companies To Invest In Right Now: Deluxe Corporation (DLX)

Deluxe Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, provides personalized printed products, promotional products, and merchandising materials in the United States, Canada, and Europe. Its Small Business Services segment offers printed products, including business checks, promotional products, marketing materials, and related services, as well as retail packaging supplies and a suite of business services comprising Web design and hosting, fraud protection, payroll, logo design, search engine marketing, business networking, and other Web-based services to small businesses. This segment also offers printed forms, such as billing forms, work orders, job proposals, purchase orders, invoices, and personnel forms; computer forms; and stationery, letterhead, envelopes, greeting cards and labels, and business cards in various formats and ink colors. It sells its products through mail and the Internet, referrals from financial institutions and telecommunications clients, independent distributors and dealers, and sales representatives. The company?s Financial Services segment provides check programs for personal and business checks, fraud prevention and monitoring services, customer acquisition campaigns, marketing communications, regulatory program services, and customer loyalty programs to banks, credit unions, and financial services companies primarily through direct sales force. Its Direct Checks segment sells personal and business checks, and related products and services directly to consumers through direct response marketing and the Internet. Deluxe also offers online financial management tools that provide banks with daily access to their financial position and general ledger information. The company was formerly known as Deluxe Check Printers, Incorporated and changed its name to Deluxe Corporation in 1988. Deluxe Corporation was founded in 1915 and is headquartered in Shoreview, Minnesota.

Advisors' Opinion:
  • [By Eric Volkman]

    Deluxe (NYSE: DLX  ) is opening its checkbook for a fresh round of shareholder payouts. The company has declared its latest quarterly dividend, which is to be $0.25 per share, paid on September 3 to shareholders of record as of August 19.�This is in line with the firm's long-standing distribution policy; it has handed out that amount in every quarter stretching back to July 2006.

Top Consumer Service Companies To Invest In Right Now: Cardica Inc.(CRDC)

Cardica, Inc. engages in the development of an endoscopic microcutter product line for use by thoracic, bariatric, colorectal, and general surgeons primarily in the United States and internationally. Its microcutter product line under development includes Microcutter XPRESS 30, a multi-fire endolinear microcutter device based on the company?s proprietary ?staple-on-a-strip? technology; Microcutter XPRESS 45, a multi-fire endolinear microcutter device with a 45 millimeter staple line; Microcutter XCHANGE 30, a cartridge based microcutter device; Microcutter FLEXCHANGE 30, a cartridge based microcutter device with a flexible shaft to facilitate endoscopic procedures requiring cutting and stapling; and Microcutter XPRESS 60, a cutting and stapling device for the bariatric and thoracic surgery markets. The company also designs, manufactures, and markets automated anastomotic systems for use by cardiac surgeons to perform coronary bypass surgery. It offers C-Port Distal Anas tomosis Systems, such as C-Port xA Anastomosis System to perform an end-to-side distal anastomosis by attaching the end of a bypass graft to a coronary artery downstream of an occlusion or narrowing; C-Port Flex A Anastomosis System to enable automated anastomoses to be performed as part of coronary artery bypass grafting procedures; C-Port X-CHANGE System, a cartridge-based reloadable C-Port system; and PAS-Port Proximal Anastomosis System to perform an end-to-side proximal anastomosis between a saphenous vein and the aorta. In addition, the company licenses its intellectual property in the robotics field in diagnostic or therapeutic medical procedures. Cardica, Inc. sells its products through direct sales force, as well as through independent distributors and manufacturers? representatives. The company was formerly known as Vascular Innovations, Inc. and changed its name to Cardica, Inc. in November 2001. Cardica, Inc. was founded in 1997 and is headquartered in Redwood C ity, California.

Advisors' Opinion:
  • [By Bryan Murphy]

    Neither Acorn Energy Inc. (NASDAQ:ACFN) nor Cardica, Inc. (NASDAQ:CRDC) may look all that compelling with just a passing glance. The longer one examines CRDC and ACFN, however - and really gets a grasp of their underlying stories - the more compelling each one becomes. In fact, newcomers may want to go ahead and put both budding stocks on their watchlists, if not in their portfolios.

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