Thursday, January 22, 2015

10 Best Managed Healthcare Stocks To Watch For 2014

In the following video, Motley Fool research analyst Lyons George takes a question from a Fool reader, who asks, "We are all watching and waiting on Zynga's (NASDAQ: ZNGA  ) earnings release ... what do you think about the stock these days?"

Zynga's post-IPO performance has been dreadful, and investors are beginning to wonder if it's "game over" for this newly public company. Being so closely tied to the world's largest social network can be a blessing and a curse. You can learn everything you need to know about Zynga, and whether it's a buy or a sell, in our new premium research report. Don't even think about picking up shares before you read what our top analysts have to say about Zynga. Click here to access your copy.

Top 10 Shipping Companies To Invest In 2015: Alamo Group Inc. (ALG)

Alamo Group, Inc. provides equipment and related replacement parts for maintenance and agriculture. It offers industrial equipment, such as boom-mounted mowers and other types of cutters for heavy-duty, intensive use applications, including maintenance around highway, airport, recreational, and other public areas; heavy-duty, tractor-and truck-mounted mowing and vegetation maintenance equipment; air, mechanical broom, and regenerative air sweepers along with environmental sweepers, and pothole patchers; and products for excavation, grading, shaping, and other tasks involved in land clearing, road building, or maintenance. The company produces catch basin cleaners and roadway debris vacuum systems; parking lot sweepers; and snow plows and heavy-duty snow removal equipment, hitches and attachments for trucks, loaders, and graders. It offers a line of tractor-powered equipment, such as rotary cutters, finishing mowers, flail mowers, disc mowers, ZTR ride-on mowers, front-end loaders, backhoes, rotary tillers, posthole diggers, and scraper blades; cutting parts, plain and hard-faced replacement tillage tools, disc blades, and fertilizer application components; heavy-duty mechanical rotary mowers, snow blowers, and rock removal equipment; a line of hydraulic, boom-mounted hedge, and grass cutters, as well as other tractor attachments and implements; and hydraulic, boom-mounted hedge and hedgerow cutters, and agricultural seedbed preparation cultivators. The company also provides light-duty power arm mowers and agricultural implements; vacuum trucks, high pressure cleaning systems, and trenchers; and hydraulic and mechanical boom mowers. The company sells its products through a network of independent dealers and distributors, governmental end-users, and related independent contractors, as well as to the agricultural and commercial turf markets in the United States, England, France, Canada, and Australia. The company was founded in 1955 and is based in Seguin, Texas.

Advisors' Opinion:
  • [By Garrett Cook]

    In trading on Thursday, industrials shares were relative leaders, up on the day by about 0.66 percent. Top gainers in the sector included Alamo Group (NYSE: ALG), up 27.5 percent, and PMFG (NASDAQ: PMFG), up 7.8 percent.

10 Best Managed Healthcare Stocks To Watch For 2014: 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 Jessica Alling]

    Insurance companies have also been struggling against the pressures of low interest rates, with their all-important investing operations suffering from lower yields. Travelers Companies (NYSE: TRV  ) is in the red this morning, with a lesser drop of 0.21% as of this writing. Despite the pressure from low bond yields, the company announced impressive earnings in April. As one of the favorites of Street hedge funds, Travelers has been getting plenty of good press from analysts, with a reiterated "buy" rating from TheStreet, an "outperform" from Raymond James, and a boost to its target price. The increase to $97 gives current investors a 12.2% upside based on yesterday's close.

  • [By Dan Caplinger]

    Despite the Dow's overall losses, though, a few Dow stocks have posted gains. Travelers (NYSE: TRV  ) is rising after a report from Fitch Ratings noted favorable trends in earnings throughout the property and casualty insurance sector. With past-year catastrophic events having helped companies boost premiums while loss experiences more recently have become favorable, Travelers and its industry peers have seen loss ratios plunge, boosting profits. The insurance industry tends to run in cycles like this, so investors shouldn't expect Travelers to stay this profitable forever. But after a tough couple of years for the industry, it's good for insurance company investors to see conditions finally improving.

  • [By Jessica Alling]

    And of course, once you've bought a house you need insurance. Traveler's Companies (NYSE: TRV  ) is the No. 6 provider in home insurance, with a 4.3% market share. As the rate of new homeowners rises, a greater need for insurance will allow Traveler's and its competitors to fight for more market share.

10 Best Managed Healthcare Stocks To Watch For 2014: Ralcorp Holdings Inc.(RAH)

Ralcorp Holdings, Inc. engages in manufacturing, distributing, and marketing private-brand food products, ready-to-eat cereal products, and other regional and value-brand food products. Its products include ready-to-eat and hot cereals; nutritional and cereal bars; snack mixes, corn-based chips, and extruded corn snack products; crackers and cookies; snack nuts; chocolate candy; salad dressings; mayonnaise; peanut butter; jams and jellies; syrups; sauces; frozen griddle products, including pancakes, waffles, and French toast; frozen biscuits and other frozen pre-baked products, such as breads and rolls; frozen and refrigerated doughs; and dry pasta. The company offers its products under various brands, including Post, Honey Bunches of Oats, Pebbles, Post Selects, Great Grains, Spoon Size, Grape-Nuts, Honeycomb, 3 Minute Brand, Ralston, Parco, Lofthouse, Krusteaz, Panne Provincio, Major Peters?, Medallion, Ry Krisp, Champagne, Monet, Rippin? Good, Hoody?s, Linette, JERO, Flavor House, Nutcracker, Pennsylvania Dutch, Heartland, Golden Grain, Anthony?s, Pasta Lensi, Ronco, and Mueller?s. It also develops, manufactures, and markets emulations of various types of branded food products to retailers, mass merchandisers, and drug stores to sell under their own store brands or under value-brands. Ralcorp Holdings, Inc. sells its products to retail chains, mass merchandisers, grocery wholesalers, warehouse club stores, drugstores, restaurant chains, and foodservice distributors in the United States, as well as in Canada, Europe, and southeast Asia. It offers its products through a broker network, internal sales staff, independent sales agency, a network of third party warehouses, and independent truck lines. The company was founded in 1995 and is based in St. Louis, Missouri.

Advisors' Opinion:
  • [By Will Ashworth]

    Post’s debt has risen substantially since its separation from Ralcorp (RAH) in February 2012. Including its $370 million acquisition of the Dakota Growers Pasta Company announced Sept. 16, Post has spent $717 million moving into other areas of the food industry beyond cereal.

  • [By Louis Navellier]

    A $15.5 billion business that employs 34,800 worldwide, ConAgra is the fourth largest player in the Processed & Packaged Goods industry. In early 2013, ConAgra completed its buyout of Ralcorp Holdings (RAH) making the combined company one of the largest packaged food players on the continent.

10 Best Managed Healthcare Stocks To Watch For 2014: AMN Healthcare Services Inc(AHS)

AMN Healthcare Services, Inc. provides healthcare staffing and clinical workforce management solutions in the United States. The company?s Nurse and Allied Healthcare Staffing segment provides staffing solutions for hospitals and other healthcare facilities, including medical, surgical, specialty, licensed practical or vocational, and advanced practice nurses, as well as surgical technologists and dialysis technicians. This segment also offers allied health professionals under the Med Travelers, Club Staffing, and Rx Pro Health brand names to acute-care hospitals and other healthcare facilities, such as skilled nursing facilities, rehabilitation clinics, and retail and mail-order pharmacies. These allied health professionals include physical, surgical, respiratory, and occupational therapists, as well as medical and radiology technologists, speech pathologists, rehabilitation assistants, pharmacists, and pharmacy technicians. Its Locum Tenens Staffing segment places physic ians of various specialties, certified registered nurse anesthetists, nurse practitioners, and dentists on a temporary basis as independent contractors with various healthcare organizations, including hospitals, medical groups, occupational medical clinics, individual practitioners, networks, psychiatric facilities, government institutions, and managed care entities. The company?s Physician Permanent Placement Services segment provides permanent physician placement services to hospitals, healthcare facilities, and physician practice groups under the Merritt Hawkins and Kendall & Davis brand names. This segment also offers specialty offerings, including internal medicines, family practices, and surgeries. Its Home Healthcare Services segment provide home healthcare services to individuals with acute-care illness, long-term chronic health conditions, permanent disabilities, terminal illnesses, and post-procedural needs. The company was founded in 1985 and is headquartered in S an Diego, California.

Advisors' Opinion:
  • [By Sean Williams]

    What: Shares of AMN Healthcare Services (NYSE: AHS  ) , a health care staffing solutions company, jumped as much as 11% after reporting its third-quarter earnings results.

10 Best Managed Healthcare Stocks To Watch For 2014: Orexigen Therapeutics Inc.(OREX)

Orexigen Therapeutics, Inc., a development stage company, focuses on the development of pharmaceutical product candidates for the treatment of obesity. Its lead combination product candidates include Contrave, which has completed phase III clinical trials; and Empatic that has completed phase II clinical trials. Contrave is a combination of two drugs, bupropion and naltrexone, in a sustained release formulation (SR). Bupropion is an antidepressant and smoking cessation medication; and naltrexone is a treatment for alcohol and opioid addiction. The company?s Empatic product candidate is a combination of bupropion SR and zonisamide SR. Zonisamide is for the adjunctive treatment of partial seizures, a form of epilepsy. The company has a collaboration agreement with Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited to develop and commercialize Contrave. Orexigen Therapeutics, Inc. was founded in 2002 and is based in La Jolla, California.

Advisors' Opinion:
  • [By Brian Orelli]

    VIVUS' direct competitors in the obesity space both have large partners. Arena Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: ARNA  ) secured a marketing deal with Eisai to market Belviq, and Orexigen (NASDAQ: OREX  ) will have help from Takeda once its obesity drug, Contrave, is approved.

  • [By Brian Orelli]

    Here's how Victoza stacks up against VIVUS' Qsymia, Arena's Belviq, and Orexigen's (NASDAQ: OREX  ) Contrave, which is finishing up a cardiovascular safety trial and could be approved to treat obesity before Victoza.

10 Best Managed Healthcare Stocks To Watch For 2014: First Connecticut Bancorp Inc (FBNK)

First Connecticut Bancorp, Inc. (FCB) is a stock holding company. FCB has been formed in connection with the conversion of First Connecticut Bancorp, Inc. a mutual holding company (MHC), from the mutual to the stock form of organization. As of December 31, 2009, MHC owned all of the outstanding stock of Farmington Bank, a savings bank. The MHC will cease to exist as a result of the conversion, and FCB will own all of the common stock of Farmington Bank. As of December 31, 2009, FCB was not engaged in any business. Farmington Bank is a full-service, community bank with 15 full-service branch offices and four limited service offices, including its main office, located throughout Hartford County, Connecticut.

Farmington Bank provides a diverse range of commercial and consumer services to businesses, individuals and governments across Central Connecticut. Farmington Bank provides a range of banking services to businesses, individuals and governments in Central Connecticut. It also offers a range of residential mortgage loan services. Farmington Bank�� subsidiaries include Farmington Savings Loan Servicing, Inc., Village Investments, Inc., Village Corp., Limited, 28 Main Street Corp., Village Management Corp. and Village Square Holdings Inc.

Farmington Savings Loan Servicing, Inc. operates as Farmington Bank�� passive investment company (PIC). Village Investments, Inc. offers brokerage and investment advisory services through a contract with Infinex Financial Services, a registered broker-dealer. Village Corp., Limited was established to hold certain commercial real estate acquired through foreclosures, deeds in lieu of foreclosure, or other similar means. Village Square Holdings, Inc. holds certain commercial real estate of Farmington Bank, formerly used as Farmington Bank�� operations center prior to its relocation to One Farm Glen Boulevard, Farmington, Connecticut. As of December 31, 2009, 28 Main Street Corp and Village Management Corp were inactive.

Len! ding Activities

Farmington Bank�� primary lending activities consists of the origination of one-to-four family residential real estate loans that are primarily secured by properties located in Hartford County and surrounding counties in Connecticut. During the year ended December 31, 2009, the Bank originated $75.8 million of fixed-rate one-to-four family residential loans. The Bank also offers adjustable-rate mortgage loans for one-to-four family properties, with an interest rate that adjusts annually based on the one-year Constant Maturity Treasury Bill Index, after a one, three, four, five, seven or nine-year initial fixed-rate period. Its adjustable rate mortgage loans generally provide for maximum rate adjustments of 200 basis points per adjustment, with a lifetime maximum adjustment up to 6%, regardless of the initial rate. Its adjustable rate mortgage loans amortize over terms of up to 30 years. During 2009, it originated $49.2 million adjustable rate one-to-four family residential loans and purchased $33 million adjustable rate mortgages.

Farmington Bank originates commercial real estate loans and loans on owner-occupied properties used for a variety of business purposes, including office buildings, industrial and warehouse facilities and retail facilities. As of December 31, 2009, the Bank�� owner-occupied commercial mortgage loans constituted the largest portion of its commercial real estate portfolio. During 2009, commercial mortgage loans totaled $265.5 million and owner-occupied commercial real estate loans totaled $133.3 million of its commercial real estate portfolio.

Farmington Bank offers construction loans, including commercial construction loans and real estate subdivision development loans, to developers, licensed contractors and builders for the construction and development of commercial real estate projects and residential properties. During 2009, the Bank�� loans outstanding, including commercial and residential, totaled $68.7 million! . The Ban! k also originates construction loans to individuals and contractors for the construction and acquisition of personal residences.

Farmington Bank�� commercial business loan portfolio comprises both middle market companies and small businesses located primarily in Connecticut. Farmington Bank�� Resort (Timeshare) Loans include receivables loans, pre-sale loans, inventory loans, acquisition and development loans, and homeowner association loans. During 2009, its timeshare loans totaled $82.8 million. Farmington Bank also offers home equity loans and home equity lines of credit, both of which are secured by owner-occupied one-to-four family residences. At December 31, 2009, home equity loans and equity lines of credit totaled $66.7 million.

Farmington Bank also offers various types of consumer loans, including installment, demand, revolving credit and collateral loans, principally to customers residing in its primary market area with acceptable credit ratings. Its installment and collateral consumer loans generally consist of loans on new and used automobiles, loans collateralized by deposit accounts and unsecured personal loans.

Advisors' Opinion:
  • [By CRWE]

    First Connecticut Bancorp, Inc. (Nasdaq:FBNK) reported that its Board of Directors has voted to pay a cash dividend in the amount of $0.03 per share on June 14, 2012 to all shareholders of record as of June 4, 2012.

10 Best Managed Healthcare Stocks To Watch For 2014: 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 Garrett Cook]

    Technology shares jumped by 1.69 percent in today’s trading. Top gainers in the sector included Imperva (NYSE: IMPV), up 21.6 percent, and Spansion (NYSE: CODE), up 20 percent.

  • [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.

  • [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.

No comments:

Post a Comment