10 Best Energy Stocks To Invest In Right Now

10 Best Energy Stocks To Invest In Right Now: Golar LNG Partners LP (GMLP)

Golar LNG Partners LP (the Partnership), incorporated on September 24, 2007, is a limited partnership formed as a wholly owned subsidiary of Golar LNG Limited (Golar), an independent owner and operator of floating storage re-gasification units (FSRUs) and liquefied natural gas (LNG) carriers, to own and operate FSRUs and LNG carriers under long-term charters. The vessels in its fleet are chartered to BG Group, Pertamina, Petrobras and Dubai Supply Authority. As of December 31, 2012, Golar owned its 2.0% general partner interest, all of its IDRs and a 49.9% limited partner interest in it. As of December 31, 2012, its fleet consisted of a 100% interest in the Golar Spirit, which is operating under a time charter with Petrobras; a 100% interest in the Golar Winter, which is operating under a time charter with Petrobras; a 100% interest in the Golar Freeze, which is operating under a time charter with Dubai Supply Authority (DUSUP), the purchaser of natural gas in Dubai; a 100 % interest in the Methane Princess, which is operating under a time charter with BG Group PLC (BG Group), and a 60% interest in the Golar Mazo, an LNG carrier, which is operating under a time charter with PT Pertamina (Pertamina). In July 2012, Golar sold its interests in the companies that own and operate the floating storage and regasification unit (FSRU) Nusantara Regas Satu to the Company. As of April 30, 2013, the Company has a fleet of four FSRUs and four LNG carriers. In November 2012, the Company acquired from Golar interests in subsidiaries that lease and operate the LNG carrier, the Golar Grand.

FSRU Charters

The Company provides the services of each of the Golar Spirit and the Golar Winter to Petrobras under separate time charter parties (or TCP) and operation and services agreements (OSAs). The TCPs and OSAs are interd! ependent and when combined have the same effect as the time charters for its LNG carriers. The services of the Golar Fre eze are provided to DUSUP under a TCP. The Golar Spirit and ! Golar Winter charters also contained provisions giving Petrobras the option to purchase the vessels from it under certain circumstances.

LNG Carrier Charters

The Company provides the LNG marine transportation services of the Golar Mazo, Methane Princess and the Golar Maria under a time charters with LNG Shipping SpA. A time charter is a contract for the use of the vessel for a fixed period of time at a specified daily rate. Under a time charter, the vessel owner provides crewing and other services related to the vessel's operation.

The Company competes with Royal Dutch Shell, BP, BG, Malaysian International Shipping Company, National Gas Shipping Company, Qatar Gas Transport Company, Excelerate Energy, Hoegh LNG, Exmar, Teekay LNG and MISC Berhad.

Advisors' Opinion:
  • [By Robert Rapier]

    Q: Golar (GMLP) has been doing well lately after an up/down and eventually flat year in 2013.  While sometimes diverging TGP performed about the same. Thoughts on any catalyst this year that might help GMLP start to trend up consistently?

  • [By Seth Jayson]

    Golar LNG Partners Limited Partnership (Nasdaq: GMLP  ) reported earnings on May 30. Here are the numbers you need to know.

    The 10-second takeaway
    For the quarter ended March 31 (Q1), Golar LNG Partners Limited Partnership met expectations on revenues and crushed expectations on earnings per share.

  • [By Taylor Muckerman]

    One segment of energy transportation on the high seas that has shown investors that tankers can still deliver on Wall Street has been liquefied natural gas, LNG, tankers. Teekay LNG Partners (NYSE: TGP  ) and Golar LNG Partners (NASDAQ: GMLP  ) have both churned out returns north of 15% in the past year alon! g with pa! ying investors more than 6% in distributions just for owning shares. As LNG exporting becomes a bigger part of global energy trade both of these companies stand to benefit. While there has only been approval for two LNG exporting facilities in the U.S., there are many others with applications submitted. Combined with countless other plans around the world, the prospects look rather bright.

  • source from Top Stocks Blog:http://www.topstocksblog.com/10-best-energy-stocks-to-invest-in-right-now.html

5 Best Heal Care Stocks To Buy Right Now

5 Best Heal Care Stocks To Buy Right Now: Corinthian Colleges Inc (COCO)

Corinthian Colleges, Inc., incorporated on July 24, 1996, is a post-secondary education company in the United States and Canada. As of June 30, 2013, the Company had a student enrollment of 81,284 and operated 97 schools in 25 states, and 14 schools in the province of Ontario, Canada. It offers a variety of diploma programs and associate, bachelor's and master's degrees. The Company's training program areas include healthcare, criminal justice, business, mechanical, trades, and information technology. The Company's diploma curricula includes medical assisting, medical insurance billing and coding, massage therapy, dental assisting, pharmacy technician, medical administrative assisting, surgical technology, automotive and diesel technology, heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC), plumbing, electrical, and licensed practical nursing. Its core degree curriculum includes business administration, accounting, paralegal, criminal justice, medical assisting, and reg istered nursing.

Diploma programs are generally designed to have duration of approximately 8-12 months, depending on the course of study. Associate degree programs are generally designed to have duration of approximately 24-28 months, bachelor's degree programs are generally designed to have duration of approximately 48 months and master's degree programs are generally designed to have duration of approximately 21 months. As of June 30, 2013, approximately 39% of its students were enrolled in diploma programs, approximately 55% of students were enrolled in associate programs, approximately 5% of students were in bachelor's programs and approximately 1% of students were in master's programs.

The Company's career services departments assist students in preparing resumes, help them to develop a professional demeanor and other soft skills! that are important in the workplace, conduct practice interview sessions, and identify prospective employers for graduates. At the Company's Everest locations in Florida, ! Phoenix, AZ, Mesa, AZ, Springfield, MO and Ontario Metro, CA, some of its associate degree programs also articulate into a bachelor's degree in the same course of study. Master's degrees are also offered at Everest Florida in business administration and criminal justice. As of June 30, 2013, 94 out of 111 schools were operating under the Everest brand, five schools were operating under the WyoTech brand, and 12 schools were operating under the Heald brand.

Advisors' Opinion:
  • [By Ben Levisohn]

    The filing, however, hasn’t had much of an impact. Shares of ITT Educational Services have dropped just 3.4% this week but have gained 95% so far in 2013. Corinthian Colleges (COCO), on the other hand, has dropped 27% this year, while DeVry Education (DV) has gained 50% and Apollo Education (APOL) has advanced 30%.

  • [By MARKETWATCH]

    SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- S&P Dow Jones Indices said late Friday that J.C. Penney (JCP) would be leaving the S&P 500 (SPX) upon the close of trading Nov. 29 after its market cap no longer made it suitable for the large-cap index of stocks. It will be replaced by Allegion, a soon-to-be-public spinoff of Ingersoll-Rand (IR) , which will remain in the S&P 500. J. C. Penney will replace Aéropostale Inc. (ARO) in the S&P MidCap 400, which in turn will replace Corinthian Colleges (COCO) in the S&P SmallCap 600. Even including an 18% recovery in price this month, J.C. Penney shares have dropped 55% this year, leaving it with a market cap of $2.7 billion. The lowest market cap! stock on! the index Friday was Abercrombie & Fitch (ANF) . J.C. Penney shares fell 1% after hours.

  • [By Ben Levisohn]

    Allegion plc (ALLE) will replace J. C. Penney Company Inc. in the S&P 500, J. C. Penney will replace Aéropostale Inc. (ARO) in the S&P MidCap 400, and Aéropostale will replace Corinthian Colleges Inc. (COCO) in the S&P SmallCap 600 after the close of trading on Friday, November 29.

  • source from Top Stocks Blog:http://www.topstocksblog.com/5-best-heal-care-stocks-to-buy-right-now.html

Best Tech Companies To Invest In Right Now

Best Tech Companies To Invest In Right Now: Osiris Therapeutics Inc.(OSIR)

Osiris Therapeutics, Inc., a stem cell company, focuses on the development and marketing of therapeutic products to treat various medical conditions in the inflammatory, autoimmune, orthopedic, and cardiovascular areas. It operates in two business segments, Therapeutics and Biosurgery. The Therapeutics segment focuses on developing biologic stem cell drug candidates from a readily available and non-controversial source, adult bone marrow. The Biosurgery segment works to harness the ability of cells and novel constructs to promote the body's natural healing. This segment focuses on developing biologic products for use in surgical procedures. The company?s lead biologic drug candidate is Prochymal, which is in phase 2 and 3 clinical trails for various indications, including acute graft versus host disease (GvHD), Crohn's disease, acute myocardial infarction, type 1 diabetes, pulmonary disease, and gastrointestinal injury resulting from radiation exposure. Its biologic drug c andidates also include Chondrogen, a preparation of adult mesenchymal stem cells that is in phase 2 clinical trials for osteoarthritis and cartilage protection. The company has collaboration agreements with Genzyme Corporation for the development and commercialization of Prochymal and Chondrogen in various countries except in the United States and Canada. It also has a partnership with Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation for the development of Prochymal as a treatment for the preservation of insulin production in patients with newly diagnosed type 1 diabetes mellitus. Osiris Therapeutics, Inc. was founded in 1992 and is headquartered in Columbia, Maryland.

Advisors' Opinion:
  • [By Lauren Pollock]

    Osiris Therapeutics Inc.(OSIR) said Friday a proposed ruling from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services won’t immed! iately affect reimbursements for its Grafix stem-cell product. The regenerative medicine company said Grafix will maintain its current reimbursement status — also called transitional pass-through status — potentially through late 2015.

  • [By Maxx Chatsko]

    Additionally, stem cell therapies have remained elusive as the industry's ultimate Holy Grail. Osiris (NASDAQ: OSIR  ) received Canadian approval for the world's first stem cell drug, Prochymal, for children battling acute graft-versus-host disease, or GvHD, last year. The approval meant more symbolically than to the bottom line, but it definitely put the potential of stem cells front and center for investors.

  • [By Alexander Maxwell]

    One of the companies attempting to develop a better treatment for chronic diabetic foot ulcers is Osiris Therapeutics  (NASDAQ: OSIR  ) . Earlier this month, Osiris shares more than doubled as the company announced positive data for its CDFU drug Grafix. The study results were very impressive to say the least; the study was stopped early due to the overwhelming efficacy exhibited by the treatment. A main highlight is the fact that 62% of Grafix patients had their wound closed at 12 weeks, compared to only 21% of patients using conventional methods. Clearly, the efficacy in this endpoint was overwhelming. Grafix also achieved all of the secondary endpoints for the trial, and more importantly demonstrated a relatively benign safety record. 

  • source from Top Stocks Blog:http://www.topstocksblog.com/best-tech-companies-to-invest-in-right-now.html

5 Best Penny Stocks To Own For 2014

5 Best Penny Stocks To Own For 2014: American Capital Ltd.(ACAS)

American Capital, Ltd. is a private equity and venture capital firm specializing in management and employee buyouts, mezzanine, acquisition, recapitalization, middle market, and growth capital investments. The firm seeks to invest in senior debt mezzanine and equity financing for buyouts of private equity firms and direct in private and public companies. It also invests in special situations and in government. In special situations, the firm invests in troubled situations and in distressed situations. In this area, it invests in acquisitions of true turnarounds, 363 auctions, portfolio add-ons, operationally challenged companies; financings in exit, ABL loans, second lien refinance, and direct lending to distressed companies. The firm invests in manufacturing, services, and distribution companies with a special focus on energy sector. In energy production sector, the firm invests in lower risk oil and gas exploration, production and development; natural gas liquids; coal m ining and coal-fired generation; uranium mining and nuclear-fired generation; wind-powered generation; and solar-powered generation. In energy transmission sector, the firm invests in oil and gas pipelines; LNG tankers and regasification facilities; and power transmission. In energy distribution sector, it targets propane distribution; gas distribution; electricity distribution. In energy services sector, the firm invests in oil and gas services and utility services. The firm also targets investments in companies that provide services or products to federal, state or local governments. It seeks to invest in information technology, human resources/benefit administration, outsourcing, transaction processing, engineering and construction, logistics, original equipment manufacturers ? homeland security and component, after market parts and supplies, and technology. It invests as ! lead or participative investor. The firm and its affiliates invest from $5 million to $300 million p e r company in North America and ?5 million ($6.92520 millio! n) to ?25 million ($34.6260 million) per company in Europe. American Capital, Ltd. was founded in 1986 and is based in Bethesda, Maryland with additional offices in United States, Europe, and Asia.

Advisors' Opinion:
  • [By Grass Hopper]

    Examples of the first class of publicly ‐traded private equity firms include Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. L.P. (KKR), The Blackstone Group L.P. (BX), and Oaktree Capital Group, LLC (OAK). Examples of the second class are Wendel SA (MF FP), Exor SpA (EXO IM) and, to some extent, Reinet Investments SCA (REI SJ). Examples of the third class are American Capital, Ltd. (ACAS), Main Street Capital, Gladstone Capital Corp. (MAIN), and Prospect Capital Corp. (PSEC).

  • [By James Brumley]

    The market’s starting to realize the selloff was an errant one, as DHI shares are perking up again. There’s still a ways to go before the stock’s back to where it started, though.

    American Capital Ltd (ACAS)

    12/2 Price: $15.29

  • source from Top Stocks Blog:http://www.topstocksblog.com/5-best-penny-stocks-to-own-for-2014.html

Top 10 Energy Stocks To Invest In Right Now

Top 10 Energy Stocks To Invest In Right Now: Newpark Resources Inc (NR)

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

Fluids Systems and Engineering

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

Mats and Integrated Services

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

Environmental Services

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

The Company competes with Schlumberger, Halliburton and Baker Hughes.

Advisors' Opinion:
  • [By Travis Hoium]

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

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

  • source from Top Stocks Blog:http://www.topstocksblog.com/top-10-energy-stocks-to-invest-in-right-now.html

Top 5 Penny Companies To Invest In 2014

Top 5 Penny Companies To Invest In 2014: China Ceramics Co. Ltd.(CCCL)

China Ceramics Co., Ltd. engages in the manufacture and sale of ceramic tiles used for exterior siding, interior flooring, and design in residential and commercial buildings primarily in the People's Republic of China. It offers porcelain tiles, glazed tiles, glazed porcelain tiles, rustic tiles, and ultra-thin tiles under the Hengda, Hengdeli, TOERTO, and WULIQIAO brand names. The company primarily sells its products through a distributor network, as well as directly to property developers. China Ceramics Co., Ltd. is based in Jinjiang City, the People's Republic of China.

Advisors' Opinion:
  • [By Lisa Levin]

    China Ceramics Co (NASDAQ: CCCL) shares fell 2.40% to touch a new 52-week low of $1.63. China Ceramics shares have dropped 35.27% over the past 52 weeks, while the S&P 500 index has gained 19.70% in the same period.

  • source from Top Stocks Blog:http://www.topstocksblog.com/top-5-penny-companies-to-invest-in-2014.html

Excel VLOOKUP Basics & Top 5 Mistakes Rookies Make

An Excel VLOOKUP can be a marketer's best friend because it can save you hours of work. Give this formula the information you have (a name) and it looks through a long list (list of names) so it can return the information you need (phone number). The problem is we often struggle to remember how to use the formula – or worse make mistakes.

We're going to fix that now. This post will explain:

How VLOOKUPs work (Hint: Remember phone books?).Five rookie VLOOKUP moves to avoid.Know How to Use a Phone Book? Then You Know How to Use a VLOOKUP

Remember phone books? Phone books happen to give us a fantastic mental model to understand how VLOOKUPs work.

Basically, the phone book is a long list of just a few columns: names and phone numbers. You pick up a phone book with a clear intention – find a phone number (info you want) for a specific person (info you have).

Once you've found the person you're looking for, you look at over to the second column to find their phone number. Call made, problem solved.

It turns out this is the same principle for how a VLOOKUP works. Let's breakdown what each piece of the formula to understand what they mean:

There is an added piece of information needed for a VLOOKUP called a range_lookup. This basically is how accurate you want your results.

5 Rookie VLOOKUP Moves to Avoid

Realizing VLOOKUPs work the same as a phone book is helpful. It's also helpful to know the common mistakes. Here are the top five mistakes made by VLOOKUP rookies.

1. Not Having Lookup_Value in First Column of Your Table Array

VLOOKUPs only work when the info you have (lookup-value) is in the first column of data you're looking at (table array). To use the phone book, you need to start with a name first. You can't start with the phone number and find the name.

2. Counting the Wrong Number of Columns for Col_index_num

Once Excel has found the value you gave it, it needs to know what give you back. This comes in form of a column number. Make sure to start counting from the first column of the range (table array).

3. [Range_Lookup] Not Using FALSE for Exact Matching

Many marketers get the wrong values because they forget one step. Ninety-nine percent of the time we want exact match, which means a value of FALSE (here's why).

4. Forgetting Absolute References (F4) When Copying the Formula

The power of a VLOOKUP is it can be copied down to hundreds or thousands of cells. But once you copy this down, the references change leading to errors. To fix this issue convert your range to an absolute value instead of a relative value, so cells don't move around (as they tend to do).

5. Extra Spaces or Characters

Occasionally when data is copied from one source to another, a few leading or trailing spaces tag along. This causes issue during the match, so use TRIM to delete any spaces added to the cell (except for any single spaces between words).

VLOOKUP 201: The John Smith Problem and Going Left

After you use VLOOKUP enough, you'll encounter its limitations. For example:

It only returns the first match it finds, even if there are hundreds of possible matches.It can only return a value in the table array to the right - it can't go left!

(There are simple solutions to these problems, creating unique keys and pasting – but we'll save those for another time.)

Back to the phone book for a moment. How many John Smiths are listed? Probably more than one. But with a VLOOKUP, only the phone number of the first John Smith is being returned! You're probably calling the wrong guy.

To make sure you're calling the right John Smith, you need to bring in additional information. Commonly for phone books it's an address (e.g., John Smith at 123 Acme Lane or John Smith at 765 NW Jones St.).

Again, it's the same for VLOOKUPs.

Let's say you want to know match type by keyword. Your match type column would be identical (all "broad", in this case), and your second variable (keyword) would differentiate the data.

Create a new table with both pieces of data in columns, and insert "&" in the table_array field of your VLOOKUP. Then the VLOOKUP knows to return the combined data for your result.

Most Common Uses for VLOOKUP

What are your most common uses for VLOOKUPs? Is there anything about VLOOKUPs that stump you?

Best Performing Stocks To Own For 2014

Best Performing Stocks To Own For 2014: OSI Systems Inc.(OSIS)

OSI Systems, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, designs and manufactures electronic systems and components for homeland security, healthcare, defense, and aerospace markets worldwide. The company operates in three divisions: Security, Healthcare, and Optoelectronics and Manufacturing. The Security division provides security and inspection systems under the Rapiscan Systems name. Its products include baggage and parcel inspection, cargo and vehicle inspection, hold baggage screening, and people screening products to search for weapons, explosives, drugs, and other contraband, as well as for the verification of cargo manifests for monitoring the export and import of controlled materials. This division also offers various turn-key security screening solutions under the S2 trade name. The Healthcare division provides patient monitoring, diagnostic cardiology, and anesthesia delivery and ventilation systems under the Spacelabs name that are used in critical care, emergency, and perioperative areas within hospitals, as well as physician?s offices, medical clinics, and ambulatory surgery centers. The Optoelectronics and Manufacturing division offers optoelectronic devices for the aerospace and defense, avionics, medical imaging and diagnostic, renewable energy, biochemistry analysis, pharmaceutical, nanotechnology, telecommunications, construction, and homeland security markets under the OSI Optoelectronics name; and electronics manufacturing services to original equipment manufacturers under the OSI Electronics name. This division also provides laser-based remote sensing devices to detect and classify vehicles in toll and traffic management systems under the OSI Laserscan name; blood pressure cuffs and unifusors under the Statcorp Medical name; and solid-state laser products for aerospace, defense, telecommunication, and medical applications unde! r the OSI LaserDiode trade name. The company was founded in 1987 and is headquartered in Hawthorne, C alifornia.

Advisors' Opinion:
  • [By James E. Brumley]

    While it's tragic that it took a string of tragedies to make school safety and security a priority in the United States, it can't be denied that the topic has been put front and center - school systems everywhere are asking themselves tough questions, mainly focusing on what can be done quickly and cost-effectively to secure school buildings. Part of that discussion has put companies like OSI Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:OSIS), American Science & Engineering, Inc. (NASDAQ:ASEI), and View Systems Inc. (OTCBB:VSYM) in the limelight. The three organizations all make security screening and weapons detection systems. If you've flown from anywhere inside the United States anytime since 2003, odds are pretty good you or your luggage passed through equipment made by ASEI or OSIS.

  • [By James E. Brumley]

    For tech-savvy investors who know which companies make them, when they hear the words "weapons detection" or "body scanners", they tend to think of companies like American Science & Engineering, Inc. (NASDAQ:ASEI) and OSI Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:OSIS). And well they should. OSIS and ASEI are two of the biggest North American providers of the kind of equipment you might see being used by airport security personnel screening passengers before allowing them to their gate. There's just one challenge in the average school system tapping OSI Systems or American Science & Engineering to help defend their school grounds.... their hardware starts with a six-figure price tag, and rapidly works its way up to higher-capacity and more powerful versions. For a school with multiple doors, it's simply not feasible. View Systems Inc. is a viable alternative.

  • [By John Udovich]

    Small cap security and surveillance stocks OSI Systems, Inc (NASDAQ: OSIS), Vimicro International Corporation (NASD! AQ: VIMC)! , Analogic Corporation (NASDAQ: ALOG), Lifelock Inc (NYSE: LOCK) and View Systems Inc (OTCBB: VSYM) have been producing a steady flow of news lately that investors might want to take a closer look at. After all, the whole security and surveillance industry is pretty vast as it would include everything from airport scanners to security cameras to software securing everyone's personal or online data. With that in mind, here is a look at the latest news from important small cap security and surveillance stocks:

  • [By John Udovich]

    Last Friday's shooting incident at LAX highlighted the need to keep airports and other public places secure – something that small cap airport security stocks like American Science & Engineering, Inc (NASDAQ: ASEI), Analogic Corporation (NASDAQ: ALOG), OSI Systems, Inc (NASDAQ: OSIS) and View Systems Inc (OTCBB: VSYM) do already. In the LAX shooting incident, its still not clear what the shooter's motive was beyond signs that he was suffering from some kind of mental illness or breakdown. In other words, preventing such attacks in the future (beyond identifying those with mental illness on the verge of snapping) will continue to be difficult as the incident also happened outside of the airport security zone.  

  • source from Top Stocks Blog:http://www.topstocksblog.com/best-performing-stocks-to-own-for-2014.html

Google Search Layout Change is Here to Stay, Despite Poor Reviews

The new Google search layout users began seeing a couple weeks ago on a limited basis has now gone live to all users.

Google's new layout, which changes the font and removes underlines from links, as well as displays the AdWords ads at the top differently, has definitely been getting poor reviews as it rolled out to everybody.

The headlines are larger the description text seems to be slightly lighter and they have adjusted the fonts with the wider typeface.

For AdWords ads, gone is the light yellow in the background that we have long associated as being advertising space for many years now. The new style doesn't have any shaded background, instead it has a tiny yellow "Ad" marker next to the green URL. There is also an underline separating the ads from the organic search results.

Beyond the cosmetic change, the new search layout is affecting SEO in a pretty pronounced way. Titles that were optimized to the maximum 70 allowable characters for SEO purposes will now find the same headlines truncated in Google's new results, giving everyone about 59-60 characters to work with. This means you might have a lot of work ahead of you trying to rework titles so they don't appear poorly truncated in the search results, which could impact click-throughs to your site.

The first time many user saw the changes, many users thought they actually had their search hijacked or were falling victim to Google spoofing, because the search results looked completely different. And the reviews definitely aren't good across the board, judging from all the comments by very upset searchers, something that actually made the switch to another search engine strictly because of the new look.

To me, it looks like a throwback to how search engine results looked 10 to 15 years ago, such as on Webcrawler or Hotbot, not something that has been refreshed for 2014. And I do agree with many people who say the new font makes it much harder to read and scan when on a desktop.

Google's logic behind the new change was that they make the changes for mobile and tablets, and they carry out over several the design changes to desktop users. Google said they feel this creates improved readability and a much cleaner look. And they had an end goal of creating a consistent user experience across multiple devices (desktop, mobile tablet):

Towards the end of last year we launched some pretty big design improvements for Search on mobile and tablet devices (mobile first! :-). Today we've carried over several of those changes to the desktop experience.

We've increased the size of result titles, removed the underlines, and evened out all the line heights. This improves readability and creates an overall cleaner look. We've also brought over our new ad labels from mobile, making the multi-device experience more consistent.

Improving consistency in design across platforms makes it easier for people to use Google Search across devices and it makes it easier for us to develop and ship improvements across the board.

Will we see any changes reverted back? Hard to say, but Google doesn't too often revert back on their changes once they've jumped in and made them.

SEO Website Audits: Everything You Need to Know

As Google gets more stringent with its penalties for everything from obvious link spam to having too high of a ratio of ads to content, getting a semi-annual or yearly site audit has become a business necessity. If you aren't, you should be lest you get a surprise message from Google letting you know why your site visits have turned into an upside down hockey stick.

But just what is a site audit? What kind of audit do you need and what should you expect in the final report of the person auditing you? What follows is everything you need to know about website audits.

What is a Site Audit?

Site audits are, in the simplest terms, when you pay someone to forensically examine your site with tools and their eyes utilizing their knowledge and expertise to tell you what is good and what is not so good about your site (or as we say – where you have challenges and opportunities).

Types of Site Audits

There are many types of audits and they cannot all be covered here, but the most common types of site audits related to SEO needs are:

Site Health Audits: Assessing general site health or when there is a site health issue such as a downturn in traffic or positioning of unknown causation.Red Flag Audits: Assessing a site for potential penalty issues. This should be part of a site health audit, but can be an audit unto itself.Competitive Site Audits: Analyzing your site gaps, in its vertical and among your competitors to see what opportunities there are for site growth. Some will use this as a time to copy what their competitors do, but this can be a risky strategy.Conversion Optimization Audits: Analyze conversion issues, which can be onsite or technical.Negative SEO or Attacked Site Audits: Analyze downturns in site metrics when we know a site (or thought very likely) has been attacked by negative SEO methods.Penalty and Recovery Audits: Analyze downturns in site metrics when a site is known (or thought very likely) to have been algorithmically or manually penalized.Security Audits: Security audits for site vulnerability especially important in high-risk verticals and high value sites, but everyone should have one.

(Note: All of these can be part of the same audit, however these are how they are most commonly broken down when we receive client requests.)

Which audits are most needed? Site audits are all determined by a site's needs. However all site audits should start with the Site Health Audit.

Site Health Audits

Site health audits, or "Where Do We Stand" audits, are typically general audits where an auditor will look at your site and analyze the following areas for potential or existing issues, opportunities and challenges:

(Note: Every site is different and every auditor has different methods. This is what is generally advisable for a site health audit, but your audit may differ.)

Technical (e.g., hosting, server metrics, down time, caching)Onsite (e.g., content, design, metas, schema tags, URL construction, page speed)LinksInternal (e.g., internal link structures, anchor text, site architecture)External (e.g., links to your site, value, acquisition patterns, anchor text)Social media (e.g., profiles, optimization, links)Miscellaneous (e.g., citations)

These audits are meant to offer you a holistic analysis of your site and give you an overview of everything that is occurring or might have occurred to that site. These site audits are also helpful if you're trying to root out a recent downturn in traffic or positioning of unknown cause.

These audits will typically include red flag warnings or some type of alert to you when something is found that might be violating the agreed on search engines' (usually Google) terms of service. If you aren't receiving "red flag warnings" in your audit, you are missing one of the key points of a site health audit. Make sure it will be addressed.

Site Health Audits – The Audit Building Block

Site Health Audits are really the building block for all other audits. If you're doing any other of the more detailed or focused forensic analysis, unless specifically requested for it not to be done, the Site Health Audit is where we start looking.

Again, you can request to have an audit done, without having the holistic Site Health Audit completed, but I highly recommend against doing this.

Why You Need a Site Health Audit

What you think is wrong with your site, generally isn't.

So many times clients are absolutely sure they had a Panda or Penguin issue or none at all. Without doing a comprehensive Site Health Audit, as well as looking for issues they "knew" existed, the conclusions of the audit would have been incorrect.

Why would they be incorrect? Aren't you good at your job? Isn't a Panda or Penguin penalty clear in the analytics and manuals are always absolute right? They can be, but generally penalties and issues aren't always as clear-cut as they might seem.

Not Every Penalty is a Cliff

Let's say your site has poor content, link issues, and technical issues. If all we examine is your links, or say your content because you are certain you have one or the other issues, we might miss a very important clue that you have no penalty at all, but a natural devaluation of your pages due to poor quality metrics.

Although traffic loss might appear to be a penalty, it really might not be. When you see an analytics cliff, it makes it easy. But so often there are more gradual indicators that can be missed when you are not looking at the site holistically.

But manual actions certainly are always clear, right? Not necessarily.

You can get a manual and algorithmic penalty close together, so that one obscures the other. We have had clients who went and resolved a manual penalty only to find out they had a different one underneath and general site issues as well. Holistic audits help protect you from these errors in analysis.

Looking at your site in segments instead of holistically is comparable to the old parable where five blind men describe the elephant on piece at a time. One man thought the nose was a snake, while another man thought a leg was a tree, and so on.

If you don't look at the site as a whole, single pieces can appear to be what they are not. This means you will spend money and time trying to fix something that isn't broken – or worse yet, not being aware of an issue that exists and suffer a penalty you could have avoided.

So make sure someone that audits your site is not just looking at the trunk, because you might think you have a snake when you really have an elephant (or, you know, a Panda).

These Two Things Must Happen Before Your Audit Begins

Before an audit begins you should always have these two requests from the auditor:

A "getting started" phone call to go over your site's history, past issues, and SEO efforts. Treat this like a visit to your doctor. Sure you don't like telling him that every Saturday night you like to kick back with a cigar and four glasses of Glenn Fiddich, but if he is going to give you a proper diagnosis, he needs to know. Same here. Don't hide anything, you only hurt the auditor's analysis and getting to the root of your issues. You may be embarrassed that you bought 10,000 links off Fiverr, but you auditor needs to know and even if you don't tell us, we will find out (if you hired someone worth their salt, anyway).Access to your analytics and Webmaster Tools accounts. Whether you use Google or Omniture, your auditor can't do a proper job if they can't view the data that your site provides them. If you have Bing and Google Webmaster Tools make sure to give them both, they can offer different insights.

The auditor may ask for more data sources and may even ask to add some tools to your site, but these two items should always be requested and if you don't have them don't be surprised if they ask if they can add them. Data is vital to a proper analysis.

Audit Reporting

So you have your audit underway and you are anxiously awaiting your report. What should you expect to see? Well let's first start with what an audit is not.

An audit is not simply a:

Screaming Frog Report.Tools Report of any kind.A W3C Report (ever).Bunches of Google Analytics data.Pages of text not providing you with any of the supporting documents above.

While the list of what an audit is not could go on and on, what is important to note is an audit report is not simply a bunch of reports a tool produces or text without data. This you could have done yourself.

What you are paying the auditor to do is to take whatever analysis tools they use (there are so many there is no right or wrong set of tools) then the reports those tools give them, then compare and contrast the data those reports and utilizing their expertise compiling their assessment of what that data means for your site and your business.

Here is what you are really paying for – the expertise of the auditor.

Anyone can run tools that spit out reports. Anyone can take Screaming Frog (a crawling tool) and make it seem like they did a real site analysis, but what you're really paying for is someone to go in, to assess, to analyze and to compile meaning from all that data into something easy for you to understand.

If your auditor can't do any of the above, they aren't the auditor for you.

What Does an Audit Look Like?

Everyone presents the data interpretation in their own way, so there is no right or wrong way to present or interpret the data as long as it works for you and you get the value needed from the audit. That said, there are few things that always should be in your reports:

Summary Analysis with Points of Action: Your audit is going to contain a lot of information. Your audit should contain a summary analysis that helps you quickly understand where your site stands, what the issues are and where your points of action are going to be.Red Flag Warnings: Your auditor may call these warnings something else, but your site analysis should contain references to any potential site issues whether it is a penalty or conversion.Data: The auditor should have site data and tool metrics in the report that show you that when they say for example: your site might be penalized for thin content why they are saying your site might be penalized for thin content.Actionable Recommendations: Every site audit should have actionable recommendations that help you implement the findings of the audit.Audit Costs

If you're a business owner, one site audit a year is a tax-deductible expense, which leads us to what you're probably most wondering – cost. How much should your audit cost?

Actually, there is no easy way to answer this question. The cost of an audit depends on the depth and breadth of the site, but in addition, the complexity of the issue.

For instance, you may be charged more for penalty audits than standard site health audits. Why? Because getting to the bottom of someone's penalty issues can be a very long deep rabbit hole and often not as straightforward as it seems. That takes more time to analyze and report.

Audits aren't cheap. Remember, you aren't paying for the tools that report on your site, you are paying for the expertise of the person who is doing the audit, plus the complexity and time it takes to accomplish the audit.

Don't Hire A Tool

If someone offers you an audit for cheap, you are most likely going to get a summary of report data from tools that don't take into account the ever changing environment of search or a report without a proper interpretation of what those tool reports really mean.

Now this doesn't mean it has to be wallet-breaking expensive, but make sure you're hiring the brains, not the tools. The expertise is key to getting a successful result.

Your audit is only going to be as good as the person conducting it. Make sure they know what they are doing and have the experience to back up not only the analysis, but also in making the proper recommendations.

Remember cheap SEO is never cheap. It is only cheap for now. The clean-up is always expensive, usually bank breakingly so.

Shopping Comparison: TheFind Finds Lowest Price More Often Than Google, Bing, Others

In December Danny Sullivan sought to determine which of the major shopping search engines found the best prices for common products.�The shopping engines compared in Danny’s articles were Nextag, Shopzilla, PriceGrabber, Google, Bing and TheFind:

The Test Begins: Do Google Shopping & Other Shopping Search Engines Give You The Best Deals?The Test Continues: Which Shopping Search Engine Finds The Best Price For A Blu-Ray?

TheFind’s CEO Siva Kumar saw these articles and developed an internal tool to compare his site to these and other online shopping competitors.

TheFind later decided to make that�internal comparison tool public facing�so that anyone could try it and compare product search results across sites. Clicking any of the branded links above the main results opens a window showing the same query on the selected site.

TheFind contacted us saying that it had been running tests of its results against the shopping engines discussed in Danny’s original articles. It looked at 50 queries in six shopping categories, using the same approach and methodology pursued in Danny’s articles.

The questions asked in TheFind’s research were:

Which engine offers the lowest price on the same item?How many stores are returned for a given result?How often are product reviews, offline stores, coupons and other enhanced content featured?

Source: TheFind

The chart above reflects the percentage of times each engine had the lowest price for the 50 sample queries. TheFind said that 78 percent of the time it found the lowest price. By comparison, Google had the lowest price 42 percent of the time. Yahoo performed worst with the lowest price in only 8 percent of queries.

The reason these figures exceed 100 percent is because multiple engines may have “tied” in any given case. In other words, TheFind, Google and Shopping.com might have all found the best available price on the same item.

Source: TheFind

The flip side of the lowest-price comparison is one involving “price premiums.” The chart above reflects how much users will pay above the lowest available price by using each shopping engine. (As the overall price winner TheFind used itself as the baseline.)

Because Bing and Yahoo had the lowest prices in only 14 percent and 8 percent of cases, for example, users who buy through them are likely to pay a premium: 25 and 31 percent more on average respectively.

One of the explanations that TheFind offers for its performance vs. the others is the fact that it indexes more stores and product sources. The chart below reflects the average number of sources found for the 50 queries examined.

Source: TheFind

On average TheFind offered 65 stores or sources for each of the 50 queries. Shopzilla by comparison offered an average of five.

TheFind also explored additional or enhanced content in search results. The company looked at availability of coupons, product reviews and local stores that carried the subject products. Across the board TheFind outperformed its competitors.

Source: TheFind

It’s important to reiterate that the data and tests above were all performed and provided by TheFind. We did not verify the accuracy of these results. However I spoke to company at length to discuss its testing and methodology. I don’t believe the company selected the queries based on a known outcome or otherwise artificially skewed these results.

However the fact that TheFind’s tool Compare.TheFind.com is publicly available allows skeptics and anyone else (including competitors) to explore and verify results. Let us know if you do and find anything that contradicts the above data.

Top Bank Stocks To Buy For 2014

Top Bank Stocks To Buy For 2014: Bank of Communications Co Ltd (BKFCF)

Bank of Communications Co., Ltd. is principally engaged in banking and related financial services. The Bank's business is divided into four segments: personal banking, including personal savings, bank card, personal lending, payment and settlement, investment services, insurance services and wealth management; corporate banking, comprised of cash management, supplying chain financing, investment banking, financial institutional banking and asset custody services; international banking, consisting of foreign exchange wealth management, document settlement, remittance and bill services, trade finance and offshore banking, and e-banking, including personal online banking, enterprise online banking, mobile banking, telephone banking and self-help banking. Advisors' Opinion:
  • [By MARKETWATCH]

    HONG KONG (MarketWatch) -- Hong Kong stocks opened lower Tuesday, after China's central bank reportedly drained 48 billion yuan ($7.9 billion) from the money market on Tuesday through bond-repurchase agreements. The Hang Seng Index (HK:HSI) moved lower by 0.3%. Banks retreated, as China Merchants Bank Co., (HK:3968) (CIHHF) declined 2.2%, Bank of Communications Co. (HK:3328) (BKFCF) fell 1.6%, China Minsheng Banking Corp. (HK:1988) (CMAKY) lost 1.4%, and China Citic Bank Corporation (HK:998) (CHCJY) dropped 1.2%. China's Dongfeng Motor Group Co. ! (HK:489) , currently in negotiations to buy a stake in PSA Peugeot Citroen, suspended trading of its H-shares in Hong Kong markets. The state-owned car maker didn't clarify the reason in the announcement. On Monday, the company said in a filing that its commercial-vehicle unit has been served with a request for arbitration by a Brazilian firm, which is seeking damages of approximately 1.67 billion Brazilian reals ($700 million) for Dongfeng's failure to establish a joint venture with the firm. On the mainland, the Shanghai Composite Index (CN:SHCOMP) gave up 0.5% to 2,125.54.

  • [By MARKETWATCH]

    LOS ANGELES (MarketWatch) -- Hong Kong stocks started modestly lower Thursday, tracking broad weakness in Asia, with mainland Chinese banks mixed after the release of November lending data. The Hang Seng Index (HK:HSI) lost 0.2% to 23,288.02, while the Hang Seng China Enterprises Index fell 0.4%. However, the Shanghai Composite (CN:SHCOMP) added 0.1% to 2,205.39 in choppy trade that saw it swing between positive and negative territory. Mainland Chinese banks saw mixed reaction after data showed new yuan-denominated loans rose to 624.6 billion yuan ($102 billion) in November, more than 100 billion yuan above the year-earlier figure and beating market forecasts of between 560 billion yuan and 580 billion yuan, according to the XInhua news agency. Among the top banks, Bank of China Ltd. (HK:3988) (BACHY) was up 0.3%, Bank of Communications Co. (HK:3328) (BKFCF) rose 0.2%, Agricultural Bank of Ch! ina Ltd. ! (HK:1288) (ACGBF) traded flat, and Industrial & Commercial Bank of China Ltd. (HK:1398) (IDCBF) fell 0.6%. Shares of Aluminum Corp. of China Ltd. (HK:2600) (ACH) lost 0.7% after saying it could see a drop of up to 37% in output from a key Peruvian copper mine. Angang Steel Co. (HK:347) (ANGGF)

  • [By Daniel Inman]

    Bank stocks fell in Hong Kong after a sharp increase during the previous session. Bank of Communications (HK:3328)   (BKFCF)  dropped 1.9%, while Agricultural Bank of China (HK:1288)   (ACGBF)  managed a 0.3% gain.

  • [By MARKETWATCH]

    LOS ANGELES (MarketWatch) -- Chinese stocks opened lower Thursday, with banks mostly weaker after a slew of earnings results from the top mainland Chinese lenders. Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index (HK:HSI) fell 0.8% to 23,120.24, with the Hang Seng China Enterprises Index also 0.8% lower, while the Shanghai Composite (CN:SHCOMP) gave up 0.6% in early moves. Mostly disappointing earnings from some of the largest banks helped sink their shares. Industrial & Commercial Bank of China Ltd. (HK:1398) (IDCBF) dropped 1.7%, Bank of China Ltd. (! HK:3988) ! (BACHY) retreated by 0.8%, and Bank of Communications Co. (HK:3328) (BKFCF) dropped 2.6% after all three posted lower profit growth than a year earlier, and with BoCom saying it could raise capital with a preferred-share issue. In other post-earnings reactions, China Minsheng Banking Corp. (HK:1988) (CMAKY) fell 3.2%, but Agricultural Bank of China Ltd. (HK:1288) (ACGBF) traded flat. In Shanghai, ICBC (CN:601398) lost 0.5%, Bank of China (CN:601988) fell 0.4%, BoCom (CN:601328) was down 1.6%, China Minsheng (CN:600016)

  • source from Top Stocks Blog:http://www.topstocksblog.com/top-bank-stocks-to-buy-for-2014.html