Top Quality Stocks To Invest In 2014

It seems that every year�AMD (NYSE: AMD  ) makes a pretty large fuss about a next-generation mobile product, but year after year these products don't materialize in many shipping designs. Some argue that the same argument could be applied to larger PC chip rival Intel (NASDAQ: INTC  ) , but there are numerous quality Windows-based tablets shipping with Intel silicon, even if Intel's Bay Trail on Android continues to be MIA. So a simple question that AMD investors should try to answer is: Where are all of the AMD tablets?

A trip to AMD's website: Trying to buy an AMD tablet
To see what kind of progress AMD has made in securing tablet designs, a trip to AMD's website is in order. Clicking on the "where to buy" button on AMD's tablet page reveals some interesting results. Of the 10 tablets available in total, the breakdown by chip is as follows:

AMD Dual-Core A4 Series: four tablets. AMD Dual-Core Z-Series APU: three tablets. AMD Quad-Core A6-Series: three tablets.

Of the four dual-core A4 based devices, three were 11.6-inch designs and one was a 13.3-inch detachable Windows 8 PC. Not a single one was a "tablet" in the sense of a traditional 10.1-inch or 9.7-inch design. Of the quad-core A6 based devices, all three were 13.3-inch designs from Hewlett-Packard. And naturally, the older Z-series APU based designs weren't anything to write home about, particularly as reviews panned both the performance and battery lives of products based on this chip (since the chip was unsuitable for thin and light tablets).

5 Best Rising Stocks To Invest In 2015: Select Sector Financial Select Sector SPDR Fund (XLF)

Financial Select Sector SPDR Fund (the Fund) seeks to provide investment results that correspond to the price and yield performance of the Financial Select Sector of the S&P 500 Index (the Index). The Index includes financial service firms with diversified business lines ranging from investment management to commercial and investment banking.

The Fund utilizes a passive or indexing investment approach to invest in a portfolio of stocks that seek to replicate the Index. The Fund�� investment advisor is SSgA Funds Management, Inc.

Advisors' Opinion:
  • [By John Jagerson and Wade Hansen]

    We��e nearly three months into 2014, and our 2014 Best Stock of 2014 Pick,� Financial Select Sector SPDR Fund (XLF) continues to operate in positive territory, up just over 2% year-to-date, which makes it a great time to check in on our recommendation.

  • [By Jim Jubak]

    Not surprising that the financial sector led the US market down yesterday. The Standard & Poor's 500 stock index (SPX) closed down 0.13% on January 16 as the Financial Select Sector SPDR (XLF) dropped 0.63%.

  • [By Sital S. Patel]

    Bank shares have performed well in the last year, with many major and regional bank stocks being up anywhere from 25% to 50% in the last 12 months. The Financial Select Sector SPDR Fund (XLF) �, which tracks financial stocks in the S&P 500 (SPX) , was up nearly 30% in the last 12 months.

Top Quality Stocks To Invest In 2014: Maximus Inc (MMS)

MAXIMUS, Inc., incorporated on October 18, 2007, provides business process services (BPS) to government health and human services agencies under its mission of Helping Government Serve the People. The Company is primarily focused on operating government-sponsored programs, such as Medicaid, Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP), health insurance exchanges and other health care reform initiatives, Medicare, welfare-to-work, child support services and other government programs.

The Company is one of the pure-play health and human services administrative providers to governments in the United States, Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom and Saudi Arabia. The Company�� segments include Health Services and Human Services. Effective July 1, 2013, MAXIMUS, Inc. acquired Health Management Ltd.

Health Services Segment

The Company's Health Services segment provides a variety of business process services, as well as related consulting services, for state, provincial and federal government programs, including Medicaid, CHIP, SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program), Medicare, the Affordable Care Act and Health Insurance BC (British Columbia). In this segment, the Company's BPS and consulting services include government health insurance program administration; Health insurance program eligibility and enrollment services to improve access to health care for citizens and help beneficiaries make the best choice for their health insurance coverage; Eligibility and enrollment modernization for government health benefit programs; Health insurance exchange design and operations; Consumer outreach and education, including multilingual customer contact centers and multi-channel self-service options, such as Web-based portals, for easy enrollment; Application assistance and independent enrollment counseling to beneficiaries; Premium payment processing and administration, such as invoicing and reconciliation; Objective, evidence-based health appeals; Independent medical! reviews; Health plan oversight; eHealth solutions with the Medigent product suite; Medicaid Management Information System (MMIS) planning and oversight, and Specialized program consulting services.

Human Services Segment

The Company's Human Services segment provides federal, national, state and county human services agencies with a variety of business process services, as well as related consulting services for welfare-to-work, child support, higher education and K-12 special education programs. The Company's services include welfare-to-work services, including eligibility determination, case management, job-readiness preparation, job search and employer outreach, job retention and career advancement, and selected educational and training services, to help disadvantaged individuals transition from government assistance programs to sustainable employment and economic independence; Full and specialized child support case management services, customer contact center operations, and program and systems consulting services; Management tools and professional consulting services for higher education institutions; K-12 special education case management solutions; Program consulting services, including independent verification and validation, cost allocation plans, repeatable management services and other specialized consulting offerings, and Tax credit and employer services.

The Company competes with Serco, Atos Origin and Ingeus.

Advisors' Opinion:
  • [By Dan Caplinger]

    Dow 16,000, S&P 1,800, and Nasdaq 4,000 didn't become reality today, but each of these benchmarks came close to reaching those respective levels as investors continued to respond favorably to the macroeconomic and monetary-policy environment going forward. But despite the market's broad gains, Electronic Arts (NASDAQ: EA  ) , Maximus (NYSE: MMS  ) , and Western Union (NYSE: WU  ) gave up ground today with fairly substantial drops. Let's take a closer look at why these stocks bucked the market's favorable trend today.

Top Quality Stocks To Invest In 2014: Zillow Inc (Z)

Zillow, Inc. (Zillow), incorporated on December 13, 2004, is a real estate and home-related information marketplaces. Zillow provides products and services to help consumers through every stage of homeownership buying, selling, renting, borrowing and remodeling. The Company make home-related decisions, and enabling homeowners, buyers, sellers and renters to find and connect with local professionals. Individuals and businesses that use Zillow have updated information on more than 37 million homes and have added nearly 100 million home photos. These profiles include detailed information about homes such as property facts, listing information, and purchase and sale data. In June 2012, the Company acquired RentJuice Corporation. In October 2012, the Company acquired Buyfolio, an online and mobile collaborative shopping platform. In December 2012, the Company acquired San Francisco-based HotPads, a map-based rental and real estate search site.

Zillow generates revenues from local real estate professionals, primarily on an individual subscription basis, and from mortgage professionals and brand advertisers. The Company�� revenues include marketplace revenues, consisting of subscriptions sold to real estate agents and advertising sold on a cost per click (CPC) basis to mortgage lenders, and display revenues consisting of advertising placements sold primarily on a cost per thousand impressions (CPM) basis. The Company provides current home value estimates, or Zestimates, and current rental price estimates, or Rent Zestimates, on approximately 100 million United States homes.

Marketplace Revenues

Marketplace revenues consist of subscriptions sold to real estate agents under its Premier Agent program and CPC advertising related to the Company�� Zillow Mortgage Marketplace sold to mortgage lenders. The Company�� premier agent program offers a suite of marketing and business technology solutions to help real estate agents grow their businesses and personal brands. The! premier agent program allows agents to select products and services that they can tailor to meet their business and advertising needs. In Zillow Mortgage Marketplace, participating qualified mortgage lenders make a prepayment to gain access to consumers interested in connecting with mortgage professionals. Consumers who request rates for mortgage loans in Zillow Mortgage Marketplace are presented with personalized lender quotes from participating lenders. The Company charges mortgage lenders a fee when users click on their links for more information regarding a mortgage loan quote. Mortgage lenders who exhaust their initial prepayment can then prepay additional funds to continue to participate in the marketplace.

Display Revenues

Display revenues primarily consist of graphical Web and mobile advertising sold on a CPM basis to advertisers primarily in the real estate industry, including real estate brokerages, home builders, mortgage lenders and home services providers. The Company�� advertising customers also include telecommunications, automotive, insurance and consumer products companies.

Advisors' Opinion:
  • [By Sean Williams]

    The first risk is clear as day. In addition to Trulia, Zillow (NASDAQ: Z  ) and Move (NASDAQ: MOVE  ) have found success over the past couple of quarters as the housing market has found a floor and inventory levels have dropped to multi-year lows. Zillow, for example, recently kicked off its first national TV ad campaign meant to boost its image and public awareness of the brand. With $179 million in cash and web traffic up 63% in its most recent quarter, there's a lot of reason to believe it'll give Trulia a run for its money. Similarly, Move witnessed its mobile app views jump by more than 100% from the previous year despite a tame 3% growth in website traffic. Simply put, if Trulia can't differentiate itself from Zillow and Move.com, it could be difficult to grow its top and bottom lines.

Top Quality Stocks To Invest In 2014: PBF Energy Inc (PBF)

PBF Energy Inc. (PBF Energy), incorporated on November 7, 2011, is an independent petroleum refiners and suppliers of unbranded transportation fuels, heating oils, petrochemical feedstocks, lubricants and other petroleum products in the United States. The Company produces a range of products at each of its refineries, including gasoline, ultra-low-sulfur diesel (ULSD), heating oil, jet fuel, lubricants, petrochemicals and asphalt. The Company sells its products throughout the Northeast and Midwest of the United States, as well as in other regions of the United States and Canada, and are able to ship products to other international destinations. As of December 31, 2011, the Company owned and operated three domestic oil refineries and related assets. The Company's refineries have a combined processing capacity of approximately 540,000 thousand barrels per day. The Company's three refineries are located in Toledo, Ohio, Delaware City, Delaware and Paulsboro, New Jersey.

The Company's Midcontinent refinery at Toledo processes light, sweet crude, has a throughput capacity of 170,000 thousand barrels per day and a Nelson Complexity Index of 9.2. Toledo's West Texas Intermediate (WTI) based crude is delivered through pipelines, which originate in both Canada and the United States. The Company's East Coast refineries at Delaware City and Paulsboro have a combined refining capacity of 370,000 thousand barrels per day and Nelson Complexity Indices of 11.3 and 13.2, respectively. These refineries process medium and heavy and sour crudes.

Delaware City Refinery

The Delaware City refinery is located on a 5,000-acre site, with access to waterborne cargoes and a distribution network of pipelines, barges and tankers, truck and rail. Delaware City is a fully integrated operation, which receives crude through rail at the crude unloading facility, or ship or barge at its docks located on the Delaware River. The crude and other feedstocks are transported, through pipes, to a tank! farm where they are stored until processing. In addition, there is a 17-bay, 50,000 thousand barrels per day capacity truck loading rack located adjacent to the refinery and a 23-mile interstate pipeline that are used to distribute clean products.

The Delaware City refinery has a throughput capacity of 190,000 thousand barrels per day and a Nelson Complexity Index of 11.3. The Delaware City refinery processes a range of medium to heavy, sour crude oils. The refinery has conversion capacity with its 82,000 thousand barrels per day fluid catalytic cracking (FCC) unit, 47,000 thousand barrels per day fluid coking unit (FCU) and 18,000 thousand barrels per day hydro cracking unit with vacuum distillation. Hydrogen is provided through the refinery's steam methane reformer and continuous catalytic reformer. The Delaware City refinery has total storage capacity of approximately 10 million barrels.

Paulsboro Refinery

Paulsboro has a throughput capacity of 180,000 thousand barrels per day and a Nelson Complexity Index of 13.2. The Paulsboro refinery is located on approximately 950 acres on the Delaware River in Paulsboro, New Jersey, just south of Philadelphia and approximately 30 miles away from Delaware City. Paulsboro receives crude and feedstocks through its marine terminal on the Delaware River. Paulsboro is one of two operating refineries on the East Coast with coking capacity, the other being Delaware City. Units at the Paulsboro refinery include crude distillation units, vacuum distillation units, an FCC unit, a delayed coking unit, a lube oil processing unit and a propane de-asphalting unit. The Paulsboro refinery processes a range of medium and heavy, sour crude oils. The Paulsboro refinery produces gasoline, heating oil and jet fuel and also manufactures Group I base oils or lubricants. In addition to its finished clean products slate, Paulsboro produces asphalt and petroleum coke. In addition, separate from the Company's agreement with Statoil the Company ha! s a long-! term contract with Saudi Aramco. The Paulsboro refinery has total storage capacity of approximately 7.5 million barrels. Of the total, approximately 2.1 million barrels are dedicated to crude oil storage with the remaining 5.4 million barrels allocated to finished products, intermediates and other products.

Toledo Refinery

Toledo has a throughput capacity of approximately 170,000 thousand barrels per day and a Nelson Complexity Index of 9.2. Toledo processes a slate of light, sweet crudes from Canada, the Midcontinent, the Bakken region and the United States Gulf Coast. Toledo produces a high percentage of finished products, including gasoline and ULSD, in addition to a range of petrochemicals, including nonene, xylene, tetramer and toluene. The Toledo refinery is located on a 282-acre site near Toledo, Ohio, approximately 60 miles from Detroit. Units at the Toledo refinery include an FCC unit, a hydrocracker, an alkylation unit and a UDEX unit. Crude is delivered to the Toledo refinery through three primary pipelines: Enbridge from the north, Capline from the south and Mid-Valley from the south. Crude is also delivered to a nearby terminal by rail and from local sources by truck to a truck unloading facility within the refinery.

Toledo is connected through pipelines, to a distribution network throughout Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Pennsylvania and West Virginia. The finished products are transported on pipelines owned by Sunoco Logistics Partners L.P. and Buckeye Partners.

Advisors' Opinion:
  • [By Roberto Pedone]

    One energy player that insiders are snapping up a decent amount of stock in here is PBF Energy (PBF), an independent petroleum refiners and suppliers of unbranded transportation fuels, heating oils, petrochemical feedstocks, lubricants and other petroleum products in the U.S. Insiders are buying this stock into notable weakness, since shares are off by 22% so far in 2013.

    PBF Energy has a market cap of $896 million and an enterprise value of $1.63 billion. This stock trades at a cheap valuation, with a forward price-to-earnings of 7.35. Its estimated growth rate for this year is -67.7%, and for next year it's pegged at 88.4%. This is not a cash-rich company, since the total cash position on its balance sheet is $69.23 million and its total debt is $815.96 million. This stock currently sports a dividend yield of 5.4%.

    A director just bought 10,000 shares, or about $226,000 worth of stock, at $22.50 per share.

    From a technical perspective, PBF is currently trending above both its 50-day moving average, which is bullish. This stock has been trending sideways inside of a consolidation pattern for the last three months, with shares moving between $20.15 on the downside and $24.92 on the upside. Shares of PBF are now starting to bounce off its 50-day moving average of $22.44 a share and it's quickly moving within range of triggering a near-term breakout trade above the upper-end of its recent sideways trading chart pattern.

    If you're bullish on PBF, then look for long-biased trades as long as this stock is trending above its 50-day at $22.44 or above more support at $21.89 to $20.59, and then once it breaks out above some near-term overhead resistance levels at $23.49 to $24.92 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 1.11 million shares. If that breakout hits, then PBF will set up to re-test or possibly take out its next major ov

  • [By Ben Levisohn]

    As a result, Garcia and Molchanov changed their rating on a number of refining stocks. Valero Energy gets cut to Outperfrom from Strong Buy, while Holly Frontier, Delek US (DK) and PBF Energy (PBF) get downgraded to Market Perform from Outperform. Only “defensive, insulated” Phillips 66 gets an upgraded, to Outperform from Market Perform.

  • [By Aimee Duffy]

    Texas and North Dakota have been making the news for the use of horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing to produce shale oil, and many think that applying those techniques in other states like California could drive production up even further.

    Foolish takeaway
    That charts above directly impact our energy investments. For example, Valero (NYSE: VLO  ) and Phillips 66 (NYSE: PSX  ) are two refiners that have a strong presence on the Gulf Coast and can clearly benefit from buying less oil from expensive foreign sources, and they will be the first ones to check on if imports start to rise again. More Canadian crude flowing into the Midwest can mean great opportunities for refiners with operations in Toledo, like PBF Energy� (NYSE: PBF  ) , provided Canadian crude stays cheap. Taking a look at the broader scope of the U.S. import story can help us better evaluate our energy investments, and prepare us for whatever energy trends the future holds.

    If you're on the lookout for some currently intriguing energy plays, check out The Motley Fool's "3 Stocks for $100 Oil." For FREE access to this special report, simply click here now.

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