Best Industrial Disributor Companies To Watch For 2014

Coal is dead. At least that seems to be the opinion of many. Personally, I'm not ready to write coal's epitaph just yet, but, if nothing else, it's safe to say that the coal industry is not at full health these days. While 2012 saw a record 126 million tons of U.S. coal exported, the Energy Information Administration forecast for 2013 calls for about only 115 million tons. However, the ability to mine and ship coal isn't really the issue for coal companies. Much bigger issues lie in a softening demand from Europe and China, as well as proposed new EPA regulations regarding carbon dioxide emissions for new power plants in the U.S.�

Maybe the decline in demand for coal will be temporary, but even if that is the case, the next several years will be rough for coal producers. So where else should you invest during coal's slump?

All natural
An obvious place to start is coal's biggest competitor, natural gas. For a while now, I've been a fan of the natural gas compression company, Exterran Holdings (NYSE: EXH  ) , which provides operations, maintenance, service, and equipment for both oil and natural gas production. Exterran's stock has had a steady climb the last couple of years -- it's up over 40% this year alone. The majority of analysts are calling Exterran a hold, but several rate it a buy or even a strong buy. Currently, Exterran is trading in the upper $20 range, and with a price target of $33, it still seems to have some upside. And for those interested in investing in master limited partnerships, Exterran operates an MLP as well, Exterran Partners (NASDAQ: EXLP  ) , which has seen a 33% gain in its price this year.

Top 5 Telecom Stocks For 2015: Trius Therapeutics Inc.(TSRX)

Trius Therapeutics, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company, focuses on the discovery, development, and commercialization of antibiotics for serious, life-threatening infections in the United States. Its lead product includes Torezolid Phosphate, which is in Phase-III clinical trials for the treatment of serious gram-positive bacterial infections, initially for acute bacterial skin and skin structure infections. The company is also developing antibiotics for gram-negative infections using its proprietary discovery platform under two contracts funded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, and Defense Threat Reduction Agency. It has a cooperative research and development agreement with Lawrence Livermore National Security LLC for the research and development of gram-negative biodefense pathogens; and a license agreement with Dong-A Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. to develop and sell Torezolid Phosphate outside of Korea. The company was formerly known as Rx3 Pharmac euticals, Inc. and changed its name to Trius Therapeutics, Inc. in February 2007. Trius Therapeutics, Inc. was founded in 2004 and is headquartered in San Diego, California.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Bob's Stocks]

  Back on February 4th, I wrote an article regarding another antibiotic stock named Trius Therapeutics (TSRX). It was trading at $5.00 per share at the time, and I put a price per share prediction of $13.00. I also stated it was a takeover target. Yesterday, Cubist Pharmaceuticals bought Trius Therapeutics for $13.50 a share. You can read that article here.

Best Industrial Disributor Companies To Watch For 2014: Kabel Deutschland Holding AG (KD8)

Kabel Deutschland Holding AG is a Germany-based holding company and cable network operator. Through its operating entitities, the primarily being Kabel Deutschland Kundenbetreuung GmbH and Kabel Deutschland Vertrieb und Service GmbH, the Company provides analogue and digital television, broad band Internet and cable-based telecommunication services throughout Germany. The Company's activities are divided into two business segments: TV Business, the Company's dominant segment which includes cable-based television products such as analogue and digital cable television and radio, as well as digital pay-TV and related products. The second segment, Internet and Phone, offers broadband Internet access, fixed-line and mobile phone services, mobile data services, as well as additional options to those homes which can be connected to the Company's upgraded network. In October 2013, Vodafone Vierte Verwaltungs AG, a subsidiary of Vodafone Group PLC, acquired 76.57% interest in the Company. Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Amy Thomson]

  Vodafone has already expanded beyond wireless service, and in June beat John Malone�� Liberty Global (LBTYA) Plc to take over Germany�� Kabel Deutschland Holding AG. (KD8) Vodafone and Verizon accelerated talks on the stake sale after the Kabel Deutschland offer, which put additional pressure on the British company�� finances, a person familiar with the matter said.

• [By Alex Webb]

  Vodafone Group Plc (VOD)�� 7.7 billion-euro ($10.2 billion) bid for Kabel Deutschland Holding AG (KD8) cleared a major hurdle by winning the backing of at least 75 percent of the German company�� shareholders.

• [By Sarah Jones]

  Kabel Deutschland (KD8) jumped 8.2 percent to 80.84 euros, for the biggest advance on the Stoxx 600, after Vodafone, the world�� second-largest wireless carrier, confirmed it discussed acquiring the German cable operator to expand in the broadband and TV market.

Best Industrial Disributor Companies To Watch For 2014: MSCI Inc (MSCI)

MSCI Inc., together with its subsidiaries, provides a suite of performance, risk management, and corporate governance products and services worldwide. The company operates in two segments, Performance and Risk, and Governance. The Performance and Risk segment offers investment decision support tools, including equity indices, real estate indices and benchmarks, portfolio risk and performance analytics, and credit analytics, as well as environmental, social, and governance products. Its products are used in various investment processes, including portfolio construction and rebalancing, performance benchmarking and attribution, risk management and analysis, regulatory and client reporting, index-linked investment product creation, asset allocation, social responsibility assessment, environmental stewardship, investment manager selection, and investment research. The Governance segment provides corporate governance products and services, and specialized financial research and analysis services to institutional investors and corporations. It facilitates the voting of proxies by institutional investors and provides in-depth research and analysis to help inform voting decisions and identify issuer-specific risk; and offers global equity security coverage, and integrated products and services, including proxy voting, policy creation, research, vote recommendations, vote execution, post-vote disclosure, and reporting and analytical tools. This segment also provides class action monitoring and claims filing services to aid institutional investors in the recovery of funds from securities class action settlements. The company offers its products and services under the MSCI, MSCI ESG, Barra, RiskMetrics, ISS, FEA, IPD, and CFRA brands. Its clients include asset owners, institutional and retail asset managers, and financial intermediaries. The company was founded in 1998 and is headquartered in New York, New York.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Benjamin Shepherd]

  The iShares MSCI Emerging Markets Index (NYSE: EEM) seems to have halted its slide.� The index bottomed out year-to-date on February 3, when it was down 11.2 percent. Since then, it has gained 1.5 percent, but bargains in the emerging markets still abound.
  
  As I discussed in �� Plan, Not a Panic��two weeks ago, emerging markets are in much better economic shape today than they were even just a few years ago, much less during the currency crisis that peaked in 1998. Foreign exchange reserves are generally much more robust, budget deficits are narrower if they exist at all and, so far at least, the full-blown currency war that many were predicting last year isn�� likely to breakout.
  
  With rationality finally setting in, this is a terrific time to do a little bargain hunting in the emerging markets.
  
  The most obvious play here is the iShares MSCI Emerging Markets Index itself. Covering China (18.8 percent of assets), South Korea (16 percent), Taiwan (12 percent) and Brazil (10.2 percent) with smaller positions spanning Asia and Europe, the fund is most exposed to any shift in sentiment.
  
  The fund is currently trading at just 10.2 times forward one-year earnings, well below its average of about 18 times over the past two decades. On a price-to-sales basis it is even more attractive valued at just 1.03 times; the last time the index was this cheap on a sales basis was early 2009.
  
  So while there are always dangers in trying to call a bottom to any market move, valuations alone are attractive enough to start pulling bargain hunters back in.
  
  A broadly diversified play on an emerging market turnaround, iShares MSCI Emerging Markets Index is a great buy up to 45, which leaves plenty of room to run back to the average.
  
  For those who can tolerate a bit more risk, you can also drill down and make more country-specific bets.
  
  At this point my favorite would be iShares MSCI South Korea Index Fund (NYSE: EWY).
  
  Sout

Best Industrial Disributor Companies To Watch For 2014: Citadel Capital SAE (CCAP)

Citadel Capital SAE is an Egypt-based company engaged in the private equity investment activities. The Company manages an investment portfolio that consist of 19 Opportunity-Specific Funds (OSFs), which controls entities platform distributed across 12 countries in the Middle Eastern and North African markets, and span 14 industrial sector such as energy, cement manufacturing, solid waste management, real estate, mining, agricultural, glass manufacturing, transportation and metallurgy. Its OSFs entities include Asec Holding, Ascom Geology and Mining SAE, Nile Logistics, Rift Valley Railways, Gozour, Wafra, Nopc / Rally Energy Group, Nile Valley Petroleum Ltd, Egyptian Refining Company, Taqua Arabia, GlassWorks and Finance Unlimited, among others. On December 9, 2012, the Company announced that it has sold 100% of its interest in National Petroleum Company Egypt Limited (NPC Egypt), a wholly owned portfolio company, to Sea Dragon Energy Inc. Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Julia Leite]

  Declines provided an opportunity for ��rofit taking��for ��hort term players who bought in the last week or so,��Julian Mayo, who helps manage $2.5 billion in emerging-market assets as the co-chief investment officer at Charlemagne Capital Ltd. (CCAP) in London, said by e-mail. ��fter a 5 to 10 percent gain in some emerging markets in such a short time, some correction is always likely.��

• [By Joshi Madhavi]

  Charlemagne Capital Limited (CCAP) is an established asset management group in the UK with an exclusively emerging markets focus and bottom-up stock picking process. The business is cyclical with fortunes linked to emerging market performance. The company�� strategy is to grow each category within its broad fund range: mutual funds, hedge funds, specialist funds and institutional products.

Best Industrial Disributor Companies To Watch For 2014: Puma Biotechnology Inc (PBYI)

Puma Biotechnology, Inc., incorporated in April 2007, is a development-stage biopharmaceutical company that acquires and develops products for the treatment of various forms of cancer. The Company focuses on in-licensing drug candidates that are undergoing or have already completed initial clinical testing for the treatment of cancer and then seeks to further develop those drug candidates for commercial use. As of December 31, 2011, the Company licensed three drug candidates: PB272 (neratinib (oral)), which the Company is developing for the treatment of advanced breasts cancer patients and gastric cancer patients; PB272 (neratinib (intravenous)), which the Company is developing for the treatment of advanced cancer patients, and PB357.

PB272 (neratinib (oral))-Breast Cancer

Neratinib is a potent irreversible tyrosine kinase inhibitor, or TKI, that blocks signal transduction through the epidermal growth factor receptors (EGFRs), HER1, HER2 and HER4. The Company's initial focus is on the development of neratinib as an oral treatment of patients with HER2 positive metastatic breast cancer.

PB272 (neratinib (intravenous))

The Company develops neratinib as an intravenously administered agent. In pre-clinical studies the intravenous version of neratinib resulted in higher exposure levels of neratinib in pre-clinical models.

PB357

PB357 is an orally administered agent that is an irreversible TKI that blocks signal transduction through the epidermal growth factor receptors, HER1, HER2, and HER4. PB357 is structurally similar to PB272. Pfizer completed single dose Phase I trials of PB357. The Company is evaluating PB357.

The Company competes with Genentech, GlaxoSmithKline, Roche, Boehringer Ingelheim, Takeda, Array Biopharma and Ambit Biosciences.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Ben Levisohn]

  After big rallies by biotech stocks, the folks at Weeden wondered if the rally getting overdone.�UBS analyst Matthew Roden and team think biotech stocks like Gilead Sciences�(GILD), Celgene�(CELG),�Vertex Pharmaceuticals (VRTX),�Puma Biotechnology (PBYI) and Achillion Pharmaceuticals (ACHN) can keep running. They explain why:

• [By John Udovich]

  Yesterday, small cap biopharmaceutical stock Puma Biotechnology Inc (NYSE: PBYI) jumped 11.98% after announcing they will have a conference call next week to update�investors on�its clinical trials of PB272 (neratinib) in cancer patients, meaning its probably time to take a closer look at the stock to see if investor might be counting the chickens before they hatch along with the performance of large cap AbbVie Inc (NYSE: ABBV) which also recently had positive news about its own breast cancer treatment plus biotech ETFs iShares NASDAQ Biotechnology Index ETF (NASDAQ: IBB) and SPDR S&P Biotech ETF (NYSEARCA: XBI).

Best Industrial Disributor Companies To Watch For 2014: Cheniere Energy Partners LP (CQP)

Citigroup Funding Inc. offers debt instruments that include commercial papers, medium-term notes and structured equity-linked and credit-linked notes. Citigroup Funding, Inc. is based in United States. Citigroup Funding Inc. operates as a subsidiary of Citigroup, Inc.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Robert Rapier]

  Cheniere Energy�(NYSE: LNG) created the�Cheniere Energy Partners�(NYSE: CQP) master limited partnership to own assets such as its Sabine Pass LNG export terminal under construction on the Louisiana/Texas border, as well as another LNG terminal in Corpus Christi. Cheniere has signed up a number of customers in Asia and in Europe to take advantage of the price differentials, and was first to obtain approval from both the Department of Energy (DOE) and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). The Sabine Pass facility is expected to be in service by late 2015 or early 2016.

• [By Aimee Duffy]

  What went wrong�
  Cheniere's management attributes the widening losses to several things:

  LNG terminal and pipeline development expenses for the Cheniere Energy Partners (NYSEMKT: CQP  ) liquefaction facility at Sabine Pass LNG terminal and pipeline development expenses for the proposed liquefaction facility at Corpus Christi Losses on interest rate derivatives purchased in August 2012 in connection with its senior secured credit facility Increases in general and administrative expenses, attributed to awards doled out as part of the company's long-term incentive plan at its Sabine Pass facility

  In other words, rising expenses -- some the company can control and some it cannot -- really hurt Cheniere this quarter. Operating costs were up 91% year over year. The loss on derivatives also increased significantly, from $836,000 in 2012 to $17.5 million this year.