Because the stock market has moved to a level of higher risk this month, I have selected several ultra-conservative defensive securities, says J. Royden Ward, editor of Cabot Benjamin Graham Value Investor.
iShares MSCI USA Minimum Volatility Index ETF (USMV) seeks investment results that correspond to the price and yield performance of the MSCI USA Minimum Volatility Index. The ETF invests at least 90% of its assets in securities of the Index or in depositary receipts, representing securities in the Index.
USMV shares sell very near to their net asset value. The price to earnings ratio (P/E) of the stocks contained in the ETF is 25.4, and the price to book value ratio (P/BV) is 5.76. Both ratios are a little high, but the beta, which measures volatility, is a low 0.94. Management fees total 0.15%.
USMV is very well-diversified, with risk spread out over 140 holdings. The largest position consumes only 1.57% of the total portfolio. The ten largest holdings, in order of size, are ADP, Merck, Wal-Mart, Paychex, Exxon Mobil, UPS, Johnson & Johnson, AT&T, McDonald's, and Verizon.
10 Best Computer Hardware Stocks To Invest In Right Now: Bona Film Group Limited(BONA)
Bona Film Group Limited distributes films in the People?s Republic of China. It distributes films to movie theaters, as well as to non-theatrical distribution channels, including DVD and Blu-ray and other home video products; Internet and digital distribution; in-flight entertainment; and cable, satellite, and broadcast televisions. The company also invests in the production of Chinese and Hong Kong films in order to obtain the distribution rights for movie theaters and non-theatrical channels. In addition, Bona Film Group operates six movie theaters in five cities of the People?s Republic of China; operates a talent agency business that represents artists; and involves in film advertising and television production businesses. The company was founded in 2003 and is headquartered in Beijing, the People?s Republic of China.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Bryan Murphy]
With just a quick glance at the chart, Bona Film Group Ltd (NASDAQ:BONA) doesn't look like anything other than an erratic mess. When you take a step back and take a look at the longer-term chart of BONA, however, you can see the last several weeks have ushered in a major bullish change of direction for the stock... meaning now's a great time to start wading into a position.
- [By Seth Jayson]
Calling all cash flows
When you are trying to buy the market's best stocks, it's worth checking up on your companies' free cash flow once a quarter or so, to see whether it bears any relationship to the net income in the headlines. That's what we do with this series. Today, we're checking in on Bona Film Group (Nasdaq: BONA ) , whose recent revenue and earnings are plotted below.
Top 10 Defensive Companies To Watch For 2014: C.R. Bard Inc. (BCR)
C. R. Bard, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, engages in the design, manufacture, packaging, distribution, and sale of medical, surgical, diagnostic, and patient care devices worldwide. It offers vascular, urology, oncology, and surgical specialty products. The company?s vascular products include percutaneous transluminal angioplasty catheters, chronic total occlusions catheters, guidewires, introducers, and accessories; peripheral vascular stents and stent grafts, vena cava filters, and biopsy devices; electrophysiology products, such as electrophysiology laboratory systems and diagnostic, therapeutic, and temporary pacing electrode catheters; and fabrics, meshes, and implantable vascular grafts. Its urology products comprise infection control Foley catheters to reduce the rate of urinary tract infections; surgical slings to treat stress urinary incontinence; fecal incontinence products; natural and synthetic devices to treat pelvic floor and vaginal prolapse; brachyt herapy services, devices, and radioactive seeds to treat prostate cancer; intermittent urinary drainage catheters, and urine monitoring and collection systems; ureteral stents; specialty devices for ureteroscopic procedures and stone removal; and catheter stabilization devices. The company?s oncology products consist of specialty vascular access catheters and ports, vascular access ultrasound devices, dialysis access catheters, and enteral feeding devices to treat and manage various cancers, and other diseases and disorders. Its surgical specialty products include implanted patches and fixation systems for hernia and other soft tissue repairs; irrigation devices for orthopedic, laparoscopic, and gynecological procedures; and products for topical hemostasis. C. R. Bard sells its products directly and through distributors to hospitals, individual health care professionals, extended care facilities, and alternate site facilities. The company was founded in 1907 and is based in Murray Hill, New Jersey.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Holly LaFon]
The disciplined investors at Yacktman Funds have stuck with the world�� highest quality businesses, most of which offer products or services integral to society. Their top holdings are PepsiCo (PEP), News Corp Cl. A (NWS), Procter & Gamble (PG), Microsoft (MSFT), C.R. Bard (BCR), Cisco Systems (CSCO), Sysco Corporation (SYY), Coca-Cola (KO), Pfizer (PFE) and U.S. Bancorp (USB).
Top 10 Defensive Companies To Watch For 2014: Worthington Industries Inc.(WOR)
Worthington Industries, Inc. operates as a diversified metals processing company focusing on steel processing and manufactured metal products in the United States, Canada, and Europe. It processes flat-rolled steel and stainless steel for the automotive, construction, lawn and garden, hardware, furniture, office equipment, electrical control, tubing, leisure and recreation, appliance, agricultural, HVAC, container, and aerospace markets. The company also produces low-pressure liquefied petroleum gas and refrigerant gas cylinders; high-pressure and industrial/specialty gas cylinders; seamless steel high pressure cylinders for compressed natural gas storage in motor vehicles; aluminum-lined, composite-wrapped high-pressure cylinders; airbrake tanks; and consumer products. In addition, it produces recovery tanks for refrigerant gases; air reservoirs for truck and trailer original equipment manufacturers; and Balloon Time helium kits. Further, the company designs and manufactu res reusable custom platforms, racks, and pallets made of steel for supporting, protecting, and handling products throughout the shipping process; provides framing systems and stairs for mid-rise buildings, and current and past model automotive service stampings; designs, builds, and supplies light gauge steel framed commercial structures and multi-family housing units; supplies and constructs metal framing products for single family housing with a focus on military housing; and manufactures pre-engineered steel egress stair solutions. Worthington Industries was founded in 1955 and is headquartered in Columbus, Ohio.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Yoshiaki Nohara]
Orix Corp., which provides leasing and loans, jumped 9.2 percent in Tokyo. Mizuno (8022) Corp. surged 18 percent after the Japanese sportswear company more than doubled its net-income forecast. Singapore Airlines Ltd. dropped 4.6 percent after posting a wider operating loss. WorleyParsons (WOR) Ltd., Australia�� largest oil and gas engineering company, plunged 13 percent after forecasting weaker earnings.
- [By Ben Levisohn]
Shares of Harsco have gained 4.7% to $26.43 today at 1:16 p.m., outpacing other construction & engineering companies. Dycom (DY) has advanced 0.5% to $30, KBR Inc. (KBR) has ticked up 0.1% to $33.03, Worthington Industries�(WOR) has risen 2.8% to $38.85�and Tutor Perini (TPC) has rallied 3.6% to $22.46.
Top 10 Defensive Companies To Watch For 2014: Greif Inc (GEF)
Greif, Inc., incorporated on January 25, 1926, is a producer of industrial packaging products and services with manufacturing facilities located in over 50 countries. The Company offers a line of industrial packaging products, such as steel, fiber and plastic drums, rigid intermediate bulk containers, closure systems for industrial packaging products, transit protection products, water bottles and reconditioned containers, and services such as container lifecycle management, blending, filling and other packaging services, logistics and warehousing. It also produces containerboard and corrugated products for niche markets in North America. It sells timber to third parties from its timberland in the south-eastern United States. It has four segments: Rigid Industrial Packaging & Services, Flexible Products & Services, Paper Packaging and Land Management.
Rigid Industrial Packaging and Services
In the Rigid Industrial Packaging and Services, the Company is a provider of rigid industrial packaging products, including steel, fiber and plastic drums, rigid intermediate bulk containers, closure systems for industrial packaging products, transit protection products, water bottles and reconditioned containers, and services, such as container lifecycle management, blending, filling and other packaging services, logistics and warehousing. It sells industrial packaging products to customers in industries, such as chemicals, paints and pigments, food and beverage, petroleum, industrial coatings, agricultural, pharmaceutical and mineral, among others.
Flexible Products and Services segment
In the Flexible Products and Services segment, the Company is a producer of flexible intermediate bulk containers and a North American provider of industrial and consumer multiwall bag products. Its flexible intermediate bulk containers consist of a polypropylene-based woven fabric that is partly produced at its production sites, as well as sourced from strategic regional sup! pliers. Its industrial and consumer multiwall bag products are used to ship a range of industrial and consumer products, such as seed, fertilizers, chemicals, concrete, flour, sugar, feed, pet foods, popcorn, charcoal and salt, primarily for the agricultural, chemical, building products and food industries.
Paper Packaging segment
In the Paper Packaging segment, the Company sells containerboard, corrugated sheets and other corrugated products to customers in North America in industries such as packaging, automotive, food and building products. Its corrugated container products are used to ship such products as home appliances, small machinery, grocery products, building products, automotive components, books and furniture, as well as numerous other applications. Operations related to industrial and consumer multiwall bag products have been reclassified to Flexible Products and Services segment.
Land Management segment
In the Land Management segment, the Company is focused on the active harvesting and regeneration of the United States timber properties to achieve long-term yields. It also sells, from time to time, timberland and special use land, which consists of surplus land, HBU land and development land. As of October 31, 2013, it owned approximately 252,475 acres of timber property in the southeastern United States and approximately 10,300 acres of timber property in Canada.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Geoff Gannon]
For those of you wondering if Greif Brothers Cooperage has any relation to Greif (GEF) ��yes. It has every relation. It�� the same exact company. And it�� still in pretty much the same business. They used to just make barrels. Now they make all kinds of different drums, containers, etc. That�� not a very big change for a company to make over 60 years or so.
Top 10 Defensive Companies To Watch For 2014: Powershares Golden Dragon (PGJ)
PowerShares Golden Dragon Halter USX China Portfolio is based on the Halter USX China Index. The Index is comprised of the United States listed securities of companies, which derive a majority of their revenue from the People's Republic of China. The fund was incepted on December 9, 2004.
The sectors covered by the investment include consumer discretionary, consumer staples, energy, financials, healthcare, industrials, information technology, materials, telecommunications and utilities. PowerShares Capital Management LLC provides investment management to the Fund.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Robert Martin]
With that in mind, here are four of the best emerging market ETF picks: A China ETF, an India ETF, and two other ETFs that track broad indices like the MSCI Emerging Markets Index.
PowerShares Gold Dragon Halter USX China Portfolio (PGJ)Expense Ratio: 0.7%
Top 10 Defensive Companies To Watch For 2014: TechTarget Inc (TTGT)
TechTarget, Inc., incorporated on September 14, 1999, is a provider of specialized online content and brand advertising that brings together buyers and sellers of corporate information technology (IT) products. The Company sells customized marketing programs that enable IT vendors to reach corporate IT decision makers who are researching specific IT purchases. As of December 31, 2011, the Company operated a network of 115 Websites, each of which focuses on a specific IT sector, such as storage, security or networking. The Company�� content platform consists of a network of websites that it complement with targeted in-person events. On April 26, 2011 it announced that it had completed the acquisition of the Websites, product offerings, and events associated with Computer Weekly and MicroScope. In December 2012, the Company acquired the Websites and product offerings of LeMagIT.
Media Groups
The Company�� online properties in security sector, SearchSecurity.com, SearchCloudSecurity.com, SearchFinancialSecurity.com, SearchMidMarketSecurity.com and SearchSecurity.co.uk offer navigable and structured guides on IT vendor and technology solutions in key sub-sectors, such as network security, intrusion defense, identity management and authentication, data and application security, security-as-a-service, cloud security and security information management software. Its annual Financial Information Security Decisions conference anchors a calendar of topically-focused regional seminars on issues, such as compliance monitoring, data protection, and advanced threat management. Its networking market includes the hardware, software and services involved in the infrastructure and management of both enterprise and carrier voice and data networks.
The Company�� online properties in networking sector, SearchNetworking.com, SearchEnterpriseWAN.com, SearchUnifiedCommunications.com, SearchMobileComputing.com and SearchCloudProvider.com. The Company�� online properties in storag! e sector, SearchStorage.com, SearchDataBackup.com, SearchSMBStorage.com, SearchDisasterRecovery.com, SearchVirtualStorage.com, SearchCloudStorage.com, SearchSolidStateStorage.com and SearchStorage.co.uk address IT professionals seeking solutions in sub-sectors, such as fiber channel storage area network (SAN), solid state storage, virtualization Internet protocol (IP) and Internet small computer systems interface (iSCSI) SANs, network attached storage (NAS), backup hardware and software, and storage management software.
Data centers house the systems and components, such as servers, storage devices, routers and switches, utilized in large-scale, mission-critical computing environments. The Company�� online properties in this sector provide targeted information on the IT vendors, technologies and solutions that serve these sub-sectors. Its properties in this sector include SearchDataCenter.com, covering disaster recovery, power and cooling, mainframe and UNIX servers, systems management, and server consolidation; SearchEnterpriseLinux.com, focused on Linux migration and infrastructures; Search400.com, covering mid-range computing and SearchCloudComputing.com, which covers private and public cloud infrastructure. SearchServerVirtualization.com covers the decision points and alternatives for implementing server virtualization, while SearchVMware.com and RTFM-ed.co.uk focus on managing and building out virtual environments on the most widely-installed server virtualization platform.
The Company�� online properties in online properties in data centre and virtualization technologies include SearchWindowsServer.com, covering servers, storage, and systems management; SearchDomino.com, SearchExchange.com and SearchWinIT.com, each targeted toward senior management for distributed computing environments. This network of sites provides resources and advice to IT professionals pursuing solutions related to such topics as Windows backup and storage, server consolidation, and upgrade pla! nning. Se! archEnterpriseDesktop.com, SearchVirtualDesktop.com, BrianMadden.com and LabMice.net all focus on the deployment and management of end-user computing environments. The Company�� two BriForum conferences focus on desktop virtualization and related technologies.
The Company�� CIO/IT Strategy media group provides content targeted at Chief Information Officers (CIO), and senior IT executives, enabling them to make informed IT purchases throughout the critical stages of the purchase decision process. The Company�� online properties in this sector include SearchCIO.com, which provides CIOs in large enterprises with information focused on critical purchasing decisions; SearchCIO-Midmarket.com, which targets IT managers at small to medium-sized businesses, and SearchCompliance.com, which provides advice on IT-focused regulations and standards to IT and business executives and other senior IT managers. The CIO/IT Strategy Group also includes online resources and events targeted to IT decision makers in prominent vertical industries. SearchHealthIT.com provides strategic IT purchasing information and advice to senior IT and clinical professionals in hospitals, medical centers, university health centers and other care delivery organizations, as well as organizations in the life.
The Company�� Business Applications and Analytics media group focuses on mission critical software, such as databases and business intelligence, content management enterprise resource planning, and customer facing applications, such as customer relationship management (CRM) software for mid-sized and large companies. The properties in this sector include SearchCRM.com, BeyeNETWORK.com, SearchBusinessAnalytics.com, SearchDataManagement.com, SearchContentManagement.com, SearchOracle.com, SearchSAP.com and SearchManufacturingERP.com. These sites are online resources that provide this specialized information to support mission critical business applications, such as CRM, business intelligence, data management,! content ! management, collaboration, sales force automation, databases and enterprise resource planning (ERP) software. The SMB market supports a high degree of specialization by software vendors, as applications are offered that address the business requirements of specific industry verticals, such as construction, manufacturing, and many others.
The application architecture and development sector is consisted of a broad landscape of tools and languages that enable developers, architects and project managers to build, customize and integrate software for their businesses. The Company�� online properties in this sector include TheServerSide.com and TheServerSide.NET, which host independent communities of developers and architects using Java and .NET respectively.
Its Channel properties address the information needs of channel companies classified as resellers, value added resellers, solution providers, systems integrators, service providers, managed service providers, and consultants in the IT market. Its online properties in this sector include SearchITChannel.com, SearchStorageChannel.com, SearchSecurityChannel.com, SearchNetworkingChannel.com and SearchSystemsChannel.com. TechnologyGuide.com operates a portfolio of Internet content sites that provide product reviews, price comparisons and user forums for technology products, such as laptops, desktops and smartphones. Sites include NotebookReview.com, Brighthand.com (covering smartphones) and TabletPCReview.com, PrinterComparison.com, DesktopReview.com and DigitalCameraReview.com.
User Generated Content and Vendor Content
Bitpipe.com and KnowledgeStorm.com are sites that the Company operates and that host vendor-provided content, such as white papers, software downloads, videocasts and Webcasts. Maintaining centralized collections of this vendor content helps its users conduct pre-purchase research more easily, and allows it to maximize the ability of this content to be found by search engines. It provide! s context! ually relevant inclusion of vendor content from Bitpipe.com and KnowledgeStorm.com on the other sites in its network.
The Company competes with United Business Media, QuinStreet, International Data Group and CBS Interactive/ CNet.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Garrett Cook]
Technology shares fell around 0.27 percent in Thursday’s trading. Top decliners in the sector included TechTarget (NASDAQ: TTGT), down 5.3 percent, and ChinaCache International Holdings (NASDAQ: CCIH), off 2.11 percent.
Top 10 Defensive Companies To Watch For 2014: Fresh Del Monte Produce Inc.(FDP)
Fresh Del Monte Produce Inc., through its subsidiaries, produces, transports, sources, markets, and distributes fresh and fresh-cut fruit and vegetables worldwide. It also offers prepared fruit and vegetables, juices, beverages, snacks, and poultry and meat products. The company provides various fresh-cut fruit products, such as bananas, pineapples, melons, tomatoes, grapes, apples, pears, peaches, plums, nectarines, cherries, citrus, avocados, blueberries, kiwi, strawberries, plantains, mangos, and fruit cocktail; and fresh-cut vegetable products primarily consisting of potatoes, onions, bell peppers, and cucumbers, as well as prepared salads, such as coleslaw and potato salad. In addition, Fresh Del Monte Produce engages in ocean freight; and manufacture of plastics and box products comprising bins, trays, bags, and boxes. It offers fresh produce under the DEL MONTE, UTC, and Rosy brands; and prepared fruits and vegetables, juices, beverages, and snacks under the DEL MON TE, Fruit Express, Just Juice, and Fruitini brands. The company markets and distributes its products to retail stores, food clubs, wholesalers, distributors, and foodservice operators. Fresh Del Monte Produce Inc. was founded in 1886 and is based in George Town, Cayman Islands.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Jake L'Ecuyer]
Top decliners in the sector included Fresh Del Monte Produce (NYSE: FDP), off 6.7%, and Coca-Cola Company (NYSE: KO), down 4%. Shares of Fresh Del Monte tumbled after the company reported weak quarterly earnings.
- [By Jake L'Ecuyer]
Top decliners in the sector included Fresh Del Monte Produce (NYSE: FDP), off 8.8%, and Coca-Cola Company (NYSE: KO), down 3.5%. Shares of Fresh Del Monte tumbled after the company reported weak quarterly earnings.
- [By Seth Jayson]
Calling all cash flows
When you are trying to buy the market's best stocks, it's worth checking up on your companies' free cash flow once a quarter or so, to see whether it bears any relationship to the net income in the headlines. That's what we do with this series. Today, we're checking in on Fresh Del Monte Produce (NYSE: FDP ) , whose recent revenue and earnings are plotted below.
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