Thursday, January 15, 2015

Top Income Companies To Invest In 2014

While Congressional Republicans continued to put up at least a symbolic fight against the Affordable Care Act (ACA) last year, it did little to dent the health care sector’s performance. Health care was the only traditionally defensive sector to outperform the broader market in 2013.

We strongly suspect that health care’s outperformance was due to the market perception that Republicans were tilting at windmills. Investors tuned out the political noise and priced in the effect of more than 50 million new patients accessing the health care system. That also likely means that much of the potential positive impact of the ACA is already being priced into most health care stocks.

This dynamic makes stock picking in the sector much more difficult, because rising valuations have made slam-dunk opportunities tougher to find.

Nonetheless, at least one terrific—if somewhat contrarian—income play is still available in health care.

Top Asian Companies To Invest In 2015: Hercules Technology Growth Capital Inc (HTGC)

Hercules Technology Growth Capital, Inc. (HTGC), incorporated on December 18, 2003, is an internally managed, non-diversified closed-end investment company. The Company is a specialty finance company focused on providing senior secured loans to venture capital-backed companies in technology-related markets, including technology, biotechnology, life science, and clean-technology industries at all stages of development. The Company's investment objective is to maximize the Company's portfolio total return by generating current income from its debt investments and capital appreciation from its equity-related investments. The Company invests primarily in structured debt with warrants and, to a lesser extent, in senior debt and equity investments. The Company also makes investments in qualifying small businesses through two wholly-owned, small business investment company (SBIC) subsidiaries, Hercules Technology II, L.P. (HT II) and Hercules Technology III, L.P. (HT III).

The Company focuses its investments in companies active in the technology industry sub-sectors characterized by products or services that requires advanced technologies, including, but not limited to, computer software and hardware, networking systems, semiconductors, semiconductor capital equipment, information technology infrastructure or services, Internet consumer and business services, telecommunications, telecommunications equipment, renewable or alternative energy, media and life science. Within the life science sub-sector, the Company generally focuses on medical devices, bio-pharmaceutical, drug discovery, drug delivery, health care services and information systems companies. Within the clean technology sub-sector, the Company focuses on sustainable and renewable energy technologies and energy efficiency and monitoring technologies. The Company refers to all of these companies as technology-related companies and intend, under normal circumstances, to invest at least 80% of the value of its assets in such businesses. Advisors' Opinion:

  • [By Chad Tracy]

    StreetAuthority expert analyst Amy Calistri has had incredible success with BDCs in her Daily Paycheck portfolio. When she recommended Hercules Technology (NYSE: HTGC) in February 2010, the stock was trading for a little more than $10 a share.

Top Income Companies To Invest In 2014: The AES Corporation(AES)

The AES Corporation, through its subsidiaries, operates as a power company in Latin America, Africa, North America, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia. The company owns and operates two businesses, Generation and Utilities. The Generation business owns and/or operates power plants to generate and sell power to wholesale customers, such as utilities and other intermediaries. It generates electricity through various sources, including coal, gas, fuel oil, biomass, hydroelectric, wind, and solar. The Utilities business owns and/or operates utilities to distribute, transmit, and sell electricity to end-user customers in the residential, commercial, industrial, and governmental sectors. As of December 31, 2010, the company owned electricity generation and distribution facilities with a total capacity of approximately 40,500 megawatts and distribution networks serving approximately 12 million people in 28 countries. The AES Corporation was founded in 1981 and is based in Arlingto n, Virginia.

Advisors' Opinion:
  • [By Justin Loiseau]

    Congrats to Cameroon
    AES (NYSE: AES  ) may be pulling back on its international exposure, but the Edison Electrical Institute lauded the utility for its work in Cameroon over the past 12 years. AES began Cameroon operations in 2001 and has managed to greatly increase access to reliable electricity while providing jobs and social programs.

  • [By Chris Dieterich]

    Turnure notes that utilities have been hiking dividend payments at a rate that meaningfully outpaces earnings growth. Companies including AES (AES) and Edison International (EIX) both hiked dividends this month.

  • [By Justin Loiseau]

    Corporate musical chairs
    AES (NYSE: AES  ) announced Friday that it has added former PPL (NYSE: PPL  ) CEO and Chairman James Miller to its board of directors. "Jim brings to AES' Board substantial experience in the energy industry, both in the U.S. and internationally, including in regulated utilities and competitive power markets," said AES Chairman Charles Rossotti in a statement.

Top Income Companies To Invest In 2014: Syneron Medical Ltd. (ELOS)

Syneron Medical Ltd., together with its subsidiaries, engages in the research, manufacture, development, marketing, and sale of aesthetic medical products worldwide. The company develops products based on its proprietary Electro-Optical Synergy (ELOS) technology, which uses the synergy between electrical energy and optical energy to provide aesthetic medical treatments. Its products target a range of non-invasive aesthetic medical procedures, including hair removal, wrinkle reduction, rejuvenation of the skin�s appearance through the treatment of superficial benign vascular and pigmented lesions, acne treatment, treatment of leg veins, treatment for the temporary reduction in the appearance of cellulite and thigh circumference, ablation and resurfacing of the skin, laser-assisted lipolysis, and topical skin brightening products. It also develops, manufactures, and markets non-invasive technologies for fat cell destruction and body sculpting; and Viador system, a handheld device with a radiofrequency-needle array for use in transdermal delivery of biologic drug-products via a system-specific skin patch. The company sells its products to dermatologists, plastic and cosmetic surgeons, other qualified practitioners, and aestheticians and medical spas through direct sales force and distributors; and to home-use consumers directly, as well as through retailers and a chain of distributors. Syneron Medical Ltd. was founded in 2000 and is headquartered in Yokneam Illit, Israel.

Advisors' Opinion:
  • [By Seth Jayson]

    Syneron Medical (Nasdaq: ELOS  ) reported earnings on May 22. Here are the numbers you need to know.

    The 10-second takeaway
    For the quarter ended March 31 (Q1), Syneron Medical met expectations on revenues and met expectations on earnings per share.

Top Income Companies To Invest In 2014: Meredith Corp (MDP)

Meredith Corporation, incorporated on September 8, 1905, is a media and marketing company serving American women. The Company operates two business segments: national media and local media. The national media segment includes magazine publishing, brand licensing, digital and customer relationship marketing, digital and mobile media, database-related activities, and other related operations. The local media segment consists of the operations of network-affiliated television stations, related digital and mobile media, and video creation operations. In February 2014, Gannett Co Inc completes the sale of KMOV-TV in St. Louis, MO, to Meredith Corp.

National Media

The Company�� national media segment includes national consumer media brands delivered through multiple media platforms, brand licensing activities, and business-to-business marketing products and services. It focuses on the home and family market and is a publisher of magazines serving women. During the fiscal year ended June 30, 2013 (fiscal 2013) the Company published in print twenty subscription magazines, including Better Homes and Gardens, Family Circle, Ladies' Home Journal, Parents, FamilyFun, American Baby, EveryDay with Rachael Ray, and Fitness, and approximately 120 special interest publications under approximately 75 titles primarily under the Better Homes and Gardens brand. 20 if the Company�� brands are also available as digital editions on various platforms. The Company�� national media segment's extensive digital media presence consists of over 40 Websites, almost 30 mobile-optimized Websites, and about 30 applications (apps). Of those websites and apps, the Allrecipes' brand accounts for 18 websites, 18 mobile sites serving 23 countries in 12 languages, and 11 mobile apps. The national media segment also includes digital and customer relationship marketing, which provides specialized marketing products and services to some of America's companies; a large consumer database; brand licensing activities! , and other related operations. National media segment represented 74 % of the Company�� revenues in fiscal 2013. The Company�� magazines offer regional and demographic editions that contain similar editorial content but allow advertisers to customize messages to specific markets or audiences. The Company sells two primary types of magazine advertising: display and direct-response. Advertisements are either run-of-press (printed along with the editorial portions of the magazine) or inserts (preprinted pages).

The Company also possesses a marketing unit, Meredith 360掳, which provides clients and their agencies with access to a range of media products and services it has to offer, including many media platforms. Its subscription magazines, except American Baby, Ser Padres, and Successful Farming, are also sold by single copy. Single copies sold on newsstands are distributed primarily through magazine wholesalers, who have the right to receive credit from the Company for magazines returned to them by retailers. National media has 22 apps focused on food, parenthood, and health. National media's 30 websites and 10 mobile-optimized Websites provide ideas and inspiration. These branded websites focus on the topics that women care about most-food, home, entertaining, and meeting the needs of moms-and on delivering content geared toward lifestyle topics, such as health, beauty, style, and wellness.

Local Media

The Company�� local media segment consists of 12 network-affiliated television stations located across the United States. The television stations consist of six CBS affiliates, three FOX affiliates, two MyNetworkTV affiliates, and one NBC affiliate. Local media's digital presence includes 20 Websites and mobile Websites and 36 apps focused on news, sports, and weather-related information. Local media segment represented 26% of the Company�� revenues in fiscal 2013. The principal sources of the local media segment's revenues are local advertising focusing on ! the immed! iate geographic area of the stations, national advertising, retransmission of its television signal to satellite and cable systems, advertising on the stations' Websites and mobile Websites, station operation management fees, and payments by advertisers for other services, such as the production of advertising materials. The stations sell commercial time to both local/regional and national advertisers. The Company broadcasts local newscasts in high definition in six of its markets and in wide screen format in its other four markets. Meredith Video Studios (MVS) is its development, production, and multiplatform distribution company that produces video for use by the Company�� television stations and its local and national media Websites, and is producing custom video for clients as well.

Advisors' Opinion:
  • [By John Udovich]

    Meanwhile, Tremor Video announced it had reached agreement with Meredith Corporation (NYSE: MDP) to serve as its exclusive third party partner to monetize their unsold desktop pre-roll inventory. Under the agreement, Meredith Digital�� video inventory on sites�like Allrecipes.com, BHG.com and Parents.com will only be available through Tremor Video�� and Meredith Digital�� sales forces and the press release noted that such�partnerships have enabled the company to create a ��obust online video ecosystem��of over 500 premium websites and mobile applications.

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