Best Consumer Service Companies For 2014

The number of exchange traded funds (ETFs) has exploded in recent years. As of November 2012, there were 1,193 index-based and actively managed ETFs in the U.S., with a total of around $1.3 trillion of assets.

Below, we’ll give you three simple tips for separating the best ETFs from the rest of the crowd. But before we get to that, let’s take a quick look at how ETFs work—and most importantly, how you can benefit from them.

ETFs have been around for over 20 years. Like index funds, they track an underlying index—such as the S&P 500 or the Russell 2000—a basket of assets, overseas markets or commodities (there are even ETFs that track the price of cocoa). But unlike index funds, ETFs trade on stock exchanges, just like stocks. You can buy and sell them through your broker. You can also sell them short.

One of the main benefits ETFs offer investors is convenience: with a single order, you can jump into the sector, index or commodity of your choice. The best ETFs’ expense ratios are also typically much lower than the average mutual fund, because you aren’t paying for professional management.

Top 5 Mid Cap Companies To Invest In 2015: Mdu Res Group Inc (MDU)

MDU Resources Group, Inc. operates as a diversified natural resource company in the United States. The company�s Electric segment generates, transmits, and distributes electricity in Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Wyoming. As of December 31, 2012, this segment provided its electric services to approximately 131,000 residential, commercial, industrial, and municipal customers in 177 communities and adjacent rural areas. Its Natural Gas Distribution segment distributes natural gas in Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Wyoming, as well as in Idaho, Minnesota, Oregon, and Washington. This segment served approximately 859,000 residential, commercial, and industrial customers in 334 communities and adjacent rural areas. The company�s Pipeline and Energy Services segment provides natural gas transportation, underground storage, processing, and gathering services, as well as oil gathering through regulated and nonregulated pipeline systems primarily in the Rocky Mountain and northern Great Plains regions of the United States. This segment also provides cathodic protection and other energy-related services. Its Exploration and Production segment engages in the acquisition, exploration, development, and production of oil and natural gas in the Rocky Mountain and Mid-Continent regions of the United States and in and around the Gulf of Mexico. The company�s Construction Materials and Contracting segment mines, aggregates, and markets crushed stone, sand, gravel, and related construction materials, including ready-mixed concrete, cement, asphalt, liquid asphalt, and other value-added products. This segment also provides utility excavation services and inside electrical wiring, cabling, and mechanical services; sells and distributes electrical materials; and manufactures and distributes specialty equipment. MDU Resources Group, Inc. was founded in 1924 and is based in Bismarck, North Dakota.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By David Dittman]

  Question: I have been a fan of MDU Resources Inc (NYSE: MDU) because of its many operations including oil and gas, materials, construction, and now refining. Long-term thoughts?

• [By Richard Stavros]

  Created with YCharts

  
  In addition to beating the market since the beginning of the year, diversified energy utilities, such as MDU Resources Group Inc (NYSE: MDU), Dominion Resources Inc (NYSE: D) and Sempra Energy (NYSE: SRE), significantly outperformed pure-play or predominantly all-electric utilities, such as Duke Energy Corp (NYSE: DUK) and Entergy Corp (NYSE: ETR), by as much as several percentage points (See Chart B).
  
  Interestingly, among top performers, there was no dominant strategy for exploiting natural gas demand, as these firms were involved in all aspects of the value chain–from exploration and production to distribution and storage. These companies have not only been benefiting from a natural gas surplus, but also from the pressing need to expand US energy infrastructure to deliver this newfound bounty to businesses and households.
  
  

  Chart B: Diversified Energy Utilities Outperformed Electric-Only Peers

Best Consumer Service Companies For 2014: Standard Pacific Corp(SPF)

Standard Pacific Corp. operates as a diversified builder of single-family attached and detached homes in the United States. It constructs homes targeting various homebuyers primarily move-up buyers in metropolitan markets in California, Florida, the Carolinas, Texas, Arizona, Colorado, and Nevada. The company also provides mortgage financing services to its homebuyers; and title examination services to its Texas homebuyers. As of December 31, 2011, it owned or controlled 26,444 homesites and had 166 active selling communities. Standard Pacific Corp. was founded in 1965 and is headquartered in Irvine, California.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Louis Navellier]

  If we look at those stocks trading with single-digit P/E ratios right now, it becomes a very simple task to separate the wheat from the chaff. There are many well-known stocks trading at low P/E ratios that get horrible grades from our system and should be avoided:

  Ryland Homes (RYL) is a name you might hear discussed as a bargain, but the stock to a Sell back in November to a ����and is best avoided. Standard Pacific (SPF) is another builder you should probably avoid as In spite of the low P/E ratio ,you probably want to avoid discount retailer Big Lots (BIG), as a Strong Sell this week.

  But fear not — there are some great companies with solid fundamentals that earn a Buy ranking from Portfolio Grader and are better candidates for a low-P/E portfolio.

• [By Erika Janowicz]

  Compass Point analyst Wilkes Graham updated his housing forecast:

  Graham increased assumed ROI's to 9% on average from 7%. Reduced targeted sector price/ book from $190% to 170%. Expects 20-30% growth in starts and new home sales in 2012 and 2013 to stabilize in 2014 and on at approximately 10%. For covered builders, the analyst lowered estimates by 8% and lowered price targets by 10%. Compass Point expects 10% annual growth in single family starts and new home sales and 2-5% pricing growth. Downgraded DR Horton Inc. (NYSE: DHI) from Buy to Neutral and KB Home (NYSE: KBH) from Neutral to Sell. DR Horton's and KB Home's PT was lowered from $23.50 to $20.00 and from $17.50 to $14.00, respectively. Graham reiterated a Buy rating on Ryland Group Inc. (NYSE: RYL) and Standard Pacific Corp. (NYSE: SPF). The analyst raised the PT on Ryland from $50.00 to $50.50 and lowered the PT on Standard Pacific from $10.00 to $9.50. Compass Point reiterated a Neutral rating on Beazer Homes USA Inc. (NYSE: BZH), Hovnanian Enterprises Inc. (NYSE: HOV), Lennar Corp. (NYSE: LEN), PulteGroup, Inc. (NYSE: PHM), and Toll Brothers Inc. (NYSE: TOL). The price target for Beazer and Hovnanian was raised from $15.50 to $24.00 and $5.00 to $5.75, respectively. Graham lowered the PT for Lennar, Pulte, and Toll to $34.50, $17.00, and $31.00.

  This Week's Data

• [By Sally Jones]

  Standard Pacific Corp. (SPF): Reduced

  Up 19% over 12 months, Standard Pacific Corp., a residential construction company, has a market cap of $2.27 billion. The current share price is around $8.18. Shares trade at a P/E of 5.70. The company does not pay a dividend.

Best Consumer Service Companies For 2014: Hewlett-Packard Company(HPQ)

Hewlett-Packard Company and its subsidiaries provide products, technologies, software, solutions, and services to individual consumers and small- and medium-sized businesses (SMBs), as well as to the government, health, and education sectors worldwide. Its Personal Systems Group segment offers commercial personal computers (PCs), consumer PCs, workstations, calculators and other related accessories, and software and services for the commercial and consumer markets. The company?s Services segment provides consulting, outsourcing, and technology services to infrastructure, applications, and business process domains. Its Imaging and Printing Group segment provides consumer and commercial printer hardware, supplies, media, and scanning devices, such as inkjet and Web solutions, laser jet and enterprise solutions, managed enterprise solutions, graphics solutions, and printer supplies. The company?s Enterprise Servers, Storage, and Networking segment offers industry standard s ervers, business critical systems, storage platforms, and networking products, including switches, routers, wireless LAN, and TippingPoint network security products. Its HP Software segment provides enterprise IT management software, information management solutions, and security intelligence/risk management solutions. The company?s HP Financial Services segment offers leasing, financing, utility programs, and asset recovery services; and financial asset management services for enterprise customers, as well as specialized financial services to SMBs, and educational and governmental entities. Hewlett-Packard Company also provides business intelligence solutions that enable businesses to standardize on consistent data management schemes, connect and share data across the enterprise, and apply analytics, as well as licenses its specific technology to third parties. The company was founded in 1939 and is headquartered in Palo Alto, California.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Paul Ausick]

  Stratasys may be the best choice by default, but it too faces some headwinds. Some core patents expire this year, and tech giant Hewlett-Packard Co. (NYSE: HPQ) has said it will enter the industrial 3D printing business by mid-2014. If HP can make that happen, the shape of the 3D printing market could change dramatically.

• [By WALLSTCHEATSHEET]

  HP is a software an technology bellwether that provides key products and services to consumers and companies worldwide. The stock has been on a powerful surge higher and does not show any significant signs of slowing. Over the last four quarters, earnings and revenue figures have been decreasing, however, investors in the company have been optimistic about recent earnings reports. Relative to its peers and sector, HP has been a year-to-date performance leader. Look for HP to continue to OUTPERFORM.

• [By Dan Caplinger]

  Finally, it's hard to predict which individual stocks will follow the rule. For instance, selling in May last year led you to miss out on nearly 30% gains in Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT  ) and a 20% gain in Home Depot (NYSE: HD  ) , and while Home Depot has continued to rise sharply since then, Wal-Mart has trailed the Dow's overall rise since November. Yet Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ  ) and Intel (NASDAQ: INTC  ) have exhibited classic sell-in-May behavior, rebounding in recent months from last summer's swoon.

Best Consumer Service Companies For 2014: Tower International Inc.(TOWR)

Tower International, Inc. operates as an integrated global manufacturer of engineered structural metal components and assemblies to automotive original equipment manufacturers. It offers body-structure stampings, frames, and other chassis structures, as well as complex welded assemblies for small and large cars, crossovers, pickups, and sport utility vehicles. The company?s products comprise body structures and assemblies that include structural metal components, such as body pillars, roof rails, and side sills; and Class A surfaces and assemblies that consist of body sides, hoods, doors, fenders, and pickup truck boxes. Tower International, Inc. also provides lower vehicle frames and structures, including pickup truck and SUV full frames, automotive engine and rear suspension cradles, floor pan components, and cross members; body-in-white assemblies, which comprise front and rear floor pan assemblies, and door/pillar assemblies; stamped, formed, and welded suspension com ponents, such as control arms, suspension links, track bars, spring and shock towers, shackles, twist axles, radius arms, stabilizer bars, trailing axles, and brackets; and other automotive products, and defense and aerospace products. It sells its products directly in North America, South America, Europe, and Asia. The company was formerly known as Tower Automotive, LLC and changed its name to Tower International, Inc. in October 2010. Tower International, Inc. was founded in 1993 and is headquartered in Livonia, Michigan.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By With assistance from Sofia Horta e Costa]

  Tower International Inc. (TOWR), a maker of metal components for the automotive industry, fell 5.1 percent to $20.14 after saying an affiliate of Cerberus Capital Management LP plans to sell about 2.6 million shares in the company.