It's been more than three years since the spill at the Macondo well in the Gulf of Mexico, and day by day the prospects for oil exploration there seem to get better. A recent report by Wood MacKenzie shows that production in the Gulf went up 6% last year, and another 4% is expected this year. By 2018, the research group�believes�that the Gulf will be back to its pre-Macondo-spill high in�production�of 2 million barrels per day. �
For this to happen, though, exploration and production companies will need to spend a pretty penny. Between now and 2015, E&P companies are expected to spend somewhere around $20 billion. In this video, fool.com contributor Tyler Crowe looks at what this could mean for oil services companies that specialize in offshore regions such as the Gulf.
Top 10 Railroad Companies To Own For 2015: FirstMerit Corporation(FMER)
FirstMerit Corporation operates as the bank holding company for FirstMerit Bank, N.A. that provides a range of banking, fiduciary, financial, insurance, and investment services to corporate, institutional, and individual customers in northern and central Ohio, and western Pennsylvania. The company?s commercial business offers commercial term loans, revolving credit arrangements, asset-based lending, leasing, commercial mortgages, real estate construction lending, letters of credit, cash management services, and other depository products. Its retail business provides various financial products and services, including consumer direct and indirect installment loans, debit and credit cards, debit gift cards, residential mortgage loans, home equity loans and lines of credit, fixed and variable annuities, and ATM network services, as well as deposit products comprising checking, savings, money market accounts, and certificates of deposit. The company?s wealth business provides a sset management, private banking, financial planning, estate settlement and administration, and credit and deposit products and services. FirstMerit Corporation also offers trust and investment services, including personal trust and planning, and investment management; retirement plan services; retail mutual funds, other securities, variable and fixed annuities, personal disability and life insurance products, and brokerage services; and private banking services, including credit, deposit, and asset management solutions. As of December 31, 2009, it operated a network of 160 full service banking offices and 182 ATMs. The company was founded in 1855 and is headquartered in Akron, Ohio.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Tim Melvin]
The year ahead should be a great one for the smaller bank stocks. Larger regionals like Huntington Bancorp (HBAN) and Capital Ban Financial (CBF) have made it clear they intend to grow by acquisition in the years ahead. Banks like First Merit (FMER) and First Merchants (FRME) have done deals in the past year and are open to doing more to increase their market share and footprints. This should be the year the floodgates open and we see the first wave of merger activity in small banks.
Hot Oil Service Stocks To Own For 2014: Nice Systems Ltd (NICE)
NICE-Systems Ltd. (NICE), incorporated on September 28, 1986, is a provider of solutions that enable enterprises and security organizations to extract insight from interactions, transactions and surveillance to drive business performance and ensure safety and security. Its solutions enable companies and public organizations to capture, manage, analyze and impact unstructured interaction, as well as transactional data, enabling such entities to comply with internal and governmental regulations, improve business and operational performance and address security threats while increasing situational awareness. Unstructured content includes cross-channel analysis of phone calls, chat, instant messaging and e-mail interactions to contact centers, trading floors, branches, home agents and back offices, phone calls to emergency service providers and first responders, video captured by closed circuit cameras, radio communications between emergency services��and first responders��personnel, Internet sessions, e-mail and instant messaging and security management solutions for command and control centers. In May 2010, the Company acquired Lamda Communication Networks Ltd.
On January 11, 2010, NICE completed the acquisition of certain assets and liabilities of Orsus Solutions Limited and certain subsidiaries of Orsus. On August 31, 2009, NICE and certain subsidiaries of NICE completed the acquisition of the voting securities of certain subsidiaries of Fortent, Inc. (Fortent). On August 31, 2009, NICE completed the acquisition of Hexagon System Engineering Ltd. (Hexagon). On June 17, 2009, the Company completed the acquisition of Syfact.
The Company�� products include NICE SmartCenter, NICE Perform Interaction Recording, NICE Perform eXpress (NPX), NICE Quality Management, NICE Interaction Analytics, NICE Real-Time Guidance, NICE Packaged Business Solutions, NICE Feedback, NICE IEX Workforce Management, Performance Manager, Network Embedded Logger and NiceCall Focus III. It also incl! udes Actimize Fraud Prevention Suite, Actimize Anti-Money Laundering Suite, Actimize Brokerage Compliance Suite, Actimize Enterprise Risk Case Manager, Mirra IV, NICE Inform, NiceVision Net, NiceVision ControlCenter, NiceVision Analytics, NiceVision Digital, NiceVision SafeRoute, NICE Situator, FAST alpha Silver, NiceTrack.
NICE SmartCenter leverages the synergies of the combined capabilities of NICE Perform, NICE Quality Management, NICE Interaction Analytics, NICE Feedback, IEX TotalView and Performance Manager. NICE Perform Interaction Recording records customer interactions with contact center agents, financial trading floors, investment banking and enterprises, with a separate suite of applications for contact centers and investment banking, including for organizations that have a relatively small number of input channels. NICE Perform eXpress (NPX) brings the capabilities of Nice Perform into a single box, low TCO solution based on commercial hardware for small businesses or small systems. NICE Quality Management delivers tools for implementing a multifaceted quality program encompassing agents, supervisors, evaluators and managers.
NICE Interaction Analytics utilizes a multi-dimensional analysis approach to analyze customer interactions across communication channels and provide automated business insight and root cause analysis based on speech analytics, e-mail and chat analysis, call flow analysis, screen content analysis and integration with customer relationship management (CRM) data. NICE Real-Time Guidance leverages interaction analytics in order to provide recommendations to the agent in real-time during a phone or chat interaction with a customer, popping up contextually relevant instructions to the agent within call-out windows.
NICE Packaged Business Solutions is a set of out-of-the-box solutions designed to address common contact center challenges, including Customer Churn Reduction, Sales Effectiveness, Customer Experience, Marketing Effective! ness, Col! lections Optimization, Quality Optimization, such as First Contact Resolution and Average Handling Time. NICE Feedback is a solution for collecting real-time customer feedback after a call or any other type of interaction with the organization. NICE IEX Workforce Management forecasts customer interactions, schedules agents with appropriate skills to manage and optimize level of customer service and resources, measures agent and team performance and supports managing overall contact center performance
Performance Manager maps enterprise business objectives to group and individual goals, tracks and reports performance. Network Embedded Logger offers a Linux based voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) Logger embedded in Cisco routers, suitable for branch recording with NICE Perform. NiceCall Focus III provides a voice recording system for organizations that have a relatively small number of input channels and a cost-effective solution for branch recording (TDM only) with centralized storage. Actimize Fraud Prevention Suite is a suite of focused cross-channel fraud prevention solutions, available individually or as an integrated whole, used in both real-time and batch processing to detect and prevent the fraud.
Actimize Anti-Money Laundering Suite is an end-to-end suite of solutions that are available individually or as an integrated whole used to monitor and identify suspicious activities for customers and facilitate regulatory compliance processes. Actimize Enterprise Risk Case Manager is a centralized platform for holistic case and alert management that enables an enterprise-wide approach to risk and compliance operations management. Mirra IV provides small recording system that is suited to simple recording applications, in which it can record up to 48 channels of voice traffic from a variety of analog and digital interfaces. NICE Inform provides information management solution for management of multimedia interactions for security command and control centers, enables effectiv! e managem! ent of multimedia incident information from various sources, for faster incident reconstruction, greater insight and improved response.
NiceVision Net provides a complete solution for Internet protocol (IP) video security, including encoders, decoders and network video recorders. NiceVision ControlCenter provides a control room management and network-based digital video matrix. NiceVision Analytics provides a set of video content analytics applications for automated detection of threats, safety and operational related events. NiceVision Digital provides a portfolio of digital video recorders for different capacities and performance requirements. NiceVision SafeRoute provides a solution for mobile video surveillance onboard public transport vehicles. FAST alpha Silver provides digital video monitoring and recording solution for large to mid-size applications. NiceTrack provides interception, delivery, monitoring, collection and advanced analysis of telecommunication interactions.
The Company competes with Aspect Software, Inc., Autonomy Corp., Cybertech International, eLoyalty, Genesys Telecommunicatons, Nexidia, Verint Systems Inc., ACI Worldwide, FICO, Mantas, Inc., Norkom Group plc, Oracle Corporation, SAS Institute Inc., Sungard Data Systems Inc., ASC Telecom, AudioSoft, Redbox Recorders, Bosch, Genetec Inc., IndigoVision, Milestone Systems A/S, ONSSI, Schneider Electric, Atis, ETI, JSI Telecom, Pen-link Ltd., SS8 Networks, Inc. and Trovicor.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Traders Reserve]
While J.P. Morgan (JPM) lowered their IT spending forecast for 2013, it sees a 3.6% growth on the horizon in 2014. That bodes well for NICE Systems (NICE) which provides solutions for capturing and analyzing customer interactions across communication channels such as phone, surveys, email and the Web��therwise known as a Big Data platform.
Hot Oil Service Stocks To Own For 2014: Summit Midstream Partners LP (SMLP)
Summit Midstream Partners, LP is engaged in owning and operating midstream energy infrastructure that is located in North America. The Company provides natural gas gathering and compression services in two resource basins: the Piceance Basin, which includes the Mesaverde, Mancos and Niobrara Shale formations in western Colorado, and the Fort Worth Basin, which includes the Barnett Shale formation in north-central Texas. As of June 30, 2012, the Company�� gathering systems had approximately 385 miles of pipeline and 147,600 horsepower of compression. As of September 20, 2012, its systems gathered an average of approximately 909 million cubic feet per day of natural gas, of which approximately 64% consisted of natural gas liquids (NGLs), that were extracted by a third party processor. Summit Midstream GP, LLC is the Company�� general partner. On October 27, 2011, the Company acquired certain natural gas gathering pipeline, dehydration and compression assets in the Piceance Basin of western Colorado, which it refer to as the Grand River system. The Company�� customers include the natural gas producers in North America, such as Encana Corporation, Chesapeake Energy Corporation, TOTAL, S.A., Carrizo Oil & Gas, Inc., WPX Energy, Inc., Bill Barrett Corporation, Exxon Mobil Corporation and EOG Resources, Inc. In October 2012, the Company acquired ETC Canyon Pipeline, LLC from La Grange Acquisition, L.P., a wholly owned subsidiary of Energy Transfer Partners, L.P. On February 15, 2013, it closed the acquisition of to Meadowlark Midstream Company, LLC, formerly Bear Tracker Energy, LLC. In June 2013, Summit Midstream Partners LP acquires assets in Bakken, Marcellus. In June 2013, Summit Midstream Partners LP acquired Bison Midstream LLC. In June 2013, Summit Midstream Partners LP closed the previously announced acquisition of certain natural gas gathering pipelines and compression assets located in the liquids-rich window of the Marcellus Shale Play.
The Grand River system consists of approxi! mately 276 miles of pipeline and 97,500 horsepower of compression and is located in Garfield County, Colorado. The Grand River system primarily gathers natural gas produced by the Company�� customers from the liquids-rich Mesaverde formation within the Piceance Basin. The Grand River system also gathers natural gas produced from its customers' wells targeting the deeper Mancos and Niobrara Shale formations. As of September 20, 2012, the DFW Midstream system had five primary interconnections with third-party, intrastate pipelines that enables the Company to connect its customers, directly or indirectly, with the natural gas market hubs of Waha, Carthage, and Katy in Texas, and Perryville and Henry Hub in Louisiana. As of September 20, 2012, the DFW Midstream system gathered an average of approximately 325 million cubic feet per day from seven producers.
The Company competes with Access Midstream Partners, L.P., Crestwood Midstream Partners LP, Energy Transfer Partners, L.P., Williams Partners L.P., Energy Transfer Partners, L.P. and Enterprise Products Partners L.P.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Lisa Levin]
This industry fell 3.64% by 11:50 am ET. Summit Midstream Partners LP (NYSE: SMLP) shares dropped 5.1% in today's trading. Summit Midstream is expected to report Q3 financial results on November 6, 2014.
- [By Matt DiLallo]
Midstream operator,�Summit Midstream Partners (NYSE: SMLP ) is expanding its reach after it announced two separate natural gas gathering acquisitions last week. The company is spending $460 million to acquire assets in the Bakken and Marcellus in unrelated deals. Let's take a closer look and the deals and what both mean for investors.
Hot Oil Service Stocks To Own For 2014: Monro Muffler Brake Inc.(MNRO)
Monro Muffler Brake, Inc. provides automotive undercar repair and tire services. The company offers a range of services on passenger cars, light trucks, and vans for brakes; mufflers and exhaust systems; and steering, drive train, suspension, and wheel alignment. It also provides other products and services, including tires and routine maintenance services, including state inspections. The company?s maintenance services include oil change, heating and cooling system flush and fill service, belt installation, fuel system service, and a transmission flush and fill service. In addition, it replaces and services batteries, starters, and alternators, as well as offers air conditioning services. As of June 25, 2011, the company had 802 company-operated stores and 3 franchised locations. It operates stores primarily under the Monro Muffler Brake & Service, Tread Quarters Discount Tire, Mr. Tire, Autotire Car Care Center, and Tire Warehouse names in New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Connecticut, Massachusetts, West Virginia, Virginia, Maryland, Vermont, New Hampshire, New Jersey, North Carolina, South Carolina, Indiana, Rhode Island, Delaware, Maine, Illinois, and Missouri. Monro Muffler Brake, Inc. was founded in 1957 and is headquartered in Rochester, New York.
Advisors' Opinion:- [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 Monro Muffler Brake (Nasdaq: MNRO ) , whose recent revenue and earnings are plotted below. - [By Seth Jayson]
Monro Muffler Brake (Nasdaq: MNRO ) reported earnings on May 21. Here are the numbers you need to know.
The 10-second takeaway
For the quarter ended March 30 (Q4), Monro Muffler Brake beat expectations on revenues and met expectations on earnings per share.
Hot Oil Service Stocks To Own For 2014: Intellicell Biosciences Inc (SVFC)
Intellicell Biosciences, Inc., formerly Media Exchange Group, Inc., incorporated on March 8, 1999, is engaged in regenerative medicine company focused on the expanding regenerative medical markets using a process to separate adult autologous vascular cells (AAVC's) from blood vessels in adult adipose (fat) tissue. The Company is also exploring and undertaking, either on its own or in collaboration with a third party, providing a service for the collection, processing and storage of autologous cells for future use. As of December 31, 2011, the Company has developed technologies that allow reproducible separation of stromal vascular fraction (IntelliCell) containing adipose stem cells that can be performed in tissue processing centers and in doctors��offices. On June 3, 2011, the Company completed the acquisition of Intellicell Biosciences, Inc. The Company formed a wholly-owned subsidiary, ICBS Research, Inc.
The Company's process involves the application of ultrasonic cavitation (sound waves) to the extracted adipose tissue, which results in the separation AAVC's from the blood vessels in adult adipose (fat) tissue. This AAVC, or stromal vascular fraction (IntelliCells), are removed from the patient at the point of care, and separated at the point of care under the supervision of its certified technicians following current good manufacturing practices (cGMPs) and current good tissue practices (cGTPs), and the cells are then returned to the medical professionals at the point of care for use a patient's own body (autologous treatment), by way of a same-day clinical procedure for homologous use of these cells.
Intellicell Biosciences, Inc., formerly Media Exchange Group, Inc., incorporated on March 8, 1999, is engaged in regenerative medicine company focused on the expanding regenerative medical markets using a process to separate adult autologous vascular cells (AAVC's) from blood vessels in adult adipose (fat) tissue. The Company is also exploring and undertaking, either on ! its own or in collaboration with a third party, providing a service for the collection, processing and storage of autologous cells for future use. As of December 31, 2011, the Company has developed technologies that allow reproducible separation of stromal vascular fraction (IntelliCell) containing adipose stem cells that can be performed in tissue processing centers and in doctors��offices. On June 3, 2011, the Company completed the acquisition of Intellicell Biosciences, Inc. The Company formed a wholly-owned subsidiary, ICBS Research, Inc.
The Company's process involves the application of ultrasonic cavitation (sound waves) to the extracted adipose tissue, which results in the separation AAVC's from the blood vessels in adult adipose (fat) tissue. This AAVC, or stromal vascular fraction (IntelliCells), are removed from the patient at the point of care, and separated at the point of care under the supervision of its certified technicians following current good manufacturing practices (cGMPs) and current good tissue practices (cGTPs), and the cells are then returned to the medical professionals at the point of care for use a patient's own body (autologous treatment), by way of a same-day clinical procedure for homologous use of these cells.
The Company competes with Cytori Therapeutics, Stem Cell Assurance, Inc., Osiris, Aastrom Biosciences, Aldagen, BioTime, Baxter International, Celgene, Geron, Harvest Technologies, Mesoblast, Regenexx, NeoStem, X-Cell Center, Stem Cells, Athersys, and Tissue Genesis, Life Technologies, Asterand, pacific biosciences of california inc. and AllCells, LLC.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Bryan Murphy]
Well, though I give myself a C for timing, it looks like I'm going to be able to give myself an A for stock-picking. Back on January 27th I deemed IntelliCell BioSciences, Inc. (OTCMKTS:SVFC) was a compelling buy, and though SVFC was stagnant for a month after that, it looks like the stock's finally getting on its horse. If you didn't get it then, you may want to get in now.
- [By Bryan Murphy]
To say that shares of IntelliCell BioSciences, Inc. (OTCMKTS:SVFC) has been disappointing since 2011 would be an understatement. SVFC has been an outright disaster since 2011, falling from a peak of $19.00 to a low of, well, just a few pennies as of late last year. In fact, there are those who are understandably wondering how the company is still alive, only producing about a half a million dollars in revenue in 2012, and then dialing that figure back down to nothing for the last few quarters. Yet, there's just something about a company that refuses to go away.... something compelling now.
Hot Oil Service Stocks To Own For 2014: Ubiquiti Networks Inc (UBNT)
Ubiquiti Networks, Inc. (Ubiquiti), incorporated on June 24, 2010, is a communications technology Company. designs, manufactures and sells broadband wireless solutions worldwide. The Company offers a portfolio of wireless networking products and solutions, including systems, high performance radios, antennas and management tools, designed for wireless networking and other applications in the unlicensed radio frequency (RF) spectrum. The Company offers solutions that incorporate its RF technology, antenna design and firmware technologies, which it refers to as AirTechnologies. It offers a portfolio of communications networking products and solutions and it recently introduced products in the video surveillance, wireless backhaul and machine-to-machine communication markets.
The Company�� business is driven by a community of network operators, service providers, distributors, value added resellers (VARs) and system integrators, which it refers to as the Ubiquiti Community. As of June 30, 2013, Ubiquiti�� AirTechnologies included, UBNT, airMAX, UniFi, mFi, EdgeMAX, airVision, airFiber, airOS, NanoStation, airGrid, NanoBridge, and a number of trademark applications and registrations in the United States and other countries. The Company technology enables it to provide end to end wireless networking solutions for network operators and service providers in underserved and underpenetrated markets. It designs its products and solutions using hardware and industry standard chipsets to enable these providers to deliver carrier class wireless broadband access and services to their subscribers.
Enterprise WLAN - UniFi
Unifi hardware utilizes MIMO technology, works with 802.11 standards, and uses a single cable for data transmission and power-over-ethernet. Unlike other enterprise Wi-Fi systems that utilize a hardware Wi-Fi switch, Unifi uses a virtual controller that allows for on-site management or remote management through the cloud. Each UniFi access point a! nd can be managed centrally with the UniFi Controller software. The UniFi Controller enables enterprise WLAN managers to centrally configure and administer a UniFi network and individual access points without any special training and through secure access from any Web browser. The UniFi Controller provides automatic UniFi access point detection, firmware updates, real-time status, map loading and advanced security options.
Video Surveillance - airVision
The H.264 cameras use a single cable for data transmission and power-over-ethernet. AirVision, its management controller software, can be used to manage multiple AirCam H.264 IP cameras as well as manage other digital video recorder devices. AirVision software is available for download at no cost on its Website and only manages Ubiquiti Network camera devices. Similar to its other network management products, airVision can be accessed securely from any Web browser, provides statistical reporting and analytics and provides a management console with camera settings and event recordings.
Machine-To-Machine Communication - mFi
In June 2012, the Company announced mFi, which includes hardware sensors, power devices, and management software that allows devices to be controlled remotely. For example, mFi allows users to manage and monitor their building temperature and power consumption. The management controller software is IP based and can be accessed from any browser locally or through the cloud. MFi software allows management to create rules using if/then statements to control numerous devices.
The Company competes with Motorola, Trango, Cisco Systems, Proxim, Mikrotikls, Senao, Ceragon Networks, DragonWave, Ruckus Wireless, TP-LINK Technologies CO., LTD, Andrew Corporation, PCTEL, Aruba Networks, Inc, Vivotek, Inc., Axis Communications AB , Mobotix Corp, Cambium Networks , SAF Tehnika, EnergyHub, Inc., AlertMe.com Ltd and Radio Waves Inc.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Jake L'Ecuyer]
Ubiquiti Networks (NASDAQ: UBNT) shares tumbled 25.81 percent to $30.69 on Q3 results. Ubiquiti reported its quarterly earnings of $0.50 per share on revenue of $148.30 million.
- [By Tom Bishop]
The company I have chosen is Ubiquiti (UBNT). By ��ireless networking,��I mean products that deliver carrier-class wireless networking performance for video, voice, and data.
- [By Vera Yuan]
Ubiquiti Networks (UBNT) designs and manufactures wireless broadband infrastructure equipment and other communications. Ubiquiti initially came to our attention in early 2013 after suffering declines in earnings. While being optimistic about overall market demand, our research led us to conclude that the problems facing the company were temporary and we invested in the stock. Management executed on the turnaround, which drove both revenue and earnings growth. As a result the stock has more than doubled from our initial purchase price.From Meridian Funds (Trades, Portfolio)��Meridian Contrarian Fund Second Quarter Commentary.Also check out: Meridian Funds Undervalued Stocks Meridian Funds Top Growth Companies Meridian Funds High Yield stocks, and Stocks that Meridian Funds keeps buying Currently 0.00/512345
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