10 Best Promising Stocks For 2014

Whatever happened to the dream of commodities futures? They were supposed to turn the ordinary investor’s portfolios into a sophisticated hedge fund, promising stock-like returns with low correlation to equities.

Many seminal studies purporting to show these benefits, followed by the proliferation of mutual funds and exchange-traded portfolio products targeting retail investors, have popularized the strategy.

But now some thought leaders in the investment blogosphere are starting to pick apart the claims made for commodities futures funds, which generally purchase Treasury securities as collateral for futures contracts in energy, agriculture, livestock, industry and precious metals.

Tadas Viskanta of the popular Abnormal Returns blog initiated the latest round of rethinking. Viskanta hearkened back to the hype of 2006, following a study underscoring commodities futures' equity-like performance but negative correlation to stock and bond returns.

This research, by Gary Gorton and K. Geert Rouwenhorst, was “was picked up by multiple media sources as a major discovery,” Viskanta wrote at the time, commenting now that “new ‘discoveries’ in the financial markets are indeed rare.”

10 Best Computer Hardware Stocks For 2015: Ishares Trust Russell 1000 (IWF)

iShares Russell 1000 Growth Index Fund (the Fund) seeks investment results that correspond generally to the price and yield performance of the large-capitalization growth sector of the United States equity market, as represented by the Russell 1000 Growth Index (the Growth Index). The Growth Index is a subset of the Russell 1000 Index. The Index is capitalization weighted, and consists of those companies, or portion of a company, with higher price-to-book ratios and higher forecasted growth within the Russell 1000 Index. The Growth Index represents approximately 49% of the total market capitalization of the Russell 1000 Index.

The Fund invests in a representative sample of securities included in the Growth Index that collectively has an investment profile similar to the Growth Index. iShares Russell 1000 Growth Index Fund's investment advisor is Barclays Global Fund Advisors.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By James Brumley]

  It’s been especially untrue the last few years. Since this point in the year back in 2003, the iShares Russell 1000 Growth Fund (IWF) has advanced 81%, while the iShares Russell 1000 Value Fund (IWD) has only advanced 67%.

10 Best Promising Stocks For 2014: Artek Exploration Ltd (ARKXF.PK)

Artek Exploration Ltd. (Artek) is a junior oil and gas company engaged in the exploration for, and the acquisition, development and production of, oil and natural gas reserves in western Canada. Artek's principal properties include Peace River Arch, Alberta; Deep Basin, Alberta and British Columbia; Inga/Fireweed, British Columbia, and Central Alberta. During the year ended December 31, 2011, the Company drilled six gross (3.7 net) wells, including two gross (1.6 net) oil wells and four gross (2.1 net) natural gas wells. On June 20, 2012, it had drilled and completed its second of a seven horizontal well program (60% working interest) at its Doig natural gas and condensate pool in the Inga area of British Columbia. On January 1, 2012, the Company divested 33% of its non-operated oil and gas assets in the Leduc Woodbend area. In August 2013, the Company announced that it has completed the acquisition of Fireweed asset. Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Value Digger]

  As peers, I selected Artek Exploration (ARKXF.PK), RMP Energy (OEXFF.PK), Synergy Resources (SYRG) and Magnum Hunter Resources (MHR). The first two firms trade also on the main Toronto board under the tickers RTK.TO and RMP.TO respectively. These peers comply with the following criteria:

10 Best Promising Stocks For 2014: Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce(CM)

Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce provides various financial products, services, and advice to individual, small business, commercial, corporate, and institutional clients in Canada and internationally. The company offers retail markets services comprising personal banking, business banking, and wealth management services, as well as investment management services to retail and institutional clients. It also provides wholesale banking services, including credit, capital markets, investment banking, merchant banking, and research products and services to government, institutional, corporate, and retail clients. The company provides its services through its branch network, automated bank machines, mobile banking, and online banking site. As of June 3, 2011, it operated approximately 1,100 branches and 4,000 automated bank machines in Canada. The company was founded in 1867 and is headquartered in Toronto, Canada.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Dan Caplinger]

  It's easy for U.S. investors to paint Canadian banks with a single brush-stroke, as the differences in the banking system helped keep Bank of Montreal and its peers safer during the financial crisis five years ago. As Canada's housing market has kept rising even after the housing bust south of its border, however, investors have gotten increasingly concerned about the potential health of its banks, especially the largest ones. With downgrades for Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (NYSE: CM  ) , Toronto-Dominion (NYSE: TD  ) , and Bank of Montreal among a total of six banks in January, Moody's identified higher debt levels among Canadian consumers as driving potential risk for the economy.

• [By John Reese, Founder and CEO, Validea.com And Validea Capital Management]

  As you might imagine, the portfolio will tread into areas of the market others ignore, because of its contrarian bent. Right now, its holdings include some very unloved firms, including several financials, emerging market stocks, and much-maligned BP. Here's a look at five of the stock in our Dreman portfolio:

  Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CM)
  
  BP Plc (BP)
  
  Telecom Argentina SA (TEO)
  
  China Mobile Limited (CHL)
  
  Vale SA (VALE)
  
  

  Subscribe to Validea here��/P>

• [By Arie Goren]

  Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CM)

  Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce provides various financial products and services in Canada and internationally.

• [By Sean Williams]

  Looking north for opportunities
  As I head north to Canada in a few days for a vacation of my own, I can't help but think that the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (NYSE: CM  ) , known better as CIBC, is getting a bad rap from shareholders in recent months, despite being one of Canada's most stable money center banks.

10 Best Promising Stocks For 2014: Virginia Mines Inc (VGQ)

Virginia Mines Inc. is engaged in the business of acquiring and exploring mining properties. The Company specializes in searching for gold and base metal deposits in mostly unexplored territories of Quebec. The Company�� properties include Coulon property, Anatacau-Wabamisk project, Lac Pau property, Nichicun property, Trieste property, Ashuanipi property, Baie Payne property and Lac Gayot property. The Anatacau-Wabamisk project is located 30 kilometers southwest of the Opinaca Reservoir, about 290 kilometers north of the town of Matagami, province of Quebec. The Lac Pau property is located in the James Bay region, in the northern part of the Caniapiscau Reservoir, 70 kilometers northeast of the Trans-Taiga Road. The Nichicun property is situated in the central part of the province of Quebec, northwest of the Otish Mountains. The Trieste property is located in the central part of the province of Quebec, to the northwest of the Otish Mountains. Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Adrian Day]

  Adrian Day: Yeah, you know, my favorite company in the junior sector remains Virginia Mines, (VGQ) in Toronto, this is, at basis, an exploration company that has built its business by what's called a prospect generator model, meaning they go out and generate prospects, which they then try to farm out to other people to spend the money.

10 Best Promising Stocks For 2014: Intrexon Corp (XON)

Intrexon Corporation, incorporated on April 19, 2004, is engaged in the business of synthetic biology. Using the Company�� suite of complementary technologies, it design, build and regulate gene programs, or sequences of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) that control cellular function, and cellular systems, or activities that take place within a cell and the interaction of those systems in the greater cellular environment, to enable the development of new and improved products and manufacturing processes across a variety of end markets, including healthcare, food, energy and environmental sciences. Its technologies include the UltraVector gene design and fabrication platform; Cell Systems Informatics; LEAP-cell identification and selection, and mAbLogix-antibody discovery.

The Company�� LEAP technology facilitates the automated identification of an individual cell with the highest levels of expression, quality and potency from a population of over 100,000 cells. Its mAbLogix platform complements UltraVector with a library of human antibodies that exceeds 500 million. By immortalizing human tonsils, which consists of lymphatic tissue containing B-cells, its mAbLogix platform creates a B-cell library that can generate antibodies against an almost infinite number of new antigens.

The UltraVector gene design and fabrication platform

The Company�� gene program design platform, which it refer to as UltraVector, is an integrated suite of tools comprising advanced DNA construction technology and components, cellular and protein engineering tools, computational models and statistical methods which facilitate the rapid design, build and testing of complex systems. The UltraVector platform allows the Company to translate gene programs into standard components that can be designed, manufactured and tested in an automated format. This technology enables it to engineer at the cellular level from biological sources.

UltraVector DNA design is computer-automated and ! utilizes a set of defined construction rules to assemble components that are stored in its DNA library. In addition to the number of gene components in its UltraVector library, it is designing and creating enzymatic and regulatory components that provide control over genome integration and gene regulation. Its RheoSwitch Therapeutic System is a three-component transcriptional regulator that provides inducible gene expression. The RheoSwitch Therapeutic System provides the ability to not only express proteins/enzymes of interest, but also the ability to control the level and timing of expression to achieve a biological outcome. Other ongoing programs include its Attsite recombinases, which mediate predictable gene exchange into host cells thereby eliminating many of the difficulties seen with traditional gene insertion.

Cell Systems Informatics

The Company�� Cell systems informatics permits design, as well as testing and learning about new gene targets or product pathways. Its bioinformatics software and database systems for mapping cellular pathways when combined with its genome-scale modeling and experimental data, including, gene expression profiling and protein engineering, enable the Company to optimize selection and development of gene programs and cellular systems for its collaborators. Its computational modeling and simulation platform enables the development of predictive computer models of organisms, from microbes to humans. This platform builds virtual cells from their basic molecular components, and can simulate the activity of the cell�� complete reaction network.

The Company is designing proteins with post-translational modifications. It is also working to develop enzyme inhibitors and fusion proteins for a variety of applications in human and animal therapeutics. Its protein engineering may utilize one or more of its technologies to obtain catalysis activitiesits component library, the generation of component variants sequence, evolutionary analy! sis and s! tructure-based sequence alignment, computer-aided drug discovery, de novo, or synthesized or generated, and comparative protein modeling, molecular dynamics simulation and free energy analysis, antibody design and humanization, antigenicity prediction, protein pharmacokinetics optimization, and/or in silico support of enzyme engineeringand quantitative structure-function relationships with machine learning algorithms to optimize, facilitate and prioritize protein variant libraries for the advancement of its collaborators.

LEAP-cell identification and selection

The Company�� Laser-Enabled Analysis and Processing technology (LEAP), is an instrument that merges semiconductor manufacturing technologies for cell processing applications to provide high levels of control and scale to cell purification and stem cell culture management. The LEAP platform can identify and purify cells of interest from large libraries of cells created by its UltraVector and bioinformatics technologies using a laser-based purification process, thereby providing a mechanism of testing the degree of protein expression in genetically modified cells, as well as means to learn from the genetic building process.

mAbLogix- antibody discovery

The Company�� mAbLogix antibody discovery platform, or mAbLogix platform, enables production of B-cell libraries for discovery of antibodies. The mAbLogix platform permits antigen targeting using fully human monoclonal and polyclonal antibodies. Its mAbLogix antibody discovery process consists of two major activities: the build of human B-cell libraries expressing a large number of antibodies, and the testing of these libraries based on an analysis of B-cells that express antibodies in response to a chosen antigen.

The Company competes with AbD SeroTec, Alexion Pharmaceuticals, Inc., XOMA Corporation, Genmab US, Inc., MorphoSys AG, NovImmune SA, Societe Des Systemes Biologiques, Adimab, LLC, ProMab Biotechnologies, Inc., Abpro, Inc.,! AIIM The! rapeutics and Open Monoclonal Technology, Inc.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Ben Levisohn]

  Overvalued companies include MWI Veterinary (MWIV) and�Stericycle (SRCL), while companies with attractive valuations include Cardinal Health (CAH), Selected Medical (SEM). He’s not a fan of Intrexon (XON) but calls�Aratana (PETX) a “hidden gem.”

• [By John Udovich]

  Bubble talk, biotech IPO setbacks plus news�about small cap biotechs like Intrexon Corp (NYSE: XON) and TNI BioTech (OTCMKTS: TNIB) have dominated biotech news this week or in recent weeks. Just consider the following news:

• [By Jon C. Ogg]

  Intrexon Corp. (NYSE: XON) was started as Buy at Mizuho Securities, started as Equal Weight at Barclays and started as Overweight at J.P. Morgan.

  Nokia Corp. (NYSE: NOK) was raised to Hold from Sell at Deutsche Bank, raised to Neutral from Underperform at Credit Suisse and
  Canaccord Genuity raised its price target to $5.50 from $3.30.

10 Best Promising Stocks For 2014: Protective Life Corporation(PL)

Protective Life Corporation and its subsidiaries engage in the production, distribution, and administration of insurance and investment products in the United States. Its Life Marketing segment markets universal life, variable universal life, level premium term insurance, and bank-owned life insurance products primarily through a network of independent insurance agents and brokers, stockbrokers, and independent marketing organizations. The company?s Acquisitions segment focuses on acquiring, converting, and servicing life insurance policies and annuity products sold to individuals, which are acquired from other companies. Its Annuities segment markets variable annuity products that offer the policyholder the opportunity to invest in various investment accounts; and fixed annuity products, such as modified guaranteed annuities, single premium deferred annuities, single premium immediate annuities, and equity indexed annuities primarily through broker-dealers, financial ins titutions, and independent agents and brokers. The company?s Stable Value Products segment offers guaranteed funding agreements to special purpose entities; fixed and floating rate funding agreements directly to the trustees of municipal bond proceeds, institutional investors, bank trust departments, and money market funds; and guaranteed investment contracts to qualified retirement savings plans. Its Asset Protection segment primarily markets extended service contracts, and credit life and disability insurance to protect consumers? investments in automobiles, watercraft, and recreational vehicles; and markets a guaranteed asset protection product primarily through a national network of approximately 3,750 automobile, marine, and recreational vehicle dealers. The company was founded in 1907 and is headquartered in Birmingham, Alabama.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By David Goodloe]

  The CEO and president of Protective Life Corp (PL), John D. Johns, sold more than 200,000 shares of company stock on August 14 for nearly $14 million. The shares sold for $69.24, and the total transaction amount was $13,944,797.

• [By David Sterman]

  My favorite insurers: AIG (NYSE: AIG) (which I discussed a few months ago), Protective Life (NYSE: PL) and Reinsurance Group of America (NYSE: RGA).

10 Best Promising Stocks For 2014: Fly Leasing Limited (FLY)

Fly Leasing Limited leases commercial jet aircraft worldwide. The company purchases and leases commercial aircraft under multi-year contracts to various airlines. It owns 106 aircraft. The company was formerly known as Babcock & Brown Air Limited and changed its name to Fly Leasing Limited in June 2010. Fly Leasing Limited was founded in 2007 and is headquartered in Dun Laoghaire, Ireland.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Selena Maranjian]

  FLY Leasing (NYSE: FLY  ) is also among the high dividend stocks focused on leasing. The company leases commercial jets to airlines. Based in Ireland, it offers an attractive proposition to airlines, leasing them newer, more fuel-efficient planes, and helping them avoid the major expense of buying new aircraft. FLY Leasing's dividend took a tumble in 2009, from $0.50 per quarter to $0.20, but it got a 10% bump in 2012, and recently yielded 5.4%. Its payout ratio is also below 50%, affording room for growth. The stock seems quite attractively priced, too, with a recent P/E ratio of 7.4 and a forward P/E of not much more than 4. It's not growing as rapidly as some peers, but it is growing, and is also carrying relatively less debt than various peers and working on paying it down.

• [By Rich Duprey]

  Aircraft-leasing specialist�FLY Leasing (NYSE: FLY  ) announced today its second-quarter dividend of $0.22 per share, the same rate it's paid for the past four quarters after raising the payout 20%, from $0.20 per share.

• [By Rich Smith]

  Airbus and Boeing might be in line for new orders from aircraft leasing company FLY Leasing (NYSE: FLY  ) , which announced Monday that it has increased the size of its�aircraft acquisition�facility -- financing for aircraft purchases -- from $250 million to $450 million.

• [By Sean Williams]

  Ready to FLY?
  Lastly, I'd suggest you don your aviator goggles and take FLY Leasing (NYSE: FLY  ) for a spin, because you might like what you find.