Best Consumer Service Companies To Buy For 2014

Although we don't believe in timing the market or panicking over daily movements, we do like to keep an eye on market changes -- just in case they're material to our investing thesis.

The major indexes hardly moved today, with the Dow Jones rising just 0.26 points, or less than 0.01%, while the S&P 500 moved up by only 0.01%. Nevertheless, a number of retailers made some big moves this afternoon, even amid all the warnings, both on and off Wall Street, that this holiday shopping season is going to be a big disappointment. Perhaps those warnings won't apply to the companies that made a splash today.

It all started with high-end jeweler Tiffany (NYSE: TIF  ) reporting quarterly earnings before the opening bell this morning. The company posted a 50% increase in net earnings, amounting to $0.73 per share, well above the $0.49 Wall Street was expecting, and a 7% increase in sales, which hit $911 million -- again better than the $889 million analysts were looking for.

Top Managed Healthcare Stocks To Buy For 2015: Dialog Semiconductor PLC (DLG)

Dialog Semiconductor Plc creates integrated, mixed signal integrated circuits (ICs), optimized for personal portable, short-range wireless, lighting, display and automotive applications. The Company operates in three business segments: Mobile Systems, Automotive and Industrial, and Connectivity. The Mobile Systems segment includes its power management and audio chips especially designed to meet the needs of the wireless systems markets and a range of advanced driver technologies for low power display applications - from Passive Matrix Organic Light Emitting Diodes (PMOLEDs), to electronic paper and Micro Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS) displays. The Automotive and Industrial segment consists of products, which address the safety, management and control of electronic systems in cars and for industrial applications. The Connectivity segment includes activities, such as short-range wireless, digital cordless and voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) technology. Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Jonathan Morgan]

  Direct Line (DLG) dropped 2.5 percent to 212.6 pence. RBS sold 300 million shares at 210 pence apiece in its third sale of a stake in the insurance company, according to a statement. The bank, which is majority owned by the U.K. government, reduced its holding in Direct Line by 20 percent to 28.5 percent. RBS slipped 1.3 percent to 364.1 pence.

• [By Jonathan Morgan]

  Dialog Semiconductor Plc (DLG) surged 6.5 percent to 12.55 euros, its highest price in two months, after Apple Inc. (AAPL), the company�� biggest customer, reported fiscal third-quarter revenue and iPhone sales that beat analysts��estimates.

Best Consumer Service Companies To Buy For 2014: C&F Financial Corporation(CFFI)

C&F Financial Corporation operates as the holding company for Citizens and Farmers Bank that provides various banking and related financial services to individuals and businesses. It operates through three segments: Retail Banking, Mortgage Banking, and Consumer Finance. The Retail Banking segment offers various types of checking and savings deposit accounts; business, real estate, development, mortgage, home equity, and installment loans; and ATMs, Internet banking, and credit cards, as well as travelers? checks, safe deposit box rentals, collection, notary public, wire service, and other customary bank services. This segment provides retail banking services at its main office in West Point, Virginia; and 17 branches in Chester, Hampton, Mechanicsville, Midlothian, Newport News, Norge, Providence Forge, Quinton, Saluda, Sandston, Varina, West Point, Yorktown, Williamsburg, and Richmond, Virginia. The Mortgage Banking segment originates conventional mortgage loans, mortga ge loans insured by the Federal Housing Administration, mortgage loans partially guaranteed by the Veterans Administration, and home equity loans. This segment provides mortgage loan origination services through 15 locations in Virginia, 4 in Maryland, and 2 in North Carolina, as well as 1 each in Wilmington, Delaware; Moorestown, New Jersey; and York, Pennsylvania. The Consumer Finance segment provides automobile loans in Virginia and in portions of Alabama, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, North Carolina, Ohio, Tennessee, Georgia, and West Virginia through offices in Richmond and Hampton, Virginia; Nashville, Tennessee; and Towson, Maryland. The company also offers brokerage services, and insurance and title insurance services. C&F Financial Corporation was founded in 1927 and is based in West Point, Virginia.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Doug Hughes]

  An example of that would be C&F Financial (CFFI) in Westport, Virginia. The CEO, Larry Dillon, has been there for 35 years, plus, the bank is trading at a p/e of 6 or 7, if you can believe it. It's only $2 over book value.

Best Consumer Service Companies To Buy For 2014: CNOOC Limited(CEO)

CNOOC Limited, through its subsidiaries, engages in the exploration, development, production, and sale of crude oil, natural gas, and other petroleum products. The company?s oil and natural gas properties are located in offshore China, which include Bohai Bay, western south China Sea, eastern south China Sea, and east China Sea, as well as in Indonesia, Iraq, and other regions in Asia; and Oceania, Africa, North America, and South America. As of December 31, 2010, the company had net proved reserves of approximately 2.99 billion barrels-of-oil equivalent, including approximately 1.92 billion barrels of crude oil and 6,458.3 billion cubic feet of natural gas. It also provides bond issuance services; and has a joint venture with Bridas Energy Holdings. CNOOC Limited was founded in 1982. The company is headquartered in Central, Hong Kong, and is considered a Red Chip company due to its listing on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. CNOOC Limited is a subsidiary of China National Of fshore Oil Corporation.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Monica Wolfe]

  These four insiders made their buys during the public offering for $6 per share, and since their buys the price per share is down about -0.83%.� Highlighted below are the insiders��individual buys:

  Timothy Keating (CEO):� Bought 8,000 shares for $48,000.� Now holds 98,000 shares of KIPO stock. Taylor Simonton (D):� Bought 3,000 shares for $18,000. Now holds 13,000 shares of KIPO stock. Kyle Rogers (CIO):� Bought 3,072 shares for $18,432.� Now holds 8,096 shares of company stock. Frederic Schweiger (CFO/COO):� Bought 8,000 shares for $48,000.� Now holds on to 26,700 shares of KIPO stock.

• [By Stephan Dube]

  Athabasca's most notable producers:

  Suncor Energy (SU) (Part 1), see article here.Suncor Energy (Part 2), see article here.Athabasca Oil (ATHOF.PK), see article here.Canadian Natural Resources, see article here.Imperial Oil, see article here.Cenovus Energy (CVE), see article here.MEG Energy (MEGEF.PK), see article here.Devon Energy, see article here.Royal Dutch Shell, see article here.Ivanhoe Energy (IVAN), see article here.Nexen (CNOOC) (CEO), see article here.

  An analysis of the current operations of the company will be examined with the objective to provide the most complete information available to potential investors before deciding to seize the opportunity that the 54,132 square miles of the Carbonate Triangle has to offer. Let's start by introducing Athabasca, a famous and most prolific region in the Canadian oil sands as well as one of the largest reserve in the world.

• [By Paul Ausick]

  No corporate merger valued at more than $5 billion occurred in 2013, while there were several deals valued at more than $10 billion in 2012. Two of 2012�� biggest deals were Freeport-McMoRan Copper and Gold Inc.�� (NYSE: FCX) acquisition of McMoRan Exploration and Plains Exploration & Production for a total of about $20 billion. Another big acquisition in 2012 was Cnooc Ltd.�� (NYSE: CEO) $15 billion deal for Nexen Energy.

Best Consumer Service Companies To Buy For 2014: Westpac Banking Corp (WBK)

Westpac Banking Corporation (Westpac), incorporated on August 23, 2002, is a banking organization. Westpac provides a range of banking and financial services, including retail, business and institutional banking, and wealth management services. It operates through three divisions: Australian Financial Services (AFS), Westpac Institutional Bank (WIB) and Westpac New Zealand. AFS encompasses Westpac�� retail and business banking operations in Australia, and includes the businesses of Westpac Retail & Business Banking, St.George Banking Group and BT Financial Group Australia (BFTG). Westpac RBB is responsible for sales and service for Westpac�� consumer, small-to-medium enterprise customers and commercial customers in Australia under the Westpac brands. St.George is responsible for sales, and service for its consumer, business and corporate customers in Australia under the St.George, BankSA, Bank of Melbourne and RAMS brands. BTFG is Westpac�� Australian wealth management division. WIB delivers a range of financial services to commercial, corporate, institutional and government customers with connections to Australia and New Zealand. Westpac New Zealand is responsible for the sales and service of banking, wealth and insurance products for consumers, business and institutional customers in New Zealand. In January 2014, the Company completed the acquisition of Lloyds Banking Group Plc�� Australian asset finance business, Capital Finance Australia Limited, and its Australian corporate loan portfolio, BOS International (Australia) Ltd.

Westpac RBB

Westpac RBB�� activities are conducted through its network of branches and business banking centers, home finance managers (HFMs) and specialized consumer and business relationship managers, with the support of cash flow, financial markets and wealth specialists, customer service centers, automated teller machines (ATMs) and Internet channels.

St.George

Consumer activities are conducted through a networ! k of branches, third party distributors, call centers, automated teller machines (ATMs), electronic funds transfer point-of-sale (EFTPOS) terminals and Internet banking services. Business and corporate customers are provided with a range of banking and financial products and services, including specialist advice for cash flow finance, trade finance, automotive and equipment finance, property finance, transaction banking and treasury services. Sales and service activities for business and corporate customers are conducted by relationship managers through business banking centers, Internet and customer service centre channels.

BTFG

BTFG�� funds management operations include the manufacturing and distribution of investment, superannuation and retirement products; investment platforms, such as Wrap and Master Trusts, and private banking and financial planning. Its Insurance solutions cover the manufacturing and distribution of life, general and lenders mortgage insurance. BTFG�� brands include Advance Asset Management, Ascalon, Asgard, BT, BT Investment Management (64.5% owned by Westpac), BT Select, Licensee Select, Magnitude, Securitor and the advice, private banking and insurance operations of Bank of Melbourne, BankSA, St.George and Westpac.

Westpac Institutional Bank (WIB)

WIB operates through industry relationship and specialist product teams, with knowledge in transactional banking, financial and debt capital markets, specialised capital, margin lending, broking and alternative investment solutions. Customers are supported through branches and subsidiaries located in Australia, New Zealand, the United States, United Kingdom and Asia.

Westpac New Zealand

Westpac conducts its New Zealand banking business through two banks in New Zealand; Westpac New Zealand

Limited, and Westpac Banking Corporation. Westpac New Zealand operates through network of branches and ATMs across both the North and South Islands. Business an! d institu! tional customers are served through relationship and specialist products teams. Banking products are provided under the Westpac and WIB brands, while insurance and wealth products are provided under Westpac Life and BT brands.

Westpac�� other business divisions includes Pacific Banking, which provides banking services for retail and business customers in seven Pacific countries. Branches, ATMs, telephone banking and Internet banking channels are used to deliver its business activities in Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu, Cook Islands, Tonga, Solomon Islands and Samoa. Pacific Banking�� financial products include personal savings accounts, business transactional accounts, personal and business lending products, business services and a range of international products; Group Services which include technology, banking operations, legal and property services; Treasury which focuses on management of the Group�� interest rate risk and funding requirements, and Core Support which include functions performed centrally including finance, risk and human resources.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Dividend]

  Westpac Banking (WBK) has a market capitalization of $444.52 billion. The company employs 36,000 people, generates revenue of $33.259 billion and has a net income of $5.444 billion. Westpac Banking�� earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) amounts to $17.537 billion. The EBITDA margin is 52.73 percent (the operating margin is 49.28 percent and the net profit margin 33.57 percent).

• [By Fede Zaldua]

  Most Australian banks seem to comply with (1) and (2). On the other hand, Australian banks have a loan to deposit ratio of 120% and around 9% of their funding is short term foreign funding. This means that their results shall be severely damaged by a steep depreciation of the local currency. A good example of a bank that is easy to short from the US (since it trades in the New York Stock Exchange) is the Westpac Banking Corporation (WBK). Westpac generates 90% of its revenues domestically and sells for 2014 13.1 times earnings and 2.1 times its 2014 expected book value. That said, there is one problem that you will find when you short Westpac's shares: The bank pays a +5% cash dividend yield.

• [By Bryan Perry]

  Lloyds has several catalysts working in its favor. The bank has been busily disposing of assets that it views as non-core — the latest being a $1.45 billion ($1.37 billion U.S.) disposition of Australian operations to Aussie banking giant Westpac (WBK). In addition, Lloyds said it hopes to pay out as much as 70% of earnings as a dividend by 2016, which as a high-yield editor, has my full attention. This puts shares on a prospective yield for 2016 of more than 7% if earnings come in as projected.

Best Consumer Service Companies To Buy For 2014: Twin Butte Energy Ltd (TBTEF.PK)

Twin Butte Energy Ltd. (Twin Butte) is a Canada-based junior oil and gas exploration and production company. The Company is engaged in the acquisition of, exploration for and the development and production of petroleum and natural gas properties in Western Canada. During the year ended December 31, 2011, it drilled a total of 125 (80.9 net) wells. Its Frog Lake property is located approximately 75 kilometers northwest of Lloydminster with lands. Its Freemont area is located 60 kilometers southeast of Lloydminster. During 2011, Twin Butte drilled 11 gross wells in Plains region. Production from its west central Alberta region was approximately 1,545 barrels of oil equivalent per day during 2011. Production from its Deep Basin region was approximately 593 barrels of oil equivalent per day during 2011. Effective September 30, 2013, the Company disposed a non-core, west central Alberta, gas asset. In November 2013, the Company acquired Black Shire Energy Inc. Advisors' Opinion:

• [By MLP Trader]

  Here are the current top five companies in the list:

  CompanySymbolEV/BOEPD/NetbackPrice/NAVEV/DACFPinecrest(PNCGF.PK)53564%4.0XLightstream(LSTMF.PK)131753%4.5XNovus(NOVUF.PK)133290%4.1XZargon(ZARFF.PK)138664%5.6XTwin Butte(TBTEF.PK)155885%5.5X

  Of the larger companies, one that remains obstinately near the top of the list is Lightstream . Lightstream trades at 40% of its book value and a whopping 13.4% yield.

Best Consumer Service Companies To Buy For 2014: Public Storage(PSA)

Public Storage operates as a real estate investment trust (REIT). It engages in the acquisition, development, ownership, and operation of self-storage facilities in the United States and Europe. The company?s self-storage facilities offer storage spaces for lease on a month-to-month basis for personal and business use. Public Storage also has interests in commercial properties containing commercial and industrial rental space; facilities that lease storage containers; and ancillary operations, which include reinsurance of policies against losses to goods stored by its self-storage tenants, retail operations comprising merchandise sales and truck rental operations. As of December 31, 2008, the company had interests in 2,012 self-storage facilities with approximately 127 million net rentable square feet in 38 states; and 181 self-storage facilities with approximately 10 million net rentable square feet in 7 western European nations. It also had direct and indirect equity int erests in approximately 21 million net rentable square feet of commercial space located in 11 states in the U.S. As a REIT, the company would not be subject to federal income tax to the extent that it distributes at least 90% of its taxable income to its shareholders. Public Storage was founded in 1971 and is based in Glendale, California.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Lauren Pollock]

  Public Storage's(PSA) third-quarter profit rose 7.7% on the strength of higher occupancy and rents. Meanwhile, the real estate investment trust’s funds from operations, an important metric in the sector, grew during the period.

• [By Stoyan Bojinov]

  Jefferies reported on Thursday that it was maintaining a “Hold” rating on the California-based self-storage REIT, Public Storage (PSA), but went on to lower its price target for the company.Omotayo Okusanya, an analyst with the firm, cited that because the company’s portfolio of storage locations was virtually full, there was limited growth potential. Furthermore, Okusanya went on to comment about how Public Storage will have a hard time growing earnings even via acquisitions given its current size. As such, Jefferies reiterated a “Hold” rating on the stock and lowered its price target from $165 to $160 a share.

  Public Storage shares inched lower on Thursday, shedding .85% on the day. The stock is up over 4.4% YTD.

• [By Lawrence Meyers]

  I also like both Public Storage (PSA) and its Series T preferred stock.

  As a result of the financial crisis, many people lost their homes. What happens when people get evicted from a house? They downsize. That�� one reason we��e seen apartment REIT stock prices appreciate, but that�� also why Public Storage has done so well. You can�� fit a household�� worth of stuff into an apartment, so you rent storage for all those extra-large sofas. Housing remains troubled, and with people increasingly being moved into part-time jobs or leaving the workforce, this overall secular trend is continuing.

• [By Amanda Alix]

  Is it risky to be putting so much money into an as-yet unproven business model? Some may think so, including investors. Noting the tumble in stock price that newbies like Silver Bay and American Residential have suffered recently, Colony Capital (NYSE: CLNY  ) chief Thomas Barrack postponed�the IPO of his new single-family rental company, Colony American Homes. Similarly, Public Storage (NYSE: PSA  ) has filed for an IPO, too, hoping to take its American Homes 4 Rent unit public -- at some unannounced, future date. In the meantime, American Homes can rely on its $500 million credit facility�with Wells Fargo, which may be bumped up to $1 billion if necessary.