Top High Tech Stocks To Buy For 2015

Top High Tech Stocks To Buy For 2015: Health Net Inc. (HNT)

Health Net, Inc., through its subsidiaries, provides managed health care services. The company offers commercial health care products, such as health maintenance organization plans through contracts with participating network physicians, hospitals, and other providers; preferred provider organization plans that provide coverage for services received from health care provider; and point of service plans. It also provides Medicare products, including Medicare advantage plans with and without prescription drug coverage; and Medicare supplement products that supplement fee-for-service Medicare coverage. In addition, the company offers Medicaid and related products; indemnity insurance products; auxiliary non-health products, such as life, accidental death and dismemberment, dental, vision, and behavioral health insurance; and other specialty services and products comprising pharmacy benefits, behavioral health, dental, and vision products and services, as well as managed care products for hospitals, health plans, and other entities. Further, it engages in government-sponsored managed care federal contract with the Department of Defense under the TRICARE program in the North Region; and other health care, mental health, and behavioral health government contracts. The company provides administrative services comprising provider network and referral management, medical and disease management, enrollment, customer service, clinical support service, and claims processing service to military health system eligible beneficiaries. It serves approximately 5.4 million individuals in the United States through group, individual, Medicare, Medicaid, the U.S. Department of Defense, and Veterans Affairs programs. Health Net, Inc. was founded in 1979 and is headquartered in Woodland Hills, California.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Sean Williams]

  What: Shares of Health Net (NYSE: HNT  ) , a managed health-care pr! ovider, jumped higher by as much as 18% following the release of the company's first-quarter earnings results. Shares have since given back a majority of their gains and are up "just" 7% as of this writing.

• [By Ben Levisohn]

  United’s disappointment has helped drag down other health insurers. WellPoint (WLP) dropped 1.3% to $88.53, Health Net (HNT) has fallen 1.7% to $31.25, Aetna (AET) has declined 2.4% to $64.11 and Cigna (CI) is off 3.5% at $77.69.

source from Top Penny Stocks For 2015:http://www.seekpennystocks.com/top-high-tech-stocks-to-buy-for-2015.html

Medicare open enrollment brings changes

The seven-week enrollment period for next year's Medicare prescription drug and managed-care plans begins Tuesday but seniors shouldn't simply renew their policies and assume the current coverage will stay the same. There's a likely payoff for those who pay close attention to the details.

Among the top 10 most popular drug policies, monthly premiums for 2014 are changing dramatically — up 55% for one AARP UnitedHealth plan and dropping 38% for another from Wellcare, according to a recent study by Avalere Health, a Washington, D.C., health research firm. The second-most popular plan, SilverScript Basic, is now off limits to new members until Medicare officials are satisfied that the company has resolved operational problems. The plan's nearly 2.9 million members can choose to stay.

About 22.7 million people, or 43% of Medicare's 52 million beneficiaries, are enrolled in these drug policies, also known as Part D plans.

OPEN ENROLLMENT: What you need to know about the open enrollment benefits process

The coverage gap, or "doughnut hole,"in Part D is growing smaller in 2014. The Affordable Care Act shrinks the gap every year until it's closed in 2020. Next year, drug coverage stops when the insurer and member together have spent $2,850 and resumes when the member has spent $4,550. This year, coverage stopped at $2,970 in spending and resumed at $4,750.

Discounts on drugs that seniors buy while in the gap have also improved, and next year's deductible is $310 instead of $325.

This open season also will have 142 fewer Medicare Advantage plans, the private plans that are an alternative to traditional Medicare fee-for-service coverage, the Avalere study found.They offer medical and often drug coverage from a network of participating providers. That's a 5.3% decrease, said Jennifer Rak, an Avalere senior manager.

HEALTH BENEFITS: Is a high-deductible health plan right for you?

Still, Medicare officials announced last month that they expect the enrol! lment in Medicare Advantage plans to continue to increase next year. Roughly one in four Medicare beneficiaries have MA coverage.They also said that one-third of these plans would be awarded four or more stars in 2014, although these ratings have not yet been issued for 2014. Plans can earn ratings of up to five stars, based on the quality of service and customer satisfaction.

Officials expect average Medicare Advantage monthly premiums to increase by $1.64 to $32.60 next year, while the average prescription drug plan premium will remain roughly the same, at about $31.

Robert Zirkelbach, a spokesman for America's Health Insurance Plans, a trade association, said Medicare Advantage continues to be popular despite the health law's cuts in federal payments to those plans because insurers "are doing everything they can to preserve benefits and minimize disruption for seniors in the program."

The Medicare open enrollment period, which ends Dec. 7, is for Medicare beneficiaries only. It's separate from enrollment in the Affordable Care Act's marketplace https://www.healthcare.gov/ health insurance, which began Oct. 1 and is geared mostly to people who have little or no insurance. Medicare Advantage and Medicare drug policies are not sold on the marketplace.

Because of the government shutdown, Medicare officials were not available for comment on details about the plans or enrollment. However, enrollment will start on time despite the shutdown.

Advocates for seniors noted that the government's online plan finder has carried a warning for the past several days that plan details may not be up to date. They recommend consumers should not decide on a plan until Medicare officials confirm that the plan finder provides accurate information. In addition to the website, assistance is also available by calling 800-MEDICARE (800-633-4227).

PLANS: Health savings vs. flexible spending account

Policies can change from year to year, so Medicare officials encourage seniors to ! review th! eir current coverage to make sure their drugs are still covered and at the best price. They should also check to see if they can get to the plan's preferred pharmacies, which offer lower prescription prices than others in the plan's network.

While the AARP MedicareRx Saver Plus premium will go up 55% next year, it's still below the average national premium, Sarah Bearce, a UnitedHealthcare spokeswoman said in an e-mail. The combination of federal reimbursement cuts, the health law's new tax on insurers and the automatic cuts triggered by sequestration "required us to make changes to our plans," she said, and added that this "financial pressure" is being felt across the health insurance industry.

But price increases, poor performance, and changes in covered drugs are often not enough to spur the vast majority of seniors to action. Only 13% changed policies in the four years since Congress added the drug benefit to Medicare in 2006, according to an analysis released last week by the Kaiser Family Foundation, a health policy organization. (Kaiser Health News is an editorially independent program of KFF.)

It's easier not to switch," said Richard Lees, a retired New York orthodontist who moved with his wife, Joan, to Silver Spring, Md., to live closer to their two daughters and their families. But when he learned his premium is going up next year, "I was very disappointed," he said.

Hot Cheapest Companies To Watch For 2015

He and his wife chose different plans because they take different drugs. (Unlike employer-sponsored insurance, Medicare drug plans do not require spouses to be on the same plan.)

"Each year, we have changed companies and improved our situation," he said.

When considering coverage, it's important to look beyond premiums to consider drug co-pays and other costs. During last year's fall enrollment period, Senior PharmAssist, o non-profit group in Durham, N! .C., help! ed 387 seniors save an average of $676, said executive director Gina Upchurch.

Kaiser Health Newshttp://www.kaiserhealthnews.org/ is an editorially independent program of the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, a non-profit, non-partisan health policy research and communication organization not affiliated with Kaiser Permanente.

Best China Stocks To Watch Right Now

Best China Stocks To Watch Right Now: NetQin Mobile Inc. (NQ)

NetQin Mobile Inc. operates as a software-as-a-service provider of consumer-centric mobile Internet services focusing on security and productivity in the People?s Republic of China and internationally. It provides a suite of mobile Internet services that protect mobile users from security threats and enhance their productivity. It offers mobile security services, including mobile malware scanning, Internet firewall, account and communication safety, anti-theft, performance optimization, hostile software rating and reporting, and other services to protect users from mobile malware threats, data theft, and privacy intrusion. The company also provides mobile productivity services comprising screening incoming calls, filtering unwanted spam, SMS messages, protecting communication privacy, and managing calendar activities, as well as cloud-side synchronization of personal data, including address books, text messages, and calendars to enhance time and relationship management. In addition, it provides personalized intelligent cloud services that utilize synchronized user information to provide tailored user experience and extend the functionalities of its core services. Further, the company offers security forums and download services for third-party mobile applications. The company was founded in 2005 and is based in Beijing, the People?s Republic of China.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Jake L'Ecuyer]

  Leading and Lagging Sectors
  In trading on Friday, telecommunications services shares were relative leaders, up on the day by about 0.83 percent. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included NQ Mobile (NYSE: NQ), up 5.2 percent, and PT Telekomunikasi Indonesia Tbk (NYSE: TLK), up 5.3 percent. Basic materials shares fell about 0.33 percent in trading on Friday.

• [By Jake L'Ecuyer]

  Leading and La! gging Sectors
  In trading on Friday, telecommunications services shares were relative leaders, up on the day by about 0.83 percent. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included NQ Mobile (NYSE: NQ), up 5.2 percent, and PT Telekomunikasi Indonesia Tbk (NYSE: TLK), up 5.3 percent. Basic materials shares fell about0.33 percent in trading on Friday.

• [By Jake L'Ecuyer]

  Top losers in the sector included NQ Mobile (NYSE: NQ), off 5.8 percent, and Lumos Networks (NASDAQ: LMOS), down 2.9 percent.

  Top Headline
  Citigroup (NYSE: C) reported better-than-expected first-quarter results. Citigroup's quarterly profit surged to $3.94 billion, versus a year-ago profit of $3.81 billion. On a per-share basis, it earned $1.23. Excluding one-time items, its earnings rose to $1.30 versus $1.29. Its revenue declined to $20.12 billion. However, analysts were projecting earnings of $1.14 per share on revenue of $19.37 billion.

source from Top Stocks For 2015:http://www.topstocksblog.com/best-china-stocks-to-watch-right-now-2.html

Top Value Stocks To Watch Right Now

Top Value Stocks To Watch Right Now: Tupperware Corporation(TUP)

Tupperware Brands Corporation operates as a direct seller of various products across a range of brands and categories through an independent sales force. The company engages in the manufacture and sale of kitchen and home products, and beauty and personal care products. It offers preparation, storage, and serving solutions for the kitchen and home, as well as kitchen cookware and tools, children?s educational toys, microwave products, and gifts under the Tupperware brand name primarily in Europe, Africa, the Middle East, the Asia Pacific, and North America. The company provides beauty and personal care products, which include skin care products, cosmetics, bath and body care, toiletries, fragrances, nutritional products, apparel, and related products principally in Mexico, South Africa, the Philippines, Australia, and Uruguay. It offers beauty and personal care products under the Armand Dupree, Avroy Shlain, BeautiControl, Fuller, NaturCare, Nutrimetics, Nuvo, and Swissgar de brand names. The company sells its Tupperware products directly to distributors, directors, managers, and dealers; and beauty products primarily through consultants and directors. As of December 26, 2009, the Tupperware distribution system had approximately 1,800 distributors, 61,300 managers, and 1.3 million dealers; and the sales force representing the Beauty businesses approximately 1.1 million. The company was formerly known as Tupperware Corporation and changed its name to Tupperware Brands Corporation in December 2005. The company was founded in 1996 and is headquartered in Orlando, Florida.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Jonathan Berr]

  Multilevel marketing (MLM) groups such as Herbalife operate through independent sales representatives, who earn money both through the sales of product and by recruiting other people to join their team. Thi! s business model — which is used by scores of companies, including Pampered Chef, which is owned by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.B), Tupperware (TUP) and Mary Kay Cosmetics — is legal provided that actual products are sold.

• [By Johanna Bennett]

  Corporate earnings took a back seat today to the Fed's latest policy decision. Still, quarterly financial results, and other news sent shares of McCormick & Co. (MKC) and Tupperware (TUP), falling during regular market hours Here's a rundown of several of today's moves:

• [By John Kell]

  Among the companies with shares expected to actively trade in Wednesday’s session are Dow Chemical Co.(DOW), Tupperware Brands Corp.(TUP) and Yahoo Inc.(YHOO)

• [By Ben Levisohn]

  Shares of Herbalife have gained 0.9% to $79.51 this morning in pre-open trading. Its shares have gained 139% this year, a nice gain, but lagging Nu Skin Enterprises 271% rise. Avon Products (AVP), another multi-level marketer, has gained 21% so far this year, while Tupperware Brands (TUP) has risen 49%.

source from Top Stocks For 2015:http://www.topstocksblog.com/top-value-stocks-to-watch-right-now-2.html

10 Best International Stocks To Own Right Now

10 Best International Stocks To Own Right Now: EchoStar Corporation(SATS)

EchoStar Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, engages in the design, development, and distribution of digital set-top boxes and related products. The company?s EchoStar Technologies segment designs, develops, and distributes digital set-top boxes and related products and technology, including Slingbox placeshifting technology primarily for satellite television (TV) service providers, and telecommunication and cable companies that allow consumers to watch and control their home digital video and audio content through a broadband Internet connection; and Slingboxes for consumers through retail outlets. This segment also provides digital broadcast operations comprising satellite uplinking/downlinking, transmission services, signal processing, conditional access management, and other services primarily to DISH Network. Its EchoStar Satellite Services segment offers capacity leasing on a full-time and occasional-use basis primarily to DISH Network, as well as to Dish M exico, the U.S. government service providers, state agencies, Internet service providers, broadcast news organizations, programmers, and private enterprise customers through its 10 owned and leased in-orbit satellites and related Federal Communications Commission licenses. The company?s Hughes segment provides satellite broadband Internet access to consumers in North America; broadband network services and systems to the domestic and international enterprise markets; managed services and equipment to enterprises; turnkey satellite ground segment systems to mobile system operators; and microwave radio network systems for cellular backhaul and broadband wireless access. It has operations in North America, Asia, Africa, Australia, Europe, South America, and the Middle East. EchoStar Corporation was founded in 2007 and is headquartered in Englewood, Colorado.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By James Miller Phd]

  The company has a c! urrent ratio of 13.05% which is higher than the one registered by Charter Communications Inc. (CHTR), Digital Globe Inc. (DGI), EchoStar Corp (SATS), Gilat Satellite Networks Ltd. (GILT) and Intelsat SA (I).

• [By Lauren Pollock]

  Dish swung to a third-quarter profit, helped by an increase in revenue and subscriber rolls, while former unit EchoStar Corp.(SATS) posted a weaker profit. Dish results beat expectations, sending shares up 3.2% to $49 premarket.

source from Top Penny Stocks For 2015:http://www.seekpennystocks.com/10-best-international-stocks-to-own-right-now.html

Refineries Ramp Up Production While Crude and Gasoline Supply Shrinks

The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) released its weekly petroleum status report this morning. U.S. commercial crude inventories decreased by 1.4 million barrels last week, maintaining a total U.S. commercial crude inventory to 359.1 million barrels, and remaining near the upper limit of the five-year range for this time of the year.

Total gasoline inventories decreased by 4 million barrels last week and are now in the upper half of the five-year average range. Total motor gasoline supplied (the EIA's measure of consumption) averaged 9.2 million barrels a day over the past four weeks — up by 2% from the same period a year ago.

Distillate inventories rose by 900,000 barrels last week and remain near the lower limit of the average range. Distillate product supplied averaged about 3.8 million barrels a day over the past four weeks, up about 2.8% when compared with the same period last year. Distillate production totaled about 4.9 million barrels a day last week.

The American Petroleum Institute last night reported that crude inventories fell by 1.2 million barrels last week, together with a decline of 3.7 million barrels in gasoline supplies and a rise of 1.8 barrels in distillate supplies. Platts estimated a drop of 1 million barrels in crude inventories, a drop of 1.5 million barrels in gasoline inventories, and an increase of 1 million barrels in distillate inventories.

Crude prices were down slightly before the EIA report at around $104.70 a barrel and fell further to around $104.60 shortly after the report was released.

For the past week, crude imports averaged about 8 million barrels a day, up about 34,000 barrels a day from the previous week. Refineries were running at 91% of capacity, with daily input of 15.8 million barrels a day, about 200,000 barrels a day more than the previous week.

This marks the eighth straight week of declines in crude stockpiles, yet inventories remain quite high and gasoline supply continues to be plentiful. Refinery throughput is up by about 200,000 barrels a day as refiners continue to grow their exports. As refiners begin to switch to winter fuel blends, inventories likely will continue to fall.

Gasoline prices continue to decline nationally. According to the AAA Fuel Gauge report, a gallon of regular gasoline costs about $3.53 today compared with about $3.54 a week ago. Last month the price was $3.67 a gallon and one year ago the price of a gallon of regular gasoline was $3.72.

The United States Oil ETF (NYSEMKT: USO) is down 0.16%, at $37.45 in a 52-week range of $30.79 to $38.62.

The United States Gasoline ETF (NYSEMKT: UGA) is up about 0.4%, at $60.40, in a 52-week range of $53.35 to $65.86.

The United States Brent Oil ETF (NYSEMKT: BNO) is down 0.3%, at $84.68 in a 52-week range of $73.76 to $88.71.

Top 10 Railroad Stocks For 2015

When�TransCanada� (NYSE: TRP  ) first announced its plan to construct the Keystone XL pipeline, I'm sure company executives never thought it would wind up as one of the most polarizing environmental symbols in recent memory. Nor could they have predicted that the approval process would take, well, forever.

The exceedingly long duration of that process has allowed the Keystone XL to grow from a large pipeline to a larger than life feedstock for environmental, political, and economic arguments, and even a conspiracy theory or two. Some have really taken to the notion, for example, that Warren Buffett has a hand in delaying the pipeline project in order to boost his railroad business. The theory is that Buffett is encouraging President Obama into stalling on his decision to approve or deny Keystone XL. If the President does deny Keystone XL, the thinking goes, that is only further proof of Buffett's hold on him. Some of us may think this is a ridiculous theory, but given the power of money in Washington, let's take a closer look anyway.

Top 10 Railroad Stocks For 2015: Harvest Natural Resources Inc (HNR)

Harvest Natural Resources, Inc., incorporated on September 9, 1988, is a petroleum exploration and production company. The Company is engaged in the exploration, development and production of properties in geological basins with proven active hydrocarbon systems. The Company holds interest in the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela (Venezuela). The Company's Venezuelan interests are owned through Harvest-Vinccler Dutch Holding, B.V. Through HNR Energia, B.V. (HNR Energia), the Company indirectly owns 80% of Harvest Holding and its partner, Oil & Gas Technology Consultants (Netherlands) Cooperatie U.A., indirectly owns the remaining 20% interest of Harvest Holding. Harvest Holding owns, indirectly through wholly owned subsidiaries, a 40% of Petrodelta, S.A. (Petrodelta). The Company indirectly owns a net 32% interest in Petrodelta, and Venezolana de Inversiones y Construcciones Clerico, C.A. (Vinccler) indirectly owns 8%. Corporacion Venezolana del Petroleo S.A. (CVP) owns the remaining 60% of Petrodelta. Petroleos de Venezuela S.A. (PDVS) owns 100% of CVP. Harvest Holding has a direct controlling interest in Harvest Vinccler S.C.A. (Harvest Vinccler).

As of December 31, 2012, the Company's operations were located at Venezuela, Republic of Indonesia, Republic of Gabon, Sultanate of Oman and People's Republic of China. In Venezuela operations are through the Company's Petrodelta. In Republic of Indonesia (Indonesia) the operations are mainly onshore in West Sulawesi in Indonesia through the Budong PSC. The Company owns a 64.51% interest in the Budong PSC. In Republic of Gabon (Gabon) operations are offshore of Gabon through the Dussafu PSC. The Company has a 66.667% interest in the Dussafu PSC. The Company is the operator. In Sultanate of Oman (Oman) the operations are onshore in Oman through the exploration and production sharing agreement (EPSA) Al Ghubar / Qarn Alam license (Block 64 EPSA). The Company has an 80% interest in Block 64 EPSA. The Company is the operator. In People's Republic o! f China (China) the exploration acreage is offshore of China in the South China Sea through the Wab-21 Petroleum Contract (Wab-21). The Company has a 100% interest in the WAB-21 petroleum contract. The Company is the operator.

Petrodelta is engaged the exploration, production, gathering, transportation and storage of hydrocarbons from the Petrodelta Fields. As of December 31, 2012, there were 86 oil and natural gas producing wells and seven water injection wells in the Petrodelta Fields. As of December 31, 2012, there were 15 oil producing wells and four water injection wells in the Tucupita Field. As of December 31, 2012, there were 28 oil producing wells in the Temblador Field. At December 31, 2012, there were 17 oil producing wells and one water injection well in the El Salto field.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Paul Ausick]

  Harvest Natural Resources Inc. (NYSE: HNR) is up 17.3% at $4.62. The independent oil & gas company received an upgrade today based on the belief that company can sell some of its foreign assets.

Top 10 Railroad Stocks For 2015: MarineMax Inc (HZO)

MarineMax, Inc., incorporated in January 1998, is a recreational boat dealer in the United States. Through 54 retail locations in Alabama, Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Kansas, Maryland, Minnesota, Missouri, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, Tennessee, and Texas, the Company sells new and used recreational boats, including pleasure and fishing boats. It also sells related marine products, including engines, trailers, parts, and accessories. In addition, the Company provides repair, maintenance, and slip and storage services; it arranges related boat financing, insurance, and extended service contracts; it offers boat and yacht brokerage services, and it operates a yacht charter business. It is also retailer of Sea Ray, Boston Whaler, Bayliner, Cabo, Hatteras, and Meridian recreational boats and yachts, all of which are manufactured by Brunswick Corporation (Brunswick). In March 2013, it acquired Parker Boat Company's retail boat sales and service operations in Orlando and Daytona, Florida.

The Company is a dealer for Hatteras Yachts throughout the state of Florida (excluding the Florida panhandle) and the states of New Jersey, New York, and Texas; the exclusive dealer for Cabo Yachts throughout the states of Florida, New Jersey, and New York; the exclusive dealer for Boston Whaler in many of its markets; the exclusive dealer for Bayliner in many of its markets, and the exclusive dealer for Meridian Yachts in most of its markets. In addition, it is the exclusive dealer for Italy-based Azimut-Benetti Group for Azimut mega-yachts, yachts, and other recreational boats for the Northeast United States from Maryland to Maine and the state of Florida.

New Boat Sales

The Company sells recreational boats, including pleasure boats and fishing boats. The products it offers are manufactured by Brunswick, the manufacturer of recreational boats, including Sea Ray pleasure boats, Boston Whaler fishing boats, Cab! o Yachts, Hatteras Yachts, and Meridian Yachts. During the fiscal year ended September 30, 2011 (fiscal 2011), it derived approximately 48% of its revenue from the sale of new boats manufactured by Brunswick. During fiscal 2011, new boat sales accounted for 60.6% of its revenue. It offers recreational boats in most market segments. Hatteras Yachts and Azimut are two of the premier yacht builders. The motor yacht product lines include designs with live-aboard luxuries. Hatteras offers a flybridge with guest seating; covered aft deck, which may be fully or partially enclosed, providing the boater with additional living space; an elegant salon; and multiple staterooms for accommodations.

Hatteras Yachts and Cabo Yachts are convertible yacht builders and offer designs with live-aboard luxuries. Convertibles are primarily fishing vessels, which are well equipped to meet the needs of even the most serious tournament-class competitor. Hatteras features interiors that offer luxurious salon/galley arrangements, multiple staterooms with private heads, and a cockpit that includes a bait and tackle center, fishbox, and freezer. Cabo is known for spacious cockpits and accessibility to essentials, such as bait chests, livewells, bait prep centers, and tackle lockers.

Sea Ray and Meridian pleasure boats target both the luxury and the family recreational boating markets and come in a range of configurations to suit each customer�� particular recreational boating style. Sea Ray sport yachts and yachts serve the luxury segment of the recreational boating market and include living accommodations with a salon, a fully equipped galley, and multiple staterooms. Sea Ray sport yachts and yachts are available in cabin, bridge cockpit, and cruiser models. Meridian sport yachts and yachts are available in sedan, motoryacht, and pilothouse models.

The fishing boats the Company offers, such as Boston Whaler and Grady White, range from entry level models to advanced models designed for fish! ing and w! ater sports in lakes, bays, and off-shore waters, with cabins with limited live-aboard capability. The fishing boats feature livewells, in-deck fishboxes, rodholders, rigging stations, cockpit coaming pads, and fresh and saltwater washdowns. The ski boats it offers, such as Malibu, Axis, and Nautique by Correct Craft, range from entry level models to advanced models.

Used Boat Sales

The Company sells used versions of the new makes and models it offers and, to a lesser extent, used boats of other makes and models generally taken as trade-ins. During fiscal 2011, used boat sales accounted for 19.0% of its revenue, and 77.1% of the used boats it sold were Brunswick models. It also sells used boats at various marinas and other offsite locations throughout the country. In addition, it offers the Sea Ray Legacy warranty plan available for used Sea Ray boats less than six years old. The Legacy plan applies to each qualifying used Sea Ray boat, which has passed a 48-point inspection, and provides protection against failure of most mechanical parts for up to three years.

Marine Engines, Related Marine Equipment, and Boating Parts and Accessories

The Company offers marine engines and propellers, substantially all of which are manufactured by Mercury Marine, a division of Brunswick. It sells marine engines and propellers primarily to retail customers as replacements for their existing engines or propellers. It also sells a range of marine parts and accessories at its retail locations, at various offsite locations, through its print catalog, and through the Website portal. These marine parts and accessories include marine electronics; dock and anchoring products, such as boat fenders, lines, and anchors; boat covers; trailer parts; water sport accessories, such as tubes, lines, wakeboards, and skies; engine parts; oils; lubricants; steering and control systems; corrosion control products, service products; high-performance accessories, such as propellers and instr! uments, a! nd a complete line of boating accessories, including life jackets, inflatables, and water sports equipment. It also offers novelty items, such as shirts, caps, and license plates bearing the manufacturer�� or dealer�� logos. The sale of marine engines, related marine equipment, and boating parts and accessories accounted for 6.2% of the Company�� during fiscal 2011 revenue.

Maintenance, Repair, and Storage Services

The Company provides maintenance and repair services at most of its retail locations, with extended service hours at certain of its locations. In addition, in many of its markets, it provides mobile maintenance and repair services at the location of the customer�� boat. The Company performs both warranty and non-warranty repair services. It derives the majority of its warranty revenue from Brunswick products. Its maintenance and repair services are performed by manufacturer-trained and certified service technicians. At many of the Company�� locations, it offers boat storage services, including in-water slip storage and inside and outside land storage. Maintenance, repair, and storage services accounted for 8.9% of its revenue during fiscal 2011. This includes warranty and non-warranty services.

F&I Products

At each of the Company�� retail locations, it offers the customers the ability to finance new or used boat purchases and to purchase extended service contracts and arrange insurance coverage, including boat property, credit life, and accident, disability, and casualty insurance coverage (collectively, F&I). The Company also offers third-party extended service contracts under which, for a predetermined price, it provides all designated services pursuant to the service contract guidelines during the contract term at no additional charge to the customer above a deductible. Credit life insurance policies provide for repayment of the boat financing contract if the purchaser dies while the contract is outstanding. Accident an! d disabil! ity insurance policies provide for payment of the monthly contract obligation during any period in which the buyer is disabled. Property and casualty insurance covers loss or damage to the boat.

Brokerage Services

Through employees or subcontractors that are licensed boat or yacht brokers, the Company offers boat or yacht brokerage services at most of its retail locations. It also offers for sale brokered boats or yachts, listing them on various Internet sites, advising its other retail locations, and posting them on its Website, www.MarineMax.com. Its maintenance and repair services, including mobile service, also are generally available to its brokerage customers.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By John Udovich]

  As we head towards Black Friday, small cap specialty retail stocks United Online, Inc (NASDAQ: UNTD), TravelCenters of America LLC (NYSE: TA) and MarineMax, Inc (NYSE: HZO) have the distinction of being the best performing small cap�specialty retail stocks for this year (according to Finviz.com) with gains of 181.2%, 123.8% and 71.8%, respectively. With those returns in mind, what are these small cap specialty retail stocks doing right and will the performance last through the all important holiday season? Here is what new and existing investors and traders alike need to know or consider:

Best Trucking Companies To Invest In Right Now: Extreme Biodiesel Inc (XTRM)

Extreme Biodiesel Inc., formerly Book Merge Technology, Inc., incorporated on February 28, 2008, is engaged in manufacturing of home biodiesel processors. The Company focuses to produce alternative fuel. The Company has a bio diesel refinery and factory for refining diesel oil and manufacturing bio diesel processors. On October 11, 2010, the Company acquired a 51% interest in EGT. on October 11, 2010, the reverse acquisition was effected. On March 31, 2011, the Company completed the acquisition of EGT.

The Company�� products include standard extractor, extreme extractor, extreme mini-refinery, extreme purification system, titration kit, dispensing pump with meter and oil collection pump. The standard extractor is a biodiesel processor, which requires a water-wash process to purify the biodiesel. Extreme extractor is a waterless purification system. The Mini Refinery is the waterless system, which can make 600 gallons of quality biodiesel per day.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Peter Graham]

  Small cap resource or green stocks Paradigm Resource Management Corp (OTCMKTS: PRDC), Extreme Biodiesel Inc (OTCMKTS: XTRM) and Pan Global Corp (OTCMKTS: PGLO) have all been getting some attention lately thanks in part to a few paid stock promotions. However, two of these small cap appear to be the subject of minimal paid promotion activity, but even a small paid promotion or investor relations campaign can increase a stock�� volatility. So do these three small cap resource or green stocks have what it takes to deliver some Christmas cheer for investors and traders alike? Here is a quick reality check:

Top 10 Railroad Stocks For 2015: ImmunoCellular Therapeutics Ltd (IMUC)

ImmunoCellular Therapeutics, Ltd., incorporated on March 20, 1987, is a clinical-stage biotechnology company. The Company is engaged in developing immune-based therapies for the treatment of cancers, such as brain, ovarian and other solid tumors. Immunotherapy is an approach to treat cancer in which a patient�� own immune system is stimulated to target tumor antigens, which are molecular signals that the immune system uses to identify foreign bodies. The Company�� products include ICT-107, ICT-140, ICT-120, ICT-109 and DIAAD. ICT-107, the pipeline product, is a Phase II therapeutic dendritic cell (DC) vaccine for the treatment of glioblastoma multiforme (GBM), the common and lethal type of brain cancer. ICT-107 is designed to activate a patient�� immune system to target six different tumor-associated antigens. In February 2012, it acquired a world-wide license from the University of Pennsylvania and The John Hopkins University (JHU).

The Company in addition to ICT-107, is also developing other therapeutic DC vaccines: ICT-140 for ovarian cancer and ICT-121 for recurrent GBM. ICT-140 targets seven tumor-associated antigens expressed on ovarian cancer cells. ICT-107 is a DC vaccine that targets six different tumor-associated antigens that are found on patients��tumor cells; four of the six antigens are expressed on CSCs. The therapeutic vaccine is used subsequent to conventional therapy or concomitantly with chemotherapy in patients with newly diagnosed GBM. ICT-140 is a DC vaccine that targets seven different ovarian cancer antigens. ICT-121 is a DC vaccine that targets CD133 antigens; it has the potential to be a universal cancer vaccine because CD133 is widely expressed on CSCs from a majority of cancers. Data from this small study demonstrated that ICT-109 had a statistically ability to discriminate between cancerous and non-cancerous samples, suggesting the potential to detect pancreatic and lung cancer in plasma and serum study sets. The DIAAD (differential immunization for an! tigen and antibody discovery) platform it acquired from Molecular Discoveries utilizes immunological tolerization to accelerate the discovery of the molecular differences between diseased cells and their normal counterparts. The monoclonal antibodies produced by DIAAD provide the basis for the discovery and development of its potential diagnostic and therapeutic products.

The Company competes with Dendreon, Oncothyreon, Galena, Bavarian Nordic and Immunovaccine, Northwest Biotherapeutics, Prima Biomed, DCPrime, Roche/Genentech, Seattle Genetics, Bristol-Myers Squibb and Immunogen.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Monica Gerson]

  ImmunoCellular Therapeutics (NYSE: IMUC) dropped 11.05% to $1.3699. ImmunoCellular's trailing-twelve-month ROE is -59.80%.

  Posted-In: market losersNews Movers & Shakers Intraday Update Markets

• [By Wallace Witkowski]

  Shares of ImmunoCellular (IMUC) �jumped after the drug developer said data on a mid-stage brain cancer drug study were looking encouraging.

• [By Smith On Stocks]

  Using my assumptions, the common of Agenus might be worth about $7.00 per share in early 2014 based on the royalties from the Glaxo vaccines and the net operating loss carry forward even if every other asset in the company were valued at zero. However, there may be substantial value in Agenus' internal vaccine programs in recurrent and newly diagnosed glioblastoma and the genital herpes vaccine. Based on a comparison to peer companies like Northwest Biotherapeutics (NWBO) and ImmunoCellular Therapeutics (IMUC), I believe that the internal programs at Agenus currently may be worth $150 million or $4.45 per share. Adding this to the value of the MAGE A-3 vaccine could produce a stock price of $11.00 in early 2014.

• [By Lauren Pollock]

  ImmunoCellular Therapeutics Ltd.(IMUC) said its leading product candidate, a dendritic cell-based vaccine for brain cancer, didn’t show a statistically significant advantage in overall survival in a Phase II study. In a research note, Maxim Group said it is pushing its EU approval date target to 2019 and lowered its estimate on the stock to $12 a share from $18 a share. The stock plunged 62% to $1.04 premarket.

Top 10 Railroad Stocks For 2015: Orthofix International N.V.(OFIX)

Orthofix International N.V., a medical device company, designs, develops, manufactures, markets, and distributes medical equipment used principally by musculoskeletal medical specialists for orthopedic applications. The company offers spinal implant products, and related human cellular and tissue based products used in surgical procedures; non-invasive regenerative stimulation products for use in bone growth and spinal fusions, and to treat non-union fractures; external and internal fixation devices for use in fracture repair, limb lengthening, and bone reconstruction; and bracing products for use in ligament injury prevention, pain management, and protection of surgical repair. Its products also include a device for cold therapy and bone cement, as well as devices for the removal of bone cement used to fix artificial implants. The company provides its products for the spine, orthopedics, and sports medicine market sectors serving independent third parties, including hospi tals, doctors, healthcare providers, and third-party payors, as well as patients. It distributes its products in the United States, the United Kingdom, Italy, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, France, Belgium, Brazil, and Puerto Rico through direct sales representatives and independent distributors. Orthofix International N.V. was founded in 1979 and is headquartered in Curacao, the Netherlands Antilles.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Sean Williams]

  What: Shares of Orthofix International (NASDAQ: OFIX  ) , a medical device company specializing in spinal and orthopedic applications, shed as much as 21% of their value after the company reported its first-quarter results and received four analyst downgrades.

Top 10 Railroad Stocks For 2015: Prothena Corporation PLC (PRTA)

Prothena Corporation PLC, incorporated on September 26, 2012, is an Ireland-based, clinical-stage biotechnology company. The Company is engaged in discovering and developing monoclonal antibodies that are directed towards misfolded proteins or improper cell adhesion. Its pipeline includes NEOD001, PRX002 and PRX003. The Company�� work in protein misfolding could result in therapies to treat several neurodegenerative diseases, including AL (primary) and AA (secondary) forms of amyloidosis (NEOD001), Parkinson's disease and related synucleinopathies (PRX002). Its cell adhesion development activities could generate new therapies to treat inflammatory diseases and metastatic cancers (PRX003). The Company�� program, NEOD001, is in Phase 1. In addition to antibodies directed to neo-epitope targets, it is developing antibodies directed to other targets. The Company has generated antibodies against cell adhesion targets expressed on certain pathogenic Th17 immune cells and tumor cells.

The Company�� pipeline also includes several late discovery stage programs for which it is testing antibodies in preclinical models of disease. It is also generating additional antibodies against other targets involved in protein misfolding and cell adhesion for characterization in vivo and in vitro.

NEOD001 for Amyloidosis

NEOD001 is a monoclonal antibody that targets the amyloid that accumulates in both AL and AA forms of amyloidosis. The antibody was designed to not react with normal serum amyloid A and only with the aberrant cleaved form of the protein (amyloid A).

PRX002 for Parkinson�� Disease

The Company has generated antibodies targeting alpha-synuclein that may slow or reduce the neurodegeneration associated with synuclein misfolding and/or transmission. It has tested these antibodies in various cellular and animal models of synuclein-related disease. In a transgenic mouse model of Parkinson�� disease, passive immunization with 9E4, a murine ver! sion of PRX002, reduced the appearance of synuclein pathology, protected synapses and improved performance by the mice in behavioral testing. The humanized antibody product candidate PRX002 has advanced into manufacturing and preclinical testing.

PRX003 for Inflammatory Diseases and Cancers

The Company is developing PRX003, a monoclonal antibody targeting MCAM for the potential treatment of inflammatory diseases and cancers. It has generated monoclonal antibodies that block MCAM-mediated cell adhesion and have been shown to delay relapse and severity of relapse in a mouse model of multiple sclerosis known as experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis. The Company�� antibodies are being tested in animal models of inflammatory diseases and cancers. Based on early results from these studies, it has identified a clinical candidate, PRX003. It has advanced this antibody into manufacturing and intends to advance this antibody into preclinical testing.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Lauren Pollock]

  Roche Holding AG(ROG.VX) has entered a pact with Prothena Corp.(PRTA) PLC to develop and commercialize a treatment the clinical-stage biotechnology firm is developing for Parkinson’s disease. In after-hours trading, Prothena’s stock rose 8.6% to $29.75 premarket.

• [By Jake L'Ecuyer]

  Prothena Corporation (NASDAQ: PRTA) shares were down as well, falling 28.00 percent to $27.13 after the company released some materials from its coming symposium presentation.

• [By Lisa Levin]

  Prothena Corporation plc (NASDAQ: PRTA) shares surged 23.52% to touch a new 52-week high of $45.90 after the company reported clinical data to be presented at International Symposium on Amyloidosis. Morgan Stanley raised the price target on the stock from $35.00 to $53.00.

• [By Jake L'Ecuyer]

  Equities Trading UP
  Prothena Corporation plc (NASDAQ: PRTA) shares shot up 21.60 percent to $45.19 after the company reported clinical data to be presented at International Symposium on Amyloidosis. Morgan Stanley raised the price target on the stock from $35.00 to $53.00.

Top 10 Railroad Stocks For 2015: TTM Technologies Inc.(TTMI)

TTM Technologies, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, provides printed circuit board (PCB) products and backplane assemblies worldwide. Its PCB products include conventional, high density interconnect, flexible, and rigid-flex PCBs, as well as backplane assemblies and IC substrates. The company also offers various services, such as design for manufacturability support during new product introduction stages, PCB layout design, simulation and testing services, quick turnaround production, and drilling and routing services. Its customers include original equipment manufacturers and electronic manufacturing service companies that primarily serve the networking/communications, aerospace/defense, high-end computing, cell phone, and medical/industrial/instrumentation end markets of the electronics industry. TTM Technologies, Inc. was founded in 1978 and is headquartered in Santa Ana, California.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Brian Pacampara]

  What: Shares of printed circuit board specialist TTM Technologies (NASDAQ: TTMI  ) soared 17% today after its quarterly results topped Wall Street expectations.

Top 10 Railroad Stocks For 2015: Symantec Corporation(SYMC)

Symantec Corporation provides security, storage, and systems management solutions internationally. The company?s Consumer segment delivers Internet security, PC tune-up, and online backup solutions and services to individual users and home offices. Its Security and Compliance segment provides solutions for endpoint security and management, compliance, messaging management, data loss prevention, encryption, and authentication services to large, medium, and small-sized businesses, as well as offers solutions through its software-as-a-service (SaaS) security offerings. This segment?s products enable customers to secure, provision, and remotely manage their laptops, PCs, mobile devices, and servers. The company?s Storage and Server Management segment provides storage and server management, backup, archiving, and data protection solutions across heterogeneous storage and server platforms, as well as solutions delivered through its SaaS offerings to large, medium, and small-s ized businesses. Symantec?s Services segment offers implementation services and solutions, including consulting, business critical services, education, and managed security services. The company also provides various enterprise support offerings, such as annual maintenance support contracts, including content, upgrades, and technical support. It sells its products through its eCommerce platform, as well as through distributors, direct marketers, Internet-based resellers, system builders, ISPs, and retail locations worldwide. Symantec markets and sells its products through distributors, retailers, direct marketers, Internet-based resellers, original equipment manufacturers, system builders, and Internet service providers; and its e-commerce channels, as well as direct sales force, value-added and large account resellers, and system integrators. The company was founded in 1982 and is headquartered in Mountain View, California.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Vanina Egea] and earnings growth (which came in better than expected on the last reported quarter), profit margins and other profitability ratios.

  Additionally, I will evaluate which institutional investors bought the stock in the recent quarters (institutional backup can tell a lot about a stock), and the initiatives that the company is putting in motion in order to ameliorate its sales and margins.

  Earnings

  The first step is analyzing Symantec Corp�� earnings growth. I am looking for companies that are able to expand both their quarterly and annual earnings by more than 15% a year. Last quarter the company generated 13% quarterly EPS growth when compared to the same quarter last year. Thus, I am not encouraged by SYMC�� numbers. Past growth winners (Apple, Baidu, etc.) generated consistent quarterly EPS growth above 15% and I am certainly looking for that level before investing.

  In addition, SYMC generated three-year average annual EPS growth of 10%. This is an important metric to follow in growth stocks because it highlights how well the stock grew in the past years. I like to invest in companies that are growing consistently.

  Revenue

  Let's take a look at SYMC麓s revenue growth. This is a key metric that needs to be analyzed before investing in a company, as it is one of the scarce figures that cannot be modified through accounting tricks and similar dodges.

  The company reported a 5% quarterly revenue drop year over year. On the contrary, I look for companies that generate more than 15% in quarterly growth.

  When betting on a company, an investor wants to see sales grow or improve over time ���nd not just in the last reported quarter. Looking at the company�� financials in comparison to previous years will give participants a much better idea of how well a company is doing. Symantec Corp generated a three-year average annual sales growth rate of 4%.

  A New Strategic Plan

  Accepting the problems in its

• [By MONEYMORNING]

  A big player here is Symantec Corp. (Nasdaq: SYMC), a global provider of security, storage, and systems management solutions with an extensive focus on managing consumer data and information.

• [By Paul Ausick]

  Symantec Inc. (NASDAQ: SYMC) reported second fiscal quarter 2014 results after markets closed on Wednesday. For the quarter, the network security software maker posted adjusted diluted earnings per share (EPS) of $0.50 on revenues of $1.64 billion. In the same period a year ago, the company reported EPS of $0.45 on revenues of $1.7 billion. Second-quarter results compare to the Thomson Reuters consensus estimates for EPS of $0.44 and $1.69 billion in revenues.

Top 10 Railroad Stocks For 2015: Discovery Communications Inc(DISCA)

Discovery Communications, Inc. operates as a non fiction media and entertainment company worldwide. The company provides original and purchased programming across various distribution platforms. Its content covers science, exploration, survival, natural history, sustainability of the environment, technology, docu-series, anthropology, paleontology, history, space, archaeology, health and wellness, engineering, adventure, lifestyles, forensics, civilization, and current events. The company owns and operates nine national television networks in the United States, including Discovery Channel, TLC, Animal Planet, Science Channel, Investigation Discovery, Military Channel, Planet Green, Discovery Fit & Health, and Velocity. Discovery Communications also has interests in Oprah Winfrey Network, a pay-television network and Web site; The Hub that features original programming, game shows, and live-action series and specials; and 3net, a three-dimensional network. In addition, it o ffers network branded Web sites, and mobile and video-on-demand services; and distributes various national and pan-regional television networks. Further, the company develops and sells curriculum-based products and services to public and private K-12 schools, such as access to an online VOD service that includes curriculum-based tools, professional development services, and student assessment and publication of hardcopy curriculum-based content; and postproduction audio services to motion picture studios, independent producers, broadcast networks, cable channels, advertising agencies, and interactive producers. As of December 31, 2011, it operated approximately 150 distribution feeds in 40 languages. The company is headquartered in Silver Spring, Maryland.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Jonas Elmerraji]

  If the market's had a great year in 2013, Discovery Communications (DISCA) has managed to do one better. Shares of the $30 billion TV broadcaster have rallied almost 32% year-to-date, stomping the performance of the S&P 500 by a wide margin.

  Still, investors hate this stock right now. With a short interest ratio of 10.7, it would take short sellers more than two weeks of buying at current volume levels to cover their positions.

  Discovery owns a handful of international cable TV channels, including the namesake Discovery Channel, TLC, Science Channel and Animal Planet, and positions in properties such as Oprah Winfrey's OWN Network, launched in 2011. Discovery's niche positioning gives it some big benefits -- the firm's channels focus on topics such as science, technology and history, and they're able to sell more targeted advertising as a result. That's helped push the firm's net margins far above those of more conventional network broadcasters.

  Discovery's channels are only part of the story. Content is king in the broadcast business, and so Discovery's 100,000 hour video library provides the firm with an extremely valuable asset -- especially now that streaming video firms such as Amazon.com (AMZN) and Netflix (NFLX) are falling all over themselves to license content.

  DISCA has some tailwinds at its back right now, and its hefty short interest gives it the potential to pop this summer.

• [By Will Ashworth]

  Somebody will buy Scripps Networks Interactive (SNI), given that HGTV and Food Network are both in the top 20. It looked momentarily like Discovery Communications (DISCA) might be the suitor, but the company backed out of talks this past week, preferring to focus on overseas expansion.

Top 10 Railroad Stocks For 2015: Cecil Bancorp Inc (CECB)

Cecil Bancorp, Inc. is the holding company for Cecil Bank (the Bank). The Bank is a Maryland chartered commercial bank, is a member of the Federal Reserve System and the Federal Home Loan Bank (FHLB) of Atlanta, and is an Equal Housing Lender. Its deposits are insured by the Deposit Insurance Fund (DIF) of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC). The Bank conducts its business through its main office in Elkton, Maryland, and branches in Elkton, North East, Fair Hill, Rising Sun, Cecilton, Aberdeen, Conowingo and Havre de Grace, Maryland. On August 16, 2013, Cecil Bank completed the sale of its Aberdeen, Maryland branch office to Howard Bank, a wholly owned subsidiary of Howard Bancorp, Inc.

Lending Activities

The Bank offers mortgage loans on one-to four-family residential dwellings. Most of the loans are originated in amounts up to $350,000, on single-family properties located in the Bank�� primary market area. The Bank�� mortgage loan originations are generally for terms of 15, 20 and 30 years, amortized on a monthly basis with interest and principal due each month. The Bank offers adjustable-rate mortgage loans with terms of up to 30 years. The Bank also originates conventional fixed-rate mortgages with terms of 15, 20, 30 or 40 years. During the year ended December 31, 2011, the Bank originated $2,145,000 in adjustable-rate mortgage loans and $7,157,000 in fixed-rate mortgage loans. The Bank also offers second mortgage loans. These loans are secured by a junior lien on residential real estate. The total of first and second liens may not exceed a 90% loan to value ratio.

The Bank�� construction lending has primarily involved lending for construction of single-family residences, although the Bank does lend funds for the construction of commercial properties and multi-family real estate. Land loans granted to individuals have a term of up to 10 years and interest rates adjust every one, three or five years. Land loans granted to developers have te! rms of up to three years. The Bank originates loans on multi-family residential and commercial properties in its market area. The Bank�� permanent multi-family and commercial real estate loans are typically secured by retail or wholesale establishments, motels/hotels, service industries and industrial or warehouse facilities. Multi-family and commercial real estate loans generally have terms of 20 to 40 years, are either tied to the prime rate or have interest rate adjustments every one, three or five years.

The Bank offers commercial business loans and both secured and unsecured loans and letters of credit, or lines of credit for businesses located in its primary market area. The business loans have a one year term, while lines of credit can remain open for longer periods. The Bank�� consumer loans consist of automobile loans, deposit account loans, home improvement loans, and other consumer loans. Consumer loans are generally offered for terms of up to five years at fixed interest rates.

Investment Activities

The Bank maintains a portfolio of mortgage-backed securities in the form of Government National Mortgage Association (GNMA) and Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation (FHLMC) participation certificates. GNMA certificates are guaranteed as to principal and interest by the United States, while FHLMC certificates are guaranteed by the agency.

Sources of Funds

Deposits are attracted principally from the Bank�� market area through the offering of a range of deposit instruments, including savings accounts and certificates of deposit ranging in term from 91 days to 60 months, as well as regular checking, negotiable order of withdrawal (NOW), passbook and money market deposit accounts. Deposit account terms vary, principally on the basis of the minimum balance required; the time periods the funds must remain on deposit, and the interest rate. The Bank also offers individual retirement accounts (IRAs). Deposits have been the primary so! urce of f! unds for the Bank�� lending and investment activities and for its general business activities. The Bank is authorized, however, to use advances from the FHLB of Atlanta to supplement its supply of lendable funds and to meet deposit withdrawal requirements.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By CRWE]

  Today, CECB remains (0.00%) +0.000 at $.410 thus far (ref. google finance Delayed: 1:10PM EDT August 30, 2013).

  Howard Bancorp, Inc. and Cecil Bancorp, Inc. jointly previously reported their respective banking subsidiaries, Howard Bank and Cecil Bank, have completed the sale of Cecil Bank�� branch located at 3 West Bel Air Ave., Aberdeen, MD 21001 to Howard Bank pursuant to a purchase and assumption they entered into in March 2013.

  Pursuant to the sale, Howard Bank has acquired $37.1 million in loans and $35.2 million in deposits from Cecil Bank.

Get smart and get better 401(k) returns

If ever you needed an incentive to learn more about money, this might be it. A new study shows that the more financially savvy you are, the more you'll earn on your 401(k) plan. And not just a little bit more, a whole lot more.

Using what they described as a "unique new data set" that links administrative data on investment performance and financial knowledge, researchers discovered that investors who are more financially knowledgeable earned – on a risk-adjusted basis – 1.3 percentage points more per year on their retirement plan investments than their less sophisticated counterparts.

In fact, being financially literate could help you build over the course of a 30-year working career a retirement fund some 25% larger than that of less-knowledgeable peers, according to the study, "Financial Knowledge and 401(k) Investment Performance," which was recently published as a working paper on the National Bureau of Economic Research website.

For example: If you're financially smart you might accumulate $625,000 in your 401(k) plan while those less smart about money might accumulate just $500,000, or $125,000 less.

One reason why the financially knowledgeable earn higher rates of return has to do with the makeup of their portfolios, according to the study's co-author Olivia Mitchell, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School and director of the Pension Research Council.

They own more stocks and can expect higher risk-adjusted returns, according to the study. In fact, the most financially knowledgeable in the study owned 11.5% more stock than their less smart peers, and that accounts for about 1 percentage point of their better returns. Money-smart 401(k) plan participants invested on average 61.4% of their retirement plan in stocks.

To be sure, all that might make sense to some investors: Stocks, though volatile, have returned on average a tad more than 9% since 1993, while low-risk money market funds, which aren't nearly as volatile as stocks, returne! d just 3% per year.

In other words, financial savvy 401(k) participants are merely taking advantage of the potential for greater returns that comes with investing a greater percentage of their retirement plan in risky assets.

The second finding from the study, however, suggests that being financially smart doesn't necessarily make you a prudent investor. According to Mitchell, the financially sophisticated select more volatile portfolios and their investments are more concentrated, as compared to their counterparts. Why is that? "Perhaps because they think they are better at predicting market outcomes," says Mitchell. "Interestingly, having 'some' knowledge is not strongly associated with most performance measures; rather it's the best-informed who are different."

Take the quiz (see below) from the study to measure your financial knowledge. Consider yourself financially knowledgeable if you answer four or five of the questions correctly.

To be fair, this isn't the first study to show that more money-smart people accumulate larger nest eggs. But it is the first to show that financially smart 401(k) plan participants earn higher risk-adjusted expected returns compared to their less sophisticated counterparts.

Another finding from the study has to do with financial education. We need more of it, and perhaps sooner rather than later in life. "It can still be socially optimal to raise financial knowledge for everyone early in life, for instance by mandating financial education in high school," says Mitchell. "This is because even if the least educated never invest again and let their knowledge endowment depreciate, they will still earn higher returns on their saving which generates a substantial welfare boost."

There's also evidence that workplace financial education can also help. For instance, Mitchell noted that people attending an employer-sponsored retirement saving seminar are more likely to contribute to their pension accounts. "There remains some concern about reve! rse causa! lity – maybe those motivated to save went to the seminars," she says. "Yet randomized controlled trials do confirm that people receiving information about the additional benefits they could get from extra pension contributions did save more."

In the absence of financial education, Mitchells says investors would be wise to follow some age-old rules of thumb, such as don't buy a house unless you have 25% of the purchase price for a down payment. And your payments for the principal and interest on mortgage plus real estate taxes shouldn't exceed 25% of your income. "All these rules of thumb went by the wayside during the run-up to the financial crisis," she says. "I think we could do well to go back to some of those (rules of thumb) quite honestly."

Mitchell also says that new 401(k) plan features, often referred to as nudges, such as auto-enrollment and auto-escalation, have helped in the absence of financial education. But it's not enough in and of itself.

"We are not hitting the targets we need to hit," she says, noting that participants in the U.S. aren't contributing on average much more than 6% of their salary to their retirement plans. "I think we ought to be contributing 25% of income to retirement plans. If you think about how much longer people are going to be living in the future and couple that with relatively low expected rates of return on the market, we're just going to have to save a lot more and work a lot longer to be able to get there."

And so what needed is more nudging as well as more financial education, especially in schools. "Maybe we should be focusing more on financial literacy than calculus two," says Mitchell.

Financial Knowledge Quiz

How many of the below questions can you answer correctly? The more you get right, the more likely your 401(k) will outperform those who are less financially savvy. (Answers are below.)

1 - Interest Rate: Suppose you had $100 in a savings account and the interest rate was 2% per year. After five years, how! much do ! you think you would have in the account if you left the money to grow?

a. More than $110

b. Exactly $110

c. Less than $110

2 - Inflation: Imagine that the interest rate on your savings account was 1% per year and inflation was 2% per year. After one year, how much would you be able to buy with the money in this account?

a. More than today

b. Exactly the same

c. Less than today

3 - Risk: Is this statement True or False? Buying a single company's stock usually provides a safer return than a stock mutual fund.

a. True

b. False

4 - Tax Offset: Assume you were in the 25% tax bracket (you pay $0.25 in tax for each dollar earned) and you contributed $100 pretax to an employer's 401(k) plan. Your take-home pay (what's in your paycheck after all taxes and other payments are taken out) will then:

a. Decline by $100

b. Decline by $75

c. Decline by $50

5 - Match: Assume that an employer matched employee contributions dollar for dollar. If the employee contributed $100 to the 401(k) plan, the account balance in the plan including that contribution would:

a. Increase by $50

b. Increase by $100

c. Increase by $200

d. Remain the same

Editor's note: The first question measures peoples' ability to do a simple interest rate calculation; the second tests peoples' understanding of inflation; and the third is a joint test of knowledge about "stocks" and "stock mutual funds" as well as risk diversification, since the correct response requires the respondent to know both what a stock is and that a mutual fund is comprised of many stocks. Source: Financial Knowledge and 401(k) Investment Performance

Answers: 1,a; 2, c; 3, b; 4, b; 5, c.

Robert Powell is editor of Retirement Weekly, a service of MarketWatch.com. Email him at rpowell@allthingsretirement.com.

Airbnb to hand over user data to New York attorney general

Top 10 Electric Utility Companies To Watch In Right Now

Airbnb listings for New York City.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) Airbnb is finally opening up to the New York attorney general's office, after a six-month long legal battle.

The housing-rental site announced Wednesday that it had reached an agreement to turn over data on users that New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman says may be violating state housing laws.

The two sides said in a joint statement that their accord balances "Schneiderman's commitment to protecting New York's residents and tourists from illegal hotels with Airbnb's concerns about the privacy of thousands of other hosts."

Airbnb offers an online platform for people to rent out their homes or apartments to travelers. The issue it's facing in New York is a law stating that residents can't rent out properties for fewer than 30 days when they aren't living there.

Airbnb has argued that the law is meant to crack down on landlords who buy residential buildings and run them as hotels, not on individual tenants. The company had been fighting the attorney general's request that it give up data on its hosts, calling the subpoena a "vast data demand on regular New Yorkers." Schneiderman has countered that as many as two thirds of Airbnb rentals in New York City may be illegal.

Under the agreement announced Wednesday, Airbnb will provide Schneiderman with anonymized user information, redacting personal details, including names, email addresses, tax information and Social Security numbers. Airbnb must later surrender some of those details if New York officials choose to single out individual users for investigation.

Airbnb public policy head David Hantman said in a blog post Wednesday that the company believes Schneiderman's effort "is focused on large corporate property managers and hosts who take apartments off the market and disrupt communities."

"We have already removed more than 2,000 listings in New York and believe that many of the hosts the Attorney General is concerned about are no longer a part of Airbnb," Hantman said. Going forward, he added, Airbnb wants New York to amend its housing laws "to allow anyone in New York who wants to rent out their own home to do so."

This isn't the first legal headache Airbnb has faced as it works to bring its unconventional home-rentals model to cities across the world. In San Francisco, a law! is pending that would allow residents to rent out their primary homes only after applying for the right to do so and agreeing to legal guidelines.

But despite these challenges, the service is growing rapidly and is now available in more than 34,000 cities in 192 countries. The company has reportedly been engaged in fundraising this year that would value it at $10 billion, more than all but three of America's largest hotel chains.

Hawaii raises minimum wage to $10.10 per hour

HONOLULU (AP) — Hawaii has raised its minimum wage to $10.10 per hour, putting the state among the first to meet President Obama's goal of increasing the minimum wage nationwide.

Gov. Neil Abercrombie signed the minimum wage bill into law in a ceremony Friday, marking the first time Hawaii's minimum wage will be raised from $7.25 since 2007.

The increase will be phased in gradually over four years. Abercrombie said he wished the hike was coming quicker, but "we're swimming in the water that we're in."

"I always thought it's not a minimum wage, it's a survival wage," Abercrombie said. "And in today's world, that minimum wage is not a survival wage, certainly in Hawaii."

Hawaii is the third state this year to increase its minimum wage to $10.10 per hour, following Connecticut and Maryland, said Jack Temple, policy analyst for the National Employment Law Project.

Supporters say higher wages will help working families. Living costs are high in Hawaii because nearly everything from apples to air fresheners is shipped to the island chain.

"Money put into the hands of Hawaii's working people will get spent, it will increase the economic activity in the state," said Rep. Mark Nakashima, a Big Island Democrat.

Some had argued the change will hurt small businesses and that managers may lay off workers or hire fewer people. Abercrombie said he has heard the same argument since the 1960s.

"The take-home wage compared to the cost of living has steadily gone down," Abercrombie said. "This country is about moving up."

Sen. Clayton Hee, a Democrat who represents Kaneohe, said he wished the resulting minimum wage hike was better, but lawmakers had to reach a compromise.

"I grew up thinking meat came from a can, not a cow...because that's all we could afford," Hee said. "That's what local people do. We make ends meet."

Employers with tipped employees can get a credit of 50 cents per hour starting in 2015 and 75 cents per hour in 2016 for those workers who! earn $7 more per hour than the minimum wage.

"Hawaii's move to do that really sets it apart," Temple said. "For the vast majority of tipped workers, employers will have to pay the minimum wage."

There are seven states that have no tip credit, meaning that tipped workers can keep all of their wages and tips without having a tip credit taken out. But their laws have been on the books for decades, Temple said. Hawaii is the first state in recent history to enact a change to the tip credit that preserves the full minimum wage for the majority of workers, he said.

JC Penney: Buy Bonds, Not Stock, Imperial Says

JC Penney’s (JCP) shares have skyrocketed as the company has managed to take itself off deathwatch. That gain is too much for the folks at Imperial Capital, who believe there’s better value in JC Penney’s debt than its equity.

Bloomberg

Imperial’s Mary Ross-Gilbert and Seweryn Sztalkoper explain why they like JC Penney’s bonds…

We are maintaining out BUY ratings on the longer-dated senior notes (maturing in 2020-2097)…We think the bonds likely continue to trade up (for potential returns of ~20%) on anticipated favorable operating momentum in F2Q14-4Q14, benefiting from: 1) full restoration of private and exclusive brand assortments, 2) the re-merchandise of the “home” department (which was closed for the better part of 2013), 3) elimination of “excess” clearance inventory, and 4) easy comparison to the last two years, which experienced comp sales declines of approximately 30% in F2Q-FQ4. Furthermore, at recent prices in the low-80s, the longer dates bonds create JCP at 37% of revenue (45% excluding excess cash), which compares favorably to other major department store retailers trading in the 43% – 91% range.

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…and why they don’t like JC Penney’s stock:

We are maintaining out Underperform rating on the shares and our one-year price target of $2.50, reflecting the leveraged optionality on the shares based on valuation. With recent favorable upside momentum in the shares, we think JCP could consider another secondary stock offering with proceeds to go toward reducing debt…dilution and valuation using FY15 EBITDA cannot support the current share price.

Shares of JC Penney have jumped 4% to $8.94 today.

Target profit falls 16%, missing estimates

Target's first-quarter profit fell 16%, missing Wall Street estimates, as the retailer reeled from losses in its Canadian operation and costs of last year's data breach, the company announced Wednesday.

Target reduced its guidance for the year and said it could not estimate future expenses related to the data breach.

Target's adjusted earnings, excluding costs related to the breach and other one-time items, were 70 cents a share, 1 cent below analysts' consensus estimate in a survey by FactSet.

Target's net earnings of $418 million, or 66 cents a share, compared with $498 million, or 77 cents a share, in the same period last year.

The company generated sales of about $17 billion, a 2.1% increase over last year. Target also announced that the massive data breach it sustained over the holiday season last year cost the company a net $18 million in the first quarter – $26 million in expenses offset by an $8 million insurance claim.

For all of 2014, Target cut its estimated earnings per share to between $3.60 and $3.90 compared to prior guidance of $3.85 to $4.15.

Interim CEO John Mulligan said the first quarter performance was "in line with expectations," in a company statement.

"While we are pleased with this momentum, we need to move more quickly," he said. "As a result, we have made changes to our management team and are investing additional resources to drive U.S. traffic and sales, improve our Canadian operations and advance our ongoing digital transformation."

In a conference call, Mulligan said that the company is committed to emphasizing speed of innovation and improvement and providing customers better merchandise assortment.

The announcement comes amid a continued Target leadership shakeup that this week saw the replacement of the head of its Canadian operations as the retailer attempts to salvage its expansion there. Earlier this month CEO Gregg Steinhafel resigned, and in April Target named a new chief information officer to oversee technol! ogy and security strategy as it recovers its image after sustaining one of the biggest data breaches in retail history.

Target's Canadian expansion has been struggling since the retail chain opened 124 stores last year. Target plans to open nine more this year. Analysts say the store's prices aren't competitive with the likes of Canadian operations of Walmart and Costco, and that merchandise is consistently out of stock. The Canadian stores did slightly better in the first quarter than in the fourth quarter of 2013, but still lost $211 million, compared to a loss of $205 million in the first quarter last year.

With more stores open than at the start of 2013 though, sales increased to $393 million from $86 million at the Canadian stores.

"As long as they're showing signs of improvement that's key," says Brian Yarbrough, an Edward Jones analyst. He adds though that the Canadian segment is "probably not making progress fast enough," and that Target doesn't "have a good feel or understanding on what the Canadian consumer is about."

In the U.S., sales at stores open at least a year decreased 0.3%, driven primarily by a decrease in the number of transactions the stores had. Target is still attempting to regain customer traffic since the breach deteriorated customers' trust in shopping. Yarbrough says the lowered guidance for 2014 is likely because Target will be more promotional in order to drive traffic to stores, even though it will affect profit margins.

Earnings related to U.S. stores decreased 13.5% to $1.07 million from about $1.24 million last year.

Target shares are up slightly in early trading by about 0.37%, or 21 cents, to $56.82.

3 Big Stocks to Trade (or Not)

 

BALTIMORE (Stockpickr) -- Put down the 10-K filings and the stock screeners. It's time to take a break from the traditional methods of generating investment ideas. Instead, let the crowd do it for you.

From hedge funds to individual investors, scores of market participants are turning to social media to figure out which stocks are worth watching. It's a concept that's known as "crowdsourcing," and it uses the masses to identify emerging trends in the market.

Crowdsourcing has long been a popular tool for the advertising industry, but it also makes a lot of sense as an investment tool. After all, the market is completely driven by the supply and demand, so it can be valuable to see what names are trending among the crowd.

While some fund managers are already trying to leverage social media resources like Twitter to find algorithmic trading opportunities, for most investors, crowdsourcing works best as a starting point for investors who want a starting point in their analysis. Today, we'll leverage the power of the crowd to take a look at some of the most active stocks on the market today.

These "most active" names are the most heavily-traded names on the market -- and often, uber-active names have some sort of a technical or fundamental catalyst driving investors' attention on shares. And when there's a big catalyst, there's often a trading opportunity.

Without further ado, here's a look at today's stocks.

National Bank of Greece

 

Nearest Resistance: $3

Nearest Support: $2.90

Catalyst: Technical Setup

National Bank of Greece (NBG) has had a challenging run in 2014: since the start of the year, the big Greek bank has nearly been halved. Most recently, shares of NBG got hit last week after economic data from Athens indicated that the Greek economy shrank 1.1% in the first quarter. The data was enough to spark a double-digit selloff in shares of NBG.

From a technical standpoint, there's no question that NBG's chart is broken. Shares may be bouncing off of support at $2.90, but an abundance of resistance levels makes this setup best avoided until buyers can establish some semblance of support again.

Gogo

 

Nearest Resistance: $16

Nearest Support: $14

Catalyst: Analyst Upgrade

Inflight internet provider Gogo (GOGO) is up more than 9% this afternoon, following an analyst upgrade from UBS. The bank pegged a $23 price target on the stock, upping its rating from neutral to buy. After selling off hard earlier this month on competition fears, the upgrade is proving to be enough of a catalyst to break shares out above $14.

After trading lower for all of 2014, GOGO was starting to look "bottomy" at the start of May thanks to a short-term inverse head and shoulders pattern -- that pattern is getting triggered by today's upgrade news. While the downtrend is still very much intact for GOGO, the near-term trajectory for shares is pointing higher from here.

InterMune Pharmaceuticals

 

Nearest Resistance: $N/A

Nearest Support: $37.50 

Catalyst: Drug Trial Results

Last up is InterMune Pharmaceuticals (ITMN), a pharma name that's up more than 14% this afternoon following news that the firm's lung disease treatment saw success in a late-stage study. Now, the firm plans to resubmit its flagship drug for approval with the FDA. The news is breaking shares of ITMN out to new highs today.

New highs are significant from an investor psychology standpoint because they mean that everyone who has bought shares in the last year is sitting on gains. As a result, the "back to even" mentality is less of a concern than it would be for a name with a higher proportion of shareholders sitting on losses. If you decide to be a buyer here, it makes sense to keep a tight protective stop in place.

To see these stocks in action, check out the at Most-Active Stocks portfolio on Stockpickr.



-- Written by Jonas Elmerraji in Baltimore.

 

RELATED LINKS:

 

>>3 Stocks Rising on Unusual Volume >>Hedge Funds Hate These 5 Stocks -- Should You? >>3 Stocks Under $10 Making Big Moves

 

Follow Stockpickr on Twitter and become a fan on Facebook.

At the time of publication, author had no positions in the names mentioned.

Jonas Elmerraji, CMT, is a senior market analyst at Agora Financial in Baltimore and a contributor to TheStreet. Before that, he managed a portfolio of stocks for an investment advisory returned 15% in 2008. He has been featured in Forbes , Investor's Business Daily, and on CNBC.com. Jonas holds a degree in financial economics from UMBC and the Chartered Market Technician designation.

 

Follow Jonas on Twitter @JonasElmerraji

 

Limits on truck drivers' hours roil industry

Trucking companies say new rules that limit drivers' hours are hobbling productivity, shaving wages and delaying deliveries.

The crunch is pushing up freight rates, costs that are likely to be passed on to consumers in higher retail prices.

Last month, trucking industry employment hit a six-year high of 1.4 million as carriers added 6,800 workers, the most since April 2013. The economy is picking up and businesses may still have been catching up after bad weather delayed deliveries early this year. But the job gains are at least partly fueled by the need for more drivers to offset the reduced hours, industry officials say.

"The government has forced drivers into basically a five-day work week," says David Osiecki, head of legislative affairs for the American Trucking Associations.

The rules are the latest blow to trucking productivity. Manufacturers and retailers are also building more distribution centers closer to customers. That has shortened the average truck haul and required more drivers to handle more frequent but less profitable deliveries, says ATA Chief Economist Bob Costello.

Rules that took effect last July reduced drivers' maximum work week to 70 hours from 82 hours and mandated a 30-minute break in the first eight hours of a shift. The changes also toughened a required 34-hour break between work weeks, stating that the hiatus must include two consecutive 1 a.m. to 5 a.m. periods.

5 Best Chemical Stocks To Own Right Now

It's the latter rule that's wreaking the most havoc, Osiecki says. The many drivers who work Monday through Saturday can no longer begin their Monday shifts before 5 a.m. — a virtual necessity for early-morning deliveries.

Jet Express of Dayton, Ohio, must meet a rigid schedule of auto part shipments to General Motors plants throughout the day and night. But company President Kevin Burch says he can't make many Monday deliveries becaus! e of the new restrictions.

Burch says his trucks sit idle and GM had to turn to the more expensive spot market to deliver goods. GM declined comment.

Burch says his revenue has been cut by about $2 million a year. And he has lost about 10% of his drivers because they're working fewer hours for less pay. Industry officials say many drivers are leaving the industry, worsening a driver shortage.

Companies that operate in the spot market are thriving. One such carrier, Landstar, has seen double digit increases in freight volumes this year, a trend that the company partly attributes to a flurry of last-minute business as drivers at more traditional carriers exhaust their hours.

"We're perhaps a little bit of a beneficiary of that," says Joe Beacom, Landstar's chief safety and operations officer. The firm, he says, has brought on more drivers to handle the additional loads.

The traditional carriers are also hiring. Werner Enterprises of Omaha, Neb., has added about 300 drivers to offset the reduced hours, says company President Derek Leathers. And he has raised wages 3% to partly compensate drivers for their weekly pay cut. The changes, he says, are costing the company millions of dollars a year.

Shipments also have been delayed. Sometimes, drivers for trucking giant Con-way run out of hours mid-delivery, prompting them to take a 34-hour break and causing shipments to be late, says Randy Mullet, company head of government relations.

All told, Osiecki estimates the rules have cut industry productivity by 3% to 5%. Companies, in turn, are raising rates. Contract freight rates have risen 3% to 4% this year, up from a 1% to 2% increase in 2013, estimates analyst Benjamin Hartford of research firm Robert W. Baird & Co.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration says a study it sponsored shows the changes have reduced driver fatigue and the benefits outweigh any costs. The rules "ensure that drivers get the rest they need to be alert, safe and awake when oper! ating 80,! 000-pound vehicles on roads they share with the traveling public," says agency Administrator Anne Ferro.

But the American Transportation Research Institute, a trucking industry group, says the benefits cited in the study are insignificant.

Orion Launches Open-Source Client Portal

Orion announced in early May that it has launched a redesigned client portal that uses open-source code so other providers can build their own pages to integrate into the site.

“We’ve had a client portal since we started our business years ago. As web technology evolved, we felt like, ‘Hey, depending on the size of the tablet or the device that somebody is looking at this on, we need to make the design and menu systems responsive,” Eric Clarke, president and founder of Orion, told ThinkAdvisor on Wednesday.

“All those things are nice, but we have a lot of other systems that we interact with here at Orion to help our advisors be efficient. What we thought would be really neat would be to open up the code for the portal to outside integration partners to add additional pages and contribute back to the project.”

Clarke said Orion has reached out to providers like InStream, MoneyGuidePro and Finance Logix to contribute code for the project. So far, more than 40 firms have been set up to access GitHub, where the portal code is stored, to build integrated pages for the portal.

“GitHub allows us to share that code and information, share the project with our vendor partners and allow them to come back in and contribute their own pages,” Clark said. “The development effort really has become more of a community effort. We’re really excited in the coming months to see the integration pages that our partners provide.”

The portal integrates account aggregation from Intuit, which allows clients to add data on accounts not managed by their advisor.

“They enter their user name and password and hit enter, and those accounts will be added to the list of accounts,” Clarke said.

When clients log in to the portal, they’ll see their accounts listed on the left-hand side of the screen with a summary of their holdings. Clients can view their assets by category or class, and can view the underlying holdings that make up those classes.

“In addition to seeing everything in the household, they can select one of the [individual] accounts and the screen will refresh.” Advisors can set up household accounts that include all the individual accounts for each member, or “if they have a household that has a unique situation and they want to keep things separate, they can set up two households,” Clarke said.

“The portfolio tab allows the client to come in, interact with their portfolio, get positions, performance, cost basis and transaction-level information without having to run a report. It’s just an interactive, on-screen experience.”

Clients can also link their accounts on Dropbox or Box so they can share documents with their advisor easily, Clarke said.

Since launching the portal on May 1, more than 500 advisors have logged in for training sessiona, Clarke said. “Firms are out there beta testing it right now before they go live with their client accounts.”

---

Check out Advisors ‘Struggling’ to Get Most Out of Social Media as Its Popularity Grows: Study on ThinkAdvisor.

Legos get in on the 'sharing economy'

Elina Furman and her son Julian, 6, with several of the Pley sets.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) When Elina Furman was 7, she came to the United States from Russia with her family and was allowed to bring three toys.

"I appreciated them so much. Each one was a treasure," she said.

That was 1980. Now, parents are overwhelmed with choices, not to mention the cost of buying every flavor of the month. Furman cited a British study that said the average Western kid has 238 toys, but plays with only 12 on a daily basis.

For Furman and her business partner Ranan Lachman, that dilemma sparked an idea. Just as consumers have taken to short-term rentals for everything from autos (Zipcar) to apartments (Airbnb), why not try something similar for toys?

So last May, they launched Pley, which works something like Netflix (NFLX), only with Lego building-block sets. Pley's 15,000 subscribers can choose one or more sets from the company's online "pleylist." Pley ships the toys, and when kids tire of them (usually within two weeks) parents ship them back and get a new set in return. (Pley sanitizes each set before mailing it out.)

The company started with just 34 Lego sets, purchased with some of the $500,000 Langan put up as seed capital. Pley now has 23 employees and its San Jose warehouse stocks about 50,000 sets.

Pley charges $15, $25, or $39 a month, depending on which sets parents want to rent. It's much cheaper than buying Lego sets, which can cost between $40 and $400. Although subscriptions for multiple months are available at a discount, most of Pley's customers sign up for just one month at a time.

Star Wars sets are the hottest, as are Pley's own Creativity Crates, made up of combinations that are "designed to encourage creativity," Furman said.

  I get paid to play with LEGO

So far, Pley has shipped about 80,000 sets, and investors evidently expect that number to grow fast. In March, the company, which turned profitable last fall, raised $6.75 million in venture capital.

To keep track of the many tiny blocks, they! developed a high-tech weighing system that can tell within one-one-hundredth of a gram whether a set of blocks is complete or is missing a piece or two. (But no worries if there are a few lost pieces. There's no penalty for 10 to 15 missing blocks, which Pley counts as normal wear and tear.)

If all that sounds hard to imitate, it is: Furman and Lachman figured that by starting with a complicated toy that requires complex handling, they'd discourage potential competitors.

Pley has no current plans to expand beyond Legos, but Furman said she'd eventually like to rent out other playthings that also encourage kids to use their imaginations. She's particularly drawn to toys like Goldie Blox, which teaches engineering to girls, and robot-making kits from Little Bits.

"Parents are worried about their kids spending too much time in front of video screens," she said. "But [many of the educational toys] are expensive to buy, so they make sense to rent. It may take us some time to get there, but we always want to rent toys that encourage learning."

Buy These 3 Stocks That Shocked Analysts

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As we move deeper into earnings season investors have been focusing on the big, well-known names and trying to trade them based on their best guess of the numbers. While this can make for a great deal of excitement it is not necessarily the best way to trade in earnings season.

It makes more sense to me to look for stocks to buy that are posting fantastic results and being upgraded to a "buy" in Portfolio Grader. These are the stocks where the underlying fundamentals of the company are going to attract the buying power of the big institutions.

The market advance continues to narrow — you need to focus on companies that are exhibiting the best-of-the-best fundamentals that can drive the shares higher.

Amkor Technologies (AMKR) outsources semiconductor packaging and test services both in the U.S. and around the world. Amkor has 16 facilities with over 5.5 million square feet of space in seven countries right now. Analysts expected the company to have a very weak first quarter, but Amkor exceeded expectations by a wide margin.

CEO Steve Kelley thinks that business is just going to keep getting better and told investors, "Driven by stronger customer forecasts for mobile devices and continued momentum from our growth initiatives, our expectations for the second quarter and full year 2014 have improved considerably." Portfolio Grader thinks so as well — last week the rating program to an "A," meaning the shares are a "strong buy" at the current price.

Top 10 Integrated Utility Stocks To Buy Right Now

Wall Street has been negative on the precious metals for some time now. I have no idea what the metals markets may do — but at least one miner is seeing results that are blowing away Wall Street's conservative expectations.

Agnico-Eagle Mines (AEM) runs mineral properties in Canada, Finland and Mexico. Gold is AEM's primary focus but it also looks for and mines silver, copper, zinc and lead.

Agnico-Eagle reported earnings last week of $0.56 a share, more than twice the downbeat analysts' estimates of just $0.25. Following this huge earnings surprise Portfolio Grader has to a "B" — the gold miner is a "buy" at the current price.

Coal is another industry that is supposed to be weak … but some forgot to tell the folks at Consolidated Energy (CNX). Consolidated mines and sells steam coal (primarily to electric power generation industry) and metallurgical coal (to steel and coke producers).

The company posted first-quarter earnings of $0.50 a share, compared with a loss of a penny a share a year earlier. Analysts had expected just $0.19 a share and have been scrambling to raise estimates for the year following the large positive earnings surprise. Portfolio Grader after the fantastic quarter to a "B," and CNX shares are a "buy" at the current price.

Earnings season can be a confusing time with news coming at you fast and furious. Portfolio Grader can help you deal with the noise and confusion, identifying surprising stocks to buy that are delivering superior results that can beat the market.

Louis Navellier is the editor of Blue Chip Growth.