Top Building Product Companies To Buy For 2014

It's been a volatile year for the roofing industry, and over the last three months, investors have seen more downside. Roofing materials distributor Beacon Roofing Supply (NASDAQ: BECN  ) is down 11.5% in the last three months, and building products manufacturer Owens Corning (NYSE: OC  ) fell 5.5% in the same period -- all in a year when many commentators thought this sector would outperform.�

It's complicated
A resurgent housing market should lead to a marginal increase in new residential roofing demand, while the underlying reroofing demand should provide its usual support. Indeed, these conditions looked like they were in place for 2013, and analysts built a fair amount of optimism into their expectations. So what went wrong?

First, the US has had some unusual weather patterns in recent years. In previous years, hurricane Irene (and to a lesser extent Sandy) helped to generate reroofing demand, while this year's weather has been far more clement. Worse yet, according to Owens Corning, those storms pulled forward reroofing work that homeowners might otherwise have planned to do this year. And this spring's bout of wet weather further hurt roofing activity, because contractors simply couldn't work.

Top Energy Companies For 2015: Commerce Bancshares Inc.(CBSH)

Commerce Bancshares, Inc. operates as the bank holding company for Commerce Bank, N.A. that provides various general banking services to individuals and businesses. It operates in three segments: Consumer, Commercial, and Wealth. The Consumer segment includes the retail branch network, consumer installment lending, personal mortgage banking, consumer debit and credit bank card activities, and student lending. The Commercial segment provides various corporate lending, merchant and commercial bank card products, leasing, and international services, as well as business and government deposit and cash management services. The Wealth segment offers traditional trust and estate tax planning services, brokerage services, and advisory and discretionary investment portfolio management services to personal and institutional corporate customers. This segment also manages a family of proprietary mutual funds, which are available for sale to trust and general retail customers. The comp any, through its other non-banking subsidiaries, involves in underwriting credit life and credit accident, and health insurance; selling property and casualty insurance; private equity investment; securities brokerage; mortgage banking; and leasing activities. It serves customers through a network of branches and ATM machines, online banking, and a central contact center from approximately 370 locations in Missouri, Kansas, Illinois, Oklahoma, and Colorado. Commerce Bancshares, Inc. was founded in 1966 and is headquartered in Kansas City, Missouri.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By John Maxfield]

  Bank investors got their first glimpse of what first-quarter earnings might look like today when Commerce Bancshares (NASDAQ: CBSH  ) reported its results. Shares of the Kansas City-based bank are trading sharply lower after its earnings per share fell by 4.3% on a year-over-year basis.

• [By Roland Head]

  Today's earning calendar is fairly quiet ahead of tomorrow's results from JPMorgan and Wells Fargo, but Commerce Bancshares (NASDAQ: CBSH  ) started off the financial reporting season this morning, reporting earnings of $0.72 per share -- a penny ahead of analyst expectations. The company credited "strong growth in loans, improved net interest income and continued free income growth," as well as "growth in revenues from our trust and corporate card businesses, which grew by 8% and 8.6%, respectively, compared to the second quarter of last year."

• [By Monica Gerson]

  Commerce Bancshares (NASDAQ: CBSH) is projected to report its Q3 earnings at $0.72 per share on revenue of $254.92 million.

  First Republic Bank (NYSE: FRC) is estimated to report its Q3 earnings at $0.76 per share on revenue of $320.72 million.

Top Building Product Companies To Buy For 2014: Santa Fe Gold Corp (SFEG)

Santa Fe Gold Corporation (Santa Fe), incorporated in August 1991, is a mining company. As of June 30, 2012, the Company had four projects: its Summit silver-gold and Ortiz gold projects located in New Mexico, and its Black Canyon mica and Planet micaceous iron oxide projects located in Arizona. The Company has constructed a mill and are developing an underground mine at its Summit silver-gold project. Santa Fe�� Summit operations in southwestern New Mexico are conducted through its wholly owned subsidiary, The Lordsburg Mining Company. Its mica operations in Arizona are conducted through its wholly owned subsidiary, Azco Mica Inc. Santa Fe�� activity in Mexico is conducted through its wholly owned subsidiary, Minera Sandia, S.A. de C.V.

Summit Silver-Gold Project

The Summit silver-gold project includes the underground Summit silver-gold mine and related property consisting of 117 acres of patented mining claims and 740 acres of unpatented mining claims in Grant County, southwestern New Mexico, and the Banner mill, including mineral processing equipment consisting of a crushing and screening plant, a ball mill and a 400 ton-per-day flotation plant, and related property consisting of approximately 1,500 acres of wholly owned and leased patented and unpatented mining claims, located approximately 57 miles south of the Summit mine near Lordsburg, Hidalgo County, New Mexico. It owns and operates the Summit project under the Lordsburg Mining Company, a wholly-owned subsidiary. The Summit silver-gold property is located in Grant County, southwestern New Mexico, near the Arizona state line. The Banner mill site lies 57 miles to the south of the Summit property near the town of Lordsburg, Hidalgo County, New Mexico.

Santa Fe�� holdings at the Summit silver-gold property in Grant County, New Mexico consist of 10 patented federal mining claims totaling approximately 117 acres and 62 unpatented federal mining claims totaling approximately 740 acres. Its holdings at an! d adjacent to the Banner mill site in Hidalgo County, New Mexico consists of 86 wholly owned patented federal mining claims, 16 wholly owned unpatented mining claims, 17 leased patented mining claims and 6 leased unpatented mining claims, aggregating approximately 1,500 acres. All wholly owned claims are held in the name of Lordsburg Mining.

Ortiz Gold Project

The Ortiz Mine Grant, over which the Company holds a lease on the mineral estate underlying 42,297 acres (66 square miles) of segregated surface estate, is located 30 miles by road northeast of Albuquerque, Santa Fe County, New Mexico.

The Ortiz Mine Grant is underlain by mid-Tertiary monzonite and latite porphyry stocks, plugs, dikes and sills that have intruded Paleozoic to early-Tertiary sedimentary rocks. The intrusive rocks are part of the Ortiz Porphyry Belt, which comprises from north to south, the Cerrillos Hills, the Ortiz Mountains, the San Pedro Mountains, and South Mountain.

Black Canyon Mica Project

The Black Canyon mine is located 30 miles north of Phoenix, Arizona, and 3.5 miles west-southwest of Black Canyon City. The Glendale processing plant was located in an industrial area on the west side of Phoenix, Arizona, 47 miles to the south of the mine site. Its property holdings at and around the Black Canyon mine consists of 67 federal unpatented mining claims in Yavapai County, Arizona and nine federal unpatented mill site claims in Maricopa County, Arizona, which in total cover approximately 1,385 acres.

Planet Micaceous Iron Oxide (MIO) Project

The Planet property consists of thirty-one patented mining claims totaling 523 acres located in western Arizona. The Planet property is located in the northwest corner of La Paz County, west central Arizona. The property consists of thirty-one patented mining claims totaling 523 acres, consisting of an area of 3,600 feet wide by 8,000 feet long.

Lordsburg Exploration Project

T! he Compan! y in the the Lordsburg (Virginia) Mining District controls approximately 1,500 acres of prospective ground, the majority of which is comprised of patented mining claims that it owns, and the remainder patented and unpatented mining claims that it leases. As of June 30, 2012, the Company had completed an aerial mapping survey covering 30 square miles, carried out data compilation, conducted detailed geologic mapping and sampling, and conducted a geophysical survey.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By CRWE]

  Today, SFEG surged (+7.35%) up +0.009 at $.130 with 62,550 shares in play thus far (ref. google finance Delayed: 11:32AM EDT July 11, 2013).

  Santa Fe Gold Corporation previously reported its Annual Stockholder Meeting is scheduled to be held at 10:00 a.m. Mountain Time on Tuesday, August 6, 2013, at the Albuquerque Marriott Hotel located at 2101 Louisiana Blvd NE, Albuquerque, NM 87110. Santa Fe Gold Corporation is a gold and silver producer with operations in New Mexico. Its Summit mine achieved commercial production in 2012. Summit produces high value gold-silver concentrates and silica flux products that are sold under contract to domestic and overseas smelters.

• [By CRWE]

  Last Friday, SFEG had shed (-2.31%) down -0.003 at $.127 with 166,050 shares in play at the close (ref. google finance July 19, 2013 ��Close), but don�� let this get you down.

  Santa Fe Gold Corporation previously reported it has amended the Mogollon option agreement with Columbus Exploration Corporation (CLX-TSX-V) (formerly Columbus Silver Corporation) under which Santa Fe may earn 100% interest in the Mogollon Project, Catron County, New Mexico. The Mogollon Project encompasses most of the Mogollon district in southwest New Mexico, which has substantial recorded historical production of silver and gold. The project fits Santa Fe�� strategic objective of developing new ore sources to augment ore currently processed though its Lordsburg flotation mill.

Top Building Product Companies To Buy For 2014: Metro Bancorp Inc(METR)

Metro Bancorp, Inc. operates as the bank holding company for Metro Bank, which provides a range of retail and commercial banking services to consumers and small and mid-sized companies in Pennsylvania. Its deposit products include personal and business checking accounts, regular savings accounts, money market accounts, interest checking accounts, fixed rate certificates of deposit, individual retirement accounts, and club accounts. The company?s loan products portfolio comprises commercial and industrial, owner occupied real estate, commercial construction and land development, and commercial real estate loans; consumer loans, including home equity, overdraft checking protection, and consumer credit cards, as well as installment loans for home improvement, and the purchase of consumer goods and automobiles; and construction loans and permanent mortgages for homes. It also offers debit card services, online banking services, safe deposit facilities, and automated teller fa cilities. As of July 14, 2011, Metro Bancorp operated 33 stores in the counties of Berks, Cumberland, Dauphin, Lancaster, Lebanon, and York. The company was formerly known as Pennsylvania Commerce Bancorp, Inc. and changed its name to Metro Bancorp, Inc. in June 2009. Metro Bancorp, Inc. was founded in 1984 and is headquartered in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Tim Melvin]

  Metro Bancorp (METR) is one bank that might consider selling based on these metric. The company�� return on assets has consistently been well below its peer group, and the equity-to-asset ratio is just 8.46 — well below the 11 average across the United States.

Top Building Product Companies To Buy For 2014: Veeva Systems Inc (VEEV)

Veeva Systems Inc. (Veeva), incorporated on January 12, 2007, which provides industry-specific, cloud-based software solutions for the life sciences industry. Veeva delivers industry-specific cloud-based solutions including data, software, and services to the global life sciences industry. Its solutions enable pharmaceutical and other life sciences companies. As of January 31, 2013, it served 51, 95 and 134 life sciences customers, respectively. As of August 31, 2013, it served approximately 170 life sciences customers, including 33 of the 50 largest global pharmaceutical companies. Its solutions have been implemented in over 75 countries.

Regulated, Multi-channel Customer Relationship Management

Veeva CRM, its solution for customer relationship management, allows pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies to market and sell to physicians, other healthcare providers and healthcare organizations. Additional applications for the Veeva CRM solution include: Veeva CLM, provides closed-loop marketing capabilities for use in face-to-face interactions with physicians; Veeva iRep, mobile application that runs on the Apple iPad, combines the key functionality of Veeva CRM and Veeva CLM to provide users with functionality that helps maximize productivity in the field, and Veeva CRM Approved Email, provides for the management, delivery and tracking of regulatory compliant email communication between sales representatives and physicians.

Regulated Content Management and Collaboration

Veeva Vault, its cloud-based content management and collaboration solution, is used by its customers to manage content-centric processes across key departments within a life sciences company, including clinical trials, quality management, manufacturing, sales and marketing. Veeva Vault applications primarily for use by research and development departments of life sciences companies include: Veeva Vault eTMF, is an electronic trial master file application that manages the reposit! ory of important documents for active and archived clinical trials. In addition, Vault eTMF also enables collaboration between the life sciences company sponsoring the trial and its outsourced partners such as CROs; Veeva Vault Investigator Portal, manages the collection of documentation and collaboration among trial sponsors, trial sites and the researchers conducting the trials, known as investigators; Veeva Vault Submissions, life sciences companies to gather and organize all the documents and other content that will be included in a regulatory submission to a healthcare authority, such as the Food & Drug Administration (FDA), and Veeva Vault QualityDocs enables the creation, review, approval, distribution and management of controlled documents, such as SOPs, manufacturing recipes and specifications. The Veeva Vault applications primarily for use by commercial departments of life sciences companies include: Veeva Vault PromoMats manages the end-to-end process for the development, approval, distribution, expiration and withdrawal of promotional materials. and Veeva Vault MedComms provides life sciences companies with a single, validated source of medical content across multiple channels and geographies.

Customer Master Data Management

Veeva Network, its cloud-based customer master solution, is designed to help life sciences companies create and maintain a single, complete and accurate record of the healthcare professionals and healthcare organizations with which they interact. Veeva Network is comprised of data, software and services: Veeva Network Provider Database is Veeva�� database of healthcare professionals and healthcare organizations in the United States and China including demographic and license information, affiliations and other key profile data; Veeva Network Provider Database is Veeva�� database of healthcare professionals and healthcare organizations in the United States and China including demographic and license information, affiliations and other key ! profile d! ata, and Veeva Network Data Stewardship Services managing healthcare professional and healthcare organization data.

Professional Services and Support

In addition to cloud-based solutions that meet the specific needs of its life sciences customers, it also offer professional services to help customers maximize the value they get from those solutions. It offers professional services in areas of: implementation and deployment planning and project management; requirements analysis, solution design and configuration; systems environment management and deployment services; training on its solutions, and ongoing managed services, such as outsourced systems administration.

The Company competes with Oracle Corporation, Cegedim SA, EMC Corporation, Microsoft Corporation and OpenText Corporation.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Paul Ausick]

  Stocks on the Move: Veeva Systems Inc. (NYSE: VEEV) is up a whopping 85.5% at $37.15 on huge demand following its IPO. Geron Corp. (NYSE: GERN) is up 39.7% at $4.37. Molycorp Inc. (NYSE: MCP) is down 1.8% at $5.48 following a secondary stock offering.

• [By Lisa Levin]

  Veeva Systems (NYSE: VEEV) shares climbed 2.62% to $26.98. The volume of Veeva Systems shares traded was 379% higher than normal. Morgan Stanley upgraded Veeva Systems from Equal-weight to Overweight.

• [By John Udovich]

  Biotech bubble talk, news�about Veeva Systems Inc (NYSE: VEEV) and TNI BioTech (OTCMKTS: TNIB), and�recent biotech IPO filings by Ruthigen (NASDAQ: RTGN), Aerie Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: AERI) and Egalet (NASDAQ: EGLT) are dominating the latest biotech industry headlines:�

• [By Roberto Pedone]

  One stock that's starting to enter breakout territory here is Veeva Systems (VEEV), which is a provider of industry-specific cloud-based software solutions for the life sciences industry. This stock is off to a decent start since its IPO in October, with shares up 9%.

  If you take a look at the chart for Veeva Systems, you'll notice that this stock found some buying interest over the last few weeks, when shares traded down near $35 and $36 a share. Shares of VEEV have now started to spike sharply higher off its recent low of $36.60 a share, and that move is quickly pushing shares of VEEV into breakout territory above some near-term overhead resistance at $40.62 a share.

  Traders should now look for long-biased trades in VEEV if it manages to break out above some near-term overhead resistance levels at $40.62 a share to Friday's intraday high of $41.05 a share with high volume. Look for a sustained move or close above those levels with volume that hits near or above its three-month average action of 1.27 million shares. If that breakout hits soon, then VEEV will set up to re-test or possibly take out its next major overhead resistance levels at $44.62 to its all-time high at $49 a share. Any high-volume move above those levels will then give VEEV a chance to trend well north of $50 a share.

  Traders can look to buy VEEV off any weakness to anticipate that breakout and simply use a stop that sits right below Friday's low of $38.64 a share, or near $36.60 a share. One can also buy VEEV off strength once it takes out those breakout levels with volume and then simply use a stop that sits a comfortable percentage from your entry point.

Top Building Product Companies To Buy For 2014: China Recycling Energy Corporation(CREG)

China Recycling Energy Corporation provides energy saving and recycling products and services in the People's Republic of China. The company engages in the design, sale, installation, lease, and operation of top gas recovery turbine systems (TRT) and other renewable energy products. It also builds cement low temperature heat power generator (CHPG) and waste gas power generator (WGPG) systems. The company, through a joint venture, Inner Mongolia Erdos TCH Energy Saving Development Co., Ltd, with Erdos Metallurgy Co., Ltd., recycles waste heat from Erdos Metallurgy Co.?s metal refining plants to generate power and steam. China Recycling Energy Corporation offers its products and services to enterprises in the iron and steel, cement, coking, and metallurgy industries. The company was formerly known as China Digital Wireless, Inc. and changed its name to China Recycling Energy Corporation in March 2007. The company was founded in 2004 and is based in Xi An City, the People?s R epublic of China.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Roberto Pedone]

  Another stock that's starting to move within range of triggering a near-term breakout trade is China Recycling Energy (CREG), which engages in the recycling energy business, providing energy savings and recycling products and services. This stock is off to a strong start in 2013, with shares up a whopping 166%.

  If you take a look at the chart for China Recycling Energy, you'll notice that this stock recently formed a double bottom chart pattern at $1.67 to $1.66 a share. Following that bottom, shares of CREG have started to uptrend strong and move back above its 50-day moving average. That uptrend has now pushed shares of CREG within range of triggering a near-term breakout trade.

  Market players should now look for long-biased trades in CREG if it manages to break out above some near-term overhead resistance levels at $2.80 to $2.85 a share with high volume. Look for a sustained move or close above those levels with volume that hits near or above its three-month average action of 95,671 shares. If that breakout triggers soon, then CREG will set up to re-test or possibly take out its next major overhead resistance levels at $3.50 to $4 a share.

  Traders can look to buy CREG off any weakness to anticipate that breakout and simply use a stop that sits right below its 50-day moving average of $2.32 a share, or near more support at $2 a share. One can also buy CREG off strength once it clears those breakout levels with volume and then simply use a stop that sits a comfortable percentage from your entry point.

Top Building Product Companies To Buy For 2014: StealthGas Inc.(GASS)

StealthGas Inc., a ship-owning company, through its subsidiaries, provides international seaborne transportation services worldwide. The company transports petroleum gas products in liquefied form, including propane, butane, butadiene, isopropane, propylene, and vinyl chloride monomer. It also transports refined petroleum products, such as gasoline, diesel, crude oil, fuel oil, jet fuel, edible oils, and chemicals. As of January 9, 2012, the company had a fleet of 33 liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) carriers with a total capacity of 153,088 cubic meters, 3 medium range product tankers, and 1 Aframax oil tanker. It serves LPG producers comprising national and independent energy companies, energy traders, and industrial users. StealthGas Inc. was founded in 2004 and is headquartered in Athens, Greece.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Sally Jones]

  StealthGas Inc. (GASS) - Yield 0.00%

  StealthGas Inc. is up 38% over 12 months. The current share price is around $9.40, down 11% since John Keeley made a new buy as of June 30, 2013.

• [By Tim Melvin]

  Several shipping stocks have already started to move higher this year, but in a fashion that will be typical of the volatility in the sector, we saw an opportunity created this week. StealthGas (GASS) reported earnings that fell well short of analyst expectations, and the stock plummeted by almost 8 percent for the week.

• [By Eric Volkman]

  StealthGas (NASDAQ: GASS  ) has ambitions to raise $100 million from the capital markets. The company put a price tag on its upcoming public share flotation, and upped the volume in the process -- 10 million shares are to be sold, as opposed to the originally planned 8 million, and they will be priced at $10.00 apiece.