The U.S. energy boom is exciting, it's notable, and it could change the world. At the same time, there are still plenty of places around the world that will need to import oil. The major supplier of that demand has been, and will continue to be, the Middle East. The nations that constitute the Middle East produce about 30% of the world's oil, and some countries in the region are looking to step up their game.
The biggest plans to increase production in the Middle East right now focus on Iraq. Ministers in the country hope to triple production by the end of the decade. Thanks to sizable investments from the big integrated oil majors and oil services companies, it's possible that the country might meet that goal.
Demand in some parts of the world may be waning, but growth elsewhere in the world more than makes up for it. The big market for more oil will be in developing nations, most notably Brazil, China, and India. As long as these countries continue to grow at a staggering pace, they will need oil to fuel that engine. Tune into the video below where Fool.com contributor Tyler Crowe check in with Fool analyst Joel South to discuss the prospects for Middle Eastern oil production and assess the demand from emerging countries.
5 Best High Tech Stocks For 2015: First Commonwealth Financial Corporation(FCF)
First Commonwealth Financial Corporation operates as the holding company for First Commonwealth Bank that provides consumer and commercial banking services to individuals and small and mid-sized businesses in central and western Pennsylvania. The company offers personal checking accounts, interest-earning checking accounts, savings accounts, health savings accounts, insured money market accounts, debit cards, investment certificates, fixed and variable rate certificates of deposit, and IRA accounts. It also provides secured and unsecured installment loans, construction and mortgage loans, safe deposit facilities, credit lines with overdraft checking protection, and student loans, as well as Internet and telephone banking, and automated teller machine services. In addition, the company offers commercial banking services, including commercial lending, small and high-volume business checking accounts, on-line account management services, ACH origination, payroll direct deposi t, commercial cash management services, and repurchase agreements. Further, it provides various trust and asset management services, as well as a complement of auto, home, business, and term life insurance. Additionally, the company offers annuities, mutual funds, stock, and bond brokerage services through an arrangement with a broker-dealer and insurance brokers. It operates 115 community banking offices in western Pennsylvania and 2 loan production offices in downtown Pittsburgh and State College, Pennsylvania. The company was founded in 1982 and is headquartered in Indiana, Pennsylvania.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By anina Egea]
A measure of financial performance calculated as operating cash flow minus capital expenditures. Free cash flow (FCF) represents the cash that a company is able to generate after laying out the money required to maintain or expand its asset base. Free cash flow is important because it allows a company to pursue opportunities that enhance shareholder value. Without cash, it's tough to develop new products, make acquisitions, pay dividends and reduce debt.
Top 10 Oil Service Companies To Buy Right Now: Associated Estates Realty Corp (AEC)
Associated Estates Realty Corporation (AEC), incorporated on July 29, 1993, is an integrated, self-administered and self-managed equity real estate investment trust (REIT). As of December 31, 2012, the Company�� portfolio consisted of 52 properties containing 13,950 units located in 10 states. The Company operates in one segment: multifamily properties. The Company is focused on multifamily ownership, operation, acquisition, development, construction, disposition and property management activities. Its multifamily properties provided approximately 99.4% of its consolidated revenue. In 2012, the Company acquired four properties. Three of the properties, totaling 760 units, are located in the Raleigh/Durham submarket and the fourth is a 396-unit property located in Dallas, Texas. In addition, in 2012, it acquired land for development of an apartment community in Los Angeles, California that also includes a building containing approximately 78,800 total square feet of office and retail space. In 2012, it sold six properties containing 1,356 units, one in Georgia, one in Central Ohio and four in Western Michigan. During the three years ended December 31, 2012, it acquired 11 multifamily properties.
The Company�� primary source of income is rental revenue. The Company�� subsidiary, Merit Enterprises, Inc. (Merit), is a general contractor and construction manager, which acts as its in-house construction division. In March 2012, the partnership acquired a 2.5 acre parcel of land in Bethesda, Maryland.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Sally Jones]
Associated Estates Realty Corp. (AEC) - Yield 4.90
Associated Estates Realty Corp. is up 1% over 12 months. The company has a market cap of $764.39 million; it trades with a P/E ratio of 16.60 and P/S ratio of 4.10.
Top 10 Oil Service Companies To Buy Right Now: Berry Plastics Group Inc (BERY)
Berry Plastics Group, Inc. (Berry), incorporated on November 18, 2005, is a provider of plastic consumer packaging and engineered materials. Berry owns 100% interest of Berry Plastics Corporation. Berry sells its solutions predominantly into end markets, such as food and beverage, healthcare and personal care. The Company operates in three segments: Rigid Packaging, Engineered Materials and Flexible Packaging. As of September 19, 2012, the Company supplied its customers through 82 manufacturing facilities throughout the United States (68 locations) and select international locations (14 locations). In June 2012, the Company acquired 100% interest of Frans Nooren Beheer B.V. and its operating companies (Stopaq). In September 2011, the Company acquired 100% interests of Rexam Closures Kentucky Inc., Rexam Delta Inc., Rexam Closures LLC, Rexam Closure Systems LLC, Rexam de Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Rexam Singapore PTE Ltd., Rexam Participacoes Ltda. and Rexam Plasticos do Brasil Ltda. (collectively, Rexam SBC). In August 2011, Berry acquired 100% interest of LINPAC Packaging Filmco, Inc.
Rigid Packaging
The Company�� Rigid Packaging business consists of containers, foodservice items, house wares, closures, over caps, bottles, prescription vials, and tubes. The end uses for these products are consumer-oriented end markets, such as food and beverage, retail mass marketers, healthcare, personal care and household chemical. The Company manufactures a collection of container products. The Company produces 32 ounce or thermoformed polypropylene (PP) drink cups and offers a product line with sizes ranging from 12 to 52 ounces. The Company�� products of house wares market is focused on producing semi-disposable plastic home and party and plastic garden products. The Company produces closures and over caps across several of its product lines, including continuous-thread and child-resistant closures, as well as aerosol over caps. The Company also provides a range of custom closure ! solutions including fitments and plugs for medical applications, cups and spouts for liquid laundry detergent, and dropper bulb assemblies for medical and personal care applications.
The Company competes with Airlite, Letica, Polytainers, Silgan, Aptar Group and Reynolds.
Engineered Materials
Berry�� Engineered Materials business primarily consists of pipeline corrosion protection solutions, specialty tapes and adhesives, polyethylene-based film products, and can liners served to a variety of end markets including oil, water and gas infrastructure, industrial and consumer-oriented end markets. The Company produces anti-corrosion products to infrastructure, rehabilitation and pipeline projects throughout the world. Products include heat-shrinkable coatings, single- and multi-layer sleeves, pipeline coating tapes, anode systems for cathodic protection and epoxy coatings. These products are used in oil, gas and water supply and construction applications.
Berry is the manufacturer of cloth and foil tape products. Other tape products include range of splicing and laminating tapes, flame-retardant tapes, vinyl-coated and carton sealing tapes, electrical, double-faced cloth, masking, mounting, original equipment manufacturer (OEM) medical and specialty tapes. These products are sold under the National, Nashua and Polyken brands in the United States. The Company manufactures and sells a portfolio of PE-based film products to end users in the retail markets. These products are sold under brands, such as Ruffies and Film-Gard. Its products include drop cloths and retail trash bags. The Company manufactures customized PP-based, woven and sewn containers for the transportation and storage of raw materials, such as seeds, titanium dioxide, clay and resin pellets.
The Company offers range of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) meat film and agricultural film. Berry�� products are used primarily to wrap fresh meats, poultry and produce for supermarket applic! ations. I! n addition, the Company offers a line of boxed products for food service and retail sales. Berry sells trash-can liners and food bags for offices, restaurants, schools, hospitals, hotels, municipalities and manufacturing facilities. The Company also sells products under the Big City, Hospi-Tuff, Plas-Tuff, Rhino-X and Steel-Flex brands. The Company produces both hand and machine-wrap stretch films, which are used by end users to wrap products and packages for storage and shipping. It sells stretch film products to distributors and retail and industrial end users under the MaxTech and PalleTech brands.
The Company competes with AEP, Sigma and 3M.
Flexible Packaging
The Company�� Flexible Packaging business consists of barrier, multilayer film products, as well as finished flexible packages, such as printed bags and pouches. Berry manufactures and sells a range of film products ranging from mono layer to coextruded films having up to nine layers, lamination films sold primarily to flexible packaging converters and used for peelable lid stock, stand-up pouches, pillow pouches and other flexible packaging formats. The Company also manufactures barrier films used for cereal, cookie, cracker and dry mix packages that are sold directly to food manufacturers like Kraft and Pepsico. It also manufactures films for industrial applications ranging from lamination film for carpet padding to films used in solar panel construction.
The Company supplies component and packaging films used for personal care applications. Berry is a converter of printed bags, pouches and roll stock. Its manufacturing base includes integrated extrusion that combines with printing, laminating, bagmaking, Innolok and laser-score converting processes. The Company is a supplier of printed film products for the fresh bakery, tortilla and frozen vegetable markets with brands, such as SteamQuick Film, Freshview bags and Billboard. The Company manufactures specialty coated and laminated produ! cts for a! range of packaging applications. Its products are sold under the MarvelGuard and MarvelSeal brands and are sold to converters who transform them into finished goods.
The Company competes with Printpak, Tredegar and Bemis.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Bryan Murphy]
It's certainly not as big as Berry Plastics Group Inc. (NYSE:BERY). It's not even as big as Tredegar Corporation (NYSE:TG). There's one big way AEP Industries (NASDAQ:AEPI) can certainly compete head-on with BERY and TG right now, however... as an investment opportunity. Thanks to the bullish bump AEPI gave us last week, a long-standing selloff has been revered, and there's a whole lot of ground to make up.
- [By John Udovich]
One of the most famous scenes in the cult classic, the Graduate, was when Mr. McGuire�took Dustin Hoffman�� character aside and said�"Ben, I want to say one word to you, just one word: Plastics"; but what about the Berry Plastics Group Inc (NYSE: BERY) and its performance verses that of the�iShares S&P 500 Index ETF (NYSEARCA: IVV), iShares Russell Midcap Index Fund ETF (NYSEARCA: IWR) and iShares S&P SmallCap 600 Index ETF (NYSEARCA: IJR)? I should mention that plastics and the Berry Plastics Group was not the place to be yesterday as the stock took a tumble on reduced guidance.
- [By Ben Rooney]
In pointing out the possibility of the upcoming ban, a recent Goldman Sachs (GS) report said it would be good news for Berry Plastics Group (BERY), which makes cups out of a material similar to polystyrene that is recyclable.
Top 10 Oil Service Companies To Buy Right Now: State Street Corporation(STT)
State Street Corporation, a financial holding company, provides various financial products and services to institutional investors worldwide. The company?s Investment Servicing business line provides products and services, including custody, product- and participant-level accounting; daily pricing and administration; master trust and master custody; record-keeping; foreign exchange, brokerage, and other trading services; securities finance; deposit and short-term investment facilities; loan and lease financing; investment manager and alternative investment manager operations outsourcing; and performance, risk, and compliance analytics. This segment also offers shareholder services, which comprise mutual fund and collective investment fund shareholder accounting. Its Investment Management business line provides a range of investment management, investment research, and other related services, such as securities finance; and strategies for managing passive and active financ ial assets, such as enhanced indexing and hedge fund strategies for U.S. and global equities and fixed-income securities. The company serves mutual funds, collective investment funds and other investment pools, corporate and public retirement plans, insurance companies, foundations, endowments, and investment managers. State Street Corporation was founded in 1832 and is headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Nicole Seghetti]
Good news for ETF investors too
Even excluding the multibillion-dollar tally of Swiss-based funds, BlackRock's empire is colossal. Its iShares ETFs overwhelmingly dominate the market, holding about 40% market share. With roughly 23% share of the ETF market, State Street's (NYSE: STT ) SPDR ETF business comes in second place. Vanguard rounds out the top three. These top ETF managers account for roughly 84% of the industry assets. - [By David Hanson and Matt Koppenheffer]
Despite ticking lower today, Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS ) , Bank of New York Mellon� (NYSE: BK ) , and State Street (NYSE: STT ) have crushed the market over the past year.
Top 10 Oil Service Companies To Buy Right Now: Manning & Napier Inc (MN)
Manning & Napier, Inc., incorporated on June 22, 2011, is an independent investment management firm. The Company provides a range of investment solutions through separately managed accounts, mutual funds and collective investment trust funds. The Company offers equity and fixed income portfolios as well as a range of blended asset portfolios, such as life cycle funds, that use a mix of stocks and bonds. The Company focuses on building an internal organization of specialists to provide additional consultative services beyond investment management. Effective June 2014, Manning & Napier Inc acquired 2100 Xenon Group LLC.
The Company serves clients, including individuals and institutions, which include 401(k) plans, pension plans, Taft-Hartley plans, and endowments and foundations. The Company�� operations are based principally in the United States. The Company�� operating subsidiaries include Manning & Napier Advisors, LLC, Exeter Advisors, LLC, Manning & Napier Investor Services, Inc., Manning & Napier Alternative Opportunities, LLC and Exeter Trust Company.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Michael Hamlett Jr.]
Manning and Napier Inc. (MN) is an investment management firm involved in providing financial solutions for individual and institutional clients. Since 1970, MN has been offering portfolios with different asset classes, such as equity and fixed income, to clients with various accounts including seperately managed accounts, 401(k) plans, pension plans, endowments, and even foundations. For these services, clients pay a fee, and this is the way MN generates revenue.
Top 10 Oil Service Companies To Buy Right Now: TruLan Resources Inc (TRLR)
Trulan Resources, Inc. (Trulan), incorporated on March 12, 1971, is a natural resource mineral exploration company. The Company�� focus is to locate and acquire mineral concessions and properties that have experienced various degrees of previous exploratory work where anomalous values of gold, silver and Platinum Group Metals (PGM��) projects in North and South America.
The IGP Project totals 885 Hectares (2,186 Acres) of wide spread mineralization and ore bodies that contain high grades of Iron, Gold, Platinum and high value industrial metals. There are eight known deposits in close proximity which have been tested to the point where an Indicated Ore resource has been delineated. There are four ore bodies with an Indicated Reserve in excess of 247 Million Metric Tons. Its Eureka Placer Claim is located on Eureka Creek in California�� Sierra City Mining District. This district covers a area in Sierra County, extending through Furnier, Loganville, Church Meadows, Gold Valley, and the Sierra City-Buttes areas.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Peter Graham]
Small cap mining stocks Brazil Gold Corp (OTCMKTS: BRZG) and Trulan Resources (OTCMKTS: TRLR) were either active on the charts last week (in the case of the former) or recently the subject of paid promotions (in the case of the latter). However, mining is not exactly an easy business for a small and usually undercapitalized small cap mining stock given the amount it can cost to get a mine up and running. On the other hand, they could always be sitting on the next mother lode just waiting to come out of the ground. With that in mind, here is a quick reality check about these two small cap mining stocks:
Top 10 Oil Service Companies To Buy Right Now: Uomo Media Inc (UOMO)
UOMO Media Inc., incorporated on June 10, 2004, is in the business of producing, managing, and monetizing music-based intellectual property. The Company provides music publishing, digital music and video, recorded music and production, and talent management services. The Company operates in four divisions: music publishing, recorded music, digital distribution and talent management. The Company has two subsidiaries in Canada, UOMO Productions Inc. and UOMO Music Publishing Inc. In addition, The NE Inc. is a wholly owned subsidiary of UOMO Productions Inc. and UOMO Songs Ltd. is a wholly owned subsidiary of UOMO Music Publishing Inc. As of April 30, 2009, the Company had 22 production customers. The Company�� customers include VideoFact and Universal Music. As of April 30, 2009, the Company was in the development stage.
In the music publishing segment, UOMO Music Publishing Inc. is tasked with creating a catalogue of assets in the form of copyrights. Services include Fund advances, which includes providing advances to individual composers; Administration, which includes registration, tracking, and collection of copyright royalties; Creative, which includes creating copyrights by writing songs, and Licensing, which includes finding opportunities to monetize copyrights by placing songs on recording artists, films, television, video games, commercials.
In the recorded music segment, the Company earns revenue from the ownership of master recordings. UOMO Recorded Music has three functions: catalogue acquisition, talent acquisition for/and production activities and distribution arrangements for projects. UOMO Recorded Music is the record label division of UOMO. Production services also fall under this division.
In the digital distribution segment, the Company has been developing digital music and video Web 2.0 software. In the talent management segment, the Company earns a percentage of gross revenues for all projects it manages. As of April 30, 2009, the Company ! was in the process of developing programming architecture for the new digital music and video portal.
The Company competes with Warner Music Group, EMI, Sony BMG, and Universal Music Group.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Peter Graham]
Small cap media stocks UOMO Media Inc (OTCMKTS: UOMO), International Display Advertising (OTCMKTS: IDAD) and Media Analytics Corp (OTCBB: MEDA) have been getting some extra media attention lately thanks in part to paid promotions. It should be said that there is nothing wrong with properly disclosed paid promotional or investor relation campaigns for stocks, but they can backfire on unwary investors and traders alike. With that in mind, here is a closer look at along with a reality check for these three small cap media stocks:
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