5 Best Communications Equipment Stocks To Own For 2014

In a secular bull market rally, sectors tend to go up and down on a favorable basis as they become either overbought or just lose momentum. The Institutional Portfolio team at Oppenheimer highlighted that the communications equipment sector has shown two months of notable improvement. The breadth of�analyst revisions and secularly depressed valuations create a compelling industry-level opportunity for relative outperformance. Most importantly, they point out that valuations are remaining at generational lows. The communications equipment arena looks best positioned to outperform, while limiting downside risks. Here are the top stocks to buy at Oppenheimer in the sector.

ADTRAN Inc. (NASDAQ: ADTN) is a leading global provider of networking and communications equipment. Its products enable voice, data, video and Internet communications across a variety of network infrastructures. ADTRAN solutions are currently in use by service providers, private enterprises, government organizations and millions of individual users worldwide. The Thomson/First Call price target for the stock is $22, and investors receive a 1.4% dividend.

Best India Companies To Invest In 2015: Research in Motion Ltd (BBRY)

Research In Motion Limited, incorporated on March 7, 1984, is a designer, manufacturer and marketer of wireless solutions for the worldwide mobile communications market. Through the development of integrated hardware, software and services, it provides platforms and solutions for seamless access to information, including e-mail, voice, instant messaging, short message service (SMS), Internet and intranet-based applications and browsing. The Company's technology also enables an array of third party developers and manufacturers to enhance their products and services through software development kits, wireless connectivity to data and third-party support programs.Its portfolio of products, services and embedded technologies are used by thousands of organizations and millions of consumers around the world and include the BlackBerry wireless solution, the RIM Wireless Handheld product line, the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet, software development tools and other software and hardware.

On March 25, 2011, the Company purchased 100% of the shares of a company whose technology is being incorporated into the Company�� developer tools. On April 26, 2011, the Company purchased certain assets of a company whose acquired technologies will be incorporated into the Company�� products. In June 2011, the Company acquired Scoreloop. On March 8, 2012, the Company acquired Paratek Microwave Inc. During the fiscal year ended March 3, 2012 (fiscal 2012), the Company purchased 100% interests of a company, whose technology will be incorporated into its technology; whose technology offers cloud-based services for storing, sharing, accessing and organizing digital content on mobile devices; whose technology is being incorporated into an application on the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet; whose technology offers a customizable and cross-platform social mobile gaming developer tool kit, and whose technology will provide a multi-platform BlackBerry Enterprise Solution for managing and securing mobile devices for enterpris! es and government organizations.

On April 24, 2012, the Company launched BlackBerry 7 smartphone, the BlackBerry Curve 9220, for customers in Indonesia. April 18, 2012, it launched BlackBerry 7 smartphone, the BlackBerry Curve 9220, for customers in India. On April 17, 2012, it announced availability of the BlackBerry Bold 9790 smartphone in Spain. On April 3, 2012, it launched BlackBerry Mobile Fusion, and launched four BlackBerry smartphones powered by the BlackBerry 7 operating system (OS) in Cambodia, which included BlackBerry Bold 9900, BlackBerry Bold 9790, BlackBerry Curve 9360 and BlackBerry Curve 9380. On April 2, 2012, it announced the availability of BlackBerry App World, the official application store for BlackBerry smartphones in Brunei, and it announced availability of the BlackBerry Bold 9790 and BlackBerry Curve 9380 smartphones for Cell C customers in South Africa. On March 27, 2012, it launched of the BlackBerry solution in Benin Republic. On March 15, 2012, it launched of BlackBerry services in China. On March 7, 2012, it launched the BlackBerry service in Angola.

The Company's primary revenue stream is generated by the BlackBerry wireless solution, consists of smartphones and tablets, service and software. BlackBerry service is provided through a combination of its global BlackBerry Infrastructure and the wireless networks of its carrier partners. On February 21, 2012, it released the BlackBerry PlayBook OS 2.0 software. It generates hardware revenues from sales, primarily to carriers and distributors. During fiscal 2012, the Company launched the wireless fidelity (WiFi)-enabled BlackBerry PlayBook tablet in 44 markets around the world. On July 21, 2011, the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet received Federal Information Processing Standard 140-2 certification.

BlackBerry Smartphones and Tablets

BlackBerry smartphones uses wireless, push-based technology that delivers data to mobile users��business and consumer applications. BlackBerry s! martphone! s integrate messaging including instant messaging, email and SMS; voice calling; Webkit browser; multimedia capabilities; calendar, and other applications. During fiscal 2012, it introduced 10 new smartphones and launched software updates to both its smartphone and tablet platforms. BlackBerry smartphones are available from hundreds of carriers and indirect channels, through a range of distribution partners, and are designed to operate on a variety of carrier networks, including HSPA/HSPA+/UMTS, GSM/GPRS/EDGE, CDMA/Ev-DO, and iDEN.

During fiscal 2012, its BlackBerry smartphone and tablet portfolio included BlackBerry Bold series, BlackBerry Torch series, BlackBerry Curve series and The BlackBerry PlayBook tablet. Its BlackBerry Bold series includes BlackBerry Bold 9900 and 9930 and BlackBerry Bold 9790. The Company�� BlackBerry Torch series include BlackBerry Torch 9810 and All-Touch BlackBerry Torch 9850 and 9860. The Company's BlackBerry Curve series include BlackBerry Curve 9350/9360/9370 and All-Touch BlackBerry Curve 9380 Smartphone. The BlackBerry PlayBook tablet features the BlackBerry PlayBook OS 2.0. The BlackBerry PlayBook offers a seven-inch high definition display, a dual core one gigahertz processor, dual high definition cameras, multitasking and a Web browsing.

BlackBerry Enterprise Solution

BlackBerry Enterprise Server is software that acts as the centralized link between BlackBerry smartphones, enterprise systems, business applications and wireless networks. BlackBerry Enterprise Server integrates with enterprise messaging systems including Microsoft Exchange, IBM Lotus Domino and Novell GroupWise to synchronize with BlackBerry smartphones to provide mobile users with wireless access to e-mail, calendar, contacts, notes and tasks. It also provides access to business applications and enterprise systems. In addition, it provides security features and offers administrative tools. BlackBerry Enterprise Server is required for certain other enterprise ! solutions! , such as BlackBerry Mobile Voice System (for bringing desk phone functionality to BlackBerry smartphones); BlackBerry Clients for Microsoft Office Communications Server, IBM Lotus Sametime and Novell GroupWise Messenger (for enterprise instant messaging); IBM Lotus Connections (for enterprise social networking); IBM Lotus Quickr (for document sharing and collaboration); and Chalk Pushcast Software (for corporate podcasting).

The Company�� BlackBerry Mobile Fusion provides a Web-based interface that allows enterprises to provision, audit, and protect mobile devices including BlackBerry smartphones, BlackBerry PlayBook tablets, and devices that use iOS and Android. BlackBerry Balance helps enterprises support the Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) trend. BlackBerry Enterprise Server Express is free server software that synchronizes BlackBerry smartphones with Microsoft Exchange or Microsoft Windows Small Business Server. BlackBerry Enterprise Server Express works with Microsoft Exchange 2010, 2007 and 2003 and Microsoft Windows Small Business Server 2008 and 2003 to provide users with wireless access to e-mail, calendar, contacts, notes and tasks, as well as other business applications and enterprise systems behind the firewall.

BlackBerry Mobile Voice System (BlackBerry MVS) allows organizations to converge office desk phones and BlackBerry smartphones. BlackBerry MVS is consists of three components: BlackBerry MVS Client, BlackBerry MVS Services, and BlackBerry MVS Server. It unifies fixed and mobile voice communications. Hosted BlackBerry services bring the BlackBerry Enterprise Server features, functionality, and security capabilities in a package that is managed for end users. Hosted BlackBerry services are conveniently handled and supported by a BlackBerry certified partner from the BlackBerry Alliance Program, giving small and medium -sized enterprise (SME) enterprises the support and convenience they need.

Service

The Company generates service rev! enues fro! m billings to RIM's BlackBerry subscriber account base. It generates service revenues primarily from a monthly infrastructure access fee charged to a carrier or reseller, which the carrier or reseller in turn bills the BlackBerry subscriber.

BlackBerry Technical Support Services

BlackBerry Technical Support Services are a suite of annual technical support and software maintenance programs. The programs are designed to meet the customer�� BlackBerry support needs by offering a contact for BlackBerry wireless solution technical support directly from the Company.

Non-Warranty Repairs

The Company generates revenue from its repair and maintenance program for BlackBerry smartphones that are returned to it by the carrier, the reseller, or the customer. It generates revenue for repair after the expiration of the contractual warranty period.

The Company competes with Apple Inc., Microsoft Inc., Nokia Corporation, Dell, Inc., Fujitsu Limited, General Dynamics Corporation, Hitachi America, Ltd., HTC Corporation, Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd., LG Electronics Mobile Communications Company, Mitsubishi Corporation, Motorola Mobility Holdings, Inc., NEC Corporation, Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., Sharp Corporation, Sony Corporation, ZTE Corporation, IBM Corporation, Microsoft Corporation, Notify Technology Corporation, Openwave Systems Inc., Seven Networks, Inc., Sybase, Inc. and Good Technologies.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Adam Levine-Weinberg]

  A little over a month ago, BlackBerry (NASDAQ: BBRY  ) finally launched its flagship QWERTY phone, the Q10, in the U.K. The Q10 has since launched in Canada and a variety of countries in continental Europe and Asia. However, the new phone has not yet launched in the U.S., which is one of BlackBerry's top two markets (along with the U.K.).

• [By Anora Mahmudova]

  In corporate news, BlackBerry Ltd. (BBRY) �shares slumped 7% after reporting an adjusted per-share loss that was less than expected. The company said it anticipates maintaining a strong cash position and is targeting break-even cash-flow results by the end of fiscal 2015.

5 Best Communications Equipment Stocks To Own For 2014: Location Based Technologies Inc (LBAS)

Location Based Technologies, Inc. (LBT), incorporated on April 20, 2006, designs, develops, and sells personal, pet, and vehicle locator devices and services including PocketFinder People, PocketFinder Pets and PocketFinder Vehicles. The Company markets and sells consumer and commercial location devices and services. Its devices utilize Assisted Global Positioning System (A-GPS) and General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) technologies in conjunction with its technologies designed to enhance the families to interact and stay connected around the world. The Company is a developer of the PocketFinder family of products and the PocketFinder Network. The PocketFinder family of products includes the PocketFinder People, PocketFinder Vehicle, PocketFinder Pets, PocketFinder Luggage, PocketFinder Mobile and PocketFinder Fleet. The PocketFinder is a small location device that enables a user to locate a device, person, or pet, at anytime from almost anywhere. PocketFinder personal locator devices are wireless.

The Company generate revenue by selling its products and charging customers an ongoing service fee, for which it offers monthly and annual subscription plans. The Company�� product, PocketFinder, is a small, waterproof and wireless location device that enables users to locate anyone or anything they care about, from a computer or Web-enabled device. Its products deliver critical information to users, such as: device location, longitude, latitude, heading speed and 60 days of location history. This information can be viewed passively through a user�� account or can be sent to a user via email or push notification if the user sets an alert. The target markets for the PocketFinder include: young children, seniors, people with special needs and people who need to track valuable assets such as luggage or sporting equipment. In addition to the PocketFinder, it also sell the PocketFinder Pet and the PocketFinder Vehicle products. The PocketFinder Pet is designed for pets weighing 15 pounds or more,! and it markets the PocketFinder Vehicle to families with new drivers, car enthusiasts, motorcycle owners, watercraft owners and business fleets. The PocketFinder Vehicle attaches directly to a battery or fuse box, so it has a constant supply of power. All PocketFinder products operate on the same user interface, which enables its customers receive the same features, functionality and user-experience, regardless of which product they own. To access their account or locate their devices, users can logon to the Company�� Website at www.pocketfinder.com or use its native iPhone, iPad or Android Apps.

The Company�� products are sold through various brick-and-mortar and online retailers and through its Website. It provides customer service and support in the United States through existing call centers owned by Affinitas. It provides wireless location based solutions for global positioning products along with its friendly user interface software system. PocketFinder and PocketFinder Vehicle devices are being sold in the United States and in Canada through the Apple Online Store and Apple Retail Stores. PocketFinder devices for Pets are available for purchase on its Website.

The Company competes with Geospatial Platform Providers, Application Developers, Garmin�� GTU-10, Qualcomm�� Tagg, Lo-Jack, SpotLight, Fleetmatics, NetworkFleet, and Qualcomm.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By CRWE]

  Today, LBAS has shed (-7.69%) -0.010 at $.120 with 95,100 shares in play thus far (ref. google finance Delayed: 12:21PM EDT August 15, 2013).

  Location Based Technologies, Inc. previously reported it has signed a distribution agreement with Beijing Lava Technology Co. Ltd., an Apple approved distributor for its online, brick and mortar stores, and authorized distributors in Asia. The agreement is one of the final steps preceding the launch of LBT�� GPS products into the Asian markets. Beijing Lava Technology Co. Ltd. serves China, Singapore, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Malaysia, and Indonesia.

  LBT estimates that it will begin selling its PocketFinder devices in Singapore through Apple�� online store and authorized distributors in the near future with other Asian countries to follow thereafter.

• [By CRWE]

  Today, LBAS surged (+10.27%) up +0.015 at $.160 with�39,780 shares in play thus far (ref. google finance Delayed: 11:41AM EDT July 5, 2013).

  Location Based Technologies, Inc. and EE, Ltd., the U.K.�� most advanced communications company, have previously entered into a purchase agreement which will allow LBT to embed EE SIM technology into LBT�� world�� best GPS products for immediate purchase throughout Europe and in additional areas around the world.

  EE�� relationship with LBT continues to grow. The companies began their relationship earlier this year when EE launched PocketFinder Personal GPS Locators in their London flagship stores (https://explore.ee.co.uk/pocket-finder). With this latest agreement, LBT now has the capability to sell devices into Europe using a local SIM, thereby greatly reducing the monthly service fee charged to customers.

• [By CRWE]

  Today, LBAS�remains (0.00%) +0.000 at $.132 with 9,470 shares in movement thus far (ref. google finance Delayed: 9:47AM EDT June 20, 2013).

  Location Based Technologies, Inc. previously received FCC and IC certification for its versatile LBT-886 device. These certifications are necessary before devices can be sold to consumers throughout the US and Canada.

  The LBT-886 device is available for manufacture in a 2G or 3G variant. The 3G penta-band variant will enable the device to function in countries which only operate on the 3G spectrum, such as Australia, South Korea, Japan and some areas of Canada. This global tracking solution also delivers additional features such as various environmental sensors or comes with an attachment with special capability designed to meet lone-worker or personnel security requirements

5 Best Communications Equipment Stocks To Own For 2014: Ubiquiti Networks Inc (UBNT)

Ubiquiti Networks, Inc. (Ubiquiti), incorporated on June 24, 2010, is a communications technology Company. designs, manufactures and sells broadband wireless solutions worldwide. The Company offers a portfolio of wireless networking products and solutions, including systems, high performance radios, antennas and management tools, designed for wireless networking and other applications in the unlicensed radio frequency (RF) spectrum. The Company offers solutions that incorporate its RF technology, antenna design and firmware technologies, which it refers to as AirTechnologies. It offers a portfolio of communications networking products and solutions and it recently introduced products in the video surveillance, wireless backhaul and machine-to-machine communication markets.

The Company�� business is driven by a community of network operators, service providers, distributors, value added resellers (VARs) and system integrators, which it refers to as the Ubiquiti Community. As of June 30, 2013, Ubiquiti�� AirTechnologies included, UBNT, airMAX, UniFi, mFi, EdgeMAX, airVision, airFiber, airOS, NanoStation, airGrid, NanoBridge, and a number of trademark applications and registrations in the United States and other countries. The Company technology enables it to provide end to end wireless networking solutions for network operators and service providers in underserved and underpenetrated markets. It designs its products and solutions using hardware and industry standard chipsets to enable these providers to deliver carrier class wireless broadband access and services to their subscribers.

Enterprise WLAN - UniFi

Unifi hardware utilizes MIMO technology, works with 802.11 standards, and uses a single cable for data transmission and power-over-ethernet. Unlike other enterprise Wi-Fi systems that utilize a hardware Wi-Fi switch, Unifi uses a virtual controller that allows for on-site management or remote management through the cloud. Each UniFi access point a! nd can be managed centrally with the UniFi Controller software. The UniFi Controller enables enterprise WLAN managers to centrally configure and administer a UniFi network and individual access points without any special training and through secure access from any Web browser. The UniFi Controller provides automatic UniFi access point detection, firmware updates, real-time status, map loading and advanced security options.

Video Surveillance - airVision

The H.264 cameras use a single cable for data transmission and power-over-ethernet. AirVision, its management controller software, can be used to manage multiple AirCam H.264 IP cameras as well as manage other digital video recorder devices. AirVision software is available for download at no cost on its Website and only manages Ubiquiti Network camera devices. Similar to its other network management products, airVision can be accessed securely from any Web browser, provides statistical reporting and analytics and provides a management console with camera settings and event recordings.

Machine-To-Machine Communication - mFi

In June 2012, the Company announced mFi, which includes hardware sensors, power devices, and management software that allows devices to be controlled remotely. For example, mFi allows users to manage and monitor their building temperature and power consumption. The management controller software is IP based and can be accessed from any browser locally or through the cloud. MFi software allows management to create rules using if/then statements to control numerous devices.

The Company competes with Motorola, Trango, Cisco Systems, Proxim, Mikrotikls, Senao, Ceragon Networks, DragonWave, Ruckus Wireless, TP-LINK Technologies CO., LTD, Andrew Corporation, PCTEL, Aruba Networks, Inc, Vivotek, Inc., Axis Communications AB , Mobotix Corp, Cambium Networks , SAF Tehnika, EnergyHub, Inc., AlertMe.com Ltd and Radio Waves Inc.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Mani]

  Ubiquiti Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:UBNT) shares have been in rally mode, particularly since reporting strong quarterly results in August, gaining 57 percent. Over the past three months, shares have climbed nearly 100 percent versus a 9 percent gain in the NASDAQ.

• [By Laura Brodbeck]

  Thursday

  Earnings Expected From: Priceline.com Incorporated (NASDAQ: PCLN), Ubiquiti Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ: UBNT), Bristow Group Inc. (NYSE: BRS), Groupon, Inc. (NASDAQ: GRPN), Scotts Miracle Gro Company (NYSE: SMG) Economic Releases Expected: US GDP, US Consumer Credit

  Friday

• [By Jon C. Ogg]

  Ubiquiti Networks Inc. (NASDAQ: UBNT) was given a cautious Neutral rating as well, and it had the least negative bias in Garcha’s call. He said:

• [By Brian Pacampara]

  What: Shares of communications networking technologist Ubiquiti Networks (NASDAQ: UBNT  ) soared 23% today after its quarterly results and outlook topped Wall Street expectations.

5 Best Communications Equipment Stocks To Own For 2014: Revolution Lighting Technologies Inc (RVLT)

Revolution Lighting Technologies Inc., incorporated on December 16, 1993, designs, manufacture, market and sells commercial grade, light emitting diode (LED) replacement light bulbs and LED-based signage, channel letter and contour lighting products. The Company sells these products under the Seesmart, Array Lighting and Lumificient brand names. The Company operates in two segments: LED replacement lamps and fixtures and LED signage and lighting strips. On December 20, 2012, the Company acquired Seesmart Technologies, Inc., headquartered in Simi Valley, California. In August 2013, the Company announced that it has completed the acquisition of Relume Technologies (Relume). In October 2013, the Company announced that it has acquired a portfolio of general illumination LED lighting products, including several product lines from CMG Energy Solutions (CMG). In November 2013, the Company acquired Tri-State LED.

The Company�� LED replacement lamps and fixtures segment include the Seesmart business and the Array business, which has been integrated with the Seesmart business. The LED signage and lighting strips segment is comprised of the Lumificient business.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Paul Ausick]

  Without making too much fuss over a small-cap stock, Revolution Lighting Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ: RVLT) is seeing its share price rise by nearly 25% today after reporting results this Friday morning. Yahoo! Finance does not have any estimates for the company, but Revolution posted an operating loss of $3.1 million in the quarter, more than four times worse than its loss in the same period in 2012. Even with adjustments Revolution�� operating loss totaled $1.8 million.

Friday’s Analyst Moves: Alcoa Inc, Nike Inc, Schlumberger Limited., More (AA, NKE, SLB, More)

Before Friday’s opening bell, a number of big name dividend stocks were the subject of analyst moves. Below, we highlight the important analyst commentary for investors.

HB Fuller Upgraded to “Outperform”

HB Fuller Co (FUL) has been upgraded from “Neutral” to “Outperform” at Robert Baird as the company is expanding its market. The firm as a $55 price target on FUL, suggesting a 15% upside from Thursday’s closing price of $47.44. FUL has a dividend yield of 1.01%.

Credit Suisse Downgrades HollyFrontier

Best Prefered Stocks To Own Right Now

Credit Suisse has cut its rating on HollyFrontier Corp (HFC) to “Neutral.” The firm has also lowered its estimates on HFC due to macro weakness. HFC has a dividend yield of 2.81%.

Two Firms Raise PT on Alcoa

UBS has raised its price target on Alcoa Inc (AA) to $15 due to the company’s agreement to acquire Firth Rixson.

Top Performing Stocks To Own For 2015

Top Performing Stocks To Own For 2015: ZAGG Incorporated(ZAGG)

ZAGG Incorporated, together with its subsidiaries, designs, manufactures, and distributes protective coverings, audio accessories, and power solutions for consumer electronics and hand-held devices under the invisibleSHIELD, ZAGGskins, ZAGGbuds, ZAGGsparq, and ZAGGmate brand names, primarily in the United States and Europe. Its invisibleSHIELD is a protective film covering designed for iPods, iPads, laptops, cell phones, digital cameras, watch faces, global positioning systems, personal digital assistants, MP3 players, watch faces, global positioning systems, gaming devices, and rotary blades of military helicopters. The company?s ZAGGaudio brand of electronics accessories and products primarily comprise ZAGGsmartbuds, a water resistant ear bud; ZAGGskins brand consists of high-resolution images with the scratch protection of ZAGG?s invisibleSHIELD; ZAGGsparq is a portable battery that recharges various USB-charged devices, including the Apple iPads and iPhones, cell phone s, handheld gaming systems, and digital cameras; ZAGG LEATHERskins are thin, pliable cases for personal electronics; and ZAGGmate products are protective cases for the Apple iPad. ZAGG Incorporated offers approximately 5,000 precision pre-cut designs of its products through online channels, big-box retailers, electronics specialty stores, resellers, college bookstores, Mac stores, and mall kiosks. The company is headquartered in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Selena Maranjian]

  Why Corning?
  The company is a giant in specialty glasses and fiber optics. Its fortunes are influenced these days by smartphone and tablet makers such as Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL  ) , which use its glass in their displays. Corning's Gorilla Glass is so strong that it has put a crimp in the business of screen-protecting companies such as ZAGG (NASDAQ: ZAGG  ) . Some worry about Apple's interest in sapphire, though, as i! t's even stronger than Gorilla Glass (though more expensive) and could threaten Corning.

• [By Rick Munarriz]

  Thursday
  ZAGG (NASDAQ: ZAGG  ) has been a brutal disappointment for investors who thought they were getting a thinking investor's play on the smartphone and tablet revolutions. The maker of protective screens, keyboard covers, and other mobile-gadget accessories has fallen hard after hosing down its outlook twice over the past three months.

source from Top Penny Stocks For 2015:http://www.topstocksforum.com/top-performing-stocks-to-own-for-2015-2.html

Top 5 Railroad Stocks To Own For 2015

Top 5 Railroad Stocks To Own For 2015: Conmed Corp (CNMD)

CONMED Corporation (CONMED), incorporated on February 10, 1970, is a medical technology company/ The Company emphasizes on surgical devices and equipment for minimally invasive procedures and monitoring. The Company's products are used by surgeons and physicians in a range of specialties, including orthopedics, general surgery, gynecology, neurosurgery, and gastroenterology. The Company operates in five segments: CONMED Endoscopic Technologies, CONMED Endosurgery, CONMED Electrosurgery, CONMED Linvatec and CONMED Patient Care.

Arthroscopy

The Company offers a range of devices and products for uses in arthroscopic surgery. The Company's arthroscopy products include powered resection instruments, arthroscopes, reconstructive systems, tissue repair sets, metal and bioabsorbable implants as well as related disposable products and fluid management systems. The Company also offers a line of video Endoscopy products suitable for uses in multi-specialty c linical environments beyond orthopedic arthroscopy, including laparoscopy, ear, nose and throat (ENT), gynecology and urology, as well as integrated operating room systems and equipment.

Powered Surgical Instruments

Electric, battery or pneumatic powered surgical instruments are used to perform orthopedic, arthroscopic and other surgical procedures where cutting, drilling or reaming of bone is required. Each power system consists of one or more handpieces and related accessories as well as disposable and limited reusable items (e.g., burs, saw blades, drills and reamers). Powered instruments are categorized as either small bone, large bone or specialty powered instruments. Specialty powered instruments are utilized in procedures such as spinal surgery, neurosurgery, ENT, oral/maxillofacial surgery, and cardiothoracic surgery.

The Company's li! ne of powered instruments is sold principally under the Hall Surgical brand name, for use in lar ge and small bone orthopedic, arthroscopic, oral/maxillofaci! al, podiatric, plastic, ENT, neurological, spinal and cardiothoracic surgeries. Large bone, neurosurgical, spinal and cardiothoracic powered instruments are sold primarily to hospitals while small bone arthroscopic, otolaryngological and oral/maxillofacial powered instruments are sold to hospitals, outpatient facilities and physicians offices.

The Company's powered instruments product line includes the MPower battery system. This orthopedic power system is specifically designed to meet the requirements of orthopedic applications. The MPower battery system allows a facility to purchase a single power system to perform total joint arthroplasty, trauma, arthroscopy, and small bone procedures. The system also provides a multitude of battery technologies to meet the varying needs of hospitals worldwide.

Electrosurgery

The use of electrosurgical units and associated surgical tools is commonplace in the hospital surgical suite, surgery centers , clinics and physician offices. Electrosurgery is routinely used to cut and coagulate tissue and small vessels in open and laparoscopic procedures using energy produced through radio frequency (RF) technology. Electrosurgery can be used in almost all surgical procedures including specialties, such as general, gynecology, orthopedics, cardiology, thoracics, urology, neurology, and dermatology. The Company's portfolio consist of energy-based products is the Argon Beam Coagulation (ABC) technology. ABC technology combines the use of argon gas and electrosurgical energy to allow the surgeon to produce a surface coagulation which results in less tissue damage.

Patient Care

The Company's patient care product line includes a line of vital signs and cardiac monitoring products, including pulse oximetry equipment and sensors, electrocardiogram (ECG) elec! trodes an! d cables, cardiac defibrillation and pacing pads and blood pressure cuffs. The Company also of fers a line of suction instruments and tubing for use in the! operatin! g room, as well as a line of intravenous (IV) products for use in the critical care areas of the hospital.

Endosurgery

Endosurgery (also referred to as minimally invasive surgery or laparoscopic surgery) is surgery performed without a incision. The Company's Endosurgical products include the Reflex and PermaClip clip appliers for vessel and duct ligation, Universal S/I (suction/irrigation) and Universal Plus laparoscopic instruments and specialized suction/irrigation electrosurgical instrument systems for use in laparoscopic surgery. The Company also offers cutting and dilating trocars, suction/irrigation accessories, laparoscopic scissors, dissectors and graspers, active electrodes, insufflation needles and linear cutters and staplers for use in laparoscopic surgery. The Company's disposable skin staplers are used to close large skin incisions with surgical staples, thus eliminating the time consuming suturing process. CONMED Endosurgery also offer s a uterine manipulator called VCARE for use in increasing the efficiency of laparoscopic hysterectomies and other gynecologic laparoscopic procedures.

Endoscopic Technologies

The Company offers a line of minimally invasive diagnostic and therapeutic products used in conjunction with procedures, which requires flexible endoscopy. The Company's principal customers include gastrointestinal (GI) endoscopists, pulmonologists, and nurses who perform both diagnostic and therapeutic endoscopic procedures in hospitals and outpatient clinics.

The Company's primary focus is to identify, develop, acquire, manufacture and market differentiated medical devices, which improve outcomes in the diagnosis and treatment of gastrointestinal and pulmonary disorders. The Company's diagnostic and therapeutic product offerings for GI and pulmonology! include ! mucosal management devices, forceps, scope management accessories, bronchoscopy devices, dilatation, str icture management devices, hemostasis, biliary devices, and ! polypecto! my.

The Company competes with Smith & Nephew, plc, Arthrex, Inc., Stryker Corporation, ArthroCare Corporation, Johnson & Johnson: DePuy Mitek, Inc., Biomet, Inc., Medtronic, Inc. Midas Rex and Xomed, Synvasive Technology, Inc., Synthes, Inc., MicroAire Surgical Instruments, LLC, Zimmer Holdings, Inc., Covidien Ltd.; Valleylab, Medline Industries, Inc., ERBE Elektromedizin GmbH, Megadyne, Kendall, 3M Company, Ethicon Endo-Surgery, Inc, U.S.Surgical, Boston Scientific Corporation, Wilson-Cook Medical, Inc, Olympus America, Inc. and STERIS Corporation.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By James Brumley]

  Shares of MDT stock have fallen 6% since their early January peak, but have been in an uptrend since late 2011 … one of the few stocks in the medical device world that has been rock-solid in a rocky environment.

  Medical Devices: ConMed Corp. (CNMD)

  With a market cap of only $1.2 billion, ConMed Corp. (CNMD) isn’t exactly a household name. That doesn’t mean CNMD stock can’t be a potent addiction to a portfolio, though.

• [By Seth Jayson]

  Calling all cash flows
  When you are trying to buy the market's best stocks, it's worth checking up on your companies' free cash flow once a quarter or so, to see whether it bears any relationship to the net income in the headlines. That's what we do with this series. Today, we're checking in on CONMED (Nasdaq: CNMD  ) , whose recent revenue and earnings are plotted below.

source from Top Stocks For 2015:http://www.topstocksblog.com/top-5-railroad-stocks-to-own-for-2015.html

Best Construction Material Stocks To Buy For 2014

Yesterday, Nordstrom (NYSE: JWN  ) announced its quarterly earnings, and investors were disappointed. On almost all fronts, the company fell short of expectations. The miss was driven by a smaller-than-expected increase in comparable-store sales, but the effects were felt across the company. While the setback is frustrating, it's not the end of the line, just yet -- that doesn't mean we can ignore it, though.

The company's spin on the results claimed that they were in line with the low end of the corporate forecast -- that's a stretch. The bottom line was successfully managed through the close eye management kept on inventory and costs, but sales growth was well below expectations.

The shortfall
Comparable sales were forecast to land between 3.5% and 5.5% for the year, but in the last quarter Nordstrom only managed 2.7%. As a result, the company has dropped its full-year forecast to between 3% and 5%. The main drag on this quarter's earnings came from Nordstrom Rack, which doesn't bode well for the future.

Top 5 Information Technology Stocks To Invest In 2015: Eagle Materials Inc (EXP)

Eagle Materials Inc., incorporated on January 27, 1994, manufactures and distributes gypsum wallboard and also manufactures and sells cement. Gypsum wallboard is distributed throughout the United States with particular emphasis in the geographic markets nearest to its production facilities. The Company sells cement in six regional markets, including northern Nevada and California, the greater Chicago area, the Rocky Mountain region, the Central Plains region and Texas. Its gypsum wallboard business is supported by its recycled paperboard business, while its cement business is supported by its concrete and aggregates business. The Company operates in Cement and Concrete and Aggregates, and Gypsum Wallboard and Recycled Paperboard segments. As of March 31, 2013, the Company operated six cement plants (one of which belongs to its joint venture company), five gypsum wallboard plants, one recycled paperboard plant, seventeen concrete batching plants and four aggregates facilities. The Company�� products are used in the construction and renovation of houses, roads, bridges, commercial and industrial buildings and other, newer generation structures like wind farms.

Cement, Concrete and Aggregates Operations

The Company�� cement production facilities are located in or near Buda, Texas; LaSalle, Illinois; Laramie, Wyoming; Sugar Creek, Missouri; Tulsa, Oklahoma and Fernley, Nevada. The Company�� cement subsidiaries are wholly-owned except the Buda, Texas plant, which is owned by Texas Lehigh Cement Company LP, a limited partnership joint venture owned 50% by the Company and 50% by Lehigh Cement Company LLC, a subsidiary of Heidelberg Cement AG. Its LaSalle, Illinois plant operates under the name of Illinois Cement Company; the Laramie, Wyoming plant operates under the name of Mountain Cement Company; the Fernley, Nevada plant operates under the name of Nevada Cement Company and its Sugar Creek, Missouri and Tulsa, Oklahoma plants operate under the name Central Plains Cement Com! pany. The Company produces and distributes ready-mix concrete from Company-owned sites north of Sacramento, California; Austin, Texas and the greater Kansas City area. The Company�� activities in its frac sand business are in the Utica, Illinois area and in south Texas. The Company sells aggregates to building contractors and other customers engaged in a variety of construction activities.

Gypsum Wallboard and Recycled Paperboard Operations

The Company owns five gypsum wallboard manufacturing facilities. As of March 31, 2013, the Company�� gypsum wallboard production totaled 1,950 million square feet. Total gypsum wallboard sales were 1,909 million square feet during the fiscal year ended March 31, 2013 (fiscal 2013). The Company also manufactures alternative products, including containerboard grades (such as linerboard and medium) and lightweight packaging grades (such as bag liner). In addition, recycled industrial paperboard grades (tube/core stock and protective angle board stock) are produced to maximize manufacturing efficiencies. The Company�� manufactured recycled paperboard products are sold to gypsum wallboard manufacturers and other industrial users.

The Company competes with USG Corporation, National Gypsum Company and Koch Industries.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Rich Duprey]

  Cement and building materials maker�Eagle Materials� (NYSE: EXP  ) �announced yesterday�its second-quarter dividend of $0.10 per share, the same rate it's paid since 2008.

• [By Jake L'Ecuyer]

  Top decliners in the sector included Newmont Mining (NYSE: NEM), off 6.3 percent, and Eagle Materials (NYSE: EXP), down 4.3 percent.

  Top Headline
  Forest Laboratories (NYSE: FRX) announced its plans to buy Furiex Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: FURX) for up to $1.46 billion. Forest will pay around $95 per share, or around $1.1 billion in cash. Forest Labs will also pay up to $30 per share, or around $360 million in a contingent value right. The deal is projected to close in the second or third quarter of 2014.

Best Construction Material Stocks To Buy For 2014: Societe Libanaise des Ciments Blancs SAL (CBN)

Societe Libanaise des Ciments Blancs SAL is a Lebanon-based joint stock company that operates in the construction materials industry sector. The Company is engaged in the production and sale of white cement. The Company is a 65.99% owned by Holcim (Liban) SAL. Advisors' Opinion:

• [By CanadianValue]

  Nigeria�� reformed banking system has provided many foreigners with an attractive means to invest in the fast-growing domestic economy. The banking industry is important, not only because of the rise of microfinance, but because of the move by banks into consumer banking. Until recently, banks were mainly financing large businesses or the government through bond purchases. Following a banking crisis in 2008, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) conducted an audit of the commercial banking sector. All banks that failed the audit had their CEOs replaced. The state-owned Asset Management Corporation (AMCON) was created to purchase non-performing loans and recapitalize the unhealthy banks. A recent review of the country�� banks by the IMF showed a dramatic increase in profits for the industry in 2012, while the capital adequacy ratio was above the minimum requirement of 10% and non-performing loans were below the mandated threshold of 5%5.

Best Construction Material Stocks To Buy For 2014: Amcol International Corp (ACO)

AMCOL International Corporation (AMCOL), incorporated on December 3, 1959, is focused on the development and application of minerals and technology products and services to various industrial and consumer markets. It operates in five segments: performance materials, construction technologies, energy services, transportation and corporate. Its performance materials segment previously referred to as its minerals and materials segment is a supplier of bentonite related products. Its construction technologies segment previously referred to as its environmental segment provides products for non-residential construction, environmental and infrastructure projects worldwide. Its energy services segment previously referred to as its oilfield services segment offers a range of patented technologies, products and services for both upstream and downstream oil and gas production. Its transportation segment serves domestic subsidiaries, as well as third parties, is a dry van and flatbed carrier and freight brokerage service provider.

Performance Materials Segment

The Company supplies chromite and leonardite, and operates more than 25 mining or production facilities worldwide. It mines chromite, an iron chromium oxide, from open cast mines in South Africa and transport it to our nearby processing facility. Its primary uses include metalcasting, drilling fluid additive, and agricultural applications. Its performance materials segment conducts its business through wholly owned subsidiaries and investments in affiliates and joint ventures throughout the world. It consists of four product lines: metalcasting; specialty materials; basic minerals, and pet products. Its principal products are marketed under various registered trade names, including VOLCLAY, PANTHER CREEK, PREMIUM GEL, ADDITROL, ENERSOL, and Hevi-Sand.

The Company�� metalcasting products include blended mineral binders containing sodium and calcium bentonite and organic additives sold under the trade name ADDITROL. I! n the ferrous casting market, the Company specializes in blending bentonite of various grades by themselves or with mineral binders containing sodium bentonite, calcium bentonite, seacoal and other ingredients. It also has a line of formulated additives that introduce silicon and carbon in the melt phase of the casting process. In the steel alloy casting market, it sells a chromite product with a particle size distribution specific to a customer�� needs.

The Company�� specialty materials products contain bentonite and synthetic additives offering solutions for consumer and industrial applications. It also offers products for bio-agricultural applications. The markets and applications of its specialty materials products include fabric care, personal care, basic materials and pet products. It supply high-grade, agglomerated bentonite and other mineral additives used in fabric care products. It manufactures adsorbent polymers and purified grades of bentonite for sale to manufacturers of personal skin care products. The adsorbent polymers are used to deliver high-value actives in skin-care products. Microsponge and Poly-Pore are the principal trade names under which these products are sold. Its basic minerals product line supplies minerals to a variety of markets and industrial applications, including drilling fluid additives, ferro alloys and other industrial.

The Company�� pet products include sodium bentonite-based scoopable (clumping), traditional and alternative cat litters, as well as specialty pet products sold to grocery and drug stores, mass merchandisers, wholesale clubs and pet specialty stores throughout the United States. It is primarily a private-label producer of cat litter, and its products are marketed under various trade names. These products are sold solely in the United States from three principal sites from which it package and distribute finished goods. Its transportation segment provides logistics services and is a component of its capability in supplyi! ng custom! ers on a national basis.

Construction Technologies Segment

The Company�� construction technologies segment serves customers engaged in a range of construction projects, including site remediation, concrete waterproofing for underground structures, liquid containment on projects ranging from landfills to flood control, and drilling applications including foundation, slurry wall, tunneling, water well and horizontal drilling. Its construction technologies segment conducts its business through wholly owned subsidiaries and joint ventures throughout the world. This segment consists of four product lines: building materials; contracting services; drilling products, and lining technologies.

The Company sells lining and other products for a variety of applications, most of which are directed to preserving or remediating environmental issues. It helps customers protect ground water and soil through the sale of geosynthetic clay liner products containing bentonite. It market these products under the BENTOMAT and CLAYMAX trade names principally for lining and capping landfills, mine waste disposal sites, water and wastewater lagoons, secondary containments in tank farms, and other contaminated sites. It also provides associated geosynthetic materials for these applications, including geotextiles and drainage geocomposites.

The Company�� lining technologies product line also includes specialized technologies to mitigate vapor intrusion in new building construction. It also provides reactive capping technologies and solutions to contain residual contamination, reduce costs associated with ex-situ remedies, and aid in environmental protection. Products offered include Liquid Boot, a liquid applied vapor barrier system; REACTIVE CORE-MAT, an in-situ sediment capping material; ORGANOCLAY, which absorbs organic containments, and QUIK-SOLID, a super absorbent media.

The Company offer a variety of active and passive waterproofing and greenroof technolog! ies for u! se in protecting the building envelope of non-residential constructions, including buildings, subways, and parkway systems. Its products include VOLTEX, a waterproofing composite comprised of two polypropylene geotextiles filled with sodium bentonite; ULTRASEAL, an advanced membrane using a active polymer core, and COREFLEX, featuring heat-welded seams for protection of critical infrastructure. In addition to these membrane materials, it also provides roofing products and a variety of sealants and other accessories required to create a functional waterproofing system.

The Company drilling products are used in environmental and geotechnical drilling applications, horizontal directional drilling, mineral exploration and foundation construction. The products are used to install monitoring wells, facilitate horizontal and water well drilling, and seal abandoned exploration drill holes. VOLCLAY GROUT, HYDRAUL-EZ, BENTOGROUT and VOLCLAY TABLETS are among the trade names for products used in these applications. It also offer a range of drilling products used in the excavation of foundations for large buildings, bridges and dams; these products include SHORE PAC and PREMIUM GEL. Contracting services, which involve installation of products, are occasionally offered to customers for select projects.

Energy Services Segment

The Company�� energy services segment provides services to improve the production, costs, compliance, and environmental impact of activities performed in the oil and gas industry. Operating as CETCO Energy Services, it offer a range of patented technologies, products and services for all phases of oil and gas production, transportation, refining, and storage throughout the world. It provide both land-based and offshore water treatment, well testing, pipeline separation, nitrogen, coil tubing and other services to the oil and gas industry. The Company provides its services through subsidiaries located in Australia, Brazil, Malaysia, Nigeria, the United Ki! ngdom, an! d the United States, principally in the Gulf of Mexico and the surrounding on-shore area. Its principal services include water treatment, coil tubing, well testing, nitrogen services and pipeline. The Company helps customers comply with regulatory requirements by providing equipment, technologies, personnel and filtration media to treat waste water generated during oil production.

The Company's coil tubing services utilize metal piping, which comes spooled on a large reel. It provide both equipment and operating personnel to perform services ranging from acid stimulation, reverse circulation, cementing, pressure control, nitrogen injection, and other operations that involve pumping fluids into a well. Horizontal wells and shale completions are a large component of its operations. It provide equipment and personnel to help customers control well production, as well as to clean up, unload, separate, measure component flow, and dispose of fluids from oil and gas wells. Nitrogen services are provided in jetting wells that are loaded with fluid; stimulating wells, including fracturizing and acidizing; displacing completion fluids prior to perforating; inflating flotation devices for offshore installations, and pressure testing and other maintenance activities.

Transportation Segment

The Company operates a long-haul trucking business through Ameri-Co Carriers, Inc., and a freight brokerage business through Ameri-Co Logistics, Inc. primarily for delivery of finished products throughout the continental United States. These services are provided to its subsidiaries, as well as third-party customers.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Seth Jayson]

  AMCOL International (NYSE: ACO  ) is expected to report Q2 earnings on July 26. Here's what Wall Street wants to see:

  The 10-second takeaway
  Comparing the upcoming quarter to the prior-year quarter, average analyst estimates predict AMCOL International's revenues will grow 1.6% and EPS will wither -16.9%.

• [By Jake L'Ecuyer]

  Leading and Lagging Sectors
  In trading on Friday, Basic Materials shares were relative leaders, up on the day by 0.78 percent. Top gainer in the sector was AMCOL International (NYSE: ACO), up 9 percent.

Best Construction Material Stocks To Buy For 2014: Ply Gem Holdings Inc (PGEM)

Ply Gem Holdings, Inc. (Ply Gem Holdings), incorporated on January 23, 2004, is a manufacturer of residential exterior building products in North America. The Company operates in two segments: Siding, Fencing, and Stone and Windows and Doors. These two segments produce a product line of vinyl siding, designer accents, cellular polyvinyl chloride (PVC) trim, vinyl fencing, vinyl and composite railing, stone veneer and vinyl windows and doors used in both new construction and home repair and remodeling in the United States and Western Canada. It also manufactures vinyl and aluminum soffit and siding accessories, aluminum trim coil, wood windows, aluminum windows, vinyl and aluminum-clad windows and steel and fiberglass doors, enabling it to bundle complementary and color-matched products and accessories with its core products. The Company�� subsidiaries includes including Ply Gem Industries, MWM Holding, AWC Holding Company, MHE, and Pacific Windows. On July 30, 2012, Ply Gem acquired substantially all of the assets of Greendeck Products, LLC.

Siding, Fencing, and Stone Segment

In the Siding, Fencing, and Stone segment, its principal products include vinyl siding and skirting, vinyl and aluminum soffit, aluminum trim coil, J-channels, wide crown molding, window and door trim, F-channels, H-molds, fascia, undersill trims, outside/inside corner posts, rain removal systems, injection molded designer accents, such as shakes, shingles, scallops, shutters, vents and mounts, vinyl fence, vinyl and composite railing, and stone veneer. It sells its siding and accessories under its Variform, Napco, Mastic Home Exteriors, and Cellwood brand names and under the Georgia-Pacific brand name through a private label program. It also sells its Providence line of vinyl siding and accessories to Lowe�� under its Durabuilt private label brand name. Its vinyl and vinyl-composite fencing and railing products are sold under its Kroy and Kroy Express brand names. Ply Gem Holdings stone veneer produ! cts are sold under its United Stone Veneer brand name.

The Company sells the siding and accessories to specialty distributors (one-step distribution) and to wholesale distributors (two-step distribution). Its specialty distributors sell directly to remodeling contractors and builders. Its wholesale distributors sell to retail home centers and lumberyards who, in turn, sell to remodeling contractors, builders and consumers. In the specialty channel, it has developed a network of approximately 800 independent distributors, serving over 22,000 contractors and builders nationwide.

Windows and Doors Segment

In the Windows and Doors segment, its principal products include vinyl, aluminum, wood and clad-wood windows and patio doors, and steel, wood, and fiberglass entry doors that serve both the new home construction and the repair and remodeling sectors in the United States and Western Canada. Its products in its Windows and Doors segment are sold under the Ply Gem Windows, Great Lakes Mastic by Ply Gem, and Ply Gem Canada brands.

The Company competes with Alsco, Gentek, U.S. Fence, Homeland, Westech, Bufftech, Royal, Azek., Eldorado Stone, Coronado Stone, Jeld-Wen, Simonton, Pella and Andersen, MI Home Products, Atrium, Weathershield, Milgard, Jeld-Wen, Gienow, All Weather and Loewen.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Lisa Levin]

  Ply Gem Holdings (NYSE: PGEM) shares reached a new 52-week low of $11.48 after the company reported wider-than-expected Q4 loss and issued a weak Q1 revenue forecast.

• [By Matt Jarzemsky]

  Installed Building Products��debut follows mixed performance from shares of some newly public building-products companies. Through Tuesday, siding manufacturer Ply Gem Holdings Inc.(PGEM)�� shares were down 39% from the offer price in its $381 May debut. Wood-products maker Boise Cascade Co.(BCC) was up 46% from its $284 million February IPO.

• [By Traders Reserve]

  There hasn�� been a January effect rally in shares of Ply Gem (PGEM). In fact, it has been quite the opposite. Shares are down a whopping 25% during the month. For a stock I rated as on of the Top 10 Sizzling Stocks, such a move is painful, but not disastrous. Sizzling Stocks are meant to be held for the duration of the year and we have 11 months to go. Small-cap stocks like Ply Gem can move sharply one direction or the other.

Best Construction Material Stocks To Buy For 2014: Boral Ltd (BLD)

Boral Limited (Boral), is engaged in the manufacture and supply of building and construction materials in Australia, the United States and Asia. The Company�� operating segments include Construction Materials & Cement, Building Products, Boral Gypsum, and Boral USA. The Construction Materials & Cement is engaged in quarries, concrete, asphalt, transport, landfill, property, cement and concrete placing. The Building Products segment is engaged in Australian bricks, roof tiles, masonry, timber products and windows. The Boral Gypsum involves Australian and Asian plasterboard. The Boral USA is engaged in Bricks, cultured stone, roof tiles, fly ash, concrete and quarries. Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Eric Lam]

  Ballard Power (BLD), which designs and manufactures hydrogen fuel cells, slumped 15 percent to C$1.42, the biggest decline since March. The company yesterday said it will sell about 9 million units at $1.40 a unit for proceeds of about $12.6 million. The cash generated will be used to fund working capital, support growth and general corporate purposes, the company said.

Best Construction Material Stocks To Buy For 2014: Texas Industries Inc (TXI)

Texas Industries, Inc., incorporated on April 19, 1951, is a supplier of construction materials in the southwestern United States. The Company operates in three segments: cement, aggregates and consumer products. Its cement segment produces gray portland cement and specialty cements. The Company�� cement production and distribution facilities are concentrated primarily in Texas and California. Its aggregates segment produces natural aggregates, including sand, gravel and crushed limestone. The Company�� consumer products segment produces ready-mix concrete. It is also a supplier of natural aggregates and ready-mix concrete in Texas and northern Louisiana and in Oklahoma and Arkansas. As of May 31, 2013, the Company had 123 manufacturing facilities in five states.

Cement Segment

The Company produces specialty cements, such as masonry and oil well cements. Its cement production facilities are located at Midlothian, Texas, south of Dallas/Fort Worth, Hunter, Texas, between Austin and San Antonio, and Oro Grande, California, near Los Angeles. It also operates a cement terminal and packaging facility at its Crestmore plant near Riverside, California, and the Company operates its gray portland cement grinding facility on an as needed basis. During the fiscal year ended May 31, 2013 (fiscal 2013), it produced approximately 4.3 million tons of finished cement. The Company shipped approximately 4.4 million tons during fiscal 2013, of which 3.8 million tons were shipped to outside trade customers.

Aggregates Segment

The Company�� operations are conducted from facilities primarily serving the Dallas/Fort Worth and Austin areas in Texas; the southern Oklahoma area, and the Alexandria and Monroe areas in Louisiana. The Company produced approximately 14.2 million tons of natural aggregates during fiscal 2013. It shipped approximately 14.8 million tons of natural aggregates during fiscal 2013, of which 11.3 million tons were shipped to outside trade customers! . The Company shipped approximately 1.0 million cubic yards of lightweight aggregates during fiscal 2013, of which approximately 0.9 million cubic yards were shipped to outside trade customers.

Consumer Products Segment

The Company�� ready-mix concrete operations are situated in three areas in Texas (the Dallas/Fort Worth/Denton area of north Texas, the Austin area of central Texas and from Beaumont to Texarkana in east Texas), in north and central Louisiana, and in southwestern Arkansas. It is also a 40% partner in a joint venture that has ready mix concrete operations in the northern part of central Texas area centered around Waco, Texas. It shipped approximately 2.8 million cubic yards of ready-mix concrete during fiscal 2013. The Company manufacture and supply a substantial amount of the cement and aggregates raw materials used by our ready-mix plants. The Company also marketed its Maximizer packaged concrete mixes in southern California.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Ben Levisohn]

  Shares of Vulcan have gained 7.6%, and given a lift to other cement makers today, including Martin Marietta Materials (MLM), which has risen 4.9% and reports earnings on Thursday, Cemex (CX), which has advanced 1.5%, and Texas Industries (TXI), which is up 4.9%.

• [By Monica Gerson]

  Texas Industries (NYSE: TXI) is expected to post its Q1 earnings at $0.01 per share on revenue of $233.63 million.

  National American University Holdings (NASDAQ: NAUH) is projected to post a Q1 loss at $0.01 per share on revenue of $30.58 million.

• [By Holly LaFon]

  Competitively advantaged holdings continued to demonstrate the value of moats at FedEx (FDX), Melco, and Texas Industries (TXI). These holdings were among our largest contributors to performance, and they exemplify activity prevalent across most of our holdings throughout the year.

Best Bank Stocks To Invest In Right Now

Brent Cook's Tips For Finding Juniors That Can Survive The Dust Bowl

The Mining Report: Brent, you've predicted that the summer of 2014 will be a great dust bowl for junior mining investors. Why so bleak?

Brent Cook: The junior mining sector has lots of issues to work through. The major mining companies have even bigger issues to work through, starting with the inability to show a profit over an extended period of time. Investors are disappointed by the performance of the majors and have left the sector in search of more reliable, more profitable sectors.

"Pilot Gold Inc.'s drilling on Kinsley Mountain is turning up some very positive numbers that point to the potential of another major gold deposit."

Until we see the major mining companies start making money, it will be tough for the juniors to raise money. That's the reason for my prediction.

TMR: You've said that investors might start to return to the mining sector as soon as 2015–2016. Is that because you think the majors will be making money by then?

BC: No, I think the opposite. The majors, on average, have all-in production costs that are higher than the gold price right now; they are struggling. They're cutting costs by 1) curtailing development and exploration, 2) laying off staff, including geologists, engineers and, hopefully, some human resources people, and 3) high-grading their deposits. High-grading is more profitable in the short term, but in the long run it degrades the future revenue from that deposit.

Although the majors will improve their earnings this year, in 2015 and 2016 their mines won't be making much money. At that point, they will have to replace what they're producing with new, profitable ore deposits, but the problem is there aren't that many out there. In the next couple of years, and we're starting to see it already, the majors will be acquiring the very few profitable deposits out there that are now held by juniors.

"Fission Uranium Corp. has the best uranium discovery in a long, long time."

TMR: Do you foresee a lot more deals coming up?

BC: Not a lot more, and that's the problem. There aren't that many good deposits out there.

In H1/14, I went through more than 100 gold deposits with NI-43-101-compliant resources and found very few that I felt actually made good money. There are lots of resources being touted by too many companies, just not many that can make money, assuming the gold price and cost structure stays more or less where they are.

If we see a rapid rise in the gold price, maybe some of these assets will look more profitable. The last time the gold price rose, the majors dropped the grade they were mining, thereby lowering their per ton profitability. At the same time the input costs that go into mining—labor, materials, consumables—rose. We never saw the profit that was advertised and that we expected.

TMR: Let's talk about some of the deals that have been made. What were the synergies and the challenges?

BC: A couple of weeks ago, Rio Alto Mining Ltd. (RIO:TSX.V; RIO:BVL) bought Sulliden Gold Corp. (SUE:TSX; SDDDF:OTCQX; SUE:BVL). That's a great deal for Rio Alto, which is currently mining an oxide-gold deposit in Peru. By acquiring Sulliden, Rio Alto gets another Peruvian deposit that is very similar geologically and metallurgically, so it shouldn't be too big an issue to bring it into production. The timing works well because the Sulliden deposit should pick up just when Rio Alto's La Arena deposit starts to decline. Rio Alto knows how to work in Peru, and it seems to have the social issues under control. The synergies work really well when a company that knows what it is doing buys a deposit that fits right in with what it's up to.

Another one is B2Gold Corp.'s (BTG:NYSE; BTO:TSX; B2G:NSX) planned purchase of an Australian company called Papillon Resources Inc. (PIR:ASX; PAPQF:GREYS). Papillon's deposit in Mali is more than 5 million ounces (5 Moz), in my opinion probably the best gold deposit not owned by a major. We bought it in my letter about a year ago because of its high quality asset. B2Gold is just finishing off building its deposit in Namibia, so the whole team now moves to the deposit in Mali and begins building that. Again, very synergistic for B2Gold.

TMR: Interestingly, looking at the stock prices it appears that Papillon shareholders saw it as a positive, but the B2Gold shareholders did not.

BC: It's an all-share deal, so it's a lot of dilution. The Papillon shareholders end up with about 25% of B2Gold. B2Gold dropped quite a bit, but it has come back. But I guarantee you this will be a fantastic profitable deposit for B2Gold; it made a good move while the majors who should be buying it have their collective heads in the sand.

TMR: The bidding war over Osisko Mining Corp. (OSK:TSX) was one of the deals that kicked off a lot of this activity. Now that some time has passed, is that deal positive for the shareholders?

BC: It appears to be. I don't follow Osisko in much detail. The deal offers Yamana Gold Inc. (YRI:TSX; AUY:NYSE; YAU:LSE) a big tax advantage because it gives Yamana a Canadian operation. In addition, it gives Yamana some political security in that most of its other options are in less stable jurisdictions. This deal is a big plus for Yamana.

TMR: Do these deals add liquidity to junior mining investors who, after having had a positive experience, might now be willing to put some money into other junior mining stocks?

BC: Certainly. I think a lot of the funds and individuals are taking some money off the table and plowing it back into the sector. That's positive.

TMR: Your newsletter recently quoted a Newmont Mining Corp. (NEM:NYSE) study that 1 in 1,000 prospects turns into an economic deposit, and 1 in 10,000 becomes a 4 Moz or more resource. Why is it getting more difficult to find economic deposits, given all the cool new technology?

BC: That study is a few years old, and I need to emphasize that it's a statistical number. The real odds are better than that if you do a bit of due diligence.

It's getting harder because we've scoured the earth fairly well. There are not many outcropping ore deposits left to find. We have to look under cover or through barren rocks. Explorers have to spend more to drill and use geophysics and such. The less expensive but still critical surface work now only gets you to a drill test that is often little more than an initial look at the rocks of interest.

Once you do find something, it has to be good because it's probably buried under 100–200 meters (100–200m) of rock. That depth adds to the cost of exploration, resource definition, stripping, engineering and often recovery. Therefore your grade and tons hurdle are higher for an economic deposit. A 2 Moz deposit grading a gram at surface may make money, but at 150m depth it probably doesn't.

There really haven't been that many advances in technology. Unlike the simpler geology of oil and gas, this is complex geology. Take a porphyry copper deposit, for example, or an epithermal gold deposit. They form on continental margins, subduction zones, fault zones. The deposits get chewed up, broken up, bent up and moved. I just posted an article on my website that goes into the complications of exploration and the discovery process.

TMR: Do investors understand the difficulty of finding and developing a successful project?

BC: Overall, no. That's a real problem with this industry. There is a lack of communication and understanding between the finance side and the technical side.

Most speculators in this sector have very short-term time horizons. They expect to drill a few holes, make a discovery and turn a $0.10/share stock into a $1 stock. It doesn't happen that often. It occasionally does, and that's what keeps hope alive.

Exploration is a scientific endeavor, in which you conceptualize a target or a theory, and you test it using a drill and the data. You re-analyze the data and adjust your model to fit, often more than once. That takes time and money.

A lot of companies are raising money on prospects that have been tested and retested in the past. The rationale is that speculators will give them a bit of money if they know some flash drill assays are coming from a re-drill of a previous hole, thereby providing the speculators a chance to get off the stock with a small profit. In reality, however, the project was a dog, always has been a dog, and the problem was all the other holes that didn't carry any grade, not the one good hole that keeps getting re-drilled. Schemes like this are a waste of precious capital and one of the reasons that odds of success are so low.

TMR: Nonetheless, you're still buying companies. What do you look for and how do you take that deep breath and make your estimates?

BC: I've done this my whole life. I think you can get the odds down with a lot of due diligence and understanding what a company is looking for.

I look for the very few projects that offer a shot at a deposit, whose production costs and capital expense (capex) will be in the lower third of the projects out there. Those projects will make money, assuming some government doesn't steal it.

First off, you need to consider the economics behind mining something as early as possible. Most companies, and most investors, don't seem to do that, which is too bad, because it's really important. On my first visit to any early-stage project I mentally build a mine that includes metallurgy, mining costs and capex and then judge results based on that rough model.

Second, you need to invest in a company with competent people who understand what they're looking for: the target type, the geology and what it will take to advance the project. Too many companies find something and, although their market cap may increase, the share price never increases because management needs to keep financing to continue exploring. Even if the company succeeds, we shareholders don't get much bang for the buck because we've been diluted out as management kept on drilling. A company has to know how to financially engineer the exploration and development of the project.

TMR: What are some examples of companies that have competent management that knows how to both find and develop a deposit without diluting shareholders and raise enough money to get somewhere?

BC: It's a real short list. The exploration team at Pilot Gold Inc. (PLG:TSX) came out of Fronteer Gold Inc., which, in conjunction with AuEx Ventures Inc. (XAU:TSX), found and proved up the Long Canyon deposit in Nevada. That deposit was bought by Newmont for $2.33 billion.

Pilot acquired new targets in eastern Nevada, where it's having some real success drilling for a similar-style gold deposit on Kinsley Mountain. It doesn't have a defined resource yet, but the drilling is turning up some very positive numbers that point to the potential of another major gold deposit.

The company is doing something similar in Turkey on some gold and porphyry projects. Pilot has about $30 million ($30M) in the bank. That's an exploration company worth watching. We own it in the letter, which also means I own it personally.

TMR: Pilot just released some drill results from Kinsley Mountain. Did they meet your expectations?

BC: Yes, they did. Pilot drilled a new target, where it intersected 41m of 3 grams per tonne (3 g/t) from surface. That's a very good number. It put one hole under each of two other conceptual targets, and failed on both. That doesn't kill the project, but it makes it more complicated.

We want to see a company conceptualize ideas that, if they succeed, will be meaningful to a major. Results have been pretty positive so far at Kinsley Mountain.

TMR: Pilot's stock price is up quite a bit from the beginning of the year. Is there still upside there?

BC: Yes, if success continues. Pilot's copper-gold resource in Turkey is kind of small, but it's valuable to somebody, perhaps a smaller Turkish mining company. Its other resource in Turkey is metallurgically complex, and it may be worth something to somebody. I like that Pilot continues to test new ideas and is successful. We don't find many companies doing that these days.

TMR: What's another company?

BC: Dalradian Resources Inc. (DNA:TSX) is proving up an interesting deposit in Northern Ireland. It's a series of narrow, high-grade vein structures that run under what is basically sheep pasture. In its preliminary economic assessment (PEA), Dalradian has proven up a Measured and Indicated 1 Moz grading 10.4 g/t, plus an Inferred 2.5 Moz grading about 9.6 g/t. It's located in an area of Northern Ireland that has high unemployment. From what I've seen and heard, the local authorities are positively inclined toward development. I don't see any serious environmental hurdles.

It's a simple deposit, low capex, low operating costs in a very stable place. I think a midtier company should go in and buy it. Right now, the PEA, which is going to be updated, shows a value close to $500M on an after-tax basis, and the company is selling for $100M. It has enough cash to move ahead to the feasibility stage. This summer and fall, Dalradian will be taking a bulk underground sample; I am headed there to get a closer look at the resource shortly.

TMR: How soon could that be a mine?

BC: Let's give it two years. Engineering, permitting and production all take time. If the old PEA is accurate—and I think it's probably close—this would produce gold for less than $600/ounce. There aren't many projects that can do that. The internal rate of return on Dalradian is about 42%.

TMR: Who else do you like?

BC: One of the most geologically boring deposits in the world is a phosphate deposit being proven up by Focus Ventures Ltd. (FCV:TSX.V) in Peru. It's dead simple geology: shallow seabeds that are continuous for tens of kilometers. The phosphate beds within them are being mined or developed on two adjacent deposits, one owned by Vale S.A. (VALE:NYSE) and the other owned by Hochschild Mining Plc (HOC:LSE), as well as some agricultural companies. They are making lots of money off the phosphate.

The deposit that Focus is drilling is essentially the same. It is proving up a resource right now. If it's successful, it should be worth multiples of what the company is trading at right now, which is about $0.26/share. I can see Focus going substantially higher, assuming it brings in a company that can take the project forward and mine it. I think there's a good chance of that happening.

TMR: Is phosphate a play on the thesis that developing countries need more food?

BC: Yes, in a sense this is a play on a growing world population that needs more and higher-quality food. Phosphate is a major fertilizer. China and India have trashed their environments, so they need to use more and more fertilizer.

TMR: If junior gold mining investment opportunities resemble a dust bowl, how do you describe uranium juniors?

BC: They're even worse. Not too long ago, Rick Rule called uranium the most hated sector. When I first joined up with Rick in 1997, uranium was about as hated as it is now.

You have to step in and buy these things when they're really unloved, and that is where uranium is now. We've made good money on Fission Uranium Corp. (FCU:TSX.V) and continue to hold it in the newsletter because it is the best uranium discovery in a long, long time. That is partly because of the grade but, more important, the costs of mining this deposit will be substantially less than most other deposits in the Athabasca basin or the world. Its advantage is being near surface, open-pittable and permittable. A lot of the issues faced by companies in the Athabasca are caused by having to go underground. Whoever develops this deposit won't have to face that challenge. The stock has come off quite a bit. It's probably worth accumulating right now.

TMR: Fission Uranium has been something of a darling since it spun out from Fission Energy Corp. (FIS:TSX.V; FSSIF:OTCQX). Is there still upside there?

BC: Yes, I think so. It has yet to release a resource, but it had a big drilling program this year. The deposit is wide open in a number of directions along trend.

I don't mind paying up for the best because, ultimately, it's these high-quality deposits that will make money. Somebody will buy this deposit.

TMR: We've covered a lot of ground. How about some advice for investors looking to get through the great dust bowl intact?

BC: The rain will come. At my most recent presentation in Vancouver, I showed a slide of a couple of stocks that collapsed in 1997. One of them was First Quantum Minerals Ltd. (FM:TSX; FQM:LSE). It got down to about $0.50/share; within five years, it was up to $17 and, ultimately, got up to be a $28 stock.

You have to ask yourself these questions: Will we keep consuming metals? Are we consuming metals at a higher rate than we used to? Will we be finding enough deposits to replace what's being produced? I think the answer to the first three questions is yes and the last is no. If that's the case, all we have to do is selectively and intelligently buy the companies that have the prospects or the people capable of finding the deposits that will be the leaders when the bull market comes back to the sector, as it will.

TMR: That's great advice. Brent, thank you for your time and your insights.

Brent Cook brings more than 30 years of experience as a geologist, consultant and investment adviser. His knowledge spans all areas of the mining business, from the conceptual stage through detailed technical and financial modeling related to mine development and production. Cook's weekly Exploration Insights newsletter focuses on early discovery, high-reward opportunities, primarily among junior mining and exploration companies.

Read what other experts are saying about:

Fission Uranium Corp. Pilot Gold Inc.

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DISCLOSURE:
1) JT Long conducted this interview for Streetwise Reports LLC, publisher of The Gold Report, The Energy Report, The Life Sciences Report and The Mining Report, and provides services to Streetwise Reports as an employee. She owns, or her family owns, shares of the following companies mentioned in this interview: None.
2) The following companies mentioned in the interview are sponsors of Streetwise Reports: Pilot Gold Inc. and Fission Uranium Corp. Streetwise Reports does not accept stock in exchange for its services.
3) Brent Cook: I own, or my family owns, shares of the following companies mentioned in this interview: Pilot Gold Inc., Fission Uranium Corp., Focus Ventures Ltd. and Dalradian Resources Inc . I personally am, or my family is, paid by the following companies mentioned in this interview: None. My company has a financial relationship with the following companies mentioned in this interview: None. I was not paid by Streetwise Reports for participating in this interview. Comments and opinions expressed are my own comments and opinions. I had the opportunity to review the interview for accuracy as of the date of the interview and am responsible for the content of the interview.
4) Interviews are edited for clarity. Streetwise Reports does not make editorial comments or change experts' statements without their consent.
5) The interview does not constitute investment advice. Each reader is encouraged to consult with his or her individual financial professional and any action a reader takes as a result of information presented here is his or her own responsibility. By opening this page, each reader accepts and agrees to Streetwise Reports' terms of use and full legal disclaimer.
6) From time to time, Streetwise Reports LLC and its directors, officers, employees or members of their families, as well as persons interviewed for articles and interviews on the site, may have a long or short position in securities mentioned. Directors, officers, employees or members of their families are prohibited from making purchases and/or sales of those securities in the open market or otherwise during the up-to-four-week interval from the time of the interview until after it publishes.

The following article is from one of our external contributors. It does not represent the opinion of Benzinga and has not been edited.

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5 Stocks With Bad Analyst Earnings Revisions — CQP ATE WTSL IMI AVNW

Popular Posts: 9 Oil and Gas Stocks to Buy Now7 Biotechnology Stocks to Buy Now10 Best “Strong Buy” Stocks — QIHU POWR UA and more Recent Posts: Hottest Healthcare Stocks Now – AEGR RDY HGR OMI Hottest Technology Stocks Now – IGTE HOLI SNDK SYMC Biggest Movers in Basic Materials Stocks Now – NG SWC IAG CLW View All Posts

This week, these five stocks have the worst ratings in Analyst Earnings Revisions, one of the eight Fundamental Categories on Portfolio Grader.

Cheniere Energy Partners, L.P. () owns and operates the Sabine Pass liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal located in western Cameron Parish, Louisiana on the Sabine Pass Channel. CQP also gets F’s in Equity and Cash Flow. .

Advantest Corp. Sponsored ADR () manufactures and sells semiconductor and component test system products, and mechatronics-related products. ATE also gets F’s in Earnings Momentum, Equity, Cash Flow, Operating Margin Growth and Sales Growth. The price of ATE is down 18% since the first of the year. This is worse than the S&P 500, which has remained flat. .

Wet Seal, Inc. Class A () operates stores that sell fashionable and contemporary apparel and accessory items for female customers. WTSL also gets F’s in Equity, Cash Flow and Sales Growth. The price of WTSL is down 38.5% since the first of the year. .

Intermolecular, Inc. () is a semiconductor and clean energy technology platform company. IMI also gets an F in Equity. Since January 1, IMI has fallen 48.1%. .

Aviat Networks () engages in the design, manufacture, and sale of a range of wireless networking products, solutions, and services worldwide. AVNW gets F’s in Equity, Cash Flow and Sales Growth as well. The price of AVNW is down 21.7% since the first of the year. .

Louis Navellier’s proprietary Portfolio Grader stock ranking system assesses roughly 5,000 companies every week based on a number of fundamental and quantitative measures. Stocks are given a letter grade based on their results — with A being “strong buy,” and F being “strong sell.” Explore the tool here.

Coming Soon to Your TV: An Amazon Set-Top Box?

David Paul Morris/Bloomberg/Getty Images Amazon (AMZN), according to persistent rumors, is putting the finishing touches on a set-top box that will allows users to stream video content from a chosen device or devices to their TVs. If it's true, the company is coming fairly late to a stuffed segment. But grabbing market share -- and even making a buck on the device -- might not be its top motivation for wading into this fray. A Razor-and-Blades Strategy For the past few years -- ever since it launched its first Kindle -- Amazon has been willing to sacrifice making a profit on its tablets in order to push its digital content, a growing library of TV shows, feature films, video games and other material. It sells the current Kindle HD iterations at cost (starting at $139 for the standard HD, and going to $229 for the 7-inch-display HDX version and $379 for the 8.9-inch HDX). Since Kindles are packed with software that guides users to the retailer's offerings -- most compatibly, those TV shows and movies, which users can rent or buy, but also the company's online catalog of physical goods -- the business strategy is a variation on the classic razor-and-blades model. In other words, the company sells the razor (the Kindle) relatively cheaply, in the hopes of producing a long-tail revenue stream with the blades (the digital content). Amazon doesn't break out detailed numbers for revenue derived from Kindle user activity, so it's hard to gauge how effective the strategy has been. But the company is selling a lot of digital media. According to research conducted by investment bank Morgan Stanley (MS) last year, Amazon stood to take in around $3.8 billion worth of digital media sales in 2013. The bank predicts that this will surge to a projected $5.7 billion this year. The latter figure is around 6 percent of total anticipated net sales for the entirety of 2014. Tablet Sales are Tumbling Putting a damper on that happy growth story is development of the overall tablet segment, particularly Amazon's role in it. According to IT market researcher IDC, just under 77 million tablets were shipped worldwide in Q4 2013, an increase of 28 percent on a year-over-year basis. Sounds like a thriving segment, right? Well, not on a relative basis. Vaulting back in time one year previously, Q4 2012 had a growth figure several times that rate (87 percent). The market, in other words, is rapidly maturing. Amazon is slipping a bit, especially in contrast to the two big players in the tablet space -- Apple (AAPL) and Samsung (SSNLF). Amazon's total unit shipments declined, to 5.8 million this past Q4 from 5.9 million in the same quarter the previous year. Contrast that with Apple, which grew shipments 14 percent over that time frame to 26.0 million, and Samsung, flying high with 86 percent growth (to 14.5 million units). Amazon's Options for Selling the Device So it's likely that Amazon's hope with a proprietary set-top device is that, either through the direct sale of Kindles and/or the more indirect purveyance of digital content, it'll help boost overall revenue. That makes a lot of business sense; said devices and content are more attractive if they can be broadcast on larger media for a wider audience -- over the living room TV, for example. It would be wise if the retailer were to bundle the device as a freebie with the Kindle, sell it alone at or near cost like the tablet itself or employ both strategies at once. Amazon is a cagey retailer skilled at getting toeholds in markets that should be dominated by others. Witness its early success as a seller of books, to the detriment of traditional literature slingers such as Barnes & Noble (BKS). But the set-top device segment is a challenging one currently divvied up among determined competitors Apple (with its Apple TV), Google (GOOG) and its low-cost Chromecast dongle, scrappy little guy Roku with its namesake streaming product and numerous others. Clever Amazon likely realizes that a frontal assault on the market isn't its best path to success. So look for the company to use the device as a means to boost its digital content take. After all, it's got plenty of those blades to sell; the more razors it can supply, the better.

Oil’s Not Scarce, But Cheap Oil Is

Sometimes the concepts of energy resources and energy reserves get confused, which leads a lot of people to believe we have more oil available than is actually the case. So then people are left to wonder why — if we have 3 trillion barrels of oil left — oil prices are still hovering near $100 per barrel.  

A resource is the total amount of a commodity that is in place. However, much of that resource will likely be unrecoverable because the technology doesn't exist yet, or it is too costly to produce.

The huge oil resource in tight formations was known for many years, but only began to be unlocked economically through innovations in hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling. Today, $100/bbl oil enables lots of it to be extracted economically from the Williston Basin in North Dakota and the Eagle Ford Shale in Texas, but 20 years ago the technology hadn't yet been sufficiently developed.

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Today we have both the technology and high enough prices that a portion of these vast tight oil resources can now classified as reserves. But if the price is too low, the resource still will not be developed unless the price increases, or technology improves to the point that the cost to produce drops below the sales price.

Consider this analogy. What if I told you the location of several trillion dollars' worth of gold? It does in fact exist, dissolved in the world's oceans, and it's there for the taking. The technology to extract the gold exists.

So why isn't this gold being produced? Because it exists in such a diluted concentration and is mixed with numerous other compounds and elements. As a result, it is incredibly complicated and energy intensive to extract the gold and purify it. Thus, while gold may sell! for $1,400 a troy ounce, it might cost $10,000 a troy ounce to produce it from the oceans. It will remain there, untouched, until gold prices are much higher than they are today, or until someone comes up with a much cheaper way to produce it.

Some of the world's oil resources are similarly out of reach for the moment. In addition to the large fraction being as of yet technically unrecoverable, there are oil fields that are only economical at $150 or $200 a barrel. Thus, as oil prices increase, some of these fields that are uneconomical today will eventually be tapped.  

This has implications for the concept of "peak oil" because oil reserves and oil production are effected by oil prices. Indeed, the world has likely passed "peak $20 oil." At that price none of the US tight oil plays will be economical, nor will much of the world's oil sands production. The output of oil that is economic to produce at $20 has been falling for years.

But that means the price of oil has been rising. And a rising price of oil is a big reason that the world's proved oil reserves are more than 60 percent greater than they were in 1990. If $20/bbl was the metric for measuring economically recoverable oil, we would have to slash the proved reserves to a fraction of the current value.

For investors in the oil sector, this is an important concept to grasp, because it is one of the key reasons I believe we are in a period of permanently higher oil prices. While one major brokerage or another will still capture headlines with a prediction that oil prices are headed to $50/bbl, I don't believe such a low price is sustainable simply because there isn't enough oil that can be economically produced at that price.

That could change; for instance if technology enabled Canadian and Venezuelan oil sands to be economically produced at $! 20/bbl, i! t would eventually put tremendous pressure on the global price of oil. But there is nothing like that on the horizon, and every day the developing world demands more oil. Thus, even as oil production in North America continues to expand at a record pace, the world continues to consume that oil and more, which continues to be supportive of higher prices.

(Follow Robert Rapier on Twitter, LinkedIn, or Facebook.)