Hot Quality Companies To Buy For 2014

Obviously ��orst��is a subjective standard, so perhaps in the name of uber-accuracy this should be considered a rundown of my ��east favorite��films of 2013.  Beyond that, this is pretty self-explanatory. The picks are in alphabetical order, with the exception of my choice as the very worst film of 2013 as well as the ��ost disappointing��picture of the year.  This is not necessarily a financial judgment, that will come next week when the year actually ends (I wouldn�� want to presume that 47 Ronin would flop and then watch it make $50 million over Christmas). But the relative successes and failures do hold with them respective lessons alongside their artistic failures. And without further ado, here we go��/p>

Elysium (Sony)
Consider this among the more striking examples of squandered potential. On paper, this R-rated, 2D, original science-fiction drama is everything we say we want in mainstream cinema. But good intentions (and superb production design) cannot entirely excuse botched execution. It�� bad enough that the film starts out as a general parable for immigration and income inequality before basically stating that the only difference between the 1% and the 99% is access to free healthcare.

Top 10 Construction Stocks To Watch Right Now: PHH Corp (PHH)

PHH Corporation (PHH), incorporated in 1953, is an outsource provider of mortgage and fleet management services. PHH operates in three segments: Mortgage Production, Mortgage Servicing and Fleet Management Services. The Company provides mortgage banking services to a range of clients, including financial institutions and real estate brokers, throughout the United States. The Company�� mortgage banking activities include originating, purchasing, selling and servicing mortgage loans through its wholly owned subsidiary, PHH Mortgage Corporation and its subsidiaries (collectively PHH Mortgage). It provides commercial fleet management services to corporate clients and government agencies throughout the United States and Canada through its wholly owned subsidiary, PHH Vehicle Management Services Group LLC (PHH VMS). PHH VMS is a fully integrated provider of fleet management services with a range of product offerings, including managing and leasing vehicle fleets and providing other fee-based services for its clients��vehicle fleets.

Mortgage Production Segment

The Mortgage Production segment provides mortgage services, including private-label mortgage services, to financial institutions and real estate brokers through PHH Mortgage. The Mortgage Production segment generates revenue through fee-based mortgage loan origination services and the origination and sale of mortgage loans into the secondary market. PHH Mortgage generally sells all mortgage loans that it originates to secondary market investors, which include a variety of institutional investors, and typically retains the servicing rights on mortgage loans sold. During the year ended December 31, 2011, 92% of its mortgage loans were sold to, or were sold pursuant to, programs sponsored by Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac or Ginnie Mae and the remaining 8% were sold to private investors. The Mortgage Production segment includes PHH Home Loans, LLC (together with its subsidiaries, PHH Home Loans), which is a joint venture that the C! ompany maintains with Realogy Corporation. The Company owns 50.1% of PHH Home Loans through its subsidiaries and Realogy owns the remaining 49.9% through their affiliates. PHH has rights to use the Century 21, Coldwell Banker and ERA brand names in marketing its mortgage loan products through PHH Home Loans and other arrangements that it has with Realogy.

The Mortgage Production segment also includes its interest in Speedy Title & Appraisal Review Services LLC (STARS), which provides appraisal services utilizing a network of professional licensed firms offering local coverage throughout the United States and also provides credit research, flood certification and tax services. On March 31, 2011, it sold 50.1% of the interests in STARS to CoreLogic, Inc. The Company operates through two principal business channels: private label services and real estate.

The retail platform consists of private label services and real estate channels. The Company is a provider of private-label mortgage loan originations for financial institutions and other entities throughout the United States. In this channel, the Company offers a complete outsourcing solution, from processing applications through funding, for clients that wish to offer mortgage services to their customers but are not equipped to handle all aspects of the process cost-effectively. The Company also purchases closed mortgage loans from financial institutions.

The Company works with real estate brokers to provide their customers with mortgage loans. Through its affiliations with real estate brokers, it has access to home buyers at the time of purchase. It works with brokers associated with NRT Incorporated, Realogy�� owned real estate brokerage business, brokers associated with Realogy�� franchised brokerages (Realogy Franchisees) and third-party brokers that are not affiliated with Realogy. During 2011, approximately 22% of the Company�� mortgage loan originations were derived from its relationship with Realogy ! and its a! ffiliates. In this channel, it also works with Cartus Corporation, Realogy�� relocation business, to provide mortgage loans to employees of Cartus��clients. Cartus provides outsourced corporate relocation services in the United States. Realogy has agreed that the real estate brokerage business owned and operated by NRT Incorporated and the title and settlement services business owned and operated by Title Resource Group LLC will recommend PHH Home Loans as provider of mortgage loans to the independent sales associates affiliated with Realogy, excluding the independent sales associates of any Realogy Franchisee, and all customers of Realogy Services Group LLC and Realogy Services Venture Partner, Inc., excluding Realogy Franchisees. Certain Realogy Franchisees have agreed to recommend PHH Mortgage as provider of mortgage loans to their respective independent sales associates. As of 2011, it has entered into exclusive marketing service agreements with 5% of Realogy Franchisees. In the Relocation Channel, the Company works with Cartus Corporation, Realogy�� relocation business, to provide mortgage loans to employees of Cartus��clients.

During 2011, the Company originated mortgage loans for approximately 17% of the transactions in which real estate brokerages owned by Realogy represented the home buyer. And approximately 8% of the transactions in which real estate brokerages franchised by Realogy where it had exclusive marketing service agreements, represented the home buyer.

Mortgage Servicing Segment

The Company principally generates revenue in its Mortgage Servicing segment through fees earned from its servicing rights or from its subservicing agreements. Mortgage servicing rights are the rights to receive a portion of the interest coupon and fees collected from the mortgagors for performing specified mortgage servicing activities, which consist of collecting loan payments, remitting principal and interest payments to investors, managing escrow funds for th! e payment! of mortgage-related expenses, such as taxes and insurance, performing loss mitigation activities on behalf of investors, and otherwise administering its mortgage loan servicing portfolio. Mortgage servicing rights for sold loans are initially recorded at fair value in its Mortgage Production Segment�� results of operations. Changes in fair value subsequent to the initial capitalization are recorded in its Mortgage Servicing Segment�� results of operations. The Company�� Mortgage Servicing segment also includes the results of its reinsurance activities from its wholly owned subsidiary, Atrium Reinsurance Corporation.

The Company provides mortgage reinsurance to certain third-party insurance companies that provide primary mortgage insurance on loans originated in its Mortgage Production segment. While it does not underwrite primary mortgage insurance directly, it provides reinsurance that covers losses in excess of a specified percentage of the principal balance of a given pool of mortgage loans, subject to a contractual limit. In exchange for assuming a portion of the risk of loss related to the reinsured loans, Atrium Reinsurance Corporation, its wholly owned subsidiary, receives a portion of borrower�� premiums from the third-party insurance companies.

Fleet Management Services Segment

The Company provides fleet management services to corporate clients and government agencies throughout the United States and Canada. It is an integrated provider of these services with a range of product offerings. The Company primarily focuses on clients with fleets of greater than 75 vehicles. As of 2011, it had approximately 270,000 vehicles leased, primarily consisting of cars and light-duty trucks and, to a lesser extent, medium and heavy-duty trucks, trailers and equipment, and approximately 300,000 additional vehicles serviced under fuel cards, maintenance cards, accident management services arrangements and/or similar arrangements. During 2011, the Company purchas! ed approx! imately 61,000 vehicles.

The Company provides corporate clients and government agencies with services and products, such as Fleet Leasing and Fleet Management Services, Maintenance Services, Accident Management Services, and Fuel Card Services. The Fleet Leasing and Fleet management services include vehicle leasing, fleet policy analysis and recommendations, benchmarking, vehicle recommendations, ordering and purchasing vehicles, arranging for vehicle delivery and administration of the title and registration process, as well as tax and insurance requirements, pursuing warranty claims and remarketing used vehicles. It leases vehicles to its clients under both open-end and closed-end leases. Open-end leases represent 97% of its lease portfolio, and are a form of lease in which the client bears substantially all of the vehicle�� residual value risk. These leases typically have a minimum term of 12 months, and can be continued after that at the lessee�� election for successive monthly renewals. Upon return of the vehicle by the lessee, it typically sells the vehicle into the secondary market, and the client receives a credit or pays the difference between the sale proceeds and the vehicle�� book value.

Open-end leases may be classified as operating or direct financing depending upon the nature of the residual guarantee. Revenues for operating leases contain a depreciation component, an interest component and a management fee component, and are recognized over the lease term. For direct financing leases, revenues contain an interest component and a management fee component, and are recognized over the lease term. Closed-end leases represent 3% of its lease portfolio, and are a form of lease in which it retains the residual risk of the value of the vehicle at the end of the lease term. Closed-end leases may be classified as operating or direct financing based on the terms of the individual contracts.

The Company offers clients vehicle maintenance service cards that! are used! to facilitate payment for repairs and maintenance. It maintains a network of third-party service providers in the United States and Canada to ensure ease of use by the clients drivers. The vehicle maintenance service cards provide clients with negotiated discounts off of full retail prices through its supplier network, access to its in-house team of certified maintenance experts that monitor transactions for policy compliance, reasonability and cost-effectiveness, and inclusion of vehicle maintenance transactions in a consolidated information and billing database, which assists clients with the evaluation of overall fleet performance and costs. During 2011, the Company averaged 324,000 maintenance service cards in the United States and Canada. It receives a fixed monthly fee for these services from its clients, as well as additional fees from service providers in its third-party network for individual maintenance services.

PHH provides its clients with accident management services, such as immediate assistance upon receiving the initial accident report from the driver, an organized vehicle appraisal and repair process through a network of third-party preferred repair and body shops and coordination and negotiation of potential accident claims. The Company�� accident management services provide its clients with convenient, coordinated 24-hour assistance from its call center, access to its relationships with the repair and body shops included in its preferred supplier network, which typically provide clients with favorable terms, and expertise of its damage specialists, who ensure that vehicle appraisals and repairs are appropriate, cost-efficient and in accordance with each client�� specific repair policy. During 2011, it averaged 298,000 vehicles that were participating in accident management programs. The Company receives fees from its clients for these services, as well as additional fees from service providers in its third-party network for individual incident services.

It prov! ides its clients with fuel card programs that facilitate the payment, monitoring and control of fuel purchases. Fuel is typically the single fleet-related operating expense. Its fuel cards provide its clients with access to more fuel brands and outlets than other private-label corporate fuel cards, point-of-sale processing technology for fuel card transactions that enhances clients��ability to monitor purchases and consolidated billing, and access to other information on fuel card transactions, which assists clients with the evaluation of overall fleet performance and costs. Its fuel cards are offered through relationships with third parties in the United States, and a card in Canada, which offer expanded fuel management capabilities on one service card. During 2011, it averaged 295,000 fuel cards in the United States and Canada. PHH receives both monthly fees from its fuel card clients and additional fees from fuel partners and providers.

The Company competes with Bank of America, Wells Fargo Home Mortgage, Chase Home Finance, CitiMortgage, GE Commercial Finance Fleet Services, Wheels, Inc., Automotive Resources International and Lease Plan International.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Jon C. Ogg]

  PHH Corp. (NYSE: PHH) was downgraded to Market Perform from Outperform at Keefe Bruyette & Woods.

  T-Mobile US Inc. (NYSE: TMUS) was started as Outperform at Cowen & Co.

Hot Quality Companies To Buy For 2014: Datalink Corporation(DTLK)

Datalink Corporation data center solutions and services to mid and large-size companies in the United States. It engages in assessing, designing, deploying, and supporting infrastructures, such as servers, storage, and networks; and reselling hardware and software from original equipment manufacturers. The company?s portfolio of solutions and services comprise consolidation and virtualization services; data storage and protection services, including local and remote backup, disaster recovery, archive, and compliance services; advanced network infrastructure services that includes assessment, design, and deployment of network infrastructures; and business continuity and disaster recovery solutions. It also offers a suite of practice-specific consulting, analysis, design, implementation, management, and support services. Datalink Corporation was founded in 1958 and is headquartered in Chanhassen, Minnesota.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Lauren Pollock]

  Datalink Corp.(DTLK), a provider of data-center infrastructure and service, boosted its fourth-quarter earnings outlook amid expectations that its revenue will be stronger than previously anticipated. Shares surged 31% to $14.20 premarket.

• [By Tess Stynes var popups = dojo.query(".socialByline .popC"); popups.forEach(fu]

  Data-center infrastructure and services provide Datalink Corp.(DTLK) posted results for the first three months of the year that badly missed expectations and also provided an outlook for the current quarter below consensus. Shares fell 21% to $10 premarket.

Hot Quality Companies To Buy For 2014: Maui Land & Pineapple Company Inc. (MLP)

Maui Land & Pineapple Company, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, engages in the development, sale, and leasing of real estate properties. It owns approximately 23,300 acres of land on Maui. The company also offers water and waste transmission services. In addition, it manages certain resort amenities at the Kapalua Resort. The company was founded in 1909 and is based in Lahaina, Hawaii.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Matthew Skelly]

  The technology of fracturing (and the horizontal style of drilling), is changing America's needs on the energy front. At the epicenter of this infrastructure build-out is Atlas Pipeline Partners (NYSE:APL), a midstream gathering and processing company that trades as a Master Limited Partnership, (MLP). Atlas Pipeline is essentially a middle man between the drillers and long-haul transportation pipelines. It gathers mixed volumes of natural gas and natural gas liquids (NGLs) such as ethane, propane, and butanes, etc. from the thousands of wells drilled by its drilling customers, back through pipelines to its processing plants, which will separate the gas from the NGLs. Both are then sold to long-haul transportation pipelines, which take the two products downstream to the next part of the energy supply chain.

• [By Dividends4Life]

  Sunoco Logistics Partners (SXL) is a master limited partnership (MLP) that was formed by Sunoco Inc. to acquire, own and operate a group of refined product and crude oil pipelines and terminal facilities.
  Yield: 3.6% | Years of Dividend Growth: 11

Hot Quality Companies To Buy For 2014: Landec Corporation(LNDC)

Landec Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, designs, develops, manufactures, and sells polymer products for food and agricultural products, medical devices products, and licensed partner applications incorporating its patented polymer technologies. It has two polymer technology platforms that include Intelimer polymers, a proprietary class of crystalline, hydrophobic polymers, which respond to temperature changes in a controllable, predictable way; and Hyaluronan Biopolymer, a non-crystalline, hydrophilic polymer that exists naturally within the human body. The company?s Food Products Technology segment markets and packs produced and specialty packaged whole and fresh-cut vegetables utilizing the proprietary BreatheWay specialty packaging technology for the retail grocery, club store, and food services industry. This segment also sells BreatheWay packaging to partners for non-vegetable products. Its Food Export segment purchases and sells primarily whole commodity fruit and vegetable products to Asian markets. The company?s Hyaluronan-based Biomaterials segment sells products utilizing hyaluronan, a naturally occurring polysaccharide that is primarily distributed in the extracellar matrix of connective tissues in both animals and humans for medical use primarily in the ophthalmic, orthopedic, and veterinary markets. It also supplies hyaluronan to customers pursuing other medical applications, such as aesthetic surgery, medical device coatings, tissue engineering, and pharmaceuticals. Its Technology Licensing segment licenses Intellicoat, a proprietary seed coating technology to the farming industry; and Intelimer polymers for personal care products and other industrial products. The company sells its products in the United States, Canada, Taiwan, Belgium, Indonesia, China, and Japan. Landec Corporation was founded in 1986 and is based in Menlo Park, California.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Lauren Pollock]

  Landec Corp.'s(LNDC) fiscal first-quarter profit grew 8.8% as the food-packaging maker reported higher revenue due to strong demand for vegetables. Margins, however, fell due to an increase in lower-margin food service sales and higher-than-expected raw produce costs.

Hot Quality Companies To Buy For 2014: Noodles & Co (NDLS)

Noodles & Company, incorporated on December 19, 2002, is a casual restaurant concept offering lunch and dinner. The Company offers noodle and pasta dishes, staples of many cuisines, with the goal of delivering fresh ingredients and flavors globally under one roof from Pad Thai to Mac & Cheese. The Company�� globally inspired menu includes a variety of cooked-to-order dishes, including noodles and pasta, soups, salads and sandwiches, which are served on china by its friendly team members.

As of May 28, 2013, including the 16 Company owned restaurants and one franchise restaurant opened in 2013. The Company opened 39 new company owned restaurants and six franchise restaurants. In 2012, the Company began using Your World Kitchen to describe the breadth of its offering and its customers' dining experience.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Ben Levisohn]

  What happens when noodles gets overcooked? They turn into a gooey, mushy mess. What happens when Noodles & Co (NDLS), which trades at a 78.5 times forward earnings, releases disappointing results? It too turns into a gooey, mushy mess.

• [By Valuentum]

  After the extremely positive post-IPO fortune of fast food concept Noodles & Co (NDLS), the surging IPO of Potbelly (PBPB) caught our attention. Let's take a look at the prospects of this Chicago-based sandwich chain.

Hot Quality Companies To Buy For 2014: Plains All American Pipeline L.P.(PAA)

Plains All American Pipeline, L.P., through its subsidiaries, engages in the transportation, storage, terminalling, and marketing of crude oil, refined products, and liquid petroleum gas (LPG) products in the United States and Canada. The company operates in three segments: Transportation, Facilities, and Supply and Logistics. The Transportation segment transports crude oil and refined products on pipelines, gathering systems, trucks, and barges. As of December 31, 2011, this segment owned and leased 16,000 miles of active crude oil and refined products pipelines and gathering systems; 23 million barrels of above-ground tank capacity used primarily to facilitate pipeline throughput; 67 trucks and 382 trailers; and 82 transport and storage barges, and 44 transport tugs. The Facilities segment provides storage, terminalling, and throughput services for crude oil, refined products, and LPG and natural gas, as well as offers LPG fractionation and isomerization, and natural gas processing services. The Supply and Logistics segment purchases crude oil at the wellhead, and pipeline and terminal facilities; waterborne cargoes at their load port and various other locations in transit; and LPG from producers, refiners, and other marketers. This segment also resells or exchanges crude oil and LPG; and transports oil and LPG on trucks, barges, railcars, pipelines, and ocean-going vessels to various delivery points. It has 622 trucks and 731 trailers, and 2,453 railcars. The company also owns and operates natural gas storage facilities. Plains All American Pipeline, L.P. was founded in 1998 and is headquartered in Houston, Texas.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Jon C. Ogg]

  Plains All American Pipeline L.P. (NYSE: PAA) was maintained as Outperform with a $64 price target (versus $51.44 current) after its announced acquisition of affiliated PAA Natural Gas Storage L.P. (NYSE: PNG) in an all-stock buyout.

• [By Matt DiLallo]

  Another big winner when it comes to crude oil by rail is Plains All American Pipeline (NYSE: PAA  ) . Late last year the company spent $500 million to acquire five terminals to complement its existing facilities. Overall the company is expected to have 250,000 barrels per day of loading capacity with another 335,000 barrels per day of unloading capacity. Because of the limited pipeline connectivity to the east and west coasts, Plains has the facilities to enable the delivery of cheaper Bakken crude to coastal refineries.

Hot Quality Companies To Buy For 2014: Henry Schein Inc. (HSIC)

Henry Schein, Inc. distributes healthcare products and services primarily to office-based healthcare practitioners. It operates in two segments, Healthcare Distribution and Technology. The Healthcare Distribution segment offers consumable dental products, dental laboratory products, and small equipment, including X-ray products, infection-control products, handpieces, preventatives, impression materials, composites, anesthetics, teeth, dental implants, gypsum, acrylics, articulators, and abrasives; and large dental equipment comprising dental chairs, delivery units and lights, X-ray equipment, equipment repair, and high-tech equipment. It also provides medical products, including branded and generic pharmaceuticals, vaccines, surgical products, diagnostic tests, infection-control products, and vitamins; and animal health products, such as branded and generic pharmaceuticals, surgical and consumable products and services, and equipment. The Technology segment offers softwar e and related products, and value-added products that primarily include practice management software systems for dental and medical practitioners, and animal health clinics. Its services also consist of financial services and continuing education services for practitioners. Henry Schein, Inc. primarily serves dental practitioners and laboratories, physician practices, and animal health clinics, as well as government and other institutions. It operates in the United States, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, China, the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Portugal, Slovakia, Spain, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. The company was founded in 1932 and is headquartered in Melville, New York.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Charles Mizrahi]

  Several stocks in our portfolio will benefit from this trend: Drugstore chain Walgreens (WAG), healthcare products distributor Henry Schein (HSIC), and pharmaceutical maker AstraZeneca (AZN)

• [By John Bonnanzio]

  The fund�� top holdings are Telsa, Henry Schein (HSIC), United Rentals (URI), Gartner (IT) and Kansas City Southern (KSU).

  The fund also has some exposure to pricey biotech. Even so, this is hardly a shoot-the-lights-out growth fund as volatility is below all his mid-cap peers. To that end, this trade actually tempers risk while increasing growth exposure.