Top Asian Companies To Invest In 2014

As the rush to export liquefied natural gas (LNG) gathers steam, the Energy Advantage portfoliois primed for even bigger gains.

Make no mistake, LNG exports are now set to hand us one of the best investment opportunities of the decade.

That's a stunning reversal from just seven years ago, when everyone agreed the United States would be using LNG imports to meet 15% of its gas needs by 2020.

However, the unconventional shale boom (shale, tight, and coal bed methane) has changed everything we used to think about natural gas.

Now, even the most conservative Russian estimates acknowledge that the U.S. could be providing between 6% and 8% of all LNG exports worldwide by 2020.

In fact, Cheniere Energy Inc. (NYSE: LNG) has already garnered no fewer than five huge, multi-billion dollar, 20-year contracts with some of the largest European and Asian importers.

But new developments have suddenly thrown up another hurdle that threatens to delay all of this economic promise.

Best Freight Companies To Buy For 2015: First Merchants Corporation(FRME)

First Merchants Corporation, a financial holding company, provides financial and banking products and services. Its deposit products include demand deposits, savings deposits, and certificates and other time deposits. The company?s loan products portfolio comprises commercial and industrial loans; agricultural production financing and other loans to farmers; real estate loans, including construction, commercial and farmland, and residential loans; individuals? loans for household and other personal expenditures; tax-exempt loans; lease financing; consumer loans; and other loans. It also rents safe deposit facilities; and provides personal and corporate trust services, brokerage services, and other corporate services, as well as letters of credit and repurchase agreements. The company operates through 79 banking locations in 23 Indiana and 2 Ohio counties, as well as through ATMs, check cards, interactive voice response systems, and Internet technology. In addition, First Merchants Corporation operates as a property, casualty, personal lines, and employee benefit insurance agency; and involves in life reinsurance business. The company was founded in 1893 and is headquartered in Muncie, Indiana.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Tim Melvin]

  The year ahead should be a great one for the smaller bank stocks. Larger regionals like Huntington Bancorp (HBAN) and Capital Ban Financial (CBF) have made it clear they intend to grow by acquisition in the years ahead. Banks like First Merit (FMER) and First Merchants (FRME) have done deals in the past year and are open to doing more to increase their market share and footprints. This should be the year the floodgates open and we see the first wave of merger activity in small banks.

• [By Sean Williams]

  For this week's round of "Better Know a Stock," I'm going to take a closer look at First Merchants (NASDAQ: FRME  ) .

  What First Merchants does
  First Merchants is a financial holding company that provides community and commercial banking services primarily throughout Indiana, but also in Ohio. As of the first-quarter, First Merchants had $4.3 billion in total assets with total loans outstanding equaling $2.9 billion.

Top Asian Companies To Invest In 2014: CVR Refining LP (CVRR)

CVR Refining, LP, incorporated on September 17, 2012, is an energy limited partnership with refining and related logistics assets that operates in the mid-continent region. As of January 8, 2013, the Company owned two of only seven refineries in the underserved Group 3 of the PADD II region of the United States. It owns and operates a 115,000 barrels per day (bpd) coking medium-sour crude oil refinery in Coffeyville, Kansas and a 70,000 bpd medium complexity crude oil refinery in Wynnewood, Oklahoma capable of processing 20,000 bpd of light sour crude oils (within its 70,000 bpd capacity). In addition, it also controls and operates supporting logistics assets, including approximately 350 miles of owned pipelines, over 125 owned crude oil transports, a network of strategically located crude oil gathering tank farms, and over six million barrels of owned and leased crude oil storage capacity. On December 15, 2011, the Company�� subsidiary Coffeyville Resources, LLC (Coffeyville Resources) acquired Wynnewood Energy Company, LLC, formerly Gary-Williams Energy Corporation.

The Company�� Coffeyville and Wynnewood refineries are located approximately 100 miles and 130 miles from the crude oil hub at Cushing, Oklahoma. As of January 8, 2013, the Company gathered approximately 50,000 bpd of price-advantaged crudes from its gathering area, which includes Kansas, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Missouri and Texas. The Company also has 35,000 bpd of contracted capacity on the Keystone and Spearhead pipelines that allows it to supply price-advantaged Canadian and Bakken crudes to its refineries. As of January 8, 2013, the Company had 145,000 bpd pipeline system that transports crude oil from its Broome Station tank farm to its Coffeyville refinery, as well as a total of 6 million barrels of owned and leased crude oil storage capacity, including approximately 6% of the total crude oil storage capacity at Cushing.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Susan J. Aluise]

  CVI is structured into two Managed Limited Partnerships (MLPs): CVR Refining (CVRR) and the nitrogen fertilizer unit CVR Partners (UAN). CVR Energy owns 71% of CVR Refining and 53% of CVR Partners. This is an interesting play in the energy sector, given UAN�� lower cost of ammonia and urea ammonium nitrate and CVRR�� edge as an MLP refiner.

• [By Robert Rapier] There were a half a dozen initial public offerings (IPOs) by master limited partnerships in the first half of the year, and all but one are now in the green while one has nearly doubled in value.
  
  The first MLP IPO of 2013 debuted on Jan. 15. USA Compression Partners (NYSE: USAC), which I mentioned in last week’s issue, provides compression services for the oil and gas industry. Units have advanced 36 percent since the IPO, and at the current price yield 7.3 percent.
  
  The day after the USA Compression Partners IPO, CVR Refining (NYSE: CVRR) made its debut.  CVRR was spun off from CVR Energy (NYSE: CVI), and both companies remain majority-owned by Carl Icahn. CVR Refining’s primary assets are two refineries located in Kansas and Oklahoma with a combined processing capacity of approximately 185,000 barrels per day (bpd). These refineries are strategically located near the major Cushing, Oklahoma shipment and storage hub, with easy access to discounted feedstock from the nearby Permian basin, as well as the Bakken shale and Canadian oil sands.
  
  But refiners have struggled with diminished margins in 2013 because of a much lower Brent-WTI differential. After the recently concluded second quarter, CVRR declared a distribution of $1.35 per unit, bringing its per-unit distributions for the first half of the year to $2.93. At the same time, CVR Refining lowered its annual distribution target to a range of $4.10 to $4.80 per unit. This was lower than the outlook issued in March, when it foresaw annual distributions of $5.50 to $6.50. CVRR units slid on the news, and are presently trading slightly below the $25 IPO price. The lower end of the revised forecast implies distributions of $1.17 per unit in the second half of the year, for a forward annualized yield of 10 percent based on the recent $23.50 unit price.
  
  SunCoke Energy Partners (NYSE: SXCP) was the third IPO to debut during a very busy third week of January. SXCP is the first M

Top Asian Companies To Invest In 2014: Ryder System Inc.(R)

Ryder System, Inc. provides transportation and supply chain management solutions. It operates in three segments: Fleet Management Solutions (FMS), Supply Chain Solutions (SCS), and Dedicated Contract Carriage (DCC). The FMS segment offers leasing, contract maintenance, contract-related maintenance, and commercial rental of trucks, tractors, and trailers primarily in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom. It also offers fleet support services, such as fuel, insurance, safety, administration, environmental management, and information technology services. In addition, this segment sells its used vehicles through 55 company owned retail sales centers, as well as through its Web site, Usedtrucks.Ryder.com. Its customers include small businesses and enterprises operating in transportation, grocery, lumber and wood products, food service, and home furnishings industries. The SCS segment provides supply chain consulting solutions in North America and Asia. It offers di stribution management, transportation management, and professional services, as well as various support services, such as information technology and engineering solutions. This segment primarily serves automotive, electronics, high-tech, telecommunications, industrial, consumer goods, consumer packaged goods, paper and paper products, office equipment, food and beverage, and general retail industries. The DCC segment offers vehicles and drivers as part of a transportation solution in the United States. It combines the equipment, maintenance, and administrative services of a service lease with drivers and additional services, such as routing and scheduling, fleet sizing, safety, regulatory compliance, risk management, technology and communication systems support, and other technical support. This segment serves energy and utility, metals and mining, retail, construction, healthcare products, and food and beverage industries. The company was founded in 1933 and is based in Mia mi, Florida.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By CRWE]

  Ryder System, Inc. (NYSE:R), a leader in commercial transportation and supply chain management solutions, reported that it has acquired independently owned and operated Euroway Group Ltd. based in Bedfordshire, England.

• [By James Miller Phd]

  Required Rate of Return (r)

  The capital asset pricing model (CAPM) estimates the required return on equity using the following formula: required return on stockj = risk-free rate + beta of j x equity risk premium

Top Asian Companies To Invest In 2014: Blue Nile Inc.(NILE)

Blue Nile, Inc. operates as an online retailer of diamonds and fine jewelry worldwide. Its fine jewelry selection includes diamond, gemstone, platinum, gold, pearl and sterling silver jewelry, and accessories, as well as wedding bands, earrings, necklaces, pendants, bracelets, and watches. Blue Nile, Inc. sells its products through the Web sites bluenile.com, bluenile.ca, and bluenile.co.uk. The company was formerly known as Internet Diamonds, Inc. and changed its name to Blue Nile, Inc. in November 1999. Blue Nile, Inc. was founded in 1999 and is headquartered in Seattle, Washington.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Holly LaFon]

  We think the next chapter of Internet growth will be driven by increasing broadband penetration and mobile 3G rollouts globally. Baron invests in the global Internet in two ways: 1) U.S. based Internet companies that have substantial international businesses, and 2) foreign based Internet companies. Several Baron portfolio holdings such as Google, Inc. and priceline.com, Inc. receive 50% or more of their revenues outside the U.S., and we think the faster growth of Internet access in emerging economies will be a substantial benefit to these companies. Other Baron portfolio companies such as LinkedIn Corp. (LNKD) and Blue Nile, Inc. (NILE) are also accelerating their efforts to penetrate international markets in 2012 and beyond.

Top Asian Companies To Invest In 2014: Hi Crush Partners LP (HCLP)

Hi Crush Partners LP, formerly Hi-Crush Partners LP, is a domestic producer of monocrystalline sand, a specialized mineral that is used as a proppant to enhance the recovery rates of hydrocarbons from oil and natural gas wells. The Company reserves consist of Northern White sand, a resource existing in Wisconsin and limited portions of the upper Midwest region of the United States. It owns, operates and develops sand reserves and related excavation and processing facilities and will seek to acquire or develop additional facilities. The Company's 561-acre facility with integrated rail infrastructure, located near Wyeville, Wisconsin, enables it to process and deliver approximately 1,600,000 tons of frac sand per year. In June 2013, Hi Crush Partners LP announced the completion of its acquisition of D&I Silica, LLC (D&I).

The Company�� frac sand production is sold to investment grade-rated pressure pumping service providers under long-term, contracts that require its customers to pay a specified price for a specified volume of frac sand each month. The Company owns and operates the Wyeville facility, which is located in Monroe County, Wisconsin and, as of December 31, 2011, contained 48.4 million tons of proven recoverable sand reserves of mesh sizes it has contracted to sell. From the Wyeville in-service date to March 31, 2012, it had processed and sold 555,250 tons of frac sand.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Alex Planes]

  Hi-Crush Partners (NYSE: HCLP  ) and U.S. Silica Holdings (NYSE: SLCA  ) could also pose a threat to CARBO's higher-end products. CARBO has worked feverishly to convince drillers that ceramic proppants are much stronger than sand, and can withstand the high temperatures and pressures of deep, fractured wells. Since Hi-Crush's IPO, however, it does appear that the tide has shifted to sand, as Carbo's revenues have declined�while Hi-Crush and U.S. Silica have gained. Increased competition from a number of Chinese companies that have flooded the domestic market with cheap ceramic proppants is also a danger to CARBO's higher-quality products, provided that the cut-rate ceramics are actually up to the task.

Top Asian Companies To Invest In 2014: EDAP TMS S.A.(EDAP)

EDAP TMS S.A., through its subsidiaries, engages in the development, manufacture, and marketing of minimally invasive medical devices primarily for urological diseases. The company operates in two divisions, High Intensity Focused Ultrasound (HIFU), and Urology Devices and Services (UDS). The HIFU division involves in the development, manufacture, and marketing of medical devices based on HIFU technology for the minimally invasive destruction of various types of localized tumors. This division offers Ablatherm, a HIFU-based ultrasound guided device for the treatment of organ-confined prostate cancer. Its HIFU technology allows the surgeon to destroy a defined area of diseased tissue without damaging surrounding tissue and organs. This division also engages in the leasing of equipment, as well as the sale of disposables, spare parts, and maintenance services. This division markets and sells its products through its direct marketing and sales organization, as well as through third-party distributors and agents. The UDS division engages in the development, manufacture, marketing, and servicing of medical devices for the minimally invasive diagnosis or treatment of urological disorders, primarily urinary stones and other clinical indications. This division provides lithotripters for the treatment of urinary tract stones by means of ESWL technology. This division manufactures three models of lithotripters: the Sonolith Praktis, the Sonolith i-move, and the Sonolith i-sys. This division also involves in the leasing of lithotripters, as well as the sale of disposables, spare parts, and maintenance services. This division markets and sells its products through its direct sales and service platform, as well as through agents and third-party distributors. The company?s customers include public and private hospitals, urology clinics, and research institutions worldwide. EDAP TMS S.A. was founded in 1979 and is based in Vaulx-en-Velin, France.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Bryan Murphy]

  Last week, yours truly posed the unpopular (though largely ignored) premise that EDAP TMS S.A. (NASDAQ:EDAP) was poised to tumble. It wasn't anything personal, nor was it a judgment call on the merits of the company. It was simply a trading-based call, observing how the rally EDAP was enjoying at the time appeared to be running out of gas, and there was no floor to halt any pullback.

• [By Bryan Murphy]

  This isn't going to be a well-received idea, given how bullish the stock appears to be at this time, but EDAP TMS S.A. (NASDAQ:EDAP) is a sell. Up 82% since the end of May, EDAP is ripe for a pullback, and may have reached the bearish pivot point as of today.

• [By John Udovich]

  Laparoscopic surgery or minimally invasive surgery (MIS) is a type of surgical technique where�operations in the abdomen are performed through small incisions while small cap stocks ArthroCare Corporation (NASDAQ: ARTC), EDAP TMS S.A. (NASDAQ: EDAP), SafeStitch Medical Inc (OTCBB: SFES) and Arch Therapeutics Inc (OTCBB: ARTH) are all in some way focused on aiding minimally invasive procedures. According to a 2012 report produced by MedMarket Diligence, LLC, approximately 114 million surgical and procedure-based wounds occur annually worldwide,�including�36 million in the US, and perhaps�up to a quarter of these procedures can be described as laparoscopic in nature.�Moreover,�use of the technique is bound to increase�as�it reduces�pain and hemorrhaging plus leads to a�shorter recovery time.