Top 5 Gas Utility Companies To Buy Right Now

The Fed will release the statement from its October policy meeting tomorrow, a fact that investors almost completely ignored today as stocks hit their highest level since the beginning of the month.

Reuters

The S&P 500 rose 1.2% to 1,985.05 today, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 187.81 points, or 1.1% to 17,005.75, its highest close since October 3. The Nasdaq Composite advanced 1.7% to 4,564.29 and the small-company Russell 2000 finished up 2.9% to 1,149.45.

The folks at Bespoke Investment Group note that the S&P 500 has done well on Fed days since the beginning of the Fed’s Zero Interest Rate Policy, or ZIRP, but are curious to see how the market will perform tomorrow, especially if the Fed completes the taper, as expected. They explain:

[The] S&P 500 has averaged a strong gain of 0.46% on Fed Days since ZIRP, which is 11 basis points more than the average performance of the S&P 500 on all days going back to 1995. Over both time periods, the S&P has done very well on Fed Days compared to the average of around 0.03% seen for all trading days throughout history…

Best Gas Companies To Buy For 2015: Integrated Device Technology Inc. (IDTI)

Integrated Device Technology, Inc. designs, develops, manufactures, and markets a range of integrated circuits for communications, computing, and consumer industries worldwide. It operates in two segments, Communications, and Computing and Consumer. The Communications segment offers communication clocks, digital logic products, first in and first out memories, serial RapidIO solutions for wireless base station infrastructure applications, integrated communications processors, static random access memory products, radio frequency products, and telecommunications semiconductor products. This segment markets its products to the enterprise, data center, and wireless markets. The Computing and Consumer segment provides timing products, PCI Express switching and bridging solutions, high-performance server memory interfaces, multi-port products, touch controllers, signal integrity products, and PC audio and video products. This segment?s computing products are designed for deskto p, notebook, sub-notebook, storage, and server applications; and consumer products are optimized primarily for gaming consoles, set-top boxes, digital TV, and smart phones. The company markets its products primarily to original equipment manufacturers through various channels, including a direct sales force, distributors, electronic manufacturing suppliers, and independent sales representatives. Integrated Device Technology, Inc. was founded in 1980 and is headquartered in San Jose, California.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Garrett Cook]

  Integrated Device Technology (NASDAQ: IDTI) shares were also up, gaining 19.09 percent to $16.72 after the company reported better-than-expected quarterly earnings.

Top 5 Gas Utility Companies To Buy Right Now: Digi International Inc.(DGII)

Digi International Inc. engages in the provision of machine to machine networking products and solutions to connect, monitor, and control of local or remote physical assets by electronic means. It offers a range of embedded products, including modules, single board computers, chips, satellite communication devices, and software and development tools; and non embedded products comprising cellular products, serial servers, console servers, universal serial bus connected products, serial cards, and wireless communication adaptors. The company also provides wireless product design and development services to provide wireless networking products. In addition, it offers iDigi, a cloud-based Internet platform to connect enterprise applications to remote electronic devices. The company sells its products through a network of distributors, systems integrators, and value added resellers for a range of businesses and institutions, as well as to original equipment manufacturers primar ily in North America, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Asia, and Latin America. It has strategic alliances with VMware, Ember, Freescale, Qualcomm, Ericsson, Itron, AT&T, Sprint, Verizon, Bell Mobility, and Rogers. The company was founded in 1985 and is headquartered in Minnetonka, Minnesota.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Seth Jayson]

  Basic guidelines
  In this series, I examine inventory using a simple rule of thumb: Inventory increases ought to roughly parallel revenue increases. If inventory bloats more quickly than sales grow, this might be a sign that expected sales haven't materialized. Is the current inventory situation at Digi International (Nasdaq: DGII  ) out of line? To figure that out, start by comparing the company's inventory growth to sales growth. How is Digi International doing by this quick checkup? At first glance, not so great. Trailing-12-month revenue decreased 5.8%, and inventory increased 3.2%. Comparing the latest quarter to the prior-year quarter, the story looks decent. Revenue shrank 1.7%, and inventory grew 3.2%. Over the sequential quarterly period, the trend looks healthy. Revenue grew 2.6%, and inventory grew 1.7%.

• [By John Kell]

  Digi International Inc.'s(DGII) fiscal first quarter earnings fell, as high costs masked a slight rise in revenue. The wireless-product provider’s results were well-below the company’s previous guidance. Shares slumped 9.9% to $10.89 premarket.

• [By John Udovich]

  Small cap machine-to-machine (M2M) stock Elecsys Corp (NASDAQ: ESYS) jumped 8.99% yesterday and is up 254% over the past year, meaning it might be time to take a closer look at the stock and its performance verses other small cap M2M stocks like Digi International Inc (NASDAQ: DGII), Numerex Corp (NASDAQ: NMRX) and Sierra Wireless, Inc (NASDAQ: SWIR). First of all though, I should mention that machine-to-machine (M2M) broadly refers to technologies that allow both wireless and wired systems to communicate with other devices of the same type and this can be through any type of technology ranging from instruments to networks to applications that create connections between devices.

Top 5 Gas Utility Companies To Buy Right Now: Solar Thin Films Inc (SLTZ)

Solar Thin Films, Inc. is engaged in the business of designing, manufacturing and installation of thin-film amorphous silicon (a-Si) photovoltaic manufacturing equipment. The equipment is used in plants that produce photovoltaic thin-film a-Si solar panels or modules. The Company operates through its wholly owned subsidiary, Kraft Elektronikai Zrt (Kraft). Kraft is engaged in the design, development, manufacture, and installation of a-Si photovoltaic manufacturing equipment. The primary buyers of photovoltaic thin-film manufacturing equipment are businesses, as well as investment partnerships, engaged in the production of photovoltaic thin-film modules. In May 2010, the Company acquired Atlantis Solar LLC. In May 2013, Solar Thin Films Inc acquired Quality Resource Technologies Inc. In October 2013, Solar Thin Films Inc announced the sale of all of its ownership stake of Hungarian subsidiary, Kraft, R.t. (Kraft), to GJR Collectibles LLC.

Kraft has been providing equipment that is incorporated into a single manufacturing line capable of manufacturing a-Si solar modules that produce approximately 5megawatt (MW) of solar power annually. The Company focuses, directly and through joint ventures or alliances with other companies or governmental agencies, to sell equipment for and participate financially in solar power facilities using thin film a-Si solar modules or metallurgical and other crystalline solar modules as the power source to provide electricity to municipalities, businesses and consumers.

The Company competes with Applied Materials and Oerlikon.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Peter Graham]

  Small cap stocks Alliance Creative Group Inc (OTCMKTS: ACGX), Dale Jarrett Racing Adventure Inc (OTCMKTS: DJRT), Inscor Inc (OTCMKTS: IOGA) and Solar Thin Films Inc (OTCMKTS: SLTZ) have all been getting some attention lately in various investment newsletters and it should come as no surprise that two out of four of these stocks have been the subject of paid promotions ��which tend to benefit traders. However, two out of four of these stocks also have pretty good financials for being small cap OTC stocks and that might make them attractive to investors with a long term time horizon. So which of these stocks might make traders some profits in the short term and investors some profits over the longer term? Here is a closer look to help you decide:

Top 5 Gas Utility Companies To Buy Right Now: Ishares Msci Switzerland (EWL)

iShares MSCI Switzerland Index Fund (the Fund) seeks to provide investment results that correspond generally to the price and yield performance of publicly traded securities in the aggregate in the Swiss market, as measured by the MSCI Switzerland Index (the Index). The Index seeks to measure the performance of the Swiss equity market. The Index is a capitalization-weighted index that aims to capture 85% of the (publicly available) total market capitalization. Component companies are adjusted for available float and must meet objective criteria for inclusion in the Index. The Index is reviewed quarterly.

The Fund invests in a representative sample of securities included in the Index that collectively has an investment profile similar to the Index. The Fund�� investment advisor is Barclays Global Fund Advisors.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Mark Salzinger]

  iShares MSCI Germany (EWG) and iShares MSCI Switzerland (EWL) continue to have relatively attractive valuations.

  EWG recently sported an average price/earnings (P/E) ratio on 2013's projected earnings of 12.6 and a price/book value (P/B) of just 1.4.

• [By Carlton Delfeld]

  The iShares Switzerland (EWL) is a wonderful way to gain exposure to a basket of Switzerland's leading multinationals and has an expense ratio of only 0.59%. In addition, while a rising Swiss franc puts pricing pressure on Swiss exporters, a strong Swiss franc supercharges returns for investors in EWL.