Hot Diversified Bank Stocks For 2014

It's no secret that capital spending budgets are falling at oil companies across the globe, but that's not the case for this company, writes MoneyShow's Jim Jubak, who points out the efficiency measures and new technology products responsible for much of its success.

Everyone knows that capital spending budgets at the world's oil companies are falling.

But it just doesn't seem to matter for Schlumberger (SLB). Schlumberger is a member of my Jubak's Picks portfolio.

On January 17, the oil services and technology company reported fourth quarter earnings of $1.35 a share, beating Wall Street estimates by two cents a share. Earnings grew by 29.8% year over year.

Revenue climbed 7.4% year over year to $11.91 billion. That was slightly below the $11.98 projected by Wall Street.

I think you can tell what's going on at Schlumberger simply by taking a glance at those earnings and revenue growth rates. Revenue growth is indeed sluggish in the oil field. But Schlumberger's margins are climbing, thanks to efficiencies at the company and, especially, thanks to its years of investment in oil field technologies.

Top 5 Forestry Companies To Own In Right Now: Wetherspoon(jd)

JD Wetherspoon plc owns and operates pubs. The company operates 823 pubs that offer food and drinks in England, northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales. It also operates hotels. The company was founded in 1979 and is headquartered in Watford, the United Kingdom.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Lisa Levin]

  JD.com (NASDAQ: JD) shares declined 4.03% to $28.80 in pre-market trading after the company reported a quarterly net loss of 582.5 million yuan ($93.9 million).

• [By Melvin Backman]

  JD.com (JD) shares began trading on the Nasdaq Thursday under the ticker "JD" and priced at $19 a share. They were initially set to sell for between $16 and $18, demonstrating a high demand for the stock.

Hot Diversified Bank Stocks For 2014: King George Financial Corp (KGF)

King George Financial Corporation is a Canada-based company. The Company operates in the area of commercial and residential real estate investment holding and development, as well as medium to long term investment in real estate and hotel related marketable securities. The Company has four segments: rental operation, real estate development, management and finance services, and others. Its principle assets include an office building in downtown Vancouver, British Columbia, held through its 100% subsidiary 905 W. Pender Investments Ltd; real estate located in the City of Surrey, British Columbia, held through its subsidiary 0819277 BC Ltd, 0788607 BC Ltd, and 50% ownership interest in Surrey Campus Residences Joint Venture. The real estate assets consist of residential building lots, and investment in common shares of Allied Hotel Properties Inc., a hotel ownership and management company, and United Malayan Land BHD (UML), a Malaysian real estate development company. Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Sofia Horta e Costa]

  Kingfisher Plc (KGF) declined 5.7 percent to 373.6 pence, its biggest loss in more than two years, after Chief Executive Officer Ian Cheshire said consumer confidence in France ��s still weak with no obvious signs of an imminent improvement.�� Europe�� largest home-improvement retailer also reported same-store sales growth of 0.4 percent for its B&Q chain in the U.K. and Ireland, missing analysts��estimates. France accounted for about 40 percent of its sales and the U.K. for 41 percent, data compiled by Bloomberg showed.

Hot Diversified Bank Stocks For 2014: KapStone Paper and Packaging Corporation (KS)

KapStone Paper and Packaging Corporation engages in the production and sale of unbleached kraft, linerboard, saturating kraft, and unbleached folding carton boards primarily in the Americas, Europe, and Asia. It offers kraft paper to converters, who produce multiwall bags for agricultural products, pet food, cement, chemicals, and grocery bags, as well as specialty conversion products, such as wrapping paper products and roll wrap; and linerboards to converters in the corrugated box industry and to other converters for various end uses, including laminated tier sheets and wrapping material. The company offers its saturating kraft products to various industries, such as construction, electronics manufacturing, and furniture manufacturing; and unbleached folding carton board products to the general folding carton segment of paperboard packaging. KapStone Paper and Packaging Corporation offers its kraft paper, linerboard, and saturating kraft products under the DuraSorb brand name; and folding carton board under the Kraftpak brand name. The company was founded in 2005 and is headquartered in Northbrook, Illinois.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [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 KapStone Paper and Packaging (NYSE: KS  ) , whose recent revenue and earnings are plotted below.

Hot Diversified Bank Stocks For 2014: Grand Canyon Education Inc.(LOPE)

Grand Canyon Education, Inc. provides postsecondary education services in the United States and Canada. It focuses on offering graduate and undergraduate degree programs in education, healthcare, business, and liberal arts disciplines. The company provides its courses through traditional ground campus in Phoenix, Arizona; online; and onsite at the facilities of employers. As of December 31, 2011, it had 43,917 students enrolled in its courses. The company was formerly known as Significant Education, Inc and changed its name to Grand Canyon Education, Inc. in May 2008. Grand Canyon Education, Inc. was founded in 1949 and is based in Phoenix, Arizona.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Jeremy Bowman]

  What: Shares of Grand Canyon Education (NASDAQ: LOPE  ) were riding high today, gaining as much as 16% after soaring past estimates in its earnings report.

Hot Diversified Bank Stocks For 2014: CIENA Corporation(CIEN)

Ciena Corporation provides equipment, software, and service solutions that support the transport, switching, aggregation, and management of voice, video, and data traffic on communications networks worldwide. Its product portfolio consists of packet-optical transport that includes optical transport solutions to increase network capacity and enable delivery of a broader mix of high-bandwidth services; and packet-optical switching, which comprise optical switching platforms incorporating multiservice and multi-protocol switching systems that enable automated optical infrastructures for the delivery of various enterprise and consumer-oriented network services. The company also offers carrier Ethernet solutions, including service delivery switches and service aggregation switches to support the access and aggregation tiers of communications networks, as well as to support wireless backhaul infrastructures and business data services; and software solutions to track individual s ervices across multiple product suites, facilitating planned network maintenance, outage detection, and identification of customers or services affected by network troubles. In addition, Ciena Corporation provides consulting and support services, such as project management, deployment, maintenance support, consulting, and training services, as well as network analysis, planning, design, optimization, and tuning. Its packet-optical transport, packet-optical switching, and carrier Ethernet solutions products are used individually or as part of an integrated solution in communications networks operated by communications service providers, cable operators, governments, enterprises, and other network operators. The company sells its communications networking solutions directly, as well as through strategic channel relationships. Ciena Corporation was founded in 1992 and is headquartered in Linthicum, Maryland.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Monica Gerson]

  Breaking news

  Shares of Joy Global (NYSE: JOY) fell more than 2.7% in pre-market trading after the company reported weaker-than-expected third-quarter earnings. To read the full news, click here. Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ) today announced it will fast-track the development of a promising new combination vaccine regimen against Ebola and broadly collaborate with its partners in global health to deliver immediate relief aid to address the current Ebola outbreak. To read the full news, click here. Shares of Ciena (NYSE: CIEN) dipped more than 12% in pre-market trading after the company issued a weak fiscal fourth-quarter forecast. However, the company reported upbeat third-quarter results. To read the full news, click here. Boeing (NYSE: BA), China's leading provider of passenger airplanes, projects a demand in the country for 6,020 new airplanes over the next 20 years, valued at $870 billion. To read the full news, click here.

  Posted-In: JP Morgan US Stock FuturesNews Eurozone Futures Global Pre-Market Outlook Markets

• [By Monica Gerson]

  Ciena (NYSE: CIEN) is estimated to report its Q3 earnings at $0.29 per share on revenue of $600.81 million.

  Hovnanian Enterprises (NYSE: HOV) is projected to report its Q3 earnings at $0.09 per share on revenue of $559.47 million.

• [By Harsh Chauhan]

  Telecom gear maker Ciena (NASDAQ: CIEN  ) has been in pullback mode for the last month or so. Shares are down 20% since late October, as Ciena has been feeling the effects of sorry guidance by networking and telecom bellwether Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO  ) .

• [By Anna Prior]

  Ciena Corp.(CIEN) said its fiscal first-quarter loss narrowed sharply on stronger revenue. Adjusted earnings easily topped estimates, pushing shares up 1.3% to $25.70 premarket.

Hot Diversified Bank Stocks For 2014: Noble Energy Inc. (NBL)

Noble Energy, Inc., through its subsidiaries, engages in the acquisition, exploration, development, production, and marketing of crude oil, natural gas, and natural gas liquids in the United States, West Africa, Eastern Mediterranean, the North Sea, and internationally. Its principal projects include the Central DJ Basin properties in the onshore US; Galapagos and Gunflint projects in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico; Tamar project in the offshore Israel; Aseng, Alen, and Diega/Carmen projects in the offshore Equatorial Guinea; and West Africa gas projects located in the offshore Equatorial Guinea and Cameroon. The company was founded in 1932 and is based in Houston, Texas.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Lee Jackson]

  Noble Energy Inc. (NYSE: NBL) is a company expected to benefit when Mexico opens the door for exploration and production from outside companies for the first time in 70 years. We recently wrote about other companies looking to cash in on Mexico. Noble also is revving up the spending to take advantage of higher oil prices. The company is expected to spend $2.37 billion this year. The consensus price objective for the stock is $70.50. Investors are paid a 0.5% dividend.