5 Best Promising Stocks To Invest In 2014

After spinning off its pharmaceutical business -- and most of its dividend, essentially -- you may think Abbott Laboratories (NYSE: ABT  ) is relegated to a boring medical-device company. Heart stents just aren't as sexy as the megablockbuster drugs now being wielded by AbbVie� (NYSE: ABBV  ) . The spinoff also took a promising�pipeline and most of the former company's dividend, which may make investors think twice about owning a slow-growing, mediocre-paying company such as Abbott.�

Simply put, the medical-device industry won't offer the high growth�that investors enjoy with pharmaceutical companies. You may call it boring, but sometimes boring can be a long-term investor's best friend.

If that gets your attention, you should give Abbott Laboratories stock a hard look, as it's well positioned to capitalize on the steady growth of the broader health-care industry. The company's focus on innovative new laboratory products bodes well for investors and could dramatically lower diagnostic times for health-care professionals and patients. Better yet, its nutritional segment is making up for lackluster growth in medical devices and established pharmaceuticals. Here's a big-picture view.

Best Media Companies To Watch For 2015: Green Mountain Coffee Roasters Inc.(GMCR)

Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, Inc. engages in the specialty coffee and coffee maker business. The company sources, produces, and sells approximately 200 varieties of coffee, cocoa, teas, and other beverages in K-Cup portion packs and coffee in traditional packaging, including whole bean and ground coffee selections in bags and ground coffee in fractional packs for use in at-home (AH) and away-from-home (AFH). It sells its products primarily in North America through supermarkets, club stores, and convenience stores; in restaurants and hospitality; and to office coffee distributors, as well as directly to consumers through its Website. The company also manufactures gourmet single-cup brewing systems and brewing equipment. In addition, it sells AH single-cup brewers; accessories; and coffee, tea, hot cocoa, and other beverages in K-Cup portion packs, as well as offers other licensed roasters to retailers, department stores, and mass merchandisers. Further, the company sells AFH single-cup brewers to distributors for use in offices. It provides its products under the Van Houtte, Br�erie St. Denis, Br�erie Mont-Royal, and Orient Express brands, as well as licensed Bigelow and Wolfgang Puck brands. The company was founded in 1981 and is based in Waterbury, Vermont.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Kyle Colona]

  Today's beverage companies are not your mom and dad's soda pop as diversification and global branding have created a wave of products and opened doors to new markets across the global village. Of course, Coca-Cola (NYSE: KO  ) �remains a leader, but upstarts like Keurig Green Mountain (NASDAQ: GMCR  ) and SodaStream (NASDAQ: SODA  ) �offer more choices to consumers and investors.

• [By WWW.DAILYFINANCE.COM]

  www.keurig.com The new brewer from Keurig Green Mountain (GMCR), which revolutionized the way folks drink coffee at home and at the office, is shaping up to be a bit of a dud. Keurig 2.0 uses label-scanning technology to optimize the brewing experience for each individual K-Cup portion pack. It is also the first in the Keurig family to makes pots of coffee through the new K-Carafe portion packs. Now if only it could turn up the temperature on lukewarm reviews and make nice with competitors. Frustration 2.0 Early adopters aren't happy. The flagship K550 brewer has received a pitiful average of 2.1 out of 5 stars through its first 152 customer reviews on Amazon.com (AMZN) -- with 96 reviews giving just one star. Buyers generally hate the restrictive scanning technology. It may optimize licensed K-Cups, but it won't work at all unless the K-Cup is a newer "Keurig Brewed" portion pack. It rejects older Keurig K-Cups as well as all third-party portion packs. And don't even think about using one of those reusable coffee filters that are popular with original Keurig users who prefer to use their own ground coffee. Keurig Green Mountain went for the change to protect its market. The original K-Cup was copyright-protected until late 2012, when two key patents expired. That led Keurig Green Mountain to introduce Keurig Vue, a new platform that uses a different portion pack. It has failed to gain serious traction, largely because of the limited selection of coffees in the Vue pack configuration. Keurig 2.0 was supposed to remedy the Vue's shortcoming by accepting the K-Cups that also work with the original Keurig brewers that exist in tens of millions of homes, offices, hotel rooms and Subway sandwich shops. A few third-party distributors are also contesting the legality of Keurig 2.0. Rogers Family Co. filed an injunction against Keurig Green Mountain last month, alleging that the Keurig 2.0 scanning process is unfairly suppressing the competition. A federal judge

• [By Rick Aristotle Munarriz]

  AP/Kathy Willens Companies can make brilliant moves, but there are plenty of times when things don't work out quite as planned. From single-serve coffee giant Green Mountain taking aim at the full-pot business, to Apple paying the price for the iPhone 5c's poor sales, here's a rundown of the week's best and worst in the business world. Facebook (FB) -- Winner Shares of the leading social networking website operator hit new highs on Thursday after it posted another quarter of blowout results. Facebook now sees 1.23 billion unique monthly visitors, 16 percent ahead of where the site's traffic was at a year earlier. Folks are also coming more often, with daily active users up 22 percent. The company has done a great job of monetizing both its desktop site and its mobile app. Online ad revenue soared 74 percent during the quarter. The market was clicking the "Like" button when the report came out, sending the shares 14 percent higher on Thursday. Apple (AAPL) -- Loser These days, Apple lives and dies by the iPhone, and that explains why the stock took a hit on Tuesday after it reported weak sales for its new smartphone. Apple sold a little more than 51 million iPhones during the holiday quarter. This is certainly an impressive number, but analysts were hoping for closer to 56 million devices. The culprit in the shortfall is clearly the iPhone 5c. We know this because it's the one that was readily available after the pricier iPhone 5s sold out during the debut weekend for both products. It was confirmed this week when Apple reported a healthy uptick in average selling prices for its iPhone, implying that the more expensive smartphone was the hotter seller. Apple was trying to make a dent in the entry-level market with the iPhone 5c, but consumers weren't wowed by its pastel colors, its plastic shell, and specs that were inferior to the iPhone 5s, which sold for just $100 more. SodaStream (SODA) -- Winner It was a busy week for SodaStream as it bounced back fr

5 Best Promising Stocks To Invest In 2014: Taylor Morrison Home Corp (TMHC)

Taylor Morrison Home Corporation, incorporated on November 15, 2012, is a homebuilder in North America. The Company operates under its Taylor Morrison brand in the United States and under its Monarch brand in Canada. Its business is organized into three geographic regions: East, West and Canada. Its East region consists of its Houston, Austin, North Florida and West Florida divisions. Its West region consists of its Phoenix, Northern California, Southern California and Denver divisions. Its Canada region consists of its operations within the province of Ontario, primarily in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) and also in Ottawa and Kitchener-Waterloo, and offers both single-family and high-rise communities.

As of September 30, 2012, the Company offered homes in 122 active selling communities and had a backlog of 4,205 homes sold but not closed, including 903 homes in unconsolidated joint ventures. During the year ended September 30, 2012, the Company closed 2,586 homes, consisting of 1,880 homes in the United States and 706 homes in Canada, including 204 homes in unconsolidated joint ventures.

Our Homes

The Company offers a range of homes to consumers in its markets, ranging from entry-level to luxury homes. The Company market single-family homes with many amenities to entry-level through move-up homebuyers. The Company has developed a number of home designs with features such as one-story living and first floor master bedroom suites to appeal to universal design needs, as well as communities with recreational amenities such as golf courses, pool complexes, country clubs and recreation centers. The Company has integrated these designs and features in many of its homes and communities. The Company offers some of the same basic home designs in similar communities and engages unaffiliated architectural firms to develop new designs to replace or augment existing ones in order to ensure that our homes reflect current and local consumer tastes.

Warranty Progr! am

The Company offers express written limited warranties on our homes that generally provide for one year of coverage for various defects in workmanship or materials. These warranties are in addition to certain legal warranties (including implied warranties) that may apply in the markets where the Company operates. In Canada, in accordance with regulatory requirements administered by the Tarion Warranty Corporation, the Company offers a limited warranty that generally provides for seven years of structural coverage, two years of coverage for water penetration, electrical, plumbing, heating, and exterior cladding defects, and one year of coverage for workmanship and materials.

Community Development

The Company aims to establish a complete concept for each community the Company develops, beginning with an overall community design and then determining the size, style and price range of the homes and the layout of the streets and individual home sites. In the case of developed communities, after necessary governmental subdivision and other approvals have been obtained, the Company improve the land by clearing and grading it, installing roads, installing underground utility lines and recreational amenities, erecting distinctive entrance structures and staking out individual home sites.

Customer Mortgage Financing

Taylor Morrison Home Funding, LLC (TMHF) provides a number of mortgage-related services to its homebuilding customers through its mortgage lending operations. TMHF�� multi-lender platform included Flagstar Bank, US Bank, SunTrust Bank, Wells Fargo Mortgage and Metlife Home Loans. Revenue was derived from yield spread premiums, broker points and processing fees. The main strategic purpose of TMHF in its business is: to utilize finance as a sales tool as part of the purchase process to ensure a consistent customer experience and assist in maintaining production efficiency; and to influence and assist in determining its backlog and ! to better! manage projected closing and delivery dates for its customers.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By shash63]

  Taylor Morrison (TMHC) is the eighth-largest U.S. homebuilder in terms of revenue. The increase in home prices and strong demand for homes has made Southwest Florida a good investment option for residential construction companies. There are more buyers than sellers in this market, which is driving up home prices. Looking at the growth opportunity, the company is rapidly expanding in Southwest Florida and has undertaken several projects. It is developing a resort lifestyle community of 443 single-family homes and a Golf and Country Club community with 1,121 single-family homes. It expects to increase its community count by 30% in 2014. The rising number of communities is expected to increase Taylor Morrison�� revenue by 53% to $2.19 billion in 2013 and around $3.01 billion in 2014 to $3.36 billion in 2015.

• [By DailyFinance Staff]

  LM Otero, AP The housing market has been leading the economic recovery, but have housing stocks hit the ceiling? They're jumping today after a very bullish report on housing starts: New construction projects last month topped the 1 million annual rate for the time since before the financial crisis began in 2008. That's lifted shares of leading homebuilders by two to four percent today, adding to the huge gains over the past year. KB Homes (KBH), Pulte (PHA) and Hovnanian (HOV) have all doubled in price over the past year. Lennar (LEN) is up 44 percent, D.R. Horton (DHI) is up 47 percent and Toll Brothers (TOL) 33 percent. Those gains have prompted several other builders to go public this year. Taylor Morrison Home (TMHC), Tri Pointe, and William Lyon Home have all moved higher since their IPOs. And even though there's plenty of optimism that housing will continue to lead the broader economic recovery, there's some concern that these stocks may slow down. Homebuilder stocks can no longer be considered cheap. So some analysts see alternate routes for investors looking to play the housing boom. One way is through home-improvement retailers, which benefit from sales of both new and existing homes. Other plays include lumber, furniture and appliance companies. It's also worth noting that today's report on home construction showed that starts of single-family homes actually declined in March. It was the more volatile multi-family sector that led the advance. But there may be some stock market opportunities in REITs – real estate investment trusts – which focus on apartments. Among the biggest ones are Post Properties, Essex Property Trust and Associated Estates. They make money from collecting monthly rents. And these stocks generally trade below the value of the properties they own. Even some builders known for single-family homes are moving into the multi-family segment. Lennar announced in January that it plans to enter the apartment rental mar

• [By Kris Hudson]

  Home-builder initial public offerings have delivered mixed results in the past year. Three are trading below their offering prices: Taylor Morrison Home Corp.(TMHC) is down 3.9% from its IPO price at $21.15. William Lyon Homes is down 3.7% at $24.07. UPC Inc. is down 2.9% at $14.57.

5 Best Promising Stocks To Invest In 2014: Velti plc(VELT)

Velti plc provides mobile marketing and advertising solutions for mobile operators, ad agencies, brands, and media groups. The company?s Mobile Marketing Platform (MMP) helps businesses to plan, execute, monitor, and measure mobile marketing or advertising campaigns on various digital delivery channels, including Internet sites, SMS and MMS, mobile TV, mobile communities, mobile applications, location-based services, and mobile social networking. Its MMP also helps in the creation of mobile Websites, portals, blogs, content, iPhone applications, branded games, and mobile widgets; and in the mobile marketing through mobile clubs, mobile content, contests, couponing, alerts and tips, photo/text to screen, green screen, and image remix applications. In addition, MMP offers Mobile CRM solutions that help in the creation and management of mobile communities, mobile broadcasts, member management, segment management, member rewards, multichannel registration, and advanced profil ing. It has operations in Europe, North America, the Middle East, and Asia. The company was founded in 2000 and is based in London, the United Kingdom.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Roberto Pedone]

  Another under-$10 name that's quickly moving within range of triggering a big breakout trade is Velti (VELT), which provides mobile marketing and advertising technology solutions that enable brands, advertising agencies, and mobile operators to implement interactive and measurable campaigns by communicating with and engaging consumers via their mobile devices. This stock has been destroyed by the bears so far in 2013, with shares off sharply by 91%.

  If you take a look at the chart for Velti, you'll notice that this stock recently gapped down big from over $1 a share to 33 cents per share with monster downside volume. Following that gap down, shares of VELT have started to consolidate and move sideways between 33 cents per share on the downside and 44 cents per share on the upside. Shares of VELT are spiking sharply higher on Thursday above some near-term support at 35 cents per share. That move is pushing this stock within range of triggering a big breakout trade above the upper-end of its recent sideways trading chart pattern.

  Market players should now look for long-biased trades in VELT if it manages to break out above some near-term overhead resistance at 44 cents per share with high volume. Look for a sustained move or close above that level with volume that hits near or above its three-month average action of 2.02 million shares. If that breakout triggers soon, then VELT could easily explode higher and potentially re-test its gap down day high from August at 66 cents per share.

  Traders can look to buy VELT off weakness to anticipate that breakout and simply use a stop that sits right below some key near-term support levels at 35 cents to 33 cents per share. One can also buy VELT off strength once it clears 44 cents per share with volume and then simply use a stop that sits a comfortable percentage from your entry point.

5 Best Promising Stocks To Invest In 2014: State Street Corporation(STT)

State Street Corporation, a financial holding company, provides various financial products and services to institutional investors worldwide. The company?s Investment Servicing business line provides products and services, including custody, product- and participant-level accounting; daily pricing and administration; master trust and master custody; record-keeping; foreign exchange, brokerage, and other trading services; securities finance; deposit and short-term investment facilities; loan and lease financing; investment manager and alternative investment manager operations outsourcing; and performance, risk, and compliance analytics. This segment also offers shareholder services, which comprise mutual fund and collective investment fund shareholder accounting. Its Investment Management business line provides a range of investment management, investment research, and other related services, such as securities finance; and strategies for managing passive and active financ ial assets, such as enhanced indexing and hedge fund strategies for U.S. and global equities and fixed-income securities. The company serves mutual funds, collective investment funds and other investment pools, corporate and public retirement plans, insurance companies, foundations, endowments, and investment managers. State Street Corporation was founded in 1832 and is headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Dan Dzombak]

  Over the years, the expense ratios on ETFs have come down to absurdly low levels, as the size of their assets under management have grown. State Street's (NYSE: STT  ) SPDR S&P 500 ETF (NYSEMKT: SPY  ) is the largest ETF in the world, with $131 billion in assets under management and an expense ratio of 0.09%. Other funds cost even less, including Vanguard's S&P 500 ETF (NYSEMKT: VOO  ) , which has an expense ratio of just 0.05%.

• [By Rich Smith]

  When it comes to big, publicly owned investment management companies, there's little doubt which one investors love best:�Blackrock� (NYSE: BLK  ) �is top of the heap. Rated "four stars" by The Motley Fool's�CAPS supercomputer, Blackrock easily eclipses smaller rival�State Street� (NYSE: STT  ) , rated three stars, and larger rival�UBS� (NYSE: UBS  ) �-- an anemic two stars. But why?

• [By Wallace Witkowski]

  While the big banks and financial firms have already reported earnings, Greenhaus noted this week will see the largest number of financial sector firms reporting than any other week. More than 20 S&P 500 financial sector companies report including several insurers such as Dow component Travelers Cos. (TRV) , a number of real-estate investment trusts such as Simon Properties Group Inc. (SPG) , capital markets firms such as Franklin Resources Inc. (BEN) �and State Street Corp. (STT) , as well as exchange operator Nasdaq OMX Group Inc. (NDAQ) �

• [By GuruFocus]

  Sold Out: State Street Corp (STT)

  Tom Gayner sold out his holdings in State Street Corp. His sale prices were between $56.51 and $67.44, with an estimated average price of $62.2.