Best Up And Coming Stocks To Watch For 2015

Most of us go to the doctor for a checkup once per year. Many of us visit our dentists twice per year. How frequently should our stocks receive a checkup? Frequently, but let's go with monthly for a start. With that in mind, this is our May checkup for Abbott Laboratories (NYSE: ABT  ) stock. Let's look at three important signs for Abbott's stock health.

Performance
The easiest way to evaluate a stock's health is to simply look at how shares are performing. In Abbott's case, 2013 is looking to be a pretty good year so far.

ABT data by YCharts.

Abbott is beating the S&P 500 index for the year. However, May hasn't been quite as kind to the stock. Shares are down slightly, while the S&P 500 is up a little for the month so far.

5 Best Media Stocks To Invest In 2016: Rimage Corporation(RIMG)

Rimage Corporation provides disc publishing and virtual publishing solutions that enable businesses to deliver digital content to their customers and employees worldwide. Its solutions enable delivery of videos, documents, audio files, and images. The company?s digital publishing solutions archive, distribute, and protect content on CDs, DVDs, and Blu-Ray Discs. It also offers a video platform, which captures, manages, and distributes live and on-demand content. The company, through its joint venture with Taiwan Electronic Data Processing Corporation, also provides Medical Disc System, a medical imaging disc publishing solution. Rimage Corporation was founded in 1978 and is headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By ShadowStock]

  RIMG: Rimage Corporation (RIMG)

  "Helps businesses deliver digital content directly and securely to their customers, employees and partners"
  Market Cap: $83.72M
  Enterprise Value: $16.93M

Best Up And Coming Stocks To Watch For 2015: Apollo Global Management LLC(APO)

Apollo Global Management, LLC is a publicly owned investment manager. The firm primarily provides its services to pension and endowment funds, institutional investors, individual investors, pooled investment vehicles, and corporations. It manages client focused portfolios, hedge funds, real estate funds, and private equity funds for its clients. The firm invests in the fixed income and alternative investment markets across the globe. Its alternative investments include investment in private equity and real estate markets. The firm's private equity investments include traditional buyouts, distressed buyouts and debt investments, corporate partner buyouts, distressed asset, turnaround, corporate restructuring, special situation, acquisition, and industry consolidation transactions. Its fixed income investments include distressed debt, senior bank loans, and value oriented fixed income securities. The firm seeks to invest in chemicals; commodities; consumer and retail; oil an d gas, metals, mining, agriculture, commodities, distribution and transportation; financial and business services; manufacturing and industrial; media distribution, cable, entertainment, and leisure; energy, packaging and materials; and satellite and wireless. It seeks to invest in companies based in across North America with a focus on United States, and Europe. The firm employs a combination of contrarian, value, and distressed strategies to make its investments. It conducts an in-house research to create its investment portfolio. The firm seeks to acquire minority positions in its portfolio companies. Apollo Global Management, LLC was founded in 1990 and is headquartered in New York, New York with nine additional offices in North America, Europe, and Asia.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Christopher Palmeri]

  Affiliates of Genting Hong Kong Ltd. (GENHK), Apollo Global Management LLC (APO) and TPG Capital will sell 20 million shares, according to a regulatory filing yesterday. The three will own 77 percent of Miami-based Norwegian Cruise Line after the sale.

Best Up And Coming Stocks To Watch For 2015: Kronos Worldwide Inc (KRO)

Kronos Worldwide, Inc. engages in the production and marketing of titanium dioxide pigments (TiO2) primarily in Europe and North America. It produces TiO2 in two crystalline forms, rutile and anatase to impart whiteness, brightness, opacity, and durability for products, such as coatings, paints, plastics, papers fibers, and ceramics, as well as for various specialty products, including inks, food, and cosmetics. The company also offers ilmenite, a raw material used directly as a feedstock by sulfate-process TiO2 plants; iron-based chemicals, which are co-products and processed co-products of the TiO2 production process and used as treatment and conditioning agents for industrial effluents and municipal wastewater, as well as in the manufacture of iron pigments, cement, and agricultural products; and titanium oxychloride and titanyl sulfate that are side-stream products from the production of TiO2. Its titanium oxychloride is used in the formulation of pearlescent pigments, production of electroceramic capacitors for cell phones, and other electronic devices; and titanyl sulfate is used in pearlescent pigments, natural gas pipe, and other specialty applications. In addition, the company provides technical services. Kronos Worldwide, Inc. sells its products through distributors and agents to paint, plastics, decorative laminate, and paper manufacturers under the Kronos brand name. The company was founded in 1989 and is headquartered in Dallas, Texas. Kronos Worldwide, Inc. is a subsidiary of Valhi, Inc.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By John Udovich]

  Dallas billionaire Harold Simmons died over the weekend with investors sending shares of some of his publically traded companies like Valhi, Inc (NYSE: VHI), Kronos Worldwide, Inc (NYSE: KRO), NL Industries, Inc (NYSE: NL) and�CompX International Inc (NYSEMKT: CIX)to higher levels as they anticipate changes���such as asset sales or spin offs. Harold Simmons was the embodiment of the American dream because he was born during the depths of the Great Depression in Golden, Texas to schoolteacher parents and he spent�his early years living without indoor plumbing or electricity. However and by recognizing�underpriced assets and through the use of massive amounts of leverage (e.g. junk bonds),�he built an empire and�ranked #40 on the 2013 Forbes 400 with a fortune estimated to be worth some $10 billion.

• [By Laura Brodbeck]

  Notable earnings releases expected on Thursday include:

  Dollar General Corporation (NYSE: DG) is expected to report fourth quarter EPS of $1.02 on revenue of $4.63 billion, compared to last year�� EPS of $0.97 on revenue of $4.21 billion. Kronos Worldwide Inc (NYSE: KRO) is expected to report fourth quarter EPS of $0.01 on revenue of $371.45 million, compared to last year�� loss of $0.12 per share on revenue of $396.80 million. Christopher & Banks Corporation�(NYSE: CBK) is expected to report a fourth quarter loss of $0.03 on revenue of $106.64 million, compared to last year�� loss of $0.11 on revenue of $115.98 million.

  Economics

• [By GuruFocus]

  Kronos Worldwide Inc. (KRO): Vice Chairman of the Board and CEO Steven L. Watson Bought 14,250 Shares

  Vice Chairman of the Board and CEO of Kronos Worldwide Inc. (KRO) Steven L. Watson bought 14,250 shares during the past week at an average price of $14.81. Kronos Worldwide Inc. is a Delaware Corporation. The company is a global producer and marketer of value-added titanium dioxide pigments (TiO2). Kronos Worldwide Inc. has a market cap of $1.72 billion; its shares were traded at around $14.81 with a P/E ratio of 42.60 and P/S ratio of 0.95. The dividend yield of Kronos Worldwide Inc. stocks is 4.05%. Kronos WorldwideInc. had an annual average earnings growth of 5.4% over the past 10 years.

• [By Ben Levisohn]

  Typically, when the chairman of a company dies, its shares drop. That hasn’t been the case for Valhi (VHI), Kronos Worldwide (KRO) and NL Industries (NL), which have all advanced today after Harold Simmons passed away.

Best Up And Coming Stocks To Watch For 2015: Dole Food Company Inc(DOLE)

Dole Food Company, Inc. engages in sourcing, growing, processing, marketing, and distributing fresh fruits and vegetables, and food products to wholesale, retail, and institutional customers worldwide. It operates in three segments: Fresh Fruit, Fresh Vegetables, and Packaged Foods. The Fresh Fruit segment involves in growing and selling bananas under the DOLE brand name primarily in North America, Europe, and Asia; ripening and distributing DOLE and non-DOLE branded fresh produce in Europe; growing, sourcing, and selling fresh pineapples under the DOLE TROPICAL GOLD label; and exporting Chilean fruits, including grapes, apples, pears, stone fruits, and kiwifruits primarily to North America, Latin America, and Europe. The Fresh Vegetables segment engages in sourcing, harvesting, cooling, distributing, and marketing various fresh and fresh-cut vegetables, including iceberg lettuce, red and green leaf lettuce, romaine lettuce, butter lettuce, celery, cauliflower, broccoli, c arrots, Brussels sprouts, green onions, asparagus, snow peas, artichokes, and radishes, as well as fresh strawberries and raspberries. This segment also processes and markets value-added vegetable products, such as packaged salads and packaged fresh-cut vegetables. The Packaged Foods segment produces and markets canned pineapples, canned pineapple juice, fruit juice concentrate, fruit parfaits, snack foods, and frozen fruits, as well as fruits in plastic cups, jars, and pouches. Its principal customers include mass merchandisers and supermarkets. Dole Food Company, Inc. was founded in 1851 and is based in Westlake Village, California.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Jeremy Bowman]

  What: Shares of Dole Food� (NYSE: DOLE  ) were looking sweeter today, gaining as much as 22% after CEO David Murdock offered to pay $12 a share for the remaining 60% of the company that he doesn't already own.

• [By Eric Volkman]

  It didn't take long for Dole Foods (NYSE: DOLE  ) to reverse its policy on stock repurchases. Less than three weeks after initiating a buyback program, the company has suspended it. Instead, it will plow capital into upgrading its fleet of ships, a project it anticipates will cost roughly $165 million.

Best Up And Coming Stocks To Watch For 2015: Tri-Continental Corp (TY)

Tri-Continental Corporation (the Fund) is a diversified closed-end management investment company. The Fund�� portfolio consists primarily of large-capitalization stocks representing a range of industry sectors.

Tri-Continental Corporation invests to produce future growth of both capital and income, while providing reasonable current income. The Fund�� investment manager is J. & W Seligman & Co. Incorporated.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Rick Aristotle Munarriz]

  Alamy What if there was a way to buy Apple (AAPL) -- recently trading near $568 a share -- for just $500? It's not an outlandish scenario. That's essentially what investors buying into Tri-Continental (TY) are doing. Like many closed-end stock funds, Tri-Continental trades for less than the value of its underlying assets. In Tri-Continental's case, its close on Dec. 24 of $20.18 is a 12 percent discount to its net asset value of $22.95 a share. Tri-Continental invests in some of the country's largest companies across various different industries. Apple just happens to be its largest holding at nearly 3 percent of the portfolio, but it's one of the many stocks in Tri-Continental that investors are buying into for pennies on the dollar. If this sounds too good to be true, you would be right. There's a catch -- and a big catch, at that. But let's first explore the largely ignored universe of closed-end funds. Fun with Funds When investors think about mutual funds they are probably referring to the wide universe of open-ended funds. Led by iconic fund families including Vanguard, Fidelity and T. Rowe Price (TROW), these conventional funds sell an unlimited number of shares. They typically are priced just once at the end of every trading day. Buyers invest and sellers cash out at that day's net asset value, or the closing value of all of the stocks and investments in the funds after subtracting any liabilities that is then divided by the number of shares outstanding. Closed-end funds don't play that way. They trade throughout the day on public exchanges. Tri-Continental, for example, trades on the New York Stock Exchange. A closed-end fund doesn't create new shares when investors want to buy or subtract them when those shares are redeemed. There's a set number of shares, and the free markets of supply and demand dictate their price. Tri-Continental isn't new. The fund has been around since 1929, the same year of a historic market crash. It's one of the hund

Best Up And Coming Stocks To Watch For 2015: PowerSecure International Inc (POWR)

PowerSecure International, Inc. provides energy and smart grid solutions to electric utilities and their commercial, institutional, and industrial customers. The company?s products and services include Interactive Distributed Generation power systems, smart grid monitoring for electric utilities, peak shaving and demand response, and standby power dispatch and control products; and switchgear products and systems under the NexGear brand name. It also offers utility infrastructure products and services, including transmission and distribution system construction and maintenance under the UtilityServices brand name; engineering, regulatory consulting, and electric grid system design services under the UtilityEngineering and PowerServices brand names; LED lighting for grocery, drug, and convenience stores under the EfficientLights brand name; other LED-based lighting, including street lights; lighting and efficiency products for commercial and industrial customers under the E nergyLite brand name; and LED lighting and lighting components for OEMs and electronics manufacturers, as well as for commercial, industrial, and consumer lighting applications under the IES brand name. PowerSecure serves electric utilities, as well as commercial, institutional, and industrial customers in the United States, the Mid-Atlantic, the Midwest, and the Gulf Coast regions. The company was formerly known as Metretek Technologies, Inc. and changed its name to PowerSecure International, Inc. in August 2007. PowerSecure International, Inc. was founded in 1991 and is headquartered in Wake Forest, North Carolina.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Monica Gerson]

  PowerSecure International (NYSE: POWR) is estimated to post its Q4 earnings at $0.09 per share on revenue of $69.18 million.

  CNinsure (NASDAQ: CISG) is projected to post its Q4 earnings at $0.10 per share.

Best Up And Coming Stocks To Watch For 2015: Nordion Inc. (NDZ)

Nordion Inc., a health science company, provides various products and services for the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of diseases worldwide. The company operates in two segments, Sterilization Technologies and Medical Isotopes. The Sterilization Technologies segment offers Cobalt-60, a radioactive metal that emits radiation and sterilizes items by destroying contaminating micro-organisms; and dosimetry and professional services, as well as designs, constructs, and maintains commercial gamma sterilization systems. The Medical Isotopes segment provides various products that are used in the diagnosis and treatment of diseases, including cardiac and neurological conditions, and various types of cancer. It offers Molybdenum-99, which decays into Technetium-99, a diagnostic that is used in nuclear medical procedures; Xenon-133 used in lung scans; Iodine-131 to treat hyperthyroidism, thyroid cancer, and non-Hodgkin�s lymphoma; Iodine-125 to treat prostate cancer; and Yttri um-90 to treat liver cancer and non-Hodgkin�s lymphoma. This segment also provides cyclotron isotopes, such as Iodine-123 to diagnose thyroid disease; Thallium-201 to diagnose and assess risk of coronary artery heart disease; Palladium-103 for treating prostate cancer; Strontium-82 for cardiac imaging; and Indium-111 and Gallium-67 to diagnose cancer, as well as offers radiopharmaceutical and contract manufacturing services. Nordion Inc. serves radiopharmaceutical and pharmaceutical manufacturers, biotechnology companies, manufacturers of medical supplies and devices, contract sterilizers, hospitals, and academic and government institutions, as well as to food and consumer goods industries. The company was formerly known as MDS Inc. and changed its name to Nordion Inc. in November 2010. Nordion Inc. was founded in 1946 and is headquartered in Ottawa, Canada.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Jake L'Ecuyer]

  Leading and Lagging Sectors
  Monday morning, the healthcare sector proved to be a source of strength for the market. Leading the sector was strength from Nordion (NYSE: NDZ) and Pacira Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: PCRX). Utilities sector rose by just 0.19 percent in the US market today.

• [By Louis Navellier]

  The trick to profiting in international markets is the same as it is here at home: Use Portfolio Grader to focus on the international stocks with the very best fundamentals that are attracting buying pressure from institutions.

  Great International Stocks: Nordion (NDZ)

  Nordion (NDZ) is a Canadian health sciences company whose products are used to diagnose, prevent and treat diseases around the world. The company�� primary products are isotopes used in nuclear medicine such as Molybdenum-99, which decays into Technetium-99, utilized in nuclear medical procedures.

• [By Jake L'Ecuyer]

  Leading and Lagging Sectors
  Monday morning, the healthcare sector proved to be a source of strength for the market. Leading the sector was strength from Nordion (NYSE: NDZ) and Insmed (NASDAQ: INSM).