Hot Healthcare Equipment Companies To Own For 2014

Occidental Petroleum Corp (NYSE: OXY) has been named as a Top 25 ��ividend Giant��by ETF Channel, with a stunning $3.56B worth of stock held by ETFs, and above-average ��ividendRank��statistics including a strong 2.89% yield, according to the most recent Dividend Channel ��ividendRank��report. The report noted a strong quarterly dividend history at Occidental Petroleum Corp, and favorable long-term multi-year growth rates in key fundamental data points.

Click here to find out 25 Dividend Giants Widely Held By ETFs »

The annualized dividend paid by Occidental Petroleum Corp is $2.88/share, currently paid in quarterly installments, and its most recent dividend ex-date was on 09/08/2014. Below is a long-term dividend history chart for OXY, which the report stressed as being of key importance. Indeed, studying a company�� past dividend history can be of good help in judging whether the most recent dividend is likely to continue.

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Top Sliver Stocks To Buy Right Now: CEPHEID(CPHD)

Cepheid, a molecular diagnostics company, engages in developing, manufacturing, and marketing integrated systems for testing in the clinical market, as well as for application in legacy biothreat, industrial, and partner markets. Its systems enable molecular testing for organisms and genetic-based diseases by automation. The company offers GeneXpert system that integrates sample preparation in addition to DNA amplification and detection; and SmartCycler system, which integrates DNA amplification and detection to allow rapid analysis of a sample. The GeneXpert system is designed for reference laboratories, hospital central laboratories, and satellite testing locations, such as emergency departments and intensive care units within hospitals and doctors? offices. Cepheid also provides GeneXpert Infinity System for high volume testing. The company offers tests for the GeneXpert and the SmartCycler systems in the areas of healthcare associated infections, critical infectious d isease, genetics, women?s health, and oncology. These tests include U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) cleared products, CE marked products, analyte specific reagents, and research use only tests in the clinical market. In the industrial market, it sells its SmartCycler system along with general use polymerase chain reaction reagents and reaction tubes. Cepheid sells its products its direct sales force and through third-party distributors worldwide. It has collaboration agreements with Novartis, Foundation for Innovative New Diagnostics, Life Technologies Corporation, and Northrop Grumman Corporation. The company was founded in 1996 and is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Jon C. Ogg]

  Cepheid (NASDAQ: CPHD) was downgraded to Neutral from Buy at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, but the firm actually raised its price target to $41 (versus a $39.04 close).

• [By Sean Williams]

  What: Shares of Cepheid (NASDAQ: CPHD  ) , a developer of molecular diagnostic tests for both clinical and non-clinical markets, plunged as much as 11% after the company reported its second-quarter earnings results following the closing bell last night.

Hot Healthcare Equipment Companies To Own For 2014: First Horizon National Corp (FHN)

First Horizon National Corporation (FHN), incorporated in 1968, is a bank holding company. The Company provides financial services through its subsidiary, First Tennessee Bank National Association (the Bank), and its subsidiaries. The Company�� two brands First Tennessee and FTN Financial provide customers with a range of products and services. First Tennessee provides retail and commercial banking services throughout Tennessee. FTN Financial (FTNF) is engaged in fixed income sales, trading, and strategies for institutional clients in the United States and abroad. FHN has four operating business segments: regional banking, capital markets, corporate, and non-strategic. As of December 31, 2011, the Bank had $16.4 billion in total deposits and $16 billion in total net loans. As of December 31, 2011, the Company�� subsidiaries had over 200 business locations in 17 the United States states, Hong Kong, and Tokyo, excluding off-premises automated teller machines (ATMs). As of December 31, 2011, the Bank had 183 branch locations in four states, which include 172 branches in metropolitan areas of Tennessee; two branches in northwestern Georgia; seven branches in northwestern Mississippi, and two branches in North Carolina. As of December 31, 2011, FTN Financial products and services were offered through 18 offices in total, including 16 offices in 14 states plus an office in each of Hong Kong and Tokyo.

The regional banking segment offers financial products and services, including traditional lending and deposit taking, to retail and commercial customers in Tennessee and surrounding markets. Regional banking provides investments, financial planning, trust services and asset management, credit card, cash management, and first lien mortgage originations within the Tennessee footprint. In addition, the regional banking segment includes correspondent banking, which provides credit, depository, and other banking related services to other financial institutions.

The capital markets se! gment consists of fixed income sales, trading, and strategies for institutional clients in the United States and abroad, as well as loan sales, portfolio advisory, and derivative sales. The corporate segment consists of gains on the extinguishment of debt, unallocated corporate expenses, expense on subordinated debt issuances and preferred stock, bank-owned life insurance, unallocated interest income associated with excess equity, net impact of raising incremental capital, revenue and expense associated with deferred compensation plans, funds management, low income housing investment activities, and charges related to restructuring, repositioning, and efficiency. The non-strategic segment consists of the wind-down national consumer lending activities, legacy mortgage banking elements, including servicing fees, and the associated ancillary revenues and expenses related to these businesses. Non-strategic also includes the wind-down trust preferred loan portfolio and exited businesses along with the associated restructuring, repositioning, and efficiency charges.

As of December 31, 2011, the Company provided services through its subsidiaries, which include general banking services for consumers, businesses, financial institutions, and governments; through FTN Financial fixed income sales and trading, underwriting of bank, loan sales, advisory services and derivative sales; discount brokerage and full-service brokerage; correspondent banking; transaction processing, such as nationwide check clearing services and remittance processing; trust, fiduciary, and agency services; credit card products; equipment finance; investment and financial advisory services; mutual fund sales as agent; retail insurance sales as agent, and mortgage banking services.

As of December 31, 2011, the commercial, financial, and industrial (C&I) portfolio was eight billion dollars, and is consisted of loans used for general business purposes, and consisted of relationship customers in Tennessee and certain n! eighborin! g states, which are managed within the regional bank. Products include working capital lines of credit, term loan financing of owner-occupied real estate and fixed assets, and trade credit enhancement through letters of credit. As of December 31, 2011, the unpaid principal balance (UPB) of trust preferred loans totaled $447.2 million with the UPB of other bank-related loans totaling approximately $161.8 million. The commercial real estate portfolio includes both financings for commercial construction and non-construction loans. This portfolio is segregated between income commercial real estate (CRE) loans which contain loans, lines, and letters of credit to commercial real estate developers for the construction and mini- permanent financing of income-producing real estate, and residential CRE loans. The residential CRE portfolio includes loans to residential builders and developers for the purpose of constructing single-family detached homes, condominiums, and town homes. As of December 31, 2011, the residential CRE portfolio was $.1 billion. As of December 31, 2011, the consumer real estate portfolio was $5.3 billion, and is composed of home equity lines and installment loans. As of December 31, 2011, the credit card and other portfolios were $.3 billion, and primarily include credit card receivables, automobile loans, and over-the-counter (OTC) construction loans and other consumer related credits.

FHN�� investment portfolio consists of debt securities, including government agency issued mortgage-backed securities (MBS) and government agency issued collateralized mortgage obligations (CMO). During the year ended December 31, 2011, Government agency issued MBS and CMO, and other agencies averaged $2.9 billion. During 2011, the United States treasury securities and municipal bonds averaged $79.5 million. During 2011, investments in equity securities averaged $222.3 million.

During 2011, short-term funds (certificates of deposit greater than $100,000, federal funds purchased (! FFP), sec! urities sold under agreements to repurchase, trading liabilities, and other short-term borrowings) averaged $3.6 billion. During 2011, other borrowings increased to $.3 billion. Term borrowings include senior and subordinated borrowings and advances with original maturities greater than one year. During 2011, average term borrowings averaged $2.6 billion.

The Company competes with Regions Bank, SunTrust Bank, Wells Fargo Bank N.A., Bank of America N.A., and Pinnacle National Bank.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By John Maxfield]

  Given that you clicked on this article, it seems safe to assume you either own stock in First Horizon National (NYSE: FHN  ) or are considering buying shares in the near future. If so, then you've come to the right place. The table below reveals the nine most critical numbers that investors need to know about First Horizon stock before deciding whether to buy, sell, or hold it.

Hot Healthcare Equipment Companies To Own For 2014: Oplink Communications Inc.(OPLK)

Oplink Communications, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, designs, manufactures, and sells optical networking components and subsystems worldwide. The company?s products are used to expand optical bandwidth, amplify optical signals, monitor and protect wavelength performance, redirect light signals, ensure signal connectivity, and provide signal transmission and reception within an optical network. It offers bandwidth creation products, such as wavelength expansion products comprising dense wavelength division multiplexers (DWDM), coarse wavelength division multiplexers, band wavelength division multiplexers, and DWDM interleavers; and optical amplification products consisting of gain blocks, erbium doped fiber amplifiers, wavelength division multiplexers pump/signal combiners, integrated hybrid components, WDM pump combiners, polarization beam combiners, gain flattening filters isolators, isolators, and tap couplers. The company also offers bandwidth management produc ts, such as optical switching and routing products comprising optical add/drop multiplexers, wavelength selective switches, reconfigurable OADMs, switches, and circulators; wavelength conditioning products that include variable optical attenuators, variable multiplexers, and dynamic band equalization products; and wavelength performance monitoring and protection products consisting of supervisory channel WDM, integrated WDM and tap monitor arrays, optical channel monitors, and wavelength protection subsystems. In addition, it provides optical interconnect products, including connectors and adapters, fixed attenuators, patchcords, and termination and distribution enclosures; and transmission products, such as small form-factor pluggable transceivers, XFP transceivers, CWDM transceivers, bi-directional transceivers, DWDM transceivers, optical supervisory channel transceivers, GEPON products, and 40G/100G transceiver products. The company was founded in 1995 and is headquartere d in Fremont, California.

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 Oplink Communications (Nasdaq: OPLK  ) , whose recent revenue and earnings are plotted below.

• [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 Oplink Communications (Nasdaq: OPLK  ) , whose recent revenue and earnings are plotted below.

Hot Healthcare Equipment Companies To Own For 2014: AeroCentury Corp (ACY)

AeroCentury Corp., incorporated on February 28, 1997, acquires used regional aircraft and engines for lease to foreign and domestic regional carriers. The Company�� portfolio of leased aircraft assets is managed and administered under the terms of a management agreement with JetFleet Management Corp. (JMC), which is an integrated aircraft management, marketing and financing business and a subsidiary of JetFleet Holding Corp (JHC).

As of March 31, 2013, the Company�� aircraft and aircraft engines, which were on lease or held for lease included Bombardier Dash-8-300, Fokker 100, Bombardier Dash-8-Q400, Fokker 50, General Electric CF34-8E5 engine, Saab 340B, Saab 340B Plus, deHavilland DHC-8-100, deHavilland DHC-6, Tay 650-15 engine, General Electric CT7-9B engine and Saab 340A. As of March 31, 2013, 14 of the Company�� assets, comprised of four Fokker 50 aircraft, three Saab 340B aircraft, four Fokker 100 aircraft, two Tay 650-15 engines and one General Electric CT7-9B engine, were off lease.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By John Udovich]

  Yesterday around midday,�Netherlands based aviation leasing stock�AerCap Holdings N.V. (NYSE: AER) began surging on rumors and closed up 11.6%, meaning its probably time to take a closer look at those rumors along with aviation leasing peers like small caps or mid caps�Aircastle Limited (NYSE: AYR), Air Lease Corp (NYSE: AL), Fly Leasing Ltd (NYSE: FLY) and AeroCentury Corp (NYSEMKT: ACY).

Hot Healthcare Equipment Companies To Own For 2014: National Beverage Corp.(FIZZ)

National Beverage Corp., together with its subsidiaries, develops, manufactures, markets, and distributes beverage products in the United States. The company offers a range of flavored soft drinks, juices, sparkling waters, energy drinks, and nutritionally-enhanced waters. It provides its soft drink products under the Shasta and Faygo names. The company also provides health-conscious beverage products, including juice and juice based products under the Everfresh, Home Juice, and Mr. Pure brand names; sparkling and spring water products under the LaCroix, Crystal Bay, and ClearFruit brand names; and nutritionally enhanced water under the Asante brand. In addition, it offers energy drinks under the brand, Rip It; fruit-flavored drinks under the Ohana brand name; holiday soft drinks under the brand, St. Nick?s; and effervescent powder beverage enhancers under the NutraFizz brand name. Further, the company develops and produces soft drinks for retailers and beverage companies . National Beverage provides its products through national and regional grocery stores, warehouse clubs, mass-merchandisers, wholesalers and dollar stores, convenience stores, gas stations, and independent and specialized distributors, as well as through direct store distribution facilities. The company was founded in 1985 and is based in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Hank Coleman]
  It's not easy to find a great stock. In almost every case, investors have already priced good and bad news about the company into the stock's share price. But every once in a while, the market misprices a stock. So how do you find these hidden gems? A company's price-to-earnings ratio, or P/E, is one of the fundamental metrics that every stock picker should know. It's is a great place for every investor to start when trying to find undervalued stocks to purchase. How to Calculate a P/E Ratio To calculate a company's P/E ratio, simply divide the share price of a company's stock with its earnings per share. (For an apples-to-apples comparison, be sure to calculate the ratio on a per-share basis.) For example, if a company has a share price of $40 and earns a profit of $2 a share, its P/E ratio is 20. If the company's price per share were to increase to $60 and its profits remained the same, it would see its P/E ratio jump to 30. P/E Ratio Shows You If a Company's Stock Is Undervalued A company's P/E ratio is a leading indicator of an undervalued stock. A lower P/E ratio shows investors that a lower-priced stock is earning a larger profit. A higher P/E ratio indicates that a stock is more expensive or might not be earning a lot of profit when compared to the price of a share of its stock. P/E ratios are relative, and should only be compared to those of other companies within the same industry or sector. So, it isn't fair or even accurate most times to, for example, compare the P/E of a technology company with that of a consumer products company, as these industries typically have different P/E ratio levels. Technology companies frequently command a higher price for their stock, despite the lack of big profits. It isn't unusual to see some technology companies with a P/E of 40 or more. Conversely, consumer staples and blue chip companies often have a lower P/E. It's important to compare companies within their own industry to identify buying opportuniti
• [By Tabitha Jean Naylor]

  National Beverage (NASDAQ: FIZZ)

  National Beverage is a flavored drink manufacturer based in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. The company was founded in 1985 and grew to include such recognizable brands as Shasta sodas, Everfresh fruit juices and Rip It energy drinks. Though National Beverage is considered a “second tier” beverage manufacturer, the company is among the top 10 flavored beverage manufacturers in the country.

• [By John Udovich]

  If you are looking for the next small cap beverage stock that could turn into the next Monster Beverage Corp (NASDAQ: MNST), under the radar beverage�companies like small caps National Beverage Corp (NASDAQ: FIZZ), Reed's, Inc (NYSEMKT: REED) and Konared Corp (OTCBB: KRED) could be just what you are looking for. I should point out that the beverage space is often a battle between David and Goliath as everyone, and especially�smaller players, must fight for every inch of shelf space. Nevertheless, the following small cap beverage stocks are at least holding their ground and putting up a good fight leading to profits for investors: