Bear of the Day: HomeStreet (HMST) - Bear of the Day

HomeStreet (HMST) missed the mark on the most recent earnings release and has seen estimates drop substantially over the last six months. It is a Zacks Rank #5 (Strong Sell). It is the Bear of the Day.Mortgage Rates Move UpOver the last few weeks, interest rates have moved higher and that has caused rates for mortgages to increase as well. Along with a light housing inventory, this will keep some buyers on the sidelines which could hurt the real estate lending business for HMST.Company DescriptionHomeStreet (HMST) is a diversified financial services company headquartered in Seattle, WA serving consumers and businesses in the Pacific Northwest, California and Hawaii. The company operates four primary lines of business: Community Banking, Single Family Lending, Commercial Real Estate Lending and Residential Construction Lending. Its principal subsidiaries are HomeStreet Bank and HomeStreet Capital Corporation.Earnings HistoryThe most recent quarter was a big miss, with the company reporting earnings of $0.74 when the Zacks Consensus Estimate was calling for $0.84. The ten cent negative earnings surprise translates to a 11.9% miss. The topline also came in $5 million light, so another miss of 6% on top.Besides that quarter, things have been mostly good for HMST. Prior to the earnings miss the company posted four straight positive earnings surprises.Small BankHomeStreet Bank is a WA state chartered savings bank with a network of 23 retail bank branches, 28 stand-alone lending centers and three stand-alone commercial lending centers in Washington, Oregon, California and Hawaii. Its size may keep some investors out of it beyond its limited geographical footprint.Earnings Estimates PlungeEstimates for HMST have done nothing but fall all year. The 2013 Zacks Consensus Estimate was $5.40 at the start of the year and that quickly dropped to $5.07 in the following month. By May the number was down to $3.57 and it is currently at $2.93. That is a significant decrease in just a littl! e over 6 months.The 2014 Zacks Consensus Estimate has also been moving lower. It stood at $5.43 in February, but had fallen to $4.12 in May and is currently $3.73. The question becomes when will estimates stop falling?ValuationThe valuation picture HMST looks really, really good. That is if can get past the whole negative earnings growth expectations in 2013. The PE multiples of 4.6x trailing and 7.7x forward would make value investors get interested, as would a 1.2x book multiple. But investors need to look past low multiples and understand why they are low before making an investment in a stock like HMST.The Chart The year to date chart is one that will turn the stomachs of most investors. The limited footprint of the company can expose it to specific weaknesses that may be seen just in the Pacific Northwest, and that is a risk that many may not want to see. In the more immediate term, the increased rates may help net interest margin, but those rates are likely to change soon. Brian Bolan is a Stock Strategist for Zacks.com. He is the Editor in charge of the Zacks Home Run Investor service, a Buy and Hold service where he recommends the stocks in the portfolio.Brian is also the editor of Breakout Growth Trader a trading service that focuses on small cap stocks and also carries a risk limiting strategy. Subscribers get daily emails along with buy, and sell alerts.Follow Brian Bolan on twitter at @BBolan1Like Brian Bolan on Facebook

Will Morgan Stanley Continue Its Surge Higher?

With shares of Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) trading around $27, is MS an OUTPERFORM, WAIT AND SEE or STAY AWAY? Let's analyze the stock with the relevant sections of our CHEAT SHEET investing framework:

T = Trends for a Stock’s Movement

Morgan Stanley is a global financial services company that, through its subsidiaries and affiliates, provides its products and services to a range of clients and customers, including corporations, governments, financial institutions, and individuals. The company operates in three segments: institutional securities, global wealth management group, and asset management. Morgan Stanley provides financial advisory and capital-raising services; equity, fixed income, and alternative investments; and merchant banking services. It participates in an industry that powers most other types of businesses around the world.

Morgan Stanley shareholders were all smiles Thursday after the investment bank posted a billion-dollar profit and said it will repurchase up to 500 million shares of its stock. As economies continue to grow, Morgan Stanley is at the stem of that growth, providing the products and services required to form solid operating bases well into the future.

T = Technicals on the Stock Chart are Strong

Morgan Stanley stock has been on a strong uptrend over the last several months. The stock is now trading near price levels not seen since 2010. Analyzing the price trend and its strength can be done using key simple moving averages. What are the key moving averages? The 50-day (pink), 100-day (blue), and 200-day (yellow) simple moving averages. As seen in the daily price chart below, Morgan Stanley is trading above its rising key averages which signal neutral to bullish price action in the near-term.

(Source: Thinkorswim)

Taking a look at the implied volatility and implied volatility skew levels of Morgan Stanley options may help determine if investors are bullish, neutral, or bearish.

	Implied Volatility (IV)	30-Day IV Percentile	90-Day IV Percentile
Morgan Stanley Options	18.59%	0%	0%

What does this mean? This means that investors or traders are buying a small amount of call and put options contracts, as compared to the last 30 and 90 trading days.

	Put IV Skew	Call IV Skew
August Options	Flat	Average
September Options	Flat	Average

As of today, there is an average demand from call buyers or sellers and low demand by put buyers or high demand by put sellers, all neutral to bullish over the next two months. To summarize, investors are buying a small amount of call and put option contracts and are leaning neutral to bullish over the next two months.

E = Earnings Are Increasing Quarter-Over-Quarter

Rising stock prices are often strongly correlated with rising earnings and revenue growth rates. Also, the last four quarterly earnings announcement reactions help gauge investor sentiment on Morgan Stanley’s stock. What do the last four quarterly earnings and revenue growth (Y-O-Y) figures for Morgan Stanley look like and, more importantly, how did the markets like these numbers?

	2013 Q2	2013 Q1	2012 Q4	2012 Q3
Earnings Growth (Y-O-Y)	41.38%	916.67%	294.20%	-147.83%
Revenue Growth (Y-O-Y)	65.82%	17.64%	22.85%	-46.09%
Earnings Reaction	4.37%*	-5.40%	7.85%	-3.78%

Morgan Stanley has seen rising earnings and revenue figures over the last four quarters. From these numbers, the markets have been optimistic about Morgan Stanley’s recent earnings announcements.

* As of this writing.

P = Average Relative Performance Versus Peers and Sector

How has Morgan Stanley stock done relative to its peers – UBS (NYSE:UBS), TD Ameritrade (NYSE:AMTD), Charles Schwab (NYSE:SCHW) — and sector?

	Morgan Stanley	UBS	TD Ameritrade	Charles Schwab	Sector
Year-to-Date Return	45.40%	16.65%	55.56%	49.03%	34.17%

Morgan Stanley has been an average relative performer, year-to-date.

Conclusion

Morgan Stanley is a provider of valuable financial services to growing business and consumers worldwide. The company has recently issued an earnings report that has sat well with the markets. The stock has been surging higher over the past several months and is now trading at prices not seen for a number of years. Over the last four quarters, investors have remained optimistic as earnings and revenue figures have been rising. Relative to its strong peers and sector, Morgan Stanley has been an average year-to-date performer. Look for Morgan Stanley to continue to OUTPERFORM.

How Ford Will Roll Out the Next F-150

Sales of Ford's current F-150 remain strong -- and Ford is hoping they'll continue to be strong even as it launches the next-generation truck in 2014. Photo credit: Ford Motor.

Ford (NYSE: F  ) has struggled with new-product launches recently. Last year's rollouts of the Escape and the Fusion were marred by recalls and quality hitches. Both vehicles recovered and have sold well since, but those are mistakes that Ford can't afford to make when it rolls out its all-new F-150 next year.

General Motors (NYSE: GM  ) has had success -- so far -- with the rollout of its all-new Chevy Silverado, but a new report says that Ford is planning a very different strategy with its new truck. In this video, Fool contributor John Rosevear explains what Ford may be planning to do to get the new F-Series launched -- and why it's a high-risk strategy for the Blue Oval.

Ford's latest models aren't just doing well in the U.S.: Its Focus has become one of China's best-sellers, and more Fords are climbing China's sales charts. A recent Motley Fool report, "2 Automakers to Buy for a Surging Chinese Market," says that Ford is one of two global auto giants that is exceptionally well-positioned to benefit from China's ongoing auto boom. You can read this report right now for free -- just click here for instant access.

Why Nash-Finch and Spartan Stores Popped

Although we don't believe in timing the market or panicking over market movements, we do like to keep an eye on big changes -- just in case they're material to our investing thesis.

What: Shares of Nash-Finch (NASDAQ: NAFC  ) and Spartan Stores (NASDAQ: SPTN  ) jumped as much as 16% and 15%, respectively, after Spartan said it would buy Nash-Finch, primarily for its military stores.

So what: Spartan will pay approximately $312 million in the all-stock transaction, as Nash-Finch shareholders will get 1.2 Spartan shares for every Nash-Finch share they own. The deal will give it a food distribution business as well as a stronghold in military retail, covering commissaries in 37 states and exchanges in foreign countries. Notably, the deal didn't give a premium for Nash shares, but it will become more valuable if Spartan shares continue to rise. The deal is expected to close by the end of the year, and management said it should enable $50 million in cost savings by its third year.

Now what: With the steady stream of consolidation in the grocery industry, it's easy to see why the market views the deal as a win-win. It will strengthen Spartan's presence in the Upper Midwest as well as giving it access to the military market. Shares cooled off after the initial pop to finish up between 3% and 4%, which seems more reasonable, as the earlier 16% spike was probably exaggerated for an acquisition without a premium. Look for these two stocks to travel in tandem from now until closing, as the value of Nash shares is now tied to Spartan.  

FINRA Reverses Schwab Class Action Waiver Decision

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority’s Board on Thursday found that Charles Schwab & Co. violated FINRA rules when the firm attempted to keep investors from participating in judicial class actions by adding waiver language to customer account agreements.

The ruling affirms in part and reverses in part an earlier FINRA Hearing Panel decision, in which the panel found that Schwab’s waiver violated FINRA rules that limit the language that firms may place in pre-dispute arbitration agreements but concluded that FINRA could not enforce those rules because they were in conflict with the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA).

The Board, FINRA said, overturned this finding and determined that the FAA does not preclude FINRA’s enforcement of its rules.

In addition, the Board upheld the Hearing Panel’s determination that Schwab’s attempt to prevent FINRA arbitrators from consolidating more than one party’s claims in a FINRA arbitration forum violated FINRA rules.

As FINRA explains, the Board decision would have remanded the case to the Hearing Panel for a determination of appropriate sanctions.

However, Schwab instead entered into a settlement, agreeing to pay a fine of $500,000 and to notify all of its customers that the Class Action Waiver requirement has been withdrawn from its customer account agreements and is no longer in effect. “This fully resolves the matter,” FINRA said.

Schwab said in a statement that it is “pleased to resolve this dispute with FINRA, and to put to rest any client concerns on this issue. Over the last year, we heard clearly that a number of our clients and members of the general public have strong feelings about maintaining access to class action lawsuits. In a business like ours where our reputation and public trust are key to our success, we take perspectives like those very seriously.”

The Schwab statement said the company has “agreed with FINRA to remove the waiver from our account agreements, rather than seeking further legal appeals on the matter,” stating this “is in our clients’ and the company’s best interest.”

Schwab went on to say that the company “initially made the decision to require individual arbitration of disputes based on principled reasoning and careful analysis of how to provide clients with the best means of dispute resolution. We believed, and still believe, that FINRA arbitration is the best means for investors to resolve disputes with their brokerage firm, but we will maintain their access to class-action lawsuits should they prefer that option.”

In October 2011, Schwab sent amendments to its customer account agreement to more than 6.8 million investors. The amendments included waiver provisions that required customers to agree that any claims against Schwab be arbitrated solely on an individual basis and that arbitrators had no authority to consolidate more than one party's claims.

The North American Securities Administrators Association filed an amicus brief last May in support of FINRA. Former NASAA President Heath Abshure said at the time that “Charles Schwab’s attempt to unilaterally alter its account agreements to include the class-action waiver is an obvious attempt by the firm to insulate itself from liability to its own clients.”

NASAA said Thursday that Schwab’s decision to include class action waivers in the arbitration provisions of its customer contracts "is yet another example of the harmful effects of mandatory arbitration clauses and heightens the need to pass the Investor Choice Act (H.R. 2998)" introduced by Rep. Keith Ellison, D-Minn.

The legislation, which NASAA said now has 29 cosponsors, "would end the use of mandatory pre-dispute agreements by broker-dealers and investment advisors, and would guarantee class-action participation." These agreements, "especially when coupled with class-action waivers, effectively eliminate any reasonable chance for retail investors with small-dollar claims to have their claims heard in an unbiased and fair forum,” NASAA said.

FINRA’s Board of Governors may call for review and issue a decision involving a matter before the National Adjudicatory Council as was done in Schwab’s case. In February 2013, a FINRA Hearing Panel dismissed two of three causes from a February 2012 FINRA complaint. FINRA and Schwab both appealed this decision to the NAC in February 2013.

Ford CFO Robert Shanks to Take Your Questions: StockTwits

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Once again, leaders in investor transparency Ford Motor Company  (F) (@Ford) will be answering questions from the StockTwits community after releasing their latest earnings report on Friday morning (April 25th). If you have questions for Ford CFO Robert Shanks, please submit them on StockTwits.com, addressed to @Ford with the ticker $F in your message. Example:

@Ford Loving the latest Ford Explorers. How are Explorers sales trending in 2014 compared to 2013? $F - Sean McLaughlin (@chicagosean) Apr. 23 at 01:31 PM

Have your questions submitted by 3pm ET on Friday, April 25th. Mr. Shanks will then begin answering the best questions beginning at approximately 4pm ET. Should be lots to talk about this quarter!

Stock quotes in this article: F 

Small Cap Winnebago Industries (WGO): Time to Bet on Recovery With This RV Stock? DW, SKY & THO

The CEO of recreation vehicle (RV) stock Winnebago Industries, Inc (NYSE: WGO) recently appeared on CNBC to say that the economy is improving for RV makers, meaning its time to take a closer look at the stock plus take a look at the performance of other small cap RV stocks like Drew Industries, Inc (NYSE: DW), Skyline Corporation (NYSEMKT: SKY) and Thor Industries, Inc (NYSE: THO).

What is Winnebago Industries, Inc?

Incorporated under the laws of the state of Iowa on February 12, 1958, small cap Winnebago Industries is a manufacturer of RVs, which are used primarily in leisure travel and outdoor recreation activities. Specifically, the company builds motor homes, travel trailers and fifth wheel products under the Winnebago®, Itasca®, Winnebago Touring Coach™, SunnyBrook®, and Metro™ brand names and then markets these recreational vehicles on a wholesale basis to a diversified dealer organization located throughout the US and Canada. Other products manufactured by the company consists of original equipment manufacturing (OEM) parts, including extruded aluminum and other component products for other manufacturers and commercial vehicles.

As for potential small cap RV peers, Drew Industries is a leading supplier to the recreational vehicle and manufactured homes industries, through its wholly-owned subsidiaries, Lippert Components, Inc and Kinro, Inc; Skyline Corporation is a manufacturer of manufactured and modular housing along with travel trailers, ultra lite trailers and recreational vehicles; and Thor Industries which divested its bus business in 2013 to focus on its core RV business, is one of the world's largest manufacturers of recreational vehicles.

What You Need to Know or Be Warned About Winnebago Industries

Best Value Stocks To Invest In Right Now

During last Wednesday's CNBC interview, Winnebago Industries' CEO Randy Potts commented how the financial crisis and subsequent recession had been a train wreck for the RV industry – which went from record setting high sales to record setting low sales. Potts believes the RV industry is in a recovery phase now that will continue for four good reasons:

Energy prices plus energy availability are favorable. Interest rates are attractive. Housing market is healing. Demographics are favorable.

When asked about the practicality of powering RVs in the future with increasingly plentiful natural gas, Potts commented that it would require too much space on the vehicle due to the relative lack of a natural gas for vehicle infrastructure and that lack of infrastructure is also a problem because the RV lifestyle not about being tied down. He then noted how Winnebago is a premium iconic brand that sells at a higher price and that margins have grown quarter over quarter for the last year. Potts ended the interview by saying:

"Naturally during the recession it was -- again, it was very hard, but we survived that. We're one of some companies that didn't survive, and, you know, we're coming back with a vengeance and we're hitting it very hard and very successful with it."

In late March, Winnebago Industries reported earnings for the second quarter of Fiscal 2014 ended March 1, 2014 with revenues rising 29% to $228.8 million for a a better-than-expected 53% jump in net income to $9.6 million as the company sold more motorhomes to dealers in a quarter otherwise impacted by storm-related disruptions. CEO Potts commented:

"We achieved strong results for the quarter, notwithstanding challenges associated with the severe winter weather.  Although we scheduled four additional production days to satisfy motorized backlog, the severe weather conditions caused numerous work delays and closures at both our Iowa and Indiana facilities, which led to the loss of multiple production days, and contributed to increased expenses due to inefficiencies that limited margin expansion and earnings growth."

Winnebago Industries had also recently announced a large incremental rental order from Apollo Motorhome Holidays, an RV rental company, to be delivered during the company's Fiscal 2014 third quarter.  The order is for approximately 500 units with Winnebago Industries having contractually agreed to repurchase up to two thirds of the units at specified prices after one season of rental use.  

Otherwise, it should be mentioned that Winnebago Industries has a trailing P/E of 18.35 and a forward P/E of 13.72.

Share Performance: Winnebago Industries vs DW, SKY & THO

On Monday, small cap Winnebago Industries fell 1.39% to $25.51 (WGO has a 52 week trading range of $16.72 to $32.41 a share) for a market cap of $694.87 million plus the stock is down 5.45% since the start of the year, up 43.7% over the past year and up 266.5% over the past five years. Here is a look at the performance of RV stock Winnebago Industries verses Drew Industries, Skyline Corporation and Thor Industries:

As you can see from the above performance chart, RV stocks Winnebago Industries, Drew Industries and Thor Industries have given investors roughly the same performance while Skyline Corporation has been a disappointment.

Finally, here is a look at the latest technical charts for all four RV stocks:

The Bottom Line. Small cap Winnebago Industries looks like its in solid shape but investors may also want to take a closer look at Drew Industries and Thor Industries given their similar performance to WGO.

Daniel Kahneman on Companies That Make Excellent Decisions

Dr. Daniel Kahneman, winner of the 2002 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics, joins us to discuss his book, Thinking, Fast and Slow. 

In this video segment, Daniel discusses his thoughts on different approaches to decision-making in the financial industry, including some venture capital firms that he thinks get it really right. The full version of the interview can be watched here. A full transcript follows the video.

Audience member: First off, is there a title for Nobel Prize winners? "His Nobleness?" OK, just wanted to make sure I wasn't stepping on any toes.

Have you run across any organizations or institutions that you think demonstrate good statistical thinking? Maybe you could talk a little bit about how you think that they do?

Daniel Kahneman: I think there is a lot of very good thinking that goes on in the financial world, and that most of it is proprietary, so you don't get to see it.

I have seen really very good, what I thought was excellent thinking, in a couple of venture capital firms where there is acute awareness of their biases and there is acute awareness of how incentives affect biases and how you can engineer the process of decision-making so as to optimize results.

That takes a very dispassionate look at the way we do, a dispassionate look at the errors that we're most prone to, and what can we do to avoid those errors?

It takes extremely confident leadership to do that, because the moment you implement a thing like that, there is a standard that allows decisions to be evaluated, and that's the big risk.

Morgan Housel: You've talked before, too, about George Soros. One of the keys to his success is that he's so well aware of what he's bad at, and his errors.

Kahneman: There are many keys to George Soros' success. That one, by the way ... that one I didn't know. It's not from me.

He claims to have a theory. He's very interesting that way. The famous story about him is that he claims to have a theory that -- and there may be something to it, but other people don't understand what it is -- but his son says that basically he has a skill, and that actually when he feels sick, that's when he sells, so that he actually listens to his gut.

That's not the way he talks. I sort of believe it. Having met him, I believe he has that skill, because he is dealing at a level ... he's not dealing at the level of markets. He's dealing at a level where I think there is structure that he may understand better than most other people.

Housel: Do any other investors that you can think of have a smart decision-making process that stick out to you?

Kahneman: Well, everybody mentions Warren Buffett, who obviously is a sage, but Warren Buffett, he doesn't buy stocks. He buys companies, and he buys companies he knows a lot about. Then he has a big advantage that whenever he buys something, prices rise. That's something that other people could wish for but don't have.

Why Accenture Shares Plunged

Although we don't believe in timing the market or panicking over market movements, we do like to keep an eye on big changes -- just in case they're material to our investing thesis.

What: Shares of Accenture (NYSE: ACN  ) have plunged today by as much as 14% after the company reported fiscal third quarter earnings.

So what: Revenue in the quarter totaled $7.2 billion, with earnings per share of $1.14. Sales were short of the $7.4 billion consensus estimate, although Accenture beat the bottom-line forecast of $1.13 per share. The company said consulting revenues were below internal expectations.

Now what: Accenture also reduced its fiscal 2013 outlook, and now expects revenue growth this year to be 3% to 4%. That's down from the prior forecast of 5% to 8% growth. The company also expects the negative impact of foreign exchange fluctuations to be greater. Raymond James and UBS both downgraded shares following the results. 

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Interested in more info on Accenture? Add it to your watchlist by clicking here.

The Motley Fool's chief investment officer has selected his No. 1 stock for this year. Find out which stock it is in the special free report: "The Motley Fool's Top Stock for 2013." Just click here to access the report and find out the name of this under-the-radar company.

 

Why Bank of America Stock Is Headed Higher

Shares of Bank of America (NYSE: BAC  ) are following the broader market higher today on the heels of better-than-expected data out of the housing sector as well as a lower-than-expected core inflation figure for the month of May. Roughly halfway through the trading session, stock in the nation's second largest bank by assets is up by $0.11, or 0.83%.

The performance of bank shares today belies the fact that the industry is at a crossroads. With the Federal Reserve's quarterly monetary policy meeting scheduled this week, many are speculating that the central bank will begin to taper its support for the economy over the next few months. This will most likely entail a reduction in open-market bond purchases -- it's currently buying $85 billion worth of federally insured securities a month -- and a resulting increase in long-term interest rates. This is invariably good for banks, as it will lead to an expansion of net interest margins across the industry.

Yet, the expected move by the Fed is not without risk. The primary issue concerns what will happen to the housing market -- and specifically, prices -- when the Fed reduces its purchases of agency mortgage-backed securities. There's little doubt that this will drive mortgage rates up, which it already has, as you can see in the chart below. But will this also drive the price of houses, and therefore the value of mortgage collateral, down? Or could it have the opposite effect by freeing up banks to make more purchase-money mortgages as opposed to refinance loans?

US 30 Year Mortgage Rate data by YCharts.

I personally think it will do the latter. Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC  ) serves as a particularly prescient example, here, because it underwrites roughly one in every three mortgages in the United States. For most of last year, more than 70% of its mortgage applications related to refinancing requests, leaving less than 30% related to purchase-money mortgages. In the most recent quarter, however, this mix shifted, as only 65% of mortgage applications related to refinancing. As the share of purchase-money mortgages increases -- assuming, of course, that the total number of applications doesn't markedly decline -- the housing market should continue to gain momentum.

Whatever may be the case, there's little question that we're currently approaching this critical fork in the road, at which the Fed must decide which path to pursue. And it's for this reason today's data releases are so important. The first, issued by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, showed that core inflation -- that is, consumer prices less food and energy -- rose sequentially by only 0.1% last month compared to the consensus estimate of 0.2%. And the second, issued by the Commerce Department, estimated that new home construction ticked up by 24.9% in April over the same month last year. Critically, however, almost all of the growth in the latter was in multifamily construction, which is notoriously volatile, and not in the more important single-family space.

What does this mean for the Fed? That remains to be seen, but both would seem to indicate that it should not rush into a decision to taper. Either way, however, the market took the news in stride, sending stocks, and particularly those in the financial space, higher, as evidenced by Bank of America's ascent as well as the climb in the KBW Bank Index (DJINDICES: ^BKX  ) .

Indeed, Bank of America's stock doubled in 2012. Is there more yet to come? With significant challenges still ahead, it's critical to have a solid understanding of this megabank before adding it to your portfolio. In The Motley Fool's premium research report on B of A, analysts Anand Chokkavelu, CFA, and Matt Koppenheffer, Financials bureau chief, lift the veil on the bank's operations, including detailing three reasons to buy and three reasons to sell. Click here now to claim your copy.

Top Logistics Companies For 2015

The U.S. government, after winning World War II for the Allies, was very convincing. It told central banks around the world that they should hold the U.S. dollar as their reserve currency instead of gold, based on the idea the U.S. dollar would be backed by gold. Only limited amounts of U.S. dollars could be printed, because the currency was tied to gold bullion. Central banks bought into the idea.

Unfortunately, a few decades down the road, the concept of a U.S. dollar backed by gold was thrown out the window (thank you, President Nixon). Eventually we were introduced to the modern day printing press—printing money out of thin air at the will of the Federal Reserve without the U.S. dollar being tied to any “hard” currency like gold.

Why would anyone agree to this horrible idea?

Back in those days, the U.S. economy was prospering. Our government was in good shape and didn’t have much debt. And the logistics made sense, too, as time passed. Why wouldn’t a central bank have in its reserves the currency of the world’s strongest economy and military? Why wouldn’t a central banker keep U.S. dollars in his vault as opposed to hard-to-carry and hard-to-store gold?

Top Logistics Companies For 2015: Atlas Resource Partners LP (ARP)

Atlas Resource Partners, L.P. (Atlas Resource Partners), incorporated on October 13, 2011, is an independent developer and producer of natural gas, crude oil and natural gas liquids (NGL), with operations in basins across the United States. The Company is a sponsor and manager of investment partnerships, in which it co-invests, to finance a portion of its natural gas and oil production activities. During the year ended December 31, 2012, its average daily net production was approximately 77.2 million cubic feet equivalent. On December 20, 2012, it completed the acquisition of DTE Gas Resources, LLC from DTE Energy Company. On September 24, 2012, the Company acquired Equal Energy, Ltd.�� (Equal) remaining 50% interest in approximately 8,500 net undeveloped acres included in the joint venture. On July 26, 2012, it completed the acquisition of Titan Operating, L.L.C. On April 30, 2012, it acquired certain oil and natural gas assets from Carrizo Oil & Gas, Inc. In April 2012, it acquired a 50% interest in approximately 14,500 net undeveloped acres in the oil and NGL area of the Mississippi Lime play in northwestern Oklahoma.

Through December 31, 2012, the Company owned production positions in the areas of the Barnett Shale and Marble Falls play in the Fort Worth Basin in northern Texas; the Appalachia basin, including the Marcellus Shale and the Utica Shale; the Mississippi Lime and Hunton plays in northwestern Oklahoma, and the Chattanooga Shale in northeastern Tennessee, the Niobrara Shale in northeastern Colorado, the New Albany Shale in southwestern Indiana and the Antrim Shale in Michigan. During 2012, the Company had ownership interests in over 525 wells in the Barnett Shale and Marble Falls play and 569.3 billion cubic feet equivalent of total proved reserves with average daily production of 31.9 million cubic feet equivalent. During 2012, the Company had ownership interests in over 10,200 wells in the Appalachian basin, including approximately 270 wells in the Marcellus Shale and 1! 12.6 billion cubic feet equivalent of total proved reserves with average daily production of 35.6 million cubic feet equivalent. During 2012, it owned 21 billion cubic feet equivalent of total proved reserves with average daily production of 1.9 million cubic feet equivalent in the Mississippi Lime and Hunton plays in northwestern Oklahoma. During 2012, the Company had average daily production of 7.8 million cubic feet equivalent in the Chattanooga Shale in northeastern Tennessee, the Niobrara Shale in northeastern Colorado, the New Albany Shale in southwestern Indiana, and the Antrim Shale in Michigan.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Matt DiLallo]

  The management team at oil and gas company�Atlas Energy (NYSE: ATLS  ) has really taken Warren Buffett's advice to heart. Buffett's old adage to "be fearful when others are greedy and greedy when others are fearful" seems to be that team's approach. After selling its shale assets to Chevron at the top of the market, the company has been diligently acquiring natural gas assets at the market's low. That blueprint continues to be followed as evidenced by the recently announced acquisition of substantial natural gas assets via its master limited partnership, Atlas Resource Partners (NYSE: ARP  ) .

Top Logistics Companies For 2015: EnerNOC Inc (ENOC)

EnerNOC, Inc. (EnerNOC), incorporated on June 5, 2003, is a provider of energy management applications, services and products for the smart grid, which include demand response, data-driven energy efficiency, and energy price and risk management applications, services and products. The Company�� energy management applications, services and products enable energy management strategies for commercial, institutional and industrial end-users of energy, which it refers to as its C&I customers, and its electric power grid operator and utility customers by reducing real-time demand for electricity, increasing energy efficiency and improving energy supply transparency. The Company�� energy management applications, services and products include its EnerNOC EfficiencySMART and SupplySMART applications and services, and certain wireless energy management products.

DemandSMART

The Company�� demand response capacity provides an alternative to building conventional supply-side resources, such as natural gas-fired peaking power plants, to meet periods of peak electricity demand. The Company is in the development, implementation and broader adoption of technology-enabled demand response services for the smart grid. The Company�� DemandSMART application enables us to send control signals to, and receive bi-directional communications from, an Internet-enabled network of dispersed C&I customer sites in order to initiate, monitor and complete demand response activity. The Company�� technology and operational processes have the ability to automate demand response and simplify C&I customer participation by remotely reducing electricity usage in a matter of minutes, or send curtailment instructions to its C&I customers to be manually implemented on site. The devices that it installs at its C&I customer sites transmit to us through the cellular network and Internet near real-time electrical consumption data on a 1-minute, 5-minute, 15-minute or hourly basis. The Company�� DemandSMART app! lication analyzes the data from individual sites and aggregates data for specific regions. When a demand response event occurs, its network operations center (NOC) automatically processes the notification coming from the electric power grid operator or utility. The Company�� NOC operators then begin activating procedures to curtail demand from the grid at its C&I customer sites.

The Company provides its demand response services to electric power grid operators and utilities under long-term contracts and pursuant to open market bidding programs. The Company�� long-term contracts generally have terms of 3-10 years and predetermined capacity commitment and payment levels. Within these contracts and open market programs, it offers the services to address the needs of electric power grid operators and utilities: reliability-based demand response, price-based demand response, and short-term reserve resources referred to in the electric power industry as ancillary services.

EfficiencySMART

EfficiencySMART is the Company�� data-driven energy efficiency suite that includes energy efficiency planning, audits, assessments, commissioning and retro-commissioning authority services, and a cloud-based energy analytics application used for managing energy across a C&I customer�� portfolio of sites. The cloud-based energy analytics application also includes the ability to integrate with a C&I customer�� existing energy management system, provide utility bill management and tools for measurement, tracking, analysis, reporting and management of greenhouse gas emissions. The Company offers the EfficiencySMART applications and services, which include EfficiencySMART Plan, EfficiencySMART Audit, EfficiencySMART Assessment, EfficiencySMART Commissioning and EfficiencySMART Insight.

EfficiencySMART Plan provides its C&I customers with a multi-year profile of projected energy demand, consumption and costs, including a lifecycle financial analysis of potential energy! strategi! es and a roadmap for implementation. EfficiencySMART Audit provides its C&I customers with energy efficiency recommendations in compliance with the American Society of Heating, Refrigeration and Air-Conditioning (ASHRAE) standards for conditioned space, and tactical energy surveys for industrial facilities. EfficiencySMART Assessment provides detailed recommendations for energy savings, demand reductions, reductions in energy intensity through operation and maintenance activities, equipment retrofits, behavioral changes, or the use of new technologies. EfficiencySMART Commissioning includes traditional and/or new building commissioning services, such as investigation, testing and verification of energy efficiency strategies, and data analytics over a specified period of time. EfficiencySMART Insight provides its large, multi-site C&I customers with a Software-as-a-Service enterprise energy management solution that provides persistent commissioning with the ability to visualize near real-time energy usage, identify savings opportunities, and prioritize energy-related investments across a portfolio of meters and buildings across a C&I customer�� organization.

SupplySMART

SupplySMART is the Company�� energy price and risk management application that provides its C&I customers located in restructured or deregulated markets throughout the United States with the ability to more effectively manage the energy supplier selection process, including energy supply product procurement and implementation. SupplySMART provides a framework for developing and implementing risk management strategies and executing purchasing strategies that provides maximum price transparency and structural savings on an ongoing basis for its C&I customers.

Technology and Operations

The Company�� technology has been developed provides a platform on which to design, customize, and implement its energy management applications, services and products. The Company�� technology infrast! ructure i! s built on Linux, Java and Oracle, and supports open Web services architecture. The Company�� enterprise energy management application platform enables the Company to efficiently scale its DemandSMART, EfficiencySMART, and SupplySMART applications and services, as well as certain wireless energy management products, in new geographic regions and rapidly grow the number of C&I customers in its network. The Company�� energy management application platform leverages Web services and wireless technologies that connect applications directly with other applications through a form of loose coupling, which allows connections to be established across applications without customization.

Network Operations Center

The Company�� technology enables its NOC to automatically respond to signals sent by electric power grid operators and utilities to deliver demand reductions within targeted geographic regions. The Company can customize its technology to receive and interpret many types of dispatch signals sent directly from an electric power grid operator or utility customer to its NOC. Following the receipt of such a signal, its NOC automatically notifies specified C&I customer personnel of the demand response event. After relaying this notification to its C&I customers, it initiate processes that reduce their electricity consumption from the electric power grid. These processes may include dimming lights, shifting equipment to power save mode, adjusting heating and cooling set points and activating a back-up generator. Demand reduction is monitored remotely with near real-time data feeds, the results of which are displayed in its NOC through various data presentment screens.

Energy Management Platform

The Company�� energy management platform is consists of its cloud-based enterprise software platform used for DemandSMART, EfficiencySMART and SupplySMART, as well as wireless energy management products and technology, and is the underlying system that runs its ! NOC. It u! tilizes a modular Web services architecture that is designed to allow application modules to be easily integrated into the platform. The Company use its energy management platform to measure, manage, benchmark and optimize C&I customers��energy consumption and facility operations. The Company use this data to help C&I customers analyze consumption patterns, forecast demand, measure real-time performance during demand response events, continuously monitor building management equipment to optimize system operation, model rates and tariffs and create energy scorecards to benchmark similar facilities. In addition, its energy management application platform has the ability to track its C&I customers��greenhouse gas emissions by mapping their energy consumption with the fuel mix used for generation in their location, such as the proportion of coal, nuclear, natural gas, fuel oil and other sources used.

The EnerNOC Site Server

The Company designs and installs a small device, called an EnerNOC Site Server, or ESS, at each C&I customer site to collect and communicate to its platform near real-time electricity consumption data and, in certain cases, enable remote control of a C&I customer�� electricity consumption. The ESS communicates to its NOC through the C&I customer�� LAN or secure Internet connection. The ESS is an open, integrated system consisting of a central hardware device residing inside a standard electrical box. The ESS allows its C&I customers to, among other things, respond quickly and completely to instructions from us to reduce electricity consumption. The Company also supports OpenADR protocol on its most recent ESS devices, an emerging standard for automated demand response communications.

The Company competes with Comverge, Inc., Exelon Corporation, Energy Curtailment Specialists and Hess, Inc., as well as energy technology providers Lucid Design Group, Inc., Building IQ, SCIEnergy, Inc. and McKinstry Co., LLC.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By John Udovich]

  Small cap cloud stock Opower Inc (NYSE: OPWR), a cloud�solutions provider to the utility sector, IPO�� at $19�on Friday to�close at $23 a share, meaning its worth taking a closer look at the stock plus�take a look at the performance of smart meter or smart grid�stocks like�Itron, Inc (NASDAQ: ITRI), Echelon Corporation (NASDAQ: ELON) and EnerNOC, Inc (NASDAQ: ENOC).

• [By Chris Hill]

  Shares of EnerNoc (NASDAQ: ENOC  ) and Exelon (NYSE: EXC  ) lose energy in the wake of analyst downgrades. Netflix (NASDAQ: NFLX  ) falls after releasing the fourth season of Arrested Development. And Beazer Homes (NYSE: BZH  ) benefits from rising home prices. In this installment of Investor Beat, our analysts discuss four stocks making moves.

• [By Dan Caplinger]

  Next Monday, EnerNOC (NASDAQ: ENOC  ) will release its latest quarterly results. The key to making smart investment decisions on stocks reporting earnings is to anticipate how they'll do before they announce results, leaving you fully prepared to respond quickly to whatever inevitable surprises arise. That way, you'll be less likely to make an uninformed knee-jerk reaction to news that turns out to be exactly the wrong move.

Best Gas Stocks To Invest In Right Now: iShares MSCI South Africa ETF (EZA)

iShares MSCI South Africa 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 South African market, as measured by the MSCI South Africa Index (the Index). The Index seeks to measure the performance of the South African 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 to the Index.

The Index is reviewed quarterly by Morgan Stanley Capital International (MSCI). 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 Jim Powell]

  For long-term investing, we continue to recommend Africa Funds��he iShares South Africa (EZA), the SPDR Mideast & Africa (GAF), and the TRP Africa & Mideast (LX:TRPMEAI).

• [By Jeff Reeves]

  For starters, there�� the�iShares MSCI South Africa ETF�(EZA). The fund is down about 11% in the last year, but remember that emerging markets dramatically underperformed across the board in 2013. And if you believe in value investing, this may be a good opportunity to buy.

• [By Charles Sizemore]

  Yet an interesting thing happened. While the news stories have gone from bad to worse, most emerging markets have been quietly enjoying a rally since early February. The iShares MSCI Emerging Markets ETF (EEM) is up about 7%, and the iShares MSCI South Africa ETF (EZA) is up fully 17%.

• [By Charles Sizemore]

  Investors have pretty well forgotten about emerging markets over the past three years. The ��RIC��countries of Brazil, Russia, India and China no longer excite. Nor do more exotic non-BRIC locales such as South Africa. The iShares MSCI South Africa ETF (EZA) is down by roughly 15% since the beginning of 2011, while the S&P 500 has gained nearly 45%.

Top Logistics Companies For 2015: Solitario Exploration & Royalty Corp (XPL)

Solitario Exploration & Royalty Corp. is an exploration company. The Company is a gold producer with its development-stage Mt.Hamilton gold project in Nevada. The Company has a portfolio of royalty structured joint ventures on advanced mineral projects with partners, such as Votorantim Metais, Anglo Platinum and Newmont Mining. The Company�� advanced projects include Mt. Hamilton: gold project, the United States, Bongara: zinc-lead-silver, Peru, and Pedra Branca: platinum-palladium, Brazil. Its gold-silver exploration projects include Pachuca Real: silver-gold, Mexico and Cerro Azul: Gold-Silver, Peru. The Company�� base metal and polymetallic exploration projects include Chambara: zinc-lead-silver, Peru and La Promesa: silver-zinc-lead-indium, Peru. In December 2013, Solitario Exploration & Royalty Corp raised its interest to 23.537% from 3.233%, by acquiring a 20.304% stake in Ely Gold & Minerals Inc. Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Monica Wolfe]

  Solitario Exploration & Royalty (XPL)

  Several insiders made significant buys this week as the company�� share price continues to dwindle beneath its all-time lows. Most notably, President and CEO Christopher Herald bought 400,000 shares. He purchased these shares at $0.84 per share for a total transaction amount of $336,000. Since this buy, the share price has increased approximately 11.9%.

Top Logistics Companies For 2015: Toro Co (TTC)

The Toro Company (Toro), incorporated on November 7, 1983, designs, manufactures, and markets professional turf maintenance equipment and services, turf irrigation systems, agricultural micro-irrigation systems, landscaping equipment and lighting, and residential yard and snow removal products. The Company operates in three business segments: Professional, Residential, and Distribution. Its products are advertised and sold at the retail level under the names of Toro, Exmark, Irritrol, Hayter, Pope, Lawn-Boy and Lawn Genie. In October 2013, the Company acquired Xiamen Xiangfeng Water Saving Equipment Co., Ltd.

Professional

The Company designs professional turf, landscape, and agricultural products and markets them worldwide through a network of distributors and dealers, as well as directly to Government customers, rental companies, and retailers. These channel partners then sell its products to professional users engaged in creating and renovating landscapes, irrigating turf and agricultural fields, and maintaining turf, such as golf courses, sports fields, municipal properties, and residential and commercial landscapes.

Landscape Contractor Market

The Company market products to landscape contractors under the Toro and Exmark brands. Products for the landscape contractor market include zero-turn radius riding mowers, heavy-duty walk behind mowers, mid-size walk behind mowers, stand-on mowers, and turf renovation and tree care equipment. It also offers some products with electronic fuel injection engine options. In fiscal 2013, it enhanced its line of Toro Z Master Commercial 3000 Series mowers, featuring its TURBO FORCE cutting deck, integrated pump, and wheel motors designed for professional results, performance, and dependability. In addition, in fiscal 2013, it introduced the new Exmark Vantage X-Series stand-on mower.

Sports Fields and Grounds Market

Products for the sports fields and grounds market include riding rotar! y mowers and attachments, aerators, and debris management products, which include versatile debris vacuums, blowers, and sweepers. Other products include multipurpose vehicles, such as the Toro Workman, that can be used for turf maintenance, towing, and industrial hauling. These products are sold through distributors, who then sell to owners and/or managers of sports fields, Governmental properties, and residential and commercial landscapes.

Golf Course Market

The Company�� products for the golf course market include large reel and rotary riding products for fairway, rough and trim cutting; riding and walking mowers for putting greens and specialty areas; greens rollers; turf sprayer equipment; utility vehicles; aeration equipment; and bunker maintenance equipment. In fiscal 2013, it introduced the Reelmaster 3550-D, which features a productive 82 inch cutting width, enhanced ground-following capability with turf-friendly tires, and three-wheel drive system designed for traction in hilly and wet conditions. In addition, in fiscal 2013, it began offering versions of its golf products which are compliant with Tier 4 diesel engine emission requirements. It also manufacture and market underground irrigation systems for the golf course market, including sprinkler heads, controllers, turf sensors, and electric, battery-operated, and hydraulic valves. Its 835S/855S Series golf sprinklers are equipped with a unique TruJectory feature that provides enhanced water distribution control. Its Turf Guard wireless soil monitoring systems are designed to measure soil moisture, salinity, and temperature through buried wireless sensors that communicate through an Internet server for processing and presentation to a user through the Web.

Residential/Commercial Irrigation and Lighting Market

Turf irrigation products marketed under the Toro and Irritrol brands include rotors; sprinkler bodies and nozzles; plastic and brass valves; drip tubing and subsurface irrigation; ! electric ! and hydraulic control devices; and wired and wireless rain, freeze, and climate sensors. These products are designed to be used in residential and commercial turf irrigation systems that are installed into new systems or used to replace or retrofit existing systems. Most of the product lines are designed for underground automatic irrigation. Electric and hydraulic controllers activate valves and sprinkler bodies and nozzles in a typical irrigation system. Its retail irrigation products are marketed under the Toro and Lawn Genie brand names. These products are designed for homeowner installation and include sprinkler heads, valves, timers, and drip irrigation systems. Its ECXTRA sprinkler timers can be used with a home computer and its Scheduling Advisor recommends the proper watering schedule based on the local weather, plant type, and sprinkler. It manufactures and market lighting products under the Unique Lighting Systems brand name.

Micro-Irrigation Market

Products for the micro-irrigation market include products that regulate the flow of water for drip irrigation, including Aqua-Traxx PBX drip tape, Aqua-Traxx PC (pressure-compensating) drip tape, Blue Stripe polyethylene tubing, BlueLine drip line, and NGE emitters, all used in agriculture, mining, and landscape applications. In addition to these products, it offers control devices and connection options. These products are sold primarily through dealers and distributors who then sell to end users for use primarily in vegetable fields, fruit and nut orchards, vineyards, landscapes, and mines. In fiscal 2013, it expanded its product offering of the Neptune thinwall dripline into the North America market, featuring a medium-durability dripline that enables growers to install a subsurface drip irrigation system designed to last for up to ten years and to allow growers of medium-length crops to adopt drip irrigation. In addition, in fiscal 2013, it introduced AquaFlow 3.2 Drip Irrigation Design Software, a new software packag! e used to! help design drip irrigation systems.

Rental and Construction Market

The Company offers over 35 attachments for our compact utility loaders, including trenchers, augers, vibratory plows, and backhoes. In fiscal 2013, it launched the STX-38 Stump Grinder featuring high maneuverability and hydraulic sweep control. Products for the rental market include compact utility loaders, walk-behind trenchers, stump grinders, and turf renovation products, many of which are also sold to landscape contractors. Its presence in the construction market is driven by an equipment line of vibratory plows, trenchers, and horizontal directional drills, all of which are used in the installation, repair, and replacement of underground utilities with minimal impact on surrounding landscapes or structures. In fiscal 2013, it introduced the Toro Pro Sneak Vibratory Plow that delivers consistent and powerful plowing in a compact, maneuverable package.

Residential

The Company markets its residential products to homeowners through a variety of distribution channels, including outdoor power equipment dealers, hardware retailers, home centers, mass retailers, and over the Internet. These products are sold mainly in North America, Europe, and Australia, with the exception of snow removal products that are sold primarily in North America and Europe.

Walk Power Mower Products

The Company manufactures and markets a number of walk power mower models under its Toro and Lawn-Boy brand names, as well as the Pope brand in Australia and the Hayter brand in the United Kingdom. Toro also offers a line of rear-roller walk power mowers, a design that provides a striped finish, for the United Kingdom market.

Riding Products

The Company manufactures and markets riding products under the Toro brand name worldwide and under the Hayter brand name in the United Kingdom. Riding products primarily consist of zero-turn radius mowers. Lawn and garden tra! ctor mode! ls are sold worldwide. In addition, its rear engine and direct-collect riding mowers are manufactured and sold in the European market. A number of models are available with a variety of engines, decks, transmissions, and accessories.

Home Solutions Products

Toro designs and markets home solutions products under the Toro and Pope brand names, including electric and battery-operated grass trimmers, electric blower-vacuums, electric blowers, and electric snow throwers. In Australia, the Company also designs and markets underground and hose-end retail irrigation products under the Pope brand name.

Gas Snow Removal Products

The Company manufactures and markets a range of gas-powered single-stage and two-stage snow thrower models. Single-stage snow throwers are walk behind units with lightweight two- and four-cycle gasoline engines. Its two-stage snow throwers are designed for large areas of deep, heavy snow and use four-cycle engines. The Company�� two-stage snow throwers include a line of models featuring the Power Max auger system and the Quick Stick chute control technology.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Seth Jayson]

  There's no foolproof way to know the future for Toro (NYSE: TTC  ) or any other company. However, certain clues may help you see potential stumbles before they happen -- and before your stock craters as a result.

• [By Rich Duprey]

  Consumer landscape equipment maker�Toro� (NYSE: TTC  ) �announced yesterday its second-quarter dividend of $0.14 per share, the same rate it paid the past two quarters after raising the payout 27% from $0.11 per share.

• [By Charles Sizemore]

  Stuart Varney took it a step further, mentioning Toro Company (TTC), the maker of many of the snow blowers that have become a common sight across much of America this year. I agreed, adding that Toro is a major manufacturer of lawn and turf maintenance equipment — and because virtually every lawn, park and golf course in America has suffered damage this year, and Toro is well positioned to profit from the repairs.

Top Logistics Companies For 2015: Rossi Residencial SA (RSID3)

Rossi Residencial SA is a Brazil-based company involved in the real estate sector. The Company is principally engaged in the development, construction and sale of residential and commercial real estate properties. In addition, it is involved in the subdivision of land and provision of civil engineering services. As of December 31, 2011, the Company had four subsidiaries, including Astir Assessoria Tecnica Imobiliaria e Participacoes Ltda, RCI Consultoria de Imoveis Ltda, Rossi Consultoria de Imoveis Ltda and Rossi Industria de Artefatos de Concreto Ltda, as well as a number of joint ventures, such as Argentea Empreendimentos SA, Damacena Empreendimentos SA, Minulo Empreendimentos SA and Nicandra Empreendimentos SA, among others. Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Ney Hayashi]

  MMX Mineracao & Metalicos SA rose to a one-week high after saying it is seeking partners to expand a mining project. Rossi Residencial SA (RSID3) led gains among homebuilders as traders reduced bets on higher borrowing costs. EDP-Energias do Brasil SA advanced after selling a stake in some of its power plants in Brazil to China Three Gorges Corp. Car-rental company Localiza Rent a Car SA climbed after Fitch Ratings increased its credit rating.

• [By Ney Hayashi]

  Rossi Residencial SA (RSID3) climbed 2.1 percent today to 2.98 reais, leading homebuilders higher, as traders pared bets for higher borrowing costs in Brazil following the inflation report. The BM&FBovespa Real Estate Index added 0.5 percent.

Top Logistics Companies For 2015: PDI Inc.(PDII)

PDI, Inc. provides outsourced promotional services to various companies in the pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and healthcare industries in the United States. The company?s services offer customers a range of both personal and non-personal promotional options for the commercialization of their products throughout the product lifecycles, from development through maturity. It operates in three segments: Sales Services, Marketing Services, and Product Commercialization Services. The Sales Services segment focuses primarily on product detailing, which includes a sales representative meeting face-to-face with targeted physicians and other healthcare decision makers to provide a technical review of the product being promoted; and offers a portfolio of expanded sales services consisting of talent acquisition services, short-term teams, and vacancy coverage services. The Marketing Services segment is involved in the creation, design, and implementation of interactive digital commu nications programs to the healthcare community through the Internet, multimedia, tablet PCs, mobile devices, and dimensional direct mail, as well as DIAGRAM, a proprietary software to deliver non-personal selling solutions via interactive communications exchanges that accommodate the schedules of healthcare providers. This segment also engages in the creation of teledetailing programs executed via tele-representatives. The Product Commercialization Services segment provides product commercialization solutions, including product detailing, full supply chain management, operations, sales, marketing, compliance, and regulatory/medical management to pharmaceutical, biotechnology, medical device, and diagnostics clients. The company was founded in 1988 and is headquartered in Parsippany, New Jersey.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By CRWE]

  PDI, Inc. (Nasdaq:PDII) reported the signing of a contract with a new customer to provide promotional services across PDI’s multiple communications channels that will target primary care physicians.

Top Logistics Companies For 2015: Bank Of Montreal (BMO)

Bank of Montreal, together with its subsidiaries, provides a range of retail banking, wealth management, and investment banking products and solutions in North America and internationally. It offers personal banking products and services to consumers and small businesses, including deposit and investment services, mortgages, consumer credit, small business lending, and other banking services; and commercial banking products and services to small business, medium-sized enterprise, and mid-market banking clients comprising lending, deposits, treasury management, and risk management services. The company also offers cards and payments services; investment and wealth advisory services; self-directed investing services; private banking services to high net worth and ultra-high net worth clients; investment fund solutions across a range of channels; pension plans; investment management services; and creditor insurance, and life insurance and annuity products and services. In add ition, it provides capital markets products and services, including equity and debt underwriting, corporate lending and project financing, mergers and acquisitions, restructurings and recapitalizations, balance sheet management, liquidity management, merchant banking, securitization, foreign exchange, derivatives, debt and equity research, and institutional sales and trading to corporate, institutional, and government clients. As of October 31, 2010, Bank of Montreal operated and maintained approximately 1,230 bank branches in Canada and the United States. The company was founded in 1817 and is headquartered in Toronto, Canada.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Dan Caplinger]

  On Wednesday, Bank of Montreal (NYSE: BMO  ) will release its latest quarterly results. With a solid reputation as a strong Canadian financial institution, the bank has benefited from superior conditions in the Canadian economy over the past several years, avoiding much of the trouble that U.S. banks suffered during the financial crisis in 2008.

• [By Laura Brodbeck]

  Tuesday

  Earnings Expected From: Bank of Montreal (NYSE: BMO), United Natural Foods, Inc. (NASDAQ: UNFI), OmniVision Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ: OVTI), Universal Technical Institute, Inc. (NYSE: UTI) Economic Releases Expected: Chinese HSBC Services PMI, Australian GDP, Brazilian GDP, eurozone PPI, British construction PMI.

  Wednesday

• [By Alyssa Oursler]

  Head north of the border and you’ll come across Bank of Montreal (BMO), our final safe income pick. If you were impressed by Chevron’s century of dividend payments, consider this: BMO has been rewarding loyal shareholders since 1829. For perspective, remember that the U.S. was just over 50 years old at that time.

Top Logistics Companies For 2015: Post Holdings Inc (POST)

Post Holdings, Inc., incorporated on September 22, 2011, is a holding company. The Company is a manufacturer, marketer and distributor of branded ready-to-eat cereals in the United States and Canada. The Company�� portfolio of brands includes Honey Bunches of Oats, Pebbles, Great Grains, Grape-Nuts, Shredded Wheat, Raisin Bran, Golden Crisp, Alpha-Bits and Honeycomb. It markets and sells ready-to-eat cereal products in three different categories: sweetened, balanced and unsweetened. Its sweetened products include Pebbles, Honeycomb, Golden Crisp, Alpha-Bits and Waffle Crisp. Its balanced products include Honey Bunches of Oats, Post Selects, Great Grains and Shreddies. The Company�� unsweetened products include Post Shredded Wheat, Post Raisin Bran and Grape-Nuts. Effective January 1, 2014, the Company announced it has completed the acquisition of private label pasta manufacturer Dakota Growers Pasta Company, Inc. Effective January 2, 2014, Post Holdings Inc acquired Agricore United Holdings Inc from Viterra Inc, a unit of Glencore Xstrata PLC, and the transaction also included Dakota Growers Pasta Company, Inc. Effective January 1, 2014, Post Holdings Inc acquired Dymatize Enterprises LLC, a Farmers Branch-based manufacturer and wholesaler of nutrition supplement. Effective January 1, 2014, it acquired Dymatize Enterprises LLC and Golden Boy Foods Ltd.

Honey Bunches of Oats is in the ready-to-eat cereal market. The Company�� Pebbles brands include Cocoa and Fruity Pebbles. The products are manufactured through a flexible production platform consisting of four owned primary facilities and sold through a variety of channels, such as grocery stores, mass merchandisers, club stores, and drug stores.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Seth Jayson]

  Post Holdings (NYSE: POST  ) reported earnings on May 13. Here are the numbers you need to know.

  The 10-second takeaway
  For the quarter ended March 31 (Q2), Post Holdings missed estimates on revenues and missed estimates on earnings per share.

• [By John Kell and Lauren Pollock var popups = dojo.query(".socialByline .popC"); ]

  Post Holdings Inc.(POST) lowered its fiscal-year adjusted profit view, as the company flagged cereal-demand weakness but also said results would include contributions from some recent acquisitions.

Little-Known Billionaire's Book is the Holy Grail for Investors

Top 10 Gas Utility Stocks To Watch Right Now

Daniel Acker/Bloomberg via Getty ImagesBillionaire Seth Klarman. Among the tattered cookbooks and celebrity biographies at thrift stores and yard sales, you might find financial books whose advice on investing once seemed relevant but now just seems silly. However, the next time you find yourself in this situation, take a closer look, because you might also find the Holy Grail of investment books. Boom and bust cycles in the economy and the stock market often give rise to short-sighted investing theories which financial writers try to exploit. Perhaps the best example is "Dow 36,000," written by Harvard-educated journalist James K. Glassman in 1999 at the height of the dot-com bubble, which predicted a 300 percent rise in the market within 10 years. We're still waiting, James. 'Margin of Safety' It is very rare to find an investing book that stands the test of time, and perhaps the rarest of the rare in that category is "Margin of Safety," written in 1991 by billionaire investor Seth Klarman. Long out of print, less than 5,000 copies of this hardback book exist, and used copies regularly go for $2,500 or more online. The book is divided into three sections: "Where Investors Stumble," "Value Investing Philosophy" and "The Value-Investment Process." He explains his motivation in the introduction:

Investors adopt many different approaches that offer little or no real prospect of long-term success and considerable chance of substantial economic loss. Many are not coherent investment programs at all but instead resemble speculation or outright gambling. Investors are frequently lured by the prospect of quick and easy gain and fall victim to the many fads of Wall Street. My goals in writing this book are twofold. In the first section I identify many of the pitfalls that face investors. By highlighting where so many go wrong, I hope to help investors learn to avoid these losing strategies. For the remainder of the book I recommend one particular path for investors to follow -- a value-investment philosophy.

Warren Buffett Is a Fan If you think that some of this sounds familiar, you might be right. Klarman, 56, is often called the "Warren Buffett of his generation," and Buffett is said to have a copy of "Margin of Safety" on his desk. But the connection between Klarman and Buffett doesn't stop there. Both run multibillion-dollar funds; both use the concepts pioneered by legendary value investor Benjamin Graham when evaluating their investment portfolios; and Klarman's name has long been floated by Berkshire Hathaway shareholders as a potential successor to the Oracle of Omaha. Klarman has had an impressive financial career which, unlike Buffett's, has largely gone unnoticed by the public and financial media. A product of Cornell and Harvard, where future CEOs, GE's (GE) Jeff Immelt and Jamie Dimon of JPMorgan Chase (JPM), were among his classmates, Klarman initially worked for Franklin Templeton Funds before starting Baupost Group in 1982. Baupost manages more than $25 billion in client funds and has an astounding performance record, averaging 20 percent annual returns since its inception. Numbers like that consistently rank Klarman in the top 25 highest-earning fund managers by Forbes, with his total compensation for 2013 coming in at $350 million and net worth estimated to be $1.3 billion. How much of that net worth is comprised of unsold copies of "Margin of Safety" is unknown, but fortunately, you don't have to have big bucks in order to read it, as it's available online in PDF version for free.

6 Stocks to Sell Now

Stock market volatility—especially downward volatility—is back. In seven trading sessions from April 3 through April 11, the Dow Jones industrial average experienced four single-day triple-digit drops, including one of 267 points, as well as one day with a gain of 181 points. For all the wild swings, however, the bull market remains in force. The broader Standard & Poor's 500-stock index, which has returned 199% since bottoming on March 9, 2009, is off a mere 4% from its record high.

See Also: Why Rising Interest Rates Won't Kill the Bull Market

Still, the market's shaky performance raises the question of whether this is a good time to take some profits. In that spirit, we've identified six stocks that we think are no longer the bargains they once were or whose growth prospects have become less rosy. If they're in your portfolio, think about cutting them loose. (The stocks are listed alphabetically; prices are as of April 11.)

Garmin (GRMN, $54.86). Smart phones are eating into the sales of makers of global positioning systems, or GPS. Case in point: Revenues at Garmin's auto division fell 13% last year. The Switzerland-based company is starting to diversify into areas such as fitness and aviation, which helped boost the stock 64% over the past year. But analysts don't expect profits to grow meaningfully again before 2015. And the stock is not particularly cheap, selling at 21 times estimated 2014 earnings.

Lululemon Athletica (LULU, $52.08). The Canada-based athletic apparel maker stumbled last year when shoppers complained that the store's pricey yoga pants were see-through. Lululemon is making amends, but other companies have since entered the high-end athletic apparel market. The stock's glamour days—it rose 13-fold from early 2009 to last June—are history. Analysts expect same-store sales—sales at stores open for at least one year—to rise only by low-to-mid-single-digit percentages in the current fiscal year, which ends in January.

Netflix (NFLX, $326.71). Shares of the online video-streaming company quadrupled in 2013. But Netflix is feeling the pressure from competitors. The Los Gatos, Cal., company plans to spend about $3 billion to acquire content this year, more than twice Netflix's cash balance. That means the company will need to raise funds. What's more, with a price-earnings ratio of 80, based on estimated 2014 earnings, the stock is vulnerable to any sort of disappointing news. Indeed, when word broke in March that Apple and cable TV giant Comcast could offer a joint video-streaming service, Netflix's stock fell 6.7% in a single day.

RadioShack (RSH, $2.03). The consumer-electronics chain repeatedly fell short of analysts' earnings estimates last year. The Fort Worth, Tex., company is trying to bounce back, but consumer-electronics is an intensely competitive business, especially when it comes to selling mobile phones. In 2013, sales of mobile phones, which account for more than half of Radio Shack's revenues—declined 10.4% in stores that were in existence for at least one year. So far this year, the stock has declined 22%. Its low-single-digit price suggests that investors think there's a good chance Radio Shack is heading toward oblivion.

Rite Aid (RAD, $7.04). The nation's third-largest drugstore chain wowed investors on April 10 when it reported better-than-expected profits for the quarter that ended March 1. What's more, the Camp Hill, Pa., company projected higher sales and earnings in the current fiscal year, thanks in part to its recent purchase of RediClinic, which operates 30 in-store health clinics in Texas. As a result, the stock surged 8.4% on what was a miserable day for most stocks. But much of the good news may already be baked into the share price. The stock has more than tripled over the past year and now trades for 19 times estimated year-ahead earnings. By contrast, Rite Aid's main rivals, CVS Caremark and Walgreens, trade at 16 and 17 times estimated year-ahead profits, respectively. Rite Aid also carries much more debt than other drugstore chains. That could come back to haunt the company if its turnaround stumbles.

Tesla Motors (TSLA, $203.78). Despite a recent pullback, Tesla's stock has nearly quintupled over the past year and trades at 116 times estimated 2014 earnings. But the Palo Alto, Cal., company, which went public in 2010, may not be able to keep up with investor expectations. A report by UBS says the rich share price assumes that Tesla will produce one million vehicles per year a decade from now, a daunting task. Meanwhile, Tesla needs to reduce the cost of its car batteries in order to roll out lower-priced models. "The downside is material," UBS says.

Top 5 Heal Care Stocks To Watch For 2014

Top 5 Heal Care Stocks To Watch For 2014: Synovus Financial Corp.(SNV)

Synovus Financial Corp., a diversified financial services and bank holding company, provides commercial and retail banking, financial management, insurance, and mortgage services in Georgia, Alabama, South Carolina, Florida, and Tennessee. Its retail banking services include accepting customary types of demand and savings deposits; mortgage, installment, and other retail loans; investment and brokerage services; safe deposit services; automated banking services; automated fund transfers; Internet based banking services; and bank credit card services, including mastercard and visa services. The company?s commercial banking services comprise cash management and asset management services, capital markets services, and institutional trust services, as well as commercial, financial, and real estate loans. It also provides various other financial services, which include the portfolio management for fixed-income securities, investment banking, the execution of securities transac tions as a broker/dealer, and the provision of individual investment advice on equity and other securities; trust services; mortgage services; and financial planning services. Synovus Financial Corp. was founded in 1888 and is headquartered in Columbus, Georgia.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By John Maxfield]

  Given that you clicked on this article, it seems safe to assume you either own stock in Synovus Financial (NYSE: SNV  ) 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 Synovus stock before deciding whether to buy, sell, or hold it.

• [By Robert Eberhard]

  Synovus Financial (NYSE: SNV  ) throws its hat into the earnings ring early Tuesday, and investors ar! e facing a big question: Will CEO Kessel D. Stelling and crew deliver good news? Or should investors be wary of less than impressive results?

source from Top Stocks Blog:http://www.topstocksblog.com/top-5-heal-care-stocks-to-watch-for-2014-2.html

Wall Street Recovers From Early Losses

The rollercoaster ride continued on Wall Street today, but stocks swung back near breakeven in late trading to save what could have been a very bad day. In early trading the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJINDICES: ^DJI  ) dropped 127 points on the back of a big overnight drop in the Japanese stock market and a report showing contraction in China's manufacturing. HSBC said preliminary data for its Purchasing Managers' Index in China showed a reading of 49.6, which signals slight contraction and continues a streak of falling numbers. But by the last hour of the trading session, Wall Street had moved on from problems in Japan and China, and the Dow was down just 0.06%, while the S&P 500 (SNPINDEX: ^GSPC  ) had fallen 0.25%.  

The big headline of the day was Hewlett-Packard's (NYSE: HPQ  ) surprise earnings beat and the stock's 16.4% jump today. After the market closed last night the company reported adjusted earnings per share of $0.87 and a 10% decline in fiscal second-quarter revenue to $27.6 billion. Both were enough to beat estimates, and the $0.06 earnings beat was the big driver of the stock's move today. Better-than-expected earnings from HP are great, but let's not forget that every operating segment is in decline, and profit only beat expectations by virtue of massive cost-cutting efforts. 

The massive wave of mobile computing has done much to unseat the major players in the PC market, including venerable technology names like Hewlett-Packard. However, HP is rapidly shifting its strategy under the leadership of CEO Meg Whitman. But does this make HP one of the least-appreciated turnaround stories on the market, or is this a minor detour on its road to irrelevance? The Motley Fool's technology analyst details exactly what investors need to know about HP in our new premium research report. Just click here now to get your copy today.

Boeing (NYSE: BA  ) is another big winner today, climbing 1.7%. The stock was upgraded by Bank of America today and given a $120 price target, indicating a 20% upside. More importantly, Chinese regulators cleared the 787 Dreamliner for local flights, opening up another region for the troubled aircraft. This doesn't mean international flights are approved yet, but Chinese airlines are expecting that approval to come in the next few months. 

Finally, General Electric (NYSE: GE  ) was among the Dow's losers today, falling 0.7%. At a conference yesterday, CEO Jeffrey Immelt suggested that GE could spin off part of GE Capital in an effort to reduce the company's exposure to the financial markets. GE Capital recently announced that it would pay its parent a $6.5 billion dividend, freeing up more money and reducing the finance business, but that could just be the start. It was GE Capital that got GE into trouble during the financial crisis, so moves to return to GE's manufacturing roots should be seen as a good sign.  

Amazon offers employees $5,000 to quit

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos doesn't want to employ people who don't want to be there.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) Amazon is offering its warehouse employees up to $5,000 to quit their jobs, even as the company is in the process of adding workers and locations.

The "Pay to Quit" program, which was announced by CEO Jeff Bezos in his letter to shareholders late Thursday, is an effort to make sure that the Internet retailer's employees really want to be there.

"The goal is to encourage folks to take a moment and think about what they really want," he wrote in the letter. "In the long-run, an employee staying somewhere they don't want to be isn't healthy for the employee or the company."

Bezos said the offer is made under the headline "Please Don't Take This Offer." Amazon offers to pay its associates to quit once a year. At first, employees are offered $2,000 to quit. That offer is increased by $1,000 each year until the amount hits $5,000.

Bezos said the idea came from Zappos, the online footwear and clothing retailer which Amazon purchased in 2009. Zappos continues to operate as a separate unit from the main Amazon site.

Amazon is in the process of adding warehouses, known as "fulfillment centers" so that it can cut delivery times to customers. Today is has 96 such locations. Company filings show it had 117,300 full-time and part-time employees at the end of last year, up by nearly a third from its employment level a year earlier.

5 Best Growth Stocks To Buy Right Now

  How Zappo! s will run with no job titles

Amazon traditionally has declined to say how much it pays its warehouse workers, although it says it pay about 30% more than a typical retail worker.

According to data gathered last year by career website Glassdoor.com, Amazon pays its warehouse workers an average hourly wage of about $12 an hour, which comes to just about $25,000 for a full year. Its full-time workers also get stock grants which Amazon said last year had averaged about 9% of employees' pay.

Freebies for Your Lawn and Garden

After a long, harsh winter, your garden might be in desperate need of some TLC. If you received a tax refund, you might want to put that money to use sprucing up your yard to improve your home's curb appeal. But don't despair if you don't have extra cash to improve your lawn and garden. There are several freebies that can help you get the green space around your home looking great.

SEE ALSO: Fabulous Freebies 2014

Free trees. Some local governments give away trees (typically seedlings) as part of Arbor Day celebrations. National Arbor Day is the last Friday in April, but many states observe it on different days. Check your local government's Web site to find out if it is giving away trees as part of an Arbor Day celebration. And some cities offer free trees as part of other events. For example, West Sacramento, Cal., gives residents up to two free 15-gallon trees a year if they attend a workshop on tree planting and care.

Utility companies also offer customers free trees throughout the year to help reduce energy use through strategic planting, so check with yours to see if it offers such a program.

You can get ten free trees when you join the Arbor Day Foundation. Membership is $10, so the trees technically aren't free -- but it's a small amount to pay for so many trees. Plus, your membership entitles you to a 33% discount on trees when you buy online from the foundation.

Free mulch. Many cities, counties and utility companies offer residents free mulch made from recycled leaves or wood from tree trimmings and tree removals if you pick it up. Some actually deliver the mulch for free.

Free seeds. The National Gardening Association has a seed swap forum that allows people to find seeds they want or share extra seeds with others. Fill out an online swap form to specify the seeds you want, then the association will contact you when someone can provide those seeds. Ideally, it should be a two-way exchange, but you don't have to have seeds to swap in order to receive some.

Free fertilizer. Americans spend $5.25 billion on fertilizers for their lawns, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. Yet, you can get fertilizer for free by composting leaves, grass clippings, vegetable scraps and other organic waste. See the Eartheasy.com guide to composting to learn more.

Free gardening advice. You don't have to spend a lot of money on gardening guides when you can get information for free from your local cooperative extension office. The U.S. Department of Agriculture has an interactive map that can help you find the office closest to you.

Free tools. Some cities have tool lending libraries that let residents borrow a variety of tools -- including garden tools -- for free. Check this list to see if there's one near you, but note that some of these libraries require a membership fee. Or you can check Freecylce.org -- a nonprofit network of people offering items they no longer want for free -- to see if anyone in your community is giving away garden tools.

Poll: Most Americans say filing taxes easy

WASHINGTON (AP) — Struggling to figure out your federal tax return? You're not alone, but you're in the minority.

With the tax filing deadline looming next week, a majority of Americans say completing a federal tax return is easy, according to a new Associated Press-GfK poll.

The findings defy conventional wisdom in Washington, where politicians have made careers out of promising a simpler tax system. In another blow to advocates of tax reform, almost no one is willing to pay higher taxes in exchange for a simpler code.

"If you've got the equivalent of a high school degree and you know how to do math, it's very simple," said Sara Thornton, a small business owner from East Granby, Conn.

NEED HELP: Get the latest tax news and advice

Only 7% of those surveyed say they would be willing to pay more in federal taxes if the process of filling out a tax return were easier. Some 90% say "no, thanks."

"No, because I don't know that it is that difficult," said Alicia Brown of suburban Des Moines, Iowa. "We already pay outlandish taxes because we live in Iowa. We have very high real estate taxes."

The tax-writing committees in Congress have spent the past several years trying to build momentum for the herculean task of simplifying the tax code. One reason it's so difficult is there are bound to be winners and losers. Sweeping changes to precious tax breaks will undoubtedly leave some people paying more, while others pay less.

One selling point for tax reform has been a simpler tax form. Ever hear a politician say you should be able to fill out your taxes on the back of a postcard? You'll probably hear it again during this fall's elections.

The National Taxpayer Advocate says filers spend a total of 6.1 billion hours a year preparing tax returns, at a cost of $168 billion. According to the IRS, 90% of filers either pay a tax preparer or use computer software to help them fill out their returns.

But 58% in the AP-GfK poll say completing a federal tax return! is easy.. Thirty-eight percent call it hard.

Fully 86% who have completed their tax forms say they are extremely confident or very confident that they filled them out correctly.

Not surprisingly, higher income taxpayers are more likely to say that filling out tax forms is difficult. Wealthy people tend to have more complicated taxes because they often have multiple sources of income and they are more likely to itemize their deductions, making them eligible for more tax breaks.

TAX Q&A: Itemizing vs. standard deduction

Forty-five percent of those with incomes above $100,000 said it is hard, compared with 33% among those making less than $50,000.

Through March 28, the IRS has processed 89 million returns. About 82% have qualified for refunds, averaging $2,831. That's about $207 billion in tax refunds. Almost 91 percent of returns have been filed electronically.

Americans think most of their fellow taxpayers are honest, but not all of them. On average, poll-takers estimate that about one-third of Americans intentionally cheat when filling out their tax returns.

Erma Pierce of Poplar Bluff in southeast Missouri said she thinks about half of people cheat on their taxes, and she takes a dim view of it.

"You're not supposed to cheat, lie or steal," Pierce said. "It's against the Bible."

Thornton, the small business owner in Connecticut, said her estimate depends on the definition of cheating.

"People think of cheating as a case of, I reported I have nine children and I only have two. Or I reported I only made $20,000 this year and I actually made $50,000," Thornton said. "They think of those forms of cheating, the absolute blatant, extravagant forms."

Thornton's definition of cheating is broader, which is why she thinks 80% to 90% of people cheat on their taxes.

"The minor forms of cheating are things like, well, I can increase my charitable deduction by $200," Thornton said. "Most people consider, quote, unquote padding their income ! tax report! ing or shaving it off a little bit, they don't necessarily view that as cheating."

"I define that as cheating only because it really is."

The AP-GfK Poll was conducted March 20-24, 2014 using KnowledgePanel, GfK's probability-based online panel designed to be representative of the U.S. population. It involved online interviews with 1,012 adults, and has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3.4 percentage points for all respondents.

Respondents were first selected randomly using phone or mail survey methods, and were later interviewed online. People selected for KnowledgePanel who didn't otherwise have access to the Internet were provided with the ability to access the Internet at no cost to them.