Best Safest Stocks To Own For 2015

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Best Safest Stocks To Own For 2015: Weyco Group Inc.(WEYS)

Weyco Group, Inc. engages in the distribution of men?s foot wear primarily in the United States, Canada, Europe, Australia, Asia, and South Africa. It offers casual, dress, and fashion shoes. The company offers its products under the brand names of Florsheim, Nunn Bush, Stacy Adams, Umi, Brass Boot, and Nunn Bush NXXT. Weyco Group sells its products to shoe specialty stores, department stores, and clothing retailers. As of December 31, 2010, it owned 35 retail stores in the United States and an Internet business. The company was formerly known as Weyenberg Shoe Manufacturing Company and changed its name to Weyco Group, Inc. in April 1990. Weyco Group, Inc. was founded in 1896 and is based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

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 Weyco Group (Nasdaq: WEYS  ) , whose recent revenue and earnings are plotted below.

Best Safest Stocks To Own For 2015: Axcelis Technologies Inc.(ACLS)

Axcelis Technologies, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, designs, manufactures, and services ion implantation, dry strip, and other processing equipment used in the fabrication of semiconductor chips in the United States, Europe, and the Asia Pacific. It offers a line of high energy, high current, and medium current ion implanters for various applications, such as line of single wafer implanters, known as the Optima platform, comprising the Optima XE, the Optima HD, and the Optima MD. The company also offers dry strip tools, including the Integra RS, which comprises paired-chamber process modules. In addition, it provides aftermarket services and support, such as spare parts, equipment upgrades, maintenance services, and customer training. The company sells its equipment and services through direct sales force, distributors, and manufacturing representatives. Axcelis Technologies was founded in 1995 and is headquartered in Beverly, Massachusetts.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Stephen Simpson, CFA]

  The major dry strip product today is Suprema - Mattson's most advanced tool, and one that uses inductively coupled plasma (ICP) technology and vacuum transfer. Two of the company's primary competitors use one but not the other, while the third uses both but charges about 20% more for its tools. According to Gartner, Mattson holds about 22% market share in this roughly $180 million/year market, with Lam Research (which acquired Novellus and dry strip IP from Axcelis (ACLS)) and PSK as the primary competitors.

• [By Ben Axler]

  An old spin-out of Eaton Corp. (ETN), Axcelis Technologies (ACLS) designs, manufactures and services ion implantation, dry strip and other processing equipment used in the fabrication of semiconductor chips. The semiconductor capital equipment industry is very cyclical, and as a smaller player in the industry, ACLS has not been immune, and gone through protracted periods of losses. In the past few years, the company has taken numerous steps to reposition itself for the next cyclical upswing by listening to its customers and investing heavily in R&D to revamp its product line to expand its addressable market opportunity, right-sizing its cost structure to substantially lower its breakeven level, establishing new collaborative partnerships, and optimizing its balance sheet to unlock value. Now with signs of a cyclical upswing occurring, and being led by memory - Micron (MU) and SanDisk (SNDK), ACLS is poised for accelerating earnings potential beginning in Q4'2013 that could drive its stock price substantially higher. However, with a few nearer-term catalysts on the horizon, investors may not want to wait too long before purchasing shares. As an early indicator, investors should consider that insiders recently purchased the stock in the open market in August at current levels. These stock purchases coincide with the one year anniversary of ACLS's new Purion M product line entering an evaluation period with a major customer. Sell-side analysts are starting to take notice and listening in to the company's recent conference call, which at least opens the door to new broker initiations in the future. The downside risk appears mitigated by ACLS's strengthened balance sheet, and dramatically improved operating financial model that has stemmed further cash burn. As the company hits an inflection point with new customer contracts and proves its earnings cycle is under way, we expect ACLS's valuation discount to peers to narrow and the stock to appreciate substantially

Top 5 Specialty Retail Companies To Invest In Right Now: Advanced Semiconductor Engineering Inc (ASX)

Advanced Semiconductor Engineering, Inc. is principally engaged in the manufacture, assembly, processing, testing and distribution of integrated circuits (ICs). The Company provides semiconductor packaging and testing services, including plastic leaded chip carriers (PLCCs), quad flat packages (QFPs) and flip chip packaging technology, among others, which are applied in the manufacture of household electrical appliances, communication devices, automobile components, personal computers, set top boxes, servers, memory integrated circuits (ICs), mobile phones, digital cameras, game consoles, projectors, high definition (HD) televisions, wireless communication network products and power management ICs, among others. The Company operates its businesses primarily in Taiwan, Europe and the Americas. In August 2010, the Company acquired a 100% interest in EEMS Test Singapore.

The Company is focused on packaging and testing logic semiconductors. The Company offers its customers turnkey services, which consist of packaging, testing and direct shipment of semiconductors to end users designated by its customers. The Company�� global base of over 200 customers includes semiconductor companies across a range of end use applications, including Altera Corporation, ATI Technologies, Inc., Broadcom Corporation, Cambridge Silicon Radio Limited and Microsoft Corporation. During the year ended December 31, 2008, the Company�� packaging revenues accounted for 77.7% of its net revenues and its testing revenues accounted for 20.1% of its net revenues.

Packaging Services

The Company offers a range of package types to meet the requirements of its customers, with a focus on packaging solutions. Within its portfolio of package types, the Company focuses on the packaging of semiconductors. These include advanced leadframe-based package types, such as quad flat package, thin quad flat package, bump chip carrier and quad flat no-lead package, and package types based on substrates, such a! s flip-chip ball grid array (BGA) and other BGA types, as well as other packages, such as wafer-bumping products. Leadframe-based packages are packaged by connecting the die, using wire bonders, to the leadframe with gold wire. The Company�� leadframe-based packages include quad flat package (QFP)/ thin quad flat package (TQFP), quad flat no-lead package (QFN)/microchip carrier (MCC), advanced quad flat no-lead package (AQFN), bump chip carrier (BCC), small outline plastic package (SOP)/thin small outline plastic package (TSOP), small outline plastic j-bend package (SOJ), plastic leaded chip carrier (PLCC) and plastic dual in-line package (PDIP). Substrate-based packages employ the BGA design, which utilizes a substrate rather than a leadframe. It also assembles system-in-a-package products, which involve the integration of more than one chip into the same package. The Company�� substrate-based packages include Plastic BGA, Cavity Down BGA, Stacked-Die BGA, Flip-Chip BGA and land grid array (LGA).

The Company�� wafer-level packaging products include wafer level chip scale package (aCSP) and advanced wafer level package (aWLP). The Company offers module assembly services, which combine one or more packaged semiconductors with other components in an integrated module to enable functionality, typically using surface mount technology (SMT) machines and other machinery and equipment for system-level assembly. End use applications for modules include cellular phones, personal digital assistant (PDAs), wireless local area network (LAN) applications, bluetooth applications, camera modules, automotive applications and toys.

The Company provides module assembly services primarily at its facilities in Korea for radio frequency and power amplifier modules used in wireless communications and automotive applications. Interconnect materials connect the input/output on the semiconductor dies to the printed circuit board. Interconnect materials include substrate, which is a multi-layer m! iniature ! printed circuit board. The Company produces substrates for use in its packaging operations.

Testing Services

The Company provides a range of semiconductor testing services, including front-end engineering testing, wafer probing, final testing of logic/mixed-signal/radio frequency (RF) and memory semiconductors and other test-related services. The Company provides front-end engineering testing services, including customized software development, electrical design validation, and reliability and failure analysis. The Company provides final testing services for a variety of memory products, such as static random access memory (SRAM), dynamic random access memory (DRAM), single-bit erasable programmable read-only memory semiconductors and flash memory semiconductors.

The Company provides a range of additional test-related services, including burn-in testing, module sip testing, dry pack, tape and reel, and electric interface board and mechanical test tool design. The Company offers drop shipment services for shipment of semiconductors directly to end users designated by its customers.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By David Dittman]

  Crown Resorts is a buy all the way up to USD16.50 on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) using the symbol CWN and on the US over-the-counter (OTC) market using the symbol CWLDF.

• [By Jeff Reeves]

  Next Page

  Best Stocks to Buy for Around $5: Advanced Semiconductor Engineering (ASX)

  Advanced Semiconductor Engineering�(ASX) builds and distributes integrated circuits and other electronics. While that�� not as sexy as other chipmakers that play to mobile, it�� still a good business, considering the general demand for microchips in everything from cars to computers to TVs.

Best Safest Stocks To Own For 2015: First Advantage Bancorp(FABK)

First Advantage Bancorp operates as the holding company for First Federal Savings Bank that provides various financial services to individuals and businesses in Tennessee. The company offers various deposit products comprising non-interest-bearing demand deposits, such as checking accounts; interest-bearing demand accounts, including NOW and money market accounts; regular savings accounts; and certificates of deposit. Its loan portfolio include real estate mortgage loans, including one-to-four family residential loans and nonresidential real estate loans; construction loans for one-to-four family homes, commercial, multi-family, and other nonresidential purposes; land loans for developing vacant land; consumer loans consisting primarily of home equity loans; and commercial business loans secured by equipment, inventory, or accounts receivable to small businesses. As of June 10, 2010, the company operated five full-service offices in Montgomery County. First Advantage Banco rp was founded in 1953 and is headquartered in Clarksville, Tennessee.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Tim Melvin]

  PL Capital has not filed any 13Ds in a couple of months, but earlier this year it disclosed a 5.99% position in shares of First Advantage Bancorp (FABK). The Clarksville, Tenn.-based bank has seven branches and trades at about 75% of book value. PL Capital also filed a 13D announcing 8% ownership of Mutual First Financial (MFSF) over the summer. The bank has 31 branches and is based in Muncie, Ind. — an area that has seen substantial consolidation in the past few years.

Best Safest Stocks To Own For 2015: Sunedison Inc (SUNE)

SunEdison Inc, formerly MEMC Electronic Materials, Inc., incorporated on October 1, 1984, is engaged in the development, manufacture and sale of silicon wafers. The Company is a developer and seller of photovoltaic energy solutions. Through Solar Materials and Solar Energy (SunEdison), it is a developer of solar energy projects. The Company operates in two segments: semiconductor materials and solar energy. The Company�� Solar Energy segment includes the operations of its old Solar Materials segment, as well as its SunEdison business. In the Semiconductor Materials, the Company offers wafers with a variety of features. The Company�� wafers vary in size, surface features, composition, purity levels, crystal properties and electrical properties.

Semiconductor Materials

The Company�� monocrystalline wafers for use in semiconductor applications range in size from 100 millimeter to 300 millimeter and are round in shape for semiconductor customers because of the nature of their processing equipment. Its wafers are used as the starting material for the manufacture of various types of semiconductor devices, including microprocessor, memory, logic and power devices. In turn, these semiconductor devices are used in computers, cellular phones and other mobile electronic devices, automobiles and other consumer and industrial products. Its monocrystalline wafers for semiconductor applications include four general categories of wafers: prime, epitaxial, test/monitor and silicon-on-insulator (SOI) wafers.

The Company�� prime wafer is a polished, pure wafer with an ultraflat and ultraclean surface. The Company�� epitaxial (epi), wafers consist of a thin silicon layer grown on the polished surface of the wafer. Typically, the epitaxial layer has different electrical properties from the underlying wafer. This provides customers with isolation between circuit elements than a polished wafer. Its AEGIS product is designed for certain specialized applications requiring high resis! tivity epitaxial wafers and its MDZ product feature. The AEGIS wafer includes a thin epitaxial layer grown on a standard starting wafer. The AEGIS wafer�� thin epitaxial layer eliminates harmful defects on the surface of the wafer, thereby allowing device manufacturers to increase yields. The Company supplies test/monitor wafers to its customers for use in testing semiconductor fabrication lines and processes. An SOI wafer is a different starting material for the chip making process.

Solar Energy

The Company�� Solar Energy segment provides solar energy services that integrate the design, installation, financing, monitoring, operations and maintenance portions of the downstream solar market to provide a solar energy service to its customers. As of December 31, 2012, SunEdison interconnected over 675 solar power systems representing 989 megawatt of solar energy generating capacity. As of December 31, 2012, SunEdison had 73 megawatt of projects under construction and 2.6 gigawatts in pipeline. In support of its downstream solar business, its Solar Energy segment manufactures polysilicon, silicon wafers and solar modules. Additionally, its Solar Energy segment will sell solar modules to third parties in the event the opportunity aligns with itsinternal needs. It provides its downstream customers with a way to purchase renewable energy by delivering solar power under long-term power purchase arrangements with customers or feed-in tariff arrangements with government entities and utilities. Its SunEdison business is dependent upon government subsidies, including United States federal incentive tax credits, state-sponsored energy credits and foreign feed-in tariffs. The Company�� solar wafers are used as the starting material for crystalline solar cells.

The Company competes with Shin-Etsu Handotai, SUMCO, Siltronic and LG Siltron, SunPower Corporation, First Solar, Inc., Enerparc, Sharp Corporation (Recurrent Energy), Phoenix Solar, BELECTRIC, JUWI Solar Gmbh, and S! olar City! .

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Jake L'Ecuyer]

  SunEdison (NYSE: SUNE) was also down, falling 11.18 percent to $11.36 after it lowered its fourth quarter and fiscal year guidance before the open Thursday.

• [By Ben Levisohn]

  Stocks rose today as jobless despite a weak GDP reading as jobless claims fell and merger mania gripped the food stocks. Shares of Tyson Foods (TSN), Hillshire Brands (HSH),�Merck (MRK), Biogen Idec (BIIB), and SunEdison (SUNE) helped lead the market higher.