10 Best Industrial Disributor Stocks To Watch Right Now

Just when you thought that things couldn't get any worse for the desktop, it gets kicked by a cold boot.

Industry tracker IDC is reporting that just 76.3 million PCs were shipped during this year's first quarter, down 13.9% from a year earlier.

Remember when Microsoft's (NASDAQ: MSFT  ) Windows 8 was supposed to make desktops and laptops popular again? It's amusing in retrospect. The percentage decline is the largest drop that IDC has reported since it began tracking quarterly shipment trends nearly two decades ago.

A meteor made dinosaurs extinct. A cloud is making PCs extinct.

Think about it. Everyone knows that smartphones and tablets are eating into the traditional PC market, but have you ever wondered why that's even possible? Have you wondered why Microsoft's mobile operating system hasn't been as dominant as what Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL  ) and Google (NASDAQ: GOOG  ) have been cooking?

It's really all about the cloud.

Best Gas Stocks To Invest In Right Now: Groupon Inc (GRPN)

Groupon, Inc. (Groupon) is a local e-commerce marketplace that connects merchants to consumers by offering goods and services at a discount. Each day the Company e-mails its subscribers discounted offers for goods and services that are targeted by location and personal preferences. Consumers also access its deals directly through its Websites and mobile applications. The Company operates in two segments: North America, which represents the United States and Canada; and International, which represents the rest of its global operations. Customers purchase Groupons from the Company and redeem them with its merchants. As of September 30, 2011, the Company featured deals from over 190,000 merchants worldwide across over 190 categories of goods and services. Groupon primarily addresses the worldwide local commerce markets in the leisure, recreation, foodservice and retail sectors. In February 2012, the Company announced the launch of Groupon Thailand. In September 2012, it acquired Savored.

In May 2010, the Company acquired CityDeal Europe GmbH (CityDeal). In August 2010, the Company acquired Qpod.inc (Qpod). In November 2010, the Company acquired Ludic Labs, Inc., a company that designs and develops local marketing services. During the year ended December 31, 2010, the Company acquired Mobly, Inc. In February 2011, the Company launched Deal Channels, which aggregates daily deals from the same category.

The Company distributes a featured daily deal by e-mail on behalf of local merchants to subscribers. It offers daily deals from more than 40 national merchants, including Bath & Body Works, The Body Shop, Hyatt Regency, InterContinental Hotels, Lions Gate, Redbox, Shutterfly and Zipcar across subsets of the North American market. Daily deals that do not appear as a featured daily deal appear as Deals Nearby. Each Deal Nearby is summarized in fewer than 20 words next to the featured daily deal. Deals Nearby often extends beyond the subscriber's closest market or buying preferences.

National merchants also have used the Company�� marketplace as an alternative to traditional marketing and brand advertising. On August 19, 2010, the Company e-mailed and posted a Groupon daily deal offering $50 of apparel at Gap for $25 to 9.2 million subscribers across 85 markets in North America. It sold approximately 433,000 Groupons in 24 hours. Of the consumers who purchased Groupons, approximately 200,000 were new subscribers. As of September 30, 2011, it had 142.9 million subscribers to its daily e-mails.

Groupon NOW is a deal initiated by a merchant on demand and offered instantly to subscribers through mobile devices and its Website. Subsequent to the year ended December 31, 2010, the Company launched Groupon NOW in 25 North American markets. Deal Channels aggregate daily deals from the same category and are accessible through its Website and through e-mail alerts that subscribers sign up to receive. It offers Deal Channels in home and garden and event tickets and travel. Merchants can register their deals to be included in a Deal Channel. Subscribers can use Deal Channels to focus on deals that are of interest to them.

Self-Service Deals allows the Company�� merchants to use a self-service platform to create and launch deals at their discretion. The use of the platform is free and allows merchants to establish a permanent e-commerce presence on Groupon that can be visited and followed by subscribers. The Company receives a portion of the purchase price from deals sold through Self-Service Deals based on the extent to which it marketed the deal. In December 2010, it launched Self-Service Deals in selected North American markets.

Groupon Goods enables consumers to purchase vouchers for products directly from its Website. The Company e-mails deals for Groupon Goods weekly to a targeted subscriber base. The Company offers deals for a variety of product categories, including electronics, home and garden and toys. In September 2011, the Compa! ny launch! ed Groupon Goods in select North American and International markets.

Groupon Rewards enables consumers to unlock special Groupon deals from local merchants through repeat visits. Consumers earn reward points at participating merchants by paying with the credit or debit card they have registered with the Company. Merchants set the amount the consumer must spend to unlock a reward deal, and once a consumer is eligible to unlock a deal, it automatically notifies them. The Company distributes its deals directly through several platforms: a daily e-mail, its Websites, its mobile applications and social networks.

In December 2010, the Company partnered with Redbox to offer a daily deal to their user base and it acquired over 200,000 new customers through that offer and in March 2011, it partnered with eBay to offer a daily deal to their user base and it acquired over 290,000 new customers through that offer. The featured daily deal e-mail contains one headline deal with a full-description of the deal and often contains links to More Great Deals Nearby, all of which are available within a subscriber's market.

Visitors are prompted to register as a subscriber when they first visit its Website and thereafter use the Website as a portal for featured daily deals, Deals Nearby, national deals, and where available, Deal Channels and Self-Service Deals. Consumers also access the Company�� deals through its mobile applications, which are available on the iPhone, Android, Blackberry and Windows mobile operating systems. It launched its first mobile application in March 2010. The Company publishes its daily deals through various social networks and its notifications are adapted to the particular format of each of these social networking platforms.

Groupon competes with Google, Microsoft, Eversave, BuyWithMe and LivingSocial.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Roberto Pedone]

  Another technology player that insiders are jumping into here is Groupon (GRPN), which operates online local commerce marketplaces that connect merchants to consumers by offering goods and services at a discount worldwide. Insiders are buying this stock into strength, since shares have rallied higher by 19% over the last three months.

  Groupon has a market cap of $4.9 billion and an enterprise value of $4.2 billion. This stock trades at a premium valuation, with a trailing price-to-earnings of 49. Its estimated growth rate for this year is -54.5%, and for next year it's pegged at 200%. This is a cash-rich company, since the total cash position on its balance sheet is $855.17 million and its total debt is zero.

  The CEO just bought 454,166 shares, or around $3.62 million worth of stock, at $7.85 per share.

  From a technical perspective, GRPN is currently trending just above both its 50-day and 200-day moving averages, which is bullish. This stock recently gapped up sharply higher from $5.70 to over $7.50 with strong upside volume flows. Shares of GRPN have now pulled back off its recent high of $8.28 a share and the stock is starting to approach both its 200-day and 50-day moving averages.

  If you're in the bull camp on GRPN, then I would look for long-biased trades as long as this stock is trending above its 200-day at $7.03 or its 50-day at $6.77 a share and then once it breaks out above some key near-term overhead resistance levels at around $7.75 to $8.28 a share with high volume. Look for a sustained move or close above those levels with volume that registers near or above its three-month average action of 15.59 million shares. If that breakout triggers soon, then GRPN will set up to re-test or possibly take out its next major overhead resistance level at $9 a share. Any high-volume move above $9 will then give GRPN a chance to re-fill some of its previous gap-down-day zone from February that started near $11 a share.

   

• [By Maureen Farrell]

  Before Facebook's IPO, Morgan Stanley's Silicon Valley-based technology investment banking team had won most of the highest profile social media IPOs, including Zynga (ZNGA), Groupon (GRPN), and LinkedIn (LNKD).

10 Best Industrial Disributor Stocks To Watch Right Now: Symantec Corporation(SYMC)

Symantec Corporation provides security, storage, and systems management solutions internationally. The company?s Consumer segment delivers Internet security, PC tune-up, and online backup solutions and services to individual users and home offices. Its Security and Compliance segment provides solutions for endpoint security and management, compliance, messaging management, data loss prevention, encryption, and authentication services to large, medium, and small-sized businesses, as well as offers solutions through its software-as-a-service (SaaS) security offerings. This segment?s products enable customers to secure, provision, and remotely manage their laptops, PCs, mobile devices, and servers. The company?s Storage and Server Management segment provides storage and server management, backup, archiving, and data protection solutions across heterogeneous storage and server platforms, as well as solutions delivered through its SaaS offerings to large, medium, and small-s ized businesses. Symantec?s Services segment offers implementation services and solutions, including consulting, business critical services, education, and managed security services. The company also provides various enterprise support offerings, such as annual maintenance support contracts, including content, upgrades, and technical support. It sells its products through its eCommerce platform, as well as through distributors, direct marketers, Internet-based resellers, system builders, ISPs, and retail locations worldwide. Symantec markets and sells its products through distributors, retailers, direct marketers, Internet-based resellers, original equipment manufacturers, system builders, and Internet service providers; and its e-commerce channels, as well as direct sales force, value-added and large account resellers, and system integrators. The company was founded in 1982 and is headquartered in Mountain View, California.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Jake L'Ecuyer]

  Equities Trading DOWN
  Shares of Symantec (NASDAQ: SYMC) were down 13.42 percent to $18.10 after the company fired President and Chief Executive Steve Bennett and appointed director Michael Brown as interim president and CEO. UBS downgraded the stock from Buy to Neutral and lowered the price target from $27.00 to $21.00.

• [By Shauna O'Brien]

  On Thursday, Morgan Stanley reported that it has downgraded security and storage management company Symantec Corporation (SYMC).

  Morgan Stanley has cut its rating on SYMC to an “Equal Weight.” Analysts believe that the company lacks near term catalysts.

  Symantec shares were down 55 cents, or 2.18%, during pre-market trading Thursday. The stock is up 34% YTD.

• [By Reuters]

  Peter Parks, AFP/Getty ImagesThe 12-story building in Shanghai's northern suburb of Gaoqiao where a Chinese military-led hacking group allegedly conducted a series of attacks on U.S. companies networks. BOSTON -- Cybersecurity company FireEye has acquired Mandiant, the computer forensics specialist best known for unveiling a secretive Chinese military unit believed to be behind a series of hacking attacks on U.S. companies. FirEye (FEYE) shares jumped more than 20 percent after Thursday's announcement of the $1.05 billion cash-and-stock deal, which FireEye said closed Monday. It unites two companies with relatively new technologies for thwarting cyber attacks, and brings together two of the most-respected executives in the security industry: FireEye CEO Dave DeWalt and Mandiant founder Kevin Mandia. While sales of older anti-virus products have been on the decline, security experts expect strong growth in both FireEye's cloud-based systems for detecting malicious software and Mandiant's software that analyzes cyber attacks. About a year ago the two companies entered into a technology development agreement that made it easier to deploy their products together. With the merger, FireEye will gain Mandiant's team of forensics investigators. "They have these very strong Navy 'cyber' Seals who respond to breaches and are very good at what they do," DeWalt said about Mandiant. He had previously served as chairman of Mandiant's board. "My aim is to create the strongest security company in the world," DeWalt said in an interview. FireEye, which has yet to post a profit, said the acquisition will be immediately accretive to earnings and expects the combined company's revenue to grow about 50 percent this year. In comparison, Symantec (SYMC), the biggest maker of anti-virus software, has said it expects fiscal 2014 revenue to drop 3 percent to 4 percent. Mandiant is best known for its forensics services. The company rose to prominence in February 2013 when it pu

10 Best Industrial Disributor Stocks To Watch Right Now: Media General Inc. (MEG)

Media General, Inc. operates as a television broadcasting and digital media company in the United States. The company provides news, information, and entertainment for consumers and advertisers. It owns and operates 31 network-affiliated broadcast television stations and their associated digital media and mobile platforms in 28 markets that reach 16.5 million households. The company was founded in 1850 and is headquartered in Richmond, Virginia.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Jake L'Ecuyer]

  Shares of LIN Media LLC (NYSE: LIN) got a boost, shooting up 30.67 percent to $28.08 after Media General (NYSE: MEG) announced its plans to buy Lin Media LLC for $1.6 billion.

10 Best Industrial Disributor Stocks To Watch Right Now: State Auto Financial Corporation(STFC)

State Auto Financial Corporation, through its subsidiaries, writes personal and business lines of insurance to individuals and small-to-medium sized businesses. The company operates through four segments: Personal insurance, Business insurance, Specialty insurance, and Investment operations. The Personal insurance segment provides personal automobile and homeowners insurance products to the personal insurance market. The Business insurance segment offers commercial automobile, commercial multi-peril, fire and allied lines, and general liability insurance covering small-to-medium sized commercial exposures in the business insurance market. The Specialty insurance segment provides commercial coverages requiring specialized product underwriting, workers? compensation, claims handling, or risk management services. The Investment operations segment offers investment portfolio management services. State Auto Financial Corporation markets its insurance products primarily through independent insurance agencies, which include retail agencies and wholesale brokers in 50 states and the District of Columbia. The company was founded in 1950 and is headquartered in Columbus, Ohio. State Auto Financial Corporation is a subsidiary of State Automobile Mutual Insurance Company.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By CRWE]

  State Auto Financial Corporation (Nasdaq:STFC), a super regional property and casualty insurance holding company, will discuss its third quarter 2012 results in a conference call on Tuesday, Nov. 6, 2012, at 10 a.m. ET.

10 Best Industrial Disributor Stocks To Watch Right Now: iShares Cohen & Steers REIT ETF (ICF)

iShares Cohen & Steers Realty Majors Index Fund (the Fund) seeks investment results that correspond generally to the price and yield performance of the Cohen & Steers Realty Majors Index (the Index). The Index consists of selected real estate investment trusts (REITs). The objective of the Index is to represent relatively large and liquid REITs that may benefit from future consolidation and securitization of the United States real estate industry. The Index is modified capitalization-weighted with constituent companies having a maximum index weight of 8%.

The Fund invests in a representative sample of securities included in the Index that collectively has an investment profile similar to the Index. Barclays Global Fund Advisors is the investment advisor of the Fund.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Matthew McCall]

  The SPDR Utilities ETF (NYSE: XLU) is up 1.5 percent today and is breaking to a one-month high. The iShares Cohen & Steers Realty ETF (NYSE: ICF), which owns a basket of REITs, is up 1.1 percent, also looking for a one-month high.

10 Best Industrial Disributor Stocks To Watch Right Now: JAKKS Pacific Inc.(JAKK)

JAKKS Pacific, Inc. designs, produces, markets, and distributes toys and consumer products worldwide. The company offers traditional toys and electronics, such as action figures and accessories, including licensed characters under Pokemon name; toy vehicles and accessories under Road Champs, Fly Wheels, and MXS names; electronics products under EyeClops Bionic Eye, Laser Challenge, and Plug It In & Play TV Games names; dolls and accessories, including small and large dolls, fashion dolls, and baby dolls under Disney Princess, Disney Fairies, Cabbage Patch Kids, Taylor Swift, Fancy Nancy, Hello Kitty, Graco, and Fisher Price names; private label products; pet products, including toys, consumables, and accessories under American Kennel Club and The Cat Fanciers? Association; and vehicles, play sets, plush products, construction toys, and infant and pre-school toys. It also offers role play, novelty, and seasonal toys, including food play and activity kits under Girl Gourmet, Creepy Crawlers, and BloPens names; role-play, dress-up, pretend play, and novelty products for boys and girls under Black & Decker, McDonald?s, Dirt Devil, Disney Princess, Disney Fairies, Barbie, and Dora the Explorer names; indoor and outdoor kids? furniture, activity trays, tables and room d Advisors' Opinion:

• [By John Seward]

  Rayonier Advanced Materials (NYSE: RYAMW) will replace Intrepid Potash Inc. (NYSE: IPI) in the S&P MidCap 400, and Intrepid will replace JAKKS Pacific (NASDAQ: JAKK) in the S&P SmallCap 600 after the close of trading on Friday, June 27. Rayonier Inc. is spinning off Rayonier Advance to shareholders.

• [By Patricio Kehoe] be receiving a $75 million senior secured credit facility. The financial help, directed towards corporate purposes and capital expenditures should be of great help to the toy designer and manufacturer, since 2013 was a rough year on earnings, and cash flow hit a historical low point with losses of over $32 million. However, the company seems confident it can turn results around and following management�� optimistic claim about 2014, several investment gurus like Paul Tudor Jones (Trades, Portfolio) and Jim Simons (Trades, Portfolio) hedge fund have bought JAKKS stock. So, let�� see what this toy designer has in store for the future.

  Will 2013�� Challenges Be This year�� upside?

  JAKKS hasn�� had the best of luck when it comes to product launches and financial earnings in the past, and the current anaemic economic situation has put yet another strain on consumer spending in the U.S. and Europe. But 2014 might be the growth year this toy manufacturer has been waiting for. After 2012�� row of acquisitions, including Maui Inc. (July 2012), JKID Ltd. (September 2012), a joint venture with NantWorks LLC to develop technologically orientated toys, and a 50% joint venture with the Japanese animation production firm, Pacific Animation Partners, has helped the firm gain significant brand strength, which should help boost top and bottom line growth. The most recent expansion of the Daniel Tiger�� Neighborhood franchise, which has been very successful since its holiday season launch and will now be available at Target Corp. (TGT), Kmart and Barnes & Noble Inc. (BKS), should also contribute to sales growth.

  Moreover, the company�� product launches throughout 2013 improved substantially, with Disguise�� new Halloween costumes, kids��furniture, Tollytots infant and preschool products, Outdoor Engineer Sports products and Maui Toys��Impulse line driving sales. The recent integration of technology and novelty in its product launches, via Dre

• [By Monica Gerson]

  JAKKS Pacific (NASDAQ: JAKK) shares gained 7.31% to $8.95 in pre-market trading after the company reported a Q2 loss of $0.43 per share on revenue of $124.20 million.

• [By Lauren Pollock]

  Toy maker Jakks Pacific Inc.(JAKK) posted better-than-expected results, including revenue not falling as much as feared and profit surprisingly rising. Shares surged 22% to $6.03 premarket.

10 Best Industrial Disributor Stocks To Watch Right Now: Pegasystems Inc.(PEGA)

Pegasystems Inc. develops, markets, licenses, and supports software to automate business processes primarily in the United States, the United Kingdom, and rest of Europe. The company offers PegaRULES Process Commander, which provides a platform to build, deploy, and change enterprise applications; purpose or industry-specific solution frameworks that enable organizations to implement new customer-facing practices and processes, and provide customized or specialized processing to meet the needs of different customers, departments, geographies, or regulatory requirements; and Pega customer relationship management software to automate customer service inquiries and marketing, and apply analytics to predict and adapt customer service processes. It also offers Pega decision management products, which include Pega Decision Strategy Manager and Next-Best-Action Advisor that support decision-making for offer management, risk, and other marketing and customer management solutions; and Pega Cloud, which enables customers to create and/or run Pega applications using an Internet-based infrastructure. In addition, the company provides implementation, consulting, training, and technical support services to its customers. The company markets its software and services primarily through its direct sales force to financial services organizations, healthcare organizations, insurance companies, communications and media organizations, and government agencies. Pegasystems Inc. was founded in 1983 and is headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Patricio Kehoe]

  The firm is currently Zacks Rank # 3 - Hold, and it also has a longer-term recommendation of ��utperfom�� For investors looking for a Zacks Rank # 1 ��Strong Buy, Dealertrack Technologies Inc (TRAK), Open Text Corporation (OTEX), Pegasystems Inc. (PEGA) Solera Holdings (SLH) or Ultimate Software Group Inc. (ULTI) could be the options.