Best Safest Stocks For 2014

Pipeline blaze in the Gulf. Photo credit: AP Photo/US Coast Guard, Petty Officer 3rd Class Carlos Vega.

So far, 2013 isn't shaping up to be the energy industry's safest year. A number of disasters have occurred, which have brought unwanted attention to the industry. Here's a look at the industry's five biggest blunders so far this year.

A Herculean disaster averted in the Gulf
Just this past week, a blowout occurred on a Hercules (NASDAQ: HERO  ) -owned rig operating in the shallow waters of the Gulf of Mexico. Natural gas leaking from a well off the coast of Louisiana caught fire and spread to the Hercules rig. Fortunately, all 48 personnel in the rig were safely evacuated. However, the incident underscores the risks of drilling offshore. It could have been a lot worse, as no one was hurt, and this is a natural gas well so the environmental threats are far less than if it were an oil well. While the well is not yet under control, Hercules investors appear to have caught a break, which is why stock was down only about 4% on the week.�

Top 5 Supermarket Stocks To Watch Right Now: Analytica Bio - Energy Corp (ABEC)

Analytica Bio-Energy Corp., formerly Uniwell Electronic Corporation, incorporated on January 12, 2004, is a company with water purification system. The Company was a shell company.

The Company focused on acquiring an active business. In September 2013, the Company changed its name to Analytica Bioenergy, Inc.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Dan Burrows]

  Most importantly, on days when this penny stock did see heavy volume, it tumbled — a classic red flag for the “dump” part of pump-and-dump schemes, which penny stocks are ripe for.

  Top Penny Stocks: Analytica Bio-Energy Corp. (ABEC)

  YTD Performance: 29,300%
  52-Week Range: $0.0017 – $0.50
  Average Volume (3 months): 9,574
  Market Cap: $10.6 million

Best Safest Stocks For 2014: Pinnacle West Capital Corporation(PNW)

Pinnacle West Capital Corporation, through its subsidiaries, provides retail and wholesale electric services primarily in the State of Arizona. The company involves in the generation, transmission, and distribution of electricity through coal, nuclear, gas and oil, and solar resources. It also offers energy-related products and services, such as energy master planning, energy use consultation and facility audits, cogeneration analysis and installation, and project management with a focus on energy efficiency and renewable energy to commercial and industrial retail customers in the western United States. In addition, the company owns minority interests in various energy-related investments and Arizona community-based ventures; and develops residential, commercial, and industrial real estate projects in Arizona, Idaho, New Mexico, and Utah. As of December 31, 2010, it owned or leased approximately 6,290 mega watts of regulated generation capacity; and serviced approximately 1.1 million customers. Pinnacle West Capital Corporation was founded in 1920 and is based in Phoenix, Arizona.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Roger Conrad]

  Palo Verde is majority owned and operated by Arizona's Pinnacle West (PNW), itself a takeover target, though its larger size ($5.81 billion market capitalization), will likely require a bigger buyer.

• [By Marc Bastow]

  Phoenix-based bank holding company Pinnacle West (PNW) raised its quarterly dividend 4% to 56.75 cents per share, payable on Dec. 2 to shareholders of record as of Nov. 1.
  PNW Dividend Yield:�3.91%

• [By David Dittman]

  Early solar movers have subtracted rate-payers, which eats at revenue. Utilities must continue to invest in infrastructure, and that requires rate increases. But higher electricity rates make solar installation seem less expensive, raising incentives to go solar and further eroding the rate-payer base. It’s a potentially vicious cycle for utilities.
  Arizona regulators recently ruled that Pinnacle West Capital Corp (NYSE: PNW) can charge customers who install solar panels a fee based on their continued reliance on the grid, a trend that could have legs around the US.

Best Safest Stocks For 2014: Swift Transportation Company(SWFT)

Swift Transportation Company, through its subsidiary, Swift Transportation Co., LLC, operates as a multi-faceted transportation services company and truckload carrier in North America. The company offers its truckload services through dry van, temperature-controlled, flatbed, and specialized trailers; and rail intermodal services. It also provides freight brokerage and logistics management services to other trucking companies, as well as leases tractors and offers repair services. As of December 31, 2011, the company operated a tractor fleet of approximately 15,900 units, including 11,900 tractors driven by company drivers and 4,000 owner-operator tractors; 50,600 trailers; and 6,200 intermodal containers in the United States and Mexico. It serves various industries, such as retail, discount retail, consumer products, food and beverage, manufacturing, and transportation and logistics industries. The company, formerly known Swift Holdings Corp., and was founded in 1966 and is headquartered in Phoenix, Arizona.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Seth Jayson]

  Swift Transportation (NYSE: SWFT  ) reported earnings on April 22. Here are the numbers you need to know.

  The 10-second takeaway
  For the quarter ended March 31 (Q1), Swift Transportation met expectations on revenues and beat expectations on earnings per share.

• [By Jake L'Ecuyer]

  Swift Transportation (NYSE: SWFT) was also down, falling 6.83 percent to $21.95 after the company released some poor guidance after the close on Thursday.

• [By Ben Levisohn]

  Shares of Hub have dropped 5.1% to $35.41, but the plunge doesn’t seem to be weighing on other logistic companies. CH Robinson Worldwide (CHRW), for instance, has gained 1.1% to $58.64, JB Hunt Transport Services (JBHT) has risen 1.1% to $71.61, Swift Transportation (SWFT) has advanced 0.9% to $19.56 and Ryder System (R) is up 3.1% to $59.23.

Best Safest Stocks For 2014: Landec Corporation(LNDC)

Landec Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, designs, develops, manufactures, and sells polymer products for food and agricultural products, medical devices products, and licensed partner applications incorporating its patented polymer technologies. It has two polymer technology platforms that include Intelimer polymers, a proprietary class of crystalline, hydrophobic polymers, which respond to temperature changes in a controllable, predictable way; and Hyaluronan Biopolymer, a non-crystalline, hydrophilic polymer that exists naturally within the human body. The company?s Food Products Technology segment markets and packs produced and specialty packaged whole and fresh-cut vegetables utilizing the proprietary BreatheWay specialty packaging technology for the retail grocery, club store, and food services industry. This segment also sells BreatheWay packaging to partners for non-vegetable products. Its Food Export segment purchases and sells primarily whole commodity fruit and vegetable products to Asian markets. The company?s Hyaluronan-based Biomaterials segment sells products utilizing hyaluronan, a naturally occurring polysaccharide that is primarily distributed in the extracellar matrix of connective tissues in both animals and humans for medical use primarily in the ophthalmic, orthopedic, and veterinary markets. It also supplies hyaluronan to customers pursuing other medical applications, such as aesthetic surgery, medical device coatings, tissue engineering, and pharmaceuticals. Its Technology Licensing segment licenses Intellicoat, a proprietary seed coating technology to the farming industry; and Intelimer polymers for personal care products and other industrial products. The company sells its products in the United States, Canada, Taiwan, Belgium, Indonesia, China, and Japan. Landec Corporation was founded in 1986 and is based in Menlo Park, California.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By John Kell var popups = dojo.query(".socialByline .popC"); popups.forEach(func]

  Landec Corp.(LNDC) said its fiscal third-quarter earnings rose 34% as its food business reported higher revenue.

  Lindsay Corp.(LNN) said fiscal second-quarter revenue and earnings fell as the company’s irrigation business remains mired in a sales slump. The company’s results underperformed Wall Street expectations.

• [By Laura Brodbeck]

  Thursday

  Earnings Expected From: Landec Corporation (NASDAQ: LNDC), Resources Connection, Inc. (NASDAQ: RECN) Economic Releases Expected: Indian manufacturing PMI, Spanish manufacturing PMI, Hong Kong retail sales, Italian manufacturing PMI, French manufacturing PMI, German manufacturing PMI, eurozone manufacturing PMI, US manufacturing PMI, Canadian manufacturing PMI, US manufacturing PMI

  Friday

• [By Lauren Pollock]

  Landec Corp.'s(LNDC) fiscal first-quarter profit grew 8.8% as the food-packaging maker reported higher revenue due to strong demand for vegetables. Margins, however, fell due to an increase in lower-margin food service sales and higher-than-expected raw produce costs.

Best Safest Stocks For 2014: EarthLink Inc.(ELNK)

EarthLink, Inc. provides communications services to individual and business customers in the United States. It operates in two segments, Consumer Services and Business Services. The Consumer Services segment offers Internet access and related value-added services. It provides dial-up Internet and narrowband access, broadband access, and voice-over-Internet-protocol services, as well as value-added services that include products for protection, communication, and performance, such as security products, premium email only, home networking, email storage, and Internet call waiting. This segment offer its products and services primarily through its call centers, search engine marketing, affinity marketing partners, resellers, and marketing alliances. The Business Services segment offers integrated communications services, such as secure IP-based networks, virtual private networks, Internet access, local telephone and long distance services, enhanced services, access trunks, pr ivate line services, asynchronous transfer mode/frame relay services, and mobile data and voice services, as well as installation, managed network, remote access, and disaster recovery services. It also provides wholesale services comprising broadband transport services, including private line, Ethernet private line, and wavelength services; local communications and local dial tone communications services; live and automated operator, and directory assistance services; and dedicated Internet access services and direct connectivity. In addition, this segment leases server space and provides Web hosting services that enable customers to build and maintain an online presence, including domain names, storage, mailboxes, software tools to build Web sites, e-commerce applications, and 24/7 customer support. This segment offers its services through direct sales, and independent dealers and sales agents. The company was founded in 1994 and is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Geoff Gannon] nflation growth: Dun & Bradstreet (DNB)

  路 Inflation plus population growth: CEC Entertainment (CEC)

  路 Nominal GDP Growth: Village Supermarket (VLGEA)

  Over the last 10 years ��population growth, inflation, and real output per person growth has been so low it�� hard to tell the difference between companies growing at the rate of inflation, along with the population, or along with the economy.

  You have to squint really hard to see any difference in the revenue growth records of DNB, Chuck E. Cheese, and Village.

  This will not be true in all countries and at all times.

  A literally no growth company like Earthlink is actually shrinking. It just happens to look like it�� staying perfectly flat because inflation is hiding the company�� real decay rate. In real terms, the company has been shrinking by about 3% a year for the last 10 years. So, Earthlink is not a no growth company. It�� shrinking.

  That�� a bad sign. And, frankly, I don�� know how to value Earthlink. You would need to evaluate it as a turnaround or something ��not as a business that�� simplly stuck in place. I don�� know how to do that.

  So, Earhtlink goes into the ��oo hard��pile.

  Dun & Bradstreet and CEC Entertainment are actual no growth businesses. This is hidden by their constant share buy backs. So, if you look at their earnings per share growth they look kind of like Peter Lynch�� idea of a ��low growth��company or even a ��talwart�� They aren��. They��e no growth businesses.

  The same is pretty much true with Village Supermarket. Although this is complicated. The nature of their business ��high volume, low cost groceries ��means they can appear to be a no growth business when they are actually just keeping prices down and increasing volume. You would need to check their sales numbers more carefully. Grocery stores often discuss inflation in their annual reports. Village Supermarket always does t