Best Logistics Stocks To Watch For 2014

Global logistics specialist Expeditors International (NASDAQ: EXPD  ) announced yesterday that the company's CEO would retire effective�March 1.�

Expeditors said�Peter J. Rose will remain chairman through the company's annual meeting in May 2015 as a means of assisting the�new CEO -- who the company expects to name in January -- with building relationships with investors, customers, and other external stakeholders.�The January s meeting will celebrate Expeditors' 35th anniversary.

Reflecting on his presiding over 100 quarters of operation, or some 25 years, Rose said it became clear it was more important to transition and introduce the new CEO to the company's stakeholders.

"I look forward to working with the Board of Directors with our transition to a new CEO, who will be selected from a slate of well-qualified and experienced internal candidates.," Rose was quoted in the press release as saying. "The new CEO will be one resolved to assuring we maintain our cultural values and focus on providing best-in-class service to customers around the globe so that our people and our shareholders enjoy even greater levels of success."

Top 10 Oil Service Stocks To Watch For 2015: Powershares Dynamic Food & Beverage Portfolio (PBJ)

PowerShares Dynamic Food & Beverage Portfolio (the Fund) seeks investment results that correspond generally to the price and yield of an equity index called the Dynamic Food & Beverage Intellidex Index (the Food & Beverage Intellidex). The Food & Beverage Intellidex consists of stocks of 30 United States food and beverage companies. These are companies that are principally engaged in the manufacture, sale or distribution of food and beverage products, agricultural products and products related to the development of new food technologies. These companies may include companies that sell products and services, such as meat and poultry processing, and wholesale and retail distribution and warehousing of food and food-related products, including restaurants, grocery stores, brewers, distillers and vintners, as well as companies that manufacture and distribute products, including soft drinks, packaged food products (such as cereals, pet foods and frozen foods), health food and dietary products. Stocks are selected principally on the basis of their capital appreciation potential as identified by the AMEX (the Intellidex Provider) pursuant to its Intellidex methodology. The Fund�� investment advisor is PowerShares Capital Management LLC.

The Food & Beverage Intellidex is adjusted quarterly, and the Fund, using an indexing investment approach, attempts to replicate the performance of the Food & Beverage Intellidex. The Fund generally will invest in all of the stocks comprising the Food & Beverage Intellidex in proportion to their weightings in the Food & Beverage Intellidex. The Fund will normally invest at least 80% of its total assets in common stocks of food and beverage companies. The Fund will normally invest at least 90% of its total assets in common stocks that comprise the Food & Beverage Intellidex.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By John Udovich]

  Small cap ingredients stock Balchem Corporation (NASDAQ: BCPC) jumped 22.76% yesterday on news about an acquisition, meaning its worth taking a closer look at the stock along with potential peers like small cap MGP Ingredients Inc (NASDAQ: MGPI) and the PowerShares Dynamic Food & Beverage ETF (NYSEARCA: PBJ).

Best Logistics Stocks To Watch For 2014: Safe Bulkers Inc(SB)

Safe Bulkers, Inc. provides marine drybulk transportation services worldwide. The company transports various bulk cargoes, primarily coal, grain, and iron ore. As of July 15, 2011, it had a fleet of 16 drybulk vessels, with an aggregate carrying capacity of 1,443,800 deadweight tons. The company?s fleet consists of Panamax, Kamsarmax, Post-Panamax, and Capesize class vessels, as well as 11 further contracted additional drybulk new build vessels to be delivered at various times through 2014. Safe Bulkers, Inc. was incorporated in 2007 and is based in Athens, Greece.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Louis Navellier]

  European Stocks to Buy: Safe Bulkers (SB)

  Safe Bulkers (SB) is a Greek company that owns and operates dry bulk carrier vessels that transport major bulks, which include iron ore, coal, and grains Right now they have a fleet of 20 dry bulk carriers and also provide felt management services to third parties.

• [By Jon C. Ogg]

  Safe Bulkers Inc. (NYSE: SB) was raised to Buy all the way up from Underperform for a two-notch upgrade, and the price target was raised to $8 from $6, at BofA/Merrill Lynch.

• [By James E. Brumley]

  The recent strength from Sino-Global Shipping America, Ltd. (NASDAQ:SINO) and the now-renewed strength from Safe Bulkers, Inc. (NYSE:SB) would suggest those two stocks are among the very best ways to play the rebound currently unfurling in the shipping sector. And to be fair, both are fine companies in their own right. The top play in the dry goods maritime shipping arena, however, may well be Diana Shipping Inc. (NYSE:DSX). No, DSX isn't one of the fun and exciting small caps in the maritime shipping space. But, there's a lot to be said for size and stability, which SB and SINO can't offer.

• [By James E. Brumley]

  It's certainly no Safe Bulkers, Inc. (NYSE:SB) or Star Bulk Carriers Corp. (NASDAQ:SBLK), in terms or market cap or revenue. In fact, even with the drybulk shipping industry it's a somewhat obscure name. Yet, FreeSeas Inc. (NASDAQ:FREE) may well be the stock with the most near-term potential upside, now that it's gotten over a key technical hump.

Best Logistics Stocks To Watch For 2014: Cabot Oil & Gas Corporation(COG)

Cabot Oil & Gas Corporation operates as an independent oil and gas company in the United States. The company engages in the development, exploitation, exploration, production, and marketing of natural gas, crude oil, and natural gas liquids. It holds reserves in north region comprising Appalachian and Rocky Mountains areas; and south region consisting of Anadarko basin with Texas and Louisiana areas. The company also transports, stores, gathers, and purchases natural gas for resale. As of December 31, 2010, it had proved reserves of approximately 2,761 billion cubic feet of natural gas equivalents. The company was founded in 1989 and is headquartered in Houston, Texas.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Arjun Sreekumar]

  The company is also cozying up to the idea of using natural gas to fuel hydraulic fracking operations, an approach that exploration and production companies including Apache (NYSE: APA  ) and Cabot Oil & Gas (NYSE: COG  ) are already using.

Best Logistics Stocks To Watch For 2014: Questar Corporation(STR)

Questar Corporation operates as an integrated natural gas holding company. The company develops and produces natural gas and crude oil from its properties located in the Rocky Mountain region, primarily in the Pinedale, Moxa Arch, Vermillion, and Uinta producing areas. It also provides interstate natural gas-transportation and underground-storage services in Utah, Wyoming, and Colorado; and wellhead automation and measurement services for Rockies oil and gas producers. The company owns and operates approximately 2,568 miles of interstate pipeline with total firm-capacity commitments of 4,983 Mdth per day transporting natural gas from Rocky Mountain producing areas to other pipeline systems, distribution systems, and other utility systems; the Overthrust Pipeline in southwestern Wyoming and the eastern segment of Southern Trails Pipeline, a 487-mile line that extends from the Blanco hub in the San Juan Basin to just inside the California state line near the Arizona border; the White River Hub facilities that connect with 6 interstate-pipeline systems and a processing plant near Meeker, Colorado; the Clay Basin storage facility, an underground-storage reservoir in the Rocky Mountain region; and gathering lines and processing facilities, which provide gas-processing services for third parties near Price, Utah. In addition, it distributes natural gas as a public utility in Utah, southwestern Wyoming, and a small portion of southeastern Idaho. Questar Corporation was founded in 1922 and is headquartered in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Jonas Elmerraji]

  We're seeing the exact same price setup in shares of mid-cap natural gas company Questar (STR), even if the chart looks a little different at first glance. Like REGN, Questar is currently forming a downtrending channel, but in this case, the channel is bounded to the downside by two extra support levels. Don't expect support to provide a reprieve from selling, though – the trend is clearly down from here.

  STR is sitting up near trendline resistance right now, which provides an optimal time to exit a position in shares. This stock has gotten swatted down on each of the last three attempts to push through the top of the channel, and with shares slipping for a fourth time, the message is pretty clear that the trendline isn't going to break this time around either.

  Enstar is currently forming a descending triangle pattern, a bearish price setup that's formed by a horizontal resistance level below shares and downtrending support pressing to the upside. Basically, as shares of ESGR bounce in between those two technical price levels, they're getting squeezed closer and closer to a breakdown below support at $133. A move through that $133 price level is the signal to sell (or short) this name.

  Relative strength is showing no signs of improvement in ESGR right now, which means that even after shedding almost 10% from its highs, this stock is still failing to keep up with the S&P's performance. Keep a close eye on this name while shares remain within reach of $133.

• [By Aimee Duffy]

  Customer diversification and fee-based revenue are tough to beat. Let's look at some of QEP's top customers:

  Anadarko Petroleum EOG Resources (NYSE: EOG  ) Questar (NYSE: STR  ) Ultra Resources, a subsidiary of Ultra Petroleum (NYSE: UPL  )

  EOG Resources accounted for 11% of the midstream unit's revenue in 2012, while Questar accounted for 12%. Ultra is one of the two-largest shippers on QEP's Green River 60-mile crude oil pipeline (the other is Chevron).

Best Logistics Stocks To Watch For 2014: 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.

Best Logistics Stocks To Watch For 2014: LIN TV Corp(TVL)

LIN TV Corp., together with its subsidiaries, operates as a local television and digital media company. It operates or services 32 network-affiliates, television station Websites, and mobile products in 15 U.S. markets. The company?s television stations, which are affiliated with a national broadcast network, deliver local news and community stories, as well as sports and entertainment programming to 7.4% of U.S. television homes. It is also involved in the convergence of local broadcast television and the Internet through its television station Websites and local online technologies. In addition, LIN TV Corp. offers its content online and on mobile applications. The company was formerly known as Ranger Equity Holdings Corporation and changed its name to LIN TV Corp. in February 2002. LIN TV Corp. was founded in 1966 and is headquartered in Providence, Rhode Island.

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 LIN TV (NYSE: TVL  ) , whose recent revenue and earnings are plotted below.