Top 5 Penny Stocks To Watch For 2014

NEW YORK (TheStreet -- Cancelled stocks are the walking dead in penny stock land.

They are set to die but continue to trade. These stocks are usually collateral damage from a bankruptcy ruling based on creditors demands to protect their assets, usually in bonds. Most often, a judge will divvy up the company's carcass, leaving the largest slice to bondholders while equity investors watch helplessly as a stock is cancelled.

Most sane investors would question why in such cases anyone would buy a soon-to-be-cancelled. The answer is simple: the low price, often in pennies, seems too good to pass up.

"A bunch of people trade in the Q's," said Zvi Rhine of Sabra Capital Partners, referring to companies in bankruptcy which have a "Q" added to their ticker. "Every now and then a Q stock will rip." Cathy Hershcopf is a corporate bankruptcy lawyer at Cooley LLP who said she's always surprised that investors trade in equities that have almost no value and little prospects for improvement. "When a company declares bankruptcy, there usually isn't enough money left for the creditors to be paid in full, much less give any value to the equity," Hershcopf said. Investors often lose money because they fall prey to speculation and rumor, the currency of Internet chat rooms. A common rumor is that an 'equity committee' will be formed to save a stock, thereby pushing the shares higher and sucking-in unsuspecting buyers. However, these rumors rarely pan out. Once a judge hears from creditors and declares a cancellation, the stock's life comes to an abrupt end, and shareholders lose all their money. Rick Szambel of Albert Fried specializes in bankrupt stocks and says he's a frequent target of the bankrupt-stock rumor mongering. "Even when I'm right, I am criticized as being wrong,'' Szambel said. "I quote directly from the disclosure documents, so I'm not wrong. Most regular people don't know where to find these documents or know how to understand them." Nonetheless, anyone can say anything on the Internet, Szambel said. "Just because someone says it on the Internet, doesn't mean it's true."

Top 10 Heal Care Companies To Watch For 2015: RAIT Financial Trust(RAS)

RAIT Financial Trust operates as a self-managed and self-advised real estate investment trust (REIT). The company, through its subsidiaries, invests in, manages, and services real estate-related assets with a focus on commercial real estate. It also offers a set of debt financing options to the commercial real estate industry along with fixed income trading and advisory services. In addition, RAIT Financial Trust owns and manages a portfolio of commercial real estate properties, and manages real estate-related assets for third parties. The company qualifies as a REIT for federal income tax purposes. As a REIT, it would not be subject to federal income tax to the extent that it distributes at least 90% of its taxable income to its shareholders. RAIT Investment Trust was founded in 1997 and is based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Marc Bastow]

  Commercial real-estate loan originator and real estate investment trust RAIT Financial Trust (RAS) raised its quarterly dividend 6% to 17 cents per share, payable April 30 to shareholders of record as of April 4. At more than an 8% yield, RAS stock has the highest yield on this week’s list of dividend stocks.
  RAS Dividend Yield: 8.14%.

• [By Eric Volkman]

  RAIT Financial Trust (NYSE: RAS  ) investors will be getting slightly more than they did last quarter, as a reward for putting their faith in the company (NYSE: RAS  ) . The real estate investment trust has declared a common stock dividend of $0.13 per share, to be handed out on July 31 to shareholders of record as of July 12.�That amount is $0.01, or 8%, higher than RAIT's previous distribution of $0.12, which was paid in April. Prior to that, the firm dispensed $0.10 per share.

• [By Marc Bastow]

  Commercial real estate holding real estate investment trust (REIT) RAIT Financial (RAS) raised its quarterly dividend 7% to 16 cents per share, payable on Jan. 31 to share holders of record as of Jan. 7.
  RAS Dividend Yield: 7.48%

Top 5 Penny Stocks To Watch For 2014: Tyson Foods Inc.(TSN)

Tyson Foods, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, engages in the production, distribution, and marketing of chicken, beef, pork, and prepared food products, as well as related allied products worldwide. The company?s Chicken segment involves in breeding and raising chickens, as well as processing live chickens into fresh, frozen, and value-added chicken products. Its Beef segment processes live fed cattle and fabricates dressed beef carcasses into primal and sub-primal meat cuts and case-ready products The company?s Pork segment involves in the processing live market hogs; and fabricating pork carcasses into primal and sub-primal cuts and case-ready products. Its Prepared Foods segment manufactures and markets frozen and refrigerated food products comprising pepperoni, bacon, beef and pork pizza toppings, pizza crusts, flour and corn tortilla products, appetizers, prepared meals, ethnic foods, soups, sauces, side dishes, meat dishes, and processed meats. The company mark ets and sells its products to grocery retailers, grocery wholesalers, meat distributors, warehouse club stores, military commissaries, industrial food processing companies, chain restaurants or their distributors, international export companies, and domestic distributors, as well as to foodservice operations, such as plant and school cafeterias, convenience stores, hospitals, and other vendors. Tyson Foods, Inc. also offers its allied products to the manufacturers of pharmaceuticals and technical products, as well as to pork processors. The company was founded in 1935 and is headquartered in Springdale, Arkansas.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Ben Levisohn]

  Tyson Foods (TSN) plunged 12% to $35.43 this week, making it the biggest loser in the S&P 500. Tyson won a bidding war for Hillshire Foods (HSH) this week–and probably overpaid.

• [By Ben Levisohn]

  Big losers included Best Buy (BBY), which fell 11% to $38.78 after it said margins would get hit by holiday discounts, Campbell Soup (CPB), which fell 6.2% to $39.20 after reporting lousy earnings, and Jacobs Engineering (JEC), which fell 5.8% to $60.03 after it reported earnings that missed analyst forecasts. Tyson Foods (TSN) gained 4.6% to $30.78 a day after beating earnings forecasts, while Boston Scientific (BSX) after one of its medical devices was approved by European regulators.

• [By Rich Duprey]

  This should be a warning bell not only to U.S. protein producers such as Tyson Foods (NYSE: TSN  ) , which is�looking to boost sales by 12% to 16% annually over the next several years through�greater overseas production,�particularly in China,�but also restaurant chains such as Yum! and McDonald's (NYSE: MCD  ) , which count on chicken for large portions of their�revenues. Consumers could shun�chicken consumption by making fewer restaurant visits or purchasing chicken less at retail, but it could also result in reduced export activity.�

Top 5 Penny Stocks To Watch For 2014: MGP Ingredients Inc.(MGPI)

MGP Ingredients, Inc. produces ingredients and distillery products in the United States. It processes wheat flour and corn into various products through an integrated production process. The company operates in three business segments: Ingredient Solutions, Distillery Products, and Other. The Ingredient Solutions segment products consist of specialty proteins, specialty starches, vital wheat gluten, commodity wheat starch, and mill by-products. The Distillery Products segment offers food grade alcohol; fuel grade alcohol, commonly known as ethanol; and distiller?s feed and carbon dioxide, which are co-products of the company?s distillery operations. The Other segment products comprise resins, and plant-based polymers and composites. MGP Ingredients, Inc. sells its products directly or through distributors to the manufacturers and processors of finished goods. The company was founded in 1941 and is headquartered in Atchison, Kansas.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By John Udovich]

  Shares of small cap stocks VASCO Data Security International, Inc (NASDAQ: VDSI), MGP Ingredients Inc (NASDAQ: MGPI) and Planar Systems, Inc (NASDAQ: PLNR) are up 277.7%, 228.5% and 222%, respectively, since the start of the year with all three stocks being in rather interesting or overlooked sectors e.g. data/cloud security, alcohol/ingredients and display/digital signage technology. Here is what you need to know or be warned about all three small cap stocks:

• [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).

Top 5 Penny Stocks To Watch For 2014: Pervasive Software Inc.(PVSW)

Pervasive Software, Inc. provides embeddable software and SaaS services for data management, data integration, B2B exchange, and analytics. Its embeddable Pervasive PSQL database engine provides database reliability in a near-zero database administration environment for packaged business applications. Pervasive Software?s multi-purpose data integration platform, available on-premises and in the cloud, accelerates the sharing of information between multiple data stores, applications, and hosted business systems, and allows customers to re-use the same software for diverse integration scenarios. Pervasive DataRush is an embeddable parallel-processing platform enabling data-intensive applications, such as claims processing, risk analysis, fraud detection, data mining, predictive analytics, sales optimization, and marketing analytics. The company serves customers in approximately 150 countries. Pervasive Software, through Pervasive Innovation Labs, also invests in the explorat ion and creation of solutions for the data analysis and data delivery challenges. Pervasive Software, Inc. has a strategic alliance with A.D.A.M. Inc. The company was founded in 1994 and is headquartered in Austin, Texas with additional offices in Greenville, South Carolina; Brussels, Belgium; Frankfurt, Germany; Paris, France; and London, the United Kingdom.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By CRWE]

  Pervasive Software(R) Inc. (NASDAQ:PVSW), a global leader in cloud-based and on-premises data innovation, reported that it is in receipt of an unsolicited non-binding letter from Actian Corporation proposing to acquire all of the outstanding shares of Pervasive common stock for $8.50 per share in cash.