Top 5 Low Price Stocks To Invest In 2014

Companies like J.C. Penney (JCP) on their way to recovery through turnaround initiatives often pose two challenges to investors. It�� either the turnaround leads to a costly adventure and loss of investors��hard earned money or it brings enormous profit to investors who had the courage to make the right bets. J.C. Penney is a retail company on the verge of booking increases on its top line if consumer spending continues to improve into holiday and back-to-school seasons ahead. With the turnaround stepsbeing taking so far by JCP, the retail company now falls into the same category with Best Buy (BBY) and Rite Aid (RAD) but while Best Buy and Rite Aid retails technology products and drugs respectively, JCP retails family apparel, footwear accessories, home furnishings, and a range of beauty products through its departmental stores across the U.S.

Invest Now in JC Penney with a Thesis

As investors, we all want the value of our portfolios to rise and keep rising. However, seasoned investors know that a strong plan of action is required to succeed in the stock market. Investing in stocks with a goal in mind and creating an exit strategy that is in line with your temperament all constitute sound investment thesis. Irrespective of the potential prospects or risks inherent in any stock investment, good things usually come to investors who invest with a goal in mind; nothing takes them by surprise. Though investing in JCP stock at this time requires due diligence and sound investment thesis but it is well worth the efforts as the stock is at its low prices which offer a lot of attraction to value investors like me.

Top 10 Dividend Companies To Invest In Right Now: Powershares Etf Fund Trusts Ii (PGX)

The PowerShares Preferred Portfolio (Fund) is based on The BofA Merrill Lynch Core Fixed Rate Preferred Securities Index (Index). The Fund normally invest at least 90% of its total assets in securities that comprise the Index. The Index is designed to replicate the total return of a diversified group of investment-grade preferred securities. The Index is rebalanced on a monthly basis. The Fund seeks investment results that correspond generally to the price and yield (before fees and expenses) of a securities index. The Fund invests in sectors, such as basic materials, financial, utilities and unclassified. Invesco PowerShares Capital Management LLC. is the investment adviser. Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Lawrence Meyers]

  Public Storage has 10 different series of preferred stock, but I like the Series T because it trades at $21.83, which is more than 12% below par. I don�� see any reason for this discount, and it also boosts the 5.75% dividend (at par) to 6.58% at the current price.

  Preferred Stocks to Buy: PowerShares Preferred Portfolio (PGX)
  

  Dividend Yield: 6.6%

Top 5 Low Price Stocks To Invest In 2014: Copart Inc. (CPRT)

Copart, Inc. provides online auctions and vehicle remarketing services in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom. The company offers a range of services for processing and selling vehicles over the Internet through its Virtual Bidding Second Generation Internet auction-style sales technology, to vehicle sellers, primarily insurance companies, banks and financial institutions, charities, car dealerships, fleet operators, and vehicle rental companies. Its services include online seller access, salvage estimation services, estimating services, end-of-life vehicle processing, virtual insured exchange, transportation services, vehicle inspection stations, on-demand reporting, DMV processing, flexible vehicle processing programs, member network, sales process, dealer services, direct services, and u-pull-it services, as well as CoPartfinder, an Internet-based used vehicle parts locator that provides vehicle dismantlers with resale opportunities for their purchases. Th e company sells its products to licensed vehicle dismantlers, rebuilders, repair licensees, used vehicle dealers, and exporters, as well as the general public. Copart, Inc. was founded in 1982 and is headquartered in Fairfield, California.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Geoff Gannon] wo companies in its industry that are public. The other company is part of a kind of conglomerate car sales company. That other company, KAR Auction Services (KAR), was much more explicit in detailing the competitive position of Copart and Insurance Auto Auctions. It even gave market share data.

  This is common. Often one company will choose not to give names or put percentages on certain competitive facts. The other company will do so. And even when that is not the case, the two companies will often make statements that ��when taking together ��can give you rough indications of certain realities that neither company entirely intended to provide.

  The same is true for certain suppliers and customers. Although this is complicated by size. Very large customers of small companies are not good sources of information. But smaller companies often provide better insights into the larger suppliers, customers, etc., they deal with. That's because ��due to their small size ��more information is material and is explained in detail.

  I have found situations where one company simply says who the customer is that they are supplying. While the other company explains what product that supply goes into, the purchase amount, whether it is an exclusive arrangement, etc.

  So it is always important to ��at a minimum ��read the 10-Ks, 14As, and (where available) S-1s of every public company in the industry. This will give you a lot of insight into the competitive situation. Sometimes it is helpful to also look at customers and suppliers. However, this is not true of very large customers and suppliers because they will not discuss the specific area you are interested in.

  For example, Honeywell is a large customer of George Risk. It would do me no good to study Honeywell to learn about George Risk. Honeywell is a huge company. What they buy from George Risk is irrelevant to their shareholders. So they do not discuss it.

  An exception to this is

• [By Lauren Pollock]

  Car auctioneer Copart Inc.'s(CPRT) reported a weaker-than-expected fiscal fourth-quarter profit because of higher expenses. While revenue growth topped analysts’ expectations, the bottom line surprisingly fell 8% from a year ago as Copart’s expenses–including yard operation and vehicle sale costs–jumped from the prior year.

• [By Geoff Gannon] facility. They have to either buy somebody out (in which case you might not penalize them in free cash flow) or buy and develop a new salvage yard from scratch (in which case, almost all FCF calculations will punish them for this cap-ex).

  But, if you really believe that Copart can achieve anything like a 27% return on net tangible assets (my estimate of what they��e done in the past) ��should you be penalizing them at all?

  Isn�� a $1 increase in inventory, receivables, and/or land that is going to earn 27 cents a year worth every bit as much as if it was paid out to you (or was sitting in cash at a bank)?

  So, aren�� earnings for a company that earns a 20%+ return on tangible investment clearly worth every bit as much as free cash flow?

  I would say yes. If and only if you believe the future return on the earnings retained by the business today (the marginal return) is in a sense comparable to the average return in the past.

  Don�� confuse how fast a car is moving at this instant with how much distance it�� covered in the past hour.

  The past average is just the past average. It is not the same as what the company will earn on the next dollar of capital it puts into the business.

  But it can be used as a guide. Especially for wide moat businesses.

  Like any rough guide ��you want to leave a big margin of safety. So, if you think you can make 10% on the money in your brokerage account and the company you are investing in has an average unleveraged return on tangible net assets of 12% - that�� pretty much a wash. I can�� say that money is better off with the company than it is with you. And I think ��absent tax concerns ��it would make perfect sense to hope the company paid that cash out to you.

  At a 20% unleveraged return on tangible net assets I�� feel differently. The evidence points to the company having a better chance to earn more on the capital inside the business than you�� be able to ea

Top 5 Low Price Stocks To Invest In 2014: Colony Financial Inc (CLNY)

Colony Financial, Inc. is a real estate investment and finance company. The Company primarily acquires, originates and manages a diversified portfolio of real estate-related debt instruments. The Company focuses on acquiring, originating and managing commercial mortgage loans, which may be performing, sub-performing or non-performing loans (including loan-to-own strategies), and other commercial real estate-related debt investments. The Company is managed by Colony Financial Manager, LLC (the Manager) and an affiliate of the Company.

The Company also may acquire other real estate and real estate-related debt assets. The Company collectively refers to commercial mortgage loans, other commercial real estate-related debt investments, commercial mortgage-backed securities (CMBS), real estate owned (REO), properties and other real estate and real estate-related assets as its target assets.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Amanda Alix]

  Is it risky to be putting so much money into an as-yet unproven business model? Some may think so, including investors. Noting the tumble in stock price that newbies like Silver Bay and American Residential have suffered recently, Colony Capital (NYSE: CLNY  ) chief Thomas Barrack postponed�the IPO of his new single-family rental company, Colony American Homes. Similarly, Public Storage (NYSE: PSA  ) has filed for an IPO, too, hoping to take its American Homes 4 Rent unit public -- at some unannounced, future date. In the meantime, American Homes can rely on its $500 million credit facility�with Wells Fargo, which may be bumped up to $1 billion if necessary.

Top 5 Low Price Stocks To Invest In 2014: CAMAC Energy Inc (CAK)

CAMAC Energy Inc. (CAMAC), incorporated on December 12, 1979, is an independent oil and gas exploration and production company focused on energy resources in Africa. Its asset portfolio consists of nine production and exploration licenses in four countries covering an area of 43,000 square kilometers (approximately 10 million acres), including existing production and other projects offshore Nigeria, as well as exploration licenses with hydrocarbon potential onshore and offshore Kenya, offshore Gambia, and offshore Ghana.

Nigeria

The Company owns 100% of the economic interests under a Production Sharing Contract (PSC) and related assets, contracts and rights pertaining to those certain Oil Mining Leases 120 and 121 (OMLs 120 and 121) including the producing Oyo Field which is located in deep-water (200-500 meters) approximately 75 kilometers (46 miles) offshore Nigeria. In September 2013, drilling operations commenced on the Oyo-7 well in OML 120. In October 2013, the preliminary results from the Oyo-7 well were announced. Based on logging while drilling (LWD) data, the well encountered gross oil pay of 133 feet (net oil pay of 115 feet) and gross gas pay of 103 feet (net gas pay of 93 feet) in the gas cap from the producing Pliocene reservoir, with reservoir. The top of the reservoir was penetrated at 5,564 feet.

Kenya

The Kenya PSCs for blocks L1B and L16 each provide for an initial exploration period of two years with specified minimum work obligations during that period. The Company conducts, for each block, a gravity and magnetic survey and acquire, process and interpret two dimensional (2D) seismic data. The gravity and magnetic survey on blocks L1B and L16 was completed in April 2013. The Company has the right to apply for up to two additional two-year exploration periods with specified additional minimum work obligations, including the acquisition of three dimensional (3D) seismic data and the drilling of one exploratory well on each block du! ring each such additional period. In December 2013, the Company initiated an Environmental and Social Impact Assessment (ESIA) study in blocks L1B and L16 in order to obtain the license to carry out a 2D seismic survey.

The Kenya PSCs for blocks L27 and L28 each provide for an initial exploration period of three years with specified minimum work obligations during that period. The Company conducts, for each block, a regional geological and geophysical study, acquire 2D seismic data and acquire, process and interpret 3D seismic data. The Company has the right to apply for up to two additional two-year exploration periods with specified additional minimum work obligations, including the drilling of one exploratory well on each block, during each such additional period. CAMAC is participating in a multi-client combined gravity / magnetic and 2D seismic survey which is underway in blocks L27 and L28.

The Gambia

The Gambia Licenses for both blocks provide for an initial exploration period of four years with specified minimum work obligations during that period. The Company conducts, for each block, a regional geological study, acquire process and interpret 750 square kilometers of 3D seismic data, drill one exploration well to the total depth of 5,000 meters below mean sea level and evaluate drilling results. The Company has the right to apply for up to two additional two-year exploration periods with specified additional minimum work obligations, including the drilling of one exploration well during each additional period for each block.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Rich Bieglmeier]

  But, we'll take a look at CAMAC Energy Inc (NYSEMKT:CAK).� Since the odds are you haven't heard of CAK, the company is an independent oil and gas exploration and production company focused on energy resources in Africa. Its asset portfolio consists of nine production and exploration licenses in four countries covering an area of 43,000 square kilometers (approximately 10 million acres), including existing production and other projects offshore Nigeria, as well as exploration licenses with hydrocarbon potential onshore and offshore Kenya, offshore Gambia, and offshore Ghana.