Top Canadian Stocks To Watch For 2014

A few companies excel over their market peers, granting them an unconventional competitive advantage. Everybody knows the market leaders, or the mammoth companies, but there are other particular services that can give a firm greater exposure. No other example is more relevant than the rotary rig count offered by Baker Hughes (BIH). The Baker Hughes Rig Counts provides a weekly count of U.S. and Canadian drilling activity to the industry since 1944, and has become an important business barometer for the drilling industry and its suppliers. Most importantly, the index allows industry analysts to identify industry trends, while providing valuable information to prospect investors beyond Baker Hughes itself. After experiencing a decline in performance from mid-2011 to the end of 2012, the company saw great improvement in overall performance during 2013. Can the trend be expected to continue?

Mapping Current Activity

During the prior count dated March 21, the Baker Hughes Rig Counts reported a decline of 91 wells for Canada, while six had been added in the U.S. Meanwhile, the international are recording an increase of 16 wells during January. The last count, dated March 28 and February, respectively, saw increments in all three areas. However, Canada has recovered a little over half of the 91 wells lost during the second half of March. The increase in activity across the board is clear, offering strong synergies to be absorbed and materialized into growth.

Top 10 Chemical Stocks To Own Right Now: Dice Holdings Inc. (DHX)

Dice Holdings, Inc. provides specialized career Websites and career fairs for professional communities. Its career Websites serve as online marketplaces where employers and recruiters find and recruit prospective employees, and where professionals find relevant job opportunities and information. The company's Tech and Clearance segment operates Dice.com, a recruiting and career development Website for technology and engineering professionals in the United States; and ClearanceJobs.com, an Internet-based career network to matching security-cleared professionals with hiring companies searching for employees. This segment also includes Slashdot Media, which comprises Websites, such as Slashdot, a user-generated news, analysis, peer question, and professional insight community; SourceForge, an online destination for technology professionals and enthusiasts to develop, download, review, and publish Open Source software; and Freecode that indexes downloadable Linux, Unix, and cr oss-platform software for a worldwide technology audience. Its Finance segment operates eFinancialCareers.com, a recruiting and career development Website for financial market professionals and financial services industry worldwide. The company's Energy segment operates Rigzone.com, a career Website that delivers online content, data, advertising, and career services for the oil and gas industry. Its Other segment includes Targeted Job Fairs, which produce and host career fairs and open houses focused primarily on technology, energy, and security-cleared candidates; Health Callings, a recruiting and career development Website for healthcare professionals; and WorkDigital, a technology company focused on the recruitment industry. The company serves staffing companies, recruiting agencies, consulting firms, and marketing departments of companies, as well as small, mid-sized, and large direct employers. Dice Holdings, Inc. was founded in 1991 and is headquartered in New York, N ew York.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Rick Aristotle Munarriz]

  Alamy The market may have rallied remarkably this year, but there are plenty of stocks that never got the memo. Dozens of stocks are hitting fresh 52-week lows these days, and some of them aren't as bad as their low stock prices would seem to suggest. Last week, I took a look at five stocks that didn't deserve to be hitting new 52-week highs. Now it's time to flip things around and look at five stocks that hit new 52-week lows last week that are prime candidates to bounce back. Dice Holdings (DHX) 52-Week Range: $6.83-$10.43 Dice operates several industry-specific career and employment websites, including the namesake Dice.com for tech jobs, ClearanceJobs.com for jobs that require security clearance, and Rigzone.com for jobs in the oil industry. It's a novel approach to helping folks in specific sectors network, and naturally this is magnetic to potential employers. The success of LinkedIn (LNKD) may have taken some of the shine off Dice, but the company's still finding ways to grow. Analysts see revenue climbing at a slightly better than 6 percent clip this year and again in 2014. Kinder Morgan (KMI) 52-Week Range: $32.30-$41.49 Kinder Morgan watches over the country's largest network of natural gas pipelines. Thanks to its reputation as a cleaner energy source than coal or petroleum (and the massive upsurge in U.S. production thanks to the fracking boom), natural gas is a growing source of domestic energy. Even commercial vehicles are starting to be powered by liquefied natural gas. Kinder Morgan is growing, but it has missed Wall Street's profit targets in each of the three past quarters. That's been enough to scare off some investors. However, the falling share price has also made Kinder Morgan's healthy dividend that much more compelling. The stock's yield of 4.6 percent is too rich to ignore here. Liquidity Services (LQDT) 52-Week Range: $20.37-$44.40 Liquidity Services prides itself as a problem solver. It runs a marketplace for items that need to b

• [By Jeff Reeves]

  Dice Holdings (DHX) is a $500 million company that provides job-seekers with employment opportunities within their industry.

  Unlike blanket sites like HotJobs from Yahoo (YHOO) or Monster Worldwide (MWW), Dice is compartmentalized with properties that includes tech portal Slashdot, oil and gas site Rigzone and finance site eFinancial Careers and medical career site Health Callings.

• [By gurujx]

  Dice Holdings Incorporated (DHX) Reached the 3-year Low of $7.16

  The prices of Dice Holdings Incorporated (DHX) shares have declined to close to the 3-year low of $7.16, which is 62.9% off the 3-year high of $18.75.

Top Canadian Stocks To Watch For 2014: Grupo Televisa S.A.(TV)

Grupo Televisa, S.A.B., together with its subsidiaries, operates as a media company in Mexico and internationally. It operates in seven segments: Television Broadcasting, Pay Television Networks, Programming Exports, Publishing, Sky, Cable and Telecom, and Other Businesses. The Television Broadcasting segment engages in the production of television programming and broadcasting of channels 2, 4, 5, and 9; and production of television programming and broadcasting for local television stations in Mexico and the United States. The Pay Television Networks segment provides programming services for cable and pay-per-view television companies in Mexico, as well as other countries in Latin America, the United States, and Europe. The Programming Exports segment offers international licensing of television programming. The Publishing segment primarily publishes Spanish-language magazines in Mexico, the United States, and Latin America. The Sky segment provides direct-to-home broadcas t satellite pay television services in Mexico, Central America, and the Dominican Republic. The Cable and Telecom segment operates a cable and telecommunication system in the Mexico City metropolitan area. This segment provides data and long-distance services solutions to carriers and other telecommunications service providers through its fiber-optic network in Mexico and the United States; basic and premium television, pay-per-view, and telephone services. The Other Businesses segment engages in sports and show business promotion, soccer, feature film production and distribution, Internet, gaming, radio, and publishing distribution operations. The company was founded in 1990 and is headquartered in Mexico City, Mexico.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Laura Brodbeck]

  Monday

  Earnings Releases Expected:  Grupo Televisa S.A (NYSE: TV) Economic Releases Expected: Japanese current account, eurozone investor confidence, Spanish industrial production, German industrial production

  Tuesday

• [By Daniel Cross]

  Grupo Televisa (NYSE: TV) is a broadcasting company that is set to take advantage of growth in several areas. The increase in the United States' Hispanic population means there are 53 million potential users of Spanish-language networks like Univision. Grupo Televisa receives royalties from licensing its programs to Univision, and revenue is expected to top $270 million this year. The emergence of Mexico as a manufacturing powerhouse means that the middle class should see a boost as well. Pay TV is popular in Mexico, as seen by a 12% rise in that segment's revenues from last year. Operating margins are improving as well, increasing from 17% in 2011 to 26% as of the most recent quarter.

• [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 Grupo Televisa (NYSE: TV  ) , whose recent revenue and earnings are plotted below.

• [By Monica Wolfe]

  Grupo Televisa (TV)

  Over the past quarter the most gurus held on to Grupo Televisa S.A.B. There were twelve guru owners with seven gurus making buys last quarter and eight making sells. These gurus hold a combined weighting of 7.07%.

Top Canadian Stocks To Watch For 2014: CF Industries Holdings Inc. (CF)

CF Industries Holdings, Inc., through its subsidiary, CF Industries, Inc., manufactures and distributes nitrogen and phosphate fertilizer products, serving agricultural and industrial customers worldwide. It operates in two segments, Nitrogen and Phosphate. The Nitrogen segment principally offers ammonia, granular urea, urea ammonium nitrate solution, urea liquor, diesel exhaust fluid, and aqua ammonia. The Phosphate segment primarily offers diammonium phosphate and monoammonium phosphate. The company also owns 50% interests in the GrowHow UK Limited, a nitrogen products producer in the United Kingdom; Point Lisas Nitrogen Limited, an ammonia producer; and KEYTRADE AG, a global fertilizer trading company. CF Industries Holdings� customers include cooperatives and independent fertilizer distributors primarily in the midwestern United States. The company was founded in 1946 and is headquartered in Deerfield, Illinois.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Ben Levisohn]

  Among the other material stocks joining Goldcorp among Barclays’ top picks for 2014: Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold (FCX) and�CF Industries�(CF). Freeport-McMoRan has gained 0.9% to $34.95 and CF Industries has dropped 0.6% to $230.10.

Top Canadian Stocks To Watch For 2014: Iamgold Corporation(IAG)

IAMGOLD Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, engages in the exploration, development, and production of mineral resource properties worldwide. It primarily explores for gold, silver, zinc, copper, niobium, diamonds, and other metals. The company holds interests in eight operating gold mines, a niobium producer, a diamond royalty, and exploration and development projects located in Africa and the Americas. Its advanced exploration and development projects include the Westwood project in Canada; and the Quimsacocha project, which consists of 3 mining concessions covering an aggregate area of approximately 8,030 hectares in Ecuador. The company was formerly known as IAMGOLD International African Mining Gold Corporation and changed its name to IAMGOLD Corporation in June 1997. IAMGOLD Corporation was founded in 1990 and is based in Toronto, Canada.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Matt DiLallo]

  IAMGOLD (NYSE: IAG  )
  Canadian gold miner IAMGOLD pays a semiannual dividend of $0.125 per share, which equates to a current yield of about 4.45%. As the company's name would imply, its revenues are generated by its gold-mining operations. Currently, the company has six gold mines across three continents as well as several potential projects in the works. The company's current priorities given the slumping gold market include cash preservation, cost reduction, and disciplined capital allocation. While the dividend looks safe for now, given the company's stated policy of not jeopardizing is strong balance sheet, it could be reduced if gold prices fall further. �

• [By Dan Caplinger]

  On that theory, hard-hit energy stocks that have suffered from the crash in oil prices could stand to benefit. Continental Resources (NYSE: CLR  ) , for instance, lost more than half its value in the last four months of 2014 as the exploration and production company with a huge stake in the Bakken shale play in North Dakota suffered from worries about the sustainability of its long-term growth in light of falling oil. Similarly, many small-cap gold and silver miners struggled through a poor 2014, and so companies like First Majestic Silver (NYSE: AG  ) and IAMGOLD (NYSE: IAG  ) arguably have more to gain from a January bounce.

• [By Ben Levisohn]

  As a result, Chidley and team upgraded Agnico Eagle Mines (AEM) and�Yamana Gold (AUY) to Neutral from Underweight, and raised Barrick Gold (ABX), Goldcorp (GG) and Iamgold (IAG) to Overweight from Neutral.�Gold Fields (GFI) was downgraded “due to increased risk and also reduced expectations for the South Deep operation,” Chidley says.

• [By Tom Stoukas]

  Air France led airlines lower, falling 4 percent to 7.30 euros. International Consolidated Airlines Group SA (IAG) lost 1.9 percent to 270.7 pence while Deutsche Lufthansa AG slid 2.1 percent to 15.75 euros.

Top Canadian Stocks To Watch For 2014: Enerplus Corporation (ERF)

Enerplus Corporation, together with subsidiaries, engages in the exploration and development of crude oil and natural gas in United States and Canada. As of December 31, 2011, it had 322 MMBOE of proved plus probable reserves. The company also held a portfolio of approximately 380,000 net acres of land comprised of 75,000 net acres at Fort Berthold targeting the Bakken and Three Forks; 65,000 net acres in the Duvernay; 33,000 net acres in the Montney; 67,000 net acres in the Stacked Mannville; 30,000 net acres in the Cardium and other emerging oil plays in Canada; and 110,000 net acres in the Marcellus. In addition, it had 120 gross producing wells. The company was founded in 1986 and is headquartered in Calgary, Canada.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Rich Duprey]

  Canadian oil and gas producer Enerplus (NYSE: ERF  ) announced today its August monthly dividend of $0.09 Canadian per share, which is equivalent to $0.09 U.S. per share at an exchange rate of 0.9674.

• [By Dan Caplinger]

  The biggest worry that some investors have about Pengrowth is that its dividend is large compared to its earnings. Similar issues forced Penn West Petroleum (NYSE: PWE  ) , also a former Canroy, to cut its dividend a couple months ago. Although extraordinary measures have helped Pengrowth and Enerplus (NYSE: ERF  ) sustain payouts at levels that were last reduced in the middle of 2012, both companies could eventually see further pressure on their payouts in future.

• [By Dan Caplinger]

  Tomorrow, Enerplus (NYSE: ERF  ) will release its latest quarterly results. The key to making smart investment decisions on stocks reporting earnings is to anticipate how they'll do before they announce results, leaving you fully prepared to respond quickly to whatever inevitable surprises arise. That way, you'll be less likely to make an uninformed knee-jerk reaction to news that turns out to be exactly the wrong move.

• [By GURUFOCUS]

  Canadian Trusts- Baytex Energy Trust (BTE) | Yield: 6.1%
  - Enerplus Resources Fund (ERF) | Yield: 5.6%
  - Pengrowth Energy Trust (PGH) | Yield: 7.1%

Top Canadian Stocks To Watch For 2014: STMicroelectronics N.V.(STM)

STMicroelectronics N.V., an independent semiconductor company, engages in the design, development, manufacture, and marketing of a range of semiconductor integrated circuits and discrete devices. Its products include discrete and standard commodity components, application-specific integrated circuits, custom devices and semi-custom devices, and application-specific standard products for analog, digital, and mixed-signal applications. The company also offers subsystems and modules for the telecommunications, automotive, and industrial markets comprising mobile phone accessories, battery chargers, ISDN power supplies, and in-vehicle equipment for electronic toll payment, as well as provides Smartcard products. Its products are used in various microelectronic applications consisting of automotive products, computer peripherals, telecommunications systems, consumer products, industrial automation, and control systems. The company sells its products through distributors and ret ailers. STMicroelectronics N.V. was founded in 1987 and is headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Michael Allison]

  On Aug. 13, 2013, the company announced that shareholders of Energy Fuels overwhelmingly approved Energy Fuel's acquisition of Strathmore Minerals Corp. (STM). (See Energy Fuel's press release here.)

• [By Lee Jackson]

  STMicroelectronics NV (NYSE: STM) supplies most set-top box chips for Scientific�Atlanta, and also sells chips for disk drives that end up in DVRs; but still has less than a 10% exposure. The consensus target for the stock is $11. Investors do receive an outstanding 4.0% dividend from the company.