Best Information Technology Companies For 2015

The New York-based auctioneer of fine art and jewelry, Sotheby’s (BID), announced on Monday that it had named a new CFO.

It was reported that William Sheridan, executive VP and CFO, is leaving the company after 17 years of employment; Patrick McClymont, a partner and managing director at Goldman Sachs (GS), will succeed Mr. Sheridan effective on October 7th. Sheridan commented, “I have had the privilege of working with a highly skilled, highly professional finance, investor relations and information technology team at Sotheby’s that I invested in and helped build, and they deserve an enormous amount of�credit�for all that we accomplished. It has been a true pleasure to be part of Sotheby’s and now I look forward to spending more time with my family and focusing on charitable work.”

Best Electric Utility Companies To Watch In Right Now: Spartan Stores Inc.(SPTN)

Spartan Stores, Inc. operates as a grocery distributor and retailer principally in Michigan and Indiana. The company operates in two segments, Distribution and Retail. The Distribution segment provides approximately 43,000 stock-keeping units, including dry groceries, produce, dairy products, meat, deli, bakery, frozen food, seafood, floral products, general merchandise, pharmacy, and health and beauty care items to approximately 375 independent grocery stores and 96 corporate-owned stores, as well as offers approximately 3,600 private brand grocery and general merchandise items. It also provides value-added services, including site identification and market analyses; store planning and development; marketing, promotion, advertising; technology and information; accounting and tax preparation; human resource; coupon redemption; product reclamation; printing; category management; real estate; and construction management services. The Retail segment operates 97 retail superma rkets in Michigan under the Glen?s Markets, Family Fare Supermarkets, D&W Fresh Markets, VG?s Food and Pharmacy, and Valu Land names; and 25 fuel centers/convenience stores that offers refueling facilities, as well as immediately consumable products under the Glen?s Quick Stop, Family Fare Quick Stop, D&W Fresh Markets Quick Stop, and VG?s Quick Stop names. Its retail supermarkets offer dry groceries, produce, dairy products, meat, frozen food, seafood, floral products, general merchandise, beverages, tobacco products, health and beauty care products, delicatessen items, and bakery goods, as well as pharmacy services. This segment also provides private brand items, including its Spartan brand; Fresh Selections; Top Care, a health and beauty care brand; Valu Time, a value brand; Full Circle, a natural and organic brand; and Paws, a pet supplies brand. The company was founded in 1917 and is headquartered in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Jeremy Bowman]

  What: Shares of Nash-Finch (NASDAQ: NAFC  ) and Spartan Stores (NASDAQ: SPTN  ) jumped as much as 16% and 15%, respectively, after Spartan said it would buy Nash-Finch, primarily for its military stores.

Best Information Technology Companies For 2015: Marvell Technology Group Ltd.(MRVL)

Marvell Technology Group Ltd. designs, develops, and markets analog, mixed-signal, digital signal processing, and embedded and standalone ARM-based microprocessor integrated circuits. It offers mobile and wireless products, including communications processors, applications processors, and standalone wireless products, as well as combination devices, which incorporate wireless, Bluetooth, and FM radio capability. The company also provides storage products comprising tape drive controllers, read channel, hard disk controllers, solid-state drive controllers, hybrid drive controllers, and storage-system products for hard disk drives, tape drive electronics, optical disk drives, solid-state flash drives, hybrid drives, and storage subsystems technology. In addition, it offers networking, such as switching products that enable voice, video, and data traffic to be carried through the network for the enterprise networking, carrier access, and small office/home office/residential n etworking markets; communications controller and embedded processor products; and enterprise transceiver and Ethernet connectivity products. Further, the company provides printing ASIC products; digital video processing products; and power management and green technology products, such as DSP switcher integrated regulators, analog switching regulators, and mixed-signal light-emitting diode drivers. It operates in the United States, Canada, China, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Israel, Italy, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Netherlands, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, and the United Kingdom. The company was founded in 1995 and is based in Hamilton, Bermuda.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Andrea Kramer]

  Semiconductor maker Marvell Technology Group Ltd. (MRVL) stepped into the earnings confessional after the close on February 20; the company blew past analysts' expectations, reporting earnings that more than doubled on a year-over-year basis.

• [By Monica Wolfe]

  Marvell Technology Group (MRVL)

  Einhorn�� third largest position is in Marvell Technology Group where he maintains 9.7% of his total portfolio. As of the close of the second quarter, Einhorn held 44,289,000 shares of Marvell, representing 8.83% of the company�� shares outstanding.

• [By Caroline Bennett]

  These days it seems difficult to be a Marvell Technology (NASDAQ: MRVL  ) investor. Naysayers are quick to claim the semiconductor maker's competition is too great, and that the company is dying along with the PC industry. It also doesn't help that in December 2012, Marvell's share price reached $7.26, its lowest point in two years. But after the company's Q1 earnings call on May 23, it looks like Marvell might be staging a comeback. Here's why.

Best Information Technology Companies For 2015: TTM Technologies Inc.(TTMI)

TTM Technologies, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, provides printed circuit board (PCB) products and backplane assemblies worldwide. Its PCB products include conventional, high density interconnect, flexible, and rigid-flex PCBs, as well as backplane assemblies and IC substrates. The company also offers various services, such as design for manufacturability support during new product introduction stages, PCB layout design, simulation and testing services, quick turnaround production, and drilling and routing services. Its customers include original equipment manufacturers and electronic manufacturing service companies that primarily serve the networking/communications, aerospace/defense, high-end computing, cell phone, and medical/industrial/instrumentation end markets of the electronics industry. TTM Technologies, Inc. was founded in 1978 and is headquartered in Santa Ana, California.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Luke Jacobi]

  Shares of Viasystems Group (NASDAQ: VIAS) got a boost, shooting up 35 percent to $15.80 after TTM Technologies (NASDAQ: TTMI) announced its plans to buy Viasystems for a total value of $16.46 per share.

• [By Garrett Cook]

  Shares of Viasystems Group (NASDAQ: VIAS) got a boost, shooting up 35.81 percent to $15.89 after TTM Technologies (NASDAQ: TTMI) announced its plans to buy Viasystems for a total value of $16.46 per share.

• [By Brian Pacampara]

  What: Shares of printed circuit board specialist TTM Technologies (NASDAQ: TTMI  ) soared 17% today after its quarterly results topped Wall Street expectations.

• [By alicet236]

  TTM Technologies Inc (TTMI) Reached $5.98

  The prices of TTM Technologies shares have declined to $5.98, which is only 4.7% above the 5-year low of $5.70. It is now 71% off the 5-year high of $19.64. TTM Technologies is owned by three Gurus we are tracking. Among them, one has added to their position during the past quarter, while three reduced their positions. TTM Technologies is a global provider of time-critical and technologically complex printed circuit board (PCB) products and backplane assemblies (PCBs populated with electronic components), which serve as the foundation of sophisticated electronic products. Ttm Technologies has a market cap of $498.3 million; its shares were traded at around $5.98 with and P/S ratio of 0.40.

Best Information Technology Companies For 2015: Astec Industries Inc.(ASTE)

Astec Industries, Inc. engages in the design, engineering, manufacture, and marketing of equipment and components for road building, utility, and related construction activities worldwide. The company?s Asphalt Group segment offers hot-mix asphalt plants, concrete mixing plants, and related components; heating and heat transfer processing equipment; and thermal fluid storage tanks for asphalt paving and other non-related industries. Its Aggregate and Mining Group segment provides jaw, cone, and impact crushers; vibrating feeders; inclined and horizontal screens; various crushing plants; digital crusher controllers; aggregate and ore processing equipment; mobile screening plants; screen structures; vibrating screens; stationary rockbreaker systems; articulated production and utility vehicles; hydraulic breakers; compactors; demolition attachments; and bulk material handling and minerals processing equipment primarily for the aggregate, metallic mining, and recycling market s. The company?s Mobile Asphalt Paving Group segment provides asphalt pavers, asphalt material transfer vehicles, milling machines, and asphalt reclaiming and soil stabilizing machinery; asphalt paver screeds; windrow pickup machines; asphalt rollers and screeds primarily for road construction markets; and dirt and asphalt compaction equipment. Its Underground Group segment produces heavy-duty trenchers, compact horizontal directional drills, high pressure diesel powered pump trailers; maxi drills, auger boring machines, and down-hole tooling for these units; and vertical drills, water well drills, oil and gas drilling rigs, material handling trailers, and tools for the oil and gas, geothermal, and water well industries. The company also offers whole-tree pulpwood chippers, biomass chippers, horizontal grinders, and blower trucks. Astec Industries, Inc. sells its products through sales agents, distributors, and dealers. The company was founded in 1972 and is based in Chatta nooga, Tennessee.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By GURUFOCUS]

  
  John Maynard Keyes once opined: ��uccessful Investing is anticipating the anticipation of others.��That notion applies in spades when it comes to theme investing. Typically, a stock moves upwards long before its improvement in earnings comes to fruition. Warren Buffett colorfully observed: ��f you wait for the robins, spring will be over.��Should an investor wait for an earnings confirmation to validate his/her theory, then the time to invest will have already passed. I will end today�� discussion by profiling two successful investments I made in high quality cyclical companies during the period of the mid-2000s. The companies are: Maverick Tube (formerly MVK) and Astec (ASTE).

• [By James E. Brumley]

  What do Prospect Capital Corporation (NASDAQ:PSEC), Astec Industries, Inc. (NASDAQ:ASTE), and First Financial Corp. (NASDAQ:THFF) have in common? Not much, on the surface. In fact, were it not for something very specific to one particular person (me), they'd have nothing in common at all. This week though, THFF, ASTE, and PSEC all have at least one thing in common, and that's the fact that they're all going into my mental/hypothetical portfolio.

Best Information Technology Companies For 2015: Monarch Casino & Resort Inc (MCRI)

Monarch Casino & Resort, Inc. (Monarch), incorporated in 1993, through its wholly owned subsidiary, Golden Road Motor Inn, Inc. (Golden Road), owns and operates the Atlantis Casino Resort Spa(the Atlantis), a hotel/casino facility in Reno, Nevada. Monarch�� other wholly owned subsidiaries, High Desert Sunshine, Inc. (High Desert) and Golden North, Inc. (Golden North), each own separate parcels of land located adjacent to the Atlantis. The Company owns and operates the Atlantis Casino Resort Spa, which is located approximately three miles south of downtown in the area of Reno, Nevada. The Atlantis features approximately 61,000 square feet of casino space; a hotel with 824 guest rooms and suites; ten food outlets; an enclosed year-round pool with waterfall; an outdoor pool; a health spa; two retail outlets offering clothing and resort gift shop merchandise; a full service salon for men and women; an 8,000 square-foot family entertainment center; and approximately 52,000 square feet of banquet, convention and meeting room space. During the year ended December 31, 2011, the Company acquired 1.5 acre parcel of developable land contiguous to the Riviera Black Hawk Casino.

In April 2012, it acquired Riviera Black Hawk, Inc.

The Atlantis Casino offers approximately 1,450 slot and video poker machines; approximately 39 table games, including blackjack, craps, roulette and others; a race and sports book; keno and a poker room. The Atlantis includes three contiguous high-rise hotel towers with 824 rooms and suites. The Atlantis includes three contiguous high-rise hotel towers with a total of 824 rooms and suites. The first of the three hotel towers contains 160 rooms and suites in 13 stories. The 19-story second hotel tower contains 278 rooms and suites. The third tower contains 386 rooms and suites in 28 stories.

The Atlantis hotel rooms feature designs and furnishings consistent with the Northern Nevada market, as well as nine-foot ceilings (most standard hotel rooms have eig! ht-foot ceilings), which create an open and spacious feel. The third hotel tower features a four-story waterfall with an adjacent year-round swimming pool in a climate controlled, five-story glass enclosure, which shares an outdoor third floor pool deck with a seasonal outdoor swimming pool and year round whirlpool. A full-service salon (the Salon at Atlantis) overlooks the third floor sundeck and outdoor seasonal swimming pool and offers salon-grade products and treatments for hair, nails, skincare and body services for both men and women. A health spa is located adjacent to the swimming areas, which offers treatments and amenities. The hotel rooms on the spa floor are designated as spa rooms and feature decor that is themed consistent with the spa. Certain spa treatments are also available in spa floor hotel rooms. The hotel also features glass elevators rising the full 19 and 28 stories, of the respective towers providing views of the Reno area and the Sierra Nevada mountain range.

The Atlantis has eight restaurants, two gourmet coffee bars and one snack bar. It includes 160-seat Atlantis Steakhouse gourmet restaurant; the 200-seat upscale Bistro Napa featuring a centrally located wine cellar; the Oyster Bar restaurant in the Sky Terrace offering fresh seafood, soups and bisques made to order; the Sushi Bar, also in the Sky Terrace, offering a variety of fresh raw and cooked sushi specialties, including all-you-can-eat lunch and dinner selections. The Oyster Bar and Sushi Bar can accommodate up to 139 guests; The 178-seat 24-hour Purple Parrot coffee shop; the 122-seat Cafe Alfresco restaurant serving a full menu, pizzas prepared in a wood-fired, brick oven and a variety of gelato deserts; the 170-seat Manhattan Deli restaurant specializing in piled-high sandwiches, soups, salads and desserts; two gourmet coffee bars, offering specialty coffee drinks, pastries and desserts made fresh daily in the Atlantis bakery; a snack bar and soda fountain serving ice cream and arcade-style refreshmen! ts.

The Sky Terrace is a structure with a diamond-shaped, blue glass body suspended approximately 55 feet, and spanning 160 feet across, South Virginia Street. The Sky Terrace connects the Atlantis with additional parking on its 16-acre site across South Virginia Street from the Atlantis. The structure rests at each end on two 100-foot tall Grecian columns with no intermediate support pillars. The interior of the Sky Terrace contains the Oyster Bar, the Sushi Bar, a video poker bar, banks of slot machines and a lounge area with oversized leather sofas and chairs.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Jeremy Bowman]

  What: Shares of Monarch Casino & Resort (NASDAQ: MCRI  ) were cooling off today, falling as much as 20% after the company's earnings report failed to impress.

• [By Vanina Egea] ong>Risks and Valuation

  Although the Chinese government will maintain its gambling restrictions in the mainland over the next decade, Sand Corp�� market share and leverage in fixed costs will continue to riel in strong revenue growth from this region. Fiscal 2013 marked a 24.80% revenue increase ($13.8 billion) and operating margins continue to expand at the same pace. Despite the inherent risk of an economic slowdown in Asia or a recession in the U.S., which could put a halt to leisure spending, the company is well prepared to balance out any short-term losses. The casino operator�� EBITDA growth of 65.30%, for example, is an impressive result when compared to the industry�� average of 4.90%.

  Looking forward, earnings per share are expected to continue their fast-paced upward trend, having jumped from $1.56 in 2011 to $2.79 at the end of fiscal 2013. The 21.6% return on equity, as well as 1.80% dividend yield should also be attractive to shareholders and future investors. Although Las Vegas Sand Corp is currently trading at a 24% price premium relative to the industry average of 22.60x trailing earnings, I feel very bullish about this firm�� long term profitability, given its strong market position in Asia.

  Disclosure: Vanina Egea holds no position in any stocks mentioned.

  
  Also check out: Andreas Halvorsen Undervalued Stocks Andreas Halvorsen Top Growth Companies Andreas Halvorsen High Yield stocks, and Stocks that Andreas Halvorsen keeps buying
  About the author:Vanina EgeaA fundamental analyst at Lone Tree Analytics

  Visit Vanina Egea's Website

Best Information Technology Companies For 2015: NCI Building Systems Inc. (NCS)

NCI Building Systems, Inc. engages in the manufacture and marketing of metal products primarily for the nonresidential construction industry in North America. The company�s Metal Coil Coating segment involved in cleaning, treating, and painting various flat rolled metal coil materials, as well as in slitting and/or embossing the metal, before the steel is fabricated for use by various construction and industrial users. It also cleans, treats, and coats hot-rolled and light gauge metal coils for third parties for various applications, such as construction products, heating and air conditioning systems, water heaters, lighting fixtures, ceiling grids, office furniture, appliances, and other products; and provides toll coating services and painted metal package. This segment serves manufacturers of engineered building systems and metal components, as well as steel mills, metal service centers, and painted coil distributors. NCI Building Systems, Inc.�s Metal Components segm ent designs, engineers, manufactures, and markets metal components, including metal roof and wall systems, metal partitions, metal trims, doors, and other related accessories for construction, repair and retrofit, architectural, and engineered building system applications. It sells metal components directly to regional manufacturers, contractors, subcontractors, distributors, lumberyards, co-operative buying groups, and other customers. This segment also manufactures roll-up doors; and sells interior and exterior walk doors for use in self storage industry, and metal and other buildings. The company�s Engineered Building Systems segment offers engineered building systems and self-storage building systems for commercial, industrial, agricultural, governmental, and community markets. This segment sells its products to builders, general contractors, developers, private label companies, and end users through an in-house sales force. The company was founded in 1984 and is headqu artered in Houston, Texas.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By John Udovich]

  Small cap building materials stock NCI Building Systems Inc (NYSE: NCS) fell yesterday after announcing a share offering plus its investors have (so-far) missed out on any ��ecovery��in construction���meaning it might be time to take a closer look at the stock along with potential performance benchmarks like the PowerShares Dynamic Building & Construction ETF (NYSEARCA: PKB) and the First Trust ISE Global Engineering and Construction Index Fund ETF (NYSEARCA: FLM)���both of which have had decent returns in recent years.