Hot Consumer Service Stocks For 2014

The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJINDICES: ^DJI  ) and the S&P 500 (SNPINDEX: ^GSPC  ) have set new intraday highs today, climbing 0.85% and 1.07%, respectively, with 40 minutes left in trading. Today's rally was driven by the release of minutes from the Fed's last meeting, which indicated that bond purchases won't end anytime soon. There had been concerns that the Fed's bond-buying program would be curtailed this year and perhaps even end by 2014, but those worries have faded following last week's disappointing jobs report and the release of FOMC minutes today.

Intel (NASDAQ: INTC  ) is among the Dow's leading stocks, jumping 2.6% to continue this week's steady rise. Intel introduced a faster Thunderbolt design that can transfer data at 20 Gbs, and it was also named a chip supplier for HP's new Moonshot servers. There were concerns that Moonshot servers would be powered by an ARM-designed chip, but Intel was front and center at the product launch. The company's Atom Processor S1260 is the first chip offered in the new servers -- a huge win, because the chip is designed for mobile PC use as well. Could this lead to more wins in both the server and mobile markets for Intel? For now, the momentum is on Intel's side, and investors are hoping for the best.�

Hot India Companies To Buy Right Now: SVB Financial Group(SIVB)

SVB Financial Group, a diversified financial services company, provides various banking and financial products and services. The company offers deposit products, such as traditional deposit and checking accounts, certificates of deposit, money market accounts, and sweep accounts, as well as lockbox and merchant services; and lending products and services, including traditional term loans, equipment loans, asset-based loans, revolving lines of credit, accounts-receivable-based lines of credits, capital call lines of credits, and credit cards. It also provides cash management products and services comprising wire transfer and automated clearing house payment services, collection services, disbursement services, electronic funds transfers, and online banking services. In addition, the company offers foreign exchange services; letters of credit, including export, import, and standby letters of credit; investment services and solutions; brokerage; asset management; investment a dvisory services, such as outsourced treasury services; and non-banking products and services, such as funds management, venture capital/private equity investment, and equity valuation services. Further, it provides private banking services comprising mortgages, home equity lines of credit, restricted stock purchase loans, and other secured and unsecured lending services. As of March 09, 2012, the company operated 26 offices in the United States and 7 offices internationally. It serves customers in the technology, venture capital/private equity, life science, wine, and clean tech industries. The company was founded in 1982 and is headquartered in Santa Clara, California.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Lisa Levin] Related ZU Benzinga's Top #PreMarket Losers Stocks Hitting 52-Week Lows Zulily Falls 30% on Earnings (Fox Business) Related SIVB SVB Financial Plans New Stock Offering - Analyst Blog Why SVB Financial (SIVB) Could Beat Earnings Estimates Again - Tale of the Tape

  zulily (NASDAQ: ZU) shares moved up 9.65% to $35.10. The volume of zulily shares traded was 1005% higher than normal. Zulily's trailing-twelve-month revenue is $806.58 million.

• [By Will Ashworth]

  While airlines have their ups and downs, Copa is about the best I can think of to weather the storm.

  Best Stocks #4 (Midcap): SVB Financial (SIVB)
  

  I never would have thought one of my picks for the next 20 years would be a bank — let alone one that focuses on entrepreneurs — but here I am.

• [By John Maxfield]

  Given that you clicked on this article, it seems safe to assume you either own stock in SVB Financial (NASDAQ: SIVB  ) or are considering buying shares in the near future. If so, then you've come to the right place. The table below reveals the nine most critical numbers that investors need to know about SVB Financial stock before deciding whether to buy, sell, or hold it.

Hot Consumer Service Stocks For 2014: Blackrock Enhanced Equity Dividend Trust (BDJ)

BlackRock Enhanced Dividend Achievers Trust (the Trust) is a diversified closed-end management investment company. The Trust�� primary investment objective is to seek current income and current gains, with a secondary objective of long-term capital appreciation. The Trust seeks to achieve these objectives by investing in common stocks that pay above average dividends and have the potential for capital appreciation and by utilizing an option writing strategy to enhance distributions paid to the Trust�� shareholders.

Under normal market conditions, the Trust will invest at least 80% of its total assets in common stocks that are included in the universe of common stocks of issuers, which Mergent has determined are Dividend Achievers and options with exposure to such stocks. From time to time, the Trust may invest up to 20% of its total assets in investments without exposure to the Dividend Achievers universe. As part of its investment strategy, the Trust intends to employ a strategy of writing (selling) covered call and put options on individual common stocks, indices of securities, sectors of securities and baskets of securities.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Robert Hsu]
  Name Type of Security� Recommendation� Kinder Morgan Energy Partners L.P. (NYSE: KMP) � MLP August 15, 2013� TeeKay LNG Partners L.P.� (NYSE: TGP) � MLP September 16, 2013� PowerShares S&P 500 BuyWrite Portfol ETF� (NYSE Arca: PBP)� Buy-Write ETF September 30, 2013� Madison Covered Call Equity Strtgy Fd (NYSE: MCN)� Buy-Write ETF September 30, 2013� Nuveen Equity Premium Opportunity Fund (NYSE: JSN)� Buy-Write ETF September 30, 2013� BlackRockEnhanced Dividend Achievers Tr (NYSE: BDJ)� Buy-Write ETF September 30, 2013� Vornado Realty Trust � (NYSE: VNO)� Real Estate
  Investment
  Trust September 26, 2013�
  
  

  Robert Hsu is the editor of Permanent Wealth Investor and a former hedge fund portfolio manager at Wall Street powerhouse Goldman Sachs. He retired from Goldman at age 31. He since has come out of retirement to establish and preside over his money management firm, Absolute Return Capital Advisors. His retirement experience has given him his current mission: helping investors like you achieve their goal of comfortable retirement through profitable income strategies.

• [By Robert Hsu]

  Here are four to consider:

  PowerShares S&P 500 BuyWrite ETF (PBP), yielding 4.09%
  
  Madison/Claymore Covered Call & Equity Strategy (MCN), yielding 8.94%
  
  Nuveen Equity Premium Opportunity Fund (JSN), yielding 9.19%
  
  BlackRock Enhanced Dividend Achievers (BDJ), yielding 7.39%
  
  

  The yield on these funds is very attractive. Even more attractive is the fact that many buy-write funds actually are selling at a discount to their net asset value.

Hot Consumer Service Stocks For 2014: Carriage Services Inc (CSV)

Carriage Services, Inc. (Carriage), incorporated in December 1993, is a provider of death care services and merchandise in the United States. The Company operates in two business segments: funeral home operations and cemetery operations. As of December 31, 2011, the Company operated 159 funeral homes in 25 states and 33 cemeteries in 12 states. The Company provides funeral and cemetery services and products on both an at-need (time of death) and preneed (planned prior to death) basis. During the year ended December 31, 2011, Carriage completed two of the six acquisitions of funeral home businesses, one in Kentucky and the other in New York. In September 2011, the Company acquired Franklin & Downs Funeral Homes. In October 2011, the Company acquired Carman Funeral Home and Roberson Funeral Home, both in Northeast Kentucky. In February 2012, the Company acquired James J. Terry Funeral Home, Inc. On February 21, 2012, the Company acquired a funeral home business in Pennsylvania. In June 2012, the Company acquired Lawton Ritter Gray Funeral Home, Gray Funeral Home and Sunset Memorial Gardens in Lawton and Grandfield, Oklahoma. In December 2012, the Company acquired Cumby Family Funeral Service. In November 2013, Carriage Services Inc acquired Heritage Funeral Homes & Cremation Service.

Funeral Home Operations

The funeral homes offer a range of services (traditional burial and cremation) to meet a family�� death care needs, including consultation, the removal and preparation of remains, the sale of caskets and related funeral merchandise, the use of funeral home facilities for visitation and services, and transportation services. It provides burial and cremation services and sells related merchandise, such as caskets and urns. As of December 31, 2011, the Company operated 159 funeral homes in 25 states.

Cemetery Operations

The Company�� cemetery products and services include interment services, the rights to interment in cemetery sites (including gr! ave sites, mausoleum crypts and niches) and related cemetery merchandise, such as memorials and vaults. As of December 31, 2011, the Company operated 33 cemeteries in 12 states.

The Company competes with SCI, Stewart and StoneMor Partners L.P.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Dan Caplinger]

  The first thing to realize about StoneMor is that arcane and flexible accounting rules make it important to dig beneath its GAAP earnings. Growth throughout the industry has been substantial, as up-and-coming Carriage Services (NYSE: CSV  ) continued to stay on pace for double-digit sales growth as it rapidly expands its reach. Even well-established player Matthews International (NASDAQ: MATW  ) managed to grow revenue by nearly 14% in the quarter that ended in March, although its earnings fell slightly from the year-ago quarter. Still, StoneMor's sales haven't been able to rise as quickly as its peers, with its previous report including just a 6% gain in revenue.

• [By Rich Duprey]

  Death services specialist�Carriage Services (NYSE: CSV  ) announced today its third-quarter dividend of $0.025 per share, the same rate it's paid since 2011.

Hot Consumer Service Stocks For 2014: Weir Group PLC (WEIR)

The Weir Group PLC is engaged in engineering businesses. It operates in three segments: Minerals, Oil and Gas, and Power and Industrial. The Minerals segment provides slurry handling equipment and associated aftermarket support for abrasive high wear applications used in the mining and oil sands markets. The Oil & Gas segment provides products and service solutions to upstream, production, transportation, refining and related industries. The Power & Industrial segment designs and manufactures valves, pumps and turbines as well as providing specialist support services to the global power generation, industrial and oil and gas sectors. The Company�� subsidiaries include American Hydro Corporation, EnviroTech Pumpsystems Inc, Gema Industrigummi AB, Linatex Rubber Products Sdn Bhd and Mesa Manufacturing Inc. Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Inyoung Hwang]

  Weir Group Plc (WEIR) added 1.6 percent to 2,239 pence, the highest price in almost two months. The U.K.�� largest supplier of pressure pumps was raised to buy from hold at Berenberg Bank.

Hot Consumer Service Stocks For 2014: Acacia Research Corporation(ACTG)

Acacia Research Corporation, through its subsidiaries, acquires, develops, licenses, and enforces patented technologies in the United States. It assists patent owners with the prosecution and development of their patent portfolios; protection of their patented inventions from unauthorized use; generation of licensing revenue from users of their patented technologies; and enforcement against unauthorized users of their patented technologies. The company owns or controls the rights to approximately 200 patent portfolios, which include the United State?s patents and foreign counterparts covering technologies used in various industries. Acacia Research Corporation was founded in 1992 and is based in Newport Beach, California.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Jake L'Ecuyer]

  Shares of Acacia Research (NASDAQ: ACTG) got a boost, shooting up 4.05 percent to $16.97 after the company announced settlements and license agreements.

• [By Travis Hoium]

  What: Shares of Acacia Research (NASDAQ: ACTG  ) fell 11% today after the company released disappointing earnings.

  So what: Revenue dropped 54% in the second quarter, to $23.1 million, and the company lost $12.5 million, or $0.26 per share, during the quarter. On an adjusted basis, the company earned $0.13 per share, but even that was well below the $0.47 analysts expected.�