Saturday, September 13, 2014

Best Building Product Companies To Invest In 2014

On March 4, Mario Gabelli (Trades, Portfolio), the chairman and chief executive officer of GAMCO Investors Inc. added Griffon Corporation (GFF) at an average price of $12.61 and currently holds 6,752,733 shares of the stock, worth 0.01% of his portfolio.

So let's take a look at this company and try to explain to investors the reasons this is an apparently appealing investment opportunity in the building products industry, which is a cyclical one and driven by the overall health of the U.S. economy.

Positive Outlook

The company is a diversified manufacturer of building products, electronic information and communication systems, and specialty plastic films. It has three segments: Home and Building Products; which manufactures and markets residential, commercial and industrial garage doors through Clopay Building Products, and provides non-powered landscaping products through Ames True Temper Inc.

10 Best Telecom Stocks For 2015: MYR Group Inc.(MYRG)

MYR Group Inc., through its subsidiaries, provides electrical construction service in the continental United States. The company operates in two segments, Transmission and Distribution, and Commercial and Industrial. The Transmission and Distribution segment provides design, engineering, procurement, construction, upgrade, maintenance, and repair services. Its services include the construction and maintenance of high voltage transmission lines, substations, and lower voltage underground and overhead distribution systems; and emergency restoration services in response to hurricane, ice, or other storm related damages. This segment?s customers include investor-owned utilities, municipal utilities, cooperatives, federally-owned utilities, independent power producers, independent transmission companies, industrial facility owners, and other contractors. The Commercial and Industrial segment provides electrical contracting services for commercial and industrial construction in the western United States. It offers electrical contracting services for airports, hospitals, data centers, hotels, casinos, arenas, convention centers, manufacturing plants, processing facilities, and transportation control and management systems. This segment?s customers include general contractors, commercial and industrial facility owners, local governments, and developers. MYR Group Inc. was founded in 1891 and is headquartered in Rolling Meadows, Illinois.

Advisors' Opinion:
  • [By CRWE]

    MYR Group Inc. (Nasdaq:MYRG), a leading specialty contractor serving the electrical infrastructure market in the United States, reported that the Company will be attending the 2012 Wedbush Securities Clean Technology & Industrial Growth Management Access Conference. The conference will take place in San Francisco, California, at The Westin Hotel, September 12, 2012.

  • [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 MYR Group (Nasdaq: MYRG  ) , whose recent revenue and earnings are plotted below.

  • [By Damian Illia]

    Finally, I always like to see one of the most important financial ratios applying to stockholders, the best measure of performance for a firm's management: the return on equity. The ratio has decreased when compared to its ROE from the same quarter one year prior. This is a signal of major weakness. Moreover, it is worse than those shown in the table like Aegion Corporation (AEGN), EnerNOC Inc. (ENOC), MYR GroupInc. (MYRG) and Pike Corporation (PIKE).

Best Building Product Companies To Invest In 2014: KAR Auction Services Inc (KAR)

KAR Auction Services, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, provides vehicle auction services in North America. It operates in three segments: ADESA Auctions, IAA, and AFC. The ADESA Auctions segment offers whole car auctions and related services to the vehicle remarketing industry through online auctions and auction facilities. This segment also provides value-added services, such as auction related, transportation, reconditioning, inspection, title and repossession administration and remarketing, and analytical services. The ADESA Auctions segment sells its products and services through commercial fleet operators, financial institutions, rental car companies, new and used vehicle dealers, and vehicle manufacturers and their captive finance companies to franchise and independent used vehicle dealers. The IAA segment offers salvage vehicle auctions and related services that facilitate the remarketing of damaged or low value vehicles designated as total losses by insurance companies and charity donation vehicles, as well as recovered stolen vehicles. This segment also provides inbound transportation, titling, salvage recovery, and claims settlement administrative services. The AFC segment offers floorplan financing, a short-term inventory-secured financing, to independent used vehicle dealers. As of December 31, 2012, the company had a network of 67 whole car auction and 163 salvage auction locations, as well as serviced auctions through 104 locations. The company was formerly known as KAR Holdings, Inc. and changed its name to KAR Auction Services, Inc. in November 2009. KAR Auction Services, Inc. was founded in 2006 and is headquartered in Carmel, Indiana.

Advisors' Opinion:
  • [By Marc Bastow]

    Vehicle auction services company KAR (KAR) raised its quarterly dividend 31% to 25 cents per share, payable on Jan. 3 to shareholders of record as of Dec. 20.
    KAR Dividend Yield: 3.53%

  • [By Geoff Gannon] ore 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 where the product sold is going into a huge "generational" type project. Examples include defense, aerospace, video game consoles, operating systems, etc. This can be very hel

Best Building Product Companies To Invest In 2014: Pike Electric Corp.(PIKE)

Pike Electric Corporation provides energy solutions for investor-owned, municipal, and co-operative utilities in the United States. The company?s services include siting, permitting, engineering, designing, planning, constructing, maintaining, and repairing power delivery systems, including renewable energy projects. Its planning and siting process leverages technology and the collection of environmental, cultural, land use, and scientific data to facilitate negotiations and permitting for powerlines, substations, pipelines, and renewable energy installations. The company also provides design, engineering, procurement and construction, owner engineer, project management, multi-entity coordination, grid integration, balance-of-plant, and thermal rate solutions for individual or turnkey powerline, substation, and renewable energy projects. In addition, it offers overhead and underground powerline construction, up gradation, and extension services for distribution networks a nd transmission lines with voltages up to 345kV, energized maintenance work for voltages up to 500kV; and substation construction and service. Further, Pike Electric Corporation provides a total energy solution platform, including preliminary studies, planning, siting and permitting, engineering and design, construction, procurement, and grid interconnection services. Additionally, it offers storm restoration services, which include the repair or reconstruction of parts of a distribution or sub-500 kV transmission network comprising substations, power lines, utility poles, or other components damaged during flash floods, hurricanes, tornadoes, and snow, ice, or wind storms, as well as other natural disasters. The company was founded in 1945 and is headquartered in Mount Airy, North Carolina.

Advisors' Opinion:
  • [By Rebecca McClay]

    In earnings news today, a few companies are reporting after the closing bell, including H & R Block Inc. (NYSE: HRB), which is up about 1%. Pike Electric Corp. (NYES: PIKE), Guidewire Software Inc. (NYSE: GWRE), and Sigma Designs Inc. (Nasdaq: SIGM) are also reporting quarterly earnings late this afternoon.

  • [By Selena Maranjian]

    More than a handful of smart-grid-related companies�had strong performances over the past year. Solar energy inverter maker Power-One (NASDAQ: PWER.DL  ) , and utility contractor Pike Electric (NYSE: PIKE  ) , both surged 44%. Power-One's gain is in large part due to its being acquired, at a premium, by Switzerland-based power and automation technology giant ABB. Some have worried about inverters becoming commoditized, but others have admired Power-One's profitability and solid balance sheet.

  • [By Damian Illia]

    Finally, I always like to see one of the most important financial ratios applying to stockholders, the best measure of performance for a firm's management: the return on equity. The ratio has decreased when compared to its ROE from the same quarter one year prior. This is a signal of major weakness. Moreover, it is worse than those shown in the table like Aegion Corporation (AEGN), EnerNOC Inc. (ENOC), MYR GroupInc. (MYRG) and Pike Corporation (PIKE).

Best Building Product Companies To Invest In 2014: Silicon Graphics International Corp(SGI)

Silicon Graphics International Corp. provides computing and storage, and data center solutions, as well as related customer support and professional services. The company offers scale up servers; scale out servers; work group servers; data storage systems; and software products for technical computing, as well as data center infrastructure products, including ICE Cube Air, a modular data center that augments or replaces traditional brick-and-mortar data centers; and MobiRack, a line of mobile, all-in-one data center cabinets for field deployments. Its products and services are used by the scientific, technical, and business communities for solving challenging data-intensive computing, data storage, and management problems. The company also develops system applications, such as simulating global climate changes, accelerating engineering of new automotive designs, supporting homeland security initiatives, real-time fraud detection, streaming media from Internet-video to film , and gaining business intelligence through data-mining to defense and strategic systems, weather and climate, physical and life sciences, energy, aerospace and automotive, media and entertainment, semiconductor design and manufacturing, financial services, data centers, and business intelligence and data analytics markets; and enterprise class features for the Linux operating system that provide a standard Linux operating environment. Silicon Graphics International Corp. markets and sells its systems, technologies, software, and services to enterprises in approximately 25 countries through direct and indirect sales force, including distributors, original equipment manufacturers, system integrators, value added resellers, and channel partners. The company was formerly known as Rackable Systems, Inc. and changed its name to Silicon Graphics International Corp. in May 2009. Silicon Graphics International Corp. was incorporated in 2002 and is headquartered in Fremont, Californi a.

Advisors' Opinion:
  • [By John Udovich]

    On Thursday, small cap supercomputer stock Cray Inc (NASDAQ: CRAY) announced that it had been rewarded with one of the largest contracts in its history for $174 million to provide the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) with supercomputers - meaning its worth taking a closer look at the stock along with the performance of large caps�like International Business Machines Corp (NYSE: IBM) and�Hewlett-Packard Company (NYSE: HPQ) plus small cap Silicon Graphics International Corp (NASDAQ: SGI) who sort of compete with the company in the supercomputing space. I should�note that over a year ago, we had Cray Inc in�our SmallCap Network Elite Opportunity (SCN EO) trading portfolio�when we had suggested it was�potentially a good�low risk longer-term play.

  • [By Alex Planes]

    What: Shares of Silicon Graphics (NASDAQ: SGI  ) are up by roughly 8% today after having risen as much as 15% by midday. The fluctuations of today's pop seem to be based on swings between a strong earnings report from the company and a bit of underwhelming forward guidance.

  • [By Seth Jayson]

    Silicon Graphics International (Nasdaq: SGI  ) is expected to report Q3 earnings on April 30. Here's what Wall Street wants to see:

    The 10-second takeaway
    Comparing the upcoming quarter to the prior-year quarter, average analyst estimates predict Silicon Graphics International's revenues will grow 7.7% and EPS will expand 27.3%.

  • [By Wallace Witkowski]

    One recent example of how the shutdown wormed its way into earnings was a profit warning from Silicon Graphics International Corp. (SGI) . SGI cut its outlook,�citing lost revenue from contracts that were frozen late in the September-ending quarter in the run-up to the shutdown. Shares of the large-scale computing company dropped nearly 10% on Friday following the late Thursday warning.

Best Building Product Companies To Invest In 2014: eGain Corp (EGAN)

eGain Corporation (eGain), formerly eGain Communications Corporation, incorporated in September 1997, provides multichannel customer service and knowledge management software for in-house or cloud deployment. The Company�� application suite, eGain Service, is available through both licensed and hosted models. It includes integrated applications for social customer service, Web self-service, e-mail management, paper and fax management, chat, co-browsing, short message service (SMS), call tracking and resolution, proactive notifications, cross-channel knowledge management, case management and service fulfillment. These robust applications are built on the eGain OpenCIH platform. The eGain OpenCIH platform enables end-to-end service process management and multichannel, multisite contact center management, and includes certified out of the box integrations with call center, content and business systems. Its applications and platform are built on a service-oriented architecture. It serves a global customer base across a range of industry sectors, including telecommunications, financial services, insurance, outsourced services, retail, technology, manufacturing and consumer goods.

Products and Services

eGain Service 9 is a customer service management solution. It consists of a multichannel customer interaction hub (CIH) platform, eGain OpenCIH Platform, and the eGain Web Customer Experience Suite and the eGain Unified Contact Center Suite, which includes applications for social customer service, Web self-service, and the contact center. The eGain OpenCIH Platform centralizes business rules, interactions, knowledge bases, workflow, analytics, administration and integrations in one common foundation. eGain Mail is a solution for processing inbound customer e-mails and providing mission-critical e-mail customer service. Secure messaging, lifecycle audits and real-time archival are some of the features that provide its customers e-mail management platform for their enterprises. Addi! tional modules include eGain Fax to route, track and respond to faxes with the same infrastructure that is used to handle e-mails and Web form submissions.

The Company�� eGain CallTrack is a phone call logging system. Together with eGain KnowledgeAgent, it provides an integrated solution for phone call logging, tracking and resolution, as well as follow-on task management for service fulfillment. eGain Chat gives contact center agents a range of tools for serving customers in real-time. eGain Chat supports two-way, follow me Web browsing so that agents and customers can lead each other to specific Web pages. Its eGain CoBrowse enables contact center agents to provide live collaboration options to online customers and prospects. It gives companies the ability to deliver real-time assistance. The capabilities include enabling the agent and the customer to fill out forms together, creation of business rules for specific Web pages, and allowing phone agents to provide experience by conducting a co-browse session.

The Company�� eGain SelfService is a solution supporting dynamic frequently asked questions (FAQs), topic-based browsing, natural language search, guided help, virtual assistant technology and case tracking. eGain SelfService offers multi-access self-service capabilities built on a collaborative knowledge management framework within eGain OpenCIH Platform. The modules of this solution are eGain Portals, eGain Guided Help and eGain MessageCenter. eGain Portals deliver a secure and personalized Web self-service gateway, through which customers can retrieve information. This online customer service portal delivers to customers the personal information they want, the way they want to see it, and when they want to see it. Customers can view FAQs, manage their own accounts, review open service tickets, and review their communications with the company within a secure, personalized environment. Its eGain Guided Help gives customers interactive access to the company�� knowl! edge base! , allowing them to find answers and troubleshoot problems by themselves at their convenience. It uses patented search and reasoning technology, coupled with natural language and advanced linguistic processing to search, suggest additional questions and recommend solutions.

The Company�� eGain MessageCenter enables secure and authenticated messaging between a business and its customers. eGain MessageCenter is a secure Web-based portal for customers to read confidential messages, including attachments. Based on a business-configurable option, agent responses to customer inquiries are automatically replaced with a dynamically generated universal resource locator (URL), which directs the customers to the eGain MessageCenter where they authenticate themselves to read the message details. Customers can also send messages to the business through this secure site. All messages are stored within the eGain Platform as part of the multichannel customer history. Its eGain Chatbot is used to create virtual assistants to engage Website visitors, answer their queries, escort them on the Website, and escalate seamlessly to live agents. Chatbots help deflect phone calls to Web self-service, provide memorable and brand-aligned customer service experiences, and increase online sales conversion.

The Company�� eGain Social helps a business monitor the Web and social media sites for conversations about itself. It enables the business to identify and respond to customer inquiries or complaints. It also helps harvest useful content from experts in these channels and develops it into knowledge base articles that can be shared with their other customers. Its eGain Adviser empowers agents handle complex customer interactions. Agents receive guided help for providing contextual up-sell and cross-sell, follow-on service fulfillment and value-added advice through conversations that are compliant with regulations. The solution includes a user interface, integrated workflow and interactive process guida! nce, powe! red by the eGain Inference Reasoning Engine.

The Company�� eGain KnowledgeAgent uses patented search and reasoning technology coupled with natural language and advanced linguistic processing to search, suggest additional questions, and recommend solutions. This solution, in conjunction with eGain Content Adapter, also allows agents to access information stored in external systems. Its eGain IVR enables phone self-service experiences by adding intelligence to interactive voice response, (IVR) and unifying it with other interaction channels, including Web self-service. It offers intelligent dialogs driven by eGain�� case-based reasoning technology and seamless movement across channels.

The Company�� eGain Notify is a flexible, easy-to-use application for managing and delivering automatic reminders, alerts, and updates at all stages of the customer relationship cycle. It is used to provide proactive customer service by sending alerts to customers through multiple interaction channels, such as e-mail, phone and SMS. Its eGain AutoClassify enables companies to increase response turnaround and improve problem resolution by categorizing and routing incoming e-mail and other inquiries. It can also be set up to provide auto-suggestions and auto-responses. eGain AutoClassify understands the customer�� issue and routes inquiries to queues based on categories and the confidence level assigned to those categories. Customer interactions can be placed into multiple independent categories.

The Company�� eGain AutoWorkflow enables businesses to automate complex fulfillment processes that require little or no agent interaction once initiated. Tasks initiated from either e-mails, Webforms, or time-driven processes are automatically handled using the capabilities of the eGain Workflow engine. Its eGain SME is an enterprise collaboration tool that allows subject matter experts (SMEs), to participate in the process of resolving customer queries. SMEs, both internal in the contact ! center an! d external in other departments or companies, are able to fully participate in both solving ongoing problems and suggesting new solutions for inclusion in the knowledge base.

The Company�� eGain Adapters include a set of out-of-the-box integration modules for connecting eGain applications with content repositories, call center telephony solutions, databases and business applications. Its offers three integration modules: eGain Content Adapter, eGain CTI Adapter, and eGain Data Adapter. Its eGain Widgets (Web and Mobile) provides contextual access to the knowledge base and customer accounts from various parts of the businesses��Websites, as well as mobile interfaces.

eGain OnDemand

eGain OnDemand, the software as a service version of the Company�� software suite, is a robust and scalable solution that is used by enterprises to build customer interaction hubs. It hosts applications on servers located in its third party SAS 70 Type II data center. The hosting solution allows rapid deployment of eGain products, including seamless secure access to customer�� in-house data systems; round the clock management of infrastructure, security, servers, operating systems and databases; management systems to monitor servers and applications allowing for availability and performance; easy migration from eGain OnDemand to in-house option and vice-versa. Its value-added services include e-mail spam and virus cleaning, post office services, virtual private networks, remote data access, encrypted backups, and test/reporting/warm spare servers.

eGain SLaaS

eGain SLaaS, the solution-as-a-service version of the Company�� software suite. It is designed to take the risk out of mission-critical customer interaction software deployments and enables companies to validate and realize business value with usage-based pricing and no long-term contracts.

Consulting and Education Services

The Company�� global professional services ! organizat! ion provides consulting and education services designed to facilitate customer success and build customer loyalty. Its consulting services group offers rapid implementation services, custom solution development and systems integration services. It provides these services independently or in partnership with systems integrators who have developed consulting expertise on its platform. The Company�� consulting strategy is to increase margins by providing customers with a range of pre-packaged solutions built on top of our product line.The Company�� education services group provides a range of basic and customized training programs to its customers and partners. Training programs are offered either in-person at the customer site, or at one of its global training centers.The Company�� education services strategy is to provide training and delivery methods for its customers and partners.

eGain Customer Support Service

The Company offers a range of support services designed to rapidly respond to inquiries. Its technical support services are available to customers globally under maintenance agreements. Its customer support service strategy is to provide customer support account managers for large enterprise customers. The customer support service team uses eGain�� own software suite to provide services to its customers through customer support service centers located in California, the United Kingdom, and India.

The Company competes with Art Technology Group, Inc., Avaya, Inc., Consona Corporation, Alcatel, InQuira, Inc., Kana Software, Inc., Live Person, Inc., nGenera Corporation, RightNow Technologies, Inc., Microsoft Corporation, Oracle Corporation, Salesforce.com Inc. and SAP Inc.

Advisors' Opinion:
  • [By John Udovich]

    Small cap cloud contact software provider Five9 Inc (NASDAQ: FIVN) saw a small pop when it debuted in an IPO last Friday but its now trended back down to its debut price, meaning its worth taking a closer look at the stock along with some potential peers or benchmarks like Incontact Inc (NASDAQ: SAAS), eGain Corp (NASDAQ: EGAN) and LivePerson, Inc (NASDAQ: LPSN).

  • [By Monica Gerson]

    eGain (NASDAQ: EGAN) shares fell 3.76% to reach a new 52-week low of $6.40. eGain's trailing-twelve-month ROE is -8.92%

    Aeropostale (NYSE: ARO) shares tumbled 6.81% to reach a new 52-week low of $4.57. Aeropostale shares have dropped 65.05% over the past 52 weeks, while the S&P 500 index has gained 15.37% in the same period.

Best Building Product Companies To Invest In 2014: FAB Universal Corp (FU)

FAB Universal Corp.(FAB), formerly Wizzard Software Corporation, incorporated on July 1, 1998, operates in two segments: Software and Media Services. The Software segment engages primarily in the development, sale, and service of custom and packaged computer software products. The Media Services provides podcast hosting, content management tools and advertising services. The Company�� software segment attributes revenues from the development, sale, and service of custom and packaged computer software products at the time the product is shipped and collections are likely and from digital media publishing services at the time the service is provided. Its media segment attributes revenue from digital media publishing service at the time the service is provided and collection is likely. As of September 30, 2012, the Company does not have any inter-segment revenues. On October 12, 2012, it opened a 20,000 square foot Flagship superstore in the Beijing shopping district of SoShow. On September 26, 2012, the Company completed the acquisition of Digital Entertainment International Ltd. (DEI). As of September 30,2012, the Company discontinued its Future Healthcare of America (FHA).

The Company specializes in the distribution of entertainment and audio visual products through its two flagship stores in Beijing as well as its online stores. DEI, through its wholly owned subsidiary and its VIE, is engaged in marketing and distributing various officially licensed digital entertainment products under the FAB brand, including products such as digital music files, Compact Discs(CD), Video Compact Discs (VCD) and Digital Video Disks (DVD) as well as books, magazines, mobile phone accessories and cameras. DEI�� products and services are primarily distributed through its flagship stores, wholesale services, FAB kiosks, and online virtual stores. FAB kiosks, located in high-traffic areas of office buildings, shopping malls, retail stores and airports, are self-service terminals that provide a range of en! tertainment and consumer applications. Its Media is primarily engaged in operating and providing multimedia kiosks for music downloads information exchange and advertising.

MEDIA

The Company distributes over 150,000 media based products including copyrighted DVD��, Blu-ray Discs, music CD��, video games and downloadable digital content through three distribution channels: wholesale and retail, licensing and kiosks. It conducts their retail business through their flagship stores. Each store has over 20,000 square feet in size and carries the selection of copyrighted audio and video products in China, including CDs, VCDs, DVDs, blu-rays, books, magazines and portable electronic devices. It markets their products to individual consumers and audio-video retailers. The flagship stores are recognized by many Chinese consumers as the right place to buy copyright protected products. Celebrity signing events are the driver to FAB�� retail stores which have been used as a venue for Chinese music and movie stars to meet their fans. Its SoShow flagship provides Beijing shoppers with its audio-video hypermarket. As a preferred venue for product announcements, publishing parties, studio releases, author readings, movie showings, live promotional performances and concerts, its SoShow outlet is one of China�� ultra-modern entertainment destination for music lovers, film buffs, game enthusiasts, and early electronic adopters.

The Company's wholesale distribution provides audio-video products such as compact discs, video compact discs and digital video discs as well as books and magazines to audio-video products retailers. It distributes these media products to over 80 customers including Sohu (NASDAQ: SOHU), Dangdang (NYSE: Dang) and Century Outstanding Information Technology Company, a subsidiary of Amazon.com (NASDAQ: AMZN). Its wholesale business caters to three types of customers: retail stores, FAB license stores and small wholesale/resellers. Customers place orders by! telephon! e, through the Internet or in-person and fulfillment is handled by its vehicle fleet or through direct warehouse access. As of September 30, 2012, the Company has over 100 suppliers and 80 wholesale customers, including the Government.

Its Intelligent Media Kiosks are based on 61 national intellectual property rights, are automated teller machine (ATM) style terminals where consumers can download copyrighted music, video games, ringtones, digital books and movies directly to their cell phones, memory sticks or other mobile storage devices. Its Media Kiosks can also run video ads on the high-tech liquid crystal display (LCD) screens and accept payments for utility bills, metro cards, and credit card bills. It is a self-service vending kiosk designed and launched by the Company. The kiosks target the millions of mobile and portable device users combing interactive touch screen and LED display with a selection of copyrighted content such as music, movies and games. There are thousands of licensed digital entertainment content items in each kiosk, such as music, movie and TV episodes, which allows the customer to play or download to their portable device or memory card with payment by cash, its membership card or ATM card. It has deployed over 11,000 kiosks through their licensing program. The kiosks are located in high-traffic areas, such as office buildings, shopping malls, and retail stores. It generates revenues from its Intelligent Media Kiosk business through the sale of licenses and then through ongoing media content download, media membership card sales and kiosk-based advertising.

SPEECH TECHNOLOGY & SERVICES GROUP

Its legacy Speech Technology & Services Group sells and licenses speech programming tools, related speech products and services, and distributable speech engines in over 13 languages worldwide. It receives the majority of its sales leads through arrangements with AT&T, as well as through its own Internet marketing efforts through Google, Yahoo and! other In! ternet search engines. The Speech Technology and Services Group's immediate focus is to increase revenue and be a preferred supplier for speech technologies to businesses worldwide, emphasize great technologies, competitive prices, and support to the speech development community and offer non-technical hosted speech conversion services to companies.

Advisors' Opinion:
  • [By Bryan Murphy]

    If history is any indication, than roughly half of you are about to hate me for what I'm about to say regarding Fab Universal Corp. (NYSEMKT:FU), while the other half of anyone reading this will likely love me for it - there is no in between. Here goes... FU is poised to make a fairly significant pullback following last week's heroic rally.

  • [By Sally Jones]

    Here’s a look at three application software companies currently on a 52-week low and still held by a few billionaires. The9 Ltd. (NCTY), Merge Healthcare Inc. (MRGE) and FAB Universal Corp. (FU) are more than 52% off a 52-week high.

  • [By Jayson Derrick]

    Shares of FAB Universal (NYSE: FU) have been halted premarket, and remained as such throughout the duration of the trading day. There is no indication when shares would resume trading.

Best Building Product Companies To Invest In 2014: EQT Corporation(EQT)

EQT Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, operates as an integrated energy company in the United States. It operates in three segments: EQT Production, EQT Midstream, and Distribution. The EQT Production segment engages in the exploration, development, and production of natural gas, natural gas liquids, and crude oil in the Appalachian Basin. This segment?s properties are located primarily in Kentucky, West Virginia, Virginia, and Pennsylvania. As of December 31, 2010, it had 5.2 trillion cubic feet of proved reserves across 3.5 million acres. The EQT Midstream segment provides gathering, processing, transmission, and storage services for the independent third parties in the Appalachian Basin. It has approximately 10,900 miles of gathering lines and 770 miles of transmission lines. The Distribution segment distributes and sells natural gas to residential, commercial, and industrial customers in southwestern Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and eastern Kentucky. It also operates a gathering system in Pennsylvania; and purchases and delivers gas to customers. This segment serves approximately 276,500 customers consisting of 257,900 residential customers, and 18,600 commercial and industrial customers. The company was formerly known as Equitable Resources, Inc. and changed its name to EQT Corporation in February 2009. EQT Corporation was founded in 1925 and is headquartered in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Advisors' Opinion:
  • [By Gary Jakacky]

    On the other hand, our economy shows more strength by the day. Oil prices remain stuck in a five year range. Natural gas prices are testing new lows: successful fracking techniques recently announced by EQT Corporation (EQT) in Seeking Alpha (10/17/2013 @ 2:29 PM on Market Currents) could cut over $1.5 billion from the costs of drilling for gas, as well as assuage "environmentalist" concerns about fracking. Fuel is a major cost for transportation companies. So maybe IYT can catch a third breath?

  • [By Arjun Sreekumar]

    Even Range Resources (NYSE: RRC  ) , another low-cost Marcellus operator with outstanding returns, requires $4 gas prices to generate a 96% IRR on its dry gas wells and a 105% IRR on its super-rich gas wells, while EQT (NYSE: EQT  ) earns a 53% after-tax internal rate of return on its Marcellus wells with gas prices at $4.

  • [By Ben Levisohn]

    Shares of Penn Virginia have gained 6.2% to $15.02 today at 3:03. p.m., while Sanchez Energy (SN) has risen 5.6% to $30.92, EQT Corp (EQT) has advanced 1.1% to $101.94 and EOG Resources (EOG) is up 1.7% at $180.99.

  • [By Robert Rapier]

    Space constraints don�� allow me to take a deep dive into the Marcellus companies, which are more diverse than the Bakken producers I highlighted last week. Among the major Marcellus producers covered in depth in The Energy Strategist are Cabot Oil and Gas (NYSE: COG), EQT (NYSE: EQT), Range Resources (NYSE: RRC) and Southwestern Energy (NYSE: SWN). However, these companies vary in lot in their production (gas versus liquids) and risk profile. Further, the Marcellus has logistical constraints in some areas for getting the gas to market. This has resulted in significant regional discounts on Marcellus gas at times, but has also created enormous opportunities for pipeline companies and infrastructure providers in the region.

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