Small cap security and surveillance stocks like Vimicro International Corporation (NASDAQ: VIMC), TASER International, Inc (NASDAQ: TASR), Kratos Defense & Security Solutions, Inc (NASDAQ: KTOS)�and View Systems Inc (OTCBB: VSYM) have been producing a steady stream of news lately for investors and traders alike to digest. After all, the entire�security and surveillance industry is pretty vast as it would include everything from airport scanners to security cameras or monitoring equipment to actual weapons for domestic or national defense to software securing everyone�� personal or online data to the technology groups like the NSA and other "Big Brother" agencies use to spy on us. With that in mind, here is a look at the latest news from important small cap security and surveillance stocks:
Top 5 Small Cap Stocks To Invest In Right Now: OSL Holdings Inc (OSLH)
OSL Holdings Inc., formerly Red Rock Pictures, Inc., incorporated on November 22, 2004, is an integrated marketer and distributor of Products for the Office. The Company operates in the competitive office supply market as a virtual distributor, leveraging the existing logistical capabilities of its suppliers who provide for inventory logistics, distribution and delivery. OSL focuses on the development and or acquisition of technology, sales, marketing and customer service. On October 10, 2011, the Company acquired Office Supply Line, Inc.
OSL offers 65,000 items from 1,000 manufacturers. It provides technology products, traditional office products, office furniture, janitorial and break-room supplies and industrial products. By partnering with the wholesaler, it delivers any of these products from one of their strategically located 45 distribution centers providing same or next day delivery to more than 90% of the United States. It has a range of catalogs, which represents more than 27,000 different items.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Peter Graham]
Earlier in the month, Petrotech Oil & Gas�� LegalizePot.us announced that along with with their already expanded cannabis and hemp production and distribution channels in the states of Washington and Colorado, it was continuing to expand their business model into Rhode Island with a 2500 square foot grow facility up to 50 plants, and 50 to 70 lbs. a month management agreement. Otherwise, investors should be aware that Petrotech Oil & Gas only announced its expansion into medical and recently legalized recreational marijuana back in mid-February plus the company also announced in late February that it would begin oil production soon. A quick look at Petrotech Oil & Gas�� financials reveals revenues of $5k (most recent reported quarter), zero, zero and zero for the past four reported quarters along with net losses of $667k (most recent reported quarter), $49k, $73k and $653k. At the end of last September, Petrotech Oil & Gas had no cash to cover $1,584k in current liabilities. Given those financials and the recent entry into marijuana, investors might want to contain their excitement and wait for some new financials to reflect the sudden change in direction.
OSL Holdings Inc (OTCMKTS: OSLH) Joins the Marijuana PartySmall cap OSL Holdings Inc develops or acquires business units with the purpose of collecting and transmitting real-time consumer and business sales data to facilitate the sale of data, manage electronic marketplaces, operate real-time loyalty rewards and transact with buyers in multiple channels. On Friday, OSL Holdings Inc sank 20.47% to $0.190 for a market cap of $36.38 million plus OSLH is down 5% over the past year and up 1,017.6% over the past five years according to Google Finance.
Hot Up And Coming Companies To Watch For 2014: ALLETE Inc (ALE)
ALLETE, Inc. (ALLETE) is an energy company. Minnkota Power Cooperative, Inc.( Minnesota Power) is an operating division of the Company. ALLETE operates in two business segments: Regulated Operations and Investments and Other. Regulated Operations includes its regulated utilities, Minnesota Power and Superior Water, Light and Power Company (SWL&P), as well as its investment in American Transmission Company LLC (ATC), a Wisconsin-based regulated utility that owns and maintains electric transmission assets in parts of Wisconsin, Michigan, Minnesota and Illinois. Investments and Other is comprised primarily of BNI Coal, Ltd (BNI Coal), its coal mining operations in North Dakota; ALLETE Properties, LLC and its subsidiaries (ALLETE Properties), its Florida real estate investment, and ALLETE Clean Energy. In July 2011, the Company incorporated new company, ALLETE Clean Energy.
Regulated Operations
Minnesota Power provides regulated utility electric service in northeastern Minnesota to approximately 144,000 retail customers. Minnesota Power's non-affiliated municipal customers consist of 16 municipalities in Minnesota and one private utility in Wisconsin. SWL&P, a wholly owned subsidiary of ALLETE, is also a private utility in Wisconsin and a customer of Minnesota Power. SWL&P provides regulated electric, natural gas and water service in northwestern Wisconsin to approximately 15,000 electric customers, 12,000 natural gas customers and 10,000 water customers. Its industrial customers are primarily in the taconite, paper, pulp and wood products and pipeline industries. The customers consist of five taconite producing facilities (two of which are owned by one company and are served under a single contract), one iron nugget plant, and four paper and pulp mills. During the year ended December 2011, its residential and commercial customers represented 20% of total regulated utility kilowatt-hour sales. In 2011, its municipal customers represented 7% of total regulated utility kilowatt-hou! r sales. The Company also enters into off-system sales with Other Power Suppliers.
The Company�� generation is primarily coal-fired, but also includes approximately 102 megawatts of hydro generation from ten hydro stations in Minnesota, approximately 107 megawatts of wind generation, and 73 megawatts of biomass co-fired generation. Purchased power is made up of long-term coal, wind and hydro power purchase agreements and market purchases. As of December 31, 2011, Minnesota Power had a coal inventory of 0.9 million tons. Minnesota Power entered into two long-term wind Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs) with an affiliate of NextEra Energy, Inc. to purchase the output from Oliver Wind I (50 megawatts) and Oliver Wind II (48 megawatts), wind facilities located near Center, North Dakota. Each agreement is for 25 years and provides for the purchase of all output from the facilities at fixed prices. The Company has a PPA with Manitoba Hydro that expires in April 2015. Under this agreement, Minnesota Power is purchasing 50 megawatts of capacity and the energy associated with that capacity. Minnesota Power has a separate PPA with Manitoba Hydro to purchase surplus energy from May 2011 through April 2022.
On May 19, 2011, Minnesota Power and Manitoba Hydro signed a long-term PPA. The PPA calls for Manitoba Hydro to sell 250 megawatts of capacity and energy to Minnesota Power for 15 years beginning in 2020 and requires construction of additional transmission capacity between Manitoba and the United States. On January 26, 2012, the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission (MPUC) approved this PPA with Manitoba Hydro. The Company has electric transmission and distribution lines of 500 kilovolts (eight miles), 345 kilovolts (29 miles), 250 kilovolts (465 miles), 230 kilovolts (632 miles), 161 kilovolts (43 miles), 138 kilovolts (128 miles), 115 kilovolts (1,221 miles) and less than 115 kilovolts (6,216 miles). Thye Company owns and operates 164substations with a total capacity of 11,132 megav! oltampere! s. Some of its transmission and distribution lines interconnect with other utilities. Rainy River Energy, its wholly owned subsidiary, owns approximately 8% of American Transmission Company LLC (ATC), a Wisconsin-based utility that owns and maintains electric transmission assets in parts of Wisconsin, Michigan, Minnesota and Illinois. Hibbard is a 51 megttsa biomass/coal/natural gas facility located in Duluth, Minnesota. Minnesota Power holds franchises to construct and maintain an electric distribution and transmission system in 94 cities and towns located within its electric service territory. SWL&P holds 17 similar franchises for electric, natural gas and/or water systems in one city and 16 villages and towns within its service territory.
Investments and Other
BNI Coal is a supplier of lignite in North Dakota, producing about four million tons annually. Two electric generating cooperatives, Minnkota Power Cooperative, Inc. (Minnkota Power) and Square Butte Electric Cooperative (Square Butte), consumes virtually all of BNI Coal�� production of lignite under cost-plus, fixed fee coal supply agreements extending through 2026. The mining process disturbs and reclaims between 200 and 250 acres per year. ALLETE Properties represents its Florida real estate investment. Its two major development projects are Town Center and Palm Coast Park. Another major project, Ormond Crossings is in the design and permitting stage. ALLETE Properties occasionally provides seller financing to certain qualified buyers. In June 2011, the Company ALLETE Clean Energy, a wholly owned subsidiary of ALLETE. ALLETE Clean Energy intends to market to electric utilities, cooperatives, municipalities, independent power marketers and end-users across North America through long-term PPAs. ALLETE Clean Energy focuses on developing or acquiring capital projects that create energy solutions through wind, solar, biomass, hydro, natural gas/liquids, shale resources, clean coal and other clean energy. As of Decembe! r 31, 201! 1, non-rate base generation consists of 31 megawatts of generation at Rapids Energy Center. In 2011, it sold 0.1 million Megawatt-hours of non-rate base generation. The Company has approximately 5,500 acres of land available-for-sale in Minnesota.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Eric Volkman]
ALLETE (NYSE: ALE ) is continuing to be all in with its dividend. The company has declared its latest common stock distribution, which is to be $0.475 per share paid on Sept. 1 to shareholders of record as of Aug. 15. That amount matches the company's previous two payouts, the most recent of which was dispensed at the beginning of June. Before that, the company was less generous by a cent and a half, handing out $0.46 per share.
- [By Marc Bastow]
Utility holding company Allete (ALE) raised its quarterly dividend 3.2% to 49 cents per share, payable on Mar. 1 to shareholders of record as of Feb. 14.
ALE Dividend Yield: 3.94%
Hot Up And Coming Companies To Watch For 2014: Owens Corning Inc(OC)
Owens Corning engages in the provision of composite and building materials systems worldwide. It operates in two segments, Composites and Building Materials. The Composites segment manufactures, fabricates, and sells glass reinforcements in the form of fiber; and manufactures and sells glass fiber products in the form of fabrics, mat, veil, and other specialized products. Its products are used in pipe, roofing shingles, sporting goods, computers, telecommunications cables, boats, aircraft, defense, automotive, industrial containers, and wind-energy applications in the power and energy, housing, water distribution, industrial, transportation, consumer, and aerospace/military markets. This segment sells its products directly to parts molders and fabricators; and glass fiber and/or glass mat directly to shingle manufacturers. The Building Materials segment manufactures and sells fiberglass insulation into residential, commercial, industrial, and other markets for thermal and acoustical applications. It also offers glass fiber pipe insulation, and energy flexible duct media and foam insulation products, such as thermal and acoustical batts, loose fill insulation, foam sheathing, and accessories for use in home construction and remodeling; and manufactures residential roofing shingles and oxidized asphalt materials used in residential and commercial construction and specialty applications. This segment sells its insulation products, and shingles and roofing accessories to insulation installers, home centers, lumberyards, retailers, distributors, and contractors; and asphalt to roofing contractors and distributors for built-up roofing asphalt systems, as well as to manufacturers in the automotive, chemical, rubber, and construction industries. Owens Corning was founded in 1938 and is headquartered in Toledo, Ohio.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Nicole Seghetti]
Let's take a closer look at three stocks Fisher recently bought, including drugmaker Gilead Sciences (NASDAQ: GILD ) , materials manufacturer Owens Corning (NYSE: OC ) , and financial services provider CapitalSource (NYSE: CSE ) .
- [By Monica Gerson]
Owens Corning (NYSE: OC) is projected to report its Q3 earnings at $0.65 per share on revenue of $1.39 billion.
E*TRADE Financial (NASDAQ: ETFC) is expected to post its Q3 earnings at $0.17 per share on revenue of $419.41 million.
Hot Up And Coming Companies To Watch For 2014: Stifel Financial Corporation(SF)
Stifel Financial Corp., a financial holding company, operates as a retail and institutional brokerage, and investment banking company in the United States and internationally. The company?s Global Wealth Management segment offers securities transaction, brokerage, and investment services, including equity securities; fixed income securities, which comprise municipal, corporate, and government agency securities; preferred stocks; and unit investment trusts. This segment also provides managed fee-based products; and insurance and annuity products, as well as securities-based lending services. In addition, it offers retail and commercial banking services to private and corporate clients, including personal loan programs, such as fixed and variable mortgage loans, home equity lines of credit, personal loans, loans secured by certificates of deposit or savings, and securities-based loans; and commercial lending programs, such as small business loans, commercial real estate loa ns, lines of credit, credit cards, term loans, and inventory and receivables financing. As of December 31, 2011, this segment operated a network of 1,833 financial advisors located in 291 branch offices in 44 states and the District of Columbia; and 154 independent contractors. Its Institutional Group segment offers research, equity, and fixed income institutional sales and trading, investment banking, public finance, and syndicate services. This segment distributes equity research products to institutional investors; provides financial advisory services principally with respect to mergers and acquisitions, and the execution of public offerings and private placements of debt and equity securities; and coordinates marketing, distribution, pricing, and stabilization of managed equity and debt offerings. It serves individual investors, corporations, municipalities, and institutions. The company was founded in 1890 and is headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Maria Armental var popups = dojo.query(".socialByline .popC"); popups.forEach]
Stifel Financial Corp.(SF) agreed to buy Legg Mason Inc.'s(LM) investment-advisory and trust-services unit, which manages more than $9 billion in assets, the companies said. Terms of the deal weren’t disclosed.
Hot Up And Coming Companies To Watch For 2014: Xilinx Inc (XLNX)
Xilinx, Inc. (Xilinx), incorporated on February 5, 1984, designs, develops and markets programmable platforms. These programmable platforms have a number of components, including integrated circuits (ICs) in the form of programmable logic devices (PLDs), including Extensible Processing Platforms (EPPs); software design tools to program the PLDs; targeted reference designs; printed circuit boards, and intellectual property (IP), which consists of Xilinx and various third-party verification and IP cores. In addition to its programmable platforms, Xilinx provides design services, customer training, field engineering and technical support. The Company�� PLDs include field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), complex programmable logic devices (CPLDs) that its customers program to perform logic functions, and EPPs. Xilinx�� products are offered to electronic equipment manufacturers in end markets, such as wired and wireless communications, industrial, scientific and medical, aerospace and defense, audio, video and broadcast, consumer, automotive and data processing. The Company sells its products globally through independent domestic and foreign distributors and through direct sales to original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) by a network of independent sales representative firms and by a direct sales management organization. In January 2011, the Company acquired AutoESL Design Technologies, Inc. In August 2012, the Company acquired embedded Linux solutions provider PetaLogix.
Product Families
The 7 series devices that comprise the Company�� 28-nanometer (nm) product families are fabricated on a high-K metal gate 28-nm process technology. These devices are based on an architecture, which enables design and IP portability and re-use across all families, as well as provides designers the ability to achieve the appropriate combination of I/O support, performance, feature quantities, packaging and power consumption to address a range of applications. The 7 series devices consist of! three families: Virtex-7 FPGA, Kintex-7 FPGAs and Artix-7 FPGAs. The Zynq-7000 family is the family of Xilinx EPPs. The Virtex-6 FPGA family consists of 13 devices and is the sixth generation in the Virtex series of FPGAs.
Virtex-6 FPGAs are fabricated on a high-performance, 40-nm process technology. There are three Virtex-6 families: Virtex-6 LXT FPGAs, Virtex-6 SXT FPGAs and Virtex-6 HXT FPGAs. The Spartan-6 family is the PLD industry�� 45-nm high-volume FPGA family, consisting of 11 devices in two product families: Spartan-6 LX FPGAs and Spartan-6 LXT FPGAs. The Virtex-5 FPGA family consists of 26 devices in five product families: Virtex-5 LX FPGAs for logic-intensive designs, Virtex-5 LXT FPGAs for high-performance logic with serial connectivity, Virtex-5 SXT FPGAs for high-performance DSP with serial connectivity, Virtex-5 FXT FPGAs for embedded processing with serial connectivity and Virtex-5 TXT FPGAs for high-bandwidth serial connectivity. Prior generation Virtex families include Virtex-4, Virtex-II Pro, Virtex-II, Virtex-E and the original Virtex family. Spartan family FPGAs include 90-nm Spartan-3 FPGAs, the Spartan-3E family and the Spartan-3A family. Prior generation Spartan families include Spartan-IIE, Spartan-II, Spartan XL and the original Spartan family.
Design Platforms and Services
The Company offers three types of programmable platforms. The Base Platform is the delivery vehicle for all of its new silicon offerings used to develop and run customer-specific software applications and hardware designs. The Base Platform consists of FPGA silicon; Integrated Software Environment (ISE) Design Suite design environment; integration support of optional third-party synthesis, simulation, and signal integrity tools; reference designs; development boards and IP. The Domain-Specific Platform targets one of the three primary Xilinx FPGA user profiles: the embedded processing developer; the DSP developer; or the logic/connectivity developer. The Market-S! pecific P! latform enables software or hardware developers to build and run their specific application or solution. Built for specific markets, such as automotive, consumer, aerospace and defense, communications, audio, video and broadcast, industrial, or scientific and medical, the Market-Specific Platform integrates both the Base and Domain-Specific Platforms.
During April 2012, Xilinx introduced the Vivado Design Suite. Vivado supports Xilinx 7 series FPGAs and Zynq EPPs. Xilinx and various third parties offer hundreds of no charge and fee-bearing IP core licenses covering Ethernet, memory controllers Interlaken and PCIe interface, as well as domain-specific IP in the areas of embedded, DSP and connectivity, and market-specific IP cores. The Company also offers development kits, including hardware, design tools, IP and reference designs. Xilinx offers a range of configuration products, including one-time programmable and in-system programmable storage devices to configure Xilinx FPGAs. These programmable read-only memory (PROM) products support all of the Company�� FPGA devices. Xilinx and certain third parties have developed and offer a ecosystem of IP, boards, tools, services and support through the Xilinx alliance program. Xilinx also works with these third parties to promote its programmable platforms through third-party tools, IP, software, boards and design services. Xilinx engineering services provide customers with engineering, ranging from hands-on training to full design creation and implementation.
The Company competes with Altera Corporation, Lattice Semiconductor Corporation and Microsemi Corporation.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Wallace Witkowski]
Xilinx Inc. (XLNX) �shares dropped 4.3% to $44.90 on moderate volume after the company reported fiscal second-quarter earnings.
- [By Lee Jackson]
Xilinx Inc. (NASDAQ: XLNX) was recently raised to an overweight rating at Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) and should be able to contain any earnings degradation as a result from lowered orders from Cisco. The consensus price target for the stock stands at $47, and investors are paid a 2.2% dividend.
Hot Up And Coming Companies To Watch For 2014: Triad Guaranty Inc (TGICQ)
Triad Guaranty Inc., incorporated in 1993, is a holding company which, through its wholly-owned subsidiary, Triad Guaranty Insurance Corporation (TGIC), is a nationwide mortgage insurer. During the year ended December 31, 2011, Collateral Mortgage, Ltd. (CHL) owns 16.8% of the common stock of TGI. The Company has historically provided Primary and Modified Pool mortgages guaranty insurance coverage on United States residential mortgage loans.
Primary insurance provides mortgage default protection to lenders on individual loans and covers a percentage of unpaid loan principal, delinquent interest and certain expenses associated with the default and subsequent foreclosure (collectively, the insured amount or claim amount). Primary insurance was written on both flow and structured bulk transactions. Flow transactions consisted of loans originated by lenders that were submitted to the Company on a loan-by-loan basis, whereas structured bulk transactions involved underwriting and insuring a group of loans with individual coverage for each loan. Insurance on primary policies consists of 80% of the Company's total insurance in force at December 31, 2011.
Modified Pool insurance was written only on structured bulk transactions. Policies insured as part of a Modified Pool transaction have individual coverage, but an aggregate stop-loss limit applies to the entire group of insured loans. In addition, some of the Modified Pool transactions included deductibles representing a percentage of the total risk originated under which the Company pays no claims until the losses exceed the deductible amount. Modified Pool insurance consists of 20% of the Company's total insurance in force at December 31, 2011.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Zachary Tracer]
Mortgage insurers PMI and Triad Guaranty Inc. (TGICQ) filed for bankruptcy after housing crashed. Old Republic International Corp. also retreated from the mortgage guaranty business.
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