Top Canadian Companies To Watch For 2014

By ratting out its price-fixing co-conspirators, Hershey (NYSE: HSY  ) got itself a sweet deal from Canadian regulators that could see its stock pile on the gains.

According to Canada's Competition Bureau, chocolate makers Nestle and Mars, along with the wholesale distributor network ITWAL, conspired to raise prices of the confectionery going back to 2007 and earlier. One study found prices soared 38% between 2004 and 2008.

While Hershey itself was in on the plot, it cooperated with investigators and carved out a sweet deal for itself that leaves it facing just one count of price fixing and the promise of a good word being put in at sentencing.�

However, the chocolatier truly having sweet dreams is Cadbury, now a division of snack maker�Mondelez International (NASDAQ: MDLZ  ) , which profited from a Canadian law that allows the first person to spill the (cocoa) beans to get lenient treatment. It laid out the plot for the regulatory agency and fully cooperated with its investigation, meaning that while the co-conspirators face fines up to $10 million and five years in jail for their role in the scheme, Cadbury wasn't charged.�

Top 10 Energy Stocks To Invest In 2015: CommonWealth REIT (CWH)

CommonWealth REIT is a real estate investment trust launched and managed by Reit Management & Research LLC. The fund invests in the real estate markets of the United States. It seeks to invest in office buildings, industrial buildings, and leased industrial land. CommonWealth REIT was founded in 1986 and is domiciled in United States.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Lauren Pollock]

  Activist investors Corvex Management LP and Related Cos. made a preliminary filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in their renewed effort to replace CommonWealth REIT's(CWH) board following an arbitration panel ruling allowing the move.

• [By Chris DeMuth Jr.]

  So you do not have to wait, here's the punch line…

  The recent 2Q 2013 earnings announcement validated the belief that management continues to lay out exactly what they are going to do and then effectively execute on those plans.The current stock price of roughly $4.00 offers a discount to the intrinsic value of the company, which I model to be about $4.80 today, with the potential to be worth between $7.50 and $9.00 per share after cash deployment and the issuance of $100M of new equity capital.The incentive structure for the Gramercy management is very tightly aligned to the common shareholders in contrast to some other REITs, such as CommonWealth REIT (CWH), which is the current poster child for non-alignment.The REIT structure forces management to return cash to shareholders and not hold it to spend on growth projects. Growth capital must be justified to common shareholders every time it is requested.

  The REIT Legal Requirements Favor Common Shareholders over Company Management

• [By Eric Volkman]

  CommonWealth REIT (NYSE: CWH  ) is keeping the dividend taps open. The real estate investment trust has declared its latest quarterly common and preferred stock distributions. For the former, the company will hand out $0.25 per share "on or about" Aug. 23 to shareholders of record as of July 26. CommonWealth's series D and E preferred stockholders will receive $0.4063 and $0.4531 per share, respectively. Both distributions will be made "on or about" Aug. 15 to holders of record as of Aug. 1.

• [By Tim Brugger]

  In an on-going effort to oust the board of directors of Commonwealth REIT (NYSE: CWH  ) , its second largest shareholder, Corvex Management, recently forwarded a record request date to Commonwealth management. The latest request by Corvex follows an earlier consent solicitation proposal in late March. Corvex's ultimate objective of the shareholder meeting is to "remove all of CWH's Trustees without cause," according to a Commonwealth press release issued today.

Top Canadian Companies To Watch For 2014: Mechel Steel Group OAO (MTL)

Mechel OAO, together with its subsidiaries, engages in mining and steel businesses in the Russian Federation, other CIS countries, Europe, Asia, the Middle East, the United States, and internationally. The company operates through four segments: Mining, Steel, Ferroalloys, and Power. The Mining segment engages in the production and sale of metallurgical and steam coal, coke, iron ore, and limestone, as well as chemical products, such as coal tar, naphthalene, and other compounds. The Steel segment produces and sells semi-finished steel products, carbon and special long products, and carbon and stainless flat products, as well as metal products, including wire products, forgings, and stampings. The Ferroalloys segment is involved in the production and sale of nickel ore, low-ferrous ferronickel, ferrochrome, and ferrosilicon. The Power segment engages in the generation and sale of electricity and heat energy from steam coal; and power distribution activities. The company, f ormerly known as Mechel Steel Group OAO, was founded in 2003 and is based in Moscow, the Russian Federation.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Travis Hoium]

  What: Shares of Russian coal miner Mechel (NYSE: MTL  ) fell as much as 10% today after the company announced fiscal-fourth-quarter earnings.

• [By Dan Caplinger]

  Finally, beyond the Dow, Russian steel company Mechel (NYSE: MTL  ) has spiked 10% after announcing a share buyback program. With steel producers having been down and out for a long time, investors should expect to see similar moves from other companies in the future. Weak financial conditions make it hard for companies to spare the cash for buybacks, but when shares are down and out, buybacks produce the best return for the company.

• [By Jake L'Ecuyer]

  Mechel OAO (NYSE: MTL) was down, falling 2.33 percent to $2.52 after the company appointed Senior Vice-President for Economics and Management Oleg Korzhov as its Chief Executive Officer.

• [By MONEYMORNING.COM]

  As a result, Russian stocks have generally been getting hammered. To keep the data clean and discrete, I ran the charts over the last three months. In that period, energy giants Gazprom OAO (OTC: OGZPY) and CNOOC Ltd. (ADR) (NYSE: CEO) are both off more than 18%. The steel company Mechel OAO (ADR) (NYSE: MTL) is off 24%.

Top Canadian Companies To Watch For 2014: Mad Catz Interactive Inc(MCZ)

Mad Catz Interactive, Inc. designs, manufactures, markets, sells, and distributes accessories for videogame platforms and personal computers (PC), as well as for iPod and other audio devices. Its products include videogame, PC, and audio accessories, such as control pads, video cables, steering wheels, joysticks, memory cards, light guns, flight sticks, dance pads, microphones, car adapters, carry cases, mice, keyboards, and headsets. It markets its products primarily under the Mad Catz, Saitek, Cyborg, Eclipse, Joytech, GameShark, Tritton, and AirDrives brands. The company also develops flight simulation software; operates flight simulation centers under its Saitek brand; operates a videogame content Website under its GameShark brand; publishes games under its Mad Catz brand; and distributes games and videogame products for third parties. It distributes its products through retailers in the United States, Europe, and Canada, as well as in Australia, Japan, Korea, New Zeal and, and Singapore. The company was founded in 1989 and is headquartered in San Diego, California

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Bryan Murphy]

  If the name Mad Catz Interactive, Inc. (NYSEMKT:MCZ) rings a bell, it might be because yours truly penned some bullish thoughts on the video-gaming hardware (joysticks, control pads, headsets, etc.) back on August 20th. Neither MCZ nor my write-up were received as anything partially special at the time - it was just another stock dissected by just another guy, and you may or may not have given it a second thought. The 37% rally in the meantime, however, may garner a little more attention.

Top Canadian Companies To Watch For 2014: Brookfield Office Properties Inc. (BPO)

Brookfield Properties Corporation is a publicly owned real estate investment firm. The firm engages in the ownership, development, and management of premier commercial properties. It also provides ancillary real estate service businesses, such as tenant service and amenities. The firm invests in the real estate markets of the United States with a focus on North American cities, including New York, Boston, Washington, D.C., Toronto, Calgary, Denver, and Minneapolis. It primarily invests in properties and development sites predominantly office buildings. The firm operates as a subsidiary of Brookfield Asset Management Inc. It was formerly known as Carena-Bancorp Holdings, Inc. and changed its name to Le Holding Carena-Bancorp Inc. in 1978. The company further changed its name to Carena-Bancorp, Inc. in 1985; to Carena Developments Limited in 1989; and to Brookfield Properties Corporation in 1996. Brookfield Properties was founded in 1923 and is based in New York, New York wi th an additional office in Toronto, Canada

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Victor Selva]

  Xerox Corporation (XRX), with a market capitalization of $13.11 billion, is among the largest companies in the global document markets. It is a provider of business process and document management. The company is a Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) company engaged in managing transaction processes.

• [By Jake L'Ecuyer]

  Shares of Brookfield Office Properties (NYSE: BPO) got a boost, shooting up 13.45 percent to $19.02 after Brookfield Property Partners (NYSE: BPY) proposed to acquire Brookfield Office Properties for $19.34 per share.

Top Canadian Companies To Watch For 2014: Abbott Laboratories(ABT)

Abbott Laboratories engages in the discovery, development, manufacture, and sale of health care products worldwide. The company offers adult and pediatric pharmaceuticals for rheumatoid and psoriatic arthritis, ankylosing spondylitis, psoriasis, and Crohn's disease; dyslipidemia; HIV infection; prostate cancer, endometriosis and central precocious puberty, and anemia caused by uterine fibroids; respiratory syncytial virus; adult males who have low or no testosterone; secondary hyperparathyroidism; hypothyroidism; and pancreatic exocrine insufficiency, as well as anesthesia products. It also provides diagnostic products, such as immunoassay systems; chemistry systems; assays used for screening and/or diagnosis for drugs of abuse, cancer, therapeutic drug monitoring, fertility, physiological, and infectious diseases; instruments that automate the extraction, purification, and preparation of DNA and RNA from patient samples, and detect and measure infections agents; genomic-b ased tests; hematology systems and reagents; and point-of-care diagnostic systems and tests for blood analysis. In addition, the company offers a line of pediatric and adult nutritional products. Further, it provides coronary, endovascular, vessel closure, and structural heart devices, such as drug-eluting stent systems, coronary metallic stents, balloon dilatation products, coronary guidewires, vessel closure devices, carotid stent systems, percutaneous valve repair systems, and drug eluting bioresorbable vascular products. Additionally, the company provides blood glucose monitoring meters, test strips, data management software, and accessories for people with diabetes; and medical devices for the eye, including cataract surgery, lasik surgery, contact lens, and dry eye products, as well as branded generic pharmaceutical products. Abbott primarily serves retailers, wholesalers, hospitals, and health care facilities. Abbott was founded in 1888 and is headquartered in Abbott Park, Illinois.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Dan Caplinger]

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

• [By Anna Prior]

  Abbott Laboratories sa(ABT)id it will sell a portion of its generics pharmaceuticals business to Mylan Inc.(MYL) in an all-stock transaction valued at $5.3 billion, another health-care deal driven in part by tax advantages. Mylan shares rose 4.1% to $52.25, while Abbott shares rose 1.9% to $42.10 premarket.

Top Canadian Companies To Watch For 2014: Ormat Technologies Inc.(ORA)

Ormat Technologies, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, engages in the geothermal and recovered energy power business in the United States and internationally. The company operates in two segments, Electricity and Product. The Electricity segment develops, builds, owns, and operates geothermal and recovered energy-based power plants; and sells the electricity. The Product segment designs, manufactures, and sells power units for geothermal and recovered energy-based electricity generation; fossil fuel powered turbo-generators; and heavy duty direct-current generators. It also provides services relating to the engineering, procurement, construction, operation, and maintenance of geothermal and recovered energy power plants. This segment serves contractors and geothermal power plant owners and operators; and interstate natural gas pipeline owners and operators, gas processing plant owners and operators, cement plant owners and operators, and companies in other energy-intens ive industrial processes. The company was founded in 1965 and is based in Reno, Nevada. Ormat Technologies, Inc. is a subsidiary of Ormat Industries Ltd.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By John Udovich]

  Small cap Ocean Power Technologies Inc (NASDAQ: OPTT) just sank 34% on news that they have fired their CEO "for cause,��meaning its worth taking a closer look at the stock to see if there is anything to salvage (shares were rising more than 6% in after hours) plus take a look at the performance of potential renewable energy related peers like Ormat Technologies, Inc (NYSE: ORA), Broadwind Energy Inc (NASDAQ: BWEN) and China Ming Yang Wind Power Group Ltd (NYSE: MY).

• [By Amy Thomson]

  AT&T has examined takeover candidates including Vodafone�� assets, U.K. mobile carrier EE -- a venture of Deutsche Telekom AG (DTE) and Orange SA (ORA) -- and parts of Spain�� Telefonica SA (TEF), people familiar with the company�� plans said in June. AT&T is attracted to Europe because of its relatively recent introduction of faster, fourth-generation networks, which have been available for years in the U.S.

• [By Marie Mawad]

  Orange SA (ORA), France�� biggest phone company, agreed to sell its Dominican Republic unit to Altice, a cable and telecommunications investor, for $1.4 billion.

• [By John Udovich]

  Yesterday, small cap geothermal stock U.S. Geothermal Inc (NYSEMKT: HTM) produced a geyser of a return when it surged 26.79%, meaning its worth taking a closer look at the stock verses the performance of other geothermal stocks like small cap Ormat Technologies, Inc (NYSE: ORA) and mid cap Calpine Corporation (NYSE: CPN).�First of all, I should mention there are some other geothermal stocks out there like Alterra Power Corp (CVE: AXY) and Ram Power Corp (TSE: RPG) who have their primary listing on Canadian exchanges with secondary ones on the OTC���meaning they may not be a good deal for American investors or easy to invest in. Second, U.S. Geothermal Inc itself is a good geothermal proxy as its�focused on developing, owning, and operating clean, sustainable electric power from geothermal energy resources and its�operating geothermal power projects at Neal Hot Springs, Oregon; San Emidio, Nevada; and Raft River, Idaho plus El Ceibillo, an advanced stage, geothermal prospect located within a 24,710 acre energy rights concession area near Guatemala City, the largest city in Central America.

Top Canadian Companies To Watch For 2014: Goldcorp Incorporated(GG)

Goldcorp Inc. engages in the acquisition, exploration, development, and operation of precious metal properties in Canada, the United States, Mexico, and Central and South America. It produces and sells gold, silver, copper, lead, and zinc. The company was founded in 1954 and is headquartered in Vancouver, Canada.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Dan Caplinger]

  One way Yamana has kept its competitive cost advantage is through extensive sales of base-metal byproducts like copper and zinc, as both it and fellow low-cost rival Goldcorp (NYSE: GG  ) benefit from utilizing those secondary metals to offset the cost of their gold production. Peers Gold Fields (NYSE: GFI  ) and AngloGold Ashanti (NYSE: AU  ) , on the other hand, face much higher costs in part because of their exposure to South Africa and its unstable labor market.

• [By idahansen]

  Due to a breakdown in budget talks in Washington, DC, the exchange traded funds for gold, SPDR Gold Shares (NYSE: GLD), and silver, iShares Silver Trust (NYSE: SLV), both rose. That has certainly not been the trend, however. For 2013, SPDR Gold Shares is off by more than 20%. Over the same period, iShares Silver Trust has dropped by around 30%. It is the same story with major gold companies such as Barrick Gold (NYSE: ABX) and Goldcorp (NYSE: GG).

• [By Doug Ehrman]

  The end of last week saw a trifecta of bad news for gold miners, even as the SPDR Gold Trust (NYSEMKT: GLD  ) showed a measure of strength. Randgold (NASDAQ: GOLD  ) saw earnings weakness, Gold Fields (NYSE: GFI  ) was downgraded, and Goldcorp (NYSE: GG  ) missed earnings estimates significantly. The interplay between the gold commodity and the gold miners has been particularly interesting of late, making this a good time to consider gold mining stocks and their prospects moving forward.