Top 5 Logistics Stocks To Invest In 2014

The Department of Defense awarded more than $562 million worth of contracts�on Wednesday. Publicly traded companies receiving contracts included:

Eaton Corporation (NYSE: ETN  ) , which was awarded a maximum $12 million firm-fixed-price, sole-source contract to supply various oil nozzles and parts to the U.S. Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marine Corps with a May 22, 2015, performance completion date.
� Elbit Systems (NASDAQ: ESLT  ) subsidiary M7 Aerospace, awarded a $15.2 million option extension on a previously awarded firm-fixed-price contract for logistics support for 12 Navy/Marines UC-35 and seven Navy C-26 transport aircraft through May 2014.
� Northrop Grumman (NYSE: NOC  ) , winner of a $15.3 million modification to a previously awarded cost-plus-award-fee contract funding continued systems development and demonstrations of the MQ-4C Triton Unmanned Aircraft System. This is the same�drone that the Royal Australian Air Force recently expressed interest in acquiring.

Curiously, the DOD clarified that the actual purpose of the latter contract is not so much to perform work on the new drone per se but rather to pay for an upgrade of software being used in the project -- from Microsoft's (NASDAQ: MSFT  ) Windows XP operating system to Windows 7.

Top Mid Cap Stocks To Own For 2015: Strategic Hotels and Resorts Inc (BEE)

Strategic Hotels & Resorts, Inc. (SHR), incorporated on January 27, 2004, operates as a self-administered and self-managed real estate investment trust (REIT). As of December 31, 2012, the Company�� portfolio included 18 full-service hotel interests located in urban and resort markets in the United States; Punta Mita, Nayarit, Mexico; Hamburg, Germany, and London, England. SHR conducts its operations through its direct and indirect subsidiaries, including its operating partnership, Strategic Hotel Funding, L.L.C. (SH Funding), which holds all of the Company�� assets. SHR is the sole managing member of SH Funding and held approximately 99% of its membership units as of February 27, 2013. SHR manages all business aspects of SH Funding, including the sale and purchase of hotels, the investment in these hotels and the financing of SH Funding and its assets. In September 2012, it acquired the JW Marriott Essex House Hotel in New York City. In October 2013, the Company announced that it has sold the Lakeshore Athletic Club property adjacent to the Fairmont Chicago hotel.

As of December 31, 2012, SH Funding owned interests in or leased 18 hotels, which included Fairmont Chicago, Fairmont Scottsdale Princess, Four Seasons Jackson Hole, Four Seasons Punta Mita Resort, Four Seasons Silicon Valley, Four Seasons Washington, D.C., Hotel del Coronado, Hyatt Regency La Jolla, InterContinental Chicago, InterContinental Miami, JW Marriott Essex House Hotel, Loews Santa Monica Beach Hotel, Marriott Hamburg, Marriott Lincolnshire Resort, Marriott London Grosvenor Square, Ritz-Carlton Half Moon Bay, Ritz-Carlton Laguna Niguel and Westin St. Francis.

The Hotel del Coronado is operated by a specialty management company, KSL Resorts. As of February 27, 2013, the Company wholly owned or leased 14 hotels, had a 53.5% and 51.0% interest in an affiliate that owned a hotel where it asset managed such hotel, and had 50.0% and 36.4% interests in, and acted as asset manager for, two affiliates that eac! h owned one hotel, and owned land held for development, including 20.5 acres of oceanfront land adjacent to its Four Seasons Punta Mita Resort, Nayarit, Mexico and 60 acres of oceanfront land near the Four Seasons Punta Mita Resort; a 20,000 square-foot parcel of land on the ocean in Santa Monica, California adjacent to its Loews Santa Monica Beach Hotel entitled for development and residential units; a 50% interest in an affiliate that owned 10 acres of land adjacent to the Fairmont Scottsdale Princess hotel, and a 31% interest in an affiliate with two parties that was developing the fractional ownership program known as the Four Seasons Residence Club Punta Mita.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By James E. Brumley]

  In a perfect world, an investor could simply look at a company's history and its plausible earnings forecasts, and jump in (or out) knowing the stock's current price basically made sense with respect to past and future performance. We don't live or trade in a perfect world though. In the world we're actually in right now, most stocks, sectors, and industries have run up far beyond a justifiable value... perhaps except for hotel and lodging REIT stocks Host Hotels and Resorts Inc. (NYSE:HST), Strategic Hotels and Resorts Inc. (NYSE:BEE), and Pebblebrook Hotel Trust (NYSE:PEB).

• [By Anders Bylund]

  Strategic Hotels & Resorts (NYSE: BEE  ) raised its takeover defenses in 2008 in order to ward off opportunistic raiders amid general market turmoil. The REIT, which specializes in high-end hotels, extended its poison pill last year as the "lingering economic uncertainty" never went away. Six months later, in May 2013, the extension was cut short. No real explanation, but you could take this action as a vote of confidence in an improving economy. The stock has gained 14% in the seven months since, just ahead of the S&P's 11% improvement. No takeover bids here.

Top 5 Logistics Stocks To Invest In 2014: Ishares Msci Singapore Ews (EWS)

iShares MSCI Singapore Index Fund (the Fund) seeks to provide investment results that correspond generally to the price and yield performance of publicly traded securities in the aggregate in the Singaporean market, as measured by the MSCI Singapore Index (the Index).

The Index seeks to measure the performance of the Singaporean equity market. The Index is a capitalization-weighted index that aims to capture 85% of the (publicly available) total market capitalization. The Fund invests in a representative sample of securities in the Index, which has a similar investment profile as the Index. iShares MSCI Singapore Index Fund's investment advisor is Barclays Global Fund Advisors.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Doug Fabian]

  The country seems to have been boosted by an unexpected rise in manufacturing and gains in the service sector. One way to invest in Singapore is through the iShares MSCI Singapore ETF (EWS).

Top 5 Logistics Stocks To Invest In 2014: Sparton Corporation(SPA)

Sparton Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, offers electronic manufacturing services primarily for medical device, defense and security systems, and electronic manufacturing services industries worldwide. The company?s Medical segment engages in the contract development, design, production, and distribution of medical related electromechanical devices for the medical OEM and ET customers primarily in the vitro diagnostic and therapeutic device areas. Its EMS segment involves in the contract manufacturing, assembly, design, preproduction, prototyping, and/or box building assemblies, such as flight control systems and fuel control systems for the aerospace, medical diagnostics systems, security systems, detection systems, lighting, and defense. The company?s DSS segment engages in the design, development, and production of electromechanical equipment, such as sonobuoys, an anti-submarine warfare device used by the United States Navy and foreign governments; and perf orms an engineering development function for the United States military and prime defense contractors on advanced technologies for defense products, and replacement of current systems. It also offers non-sonobuoy related manufacturing and services. Sparton Corporation was founded in 1900 and is headquartered in Schaumburg, Illinois.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Jasmine Ng]

  Futures (SPA) on the Standard & Poor�� 500 Index lost 0.3 percent today. The U.S. equities benchmark index dropped 0.3 percent yesterday amid data that showed manufacturing unexpectedly climbed last month and retail spending fell on the weekend after Thanksgiving for the first time since 2009.

• [By Emma O��rien]

  Futures (SPA) on the Standard & Poor�� 500 Index fell and the yen climbed against the dollar as U.S. lawmakers continued to scrap over raising the debt limit and the government shutdown. Crude oil declined while gold rallied.

• [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 Sparton (NYSE: SPA  ) , whose recent revenue and earnings are plotted below.

• [By Louis Navellier]

  Sparton Corporation (SPA) provides electromechanical systems and operates in three segments: medical devices, complex systems and defense and security systems. The medical devices segment makes devices used in diagnostic, therapeutic, surgical, and laboratory applications. Complex devices makes printed circuit assemblies used in military, aerospace, industrial and commercial OEMs, while the defense and security segment designs products for defense applications.

Top 5 Logistics Stocks To Invest In 2014: Rubicon Minerals Corp(RBY)

Rubicon Minerals Corporation, a mineral exploration company, engages in the acquisition, exploration, and development of mineral properties in Canada and the United States. It primarily explores for gold and base metal deposits. The company?s key asset is the Phoenix Gold Project located in the Red Lake gold camp, in the Province of Ontario. As of March 31, 2010, it controlled approximately 65,000 acres of prime exploration ground in the prolific Red Lake gold district of Ontario, Canada, as well as approximately 380,000 acres surrounding the Pogo Mine in Alaska and approximately 225,000 acres in northeast Nevada. The company was founded in 1996 and is headquartered in Vancouver, Canada.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Sean Williams]

  Another reason this fund looks attractive (at least to me) is that Rubicon Minerals (NYSEMKT: RBY  ) is one of its largest holdings at 6.02% of its assets as of May 10, 2013. Rubicon is in the late stages of the development process for the F2 Gold System, which has yielded drilling assessments as high as 767 grams/ton. F2 appears to be just as bountiful in gold well below the surface as it is near the surface, which could mean a very long and profitable mine life for Rubicon.