Top 10 Chemical Stocks To Watch For 2014

The Department of Defense issued 14 separate contract awards to defense contractors Friday. Of these, the largest was "an indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity, multiple award contract with provisions to issue cost-plus-award-fee or firm-fixed-price task orders for global contingency construction projects worldwide." (Say that three times fast)

This umbrella contract authorizes four separate contractors -- privately held CH2M Hill Constructors and Environmental Chemical Corp, and publicly traded KBR (NYSE: KBR  ) and URS (NYSE: URS  ) -- to bid for individual task orders under it. In total, across the contract's one-year "base period" and the up to four subsequent one-year optional extensions, this contract is estimated to have a maximum dollar value of $800 million. It is not to exceed 60 months in duration and so should expire in June 2018.

DoD says that "approximately 60 percent" of the funds will be spent on responding to natural disasters, with the remaining and 40% of funds going to "miscellaneous work both inside and outside of the continental United States."

Best Industrial Conglomerate Companies To Watch For 2015: Akzo Nobel NV (AKZA)

Akzo Nobel NV is a manufacturer of paints, coatings and specialty chemicals based in the Netherlands. The Company operates within four segments. Within Buildings and Infrastructure segment, it manufactures decorative paints, protective, powder and coil coatings, and wood finishes for construction industry. Transportation segment offers specialty and powder coatings for automotive parts, peroxides, metal alkyls, and automotive, marine, yacht and aerospace coatings. Consumer Goods segment supplies finishes, adhesives and powder coatings for wood, specialty finishes for electronics, packaging coatings, surfactants, polymers and amines used in manufacture of soap, personal products and detergents. Within Industrial segment, it produces bulk chemicals, specialty chemicals, pulp and paper. In October 2013, it divested its Building Adhesives business; and acquired 50% stake and management control of Sadolin Paints Oman SAOC through joint venture agreement with Omar Zawawi Establishment LLC. Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Jonathan Morgan]

  Akzo Nobel NV (AKZA) tumbled 8 percent to 43.52 euros, the biggest slide since 2008. Europe�� largest paintmaker reported a 14 percent decline in second-quarter earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization to 474 million euros. Sales fell 4 percent to 3.87 billion euros. Analysts had predicted 3.9 billion euros in revenue on average, based on estimates collated by Bloomberg.

Top 10 Chemical Stocks To Watch For 2014: Basf SE (BASFY)

BASF SE is a chemical company. The Company operates in six segments: Chemicals, Plastics, Performance Products, Functional Solutions, Agricultural Solutions and Oil & Gas. Chemicals segment offers products in the chemical, electronic, construction, textile, automotive, pharmaceutical and agricultural industries. Plastics segment offers a range of products, system solutions and services. Performance Products help its customers to improve their products and processes. Functional Solutions segment bundles system solutions and products for customers and industries. The Company�� Agricultural Solutions segment includes crop protection products, which guard against fungal diseases, insects and weeds. Its Oil & gas segment is a producer of oil and gas. On April 9, 2009, the Company acquired Ciba Holding AG. In April 2010, Intertek Group plc acquired the Regulatory and Safety Testing businesses of Ciba Expert Services (Ciba ES) from the Company. In December 2010, the Company completed its acquisition of Cognis Holding GmbH from Cognis Holding Luxembourg S.a r.l.

Chemicals

The Company�� Chemicals segment portfolio ranges from basic chemicals, glues and electronic chemicals for the semiconductor and flat panel display industry, to solvents and plasticizers, as well as starting materials for detergents, plastics, textile fibers, paints, coatings and pharmaceuticals. This segment is organized into three divisions: Inorganics, Petrochemicals and Intermediates. The important basic products of the Inorganics division are ammonia, methanol, sodium hydroxide, chlorine, as well as sulfuric and nitric acid. The Petrochemicals division produces products, such as ethylene, propylene, butadiene and benzene, which are produced in steam crackers from naphtha or natural gas. In further processing stages, it produces alcohols, solvents and plasticizers for the chemicals and plastics industries. BASF SE�� Intermediates division develops, produces and markets a range of intermediates of all produc! ers worldwide. The product lines include amines, diols, polyalcohols, acids and specialties. They serve as starting materials for products, such as coatings, plastics, pharmaceuticals, textile fibers, crop protection products, as well as detergents and cleaners.

Plastics

BASF�� Plastics segment is organized into two divisions: Performance Polymers and Polyurethanes. The Performance Polymers division is a supplier of engineering plastics, polyamides and polyamide intermediates, foams and specialty plastics. The Company offers its customers a portfolio of engineering plastics based on polyamide 6 and polyamide 6,6. This is complemented by products Ultradur, Ultraform and Ultrason. For the packaging, textile and food industries, it offers Ultramid, a base product for the manufacturing of fibers and foils. BASF SE�� product range also includes Ecoflex and Ecovio, biodegradable specialty plastics for the packaging industry. Styropor and its refinement Neopor are styrene-based precursors for foams used in insulating material for construction and packaging. The Polyurethanes division is a supplier of basic products, systems and specialties. The Company offers polyurethane products for numerous customer applications. Under brand names, such as Elastoflex and Elastopor, polyurethanes are used, as rigid or flexible foams in construction for furniture and household appliances.

Performance Products

The Performance Products segment consists of the Acrylics & Dispersions, Care Chemicals and Performance Chemicals divisions. Acrylics & Dispersions produces acrylic acid, as well as its derivatives superabsorbents and polymer dispersions. Superabsorbents are used particularly in diapers. Polymer dispersions are used in the production of glues, coatings, nonwoven materials and construction chemicals. The Company�� product portfolio for the paper industry consists of binders, process chemicals and kaolin pigments. Its Care Chemicals portfolio consists of products f! or cleani! ng, care, cosmetics and hygiene. Performance Chemicals pools specialties for various customer industries. The product portfolio consists of antioxidants, pigments, light stabilizers and specialty additives. The division also makes chemicals for the production and finishing of leather and textiles.

Functional Solutions

The Functional Solutions segment consists of the Catalysts, Construction Chemicals and Coatings divisions. The Catalysts division develops catalysts and adsorbents. It produces catalysts that transform pollutants in the exhaust flows of vehicles into harmless chemical and plastics. The Construction Chemicals division is engaged in development of concrete admixtures, such as concrete plasticizers, deferrers and curing agents. It also produces and markets construction systems. The Coatings division is a provider of coatings solutions for automotive and industrial applications. Its brands Glasurit and R-M are for the car refinish business.

Agricultural Solutions

The Agricultural Solutions segment consists of the Crop Protection division. The Company develops and produces active ingredients and formulations for the improvement of crop health and yields, and markets them worldwide. Its portfolio includes fungicides, insecticides, herbicides and seed treatments. Its product Headline contains the active ingredient F500, which is not only used for corn and soybean, but also for numerous other crops.

Oil & Gas

BASF�� oil and gas activities are bundled in the Wintershall Group. Wintershall and its subsidiaries operate in the business sectors exploration and production, and natural gas trading. In the exploration and production of oil and natural gas, the Company focuses on oil and gas regions in Europe, North Africa and South America, as well as Russia and the Caspian Sea region. The Mittelplate oil field in the North Sea tidal flats is the cornerstone of the Company�� oil production in Germany. Wintershall and RWE-D! EA each h! old a 50% interest in this field. During the year ended December 31, 2009, it acquired 25% interest in Cuxhaven concession. It operates 26 offshore platforms in Mittelplate region, of which 19 are actually controlled. In Libya, Wintershall operates eight onshore oil fields in the concessions 96 and 97 and exploits the associated gas released during crude oil production in a gas utilization plant for the local demand. In Mauritania, it operates two onshore exploration blocks. In 2008, Wintershall acquired stakes of 50% each in two exploration areas in the Canadon Asfalto Basin. It supplies Germany and several other European countries. The gas pipeline network operated by WINGAS TRANSPORT connects the markets in Western Europe with a natural gas infrastructure that runs through Eastern Europe and the Russian Federation all the way to the gas fields in Siberia. Other components portfolio include natural gas storage facility in Western Europe, in Rehdn, Germany, and the natural gas storage facility in Haidach, Austria.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Dan Carroll]

  Firms across Germany's DAX have caught on. BASF (NASDAQOTH: BASFY  ) shares haven't had a great year so far, but the world's largest chemicals firm is looking around the world for growth. The company seeks to double its customer base in the Asia-Pacific region by 2020 in its chemicals and materials business, projecting sales in Asia to double from last year's 12.5 million euros to 25 million euros by that year. That kind of global growth will benefit investors, and the less BASF and other German stocks rely on Europe for sales, the better shareholders will do.

• [By Maxx Chatsko]

  It was only a matter of time. Last month BASF (NASDAQOTH: BASFY  ) , the world's largest chemical company, announced three separate developments that will thrust it from being a mediocre player in industrial enzymes to a dominant force. BASF acquired Henkel's detergent enzyme technology, licensed the C1 biotechnology platform from Dyadic, and befriended Direvo Industrial Biotechnology from Germany for a next-generation animal feed enzyme.

Top 10 Chemical Stocks To Watch For 2014: Naturalnano Inc (NNAN)

NaturalNano, Inc. (NaturalNano), incorporated on February 18, 2000, is engaged in the development and commercialization of material science technologies with an emphasis on additives to polymers and other industrial and consumer products by taking advantage of technology advances developed in-house. During the year ended December 31, 2011,the Company�� activities are directed toward research, development, production and marketing of its technologies relating to the treatment and separation of nanotubes from halloysite clay and the development of related commercial applications for cosmetics, health and beauty products, and polymers, plastics and composites.

The company�� halloysite natural tube (HNT) products involve filling HNTs with active agents for use in the polymer composites, health and beauty, household product, and agrichemical industries. The filled tube product contains a material of interest within the tubes, such as an antimicrobial compound to provide antimicrobial properties to the resulting polymer composite material. The filled-tube products will focus on the utilization of the tubular nature of the halloysite nanotubes, by filling or adsorbing the tubes with active agents for the polymer nanocomposites, household products, cosmetics, agriculture, and pharmaceutical industries. The Company designs, manufactures and sells custom designed error prevention/safety checklist boards.

The Company competes with Air Products and Chemicals, BASF, Dow, E.I. DuPont de Nemours & Company, Applied Minerals, Davis International and Imagexpress.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Peter Graham]

  Small cap stocks Naturalnano Inc (OTCMKTS: NNAN), Global Payout, Inc (OTCMKTS: GOHE) and Blue Water Global Group Inc (OTCBB: BLUU) were either jumping higher or diving lower yesterday. To complicate matters for investors, two of these small cap stocks have been subjects of disclosures about paid promotion or investor relation campaigns. So what will these three small caps do for the rest of this week? Here is a closer look to help you decide on a trading or investing strategy:

Top 10 Chemical Stocks To Watch For 2014: American Vanguard Corp (AVD)

American Vanguard Corporation, incorporated on January 2, 1969, operates as a holding company. The Company is primarily a chemical manufacturer that develops and markets products for agricultural and commercial uses. The Company manufactures and formulates chemicals for crops, human and animal protection. The Company conducts its business through its subsidiaries, AMVAC Chemical Corporation (AMVAC), GemChem, Inc. (GemChem), 2110 Davie Corporation (DAVIE), Quimica Amvac de Mexico S.A. de C.V. (AMVAC M), AMVAC de Costa Rica Sociedad Anonima (AMVAC CR), AMVAC Switzerland GmbH (AMVAC S), AMVAC do Brasil Representacoes Ltda (AMVAC B), AMVAC Chemical UK Ltd. (AMVAC UK), AMVAC CV (AMVAC CV), AMVAC Netherlands BV (AMVAC BV), and Envance Technologies, LLC (Envance). In July 2012, the Company completed the restructuring of the International Sales & Marketing function of its principal operating subsidiary, AMVAC Chemical Corporation. On November 30, 2012, AMVAC and TyraTech, Inc. formed Envance Technologies, LLC, in which the Company owns 60% of the equity interest. In July 2012, the Company formed AMVAC CV and AMVAC BV.

AMVAC is a chemical manufacturer that develops and markets products for agricultural and commercial uses. It manufactures and formulates chemicals for crops, human and animal health protection. These chemicals, which include insecticides, fungicides, herbicides, molluscicides, growth regulators, and soil fumigants, are marketed in liquid, powder, and granular forms. AMVAC owns and/or operates the Company�� domestic manufacturing facilities and is also the parent company for all its foreign companies. DAVIE owns real estate for corporate use.

GemChem is a national chemical distributor. GemChem, in addition to purchasing key raw materials for the Company, also sells into the pharmaceutical, cosmetic and nutritional markets. GemChem is a wholly owned subsidiary of AVD.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [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 American Vanguard (NYSE: AVD  ) , whose recent revenue and earnings are plotted below.

• [By Seth Jayson]

  Margins matter. The more American Vanguard (NYSE: AVD  ) keeps of each buck it earns in revenue, the more money it has to invest in growth, fund new strategic plans, or (gasp!) distribute to shareholders. Healthy margins often separate pretenders from the best stocks in the market. That's why we check up on margins at least once a quarter in this series. I'm looking for the absolute numbers, so I can compare them to current and potential competitors, and any trend that may tell me how strong American Vanguard's competitive position could be.

• [By Travis Hoium]

  What: Shares of specialty chemical maker American Vanguard (NYSE: AVD  ) jumped 10% today after the company released earnings.

  So what: First-quarter revenue jumped 39% to $121.5 million and adjusted earnings per share nearly doubled to $0.59. Analysts only expected $115.4 million in revenue and earnings of $0.46 per share so the company easily beat on both the top and bottom line. �

• [By Eric Volkman]

  Investors in American Vanguard (NYSE: AVD  ) will be receiving dividends twice as frequently as in the past. The company announced Monday that is has launched quarterly distributions with a $0.05-per-share payout, to be paid July 19 to shareholders of record as of July 5.

Top 10 Chemical Stocks To Watch For 2014: Celanese Corporation (CE)

Celanese Corporation, a technology and specialty materials company, engages in manufacture and sale of value-added chemicals, thermoplastic polymers, and other chemical-based products. It operates through four business segments: Advanced Engineered Materials, Consumer Specialties, Industrial Specialties, and Acetyl Intermediates. The Advanced Engineered Materials segment offers specialty polymers for application in automotive, medical, and electronics products, as well as other consumer and industrial applications. The Consumer Specialties segment provides cellulose acetate flake, film, and tow that are primarily used in filter products applications; Sunett, a sweetener; and food protection ingredients, such as sorbates and sorbic acid for the food, beverage, and pharmaceutical industries. The Industrial Specialties segment produces emulsions and ethylene vinyl acetate (EVA) performance polymers. Its emulsions products are used in applications, such as paints and coatings, adhesives, construction, glass fiber, textiles, and paper; and EVA performance polymers are used in flexible packaging films, lamination film products, hot melt adhesives, medical products, automotive, carpeting and photovoltaic cells. The Acetyl Intermediates segment offers acetyl products, including acetic acid, vinyl acetate monomer, acetic anhydride, and acetate esters for use as starting materials for colorants, paints, adhesives, coatings, and medicines. It also provides organic solvents and intermediates for pharmaceutical, agricultural, and chemical products. The company offers its products directly, as well as through distributors and electronic marketplaces in North America, Europe, Africa, the Asia-Pacific, and South America. Celanese Corporation was founded in 2004 and is headquartered in Dallas, Texas.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Eric Volkman]

  Celanese (NYSE: CE  ) will have to pony up a significantly higher amount of money for its shareholder payouts. The company has declared a common stock dividend of $0.18 per share, to be paid on August 15 to shareholders of record as of August 5. That amount is exactly double the company's previous distribution of $0.09.

• [By Magic Diligence]

  Given this fact, and the fact that consumer electronics (CE) is a cyclical industry, flash supply and demand balance is very tenuous. Frantic production to catch up to demand often leads to dramatic over-supply when the CE market cools off. One needs only to look at SanDisk's financials to see this. The company swung from a $917 dollar operations loss in 2008 to a $1.5 billion dollar profit in 2011, and which was then cut in half to just a $700 million profit the following year!

• [By Monica Gerson]

  Celanese (NYSE: CE) is estimated to report its Q3 earnings at $1.04 per share on revenue of $1.59 billion.

  Posted-In: Earnings scheduleEarnings News Pre-Market Outlook Markets

Top 10 Chemical Stocks To Watch For 2014: Air Products and Chemicals Inc. (APD)

Air Products and Chemicals, Inc. provides atmospheric gases, process and specialty gases, performance materials, equipment, and services worldwide. The company?s Merchant Gases segment sells atmospheric gases, such as oxygen, nitrogen, and argon; process gases, including hydrogen and helium; and medical and specialty gases for the metal, glass, chemical processing, food processing, healthcare, steel, general manufacturing, and petroleum and natural gas industries. This segment also offers respiratory therapies, home medical equipment, and infusion services primarily in Europe. Its Tonnage Gases segment provides hydrogen, carbon monoxide, nitrogen, oxygen, and syngas to the energy production and refining, chemical, and metallurgical industries; and produces dinitrotoluene used in the manufacture of a precursor of polyurethane foam. The company?s Electronics and Performance Materials segment offers nitrogen trifluoride, silane, arsine, phosphine, white ammonia, silicon tetra fluoride, carbon tetrafluoride, hexafluoromethane, critical etch gases, and tungsten hexafluoride; and tonnage gases, specialty chemicals, and services and equipment for the manufacture of silicon and compound semiconductors, thin film transistor liquid crystal displays, and photovoltaic devices. This segment also provides performance materials for a range of products, including coatings, inks, adhesives, civil engineering, personal care, institutional and industrial cleaning, mining, oil refining, and polyurethanes. Its Equipment and Energy segment designs and manufactures cryogenic equipment for air separation, hydrocarbon recovery and purification, natural gas liquefaction, and helium distribution; and offers plant design, engineering, procurement, and construction management services for the chemical and petrochemical manufacturing, oil and gas recovery and processing, and steel and primary metals processing industries. The company was founded in 1940 and is based in All entown, Pennsylvania.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Rich Smith]

  Maybe the world is running out of helium. Maybe it isn't. But global leader in helium production Air Products (NYSE: APD  ) isn't taking any chances.

• [By Garrett Cook]

  Air Products & Chemicals (NYSE: APD) shares were also up, gaining 7.17 percent to $130.32 after the company named Rockwood's Seifi Ghasemi as its new chairman, president and CEO.

• [By BLOGS.BARRONS.COM]

  Air Products & Chemicals: Activist investor Bill Ackman, whose Pershing Square has a 10% stake in the industrial gas producer, said in February that with the right CEO Air Products (APD) could nearly double. Davidson thinks CEO Seifi Ghasemi, who was appointed in June, is a perfect fit to squeeze more out of a company that already has good assets in a stable industry. ��e�� not going to have to transform the business,��says Davidson, ��e�� just going to have to run it better.��Davidson says the dividend, now at 2.38%, could be 60% higher in five years time.

Top 10 Chemical Stocks To Watch For 2014: Balchem Corp (BCPC)

Balchem Corporation incorporated on Jan 30, 1967, is engaged in the development, manufacture and marketing of specialty performance ingredients and products for the food, nutritional, feed, pharmaceutical and medical sterilization industries. The Company operates in three segments: Specialty Products, Food, Pharma & Nutrition and Animal Nutrition & Health. The Company sells its products through its own sales force, independent distributors and sales agents. The Company operates five wholly owned domestic subsidiaries, such as BCP Ingredients, Inc., Aberco, Inc., Balchem BV, Balchem Trading BV and Balchem Italia Srl.

Food, Pharma & Nutrition

The Food, Pharma & Nutrition (FPN) segment provides microencapsulation solutions to a variety of applications in food, pharmaceutical and nutritional ingredients to enhance performance of nutritional fortification, processing, mixing, and packaging applications and shelf-life. Major product applications are baked goods, refrigerated and frozen dough systems, processed meats, seasoning blends, confections, and nutritional supplements. The Company also markets human grade choline nutrient products through this segment for wellness applications.

Specialty Products

The Company's Specialty Products segment operates in industry as ARC Specialty Products. Ethylene oxide, at the 100% level, is sold as a sterilant gas, primarily for use in the health care industry. It is used to sterilize a wide range of medical devices because of its versatility and effectiveness in treating hard or soft surfaces, composites, metals, tubing and different types of plastics. The Company's 100% ethylene oxide product is distributed in uniquely designed, recyclable, double-walled, stainless steel drums. Contract sterilizers, medical device manufacturers, and medical gas distributors are the Company's principal customers for this product. In addition, the Company also sells single use canisters with 100% ethylene oxide for uses in medical dev! ice sterilization.

The Company markets and sells propylene oxide as a fumigant to aids in the control of insects and microbiological spoilage and to reduce bacterial and mold contamination in shell and processed nut meats (except peanuts), processed spices, cacao beans, cocoa powder, raisins, figs and prunes. The Company distributes its propylene oxide product primarily in recyclable, single-walled, carbon steel cylinders The Company also sells propylene oxide to customers seeking smaller quantities and whose requirements include utilization in various chemical synthesis applications, to make paints more durable and for manufacturing specialty starches and textile coatings.

Animal Nutrition & Health

The Company's Animal Nutrition & Health (ANH) segment provides the animal nutrition and health markets with products derived from the Company's microencapsulation, chelation, and basic choline chloride technologies. Commercial sales of REASHURE Choline, a microencapsulated choline, NITROSHURETM, a microencapsulated urea, and NIASHURETM, the Company's microencapsulated niacin for dairy cows, boosts health and milk production in transition and lactating dairy cows, delivering nutrient supplements that survive the rumen and are biologically available, providing required nutritional levels. The Company's AMINOSHURE-L product, a rumen-protected lysine for use in dairy rations, gives nutritionists and dairy producers a precise and consistent source of rumen-protected lysine. The Company also markets chelated mineral supplements for uses in animal feed throughout the world. ANH also manufactures and supplies basic choline chloride, an essential nutrient for animal health, predominantly to the poultry and swine industries. The ANH segment also includes choline and certain derivatives manufactured and sold into various industrial applications, predominately as a component for hydraulic fracturing of shale natural gas wells, and methylamines which are a primary building block fo! r the man! ufacture of choline products and are also used in a wide range of industrial applications.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Jake L'Ecuyer]

  Equities Trading UP
  Balchem (NASDAQ: BCPC) shares shot up 15.27 percent to $60.08 after the company announced its plans to acquire SensoryEffects for $567 million.