Top 5 Media Stocks To Buy For 2014

��e learn from history that we do not learn from history.��/p>

Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel

Last week, Investors Intelligence reported that bullish sentiment surged above 60%, coupled with a 5-year high in the S&P 500 and valuations beyond 18 times record trailing earnings. The same combination was last seen the week of the October 2007 market peak, last seen before that in January and May 1999 (which we should emphasize was good for only a 5% correction in the short run before a choppy run to the 2000 peak, but would still leave the S&P 500 more than 40% lower three years later), last seen before that the week of the August 1987 pre-crash peak, and last seen before that in January 1973, just before the S&P 500 lost half of its value.

Market conditions presently match those that have repeatedly preceded either market crashes or extended losses approaching 50% or more. Such losses have not always occurred immediately, but they have typically been significant enough to wipe out years of prior market gains. Aside from the 2000-2002 instance, they also have historically ended at valuations associated with prospective 10-year S&P 500 nominal total returns in excess of 10%. At present, reliable valuation measures are associated with estimated total returns for the S&P 500 of just 2.0% annually over the coming decade. On the basis of historically reliable measures, the S&P 500 would have to move slightly below the 1000 level to raise its prospective returns to a historically normal 10% annually. Given short-term interest rates near zero, economic disruptions would probably be required in order to produce that outcome over the completion of the current cycle, and we have no forecast or requirement for that to occur. Of course, there is no shortage of historically unreliable measures available to offer assurance that equity valuations are just fine.

Best India Companies To Watch For 2015: Comcast Corporation(CMCSA)

Comcast Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, provides entertainment, information, and communications products and services in the United States and internationally. Its Cable Communications segment provides video, high-speed Internet, and phone services to residential and business customers. As of June 30, 2011, its cable systems served approximately 22.5 million video customers, 17.5 million high-speed Internet customers, and 9.1 million phone customers. The company?s Cable Networks segment operates cable entertainment networks, such as USA Network, Syfy, E!, Bravo, Oxygen, Style, G4, Chiller, Sleuth, and Universal HD; news and information networks, including CNBC, MSNBC, and CNBC World; cable sports networks comprising Golf Channel and VERSUS; regional sports and news networks; international entertainment, and news and information networks, such as CNBC Europe, CNBC Asia, and Universal Networks International portfolio of networks; cable television production oper ations; and digital media properties consisting primarily of brand-aligned Websites and other Websites, such as DailyCandy, Fandango, and iVillage. Its Broadcast Television segment operates the U.S. broadcast networks, NBC and Telemundo; 10 NBC and 15 Telemundo owned local television stations; broadcast television productions; and related digital media properties. The company?s Filmed Entertainment segment operates Universal Pictures, which produces, acquires, markets, and distributes filmed entertainment and stage plays worldwide in various media formats for theatrical, home entertainment, television, and other distribution platforms. Its Theme Parks segment operates Universal Studios Hollywood park and Wet ?n Wild water park, as well as licenses intellectual properties and provides services to third parties that own and operate Universal Studios Japan and Universal Studios Singapore. Comcast Corporation was founded in 1963 and is based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Matt Thalman]

  The first few of the companies are the major cable providers, such as Comcast (NASDAQ: CMCSA  ) , Dish Network (NASDAQ: DISH  ) , and�DirecTV (NASDAQ: DTV  ) . For every new home built, one of the cable companies is going to receive a new customer. In Comcast's situation, the lines must be laid, but Dish and DirecTV only need to install a satellite in your yard. General Electric (NYSE: GE  ) is another company that derives a decent portion of its revenue from appliances and lighting, and this unit should see increased revenues as new homes are built.

Top 5 Media Stocks To Buy For 2014: Time Warner Cable Inc(TWC)

Time Warner Cable Inc., together with its subsidiaries, operates as a cable operator in the United States. It offers video, high-speed data, and voice services over its broadband cable systems to residential and commercial customers. The company provides a range of video services, including on-demand, high-definition (HD), and digital video recorder (DVR) services; residential high-speed data services with connection to the Internet; wireless mobile broadband Internet services; and digital phone services to residential customers. It offers video programming tiers and music services; high-speed data, networking, and transport services; and commercial digital phone service to small and medium-sized businesses under the Time Warner Cable Business Class brand. Further, Time Warner Cable Inc. sells advertising to various national, regional, and local customers. As of June 30, 2011, the company served approximately 14.5 million residential and commercial customers in the New Yor k State, the Carolinas, Ohio, southern California, and Texas. Time Warner Cable Inc. is based in New York, New York.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Michael Lewis]

  In case you haven't noticed, there are some serious consolidation efforts going around the cable and telecom industries. On one end, there are satellite TV providers chasing spectrum as if it's the gold rush of 1849. Now, it appears that Time Warner Cable (NYSE: TWC  ) may be courting Liberty Media (NASDAQ: LMCA  ) for a merger in an attempt to leverage Charter Communications' (NASDAQ: CHTR  ) �highly coveted network. Let's determine who is the biggest winner in this latest media M&A dance, and where you should be putting your funds.

• [By WALLSTCHEATSHEET]

  Time Warner Cable provides entertainment, voice, and high-speed data services to a growing customer base in the United States. The company�� battle with CBS has ended to Time Warner Cable’s disadvantage. The stock has been trending higher in recent years and is now pulling-back from all-time high prices. Over the last four quarters, earnings and revenues have been rising, however, investors have expected a little more from the company. Relative to its peers and sector, Time Warner Cable has been a weak year-to-date performer. WAIT AND SEE if Time Warner Cable can stabilize at current prices.

Top 5 Media Stocks To Buy For 2014: Time Warner Inc.(TWX)

Time Warner Inc. operates as a media and entertainment company in the United States and internationally. It operates in three segments: Networks, Filmed Entertainment, and Publishing. The Networks segment provides domestic and international networks, premium pay and basic tier television programming services, and digital media properties, which primarily consist of brand-aligned Websites. Its premium pay television services consist of the multi-channel HBO and Cinemax premium pay television services. This segment provides programming to cable system operators, satellite service distributors, telephone companies, and other distributors; sells advertising; and licenses original programming to domestic and international television networks. The Filmed Entertainment segment produces and distributes feature films, television and other programming, and videogames; distributes home video products; and licenses rights to its feature films, television programming, and characters. T he Publishing segment publishes magazines and books; and operates various Websites, as well as engages in marketing services and direct-marketing businesses. This segment publishes magazines on style and entertainment, lifestyle, news, and sports. The company?s brands include TNT, TBS, CNN, HBO, Cinemax, Warner Bros., New Line Cinema, People, Sports Illustrated, and Time. Time Warner Inc. was founded in 1985 and is headquartered in New York, New York.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By WALLSTCHEATSHEET]

  While Time Warner is expensive relative to its historical price to earnings multiple, it is still relatively cheap compared to competitors like Discovery and CBS. There is talk of a possible merger between Time Warner and Liberty Media, which would boost the share price, but that’s just speculation at this point. Many analysts predict Time Warner will move toward the mid- to high-sixties in the near-term. Revenues should benefit from an impressive lineup of summer films. Additionally, Time Warner�� competitive advantage is relatively safe as there are high barriers-to-entry in creating profitable media content. With a healthy and growing dividend to boot, Time Warner is an OUTPERFORM.

• [By Rick Munarriz]

  Sirius XM Radio (NASDAQ: SIRI  ) is teaming up with Time Warner's (NYSE: TWX  ) Entertainment Weekly to launch a new station devoted entirely to entertainment news and chatter.

• [By Rick Munarriz]

  Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN  ) introduced Kindle Worlds last week, teaming up with Time Warner (NYSE: TWX  ) to allow fans of Gossip Girl, Vampire Diaries, and Pretty Little Diaries to cash in on fan fiction by publishing their works through the leading online retailer's digital bookstore.

• [By WWW.DAILYFINANCE.COM]

  Ringo Chiu/Zuma Press/Alamy There were plenty of winners and losers this week, including a fast-growing pastry shop that ran out of dough and had to shut its stores, and a maker of unmanned aircraft vehicles soaring after a blowout quarterly report. Here's a rundown of the week's best and worst. Nikola Tesla -- Winner Funding for a Nikola Tesla museum was announced on Thursday with Telsa Motors (TSLA) CEO Elon Musk is contributing $1 million to build the homage to Tesla on the grounds of the inventor's lab in Long Island. Brainy humorist Matthew "The Oatmeal" Inman has been championing a museum to honor the underrated visionary, taking to Twitter a few months ago to appeal for Musk's financial contribution. It worked. The museum's getting built. Musk gets one step closer to becoming Tony "Iron Man" Stark incarnate. And Tesla Motors does the right thing by honoring the man that gave it its name. The Container Store (TCS) -- Loser Remember when retailers dismissed concerns about sloppy holiday showings because of the snowstorms that blanketed a lot of the country in December and January? Remember how those same retailers then blamed the Easter holiday shift -- from March last year to April this year -- as a reason for the slow traffic the following quarter? Well, it seems that many chains are still stumbling, and they're running out of excuses. "We thought our sluggish sales were all because of weather and calendar shifts that began last November and continued into the spring, but now we've come to realize it's more than weather and calendar," The Container Store's CEO said on Tuesday. Kip Tindell blamed his storage and housewares store's weakness on a "retail funk" that's going around. Symptoms include "traffic declines" a "tepid retail environment" and "challenging sales." The Container Store warned that it will fall short of its earlier profit and sales targets for this fiscal year. Comparable store sales declined during the quarter ending in May, an

Top 5 Media Stocks To Buy For 2014: Liberty Global Inc.(LBTYA)

Liberty Global, Inc. provides video, broadband Internet, and telephony services primarily in Europe and Chile. The company offers broadband services over cable distribution systems, including video, broadband Internet, and telephony; and video services through direct-to-home satellite, or through multichannel multipoint distribution systems. Its analog video services comprise basic and expanded basic programming; and digital cable services include basic and premium programming, digital video recorders, and high definition programming, as well as pay-per-view programming, such as video-on-demand and near video-on-demand. In addition, the company offers voice-over-Internet-protocol and circuit-switched telephony services, as well as mobile telephony services using third-party networks. Further, it owns programming networks that provide video programming channels to multi-channel distribution systems owned by the company and the third parties. As of December 31, 2011, the com pany owned and operated networks that passed 33,262,100 homes; and served 18,405,500 video subscribers, 8,159,300 broadband Internet subscribers, and 6,225,300 telephony subscribers. Liberty Global, Inc. was founded in 2004 and is based in Englewood, Colorado.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Amy Thomson]

  Vodafone has already expanded beyond wireless service, and in June beat John Malone�� Liberty Global (LBTYA) Plc to take over Germany�� Kabel Deutschland Holding AG. (KD8) Vodafone and Verizon accelerated talks on the stake sale after the Kabel Deutschland offer, which put additional pressure on the British company�� finances, a person familiar with the matter said.

• [By Monica Gerson]

  Breaking news

  Loews (NYSE: L) reported a 59% rise in its third-quarter earnings. Loews posted a quarterly profit of $282 million, or $0.73 per share, versus a year-ago profit of $177 million, or $0.45 per share. To read the full news, click here. BankUnited (NYSE: BKU) announced today the commencement of an underwritten offering of 9,000,000 shares of its common stock by certain of its existing stockholders, subject to market and other conditions. To read the full news, click here. Liberty Global (NASDAQ: LBTYA) announced today an agreement to sell substantially all of its international content division Chellomedia to AMC Networks (NASDAQ: AMCX).To read the full news, click here. Myriad Genetics (NASDAQ: MYGN) today announced that validation data for the Myriad myPlan Lung Cancer test showed that it significantly predicted patients' risk of death from early-stage lung adenocarcinoma within five years of being diagnosed. To read the full news, click here.

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• [By Lauren Pollock]

  Liberty Global(LBTYA) PLC has agreed to sell substantially all of its international content division Chellomedia to AMC Networks Inc.(AMCX) in a deal worth $1 billion, allowing the cable company to focus on its core markets.