Hot Penny Companies To Watch In Right Now

General Electric (GE) was gaining ground on Thursday, after reporting a better-than-expected �bottom line result in the first quarter.

The conglomerate reported earnings of $3 billion, or 20 cents a share; operating earnings were 33 cents a share, down from 39 cent a share a year earlier but ahead of the 32 cents analysts had forecast. Revenue slid 2.2% to $34.2 billion, almost meeting consensus of $34.3 billion.

The firm�� GE Capital and real estate operations were the main culprit for the decline: Revenue from GE Capital slumped 8.3% while its real estate arm saw sales plummet 62% year over year.

By contrast, GE�� industrial business logged an 8.3% gain in sales: The oil and power segment saw revenue climb 27% and its power and water business jumped 14%.

GE also said it is on track to meet its goal of $1 billion or more in cost cutting this year.

S&P Capital IQ analyst J. Corridor reiterated a Buy rating on the stock, and raised his target price by $2 to $32, reflecting his ��iew that industrial, infrastructure and financial performance will benefit from an expanding U.S. and global economy. GE Q1 operating EPS of $0.33, vs. $0.39, was a penny better than our estimate. Order flow in industrial segment was strong and infrastructure backlog remains robust. We think traction on restructurings was good, and expect operating margin expansion through ’14 and ’15.��/p>

10 Best Prefered Stocks To Own For 2015: Gentiva Health Services Inc.(GTIV)

Gentiva Health Services, Inc. provides home health services and hospice care in the United States. The company offers skilled nursing and therapy services, paraprofessional nursing services, and homemaker services primarily to adult and elderly patients through licensed and Medicare-certified agencies. It also provides its services through specialty programs comprising Gentiva Orthopedics, which offers individualized home orthopedic rehabilitation services to patients recovering from joint replacement or other major orthopedic surgery; Gentiva Safe Strides that provides therapies for patients with balance issues; and Gentiva Cardiopulmonary, which helps patients and their physicians manage heart and lung health in a home-based environment. In addition, the company offers services through Gentiva Neurorehabilitation, which helps patients who have experienced a neurological injury or condition by removing the obstacles to healing in the patient?s home; Gentiva Senior Health that addresses the needs of patients with age-related diseases and issues; and Rehab Without Walls unit, which provides neurorehabilitation therapies for patients with traumatic brain injury, cerebrovascular accident injury, and acquired brain injury. Further, it offers consulting services to home health agencies, which include operational support, billing and collection activities, and on-site agency support and consulting. Additionally, the company provides hospice services primarily in the patient?s home or other residence, such as an assisted living residence or nursing home, as well as in a hospital. Gentiva Health Services, Inc. was founded in 1999 and is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Sean Williams]

  What: Shares of home health providers Amedisys (NASDAQ: AMED  ) , Gentiva Health Services (NASDAQ: GTIV  ) , and�LHC Group (NASDAQ: LHCG  ) �swooned as much as 28%, 20%, and 15%, respectively, following a public proposal by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, or CMS, late yesterday that in-home health care reimbursements be cut by 1.5% in 2014.

• [By Erin McCarthy]

  Gentiva Health Services Inc.(GTIV) confirmed Thursday that its board has rejected Kindred Healthcare Inc.'s(KND) $533 million takeover bid, saying the proposal significantly undervalues the company.

Hot Penny Companies To Watch In Right Now: Universal Corporation(UVV)

Universal Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, operates as a leaf tobacco merchant and processor worldwide. It engages in selecting, procuring, buying, processing, packing, storing, supplying, shipping, and financing leaf tobacco for sale to, or for the account of, manufacturers of consumer tobacco products. The company processes and/or sells flue-cured and burley tobaccos, dark air-cured tobaccos, and oriental tobaccos; and provides value-added services, including blending, chemical and physical testing of tobacco, just-in-time inventory management, and manufacturing reconstituted sheet tobacco. Its flue-cured, burley, and oriental tobaccos are used principally in the manufacture of cigarettes; and dark air-cured tobaccos are used in the manufacture of cigars, pipe tobacco, and smokeless tobacco products. The company was founded in 1888 and is headquartered in Richmond, Virginia.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Marc Bastow]

  Leaf tobacco supplier Universal Corporation (UVV) raised its quarterly dividend 2% to 51 cents per share, payable on Feb. 10 to shareholders of record as of Jan. 13.
  UVV Dividend Yield: 4.06%
  

• [By Rupert Hargreaves]

  Universal Corp (NYSE: UVV  ) has paid out and raised its dividend for 41 consecutive years. This puts the company in an elite club of dividend aristocrats.�Aside from Altria (NYSE: MO  ) , which has been paying and increasing its payout for 43 years, Universal actually has the longest dividend history of any company within the tobacco sector.

• [By Lawrence Meyers]

  This isn�� some massive utility service generation billions. As dividend stocks go, it’s a nice, simple business that makes a few million in free cash flow every year and distributes most of it to shareholders as a 3.7% yield … and has been doing so for 41 years.

  Universal Corporation (UVV)

  Dividend yield: 3.9%

Hot Penny Companies To Watch In Right Now: Transocean Inc.(RIG)

Transocean Ltd. provides offshore contract drilling services for oil and gas wells worldwide. It offers deepwater and harsh environment drilling, oil and gas drilling management, and drilling engineering and drilling project management services. The company also offers well and logistics services. In addition, it engages in oil and gas exploration, development, and production activities primarily in the United States offshore Louisiana and Texas, and in the United Kingdom sector of the North Sea. As of February 10, 2011, the company owned, had partial ownership interests in, and operated 138 mobile offshore drilling units, including 47 high-specification floaters, 25 midwater floaters, 9 high-specification jackups, 54 standard jackups, and 3 other rigs, as well as 1 ultra-deepwater floater and 3 high-specification jackups under construction. Transocean Ltd. was founded in 1953 and is based in Zug, Switzerland.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Aaron Levitt]

  The key to SDRL has been its relationship with its master limited partnership subsidiary SeaDrill Partners (SDLP). SeaDrill has been quite successful at ��ropping down��assets into SDLP to avoid taxes and gain hefty distributions. All of which continues to boost cash flows and dividend yields for SDRL stock.

  Dividend Stocks To Buy — #3 Transocean (RIG)

  RIG Dividend Yield: 5.3%

• [By John Dobosz]

  That's what happened recently with Switzerland-based Transocean (RIG), the world's largest offshore contract driller for oil and gas wells.

  There's a lot to like about Transocean these days. Last month, it struck a deal with Carl Icahn, who owns nearly 6% of the company, and was agitating for a number of changes.

• [By Aaron Levitt]

  However, things may be getting even better for the offshore driller. Following the lead of other offshore drilling players like SeaDrill�(SDRL) and Transocean (RIG), Noble is planning to make itself a ��ure��deepwater rig operator by splitting itself into two separate firms.

Hot Penny Companies To Watch In Right Now: Advanced Cell Technology, Inc.(ACTC)

Advanced Cell Technology, Inc., a biotechnology company, focuses on the development and commercialization of human embryonic and adult stem cell technology in the field of regenerative medicine. Its embryonic stem cell research programs include cellular reprogramming, reduced complexity program, and stem cell differentiation research programs. The company?s cellular reprogramming involves in the development of therapies based on the use of genetically identical pluripotent stem cells generated by its cellular reprogramming technologies. Advanced Cell Technology, Inc. also generates stable cell lines with particular focus on blood lineage and vascular epithelial cell lines from hemangioblast cells. In addition, it is developing an autologous myoblast transplantation therapy to restore cardiac function in patients with advanced heart disease. The company?s stem cell-based therapy would provide treatment for a range of acute and chronic degenerative diseases. Further, it deve lops adult stem cell-based products that are specifically targeted at therapies for heart and other cardiovascular diseases. The company is headquartered in Marlborough, Massachusetts.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By John Udovich]

  Summer and the slow news for the market that usually comes with it�is over with and both stem cell researchers or small� cap stem cell stocks like Advanced Cell Technology, Inc (OTCBB: ACTC), Neuralstem, Inc (NYSEMKT: CUR), NeoStem Inc (NASDAQ: NBS), International Stem Cell Corp (OTCMKTS: ISCO)�and BioRestorative Therapies (OTCBB: BRTX) having news for investors and traders alike. Consider the following:

• [By CRWE]

  Today, ACTC has shed (-1.05%) down -0.0008 at $.0751 with 2,338,132 shares in play thus far (ref. google finance Delayed: 11:55AM EDT July 22, 2013), but don�� let this get you down.

  Advanced Cell Technology, Inc. previously reported the Data and Safety Monitoring Board (DSMB), an independent group of medical experts closely monitoring the company�� three ongoing clinical trials, has authorized the company to move forward with enrollment and treatment of remaining two patients in the third cohort of each of the three clinical trials. The decision follows an interim review by the DSMB six weeks after the first patient was treated in the third cohort of each trial. ACT will proceed with screening and enrollment for the patients who, in keeping with trial protocol, will be injected with 150,000 retinal pigment epithelial (RPE) cells derived from human embryonic stem cells (hESCs).

Hot Penny Companies To Watch In Right Now: Alpha and Omega Semiconductor Limited(AOSL)

Alpha and Omega Semiconductor Limited engages in the design, development, and supply of a range of power semiconductors worldwide. The company offers power discrete product line comprising trench MOSFETs, electrostatic discharge, protected MOSFETs, and SRFETs; and power ICs. Its products are used in notebooks, netbooks, flat panel displays, mobile phone battery packs, set-top boxes, portable media players, and power supplies. The company sells its products to distributors. Alpha and Omega Semiconductor Limited is based in Hamilton, Bermuda.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Tim Melvin]

  This split among industry segments has created some value opportunities as those companies with high exposure to PCs are very cheap. And while the move towards smart phones and tablets may continue, the PC is not dead — demand will pick up along with the economy.

  Alpha and Omega Semiconductor (AOSL)

  Alpha and Omega Semiconductor (AOSL) is a designer, developer and global supplier of a broad portfolio of power semiconductors. The portfolio of power semiconductors includes more than 1,400 products, and has grown rapidly with 195 new products introduced last year alone. Its semiconductors are used in a wide range of products, including things like personal computers, flat panel TVs, LED lighting, smart phones, and telecommunications equipment.