10 Best Clean Energy Stocks To Buy For 2014

U.S. - the world�� largest consumer of energy- faced an unlikely situation quite recently. It was in April last year that the natural gas prices hit an all time low at under $2 per million British thermal credits. Many believed this to be an immutable and uncomfortable reality. Though this was only a partial reality, Shares of natural gas engine designer- Westport Innovation (WPRT) nearly doubled in four months as did clean energy fuels (CLNE), a company that builds refueling stations. The NAT GAS Act, passed by the congress, was aimed at promoting the usage of cleaner fuels. It provided subsidies to vehicles which used alternative fuels rather than going the conventional way.

The Obama administration laid stress on the fact that it would always be beneficial to use the clean fuels produced within the nation�� boundaries. To further the initiative he announced an investment of $1 billion in the gas infrastructure. All this was way back in April 2012. Now, coming to the present scenario, the gas pieces have doubled than what they originally were which now puts them at $4/mmBtu price tag. The congress is nowhere in the scene now amending bills that would encourage the use of natural gas vehicles. This had ramifications in the stock market as the stocks, as those of Westport and Clean Energy, that were peaking have now fallen down to almost half their value.

10 Best Clean Energy Stocks To Buy For 2014: Powell Industries Inc.(POWL)

Powell Industries, Inc. engages in the design, development, manufacture, and servicing of custom engineered-to-order equipment and systems for the management and control of electrical energy and other critical processes in transportation, environmental, energy, industrial, and utility industries. The company operates in two segments, Electrical Power Products and Process Control Systems. The Electrical Power Products segment offers electrical power distribution and control systems that are used to distribute, monitor, and control the flow of electrical energy, as well as to provide protection to motors, transformers, and other electrically-powered equipment. It offers power control room substation packages, traditional and arc-resistant distribution switchgear, medium-voltage circuit breakers, offshore generator and control modules, monitoring and control communications systems, motor control centers, and bus duct systems directly to end-users or to engineering, procuremen t, and construction firms. This segment serves oil and gas producers, oil and gas pipelines, refineries, petrochemical plants, electrical power generators, public and private utilities, co-generation facilities, mining/metals operations, pulp and paper plants, transportation authorities, governmental agencies, and other industrial customers. The Process Control Systems provides technology solutions, including instrumentation, computer controls, and communications and data management systems to control and manage critical processes and facilities; and technical services to deliver these systems. This segment sells its products and services directly to end-users in transportation, environmental, and energy sectors. The company has operations in Europe, the Far East, the Middle East, Africa, North America, South America, and Central America. Powell Industries, Inc. was founded in 1947 and is headquartered in Houston, Texas.

10 Best Clean Energy Stocks To Buy For 2014: ALLIED NEVADA GOLD CORP. (ANV.TO)

Allied Nevada Gold Corp., together with its subsidiaries, engages in the evaluation, acquisition, exploration, and advancement of gold exploration and development projects. It principally operates the Hycroft Mine, an open pit heap leach gold and silver mine covering approximately 61,389 acres of mineral rights located in the west of Winnemucca, Nevada. The company is also involved in the exploration and development of various exploration properties, including Hasbrouck, Mountain View, Three Hills, Wildcat, Maverick Springs, and Pony Creek/Elliot Dome projects. In addition, the company holds exploration rights to approximately 100 other exploration properties in Nevada. Allied Nevada Gold Corp. was incorporated in 2006 and is headquartered in Reno, Nevada.

Top 10 Gold Companies To Watch For 2014: Pervasive Software Inc.(PVSW)

Pervasive Software, Inc. provides embeddable software and SaaS services for data management, data integration, B2B exchange, and analytics. Its embeddable Pervasive PSQL database engine provides database reliability in a near-zero database administration environment for packaged business applications. Pervasive Software?s multi-purpose data integration platform, available on-premises and in the cloud, accelerates the sharing of information between multiple data stores, applications, and hosted business systems, and allows customers to re-use the same software for diverse integration scenarios. Pervasive DataRush is an embeddable parallel-processing platform enabling data-intensive applications, such as claims processing, risk analysis, fraud detection, data mining, predictive analytics, sales optimization, and marketing analytics. The company serves customers in approximately 150 countries. Pervasive Software, through Pervasive Innovation Labs, also invests in the explorat ion and creation of solutions for the data analysis and data delivery challenges. Pervasive Software, Inc. has a strategic alliance with A.D.A.M. Inc. The company was founded in 1994 and is headquartered in Austin, Texas with additional offices in Greenville, South Carolina; Brussels, Belgium; Frankfurt, Germany; Paris, France; and London, the United Kingdom.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By CRWE]

  Pervasive Software(R) Inc. (NASDAQ:PVSW), a global leader in cloud-based and on-premises data innovation, reported that it is in receipt of an unsolicited non-binding letter from Actian Corporation proposing to acquire all of the outstanding shares of Pervasive common stock for $8.50 per share in cash.

10 Best Clean Energy Stocks To Buy For 2014: U.S. Bancorp(USB)

U.S. Bancorp, a financial services holding company, provides various banking and financial services in the United States. It generates various deposit products, including checking accounts, savings accounts, money market savings, and time certificates of deposit accounts. The company originates a portfolio of loans comprising commercial loans and lease financing; commercial real estate; residential mortgage; and retail loans consisting of credit cards, retail leasing, home equity and second mortgages, and other retail loans. It also offers wholesale lending, equipment finance, small-ticket leasing, depository, treasury management, capital markets, foreign exchange, and international trade services to middle market, large corporate, commercial real estate, and public sector clients. In addition, U.S. Bancorp provides telebanking and automated teller machine (ATM) services, as well as cash management services. The company, through other subsidiaries, provides trust, private banking, financial advisory, investment management, retail brokerage services, insurance, and custody and fund services; and payment services, including consumer and business credit cards, stored-value cards, debit cards, corporate and purchasing card services, consumer lines of credit, and merchant processing. U.S. Bancorp primarily serves individuals, estates, foundations, business corporations, and charitable organizations. It operates a network of approximately 3,031 banking offices and 5,310 ATMs. The company was founded in 1863 and is headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Dividend Growth Investor]

  Another example includes financial institutions such as Bank of America (BAC), Citigroup (C ), Wachovia and US Bancorp (USB) which were regarded as safe blue-chips by investors for many years. These companies managed to boost distributions for several decades, and could be found on the dividend aristocrats lists. In fact, these companies exemplified the characteristics of the perfect dividend growth stocks, since they not only provided high yields but also grew distributions at above average rates. While the financial crisis of 2007 -2009 proved that this was all based on financial alchemy, investors who sold after dividend cuts and reinvested proceeds in other income producing securities did fairly well.

• [By Markus Aarnio]

  Banc Of California's competitors include Bank of America (BAC), JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM) and U.S. Bancorp (USB). Here is a table comparing these companies.

10 Best Clean Energy Stocks To Buy For 2014: Nuveen Municipal Value Fund Inc.(NUV)

Nuveen Municipal Value Fund, Inc. is a closed-ended fixed income mutual fund launched by Nuveen Investments, Inc. The fund is managed by Nuveen Asset Management. It invests in the fixed income markets of the United States. The fund also invests some portion of its portfolio in derivative instruments. It invests in undervalued municipal securities and other related investments the income, exempt from regular federal income taxes that are rated Baa or BBB or better. It employs fundamental analysis with bottom-up stock picking approach to create its portfolio. The fund benchmarks the performance of its portfolio against the Standard & Poor?s (S&P) National Municipal Bond Index. Nuveen Municipal Value Fund, Inc. was formed on April 8, 1987 and is domiciled in the United States.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Donald van Deventer]

  The latest implied forward rate forecast from Kamakura Corporation shows projected 10-year U.S. Treasury yields differing -0.07% to 0.03% from last week while fixed rate mortgage yields varied by -0.01% to 0.08%. Mortgage yields, determined by the Monday through Wednesday weekly survey of the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation, lag Treasury movements simply because of the 3-day yield calculation used in the Primary Mortgage Market Survey. The 10-year U.S. Treasury yield is projected to rise from 2.92% at Thursday's close (down 0.06% from last week) to 3.374% (down 0.06% from last week) in one year. The 10-year U.S. Treasury yield in ten years is forecast to reach 4.639%, 1 basis point lower than last week. The 15-year fixed rate mortgage rate is forecast to rise from the effective yield of 3.69% on Thursday (down 0.001% from last week) to 4.222% (down 0.006% from last week) in one year and 6.29% in 10 years, up 0.038% from last week. We explain the background for these calculations in the rest of this note, along with some mortgage servicing rights metrics. The forecast allows investors in exchange traded U.S. Treasury funds (TLT) (TBT), total return bond funds (BOND), municipal bonds (NUV) and exchange traded mortgage funds (REM) to assess likely total returns over the next 120 months. Treasury-related exchange traded funds affected by the forward rates include:

• [By Adam Aloisi]

  The following chart takes a comparative look at some widely held ETFs/CEFs holding different types of bonds. The objective is to visualize not only how much these products cost, but also to break down the percent of total yield depleted by management fees. I define total yield as current annualized yield plus net fees - in other words the yield of the fund if there were no management fees attached. The funds we will examine are aforementioned BND, iShares 20+ Treasury Bond (TLT), iShares High-Yield Corporate (HYG), Nuveen Municipal Value (NUV), Eaton Vance Limited Duration (EVV) and Alliance Bernstein Global High-Yield (AWF).

10 Best Clean Energy Stocks To Buy For 2014: France Telecom S.A.(FTE)

France Telecom provides fixed telephony and mobile telecommunications, data transmission, Internet and multimedia, and other value-added services to consumers, businesses, and telecommunications operators. It also offers personal and home communication services, business network services, international carriers and shared services, and integration and outsourcing services for communication applications. The company operates in France, Spain, Poland, the United Kingdom, and internationally. France Telecom was founded in 1990 and is based in Paris, France.

10 Best Clean Energy Stocks To Buy For 2014: PulteGroup Inc. (PHA)

PulteGroup, Inc., through its subsidiaries, engages in homebuilding and financial services businesses primarily in the United States. The company�s homebuilding business includes the acquisition and development of land primarily for residential purposes within the United States; and the construction of housing on such lands. It offers various home designs, including single-family detached, townhouses, condominiums, and duplexes under the Pulte Homes, Del Webb, and Centex brand names. As of December 31, 2011, its homebuilding operations offered homes for sale in approximately 700 communities. The company�s financial services business consists of mortgage banking and title operations. It arranges financing through the origination of mortgage loans for its homebuyers; sells such loans and related servicing rights; and provides title insurance policies as an agent, and examination and closing services to its home buyers. The company was formerly known as Pulte Homes, Inc. an d changed its name to PulteGroup, Inc. in March 2010. PulteGroup, Inc. was founded in 1956 and is headquartered in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan.

10 Best Clean Energy Stocks To Buy For 2014: Metroline(MRO.L)

Melrose PLC operates as an engineering company worldwide. Its Energy segment offers power generation equipment; synchronous motors, induction motors, submersible, and traction motors; power management and excitation systems; medium voltage AC and DC switchgears; and power and system transformers, as well as aftermarket services for power generation plants, oil and gas, utilities, industrial, marine, rail, telecommunications, construction, commercial, military, and aftermarket sectors. The company?s Lifting segment provides wire ropes, fiber ropes, wires, hooks, shackles, blocks, sheaves, clamps, links, material handling products, monorail systems, chain hoists, industrial carts, and trailers for onshore and offshore oil and gas, deep shaft and surface mining, petrochemical, alternative energy, general industrial and construction, fishing and marine, infrastructure, and material handling industries. Its Other Industrial segment offers window and door hardware; balers, shea rs, waste compactors, and auto shredders; automotive trims and moldings; widgets for cans; and sealing products for housing, construction, retail, scrap processing, fiber recycling, automotive, consumer packaging, brewing, food distribution, power tools, industrial, medical, office furniture, and general engineering sectors. The company is headquartered in London, the United Kingdom.

10 Best Clean Energy Stocks To Buy For 2014: MELA Sciences Inc(MELA)

MELA Sciences, Inc., a medical device company, focuses on the design and development of a non-invasive, point-of-care instrument to assist in the detection of early melanoma. The company?s principal product, MelaFind, features a hand-held imaging device that emits multiple wavelengths of light to capture images of suspicious pigmented skin lesions and extract data. This product uses automatic image analysis and statistical pattern recognition to help identify lesions to be considered for biopsy to rule out melanoma. It consists of hand-held imaging device, which employs high precision optics and multi-spectral illumination; database of pigmented skin lesions; and lesion classifiers, which are mathematical algorithms that extract lesion feature information and classify lesions. MELA Sciences submitted the MelaFind pre-market approval application with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in June 2009 and is under review at the FDA. The company was formerly known as E lectro-Optical Sciences, Inc. and changed its name MELA Sciences, Inc. in April 2010. MELA Sciences, Inc. was founded in 1989 and is based in Irvington, New York.

10 Best Clean Energy Stocks To Buy For 2014: The Spectranetics Corporation (SPNC)

The Spectranetics Corporation designs, manufactures, and markets single use medical devices used in minimally invasive surgical procedures within the cardiovascular system in conjunction with its proprietary excimer laser system, the CVX-300. The company?s excimer laser technology is used to ablate multiple lesion morphology morphologies, such as plaque, moderate calcium, and thrombus. It offers four primary product categories for the Vascular Intervention product line, including peripheral atherectomy, coronary atherectomy, thrombus management, and crossing solutions. The peripheral atherectomy product line consists of a selection of proprietary laser catheters that are indicated for the treatment of infrainguinal (leg) stenoses and occlusions; and the coronary atherectomy product line includes a selection of proprietary laser catheters to be used in various types of coronary artery diseases comprising occluded saphenous vein bypass grafts, ostial lesions, long lesions, m oderately calcified stenoses, total occlusions traversable by guidewire, lesions, and restenosis. The thrombus management product line consists of three thrombus removal devices intended to remove fresh, soft thrombi, and emboli from vessels in the arterial system, as well as to address thrombotic occlusions in dialysis grafts and fistulae; and the crossing solutions product line support guidewires or other devices in facilitating vascular access in the arterial system to enable various types of interventions. The company?s lead management product line comprises excimer laser sheaths, non-laser sheaths, and cardiac lead management accessories for the removal of pacemaker and defibrillator cardiac leads. It sells its products in the United States, Canada, Europe, the Middle East, the Asia Pacific, Latin America, and Puerto Rico. The company has a strategic alliance with Kensey Nash Corporation. The Spectranetics Corporation was founded in 1984 and is based in Colorado Springs , Colorado.