Top 10 Railroad Companies To Own For 2014

It looks like this has become the Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.B) blog, where it’s all Berkshire Hathaway all the time.

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Already today, I looked at KBW’s concerns surrounding Berkshire Hathaway’s disclosures. Now, Warren Buffett’s investment vehicle has released first quarter financial results.

The Wall Street Journal has the details on Berkshire Hathaway’s earnings:

Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. reported lower railroad and insurance-related net income as the conglomerate posted a 6.6% drop in first-quarter operating profit.

For the first quarter, Berkshire reported net income of $4.71 billion, or $2,862 a Class A share, compared with $4.89 billion, or $2,977 a share, a year earlier. Operating profit, which excludes some investment results, fell to $2,149 a share from $2,302 a share.

Top 10 Integrated Utility Stocks To Watch For 2015: Foot Locker Inc (FL)

Foot Locker, Inc., incorporated on April 7, 1989, is a global retailer of shoes and apparel, operating 3,335 primarily mall-based stores in the United States, Canada, Europe, Australia, and New Zealand as of February 2, 2013. The Company operates in two segments: Athletic Stores and Direct-to-Customers. The Athletic Stores segment is an athletic footwear and apparel retailer whose formats include Foot Locker, Lady Foot Locker, Kids Foot Locker, Champs Sports, Footaction, and CCS. The Direct-to-Customers segment includes Footlocker.com, Inc. and other affiliates, including Eastbay, Inc. and CCS, which sell to customers through Internet websites, mobile devices, and catalogs. In September 2013, the Company acquired Runners Point Warenhandels GmbH (Runners) from Hannover Finanz GmbH.

Athletic Stores

Foot Locker is a global athletic footwear and apparel retailer. Its stores offer the products manufactured primarily by the athletic brands. Foot Locker offers products for a variety of activities, including basketball, running, and training. Additionally, the Company operates 65 House of Hoops, primarily a shop-in-shop concept, which sells basketball inspired products. Foot Locker�� 1,883 stores are located in 23 countries, including 1,072 in the United States, Puerto Rico, United States Virgin Islands, and Guam, 129 in Canada, 590 in Europe, and a combined 92 in Australia and New Zealand. The domestic stores have an average of 2,300 selling square feet and the international stores have an average of 1,500 selling square feet. Lady Foot Locker is a United States retailer of athletic footwear, apparel, and accessories for active women. Its stores carry athletic footwear and apparel brands, as well as casual wear and an assortment of apparel designed for a variety of activities, including running, walking, training, and fitness. In November 2012, the Company announced the introduction of a new banner named SIX:02. This new banner is an elevated retail concept featuring brand! s in fitness apparel and athletic footwear for women. Lady Foot Locker and SIX:02 operate 300 and 3 stores, and are located in the United States, Puerto Rico, and the United States Virgin Islands. These stores have an average of 1,300 selling square feet.

The Company�� Kids Foot Locker is a national children�� athletic retailer that offers a selection of brand-name athletic footwear, apparel and accessories for children. Its stores feature an environment geared to appeal to both parents and children. Its 305 stores are located in the United States, Puerto Rico, the United States Virgin Islands, Europe, and Canada. These stores have an average of 1,400 selling square feet. Footaction is a national athletic footwear and apparel retailer. Its 283 stores are located throughout the United States and Puerto Rico and focus on marquee footwear and branded apparel. The Footaction stores have an average of 2,900 selling square feet. Champs Sports is a mall-based specialty athletic footwear and apparel retailers in North America. Its product categories include athletic footwear and apparel, and sport-lifestyle inspired accessories. Its 539 stores are located throughout the United States, Canada, Puerto Rico, and the United States Virgin Islands. The Champs Sports stores have an average of 3,500 selling square feet. As of February 2, 2013, the Company operated 22 stores in the United States.

Direct-to-Customers

The Company�� Direct-to-Customers segment is multi-branded and multi-channeled. This segment sells, through its affiliates, directly to customers through its Internet websites, mobile devices, and catalogs. The Direct-to-Customers segment operates the Websites for eastbay.com, final-score.com, eastbayteamservices.com, ccs.com, as well as Websites aligned with the brand names of its store banners (footlocker.com, ladyfootlocker.com, kidsfootlocker.com, footaction.com, and champssports.com). Eastbay is a direct marketer in the United States, providing the high sch! ool athle! te with a sports solution, including athletic footwear, apparel, equipment, team licensed, and private-label merchandise. CCS serves the needs of the 12-20 year old seeking an authentic board lifestyle shop. CCS is anchored in skate but appealing to the surrounding board culture. The CCS format offers board lifestyle merchandise that will fit the needs of the customer all year long and stocks a selection of both core and lifestyle brands. The retail store operations of CCS are included in the Athletic Stores segment.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Jake L'Ecuyer]

  Foot Locker (NYSE: FL) was also up, gaining 6.69 percent to $45.59 as the company announced better-than-expected Q4 results.

  Equities Trading DOWN
  Shares of Analogic (NASDAQ: ALOG) were down 16.66 percent to $80.47 after the company reported downbeat Q2 earnings. CJS Securities downgraded the stock from Market Outperform to Market Perform and cut the price target from $97.00 to $90.00.

Top 10 Railroad Companies To Own For 2014: Telecom Italia S.P.A.(TI)

Telecom Italia S.p.A., together with its subsidiaries, provides fixed-line and mobile telecommunications, Internet, and media services. The company also operates in office and system solutions. Its portfolio ranges from consumer-focused convergent communications services to business-oriented advanced ICT solutions. The company?s integrated range of offerings, proprietary platforms, and network architecture leverage the potential of fixed-line and mobile broadband to offer convergent solutions for communication, Web surfing, always-in-touch services, and serve as a gateway to the digital world from the home, the office, and on the move, from fixed-line telephone, cell phone, PC, or TV. Its business portfolio covers various categories of business needs, from freelance professionals to SMEs, corporations, institutions, and public government bodies. The company?s Web offerings combine Italy?s Virgilio portal with Web 2.0 ventures, such as Yalp!, a TV community where users p ublish their own content and create their own TV channels. Its media operations span traditional broadcasting over analogue and digital networks, and mobile broadcasting through TIM/MTV partnership vehicle, MTV Mobile. The company has operations in Italy, Latin America, Germany, Holland, and the Mediterranean basin. As of December 31, 2009, it provided fixed telecommunications services with approximately 16.1 million physical accesses in Italy. The company?s wholesale customer portfolio consisted of approximately 6.2 million accesses for telephone services; and broadband portfolio had approximately 8.7 million accesses in Italy, as well as 30.8 million mobile telephone lines. Telecom Italia was founded in 1908 and is headquartered in Milan, Italy.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Jon C. Ogg]

  Telecom Italia (NYSE: TI) was started as Buy at Goldman Sachs, just a day after J.P. Morgan raised it to Neutral from Underperform.

  Under Armour Inc. (NYSE: UA) was raised to Neutral from Underweight at J.P. Morgan.

Top 10 Railroad Companies To Own For 2014: Marvell Technology Group Ltd.(MRVL)

Marvell Technology Group Ltd. designs, develops, and markets analog, mixed-signal, digital signal processing, and embedded and standalone ARM-based microprocessor integrated circuits. It offers mobile and wireless products, including communications processors, applications processors, and standalone wireless products, as well as combination devices, which incorporate wireless, Bluetooth, and FM radio capability. The company also provides storage products comprising tape drive controllers, read channel, hard disk controllers, solid-state drive controllers, hybrid drive controllers, and storage-system products for hard disk drives, tape drive electronics, optical disk drives, solid-state flash drives, hybrid drives, and storage subsystems technology. In addition, it offers networking, such as switching products that enable voice, video, and data traffic to be carried through the network for the enterprise networking, carrier access, and small office/home office/residential n etworking markets; communications controller and embedded processor products; and enterprise transceiver and Ethernet connectivity products. Further, the company provides printing ASIC products; digital video processing products; and power management and green technology products, such as DSP switcher integrated regulators, analog switching regulators, and mixed-signal light-emitting diode drivers. It operates in the United States, Canada, China, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Israel, Italy, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Netherlands, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, and the United Kingdom. The company was founded in 1995 and is based in Hamilton, Bermuda.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Holly LaFon] bought 10 million shares of Marvell Technology at approximately $14 per share in the fourth quarter of 2011.

  Marvell manufactures semiconductors, particularly for Ethernet, cable and DSL-related communications devices. It has a history of financial strength and growth and fell to a historical low P/E and low P/B and P/S ratio in 2011.

  MRVL pe,ps,pb Interactive Chart

  Marvell�� free cash flow has also grown steadily, from $25 million in 2002 to $1.1 billion in 2011. The company has $2.4 billion on its balance sheet and only $166 million in long-term liabilities with zero long-term debt. Gross margin, operating margin and net margin almost all expanded to their highest levels of the decade in 2011 (except the operating margin, which was 27.4%, slightly under its 2006 level of 27.4%).

  Marvell�� core market was formerly storage, but over the past few years it has broadened its portfolio and is beginning to see the positive results. The company�� revenue growth of 29% in 2011 over the previous year was driven primarily by growth in newly entered markets, particularly a 110% revenue increase in the mobile and wireless end market, and a 15% increase in networking. Improvements in the overall macro economy benefited the business as well.

  Though the company has implemented long-term growth plans, it lowered its fourth-quarter revenue expectation to $735 million to $745 million, compared to their prior outlook of between $775 million to $825 million. Thailand floods had reduced the supply of disk drives which recovered later in the quarter than they anticipated, and demand in China was unexpectedly soft. They expect these negative events to be temporary.

  Continued investment in growth is a priority for the company. New products they have introduced include the industry�� first MIMO-based WiFi system-on-a-chip with integrated WiFi, Bluetooth and FM capabilities, and the DragonFly Virtual Storage Accelerator that improves ser

• [By Riddhi Kharkia] >Seagate (STX) , and the roll out of LTE in China should continue to drive Marvell shares higher in the future

  First quarter results in line with expectations.

  In the first quarter of 2015, the company reported an increased revenue of $958 million (3% increase y-o-y) that translated to an earnings of $0.27 per share. As per the call, the revenue for the storage business declined 6% sequentially but was in accordance with company's inital expectations. As I mentioned above, the boom in SSD business and continued share gains in the HDDs were the primary revenue drivers in storage. Besides storage, the networking business of the company saw flat revenue as the management had expected before going into the quarter. All in all, the first quarter results were in alignment with the management expectations and hence did not spark much investor activity on the exchange.

  Stabilizing PC demand

  Together, Western Digital and Seagate accounted for 36% of Marvell's revenue in the last fiscal year. While this might look like a disadvantage to some, given that the PC market hasn't been in the best of health lately, it isn't the case. The PC market was down 9.8% in 2013, but the forecast for the current year is relatively better. Shipments of traditional desktop and notebook PCs are slated to drop 6.6% this year, according to Gartner. This signifies that the PC market is gradually stabilizing.

  Moreover, the retirement of Windows XP by Microsoft will also force businesses to upgrade to newer systems, thereby reversing the PC's decline, to an extent. In one of my previous articles on Hewlett-Packard, I mentioned the fact that the migration from Windows XP OS led to a growth of 7% in quarterly revenue for the company. So, as far as PC market is concerned, it is not a major reason for worry.

  A mine of opportunity in data

  Marvell is looking to gain more share at its biggest client Western Digital. It recently launched a couple of new, high

• [By Ashraf Eassa]

  On what was a nice day for the Nasdaq, which gained 1.05%, shares of Marvell (NASDAQ: MRVL  ) plummeted 4.99% on what was seemingly no material news. However, interestingly enough, the company filed its form 10-Q today, which contained a bunch of new lawsuits that the company will have to deal with. Given the overhang from the Carnegie Mellon patent infringement suit, investors may be uneasy due to the new lawsuits that have appeared since the form 10-K was filed on March 27.

Top 10 Railroad Companies To Own For 2014: Pinnacle Financial Partners Inc.(PNFP)

Pinnacle Financial Partners, Inc. operates as the bank holding company for Pinnacle National Bank that provides commercial banking products and services to individuals, small-to medium-sized businesses, and professional entities in Tennessee. It offers various deposit products, including savings, checking, interest-bearing checking, money market, and certificate of deposit accounts. The company also offers commercial loans comprising equipment loans and working capital loans; commercial and residential real estate loans, and construction and development loans; and loans to individuals for personal, family, investment, and household purposes, including secured and unsecured installment and term loans, residential first mortgage loans, home equity loans, and home equity lines of credit. In addition, it provides various investment products, such as mutual funds, variable annuities, money market instruments, the United States treasury securities, bonds, fixed annuities, stocks , financial planning, asset management accounts, and listed options; fiduciary and investment management services for individual and commercial clients, including personal trust, endowments, foundations, individual retirement accounts, pensions, and custody services; investment advisory services; and insurance products primarily in the property and casualty area. Further, the company offers telephone and Internet banking, debit cards, automated teller machines, remote and direct deposit, and cash management services. As of January 17, 2012, it operated 29 offices in 8 Middle Tennessee counties and 3 offices in Knoxville. The company was founded in 2000 and is headquartered in Nashville, Tennessee.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Monica Gerson]

  Pinnacle Financial Partners (NASDAQ: PNFP) is estimated to post its Q3 earnings at $0.42 per share on revenue of $56.99 million.

  Commerce Bancshares (NASDAQ: CBSH) is projected to report its Q3 earnings at $0.72 per share on revenue of $254.92 million.

• [By Brian Pacampara]

  What: Shares of Pinnacle Financial (NASDAQ: PNFP  ) climbed 10% today after the regional bank's quarterly results topped Wall Street expectations.

Top 10 Railroad Companies To Own For 2014: Sirona Dental Systems Inc (SIRO)

Sirona Dental Systems, Inc. (Sirona), incorporated on April 25, 1997, and its subsidiaries is a manufacturer of dental equipment, and is focused on developing, manufacturing and marketing solutions for dentists around the world. The Company operates in four segments: Dental CAD/CAM Systems, Imaging Systems, Treatment Centers and Instruments. The Company markets its products globally to dental practices, clinics and laboratories through an international network of distributors. The dental distributors supply both dental equipment and consumables, and have regular contact with the ultimate end-users. In addition, the Company also distributes its products through its own sales and services infrastructure.

Dental CAD / CAM Systems

Dental CAD/CAM Systems address the dental restorations, which includes several types of restorations, such as inlays, onlays, veneers, crowns, bridges, copings and bridge frameworks made from ceramic, metal or composite blocks. Sirona's CEramic REConstruction (CEREC) system is an in-office application that enables dentists to produce high quality restorations from ceramic material and insert them into the patient's mouth during a single appointment. The CEREC system consists of an imaging unit and a milling unit. The imaging unit scans the damaged area, captures the image of the tooth or teeth requiring restoration and proposes the specifications for the restoration. The milling unit then mills the ceramic restoration to the required specifications based upon the captured image and the dentist's design specifications.

Sirona offers a service contract on its CEREC product, which includes software updates and upgrades and maintenance on software-related hardware. In addition to CEREC, Sirona also offers CAD/CAM products for dental laboratories, including the inLab restoration fabrication system and the extra-oral inEos scanner. These products are designed to improve efficiency and reduce costs for the dental lab. The inLab system scans the ! models received from the dentists and then mills ceramic or composite block restorations, such as crown copings and bridge frameworks to the specifications of the captured image.

Imaging Systems

Imaging Systems comprise a broad range of systems for diagnostic imaging in the dental practice. Sirona has developed a comprehensive range of imaging systems for two dimensional (2D) or three dimensional (3D), panoramic and intra-oral applications. Intra-oral x-ray systems use image-capture sensor devices, which are inserted into the mouth behind the diagnostic area, and take images of one or two teeth. Panoramic x-ray systems produce images of the entire jaw structure by means of an x-ray tube and an image capture device, which rotates around the head.

Treatment Centers

Treatment Centers consists of a range of products from basic dentist chairs to chair-based units with integrated diagnostic, hygiene and ergonomic functionalities, as well as specialist centers used in preventative treatment and for training purposes. Sirona offers specifically configured products to meet the preferences of dentists within each region in which it operates. Sirona's treatment center configurations and system integration are designed to enhance productivity by creating a seamless workflow within the dental practice.

Instruments

Sirona offers a range of instruments, including handheld and power-operated handpieces for cavity preparation, endodontics, periodontology and prophylaxis, which are regularly updated and improved. The instruments are supplemented by multi-function tips, supply and suction hoses, as well as care and hygiene systems for instrument preparation. Sirona's instruments are often sold as packages in combination with treatment centers.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Ben Levisohn]

  Shares of Align have surged 24% to $57 at 12:37 p.m. Sirona Dental Systems (SIRO) has risen 0.8% to $69.61, Dentsply International (XRAY) is up 0.1% at $45.44, Integra Lifesciences (IART) has� gained 0.4% to $44.23 and Danaher (DHR) has fallen 0.3% to $72.13.

• [By Todd Campbell]

  Dentists may find that patients are more willing to spend on restorative procedures now that the job market is recovering and consumer sentiment is heading higher. That offers new opportunities for providers of dentistry equipment, such as Sirona Dental Systems (NASDAQ: SIRO  ) , a company that was spun out of Siemens in 1997 and brought public in 2006.

Top 10 Railroad Companies To Own For 2014: Yahoo! Inc.(YHOO)

Yahoo! Inc., together with its subsidiaries, operates as a digital media company that delivers personalized digital content and experiences through various devices worldwide. It offers online properties and services to users; and a range of marketing services to businesses. The company?s communications and communities offerings include Yahoo! Mail, Yahoo! Messenger, Yahoo! Groups, Yahoo! Answers, Flickr, and Connected TV, which provide a range of communication and social services to users and small businesses enabling users to organize into groups and share knowledge, common interests, and photos. Its search products comprise Yahoo! Search and Yahoo! Local, available free to users to navigate the Internet and discover content. The company?s marketplaces offerings and services include Yahoo! Shopping, Yahoo! Travel, Yahoo! Real Estate, Yahoo! Autos, and Yahoo! Small Business, which allow users to research specific topics, products, services, or areas of interest by review ing and exchanging information, obtaining contact details, or considering offers from providers of goods, services, or parties with similar interests. Its media offerings comprise Yahoo! Homepage, Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Sports, Yahoo! Finance, My Yahoo!, Yahoo! Toolbar, Yahoo! Entertainment & Lifestyles, Yahoo! Contributor Network, and Yahoo! Pulse, which are designed to engage users with online content and services on the Web. The company also offers marketing services, such as display and search advertising, listing-based services, and commerce-based transactions to advertisers. In addition, it provides software and platform offerings for third-party developers, advertisers, and publishers, such as Yahoo! Developer Network, Yahoo! Open Strategy, Yahoo! Application Platform, Yahoo! Updates, Yahoo! Query Language, and Yahoo! Search BOSS. The company has strategic alliances with Nokia and ABC News, Inc. Yahoo! Inc. was founded in 1994 and is headquartered in Sunnyvale, Californi a.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Garrett Cook]

  Yahoo! (NASDAQ: YHOO) shares tumbled 3.03 percent to $40.81 following the open of Alibaba.

  Oracle (NYSE: ORCL) was down, falling 3.73 percent to $40.00 after the company reported downbeat fiscal first-quarter results and unexpectedly shuffled its top management. Analysts at Deutsche Bank downgraded Oracle from Buy to Hold and lowered the target price from $48 to $42.

• [By Alex Planes]

  Three cheers for this Nasdaq stock
  Nasdaq favorite Yahoo! (NASDAQ: YHOO  ) made its hotly anticipated public debut on April 12, 1996. Its shares, initially offered at $13 apiece, closed a staggering 150% higher at $33. The company, in existence online for only two years and incorporated for only one, finished the day valued at more than $800 million. It was one of the largest tech IPOs in years and one of the most dramatic examples of rapid dot-com success -- Yahoo had reported revenue of only $1.4 million the previous fiscal year for a loss of $643,000.

• [By Chris Hill]

  Yahoo! (NASDAQ: YHOO  ) made it official this week when it announced that it had acquired Tumblr for $1.1 billion. Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer promised "not to screw it up." What will the acquisition mean for Yahoo!? What will the deal mean for Tumblr? And what will the deal mean for investors? In this installment of Motley Fool Money, our analysts tackle those questions.

• [By Rick Munarriz]

  Yahoo! (NASDAQ: YHOO  ) may have disappointed investors yesterday by posting weak display advertising results and tweaking its full-year revenue guidance marginally lower, but at least it looked good while it happened.

Top 10 Railroad Companies To Own For 2014: Altra Holdings Inc.(AIMC)

Altra Holdings, Inc., through its subsidiary, Altra Industrial Motion, Inc., designs, produces, and markets a range of mechanical power transmission and motion control products worldwide. The company provides industrial clutches and brakes for elevators, forklifts, lawn mowers, oil well draw works, punch presses, and conveyors; open and enclosed gearing products for conveyors, ethanol mixers, packaging machinery, and metal processing equipment; and engineered couplings for extruders, turbines, steel strip mills, and pumps. It also offers engineered bearing assemblies for cargo rollers, seat storage systems, and conveyors; power transmission components for conveyors, lawn mowers, and machine tools; and engineered belted drives for pumps, sand and gravel conveyors, and industrial fans. The company sells its products under the Warner Electric, Boston Gear, TB Wood?s, Kilian, Nuttall Gear, Ameridrives, Wichita Clutch, Formsprag Clutch, Bibby Transmissions, Stieber, Matrix, In ertia Dynamics, Twiflex, Industrial Clutch, Huco Dynatork, Marland Clutch, Delroyd, Warner Linear, and Bauer Gear Motor brands through its sales force, industrial distributors, and independent sales representatives. It serves aerospace, energy, food processing, general industrial, material handling, mining, petrochemical, transportation, and turf and garden markets. The company is headquartered in Braintree, Massachusetts.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Seth Jayson]

  When judging a company's prospects, how quickly it turns cash outflows into cash inflows can be just as important as how much profit it's booking in the accounting fantasy world we call "earnings." This is one of the first metrics I check when I'm hunting for the market's best stocks. Today, we'll see how it applies to Altra Holdings (Nasdaq: AIMC  ) .

• [By Brian Pacampara]

  What: Shares of power transmission products maker Altra Holdings (NASDAQ: AIMC  ) plummeted 17% today after its quarterly results and outlook disappointed Wall Street.�