Top Canadian Companies For 2014

The Utica Shale remains a bit of an enigma for drillers and investors alike. Some see it as the next big thing, while others are cautiously backing away. One thing is for sure: For many drillers, the Utica Shale isn't living up to the original sky-high�expectations, especially for oil content.�

The lack of oil is one of reasons why both�Chesapeake Energy (NYSE: CHK  ) and Devon Energy� (NYSE: DVN  ) are planning on selling their Utica assets after initially building a sizable presence. Chesapeake, which is the largest Utica leaseholder, just put around 100,000 of its acres up for sale. While that's a small portion of its overall acreage in the play it is worth noting because it marks a continued trend from the company, which also sold a large stake in the Utica last year to Total.

Devon is taking things one step further; it's attempting to unload the rest of its Utica acreage, after putting a portion of its acres into a joint-venture package with Sinopec last year. Devon sees higher returns in other plays within its acreage,�particularly�in the Canadian oil sands and Permian Basin.

10 Best Shipping Stocks To Watch For 2015: CommonWealth REIT (CWH)

CommonWealth REIT is a real estate investment trust launched and managed by Reit Management & Research LLC. The fund invests in the real estate markets of the United States. It seeks to invest in office buildings, industrial buildings, and leased industrial land. CommonWealth REIT was founded in 1986 and is domiciled in United States.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Tim Brugger]

  In an on-going effort to oust the board of directors of Commonwealth REIT (NYSE: CWH  ) , its second largest shareholder, Corvex Management, recently forwarded a record request date to Commonwealth management. The latest request by Corvex follows an earlier consent solicitation proposal in late March. Corvex's ultimate objective of the shareholder meeting is to "remove all of CWH's Trustees without cause," according to a Commonwealth press release issued today.

• [By Bill Stoller]

  After a banner 2013, the overall market has had a challenging start to 2014. However, these four companies have been crushing it: Alexander Real Estate (NYSE: ARE  ) , BioMed Realty Trust (NYSE: BMR  ) , CommonWealth REIT (NYSE: CWH  ) , and Sun Communities (NYSE: SUI  ) early on in 2014 vs. the S&P 500. Their relative out-performance can also be seen when compared to the Vanguard REIT Index ETF (NYSEMKT: VNQ  ) a good yardstick to measure sector performance.

• [By John Kell var popups = dojo.query(".socialByline .popC"); popups.forEach(func]

  Corvex Management LP and Related Fund Management LLC called for an earlier special meeting to replace CommonWealth REIT's(CWH) entire board, with the activist investors criticizing the company’s former board for leaving without engaging in a transition process.

Top Canadian Companies For 2014: Kinder Morgan Energy Partners L.P. (KMP)

Kinder Morgan Energy Partners, L.P. operates as a pipeline transportation and energy storage company in North America. Its Products Pipelines segment delivers gasoline, diesel fuel, jet fuel, and natural gas liquids to various markets through approximately 8,600 miles of refined petroleum products pipelines; and operates 62 associated product terminals and petroleum pipeline transmix processing facilities. The company�s Natural Gas Pipelines segment gathers, transports, stores, treats, processes, and sells natural gas through approximately 33,000 miles of natural gas transmission pipelines and gathering lines, as well as natural gas storage, treating, and processing facilities. Its CO2 segment produces, markets, and transports carbon dioxide through approximately 1,500 miles of pipelines to oil fields. This segment also owns and operates 7 oil fields, and a 450 mile crude oil pipeline system in west Texas. The company�s Terminals segment transloads, stores, and delivers bulk, petroleum, petrochemical, and other liquids products through approximately 113 liquids and bulk terminal facilities; and approximately 35 rail transloading and materials handling facilities. Its Kinder Morgan Canada segment transports crude oil and refined petroleum products through approximately 2,500 miles of pipelines from Alberta, Canada to marketing terminals and refineries in British Columbia, the state of Washington, and the Rocky Mountains, as well as in the central regions of the United States. This segment also operates the Jet Fuel aviation turbine fuel pipeline that serves the Vancouver (Canada) International Airport. Kinder Morgan G.P., Inc. serves as the general partner of the company. Kinder Morgan Energy Partners, L.P. was founded in 1992 and is headquartered in Houston, Texas.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Eric Volkman]

  The tightly-linked entities Kinder Morgan (NYSE: KMI  ) and Kinder Morgan Energy Partners (NYSE: KMP  ) are joining forces to make their share and unit holders richer. Both have boosted their dividends, with Kinder Morgan declaring a $0.40 per share distribution, and Energy Partners announcing a per-unit payout of $1.32. Both will be paid to share/unit holders of record as of July 31; the payment date for Kinder Morgan is August 15, while Energy Partners investors will receive their money one day earlier.

• [By Aaron Levitt]

  Pipelines and midstream energy firms are supposed to be boring investments. And historically, energy logistics giant Kinder Morgan (KMI) has fit into that camp. That is, until analysts at Hedgeye Risk Management began to question the company�� — and its subsidiaries Kinder Morgan Energy Partners’ (KMP) and El Paso Pipeline Partners’ (EPB) — cash flows, CAPEX spending and incentive distribution rights (IDRs).

• [By Robert Rapier]

  This question really piqued my interest. Intuitively, I felt like it was probably true, but I didn’t want to answer the question until I could dig into it a bit more. I thought it would be interesting to have a look at the historical performance of a few publicly-traded general partners versus their limited partner to find out if that hypothesis is supported.

  Consider Kinder Morgan Energy Partners (NYSE: KMP) and its general partner Kinder Morgan  (NYSE: KMI). Over the past year, KMI did indeed outperform KMP, but if we track performance back to the IPO of KMI on Feb. 10, 2011 — KMP outperformed KMI during significant time periods. But both generally tracked each other quite closely in terms of returns.
  
  
  Next consider Energy Transfer Partners (NYSE: ETP) and Energy Transfer Equity (NYSE: ETE), which owns the general partner and went public in 2006. ETE has significantly outperformed ETP since its IPO, particularly over the past four years:
  
  
  

  But it is important to note that ETE also has interests in Sunoco Logistics Partners (NYSE: SXL) and Regency Energy Partners (NYSE: RGP).

• [By sirajsarwar]

  These three MLPs have a long history of consistently increasing distributions. The MLPs included in this group are Sunoco Logistics Partners (SXL), Enterprise Products Partners (EPD) and Kinder Morgan Energy Partners (KMP). Each of these MLPs was evaluated for their consistently increasing distributions.

Top Canadian Companies For 2014: Goldcorp Incorporated(GG)

Goldcorp Inc. engages in the acquisition, exploration, development, and operation of precious metal properties in Canada, the United States, Mexico, and Central and South America. It produces and sells gold, silver, copper, lead, and zinc. The company was founded in 1954 and is headquartered in Vancouver, Canada.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Doug Ehrman]

  Many in the investment community have been sounding the warning bells over the future direction of gold, given all that's occurring in the global macroeconomic landscape. Using the SPDR Gold Trust (NYSEMKT: GLD  ) as a proxy, the yellow metal is down more than 17% this year, and the 12-year rally for the commodity looks to be in real jeopardy. While industry insiders, like Goldcorp (NYSE: GG  ) President and Chief Executive Office Chuck Jeannes, believe the rally will continue, there are some grim signs.

• [By Jim Jubak]

  As sure as April showers bring May flowers, January brings reserve updates from gold mining companies that foreshadow the annual earnings reports that these companies will issue in February. Yamana Gold (AUY) and Randgold Resources (GOLD) initiate the February earnings parade from gold mining companies, with reports on February 2 and 3, respectively. Kinross Gold (KGC) follows on February 12 with Goldcorp (GG) and Barrick Gold (ABX) reporting on February 13. Newmont Mining (NEM) issues its numbers on February 20.

Top Canadian Companies For 2014: Sun Life Financial Inc.(SLF)

Sun Life Financial Inc., together with its subsidiaries, provides various life and health insurance, savings, investment management, retirement, and pension products and services to individuals and corporate customers. It offers individual life insurance policies, including individual term life, universal life, critical illness, disability, accident, and accidental death and dismemberment insurance policies; and group life insurance policies. The company also provides individual health insurance, long-term care insurance, group health benefits, dental benefits, and group insurance; and various individual and group annuity, retirement, and investment income products and services, such as mutual and pooled funds, variable and fixed annuities, savings, retirement and pension plans, and education savings. In addition, it offers asset management services for corporate retirement plans, separate accounts, public or government funds, and insurance company assets to institutional clients; and advisory services to individual investors. Further, the company provides run-off reinsurance services. Sun Life Financial Inc. distributes its products through direct sales agents, independent and managing general agents, financial intermediaries, broker-dealers, banks, pension and benefit consultants, and other third-party marketing organizations. The company operates primarily in Bermuda, Canada, China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Ireland, the Philippines, the United States, and the United Kingdom. Sun Life Financial Inc. was founded in 1999 and is based in Toronto, Canada.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Tim Brugger]

  Initially, the deal Sun Life Financial (NYSE: SLF  ) struck in December to sell its U.S. annuity portfolio and some life insurance products for $1.35 billion to Delaware Life Holdings, a Guggenheim Partners-owned company, was scheduled to be completed by Q2 of 2013.

Top Canadian Companies For 2014: Cameco Corporation(CCJ)

Cameco Corporation operates as a uranium producer, supplier of conversion services, and fuel manufacturer. The company?s Uranium segment is involved in the exploration for, mining, milling, purchase, and sale of uranium concentrate. Its operating uranium properties include the McArthur River and Key Lake, and Rabbit Lake located in Saskatchewan, Canada; the Crow Butte located in Nebraska and the Smith Ranch-Highland located in Wyoming; and the Inkai uranium deposit located in Kazakhstan. Cameco Corporation?s Fuel Services segment engages in the refining, conversion, and fabrication of uranium concentrate; and the purchase and sale of conversion services. Its products include uranium trioxide, uranium hexafluoride, and uranium dioxide. This segment also manufactures fuel bundles, reactor components, and monitoring equipment to Candu reactors; and provides nuclear fuel and consulting services to Candu operators. The company?s Electricity segment engages in the generation and sale of nuclear electricity, through its 31.6% interest in Bruce Power L.P. This segment operates four nuclear reactors at the Bruce B generating station in southern Ontario, Canada. The company was founded in 1987 and is headquartered in Saskatoon, Canada.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Dividend]

  Cameco (CCJ) has a market capitalization of $7.64 billion. The company employs 3,470 people, generates revenue of $2.234 billion and has a net income of $254.68 million. Cameco�� earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) amounts to $704.68 million. The EBITDA margin is 31.54 percent (the operating margin is 11.60 percent and the net profit margin 11.40 percent).

Top Canadian Companies For 2014: OM Group Inc.(OMG)

OM Group, Inc. develops, produces, and markets specialty chemicals, advanced materials, and electrochemical energy storage products worldwide. The company operates in three segments: Advanced Materials, Specialty Chemicals, and Battery Technologies. The Advanced Materials segment manufactures inorganic products using unrefined cobalt and other metals and serves the battery materials, powder metallurgy, ceramics, and chemical end markets. It offers cobalt powders, precursors, chemicals, pigments and ceramics, and various raw materials. These products enhance the electrical conduction of rechargeable batteries, as well as strengthen and add durability to diamond and machine cutting tools and drilling equipment. The Specialty Chemicals segment offers electronic chemicals for the printed circuit board, memory disk, general metal finishing, electronic packaging and finishing, and photovoltaic markets. This segment also provides advanced organics comprising additives and driers for paints, and printing inks; rubber adhesion promoters for tires; composite and other catalysts for chemicals; and fuel oil additives, lubricants, and grease additives. In addition, it offers ultra pure chemicals used in the manufacture of electronic and computer components, such as semiconductors, wafers, and liquid crystal displays; and photo-imaging masks, including high-purity quartz or glass plates containing precision, microscopic images of integrated circuits; and reticles for the semiconductor, optoelectronics, and microelectronics industries under the Compugraphics brand name. The Battery Technologies segment provides battery products, primary and secondary batteries, battery management systems, battery chargers, and energetic devices for defense applications; primary and secondary batteries for satellites, aircraft, and the packaging of cells; and miniature batteries to power implantable medical devices. The company was founded in 1991 and is headquartered in Cle veland, Ohio.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Canadian Value]

  Position % of Fund Assets 1) First American Financial Corp. (FAF) 7.0% 2) Apple, Inc. (AAPL) 6.5% 3) Coinstar, Inc. (CSTR) 4.8% 4) EMC Corp. (EMC) 4.4% 5) Coach, Inc. (COH) 4.4% 6) Kohl's Corp. (KSS) 4.1% 7) Blucora, Inc. (BCOR) 4.0% 8) Tetra Tech, Inc. (TTEK) 3.1% 9) OM Group, Inc. (OMG) 3.0% 10) American International Group, Inc. (AIG) 2.8% TOTAL 44.1% One area that we believe still offers some value in the market is in high quality, large��ap technology stocks that may be momentarily out��f��avor as they transition from rapid growth to slower growth. In particular, we become interested when that transition is also accompanied by a change in capital allocation policies designed to return more cash to shareholders in the form of dividends and share repurchases. We believe that Apple and EMC are two of the absolute highest quality technology businesses in the world and both have recently announced very material, shareholder��friendly changes to how they will allocate capital.

• [By Seth Jayson]

  There's no foolproof way to know the future for OM Group (NYSE: OMG  ) or any other company. However, certain clues may help you see potential stumbles before they happen -- and before your stock craters as a result.

• [By Laura Brodbeck]

  Friday

  Earnings Expected From: Chevron Corporation (NYSE: CVX), OM Group, Inc. (NYSE: OMG), Public Storage (NYSE: PSA) Economic Releases Expected: �US ISM manufacturing index, Canadian manufacturing PMI, British manufacturing PMI, Norwegian unemployment rate

  Posted-In: Bank Of England Federal ReserveNews Eurozone Commodities Previews Global Economics Federal Reserve After-Hours Center Markets Trading Ideas Best of Benzinga

• [By Brian Pacampara]

  What: Shares of specialty chemical company OM Group (NYSE: OMG  ) climbed 14% today after its quarterly results easily topped Wall Street expectations.