Best Asian Companies To Buy For 2014

The major U.S. pre-market indexes pointed lower on Thursday morning.

Dow Jones industrial average index stock futures dipped 0.1%, Standard & Poor's 500 index futures lost 0.1% and Nasdaq index futures fell 0.02%.

Asian stocks extended losses Thursday after an apparent budget deal in the U.S. Congress reinforced expectations the Federal Reserve will cut its monetary stimulus as early as next week.

BUDGET DEAL: House to vote Thursday on budget deal

"December taper still remains on the table though not our base scenario. We maintain our view that the Fed would need more data to confirm that the economy is strengthening. As such, we think taper could more likely start in March 2014,"
Mizuho Bank Ltd. said in a market commentary.

On Wednesday, the Dow dropped 0.8% to 15,843.53. The S&P 500 fell 1.2% to 1,782.22. The Nasdaq composite index dropped 1.4%, to 4,003.81.

10 Best Undervalued Stocks To Own Right Now: Compressco Partners LP (GSJK)

Compressco Partners, L.P. is a provider of wellhead compression-based production enhancement services (production enhancement services). The Company provides its services to a base of natural gas and oil exploration and production companies operating throughout many of the onshore producing regions of the United States, as well as in Canada and Mexico. Its production enhancement services primarily consist of wellhead compression, related liquids separation, gas metering, and vapor recovery services. It also provides ongoing well monitoring services, and, in Mexico, automated sand separation services in connection with its primary production enhancement services. It design and manufacture most of the compressor units it use to provide its production enhancement services. Compressco Partners GP, Inc. is the general partner of the Company. In January 2014, the Company announced that it has completed the acquisition of Compression assets for gas lift markets as part of its defined strategic growth objectives.

GasJack unit fleet

The Company�� GasJack unit allows it to perform compression, liquids separation and optional gas metering services all from one skid. The Company focuses on the natural gas wells in its operating regions that produce between 30,000 and 300, 000 cubic feet of natural gas per day (Mcf/d) and less than 50 barrels of water per day. The Company primarily utilize its natural gas powered GasJack compressors, or GasJack units, to provide wellhead compression services. Its GasJack units increase gas production by reducing surface pressure, which allows wellbore fluids that would normally block gas flow to produce up the well. The 46-horsepower GasJack unit is an integrated power/compressor unit equipped with an industrial 460-cubic inch, V-8 engine that uses natural gas from the well to power one bank of cylinders that, in turn, powers the other bank of cylinders, which provide compression. As of December 31, 2011, the Company had a fleet of 3,145 GasJack units.!

VJack unit fleet

The Company utilizes its electric VJack compressors, or VJack units, to provide its production enhancement services on wells located in larger, mature oil fields, such as the Permian Basin in West Texas and New Mexico, and in environmentally sensitive markets, such as California, when electric power is available at the production site. Its VJack unit is designed for vapor recovery applications (to capture natural gas vapors emitting from closed storage tanks after production and to reduce storage tank pressures) and backside pumping applications on oil wells (to reduce pressures caused by casing head gas in oil wells with pumping units). Based on GasJack unit technology, the VJack unit is capable of full wellbore stream production, and can handle up to 50 barrels per day of liquids on a standard skid package. As of December 31, 2011, it had a fleet of 50 VJack units. Its GasJack and VJack compressor units are mounted on steel skids.

ePumper system

Utilizing its ePumper system, SCADA satellite telemetry-based reporting system, it remotely monitor in real time, whether its services are being continuously provided at each well site. The ePumper system improves the response time of its field personnel.

Well Monitoring and Automated Sand Separation Services

The Company also provides ongoing well monitoring services and, in Mexico, automated sand separation services. Its well monitoring services consist of ongoing testing and evaluation of wells to determine how its wellhead compression services are optimizing the production from a well.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Marc Bastow]

  Wellhead compression products manufacturer Compressco Partners (GSJK) raised its quarterly dividend 1.7% to 43.75 cents per share, payable on Feb. 14 to shareholders of record as of Jan. 31.
  GSJK Dividend Yield: 7.60%

Best Asian Companies To Buy For 2014: ALLETE Inc (ALE)

ALLETE, Inc. (ALLETE) is an energy company. Minnkota Power Cooperative, Inc.( Minnesota Power) is an operating division of the Company. ALLETE operates in two business segments: Regulated Operations and Investments and Other. Regulated Operations includes its regulated utilities, Minnesota Power and Superior Water, Light and Power Company (SWL&P), as well as its investment in American Transmission Company LLC (ATC), a Wisconsin-based regulated utility that owns and maintains electric transmission assets in parts of Wisconsin, Michigan, Minnesota and Illinois. Investments and Other is comprised primarily of BNI Coal, Ltd (BNI Coal), its coal mining operations in North Dakota; ALLETE Properties, LLC and its subsidiaries (ALLETE Properties), its Florida real estate investment, and ALLETE Clean Energy. In July 2011, the Company incorporated new company, ALLETE Clean Energy.

Regulated Operations

Minnesota Power provides regulated utility electric service in northeastern Minnesota to approximately 144,000 retail customers. Minnesota Power's non-affiliated municipal customers consist of 16 municipalities in Minnesota and one private utility in Wisconsin. SWL&P, a wholly owned subsidiary of ALLETE, is also a private utility in Wisconsin and a customer of Minnesota Power. SWL&P provides regulated electric, natural gas and water service in northwestern Wisconsin to approximately 15,000 electric customers, 12,000 natural gas customers and 10,000 water customers. Its industrial customers are primarily in the taconite, paper, pulp and wood products and pipeline industries. The customers consist of five taconite producing facilities (two of which are owned by one company and are served under a single contract), one iron nugget plant, and four paper and pulp mills. During the year ended December 2011, its residential and commercial customers represented 20% of total regulated utility kilowatt-hour sales. In 2011, its municipal customers represented 7% of total regulated utility kilowatt-hou! r sales. The Company also enters into off-system sales with Other Power Suppliers.

The Company�� generation is primarily coal-fired, but also includes approximately 102 megawatts of hydro generation from ten hydro stations in Minnesota, approximately 107 megawatts of wind generation, and 73 megawatts of biomass co-fired generation. Purchased power is made up of long-term coal, wind and hydro power purchase agreements and market purchases. As of December 31, 2011, Minnesota Power had a coal inventory of 0.9 million tons. Minnesota Power entered into two long-term wind Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs) with an affiliate of NextEra Energy, Inc. to purchase the output from Oliver Wind I (50 megawatts) and Oliver Wind II (48 megawatts), wind facilities located near Center, North Dakota. Each agreement is for 25 years and provides for the purchase of all output from the facilities at fixed prices. The Company has a PPA with Manitoba Hydro that expires in April 2015. Under this agreement, Minnesota Power is purchasing 50 megawatts of capacity and the energy associated with that capacity. Minnesota Power has a separate PPA with Manitoba Hydro to purchase surplus energy from May 2011 through April 2022.

On May 19, 2011, Minnesota Power and Manitoba Hydro signed a long-term PPA. The PPA calls for Manitoba Hydro to sell 250 megawatts of capacity and energy to Minnesota Power for 15 years beginning in 2020 and requires construction of additional transmission capacity between Manitoba and the United States. On January 26, 2012, the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission (MPUC) approved this PPA with Manitoba Hydro. The Company has electric transmission and distribution lines of 500 kilovolts (eight miles), 345 kilovolts (29 miles), 250 kilovolts (465 miles), 230 kilovolts (632 miles), 161 kilovolts (43 miles), 138 kilovolts (128 miles), 115 kilovolts (1,221 miles) and less than 115 kilovolts (6,216 miles). Thye Company owns and operates 164substations with a total capacity of 11,132 megav! oltampere! s. Some of its transmission and distribution lines interconnect with other utilities. Rainy River Energy, its wholly owned subsidiary, owns approximately 8% of American Transmission Company LLC (ATC), a Wisconsin-based utility that owns and maintains electric transmission assets in parts of Wisconsin, Michigan, Minnesota and Illinois. Hibbard is a 51 megttsa biomass/coal/natural gas facility located in Duluth, Minnesota. Minnesota Power holds franchises to construct and maintain an electric distribution and transmission system in 94 cities and towns located within its electric service territory. SWL&P holds 17 similar franchises for electric, natural gas and/or water systems in one city and 16 villages and towns within its service territory.

Investments and Other

BNI Coal is a supplier of lignite in North Dakota, producing about four million tons annually. Two electric generating cooperatives, Minnkota Power Cooperative, Inc. (Minnkota Power) and Square Butte Electric Cooperative (Square Butte), consumes virtually all of BNI Coal�� production of lignite under cost-plus, fixed fee coal supply agreements extending through 2026. The mining process disturbs and reclaims between 200 and 250 acres per year. ALLETE Properties represents its Florida real estate investment. Its two major development projects are Town Center and Palm Coast Park. Another major project, Ormond Crossings is in the design and permitting stage. ALLETE Properties occasionally provides seller financing to certain qualified buyers. In June 2011, the Company ALLETE Clean Energy, a wholly owned subsidiary of ALLETE. ALLETE Clean Energy intends to market to electric utilities, cooperatives, municipalities, independent power marketers and end-users across North America through long-term PPAs. ALLETE Clean Energy focuses on developing or acquiring capital projects that create energy solutions through wind, solar, biomass, hydro, natural gas/liquids, shale resources, clean coal and other clean energy. As of Decembe! r 31, 201! 1, non-rate base generation consists of 31 megawatts of generation at Rapids Energy Center. In 2011, it sold 0.1 million Megawatt-hours of non-rate base generation. The Company has approximately 5,500 acres of land available-for-sale in Minnesota.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Marc Bastow]

  Utility holding company Allete (ALE) raised its quarterly dividend 3.2% to 49 cents per share, payable on Mar. 1 to shareholders of record as of Feb. 14.
  ALE Dividend Yield: 3.94%

• [By Eric Volkman]

  ALLETE (NYSE: ALE  ) is continuing to be all in with its dividend. The company has declared its latest common stock distribution, which is to be $0.475 per share paid on Sept. 1 to shareholders of record as of Aug. 15. That amount matches the company's previous two payouts, the most recent of which was dispensed at the beginning of June. Before that, the company was less generous by a cent and a half, handing out $0.46 per share.

Best Asian Companies To Buy For 2014: Prestige Brand Holdings Inc.(PBH)

Prestige Brands Holdings, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, engages in marketing, selling, and distributing over-the-counter healthcare and household cleaning products primarily in North America. The company?s Over-The-Counter Healthcare segment offers a portfolio of OTC products under nine core OTC brands, including Chloraseptic sore throat remedies, Clear Eyes eye drops, Compound W wart removers, Dramamine motion sickness products, Efferdent and Effergrip denture products, Little Remedies pediatric healthcare products, Luden's cough drops, PediaCare pediatric healthcare products, and The Doctor?s brand of oral care products. This segment also provides other significant brands that include Dermoplast first-aid products, Murine eye and ear care products, NasalCrom allergy relief product, New-Skin liquid bandage, and Wartner wart removers. Its Household Cleaning segment markets household cleaning products, such as abrasive and non-abrasive tub and tile cleaner, scrubb ing pads and sponges, dilutables, anti-bacterial hard surface spray for counter tops, and glass cleaners under the Comet, Chore Boy, and Spic and Span brands. Prestige Brands Holdings distributes its products through various retail channels, including drug, food, dollar, and club stores, as well as supermarkets and mass merchandisers. The company was founded in 1996 and is headquartered in Irvington, New York.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Seth Jayson]

  Calling all cash flows
  When you are trying to buy the market's best stocks, it's worth checking up on your companies' free cash flow once a quarter or so, to see whether it bears any relationship to the net income in the headlines. That's what we do with this series. Today, we're checking in on Prestige Brands Holdings (NYSE: PBH  ) , whose recent revenue and earnings are plotted below.

Best Asian Companies To Buy For 2014: Holly Energy Partners L.P. (HEP)

Holly Energy Partners, L.P. operates a system of petroleum product and crude oil pipelines, storage tanks, distribution terminals, and loading rack facilities. As of December 31, 2009, its pipeline assets included approximately 820 miles of refined product pipelines that transport gasoline, diesel, and jet fuel in the metropolitan and rural areas of Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado, Utah and northern Mexico; approximately 510 miles of refined product pipelines that transport refined products in Texas and Oklahoma; 3 parallel 65 mile pipelines that transport intermediate feedstocks and crude oil to petroleum refinery facilities; approximately 960 miles of crude oil trunk, gathering, and connection pipelines located in west Texas, New Mexico, and Oklahoma that deliver crude oil to refineries; approximately 10 miles of crude oil and refined product pipelines in Salt Lake City, Utah; and gasoline and diesel connecting pipelines located in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The company?s ref ined product terminals and refinery tankage assets comprised four refined product terminals with an aggregate capacity of approximately 1,000,000 barrels in Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona; three refined product terminals with an aggregate capacity of approximately 500,000 barrels in Idaho and Washington; one refined product terminal with a capacity of 120,000 barrels in Idaho; two refined product terminals with aggregate capacity of 480,000 barrels in Texas; a refined product truck loading rack facility; a jet fuel terminal; on-site crude oil tankage having an aggregate storage capacity of approximately 600,000 barrels; and on-site refined product tankage having an aggregate storage capacity of approximately 1,400,000 barrels. HEP Logistics Holdings, L.P. serves as general partner of the company. Holly Energy Partners was founded in 2004 and is based in Dallas, Texas.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Robert Rapier]

  The refinery logistics segment has done quite well, even when the associated refiner has struggled a bit. We like�Holly Energy Partners�(NYSE: HEP) for the long haul. I covered the partnership in some depth in�Holy Holly, What a Deal.

• [By Tyler Crowe]

  Let's face it, building pipeline to move oil and gas takes a long time, and several refiners and exploration and production companies just can't wait around for these pipes to get built. That is a large reason why HollyFrontier (NYSE: HFC  ) just announced that it and its midstream subsidiary Holly Energy Partners (NYSE: HEP  ) plan to add rail capacity of 70,000 barrels per day to its operations to move oil from Holly Energy's pipes in Southeast New Mexico to HollyFrontier's refining facilities in the region.�

• [By Aimee Duffy]

  Master limited partnerships are not like other stocks, and the metrics we use to compare an MLP to its peers differ from the metrics we use to compare regular companies. For example, instead of the traditional P/E ratio, we emphasize MLP-specific metrics like distribution coverage ratio, and today's focus: price to distributable cash flow (P/DCF). I'll use MPLX (NYSE: MPLX  ) , Tesoro Logistics (NYSE: TLLP  ) , and Holly Energy Partners (NYSE: HEP  ) as our three examples.

Best Asian Companies To Buy For 2014: AEP Industries Inc.(AEPI)

AEP Industries Inc. engages in the production, manufacture, and distribution of plastic packaging products in the United States and Canada. The company offers a line of polyethylene, polyvinyl chloride, and polypropylene flexible packaging products for consumer, industrial, and agricultural applications. Its products include custom films for industrial applications, including sheeting, tubing, and bags; films that protect items stored outdoors or in transit, such as boats and cars; a range of shrink films, barrier films, and overwrap films; stretch film products for hand wrap and rotary applications; and pre stretch and high performance products for commodity and specialty uses. The company also provides food wraps products, including blown plastic film fold-top bags, twist-tie bags, and food containers under the Seal Wrap brand for the supermarket and industrial markets; a range of coextruded polyolefin films and monolayer films for food, pharmaceutical, and medical appli cations; and canliners product line comprising trash bags and institutional bags. In addition, it offers printed rollstock to the food and beverage industries, and manufacturing and distributing companies; and unplasticized polyvinyl chloride films for use in battery labels, twist films, and credit card laminates; and various film products with agricultural applications, such as silage, smooth mulch films, and fumigation films. Further, the company provides disposable consumer and institutional plastic products, which include table covers and skirts, aisle runners, aprons, bibs, gloves, boots, freezer/storage bags, saddle pack bags, locker wrap and custom imprint designs for the food service, party supply, and school/collegiate markets under the Sta-Dri brand. AEP Industries Inc. markets its products directly to end-users, as well as through distributors. The company was founded in 1970 and is based in South Hackensack, New Jersey.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Brian Pacampara]

  What: Shares of plastic packaging manufacturer AEP Industries (NASDAQ: AEPI  ) sank 14% today after its quarterly results and outlook disappointed Wall Street.

• [By Victor Selva]

  Competitors such as AEP Industries Inc. (AEPI) and Lockheed Martin Corporation (LMT) will be better options in term of ROE.

  Final Comment

• [By Bryan Murphy]

  It's certainly not as big as Berry Plastics Group Inc. (NYSE:BERY). It's not even as big as Tredegar Corporation (NYSE:TG). There's one big way AEP Industries (NASDAQ:AEPI) can certainly compete head-on with BERY and TG right now, however... as an investment opportunity. Thanks to the bullish bump AEPI gave us last week, a long-standing selloff has been revered, and there's a whole lot of ground to make up.

Best Asian Companies To Buy For 2014: ProShares Trust II (YCS)

ProShares Trust II (the Trust) is a statutory trust organized into separate series. The Trust offers seven Funds. The Trust offers beneficial interest in each of its 24 series. The 24 separate series include ProShares Ultra DJ-UBS Commodity, ProShares UltraShort DJ-UBS Commodity, ProShares Ultra DJ-UBS Crude Oil, ProShares UltraShort DJ-UBS Crude Oil, ProShares Ultra DJ-UBS Natural Gas, ProShares Short DJ-UBS Natural Gas, ProShares UltraShort DJ-UBS Natural Gas, ProShares Short Gold, ProShares Ultra Gold, ProShares UltraShort Gold, ProShares Ultra Silver, ProShares UltraShort Silver, ProShares Ultra Euro, ProShares UltraShort Euro, ProShares Ultra Yen ProShares UltraShort Yen, ProShares Ultra VIX Short-Term Futures ETF, ProShares VIX Short-Term Futures ETF, ProShares Short VIX Short-Term Futures ETF, ProShares UltraShort VIX Short-Term Futures ETF, ProShares Ultra VIX Mid-Term Futures ETF, ProShares VIX Mid-Term Futures ETF, ProShares Short VIX Mid-Term Futures ETF and ProShares UltraShort VIX Mid-Term Futures ETF.

The Funds offer investors the opportunity to obtain leveraged, inverse or inverse leveraged exposure to a particular benchmark. The Funds include funds linked to futures-based commodity indexes (the Commodity Index Funds), particular commodities (the Commodity Funds) or particular currencies (the Currency Funds). ProShare Capital Management LLC serves as the Trust�� Sponsor, commodity pool operator and commodity trading advisor. Wilmington Trust Company is the sole Trustee of the Trust.

Dow Jones-UBS Commodity Index

ProShares Ultra DJ-UBS Commodity and ProShares UltraShort DJ-UBS Commodity are designed to track a multiple or an inverse multiple of the daily performance of the Dow Jones-UBS Commodity IndexSM. The Dow Jones-UBS Commodity IndexSM (the Dow Jones-UBS) is designed to be a highly liquid and diversified benchmark for the commodity futures market. It focuses to reflect the overall commodity sector by measuring the performance of commodity fu! tures contracts. The Dow Jones-UBS is a rolling index, which means that the Dow Jones-UBS does not take actual physical possession of any commodities; rather, it tracks a rolling futures position. An investor with a rolling futures position is able to avoid delivering (or taking delivery of) underlying physical commodities while maintaining exposure to those commodities. The roll for each Index component occurs over a period of five Dow Jones-UBS business days in certain months according to a pre-determined schedule. The exact roll methodology differs between certain commodities. The Index will reflect the performance of its underlying commodities, including roll costs, without regard to income earned on cash positions. The Dow Jones-UBS is consisted of eight different commodity sectors, such as petroleum, natural gas, livestock, grains, industrial metals, precious metals, softs and vegetable oils. These eight sectors track futures contracts prices of 19 specific commodities, such as natural gas, crude oil, unleaded gasoline, heating oil, live cattle, lean hogs, wheat, corn, soybeans, soybean oil, aluminum, copper, zinc, nickel, gold, silver, sugar, cotton and coffee. The Dow Jones-UBS is consisted of commodities traded on the United States exchanges, with the exception of aluminum, nickel and zinc, which trade on the London Metal Exchange.

Dow Jones-UBS Natural Gas Subindex

ProShares Ultra DJ-UBS Natural Gas and ProShares UltraShort DJ-UBS Natural Gas are designed to track twice (2x) or twice the inverse (-2x) of the daily performance of the Dow Jones-UBS Natural Gas SubindexSM, respectively The Dow Jones-UBS Natural Gas SubindexSM is intended to reflect the performance of a rolling position in natural gas futures contracts traded on the NYMEX without regard to income earned on cash positions. An investment in natural gas futures contracts may often perform very differently than the price of physical natural gas.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By MONEYMORNING]

  Split your capital in two halves. With one half, buy ProShares UltraShort Yen (NYSE Arca: YCS), and with other half, buy shares of AMLP, simple and clean.