10 Best Rising Stocks To Invest In 2014

Activision Blizzard (NASDAQ: ATVI  ) is under attack.

Yes, the video-game company reported surprisingly strong sales and revenue for the first three months of the year. It even raised its full-year guidance on both counts. But shares still fell by more than 6% after management warned that the holiday season could be "more challenging than our earlier view."

Activision does have plenty to worry about. Starting in the fall, it will have to fend off major challenges against two of its tentpole franchises.�

Infinite competition
The attack: First up will be a huge fight with Disney (NYSE: DIS  ) . The House of Mouse is cannonballing into the market that Activision created with its Skylanders console franchise. Disney will launch its competing title, Infinity, in August, and the stakes couldn't be higher. Helped along by toy sales that complement the gameplay, Skylanders has been the best-selling game in North America and Europe so far this year. Disney is aiming to grab some of that coin and is ready to turn the full force of its marketing machine to the task.

Hot Financial Companies For 2015: Fortis Inc (FRTSF.PK)

Fortis Inc. (Fortis) is an investor-owned gas and electric distribution utility in Canada. Its regulated utilities account for 90 % of total assets and serve customers across Canada and in New York State and the Caribbean. Fortis owns non-regulated hydroelectric generation assets in Canada, Belize and Upstate New York. The Company's non-utility investments are comprised of hotels and commercial real estate in Canada and petroleum supply operations in the Mid-Atlantic Region of the United States. Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Markus Aarnio]

  Emera's competitors include Northland Power (NPIFF.PK), Fortis (FRTSF.PK), and Atlantic Power (AT). Northland Power has seen insider buying in August and has a dividend yield of 7.6%. Fortis has seen both insider buying and insider selling in August. Fortis has a dividend yield of 4.1%. Atlantic Power saw insider buying last time in April. Atlantic Power has a dividend yield of 9.4%.

10 Best Rising Stocks To Invest In 2014: Spdr Dj Wilshire Small Cap Etf (SLY)

SPDR DJ Wilshire Small Cap ETF (the Fund), formerly streetTRACKS DJ Wilshire Small Cap ETF, seeks to replicate as closely as possible the total return of the Dow Jones Wilshire Small Cap Index (the Index). The Index is a float-adjusted market capitalization weighted index that reflects the shares of securities of the small-cap portion of the Dow Jones Wilshire 5000 Composite Index actually available to investors in the marketplace. The Index includes the components ranked 751 to 2,500 by full market capitalization. The Index consists of common stocks selected for their capitalization. The composition of the Index is reviewed semiannually in March and December. Shares and float factors of the Index are updated on a quarterly basis.

The Fund utilizes a passive or indexing approach and attempts to approximate the investment performance of its Index, by investing in a portfolio of stocks intended to replicate the Index. The Fund�� investment manager is SSgA Funds Management, Inc.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Will Ashworth]

  By the time the dust settled in 2013, small caps won the day (well, year) — the SPDR S&P SmallCap 600 (SLY) had outperformed the SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY) by almost 9 percentage points.

10 Best Rising Stocks To Invest In 2014: Nova Measuring Instruments Ltd. (NVMI)

Nova Measuring Instruments Ltd., together with its subsidiaries, designs, develops, produces, and sells integrated process control metrology systems and stand-alone metrology solutions used in the manufacturing process of semiconductors. Its metrology systems measure various thin film properties and critical circuit dimensions during various steps in the semiconductor manufacturing process. The company provides metrology systems for thin film measurement that is used in chemical mechanical polishing and chemical vapor deposition applications; optical CD and metal line thickness systems for use in post-copper chemical mechanical polishing applications; and optical critical dimension systems for lithography and etches applications. It also offers integrated thickness monitoring systems for chemical mechanical polishing process control that enable wafer-to-wafer closed loop control. The company serves various sectors of the integrated circuit manufacturing industry, including logic, ASIC, foundries, and memory manufactures, as well as process equipment manufacturers. Instruments Ltd. sells its products in the United States, Europe, Japan, and rest of the Asia Pacific region. The company was founded in 1993 and is headquartered in Rehovot, Israel.

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 Nova Measuring Instruments (Nasdaq: NVMI  ) , whose recent revenue and earnings are plotted below.

10 Best Rising Stocks To Invest In 2014: Axiall Corp (AXLL)

Axiall Corporation (Axiall), formerly Georgia Gulf Corporation, incorporated on April 16, 1984, is a manufacturer and an international marketer of chlorovinyl and aromatic chemicals and also manufacture and market vinyl-based building and home improvement products. The Company operates in three business segments: Chlorovinyls segment consists of two product groups: Electrovinyls products, which are composed of chlorine, caustic soda, ethylene dichloride (EDC), vinyl chloride monomer (VCM), and vinyl resins; and Compound products, which are composed of vinyl compounds, compound additives and plasticizers; Building Products segment consists of two primary product groups: Window and Door Profiles and Mouldings, and Outdoor Building Products, which consists of siding, pipe and pipe fittings and deck, fence and rail products, and Aromatics segment also contains two commodity chemical product groups: cumene; and phenol and acetone. In January 2013, the combined company formed by uniting Georgia Gulf with PPG's former commodity chemicals business is named Axiall Corporation.

Chlorovinyls segment

The chlorovinyls segment consists of an integrated chain of products, which including chlor-alkali and derivative products (chlorine, caustic soda, vinyl chloride monomer (VCM), vinyl resins, ethylene dichloride, chlorinated solvents, calcium hypochlorite, hydrochloric acid and phosgene derivatives and compound products (vinyl compounds and compound additives and plasticizers). In North America, the Company is one of the producers of VCM, vinyl resins, and vinyl compounds.

During the year ended December 31, 2012, approximately 45%t of its vinyl resins production was sold into the United States and Canadian merchant markets where its vinyl resins were used in a variety of flexible and rigid vinyl end-use applications. During 2012, the largest end-uses of its products were for pipe and pipe fittings, siding, extruded sheet and film and window profiles. Approximately 24% of its pro! duction was sold into the export market, and approximately 31% of its vinyl resins were used internally in the manufacture of its vinyl compounds and vinyl building products. During 2012, the Company used substantially all of its VCM production in the manufacture of vinyl resins in its PVC manufacturing operations. The Company sells all of its caustic soda to customers domestically and overseas in numerous industries, with the pulp and paper, chemical and alumina industries constituting its markets. Other markets for its caustic soda include soap and detergents and the water treatment industries.

Vinyl compounds are highly customized formulations that offer specific end-use properties based on customer-determined manufacturing specifications that enable its customers to utilize them directly in their manufacturing processes to fabricate their finished products. The Company produces flexible and rigid compounds, which are used in many different applications, including wire and cable insulation and jacketing, electrical outlet boxes and pipe fittings, window and furniture profiles and food-grade and general-purpose bottles. It also supplies chlorinated vinyl compounds (CPVC), to the extrusion and injection molding markets, mainly for production of hot water pipe and pipe fittings. The Company produces lubricants, stabilizers, impact modifiers and process aids used in the production of compounds, and which are part of the typical compound formulations. The majority of its additives and plasticizers are consumed internally.

Building Products Segment

The Window and Door Profiles and Mouldings Products have a level of customization based on customer specifications, whereas Outdoor Building Products are based more on industry standards. The Company manufactures and extrude vinyl window profiles, including frames, sashes, trim and other components, as well as vinyl patio door components and fabricated patio doors, which are sold primarily to window and door fabricators. I! ts sales ! are primarily to the custom segment of the vinyl window profile market with the profile design customized to a window fabricator's specific requirements. It manufactures and markets extruded decorative mouldings and millwork. Its decorative trim products are used for interior mouldings, such as crown, base and chair rail. For exterior mouldings, its products are used in applications, such as brick mouldings, and as components used in the fabrication of doors, windows and spas. This product line includes a series of offerings, such as bendable trim and paintable/stainable trim.

The Company�� outdoor building products (OBP) include siding; pipe and pipe fittings; and deck, fence, and rail. It manufactures vinyl siding, and it also offers a range of accessories, including vinyl soffit, aluminum soffit, fascia and trim and molded vent mounts and exterior shutters. These additional product offerings to its existing offerings include rich, dark, color-fast shades, as well as a siding system, which enables siding panels to withstand harsh wind conditions. It manufactures pipe and pipe fittings for the municipal and electrical markets, as well as pipe for plumbing applications. Its municipal pipe and pipe fittings product lines are used in potable water applications, as well as in storm and sewer applications. Its plumbing lines are used in residential and industrial applications to move storm and sanitary wastewater from the building to the municipal sewer at the property line. This product line is focused on at drain, waste and vent applications. Electrical, pipe, conduit and fittings are available in a range of sizes and configurations, to meet the needs of both commercial and residential applications.

The Company manufactures vinyl deck products that are sold by distributors and used primarily by professionally installed market segments. The Company�� deck product lines are positioned as a lower-maintenance alternative to conventional wood products.

Aromatics Seg! ment

The aromatics segment is integrated and consists of cumene and phenol/acetone products. Phenol/acetone products are co-products made from cumene in the same production process. The Company�� aromatic products are primarily commodity based products. It operates cumene plant located in Pasadena, Texas. About 28 % of its cumene was consumed internally, during 2012, to produce phenol and acetone. Cumene is used as an intermediate to make phenol and acetone and specialty chemicals and can be sold as an additive for gasoline blending.

Phenol is sold to a base of customers who are producers of a range of phenolic resins, engineering plastics and specialty chemicals. Phenolic resins are used as adhesives for wood products, such as plywood and Oriented Strand Board (OSB). Engineering plastics are used in compact discs, digital video discs, automobiles, household appliances, electronics and protective coating applications. It also sells phenol for use in insulation, electrical parts, oil additives and chemical intermediates. Acetone is a chemical used primarily in the production of acrylic resins, engineering plastics and industrial solvents. The Company sells the majority of its acetone into the acrylic resins market, where it is used in the manufacture of various plastics and coatings used for signage, automotive parts, household appliances, paints and industrial coatings. Other uses range from solvents for automotive and industrial applications to pharmaceuticals and cosmetics.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Jake L'Ecuyer]

  Leading and Lagging Sectors
  In trading on Thursday, basic materials shares were relative leaders, up on the day by about 1.20 percent. Among the leading sector stocks, gains came from Axiall (NYSE: AXLL), Materion (NYSE: MTRN), Huntsman (NYSE: HUN) and Joy Global (NYSE: JOY).

10 Best Rising Stocks To Invest In 2014: Iridium Communications Inc(IRDM)

Iridium Communications Inc. provides mobile voice and data communications services through satellites to businesses, the U.S. and foreign governments, non-governmental organizations, and consumers worldwide. It offers post-paid mobile voice and data satellite communications services; prepaid mobile voice satellite communications services; high-speed data services; machine-to-machine services for sending and receiving data from one location to other; and ancillary services, including inbound connections from the public switched telephone networks, SMS, SIM, activation, customer reactivation, and other peripheral services to commercial customers. The company also offers traditional voice, netted voice, data, messaging, and paging services, as well as maintenance services for the DoD?s dedicated gateway; and offers voice and data solutions, including personnel tracking devices; over-the-horizon aircraft communications applications; submarine communications applications; spec ialized communications solutions for high-value individuals; asset tracking devices for equipment, vehicles, and aircraft; and secure mobile communications and data devices for the military and intelligence community, such as secure satellite handsets to U.S. government customers. In addition, it manufactures and sells satellite handsets, voice and data modems, high-speed data devices, and machine-to-machine data devices. Further, the company offers accessories for its devices, including holsters, earbuds, portable auxiliary antennas, antenna adaptors, USB data cables, and charging units. Additionally, it provides engineering and support services to commercial and government customers. The company sells products and services to commercial end-users through service providers, value-added resellers, and value-added manufacturers. As of March 31, 2011, it had approximately 447,000 billable subscribers. The company was founded in 2000 and is headquartered in McLean, Virginia.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By John Udovich]

  The Iridium Communications, Inc. (NASDAQ: IRDM) fiasco about a decade ago might offer investors a cautionary tale about getting into small cap in-flight wifi stock Gogo, Inc. (NASDAQ: GOGO) too soon. Moreover, Gogo, Inc. just had an IPO, but Mad Money’s Cramer recently described that IPO as “horrible” and that "it's still bad” plus there are some issues with the company's in-flight wifi service itself.

• [By Jake L'Ecuyer]

  Telecommunications services sector gained 0.12 percent in the US market today. Among the sector stocks,Iridium Communications (NASDAQ: IRDM) was down more than 4.5 percent, while America Movil S.A.B. de C.V. (NYSE: AMX) tumbled around 2.3 percent.

10 Best Rising Stocks To Invest In 2014: Hexcel Corp (HXL)

Hexcel Corporation (Hexcel), incorporated in 1948, is a composites company. The Company develops, manufactures and markets composites, including carbon fibers, reinforcements, prepregs, honeycomb, matrix systems, adhesives and composite structures, for use in Commercial Aerospace, Space and Defense, and Industrial Applications. Its products are used in a variety of end applications, such as commercial and military aircraft, space launch vehicles and satellites, wind turbine blades, automotive, bikes, skis and a variety of other industrial applications. Hexcel has two segments: Composite Materials and Engineered Products. The Composite Materials consists of carbon fiber, reinforcements for composites, honeycomb core and matrix product lines. The Engineered Products consists of composite structures and specially machined honeycomb product lines.

Composite Materials

The Composite Materials segment manufactures and markets carbon fibers, fabrics and specialty reinforcements, prepregs, structural adhesives, honeycomb, composite panels, molding compounds, polyurethane systems and laminates that are incorporated into many applications, including military and commercial aircraft, wind turbine blades, recreational products and other industrial applications. HexTow carbon fibers are manufactured for sale to third-party customers, as well as for its own use in manufacturing certain reinforcements and composite materials. Carbon fibers are woven into carbon fabrics, used as reinforcement in conjunction with a resin matrix to produce pre-impregnated composite materials. Carbon fibers is also used in filament winding, hand layup, automatic tape layup and advanced fiber placement to produce finished composite components. Its carbon fibers��product applications include structural components for commercial and military aircraft, space launch vehicles, and certain other applications, such as recreational and industrial equipment.

Industrial fabrics and specialty reinforcements are ma! de from a variety of fibers, including carbon, aramid and other polymers, several types of fiberglass, quartz, ceramic and other specialty fibers. These reinforcements are used in the production of prepregs and other matrix materials used in primary and secondary structural aerospace applications, such as wing components, horizontal and vertical stabilizer components, fairings, radomes and engine nacelles, as well as overhead storage bins and other interior components. Hexcel�� reinforcements are also used in the manufacture of a variety of industrial and recreational products, such as wind energy blades, automotive components, boats, surfboards, skis and other sporting goods equipment.

HexPly prepregs are manufactured for sale to third-party customers and for internal use by its engineered products segment in manufacturing composite laminates and monolithic structures, including finished components for aircraft structures and interiors. Prepregs are manufactured by combining reinforcement fabrics or unidirectional fibers with a resin matrix to form a composite material with structural properties not present in either of the constituent materials. Reinforcement fabrics used in the manufacture of prepregs include glass, carbon, aramid, quartz, ceramic and other specialty reinforcements. Resin matrices include bismaleimide, cyanate ester, epoxy, phenolic, polyester, polyimide and other specialty resins.

Other fiber reinforced matrix developments include HexMC, a form of quasi-isotropic carbon fiber prepreg that enables small to medium sized composite components to be mass produced. HexTOOL is a specialized form of HexMC for use in the construction of high temperature composite tooling. HexFIT film infusion material is a product that combines resin films and dry fiber reinforcements in production and enables the manufacture of contoured composite structures, such as wind turbine blades.

Polymer matrix materials are sold in bulk and film form for use in direct pro! cess manu! facturing of composite parts. Resins can be combined with fiber reinforcements in manufacturing processes, such as resin transfer molding (RTM), resin film infusion (RFI) or vacuum assisted resin transfer molding (VARTM) to produce composite components for both aerospace and industrial applications. Hexcel manufactures and markets a range of Redux film and paste adhesives. These structural adhesives, which bond metal to metal and composites and honeycomb structures, are used in the aerospace industry and for many industrial applications.

HexWeb honeycomb is a cellular structure consisting of nested hexagonal cells. The product is similar in appearance to a cross-sectional slice of a beehive. It can also be manufactured in asymmetric cell configurations for more specialized applications. Honeycomb is primarily used as a lightweight core material and acts as an energy absorber. When sandwiched between composite or metallic facing skins, honeycomb increases the stiffness of the structure, while adding very little weight. The Company produces honeycomb from a number of metallic and non-metallic materials. Its metallic honeycomb is made from aluminum and is available in a selection of alloys, cell sizes and dimensions. Non-metallic materials used in the manufacture of honeycomb include fiberglass, carbon fiber, thermoplastics, non-flammable aramid papers, aramid fiber and other specialty materials. During the year ended December 31, 2011, revenues for the Composite Materials segment to third-party customers represented approximately 77% of its total revenues.

Engineered Products

The Engineered Products segment manufactures and markets composite structures and precision machined honeycomb parts for use in the aerospace industry. Composite structures are manufactured from a variety of composite and other materials, including prepregs, honeycomb, structural adhesives and advanced molding materials, using such manufacturing processes, as autoclave processing, multi-axis nu! merically! controlled machining, heat forming, compression molding and other composite manufacturing techniques. During 2011, revenues for the Engineered Products segment to third-party customers represented approximately 23% of its total revenues. The Engineered Products business unit has a 50% ownership interest in a Malaysian joint venture, Asian Composites Manufacturing Sdn. Bhd.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By MONEYMORNING.COM]

  There's also the advanced materials firm Hexcel Corp. (NYSE: HXL), which supplies honeycomb composites to some of the biggest names in the aerospace industry.

10 Best Rising Stocks To Invest In 2014: National Instruments Corporation(NATI)

National Instruments Corporation designs, manufactures, and sells measurement and automation products to create virtual instrumentation systems for general, commercial, industrial, and scientific applications worldwide. The company sells or licenses application software and modular hardware that combines with industry-standard computers, networks, and third party devices to create measurement, automation, and embedded systems. Its system design software products include LabVIEW to design custom virtual instruments for scientists and engineers and provide data analysis, visualization, and sharing features; LabVIEW Real-Time and LabVIEW FPGA, which are modular software add-ons enabling users to configure their application programs and to build custom hardware devices for measurement or control protocols. The company also offers LabWindows/CVI programming environment for creating test and control applications; and Measurement Studio, which consists of measurement and automati on add-on libraries and additional tools for programmers. Its application software products include NI TestStand, a test management environment; NI VeriStand, a ready-to-use software environment; NI DIAdem that offers configuration-based technical data management, analysis, and report generation tools; and NI Multisim, which offers circuit design technology. In addition, the company provides hardware products and related driver software comprising data acquisition hardware/driver software, PXI modular instrumentation platform, modular instruments, machine vision/image acquisition, motion control, NI RIO hardware platform, industrial communications interfaces, GPIB interfaces/driver software, and VXI controllers/driver software. Further, it offers system configuration and deployment, calibration, warranty and repair, and customer training services, as well as software maintenance and technical support. National Instruments Corporation was founded in 1976 and is headquartered in Austin, Texas.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Eric Volkman]

  National Instruments (NASDAQ: NATI  ) has elected to maintain its dividend. The company declared a distribution of $0.14 per share, to be paid on Sept. 3 to shareholders of record as of Aug. 12. That amount matches each of the company's previous six distributions, the most recent of which was paid at the beginning of June. Before that, National Instruments handed out $0.10 per share.

• [By Brian Pacampara]

  What: Shares of scientific tools manufacturer National Instruments (NASDAQ: NATI  ) sank 13% today after its quarterly results and guidance missed Wall Street expectations. �