Top 10 Life Sciences Companies To Watch For 2014

With the Federal Reserve standing pat this week, the S&P 500 index has reached another all-time high.

Yet this bull market is proving to be even more fertile for investors in small-cap and micro-cap stocks. Both the iShares Russell Microcap Index and the Russell 2000 Small Cap Index are outperforming the S&P 500 by a solid margin over the past two years.

With no end in sight to the bull market, there's no reason to stop focusing on these small companies at this juncture. If the economy can manage to build a head of steam in 2014 and 2015, then these small stocks should see even deeper investor interest.

Here are three stocks that all trade below $5 and sport market values below $500 million -- and are poised for solid upside if this rally continues.

1. Lionbridge Technologies (Nasdaq: LIOX) I took note of heavy insider buying at this language translation services firm back in July, and though shares are up nearly 10% since then, the company's outlook has brightened markedly. 

On the second-quarter conference call, management delivered its most upbeat discussion of business trends in several years, noting that Lionbridge is seeing an expansion in its relationship with Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT), the return of several other large tech clients that had dropped off in the past few years, and a rising order book with manufacturing and life sciences clients. 

Top 5 Restaurant Stocks To Buy Right Now: VIVUS Inc (VVUS)

VIVUS, Inc., incorporated on May 16, 1996, is a biopharmaceutical company. It commercializes and develops therapies to address unmet needs in obesity, sleep apnea, diabetes and sexual health. The Company's drug, Qsymia (phentermine and topiramate extended-release) was approved by the the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the treatment of obesity as an adjunct to a reduced-calorie diet and increased physical activity for chronic weight management in adult patients with an initial body mass index (BMI) of 30 or greater (obese), or 27 or greater (overweight) in the presence of at least one weight-related comorbidity, such as hypertension, type 2 diabetes mellitus or high cholesterol (dyslipidemia). Qsymia incorporates low doses of active ingredients from two previously approved drugs, phentermine and topiramate. It has completed Phase 2 clinical studies for Qsymia for the treatment of sleeps apnea and Qsymia for the treatment of type 2 diabetes. Its drug also includes STENDRA, or avanafil.

Qsymia for the treatment of obesity was approved as an adjunct to a reduced-calorie diet and increased physical activity for chronic weight management in adult patients with an initial BMI of 30 or greater (obese), or 27 or greater (overweight) in the presence of at least one weight-related comorbidity, such as hypertension, type 2 diabetes mellitus or high cholesterol (dyslipidemia). Qsymia incorporates low doses of active ingredients from two previously approved drugs, phentermine and topiramate.

The Company initially launched Qsymia for distribution to eligible patients through the home delivery networks of two certified pharmacies, CVS Pharmacy and Walgreens. Since then, it has expanded the distribution of Qsymia to include the home delivery networks of Express Scripts, Wal-Mart Pharmacy and, for its members only, Kaiser Permanente. Clinical studies of topiramate, a component of Qsymia, in type 2 diabetics resulted in a clinically reduction of hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c). The! Company's drug, STENDRA (avanafil), is an oral PDE5 inhibitor the Company has licensed from Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma Corporation (MTPC).

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Brian Orelli]

  VIVUS (NASDAQ: VVUS  ) and Arena Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: ARNA  ) had better check their rearview mirror because Novo Nordisk (NYSE: NVO  ) looks ready to submit a new obesity drug to the Food and Drug Administration around the end of the year.

• [By Sean Williams]

  The third eating disorder is binge-eating disorder, which is characterized by regularly consuming large quantities of food, which often results in excessive weight gain. Even the people who recognize these urges are wrong can't stop themselves from overeating. As with the other eating disorders, talk therapy is an important aspect of treatment, but medication can also play a crucial role. Antidepressants are a commonly prescribed tool used to improve a patient's mind-set, but I could see chronic weight-management drugs such as Arena Pharmaceuticals' (NASDAQ: ARNA  ) Belviq and VIVUS' (NASDAQ: VVUS  ) Qsymia potentially playing a role in treating binge-eating disorders in the future.

• [By Bryan Murphy]

  This is NOT a judgment call on the drug. This isn't a judgment call on the company either. This is a judgment call on how emotional and distracted traders can get from time to time, and we only have to look at Antares Pharma Inc. (NASDAQ:ATRS), Avanir Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ:AVNR), and VIVUS, Inc. (NASDAQ:VVUS) to see how drinking the proverbial Kool-Aid ultimately punished anyone who bought rather than sold ATRS, VVUS, and AVNR right when the news seemed to incredibly encouraging.

Top 10 Life Sciences Companies To Watch For 2014: Recon Technology Ltd.(RCON)

Recon Technology, Ltd. provides hardware, software, and on-site services to companies in the petroleum mining and extraction industry in the People?s Republic of China. The company offers equipment, tools, and other hardware related to oilfield production and management; and develop and sell industrial automation control and information solutions. Its oil and gas production and transportation equipment comprise heating furnaces, burners, and separators. Recon Technology, Ltd.?s oil and gas development tools and equipment include packers of fracturing, production packers, and water injection packers; and oil and gas production increasing techniques consist of fissure shaper technique to increase perforation depth, sand prevention in oil and water well technique, water locating and plugging technique, fracture acidizing technique, and electronic broken-down service. Its automation systems and services comprise pumping unit controllers that monitors the pumping units and co llects data for load, pressure, voltage, startup, and shutdown control; RTU for monitoring natural gas wells and collecting gas well pressure data; wireless dynamometer and wireless pressure gauge; electric multi-way valve for oilfield metering station flow control; and natural gas flow computer system to measure the flow. The company?s automation systems and services also consist of Recon SCADA oilfield monitor and data acquisition system for supervision and data collection; EPC service of pipeline SCADA system for pipeline monitoring and data acquisition; EPC service of oil and gas wells SCADA system for monitoring and data acquisition of oil, and natural gas wells; EPC service of oilfield video surveillance and control system to control the oil and gas wellhead area and measure station area; and technique service for digital oilfield transformation. Recon Technology, Ltd. was incorporated in 2007 and is headquartered in Beijing, the People?s Republic of China.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By James E. Brumley]

  Anybody who was lucky enough to get into a Recon Technology, Ltd. (NASDAQ:RCON) position before October 7th, then congratulations - you're up big-time. Now get out. Instead, a better use of that capital is Mitek Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:MITK). While RCON is overbought and ripe for a pullback, MITK is itching to stage a breakout.

Top 10 Life Sciences Companies To Watch For 2014: HMS Holdings Corp (HMSY)

HMS Holdings Corp. provides cost containment, coordination of benefits, and program integrity services. The company?s services enable clients to recover amounts due from liable third parties, reduce fraud, and ensure regulatory compliance. Its coordination of benefits services route claims paid by a government program to the liable third party, which reimburses the government payor; cost avoidance services provide validated insurance coverage information that is used by government payors to reject claims that are the responsibility of a third party; and program integrity services are designed to identify payment errors and recover the erroneous payments. The company also offers audit programs, program design, benefit management, and general and pharmacy systems consulting services. It serves state Medicaid agencies, Medicaid and Medicare managed care plans, government and private self-funded employers, pharmacy benefit managers, child support agencies, the Veterans Health Administration, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, commercial plans, healthcare payors and sponsors, business outsourcing and technology firms, and government. The company was founded in 1974 and is headquartered in New York, New York.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Seth Jayson]

  HMS Holdings (Nasdaq: HMSY  ) is expected to report Q2 earnings on July 26. Here's what Wall Street wants to see:

  The 10-second takeaway
  Comparing the upcoming quarter to the prior-year quarter, average analyst estimates predict HMS Holdings's revenues will increase 3.0% and EPS will shrink -8.7%.

Top 10 Life Sciences Companies To Watch For 2014: Rudolph Technologies Inc.(RTEC)

Rudolph Technologies, Inc. designs, develops, manufactures, and sells process control defect inspection, metrology, and process control software systems to microelectronics device manufacturers. The company provides yield management solutions for use in wafer processing and final manufacturing through a range of standalone systems for macro-defect inspection, test systems, and transparent and opaque thin film measurements. It also offers a range of process control software solutions for semiconductor, solar, and LED manufacturing. It provides products for various applications in the areas of macro-defect detection and classification, diffusion, etch, lithography, CVD, PVD, and CMP. The company sells its products and solutions to logic, memory, data storage, and application-specific integrated circuit device manufacturers. It sells its products in the United States, Taiwan, China, Singapore, South Korea, Japan, and Europe. The company was founded in 1940 and is based in Fla nders, New Jersey.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By John Emerson]

  Orbotech (ORBK) and Rudolph Technologies (RTEC) Sizable Net-Nets in the AOI Sector

  As noted previously, I rode the elevator up and then back down on Camtek (CAMT), a tiny Israeli automated optical inspection (AOI) company. By late 2008 the company had fallen to below $1 per share. Both of Camtek�� larger rivals, RTEC and ORBK, had dropped to absurdly low levels by November 2008. I used the opportunity to switch out of CAMT and some of my other losing propositions in favor of these superior companies. In the process, I created a large amount of tax loss carry-forwards which would allow me to minimize my future taxation when I decided to sell these cyclical entities.

• [By John Emerson]

  In case you are wondering, I only made peanuts on what should have been a monumental success. You see I never sold a share of Camtek until the autumn of 2008. I exchanged them for shares in their arch rivals Orbitech (OBRK) and Rudolph (RTEC) which had become large net/net propositions (more on those purchases of ORBK and RTEC later in the series).

• [By Seth Jayson]

  Basic guidelines
  In this series, I examine inventory using a simple rule of thumb: Inventory increases ought to roughly parallel revenue increases. If inventory bloats more quickly than sales grow, this might be a sign that expected sales haven't materialized. Is the current inventory situation at Rudolph Technologies (Nasdaq: RTEC  ) out of line? To figure that out, start by comparing the company's inventory growth to sales growth. How is Rudolph Technologies doing by this quick checkup? At first glance, not so great. Trailing-12-month revenue increased 17.6%, and inventory increased 32.2%. Comparing the latest quarter to the prior-year quarter, the story looks potentially problematic. Revenue dropped 8.9%, and inventory grew 32.2%. Over the sequential quarterly period, the trend looks worrisome. Revenue dropped 23.3%, and inventory grew 10.8%.

Top 10 Life Sciences Companies To Watch For 2014: Clearfield Inc.(CLFD)

Clearfield, Inc. offers telecommunications equipment and products in the United States. It engages in the design and manufacture of standard and custom connectivity products, such as fiber distribution systems, optical components, outside plant cabinets, and fiber and copper cable assemblies. The company?s products include Clearview cassettes; Clearview xPAK to land small port count fiber terminations and optical components; Fieldsmart fiber crossover distribution systems that provide fiber management modularity and scalability across the fiber network; FieldSmart fiber scalability center, a modular and scalable outside plant cabinet, which allow users to align their capital equipment expense with subscriber revenue; and FieldSmart fiber delivery point product line for the access network that incorporates the delivery of fiber connectivity to the neighborhood or business district. It also offers FieldSmart Small Count Delivery, a series of enclosure systems and wall-mount enclosures optimized for environments, such as cell backhaul, business class service delivery, node segmentation, and fiber exhaust in a field pedestal, sub-station turn-up, or fiber-to-the-desk deployment; and CraftSmart, a line of optical protection field enclosures used in the fiber industry for the optimization of fiber protection and storage. In addition, the company packages optical components for signal coupling, splitting, termination, multiplexing, demultiplexing, and attenuation for a seamless integration within its fiber management platform. It serves communication service providers consisting of fiber-to-the-premises; large enterprises; and original equipment manufacturer markets through various sales channels comprising direct to customers, distribution partners, and original equipment suppliers. The company was formerly known as APA Enterprises, Inc. and changed its name to Clearfield, Inc. in January 2008. The company was founded in 1979 and is headquartered in Plymouth, Minnesota.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By GuruFocus]

  George Soros (Trades, Portfolio) just reported his first quarter portfolio. He buys Citrix Systems Inc, Baker Hughes Inc, Comcast Corp, Spansion Inc, etc during the 3-months ended 03/31/2014, according to the most recent filings of his investment company, Soros Fund Management LLC. As of 03/31/2014, Soros Fund Management LLC owns 305 stocks with a total value of $10.1 billion. These are the details of the buys and sells.New Purchases: BHI, CODE, CTRP, CLI, AVB, COMM, CNQ, AGO, AUY, ATML, ASH, BXMT, CSTM, AEM, CMA, ARE, CHKP, AUQ, BEAV, CX, ADSK, AALCP, BLK, AIG, BIIB, ADEP, AMRI, ARWR, ATHX, BALT, BCRX, BEAT, CFX, CLFD, CUR, CODE,Added Positions: CTXS, CMCSA, CNP, ALTR, BRCD, CBS, CRM, CHTR, CCJ, CIEN, BIDU, ALLE, ABT, CDNS, ACT,Reduced Positions: AAPL, CCI, AMT, ABBV, AAL, BITA, AL, ANGI, ARIA, CBST, BA, BIRT, EXAR,Sold Out: C, BAC, CRI, AMZN, AGN, CF, BRCM, COTY, BMY, AMCX, CAR, A, ADBE, AFL,For the details of George Soros (Trades, Portfolio)'s stock buys and sells, go to http://www.gurufocus.com/StockBuy.php?GuruName=George+SorosThis is the sector weightings of his portfolio:Technology18.9%Energy14%Healthcare8.3%Consumer Defensive8.2%Communication Services8.1%Consumer Cyclical5.4%Industrials5.1%Basic Materials4.9%Financial Services2.5%Real Estate1.9%Utilities0.5%These are the top 5 holdings of George Soros (Trades, Portfolio)1. Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd (TEVA) - 10,310,041 shares, 5.4% of the total portfolio. Shares added by 10.67%2. Herbalife Ltd (HLF) - 4,901,337 shares, 2.8% of the total portfolio. Shares added by 52.9%3. EQT Corp (EQT) - 2,573,814 shares, 2.5% of the total portfolio. Shares added by 3.27%4. Adecoagro SA (AGRO) - 25,915,076 shares, 2.1% of the total portfolio.5. Halliburton Co (HAL) - 3,596,353 shares, 2.1% of the total portfolio. Shares reduced by 20.73%New Purchase: Baker Hughes Inc (BHI)George Soros (Trades, Portfolio) initiated holdings in Baker Hughes Inc. His purchase prices were between $51.82 and $65.27, with an estimated

Top 10 Life Sciences Companies To Watch For 2014: Nuveen Virginia Premium Income Municipal Fund (NPV)

Nuveen Virginia Premium Income Municipal Fund is a closed-ended fixed income mutual fund launched by Nuveen Investments, Inc. The fund is co-managed by Nuveen Fund Advisors, Inc. and Nuveen Asset Management, LLC. It invests in the fixed income markets of Virginia. The fund invests primarily in municipal securities rated Baa/BBB or better. It invests in securities that provide income exempt from federal and Virginia income tax. The fund employs fundamental analysis with bottom-up stock picking approach to create its portfolio. It benchmarks the performance of its portfolio against the S&P National Municipal Bond Index and the S&P Virginia Municipal Bond Index. Nuveen Virginia Premium Income Municipal Fund was formed on January 12, 1993 and is domiciled in the United States.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Chuck Carnevale]

  Moreover, at this point I would like to add that the real meaning of forecasting future earnings is so we can determine what the size and amount of the future cash flows that a stock under consideration might be capable of generating for us. This is important, because assessing the net present value of our expected future income stream, is at the heart of determining fair value (intrinsic value). Calculating net present value (NPV) is functionally-related to today's wide utilization of discounted cash flow (DCF) analysis as a stock selection tool. I will elaborate more on this important metric in part B of this article.

Top 10 Life Sciences Companies To Watch For 2014: Dex Media Inc (DXM)

Dex Media, Inc., incorporated on August 17, 2012, is a provider of social, local and mobile marketing solutions for local businesses. The Company provides marketing solutions that include Websites, print, mobile, search engine and social media solutions. The Company�� brands include Dex One and SuperMedia. Through both brands, it delivers a range of social, mobile, and print solutions.

The Company's consumer services include the Dex Knows.com and Superpages.com online and mobile search portals and applications and local print directories. On April 30, 2013, Dex One Corporation and SuperMedia Inc. announced the completion of their merger, creating Dex Media, Inc.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Roberto Pedone]

  Dex Media (DXM) is a provider of marketing solutions that include Web sites, print, mobile, search engine and social media solutions for local businesses, through its Dex One and SuperMedia Marketing Consultants. This stock closed up 5.6% at $10.25 in Thursday's trading session.

  Thursday's Volume: 471,000
  
  Three-Month Average Volume: 280,277
  
  Volume % Change: 105%

  From a technical perspective, DXM spiked sharply higher here right above some near-term support at $9 with above-average volume. This stock has been downtrending badly for the last four months, with shares plunging lower from its low of $23.86 to its recent low of $8.85. During that move, shares of DXM have been consistently making lower highs and lower lows, which is bearish technical price action. That said, shares of DXM have started to see its downside volatility stop as the stock has rebound off oversold levels. This stock got so oversold that its relative strength index reading recently dipped below 20. Shares of DXM are now starting to move within range of triggering a big breakout trade. That trade will hit if DXM manages to take out its 200-day moving average at $11.61 with high volume.

  Traders should now look for long-biased trades in DXM as long as it's trending above some key near-term support levels at $9 or $8.85 and then once it sustains a move or close above Thursday's high at $10.51 and its 200-day at $11.61 with volume that's near or above 280,277 shares. If that breakout hits soon, then DXM will set up to re-test or possibly take out its 50-day moving average of $13.72.

• [By Ben Levisohn]

  Since the last conference, for every winning pick like Akamai Technolgies (AKAM)–which gained 19% after being picked by Blue Harbour Group’s Clifton Robbins–or Digital Realty Trust (DLR)–which rose fell 27.5% after being picked as a short by Jonathon Jacobson of Highfields Capital Management–there’s been a stinker like Chipotle Mexican Grill�(CMG)–which gained 29% after Double Line’s Jeffrey Gundlach recommended shorting it–or Dex Media (DXM)–which advanced 53.7% after Hayman Capital’s Kyle Bass recommended selling. In fact, the average pick lost 3.8%, even as the S&P 500 gained 15.2%.