Top 10 Rising Stocks To Watch For 2014

U.S. crude oil supplies hit record highs last week, according to an Energy Information Administration (EIA) report (link opens in PDF) released today.

Crude oil inventories jumped 6.7 million barrels to 395.3 million barrels total for the week ending April 26. After rising 0.9 million barrels the previous week, this newest reading represents the highest crude oil inventory level ever, according to The Wall Street Journal. This most recent increase originated from a double-whammy 602,000-barrel-per-day (bpd) import increase, as well as continued weak refinery output.

Source: eia.gov.

Total motor gasoline inventories fell 1.8 million barrels after dropping 3.9 million barrels�the previous week. Contrary to oil inventories, gasoline supplies remain "in the middle of the average range," according to the EIA. Prices at the pump dropped for the ninth consecutive week, down $0.016 to reach a national average of $3.52 per gallon. Compared to the same week last year, gas prices are $0.31 cheaper per gallon.

Top Recreation Stocks To Buy For 2015: Restoration Hardware Holdings Inc (RH)

Restoration Hardware Holdings, Inc. (Restoration Hardware Holdings), incorporated on August 18, 2011, is a holding company. The Company is merchants of home furnishings. Restoration Hardware Holdings offers merchandise assortments across a number of categories, including furniture, lighting, textiles, bath ware, decor, outdoor, garden, and baby and child products. The Company�� business is integrated across its multiple channels of distribution, consists of its stores, catalogs and Websites. As of July 28, 2012, the Company�� operated a total of 73 retail stores, consisted of 71 Galleries and two full line Design Galleries, and 10 outlet stores throughout the United States and Canada. RH is a brand in the home furnishings. During the fiscal year ended January 28, 2012 (fiscal 2011), the Company opened five stores and closed 22 stores. In fiscal 2011, the Company distributed approximately 26.1 million catalogs, and its Websites logged over 14.3 million visits.

Restoration Hardware Holdings operates a Website for its Baby & Child brand at www.rhbabyandchild.com. The Company opened its two full line Design Galleries in Los Angeles in, June 2011 and Houston in November 2011. In May 2011, the Company launched catalog applications for Apple�� iPad and iPhone that enable customers to view and purchase its product assortment. Restoration Hardware Holdings operates three store types: the Company's full line Design Gallery format, approximately between 22,000 and 28,000 gross square feet; its Gallery format of approximately 7,000-15,000 gross square feet, and its Baby & Child Gallery format of approximately 2,000-3,000 gross square feet.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Ben Levisohn]

  Can anything restore Restoration Hardware’s (RH) stock price following its big after-hours drop?

  After the close today, Restoration Hardware reported earnings of 28 cents a share, beating forecasts for 28 cents. The home-furnishing company also raised its full-year guidance to a range of $1.71 to $1.74, above its previous forecast for $1.65 to $1.70.

  All that good news, however, was rendered, if not meaningless, then at least less relevant by the announcement that co-CEO Carlos Alberini would be leaving the company to join Lucky Brand.

  Shares of Restoration Hardware have dropped 13% to $56.91 in after-hours trading. It had gained 94% so far this year.

• [By Brian Nichols]

  Restoration Hardware (RH) was Barron's latest weekend victim. To me, Barron's bearish take is reminiscent of its Facebook (FB) call, which was also an article I questioned. The similarities and situations surrounding the two calls include both stocks being post-IPO and both articles implying that stock performance indicates value and future trends. Here is why Barron's is wrong, again!

• [By Myra P. Saefong , Sital S. Patel]

  Restoration Hardware (RH) reported fourth-quarter earnings of 83 cents a share on revenue of $471.7 million. The company beat analyst expectations and also reported increasing sales growth. Forward looking statements were also positive as the firm looks to expand and transform its retail stores in 2014, according to Chairman and Chief Executive Gary Friedman.

Top 10 Rising Stocks To Watch For 2014: Omega Commercial Finance Corp (OCFN)

Omega Commercial Finance Corporation (Omega), incorporated on November 6, 1973, is a commercial real estate financing company that also provides asset backed lending services located in the Miami, Florida area. The Company consults on various financing programs with an emphasis on Loans secured by commercial real estate such as core assets that include office buildings, multi-family residences, shopping centers, industrial, and hotels, as well as asset backed loans secured by account receivables from established companies.

On February 20, 2012, CCRE Capital, LLC (CCRE), its wholly owned subsidiary entered into the Strategic Alliance Agreement (the Strategic Alliance) with Gardens VE Limited (Company No. 07071936), a British Company (Gardens). In January 2013, the Company acquired VFG Securities Incorporated and VFG Advisors Inc. The Company�� subsidiaries include CCRE (CCRE), OMEGA FACTORI and Omega Capital Street LLC.

The Company competes with CapitalSource Inc, Goldman Sachs Commercial Real Estate, Morgan Stanley Real Estate and JP Morgan Chase.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Virginia Harrison]

  The other big Olympic sponsors are Visa (V, Fortune 500), Samsung (SSNLF), Panasonic (PCRFF), General Electric (GE, Fortune 500), Dow Chemical (DOW, Fortune 500), Procter & Gamble (PG, Fortune 500), Omega (OCFN) and Atos (ATOS). They're staying tight-lipped about the issue in public but a senior official at the International Olympic Committee said this month that several had raised concerns about how the law could affect the Games.

Top 10 Rising Stocks To Watch For 2014: Union First Market Bankshares Corp (UBSH)

Union First Market Bankshares Corporation is a bank holding company. The Company offers financial services through its community bank subsidiary Union First Market Bank and three non-bank financial services affiliates. The Company�� non-bank financial services affiliates are Union Mortgage Group, Inc., Union Investment Services, Inc. and Union Insurance Group, LLC. The Company operates in two segments: traditional full service community banking business and its mortgage loan origination business. The Company is a community banking organization based in Virginia and provides full service banking to the Northern, Central, Rappahannock, Shenandoah, Tidewater, and Northern Neck regions of Virginia through Union First Market Bank. Union First Market Bank (the Bank) is a full service community bank offering consumers and businesses a range of banking and related financial services, including checking, savings, certificates of deposit and other depository services, as well as loans for commercial, industrial, residential mortgage and consumer purposes. The Bank issues credit cards and delivers automated teller machine (ATM) services. The Bank also offers Internet banking services and online bill payment for all customers, whether retail or commercial. The Bank also offers private banking and trust services to individuals and corporations through its Financial Guidance Group. In January 2014, the Company acquired StellarOne Corporation.

As of December 31, 2011, Union First Market Bank operated 99 locations in the counties of Albemarle, Caroline, Chesterfield, Essex, Fairfax, Fauquier, Fluvanna, Frederick, Hanover, Henrico, James City, King George, King William, Lancaster, Loudoun, Nelson, Northumberland, Richmond, Spotsylvania, Stafford, Warren, Washington, Westmoreland, York, and the independent cities of Charlottesville, Colonial Heights, Culpeper, Fredericksburg, Harrisonburg, Newport News, Richmond, Staunton, Stephens City, Waynesboro, Williamsburg, and Winchester. Union First Market Bank a! lso operates loan production offices in Staunton, Winchester, and Tappahannock. Union Investment Services, Inc. provides brokerage services; Union Mortgage Group, Inc. provides a line of mortgage products, and Union Insurance Group, LLC offers various lines of insurance products. Union First Market Bank also owns a non-controlling interest in Johnson Mortgage Company, L.L.C.

Union Investment Services, Inc. provides securities, brokerage and investment advisory services. It has 11 offices within the Bank�� trade area and is a full service investment company handling all aspects of wealth management, including stocks, bonds, annuities, mutual funds and financial planning. Securities are offered through a third party contractual arrangement with Raymond James Financial Services, Inc., an independent broker dealer. Union Mortgage Group, Inc., (UMG) has offices in Virginia (seven), Maryland (three), North Carolina (three), and South Carolina (two). UMG is also licensed to do business in selected states throughout the Mid-Atlantic and Southeast, as well as Washington, D.C. It provides a variety of mortgage products to customers in those areas. The mortgage loans originated by UMG are generally sold in the secondary market through purchase agreements with institutional investors. Union Insurance Group, LLC (UIG), an insurance agency, is owned by the Bank and Union Mortgage. This agency operates in a joint venture with Bankers Insurance, LLC, an insurance agency owned by community banks across Virginia and managed by the Virginia Bankers Association. UIG generates revenue through sales of various insurance products, including long term care insurance and business owner policies.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Sean Williams]

  What: Shares of StellarOne (NASDAQ: STEL  ) , a commercial, mortgage, and wealth management bank servicing small and medium-sized businesses in Virginia, jumped as much as 20% after agreeing to be purchased by Union First Market Bancshares (NASDAQ: UBSH  ) .

• [By GuruFocus]

  Reduced: Union First Market Bankshares Corp (UBSH)

  Tom Gayner reduced to his holdings in Union First Market Bankshares Corp by 12.64%. His sale prices were between $18.24 and $20.59, with an estimated average price of $19.52. The impact to his portfolio due to this sale was -0.18%. Tom Gayner still held 1,658,339 shares as of 06/30/2013.

Top 10 Rising Stocks To Watch For 2014: Astec Industries Inc.(ASTE)

Astec Industries, Inc. engages in the design, engineering, manufacture, and marketing of equipment and components for road building, utility, and related construction activities worldwide. The company?s Asphalt Group segment offers hot-mix asphalt plants, concrete mixing plants, and related components; heating and heat transfer processing equipment; and thermal fluid storage tanks for asphalt paving and other non-related industries. Its Aggregate and Mining Group segment provides jaw, cone, and impact crushers; vibrating feeders; inclined and horizontal screens; various crushing plants; digital crusher controllers; aggregate and ore processing equipment; mobile screening plants; screen structures; vibrating screens; stationary rockbreaker systems; articulated production and utility vehicles; hydraulic breakers; compactors; demolition attachments; and bulk material handling and minerals processing equipment primarily for the aggregate, metallic mining, and recycling market s. The company?s Mobile Asphalt Paving Group segment provides asphalt pavers, asphalt material transfer vehicles, milling machines, and asphalt reclaiming and soil stabilizing machinery; asphalt paver screeds; windrow pickup machines; asphalt rollers and screeds primarily for road construction markets; and dirt and asphalt compaction equipment. Its Underground Group segment produces heavy-duty trenchers, compact horizontal directional drills, high pressure diesel powered pump trailers; maxi drills, auger boring machines, and down-hole tooling for these units; and vertical drills, water well drills, oil and gas drilling rigs, material handling trailers, and tools for the oil and gas, geothermal, and water well industries. The company also offers whole-tree pulpwood chippers, biomass chippers, horizontal grinders, and blower trucks. Astec Industries, Inc. sells its products through sales agents, distributors, and dealers. The company was founded in 1972 and is based in Chatta nooga, Tennessee.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By James E. Brumley]

  What do Prospect Capital Corporation (NASDAQ:PSEC), Astec Industries, Inc. (NASDAQ:ASTE), and First Financial Corp. (NASDAQ:THFF) have in common? Not much, on the surface. In fact, were it not for something very specific to one particular person (me), they'd have nothing in common at all. This week though, THFF, ASTE, and PSEC all have at least one thing in common, and that's the fact that they're all going into my mental/hypothetical portfolio.

• [By GURUFOCUS]

  
  John Maynard Keyes once opined: ��uccessful Investing is anticipating the anticipation of others.��That notion applies in spades when it comes to theme investing. Typically, a stock moves upwards long before its improvement in earnings comes to fruition. Warren Buffett colorfully observed: ��f you wait for the robins, spring will be over.��Should an investor wait for an earnings confirmation to validate his/her theory, then the time to invest will have already passed. I will end today�� discussion by profiling two successful investments I made in high quality cyclical companies during the period of the mid-2000s. The companies are: Maverick Tube (formerly MVK) and Astec (ASTE).

Top 10 Rising Stocks To Watch For 2014: 1st Constitution Bancorp(NJ)

1st Constitution Bancorp operates as a bank holding company for 1st Constitution Bank that provides community banking services to corporations, individuals, partnerships, and other community organizations in the central and northeastern New Jersey area. It offers various deposit products, including noninterest bearing demand deposits, interest bearing demand deposits, savings deposits, and time deposits, as well as certificates of deposit, and money market and NOW accounts. The company also provides a range of loan products comprising commercial loans for working capital, business expansion, and the purchase of equipment and machinery; construction loans to real estate developers for the acquisition, development and construction of residential subdivisions; residential consumer loans; term loans; lines of credit; loans secured by equipment and receivables; second mortgage home improvement loans; home equity lines of credit; and non-residential consumer loans for automobile s, recreation vehicles, and boats, as well as secured and unsecured personal loans, and deposit account secured loans. It provides its services through a network of 14 branches. The company was founded in 1989 and is based in Cranbury, New Jersey.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Mark Skousen]

  And that brings me to Nidec (NJ). Based in Kyoto, Japan, Nidec manufactures small- to mid-size motors, fan motors, and pivot assemblies used in dozens of IT products, as well as home appliances, automobiles, office equipment, and industrial machinery.

• [By Monica Gerson]

  Nidec (NYSE: NJ) shares climbed 2.75% to $20.17. The volume of Nidec shares traded was 506% higher than normal. Nidec's trailing-twelve-month revenue is $9.42 billion.

Top 10 Rising Stocks To Watch For 2014: Facebook Inc (FB)

Facebook, Inc. (Facebook), incorporated in July 2004, is engaged in building products to create utility for users, developers, and advertisers. People use Facebook to stay connected with their friends and family, to discover what is going on in the world around them, and to share and express what matters to them to the people they care about. Developers can use the Facebook Platform to build applications and Websites that integrate with Facebook to reach its global network of users and to build personalized and social products. Advertisers can engage with more than 900 million monthly active users (MAUs) on Facebook or subsets of its users based on information they have chosen to share with the Company, such as their age, location, gender, or interests. It offers advertisers a combination of reach, relevance, social context and engagement.

Products for Users

The Company�� products for users are free of charge and available on the Web, mobile Web, and mobile platforms, such as Android and iOS. It launched Timeline in September 2011, as an enhanced and updated version of the Facebook Profile. Timeline allows users to organize and display the events and activities that matter most to them, enabling them to curate their memories in a searchable personal narrative that is organized chronologically. Users choose what information to share on their Timeline, such as their interests, photos, education, work history, relationship status, and contact information, and users can control with whom each piece of content is shared on their Timeline. The Facebook News Feed is the core feature of a user�� homepage and is a regularly updating list of stories from friends, Pages, and other entities to which a user is connected on Facebook. It includes posts, photos, event updates, group memberships, app updates, and other activities. Each user�� News Feed is personalized based on his or her interests and the sharing activity of the user�� friends.

Facebook is a photo upload! ing service on the Web. Users can upload an unlimited number of high resolution photos, create photo albums, and share them with their friends or any audience they choose. Users can also upload and share videos. Users can set specific privacy settings for each of their photo albums and videos, making them visible to everyone, or only to certain friends. Users can arrange their photos, add captions, and tag people in a photo or video. Tagging allows users to identify a person in a photo or video as one of their friends. Its messaging products include email, chat, and text messaging. Groups are shared Facebook pages for groups of users to discuss common interests. Lists allow users to organize their friends in order to filter the stories shown in their News Feeds and reach or exclude specific people when they share on Facebook. Through Events, users can organize gatherings, manage invitations, and send event notifications and reminders to their friends. From the Events page, users can create a new event, check out upcoming events of interest to them and their friends, and view previous events.

Through Places, users can share their location and see where their friends are. They are able to see if any of their friends are nearby. Users can also check in to Places to tell their friends where they are, tag their friends in the Places they visit, or view Comments their friends have made about the Places they visit. Using Subscribe, users can sign up to receive public posts in their News Feeds from other Facebook users of interest, such as celebrities, thought leaders, and other public figures. Ticker is a live stream of the real-time activities of a user�� friends and the Pages and other entities to which the user is connected. On the top of each Facebook page, a highlighted icon is displayed to users when there is relevant and new information available to them, such as a new friend request, a new message from a friend, or an alert that the user has been tagged in a photo posted by a friend.

A Facebook Page is a public profile that allows anyone, including artists, public figures, businesses, brands, organizations, and charities to create a presence on Facebook and engage with the Facebook community. A Page owner can connect with interested users in order to provide updates, answer questions, receive feedback, or otherwise stimulate interest in the owner�� messages, products, and services. When a Facebook user likes a Page, the Page owner has the opportunity to publish stories to the user�� News Feed on an ongoing basis. In addition, when a Facebook user Likes or Comments on a post by a Page owner, that user�� action may be shared with the user�� friends via News Feed to drive awareness to a wider circle of users, increasing the Page�� exposure, recognition, and engagement. The Company does not charge for Pages, nor does it charge for the resulting organic distribution. As of March 31, 2012, there were more than 42 million Pages with 10 or more Likes, including Harvard, Lady Gaga, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Starbucks, and Boo (the World�� Cutest Dog), as well as millions of local businesses.

Products for Developers

The Facebook Platform is a set of tools and application programming interfaces (APIs) that developers can use to build social apps on Facebook or to integrate their Websites with Facebook. As of March 31, 2012, more than nine million applications and Websites were integrated with Facebook. Some of the elements of the Facebook Platform include open graph, social plugins, payments, applications on Facebook, desktop applications, mobile applications and platform-integrated Websites. The Open Graph is a set of APIs that developers can use to build applications and Websites that enable users to share their activities with friends on Facebook. Social plugins are social features that developers can easily integrate with their Websites by incorporating a single line of HyperText Markup Language (HTML) code.

Facebook provides an o! nline pay! ments infrastructure that enables developers to receive payments from users through a secure system. The Company has designed its Payments infrastructure to streamline the buying process between its users and developers. Its Payments system enables users to purchase virtual or digital goods from developers and third-party Websites by using debit and credit cards, PayPal, mobile phone payments, gift cards or other methods. Applications on Facebook run within the Facebook Website. The Facebook Platform has also enabled new types of social applications on Facebook beyond games to facilitate social sharing and discovery of music, news, television programming, and everyday interests, such as cooking, fitness, and travel. Developers can also build desktop apps that run on the operating system of a personal computer and offer experiences that are integrated with the Facebook Platform. The Facebook Platform for mobile has enabled developers to create engaging mobile applications that integrate with Facebook�� social and personalization capabilities. Websites can integrate with Facebook using social plugins, such as the Like button or design more deeply integrated social experiences built around users and their friends.

Products for Advertisers and Marketers

Facebook offers products that enable advertisers and marketers to leverage its combination of reach, relevance, social context, and engagement. When creating a Facebook ad, advertisers can specify a title, content, image, and destination Web page or Facebook Page to which a user is directed if he or she clicks on the ad. Advertisers can further engage their intended audiences by incorporating social context with their marketing messages. Social context includes actions a user�� friends have taken, such as Liking the advertiser�� Facebook Page. Ads with social context are shown only to a user�� friends, and the user�� privacy settings apply to social ads. It offers a range of ads with social context, from an ad with a sing! le Like b! utton to its Premium Ad paired with social context, which allows advertisers to highlight the interactions of a user�� friends with a brand or product.

Sponsored stories enable marketers to promote the stories they publish from their Facebook Page to users who have connected with the Page or to amplify the distribution of stories users are already sharing that are relevant to their marketing efforts. When advertisers create an ad campaign with Facebook, they specify the types of users they would like to reach based on information that users chose to share about their age, location, gender, relationship status, educational history, workplace, and interests. Advertisers choose to pay for their ads based on either cost per thousand impressions (CPM) on a fixed or bidded basis or cost per click (CPC) on a bidded basis. Facebook ad analytics enable advertisers to gain insights into which ads were displayed and clicked on. These analytics help advertisers make modifications to their ad campaigns. Advertisers with Facebook Pages can also view the number of users who Liked and Commented on their Page and a newly introduced metric, People Talking About This, which shows how many stories about their brand are being created and shared.

The Company competes with Google, Microsoft, Twitter, Cyworld, Mixi and vKontakte.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Reuters]

  David Ramos/Getty Images SAN FRANCISCO -- Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg blasted the U.S. government's electronic surveillance practices Thursday, saying he'd personally called President Barack Obama to voice his displeasure. "When our engineers work tirelessly to improve security, we imagine we're protecting you against criminals, not our own government," Zuckerberg said in a post on his personal Facebook page. "I've called President Obama to express my frustration over the damage the government is creating for all of our future. Unfortunately, it seems like it will take a very long time for true full reform," the 29-year-old Zuckerberg said. The phone call and Zuckerberg's 300-word missive Thursday come amid a series of revelations about controversial government surveillance practices that were leaked by former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden. "The president spoke last night with Mark Zuckerberg about recent reports in the press about alleged activities by the U.S. intelligence community," a White House official said. The official declined further comment and referred to the National Security Agency's statement released earlier Thursday saying recent media reports that allege the NSA has infected million of computers around the world malware and that the NSA is impersonating U.S. social media or other websites are inaccurate. Facebook (FB), which operates the world's No. 1 Internet social network with 1.2 billion users, declined to comment beyond Zuckerberg's post. Secret documents published on news website The Intercept showed Wednesday that the NSA impersonated Facebook web pages in order to gather information from targets. When those people thought they were logging into Facebook, they were actually communicating with the NSA. The agency then used malicious code on the fake page to break into the targets' computers and remove data from them. Last year, Facebook moved to encrypt all its pages, making such impersonat

• [By Daniel Sparks]

  eMarketer expects Facebook's (NASDAQ: FB  ) digital ad revenue to grow 37.6% this year, trumping Google's (NASDAQ: GOOG  ) �18.6% estimate. Impressive, indeed. But as Fool contributor Daniel Sparks explains in the video below, valuation changes the story.

Top 10 Rising Stocks To Watch For 2014: Barclays PLC(BCS)

Barclays PLC provides various financial products and services in Europe, the United States, Africa, and Asia. It offers retail and commercial banking, credit cards, investment banking, wealth management, and investment management services. The company?s products include current account and savings products, Woolwich branded mortgages, unsecured loans, protection products, general insurance, credit cards, Sharia-compliant products, installment finance and commercial property finance, commercial loans, and personal loans. It also offers money transmission, international and private banking, investment management, fiduciary, and brokerage services, as well as payment solutions and mobile banking services. In addition, the company provides fixed income, currency and commodities, foreign exchange, emerging markets, money markets, and credit services; equities, which include cash and equity derivatives and prime services; investment banking products and services that comprise fi nancial advisory, and equity and debt underwriting; and advisory services. It serves individual, commercial, corporate, institutional, retail, and mass affluent customers. The company was formerly known as Barclays Bank Limited and changed its name to Barclays PLC in January 1985. Barclays PLC was founded in 1896 and is headquartered in London, the United Kingdom.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Sam Robson]

  LONDON --�Private equity group�3i� (LSE: III  ) this morning announced that it has made an offer for�Barclays' (LSE: BARC  ) (NYSE: BCS  ) �European infrastructure fund management business.