Top 5 Income Companies To Invest In 2014

Last week, Starbucks (NASDAQ: SBUX  ) handed in an excellent second quarter, emphasizing the strengths that it has as a business, and pointing out the road that it has ahead of it. Wall Street wasn't blown away, and the stock dropped about 1% over the course of Friday. That's OK, though, because Starbucks met expectations, and proved that its current strategy is going along just fine.

In fact, it was more than just an average quarter, and comparable sales extended their long run of big gains. Revenue, operating margin, and income were all up as well, and management increased its fiscal-year guidance based on that strength. There are still some challenges ahead, but it looks more and more like those will turn into new sources of revenue as the company continues to grow.

Starbucks' strategy
Start with 1,500 new stores in the U.S., and you have a good idea of what the plan looks like. Starbucks has no intention of slowing down its expansion. More than 300 of those locations will be open this year, and we're not even talking about China yet. The company had an 8% increase in comparable sales in China, last quarter. That result helped Starbucks to global comparable-store sales growth of 6%, which made it the 13th quarter that the company exceeded 5% growth globally.

Top 5 Construction Stocks To Invest In Right Now: Unit Corporation(UNT)

Unit Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, engages in the contract drilling, oil and natural gas, and mid-stream businesses in the United States. The company?s Contract Drilling segment engages in land contract drilling of onshore oil and natural gas wells for oil and natural gas companies in Oklahoma, Texas, Louisiana, Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, Montana, and North Dakota. Its Oil and Natural Gas segment is involved in the acquisition, exploration, development, and production of oil and natural gas properties located primarily in Oklahoma, Texas, Louisiana, and North Dakota, as well as in Arkansas, New Mexico, Wyoming, Montana, Alabama, Kansas, Mississippi, Michigan, Colorado, Pennsylvania, and a small portion in Canada. As of December 31, 2011, this segment had approximately 121 gross proved undeveloped wells. The company?s Mid-Stream segment buys, sells, gathers, processes, and treats natural gas. It operates 3 natural gas treatment plants, 10 operating processing plants, 35 active gathering systems, and 934 miles of pipeline in Oklahoma, Texas, Kansas, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia. The company operates a fleet of 127 drilling rigs. Unit Corporation was founded in 1963 and is based in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Robert Rapier]

  Having said that, I can’t find anything in the article archives about Unit Corp. (NYSE: UNT). Unit describes itself as a diversified energy company engaged in the exploration for and production of oil and natural gas, the acquisition of producing oil and natural gas properties, the contract drilling of onshore oil and natural gas wells, and the gathering and processing of natural gas.

Top 5 Income Companies To Invest In 2014: RF Micro Devices Inc.(RFMD)

RF Micro Devices, Inc. designs, develops, manufactures, and markets radio frequency (RF) components and compound semiconductor technologies in the United States and internationally. Its products enable mobility, as well as provide connectivity and support functionality in the cellular handsets, wireless infrastructure, wireless local area networks, cable television /broadband, Smart Energy/advanced metering infrastructure, and aerospace and defense markets. The company offers products that range from single-function components to highly integrated circuits and multi-chip modules (MCMs). Its integrated circuit products include gain blocks, low noise amplifiers, power amplifiers (PAs), receivers, transmitters, transceivers, modulators, demodulators, attenuators, switches, frequency synthesizers, and voltage-controlled oscillators (VCOs); MCM products consist of PA modules, switch-filter modules, active antenna products, VCOs, phase-locked loops, coaxial resonator oscillators , active mixers, variable gain amplifiers, hybrid amplifiers, power doublers, and optical receivers; and passive components consist of splitters, couplers, mixers, and transformers, as well as isolators and circulators. The company markets its products to original equipment manufacturers and original design manufacturers. RF Micro Devices, Inc. was founded in 1991 and is headquartered in Greensboro, North Carolina.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Selena Maranjian]

  Finally, Soros's biggest closed positions included JPMorgan Chase�and General Electric. Other closed positions of interest include RF Micro Devices (NASDAQ: RFMD  ) , which specializes in high-performance radio-frequency technology. The company received an analyst upgrade in March, due to its successful diversification away from Nokia�and its profitable growing presence in Samsung and Apple�devices. Since then, the stock has hit a 52-week high, and some are hoping that it will do a lot of business in China. Its recently reported fourth quarter featured revenue up 49%�over year-ago levels, but its free cash flow has been falling, while net income has also shrunk.

• [By MONEYMORNING.COM]

  NXP isn't the only stock we believe will benefit from this iPhone 6 rollout. In a recent report, we also said that chipmaker RF Micro Devices Inc. (Nasdaq: RFMD) - another previous Private Briefing recommendation - figures to benefit in a big way, too.

• [By Timothy Green]

  RF Micro Devices (NASDAQ: RFMD  ) , an RF component supplier to the smartphone industry, has made investors in the company happy this year. The stock has risen roughly 135% year to date, and an extremely positive earnings report along with a few other catalysts could mean further gains in the future. However, there are still plenty of risks facing RF Micro, and any one of these could stop the stock's rise in its tracks.

Top 5 Income Companies To Invest In 2014: Union Pacific Corporation(UNP)

Union Pacific Corporation, through its subsidiary, Union Pacific Railroad Company, provides rail transportation services in North America. It has approximately 31,953 route miles linking Pacific Coast and Gulf Coast ports with the Midwest and eastern United States gateways, and provides several corridors to Mexican gateways. The company offers freight transportation services for agricultural products, including whole grains and related commodities, food, beverage products, corn for ethanol products and its by-products, animal feeds, fruits and vegetables, frozen meat, and poultry products; and automotive products, such as imported and finished vehicles, and automotive parts and materials. It also provides transportation services for chemicals, such as industrial chemicals, plastics, and liquid petroleum products; energy products comprising coal and coke; industrial products, including lumber products, paper and consumer goods, furniture and appliances, and nonferrous and i ndustrial minerals, as well as steel and construction products, such as rock, cement, and roofing materials; and intermodal containers. Union Pacific Corporation was founded in 1862 and is based in Omaha, Nebraska.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Monica Gerson]

  Union Pacific (NYSE: UNP) is estimated to report its Q1 earnings at $2.37 per share on revenue of $5.70 billion.

  Schlumberger (NYSE: SLB) is expected to report its Q1 earnings at $1.20 per share on revenue of $11.49 billion.

• [By Doug Ehrman]

  Union Pacific (NYSE: UNP  ) has the type of one-year stock chart that dreams are made of, marching steadily higher with very little volatility. Moving stuff around the country is a great business, and one that appears to produce the type of steady returns we'd all like to see in our portfolios. Unfortunately for holders of Union Pacific stock, Warren Buffett may be angling to spoil all of that.

• [By Chuck Saletta]

  Speaking of those goals...
  Last week, two companies paid their dividends to the iPIG portfolio: railroad giant Union Pacific (NYSE: UNP  ) and car parts magnate Genuine Parts (NYSE: GPC  ) . Union Pacific's dividend added $4.14 to the iPIG portfolio's coffers, while Genuine Parts' added $12.36. Union Pacific has held its dividend steady for three quarters, while Genuine Parts has paid two dividends at its current level. Both companies have track records of annual increases, and the iPIG portfolio looks forward to seeing if that trend continues.

Top 5 Income Companies To Invest In 2014: Nuvo Research Inc (NRI)

Nuvo Research Inc. is a specialty pharmaceutical company. The Company is engaged in building a portfolio of products for the treatment of pain through internal research and development (R&D), in-licensing and acquisition. The Company�� product portfolio includes Pennsaid, Pliaglis and Synera. Through its subsidiary Nuvo Research AG, the Company is also developing the compound WF10, for the treatment of immune related diseases. The Company�� Pain Group located in West Chester, Pennsylvania is focused on the development and commercialization of topically delivered pain products, including Pennsaid. On May 12, 2011, the Company obtained control of ZARS Pharma, Inc. On December 13, 2011, the Company acquired remaining 40% interest in Nuvo Research AG. Advisors' Opinion:

• [By GuruFocus]

  There are at least three kinds of P/E ratios used by different investors. They are Trailing Twelve Month P/E Ratio or P/E (ttm), forward P/E, or P/E (NRI). A new P/E ratio based on inflation-adjusted normalized P/E ratio is called Shiller P/E, after Yale professor Robert Shiller.