The casino industry can be one of the most rewarding business segments for investors seeking high returns on capital and long-term profits. Investment gurus Andreas Halvorsen (Trades, Portfolio) and Ken Fisher (Trades, Portfolio) recently bought fair amounts of Las Vegas Sand Corp (LVS)�shares, probably due to the company�� strong performance in the past years. Sand Corp is the world�� largest operator of integrated resorts, with a blend of casino, hotel, entertainment, food, beverage, retail and convention centre operations. Some of the most famous company-owned venues include Sands Macao, Venetian Macao, Sands Cotai Central and Four Seasons Hotel Macao in China, as well as the Marina Bay Sands resort in Singapore and the Palazzo Las Vegas in the U.S.
The Asian Treasure Hunt
One of Sand Corp�� key growth catalysts is and continues to be its presence in the Asian market, which generates 85% of the company�� total revenue. China�� Macao Cotai Strip has been the firm�� focus for several years now, and given it�� the only place in China where gambling is legal, holding a market position is crucial. Today, Sands is one of six companies licensed casino operators, and owns 50% of all gambling tables on the Strip. Furthermore, the mass market growth is significant for the company�� profitability, as Sands China receives 75% of its cash flow from this segment. Projections for the future years are bright, as 2013 marked a 30% growth of the mass market, compared to the VIP market, which only registered 5% to 10% growth. Also, the company�� 25% market share of the Macao Strip will grow even more after 2015, when the Parisian resort opens its doors.
10 Best Healthcare Technology Stocks To Buy Right Now: Questerre Energy Corp (QEC)
Questerre Energy Corporation (Questerre) is engaged in the exploration for, and the development, production and acquisition of oil and gas projects, particularly shale oil and gas. Questerre holds assets in British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Quebec. Questerre has three core areas where it conducts the majority of its activity: Oil Shale Mining, Western Canada and the St. Lawrence Lowlands, Quebec. The Company has a 100% interest in two licenses covering approximately 100,000 acres in the Pasquia Hills area of east central Saskatchewan. The Antler area is approximately 200 kilometers from Regina in southeast Saskatchewan. The Vulcan area in Southern Alberta is prospective for natural gas and oil in multiple horizons. The Lowlands are situated in Quebec south of the St. Lawrence River between Montreal and Quebec City. As at December 31, 2011, the Company had an interest in 98 gross (55.2 net) producing and 40 gross (17.8 net) non-producing oil and natural gas. Advisors' Opinion:- [By James E. Brumley]
Well, that answers that question. Questerre Energy Corp. (TSE:QEC) and Crescent Point Energy Corp. (TSE:CPG) likely knew they had some shale-oil mining neighbors in the Bakken Shale neighborhood in Saskatchewan, Canada, but they hadn't seen much of that competition. That's about to change soon. Adequately funded and eager to begin laying its final mining plans, Centor Energy Inc. (OTCBB:CNTO) is going to officially own 55% of a 21,000 acre shale oil property that's anywhere from just a few miles away to just a few meters away from and Crescent Point Energy's and Questerre Energy's operations in one of the oil-richest known areas in the Bakken formation. And to be clear, it's not like Centor Energy is just getting the ball rolling; the planning for this project has been underway for months. Once the property-acquisition deal is inked in mid-February, CNTO will likely finish up its feasibility study and begin the approval process for its facility later in the year. That's pretty quick, but as was noted, a great deal of the legwork has already been done.
- [By John Udovich]
While the Bakken formation is already on most investor radars,�few American investors may realize that the formation stretches North into the oil and gas rich Canadian province of Saskatchewan where�stocks like Surge Energy Inc (TSE: SGY), Questerre Energy Corp (TSE: QEC), Crescent Point Energy Corp (TSE: CPG), Keyera Corp (TSE: KEY) and Centor Energy Inc (OTCBB: CNTO) have been pumping out a good flow of newsworthy news in recent weeks. I should mention that Canada�� oil reserves are ranked #3 after to Venezuela and Saudi Arabia with over 95% of these reserves being the oil sands of Alberta while the neighboring province of Saskatchewan (which the Bakken formation stretches into from South Dakota and Montana) along with offshore areas of Newfoundland also contain substantial production and reserves (Note:�Excluding oil sands, Alberta would have 39% of Canada�� remaining conventional oil reserves,�followed by�offshore Newfoundland with�28% and Saskatchewan with 27%).
- [By James E. Brumley]
What do Questerre Energy Corp. (TSE:QEC) and Crescent Point Energy Corp. (TSE:CPG) know about oil in Saskatchewan that Centor Energy Inc. (OTCBB:CNTO) doesn't? Absolutely nothing. All three companies know there's oil in the southern part of the Canadian province, and they know exactly how to go get it. The only difference between QEC, CPG, and CNTO is, Questerre Energy and Crescent Point Energy are further along the development of their operations there than Centor Energy.
Top Asian Companies To Watch For 2014: athenahealth Inc.(ATHN)
athenahealth, Inc., a business services company, provides ongoing billing, clinical-related, and other related services to medical group practices primarily in the United States. It provides services through the athenaNet, a proprietary Internet-based practice management application. The company primarily offers athenaCollector, a revenue cycle management service that automates and manages billing-related functions for physician practices, and includes a practice management platform. The athenaCollector assists its physician clients with the handling of claims and billing processes to help manage reimbursement. The company also provides Anodyne Analytics, a business intelligence application, which provides physicians and practice managers with insight into practice performance. In addition, it offers athenaClinicals, an electronic health record service that automates and manages medical-record-management-related functions for physician practices, as well as assists medical groups with the handling of physician documentation, orders, and related inbound and outbound communications. Further, the company provides athenaCommunicator that allows practices to manage patient communication tasks electronically, including the use of automated reminder calls; the creation of a self-service patient portal for registration, appointment requests, bill payments, and general communication; automatic generation of emails to patients; and patient education tools. It sells its products through a direct sales force, as well as through channel partners. The company was formerly known as athenahealth.com, Inc. and changed its name to athenahealth, Inc. in November 2000. athenahealth, Inc. was incorporated in 1997 and is headquartered in Watertown, Massachusetts.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Jake L'Ecuyer]
athenahealth (NASDAQ: ATHN) was down, falling 5.80 percent to $137.14 after the company reported downbeat quarterly results. Morgan Stanley analyst Ricky R. Goldwasser removed the $133.00 price target on athenahealth.
Top Asian Companies To Watch For 2014: Nabors Industries Ltd (NBR)
Nabors Industries Ltd. (Nabors), incorporated on December 11, 2001, is the land drilling contractor and land well-servicing and workover contractors in the United States and Canada. The Company markets approximately 474 land drilling rigs for oils and gas land drilling operations in the United States Lower 48 states, Alaska, Canada and over 20 other countries globally. The Company actively markets approximately 442 rigs for land well-servicing and workover work in the United States and approximately 106 rigs for land well-servicing and workover work in Canada. In 2012, the Company sold its remaining wholly-owned oil and gas business in Colombia and sold additional wholly owned assets in the United States. In April 2012, TransForce Inc. acquired through its subsidiary, I.E. Miller Services, Inc, certain assets of Peak USA Energy Services, Ltd., subsidiary of Nabors Industries Ltd. In December 2012, the Company sold its 49.7% ownership interest in NFR Energy LLC (NFR Energy).
The Company is a provider of offshore platform workover and drilling rigs, and actively markets 36 platform, 12 jackup and four barge rigs in the United States, including the Gulf of Mexico, and multiple international markets.The Company provides completion and production services, including hydraulic fracturing, cementing, nitrogen and acid pressures pumping services with over 805,000 hydraulic horsepower in United States and Canada. The Company offers a range of ancillary well-site services, including engineering, transportation and disposal, construction, maintenance, well logging, directional drilling, rigs instrumentation, data collection and other support services in select United States and international markets. The Company manufactures and lease or sell drives for a ranges of drilling applications, directional drilling systems, rig instrumentation and data collection equipment, pipeline handling equipment and rig reporting software. The Company has a 51% ownership interest in a joint venture in Saudi Arabia, w! hich owns and actively markets nine rigs in addition to the rigs the Company leases to the joint venture.
A land-based drilling rig generally consists of engines, a drawworks, a mast (or derrick), pumps to circulate drilling fluid under various pressures, blowout preventers, drill string and related equipment. Special-purpose drilling rigs used to perform workover services consist of a mobile carrier, which includes an engine, drawworks and a mast, together with other standard drilling accessories and specialized equipment for servicing wells. These rigs are specially designed for repairs and modifications of oil and gas wells, including standard drilling functions. Land-based drilling rigs are moved between well sites and among geographic areas using the Company's fleet of cranes, loaders and transport vehicles or those of third-party service providers.
Platform rigs provide offshore workover, drilling and re-entry services. The Company's platform rigs have drilling and/or well-servicing or workover equipment and machinery arranged in modular packages that are transported to, and assembled and installed on, fixed offshore platforms owned by the customer. Jackup rigs are mobile, self-elevating drilling and workover platforms equipped with legs that can be lowered to the ocean floor until a foundation is established to support the hull, which contains the drilling and/or workover equipment, jacking system, crew quarters, loading and unloading facilities, storage areas for bulk and liquid materials, helicopter landing deck and other related equipment. The Company also own two workover inland barge rigs. These barges are designed to perform plugging and abandonment, well-service or workover services in shallow inland, coastal or offshore waters.
The Company provides a range of wellsite solutions to oil and natural gases companies, consisting primarily of technical pumping services, including hydraulic fracturing, a process sometimes used in the completion of oil and g! as wells ! whereby water, sand and chemicals are injected under pressure into subsurface formations to stimulate gas and oil production, and down-hole surveying services. Other technical services include completion, production and rental tool services. In addition, the Company provides fluid logistics services, including those related to the transportation, storage and disposal of fluids that is used in the drilling, development and production of hydrocarbons.
The Company provides maintenance services on the mechanical apparatus used to pump or lift oils from producing wells. These services include, among other activities, repairing and replacing pumps, sucker rods and tubing. They also occasionally include drilling services. The Company provides the rigs, equipment and crews for these tasks, which are performed on both oil and natural gas wells, but which are more commonly required on oil wells. Producing oil and natural gas wells occasionally require repairs or modifications, called workovers. The Company can also provide other specialized services, including onsite temporary fluid storage; the supply, removal and disposal of specialized fluids used during certain completion and workover operations, and the removal and disposal of salt water that often accompanies the production of oil and natural gas.
Through various subsidiaries, the Company manufactures top drives and catwalks, which is installed on both onshore and offshore drilling rigs. The Company provides heavy equipment to move drilling rigs, water, other fluids and construction materials as well as the means to moves such equipment. The Company offers specialized drilling technologies, including patented steering systems and rigs instrumentation software systems, including ROCKITTM directional drilling system, which is used to provide data collection services to oil and gas exploration and service companies, and RIGWATCHTM software, which is computerized software and equipment that monitors a rig's real-time performance and da! ily repor! ting for drilling operations, making this data available through the Internet.
The Company competes with Helmerich and Payne, Inc., Patterson-UTI Energy, Inc., Basic Energy Services, Inc., Key Energy Services, Inc., Superior Energy Services, Inc., Forbes Energy Services Ltd., Halliburton, Baker Hughes, Weatherford International Ltd., Schlumberger Limited, FTS International Services LLC, C&J Energy Services, Inc. and RPC, Inc.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Aaron Levitt]
Contract driller Nabors (NBR) CEO Anthony Petrello perhaps said it best when he noted to analysts that “It is not unusual to bid frac jobs against 20 other pumpers, and sometimes as many as 35 show up.��/p>
- [By John Kell]
Nabors Industries Ltd.(NBR) said fourth-quarter earnings surged despite only modest revenue growth as the oil-field services company had been hurt by big write-downs and other items a year earlier. Shares climbed 3.2% to $19.25 premarket.
Top Asian Companies To Watch For 2014: PRGX Global Inc.(PRGX)
PRGX Global, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, provides recovery audit, healthcare claims recovery audit, and analytics and advisory services. The company?s recovery audit services are based on the mining and auditing of clients? purchasing data for overpayments to suppliers; and healthcare claims recovery audit services consist of identification of overpayments and underpayments made to healthcare providers, such as hospitals and physicians? practices. Its analytics and advisory services focuses on client functional and process areas and provides services to senior finance executives to optimize working capital, reduce enterprise costs, transform the finance function, and enhance corporate performance. The company serves retailers, such as discount, department, specialty, grocery, and drug stores; business enterprises, including manufacturers, financial services firms, and pharmaceutical companies; private sector health insurance companies, and state and federal go vernment payers consisting of the centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services; and federal and state government agencies. It has operations in the United States, Canada, rest of Latin America, Europe, Asia, and rest of the Pacific region. The company was formerly known as PRG-Schultz International, Inc. and changed its name to PRGX Global, Inc. in January 2010. PRGX Global, Inc. was founded in 1990 and is based in Atlanta, Georgia.
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 PRGX Global (Nasdaq: PRGX ) , whose recent revenue and earnings are plotted below.
Top Asian Companies To Watch For 2014: Seacoast Banking Corporation of Florida(SBCF)
Seacoast Banking Corporation of Florida operates as the holding company for Seacoast National Bank that provides various financial products and services in the United States. It offers an array of deposit accounts and retail banking services; engages in consumer and commercial lending activities; and provides various trust and asset management services, as well as securities and annuity products to its customers. The company also offers marine loans. In addition, it provides Internet banking, and brokerage and annuity services. As of June 17, 2011, the company had 39 offices in South and Central Florida. Seacoast Banking Corporation of Florida was founded in 1926 and is based in Stuart, Florida.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Sean Williams]
One that recently crossed my radar as an "avoid" is small-cap bank Seacoast Banking Corp. of Florida (NASDAQ: SBCF ) �(henceforth known here as Seacoast to make our lives easier).
- [By James E. Brumley]
Seacoast Banking Corporation of Florida (NASDAQ:SBCF) is certainly no Citigroup Inc. (NYSE:C) or Bank of America Corp. (NYSE:BAC), but then again, that may be a good thing - both larger banks are still dealing with the headaches of their sheer size. The smaller bank is far more nimble, and better still, appears to be on the verge of doling out a huge reward for shareholders.
Top Asian Companies To Watch For 2014: China Yuchai International Limited (CYD)
China Yuchai International Limited, through its subsidiaries, manufactures and sells diesel and natural gas engines primarily in the People�s Republic of China (PRC). It operates in two segments, Yuchai and HLGE. The company provides engines for light, medium, and heavy-duty for highway vehicles; generator sets; and marine and industrial applications, as well as supplies after-market parts and services. It also offers diesel power generators that are used in the construction and mining industries; diesel engine parts; and remanufacturing services. In addition, the company operates hotels and engages in property development activities primarily in the PRC and Malaysia. It distributes its products directly to auto plants and agents. The company was founded in 1951 and is based in Singapore.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Rich Duprey]
Following the abrupt resignation of director and President Benny H. Goh on May 27, China Yuchai International (NYSE: CYD ) has been operating with an interim officer, Kok Ho Leong,�who also held the position of CFO while a replacement was found.
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