Top Life Sciences Companies To Watch For 2015

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. 

Best Investments For 2016: Korn/Ferry International (KFY)

Korn/Ferry International, together with its subsidiaries, provides talent management solutions that help clients to design strategies in building and attracting their talent. It operates in three segments: Executive Recruitment, Leadership & Talent Consulting (LTC), and High-Impact Recruitment Solutions. The Executive Recruitment segment focuses on recruiting board-level, chief executive, and other senior executive positions primarily in the consumer, financial services, and industrial, as well as in life sciences/healthcare, and technology industries. The LTC segment provides leadership and talent management solutions to assist clients with their ongoing assessment, organizational design, and leadership development efforts. The High-Impact Recruitment Solutions segment engages in enterprise-wide consulting and recruitment solutions, including recruitment process outsourcing, talent acquisition and management consulting services, project-based recruitment, mid-level recrui tment, and interim professionals. The company serves public and private companies, middle market and emerging growth companies, government agencies, and nonprofit organizations in North America, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, the Asia Pacific, and South America. Korn/Ferry International was founded in 1969 and is headquartered in Los Angeles, California.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Garrett Cook]

  Shares of Korn/Ferry International (NYSE: KFY) were 3.67 percent to $29.36. Korn/Ferry reported its Q4 earnings of $0.32 per share on revenue of $251.70 million.

• [By Rick Munarriz]

  Monday
  The first trading day of the week kicks off with Korn/Ferry (NYSE: KFY  ) posting quarterly results. The report should provide a good glimpse at the state of corporate hiring. Korn/Ferry is a leading provider of executive headhunter and other workforce recruiting and consulting services. If the economy's on the mend, Korn/Ferry should be seeing a healthy uptick in activity.

• [By John Kell and Lauren Pollock var popups = dojo.query(".socialByline .popC"); ]

  Korn/Ferry International sa(KFY)id its fiscal third-quarter earnings surged on stronger-than-expected fee revenue and higher operating margins.

  Piedmont Natural Gas Co.(PNY) said its fiscal first-quarter profit rose 14% as the natural-gas distributor reported a significant jump in revenue despite higher gas costs.

Top Life Sciences Companies To Watch For 2015: Newell Rubbermaid Inc.(NWL)

Newell Rubbermaid Inc. designs, manufactures, and markets consumer and commercial products. It operates in three segments: Home & Family, Office Products, and Tools, Hardware & Commercial Products. The Home & Family segment offers indoor/outdoor organization, food storage, and home storage products; infant and juvenile products, such as car seats, strollers, highchairs, and playards; drapery hardware, window treatments, and cabinet hardware; gourmet cookware, bakeware, cutlery, and small kitchen electrics; and hair care accessories and grooming products to mass merchants, specialty stores, and grocery/drug and department stores. The Office Products segment provides writing instruments, including pens, pencils, markers and highlighters, and art products; fine writing instruments and leather goods; office technology solutions, such as label makers and printers, interactive teaching solutions, and on-line postage to mass merchants, warehouse clubs, grocery/drug stores, office superstores, contract stationers, and retailers. The Tools, Hardware & Commercial Products segment offers industrial bandsaw blades and cutting tools for pipes and HVAC systems; hand tools and power tool accessories; manual paint applicators, window hardware, and convenience hardware; cleaning and refuse products, hygiene systems, material handling solutions, medical and computer carts, and wall-mounted workstations to mass merchants, home centers, department stores, hardware and commercial products distributors, industrial/construction outlets, custom shops, select contract customers, and professional customers. It sells its products under Rubbermaid, Graco, Aprica, Levolor, Kirsch, Amerock, Calphalon, Goody, Sharpie, Expo, Dymo, Paper Mate, Parker, Waterman, Lenox, Irwin, Shur-line, and Bulldog brands. The company operates in North America, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Latin America, and the Asia Pacific. Newell Rubbermaid Inc. was founded in 1903 and is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Dan Caplinger]

  Like many consumer-goods companies, Newell Rubbermaid (NYSE: NWL  ) is best known for the products it makes. Lately, though, it's been the dependable earnings growth and solid dividend that have led investors to buy Newell Rubbermaid stock, and if the company can deliver on expectations in the coming years, then its shares could see even further gains. Let's take a closer look at what's been happening with Newell Rubbermaid lately and how it's has helped boost the stock.

• [By Shauna O'Brien]

  Newell Rubbermaid Inc. (NWL) announced on Wednesday that it has finalized the sale of its Hardware business.

  The sale, which was first reported on August 9, was completed on Wednesday. Nova Capital has acquired NWL’s Hardware business which includes the Amerock, Ashland, Bulldog and Shur-Line brands.

  NWL will receive approximately $175 million in after-tax proceeds from the sale.

  Newell Rubbermaid shares were mostly flat during pre-market trading Wednesday. The stock has increased 18% YTD.

• [By Lauren Pollock]

  Among the companies with shares expected to actively trade in Friday’s session are United Parcel Service Inc.(UPS), Newell Rubbermaid Inc.(NWL) and National Oilwell Varco Inc.(NOV)

• [By DAILYFINANCE]

  Alamy DETROIT -- Graco is recalling nearly 3.8 million car safety seats because children can get trapped by buckles that may not unlatch. But the company has drawn the ire of federal safety regulators who say the recall should include another 1.8 million rear-facing car seats designed for infants. The recall covers 11 models made from 2009 through 2013 by Graco Children's Products of Atlanta, a unit of Newell Rubbermaid (NWL). It's the fourth-largest child seat recall in U.S. history, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the government's road safety watchdog. The agency warned that the problem could make it "difficult to remove the child from the restraint, increasing the risk of injury in the event of a vehicle crash, fire or other emergency." NHTSA also criticized Graco in a sternly-worded letter dated Tuesday, saying the recall excludes seven infant car seat models with the same buckles. Both the company and NHTSA have received complaints about stuck buckles on the infant seats, the agency said. "Some of these consumers have had no choice but to resort to the extreme measure of cutting the harness straps to remove their child from the car seat," the NHTSA letter said. The agency wants Graco to identify the total number of seats that potentially have the defect and explain why it excluded the infant seats. NHTSA, which began investigating the seats in October of 2012, said the investigation remains open. The agency said it could hold a public hearing and require Graco to add the infant seats. Graco, a division of Atlanta-based Newell Rubbermaid, told The Associated Press that its tests found that food or beverages can make the harness buckles in the children's seats sticky and harder to use over time. Rear-facing infant seats aren't being recalled because infants don't get food or drinks on their seats, Graco spokeswoman Ashley Mowrey said. But Mowrey said Graco will send replacement buckles to owners of infant seats upon re

Top Life Sciences Companies To Watch For 2015: ICL Israel Chemicals Ltd (ISCHY.PK)

ICL Israel Chemicals Ltd (ICL) is an Israel-based company, engaged in the fertilizer and specialty chemical sectors. The company operates in three segments: Fertilizers, Industrial Products, and Performance Products. The Fertilizers segment is engaged in the production of standard, granular, fine red and white potash from three sources, as well as in the production of phosphates, such as phosphate rock, phosphoric acid, fertilizers and animal feed addictives. The Industrial Products segment produces flame retardants, such as brominates and organ phosphorus; elemental bromine, and other chemicals. In addition the Performance Products segment produces specialty phosphates, such as technical, food grade and electronic grade phosphoric acid, phosphate salts, food additives and wildfire safety products, as well as alumina and other chemicals. Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Chris Damas]

  I never thought Uralkali would get back together with Belaruskali as I expressed in this article written a day after the break-up roiled the fertilizer world, causing 20% plunges in the stocks of major producers such as Potash Corp (POT), Mosaic Company (MOS) and Israel Chemicals Ltd (ISCHY.PK).

Top Life Sciences Companies To Watch For 2015: Acxiom Corporation(ACXM)

Acxiom Corporation provides marketing technology and services that enable marketers to manage audience, personalize consumer experiences, and create customer relationships. It operates in two segments, Information Services and Information Products. The Information Services segment offers customer data integration, multichannel marketing services, infrastructure management services, and consulting services. This segment also develops, sells, and delivers industry-tailored solutions, including the design and creation of marketing databases and data warehouses; data integration and customer-recognition systems; marketing applications; list processing; and information technology services. The Information Products segment develops and sells various data products, including segmentation products and domestic fraud and risk mitigation products, as well as online advertising products. This segment provides InfoBase-Xa, a customer-centric foundation for various marketing needs with a collection of the United States consumer information available in one source; PersonicXa, a household segmentation and visualization system; and Acxiom Relevance-Xa, an online advertising network that lets marketers reach the consumers interested in their particular product or service. The company serves clients in financial services, insurance, information services, direct marketing, media, retail, consumer packaged goods, technology, automotive, healthcare, travel, and telecommunications industries. It offers its products and services in the United States, Europe, the Asia Pacific, and the Middle East. The company was founded in 1969 and is headquartered in Little Rock, Arkansas.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Tom Taulli]

  A key to Facebook�� monetization success has been the company�� aggressive investments in ad technologies. For example, by leveraging third-party data sources — such as from Datalogix, Acxiom (ACXM) and Alliance Data Systems (ADS) — it has been able to provide analytics on the performance of ad campaigns. On the Q4 earnings call, Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg said the average return on News Feed ads was an incredible 8x.

• [By Sally Jones]

  
  Acxiom Corporation (ACXM): Reduced

  Up 47% over 12 months, Acxiom Corporation has a market cap of $1.84 billion; its shares were traded at around $24.98 with a P/E ratio of 33.40 and a P/B of 3.00.

Top Life Sciences Companies To Watch For 2015: China Telecom Corp Ltd (CHA)

China Telecom Corporation Limited, together with its subsidiaries, provides wireline and mobile telecommunications services in the People's Republic of China. The company?s services include wireline voice, mobile voice, Internet, managed data and leased line, value-added services, integrated information application services, and other related services, as well as prepaid calling cards. Its wireline voice services include local wireline services, domestic long distance wireline services, and international long distance wireline services. The company's mobile voice services comprise local calls, domestic long distance calls, international long distance calls, intra-provincial roaming, inter-provincial roaming, and international roaming. Its Internet access services consist of wireline Internet access services, including dial-up and broadband services, and wireless Internet access services. The company's integrated information application services include Best Tone services, which provide customers with phone number storage, enquiry, and call transfer services; and information technology-based integrated solutions, such as system integration, outsourcing, special advisory, information application, knowledge services, and software development. Its managed data and leased line services consist of services relating to optic fiber and circuits, such as optic fiber and circuit leasing, virtual private network, and bandwidth leasing. The company also offers other services, such as sales, rental, repairs, and maintenance of equipment; and provides consulting services, and e-commerce and booking services, as well as in the sale of telecommunications terminals. It serves government, enterprise, and residential customers. The company was founded in 2002 and is based in Beijing, the People's Republic of China. China Telecom Corporation Limited is a subsidiary of China Telecommunications Corporation.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Jim Woods]

  China Telecom (CHA) has seen its shares fall more than 16% over the past year, with much of that coming in 2014. China Unicom (CHU) stock has slumped 9% in the past 52 weeks, thanks to a 12% decline year-to-date.

• [By Dividend]

  China Telecom (CHA) has a market capitalization of $42.51 billion. The company employs 305,676 people, generates revenue of $46.253 billion and has a net income of $2.457 billion. China Telecom�� earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) amounts to $12.171 billion. The EBITDA margin is 26.32 percent (the operating margin is 7.48 percent and the net profit margin 5.31 percent).

• [By David Goldman]

  Until now, Apple had sold the iPhone there through China Mobile's much-smaller competitors, China Unicom (CHU)and China Telecom (CHA), which have about 425 million subscribers between them.

Top Life Sciences Companies To Watch For 2015: WageWorks Inc (WAGE)

WageWorks, Inc., incorporated on January 28, 2000, is an on-demand provider of tax-advantaged programs for consumer-directed health, commuter and other employee spending account benefits (CDBs), in the United States. The Company administers and operates a broad array of CDBs, including spending account management programs such as health and dependent care Flexible Spending Accounts (FSAs), Health Savings Accounts (HSAs), Health Reimbursement Arrangements (HRAs), and commuter benefits, such as transit and parking programs. The Company delivers its CDB programs through a scalable delivery model that employer clients and their employee participants may access through a standard Web browser on any Internet-enabled device, including computers, smart phones and other mobile devices such as tablet computers. In January 2013, the Company acquired Benefit Concepts, Inc.

The Company focuses on providing CDB programs to employer clients of any size. It provides marketing programs that are designed to maxmize employee participation in its employer clients��CDB offerings. The Company markets and sells its CDB programs through multiple channels, including direct sales to enterprises, direct sales and through brokers to small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs), and direct sales to industry purchasing and affiliate groups and through channel partners.

Its SMB distribution channel complements its enterprise sales channel and consists of third party advisors, including insurance agents and benefits consultants who typically have two to three enterprise clients and several hundred smaller employer clients, and institutional resellers, including regional and national insurance carriers, health plans, payroll providers, commercial banks and third-party administrators (TPAs). The Company also sells its programs through group purchasing organizations in which the Company negotiate a standard service contract with group purchasing organizations that are formed by industry specific employers to cov! er their members.

The Company competes with TASC, Inc, Aetna, UHC, Aon Hewitt, ADP, Ceridian, CDBs and Bank of America.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Laura Brodbeck]

  Tuesday

  Earnings Expected From: Frontier Communications Corporation (NASDAQ: FTR), GSI Group, Inc. (GSIG), Tesla Motors, Inc. (NASDAQ: TSLA), WageWorks, Inc. (NYSE: WAGE), DIRECTV (NASDAQ: DTV), Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: REGN) Economic Releases Expected: �Australian trade balance, New Zealand�� unemployment rate, Canadian trade balance, eurozone PPI, British services PMI

  Wednesday

• [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 WageWorks (NYSE: WAGE  ) , whose recent revenue and earnings are plotted below.

• [By John Udovich]

  On Wednesday, small cap employee flexible spending account facilitator Wageworks Inc (NYSE: WAGE) rose 12.22% despite a secondary offering that effectively rewarded insiders plus the stock has tripled since last March. However, Wageworks��CEO recently said in a�conference call last week that he believes the�private health care exchanges related to Obamacare are expanding�the company���market plus WAGE also raised its forecast for full-year growth. So�does that make this small cap a buy?�

• [By Stock Gamer]

  WageWorks (WAGE) is a leading provider of tax-advantage programs for consumer-directed benefits ("CDBs") in the US. The company operates and administers a wide range of tax-advantage CDBs including health and dependent care Flexible Spending Accounts ("FSAs"), Healthy Savings Accounts ("HSAs"), Health Reimbursement Arrangements ("HRAs"), as well as commuter benefits. WageWorks' CBD programs allow employees to save tax money by using pre-tax earnings to pay for their healthcare and commuter expenses. The programs also enable employers to benefit from reduced payroll taxes as their contributions are deductible for tax purpose, even after factoring in WageWorks' service fees.