Best Diversified Bank Stocks To Watch For 2014

Ships are getting bigger and bigger. Both cruise ships and cargo ships are constantly pushing the envelope of what’s considered prudent and possible on the high seas, but some of that daring is coming home to roost for maritime insurers. As the ships grow ever larger, so do potential losses for both insurers and reinsurers—something investors might want to keep in mind.

A case in point is the wreck and subsequent salvage operation that raised the Costa Concordia from the bottom of the sea off the coast of the Italian island of Giglio. The final tally is still not in, but it’s expected to be the most expensive insured maritime loss ever for the 30 or more insurers who had a piece of the action and top $1 billion. According to Allianz, overall losses may reach up to $1.7 billion, with $900 million of that chalked up to the salvage operation.

“The issue of salvage has been highlighted by both the Costa Concordia and the [container ship] MV Rena losses, which have provided complex salvage issues in the recovery of the vessels and, in the case of the Rena, the cargo on board,” according to Jon Guy, spokesman for the International Union of Marine Insurance. “Naturally the bigger the vessels, the more difficult the salvage operation.”

Hot Cheapest Companies For 2015: Renegade Petroleum Ltd (RPL)

Renegade Petroleum Ltd. (Renegade) is an exploitation and exploration focused light oil producer. Renegade's primary focus areas are located in southeast Saskatchewan in various pools, such as Bakken, Souris Valley, Frobisher, Midale and Kisby, as well as the Dodsland area of the Viking play in west-central Saskatchewan. It also has working interests in North Dakota pursuant to a farm-in agreement respecting land in Renville County that is prospective for Bakken, Threeforks/Sanish and Frobisher light oil. In addition the Company has a light oil opportunity in the Spearfish play in Manitoba. It has two geographic segments: western Canada and the State of North Dakota, the United Sates. In December 2012, the Company acquired certain strategic light oil assets. In February 2014, the Company closed the disposition of certain oil and gas assets in southeast Saskatchewan. Advisors' Opinion:

• [By John Udovich]

  Many American oil and gas investors are probably familiar with the major large and small cap players in the Bakken formation in North Dakota and Montana, but few American investors are probably familiar with�the active players further to the north in the�oil and gas rich Canadian provinces of Saskatchewan and Alberta�with small cap stocks like Alexander Energy Ltd (CVE: ALX), Renegade Petroleum Ltd (CVE: RPL) and Centor Energy Inc (OTCBB: CNTO) along with large cap Suncor Energy Inc (NYSE: SU) being among those�pumping out their share of noteworthy news lately. I should point out that�Canada�� oil reserves are ranked #3 after to Venezuela and Saudi Arabia with over 95% of these reserves being the controversial�oil sands of Alberta while the neighboring province of Saskatchewan (which the Bakken formation actually stretches into) along with offshore areas of Newfoundland also containing substantial production and reserves. Moreover and excluding the oil sands, Alberta would have 39% of Canada�� remaining conventional oil reserves,�followed by�offshore Newfoundland with�28% and Saskatchewan with 27%.

Best Diversified Bank Stocks To Watch For 2014: BreitBurn Energy Partners L.P.(BBEP)

BreitBurn Energy Partners L.P. engages in the acquisition, exploitation, and development of oil and gas properties in the United States. The company?s properties include natural gas, oil, and midstream assets comprising fields in the Antrim Shale in Michigan, and the New Albany Shale in Indiana and Kentucky; and fields in the Evanston and Green River basins in southwestern Wyoming, the Wind river and Big Horn basins in central Wyoming, the Powder River basin in eastern Wyoming, the Los Angeles basin in California, and fields in Florida?s Sunniland Trend. As of December 31, 2011, its total estimated proved reserves were 151.1 million barrels of oil equivalent. BreitBurn GP, LLC serves as the general partner to the company. BreitBurn Energy Partners L.P. was founded in 2006 and is headquartered in Los Angeles, California.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Tyler Crowe]

  If you're looking for income investments, then it's awfully hard to argue with the massive distribution payments from LINN Energy (NASDAQ: LINE  ) (NASDAQ: LNCO  ) , Breitburn Energy Partners (NASDAQ: BBEP  ) , and Vanguard Natural Resources (NASDAQ: VNR  ) . Thing is, though, income investments need both a decent yield and a level of certainty that it will keep that distribution going for many years to come. Other than being high-yielding investments, they are also all master limited partnerships, which means you need to look beyond just the operations to see how these companies will stand the test of time.

• [By Matt DiLallo]

  Among its peers in the MLP and LLC space, LINN by far hedges the most production. BreitBurn Energy Partners (NASDAQ: BBEP  ) , for example, has hedged roughly 75% of its production through 2015, whereas LINN is 100% hedged through 2016. BreitBurn almost exclusively uses swaps as its hedge of choice. It's a similar story at Vanguard Natural Resources (NASDAQ: VNR  ) , which also uses swaps to almost exclusively hedge natural gas while using three-way collars to hedge about a third of its oil production. While LINN could get more creative, one thing I'd be surprised to hear is that it's going to join these two peers and leave some of its production unhedged.

Best Diversified Bank Stocks To Watch For 2014: AutoCanada Inc (ACQ)

AutoCanada Inc. (AutoCanada) is a multi-location automobile dealership groups. As of December 31, 2011, the Company operated 24 franchised dealerships in British Columbia, Alberta, Manitoba, Ontario, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. During the year ended December 31, 2011, its dealerships sold approximately 28,000 vehicles and processed approximately 300,000 service and collision repair orders in its 333 service bays. As of December 31, 2011, it was authorized to sell through its dealerships the vehicle brands, which include Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep, Ram, Fiat, Hyundai, Nissan, Infiniti, Volkswagen, Mitsubishi and Subaru. In addition, it sells a range of used vehicles. In November 2011, the Company acquired assets of two dealerships. In January 2013, the Company purchased the assets of a Volkswagen dealership known as People's Automotive Ltd. Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Greg Quinn]

  AutoCanada Inc. (ACQ), the country�� largest publicly traded chain of car dealerships, is using sales of trucks to Alberta oil workers to fund higher dividends and buy out competitors.

Best Diversified Bank Stocks To Watch For 2014: Trulia Inc (TRLA)

Trulia, Inc. is a real estate search engine company. The Company helps in finding homes for sale and provides real estate information. The Company is also a tool for real estate professionals to market their listings, view real estate data and promote their services. It provides local information, community insights, market data and national listings. Effective August 20, 2013, Trulia Inc acquired the entire interest of Market Leader Inc.

Trulia.com is an online real estate site focused on buyers, sellers and renters with tools to help them find the right home. The Company�� Website, www.trulia.com, is a search engine for buying and renting homes, advising homes and mortgages. The Company is headquartered in downtown San Francisco and is backed by Accel Partners and Sequoia Capital.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Sean Williams]

  For this week's round of "Better Know a Stock," I'm going to take a closer look at Trulia (NYSE: TRLA  ) .

  What Trulia does
  

• [By Rich Duprey]

  Critics of real estate portals�Zillow (NASDAQ: Z  ) and�Trulia (NYSE: TRLA  ) �have long thought both companies represented poor business models, and the $3.5 billion all-stock merger of the two isn't about to change anyone's mind.�Although there's been a lot of ink spilled about the benefits to accrue from combining the two real estate info houses, this may end up being less a fortuitous joining of forces and�more like the merger of declining retailers Sears, Roebuck and Kmart that resulted in Sears Holding, which is still a sickly business today.

• [By Rick Munarriz]

  However, websites specializing in real estate are growing even faster. Trulia (NYSE: TRLA  ) posted monster growth on Tuesday night. Revenue soared 97% as the average of monthly visitors rose 52% to 31.4 million. Trulia did post a wider loss than Wall Street was expecting, but the top-line growth is what Zillow (NASDAQ: Z  ) and Realtor.com parent Move (NASDAQ: MOVE  ) investors are applauding.�

• [By Michael Lewis]

  For a bit of context, competitor Trulia (NYSE: TRLA  ) is in negotiations to buy Market Leader (NASDAQ: LEDR  ) for $355�million. Market Leader is a smaller (and growing) business that's similar to both Zillow and Trulia. Since Market Leader is still earnings negative, we can't compare it on a P/FCF basis, but we can look at other metrics. For one, Market Leader trades at a still-ridiculous-but-slightly less-so 57.2 times forward earnings. It trades at 6.4 times last year's sales. Zillow trades at 16.4 times last year's sales. Management expects sales to hit (on the high end) $182 million -- that implies a price of 10.55 times forward sales. If they double a year or two after, which would be unbelievably phenomenal, it would trade at 5.3 times sales.