Top Up And Coming Companies To Buy For 2014

Leasing often gets a bad rap. And no wonder: Its confusing terms sound like fodder for a course in high finance, and dealers have been known to slip bad deals past confused car buyers who simply wanted low monthly payments.

Take Our Quiz: Shoud You Buy or Lease Your Next Car?

About 30% of new-car transactions are leases, but I'm convinced that more people should be leasing. As manufacturers figured out that the cash rebates they offered were hurting resale values, and as the credit spigot began to flow freely again, carmakers shifted incentives from rebates to low-interest financing and leases. If you know what you're looking for and negotiate smartly, you can save money by leasing and disprove the five myths below.

1. Leasing is a bad deal. In general, if you keep a car well past the day the loan is paid off (or if you pay cash to begin with), you'll save money by buying. But if you trade in your car before the loan is paid off, the value of the trade-in is unlikely to cover the remaining balance on the loan. And if you shop -- and negotiate -- as hard for a lease deal as you would for a purchase, you can come out ahead by leasing.

Best Energy Companies To Invest In Right Now: QAD Inc. (QADB)

QAD Inc. provides enterprise software applications, and related services and support for manufacturing companies worldwide. The company offers QAD Enterprise Applications, an integrated suite of software applications, which support the business processes. Its QAD Enterprise Applications include suites, such as QAD Financials to manage and control fiscal business processes at various levels; QAD Customer Management suite for manufacturers to acquire new customers and retain customers through service and support; QAD Manufacturing that offers solutions in the areas of planning and scheduling, cost management, material control, shop floor control, and reporting in various mixed-mode manufacturing environments; and QAD Supply Chain that fulfills materials planning and logistics requirements. The QAD Enterprise Applications also comprise QAD Service and Support product suite that handles service calls, manages service queues, and organizes mobile field resources, as well as pro vides project management support; QAD Enterprise Asset Management for managing assets from inception through operations and replacement; QAD Supply Chain Execution that provides capabilities to manage execution throughout a company�s supply chain; QAD Analytics that helps customers in analyses, decision-making, and performance management; and QAD QXtend toolset for open interoperability. The company also provides customer support and professional services. In addition, it operates QAD Store that enables customers to obtain information and to access updated software and add-on products. It serves automotive, consumer products, food and beverage, high technology, industrial products, and life sciences industries. The company sells its products directly; and through distributors and sales agents. QAD Inc. was founded in 1979 and is headquartered in Santa Barbara, California.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Lisa Levin]

  QAD (NASDAQ: QADB) shares gained 4.23% to reach a new 52-week high of $18.00 on Q4 results.

  McEwen Mining (NYSE: MUX) shares rose 5.93% to touch a new 52-week high of $3.72 after the company reported 4 updated reserve & resource estimate at the San Jose mine in Argentina.

Top Up And Coming Companies To Buy For 2014: Windstream Corporation(WIN)

Windstream Corporation provides communications and technology solutions in the United States. The company offers various solutions, including IP-based voice and data services, multiprotocol label switching (MPLS) networking, data center and managed services, hosting services, and communications systems to businesses and government agencies. It also provides high-speed Internet, voice, and digital television services to residential customers primarily located in rural areas. The company?s data services include data center and managed hosting, MPLS networking, and dedicated access, as well as high-speed Internet to business customers; integrated solutions consist of multiple voice and data services delivered over an IP connection; voice services comprise local and long distance, call waiting, caller identification, and voicemail; and special access services include point-to-point switching arrangements for voice and data traffic. In addition, it provides wholesale services, which primarily include voice and data services on a wholesale basis to other carriers; usage sensitive services to long distance companies; and other local exchange carriers for access to the network in connection with the completion of long-distance calls, as well as reciprocal compensation received from wireless and other local connecting carriers for the use of its facilities. As of June 30, 2011, the company served approximately 3.3 million access lines, 1.3 million high-speed Internet customers, and operated approximately 60,000 fiber route miles. Windstream Corporation is based in Little Rock, Arkansas.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By David Dittman]

  Question: You recently recommended pulling the plug on Windstream Holdings Inc (NYSE: WIN) and dropped it from the UF Portfolio.

  In reading that commentary and other news, I couldn’t find anything distinctive that had changed at Windstream. Was this a case of hoping for good news that never comes and finally giving up, or are you expecting some unexpected shoe to drop?

Top Up And Coming Companies To Buy For 2014: WebMD Health Corp (WBMD)

WebMD Health Corp. provides health information services to consumers, physicians and other healthcare professionals, employers, and health plans through its public and private online portals, mobile platforms, and health-focused publications in the United States. The company?s public portals enable consumers to obtain health and wellness information, including information on specific diseases or conditions; check symptoms; locate physicians; store individual healthcare information; receive periodic e-newsletters on topics of individual interest; and participate in online communities with peers and experts. Its public portals for physicians and healthcare professionals provide access to clinical reference sources; stay abreast of the latest clinical information; learn about new treatment options; earn continuing medical education credit; and communicate with peers. The company also provides mobile health information applications for use by consumers and physicians. In addit ion, WebMD Health Corp. offers e-detailing promotion and physician recruitment services, content syndication and distribution, and information services, as well as print services, including the advertisements in WebMD the Magazine, a consumer magazine distributed to physician office waiting rooms. The public portals? sponsors and advertisers include pharmaceutical, biotechnology, medical device, and consumer products companies. The company?s private portals enable employers and health plans to provide their employees and members with access to personalized health and benefit information and decision support technology that helps them to make more informed benefit, treatment, and provider decisions. Further, it offers telephonic health coaching services on a per participant basis across an employee or plan population for clients of its private portals. The company was founded in 1995 and is headquartered in New York, New York.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By John Kell]

  WebMD Health Corp.(WBMD) said it swung to a fourth-quarter profit, as the health-information provider reported stronger advertising and sponsorship revenue and attracted more users to its website. Shares edged up 3.4% to $52.40 premarket.

Top Up And Coming Companies To Buy For 2014: Unwired Planet Inc (UPIP)

Unwired Planet, Inc. (Unwired Planet), formerly Openwave Systems Inc., incorporated on December 16, 1994, is an intellectual property and technology licensing company. As of June 30, 2012, the Company had patent portfolio of approximately 200 issued United States and foreign patents and approximately 75 pending applications, many of which is considered foundational to mobile communications. In May 2012, the Company officially changed name to Unwired Planet, Inc.

On February 1, 2012, the Company sold its location business to Persistent Telecom Solutions Inc. On April 30, 2012, the Company completed the sale of its mediation and messaging product businesses to Openwave Mobility, Inc. The Company generates revenue by licensing its patented innovations and technologies to companies that develop mobile communications software infrastructure or hardware and/or develop mobile communications products.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By James E. Brumley]

  If you'd rather spend your hard-earned dollars on some bargain-priced stocks rather than face the Black Friday mania at the malls (wise choice, by the way), then you've come to the right place. And, you may want to start you bargain hunt with Metabolix, Inc. (NASDAQ:MBLX) and Unwired Planet Inc. (NASDAQ:UPIP). Both names have been unduly beaten up in recent weeks, and better still, it looks like UPIP and MBLX, are ready to recover... in spades. That's an important detail, as a bargain is only a bargain if it's something actually worth owning. Take a look.

• [By Wallace Witkowski]

  Shares of Unwired Planet Inc. (UPIP) �jumped 75% to $2.27 on heavy volume after Lenovo Group (HK:0992) �said it would buy about 21 patent families from Unwired for $100 million.

• [By Anora Mahmudova]

  Among individual stocks, Unwired Planet (UPIP) , an intellectual property company focused on the mobile industry, soared 49% after news that Chinese computer-maker Lenovo Group Ltd. (HK:0992) �was buying 21 of its patent families for $100 million.