Top Trucking Companies To Own In Right Now

Watch out, grocery chain investors: The $250 billion freight train that is Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT  ) is looking to push you off the rails.

On Monday Wal-Mart announced changes across its sourcing, training, and operations "that will ensure the quality and freshness of the fruits and vegetables that it offers customers."

The plan
So how, exactly, does this corporate behemoth intend to achieve its goal?�

First, the initiative includes plans to purchase produce directly from growers with the guidance of new produce experts hired by the company. As a result, Wal-Mart will be able to take greater advantage of its own industry-leading network of distribution centers and trucking systems to bring fruits and vegetables to store shelves even faster than its current system allows.

Next, Wal-Mart will be performing "independent weekly checks in its more than 3,400 Supercenters, Neighborhood Markets and Express Stores that sell produce," the reports for which will be sent to "every level of store management" to help benchmark itself and competitors on a week-over-week basis.

Hot Heal Care Companies To Own In Right Now: Inphi Corporation (IPHI)

Inphi Corporation provides high-speed analog and mixed signal semiconductor solutions for the communications, datacenter, and computing markets worldwide. Its analog and mixed signal semiconductor solutions offer high signal integrity at data speeds while reducing system power consumption. The company�s semiconductor solutions are designed to address bandwidth bottlenecks in networks, maximize throughput and minimize latency in computing environments, and enable the rollout of next generation communications, datacenter, and computing infrastructures. Its solutions provide a high-speed interface between analog signals and digital information in high-performance systems, such as telecommunications transport systems, enterprise networking equipment, datacenters and enterprise servers, storage platforms, test and measurement equipment, and military systems. The company also provides 40G and 100G high-speed analog semiconductor solutions for the communications market and high- speed memory interface solutions for the computing market. Its products include amplifiers and modulator drivers, clock and data recovery, isolation memory buffer, register, and SerDes products that perform a range of functions, such as amplifying, encoding, multiplexing, demultiplexing, retiming, and buffering data and clock signals at speeds up to 100 Gbps. Inphi Corporation sells its products directly through its sales force, as well as through a network of sales representatives and distributors to original equipment manufacturers. The company was formerly known as TCom Communications, Inc. and changed its name to Inphi Corporation in February 2001. Inphi Corporation was founded in 2000 and is headquartered in Santa Clara, California.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Garrett Cook]

  Inphi (NASDAQ: IPHI) shares were also up, gaining 26.11 percent to $16.14 after the company announced its plans to acquire Cortina Systems.

  Equities Trading DOWN

• [By Roberto Pedone]

  Inphi (IPHI) provides high-speed analog and mixed signal semiconductor solutions for the communications, datacenter and computing markets. This stock closed up 4.7% at $13.25 in Monday's trading session.

  Monday's Volume: 838,000
  
  Three-Month Average Volume: 202,080
  
  Volume % Change: 378%

  From a technical perspective, IPHI jumped higher here right above some near-term support at $12.44 with heavy upside volume. This stock has been uptrending strong for the last five months, with shares soaring higher from its low of $8.62 to its intraday high of $13.85. During that uptrend, shares of IPHI have been consistently making higher lows and higher highs, which is bullish technical price action. That move briefly pushed shares of IPHI into breakout territory, since the stock flirted with some near-term overhead resistance at $13.50.

  Traders should now look for long-biased trades in IPHI as long as it's trending above some near-term support at $12.44 and then once it sustains a move or close above its new 52-week high at $13.85 with volume that hits near or above 202,080 shares. If we get that move soon, then IPHI will set up to enter new 52-week-high territory, which is bullish technical price action. Some possible upside targets off that move are its next major overhead resistance levels at $14.79 to $16.94, or possibly even $18.

• [By Garrett Cook]

  Inphi (NASDAQ: IPHI) shares were also up, gaining 33.19 percent to $17.04 after the company announced its plans to acquire Cortina Systems.

  Equities Trading DOWN

Top Trucking Companies To Own In Right Now: Valero Energy Corporation(VLO)

Valero Energy Corporation operates as an independent petroleum refining and marketing company. The company operates through three segments: Refining, Ethanol, and Retail. The Refining segment engages in refining, wholesale marketing, product supply and distribution, and transportation operations. It produces conventional gasoline, distillates, jet fuel, asphalt, petrochemicals, lubricants, and other refined products. This segment also offers conventional blendstock for oxygenate blending, reformulated gasoline blendstock for oxygenate blending, gasoline meeting the specifications of the California Air Resources Board (CARB), CARB diesel fuel, low-sulfur and ultra-low-sulfur diesel fuel. The Ethanol segment produces ethanol and distillers grains. The Retail segment sells transportation fuels at retail stores and unattended self-service cardlocks; convenience store merchandise and services in retail stores; and home heating oil to residential customers. Valero Energy Corpora tion markets its refined products through bulk and rack marketing network; and sells refined products through a network of approximately 6,800 retail and wholesale branded outlets under the Valero, Diamond Shamrock, Shamrock, Ultramar, Beacon, and Texaco names in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Aruba, and Ireland. As of December 31, 2011, it owned 16 petroleum refineries with a combined throughput capacity of approximately 3.0 million barrels per day; and operated 10 ethanol plants with a combined nameplate production capacity of approximately 1.1 billion gallons per year. The company was formerly known as Valero Refining and Marketing Company and changed its name to Valero Energy Corporation in August 1997. Valero Energy Corporation was founded in 1955 and is based in San Antonio, Texas.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Arjun Sreekumar]

  Meanwhile, though, U.S. refiners have managed to drastically slash imports of light, sweet crude oil -- most notably from Nigeria and Angola -- thanks to booming production from US shale plays. For instance, Valero (NYSE: VLO  ) has replaced all light oil imports with domestic substitutes at its Gulf Coast and Memphis refineries, while Phillips 66 (NYSE: PSX  ) recently said it hopes to process 100% North American crudes at its refineries nationwide within a couple of years.

• [By Paul Ausick]

  Who wins and who loses? Valero Corp. (NYSE: VLO) is both an oil refiner and an ethanol producer. In its most quarter, the company�� ethanol segment posted operating income of $113 million compared with a loss of $73 million in the same period last year. That amounts to about 7% of the company�� total quarterly operating income of $1.7 billion. prices led to better margins. In general, all refiners win because the they won�� be required to buy RINs to offset lower ethanol blending.

• [By Aimee Duffy]

  Valero (NYSE: VLO  ) was the first big refiner to report earnings, doing so earlier this week. In this video, Fool.com contributor Aimee Duffy takes a closer look at the company's gross margin per barrel for its mid-continent operations, which shrank 18% year over year. Aimee discusses how Valero's past numbers have compared to the other big mid-con refiners, and if there is even a point for investors to make the comparison at all.

• [By Tyler Crowe]

  For refiners, though, that spread in price led to very lucrative refining margins. As that spread has narrowed, so too has margins for refiners.

  Refining Margins Q4 2012� Q2 2013 Valero (NYSE: VLO  ) $12.27 $9.26 Phillips 66 (NYSE: PSX  ) � $13.67 $9.88 HollyFrontier (NYSE: HFC  ) $24.00 $20.28 CVR Refining (NYSE: CVRR  ) $28.08 $20.30

  Source: Company Earnings releases

Top Trucking Companies To Own In Right Now: Hatteras Financial Corp (HTS)

Hatteras Financial Corp., incorporated on September 19, 2007, is an externally managed mortgage real estate investment trust (REIT) that invests primarily in single-family residential mortgage pass-through securities guaranteed or issued by the United States Government agency (such as the Government National Mortgage Association (Ginnie Mae)), or by the United States Government-sponsored entity (such as the Federal National Mortgage Association, (Fannie Mae)), and the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation, (Freddie Mac)). The Company is externally managed and advised by its manager, Atlantic Capital Advisors LLC.

The Company focuses on agency securities consisting of mortgage loans with short durations. The agency securities consist of mortgages that have principal and interest payments guaranteed by Ginnie Mae, Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac. It invests in both fixed-rate and adjustable-rate agency securities. Adjustable rate mortgages (ARMs) are mortgages that have floating interest rates that reset on a specific time schedule, such as monthly, quarterly or annually, based on a specified index, such as the 12-month moving average of the one-year constant maturity United States Treasury rate (CMT) or the London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR). The ARMs it generally invests in, sometimes referred to as hybrid ARMS, have interest rates that are fixed for an initial period (typically three, five, seven or 10 years) and then reset annually thereafter to an increment over a pre-determined interest rate index.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Zain Zafar]

  Hatteras Financial (NYSE: HTS  ) �was one of the worst performers during the period despite following a relatively conservative strategy of investing mostly in adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) mortgage-backed securities, as opposed to fixed-rate 30-year MBSes that can often carry a larger interest rate risk.�

• [By Amanda Alix]

  More mREITs stay the course, but two trim payouts
  Despite suffering many tumbles and bruises, several mREITs have announced that their dividends will be unchanged from the previous quarter. Several did so last week, and yesterday saw Hatteras Financial (NYSE: HTS  ) , an agency-only trust, keeping its own $0.70 per share�payout the same. Hybrid New York Mortgage Trust (NASDAQ: NYMT  ) also kept its dividend stable, at $0.27 per share, in line with its four most recent distributions.

• [By Rich Duprey]

  Single-family-housing REIT�Hatteras Financial (NYSE: HTS  ) announced yesterday its second-quarter dividend of $0.70 per share, the same rate it's paid for the past two quarters after cutting the payout 12.5% from $0.80 per share.

• [By Amanda Alix]

  When Hatteras Financial (NYSE: HTS  ) declared second-quarter�earnings earlier this week, it was not a pretty sight, as earnings per share missed the mark by $0.04. But that wasn't what set the stage for the carnage that spread throughout the sector: Hatteras reported a huge -- more than 20% -- drop in book value from the first quarter, sending the stock down more than 10% on Wednesday.

Top Trucking Companies To Own In Right Now: China BAK Battery Inc.(CBAK)

China BAK Battery, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, engages in the manufacture, commercialization, and distribution of various standard and customized lithium ion rechargeable batteries. The company offers various products, including aluminum-case prismatic, cylindrical, lithium polymer, and high-power lithium battery cells. Its battery cells are the principal component of rechargeable batteries used to power cellular phones and smart phones; notebook computers, tablet computers, and e-book readers; portable consumer electronics, such as digital cameras, portable media players, portable gaming devices, personal digital assistants, camcorders, and Bluetooth headsets; and electric bicycles, light electric vehicles, hybrid electric vehicles, cordless power tools, and uninterruptible power supplies. The company serves battery pack manufacturers, original equipment manufactures, and replacement battery manufacturers primarily in the People?s Republic of China, Taiwan, Hon g Kong, India, the United States, the Middle East, Italy, Germany, and Turkey. China BAK Battery, Inc. was founded in 2001 and is based in Shenzhen, China.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Bryan Murphy]

  It's fun to be right, but there's such a thing as being a little too right, too fast. Such is the case with China BAK Battery Inc. (NASDAQ:CBAK) ... a stock yours truly was touting as a buy-worthy ticker just two days ago following news from Tesla Motors (NASDAQ:TSLA) that it was getting into the battery-pack business so it could become its own supplier for its electric vehicle business (Tesla automobiles need a huge battery pack to run). If there was enough demand for a carmaker to get into the game, then surely it meant there was enough potential business for an established battery market to bear plenty of fruit for CBAK too.

• [By Ant贸nio Costa]
  China BAK Battery Inc. (NASDAQ: CBAK) still looks pretty good on the technical daily chart with volume expanding as it moves higher, MACD crossover too. CBAK continues to look bullish and had a decent day Friday. ( click to enlarge )

Top Trucking Companies To Own In Right Now: Polo Ralph Lauren Corporation(RL)

Ralph Lauren Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, engages in the design, marketing, and distribution of lifestyle products. The company offers men?s, women?s, and children?s clothing; and accessories comprising footwear, eyewear, watches, jewelry, hats, and belts, as well as leather goods, including handbags and luggage. It also provides products for homes, including bedding and bath products, furniture, fabric and wallpaper, paint, tabletop, and giftware; and fragrance products for women men. In addition, the company licenses its products, such as men?s sportswear, men?s tailored clothing, men?s underwear and sleepwear, eyewear, fragrances, cosmetics, and color and skin care products. It offers its products under the Polo by Ralph Lauren, Ralph Lauren Purple Label, Ralph Lauren Women?s Collection, Black Label, Blue Label, Lauren by Ralph Lauren, RRL, RLX, Rugby, Ralph Lauren Childrenswear, American Living, Chaps, and Club Monaco brand names. Ralph Lauren sells its products to department stores, specialty stores, and golf and pro shops; full-price retail stores, factory retail stores, and concessions-based shop-within-shops; and online through RalphLauren.com and Rugby.com. As of April 3, 2010, it operated 179 full-price retail stores and 171 factory stores worldwide, as well as 281 concessions-based shop-within-shops and 2 e-commerce Websites. The company was formerly known as Polo Ralph Lauren Corporation and changed its name to Ralph Lauren Corporation in August 2011. Ralph Lauren Corporation was founded in 1967 and is based in New York, New York.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Adem Tahiri]

  Yet with strong competitors like PVH Corp (NYSE: PVH  ) and Ralph Lauren� (NYSE: RL  ) for its signature menswear lines, this stock may be stuck in neutral for a bit. Let's take a closer look at both the quarter and the competitive landscape for Perry Ellis International.

• [By Jonathan Yates]

  Luxury goods companies such as Ralph Lauren (NYSE: RL), Michael Kors (NASDAQ: KORS) and Mercedes Benz (OTC: DDAIF) count on China for increasing sales. And among the most desired items by Chinese consumers are handbags and other accessories from Coach Inc (NYSE: COH).

Top Trucking Companies To Own In Right Now: MGIC Investment Corp (MTG)

MGIC Investment Corporation (MGIC), incorporated June 21, 1984, is a holding company and through wholly owned subsidiaries is a private mortgage insurer in the United States. As of December 31, 2012, its principal mortgage insurance subsidiaries, Mortgage Guaranty Insurance Corporation (MGIC) and MGIC Indemnity Corporation (MIC), were each licensed in all 50 states of the United States, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. During the year ending December 31, 2012, the Company wrote new insurance in each of those jurisdictions in MGIC and/or MIC. The Company capitalized MIC to write new insurance in certain jurisdictions where MGIC no longer meets, and is unable to obtain a waiver of, those jurisdictions��minimum capital requirements. Private mortgage insurance covers losses from homeowner defaults on residential mortgage loans, reducing and, in some instances, eliminating the loss to the insured institution if the homeowner defaults.

Mortgage Insurance

Primary insurance provides mortgage default protection on individual loans and covers unpaid loan principal, delinquent interest and certain expenses associated with the default and subsequent foreclosure. Primary insurance is written on first mortgage loans secured by owner occupied single-family homes, which are one-to-four family homes and condominiums. Primary insurance is also written on first liens secured by non-owner occupied single-family homes, which are referred to in the home mortgage lending industry as investor loans, and on vacation or second homes. Primary coverage can be used on any type of residential mortgage loan instrument approved by the mortgage insurer.

When a borrower refinances a mortgage loan insured by the Company by paying it off in full with the proceeds of a new mortgage that is also insured by it, the insurance on that existing mortgage is cancelled, and insurance on the new mortgage is considered to be new primary insurance written. Therefore, continuation of its coverage fr! om a refinanced loan to a new loan results in both a cancellation of insurance and new insurance written. When a lender and borrower modify a loan rather than replace it with a new one, or enter into a new loan pursuant to a loan modification program, its insurance continues without being cancelled assuming that the Company consent to the modification or new loan.

The borrower�� mortgage loan instrument requires the borrower to pay the mortgage insurance premium. There are several payment plans available to the borrower, or lender, as the case may be. Under the monthly premium plan, the borrower or lender pays it a monthly premium payment to provide only one month of coverage. Under the annual premium plan, an annual premium is paid to it in advance, and it earns and recognizes the premium over the next 12 months of coverage, with annual renewal premiums paid in advance thereafter and earned over the subsequent 12 months of coverage. Under the single premium plan, the borrower or lender pays it a single payment covering a specified term exceeding twelve months.

Pool insurance is used as an additional credit enhancement for certain secondary market mortgage transactions. Pool insurance covers the excess of the loss on a defaulted mortgage loan which exceeds the claim payment under the primary coverage, if primary insurance is required on that mortgage loan, as well as the total loss on a defaulted mortgage loan which did not require primary insurance. Pool insurance is used as an additional credit enhancement for certain secondary market mortgage transactions. Pool insurance covers the excess of the loss on a defaulted mortgage loan, which exceeds the claim payment under the primary coverage, if primary insurance is required on that mortgage loan, as well as the total loss on a defaulted mortgage loan which did not require primary insurance. In general, the loans insured by it in Wall Street bulk transactions consisted of loans with reduced underwriting documentation; cash out! refinanc! es, which exceed the standard underwriting requirements of the Federal National Mortgage Association (Fannie Mae) and Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation (Freddie Mac) (collectively GSEs); A- loans; subprime loans, and jumbo loans.

Other Products and Services

The Company has participated in risk sharing arrangements with the GSEs and captive mortgage reinsurance arrangements with subsidiaries of certain mortgage lenders, which reinsure a portion of the risk on loans originated or serviced by the lenders, which have MGIC primary insurance. It provides information regarding captive mortgage reinsurance arrangements to the New York Department of Insurance (known as the New York Department of Financial Services), the Minnesota Department of Commerce and the Department of Housing and Urban Development, (HUD). It performs contract underwriting services for lenders, in which it judges whether the data relating to the borrower and the loan contained in the lender�� mortgage loan application file comply with the lender�� loan underwriting guidelines. It also provides an interface to submit data to the automated underwriting systems of the GSEs, which independently judge the data. These services are provided for loans, which require private mortgage insurance, as well as for loans that do not require private mortgage insurance. It provides mortgage services for the mortgage finance industry, such as portfolio retention and secondary marketing of mortgages.

The Company competes with Federal Housing Administration, Veterans Administration, PMI Mortgage Insurance Company, Genworth Mortgage Insurance Corporation, United Guaranty Residential Insurance Company, Radian Guaranty Inc., CMG Mortgage Insurance Company, and Essent Guaranty, Inc.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Zachary Tracer]

  Investors have poured cash into mortgage insurance this year as home prices rise, pushing up shares of MGIC Investment Corp. (MTG) and Radian Group Inc. (RDN) by more than 100 percent, and buying their notes in offerings. Essent Group Ltd. (ESNT), a mortgage guarantor funded amid the financial crisis by Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and billionaire George Soros, filed last month for an IPO. The companies cover losses when homeowners default and foreclosures fail to recoup costs.

• [By Wallace Witkowski]

  Shares of private mortgage insurers fell after Radian Group Inc. (RDN) �called new proposed capital requirements ��nerous��but said it didn�� feel it would have to raise outside capital. Shares of Radian declined 3.8% to $14 on moderate volume, while shares of MGIC Investment Corp. (MTG) �fell 5.4% to $8.74 on moderate volume.

• [By Dan Caplinger]

  MGIC Investment (NYSE: MTG  ) will release its quarterly report next Tuesday, but investors haven't waited for that report to send the stock to two-year highs. As the housing market has improved, the mortgage-insurance company's prospects have followed suit, but the slow recovery in MGIC earnings are now vulnerable to a potential drop in premium revenue if rising interest rates hurt new mortgage activity.

• [By Dan Caplinger]

  Genworth's results are consistent with the gains that its mortgage-insurance peers have experienced. Both Radian Group (NYSE: RDN  ) and MGIC Investment (NYSE: MTG  ) have posted impressive gains that have attracted the attention of hedge-fund investors seeking to capitalize on the strengthening housing market. Yet in the long run, the question that faces the entire industry is whether lenders will even want to make mortgage loans with inadequate down payments that require mortgage insurance in the first place. Some would argue that tighter lending standards would make mortgage insurance unnecessary, while others note that lenders might choose to demand insurance beyond the current standards of roughly 20% to 25% home equity that have historically triggered the contractual need for purchase-money insurance in mortgage contracts.