Best Railroad Companies To Own For 2014

Should you wait to see if the winners from 2013 continue to thrive in 2014, or should you take the profits and invest somewhere else? MoneyShow's Jim Jubak thinks a bit of both might be the right answer.

In the video below, Jim Jubak discusses some of the top stocks that MoneyShow's experts have picked for the upcoming year.

These stock picks, which outperformed in 2013, may do just the same this year. For instance, Canadian stock expert Gordon Pape, editor of Internet Wealth Builder, has his eye on the following stock:

No one is even remotely close to the 59.8% operating ratio of CN Rail (CNI), the most accomplished railroad in Canada and the United States. From oil and grains, to cars and trucks, it seems like this company ships just about everything. Perhaps that is precisely why Jim Jubak agrees with Gordon Pape's 2014 Top Stock Pick and predicts that ongoing productivity in 2014 might propel CN Rail stock up another 20%.

Another expert who believes that Canadian National Railway is poised for a great 2014 fiscal year is Microsoft founder (and billionaire) Bill Gates, who owns a $5 billion block of this business.

5 Best Tech Stocks To Own Right Now: Essex Rental Corp (ESSX)

Essex Rental Corp., incorporated on August 21, 2006, through its subsidiaries, is engaged in providing of lifting equipment (including lattice-boom crawler cranes, truck cranes and rough terrain cranes, tower cranes, and other lifting equipment) used in an array of construction projects. In addition, it provides product support including installation, maintenance, repair, and parts and services for its equipment provided to customers and customer owned equipment. It operates in three segments: equipment rentals, equipment distribution, and parts and service. Its subsidiaries wholly owned subsidiaries include Essex Holdings, LLC (Holdings), Essex Crane Rental Corp. (Essex Crane), Essex Finance Corp. (Essex Finance), CC Acquisition Holding Corp. (CC Acquisition), Coast Crane Company, (Coast Crane) and Coast Crane Ltd. (Coast Crane Ltd.).

The Company supply a variety of lifting solutions for construction projects related to power generation, petro-chemical, refineries, water treatment and purification, bridges, highways, hospitals, shipbuilding, offshore oil fabrication and industrial plants, and commercial and residential construction. It rent its equipment bare, meaning without supplying an operator and, in exchange for a fee, make arrangements for the transportation and delivery of equipment.

Essex Crane is a provider of lattice-boom crawler crane and attachment rental services and possesses fleets of such equipment in the United States. As of December 31, 2011, Essex Crane�� fleet size stands at more than 350 lattice-boom crawler cranes and various types of attachments, which are made available to clients depending on their lifting requirements, such as weight, pick and carry aspects, reach and angle of reach.

Coast Crane is a provider for lifting solutions throughout Western North America, Alaska, Hawaii, Guam and the South Pacific. Through Coast Crane, it provides both used and new towers cranes, boom trucks, rough terrain cranes and other lifting equipment ! to customers in the infrastructure, energy, crane rigger/operator, and municipal, commercial and industrial construction sectors. Coast Crane�� operations are headquartered in Seattle, Washington and its products are rented and sold through a regional network including 11 branch locations. In addition to providing crane rental services, Coast Crane is a crane distributor of self-erecting tower cranes, rough terrain cranes, boom trucks and all terrain cranes in its West Coast territories.

Equipment Rental

The Company offer for rent crawler cranes and attachments, rough terrain cranes, boom trucks, tower cranes, and other construction related rental equipment. It also offer transportation, rigging and repair and maintenance services while equipment is on rent. It rent its fleet of over 1,000 cranes and attachments and other lifting equipment to a variety of engineering and construction customers under contracts, most of which have rental periods of between 4 and 18 months. The contracts typically provide for an agreed rental rate and a specified rental period. Transportation services revenue is derived from the management of the logistics process by which its rental equipment is transported to and from customers��construction sites, including the contracting of third party trucking for such transportation.

Equipment Distribution

The Company offers a variety of construction equipment products for sale, including tower cranes, boom trucks, rough terrain cranes and other lifting equipment used in the construction industry. The revenue from retail equipment sales is primarily driven by the level of construction activity in a particular geographic region.

Parts and Service

The Company is a parts distributor for various lifting equipment manufacturers and routinely sells parts to its customers in the construction industry. It also provides repairs and maintenance services for customers that own their own equipment and request its ! services ! at one of its service center locations. Its customers for these ancillary services are its rental customers, customers that own their own equipment and those who purchase new and used equipment from it.

The Company competes with ALL Erection & Crane Rental, Bigge Crane and Rigging, Co., Lampson International, Maxim Crane Works, M.D., Morrow Equipment Rental, Western Pacific Crane and Equipment and AmQuip Crane Corp.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Peter Graham]

  The Q2 2014 earnings report for equipment rental stock United Rentals, Inc (NYSE: URI), a peer or competitor of Essex Rental Corp (NASDAQ: ESSX) and H&E Equipment Services, Inc (NASDAQ: HEES), is scheduled for after the market closes on Wednesday. Aside from the United Rentals earnings report, it should be said that the Essex Rental Corp reported Q4 2013 earnings on May 7th while the estimated release date for the H&E Equipment Services, Inc Q2 2014 earnings report is August 4th. However, United Rentals��shares rose after its last earnings report plus analysts have issued bullish research notes since then.

• [By Monica Gerson]

  Essex Rental (NASDAQ: ESSX) is projected to post a Q4 loss at $0.10 per share on revenue of $22.55 million.

  Posted-In: Earnings scheduleEarnings News Pre-Market Outlook Markets

Best Railroad Companies To Own For 2014: Elecsys Corporation(ESYS)

Elecsys Corporation provides data acquisition systems, machine to machine (M2M) communication technology solutions, and custom electronic equipment for critical industrial applications in the United States and internationally. The company designs and manufactures wireless remote monitoring and telemetry solutions to the energy infrastructure sector, as well as other industrial markets under the Pipeline Watchdog and NTG brand names. It also provides process monitoring, data communication, and cyber security solutions under the SensorCast, Director, and zONeGUARD brand names; smart asset tagging solutions based on radio frequency identification (RFID) technologies, which include custom tags, readers, and software under the brand name of eXtremeTAG; custom electronic design and manufacturing services (EDMS) under the DCI brand name; and ultra-rugged handheld computing solutions, as well as handheld computers, printers, peripherals, and application software under the brand na me of Radix. In addition, the company designs, manufactures, and tests a range of electronic assemblies, including circuit boards, high-frequency electronic modules, microelectronic assemblies, and turn-key products; and provides liquid crystal displays (LCDs) devices and modules, and hardware and software design services to its original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) partners, as well as offers integrated data collection and reporting solutions. It primarily serves energy infrastructure, safety and security systems, industrial controls, irrigation and water management, transportation, military, and aerospace markets. Elecsys Corporation was founded in 1991 and is headquartered in Olathe, Kansas.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By John Udovich]

  Small cap machine-to-machine (M2M) stock Elecsys Corp (NASDAQ: ESYS) jumped 8.99% yesterday and is up 254% over the past year, meaning it might be time to take a closer look at the stock and its performance verses other small cap M2M stocks like Digi International Inc (NASDAQ: DGII), Numerex Corp (NASDAQ: NMRX) and Sierra Wireless, Inc (NASDAQ: SWIR). First of all though, I should mention that machine-to-machine (M2M) broadly refers to technologies that allow both wireless and wired systems to communicate with other devices of the same type and this can be through any type of technology ranging from instruments to networks to applications that create connections between devices.

Best Railroad Companies To Own For 2014: Ishares Trust Russell (IWD)

iShares Russell 1000 Value Index Fund (the Fund) seeks investment results that correspond generally to the price and yield performance of the large-capitalization value sector of the United States equity market, as represented by the Russell 1000 Value Index (the Index). The Index is a subset of the Russell 1000 Index. The Index is a capitalization-weighted index and consists of those companies or portion of a company, with lower price-to-book ratios and lower forecasted growth within the Russell 1000 Index. The Index represents approximately 51% of the total market capitalization of the Russell 1000 Index.

The Fund invests in a representative sample of securities included in the Index that collectively has an investment profile similar to Index. iShares Russell 1000 Value Index Fund's investment advisor is Barclays Global Fund Advisors.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By James Brumley]

  It’s been especially untrue the last few years. Since this point in the year back in 2003, the iShares Russell 1000 Growth Fund (IWF) has advanced 81%, while the iShares Russell 1000 Value Fund (IWD) has only advanced 67%.

Best Railroad Companies To Own For 2014: Pacer International Inc.(PACR)

Pacer International, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, provides asset-light transportation and logistics services primarily in North America, Asia, Europe, Australia, South America, and Africa. It operates in two segments, Intermodal and Logistics. The Intermodal segment offers intermodal rail transportation, local cartage and trucking, intermodal marketing services, container capacity, on-site operational services, and door-to-door shipment management services. As of December 31, 2011, its equipment fleet consisted of 1,592 double-stack railcars, 18,183 containers, and 12,783 chassis. The Logistics segment provides highway brokerage, warehousing and distribution, international freight forwarding, ocean and air shipping, and supply chain management services, as well as offers non-vessel-operating common carrier to end-user customers. The company markets and supports its services to cargo owners, steamship lines, truckload carriers, truck brokers, and freight forwarders , as well as other third party transportation service providers, such as intermodal marketing companies, third-party logistics companies, and shippers? agents through its direct sales and customer service representatives. Pacer International, Inc. was founded in 1974 and is headquartered in Dublin, Ohio.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Jake L'Ecuyer]

  XPO Logistics (NYSE: XPO) shot up 7.06 percent to $30.01 after the company announced its plans to acquire Pacer International (NASDAQ: PACR) in a deal valued at $335 million.

Best Railroad Companies To Own For 2014: Genius Brands International Inc (GNUS)

Genius Brands International, Inc., formerly Pacific Entertainment Corporation, provides music-based products, which entertains and educates infants and young children under its brands, including Baby Genius. It creates, markets and sells children�� digital versatile discs (DVDs), compact disc (CD) music and book products in the United States by distribution at wholesale to retail stores and outlets and direct to consumers through various deal for a day sites. It also licenses the use of its brands, both domestically and internationally, to others to manufacture, market and sell products based on its characters and brand, whereby the Company receives advances and royalties. In addition to the distribution of its CD and DVD products, the Company has developed and will continue to develop multiple revenue streams, which include worldwide licensing and merchandising opportunities for toys, books, and other customer products. During the year ended December 31, 2011, Pacific Entertainment Corporation, which is a California corporation, merged into the Company. On July 25, 2012, it sold approximately 500,000 Baby Genius DVDs and CDs and over 50,000 Little Genius CDs through its campaigns on Groupon.

Distribution

In 2008, the Company began self-distributing its DVD and CD products through direct relationships with customers. It also has third party licensing agreements under which it has developed musical products under other brands and receives revenue and pay a royalty for distributing those products through its distribution channels. The Company has licensed its brands for production of additional product lines, such as toys, books and other products, the products are primarily distributed by the licensee through the licensee�� marketing channels. As of December 31, 2011, it had one exclusive license agreement, which is with Jakks Pacific�� Tollytots (Tollytots) division.

Products

The Company�� products consist primarily of family and children��! DVD and CD music products. These products are manufactured and sold under brand names, such as Baby Genius, Kid Genius, Wee Worship, 123 Favorite Music and Pacific Entertainment Presents. The Company�� music products also include 50 Classic Lullabies & Soothing Songs and Favorite Guitar and Piano Melodies. During 2011, it released three new music titles, Best of Baby Genius, Sleighbells and Snowflakes and Favorite Country Christmas Music. The entire library of Baby Genius DVD and CD music products includes both English and Spanish versions. It also licenses its Baby Genius brand for various product lines, including toys, books, games and puzzles, sippy cups, and early learning aids, as well as others, and receives royalties based on sales of these products.

The Company has third party licensing agreements under which it has developed musical products under other brands, such as Guess How Much I Love You, The Snowman and Precious Moments. It also licensed the rights to eight DVDs previously created by Precious Moments in exchange for royalty payments on net sales of the DVD products. Through an exclusive licensing agreement with the San Diego Zoological Society, the Company created a series of Baby Genius DVD�� featuring footage from the San Diego Zoo and San Diego Wild Animal Park.

The Company competes with Baby Einstein, Brainy Baby, So Smart, The Wiggles, Sesame Baby, Disney, Universal Studios, Playskool, Fisher Price, Little Tykes and Leapfrog.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Lisa Levin]

  Music & Video Stores: This industry jumped 1.68% by 10:25 am. The top performer in this industry was Genius Brands International (OTC: GNUS), which rose 8.7%. Genius Brands' trailing-twelve-month revenue is $2.00 million.

Best Railroad Companies To Own For 2014: MercadoLibre Inc.(MELI)

MercadoLibre, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, hosts online commerce and payments platforms in Latin America. Its services are designed to provide its users with mechanisms to buy, sell, pay for, and collect on e-commerce transactions. The company principally offers MercadoLibre marketplace, an automated online commerce service, which permits businesses and individuals to list items and conduct their sales and purchases online in a fixed-price or auction-based format. Its MercadoLibre marketplace enables registered users to list and purchase motor vehicles, vessels, aircraft, real estate, and other services through online classified listings; and Internet users to browse through various products and services that are listed on its Website and to register with MercadoLibre to list, bid for, and purchase items and services. The company also provides MercadoPago, an integrated online payments solution to facilitate transactions on and off the MercadoLibre marketplace by providing a mechanism that allows its users to send and receive payments online. In addition, it offers MercadoClics advertising program that allows businesses to promote their products and services on the Internet. This program enables users and advertisers to place, display, and/or text advertisements on its Web pages to promote their brands and offerings. Further, the company provides MercadoShops on-line stores solution, a software-as-a-service, which allows users to set-up, manage, and promote their own on-line Webstores. As of December 31, 2010, the company operated online commerce platforms directed towards Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Mexico, Panama, Peru, Uruguay, and Venezuela; online payments solutions directed towards Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, Venezuela, Chile, and Colombia; and a real estate classified platform that covers various areas in Florida. The company was founded in 1999 and is headquartered in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Michael A. Robinson]

  Most people, for example, haven't heard of Buenos Aires-based Mercadolibre Inc. (NasdaqGS: MELI), a company I detailed last week.

  But they'd be better off if they had...

• [By Paul Goodwin]

  Paul Goodwin: Well, one stock I kind of like right now is called Mercado Libre (MELI), it's essentially the eBay of Latin America, and its stock has been in an uptrend for awhile, and I think there is great opportunity in Latin America.

• [By Roberto Pedone]

  Mercadolibre (MELI) operates an online trading site for the Latin American markets. This stock closed up 7.1% at $128.50 in Monday's trading session.

  Monday's Volume: 814,000
  
  Three-Month Average Volume: 479,008
  
  Volume % Change: 69%

   

  From a technical perspective, MELI ripped higher here right above its 50-day moving average of $117.07 with above-average volume. This move pushed shares of MELI into breakout territory, since the stock took out some near-term overhead resistance at $125.30. Shares of MELI are now quickly moving within range of triggering another big breakout trade. That trade will hit if MELI manages to take out some more near-term overhead resistance at $130.74 with high volume.

  Traders should now look for long-biased trades in MELI as long as it's trending above $125 or $124 and then once it sustains a move or close above $130.74 with volume that's near or above 479,008 shares. If that breakout triggers soon, then MELI will set up to re-test or possibly take out its 52-week high at $136.52.

• [By Hilary Kramer]

  Mercadolibre (MELI): The name of the company is Spanish for ��ree market,��and I think of MELI as the eBay (EBAY) of Latin America. Online shopping is growing at a faster rate in Latin America as the middle class continues to grow, and Brazil is one of the hot spots. Ecommerce in Brazil reached $17 billion in 2012, according to eMarketer, and that number is expected to jump to $29 billion by the end of 2017 as smartphone usage increases and more people access the Internet. Mercadolibre operates ecommerce sites where items are sold either through auction or a fixed price. MELI also has an electronic payment business called MercadoPago, similar to eBay�� PayPal, which can be used on MELI’s sites as well as for payments elsewhere. We took profits in it earlier this year in my GameChangers newsletter, but I continue to watch it closely and like its long-term potential.