5 Best Shipping Stocks To Buy For 2015

Paul Sakuma/AP If you live for now, Amazon.com (AMZN) can help. The online retail giant has unveiled a one-hour plan that can deliver thousands of daily essential items, like paper towels and shampoo, to Amazon Prime members in parts of southern Manhattan -- the rollout of an immediate-gratification-takes-too-long program that spreads to more cities in 2015. "There are times when you can't make it to the store and other times when you simply don't want to go," said Dave Clark, Amazon's senior vice president of worldwide operations. "There are so many reasons to skip the trip and now Prime members in Manhattan can get the items they need delivered in an hour or less." Dubbed "Prime Now," the plan is offered through a mobile app available on iOS and Android devices. The delivery service is available from 6 a.m. to midnight, seven days a week. Two-hour delivery is free and one-hour delivery costs $7.99. A portion of Amazon's new building on 34th Street in Manhattan will serve as a hub for delivery of Prime Now orders. Amazon Prime, the online retailer's premier buying plan, costs $99 a year and qualifies subscribers to free streaming of TV shows, films and music; and for free, two-day shipping of Amazon purchases. More from Lisa Kaplan Gordon
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Best Media Companies To Buy Right Now: Hillenbrand Inc(HI)

Hillenbrand, Inc. designs, manufactures, distributes, and sells funeral service products to licensed funeral directors operating licensed funeral homes. The company?s products include burial caskets, cremation caskets, containers, vaults, urns, and selection room display fixturing for funeral homes, as well as other personalization and memorialization products and services, including Web-based applications, and the creation and hosting of Websites for licensed funeral homes. It markets its products under the Batesville and Options brand name through direct sales force in the United States, Puerto Rico, Canada, Mexico, the United Kingdom, and Australia. The company also designs, produces, markets, sells, and services bulk solids material handling equipment and systems for various industrial markets, including plastics, food, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, power generation, coal mining, pulp and paper, frac sand, industrial minerals, agribusiness, recycling, wood and forest pr oducts, and biomass energy generation. It offers feeders and pneumatic conveying equipment under the K-Tron brand name; and size reduction equipment, such as hammer mills, double-roll crushers, wood and bark hogs, chip sizers, screening equipment, pneumatic and mechanical conveying systems, storage/reclamation systems, and specialty crushers and other equipment under the Pennsylvania Crusher, Gundlach, and Jeffrey Rader brand names. In addition, the company manufactures dry material separation machines that sort dry, granular products based on the particle?s size serving various industries, including frac sand, potash, urea, phosphates, chemical, agricultural, plastics, and food processing. The company sells its material handling equipment and systems worldwide through a combination of a direct sales force, and a network of independent sales representatives and distributors. Hillenbrand, Inc. was founded in 2008 and is headquartered in Batesville, Indiana.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By GURUFOCUS]

  Hillenbrand Inc. (HI), a diversified industrial company, makes and sells business-to-business products and services for various industries worldwide. Dec. 4, the company increased is quarterly dividend 1.3% to $0.1975 per share. the dividend is payable Dec. 31, 2013, to shareholders of record at the close of business on Dec. 17, 2013. The yield based on the new payout is 2.8%.

• [By Laura Brodbeck]

  Tuesday

  Earnings Expected: Buffalo Wild Wings, Inc. (NASDAQ: BWLD), Hillenbrand Inc (NYSE: HI), Sirius XM Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ: SIRI) Economic Releases Expected: German retail sales, French consumer confidence, German unemployment rate, eurozone CPI, eurozone PPI, US trade balance, US redbook

  Wednesday

5 Best Shipping Stocks To Buy For 2015: Gruppa LSR OAO (LSRG)

Gruppa LSR OAO (LSR Group OJSC) is a Russia-based company involved in the real estate development and construction. It is also engaged in the production of various building materials, such as ceramic bricks, crushed granite, concrete and reinforced concrete products, ready-mix concrete and aerated concrete segments. The Company�� services comprise the development of residential, office and commercial buildings, as well as tower cranes and hoisting machinery services for use in real estate construction. It is also involved in the investment operations. Gruppa LSR OAO acts as a general and sub-contractor for the Russian Federation Government, Saint Petersburg Government, and as a general and sub-contractor for other developers, among pile-driving services. The Company operates through numerous subsidiaries located domestically, as well as one representative office in Moscow. In December 2013, it acquired a 100 % stake in OOO Gazstroy, an owner of Ryabovsky brick plant. Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Zahra Hankir]

  Russian stocks declined to the lowest level in a month as builder LSR Group (LSRG) and power company OAO Inter RAO UES dropped after MSCI Inc. cut them from an index tracked by investors. The Borsa Istanbul National 100 Index tumbled 2.5 percent, the most in two months, as Turkiye Garanti Bankasi AS led losses in lenders. Benchmark gauges in the Czech Republic and Poland retreated at least 0.7 percent.

5 Best Shipping Stocks To Buy For 2015: Barrett Business Services Inc.(BBSI)

Barrett Business Services, Inc. provides business management solutions in the United States. The company offers human resource management services in areas comprising payroll processing, employee benefits and administration, human resource management, risk management, and workers? compensation coverage areas. It also provides professional employer organization services, which include employee benefits, health insurance, workers? compensation coverage, workplace safety programs, federal and state employment laws compliance, labor and workplace regulatory requirements, and related administrative services; and payroll administrative services, such as payroll processing, payroll taxes, and human resource consulting services. In addition, the company provides staffing services, including on-demand or short-term staffing assignments, contract staffing, long-term or indefinite-term on-site management, direct placement, and human resource administration services. It serves elect ronics manufacturers; various light-manufacturing industries; forest products and agriculture-based companies; transportation and shipping enterprises; food processing; telecommunications; public utilities; general contractors in various construction-related fields; and professional services firms. Barrett Business Services, Inc. was founded in 1965 and is headquartered in Vancouver, Washington.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Rich Duprey]

  The much smaller Barrett Business Services (NASDAQ: BBSI  ) has done even better, soaring 154% over the last 12 months.

  While that might suggest the opportunity to invest in them has passed, I believe their biggest gains are still ahead. While tentativeness among employers about whether the economy is really improving is helping employers to hire more temp workers, the coming implementation of Obamacare will fuel it further. Even with the employer mandate portion of the law being pushed out past the midterm elections to 2015 instead of going into effect on January 1, that just means more companies will be hiring more temp workers for a longer period of time to get below the thresholds the health-care law imposes.

5 Best Shipping Stocks To Buy For 2015: Alpha and Omega Semiconductor Limited(AOSL)

Alpha and Omega Semiconductor Limited engages in the design, development, and supply of a range of power semiconductors worldwide. The company offers power discrete product line comprising trench MOSFETs, electrostatic discharge, protected MOSFETs, and SRFETs; and power ICs. Its products are used in notebooks, netbooks, flat panel displays, mobile phone battery packs, set-top boxes, portable media players, and power supplies. The company sells its products to distributors. Alpha and Omega Semiconductor Limited is based in Hamilton, Bermuda.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Tim Melvin]

  This split among industry segments has created some value opportunities as those companies with high exposure to PCs are very cheap. And while the move towards smart phones and tablets may continue, the PC is not dead — demand will pick up along with the economy.

  Alpha and Omega Semiconductor (AOSL)

  Alpha and Omega Semiconductor (AOSL) is a designer, developer and global supplier of a broad portfolio of power semiconductors. The portfolio of power semiconductors includes more than 1,400 products, and has grown rapidly with 195 new products introduced last year alone. Its semiconductors are used in a wide range of products, including things like personal computers, flat panel TVs, LED lighting, smart phones, and telecommunications equipment.