Top 5 Shipping Stocks To Invest In Right Now

FedEx�(FDX) shares are flying this morning after the shipping company reported earnings this morning. The Wall Street Journal has the details:

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For the quarter ended Aug. 31, FedEx reported a profit of $489 million, or $1.53 a share, up from $459 million, or $1.45 a share, a year earlier. Revenue rose 2.1% to $11.02 billion. Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters had projected a per-share profit of $1.50 and revenue of $10.97 billion…

The company backed its full-year earnings projection.

Citigroup’s Christian Wetherbee explains why he likes the results:

We view F1Q14 results positively as Express posted YoY improvement in operating profit and operating margin despite facing a fuel surcharge headwind , which we estimated to be ~$36m. This YoY growth comes as a result on lower pension expense and aircraft maintenance and should be improved upon in coming quarters as more cost savings initiatives in Express take hold. Looking at full year run rate profitability in Express, typical seasonality (22% of annual EBIT comes in F1Q) suggests that Express is trending toward $1.24b excluding fuel headwinds, which is in line with the better than expected results posted in F4Q13 adding a level of consistency to the improvement. We reiterate our Buy.

Top 5 Oil Companies For 2015: OBA Financial Services Inc.(OBAF)

OBA Financial Services, Inc. operates as the bank holding company for OBA Bank that provides financial services to individuals, families, and businesses in the United States. The company offers various deposit accounts, including statement savings accounts, certificates of deposit, money market accounts, commercial and regular checking accounts, and individual retirement accounts. Its loan portfolio comprises one- to four-family residential mortgage loans, commercial real estate loans, home equity loans and lines of credit, commercial business loans, construction loans, and consumer loans. The company provides its services through a main office and four full-service branches located in Montgomery County and Howard County, Maryland; and Washington, D.C. OBA Financial Services, Inc. was founded in 1861 and is headquartered in Germantown, Maryland.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Tim Melvin]

  NWBI stock trades at 1.12 times book value and serves a very attractive market. It would be a great acquisition for a bank looking to expand into the region, which includes part of the Marcellus Shale fields. Investors get paid to wait for good things to happen, as the dividend yield is currently 3.65%.

  OmniAmerican Bancorp�(OBAF)

  It is very surprising to me that OmniAmerican Bancorp�(OBAF) hasn’t yet been bought out by another bank in the red-hot Texas banking market. The bank has 15 branches located in the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex region and total assets of about$385 million of assets. It has held onto its capital, and the equity-to-asset ratio is more than 16. Non-performing assets are just 0.18% of total assets, so this is another financially solid bank.

• [By Tim Melvin]

  Mr. Seidman also announced an increased stake in OBA Financial (OBAF) in Germantown, Md. He now owns a little over 8% of the six-branch bank and has publicly called for the sale OBAF. He was pretty blunt about his assessment of the bank in a letter to the board, which read:

Top 5 Shipping Stocks To Invest In Right Now: ALCO Stores Inc (ALCS)

Alco Stores, Inc., incorporated on June 2, 1915, is engaged in the business of retailing general merchandise throughout the central portion of the United States of America through a range of department store outlets. The Company�� ALCO stores offer a range of merchandise consisting of approximately 35,000 items, including automotive, commodities, crafts, domestics, electronics, furniture, hardware, health and beauty aids, housewares, jewelry, ladies�� men�� and children�� apparel and shoes, pre-recorded music and video, sporting goods, seasonal items, stationery and toys.

As of February 3, 2013, the Company operated 217 stores in 23 states located in mostly smaller communities in the central United States. The stores average approximately 21,000 square feet of selling space, with an additional 5,000 square feet utilized for merchandise processing, temporary storage and administration.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Monica Gerson]

  ALCO Stores (NASDAQ: ALCS) is projected to post its Q2 earnings.

  Digital Cinema Destinations (NASDAQ: DCIN) is estimated to post a Q4 loss at $0.11 per share on revenue of $11.17 million.

Top 5 Shipping Stocks To Invest In Right Now: SS&C Technologies Holdings Inc.(SSNC)

SS&C Technologies Holdings, Inc. provides software products and software-enabled services to financial services providers primarily in the United States, Canada, Europe, the Asia Pacific, and Japan. Its software products and services allows its clients to automate and integrate front-office functions, such as trading and modeling; middle-office functions, including portfolio management and reporting; and back-office functions comprising accounting, performance measurement, reconciliation, reporting, processing, and clearing. The company?s products and services comprise management/accounting, real-time trading systems, treasury operations, financial modeling, loan management/accounting, property management, money market processing, and training products. Its software-enabled services consist of financial data acquisition, transformation, and delivery services; and business process outsourcing investment accounting and investment operations, hosting of its application softw are, automated workflow integration, automated quality control mechanisms, and interface and connectivity services. The company also offers on- and offshore fund administration services; outsourced administration services and software; real-time trade matching utility and delivery instruction database; securities data services; and broker-neutral and platform-neutral connectivity services. It serves institutional asset management, alternative investment management, and financial institutions vertical markets, as well as commercial lenders, corporate treasury groups, insurance and pension funds, municipal finance groups, and real estate property managers. The company was formerly known as Sunshine Acquisition Corporation and changed its name to SS&C Technologies Holdings, Inc. in June 2007. SS&C Technologies Holdings, Inc. was founded in 1986 and is headquartered in Windsor, Connecticut.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Evan Niu, CFA]

  What: Shares of SS&C Technologies (NASDAQ: SSNC  ) have skyrocketed by as much as 10% today after the company posted record first-quarter results.

Top 5 Shipping Stocks To Invest In Right Now: Lydall Inc. (LDL)

Lydall, Inc. designs and manufactures specialty engineered products for the thermal/acoustical, filtration/separation, and bio/medical applications worldwide. The company operates through Performance Materials, Thermal/Acoustical Metals, and Thermal/Acoustical Fibers segments. The Performance Materials Segment offers filtration media solutions for air, fluid power, and industrial applications, such as clean-space, commercial, industrial and residential HVAC, power generation, and industrial processes. This segment also provides industrial thermal insulation media and products for the cryogenic, building products, appliance, and high temperature insulation markets. In addition, it offers life sciences filtration products for life science applications, including biopharmaceutical pre-filtration and clarification, diagnostic and analytical testing, respiratory protection, life protection, medical air filtration, drinking water filtration, and high purity process filtration. T he Thermal/Acoustical Metals segment provides engineered products, such as thermal and acoustical shielding solutions to assist in noise and heat abatement within the transportation sector. The Thermal/Acoustical Fibers segment offers thermal and acoustical insulating solutions comprising organic and inorganic fiber composites for the automotive and truck markets. The company also provides specialty products for blood filtration devices and blood transfusion single-use containers; and designs and manufactures single-use solutions for cell growth, frozen storage, and fluid handling, as well as equipment for bioprocessing applications. Lydall sells its products primarily to original equipment manufacturers and tier-one suppliers. The company was founded in 1913 and is based in Manchester, Connecticut.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Lisa Levin]

  Conglomerates: This industry moved up 8.21% by 11:30 am. The top performer in this industry was Lydall (NYSE: LDL), which gained 2%. Lydall is expected to report its Q3 earnings on November 5, 2014.