Hot Warren Buffett Stocks For 2014

In doing a GARP screen the other day, I was surprised by the top five picks it turned up. But before I reveal their names, you might be wondering, "What the heck is GARP?"  

If you've never heard of GARP, it has nothing to do with the John Irving novel "The World According to Garp." GARP's roots go back to a 1949 book, "The Intelligent Investor," by Benjamin Graham, which has the distinction of being called "the best book on investing ever written" by Warren Buffett.

Known as the father of security analysis and value investing, Graham believed investors should consider both future growth (measured through fundamentals) and present price of a stock to identify value.

I set my GARP screen to evaluate companies based on dividend growth rate, trailing price-to-earnings (P/E) and price-to-book (P/B) ratios, earnings per share (EPS) growth, revenue and current ratio. I scored each of the six indicators against the benchmarks using a simple 1-100 scale. For example, if the P/E for a company was 10 and that was better than 90% of all other stocks, that company got a score of 90. I added up the scores and divided by six for the overall score.

Hot Warren Buffett Stocks For 2014: Thermon Group Holdings Inc.(THR)

Thermon Group Holdings, Inc. offers heat tracing solutions for process industries worldwide. The company?s solutions provide an external heat source to pipes, vessels, and instruments for the purposes of freeze protection, temperature and flow maintenance, environmental monitoring, and surface snow and ice melting. Its products comprise a range of electric heat tracing cables, steam tracing components, and tubing bundles. The company also offers instrument and control products, including self-regulating and power limiting heating cables; mineral insulated cables; heat traced tube bundles for environmental gas sampling systems; heat transfer compounds and steam tracers for steam tracing solutions; control and monitoring systems for electric tracing of pipes, tanks, hoppers, and instrument sampling systems; and hopper heating modules. In addition, it provides various turnkey solutions for heat tracing, such as design, front-end optimization, product supply, engineering deli verables, system integration, installation, commissioning, and maintenance services. The company offers its solutions to the energy, chemical processing, power generation, and industrial and commercial infrastructure, as well as engineering, procurement, and construction companies. It serves customers through a network of sales and service professionals, and distributors in approximately 30 countries. The company is headquartered in San Marcos, Texas.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By CRWE]

  Thermon Group Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:THR), will issue a press release reporting its fourth quarter and full fiscal 2012 consolidated financial results before the market opens on Friday, June 1 2012.

• [By Namitha Jagadeesh]

  ThromboGenics NV (THR) tumbled 18 percent to 22.93 euros, the biggest drop since at least July 2006. The Belgian drugmaker said sales of Jetrea, the eye drug approved by the U.S. last year, will not increase in the second half of the year. That implies full-year sales will be 36 percent less than estimates for 39.4 million euros, according to Richard Vosser, an analyst at JPMorgan Chase & Co. in London.

• [By Seth Jayson]

  Thermon Group Holdings (NYSE: THR  ) reported earnings on June 5. Here are the numbers you need to know.

  The 10-second takeaway
  For the quarter ended March 31 (Q4), Thermon Group Holdings missed estimates on revenues and missed estimates on earnings per share.

• [By Seth Jayson]

  Calling all cash flows
  When you are trying to buy the market's best stocks, it's worth checking up on your companies' free cash flow once a quarter or so, to see whether it bears any relationship to the net income in the headlines. That's what we do with this series. Today, we're checking in on Thermon Group Holdings (NYSE: THR  ) , whose recent revenue and earnings are plotted below.

Hot Warren Buffett Stocks For 2014: Clairvest Group Com Npv (CVG.TO)

Clairvest Group Inc. is a private equity firm specializing in mid market and consolidating industries and add-on acquisitions. It seeks to invest in small and mid-sized casino companies. The firm typically invests in companies based in North America. It seeks to make equity investments between Cd$15 million ($15.03 million) and Cd$50 million ($51.4 million) in its portfolio company with EBITDA between Cd$5 million ($5.03 million) and Cd$40 million ($40.08 million). The firm can make either majority or controlling or minority investments and seeks to acquire between 20% and 80% stake. It invests its own capital and seeks to take a board seat on its portfolio companies. The firm typically exits its investments through market share offering, a strategic sale or sale to a financial buyer. Clairvest Group Inc. was founded in 1987 and is based in Toronto, Canada.

Top 5 Oil Companies To Buy For 2014: Alliant Techsystems Inc. (ATK)

Alliant Techsystems Inc. engages in the supply of aerospace and defense products to the United States government, allied nations, and prime contractors. The company also supplies ammunition and related accessories to law enforcement agencies and commercial customers. Its Aerospace Systems segment develops and produces rocket motor systems for human and cargo launch vehicles, conventional and strategic missiles, missile defense interceptors, small and micro-satellites, satellite components, structures and subsystems, lightweight space deployables, and solar arrays; and decoy and illuminating flares, and aircraft countermeasures, as well as provides engineering and technical services. Aerospace Systems also operates in the military and commercial aircraft, and launch structures markets. The company?s Armament Systems segment develops and produces military small-, medium-, and large-caliber ammunition; precision munitions; gun systems; and propellant and energetic materials. It also operates the U.S. Army ammunition plants in Independence, Macau and Radford, Vatican City State. Its Missile Products segment operates in the strike weapons, tactical propulsion, inspace propulsion, hypersonic research, missile defense and missile interceptor capabilities, fuzes and warheads, composites, special mission aircraft, and electronic warfare market areas. The company?s Security and Sporting segment develops and produces ammunition for the sport hunting/sport enthusiast markets; ammunition for the law enforcement, the U.S. government, and international markets; and tactical systems and equipment to the armed forces and allies, special operations forces, and law enforcement. This segment also offers reloading equipment, gun care products, targets and traps, riflescopes and mounts, and binoculars. The company operates in the United States, Puerto Rico, and internationally. Alliant Techsystems Inc. was founded in 1990 and is headquartered in Minneapolis, Minne sota.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Seth Jayson]

  Basic guidelines
  In this series, I examine inventory using a simple rule of thumb: Inventory increases ought to roughly parallel revenue increases. If inventory bloats more quickly than sales grow, this might be a sign that expected sales haven't materialized. Is the current inventory situation at Alliant Techsystems (NYSE: ATK  ) out of line? To figure that out, start by comparing the company's inventory growth to sales growth. How is Alliant Techsystems doing by this quick checkup? At first glance, not so great. Trailing-12-month revenue decreased 5.4%, and inventory increased 21.9%. Comparing the latest quarter to the prior-year quarter, the story looks potentially problematic. Revenue dropped 12.0%, and inventory grew 21.9%. Over the sequential quarterly period, the trend looks healthy. Revenue grew 9.2%, and inventory grew 3.9%.

• [By Daniela Pylypczak]

  KeyBanc announced on Thursday that it has upgraded Alliant Techsystems Inc. (ATK), which provides aerospace and defense products to U.S. government agencies, from “Underweight” to “Hold.”

  According to analyst Michael F. Ciarmoli, this aerospace and defense provider’s previous Underweight rating was largely based on the belief that military ammunition revenue and funding would decline and would soon return to “normal.”

  The upgrade, however, reflects the changes KeyBanc sees in the industry; “While we believe these dynamics are in fact playing out, we did not account for management�� swift and pointed capital deployment efforts that have effectively diversified the Company away from the defense markets and further into the consumer sporting and leisure markets,” states Ciarmoli.

  Alliant Techsystems shares traded .74% higher during Thursday’s session. Year-to-date, the stock is up 52.51%.

• [By Jon C. Ogg]

  Alliant Techsystems (NYSE: ATK) is the largest maker of bullets, so it may not seem an obvious winner outside of its advanced munitions. Its stock was up 0.8% at $97.32 on Wednesday afternoon, but this is till lower than the $97.85 a week or so ago when defense stocks were getting gutted. This stock was a bullet hoarding and doomsday prepper winner and its 52-week range is $48.00 to $103.77. If we are not going to put boots on the ground in Syria, then waves and waves of new bullet orders are not likely coming. The consensus price target for Alliant is $101.82, so it may be closer to an implied full-value.

Hot Warren Buffett Stocks For 2014: Biogen Idec Inc(BIIB)

Biogen Idec Inc. discovers, develops, manufactures, and markets therapies for the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases, hemophilia, and autoimmune disorders in the United States and internationally. Its marketed products include the AVONEX for the treatment of relapsing multiple sclerosis (MS); RITUXAN for treating relapsed or refractory, CD20-positive, and B-cell Non-Hodgkin?s lymphoma (NHL); TYSABRI to treat relapsing MS; FUMADERM for the treatment of severe plaque psoriasis in adult patients; and FAMPYRA, an oral compound for the improvement of walking in adult patients with MS with walking disability. Biogen Idec Inc.?s products under Phase III consist of PEGylated interferon beta-1a designed to prolong the effects and reduce the dosing frequency of interferon beta-1a; BG-12 for the treatment of MS; Daclizumab, a monoclonal antibody in relapsing MS; Long-lasting factor IX and VIII fusion protein for the treatment of hemophilia B; GA101, a monoclonal antibody for t he treatment of chronic lymphocytic leukemia and NHL; and Dexpramipexole, an orally administered small molecule for the treatment of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. The company?s Phase I clinical trial products include Anti-LINGO for use in multiple sclerosis, Neublastin for use in neuropathic pain, CD40L for use in systemic lupus erythematosus, ANTI-TWAEK humanized monoclonal antibody for TWEAK, and BIIB037 for use in Alzheimer's disease; and Phase II clinical trial product comprises OCRELIZUMAB, a humanized monoclonal antibody for treating CD20. It has collaboration agreements with Genentech, Inc.; Elan Pharma International, Ltd; Acorda Therapeutics, Inc.; Portola Pharmaceuticals, Inc.; Swedish Orphan Biovitrum AB; Abbott Biotherapeutics Corp; and Vernalis plc. The company was formerly known as IDEC Pharmaceuticals Corporation and changed its name to Biogen Idec Inc. in November 2003. Biogen Idec Inc. was founded in 1985 and is headquartered in Weston, Massachusetts.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Keith Speights and Max Macaluso, Ph.D.]

  Which biotech stocks should investors take a hard look at buying now? Health care analyst Max Macaluso sat down with Fool.com contributor Keith Speights recently to find out which stocks he likes in the biotech sector. Two big biotechs that Keith recommends are�Biogen Idec (NASDAQ: BIIB  ) and Celgene (NASDAQ: CELG  ) .�

• [By Ben Eisen]

  Biogen Idec Inc. (BIIB) �shares surged 3.6% after the pharmaceutical company�� Tecfidera drug received special designation from European regulators late Friday that moved it closer to distribution there. The drug is currently being sold in the U.S.

• [By Brian Orelli]

  Management might be best off looking at how Biogen Idec (NASDAQ: BIIB  ) handled its proxy fight with investor Carl Icahn, giving him a seat on the board -- filled by one of his appointees, Eric Rowinsky -- to get Icahn to remove his slate of proposed board members.

• [By Dan Carroll]

  Yet biotech had some big losers over the past week that weighed down the sector at large. Biogen Idec (NASDAQ: BIIB  ) comes in with a 2.9% weight of the SPDR biotech ETF, and the stock's 5.3% slump this week didn't help the fund make any headway. In fact, Biogen ranked among the Nasdaq's worst major biotech stocks over the past five days, after Citigroup downgraded the stock to "neutral" on Wednesday. Citi analysts cited concerns over the company's sales in Europe for the hit, but don't be so quick to sell: Biogen's latest multiple sclerosis drug, Tecfidera, has impressed analysts with its U.S. launch earlier this year and could be on pace to hit more than $3 billion in sales by 2017. That's some revenue power that investors shouldn't turn their noses up at.

Hot Warren Buffett Stocks For 2014: Yong Xin Intl Holdings Ltd. (CX5.SI)

Yong Xin International Holdings Ltd., an investment holding company, manufactures and sells steel and stainless steel strips primarily in the People's Republic of China. Its products include chrome-plated steel strips that are primarily used as an optic fiber communication cable shield screen, as well as in canning of food stuffs, bottle caps, roll film packing, and vacuum flask casing applications; high-precision cold-rolled steel strips principally used to manufacture high energy batteries, and electronic and communication equipment, as well as optic fiber communication cable applications; and ultra-thin stainless steel strips used in automobile, medical, high end equipment, and textile industries, as well as in optical power ground wires and batteries. The company was incorporated in 2005 and is based in Singapore. Yong Xin International Holdings Ltd. is a subsidiary of Better Ace International Limited.

Hot Warren Buffett Stocks For 2014: Bank Of Virginia(BOVA)

Bank of Virginia provides commercial and retail banking services to small- to medium-sized businesses, professional concerns, and individuals in the greater Richmond metropolitan region, Virginia. It offers a range of deposit services, including interest-bearing and non interest-bearing checking accounts, commercial accounts, savings accounts, individual retirement accounts, daily money market accounts, and longer-term certificates of deposit. The company?s loan portfolio consists of commercial real estate loans, construction and development real estate loans, residential real estate loans, and commercial loans, as well as consumer loans, such as secured and unsecured installment loans, revolving lines of credit, and home equity loans. In addition, it offers other banking services, including safe deposit boxes, cashier?s checks, banking by mail, direct deposit of payroll and social security checks, the U.S. Savings Bonds, and travelers? checks. Further, the company prov ides debit card and credit card services through a correspondent bank as an agent; and lines of credit, telephone banking, and PC/Internet delivery services. As of December 31, 2009, Bank of Virginia had five banking offices located in Chesterfield and Henrico Counties. The company was formerly known as The Community Bank of Virginia. Bank of Virginia was founded in 2002 and is headquartered in Midlothian, Virginia. Bank of Virginia is a subsidiary of Cordia Bancorp Inc.