Top 5 Canadian Companies For 2014

Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc.'s (HOT) eco-friendly hotel brand, Element, recently debuted in Vaughan, Ontario. This Canadian property ��christened Element Vaughan Southwest ��is also the first Element branded property outside the U.S.

Element Vaughan Southwest�� proximity to Pearson International Airport positions it strategically for easy access to downtown Toronto. It features 152 guest rooms along with various other amenities such as outdoor pool, a bar, a fitness center and a 3,500 square feet meeting place. The hotel is likely to witness huge footfalls as it is well connected with various corporate hubs and social centers.

Starwood Hotels has engaged Atlific Hotels for the management of Element Vaughan. This is not Altific�� first job with Starwood. It has previously managed the operations of various Starwood branded properties in the Canada.

Starwood has six other brands in Canada, a popular tourist destination, and operates more than 60 hotels and resorts under those. The tourism industry is one of the country�� major sources of income. These factors justify this Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) company�� decision to launch the Element brand in the country.

Top Quality Stocks To Watch Right Now: Primerica Inc.(PRI)

Primerica, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, engages in the distribution of financial products on behalf of third parties to middle income households in the United States and Canada. The company operates in three segments: Term Life Insurance, Investment and Savings Products, and Corporate and Other Distributed Products. The Term Life Insurance segment underwrites term life insurance products. The Investment and Savings Products segment distributes mutual funds, variable annuities, fixed annuities, and segregated funds. The Corporate and Other Distributed Products segment provides mortgage loans, which include debt consolidation or refinance, and purchase money loans; unsecured loans; prepaid legal services that assist subscribers with legal matters, such as drafting wills, living wills and powers of attorney, trial defense, and motor vehicle-related matters; mail-order student life products; short-term disability benefit insurance; and auto and homeowners? insurance products. The company was founded in 1927 and is based in Duluth, Georgia.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Rich Duprey]

  Private equity investor Warburg Pincus has been a shareholder in term life insurance underwriter Primerica� (NYSE: PRI  ) since its IPO in 2010. However, the financial products marketer will be buying back all of the holdings Warburg Pincus owns for $154.7 million. That translates into�almost�2.5 million shares of common stock�and warrants that �are�exercisable for 4.1 million shares.

Top 5 Canadian Companies For 2014: PennyMac Mortgage Investment Trust(PMT)

PennyMac Mortgage Investment Trust is based in the United States.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Jon C. Ogg]

  Sterne Agee’s team said, “We continue to prefer credit risk oriented Mortgage REITs over their Agency-only focused counterparts. Among the larger cap names in our coverage, our top picks are MFA Financial, Inc. (NYSE: MFA) and PennyMac Mortgage Investment Trust (NYSE: PMT).”

• [By Marc Bastow]

  PennyMac Mortgage Investment Trust (PMT), a REIT involved in mortgages and mortgage-related assets, raised its quarterly dividend 4% to 59 cents per share, payable Jan. 28 to shareholders of record as of Jan. 14. At more than 10%, PMT is the highest yielder of this week’s list of dividend stocks.
  PMT Stock Dividend Yield: 10.15%

Top 5 Canadian Companies For 2014: Crown Castle International Corporation (CCI)

Crown Castle International Corp., through its subsidiaries, owns, operates, and leases towers and other wireless infrastructure primarily in the United States and Australia. Its infrastructure includes distributed antenna system (DAS) networks, as well as rooftop installations. The company involves in the rental of antenna space of its towers to wireless communications companies. It also provides network services relating to its towers, which primarily include antenna installations and subsequent augmentations, as well as additional services, such as site acquisition, architectural and engineering, zoning and permitting, other construction, and other services related network development. As of December 31, 2010, it owned, leased, or managed approximately 23,900 towers, including 43 completed DAS networks. The company was founded in 1994 and is headquartered in Houston, Texas.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By CRWE]

  Crown Castle International Corp. (NYSE:CCI) plans to release its third quarter 2012 results on Wednesday, October 24, 2012, after the market closes. In conjunction with the release, Crown Castle has scheduled a conference call for Thursday, October 25, 2012, at 10:30 a.m. Eastern Time.

• [By Anders Bylund]

  One of those rare significant moves comes from telecom giant AT&T (NYSE: T  ) , notching the Dow's second-largest gain with a 1.2% jump. AT&T just monetized its network of cellphone towers in a multibillion-dollar deal with Crown Castle International (NYSE: CCI  ) . The agreement follows (way, way behind) a similar deal between AT&T and American Tower (NYSE: AMT  ) made some 13 years ago, leaving Ma Bell with few directly owned and operated cell towers under its vest.

• [By Brian Stoffel]

  4. Crown Castle International (NYSE: CCI  ) , P/E of 140
  Crown is one of the major players in the industry. By "tower industry," I'm referring to the towers that now dot our landscape to help ensure wireless data can be transmitted with ease.�

• [By Ben Rooney]

  AT&T (T, Fortune 500) shares gained after the company announced over the weekend that it had inked a $4.8 billion lease deal with Crown Castle International Corp (CCI).

Top 5 Canadian Companies For 2014: SAP AG(SAP)

SAP AG provides business software primarily in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, the Americas, and the Asia Pacific Japan region. The company?s products includes SAP Business Suite software, which supports large organizations in their core business operations, such as supplier relationship, production, warehouse management, sales, administration, and customer relationship; SAP Business All-in-One, a business management software that assists midsize companies in managing various business functions, including financials, human resources, procurement, inventory, manufacturing, logistics, product development, sales, and marketing; SAP Business One, a business management application for small businesses; and SAP Business ByDesign, an on-demand solution for integrated business management applications. Its products also comprises SAP BusinessObjects Edge business intelligence and enterprise performance management solutions; Xcelsius, a data visualization software; Crystal Reports, which helps users design interactive reports; Sybase IQ, an optimized analytics server designed to deliver results for business intelligence, analytics, data warehousing, and reporting solutions; SAP solutions for sustainability; and SAP NetWeaver technology platform, which integrates information and business processes across various technologies and organizational structures. In addition, the company offers industry and solution-focused, business transformation, information technology transformation, custom development, and support services; and program, project management, quality assurance, and education and certification services. It sells its products through its subsidiaries and resellers. SAP AG has a strategic relationship with Cap Gemini S.A. to develop and deploy enterprise mobility solutions. The company was formerly known as SAP Aktiengesellschaft Systeme, Anwendungen, Produkte in der Datenverarbeitung. SAP AG was founded in 1972 and is headquartered in Walldorf , Germany.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Investometrica]

  First, I compare the stock performance of Salesforce.com with other competitors. Although some competitors are not exactly in the same business, all of them have either a cloud computing or CRM component in their revenue: Citrix Systems (CTXS), Rackspace (RAX), SAP (SAP), Oracle (ORCL), Microsoft (MSFT), IBM (IBM), Amazon (AMZN) and VMware (VMW). Salesforce.com's one year stock performance, 13.51%, is far from the top (that is, SAS, with 31.19%) gainer. On one hand, things could have been worse, as a good number of competitors show negative returns. On the other hand, we should notice that the current stock price level has not changed that much since early 2011 ($39.2 per share). This stagnation is hard to ignore.

• [By Tim Brugger]

  The good news for SAP (NYSE: SAP  ) and Oracle (NYSE: ORCL  ) , Nos. 1 and 2 on Gartner's list with $2.9 billion and $1.95 billion in revenues, respectively, each retained their top positions. The downside, and especially troubling for Oracle CEO Larry Ellison considering his desire to grow cloud and related revenues, is that Oracle saw a mere 2% improvement from the prior year and 2012 BI sales were essentially flat for SAP.

• [By Jonathan Morgan]

  SAP AG (SAP) added 2.1 percent to 59.89 euros. The world�� largest maker of business-management software has ended discussions to acquire Jive Software Inc. (JIVE), which has a market value of more than $1 billion, people familiar with the matter said.