Last week at Money Morning our experts highlighted eight of the top stocks to buy now to pad your portfolio before 2014 comes to an end.
Our Defense & Tech Specialist Michael A. Robinson likes a stock that's making waves in the diet and exercise sector - just in time for the holiday season. The company's recent earnings were a real shocker, and Robinson says that's just the beginning for this med tech company.
Money Morning Executive Editor Bill Patalon shows investors the value in Chinese stocks - and why Wall Street naysayers have it all wrong. And our Global Resource Specialist Peter Krauth has four currency picks that take advantage of China's burgeoning yuan and Russia's slumping ruble.
You can find all of last week's tips and recommendations here in our latest list of the best stocks to buy now.
Money Morning's List of Top Stocks to Buy Now
Exercise and nutrition is a $60.5 billion industry in the United States. And with a handful of food-rich holidays on the horizon, Money Morning Defense & Tech Specialist Michael A. Robinson has been on the lookout for a way to invest in the sector that best aligns with his mission to build wealth through technology. Last week, Robinson came up big. He found a medical technology firm that uses controlled cooling to eliminate unwanted body fat in a nonsurgical, minimally invasive procedure. The company just released third-quarter sales that climbed 55% compared to the same quarter a year before, and 15% above expectations. After examining the company's track record and balance sheet, Robinson believes this is a tech stock that "could easily double in the next three years"...
- Most investors think of real estate investment trusts (REITs) as ways to invest in properties like shopping centers, office buildings, and apartments. They make cash dividends through the rent collected on those holdings. But there's one REIT that's even better for investors right now - and it offers a completely different source of profits. You see, instead of leasing shopping centers and the like, its primary focus is communications real estate. Sites are rented out to government agencies, wireless data providers, and radio and TV companies. That means it can take advantage of the mobile commerce boom - an industry that's risen 47% compared to the year-ago period. Forecasters at IDG estimate total global sales of mobile devices will hit 1.48 billion units this year. By 2018, that'll increase 44.5%...
- It's getting tougher to make a case for investing in China. Many industry experts cite a property bubble, credit issues, and the "economic bloat" of state-owned enterprises (SOEs) as reasons to keep out of the country. But Money Morning Executive Editor Bill Patalon sees the Red Dragon differently. He believes China's whopping $10 trillion economy - which is expected to keep growing at a 5% to 6% rate for the next ten years - will more than offsets the downside. And now that the country's sweetheart tech buy posted earnings this month that blew away Wall Street expectations, Patalon wants to make sure investors don't miss this incredible long-term profit opportunity...
- Meanwhile, Money Morning Defense & Tech Specialist Michael A. Robinson likes a tech stock that's also changing the world - and operates much closer to home. It's struck a $1.5 billion deal with pharma giant AbbVie Inc.(NYSE: ABBV) to study anti-aging science. It recently announced research aimed to create a pill that can detect warning signs of cancer. Tack on driverless cars, a new space facility, and so much more, and Robinson's convinced Google Inc. (Nasdaq: GOOG, GOOGL) is "an intriguing tech investment with enormous upside"...
- China's currency, the yuan, is on its way to a greater position in the global finance arena. According to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), China has overtaken the United States as the world's largest economy. Despite the country's slowing GDP growth rate, it's still around 7% (nearly triple that of the States). And China has been snapping up gold to bolster its currency - some estimates have the country's stash at around 4,000 tonnes, an amount surpassed only by the United States. Money Morning Resource Specialist Peter Krauth told readers about two ways to play the yuan's rise - one is a direct bet on the currency itself, while the other is through Chinese stocks...
- Krauth also has two plays that take advantage of Russian currency woes. Low oil prices, economic sanctions, and capital flight have taken their toll on the Russian economy. But Krauth believes the country is well-situated for a comeback as these issues sort themselves out, making now the perfect time for foreign investors to get in on the Russian ruble at a discount. You'd be hard-pressed to find a cheaper market - and this ETF pick, plus the stock of the world's largest extractor of natural gas - are two of the best ways to get started...
- The S&P 500 Index is on pace to break dividend records this year. Q3 was the first quarter in which total payouts exceeded $90 billion, and Q4 is on track to surpass that sum. In the week of Nov. 3 alone, a whopping 64 companies increased payouts, and another seven announced special dividends. We've got a list of the 35 most notable of these dividend hikes, including everyone's go-to coffee joint and an organic foods grocery store favorite...