Top Japanese Companies To Invest In 2014

Toyota is pinning its China hopes on several new models, including the all-new Yaris unveiled in Shanghai last weekend. Photo credit: Toyota

Last fall, a dispute between the governments of China and Japan over ownership of some islands touched off a wave of anti-Japanese feelings in China. Many Japanese brands that had seen huge growth in sales in recent years suddenly saw their sales numbers fall off a cliff.

The Japanese automakers weren't spared. Toyota (NYSE: TM  ) , Honda (NYSE: HMC  ) , and Nissan (NASDAQOTH: NSANY  ) all saw sales numbers fall sharply in September 2012 ��and they've stayed down since.

For Toyota in particular, this has been a challenge. The company had been striving to catch up to the China market leaders, General Motors (NYSE: GM  ) and Volkswagen (NASDAQOTH: VLKAY  ) , but now finds itself well behind ��in fact, it was just passed by up-and-coming Ford (NYSE: F  ) .

Hot India Stocks To Watch For 2015: OSL Holdings Inc (OSLH)

OSL Holdings Inc., formerly Red Rock Pictures, Inc., incorporated on November 22, 2004, is an integrated marketer and distributor of Products for the Office. The Company operates in the competitive office supply market as a virtual distributor, leveraging the existing logistical capabilities of its suppliers who provide for inventory logistics, distribution and delivery. OSL focuses on the development and or acquisition of technology, sales, marketing and customer service. On October 10, 2011, the Company acquired Office Supply Line, Inc.

OSL offers 65,000 items from 1,000 manufacturers. It provides technology products, traditional office products, office furniture, janitorial and break-room supplies and industrial products. By partnering with the wholesaler, it delivers any of these products from one of their strategically located 45 distribution centers providing same or next day delivery to more than 90% of the United States. It has a range of catalogs, which represents more than 27,000 different items.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Peter Graham]

  Earlier in the month, Petrotech Oil & Gas�� LegalizePot.us announced that along with with their already expanded cannabis and hemp production and distribution channels in the states of Washington and Colorado, it was continuing to expand their business model into Rhode Island with a 2500 square foot grow facility up to 50 plants, and 50 to 70 lbs. a month management agreement. Otherwise, investors should be aware that Petrotech Oil & Gas only announced its expansion into medical and recently legalized recreational marijuana back in mid-February plus the company also announced in late February that it would begin oil production soon. A quick look at Petrotech Oil & Gas�� financials reveals revenues of $5k (most recent reported quarter), zero, zero and zero for the past four reported quarters along with net losses of $667k (most recent reported quarter), $49k, $73k and $653k. At the end of last September, Petrotech Oil & Gas had no cash to cover $1,584k in current liabilities. Given those financials and the recent entry into marijuana, investors might want to contain their excitement and wait for some new financials to reflect the sudden change in direction.

  OSL Holdings Inc (OTCMKTS: OSLH) Joins the Marijuana Party

  Small cap OSL Holdings Inc develops or acquires business units with the purpose of collecting and transmitting real-time consumer and business sales data to facilitate the sale of data, manage electronic marketplaces, operate real-time loyalty rewards and transact with buyers in multiple channels. On Friday, OSL Holdings Inc sank 20.47% to $0.190 for a market cap of $36.38 million plus OSLH is down 5% over the past year and up 1,017.6% over the past five years according to Google Finance.

Top Japanese Companies To Invest In 2014: Market Vectors Brazil Small-Cap ETF (BRF)

Market Vectors Brazil Small-Cap ETF (the Fund) seeks to replicate as closely as possible the price and yield performance of the Market Vectors Brazil Small-Cap Index (the Index). The Index is a rules-based, modified market capitalization-weighted, float-adjusted index consisting of publicly traded small-capitalization companies that are domiciled and primarily listed on an exchange in Brazil, or that generate at least 50% of their revenues in Brazil. The Index is the exclusive property of 4asset-management GmbH, which has contracted with Standard & Poor��, a division of The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. to maintain and calculate the Index. The Fund is passively managed and may not hold each Index component in the same weighting as the Index. The Fund�� investment advisor is Van Eck Associates Corporation. Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Hilary Kramer]

  Brasil Foods SA (BRF) is South America�� largest food processing company, involved in everything from meat and dairy products to pasta, frozen vegetables and soybean-related products. The company has been around since 1939, and Forbes ranked it 39th on its list of the world�� most innovative companies. It brings in about $13 billion in sales each year, and analysts are estimating that earnings will grow from 94 cents per share in 2012 to $1.94 for all of 2013, with additional growth to $2.78 in 2014.

• [By Jon C. Ogg]

  Market Vectors Brazil Small-Cap ETF (NYSEArca: BRF) has performed closely with the larger ETF group, with a drop of almost 4% so far in 2014. By its name, you can assume it tracks small-cap stocks. It aims to track the Market Vectors Brazil Small-Cap Index. At $28.51, its 52-week trading range is $27.99 to $44.17.

Top Japanese Companies To Invest In 2014: Teradata Corporation(TDC)

Teradata Corporation provides analytic data solutions worldwide. The company offers various data warehousing solutions that comprise software, hardware, and related business consulting and support services. Its solutions integrate an organization?s departmental and enterprise-wide data about customers, financials, operations, and others into a single enterprise-wide data warehouse. The company also provides various software and hardware products, including Teradata Analytic Database Software, which delivers near real-time intelligence; Teradata Platform Family for the hardware component; Teradata Logical Data Models that are blueprints for designing an integrated data warehouse; Teradata Aster MapReduce Platform, a platform for analyzing new multi-structured data sources and data types; and Teradata Integrated Analytics to convert traditional data warehouse into an analytic services environment. In addition, it offers Teradata Analytic Applications and Tools comprising da ta mining, master data management, integrated marketing management, enterprise risk management, finance and performance management, demand and supply chain management, and profitability analytics to solve business problems. Further, the company provides consulting services, such as data warehousing business impact modeling, design, architecture, installation, implementation, and optimization consulting services, as well as enterprise analytics consulting, data management, and managed services; customer support services; and training services. It serves various companies in banking/financial services, media and entertainment, government, insurance and healthcare, manufacturing, retail, telecommunications, transportation, and travel industries. The company has strategic partnerships with Accenture, Capgemini, Cognizant, Computer Sciences Corporation, Deloitte, IBM Global Business Services, and Wipro Limited. Teradata Corporation was founded in 1979 and is headquartered in Dayt on, Ohio.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Brian Pacampara]

  Based on the aggregated intelligence of 180,000-plus investors participating in Motley Fool CAPS, the Fool's free investing community, data warehousing specialist Teradata (NYSE: TDC  ) has earned a coveted five-star ranking.

• [By Paul Ausick]

  Stocks on the Move: J.C. Penney Co. Inc. (NYSE: JCP) is down 9% at $7.16 after posting a new 30-year low today. Molycorp Inc. (NYSE: MCP) is down 21.5% at $5.58 after announcing a secondary stock offering. Teradata Corp. (NYSE: TDC) is down 18.4% at $42.92 on disappointing guidance.

• [By Nicole Seghetti]

  The hedge fund manager also dumped his stake in tech company Teradata (NYSE: TDC  ) . In the first quarter of 2013, Teradata announced earnings per share slid 32%, attributed to lower revenue growth and higher investment costs. But Teradata is gaining new customers and expanding its contracts with existing ones, namely Kohl's and Groupon.�

• [By Sean Williams]

  Analytic data solutions provider Teradata (NYSE: TDC  ) jumped 2.7% on this shortened session following positive comments from Paul Meeks of Saturna Capital on CNBC yesterday. Meeks referred to Teradata in his on-air interview as his pick in the big data analytic space. As usual, I would suggest taking analyst comments with a grain of salt because they are often short-term drivers of stock prices. In this case, though, I do agree with Mr. Meeks. Teradata has plenty of cash on hand to continue investing in its products, and it's perfectly positioned to take advantage of the ongoing move into the cloud and big data centers.

Top Japanese Companies To Invest In 2014: Bed Bath & Beyond Inc.(BBBY)

Bed Bath & Beyond Inc., together with its subsidiaries, operates a chain of retail stores. It sells a range of domestic merchandise, such as bed linens and related items, bath items, and kitchen textiles; and home furnishings, including kitchen and tabletop items, fine tabletop, basic housewares, general home furnishings, consumables, and certain juvenile products. The company also offers giftware, household products, and health and beauty care items; and infant and toddler merchandise. It operates stores under the names of Bed Bath & Beyond (BBB), Christmas Tree Shops (CTS), Harmon and Harmon Face Values (Harmon), and buybuy BABY. As of August 27, 2011, the company had a total of 1,155 stores, including 986 BBB stores, 70 CTS stores, 54 buybuy BABY stores, and 45 Harmon stores in 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and Canada. It also operates two stores under the name of Home & More in the Mexico City through a joint venture. Bed Bath & Beyond Inc. was foun ded in 1971 and is based in Union, New Jersey.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Monica Gerson]

  Bed Bath & Beyond (NASDAQ: BBBY) shares dropped 5.38% to $64.25 after the company reported a drop in its fiscal fourth-quarter profit and issued weak outlook for the current quarter. Analysts at Bank of America downgraded the stock from Buy to Neutral and lowered the target price from $87 to $72.

• [By Chris Mydlo] 60.33 on 6/12/2014, near its 52-week low of $60.15. The company is a retailer that operates under the names of Bed Bath & Beyond, Christmas Tree Shops andThat!, Harmon Face Values, buybuy BABY, and World Market. It sells a wide assortment of domestics merchandise and home furnishings. The stock is down 25 percent year-to-date, but has been holding support at about $60 per share. Earnings were slightly down by 5 percent in the latest quarter. The United States faced a negative GDP in the first quarter and Bed Bath & Beyond still had positive growth in same store sales. I think the stock can turn around. The GuruFocus DCF calculator shows a fair value of $87.07 with a margin of safety of 31 percent. The stock is currently held by 16 of the gurus we follow.

  Market Cap: 12.32 billion, P/E: 12.90

  Business Predictability: 4/5, Financial Strength: 9/10, Profitability & Growth: 8/10

  Gaming and Leisure Properties (GLPI) closed at $32.94 on 6/12/2014, near its 52-week low of $32.70. The company is a recent spin-off from Penn National Gaming. It now owns the properties of Penn National and is collecting lease payments. The now independent company is looking to acquire more gaming real estate and is open to lease the properties to other casino operators. Gaming and Leisure is also interested in expanding outside of casino gaming. The large drop in the stock price in January was due to a special dividend of $11.84. The company has not had a full year of operations on its own yet, but analyst are estimating 2014 FY EPS of 2.53. With the estimated EPS, the company needs to grow 8 percent annually to justify its current price, but analysts are only calling for a 5.5 percent increase in earnings for 2015. The stock is held by 12 of the gurus we follow.

  Market Cap: 3.68 billion, P/E: 68.00

  Business Predictability: Not Rated, Financial Strength: 5/10, Profitability & Growth: 4/10

  Currently 0.00/512345

  Rati

• [By Steve Heller]

  A group of analysts over at BB&T price-compared a basket of 30 items between Amazon.com (NASDAQ: AMZN  ) and Bed Bath & Beyond (NASDAQ: BBBY  ) , and found Bed Bath & Beyond to be victorious. On average, Bed Bath & Beyond's prices were 6.5% better than Amazon's, and after accounting for its ubiquitous 20% off coupons, the gap widened to 25%.

• [By Ben Eisen]

  Given that outlook, he sees ten stocks in the consumer discretionary sector that qualify as bargains at the moment, including some of the very stocks that are expecting downbeat holiday results. They include: Advance Auto Parts Inc. (AAP) , AutoNation, Inc. (AN) , Bed Bath & Beyond Inc. (BBBY) , Carmax, Inc. (KMX) �, Nordstrom Inc. (JWN) �, PetsMart, Inc. (PETM) �, Ross Stores, Inc. (ROST) , Staples, Inc. (SPLS) �, Target Corp. (TGT) �, and Urban Outfitters, Inc. (URBN) .