Top Performing Stocks To Buy For 2014

Amazon.com's (NASDAQ: AMZN  ) stock has been on a tear lately.

Shares of the e-tailer are up more than 250% over the past five years. It isn't hard to see why investors are excited. The retail giant has managed to grow quarterly sales by better than 20% for more than three years. And it's not just in the online retailing business. Amazon is gaining traction in the cloud services market, and building out its ecosystem for digital sales, too.

The main risk when buying a high-performing business like this is in paying too much. At around $120 billion, Amazon is valued at almost exactly two times the $61 billion it booked in revenue last year. That amounts to a hefty premium compared with retailing peers Costco, Target, and Wal-Mart, which all trade for closer to 0.5 times sales. If Amazon were valued like them, it would trade for around $70 a share -- not the $260 it has been fetching. However, those other retailers can't claim nearly the same level of growth opportunities that Amazon does, particularly in its cloud services division.

Hot Performing Stocks To Invest In Right Now: NK Lukoil OAO (LUKOY)

LUKOIL is a Russia-based integrated oil and gas company. The Company is engaged in the business of oil exploration, production, refining, marketing and distribution. The Company's exploration and production activity is located in Russia, and its main resource base is in Western Siberia. It owns modern refineries, gas processing and petrochemical plants located in Russia, Eastern and Western Europe. The Company�� petroleum products are sold in Russia, Eastern and Western Europe and United States. The Company operates in four business segments: exploration and production, refining, marketing and distribution, and chemicals and other business.

In January 2009, the Company acquired a 100% interest in Energoaktiv ZAO. In March 2009, the Company established a subsidiary, LUKOIL Overseas Holding GmbH. In Addition, in March 2009, LUKoil OAO increased its stake in TGK-8 OAO up to 60.21% from 31.38% previously held. In December 2009, the Company sold its 99.99% stake in Agentstvo LUKOM-A OOO. In February 2010, the Company established a research center, LUKOIL-Engineering OOO, which would be responsible for the research and engineering complex of the exploration and production business segment. The main production region of the Company is Western Siberia. LUKOIL is carrying out international exploration and production projects in Kazakhstan, Egypt, Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan, Saudi Arabia, Colombia, Venezuela, Cote d��voire, Ghana and Iraq.

LUKOIL owns oil refining capacity both in Russia and abroad. In Russia the Company owns four large refineries at Perm, Volgograd, Ukhta and Nizhny Novgorod. Total capacity of LUKOIL facilities in Russia is 44.7 million tons of oil per year. LUKOIL also has refineries in Ukraine, Bulgaria, Romania, and a 49% stake in ISAB refining complex (island of Sicily, Italy), with total capacity of 21.8 million tons per year.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Charles Sizemore]

  Next on the list is French oil major Total SA (TOT). Total raised some eyebrows last month as discussions progressed to develop Russia�� massive shale fields in partnership with Lukoil (LUKOY). It appears that, despite the ongoing threat of sanctions from the United States, business is going on as usual in the real world.

Top Performing Stocks To Buy For 2014: Scana Corporation(SCG)

SCANA Corporation and its subsidiaries engage in the generation, transmission, distribution, and sale of electricity to retail and wholesale customers in South Carolina. It owns nuclear, coal, hydro, oil and gas, and biomass generating facilities. The company also purchases, sells, and transports natural gas; offers energy-related risk management services; acquires, owns, and provides financing for nuclear fuel, fossil fuel, and emission allowances; and offers service contracts on home appliances, and heating and air conditioning units. In addition, SCANA Corporation owns two liquefied natural gas plants, including one located near Charleston, and the other in Salley, South Carolina; and provides tower site construction, management, and rental services in South Carolina and North Carolina. As of December 31, 2010, the company supplied electricity to approximately 660,000 customers; and natural gas to approximately 482,000 residential, commercial, and industrial customers i n North Carolina, and 313,500 customers in South Carolina, as well as to approximately 460,000 customers in Georgia. Further, SCANA Corporation owns and operates a 500-mile fiber optic telecommunications network and Ethernet network, and data center facilities in South Carolina. Through a joint venture, it builds, manages, and leases communications towers with interest in 2,280 miles of fiber in South Carolina, North Carolina, and Georgia. The company?s retail customers comprise municipalities, electric cooperatives, other investor-owned utilities, registered marketers, and federal and state electric agencies. It primarily serves chemicals, educational services, paper products, food products, lumber and wood products, health services, textile manufacturing, rubber and miscellaneous plastic products, and fabricated metal products industries. The company is based in Cayce, South Carolina.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Richard Stavros]

  SCANA Corp (NYSE: SCG), Southern Co (NYSE: SO), Dominion Resources Inc (NYSE: D), AES Corp (NYSR: AES) and Entergy Corp (NYSE: ETR) ranked at the bottom, with renewable energy sales accounting for less than 1 percent of each of their total retail electricity sales.

• [By Roger Conrad]

  And it's what SCANA Corp. (SCG) is locked-in to deliver, at least to the end of the decade. The company's biggest project is constructing two 1,117-mega-watt nuclear reactors using Toshiba-Westinghouse's AP 1000 model.

• [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 SCANA (NYSE: SCG  ) , whose recent revenue and earnings are plotted below.

Top Performing Stocks To Buy For 2014: Malaysian Pacific Industries Bhd (MPI)

Malaysian Pacific Industries Berhad (MPI) is an investment holding company. The principal activities of MPI, through its subsidiaries are manufacturing, assembling, testing and sale of integrated circuits, semiconductor devices, electronic components and lead frames to customers globally. The Company�� operating geographical segments include Asia, The United States of America, and Europe. The Company's subsidiaries include Carsem (M) Sdn Bhd, Recams Sdn Bhd, Carsem Holdings Limited, Carsem Semiconductor (Suzhou) Co., Ltd, Dynacraft Industries Sdn Bhd, Carter Realty Sdn Bhd, Carter Realty Sdn Bhd and Carsem Holdings (HK) Limited. Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Sofia Horta e Costa]

  Michael Page International Plc (MPI) increased 1.1 percent to 490.2 pence after Goldman Sachs Group Inc. upgraded the stock to buy from neutral, saying the recruitment firm will benefit from a pick-up in the European economy.

Top Performing Stocks To Buy For 2014: LIN TV Corp(TVL)

LIN TV Corp., together with its subsidiaries, operates as a local television and digital media company. It operates or services 32 network-affiliates, television station Websites, and mobile products in 15 U.S. markets. The company?s television stations, which are affiliated with a national broadcast network, deliver local news and community stories, as well as sports and entertainment programming to 7.4% of U.S. television homes. It is also involved in the convergence of local broadcast television and the Internet through its television station Websites and local online technologies. In addition, LIN TV Corp. offers its content online and on mobile applications. The company was formerly known as Ranger Equity Holdings Corporation and changed its name to LIN TV Corp. in February 2002. LIN TV Corp. was founded in 1966 and is headquartered in Providence, Rhode Island.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [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 LIN TV (NYSE: TVL  ) , whose recent revenue and earnings are plotted below.