Top Consumer Companies To Own In Right Now

AutoCanada Inc. (ACQ), the country�� largest publicly traded chain of car dealerships, is using sales of trucks to Alberta oil workers to fund higher dividends and buy out competitors.

Shares of the Edmonton, Alberta-based company have jumped 187 percent over the past year and reached a record C$42.95 on Nov. 11. That was after the company said profit rose 61 percent in the fiscal third quarter from a year earlier and boosted its dividend for the 11th quarter in a row.

��e are in a good market, good economy,��Pat Priestner, the 58-year-old chief executive officer of AutoCanada, said in a Nov. 12 telephone interview. ��e sell a lot of trucks and sports utility vehicles, that�� a big help, because of where we are, more so in British Columbia and Alberta.��

Canadian new automobile sales are on pace for a record this year after a recession ended in 2009 and financing rates dropped. Consumer spending has kept increasing even as Bank of Canada Governor Stephen Poloz warned that imbalances such as high home prices and record consumer debts were the main domestic risk to the economy.

Top 10 Machinery Stocks To Own Right Now: Career Education Corp (CECO)

Career Education Corporation, incorporated on January 5, 1994, through its colleges, schools and universities offers education to a student population of more than 75,000 students across the world in a variety of career-oriented disciplines through online, on-ground and hybrid learning program offerings. The Company operates four business units: University Schools, Career Schools, International and Transitional Schools. The Company�� institutions include, among others, American InterContinental University (AIU); Brooks Institute; Colorado Technical University (CTU); Harrington College of Design; INSEEC Group (INSEEC) Schools; International University of Monaco (IUM); International Academy of Design & Technology (IADT); Le Cordon Bleu North America (LCB), and Sanford-Brown Institutes and Colleges. In December 2013, Career Education Corp announced sale and transfer of control of its European education properties to private equity firm Apax Partners.

University Schools

The Company�� Colorado Technical University (CTU) schools collectively offer academic programs in the career-oriented disciplines of business studies, information systems and technologies, criminal justice, computer science and engineering, and health sciences in an online, classroom or laboratory setting. American InterContinental University (AIU) schools collectively offer academic programs in the career-oriented disciplines of business studies, information technologies, criminal justice and design technologies in an online, classroom or laboratory setting.

Career Schools

The Company�� Health Education includes its Sanford-Brown schools, along with Brown College, Briarcliffe College and Missouri College. These schools collectively offer academic programs in the career-oriented disciplines of health education, complemented by certain programs in business studies and information technology in a classroom, laboratory or online setting. Culinary Arts includes its Le Cordon Bleu schoo! ls in North America that collectively offer hands-on programs in the career-oriented disciplines of culinary arts and patisserie and baking in the commercial kitchens of Le Cordon Bleu, and advanced degree programs in culinary arts and hotel and restaurant management online. Design and Technology includes IADT, Harrington College of Design and Brooks Institute schools. These schools collectively offer academic programs primarily in the career-oriented disciplines of fashion design, game design, graphic design, interior design, film and video production, photography and visual communications in a classroom, laboratory or online setting, as well as jobs training in the field of energy conservation.

International

The Company�� International includes its INSEEC schools and IUM school which are located in France, the United Kingdom and Monaco. These schools collectively offer academic programs in the career-oriented disciplines of business studies, health education, advertising, communications and technologies and luxury goods and services in a classroom or laboratory setting.

Transitional Schools

The Company�� Transitional Schools includes its campuses that are being taught out. Schools that operate within this segment include Collins College, Phoenix, AZ, Colorado Technical University (CTU), CTU Pueblo, Pueblo, CO, and CTU Sioux Falls, Sioux Falls, SD.

The Company competes with Apollo Group, Bridgepoint Education, Inc., Capella Education Company, Corinthian Colleges, Inc., DeVry Inc., Education Management Corporation, Grand Canyon Education, Inc., ITT Educational Services, Kaplan and Strayer Education.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Ben Levisohn]

  Career Education Corp. (CECO) has gained 53% to $5.80 in after-hours trading after it sold its international schools to a private equity firm.

  Express Scripts (ESRX) has fallen 2.7% to $62 in after-hours trading after it reported a profit of $1.08, in line with analyst forecasts, but said the fourth quarter would come in between $109 and $1.13. Analyst had forecast $1.12.

• [By Lauren Pollock]

  Career Education Corp.(CECO) agreed to sell its European education properties to private equity firm Apax Partners for a total of $305 million. Shares of Career Education rose.

Top Consumer Companies To Own In Right Now: McDonald's Corporation(MCD)

McDonald?s Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, operates as a worldwide foodservice retailer. It franchises and operates McDonald?s restaurants that offer various food items, soft drinks, coffee, and other beverages. As of December 31, 2009, the company operated 32,478 restaurants in 117 countries, of which 26,216 were operated by franchisees; and 6,262 were operated by the company. McDonald?s Corporation was founded in 1948 and is based in Oak Brook, Illinois.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Valuentum]

  Global fast food giant McDonald's (MCD) announced that it will increase its quarterly cash dividend 5% to $0.81 per share--an annual run-rate of $3.24 per share. This is in-line with our prediction that McDonald's next dividend increase would be 5% to $3.24 per annum. Interestingly, this will be the second consecutive year that McDonald's increased its dividend at a single-digit pace.

• [By Jon C. Ogg]

  24/7 Wall St. is a big fan of dividends, and we expect that there will be several big dividend hikes coming down the pipe from Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) components. That is particularly the case with the new DJIA components. McDonald’s Corp. (NYSE: MCD) and Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) both just hiked dividends this past week.

• [By Ben Levisohn]

  McDonald’s (MCD) investors are definitely not loving it.

  John Taggart for The Wall Street

  Shares of McDonald’s have slipped more than a percent today after the fast-food giant said it earned $1.40 a share, missing forecasts for $1.44,� on sales of $7.18 billion, below the Street consensus for $7.29 billion. Same-store sales were unchanged, while analysts had expected them to rise 0.8%.

  Janney’s Mark Kalinowski calls McDonald’s earnings “McTroublesome.” He explains why:

  Earlier today, McDonald�� (MCD; Neutral) reported underwhelming second-quarter EPS of $1.40, short of our $1.43 forecast and the consensus projection of $1.44. One worrisome aspect was June same-store sales, which missed across the board. June same-store sales declined by -3.5% in the U.S. (even worse than our sell-side low -2.6% estimate; and far below the Consensus Metrix figure of +0.1%), decreased by -3.4% in Europe (far short of our +1.0% forecast and Consensus Metrix of +0.8%), and fell by -2.0% in APMEA (below our +1.0% projection and the Consensus Metrix number of +0.6%). McDonald�� also comments that it anticipates worldwide July same-store sales to be in negative territory; our previous +0.8% forecast (which we now take down to -0.5%) had been below the sell-side consensus of +1.4%. We reduce our Q3 and Q4 EPS estimates by -2 cents each, to $1.58 and $1.44, respectively. Our full-year 2014 EPS forecast falls by -7 cents, to $5.63. We also lower our full-year 2015 EPS projection, by -8 cents, to $6.12. Furthermore, we take down our fair value estimate on MCD to $94.

  Sterne Agee’s Lynne Collier and Wesley Carmichael call themselves “disappointed.” They explain:

  Global same-store sales (SSS) of -0.1% were slightly below our estimate of +0.3% and below consensus of +0.8% as June comparable sales fell below projections. The Company’s restaurant-level margin of 17.1% was ~70bps below our exp

• [By Ben Levisohn]

  Say what you will about McDonald’s (MCD)–and a lot has been said–but it just increased its dividend for the 38th consecutive year. Still, Morgan Stanley’s John Glass and team worry that McDonald’s streak could be in jeopardy if the fast-food giant doesn’t turn its business around:

  Andrew Hinderaker for The Wall Street Journal

  McDonald’s�announced 5% dividend increase is better than we expected against low expectations. Despite an expected decline in operating income this year, McDonald’s could in part fund this increase with reductions in capital spending.

  McDonald’s�announced a 5% dividend increase to 0.85c, greater than our 0.83c estimate (+2.5% Y/Y). This puts the annualized dividend yield at 3.6%, among the highest in restaurants.�McDonald’s reiterated its goal of returning $18-20B to shareholders through dividends and buybacks, putting it just behind pace ($3.2B returned or 16-18% complete in 20% of the time). Dividends/shr grew faster than EPS in ��2 and ��3, and are expected to again in ��4, putting the dividend payout in ��4 at 61% vs. 47% in ��1. We expect this payout ratio to normalize over time and to fall below 60% in ��5 (assuming another 5% dividend/shr increase). However, if a recovery stalls, continued dividend growth could be at risk.

  Shares of McDonald’s have gained 0.9% to $94.35 at 1:38 p.m. today.

Top Consumer Companies To Own In Right Now: Stevia First Corp (STVF)

Stevia First Corp. , formerly Legend Mining Inc., incorporated on June 29, 2007, is a development-stage company. It is an agricultural biotechnology company. The Company is engaged in the cultivation and harvest of stevia leaf and the development of stevia products. As of March 31, 2012, the Company had not generated any revenues.

The Company focuses on the process of stevia production from plant breeding through propagation, planting, cultivation, and harvesting, and developing, marketing, and selling stevia products. It also focuses on developing operations that will include stevia tissue culture, laboratory propagation, farming, and cultivation of stevia leaf. Stevia, is a plant from the chrysanthemum family. Stevia is a sweetener in its raw, unprocessed form. The small green plant�� leaves have a taste that can be 30 times sweeter than sugar.

The Company competes with Cargill, Incorporated, PureCircle, Blue California, Corn Products International, GLG Life Tech Corp., McNeil Nutritionals, LLC, Sunwin USA, L.L.C., Sweet Green Fields L.L.C., Whole Earth Sweetener Co. L.L.C., Wisdom Natural Brands and &W Seed Company.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Glenwoods]

  Cargill and Evolva are not the only companies developing stevia via a fermentation-based process. Stevia First Corp. (OTCMKTS:STVF), an early-stage agribusiness based in California's Central Valley, with its sights on being the first vertically integrated stevia company, has been developing its own stevia microbial fermentation-based process (through a license by Vineland Research and Innovation Centre of Canada).� Recently the company announced its "Beyond Reb A" research program, aimed at producing not only Reb A, but also Reb D and Reb X, two glycosides found in small amounts in the stevia leaves that have been identified as the next-generation of stevia sweeteners.� �

Top Consumer Companies To Own In Right Now: Sonoco Products Company(SON)

Sonoco Products Company provides industrial and consumer packaging products, and packaging services worldwide. It offers composite paperboard cans; paperboard packages; fiber cartridges; layered bottles and jars; laminated tubs, cups, and spools; consumer and institutional trays; and aluminum, steel, and peelable membrane easy-open closures, as well as flexible packaging, product design, tool design, fabrication, and manufacturing services. The company also produces paperboard tubes, cores, roll packaging, molded plugs, pallets, pallet components, concrete forms, rotary die boards, recycled paperboard, chipboard, tube board, lightweight corestock, boxboard, linerboard, corrugating medium, specialty grades, and recovered paper products; and steel, nailed wooden, plywood, recycled, and polyfiber reels, as well as recycles old corrugated container, paper, plastic, metal, and glass materials. In addition, it manufactures custom-printed glass covers and coasters; offers custom packing, fulfillment, and primary package filling services, as well as operates scalable service centers; contract packaging, co-packing, and fulfillment services; and temporary, semipermanent, and permanent point-of-purchase displays. Further, the company provides fabricated foam, corrugated paperboard, molded EPS and EPP, antistatic fabricated foam solutions, nesting and stacking trays, molded foam dunnage, totes and tote inserts, energy-absorbing and flotation components, and insulation components, as well as contract package testing service. Additionally, it offers insulated shippers, durable transport chests, gel packs, phase change materials, lab/pharma/diagnostic specimen transport, refrigerant materials, edge and corner protection, and temperature assurance solutions; high-visibility packaging and printed products; and blister packaging machines. The company, formerly known as Southern Novelty Company, was founded in 1899 and is based in Hartsville, South Carolina. Advisors' Opinion:

• [By ovenerio]

  The company has a current ROE of 14.5% which is higher than the industry median. Also, it is higher than the ones exhibit by Sealed Air Corp (SEE) and Sonoco Products Co (SON). In general, analysts consider ROE ratios in the 15-20% range as representing attractive levels for investment. So for investors looking at those levels, MeadWestvaco Corp (MWV) and Packaging Corp of America (PKG) could be the options. It is very important to understand this metric before investing, and it is important to look at the trend in ROE over time.