Top Electric Utility Stocks To Buy Right Now

Shares of this energy sector company's stock reached a new high, partly as a result of some big news coming from the US Department of Energy, writes MoneyShow's Jim Jubak, also of Jubak's Picks.

Yesterday, September 12, shares of Cheniere Energy (LNG) hit a new 52-week high of $33.76. As of the close, they'd dropped back slightly to $33.10. That still puts the stock up 18.5% from its August 30 close.

A big part of that is Wednesday's news that the US Department of Energy had approved a permit for Dominion Resources (D) to export liquefied natural gas from an existing liquefied natural gas import terminal in Maryland.

It's unusual, I grant you, for a company's stock to rise on news that a competitor has received approval to enter the market. And it's even more unusual when that company's stock rises more on the approval than the competitor's does.

But it actually makes sense here. The permit for Dominion Resources is the fourth liquefied natural gas permit that the Department of Energy has approved (and the third this year). Cheniere's Sabine Pass export terminal, scheduled to begin exports in 2015, was the first plant to win Department of Energy approval. As the first company to begin exports from the United States, Cheniere will have the ability to secure a major portion of the price difference between cheap US natural gas ($3.34 per million BTUs) and the price of liquefied natural gas exports as landed in Japan ($15.50 per million BTUs), India ($13.32), or China ($14.95). Dominion's terminal isn't projected to begin exports until 2017, so it certainly won't cut into excess first-mover profits at Cheniere. (Alert for income investors: Dominion has said it will form a master limited partnership that hold its natural gas assets-the Maryland terminal and natural gas pipelines-next year.)

Top 10 Airline Companies To Buy For 2015: SunOpta Inc (STKL)

SunOpta Inc. ( SunOpta), incorporated on January 1, 2008, is a global company operating businesses focused on a healthy products portfolio that promotes sustainable well-being. With expertise in field to table integration, it specializes in the sourcing, processing and packaging of natural, organic and specialty food products. The Company operates in two business segments: SunOpta Foods and Opta Minerals.

Its core natural and organic food operations focus on value-added grains, fiber and fruit-based product offerings, supported by a global sourcing and supply infrastructure. Its assets, operations and employees are principally located in North America and Europe. It has two non-core holdings: a 66.1% ownership position in Opta Minerals Inc. and its subsidiaries (Opta Minerals), a producer, distributor and recycler of industrial materials; and an 18.7% ownership position in Mascoma Corporation (Mascoma), a biofuels company.

SunOpta Foods

SunOpta Foods operates in the natural, organic and specialty foods product sectors and utilizes a number of integrated business models to bring cost-effective and products to market. It believes these markets will continue to grow as consumers focus on health and wellness. SunOpta Foods consists of four operating segments: Grains and Foods Group, Ingredients Group, Consumer Products Group and International Foods Group .It focuses on three key go-to-market segments: raw materials, value-added ingredients and consumer-packaged products.

The Grains and Foods Group specializes in marketing organic, identity preserved (IP), and non-GMO grains, ingredients, packaged goods and processing services with a core focus on soybean, sunflower and corn products. The Grains and Foods Group works to ensure that it provides its customers with organic, non-GMO and IP specialty grains and seeds by serving as a grower�� supplier of seed; purchaser of the grower�� specialty crops; and processor and packager of a wide range of grains-! based ingredients and consumer-packaged products. It offers a variety of IP, non-GMO and organic seeds and whole grains including soy, corn and sunflower for food applications offering varieties with superior food , raw material sourcing and processing of soy based ingredients in liquid, spray-dried and roasted formats. It offers Grain-based ingredients which utilize non-GMO and organic soy, corn, sunflower and rice; specialty organic functional ingredients, including maltodextrins, tack blends, fiber products; flavor enhancing products, including snack coatings, cheese powders and flavor systems; an line of organic dairy ingredients; and organic soy and sunflower oils. It offers variety of packaged food products for retail and foodservice use and a full range of bulk grain-based animal feed and pet food products.

The Ingredients Group is focused primarily on fiber products and specialty fruit ingredients. It works closely with its customers to identify product formulation, cost and productivity opportunities aimed at transforming raw materials into value-added food ingredient solutions. It offers fibers and brans, including Canadian Harvest Oat Fiber, SunOpta Soy Fiber, SunOpta Rice Fiber, SunOpta Cellulose Fiber and SunOpta Pea Fiber brands of insoluble organic and conventional fiber products, Barley Balance soluble fiber, MultiFiber blends, value-added starch-based texturizers, and a number of custom processed ingredients. It offers SunOpta Specialty Starch products, including OptaGrade and OptaMist. OptaGrade is a natural, starch-based texturizing agent that is used commercially in a variety of dairy products including natural, imitation, and processed cheeses, sour cream, cream cheese, cottage cheese and yogurt. OptaMist is also a starch-based texturizing agent that improves the taste, texture and appearance of dairy products, yogurt, cheese products, and salad dressings.

The Consumer Products Group provides natural and organic consumer packaged food products to global fo! od manufa! cturers, distributors and supermarket chains with a variety of branded and private label products. The Consumer Products Group�� products include Conventional and organic beverage processing and re-sealable pouch filling solutions in a variety of product categories, including shelf stable and refrigerated juices, frozen fruits and vegetables, specialty beverages, vitamin waters, electrolyte waters, energy drinks, soups, baby food, and healthy fruit and vegetable based snacks in flexible pouches. It offers nutritious healthy snacks including natural and organic fruit based snacks in bar, twist, rope and bite size shapes, with the ability to add a variety of ingredients including fiber, plus a range of baked and extruded nutrition bars using a wide variety of ingredients including grains, proteins and other ingredients.

The International Foods Group includes European and North American based operations that source and supply raw material ingredients and trade organic commodities. Its principal operations are located in Amsterdam, the Netherlands and Santa Cruz, California and comprise the global sourcing and supply operations of Tradin Organic, including a business in Dalian, China that supplies food grade organic soybeans, feed, organic sunflower kernels and other grains and distributes certain organic food products, as well as sourcing and processing operations in Ethiopia for organic and specialty coffees and organic and conventional sesame seeds. In addition, the International Foods Group is expanding its integrated processing capabilities with the construction of its value-added organic and specialty cocoa facility in the Netherlands.

SunOpta Foods is subject to a wide range of governmental regulations and policies in various countries and regions where it operates,including the

United States,Canada, the Netherlands, throughout the rest of the EU, China and Ethiopia. These laws, regulations and policies are implemented, as applicable in each jurisdiction, on t! he nation! al, federal, state, provincial and local levels. For example, SunOpta Foods is affected by laws and regulations related to: seed, fertilizer and pesticides; the purchasing, harvesting, transportation and warehousing of grain and other products; the processing, packaging and sale of food, including wholesale operations; and product labelling and marketing, food safety and food defense. SunOpta Foods is also affected by government-sponsored price supports, acreage set aside programs and a number of environmental regulations.

Opta Minerals

Opta Minerals is a vertically integrated provider of custom process optimization solutions and supplier of industrial minerals and silica-free abrasives for use primarily in the steel, foundry, loose abrasive cleaning and municipal water filtration industries. Opta Minerals has offices and production and distribution facilities in Ontario, Quebec, Saskatchewan, Florida, Idaho, Indiana, Louisiana, Maryland, Michigan, New York, Ohio, South Carolina, Texas, Virginia and production locations in Europe in Kosice, Slovakia; Romans, France; and Ermsleben and Rodermark, Germany. Opta Minerals integration of its business acquisitions into its existing operations and financial management systems has created synergies that have increased revenues and profit margins. It has invested in improving plant equipment and infrastructure and has been able to reduce costs while growing production capabilities. It believes that Opta Minerals is well-positioned to expand current operations with modest capital expenditures.

Opta Minerals produces, manufactures, distributes and recycles industrial minerals, silica-free abrasives and specialty sands and other products and services to the foundry, steel, loose abrasive cleaning, roofing granule, marine/bridge cleaning, waterjet cutting, and municipal, recreational and industrial water filtration industries. Its principal product lines include: blends of industrial minerals used primarily in heavy industrial a! pplicatio! ns; silica-free abrasives,and specialty sands, filtration media and other products and services.

Opta Minerals sells industrial mineral products primarily to the foundry and steel industries. Industrial minerals products produced by Opta Minerals include chromites, magnesium blends, lime, nozzle sands, clays, coated sands, petroleum coke, crushed graphite, pre-cast refractory shapes, injection lances, and a wide range of foundry pre-mixes.

Opta Minerals abrasive products are primarily sold into shipbuilding, ship repair, bridge cleaning, waterjet cutting and roofing granule markets. The abrasives produced are free of silica, making them a clean, efficient and recyclable alternative to traditional abrasives. Recycling operations are conducted at Waterdown, Ontario, Norfolk, Virginia and Ermsleben, Germany. This is an important service that Opta Minerals provides to its customers which results in the reuse of materials that would otherwise be sent directly to landfills. Silica-free abrasive products produced by Opta Minerals include BlackBlast, Ultra Blast, EconoBlast, EbonyGrit, Powerblast, Galaxy Garnet, Emerald Creek Garnet, Bengal Bay Garnet and other specialty abrasives.

Opta Minerals also generates revenues from the sale of specialty sands, filtration media and other products and technical services. The silica sands are not sold for use as an abrasive material.Speciality sands and other products and services of Opta Minerals include filtration and industrial sands, garnets for filtration and waterjet cutting, construction sands, golf bunker sand, silica (not sold for loose abrasive applications), colored sand, waterjet cutting replacement parts and components, and technical services.

The industrial minerals industry is characterized by a number of public and private companies that service the bulk of requirements for both the foundry and steel industry. The remaining market requirements are fulfilled by small regionally based companies with limi! ted produ! ct lines that generally focus on local markets.

The silica-free abrasives industry is characterized by a number of regionally-based companies with limited product lines tending to focus on geographically adjacent markets. Their competition varies by product line, customer classification and geographic market. Opta Minerals conducts business throughout North America with a focus on key regions including the Quebec-Detroit corridor, New York, Maryland, Virginia, Georgia, Florida, Louisiana and Texas, all of which are areas of high volume ship repairs and bridge cleaning activities.

The Company competes with Vesuvius Group S.A./N.V., Stollberg Group, SKW Mettalurgie Gmbh, Magnesium Elektron and Prince Minerals.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Lisa Levin]

  © 2014 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.

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Top Electric Utility Stocks To Buy Right Now: Kodiak Oil & Gas Corp (KOG)

Kodiak Oil & Gas Corp. (Kodiak) is an independent energy company focused on the exploration, exploitation, acquisition and production of crude oil and natural gas in the United States. Kodiak has developed an oil and natural gas asset base of proved reserves, as well as a portfolio of development and exploratory drilling opportunities on high-potential prospects with an emphasis on oil resource plays. The Company�� oil and natural gas reserves and operations are primarily concentrated in the Williston Basin of North Dakota. As of January 31, 2012, it had approximately 169,000 net acres under lease, including 157,000 net acres in the Bakken oil play in the Williston Basin of North Dakota and Montana. In January 2012, the Company acquired Williston Basin oil and gas producing properties and undeveloped leasehold. On January 10, 2012, it acquired certain oil and gas leaseholds, overriding royalty interests and producing properties located in North Dakota. Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Tyler Crowe]

  If this were to happen and we don't see any major policy changes regarding oil exports, then it is very likely that we will see domestic oil prices sink. According to the Deutsche Bank report, producers in the Bakken could see prices slump to the $75-$80 a barrel range. This would be extremely discouraging for some of the smaller producers like Kodiak Oil & Gas (NYSE: KOG  ) . The company is currently getting about $90 a barrel, and a potential 17% cut in prices could be a wet blanket for a company that is trying to grow faster than its current earnings dictate.

• [By Tyler Crowe]

  Despite the fact that Kodiak Oil & Gas (NYSE: KOG  ) has decided to be acquired by Whiting Petroleum (NYSE: WLL  ) for slightly less than market value for similar deals recently, Wall Street seems to love the transaction. Both Kodiak and Whiting have seen shares climb by 10.1% and 10.4%, respectively, following the announcement, which suggests there might have been something bigger to the deal. Let's take a look at what has changed recently for Kodiak and how that could impact other smaller players in the Bakken such as Oasis Petroleum (NYSE: OAS  ) and Triangle Petroleum (NYSEMKT: TPLM  ) .

Top Electric Utility Stocks To Buy Right Now: Evolva Holding SA (EVE)

Evolva Holding SA (Evolva) discovers and provides ingredients for health, nutrition and wellness. Evolva uses biosynthetic and evolutionary technologies to create small molecule compounds and their production routes. The Company�� nutrition and consumer products include Pomecins, saffron, stevia, vanilla and resveratrol. The Company�� pharmaceuticals products include EV-077 and EV-035. In pharmaceuticals, the Company focuses on oral, small molecule drugs with application in complications of diabetes and infectious diseases. Pomecins are Evolva�� compounds. Evolva is focused on two members of the family - Pomecin A and Pomecin B. EV-035 is a bacterial type II topoisomerase inhibitor. Evolva is developing EV-077 for the treatment of diabetic complications. It is an oral, small molecule compound, belonging to a structural class. Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Glenwoods]

  Earlier this year the giant food processor, Cargill, partnered with the small Swiss company, Evolva (SIX:EVE), which was developing its own stevia-based fermentation process, also in the pilot stage. As noted earlier in the article, Cargill is in a partnership with Coca-Cola for Truvia, the bestselling stevia product on the market. The success of the Cargill/Evolva partnership could have big implications not just for Cargill and Coca-Cola, but also on the entire stevia and sweetener market. I further believe the success of the partnership could have a major impact on Stevia First. If Cargill�� fermentation method produces a better tasting stevia product at a lower cost it would give Coca-Cola a considerable advantage over the other beverage bottlers, food manufacturers, and stevia producers. Such an outcome would force these companies to scramble to find a similar method in order to compete. There would be a very good chance that rival companies, in order to stay in the game, would have to turn to the other company developing a fermentation-based stevia product-- Stevia First. If that happens Stevia First�� value would rise considerably.

Top Electric Utility Stocks To Buy Right Now: New Residential Investment Corp (NRZ)

New Residential Investment Corp., incorporated on September 26, 2013, is a real estate investment trust. The Company focuses on investing in, and actively managing, investments related to residential real estate. On May 15, 2013, Newcastle Investment Corp. announced that the spin-off of New Residential Investment Corp.

The Company is managed by an affiliate of Fortress Investment Group LLC, a global investment management. The Company primarily target investments in excess mortgage servicing rights, residential mortgage backed securities, residential mortgage loans and other related investments.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Lauren Pollock]

  New Residential Investment Corp.(NRZ) and other investors agreed to buy about $3.2 billion of servicing advances from Nationstar Mortgage Holdings Inc.(NSM), part of Nationstar’s plan to reconfigure its acquisition structure. The advances relate to nonagency residential mortgage loans with an unpaid principal balance of about $58 billion. Nationstar shares rose 4.1% to $42.50 in light premarket trading.

Top Electric Utility Stocks To Buy Right Now: Shiner International Inc.(BEST)

Shiner International, Inc., through its subsidiaries, engages in the research and development, manufacture, sale, and distribution of technology driven advanced packaging film products. Its products include coated films, tobacco films, anti-counterfeit laser holographic films, color printed products, and water-based latex products. The company also offers biaxially-oriented polypropylene (BOPP) films for printing, lamination, and over-wrap packaging; and BOPP tobacco films for packaging appearance, product freshness, and clear optics. In addition, it provides color printing services that consist of surface printing and reverse printing services for consumer goods manufacturers and beverage companies. The company sells its products to companies in the various industries, such as food, tobacco, chemical, agribusiness, medical, pharmaceutical, personal care, electronics, automotive, construction, graphics, music and video publishing, and other consumer goods in China, Asia, A ustralia, Europe, the Middle East, and North America. Shiner International has a strategy alliance with The Treofan Group. The company based in Haikou City, China.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Sally Jones]

  Looking through a kaleidoscope of facts about J. Kyle Bass, this guru quickly takes on a colorful and larger-than-life mythos. Hailing from the big-thinking state of Texas, Bass is often described as a big dreamer with a studious and practical streak. His career blossomed almost overnight when he reportedly made around a half a billion dollars betting against subprime CDOs in 2007. Bass comes across as a visionary who asks why not instead of why. He told CNBC that he likes to reduce email time and cut out the noise by learning about world markets through symbiotic relationships with friends like Alan Fournier and other billionaires. Every year Bass invites his notable friends to his ranch in Larue, Texas, for a special event called The Barefoot Economic Summit, Texas (BEST). Bass said he learns more in two days of the summit than in two months of emails.