Top Defensive Stocks To Buy Right Now

There are certain investment-related quotes that appear when markets are at extreme levels. For instance, the classic "buy when blood is running in the streets" (Rockefeller) is a useful reminder that a vast proportion of profit is made when shares are bought (at a very low price) rather than when they are sold. Similarly, Warren Buffett's quote "you only find out who's swimming naked when the tide goes out" is a useful reminder that taking high levels of risk at the wrong time can be very costly.

So, with the S&P 500 still within touching distance of its all-time highs and the Federal Reserve beginning the tapering of its monthly asset repurchase program, could now be a good time take some risk off the table and instead reallocate capital to lower beta, higher yielding, defensive plays?

Tobacco Stocks Could Add Value
Tobacco stocks�benefit from fairly stable demand for their products. Whether the US and global economy is in a boom or a recession, people still smoke, with a switch to a lower/higher price point brand (depending on the state of the economy) more likely than giving up the habit as a result of less disposable income. Due to this, tobacco companies tend to offer lower betas and a more secure dividend payment than many of their index peers. Both of these attributes could prove vital during a market correction or bear market.

Top 5 Mid Cap Stocks To Buy For 2016: Data Call Technologies Inc (DCLT)

Data Call Technologies, Inc. (Data Call), incorporated on April 4, 2002, focuses is to integrate cutting-edge information/content delivery solutions deployed by the media. The Company's software and services put its clients in control of real-time, news, and other content, including emergency alerts, displayed within one building as well as to thousands of local, regional and national clients, through Digital Signage and Kiosk networks. The Company offers its Direct Lynk Messenger service to customers through the Internet. The Direct Lynk Messenger Service is a Digital Signage product and real-time information service, which provides a range of up-to-date information for display.

Digital Signage is a method advertisers can use to promote, inform, educate, and entertain clients and customers about their businesses and products. Through Digital Signage, companies and businesses can use a single television or a series of networked flat liquid crystal display (LCD) or Plasma screens to market their services and products on site to their clients and customers in real time. Data Call specializes in allows its clients to create their own Digital Signage dynamic content feeds delivered, through Internet, to digital display devices (plasma, LCD, Jumbotron, Kiosks) at their establishments.

The Direct Lynk System allows customers to select from the pre-determined data and information services. The client may choose which individual locations and which displays they would like to receive the Company's feeds based on how their digital signage network is configured.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Peter Graham]

  Small cap small cap Internet, app or digital signage stocks Blast Applications, Inc (OTCMKTS: BLAP), TGFIN Holdings Inc (OTCMKTS: TGFN) and Data Call Technologies, Inc (OTCMKTS: DCLT) were getting some extra attention last week. Specifically, two of these stocks have been the subject of paid promotions while the third surged 114.29% on Friday. With that in mind, here is a closer look along with a reality check on all three small cap stocks:

Top Defensive Stocks To Buy Right Now: Open Joint Stock Company "Vimpel-Communications"(VIP)

VimpelCom Ltd. operates as an integrated telecommunications services provider, offering voice and data services through a range of wireless, fixed, and broadband technologies. It provides its services under the Beeline, Kyivstar, djuice, Wind, Infostrada Mobilink, Leo, Banglalink, Telecel, Mobinil, koryolink, Allo, and Djezzy brands. The company also offers roaming services that allows its subscribers and the customers of other mobile operators to receive and make international, local, and long distance calls while outside of their home network. In addition, it provides mobile telecommunications, as well as fixed-line, data, and long distance licenses. As of December 31, 2010, the company had 92.7 million mobile subscribers. It offers its services in Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Armenia, Georgia, Kyrgyzstan, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Algeria, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Burundi, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Central African Republic, Italy, and Canada. VimpelCom Ltd. is headquartered in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Eric Volkman]

  VimpelCom (NASDAQ: VIP  ) is to pass along a pair of payouts for its shareholders. Simultaneously, the company declared both a regular and a special dividend. For the former, the telecom will distribute $0.35, and for the latter, $0.79 per American depositary share. The company expects to pay both by May 15 to shareholders of record as of April 29.

Top Defensive Stocks To Buy Right Now: Norwegian Air Shuttle ASA (NAS)

Norwegian Air Shuttle ASA is a Norway-based company active in the low-cost airline industry. It operates scheduled services with additional charter services. It has a route portfolio that stretches across Europe into North Africa and the Middle East, as well as Thailand and the US. The Company operates approximately 400 routes and over 120 destinations. It has a fleet of over 80 jet aircrafts, including Boeings 737-800, Boeings 787-8 Dreamliners, Boeings 737 MAX8 and Airbuses A320neo. It is the parent company of the Norwegian Group and operates through subsidiaries, including Norwegian Air Shuttle Polska Sp z o o, Norwegian Air Shuttle Sweden AB, Call Norwegian AS, NAS Asset Management Norway AS, among others. Advisors' Opinion:

• [By GURUFOCUS]

  EMC�� products ��both hardware and software - are litearlly a geek�� wonderland alphabet soup, which include Storage Area Network (SAN), Network Attached Storage (NAS), Direct Attached Storage (DAS), Virtual SAN, All-Flash XtremIO, Atmos, Avamar, �Data Domain, Isilon, Pivotal, ViPR Software Defined Storgae, VMAX, VNX, VNXe, VPLEX, VSPEX (none of these are typos).� Information storage makes up 70% of revenues and virtualization 23% of revenues.� Products generate 55% of revenues.� Services generate 45% of revenues.� The Company�� gross profit split is approximaltey 67% data storage and 31% virtualization.

Top Defensive Stocks To Buy Right Now: Moody's Corporation(MCO)

Moody?s Corporation, through its subsidiaries, provides credit ratings; credit and economic related research, data, and analytical tools; risk management software; and quantitative credit risk measures, credit portfolio management solutions, training, and financial credentialing and certification services worldwide. Its Moody?s Investors Service segment publishes credit ratings on debt obligations, including various corporate and governmental obligations, structured finance securities, and commercial paper programs, as well as the entities that issue such obligations in markets worldwide. This segment provides ratings in approximately 110 countries. Its ratings are disseminated via press releases to the public through print and electronic media, including the Internet and real-time information systems, which is used by securities traders and investors. As of December 31, 2010 this segment had ratings relationships with approximately 11,000 corporate issuers and approximate ly 22,000 public finance issuers. It also rated and monitored ratings on approximately 102,000 structured finance obligations. The company?s Moody?s Analytics segment develops products and services that support the risk management activities of institutional participants in financial markets. It also distributes investor-oriented research and data, including research on debt issuers, industry studies, and commentary on topical events developed by MIS as part of its rating process. In addition, this segment provides economic research, and credit data and analytical tools, such as quantitative credit risk scores; economic and regulatory capital risk management software and implementation services; and quantitative credit risk measures, credit portfolio management solutions, training, and financial credentialing and certification services. It serves approximately 4,100 institutions in approximately 115 countries. The company was founded in 1900 and is headquartered in New York, New York.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Sean Williams]

  Today's best performer was ratings agency Moody's (NYSE: MCO  ) , which surged 8.3% after it and McGraw-Hill (NYSE: MHFI  ) subsidiary Standard & Poor's settled a lawsuit with slightly more than a dozen plantiffs in a case involving their rating of financial securities relating to the financial crisis. Although no financial figures were disclosed, settlements in cases like this are extremely common and usually for less than the sought-after amount, since court fees can be quite expensive. This could also bode well for future and ongoing litigation such as the U.S. government's suit against McGraw-Hill's Standard & Poor's for its selected ratings during the financial crisis.

• [By Rich Smith]

  Alamy For years -- ever since the Great Recession ended -- pundits have been pontificating about a strange trend in corporate America. Despite earning record profits, and having the ability to borrow cash easily, companies were refusing to spend. Like Scrooge in his office, they were raking in profits ... and then sitting on them, refusing to put the money to work to grow the American economy. Or so the story went. But was it true? it true? It turns out that this real story is a bit more complicated; and you'll be surprised where a lot of that cash came from ... and what it needs to be spent on. A Kernel of Truth Every complex tale grows from a kernel of truth, of course, and this one actually grows out of two such kernels. It's true that American corporations are fabulously profitable today. According to the Department of Commerce, profit margins at U.S. companies in 2013 were regularly hitting levels of 9.3 percentage points -- more than 57 percent higher than average over the past 60 years. Also true is that these profits, in turn, yielded a lot of cash for the corporations earning them. From 2006 through mid-2013, total cash reserves at U.S. nonfinancial companies (i.e., everything but banks) nearly doubled, rising from $820 billion to $1.48 trillion, an 81 percent increase. Credit ratings company Moody's (MCO) recently estimated that cash levels at the end of 2013 probably hit $1.5 trillion.