10 Best Penny Stocks To Watch For 2015

Schlumberger (SLB) was down in Thursday afternoon trading after a mixed first quarter.

The oilfield giant said first quarter earnings were $1.59 billion, or $1.21 a share, up from 94 cents in the year-ago period and one penny ahead of estimates. Revenue rose 6.3% to $11.24 billion, just below the $11.49 billion analysts were expecting.

The Middle East and Asia a was the strongest region, with sales up 19%, followed by North America, with 12%. Revenue edged ahead by 0.6% in Europe and Africa, while Latin America saw a 7.7% decline.

Stephens analyst Michael Marino reiterated an Overweight rating on the stock: ��hile SLB’s geographically diversified footprint will likely limit exposure to the accelerating margin trends in North America this year, global oilfield spending continues to grow at a modest pace. Overall, we continue to see slow and steady revenue growth for the Company and solid incremental margins on higher deepwater mix, overall efficiency gains and potential pricing gains in North America.��/p>

10 Best Penny Stocks To Watch For 2015: Books-A-Million Inc.(BAMM)

Books-A-Million, Inc. operates as a book retailer in the southeastern United States. The company operates superstores and traditional bookstores that offer a selection of hardcover and paperback books, magazines, and newspapers. It also offers other merchandise, including gifts, cards, collectibles, magazines, music, DVDs, and electronic accessories, as well as coffee, tea, and other edible products. The company markets its products under the trademarks of Books-A-Million, BAM! Books-A-Million, Bookland, Books & Co., Millionaire?s Club, Sweet Water Press, Thanks-A-Million, Big Fat Coloring Book, Up All Night Reader, Read & Save Rebate, Readables Accessories for Readers, Kids-A-Million, Teachers First, The Write-Price, Bambeanos, Hold That Thought, Book$mart, BAMM, BAMM.com, BOOKSAMILLION.com, Chillatte, Joe Muggs Newsstand, Page Pets, JOEMUGGS.com, FAITHPOINT.com, Faithmark, Joe Muggs, Anderson?s Bookland, Snow Joe, Summer Says, On the John University, OTJU, American Whole sale Book Company, AWBC, and NetCentral. It also offers its products over the Internet at Booksamillion.com. As of August 11, 2011, the company operated 231 stores in 23 states and the District of Columbia. Books-A-Million, Inc. was founded in 1917 and is based in Birmingham, Alabama.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By John Udovich]

  Vitamin Shoppe Inc (NYSE: VSI), Books-A-Million, Inc (NASDAQ: BAMM) and Perfumania Holdings, Inc (NASDAQ: PERF) have the dubious distinction of being�the worst performing small cap�specialty retail stocks for this year (according to Finviz.com) with losses of 4.85% and�3% and a gain of 0.61%, respectively, since the start of the year (See my previous article: This Year�� Best Performing Small Cap Specialty Retail Stocks? UNTD, TA & HZO). I should mention that the definition of specialty retail stocks might vary from one stock screener to another, but what�� clear is that these three small cap retail stocks have been heading in the wrong direction for investors for much of this year. �With that in mind, what sort of performance should investors expect from these small cap specialty retail stocks on Black Friday and for the all important holiday season? Here is what you need to be aware of:

10 Best Penny Stocks To Watch For 2015: Star Gas Partners L.P.(SGU)

Star Gas Partners, L.P., through its subsidiaries, operates as a home heating oil distributor and services provider in the United States. It provides its services to residential and commercial customers to heat their homes and buildings. As of March 31, 2011, the company served approximately 408,000 full-service residential and commercial home heating oil, and propane customers. It also sold home heating oil, gasoline, and diesel fuel to approximately 40,000 customers. In addition, Star Gas Partners installed, maintained, and repaired heating and air conditioning equipment, as well as provided ancillary home services, including home security and plumbing to approximately 11,000 customers. Kestrel Heat, LLC operates as the general partner of the company. Star Gas Partners, L.P. was founded in 1995 and is headquartered in Stamford, Connecticut.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Louis Navellier]

  Star Gas Parnters (SGU) is in the home heating oil and propane business in the Northeast and mid-Atlantic regions of the U.S. The company has used smart acquisitions of smaller competitors to become the nation’s largest retail distributor of home heating oil — Star Gas sells heating oil to about 450,000 residential and commercial customers in its region.

• [By Marc Bastow]

  Home heating oil distributor and services company Star Gas Partners (SGU) raised its quarterly dividend 6% to 8.75 cents per share payable May 9 to shareholders of record May 1.
  SGU Dividend Yield: 5.43%

• [By Rich Smith]

  Stamford, Conn.-based Star Gas Partners (NYSE: SGU  ) is about to get a new CEO.

  The company (which, despite the name, actually spends more time delivering oil than gas for home heating), announced Tuesday that Chief Executive Officer Dan Donovan intends to retire on Sept. 30. When that happens, Chief Operating Officer Steve Goldman will move up to take the CEO's chair.

Hot Communications Equipment Stocks To Invest In 2015: Orion Marine Group Inc(ORN)

Orion Marine Group, Inc. operates as a marine specialty contractor serving the heavy civil marine infrastructure market. The company provides a range of marine construction and specialty services on, over, and under the water along the Gulf Coast, the Atlantic Seaboard, the West Coast, Canada, the Caribbean Basin, and the Pacific Northwest. The company?s marine construction services include construction of marine transportation facilities, marine pipelines, bridges and causeways, and marine environmental structures. Its marine transportation facility construction projects comprise public port facilities for container ship loading and unloading; cruise ship port facilities; private terminals; recreational use marinas and docks; and other marine-based facilities. Orion Marine Group?s marine pipeline service projects consist of the installation and removal of underwater buried pipeline transmission lines; installation of pipeline intakes and outfalls for industrial facilities ; construction of pipeline outfalls for wastewater and industrial discharges; river crossing and directional drilling; and creation of hot taps and tie-ins. Its bridge and causeway projects include the construction, repair, and maintenance of bridges and causeways, as well as the development of fendering systems in marine environments; and marine environmental structure projects primarily comprise the installation of concrete mattresses to ensure erosion protection, and the installation of geotubes for wetlands and island creation. In addition, the company offers dredging services; specialty services, including salvage, demolition, surveying, towing, diving and underwater inspection, excavation, and repair; and survey services comprising surveying pipelines and performing hydrographic surveys. Its customers include federal, state, and municipal governments, as well as private commercial and industrial enterprises. The company was founded in 1994 and is headquartered in Houst on, Texas.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Seth Jayson]

  When judging a company's prospects, how quickly it turns cash outflows into cash inflows can be just as important as how much profit it's booking in the accounting fantasy world we call "earnings." This is one of the first metrics I check when I'm hunting for the market's best stocks. Today, we'll see how it applies to Orion Marine Group (NYSE: ORN  ) .

10 Best Penny Stocks To Watch For 2015: Medallion Financial Corp.(TAXI)

Medallion Financial Corp., through its subsidiaries, operates as a specialty finance company in the United States. The company engages in originating, acquiring, and servicing loans that finance taxicab medallions and various types of commercial businesses. It offers commercial loans to finance the purchase of the equipment and related assets necessary to open a new business, or the purchase or improvement of an existing business; asset-based loans to small businesses; and secured mezzanine loans to businesses in various industries, including manufacturing and various service providers. The company also raises deposits; originates consumer loans for the purchase of recreational vehicles, boats, motorcycles, trailers, and hearing aids; and conducts other banking activities. In addition, it provides other debt, mezzanine, and equity investment capital to companies in various industries. The company was founded in 1995 and is headquartered in New York, New York.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Lawrence Meyers]

  That�� the case with Medallion Financial Corporation (TAXI). This neat little company is primarily focused on the financing of taxi cab licenses in major cities like New York. It does other specialty lending as well — such as asset-backed loans for luxury vehicles like boats and art. But its bread and butter has been the taxi business.

10 Best Penny Stocks To Watch For 2015: BGC Partners Inc.(BGCP)

BGC Partners, Inc. operates as a financial intermediary to the financial markets specializing in the brokering of various financial products. It provides electronic marketplaces, including government bond markets, spot foreign exchange, foreign exchange options, corporate bonds, and credit default swaps in various financial markets through its eSpeed- and BGC Trader- branded trading platform which can be accessed through its high speed data network, over the Internet, or third party communication networks. The company?s brokerage services include trade execution, broker-dealer services, clearing, processing, information, and other back office services, as well as cover various products, including fixed income securities, interest rate swaps, foreign exchange, equities, equity derivatives, credit derivatives, commodities, futures, and structured products. It also provides financial technology solutions, market data, and analytics related to financial instruments and markets . In addition, the company offers customized screen-based market solutions, which enables its clients to develop a marketplace, trade with their customers, issue debt, trade odd lots, access program trading interfaces, and access its network and intellectual property. Further, it licenses intellectual property portfolio and software solutions to various financial markets participants; and provides software development, software maintenance, customer support, infrastructure, and internal technology services to support electronic trading platforms. The company serves banks, broker-dealers, investment banks, trading firms, hedge funds, governments, investment firms, professional trading firms, futures commission merchants, and other professional market participants and financial institutions in the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Asia, Europe, Africa, the Middle East, and other Americas. The company was founded in 1999 and is based in New York, New York.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Brian Womack]

  ��t�� a defensive strategy because R&D costs are going up and the number of customers is going down,��said Amir Anvarzadeh, a manager of Japanese equity sales at BGC Partners Inc. (BGCP) in Singapore. ��his tells you there�� a problem in the industry.��

• [By Selena Maranjian]

  Finally, Tudor Investment's biggest closed positions included Apple�and the iShares MSCI Emerging Market Index Fund ETF. Other closed positions of interest include Frontier Communications (NASDAQ: FTR  ) and BGC Partners (NASDAQ: BGCP  ) . Frontier, recently yielding more than 9%, is a rural telecom specialist. It's weighed down with considerable debt, and is shifting its business focus, favoring business customers more. It's been posting declining revenue lately, though, and its credit rating took a hit in recent months, also. Some worry that its acquisition of landline business from Verizon�may not be as lucrative as expected, and fear a dividend cut.

• [By Eric Volkman]

  BGC Partners (NASDAQ: BGCP  ) is waxing optimistic about its current quarter. The company updated its previously issued guidance, indicating that its nearly complete Q2 will come in at the higher end of the range for revenues and EPS. The former was for distributable earnings revenue of $435 million-$465 million, while the latter anticipated pre-tax distributable earnings of $42 million-$53 million.

10 Best Penny Stocks To Watch For 2015: Telular Corporation(WRLS)

Telular Corporation designs, develops, and distributes products and services that utilize wireless networks to provide data and voice connectivity among people and machines primarily in the United States and internationally. It provides machine-to-machine and event monitoring services, including Telguard that comprises a specialized terminal unit, which interfaces with commercial security control panels and communicates with event processing servers to provide real-time transport of alarm signals from residential and commercial locations to an alarm company?s central monitoring station; and TankLink solution that combines a cellular communicator, wireless data services, and a Web-based application into a single offering, which allows end-users to monitor the product level in a given tank vessel. The company also offers fixed cellular terminals for voice, fax, and Internet access over the wireless networks. It sells its products to security equipment distributors, cellular carriers, and value added resellers. The company was founded in 1986 and is headquartered in Chicago, Illinois.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Eric Volkman]

  Telular (NASDAQ: WRLS  ) will most likely soon be an asset belonging to another company. It has entered into an agreement to be bought by private equity firm Avista Capital Partners for total consideration of $253 million. This consists of $12.61 per share in cash and roughly $18.5 million in assumed debt.

10 Best Penny Stocks To Watch For 2015: EarthLink Inc.(ELNK)

EarthLink, Inc. provides communications services to individual and business customers in the United States. It operates in two segments, Consumer Services and Business Services. The Consumer Services segment offers Internet access and related value-added services. It provides dial-up Internet and narrowband access, broadband access, and voice-over-Internet-protocol services, as well as value-added services that include products for protection, communication, and performance, such as security products, premium email only, home networking, email storage, and Internet call waiting. This segment offer its products and services primarily through its call centers, search engine marketing, affinity marketing partners, resellers, and marketing alliances. The Business Services segment offers integrated communications services, such as secure IP-based networks, virtual private networks, Internet access, local telephone and long distance services, enhanced services, access trunks, pr ivate line services, asynchronous transfer mode/frame relay services, and mobile data and voice services, as well as installation, managed network, remote access, and disaster recovery services. It also provides wholesale services comprising broadband transport services, including private line, Ethernet private line, and wavelength services; local communications and local dial tone communications services; live and automated operator, and directory assistance services; and dedicated Internet access services and direct connectivity. In addition, this segment leases server space and provides Web hosting services that enable customers to build and maintain an online presence, including domain names, storage, mailboxes, software tools to build Web sites, e-commerce applications, and 24/7 customer support. This segment offers its services through direct sales, and independent dealers and sales agents. The company was founded in 1994 and is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Rich Duprey]

  Continuing its efforts to transform itself from a pure Internet service provider into an information technology company, EarthLink (NASDAQ: ELNK  ) announced Monday it is buying�cloud computing and hosted IT services provider CenterBeam for $22 million.�

10 Best Penny Stocks To Watch For 2015: Sanderson Farms Inc.(SAFM)

Sanderson Farms, Inc., an integrated poultry processing company, engages in the production, processing, marketing, and distribution of fresh, frozen, processed, and prepared chicken products. The company?s prepared chicken product line includes institutional and consumer packaged partially cooked or marinated chicken items. It sells ice pack, chill pack, bulk pack, and frozen chicken in whole, cut-up, and boneless form under the Sanderson Farms brand name. The company sells its products to retailers, distributors, and casual dining operators in the southeastern, southwestern, northeastern, and western United States, as well as to the United States based customers who resell frozen chicken into export markets. Sanderson Farms, Inc. was founded in 1947 and is headquartered in Laurel, Mississippi.

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 Sanderson Farms (Nasdaq: SAFM  ) , whose recent revenue and earnings are plotted below.

• [By Rich Duprey]

  The four biggest chicken processors in the country are Tyson Foods (NYSE: TSN  ) ,�JBS, Perdue, and�Sanderson Farms� (NASDAQ: SAFM  ) , which slaughter 60% of all the chickens consumed in the country, and according to the National Chicken Council, the industry has invested tens of millions of dollars in technology and scientific processes to minimize any risks to the buying public. Indeed, every�factory-scale slaughterhouse has four USDA inspectors overseeing its kill lines.�

• [By Geoff Gannon]

  If you can choose between owning Sanderson Farms (SAFM) and McCormick (MKC) ��pick McCormick. Spice is just a better product than chicken. Well, ceramic proppant is a really, really good product. It�� the spice of the oil industry.

• [By Arturo Cuevas]

  It looks like you and I will be eating more chicken this 2014. Retail beef prices remain at record highs, and we consumers will likely be driven more toward comparatively cheaper chicken meat in 2014. Given this trend, loading up on shares of Sanderson Farms (NASDAQ: SAFM  ) , Pilgrim's Pride (NASDAQ: PPC  ) , and�Tyson Foods (NYSE: TSN  ) �should be worth considering.

10 Best Penny Stocks To Watch For 2015: Prospect Capital Corporation(PSEC)

Prospect Capital Corporation is a mezzanine finance and private equity firm that specializes in late venture, middle market, mature, mezzanine, buyouts, recapitalizations, growth capital, development, and bridge transactions. It makes secured debt and equity investments. The firm typically invests across all industry sectors, with a particular expertise in the energy and industrial sectors. It invests in oil and gas production, coal production, materials, industrials, consumer discretionary, information technology, utilities, pipeline, storage, power generation and distribution, renewable and clean energy, oilfield services, healthcare, food and beverage, education, business services, and other select sectors. The firm prefers to invest in the United States and Canada. It seeks to invest between $5 million to $50 million in companies with EBITDA between $$ million and $75 million, sales value up to $500 million, and enterprise value of up to $250 million. The firm also co- invests for larger deals. It seeks control acquisitions by providing multiple levels of the capital structure. Prospect Capital Corporation was founded in 1988 and is based in New York, New York.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By James E. Brumley]

  What do Prospect Capital Corporation (NASDAQ:PSEC), Astec Industries, Inc. (NASDAQ:ASTE), and First Financial Corp. (NASDAQ:THFF) have in common? Not much, on the surface. In fact, were it not for something very specific to one particular person (me), they'd have nothing in common at all. This week though, THFF, ASTE, and PSEC all have at least one thing in common, and that's the fact that they're all going into my mental/hypothetical portfolio.

• [By Rick Munarriz]

  We can start with Prospect Capital (NASDAQ: PSEC  ) .

  The business development company declared its next four monthly distributions on Monday of last week, a day before posting fresh financials. Prospect Capital will be increasing its rate every month -- yes, it pays monthly distributions -- from June through at least September.

• [By Grass Hopper]

  Examples of the first class of publicly ��raded private equity firms include Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. L.P. (KKR), The Blackstone Group L.P. (BX), and Oaktree Capital Group, LLC (OAK). Examples of the second class are Wendel SA (MF FP), Exor SpA (EXO IM) and, to some extent, Reinet Investments SCA (REI SJ). Examples of the third class are American Capital, Ltd. (ACAS), Main Street Capital, Gladstone Capital Corp. (MAIN), and Prospect Capital Corp. (PSEC).

10 Best Penny Stocks To Watch For 2015: MCG Capital Corporation(MCGC)

MCG Capital Corporation is a private equity firm specializing in investments in middle market companies. The firm does not prefer investments in highly cyclical and volatile industry sectors and businesses with significant volatility exposure. It seeks to invest in small to mid sized companies. The firm prefers to invest in acquisitions, growth financings, organic growth, recapitalization, and leveraged buyouts. It invests in companies based in the United States. The firm seeks to invest upto $75 million in debt and equity in companies having revenues between $20 million and $200 million and EBITDA between $3 million and $25 million. It seeks to invest in the form of senior debt, including amortizing, bullet maturity, term loans, and revolving credit facilities; institutional sub debt, including junior capital; second lien debt, that includes term loans on sole source and participant basis; secured and unsecured subordinate loans structured as current interest, deferred in terest, and equity linked components; mezzanine debt and equity that includes minority equity investments. The firm may invest in minority or control equity positions. It was formerly known as MCG Credit Corporation. MCG Capital Corporation was founded in 1990 and is based in Arlington, Virginia.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Equities Lab]

  The stocks that currently pass the stock screen in order of market cap are Frontier Communications Corp , Crown Media Holdings (CRWN), Vonage Holding (VG), MCG Capital Corp (MCGC), 1-800-FLOWERS.COM (FLWS), MTR Gaming Corporation (MNTG), Alaska Communications (ALSK), and Enzon Pharmaceuticals (ENZN).