Top 5 Trucking Stocks To Buy For 2015

Although we don't believe in timing the market or panicking over market movements, we do like to keep an eye on big changes -- just in case they're material to our investing thesis.

What: Shares of trucking company Arkansas Best (NASDAQ: ABFS  ) revved up the engine, and jumped as much as 17% after announcing its ABF Freight Systems employees had ratified a five-year collective bargaining agreement.

So what: According to Arkansas Best's press release, not only did the collective bargaining agreement pass, but it also passed a majority of the supplements in the ABF National Master Freight Agreement. There are still a few items left to be voted on over the near term, but this vote clears the way for Arkansas Best to be price competitive once again with its peers.

Now what: This agreement has seriously been far too long in coming, but it's precisely what Arkansas Best needs to get the company back to profitability. With the labor agreement ratified, Arkansas Best will not have to shed any jobs, and can utilize its pricing power and a stabilization in fuel costs to its advantage. The labor union gray cloud was the final piece of the puzzle left that I felt would make Arkansas Best a great company, and was the primary impetus behind my selection of the trucking company for my One Person's Trash Is Another Person's Treasure portfolio. While I still have high hopes for Arkansas Best, I'd probably temper my expectations a bit with the company having doubled in just three months.

Top 5 Trucking Stocks To Buy For 2015: Decision Diagnostics Corp (DECN)

Decision Diagnostics Corp., formerly instaCare Corp., incorporated on March 2, 2001, is a prescription and non-prescription diagnostics and home testing products distributor. The Company distributes brand name prescription and non-prescription diagnostics products, as well as several lines of ostomy, wound cares and post-surgery medical products. The Company through its subsidiaries, PDA Services, Inc. and Decision IT Corp. offers information technology solutions in several medical cares market channels by providing physicians with information at the point of care. The Company's retail prescription business maintains three operating units, which include Licensed wholesale prescription drug distribution business; Licensed distribution of diabetes diagnostics and supplies; and Internet pharmacy/prescription fulfillment.

The Company's software is designed to integrate point of service applications. The Company is also a developer of products that offer solutions in medical care and management by providing physicians with essential information instantaneously as they meet with their patients. In addition, the Company markets its MD@Hand and MD @Work software application, which also leverages the connectivity of smart cell phones devices through the Internet. The Company's applications run on smart phones manufactured by Apple, Palm, Motorola and Samsung.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Bryan Murphy]

  Over the past few weeks, Lexicon Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:LXRX) and Decision Diagnostics Corp. (OTCBB:DECN) have dominated the diabetes diagnostics and diabetes treatment landscape. Shares of LXRX jumped 20% on Tuesday following news that one of the key drugs in its pipeline showed more than enough efficacy in its clinical trials. DECN shares are up more than 250% on the heels of an almost-assured victory in its patent lawsuit against industry giant Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ). Anyone looking for a new trade in the diabetes diagnostics space, however, may want to look past overbought Lexicon Pharmaceuticals and Decision Diagnostics at this point, and instead turn their attention to newly-budding Neurometrix Inc. (NASDAQ:NURO).

Top 5 Trucking Stocks To Buy For 2015: Seabridge Gold Inc (SA)

Seabridge Gold Inc. (Seabridge) is a development-stage company. The Company is engaged in the acquisition and exploration of gold properties located in North America. As of December 31, 2011, the Company held six properties with gold resources and its material properties are its KSM Project and its Courageous Lake Project. The Company holds a 100% interest in each of its properties. Its projects include KSM (Kerr-Sulphurets-Mitchell), Courageous Lake, Pacific Intermountain Gold, Grassy Mountain, Red Mountain, Quartz Mountain, Castle Black Rock and Other Nevada projects. The KSM project consists of two contiguous claim blocks in the Iskut-Stikine region in British Columbia, approximately 20 kilometers southeast of the Eskay Creek Mine. The Courageous Lake project is a gold project covering approximately 81,700 acres located in the Northwest Territories, Canada. Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Lisa Levin]

  Gold: This industry rose 1.44% by 10:40 am ET. The top performer in this industry was Seabridge Gold (NYSE: SA), which gained 11.3%. Seabridge Gold shares have dropped 60.24% over the past 52 weeks, while the S&P 500 index has gained 26.39% in the same period.

• [By Selena Maranjian]

  Seabridge Gold (NYSE: SA  ) also lost 50%. Some of its operations in Canada have been yielding high-grade materials, and its KSM Gold project in British Columbia "contains one of the largest undeveloped gold and copper reserves in the world." The company's strategy explicitly includes trying to avoid share dilution. Like many of its peers, though, it's still operating in the red, so tread carefully.

Top Dividend Stocks To Invest In 2015: Raiffeisen Bank International AG (RBI)

Raiffeisen Bank International AG (RBI) is an Austria-based bank that focuses on corporate and retail banking sector. The Bank offers a range of products and consulting services, as well as market knowledge. The Bank�� products and solutions include financing, leasing, investing, hedging, trade & export finance, investment banking, cash management, payment services, custody & fund services, and cards, among others. RBI is organized into seven segments: the Central Europe segment encompassed the banking markets in the European Union countries in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) region; the Southeastern Europe segment comprises Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria and Croatia, among others; the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) other segment comprises Belarus, Kazakhstan and Ukraine; the Group Corporates segment covers business with corporate customers of the Bank; the Group Markets segment covers capital market customers and business; Corporate Center, and Russia. Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Rebecca Bundhun]

  The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) recently banned banks from issuing loans under the ��0:20 scheme�� which, through a three-way agreement between the lender, the developer, and the homebuyer, allowed the customer to pay 20% upfront, while the remainder of the loan would be issued to the developer, regardless of the stage of construction.

Top 5 Trucking Stocks To Buy For 2015: Stereotaxis Inc.(STXS)

Stereotaxis, Inc. designs, manufactures, and markets cardiology instrument control systems for use in a hospital?s interventional surgical suite or interventional lab for the treatment of arrhythmias and coronary artery diseases in the United States and internationally. The company provides Niobe system, which includes Niobe Magnetic Navigation System that navigates catheters, guidewires, and other delivery devices through complex paths in the blood vessels and chambers of the heart to carry out treatment; Navigant, a user interface or physician control center, which physicians use to visualize and track procedures and to provide instrument control commands that govern the motion of the working tip of the catheter, guidewire, or other interventional device; Cardiodrive, a catheter advancement system to remotely advance and retract the catheter in the patient?s heart. It also offers Odyssey enterprise solutions, which provides information solutions to manage, control, rec ord, and share procedures across networks; acquires remote view of the lab capturing synchronized procedure data for review of important events during cases; and review recorded cases and create snapshots following procedures for clinical reporting, auditing, and presentation. In addition, the company provides disposable interventional devices comprising automated catheters, coronary guidewires, and navigation and ablation systems. It markets its products through its direct sales force, distributors, and sales agents. The company was founded in 1990 and is headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Bryan Murphy]

  Look out Intuitive Surgical, Inc. (NASDAQ:ISRG), and step aside BioTelemetry Inc. (NASDAQ:BEAT). There's a new cardiac name in town, and its name is Stereotaxis Inc. (NASDAQ:STXS). This small company's stock is soaring today on the heels of encouraging news, though the prompt for the stock's strength has been brewing for quite some time. This nudge for STXS, however, may well mean it has a lot more potential than ISRG or BEAT do for the foreseeable future.

Top 5 Trucking Stocks To Buy For 2015: Ares Capital Corp (ARCC)

Ares Capital Corporation (Ares Capital), incorporated on April 16, 2004, is a specialty finance company, which is a closed-end, non-diversified management investment company. The Company�� wholly owned subsidiaries and vehicles managed or sub-managed by its wholly owned portfolio company, Ivy Hill Asset Management, L.P. (IHAM). It is externally managed by its investment adviser, Ares Capital Management LLC (Ares Capital Management or its investment adviser), a wholly owned subsidiary of Ares Management LLC (Ares Management), a global alternative asset manager. Ares Operations LLC (Ares Operations or administrator), its administrator, a wholly owned subsidiary of Ares Management, provides the administrative services. It invests in United States middle-market companies. It invests in first and second lien senior loans and mezzanine debt, which in some cases includes an equity component. It also makes preferred and/or common equity investments.

The Company�� portfolio company, IHAM, manages 10 unconsolidated credit vehicles and sub-manages or sub-advises four other unconsolidated credit vehicles (these vehicles managed or sub-managed/sub-advised by IHAM). It has also made direct investments in securities of certain of these vehicles. Ares Management�� (Ares) finance activities include the origination, acquisition and management of senior loans, bonds, mezzanine debt and special situation investments. Ares' private equity activities focus on providing flexible, junior capital to middle-market companies.

The Company has an investment portfolio of first and second lien loans, mezzanine debt and equity investments in private middle-market companies. The Company and General Electric Capital Corporation and GE Global Sponsor Finance LLC (GE) co-invest through the Senior Secured Loan Fund LLC, which operates using the name Senior Secured Loan Program. As of December 31, 2011, the Senior Secured Loan Program (SSLP) consisted of a portfolio of loans to 32 different borrowers and th! e portfolio companies in the SSLP are in industries similar to the companies in Ares Capital's portfolio. It also makes preferred and/or common equity investments. It makes senior secured loans in the form of first and/or second lien loans. Its first and second lien loans have terms of three to 10 years. The list of the industries, in which it has invested include aerospace and defense, business services, consumer products, containers and packaging, education, energy, environmental services, financial services, food and beverage, healthcare services, investment funds and vehicles, manufacturing, restaurant and food services, retail, and telecommunications. It has made investments in its portfolio company, IHAM, which manages 10 unconsolidated credit vehicles: Ivy Hill Middle Market Credit Fund, Ltd. (Ivy Hill I), Ivy Hill Middle Market Credit Fund II, Ltd. (Ivy Hill II), Ivy Hill Middle Market Credit Fund III, Ltd. (Ivy Hill III), Ivy Hill Senior Debt Fund, L.P. and related vehicles (Ivy Hill SDF and, together with Ivy Hill I, Ivy Hill II and Ivy Hill III, the Ivy Hill Funds); Knightsbridge CLO 2007-1 Limited, Emporia Preferred Funding I, Ltd., Emporia Preferred Funding II, Ltd. and Emporia Preferred Funding III, Ltd. (collectively, the Emporia Funds), and Ares Private Debt Strategies Fund II, L.P. and Ares Private Debt Strategies Fund III, L.P. (collectively, the PDS Funds). In addition, IHAM serves as the sub-adviser/sub-manager for four others: CoLTS 2005-1 Ltd., CoLTS 2005-2 Ltd. and CoLTS 2007-1 Ltd. (collectively, the CoLTS Funds), and FirstLight Funding I, Ltd. (FirstLight).

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Eric Volkman]

  Ares Capital (NASDAQ: ARCC  ) now has a new man in the chief executive's office. The business development company has tapped Michael Arougheti to be its CEO, in addition to a raft of other high-level appointments.

• [By Roger Nusbaum]

  ETRACS reports the yield of the underlying index to be 7.71%, which after accounting for the 0.84% "annual tracking rate" could put the fund's yield at 6.87%. DVHI will pay monthly, but the rate paid could vary. It is important to remember that with all exchange-traded products, any future yield could be more or less than what is now indicated. The individual holdings in DVHI are a combination of individual issues and exchange-traded funds. Two of the segments owned by the fund are captured with just one ETF. The PowerShares Emerging Markets Sovereign Debt Portfolio (PCY) is the sole holding for emerging-market debt. For high-yield debt, DVHI goes with iShares iBoxx High Yield Corporate Bond ETF (HYG). The two largest individual holdings in the fund are Ares Capital (ARCC), a business development company, and Energy Transfer Partners (ETP), an MLP. The composition of the fund should make it clear that the two priorities under the hood are diversification and yield. That should appeal to many investors. The fund, however, is exposed to a lot of interest rate risk. Earlier this week, markets were granted a reprieve when the Federal Reserve's Open Markets Committee announced that it wouldn't begin to reduce its bond-buying program. [Read: 5 Safest Cities in America] In late May, the committee indicated that it could reduce purchases later in the year, and as the story developed, markets participants came to believe that September was the month that a change in policy would be announced. So we know that purchases will continue as is for now, and we also know that at some point, the Fed will reduce its monthly purchases. What we don't know is when.

• [By Jon C. Ogg]

  Ares Capital Corp. (NASDAQ: ARCC) was started as Buy with a $19 price target at Sterne Agee.

  Cabot Oil & Gas Corp. (NYSE: COG) was started as Buy with a $45 price target at Canaccord Genuity.