Top 5 Promising Companies To Invest In 2015

When looking for promising candidates for your stock portfolio, certain big names might easily come to mind, such as IBM, General Electric, or Coca-Cola. But there are plenty of other possibilities, many of which we often overlook.

Consider supermarket giant Kroger (NYSE: KR  ) , for example. You might be inside one of its stores, thinking about investing in the companies that produce the items it sells (pudding, chicken, paper towels), without thinking of investing in the market itself. You might want to add Kroger stock to your portfolio, though. Why? Well, check this out: Kroger stock has appreciated by more than 50% over the past year. It has gained, on average, about 14.4% annually over the past 30 years, enough to turn $10,000 into about $566,000.

Of course, that's not enough to base an investment decision on, so let's take a closer look at the Kroger company and Kroger stock.

Meet Kroger
Kroger was launched in 1883, fully 130 years ago, when Barney Kroger put his life savings of $372 into a Cincinnati grocery store. Kroger stores were the first to have their own bakeries, which reduced the cost of bread for shoppers. Kroger was also the first to sell meats along with groceries in the same building. The company still makes many of its own products -- almost half of the 14,400 private-label products in its stores. These generate 26% of Kroger's grocery sales and boost its profit margins, as name-brand products tend to be more expensive at the wholesale level, in part due to manufacturers investing in advertising.

Top 5 Promising Companies To Invest In 2015: Malvern Federal Bancorp Inc.(MLVF)

Malvern Federal Bancorp, Inc. operates as the bank holding company for Malvern Federal Savings Bank, which is a federally chartered savings bank. It provides banking services in Pennsylvania. The company engages in attracting deposits from the general public and using those funds to invest in loans and investment securities. Its deposit products include interest-bearing and non-interest-bearing checking accounts, as well as money market, savings, and certificate of deposit accounts. The company?s loan products principally include one-to four family residential mortgage loans; and consumer loans comprising home equity loans, home equity lines of credit, automobile loans, unsecured personal loans, and loans secured by deposits. It conducts business from its headquarters and eight full-service branches in Chester and Delaware Counties, Pennsylvania. The company was founded in 1887 and is headquartered in Paoli, Pennsylvania.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Tim Melvin]

  Malvern Federal (MLVF) is a great example of a small financial institution at a cheap price with a sound financial condition. The bank has 8 branches in the Chester and Delaware counties of Pennsylvania. The bank has been around since 1897 and currently has about $600 million in assets. MLVF has a great balance sheet, with an equity-to-assets ratio of 10.9 and nonperforming assets that are just 1.98% of total assets.

Top 5 Promising Companies To Invest In 2015: Alexion Pharmaceuticals Inc.(ALXN)

Alexion Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company, engages in the discovery, development, and commercialization of biologic therapeutic products for treating patients with severe and life-threatening disease states in the United States, Europe, Latin America, Japan, and the Asia Pacific. It focuses on developing products for the treatment of diseases in the areas of hematology, nephrology, neurology, ophthalmology, and cancer. The company develops and commercializes Soliris (eculizumab), a therapeutic product for the treatment of patients with paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria (PNH), a blood disorder. It also conducts various Phase II clinical trail programs on Soliris for its usage for the treatment of cold agglutinin disease; atypical hemolytic uremic syndrome; presensitized renal transplant; kidney transplant for catastrophic antiphospholipid syndrome; ABO incompatible renal transplant; dense deposit disease; myasthenia gravis; neuromyelitis optica; and dry a ge-related macular degeneration. In addition, the company conducts Phase IV clinical trails on Soliris for its usage for the treatment of PNH registry; and Phase I clinical trails on Samalizumab for the treatment of oncology diseases, such as chronic lymphocytic leukemia and multiple myeloma. Alexion Pharmaceuticals, Inc. serves specialty distributors and specialty pharmacies, which supply physician office clinics, hospital outpatient clinics, infusion clinics, or home health care providers; government agencies; and hospitals, hospital buying groups, pharmacies, other healthcare providers, and distributors. The company was founded in 1992 and is headquartered in Cheshire, Connecticut.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Ben Levisohn]

  And it’s not just Gilead that Meacham is feeling good about. He’s also optimistic about Biogen Idec (BIIB), Ironwood Pharmaceuticals (IRWD) and Alexion Pharmaceiticals (ALXN):

• [By WWW.DAILYFINANCE.COM]

  Wall Street had another rising day, with the Dow Industrials and the S&P 500 reaching new record highs. But one tech stock tanked and the momentum took a bunch of others in the sector down with it. The Dow Jones industrial average (^DJI) closed 25 points higher, the Nasdaq composite (^IXIC) added 8 points, and the Standard & Poor's 500 index (^GPSC) was up 3 points. One of the top gainers on the S&P 500 was used car giant CarMax (KMX). Its share price zoomed higher by 16.5 percent with revenue and profits hitting record levels. The still lackluster economic recovery is causing many to drive off lots in used cars instead of new vehicles. And the hottest model over the past two years? The Nissan Altima. Automotive retailer AutoNation (AN), which runs new and used dealerships, also got a boost, rising more than 5 percent. It was a different story for software giant Oracle (ORCL), which was one of the S&P 500's biggest losers. Its stock fell 4 percent on sagging earnings. Social media stocks fell too. Pandora (P) was down 1.5 percent as was Groupon (GRPN), LinkedIn (LNKD) lost almost 1 percent and Amazon (AMZN) fell less than 1 percent two days after unveiling its first smartphone. But poor Radioshack (RSH). Its stock hit a new low, trading below a dollar a share for the first time after falling almost 10 percent. Since the beginning of the year the stock is down 64 percent. One analyst has a price target of zero on the stock. Ouch. (We hope you don't have that one in your portfolio.) And Darden's (DRI) earnings weren't very appetizing. Profits came in much lower than expected and guidance was weak. The stock fell 4 percent. It is selling its Red Lobster chain and trying to focus on revamping Olive Garden. Solar stocks had a bright day, though. Shares of SunEdison (SUNE) shone brightly rising 1.5 percent on news it was acquiring some solar farms in Massachusetts. Other solar stocks also basked on the day. Canadian Solar gained 6 percent, and

• [By Ben Levisohn]

  What a day for the stock market, as the major indexes rose thanks to big gains in beaten -down momentum stocks like Salesforce.com (CRM), Alexion Pharmaceuticals (ALXN) and Netflix (NFLX), and jumps in International Business Machines (IBM) and Goldman Sachs (GS).

Top 5 Rising Companies To Watch For 2015: SWK Holdings Corp (SWKH)

SWK Holdings Corporation (SWK), incorporated on July 1996, is engaged in identifying and reviewing candidates for acquisition or other investment. The Company was previously engaged in the development, marketing and support of customer communications software products. It sold its products primarily in North America, Europe and Asia, through its direct sales force and third party integrators.

The Company's applications were designed to integrate with other enterprise software and legacy systems, and provide customers with capabilities for personalization, customer profile management, inquiry management, universal business rules, knowledge management and work flow. KANA also offered customer support and professional services, such as consulting and education.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Tess Stynes]

  Verint Systems Inc.(VRNT) agreed to buy customer-service software firm Kana Software Inc.(SWKH) from private equity firm Accel-KKR for about $514 million in cash, as the data-analysis company seeks to expand its offerings.

Top 5 Promising Companies To Invest In 2015: Points International Ltd (PCOM)

Points International Ltd. provides a range of e-commerce and technology services to loyalty program operators using. These services consist of a range of e-commerce services (referred as its Loyalty Currency Services) that enable the sale of loyalty currencies (such as frequent flyer miles, hotel points and credit card points), both retail and wholesale. The Company also offers a reward management Website referred to as Points.com. The majority of the Company�� loyalty program partners operate in the United States. It also has a European customer base. It has three wholly owned direct subsidiaries: Points.com Inc., Points International (UK) Limited, and Points International (U.S.) Ltd. The Company�� services are generally delivered through Web-enabled e-commerce solutions. Points.com offers members of multiple loyalty programs the ability to track and manage their loyalty currencies. Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Hank Coleman]

  Anna Subbotina/Shutterstock You may not be fully aware of it, but you're probably sitting on your own personal treasure hoard: a stash of airline miles, hotel points or reward points you've earned through your credit cards. According to statistics compiled by Points.com and its parent Points International (PCOM), a company specializing in helping consumers trade, exchange and redeem reward points, the average American is hoarding more than 61,000 reward points through various programs. Americans have more than 2.65 billion loyalty memberships -- almost 10 per person. This would be fine if we were spending those points -- but we're not. According to Points.com, only 16 percent of us redeem the points that we earn each year. Why do we love reward points? Is there a danger in hoarding them? What should we do with our points as our balances continue to grow? Why Do We Love Reward Points So Much? Getting something for free is a big allure of reward points and loyalty programs. I love that my airline-branded credit card allows me to check a bag for free. Companies view reward programs as marketing by gamification. If businesses can make patronizing them into a game for their customers, they'll be more likely to do what it takes to advance to the next level. And of course, these programs inspire brand loyalty. I'm a huge fan of Fitbit. I'm always striving for the next badge or level with my fitness goals through the site and its devices. I'm also addicted to checking in to the places that I frequent on Foursquare. It drives me crazy when someone ousts me as the mayor of one of my favorite haunts. Gamification is going on with reward points themselves. Companies have found that we desperately want to get to the next level of rewards. That's why companies have different colored credit cards and exclusive levels that offer even more freebies to loyal customers -- though usually for a price. And we are dreamers. We dream that our frequent flyer miles and hotel rew

Top 5 Promising Companies To Invest In 2015: SPDR Dow Jones Industrial Average ETF Trust (DIA)

Diamonds Trust, Series 1 (the Trust) is a unit investment trust. The Trust was created to provide investors with the opportunity to purchase units of beneficial interest in the Trust representing proportionate undivided interests in the portfolio of securities consisting of substantially all of the component common stocks, which comprise the Dow Jones Industrial Average (the DJIA). The Trust�� objective is to provide investment results that, before expenses, generally correspond to the price and yield performance of the DJIA.

The Trust's holdings consist of the 30 stocks in the DJIA, which is designed to capture the price performance of 30 United States blue-chip stocks. The Trust ended its fiscal year on October 31, 2007, with a 12-month return of 17.72% on net asset value as compared to the DJIA return of 17.94%. As of October 31, 2007, some of the Trust�� investments included 3M Co., Alcoa, Inc., Altria Group, Inc., American Express Co., American International Group, Inc., AT&T, Inc., Boeing Co., Caterpillar, Inc., Citigroup, Inc. and Coca-Cola Co.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Jon C. Ogg]

  Keep in mind that the DJIA itself actually lose 0.2% in this last week. The SPDR Dow Jones Industrial Average (NYSEArca: DIA), which aims to track the DJIA, turned in a loss of -0.127%. The difference here is that the ETF can close on a bid price or an ask price, and there can be some miniscule tracking error on top of the SPDR management fee.

• [By Markos Kaminis]

  The Fed Chairman handled the questions well enough, indicating that one theorized future action would not mean that a series of tapering operations would follow. In other words, if the Fed were to stop its purchases in the treasury market, it might not mean it would do the same in the mortgage-backed securities market, and it certainly did not mean the Fed would be raising interest rates anytime soon. After all, deflation is the current issue of concern, not inflation. But the meeting minutes showed some discussion among the members about monetary policy, which is (surprisingly it seems to the market) what they discuss at these meetings. I suppose out of boredom or perhaps the duties of the job, somebody always has to bring up change and the prospect of raising rates. Woe, said the market; we do not want any of that! It drove turbulence in the performance of the broader indexes and the ETFs that mimic them, with the SPDR S&P 500 (SPY), SPDR Dow Jones Industrial Average (DIA) and the PowerShares QQQ (QQQ) each turning downward since the May 22nd events.

• [By Dan Caplinger]

  But if you want to match the market, tailor your investment strategy to use market-tracking ETFs. For instance, the SPDR Dow Jones Industrials ETF (NYSEMKT: DIA  ) , colloquially known as the Diamonds, tracks the popular Dow average. The popular Spiders, officially called the SPDR S&P 500 ETF (NYSEMKT: SPY  ) , moves nearly in lockstep with the S&P 500. You won't get exactly the performance of the indexes, as ETFs have fees involved that will detract somewhat from total returns. But with ETF fees being relatively low, the amount you lose to those costs is much less than you'd pay with an actively managed mutual fund.