Monday, November 4, 2013

Top Tech Companies To Invest In Right Now

 To find the best, most profitable setups, commodity traders have to watch for "black death pessimism."   Earlier this month, we looked at three ugly charts in the natural resource sector... diversified giant miner BHP Billiton, iron-ore miner Vale, and the coal sector fund (NYSE: KOL).   These assets are a "pass" in my book.   They're all down 30%-50% in the last two years. They're a heck of a lot cheaper than they were in 2011. Still... there's been no "washout" bottom that leads me to think we've hit screaming bargain levels. Folks haven't totally given up on them yet.   But there is one natural resource sector that has reached a "washout" bottom. And it continues to look good from a "common sense technical analysis" perspective...

Top Tech Companies To Invest In Right Now: American Software Inc (AMSWA)

American Software, Inc. (American Software), incorporated in 1970, develops, markets and supports a portfolio of software and services that delivers enterprise management and collaborative supply chain solutions to the global marketplace. American Software operates three business segments: Supply Chain Management (SCM), Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and Information Technology (IT) Consulting. The SCM segment consists of Logility, Inc. (Logility), which provides collaborative supply chain solutions for forecasting, production, distribution and management of products between trading partners. The ERP segment consists of American Software ERP, which provides purchasing and materials management, customer order processing, financial, e-commerce, flow manufacturing and manufacturing solutions, and New Generation Computing (NGC), which provides business software to both retailers and manufacturers in the apparel, sewn products and furniture industries. The IT Consulting segment consists of The Proven Method, Inc., an IT staffing and consulting services firm. The Company also provides support for its software products, such as software enhancements, documentation, updates, customer education, consulting, systems integration services, and maintenance.

Supply Chain Management

The Company�� wholly owned subsidiary Logility provides SCM solutions, an integrated set of supply chain planning, inventory optimization, manufacturing, and transportation and logistics solutions. Logility provides SCM solutions to streamline and optimize the market planning, management, production, and distribution of products for manufacturers, suppliers, distributors, and retailers. As of April 30, 2011, Logility�� customer base is approximately 1,250 companies located in more than 74 countries. Logility markets and sells the Demand Solutions product line to the global small and midsize enterprise (SME) market through the global VAR distribution network of Demand Management, Inc. (DMI). Logility also ! offers the Logility Voyager Solutions suite.

Logility Voyager Solutions is an integrated software suite that provides SCM, including collaborative planning, strategic network design, multi-echelon inventory optimization, optimized supply sourcing, production management, warehouse management, and collaborative logistics capabilities. Logility Voyager Solutions incorporates performance management analytics for decision support for processes, such as demand management, inventory and supply optimization, manufacturing planning and scheduling, transportation planning and management and sales and operations planning (S&OP).

The Logility Voyager Solutions software suite is modular and scalable to meet the management requirements of global organizations involving products with manufacturing or distribution networks. In addition, the Logility Voyager Solutions suite interfaces with a range of existing enterprise applications deployed on a range of technical platforms. Logility Voyager Solutions accelerates S&OP, as well as strategic partner collaboration. Voyager Sales and Operations Planning enables companies to streamline and accelerate the entire S&OP process. Voyager Collaborate enables companies to communicate across their organizations and share supply chain information with external trading partners.

Voyager Fashion Forecasting helps improve profits with capabilities that address the collection launches for fashion-driven businesses. Voyager Demand Planning helps reconcile differences between business planning and detailed product forecasting. Voyager Life Cycle Planning provides control to model each phase in a product�� sunrise-to-sunset lifecycle, including introduction, maturity, replacement, substitution and retirement. Voyager Event Planning integrates marketing strategies with forecasting, distribution and logistics planning to calculate the impact of promotional plans and demand shaping strategies, such as price discounts, coupons, advertising, special pack! aging and! product placement.

Logility Voyager Solutions enables enterprises to set inventory targets at each node of a multi-echelon distribution network to match strategic inventory goals and service levels. Voyager Inventory Optimization optimizes inventory investments across multi-echelon manufacturing and distribution networks to meet business and service level objectives for supply chains with multiple stages of inventory. Logility Voyager Inventory Planning allows enterprises to measure the tradeoff of inventory investment and desired customer service levels.

Logility Voyager Solutions optimizes material, inventory, production and distribution assets by synchronizing supply and demand. Voyager Supply Planning optimizes sourcing and production decisions to balance supply, manufacturing and distribution constraints based on corporate goals. Voyager Replenishment Planning provides visibility of future customer demand, corresponding product and material requirements, and the actions needed to satisfy those demands. Voyager Manufacturing Planning creates optimized constraint-based manufacturing schedules and compares multiple schedule scenarios to determine the optimal trade-off between manufacturing efficiencies, inventory investments and greenhouse gas emissions.

Logility Voyager Solutions provides capabilities for optimizing both warehouse and transportation operations. Voyager WarehousePRO provides shipping and inventory accuracy by optimizing the flow of materials and information through distribution centers. Voyager Transportation Planning and Management provide a multi-modal solution for savings of time, effort and money. It enables automated shipment planning, shipment execution and freight accounting. Demand Solution�� supply chain software provides a transition from spreadsheet management to robust reporting and tracking. Demand Solutions offers two separate product suites: traditional and DSX. The Demand Solutions application suite predict future demand and m! ake infor! med decisions to optimize inventory turns, customer service levels and profitability. Demand Solutions Forecast Management provides a demand planning solution that fits virtually any industry and deploys. Demand Solutions Requirements Planning incorporates collaborative planning capabilities to streamline supply activities from the production line through delivery.

Demand Solutions Collaboration offers a certified collaborative planning, forecasting and replenishment (CPFR) compliant collaborative planning solution that streamlines communications between a company and its customers and suppliers. Demand Solutions Sales & Operations Planning automates and continually analyzes the annual business planning process. Demand Solutions Advanced Planning and Scheduling is a production scheduling solution that supports both the process and discrete enterprise environment and produces accurate schedules taking into account machines, personnel, tooling and inventory constraints. Demand Solutions View (DS View) extends the value of Demand Solutions, empowering users to aggregate, rotate, filter, sort and otherwise manipulate large volumes of data into meaningful information. Demand Solutions Retail Planning enables manufacturers, distributors and retailers to collaboratively produce, ship and replenish product based on point-of-sale (POS) data.

Enterprise Resource Planning

The Company�� enterprise solutions are global solutions that link critical functions throughout an enterprise. The e-Intelliprise solution is a Web-based ERP system that a customer can run over the Internet, Intranet or Extranet utilizing the IBM iSeries servers. This allows functions within the ERP system to be deployed over the Internet using a Webpage capability. The e-Intelliprise solution is a global system, capable of operating in multiple languages and logistical organizations. Its e-applications are solutions for conducting business on the Internet that can Web-enable specific business functions t! hrough in! tegration with existing ERP or legacy systems. The e-applications are available for the applications, which include e-procurement, e-store, e-expenses, e-forms, e-payables, e-receivables, Purchase Order Tracking and Vendor Collaboration, Requisition Tracking, Shipment Tracking, e-process management and e-connect a seamless, XML-enabled data exchange.

The Company�� product line consists of software and services that operate on three strategic computer platforms, which includes IBM System z Mainframe or compatible, IBM System i (AS/400), and Intel-based servers and clients that operate Windows 2000, 2003, XP and Vista. It has written its products in various standard programming languages used for business application software, including ANSI COBOL, Micro Focus COBOL, C, C++, Visual Basic, JAVA, JAVA2 and other programming languages. Many have both on-line and batch capabilities.

IT Consulting

The Proven Method, Inc., the Company�� wholly owned subsidiary, is a technology services firm that specializes in assisting customer base to solve business issues with technology solutions. The solutions the Company provides ranges from Web applications to complex Business Intelligence applications and solutions. Business Intelligence consists of the development and implementation of a reporting process for dealing with data and multiple business entities/components. Its customers are Internet savvy and knowledgeable in wireless solutions, social networking and channeling implementations, server and desktop virtualization, and deployment of interactive applications. The Proven Method has customers, such as Aon, IBM, UPS, Norfolk Southern, Xerox, SunTrust Bank, Coca-Cola Enterprises, Kubota Manufacturing of North America, The Home Depot, AT&T, State of Georgia, CompuCom, Zep Inc, Chick-fil-A, Global Payments, Verizon, Catlin Group Ltd, Federal Home Loan Bank of Atlanta, Fulton Paper, Aaron Rents, AutoTrader.com, Nalco Chemical, Georgia Tech Research Institute and numerous ot! her custo! mers throughout the United States.

The Company competes with SAP, Oracle, Infor, JDA Software and Red Prairie.

Top Tech Companies To Invest In Right Now: Changyou.com Limited(CYOU)

Changyou.com Limited develops and operates online games in the People?s Republic of China. It involves in the development, operation, and licensing of massively multi-player online role-playing games (MMORPGs), which are interactive online games that might be played simultaneously by various game players. The company operates seven MMORPGs that include its in house developed Tian Long Ba Bu; and licensed Blade Online, Blade Hero 2, Da Hua Shui Hu, Zhong Hua Ying Xiong, Immortal Faith, and San Jie Qi Yuan. As of December 31, 2010, Changyou?s games in China had approximately 111.4 million aggregate registered accounts; 1.0 million aggregate peak concurrent users; and 2.7 million aggregate active paying accounts. The company was founded in 2003 and is based in Beijing, the People?s Republic of China. Changyou.com Limited is a subsidiary of Sohu.com Inc.

Advisors' Opinion:
  • [By Yiannis Mostrous]

    Changyou.com (CYOU)

    A subsidiary of Internet portal Sohu.com, video game developer Changyou.com specializes in massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPG).

  • [By Seth Jayson]

    Changyou.com (Nasdaq: CYOU  ) is expected to report Q2 earnings on July 29. Here's what Wall Street wants to see:

    The 10-second takeaway
    Comparing the upcoming quarter to the prior-year quarter, average analyst estimates predict Changyou.com's revenues will increase 24.3% and EPS will expand 1.5%.

  • [By Damian Illia]

    In the video game industry no one is playing games. Users are seeking entertainment on all kinds of devices, and companies strive hard to stand out and profit in this shifting field. Competition might be stiff, but it�� a highly profitable business for those that make it to the next level. Electronic Arts (EA), Changyou.com (CYOU) and Activision Blizzard (ATVI) are three game developers with different, but interesting, prospects ahead. Let�� take a closer look at them and see if you��e up for play:

  • [By Brian Pacampara]

    What: Shares of Chinese online gaming operator Changyou.com (NASDAQ: CYOU  ) plummeted 19% today after its quarterly results and outlook disappointed Wall Street.

Hot Blue Chip Companies To Buy For 2014: KongZhong Corporation(KONG)

KongZhong Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, provides wireless interactive entertainment, media, and community services to mobile phone users in the People's Republic of China. It also involves in the development, distribution, and marketing of consumer wireless value-added services, including wireless application protocol, multimedia messaging services, short messaging services, interactive voice response services, and color ring back tones. In addition, it offers interactive entertainment services, such as mobile games, pictures, karaoke, electronic books, mobile phone personalization features, entertainment news, chat, and message boards; and through Kong.net offer news, community services, games, and other interactive media and entertainment services; and sells advertising space in the form of text-link, banner, and button advertisements. Further, the company develops and publishes mobile games, including downloadable mobile games and online mobile games cons isting of action, role-playing, and leisure games. As of December 31, 2009, it had a library of approximately 300 internally developed mobile games. Additionally, it develops online games; and provides consulting and technology services, as well as media and net book services. The company was formerly known as Communication Over The Air Inc. and changed its name to KongZhong Corporation in March 2004. KongZhong Corporation was founded in 2002 and is headquartered in Beijing, the People?s Republic of China

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 Kongzhong (Nasdaq: KONG  ) , whose recent revenue and earnings are plotted below.

Top Tech Companies To Invest In Right Now: Vodafone Group(VOD.L)

Vodafone Group Public Limited Company provides mobile telecommunication services worldwide. It offers mobile voice services to approximately 370 million customers; messaging services; mobile data services; fixed broadband services to approximately 6 million customers; and whole sale carrier services to approximately 40 African countries. The company also provides business managed services, such as secure remote network access services, as well as operates and sells mobile virtual network access. In addition, it supplies smartphones and tablets; designs, manufactures, and sells handsets under the Vodafone brand; and supplies connected smart devices, such as 4G/LTE mobile broadband stick, and Vodafone WebBox that enables customer to connect to the Internet through television sets. The company directly owns and manages approximately 2,200 stores, as well as has approximately 10,300 Vodafone-branded stores operated through franchises and dealer arrangements. It also offers its products and services through third party services providers, independent dealers, distributors, and retailers, as well as through Internet. Vodafone Group Plc was founded in 1984 and is based in Newbury, the United Kingdom.

Top Tech Companies To Invest In Right Now: Organovo Holdings Inc (ONVO)

Organovo Holdings, Inc. (Organovo), formerly Real Estate Restoration & Rental, Inc., incorporated in 2007, is a development-stage company. The Company has developed and is commercializing a platform technology for the generation of three-dimensional (3D) human tissues that can be employed in drug discovery and development, biological research, and as therapeutic implants for the treatment of damaged or degenerating tissues and organs. On December 28, 2011, Real Estate Restoration and Rental, Inc.�� (RERR) entered into an Agreement and Plan of Merger, pursuant to which RERR merged with its, wholly owned subsidiary, Organovo (Merger Sub). On February 8, 2012, the Company merged with and into Organovo Acquisition Corp. (Acquisition Corp.), a wholly owned subsidiary of Organovo, with the Company surviving the merger as a wholly owned subsidiary of Organovo Holdings (the Merger). As a result of the Merger, Organovo acquired the business of Organovo, Inc.

The Company has collaborative research agreements with Pfizer, Inc. (Pfizer) and United Therapeutic Corporation (Unither). As of March 31, 2012, it has five federal grants, including Small Business Innovation Research grants and developed the NovoGen MMX Bioprinter (its first-generation 3D bioprinter). The Company is engaged in the development of specific 3D human tissues to aid Pfizer in discovery of therapies in two areas of interest. In addition, in October 2011, it entered into a research agreement with Unither to establish and conduct a research program to discover treatments for pulmonary hypertension using its NovoGen MMX Bioprinter technology. Additionally, under the research agreement with Unither, the Company granted Unither an option to acquire from the Company a worldwide, royalty-bearing license in certain intellectual property created under the research agreement solely for use in the treatment or prevention of pulmonary hypertension and all other lung diseases.

The Company�� NovoGen MMX Bioprinter is an automate! d device that enables the fabrication of three-dimensional (3D) living tissues comprised of mammalian cells. A custom graphic user interface (GUI) facilitates the 3D design and execution of scripts that direct precision movement of the dispensing heads to deposit cellular building blocks (bio-ink) or supporting hydrogel. The Company is using a third party manufacturer, Invetech Pty., of Melbourne, Australia, to manufacture its NovoGen MMX Bioprinter. Its bioprinting technology and surrounding intellectual property and commercial rights serve as a platform for product generation across multiple markets that employ cell- and tissue-based products and services.

The Company competes with Organogenesis, Advanced BioHealing, Tengion, Genzyme, HumaCyte and Cytograft Tissue Engineering.

Advisors' Opinion:
  • [By James E. Brumley]

    It's certainly not the way I would have likes for things to shake out with Organovo Holdings Inc. (NYSEMKT:ONVO), but I'm not going to complain - it's pointed in the right direction. More important, for anybody who's been wanting into an ONVO trade but wasn't sure where the right entry spot was, today's move is it, with just one little caveat.

  • [By Rick Munarriz]

    Organovo Holdings (NYSEMKT: ONVO  ) was one of last week's biggest winners, soaring 55% after making the leap to the more prolific NYSE MKT exchange.

Top Tech Companies To Invest In Right Now: Xyratex Ltd.(XRTX)

Xyratex Ltd provides modular solutions for the enterprise data storage industry and hard disk drive (HDD) capital equipment for the HDD industry. It offers enterprise data storage solutions that include storage enclosures, which provide a common technology platform that reduces qualification time for original equipment manufacturer (OEM) customers and includes management interface software, standardized across enclosures, and provides easy integration as new platforms; integrated application platforms that comprise embedded storage platforms, which incorporate embedded server modules into its storage enclosures; and HPC Solutions that consolidate controllers, storage enclosures, application platforms, operating system, data protection, Lustre File System, and management software into a optimized scale-out storage platform that can be deployed in hours rather than weeks. The company also designs and manufactures a range of process test systems, which incorporate mechanical and electronic hardware, and firmware for controlling the HDD operating environment during the formatting of the disk drive. In addition, it provides automated solutions comprising substrate and media inspection systems; servo track writers and related subassemblies; and head testing systems that test and process HDD components throughout the manufacturing process. The company markets and sells its products primarily to OEMs and disk drive manufacturers, as well as to other companies in North America, Asia, and Europe. Xyratex Ltd was founded in 1966 and is headquartered in Havant, the United Kingdom.

Advisors' Opinion:
  • [By Monica Gerson]

    Xyratex (NASDAQ: XRTX) reported a drop in its third-quarter profit. However, the company issued downbeat forecast for the fourth quarter. Xyratex shares tumbled 7.83% to $11.06 in the after-hours trading session.

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