Top 5 Railroad Companies To Watch For 2014

Union Pacific (NYSE: UNP  ) will release its quarterly report on Thursday, and investors are hopeful that the company will be able to deliver on the promises that the increase in its share price recently has already made. With the stock trading at all-time highs, Union Pacific earnings need to keep pace in order to avoid a disappointing quarter that could send shares correcting downward sharply.

Fortunately, Union Pacific is benefiting from some favorable conditions for the railroad industry, including high energy prices that warrant more fuel-efficient transportation as well as innovative new uses for the company's railroad network. Let's take an early look at what's been happening with Union Pacific over the past quarter and what we're likely to see in its quarterly report.

Stats on Union Pacific

Analyst EPS Estimate

$2.35

Top 10 Chemical Stocks To Watch Right Now: RenaissanceRe Holdings Ltd.(RNR)

RenaissanceRe Holdings Ltd., together with its subsidiaries, provides reinsurance and insurance products in the United States and internationally. The company offers property catastrophe reinsurance products, including catastrophe excess of loss reinsurance, excess of loss retrocessional reinsurance, and insurance-linked securities; and specialty reinsurance products, such as catastrophe exposed workers? compensation, surety, terrorism, energy, aviation, crop, political risk, trade credit, financial, mortgage guarantee, catastrophe-exposed personal lines property, casualty clash, other casualty lines, and other specialty lines of reinsurance. It also provides various insurance products consisting of commercial property, including catastrophe-exposed commercial property products; commercial multi-line comprising commercial property and liability coverage, such as general liability, automobile liability and physical damage, building and contents, and professional liability; and personal lines property, including homeowners personal lines property coverage and catastrophe exposed personal lines property coverage. The company offers its products and services primarily through intermediaries. RenaissanceRe Holdings Ltd. was founded in 1993 and is headquartered in Pembroke, Bermuda.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By David Sterman]

  Lastly, conservative investors may want to check out Renaissance Reinsurance (NYSE: RNR) which has been buying back shares for seven straight years, reducing the share count by 30% in that time. The newly announced buyback plan, which could absorb up to 13% of the additional share count, is a primary focus now. But when share buybacks are no longer the focus, then robust dividend growth will likely be the norm as this company can afford to support a $4.50 a share dividend (equating to a 5% yield) while still keeping the payout ratio below 50%.

Top 5 Railroad Companies To Watch For 2014: Illumina Inc.(ILMN)

Illumina, Inc. develops, manufactures, and markets integrated systems for the analysis of genetic variation and biological function. Its instrumentation products include HiSeq 2000, an instrument for high-throughput (up to 200 Gb per run and up to 25 GB per day) sequencing using sequencing-by-synthesis (SBS) technology; Genome Analyzer IIx, an instrument for medium to high-throughput (up to 95 Gb per run) sequencing using SBS technology; Genome Analyzer IIe, an instrument for low to medium throughput (up to 40 Gb per run) sequencing using SBS technology; iScan System, a high-resolution imaging instrument to scan BeadArray based assays; and BeadXpress Reader, a low- to mid-multiplex, high-throughput instrument for readout of assays. The company?s consumables consist of InfiniumHD Whole-Genome BeadChips comprising HumanOmniExpress, HumanOmni1-Quad, Human1M-Duo, and BovineHD, which are multi-sample DNA analysis microarrays; iSelect Custom Genotyping BeadChips that are custome r designable SNP genotyping arrays; GoldenGate Assay Method, a high throughput assay and genotyping system; GoldenGate Universal-32 Sample BeadChip, which are 32 sample GoldenGate genotyping arrays; Paired-End Genomic DNA Sample Prep Kit, a streamlined library preparation kit to generate 200?500 kb insert paired-end reads; VeraCode GoldenGate that are low plex GoldenGate genotyping arrays compatible with the BeadXpress System; Standard Sequencing Kit, reagents used for SBS chemistry on sequencing platforms; and Infinium Assay Kit, reagents used to perform Infinium assays on the iScan platform. It also provides sequencing and genotyping services. The company?s customers include pharmaceutical, biotechnology, agrichemical, diagnostics, and consumer products companies, as well as research centers. It sells its products through distributors in North America, Europe, the Asia-Pacific, the Middle East, and South Africa. Illumina was founded in 1998 and is headquartered in San Dieg o, California.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Alex Planes]

  Investors love stocks that consistently beat the Street without getting ahead of their fundamentals and risking a meltdown. The best stocks offer sustainable market-beating gains, with robust and improving financial metrics that support strong price growth. Does Illumina (NASDAQ: ILMN  ) fit the bill? Let's take a look at what its recent results tell us about its potential for future gains.

• [By Keith Speights]

  Considerable speculation also centered around the possibility that Roche� (NASDAQOTH: RHHBY  ) could entertain an offer. Roche had previously pursued an acquisition of Life's rival Illumina (NASDAQ: ILMN  ) . However, the potential deal broke down because Illumina wanted a price higher than what Roche was willing to pay. Roche's chairman made comments then that strongly hinted the company could go after another target. Life Technologies seemed to be a strong possibility.

• [By Anders Bylund]

  Back in 2003, Illumina (NASDAQ: ILMN  ) was a micro-cap specialist in genetic testing with negative earnings and more debt than cash. The company almost went under while waiting for the genetic-testing market to mature. Now it's a hot name in a red-hot health-care market. Long-term shareholders have pocketed an outsized 4,600% return in 10 years, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJINDICES: ^DJI  ) gained just 65%.

• [By Jon C. Ogg]

  Illumina Inc. (NASDAQ: ILMN) was reiterated as Buy but that price target was raised to $90 from $83 at BofA/Merrill Lynch.

  IntercontinentalExchange Inc. (NYSE: ICE) was reiterated as Buy but the price target was raised to $200 from $190 at BofA/Merrill Lynch.

Top 5 Railroad Companies To Watch For 2014: Universal Biosensors Inc (UBI)

Universal Biosensors, Inc. (Universal Biosensors) is an early-stage specialist medical diagnostics company focused on the research, development and manufacture of in vitro diagnostic test devices for consumer and professional point-of-care use. The Company uses its electrochemical cell technology platform to develop tests for a number of different markets. The Company�� principal activities are research and development, commercial manufacture of approved medical or testing devices and the provision of services including contract research work. The Company operates primarily in Australia. The Company uses its electrochemical cell technology platform to develop tests for a number of different markets. The Company has rights to a portfolio comprising patent applications owned by its wholly owned subsidiary, Universal Biosensors Pty Ltd, and a number of patents and patent applications licensed to the Company by LifeScan, Inc., an affiliate of Johnson & Johnson Company. Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Namitha Jagadeesh]

  Banco Popolare SC (BP) declined 3.5 percent to 1.29 euros and Unione di Banche Italiane SCPA (UBI) slid 2.3 percent to 4.93 euros after Societe Generale SA reduced its 12-month price forecast on the shares.

Top 5 Railroad Companies To Watch For 2014: Copano Energy L.L.C.(CPNO)

Copano Energy, L.L.C. provides midstream services to natural gas producers in the United States. The company?s services include natural gas gathering, compression, dehydration, treating, marketing, transportation, processing, and fractionation. It owns and operates natural gas gathering and intrastate transportation pipeline assets; natural gas processing and fractionation facilities; and natural gas liquid (NGL) pipelines in Texas, Oklahoma, Wyoming, and Louisiana. The company operates approximately 6,800 miles of natural gas gathering and transmission pipelines; and 10 natural gas processing plants with approximately 1 billion cubic feet per day of combined processing capacity. It also operates 380 miles of NGL pipelines. The company serves third-party pipelines, distribution companies, power generation facilities, and industrial customers. Copano Energy, L.L.C. was founded in 2001 and is based in Houston, Texas.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Eric Volkman]

  Copano Energy (NASDAQ: CPNO  ) is keeping its quarterly dividend steady, handing out $0.575 per unit on April 26 to holders of record as of April 22, the company announced this week. The company has disbursed the same amount every quarter since the beginning of 2009.