Best International Companies To Watch For 2015

With shares of Telefonica�(NYSE:TEF) trading around $16, is TEF an OUTPERFORM, WAIT AND SEE or STAY AWAY? Let�� analyze the stock with the relevant sections of our CHEAT SHEET investing framework:

T = Trends for a Stock’s Movement

Telefonica provides fixed and mobile communication services primarily in Europe and Latin America. The company offers mobile voice; value-added mobile data and Internet; wholesale, corporate, roaming, and fixed wireless; and trunking and paging services, as well as mobile payment solutions. Its fixed telecommunication services include PSTN lines; ISDN accesses; public telephone services; local, domestic, and international long distance and fixed-to-mobile communications services; video telephony; supplementary and business-oriented value-added services; intelligent network services; leasing and sale of handset equipment; and corporate communication and telephony information services.

Telefonica�� third-quarter net profit fell 21 percent and revenue fell 1o percent, but Telefonica says it�� beginning to turn around its operations in Spain. Europe�� second-largest telecom company cited weaker Latin American currencies versus the euro as part of the problem, as sales in Latin America rose 11 percent in their own currencies but dropped 6.8 percent in euros. Telefonica executives were optimistic that the Spanish economy is beginning to bounce back, and revenue in the company�� Spanish unit dropped less than it has in the two previous quarters, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Hot Bank Stocks To Watch Right Now: Altisource Portfolio Solutions S.A.(ASPS)

Altisource Portfolio Solutions S.A., together with its subsidiaries, provides services related to real estate and mortgage portfolio management, asset recovery, and customer relationship management primarily in the United States. Its Mortgage Services segment offers mortgage portfolio management services to loan originators and loan servicers. This segment provides asset management services that primarily include property preservation, property inspection, real estate owned (REO) asset management, and REO brokerage; residential property valuation; closing and title services; default management services, such as non-legal back-office support for foreclosure, bankruptcy, and eviction attorneys, as well as foreclosure trustee services. The company?s Financial Services segment offers unsecured asset recovery management services, including post-charge-off consumer debt collection that comprise credit cards, auto loans, and second mortgages; and customer relationship management services, such as customer care and early stage collection. Its Technology Services segment provides integrated technological solutions for loan servicing, vendor management, and invoice presentment and payment; and IT infrastructure services, such as desktop management, application support, network management, telephony, data center management, disaster recovery, helpdesk, and infrastructure security. This segment offers REALSuite of applications consisting of REALServicing, an enterprise residential mortgage loan servicing platform; REALTrans, an electronic business-to-business exchange that automates and simplifies the ordering, tracking, and fulfilling of mortgage and other services; and REALRemit, an electronic invoicing and payment system. The company serves sub-prime servicers, utility companies, commercial banks, servicers, mortgage bankers, and financial service companies, as well as hedge funds. Altisource Portfolio Solutions S.A. was incorporated in 1999 and is b ased in Luxembourg.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Garrett Cook]

  In trading on Friday, financials shares fell by 1.15 percent. Top decliners in the sector included Noah Holdings Ltd. (NYSE: NOAH), down 8.6 percent, and Altisource Portfolio Solutions S.A. (NASDAQ: ASPS), off 7.5 percent.

• [By Amanda Alix]

  While these companies are still heavily involved, there is also a new presence on the scene: the single-family home REIT. Last December, mortgage REIT Two Harbors (NYSE: TWO  ) spun off Silver Bay Realty (NYSE: SBY  ) after selling its stable of 3,100 homes to Silver Bay prior to its initial public offering. Around the same time, Altisource Residential�was also born, spun off from Altisource Portfolio Solutions (NASDAQ: ASPS  ) .

Best International Companies To Watch For 2015: Aerosonic Corporation(AIM)

Aerosonic Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, engages in the design, manufacture, and sale of aircraft instruments worldwide. It offers mechanical and digital altimeters, airspeed indicators, rate of climb indicators, microprocessor controlled air data test sets, and other flight instruments. The company also produces mechanical and electro-mechanical cockpit instruments, angle of attack stall warning systems, digital cockpit instruments, integrated flight display systems, aircraft sensors and monitoring systems, and integrated multifunction probes, such as integrated air data sensors. It markets its products to manufacturers of corporate and private jets, contractors of military jets, the United States government, and private aircraft owners. The company sells its products directly through its sales personnel, as well as through distributors and commissioned sales representatives who resell to aircraft operators. Aerosonic Corporation was founded in 1953 and is b ased in Clearwater, Florida.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Katia Dmitrieva]

  Aimia (AIM) Inc.�� decision to move its Aeroplan reward-partnership to Toronto-Dominion (TD) Bank is a blow to Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, which stands to lose customers and as much as C$3 billion ($2.9 billion) in credit-card balances.

Best International Companies To Watch For 2015: Solutia Inc(SOA)

Solutia Inc. and its subsidiaries manufacture performance materials and specialty chemicals used in various consumer and industrial applications. The company?s Advanced Interlayers segment provides polyvinyl butyral (PVB) sheet that is used in the manufacture of laminated glass for automotive and architectural applications, and as an encapsulant in photovoltaic applications primarily under the SAFLEX name; ethyl vinyl acetate films under the VISTASOLAR name for photovoltaic module encapsulation; and specialty intermediate PVB resin and plasticizer products under the BUTVAR name. Its Performance Films segment manufactures solar control, decorative, safety and security window films for aftermarket automotive and architectural applications under the LLUMAR, V-KOOL, H�ER OPTIK, VISTA, GILA, and FORMULA ONE HIGH PERFORMANCE AUTOMOTIVE TINT names; and advanced film components that are used in electronics and energy industrial products under the FLEXVUE name. The company?s Te chnical Specialties segment manufactures and sells chemicals for the rubber, solar energy, process manufacturing, and aviation industries. This segment offers insoluble sulfur under the CRYSTEX name; and antidegradants, which are used in pneumatic tire components, solid tires, belts, hoses, cables, automotive mounts, bushings, and general mechanical products under the SANTOFLEX name. This segment also provides heat transfer fluids that are used for indirect heating or cooling of chemical processes in various types of industrial equipment and in solar energy power systems under the THERMINOL name; and aviation hydraulic fluids for airline airframe manufacturers and aviation maintenance facilities under the SKYDROL name. The company sells its products to end users in various industries through distributors and franchisees, as well as through its sales force in the United States, Europe, the Asia Pacific, and internationally. Solutia Inc. was founded in 1901 and is headquartere d in St. Louis, Missouri.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Holly LaFon]

  His largest new buys in the first quarter are: Penn Virginia Group Holdings LP (PVG), Wynn Resorts Ltd. (WYNN), Methanex Corp. (MEOH), Solutia Inc. (SOA) and Georgia Gulf (GGC). Of his top eight stocks, five are from the chemicals industry.

Best International Companies To Watch For 2015: Mobileye NV (MBLY)

Mobileye N.V., incorporated in 2001, designs and develops software and related technologies for camera-based advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS). The Company�� software algorithms and EyeQ system on a chip (SOC) perform detailed interpretations of the visual field in order to anticipate possible collisions with other vehicles, pedestrians, cyclists, animals, debris and other obstacles. Its products are also able to detect roadway markings such as lanes, road boundaries, barriers and similar items, as well as to identify and read traffic signs and traffic lights. The Company operates in two segments: the original equipment manufacturer (OEM) segment and the AM segment. The OEM segment supplies the software algorithms and EyeQ chip that are the core technology of the complete ADAS to the Tier 1 companies that are the system integrators for the automotive industry. In the AM segment, the Company sells a complete system, which includes its software algorithms and EyeQ chip, as well as the camera and other necessary components.

The complete system offers a variety of ADAS functions to end, including commercial fleet owners, fleet management system providers, new vehicle dealers and importers. Its software activity is divided into algorithms, which are the engines for extracting meaningful information from video; and application software. Its visual interpretation algorithms consist of road signs interpretation, object detection, range and time-to-contact (TTC) to targets, motion-based measurements, pattern recognition and lighting functions. Road signs interpretation consists of lane markings, curbs, road edge, barriers, and other information that allows high-level control systems to make sense of where the host car is located relative to the roadway. Object detection includes pattern recognition of vehicles, pedestrians and (large) animals for collision avoidance.

Motion-based measurements include the flow of pixels along a sequence of images due to camera motion provides! three-dimensional (3D) cues that are analyzed in many levels of the system. This analysis includes validation filters for object detection engines (vehicles, pedestrians, animals); separating moving objects from the background; detecting general (not model-based) objects; detecting debris (of at least 10 centimeters in height) from 50 meters away; reconstructing the road profile in order to detect bumps and potholes; generating a 3D map of the visual field using the principle of structure from motion, which is the process of estimating 3D structures from two dimensional (2D) image sequences, and which may be coupled with local motion signals, and fusing 3D and image pattern recognition to aid in scene interpretation, all of which will also support automated-driving functionality.

It has developed multiclass classifiers to enable traffic sign detection, traffic light detection and detection of other structures from the scene that are useful for supporting hands-free driving. Its adaptive high beam control (AHC) is enabled by a set of algorithms that read and interpret the spots of light in the night scene to determine when to turn on or off the high beam. Its aftermarket customers include commercial and governmental fleets, telematics providers and insurance companies. Its Tier 1 customers include Magna Electronics Inc., TRW Automotive Holdings Corp., Autoliv, Inc., Delphi Automotive Plc, Gentex Corporation, Kansei Corporation, Leopold Kostal GmbH and Mando Corporation as well as Bendix Corporation and Mobis Transportation Alternatives, Inc. working jointly with TRW.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Jake Mann]

  One such name that does intrigue me is that of Mobileye NV (NYSE: MBLY).

  ...Ever see the cars in the movie I Robot? Well this is Sci Fi starting to come to life in a way. Think about it, who would have thought GPS would be standard in cars back 10-15 years ago. Now we are starting to cross the threshold of letting the car do the driving for you more and more?

• [By WWW.DAILYFINANCE.COM]

  Mark Lennihan/APJack Ma is the founder of Alibaba. There has been no shortage of debutantes on Wall Street lately. Dozens of companies went public last quarter -- many of them names you know, or that you will know soon. These some of the more intriguing initial public offerings to come out of this past quarter. El Pollo Loco (LOCO) Fast casual has been the place to be for investing in the restaurant industry, and that helped pave the way for this California-based chain specializing in citrus-marinated chicken to go public in July at $15 a share. Investors won't be impressed by its slow yet calculated expansion. It had grown from 398 locations to just 401 in the year leading up to its IPO. However, El Pollo Loco's store-level performance has been impressive. It posted a 5.4 percent increase in comparable-restaurant sales in its first quarter as a public company. That is certainly better than the average fast-food or casual-dining chain out there, once again validating the fast-casual model, where chains offer the convenience of fast food but the quality of traditional casual-dining restaurants. Mobileye (MBLY) The push to develop self-driving cars is really getting traction, a fact that became even more apparent last week when Tesla (TSLA) showed off an updated sedan that uses a dozen sensors to do everything from adjusting speed in accordance with speed limit signs when it's on cruise control to switching lanes automatically when the sensors see an opening in traffic after the driver triggers the turn signal. But clever sensors notwithstanding, self-driving cars won't happen without serious software, and that's where Mobileye comes in. The Israeli company provides software and chips for camera-based advanced driver assistance systems. This will likely become a competitive market in the future, but for now Mobileye is seen as a leading pioneer in self-driving vehicles. Its share price has roughly doubled since it went public at $25 just two months ago. Re

• [By Tiernan Ray]

  And lastly, Model S will add what’s known as “semi-autonomous driver-assistance system,” or SADAS, which, he contends, will use cameras from sensor maker MobileEye (MBLY).

Best International Companies To Watch For 2015: Accuride Corporation New (ACW)

Accuride Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, engages in designing, manufacturing, marketing, and supplying commercial vehicle components in North America. The company offers heavy- and medium-duty steel and aluminum wheels, light truck steel wheels, and military wheels; and wheel-end components and assemblies, such as brake drums, disc wheel hubs, spoke wheels, disc brake rotors, and automatic slack adjusters. It also provides truck body and chassis parts comprising bumpers, fuel tanks, battery boxes and toolboxes, front-end cross members, muffler assemblies, and crown assemblies and components, as well as fenders, exhaust components, sun visors, windshield masks, step assemblies, brackets, fuel tank supports, inner-hood panels, door assemblies, dash panel assemblies, and various other components. In addition, the company offers ductile and gray iron casting of transmission and engine-related components, which comprise flywheels, and transmission and engine-relate d housings and brackets; and ductile and gray iron casting of industrial components, such as flywheels, pump housings, small engine components, and other industrial components. Accuride Corporation markets its products under Accuride, Gunite, Imperial, and Brillion brand names. It serves heavy- and medium-duty truck, and commercial trailer original equipment manufacturers (OEM); and aftermarket suppliers, including OEM dealer networks, wholesale distributors, and aftermarket buying groups. The company was founded in 1986 and is headquartered in Evansville, Indiana.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Seth Jayson]

  Basic guidelines
  In this series, I examine inventory using a simple rule of thumb: Inventory increases ought to roughly parallel revenue increases. If inventory bloats more quickly than sales grow, this might be a sign that expected sales haven't materialized. Is the current inventory situation at Accuride (NYSE: ACW  ) out of line? To figure that out, start by comparing the company's inventory growth to sales growth. How is Accuride doing by this quick checkup? At first glance, pretty well. Trailing-12-month revenue decreased 14.3%, and inventory decreased 30.5%. Comparing the latest quarter to the prior-year quarter, the story looks decent. Revenue dropped 28.6%, and inventory dropped 30.5%. Over the sequential quarterly period, the trend looks healthy. Revenue grew 9.2%, and inventory dropped 6.1%.

• [By George Putnam]

  Because of a very leveraged balance sheet, the company—Accuride Corp. (ACW)—could not survive the 2008-09 recession, and it filed for bankruptcy in October 2009.

Best International Companies To Watch For 2015: TIBCO Software Inc.(TIBX)

TIBCO Software Inc. provides middleware and infrastructure software worldwide. It offers products in the areas of service-oriented architecture (SOA) and core infrastructure; business optimization; and process automation and collaboration. Its SOA and core infrastructure product line helps organizations integrate their disparate systems and move towards flexible infrastructure comprised of services or discrete data components that can be assembled, orchestrated, and reused; and enables the creation, management, and virtualization of heterogeneous services. The company?s business optimization product portfolio assists organizations analyze data to create information and deliver it to employees, customers, and partners; and employees perform their jobs, and customers get information, as well as helps managers identify and analyze problems and opportunities. Its process automation and collaboration software helps organizations coordinate manual and automated process flows th at span their business and enables employees to collaborate in real-time using social media; and coordinate the human and electronic resources inside a business and its network of customers and partners. The company also provides professional services, which include consulting services that comprise systems planning and design, installation, and systems integration; maintenance and support; training; and hosted services. It serves various industries, such as financial services, telecommunications, government, energy, life sciences, insurance, logistics, manufacturing, retail, and transportation. The company sells its products through direct sales force, as well as through software vendors, resellers, and systems integrators. TIBCO Software Inc. was founded in 1985 and is headquartered in Palo Alto, California.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Anders Bylund]

  TIBCO Software (NASDAQ: TIBX  ) also reports in the lull between big-volume earnings seasons, and is expected to drop a second-quarter update on June 20. This is a stock that I own, but Tibco has not been a smooth operator in recent quarters. I'd love to see an end to this rocky road.

• [By Monica Gerson]

  Tibco Software (NASDAQ: TIBX) reported a drop in its fiscal second-quarter profit. Tibco's quarterly profit declined to $1.6 million, or $0.01 per share, from a year-ago profit of $8.7 million, or $0.05 per share. Tibco shares fell 1.54% to $20.50 in after-hours trading.

• [By WWW.DAILYFINANCE.COM]

  Stew Milne/AP Considering that it's largely a brick-and-mortar retailer in a world that's buying more goods online, PetSmart (PETM) has posted some very good fundamentals recently. Given that, it might be a tempting stock for an investor to own. But it's not going to be on the market much longer. Under pressure from some of the private equity firms that own big chunks of it, the company has solicited bids for a sale, which will end its time as a stand-alone, publicly traded entity. Its venture into private waters is the latest in a series of such deals so far this year. Here's a look at several other companies that took (or are taking) themselves off the market in 2014. CEC Entertainment Even during its time on the high-visibility New York Stock Exchange, CEC Entertainment was not a familiar name. But the company's key property, the Chuck E. Cheese chain of hyperactive-themed restaurants aimed at kids, has been a well-known brand for years. That might be why CEC Entertainment and financial adviser Goldman Sachs (GS) were able to find a wealthy buyer so quickly after announcing their intention to go private this past January. A mere week after that came to light, investment management firm Apollo Global Management (APO) offered $950 million plus roughly $370 million in debt assumption for the company. As that offer represented an amount 25 percent or so higher than the stock's most recent closing price, CEC Entertainment readily accepted, and the deal closed in February. The company is probably better off in Apollo's arms. Chuck E. Cheese's one-stop dining and entertainment model is looking a bit creaky next to the many options for fun available to 21st-century kids. At the time of the deal's announcement, the company's results were sagging, with sales and net profit both declining in recent periods. Going private -- well, semi-private, as Apollo is a publicly traded entity -- reduces the pressure for the company to return to growth right away, and give

• [By Lauren Pollock]

  Tibco Software Inc.'s(TIBX) fiscal fourth-quarter profit slipped 8.7% as the cloud computing platform provider’s rise in expenses masked a jump in revenue. However, shares slumped 12% to $21.60 premarket as the company provided current-quarter guidance that missed Wall Street estimates.

Best International Companies To Watch For 2015: Chiquita Brands International Inc. (CQB)

Chiquita Brands International, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, engages in the distribution and marketing of bananas and fresh produce under the Chiquita and other brand names worldwide. The company operates in three segments: Bananas, Salads and Healthy Snacks, and Other Produce. The Banana segment sources, transports, markets, and distributes bananas to retailers and wholesalers, and chain stores. It also engages in the cultivation and production of bananas. The Salads and Healthy Snacks segment offers value-added salads under the Fresh Express and other labels; and fresh vegetable and fruit ingredients used in foodservice, healthy snacks, and processed fruit ingredient products. This segment also provides fresh-cut products, such as lettuce, tomatoes, spinach, cabbage, and onions to foodservice distributors who resell these products to foodservice operators. It distributes Fresh Express branded products to food retailers, foodservice distributors, and quick-service restaurants; and fresh produce foodservice offerings primarily to third-party distributors for resale principally to quick-service restaurants in the United States. The Other Produce segment engages in sourcing, marketing, and distributing fresh fruits and vegetables other than bananas in Europe and North America. It offers grapes, pineapples, melons, kiwis, tomatoes, and avocados. The company was founded in 1899 and is headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By WWW.DAILYFINANCE.COM]

  Amy Sancetta/AP Plenty of stocks go up and down in any given week. The gainers inspire us to keep investing. The decliners keep greed in check while reminding us about the risks of the equity markets. Let's go over some of last week's best and worst performers. Chiquita Brands (CQB) -- Up 35 Percent Last Week Investors went bananas over Chiquita after it received -- and rejected -- a buyout offer. Cutrale and Safra offered an unsolicited offer to buy the banana giant at a price of $13 a share, representing a 29 percent premium to where Chiquita closed before bid was made public. Chiquita's board rejected the offer. The stock still moved higher -- above and beyond $13 -- on the possibility of Cutrale and Safra sweetening their bid. Monster Beverage (MNST) -- Up 34 Percent Last Week Soft drinks are out, and adrenaline-boosting energy drinks are in. Coca-Cola (KO) knows this, so it announced on Friday morning that it was buying a nearly 17 percent stake in Monster Beverage for $2.15 billion. Monster and Red Bull dominate this niche despite growing concerns about the health risks of young consumers taking in too many energy drinks. Monster's stock rallied on Friday. Investors may be hoping that Coca-Cola eventually swallows down all of Monster, but in the meantime it validates the beverage category. United Online (UNTD) -- Up 20 Percent Last Week It's possible to be at the right place at the right time but with the wrong approach. United Online hasn't been the market darling that it could have been given its ability to hop on to trends early. After all, it acquired alum-reuniting Classmates before social networking was hot. It built up NetZero when the country was just starting to migrate online. It also bought MyPoints from a legacy airline before the appeal of online coupons and loyalty clubs became popular. However, investors were rewarded last week when United Online posted preliminary quarterly results. Its bean counters are still trying to assess th

• [By Jayson Derrick]

  Last night the board of directors of Chiquita Brands International (NYSE: CQB) rejected Cutrale and Safra's Groups acquisition offer of $13 per share and noted that it plans to proceed with a merger of Fyffes. Shares of Chiquita Brands hit new 52-week highs of $13.77 before closing the day at $13.63, up 0.89 percent.

• [By Jayson Derrick]

  Chiquita Brands (NYSE: CQB) shareholders officially rejected a plan to merge with Fyffes during a special shareholder meeting that took place this morning. The company will now enter discussions with Cutrale/Safra over its $14.50 a share offer. Shares of Chiquita gained 2.91 percent, closing at $14.16.