Top 5 Consumer Service Companies To Invest In 2014

This series, brought to you by Yahoo! Finance, looks at which upgrades and downgrades make sense, and which ones investors should act on. Today, our headlines focus on the housing sector, as one analysts shifts its stance on three big names in homebuilding -- downgrading both PulteGroup (NYSE: PHM  ) and Ryland Group (NYSE: RYL  ) , but...

Upping MDC Holdings to buy
Before moving on to the bad news, let's start with some good. Investment banker KeyBanc Capital Markets thinks that in view of the broad strength in housing stocks lately, it's time to revisit the sector, take some winnings off the table, and move a bit of that money into stocks with perhaps a bit more potential to keep growing. It's choice today: MDC Holdings (NYSE: MDC  ) .

According to KeyBanc, MDC's numbers are showing improvement, yet the stock continues to trade at a discount relative to its peers in the housing sector. And in a sense, KeyBanc is right about that. Due to weakness among some players in the industry, MDC's numbers are lower than the average in many respects. For example, Yahoo! Finance has the average price-to-sales ratio in this industry at 5.4... but MDC's P/S ratio is only 1.4. The average P/E (hurt by unprofitable players, no doubt), is in the quadruple digits, yet MDC costs "only" 24 times earnings.

Top 5 Consumer Service Companies To Invest In 2014: ABB Ltd(ABB)

ABB Ltd. provides power and automation technologies for utility and industrial customers worldwide. The company?s Power Products division manufactures and sells high- and medium-voltage switchgear and apparatus, circuit breakers, power and distribution transformers, and sensors. ABB?s Power Systems division provides integrated power and automation solutions for power generation plants; alternating current (AC) and direct current (DC) transmission systems; and flexible alternating current systems technologies. It also offers land and submarine cables, as well as accessories and services for medium- to high-voltage AC and DC systems; air- and gas-insulated substations; and network management solutions to help manage power networks. In addition, this division offers support agreements and retrofits to spare parts, service, consulting, and training; and undertakes analyses and design of new transmission and distribution systems. The company?s Discrete Automation and Motion div ision manufactures and sells motors, generators, variable speed drives, programmable logic controllers, rectifiers, excitation systems, robotics, and related services for a range of applications in factory automation, process industries, and utilities. Its Low Voltage Products division provides protection, control, and measurement for electrical installations, enclosures, switchboards, electronics, and electromechanical devices for industrial machines, plants, and related services. It also makes building control systems for home and building automation. The company?s Process Automation division offers integrated process control and instrumentation systems, plant electrification systems, information management systems, and industry-specific application knowledge for industries, such as pulp and paper, minerals and mining, metals, chemicals and pharmaceuticals, oil and gas, turbocharging, power, and marine. ABB Ltd. was founded in 1988 and is headquartered in Zurich, Switzerla nd.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Matthews]

  ABB Ltd. (NYSE:ABB): Change 0% to $16.77. ABB Limited provides power and automation technologies. The Company operates under segments that include power products, power systems, automation products, process automation and robotics.

Top 5 Consumer Service Companies To Invest In 2014: WSFS Financial Corporation(WSFS)

WSFS Financial Corporation operates as the thrift holding company for the Wilmington Savings Fund Society, FSB, which provides various financial services primarily in the mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It accepts a range of deposit products, including savings accounts, demand deposits, interest-bearing demand deposits, money market deposit accounts, and certificates of deposits, as well as jumbo certificates of deposit. The company?s loan portfolio comprises residential mortgage loans; residential real estate loans; nonresidential real estate loans; real estate mortgage loans; commercial construction loans; commercial lending that includes loans for the purpose of working capital, financing equipment acquisitions, business expansion, and other business purposes; consumer credit products that primarily comprise home improvement loans, home equity lines of credit, automobile loans, unsecured lines of credit, and other secured and unsecured personal installment lo ans. It also offers a range of trust and wealth management services. The company, through its other subsidiaries, markets various third-party investment and insurance products, such as single-premium annuities, whole life policies, and securities; and provides investment advisory services to high net-worth individuals and institutions. As of October 3, 2011, it operated 49 banking offices, including 39 in Delaware, 8 in Pennsylvania, 1 in Virginia, and 1 in Nevada. The company was founded in 1832 and is headquartered in Wilmington, Delaware.

Best Solar Stocks To Buy Right Now: Hawkins Inc. (HWKN)

Hawkins, Inc. distributes bulk chemicals, as well as blends, manufactures, and distributes specialty chemicals. The company operates through two segments, Industrial and Water Treatment. The Industrial segment provides industrial chemicals, products, and services primarily to the agriculture, energy, electronics, food, chemical processing, pulp and paper, pharmaceutical, medical device, and plating industries. This segment primarily offers acids, alkalis, and industrial and food-grade salts; and receives, stores, and distributes various chemicals, including liquid caustic soda, sulfuric acid, hydrochloric acid, phosphoric acid, potassium hydroxide, and aqua ammonia. In addition, it manufactures sodium hypochlorite, agricultural products, and certain food-grade products comprising Cheese-Phos liquid phosphate, lactates, and other blended products; repackages water treatment and bulk industrial chemicals; and performs custom blending of certain chemicals, and contract and pr ivate label packaging for household chemicals. This segment primarily conducts its operations through distribution centers and terminal operations. The Water Treatment segment provides chemicals, equipment, and solutions for potable water, municipal and industrial wastewater, industrial process water, and non-residential swimming pool water. Hawkins, Inc. was founded in 1938 and is based in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Top 5 Consumer Service Companies To Invest In 2014: HDFC Bank Ltd (HDB)

HDFC Bank Limited (HDFC Bank), incorporated in August 1994, is a banking company engaged in providing a range of banking and financial services, including commercial banking and treasury operations. The Bank has overseas branch operations in Bahrain and Hong Kong. The Bank operates in four segments: treasury, which primarily consists of net interest earnings from the Bank�� investment portfolio, money market borrowing and lending, gains or losses on investment operations and on account of trading in foreign exchange and derivative contracts; retail banking, which serves retail customers through a branch network and other delivery channels; wholesale banking, which provides loans, non-fund facilities and transaction services to corporate, public sector units, government bodies, financial institutions and medium scale enterprises, and other banking business, segment includes income from para banking activities, such as credit cards, debit cards, third party product distribution, primary dealership business and the associated costs. Revenues of the retail banking segment are derived from interest earned on retail loans, net of commission (net of subvention received) paid to sales agents and interest earned from other segments for surplus funds placed with those segments, fees from services rendered, foreign exchange earnings on retail products.

Retail Banking

The Bank is a financial services provider of various deposit products, of retail loans (auto loans, personal loans, commercial vehicle loans, mortgages, business banking, loan against gold jewellery), credit cards, debit cards, depository (custody services), investment advisory, bill payments and several transactional services. Apart from its own products, the Bank distributes third party financial products, such as mutual funds and life and general insurance. As of March 31, 2012, the Bank had 2,544 branches in 1,399 Indian cities. The Bank had 8,913 automated teller machines (ATMs) during the fiscal year ended March 31,! 2012. In addition to the Bank does home loans in conjunction with HDFC Limited. Under this arrangement the Bank sells loans provided by HDFC Limited through its branches. HDFC Limited approves and disburses the loans, which are booked in their books, with the Bank receiving a sourcing fee for these loans. HDFC Limited offers the Bank an option to purchase up to 70% of the fully disbursed home loans sourced under this arrangement through either the issue of mortgage backed pass through certificates (PTCs) or by a direct assignment of loans; the balance is retained by HDFC Limited. It also distributes life, general insurance and mutual fund products through its tie-ups with insurance companies and mutual fund houses.

Wholesale Banking

The Bank provides its corporate and institutional clients a range of commercial and transactional banking products. The Bank�� commercial banking business covers the corporate sector, the emerging corporate segments and some small and medium enterprises (SMEs). The Bank has a number of business groups catering to various segments of its wholesale banking customers with a range of banking services covering their working capital, term finance, trade services, cash management, foreign exchange and electronic banking requirements. The Bank�� financial institutions and government business group (FIG) offers commercial and transaction banking products to financial institutions, mutual funds, public sector undertakings, central and state government departments. The main focus for this segment is offering various deposit and transaction banking products to this segment besides offering funded, non-funded treasury and foreign exchange products.

The Bank provides its customers both working capital and term financing. The Bank�� corporate banking business includes cash management and vendor and distributor (supply chain) finance products. The Bank has a wholesale banking branch in Bahrain, a branch in Hong Kong and two representative offic! es in the! United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Kenya. The branches offer the Bank�� suite of banking services including treasury and trade finance products to its corporate clients. The Bank offers wealth management products, remittance facilities and markets deposits to the non-resident Indian community from its representative offices.

Treasury

The treasury group is responsible for compliance with reserve requirements and management of liquidity and interest rate risk on the Bank�� balance sheet. On the foreign exchange and derivatives front, revenues are driven primarily by spreads on customer transactions based on trade flows and customers��demonstrated hedging needs. The Bank offers Indian rupee and foreign exchange derivative products to its customers. The Bank enters into foreign exchange and derivative deals with counterparties after it has set up appropriate counterparty credit limits based on its evaluation of the ability of the counterparty to meet its obligations in the event of crystallization of the exposure. The Bank also deals in Indian rupee derivatives on its own account, including for the purpose of its own balance sheet risk management.

Other banking business

The Bank has two subsidiaries: HDFC Securities Limited (HSL) and HDB Financial Services Limited (HDBFS). HSL is primarily in the business of providing brokerage services through the Internet and other channels. As of March 31, 2012, HSL had a network of 184 branches across the country. HDBFS is a non-deposit taking non-bank finance company (NBFC). Apart from lending to individuals, it grants loans to small and medium business enterprises and micro small and medium enterprises, the principle businesses of HDBFS include loans, which offers a range of loans in the secured and unsecured loans space that fulfill the financial needs of its target segment; insurance services, HDBFS is a corporate agent for HDFC Standard Life Insurance Company and sells insurance products ,as well as products, ! such as L! oan Cover and Asset Cover, and collections-BPO services, which runs six call centres. These centres cover collection requirements at over 200 towns through its calling and field teams. As on March 31, 2012, HDBFS had 180 branches in 135 cities in order to distribute its products and services.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Halah Touryalai]

  The largest privately owned retail bank in India with a network of 1,986 branches in 996 cities across the country. The bank has a strong deposit franchise and technology backbone.  EPS has grown at a rate of 26% per year, over the past 10 years.

Top 5 Consumer Service Companies To Invest In 2014: Research in Motion Ltd (BBRY.O)

Research In Motion Limited, incorporated on March 7, 1984, is a designer, manufacturer and marketer of wireless solutions for the worldwide mobile communications market. Through the development of integrated hardware, software and services, it provides platforms and solutions for seamless access to information, including e-mail, voice, instant messaging, short message service (SMS), Internet and intranet-based applications and browsing. The Company's technology also enables an array of third party developers and manufacturers to enhance their products and services through software development kits, wireless connectivity to data and third-party support programs.Its portfolio of products, services and embedded technologies are used by thousands of organizations and millions of consumers around the world and include the BlackBerry wireless solution, the RIM Wireless Handheld product line, the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet, software development tools and other software and har dware.

On March 25, 2011, the Company purchased 100% of the shares of a company whose technology is being incorporated into the Company�� developer tools. On April 26, 2011, the Company purchased certain assets of a company whose acquired technologies will be incorporated into the Company�� products. In June 2011, the Company acquired Scoreloop. On March 8, 2012, the Company acquired Paratek Microwave Inc. During the fiscal year ended March 3, 2012 (fiscal 2012), the Company purchased 100% interests of a company, whose technology will be incorporated into its technology; whose technology offers cloud-based services for storing, sharing, accessing and organizing digital content on mobile devices; whose technology is being incorporated into an application on the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet; whose technology offers a customizable and cross-platform social mobile gaming developer tool kit, and whose technology will provide a multi-platform BlackBerry Enterprise Solution for managing and securing mobile devices for enter! p! rises and government organizations.

On April 24, 2012, the Company launched BlackBerry 7 smartphone, the BlackBerry Curve 9220, for customers in Indonesia. April 18, 2012, it launched BlackBerry 7 smartphone, the BlackBerry Curve 9220, for customers in India. On April 17, 2012, it announced availability of the BlackBerry Bold 9790 smartphone in Spain. On April 3, 2012, it launched BlackBerry Mobile Fusion, and launched four BlackBerry smartphones powered by the BlackBerry 7 operating system (OS) in Cambodia, which included BlackBerry Bold 9900, BlackBerry Bold 9790, BlackBerry Curve 9360 and BlackBerry Curve 9380. On April 2, 2012, it announced the availability of BlackBerry App World, the official application store for BlackBerry smartphones in Brunei, and it announced availability of the BlackBerry Bold 9790 and BlackBerry Curve 9380 smartphones for Cell C customers in South Africa. On March 27, 2012, it launched of the BlackBerry solution in Benin Republic. On March 15, 2012, it launched of BlackBerry services in China. On March 7, 2012, it launched the BlackBerry service in Angola.

The Company's primary revenue stream is generated by the BlackBerry wireless solution, consists of smartphones and tablets, service and software. BlackBerry service is provided through a combination of its global BlackBerry Infrastructure and the wireless networks of its carrier partners. On February 21, 2012, it released the BlackBerry PlayBook OS 2.0 software. It generates hardware revenues from sales, primarily to carriers and distributors. During fiscal 2012, the Company launched the wireless fidelity (WiFi)-enabled BlackBerry PlayBook tablet in 44 markets around the world. On July 21, 2011, the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet received Federal Information Processing Standard 140-2 certification.

BlackBerry Smartphones and Tablets

BlackBerry smartphones uses wireless, push-based technology that delivers data to m obile users��business and consumer applications. Black! Berr! y s! martph! ones integrate messaging including instant messaging, email and SMS; voice calling; Webkit browser; multimedia capabilities; calendar, and other applications. During fiscal 2012, it introduced 10 new smartphones and launched software updates to both its smartphone and tablet platforms. BlackBerry smartphones are available from hundreds of carriers and indirect channels, through a range of distribution partners, and are designed to operate on a variety of carrier networks, including HSPA/HSPA+/UMTS, GSM/GPRS/EDGE, CDMA/Ev-DO, and iDEN.

During fiscal 2012, its BlackBerry smartphone and tablet portfolio included BlackBerry Bold series, BlackBerry Torch series, BlackBerry Curve series and The BlackBerry PlayBook tablet. Its BlackBerry Bold series includes BlackBerry Bold 9900 and 9930 and BlackBerry Bold 9790. The Company�� BlackBerry Torch series include BlackBerry Torch 9810 and All-Touch BlackBerry Torch 9850 and 9860. The Company's BlackBerry Curve series inc lude BlackBerry Curve 9350/9360/9370 and All-Touch BlackBerry Curve 9380 Smartphone. The BlackBerry PlayBook tablet features the BlackBerry PlayBook OS 2.0. The BlackBerry PlayBook offers a seven-inch high definition display, a dual core one gigahertz processor, dual high definition cameras, multitasking and a Web browsing.

BlackBerry Enterprise Solution

BlackBerry Enterprise Server is software that acts as the centralized link between BlackBerry smartphones, enterprise systems, business applications and wireless networks. BlackBerry Enterprise Server integrates with enterprise messaging systems including Microsoft Exchange, IBM Lotus Domino and Novell GroupWise to synchronize with BlackBerry smartphones to provide mobile users with wireless access to e-mail, calendar, contacts, notes and tasks. It also provides access to business applications and enterprise systems. In addition, it provides security features and offers administrative tools. BlackBe rry Enterprise Server is required for certain othe! r enterpr! i! se soluti! ons, such as BlackBerry Mobile Voice System (for bringing desk phone functionality to BlackBerry smartphones); BlackBerry Clients for Microsoft Office Communications Server, IBM Lotus Sametime and Novell GroupWise Messenger (for enterprise instant messaging); IBM Lotus Connections (for enterprise social networking); IBM Lotus Quickr (for document sharing and collaboration); and Chalk Pushcast Software (for corporate podcasting).

The Company�� BlackBerry Mobile Fusion provides a Web-based interface that allows enterprises to provision, audit, and protect mobile devices including BlackBerry smartphones, BlackBerry PlayBook tablets, and devices that use iOS and Android. BlackBerry Balance helps enterprises support the Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) trend. BlackBerry Enterprise Server Express is free server software that synchronizes BlackBerry smartphones with Microsoft Exchange or Microsoft Windows Small Business Server. BlackBerry Enterprise Server Express works with Microsoft Exchange 2010, 2007 and 2003 and Microsoft Windows Small Business Server 2008 and 2003 to provide users with wireless access to e-mail, calendar, contacts, notes and tasks, as well as other business applications and enterprise systems behind the firewall.

BlackBerry Mobile Voice System (BlackBerry MVS) allows organizations to converge office desk phones and BlackBerry smartphones. BlackBerry MVS is consists of three components: BlackBerry MVS Client, BlackBerry MVS Services, and BlackBerry MVS Server. It unifies fixed and mobile voice communications. Hosted BlackBerry services bring the BlackBerry Enterprise Server features, functionality, and security capabilities in a package that is managed for end users. Hosted BlackBerry services are conveniently handled and supported by a BlackBerry certified partner from the BlackBerry Alliance Program, giving small and medium -sized enterprise (SME) enterprises the support and convenience they need.

Service

The Company gen! erates se! rvice ! revenues ! from billings to RIM's BlackBerry subscriber account base. It generates service revenues primarily from a monthly infrastructure access fee charged to a carrier or reseller, which the carrier or reseller in turn bills the BlackBerry subscriber.

BlackBerry Technical Support Services

BlackBerry Technical Support Services are a suite of annual technical support and software maintenance programs. The programs are designed to meet the customer�� BlackBerry support needs by offering a contact for BlackBerry wireless solution technical support directly from the Company.

Non-Warranty Repairs

The Company generates revenue from its repair and maintenance program for BlackBerry smartphones that are returned to it by the carrier, the reseller, or the customer. It generates revenue for repair after the expiration of the contractual warranty period.

The Company competes with Apple Inc., Microsoft Inc., Nokia Corporation, Dell, Inc., Fujitsu Limited, General Dynamics Corporation, Hitachi America, Ltd., HTC Corporation, Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd., LG Electronics Mobile Communications Company, Mitsubishi Corporation, Motorola Mobility Holdings, Inc., NEC Corporation, Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., Sharp Corporation, Sony Corporation, ZTE Corporation, IBM Corporation, Microsoft Corporation, Notify Technology Corporation, Openwave Systems Inc., Seven Networks, Inc., Sybase, Inc. and Good Technologies.