10 Best Performing Stocks To Watch For 2014

Avon Products (NYSE: AVP  ) plans to lay off more than 400 full-time employees and exit Ireland�as part of its $400 million cost-cutting initiative, the company announced today.

This most recent move comes one month after the company raised $1.5 billion through a public offering and refinanced $1 billion of debt to better balance its books.

In a statement today, CEO Sheri McCoy said: "We continue to work aggressively toward turning around the business. The steps outlined today take us closer to our cost-savings goal. At the same time, we remain focused on continuing to streamline the business and driving top-line growth."

Avon expects the layoffs (equivalent to 1% of its total workforce) and the exit from Ireland to be completed by the end of 2013 �with a total pre-tax cost of $35 million to $40 million. Avon will record a $20 million hit for Q1 2013, but ultimately expects its efforts to save around $45 million to $50 million per year by 2016.

Today's announcement names markets in Europe and the Middle East and Africa as uderperforming. Avon products are available in more than 100 countries and are sold through more than 6 million active independent Avon sales representatives.

Top 5 Supermarket Stocks To Invest In 2015: CVR Partners LP(UAN)

CVR Partners, LP engages in the production of nitrogen fertilizers including ammonia and urea ammonium nitrate. The company was incorporated in 2007 and is based in Sugar Land, Texas. CVR Partners, LP operates as a subsidiary of CVR Energy, Inc.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Eric Volkman]

  A sizable block of units of�CVR Partners (NYSE: UAN  ) is on the move. A subsidiary of the company, Coffeyville Resources, is offering 12-million common units of its parent in a secondary public offering priced at $25.15 per unit. Also, the offering's underwriters have been granted a 30-day option to buy up to an additional 1.8 million units from the seller.

• [By Maxx Chatsko]

  Nitrogen fertilizer producer CVR Partners (NYSE: UAN  ) just cannot catch a break lately. It was pushed aside during Carl Icahn's takeover bid for parent CVR Energy last year. A biannual turnaround at its sole facility at the end of 2012 pushed down onstream factors on its production lines and made sales, income, and dividend distributions appear weak, albeit artificially. And although a recent divestment from one of its holding companies seemed to spook investors earlier this spring, the number of shares outstanding was not affected. In the following video, Fool.com contributor Maxx Chatsko explains why he's adding to his personal position in the company.

• [By Alex Planes]

  That's not a good trend for nitrogen-using fertilizer makers. We've already seen some indication that steady profit growth may be ending, as fellow nitrogen fertilizer MLP CVR Partners (NYSE: UAN  ) reported results virtually identical to last year's, instead of enjoying strong growth as it has in the past. The one thing in these companies' favor is the simple fact that farmers need fertilizer, now perhaps more than ever in light of persistent droughts that are making every alternative to watering more valuable. That can help maintain Terra's profitability in the face of rising input prices, but for how long? Farmers can only bend so far before their finances break.

10 Best Performing Stocks To Watch For 2014: BRE Properties Inc (BRE)

BRE Properties, Inc. (BRE), incorporated in 1970, is a self-administered equity real estate investment trust (REIT) focused on the development, acquisition and management of multifamily apartment communities primarily located in the metropolitan markets within the State of California, and the Seattle, Washington region. BRE also owns and operates communities in the Phoenix, Arizona and in the Denver, Colorado metropolitan markets. As of December 31, 2011, its multifamily portfolio had real estate assets, which included 76 wholly or majority owned stabilized multifamily communities, aggregating 21,336 units in California, Washington and Arizona; 11 stabilized multifamily communities owned through joint ventures comprised of 3,592 apartment units; and seven apartment communities in various stages of construction and development. In October 2013, the Company acquired Jefferson at Hollywood.

During the year ended December 31, 2011, BRE acquired three communities totaling 652 units: Lafayette Highlands, with 150 units, located in Lafayette, California; The Landing at Jack London Square, with 282 units, located in Oakland, California, and The Vistas of West Hills, with 220 units, located in Valencia, California. In addition to the communities, the Company acquired two parcels of land for future development in San Francisco, California�� Mission Bay district, and it purchased a 4.4 acre site contiguous to its existing Park Viridian operating community and its existing second phase land site in Anaheim, California. As of December 31, 2011, BRE had seven sites under development or construction.

During 2011, the Company sold two communities totaling 634 units: Galleria at Towngate, with 268 units located in Moreno Valley, California; and Windrush Village, a 366 unit property located in Colton, California. The two properties sold were located in the eastern half of the Inland Empire. In addition, during 2011, two joint venture assets were sold; The Landing at Bear Creek, a 224 unit j! oint venture community, located in Lakewood, Colorado; and The Pinnacle at Hunters Glen, a 264 unit joint venture community located in Thornton, Colorado.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Jayson Derrick]

  Owners of BRE Properties (NYSE: BRE) will receive $12.33 in cash and 0.2971 shares of newly created Essex common stock following Essex Property Trust's (NYSE: ESS) acquisition. Shares of Essex lost 3.31 percent, closing at $142.81.

10 Best Performing Stocks To Watch For 2014: Lojas Renner SA (LREN3)

Lojas Renner SA is a Brazil- based company primarily involved in the operation of department stores. The Company divides its business into two segments. The Retail segment is engaged in sale of women's, men's and children's apparels, underwear and shoes, as well as sportswear and other department stores' articles in the domestic market. The Company also sells household articles, bedding and bath items, furniture and decoration articles. The Financial products segment is involved in the intermediation of financial services, including brokerage of personal loans, sales financing, brokerage of insurance and bonds, and credit card processing, among others. The Company operates through a numerous subsidiaries, including Dromegon Participacoes Ltda, Renner Administradora de Cartoes de Credito Ltda, Renner Empreendimentos Ltda and Maxmix Comercial Ltda. Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Ney Hayashi]

  Anhanguera Educacional Participacoes SA (AEDU3) tumbled after Brazil�� antitrust regulator signaled it may limit the education company�� merger with competitor Kroton Educacional SA. (KROT3) Lojas Renner SA (LREN3) led retailers higher after a report showed Brazil�� industrial production expanded faster than expected in October, easing concern that growth is faltering.

10 Best Performing Stocks To Watch For 2014: Omega Commercial Finance Corp (OCFN)

Omega Commercial Finance Corporation (Omega), incorporated on November 6, 1973, is a commercial real estate financing company that also provides asset backed lending services located in the Miami, Florida area. The Company consults on various financing programs with an emphasis on Loans secured by commercial real estate such as core assets that include office buildings, multi-family residences, shopping centers, industrial, and hotels, as well as asset backed loans secured by account receivables from established companies.

On February 20, 2012, CCRE Capital, LLC (CCRE), its wholly owned subsidiary entered into the Strategic Alliance Agreement (the Strategic Alliance) with Gardens VE Limited (Company No. 07071936), a British Company (Gardens). In January 2013, the Company acquired VFG Securities Incorporated and VFG Advisors Inc. The Company�� subsidiaries include CCRE (CCRE), OMEGA FACTORI and Omega Capital Street LLC.

The Company competes with CapitalSource Inc, Goldman Sachs Commercial Real Estate, Morgan Stanley Real Estate and JP Morgan Chase.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Virginia Harrison]

  The other big Olympic sponsors are Visa (V, Fortune 500), Samsung (SSNLF), Panasonic (PCRFF), General Electric (GE, Fortune 500), Dow Chemical (DOW, Fortune 500), Procter & Gamble (PG, Fortune 500), Omega (OCFN) and Atos (ATOS). They're staying tight-lipped about the issue in public but a senior official at the International Olympic Committee said this month that several had raised concerns about how the law could affect the Games.

10 Best Performing Stocks To Watch For 2014: CDC Point SpA (CDC)

CDC Point SpA is an Italy-based company engaged in the information technology (IT) sector. The Company structures its business into two main sectors: Production and Distribution of IT, and Business Value-Added. Through the Production and Distribution of IT sector, it is active in the manufacture of consumer desktop personal computers, as well as in the distribution and retail of computer hardware; peripheral equipment and accessories, such as keyboards, monitors, webcams, card readers, audio systems, voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) accessories and routers, and software products. Through the Business Value-Added sector, it provides value added services and solutions, including voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) services; video surveillance and home automation technologies; software management and e-commerce solutions, and Web services, such as domain registering, hosting, server, email, positioning on search engines and Web marketing services. Advisors' Opinion:

• [By abirk]

  The people of America are becoming more and more health conscious as obesity is growing at a great pace. As per the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), more than one third of US adults (35.7%) is obese. This point out the finger towards the fast-food industry as they are using trans fats (responsible for clogging arteries) in their products to make it more mouth watering.

10 Best Performing Stocks To Watch For 2014: Canterbury Park Holding Corporation(CPHC)

Canterbury Park Holding Corporation conducts pari-mutuel wagering operations and hosts unbanked card games at its Canterbury Park racetrack and card room facility in Shakopee, Minnesota. The company operates in three segments: Horse Racing, Card Room, and Concessions. The Horse Racing segment operates year-round pari-mutuel wagering on simulcast horse races, and live thoroughbred and quarter horse races held on a seasonal basis. The Card Room segment offers unbanked card games, which include poker and casino games. The Concessions segment provides food and beverage services for simulcast and live racing, and the card room, as well as for the special events. The company also offers facilities for special events, such as snowmobile races, arts and crafts shows, trade shows, concerts, fundraisers, automobile shows and competitions, vehicle and boat storage, and private parties. In addition, it provides advertising signage space; leases excess parking lot space for various aut omotive activities and vehicle storage; and sells various daily pari-mutuel publications. Canterbury Park Holding Corporation was founded in 1994 and is based in Shakopee, Minnesota.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Monica Wolfe]

  Lastly, Gabelli increased his position in Canterbury Park Holding (CPHC). Gabelli upped his stake 3.18% by purchasing a total of 13,824 shares. He bought these shares at an average price of $11.11 per share, and since then the price per share is up about 3%. Gabelli now holds 447,944 shares, representing 10.74% of the company�� shares outstanding.

• [By Sally Jones]

  Canterbury Park Holding Corporation (CPHC) ��Market Cap $46.35 Million

  Canterbury Park Holding Corporation is up 2% over 12 months. The company has a market cap of $46.35 million; its trades around $11.16 with a P/E ratio of 59.30 and a P/B of 1.70.

10 Best Performing Stocks To Watch For 2014: Lumos Networks Corp (LMOS)

Lumos Networks Corp. is a fiber-based service provider in the Mid-Atlantic region. The Company provides data, broadband, voice and Internet protocol (IP) services over fiber optic network. The Company offers a range of data and voice products supported by approximately 5,800 fiber-route miles in Virginia, West Virginia, and portions of Pennsylvania, Maryland, Ohio and Kentucky. Its products and services include metro Ethernet, IP services, business advantage bundle, managed router service, broadband, voice services and Web hosting. On October 14, 2011, NTELOS Holdings Corp. announced a distribution date of October 31, 2011, for the spin-off of Lumos Networks Corp.

The Company�� broadband services include Business DSL, Dedicated Business Service, Managed Router Services, Business Broadband XL, Business PC Services and Web Hosting. Its IP services include Integrated Access, IP Trunking, IP Centrex and IP Phones. Its voice service include Business Voice, Business Advantage Bundle, nTouch, Intelligent Messaging, Simultaneous Ring, Conference Calling and Long Distance. Its data services include Metro Ethernet and Quality of Service. Lumos Networks Business DSL provides up to six megabits per second downstream and one megabit per second upstream. Its managed router support service equipment includes staging, installation, configuration, and maintenance while support provides around-the-clock monitoring, management and trouble resolution and direct access to networking experts. Its Business Broadband XL offers a selection of high download speeds. Lumos Networks' Integrated Access solution can integrate local voice, long distance, voicemail, and broadband Internet access. Lumos Networks nTouch brings voicemail linking IP Centrex and nTelos Wireless phone.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Lee Jackson]

  Lumos Networks Corp. (NASDAQ: LMOS) is a leading provider of fiber-based bandwidth infrastructure and IP services in key mid-Atlantic markets. It announced last month it had launched its cloud-based hosted call center solution, which provides best-in-class automated call distribution, integrated voice response and call reporting to help organizations manage call volumes more effectively and efficiently. The service operates over Lumos’s carrier-grade, premium optical network, which provides high-speed, resilient access to the call-center cloud service. The consensus price target for the stock is $20.50. Investors are paid a reasonable 2.7% dividend. Lumos closed Thursday at $20.77.

• [By Jake L'Ecuyer]

  Top losers in the sector included NQ Mobile (NYSE: NQ), off 5.8 percent, and Lumos Networks (NASDAQ: LMOS), down 2.9 percent.

  Top Headline
  Citigroup (NYSE: C) reported better-than-expected first-quarter results. Citigroup's quarterly profit surged to $3.94 billion, versus a year-ago profit of $3.81 billion. On a per-share basis, it earned $1.23. Excluding one-time items, its earnings rose to $1.30 versus $1.29. Its revenue declined to $20.12 billion. However, analysts were projecting earnings of $1.14 per share on revenue of $19.37 billion.