Hot Oil Service Stocks To Watch For 2014

It's been a busy week for Halliburton (NYSE: HAL  ) . And at the end, the second largest oil services company seems to have come out trumps. Here is a company whose management knows what it's doing. The strategy to return cash to investors through share buybacks is proving to be a master stroke.

Halliburton's corporate headquarters in Houston. Source: Wikimedia commons.

Not the best of weeks ...
Starting with the reporting of the second-quarter results, this hasn't been the most impressive of weeks for Halliburton. A flat rig count and lower drilling activity ensured that revenue from the North American segment -- the company's largest market -- declined almost 10%, year over year, in the first six months of 2013. To top that, a federal antitrust probe has been initiated targeting the U.S. hydraulic fracturing market, with the top names, including Halliburton, coming under investigation.

Top Growth Stocks To Invest In Right Now: iShares S&P Small-Cap 600 Value ETF (IJS)

The iShares S&P SmallCap 600 Value Index Fund (the Fund) seeks investment results that correspond generally to the price and yield performance, before fees and expenses, of the Standard & Poor�� SmallCap 600/Citigroup Value Index (the Index). The Index measures the performance of the small-capitalization value sector of the United States equity market. The Index is a subset of the S&P SmallCap 600 Index and consists of those companies exhibiting the strongest value characteristics within the S&P SmallCap 600 Index.

The Fund invests in a representative sample of securities included in the Index that collectively has an investment profile similar to the Index. Barclays Global Fund Advisors (BGFA) acts as the investment advisor of the Fund.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Gary Gordon]

  On behalf of most of my clients in 2013, I chose to overweight tech and health care. However, I did so with areas that are traditionally less volatile. I continue to own Powershares Pharmaceuticals (PJP) and/or SPDR Select Healthcare (XLV). I’ve been a proponent of “old tech” with the attractive prices and dividends; First Trust NASDAQ Tech Dividend (TDIV) fits the bill. Additionally, I have remained faithful to iShares Small Cap Value (IJS) for small-cap exposure, rather than hop on the IWO express.

Hot Oil Service Stocks To Watch For 2014: Tranzyme Inc.(TZYM)

Tranzyme, Inc., a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company, engages in the discovery, development, and commercialization of small molecule therapeutics for the treatment of acute and chronic gastrointestinal (GI) motility disorders in the United States and internationally. The company?s clinical product candidates include ulimorelin, an intraveneous ghrelin agonist, which is in the Phase III clinical development stage for the treatment of acute upper GI motility disorders; and TZP-102, an orally-administered ghrelin agonist that has commenced Phase IIb clinical development stage for the treatment of diabetic gastroparesis. Its preclinical product candidates comprise TZP-201, a motilin antagonist for the treatment of various forms of moderate-to-severe diarrhea; and TZP-301, an oral ghrelin antagonist for the treatment of metabolic diseases. The company has strategic collaboration with Bristol-Myers Squibb Company to discover, develop, and commercialize additional novel co mpounds; and a license agreement with Norgine B.V to develop and commercialize ulimorelin in Europe, Australia, New Zealand, the Middle East, and north and South Africa. Tranzyme, Inc. was founded in 1998 and is headquartered in Durham, North Carolina.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By CRWE]

  Tranzyme Pharma (Nasdaq:TZYM) reported that it has closed the previously announced underwritten registered direct offering of approximately 3.0 million shares of its common stock at a price of $3.85 per share for gross proceeds, including the over-allotment option, of approximately $11.5 million.

Hot Oil Service Stocks To Watch For 2014: Forge Group Ltd (FRGXF)

Forge Group Limited is engaged in construction, commercial building, engineering, maintenance and workshop fabrication. Forge is the holding company of Cimeco Pty Ltd, Webb Construction West Africa Ltd, Abesque Engineering Ltd (Abesque) and CTEC Pty Ltd, which provide a range of engineering and construction services to a diverse range of clients particularly to the resource and oil and gas sectors through its operating entities. Cimeco provides construction services across a range of disciplines, including, commercial building, civil, concrete, structural, mechanical, piping, tanks and electrical. Webb specializes in structural, mechanical and pipe installation, tank fabrication and erection. Abesque specializes in the provision of engineering design, project management services to the resources sector, including base metals, gold and iron ore. In January 2014, Forge Group Limited announced that BlackRock Inc. and subsidiaries had ceased to be the substantial holder of the Company. Advisors' Opinion:

• [By MARKETWATCH]

  LOS ANGELES (MarketWatch) -- Australia stocks started solidly lower Tuesday, weighed by large losses on Wall Street, with the S&P/ASX 200 (AU:XJO) retreating 0.8% to 5,248.90. Globally sensitive stocks were among the leading decliners after a 1.3% pullback for the S&P 500 (SPX) in the U.S., with financial major Macquarie Group Ltd. (AU:MQG) (MCQEF) falling 2.2%, News Corp. (AU:NWS) (NWS) -- the parent of MarketWatch, publisher of this report -- off 1.4%, and construction-material firm James Hardie Industries SE (AU:JHX) (JHIUF) 1.2% lower. Miners came under pressure, with BHP Billiton Ltd. (AU:BHP) (BHP) down 0.9% and Oz Minerals Ltd. (AU:OZL) (OZMLF) dropping 1%, while Forge Group Ltd. (AU:FGE) (FRGXF) tumbled 12.8% after issuing a profit warning. On the upside, mild gains overnight for Comex gold futures helped the fortunes of some gold extractors, helping Newcrest Mining Ltd. (AU:NCM) (NCMGF) and Evolution Mining Ltd. (AU:EVN) (CAHPF)

Hot Oil Service Stocks To Watch For 2014: Phillips 66 (PSX)

Phillips 66 is a holding company. The Company is engaged in producing natural gas liquids (NGL) and petrochemicals. The Company operates in three segments: the Refining and Marketing (R&M) segment, the Midstream segment and the Chemicals segment. The Refining and Marketing (R&M) segment purchases, refines, markets and transports crude oil and petroleum products, mainly in the United States, Europe and Asia, and also engages in power generation activities. The Midstream segment gathers, processes, transports and markets natural gas, and fractionates and markets NGL, predominantly in the United States. The Chemicals segment manufactures and markets petrochemicals and plastics on a worldwide basis. The Company�� operations encompass 15 refineries with a gross crude oil capacity of 2.8 million barrels per day, 10,000 branded marketing outlets and 7.2 billion cubic feet per day of gross natural gas processing capacity.

R&M

The Company�� R&M segment primarily refines crude oil and other feedstocks into petroleum products (such as gasolines, distillates and aviation fuels); buys, sells and transports crude oil; and buys, transports, distributes and markets petroleum products. This segment also engages in power generation activities. R&M has operations in the United States, Europe and Asia.

The Company�� Bayway Refinery is located on the New York Harbor in Linden, New Jersey. The refinery produces a high percentage of transportation fuels, such as gasoline, diesel and jet fuel, as well as petrochemical feedstocks, residual fuel oil and home heating oil. Its Trainer Refinery is located on the Delaware River in Trainer, Pennsylvania. Refinery facilities include fluid catalytic cracking units, hydrodesulfurization units, a reformer and a hydrocracker. The Alliance Refinery is located on the Mississippi River in Belle Chasse, Louisiana. The single-train facility includes fluid catalytic cracking units, hydrodesulfurization units and a reformer and aromatics unit. Alli! ance produces a percentage of transportation fuels, such as gasoline, diesel and jet fuel. Other products include petrochemical feedstocks, home heating oil and anode petroleum coke.

The Lake Charles Refinery is located in Westlake, Louisiana. Its facilities include crude distillation, fluid catalytic cracker, hydrocracker, delayed coker and hydrodesulfurization units. The refinery produces a percentage of transportation fuels, such as gasoline, off-road diesel and jet fuel, along with home heating oil. It owns a 50% interest in Excel Paralubes, a joint venture which owns a hydrocracked lubricant base oil manufacturing plant located adjacent to the Lake Charles Refinery. The Sweeny Refinery is located in Old Ocean, Texas, approximately 65 miles southwest of Houston. Refinery facilities include fluid catalytic cracking, delayed coking, alkylation, a continuous regeneration reformer and hydrodesulfurization units. It produces a percentage of transportation fuels, such as gasoline, diesel and jet fuel. Other products include petrochemical feedstocks, home heating oil and coke.

The Company�� Merey Sweeny, L.P. (MSLP) owns a delayed coker and related facilities at the Sweeny Refinery. Fuel-grade petroleum coke is produced as a by-product and becomes the property of MSLP. The Company owns 50% operating interest in Sweeny Cogeneration, a joint venture, which owns a simple cycle, cogeneration power plant located adjacent to the Sweeny Refinery. The plant generates electricity and provides process steam to the refinery, and it also provides merchant power into the Texas market.

The Company�� Wood River Refinery is located in Roxana, Illinois, about 15 miles northeast of St. Louis, Missouri, at the convergence of the Mississippi and Missouri rivers. Operations include three distilling units, two fluid catalytic cracking units, hydrocracking, coking, reforming, hydrotreating and sulfur recovery. The refinery produces a percentage of transportation fuels, such as gasoline,! diesel a! nd jet fuel. Other products include petrochemical feedstocks, asphalt and coke. Its Borger Refinery is located in Borger, Texas, in the Texas Panhandle, approximately 50 miles north of Amarillo. The refinery facilities consist of coking, fluid catalytic cracking, hydrodesulfurization and naphtha reforming, in addition to a 45,000-barrels-per-day NGL fractionation facility. It produces a percentage of transportation fuels, such as gasoline, diesel and jet fuel, as well as coke, NGL and solvents.

The Ponca City Refinery is located in Ponca City, Oklahoma. It is a high-conversion facility, which includes fluid catalytic cracking, delayed coking and hydrodesulfurization units. It produces a range of products, including gasoline, diesel, jet fuel, liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) and anode-grade petroleum coke. The Billings Refinery is located in Billings, Montana. Its facilities include fluid catalytic cracking and hydrodesulfurization units. The Ferndale Refinery is located on Puget Sound in Ferndale, Washington, approximately 20 miles south of the United States-Canada border. Facilities include a fluid catalytic cracker, an alkylation unit, a diesel hydrotreater and an S-Zorb unit. The Los Angeles Refinery consists of two linked facilities located about five miles apart in Carson and Wilmington, California. The San Francisco Refinery consists of two facilities linked by a 200-mile pipeline. The Santa Maria facility is located in Arroyo Grande, California, about 200 miles south of San Francisco.

As of December 31, 2011, the Company marketed gasoline, diesel and aviation fuel through approximately 8,250 marketer-owned or -supplied outlets in 49 states. At December 31, 2011, its wholesale operations utilized a network of marketers operating approximately 6,875 outlets that provided refined product offtake from its refineries. In addition to automotive gasoline and diesel, it produces and markets aviation gasoline, which is used by smaller piston engine aircrafts. As December 31, 2011,! aviation! gasoline and jet fuel were sold through dealers and independent marketers at approximately 875 Phillips 66-branded locations in the United States.

The Company manufactures and sells automotive, commercial and industrial lubricants, which are marketed worldwide under the Phillips 66, Conoco, 76 and Kendall brands, as well as other private label brands. It also manufactures Group II and import Group III base oils and market both globally under the respective brand names Pure Performance and Ultra-S. It manufactures and markets graphite and anode-grade petroleum cokes in the United States and Europe for use in the global steel and aluminum industries. It also manufacture and market polypropylene to North America under the COPYLENE brand name. Its ThruPlus Delayed Coker Technology, a process for upgrading heavy oil into higher value, light hydrocarbon liquids, was sold in June 2011. In October 2011, it sold Seaway Products Pipeline Company to DCP Midstream. In December 2011, the Company sold its 16.55% interest in Colonial Pipeline Company and its 50% interest in Seaway Crude Pipeline Company. The Company manufactures and sells a variety of specialty products, including pipeline flow improvers and anode material for high-power lithium-ion batteries. Its specialty products are marketed under the LiquidPower and CPreme brand names.

The Company owns four refineries outside the United States: the Humber Refinery, Whitegate Refinery, Melaka Refinery and Wilhelmshaven Refinery. The Humber Refinery is located on the east coast of England in North Lincolnshire, United Kingdom. It is an integrated refinery, which produces a high percentage of transportation fuels, such as gasoline and diesel. Humber�� facilities encompass fluid catalytic cracking, thermal cracking and coking. The refinery has two coking units with associated calcining plants, which upgrade the heaviest part of the crude barrel and imported feedstocks into light oil products and graphite and anode petroleum cokes.

!

Th! e Whitegate Refinery is located in Cork, Ireland. The refinery primarily produces transportation fuels, such as gasoline, diesel and fuel oil, which are distributed to the inland market, as well as being exported to Europe and the United States. It also operate a crude oil and products storage complex consisting of 7.5 million barrels of storage capacity and an offshore mooring buoy, located in Bantry Bay, about 80 miles southwest of the refinery in southern Cork County.

The Mineraloelraffinerie Oberrhein GmbH (MiRO) Refinery, located on the Rhine River in Karlsruhe in southwest Germany, is a joint venture in which it owns an 18.75% interest. Facilities include three crude unit trains, fluid catalytic cracking, petroleum coking and calcining, hydrodesulfurization units, reformers, isomerization and aromatics recovery units, ethyl tert-butyl ether (ETBE) and alkylation units. MiRO produces a percentage of transportation fuels, such as gasoline and diesel. Other products include petrochemical feedstocks, home heating oil, bitumen, and anode- and fuel-grade petroleum coke. The Wilhelmshaven Refinery is located in the northern state of Lower Saxony in Germany, and has a 260,000 barrels-per-day crude oil processing capacity.

As of December 31, 2011, the Company had approximately 1,430 marketing outlets in its European operations, of which approximately 900 were Company-owned and 330 were dealer-owned. It also held brand-licensing agreements with approximately 200 sites. Through its joint venture operations in Switzerland, it also has interests in 250 additional sites.

Midstream

The Midstream segment purchases raw natural gas from producers, including ConocoPhillips, and gathers natural gas through pipeline gathering systems. Its Midstream segment is primarily conducted through its 50% investment in DCP Midstream. DCP Midstream also owns or operates 12 NGL fractionation plants, along with propane terminal facilities and NGL pipeline assets. It has a 25% inte! rest in R! ockies Express Pipeline LLC (REX).

Chemicals

The Chemicals segment consists of its 50% investment in CPChem. As of December 31, 2011, CPChem owned or had joint-venture interests in 38 manufacturing facilities. CPChem�� business is structured around two primary operating segments: Olefins & Polyolefins (O&P) and Specialties, Aromatics & Styrenics (SA&S). The O&P segment produces and markets ethylene, propylene, and other olefin products, which are primarily consumed within CPChem for the production of polyethylene, normal alpha olefins, polypropylene and polyethylene pipe. The SA&S segment manufactures and markets aromatics products, such as benzene, styrene, paraxylene and cyclohexane, as well as polystyrene and styrene-butadiene copolymers.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Maxx Chatsko]

  Phillips 66 (NYSE: PSX  )
  The refiner's top and bottom lines have exploded in recent years thanks to America's energy renaissance. Net income in 2012 was 461% higher than in 2010 and 766% higher than during the recession in 2009. That's incredible for a company of such size, but can it continue? Both sales and income slipped compared with 2011, and it seems as if the market is pricing in a continuing trend. The company trades with a P/E below 8 and a dividend yielding more than 2%, both potential steals for investors. Better yet, the profit margin in the first quarter of this year was 143% higher than that from the year ago period. It looks as if Phillips 66 can keep its profit machine going so long as domestic oil prices maintain their advantage on the international market.�