Best European Companies To Own In Right Now

Robert Reynolds, president and CEO of Putnam Investments, is happy with the state of the U.S. economy.

It isn’t booming, he said earlier today during the keynote presentation at Envestnet’s 14th Annual Advisor Summit in Chicago, but it’s certainly robust enough to boast, among other achievements, a strong financial system, a chance to be energy independent by 2020 and extremely favorable demographics compared  with many other industrialized nations.

Globally, too, things are looking pretty good.

The worst of the European crisis is apparently over, and while emerging markets are going through some challenges, elections in several countries — India, Indonesia, Brazil — will allow a record number of voters to have their say, and hopefully, elected leaders will enact the necessary structural reforms to ensure long-term, sustainable economic growth.

All this is very new, of course, but against a more favorable backdrop — one where globalization continues, Reynolds said, and where “in 10 years, China will be even bigger than it is now” — advisors are going to have to work hard to figure out the best investment options for their clients. The low-interest environment provides an added challenge when seeking to meet retirement goals in particular, Reynolds said, calling on advisors to be nimble and creative in seeking out the best, long-term investment solutions and managers to work with on their clients’ behalf.

Hot Dow Dividend Companies To Watch In Right Now: Aercap Holdings N.V. (AER)

AerCap Holdings N.V., through its subsidiaries, operates as an integrated aviation company worldwide. It engages in leasing and trading aircraft and engines; and selling parts. The company also provides aircraft management services, as well as aircraft and limited engine MRO services, and aircraft disassembly services through its repair stations. In addition, it offers aircraft services, including remarketing aircraft; collecting rental and maintenance payments, monitoring aircraft maintenance, monitoring and enforcing contract compliance, and accepting delivery and redelivery of aircraft; conducting ongoing lessee financial performance reviews; inspecting the leased aircraft; coordinating technical modifications to aircraft to meet new lessee requirements; conducting restructurings negotiations in connection with lease defaults; repossessing aircraft; arranging and monitoring insurance coverage; registering and de-registering aircraft; arranging for aircraft and aircraft engine valuations; and providing market research. The company?s management services include leasing and remarketing, cash management and treasury, technical advisory, and accounting and administrative services. As of March 31, 2011, it owned 272 aircraft and 95 engines, which it leased under operating leases to 118 lessees in 53 countries. The company was founded in 1995 and is headquartered in Schiphol, the Netherlands.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Paul Ausick]

  More than two years ago, American International Group Inc. (NYSE: AIG) filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for an initial public offering (IPO) in its aircraft leasing group, International Lease Finance Corp. (ILFC). That filing came to nothing, and AIG found little interest from buyers for ILFC, until Monday morning when it announced that AerCap Holdings N.V. (NYSE: AER) will buy the leasing operation for $3 billion in cash and 97.56 million shares of new AerCap stock. The total value of the deal is approximately $5.4 billion.

• [By Roberto Pedone]

  AerCap (AER) provides aircraft leasing and aviation finance services. This stock closed up 3.3% at $18 in Wednesday's trading session.

  Wednesday's Volume: 740,000
  
  Three-Month Average Volume: 318,589
  
  Volume % Change: 85%

  From a technical perspective, AER jumped higher here right above its 50-day moving average of $17.27 with above-average volume. This stock has been uptrending strong for the last five months, with shares moving higher from its low of $14.84 to its recent high of $18.16. During that uptrend, shares of AER have been making mostly higher lows and higher highs, which is bullish technical price action. That move has now pushed shares of AER within range of triggering a near-term breakout trade. That trade will hit if AER manages to take out its 52-week high at $18.16 with high volume.

  Traders should now look for long-biased trades in AER as long as it's trending above its 50-day at $17.27 or above more near-term support at $17.17 and then once it sustains a move or close above its 52-week high at $18.16 with volume that's near or above 318,589 shares. If that breakout hits soon, then AER will set up to enter new 52-week-high territory, which is bullish technical price action. Some possible upside targets off that move are $20 to $23.

• [By John Udovich]

  Yesterday around midday,�Netherlands based aviation leasing stock�AerCap Holdings N.V. (NYSE: AER) began surging on rumors and closed up 11.6%, meaning its probably time to take a closer look at those rumors along with aviation leasing peers like small caps or mid caps�Aircastle Limited (NYSE: AYR), Air Lease Corp (NYSE: AL), Fly Leasing Ltd (NYSE: FLY) and AeroCentury Corp (NYSEMKT: ACY).

Best European Companies To Own In Right Now: Aegon NV(AEG)

AEGON N.V. provides life insurance, pensions, and asset management products and services worldwide. The company?s life insurance products include traditional, term, universal, whole, and other life insurance products sold as part of defined benefit pension plans, endowment policies, post-retirement annuity products, and group risk products; supplemental health insurance products comprise accidental death, other injury, critical illness, hospital indemnity, medicare supplement, and student health; specialty lines consists of travel, membership, and creditor products; and long term care insurance products for policyholders who require care due to a chronic illness or cognitive impairment. It also offers a range of savings and retirement products and services, including mutual funds, and fixed and variable annuities, savings accounts and investment contracts, segregated funds, guaranteed investment accounts, and single premium immediate annuities, as well as investment advice to individuals. In addition, the company offers employer solutions and pensions, such as retirement plans, pension plans, and pension-related products and services; investment products, including onshore and offshore bonds, and trusts; reinsurance products and solutions to life insurance and financial services companies; general insurance products comprising house, car, and fire insurance; and asset management products and services, including general account assets, unit-linked funds, and third party activities. AEGON N.V. markets its products through independent and career agents, financial planners, registered representatives, independent marketing organizations, banks, broker-dealers, benefit consulting firms, wirehouses, affinity groups, institutional partners, independent managing general agencies, and specialized financial advisors, as well as through online, direct, and worksite marketing. The company was founded in 1900 and is headquartered in The Hague, the Netherl ands.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Will Ashworth]

  Assuming it delivers on its outlook for 2014, its current free cash flow yield is a very enticing 20%. This isn�� a growth stock, but its brands still possess hidden value. As cheap stocks go, it�� very attractive.

  Cheap Stocks to Buy: Aegon (AEG)

  It�� not often that you can buy a $19 billion market cap for under 10 bucks. Aegon�� a Dutch insurance company that�� had a rough ride over the past few years, and its stock�� suffered as a result. In the late ’90s AEG stock traded around $60 — it hasn�� been anywhere close since. However, it�� got some good assets that should bear fruit in the years to come. Aegon has 12,000 employees in the Americas doing business primarily under the Transamerica brand, which has been a part of AEG since 1999.

Best European Companies To Own In Right Now: BP p.l.c.(BP)

BP p.l.c. provides fuel for transportation, energy for heat and light, retail services, and petrochemicals products. Its Exploration and Production segment engages in the oil and natural gas exploration, field development, and production; midstream transportation, and storage and processing; and marketing and trading of natural gas, including liquefied natural gas (LNG), and power and natural gas liquids (NGL). This segment has exploration and production activities in Angola, Azerbaijan, Canada, Egypt, Norway, Russia, Trinidad and Tobago, the United Kingdom, and the United States, as well as in Asia, Australasia, South America, North Africa, and the Middle East. This segment also owns and manages crude oil and natural gas pipelines; processing facilities and export terminals; and LNG processing and transportation, as well as NGL extraction facilities. BP p.l.c. has interests in the Trans-Alaska pipeline system, the Forties pipeline system, the Central Area transmission sys tem pipeline, the South Caucasus Pipeline, and Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline, as well as in LNG plants located in Trinidad, Indonesia, and Australia. The company?s Refining and Marketing segment involves in the supply and trading, refining, manufacturing, marketing, and transportation of crude oil, petroleum, and petrochemicals products and related services to wholesale and retail customers primarily under the BP, Castrol, ARCO, and Aral brands. Its Other Businesses and Corporate segment produces and markets rolled aluminum products, as well as generates energy through wind, solar, biofuels, hydrogen, and carbon capture and storage sources; and engages in shipping activities. The company was founded in 1889 and is headquartered in London, the United Kingdom.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Tom Taulli]

  Efficient operator:�CVX stock has benefited from huge scale, with operations that span mining, chemicals and power generation. Yet, among its peers, the company is standout in its efforts to find cost savings. Its earnings per barrel come to about $23.33, which is $5 ahead of companies like BP (BP), Royal Dutch Shell (RDS.A), Total (TOT) and ExxonMobil (XOM).�But CVX the company is also one of the world�� largest producers of Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG), which has benefited from strong growth in places like Asia and Europe. Besides, LNG has massive barriers of entry because of the substantial requirements for infrastructure, logistics and technology.

• [By Alex Planes]

  The discovery of the Prudhoe Bay oilfield the following decade turned Alaska into a natural-resource powerhouse. The state's importance to American energy interests proved so acute during the OPEC oil embargo of 1973, that President Richard Nixon authorized the construction of a Trans-Alaska Pipeline within months of the embargo's enactment. BP (NYSE: BP  ) , which now owns Richfield (Richfield became ARCO in 1966�), also owns nearly half of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System, which has successfully transported over 17 billion barrels of oil since it came online. All told, Alaska itself has earned over $160 billion in oil revenues since it became a state in 1959.

• [By Tony Reading]

  With BP (BP) owning nearly 20% of Rosneft, it's also a boost for shareholders in BP.

  It's easy to get bogged down concentrating on BP's messy legal problems in the US. Indeed the long-drawn out saga and seemingly bottomless pit of claims has kept BP on my watchlist but off my shopping list longer than I anticipated it would.

Best European Companies To Own In Right Now: Fresenius Medical Care Corporation (FMS)

Fresenius Medical Care AG & Co. KGaA, a dialysis company, provides products and services for patients with chronic kidney diseases. As of May 12, 2011, it provided dialysis care services to 216,942 patients through its network of 2,769 dialysis clinics primarily in North America, Europe, Latin America, the Asia-Pacific, and Africa. The company also develops and manufactures various dialysis products, including hemodialysis machines, dialyzers, hemofilters, dialysis fluid filters, tubing systems, fistula needles, dialysis related equipment, acute hemodialysis machines, plasma filters, acute tubing systems and cassettes, catheters, and related disposable products for chronic hemodialysis, acute therapy, home therapy, and therapeutic apheresis, as well as dialysis drugs. In addition, it provides laboratory services. Fresenius Medical sells its products through distributors. The company was founded in 1996 and is headquartered in Bad Homburg, Germany.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Johanna Bennett]

  Dialysis provider DaVita Healthcare Partners (DVA) soared almost 8.9% to close at $61.55 after the market learned that Medicare funding cuts would come in lower than expected. Rival Fresenius Medical Care (FMS) rose 7.2% on the same news.

• [By John Udovich]

  Small cap dialysis stock Rockwell Medical Inc (NASDAQ: RMTI) looks set to decline when the market opens after Brean Capital initiated coverage with a sell rating and a price target of $4.00, meaning it might be time to take a closer look at what is going on with the stock along with�the performance of large cap dialysis stocks DaVita Healthcare Partners (NYSE: DVA)�and Fresenius Medical Care (NYSE: FMS) along with small cap dialysis stocks NxStage Medical, Inc (NASDAQ: NXTM).�