It's no secret that oil and gas behemoth Chevron (NYSE: CVX ) operates in a vast array of locations. Along with being a major player in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico, it's also the top dog in Australia's burgeoning LNG world. It's active in Sub-Saharan Africa and is the only major company working upstream in Saudi Arabia. It's also busy across Southeast Asia, and is trying to plumb hydrocarbons from Poland's shale formations.
But it's in South America, a continent on which it's figuratively been "snakebit" for years, that Chevron has made notable strides of late. The company has been attempting to fend off pesky legal challenges in Ecuador for about two decades, has seen its operations in Brazil called to a halt by an oil spill, and has evidenced a desire to begin operations in geologically promising but politically unstable Argentina.
Now, almost at once, there are tangible developments on all three of these fronts. Of course, progress in Ecuador, OPEC's tiniest member, doesn't imply new oil or gas discoveries or a pact for new exploratory efforts. It simply means that an ordeal of lawsuits and countersuits, all played out against a backdrop of apparently rampant fraud in the Ecuadorian legal system, may be coming to an end.
Hot Financial Companies To Watch For 2015: Maxim Integrated Products Inc.(MXIM)
Maxim Integrated Products, Inc. engages in designing, developing, manufacturing, and marketing various linear and mixed-signal integrated circuits worldwide. The company also provides various high-frequency process technologies and capabilities for use in custom designs. It primarily serves industrial, communications, consumer, and computing markets. The company markets its products through a direct-sales and applications organization, as well as through its own and other unaffiliated distribution channels. Maxim Integrated Products, Inc. was founded in 1983 and is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By rusticnomad]
Maxim Integrated (MXIM) didn't do very well last quarter as its revenue declined. This decline was anticipated by management, as its consumer business was facing seasonal weakness. However, the gains from the initial ramp of a new smartphone at its largest customer arrested the decline.
Hot Promising Stocks To Invest In 2014: Cytomedix Inc (CMXI)
Cytomedix, Inc. (Cytomedix), incorporated in April 29, 1998, is a regenerative therapies company marketing and developing products within the United States and internationally .The Company commercializes cell-based technologies that harness the regenerative capacity of the human body to trigger natural healing. The Company is a commercial operation, and a robust clinical pipeline representing a logical extension of its commercial technologies in the evolving field of regenerative medicine. Cytomedix primarily operates in the United States. Its commercial offerings are centered on its point of care platform technologies for the safe and efficient separation of blood and bone marrow to produce platelet based therapies or cell concentrates.
The Company markets and selsl two distinct platelet rich plasma (PRP) technologies, the AutoloGel System for wound care and the Angel concentrated Platelet Rich Plasma (cPRP) Sytem in orthopedic and cardiovascular markets. Its clinical pipeline includes the ALDH, which are cell-based therapies (Bright Cells). In February 2012, the Company acquired Aldagen, Inc.
The AutoloGel System
The AutoloGel System is a point of care device for the production of a platelet based bioactive therapy derived from a small sample of the patient�� own blood. Using the patient�� own platelets as a therapeutic agent, AutoloGel harnesses the body�� natural healing processes to deliver growth factors, chemokines and cytokines known to promote angiogenesis and to regulate cell growth and the formation of new tissue.
Angel Product Line
The Angel concentrated Platelet Rich Plasma (cPRP) System is a multi-functional cell separation device which produces concentrated platelet rich plasma for use in the operating room and clinic and is used in a range of orthopedic and cardiovascular indications. Similar to the AutoloGel System, the Angel System is a point of care device for the production of a concentrated, aseptic platelet! -based bioactive therapy derived from a small sample of the patient�� own blood. The resulting cPRP is applied at the site of injury to promote healing. The Angel product line also includes ancillary products such as phlebotomy and applicator supplies and activAT. activAT is designed to produce autologous thrombin serum from platelet poor plasma and is sold exclusively in Europe and Canada, where it provides a safe alternative to bovine-derived products.
ALDHbr Cell Technology and Development Pipeline
The ALDHbr (Bright Cell) technology is an approach to cell-based regenerative medicine and a logical extension of its commercial technologies in the evolving regenerative medicine market, with potential clinical indications in markets with unmet medical needs such as peripheral arterial disease and ischemic stroke. The Bright Cell technology is in that it utilizes an intracellular enzyme marker to facilitate fractionation of essential regenerative cells from a patient�� bone marrow. The bone marrow fractionation process identifies and isolates active stem and progenitor cells expressing high levels of the enzyme aldehyde dehydrogenase, or ALDH, which is a key enzyme involved in the regulation of gene activities associated with cell proliferation and differentiation.
The Company�� lead product candidate, ALD-401, is an autologous preparation of Bright Cells for the post-acute treatment of ischemic stroke. ALD-401 is being evaluated in the RECOVER-Stroke clinical study, an ongoing 100-patient, double-blind, placebo-controlled Phase 2 study in patients with unilateral, cerebral ischemic stroke with an NIH stroke scale score of less than 22. An additional product candidate, ALD-301, is in clinical development for peripheral arterial disease (PAD), a condition causing reduced flow of blood and oxygen to muscles in the leg. It has completed a Phase 1/2 study of autologous ALD-301 in critical limb ischemia (CLI), a late stage condition caused by PAD. The Phase 2 PACE! (Patient! s with Intermittent Claudication Injected with ALDH Bright Cells) study is an 80 patient, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial intended to demonstrate the safety and efficacy of ALD-301 (Bright Cells) in patients diagnosed with IC.
The Company competes with Harvest Technologies (a subsidiary of Terumo), Biomet, Arteriocyte, and Arthrex.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By James E. Brumley]
To give credit where it's due, Cytomedix, Inc. (OTCBB:CMXI) and Baxter International Inc. (NYSE:BAX) have both helped shape the landscape of the hemostasis (bleeding control) market with their products, AutoloGel and TISSELL, respectively. Arch Therapeutics Inc. (OTCBB:ARTH) has proverbially taken their concepts "up a notch", however, and its direct solution to a problem that CMXI and BAX can't quite solve may make ARTH the hottest trading candidate in the hemostasis space.
- [By Bryan Murphy]
When traders think of post-surgical wound management stocks, they may first think of names like Cytomedix, Inc. (OTCBB:CMXI) or Alliqua Inc. (OTCMKTS:ALQA). And well they should. Both companies have something of a history in the arena. ALQA is the purveyor of SilverSeal and Hydress antibiotic bandages, while CMXI is the developer of the AutoloGel system, which induces an affected patient's on body to do what it's supposed to do if there's a wound that won't heal. Cytomedix also makes the Angel platelet-rich plasma (PRP) delivery system. There's a relatively new name to add to the list of game-changing stocks in wound-management industry, however.... Arch Therapeutics Inc. (OTCBB:ARTH). The company is developing - well, has developed - a product called AC5 that nips post-surgical bleeding in the bud, largely negating the need for other post-surgical bleeding-control measures.
Hot Promising Stocks To Invest In 2014: PDI Inc.(PDII)
PDI, Inc. provides outsourced promotional services to various companies in the pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and healthcare industries in the United States. The company?s services offer customers a range of both personal and non-personal promotional options for the commercialization of their products throughout the product lifecycles, from development through maturity. It operates in three segments: Sales Services, Marketing Services, and Product Commercialization Services. The Sales Services segment focuses primarily on product detailing, which includes a sales representative meeting face-to-face with targeted physicians and other healthcare decision makers to provide a technical review of the product being promoted; and offers a portfolio of expanded sales services consisting of talent acquisition services, short-term teams, and vacancy coverage services. The Marketing Services segment is involved in the creation, design, and implementation of interactive digital commu nications programs to the healthcare community through the Internet, multimedia, tablet PCs, mobile devices, and dimensional direct mail, as well as DIAGRAM, a proprietary software to deliver non-personal selling solutions via interactive communications exchanges that accommodate the schedules of healthcare providers. This segment also engages in the creation of teledetailing programs executed via tele-representatives. The Product Commercialization Services segment provides product commercialization solutions, including product detailing, full supply chain management, operations, sales, marketing, compliance, and regulatory/medical management to pharmaceutical, biotechnology, medical device, and diagnostics clients. The company was founded in 1988 and is headquartered in Parsippany, New Jersey.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By CRWE]
PDI, Inc. (Nasdaq:PDII) reported the signing of a contract with a new customer to provide promotional services across PDI’s multiple communications channels that will target primary care physicians.
Hot Promising Stocks To Invest In 2014: Network Engines Inc(NEI)
Network Engines, Inc. designs and manufactures application platforms and appliance solutions on which software applications are applied for enterprise and telephony information technology networks. The company?s application platforms are pre-configured server-based network infrastructure devices designed to deliver specific software application functionality, and enhance the integration, manageability, and security of that software application in an end user?s network. It also offers platform management software tools and support services related to solution design, systems integration, application management, global logistics, and support and maintenance programs. The company markets its application platform solutions and services to original equipment manufacturers and independent software vendors in the United States and internationally. Network Engines, Inc. was founded in 1989 and is headquartered in Canton, Massachusetts.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By CRWE]
NEI (Nasdaq:NEI), a leading provider of server-based application platforms, deployment solutions and lifecycle support services for software technology developers and OEMs worldwide, announced today that it has signed a definitive merger agreement with UNICOM Systems, Inc. (“UNICOM”) and a new UNICOM subsidiary under which UNICOM, a global information technology company and part of the UNICOM group of companies, will acquire NEI for $1.45 per common share in cash.
Hot Promising Stocks To Invest In 2014: Digital River Inc.(DRIV)
Digital River, Inc. provides end-to-end global cloud-commerce and marketing solutions. The company offers a range of services that enables its customers to establish an online sales channel. Its services include design, development, and hosting of online stores and shopping carts; store merchandising and optimization; order management; denied parties screening; export controls and management; tax compliance and management; fraud management; digital product delivery via download; physical product fulfillment; subscription management; online marketing, including email marketing; management of affiliate programs; paid search programs; payment processing services; Web site optimization, Web analytics, and reporting; and CD production and delivery services. The company also provides paid search advertising, search engine optimization, affiliate marketing, store optimization, multi-variant testing, and Web analytic and e-mail optimization services. In addition, it offers a range of payment processing services, such as multiple payment methods, fraud management, tax management, cloud-based billing, and other payment optimization services. The company sells its products and services through Internet and direct sales force. It serves software, consumer electronics, and computer and video game product manufacturers, as well as online channel partners, including retailers and affiliates in the United States, Austria, Brazil, China, Germany, Korea, Ireland, Japan, Luxembourg, Mexico, Singapore, Sweden, Taiwan, and the United Kingdom. Digital River, Inc. was founded in 1994 and is headquartered in Minnetonka, Minnesota.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Garrett Cook]
Digital River (NASDAQ: DRIV) shares shot up 47.58 percent to $25.65 after the company agreed to be acquired by an investor group led by Siris Capital Group for $26.00 per share in cash.
- [By Seth Jayson]
Digital River (Nasdaq: DRIV ) is expected to report Q2 earnings on July 30. Here's what Wall Street wants to see:
The 10-second takeaway
Comparing the upcoming quarter to the prior-year quarter, average analyst estimates predict Digital River's revenues will expand 0.4% and EPS will wane -85.0%. - [By Garrett Cook]
Digital River (NASDAQ: DRIV) shares shot up 46.84 percent to $25.52 after the company agreed to be acquired by an investor group led by Siris Capital Group for $26.00 per share in cash.
Hot Promising Stocks To Invest In 2014: Fortinet Inc (FTNT)
Fortinet, Inc. (Fortinet), incorporated November 28, 2000, provides network security solutions. Through the Company�� products and subscription services, Fortinet provides integrated and protection against security threats for enterprises, service providers and governmental entities worldwide. Its flagship Unified Threat Management (UTM) solution consists of its FortiGate physical and virtual appliance products that provide a range of security and networking functions, including firewall, virtual private networking (VPN), application control, antivirus, intrusion prevention, Web filtering, vulnerability management, antispam, wireless controller, and wide area network (WAN) acceleration. In addition, the Company offers virtual appliances for the FortiGate, FortiManager, FortiAnalyzer, FortiWeb, FortiMail, and FortiScan product lines. On December 7, 2012, the Company completed the acquisition of XDN, Inc. (XDN), a privately held company that provides cloud-based content delivery solutions. On March 8, 2012, the Company completed the acquisition of IntruGuard Devices, Inc. (IntruGuard), a supplier of Intelligent Availability Protection Systems.
FortiGate appliances, from the FortiGate-20 for small businesses and branch offices to the FortiGate-5000 series for big enterprises and service providers, are based on its technology platform. This platform includes its FortiASICs, which are specifically designed for accelerated processing of security and networking functions, and its FortiOS operating system, which provides the foundation for all of its security functions. Its FortiGuard security subscription services provide end-customers with access to dynamic updates to its application control, anti-malware, intrusion prevention, Web filtering and anti-spam functionality based on intelligence gathered by its dedicated FortiGuard Labs team. By combining multiple security and networking functions with its purpose-built FortiASIC and FortiOS, its FortiGate UTM/NGFW solution delivers broad protect! ion against dynamic security threats while reducing the operational burden and costs associated with managing multiple point products. As of December 31, 2012, the Company has shipped over 1,100,000 appliances via more than 10,000 channel partners to more than 150,000 end-customers worldwide, including a majority of the 2012 Fortune Global 100.
Fortinet complements its FortiGate product line with the FortiManager product family, which enables end-customers to manage the system configuration and security functions of multiple FortiGate devices from a centralized console, as well as the FortiAnalyzer product family, which enables collection, analysis and archiving of content and log data generated by its products. The Company also offers other product lines that provide additional protection, such as: FortiAP, secure wireless access points; FortiWeb, security for Web-based applications; FortiMail, multi-featured, high performance messaging security; FortiDB, centrally managed database-specific security; FortiClient, endpoint security for desktops, laptops and mobile devices and that is primarily used in conjunction with its FortiGate appliances; FortiScan, endpoint vulnerability assessment and remediation; FortiSwitch, Ethernet switches; FortiBridge, bypass appliances to help ensure network availability; FortiAuthenticator, scalable secure authentication for enterprise networks; FortiBalancer, optimizing the availability and performance of mobile, cloud, and enterprise applications; FortiCache, reducing the cost of and impact of cached Internet content; FortiDNS, providing secure DNS caching; FortiDDoS, protection against denial of service attack, and FortiVoice, business telephone communication.
FortiGate
The Company�� flagship FortiGate physical and virtual appliances offer a set of security and networking functions, including firewall, VPN, application control, antivirus, intrusion prevention, Web filtering, antispam and WAN acceleration. All FortiGate models a! re based ! on its operating system, FortiOS, and all FortiGate physical appliances include its FortiASICs to accelerate content and network security features implemented within FortiOS. FortiGate platforms can be centrally managed through both embedded Web-based and command line interfaces, as well as through FortiManager, which provides central management architecture for thousands of FortiGate physical and virtual appliances.
By combining multiple network security functions in its purpose-built security platform, the FortiGate provides high protection capabilities and deployment flexibility while reducing the operational burden and costs associated with managing multiple point products. Through FortiGuard security subscription services, its products enable end-customers to add security functionality as required by their evolving business needs and the changing threat landscape. By purchasing FortiGuard security subscription services, end-customers obtain coverage and access to regular updates for application control, antivirus, IPS, Web filtering and anti-spam functions for their FortiGate appliances. With over 30 models in the FortiGate product line, FortiGate is designed to address security requirements for small- to mid-sized businesses, remote offices, enterprises, and service providers.
The FortiGate-20 through -100 series models are designed for perimeter protection for small- to mid-sized businesses, remote offices of distributed organizations and as customer premises equipment for service providers. Optional wireless LAN (WLAN), integration is available for the FortiGate-20, -40, -60 and -80 models, marketed as FortiWiFi, delivering additional network access and security for wireless environments. The FortiGate-200 through -800 series models are designed for perimeter deployment in mid-sized to enterprise networks. These products offer increased capacity and scalability designed to provide high network performance while delivering the same broad security suite as all FortiGate m! odels. Ad! ditionally, the FortiGate-300 -600 and -800 models provide hardware modularity, allowing end-customers the flexibility to customize solutions to their requirements. The FortiGate-1000 through -5000 series models deliver high performance and scalable network security functionality for perimeter, data center and core deployment in enterprise and service provider networks. Additionally, these products provide hardware modularity, allowing end-customers the flexibility to customize solutions to their requirements. Some products within the FortiGate-3000 and -5000 series leverage Advanced Mezzanine Card, or AMC, industry standards for hardware modularization to support the advanced networking requirements of enterprises and service providers, including high-speed networking, WAN connectivity, and network attached storage connectivity. The FortiGate-3950B platform also leverages its Fortinet Mezzanine Card (FMC), that provides hardware modularity to give end-customers the ability to add additional firewall and/or intrusion prevention performance, or the number of interfaces, as their network security needs evolve.
FortiGate System Virtualization (VDOM)
The Company�� FortiOS operating system offers system virtualization capabilities - to divide a security appliance into multiple, separately provisioned and managed instances. This capability is deployed in all of its FortiGate products as its virtual domain (VDOM) feature, where administrators have the ability to segment a single FortiGate appliance platform into multiple FortiGate instances.
FortiManager
The Company�� FortiManager family of products provides a central management solution for its FortiGate products, including the range of network and security features offered within FortiOS. One FortiManager product can manage thousands of FortiGate units, and also provides central management for FortiClient software. FortiManager facilitates the coordination of policy-based provisioning, device configurat! ion and o! perating system revision management, as well as network security monitoring and device control.
FortiAnalyzer
The Company�� FortiAnalyzer family provides network logging, analyzing, and reporting products that securely aggregate content and log data from itsr FortiGate devices and other Fortinet products as well as third-party devices to enable network logging, analysis and reporting. Additional functions such as vulnerability assessments and traffic analysis provide additional value for customers seeking to control and monitor their network infrastructure and security policies. A full range of content and log data, including traffic, event, virus, attack, Web content, and email data may be archived, filtered and mined for compliance or historical analysis purposes. Its FortiAnalyzer product family comes with a suite of standard reports as well as the ability to customize reports. The Company also offers
FortiGuard Security Subscription Services
The Company�� FortiGuard Labs global threat research team, comprised of over 150 professionals, uses automated processes to identify emerging threats, collects threat samples, and replicates, reviews and characterizes attacks. Based on this research, the Company develops updates for virus signatures, attack definitions, scanning engines, and other security solution components to distribute to end-customers through its FortiGuard global distribution network. Its FortiGuard security subscription services are designed to allow the Company to quickly deliver new threat detection capabilities to end-customers worldwide as new threats evolve. End-customers purchase FortiGuard security subscription services in advance, typically for a one year term, to obtain coverage and access to regular updates for application control, antivirus, intrusion prevention, Web filtering, and anti-spam functions for its FortiGate products; antivirus, Web filtering and anti-spam functions for its FortiClient software; antivirus and a! nti-spam ! functions for its FortiMail products; vulnerability management for its FortiGate, FortiAnalyzer and FortiScan products, database functions for its FortiDB appliance, and Web functions for its FortiWeb appliances. The Company provides FortiGuard services 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
FortiCare Technical Support Services
The Company�� FortiCare services are its technical support services for the software, firmware and hardware in its products. In addition to its standard support service offering, the Company offers a service that offers faster response times and dedicated support oriented toward accounts. Its standard technical support offering for its products, channel partners often provide first level support to the end-customer, especially for small and mid-sized end-customers, and the Company typically provides second and third level support to its end-customers. The Company also provides knowledge management tools and customer self-help portals to help augment its support capabilities in an efficient and scalable manner. The company provides technical support to partners and end-customers 24 hours a day, seven days a week through regional technical support managers located worldwide.
Training Services
The Company offers training services to its end-customers and channel partners through its training department and authorized training partners. The Company has also implemented a training certification program to ensure an understanding of its products and services.
Professional Services
The Company offers professional services to end-customers primarily for implementations where technical resources are required. Its professional services consultants help in the design of deployments of its products and work closely with end-customer engineers, managers and other project team members to implement its products according to design, utilizing network analysis tools, attack simulation software and scripts.
Th! e Company! competes with Cisco Systems, Inc., Juniper Networks, Inc., Check Point Software Technologies Ltd., McAfee, Inc. , SonicWALL, Inc., and Palo Alto Networks, Inc.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Rick Munarriz]
5. In security
Shares of Fortinet (NASDAQ: FTNT ) tumbled 13% on Thursday after the company issued problematic guidance.The network security provider sees a first-quarter profit of $0.10 a share on $134 million to $136 million in revenue. The refreshed guidance falls short of where Wall Street's perched, as analysts were targeting net income of $0.12 a share with more than $140 million on the top line.
- [By Lee Jackson]
Fortinet Inc. (NASDAQ: FTNT) is one of the top names to buy in cyber security. After a slow start to the year, the company delivered solid second-quarter numbers, and the order backlog for the rest looks very promising. The consensus price target stands at $24.
- [By Anders Bylund]
Nobody seems to expect another round of consolidation in the space. Fortinet (NASDAQ: FTNT ) has gained 4.8% today, but other data security experts have stayed flat or traded down. Fortinet always looked like a reasonable takeout target, particularly since the company parted ways with longtime CFO Ken Goldman last year. The Sourcefire deal paints a slightly larger target on Fortinet's back, but you have to wonder who would be able to pay a buyout premium on top of Fortinet's $3.5 billion market cap. Most of the big boys have already picked their positions in the security space, to the point where even Intel has jumped into the game.
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