10 Best Services Stocks To Invest In Right Now

When National Oilwell Varco (NYSE: NOV  ) tells us about its latest quarter on Friday, we might see the start of something of a more concerted lifting of the company's figurative financial hood.

After all, despite being something of a darling of the oilfield services sector -- including sporting a solid five-star rating among Motley CAPS players -- the company's shares are down about 1.5% year to date. But with its frenetic 2012 acquisitions pace likely to slow appreciably, 2013 is likely to constitute a time for a tune-up for at least a couple of the company's metrics.

The current reckoning
Before moving on, let's look at where the analysts' consensus has Varco's first-quarter results pegged. A day before that actual release, the Wall Street seers are looking for per-share earnings of about $1.36, on revenue of approximately $5.38 billion. Those figures would compare with $1.44 in year-ago earnings per share, on $4.30 billion on the top line. Revenues for the full 2013 year are expected to come in at about $24.6 billion, up from $22.8 billion last year.

Top Semiconductor Stocks To Invest In Right Now: UnitedHealth Group Incorporated(UNH)

UnitedHealth Group Incorporated provides healthcare services in the United States. Its Health Benefits segment offers consumer-oriented health benefit plans and services to national employers, public sector employers, mid-sized employers, small businesses, and individuals; and non-employer based insurance options for purchase by individuals. It also provides health and well-being services for individuals aged 50 and older; and for services dealing with chronic disease and other specialized issues for older individuals, as well as health plans for the beneficiaries of acute and long-term care Medicaid plans. This segment offers its services through a network of 730,000 physicians and other health care professionals, and 5,300 hospitals. Its OptumHealth segment provides health, financial, and ancillary services and products that assist consumers through personalized health management solutions; benefit administration, and clinical and network management; health-based financi al services; behavioral solutions; and specialty benefits, such as dental, vision, life, critical illness, short-term disability, and stop-loss product offerings. The company?s Ingenix segment offers database and data management services, software products, publications, consulting and actuarial services, business process outsourcing services, and pharmaceutical data consulting and research services. Its Prescription Solutions segment provides integrated pharmacy benefit management services comprising retail network pharmacy contracting and management, claims processing, mail order pharmacy services, specialty pharmacy, benefit design consultation, rebate contracting and management, drug utilization review, formulary management programs, disease therapy management, and adherence programs to employer groups, union trusts, managed care organizations, Medicare-contracted plans, Medicaid plans, and third party administrators. The company was founded in 1974 and is based in Minne tonka, Minnesota.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Sean Williams]

  Jeffrey Zients, the former acting Office of Budget and Management chief who was tagged to lead the Healthcare.gov repair, indicated that UnitedHealth Group� (NYSE: UNH  ) subsidiary Quality Software Services, or QSSI, is now in charge of the technical aspects of the website. We also learned that by the end of November the website should be working smoothly for a majority of people. In another context, that's just one month and two days away now!

10 Best Services Stocks To Invest In Right Now: AWG International Water Corp (AWGI)

AWG International Water Corporation, formerly MIPSolutions, Inc., incorporated on December 19, 2005, is a development-stage company. The principal business of the Company is the development of Molecularly Imprinted Polymers (MIPs) for various commercial applications, including the removal of targeted molecules from water.

The Company had a license agreement with The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (JHU/APL). As of December 31, 2009, the Company was developing applications for the removal of arsenic from drinking water and for the extraction of precious metals from various mining operations.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By John Udovich]

  Small cap OTC drinking water stocks Glacier Water Services, Inc (OTCMKTS: GWSV), AWG International Water Corp (OTCBB: AWGI) and Alkaline Water Company Inc (OTCBB: WTER) all offer a product that many consumer, investors and traders alike might take for granted, but everyone needs to have. However, you can build a better mouse trap when it comes to drinking water or at least that what these three small caps are attempting to do with their own unique strategies:

10 Best Services Stocks To Invest In Right Now: Medical Marijuana Inc (MJNA.PK)

Medical Marijuana Inc. (MJNA), incorporated on May 23, 2005, is the publicly held company vested in the medical marijuana and industrial hemp markets. The Company is comprised of a diversified portfolio of products, services, technology and businesses solely focused on the cannabis and hemp industries. These products range from patented based cannabinoid products, to whole plant or isolated high value extracts specifically manufactured and formulated for the pharmaceutical, nutraceutical and cosmeceutical industries. In March 2013, it sold certain equipment and inventory, web domain names, phone numbers, and all existing and pending agreements with hemp production and processing facilities to CannaVEST Corp.

The Company�� services are varied, ranging from medical clinic management to the capitalization and development of existing industry business and product leaders. Services include development of cannabinoid based health and wellness products, and the development of medical grade compounds. MJNA provides over 50 and patented cannabinoid delivery methods that are more socially and medically acceptable than smoking.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Alan Brochstein]

  Taking into account all of the data I have shared, I want to introduce my take on the most important names to follow. My initial list takes into account not only the market cap, but also business model and interest level. These are the stocks that I think merit the most attention (in alphabetical order):

  CannaVest (CANV.OB)GW Pharma (GWPH)MedBox (MDBX.PK)Medical Marijuana, Inc. (MJNA.PK)

  CANV doesn't really trade, as it is held closely by insiders (99.7%, including MJNA). I have a few concerns, including the valuation and some near-term financial challenges typical of a start-up with just one client looking to expand its customer base, but I like the focus and the fact that it is an SEC filer with a relatively clean history (i.e. none of the baggage of some of these other companies). I have spoken to its outsourced CFO and am impressed by his background (has been CFO or held key financial roles at publicly-traded healthcare companies). CANV is the partner to MJNA that is responsible for manufacturing the CBD (Cannibidiol, the cannabinoid in marijuana that is increasingly viewed as offering substantial medical benefits). I am very concerned about the near-term financials, but this is a pure-play with probably a two-year lead over other companies. I don't see a moat in terms of intellectual property or brands, but they have a good lead in terms of sourcing of supply and penetration into potential customers. Quite simply, they don't appear to have competition at present. The company, then, is a call option on CBD demand taking off. It appears that it could be a supplier to even Big Pharma should medical marijuana research move into the mainstream.

10 Best Services Stocks To Invest In Right Now: Speedway Motorsports Inc.(TRK)

Speedway Motorsports, Inc., through its subsidiaries, operates as a promoter, marketer, and sponsor of motor sports activities in the United States. The company principally owns and operates Atlanta Motor Speedway, Bristol Motor Speedway, Charlotte Motor Speedway, Infineon Raceway, Kentucky Speedway, Las Vegas Motor Speedway, New Hampshire Motor Speedway, and Texas Motor Speedway racing facilities. The company also provides souvenir merchandising services; food, beverage, and hospitality catering services; and radio programming, production, and distribution services. In addition, it develops electronic media promotional programming; and distributes wholesale and retail racing, and other sports related souvenir merchandise and apparel. Further, the company manufactures and distributes smaller-scale, modified racing cars and parts; and produces and sells an environmentally-friendly micro-lubricant. Speedway Motorsports has a joint venture with International Speedway Corporat ion to produce, market, and sell licensed motorsports collectible and consumer products, primarily trackside event souvenir merchandising. The company was founded in 1959 and is based in Concord, North Carolina.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Seth Jayson]

  Calling all cash flows
  When you are trying to buy the market's best stocks, it's worth checking up on your companies' free cash flow once a quarter or so, to see whether it bears any relationship to the net income in the headlines. That's what we do with this series. Today, we're checking in on Speedway Motorsports (NYSE: TRK  ) , whose recent revenue and earnings are plotted below.

10 Best Services Stocks To Invest In Right Now: Mitcham Industries Inc.(MIND)

Mitcham Industries, Inc., through its subsidiaries, engages in the leasing, sale, and service of geophysical and other equipment to the seismic industry worldwide. The company operates in two segments, Equipment Leasing and Seamap. The Equipment Leasing segment leases seismic equipment for short-term leasing primarily to seismic data acquisition contractors and oil field service providers. Its land equipment lease pool includes seismic recording land channels, geophones and cables, and other peripheral equipment; marine seismic equipment lease pool comprises streamers, air compressors, air guns, streamer positioning equipment, energy source controllers, and other equipment; and downhole equipment lease pool consist of downhole seismic tools. This segment is also involved in the sale of new seismic equipment of other manufacturers; heli-pickers and related equipment used in the deployment and retrieval of seismic equipment by helicopter; and equipment, consumables, systems integration, engineering hardware, and software maintenance support services to the seismic, hydrographic, oceanographic, environmental, and defense industries, as well as sells used equipment from its lease pool. The Seamap segment designs, manufactures, and sells a range of products for the marine seismic industry. Its products include GunLink seismic source acquisition and control systems, which are designed to provide operators of marine seismic surveys with precise control of energy sources; and BuoyLink RGPS tracking systems that are used to offer precise positioning of seismic sources and streamers. The company was founded in 1987 and is headquartered in Huntsville, Texas.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Dimitra DeFotis]

  The market seems to be showing fatigue particularly with positive onshore oil service data points that may no�longer seem incremental. Investors have become especially focused on potential issues and macro concerns. We believe this phase�of enhanced risk perceptions will pass and still recommend owning selective stocks based on attractive valuations and healthy�fundamentals. Of the 16 oilfield services companies having reported their quarters to date, the share price changes have at times�been difficult to tie to specific results. �… Five of the 12 companies who have beaten earnings expectations have seen their share prices drop on the day, including Basic Energy Services (BAS) (-9.0%), Baker Hughes (BHI) (-2.5%), National Oilwell Varco (NOV) (-1.5%), Oceaneering (OII) (-4.2%), and Schlumberger (SLB) (-2.0%). Other stocks beating expectations have traded higher as expected, including Cameron International (CAM) (+4.1%), FMC Technologies (FTI) (+3.1%), Mitcham Industries (MIND) (+3.8%), Nabors Industries (NBR) (+1.2%), Patterson-UTI Energy (PTEN) (+1.8%), RPC (RES) (+8.4%), and Weatherford International (WFT) (+2.3%). Companies which have missed have universally seen their share prices decline, including Diamond Offshore Drilling (DO) (-4.3%), Gulfmark Offshore (GLF) (-0.1%), and Hercules Offshore (HERO) (-6.9%). Halliburton (HAL) was in line and flat on the day.

10 Best Services Stocks To Invest In Right Now: Teekay Lng Partners L.P.(TGP)

Teekay LNG Partners L.P. provides marine transportation services for liquefied natural gas, liquefied petroleum gas, and crude oil worldwide. It transports liquid petroleum gases, including propane, butane, and methane; petrochemical gases comprising ethylene, propylene, and butadiene; and ammonia. The company provides its services through a time-charter or bareboat charter contract basis. As of August 16, 2011, it operated a fleet of 21 LNG carriers, including 1 LNG regasification unit; 5 LPG/multigas carriers; and 11 conventional tankers. Teekay GP L.L.C. serves as the general partner of Teekay LNG Partners L.P. The company was founded in 2004 and is headquartered in Hamilton, Bermuda. Teekay LNG Partners L.P. is a subsidiary of Teekay Corporation.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Varun Chandan, Arora]

  However, just as the wider shipping industry is seeing a recovery, the LNG tanker market has entered a downturn. Indeed, LNG charter rates have more than halved compared to last year. Despite this scenario, Teekay LNG Partners L.P. (NYSE: TGP  ) is an attractive proposition as the partnership is largely protected from short-term volatility in LNG freight rates and is well positioned to capitalize on growth in the LNG market in the long term.

• [By Tyler Crowe]

  Another element to consider as well is a sustained period where the Suez Canal is shut down. If this were the case, it could be a temporary boost for tanker fleets. LNG carriers like�Teekay LNG Partners� (NYSE: TGP  ) , the third-largest liquefied natural gas fleet, would be well positioned to benefit from the increased ship times. Day rates for LNG carriers are about $100,000 per day, and the extra eight to 15 days of shipping time could be a nice pad to revenue.

• [By Taylor Muckerman]

  One segment of energy transportation on the high seas that has shown investors that tankers can still deliver on Wall Street has been liquefied natural gas, LNG, tankers. Teekay LNG Partners (NYSE: TGP  ) and Golar LNG Partners (NASDAQ: GMLP  ) have both churned out returns north of 15% in the past year along with paying investors more than 6% in distributions just for owning shares. As LNG exporting becomes a bigger part of global energy trade both of these companies stand to benefit. While there has only been approval for two LNG exporting facilities in the U.S., there are many others with applications submitted. Combined with countless other plans around the world, the prospects look rather bright.

10 Best Services Stocks To Invest In Right Now: Facebook Inc (FB)

Facebook, Inc. (Facebook), incorporated in July 2004, is engaged in building products to create utility for users, developers, and advertisers. People use Facebook to stay connected with their friends and family, to discover what is going on in the world around them, and to share and express what matters to them to the people they care about. Developers can use the Facebook Platform to build applications and Websites that integrate with Facebook to reach its global network of users and to build personalized and social products. Advertisers can engage with more than 900 million monthly active users (MAUs) on Facebook or subsets of its users based on information they have chosen to share with the Company, such as their age, location, gender, or interests. It offers advertisers a combination of reach, relevance, social context and engagement.

Products for Users

The Company�� products for users are free of charge and available on the Web, mobile Web, and mobile platforms, such as Android and iOS. It launched Timeline in September 2011, as an enhanced and updated version of the Facebook Profile. Timeline allows users to organize and display the events and activities that matter most to them, enabling them to curate their memories in a searchable personal narrative that is organized chronologically. Users choose what information to share on their Timeline, such as their interests, photos, education, work history, relationship status, and contact information, and users can control with whom each piece of content is shared on their Timeline. The Facebook News Feed is the core feature of a user�� homepage and is a regularly updating list of stories from friends, Pages, and other entities to which a user is connected on Facebook. It includes posts, photos, event updates, group memberships, app updates, and other activities. Each user�� News Feed is personalized based on his or her interests and the sharing activity of the user�� friends.

Facebook is a photo upload! ing service on the Web. Users can upload an unlimited number of high resolution photos, create photo albums, and share them with their friends or any audience they choose. Users can also upload and share videos. Users can set specific privacy settings for each of their photo albums and videos, making them visible to everyone, or only to certain friends. Users can arrange their photos, add captions, and tag people in a photo or video. Tagging allows users to identify a person in a photo or video as one of their friends. Its messaging products include email, chat, and text messaging. Groups are shared Facebook pages for groups of users to discuss common interests. Lists allow users to organize their friends in order to filter the stories shown in their News Feeds and reach or exclude specific people when they share on Facebook. Through Events, users can organize gatherings, manage invitations, and send event notifications and reminders to their friends. From the Events page, users can create a new event, check out upcoming events of interest to them and their friends, and view previous events.

Through Places, users can share their location and see where their friends are. They are able to see if any of their friends are nearby. Users can also check in to Places to tell their friends where they are, tag their friends in the Places they visit, or view Comments their friends have made about the Places they visit. Using Subscribe, users can sign up to receive public posts in their News Feeds from other Facebook users of interest, such as celebrities, thought leaders, and other public figures. Ticker is a live stream of the real-time activities of a user�� friends and the Pages and other entities to which the user is connected. On the top of each Facebook page, a highlighted icon is displayed to users when there is relevant and new information available to them, such as a new friend request, a new message from a friend, or an alert that the user has been tagged in a photo posted by a friend.

A Facebook Page is a public profile that allows anyone, including artists, public figures, businesses, brands, organizations, and charities to create a presence on Facebook and engage with the Facebook community. A Page owner can connect with interested users in order to provide updates, answer questions, receive feedback, or otherwise stimulate interest in the owner�� messages, products, and services. When a Facebook user likes a Page, the Page owner has the opportunity to publish stories to the user�� News Feed on an ongoing basis. In addition, when a Facebook user Likes or Comments on a post by a Page owner, that user�� action may be shared with the user�� friends via News Feed to drive awareness to a wider circle of users, increasing the Page�� exposure, recognition, and engagement. The Company does not charge for Pages, nor does it charge for the resulting organic distribution. As of March 31, 2012, there were more than 42 million Pages with 10 or more Likes, including Harvard, Lady Gaga, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Starbucks, and Boo (the World�� Cutest Dog), as well as millions of local businesses.

Products for Developers

The Facebook Platform is a set of tools and application programming interfaces (APIs) that developers can use to build social apps on Facebook or to integrate their Websites with Facebook. As of March 31, 2012, more than nine million applications and Websites were integrated with Facebook. Some of the elements of the Facebook Platform include open graph, social plugins, payments, applications on Facebook, desktop applications, mobile applications and platform-integrated Websites. The Open Graph is a set of APIs that developers can use to build applications and Websites that enable users to share their activities with friends on Facebook. Social plugins are social features that developers can easily integrate with their Websites by incorporating a single line of HyperText Markup Language (HTML) code.

Facebook provides an o! nline pay! ments infrastructure that enables developers to receive payments from users through a secure system. The Company has designed its Payments infrastructure to streamline the buying process between its users and developers. Its Payments system enables users to purchase virtual or digital goods from developers and third-party Websites by using debit and credit cards, PayPal, mobile phone payments, gift cards or other methods. Applications on Facebook run within the Facebook Website. The Facebook Platform has also enabled new types of social applications on Facebook beyond games to facilitate social sharing and discovery of music, news, television programming, and everyday interests, such as cooking, fitness, and travel. Developers can also build desktop apps that run on the operating system of a personal computer and offer experiences that are integrated with the Facebook Platform. The Facebook Platform for mobile has enabled developers to create engaging mobile applications that integrate with Facebook�� social and personalization capabilities. Websites can integrate with Facebook using social plugins, such as the Like button or design more deeply integrated social experiences built around users and their friends.

Products for Advertisers and Marketers

Facebook offers products that enable advertisers and marketers to leverage its combination of reach, relevance, social context, and engagement. When creating a Facebook ad, advertisers can specify a title, content, image, and destination Web page or Facebook Page to which a user is directed if he or she clicks on the ad. Advertisers can further engage their intended audiences by incorporating social context with their marketing messages. Social context includes actions a user�� friends have taken, such as Liking the advertiser�� Facebook Page. Ads with social context are shown only to a user�� friends, and the user�� privacy settings apply to social ads. It offers a range of ads with social context, from an ad with a sing! le Like b! utton to its Premium Ad paired with social context, which allows advertisers to highlight the interactions of a user�� friends with a brand or product.

Sponsored stories enable marketers to promote the stories they publish from their Facebook Page to users who have connected with the Page or to amplify the distribution of stories users are already sharing that are relevant to their marketing efforts. When advertisers create an ad campaign with Facebook, they specify the types of users they would like to reach based on information that users chose to share about their age, location, gender, relationship status, educational history, workplace, and interests. Advertisers choose to pay for their ads based on either cost per thousand impressions (CPM) on a fixed or bidded basis or cost per click (CPC) on a bidded basis. Facebook ad analytics enable advertisers to gain insights into which ads were displayed and clicked on. These analytics help advertisers make modifications to their ad campaigns. Advertisers with Facebook Pages can also view the number of users who Liked and Commented on their Page and a newly introduced metric, People Talking About This, which shows how many stories about their brand are being created and shared.

The Company competes with Google, Microsoft, Twitter, Cyworld, Mixi and vKontakte.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Laura Brodbeck]

  Pre-market Movers

  Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) was up 6.38 percent in premarket trade after beating expectations in last week�� earnings report. Facebook, Inc. (NASDAQ: FB) gained 1.46 percent ahead of its much anticipated earnings release Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) gained 7.78 percent after beating expectations in last week�� earnings report.

  Earnings

• [By Associated Press]

  Tapping into the stream of comments on Twitter has become increasingly popular. Earlier this month, the Securities and Exchange Commission cleared companies to release key announcements on Twitter, Facebook (NASDAQ: FB  ) , and other social-media venues. Bloomberg also added Twitter to its terminal, a fixture on every big bank's trading floor.

• [By WALLSTCHEATSHEET]

  Facebook looks to provide a valuable social networking experience to its users, developers, and advertisers. A recent earnings release has investors in the company extremely excited about the company and has the stock trading at yearly highs. Over the last four quarters, investors in the company have been pleased as earnings have been mixed and revenues have been rising. Relative to its peers and sector, Facebook has been a relative performance leader. Look for Facebook to continue to OUTPERFORM.

• [By Rick Munarriz]

  Zillow revealed on Wednesday that it will become the first company to accept conference call questions from investors that are posted on Twitter and Facebook (NASDAQ: FB  ) during the actual presentation in two weeks.