Best Services Stocks To Invest In Right Now

With shares of J.C. Penney (NYSE:JCP) trading around $9, is JCP an OUTPERFORM, WAIT AND SEE, or STAY AWAY? Let�� analyze the stock with the relevant sections of our CHEAT SHEET investing framework:

T = Trends for a Stock’s Movement

J.C. Penney is a retailer operating more than 1,000 department stores in just about every state in the United States and Puerto Rico. Its business consists of selling merchandise and services to consumers through its department stores and website. It sells family apparel and footwear, accessories, fine and fashion jewelry, beauty products through Sephora, and home furnishings. The company has not done too well in recent years, but it is doing what it can to be a top provider of apparel and related products.

After the bell on Tuesday, J.C. Penney reported sales at stores open at least a year climbed by 10.1 percent in the month of November, marking a strong start to the holiday season for the beleaguered retailer. In the report, J.C. Penney noted that sales were improving as the result of both better merchandise options for consumers and more aggressive promotions. Investors were focusing on the potential hit to margins rather than the increase to sales as the stock was trading lower by 2.5 percent in early trading today.

5 Best Clean Energy Stocks To Buy For 2015: AOL Inc (AOL)

AOL Inc. (AOL) is a global Web services company with a range of brands and offerings, and a global audience. The Company�� business spans online content, products and services, which it offers to consumers, publishers and advertisers. Its business operations are focused on AOL Properties and Third Party Network. AOL Properties include its owned and operated content, products and services in the Content, Local, Paid Services and Consumer Applications strategy areas in addition to its AOL Ventures offerings. AOL Properties also include co-branded Websites owned by third parties. It generates advertising revenues from AOL Properties through the sale of display advertising and search and contextual advertising. It offers a range of display advertising, including text and banner advertising, mobile, video and rich media advertising, sponsorship of content offerings, and local and classified advertising. It also generates revenues through its subscription access service. It also generates revenues from subscriptions to other products and services. It also generates advertising revenues through the sale of advertising on third-party Websites, which it refers to as the Third Party Network. It markets its offerings to advertisers on both AOL Properties and the Third Party Network under the brand AOL Advertising. It markets its offerings to publishers on the Third Party Network under the brand Advertising.com and also market offerings as video advertisements distributed through goviral A/S (goviral) and 5 Minutes Ltd (5min Media).

On January 22, 2010, the Company completed the acquisition of StudioNow, Inc. On September 28, 2010, the Company completed the acquisition of 5min Media. On September 28, 2010, the Company completed the acquisition of Thing Labs, Inc. On September 29, 2010, the Company completed the acquisition of TechCrunch, Inc. On December 15, 2010, the Company completed the acquisition of Pictela, Inc. On December 20, 2010, the Company completed the acquisition of About.me, Inc. On! January 31, 2011, the Company completed the acquisition of goviral A/S. On February 26, 2010, the Company sold buy.at to Digital Window Limited. On June 16, 2010, the Company sold Bebo, Inc. On July 8, 2010, the Company completed the sale of ICQ operations (ICQ). During the year ended December 31, 2010, the Company sold its investments in Kayak Software Corporation and Brightcove, Inc.

AOL Properties

AOL Media offerings include original content produced through its network of content creators, which includes professional journalists from media, freelance writers and bloggers, content, which it licenses from third parties and aggregations of user-generated content. Its content offerings are made available to audiences through sites, such as the AOL.com homepage, as well as to audiences branded properties, such as Engadget, TechCrunch, PopEater, Moviefone, AOL Shopping, AOL Autos, AOL Travel, AOL Real Estate, MapQuest and StyleList. Its Seed.com platform allows writers and photographers to submit original content for its editors to review and publish on AOL Properties or on third party sites.

The Company has developed and acquired platforms, which are designed to facilitate the production, aggregation, distribution and consumption of local content. This local content includes professional editorial content, user-generated content and business listings. Its local offerings include Patch, which is a community-specific news and information platform dedicated to providing local coverage for individual towns and communities; MapQuest, which is an online mapping and directions service, and City�� Best, which provides local entertainment information for metropolitan areas. It offers a range of consumer applications, including a range of communications products and services. Its consumer applications offerings include AOL Mail, which is an e-mail services in the United States; AIM, which is an instant messaging service in the United States; and a range of mobile offerin! gs, which! extend its content, products and services to a range of digital devices.

The Company offers AOL Search on AOL Properties. It provides its consumers with a general, Internet-based search experience, which utilizes Google�� organic Web search results and additional links on the search results and third-party content and information, as well as provides a range of search-related features, such as suggesting related searches to help users refine their search queries. It also provides consumers with relevant paid text-based search advertising through its relationship with Google, in which it provides consumers sponsored link ads in response to their search queries. It offers vertical search services and mobile search services on AOL Properties.

The Company offers contextually relevant advertising, which is generated based on the content of the AOL Properties Webpage the consumer is viewing. It also offers MapQuest, a service, which provides maps, turn by turn driving directions and other location-based information for consumers globally. During 2010, it launched a new MapQuest platform, which simplified the user interface and included enhanced features. In addition, it provides local directory listings through its AOL Yellow Pages product, which listings are provided by a third party and from which AOL receives a revenue share. The Company�� subscription service has been its subscription access service, including narrow-band (telephone dial-up) access to the Internet. Computer tools and maintenance services, online technical support, anti-virus software, identity theft protection, online and social media privacy and reputation monitoring services, diet fitness services, online learning and other lifestyle services are offered on a subscription basis. Content, products and services on AOL Properties are available to online consumers.

The Company�� AOL-brand subscription access service, which it offers to consumers in the United States for a monthly fee, is a val! uable dis! tribution channel for AOL Properties. As of December 31, 2010, it had 3.9 million AOL-brand access subscribers in the United States. In addition to its content, products and services, which are available to all online consumers, an AOL-brand access subscription provides members with dial-up access to the Internet. It offers Internet access services under the CompuServe and Netscape brands. Its access service partners are Level 3 Communications, LLC and MCI Communications Services, Inc., who provides it with modem networks and related services for a substantial portion of its subscription access service.

The Company also distributes AOL Properties through a range of other channels, including agreements with manufacturers of digital devices and other consumer electronics, broadband access providers and mobile carriers. AOL also distributes its content, products and services directly to consumers on the open Web and through the Apple Apps Store. Additional distribution channels include toolbars, widgets, co-branded portals and Websites, and third-party Websites and social networks that link to AOL Properties. It also utilizes search engine marketing and search engine optimization as distribution methods. In addition, it makes available open standards and protocols for use by third-party developers. It generates advertising revenues from AOL Properties through the sale of display advertising and search and contextual advertising.

Third Party Network

The Company generates advertising revenues through the sale of advertising on third party Websites. Its advertising offerings on the Third Party Network consists of the sale of display advertising and also includes search and contextual advertising. It markets its offerings to publishers on the Third Party Network under the brand Advertising.com and also market offerings as video advertisements distributed through goviral and 5 Minutes Ltd. Its revenues in the Third Party Network are generated from the advertising invent! ory acqui! red from publishers. The Third Party Network includes a display advertising interface, which gives advertisers the ability to target and control the delivery of their advertisements and provides advertisers and agencies with relevant display analytics and measurement tools. It focuses to utilize self-service systems. For its publishers, inclusion in the Third Party Network offers a range of tools and technologies. It aims to develop its relationships with publishers and advertisers.

The Company utilizes a scheduling, optimization and delivery technology, which optimize advertisement placements across the Third Party Network and the available inventory on AOL Properties. AdLearn allows performance to be analyzed and advertisement placement to be optimized based on specific objectives, including click-through rate, conversion rate, sales volume and other metrics. In addition to advertising and subscription revenues, it also generates fee, license and other revenues. It generates fees from its consumer applications associated with mobile e-mail and instant messaging functionality from mobile carriers. Through MapQuest�� business-to-business services, it generates licensing revenue from third-party customers. It also generates revenues by licensing its ad serving technology to third parties, through its subsidiary, ADTECH AG.

The Company competes with Yahoo! Inc., Google Inc., Microsoft Corporation�� MSN, IAC/Interactive Corp., Facebook, Inc., Twitter, Inc., News Corporation, WPP plc and ValueClick, Inc.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Rich Smith]

  Time Warner Cable (NYSE: TWC  ) has a new chief financial officer -- acquired from its old sister company, AOL (NYSE: AOL  ) .

Best Services Stocks To Invest In Right Now: Fleetmatics Group PLC (FLTX)

Fleetmatics Group PLC (FleetMatics), incorporated on October 28, 2004, is a provider of fleet management solutions delivered as software-as-a-service (SaaS). The Company offers Web-based and mobile application solutions, which provide fleet operators with visibility into vehicle location, fuel usage, speed and mileage and other insights into their mobile workforce. The Company offers fleet management software solutions. The Company�� FleetMatics-branded solutions sold under the FleetMatics or SageQuest names. Its solutions are accessed through a Web browser or mobile application and provide its customers with actionable business intelligence. Its SaaS offering consists of the easy-to-use components: Tracking Alerts, Route Replay, Geofencing and Landmarks, FleetTracking Dashboard, Fleet Reports, Mobile App, Speed Limits, Panoramic Reporting and Benchmarking. In addition to this core SaaS offering, it also offers the additional features to its customers: Fuel Card Reporting Integration, FleetMatics Fuel Card and Navigation Unit Integration. Effective August 8, 2013, Fleetmatics Group PLC a unit of Fleetmatics Investor Holdings LP, acquired Connect2Field Holdings Pty Ltd.

The Company�� Fleet Tracking Alerts allow fleet operators to set driver performance thresholds and receive e-mail notifications when unwanted driving behavior occurs. Notifications are sent when a vehicle enters or exits specified areas, moves during specified times, or when a vehicle�� speed or idle time exceeds specified thresholds. Its Route Replay feature allows customers to play back each journey taken by their vehicles, from start up to shut down and provides customers with minute-by-minute location and speed details. Fleet operators can start, stop, pause, and change the speed of the journey replay using intuitive playback controls to monitor and analyze driver behavior. Integration with Google Maps enables customers to pinpoint vehicle location with satellite, street views and zooming capabilities.

The Company�� Geofencing and Landmarks feature allows customers to designate areas on the map, in which vehicles are allowed or not allowed to travel. Fleet operators receive notifications when a vehicle enters or exits an unauthorized location and reports are generated detailing time spent in unauthorized areas. Its FleetTracking Dashboard provides fleet operators with a way to monitor overall fleet performance through a graphical summary. This interface allows fleet operators to evaluate performance categories across their fleet, including speed, engine on-time, vehicle idling, vehicle mileage and number of stops. Fleet operators can also view individual vehicle performance.

The Company provides its customers with over 40 pre-built on-demand reports, which they can access to analyze fleet data. Its reports contain information about vehicle movement and use, including vehicle location, ignition on and off time, engine idle time, arrival and departure times, distance traveled, hours worked, and vehicle speed. Its Mobile App is a portable software application, which fleet operators can use to access actionable business intelligence and insights over mobile devices. It includes the FleetTracking Dashboard, Reports, Tracking Alerts, Route Replay, and Geofencing and Landmarks.

With the Company�� Speed Limits feature, the Company provides a range of speed limit information across all types of roads and geographies, including local and residential roads. Speed limit is powered by FleetMatics RoadSpeed, a specialized database of average speed values derived from billions of points of vehicle movement. Its panoramic reporting engine features in-depth historical trending analyses and strategic comparative information from the customers, such as driver and organizational performance benchmarking. Its Fuel Card Reporting Integration feature integrates customers��fuel card usage information into its fleet management software platform. It provides its customers with an on-demand fue! l usage s! ummary for an entire fleet, as well as detailed information on individual vehicles. Reports are generated, which compare fuel purchases with vehicle location data.

The Company has partnered with an independent global fleet card provider to deliver a Universal Platinum MasterCard. Its Navigation Unit Integration features with Garmin global positioning system (GPS) navigation devices, streamlines dispatching and communication by integrating its fleet management software with its customers��GPS navigation devices. It provides customers with turn-by-turn directions, notification of job status, estimated time of arrival to the next job site, and easy-to-use messaging capabilities. Drivers receive automatic job updates, eliminating the need to manually enter addresses while driving. It offers customers the choice of two fleet management branded solutions, FleetMatics and SageQuest.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Tom Taulli]

  CSOD stock is currently trading at a fair valuation for cloud companies, with a price-to-sales ratio of 9.

  Cloud Companies to Buy: Fleetmatics (FLTX)

  When it comes to cloud companies, Fleetmatics (FLTX) stock is downright cheap. The stock trades at only five times sales, and the forward price-to-earnings ratio is 24.

Best Services Stocks To Invest In Right Now: Hillshire Brands Co (HSH)

The Hillshire Brands Company, incorporated on September 4, 1941, is a manufacturer and marketer of food products. The Company�� portfolio includes brands, such as Jimmy Dean, Ball Park, Hillshire Farm, State Fair, Sara Lee frozen bakery and Chef Pierre pies, as well as artisanal brands Aidells and Gallo Salame. The Company operates in two segments: Retail and Foodservice/Other. Retail sells a variety of packaged meat and frozen bakery products to retail customers in North America. Foodservice/other sells a variety of meat and bakery products to foodservice customers in North America. On February 4, 2013, the Company completed the sale of its Australian bakery business.

Retail

Products in the retail segments include hot dogs and corn dogs, breakfast sausages, breakfast convenience items, including breakfast sandwiches and bowls, dinner sausages, deli and luncheon meats and cooked hams, as well as frozen pies, cakes, cheesecakes and other desserts. The Company�� brands include Jimmy Dean, Ball Park, Hillshire Farm, State Fair and Sara Lee, as well as artisanal brands Aidells and Gallo Salame. The sales of the Retail business are generated in the United States Sales are made in the retail channel to supermarkets, warehouse clubs and national chains. Retail�� business accounted for 74% of the Company�� sales during the fiscal year ended June 29, 2013 (fiscal 2013).

Foodservice/Other

Products in the foodservice/other segment include hot dogs and corn dogs, breakfast sausages and sandwiches, dinner sausages, deli and luncheon meats, ham, beef and turkey, as well as a variety of bakery products, including pastries, muffins, frozen pies, cakes and cheesecakes. Sales are made in the foodservice channel to distributors, restaurants, hospitals and other large institutions. Foodservice/Other�� business accounted for 26% of the Company�� sales in fiscal 2013.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Matt Thalman]

  And finally, Hormel. The stock fell after the CEO of Hillshire Brands (NYSE: HSH  ) said that his company will look to make some acquisitions in the coming year and focus more on chicken products as consumers begin to demand healthier options. It is clear that the competition will continue to intensify for Hormel in the coming months and years and, as Hillshire is still a smaller company, it could change very quickly if the acquisition-happy CEO goes on a shopping spree. With many of these food brands, it is all about shelf space and location within a store and, more times than not, the bigger the player, the better the location. Hormel investors shouldn't be overly concerned today, but need to watch how things play out in the future. �

Best Services Stocks To Invest In Right Now: British American Tobacco PLC (BATS)

British American Tobacco p.l.c. (British American Tobacco) is a holding company. The Company�� four principal brands include Dunhill, Kent, Lucky Strike and Pall Mall. The Company has many other famous international and local brands, including Rothmans, Vogue, Viceroy, Kool, Peter Stuyvesant and Benson & Hedges. The Company�� brands are sold in over 180 markets. The Company�� products include Cigarettes, Smokeless snus and Cigars. The Company has over 44 cigarette factories in 39 countries. In addition to cigarettes, the Company makes cigarillos, roll your own and pipe tobacco. Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Namitha Jagadeesh]

  European stocks advanced for a fifth day, their longest rally this year, as data showed the U.K. avoided a triple-dip recession and as companies including British American Tobacco Plc (BATS) reported results.

Best Services Stocks To Invest In Right Now: Tenet Healthcare Corporation(THC)

Tenet Healthcare Corporation, an investor-owned health care services company, operates acute care hospitals and related health care facilities. The company?s general hospitals offer acute care services, operating and recovery rooms, radiology services, respiratory therapy services, clinical laboratories, and pharmacies. It also provides intensive care, critical care and/or coronary care units, physical therapy; and orthopedic, oncology, and outpatient services; tertiary care services, such as open-heart surgery, neonatal intensive care, and neuroscience; quaternary care in areas, including heart, liver, kidney, and bone marrow transplants for children; gamma-knife brain surgery; and cyberknife surgery for tumors and lesions in the brain, lung, neck, and spine. As of June 30, 2011, it operated 49 acute care hospitals, and a critical access hospital with a combined total of 13,420 licensed beds primarily serving urban and suburban communities in 11 states of the United State s. The company also owns an interest in a health maintenance organization and operate various related health care facilities, including a long-term acute care hospital and various medical office buildings; revenue cycle management and patient communications services businesses; physician practices; captive insurance companies; and other ancillary health care businesses, such as including ambulatory surgery centers, diagnostic imaging centers, and occupational and rural health care clinics. In addition, Tenet Healthcare Corporation owns an interest in a management services subsidiary that provides network development, utilization management, claims processing, and contract negotiation services to physician organizations and hospitals that assume managed care risk. Tenet Healthcare Corporation was founded in 1967 and is headquartered in Dallas, Texas.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Sean Williams]

  The nation's largest hospital providers, HCA Holdings (NYSE: HCA  ) and Tenet Healthcare (NYSE: THC  ) already expected to benefit in a big way because the individual mandate will help reduce a good chunk of their annual bad debt expenses. In 2012, HCA Holdings wrote off $3.77 billion, or 10.25%, of its revenue to doubtful accounts, with Tenet chiming in with $785 million of writedowns of its own -- nearly 8% of its annual revenue. Adding pricing transparency on top of the benefits to come from the individual mandate could help these two large hospitals improve their public image with patients and shareholders by making elective procedure costs accessible at the click of a button.

• [By Keith Speights]

  Since the high court ruling, few sectors have performed as well as hospitals have. Community Health Systems shares rose as much as 88% by late March. Likewise, HMA stock nearly doubled. HCA shares rose more than 50% during the same period. No hospital stock performed better than Tenet Healthcare (NYSE: THC  ) , though. Tenet's shares skyrocketed 140%.