Top 5 Performing Stocks To Own For 2014

Shares of Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT  ) rose 5.34% last week and now rest at $33.49, The last time investors saw prices this high was for a few months during late 2007 and early 2008, before the financial crisis hit. Before that, shares hadn't been much above the $30 mark since 2001.

Year to date, shares of Microsoft are up more than 25%, making it the third best performing component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJINDICES: ^DJI  ) in 2013. Only Walt Disney, which is up more than 30% this year, and Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ  ) , which has risen 44.77%, have outperformed Microsoft. Furthermore, we have to go back to the third week of February to find the last time shares moved lower during a one-week trading period. So with shares setting new 52-week highs, should investors take their money and run now that they're likely to be in the green, or should they let it ride?

First off, one reason shares have performed so well in 2013 is that investor expectations were set so low that any good news, no matter how small, has seemed to push shares higher. The initial sales numbers for both Windows 8 and the Surface tablet were so poor that now anytime a report indicates that sales are holding firm or growing, the stock is going to pop.

Top 5 Performing Stocks To Own For 2014: Tox Free Solutions Ltd(TOX.AX)

Tox Free Solutions Limited, together with its subsidiaries, provides waste management and industrial services in Australia. The company offers chemical and hazardous waste treatment services for various materials, such as hydrocarbon contaminated soils and sludges, flammable wastes, pesticide wastes, oils and emulsions, coolants and glycols, surfactants and cleaning products, acids and alkalis, laboratory wastes, oxidizers, schedule X compounds, heavy metal bearing wastes, and spent catalysts. It also provides contaminated site remediation services, including assessment and project management; and emergency response services comprising spills and chemical cleanup, controlled and dangerous goods licensed transport, spill response and personal protective equipment, and spills kit. In addition, the company offers industrial services, such as vacuum loading; high pressure jetting, drain cleaning, and de-contamination; concrete demolition; non destructive digging; girth gear cl eaning; tank, pit, and silo cleaning; tank degassing, decommissioning, disposal, and gas free testing and certification; decontamination and clearance of hazardous waste; cleaning and descaling of cold water storage tanks and cooling towers; interceptor and plate separator cleaning and servicing; onsite oil/water separation and sludge separation; and catalyst removal and change out services to mining, oil and gas, civil infrastructure, and manufacturing industries. Further, it provides liquid waste treatment services for a range of hazardous and non hazardous bulk liquid wastes; marine and tank cleaning services consisting of cleaning of tanks, vessels, bilges, and industrial machinery, as well as liquid waste collection and waste treatment; residential, commercial, and industrial solid waste management and recycling services; and household hazardous waste collection and management services. The company was founded in 2001 and is based in West Perth, Australia.

Top 5 Performing Stocks To Own For 2014: Spirit Airlines Inc.(SAVE)

Spirit Airlines, Inc. provides passenger airline services. It provides travel opportunities principally to and from south Florida, the northeast United States, the Caribbean, and Latin America. The company also offers optional travel-related products or services. As of December 31, 2011, it had a fleet of 37 Airbus single-aisle aircrafts. The company was formerly known as Charter One and changed its name to Spirit Airlines, Inc. in 1992. Spirit Airlines, Inc. was founded in 1964 and is headquartered in Miramar, Florida.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Jonathan Yates]

  A useful way to determine how well a company is being managed for debt and other considerations is to compare it with the "best practices" in the industry. Spirit Airlines (NASDAQ: SAVE) and Alaska Airlines (NYSE: ALK) are, by far, the best run airlines-- �with each having a profit margin of around 9.50 percent. The debt-to-equity ratio for Alaska Airlines is 0.50. Spirit Airlines has no debt.

• [By Brian Stoffel]

  Notice any airlines left out?
  It's interesting, though, that the article made no mention of airlines like Spirit (NASDAQ: SAVE  ) or Allegiant. Both airlines are classified as "ultra-low-cost" carriers.

Top Gold Stocks To Invest In 2014: First Pursuit Ventures Ltd (FPV.V)

Silver Pursuit Resources Ltd. engages in the acquisition, exploration, and development of mineral properties in Mexico. It holds options to acquire a 100% interest in the La Tuna property comprising 9 exploration mining concessions; a 100% interest in the La Luz property comprising 2 exploration mining concessions; and a 100% interest in the La Quintera property comprising 3 exploration mining concessions, located in Sonora, Mexico. The company was formerly known as First Pursuit Ventures Ltd. and changed its name to Silver Pursuit Resources Ltd. on June 2, 2011. Silver Pursuit Resources Ltd. is based in Vancouver, Canada.

Top 5 Performing Stocks To Own For 2014: Equity Residential (EQR)

Equity Residential (EQR) is a real estate investment trust (REIT). The Company is focused on the acquisition, development and management of multi-family residential properties, which includes the generation of rental and other related income through the leasing of apartment units to residents, in United States. ERP Operating Limited Partnership (or Operating Partnership), which is an Illinois limited partnership, conducts the multifamily residential property business of EQR. All of the Company's property ownership, development and related business operations are conducted through the Operating Partnership. The Operating Partnership holds all of the assets of the Company, including the Company's ownership interests in its joint ventures. As of December 31, 2011, the Company, directly or indirectly through investments in title holding entities, owned all or a portion of 427 properties located in 15 states and the District of Columbia consisting of 121,974 apartment units. In December 2012, it acquired four multifamily properties totaling 1,134 units.

The Company is structured as an umbrella partnership REIT (UPREIT). EQR is the general partner of, and, as of December 31, 2011, owned an approximate 95.7% ownership interest in ERPOP. The remaining 4.3% interest is owned by limited partners. As of December 31, 2012, the Company�� wholly owned properties included 404 properties and 113,157 apartment units. Its consolidated partially owned properties include 21 properties and 3,916 apartment units. The Company�� military housing includes two properties and 4,901 apartment units. As of December 31, 2011, the Company�� properties had an average occupancy of approximately 94.2% (94.7% on a same store basis).

During the year ended December 31, 2011, EQR acquired apartment properties consisting of 20 consolidated properties and 6,103 apartment units and acquired five land parcels; acquired one vacant land parcel in New York City in a joint venture with Toll Brothers, and acquired o! ne unoccupied property in the San Francisco Bay Area consisting of 95 apartment units. During 2011, it also acquired a 97,000-square foot commercial building adjacent to its Harbor Steps apartment property in downtown Seattle, and sold consolidated apartment properties consisting of 47 properties and 14,345 apartment units. Subsequent to 2011, the Company acquired two land parcels, and sold one property consisting of 704 apartment units.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Sean Williams]

  Why buy when you can rent?
  Please forgive me for beating a dead horse twice in the same week, but residential-REIT Equity Residential (NYSE: EQR  ) has absolutely no business trading near a 52-week low.

• [By gurujx]

  Equity Residential (EQR) Reached the 3-year Low of $50.83

  The prices of Equity Residential (EQR) shares have declined to close to the 3-year low of $50.83, which is 26.3% off the 3-year high of $65.72.

• [By Rich Duprey]

  Apartment-building operator�Equity Residential (NYSE: EQR  ) announced today its second-quarter dividend of $0.40 per share, the same rate it paid last quarter after raising the payout 18.5%, from $0.3375 per share, in the third quarter of 2012.

• [By Jonas Elmerraji]

  Apartment landlord Equity Residential (EQR) owns more than 550 communities spread across some of the most attractive markets in the United States. That positioning gives EQR some important advantages – with properties centered around large metro areas, occupancy rates are high, multifamily inventories are low, and barriers to entry keep that arrangement from getting thrown off-balance.

  Zeroed out interest rates have helped spur home buying again, but they haven't eroded the benefits of being a renter in urban areas where EQR's target demographic of younger, often mobile, professionals live. While February's $9 billion acquisition of Archstone is still getting shaken out in shares of EQR, the firm looks well positioned to post impressive increases in sales and profitability once the dust settles.

  Typically, residential REITs offer fewer benefits than their commercial peers. That's because shorter standard leases coupled with regulations that favor residential tenants. Despite that fact, EQR's solid demographics and attractive portfolio gives it returns that few other residential REITs can claim. At last count, the firm pays out a 3.4% dividend yield.

Top 5 Performing Stocks To Own For 2014: Cable & Wireless Plc(CW.L)

Cable & Wireless Worldwide plc, together with its subsidiaries, provides communication infrastructure and services to users of telecommunications services. It offers a range of managed voice, data, and IP-based services and applications to multinational companies, governments, carrier customers, and resellers. The company provides contact centre solutions that include QueueBuster, which offers callers an alternative option to waiting on hold by increasing peak call handling capacity; STORM, a multimedia interactive communications platform; voice interaction; and IP contact centre, which provides a choice of hosted contact centre infrastructure to manage customer interactions across multiple channels. It also provides various data solutions, such as IP-VPN, a private MPLS-based wide area networking service; local area network (LAN) management services; Ethernet Wirleine and Ethernet VPN for extending LAN capability across a wide area network; and National Private Line that links user?s sites in the United Kingdom with dependable leased-line connections. In addition, the company offers infrastructure services, including application performance management, co-location, managed exchange, managed hosting, flexible computing, video conferencing, and security services; and voice products comprising hosted voice, Internet protocol (IP) trunking, and international interconnect services. It serves customers in the banking and financial services, channel business, engineering and exploration, government, insurance, international carriers, investment banking, media, retail, and utilities sectors, as well as system integrators. Cable & Wireless Worldwide plc offers its products and services in the United Kingdom, the Asia Pacific, India, the Middle East, Africa, continental Europe, and North America. The company is headquartered in London, the United Kingdom. Cable & Wireless Worldwide plc operates independently of Cable & Wireless Communications Plc as of March 22, 2010.