Sunday, July 26, 2015

Top 10 Construction Companies To Buy Right Now

Top 10 Construction Companies To Buy Right Now: Badger Daylighting Ltd (BAD)

Badger Daylighting Ltd. and its subsidiaries (Badger) provide non-destructive excavating services to the utility, transportation, industrial, engineering, construction and petroleum industries in Canada and the United States. Its key technology is the Badger Hydrovac excavator, which is used primarily for digging trenches in congested grounds. The Company's excavation services include daylighting and potholing, slot trenching, debris removal and cleanups, maintenance and installation service pits, poles and piling holes and trench shoring/shoring. Badger slot trenching provides a non-destructive method of digging trenches for water lines, wiring and pipeline installations or excavations. Its applications include pipeline tie-ins, investigative slot trenching, installation slot trenching, drain tile trenching and line fault repairs. In November 2013, the Company acquired the business and operating assets of Fieldtek Holdings Ltd. Advisors' Opinion:
  • [By Kim Hjelmgaard]

    There have been some good (read: bad) predictions over the years.

    Before the 2013 forum, DealBook's Andrew Ross Sorkin recalled that in 2003 the serial Davos attendee, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, said of Google: "These Google guys (co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin), they want to be billionaires and rock stars and go to conferences and all that. Let us see if they still want to run the business in two to three years."

  • source from Top Stocks For 2015:http://www.topstocksblog.com/top-10-construction-companies-to-buy-right-now-6.html

Wednesday, July 15, 2015

How Twitter Could Be Bigger Than Facebook in 3 Years

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Dave Pell had an interesting tweet last night:

Twitter will have a bigger market cap than Facebook (FB) within three years.

It seems hard to believe when you first read that. Facebook is older, has always been bigger, appealed to more of a mainstream audience and had more revenue than Twitter. [Read: Why Wall Street Got Apple Wrong This Week]

Momentum is a tough thing to stop once it's rolling down a hill. Besides, Facebook is at around one billion users right now while Twitter should get to something like 400 million by the end of this year. So how is it possible that Twitter could surpass Facebook in three years' time in market cap? Here is one scenario to consider. Both Twitter and Facebook are eager to tap into the larger advertising budgets that are allocated by big brands to television and older media compared to online advertising. Facebook was big on spinning this potential growth for itself in its S-1 and I'm sure that Twitter will do the same. Back in the S-1, Facebook tried to spin an average day on Facebook as equivalent for an advertiser to reach an audience that is three times the size of an American Idol finale. Twitter has also been building connections with television and media as well. The Twitter hashtag is now almost on virtually all ads and TV shows today. Market cap is all about future expectations of how a business will grow rather than a reflection of that business today. Therefore, the only way that Twitter could have a bigger market cap than Facebook in three years from now would be if investors then expected Twitter's growth in the next five years (i.e., eight years from now) to be bigger than Facebook's prospects. [Read: The 5 Dumbest Things on Wall Street This Week: Sept. 13] For that to happen, Facebook was have to see its growth slow down and become something like a Yahoo! (YHOO) of three years from now (with a really big user base but not a lot of top-line growth). At the same time, Twitter would have to dramatically change its future prospects. We would all have to see Twitter as something more than a news service.

It would have to morph into something like a new type of television service. We would read it for news and media (video and photos). We would follow people like we do channels. Twitter would be at the center of this.

Beyond increased advertising revenue, though, if Twitter was going to make the leap to have a bigger market cap than Facebook, they would have to develop a new revenue stream from transactions or payments (while Facebook would have to fail at that).

This payments or transactions business could come from: sharing money between users (like Facebook's gifts), selling badges to users (like Japan's Line), selling games (like Tencent (TCEHY) or Facebook), selling stuff (like Amazon (AMZN) or Alibaba), selling geolocation information to local commerce (like Groupon (GRPN) is trying to morph into), or from getting a cut of electronic payments (like PayPal, or Square or Braintree is trying to do).

Of course, Facebook (and Tencent and Line and Alibaba, and others) is likely going to be seeking to expand into all these areas as well. And executing this type of strategy is going to require acquisitions (especially into payments). Twitter will be able to use its currency from its IPO to go after some of the bigger acquisitions on its menu. [Read: What U.S. Investors Should Do About Syria] The risks here are that it's very difficult for a traditional ad-based business to make the leap to become a transactions-based business. That's why eBay (EBAY) has stayed a commerce business and Yahoo! has stayed an ad-based business. For Twitter or any of these other social networks looking to be a "platform," their future success (or failure) will depend on them successfully being able to make this leap. Presumably, Twitter would take a long hard look at Square if they were going to go into the payments business. But there's one other critical success factor which will go into any of these future social network's success: big data. I've joked in the past that it's not really that helpful to me to see an ad for West Virginia singles when I log into Facebook. At the moment, we're still not seeing many targeted ads on any social network. These companies are just trying to make money any which way they can from mobile. But this will change dramatically over the next three years.

All of these social networks will become much more powerful at knowing who we are and where we are and making offers to us that will be much more targeted. An advertisers or sellers will pay up big time to get in front of such a targeted audience.

So, the final piece of the scenario in which Twitter outshines Facebook in three years from now in terms of market cap is if it turns out that Twitter knows not just a little but a lot more about its users than Facebook. If it turns out that the "interest graph" (i.e., what we care about) tells Twitter much more about its users than Facebook's "social graph," they should be able to monetize that much more powerfully. In this scenario, both advertisers and Wall Street will pay up for it big time.

I don't think it has to be either or though between Facebook and Twitter. Both will become much smarter about their users than they are today and share that with advertisers. Both will go after the additional revenue streams that I mentioned above. Both should be rewarded by investors and advertisers.

One thing is clear: The Twitter (or Facebook) we think we know today will be much smaller and more narrow compared to the Twitter (or Facebook) in three years from now. At the time of publication the author was long YHOO and GRPN. Follow @ericjackson This article was written by an independent contributor, separate from TheStreet's regular news coverage.

Eric Jackson is founder and Managing Member of Ironfire Capital and the general partner and investment manager of Ironfire Capital US Fund LP and Ironfire Capital International Fund, Ltd. In January 2007, Jackson started the world's first Internet-based campaign to increase shareholder value at Yahoo!, leading to a change in CEOs in 2007. He also spoke out in favor of Yahoo!'s accepting Microsoft's buyout offer in 2008. Global Proxy Watch named Jackson as one of its 10 "Stars" who positively influenced international corporate governance and shareowner value in 2007. Prior to founding Ironfire Capital, Jackson was President and CEO of Jackson Leadership Systems, Inc., a leadership, strategy, and governance consulting firm. He completed his Ph.D. in the Management Department at the Columbia University Graduate School of Business in New York, with a specialization in Strategic Management and Corporate Governance, and holds a B.A. from McGill University. He was previously Vice President of Strategy and Business Development at VoiceGenie Technologies, a software firm now owned by Alcatel-Lucent. In 2004, Jackson founded the Young Patrons' Circle at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto, which is now the second-largest social and philanthropic group of its kind in North America, raising $500,000 annually for the museum. You can follow Jackson on Twitter at www.twitter.com/ericjackson or @ericjackson. You can contact Eric by emailing him at Dr.eric.jackson@me.com.

Top 10 Asian Stocks To Buy Right Now

Top 10 Asian Stocks To Buy Right Now: Aberdeen Asset Management PLC (ABDNY)

Aberdeen Asset Management PLC is a global asset management company investing across the four main asset classes of equity, fixed income, property and alternative investment strategies. The Company operates in 23 countries. It has reorganized the Aberdeen Private Equity Fund, which is its private equity investment vehicle. The Company's business is the management of financial assets for third parties. Its key clients include national and corporate pension funds, central banks and other investment institutions. It is a property asset manager in Europe and manages assets in Europe, Asia and North America. Effective February 20, 2014, Aberdeen Asset Management PLC acquired The Capitol Shopping Centre. In May 2014, the Company acquired Scottish Widows Investment Partnership's Infrastructure fund management business. Also completed acquisition of Scottish Widows Partnership Group Ltd and its related private equity and infrastructure fund management businesses from Lloyds Banking Group plc. Advisors' Opinion:
  • [By John Udovich]

    The poorly conceived Scottish Independence vote has failed – something that could be good news for Scottish stocks like Royal Bank of Scotland Group plc (NYSE: RBS), Aberdeen Asset Management (OTCMKTS: ABDNY) and SSE PLC (OTCMKTS: SSEZY) that have well traded ADRs on US exchanges. To begin with, its worth mentioning the work done by Paul Marsh of London Business School and Scott Evans of Walbrook Economics where they identified 100 purely Scottish stocks currently listed in London and compared this with a parallel 'Rest of the UK' index over the last 60 years. They found that £1 invested in the Scotsie 100 in 1955 would have grown to £648 today (with dividends reinvested), a 5.7% increase in real (inflation-adjusted) terms. However, £1 invested in the rest of the UK would have gro! wn to £1,168, a 6.8% increase.

  • source from Top Stocks For 2015:http://www.topstocksblog.com/top-10-asian-stocks-to-buy-right-now-2.html

Thursday, July 9, 2015

Top 5 Consumer Stocks To Watch For 2016

Top 5 Consumer Stocks To Watch For 2016: Columbia Sportswear Company(COLM)

Columbia Sportswear Company, together with its subsidiaries, engages in the design, development, sourcing, marketing, and distribution of outdoor apparel, footwear, accessories, and equipment in the United States, Latin America, the Asia Pacific, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and Canada. It provides apparel, accessories, and equipment for men, women, and youth under Columbia and Mountain Hardwear brands used during outdoor activities, such as skiing, snowboarding, hiking, climbing, mountaineering, camping, hunting, fishing, trail running, water sports, and adventure travel. The company also offers footwear products, including lightweight hiking boots, trail running shoes, rugged cold weather boots, sandals, and casual shoes for men and women under Columbia, Sorel, and Montrail brands, as well as for youth under the Columbia and Sorel brands. Columbia Sportswear Company sells its products through wholesale distribution channels, independent distributors, direct-to-consum er channels, and licensees, as well as online to independent distributors and consumers. As of December 31, 2011, it operated 43 outlet retail stores and 8 branded retail stores in the United States; 7 outlet retail stores and 3 branded retail stores in various locations in western Europe; and 2 outlet retail stores in Canada, as well as 111 and 236 dealer-operated, branded, outlet, and shop-in-shop locations in Japan and Korea. Columbia Sportswear Company was founded in 1938 and is headquartered in Portland, Oregon.

Advisors' Opinion:
  • [By Grace L. Williams]

    With recent M&A in the yoga and athletic-wear space (such as Prana's acquisition by Columbia (COLM) and Lorna Jane now up for sale as per recent media reports), Lululemon’s geographical diversification efforts are timely given that the domestic competitive envi! ronment is certainly showing no signs of abating.

  • [By Will Ashworth]

    Summit Sports, a Michigan-based retailer of sporting goods, had this to say about the cold: "Our apparel sales are through the roof on Amazon … We've seen a 50% to 60% increase in sales on Amazon." According to Compete Inc., the average weekly traffic in January for seven big-time retailers of cold-weather gear increased by 22% year-over-year. Both Columbia Sportswear (COLM) and Timberland, part of VF Corp. (VFC), saw YOY increases of more than 40%.

  • source from Top Stocks For 2015:http://www.topstocksblog.com/top-5-consumer-stocks-to-watch-for-2016-3.html

5 Best Financial Stocks To Watch Right Now

With shares of Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) trading around $870, is GOOG 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�� Movement

Google is a global technology company focused on improving the ways people engage with information. The business is focused on the following areas: search, advertising, operating systems and platforms, and enterprise. The company generates revenue primarily by delivering online advertising. Google is a search giant with most of the market share, largely because of its execution and delivery. An increasing number of consumers and companies worldwide are coming online, which will surely increase the amount of eyes on the company�� ads and in turn, advertising revenue. At this rate, look for Google to remain on top of the Internet world.

Google funneled 8.8 billion euros ($12 billion) into Bermuda last year to avoid paying U.S. taxes. Google already keeps the cash from most of its international sales in the low-tax Ireland, but in Bermuda the tax rate is just 5 percent, half of what it is in Ireland. Google has been criticized for its tax practices in the past. According to a report from the Financial Times, which saw the latest filings of one of Google�� Dutch subsidiaries, Google�� royalty payments to Bermuda have doubled in the last three years.

10 Best Consumer Stocks To Invest In Right Now: Huntington Bancshares Incorporated(HBAN)

Huntington Bancshares Incorporated operates as the holding company for The Huntington National Bank that provides commercial, small business, and consumer banking services. The company?s Retail and Business Banking segment offers various financial products and services, including checking, savings, and money market accounts, certificates of deposit, consumer loans, and small business loans and leases; and investments, insurance, interest rate risk protection, foreign exchange hedging, and treasury management services to consumer and small business customers. Its Regional and Commercial Banking segment provides commercial lending; depository and liquidity management products; treasury management solutions; equipment and technology leasing; international services; and capital markets services, such as interest rate risk protection, foreign exchange hedging and sales, trading of securities, mezzanine investment capabilities, and employee benefit programs to government, not-f or-profit, health-care, and publicly traded entities. The company?s Automobile Finance and Commercial Real Estate segment offers financing for the purchase of automobiles, and new and used vehicle inventory by automotive dealerships; and financing for land, buildings, and other commercial real estate owned or constructed by real estate developers, automobile dealerships, or other customers. Its Wealth Advisors, Government Finance, and Home Lending segment provides investment management; investment servicing; custody, and corporate trust and retirement plan services; and administrative and operational support to fund to high net worth customers. It also offers online, mobile, and telephone banking services; and operates approximately 1,300 automated teller machines. As of December 31, 2011, the company had 652 branches located in Ohio, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Indiana, West Virginia, and Kentucky. Huntington Bancshares Incorporated was founded in 1866 and is headquartered in Columbus, Ohio.

Advisors' Opinion:
  • [By Tim Melvin]

    The year ahead should be a great one for the smaller bank stocks. Larger regionals like Huntington Bancorp (HBAN) and Capital Ban Financial (CBF) have made it clear they intend to grow by acquisition in the years ahead. Banks like First Merit (FMER) and First Merchants (FRME) have done deals in the past year and are open to doing more to increase their market share and footprints. This should be the year the floodgates open and we see the first wave of merger activity in small banks.

  • [By David Hanson]

    However, some regional banks are posting more impressive numbers and flying under the radar. In this video, Motley Fool banking analyst David Hanson discusses recent results from PNC Financials Services (NYSE: PNC  ) , KeyCorp (NYSE: KEY  ) , and Huntington Bancshares (NASDAQ: HBAN  ) .

5 Best Financial Stocks To Watch Right Now: ING Risk Managed Natural Resources Fund (IRR)

ING Risk Managed Natural Resources Fund the (Fund) is a non- diversified, closed-end management investment company. The Fund�� investment objective is total return through a combination of current income, capital gains and capital appreciation. The Fund will seek to achieve its investment objective by investing in a portfolio of equity securities of companies in the energy and natural resources industries. ING Investments, LLC is the Fund�� investment adviser.

The Fund seeks to achieve its investment objective by investing at least 80% of its managed assets in the equity securities of, or derivatives linked to the equity securities of companies that are primarily engaged in owning or developing energy, other natural resources and basic materials, or supplying goods and services to such companies (Natural Resources Companies). Equity securities held by the Fund could include common stocks, preferred shares, convertible securities, warrants and depository receipts.

The Fund�� top 10 holdings include ExxonMobil Corp., Chevron Corp., ConocoPhillips, Schlumberger Ltd., Occidental Petroleum Corp., Marathon Oil Corp., Valero Energy Corp., Hess Corp., XTO Energy, Inc. and EI DuPont de Nemours & Co.

Advisors' Opinion:
  • [By Value Digger]

    Manitok's total cost per Well (Drill, Case, Complete, Equip & Tie) is about $5.5 million. With average reserves per well ranging from 300 to 850 MMboe, the average payout is about 1.5 years and the peak Internal Rate of Return (IRR) reaches even 150% in some of the most productive properties of the company. Considering the company's balanced production mix, the average operating netback for 2013 is strong and hovers at approximately $33/boe.

5 Best Financial Stocks To Watch Right Now: Spdr Dj Wilshire Small Cap Etf (SLY)

SPDR DJ Wilshire Small Cap ETF (the Fund), formerly streetTRACKS DJ Wilshire Small Cap ETF, seeks to replicate as closely as possible the total return of the Dow Jones Wilshire Small Cap Index (the Index). The Index is a float-adjusted market capitalization weighted index that reflects the shares of securities of the small-cap portion of the Dow Jones Wilshire 5000 Composite Index actually available to investors in the marketplace. The Index includes the components ranked 751 to 2,500 by full market capitalization. The Index consists of common stocks selected for their capitalization. The composition of the Index is reviewed semiannually in March and December. Shares and float factors of the Index are updated on a quarterly basis.

The Fund utilizes a passive or indexing approach and attempts to approximate the investment performance of its Index, by investing in a portfolio of stocks intended to replicate the Index. The Fund�� investment manager is SSgA Funds Management, Inc.

Advisors' Opinion:
  • [By Will Ashworth]

    By the time the dust settled in 2013, small caps won the day (well, year) — the SPDR S&P SmallCap 600 (SLY) had outperformed the SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY) by almost 9 percentage points.

  • [By Dan Caplinger]

    Where the best gains are
    In fact, when you compare returns across stocks of various sizes, you'll get some surprising results:

    The SPDR S&P 500 ETF (NYSEMKT: SPY  ) weighs in with 20% gains with its exposure to 500 of the largest companies in the U.S. market. When you step down to mid-cap stocks, though, you'll get even better returns, with the SPDR S&P MidCap 400 ETF (NYSEMKT: MDY  ) posting returns of 21% so far in 2013, based on the performance of 400 mid-sized companies domestically. The smallest companies in the market have done better still, as the SPDR S&P SmallCap 600 ETF (NYSEMKT: SLY  ) has given investors impressive 24% returns since Jan. 1.

    Why are smaller companies outperforming the largest stocks in the market? Historically, smaller stocks have posted better long-term returns than their larger counterparts, with theoreticians pointing to the greater risk involved in small-cap stocks as justifying the higher risk premium that investors should demand in order to hold them over the long run.

5 Best Financial Stocks To Watch Right Now: Anthem Inc (ANTM)

Anthem, Inc., formerly WellPoint, Inc. (WellPoint), incorporated on July 17, 2001, is a health benefit company. The Company manages its operations through three segments: Commercial, Consumer, and Other. The Company is an independent licensee of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association (BCBSA), an association of independent health benefit plans. The Company offers a spectrum of network-based managed care plans to the large and small employer, individual, Medicaid and senior markets. Its managed care plans include preferred provider organizations (PPOs); health maintenance organizations (HMOs); point-of-service plans (POS) plans; traditional indemnity plans and other hybrid plans, including consumer-driven health plans (CDHPs); and hospital only and limited benefit products.

The Company serves its members as the Blue Cross licensee for California and as the Blue Cross and Blue Shield (BCBS), licensee for Colorado, Connecticut, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Maine, Missouri (excluding 30 counties in the Kansas City area), Nevada, New Hampshire, New York (as BCBS in 10 New York city metropolitan and surrounding counties, and as Blue Cross or BCBS in selected upstate counties only), Ohio, Virginia (excluding the Northern Virginia suburbs of Washington, District of Columbia), and Wisconsin. The Company does business as Anthem Blue Cross, Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Georgia, Empire Blue Cross Blue Shield, or Empire Blue Cross (in its New York service areas). The Company also serves customers throughout the country as UniCare and in certain California, Arizona and Nevada markets.

The Company provides an array of managed care services to self-funded customers, including claims processing, underwriting, stop loss insurance, actuarial services, provider network access, medical cost management, disease management, wellness programs and other administrative services. The Company also provides an array of specialty products and services including life a! nd disability insurance benefits, dental, vision, behavioral health benefit services, radiology benefit management, analytics-driven personal health care guidance and long-term care insurance. The Company provides services to the Federal Government in connection with the Federal Employee Program (FEP), and various Medicare programs.

The Company�� Commercial and Consumer segments both offers a diversified mix of managed care products, including PPOs, HMOs, traditional indemnity benefits and POS plans, as well as a variety of hybrid benefit plans including CDHPs, hospital only and limited benefit products. Its Commercial segment includes Local Group (including UniCare), National Accounts and certain other ancillary business operations (dental, vision, life and disability and workers��compensation). Business units in the Commercial segment offer fully-insured products and provide an array of managed care services to self-funded customers, including claims processing, underwriting, stop loss insurance, actuarial services, provider network access, medical cost management, disease management, wellness programs and other administrative services.

The Company�� Consumer segment includes senior, state-sponsored and individual businesses. Its senior business includes services, such as Medicare Advantage (including private fee-for-service plans and special needs plans), Medicare Part D, and Medicare Supplement, while its State-Sponsored business includes its managed care alternatives for Medicaid and State Children�� Health Insurance Plan programs. Individual business includes individual customers under age 65 and their covered dependents. Its Other segment includes the Comprehensive Health Solutions business unit (CHS). Its Other segment also includes results from its Federal Government Solutions (FGS), business. FGS business includes FEP and National Government Services, Inc. (NGS), which acts as a Medicare contractor in several regions across the nation.

Preferred P! rovider O! rganization products offer the member an option to select any health care provider, with benefits reimbursed by the Company at a higher level when care is received from a participating network provider. Consumer-Driven Health Plans (CDHPs) provide consumers with increased financial responsibility, choice and control regarding how their health care dollars are spent. Indemnity products offer the member an option to select any health care provider for covered services. Health Maintenance Organization (HMO) products include managed care benefits, generally through a participating network of physicians, hospitals and other providers. Point-of-Service (POS) products blend the characteristics of HMO, PPO and indemnity plans.

The Company provides administrative services to large group employers that maintain self-funded health plans. These administrative services include underwriting, actuarial services, medical management, claims processing and other administrative services for self-funded employers. Self-funded health plans are also able to use its provider networks and to realize savings through its negotiated provider arrangements, while allowing employers the ability to design certain health benefit plans in accordance with their own requirements and objectives. The Company also underwrites stop loss insurance for self-funded plans.

BlueCard host members are generally members who reside in or travel to a state in which a WellPoint subsidiary is the Blue Cross and/or Blue Shield licensee and who are covered under an employer sponsored health plan serviced by a non-WellPoint controlled BCBS licensee, who is the home plan. The Company performs certain administrative functions for BlueCard host members, for which it receives administrative fees from the BlueCard members��home plans. Other administrative functions, including maintenance of enrollment information and customer service, are performed by the home plan. The Company offers a variety of senior plans, products and options, ! such as M! edicare supplement plans, Medicare Advantage (including private fee-for-service plans and special needs plans) and Medicare Part D Prescription Drug Plans (Medicare Part D). Medicare Advantage plans provide Medicare beneficiaries with a managed care alternative to traditional Medicare and often include a Medicare Part D benefit. In addition, its Medicare Advantage special needs plans provide Medicare beneficiaries who have chronic diseases and conditions with tailored benefits designed to meet their needs. Medicare Part D offers a prescription drug plan to Medicare and dual eligible (Medicare and Medicaid) beneficiaries. The Company offers these plans to customers through its health benefit subsidiaries throughout the country, including CareMore.

The Company offers a range of health insurance plans with a variety of options and deductibles for individuals under age 65 who are not covered by employer-sponsored coverage. Some of its products target certain demographic populations, such as uninsured younger individuals between the ages of 19 and 29, families and those transitioning between jobs or early retirees. The Company has contracts to serve members enrolled in Medicaid, State Children�� Health Insurance programs and other publicly funded health care programs for low income and/or high medical risk individuals. The Company provides services in California, Indiana, Kansas, Massachusetts, New York, South Carolina, Texas, Virginia, West Virginia and Wisconsin. It markets and sells an integrated prescription drug product to both fully-insured and self-funded customers through its health benefit subsidiaries throughout the country. The product includes features, such as drug formularies, a pharmacy network and maintenance of a prescription drug database and mail order capabilities. The Company has delegated certain functions and administrative services related to its integrated prescription drug products to Express Scripts, under a 10 year contract. Express Scripts manages the network of ph! armacy pr! oviders, operates mail order pharmacies and processes prescription drug claims on its behalf, while it sells and support the product for clients, make formulary decisions and set drug benefit design strategy and provide front line member support.

The life products include term life and accidental death and dismemberment. The Company offers short-term and long-term disability programs, usually in conjunction with its health plans. The Company offers specialized behavioral health plans and benefits management. These plans cover mental health and substance abuse treatment services on both an inpatient and an outpatient basis. The Company offers outpatient diagnostic imaging management services to health plans. These services include utilization management for advanced diagnostic imaging procedures, network development and optimization, patient safety, claims adjudication and provider payment. The Company offers evidence based and analytics-driven personal health care guidance.

The Company�� dental plans include networks in certain states in which it operates. Many of the dental benefits are provided to customers enrolled in its health plans and are offered on both a fully-insured and self-funded basis. Its members also have access to additional dental providers through its participation in the National Dental GRID, a national dental network developed by and for BCBS plans. Additionally, the Company offers managed dental services to other health care plans to assist those other health care plans in providing dental benefits to their customers. Its vision plans include networks within the states where the Company operates. Many of the vision benefits are provided to customers enrolled in its health plans and are offered on both a fully-insured and self-funded basis.

The Company offers long-term care insurance products to its California members through a subsidiary. The long-term care products include tax-qualified and non-tax qualified versions of a skilled nursing home care! plan and! comprehensive policies covering skilled, intermediate and custodial long-term care and home health services. Through its subsidiary, NGS, the Company serves as a fiscal intermediary, carrier and Medicare administrative contractor providing administrative services for the Medicare program, which generally provides coverage for persons who are 65 or older and for persons who are disabled or with end-stage renal disease. Part A of the Medicare program provides coverage for services provided by hospitals, skilled nursing facilities and other health care facilities. Part B of the Medicare program provides coverage for services provided by physicians, physical and occupational therapists and other professional providers, as well as certain durable medical equipment and medical supplies.

Advisors' Opinion:
  • [By Sean Williams]

    This is extremely important for Anthem (NYSE: ANTM  ) (formerly WellPoint) which was the big Obamacare enrollment winner last year and has banked its success on courting Medicaid expansion enrollees as well. California's strong Medi-Cal enrollment so far is encouraging, but I'd reserve judgment until Anthem's fourth-quarter earnings report.