Top Japanese Stocks To Buy For 2014

Wireless industry investors are likely transfixed by Sprint Nextel's (NYSE: S  ) current limbo regarding acquisitions and suitors. Beyond overt headlines, Sprint has a covert secret that makes its business more interesting for the long term -- and even transformative for the wireless industry at large. Given this factor, I wish I could put Sprint on the watchlist for the real-money Prosocial Portfolio I'm managing for Fool.com.

However, I am paying attention to this stock, but I just can't buy. Here's why.

Headline drama
Who will acquire Sprint has been making major headlines this week. Japan's SoftBank made a $20.1 billion offer for the wireless company, but DISH Network (NASDAQ: DISH  ) made an unsolicited $25.5 billion offer.

DISH has criticized the SoftBank deal, floating the argument that if the Japanese company buys Sprint, it could open the U.S. up to security issues, such as Chinese cyberattacks.

Regardless, this week a U.S. security committee cleared the SoftBank deal despite the hysteria. Meanwhile, Clearwire (NASDAQ: CLWR  ) , a provider of 4G services, has postponed its shareholder vote regarding Sprint's overture to buy its remaining stake for $3.40 per share, citing DISH Networks' bid to buy it for $4.40 per share.

Top Companies To Own For 2015: Hutchinson Technology Inc (HTCH)

Hutchinson Technology Incorporated (HTI), incorporated on October 29, 1965, is a global technology manufacturer. The Company is a supplier of suspension assemblies for hard disk drives. The Company operates in two segments: the Disk Drive Components Division and the BioMeasurement Division. The Company manufactures suspension assemblies for all sizes and types of hard disk drives. Suspension assemblies are components of disk drives that hold the read/write heads in position above the spinning magnetic disks.

The Company categorize its products as either suspension assemblies or other revenue, which consists primarily of revenue outside of the disk drive industry for precision component manufacturing, tool design, tool build and metrology, suspension assembly components, reimbursement for disk drive industry-related engineering services and specific disk drive program capacity and biomeasurement products. During the year ended September 29, 2013, the Company shipped 404 million suspension assemblies of all types, supplying all manufacturers of disk drives and head-gimbal assemblers.

The Company competes with Nihon Hatsujo Kabusikigaisha, Magnecomp Precision Technology Public Company Limited, NAT Peripheral (H.K.) Co., Ltd., Nitto Denko Corporation and Dai Nippon Corporation.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Roberto Pedone]

  Another under-$10 electronic component player that's starting to move within range of triggering a big breakout trade is Hutchinson Technology (HTCH), which is a technology manufacturer that creates value by developing solutions to critical customer problems. This stock has been on fire during 2013, with shares up a whopping 75%.

  If you take a look at the chart for Hutchinson Technology, you'll notice that this stock has been finding significant buying interest over the last two months, whenever it has pulled back to around $3.30 to $3.20 a share. This pattern could be signaling that shares of HTCH are forming a major bottoming chart pattern if those levels can hold as support. Shares of HTCH are now starting to flirt with its 50-day moving average at $3.56 a share. That move is starting to push the stock within range of triggering a big breakout trade above a key downtrend line.

  Market players should now look for long-biased trades in HTCH if it manages to break out above its 200-day moving average of $3.65 a share and then once it clears more overhead resistance levels at $3.89 to $4.13 a share with high volume. Look for a sustained move or close above those levels with volume that registers near or above its three-month average volume of 392,134 shares. If that breakout triggers soon, then HTCH will set up to re-test or possibly take out its next major overhead resistance levels at $4.75 to $5.50 a share, or even $6 a share.

  Traders can look to buy HTCH off any weakness to anticipate that breakout and simply use a stop that sits right below some key near-term support levels at $3.37 or at $3.17 a share. One can also buy HTCH off strength once it clears those breakout levels with volume and then simply use a stop that sits a comfortable percentage from your entry point.

Top Japanese Stocks To Buy For 2014: Twitter (TWTR)

Instantly connect to what's most important to you. Follow your friends, experts, favorite celebrities, and breaking news. TechCrunch is a leading technology media property, dedicated to obsessively profiling startups, reviewing new Internet products, and breaking ... Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Jesse Solomon]

  Another tech darling for some hedge funds was Twitter (TWTR), which went public last November. However, ownership was concentrated mainly in two funds, Lansdowne Partners, and Gilder, Gagnon, Howe & Co. The stock is still up sharply from its IPO price, but it has pulled back in recent weeks following its first earnings report.

• [By Matt Egan]

  Twitter (TWTR) soared almost 5% during regular trading, but that rally may have been premature. After the bell, the micro blogging company retreated 7% on disappointing guidance. The cautious outlook overshadowed stronger than expected adjusted earnings and revenue.

• [By Benjamin Pimentel]

  Shares of Twitter (TWTR) �were also up 4.4% to close at $60.01. Apple Inc. (AAPL) � gained 1% to close at $549.02, giving the Nasdaq Composite Index (COMP) �a lift. The benchmark rose 1.2% to close at 4,105 on Friday, and ended the week with a 2.6% gain. Apple also posted its first stock gain in four days.

• [By DAILYFINANCE]

  Noah Berger/Bloomberg via Getty ImagesApple CEO Tim Cook NEW YORK -- Apple has repurchased $14 billion of its stock in the two weeks after its first-quarter financial results and second-quarter revenue outlook disappointed investors. Apple (AAPL) shares rose 1.4 percent Friday. The company bought $12 billion of the shares through an accelerated repurchase program and $2 billion on the open market, the company confirmed. Late Thursday Apple CEO Tim Cook said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal that the company was "surprised" when its stock dropped 8 percent the day after its earnings report and revenue outlook. He told the newspaper he wanted to be "aggressive" and "opportunistic." Apple has grown accustomed to being a leader in the technology sector. In the Steve Jobs era, consumers and investors alike eagerly awaited each new product announcement and have been rewarded as devices like the iPhone and iPad won accolades for innovation and pushing technology forward. But with each new innovation over the years, there have been increasingly higher expectations for the future. So when Apple's first-quarter iPad and iPhone sales weren't as big as expected by investors, and its second-quarter revenue forecast fell short of Wall Street's view, the stock got dinged. In the past year Apple's shares have started losing some ground due to concerns about slowing growth and increasing competition. And with the smartphone market becoming inundated with options, Apple may be hard pressed to lift its stock back to where it stood at its peak price of more than $700 in September 2012. That was before investors began to fret about fiercer competition in mobile devices and Apple's lack of a breakthrough product since the iPad came out nearly four years ago. But Apple isn't sitting idle. Its $14 billion stock buyback signals the company remains confident in its business. This is good news for investors, including Carl Icahn. The billionaire activist investor ha

Top Japanese Stocks To Buy For 2014: Agree Realty Corp (ADC)

Agree Realty Corporation, incorporated in December 1993, is a self-administered and self-managed real estate investment trust (REIT). The Company�� operations are conducted through, directly or indirectly, Agree Limited Partnership (Operating Partnership), of which the Company is the sole general partner, and in which it 96.59% interest as of December 31, 2011. The Company is focused primarily on the ownership, development, acquisition and management of retail properties net leased to national tenants. It specializes in acquiring and developing single tenant net leased retail properties for industry retail tenants. As of December 31, 2011, approximately 96% of its annualized base rent was derived from national tenants and regional tenants. At December 31, 2011, its portfolio consisted of 87 properties, located in 21 states containing an aggregate of approximately 3.6 million square feet of gross leasable area (GLA). At December 31, 2011, its portfolio included 75 freestanding single tenant net leased properties and 12 community shopping centers that were 92.7% leased. All of its freestanding property tenants and the majority of its community shopping center tenants have triple-net leases, which require the tenant to be responsible for property operating expenses, including property taxes, insurance and maintenance. In December 2012, the Company acquired LA Fitness and an AutoZone. In January 2013, the Company acquired 317 South State Street for redevelopment. In December 2012, the Company acquired a portfolio of four Applebee's restaurants, as well as an Advance Auto Parts. In Jnauary 2013, the Company sold Walgreens on Michigan Avenue in Ypsilanti , Michigan. In January 2013, it acquired Dick's Sporting Goods and Petsmart in St. Joseph, Missouri. In March 2013, it acquired three single tenant assets leased to retailers. In May 2013, the Company acquired two single tenant assets leased to Petsmart and Starbucks. In June 2013, Agree Realty Corp announced that it has acquired two single tenant assets ! leased to Wal-Mart Stores and AutoZone. In August 2013, Agree Realty Corporation acquired four single tenant assets leased to industry retailers. In September 2013, Agree Realty Corporation acquired an 112,230 square foot BJ's Wholesale Club located on Airport Road South in Allentown, Pennsylvania. In November 2013, Agree Realty Corp acquired two assets net leased to The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company and Mattress Firm, Inc. In January 2014, the Company acquired Cannon Station in Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia. In February 2014, the Company announced the acquisition of two net lease properties and sale of Ironwood Commons shopping center.

In January 2011, the Company acquired a retail property net leased to AT&T located at the northwest corner of New Centre Drive and South College Road in Wilmington, North Carolina. In October 2011, it acquired a retail property leased on a long-term basis to Kohl's Department Stores, Inc. in Salt Lake City, Utah. In December 2011, the Company acquired Wawa convenience store and fuel station in Baltimore, Maryland, as well as a Walgreens pharmacy in Fort Walton Beach, Florida, and a CVS pharmacy in Leawood, Kansas. In May 2012, the Company acquired a 133,000 square foot retail property ground leased to Lowe's Home Improvement in Portland, Oregon. In June 2012, the Company sold the Charlevoix Commons shopping center in Charlevoix. In June 2012, the Company acquired a store leased to Dollar General Market in Cochran, Georgia, as well as the fee interest in the land underlying its Walgreens store in Ann Arbor, Michigan. In July 2012, the Company acquired a portfolio of three Wawa convenience and fuel stores. The stores are located in Clifton Heights, Pennsylvania, Newark, Delaware and Vineland, New Jersey and are master leased by Wawa. In July 2012, it acquired auto service store in Fort Mill, South Carolina leased to Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company. In August 2012, the Company closed on the acquisition of a parcel of land in Pinellas County, Florida. In August 2012,! the Comp! any sold Plymouth Commons shopping center and the Shawano Plaza shopping center. In September 2012, it acquired a Family Dollar store in Spartanburg, South Carolina, a USAA Financial Services Center in Jacksonville, North Carolina and an AutoZone store in Springfield, Illinois. In September 2012, it disposed its remaining assets that were formerly leased to Borders. In September 2012, the Company acquired a a parcel of land in Casselberry, Florida for the development of gas and convenience retailing. In November 2012, the Company acquired a Harris Teeter supermarket in Charlotte, North Carolina. In November 2012, the Company acquired a Big Lots store and a Dollar General Market.

Freestanding Properties

At December 31, 2011, the Company's 75 operating freestanding properties were leased to Walgreens (30), Rite Aid (7), CVS (6), Kmart (2), JP Morgan Chase (3), Los Tres Amigos (1), Dick�� Sporting Goods (1), Lake Lansing RA Associates, LLC (1), Meijer (1), Wal-Mart (Sam�� Club) (1), Kohl�� (2), PNC Bank (1), Lowe�� (1), Off Broadway Shoes (1), Wawa (1), Simply Amish (1), Advance Auto (1), Aldi (1), Natural Grocers (1), AT&T (1), TBC Tire stores (2), Books-A-Million (1), and vacant (8). Its freestanding properties provided $23,953,036, or approximately 70.4%, of its annualized base rent as of December 31, 2011, at an average base rent per square foot of $14.10. These properties contain, in the aggregate, 1,697,953 square feet of GLA or approximately 48% of its total GLA as of December 31, 2011. Of its 75 operating freestanding properties, 47 were developed by the Company. Its freestanding properties had a weighted average remaining lease term of 14.8 years as of December 31, 2011. The Company�� freestanding properties range in size from range in size from 3,215 to 170,393 square feet of GLA and are located in Arizona (one), California (one), Connecticut (one), Florida (one), Georgia (two), Illinois (four), Indiana (two), Kansas (four), Maryland (three), Michigan (36), Neb! raska (tw! o), New Jersey (one), New York (two), North Carolina (two), Ohio (two), Oklahoma (one), Pennsylvania (one), Texas (one), and Utah (one).

Community Shopping Centers

The Company�� 12 community shopping centers range in size from 20,000 to 241,458 square feet of GLA. The community shopping centers are located in five states: Florida (one), Illinois (one), Kentucky (one), Michigan (six) and Wisconsin (three). The Company�� community shopping centers are located in high traffic centers, in which customers of its tenants purchase day-to-day necessities. The Company�� community shopping centers are anchored by national tenants.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Brad Thomas]

  In the Triple-Net classroom, I consider Agree Realty (ADC) to be a "terrific kid." Like my younger bambino, Agree does not set any big records but they always show up ready to perform the best, every day.

• [By Eric Volkman]

  The position vacated by Salix in the S&P SmallCap 600 will be filled by Agree Realty (NYSE: ADC  ) . Elsewhere on that index, DXP Enterprises (NASDAQ: DXPE  ) �will replace True Religion Apparel (NASDAQ: TRLG  ) . As with Gardner Denver in the S&P MidCap 400, True Religion Apparel is being acquired, in this case by private equity firm TowerBrook Capital Partners.

• [By Eric Volkman]

  Agree Realty (NYSE: ADC  ) this week declared a second-quarter distribution of $0.41 per share to be paid on July 9 to shareholders of record as of June 28.

• [By shash63]

  Under this expanded alliance, Citrix will deliver its ADC technology 'NetScaler' to Cisco. NetScaler is a device that provides load balancing across multiple computer networks. In addition, this alliance recently released the next-generation of NetScaler called Netscaler10. NetScaler 10, its next-generation application delivery controller (ADC) that is the company's answer for bringing dynamic elasticity to the network. NetScaler 10 has automatic failure identification and management, which means that if there is a failure, NetScaler will identify it and automatically switch workloads to another ADC.

Top Japanese Stocks To Buy For 2014: Accenture plc. (ACN)

Accenture plc provides management consulting, technology, and business process outsourcing services worldwide. It offers various management consulting services in the areas of finance and enterprise performance, operations, risk management, sales and customer service, strategy, sustainability, and talent and organization management, as well as provides industry-specific management consulting services. The company also offers system integration consulting services and solutions, including enterprise solutions and enterprise resource planning, industry and functional solutions, information management services, custom solutions, and Microsoft solutions; and technology consulting services and solutions comprising information technology (IT) strategy, infrastructure consulting, IT security consulting, and application modernization and optimization. In addition, it provides technology outsourcing services, which include application outsourcing services; infrastructure outsourcin g services in service desk, workplace, data-center, network, security, and IT spend management service areas; cloud computing services; and mobility and embedded software services. Further, the company provides business process outsourcing (BPO) services for business functions and/or processes, including finance and accounting, human resources, learning and procurement, and others, as well as industry-specific BPO services, such as credit services. It serves communications, electronics and high technology, media and entertainment, banking, capital markets, insurance, health, public service, airlines, freight and logistics, automotive, consumer goods and service, industrial equipment, infrastructure and transportation service, life sciences, retail, chemical, energy, natural resources, and utility industries. Accenture plc has a strategic collaboration with Marriott International, Inc. The company was founded in 1995 and is based in Dublin, Ireland.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Reuters]

  U.S. Department of Health and Human Services/AP WASHINGTON -- The federal government will end its contract with CGI Federal for the error-plagued HealthCare.gov website, instead signing a contract with Accenture, The Washington Post reported Friday in its online edition. U.S.-listed shares of CGI Group (GIB), the parent of CGI Federal, were down 3.5 percent at $31.36 in late trading on the New York Stock Exchange. HealthCare.gov's technology failures in the weeks after its Oct. 1 launch created a political crisis for President Barack Obama, threatening the rollout of his signature health care law to consumers and emboldening its foes among Republican lawmakers to call for its delay. CGI has been immersed in the effort to repair the site, which began working more smoothly for hundreds of thousands of consumers in December, allowing them to enroll in new health insurance plans offered under Obama's Affordable Care Act. But the government's dissatisfaction over the website's early crash, as well as aspects of the site that still do not work, are behind plans to sign a one-year contract with Accenture (ACN) instead, the Post report said, quoting a person familiar with the matter. CGI's current contract for the work ends in late February, and the new 12-month agreement with Accenture is valued at about $90 million, the Post said. In an emailed statement, an Accenture spokesman said, "We are in discussions with clients and prospective clients all the time -- but it is not appropriate to discuss new business opportunities we may or may not be pursuing." Officials at CGI weren't immediately available for comment. The Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the government agency overseeing the health-reform law's rollout, wouldn't confirm or deny that it planned to end its contract with CGI. "We are working with our contract partners to make a mutually agreed upon transition to ensure that HealthCare.gov continues to operate smoothly for consumers," a CMS s

• [By Jake L'Ecuyer]

  ICG Group (NASDAQ: ICGE) was also up, gaining 9.77 percent to $15.39 after the company announced the sale of Procurian to Accenture plc (NYSE: ACN) for $375 million in cash.

• [By Laura Brodbeck]

  Thursday

  Earnings Expected From: Accenture plc. (NYSE: ACN), Pier 1 Imports, Inc. (NYSE: PIR), ConAgra Foods, Inc. (NYSE: CAG), Rite Aid Corporation (NYSE: RAD), Nike, Inc. (NYSE: NKE), Red Hat, Inc. (NYSE: RHT) Economic Releases Expected: British consumer confidence, US existing home sales, British retail sales, British mortgage approvals, eurozone current account, Swiss trade balance.

  Friday

• [By Julianne Pepitone]

  The pure-tech focus differs from other tech stock barometers. The Nasdaq, for example, is often cited as a "tech index" but only 42% of the composite is made up of tech companies. The S&P 500 Information Technology index includes several stocks that aren't typically considered at the cutting edge of tech, such as MasterCard (MA, Fortune 500), money transfer service Western Union (WU, Fortune 500) and consulting firm Accenture (ACN).