Top 5 Railroad Companies To Own In Right Now

Should you wait to see if the winners from 2013 continue to thrive in 2014, or should you take the profits and invest somewhere else? MoneyShow's Jim Jubak thinks a bit of both might be the right answer.

In the video below, Jim Jubak discusses some of the top stocks that MoneyShow's experts have picked for the upcoming year.

These stock picks, which outperformed in 2013, may do just the same this year. For instance, Canadian stock expert Gordon Pape, editor of Internet Wealth Builder, has his eye on the following stock:

No one is even remotely close to the 59.8% operating ratio of CN Rail (CNI), the most accomplished railroad in Canada and the United States. From oil and grains, to cars and trucks, it seems like this company ships just about everything. Perhaps that is precisely why Jim Jubak agrees with Gordon Pape's 2014 Top Stock Pick and predicts that ongoing productivity in 2014 might propel CN Rail stock up another 20%.

Another expert who believes that Canadian National Railway is poised for a great 2014 fiscal year is Microsoft founder (and billionaire) Bill Gates, who owns a $5 billion block of this business.

Top 5 Railroad Companies To Own In Right Now: BankFinancial Corporation(BFIN)

BankFinancial Corporation operates as the holding company for BankFinancial, F.S.B., which provides commercial, family, and personal banking services in Illinois. It accepts deposit accounts, such as savings accounts, NOW accounts, checking accounts, money market accounts, certificates of deposit, and IRAs and other qualified plan accounts. The company?s loan portfolio consists of investment and business loans, including multi-family, nonresidential real estate, commercial, construction and land loans, and commercial leases, as well as one-to-four family residential mortgage loans comprising home equity loans, lines of credit, and other second mortgage loans. It also provides financial products and services consisting of cash management, funds transfers, bill payment and other online banking transactions, automated teller machines, safe deposit boxes, wealth management, and general insurance agency services. In addition, the company offers investment, financial planning, and other wealth management services; and sells life insurance, fixed annuities, property and casualty insurance, and other insurance products on an agency basis. It provides its products and services through banking offices and an Internet Branch. As of December 31, 2009, it operated 18 full-service banking offices and 3 express branch facilities in Cook, DuPage, Lake, and Will Counties, Illinois. The company was founded in 1924 and is headquartered in Burr Ridge, Illinois.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Tim Melvin]

  Thompson says the firm likes Bank Financial (BFIN) right now. The bank is in the lucrative Chicago market that has seen a lot of consolidation in the past year. The bank has 20 branches in fairly desirable locations and must be on the target list of anyone looking to expand into Chicago.

Top 5 Railroad Companies To Own In Right Now: Danieli & C Officine Meccaniche SpA (DAS)

Danieli & C Officine Meccaniche SpA is an Italy-based company primarily engaged in industrial sector. The Company designs, manufactures, sales and makes installation of machines and plants for the metallurgical industry. The Company's portfolio includes mines; pellet production plants; blast furnaces; direct reduction equipment; machinery for the treatment of scrap metal; steelworks for production of liquid steel; continuous casting machinery for blooms, billets and slabs; rolling mills for long products, seamless tubes and flat products; production lines for welded tubes and flat products; plants for secondary processing, such as peeling, rolling and drawing; forging presses and manipulators; extrusion presses for ferrous and non-ferrous metals; plants for longitudinal and transversal cutting; automation and control systems, and cranes and lifting equipment. It is also active in the production and sale of special steel for automotive, machine tools and railway industry, among others. Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Damian Illia]

  Crown Castle has acquired recently the privately held company NextG Networks Inc., largest provider of outdoor Distributed Antenna Systems (DAS), with more than 7,000 DAS plus another 1,500 nodes in the pipeline, and over 4,600 miles fiber-optic cable�� transmission rights. Through this addition, the company has improved greatly its DAS network across 26 United States metropolitan areas. As NextG has only 1.7 tenants per network on an average and thus underutilizing its capacity, Crown Castle will increase customers with no integration and rearrangement costs. Another company�� big move was the acquisition of 9,700 wireless towers from AT&T Inc. (T) Located in the top 100 markets in the U. S. T-Mobile is likely to maintain its infrastructure in these towers for the next 10 years. On top of all, the recent conversion of business into a REIT has represented long term benefits for the company in terms of tax savings and enhancing shareholders��wealth.

Hot Gold Stocks For 2015: Bendigo and Adelaide Bank Ltd (BXRBF)

Bendigo and Adelaide Bank Limited (the Bank) is engaged in the range of banking and other financial services, including retail banking, mortgage distribution through third-parties, business lending, margin lending, business banking and commercial finance, invoice discounting, funds management, treasury and foreign exchange services (including trade finance), superannuation, financial advisory and trustee services. In retail banking it derives income from the provision of first mortgage finance less interest paid to depositors; and fee income from the provision of banking services delivered through the Company-owned branch network and the interest and fee income from the Community Bank branch network. In third party banking it derives income and fees from the manufacture and processing of residential home loans. Advisors' Opinion:

• [By MARKETWATCH]

  LOS ANGELES (MarketWatch) -- Australia stocks enjoyed early Monday gains after an advance for commodities and U.S. stocks since the last session, with a relatively good reception for earnings. The S&P/ASX 200 (AU:XJO) improved by 0.4% to 5,376.30, with miners tracking gains in gold and copper. Rio Tinto Ltd. (AU:RIO) (RIO) added 1.3%, and Fortescue Metals Group Ltd. (AU:FMG) (FSUMF) traded 1.1% higher, while gold miners Newcrest Mining Ltd. (AU:NCM) (NCMGF) and Kingsgate Consolidated Ltd. (AU:KCN) (KSKGF) rallied 2.2% and 4.7%, respectively. Banks rose after Wall Street shares climbed on Friday, with National Australia Bank Ltd. (AU:NAB) (NAUBF) up 1% and Australia & New Zealand Banking Group (AU:ANZ) (ANEWF) adding 0.9%, though Commonwealth Bank of Australia (AU:CBA) (CBAUF) dropped 2.4% as it traded without rights to its latest dividend. Coal transport firm Aurizon Holdings Ltd. (AU:AZJ) (QRNNF) tacked on 2.1% as its fiscal first-half underlying profit increased 18%, though net profit f

Top 5 Railroad Companies To Own In Right Now: Genomic Health Inc (GHDX)

Genomic Health, Inc. (Genomic Health), incorporated in August 2000, is a molecular diagnostics company focused on the global development and commercialization of genomic-based clinical laboratory services that analyze the underlying biology of cancer allowing physicians and patients to make individualized treatment decisions. Its Oncotype DX platform utilizes quantitative genomic analysis known as reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), in standard tumor pathology specimens to provide tumor-specific information, or the oncotype of a tumor. As of February 2012, Oncotype DX was evaluated in invasive breast cancer in 13 clinical studies involving more than 4,000 breast cancer patients worldwide. Genomic Health offers its Oncotype DX tests as a clinical service, where it analyzes the expression levels of genes in tumor tissue samples and provide physicians with a quantitative gene expression profile expressed as a single quantitative score, which it calls a Recurrence Score, for invasive breast cancer and colon cancer and a DCIS Score for DCIS. Its Oncotype DX breast cancer test analyzes the expression levels of 21 genes and Oncotype DX colon cancer test analyzes the expression levels of 12 genes. In March 2012, the Company established a wholly owned subsidiary, InVitae Corporation.

Oncotype DX Platform

The Company�� Oncotype DX platform uses its RT-PCR approach to improve cancer treatment decisions. Its diagnostic approach correlates gene expression to clinical outcomes and provides an individualized analysis of each patient's tumor. The Company has built a diagnostic infrastructure that allows it to move from research into development through to processing actual patient samples in its clinical reference laboratory. The Company offers Oncotype DX tests as clinical laboratory services. Its technology allows the Company to analyze tumor tissue samples in its clinical reference laboratory and provide physicians with genomic information specific to the patient'! s tumor. It analyzes tissues that are handled, processed and stored under routine clinical pathology laboratory practices.

Oncotype DX Breast Cancer Test

To develop its Oncotype DX breast cancer test, the Company evaluated 250 genes in three independent clinical studies, which identified a 21-gene panel whose composite gene expression profile can be represented by a breast cancer Recurrence Score. The Company conducted studies of its Oncotype DX breast cancer test with clinical samples from postmenopausal women with invasive breast cancer who were treated with aromatase inhibitors. In March 2010, the Journal of Clinical Oncology published results from a European study using its test to analyze tumor samples from over 1,200 patients in the ATAC (Arimedix, Tamoxifen, Alone or in Combination) trial, which established the use of aromatase inhibitors for adjuvant treatment of postmenopausal women with hormone receptor-positive breast cancer. The study demonstrated that, along with other standard measures, such as tumor size, its Oncotype DX breast cancer test contributes independently to provide a more complete picture of prognosis for N- and N+ patients treated with aromatase inhibitors.

In December 2011, the Company presented positive results from the ECOG E5194 DCIS clinical validation study at SABCS. The study met its primary endpoint by demonstrating that a pre-specified Oncotype DX DCIS Score can predict the risk of local recurrence, defined as either the development of a new invasive breast cancer or the recurrence of DCIS in the same breast. In December 2011, the Company made Oncotype DX available for patients with ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS), of the breast, a pre-invasive form of breast cancer. The launch of Oncotype DX for DCIS patients was based on positive results presented from a clinical validation study of Oncotype DX breast cancer test in patients with DCIS, conducted by the Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG), a clinical trials cooperative! group su! pported by the National Cancer Institute.

Oncotype DX Colon Cancer Test

The Company developed its gene panel by identifying 761 cancer-related genes through review of existing research literature and computer analysis of genomic databases. The 761 candidate genes were also examined to determine whether they would be useful beyond other key variables including tumor stage, tumor grade, lymph nodes examined and MMR/MSI. It selected a final set of 12 genes, which were then independently evaluated in a validation study of over 1,400 stage II colon cancer patients from the Quick and Simple and Reliable (QUASAR), randomized study of adjuvant chemotherapy in the United Kingdom. This international, multi-center randomized trial examined the recurrence risk and the benefit associated with 5-fluorouracil/leucovorin, or 5FU/LV, adjuvant chemotherapy. Gene expression was quantified by RT-PCR from manually microdissected FPE primary colon cancer tissue, and recurrence-free interval, disease-free survival and overall survival were analyzed. In January 2012, the Company presented positive results of the first clinical decision making study of the Oncotype DX colon cancer test that shows that Recurrence Score result has a significant impact on treatment recommendations for stage II colon cancer patients.

The Company competes with General Electric Company, Hologic, Inc., Novartis AG, Myriad Genetics, Inc., Qiagen N.V., Response Genetics, Inc., Laboratory Corporation of America Holdings, Quest Diagnostics Incorporated, Roche Holding, Ltd, Siemens AG and Johnson & Johnson.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By John Udovich]

  Small cap genomics stocks Rosetta Genomics Ltd (NASDAQ: ROSG), Genomic Health, Inc (NASDAQ: GHDX) and CollabRx Inc (NASDAQ: CLRX) are at the forefront of genomics testing�or research. I should mention that Wikipedia defines genomics�as a�discipline in genetics that applies recombinant DNA, DNA sequencing methods and bioinformatics to sequence, assemble and analyze the function and structure of genomes (the complete set of DNA within a single cell of an organism). A 2013 Booz Allen Hamilton report on the sector noted that in�2011, the US genetic and genomic clinical testing market size was estimated to be $5.9 billion while the�number of available tests has grown substantially from 1,680 just 4 years ago to 2,886 in 2012.

Top 5 Railroad Companies To Own In Right Now: Athabasca Oil Corp (ATHOF.PK)

Athabasca Oil Corporation, formerly Athabasca Oil Sands Corp., is focused on the exploration and development of unconventional oil resource plays in Alberta, Canada. The Company is organized into two divisions: thermal oil and light oil. Thermal oil includes the Company�� assets, liabilities and operating results for the exploration, development and production of bitumen from sand and carbonate rock formations located in the Athabasca region of Northern Alberta. Light oil includes the Company�� assets, liabilities and operating results for the exploration, development and production of unconventional oil, natural gas and natural gas liquids located in various regions in the province of Alberta. Athabasca has accumulated more than 1.5 million (net) acres of oil sands leases in the Athabasca area of northern Alberta. The Company�� oil sands projects are Hangingstone (100%), Dover West Sands (100%), Dover West Carbonates (100%), Dover (40%), Birch (100%) and Grosmont (50%). Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Stephan Dube]

  Athabasca's most notable producers:

  Suncor Energy (SU) (Part 1), see article here.Suncor Energy (Part 2), see article here.Athabasca Oil (ATHOF.PK), see article here.Canadian Natural Resources, see article here.Imperial Oil, see article here.Cenovus Energy (CVE), see article here.MEG Energy (MEGEF.PK), see article here.Devon Energy, see article here.Royal Dutch Shell, see article here.Ivanhoe Energy (IVAN), see article here.Nexen (CNOOC) (CEO), see article here.

  An analysis of the current operations of the company will be examined with the objective to provide the most complete information available to potential investors before deciding to seize the opportunity that the 54,132 square miles of the Carbonate Triangle has to offer. Let's start by introducing Athabasca, a famous and most prolific region in the Canadian oil sands as well as one of the largest reserve in the world.