Top Supermarket Companies For 2014

LONDON -- We've been getting a few quarterly updates recently for the period ending March 31. But things will be heating up next week as we start to get annual results from companies with March as their year-end. We'll have quite a few FTSE 100 companies reporting throughout the month. Here are three for next week.

Sainsbury (LSE: SBRY  )
Wednesday will bring us full-year results from J Sainsbury, and it's looking like they should be pretty decent. In its fourth-quarter trading statement, released in March, the supermarket chain told us that like-for-like sales were up 4.2% for the quarter and 2.1% over the whole year (3.6% and 1.8%, respectively, excluding petrol).

Current forecasts suggest a 6% rise in earnings per share, with a dividend yield of 4.4% on a share price of 386 pence. That would need a 4% rise in the dividend over 2012, and with the first-half dividend having already been lifted by 6.7% to 4.8 pence per share, that seems like a reasonable expectation.

Top US Companies To Watch In Right Now: Myers Industries Inc.(MYE)

Myers Industries, Inc. manufactures and distributes polymer products for the industrial, agricultural, automotive, commercial, and consumer markets primarily in the North, Central, and South America. It operates in four segments: Material Handling, Lawn and Garden, Engineered Products, and Distribution. The Material Handling segment offers plastic reusable material handling containers, and pallets and bins, as well as metal shelving, cabinets, and racking systems primarily under the Buckhorn and Akro-Mils brand names for automotive, appliance, general industrial/manufacturing, distribution, agriculture, retail, and food processing markets. The Lawn and Garden segment provides injection-molded and thermoformed pots, hanging baskets, flats and carry trays, plug trays, nursery containers, propagation sheets, and specialty pots under the Dillen, ITML, Pro Cal, Listo, Planters? Pride, and Akro-Mils Lawn & Garden brand names for the horticultural container needs of the floricult ure/horticulture market. Its customers include professional growers, greenhouses, nurseries, retail garden centers, mass merchandisers, and consumers. The Engineered Products segment offers engineered plastic and rubber original equipment and replacement parts, tire repair materials, and custom rubber and plastic components and materials under the Ameri-Kart, Patch Rubber, and WEK brand names. This segment serves the automotive, recreational vehicle and marine, construction and agriculture equipment, healthcare, and transportation markets. The Distribution segment distributes tools, equipment, and supplies used for tire, wheel, and undervehicle service on passenger, heavy truck, and off-road vehicles. It offers products under the Myers Tire Supply and Myers Tire Supply International brands to independent tire dealers, mass merchandisers, commercial auto and truck fleets, tire retreaders, and general repair facilities. Myers Industries, Inc. was founded in 1933 and is headqua rtered in Akron, Ohio.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Rich Duprey]

  Industrial polymer manufacturer�Myers Industries� (NYSE: MYE  ) �announced yesterday�its second-quarter dividend of $0.09 per share, the same rate it paid last quarter after raising the payout 12.5%, from $0.08 per share.

• [By Travis Hoium]

  What: Shares of Myers Industries (NYSE: MYE  ) jumped as much as 12% today after the company reported second-quarter earnings.

  So what: Sales jumped 13% to $204 million and net income was up 47% to $8.3 million, or $0.25 per share. Analysts were only expecting $198.1 million in revenue and $0.21 in earnings, so the results were much more than investors had hoped for. �

• [By Seth Jayson]

  Calling all cash flows
  When you are trying to buy the market's best stocks, it's worth checking up on your companies' free cash flow once a quarter or so, to see whether it bears any relationship to the net income in the headlines. That's what we do with this series. Today, we're checking in on Myers Industries (NYSE: MYE  ) , whose recent revenue and earnings are plotted below.

Top Supermarket Companies For 2014: Zumiez Inc (ZUMZ)

Zumiez Inc. (Zumiez) is a specialty retailer of action sports related apparel, footwear, equipment and accessories operating under the Zumiez brand name. As of January 28, 2012, the Company operated 434 stores in the United States and 10 stores in Canada. In addition, the Company operates a Website that sells merchandise online. At January 28, 2012, its stores averaged approximately 2,900 square feet. Its apparel offerings include tops, bottoms, outerwear and accessories, such as caps, bags and backpacks, belts, jewelry and sunglasses. Zumiez�� footwear offerings primarily consist of action sports related athletic shoes and sandals. Its equipment offerings, or hardgoods, include skateboards, snowboards and ancillary gear, such as boots and bindings. The Company also offers a selection of other items, such as miscellaneous novelties.

The Company supplements its merchandise assortment with a select offering of private label products across many of its apparel product categories. During the fiscal year ended January 28, 2012 (fiscal 2011), its private label merchandise represented 17.7% of the Company�� net sales. The Company sources its private label merchandise from foreign manufacturers worldwide.

The Company competes with Abercrombie & Fitch, Aeropostale, American Apparel, American Eagle Outfitters, Billabong, CCS, Forever 21, Hollister, Hot Topic, Old Navy, Pacific Sunwear of California, The Buckle, Wet Seal, Tilly��, Urban Outfitters, Big 5 Sporting Goods, Dick�� Sporting Goods, Sport Chalet and The Sports Authority.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Jeremy Bowman]

  What: Shares of sports-apparel retailer Zumiez (NASDAQ: ZUMZ  ) jumped as much as 16% today after reporting better-than-expected same-store sales.

• [By Anna Prior]

  Zumiez Inc.'s(ZUMZ) same-store sales rose 2% in February, topping analysts’ expectations, though discounting weighed on margins. Shares edged up 2.3% to $24.37 premarket.

Top Supermarket Companies For 2014: Dassault Systemes SA (DASTY.PK)

Dassault Systemes SA provides software solutions and consulting services. The Company�� global customer base includes companies primarily in 11 industrial sectors: automotive; industrial equipment; aerospace; consumer goods; consumer packaged goods; energy; high-tech; shipbuilding; life sciences; construction, and business services. It organizes its business and markets its products and services in two types of applications: the Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) market, to support product development, production, maintenance and lifecycle management, and the Mainstream three-dimensional (3D) market, which is primarily focused on product design. Its software applications address a range of products, from apparel, consumer goods, machine parts and semiconductors to automobiles, aircraft, ships and factories. In March 2011, the Company acquired Intercim. In April 2011, the Company acquired Enginuity PLM. On March 31, 2010, it acquired the IBM PLM. On June 8, 2010, the C ompany acquired Exalead, a French company providing Search Platforms and Search-Based Applications (SBA). In June 2010, the Company acquired Geensoft, a provider of embedded systems development solutions.

The Company has developed a software applications portfolio, organized in brands, in order to provide solutions responding to the requirements of product development: Design, Realistic Simulation, Digital Manufacturing and Production, Collaborative Innovation, and Lifelike Experiences. The Company�� principal brands include SolidWorks , CATIA, SIMULIA, DELMIA, ENOVIA and Universal Services.

SolidWorks

SolidWorks applications include 3D tools to design, manage, simulate, sustain and communicate. SolidWorks include 3D Design, Data management, Simulation and Environmental assessments. SolidWorks 3D�� include complex part and assembly modeling, production drawing creation, data management, design validation and simulation of motion, f low and structural performance, environmental impact evalu! at! ion and publishing. SolidWorks Data Management solutions enable control over all design information, eliminating concerns about version control or data loss. SolidWorks simulation technology ensures the quality and performance of the design before users commit to production. SolidWorks Sustainability technology enables users to assess the environmental impact of their design to create more sustainable products.

CATIA

CATIA is the Company�� PLM solution for 3D collaborative creation. CATIA addresses the complete product development process, from early product concept specification through product in service. CATIA V6 is designed to enable the spectrum of next generation collaborative virtual design. Its product portfolio is consists of four main domains, which include systems, shape design, mechanical design and equipment engineering. CATIA Systems captures, manages, and tracks product requirements with traceability, ensuring that early requiremen ts are met accurately all along the product development cycle. CATIA Shape provides a line of surfacing, reverse engineering, and visualization solutions to create, modify, and validate any type of complex shapes and help streamline the transition and collaboration among industrial designers. CATIA Mechanical delivers a collaborative and flexible design environment with concurrent engineering and change management through relational design. CATIA Equipment provides an integrated environment that enables the collaborative detailed design of electronic, electrical, and fluidic systems in context of a virtual product.

SIMULIA

SIMULIA provides a scalable portfolio of realistic simulation solutions designed to enable companies across a range of industries to improve product performance, reduce the number of physical prototypes and drive innovation. SIMULIA�� V6 portfolio spans include finite element analysis, multi-physics solutions, optimization analy sis, and simulation lifecycle management. Its finite e! lement! a! nalysis! software companies are able to create and test virtual prototypes of products and processes. Its multi-physics solutions enable companies to reach beyond the boundaries of a single domain. SIMULIA also provides design exploration and optimization technology, enabling designers and engineers to perform rapid trade-off studies of real-world behavior and accelerate product development. SIMULIA offers simulation lifecycle management, based upon the Company�� ENOVIA architecture offering an open collaborative platform for management of simulation data, processes and intellectual property.

DELMIA

DELMIA covers the Company�� PLM digital manufacturing solutions ranging from virtual process definition, workcell set-up, optimization, scheduling, and operation, to maintenance of real-time production systems. DELMIA V6 covers four principal domains, including Manufacturing planning, with 3D process and resource planning tools for creating and optimizing bu ild-to-order and lean production manufacturing systems; plant and resources engineering, with tools to virtually define and optimize manufacturing assets concurrently with manufacturing planning; program and control engineering, to virtually program, validate and simulate manufacturing systems for the virtual commissioning of production facilities, and control and production execution, which offers an accurate virtual production system to enable companies to track real time production activities, perform schedule changes, launch new programs and introduce model changeovers, and schedule maintenance operations.

ENOVIA

ENOVIA addresses business process needs across a broad spectrum of industries, managing simple, as well as engineered, complex products. The ENOVIA V6 products are organized by business processes, which include governance, global sourcing, global sourcing, and unified live collaboration. The Governance domain is designed to help compan ies launch enterprise new product introductions on! time and! ! on budget! . Governance includes these sub-processes: Requirements Management, Portfolio Configuration, Program Management, Decision Support Business Intelligence, and Compliance. The Global Sourcing domain allows companies to leverage supply chain capabilities throughout the product lifecycle. The IP Lifecycle domain helps eliminate costly product development errors as it is designed to enable improved cross-functional product design, manufacturing planning and performance simulation. The Unified Live Collaboration domain allows companies to deploy product lifecycle processes across the extended enterprise by providing a single, real-time view of information protocol (IP) across all business process domains, collaborative process management capabilities, and a service-oriented architecture that integrates with other enterprise system

The Company competes with Parametric Technology Corporation, ANSYS, Inc., MSC Software Corporation, Oracle Corporation, SAP AG, Siemens PLM Software, Adobe, Altair Engineering, Autonomy, Aveva, Bentley, Google, Intergraph, MathWorks, Nemetschek AG, Right Hemisphere, and Autodesk, Inc.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Markus Aarnio]

  Autodesk's competitors include Adobe Systems (ADBE), Dassault Systemes SA (DASTY.PK), and Parametric Technology Corporation (PMTC). Here is a table comparing these companies.

Top Supermarket Companies For 2014: Chilean Metals Inc (CMX)

Chilean Metals Inc, formerly International PBX Ventures Ltd., is an exploration-stage company. The Company is engaged in exploring for gold, silver, copper and molybdenum on its various properties located in Chile through its wholly owned subsidiaries in Chile, Minera IPBX Limitada, Minera Tierra de Oro Limitada, Minera Palo Negro Limitada and Minera Sierra Pintada Limitada. The Company owns 100% interest in Copaquire Project. The Copaquire property is approximately 20 kilometer west of the Collahuasi mine and 8 kilometer west of the Quebrada Blanca copper-molybdenum mine properties. The Tierra de Oro property lies about 30 kilometers south of the Candelaria copper-gold-silver mines. Through its 100% owned Chilean Metals Exploration Ltd. the Company owns six Gold-Copper properties strategically located in the prolific IOCG belt of Chile. Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Johanna Bennett]

  It�� a good day for auto dealer stocks. CarMax (CMX) got engines revving on Wall Street when it posted blowout quarterly results. And Goldman Sachs upgraded AutoNation (AN) from Neutral to Buy and set a six-month price target of $65, citing the company�� growth prospects, margins and balance sheet.

  The AutoNation upgrade was actually part of a broader industry call by analysts Patrick Archambault and David Tamberrino. In a 32-page note published today,�the pair raised estimates for auto dealers, citing increased SAAR projections for 2014 through 2016 and growth opportunity�� from M&A. Archambault and Tamberrino write:

  The combination of these factors drives up our 2015/2016 EPS estimates to 2.4% and 6.1% above the Street which we believe is understating the sector�� growth potential. M&A is the key growth opportunity. About 2 points of our 3% profit revision comes from M&A. With $2.4bn of dry powder, a still very fragmented dealer group, and reasonable valuations on the private side we think the risk is to the upside for acquisitions. M&A has added 2.4% to dealer revenue growth annually over the past 5 years which we assume continues.

  AutoNation rose 2.7% to $58.04, while CarMax surged 15.6% to $52.32

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