Top Services Stocks To Own Right Now

After a dormant couple of months, broker-dealer mergers and acquisitions came to life Tuesday when Hilltop Holdings Inc. and SWS Group Inc., the parent company of Southwest Securities Inc., said that they have entered into a definitive merger agreement.

SWS shareholders will receive cash and Hilltop stock worth $7.88 a SWS share. Hilltop, which owns a bank mortgage lender and another financial services firm, First Southwest Co., already controls 24% of SWS common stock.

In January, Hilltop offered to acquire for $7 a share the remaining outstanding shares of SWS that it didn't control. Investors are therefore seeing a 12.6% premium over Hilltop's original offer.

10 Best Construction Stocks To Own Right Now: Officemax Incorporated(OMX)

OfficeMax Incorporated, together with its subsidiaries, distributes business-to-business and retail office products. Its Contract segment markets and sells office supplies and paper, technology products and solutions, office furniture, and print and document services directly to large corporate and government offices, as well as to small and medium-sized offices through field salespeople, outbound telesales, catalogs, Internet, and office products stores. As of December 31, 2011, this segment operated 38 distribution centers in the United States, Puerto Rico, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand; 4 customer service and outbound telesales centers in the United States; and 47 office products stores in Canada, Hawaii, Australia, and New Zealand. The company?s Retail segment markets and sells office supplies and paper, print and document services, technology products and solutions, and office furniture to small and medium-sized businesses and consumers through a network of reta il stores. As of December 31, 2011, this segment operated 978 stores in the United States and Mexico; 3 large distribution centers in the United States; and 1 small distribution center in Mexico. The company, formerly known as Boise Cascade Corporation, was founded in 1913 and is headquartered in Naperville, Illinois.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Jon C. Ogg]

  We still have many key oil and energy companies reporting in the week ahead but we have now seen the sector leaders report earnings. Earnings previews have been prepared for the following stocks:

  CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ: CME) Hertz Global Holdings Inc. (NYSE: HTZ) Kellogg Company (NYSE: K) DirecTV (NASDAQ: DTV) Office Depot Inc. (NYSE: ODP) and OfficeMax Incorporated (NYSE: OMX) Tesla Motors Inc. (NASDAQ: TSLA) T-Mobile US, Inc. (NYSE: TMUS) American Water Works Company Inc. (NYSE: AWK) Duke Energy Corp. (NYSE: DUK) QUALCOMM Inc. (NASDAQ: QCOM) Time Warner Inc. (NYSE: TWX) Whole Foods Market Inc. (NASDAQ: WFM) Groupon Inc. (NASDAQ: GRPN) Molycorp Inc. (NYSE: MCP) The Walt Disney Company (NYSE: DIS) Priceline.com Inc. (NASDAQ: PCLN) The Wendy’s Company (NYSE: WEN)

  CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ: CME) reports earnings on Monday morning. With all of the exchange mergers of the last decade this remains one of the dominant exchanges. Estimates are $0.73 EPS and $713.3 million in revenue. Keep in mind that this exchange is now worth $25 billion. At $74.70, the consensus analyst price target is only just barely higher at almost $75.50.

• [By Rich Duprey]

  For its part, Office Depot says it's a shame it had to waste money going to court to defend against Starboard's action to force an annual meeting. Since they're working on the merger with OfficeMax (NYSE: OMX  ) , it was a process that had to play out. That's why they announced last week they were going to have the meeting on Aug. 21.

• [By Michael Lewis]

  Office Depot (NYSE: ODP  ) scored a win in its merger with fellow big-box supply store retailer Office Max (NYSE: OMX  ) , but is the company out of the proverbial weeds? The Depot saw its shares decline more than 6% Wednesday due to an earnings report that came in under estimates and altogether left investors and analysts unimpressed. No one has any delusions as to the intense technology-fueled disruption facing Office Depot and its recently acquired competitor, but there are levers the company can pull to remain relevant in the future.

• [By Mathew Schwartz]

  AlamyA Starbucks coffee shop in downtown Beijing, China. • There are prices to be paid for expanding your economy at a gallop, and China pays plenty of them. Today, anyone looking out across that nation's northern cities can see that winter has arrived there -- or rather, they can't, because the smog is so appallingly bad. In the city of Harbin, for example, visibility dropped to around 11 yards Monday, and small-particle pollution soared to 40 times higher than the international safety standard -- a record, by the way, though one we're sure nobody would want to break. It's a pretty clear case of cause and effect: Harbin's city heating systems were fired up on Sunday, and by Monday, you could barely see your hand in front of your face. • While we're on the subject of the world's rising economic superpower, China has a big complaint with Starbucks (SBUX) -- and it's probably the same one you have: Why does it charge so much for coffee? This may shock those of us in the U.S. who feel we're paying through the nose for our lattes, but Starbucks charges more in China than it does elsewhere -- about a third more than in the United States. • But back in America, the biggest news involving your money today is a no-brainer: the continuing glitches in the Obamacare websites. The administration has called out the computer cavalry, expanding the team that's trying to get the system working properly. And President Obama plans to speak publicly about the problems Monday. But in the meantime, the website is producing far more complaints than anything else. • We all know that taking out a student loan requires filling out a raft of complicated paperwork, but paying it back, at least, ought to be simple. Unfortunately, it's not, the advocates over at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau inform us in a new report. Some loan servicers -- the companies lenders hire to collect payments on private student loans -- make a concerted effort to maximize fee

Top Services Stocks To Own Right Now: Ciber Inc (CBR)

CIBER, Inc. (CIBER) is a provider of information technology (IT), business consulting and outsourcing services. The Company is engaged in solving complex IT and business issues across industries, such as energy and utilities, telecommunications, retail, healthcare, financial services, entertainment and manufacturing. The Company operates in three segments: International, North America and IT Outsourcing. Its offerings are focused around a set of core competencies which include Application Development and Management (ADM), Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Customer Relationship Management, Business Intelligence and Data Warehousing, Managed Services, Testing and Quality Assurance, Mobility Services and Digital Marketing. On March 9, 2012, the Company sold its Federal division to CRGT, Inc.

International

The Company�� CIBER International division delivers a mix of ERP and custom ADM solutions. CIBER International offers a range of services covering the IT solution lifecycle to both commercial enterprises and public sector organizations. Key geographies for its International division include the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Germany and the Scandinavian region consisting of Norway, Sweden and Denmark. The International division's enterprise solutions focus primarily on providing services related to ERP and Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software products, as well as managed services. It also provides SAP Industry Solutions, such as retail, automotive and chemicals, and it is a value-added reseller of SAP software in some international geographies. Th Company works with Microsoft to deliver ERP and CRM solutions in selected international geographies.

North America

The Company�� North America division was formed during the year ended December, 31, 2011, through the combination of its former Custom Solutions division and substantially all of its former U.S. ERP division. Its North America division is organized by and operates in a matrix! of geographies and practices. Its North America division provides ADM services, IT Strategy and Architecture, Business Intelligence/Data Warehousing, Collaborative Solutions, CRM and Supply Chain. The division also offers consulting services to support multi-package ERP solutions from vendors, including Oracle (including E-Business Suite, PeopleSoft and JD Edwards), SAP and Lawson, as well as several education management products. It is focused on industry solutions for vertical markets, such as telecommunications, healthcare, manufacturing, financial services, technology, state and local governments, higher education and entertainment.

The Company designs and develops custom-tailored offerings to suit its client's business needs. Its custom solutions provide a range of application portfolio management support, including analysis, design, development, testing, implementation, outsourcing and maintenance of business applications. Its service-oriented architectures, including J2EE and .NET, as well as traditional client/server and mainframe development. The Company also offers portal development, wireless and mobility applications and content delivery. The North America division is an Oracle Platinum Partner, which is a partnership in the Oracle Partner Network Specialized Program and a strategic partner to Oracle in several key industries, such as the public sector, higher education and food and beverage. Its Oracle, PeopleSoft and JD Edwards solutions involve building, integrating and supporting mission critical systems for real-time enterprises.

The Company�� North America division also is an SAP-certified global provider of application management services. The division's SAP solutions support their customers throughout the life cycle and include implementations and upgrades, extensions, integrations and customizations. The North America division has organized its SAP Practice to serve multiple vertical markets. In its SAP Commercial Practice, the North America division foc! uses on c! ustomers in retail, apparel and footwear, mining, metals, manufacturing, financial services and aerospace and defense industries. In its SAP Public Sector Practice, the North America division focuses on delivering solutions to state and local governments.

The North America division is a Certified Lawson Consulting Partner, providing business transformation projects in Lawson's target vertical markets through business process, change management and functional and technical services around Lawson technology. These target markets are healthcare, public sector, food and beverage and general manufacturing, for which it offers budgeting, financial processing and analysis, human capital management, sales order processing and manufacturing systems solutions.

IT Outsourcing

The Company�� IT Outsourcing division is a global business with domestic headquarters in Edison, New Jersey, and international presence throughout Europe. The division offers outsourced enterprise infrastructure management solutions, including managed hosted infrastructure, end user service desk and desktop services, remote infrastructure management (RIM) and application operations support. The IT Outsourcing division's data centers, service desk centers and global operations are located in the United States, United Kingdom, Poland, India and Spain. The division's Technology Solutions Group Practice focuses on providing customers with the infrastructure products and architecture. Offerings include enterprise servers, storage, middleware, integration services, assessments and related products required to support critical business applications.

The Company competes with Accenture plc, Cognizant Technology Solutions Corp, Infosys Technologies Limited, Perficient, Inc., Sapient Corp and The Hackett Group, Inc.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Seth Jayson]

  Ciber (NYSE: CBR  ) is expected to report Q2 earnings on July 30. Here's what Wall Street wants to see:

  The 10-second takeaway
  Comparing the upcoming quarter to the prior-year quarter, average analyst estimates predict Ciber's revenues will drop -4.8% and EPS will grow from $0.00 per share the prior year.

Top Services Stocks To Own Right Now: Transdigm Group Incorporated(TDG)

TransDigm Group Incorporated designs, produces, and supplies engineered aircraft components for use on commercial and military aircraft principally in the United States. The company?s products include mechanical/electro-mechanical actuators and controls, ignition systems and engine technology, pumps and valves, power conditioning devices, AC/DC electric motors and generators, NiCad batteries and chargers, engineered latching and locking devices, rods and locking devices, engineered connectors and elastomers, cockpit security components and systems, cockpit displays, aircraft audio systems, lavatory components, engineered interior surfaces, and lighting and control technology. Its customers comprise distributors of aerospace components; commercial airlines, including national and regional airlines; commercial transport and regional and business aircraft original equipment manufacturers (OEMs); various armed forces of the United States and foreign governments; defense OEMs; system suppliers; and various other industrial customers. TransDigm Group Incorporated was founded in 1993 and is based in Cleveland, Ohio.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Brendan Mathews]

  We asked which current CEOs fit the�Outsiders�mold. Thorndike reeled off a short list of names, but he started with Michael Pearson of�Valeant Pharmaceuticals� (NYSE: VRX  ) . He went on to mention Nicholas Howley of�TransDigm Group� (NYSE: TDG  ) , and Rich Kinder of�Kinder Morgan� (NYSE: KMI  ) .�

Top Services Stocks To Own Right Now: ManpowerGroup(MAN)

ManpowerGroup provides workforce solutions and services worldwide. The company offers permanent, temporary, and contract recruitment services; assessment and selection services; training and development services; outsourcing services; and workforce consulting services. It also provides professional resourcing and project-based workforce solutions in the information technology, finance, and engineering fields; talent and career management workforce solutions; and talent based outsourcing services, managed services, recruitment process outsourcing services, borderless talent solutions, and strategic workforce consulting services. The company was founded in 1948 and is headquartered in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Louis Navellier , NavellierGrowth.com]

  So without further ado, here are five companies that have the analyst community buzzing, and they should be on your radar as well.

  Best Buy (BBY): In the past two months, estimates have been revised up 22%. Analysts now expect 175% year-on-year earnings growth this quarter. Meanwhile, the industry average is 30% annual earnings growth. . ManpowerGroup (MAN): In the past month, the consensus estimate has been hiked up 19% to $1.08 per share. Analysts now expect 37% earnings growth. MAN is a buy. Netflix (NFLX): In the past three months, the consensus estimate has climbed 9%. Analysts now forecast 22% sales growth and a whopping 269% earnings growth. NFLX is a strong buy. Tesla (TSLA): In the past three months, analysts have completely reversed their projections. Earlier, the consensus was that Tesla Motors would post a net loss of 3 cents per share. Now the consensus calls for earnings of 12 cents per share. This translates into 113% earnings growth! TSLA is a strong buy. Whirlpool (WHR): In the past three months, earnings estimates have risen 15%. Analysts now expect 47% earnings growth. WHR is a strong buy.

  To put these earnings estimates into perspective, analysts forecast that the average S&P 500 company will grow earnings by 15.1% this quarter. This means that each of the five buys above are well-positioned to win big next earnings season, which kicks off on October 8. If you want to see how the analyst community feels about one of your holdings, feel free to run it through my Portfolio Grader screening tool. After hitting “submit,” you’ll see that one of the components of the stock’s Fundamental Grade is “Analyst Earnings Revisions.”

• [By James E. Brumley]

  Look out Kelly Services, Inc. (NASDAQ:KELYA), and step aside ManpowerGroup Inc. (NYSE:MAN). A young company called Staffing 360 Solutions Inc. (OTCBB:STAF) is coming up fast in your rear-view mirror, and is poised to dominate the fastest growing arena of the temporary staffing world.