Top 10 High Tech Companies For 2014

Things were going swimmingly for JPMorgan Chase (NYSE: JPM  ) last week, with the share price nearly touching $50 on Wednesday, when news of yet another lawsuit hit the wires: this one by California's top law enforcement official, sending share prices plummeting.

Following on the heels of that, and after being down further in weekend trading, the superbank's stock had opened down today. But two hours into the new trading week, it's turned itself around and is now up a solid 0.55%. Chalk up this positive response to negative news to perhaps a fundamental faith in the country's biggest bank: faith I believe is well warranted.

Return of the robo-signers
California attorney general Kamala Harris announced on Thursday her office was filing suit against JPMorgan for engaging in "widespread, illegal robo-signing, among other unlawful practices, to commit debt-collection abuses against approximately 100,000 California credit card borrowers over at least a three-year period."�

Top 10 High Tech Companies For 2014: Finisar Corporation(FNSR)

Finisar Corporation designs, develops, manufactures, and markets optical subsystems and components that are used to interconnect equipment in short-distance local area networks (LANs), storage area networks (SANs), longer distance metropolitan area networks (MANs), fiber-to-the-home networks, cable television networks, and wide area networks. Its optical subsystems primarily include transmitters, receivers, transceivers, and transponders. The company?s optical subsystems provides the fundamental optical-electrical interface for connecting the equipment used in building networks comprising switches, routers, and file servers in wireline networks, as well as antennas and base stations for wireless networks. It also offers products for switching network traffic from one optical wavelength to another across multiple wavelengths, known as reconfigurable optical add/drop multiplexers. The company?s line of optical components principally comprises packaged lasers and photodetec tors used in transceivers for LAN and SAN applications; and passive optical components used in building MANs. It sells its optical products to manufacturers of storage system, networking equipment, and telecommunication equipment or their contract manufacturers through direct sales force and distribution channels in the United States, Malaysia, the People?s Republic of China, and internationally. The company was founded in 1987 and is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California.

Top 10 High Tech Companies For 2014: Stewart Information Services Corporation(STC)

Stewart Information Services Corporation provides title insurance and related information services required for settlement by the real estate and mortgage industries. It operates in two segments, Title Insurance-Related Services and Real Estate Information. The Title Insurance-Related Services segment offers services that include searching for and examining documents, such as deeds, mortgages, wills, divorce decrees, court judgments, liens, paving assessments, and tax records, as well as provides titles insurance for residential and commercial properties, undeveloped acreage, farms, ranches, and water rights. This segment serves attorneys, builders, developers, home buyers and home sellers, lenders, and real estate brokers. The Real Estate Information segment offers products and services, which primarily include lender services, title technology, foreign and domestic government services, mapping, title information, Internal Revenue Code Section 1031 tax-deferred property e xchanges, pre-employment services, and online filing and transaction management. Its customers include mortgage lenders and servicers, mortgage brokers, mortgage investors, government entities, commercial and residential real estate agents, land developers, builders, title insurance agencies, and others interested in obtaining property information, as well as accountants, attorneys, investors, and employers. The company has operations primarily in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, central Europe, Mexico, central America, and Australia. Stewart Information Services Corporation was founded in 1893 and is based in Houston, Texas.

5 Best Energy Stocks To Own Right Now: Hana Mining Ltd (HMG.V)

Hana Mining Ltd., a junior mineral exploration company, engages in the acquisition, exploration, and development of precious, base metal, and other mineral exploration projects in the Republic of Botswana. It principally holds a 100% interest in the 5 prospecting licenses in the Ghanzi copper-silver project covering 2,169 square kilometers in northwestern Botswana. The company was formerly known as Golden Patriot Mining Inc. and changed its name to Hana Mining Ltd. in March 2007. Hana Mining Ltd. is based in Vancouver, Canada.

Top 10 High Tech Companies For 2014: Life Healthcare Group (LTGHF.PK)

Life Healthcare Group Holdings Limited is an investment holding company. It is engaged in acute private hospital care. Its hospitals division consists of core acute care hospital business and services for acute physical rehabilitation, acute mental healthcare and renal dialysis in South Africa and Botswana. Its healthcare services division consists of acute and long-term hospitalization services to public sector patients, as well as contracted occupational healthcare to private and public employers. International division consists of its 26% interest in Max Healthcare Institute Limited (Max Healthcare), an acute care hospital business in India. During the fiscal year ended September 30, 2012 (fiscal 2012), it acquired a 26% interest in Max Healthcare and an additional 25% interest in Medical Imaging Botswana Proprietary Limited, and disposed of 50% interest in Occulli Trust and Bloemfontein Eye Clinic, and total interest in Birchmed Day Clinic Partnership and the related property. Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Robert Holmes]

  Analyst Andrew Olanow says Life Healthcare is a play on solid underlying defensive growth. The company's high margins still have room for upside, Olanow writes, and that valuation looks reasonable.

  "With any price regulations by the South African government for private hospitals delayed until 2014, we see added price pressure as unlikely before 2015," Olanow writes. He adds that the company's excess cash should drive a high dividend yield.

  Olanow's base case view is for a 9% increase over the next 12 months. However, his most bullish scenario is that the stock will rise 33% over the next year, while his most bearish view is for a 28% slide in 2012.

  The chart below shows shares of Life Healthcare that trade on the Pink Sheets in the U.S., but Morgan Stanley is recommending buying shares on overseas exchanges.

Top 10 High Tech Companies For 2014: Fortegra Financial Corporation (FRF)

Fortegra Financial Corporation, an insurance services company, provides distribution and administration services primarily in the United States. The company�s Payment Protection segment delivers credit insurance, debt protection, warranty and service contracts, and motor club solutions under the Life of the South, Continental Car Club, United Motor Club, and Auto Knight Motor Club brand names to consumer finance companies, regional banks, community banks, retailers, small loan companies, warranty administrators, automobile dealers, vacation ownership developers, and credit unions. This segment specializes in providing products that protect consumer lenders and their borrowers from death, disability, or other events that could impair their borrowers' ability to repay a debt. Fortegra Financial Corporation�s Business Process Outsourcing segment offers various administrative services under the Consecta and Pacific Benefits Group Northwest, LLC brand names to insurance and o ther financial services companies. This segment�s services include sales and marketing, electronic underwriting, premium billing and collections, policy administration, claims adjudication, and call center management services. The company�s Brokerage segment sells specialty property and casualty, and surplus lines insurance to retail insurance brokers and agents, and insurance companies under the Bliss & Glennon, eReinsure.com, Inc., and South Bay Acceptance Corporation brand names. This segment also provides its clients the ability to obtain various types of commercial insurance coverage outside of their core areas of focus. In addition, it offers insurance underwriting services as a managing general agent for specialized insurance carriers. The company was formerly known as Life of the South Corporation and changed its name to Fortegra Financial Corporation in 2008. The company was incorporated in 1981 and is based in Jacksonville, Florida.

Top 10 High Tech Companies For 2014: Scorpio Tankers Inc.(STNG)

Scorpio Tankers Inc. provides marine transportation of crude oil and refined petroleum products worldwide. As of April 26, 2011, it owned one LR2 tanker, four LR1 tankers, four Handymax tankers, and one post-Panamax tanker, as well as chartered one LR1 and four Handymax product tankers. The company was founded in 2009 and is based in Monaco, Monaco.

Top 10 High Tech Companies For 2014: Panthera Exploration Inc. (PNX.V)

Iron South Mining Corp., a natural resource company, engages in the acquisition and exploration of resource properties in the Americas. It primarily explores for iron ore, gold, silver, and copper deposits. The company holds interests in the Roy property covering 478 hectares located in the Walker Lane District of west central Nevada, the United States. It also has an option to earn a 100% interest in the Fierro iron ore project covering 74,796 hectares located in Rio Negro Province, Argentina. The company was formerly known as Panthera Exploration Inc. and changed its name to Iron South Mining Corp. in February 2012. Iron South Mining Corp. was incorporated in 2000 and is headquartered in Vancouver, Canada.

Top 10 High Tech Companies For 2014: Cadiz Inc.(CDZI)

Cadiz Inc. engages in the acquisition and development of land and water resources in the United States. It focuses on water resource, agricultural, and solar energy development operations. The company owns approximately 35,000 acres of land in the Cadiz and Fenner valleys of eastern San Bernardino County; and approximately 10,800 additional acres in the eastern Mojave Desert, including the Piute and Danby Lake properties. It also engages in the cultivation of lemons, grapes/raisins, and spring and fall plantings of vegetables. Cadiz Inc. was founded in 1983 and is based in Los Angeles, California.

Top 10 High Tech Companies For 2014: Vittoria(VITI.MI)

Vittoria Assicurazioni S.p.A., together with its subsidiaries, provides various life and non-life insurance products to individuals, families, and businesses in Italy. Its life insurance products comprise savings insurance products; protection policies covering risks of death, disability, and non-self-sufficiency; supplementary pension plans, including individual pension schemes and open-ended pension fund; and unit-linked financial policies. The company?s non-life insurance products include accident, health, and fire and natural events insurance; other asset damage insurance, which covers the risks of theft and burglary, hail, damage to electronic equipment, and technological damage; general third party liability, pecuniary loss, and legal protection insurance; credit and bond insurance; aircraft and watercraft hulls insurance; railway rolling stock insurance; and goods in transit insurance. It also offers motor insurance products, such as third-party liability for motor vehicles and watercraft, land motor vehicle hulls, and assistance; and outward and inward reinsurance products. In addition, the company engages in the real estate trading; and real estate management, brokerage, and promotional activities. As of December 31, 2010, it offered its products through 318 general agencies and 551 professional sub-agencies. The company was formerly known as The Victory Insurance and changed its name to Vittoria Assicurazioni S.p.A. in 1968. Vittoria Assicurazioni S.p.A. was founded in 1921 and is based in Milan, Italy.

Top 10 High Tech Companies For 2014: QC Holdings Inc.(QCCO)

QC Holdings, Inc. provides various retail consumer financial products and services in the United States. The company offers payday loans that provide cash to the customers in exchange for a promissory note with a maturity of two to three weeks. It also provides financial products and services, such as installment loans, credit services, check cashing services, title loans, money transfers, and money orders. In addition, QC Holdings operates as a credit services organization that arranges a third-party lender to make a loan to the consumer and for providing related services to the consumer, including a guarantee of the consumer?s obligation to the third-party lender. Further, the company sells used vehicles and earns finance charges from the related vehicle financing contracts; and provides reconditioning services on its inventory of vehicles, and repair services for its customers. As of As of December 31, 2010, the company operated 523 short-term lending branches in 24 sta tes; and 5 buy here, pay here lots located in Missouri and Kansas. QC Holdings, Inc. was founded in 1984 and is headquartered in Overland Park, Kansas.