Hot Low Price Stocks For 2014

By Tracey Ryniec

Value investors have long looked to the price-to-earnings ratio as a means to finding value stocks. However, Benjamin Graham, long considered to be the "father" of value investing, found that a low price-to-earnings ratio wasn't enough to unearth the true undervalued companies.

Graham combined the low price-to-earnings ratios with the power of growth by using the PEG ratio. The PEG ratio is calculated by taking the price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio and dividing it by the growth rate.

Normally, a stock with a PEG ratio under 1.0 is considered a "value".

With the S&P 500, the Russell 2000 and the Mid-cap 400 trading at new record highs, you might think it would be hard to find ANY value.

Screening for PEG

I created a screen for PEG ratios under 1.0 on Zacks free Custom Screener.

Just this one criteria gave me 372 stocks. That's not too shabby.

But all 372 companies are not necessarily good value stocks. I eliminated companies that had a Zacks rank of 4 or 5, which are Zacks Rank Sells, and only searched for Buy ranked stocks.

Hot Blue Chip Companies To Invest In 2015: First Merchants Corporation(FRME)

First Merchants Corporation, a financial holding company, provides financial and banking products and services. Its deposit products include demand deposits, savings deposits, and certificates and other time deposits. The company?s loan products portfolio comprises commercial and industrial loans; agricultural production financing and other loans to farmers; real estate loans, including construction, commercial and farmland, and residential loans; individuals? loans for household and other personal expenditures; tax-exempt loans; lease financing; consumer loans; and other loans. It also rents safe deposit facilities; and provides personal and corporate trust services, brokerage services, and other corporate services, as well as letters of credit and repurchase agreements. The company operates through 79 banking locations in 23 Indiana and 2 Ohio counties, as well as through ATMs, check cards, interactive voice response systems, and Internet technology. In addition, First Merchants Corporation operates as a property, casualty, personal lines, and employee benefit insurance agency; and involves in life reinsurance business. The company was founded in 1893 and is headquartered in Muncie, Indiana.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Sean Williams]

  For this week's round of "Better Know a Stock," I'm going to take a closer look at First Merchants (NASDAQ: FRME  ) .

  What First Merchants does
  First Merchants is a financial holding company that provides community and commercial banking services primarily throughout Indiana, but also in Ohio. As of the first-quarter, First Merchants had $4.3 billion in total assets with total loans outstanding equaling $2.9 billion.

• [By Tim Melvin]

  We are starting to see bank merger activity accelerate as banks like Huntington Bancorp (HBAN) and� First Merchants (FRME) looking to expand and growth their asset base in the aftermath of the credit crisis. Banks with below-average capital and returns could quickly become buyout targets.

• [By Tim Melvin]

  The year ahead should be a great one for the smaller bank stocks. Larger regionals like Huntington Bancorp (HBAN) and Capital Ban Financial (CBF) have made it clear they intend to grow by acquisition in the years ahead. Banks like First Merit (FMER) and First Merchants (FRME) have done deals in the past year and are open to doing more to increase their market share and footprints. This should be the year the floodgates open and we see the first wave of merger activity in small banks.

Hot Low Price Stocks For 2014: International Speedway Corporation(ISCA)

International Speedway Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, promotes motorsports themed entertainment activities in the United States. The company?s motorsports themed event operations consist of racing events at its motorsports entertainment facilities. Its motorsports entertainment facilities promoted approximately 100 stock car, open wheel, sports car, truck, motorcycle, go-kart racing, and other racing events. The company is also involved in souvenir merchandising operations; food and beverage concession operations; the provision of catering services in suites and chalets; creation of motorsports-related programming content, including national satellite radio service; the usage of its track facilities for testing for teams, driving schools, riding experiences, car shows, auto fairs, concerts and settings for television commercials, print advertisements, and motion pictures; and rents show cars for promotional events. As of November 30, 2011, it owned and/or op erated 13 motorsports entertainment facilities. The company was formerly known as Daytona International Speedway Corporation and changed its name to International Speedway Corporation in 1968. International Speedway Corporation was founded in 1953 and is headquartered in Daytona Beach, Florida.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Monica Gerson]

  © 2014 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.

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• [By Brian Pacampara]

  Based on the aggregated intelligence of 180,000-plus investors participating in Motley Fool CAPS, the Fool's free investing community, motorsports entertainment promoter International Speedway (NASDAQ: ISCA  ) has earned a coveted five-star ranking.

Hot Low Price Stocks For 2014: Portola Pharmaceuticals Inc (PTLA)

Portola Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Portola), incorporated on September 2, 2003, is a biopharmaceutical company developing product candidates that have the potential to represent advances in the fields of thrombosis and hematology. The Company is advancing its three wholly owned programs using biomarker and genetic approaches.

Betrixaban

Portola's compound, betrixaban, is an oral, once-daily Factor Xa inhibitor being evaluated in the only biomarker-based Phase-III study for hospital to home prophylaxis of venous thromboembolism (VTE) in acute medically ill patients. Betrixaban's properties particularly suited to potentially demonstrate efficacy without increasing bleeding in this patient population.

Andexanet Alfa

Portola's second development candidate, andexanet alfa (PRT4445), has the potential to be a reversal agent to directly reverse the effects of Factor Xa inhibitors in patients who suffer a bleeding episode or who require emergency surgery. Portola has entered into clinical collaboration agreements with all of the manufacturers of direct Factor Xa inhibitors, including Bristol-Myers Squibb and Pfizer (Eliquis [apixaban]), Bayer HealthCare and Janssen Pharmaceuticals (XARELTO [rivaroxaban]), and Daiichi Sankyo (Savaysa [edoxaban]), while retaining all decision-making and commercial rights to the program.

Cerdulatinib (PRT2070) and PRT2607

Portola's third wholly owned product candidate, cerdulatinib (PRT2070), is an orally available kinase inhibitor that uniquely inhibits two validated tumor proliferation pathways - spleen tyrosine kinase (Syk) and janus kinase (JAK). It is being studied in patients with leukemias or lymphomas with a focus on genetically-defined subtypes, as well as in patients who have failed therapy due to relapse or acquired mutations. Portola's fourth program is partnered with Biogen Idec and is focused on the development of PRT2607, a selective Syk inhibitor.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Todd Campbell]

  That leads me to Medivation (NASDAQ: MDVN  ) , Ophthotech (NASDAQ: OPHT  ) , and Portola (NASDAQ: PTLA  ) , three companies with important therapies that may very well be destined to become top sellers.

Hot Low Price Stocks For 2014: Bravo Enterprises Ltd (OGNG)

Bravo Enterprises Ltd., formerly Organa Gardens International Inc., incorporated on November 29, 1983, is a development-stage company. The Company holds an undivided 85% working interest and an undivided 68% net revenue interest in 13,189 acres located in Wasatch County, Utah, known as the Uinta Basin and a 0.7% gross overriding royalty interest on 6,360 acres of oil and natural gas rights located in the Powder River Basin of eastern Wyoming. The Company has a vertical hydroponics farming system. The Company owns a 2% royalty interest in the Harvester Property. The LAK Ranch field covers approximately 7,500 acres in the Powder River basin. In September 2011, the Company completed its merger agreement with Integrated Green Technologies LLC.

The Organa Garden Systems (OGS) provide a means for food production and consumption change to global and ecological through vertical hydroponics rotary farming. There are two OGS models; the Discovery (OGS-D) and the Enterprise (OGS-E). Its specially designed waterwheel technology allows the fully automated system to recycle and reuse 95% of the water used while requiring a negligible amount of energy to run.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Peter Graham]

  Small cap green stocks Vision Industries Corp (OTCMKTS: VIIC), Bravo Enterprises Ltd (OTCMKTS: OGNG) and Kleangas Energy Technologies Inc (OTCMKTS: KGET) have reported recent news and/or they are being promoted. Of course, it goes without saying that small cap green stocks tend to be more volatile that other types of investments. So will investors and traders alike see some greenbacks from these green stocks? Here is a quick reality check:

Hot Low Price Stocks For 2014: Protalix Biotherapeutics Inc (PLX)

Protalix BioTherapeutics, Inc. is a biopharmaceutical company focused on the development and commercialization of recombinant therapeutic proteins based on its ProCellEx protein expression system, ProCellEx. Using its ProCellEx system, the Company is developing a pipeline of biosimilar or generic versions of recombinant therapeutic proteins based on its plant cell-based expression technology, which focuses pharmaceutical markets and that rely upon known biological mechanisms of action. ProCellEx protein expression system consists of a set of technologies and capabilities for the development of recombinant proteins, including advanced genetic engineering technology and plant cell-based protein expression methods. Its ProCellEx protein expression system is built on flexible custom-designed bioreactors made of polyethylene and optimized for the development of complex proteins in plant cell cultures. In June 2010, it had completed the preliminary phase I clinical trial of PRX-105.

Taliglucerase Alfa

Taliglucerase alfa is a plant cell expressed recombinant glucocerebrosidase enzyme (GCD) for the treatment of Gaucher disease. The Company has commenced pre-clinical studies of an oral form of taliglucerase alfa. Its oral taliglucerase alfa is a plant cell expressed form of GCD that is naturally encapsulated within carrot cells genetically engineered to express the GCD enzyme. Pre-clinical studies of oral taliglucerase alfa demonstrate the stability of the enzyme in the cell and the capacity of the cell�� cellulose wall to protect the enzyme against degradation in the digestive tract in an in-vitro model of the stomach and intestines. Additionally, rats fed with lyophilized carrot cells expressing GCD have accumulated the active enzyme in the target organs; the spleen and liver. As of December 31, 2010, the Company had completed Phase III Clinical Trial.

PRX-102

The Company is developing PRX-102, its plant cell expressed modified version of the recombinant ! alpha-GAL-A protein, a therapeutic enzyme for the treatment of Fabry disease. Fabry disease is a rare, hereditary, genetic lysosomal storage disorder in humans caused by an X-lined deficiency of the alpha-GAL-A enzyme. The Company is in the animal evaluation testing phase of the development of PRX-102, which tests are based on a mouse model for Fabry disease.

Acetylcholinesterase

Protalix Ltd. is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Company is licensed the rights to certain technology under a research and license agreement with Yissum Research and Development Company (Yissum) and the Boyce Thompson Institute, Inc. Pursuant to the agreement, the Company is developing PRX-105, a plant cell-based acetylcholinesterase (AChE) and its molecular variants for the use in several therapeutic and prophylactic indications, as well as in a biodefense program and an organophosphate-based pesticide treatment program.

As of December 31, 2010, its in-vitro experiments of PRX-105 have shown that the acetylcholinesterase enzyme in its ProCellEx protein expression system demonstrates biological activity on biochemical and cellular levels. In addition, early animal studies demonstrated that the acetylcholinesterase expressed in its ProCellEx protein expression system was able to treat animals exposed to the nerve gas agent analogues, both when injected with its acetylcholinesterase product candidate immediately before exposure or when injected after exposure. In March 2010, it initiated a preliminary phase I clinical trial of PRX-105, which the Company completed in June 2010.

pr-antiTNF

pr-antiTNF is a candidate for the treatment of certain autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, juvenile idiopathic arthritis, ankylosing, spondylitis, psoriatic arthritis and plaque psoriasis. The Company has designed the antiTNF as pr-antiTNF. pr-antiTNF is a plant cell-expressed recombinant fusion protein made from the soluble form of the human TNF receptor (TNFR), f! used to t! he Fc component of a human antibody domain. pr-antiTNF has an identical amino acid sequence to Enbrel and its in-vitro and preclinical animal studies have demonstrated that pr-antiTNF exhibits similar activity to Enbrel. Specifically, pr-antiTNF binds TNF thereby inhibiting it from binding to cellular surface TNF receptors and protects L929 cells from TNF-induced apoptosis in a dose-dependent manner.

The Company competes with Genzyme, Actelion, Crucell N.V., Biolex, Inc., Chlorogen, Inc., Greenovation Biotech GmbH, Symbiosys, Novartis AG/Sandoz Pharmaceuticals, BioGeneriX AG, Stada Arzneimittel AG, BioPartners GmbH and Teva.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Keith Speights]

  Other investors might wish that Pfizer would use some of its cash to acquire a few smaller companies. Protalix BioTherapeutics (NYSEMKT: PLX  ) has been mentioned as one possible candidate. The two companies already partner together on Gaucher disease drug Elelyso. In February, Protalix spurred rumors that Pfizer could be interested in buying the company after it announced that it had engaged Citigroup to pursue a "broad array of strategic alternatives."

Hot Low Price Stocks For 2014: NRG Yield Inc (NYLD)

NRG Yield, Inc., incorporated on December 20, 2012, serves as the primary vehicle, through which NRG Energy, Inc. will own, operate and acquire contracted renewable and conventional generation and thermal infrastructure assets. The Company owns a diversified portfolio of contracted renewable and conventional generation and thermal infrastructure assets in the United States. The Company�� contracted generation portfolio includes three natural gas or dual-fired facilities, eight utility-scale solar and wind generation facilities and two portfolios of distributed solar facilities that collectively represent 1,324 net megawatt. The Company also own thermal infrastructure assets with an aggregate steam and chilled water capacity of 1,098 net megawatt and electric generation capacity of 123 net megawatt. In December 2013, it acquired the assets of privately held Energy Systems Company.

The Company�� thermal infrastructure assets provide steam, hot water and/or chilled water, and in some instances electricity, to commercial businesses, universities, hospitals and governmental units in ten locations, principally through long-term contracts or pursuant to rates regulated by state utility commissions. The Company�� conventional operations consist of 910 net megawatt of natural gas and dual-fired generation assets, Marsh Landing and GenConn, located in the West and Northeast regions of the United States, respectively. The Company�� seven utility-scale solar generation assets generate electricity through the use of photovoltaic panels, with each facility equal to or exceeding 20 megawatt and collectively totaling 303 net megawatt of capacity. These facilities are located in Arizona, California and New Mexico, all states with attractive solar resources. The Company�� distributed solar generation facilities, which it generally define as facilities of less than 20 megawatt in operating capacity, each generate electricity through the use of photovoltaic panels.

The Company�� wind! operations are consists of the 101 megawatt South Trent wind farm located near Sweetwater, Texas. It consists of 44 Siemens 2.3 megawatt wind turbines capable, at rated capacity, of powering approximately 80,000 homes. The Company�� thermal operations are consists of district energy systems and combined heat and power plants (Energy Centers) that utilize an energy-efficient, environmentally sound method of heating and cooling buildings. These Energy Centers produce steam, hot water and/or chilled water and in some instances, electricity at a central plant.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Richard Stavros]

  The launch of these investment vehicles has been a source of excitement in the power industry, particularly with NRG Energy Inc’s (NYSE: NRG) successful initial public offering (IPO) of NRG Yield Inc (NYSE: NYLD), the firm’s YieldCo. That’s prompted a number of utilities to announce similar plans. The question is whether these new securities offer enduring value, similar to what’s happened in the traditional MLP space, or whether they’re just another way for firms to raise cash by making a cynical play for yield-starved income investors.

• [By Marc Bastow]

  Thermal energy asset provider NRG Yield (NYLD) raised its quarterly dividend 10% to 33 cents per share, payable on Mar. 17 to shareholders of record as of Mar. 3.
  NYLD Dividend Yield: 3.32%