5 Best Railroad Stocks To Own Right Now

It looks like this has become the Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.B) blog, where it’s all Berkshire Hathaway all the time.

Zuma Press

Already today, I looked at KBW’s concerns surrounding Berkshire Hathaway’s disclosures. Now, Warren Buffett’s investment vehicle has released first quarter financial results.

The Wall Street Journal has the details on Berkshire Hathaway’s earnings:

Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. reported lower railroad and insurance-related net income as the conglomerate posted a 6.6% drop in first-quarter operating profit.

For the first quarter, Berkshire reported net income of $4.71 billion, or $2,862 a Class A share, compared with $4.89 billion, or $2,977 a share, a year earlier. Operating profit, which excludes some investment results, fell to $2,149 a share from $2,302 a share.

5 Best Railroad Stocks To Own Right Now: Cerus Corporation(CERS)

Cerus Corporation, a biomedical products company, engages in the development and commercialization of the INTERCEPT Blood System. The company?s INTERCEPT system is designed to inactivate blood-borne pathogens in donated blood components intended for transfusion. It markets the INTERCEPT system for platelets and plasma primarily in Europe, the Russian Federation, and the Middle East. The company is also developing INTERCEPT Blood System for red blood cells or red blood cell system, which is designed to inactivate blood-borne pathogens in donated red blood cells for transfusion. Cerus Corporation has collaboration agreements with Baxter International, Inc.; and BioOne Corporation, as well as the United States Armed Forces. The company was founded in 1991 and is based in Concord, California.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Seth Jayson]

  Cerus (Nasdaq: CERS  ) is expected to report Q1 earnings on April 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 Cerus's revenues will expand 15.0% and EPS will remain in the red.

5 Best Railroad Stocks To Own Right Now: Marquee Energy Ltd (MQL)

Marquee Energy Ltd. (Marquee), formerly Marquee Petroleum Ltd., is a junior oil and gas company engaged in the acquisition, exploration, development and production of petroleum and natural gas reserves in Western Canada. The Company is focused on the Cardium play of West Central Alberta in the Wilesden Green, Carrot Creek and South Pembina areas. As of December 31, 2011, the Company owned a total of approximately 174,420 gross acres (147,875 net acres) of oil and natural gas leases. In December 2013, it acquired all of the Western Canadian assets of Sonde Resources Corp. (Sonde), including all of its Southern Alberta properties. The Assets are primarily located in Marquee's core area at Michichi, Alberta immediately offsetting Marquee's lands and production. In March 2014, Marquee Energy Ltd completed the acquisition of strategic assets in its oil focused Michichi core area. Advisors' Opinion:

• [By John Udovich]
  Sonde Resources Corp. An oil and gas exploration and production company based in Calgary, Alberta, Sonde Resources Corp held a global portfolio of high potential energy assets including producing oil and natural gas assets in Western Canada and offshore exploration property in North Africa.�Specifically, Sonde Resources Corp had�226,119 gross undeveloped acres in Western Canada and 750,000 acres in a Libya/Tunisia offshore licence. However and last November,�an agreement between Sonde Resources Corp and�Marquee Energy Ltd (CVE: MQL) was announced whereby�the latter�will acquire substantially all of the former���Western Canadian assets, including all of its Southern Alberta properties. These assets�are primarily located in Marquee's core area at Michichi, Alberta, immediately offsetting Marquee's lands and production. Under the deal which concluded at the end of last year, Sonde Resources Corp received 21,182,492 common shares of Marquee Energy Ltd plus $15 million cash with the�shares�being distributed to Sonde Resources Corp's shareholders and Sonde itself retaining the cash�received. In addition, Sonde Resources Corp will retain ownership of about 100,000 net acres of Western Canada exploration assets, split approximately equally between its Eaglesham area Wabamun play and west central Alberta Duvernay play.�Moreover, the company will continue to seek strategic alternatives for this Western Canada exploration acreage, including cash sales, farm-outs, other forms of merger, or other options. Otherwise, Sonde Resources Corp�� business�will focus on�the development of the Zarat field and exploration of the Joint Oil Block in North Africa. On Tuesday, small cap Sonde Resources Corp fell 1.83% to $0.530 (SOQ has a 52 week trading range of $0.51 to $2.11 a share) for a market cap of $29.72 million plus the stock is down 70.5% over the past year and down 55.8% over the past five years.

Top Heal Care Companies To Own In Right Now: Vipshop Holdings Ltd (VIPS)

Vipshop Holdings Limited (Vipshop Holdings), incorporated on August 27, 2010, is a holding company. Vipshop Holdings conducts its business through its subsidiaries and consolidated affiliated entity in the People's Republic of China. The Company is engaged in the online discount retailer for various brands. It offers branded products to consumers in China through flash sales on its vipshop.com Website. As of February 17, 2012, it had the rights to sell selective products from over 360 brands. As of December 31, 2011, it had offered diversified product offerings from over 1,900 popular domestic and international brands on its Website, including Aimer, A-life, Bossini, Disney, FOX, Harry Potter, Kappa, KUHLE, Lily, Limi, Mentholatum, Metersbonwe, MEXICAN, Ochirly and Pepsi. As of December 31, 2011, it owned seven registered trademarks, copyrights to six software programs developed by the Company, and four registered domain names, such as vipshop.com, vipshop.com.cn, vipshop.cn and vipshop.net.

In February 2014, the Company announced that it has acquired a 75 % interest in Lefeng.com Limited from Ovation Entertainment Limited.

The Company�� business model provides an online shopping for its customers. It offers new sales events with a selection of popular branded products at discounted prices in limited quantities during limited time periods. As of February 17, 2012, its total number of customers were 0.9 million, representing 60.6% of the total number of its customers. The Company offers a curated selection of apparel, fashion goods, cosmetics, home goods and lifestyle products from popular domestic and international brands. Its Product Category include womenswear, menswear, footwear, accessories, handbags, children, sportswear and sporting goods, cosmetics, home goods and other, lifestyle products, luxury goods and gifts and miscellaneous.

The Company competes with B2C e-commerce, Taobao Mall, 360Buy and Dangdang.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Jeremy Bowman]

  What: Shares of Vipshop Holdings (NYSE: VIPS  ) were going for a discount today, falling as much as 16% after the Chinese online discount retailer responded to recent allegations of fraud.

• [By Belinda Cao]

  Web clothing retailer Vipshop Holdings Ltd. (VIPS) surged 27 percent to $60 last week, rallying the most since the week ended Feb. 8. E-Commerce China Dangdang Inc. jumped 11 percent in the steepest climb in six weeks to $9.84.

• [By Jake L'Ecuyer]

  Equities Trading UP
  Vipshop Holdings (NYSE: VIPS) shot up 30.73 percent to $167.02 after the company reported better-than-expected fourth-quarter results and issued a strong revenue forecast for the first quarter.

5 Best Railroad Stocks To Own Right Now: ONEOK Inc.(OKE)

ONEOK, Inc., a diversified energy company, operates as a natural gas distributor primarily in the United States. The company operates in three segments: ONEOK Partners, Distribution, and Energy Services. The ONEOK Partners segment engages in gathering, processing, fractionating, transporting, storing, and marketing natural gas and natural gas liquids (NGL) principally in the Mid-Continent and Rocky Mountain regions, which include Anadarko Basin of Oklahoma, Fort Worth Basin of Texas, Hugoton and Central Kansas Uplift Basins of Kansas, Williston Basin of Montana, and North Dakota and the Powder River Basin of Wyoming. This segment offers its services to oil and gas production companies; natural gas gathering and processing companies; petrochemical, refining, and NGL marketing companies; Local distribution companies (LDCs) and power generating companies; and natural gas marketing and NGL gathering companies, and propane distributors. The Distribution segment provides natural gas distribution services to residential, commercial, industrial, and transportation customers, as well as public authority customers, such as cities, governmental agencies, and schools in Oklahoma, Kansas, and Texas. The Energy Services segment delivers physical natural gas products and risk management services through its network of contracted transportation and storage capacity, and natural gas supply. This segment?s customers primarily comprise LDCs, electric utilities, and industrial end users. The company was founded in 1906 and is headquartered in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By John Divine]

  Lastly, shares of utilities company ONEOK (NYSE: OKE  ) shed 6.8% after Morgan Stanley�downgraded shares from overweight to equal weight, lowering its price target to $53 per share. The downgrade comes after an earnings report that showed a nearly 6% earnings spike as natural gas became more popular. So even as revenue advanced nearly 4%, the fact that the number was more than 7% below forecasts added downward pressure on the stock.�

5 Best Railroad Stocks To Own Right Now: Verizon Communications Inc.(VZ)

Verizon Communications Inc. provides communication services. The company operates through two segments, Domestic Wireless and Wireline. The Domestic Wireless segment offers wireless voice and data services; and sells equipment in the United States. The Wireline segment provides voice, Internet access, broadband video and data, Internet protocol network, network access, long distance, and other services in the United States and internationally. The company serves consumer, business, and government customers, as well as carriers. As of December 31, 2010, its network covered a population of approximately 292 million and provided service to a customer base of approximately 94.1 million. The company was formerly known as Bell Atlantic Corporation and changed its name to Verizon Communications Inc. in June 2000. Verizon Communications Inc. was founded in 1983 and is based in New York, New York.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Dan Radovsky]

  Hence, the new postures on upgrading phones early, first from T-Mobile (NYSE: TMUS  ) , and then from AT&T (NYSE: T  ) , and soon, according to Droid Life, from Verizon (NYSE: VZ  ) .