Top Regional Bank Stocks To Buy For 2015

Almost by stealth, there's a group of stocks that have put up strong numbers in November and for the year -- even while many people profess to, well, hate them. We're talking banks.

Big banks are doing splendidly. Regional banks are doing even better. If interest rates start to rise -- a question of when, not if -- bank and financial services stocks should do even better. Plus, the regional banks are lovely takeover candidates.

In other words, if banks stocks do well in the coming months, they will give support to the stock market rally.

The winners so far include JPMorgan Chase (NYSE: JPM), which is the top performer in the Dow Jones Industrial Average, up 11.5 percent for the month.

Hot Heal Care Companies For 2016: Blackrock Corporate High Yield Fund Inc (HYT)

BlackRock Corporate High Yield Fund VI, Inc. is a diversified closed-end management investment company. The Fund seeks to provide current income by investing primarily in a diversified portfolio of fixed-income securities.

The investments are rated in the lower rating categories of the rating services (Ba or lower by Moody's Investors Service, Inc., or BB or lower by Standard & Poor's Corporation) or are unrated securities of comparable quality. BlackRock Advisors, LLC. is the manager of the Fund.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Aaron Levitt]

  MMT comes with a hefty 6.76% distribution yield and is currently trading for a nearly 12% discount to its underlying value. That�� well over the normal discount range for the fund. �Expenses for MMT run 1.00% — or $100 per $10,000 invested — per year.

  BlackRock Corporate High Yield Fund (HYT)

  Discount to NAV: 7.11%
  Distribution Yield: 7.86%

Top Regional Bank Stocks To Buy For 2015: Leap Wireless International Inc.(LEAP)

Leap Wireless International, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, provides digital wireless services under the ?Cricket? brand name in the United States. The company offers unlimited local and the U.S. long distance services from various Cricket service area and unlimited text messaging services, as well as mobile Web, 411 services, navigation, and data back-up. It also provides BridgePay, a flexible payment option for customers to use and pay for the company?s cricket wireless service; handsets and devices with various features; cricket broadband service, an unlimited mobile broadband service that allows customers to access the Internet through their computers; Cricket PAYGo Service, a pay-as-you-go unlimited prepaid wireless service designed for customers who prefer the flexibility and control offered by traditional prepaid services; and Muve Music Service, an unlimited music download service for mobile handsets in select cricket markets. In addition, the company off ers voice and data roaming services. It markets its cricket handsets and services, primarily through company-owned retail stores and kiosks, as well as through authorized dealers and distributors, including premier dealers, local market authorized dealers, national mass-market retailers, and other indirect distributors. As of December 31, 2010, the company offered services in 35 states and the District of Columbia to approximately 5.5 million customers. Leap Wireless International, Inc. was founded in 1998 and is headquartered in San Diego, California.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Rich Duprey]

  So that's the lens through which investors should view AT&T's (NYSE: T  ) $1.2 billion bid to acquire the prepaid Cricket service offered by Leap Wireless (NASDAQ: LEAP  ) . Sure, it brings in another 5.2 million subscribers, a 3G CDMA network covering 96 million people, a�4G LTE network covering 21 million people, and the Cricket brand, which, while fumbling, seems a better business than Ma Bell's own Go service. But more importantly, it also includes Leap's AWS and PCS�bands, covering 137 million people that AT&T says is complementary to its current spectrum licenses.

• [By Evan Niu, CFA]

  Leap Wireless (NASDAQ: LEAP  ) has had trouble keeping up with its commitment, saying its current selling rate puts it $450 million short of its three-year deal with Apple. The company expected to only meet half of its first-year commitment through June 2013, which hadn't changed by the time of its most recent 10-Q. Leap is one of the only major domestic carriers that doesn't report iPhone activations, but clearly there's something to be desired with the figures.

Top Regional Bank Stocks To Buy For 2015: Ball Corporation (BLL)

Ball Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, supplies metal packaging to the beverage, food, and household products industries worldwide. It offers aluminum and steel beverage containers for producers of beer, carbonated soft drinks, mineral water, fruit juices, energy drinks, and other beverages. The company also provides two-piece and three-piece steel food containers and ends for packaging vegetables, fruit, soups, meat, seafood, nutritional products, pet food, and other products, as well as aerosol cans, paint cans, custom and specialty containers and decorative steel tins. In addition, the company provides various aerospace systems comprising spacecraft, instruments and sensors, radio frequency and microwave technologies, data exploitation solutions, and other aerospace technologies and products, as well as offers technical services and products to government agencies, contractors, and commercial organizations for a range of information warfare, electronic warfar e, avionics, intelligence, training, and space systems needs. Ball Corporation was founded in 1880 and is headquartered in Broomfield, Colorado.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Monica Gerson]

  Ball (NYSE: BLL) is expected to report its Q3 earnings at $0.93 per share on revenue of $2.26 billion.

  United Stationers (NASDAQ: USTR) is projected to post its Q3 earnings at $0.99 per share on revenue of $1.33 billion.

• [By Rich Duprey]

  Food and beverage packaging specialist Ball� (NYSE: BLL  ) �has launched a�cash tender offer�for its 7.125% senior notes maturing in 2016.�The company is offering $1,053.22 in total for each $1,000 in principal value of the notes, plus accrued and unpaid interest. All told, the issue has an aggregate principal amount of $375 million.

• [By Jonas Elmerraji]

  $9 billion packaging company Ball Corp. (BLL) has actually been a spectacular performer in 2014 -- shares are up 25% since the beginning of the year. But don't worry if you missed the move so far; Ball is headed for more upside before the end of the year. And it's all thanks to one of the most basic price patterns in our playbook...

  Ball has been bouncing its way higher in a well-defined uptrending channel, in this case since the start of May. Every test of trendline support has provided investors with a low-risk buying opportunity for shares of Ball, and shares are bouncing off of support for an eighth time this week. It makes sense to buy this support bounce.

  Waiting for a bounce off of support is a critical test for two big reasons: it's the spot where shares have the furthest to move up before they hit resistance, and it's the spot where the risk is the least (because shares have the least room to move lower before you know you're wrong). Remember, all trend lines do eventually break, but by actually waiting for the bounce to happen first, you're ensuring BLL can actually still catch a bid along that line before you put your money on shares.

  Must Read: 10 Stocks Carl Icahn Loves in 2014

• [By Selena Maranjian]

  Permit me to introduce you to Ball Corp. (NYSE: BLL  ) , for example. It used to be more of a household name than it is today, but it's worth knowing about, as you might want to add some Ball stock to your portfolio. Why? Well, check this out: Ball stock has appreciated by roughly 18% over the past year. It has gained, on average, about 13.5% annually over the past 25 years, enough to turn $10,000 into almost $240,000.

Top Regional Bank Stocks To Buy For 2015: Seabridge Gold Inc (SA)

Seabridge Gold Inc. (Seabridge) is a development-stage company. The Company is engaged in the acquisition and exploration of gold properties located in North America. As of December 31, 2011, the Company held six properties with gold resources and its material properties are its KSM Project and its Courageous Lake Project. The Company holds a 100% interest in each of its properties. Its projects include KSM (Kerr-Sulphurets-Mitchell), Courageous Lake, Pacific Intermountain Gold, Grassy Mountain, Red Mountain, Quartz Mountain, Castle Black Rock and Other Nevada projects. The KSM project consists of two contiguous claim blocks in the Iskut-Stikine region in British Columbia, approximately 20 kilometers southeast of the Eskay Creek Mine. The Courageous Lake project is a gold project covering approximately 81,700 acres located in the Northwest Territories, Canada. Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Lisa Levin]

  Gold: This industry rose 1.44% by 10:40 am ET. The top performer in this industry was Seabridge Gold (NYSE: SA), which gained 11.3%. Seabridge Gold shares have dropped 60.24% over the past 52 weeks, while the S&P 500 index has gained 26.39% in the same period.

Top Regional Bank Stocks To Buy For 2015: Market Vectors Brazil Small-Cap ETF (BRF)

Market Vectors Brazil Small-Cap ETF (the Fund) seeks to replicate as closely as possible the price and yield performance of the Market Vectors Brazil Small-Cap Index (the Index). The Index is a rules-based, modified market capitalization-weighted, float-adjusted index consisting of publicly traded small-capitalization companies that are domiciled and primarily listed on an exchange in Brazil, or that generate at least 50% of their revenues in Brazil. The Index is the exclusive property of 4asset-management GmbH, which has contracted with Standard & Poor��, a division of The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. to maintain and calculate the Index. The Fund is passively managed and may not hold each Index component in the same weighting as the Index. The Fund�� investment advisor is Van Eck Associates Corporation. Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Hilary Kramer]

  Brasil Foods SA (BRF) is South America�� largest food processing company, involved in everything from meat and dairy products to pasta, frozen vegetables and soybean-related products. The company has been around since 1939, and Forbes ranked it 39th on its list of the world�� most innovative companies. It brings in about $13 billion in sales each year, and analysts are estimating that earnings will grow from 94 cents per share in 2012 to $1.94 for all of 2013, with additional growth to $2.78 in 2014.

• [By Jon C. Ogg]

  Market Vectors Brazil Small-Cap ETF (NYSEArca: BRF) has performed closely with the larger ETF group, with a drop of almost 4% so far in 2014. By its name, you can assume it tracks small-cap stocks. It aims to track the Market Vectors Brazil Small-Cap Index. At $28.51, its 52-week trading range is $27.99 to $44.17.

Top Regional Bank Stocks To Buy For 2015: Wendel SA (MF)

Wendel SA is a France-based investor for the long-term as the majority or leading shareholder in listed or unlisted companies, taking the lead in order to accelerate the growth and development. The Firm takes part in the definition and implementation of ambitious strategies and provides the funding necessary. The investment strategy and development of the Firm takes place via close interaction with the management teams of the companies in which the Firm is a shareholder. This partnership is at the heart of the value creation process. The Firm offers active and constant support, sharing the risks and providing expertise as well as financial and technical skills. Advisors' Opinion:

• [By John McCamant]

  Incyte Pharmaceuticals (INCY) recently held their quarterly conference call. Importantly, sales for Jakafi��n advanced compound used for the treatment of patients with intermediate or high-risk myelofibrosis (MF)��et or exceeded Wall Street's expectations.

Top Regional Bank Stocks To Buy For 2015: West Pharmaceutical Services Inc.(WST)

West Pharmaceutical Services, Inc. manufactures and sells components and systems for injectable drug delivery and plastic packaging, and delivery system components for the pharmaceutical, healthcare, and consumer products industries. The company?s Packaging Systems segment provides packaging components and systems used in injectable drug delivery. This segment offers elastomeric stoppers and discs, elastomeric plungers, needle shields, tip caps, aluminum seals and removable plastic buttons, elastomeric components, flashback bulbs and sleeve stoppers, elastomer and co-molded elastomer/plastic components, non-filled syringe components, and dropper bulbs, as well as pharmaceutical containers, closures, and dispensers. This segment also provides laboratory and other services comprising extractables and leachables testing, package/container testing, method development/validation, stability testing, process development, and problem resolution. Its Delivery Systems segment offer s healthcare devices, such as ready-to-use prefilled syringe systems and sterile vials. This segment also offers sterile devices and electronic patch injector systems; passive safety needle systems, disposable auto-injector systems, and safety systems for prefilled syringes; and contract manufacturing services for personal care and consumer products, including infant nurser assemblies, closures for beverage containers, and child-resistant and tamper-evident closures and dispensers. In addition, this segment engages in contract manufacturing and assembling injection molded components and devices for surgical, ophthalmic, diagnostic, and drug delivery systems. The company distributes its products through its sales force and distribution network, as well as through contract sales agents and regional distributors in the United States, Germany, France, and other European countries. West Pharmaceutical Services, Inc. was founded in 1923 and is headquartered in Lionville, Pennsylva nia.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [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 West Pharmaceutical Services (NYSE: WST  ) , whose recent revenue and earnings are plotted below.