10 Best High Tech Stocks To Invest In 2014

People with hepatitis-C and those who carry the virus without even realizing it -- you have a reason to celebrate this weekend.

Hepatitis-C is a contagious virus that attacks the liver and can be found in acute or chronic forms. In nearly all instances, acute cases of hepatitis-C lead to a chronic form of the condition, which can cause cirrhosis of the liver and possibly even liver cancer. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, nearly 3.2 million people in the U.S. (about 1% of the population) are estimated to have a chronic version of the hepatitis-C virus, which is known as one of the silent killers because many of its symptoms go undetected. To put things mildly, it's a serious disease currently commanding a lot of attention from researchers.

That attention manifested itself into the approval by the Food and Drug Administration of Abbott Laboratories' (NYSE: ABT  ) first-ever hepatitis-C genotyping test on Thursday. Known as the Realtime HCV Genotype II, this fully automated test is capable of examining patients' blood to determine which specific genotype of the HCV virus is present out of the 11 known subtypes. Since different medications work better on certain genotypes, Abbott's Realtime HCV Genotype II test is going to revolutionize the speed of, and personalization, of hepatitis-C care.

10 Best High Tech Stocks To Invest In 2014: TRW Automotive Holdings Corporation(TRW)

TRW Automotive Holdings Corp., together with its subsidiaries, designs, manufactures, and sells automotive systems, modules, and components for automotive original equipment manufacturers and related after-markets. It operates in four segments: Chassis Systems, Occupant Safety Systems, Electronics, and Automotive Components. The Chassis Systems segment offers product lines relating to steering gears and systems, foundation brakes, modules, brake controls, and linkage and suspension. The Occupant Safety Systems segment provides airbags, seat belts, steering wheels, and occupant restraint systems. The Electronics segment offers various products comprising safety electronics, radio frequency electronics, chassis electronics, powertrain electronics, and driver assist systems. The Automotive Components provides body controls, engine valves, and engineered fasteners and components. The company offers its products for passenger cars, light trucks, and commercial vehicles worldwid e. TRW Automotive Holdings Corp. was founded in 1904 and is based in Livonia, Michigan.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Ben Levisohn]

  Cooper Tire & Rubber (CTB) has gained 1% to $24.86 today, but its trading more on whether investors expect its acquisition by Apollo Tyres to be completed. Car-part companies, however, are also exhibiting weakness today. TRW Automotive (TRW) has fallen 0.8% to $77.91, Lear (LEA) has dipped 0.4% to $74.78 and American Axel and Manufacturing (AXL) is off 0.5% to $18.99.

• [By Patricio Kehoe]

  Automobile manufacturers have been performing well as of late, largely due to increasing sales pushed by a recovering U.S. economy and growing emerging markets. Auto parts suppliers, such as TRW Automotive Holdings Corp (TRW) and Johnson Controls Inc. (JCI), are bound to benefit largely from rising sales, and thus present themselves as interesting investment opportunities. However, due to their focus on different industry segments, and their current stock valuation, investing in only one of these companies makes sense.
  
  Safety Sells

10 Best High Tech Stocks To Invest In 2014: iShares Short Treasury Bond ETF (SHV)

iShares Lehman Short Treasury Bond Fund (the Fund) seeks investment results that correspond generally to the price and yield performance of the short-term sector of the United States Treasury market as defined by the Lehman Brothers Short U.S. Treasury Index (the Index). The Index includes all publicly issued United States Treasury securities that have a remaining maturity of between 1 and 12 months, and have more than $250 million or more of outstanding face value. In addition, the securities must be denominated in United States dollars, and must be fixed-rate and non-convertible securities. Excluded from the Index are certain special issues, such as flower bonds, targeted investor notes, and state and local government series bonds (SLG5), and coupon issues that have been stripped from assets that are already included in the Index.

The Index is a market capitalization-weighted index. The Fund generally will invest at least 95% of its assets in the United States Government bonds. The Fund invests in a representative sample of the securities in the Index, which has a similar investment profile as the Index. The Fund�� investment advisor is Barclays Global Fund Advisor.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Donald van Deventer]

  Shorter-duration Treasury Exchange-Traded Funds: (SHY), (SHV), (IEI), (BIL), (TUZ), (FIVZ), (DTUL), (VGSH), (DTUS), (DFVS), (DFVL), (SST), (ISTB), (TBZ).

Top 5 China Stocks To Buy For 2014: Top Image Systems Ltd.(TISA)

Top Image Systems Ltd. provides enterprise solutions for managing and validating content entering organizations from various sources. It develops and markets automated data capture solutions for managing and validating content gathered from customers, trading partners, and employees. The company?s solutions deliver digital content to the applications that drive an enterprise by using technologies, such as wireless communications, servers, form processing, and information recognition systems. It offers eFLOW Unified Content Platform that provides the common architectural infrastructure for its solutions. The company also provides Smart, an automated classification solution, which is the eFLOW plug-in for unstructured content providing single point of entry for information entering the organization; and Freedom, the eFLOW plug-in for semi-structured content that enables customers to identify and capture critical data from semi-structured documents, such as invoices, purchase orders, shipping notes, and checks. In addition, it offers Integra, the eFLOW plug-in for structured content, which provides a solution for data capture, validation, and delivery from structured predefined forms; eFLOW Ability, an integrated module interfacing with SAP systems for automated parking, approval, and posting of invoices and other document within SAP systems; and eFLOW Invoice Reader, an invoice capture and approval solution, which could be deployed and integrated in enterprise accounting environment, such as SAP, Oracle, and other financial systems. Top Image Systems Ltd. sells its products through a network of value-added distributors, systems integrators, original equipment manufacturers, and partners in approximately 40 countries worldwide. It has strategic partnership with SQN Banking Systems (SQN) to incorporate SQN's fraud detection solutions with its eFLOW Banking Platform in the Asia Pacific market. The company was founded in 1991 and is headquartered i n Ramat Gan, Israel.

10 Best High Tech Stocks To Invest In 2014: NETGEAR Inc.(NTGR)

NETGEAR, Inc. engages in the design, development, marketing, and sale of networking products. The company offers home networking, storage, and digital media products to connect users with the Internet and their content and devices; networking, storage, and security solutions to commercial businesses; and whole home networking solutions to service providers for sale to their customers. Its products include commercial business networking products consisting of Ethernet switches, wireless controllers, Internet security appliances, and network attached storage devices; broadband access products, such as routers, gateways, IP telephony products, and media servers; and network connectivity products comprising wireless access points, wireless network interface cards and adapters, Ethernet network interface cards and adapters, media adapters, powerline adapters and bridges, and multimedia over coax alliance standard adapters and bridges. The company produces its products through t hird-party manufacturers. NETGEAR, Inc. markets its products primarily through retailers, online retailers, wholesale distributors, direct market resellers, value added resellers, and broadband service providers worldwide. NETGEAR, Inc. was founded in 1996 and is headquartered in San Jose, California.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Seth Jayson]

  Netgear (Nasdaq: NTGR  ) is expected to report Q2 earnings on July 25. 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 Netgear's revenues will grow 10.2% and EPS will contract -12.5%.

• [By Steve Symington]

  Shares of Netgear� (NASDAQ: NTGR  ) touched a fresh 52-week-low during Tuesday's intraday trading after the company released select preliminary results for the first quarter of 2013.

• [By Steve Symington and Erin Miller]

  Early last week, Fool contributor Steve Symington wrote that he would soon buy shares of Netgear (NASDAQ: NTGR  ) in his personal portfolio.

10 Best High Tech Stocks To Invest In 2014: Sierra Wireless Inc(SW.TO)

Sierra Wireless, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, provides wireless solutions for the machine-to-machine (M2M) and mobile computing markets. It develops and markets various wireless products, including mobile broadband devices that comprise USB modems and mobile Wi-Fi hotspots that provide a way to connect notebooks, tablets, and other electronic devices to the Internet, over 3G and 4G mobile broadband networks; and wireless embedded modules to provide embedded 3G connectivity in the latest generation of the Lenovo ThinkPad professional-grade laptop computers. The company also offers intelligent gateways and routers for public safety, transportation, field service, energy, industrial, and financial organizations; and a cloud-based services platform, which delivers Web-based solutions and services that enable application providers, original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), and mobile network operators to develop, deploy, and operate complete M2M solutions for managing r emote equipment and assets. In addition, it provides professional services to OEM customers during their product development and launch process in built-in wireless connectivity for mobile computing devices and M2M solutions. The company offers its products to automotive, networking equipment, energy, security, sales and payment, industrial control and monitoring, fleet management, field service, healthcare, and consumer electronics industries, as well as businesses and consumers. It sells its products and solutions primarily through various indirect channels, such as wireless operators, distributors, and value-added resellers, as well as directly to OEMs and enterprises. Sierra Wireless, Inc. was founded in 1993 and is headquartered in Richmond, Canada.

10 Best High Tech Stocks To Invest In 2014: Fuwei Films(Holdings)

Fuwei Films (Holdings) Co., Ltd., together with its subsidiaries, engages in the development, manufacture, distribution, and export of plastic film using the biaxially-oriented stretch technique in China. The company offers its biaxially oriented polyethylene terephthalate (BOPET) film under the ?Fuwei Films? brand name primarily for use in flexible packaging, printing, laminating, and aluminum-plating applications, as well as in electrical and electronic uses. Its products include printing base film used in printing and lamination applications; stamping foil base film and transfer base films used for the packaging of luxury items, such as cigarettes and alcohol; metallization film or aluminum plating base film used for vacuum aluminum plating for flexible plastic lamination; high-gloss film used for aesthetically enhanced packaging purposes; and heat-sealable film used for construction, printing, and heat sealable bags making. The company?s products also comprise laser holographic base film used as anti-counterfeit film for food, medicine, cosmetics, cigarettes, and alcohol packaging; dry film used in circuit boards production, and for nameplate and crafts etching; and heat shrinkage film used for special-shaped packaging for alcohol, cans, mineral water, and cleaning products. It exports its products to packaging customers and distributors primarily in Europe, Asia, and North America. The company was founded in 2003 and is headquartered in Weifang, China. As of May 1, 2011, Fuwei Films (Holdings) Co., Ltd. operates as a subsidiary of Weifang State-owned Assets Operation Administration Company.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Adam Haigh]

  Among stocks that fell, Yue Yuen Industrial (Holdings) Ltd. (551), a supplier of shoes to Nike Inc. and Adidas AG, sank 12 percent to HK$23.80. The company said its first-quarter results showed a ��ignificant downturn��compared with a year earlier and this could adversely affect interim performance.

10 Best High Tech Stocks To Invest In 2014: Petrofac(PFC.L)

Petrofac Limited, together with its subsidiaries, provides facilities solutions to the oil and gas production and processing industries. The company operates in four segments: Engineering and Construction, Offshore Engineering and Operations, Energy Developments, and Engineering, Training Services, and Production Solutions segments. The Engineering and Construction segment provides engineering, procurement, and construction project execution services to the onshore oil and gas industries. The Offshore Engineering and Operations segment offers engineering and construction services at all stages of greenfield and brownfield offshore projects, as well as operations management services to the offshore oil and gas industries. The Energy Developments segment co-invests with partners in oil and gas production, processing, and transportation of assets. The Engineering, Training Services, and Production Solutions segment engages in the provision of early stage engineering services, such as conceptual FEED studies, oil and gas related technical competency training and consultancy services, and production improvement services under value aligned commercial structures. The company provides its services primarily in Algeria, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, Kuwait, Syria, and Saudi Arabia. Petrofac Limited was founded in 1981 and is based in London, the United Kingdom.

10 Best High Tech Stocks To Invest In 2014: Neogen Corporation(NEOG)

Neogen Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, develops, manufactures, and markets various products for food and animal safety worldwide. The company?s Food Safety segment offers diagnostic test kits and complementary products to detect dangerous and/or unintended substances in human food and animal feed, such as foodborne pathogens, spoilage organisms, natural toxins, food allergens, genetic modifications, ruminant by-products, drug residues, pesticide residues, and general sanitation concerns. Its products also comprise bioluminescence-based diagnostic technology for adenosine triphosphate, a chemical found in living cells. This segment offers its products primarily to food and feed producers, meat and poultry processors, seafood processors, fruit and vegetable producers, grain producers and processors, food and beverage processors, and dairies; laboratories and producers of pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, veterinary vaccines, and nutraceutical products; and various re gulatory agencies. The company?s Animal safety segment provides pharmaceuticals, rodenticides, disinfectants, vaccines, veterinary instruments, topicals and diagnostic products, and genetic testing services to the animal safety market. Its drug detection immunoassay test kits are used for the detection of abused and therapeutic drugs in farm animals and racing animals, such as horses, greyhounds, and camels; detection of drug residues in meat and meat products; and human forensic toxicology drug screening applications. This segment?s products are also used to maintain sanitary conditions and limit the potential hazards of bacteria, fungi, and viruses. In addition, it offers various products for researchers to detect biologically-active substances; and proprietary substrates for other diagnostic test kit manufacturers. The company sells its products directly, as well as through distributors and retail chains. Neogen Corporation was founded in 1981 and is headquartered in La nsing, Michigan.

10 Best High Tech Stocks To Invest In 2014: Pinnacle Entertainment Inc.(PNK)

Pinnacle Entertainment, Inc. owns, develops, and operates casinos, and related hospitality and entertainment facilities in the United States. It operates casinos, such as L'Auberge du Lac in Lake Charles, Louisiana; River City Casino and Lumiere Place in St. Louis, Missouri; Boomtown New Orleans in New Orleans, Louisiana; Belterra Casino Resort in Vevay, Indiana; Boomtown Bossier City in Bossier City, Louisiana; and Boomtown Reno in Reno, Nevada. The company also operates River Downs racetrack in southeast Cincinnati, Ohio. As of May 26, 2011, it operated seven casinos and one racetrack. The company was formerly known as Hollywood Park, Inc. and changed its name to Pinnacle Entertainment, Inc. in February 2000. Pinnacle Entertainment, Inc. was founded in 1935 and is based in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Travis Hoium]

  What: Shares of Ameristar Casinos (NASDAQ: ASCA  ) and Pinnacle Entertainment (NYSE: PNK  ) fell as much as 11% today after the government brought into question the merger of the two companies.

10 Best High Tech Stocks To Invest In 2014: Westwood Holdings Group Inc(WHG)

Westwood Holdings Group, Inc. manages investment assets and provides services for its clients. It operates through two subsidiaries, Westwood Management Corp. and Westwood Trust. The Westwood Management Corp. provides investment advisory services to corporate retirement plans, public retirement plans, endowments and foundations, mutual funds, individuals, and clients of Westwood Trust. The Westwood Trust provides trust and custodial services to institutions and high net worth individuals, and participates in common trust funds that it sponsors. The company was founded in 1983 and is based in Dallas, Texas.