Top 5 Services Companies To Watch In Right Now

Innovation is a wonderful thing. Without it, products would never get better. Services would never improve.

That's exactly what Henry Ford was talking about in one of his most famous quotes: "If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses."

Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) is a great example of this dynamic. Before the iPod came along, music lovers were still carrying around racks of CDs that were cumbersome and susceptible to scratches. The iPod not only gave Apple a market-changing product -- and sent its shares rocketing higher -- it also enriched the listening experience with a more user-friendly device.

 

But now, more than 10 years after Apple changed the landscape of consumer electronics, that same cycle of innovation is repeating itself in a different segment of the market.

Top 5 Services Companies To Watch In Right Now: Ryan Air(RYA.L)

Ryanair Holdings plc, together with its subsidiaries, provides passenger airline services in Ireland, the United Kingdom, continental Europe, and Morocco. It also offers various ancillary services, including non-flight scheduled services; the in-flight sale of beverages, food, and merchandise; and Internet-related services, such as insurance, accommodation, and car rental. In addition, the company sells bus and rail tickets onboard its aircraft and through its Website. As of June 30, 2011, it operated a fleet of 272 Boeing 737-800 aircrafts. The company was founded in 1985 and is headquartered in Dublin, Ireland.

Top 5 Services Companies To Watch In Right Now: NCC Group Plc(NCC.L)

NCC Group plc provides information technology assurance and protection services to the public and private sectors worldwide. The company operates in two segments, Escrow and Assurance Testing. The Escrow segment ensures source code, data, or other business critical material is protected and accessible, as well as confirms the material held is protected by verifying that could be rebuilt from its source code components. The Assurance Testing segment provides site confidence services, including testing and monitoring relevant aspects of system, network, and Web site performance to ensure that the technology used could deliver optimum performance. It also offers security testing services, including forensics, vulnerability research, and the development of software to aid organizations in their on-going with information security breaches; and penetration testing, secure systems development, security education, software design verification, and security assessments. This segmen t also conducts security audits; and offers strategic advisory services for card manufacturing, data preparation, and personalization, as well as provides business analysis, project management, test resourcing, network and application performance analysis, functional and non-functional testing, test automation, software testing, and tools training. The company was founded in 1999 and is headquartered in Manchester, the United Kingdom.

Top 5 Safest Companies To Buy For 2014: WaterFurnace Renewable Energy Inc (WFIFF)

WaterFurnace Renewable Energy, Inc. specializes in the design, manufacture and distribution of geothermal and water-source systems. It�� the United States subsidiary companies are WaterFurnace International, Inc. (WaterFurnace) and LoopMaster International, Inc. (LoopMaster). In December 2010, it incorporated two Australian subsidiaries: WaterFurnace International Asia Pacific Pty. Ltd. (WaterFurnace Asia Pacific) and Hyper WFI Pty. Ltd. (Hyper WFI). WaterFurnace designs, manufactures and distributes geothermal water source heating and cooling systems for residential, commercial and institutional buildings. LoopMaster installs geothermal loops for residential applications, does commercial conductivity testing and provides design and installation assistance. Hyper WFI designs, develops and builds devices that limit the inrush current, which electric motors draw upon start up. On January 21, 2011, the Company acquired inventory and fixed assets from Binary Engineering Pty. Ltd. Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Tom Konrad]

  Waterfurnace has appeared in my annual picks several times over the years because they are a pure-play leader in geothermal heat pumps, which the US EPA calls "the most efficient way to heat and cool a building."  Heat pumps have a high up-front cost, and so they benefit from low interest rates and a high price of heating alternatives, such as natural gas.  Recent low natural gas prices have been hurting Waterfurnace's business, which has recently driven the stock price down and brought the dividend yield up to a very attractive 6.74%.

Top 5 Services Companies To Watch In Right Now: Acal(ACL.L)

Acal plc provides technology products and services offering sales, marketing, engineering, and other services in western Europe and South Africa. The company operates in three segments: Electronics, Supply Chain, and Medical. The Electronics segment supplies a range of specialist electronic, photonic, and imaging components and sub systems for industrial electronic manufacturing and system applications. The Supply Chain segment provides service parts and inventory solutions to information technology (IT) service providers, as well as aftermarket warranty services in the U.K. and Germany to original equipment manufacturers (OEM). This segment offers new and in-house refurbished parts for IT systems, including servers, mainframes, PCs, and printers. The Medical segment supplies and maintains capital medical equipment to medical institutions, primarily the National Health Service in the U.K. and private clinics in South Africa. This segment primarily offers bone densitometry scanning, radiotherapy treatment positioning, computed tomography, and digital radiography equipment, as well as after sales service to third parties engaged in the medical and scientific sectors. The company operates in the U.K., the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, France, Italy, South Africa, Spain, and the Nordic region. Acal plc was founded in 1986 and is headquartered in Guildford, the United Kingdom.

Top 5 Services Companies To Watch In Right Now: Regis Corporation(RGS)

Regis Corporation owns, operates, and franchises hairstyling and hair care salons in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Puerto Rico, and internationally. It offers haircutting and styling, including shampooing and conditioning; hair coloring; and waving to men, women, and children. The company also owns and operates hair restoration centers, which provide hair systems, hair transplants, and hair therapy services, as well as hair care products. Its salons operate primarily under the Regis Salons, MasterCuts, SmartStyle, Supercuts, Cost Cutters, Sassoon, Promenade salons, Hair Masters, First Choice Haircutters, Magicuts, and Hair Club trade names in regional shopping malls, strip centers, lifestyle centers, Wal-Mart supercenters, department stores, mass merchants, and high-street locations. As of June 30, 2011, the company owned, franchised, or held ownership interests in approximately 12,700 locations. Regis Corporation was founded in 1922 and is headquartered i n Edina, Minnesota.