Top Defense Companies To Watch For 2014

While Tesla Motors, Inc. (TSLA) crashes and burns on YouTube and with its stock price, another car stock, Tata Motors Limited (TTM) is driving higher.

Based in Mumbai, India, Tata engages in the manufacture and sale of commercial and passenger vehicles primarily in India. The company's product portfolio includes micro, compact, and midsize passenger cars; premium and luxury sports utility vehicles and cars; utility vehicles; and small, light, intermediate, and medium and heavy commercial vehicles, as well as vans, trucks, buses, and defense and homeland security vehicles. It also develops electric and hybrid vehicles for personal and public transportation.

TTM is traveling in the opposite direction of most cars stocks today thanks to an upgrade from Deutsche Bank. Analyst Srinivas Rao moved the Indian automaker to a "Buy" from a "Hold" rating.

Top 10 Cheap Companies To Own For 2015: Hexcel Corp (HXL)

Hexcel Corporation (Hexcel), incorporated in 1948, is a composites company. The Company develops, manufactures and markets composites, including carbon fibers, reinforcements, prepregs, honeycomb, matrix systems, adhesives and composite structures, for use in Commercial Aerospace, Space and Defense, and Industrial Applications. Its products are used in a variety of end applications, such as commercial and military aircraft, space launch vehicles and satellites, wind turbine blades, automotive, bikes, skis and a variety of other industrial applications. Hexcel has two segments: Composite Materials and Engineered Products. The Composite Materials consists of carbon fiber, reinforcements for composites, honeycomb core and matrix product lines. The Engineered Products consists of composite structures and specially machined honeycomb product lines.

Composite Materials

The Composite Materials segment manufactures and markets carbon fibers, fabrics and specialty reinforcements, prepregs, structural adhesives, honeycomb, composite panels, molding compounds, polyurethane systems and laminates that are incorporated into many applications, including military and commercial aircraft, wind turbine blades, recreational products and other industrial applications. HexTow carbon fibers are manufactured for sale to third-party customers, as well as for its own use in manufacturing certain reinforcements and composite materials. Carbon fibers are woven into carbon fabrics, used as reinforcement in conjunction with a resin matrix to produce pre-impregnated composite materials. Carbon fibers is also used in filament winding, hand layup, automatic tape layup and advanced fiber placement to produce finished composite components. Its carbon fibers��product applications include structural components for commercial and military aircraft, space launch vehicles, and certain other applications, such as recreational and industrial equipment.

Industrial fabrics and specialty reinforcements are ma! de from a variety of fibers, including carbon, aramid and other polymers, several types of fiberglass, quartz, ceramic and other specialty fibers. These reinforcements are used in the production of prepregs and other matrix materials used in primary and secondary structural aerospace applications, such as wing components, horizontal and vertical stabilizer components, fairings, radomes and engine nacelles, as well as overhead storage bins and other interior components. Hexcel�� reinforcements are also used in the manufacture of a variety of industrial and recreational products, such as wind energy blades, automotive components, boats, surfboards, skis and other sporting goods equipment.

HexPly prepregs are manufactured for sale to third-party customers and for internal use by its engineered products segment in manufacturing composite laminates and monolithic structures, including finished components for aircraft structures and interiors. Prepregs are manufactured by combining reinforcement fabrics or unidirectional fibers with a resin matrix to form a composite material with structural properties not present in either of the constituent materials. Reinforcement fabrics used in the manufacture of prepregs include glass, carbon, aramid, quartz, ceramic and other specialty reinforcements. Resin matrices include bismaleimide, cyanate ester, epoxy, phenolic, polyester, polyimide and other specialty resins.

Other fiber reinforced matrix developments include HexMC, a form of quasi-isotropic carbon fiber prepreg that enables small to medium sized composite components to be mass produced. HexTOOL is a specialized form of HexMC for use in the construction of high temperature composite tooling. HexFIT film infusion material is a product that combines resin films and dry fiber reinforcements in production and enables the manufacture of contoured composite structures, such as wind turbine blades.

Polymer matrix materials are sold in bulk and film form for use in direct pro! cess manu! facturing of composite parts. Resins can be combined with fiber reinforcements in manufacturing processes, such as resin transfer molding (RTM), resin film infusion (RFI) or vacuum assisted resin transfer molding (VARTM) to produce composite components for both aerospace and industrial applications. Hexcel manufactures and markets a range of Redux film and paste adhesives. These structural adhesives, which bond metal to metal and composites and honeycomb structures, are used in the aerospace industry and for many industrial applications.

HexWeb honeycomb is a cellular structure consisting of nested hexagonal cells. The product is similar in appearance to a cross-sectional slice of a beehive. It can also be manufactured in asymmetric cell configurations for more specialized applications. Honeycomb is primarily used as a lightweight core material and acts as an energy absorber. When sandwiched between composite or metallic facing skins, honeycomb increases the stiffness of the structure, while adding very little weight. The Company produces honeycomb from a number of metallic and non-metallic materials. Its metallic honeycomb is made from aluminum and is available in a selection of alloys, cell sizes and dimensions. Non-metallic materials used in the manufacture of honeycomb include fiberglass, carbon fiber, thermoplastics, non-flammable aramid papers, aramid fiber and other specialty materials. During the year ended December 31, 2011, revenues for the Composite Materials segment to third-party customers represented approximately 77% of its total revenues.

Engineered Products

The Engineered Products segment manufactures and markets composite structures and precision machined honeycomb parts for use in the aerospace industry. Composite structures are manufactured from a variety of composite and other materials, including prepregs, honeycomb, structural adhesives and advanced molding materials, using such manufacturing processes, as autoclave processing, multi-axis nu! merically! controlled machining, heat forming, compression molding and other composite manufacturing techniques. During 2011, revenues for the Engineered Products segment to third-party customers represented approximately 23% of its total revenues. The Engineered Products business unit has a 50% ownership interest in a Malaysian joint venture, Asian Composites Manufacturing Sdn. Bhd.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Seth Jayson]

  Hexcel (NYSE: HXL  ) reported earnings on July 22. Here are the numbers you need to know.

  The 10-second takeaway
  For the quarter ended June 30 (Q2), Hexcel met expectations on revenues and beat expectations on earnings per share.

• [By MONEYMORNING.COM]

  There's also the advanced materials firm Hexcel Corp. (NYSE: HXL), which supplies honeycomb composites to some of the biggest names in the aerospace industry.

• [By Rich Smith]

  This series, brought to you by Yahoo! Finance, looks at which upgrades and downgrades make sense, and which ones investors should act on. Today, our headlines include a pair of aerospace upgrades for European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company (NASDAQOTH: EADSY  ) and Hexcel (NYSE: HXL  ) . But it's not all good news, so let's start off by finding out why.

• [By John Persinos]

  The standout stocks in this segment are Hexcel Corp. (HXL), the leading producer of carbon composites, and Allegheny Technologies (ATI), which dominates the market in titanium.

Top Defense Companies To Watch For 2014: Implant Sciences Corp (IMSC)

Implant Sciences Corporation (Implant Sciences), incorporated in August 31,1984, develops, manufactures and sells sensors and systems for the security, safety and defense (SS&D) industries. Its technologies are used worldwide in security and inspection applications. Implant Sciences has developed technologies used in explosives trace detection (ETD), and and narcotics trace detection (NTD) applications and market and sell handheld ETD and benchtop ETD and NTD systems that use its technologies. The systems are used by private companies and Government agencies to screen baggage, cargo, vehicles, other objects and people for the detection of trace amounts of explosives. Implant Sciences have developed explosives detection systems designed for use in aviation and transportation security, high threat facilities and infrastructure, military installations, customs and border protection, and mail and cargo screening. The systems use the Quantum Sniffer technologies, including photon-based, non-radioactive ion source in combination with ion mobility spectrometry, a detection tool sensitive to the speeds with which ions of various substances move through the air to electronically detect minute quantities of explosives vapor and particles.

Quantum Sniffer QS-H150 Portable Explosives Detector

The Quantum Sniffer QS-H150 Portable Explosives Detector employs a vortex collector for the simultaneous detection of explosives particulates and vapors with or without physical contact and in real-time. The QS-HS150 can detect vapors and nanogram quantities of explosives particulates for explosives substances considered to be threats. The substances include military and commercial explosives, improvised and homemade explosives, and propellants and taggants.

The QS-H150 has automatic and continuous self-calibration. It monitors its environment, senses changes that would affect its accuracy, and re-calibrates accordingly. The system requires no user intervention and no calibration cons! umables. The detection process begins with the collection of a sample with its vortex collector. After collection, the sample is ionized photonically and analyzed using ion mobility spectrometer (IMS) technology. The presence of a threat substance is indicated by a visible and audible alarms. The threat substance is then identified and displayed on the integrated liquid crystal display (LCD) screen. When detecting a threat substance, the QS-H150 rapidly alarms. This real-time detection limits equipment contamination and allows for fast clear-down.

Quantum Sniffer QS-B220 Benchtop Explosives and Narcotics Detector

QS-B220 Benchtop Explosives and Narcotics Detector uses dual IMS with non-radioactive ionization for the detection and identification of a range of military, commercial, and improvised explosives as well as narcotics. The QS-B220 uses a sample trap which is wiped on the surface to be interrogated for explosives or narcotics particles.

The QS-B220 has automatic and continuous self-calibration. It monitors its environment, senses changes that would affect its accuracy, and re-calibrates accordingly.

Quantum Sniffer TM QS-Hx Portable Explosives Detector

The Company is focusing in developing a next-generation handheld detector that will use dual IMS non-radioactive ionization for the detection and identification of a range of military, commercial and improvised explosives, as well as narcotics. The QS-Hx will have automatic and continuous self-calibration, multi-level password-protected data security and will include a data management interface with data export to a network for recordkeeping, providing a link with the central command centers and logistics systems used by carriers.

Miniature Mass Spectrometer

The Company�� acquisition of Ion Metrics enabled it to obtain miniaturized quadrupole mass spectrometry (QMS) detector technology. The QMS detector is roughly the size of an AA battery and has low manufactur! ing costs! . When used in conjunction with an IMS, the QMS detector senses the molecular weight of the chemical species resulting in an orthogonal detection method in which a more fundamental characteristic of a substance is measured. It is developing interfaces for integrating the QMS detector into its future products.

Hyphenated Detectors

Depending on the application and the number of interfering background chemicals, it may be necessary to incorporate additional orthogonal detection methods. The combination of multiple sensors in series is known as employing hyphenated methods. By measuring different properties of the same species, interferents are separated from target species for a deterministic detection and identification and have minimum rates of false alarms. It is developing hyphenated systems employing conventional ion mobility, differential mobility and quadrupole mass spectrometry. As of June 30, 2012, it has one patent issued in real-time trace detection by IMS and QMS and two hyphenated system patents pending.

The Company competes with Morpho Detection, Inc., NucTech Company Limited and Smiths Detection, Inc.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By James E. Brumley]

  It's not an uncompetitive market. Names like Implant Sciences Corporation (OTCMKTS:IMSC) and NXT-ID (OTCBB:NXTD) are battling in the security and facility-defense arena as well; IMSC makes explosives-detection and drug-detection hardware, while NXTD designs 3D image-rendering software that caters to the unique needs of prison security personnel, though the same technology has been proven in more traditional functions like building-security systems that keep certain people out rather than in. Neither Implant Sciences nor NXT-ID compete directly head-to-head with View Systems, however ... fortunately for them. See, VSYM is considered by some to be the best in the industry.

Top Defense Companies To Watch For 2014: Airbus Group NV (EADSY)

Airbus Group NV, known as European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company EADS NV, is a Netherlands-based company active within the aerospace and defense sector. The Company manufactures aircrafts, helicopters, commercial space launch vehicles, missiles, satellites, defense systems and defense electronics, and offers services related to these activities. The Company oprates four divisions. The Airbus division comprises the Airbus Commercial and Airbus Military segments, which develop, manufacture, market and sell commercial jet aircrafts, military transport aircrafts and special mission aircrafts, among others. The Eurocopter division develops, markets and sells civil and military helicopters. The Astrium division develops, manufactures and sells satellites, orbital infrastructures and launchers, as well as provides space-related services. The Cassidian division develops, manufactures and sells missiles systems, military combat and training aircrafts, among others. Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Vanina Egea]

  The aerospace industry has received another blow with the crash of an Eurocopter AS350 in Seattle, on March 18. However, the episode had no repercussions on the stock market. As a matter of fact, Eurcopter�� parent company, Airbus Group (EADSY), saw a sudden stock price increment. This counter intuitive phenomenon has many explanations. Most interestingly, it seems to point at a certain weakness on the part of competitors. In other words, competitors are expected to acquire an advantage from each other�� mishaps. This particular incident challenges common knowledge and offers a good excuse to see what and how are Airbus Group�� competitors performing. In this opportunity, I would like to take a look at Textron (TXT).

• [By Quick Pen]

  The 787 Max flaunts the latest and advanced CFM International LEAP-1B engines that provide greater fuel efficiency over similar range jets. The company claims that the derivative planes would be 14% more fuel efficient than the existing Next-Generation 737 planes. Not only this, operators of the 737 MAX 8 would enjoy 8% lower operating cost per seat relative to Airbus (EADSY) A320neo. The jet make has ensured to incorporate bleeding edge technology, and several other improvements to give the best reliability rate along with passenger comfort and pleasure.

Top Defense Companies To Watch For 2014: Safran SA (SAF)

Safran SA is a France-based high-technology company which produces aircraft and rocket engines and propulsion systems. It divides its work into three segments: Aerospace, Aircraft, Defense and Security. The Aerospace Propulsion division provides engines, turbines and parts for aircraft, and rocket boosters for civil, military and spatial markets through several subsidiaries, including Snecma, among others. The Aircraft Equipment division produces landing gear, wheels and carbon brakes, aircraft engine nacelles and airborne power electronics through its subsidiaries, including Aircelle, among others. The Defense division includes the subsidiary, Sagem, and makes systems and equipment for inertial navigation and other defense applications to be used on military transport and combat aircraft, helicopters, warships, armored vehicles and artillery systems. In October 2013, the Company completed the sale of its United States-based subsidiary, Global Motors Inc to Allied Motion Inc. Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Sofia Horta e Costa]

  Vivendi SA climbed 2.7 percent after posting better-than-estimated third-quarter profit and saying it plans to spin off its French phone carrier SFR by July 2014. Serco Group Plc (SRP) increased 1.7 percent as UBS AG upgraded the stock. Safran SA (SAF) lost 3.2 percent as its largest shareholder sold a stake.

Top Defense Companies To Watch For 2014: United Technologies Corporation(UTX)

United Technologies Corporation provides technology products and services to the building systems and aerospace industries worldwide. The company?s Otis segment designs, manufactures, sells, and installs passenger and freight elevators, escalators, and moving walkways, as well as provides maintenance and repair services. Its Carrier segment offers heating, ventilating, air conditioning, and refrigeration systems, controls, services, and energy-efficient products for residential, commercial, industrial, and transportation applications. The company?s UTC Fire and Security segment provides electronic security products comprising intruder alarms, and access control and video surveillance systems; fire safety products, such as specialty hazard detection and fixed suppression products, fire extinguishers, fire detection and life safety systems, and other firefighting equipment; systems integration, video surveillance, installation, maintenance, and inspection services; and mon itoring, response, and security personnel services. Its Pratt and Whitney segment supplies aircraft engines for the commercial, military, business jet, and general aviation markets; industrial gas turbines; geo thermal power systems; and space propulsion systems, as well as provides fleet management, maintenance, repair, and overhaul services. The company?s Hamilton Sundstrand segment supplies aerospace products, such as power generation, management and distribution, flight control, engine control, environmental control, auxiliary power units, and propeller systems; and industrial products, including air compressors, metering pumps, and fluid handling equipment under the Sullair, Sundyne, and Milton Roy names. Its Sikorsky segment manufactures military and commercial helicopters, as well as offers aftermarket helicopter and aircraft parts and services. United Technologies Corporation was founded in 1934 and is based in Hartford, Connecticut.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Muhammad Bazil]

  Though GE Capital has been a huge source of revenue for the parent company, its earnings aren�� always seen in the light of income from industrial activities leading to how it has been cheaply perceived among its peers. For example, among GE�� peers in the industrial sector like Honeywell International (HON), United Technologies (UTX), Illinois Tool Works (ITW) and Emerson Electric (EMR), only Illinois Tool Works is cheaper than GE, but it is miles apart in growth potential when compared with GE. So, GE stock trades at a huge discount relative to all of its industrial peers except ITW which is rather odd all because of GE Capital. Though GE Capital has been contributing about 30% of GE�� earnings and, hence, a good percentage of its earnings per share (EPS), shedding GE Capital is the only way to make the industrial segments of GE to strive for better growth in the near future to make up for the original earnings growth of GE facilitated by GE Capital.

• [By Muhammad Bazil]

  3M�� performance comes off as okay when viewed against other industrial conglomerates that have already posted their 2nd quarter results; at least as far as growth is concerned. The company�� 2.3% organic growth in the second quarter compares well to conglomerates such as United Technologies (UTX), General Electric (GE), Danaher (DHR) and Honeywell (HON).

• [By Laura Brodbeck]

  Earnings reports expected on Tuesday include:

  The Travelers Company Inc. (NYSE: TRV) is expected to report third quarter EPS of $1.69 on revenue of $5.83 billion, compared to last year’s EPS of $2.22 on revenue of $5.70 billion. Delta Airlines Inc. (NYSE: DAL) is expected to report third quarter EPS of $1.36 on revenue of $10.47 billion, compared to last year’s EPS of $0.90 on revenue of 9.92 billion. United Technologies Corporation (NYSE: UTX) is expected to report third quarter EPS of $1.53 on revenue of $16.18 billion, compared to last year’s EPS of $1.37 on revenue of $15.04 billion. Lockheed Martin Corporation (NYSE: LMT) is expected to report third quarter EPS of $2.26 on revenue of $11.15 billion, compared to last year’s EPS of $2.21 on revenue of $11.87 billion.

  Economics

• [By Mark Salzinger]

  Boeing gets about 60% of its business from commercial aerospace and 40% from defense. United Technologies (UTX), ITA's Number One holding, generates only about half its revenue from aerospace businesses; the rest comes from a variety of industrial operations, including elevator and climate systems.