Top Warren Buffett Companies To Watch For 2014

LONDON -- One of Warren Buffett's famous investing sayings is: "Be fearful when others are greedy and greedy only when others are fearful" -- or, in other words, sell when others are buying and buy when they're selling.

But we might expect Foolish investors to know that, and looking at what Fools have been buying recently might well provide us with some ideas for good investments.

So, in this series of articles, we're going to look at what customers of The Motley Fool ShareDealing Service have been buying in the past week or so, and what might have made them decide to do so.

Digging up value
Rio Tinto� (LSE: RIO  ) (NYSE: RIO  ) , along with other mining companies, hasn't had a good time over the past few years. Demand for metals and minerals varies with economic cycles, so if economies get depressed -- as those of most of the world have been since the credit crunch -- the shares of mining companies tend to get depressed, too. Rio Tinto's share price stood at over 拢60 in May 2008, but had collapsed to under 拢15 a mere seven months later, as the global financial crisis unfolded. It's recovered some since then, but still lags substantially behind the level of the FTSE 100.

Hot Media Stocks For 2015: Spartan Stores Inc.(SPTN)

Spartan Stores, Inc. operates as a grocery distributor and retailer principally in Michigan and Indiana. The company operates in two segments, Distribution and Retail. The Distribution segment provides approximately 43,000 stock-keeping units, including dry groceries, produce, dairy products, meat, deli, bakery, frozen food, seafood, floral products, general merchandise, pharmacy, and health and beauty care items to approximately 375 independent grocery stores and 96 corporate-owned stores, as well as offers approximately 3,600 private brand grocery and general merchandise items. It also provides value-added services, including site identification and market analyses; store planning and development; marketing, promotion, advertising; technology and information; accounting and tax preparation; human resource; coupon redemption; product reclamation; printing; category management; real estate; and construction management services. The Retail segment operates 97 retail superma rkets in Michigan under the Glen?s Markets, Family Fare Supermarkets, D&W Fresh Markets, VG?s Food and Pharmacy, and Valu Land names; and 25 fuel centers/convenience stores that offers refueling facilities, as well as immediately consumable products under the Glen?s Quick Stop, Family Fare Quick Stop, D&W Fresh Markets Quick Stop, and VG?s Quick Stop names. Its retail supermarkets offer dry groceries, produce, dairy products, meat, frozen food, seafood, floral products, general merchandise, beverages, tobacco products, health and beauty care products, delicatessen items, and bakery goods, as well as pharmacy services. This segment also provides private brand items, including its Spartan brand; Fresh Selections; Top Care, a health and beauty care brand; Valu Time, a value brand; Full Circle, a natural and organic brand; and Paws, a pet supplies brand. The company was founded in 1917 and is headquartered in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Ben Levisohn]

  …we believe the conventional grocers in our universe ��namely, Safeway, Supervalu, and SpartanNash (SPTN)��re most at risk from Amazon.com’s expansion. Kroger should fare better due to its very strong price positioning and weighted-average market share positions. In addition, we believe that Kroger may actually end up as a net beneficiary of Amazon.com’s expansion, as grocers with lower market share positions (outside the top 5) are likely to exit/close, leaving more share to top players such as Kroger. The natural/organic specialty players are also better positioned to absorb Amazon.com’s expansion, with Whole Food Markets least at-risk due to its product mix (e.g. prepared foods), differentiated format, strong EBIT margins, and very strong balance sheet.

• [By Seth Jayson]

  Margins matter. The more Spartan Stores (Nasdaq: SPTN  ) keeps of each buck it earns in revenue, the more money it has to invest in growth, fund new strategic plans, or (gasp!) distribute to shareholders. Healthy margins often separate pretenders from the best stocks in the market. That's why we check up on margins at least once a quarter in this series. I'm looking for the absolute numbers, so I can compare them to current and potential competitors, and any trend that may tell me how strong Spartan Stores's competitive position could be.

Top Warren Buffett Companies To Watch For 2014: Ikanos Communications Inc.(IKAN)

Ikanos Communications, Inc. provides broadband semiconductor and software products for the digital home. The company develops and markets end-to-end products for the last mile and the digital home, which enable carriers to offer triple play services, including voice, video, and data. It offers broadband digital subscriber line (DSL) products, such as high-density and low-power asymmetric DSL, and very-high-bit rate DSL products; communications processors that support various wide area network topologies, including passive optical network, DSL, wireless broadband, and Ethernet; and other products for access infrastructure and customer premises equipment (CPE) to network equipment manufacturers and telecommunications service providers. The company?s products comprise digital subscriber line access multiplexers, optical network terminals, concentrators, modems, voice over Internet protocol terminal adapters, integrated access devices, and residential gateways. It primarily s erves original design manufacturers, contract manufacturers, network equipment manufacturers, and original equipment manufacturers through direct sales and third-party sales representatives worldwide. The company was formerly known as Velocity Communications and changed its name to Ikanos Communications, Inc. in December 2000. Ikanos Communications, Inc. was incorporated in 1999 and is headquartered in Fremont, California.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Victor Selva]

  On Dec.24, Mario Gabelli, the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of GAMCO Investors, Inc. added Communications Systems Inc. (JCS) at an average price of $11.05 and currently holds 330,172 shares of the stock. It was the 5th time he added the stock during this year, which makes me feel that he is betting in favor of a positive future for the consumption of network capacity.
  Recommendations of the Board
  Communications Systems is engaged in the manufacture and sale of modular connecting and wiring devices for voice and data communications, digital subscriber line filters, and structured wiring systems, and through its Transition Networks business unit in the manufacture of media and rate conversion products for telecommunications networks.
  Few months ago the firm announced�a series of actions to increase revenues and improve profitability. The first change was to operate as a holding company, monitoring and supporting all the business units: Suttle, Transition Networks (TN) unit and JDL Technologies. With this ��ew format�� each unit will operate with a high degree of autonomy. This will result in the reduction of labor costs, the emphasizing of accountability in the units as well as better recognition of performance. "While difficult decisions for the Board, we believe the changes we have taken to restructure our parent company as a holding company and to focus on individual business unit performance is in the best interest of our shareholders and will increase shareholder value" said Curtis A. Sampson, the Company's Board Chair and Interim CEO. Furthermore, strategic investments in the TN unit such as marketing, sales and product development will boost revenues in the future.
  Severe Warning Signs
  Not all are good news, we found three severe warning signs issued by GuruFocus: Piotroski F-Score of 2 is low, which usually implies poor business operation; revenue has been in decline over the past 3 years and operating margin has been in 5-year

Top Warren Buffett Companies To Watch For 2014: Research in Motion Ltd (BBRY)

Research In Motion Limited, incorporated on March 7, 1984, is a designer, manufacturer and marketer of wireless solutions for the worldwide mobile communications market. Through the development of integrated hardware, software and services, it provides platforms and solutions for seamless access to information, including e-mail, voice, instant messaging, short message service (SMS), Internet and intranet-based applications and browsing. The Company's technology also enables an array of third party developers and manufacturers to enhance their products and services through software development kits, wireless connectivity to data and third-party support programs.Its portfolio of products, services and embedded technologies are used by thousands of organizations and millions of consumers around the world and include the BlackBerry wireless solution, the RIM Wireless Handheld product line, the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet, software development tools and other software and hardware.

On March 25, 2011, the Company purchased 100% of the shares of a company whose technology is being incorporated into the Company�� developer tools. On April 26, 2011, the Company purchased certain assets of a company whose acquired technologies will be incorporated into the Company�� products. In June 2011, the Company acquired Scoreloop. On March 8, 2012, the Company acquired Paratek Microwave Inc. During the fiscal year ended March 3, 2012 (fiscal 2012), the Company purchased 100% interests of a company, whose technology will be incorporated into its technology; whose technology offers cloud-based services for storing, sharing, accessing and organizing digital content on mobile devices; whose technology is being incorporated into an application on the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet; whose technology offers a customizable and cross-platform social mobile gaming developer tool kit, and whose technology will provide a multi-platform BlackBerry Enterprise Solution for managing and securing mobile devices for enterpris! es and government organizations.

On April 24, 2012, the Company launched BlackBerry 7 smartphone, the BlackBerry Curve 9220, for customers in Indonesia. April 18, 2012, it launched BlackBerry 7 smartphone, the BlackBerry Curve 9220, for customers in India. On April 17, 2012, it announced availability of the BlackBerry Bold 9790 smartphone in Spain. On April 3, 2012, it launched BlackBerry Mobile Fusion, and launched four BlackBerry smartphones powered by the BlackBerry 7 operating system (OS) in Cambodia, which included BlackBerry Bold 9900, BlackBerry Bold 9790, BlackBerry Curve 9360 and BlackBerry Curve 9380. On April 2, 2012, it announced the availability of BlackBerry App World, the official application store for BlackBerry smartphones in Brunei, and it announced availability of the BlackBerry Bold 9790 and BlackBerry Curve 9380 smartphones for Cell C customers in South Africa. On March 27, 2012, it launched of the BlackBerry solution in Benin Republic. On March 15, 2012, it launched of BlackBerry services in China. On March 7, 2012, it launched the BlackBerry service in Angola.

The Company's primary revenue stream is generated by the BlackBerry wireless solution, consists of smartphones and tablets, service and software. BlackBerry service is provided through a combination of its global BlackBerry Infrastructure and the wireless networks of its carrier partners. On February 21, 2012, it released the BlackBerry PlayBook OS 2.0 software. It generates hardware revenues from sales, primarily to carriers and distributors. During fiscal 2012, the Company launched the wireless fidelity (WiFi)-enabled BlackBerry PlayBook tablet in 44 markets around the world. On July 21, 2011, the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet received Federal Information Processing Standard 140-2 certification.

BlackBerry Smartphones and Tablets

BlackBerry smartphones uses wireless, push-based technology that delivers data to mobile users��business and consumer applications. BlackBerry s! martphone! s integrate messaging including instant messaging, email and SMS; voice calling; Webkit browser; multimedia capabilities; calendar, and other applications. During fiscal 2012, it introduced 10 new smartphones and launched software updates to both its smartphone and tablet platforms. BlackBerry smartphones are available from hundreds of carriers and indirect channels, through a range of distribution partners, and are designed to operate on a variety of carrier networks, including HSPA/HSPA+/UMTS, GSM/GPRS/EDGE, CDMA/Ev-DO, and iDEN.

During fiscal 2012, its BlackBerry smartphone and tablet portfolio included BlackBerry Bold series, BlackBerry Torch series, BlackBerry Curve series and The BlackBerry PlayBook tablet. Its BlackBerry Bold series includes BlackBerry Bold 9900 and 9930 and BlackBerry Bold 9790. The Company�� BlackBerry Torch series include BlackBerry Torch 9810 and All-Touch BlackBerry Torch 9850 and 9860. The Company's BlackBerry Curve series include BlackBerry Curve 9350/9360/9370 and All-Touch BlackBerry Curve 9380 Smartphone. The BlackBerry PlayBook tablet features the BlackBerry PlayBook OS 2.0. The BlackBerry PlayBook offers a seven-inch high definition display, a dual core one gigahertz processor, dual high definition cameras, multitasking and a Web browsing.

BlackBerry Enterprise Solution

BlackBerry Enterprise Server is software that acts as the centralized link between BlackBerry smartphones, enterprise systems, business applications and wireless networks. BlackBerry Enterprise Server integrates with enterprise messaging systems including Microsoft Exchange, IBM Lotus Domino and Novell GroupWise to synchronize with BlackBerry smartphones to provide mobile users with wireless access to e-mail, calendar, contacts, notes and tasks. It also provides access to business applications and enterprise systems. In addition, it provides security features and offers administrative tools. BlackBerry Enterprise Server is required for certain other enterprise ! solutions! , such as BlackBerry Mobile Voice System (for bringing desk phone functionality to BlackBerry smartphones); BlackBerry Clients for Microsoft Office Communications Server, IBM Lotus Sametime and Novell GroupWise Messenger (for enterprise instant messaging); IBM Lotus Connections (for enterprise social networking); IBM Lotus Quickr (for document sharing and collaboration); and Chalk Pushcast Software (for corporate podcasting).

The Company�� BlackBerry Mobile Fusion provides a Web-based interface that allows enterprises to provision, audit, and protect mobile devices including BlackBerry smartphones, BlackBerry PlayBook tablets, and devices that use iOS and Android. BlackBerry Balance helps enterprises support the Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) trend. BlackBerry Enterprise Server Express is free server software that synchronizes BlackBerry smartphones with Microsoft Exchange or Microsoft Windows Small Business Server. BlackBerry Enterprise Server Express works with Microsoft Exchange 2010, 2007 and 2003 and Microsoft Windows Small Business Server 2008 and 2003 to provide users with wireless access to e-mail, calendar, contacts, notes and tasks, as well as other business applications and enterprise systems behind the firewall.

BlackBerry Mobile Voice System (BlackBerry MVS) allows organizations to converge office desk phones and BlackBerry smartphones. BlackBerry MVS is consists of three components: BlackBerry MVS Client, BlackBerry MVS Services, and BlackBerry MVS Server. It unifies fixed and mobile voice communications. Hosted BlackBerry services bring the BlackBerry Enterprise Server features, functionality, and security capabilities in a package that is managed for end users. Hosted BlackBerry services are conveniently handled and supported by a BlackBerry certified partner from the BlackBerry Alliance Program, giving small and medium -sized enterprise (SME) enterprises the support and convenience they need.

Service

The Company generates service rev! enues fro! m billings to RIM's BlackBerry subscriber account base. It generates service revenues primarily from a monthly infrastructure access fee charged to a carrier or reseller, which the carrier or reseller in turn bills the BlackBerry subscriber.

BlackBerry Technical Support Services

BlackBerry Technical Support Services are a suite of annual technical support and software maintenance programs. The programs are designed to meet the customer�� BlackBerry support needs by offering a contact for BlackBerry wireless solution technical support directly from the Company.

Non-Warranty Repairs

The Company generates revenue from its repair and maintenance program for BlackBerry smartphones that are returned to it by the carrier, the reseller, or the customer. It generates revenue for repair after the expiration of the contractual warranty period.

The Company competes with Apple Inc., Microsoft Inc., Nokia Corporation, Dell, Inc., Fujitsu Limited, General Dynamics Corporation, Hitachi America, Ltd., HTC Corporation, Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd., LG Electronics Mobile Communications Company, Mitsubishi Corporation, Motorola Mobility Holdings, Inc., NEC Corporation, Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., Sharp Corporation, Sony Corporation, ZTE Corporation, IBM Corporation, Microsoft Corporation, Notify Technology Corporation, Openwave Systems Inc., Seven Networks, Inc., Sybase, Inc. and Good Technologies.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Julianne Pepitone]

  BlackBerry (BBRY) is, at least temporarily, pinning its hopes on Chen, who successfully turned around the struggling enterprise software maker Sybase and sold it to SAP (SAP) in 2010.

• [By Anders Bylund]

  First, The Wall Street Journal reported that BlackBerry's (NASDAQ: BBRY  ) new Z10 phones have been an unmitigated disaster. One analyst pinged his retail connections and found that "returns are now exceeding sales" of the Z10 in many cases. Another noted that sales started out poorly and "weakened significantly as the days passed." This is the shocker if you believe in the new BlackBerry platform and hope that it will revive the company's flagging fortunes.

• [By WALLSTCHEATSHEET]

  BlackBerry provides innovative wireless communication products to consumers and companies worldwide. The company on Monday�confirmed that Andrew Bocking had stepped down from his role as executive vice president of BBM and would be departing the company. The stock has not done well in recent years and is currently trading sideways. Over the last four quarters, earnings have been mixed while revenues have been decreasing, which has left investors optimistic. Relative to its peers and sector, BlackBerry has been a relative year-to-date performance leader. WAIT AND SEE what BlackBerry does this quarter.

Top Warren Buffett Companies To Watch For 2014: Discover Financial Services(DFS)

Discover Financial Services, a bank holding company, offers direct banking and payment services in the United States. It operates in two segments, Direct Banking and Payment Services. The Direct Banking segment offers Discover card-branded credit cards to individuals and small businesses that are accepted on the Discover Network. This segment also provides other consumer banking products and services, including personal loans, student loans, and prepaid cards, as well as other consumer lending and deposit products, such as certificates of deposit, money market accounts, online savings accounts, and individual retirement account. The Payment Services segment operates the PULSE network, an automated teller machine, debit, and electronic funds transfer network; the Diners Club International network, a global payments network; and third-party issuing business, which includes credit, debit, and prepaid cards issued on the Discover Network by third parties. The company was found ed in 1986 and is based in Riverwoods, Illinois.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Eric Volkman]

  Discover Financial Services (NYSE: DFS  ) continues to unearth dividends for its stockholders, declaring quarterly distributions for both its common and series B preferred stock. Investors in the former will receive $0.20 per share, to be paid on August 2 to holders of record as of August 8.

• [By Jonas Elmerraji]

  You don't have to be an expert technical analyst to figure out what's going on in shares of Discover Financial Services (DFS) right now. This payment network has seen its shares rally more than 33% year-to-date thanks to a textbook uptrending channel. Technical price patterns don't get much more textbook than that.

  Price channels are valuable for traders because they provide high probability ranges for a stock's price action. In other words, Discover's price is unlikely to trade outside of those two bands on the chart above -- and that's exactly what makes this stock tradable right now. The best time to be a buyer comes on a bounce off of support, a level we could see very soon.

  Buying off a support bounce makes sense 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 trendlines do eventually break, but by actually waiting for the bounce to happen first, you're ensuring the DFS can actually still catch a bid along that line.

• [By MONEYMORNING.COM]

  Financial services giants Discover Financial Services Inc. (NYSE: DFS), Capital One Financial Corp. (NYSE: COF), Bank of America Corp. (NYSE: BAC), Citigroup Inc. (NYSE: C), and U.S. Bancorp (NYSE: USB), to name a few players in the student credit game, are bending over backward for you.

• [By Dan Caplinger]

  But the real key to eBay's success is�PayPal, the current leader in online payments. A new partnership with Discover Financial (NYSE: DFS  ) should help PayPal realize part of its growth potential, as Discover hopes to use the association with PayPal as a selling point for its less-prominent card network. The move will also help PayPal keep up with competition from privately held Square and other competitors, as well as opening up a whole new way for Discover cardholders to consider using online payments as part of their overall spending strategy.

Top Warren Buffett Companies To Watch For 2014: Packaging Corporation of America(PKG)

Packaging Corporation of America produces and sells containerboard and corrugated products in the United States. Its corrugated packaging products, include conventional shipping containers used to protect and transport manufactured goods; and multi-color boxes and displays with strong that help to merchandise the packaged product in retail locations. The company also offers meat boxes and wax-coated boxes for the agricultural industry. Packaging Corporation sells its products through direct sales and marketing organization. The company was founded in 1867 and is headquartered in Lake Forest, Illinois.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Monica Gerson]

  Analysts are expecting Packaging Corporation of America (NYSE: PKG) to have earned $0.89 per share on revenue of $831.79 million in the third quarter. Packaging Corp shares gained 0.86% to close at $57.60 on Friday.

• [By Sue Chang]

  PCA, the Packaging Corp. of America (PKG) ,�is likely to post third-quarter earnings of 89 cents a share. The company said last month it would buy Boise Inc. (BZ) �for $12.55 a share, or about $1.28 billion in total. The deal is expected to close in the fourth quarter. Lake Forest, Ill.-based PCA makes a wide line of linerboard and corrugated paper packaging products at four mills and 71 plants, according to its website.

• [By Brian Pacampara]

  Based on the aggregated intelligence of 180,000-plus investors participating in Motley Fool CAPS, the Fool's free investing community, containerboard and corrugated packaging products company Packaging Corp. of America (NYSE: PKG  ) has earned a coveted five-star ranking.

• [By Christopher Freeburn]

  Shares of Packaging Corp. (PKG) jumped almost 13% in pre-market trading on Monday after the company announced that it will purchase a rival containerboard-maker.

Top Warren Buffett Companies To Watch For 2014: Garmin Ltd.(GRMN)

Garmin Ltd., together with its subsidiaries, designs, develops, manufactures, and markets global positioning system (GPS) enabled products and other navigation, communication, and information products for the automotive/mobile, outdoor, fitness, marine, and general aviation markets worldwide. The company offers a range of automotive navigation products, and various products and applications designed for the mobile GPS market; GPS enabled handheld products for hunters, hikers, geocachers, outdoors enthusiasts, cyclists, and golfers; dog tracking systems; tracker systems; and training assistants for athletes. It also provides handhelds, network products and multifunction displays, fixed-mount GPS/chartplotter products, instruments, fish finders, radars, autopilots, VHF radios, marine networking products, and sounder products. In addition, the company offers GPS-enabled navigation, VHF communications transmitters/receivers, multi-function displays, electronic flight instrumen tation systems, automatic flight control systems, traffic advisory systems and traffic collision avoidance systems, terrain awareness and warning systems, instrument landing system receivers, surveillance products, audio panels, and cockpit datalink systems. The company?s sells its products through a network of independent dealers and distributors, as well as through original equipment manufacturers. Garmin Ltd. was founded in 1990 and is based in Schaffhausen, Switzerland.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Louis Navellier]

  A year ago shares of electronics company Garmin (GRMN) was rated a ��trong sell.��Now that everyone has a smartphone with an accurate GPS, demand for Garmin�� satellite-based navigation systems had pretty much evaporated. But management has turned this company around by developing devices for the sporting markets used by hunters, hikers, cyclists, and golfers. Garmin also started selling things like dog tracking systems and expanded its offerings for the marine and aviation markets.

• [By Rich Bieglmeier]

  [Related -Garmin Ltd. (GRMN) Q4 Earnings Preview: Too Unpredictable to Trade]

  Garmin is a provider of navigation, communication and information devices and applications, which are enabled by global positioning system (GPS) technology. Garmin designs, develops, manufactures and markets a diverse family of hand-held, portable and fixed-mount GPS-enabled products and other navigation, communications and information products for the automotive/mobile, outdoor, fitness, marine, and general aviation markets. Garmin has four segments: Automotive/Mobile, Aviation, Marine, Outdoor and Fitness.