Best Forestry Companies To Invest In 2014

President Obama supports a Senate bill that would gradually raise the $2.13 an hour wage base for tipped workers to 70% of the full minimum wage.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) President Obama's push to raise the federal minimum wage to $10.10 an hour, coupled with recent state-level increases, is welcome news for many people getting by on small paychecks.

But not every low-wage worker has to be paid the minimum wage.

That's because a crazy patchwork of rules and exemptions lets employers pay some kinds of workers below the full minimum wage -- in some cases, well below.

The rules are complex at the federal and state levels. But here's a partial list of how they treat certain classes of workers.

Disabled workers: Under federal law, employers may apply for a special certificate to pay less than the minimum wage to anyone "whose earning or productive capacity is impaired by a physical or mental disability, including those relating to age or injury."

Best Income Stocks To Watch Right Now: Alston Energy Inc (ALO)

Alston Energy Inc. (Alston) is a Canada-based petroleum and natural gas company. The Company is engaged in the exploration and production of oil and natural gas reserves in Western Canada�� sedimentary basins. The Company�� projects include Alexander, Pembina and Chauvin. Alexander assets include a 14.0% average working interest in 10 proved producing gas/oil wells, three proved development locations, related production facilities and pipelines and 6,560 gross acres of mineral leases. Pembina assets include a 3.5% interest in 19 producing oil wells, one coal bed methane gas well, four standing or suspended wells, two oil batteries, related production facilities and pipelines and 5,690 gross acres of land in the Pembina/Cardium Pool. Alston has oil assets in the emerging Chauvin area resource play. Advisors' Opinion:

• [By victorselva]

  Furthermore, yesterday we found on the news that General Electric will buy Alstom SA (ALO), the French builder of power plants and transmission gear. The deal could consist on the separation of Alstom�� transport business, which manufactures high-speed TGV trains, to make easier the approval of the French government. A potential value for Alstom at about $13 billion would be about 25 percent more than its current market value. As a consequence, stock price surged as much as 18 percent in Paris, the biggest jump in the last nine years. General Electric will gain control of Alstom�� technology for power transmission and power plant maintenance.

Best Forestry Companies To Invest In 2014: ARM Holdings PLC (ARMH)

ARM Holdings plc (ARM), incorporated on October 16, 1990, designs microprocessors, physical intellectual property (IP) and related technology and software, and sells development tools. As of December 31, 2012, the Company operated in three business segments: the Processor Division (PD), the Physical IP Division (PIPD) and the System Design Division (SDD). ARM licenses and sells its technology and products to international electronics companies, which in turn manufacture, markets and sells microprocessors, application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs) and application-specific standard processors (ASSPs) based on ARM�� technology to systems companies for incorporation into a range of end products. It also licenses and sells development tools directly to systems companies and provides support services to its licensees, systems companies and other systems designers.

ARM processor architecture and physical IP is used in embedded microprocessor applications, including cellular phones, digital televisions, mobile computers and personal computer peripherals, smart cards and microcontrollers. ARM�� principal geographic markets are Europe, the United States and Asia Pacific. ARM�� product offering includes microprocessor Cores: RISC microprocessor cores, including specific functions, such as video and graphics IP and on-chip fabric IP; embedded software; physical IP; development tools, and support and maintenance services.

Processor Division

The PD encompasses those resources that are centered on microprocessor cores, including specific functions, such as graphics IP, fabric IP, embedded software IP and configurable digital signal processing (DSP) IP. Service revenues consist of design consulting services and revenues from support, maintenance and training.

Physical IP Division

The PIPD is focused on building blocks for translation of a circuit design into actual silicon. During the year ended December 31, 2012, the Company�� total av! erage PIPD headcount was 557. ARM is a provider of physical IP components for the design and manufacture of integrated circuits, including systems-on-chip (SoCs). ARM Artisan physical IP products include embedded memory, standard cell and input/output components. Artisan physical IP also includes a limited portfolio of analog and mixed-signal products. ARM�� physical IP components are developed for a range of process geometries ranging from 20 nanometer - 250 nanometer. ARM licenses its products to customers for the design and manufacture of integrated circuits used in complex, high-volume applications, such as portable computing devices, communication systems, cellular phones, microcontrollers, consumer multimedia products, automotive electronics, personal computers and workstations and many others.

ARM�� embedded memory components include random access memories, read only memories and register files. These memories are provided in the form of a configurable memory compiler, which allows the customer to generate the appropriate configuration for the given application. ARM�� memory components include many configurable features, such as power-down modes, low-voltage data retention and fully static operation, as well as different transistor options to trade off performance and power. In addition, ARM�� memory components include built-in test interfaces that support the industry test methodologies and tools. ARM memory components also offer redundant storage elements.

ARM�� memory components are designed to enable the chip designer maximum flexibility to achieve the optimum power, performance, and density trade-off. ARM offers standard cell components that are optimized for high performance, high density or ultra high density. ARM logic products deliver optimal performance, power and area when building ARM Processors, Graphics, Video and Fabric IP along with general SoC subsystem implementation. ARM delivers physical interface for a range of DDR SDRAM (double-data rate s! ynchronou! s dynamic random-access memory) applications ranging from mission critical applications to low-power memory sub-systems. Silicon on Insulator (SOI) products is an alternative methodology to traditional semiconductor fabrication techniques.

System Design Division

The SDD is focused on the tools and models used to create and debug software and system-on-chip (SoC) designs. ARM�� software development tools help a software design engineer deliver products right the first time. Engineers use these tools in the design and deployment of code, from applications running on open operating systems right through to low-level firmware. The ARM Development Studio is a hardware components that allow the software designer to connect to a real target system and control the system for the purposes of finding errors in the software. The ARM DSTREAM unit allows the software developer to control the software running on the prototype product and examine the internal state of the prototype product. ARM Development Boards are ideal systems for prototyping ARM-based products. The ARM Microcontroller Development Kit supports ARM-based microcontrollers and 8051-based microcontrollers from companies, such as Analog Devices, Atmel, Freescale, Fujitsu, NXP, Samsung, Sharp, STMicroelectronics, Texas Instruments and Toshiba. The ARM Microcontroller Development Kit is used by developers who are building products and writing software using standard off-the-shelf microcontrollers.

The ARM Microprocessor Families

ARM architecture processors offers a range of performance options in the ARM7 family, ARM9 family, ARM11 family, ARM Cortex family and ARM SecurCore family. The ARM architecture gives systems designers a choice of processor cores at different performance/price points. The ARM7 offers 32-bit architecture capable of operating from 8/16-bit memory on an 8/16-bit bus through the implementation of the Thumb instruction set. The ARM9 family consists of a range of microprocessors in ! the 150-2! 50MHz range. Each processor has been designed for a specific application or function, such as an application processor for a feature phone or running a wireless fidelity (WiFi) protocol stack. The ARM9 family consists of a range of microprocessors in the 150-250 megahertz range. The ARM11 family consists of a range of microprocessors in the 300-600 megahertz range. ARM Cortex family is ARM�� family of processor cores based on version 7 of the ARM Architecture. The family is split into three series: A Series, A Series and M Series.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Maynard Paton]

  LONDON -- The shares of�ARM Holdings� (LSE: ARM  ) (NASDAQ: ARMH  ) soared 73 pence, or 8%, to 942 pence during early London trade this morning after the FTSE 100 member announced first-quarter profits had surged 58%.

• [By David O��ara]

  ARM Holdings' (LSE: ARM  ) (NASDAQ: ARMH  )
  ARM shares have soared off the back of the smartphone and tablet boom. In the last five years, the shares are up almost ninefold.

• [By Paul Ausick]

  We have tracked the key short interest changes as of September 30 in the following semiconductor leaders: Intel Corp. (NASDAQ: INTC), Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (NYSE: AMD), Micron Technology Inc. (NASDAQ: MU), SanDisk Corp. (NASDAQ: SNDK), Qualcomm Inc. (NASDAQ: QCOM), ARM Holdings PLC (NASDAQ: ARMH), Broadcom Corp. (NASDAQ: BRCM), Marvell Technology Group Ltd. (NASDAQ: MRVL), Nvidia Corp. (NASDAQ: NVDA), Texas Instruments Inc. (NASDAQ: TXN) and Applied Materials Inc. (NASDAQ: AMAT). We also chose to look at how the Market Vectors Semiconductor ETF (NYSEMKT: SMH) has held up.

Best Forestry Companies To Invest In 2014: Multimedia Games Holding Company Inc.(MGAM)

Multimedia Games Holding Company, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, engages in the design, manufacture, distribution, and maintenance of gaming machines, video lottery terminals, and associated systems and equipment. The company provides a range of networked gaming systems that control and operate Class II gaming machines, video lottery terminals, and bingo terminals at Native American and commercial gaming facilities. It offers various classic 3-reel and 5-reel mechanical reel games, which provide players with a slot gaming experience; Side Action series of slot games; Maximum Lockdown, a hybrid mechanical reel game; Treasure Top series, a range of 3-reel mechanical games that includes LED lights and a video spinning wheel; TournEvent, a slot tournament system, which allow operators to switch from in-revenue gaming to out-of-revenue tournaments; and High Rise Games. The company also offers back-office accounting and slot management systems that are used to manage the floor operations; and server-based centrally-linked player terminals, which are placed and sold in Class II, video lottery terminal, and bingo settings, as well as standalone player terminals that are placed and sold in Class III settings. It provides its gaming systems to Native American and commercial casino operators in North America; domestic and selected international lottery operators; and charity and commercial bingo gaming facility operators. The company was formerly known as Multimedia Games, Inc and changed its name to Multimedia Games Holding Company, Inc. in April 2011. Multimedia Games Holding Company, Inc. was founded in 1991 and is based in Austin, Texas.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Seth Jayson]

  Multimedia Games Holding (Nasdaq: MGAM  ) reported earnings on April 30. Here are the numbers you need to know.

  The 10-second takeaway
  For the quarter ended March 31 (Q2), Multimedia Games Holding beat expectations on revenues and beat expectations on earnings per share.

• [By James Brumley]

  The 17% pullback over the first quarter of the year had less to do with the company’s portfolio and more to do with the market’s mood, and now that the broad market is easing up, the market’s mood regarding Hercules Technology Growth Capital looks poised to improve.

  Multimedia Games (MGAM)

  With the stock down more than 13% since early March, it would be easy to assume Multimedia Games Holding Company (MGAM) was headed for a nasty earnings report at the end of April. The market was wrong, however. MGAM posted a 25% increase in revenue for the quarter, and a 28% improvement in earnings … and that was before the acquisition of PokerTek (PTEK). Bringing PokertTek into the fold will almost assure a fourth straight year of revenue and income growth.

• [By Rick Munarriz]

  In the following video, longtime Motley Fool contributor Rick Munarriz takes a question from a Fool reader, who asks: "Multimedia Games�[ (NASDAQ: MGAM  ) ] is going up, up, and away. What's making the stock take off?"

Best Forestry Companies To Invest In 2014: Jive Software Inc (JIVE)

Jive Software, Inc. (Jive), incorporated in February 2, 2001, provides a social business software platform. The Company is focused on unlocking the power of the enterprise social graph, which is the extended social network of an enterprise, encompassing relationships among its employees, customers and partners, as well as their interactions with people, content, and business information. The Company's customers use the Company's platform across broad business use cases, such as strategic alignment, that involve all employees, as well as functional use cases that improve the results of specific business activities such as sales execution or customer service. The Company sells its platform primarily through a direct sales force both domestically and internationally. As of December 31, 2012, the Company had 800 enterprise Jive Platform customers. In May 2013, Jive Software Inc acquired StreamOnce Inc.

The Company delivers a social business platform that features the innovation, creativity and ease of uses found in consumer applications combined with the security, flexibility and scalability necessary for enterprise deployment. The Company offers an enterprise-class social platform, purpose-built to enable its customers to manage workplace communication and collaboration. The Company's solution can be deployed across all employees, functional departments and business units. The Company's solution enables the Company's customers to operate both internal and external communities by offering a platform that allows communication and collaboration between and among employees, customers and partners. The Company's platform includes a recommendation engine that helps users connect to and easily locate relevant information and experts on an enterprise-wide basis across departmental and geographic boundaries, as well as across externally-facing customer and partner communities.

The Company's platform is capable of supporting deployments, including those with complex environments ! with tens of thousands of employees internally and millions of users externally. The Company provides tools to help its customers manage the critical elements of application security, including authentication, authorization and regulatory compliance. The Company enables customers to identify the impact of its platform on a particular business outcome. This includes identifying relevant user metrics, success rates and positive trends across the business. The Company's platform integrates with legacy IT infrastructure and a broad range of existing enterprise applications, including email, content management, customer relationship management, marketing automation, product development, eCommerce and instant messaging and enables access from mobile devices, browsers, desktop applications, collaboration applications and consumer social platforms.

The Company enables customers and third parties to develops applications that leverage its platform through its Jive Apps Market, built on the industry standard OpenSocial specifications. Users can easily find, purchase and install applications tailored to meet specific business needs in a variety of industries and business functions, enabling further innovation and functionality on the Company's platform. Developers can leverage the enterprise social graph to make applications more social and broaden their reach. The Company's platform has been developed to facilitate easy deployment with familiar interfaces. The Company offers its customers the ability to configure its solutions to deliver the specific functionality and user experience they want for their end-users, and the ability to modify the look and feel of its solutions to conform to their branding or other requirements. The Company's customers can use the Company's platform on demand through the public cloud, or via a private cloud. This flexible delivery model allows the Company to meet a variety of security and cost requirements and better address the needs of each customer, and enables the Co! mpany to ! target a wider range of potential customers.

The Company's flagship product, the Jive Platform, offers social business capabilities that enable employee, customer and partner engagement on a unified platform. The core platform can be expanded by adding optional modules, including Jive Present, Gamification, Ideation, Mobile, Video, and connectors into existing enterprise systems and applications. The Company's platform can also be extended to include cloud and customer-built applications through the Jive Apps Market. All of this activity and content is aggregated and presented to users via the Jive What Matters layer.

The Jive Platform serves two types of communities: Employees and Customers and partners. The Company's platform connects users across the enterprise and its functional departments, leveraging social intelligence, such as business relationships and areas of interest, to proactively provide relevant documents, discussions and other content to users. The Company's platform enables the Company's customers to build and manage external communities to build their brand, increase interaction and feedback, and reduce their support costs through enhanced online communication with their own customers and business partners.

The Jive Platform enables rich social profiles, visual enterprise directories, connections and identification. Users can easily find, follow and access both people and data through structured spaces, including public and private social groups and projects. This provides users with up to the minute access to relevant and critical information. The Company's platform enables blogging, microblogging, discussions, real time chat and video conversations and direct messaging and aggregates these familiar methods of social communications into a social inbox to allow users to find relevant information quickly and easily.

The Company's platform includes wikis, document sharing, an easy-to-use rich text editor, and full-fidelity rendering of Micros! oft Offic! e documents and PDFs with inline commenting, allowing users to collaborate real-time. The Company's platform enhances collaboration by allowing users to control access to content at the individual, group or document level. The Company's platform includes advanced search capabilities to locate relevant people, content and groups using information captured in the enterprise social graph, such as users' skills or profile information. The Company's platform can integrate with numerous enterprise systems such as customer relationship management, enterprise resource planning, software configuration management, or product lifecycle management systems, via the Company's application programming interfaces, or APIs.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Jonathan Morgan]

  SAP AG (SAP) added 2.1 percent to 59.89 euros. The world�� largest maker of business-management software has ended discussions to acquire Jive Software Inc. (JIVE), which has a market value of more than $1 billion, people familiar with the matter said.

Best Forestry Companies To Invest In 2014: Clean Diesel Technologies Inc.(CDTI)

Clean Diesel Technologies, Inc. engages in the manufacture and distribution of emissions control systems and products for heavy duty diesel and light duty vehicle markets. The company operates in two divisions, Heavy Duty Diesel Systems and Catalyst. The Heavy Duty Diesel Systems division designs and manufactures verified exhaust emissions control solutions that are used to reduce exhaust emissions created by on-road, off-road, and stationary diesel and alternative fuel engines, including propane and natural gas. Its products include closed crankcase ventilation systems, diesel oxidation catalysts, diesel particulate filters, Platinum Plus fuel-borne catalysts, ARIS selective catalytic reduction reagents, catalyzed wire mesh diesel particulate filters, alternative fuel products, and exhaust accessories. This division offers its products for original equipment manufacturers of heavy duty diesel equipment, such as mining equipment, vehicles, generator sets, and construction equipment, as well as retrofit customers consisting of school districts, municipalities, and other fleet operators. The Catalyst division produces catalyst formulations using its proprietary MPC technology for gasoline, diesel, and natural gas induced emissions. Its products comprise catalysts for gasoline engines, diesel engines, and energy applications. This division supplies its catalysts to automotive manufacturers and large heavy duty diesel engine manufacturers. The company sells its products through a network of distributors and dealers, and its direct sales force worldwide. Clean Diesel Technologies, Inc. is based in Ventura, California.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Bryan Murphy]

  Look out Clean Diesel Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ:CDTI), and Cummins Inc. (NYSE:CMI), you may want to take notice too. Little HydroPhi Technologies Group, Inc. (OTCMKTS:HPTG) is about to make a big splash in your pool, which could make life very difficult and much easier (respectively) for the two of you. How's that? In simplest terms, all signs point to HydroPhi Technologies' diesel efficiency working quite well, saving those who use it money, while simultaneously saving the environment.

Best Forestry Companies To Invest In 2014: Linn Energy LLC (LINE)

Linn Energy, LLC (LINN Energy) is an independent oil and natural gas company. The Company�� properties are located in the United States, primarily in the Mid-Continent, the Permian Basin, Michigan, California and the Williston Basin. Mid-Continent Deep includes the Texas Panhandle Deep Granite Wash formation and deep formations in Oklahoma and Kansas. Mid-Continent Shallow includes the Texas Panhandle Brown Dolomite formation and shallow formations in Oklahoma, Louisiana and Illinois. Permian Basin includes areas in West Texas and Southeast New Mexico. Michigan includes the Antrim Shale formation in the northern part of the state. California includes the Brea Olinda Field of the Los Angeles Basin. Williston Basin includes the Bakken formation in North Dakota. On December 15, 2011, the Company acquired certain oil and natural gas properties located primarily in the Granite Wash of Texas and Oklahoma from Plains Exploration & Production Company (Plains).

On November 1, 2011, and November 18, 2011, it completed two acquisitions of certain oil and natural gas properties located in the Permian Basin. On June 1, 2011, it acquired certain oil and natural gas properties in the Cleveland play, located in the Texas Panhandle, from Panther Energy Company, LLC and Red Willow Mid-Continent, LLC (collectively Panther). On May 2, 2011, and May 11, 2011, it completed two acquisitions of certain oil and natural gas properties located in the Williston Basin. On April 1, 2011, and April 5, 2011, the Company completed two acquisitions of certain oil and natural gas properties located in the Permian Basin. On March 31, 2011, it acquired certain oil and natural gas properties located in the Williston Basin from an affiliate of Concho Resources Inc. (Concho). During the year ended December 31, 2011, the Company completed other smaller acquisitions of oil and natural gas properties located in its various operating regions. As of December 31, 2011, the Company operated 7,759 or 69% of its 11,230 gross productiv! e wells.

Mid-Continent Deep

The Mid-Continent Deep region includes properties in the Deep Granite Wash formation in the Texas Panhandle, which produces at depths ranging from 10,000 feet to 16,000 feet, as well as properties in Oklahoma and Kansas, which produce at depths of more than 8,000 feet. Mid-Continent Deep proved reserves represented approximately 47% of total proved reserves, as of December 31, 2011, of which 49% were classified as proved developed reserves. The Company owns and operates a network of natural gas gathering systems consisting of approximately 285 miles of pipeline and associated compression and metering facilities that connect to numerous sales outlets in the Texas Panhandle.

Mid-Continent Shallow

The Mid-Continent Shallow region includes properties producing from the Brown Dolomite formation in the Texas Panhandle, which produces at depths of approximately 3,200 feet, as well as properties in Oklahoma, Louisiana and Illinois, which produce at depths of less than 8,000 feet. Mid-Continent Shallow proved reserves represented approximately 20% of total proved reserves, as of December 31, 2011, of which 70% were classified as proved developed reserves. The Company owns and operates a network of natural gas gathering systems consisting of approximately 665 miles of pipeline and associated compression and metering facilities that connect to numerous sales outlets in the Texas Panhandle.

Permian Basin

The Permian Basin is an oil and natural gas basins in the United States. The Company�� properties are located in West Texas and Southeast New Mexico and produce at depths ranging from 2,000 feet to 12,000 feet. Permian Basin proved reserves represented approximately 16% of total proved reserves, as of December 31, 2011, of which 56% were classified as proved developed reserves.

Michigan

The Michigan region includes properties producing from the Antrim Shale formation in the northern ! part of t! he state, which produces at depths ranging from 600 feet to 2,200 feet. Michigan proved reserves represented approximately 9% of total proved reserves, as of December 31, 2011, of which 90% were classified as proved developed reserves.

California

The California region consists of the Brea Olinda Field of the Los Angeles Basin. California proved reserves represented approximately 6% of total proved reserves, as of December 31, 2011, of which 93% were classified as proved developed reserves.

Williston Basin

The Williston Basin is one of the premier oil basins in the United States. The Company�� properties are located in North Dakota and produce at depths ranging from 9,000 feet to 12,000 feet. Williston Basin proved reserves represented approximately 2% of total proved reserves, as of December 31, 2011, of which 48% were classified as proved developed reserves.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Matt DiLallo]

  There has been a lot of drama in the upstream oil and gas MLP sector this year. Negativity from a variety of sources has pulled down�LINN Energy� (NASDAQ: LINE  ) , while also taking down peers like�BreitBurn Energy Partners� (NASDAQ: BBEP  ) . This has created quite a headache for both management teams, making it tough for them to do what they do best, which is acquire mature oil and gas properties.

• [By Matt DiLallo]

  I'm quite frankly baffled by the amount of negative press LINN Energy (NASDAQ: LINE  ) has generated this year. The one-two punch of negative research reports followed up by equally negative articles published by Barron's have been a recurring theme all year. I'm sure it is causing many investors to lose both patience and faith in the company. It's a shame, because it's causing undue harm to investors, many of whom have been holding for a long time.

• [By David Dittman]

  Question: Do you have any comments on Linn Energy LLC (NSDQ: LINE)?

  Answer: The merger with Berry Petroleum is complete, and now it’s on to executing plan to get production growing again. The SE’’s informal inquiry is still in process, and I won’t hazard a guess as to what if anything will come of it.

• [By Matt DiLallo]

  As I write this units of LINN Energy (NASDAQ: LINE  ) are heading lower while shares of affiliate LinnCo (NASDAQ: LNCO  ) are following suit. The culprit is an article in Barron's on the company that is highlighting comments from a recent presentation by a hedge fund that's short the company. The article, "Twilight of a Stock-Market Darling", is one of the many recent publications on the company that have highlighted some areas of concern. Let's dig into the thesis of the recent concerns and see if we can glean some insight into what's going on.