Best Consumer Stocks To Invest In 2014

Lululemon Athletica Inc. (LULU) is a designer, manufacturer and retailer of yoga-inspired apparel. Since its creation in 2002, the company has grown from a single store to over 250 locations in the US, Canada and Europe. Its original target market is women in their 30s, but the brand has broadly expanded to new categories including women of all ages, men, youth and focused fitness wear. Its designs have performance features and are made with technology enhanced fabrics. The high quality of its products has positioned the company as a premium brand that caters to affluent consumers.

Its marketing strategy has allowed Lululemon to attain great brand loyalty. The firm distributes its products through yoga studios and top fitness clubs and is also affiliated with yoga and fitness instructors. Thus, the company has developed great connection with its customers. This approach and the company麓s adaptability to new market needs have proved right, since annual sales have risen almost six-fold since 2007.

Top 10 Logistics Stocks To Own For 2015: Dr Pepper Snapple Group Inc (DPS)

Dr Pepper Snapple Group, Inc. (DPS), incorporated on October 24, 2007, is an integrated brand owner, manufacturer and distributor of non-alcoholic beverages in the United States, Canada and Mexico with a diverse portfolio of flavored (non-cola) carbonated soft drinks (CSDs) and non-carbonated beverages (NCBs), including ready-to-drink teas, juices, juice drinks and mixers. The Company operates in three segments: Beverage Concentrates, Packaged Beverages and Latin America Beverages. The Company primarily serves two groups of customers: bottlers and distributors and retailers. As of December 31, 2011, it operated 20 manufacturing facilities across the United States and Mexico, excluding its manufacturing facility for its joint venture with Acqua Minerale San Benedetto. Effective March 1, 2013, it acquired Dr. Pepper/7-UP Bottling Co of the West, a producer and wholesaler of bottled soft drinks.

Beverage Concentrates

The Company�� Beverage Concentrates segment is principally a brand ownership business. In this segment the Company manufactures and sells beverage concentrates in the United States and Canada. Most of the brands in this segment are CSD brands. Its brand portfolio includes CSD brands, such as Dr Pepper, Sunkist soda, 7UP, A&W, Canada Dry, Crush, Squirt, Penafiel and Schweppes. Beverage concentrates are shipped to third party bottlers, as well as to its own manufacturing systems, who combine them with carbonation, water, sweeteners and other ingredients, package it in PET containers, glass bottles and aluminum cans, and sell it as a finished beverage to retailers. Beverage concentrates are also manufactured into syrup, which is shipped to fountain customers, such as fast food restaurants, who mix the syrup with water and carbonation to create a finished beverage at the point of sale to consumers. Its Beverage Concentrates brands are sold by its bottlers, including its own Packaged Beverages segment, through all retail channels, including supermarkets, fountains, mas! s merchandisers, club stores, vending machines, convenience stores, gas stations, small groceries, drug chains and dollar stores.

Packaged Beverages

The Company�� Packaged Beverages segment is principally a brand ownership, manufacturing and distribution business. In this segment, it primarily manufacture and distribute packaged beverages and other products, including its brands, third party owned brands and certain private label beverages, in the United States and Canada. Key NCB brands in this segment include Hawaiian Punch, Snapple, Mott's, Yoo-Hoo, Clamato, Deja Blue, AriZona, FIJI, Mistic, Nantucket Nectars, ReaLemon, Mr and Mrs T, Rose's and Country Time. Key CSD brands in this segment include 7UP, Dr Pepper, A&W, Sunkist soda, Canada Dry, Squirt, RC Cola, Big Red, Sun Drop, Diet Rite, IBC and Vernors. Approximately 87% of its 2011 Packaged Beverages net sales of branded products come from its own brands, with the remaining from the distribution of third party brands, such as Big Red, AriZona tea, FIJI mineral water, Neuro beverages, Vita Coco coconut water and Hydrive energy drinks. A portion of its sales also comes from bottling beverages and other products for private label owners or others, which is also referred to as contract manufacturing. Its Packaged Beverages��products are manufactured in multiple facilities across the United States and are sold or distributed to retailers and their warehouses by itsown distribution network or by third party distributors. The Company sells its Packaged Beverages��products both through its Direct Store Delivery system (DSD), supported by a fleet of approximately 6,000 vehicles and 12,000 employees, including sales representatives, merchandisers, drivers and warehouse workers, as well as through its Warehouse Direct delivery system (WD), both of which include the sales to retail channels, including supermarkets, fountain channel, mass merchandisers, club stores, vending machines, convenience stores, gas stations, small groce! ries, dru! g chains and dollar stores.

Latin America Beverages

The Company�� Latin America Beverages segment is a brand ownership, manufacturing and distribution business. This segment participates mainly in the carbonated mineral water, flavored CSD, bottled water and vegetable juice categories, with particular strength in carbonated mineral water, vegetable juice categories and grapefruit flavored CSDs. Its brands include Squirt, Penafiel, Aguafiel, Crush and Clamato.

In Mexico, it manufactures and distributes its products through its bottling operations and third party bottlers and distributors. In the Caribbean, it distributes its products through third party bottlers and distributors. In Mexico, it also participate in a joint venture to manufacture Aguafiel brand water with Acqua Minerale San Benedetto. The Company sells its finished beverages through Mexican retail channels, including mom and pop stores, supermarkets, hypermarkets, and on premise channels.

The Company competes with The Coca-Cola Company (Coca-Cola), PepsiCo, Inc. (PepsiCo), Nestle, S.A. (Nestle), Kraft Foods Inc. (Kraft) and The Cott Corporation (Cott).

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Brian Stoffel]

  In the world of soda, everyone knows that Coca-Cola (NYSE: KO  ) and PepsiCo� (NYSE: PEP  ) are the dominant players. But investors shouldn't forget about the No. 3 player in the industry: Dr Pepper Snapple (NYSE: DPS  ) , owner of some very popular brands, including all of those pictured below.

• [By Ben Levisohn]

  The news that someone somewhere was in talks with SodaStream actually broke April 16, when Israeli website, Calcalist noted that SodaStream was talking with either PepsiCo (PEP), Dr. Pepper Snapple (DPS) or Starbucks. As a result, “the cost of higher-strike options increased at a faster pace than the decline in lower-strike options,” noted Interactive Broker’s Andrew Wilkinson at the time.

• [By Bryan Murphy]

  Quick - what do Simon Property Group Inc. (NYSE:SPG), Dr. Pepper Snapple Group Inc. (NYSE:DPS), and Silicon Image, Inc. (NASDAQ:SIMG) have in common? If you said absolutely nothing, you'd be about 99% right. There's one common thing between SIMG, SPG, and DPS right now, however. What's that? All three stocks are on my personal "buy" list this week.

• [By Patricio Kehoe]

  The first on the list is The Coca-Cola Company (KO), in which Citadel disclosed a $267 million stake with over 6.46 million shares. The Coca-Cola Company is the best global brand (in terms of brand equity) and the world麓s largest producer of soft drinks. The company sells products in more than 200 countries and owns or licenses more than 500 brands. It operates in a highly competitive industry with PepsiCo (PEP), Nestle (NSRGY), Groupe Danone (GPDNF), Kraft Foods (KRFT) and Dr. Pepper Snapple Group (DPS). Due to this, the firm's strategy is to use its brands and financial strength to achieve long-term growth. Additionally, it has created an extensive and well-organized global distribution system, which cannot be replicated by any of its competitors at least at a reasonable cost. It has a proven commitment to returning cash to investors, with a current dividend yield of 2.94% which is considered quite good to protect investors' purchasing power.

Best Consumer Stocks To Invest In 2014: Schweitzer-Mauduit International Inc.(SWM)

Schweitzer-Mauduit International, Inc. manufactures and sells paper and reconstituted tobacco products to the tobacco industry, as well as specialized paper products for use in various applications. It operates in two segments, Paper and Reconstituted Tobacco. The Paper segment primarily produces cigarette papers, such as lower ignition propensity papers, plug wrap papers, and base tipping papers to cigarette manufacturers that use to wrap various parts of a cigarette. It also offers commercial and industrial products, including lightweight printing and writing papers, battery separator papers, drinking straw wraps, filter papers, and other specialized papers to converters and other end-users or brokers. The Reconstituted Tobacco segment produces and sells reconstituted tobacco leaf, and wrapper and binder products to cigarette and cigar manufacturers. The company sells its products directly to customers in approximately 90 countries. Schweitzer-Mauduit International, Inc. was founded in 1995 and is headquartered in Alpharetta, Georgia.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Seth Jayson]

  Calling all cash flows
  When you are trying to buy the market's best stocks, it's worth checking up on your companies' free cash flow once a quarter or so, to see whether it bears any relationship to the net income in the headlines. That's what we do with this series. Today, we're checking in on Schweitzer-Mauduit International (NYSE: SWM  ) , whose recent revenue and earnings are plotted below.

• [By Marc Bastow]

  Specialty paper manufacturer and distributor Schweitzer-Mauduit (SWM) raised its quarterly dividend 20% to 36 cents per share, payable on Dec. 26 to shareholders of record as of Nov. 27.
  SWM Dividend Yield: 2.78%
  

Best Consumer Stocks To Invest In 2014: Anadolu Efes Biracilik ve Malt Sanayii AS (AEFES)

Anadolu Efes Biracilik ve Malt Sanayii AS is the holding company of Efes Beverage Group, based in Turkey. Its activities consist of production, bottling, selling and distribution of beer under a number of trademarks and also production, bottling, selling and distribution of sparkling and still beverages with the Coca-Cola company trademark. The Company owns and operates a number of breweries in Turkey and abroad, malt production facilities in Turkey and Russia, and also a number of facilities in Turkey and in other countries for sparkling and still beverages production. It has joint control over Coca-Cola Icecek AS (CCI), which undertakes production, bottling and distribution facilities of Coca-Cola products in Turkey, Pakistan, Central Asia and the Middle East. Also the Company has joint control over Anadolu Etap Tarm ve Gda Urunleri San. ve Tic. AS, which undertakes production and sales of fruit juice concentrates and purees in Turkey. Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Andras Gergely]

  The Borsa Istanbul Stock Exchange National 100 Index slid a second day after reaching a record on May 22. Anadolu Efes (AEFES) sank the most since September 2011. Otokar Otomotiv ve Savunma Sanayi AS, a Turkish producer of civilian and military vehicles, rose to an all-time high after Hurriyet Daily News reported the company could sell tanks to Saudi Arabia.

Best Consumer Stocks To Invest In 2014: Service Corporation International (SVC)

Service International Corp., formerly Service Corporation International, incorporated in July 1962, is a provider of deathcare products and services, with a network of funeral service locations and cemeteries primarily operating in the United States and Canada. Its operations consist of funeral service locations, cemeteries, funeral service/cemetery combination locations, crematoria, and related businesses. The Company operates in two segments: funeral and cemetery operations. At December 31, 2011, it operated 1,423 funeral service locations and 374 cemeteries (including 214 funeral service/cemetery combination locations) in North America, which are geographically diversified across 43 states, eight Canadian provinces, and the District of Columbia. Its funeral service and cemetery operations consist of funeral service locations, cemeteries, funeral service/cemetery combination locations, crematoria, and related businesses. The Company sells cemetery property and funeral and cemetery products and services at the time of need and on a preneed basis. In December 2013, the Company announced that it completed its acquisition of Stewart Enterprises, Inc. In May 2014, Carriage Services, Inc. acquired six businesses in New Orleans and Alexandria, Virginia from Service Corporation International.

The Company�� funeral service and cemetery operations consist of funeral service locations, cemeteries, funeral service/cemetery combination locations, crematoria, and related businesses. The Company provides all professional services relating to funerals and cremations, including the use of funeral facilities and motor vehicles and preparation and embalming services. Funeral-related merchandise, including caskets, casket memorialization products, burial vaults, cremation receptacles, cremation memorial products, flowers, and other ancillary products and services, is sold at funeral service locations. Its cemeteries provide cemetery property interment rights, including mausoleum spaces, lots, and lawn cr! ypts, and sell cemetery-related merchandise and services, including stone and bronze memorials, markers, merchandise installations, and burial openings and closings. The Company also sells preneed funeral and cemetery products and services whereby a customer contractually agrees to the terms of certain products and services to be delivered and performed in the future.

During the year ended December 31, 2011, its operations in the United States and Canada were organized into 29 major markets, 47 metro markets, and 78 main street markets. At December 31, 2011, it owned approximately 89% of the real estate and buildings used at its facilities, and the remainder of the facilities were leased. At December 31, 2011, its 374 cemeteries contained a total of approximately 26,540 acres, of which approximately 60% was developed.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By WWW.DAILYFINANCE.COM]

  From a struggling department store chain delivering better than expected financial results to a popular photo-printing services provider botched a mass mailing, here's a rundown of the week's smartest moves and biggest blunders in the business world. Keurig Green Mountain (GMCR) -- Winner Coca-Cola (KO) is apparently a coffee addict. The world's leading beverage company turned heads earlier this year when it paid $1.25 billion for a 10 percent stake in Keurig Green Mountain. This week it announced that it's bumping its stake to 16 percent, paying a much higher price for the new shares. Keurig Green Mountain is the company behind the country's most popular single-serve coffee maker. In a few months it plans to enter the carbonated beverage market with Keurig Cold. Coca-Cola is on board to provide soft drink flavors for the machine, and now the company has a greater stake in seeing that Keurig Cold is successful. Shutterfly (SFLY) -- Loser "There's nothing more amazing than bringing a new life into the world," begins a promotion that Shutterfly mailed out this week. "As a new parent you're going to find more to love, more to give and more to share -- we're here to help you every step of the way." Shutterfly intended for the mailing to go out to customers who had recently ordered birth announcements, reminding them that matching thank you cards are now in order for the family and friends who provided gifts for the new baby. The problem here is that the marketing email went out to a far wider base of Shutterfly registered users. Twitter and Facebook were alive with folks joking or complaining about the mishap. It was an amusing blunder for most recipients, but it's easy to see how this kind of missive could hit hard to others. Netflix (NFLX) -- Winner We're apparently a nation of Netflix addicts. Online trend watcher Sandvine (SVC) reports that the streaming video service accounted for 34.2 percent of the North America's peak downstream Internet traffic durin

Best Consumer Stocks To Invest In 2014: Farmer Brothers Company(FARM)

Farmer Bros. Co. engages in the manufacture, wholesale, and distribution of coffee, tea, and culinary products. Its product line includes roasted coffee; liquid coffee; and coffee related products, such as coffee filters, sugar and creamers, assorted teas, cappuccino, cocoa, spices, gelatins and puddings, soup, gravy and sauce mixes, pancake and biscuit mixes, and jellies and preserves. The company distributes its products through direct and brokered sales to institutional foodservice establishments, including restaurants, hotels, casinos, hospitals, and foodservice providers, as well as retailers, such as convenience stores, coffee houses, general merchandisers, private label retailers, and grocery stores in the United States. Farmer Bros. Co. was founded in 1912 and is headquartered in Torrance, California.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Eric Volkman]

  Farmer Brothers (NASDAQ: FARM  ) has a new top financial executive. The company has appointed Mark Nelson to its CFO and treasurer positions, effective April 15. He will initially be assisted by, then replace, interim Treasurer and CFO Jeffrey Wahba.�

Best Consumer Stocks To Invest In 2014: Revlon Inc.(REV)

Revlon, Inc., through its subsidiaries, engages in manufacturing, marketing, and selling cosmetics, women?s hair color, beauty tools, anti-perspirant deodorants, fragrances, skincare, and other beauty care products worldwide. The company?s cosmetics include face makeup products, including foundation, powder, blush, concealers, bronzers, and finishers; lip makeup products comprising lipsticks, lip glosses, and lip liners; eye makeup products consisting of mascaras, eyeliners, eye shadows, and brow products; nail color and nail care products, such as enamels, treatments, and cuticle preparations; and face and eye makeup removers. Its beauty tools comprise nail, eye, and pedicure grooming tools, such as clippers, scissors, files, tweezers, eye lash curlers, and makeup brushes; and fragrances consist of perfumes, eau de toilettes, colognes, and body sprays. The company markets its products primarily under Revlon, Revlon ColorStay, Revlon Super Lustrous, Revlon Age Defying, A lmay Intense i-Color, Almay Smart Shade, Revlon ColorSilk, Mitchum, Charlie, Jean Nate, Ultima II, and Gatineau names. Revlon, Inc. sells its products through sales representatives and independent distributors to mass volume retailers, chain drug stores, chemist shops, hypermarkets, general merchandise stores, department stores; other specialty stores, such as perfumeries; and to the United States military exchanges and commissaries. It also licenses its brand names to third parties for the manufacture and sale of beauty-related products and accessories. The company was founded in 1932 and is based in New York, New York. Revlon, Inc. is a subsidiary of MacAndrews & Forbes Holdings Inc.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Eric Volkman]

  Revlon (NYSE: REV  ) will need to have a serious discussion with its headhunters. The company revealed in an SEC filing that Executive Vice President and CFO Steven Berns has tendered his resignation. He has done so in order to take up the same positions at privately held media conglomerate Tribune Company.�

Best Consumer Stocks To Invest In 2014: Dole Food Company Inc(DOLE)

Dole Food Company, Inc. engages in sourcing, growing, processing, marketing, and distributing fresh fruits and vegetables, and food products to wholesale, retail, and institutional customers worldwide. It operates in three segments: Fresh Fruit, Fresh Vegetables, and Packaged Foods. The Fresh Fruit segment involves in growing and selling bananas under the DOLE brand name primarily in North America, Europe, and Asia; ripening and distributing DOLE and non-DOLE branded fresh produce in Europe; growing, sourcing, and selling fresh pineapples under the DOLE TROPICAL GOLD label; and exporting Chilean fruits, including grapes, apples, pears, stone fruits, and kiwifruits primarily to North America, Latin America, and Europe. The Fresh Vegetables segment engages in sourcing, harvesting, cooling, distributing, and marketing various fresh and fresh-cut vegetables, including iceberg lettuce, red and green leaf lettuce, romaine lettuce, butter lettuce, celery, cauliflower, broccoli, c arrots, Brussels sprouts, green onions, asparagus, snow peas, artichokes, and radishes, as well as fresh strawberries and raspberries. This segment also processes and markets value-added vegetable products, such as packaged salads and packaged fresh-cut vegetables. The Packaged Foods segment produces and markets canned pineapples, canned pineapple juice, fruit juice concentrate, fruit parfaits, snack foods, and frozen fruits, as well as fruits in plastic cups, jars, and pouches. Its principal customers include mass merchandisers and supermarkets. Dole Food Company, Inc. was founded in 1851 and is based in Westlake Village, California.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Michael Nau]

  How would you react as a shareholder if the management of a company you owned behaved erratically and consequently pushed down the company's share price? What if after pushing down the share price, management offered to buy you out on the cheap? That is exactly what the Chairman, CEO and 40% owner of Dole (DOLE) David Murdock appears to have done.