Alamy Going over Yum! Brands' (YUM) disappointing third quarter report from Tuesday night makes it clear that it's not just the chicken that's boneless at KFC. The poultry fryer is struggling -- particularly abroad where something fowl has gone foul in China. Comparable-store sales (a measure that compares the year-over-year change at the average established store) plunged 13 percent in China during the quarter. This is a pretty big deal. There are 4,463 KFC restaurants in the world's most populous nation, and until late last year, the Chinese couldn't get enough of the Colonel's 11 secret herbs and spices. However, with a food safety scare stemming from some of the chain's suppliers and a bird flu outbreak, KFC's sales have fallen and they can't get up. Yum! Brands figured that sales would turn positive in China by the end of this year, but now it's conceding that's not in the cards. Flying Home Things were only relatively better closer to home, where comps fell 4 percent at domestic KFC locations. KFC is the worst performing chain for Yum! Brands. Pizza Hut clocked in with a 1 percent slide, while Taco Bell actually posted a 2 percent gain. For all of the buzz that KFC has generated with its boneless chicken pieces -- included the clever "I ate the bones" marketing campaign that was introduced earlier this year -- the sad truth is that the average store isn't selling as much as it used to. Something's wrong, and it's time for Yum! Brands to take a page out of the playbook that helped it breathe new life into Taco Bell last year. The leading Mexican fast food chain was meandering -- but then came the Doritos Locos Taco. Teaming up with PepsiCo's (PEP) Frito-Lay, Taco Bell took Doritos into the food lab to devise a taco shell impregnated with nacho cheese powder. It was a huge hit. Comps soared 12 percent during the product line's first full quarter on the market. Taco Bell added Cool Ranch to its line earlier this year, and by the time that a third Fiery line of spicy shells was added, the fast food chain had served up an amazing 600 million Locos Tacos. I Ate the Moans Something as simple as offering a Doritos-flavored taco shell has been enough to turn Taco Bell around. The slightly upscale Cantina Bell line also helped, but clearly, Taco Bell wouldn't be doing as well as it is now if it wasn't for a single product that has evolved and expanded since being introduced 19 months ago. So, where are KFC's Locos Tacos? As ambitious as the boneless chicken offering has been, it hasn't helped improve sales. KFC's latest innovation are KFC Go Cups. Priced at $2.49, these essentially repackage the chain's existing seasoned wedges and fried chicken options into cups. But if offering food that conveniently fits in cup holders was the Holy Grail of drive-thru, we would all be eating doughnuts for dinner. KFC needs something more to make the chicken chain trendy again, and there's certainly no shame in teaming up with Frito-Lay the way that Taco Bell did. After all, Frito-Lay parent PepsiCo once owned Pizza Hut, KFC, and Taco Bell. Why do you think these are three of only a handful of major chains that still serve Pepsi? It's easy to spin the wheel and drum up combinations. Here are a few to get you started. Cheetos Tenders: Ground-up Cheetos are incorporated in the breading of KFC's chicken tenders. Fritos Famous Bowls: The classic mashed potatoes, chicken, and corn bowl can get spruced up with Fritos. If that doesn't move you, how about Fritos Bar-B-Q or Chili Cheese corn chips for a crunchy kick? Tostitos Salsa Chicken: If KFC is looking for a Cantina Bell upgrade, serving its grilled chicken smothered in Tostitos salsa is a start. See? I didn't even have to dig into the dozens of Lay's potato chip flavors and how they could add some zesty crunch to the Doublicious sandwich, or even work Funyuns into Chicken Littles or the classic chicken pot pie. Taco Bell's success is something that Yum! Brands should be porting over to Pizza Hut and especially KFC. It seems as if things can't get much worse, so why not take a bold bet? KFC got rid of the bones, but now, it's time to grow a spine.
It's not unusual to see Oreos appear in other snack foods. Most ice cream shops and brands offer some variety of the cookies and cream flavor. And Oreos also appear (alongside several other snacks) as an optional mix-in for the McDonald's McFlurry. But there was something bizarre about seeing them as a topping on a doughnut, which is exactly what Krispy Kreme began offering a few weeks ago. There are two varieties of the doughnut, both of which include both Oreo cookie crumbles and a dollop of Oreo's signature filling. They're available at select locations through April 21. Krispy Kreme hasn't posted calorie count information for the doughnuts, and frankly, we're afraid to ask.
Top 5 Performing Companies To Invest In Right Now: Jaxon Minerals Inc(JAX.V)
Jaxon Minerals Inc., an exploration stage company, engages in the acquisition, exploration, and development of mineral properties in British Columbia, Canada. The company focuses on exploring gold, as well as bismuth, tellurium, silver, tungsten, and molybdenum. It has an option to acquire a 100% interest in the Nox Fort property located in the Nelson Mining District of British Columbia. The property consists of 18 mineral tenure claims and 3 crown granted mineral claim units covering an area of approximately 8,765 hectares. The company is headquartered in Vancouver, Canada.
Top 5 Performing Companies To Invest In Right Now: Total S.a. Ord Eur 10(TTA.L)
TOTAL S.A., together with its subsidiaries, operates as an integrated oil and gas company worldwide. The company operates in three segments: Upstream, Downstream, and Chemicals. The Upstream segment engages in the exploration, development, and production of oil and gas, liquefied natural gas, and electricity; and shipping and trading liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), as well as power generation from renewable energies, and coal production, trading, and marketing. As of December 31, 2011, it had combined proved reserves of 11,423 million barrels of oil equivalent of oil and gas. The Downstream segment is involved in refining, marketing, trading, and shipping crude oil and petroleum products. This segment also produces and markets a range of specialty products, such as lubricants, LPG, jet fuel, special fluids, heavy fuel, bitumen, marine fuels, and petrochemical feedstock. This segment holds interests in 20 refineries located in Europe, the United States, the French West Indie s, Africa, and China, as well as operates a network of 14,819 service stations. The Chemicals segment produces base chemicals, including petrochemicals and fertilizers; and specialty chemicals, such as elastomer processing, adhesives, and electroplating chemistry. This segment serves the automotive, construction, electronics, aerospace, and convenience goods markets. TOTAL S.A. was founded in 1924 and is headquartered in Paris, France.
Best Heal Care Stocks To Invest In 2014: Imris Inc(IMRS)
IMRIS Inc. provides integrated image guided therapy solutions that deliver information to clinicians during surgical or interventional procedures in Canada, the United States, Europe, the Asia Pacific, and the Middle East. The company designs, manufactures, and markets VISIUS Surgical Theatre, a multifunctional surgical environment that incorporates magnetic resonance (MR) imaging, CT imaging, fluoroscopy, computed tomography, and x-ray angiography into multi-purpose surgical suites to provide intra-operative imaging for medical applications. It also provides ancillary products and services. The company?s solutions serve the neurosurgical, cerebrovascular, and cardiovascular markets worldwide. IMRIS Inc. is based in Winnipeg, Canada.
Top 5 Performing Companies To Invest In Right Now: Vimicro International Corporation(VIMC)
Vimicro International Corporation, through its subsidiaries, designs, develops, and markets mixed-signal semiconductor products and system-level solutions for the consumer electronics, communications, and surveillance markets in Mainland China, Taiwan, Japan, Korea, and Hong Kong. It provides mixed-signal multimedia processors for personal computer and embedded notebook cameras, as well as for mobile phones. The company also offers system-level solutions that include integrated semiconductors, customizable firmware and software, software development tools, reference designs, and applications support. In addition, it provides security and surveillance products comprising video capturing, compression, transmission, storage, processing, display, and video analysis products. Further, the company involves in packaging, testing, and reselling third party image sensors. It sells its multimedia processor products through direct sales force and distributors to original design manuf acturers, original equipment manufacturers, design houses, and module manufacturers, as well as its security and surveillance products to government entities, telecommunications operators, schools, banks, railway companies, supermarkets, and theaters. The company was founded in 1999 and is based in Beijing, the People?s Republic of China.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By John Udovich]
Small cap security and surveillance stocks like Vimicro International Corporation (NASDAQ: VIMC), TASER International, Inc (NASDAQ: TASR), Kratos Defense & Security Solutions, Inc (NASDAQ: KTOS)�and View Systems Inc (OTCBB: VSYM) have been producing a steady stream of news lately for investors and traders alike to digest. After all, the entire�security and surveillance industry is pretty vast as it would include everything from airport scanners to security cameras or monitoring equipment to actual weapons for domestic or national defense to software securing everyone�� personal or online data to the technology groups like the NSA and other "Big Brother" agencies use to spy on us. With that in mind, here is a look at the latest news from important small cap security and surveillance stocks:
Top 5 Performing Companies To Invest In Right Now: Williams Partners L.P.(WPZ)
Williams Partners L.P. focuses on natural gas transportation, gathering, treating and processing, storage, natural gas liquid fractionation, and oil transportation activities in the United States. The company operates in two segments, Gas Pipeline, and Midstream Gas and Liquids. The Gas Pipeline segment owns and operates approximately 13,900 miles of pipelines with annual throughput of approximately 2,700 trillion British thermal units of natural gas and delivery capacity of approximately 13 million dekatherms of gas. This segment also owns interests in joint venture interstate and intrastate natural gas pipeline systems. The Midstream Gas and Liquids segment includes natural gas gathering, processing, and treating facilities; and crude oil gathering and transportation facilities that serve the producing basins in Colorado, New Mexico, Wyoming, the Gulf of Mexico, and Pennsylvania. Williams Partners GP LLC serves as the general partner of the company. Williams Partners L.P . was founded in 2005 and is based in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Stone Fox Capital]
Williams has one of the leading energy infrastructures in North America. It owns interests in, or operates, 15,000 miles of interstate gas pipelines, 1,000 miles of NGL transportation pipelines, and more than 10,000 miles of oil and gas gathering pipelines. It owns more than 70% of Williams Partners L.P. (WPZ), one of the largest diversified energy master limited partnerships.
- [By Dividend]
Williams Partners (WPZ) has a market capitalization of $22.97 billion. The company employs 3,658 people, generates revenue of $7.320 billion and has a net income of $1.232 billion. Williams Partners�� earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) amounts to $2.273 billion. The EBITDA margin is 31.05 percent (the operating margin is 20.72 percent and the net profit margin 16.83 percent).
- [By Aaron Levitt]
When it comes to natural gas, Williams Partners (WPZ) is simply one of the biggest players. The firm is one of the leading midstream players in the prolific Marcellus shale. That dominance has WPZ�� network of pipelines carrying roughly 14% of all the natural gas consumed in the U.S.
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