Best Penny Stocks To Invest In Right Now

The Illinois Senate approved new legislation on Tuesday that would allow Ameren (NYSE: AEE  ) to invest $330 million more in its natural gas delivery system, according to an Ameren press release.

The "Natural Gas Consumer, Safety, & Reliability Act" would enable Ameren to pass some modernization costs on to consumers, accelerating upgrades to Illinois' transmission, distribution, and technology systems. According to the release, an average residential user would incur an additional penny per day in gas bills for the next ten years.

"This plan enhances our ability to meet the current and future needs of our gas customers while creating 150 good-paying jobs and maintaining strong consumer protections," said Ameren Illinois CEO and President Richard Mark in a statement. "It is a win for Illinois customers, businesses and labor."

Although the Senate has passed the act, it now heads to Governor Pat Quinn's desk for final approval. The governor recently vetoed a smart grid bill, noting that he was "disappointed that the General Assembly did not protect consumers from overreaching by utility monopolies like ComEd and Ameren." The veto was overturned last week by the state's House of Representatives.

5 Best Communications Equipment Stocks To Buy Right Now: Gentiva Health Services Inc.(GTIV)

Gentiva Health Services, Inc. provides home health services and hospice care in the United States. The company offers skilled nursing and therapy services, paraprofessional nursing services, and homemaker services primarily to adult and elderly patients through licensed and Medicare-certified agencies. It also provides its services through specialty programs comprising Gentiva Orthopedics, which offers individualized home orthopedic rehabilitation services to patients recovering from joint replacement or other major orthopedic surgery; Gentiva Safe Strides that provides therapies for patients with balance issues; and Gentiva Cardiopulmonary, which helps patients and their physicians manage heart and lung health in a home-based environment. In addition, the company offers services through Gentiva Neurorehabilitation, which helps patients who have experienced a neurological injury or condition by removing the obstacles to healing in the patient?s home; Gentiva Senior Health that addresses the needs of patients with age-related diseases and issues; and Rehab Without Walls unit, which provides neurorehabilitation therapies for patients with traumatic brain injury, cerebrovascular accident injury, and acquired brain injury. Further, it offers consulting services to home health agencies, which include operational support, billing and collection activities, and on-site agency support and consulting. Additionally, the company provides hospice services primarily in the patient?s home or other residence, such as an assisted living residence or nursing home, as well as in a hospital. Gentiva Health Services, Inc. was founded in 1999 and is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By James E. Brumley]

  Truth be told, it's not clear if SK3 Group Inc. (OTCMKTS:SKTO) is best described when compared to a name like Cerner Corporation (NASDAQ:CERN), or to a Gentiva Health Services, Inc. (NASDAQ:GTIV). The company's got elements of both major industries being represented by CERN and GTIV (home health care, and information technology), with the addition of another budding industry thrown into the mix. One thing IS clear though... SKTO shares have decidedly reversed a nasty downtrend, and may now be one of the market's best small cap healthcare speculative trades.

• [By Jake L'Ecuyer]

  Leading and Lagging Sectors
  Healthcare stocks gained Wednesday, with Senomyx (NASDAQ: SNMX) leading advancers after the company announced a research agreement with PepsiCo (NYSE: PEP). Among the leading sector stocks, gains came from Pernix Therapeutics Holdings (NASDAQ: PTX), Albany Molecular Research (NASDAQ: AMRI) and Gentiva Health Services (NASDAQ: GTIV).

Best Penny Stocks To Invest In Right Now: Synergetics USA Inc.(SURG)

Synergetics USA, Inc., a medical device company, engages in the design, manufacture, and marketing of microsurgical instruments and consumables primarily for ophthalmology and neurosurgery markets in the United States and internationally. The company?s product lines focus upon precision engineered, microsurgical, handheld devices, and the microscopic delivery of laser energy, ultrasound, electrosurgery, aspiration, illumination and irrigation that are delivered in multiple combinations. It offers retinal surgical items, including handheld disposable and reusable forceps and scissors, fiberoptics for illumination and photocoagulation, cannulas, scrapers, and other reusable and disposable surgical devices. The company also provides bipolar electrosurgical generators; lesion generators used for minimally invasive pain treatment; and directional laser probes, as well as offers gauge instrumentation to the vitreoretinal surgical market. It sells its products through direct sale s employees, distributors, and independent sales representatives. The company was founded in 1991 and is headquartered in O?Fallon, Missouri.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Ben Levisohn]

  Synergetics USA (SURG) has dropped 4.8% to $4.75 after the medical device company said it earned 6 cents a share, in line with analyst forecasts.

  Team Inc.�(TISI) has dropped 11% after the company missed its earnings forecast and lowered guidance.

• [By Monica Gerson]

  Synergetics USA (NASDAQ: SURG) is projected to post its Q4 earnings at $0.06 per share on revenue of $17.01 million.

  Team (NYSE: TISI) is expected to post its Q1 earnings at $0.36 per share on revenue of $176.70 million.

Best Penny Stocks To Invest In Right Now: Sanderson Farms Inc.(SAFM)

Sanderson Farms, Inc., an integrated poultry processing company, engages in the production, processing, marketing, and distribution of fresh, frozen, processed, and prepared chicken products. The company?s prepared chicken product line includes institutional and consumer packaged partially cooked or marinated chicken items. It sells ice pack, chill pack, bulk pack, and frozen chicken in whole, cut-up, and boneless form under the Sanderson Farms brand name. The company sells its products to retailers, distributors, and casual dining operators in the southeastern, southwestern, northeastern, and western United States, as well as to the United States based customers who resell frozen chicken into export markets. Sanderson Farms, Inc. was founded in 1947 and is headquartered in Laurel, Mississippi.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Arturo Cuevas]

  It looks like you and I will be eating more chicken this 2014. Retail beef prices remain at record highs, and we consumers will likely be driven more toward comparatively cheaper chicken meat in 2014. Given this trend, loading up on shares of Sanderson Farms (NASDAQ: SAFM  ) , Pilgrim's Pride (NASDAQ: PPC  ) , and�Tyson Foods (NYSE: TSN  ) �should be worth considering.

• [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 Sanderson Farms (Nasdaq: SAFM  ) , whose recent revenue and earnings are plotted below.

• [By Rich Duprey]

  The four biggest chicken processors in the country are Tyson Foods (NYSE: TSN  ) ,�JBS, Perdue, and�Sanderson Farms� (NASDAQ: SAFM  ) , which slaughter 60% of all the chickens consumed in the country, and according to the National Chicken Council, the industry has invested tens of millions of dollars in technology and scientific processes to minimize any risks to the buying public. Indeed, every�factory-scale slaughterhouse has four USDA inspectors overseeing its kill lines.�

Best Penny Stocks To Invest In Right Now: New York Mortgage Trust Inc.(NYMT)

New York Mortgage Trust, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, operates as a real estate investment trust (REIT) in the United States. The company engages in acquiring, investing, financing, and managing mortgage-related assets. It primarily invests in agency residential adjustable-rate, hybrid adjustable-rate, and fixed-rate mortgage-backed securities (RMBS); non-Agency RMBS; prime adjustable-rate residential mortgage loans held in securitization trusts; commercial mortgage-backed securities; commercial mortgage loans; and other commercial real estate-related debt investments. The company has elected to be taxed as a REIT and will not be subject to federal income tax if it distributes at least 90% of its REIT taxable income to its stockholders. New York Mortgage Trust, Inc. was founded in 1989 and is headquartered in New York, New York.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Eric Volkman]

  Investors are being rewarded for putting their trust in New York Mortgage Trust (NASDAQ: NYMT  ) . The REIT has declared a common stock dividend for its current quarter of $0.27 per share, to be paid on July 25 to shareholders of record as of June 28. That amount matches each of the company's preceding four distributions, the most recent of which was doled out at the end of April. Before that, it paid $0.25 per share.

Best Penny Stocks To Invest In Right Now: Cornerstone Progressive Return Fund(CFP)

Cornerstone Progressive Return Fund is a closed-ended equity fund of fund launched and managed by Cornerstone Advisors, Inc. The fund invests funds investing in the public equity markets of the United States. It invests in stocks of companies operating across diversified sectors. Cornerstone Progressive Return Fund was formed on April 26, 2007 and is domiciled in the United States.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Dan Caplinger]

  But you can see in several places the consequences of the stampede toward high yield. Here are just a few:

  Closed-end funds Cornerstone Progressive (NYSEMKT: CFP  ) and Pimco High Income (NYSE: PHK  ) both make fixed payments back to fund shareholders on a monthly basis, and their distribution yields are truly extraordinary, at about 17% and 12%, respectively. Those dividends have enticed shareholders to pay $1.30 to $1.40 or more for each $1 of assets in the funds. Yet during most months, a substantial portion of those distribution payments has simply been a return of investor capital rather than true income from the funds' investments. A recent study discussed in The Wall Street Journal found that returns on a portfolio with a combined value and dividend-income strategy outperformed a strategy focused more exclusively on maximizing dividends by an average of 1.7 percentage points per year, a huge edge in long-run returns. In the dividend ETF arena, most funds tend to focus on maximizing yield. Although the popular Vanguard Dividend Appreciation (NYSEMKT: VIG  ) ETF bucks the trend by screening first for consistent dividend growth and only then looking at yield as a factor, many rival ETFs start with high-yielding stocks as their baseline and only then consider other desirable traits. Others focus solely on high-dividend niches of the market, such as iShares FTSE NAREIT Mortgage-Plus (NYSEMKT: REM  ) and its concentration on high-yield mortgage REITs.

  When dividend stocks get too popular, their prices get out of line with both their dividend income and the fundamentals of the businesses that underlie those stocks. In simpler terms, when dividend stocks become bad values, it's time to consider looking elsewhere for a margin of safety.

Best Penny Stocks To Invest In Right Now: China Recycling Energy Corporation(CREG)

China Recycling Energy Corporation provides energy saving and recycling products and services in the People's Republic of China. The company engages in the design, sale, installation, lease, and operation of top gas recovery turbine systems (TRT) and other renewable energy products. It also builds cement low temperature heat power generator (CHPG) and waste gas power generator (WGPG) systems. The company, through a joint venture, Inner Mongolia Erdos TCH Energy Saving Development Co., Ltd, with Erdos Metallurgy Co., Ltd., recycles waste heat from Erdos Metallurgy Co.?s metal refining plants to generate power and steam. China Recycling Energy Corporation offers its products and services to enterprises in the iron and steel, cement, coking, and metallurgy industries. The company was formerly known as China Digital Wireless, Inc. and changed its name to China Recycling Energy Corporation in March 2007. The company was founded in 2004 and is based in Xi An City, the People?s R epublic of China.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Roberto Pedone]

  Another stock that's starting to move within range of triggering a near-term breakout trade is China Recycling Energy (CREG), which engages in the recycling energy business, providing energy savings and recycling products and services. This stock is off to a strong start in 2013, with shares up a whopping 166%.

  If you take a look at the chart for China Recycling Energy, you'll notice that this stock recently formed a double bottom chart pattern at $1.67 to $1.66 a share. Following that bottom, shares of CREG have started to uptrend strong and move back above its 50-day moving average. That uptrend has now pushed shares of CREG within range of triggering a near-term breakout trade.

  Market players should now look for long-biased trades in CREG if it manages to break out above some near-term overhead resistance levels at $2.80 to $2.85 a share with high volume. Look for a sustained move or close above those levels with volume that hits near or above its three-month average action of 95,671 shares. If that breakout triggers soon, then CREG will set up to re-test or possibly take out its next major overhead resistance levels at $3.50 to $4 a share.

  Traders can look to buy CREG off any weakness to anticipate that breakout and simply use a stop that sits right below its 50-day moving average of $2.32 a share, or near more support at $2 a share. One can also buy CREG off strength once it clears those breakout levels with volume and then simply use a stop that sits a comfortable percentage from your entry point.

Best Penny Stocks To Invest In Right Now: Orion Marine Group Inc(ORN)

Orion Marine Group, Inc. operates as a marine specialty contractor serving the heavy civil marine infrastructure market. The company provides a range of marine construction and specialty services on, over, and under the water along the Gulf Coast, the Atlantic Seaboard, the West Coast, Canada, the Caribbean Basin, and the Pacific Northwest. The company?s marine construction services include construction of marine transportation facilities, marine pipelines, bridges and causeways, and marine environmental structures. Its marine transportation facility construction projects comprise public port facilities for container ship loading and unloading; cruise ship port facilities; private terminals; recreational use marinas and docks; and other marine-based facilities. Orion Marine Group?s marine pipeline service projects consist of the installation and removal of underwater buried pipeline transmission lines; installation of pipeline intakes and outfalls for industrial facilities ; construction of pipeline outfalls for wastewater and industrial discharges; river crossing and directional drilling; and creation of hot taps and tie-ins. Its bridge and causeway projects include the construction, repair, and maintenance of bridges and causeways, as well as the development of fendering systems in marine environments; and marine environmental structure projects primarily comprise the installation of concrete mattresses to ensure erosion protection, and the installation of geotubes for wetlands and island creation. In addition, the company offers dredging services; specialty services, including salvage, demolition, surveying, towing, diving and underwater inspection, excavation, and repair; and survey services comprising surveying pipelines and performing hydrographic surveys. Its customers include federal, state, and municipal governments, as well as private commercial and industrial enterprises. The company was founded in 1994 and is headquartered in Houst on, Texas.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Seth Jayson]

  When judging a company's prospects, how quickly it turns cash outflows into cash inflows can be just as important as how much profit it's booking in the accounting fantasy world we call "earnings." This is one of the first metrics I check when I'm hunting for the market's best stocks. Today, we'll see how it applies to Orion Marine Group (NYSE: ORN  ) .