10 Best Safest Stocks To Invest In 2015

What kind of investor are you? If you don't know, you might have a problem. It's useful to have a handle on your investment strategy, so that you can better focus on it.

There are many different ways to categorize investing. For example, a Goldilocks-like approach might divide investing strategies into these groups:

Too-aggressive investing: This approach puts your dollars in danger. It can include any of a host of riskier-than-average types of investments, such as options, commodities, currency bets, penny stocks, and even lottery tickets. It's true that some options strategies can be conservative, but many are not, and it's very, very common for options to expire unexercised and worthless.

Too-cautious investing: It might seem smart to be very conservative with your money, but if you do that, it might not grow enough to support you in retirement. That's especially true these days, in our environment of ultra-low interest rates. With inflation historically averaging about 3% annually in the U.S., even earning 2% in your bank account or via a bond or CD will leave you losing purchasing power over time.

Just-right investing: For many people, a long-term portfolio mixed with both stocks and bonds is a sound way to grow your net worth.

The bond world features many kinds of bonds, such as government bonds, municipal bonds, and corporate bonds. Government bonds, such as U.S. Treasury bills, bonds, and notes, are the safest, backed by the U.S. government. They pay interest that's taxable on your federal tax return, but is exempt from state and local taxes. Municipal bonds can be riskier, as some local governments are on somewhat shaky ground, but they can therefore offer higher interest rates and their interest is exempt not only from state and local taxes, but also from federal taxes. Corporate bonds are issued by companies that want to raise money. They, too, offer rates higher than government bonds, and their interest is not tax-exempt. In general, the higher their interest rate, the lower their credit rating and healthiness.

Stock investing approaches
A sound stock investment strategy is hard to beat, for long-term growth. Here's a quick rundown of some key approaches. Note that many investors engage in one or more of them -- they're not all mutually exclusive.

10 Best Safest Stocks To Invest In 2015: Portland General Electric Company (POR)

Portland General Electric Company operates as an integrated electric utility in Oregon. The company engages in the generation, purchase, transmission, distribution, and retail sale of electricity. Its generating portfolio consists of thermal, hydro, and wind resources. The company also sells electricity and natural gas in the wholesale market to utilities, brokers, and power marketers in the western United States and Canada. As of March 31, 2011, it served approximately 821,193 residential, commercial, and industrial customers. The company was founded in 1930 and is headquartered in Portland, Oregon.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Rich Duprey]

  Utility operator�Portland General Electric� (NYSE: POR  ) �announced yesterday�its second-quarter dividend of $0.275 per share, a near-2% increase over last quarter's payout of $0.27 per share.

10 Best Safest Stocks To Invest In 2015: Dot Hill Systems Corporation(HILL)

Dot Hill Systems Corp. designs, manufactures, and markets a range of software and hardware storage systems for the entry and midrange storage markets worldwide. Its storage solutions consist of integrated hardware, firmware, and software products employing a modular system that allows end-users to add various protocol, performance, capacity, or data protection schemes. The company offers AssuredSAN products, a flexible line of networked data storage solutions for open systems environments, including fiber channel, Internet small computer systems interface, and serial attached small computer systems interface, or SAS storage markets. Its AssuredSAN product lines range from approximately 146 gigabyte to 192 terabyte storage systems. The company also provides RAID software for industry standard Windows and Linux servers, as well as storage management applications, which manage its storage system configurations. In addition, it sells DMS software products comprising AssuredSna p, AssuredCopy, AssuredRemote, and RAIDar. Further, the company offers standalone storage software products, such as AssuredUVS, a unified virtual storage appliance product; and AssuredVRA. It sells its products through original equipment manufacturers, systems integrators, distributors, and value added resellers. The company was founded in 1988 and is headquartered in Longmont, Colorado.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By John Udovich]

  Small cap storage stock Dot Hill Systems Corp (NASDAQ: HILL) is up 193.4% since the start of the year for a much better performance than its larger cap peers Western Digital Corp (NASDAQ: WDC) and SanDisk Corporation (NASDAQ: SNDK), which are 55.5% and 35.3%, respectively, since the start of the year. So why has this relatively unknown small cap storage stock been a better performer than its better known storage stock peers?

• [By John Udovich]

  On Monday, small cap storage stock Violin Memory Inc (NYSE: VMEM) surged 21.56% after booting out its CEO in the wake of disappointing earnings and IPO, meaning its time to take a closer look at the stock along with the performance of potential or better known storage peers like large caps SanDisk Corporation (NASDAQ: SNDK) and Western Digital Corp (NASDAQ: WDC) plus small cap Dot Hill Systems Corp (NASDAQ: HILL).

Best Food Stocks To Watch Right Now: Owens-Illinois Inc.(OI)

Owens-Illinois, Inc., through its subsidiaries, manufactures and sells glass container products primarily in Europe, North America, South America, and the Asia Pacific. The company produces glass containers for beer, ready-to-drink low alcohol refreshers, spirits, wine, food, tea, juice, and pharmaceuticals, as well as for soft drinks and other non-alcoholic beverages, including returnable/refillable glass containers. It serves brewers, wine vintners, distillers, and food producers. The company sells its products directly to customers under annual or multi-year supply agreements, as well as through distributors. Owens-Illinois, Inc. was founded in 1903 and is headquartered in Perrysburg, Ohio.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Jon C. Ogg]

  Owens-Illinois Inc. (NYSE: OI) was upgraded to Overweight from Neutral by J.P. Morgan, sending shares up almost 4%.

  Also see a guide to oil and stocks based up military action in Syria �prepared by UBS.

• [By Anora Mahmudova]

  Owens Illinois Inc. (OI) �fell 1.9%. Analysts at Bank of America Merrill Lynch reportedly downgraded the glass company to neutral from buy , according to the Analyst Ratings Network.

• [By Ben Eisen and Saumya Vaishampayan]

  Owens Illinois Inc. (OI) �was down 2.1% Friday. Analysts at Bank of America Merrill Lynch reportedly downgraded the glass company to neutral from buy , according to the Analyst Ratings Network.

10 Best Safest Stocks To Invest In 2015: Total System Services Inc.(TSS)

Total System Services, Inc. provides electronic payment processing and other services to card-issuing and merchant acquiring institutions. The company offers issuer account solutions, including processing the card application, initiating service for the cardholder, processing each card transaction for the issuing retailer or financial institution, and accumulating the account's transactions; fraud management services; and other services, such as customized communications to cardholders, and information verification associated with granting credit, debt collection, and customer service. It also provides merchant processing and related services that comprise processing various payment forms, such as credit, debit, prepaid, electronic benefit transfer, and electronic check; authorization and capture of transactions; clearing and settlement of transactions; information reporting services related to transactions; merchant billing services; and point-of-sale equipment sales and service. In addition, the company offers issuer and merchant card solutions. Total System Services, Inc. provides its services through online accounting and electronic payment processing systems. It operates primarily in the United States, Europe, Canada, Japan, Mexico, the Caribbean, the Asia Pacific, and Brazil. The company was founded in 1982 and is based in Columbus, Georgia.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Rich Duprey]

  Paperless payments provider�Total System Services� (NYSE: TSS  ) �announced yesterday�its second-quarter dividend of $0.10 per share, the same rate it's paid for the past six quarters.

• [By Sean Williams]

  Total System Services (NYSE: TSS  )
  Buffett may have been a bit gun-shy with technology and finance stocks of late, but he could combine the best of both worlds by purchasing Total System Services, a software developer and payment processor for the credit card industry.

10 Best Safest Stocks To Invest In 2015: Innoprise Plantations Bhd (INNO)

Innoprise Plantations Berhad is a Malaysia-based company engaged in investment holding and provision of management services to its subsidiary. The Company, through its subsidiaries, is engaged in the principal activities of log extraction contractor and operation of oil palm plantations, producer and supplier of renewable energy. The Company operates in three segments: Plantation, Timber and Corporate. The Plantation segment includes cultivation of oil palm. The Timber segment includes log extraction services. The Corporate segment includes group level corporate services, treasury functions and investment in marketable securities. The Company�� subsidiaries include Serijaya Industri Sdn. Bhd. and IPB Bio Energy Sdn. Bhd. Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Peter Graham]

  Small cap stocks Respect Your Universe Inc (OTCMKTS: RYUN), Global Gaming Network (OTCMKTS: GBGM) and Innocap, Inc (OTCBB: INNO) have been getting some attention lately in various investment newsletters thanks in part to paid promotions or investor relations activities. Of course there is nothing wrong with properly disclosed paid promotions or investor relations type of activities, but they can come back and bite unwary traders or investors. So what should you do with these three small cap stocks? Here is a quick reality check:

• [By Peter Graham]

  Small cap stocks Rising India Inc (OTCMKTS: RSII), Innocap, Inc (OTCBB: INNO) and Amplitech Group Inc (OTCBB: AMPG) have all been the subject of recent paid for promotions or investor relation campaigns. And while there is nothing wrong with properly disclosed promotions, investors who aren�� traders and are looking for a long term investment need to be careful. With that said, do these three small caps have what it takes to succeed for the long haul? Here is a quick reality check before you jump in:

10 Best Safest Stocks To Invest In 2015: G-III Apparel Group Ltd (GIII)

G-III Apparel Group, Ltd. (G-III) designs, manufactures and markets a range of apparel, including outerwear, dresses, sportswear, women�� suits and women�� performance wear, as well as luggage and women�� handbags, small leather goods and cold weather accessories. It operates in three segments: wholesale licensed products, wholesale non-licensed products and retail operations. The wholesale licensed products segment includes sales of products under brands licensed by it from third parties. The wholesale non-licensed products segment includes sales of products under its own brands and private label brands. The retail operations segment consists almost entirely of the operations of its Wilsons outlet stores. The Company sells its products under its own brands, which include Andrew Marc, Marc New York and Marc Moto, licensed brands and private retail labels. In August 2012, the Company acquired Vilebrequin, a provider of swimwear, accessories and resort-wear. Effective November 4, 2013, G-III Apparel Group Ltd acquired GH Bass & Co.

The Company provides apparel under recognized brands to a cross section of retailers, such as Macy��, Bloomingdale��, Nordstrom, Lord & Taylor, The Bon-Ton Stores, Dillards, JC Penney, Belk and Kohl��. As of January 31, 2012, the Company operated 139 retail stores, of which 135 are outlet stores operated under the Wilsons Leather name and four are outlet stores operated under its Andrew Marc brand. It has licenses to produce branded fashion apparel under the Calvin Klein, Kenneth Cole, Cole Haan, Guess?, Tommy Hilfiger, Levi��, Dockers, Jessica Simpson, Ellen Tracy, Kensie, Mac & Jac, Jones New York, Sean John and Nine West brands, among others. It also has sports licenses with the National Football League, National Basketball Association, Major League Baseball, National Hockey League, Touch by Alyssa Milano and over 100 United States colleges and universities. G-III sells outerwear, dresses and handbags under the Company�� own Andrew Marc, Marc ! New York and Marc Moto brands and has licensed these brands to select third parties in certain product categories. Its other owned brands include, among others, Jessica Howard, Eliza J, Black Rivet, G-III, G-III Sports by Carl Banks and Winlit.

The Company works with a group of retailers, such as JC Penney, Kohl�� and Express in developing private label product lines. G-III�� products are sold primarily to department, specialty and mass merchant retail stores in the United States. It sells to approximately 2,400 customers, ranging from national and regional chains to small specialty stores. It also distributes its products through its retail outlet stores. It also markets its products in Canada, Europe and the Far East.

G-III�� branded apparel also consists of both women�� and men�� products. The Andrew Marc line of women�� and men�� luxury apparel is sold to upscale department and specialty retail stores. The Marc New York line of women�� and men�� better priced outerwear is sold to upper tier stores. The Marc Moto line is a men�� denim lifestyle collection of sportswear and accessories. The Jessica Howard label is a moderate price dress line that sells to department stores, specialty stores and catalogs. Eliza J is a better dress line that sells to better department and specialty stores. The Black Rivet line of apparel consists of women�� and men�� outerwear. It sells men�� sports-related apparel under its G-III Sports by Carl Banks label.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Lauren Pollock]

  Among the companies with shares expected to actively trade in Wednesday’s session are Express Inc.(EXPR), G-III Apparel Group Ltd.(GIII) and Oculus Innovative Sciences Inc.

• [By alicet236]

  G-III Apparel Group Ltd. (GIII): CEO, 10% Owner Morris Goldfarb Sold 200,000 Shares

  CEO, 10% Owner of G-III Apparel Group Ltd. (GIII) Morris Goldfarb sold 200,000 shares on 01/14/2014 at an average price of $70.9. G-III Apparel Group Ltd is a Delaware corporation that was formed in 1989. G-III Apparel Group Ltd. has a market cap of $1.46 billion; its shares were traded at around $71.45 with a P/E ratio of 20.60 and P/S ratio of 0.91. G-III Apparel Group Ltd. had an annual average earnings growth of 22.20% over the past 10 years. GuruFocus rated G-III Apparel Group Ltd. the business predictability rank of 3.5-star.

• [By Amal Singh]

  G-III Apparel (NASDAQ: GIII  ) has a strong portfolio of 30 licensed brands, marketing apparel, outerwear, beachwear, luggage, women's handbags, small leather goods, and accessories, to name a few of its products. The company sells its apparel�offerings under popular brand names like Andrew Marc, Jessica Howard, Calvin Klein, Levi's, and Tommy Hilfiger. The company has also announced plans to revive the Starter Statin jacket franchise�. It is also looking at acquisitions and mergers to grow its business moving forward�.

10 Best Safest Stocks To Invest In 2015: Fifth Third Bancorp (FFH)

Fifth Third Bancorp (the Bancorp), incorporated on October 7, 1974, is a diversified financial services company. As of December 31, 2011, the Bancorp had $117 billion in assets, operated 15 affiliates with 1,316 full-service Banking Centers, including 104 Bank Mart locations open seven days a week inside select grocery stores, and 2,425 automated teller machines (ATMs) in 12 states throughout the Midwestern and Southeastern regions of the United States. The Bancorp operates in four business segments: Commercial Banking, Branch Banking, Consumer Lending and Investment Advisors. The Bancorp also has a 49% interest in Vantiv Holding, LLC.

Commercial Banking

Commercial Banking offers credit intermediation, cash management and financial services to large and middle-market businesses and government and professional customers. In addition to the traditional lending and depository offerings, Commercial Banking products and services include global cash management, foreign exchange and international trade finance, derivatives and capital markets services, asset-based lending, real estate finance, public finance, commercial leasing and syndicated finance.

Branch Banking

Branch Banking provides a range of deposit and loan and lease products to individuals and small businesses through 1,316 full-service Banking Centers. Branch Banking offers depository and loan products, such as checking and savings accounts, home equity loans and lines of credit, credit cards and loans for automobiles and other personal financing needs, as well as products designed to meet the specific needs of small businesses, including cash management services.

Consumer Lending

Consumer Lending includes the Bancorp�� mortgage, home equity, automobile and other indirect lending activities. Mortgage and home equity lending activities include the origination, retention and servicing of mortgage and home equity loans or lines of credit, sales and securitizations of t! hose loans, pools of loans or lines of credit, and all associated hedging activities. Indirect lending activities include loans to consumers through mortgage brokers and automobile dealers.

Investment Advisors

Investment Advisors provides a range of investment alternatives for individuals, companies and not-for-profit organizations. Investment Advisors is made up of four main businesses: Fifth Third Securities (FTS), an indirect wholly owned subsidiary of the Bancorp; Fifth Third Asset Management, Inc. (FTAM), an indirect wholly owned subsidiary of the Bancorp; Fifth Third Private Bank; and Fifth Third Institutional Services. FTS offers full service retail brokerage services to individual clients and broker dealer services to the institutional marketplace. FTAM provides asset management services and also advises the Bancorp�� family of mutual funds. Fifth Third Private Bank offers holistic strategies to affluent clients in wealth planning, investing, insurance and wealth protection. Fifth Third Institutional Services provide advisory services for institutional clients including states and municipalities.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Bloomberg]

  Mattel (MAT), the world's largest toymaker, agreed to buy Mega Brands (MB) for $460 million, acquiring the biggest challenger to Lego A/S in the construction-toy market. Mattel is offering C$17.75 ($16) a share, according to a statement today, a 36 percent premium over yesterday's closing price. The board of Montreal-based Mega Brands unanimously approved the transaction, and investors holding 39 percent of the stock, including Chief Executive Officer Marc Bertrand and Fairfax Financial Holdings (FFH), agreed to the deal. The purchase of Mega Brands, the world's second-largest maker of snap-together blocks, will fill a product hole for Mattel. It doesn't have its own construction line, locking it out of a $4 billion market in the U.S. and Europe. The category also is a bright spot in a toy industry that has seen growth stall in the U.S. Mattel considered starting its own construction line, then opted instead to buy Mega Brands because it would be faster and less risky, Mattel CEO Bryan G. Stockton said on a call with reporters. Mattel got its first taste of construction in 2012 when it debuted blocks for its Barbie brand through a licensing deal with Mega Brands. Mattel realized that replicating this kind of expertise would take years, Stockton said. 'About Growth' "This acquisition is all about growth," Stockton said. "We see an opportunity to expand our brands in this category across boys, girls and preschool." Mattel shares rose 0.8 percent to $37.44 at 10:34 a.m. in New York. They had declined 9 percent over the past year through yesterday. Shares of Montreal-based Mega Brands surged 36 percent to C$17.73 today in Toronto. Mattel is coming off a lackluster holiday season, with sales sinking 6.3 percent -- the biggest quarterly drop since 2009. The El Segundo, California-based toymaker has looked to acquisitions to boost sales in the past. In February of 2012, it paid $680 million to buy HIT Entertainment, owner of Thomas the Tank Engine. It also acq

• [By gurufocus]

  Prem Watsa, highly regarded CEO of Fairfax Financial Holdings Ltd. (FFH), wrote in March that ��e continue to fully hedge our common stock portfolios as our concerns about the United States��� You would think he has been wrong with the hedging as he is losing money with them. But the last time he was losing with hedging was during the last bull market from 2004 to 2006. He then made a killing with the hedges in 2007 and 2008.

10 Best Safest Stocks To Invest In 2015: KLA-Tencor Corporation (KLAC)

KLA-Tencor Corporation engages in the design, manufacture, and marketing of process control and yield management solutions for the semiconductor and related nanoelectronics industries. It offers equipment comprising wafer and integrated circuit (IC) defect monitoring, review, and classification; reticle defect inspection and metrology; packaging and interconnect inspection; critical dimension metrology; pattern overlay metrology; film thickness, surface topography, and composition measurements; measurement of in-chamber process conditions, wafer shape, and stress metrology; computational lithography tools; and yield and fab-wide data management and analysis systems. The company also provides products that serve the high brightness light emitting diode, data storage, and photovoltaic industries, as well as general materials research. It primarily offers its products to wafer, IC, reticle, and disk manufacturers in the United States, Taiwan, Japan, Europe, Israel, Korea, and the Rest of Asia. The company was founded in 1975 and is headquartered in Milpitas, California.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Alex Planes]

  What: Shares of KLA-Tencor (NASDAQ: KLAC  ) are down today by about 8% after bottoming at a 10% loss in the morning. The market is not happy with the company's forward guidance, despite a decent earnings report for the fiscal third quarter.

10 Best Safest Stocks To Invest In 2015: Federated Investors Inc. (FII)

Federated Investors, Inc. is a publicly owned investment manager. The firm provides its services to individuals, including high net worth individuals, banking or thrift institutions, investment companies, pension and profit sharing plans, pooled investment vehicles, charitable organizations, state or municipal government entities, and registered investment advisors. Through its subsidiaries, it manages separate client-focused equity, fixed income, and money market mutual funds and separate client-focused equity, fixed income, and balanced portfolios. The firm invests in the public equity and fixed income markets across the globe. It invests in growth and value stocks of small-cap, mid-cap, and large-cap companies. The firm makes its fixed income investments in ultra-short, short-term, and intermediate-term mortgage-backed, U.S. Government, U.S. Corporate, high yield, and municipal securities. It employs a fundamental and a quantitative analysis to make its equity investmen ts. The firm also makes sector-focused equity investments. Federated Investors was founded in 1955 and is based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania with an additional office in New York, New York.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Ben Levisohn]

  But there are winners–and they’re any stock that’s helped by higher rates. There are mutual fund companies with big money-market fund businesses, who wouldn’t be forced to run these funds for what is essentially free. Federated Investors (FII), for instance, has jumped 2.1% to $27.99. Life insurance companies, too, are rising because they should be able to earn more on their investments. MetLife (MET), for instance, has risen 1.3% to $53.03.

10 Best Safest Stocks To Invest In 2015: Papa John's International Inc.(PZZA)

Papa John?s International, Inc. operates and franchises pizza delivery and carryout restaurants under the Papa John?s trademark worldwide. The company also operates dine-in and restaurant-based delivery restaurants in certain international markets. As of December 25, 2011, the company operated 3,883 Papa John?s restaurants consisting of 628 company-owned and 3,255 franchised restaurants in 50 states of the United States and 32 countries. Papa John?s International, Inc. was founded in 1985 and is headquartered in Louisville, Kentucky.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Justin Loiseau]

  Papa's got a brand new bag
  Papa John's (NASDAQ: PZZA  ) founder and CEO John Schnatter is no fan of Obamacare. After the Affordable Care Act was first proposed, Schnatter told shareholders he expected the new legislation to cost his company around $5 million to $8 million a year, costing the company $0.11 to $0.14 more per pizza..�When asked by a reporter what he thought franchisees would do to cover costs, Schnatter predicted that owners would work around the Act by cutting employee hours to disqualify them from company coverage. (Read more on the exchange here.)

• [By John Maxfield]

  Rich Duprey's article "Will Obamacare Carve up the Restaurant Industry?" builds on these concerns. Rich cites statements from CEOs of multiple restaurant chains about the possibility that worker hours will be cut to avoid the added premiums. The head of Papa John's (NASDAQ: PZZA  ) said that it's "common sense" to do so, and Darden Restaurants (NYSE: DRI  ) , the parent company of Olive Garden and Red Lobster, experimented with a plan to hire more part-time workers last year before abandoning it in the face of a customer backlash.

• [By Rich Smith]

  That's less than half the rise of the broader S&P 500 index of companies. It's four times less than the 37% gain seen at Papa John's (NASDAQ: PZZA  ) , and less than a tenth of the gains at skyrocketing Domino's Pizza (NYSE: DPZ  ) . But why is Pizza Hut's owner underperforming, and why might its laggard performance continue for longer than investors expect?

• [By Neil Macneale]

  Papa John's Pizza (PZZA) came in Number Two in the rankings, but had a significantly lower score, primarily due to its relatively high valuation numbers.