Top 5 Tech Companies To Watch For 2015

A desire to combine social recruiting services, applicant tracking, and hiring solutions with its own��payroll,�human resource, and�benefits outsourcing expertise was the driving force behind Paychex's (NASDAQ: PAYX  ) acquisition of HR Services and its myStaffingPro software-as-a-service technology.

Paychex announced the acquisition yesterday. Paychex President and CEO�Martin Mucci said: "With this acquisition we are able to combine the myStaffingPro technology and expertise with Paychex resources to strengthen our portfolio of human resource service solutions, and provide an industry-leading applicant tracking and recruiting services solution for our clients."

Launched in 1999, the myStaffingPro applicant-tracking suite provides technology aimed at simplifying the applicant work flow and hiring process. Paychex�is a leader in providing payroll and human resource responsibilities for small- to medium-sized businesses. The new capabilities are expected to help drive�growth for the company and expand the markets it serves.

Top 5 Tech Companies To Watch For 2015: CGI Group Inc (GIB)

CGI Group Inc. (CGI), incorporated on September 29, 1981, provides information technology (IT) consulting, systems integration, IT outsourcing and business solutions. The Company�� delivery model provides for work to be carried out onsite at client premises, or through its centers located globally. CGI has approximately 72,000 members across the globe. The Company also has a range of business solutions, which support long-term client relationships. Its services include consulting, systems integration, and management of information technology (IT) and business functions (outsourcing). On August 20, 2012, CGI completed its acquisition of Logica plc (Logica).

CGI has a range of business solutions, which include Momentum, CGI Advantage, CACS, CACS-G, Bureaulink and Strata. Momentum is an integrated enterprise resource planning suite in use by over 85 federal organizations across the three branches of the United States federal government, including 16 agencies. CGI�� enterprise resource planning solution, CGI Advantage, include financial management, payroll, budgeting, human resources management, procurement and grants management. The CGI Advantage client organizations include 22 states. CGI�� Credit Services Solutions include CACS, CACS-G and Bureaulink, Strata and other components.

Management of IT and Business Functions - Outsourcing

Clients delegate entire or partial responsibility for their IT or business functions to CGI. It implements its processes to improve the client�� operations. It also integrates clients��operations into its technology network. Services provided as part of an outsourcing contract may include development and integration of new projects and applications; applications maintenance and support; technology management (enterprise and end-user computing and network services); transaction and business processing, such as payroll, insurance processing and document management services. Outsourcing contracts have terms of up to 10 years.

Consulting and Systems Integration

CGI provides a full range of IT and business consulting services, including business transformation, IT strategic planning, business process engineering and systems architecture. CGI integrates and customizes technologies and software applications.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Sean Williams]

  It could be even uglier for CGI Group (NYSE: GIB  ) as I've touched on previously. It's not that this software developer of Healthcare.gov isn't getting its fair share of pay for its time and effort to construct the federally run website. It's that the negative publicity surrounding the event and its inability to quickly fix what are growing problems in the system could damage its reputation for years to come, possibly costing the company future orders.

Top 5 Tech Companies To Watch For 2015: Finisar Corporation(FNSR)

Finisar Corporation designs, develops, manufactures, and markets optical subsystems and components that are used to interconnect equipment in short-distance local area networks (LANs), storage area networks (SANs), longer distance metropolitan area networks (MANs), fiber-to-the-home networks, cable television networks, and wide area networks. Its optical subsystems primarily include transmitters, receivers, transceivers, and transponders. The company?s optical subsystems provides the fundamental optical-electrical interface for connecting the equipment used in building networks comprising switches, routers, and file servers in wireline networks, as well as antennas and base stations for wireless networks. It also offers products for switching network traffic from one optical wavelength to another across multiple wavelengths, known as reconfigurable optical add/drop multiplexers. The company?s line of optical components principally comprises packaged lasers and photodetec tors used in transceivers for LAN and SAN applications; and passive optical components used in building MANs. It sells its optical products to manufacturers of storage system, networking equipment, and telecommunication equipment or their contract manufacturers through direct sales force and distribution channels in the United States, Malaysia, the People?s Republic of China, and internationally. The company was founded in 1987 and is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Paul McWilliams]

  Paul McWilliams: Oh, yeah. Let's touch on just a couple of them really quickly. First off, there's Finisar (FNSR). Finisar is a world leader in fiber optic components and substances. It's not as big as JDSU in revenue, but half of JDSU is capital equipment. So, it doesn't compete with Finisar.

• [By Dan Caplinger]

  Friday gave stock market investors some respite from losses earlier in the week, as major-market benchmarks managed to recover by around a quarter of a percent. Merger and acquisition activity helped bolster stocks in many different parts of the market, but concerns about the sustainability of the economic recovery held others back. Finisar (NASDAQ: FNSR  ) , InterDigital (NASDAQ: IDCC  ) , and GNC Holdings (NYSE: GNC  ) were among the worst performers of the day.

Top 5 Regional Bank Companies To Buy For 2015: Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc(TMO)

Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. provides analytical instruments, equipment, reagents and consumables, software, and services for research, manufacture, analysis, discovery, and diagnostics. Its Analytical Technologies segment offers analytical instruments to analyze prepared samples, software interpretation tools, laboratory information management systems, and laboratory automation systems; environmental instruments and integrated systems for environmental monitoring, safety, and security applications; and process instruments, integrated systems, and measurement solutions. It also provides diagnostics products used in healthcare laboratories to prepare and analyze patient samples; and biosciences products comprising reagents and consumables used in life science research, drug discovery, and biopharmaceutical production. The company?s Laboratory Products and Services segment offers laboratory equipment, including sample preparation, environment storage and handling equipment, and laboratory workstations; laboratory consumables; research market solutions consisting of chemicals, instruments and apparatus, liquid handling pumps and devices, and capital equipment and consumables; and healthcare market products comprising analytical equipment, diagnostic tools, and reagents and consumables. It also provides workplace and first responder equipment, protective gear, and apparel; and packaging, warehousing, distribution, labeling, pharmaceutical and biospecimen storage, and analytical laboratory services in the area of drug discovery and pharmaceutical clinical trials. The company serves pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, hospitals and clinical diagnostic labs, universities, research institutions, government agencies, and environmental and industrial process control settings primarily in the United States, Germany, and the United Kingdom. Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. was founded in 1956 and is headquartered in Waltham, Massachusetts.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Tess Stynes]

  General Electric Co.'s(GE) healthcare unit agreed to acquire several of Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc.'s(TMO) life-sciences businesses for roughly $1.06 billion.

• [By Keith Speights]

  Thermo Fisher Scientific (NYSE: TMO  ) announced today that it will acquire genomics company Life Technologies (NASDAQ: LIFE  ) in a $13.6 billion deal. The agreement calls for Thermo Fisher to pay $76 per diluted share, as well as assume around $2.2 billion in Life Technologies' debt.

Top 5 Tech Companies To Watch For 2015: United States Cellular Corporation(USM)

United States Cellular Corporation operates as a wireless telecommunications service provider in the United States. The company offers wireless voice and data services to retail consumer and business customers. It provides wireless services in postpaid service plans with voice, messaging, and data services; and prepaid service plans with minutes, messaging, and data services for a monthly fee. The company also offers various additional features, including caller ID blocking, call forwarding, voicemail, call waiting, and three-way calling; and data usage features consisting of Web browsing, email services, instant messaging, text messaging, and picture and video messaging. As of December 31, 2010, it provided wireless voice and data services to 6.1 million customers in 26 states. In addition, the company operates retail stores that sell a range of wireless devices, including handsets, modems, and tablets, as well as accessories, such as carrying cases, hands-free devices, b atteries, battery chargers, memory cards, and other items to consumers and small businesses. Further, it sells wireless devices to agents and other third-party distributors for resale; operates service facilities that provide servicing and repair for wireless devices; and enables customers to activate service and purchase wireless devices online. The company?s business customers include small-to-mid-size businesses in various industries, including construction, retail, professional services, and real estate. It offers its products and services through retail sales and service centers, direct sales, and independent agents. The company was founded in 1983 and is based in Chicago, Illinois. United States Cellular Corporation is a subsidiary of Telephone and Data Systems, Inc.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Jim Probasco]

  CNET said it expects to see ZTE focus on premium quality smartphones at the Mobile World Congress at the end of February this year.�This would be a departure from the company�� previous concentration on mid-range priced phones offered by smaller carriers like Cricket Wireless, U.S. Cellular, (NYSE: USM) and Aio Wireless.

Top 5 Tech Companies To Watch For 2015: Synopsys Inc (SNPS)

Synopsys, Inc., incorporated in 1986, is engaged in providing technology solutions used to develop electronics and electronic systems. It supplies the electronic design automation (EDA) software that engineers use to design, create prototypes for and test integrated circuits, also known as chips. It also supplies software and hardware used to develop the systems that incorporate integrated circuits and the software that runs on those integrated circuits. Its intellectual property (IP) products are pre-designed circuits that engineers use as components of larger chip designs rather than redesigning those circuits themselves. It also provides technical services to support its solutions and it help its customers develop chips and electronic systems. Its products and services are organized into four groups: Core EDA (which includes the Galaxy Design Platform, the Discovery Verification Platform and its Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) design products); IP and System-Level Solutions; Manufacturing Solutions and Professional Services. In July 2012, it acquired Ciranova. In October 2012, it acquired EVE. On November 30, 2012, the Company acquired SpringSoft. In February 2014, Synopsys Inc completed the acquisition of Target Compiler Technologies.

On September 2, 2010, the Company acquired Virage Logic Corporation. In October 2010, the Company acquired Optical Research Associates. In September 2011, the Company acquired nSys Design Systems Private Limited (nSys). In October 2011, the Company acquired Extreme DA. In January 2012, the Company acquired ExpertIO, Inc. In February 2012, the Company acquired Magma Design Automation Inc.

Core EDA products

The Company offers a number of Core EDA products to address the process. Its Core EDA products fall into the suites, which included the Galaxy Design Platform, which includes tools to design an integrated circuit; the Discovery Verification Platform, which includes tools to verify that an integrated circuit behaves! as intended, and the FPGA design products. Its Galaxy Design Platform provides its customers with a single, integrated chip design solution, which includes individual products and incorporates common libraries and consistent timing, delay calculation and constraints throughout the design process. The platform allows designers the flexibility to integrate internally-developed and third-party tools. With this advanced functionality, common foundation and flexibility, its Galaxy Design Platform reduces design times; decrease integration costs and minimize the risks inherent in advanced, integrated circuit designs. Its products span both digital and analog/mixed-signal designs.

The products included in the Galaxy Design Platform are the IC Compiler physical design solution, Design Compiler logic synthesis product, Galaxy Custom Designer physical design solution for analog/mixed-signal designs, PrimeTime/PrimeTime SI timing analysis products, StarRC product for extraction, and the Hercules and IC Validator physical verification product family. The Lynx Design System is a production-ready chip implementation environment that combines a Galaxy-based design flow, graphical user interface (GUI)-based runtime automation, design metrics capture and reporting, and utilities that automate the configuration of pre-validated foundry data. The Lynx Design System helps customers improve their productivity and optimally deploy Synopsys tools and methodologies.

The Company�� Discovery Verification Platform is an integrated portfolio of functional, analog/mixed-signal, formal and low-power verification products. The platform includes its simulation and verification products and design-for-verification methodologies, and provides a consistent control environment to help improve the speed, breadth and accuracy of its customers��verification efforts. The Discovery Verification Platform�� components support industry standards and span both digital and analog/mixed-signal designs. The principa! l product! s included in the Discovery Verification Platform are the VCS comprehensive RTL verification solution, Formality formal verification sign-off solution, NanoSim FastSPICE circuit simulation and analysis product, high-speed interface module (HSIM) hierarchical FastSPICE circuit simulation and analysis product, HSPICE circuit simulator, and CustomSim circuit simulation solution. FPGAs are chips that can be customized or programmed to perform a specific function after they are manufactured.

Intellectual Property (IP) and System-Level Solutions

Synopsys is a provider of high-quality, silicon-proven IP solutions for system-on-chip (SoC) designs. The broad DesignWare IP portfolio includes high quality solutions for widely used interfaces such as universal serial bus (USB), PCI Express, double data rate (DDR), Ethernet, serial advanced technology attachment (SATA) and high-definition multimedia interface (HDMI). In addition, Synopsys offers analog IP for high-definition video, analog-to-digital data conversion and audio. With its recent acquisition of Virage Logic Corporation, we added embedded memories, including static random access memory (SRAMs) and non-volatile memory, logic libraries, embedded test and repair IP and configurable processor cores, to its IP portfolio.

Synopsys has a portfolio of tools, models and services for the system-level design of SoCs. Primary system-level products include Platform Architect for architectural optimization, SPW and System Studio for algorithm design, Processor Designer for custom processor design, and Synphony Model and C Compiler for High Level Synthesis. In addition to these tools for the system-level design of SoCs, its portfolio includes prototyping tools for hardware verification, software development and hardware-software integration. With FPGA-based prototyping systems (HAPS), designers can speed embedded software development by three to six months with near real runtime speeds and real world interfaces, such as its pre-t! ested Des! ignWare IP components. The HAPS hardware systems are a modular, scalable and accurate way to model a chip. Its virtual prototyping solutions enable software engineers to start SoC and application software up to twelve months before traditional methods.

Manufacturing Solutions

The Company�� Manufacturing Solutions products and technologies address this problem by introducing manufacturability and yield considerations early in the design process, thereby improving yields. Some of its Manufacturing Solutions address mask-making and yield enhancement of very small-geometry integrated circuits, as well as high-level modeling of physical effects within the integrated circuit. Its Manufacturing Solutions include the Technology-CAD (TCAD) device modeling products, Proteus OPC optical proximity correction (OPC) products, CATS mask data preparation product and yield management solutions, including odyssey and recipe manager and editor (RME), and yield explorer.

Professional Services and Training

Synopsys provides consulting and design services that address all phases of the SoC development process. These services assist Synopsys customers with new tool and methodology adoption, chip architecture and specification development, functional and low power design and verification, and physical implementation and signoff. It also provides a range of expert training and workshops on its latest tools and methodologies.

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 Synopsys (Nasdaq: SNPS  ) , whose recent revenue and earnings are plotted below.

• [By Anna Prior]

  Synopsys Inc.'s(SNPS) fiscal fourth-quarter profit nearly doubled on a top-line increase driven by growth in the company’s time-based license revenue. However, the company’s guidance for the current quarter came in below Wall Street expectations.