Hot Defensive Companies To Own In Right Now

Despite what you may read in the headlines, picking stocks to find the "next big thing" usually doesn't work out well in the end. For every "it" stock like Tesla Motors, there are a dozen companies whose investors were hoping for a massive payday, but are instead finding the exact opposite.

Actually, most investors who end up with million-dollar portfolios earned them by smart, aggressive saving habits combined with steady, consistently growing stocks. And one of the best ways to do this is to buy a whole lot of what you may think of as "boring" stocks, but that in reality are quite the opposite.

Source: Flickr/401(k) 2013

The type of stocks you need
Basically, when investing for the long term, the best way to go about choosing your stocks is to put yourself in a defensive mind-set. In other words, you need to worry more about preventing losses than creating huge gains.

Top Services Stocks To Own Right Now: U.S. Silica Holdings Inc (SLCA)

US Silica Holdings, Inc. is a silica sand supplier company. The Company is a producer of industrial minerals, including sand proppants, whole grain silica, ground silica, fine ground silica, calcined kaolin clay and aplite clay. The Company operates in two segments: oil and gas, and industrial and specialty products. The Company�� shipping capabilities include five of the class-one railroads, barge, full truckload, partial truckload and intermodal. The Company�� products include proppants, whole grain silica, ground silica, fine ground silica, testing silica, recreational silica, aplite, kaolin, hydrous kaolin and FLORISIL. It also operates as a research and development specialist for customized products and solutions. The Company serves a range of industries and applications, which includes oil and gas, glass, chemicals, foundry, building products, fillers and extenders, recreation, industrial filtration and treatment, and testing and analysis.

Oil & Gas

The Company�� oil and gas segment include OTTAWA WHITE and SHALE FRAC product lines. The Company has a selection of offerings from number of mining and transload locations. Its products consist of unconventional reservoirs, including tight gas, coal bed methane, shale gas, and liquids.

Industrial & Specialty Products

The Company�� industrial and specialty products include glass, chemical, foundry, building products, fillers and extenders, recreation, industry filtration and treatment, and testing and analysis. The Company produces a range of whole grain silica, ground silica and kaolin clays.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Matt DiLallo]

  Risks
  An investment in Hi-Crush is not without risks. It's not as diversified as rival�U.S. Silica Holdings� (NYSE: SLCA  ) ,�which has pursued a strategy that has it boasting over 200 products and 1,400 customers. Hi-Crush has just a handful of customers and one main product. Meanwhile, U.S. Silica is much more geographically diverse with 15 facilities compared to just two for Hi-Crush. I like the fact Hi-Crush is a pure play; however, being concentrated is a big risk, which is one reason why I'm writing puts to buy units much cheaper.�

Hot Defensive Companies To Own In Right Now: VALE S.A.(VALE)

Vale S.A. engages in the exploration, production, and sale of basic metals in Brazil. The company also involves in fertilizers, logistics, and steel businesses. The Bulk Material segment consist of iron ore mining and pellet production, as well as its Brazilian Northern and Southern transportation systems, including railroads, ports, and terminals. This segment also includes manganese mining and ferroalloys. The Base Metals segment produces nonferrous minerals, including nickel, copper, and aluminum consisting of aluminum trading activities, alumina refining, aluminum metal smelting, and bauxite mining. The Fertilizers segment provides potash, phosphates, and nitrogen. The Logistic Services segment consists of transportation systems, including ships, ports, and railroads for third party cargos. This segment includes 10,179 kilometers of railroad infrastructure, 8 seaport terminals, 5 general cargo ports, and 2 iron ore export terminals. In addition, it generates energy thr ough hydroelectric power plants. The company was founded in 1942 and is based in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Ben Levisohn]

  Shares of Cliffs Natural Resources have fallen 2.7% to $18.59 at today at 3:42 p.m., while Rio Tinto (RIO) has fallen 3.6% to $53.36, BHP Billiton (BHP) has dropped 2.2% to $66.64 and Vale (VALE) has plunged 5% to $13.05.

Hot Defensive Companies To Own In Right Now: BP Prudhoe Bay Royalty Trust (BPT)

BP Prudhoe Bay Royalty Trust operates as a grantor trust in the United States. The company holds overriding royalty interests constituting a non-operational interest in minerals in the Prudhoe Bay oil field located on the North Slope in Alaska. The Prudhoe Bay field extends approximately 12 miles by 27 miles and contains approximately 150,000 gross productive acres. As of December 31, 2012, its estimated net remaining proved reserves were 75.517 million barrels of oil and condensate, of which 70.676 million barrels are proved developed reserves and 4.841 million barrels are proved undeveloped reserves. The company was founded in 1989 and is based in Austin, Texas.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Aaron Levitt]

  BP Prudhoe Bay Royalty Trust (BPT): BPT is the largest conventional oil and gas trust in the U.S. and was originally formed in 1989 by BP (BP). The royalty trust collects fees on the first 90,000 barrels of oil collected in the massive Prudhoe Bay oil field located on Alaska’s North Slope. While production in Prudhoe Bay have slipped over the last few years, BPT is expected to continue pumping out dividends for another 15 years. This royalty trust�yields a very hefty 11% based on the last four distributions.

• [By Rick Munarriz]

  BP Prudhoe Bay Royalty Trust (NYSE: BPT  ) is also fueling its distributions. The trust's new quarterly payout comes out to $2.4147517 a unit. We're really splitting pennies here, but it's actually a reasonable 4% increase over its earlier rate.

Hot Defensive Companies To Own In Right Now: Global X China Industrials (CHII)

Global X China Industrials ETF (the Fund) seeks to provide investment results that correspond generally to the price and yield performance, before fees and expenses, of the S-BOX China Industrials Index (the Underlying Index). The Underlying Index is a free float adjusted, liquidity tested and market capitalization-weighted index that is designed to measure performance of the investable universe of companies in the Industrials sector of the Chinese economy, as defined by Structured Solutions AG. Global X Management Company, LLC serves as the investment adviser to the Fund. Advisors' Opinion:

• [By pamatlarge]

  Investors looking to short a particular sector can choose from several Global X long ETFs. The Global X China Consumer ETF (CHIQ) concentrates its investments in consumer cyclical goods and consumer defense goods. The Global X China Energy ETF (CHIE) primarily holds stocks in coal, oil and utility companies. The Global X China Financials ETF (CHIX) only invests in financial services companies and real estate companies. The Global X China Industrials ETF (CHII) holds stocks in industrial companies and basic materials companies. The Global X China Materials ETF (CHIM) invests in basic materials stocks. The Global X China Technology ETF (CHIB) holds technology stocks as the core of its investments. All of these ETFs are particularly sensitive to sector downturns and general economic contractions.

Hot Defensive Companies To Own In Right Now: Makism 3D Corp (MDDD)

Makism 3D Corp., incorporated on May 4 2010, is a three dimensional (3D) printer manufacturing company. The Company produces consumer and professional grade 3D printers. The Company�� flagship product, branded as the Wideboy family of printers, offers packaging designed to fit any office or professional space.

Its 3D printers utilize British and German engineered components. Its printers are assembled in Cambridge (United Kingdom).

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By John Udovich]

  Small cap OTC stocks Sovereign Lithium Inc (OTCMKTS: SLCO), Life Stem Genetics Inc (OTCMKTS: LIFS), Nevada Gold Corp (OTCMKTS: NVGC), Guar Global Ltd (OTCMKTS: GGBL) and Makism 3D Corp (OTCMKTS: MDDD) all saw their trading halted late last year by the SEC, but now all of these stocks are trading again. So what's going on and why the sudden crackdown? First, here is a quick look at what happened to the following five small cap stocks:

• [By James E. Brumley]

  They say the great ones withstand the test of time. If that's true of stocks (and it is), then it's becoming increasingly safer to say Makism 3D Corp. (OTCMKTS:MDDD) is one of the great ones within the 3D printing world. No, it's neither as big nor as prolific as 3D printer names like 3D Systems Corporation (NYSE:DDD) or Stratasys, Ltd. (NASDAQ:SSYS). Then again, everything is relative; MDDD may well be packing more of a punch for its investors than SSYS or DDD have in a long time.

Hot Defensive Companies To Own In Right Now: Advanced Energy Industries Inc.(AEIS)

Advanced Energy Industries, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, designs, manufactures, sells, and supports power conversion products that transform power into various usable forms. It offers thin-film deposition power conversion systems, including direct current (DC), pulsed DC mid frequency, and radio frequency (RF) power supplies, as well as matching networks and RF instrumentation; and thermal instrumentation products that provide temperature measurement solutions for applications in which time-temperature cycles affect material properties, productivity, and yield. The company also offers solar power inverters, which provide a transformer-based or transformerless grid-tie photovoltaic (PV) solution to convert renewable solar power into electrical power, as well as integrated monitoring and performance measurement of PV installations. Its power conversion systems are used by semiconductor, solar panel, and similar thin-film manufacturers, such as flat panel display, da ta storage, and architectural glass manufacturers; thermal instrumentation products are used in rapid thermal processing, chemical vapor deposition, and other semiconductor and solar applications requiring non-contact temperature measurement by the semiconductor, solar panels, and LED industries; and solar inverters are used in the residential, commercial, and utility-scale solar projects and installations. In addition, the company provides repair services, conversions, upgrades, and refurbishment services, as well as operations and maintenance service plans for individual PV sites. Advanced Energy Industries, Inc. sells its products through direct sales force, sales representatives, and distributors in North America, Europe, and Asia. The company was founded in 1981 and is headquartered in Fort Collins, Colorado.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Jake L'Ecuyer]

  Equities Trading DOWN
  Shares of Advanced Energy Industries (NASDAQ: AEIS) were 13.88 percent to $18.42 after the company reported downbeat quarterly results and issued a weak Q2 outlook.

• [By Jake L'Ecuyer]

  Equities Trading DOWN
  Shares of Advanced Energy Industries (NASDAQ: AEIS) were 16.74 percent to $17.81 after the company reported downbeat quarterly results and issued a weak Q2 outlook.

• [By Codespeed]

  Advanced Energy Industries, Inc. (AEIS) makes power conversion products that transform power into various usable forms and in various markets such as semiconductor devices, flat panel displays, solar panels, and architectural glass. Its power and control technologies are used in thin-film manufacturing and solar power generation.

• [By Ben Axler]

  In the table below, we've listed a sample of small-cap semiconductor capital equipment stocks such as Entegris (ENTG), Advanced Energy Industries (AEIS), ATMI Inc. (ATMI), MKS Instruments (MKSI), Photronics Inc. (PLAB), Rudolph Technologies (RTEC),FormFactor (FORM) and Mattson Technology (MTSN). The peers trade at approximately 1.0x and 15.5x 2014E revenues and EPS, respectively. Furthermore, the average peer trades at 2.1x tangible book value. However, these multiples are based on average 2014E industry revenue and earnings growth of 18% and 119%, respectively. Axcelis is poised to grow at a rate substantially above the industry average.