Best Tech Companies To Buy Right Now

In this video, Austin Smith describes Apple's big opportunity: its iPhone. An unsubsidized iPhone costs about $650, but most people pay around $200 for an iPhone, and if a carrier doesn't subsidize the smartphone, customers will go to someone who will. This results in a profit margin 10 times greater than the margin for PCs. The smartphone market continues growing, and although Apple might lose market share, Austin says, its popularity and carrier subsidies allow Apple to gain great profit margins. Consequently, Apple enjoys a great cash balance to work with for future projects and innovations.

See the video for more details.

There's no doubt that Apple is at the center of technology's largest revolution ever and that longtime shareholders have been handsomely rewarded, with more than 1,000% gains. However, there is a debate raging as to whether Apple remains a buy. The Motley Fool's senior technology analyst and managing bureau chief, Eric Bleeker, is prepared to fill you in on reasons to buy and reasons to sell Apple and what opportunities are left for the company (and your portfolio) going forward. To get instant access to his latest thinking on Apple, simply click here now.

Best Tech Companies To Buy Right Now: Zix Corporation(ZIXI)

Zix Corporation provides Internet-based applications in software as a service model that enables the use of secure email for sensitive information exchange primarily in the healthcare, financial services, insurance, and government sectors in the United States. It offers email encryption service, a secure messaging service, which allows an enterprise to use policy-driven rules to determine which emails should be sent securely to comply with regulations or policies. The company also provides a solution that analyzes and encrypts email communications. Its services offer users the ability to deliver encrypted email to any email user at any email address by using the ZixCorp Best Method of Delivery protocol that automatically determines the direct and appropriate means of delivery, based on the sender?s and recipient?s communications environment and preferences. Zix Corporation sells its services through a direct sales force, and a network of resellers and other distribution partners. The company was formerly known as ZixIt Corporation and changed its name to Zix Corporation in 2002. Zix Corporation was founded in 1983 and is headquartered in Dallas, Texas.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Monica Gerson]

  Zix (NASDAQ: ZIXI) shares reached a new 52-week high of $4.82. ZixCorp's trailing-twelve-month profit margin is 18.08%.

  Official Payments Holdings (NASDAQ: OPAY) shares surged 0.23% to touch a new 52-week high of $8.65. Official Payments shares have jumped 87.61% over the past 52 weeks, while the S&P 500 index has gained 16.68% in the same period.

Best Tech Companies To Buy Right Now: Jds Uniphase Canad Exchangeable(JDU.TO)

JDS Uniphase Corporation provides communications test and measurement solutions, and optical products for telecommunications service providers, wireless operators, cable operators, network-equipment manufacturers, and enterprises worldwide. The company?s Communications Test and Measurement segment supplies instruments, software, and services to enable the design, deployment, and maintenance of communication equipment and networks. Its product portfolio consists of test tools, platforms, software, and services for wireless and fixed networks. The company?s Communications and Commercial Optical Products segment offers components, modules, subsystems, and solutions that are used by communications equipment providers for telecommunications and enterprise data communications. This segment?s products comprise transmitters, receivers, amplifiers, ROADMs, optical transceivers, multiplexers and demultiplexers, switches, optical-performance monitors and couplers, splitters, and c irculators, which enable the transmission of video, audio, and text data through fiber-optic cables. It also provides various laser products, including diode, direct-diode, diode-pumped solid-state, fiber, and gas lasers for micromachining, materials processing, bioinstrumentation, consumer electronics, graphics, medical/dental, and optical pumping; and photovoltaic products, such as concentrated photovoltaic cells and receivers for generating energy from sunlight, as well as fiber optic-based systems for delivering and measuring electrical power. The company?s Advanced Optical Technologies segment offers optical solutions for security and brand-differentiation applications; and thin film coatings for a range of public and private-sector markets. This segment also provides multilayer product-security solutions that deliver overt, covert, forensic, and digital product and document verification. JDS Uniphase Corporation was founded in 1979 and is headquartered in Milpitas, Ca lifornia.

Best Dividend Companies To Watch In Right Now: Virtusa Corporation(VRTU)

Virtusa Corporation provides information technology (IT) consulting, technology implementation, and application outsourcing services in North America, Europe, the Middle East, India, and Sri Lanka. The company?s IT consulting services include application inventory and portfolio assessment, business/technology alignment analysis, IT strategic planning, and quality assurance process consulting; enterprise architecture analysis, technology roadmaps, product evaluation and selection, and business process analysis and design services; and program governance and change management, program management planning, and IT process consulting. Its technology implementation services include application development, package implementation and integration, software product engineering, business process management implementation, and enterprise content management; systems consolidation and rationalization, technology migration and porting, and Web-enablement of legacy applications; data ma nagement and transformation, and business intelligence, reporting and decision support services; and testing frameworks, automation of test data and cases, and test cycle execution. The company?s application outsourcing services include production support, maintenance and enhancement of custom-built and package-based applications, and ongoing software engineering services; systems and database administration, and monitoring; and outsourcing of quality assurance planning, and preparation and execution of test cases, scripts, and data. The company primarily serves communications and technology, banking, financial services, insurance, media, and information industries. The company was formerly known as eRunway, Inc. and changed its name to Virtusa Corporation in April 2002. Virtusa Corporation was incorporated in 1996 and is headquartered in Westborough, Massachusetts.

Best Tech Companies To Buy Right Now: Mitek Systems Inc (MITK.PH)

Mitek Systems, Inc. (Mitek), incorporated in 1986, is engaged in the development, sale and service of software solutions related to mobile imaging applications and intelligent recognition software. Mitek is applying its technology and in image correction, optical character recognition and intelligent data extraction to mobile devices. Using Mitek Mobile Apps, camera-equipped smartphone users can deposit checks, pay bills, save receipts and fax documents. Users simply take a picture of the document and its products corrects image distortion, extracting relevant data, routing images to their desired location, and processing transactions through users��financial institutions. It has developed and deployed Mobile Deposit, a software application that allows users to deposit a check using their smartphone camera. It has developed and deployed Mobile Receipt, a receipt archival and expense report application, and Mobile Phax, a mobile document faxing application. Its Mobile Photo Bill Pay, a mobile bill paying application that allows users to pay their bills using their smartphone camera. During fiscal year ended September 30, 2010 (fiscal 2010), it had one operating segment based on its product and service offerings.

IMagePROVE Technology Products

Using IMagePROVE, the Company has a suite of business productivity applications for camera-equipped smartphones, including the iPhone and selected BlackBerry, Android and Windows Mobile handsets. It has four products that use its IMagePROVE technology Mobile Deposit, Mobile Receipt, Mobile Phax and Mobile Photo Bill Pay. Its products are used in the financial services industry. It has secured sales partnerships with system integrators for the financial services industry, including Fiserv, FIS, NCR, Jack Henry, Wausau, BankServ, RDM, J&B Software and Bluepoint Solutions.

The Company�� Mobile Deposit is the smartphone application allows banks to accept check dep osits through photos of checks taken with camera-equipped s! m! artphones. Mobile Deposit allows users to make deposits by photographing the front and back of a check and submitting the item electronically to their bank from their smartphone. Its Mobile Receipt is designed to convert the photo of a receipt taken with a smartphone into an image and with a single touch, converts the data into a professional looking expense report. Mobile Phax allows user to take a photo of any letter sized document or page and send it as a portable document format (PDF) file to any e-mail address or fax machine.

The Company�� Mobile Photo Bill Pay allows users to take pictures of their bills with their smartphone cameras and its Mobile Photo Bill Pay product correct image distortion, reading relevant data and processing the transactions through the users��banks. The payment is made electronically by debiting the users checking account and using existing online bill pay systems. With Mobile Photo Bill Pay, users can submit electronic paymen ts from their smartphones without having to write checks, lick stamps, visit a payment location or even use their personal computers.

ImageNet Intelligent Character Recognition Toolkits

The Company�� ImageNet products are designed to provide remittance processing, proof of deposit and lock box processing applications. Its products are used to reduce manual labor by automatically extracting amounts and routing information from checks and distinguishing between common document types, such as personal and business checks, substitute checks, pre-authorized drafts and other document types specified by customers. It sells ImageNet suite of products to its channel partners, who resell them as integrated components of their solutions and services. Its ImageNet suite of products includes ImageNet Prep & ID, ImageNet Payments, ImageNet Data Capture and ImageNet Signatures.

ImageNet Prep & ID is a software toolkit that is designed to provide aut omatic form information document (ID), form registratio! n and! fo! rm/tem! plate removal. Image Net Prep & ID reduces the image size by removing information, such as pre-printed text, lines, and boxes; leaving only the filled-in data. ImageNet Payments allows for the automatic reading of machine and hand print information found on scanned documents and forms from any structured form, as well as bank documents, such as checks, deposit slips, and remittance coupons. ImageNet Payments integrates technology components from the CheckReader product that it licenses from a vendor that is designed to read rates of the currency and legal amounts of checks drawn on the United States and Canadian financial institutions.

ImageNet Data Capture is a software toolkit that captures data from types of unstructured business documents. ImageNet Data Capture is used in data capture applications where data must be found and extracted from documents that have no pre-determined format or layout, but share common data elements. ImageNet Data Capture is design ed to locate this data on documents using contextual, positional, format and keyword specific information. It has supplied ImageNet Data Capture as a stand alone application programming interface (API) to several original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) in the document processing field. ImageNet Signatures is a software toolkit that locates, extracts and verifies signatures in any document. It encodes each signature and compares it with encoded reference examples rather than comparing actual images. Its image analytics encode 60 characteristics of each signature, which allows for accurate signature fraud detection.

FraudProtect Systems

The Company�� FraudProtect System is an automated software application designed to allow banks to detect check fraud from forged signatures and counterfeit checks, as well as the detection of pre-authorized drafts and payee name alterations. Its FraudProtect suite of products includes FraudProtect SDK, PADsafe and Pa yeeFind. Its FraudProtect SDK is a toolkit designe! d to dete! c! t check f! raud and forgery using image analytics to uncover inconsistencies and alterations in checks as they are processed by banks. These products are sold to OEMs and system integrators and can detect forged or illegally modified checks. Its PADsafe product detects fraudulent preauthorized drafts (PADs). PADsafe automatically identifies PADs from checks, and then notifies the user of fraudulent transactions, reducing and preventing the unauthorized withdrawal of funds. Its PayeeFind product is designed to prevent payee-altered checks from clearing.

ImageScore

ImageScore is the Company�� Check 21 readiness solution for any financial institution that truncates or uses check images in an accounts receivables conversion environment. Integrated solution providers for financial institutions can also buy ImageScore to enhance their products. ImageScore is designed to analyze check images to provide the usability and information needed to help financial institut ions act in accordance with regulatory and industry mandates.

Best Tech Companies To Buy Right Now: Morningstar Inc.(MORN)

Morningstar, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, provides independent investment research to investors worldwide. The company operates in two segments, Investment Information and Investment Management. The Investment Information segment offers data, software, and research products and services for individual investors, financial advisors, and institutional clients. It provides Licensed Data, a set of investment data spanning various investment databases, including real-time pricing data available through electronic data feeds; Morningstar Advisor Workstation, a Web-based investment planning system; Morningstar.com, a membership service and Internet advertising space; Morningstar Direct, a Web-based institutional research platform; integrated Web tools to build customized Websites or enhance existing sites; Morningstar Principia, a CD-ROM-based investment research and planning software; Morningstar commodity data that provides data and analytics for the energy, financial, and agriculture sectors; equity and corporate credit research; and Morningstar structured credit ratings and research services. This segment also offers various financial communications materials, real-time data and desktop software, investment software, and investment indexes, as well as various print and online publications. The Investment Management segment offers various products and services, such as Investment Consulting that focuses on investment monitoring and asset allocation for funds of funds, including mutual funds and variable annuities; Retirement Solutions comprising the Morningstar Retirement Manager and Advice by Ibbotson platforms; and Morningstar Managed Portfolios, a asset management service includes series of mutual fund, exchange-traded fund, and stock portfolios. This segment serves banks, brokerage firms, insurance companies, mutual fund companies, and retirement plan sponsors and providers. Morningstar, Inc. was founded in 1984 and is headquartered in Chicago, Illinois.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Reuters]

  Simon Dawson/Bloomberg via Getty Images TORONTO -- BlackBerry reported a quarterly loss of nearly $1 billion Friday, in line with last week's warning, days after accepting its largest shareholder's tentative $4.7 billion bid to take it out of the public eye. BlackBerry (BBRY), which had warned of poor results on Sept. 20, said its net loss for the second quarter ended on Aug. 31 was $965 million, or $1.84 a share. Revenue fell 45 percent to $1.6 billion from a year earlier. The loss included a writedown of about $934 million for unsold Z10 phones, a touchscreen model that the company had hoped would reverse its fading fortunes. The phone has sold badly with business and consumer customers alike. "This write-off is very real," said Morningstar (MORN) analyst Brian Colello. "They bought a lot of inventory hoping to sell it. The auditors were not convinced that BlackBerry can sell it or sell it at prices that the company was hoping for. We see no reason to be more optimistic than them." Excluding the Z10 writedown and restructuring costs, BlackBerry reported a loss of $248 million, or 47 cents a share. The company plans to shed 4,500 jobs, or more than one-third of its workforce, as it shrinks to focus on corporate and government customers. It will not host the typical post-results call for investors after signing a tentative $9-a-share agreement to be acquired by a consortium led by Fairfax Financial, its largest shareholder, Monday. The Waterloo, Ontario-based company's steep revenue decline and mounting losses have revived fears that BlackBerry, a pioneer in the smartphone sector, faces an ignominious death. "We are very disappointed with our operational and financial results this quarter and have announced a series of major changes to address the competitive hardware environment and our cost structure," Chief Executive Officer Thorsten Heins said in the earnings statement. BlackBerry said Heins wasn't available for an interview. The company said it

• [By Reuters]

  Mark Lennihan/APAbercrombie & Fitch CEO Michael Jeffries An Abercrombie & Fitch shareholder urged the teen apparel retailer to replace Chief Executive Officer Mike Jeffries after his contract expires in February, failing which the company should look to sell itself. Engaged Capital, which owns less than 1 percent of the company's shares, said in a letter to the board Tuesday that the expiration of Jeffries' term is an opportunity for the board to set a new direction for the company. Engaged Capital, a young activist investment firm led by former Relational Investors managing director Glenn Welling, said a sale of the company to a private equity buyer may represent the best option for shareholders. "However, as we have learned through discussions with industry insiders and private equity firms, Mr. Jeffries' presence represents a major stumbling block to a transaction," the activist investment firm said in the letter. Abercrombie's (ANF) shares, which have lost about 30 percent of their value this year, rose 6.4 percent to $36.20 by midday. Analysts have raised concerns about the company's ability to revitalize its merchandise, citing management's focus on cost-cutting, marketing and distribution instead of product and design. "A little fresh blood would definitely benefit the company," Morningstar (MORN) analyst Bridget Weishaar told Reuters. However, she said the board has been very supportive of Jeffries. "So, I'd be highly doubtful if this letter changes anything." Engaged Capital said there appeared to be no qualified successor within the company to replace 69-year-old Jeffries, who has been CEO for 16 years. His current contract includes a clause that he would receive over $100 million if the company changes control. Jeffries owned about 1.3 percent of Abercrombie's shares as of July 30. The company wasn't immediately available for comment. Engaged Capital said it owned about 400,000 shares of Abercrombie. The company has about 76.4 mil

Best Tech Companies To Buy Right Now: QuickLogic Corporation(QUIK)

QuickLogic Corporation, a fabless semiconductor company, develops and markets low power customizable semiconductor solutions for tablets, smartbooks, netbooks, cloudbooks, smartphones, datacards, and mobile enterprise products. Its solutions enable original equipment manufacturers and original design manufacturers to add new features, extend battery life, and enhance the visual experience of their handheld mobile devices. The company designs customer specific standard products, which are customer-specific solutions that include a combination of silicon solution platforms, Proven System Blocks (PSBs), customer-specific logic, software drivers, and firmware. It primarily offers two platform families, ArcticLink and PolarPro, which are standard silicon products. The company?s PSBs include Visual Enhancement Engine and Display Power Optimizer technologies; SDHD/eMMC Host Controllers; USB 2.0 On-The-Go with PHY; MDDI Client with PHY; high speed UARTs; pulse width modulators; S PI and I2C hosts, display-specific functions, such as RGB-split and frame recyclers; and Data Performance Manager for accelerated sideloading times. QuickLogic?s PSBs allows system designers to combine multiple discrete chips onto a single CSSP, simplifying design and board layout, lowering bill of materials cost, and accelerating time-to-market. The programmable fabric of the platforms is used for adding differentiated features, as well as provide flexibility to address hardware-based product requirements. The company markets its products through a direct sales force and has sales offices in the United States, the United Kingdom, China, Japan, and Taiwan; and has development offices in Canada and India. QuickLogic Corporation was founded in 1988 and is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Paul McWilliams]

  QuickLogic (QUIK) has posted exceptional new product growth in 2013, and now claims Samsung as a direct customer.

  While I think the drivers that delivered the goods in 2013, will continue to work to QuickLogic's favor in 2014, the real kicker in this equation is, QuickLogic is the only company in the world that has developed a sensor hub that is low enough power to deliver the vast benefits we can realize from Always-on Context Aware sensor fusion.

Best Tech Companies To Buy Right Now: Phonetime Inc (PHD.TO)

Tellza Communications Inc., a telecommunications carrier, provides business to business services worldwide. The company offers international and domestic switched voice services to the telecommunication operators and voice service providers. It also provides long distance telecommunication services to telecommunications providers; outsourced telecommunications services at the carrier level; wholesale carrier services; retail voice services, which offer voice termination through TDM or IP interconnections; and domestic SIP termination services. The company�s customers and suppliers include fixed line operators, mobile operators, and retail and VoIP service providers. The company was formerly known as Phonetime Inc. and changed its name to Tellza Communications Inc. in October 2013. Tellza Communications Inc. was founded in 1994 and is based in Toronto, Canada.

Best Tech Companies To Buy Right Now: FAL Exploration Corp (MINA.PK)

FAL Exploration Corp., formerly Apps Genius Corp, incorporated on December 17, 2009, is engaged in the business plan to develop and operate a crowdfunding platform. On April 19, 2012, the Company acquired the domain name GetFunded.com in order to explore potential opportunities in crowdfunding.

The Company has two vertical websites which have been released and are operational. Crowdfunding describes the collective cooperation, attention, and trust by people who network and pool their resources, usually via the Internet, to support efforts initiated by other people or organizations.