Best High Tech Companies To Invest In Right Now

Based on the aggregated intelligence of 180,000-plus investors participating in Motley Fool CAPS, the Fool's free investing community, the VelocityShares 3x Inverse Natural Gas ETN (NYSE: DGAZ) have received the dreaded one-star ranking.

With that in mind, let's take a closer look at DGAZ and see what CAPS investors are saying about the ETF right now.

DGAZ facts

�

�

Inception

February 2012

Total Net Assets

$62.7 million

Investment Approach

The investment seeks to replicate three times the opposite (inverse) of the S&P GSCI Natural Gas Index. The index comprises futures contracts on a single commodity and is calculated according to the methodology of the S&P GSCI Index.

Best Construction Material Companies To Invest In Right Now: Dassault Systemes SA (DASTY)

Dassault Systemes SA provides software solutions and consulting services. The Company�� global customer base includes companies primarily in 11 industrial sectors: automotive; industrial equipment; aerospace; consumer goods; consumer packaged goods; energy; high-tech; shipbuilding; life sciences; construction, and business services. It organizes its business and markets its products and services in two types of applications: the Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) market, to support product development, production, maintenance and lifecycle management, and the Mainstream three-dimensional (3D) market, which is primarily focused on product design. Its software applications address a range of products, from apparel, consumer goods, machine parts and semiconductors to automobiles, aircraft, ships and factories. In March 2011, the Company acquired Intercim. In April 2011, the Company acquired Enginuity PLM. On March 31, 2010, it acquired the IBM PLM. On June 8, 2010, the Company acquired Exalead, a French company providing Search Platforms and Search-Based Applications (SBA). In June 2010, the Company acquired Geensoft, a provider of embedded systems development solutions.

The Company has developed a software applications portfolio, organized in brands, in order to provide solutions responding to the requirements of product development: Design, Realistic Simulation, Digital Manufacturing and Production, Collaborative Innovation, and Lifelike Experiences. The Company�� principal brands include SolidWorks , CATIA, SIMULIA, DELMIA, ENOVIA and Universal Services.

SolidWorks

SolidWorks applications include 3D tools to design, manage, simulate, sustain and communicate. SolidWorks include 3D Design, Data management, Simulation and Environmental assessments. SolidWorks 3D�� include complex part and assembly modeling, production drawing creation, data management, design validation and simulation of motion, flow and structural performance, environmental impact evaluation! and publishing. SolidWorks Data Management solutions enable control over all design information, eliminating concerns about version control or data loss. SolidWorks simulation technology ensures the quality and performance of the design before users commit to production. SolidWorks Sustainability technology enables users to assess the environmental impact of their design to create more sustainable products.

CATIA

CATIA is the Company�� PLM solution for 3D collaborative creation. CATIA addresses the complete product development process, from early product concept specification through product in service. CATIA V6 is designed to enable the spectrum of next generation collaborative virtual design. Its product portfolio is consists of four main domains, which include systems, shape design, mechanical design and equipment engineering. CATIA Systems captures, manages, and tracks product requirements with traceability, ensuring that early requirements are met accurately all along the product development cycle. CATIA Shape provides a line of surfacing, reverse engineering, and visualization solutions to create, modify, and validate any type of complex shapes and help streamline the transition and collaboration among industrial designers. CATIA Mechanical delivers a collaborative and flexible design environment with concurrent engineering and change management through relational design. CATIA Equipment provides an integrated environment that enables the collaborative detailed design of electronic, electrical, and fluidic systems in context of a virtual product.

SIMULIA

SIMULIA provides a scalable portfolio of realistic simulation solutions designed to enable companies across a range of industries to improve product performance, reduce the number of physical prototypes and drive innovation. SIMULIA�� V6 portfolio spans include finite element analysis, multi-physics solutions, optimization analysis, and simulation lifecycle management. Its finite element an! alysis so! ftware companies are able to create and test virtual prototypes of products and processes. Its multi-physics solutions enable companies to reach beyond the boundaries of a single domain. SIMULIA also provides design exploration and optimization technology, enabling designers and engineers to perform rapid trade-off studies of real-world behavior and accelerate product development. SIMULIA offers simulation lifecycle management, based upon the Company�� ENOVIA architecture offering an open collaborative platform for management of simulation data, processes and intellectual property.

DELMIA

DELMIA covers the Company�� PLM digital manufacturing solutions ranging from virtual process definition, workcell set-up, optimization, scheduling, and operation, to maintenance of real-time production systems. DELMIA V6 covers four principal domains, including Manufacturing planning, with 3D process and resource planning tools for creating and optimizing build-to-order and lean production manufacturing systems; plant and resources engineering, with tools to virtually define and optimize manufacturing assets concurrently with manufacturing planning; program and control engineering, to virtually program, validate and simulate manufacturing systems for the virtual commissioning of production facilities, and control and production execution, which offers an accurate virtual production system to enable companies to track real time production activities, perform schedule changes, launch new programs and introduce model changeovers, and schedule maintenance operations.

ENOVIA

ENOVIA addresses business process needs across a broad spectrum of industries, managing simple, as well as engineered, complex products. The ENOVIA V6 products are organized by business processes, which include governance, global sourcing, global sourcing, and unified live collaboration. The Governance domain is designed to help companies launch enterprise new product introductions on time and on ! budget. G! overnance includes these sub-processes: Requirements Management, Portfolio Configuration, Program Management, Decision Support Business Intelligence, and Compliance. The Global Sourcing domain allows companies to leverage supply chain capabilities throughout the product lifecycle. The IP Lifecycle domain helps eliminate costly product development errors as it is designed to enable improved cross-functional product design, manufacturing planning and performance simulation. The Unified Live Collaboration domain allows companies to deploy product lifecycle processes across the extended enterprise by providing a single, real-time view of information protocol (IP) across all business process domains, collaborative process management capabilities, and a service-oriented architecture that integrates with other enterprise system

The Company competes with Parametric Technology Corporation, ANSYS, Inc., MSC Software Corporation, Oracle Corporation, SAP AG, Siemens PLM Software, Adobe, Altair Engineering, Autonomy, Aveva, Bentley, Google, Intergraph, MathWorks, Nemetschek AG, Right Hemisphere, and Autodesk, Inc.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Rich Duprey]

  At the May�30 annual shareholders' meeting of Dassault Systemes (NASDAQOTH: DASTY  ) , a dividend of 0.80 euros per share for fiscal 2012 was agreed upon, with each investor able to determine whether he or she wanted to receive the payout in cash or in new shares of the�3-D design software specialist.

• [By Beth McKenna]

  Shareholders in the 3-D printing software maker Dassault Systemes (NASDAQOTH: DASTY  ) can rest easy, as their stock is not down 49% today, no matter what they see on Google Finance, Yahoo! Finance, and other top financial sites today. The France-based company's stock apparently split 1:2 today, and that's not yet reflected in the price-per-share data on the financial sites.

Best High Tech Companies To Invest In Right Now: Transglobe Energy Corp(TGA)

TransGlobe Energy Corporation operates as an exploration and production company with oil interests in the Arab Republic of Egypt and the Republic of Yemen. It has interests in 9 international blocks comprising 5.5 million acres. The company was formerly known as Dusty Mac Mines, Ltd. and changed its name to TransGlobe Energy Corporation in April 1996 as a result of its business focus shift from mineral exploration and extraction to oil and gas business. TransGlobe Energy Corporation was founded in 1968 and is headquartered in Calgary, Canada.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Seth Jayson]

  TransGlobe Energy (Nasdaq: TGA  ) is expected to report Q1 earnings on May 7. Here's what Wall Street wants to see:

  The 10-second takeaway
  Comparing the upcoming quarter to the prior-year quarter, average analyst estimates predict TransGlobe Energy's revenues will contract -10.7% and EPS will expand 80.0%.

• [By Jake L'Ecuyer]

  Leading and Lagging Sectors
  Wednesday morning, the financial sector proved to be a source of strength for the market. Leading the sector was strength from SouFun Holdings (NYSE: SFUN) and E-House (China) Holdings (NYSE: EJ). In trading on Wednesday, energy shares were relative laggards, down on the day by about 0.67 percent. Among the energy stocks, Endeavour International (NYSE: END)was down more than 22 percent, while TransGlobe Energy (NASDAQ: TGA) tumbled around 6 percent.

• [By Sean Williams]

  Overseas opportunity
  I can't say I'm someone who particularly likes to push my luck in regions of the world where political upheaval can threaten my investments. One such example where I've bucked that trend is AngloGold Ashanti�in Africa, which dealt with a large labor strike that shut down two its mines for a significant amount of time. This came on top of the higher-than-normal labor costs African metal miners already deal with. The next such name I'd like to add to this short list of exceptions is independent oil and gas driller TransGlobe Energy (NASDAQ: TGA  ) .

Best High Tech Companies To Invest In Right Now: Monolithic Power Systems Inc.(MPWR)

Monolithic Power Systems, Inc., a fabless semiconductor company, designs, develops, and markets analog and mixed-signal semiconductors. It offers direct current (DC) to DC converter integrated circuits (IC) that are used to convert and control voltages of various electronic systems, such as portable electronic devices, wireless LAN access points, computers, set top boxes, televisions and monitors, automobiles, and medical equipments. The company also provides lighting control ICs for use in systems that offer the light source for liquid crystal display (LCD) panels in notebook computers, LCD monitors, car navigational systems, and LCD televisions. In addition, it provides audio amplifier ICs to amplify sound produced by audio processors; and Class-D audio amplifiers for plasma televisions, LCD televisions, and digital versatile disk players. The company serves consumer electronics, communications, and computing markets. Monolithic Power Systems, Inc. sells its products thr ough third party distributors and value-added resellers, as well as directly to original equipment manufacturers, original design manufacturers, and electronic manufacturing service providers. The company was founded in 1997 and is headquartered in San Jose, California.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Eric Volkman]

  McDonald is a veteran CFO, having served in that position for a number of tech companies including eASIC, Advanced Analogic Technologies, and Monolithic Power Systems (NASDAQ: MPWR  ) .

• [By Lee Jackson]

  Monolithic Power Systems Inc. (NASDAQ: MPWR) has a diverse market that includes communications, gaming and computing to continue to drive its growth, all markets that will pay a premium for its technology. The list of tech companies that use its chips is impressive. Deutsche Bank has a $30 target, the same as the consensus target.

• [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 Monolithic Power Systems (Nasdaq: MPWR  ) , whose recent revenue and earnings are plotted below.

Best High Tech Companies To Invest In Right Now: Rockwell Automation Inc.(ROK)

Rockwell Automation, Inc. provides industrial automation power, control, and information solutions. It operates in two segments, Architecture and Software, and Control Products and Solutions. The Architecture and Software segment offers control platforms that perform multiple control disciplines and monitoring of applications, including discrete, batch and continuous process, drives control, motion control, and machine safety control; and products comprising controllers, electronic operator interface devices, electronic input/output devices, communication and networking products, and industrial computers. This segment also offers software products, such as configuration and visualization software used to operate and supervise control platforms, advanced process control software, and manufacturing execution software to enhance manufacturing productivity and meet regulatory requirements; and rotary and linear motion control products, and sensors and machine safety components . The Control Products and Solutions segment provides low and medium voltage electro-mechanical and electronic motor starters, motor and circuit protection devices, AC/DC variable frequency drives, push buttons, signaling devices, termination and protection devices, relays and timers, and condition sensors; and packaged solutions, such as configured drives and motor control centers to automation and information solutions, as well as life-cycle support services. The company sells its products, solutions, and services primarily under the Rockwell Automation, Allen-Bradley, A-B, and Rockwell Software brand names to the food and beverage, transportation, oil and gas, metals, mining, home and personal care, pulp and paper, and life sciences markets through independent distributors and direct sales force in the United States, Canada, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, the Asia Pacific, and Latin America. Rockwell Automation, Inc. was founded in 1928 and is headquartered in Milwaukee , Wisconsin.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Marc Bastow]

  Industrial automation power, control and information systems company Rockwell Automation (ROK) raised its quarterly dividend 12% to 58 cents per share, payable on Dec. 10 to shareholders of record as of Nov. 8.
  ROK Dividend Yield: 2.08%
  

• [By John Kell]

  Rockwell Automation Inc.(ROK) said its fiscal first-quarter earnings jumped 23% as operating margins widened and sales in both segments increased. Results topped estimates, pushing shares up 2.6% to $118 premarket.

• [By Rich Duprey]

  Industrial automation specialist�Rockwell Automation� (NYSE: ROK  ) �announced yesterday�its third-quarter dividend of $0.52 per share, the same rate it paid last quarter after raising the payout almost 11% from $0.47 per share.

• [By David Sterman]

  So which companies are likely to most greatly benefit from an eventual rise in capital spending? Firms involved in construction, business process automation, and other productivity tools. Here's a short sample, though you should keep an eye out for any companies that have a high level of sensitivity to changes in capital spending levels.

  1. Rockwell Automation (NYSE: ROK) This maker of factory automation systems has managed to boost sales less than 10% from fiscal 2008 to fiscal 2012. Yet management hasn't been waiting around for business to improve. In that time, Rockwell has been investing hundreds of millions in its Logix Automation control platform, an open-source software system that enables all components of a production process control system to easily interoperate. Moreover, Rockwell's core strength in manufacturing has now been extended into the fields of energy refineries, mining, and food and beverage production.

   

Best High Tech Companies To Invest In Right Now: Graham Corp (GHM)

Graham Corporation (Graham), incorporated on March 7, 1983, designs, manufactures and sells critical equipment for the energy industry which includes the oil refining, petrochemical, as well as cogeneration, nuclear and alternative power markets. It design and manufacture custom-engineered ejectors, pumps, surface condensers and vacuum systems as well as supplies and components for inside the reactor vessel and outside the containment vessel of nuclear power facilities. Its equipment is also used in nuclear propulsion power systems for the defense industry and can be found in other diverse applications such as metal refining, pulp and paper processing, water heating, refrigeration, desalination, food processing, pharmaceutical, heating, ventilating and air conditioning. The Company�� two wholly owned subsidiaries include Graham Vacuum and Heat transfers Technology (Suzhou) Co., Ltd.

The Company's products are used in a range of industrial process applications, including Chemical and Petrochemical Processing, such as ethylene, methanol and nitrogen producing plants, plastics, resins and fibers plants and petrochemical intermediate plants, and Power Generation /Alternative Energy, such as propulsion systems for nuclear-powered aircraft carriers and other nuclear- powered vessels, air conditioning and water heating systems and liquefied natural gas production facilities. The Company's principal customers are in the chemical, petrochemical, petroleum refining and power generating industries, and are users of the Company's products in their manufacturing, refining and power generation processes, large engineering companies that build installations for companies in such industries, and/or the original equipment manufacturers, who combine its products with their equipment prior to its sale to end users.

The Company competes with Gardner Denver, Inc., GEA Wiegand GmbH, Edwards, Ltd, Korting Hannover AG, Croll Reynolds Company, Inc, Schutte Koerting, Gardner Denver, Inc, DongHwa En! tec Co., Ltd, Hangzhou Turbine Equipment Co., Chem Process Systems, Mazda (India), Oeltechnik GmbH, KEMCO, Holtec, Thermal Engineering International, SPX Heat Transfer, Chem Process Systems, Mazda (India)., Ambassador, Alfa Laval AB, APV, Xylem, Dubose, Consolidated, Tioga, Nova, Joseph Oats and Energy & Process.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Rick Munarriz]

  Friday
  The market is typically quiet on Friday, but don't tell that to Graham (NYSEMKT: GHM  ) . The maker of custom-engineered ejectors, pumps, condensers, vacuum systems, and heat exchangers reports on Friday morning. Analysts see profitability almost quadrupling to $0.31 a share, and revenue soaring 48%.

Best High Tech Companies To Invest In Right Now: Nabors Industries Ltd (NBI)

Nabors Industries Ltd. (Nabors), incorporated on December 11, 2001, is the land drilling contractor and land well-servicing and workover contractors in the United States and Canada. The Company markets approximately 474 land drilling rigs for oils and gas land drilling operations in the United States Lower 48 states, Alaska, Canada and over 20 other countries globally. The Company actively markets approximately 442 rigs for land well-servicing and workover work in the United States and approximately 106 rigs for land well-servicing and workover work in Canada. In 2012, the Company sold its remaining wholly-owned oil and gas business in Colombia and sold additional wholly owned assets in the United States. In April 2012, TransForce Inc. acquired through its subsidiary, I.E. Miller Services, Inc, certain assets of Peak USA Energy Services, Ltd., subsidiary of Nabors Industries Ltd. In December 2012, the Company sold its 49.7% ownership interest in NFR Energy LLC (NFR Energy).

The Company is a provider of offshore platform workover and drilling rigs, and actively markets 36 platform, 12 jackup and four barge rigs in the United States, including the Gulf of Mexico, and multiple international markets.The Company provides completion and production services, including hydraulic fracturing, cementing, nitrogen and acid pressures pumping services with over 805,000 hydraulic horsepower in United States and Canada. The Company offers a range of ancillary well-site services, including engineering, transportation and disposal, construction, maintenance, well logging, directional drilling, rigs instrumentation, data collection and other support services in select United States and international markets. The Company manufactures and lease or sell drives for a ranges of drilling applications, directional drilling systems, rig instrumentation and data collection equipment, pipeline handling equipment and rig reporting software. The Company has a 51% ownership interest in a joint venture in Saudi Arabia, w! hich owns and actively markets nine rigs in addition to the rigs the Company leases to the joint venture.

A land-based drilling rig generally consists of engines, a drawworks, a mast (or derrick), pumps to circulate drilling fluid under various pressures, blowout preventers, drill string and related equipment. Special-purpose drilling rigs used to perform workover services consist of a mobile carrier, which includes an engine, drawworks and a mast, together with other standard drilling accessories and specialized equipment for servicing wells. These rigs are specially designed for repairs and modifications of oil and gas wells, including standard drilling functions. Land-based drilling rigs are moved between well sites and among geographic areas using the Company's fleet of cranes, loaders and transport vehicles or those of third-party service providers.

Platform rigs provide offshore workover, drilling and re-entry services. The Company's platform rigs have drilling and/or well-servicing or workover equipment and machinery arranged in modular packages that are transported to, and assembled and installed on, fixed offshore platforms owned by the customer. Jackup rigs are mobile, self-elevating drilling and workover platforms equipped with legs that can be lowered to the ocean floor until a foundation is established to support the hull, which contains the drilling and/or workover equipment, jacking system, crew quarters, loading and unloading facilities, storage areas for bulk and liquid materials, helicopter landing deck and other related equipment. The Company also own two workover inland barge rigs. These barges are designed to perform plugging and abandonment, well-service or workover services in shallow inland, coastal or offshore waters.

The Company provides a range of wellsite solutions to oil and natural gases companies, consisting primarily of technical pumping services, including hydraulic fracturing, a process sometimes used in the completion of oil and g! as wells ! whereby water, sand and chemicals are injected under pressure into subsurface formations to stimulate gas and oil production, and down-hole surveying services. Other technical services include completion, production and rental tool services. In addition, the Company provides fluid logistics services, including those related to the transportation, storage and disposal of fluids that is used in the drilling, development and production of hydrocarbons.

The Company provides maintenance services on the mechanical apparatus used to pump or lift oils from producing wells. These services include, among other activities, repairing and replacing pumps, sucker rods and tubing. They also occasionally include drilling services. The Company provides the rigs, equipment and crews for these tasks, which are performed on both oil and natural gas wells, but which are more commonly required on oil wells. Producing oil and natural gas wells occasionally require repairs or modifications, called workovers. The Company can also provide other specialized services, including onsite temporary fluid storage; the supply, removal and disposal of specialized fluids used during certain completion and workover operations, and the removal and disposal of salt water that often accompanies the production of oil and natural gas.

Through various subsidiaries, the Company manufactures top drives and catwalks, which is installed on both onshore and offshore drilling rigs. The Company provides heavy equipment to move drilling rigs, water, other fluids and construction materials as well as the means to moves such equipment. The Company offers specialized drilling technologies, including patented steering systems and rigs instrumentation software systems, including ROCKITTM directional drilling system, which is used to provide data collection services to oil and gas exploration and service companies, and RIGWATCHTM software, which is computerized software and equipment that monitors a rig's real-time performance and da! ily repor! ting for drilling operations, making this data available through the Internet.

The Company competes with Helmerich and Payne, Inc., Patterson-UTI Energy, Inc., Basic Energy Services, Inc., Key Energy Services, Inc., Superior Energy Services, Inc., Forbes Energy Services Ltd., Halliburton, Baker Hughes, Weatherford International Ltd., Schlumberger Limited, FTS International Services LLC, C&J Energy Services, Inc. and RPC, Inc.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Anora Mahmudova]

  The Nasdaq Composite (COMP) �added 39.91 points, or 1%, to 4,161.46, recording the sixth consecutive session of gains, helped by a 6% rally in Netflix, Inc. Biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies also jumped. Both the Nasdaq Biotechnology index (NBI) � and the iShares Nasdaq Biotechnology ETF (IBB) � rose 3.2%.

• [By Anora Mahmudova]

  The Nasdaq Composite (COMP) �shed 16.18 points, or 0.4%, to 4,051.50, losing 2.1% over the past three sessions. Biotech stocks sold off, with the Nasdaq Biotechnology index (NBI) �down 1.9%.

Best High Tech Companies To Invest In Right Now: Smart Ventures Inc (SMVR)

Smart Ventures, Inc., incorporated on November 22, 2006, is an exploration-stage company. The Company focuses on exploring, acquiring, developing and producing mineral reserves. The Company had purchased certain mineral claims located in the Laurentides Region near Mont Laurier, Quebec. In June 2011, the Company acquired Metal Assets S.A. In February 2014, Smart Ventures Inc announced the closing of its acquisition of The Sanday Corporation oil and gas drilling Services Company.

As of December 31, 2009, the Company had not generated any revenues. The Company focuses on establishing and exploiting deposits of both base and precious metals.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Peter Graham]

  Small cap marijuana stocks Smart Ventures Inc (OTCMKTS: SMVR) and Vitamin Blue Inc (OTCMKTS: VTMB) jumped 40.28% and 38.6%, respectively, while hemp stock Astika Holdings Inc (OTCBB: ASKH) fell 13.75% on Friday. Moreover, only one of these small cap stocks seems to have been the subject of a few paid promotions or investor relations types of activities. So will all three of these marijuana or hemp stocks keep producing highs or lows for investors and traders alike? Here is a quick reality check:

  Smart Ventures Inc (OTCMKTS: SMVR) Plans to Enter the Marijuana Edibles Business

  Small cap Smart Ventures Inc is an independent energy company engaged in engineering extended reach drilling services, acquisition, development, production, and exploration of oil, gas and minerals internationally. On Friday, Smart Ventures Inc rose 40.28% to $0.07 for a market cap of $2.31 million plus SMVR is up 600% over the past year and down 93.3% in intermittent trading since December 2009 according to Google Finance.