10 Best European Stocks To Buy Right Now

The Defense Security Cooperation Agency notified Congress [link opens in PDF] Thursday of plans to conduct a Foreign Military Sale of 6 UH-72A Lakota Helicopters "and associated equipment, parts, training and logistical support" to the Government of Thailand.

According to the DSCA, European defense contractor EADS's (NASDAQOTH: EADSY  ) North American division will be prime contractor on this sale, which is valued at $77 million.

The DSCA justifies the sale by saying it will "contribute to the foreign policy and national security of the United States, by helping to improve the security of a friendly country which has been, and continues to be, an important force for political stability and economic progress in Southeast Asia."

The DSCA further assures Congress that "the proposed sale of this support will not alter the basic military balance in the region," nor will there be any "adverse impact on U.S. defense readiness as a result of this proposed sale."

10 Best European Stocks To Buy Right Now: STMicroelectronics N.V.(STM)

STMicroelectronics N.V., an independent semiconductor company, engages in the design, development, manufacture, and marketing of a range of semiconductor integrated circuits and discrete devices. Its products include discrete and standard commodity components, application-specific integrated circuits, custom devices and semi-custom devices, and application-specific standard products for analog, digital, and mixed-signal applications. The company also offers subsystems and modules for the telecommunications, automotive, and industrial markets comprising mobile phone accessories, battery chargers, ISDN power supplies, and in-vehicle equipment for electronic toll payment, as well as provides Smartcard products. Its products are used in various microelectronic applications consisting of automotive products, computer peripherals, telecommunications systems, consumer products, industrial automation, and control systems. The company sells its products through distributors and ret ailers. STMicroelectronics N.V. was founded in 1987 and is headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Lee Jackson]

  STMicroelectronics NV (NYSE: STM) supplies most set-top box chips for Scientific�Atlanta, and also sells chips for disk drives that end up in DVRs; but still has less than a 10% exposure. The consensus target for the stock is $11. Investors do receive an outstanding 4.0% dividend from the company.

• [By Seth Jayson]

  STMicroelectronics (NYSE: STM  ) reported earnings on July 22. Here are the numbers you need to know.

  The 10-second takeaway
  For the quarter ended June 29 (Q2), STMicroelectronics met expectations on revenues and missed expectations on earnings per share.

• [By ICRAOnline]

  Revenue for the last quarter stood at $73.4 million, up 27.9% from the year-ago quarter. This was primarily driven by the growth in memory technology licensing, coupled with impressive performance of its security technology licensing business. During the quarter, Rambus also signed new licensing agreements with tech giant Samsung Electronics, Micron Technology (MU), STMicroelectronics (STM), LSI Semiconductor (LSI) and SK Hynix. However, the company�� LED lighting business failed to make any significant contribution.

• [By Evan Niu, CFA]

  STMicroelectronics (NYSE: STM  ) and OmniVision (NASDAQ: OVTI  ) are the two camera suppliers, and HTC is reportedly no longer considered a "tier one" manufacturer so it doesn't get priority any more. That implies that one of these image sensor specialists was giving HTC the cold shoulder in favor of bigger names.

10 Best European Stocks To Buy Right Now: British American Tobacco Industries p.l.c.(BTI)

British American Tobacco p.l.c., through its subsidiaries, engages in the manufacture, distribution, and sale of tobacco products. The company offers cigars, cigarettes, smokeless snus, roll-your-own, and pipe tobacco products under the Dunhill, Kent, Lucky Strike, Pall Mall, Vogue, Viceroy, Kool, Rothmans, Peter Stuyvesant, Benson & Hedges, and State Express 555 brand names. It has operations in the Asia-Pacific, the Americas, eastern and western Europe, Africa, and the Middle East. The company was founded in 1902 and is headquartered in London, the United Kingdom. British American Tobacco p.l.c. operates independently of Remgro Ltd. as of November 03, 2008.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Peter Stephens]

  The tide, it seems, is turning against tobacco companies such as�British American Tobacco� (LSE: BATS  ) (NYSEMKT: BTI  ) .

• [By G. A. Chester]

  LONDON -- There are things to love and loathe about most companies. Today, I'm going to tell you about three things to love about�British American Tobacco� (LSE: BATS  ) (NYSEMKT: BTI  ) .

Top Low Price Stocks To Buy Right Now: Fresenius Medical Care Corporation (FMS)

Fresenius Medical Care AG & Co. KGaA, a dialysis company, provides products and services for patients with chronic kidney diseases. As of May 12, 2011, it provided dialysis care services to 216,942 patients through its network of 2,769 dialysis clinics primarily in North America, Europe, Latin America, the Asia-Pacific, and Africa. The company also develops and manufactures various dialysis products, including hemodialysis machines, dialyzers, hemofilters, dialysis fluid filters, tubing systems, fistula needles, dialysis related equipment, acute hemodialysis machines, plasma filters, acute tubing systems and cassettes, catheters, and related disposable products for chronic hemodialysis, acute therapy, home therapy, and therapeutic apheresis, as well as dialysis drugs. In addition, it provides laboratory services. Fresenius Medical sells its products through distributors. The company was founded in 1996 and is headquartered in Bad Homburg, Germany.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By John Udovich]

  Small cap dialysis stock Rockwell Medical Inc (NASDAQ: RMTI) looks set to decline when the market opens after Brean Capital initiated coverage with a sell rating and a price target of $4.00, meaning it might be time to take a closer look at what is going on with the stock along with�the performance of large cap dialysis stocks DaVita Healthcare Partners (NYSE: DVA)�and Fresenius Medical Care (NYSE: FMS) along with small cap dialysis stocks NxStage Medical, Inc (NASDAQ: NXTM).�

10 Best European Stocks To Buy Right Now: Aegon NV(AEG)

AEGON N.V. provides life insurance, pensions, and asset management products and services worldwide. The company?s life insurance products include traditional, term, universal, whole, and other life insurance products sold as part of defined benefit pension plans, endowment policies, post-retirement annuity products, and group risk products; supplemental health insurance products comprise accidental death, other injury, critical illness, hospital indemnity, medicare supplement, and student health; specialty lines consists of travel, membership, and creditor products; and long term care insurance products for policyholders who require care due to a chronic illness or cognitive impairment. It also offers a range of savings and retirement products and services, including mutual funds, and fixed and variable annuities, savings accounts and investment contracts, segregated funds, guaranteed investment accounts, and single premium immediate annuities, as well as investment advice to individuals. In addition, the company offers employer solutions and pensions, such as retirement plans, pension plans, and pension-related products and services; investment products, including onshore and offshore bonds, and trusts; reinsurance products and solutions to life insurance and financial services companies; general insurance products comprising house, car, and fire insurance; and asset management products and services, including general account assets, unit-linked funds, and third party activities. AEGON N.V. markets its products through independent and career agents, financial planners, registered representatives, independent marketing organizations, banks, broker-dealers, benefit consulting firms, wirehouses, affinity groups, institutional partners, independent managing general agencies, and specialized financial advisors, as well as through online, direct, and worksite marketing. The company was founded in 1900 and is headquartered in The Hague, the Netherl ands.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Will Ashworth]

  Assuming it delivers on its outlook for 2014, its current free cash flow yield is a very enticing 20%. This isn�� a growth stock, but its brands still possess hidden value. As cheap stocks go, it�� very attractive.

  Cheap Stocks to Buy: Aegon (AEG)

  It�� not often that you can buy a $19 billion market cap for under 10 bucks. Aegon�� a Dutch insurance company that�� had a rough ride over the past few years, and its stock�� suffered as a result. In the late ’90s AEG stock traded around $60 — it hasn�� been anywhere close since. However, it�� got some good assets that should bear fruit in the years to come. Aegon has 12,000 employees in the Americas doing business primarily under the Transamerica brand, which has been a part of AEG since 1999.

10 Best European Stocks To Buy Right Now: BP p.l.c.(BP)

BP p.l.c. provides fuel for transportation, energy for heat and light, retail services, and petrochemicals products. Its Exploration and Production segment engages in the oil and natural gas exploration, field development, and production; midstream transportation, and storage and processing; and marketing and trading of natural gas, including liquefied natural gas (LNG), and power and natural gas liquids (NGL). This segment has exploration and production activities in Angola, Azerbaijan, Canada, Egypt, Norway, Russia, Trinidad and Tobago, the United Kingdom, and the United States, as well as in Asia, Australasia, South America, North Africa, and the Middle East. This segment also owns and manages crude oil and natural gas pipelines; processing facilities and export terminals; and LNG processing and transportation, as well as NGL extraction facilities. BP p.l.c. has interests in the Trans-Alaska pipeline system, the Forties pipeline system, the Central Area transmission sys tem pipeline, the South Caucasus Pipeline, and Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline, as well as in LNG plants located in Trinidad, Indonesia, and Australia. The company?s Refining and Marketing segment involves in the supply and trading, refining, manufacturing, marketing, and transportation of crude oil, petroleum, and petrochemicals products and related services to wholesale and retail customers primarily under the BP, Castrol, ARCO, and Aral brands. Its Other Businesses and Corporate segment produces and markets rolled aluminum products, as well as generates energy through wind, solar, biofuels, hydrogen, and carbon capture and storage sources; and engages in shipping activities. The company was founded in 1889 and is headquartered in London, the United Kingdom.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By David Smith]

  The 9,000-pound aquatic robots are the key part of 150,000-pound units that can operate effectively in 10,000 feet of water. They're guided by three-person crews in 20-foot computerized control rooms that sit atop a rig's floor. Oceaneering's ROVs played a key role in ultimately stanching the flow of the approximately 5 million barrels of oil that gushed into the Gulf of Mexico from BP's (NYSE: BP  ) blown-out Macondo well in 2010.

10 Best European Stocks To Buy Right Now: Telefonica SA(TEF)

Telefonica, S.A. provides fixed and mobile telephony services primarily in Spain, rest of Europe, and Latin America. Its fixed telecommunication services include PSTN lines; ISDN accesses; public telephone; local, domestic, and international long distance and fixed-to-mobile communications; corporate communications; video telephony; supplementary and business-oriented value-added services; network services; leasing and sale of handset equipment; and telephony information services. The company?s Internet and broadband multimedia services comprise Internet service provider service; portal and network services; retail and wholesale broadband access; narrowband switched access to Internet; naked ADSL, a broadband connection; residential-oriented value-added services; companies-oriented value-added services; television services, such as IPTV, cable television, and satellite television; and Fiber to the Home, a service for high speed Internet access and digital video recording. Its data and business-solutions services principally include leased lines; virtual private network services; fiber optics services; the provision of hosting and application; outsourcing and consultancy services; desktop services; and system integration and professional services. The company?s wholesale services for telecommunication operators primarily comprise domestic interconnection services; international wholesale services; leased lines for other operators? network deployment; local loop leasing under the unbundled local loop regulation framework; and bit stream services. It also offers various mobile and related services and products that include mobile voice services, value added services, mobile data and Internet services, wholesale services, corporate services, roaming, fixed wireless, and trunking and paging services. The company has a strategic alliance with China Unicom (Hong Kong) Limited. Telefonica, S.A. was founded in 1924 and is headquartered in Madrid, Spai n.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Dan Caplinger]

  You can see the same trends among many individual European stocks. Telecom giant Telefonica (NYSE: TEF  ) has big exposure to Latin America, but investors focus on its home country of Spain in limiting its gains. The same trend has affected French oil giant Total (NYSE: TOT  ) , which shares the same exposure to energy projects around the world yet has been tarnished by its proximity to the crisis-ridden continent. By focusing on value rather than perception, you can get some great values when others are being irrational.

10 Best European Stocks To Buy Right Now: Aercap Holdings N.V. (AER)

AerCap Holdings N.V., through its subsidiaries, operates as an integrated aviation company worldwide. It engages in leasing and trading aircraft and engines; and selling parts. The company also provides aircraft management services, as well as aircraft and limited engine MRO services, and aircraft disassembly services through its repair stations. In addition, it offers aircraft services, including remarketing aircraft; collecting rental and maintenance payments, monitoring aircraft maintenance, monitoring and enforcing contract compliance, and accepting delivery and redelivery of aircraft; conducting ongoing lessee financial performance reviews; inspecting the leased aircraft; coordinating technical modifications to aircraft to meet new lessee requirements; conducting restructurings negotiations in connection with lease defaults; repossessing aircraft; arranging and monitoring insurance coverage; registering and de-registering aircraft; arranging for aircraft and aircraft engine valuations; and providing market research. The company?s management services include leasing and remarketing, cash management and treasury, technical advisory, and accounting and administrative services. As of March 31, 2011, it owned 272 aircraft and 95 engines, which it leased under operating leases to 118 lessees in 53 countries. The company was founded in 1995 and is headquartered in Schiphol, the Netherlands.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Paul Ausick]

  More than two years ago, American International Group Inc. (NYSE: AIG) filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for an initial public offering (IPO) in its aircraft leasing group, International Lease Finance Corp. (ILFC). That filing came to nothing, and AIG found little interest from buyers for ILFC, until Monday morning when it announced that AerCap Holdings N.V. (NYSE: AER) will buy the leasing operation for $3 billion in cash and 97.56 million shares of new AerCap stock. The total value of the deal is approximately $5.4 billion.

• [By John Udovich]

  Yesterday around midday,�Netherlands based aviation leasing stock�AerCap Holdings N.V. (NYSE: AER) began surging on rumors and closed up 11.6%, meaning its probably time to take a closer look at those rumors along with aviation leasing peers like small caps or mid caps�Aircastle Limited (NYSE: AYR), Air Lease Corp (NYSE: AL), Fly Leasing Ltd (NYSE: FLY) and AeroCentury Corp (NYSEMKT: ACY).

• [By Ben Levisohn]

  Finally. Finally American International Group (AIG) has disposed of its ILFC unit by selling it to AerCap Holdings (AER).

  Bloomberg News

  The Wall Street Journal has the details on the deal:

10 Best European Stocks To Buy Right Now: TotalFinaElf S.A.(TOT)

TOTAL S.A., together with its subsidiaries, operates as an integrated oil and gas company worldwide. The company operates through three segments: Upstream, Downstream, and Chemicals. The Upstream segment engages in the exploration, development, and production of oil and natural gas. It also involves in the transportation, trade, and marketing of natural gas and liquefied natural gas (LNG), as well as in LNG re-gasification and natural gas storage operations. In addition, this segment engages in the shipping and trade of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG); power generation from gas-fired power plants, nuclear, or renewable energies; production, trade, and marketing of coal, as well as in solar power systems and technology operations. As of December 31, 2010, it had combined proved reserves of 10,695 Mboe of oil and gas. The Downstream segment involves in refining, marketing, trading, and shipping crude oil and petroleum products. It also produces a range of specialty products, s uch as lubricants, LPG, jet fuel, special fluids, bitumen, marine fuels, and petrochemical feedstock. This segment holds interests in 24 refineries located in Europe, the United States, the French West Indies, Africa, and China, as well as operates a network of 17,490 service stations. The Chemicals segment produces base chemicals, including petrochemicals and fertilizers, as well as engages in rubber processing, resins, adhesives, and electroplating activities. TOTAL S.A. was founded in 1924 and is based in Paris, France.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Dan Caplinger]

  You can see the same trends among many individual European stocks. Telecom giant Telefonica (NYSE: TEF  ) has big exposure to Latin America, but investors focus on its home country of Spain in limiting its gains. The same trend has affected French oil giant Total (NYSE: TOT  ) , which shares the same exposure to energy projects around the world yet has been tarnished by its proximity to the crisis-ridden continent. By focusing on value rather than perception, you can get some great values when others are being irrational.

• [By David Smith]

  Bowing out of Egypt
  It's also noteworthy that Egypt shares a western border with Libya, which is a significant producer, but where chaos and contretemps also reign. Is it any wonder, then, that Chevron (NYSE: CVX  ) announced on Tuesday that it will unload its Egyptian downstream operations, including 66 service stations and a couple of oil depots, to Total (NYSE: TOT  ) ? The French company is also buying the retail assets in the land of the Sphinx from Royal Dutch Shell (NYSE: RDS-B  ) . Perhaps it knows something of which the rest of us are unaware.

• [By Tom Taulli]

  Efficient operator:�CVX stock has benefited from huge scale, with operations that span mining, chemicals and power generation. Yet, among its peers, the company is standout in its efforts to find cost savings. Its earnings per barrel come to about $23.33, which is $5 ahead of companies like BP (BP), Royal Dutch Shell (RDS.A), Total (TOT) and ExxonMobil (XOM).�But CVX the company is also one of the world�� largest producers of Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG), which has benefited from strong growth in places like Asia and Europe. Besides, LNG has massive barriers of entry because of the substantial requirements for infrastructure, logistics and technology.

• [By Robert Rapier]

  On Dec. 5, IOC issued an extensive press release trumpeting the sale to Total (NYSE: TOT) of an interest in its Papua New Guinea exploration. The IOC press release spun the sale as potentially worth billions to IOC, which has a current market cap of $2.6 billion. Indeed, that deal sounds like it could really make a huge impact on IOC, until you read the press release issued by Total. Total has indicated that its engineers will need to evaluate the prospects before any decision is made on payments. So the deal could be worth zero to IOC, and based on the company’s poor track record over the years in actually booking reserves many investors decided it was time to exit when it became clear that IOC’s spin on the deal was much different than Total’s. Shares fell 21 percent in pre-market trading on the day of the announcement, and are now down about 40 percent since the Total news hit.