5 Best Sliver Stocks To Watch Right Now

Austin, Texas-based Silicon Laboratories (NASDAQ: SLAB  ) , which chose a new chief financial officer last month, has now found him a bit of extra work to do.

On Friday, Silicon Labs announced that it has signed an agreement to buy Norway's Energy Micro AS, a privately held maker of power-efficient 32-bit microcontrollers and multi-protocol wireless RF solutions using ARM architecture.

Silicon Labs will pay $115 million upfront to acquire Energy Micro, plus an additional $55 million later as deferred and "earn-out" consideration if the business grows as planned. With Energy Micro expected to produce $7 million in revenues in H2 2013, this works out to a total price-to-sale ratio of approximately 13.6 that Silicon Labs is paying -- a steep premium to the buyer's own 3.1 P/S ratio.

In a statement, Silicon Labs defended the purchase price, saying the acquisition "accelerates [its] growth opportunities and positions the company as the foremost innovator in energy-friendly embedded solutions." Silicon Labs also believes that the deal will be accretive to earnings "on a non-GAAP basis by the end of 2014." The acquisition is slated to close next month.

Top 5 Blue Chip Stocks To Buy For 2015: TriQuint Semiconductor Inc.(TQNT)

TriQuint Semiconductor, Inc. provides radio frequency (RF) solutions and technology for communications, defense, and aerospace companies worldwide. The company designs, develops, and manufactures RF solutions with gallium arsenide (GaAs), gallium nitride, bipolar high electron mobility transistor, surface acoustic wave (SAW), temperature compensated surface acoustic wave, bulk acoustic wave (BAW), copper flip, and wafer level packaging technologies. The company offers an array of filtering, switching, and amplification products for RF, microwave, and millimeter-wave applications. It sells electronic components for mobile phones, including transmit modules, RF filters, power amplifiers and power amplifier modules, duplexers, switches, other RF devices, and integrated products to mobile device manufacturers. The company also offers signal amplification and filtering products, including a portfolio of GaAs microwave monolithic integrated circuits and transistors, and SAW and BAW filter components that support the transfer of voice, data, and video across wireless or wired infrastructure. Its network products comprise millimeter wave power amplifiers, frequency converters, and voltage controlled oscillators. In addition, the company provides defense and aerospace devices, including packaged products, die-level integrated circuits (ICs), microwave monolithic ICs, and multi-chip modules to military contractors serving the U.S. government for use in various communications and phased array radar programs, such as ship-based, airborne, and battlefield systems, as well as sat-com, electronic warfare, and guidance applications. Further, TriQuint Semiconductor, Inc. offers foundry services. The company sells its products through independent manufacturers? representatives, independent distributors, and direct sales staff. TriQuint Semiconductor, Inc. was founded in 1981 and is headquartered in Hillsboro, Oregon.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Rich Bieglmeier]

  TriQuint Semiconductor (NASDAQ:TQNT) is struggling to get above water today despite an upgrade from Brean Capital. Analyst, Mike Burton says the tech company is a "Buy" today, up from yesterday's "Hold" recommendation. Brean's change of opinion comes with a price-target of $16.00 ��40% upside to target as we inflame our carpal tunnel.

• [By Lauren Pollock]

  Activist investor Starboard Value L.P. nominated its own slate of six candidates to TriQuint Semiconductor Inc.'s(TQNT) board, claiming significant changes are needed to turn around the chip maker’s “prolonged underperformance.”

5 Best Sliver Stocks To Watch Right Now: Virginia Mines Inc (VGQ)

Virginia Mines Inc. is engaged in the business of acquiring and exploring mining properties. The Company specializes in searching for gold and base metal deposits in mostly unexplored territories of Quebec. The Company�� properties include Coulon property, Anatacau-Wabamisk project, Lac Pau property, Nichicun property, Trieste property, Ashuanipi property, Baie Payne property and Lac Gayot property. The Anatacau-Wabamisk project is located 30 kilometers southwest of the Opinaca Reservoir, about 290 kilometers north of the town of Matagami, province of Quebec. The Lac Pau property is located in the James Bay region, in the northern part of the Caniapiscau Reservoir, 70 kilometers northeast of the Trans-Taiga Road. The Nichicun property is situated in the central part of the province of Quebec, northwest of the Otish Mountains. The Trieste property is located in the central part of the province of Quebec, to the northwest of the Otish Mountains. Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Adrian Day]

  Adrian Day: Yeah, you know, my favorite company in the junior sector remains Virginia Mines, (VGQ) in Toronto, this is, at basis, an exploration company that has built its business by what's called a prospect generator model, meaning they go out and generate prospects, which they then try to farm out to other people to spend the money.

5 Best Sliver Stocks To Watch Right Now: Avnet Inc. (AVT)

Avnet, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, distributes electronic components, enterprise computer and storage products, and embedded subsystems in the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Asia, Australia, and New Zealand. It operates in two segments, Electronics Marketing (EM) and Technology Solutions (TS). The EM segment markets and sells semiconductors; interconnect, passive, and electromechanical devices; and embedded products and embedded computing solutions, including technical design, integration, and assembly services to developers of application-specific computing solutions in the non-PC market. It also provides engineers with a host of technical design solutions in support of the sales process of complex products and technologies; engineering and technical resources to support product design, bill of materials development, design services, and technical education and training; and supply chain services focused on original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), el ectronic manufacturing services providers, and electronic component manufacturers. This segment primarily serves electronic component manufacturers in various markets, including automotive, communications, computer hardware and peripheral, industrial and manufacturing, medical equipment, military and aerospace, telecommunications, industrial, and digital editing. The TS segment markets and sells mid-to high-end servers, data storage, and software, as well as provides services required to implement such products and solutions to the value-added reseller channel. It also focuses on the worldwide OEM market for computing technology, system integrators, independent software vendors, and non-PC OEMs that require embedded systems and solutions, including engineering, product prototyping, integration, and other value-added services. The company was founded in 1955 and is headquartered in Phoenix, Arizona.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Monica Wolfe]

  Avnet Inc (AVT)

  FPA Capital�� fourth largest holding is in the company Avnet. The fund holds on to 1,722,400 shares of the company�� stock, representing 1.29% of their shares outstanding and 9.2% of his total portfolio.

5 Best Sliver Stocks To Watch Right Now: Natura Cosmeticos SA (NATU3)

Natura Cosmeticos SA is a Brazil-based company that, together with its subsidiaries, is engaged in the manufacture, industrialization, distribution and commercialization of cosmetics, fragrances and personal hygiene products under the brand name Natura. The Company's product line includes deodorants, makeup, sunscreens, lotions, creams, lipsticks and perfumes, among others. It operates in Chile, Peru, Argentina, Mexico, Colombia, Spain and Netherlands, among others, and, as of December 31, 2011, the Company had such subsidiaries as Industria e Comercio de Cosmeticos Natura Ltda, Natura Cosmeticos SA, Natura Cosmeticos de Mexico SA de CV, Natura Cosmeticos Espana SL, Natura (Brasil) International BV and Natura Inovacao e Tecnologia de Produtos Ltda, among several others. On February 28, 2013, the Company concluded the acquisition of a 65% stake in Emeis Holdings Pty Ltd, operating under Aesop brand. Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Harry Suhartono]

  Brazil�� Ibovespa rose for a third day as traders pared bets on higher borrowing costs in Brazil, boosting the outlook for companies that sell in the local market. B2W Cia. Digital led gains among retailers, with Lojas Americanas SA (LAME3) and Natura Cosmeticos SA (NATU3) also trading higher. Petrochemicals producer Braskem SA (BRKM5) was the worst performer on the equity gauge after O Estado de S.Paulo reported Petroleo Brasileiro SA (PETR4) is seeking to raise prices of naphtha sold to the company by 5 percent.