5 Best Consumer Service Stocks For 2014

Increased spending from Starbucks (NASDAQ: SBUX  ) loyalty cards helped the company report great sales growth so far this year. In fact, the company's success with prepaid cards has been phenomenal.�

Consider these statistics:

Starbucks customers add $3 billion annually to their cards, a pace that rivals many banks. One-third of all Starbucks transactions in the U.S. are made using prepaid cards. Starbucks expects its rewards membership base to double this year, to 9 million people.

In the following video, Fool contributor Demitrios Kalogeropoulos discusses how important loyalty cards have been to Starbucks, and how prepayments have been a good indicator of sales growth in future quarters.

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Top 5 Mid Cap Companies To Buy Right Now: Harte-Hanks Inc. (HHS)

Harte-Hanks, Inc., a direct and targeted marketing company, provides multichannel direct and digital marketing services, and shopper advertising opportunities to a range of local, regional, national, and international consumer and business-to-business marketers in the United States and other countries. It offers integrated, multichannel, and data-driven solutions for various brands to retail, high-tech/telecom, financial services, and pharmaceutical/healthcare markets. The company provides agency and digital services, including Website development and design, digital strategy, social media marketing and monitoring, email marketing, and ecommerce and interactive relationship management services; database marketing solutions that enable organizations to build and manage customer communication strategies; and Trillium Software System, a global locator geocoding product, as well as associated data governance services. It also offers direct mail and fulfillment, and business-to -business lead generation services, as well as operates teleservice workstations that provide advanced contact center solutions. The company has a strategic partnership with GX Software. Harte-Hanks, Inc. was founded in 1970 and is headquartered in San Antonio, Texas.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Eric Volkman]

  There will soon be a new moniker on the CEO nameplate at Harte-Hanks (NYSE: HHS  ) . The company has picked Robert Philpott to replace outgoing Chief Executive Larry Franklin, who will retire on June 30. Philpott, who was selected following a global search led by a board of directors committee, will also assume Franklin's role as president of the company.

5 Best Consumer Service Stocks For 2014: Opus International Consultants Ltd (OIC)

Opus International Consultants Limited is a supplier of multidisciplinary consultancy and project management services across a range of disciplines including, civil, mechanical and electrical engineering, and planning, environmental, architectural and property management. The Company operates in four segments: New Zealand, United Kingdom, Australia and Canada. Services supplied support asset development and asset management activities of the Company�� clients. Asset management services include property management and asset maintenance services predominantly using our engineering and environmental specialists. Asset development services include civil, mechanical and electrical engineering, planning, environmental and architectural work. Effective September 3, 2013, Opus International Consultants Ltda majority-owned unit of Opus Group Bhd acquired Stewart, Weir & Co Ltd. Advisors' Opinion:

• [By John McCamant]

  Nektar Therapeutics (NKTR) is expected to get FDA approval this year for its lead drug naloxegol, a once-a-day pill for opioid-induced constipation (OIC). The drug is licensed to AstraZeneca. NKTR will receive up to $245 million in milestone payments, plus royalties.

5 Best Consumer Service Stocks For 2014: Dover Downs Gaming & Entertainment Inc (DDE)

Dover Downs Gaming & Entertainment, Inc., incorporated in December of 2001, is a premier gaming and entertainment resorts. The Company�� operations consist of: Dover Downs Casino, a 165,000-square foot casino complex featuring table games, including craps, roulette and card games, such as blackjack, Spanish 21, baccarat, 3-card and pai gow poker, the latest in slot machine offerings, multi-player electronic table games, the Crown Royal poker room, a Race & Sports Book operation, the Dover Downs' Fire & Ice Lounge, the Festival Buffet, Doc Magrogan's Oyster House, Frankie's Italian restaurant, as well as several bars, restaurants and four retail outlets; Dover Downs Hotel and Conference Center, a 500 room AAA Four Diamond hotel with a full-service spa/salon, conference, banquet, ballroom and concert hall facilities, and Dover Downs Raceway, a harness racing track with pari-mutuel wagering on live and simulcast horse races. All of its operations are located at its entertainment complex in Dover. Its two wholly owned subsidiaries include Dover Downs, Inc. and Dover Downs Gaming Management Corp.

Dover Downs Casino

The Company's casino had approximately 2,539 slot machines as of December 31, 2011. It is open for business around the clock. During the year ended December 31, 2011, that the facility was visited by approximately 2.6 million patrons. Its slot machines range from penny machines to $100 machines in the Premium Slots area and include games found in the country's major gaming jurisdictions. The Company operates with 40 tables, including blackjack, craps and roulette tables. The Crown Royal poker room has 12 poker tables. It has its Race and Sports Book operation featuring parlay sports wagering on NFL games and pari-mutuel wagering on live and simulcast horse races. Dover Downs, Inc. is authorized to conduct video lottery, sports wagering and table game operations. The Company's Capital Club, a slots players club and tracking system, allows it to identify customers and t! o reward their level of play through various marketing programs.

Dover Downs Hotel

The Company's luxury hotel facility, the Dover Downs Hotel and Conference Center, connects to the Company's casino. The facility includes 500 rooms, including 11 luxury spa suites, a multi-purpose ballroom/concert hall, a fine dining restaurant, swimming pool and a luxurious 6,000 square-foot full-service spa. It offers a range of entertainment options to its patrons, including concerts featuring prominent entertainers, live boxing, gourmet dining, spa facilities, trade shows and conferences. During 2011, hotel occupancy averaged 90%.

Dover Downs Raceway

The Company�� Dover Downs Raceway conducts live harness races from November until April and is simulcast to more than 300 tracks and other off-track betting locations across North America on each of the Company's more than 120 live race dates. The Company's harness racing track is a 5/8-mile track that is located on DVD's property and is on the inside of its one-mile motorsports superspeedway. Additional amenities include the Winners Circle Restaurant overlooking the horse racing track. Within the Company's Race & Sports Book operation is the simulcast parlor where the patrons can wager on harness and thoroughbred races received by satellite into its facility year round from numerous tracks across North America. Television monitors throughout the area provide views of all races simultaneously and the betting windows are connected to a central computer allowing bets to be received on all races from all tracks.

The Company has an agreement with the Delaware Standardbred Owner's Association, Inc. (DSOA) effective September 1, 2010 and continuing through August 31, 2014. DSOA's membership consists of owners, trainers and drivers of harness horses participating in harness race meetings at its facilities and elsewhere in the United States and Canada. Under the DSOA agreement, the Company is required to distrib! ute as pu! rses for races conducted at its facilities a percentage of its retained share of pari-mutuel revenues.

The Company competes with Harrington Raceway and Delaware Park.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Paul Ausick]

  Stocks on the move: Vodafone Group PLC (NASDAQ: VOD) is up 8.1% at $31.80 on reports of discussions with Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE: VZ) that would result in the sale of Vodafone�� 45% stake in Verizon Wireless to the controlling shareholder. Dover Downs Gaming & Entertainment Inc. (NYSE: DDE) is up 10.8% at $1.54 after Wednesday�� launch of its online casino games that will soon be available to state residents to play for real money.

• [By Paul Ausick]

  The REIT is expected to spend as much as $500 million in acquisitions in 2014, according to Barron��, and some potential acquisition targets include Isle of Capri Casinos Inc. (NASDAQ: ISLE) which has a market cap of around $323 million or Dover Downs Gaming & Entertainment Inc. (NYSE: DDE) with a market cap of around $47 million.

5 Best Consumer Service Stocks For 2014: Destiny Media Technologies Inc (DSNY)

Destiny Media Technologies, Inc. (Destiny), incorporated on August 24, 1998, develops and markets services that enable the secure distribution of digital media content over the Internet. Destiny services are based around security, watermarking and playerless streaming media technologies. The Company carries out its business operations through its wholly owned subsidiary, Destiny Software Productions Inc., MPE Distribution, Inc. and Sonox Digital Inc. The Company�� products include Clipstream Legacy, Clipstream Next Generation, Clipstream Cloud and Play MPE. MPE enables content to be owned the way a recipient might own a digital versatile disc (DVD) or compact disc (CD's). Clipstream enables content to be securely streamed for temporary viewing or listening, similar to television or radio. Clipstream recipients don�� need a player and sites don�� need a streaming server.

Clipstream Legacy

Clipstream powered videos are integrated into video questionnaires for use in market research surveys.

Videos can be secured to play only from authorized uniform resource locator�� and they actively block screenscraping programs that might try to download the video locally. In addition, videos are watermarked, so the source of unauthorized content can be identified.

Clipstream Next Generation

The introduction of new browsers supporting hypertext markup language 5 has created an opportunity where video can be decompressed and rendered directly by the browser. Streaming video encoded in this format can be hosted from any brand of Web server and it plays directly across desktops, laptops, smart phones, tablets, e-book readers, Internet enabled television�� and other devices, including future devices still under development.

Clipstream Cloud

The cloud is managed by servers at one or more Destiny controlled facilities. The actual location where the content is stored and hosted is open ended. The Company is partnered with Amazon's! cloud services to provide hosting services, but some or all of the content can be moved in the future to other providers, including Destiny's own facilities. The business model is usage based. Users purchase a monthly package through an automated credit card sale, which limits the amount of transfer they are allowed in a month.

Play MPE

Play MPE is a digital delivery service for securely moving broadcast quality audio, video, images, promotional information and other digital content securely through the Internet. The system is used by the recording industry for transferring pre-release broadcast quality music, radio shows, and music videos to trusted recipients such as radio stations, media reviewers, very important person (VIP's),, disc jockey��(DJ's), film and telivision personnel, sports stadiums and retailers. The system replaces the physical distribution (mail, courier or hand delivery) of Compact discs.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Tom Bemis]

  Few major companies are reporting after Monday�� bell. Results are expected from Destiny Media Technologies (DSNY) �, Stanley Furniture Co. (STLY) � and Peregrine Pharmaceuticals. (PPHM) �.