5 Best Specialty Retail Stocks To Buy For 2014

This series, brought to you by Yahoo! Finance, looks at which upgrades and downgrades make sense, and which ones investors should act on. Today, our headlines include new buy ratings for a pair of specialty retailers, Coach (NYSE: COH  ) and Aeropostale (NYSE: ARO  ) . Meanwhile in mining, Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE: FCX  ) suffers a downgrade. Let's dive right in, beginning with why...

Coach is fashionable again
The day dawned bright for Coach investors Wednesday, as analysts at CLSA upped their rating to "buy" in response to a strong earnings report featuring 7% first-quarter sales growth and a 10% bump in earnings per share.

In each case, these numbers beat estimates, and analysts were particularly enthused over Coach's 40% jump in sales in China. But does all this mean that you should now follow their advice, and rush out and buy yourself some Coach shares?

5 Best Specialty Retail Stocks To Buy For 2014: Schawk Inc.(SGK)

Schawk, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, provides graphic services and solutions in the Americas, Europe, and the Asia Pacific. The company?s graphic services encompasses a range of creative and executional service offerings, including traditional premedia business services, as well as digital photography, color retouching, large format digital printing, and sales and promotional samples under the Schawk brand name; and digital three-dimensional modeling of prototypes or existing packages for its consumer products clients. Its brand and package strategy and design services include brand consulting and creative design for packaging applications to consumer products companies, food and beverage retailers, and mass merchandisers under the Brandimage and Anthem brands. The company also offers digital promotion and advertising services to the digital communications markets under the Untitled and Real Branding brand names. In addition, it provides software products, such a s graphic lifecycle content management systems comprising digital asset management, workflow management, online proofing, and intelligence performance management modules; and support services, which include implementation, on-site management, validation for regulated environments, and support and training for the marketing services departments of consumer products, pharmaceutical/life sciences, and retail companies. The company serves direct purchasers of graphic services, including end-use consumer product manufacturers of food, beverage, non-food and beverage, and pharmaceutical products; groceries, pharmacies, department, and mass merchant retailers; converters; and advertising agencies. Schawk, Inc. was founded in 1953 and is headquartered in Des Plaines, Illinois.

5 Best Specialty Retail Stocks To Buy For 2014: Ocean Wilson Hdg(OCN.L)

Ocean Wilsons Holdings Limited, through its subsidiaries, provides maritime and logistics services in Brazil. The company offers maritime services, which include harbor and ocean towage, container terminal operation, offshore support, logistics, small vessel construction, and ship agency services. It operates port terminals, which offer assistance in port operations for loading and unloading of vessels, storage, and auxiliary services, as well as provides platform supply vessels to transport equipment and supplies to and from offshore oil and gas installations. The company also provides harbor and ocean towage, salvage support, and maritime support to the offshore oil and gas industry, as well as various logistics services, such as storage, customs storage, distribution, highway transportation, multimodal transportation, and non vessel operating common carrier services. In addition, it operates a ship agency that provides commercial representation, cargo documentation, con tainer control, and vessel support services for ship owners; and holds a portfolio of international investments. The company has operations in Bermuda, Brazil, and the United Kingdom. Ocean Wilsons Holdings Limited is based in Hamilton, Bermuda.

Top 10 Services Companies For 2014: LRAD Corporation(LRAD)

LRAD Corporation engages in the design, development, and commercialization of directed sound technologies and products in North America, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia. The company develops and delivers directed acoustic products that beam, focus, and control sound over short and long distances. It offers Long Range Acoustic Device, which creates directed acoustic beam to communicate at operational ranges in high ambient noise environments, primarily for military applications. The company also provides SoundSaber thin film magnetic speaker technology that provides high clarity throughout the audio range for emergency and mass notification, public address, and other sound applications. Its SoundSaber hardened panels are used in acoustic environments, such as hangar bays, industrial buildings, airports, and other facilities. LRAD Corporation sells its products directly to government, military, large end-users, and defense-related companies. The company was formerly known as American Technology Corporation and changed its name to LRAD Corporation in March 2010. LRAD Corporation was founded in 1980 and is based in San Diego, California.

5 Best Specialty Retail Stocks To Buy For 2014: Ashburton Ventures Inc (ABR.V)

Ashburton Ventures Inc., a junior exploration company, engages in the acquisition, exploration, and development of mineral properties. The company holds various mineral properties prospective for gold, lithium, and silver ores in North America. It principal property includes the Deep Creek property, which consists of approximately 2,000 acres of claims located in Nevada. The company was incorporated in 2006 and is based in Vancouver, Canada.

5 Best Specialty Retail Stocks To Buy For 2014: Sify Technologies Limited(SIFY)

Sify Technologies Limited provides enterprise and consumer Internet services primarily in India. The company offers various corporate network/data services comprising e-commerce and network connectivity solutions, such as end-to-end services network, application, and security services; voice origination and termination services; co-location and managed hosting services; and system integration services for data centre build, hardware distribution, security solutions, and turnkey projects. It also provides application services, including SLEMS and Microsoft Exchange messaging platforms; I-test for online assessment and LiveWire, which enable management of training processes across the organization; document management system for the management of documents electronically; and Forum, a forward supply chain solution. In addition, the company operates e-Ports that offer browsing, chat, email, gaming, utility bill payment, travel ticketing, hotel booking, mobile recharge, Intern et telephony, and online share trading services; and portals, which provide news, views, reviews, interactions, and services in the areas of movies, sports, finance, food, videos, astrology, online games, shopping, and travel, as well as offers content offerings and broadband services. Further, it provides infrastructure management services, such as network management, datacenter and helpdesk outsourcing, desktop and storage outsourcing, IT security outsourcing, LAN and WAN outsourcing, database and telecom outsourcing, and application monitoring and management services to automotive, chemical, media, and financial enterprises; and virtualization design, integration, and deployment services for servers, storage, networks, and end user clients. Sify has approximately 1,278 e-Ports in 200 towns and cities; and serves 1,06,000 broadband subscribers through 1500 cable TV Operators. The company, formerly known as Sify Limited, was founded in 1995 and is based in Chennai, India. Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Wyatt Research Staff]

  Shares of SIFY skyrocketed last week after the company announced a new partnership with Saudi telecom. SIFY will provide ICT services to the Middle East's largest telecom carrier.

  Shares of the Indian-based internet and network services have doubled over the past four months.