10 Best Warren Buffett Stocks To Buy For 2014

What's the source of your investment strategy? Many look to great investors like Warren Buffett for guidance on how to invest. Some take what we at the Fool call a "motley approach" and try a little bit of everything. Others really don't have an investment strategy at all. They just throw their money at whatever looks good at the time.

Here's another angle: Learn from successful companies. In other words, see what made a given company do well in the market and find others that exhibit similar attributes. There are plenty of companies to choose from, but let's see how this approach plays out with an example from the biotech world:�Vertex Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: VRTX  ) . Here are three investment strategy lessons from Vertex's success.

1. Understand the market opportunity.
Even the best-run company in the world won't produce stellar returns if it operates in a sector with lackluster sales potential.�Before buying a stock, make sure you understand the market opportunity. Look at the realistic potential for sales and the strength of competitors. If all looks good, the stock can advance to your next stage of analysis.

10 Best Warren Buffett Stocks To Buy For 2014: Tuesday Morning Corp.(TUES)

Tuesday Morning Corporation engages in the retail sale of decorative home accessories, housewares, and gifts in the United States. The company?s merchandise primarily consists of lamps, rugs, furniture, kitchen accessories, small electronics, gourmet housewares, linens, luggage, bedroom and bathroom accessories, toys, stationary, and silk plants, as well as crystal, collectibles, and silver serving pieces. It also offers apparel and accessories. In addition, the company provides brand name merchandise, including cookware, appliances, linens, bath towels, luggage, flatware, tabletop, crystal, collectibles, dolls, china and giftware, and rugs. As of September 21, 2011, it operated 861 discount retail stores in 43 states. The company was founded in 1974 and is headquartered in Dallas, Texas.

10 Best Warren Buffett Stocks To Buy For 2014: Bastogi(BTGI.MI)

Bastogi S.p.A., an investment holding company, engages in the provision of art, education, and training services; and the operation of hotels in Italy. The company offers integrated services for the management, enhancement, and conservation of the public and private artistic heritage. Its art services comprise art consulting, conservation and restoration, vaults, and art transportation. The company primarily serves Italian banking groups, foundations, museums, and individuals. In addition, the company, through The New Fine Arts Academy, offers an education program structured into three-year courses in visual arts, graphic design, fashion, media design, and set design; two-year programs and master's degrees; evening liberal-arts courses; and summer and semester-long courses in English. Further, it operates a four-star Italian hotel chain primarily serving the business segment. Bastogi operates its hotels in Pisa-Pontedera, Caserta, and Naples. The company was founded in 186 2 and is based in Milan, Italy. Bastogi S.p.A. is a subsidiary of Raggio di Luna S.p.A. As of June 26, 2007, Bastogi S.p.A. operates as a subsidiary of Raggio di Luna SpA.

10 Best Value Stocks For 2014: Aberdeen Asset(ADN.L)

Aberdeen Asset Management PLC is a publicly owned asset management holding company. The firm provides its services to governments, national pension schemes, listed investment companies, foundations and charities, private banks, and discretionary fund managers, and retail clients. The firm through its subsidiaries manages separate client focused equity, fixed income, and balanced portfolios along with pooled investment vehicles. It also manages mutual funds for its clients. The firm invests in the public equity and fixed income markets across the globe. It also invests in currency and property markets across the globe. The firm employs fundamental analysis with a bottom-up stock picking approach to create its equity portfolio. It conducts in-house research to make its investments. Aberdeen Asset Management PLC was founded in 1983 and is based in Aberdeen, United Kingdom with additional office in Greater London, United Kingdom.

10 Best Warren Buffett Stocks To Buy For 2014: Sol Spa(SOL.MI)

Sol S.p.A. engages in the production, applied research, and distribution of industrial, pure, and medicinal gases in door-to-door medical care, and for related medical equipment primarily in Italy, and other western and central-eastern European countries, as well as in India. The company produces, markets, and distributes oxygen, nitrogen, argon, hydrogen, carbon dioxide, acetylene, nitrous oxide, helium, gas mixtures, refrigerating gases, medicinal gases, special gases, and high purity gases. It offers its products and services in the areas of healthcare, energy and industry, food and agriculture, ecology and environment, scientific research, and carbon dioxide blasting. The company also engages in research, design, construction, and operation of on-site production plants at its clients' plants. In addition, it supplies medical products, including oxygen; and materials and equipment for home-care therapy. The company offers various medical services, such as home-based res piratory care equipment for oxygen therapy, ventilation therapy, and artificial nutrition. Further, it markets and distributes a range of equipments, machines, and materials for welding, metal cutting, and electric arch cutting systems under the brand names of Sol Welding, Join, and e-robot. Sol S.p.A. was founded in 1927 and is based in Monza, Italy.

10 Best Warren Buffett Stocks To Buy For 2014: Western Copper Corp (WRN.TO)

Western Copper and Gold Corporation, an exploration stage company, engages in the exploration and development of mineral properties in Canada. It holds a 100% in the Casino property located northwest of Whitehorse in Yukon, Canada. The Casino property holds porphyry gold, copper, and molybdenum resources. The company was formerly known as Western Copper Corporation and changed its name to Western Copper and Gold Corporation in October 2011. Western Copper and Gold Corporation was founded in 2006 and is headquartered in Vancouver, Canada.

10 Best Warren Buffett Stocks To Buy For 2014: Plato Gold Corp (PGC.V)

Plato Gold Corp., a junior exploration company, engages in exploring and developing gold mineral properties in Canada and Argentina. The company holds interests in the Timmins Gold Project, which comprises Guibord, Harker, Holloway, and Marriott properties covering an area of 2,473 hectares located to the east of Timmins in northern Ontario; and the Val d�Or Project consisting of Nordeau Bateman, Vauquelin, Vauquelin Pershing, Vauquelin Horseshoe, Pershing Denain, Hop O�My Thumb, and Vauquelin II properties comprising 266 claims in the area representing 5,430 hectares situated in northern Quebec in Canada. It also holds interest in the Lolita Project consisting of 3 adjoining concessions covering an area of 29,904 hectares in Santa Cruz, Southern Argentina. The company is based in Toronto, Canada.

10 Best Warren Buffett Stocks To Buy For 2014: Zoltek Companies Inc (ZOLT)

Zoltek Companies, Inc. is a holding company, which operates through wholly owned subsidiaries, Zoltek Corporation, Zoltek Zrt., Zoltek de Mexico SA de CV, Zoltek de Occidente SA de CV, Engineering Technology Corporation (Entec Composite Machines), Zoltek Properties, Inc., and Zoltek Automotive, LLC. Zoltek Corporation (Zoltek) develops, manufactures and markets carbon fibers and technical fibers in the United States. The Company is an applied technology and advanced materials company. It commercialization of carbon fiber through composites used in a range of commercial products, which it sells under the Panex trade name. In addition to manufacturing carbon fiber, it produces an intermediate product, a stabilized and oxidized acrylic fiber used in flame- and heat-resistant applications, which it sells under the Pyron trade name. During fiscal year ended September 30, 2011 (fiscal 2011), its net sales to Vestas Wind Systems, a wind turbine manufacturer represented % of its net sales. In October 2011, Zoltek purchased a building in St. Peters, Missouri to house its prepreg operations.

Zoltek Zrt. is a Hungarian subsidiary that manufactures and markets carbon fibers and technical fibers and manufactures acrylic fiber precursor raw material used in production of carbon fibers and technical fibers. Zoltek de Mexico SA de CV and Zoltek de Occidente SA de CV are Mexican subsidiaries that manufacture carbon fiber and precursor raw material. Entec Composite Machines manufactures and markets filament winding and pultrusion equipment used in the production composite parts. The Company�� sales markets are in Europe and the United States. The Company has manufacturing plants in Nyergesujfalu, Hungary, Guadalajara, Mexico, Abilene, Texas and St. Charles, Missouri. Its Texas plant houses carbon fiber manufacturing lines and value-added processing capabilities. Its Missouri plant is engaged in the production of technical fibers for aircraft brake and other friction applications and also produces limited! amounts of carbon fibers. In addition, it has facilities in Salt Lake City, Utah where it designs and builds composite manufacturing equipment and produce resin pre-impregnated carbon fibers, called prepregs. It performs certain downstream processing, such as weaving, knitting, blending with other fibers, chopping and milling and preparation of pre-form, pre-cut stacks of fabric. In addition, its Salt Lake City-based Entec Composite Machines subsidiary designs and builds composite manufacturing equipment and markets the equipment along with manufacturing technology and materials. It also provides composite design and engineering for development of applications for carbon fiber reinforced composites.

The Company competes with Hexcel Corporation, Cytec Industries, Toray Group, Toho Tenax, Mitsubishi Chemical and SGL Carbon.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Tom Konrad]

  Zoltek is a leading manufacturer of carbon fiber, which are used for a wide variety of applications requiring high strength to weight ratios.  Consumers may be familiar with carbon fiber tennis rackets and racing bicycles, but carbon fiber is also used to manufacture wind turbine blades (Zolek's largest source of revenue) and to replace heavier steel and aluminum in transportation applications such as Boeing's Dreamliner 787, performance cars and electric vehicles.  I think it's likely that automakers pursuit of fuel efficiency standards will lead to more carbon fiber being used in more mass market vehicles to reduce weight and lead to improved fuel economy without sacrificing safety.
  
  The company never recovered from its fall in 2008-9, but company insiders, including its CEO have been buying ZOLT shares since it fell to the $10 range last year, and the company's fundamentals have been improving even as the stock traded basically flat for the last 3 years.  Having lost money in 2010 and 2011, Zoltek made a profit of $0.66 per share on record sales in its Fiscal 2012, which ended on September 30th.  Analysts expect $0.52 per share earnings in 2013, for a forward P/E of 14.  The company has a strong balance sheet with no net debt and several unused lines of credit at favorable interest rates, and the company has several opportunities to achieve high growth as carbon fiber usage expands in its existing markets and breaks into new markets.
  
  One misgiving I've long had about Zoltek is the centralization of power in the hands of its Founder, Chairman, President, and CEO Zsolt Rumy. This concern is ameliorated by his recent stock purchases.  These, along with the historically low valuation, led me to add Zoltek to my annual clean energy stock list for the first time.

10 Best Warren Buffett Stocks To Buy For 2014: Canadian/Yen (HY)

Hyster-Yale Materials Handling, Inc. and its subsidiaries engage in the design, engineering, manufacture, sale, and service of a line of lift trucks and aftermarket parts worldwide. It offers components, such as frames, masts, and transmissions; and assembles lift trucks. The company markets its products primarily under the Hyster and Yale brand names to independent Hyster and Yale retail dealerships. It also sells aftermarket parts under the UNISOURCE, MULTIQUIP, and PREMIER brands to Hyster and Yale dealers for the service of competitor lift trucks. The company was incorporated in 1991 and is headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio.

10 Best Warren Buffett Stocks To Buy For 2014: Stevia Corp(STEV.OB)

Stevia Corp., a farm management company, provides various agricultural consulting and solutions to contract growers and other industry growers. It develops Stevia, a zero calorie sweetener used in approximately 6,000 products, including beverages, foods, and medicines. The company also offers farm management services, including research and development, plant breeding, agricultural methodologies, and post-harvest techniques. It has two grower supply contracts and three nursery fields in Vietnam. Stevia Corp. offers its stevia products across 35 countries and 38 categories. The company was formerly known as Interpro Management Corp. and changed its name to Stevia Corp. in March 2011. Stevia Corp. was founded in 2007 and is based in Indianapolis, Indiana.

10 Best Warren Buffett Stocks To Buy For 2014: Mitchells & Butlers(MAB.L)

Mitchells & Butlers plc operates pub restaurants and managed pubs. It primarily operates drink- and food-led sites. The company?s restaurants and pubs brands include the Crown Carveries, Ember Inns, Harvester, Metro Professionals, Miller & Carter, Premium Country Dining Group, Scream, Sizzling Pubs, Toby Carvery, Vintage Inns, All Bar One, Browns, Nicholson?s, O?Neill?s, Alex, Village Pub & Kitchen, and Innkeeper's Lodge. As at September 25, 2010, it operated 1,909 sites, including 86 leased and franchised sites in the United Kingdom, and 43 pub restaurants in Germany. In addition, the company manages and operates its freehold and long leasehold property portfolio. Mitchells & Butlers plc was founded in 1898 and is based in Birmingham, the United Kingdom.