5 Best Penny Stocks To Buy Right Now

From the way the stock of DryShips (NASDAQ: DRYS  ) is trading lately, you might think all of its ships have hit an iceberg. With the stock falling further and further to new 52-week lows, it may be tempting to try to pick a bottom and ride it back up. However, as cheap as DryShips may look now, here are three reasons it may get even cheaper.

Reason 1: Blame the bigger guy
I've said it or at least implied it before, and I'll do it again: DryShips stock is going nowhere unless its wholly owned and public subsidiary Ocean Rig UDW (NASDAQ: ORIG  ) cooperates. Since DryShips owns 78.3 million shares of Ocean Rig, every penny that Ocean Rig's stock goes down lowers the fundamental value of DryShips materially.

With Ocean Rig itself drifting down to new 52-week lows, it's only hurting that asset value and the perception of value that is DryShips stock. All other things being equal, if Ocean Rig continues to plunge, it will inevitably take DryShips stock down with it.

Top 5 Quality Companies To Own For 2015: Synergetics USA Inc.(SURG)

Synergetics USA, Inc., a medical device company, engages in the design, manufacture, and marketing of microsurgical instruments and consumables primarily for ophthalmology and neurosurgery markets in the United States and internationally. The company?s product lines focus upon precision engineered, microsurgical, handheld devices, and the microscopic delivery of laser energy, ultrasound, electrosurgery, aspiration, illumination and irrigation that are delivered in multiple combinations. It offers retinal surgical items, including handheld disposable and reusable forceps and scissors, fiberoptics for illumination and photocoagulation, cannulas, scrapers, and other reusable and disposable surgical devices. The company also provides bipolar electrosurgical generators; lesion generators used for minimally invasive pain treatment; and directional laser probes, as well as offers gauge instrumentation to the vitreoretinal surgical market. It sells its products through direct sale s employees, distributors, and independent sales representatives. The company was founded in 1991 and is headquartered in O?Fallon, Missouri.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Ben Levisohn]

  Synergetics USA (SURG) has dropped 4.8% to $4.75 after the medical device company said it earned 6 cents a share, in line with analyst forecasts.

  Team Inc.�(TISI) has dropped 11% after the company missed its earnings forecast and lowered guidance.

5 Best Penny Stocks To Buy Right Now: Prospect Capital Corporation(PSEC)

Prospect Capital Corporation is a mezzanine finance and private equity firm that specializes in late venture, middle market, mature, mezzanine, buyouts, recapitalizations, growth capital, development, and bridge transactions. It makes secured debt and equity investments. The firm typically invests across all industry sectors, with a particular expertise in the energy and industrial sectors. It invests in oil and gas production, coal production, materials, industrials, consumer discretionary, information technology, utilities, pipeline, storage, power generation and distribution, renewable and clean energy, oilfield services, healthcare, food and beverage, education, business services, and other select sectors. The firm prefers to invest in the United States and Canada. It seeks to invest between $5 million to $50 million in companies with EBITDA between $$ million and $75 million, sales value up to $500 million, and enterprise value of up to $250 million. The firm also co- invests for larger deals. It seeks control acquisitions by providing multiple levels of the capital structure. Prospect Capital Corporation was founded in 1988 and is based in New York, New York.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Grass Hopper]

  Examples of the first class of publicly ��raded private equity firms include Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. L.P. (KKR), The Blackstone Group L.P. (BX), and Oaktree Capital Group, LLC (OAK). Examples of the second class are Wendel SA (MF FP), Exor SpA (EXO IM) and, to some extent, Reinet Investments SCA (REI SJ). Examples of the third class are American Capital, Ltd. (ACAS), Main Street Capital, Gladstone Capital Corp. (MAIN), and Prospect Capital Corp. (PSEC).

• [By Amanda Alix]

  Similarly, Prospect Capital (NASDAQ: PSEC  ) recently announced�the next four months' worth of dividends, showcasing a yield of 12.7%. Further, management noted that its liabilities are locked in for the next 30 years, while its loans float with LIBOR, putting them in the catbird seat as far as rising interest rates are concerned.

• [By Charles Sizemore]

  A high dividend yield, large-scale buying by company insiders, and recent buying by funds controlled by Joel Greenblatt (Trades, Portfolio) and George Soros (Trades, Portfolio).Sound interesting? Then I suggest you take a look at shares of Prospect Capital Corporation (PSEC), a business development company (��DC�� traded on the Nasdaq.If you��e unfamiliar with BDCs, you can think of them as publically-traded private equity firms. BDCs provide financing to small and middle-market companies that are too early in their development to get funding from more traditional sources, such as the bond and equity markets. It�� a high-risk but potentially very high-return financing niche.Similar to REITs, BDCs pay no taxes at the company level on the condition that they distribute at least 90% of their income to their investors via dividends. This makes BDCs some of the highest-yielding investments on the market, but��s is the case with REITs and MLPs��heir inability to retain earnings for future growth also means that they regularly have to issue new shares, which dilutes current shareholders. That�� notnecessarily a bad thing if new investments are accretive to earnings. But it means that management has to be extremely disciplined.Let�� dig into the details of Prospect Capital. PSEC invests primarily in first-lien and second-lien senior loans and mezzanine debt and provides financing for leveraged buyouts, acquisitions, recapitalizations, and capital expenditures for growth. PSEC also invests in the higher-risk but potentially much higher-return equity tranches of collateralized loan obligations. Most of PSEC�� individual investments would have to be considered risky given the early stages of the companies involved, but the portfolio is diversified across a wide variety of industries.PSEC pays an absolutely massive dividend, sporting a current dividend yield of 13.7%. Now, normally, that would make me pause. An exceptionally high yield is often a major red

5 Best Penny Stocks To Buy Right Now: Cornerstone Progressive Return Fund(CFP)

Cornerstone Progressive Return Fund is a closed-ended equity fund of fund launched and managed by Cornerstone Advisors, Inc. The fund invests funds investing in the public equity markets of the United States. It invests in stocks of companies operating across diversified sectors. Cornerstone Progressive Return Fund was formed on April 26, 2007 and is domiciled in the United States.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Dan Caplinger]

  But you can see in several places the consequences of the stampede toward high yield. Here are just a few:

  Closed-end funds Cornerstone Progressive (NYSEMKT: CFP  ) and Pimco High Income (NYSE: PHK  ) both make fixed payments back to fund shareholders on a monthly basis, and their distribution yields are truly extraordinary, at about 17% and 12%, respectively. Those dividends have enticed shareholders to pay $1.30 to $1.40 or more for each $1 of assets in the funds. Yet during most months, a substantial portion of those distribution payments has simply been a return of investor capital rather than true income from the funds' investments. A recent study discussed in The Wall Street Journal found that returns on a portfolio with a combined value and dividend-income strategy outperformed a strategy focused more exclusively on maximizing dividends by an average of 1.7 percentage points per year, a huge edge in long-run returns. In the dividend ETF arena, most funds tend to focus on maximizing yield. Although the popular Vanguard Dividend Appreciation (NYSEMKT: VIG  ) ETF bucks the trend by screening first for consistent dividend growth and only then looking at yield as a factor, many rival ETFs start with high-yielding stocks as their baseline and only then consider other desirable traits. Others focus solely on high-dividend niches of the market, such as iShares FTSE NAREIT Mortgage-Plus (NYSEMKT: REM  ) and its concentration on high-yield mortgage REITs.

  When dividend stocks get too popular, their prices get out of line with both their dividend income and the fundamentals of the businesses that underlie those stocks. In simpler terms, when dividend stocks become bad values, it's time to consider looking elsewhere for a margin of safety.

5 Best Penny Stocks To Buy Right Now: Hawaiian Holdings Inc.(HA)

Hawaiian Holdings, Inc., through its subsidiary, Hawaiian Airlines, Inc., engages in the scheduled air transportation of passengers and cargo. It offers daily service on transpacific routes between Hawaii and Los Angeles, Oakland, Sacramento, San Diego, San Francisco, and San Jose, California; Las Vegas, Nevada; Phoenix, Arizona; Portland, Oregon; and Seattle, Washington, as well as daily service on its inter island routes among the four islands of the State of Hawaii. The company also provides scheduled service on its Pacific routes between Hawaii and Pago Pago, American Samoa; Papeete, Tahiti; Sydney, Australia; Manila, Philippines; Tokyo, Japan; and Seoul, South Korea, as well as other ad hoc charters. As of December 31, 2010, its fleet consisted of 15 Boeing 717-200 aircraft for its interisland routes; 18 Boeing 767-300; and 3 Airbus A330-200 aircrafts for its transpacific, Pacific, and charter routes. Hawaiian Holdings, Inc. was founded in 1929 and is headquartered in Honolulu, Hawaii.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Adam Levine-Weinberg]

  Right now, lots of investors are betting against Hawaiian Holdings (NASDAQ: HA  ) , the parent of Hawaiian Airlines. That might seem like bad news for bulls (like me), but the story's not quite that simple.

• [By Adam Levine-Weinberg]

  While most of the U.S. airline industry has been sailing along for the past two years, Hawaiian Holdings, (NASDAQ: HA  ) has hit some rough patches. Unit revenue declined in 2013 due to a combination of overcapacity on some routes, and unfavorable currency fluctuations.

• [By Adam Levine-Weinberg]

  Earlier this month, Allegiant announced a new route that marks a significant shift in the company's philosophy. Beginning in late October, Allegiant will serve the busy Los Angeles-Honolulu route twice a week. This route is already served by all three major network carriers, as well as Hawaiian Airlines (NASDAQ: HA  ) , with each carrier offering multiple daily flights. What is Allegiant up to? More importantly, will it work?

• [By Ben Levisohn]

  Last week Hawaiian Airlines (HA) announced they will suspend service from Honolulu to Fukuoka after two years of unprofitable service. Hawaiian stated the market was not profitable. Delta recently started flying Honolulu-Fukuoka (and they have hedged the Yen at 80); both US airlines were operating about half full. As a result of Hawaiian leaving the market, we expect Delta’s load factors to improve. Delta has been slowly overlaying a lot of competitor capacity on the West Coast, especially to / from Seattle…