Each year, Steven Halpern, editor of TheStockAdvisors.com, surveys the leading financial newsletter advisors asking for their favorite stocks for the coming year. This article is part of his 24th annual Top Stocks Report.

Ares Capital (NASDAQ: ARCC) is the favorite speculative stock for 2007 from income specialist Carla Pasternak. The editor of High Yield Investing says, "Ares is a business development company that invests in private or thinly traded companies.

"Known as BDCs, these companies either buy an equity interest in promising firms, or they provide them with loans at above-average rates. Since going public in October 2004, Ares has built a $900 million portfolio of debt and equity securities, with a take in about 50 privately owned businesses.

"Ares is one of the fastest dividend growers I have seen. It has raised its dividend every single quarter for the past year, and its quarterly payouts have increased 33% in just two short years since the company paid its first dividend.

"If you annualize Ares' latest declared quarterly dividend of $0.40 per share, that brings the security's payout to $1.60 per share ($0.40 x 4 payments), giving the stock a forward yield of 8.3%. However, if you add in the $0.10 special dividend paid at the end of 2006, ARCC yields 8.8%.

Each year Steven Halpern, editor of TheStockAdvisors.com, surveys the leading financial newsletter advisors asking for their favorite stocks for the coming year. This article is part of his 24th annual Top Picks Report.

Gladstone Investment Corp. (NASDAQ: GAIN) is the top conservative investment idea from Adrian Day, editor of The Global Analyst. He explains, "An attractive vehicle for investors seeking above-average yield is the so-called Business Development Company.

"These are companies that lend money to small and middle-market companies, often receiving equity participation in addition to the interest on the loans. Because they do not pay tax at the corporate level, but pay out essentially all their net income to investors, yields tend to be high, and we've been successful with several previous recommendations, including Allied Capital and American Capital.

"One of the newest and most conservative is Gladstone Investment. Run by David Gladstone, who has had a multi-decade career in this industry, GAIN has been relatively cautious in investing its funds since going public in the middle of 2005. This is because of a sense that the market is overheated with either low returns or risky loans.