10 Stock Picks For The Week

Thanks Kiplinger....

5 year historical sales growth greater than 12%
Beta of .9
5 year ROI greater 15%
Dividend greater than 4%

• BTE (sales growth 29%, Beta 1.4, ROI 15.9%, 6.86% Dividend) - Baytex Energy Trust
• DHIL (sales growth 52%, Beta 1.47, ROI 32.3%, 15.16% Dividend) - Diamond Hill Invest
• ECOL (sales growth 18%, Beta 1.15, ROI 21.3%, 5.09% Dividend) - US Ecology
• GRMN (sales growth 34%, Beta 1.52, ROI 32.3%, 4.47% Dividend) - Garmin
• LPHI (sales growth 50.6%, Beta 0.99, ROI 64.8%, 4.95% Dividend) - Life Partners
• MAIL (sales growth 36.3%, Beta 1.38, ROI 16.3%, 8.35% Dividend) - Incredimail
• TATT (sales growth 18.57%, Beta 1.17, ROI 15.12%, 4.08% Dividend) - TAT Technologies
• TEO (sales growth 15.81%, Beta 1.16, ROI 358%, 5.3% Dividend) - Telecom Argentina
• UNTD (sales growth 15.68%, Beta 1.64, ROI 16.14%, 5.87% Dividend) -United Online
• UVE (sales growth 78.24%, Beta 3.56, ROI 47.75%, 10.15% Dividend) - Universal Insurance

5 Stocks To Buy

Using my favorite Kiplinger stock finder, here's 5 stocks with a dividend greater than 2%, earnings growth for the past 5 years, and a 3 year annualized return more than 10%.

BKE (Buckle) http://www.buckle.com/

• 2.5% dividend , 6 years of growth, 28% 3 year return
• Nebraska based company owns 387 accessories stores

FFIN(First Financial Bankshares) http://www.ffin.com/

• 2.8% dividend, 15 years of growth, 12% 3 year return
• Operates 48 financial centers in Texas

FLO (Flowers Food) http://www.flowersfoods.com/

• 2.7% dividend, 8 years of growth, 16% 3 year return
• GA company with 8800 employees specializing in production and marketing of bakery products

VIVO (Meridian Biosciences Inc.) http://www.meridianbioscience.com/

• 2.7% dividend, 7 years of growth, 19% 3 year return
• Develop, manufacture, and sell testing kits for diseases

PETS (Petmed Express) http://www.1888petmeds.com/

• 2.2% dividend, 8 years of growth, 20% 3 year return
• 13 year old company out of company selling drugs for dogs and cats

A123 Systems to IPO Next Week

For those of you reading this you probably have no idea who in the world A123 systems is. A123 is a lithium-ion battery producer based out of Massachusetts. They've been making batteries for 8 years and already employ 1100 people. The reason why the company picked my interest is that they are a huge player in green cars. They make batteries for Aptera and Tesla Motors. After a quarter billion dollar grant from Barack, $160 in capital funding, A123 is out for more cash when they IPO next week.
Usually one would shy away from a company that has never produced a profit and has been cash flow negative for years. Their capital expenditures are huge and will continue to be in the future. I think the stock will do pretty well at IPO and down the road as their are very few true green pureplays are out there. I could see this being a story stock for brokers. I can see the call now. "I know you've been trying to diversify your portfolio and get into greentech. So there's this company out there right now who makes batteries called A123. They have deals with Gillette, GM, BMW, Delphi and are working on parts for the smart grid. Is that something that might interest you?"
The answer will be yes there more times than not even thought the company lost 17, 19, and 56 million over the last 3 years. Keep an eye on this one next week. I know I will be.

Interesting Ways To Play The Recession

I know I said I'd pick stocks out today, but I'll grab a few extras next week instead. The best way to get instantly rich in the market is playing the IPO game, but how many times have you sat down to buy a company that you read or heard about only to find that a stock is private? For those wealthier people you can make a few calls thru your broker and buy-in sometimes but for average Joes like myself we are shut out of the pre-IPO stocks. Sharespost has come out recently giving you the opportunity to buy shares of privately held companies such as Facebook, Tesla, Twitter, eHarmony, and more. I recommend you check out the link to see if this investment strategy is right for you. Tread lightly as the are few shares out there so the demand is inherently higher and that big what if of going bankrupt is there to as you have no idea what the companies books look like because they aren't publicly traded.

Another to do well in this recession is to play inverses. I know I know it's betting against the market and the stimulus plan. Two companies are legally doing this are based locally here in Maryland: Rydex SGI and ProShares. Each company sells mutual funds that run counter to the market. In a recession it's a different way to view the market. It's just as hard to bet a company to drop in price as it is to go up. Both companies have been around for a few years so you won't get caught up in any legality issues. Happy Trading!

Twitter+Google = Your New Stock Broker?

I my downtime I stumbled upon a site called: StockTwits. Ths site is an aggregate site for Twitter. Anytime there is a tweet/post about stocks it grabs it. I really like the idea of an open area to discuss stocks. Good work by the founders of this company. Stock trading is one space that works well for Twitter because to you can "tweet" and trade in real time. On the flipside, I feel like it's an area that is open to fraud like those penny stock e-mails we've all received over the years. I am going to give it a try next week.

Alos, I found on Google Finance they have a domestic trends category which allows to you use their search data to see what stocks you'd like to play with by sector only. You can graph Google searches vs the stocks. You have to do your own work on this one though. I think Google is onto something here especially with Russell and pre-IPO stocks if they ever get that far. If I could track little companies most searched for in Google, I'd be a millionaire already. I'm suprised Google doesn't haven't their own hedge fund for this exact purpose. Information continues to be the most valuable commodity out there and Google is leading the new as the "information leader" of the the 21st century.

PS Stock picks coming tommorow too don't worry

Safe Stocks for the Long Haul

In the interest of full disclosure I'm not legally certified to be giving out stock advice, but it's the Internet, why not? I did work at UBS for a semester in school and have been playing the market for 13 years. I'm not sure what shape this posting will take each week but I'll focus on upcoming IPO's I know for sure and give out general investing advice. Today I picked a few for the long term.

The best stock search program on the net is Kiplinger's stock finder program. It allows you to search up to 10 criteria including PE ratio, rolling earnings, dividends, and so much more for every stock out there. If you have the time to "play" on it you probably don't have much use for a broker except to let you know about newer companies. Today, I punched into Kiplinger looking for the following criteria:

Dividend greater than 3%
5 year annualized return more than 10%
Consecutive years of earnings growth greater than 5

and I found a whopping 3 companies

Chevron (CVX) - 4% dividend, 11% annual return, and 6 years of earnings growth
oil baby its a neverending cash cow and with that dividend it'll pay you to keep it that way

Darden Restaurants (DRI) - 3.1% dividend, 12% annual return and 12 years of earnings growth
Red Lobster, Oliver Garden, Longhorn Steakhouse and more plus they support UCF

NSTAR (NST) - 4.7% dividend, 10% annual return and 7 years of earnings growth
MA based energy company that you've probably never heard of, good work Sox fans