Tuesday, November 24, 2009

Pharma has the cure

On Financial Tides I'm adding the Pharma Spider XPH to my VMSLO portfolio. This ETF is being bought for technical reasons only.

On BarChart XPH has hit 14 new highs in 20 trading sessions and has hit 4 new highs in the last 4 days. It is right at its 260 day high. BarChart's technical indicators have 12 of 13 buy ratings with one hold for a 96% Buy rating. There has been a 12.93% price appreciation in the last 65 days.

Recommendation: Buy XPH around 37 with a stop loss no higher that 35.

Jim Van Meerten is an investor who writes on financial matters here and on Financial Tides. Please leave a comment below or email FinancialTides@gmail.com

Disclosure: I hold no positions in XPH at time of publication

Model portfolio deletions

The following stocks have been dropped from Model Portfolios for trading under their 50 DMA and lack of positive price appreciation:

VMFIV -- Marketocracy S&P 500 fund -- OI -- Owens Ill

VMFOR -- Marketocracy S&P 400 fund -- PL -- Protective Life

VMETF -- Marketocracy ETF Portfolio -- TUR -- Turkey ETF

VMSLO -- Marketocracy new High tradin less than 100K shares
  • EBIX -- EBIX Inc
  • CASH -- Meta Financial Group
  • HRP -- HRPT Properties

Wall Street Survivor -- SWIR Sierra Wireless

Monday, November 23, 2009

Fertilizers makes Agrium grow

On Financial Tides I feel it's important to have a portfolio of stocks that continue to hit new highs to keep your portfolio growing. Agrium -- AGU is just such a stock. Agrium Inc is a leading global producer and marketer of fertilizer and a major retail supplier of agricultural products and services in both North America and Argentina. They produce and market four primary groups of fertilizers: nitrogen, phosphate, potash and sulphur. Their strategy is to grow through incremental expansion of their existing operations and acquisitions as well as the development, commercialization and marketing of new products and international opportunities.

The buzz is on this stock with positive press almost every day. The analysts consensus is a 9.3% sales growth for next year and an unheard of 94% earnings per share growth projection. There are now 6 buy recommendations out there.

The stock came to my attention when a BarChart screening for stocks hitting new highs showed AGU has hit 13 new highs in the last 20 trading sessions and has hit 5 out of 5 recently. A new high was set today and at this time it's only 1.11% off that 260 day new high. Price appreciation in the last 65 days has been a respectable 19.54%. BarChart's technical indicators have 12 buy signals out of 13 for a 96% buy rating.

On other sites Wall Street Survivor Mark's checklist has a Survivor Sentiment rating of 5/5 and a fundamental rating of 4/5. On Motey Fool the CAPS members think it will out perform the market with a vote of 1651 to 40 with the All Star members giving it a 417 to 9 vote. The Wall Street consensus vote is 7 to 1.

This stock has the analysts giving positive buy ratings, a BarChart buy rating of 96% and positive confirmation from other opinion polls.

If you buy around 58 put in a protective stop loss of not less than 53.

Jim Van Meerten is an investor who writes on financial matters here and on Financial Tides. Please leave a comment below or email FinancialTides@gmail.com

Disclosure: I hold no positions in AGU at the time of publication.

Healthy HMOs

Last month the sector that had the best overall price appreciation was the Medical - HMO sector with an average price increase of 38% for the month. A very good return considering the market as measured by the S&P 500 was up only about 1.15%. The member of the sector with the highest BarChart rating was Health Net (HNT) with an 96% buy rating.

What I found interesting about the sector was that although the sector as a whole had a great price appreciation HNT was the only standout in BarCharts technical indicators.

There are 6 analysts closely following this stock and 5 have upped their earning per share estimate in the last 30 days.

My personal view is that the investing public is like a deer in the headlights about the whole health care industry. Many are worried that Obama administration programs will take the profits from this industry and make anything related to health care either government price controlled or even worse nonprofit.

I think those fears are unfounded. Even in countries that we consider to have socialized medicine there is a great need for private health care insurance and private hospitals. Those with large disposable incomes will always get great health care, housing and education for their families.

Back to BarCharts rating of HNT. The stock has 12 out of 13 technical indicators signaling buy with just one hold. The stock has hit 9 new highs in the last 20 trading sessions and is just 1.28% off its 260 day high just hit recently on 11/18/2009.

As always I like to see what other sites rate the stock and over on Wall Street Survivor Mark's checklist has a 5/5 Survivor Sentiment with 4/5 on the fundamentals and 5/5 on his technical rating. Motley Fool CAPS members vote 102 to 24 that the stock will out perform the market and their All Star members vote 49 to 9 on out performance also.

I like the stock but can't add it to my portfolio because I'm fully invested at this time and can't see selling something just because I may have found something better. If you have some money to invest this might be a good play for your health care position.

Jim Van Meerten is an investor who writes about financial matters here and on Financial Tides. Please leave a comment below or email FinancialTides@gmail.com

Disclosure: I do not hold a position in HNT at the time of publication.