Van Meerten's picks

I know there is a lot of caution in the commercial real estate market but as the population ages long-term care facilities should be a growth market. As always on Financial Tides I try to place my recommendations into one of my simulation portfolios for accountability of my recommendations. For that reason I'm adding Omega Health Care Investors - OHI - to my UpDown portfolio. The portfolio has an annual return on 120%.

Omega Healthcare Investors is a self-administered real estate investment trust which invests in income producing health care facilities, principally long--term care facilities, with the objective of profitable growth and further diversification of the investment portfolio. Investments are located primarily in the United States.

OHI came up on my BarChart screener when I was looking for companies trading over 100K shares a day that have hit new highs in over 50% of the last trading sessions. OHI has hit 14 new highs in the last 20 sessions and is 5 for 5 recently. There has been a 29.75% price appreciation in the last 65 days. Barchart's technical indicators have 12 out of 13 buy signals with only one sell for an 88% buy rating and the sell was a long term indicator and a review of the price chart leads me to believe that the sell signal will turn by the end of the week.

Recently analysts from UBS and JMP have upgraded this stock and they estimate a 7.3% increase in revenues and a 13.1% increase in earnings per share. This is what you'd expect from a quality REIT.

Other sites have positive ratings also. Over on Wall Street Survivor Mark's checklist has Survivor Sentiment at 5/5, Technicals at 5/5 and Motley Fool at 4/5. Further Motley Fool's members' rating by their out or under perform vote 179 to 9 to out perform with the All Stars rating it 48 to 1 to outperform the market.

This stock has 3 qualities I look for:

1 -- BarChart showing that the stock has hit new highs in at least 50% of the last 20 trading sessions
2 -- No negative news from the analyst -- we don't want the brokerage firms trashing the stock we just bought with sell calls to their customers
3 -- Confirmation from other reliable sites that their members are also positive on this stock

Recommendation: I'm buying Omega Healthcare Investors -- OHI -- for my UpDown portfolio around 18.50 with a protective stop loss of not less than 16.

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 do not own OHI at the time of publication

Comments: View Comments |  Wednesday November 18, 2009

To be accountable for the recommendations I make on Financial Tides I always place my recommendations into one of my simulated portfolios to see how the stocks actually perform. BDX is being added to my portfolio on UpDown.com. That particular portfolio has a 120% annual rate of return.

The health care industry goes through a lot of supplies and one of the biggest providers of supplies is Becton Dickinson -- BDX -- NYSE. BDX is engaged principally in the manufacture and sale of a broad line of supplies, devices and systems used by health care professionals, medical research institutions and the general public. BDX's operations consist of three worldwide business segments: Medical Systems, Biosciences, and Preanalytical Solutions.

Don't expect spectacular rates of return but most analyst feel it will out perform the market. There are 11 analyst following this stock and only 1 feels it will under perform the market.

I found the stock by screening on BarChart for stocks trading over 100K shares a day that have hit new highs in at least 50% of the last 20 trading sessions. BDX has hit 12 new highs in the last 20 sessions and is recently 5 for 5. There has been a steady 12.36% price appreciation in the last 65 days. BarChart's technical analysis indicators have 12 buy signals out of 13 indicators with only 1 hold for a 96% Buy rating.

Although I have found BarChart to be dependable I always look to see what other sites think. Over on Wall Street Survivor Mark's checklist has Survivor Sentiment 5/5, Fundamentals 4/5, Technical 5/5 and Motley Fool at 5/4 for a 93% rating.

Over on Motley Fool they have 3 out/under perform ratios with the following results: All Members 654/14, All-Star Members 225/12 and their Wall Street ratio 14/0.

This stock has 3 things I look for in any stock recommendation:

The stock is hitting new highs in at least 50% of the last 20 trading sessions and has at least an 80% buy rating on BarChart
Has news buzz created by analysts from Wall Street and brokerage firms and do not have major negative outlooks
Has confirmation of my choice from other sites -- If there is disagreement I always take a second look for why.
Recommendation: I'm buying Becton Dickinson BDX for my UpDown portfolio around 73.50 with a protective stop loss not less than 69.50.

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 do not hold any actual position in this stock at the time of publication.

Comments: View Comments |  Wednesday November 18, 2009

Financial Tides portfolio additions:

VMSLO is a model portfolio I have on Marketocracy. These are stocks that trade under 100K per day, have hit new highs in at least 50% of the last 20 trading sessions and have positive price action today and the last 5 days. BarChart is used as my screener and these stock have a buy signal of at least 80% on BarChart.

CATM -- Cardtronics
MSPD -- Mindspeed Technologies
NTRI -- NutriSystems
KVU -- Structured Products Trust
ACV -- Alberto-Culver
MGLN -- Magellan Health Service
This fund is a continuation of the fund I used to win the Strategy Lab Open sponsored by Investor Place Media and MSN Money Central.

Recently the 12 month return on this fund was 47.65%vs, the S&P 500's return of 28.43%; it beat the index by 19.22% . Since the fund's inception on 1/3/2008 the fund has returned 59.26% vs. the S&P 500 negative 17.11%; beating the index by 76.37%

The public page of this fund on Marketocracy is VMSLO.

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 position in any of these stocks at the time of publication

Comments: View Comments |  Tuesday November 17, 2009

On Financial Tides I will give you investing ideas. Occasionally, very occasionally a stock will come up on my screeners that I'd like to share with you for technical reasons alone. It may have spiked in volume, hit new highs consistently and is interesting for its speculative value.

If you are an investor or even a day trader stay away from anything that is under $5 and traded on the OTCBB. These stocks are not for you. They may lose their following, turn illiquid or have a tremendous price gyration for reasons that are beyond comprehension.

My highly speculative stocks are not stocks I'm promoting, just stocks I find interesting. I'll try to flag these stocks as highly speculative but if you are not a seasoned investor, willing to take a small flyer, please stay away from these.

CLHR -- Clear-Lite Holdings (OTCBB) trading recently at 1.34 and NXTH -- NXT Nutritionals Holdings (OTCBB) recently trading at 1.20 were 2 such stocks. They were covered because they had recent positive price appreciation, had hit new highs in at least 50% of the last 20 trading sessions, had volume of at least 100K per day and also had recent press coverage that made them visible.

They were not investments, they were fliers -- lotto tickets.

I'll give you the same advise the old Sarge gave on Hill Street Blue: "Be careful out there"

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 do not hold positions in CLRH or NXTH at the time of publication

Comments: View Comments |  Tuesday November 17, 2009

The buzz on renewable fuel just won't go away. Brazil uses soybeans and we use corn. Green Plains Renewable Energy -- GPRE -- press release states they are North America's fourth largest ethanol producer, operating six ethanol plants in Indiana, Iowa, Nebraska and Tennessee with a combined expected operating capacity of 480 million gallons of ethanol per year. GPRE also operates an independent third-party ethanol marketing service that currently provides marketing services to its affiliated plants as well as three third-party ethanol producers with expected operating capacity of 305 million gallons per year. Green Plains owns 51% of Blendstar, LLC, a Houston-based biofuel terminal operator with six facilities in five states. Green Plains' agribusiness segment operates grain storage facilities and complementary agronomy, feed, and fuel businesses in northern Iowa and southern Minnesota.

On a fundamental analysis bases analysts give the stock a strong buy rating and expect a 20.7 revenue growth with a price target of 15 which is 35% higher than its present price of around 11.

The stock came up on my BarChart filtering of the stocks hitting the most frequent new high with 13 new highs in the last 20 trading session and 5 for 5 recently. There has been a price appreciation of 70.62% in the last 65 days. BarChart's technical analysis indicators give it a 13 out of 13 buy signal for a 100% buy rating.

Additional positive ratings come from Wall Street Survivor where Mark's checklist has a Survivor Sentiment at 5/5 and Louis Navellier's Portfolio Grader has it a buy with a B rating overall and an A quantitative rating. I'm glad that more people than just me have noticed it.

Recommendation: I'm adding this to my Marketocracy New High portfolio and if you have room in your portfolio for a renewable energy company then buy GPRE - Green Plains Renewable Energy around 11 with a protective stop loss no lower than 9.

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

Comments: View Comments |  Monday November 16, 2009