Van Meerten's picks

A company that has recently had a depressed price but still has terrific long term prospects in
Smart Balance (SMBL). Price movement recently has been very positive.

According to the company, Smart Balance (SMBL) is committed to providing superior tasting heart healthier alternatives in every category it enters by avoiding trans fats naturally, balancing fats and/or reducing saturated fats, total fat and cholesterol. The company's products include Smart Balance Buttery Spreads, Milk, Butter Blend Sticks, Cream Cheese, Peanut Butter, Microwave Popcorn, Cooking Oil, Mayonnaise, Non-Stick Cooking Spray and Cheese. Smart Balance Inc. is one of the five fastest growing food companies in the United States, according to Nielsen sales figures.

As the US and even the rest of the world looks for a healthier way to prepare food the company offers a 3 level approach: Best Life for price sensitive shoppers, Smart Balance for the majority of the shoppers and a high end Earth Balance for the premium environmental, earth friendly and organic elite.

Lets look at the technical, fundamental and sentiment factors that may make this stock a healthy addition to your watch lists.

Technical Factors:
1 - 100% Barchart technical buy signal
2 - Trend Spotter (tm) buy signal
3 - 4 new highs and up over 7.25% in the last 5 sessions
4 - Relative Strength Index 69.95% and rising
5 - Trades around 4.45 with a 50 day moving average of 4.19

Fundamental Factors:
1 - Wall Street brokerages released 2 buy and 7 hold recommendations
2 - Sales are expected to increase by 4.70% this year and 5.00% next year
3 - Earnings are projected to increase by 90.00% this year, 42.10% next year and 27.50% annually for the next 5 years

Investor Sentiment:
1 - A large advertising campaign has given the brand general recognition
2 - The CAPS members on Motley Fool votes 302 to 13 that the stock will beat the market
3 - The more experienced All Stars agree 108 to 2
4 - Northland Securities republished their buy recommendation in January

The stock has general recognition, a depressed price and current momentum. A good addition to your watch lists.

Comments: View Comments |  Tuesday March 22, 2011

I've enjoyed the nice homey Norman Rockwell-like commercials about the 2 little Smucker boys walking through the orchard preparing themselves to one day take over Grandpa's jam operations. Well to my surprise the Co-CEO's are the little Smucker boys all grown up with Little Timmy as Chairman and Richard as President. Grampa's jam operations is
J M Smucker (SJM) now a 5 billion dollar operation.

The J.M. Smucker Company (SJM) , headquartered in Orrville, Ohio is the leading marketer of jams, jellies, preserves, and other fruit spreads in the U.S. They are also the leader in dessert toppings, natural peanut butter, and health and natural foods juice products, and market a wide variety of other specialty products throughout the U.S. and in many foreign countries. In the fruit spreads category, they also hold the leadership position in Australia and Canada.

Their product line-up sounds like my pantry. Besides Smucker's jams and jellies, there's Jif, Crisco, Folger's, Pillsbury, Eagle Brand, Hungry Jack and of course Martha White. Does that sound like your pantry too?

Besides taste, there's other reasons to buy this company.

Technical Factors:
1 - 100% Barchart technical buy signal2 - Trend Spotter (tm) buy signal
3 - 10 new highs and up 7.23% in the last month
4 - Relative Strength Index 70.32% and climbing
5 - Trades around 72.24 with a 50 day moving average of 65.50

Fundamental Factors:
1 - Wall Street brokerages analysts have published 6 buy and 7 hold reports for their clients
2 - Sales are expected to increase by 4.20% this year and 5.20% next year
3 - Earnings are estimated to increase by 9.70% this year, 6.70% next years and continue by 6.50% for the next 5 years

Investor Sentiment:
1 - Good press has made this a popular company
2 - CAPS members of Motley Fool vote 427 to 21 that the stock will beat the market
3 - The All Stars agree with a vote of 150 to 5
4 - Fool notes the last 10 articles by Wall Street columnists have all been positive

A look in both my pantry and yours tells me that this is a company that will be around for a long, long time. The question is just how much money can they make? If it's good enough for your pantry it should be good enough for your portfolio.

Comments: View Comments |  Monday March 21, 2011

This morning I was screening on Barchart for stocks that continued to hit new highs all through the recent market gyrations and found Breeze-Eastern (BZC). It meet all my criteria to be added to the Barchart Van Meerten Speculative portfolio, which contains stock listed for under $10. The additional was based primarily on recent upward price momentum.

Breeze-Eastern Corporation (BZC) is the world's leading designer and manufacturer of sophisticated lifting devices for military and civilian aircraft, including rescue hoists, cargo hooks, and weapons-lifting systems. Breeze-Eastern is the worldwide supplier of electric and hydraulic Rescue Hoist Systems for helicopters. On many customer programs, companies products are supplied on a sole source basis and are utilized throughout the long life-cycle of these products. There position, principally as a sole source supplier, continues as they support there customers with the sales of spare parts and product upgrades. Breeze-Eastern Corporation aggressively updates its existing products in keeping with changing mission and customer requirements to maintain and increase market share for systems, products and spare parts. These qualified and proprietary products support our long-term growth objectives.

Technical Factors:
1 - 100% Barchart technical buy signal
2 - Trend Spotter (tm) buy signal
3 - 13 New highs and up 12.36% in the last month
4 - Relative Strength Index 80.44% and climbing
5 - Trades around 8 with a 50 day moving average of 7.11

Professional Analysts Following:
1 - None of the firms following this stock have come out and endorsed it but they are having more analysts issuing report this past quarter
2 - Companies issuing reports: Reuters, Ford Investment Services, The Street.com,Economic Investors, and both Wright and Pechala's Reports
3 - At the present time it is not on any of the major brokerage watch lists.

Investor Sentiment:
1 - This is not a well known stock and there are no Wall Street columnists writing articles about his stock
2 - The CAPS members on Motley Fool have found this stock and vote 9 to 3 that the stock will beat the market
3 - The more experienced All Stars agree with a 3 to 0 vote
4 - This stock is coming off a deficient year but it is getting noticed. Might be a nice ground floor opportunity.

Jim Van Meerten is an analyst for Marketocracy Capital Management. He shares his knowledge and experience from over 40 years of investing in stocks, mutual funds and ETFs on Barchart.com in his daily blog -- Barchart Portfolio Blogs.

Through Marketocracy Capital Management you can have a Separately Managed Account that mirrors his Barchart Van Meerten New High model portfolio.

Comments: View Comments |  Monday March 21, 2011

This morning I took a list of companies that have had double digit growth in both sales and earnings and are projected to have that double digit growth continue and ran them against the Barchart technical indicators and Whole Foods Markets (WFMI) come up on top of the list.

Whole Foods Market (WFMI) is the largest purveyor of natural foods in the world. They own and operate the country's largest chain of natural food supermarkets. They are like an old-fashioned neighborhood grocery store, an organic farmer's market, a European bakery, a New York deli, and a modern supermarket all rolled into one! The Company also offers a wide variety of non-perishable natural products on its Web site at http://wholefoods.com.

If you visit one of their stores, don't expect to find one of those hippy granola bar shops of the 70's or a Pumping Iron protein drink joint. There offer a lot of high end organic fresh food and even organic wine and beer. If you're going to drink, why not drink without guilt?

This isn't a small chain but has over 290 locations and is expected to gross over $10 billion in sales this year. Growth as measured in same store sales has been 8.7%. Recently during the recession some shoppers traded down but now as the economy loosens they are returning in droves.

Technical Factors:
1 - 100% Barchart technical buy signals
2 - Trend Spotter (tm) buy signal
3 - 4 new highs and up 2.39% in the last month
4 - Relative Strength Index is 68.43% and rising
5 - Trades around 14.40 with a 50 day moving average of 55.68

Fundamental Factors:
1 - Wall Street brokerage analysts have issued 9 buy and 15 hold reports recently
2 - Sales are projected to increase by 12.30% this year and 11.80% next year
3 - Earnings are projected to increase by 26.40% this year, 14.40% next year and 16.74% for the next 5 years

Investor Sentiment:
1 - This stock has extremely high and positive general investor sentiment
2 - CAPS members on Motley Fool voted 3,752 to 573 that the stock will beat the market
3 - The more experienced All Stars agree with a 1,253 to 106 vote
4 - Fool notes that the last 8 Wall Street columnists reports have been positive including a recent 2/10 recommendation by Zacks

In the US shoppers are now looking at quality as well as price. I've bought some of their products and will return. Put this one on your watch lists.

Jim Van Meerten is an analyst for Marketocracy Capital Management. He shares his knowledge and experience from over 40 years of investing in stocks, mutual funds and ETFs on Barchart.com in his daily blog -- Barchart Portfolio Blogs.

Through Marketocracy Capital Management you can have a Separately Managed Account that mirrors his Barchart Van Meerten New High model portfolio.

Comments: View Comments |  Monday March 21, 2011

I know senior living facilities will be a growth industry in the future but I added
Capital Senior Living (CSU) to the Barchart Van Meerten Speculative portfolio because it is moving now.

Capital Senior Living Corporation (CSU) is one of the largest providers of senior living services in the United States. The Company currently owns interests in and/or operates 77 communities with a capacity of approximately 11,000 residents, including 15 communities that it manages for third parties. The Company also operates one home health care agency. Annual sales are over $211 million dollars. This is becoming a big business.

Technical Factors:
1 - 100% Barchart technical buy signal
2 - Trend Spotter (tm) buy signal
3 - 10 new highs and up 73.16% in the last month
4 - Relative Strength Index 88.12% and rising
5 - Trades around 9.91 with a 50 day moving average of 6.20

Fundamental Factors:
1 - Wall Street brokerage analysts at Stifel Nicolas have a strong buy recommendation on this one
2 - Sales are projected to increase by 14.30% this year and 4.70% next year
3 - Earnings are estimated to jump by 57.90% this year, 56.70% next year and continue at 16.30% for the next 5 years

Investor Sentiment:
1 - There is a growing interest in this sector not only as a life style but also as an investment
2 - The CAPS members on Motley Fool vote 42 to 11 that this is a company that can beat the market
3 - The more experienced All Stars agree by a vote of 12 to 4

This industry in general and this stock in particular deserves your attention.

Jim Van Meerten is an analyst for Marketocracy Capital Management. He shares his knowledge and experience from over 40 years of investing in stocks, mutual funds and ETFs on Barchart.com in his daily blog -- Barchart Portfolio Blogs.

Through Marketocracy Capital Management you can have a Separately Managed Account that mirrors his Barchart Van Meerten New High model portfolio.

Comments: View Comments |  Friday March 18, 2011