Some "Last Mile of Fiber" small cap names and some other worthy Tech stocks

Dow Jones Industrial Average   11118.49  (UP) Week ending 10-29-2010

I thought I would be clever and do a blog on stocks that are making money in the "last mile of fiber" space with the Carlyle Group interest this week to buy Commscope (Symbol CTV, $31.65). What I found was  a few small cap names of interest and some other Tech names I found that would be good 1 to 3 year investments for Total Return. The old adage "you should not invest in things you don't know about" applies here, as there are all different ways to get past that last mile including: wireless, copper cable with fiber assistance (phantom DSL), cable, fiber itself, fiber-to-the-node broadband over powerline, satellite, microwave and it goes on and on.   

Alliance Fiber Optic Products, (Symbol AFOP, $11.00) is a small cap name for you. The stock is up 100% this year. Earnings for 2010 of .72 cents a share and 2011 of .87 cents a share. This well capitalized company has a lot of head room for sales increases.

DragonWave (Symbol DRWI, $8.15) is an Ottawa, Canada based company that derives allot of revenue from wireless backhaul of voice and data. DragonWave has just won a pair on contracts and are focused on the new LTE and WIMAX markets. As always these small cap names can take you on a wild ride on the stock chart, you just need to remember that your ultimate destination is up.

Ceragon Networks (Symbol CRNT, $ 11.06) Tel Aviv based company that is a provider of high capacity LTE/4G ready wireless backhaul solutions. Both Ceragon and DragonWave are both active in the cellular market in India. Projected earnings for 2010 of .42 cents and for 2011 .65 cents a share. This is another stock that has been on a wild one year ride, so hold on to your hat!

The next three tech stocks I found in my travels in no particular order are well established and will work for most portfolios for Total Return. 

F 5 Networks, (Symbol FFIV, $117.70),  Altera (Symbol ALTR , $31.24 ),  First Solar Inc, (Symbol FSLR, 137.68).  These guys are like Halliday, Oswalt, and Hamels. You may not win the World Series , but your team will definitely have 90+ Wins. 

I should always mention that tech stocks historically have always been the source of my biggest losses in markets past, but also some of my biggest gainers.  So if you are going to stand at the plate, you need to swing the bat to hit a home run, otherwise you will be out "Looking", which Ryan Howard of the Phillies can tell you, is a very bad thing. 



Be Happy..... Freewilly 



"They may be foreclosing on the house, but you can bet that the kids will get their toy gifts for the holidays"

Dow Jones Industrial Avg. 11,063  (UP) for the week ending  10-15-2010



Star Wars - Darth Tater Figure
 PlaySkool - Hasbro

  Times are tough. 462,000 people applied for unemployment benefits last week. Housing prices are bottoming and foreclosures seem to be on the rise. But you can take it to the bank  " Kids will not go without receiving their share of toy gifts during the holidays".

The most rock solid company in this area seems to be Hasbro Inc. (Symbol HAS, $45.08). Hasbro stock chart has been on a steady rise during 2010. This stock has had a one year Total return of 67.9% and a 3 year Total return of 58.6%. If you had invested $1000 five years ago it would be worth $2713 today. Earnings for 2010 are $2.65 per share and for 2011 $3.12 per share. Transformers, Dora the Explorer, Yahtzee, Hannah Montana, and Mr. Potato Head are among the over 100 brands they have.

The second very well recognized brand in this category is Mattel.  Mattel Inc. (Symbol MAT, $22.45) had got beaten up a little bit the end of this week for some soft Q3 top line sales and the stock is now a pretty good value at this price. Mattel has some long term debt to work off. They had bought out Fisher-Price back in 1993 to challenge Hasbro. Mattel and RC2 (symbol RCRC) have both been under the gun for lead paint on toys and baby bottles and have had to do some financial settlements. Don't forget Barbie and HotWheels!

My Sleeper Pick in the toys area is  SHANDA GAMES LIMITED ADR (symbol GAME, $6.52). This very profitable company is something to take a flyer out on as a more speculative pick. The financials look pretty good and I do not see any analysts following it. The stock is down this year on a Goldman Sachs, June downgrade and I think no one is paying attention to it now. It is a play on online games in China and area that surely will have allot of growth. 

In the Electronics games area I still like Activision Blizzard Inc. (Symbol ATVI, $11.37)  because of their tremendous balance sheet.


HHGREGG INC. (Symbol HGG, $23.96) which sells video games and systems looks like a younger version of Radio Shack (Symbol RSH) and appears to be growing nicely.  It has a one year total return of 45.3% and a 3 year total return of 52%.

What is America's favorite toy?  I will let you decide that.  Hopefully it is something that is creative to develop those young minds and fun most importantly. 

Freewilly     

  (We went with a new cleaner logo this week and took off the non-stock related personal stuff)

"Perk up your portfolio with some fast growing Coffee Stocks and we'll throw in a sandwich stock too!"

Dow Jones Industrial Average   10,986   -  daily close on October 6th , 2010

I want to start with a special dedication wish  to the love of my life, my wife Deborah. Tomorrow we celebrate our 30th Wedding anniversary and she is an amazing and wonderful woman who is kind, generous, hard working, sexy, funny and brilliant. Did I miss anything? Most definitely.  So anyway, we make three kinds of coffee in the morning. A pot of decaf for me, A pot of half-caff  for my wife, and a pot of full -caff for my daughter. It is no wonder that the coffee stocks are doing well with everybody having their own special pot! Such is the secret of coffee's success. Everybody likes it a different way.

     Green Mountain Coffee Roasters (Symbol GMCR, $28.67) has a long term growth rate of 37.37%. Earnings per share in 2010 are .69 cents and in 2011 $1.18. The 3 year Total return on shares of the stock is 225%. Get the picture?  You just take the little single serving cup and plunk it in the machine at work and out comes the coffee. No burnt coffee sitting in pots like the old days!

  Peet's Coffee and Tea, Inc. (Symbol PEET, $33.80) is a company with a 17.33% long term earnings growth rate.  5 year sales growth is 14.15% and these guys will deliver groceries to you too! 2010 earnings per share are looking like $1.29 for 2010 and $1.55 for 2011. This California based company has a Quick ratio , (assets to liabilities) of 6: to 1, and plenty of space for upside revenue growth.

Caribou Coffee Company (Symbol CBOU, $10.44) is our low priced stock entry here. This Minnesota based company is up 38.86% year to date and 54.24% over 3 years. Sales are growing about 8% a year, but if you are in Minnesota it is cold in the morning and you will need your coffee to warm up. This is worth a look as a Small Cap holding in your portfolio. 2010 earnings of .42 cents per share and 2011 is projected at .56 cents per share. 

Of course you can't do an article about coffee without including the mega growth company, Starbucks Corp. (Symbol SBUX, $26.10). This company even after all these years of expansion is still growing at 11.5% a year in revenues. Kudos to Starbucks for making medical benefits available to part time employees. It shows companies can still make money and help people Too! 2010 earnings will be $1.24 and 2011 projected at $1.42 per share. One year Total Return of   38.6%. Enjoy your Mocha FrapaChino.  Starbucks is also the inventor of a whole new language that you get to learn to speak!  

......and now for your sandwich course we will be serving up Panera Bread Company, (Symbol PNRA, $88.66).  This dynamo has a 5 year sales growth rate of 19.6%. A one year total return of 48.6 % and 3 year total return of 123.5%. 2010 earnings of $3.54 and 2011 earnings projected at $4.16 per share make this bakery-cafe business the best of bread and coffee.

They are an excellent long term BUY.

These big company logos are messing up my spacing!  But you can buy any of these stocks with a 3 year time horizon and you should do well.

Have a wonderful day. Stay healthy and safe.    Freewilly