"Some ideas extracted from Investors Business Daily and some from Jim Cramer's Mad Money TV show"

Dow Jones Industrial Average 11103.12  (Down) Week ending 10-07-2011

Some times a small reward in your day can help you make it
through. Hershey Co Inc. (symbol HSY, $58.99) can deliver these chocolate treats and has been doing it for years. This tasty stock has a one year total return of 21.9% and a three year total return of 68.6%.  The stock pays a nice 2.34% dividend and has a staggering Return on Equity percentage of  67.00%. The IDB rating is 90-62-92. Earnings growth a little mild, but very consistent. 

Another stock that jumped out at me from IDB was not usually a stock that you would often talk about. STAMPS.COM (symbol STMP, $24.72) has a long term growth rate of 18%. Stamps has an IDB rating of 99-89-99 A+, B. , with 99 the highest rating you can get for growth. 12 month Total Return is 67.6% and the 3 year Total Return of 173.8%.   These are two stocks that I saw in Investors Business Daily that peaked my interest. They do an excellent job of extracting data and making it easy to see and understand.

Jim Cramer of CNBC , who went to the same high school as my wife Deborah here in Springfield (Montco) PA., works harder than anyone I know to bring you just tremendous investment ideas on his TV show Mad Money and on his websites. You will find his websites on the links on the right column of my blog. I was lucky enough to be watching when Jim brought on to his show the CEO of Whiting Petroleum Corp. (symbol WLL,$35.54) . This stock is flat out great value investment which is down this year. The CEO is committed to getting the stock price back up. Great fundamentals and  explosive earnings growth with 2011 earnings per share of $3.67 per share and 2012 earnings of $4.66. This company has 18, (count'em) , strong buy recommendations according to SmartMoney.

Jim , (pictured), a week later brought the CEO of Red Hat Inc. (symbol RHT,$42.88) on to his show and rolled out just another great company.
Long term growth 20.40%. 12 strong buy recommendations. The stock is only up 1.5% this year but the three year total return of 222.2%. We can live with that number!  This company helps companies save money. That is a winning concept all the time.

One  last recommendation from Jim is Big Blue,  International Business Machines Corp. (symbol IBM, 182.39).  Eleven strong buy recommendations.  The price might look high on a historical basis, but the company is projecting 2012 earnings of $14.75 per share. A three total return of 104%. Not too shabby!

 So it's OK to use the other guys recommendations when they are going to make you money. They have full research staffs to help them out and lots of eyes and ears out there to find those great ideas. Three bucks for an daily IDB and Jim Cramer gives you lots of free stuff and also offers professional services if you prefer their inside stuff and a timing advantage.

So hope for sunny fall skies and Dow 12,000. Have a good week.

Freewilly