"Just because the US government owns 26% of the stock, it doesn't mean that General Motors is a bad investment! In fact, it is a great buy here."

Dow Jones Industrial Average  10,818  (Down) Week ending 08-19-2011

Some people call it " GM - Government Motors" because the US government provided financing to General Motors (Symbol GM, $22.16) , to help it reorganize and is a holder of 26% of the shares of the stock. I guess the fear hangs out there that the government will liquidate in shares and bring the stock price down. They may as well hold on to the shares at this point. The book value on GM shares right now is $24.86 , higher than the trading price. Revenues through June 30th , 2011 are $112,449. Sales are increasing quarter over quarter for GM.

Earnings for the 2011 year ending December 31 are projected at $4.21 per share. For 2012 they are projecting $4.54 per share.  That is a forward PE of 4.88 for 2012 for a company which huge revenues and good earnings. Other typical industrial companies with this type of revenues and earnings trade in the 60-80 a share range! This stock is at $22.16. So what gives?  The share price is down 40% YTD.  Even a blind monkey throwing a dart could get this one right. This company has almost 33 Billion in cash and short term investments.  BUY GM,  with a capital B.

Some other names I like here are Union Pacific Corp. (Symbol UNP, $85.69). When all else fails you can always buy a railroad that runs east-west and transports coal for electricity. UNP has a one year earnings growth rate of over 20%.  Nothing but earnings upside surprises here. The stock is up 15% year to date.

Don't forget about Mastercard (Symbol MA, $300.16). It was one of my Top ten picks at the beginning of the year. Even after the large sell off we have had the stock is still up 45.45% Year to date. I like it and Warren Buffett likes it and owns it too.

I also started looking at the stocks related to real estate this week which I believe could provide some good value picks here. One stock that got my attention in that area is Annaly Capital Management (Symbol NLY, $17.79). This stock is showing  a 14.61% dividend right now and have decent earnings of $2.86 a share and a PE of 6. This is a "pay you while you wait" for the real estate market to make a slight turn. You will need to be patient with this one.                                                                                                                                                                 
Whatever you do, move slowly in smaller increments in whatever you purchase here, because it may be at an even better price next week.

If Chicken Little is right, and the "Sky is Falling", that will be a better strategy in the long run for you.

 Lets see if 10,800 on the Dow holds support here and turns around this week.

Freewilly

 

" Let's look at this thing from a... um, from a standpoint of status. What do we got on the spacecraft that's good? " Best to look at the Capital Goods stocks.

Dow Jones Industrial Average    11,269  Week ending 08-12-2011

2:13 p.m. EST, April 11, 1970, Apollo 13 launches from pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center.  

"Spacecraft systems performance was nominal until the fans in cryogenic oxygen tank 2 were turned on at 55:53:18 ground elapsed time (GET). About 2 seconds after energizing the fan circuit, a short was indicated in the current from fuel cell 3, which was supplying power to cryogenic oxygen tank 2 fans. Within several additional seconds, two other shorted conditions occurred.

Electrical shorts in the fan circuit ignited the wire insulation, causing temperature and pressure to increase within cryogenic oxygen tank 2. When pressure reached the cryogenic oxygen tank 2 relief valve full-flow conditions of 1008 psi, the pressure began decreasing for about 9 seconds, at which time the relief valve probably reseated, causing the pressure to rise again momentarily. About a quarter of a second later, a vibration disturbance was noted on the command module accelerometers.

The next series of events occurred within a fraction of a second between the accelerometer disturbances and the data loss. A tank line burst, because of heat, in the vacuum jacket pressurizing the annulus and, in turn, causing the blow-out plug on the vacuum jacket to rupture. Some mechanism in bay 4 combined with the oxygen buildup in that bay to cause a rapid pressure rise which resulted in separation of the outer panel. The panel struck one of the dishes of the high-gain antenna. The panel separation shock closed the fuel cell 1 and 3 oxygen reactant shut-off valves and several propellant and helium isolation valves in the reaction control system. Data were lost for about 1.8 seconds as the high-gain antenna switched from narrow beam to wide beam, because of the antenna being hit and damaged."

At this point, NASA Flight director, Eugene Francis "Gene" Kranz asks his team, "Let's look at this thing from a... um, from a standpoint of status. What do we got on the spacecraft that's good?" One of his many famous quotes during the Apollo 13 mission. Of course his most famous is : "Failure is not an option",  which leads us directly into the discussion about your retirement and stock investment mission.

We have had a bit of an explosion here ourselves in the market these past two weeks to our retirement equity values for us Boomers in our 50's and 60's who will retire sooner then other folks. We still need to get back from the moon and have our splashdown of retirement, so we have a ways to go yet here.  Just like Gene said, "Failure is not an option". So what is the plan of action?

Two things you should not do here is sell your stocks and invest in Gold, which is at an all time high price. Second, you should not sell your stocks while they are down and move into yield-less, no risk cash positions.  What you should do is continue to invest in stocks. Although all the government entities have their balance sheets in a wreck, and the labor markets are all out of whack, the saving grace may be that companies are actually in quite good shape on their balance sheets for the most part.

 One area I would look at is the Capital Goods stocks. Some of those names would be:

Boeing Co. (Symbol BA, $61.75)
Parker Hannifin Corp. (Symbol PH, $69.58)
Roper Industries Inc. (Symbol ROP, $72.63)
Rockwell Automation Corp. (Symbol ROK, $64.93)
Ingersoll-Rand Co. Ltd. (Symbol IR, $30.39)
and my favorite is,
Cummins Inc. ( Symbol CMI, $94.47) which I mentioned 2 weeks ago in my blog.

as a bonus I will give you one outside of this group that is rock solid, Qualcomm Inc. (Symbol QCOM, $50.50). The stocks in this group may be down temporarily but rest assured they will move back up.

So the computer "war games", (investment buy and sell programs that have dominated the market), should start to slow down here and bring the VIX down into a more civil range. The above stocks should fare well going forward.

Nothing is going to get settled here quickly, so stay patient and move strategically into small positions, so you can make adjustments quickly to your portfolio.

                                                              Freewilly

"I leave you guys on your own for a week, and you lose 1,400 points on the Dow Jones Industrial Average, what's up with that?" ...... Blog #100!

Dow Jones Industrial Average 11,445  (Way,Way down!) Week ending 08-05-2011


Federal Reserve Bank


 Aug. 5, 2011, 8:46 p.m. EDT -

 U.S. loses triple-A credit rating from S&P -
 
"The United States late Friday lost its triple-A debt rating from Standard & Poor’s for the first time in its history, with the credit-rating agency saying the political system of the world’s top economy has become less stable and that budget cutting announced earlier this week didn’t go far enough."
 
 I take one weekend off from writing my blog, with the DJIA at 12,800 heading towards 13,000, and I come back and the place is a wreck. I can't leave you guys on your own for a second. Now Standard and Poors has downgraded the credit rating of the US for the first time in history. I can't believe I am writing those words. That's going to be just a great help for the market this Monday morning.
 
Somehow, I don't think Ronald Reagan would have let this happen. He would have taken action ahead of time.  Our current president needs to get rid of his current Treasury Secretary Geithner, and get himself some advisers that would have had the insight to forewarn him of the percentages of something like this happening. Worry about the debt, not about the debt ceiling.
 
Because we are still the "best of the worst", worldwide investors will still flock to our treasury bills for safety in a rattled global economy. So what to do with stocks here? I'm reminded of the line from many Laurel and Hardy films, "Well, here's another nice mess you've gotten me into".   
 

 
Well of course every genius is going to be out there to buy dividend stocks that are yielding higher than the treasury bills and that have some growth to kick in along with that. I would first put aside a pile of cash, kind of boost up your own personal reserve requirements, like the banks do in times of financial crisis. You never know what can happen. Of course do not attempt to use leverage here to load up in a down market, because things could get worse causing you financial ruin, not a good thing. (I looked at those Clearwire 2013 Call options too!, sitting out there like chocolate ice cream on a hot summer day, very tempting!) 

So lets garner a list of a dozen of these stocks:

HON    Honeywell     2.77% dividend yield
VZ        Verizon Communications    5.56% dividend yield
NOK    Nokia Corp. ADS    10.88% dividend yield
FTR      Frontier Communications Corp.  11.09% dividend yield
SPH      Suburban Propane Partners L.P.  7.77 % dividend yield
BWP     Boardwalk Pipeline Partners L.P.   7.91 % dividend yield
MO       Altria Group Inc. 5.87 % dividend yield
EXC       Exelon Corp.   5.00% dividend yield
T            AT&T Inc.   5.95% dividend yield
PAY       Paychex Inc.  4.58% dividend yield
GIS        General Mills Inc.  3.34% dividend yield
DD         E.I. DuPont de Nemours & Co. 3.47% dividend yield

 So the watch-word is Margin of Safety and dividend yield, and of course enjoy your summer where the same safety rules should apply to your activities.

Freewilly



 














 


 
 
 

"Looking for a little muscle in your stock, look no further than Cummins Inc. symbol CMI"

Dow Jones Industrial Average  12,681 (UP) Week ending 07-22-2011

 Back at the end of 2008, beginning of 2009, I had purchased at
the same time Cummins Inc.(CMI) and GE (GE) both at distressed bargain prices between $10 and $15. I doubled my money on both and then I sold one of them. I kept GE which is now trading at $19.04. I sold the Cummins and it is now trading at $106.78.  A "Six" bagger from my purchase price. What I should have done is sell half of my position in each, and held the balance. *** Lesson learned for you to pass on to your kids.


......And now I am going to tell you to buy Cummins Inc. (Symbol CMI) at it's present day price of $106.78. Talk about muscle. 2011 earnings per share are projected at $8.13 and for 2012 of $9.82 per share. Long term earnings growth of 19% and a Return on Equity of 28% make this a desirable long term investment.

"Cummins, Inc. designs, manufactures, distributes and services diesel and natural gas engines, electric power generation systems and engine-related component products." 
When thinking about the Indiana based Cummins, think powerful like the Indianapolis Colts Dwight Freeney and Robert Mathis. Unstoppable!

       We are entering a time period where winners are going to go up and the weaker stocks are going to get punished unmercifully. So load up on on the good ones that can deliver superior performance for you.

 Muscle up, and hop on the Cummins "Big tire" wagon and take a ride to 150. 

             Freewilly

"Nobody thinks about being sick in the summertime, so you can get a good buy right now on Amgen, Novartis and Gilead Sciences"

Dow Jones Industrial Average 12,480 (Down) week ending 07-15-2011

7-19-2011 - Back to looking at good fundamentals this week. The markets gyrations both up and down have everyone in a twist about buying stocks that are not of the best quality. It looks like all boats are floating up. Don't fall into this trap. The summertime always seems to give an opportunity for buying some good quality Pharma stocks at a reasonable price.

     Amgen Inc. (Symbol AMGN, $55.27), with a PE of 10.82 and 5 year earnings growth rate of 13.3% over the last 5 years would be one of these quality stocks. Amgen will have 2011 earnings of $5.05 per share and 2012 earnings of  $5.49. The stock is actually even for the last 12 months, so has not added any premium to reflect the improving added earnings.  There is no "hot" money in here right now, so you don't have to worry about a sharp sell off. I would buy the stock here. 

 Novartis (Symbol NVS, $62.17) is the second stock that I would like to mention. It pays a $2.00 dividend so you start out with a $3.29 yield. The One year Total Return on the stock is 28.9%.  2012 earnings are looking like $5.76 per share. A little more aggressive purchase than Amgen , but very solid choice. PE on the stock is 11.08, so is very reasonable.

Gilead Sciences, Inc. (Symbol GILD, $41.70) is the third stock that looks good in the summertime. Again a palatable forward PE of 10.85 , so no overpaying here. 2011 earnings of $3.76 and 2012 earnings of $4.31 looks promising going forward.  Gilead has a fabulous 5 year revenue growth rate of 27%. They have some of the highest net profit margins in the industry at a lofty 34.6 %. No dividend here, but a 12 month total return  of 22.5% with not a lot of volatility. GILD will make a nice building block for your portfolio.



Mokie relaxing in cap.

 So stay relaxed with all this market turmoil and
don't go chasing things like gold or speculating on stocks that have run up wildly.
     
Freewilly 

"Could the sleeping giant, Microsoft (MSFT), finally awaken from it's 10 year slumber?"

Dow Jones Industrial Average  12,721.88  (Way UP!)  Thursday 12:33PM EST, 07-07-2011

I know it has been a flat line stock price for 10 years. I know a hundred guys before me have written this same article, thinking that something eventually had to happen and waited and waited and oh, waited some more. You have a 2.43% dividend yield and a PE of 9 to hold you over in case nothing happens with little downside risk.

 Microsoft, Inc. (Symbol MSFT, $26.74) finally seems to be "in motion" on a two pronged front creating a catalyst for growth. Getting their operating system into the Smartphones of Nokia (Symbol NOK, $6.45) , which if you take off your US rose-colored glasses, has tremendous international distribution is big. Nokia is a perfect match for the Microsoft's simplified Smartphone interface . They have always embraced simplified operations for electronic devices that they have built.  Nokia also has other interesting connections like owning NAVTEQ the maker of many GPS mapping software. This move should help both these companies.

The second catalyst is that Microsoft is in the process of acquiring SKYPE for 8.5 Billion. (One thing Microsoft has is plenty of cash!).
Microsoft plans to leverage Skype by forming a relationship with Facebook and marrying these two social networking interfaces together to surge forward with a new type of voice and data social networking experience.

Add these factors to a company is going to earn $2.58 per share for 2011 and $2.77 per share for 2012 and you are looking at a very good fundamental and value proposition with the stock at this level. I could see the stock going to the $35-$37 dollar range without allot of trouble.


When you look at the other companies in Microsoft's space, like Oracle, Redhat and Salesforce,  they all have had 40 plus % Total Returns for One year. Microsoft is only at 4.4% total return for this year, even though they have the highest ROE Return on Equity, (44.70%),  much better than all those other companies mentioned . If Microsoft can raise the bar a little on that 5 year growth rate of 8.31% a little higher, they produce plenty of profit already, and could finally get this sleeping giant into motion.

This market has made a tremendous move here in the last 10 days of 700 points, so you should probably buy this stock in partial segments to build a position.

Stay cool on this hot day. It is finally time for Microsoft to start moving up, so get on board the train.

 Freewilly

"Apprehension abounds as QE2 ending approaches. If you want to be in the market you better travel with the "Big dogs".

Dow Jones Industrial Average 11934.58  (Down) (7 out of 8 weeks)

I thought it appropriate to watch the TV show, Dual Survival, on the Discovery Channel, while I wrote this weeks blog. This week  Dave Canterbury & Cody Lundin are in South Africa trying to find their way out of a Wild game preserve that is full of Lions, Bull Elephants, and Warthogs and they are well down the food chain and looking like lunch there.  I thought Me and you are the dual ones that need to go back to our survival techniques to not get eaten up alive by this stock market and the lions out there in the bush.

So I have come up with a three part survival technique. One, pick out a sector that you want to diversify into, to balance your portfolio. I chose Pharmaceuticals because I had recently sold a position in that sector. Second, choose a company with a bulletproof balance sheet and low or no debt. Third , to travel with the "Big Dogs", pick a company that a hedge fund investor has taken at least a 5% position in. 

So here is what this discipline led me to:

Forest Laboratories Inc. (Symbol FRX, $39.33) .

This pharma company has a Current ratio of 5.6 to 1 and no long term debt. Who is the "Big Dog" on your team with you? That would be hedge fund manager Carl Icahn who has taken a 6.5% position in the company and has 4 nominees for the board of directors. Earlier in the year Icahn made investments in: Clorox, Amgen, and Southern Union. Mario Gabelli ,George Soros, Joel Greenblatt, and David Dreman were all on-board for the Southern Union trade and all made out nicely.


 Icahn must have been looking at Forest Labs 2011 earnings of $0.94 and 2012 earnings of $3.68 each per share. Or the 12 month Total Return of 43.4% or Net Profit margins of 23.80%. Put that all together with a forward PE of 10.69 and you have to wonder what Carl thinks there is to fix? The company also has $7.24 cents a share just sitting in cash. Maybe he wants to put that money to work?

Forest Laboratories, Inc. and its subsidiaries develop, manufacture and sell both branded and generic forms of ethical drug products which require a physician's prescription.


So if you are going to be out in the tall grass and can't see where you are going, you are best advised to hang with one of the "Big Dogs" , and hope for the best.  It should be a fun week. A regular Safari of adventures. Make sure you are not Lion food. Forest Labs seems a safe place to be.

Freewilly       

"Who can weather the storm in the tech sector and give you a good total return? I would look to Garmin LTD."

Dow Jones Industrial Average 12,004 (UP) Week ending June 17th  (NASDAQ continued down)


Tornado warnings in the Tech Sector

Well so far this weekend, I have heard about one person in the manufacturing sector who lost her job as buyer. She had been at the job for 40 years and her company is probably moving all the manufacturing outside the US, so that job is lost forever, not to be filled by a younger person in the US. Then I heard about someone who battled and battled to keep there house but finally threw in the towel, loosing all their equity in that house and walking away. This is a snapshot of USA , June 2011. How will we ever get unemployment down when we keep loosing more and more skilled and high paying jobs? We need to change our taxing policies and encourage businesses to stay in the US and new businesses to come to the US and build their factories right here.

The tech sector has been under siege for weeks
now, with Research in Motion, Juniper Networks, Micron, LG Display, Nokia, Seagate, Autodesk and others being vilified and their prices driven down. I guess everyone should just take their toys and go home and let Apple and Google own the whole tech world. I ..don't.. think... so!

One tech stock you can own is Garmin Ltd. (Symbol GRMN, $33.66).  First lets start with the 5.89% dividend  yield ($2.00 per share) that the stock pays.  Will they keep that dividend rate? You bettcha. They have a bulletproof balance sheet with Zero Long Term debt and have excellent controls on cost in place. The PE on the stock is 10.29. The product mix is being fine tuned and diversified so revenues and earnings have gone down a bit in the last four years, but the existing company is sound and moving forward into new businesses.


ForeRunner 610


You need to let go of the past. Garmin had most recent quarter EPS, GAAP earnings of .49 cents in the most recent quarter was over last years .19 GAAP earnings in the same quarter, and is up 157.89%. The 12 month total return on the stock is 18.1%. This is a dynamic company which will give you a nice total return and equity gains as new businesses develop.


 Talk about  efficiency. 52.90 % Gross profit margins and they turn their inventory 6.7 times a year.

Are there any road hazards around? Yes, keep an eye on the developments in the LightSquared 4G deployment and reported possible interference it causes to regular low power GPS systems. If there is one of those media hysterical behavior scares coming up,  there could be a big bargain day for GPS stocks. Keep on the lookout for it to buy in.

Also sift among the ruble in tech stocks and find some bargains like Skyworks Solutions (SWKS, $23.16) and Nokia Corp. ADR (NOK, $6.02).
                                               
         So find your way to Total Returns and even Go Fishing with Garmin ...... >>>>>>>
                      
           Freewilly

"The earnings keep rising at Quaker Chemical (KWR) of Conshohocken PA., year after year. I think it is time to take a position here in the stock."

Dow Jones Industrial Average 11,952 (Down)  - Is it 6 weeks now down?

Everybody is worrying about Quantitative Easing 2 ending. Who will buy our debt issued when it goes to auction if the government is not buying it. If no one wants it, will they need to raise the interest rates to get it moving? If interest rates rise, what will happen to the housing market and the recovery. Will the dollar rise in value? What ever will happen? Buddy can you spare a dime? Hope it doesn't go that badly.

Maybe Alfred E. Neuman from MAD magazine had it right in 1959 when he said " What me Worry?"

Alfred E Neuman

Neuman once answered a letter from a suicidal reader by giving him "expert advice" on the best technique for tying a hangman's knot. Such was the bantering of the irreverent Mad magazine and of course our childhood education on these matters.

But alas, around the world we will still need steel and steel tubing and the specialty chemicals that keep those grinding machines cool and running.



Quaker Chemcial , (Symbol KRW, $39.56)  is a company that focuses on just such an area of business. Quaker is a $544.1 million dollar company headquartered in Conshohocken, Pennsylvania, USA, with regional headquarter locations in Uithoorn, The Netherlands, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and Shanghai, China. The company is publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange, and has a long track record of financial consistency and strength. The principal industries they serve throughout the world are automotive, steel finishing, heavy equipment, aerospace, tube and pipe, and bearing manufacturing. They also serve other industries involved in making products from metal which require machining and grinding, rolling and forming, and associated cleaning and corrosion prevention processes.

I have been joking around with my company's distribution manager, who lives in Conshohocken, about buying this stock all the way back to when it was trading at $14.00 per share. Always wary of the "tip from a friend" purchase, I finally made a further analysis on this stock and bought it. Quaker trades currently at a PE ratio of 13.84 .  2011 earnings are projected at $3.30 per share and a forward PE of 12 and 2012 earnings are looking like $3.67 per share with a projected  PE of 10.78.  Add in a current dividend yield of 2.43% and you have a nice package poised for a reasonable return. Financials also look good with a Current ratio currently of 2.25.  There are only 11.5 Million shares outstanding so a small float, good for earnings building. 

The stock YTD is down 5%, but over one year it is up 47.39% , 3 year 34.28% and 5 year 119.66%. I can live with those kind of returns. This is a good way to play the high demand for steel products. 


So keep an eye on the VIX  (VOLATILITY S&P 500 index) to see when this downside volatility starts to subside and start buying in incrementally into stocks with good fundamentals and earnings like this one.

Keep your eye on the ball  ............                                    

                          .......and stay in the game.

Freewilly

"Dryships (DRYS) looks to steam ahead with the boost of Oil drilling revenues and a slight uptick in the Baltic Dry Index"

Dow Jones Industrial Average 12151.26 (Down, longest stretch since 2004) 

Dryships Inc. (Symbol DRYS, $4.15) is looking good after a week where stocks just got drubbed over and over again. The stock is sitting here with a PE of 4.   Dryships is a drybulk shipping and contract drilling company.

DryShips stock shot up Friday after it got the notice of some of the Goldman Sachs folks to give it a nod as an upgrade to "Buy"

The Goldman guys (gals) are looking at DryShips as a Oil drilling leasing company with both large oil drilling platforms for lease and also oil drilling ships. I started looking at the stock because of a mild uptick in the Baltic Dry Index in the last month. This could be a real bonus.

Urs Dur of Lazard Capital Markets, in a note back in Dec. 2010 described developments as a “bevy of positive news” from DryShips and agrees with other analysts who told TradeWinds on Friday that Dryships private placement was the first stage of an IPO for Ocean Rig (their drilling operations).
He said: “Given that much of the unresolved financing pressure has been alleviated on Ocean Rig (including the recent announcement of a $325m bridge loan and the recent completion of DryShips’ $350m ATM transaction), and that DryShips has significant built-in growth in a deepwater drilling sector that is firming, we feel that a public spin-off of Ocean Rig from DryShips in the new year is much more likely today.”

Dryships is projecting 2012 earnings of $0.97 cents per share.  The company has a 5 year growth rate of 26+ % and Net profit margins of 35%.  DryShips Inc , a Greek dry cargo transporter and oil driller, said its drilling unit won additional contract days for one of its rigs from Borders and Southern Petroleum, taking the total contract value to $126 million. Earlier this month, the company secured a 90-day contract for Leiv Eiriksson rig from British explorer and producer Borders and Southern Plc for drilling offshore the Falkland Islands. DryShips said Borders & Southern have declared two optional wells under the existing drilling contract for the harsh environment drilling rig Leiv Eiriksson, owned by its unit Ocean Rig UDW.

Ocean Rig, which has secured contracts for all of its initial newbuilding drillships, is expected to list its shares in the United States and in Oslo, DryShips is looking at a valuation for the majority-owned subsidiary at $25-$26 a share.

I would buy this stock for a trade here and take your profits when you have them. I would expect a 33% return on the trade.

So going forward I will be looking for quality stocks that have been beaten down over the last few weeks, that may be good additions to your portfolio. Onward and upward.

That's me at the Wyndmoor Memorial Day parade this year. I am standing next to a 1967 GTO that was the same year and gold color as my old car. There is nothing like cruising in a muscle car on a nice breezy day.
 Have a good week and enjoy the summer

 Freewilly

"Everytime I look at a Mid-Cap portfolio I notice that the stock of Acme Packet is listed in the middle of all of them. Who are these guys anyway"

Dow Jones Industrial Average 12,442 (UP) Week ending 05/27/2011

Whenever I hear about an ACME company, the old Looney Tunes -Roadrunner and Wile E. Coyote cartoon comes into my mind. ACME had a catalog with rocket jets, gigantic elastic band catapults, a wide variety of forms of transportation and probably the most popular, a giant magnet to catch any bird that eats iron bird seed can be found in the catalog. Of course there are anvils, fake holes that a train can drive through and dehydrated boulders can all be found in the catalog as well. So whenever I see that word "ACME" it pops out at me. Meep , Meep!  (roadrunner sound)

Acme Packet Inc. (Symbol APKT, $73.53) is "the leader in session delivery network solutions. They enable the delivery of interactive communications—voice, video and multimedia sessions—and data services across IP network borders."

"Acme Packet Net-Net session border controllers (SBCs) provide critical control functions to allow mobile service providers to deliver trusted, first-class interactive communications across IP network borders. A broad range of 3G (CDMA and UMTS) and 4G (LTE and WiMAX) services and applications are supported ranging from basic VoIP to any IMS enabled service—voice, interactive video, video share, presence, instant messaging, IPTV, video on demand, RCS, IPX, and femtocell and WiFi-enabled fixed-mobile convergence."

So why is Acme Packet Inc. showing up in all these portfolios? Let's take a look at the numbers.

2011 earnings are going to come in at .89 cents per share and 2012 earnings of $1.27 per share. 5 year sales growth of 30.10% afford this stock a very PE of 82. The company has produced eye-popping Total returns with a one year return of 150.9 % and 3 year total returns of 716.1 %. No wonder it is showing up in all these portfolios.

Is this stock too expensive?  With only 254 million in revenues I would say that this one has a long way to go.
I would look to buy it on any pullbacks along the way here.

It is a great company to single out for Memorial Day since they do everything here in the USA as you can see from the comment of their CEO Andy Ory to the left pictured. Bedford is out there by Lexington in Massachusetts, where the Revolutionary War began, and the Boston area, home of the Red Sox and Patriots storied sports teams.

 Investors Business Daily stated the following:  "Bedford, Mass.-based Acme Packet's third-quarter sales jumped 56%, with per-share profit soaring 122% from the year-earlier quarter. Acme's stock has rocketed 400% in 2010."


So enjoy your Memorial Day Weekend and parades  in the US, and if you are elsewhere I hope you have a good Monday. Honor your soldiers who preserve your freedoms    ...............................................

                     Oh, and keep an eye on that Roadrunner too!

Freewilly