For the past six months, we’ve been picking market brains for our Pro’s Three Stars feature.
Owing to the pounding the market has taken since that time, this has been an increasingly painful exercise — like pulling wisdom teeth.
This week, for instance, we called about 87 of the country’s most notable analysts and money managers before unearthing one brave soul who would put his neck on the line with three stock picks in a market up to its eyeballs in quicksand.
We managed to extract three picks from Taurus Capital analyst Doug Cooper without even having to send Marty McSorley to his house. In fact, a bubbly Cooper refused to stop at three.
Said the chipper analyst: “You want more? I’ve got more . . . ”
Most other folks who make a living researching stocks were either not available for comment, couldn’t find three stocks, or were out to lunch. Many others had new leases on lives (as bartenders or bartendees).
Here are the top four responses:
Secretary: “He doesn’t work here anymore!”
Translation: “We canned the %#$#@#$#$%! He told me to buy Cell-Loc. I lost my shirt. Let him rot in hell!”
Secretary: “He’s out of town.”
Translation: “He recommended Nortel, too. We sent him on a long holiday.”
Secretary: “He’s not in the office this afternoon.”
Translation: “Our analyst has an appointment with his analyst.”
Voice mail: “I’m temporarily away from my desk but I’ll call you right back.”
Translation: “I recommended Nortel at $100 so did you really expect me to answer the phone?”
Others, such as John Kinsey, portfolio manager with Caldwell Securities, have opted for the investing game’s answer to the neutral-zone trap — government treasury bills.
“I don’t have one stock I’d recommend, just treasury bills,” Kinsey said.
“We’re in a tricky bear market so my advice is to keep your powder dry. Investors have to exercise patience and quell their emotions, which is one of the toughest things for humans to do.”
PRO'S THREE STARS
Cooper, Taurus Capital’s specialist in manufacturing and industrial products, is particularly fond of Calgary-based BW Technologies (BWT-TSE), the maker of portable gas-detection devices.
The stock has recently run from the $7 range to $8.75 and has a year range of $5-$9.60. Cooper rates it a buy with a 12-month target of $12, while acknowledging that Taurus has acted as a financial adviser to BW.
“They’ve had four consecutive quarters of excellent revenue earnings momentum and we think it’s cheap based on earnings valuations,” said Cooper.
His other picks are CFM Majestic (CFM-TSE), a manufacturer of gas fireplaces and related products, and Fantom Technologies (FTM-TSE), a maker of vacuums that is on the verge of shipping a microbiological water processor for home use.
Cooper rates CFM a buy with a target of $14. It recently traded at $9.15 (year range,$5.70-$10). “The stock is trading near historical low evaluations and we expect 15-per-cent growth this year,” said Cooper, noting it has been punished with the company losing money in its last two quarters.
Cooper has no official target on Fantom but says that, based on the potential of its water processor, “this stock can be a triple (gainer) within 12 months.We think the Calypso water purifier will be a very big success.”
CFM was a big success in the 1990s with its cyclonic bagless vacuum.
Cooper adds that he or his company do not hold positions in these stocks.
TRADING TIP
Learn to differentiate between good and bad stocks. Good companies will always rebound. Bad stocks may never come back.
SITE OF THE WEEK:
Profitguide.com
This one’s worth a bookmark with features from Profit magazine, first-person entrepreneurial stories of success and failure and tech check, a review of the latest gizmos, gadgets and games.
HOT STOCK: Tathacus Resources
TTC-CDNX $6.19
Up $1.29 (+26.3%) on 107,200 shares (for week ending March 16).
Tathacus shares made an impressive U-turn after a long and painful descent from a high of $14.25 last fall. At that time, the stock was all the rage on news it was involved with a company developing a technology that generates hydrogen from tap water. Tathacus owns 20 per cent of that private company, Xogen Power. Calgary-based Tathacus recently hired an investor relations firm, IR Profile.
COLD STOCK: RightsMarket
RTS-CDNX 33 cents
Down 8 cents (-19.5%) on 103,700 shares (for week ending March 16).
Remember when the tech plays were bungee jumpers, wildly swinging into the hands of day traders? Well, seems the bungee cord has broken for many companies like RightsMarket Inc. The Calgary company, which is involved in content control in the digital economy with software and Web-based services, has crashed from a year high of $2.94. Nobody said bungee jumping was for the faint of heart.
