Wall Street's Wish List

"Actions speak louder than words."

It's an old saying with more than a grain of truth to it, I'll warrant. So why is it that when the Wall Street firms merely "initiate coverage" or "upgrade" their ratings on a company, that gets all the news coverage? After all, those are only words, when what really matters is how the big boys act. Luckily for Wall Street watchers, finding out which professionals put their money where their corporate mouthpieces are has become relatively easy in this Internet Age of ours. All we have to do is read MSN Money's list of which companies the Street is most actively buying.

But once we've done that, what next? After all, "Monkey see, monkey do" may not make for the soundest of investment strategies. That's where Motley Fool CAPS can help. The Fool's newest venture into the realm of collective intelligence collects ratings from more than 20,000 lay and professional analysts, then overweights the most successful raters' opinions to come up with a "CAPS rating" from one to five stars (five being the best). If Wall Street's buying and the smartest investors in Fooldom say they're right to do so, then that should get your attention.

And so, let's meet today's list of contenders:

Chickens and eggs
Another well-worn saw asks us: Which came first, the chicken or the egg? As you've noticed by now, one characteristic that each of these stocks has in common is that they've experienced dramatic price increases over the last 30 days. But are the Wall Streeters buying because the stocks have gone up -- playing the momentum game -- or is their heavy buying causing the prices to spike? It could even be a combination of the two, a vicious circle of some buyers pushing the price up and others hopping aboard the bandwagon and enjoying the ride.

Can this chicken fly?
Wall Street's Wise Men were buying erratically this week, with no particular sector holding a noticeable advantage in their affections. Interestingly -- and this doesn't happen nearly as often as you might think -- CAPS players by and large agreed with Wall Street's picks, and the majority of the seven stocks named above enjoy better-than-average sentiment in Fooldom.

This week, let's meet Savient, the small pharmaceutical company best known for its Oxandrin, a testosterone derivative used to promote weight gain in persons who have lost weight following surgery or trauma. Of the nearly 200 CAPS investors who have rated the stock, the vast majority love it -- including 46 out of 48 CAPS all-stars. Here's what they have to say:

• UnkSandPoint offers this brief history of the company: "After ... almost ... being acquired, Savient has spent the last few years focusing on bringing promising drugs to market and developing their full market potential. During the last year, Savient sold Rosemont (U.K. oral drug company) and is using the proceeds to ... buy back shares as well as further develop drugs in the pipeline. It is interesting to note that while the company is buying back shares, insiders are not selling."

• sleepyseth also highlighted the buyback, adding that it came in the form of a "dutch tender offer where they purchased 16.2% of the shares outstanding for $6.80." He does point out, however, that: "The main is risk is that they rely heavily on one drug, Oxandrin, a weight gain drug. This drug has been doing remarkably well of late, shown in the fact that Savient was able to raise prices, lower their expenses, and still increase revenues at a healthy clip this quater. Savient has a drug currently in Phase III trials, Puricase, for the treatment of Gout. Obviously if this drug does not get approved the stock will plummet and if it does the stock will rise handsomely."

I must admit that evaluating drug stocks is far from my strong suit, but perhaps you're better at it than I? If so, then come on over to CAPS and toss your two cents into the discussion (just a figure of speech. Actually, posting on CAPS is free).

Fool contributor Rich Smith does not own shares of any company named above. You can find him on CAPS, publicly pontificating under the handle TMFDitty, where he's currently ranked 30 out of nearly 21,000 raters.