Recs

5

A 1-in-100 Investor

Watch stocks you care about

The single, easiest way to keep track of all the stocks that matter...

Your own personalized stock watchlist!

It's a 100% FREE Motley Fool service...

Click Here Now

The first 100 days in office sets the tone for any new president. Similarly, Motley Fool CAPS keeps an keeps an eye on members who score 100 points of market outperformance on stock picks in their first 100 days. Here we're looking at our All-Stars who made some of their best stock selections early on and seeing which ones they think will do best next.

One of our highest rated CAPS members is RobotPresident who sports a top 94.57 member rating. Below are a few of this top member's most recent stock selections and how they were rated.

Stock

CAPS Rating
(out of 5)

Call

Price*

Current Score

Enbridge Energy Partners (NYSE: EEP  )

*****

Outperform

$53.10

3.18

First Solar (Nasdaq: FSLR  )

**

Outperform

$121.85

6.19

Talisman Energy (NYSE: TLM  )

***

Outperform

$16.60

(4.11)

Source: Motley Fool CAPS; *Price when call was made. Current score is how many percentage points a member is beating (lagging) the S&P500 index from the time of the call.

Let's take a look at what other CAPS members are saying about these stocks and whether they agree with this top player's assessment.

Degree of risk
Perhaps the biggest reason investors buy into master limited partnerships like Enbridge Energy Partners or Kinder Morgan Energy Partners (NYSE: KMP  ) is the rich yields they pay out, typically exceeding 7%, 8%, or more. Enbridge currently yields 7.3% while Kinder Morgan is 6.4%. There are also the tax advantages that go with them.

That special tax treatment has resonated well with oil and natural gas producers who've set up their pipeline assets as MLPs. Enbridge's portfolio includes nearly 6,000 miles of crude oil gathering and transportation lines and the ability to store almost 29 billion barrels of oil. Natural gas gathering and transportation lines total approximately 10,000 miles.

Look for the midstream energy company's Granite Wash play in Texas to be a big contributor to future growth. During the first half of 2009, rig counts in the area had dropped by 63%, impacting earnings but recent drilling is giving high initial production rates, which is quite promising. Haynesville, Barnett, Marcellus, and Fayetteville have all gotten outsized attention, but it may be the Granite Wash that becomes the next hot spot.

It would seem the CAPS community agrees. Of the 322 members who have rated Enbridge Energy, 96% suggest it will outperform the broad market averages. As NKVD1938 noted in rating Kinder Morgan to outperform, the dividends are pretty secure.

These MLPs are all pretty good to own if you are a longer-term investor. The dividend yield on these companies beats ... what most puerile simpletons do with the majority of their money. And consider the following-not a ONE of the big dividend-paying MLPs missed a div date from late 2008 to late 2009 when the natgas industry was having its hardest time since about 2002 or so.

A lucky charm
Canadian exploration & production player Talisman Energy is still looking for the Marcellus shale region to boost its performance, even as it looks to exploit the Montney shale, like Canadian Natural Resources (NYSE: CNQ  ) is doing, and the Utica shale, similar to the interest shown by Forest Oil (NYSE: FST  ) . Talisman also has properties in the North Sea, as well as Southeast Asia where it expects growth of 8% to 10% over the next four or five years.

Some eight months ago Talisman was looking attractive on a production basis, but its stock trades 6.6% lower today. Now management says the "transition to long-term, profitable growth is progressing better and faster than we had imagined two years ago."

With 96% of the 584 CAPS members rating Talisman also backing the view that it will outperform, the energy sector seems ripe for further gains.

Insurance policy
Maybe President Obama doling out $2 billion in loan guarantees will let solar stocks have a big payday too. While First Solar didn't get the handout -- that distinction went to Abound Solar and Spanish solar specialist Abengoa -- much of its success has been dependent upon the charity of taxpayers around the world.

CAPS member gtucker7848 says First Solar looks good, but without the government's pockets he's not sure how it can prosper: "Great company, but not sure it can be profitable without government spending. Austerity seems to be the future for now."

A 1-in-100 opportunity
As hockey great Wayne Gretzky once noted, "You miss 100% of the shots you never take." At Motley Fool CAPS every investor's opinion counts and since it's free to sign up, why not use this opportunity to take your best shot?

The Steve Jobs Betrayal
You may already know that in the final year of his life, Jobs revealed a stunning betrayal — and told his biographer, "I will spend my last dying breath... and every penny of Apple's $40 billion in the bank to right this wrong." What was it that made Jobs so irate — and why could it make a few in-the-know investors some major profits over the coming months and years?

Enter your email address below to find out what made Jobs so enraged!

First Solar is a Motley Fool Rule Breakers selection.

Fool contributor Rich Duprey does not have a financial position in any of the stocks mentioned in this article. You can see his holdings here. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.


Comments from our Foolish Readers

Help us keep this a respectfully Foolish area! This is a place for our readers to discuss, debate, and learn more about the Foolish investing topic you read about above. Help us keep it clean and safe. If you believe a comment is abusive or otherwise violates our Fool's Rules, please report it via the Report this Comment Report this Comment icon found on every comment.

Be the first one to comment on this article.

Compare Brokers

Fool Disclosure

DocumentId: 1230902, ~/Articles/ArticleHandler.aspx, 5/26/2012 12:16:52 AM

Report This Comment

Use this area to report a comment that you believe is in violation of the community guidelines. Our team will review the entry and take any appropriate action.

Sending report...

Today's Market

updated 3 hours ago Sponsored by:
DOW 12,454.83 -74.92 -0.60%
S&P 500 1,317.82 -2.86 -0.22%
NASD 2,837.53 -1.85 -0.07%

Create My Watchlist

Go to My Watchlist

You don't seem to be following any stocks yet!

Better investing starts with a watchlist. Now you can create a personalized watchlist and get immediate access to the personalized information you need to make successful investing decisions.

Data delayed up to 5 minutes

Related Tickers

5/25/2012 4:05 PM
TLM $10.47 Up +0.36 +3.56%
Talisman Energy, I… CAPS Rating: ****
FSLR $14.33 Up +0.11 +0.77%
First Solar CAPS Rating: **
EEP $29.60 Up +0.03 +0.10%
Enbridge Energy Pa… CAPS Rating: *****
KMP $79.67 Up +0.29 +0.37%
Kinder Morgan Ener… CAPS Rating: *****
FST $8.43 Up +0.22 +2.68%
Forest Oil Corp CAPS Rating: ****
CNQ $30.75 Up +0.09 +0.29%
Canadian Natural R… CAPS Rating: *****

Advertisement