President Obama kicks off his reelection campaign this week with a three-day trip to announce a series of new mortgage and student loan initiatives.
In the aftermath of Republican resistance to his $447 billion jobs package, Obama will present his series of changes in small packages as to bypass the congressional barriers. According to a White House official Obama's plans to help the economy will not require congressional approval.
The campaign starts in Nevada on Monday, where he will unveil an initiative to make it easier for homeowners to refinance their mortgages. Nevada is one of the states most affected by the housing crisis.
Reuters reports that the Obama administration has been working with the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), the regulator for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, to find ways to make it easier for borrowers to switch to cheaper loans even if they have little to no equity in their homes.
Furthermore, FHFA "intends to loosen the terms of the two-year-old Home Affordable Refinance Program (HARP), which helps borrowers who have been making mortgage payments on time but who have not been able to refinance as their home values have dropped."
On Wednesday, Obama will stop in Denver to unveil a student loan initiative. Student loan debt, and the increasing number of defaults, has posed many financial problems for the Fed and educational institutions. In fact, the amount of money owed in federal student loans has surpassed $1 trillion, which is more than the total amount that Americans owe on their credit cards.
These issues are sure to bring in a lot of attention to Obama's campaign. So which stocks have an exposure to Obama's expected announcement?
To help you develop ideas, we collected data on housing and for-profit education stocks, and identified the names that have seen significant insider buying over the last six months.
Obama wants to boost these industries, and insiders seem to think the outlook is already very positive -- do any of these names make your short list? (Click here to access free, interactive tools to analyze these ideas.)
List compiled by Eben Esterhuizen, CFA:
1. ITT Educational Services
2. Career Education
3. Lincoln Educational Services
4. National American University Holdings
5. Cambium Learning Group
6. Avatar Holdings
7. Ameron International
8. Griffon
9. Headwaters
10. Campus Crest Communities
Interactive Chart: Press Play to compare changes in analyst ratings over the last two years for the stocks mentioned above. Analyst ratings sourced from Zacks Investment Research.
Kapitall's Eben Esterhuizen and Rebecca Lipman do not own any of the shares mentioned above. Insider data sourced from Yahoo! Finance.