Great Call on Chesapeake Energy! What's Next?

Chesapeake Energy's (NYSE:CHK) stock was living large through the first half of 2008, hanging out in hot tubs and popping bottles of Cristal as it soared to $74 per share. The abrupt fall of oil and natural gas prices in the back half of the year, however, cut the party short, and Chesapeake was forced to go from Cristal to Krystal.

Most of the 6,000-plus CAPS members that have weighed in on Chesapeake's stock think that the sell-off has only made the stock more attractive, and many see big things in the future for natural gas -- Chesapeake's primary product. mapboys, one of the few CAPS members bearish on Chesapeake, has thus far been ahead of the curve on this stock, though. After being bullish on Chesapeake from April of 2007 to July of 2008, he has twice given the stock the thumbs down, scoring nearly 130 points for his troubles.

mapboys has also shared some of his thoughts on the company, noting:

As the outlook for Natural gas prices continues to fall, this stock should follow suit. Having a lot of booked reserves on undrilled wells means nothing if the play is not economic. My take is that the Haynesville Shale play is not economic when Natural Gas is under $8.00 per mcf at current drilling costs. [Chesapeake's] debt level doesn't make me happy either.

mapboys is one of CAPS's All-Stars -- players with a rating of 80 or greater -- and he has managed a stock picking accuracy of 53% on his calls while racking up over 135 points. Chesapeake hasn't been his only great call. Here's a look at a few of his other prescient picks:

Data from CAPS.

So, what is this investor looking at these days? Here are a few of his recent calls on CAPS:

Data from CAPS.

While not all of these picks may pan out, they could be good places to start some further research. I decided to take a closer at Cemex.

Falling like a cement block
Well sure, Cemex was a good stock. It's one of the largest cement companies in the world, and even after the U.S. real estate market started to falter, the promise of continued infrastructure build-out in developing economies cushioned the stock. But with the entire world seeming to melt down in the second half of 2008, and amid huge debt concerns, the stock plummeted nearly 70%.

More recently, though, there's been a glimmer of hope for Cemex that has helped its stock more than double from a late-November low of $4.01. That hope, of course, is the economic stimulus proposal that U.S. President-elect Barack Obama has unveiled. If Congress is on the same page, Obama hopes that as he steps into office, he can put into play one of the biggest investments in U.S. infrastructure the country has ever seen. As investors have already figured out, this could be a huge boon for materials companies like Cemex.

On CAPS, Cemex is a five star pick with over 97% of the members rating it coming in on the bullish side. CAPS All-Star scampbel131 recently gave Cemex a thumbs up and simply said: "Obama's plan is good news for this company." Mrindependent, a fellow CAPS All-Star, managed to catch the stock a couple weeks ago when it was 50% lower, and he said:

If "building stuff" is the answer to the world's current economic dilemma, then this world leading cement producer is likely to thrive thoughout the recession. Today it is available at 65% of book value, which seems like a deal.

But here's the important question: What's your take on Cemex? Will it continue to ride the infrastructure wave, or will the excitement die down? Get in the action by clicking over to CAPS. CAPS is absolutely free and already has over 120,000 stock pickers chipping in to find the best stocks out there.

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