No one has perfect foresight, but let's be honest: The market is full of people who, as Oscar Wilde would say, know "the price of everything and the value of nothing." Far too often -- over the past year especially -- investors have been pitched sensational stock recommendations only to be left high and dry as shares crumble.
To hunt down top-recommended stocks that have been rewarding investors accordingly, I summoned our Motley Fool CAPS community to point out a few four- or five-star stocks that have been shootin' for the moon in recent months.
While not formal buy recommendations, these three-month bloomers caught my attention:
Company |
13-Week Price Return |
Recent Share Price |
Fiscal Year 2009 EPS Estimates |
CAPS Rating |
---|---|---|---|---|
Adobe |
59.4% |
$30.17 |
$1.49 |
***** |
FedEx |
50.2% |
$57.25 |
$3.37* |
**** |
Intuitive Surgical |
52.1% |
$159.72 |
$4.66 |
**** |
PotashCorp |
50.5% |
$117.34 |
$6.89 |
**** |
Schlumberger |
49.7% |
$59.27 |
$2.57 |
***** |
Teck Resources |
351.9% |
$18.15 |
$0.89 |
***** |
Data from Motley Fool CAPS, and Yahoo! Finance. Return between March 13 and June 9.
*For the year ending May 2010.
You can rerun the CAPS screen I used by clicking here.
Farmer John might take over the world
His fascination with bow ties makes him hard to take seriously, but when Jim Rogers talks, you should probably listen. The man is quite sensational, but he's often spot-on.
One comment Rogers recently made really caught my attention. In an interview with Newsweek, Rogers claimed: "I think you should move back to Indiana and marry a farmer … Farmers are going to be the ones driving Lamborghinis."
This might seem slightly exaggerated, but his point is important: Amid a weakening dollar, massive population growth, and an ever-increasing need for arable land, farming and agricultural commodities could turn into a seriously lucrative business. This is especially true when you consider that agricultural-based commodities have a utility and survivability factor that gold, metal, and even oil do not.
That said, many investors have been looking at PotashCorp as a solid contender in a reflating economy. Along with rival Mosaic
I see it first hand as my farmer works my land. Machinery and land farmed is getting bigger and bigger as is capitalization increases. Production keeps going up and it has to in order to feed the world. It has reasonable P/E, low debt and not much competition. It is still on the lower end of historical price and pays a small dividend. I look for it to increase about like oil.
Shares have blown up over the past few months, so is this rally over? Most of it, probably. All of it, probably not. The growth potential here could be quite large not just from organic sales growth, but rapid price increases amid dollar weakness. This could be especially true if rapidly growing countries like China and India recover ahead of the United States, which could create something of a twofer scenario of a natural commodity boom coupled with a weak dollar as the U.S. tries to dig its way out of recession.
Your turn to chime in
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