Wall Street's Buy List

Actions speak louder than words, as the old saying goes. So why does the media focus so much attention on what Wall Street says about companies, instead of what it does with them?

Luckily for Wall Street watchers, the Internet brings us MSN Money's list of which companies the institutions are buying. True, we should be as skeptical of Wall Street's actions as we are of its words. But when the 165,000-plus lay and professional investors on Motley Fool CAPS agree with Wall Street's opinions, it just might be time for some buying.

Here's the latest edition of Wall Street's Buy List, alongside our investors' opinions of the companies involved:

Companies are selected from the "Institutional Ownership Up Last Month" list published on MSN Money after close of trading on Friday. Recent price provided by Yahoo! Finance. CAPS ratings from Motley Fool CAPS.

Wall Street vs. Main Street
Mr. Market rediscovered the "up" button on his elevator yesterday, and up on Wall Street, the pinstripes-and-wingtips crowd is loading up again on favorite tickers. But are their choices prudent? Are they prescient?

CAPS member maunder8, at least, suspects they may be. Take the contrarian airline pick of US Airways: "With low oil prices, a strong US market, increasing services to South America [and the Caribbean], Europe, and Australia, and low operating costs, this stock is likely to increase in value dramatically in 2010-2011." Or consider the curious case of jmhinkey, who, eschewing more obvious Internet commerce plays, has taken a liking to the industry's dark horse, Overstock.com. Says jmhinkey: "Just purchased from them for my second time, great products, great prices, I like their business model."

High praise indeed, and it's always good to hear from a satisfied customer. Unfortunately, very few Fools seem to agree with these fans of Overstock and US Airways. With mere one-star ratings to their "credit," the stocks remain among the very worst rated on CAPS. Wall Street's enthusiasm notwithstanding, most investors appear convinced that the professionals have it wrong on these stocks. And yet, every once in a while, Wall Street gets it right.

Today is one of those times. And according to CAPS, LogMeIn is one of those stocks.

The bull case for LogMeIn
What's so great about LogMeIn? Simple, CAPS All-Star itsvirg says: "Use this program JUST ONCE and you'll discover why it's an excellent tool for IT. The [LogMeIn] free model provides a great test-run for IT professionals that can then see the value of the paid versions. This could be a great tool for business. Excellent growth opportunity."

And itsvirg isn't the only techie singing LogMeIn's praises. Last year, lethaljd became a charter member of the LogMeIn fan club on CAPS, saying: "Being an IT manager and the decision maker at the company for all IT related purchases, I can say that LogMeIn's services have been a lifesaver. Their LogMeIn software is feature rich and is, hands down, the best I've seen on the market. In addition, their VPN client, Hamachi, is unbelievably easy to use. They have a very nice web interface and great products."

Nor are IT professionals the only ones who like the stock. CAPS All-Star limeonaire gives us the lay computer user's view: "More people have laptops than ever; this lets you log into your laptop and potentially recover it after it's stolen. Valuable service."

How do you like them Apples?
And it seems the LogMeIn story is breaking out into the mainstream as well. Just yesterday, Bloomberg gave investors a hint as to why Wall Street is suddenly logging on to LogMeIn. In a column describing some of the company's less touted virtues, a Bloomberg writer revealed how iPad users are using LogMeIn to circumvent Apple's (Nasdaq: AAPL) blockade of Adobe (Nasdaq: ADBE) Flash on its computers. Seems there's a relatively inexpensive ($30) "app" that iPad owners can purchase from LogMeIn that allows one to access and operate a "normal" computer via the iPad -- Flash software and all. So much for Apple's boycott.

If Apple turns out to be wrong about customers wanting access to Flash, then right off the bat we've got a potential 1 million iPad-owner market for LogMeIn's $30 product -- nearly five months worth of LogMeIn annual revenues, for just one of the company's products, that could be snagged in a ... Flash.

Foolish final thought
Bloomberg's observation is just one small piece of the LogMeIn story, of course. Hardly enough to hang a whole buy thesis on. There's many other examples of how LogMeIn is changing the way businesses work. Best Buy (NYSE: BBY) has utilized the software to remotely fix customers' PCs. Symantec (Nasdaq: SYMC) uses the service to install updates remotely on client computers. Then there's the bread-and-butter enterprise market that uses the programs for seamlessly working remotely from a different computer.

Of course, that's just my two cents' worth on LogMeIn. The comments box is waiting below for you to tell us what you think about LogMeIn.