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 110,000-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 on the Saturday following close of trading last week. Recent price provided by Yahoo! Finance. CAPS ratings from Motley Fool CAPS.

Wall Street vs. Main Street
With most stocks on the list earning subpar one- and two-star ratings, Main Street investors don't seem to think much of Wall Street's favorite picks this week. The sole exception ... well, it's a surprising one: A profitless, near-revenueless start-up, run by an energy industry legend (Gary Evans, who started Magnum Hunter Resources from scratch in 1985, ran it 20 years, then sold it to Cimarex (NYSE:XEC) for $2.1 billion), that's quietly accumulating a complex set of "Green" energy businesses.

Hence the name: GreenHunter Energy. Here's what Fools have to say about it.

The bull case for GreenHunter Energy
Far from a household name, GreenHunter has already attracted a wide and enthusiastic following among CAPS' best investors -- 36 out of 37 All-Stars polled rate the stock a likely outperformer, beginning with:

• EnigmaDude, who tells us that: "GreenHunter was formed to be the first publicly traded renewable energy company based in the U.S. that provides to investors a portfolio of diversified assets in the alternative energy sector."
• CAPS standout pennysplants, who thinks this is the place to be in the energy sphere: "I'm investing in [GreenHunter Energy] for the same reasons I've invested in [Clean Energy (NASDAQ:CLNE)]. ... Gore, presidential elections, and high gas prices won't hurt ... Great management ... continues to make strategic acquisitions. ... They're oilmen. And, they've got skin in the game." Interestingly, pennysplants also says: "All the complicated financing/partnering arrangements continue to defy my ability to figure out what's going on. This is Soooooooo common in this sector that I have given up trying to make an analysis."
• But even that doesn't worry TheHarm, who is obviously a partisan and writes that: "An Obama presidency will send this stock higher. It doesn't even matter if the company is solid, people will see 'green' in the company name after Obama sweeps the election and it'll send this stock launching skyward. I think it is already overvalued but it won't even matter. Away from the psychology of the stock, the company authorized a 500,000 share buyback and it is a well-diversified alternative energy play--- something more tangible to play on."

So, to summarize the factors working in GreenHunter's favor, it's a pure-play, yet a diversified way to invest in renewable energy. And we've got a certifiable, grade-A energy-industry genius at the helm. Sounds good so far.

What we don't have, however, is anything resembling "investable" numbers. Valued at more than a third of a billion dollars today, GreenHunter is unprofitable, burning cash, and booked all of $1 million in revenues last year. An obvious investment, this one ain't. What it is, is an educated guess, a gamble, a high-risk, high-reward bet on a moon shot. Count your pennies carefully before investing in this one, Fools, and be sure of how much money you can afford to lose.

Time to chime in
Of course, the aim of this column isn't just to tell you what I think about GreenHunter Energy, or even what our CAPS members have to say. We really want to hear your opinion. Click on over to Motley Fool CAPS and tell us what you think.

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