Warren Buffett has proven that the key to investing is buy and hold; the problem is, how do you know you’re not holding onto a loser?  For many investors, the only information they get besides glancing at an earnings release is the stock price. Separating the good from the bad is difficult, but finding well-run companies at bargain-basement prices is a great way to accumulate a fortune over the long run.

With that in mind, at The Motley Fool we have another easy tool for you to see how your company is doing. You can use the aggregate intelligence of the 135,000-plus investors participating in Motley Fool CAPS to see what the community is thinking about a company today, and how they felt about it last quarter.  A change in the community's approval (signified by four- and five-star ratings) or disapproval (one- and two-star ratings) could indicate that further research is in order.

Here is the CAPS community’s aggregate feelings on American Airlines parent AMR (NYSE:AMR), and some related companies, from today and last quarter.

 

AMR

Pinnacle Airlines (NASDAQ:PNCL)

SkyWest (NASDAQ:SKYW)

This Quarter (7/15/09):

     

Price:

$4.36

$2.75

$11.58

% of Members Rating Outperform

60.02%

91.63%

73.97%

% of All-Star Members Rating Outperform

45.37%

86.49%

68.33%

CAPS Rating (out of 5)

*

***

**

Last Quarter (4/16/09):

     

Price:

$5.28

$1.71

$13.16

% of Members Rating Outperform

59.67%

91.70%

72.73%

% of All-Star Members Rating Outperform

48.04%

84.75%

68.52%

CAPS Rating (out of 5)

*

***

**

Source: Motley Fool CAPS. Dates given are the posting dates of AMR’s most recent quarterly and/or annual reports to the SEC's website. Percentages are calculated from the number of members rating each company.

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