Top Newsletter Stock Picks
Downturn Tests Best Investments from Award-Winning Market Reports
This analysis looks at the impact of the recent market decline on top value stock picks submitted by 5 leading investment advisors respected for their stock trading tips.
Back in January, Steve Halpern of TheStockAdvisors.com published a list of stocks that gained the most in 2006, and identified the leading financial newsletter advisors who chose them.
The week ending July 27 marked the worst pullback for North American stock markets in almost 5 years. Stocks around the world lost some US$2 trillion, flamed principally by fears of more defaults caused by risky U.S. subprime loans.
In times of market turmoil, investors turn to established investment newsletters for reassurance and advice.
Top Stock Picks 2006
Each of last year’s winning investment newsletter advisors has a long history of successfully researching and selecting high-quality equities. The list below identifies the advisor and newsletter, as well as the top performing stock in 2006. Also documented is the impact that the recent market decline has had based on the stock price at July 27, 2007.
- Jim Oberweis, Oberweis Report: Focus Media (FMCN on NASDAQ) up 97% in 2006; up a further 14.3% in 2007
- Jim Trippon, China Stock Digest: China Petroleum & Chemical (SNP on NYSE) up 86% in 2006; up a further 13.1% in 2007
- Vahan Janjigian, Forbes Growth Report: Sirenza Microelectronics (SMDI on NASDAQ) up 72% in 2006; up a further 37% in 2007
- Paul Tracy, StreetAuthority Market Advisor: International Game Technology (IGT on NYSE) up 50% in 2006; down 23.3% in 2007
- Kelly Wright, Investment Quality Trends: AT&T (T on NYSE) up 48% in 2006; up a further 12.3% in 2007.
Sirenza Microelectronics supplies radio frequency components for defense, aerospace and homeland security equipment. So far in 2007, SMDI has outperformed the other 2006 picks with a formidable 37% gain. The average gain for the 5 stock picks from 2006 is 10.7% so far this year.
Top Conservative Stock Picks 2007
The performance of each newsletter’s conservative stock pick as of July 29, 2007 is shown below. The Oberweis Report focuses exclusively on small cap stocks and is therefore excluded.
- China Stock Digest: China Life Insurance (LFC on NYSE) up 10.9%
- Forbes Growth Report: Church & Dwight (CHD on NYSE) up 10.5%
- StreetAuthority Market Advisor: Diageo (DEO on NYSE) up 1.5%
- Investment Quality Trends: Citigroup (C on NYSE) down 15%.
The average gain for the top 5 conservative stock picks for 2007 is 1.6%. Citigroup has seen the largest decline, perhaps because the company is the world’s largest bank with potential exposure to risky subprime loan defaults.
Top Aggressive Stock Picks 2007
Each of the 5 investment reports provided a speculative favourite for 2007. Presented below is the performance of these aggressive stock picks, again based on closing stock prices on July 27, 2007.
- Forbes Growth Report: Sirenza Microelectronics (SMDI on NASDAQ) up 37%
- Oberweis Report: Tessera (TSRA on NASDAQ) up 0.6%
- StreetAuthority Market Advisor: Western Union (WU on NYSE) down 11.1%
- Investment Quality Trends: Popular Inc. (BPOP on NASDAQ) down 23.7%
- China Stock Digest: China Direct (CHND.OB on NASDAQ) down 41.2%.
The above set of aggressive stocks share an average loss of 7.7%. The leading aggressive growth stock so far in 2007 is Sirenza Microelectronics. As mentioned above, Sirenza was also the top choice for the Forbes Growth Report last year.
Combined Conservative & Aggressive Stock Picks 2007
Shown below is the averaged performance for a newsletter’s conservative plus aggressive stock choices as of July 29, 2007.
- Forbes Growth Report: up 23.8%
- Oberweis Report: up 0.6% (no conservative pick)
- StreetAuthority Market Advisor: down 4.8%
- China Stock Digest: down 15.2%
- Investment Quality Trends: down 19.4%.
So far this year, Vahan Janjigian at Forbes Growth Report is king of value stock picks. Vahan has a proven edge in finding winning stocks to buy, like Sirenza Microelectronics.
Note: Suite101 does not offer investment advice. Instead, we seek to educate and inform our readers by sharing insights about the latest trends and news from the world of finance.
