Brutal!!!

The stock market has been brutal!  There is no place to hide lately.  All I can tell you is to ride it out.  Keep current with all the news on your current stock holdings.  If everything is sound with your investments pay no attention to the outside noise.  Europe is the biggest drag on the market and all stocks good or bad have been taken down.  The only strategy that will help you lose less money is to shift your holdings into good dividend paying stocks.  I on the other hand will continue to hold my high flyers.  When the smoke clears the growth stocks will snap back the quickest.  Until Europe gets it's act together the pain continues....

Clay-


Full Disclosure

Current Holdings:
Cosi Inc. (COSI)-Monster Portfolio
Caterpillar (CAT)
Westport Innovations (WPRT) Monster Portfolio
Kinder Morgan Energy Partners (KMP)

I'm not a licensed financial advisor. All recommendations is strictly my personal opinion and the information is intended for learning purposes only. Invest at your own risk!

Westport Innovations +12.41% today

All I'm going to say is Westport Innovations (WPRT) up +30.70% in 4 days.  Looks like some big money is flowing back into this growth machine.  Keep a close eye on this fast mover.

Have a great night!

Clay-


Full Disclosure

Current Holdings:
Cosi Inc. (COSI)-Monster Portfolio
Caterpillar (CAT)
Westport Innovations (WPRT) Monster Portfolio
Kinder Morgan Energy Partners (KMP)

I'm not a licensed financial advisor. All recommendations is strictly my personal opinion and the information is intended for learning purposes only. Invest at your own risk!

Quick post... The pitfalls of growth stocks

So I made a big bet on Westport (WPRT) and thus far I have been wrong. LOL!  That's the risk you take when investing.  I moved in hard in the low 30's and have been punished by the short sellers.  Westport's earnings call for Q1 2012 on Tuesday was actually quite good in terms of progress.  I know they lost more money than they did vs. last year's quarter, but they are increasing sales quite nicely.  I think this stock has been taken down beyond what is right.  I know the nay sayers would argue that this company hasn't turned a profit in years, but you have to fuel the growth some how!  You need cash.. And enough cash is what they have.  If their wasn't progress than I would say the heck with this stock.  I believe Westport will surprise everyone especially the short sellers in the coming weeks.  I'm looking for a short squeeze in the near term.  There needs to be a catalyst to change the aggressive downward trend.  I'm confident WPRT's management will  have some good news to get the big fish investors back on board.  Plus a change needs to be made because I'm sick of losing money! 

I'm still a big Westport Innovations fan even if I lose a little cash in the short term.  I didn't expect this high growth engine to get cut in half in the past few months, but it happens to the best of them.  The thing with growth stocks is as followed...

When any negative news poses a threat to the growth of a fast growing company investors do not hesitate to turn on a once loved company.  The money will flow out like a huge hole in a boat and the short sellers will step in to accelerate the downturn.  When this happens the momentum takes over and stocks go down until the sellers are exhausted.  This is what happened to Westport.  Other growth companies have gone through the same thing.  Here are just a few stocks that had similar rapid downfalls.

Starbucks (SBUX)
Hansen Natural (MNST) AKA Monster Energy Drinks
NetFlix (NFLX)
Taser (TASR)

A few of the companies have rebounded nicely from when they plummeted, but rapid growth can't continue forever and neither can straight up stock prices.  It hurts to see your money slip through your hands from time to time, but the excitement of catching the next big trend is always worth the risk in my eyes.

Stay positive with WPRT.  Loyal shareholders will prevail.

Have a great night!

Clay-


Full Disclosure

Current Holdings:
Cosi Inc. (COSI)-Monster Portfolio
Caterpillar (CAT)
Westport Innovations (WPRT) Monster Portfolio
Kinder Morgan Energy Partners (KMP)

I'm not a licensed financial advisor. All recommendations is strictly my personal opinion and the information is intended for learning purposes only. Invest at your own risk!

Caterpillar 2012 Q1 Results

Caterpillar (CAT) had yet another record breaking quarter! That's right a record breaking quarter!  So what gives with the stock price?  I have yet to understand some of the price action of late, but the Peoria Powerhouse isn't one to shy away from.  I can tell you from the conference call that business is good. Real good!  The only thing that could have be taken as a negative is a slow down in China, but yet increased activity in the US should offset the current weakness. 

I know that China is always seen as a growth engine for business and that investors panic when they see the slightest bit of negative news coming out of China.  However, in Caterpillar's case there is no need to fret.  China is a very small portion of CAT sales.  Only 3%  Yes maybe later down the road China will be a huge growth driver for CAT, but as of right now I wouldn't put to much thought into the slow down in China.  Management has already put plans in place to reduce the glut of inventory in China to shift/export to other markets that are on allocation.   The US market performed very well and the oil and gas business is on fire!  On top of that CAT raised its 2012 profit outlook. 

Q1 2012 vs Q1 2011

EPS was $2.37 vs. $1.84 a 28.80% increase

Sales were $15.981 billion vs. $12.949 billion Another 23.41% improvement

Profit was $1.586 billion vs. $1.225 billion

Other positives of note was an increased backlog of Caterpillar products bringing the total from $29.8 billion to $30.7 billion, global mining business is strong in China, operating margins were solid, backlog in mining equipment, and a 73% increase in the resource industry.  That means mining!  Mining is huge for CAT at the moment and I don't see any slowdown any time soon.

From the numbers and conservative outlook I still believe CAT will be trading north of $130 a share by the end of the year.   CAT is still a solid buy in my book.


P.S.  I also listened to Weatherford's (WFT) conference call over the weekend and they are still good to go. They started off to a slow start, but business should pick up during the second half of the year.

Have a great night!

Clay-


Full Disclosure

Current Holdings:
Cosi Inc. (COSI)-Monster Portfolio
Caterpillar (CAT)
Westport Innovations (WPRT) Monster Portfolio
Kinder Morgan Energy Partners (KMP)

I'm not a licensed financial advisor. All recommendations is strictly my personal opinion and the information is intended for learning purposes only. Invest at your own risk!