By Brian Stoffel, The Motley Fool
Filed under: Investing
It’s not often that you get to see, in real time, how some of the analysts you follow are performing. With our CAPS system, that’s now possible. Even more rare is the ability to get real-time updates on what analysts are buying and selling — all for free.
But that’s exactly what we offer at The Motley Fool, through our Real-Money Stock Picking program. Eleven of the Fool’s in-house analysts are making real purchases with the Fool’s money. I’ve highlighted five of those buys made in March, and the reasoning behind them. At the end, I’ll offer up access to a special free report on one company Warren Buffett wishes he could buy… but can’t.
Two energy plays
When Superstorm Sandy hit last year, millions of Americans were left without power for days. It offered a humbling reminder of how reliant so many of us are on the nation’s power grid. Though my wife and I live in the Midwest and avoided the worst of the storm, we have family that lives in the Northeast and was right in the middle of it.
One prescient uncle in particular became a neighborhood hero when his not one but two generators were lent out to neighbors when they were needed. It’s that type of thinking that led analyst Jim Mueller to buy shares of Generac Holdings .
The company, which makes generators of all sizes, has been around for nearly 50 years, and has a 70% market share of home standby generators. As Jim rightly points out, our nation’s electrical grid isn’t getting any younger; and even though improvements will surely be made, it won’t be without delays and political grandstanding.
As it is, outages are becoming all the more commonplace, meaning that Generac’s products could be in increasing demand.
Source: Electric Disturbance Event annual reports, Office of Electricity Delivery & Energy Reliability, DOE.
The other energy company on our analysts’ radar was Apache , a natural gas and crude oil company. Fool analyst Paul Chi, after carefully considering what he heard from Apache’s analyst day presentations, thinks now is the time to buy shares.
Specifically, Paul is excited that the company has signaled, in no uncertain terms, that it is going to start drilling more wells across the swath of its balanced worldwide portfolio.
This build-out will help the company achieve its goal of 1 million barrels of oil per day by 2016. While I think that’s encouraging — as is the fact that the company is trading for a cheap seven times forward earnings — I tend to stay away from investments that are so prone to commodity price swings.
Time to buy into banks
Along with the energy sector, our analysts were busy buying up shares of bank stocks as well. But if you’re looking for big-name banks, you’re out of luck. Our analysts are digging much deeper to find their favorites.
Fool analyst Anand Chokkavelu recently discussed …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance
