03/30/11 ABT, ADP, APD, BMS, CB, CINF, CLX, CTAS, CTL, ED, EMR, JNJ, KMB, KO, LEG, MCD, MHP, MMM, PBI, PEP, PG, PPG, VFC & WMT

03/30/11 ABT, ADP, APD, BMS, CB, CINF, CLX, CTAS, CTL, ED, EMR, JNJ, KMB, KO, LEG, MCD, MHP, MMM, PBI, PEP, PG, PPG, VFC & WMT

This group of stocks were in an article in the site SeekingAlpha.comin an article entitled, "24 Best Dividend Stocks with Growing Yields", written by, Insider Monkey.


Symbol Name

ABT Abbott Laboratories - #2 in overall profile for this group - RVI's are just off mid range - each scenario earns the dividend, near date Days Earning are 12 bps a day! We have and continue to like ABT.

ADP Automatic Data Processing, Inc. - We chose the May 50's, RVI's are at the top end. We like the business model and have been in and out of this stock for a while. Basically it is a solid earning stock in annuity businesses. The P/E, spot and forward, are at the high end and we would begin to exercise caution until premiums increase. Ownership will be predicated on strong fundamentals.

APD Air Products & Chemicals Inc. - Another stock we have liked and we highlighted this sector previously - RVI's are high and the Days earning for the near date is 8 bps. We continue to like the fundamentals of this sector and like the stock as a core holding pricing strikes close to spot.

BMS Bemis Company, Inc - Within this group the buy/write profile is not very attractive - each scenario earns the dividend, RVI's are at the top end, the Days earning and SSR's are low. Ownership will be predicated on strong fundamentals.

CB The Chubb Corporation - Another weak buy/write profile - we remain cautious on financial and insurance stocks. Fundamentals will drive their prices and their portfolios remain suspect to us. Pricing power for their products will be weak for all sectors.

CINF Cincinnati Financial CORP - #24 of the 24 stocks reviewed - The Buy/Write is not attractive, this has been the case for the stock over the past year. The dividend is very attractive and based on the very high RVI's the stock has performed well. Ownership will be predicated on strong fundamentals.

CLX The Clorox Company - RVI's are high, but the dividend is attractive. CLX is in a sector we like. Near date and far date Days Earning are impacted by the dividend. The adjusted difference is 3.3 bps a day. This is significant enough to make us want to sell the near date and "roll" the position (re-establish) mid April.

CTAS Cintas Corporation - Another company in a business we like that provides limited Buy/Write rewards. The RVI's are very high indicating rewarding stock performance, albeit within a narrow range. 7-5 bps a day is attractive for this stock and we would establish for the near date and continue to profit from call writing.

CTL CenturyLink, Inc - #3 overall for this group - NOTE MAY EXPRI - no surprise here, the sector is experiencing a lot of attention with M & A activity. P/E's are low, RVI's are high, we would take position in the near date expecting to get called.

ED Consolidated Edison, Inc - Stodgy old utility? #1 overall of this group - we featured domestic utility stocks in a recent post - The RVI's are very high, however the P/E, dividend are attractive. We are keeping the stock on a tight leash with an in the money near date buy/write being the most attractive.

EMR Emerson Electric Co. - #5 overall of this group - P/E's are ok to good, RVI's are mid high and the dividend pays early May.

JNJ Johnson & Johnson - Last of this group - Why? This is a greater mystery - Understanding the issues related to their star product Tylenol, volatility should be way high! - Needless to say, RVI's are low - Trade the rumor sell the fact - Buy/Writes are not attractive for a stock that we like fundamentally and are searching for reasons to justify its position. JNJ have always rebounded from their head ach's............

KMB Kimberly-Clark Corp Common - Again, another stock where we like the sector but the Buy/Writes are not very attractive. P/E's are attractive as is the dividend. RVI's are high to extreme. Days earning and SSR's are small. This is another company that you need to justify owning based on fundamentals.

KO The Coca-Cola Company Common - Unlike their competitor, if there is such a thing, KO's stock has performed well as evidence by the extreme RVI's. Again like a lot of stocks in sectors we like, KO has rewarded and is not offering much for Buy/Writes.

LEG Leggety & Platt Inc - #8 overall in a competitive group - RVI's are at the high end and P/E's are as well. May 25's offer some upside and 5 bps a day.

MCD McDonald's Corp - another favorite that is tough to justify buying based on Buy/Write's. RVIs are high mid and the dividend is nice. It is that volatility does not appear to be high enough. This is another company that you need to justify owning based on fundamentals.

MHP The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. - New to us, #4 of ths group - 10 bps a day to the near date and 7 to the next closest expri. RVI's are high.

MMM 3M Company - A long time favorite going back to grad school. RVI's are very high, and the opportunity seems to be in May 90's that are in the money. We continue to like the sector and see 5 pbs a day as ok. P/E's are low and it is just difficult to find a cheap/attractive stock in this sector with compelling Buy/Writes.

PBI Pitney Bowes Inc - #5 of this group - we have liked PBI for several quarters, but at the RVI's indicate it has performed well. This is another company that you need to justify owning based on fundamentals.

PEP Pepsico, Inc - RVI's mid, P/E good, RVI's 6 bps a day. The overall profile based on Buy/Writes and our criteria are twice as attractive as KO, assuming KO is your benchmark.

PG The Procter & Gamble Company - this is one of our Bedrock Stocks and we like it - RVI's are high, P/E's are low. The dividend is paid next month and is attractive.

PPG PPG Industries, Inc - RVI's are very high and the P/Es are creeping upward. We like this sector and this stock.

VFC V.F. Corporation - this stock is new to us - Top end RVI's, ok P/E's. The Days earning and SSR's are attractive. We need to do some fundamental work to justify a position.


WMT Wal-Mart Stores, Inc - Mid RVI's (not something we write often lately), Low P/E's. WMT's problems are well known but we would still continue to own the stock.

This analysis was performed at the market close of March 30, 2011.
The VIX closed at 17.71.
The S&P 500 closed at 1,328.26.









*Note: the tables shown are embedded .jpg files. This means that you can: 1) double left click them with your mouse to enlarge them, or 2) right click them with your mouse and choose to open them in a new window or tab, print, save, etc.
As with everything we post, we may or may not have the stock and/or strategy in place in any one of our portfolios or may add it at any time. We do not make any buy or sell recommendations. We provide basic analytical research, some short commentary of the results and encourage you to do your own thorough due diligence prior to any purchase or sale.

03/23/11 AA, AKS, BHP, BWC, CCJ, FWTL, MT, NLR, NUE, UEC, URA, URRE & URZ

AA, AKS, BHP, BWC, CCJ, FWTL, MT, NLR, NUE, UEC, URA, URRE & URZ


We offer to provide analysis of readers stocks or lists of stocks and this is much of what we did below. The request was to find uranium, nuclear or related stocks that have been discounted due to a reaction to the events in Japan. The list below is a collection of Mining Companies, Power Plant Builders and Suppliers and Steel Companies. Steel Companies seem to fit as far as they provide later staged material to manufacturing and in this case manufacturing has been destabilized due to the loss of capacity for an undetermined period in Japan. As with our last Analysis of 3/22/11, these companies vary in Market Cap and although some company may be in the same industry as another its competitive ability may not be the same.

Our regular readers will also notice two departures from our normal criteria for the companies we look at: 1) ETF and similar are analyzed & 2) non dividend paying stocks are included.

With the exceptions of URZ, BWC, UEC & NLR, every stock has a minimum 10 bps days earnings. These four stocks all have May expiration dates yet have Days Earnings between 5 and 9 bps!


This analysis was performed at the market close of March 23, 2011.
The VIX closed at 19.17.
The S&P 500 closed at 1,297.54.




Symbol Name

AA Alcoa Inc - Highest RVI's of today's "group" but best of the "Steel" makers - High Days Earning and SSR.

AKS AK Steel Holdings Corp - Ex-Date 3/29 - very low RVI's - both near date options provide Day's Earnings at 10 pbs.

BHP BHP Biliton Limited - High RVI's (in the 80's) - A stock we have liked for some time.

BWC The Bavcock & Wilson Company - NO DIVIDEND - Mid-High RVI's with Days Earnings at 5.9 bps for both near dates.

CCJ Cameco Corporation Common - 3/29 Dividend - #3 overall stock of the group with 18 bps days earnings - Low RVI's

FWTL Foster Wheeler AG. - NO DIVIDEND - #4 Overall stock due to high Day's Earnings - Traded RVI's are in the 70's -

MT Arcelor Mittal - Mid/low RVI's

NLR Market Vectors Uranium & Nuclear Energy ETF - - NO DIVIDEND - ETF - RVI's are mid/high in the high 70's - This general market index does not really support the belief that nuclear and related stocks got "CRUSHED" - The ETF was trading in the mid 25's prior to the Earthquake, fell to 20 post Quake and has rallied. Its 52 week high was mid-Feb at $27.78. Description: "The investment seeks to replicate as closely as possible, before fees and expenses, the price and yield performance of the DAXglobal Nuclear Energy index. The fund normally invests at least 80% of total assets in equity securities of U.S. and foreign companies primarily engaged in the nuclear energy business, which derive at least 50% of their total revenues from nuclear energy business. Such companies may include small- and medium capitalization companies. It is non-diversified."

NUE Nuroc Corporation - 3/29 Div - Mid/High RVI's - The dividend is captured in all scenario's. The call shown in the near date is 6¢ in the money. It was the most beneficial based on the numbers but not for those looking for upsidae.

UEC Uranium Energy Corp - - NO DIVIDEND - Mid/Low RVI's - as expected with a May expiration, the Day's Earnings are low (#11 for the list) while the SSR is high (#3 for the list).

URA Global X Uranium ETF - - NO DIVIDEND - #2 Overall with low RVI's - As opposed to NLR, URA does exhibit the post Quake/Catastrophe depression. URA peaked mid-Feb at $33.42 then dove to $12.5 post incident. The 20% recovery still has not brought it back and it "looks" attractive - It remains 20% below - DO OUR HOMEWORK ON THIS ONE. Description: "The investment seeks to provide investment results that correspond generally to the price and yield performance, before fees and expenses, of the Solactive Global Uranium Index. The fund normally invests at least 80% of total assets in the securities of the Underlying index and in depositary receipts based on the securities in the Underlying index. It uses a replication strategy. The Underlying index is free float adjusted, liquidity tested and market capitalization-weighted index that is designed to measure broad based equity market performance of global companies primarily involved in the uranium industry. The fund is non-diversified." "The Solactive Global Uranium Total Return Index tracks the price movements in shares of companies which are active in the Uranium mining industry. The Index is calculated as an total return index and published in USD. The composition of the Index is ordinarily adjusted twice a year.
Solactive Global Uranium Total Return Index


URRE Uranium Resources, Inc - NO DIVIDEND - Mid RVI's - #1 of overall list - 19.6 bps Days Earnings and a 4.4% SSR - Note that the May Expri's have a 19.4 bps and a 11.26% SSR! This is a "CRUSHED' stock - the market cap is $207 million - As always, do your research carefully, and understand the risk on this one.

URZ Uranerz Energy Corp - NO DIVIDEND - Mid/high RVI's - Again a stock we advise looking at carefully. This is a "CRUSHED' stock - the market cap is $227 million - As always, do your research carefully, and understand the risk on this one.

















*Note: the tables shown are embedded .jpg files. This means that you can: 1) double left click them with your mouse to enlarge them, or 2) right click them with your mouse and choose to open them in a new window or tab, print, save, etc.
As with everything we post, we may or may not have the stock and/or strategy in place in any one of our portfolios or may add it at any time. We do not make any buy or sell recommendations. We provide basic analytical research, some short commentary of the results and encourage you to do your own thorough due diligence prior to any purchase or sale.

03/21/11 - 17 "Domestic" Utility Companies - AEE, AEP, CNP, D, DUK, ED, ETR, EXC, FE, GXP, NEE, PCG, PEG, PPL, SCG, SO & WR

03/21/11 - 17 Energy Companies - AEE, AEP, CNP, D, DUK, ED, ETR, EXC, FE, GXP, NEE, PCG, PEG, PPL, SCG, SO & WR


We send best wishes to the people impacted by the earthquake and Tsunami. You are in our daily thoughts and I have a great deal of sympathy having been in numerous natural disasters and large earthquakes. Our friends in Japan are strong and have proven to be resilient. Last week we received a message from one of our close friends in Japan asking how they could "benefit" from the situation.

"Benefit" is a sensitive work but we understood their meaning. As fellow investors we began to look for market anomalies and over reactions. The most obvious sector was nuclear. This involves nuclear power plant owners, operators and mining operations. The power sectors were more evident than the mining companies. We are continuing our work on the mining companies, however, we doubt that any of it will appear on this blog because at this point any investments in this sector appear to be far too speculative.

As for nuclear power we provide this short primmer:

Nuclear power provides about 6% of the worlds energy. Not all of the energy produced is used for electricity. However, the 441 worldwide nuclear power plants provide 13-16% of the worlds electricity (depending on the information source). The U.S., France and Japan collectively rely on 50% of the electricity generated by nuclear energy. The U.S. tops the list of nuclear energy generation. Electricity generated by nuclear varies by country. France leads with 80%, the EU with 30% and the US at 19% of electricity from nuclear generation.

We chose to focus our efforts on the US market. The reasons are rather simple, we are mostly dollar based investors, our liabilities are based in dollars and the liquidity of the spot and options markets are important.

Not all the listed companies are directly involved in nuclear energy. However, all are involved in electricity, either generation, plant operation or transmission.


Nuclear power accounted for about 20% of the total net electricity generated in the United States in 2008, about as much as the electricity used in California, Texas, and New York, the three States with the most people. In 2008, there were 66 nuclear power plants (composed of 104 licensed nuclear reactors) throughout the United States. Most of the reactors are east of the Mississippi. The last new reactor to enter commercial service in the United States was the Tennessee Valley Authority’s Watts Bar 1 in Tennessee in 1996.

Owners and operators of U.S. civilian nuclear power reactors purchased the equivalent of 53 million pounds of uranium during 2008. Uranium delivered to U.S. reactors in 2008 came from six continents:
14% of delivered uranium came from the United States
86% of delivered uranium was of foreign-origin:
42% was from Australia and Canada
33% originated in Kazakhstan, Russia and Uzbekistan
11% came from Brazil, Czech Republic, Namibia, Niger, South Africa, and the United Kingdom. (source U.S. Energy Information Administration)


This analysis was performed at the market close of March 21, 2011.
The VIX closed at 20.61.
The S&P 500 closed at 1,298.38.



Symbol Name Market Cap

AEE Ameren Corporation - $ 6.6 B -

AEP American Electric Power - $16.4 B -

CNP CenterPoint Energy Inc - $ 7.3 B - #1 overall profile for this group - low end of market cap - primarily a transmission company - RVI's are high - dividend payment early May.

D Dominion Resources, Inc - $25.8 B -

DUK Duke Energy - $23.6 B -

ED Consolidated Edison, Inc- $14.6 B - # 3 overall for this group - legacy operator and now energy distrobutor and operator.

ETR Entergy Corporation - $11.8 B -

EXC Exelon Corporation - $26.7 B -

FE FirstEnergy Corp - $11.2 B -

GXP Great Plains Energy Inc - $ 2.6 B -

NEE NextEra Energy Inc - $22.6 B -

PCG PG & E Corp - $17.4 B -

PEG Public Service Entp Grp - $15.6 B - #2 overall/#1 in SSR for this group - Low RVI's but the stock stays in a narrow range -

PPL PP&L Industries - $12.0 B -

SCG SCANA Corp - $ 5.0 B -

SO The Southern Company - $31.6 B -

WR Westar Energy, Inc - $ 3.0 B -




This analysis was performed while the market was open throughout the day of March 16, 2011.
The VIX ranged throughout the day between 24.04 and 31.28 closing at 29.40.
The S&P 500 ranged throughout the day between1,249.05 and 1,280.91 closing at1,256.88.














*Note: the tables shown are embedded .jpg files. This means that you can: 1) double left click them with your mouse to enlarge them, or 2) right click them with your mouse and choose to open them in a new window or tab, print, save, etc.
As with everything we post, we may or may not have the stock and/or strategy in place in any one of our portfolios or may add it at any time. We do not make any buy or sell recommendations. We provide basic analytical research, some short commentary of the results and encourage you to do your own thorough due diligence prior to any purchase or sale.