Graham Corp (GHM)

Hey everyone thanks for reading my blog. I hope everyone is having a good weekend. Its been awhile since I last posted on here and I apologize for that. Work has been busy and I have been studying for the Certified Equities Professional test, (CEP) for the last few weeks as well. However I thought I should get back to it and start posting more.

Today I am going to be talking about Graham Corp, a company I found while looking over the top gainers for Friday. Graham reported there 2nd quarter fiscal earnings on Friday. Earning per share came in at $1.10 compared to just $0.14 a share last year! They also declared a 5 for 4 stock split effective on November 30th. They also increased there quarterly dividend to $0.05 from $0.03.

What do they do?
Graham Corporation (Graham) manufactures and sells custom-built vacuum and heat transfer equipment to customers worldwide. The Company’s products include steam jet ejector vacuum systems, surface condensers for steam turbines, vacuum pumps and compressors, various types of heat exchangers, including helical coil heat exchangers marketed under the Heliflow name, and plate and frame exchangers. Graham’s products produce a vacuum, condense steam or transfer heat, or perform a combination of these tasks. Its products are available in a variety of metals and non-metallic corrosion resistant materials. The Company’s has two wholly owned subsidiaries, Graham Europe Limited in the United Kingdom and Graham Vacuum and Heat Transfer Technology (Suzhou) Co., Ltd. in Suzhou, China.

Fundamental Quality?
I like to rate stocks on 3 different components, the first being fundamental strength. First thing that strikes my eye is there trailing twelve month return on investment of 22.1 up from 16.4 this time last year. Another good sign is there gross margin for the trailing twelve months is up to 42.9, from 27.2 in the last quarter. That is a huge improvement!

Current Operational Trends
The second category I like to rate a stock on is what I like to call Current Operational Trends. Or more simply, how strong is a company's most recent sales and EPS growth.
One way to gauge this is by using the sales growth for the most recent quarter. For Graham its 41% increase for the latest quarter. I also like to look at the EPS growth for the most recent quarter. For Graham its a 45% increase, that is very nice to say the least.

Technical Strength
The final aspect of a stock I like to look at is, Technical Strength.

Taking a look at the chart we can see the huge gap up on earnings day to set a new 52 week high. Both the 50 and 200 day moving averages are up and very high volume on Friday. Both the RSI and MACD are both trending upwards and I see no weakness in the charts, even after such a huge day on Friday this stock should continue higher.

Based on the fundamental and technical strength of this stock I am rating it a buy.

This Stock (GHM) Is Rated A Buy

As always view my latest picks and current return at socialpicks.com.

Purchased Shares of EMC Corp (EMC)

Purchased some more shares of EMC as they are up 18% since I initiated my position on 8/20/07, and there showing no sign of slowing down. To view my current portfolio you can check it out at SocialPicks.com.

Sold Shares of Occidental Petroleum (OXY)

Today I was stopped out of OXY on open. Looks like we had a huge gap down on the stock, most likely due to the big drop is oil prices. However I did make a small gain on this stock and I hope you all did to.
Thanks for reading my blog. Have a good Monday!

Shares Purchased In Occidental Petroleum (OXY)

I always think its important that if someone is giving there opinions on the market then they need to prove it.
Today I purchased shares in Occidental Pete Corp (OXY). Later tonight when I have more time I will explain why I purchased shares in this company.
Trading Transparency

Ceragon Networks (CRNT)

Hey everyone thanks for reading my blog. I hope everyone had a good weekend.

Today I am going to be talking about Ceragon Networks a company I found while checking for stocks in a strong uptrend. Ceragon is supposed to report earning for there 3rd quarter on October 22. Earning per share is estimated to come in at $0.12 a share from $0.11 in 2006.

What do they do?
Ceragon Networks Ltd. (Ceragon) design, develops, manufactures and sells high-capacity, point-to-point wireless backhaul solutions. The Company’s products are used primarily by cellular operators to transport voice and data traffic in the backhaul, the segment of the telecommunications network that connects base stations to switch locations on the core network. Its products are also used by other telecommunications service providers that operate wired or wireless networks, and by organizations and enterprises that operate their own private networks based primarily on synchronous digital hierarchy/synchronous optical network technologies (SDH/SONET )and Internet protocol (IP) technologies.

Fundamental Quality?
I like to rate stocks on 3 different components, the first being fundamental strength. To start off I want to warn you, this company is not profitable yet and is highly volatile. This being the case it may be more speculative than past company's I have talked about. However I do feel this company has a ton of upside potential. First thing that strikes my eye is that return on investment has been cut from -9.7 at the end of 2006, to -1.8 for the trailing twelve months. We see a similar increase with there return on assets, at the end of 2006 it was at -6.4 and for the trailing twelve months its up to -1.2. Also sales have increased from 18.4 million in 2002, to 134.7 million in the trailing twelve months. Sales have increased every year.

Current Operational Trends
The second category I like to rate a stock on is what I like to call Current Operational Trends. Or more simply, how strong is a company's most recent sales and EPS growth.
One way to gauge this is by using the sales growth for the most recent quarter. For Ceragon its 57.9% compared to its peers in the industry there's is 85% higher. I also like to look at the EPS growth for the most recent quarter. For Ceragon its 217.2% which is 91% more than other company's in there industry.

Technical Strength
The final aspect of a stock I like to look at is, Technical Strength.

Taking a look at the chart we can see this stock just broke through resistance to set a new 52 week high. Both the 50 and 200 day moving averages are up and volume is up over the most recent breakout. Both the RSI and MACD are both trending upwards and I see no weakness in the charts, even after such a long and steep trend.

Based on the fundamental and technical strengh of this stock I am rating it a buy.

This Stock (CRNT) Is Rated A Buy