Stock Gumshoe

Louis Navellier is again astride two horses that have driven his marketing for much of this year: Alternative energy, and the election.

He’s telling us that he has a pick for his Emerging Growth newsletter that will benefit greatly from the presumed Obama presidency, largely because of the dramatic funding that should come through for alternative energy early next year (or perhaps, as he intimates, even in the lame duck session of this Congress).

This is a common argument these days — and some of the alternative energy stocks have gotten a bit of a boost lately, specifically the solar stocks that got a little optimism from Congressional passage of extended and improved clean energy tax credits. Still, even with that long-term good news, the fall of oil and the crash of the market have kept most of these names far, far off their highs. Most solar companies now trade at far lower PE ratios than they have ever seen before — but of course, you could say much the same thing about many stocks in this market, even after yesterday’s pleasant bounce.

And generally speaking, it does make sense — Obama and McCain are both committed to reducing reliance on imported oil, and both have backed initiatives that are designed to increase the use of “green” energy and fight global warming. Obama has specifically focused on alternative energy as an area where he wants to invest and create new jobs and a larger industry, so the overall theme makes sense.

But what stock is Navellier talking about, specifically? He won’t tell you, of course, not without your cash — and his publisher has gotten pretty aggressive lately, this is usually an expensive newsletter at $1,000 a year, but he’s trying to tempt people with a $99 offer.

The Gumshoe offer, of course, remains the same as it ever was: I’ll tell you Read the rest of this entry »

OK, so my ancestry is mostly Swedish, and I can’t help but think of a smorgasbord when I see the latest email out from Louis Navellier for his Blue Chip Growth newsletter. If you don’t know what a smorgasbord is, it’s basically a big buffet layout of Swedish foods, often served at holidays.

And like a smorgasbord, Navellier’s touting a wide variety of dishes … some of them will probably be a bit tough to swallow, like good ‘ol lutfisk, and others will be as tasty and pleasing as good ‘ol Janssons temptation or Swedish meatballs. The trick is, can you tell which is which?

Let me lay out the dishes for you, and you can make your selection if you like.

Now, let me be clear: Louis didn’t provide many clues here, so some of these are guesses. That’s not the way I like to do this, I prefer when I can apply the Gumshoe’s Thinkolator to bring you some more certainty, but I thought it was still worth exploring them a bit.

Louis essentially tells us that we should be looking for the highest quality growth stocks, and that many of them look cheap now — he specifically mentions that he’s looking for great cash flow, high and rising margins, and earnings surprises.

So, without further ado …
Read the rest of this entry »

In the few days preceding the last presidential debate between McCain and Obama (which was soooo boring … I was really hoping for more winking, personally), Louis Navellier continued his presidential-themed teaser ad campaigns.

Last time around, he was promising that he had written the perfect campaign speech, and that whoever uttered it would be the winner of the election — that was about natural gas transportation systems, for the company Fuel Systems Solutions (FSYS) — you can read about it here if you like, the stock has been clobbered along with almost all of its compatriots in this alternative fuel niche (down from $50 to $30 or so in recent weeks — right now it’s right about where it was when Navellier started promising a double over the Summer).

But this time, though the theme is similar the stock is different. He’s advertising his Emerging Growth newsletter, and calling this the “most obvious way to double your money.” That’s almost a crazy prediction now, and was still pretty out there as of a week ago when I first started seeing these. Heck, the S&P 500 could double or halve in the next month and I’m not sure I’d bat an eye at this point, but still, promising a double is awfully aggressive during a steep bear market.

He breaks down the stock for both parties: Read the rest of this entry »