AAPL: Buy

Every Apple store I go into is packed. The Ipod rocks. Zune sucks. That's all you need to know. AAPL is on a one-way track to $100. Enjoy!

ET: Buy

I think ET is a buy here at around $23. It is at 12 times 2007 earnings and its peer group trades at around 17 times earnings. I think that investors are more and more utilizing internet brokerages for trading and investing. I think there is so much room for expansion and even consolidation in this group. I see Etrade becoming leader of the pack in the next few years (5-10 years) to come. My six-month target price is $28 and my 12-month target price is $31.

My quarterly report

It has been three months since Jack The Stock Ripper has been in business here in blog-land! Congratulations!

I guess I should do some self-evaluation here. I must say that I have had a good quarter here on my recommendations on this site. Just how well? Here is a review of my recommendations over the past three months:

Buy ratings: URBN, WWY, OMNI, GS, and today I added WFMI.

URBN (23.8%): I recommended a buy when it was at $16...it's now blowing past $21 as we speak! $21 was my year-end target price by the way.

WWY (12.4%): I recommended a buy when it was at $46...it's now balancing out at $52.50. It had a good run up after the new CEO was announced. The sky is the limit now. Hope you were able to get in. If not, I still believe that there is still time to get in. My year-end price target was $53.

OMNI (2.5%): I recommended a buy at $9.75. It is now $9.50. I think that it has dragged since August because oil and gas prices have reduced dramitically since then. I still hold a buy...I am trusting the insiders on this one.

GS (17.3%): What can I say! Boo-ya comes to mind! I don't think I could have picked a better time for my buy recommendation on this one. I recommended a buy at $154.68 and in three months time it topped out at $193 and now balances at $187 today. My year-end target price was $185.

WFMI: I recommended this today. Not much to review here...although I will say that it is up from $49 this morning.

Not too shabby. It won't be like this all the time, but my goal is to make it like this all the time. I hope some of you out there share my thoughts on these stocks. I hope to add some more buys, sells, and thoughts in the future. Stay tuned!

WFMI: Buy

Whole Foods and been rolling around in the mud a little since their last quarterly report came out. Their stock dropped from $66 to $46 because of the news. Their outlook for 2007 looks to be a "transition year" according to the report. Well, I say that gives us a chance to transition into buying this stock!

They pay a good dividend and earnings will be there. They also have room for expansion (even though competion is high in this field). This is the kind of buy that is great for getting a good initial rate of return. I see this stock rocking 5-10 years down the road. Now is the time to get in.

I would buy some now and some later on a pullback. With the $20 price drop, I see the stock raising back up to $52-$54 range by years end. My 6 month target price is $58. My 12-month target price is $69.

Disclosure: I picked up some shares today at $49. I own WFMI.

Even bulls and bears have cycles

As I watch oil and gold prices go lower, I am inclined to finally give in to the cycle. It happens.

I think holding on to the oil and gold stocks would be a poor decision right now. I am not suggesting that you should sell them all. I am suggesting that you keep some in your porfolio for defensive purposes. Holding on to these stocks and waiting for a hurricane or an international political blunder is just hope here. And as Jim Cramer says, "hope is not part of the equation."

According to this chart, we just might be at the top of the stock market cycle. It reveals that Consumer Non-Cyclicals and Health Care stocks will begin to rally. I agree. I own Pfizer and have watched it go from $23 to $27 in a few months. I think it reaches $30 by the end of the year.

The chart also reveals our current status. The Fed is just about done raising rates. We are in early bear territory. The housing market is slowing. Although a bull at heart, I think the bear is ready to come out of hibernation.

GS: Buy

Goldman Sachs is one of the largest investment brokerages around. Future earnings look very strong at 2006 estimates reaching over $17 per share. That's a P/E ratio of 9. That's well below the P/E average for their peer group. They have been trading up and down since the beginning of the year and I believe they are poised for a huge rally over the next year. Friday's close prices was $154.68. I would pick up some shares here and pick up some more on a pullback. My end of the year target price is $185. My 12-month target price is $200.

Insider Trading: OMNI

It's hard to follow everything there is to measure how a stock is going to perform. I have been expanding my knowledge base lately by researching several methods to measure a company's stock performance. I came upon insider trading.

On my favorate stock list (around 250 stocks I actively watch), I looked up the past year's insider trading on all of them. Only two had insider's that purchased their stock within the past year. One was Revlon and was a one insider/one time purchase. Hey at a buck-fifty, I am thinking of buying some too. If it wasn't for that profit outlook (pretty dim).

The other stock that had insider trading was OMNI Energy SVI Corp (Oil Well Services & Equipment). I like this stock. Yesterday, the stock dropped $0.74 on oil's drop. It has reached the 50 day moving average line. I think it is a buy here. Insider's thought that too about a month ago.

At the middle-to-end of June, a handfull of insider's purchased quite a bit of stock. Then, towards the end of June, they revised their outlook to the upside. MMMmmmm. You think they knew they were doing good? Yep. I am sure there are several rules that insider's must follow and that they probably followed the correct steps. However, if we were paying attention, we too could have purchased the stock at around $7-8. They reported solid results on August 8th and the stock topped out at a little over $12. Interesting indeed.

The fact is that insider's saw the opportunity to grab some stock while it was cheap. They know where the company is headed and what their future earnings revisions will likely be. I think OMNI is a buy here at $9.75. My 6-12 month prediction on the stock price will eventually reach $15. So it pays to monitor insider trading.

Mark Cuban's at it again!

Mark Cuban has unveileed a new website called Sharesleuth.com that uncovers companies and businesses before other news sources do. Then he trades shares of stock on that news. The hopefull profits from the stock revenues will pay for the running of the website. He already uncovered a big one at Xethonal Corp (XNL) that might have investors shorting the stock. It's a very creative site here and is causing small controversies already. Where does one draw the line between stock analyst and pure business journalism? Check out what Mark Cuban has to say about it on his blog site called Blogmaverick.com.