Alert HQ signals for Thursday, March 18, 2010

This post is announcing that Thursday's Swing Signals, Trend Leaders, Trend Busters and Gap Signals are now available at Alert HQ. All are based on daily data.

Today we have the following:

• 18 Swing Signals -- 3 BUY signals and 15 SELL Signals.
  
• 938 Trend Leaders, all in strong up-trends according to Aroon, MACD and DMI. We have 199 stocks that are new additions to the list and 165 that fell off the previous list.
  
• 25 Trend Busters of which 12 are BUY signals and 13 are SELL signals.
• 155 Gap Signals -- stocks with upside or downside gaps or gaps that have been closed. 73 are bearish gaps and 82 are bullish gaps.
  

The view from Alert HQ --

Stocks muddled through the day today. The Dow showed a noticeable gains while most other averages barely broke even. On the three major exchanges, however, decliners outpaced gainers.

We see the same situation at Alert HQ. SELL signals are in the majority on the Swing Signals and Trend Busters lists. And yet there are still positive signs from the Gaps list where upside gaps outnumber downside gaps. And the Trend Leaders list is still growing though it is growing more slowly than last week.

Stocks seem to be getting more and more tired. If you're a bull like me, that means a buying opportunity is coming. Take a look at our lists of alerts and populate your watch list. The time to pull the trigger could be getting close.

Using our signals --

If you're a momentum trader, the Trend Leaders list is a good place to go shopping. If you practice technical analysis, check out the Trend Busters. And if you are a short-term trader or even a day trader, our Swing Signals or Gap Signals may provide some good trading ideas.

Found a few stock picks you are interested in? If you are looking to refine your entry and exit points, you should take a look at what our friends at Hottinger's E-Zone Signals have to offer.

Value stocks getting harder to find

One of the things I do at Alert HQ is scan the Trend Leaders list for stocks that not over-valued. I use a simple screen to identify those stocks that, while trending strongly upward, are showing what I call "reasonable value."

Here are the criteria used for my reasonable value determination:

• PE between 0 and 20
• PEG between 0 and 1.3
• Price-to-Sales less than 2
• Debt-to-Equity less than 1

The following table shows the results of this screen after it was run against those stocks that were added to the Trend Leaders list after the close on Tuesday, March 16. The Last Price column is also as of the close on Tuesday.

Symbol	Name	Last Price	Market Cap	PE	PEG	Price To Sales	Price To Book	Debt To Equity
COP	CONOCO PHILLIPS	$52.17	$76.84B	15.81	0.59	0.56	1.22	0.431
GGAL	Grupo Financiero Galicia S.A.	$5.50	$661.7M	10.88	1.2	1.14	1.22	N/A
AIRM	Air Methods Corporation	$32.24	$389.7M	11.46	0.57	0.67	1.79	0.4601
HGG	HHGREGG, INC.	$22.50	$872.6M	19.11	1.17	0.59	3.6	0.3773
EME	EMCOR GROUP, INC.	$26.19	$1.668B	10.61	0.72	0.3	1.37	0.1234
ANDE	The Andersons, Inc.	$34.87	$625M	16.15	1.06	0.2	1.51	0.7582

Given the fact that there are over 900 stocks and ETFs on the Trend Leaders list this week, it is a sad comment for a value investor to see so few stocks pass this rather loose value screen.

Be that as it may, today's list does have some interesting selections. Here are a few comments:

• Conoco Phillips (COP) is expected to sell half of its stake in Lukoil which could raise roughly $4.6B. The stock has been steadily advancing since the beginning of March. The PE is reasonable but PEG and Price to Sales are very low, indicating deep value.
• Grupo Financiero Galicia S.A. (GGAL) is a good way to play the dynamic economy of Argentina. The company is a significant player in commercial banking and consumer banking in the country. The company has struggled to grow earnings over the last few quarters, as have so many financial companies, but they have remained solidly profitable.
• Air Methods (AIRM) stock price has shot up recently and it threatens to close the bearish gap that occurred in late January after reporting poor earnings. The stock was beaten down so badly its PEG and Price to Sales numbers are now well within value territory. The company supplies medical air transport services. Management says expectations are high. Who knows, maybe the new health care bill will help them out.
• hhgregg (HGG) operates retail electronics stores in nine states. Here is a company that is doing pretty well as you can see in this chart of company financials and below that the chart of price action:

• Emcor Group (EME) is primarily involved in electrical distribution systems and HVAC equipment for commercial buildings and municipalities. The company's numbers show that it is still waiting for the construction industry to recover; however, a patient investor will probably be rewarded by this company.
• The Andersons (ANDE) may have an unusual name but they are in the somewhat mundane businesses of grains, ethanol, railcars, fertilizer, warehousing, seeds and chemicals. In any case, this mix of businesses seems to be working for the company. Their most recent quarter showed solid sequential growth but our screen shows the company is not over-valued. Below is the chart which shows a beautifully steady upward trend:

Conclusion --

It may be getting harder to find value stocks that are showing good price performance but these six show that there are still a few out there. In digging into them, it looks some are better than others. My personal favorite from today's list is hhgregg but I do find The Andersons to be a pretty interesting company. And with its 50-DMA about to cross above the 200-DMA, there is probably further upside to be had.

Disclosure - no positions in any stocks mentioned in this article