Street Justice: On The Right Track

Welcome back. Doin well I hope. Everything here in my world is good. I'm in sort of a reflective mood today. I've been looking over companies that I've recommended since I started this blog. I did some extra homework(research) on 10 of em. Today I'll share the results and explain what I've found.
Now, I was very objective when I chose the ten companies to review. This is not gonna be a list of 10 stocks that have gone through the roof, to advertise my prediction prowess. As a matter of fact I believe the majority of them are in the red since I found or recommended them. That's why they caught my attention. Rest assured that I found no fundamental problems directly related to any of them. Okay, enough jabber. Here's what I found out. AUY/Yamana Gold is first on my list. They are down 20%($3) since I spotted and recommended them. After exhausting all my resources the only reason I could come up with for the loss was the plain and simple fact that Gold itself has dropped in price recently. Even though they are down, AUY is doing exactly what it suppose to do, moving relative to the price of gold. The next one that caught my eye was NYB/New York Comm. Bank. Like most banks this quarter, they posted a loss($15.4 billion to be precise). NYB also missed earnings expectations by $.02. Add a few hefty charges related to debt refinancing, a lawsuit settlement(from 1983) and a provision to cover bad loans(their first in 13 years) and I'm surprised they didn't drop further than $1.30(since I highlighted them). Still, with all this gloom and doom, NYB is most likely gonna be a survivor of the great 2008 bank blow-out. They are well positioned to handle their financial obstacles from what I can tell. If you wanna own a bank, NYB is still a good choice. TAP/Molsen-Coors was one on the list that's up since I got in. TAP is up 5%($3) since I added them to my buy list. They have combined their US operations with number 2 brewer Miller Brewing Co. I think they also got some help from the buyout of number 1 brewer Anheuser-Busch by foreign money. whatever the reason I'll take the 3 bucks and see a bright future for TAP. ECOL/American Ecology is another one that's seen gains since I started following them. There are quite a few reasons for their 15%($4) climb. ECOL raised their dividend payout, showing investors they have confidence. Another thing helping ECOL is all the positive press the been receiving lately. American Ecology is establishing itself as a powerful mid-cap growth stock. From up to down. I'm talkin down like 17%($6). It's KMT/Kennametal Industries and here's the situation. They beat earnings expectations, but recorded a decrease in profits over last quarter and lowered guidance. I think this is a good buy opportunity with KMT down. They are battling higher production(energy)costs, but from what I've read they are adapting and will overcome. My next focus was TRLG/True Religion. They are up about 8%($2) since I first posted them. TRLG was added to the S&P Small-Cap 600 index and have maintained good sales. I'm confident they will be the awesome earner I've pegged them for. We'll get some more insight when they announce earnings on Aug 6th. On my extra credit homework list, I also added the 2 speculation buys I went over a couple weeks ago. The first was VLNC/Valence Technologies. They are up close to 30%($1) since I featured them. VLNC was added to the Russell 3000 Index, but did see their CFO resign after being on-board only 5 months. They have a conference call scheduled for Aug 7th that should give us an idea of how the future looks. I think Valence and their batteries will do just fine powering us into the future. I received an investors kit from them and they have a lot more products than I thought. The 2nd half of my speculation segments was CPST/Capstone Turbine. They haven't fared as well as VLNC though. CPST is down 12.5%($.42) since I posted the segment they were featured in. This is most likely due to the fact that they are still operating at a loss(not a profit). They have addressed this topic saying they are "close" to Turning a profit, which I interpreted as a year or so. CPST still has some work to do, but I'm still proud to recommend them as a speculation buy. This next company I follow very closely, because I own 2000 shares of them. AWEC/Ameriwest energy is down since I mentioned them in my blog, about 30%($.20). I was amused to see that they were back to the same average buy price I own them at, which is $.49. The funny part is I got in on them like 2 months ago. I know this doen't sound good, but AWEC has been announcing great news all month. They have already signed their first agreement to begin selling oil. Similar to AUY and gold, the only factor I could see that was affecting AWEC negatively was the recent drop in oil prices. I still believe AWEC will reach some analysts expectations to exceed $2.50 and if I were you I would consider getting in while they are down. Being the optimist that I am, I want to end this segment on a positive note, so I saved the best for last. MNLU/Mainland Resources is up about 50%($2.70) since it found me. They have big things going on too, like having just entered into an agreement with HK/Petrohawk Energy to develop the Hainesville Shale nat gas property. MNLU was also recently upgraded to a "speculation buy" by Heron equity Research. These guys are well poised for the future and seemingly impervious to falling oil prices. Doing homework on the stocks you own or want to own is very important. It is imperative to know why a stock price is going up or down, so you can know what to do with it. Just like with anything in life, the more you put in(time researching) the more you get out(money).
I'll be honest, I didn't get a chance to see what went on in the market Friday till it was closed, because I had to work all day. It would seem we had a pretty volatile day that ended flat. I guess I'll take that for a close to the week(could be worse). I'm excited to see if next week will give us a glimpse of brighter times ahead.
I try to do about 4 hours of homework(research) a day, when it comes to my investments. I know that's a lot, but I write a blog on the subject. How much homework do you do? How much do you think is enough? Let me know.
Okay everybody, have a good weekend. I'm still standing behind all the companies I've gone over with you so far. They are all solid investments in my opinion. I'll be back before Monday with 3 new solid companies for you, cause we're all in this together. Thanks for reading.