Hello Friends!  Thanks so much for stopping by and visiting my blog, Stock Picks Bob's Advice!  As always, please remember that I am an amateur investor, so please remember to consult with your professional investment advisers prior to making any investment decisions based on information on this website.

It sounds trite to comment that I am amazed that it is the weekend once again and it is time to write up some reviews.  I don't know about you, but my weeks are so busy with work and family that I seem to turn around and there goes another week, another month, another year.  

Anyhow, it is a beautiful fall day here in Wisconsin.  I had a little time to get outside and wrap some of our smaller trees with some PVC so that the deer don't abuse them too badly.  Maybe you don't have deer near where you live.  But they come down out of a nearby woods and eat everything in sight.  Beautiful animals.  But boy what an appetite!

Oh I am digressing once again.  I suppose you came here to find out about stocks and not about my garden adventures :).  But what I do here on weekends is to write up reviews of past stock picks.  It is enough to more or less shoot my mouth off about different stocks on this blog, but the responsibility to you, the reader, requires me to dig back into my past entries and find out how all of those stocks turned out.  Hopefully, from this analysis, we can identify in some fashion what criteria appear to be working and what aren't.  Last week I reviewed stocks from the week of April 24, 2006.  Let's move a week ahead and take a look at the stocks "picked" during the week of May 1, 2006. 

As I also like to point out to all of you readers, is that these reviews assume a buy and hold strategy for investing.  In fact, I practice and employ a disciplined selling strategy that requires me to sell stocks if they incur small losses

On May 2, 2006, I posted LoJack on Stock Picks Bob's Advice when the stock was trading at $23.51.  LOJN closed at $16.38 on October 26, 2007, for a loss of $(7.13) or (30.3)% since posting.

On August 1, 2007, LoJack (LOJN) announced 2nd quarter 2007 results.  Revenue for the quarter ended June 30, 2007, climbed 3% to $58.2 million from $56.7 million in the same quarter the prior year.  Net income was up 22% to $6.7 million or $.35/diluted share from $5.5 million or $.29/diluted share the prior year.

The Morningstar.com "5-Yr Restated" financials page is intact.

However, with the anemic growth in revenue from the latest quarterly report, the weak-appearing 'point & figure' chart from StockCharts.com,

LOJACK (LOJN) IS RATED A HOLD

On May 3, 2006, I posted Garmin (GRMN) when the stock was trading at $96.43.  Garmin stock split 2:1 on August 16, 2006, making my effective stock price actually $48.22.  Garmin closed at $117.15 on October 26, 2007.  This gives my pick a gain of $68.93 or 142.9% since posting.

On August 1, 2007, Garmin (GRMN) announced 2nd quarter 2007 results.  Revenue came in at $742 million, up 72% from $433 million in the same quarter the prior year.  Net income, excluding foreign currency translation, increased to $219.6 million, up sharply from $120.8 million the prior year.  Net income per diluted share (GAAP) came in at $.98/share, up from $.56/share last year.

Garmin beat expectations with earnings of $.98/share (analysts were expecting $.74/share) and came in with revenue of $742.5 million (analysts were expecting revenue of $645.7 million per Thomson Financial.) 

The company also raised guidance for 2007 to earnings above $3.15/share on revenue of at least $2.8 billion.  Analysts have been projecting earnings of $2.90/share on revenue of $2.62 billion.

With the fabulous quarterly report, the strong 'point & figure' chart from StockCharts.com and the beautiful Morningstar.com "5-Yr Restated" financials page,

GARMIN (GRMN) IS RATED A BUY

On May 6, 2006, I 'revisited' CNS (CNXS) when the stock was trading at $24.14.  CNXS was purchased by GlaxoSmithKline plc  on December 19, 2006, for $37.50 in cash.  This represented a gain of $13.36 or 55.3% since my 'pick'.

Since CNS (CNXS) is no longer traded, I do not have an opinion on this stock :).  

So how did I do that week back in May, 2006.  Pretty darn good actually!  I had one stock pick decline moderately, one that shot to the moon, and one that made a very nice move and got acquired in the process!  On average, these three stocks had a gain of 56.0% since posting.  

Please remember that past performance is not a guarantee or a reliable indicator of future performance, but it was a pretty good performance, don't you think?

Thanks again for visiting!  If you get a chance be sure and visit my Covestor Page where my actual trading portfolio is reviewed and my SocialPicks page where all of my picks from the first of the year have been evaluated, and don't forget to visit my Podcast Page, and if I get a chance I shall be doing a podcast this week!  

Have a great week trading!

Bob