The Top 10 – Retail Stocks

From our November Issue, here is a look back at the Top 10 Retailers our writers selected.  If you are looking to add a retailer to your portfolio, now is a good time as there is still good value amongst many retailers and the turn in the economy will continue, albeit at a slow pace but you want to get in at a reasonable price.

The prices are from November so you can see that most retailers are slowly climbing up the ranks.  If you want to add one of these companies below for the long term, you might not want too wait to long.  Happy trading!

Top 10             Retail Stores

Rank	Symbol	Company	Price	Comments
1.	WMT	Wal-Mart Inc.	$50.63	The best of all retailers.  Watch for overseas growth in the coming years.
2.	COST	Costco Wholesale Corp.	$57.71	Need 3 years worth of paper towels?  This is the place to make that happen.
3.	AMZN	Amazon.com Inc.	$93.42	Best online retailer offers just about everything.
4.	JCP	JC Penny Company	$35.13	Old standard earning $1.59 per share.
5.	SHLD	Sears Holding Company	$70.19	Old time retailer still going despite some rough times.
6.	TGT	Target Corporation	$48.90	Has rebounded well after recession.
7.	DLTR	Dollar Tree Inc.	$47.27	Affordable products for a new frugal consumer.
8.	FDO	Family Dollar Store	$28.42	Recently upgraded to Outperform from Neutral by analysts.
9.	EBAY	eBay, Inc.	$23.68	Top online garage sale.
10.	AZO	Auto Zone, Inc.	$137.99	Auto parts retailer benefiting from lower new car sales.

Did we miss something on this list?  What do you think?

Email us at CustomerService@VanBurenReport.com.  The e-mail with the best company that is not on this list will win a free Ipod Nano.  Good luck!

This weeks Breakout stock of the week is the TJX Companies, Inc. TJX.

The giant retailer which runs Marshalls, TJ Max and Homesense is nearing its 52 week high and has many technical signals that are pointing to a potential breakout past its 52 week high of $42.35.

The stock price has climbed steadily and finished in the positive the past six trading sessions.

Keep an eye on a spike in volume as that may signal a potential breakout.  Last weeks breakout KS Kap Stone Paper and Packaging shot up 7% plus on the Monday we recommended checking it out so make sure you add TJX to your watch lists.

More about this retailer below.

The TJX business model is built to have tremendous flexibility and grow with the times, no matter what the economic environment. In our history as a Company, we have had only one year with a comparable store sales decline and comps have continued to increase after recessions. We are very confident that our strong top- and bottom-line growth is sustainable. On the top line, we have enormous growth opportunities with our value proposition and are growing our customer and vendor bases for the future. TJX is truly about exceptional value, fashion and brands, and we believe that value is deeply understood and appreciated by consumers worldwide. Our variety of business lines gives us the ability to service a wide range of customer demographic groups. Our growth vehicles domestically and internationally are performing well, and we are developing new seeds for future growth. On the bottom line, we also continue to have major opportunities. We operate our stores with extremely low levels of inventories and believe we can run even leaner and make our supply chain even faster and better. We have seen the benefit of our major cost reduction initiatives over the past several years and know that opportunities remain. We also are taking advantage of real estate opportunities which we believe will benefit our business long term. Further, we will be driving profitability as our younger businesses grow their store bases, which allows us to leverage costs across larger chains. Underpinning our confidence in the sustainability of our growth is the flexibility and resiliency of our business model and our commitment to offer extreme value to consumers.

From our December 2009 Issue.  I recommended this great little company at $4.23  for our December 2009 Van Buren Report Newsletter.  I really like the fundamentals and potential future growth explosion that the company has.  Currently as of close on Thursday, March 11, 2009, the company is selling at $5.83 per share.   A 37% plus gain for us who picked up this gem in December.

Below is my recommendation from the December 2009 Issue.

We are currently giving away free yearly subscriptions to the very successful Van Buren Report newsletter to a certain number of people in certain geographic locations.  If you want a free yearly subscription, e-mail CustomerService@VanBurenReport.com with “Free” in the subject line and our staff will sign you up for a free Gold membership within 48 hours.

Health Grades Inc. [HGRD]

What the Company Does

Health Grades, Inc. (Health Grades) provides ratings of hospitals, nursing homes and home health agencies. The Company also provides information on physicians, including name, address, phone number, years in practice, information on whether they are board certified, whether they are free of state and federal sanctions and many other items. Health Grades provides its clients with healthcare information, including information relating to quality of service and profile information on physicians. The Company’s clients include hospitals, employers, benefits consulting firms, payers, insurance companies, consumers, advertisers, and media and Web portals. In October 2008, the Company acquired two Websites: www.WrongDiagnosis.com and www.CureResearch.com in connection with its acquisition of certain operating assets of Adviware Pty Ltd.

History

Health Grades was founded in 1995 and is headquartered in Golden, Colorado.

The Good

For my Roll of The Dice selection this month, I wanted to go off the map a little and pick a company which I think has a chance to be something really special.  Health Grades, Inc. is a small company with an excellent idea behind it and perhaps enough clout to pull it off.  The company is a rating and information system for hospitals, doctors, nursing homes, etc. etc.  You name it, they will review it.  A few years back, my mother was diagnosed with a disease and me and my family were at a lost on what was the best way to tackle it.  I was unaware of Health Grades at the time but I can tell you the service would have come in handy.  When something like that happens to us we are pretty much at the mercy of what a doctor tells us.  But what if that doctor is wrong or he is not a good doctor yet he still has to make a recommendation.  Now we may have hope.  With Health Grades we may have information at our fingertips which will provide us with useful information and give us the info we need to make an informative decision and move forward.  Not only for consumers, Health Grades provides services for hospitals, employers, insurance companies and all other health care related companies.

The Bad

This small company does have some cash flow problems and is currently very expensive for the services it provides.

The Lowdown

Just imagine having a rating system similar to what restaurants have or what every movie that comes out has.  A great idea here that is long overdue.

Company Info

Health Grades Inc.

500 Golden Ridge Road

Golden, CO 80401

Phone: 303-716-0041

Fax: 303-716-1298

Web Site: http://www.healthgrades.com

Continuing our countdown of the Top 10 MLP’s of 2010, coming in at Number 3 on our list is Kinder Morgan [KMP].

Kinder Morgan is probably the safest MLP on the market today and has been around since 1992 and despite a few minor set backs, the company has really hit its stride over the past few years.  Currently offering a dividend of $4.20 per share [6.5% Yield] this MLP is a must own for any MLP enthusiast.  The company is extremly well run and has a bright future.  Here is our report from the end of 2009.

To obtain a complet copy of The Van Buren Reports Top 10 MLP’s for 2010, please e-mail CustomerService@VanBurenReport.com with the word “MLP” in the subject line and we will send you a free copy of the report within 48 hours.

The Good:

Kinder Morgan is simply the best run MLP in the business today.  KMP sports a nice dividend of over $4 per share and that dividend is safe as KMP delivers a high cash flow every quarter.  KMP is one of the largest pipeline MLP’s and despite being a large MLP still has room to grow.  No MLP transfers or stores energy better than KMP.  The company has over a billion dollars on the books to finance projects and make further acquisitions.  This is a great position to be in and their debt is a non-factor.  We think Chairman Rick Kinder is the best in the business.

The Bad:

Kinder Morgan should be in good position but a couple of set backs to new projects could hurt the bottom line.

The Lowdown:

The best in the biz right now with a solid and safe dividend.

Company Basics:

Kinder Morgan Energy Partners, L.P. (KMP) is a pipeline transportation and energy storage company in North America. The Company owns an interest in or operate more than 26,000 miles of pipelines and approximately 170 terminals. The pipelines transport natural gas, gasoline, crude oil, carbon dioxide and other products, and the terminals store petroleum products and chemicals and handle bulk materials like coal and petroleum coke. KMP is also a provider of carbon dioxide for the oil recovery projects in North America.

Info:

Kinder Morgan Energy Partners LP

500 Dallas Street Suite 1000

Houston, TX 77002

Phone: 713-369-9000

From our List that we released on October 1, 2010.  The yields are included here but these yields are not up to date.  This list is from that first reported list as many of you have been asking for the Top 25 Dividend Picks.

The list is comprised of good companies with what should be safe dividend returns for years to come.

Let us know what you think about the list and if we missed anything significant at CustomerService@VanBurenReport.com

Rank	Symbol	Company	Yield
25.	CPB	Campbell Soup Company	3.1%
24.	VOD	Vodaphone Group	6.9%
23.	MTB	M&T Bank Corporation	4.4%
22.	BMY	Bristol-Meyers	5.4%
21.	WEC	Wisconsin Energy	3%
20.	PM	Philip Morris International	4.8%
19.	COP	ConocoPhillips	4.2%
18.	LO	Lorillard Inc.	5.5%
17.	KFT	Kraft Foods Inc.	4.4%
16.	ARLP	Alliance Resource Partners LP	8.3%
15.	O	Realty Income Inc.	6.4%
14.	T	AT&T Inc.	6.1%
13.	MO	Altria Group Inc.	7.8%
12.	NLY	Annaly Capital Management, Inc.	14.5%
11.	BP	BP plc.	6.3%
10.	PG	Proctor & Gamble	3%
9.	GPC	Genuine Parts Company	4.3%
8.	WR	Westar Energy	6.2%
7.	MCD	McDonalds	3.6%
6.	VZ	Verizon Inc.	6.3%
5.	EMR	Emerson Electric Company	3.4%
4.	LLY	Eli Lilly & Company	6.0%
3.	D	Dominion Resources, Inc.	5.1%
2.	ED	Consolidated Edison, Inc.	5.8%
1.	TNH	Terra Nitrogen Company	8.5%

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