In my earlier article on the possible investment themes for the next Technology wave, I had mentioned that I would come up with a list of hardware stocks that seemed attractive from a long-term investment perspective.

For this analysis, I have taken Hardware to consist of all PC, PC components, gadgets, electronic instruments and network equipment manufacturers. It also includes contract manufacturers and distributors as their fortunes are largely tied to hardware manufacturers.When I was looking at what parameters to use to filter the >150 hardware stocks in the Gridstone universe (~ All US-listed stocks), I tried to keep it simple and straight:

A couple of weeks ago, MagicDiligence looked at MFI stocks in the Forbes' Best 200 Small Companies for 2009 list. In producing that article, I thought it would be interesting to take these 200 firms as a "universe", calculate MFI earnings yield and return on capital statistics for each, and then rank them to get a Magic Formula-style list of which ones are the best combination of cheap and high quality.

The recent break gave me a chance to do just that. Before we get to the list, though, a few things should be mentioned. The first is that some current official MFI stocks are not that highly rated here, though most are. The main reason for this is how different data providers treat operating expenses. For example, InterDigital (IDCC - a current MFI stock) has $37 million in one-time restructuring fees in the past 12 months that are technically operating expenses but should be treated as non-operating for MFI purposes. The data feed used for this project included them, leading to its relatively low ranking. Also, Joel Greenblatt's exact recipe for calculating MFI statistics is unknown. The numbers below use MagicDiligence's approximations for earnings yield and MFI return on capital.

Q3 2009 Earnings Call

October 20, 2009; 11:00 am ET

At the end of each trading week, Hillbent scans the equity market for potential anomalies which exhibit extremely oversold and overbought conditions. Past observations have revealed that such candidates may experience reversal corrections to the upside or downside once the market reconfirms that their fundamentals remain solidly intact or relatively poor. From a contrarian perspective, these lists may also serve as a precursor to changes in institutional sentiment and underlying fundamentals.

(The purpose of this report is not to provide specific recommendations, but instead serve as a time-saving reference tool and starting point for investment ideas as the upcoming trading week unfolds. Of course, the results generated are not always perfect and users are strongly encouraged to perform their own due diligence on these names. Note that overbought and oversold conditions are based upon proprietary algorithms and quantitative models instead of conventional technical analysis indicators. As a supplement to this report, please refer to our ETF Trends Report to determine if market direction trends support a bullish or bearish investment bias over short-term, intermediate, and long-term timeframes.)

From our Interactive Earnings Report Database, below we have filtered out the US stocks that have historically been the most volatile on their earnings report days. To calculate this, we use the average absolute percentage change on all earnings report days for each stock that has reported earnings going back to 2001. (If a stock is up 10% on one day and down 20% on the next day, the average absolute 1-day change is 15%.)

The stocks below all have at least 10 quarterly earnings reports in our database and are trading higher than $5/share. As shown, FSLR has historically been the most volatile stock on earnings with an average daily change of +/-17.71%! in our database. MFLX isn't far behind at +/-17.03%. A stock that gains or loses nearly 20% of its value on every quarterly report is a day trader's dream. Other notables on the list of the most volatile stocks on earnings include ISRG, PCLN, UAUA, NFLX, and SNDK. For those interested, we also provide each stock's expected upcoming earnings report date.

Companies that pay dividends show prudent fiscal management in place, which is an important piece of information about a business. Some investors believe that a dividends shows that earnings are real and not manufactured by smart accountants manipulating GAAP rules.

Companies that raise dividends however show not only smart cash management skills, but also confidence in the company’s near term prospects. This assurance of balance sheet strength, despite the challenging economic environment, show their focus on delivering sustainable long-term results to shareholders. The boards of several firms announced dividend hikes over the past week:

Standard & Poor's recently updated the list of dividend growers from the S&P 1500 Index. In addition to the list containing decent growers, the companies exhibit a strong dividend coverage ratio. The criteria used in assembling the list include:

• paid increasing annual cash dividend for the past 10-years

Q2 2009 Earnings Call

July 17, 2009; 11:00 am ET

The 2009 list of Dividend Achievers consists of 284 companies. Many of these companies are in the banking, finance and real estate arena. The above timeline excludes most banking, finance and real estate companies and instead focuses on all other sectors of the economy. I routinely avoid falling industries or sectors of the economy that are breaching new highs (highest relative strength).

What should be noticed is that the remaining stocks (after excluding banking, finance and real estate) provided us with 166 companies to invest in with 9 months and 35 different days in the year to (theoretically) buy low and sell at whatever price suits our needs. All of this could be done within a one year time frame allowing the investor to get out when and if necessary. Below I have a table with Dividend Achievers performance from their 52-week low (the left column has the best performing and the right the worst performing).

Water: A Defensive growth sector

Bullish Calls:

Panera Bread (PNRA): "I see the restaurants making a come back here... I want to double down Panera… I know that the chart looks bad."

As I wrote this detailed analysis, I must confess to being relieved living in Oregon [USA] nearby the “Cascade Mountains” that hold one of the largest underground clean water supplies in North America. In good faith, I will also disclose as of this article's completion date; I did not hold any financial interests in the companies listed, rather it is an in-depth unbiased global report.

by Katharine Schildt

The demand for utilities is something that will always be prevalent. And the need for more efficiency and green technology is in high demand.

I am starting to feel a little of what I would call the normal functioning of the stock market. I say this in regards to what, I would describe, as the normal response to news. That is, stocks report great earnings and the 'Street' responds with large news to the upside. In my book, this is what is supposed to happen, and for the last six months or so is something that has been relatively absent from the market action.

It was great to look at the list of top percentage gainers on the NYSE on Thursday and see Dolby (DLB) an 'old favorite' of mine make the list closing at $30.18, up $4.31 or 16.66% on the day. I first wrote up Dolby on Stock Picks Bob's Advice on January 7, 2008, and purchased some shares that I held for a short period of time. (I do not own any shares of Dolby nor do I own any options presently). At the time of my write-up, Dolby was trading at $49.21, so we can see the stock, along with the rest of the market, has been under pressure.

Q4 2008 Earnings Call

February 05, 2009, 11:00 am ET

Bullish Calls:

The vast number of one-of-a-kind events experienced recently make the coming year for capital markets very difficult to call. Lending by central banks and the velocity of money supply, massive refinancing of U.S. government debt, inflation or deflation, the direction of the U.S. dollar, an extremely weak consumer environment and huge cash positions among investors are just a few.

Canaccord Adams has outlined four scenarios it believes are most likely to occur in 2009, their respective probabilities and related stock picks.

Just as Wall Street is the guardian of America’s financial capital, some 52,000 water systems in the U.S. are a key guardian of America’s “natural capital.” Because most are owned by cash-desperate municipalities, many are in even worse shape than the Detroit automakers, unable to repair hundreds of thousands of miles of old leaky pipes and derelict wastewater treatment plants.