Helmerich and Payne (HP) is being whip-sawed by the gyrations of the oil and gas sector. HP has been a favorite of mine simply because of it's ability to increase it's dividend for the last 28 years. This is no small feat for an oil services driller that survived the collapse in the sector in the 1980's. Check out HP's spin-off unit Cimarex (XEC) for more quality management in the oil sector.
Legg Mason increased it's earnings over 500% in the last quarter however, much of the gain was from the sale of a unit to Citigroup. Operating earnings were only $0.10 above last year's quarterly earnings...nothing to sneeze at but definitely a stark contrast to the newspaper headlines of HUGE EARNINGS POSTED.
Big Movers of the day:
- Harleysville National fell 12% after rising 24% on Jan. 31st.
- National Penn Bancshares down 4% after rising 12% on Jan. 31st.
- Helmerich and Payne fell 4% due to a drop in natural gas and oil prices.
- Legg Mason up 4.55% on earnings increased 5x.
- Martin Marietta Materials rose 7.4% in sympathy with Vulcan Materials.
- Vulcan Materials up 7.48% on increased earnings.
- Sonoco Products up 7.75% rise in 4 quarter earnings.
As the old adage goes "buy low and sell high," but how many of us actually do it? Somebody has to do it so why can't it be you. The following list shows companies that have fallen within 5% of their respective 52 week low. 52 week lows aren't necessarily the times to buy however, it is a great time to start doing your research on these companies. One of these must be at or below fair market valuation.
Stocks within 5% of their 52 week low:
- Telephone Data
- Tootsie Roll
- 3M
- Allstate Insurance
- Anhueser-Busch
- Atmos Energy
- Bard Inc.
- Comerica Inc.
- Commerce Group
- Conagra
- FNB Corp
- Frisch Restaurants
- General Electric
- Heinz Co.
- Hershey
- Johnson & Johnson
- Kimberly Clark
- Popular Inc.
- Sky Financial Group
- Unitil Corp
- W.M. Wrigley
