Matt’s Stock Picks for the Week (6/29)

While people tend to typically go into somewhat of a state of depression during an economic downturn, the day traders, short sellers, and bear market betters tend to strive.

I’ve decided this week to look at three separate categories as they seem to be the most struggling at the moment which gives them the most potential to go up: Real Estate, Finance, and Energy

We’ll start with Energy since I have one specific pick:

Crosstex Energy (xtex): I bought this stock back at the end of March for $1.90 and currently it sits at 3.25. It peaked out at around $4.20 a couple weeks back before things started to get messy with the market. Exxon has finally (somehow) achieved a contract for the pipeline in Alaska (So much for the block Palin) with the particular purpose of drilling for natural gas, a topic that has also been very popular behind the scenes lately.

Financials have been very volatile overall so I’ll start with the less volatile stock and change course as I go through…

BB&T (BBT): I attended a conference at Wake Forest University back in September where I heard the (then) CEO of BB&T John Allison speak on why his company was able to tread water better than the other financial institutions. The reason? They did not invest in sub-prime loans. Pull up Google Finance or, if you have a e-trading account somewhere (I use scottrade) you can check there, and pull up BB&T for the past year. They’ve been pretty steady compared to the constant up and down volatility issues from other financial stocks. This is a company that has a track record of making safe, secure, reliable bets. Also, the CEO didn’t get ousted. His retirement was planned for this past December and was succeeded by Kelly King who also has an amazing track record.

E-Trade Financial Corporation (ETFC): This is pretty much a common sense stock. When there’s volatility in the market, bet where the largest volume will be betting. There are a lot of E-trade users, now more than ever due to lack of faith consumers have on Wall Street. The ideology is “hey, I gave them my money and they lost it. I could have done that. I mine as well bet myself.” New accounts for all e-trading corporations have soared as the average joe is taking matters into his own hands.

Citigroup (C): They came, they tanked, and they’re having a slow recovery. However, a slow recovery is better than no recovery at all. This stock is sitting around $3/share at the moment and with a little good news (expect late third/early fourth quarter), I see this stock hitting $10/share by the end of the year.

Now onto Real Estate; Everyones favorite topic these days

Lennar Corporation (LEN): Probably not how they wanted to have their 55th Anniversary but this construction company has a pretty solid chance of staying afloat, even during this horrible housing market. New house construction along with home sales seems to take a snowball affect when picking back up. All it needs is a spark and that spark is going to be new jobs, bigger wages, and new families. Recessions don’t last forever and neither does housing slumps. Consider this a gift from god and invest while it’s still at around $10/share.

Kimco (KIM): Lennar builds, Kimco sells. This rather large real-estate company is going to pick up with construction picks up. It also has the benefit of selling previously owned houses which is an added bonus. This too has shares around $10 and should pick up when the housing market picks up. When will that be? It’s all speculation as no one knows, but I will predict next summer-next fall.

These security picks are based on personal research and I am not responsible for any/all losses.