Generally speaking, I see myself as a value investor. Why then, would am I so often looking towards retailers and generally consumer facing businesses for my best investment ideas (see: A Retail Reversal and Irrational Retail Valuations)? After all, many of the best retail stocks are those that rely on growth to provide shareholder return. And, in the case of liquidation, the bulk of their assets are held in inventory and property* that are rarely liquidated at full value. Then again, Warren Buffett, a value investor if there is any, has made serious bets on consumer product and retail businesses like Coca-Cola (KO), CarMax (KMX), Wal-Mart (WMT), and Costco (COST).

* To be completely fair, significant value in property can often

...

We've discussed recently the hot new place for natural gas is the potentially enormous Haynesville Shale [Jul 2: Petrohawk Energy and Chesapeake Energy Flying on Haynesville Shale News] (EDIT: Let me add 2 additional names) I've been hoping one of the 4 names closely associated with this space, either Petrohawk Energy (HK), Goodrich Petroleum (GDP), GMX Resources (GMXR), and Comstock Resources (CRK) would sell down to their 50 day moving average now that natural gas has finally been hit. But no mas as the charts below show. Things are going so well, that Goodrich actually placed a 3M share offering at $64 today and the stock is ...

Working in a marketplace with long lead times and large capital expenditures requires patience and fortitude. Capital seems to flow like water with very little return coming from it. If, however, an investor is willing to stick out the long lead times, or happens to time the development cycle correctly, large veins of profit are likely.

Capital Gold Corp., a gold production and exploration company, works to extract gold from its El Chanate gold property in northern Mexico. Positive recent news has found that a former partner company has decided not to exercise its one-time “back-in option” for this mining property - allowing Capital Gold to move forward with future plans.

The company appears to have a fairly stable operation running with its El Chanate gold property. An average monthly output of 4,200 oz. has enabled the company to assess its position and make plans. Organic growth is the key element of

...

My latest column is up at RealMoney.

In a normal economy, shares of Au Optronics (AUO) would be rising as fast as the company’s sales. Instead, sales and cash flow are zooming, and the company has been topping estimates by a wide margin, but shares keep moving sideways and now trade for less than 5 times projected EPS. In time, look for shares to catch up with the growth metrics.

AU Optronics makes thin film transistor liquid crystal display (TFT-LCD) panels and other flat-panel displays, which are used in notebook computers and desktop monitors, as well as in portable consumer electronics devices and LCD televisions. AUO competes primarily with LG Display (LPL) and Samsung Electronics, both of which are larger than AU. Corning (GLW - Annual Report) is also a significant force and is one of the company’s primary suppliers for glass substrates.

The company

...

My latest post is up at RealMoney. I think there is still quite a bit of run left in the energy bull market. That belief has led me to some good picks, such as Patterson Uti (PTEN) and Flowserve (FLS) , as well as one bad one, Frontier Oil (FTO) . My models recently brought W&T Offshore (WTI) into focus, and I’m thinking it is more likely one of the former than the latter. The stock shows up very well in the Stock Market Beat models: Earnings momentum score: 1 (Positive) Earnings quality score: 5% (Positive) Price momentum score: 37% (Positive) Free cash flow yield: 10.6% (Positive) Return potential: 16.8% (Positive) Capital expenditures are ramping up, which will hurt free cash flow in the near time. If the expenditures are as successful as those of the past, however, the cash should start flowing again after a ...