My latest column is up at RealMoney.

We can all agree that the jobs report was pretty lousy. On a year-over-year basis, the growth in employment is barely staying positive.

However, as Jim Cramer likes to point out, there’s always a bull market somewhere, and regular readers probably know I like to use the economic reports as a source of stock ideas. Until they launch an “Economy ETF” (believe me, it won’t be long before somebody tries), that means sifting through the reports to find the industries and companies that are most poised to benefit from the prevailing trends. In this morning’s jobs report, that was pretty easy. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics report, only five industries are showing statistically significant job growth:

Hospitals Ambulatory health care services Nursing and residential care facilities Oil and gas extraction Pipeline transportation

I’ll bet you noticed the same pattern in those industries that I did.Disclosure: At time of

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My latest column is up at RealMoney. It marks the last of a several part “wallflower” series on stocks with limited analyst coverage on Wall Street.

Standard Parking (STAN) is a leading national provider of parking facility management services. It provides on-site management services at multilevel and surface parking facilities for all major markets of the parking industry. Its properties span 2,100 locations, containing over one million parking spaces, in over 330 cities across the U.S. and Canada.

The company grows both by acquisitions and by winning new contracts. In the first quarter, Standard Parking completed the acquisition of Chicago’s GO Parking. Recent business wins include valet and self-parking services at the Trump International Hotel and Towers in Chicago and the parking operations at five facilities in Queens, New York, by the Greater Jamaica Development Corp.

Furthermore, because the company offers a wide range of services, it can often expand the business

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My latest column is up at RealMoney.

I think Rent-A-Center (RCII) can benefit from the slowdown in consumer spending and the tightening of credit standards.

If Rent-A-Center were to receive the same price-to-book multiple as Aaron Rents, it could trade above $28 per share today. While I don’t believe that will happen overnight, over the next five years Rent-A-Center could see high-single-digit earnings per share growth and also expand its price-to-book multiple to the 1.9 level. The combination of earnings growth and valuation expansion could generate annual returns averaging 15% or more.

Here’s how the company scores on the Stock Market Beat models:

Earnings momentum: Positive Earnings quality: Positive Price momentum: Neutral Free cash flow: Positive Return potential: Positive

Disclosure: At time of publication, William Trent has no financial position in the companies mentioned in this article.

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My latest column is up at RealMoney as part of my series on wallflowers - stocks that have little or no analyst coverage. In this column I look at Innospec (IOSP), which makes fuel additives and other specialty chemicals that are sold primarily to oil refineries and other chemical and industrial companies. The company operates in three segments: fuel specialties, active chemicals and octane additives. Innospec has a monopoly position in the rapidly declining business of tetraethyl lead additives for gasoline. In the past, declines in that business have overshadowed growth in the remainder of the firm. Now accounting for just 16% of total revenue, I think the lead weight is becoming less burdensome. Innospec scores well in my models: Earnings momentum: Positive Earnings quality: Neutral Price momentum: Positive Free cash flow: Neutral Return potential: Positive Disclosure: At time of publication, William Trent has no position in the companies mentioned in this article. Sponsor: Financial Education Everything ...

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 ...

I began expressing concerns about Cognizant Technology Solutions (CTSH) a year ago. Even when earnings were stronger than expected in February, I stuck to my guns, saying “Cognizant executed so well on so many different metrics this quarter that anything less than perfection in the future is likely to disappoint.” It didn’t take long. The company’s expectations for the coming quarter are below street estimates, which is very unusual for a company whose typical guidance is for “at least (insert consensus estimate here).” Chief Executive Francisco D’Souza said the company has adopted a more cautious view for the remainder of the year “to reflect the heightened economic challenges over the past two months.” Since my November RealMoney piece, the stock has lost 6.8%, compared to ...