New Watch List for 2012

So what?  The year is starting the sixth month.  I'm sticking with the old adage that it's never to late to invest.  Since I purchased the house, I've neglected my portfolio.  Now is the time to start rebuilding it.

Today I was pleasantly surprised when I took a peak at my brokerage account.  I have a little more than I thought I did.  That's always nice.

I decided to start a new watch list.  It's been so long that I actually updated my old watch list that I decided it is better to start from scratch.

The new watch list consists of:

Regis (RGS)

Retail Opportunity Investment Corp (ROIC)

Brookfield Infrastructure Partners (BIP)

Builders FirstSource (BLDR)

From the Motley Fool article, 3 Unappreciated Stocks To Buy Hand Over Fist in 2012, , the three stocks mentioned are:

Regis (RGS) - Owns hair salons including Super Cuts.  

Article Notes:

1. Old ownership wasted shareholder capital  on bad deals and bloated middle management.

2.  Starboard Capital won a proxy fight and installed three members on the board. 

3.  Due to Starboard challenge, CEO-elect and COO resigned.  Middle management cut and company looking to sell non-core business such as beauty schools and hair restoration business.

4. North American operations is a cash cow.  Cuts of management, sell of non-core assets and other moves could leave it with plenty of cash.

Retail Opportunity  Investment Corp (ROIC) - a REIT that prefers property in affluent areas with a high traffic retail anchor store.  Also buys depressed commercial real estate and low prices.

Article Notes:

1.  CEO Stuart Tanz experienced with REITs.  Ran Kimco Realty that earned investors over 800% in ten years.

2. $600 market cap, 4% dividend, payout of 70-80% of funds.

Brookfield Infrastructure Partners (BIP) - owns a wide variety of assets such as "timberland, railroads, ports, power transmission assets and coal terminals."

Article notes:

1.  Looks to invest in high quality assets with steady income streams.

2. Lists acquisition of two Chilean toll roads and Australian Prime Infrastructure as examples of types of assets BIP invests in.

3.  Also states that company has goal of capital appreciation of 12-15% a year along with a payout growth of 3-7%.

From one of my newsletter subscriptions:

Builders FirstSource (BLDR) - supplies raw materials to home builders mostly in the South and East United States.   Basically anything a builder needs, from materials to contractor services,  BLDR will sell or install it.  Insiders are buying on the open market. 

In my opinion, this is a very risky stock.  With prices ranging recently from $3-4, it almost looks either like a garbage stock or undervalued.  Only more research will tell which direction I will go.

Note on subscription watch list stocks:  I don't feel obligated to not divulge watch list stocks from newsletters.  The stocks are mentioned as ones to keep an eye on and for further research for subscribers.  The stocks are not recommendations and are not tracked with sell, hold or buy and updates like the formal recommendations are.  A stock may only be mentioned once in a newsletter and never heard from again.  Thus, I feel free to discuss those stocks on my blog.

Finally I ran a stock screen on the Wall Street Journal website: WSJ Stock Screen 6-9-2012 (pdf file).