PowerRatings Upgrades: ORH, NSANY, SCHL

Several intriguing stocks hit our Long Term PowerRating Upgrade list today.  Despite the current economic and financial turmoil, there are still stocks that can provide top performance for your long term portfolio.  Stocks from such diverse and sometimes unexpected sectors such as automobiles, publishing and insurance earned Long Term PowerRatings upgrades today.

The PowerRating method is based upon 12 years of extensive, statistically valid studies spread across most market and economic conditions.  The results are downright impressive resulting in an easy to use, numerical rating system that can pinpoint those stocks that truly have the best odds of top performance over the longer term.  Stocks that have earned a 10 Long Term PowerRating have been proven to have a 81% chance of being higher one year later, those with a 9 rating possess a 79.1% chance of being higher one year later.

Conversely, those with the lowest 1, 2, or 3 ratings have shown to simply be too volatile, thus risky for prudent long term investment.  Due to the extreme volatility of the low rated stocks, of course, several will outperform, sometimes returning many fold percentages.  However, 65% have been proven to lose money over a year time period.  In fact, they lost an average of 5% over a one year timeframe.  Our studies indicate that conservative, long term investors should avoid stocks with low Power Ratings and build a portfolio with high rated stocks.  Let's take a closer look at several of the upgrades today:

Odyssey Re Holdings (ORH@ORH | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) - A Stamford, Connecticut based reinsurance company that was just upgraded from a 7 to an 8 Long Term Power Rating.  They write specialty insurance policies for esoteric type things such as crops.  There has been a 20% increase in dividends and Net Cash Flow is up substantially over last year.  Most interestingly, they just announced an additional $200 million dollars increase in their share repurchase program.  Technically, the stock has been in a ripping uptrend since mid September, hitting multi year highs.

Nissan Motor Company (NSANY@NSANY | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) - This ADR traded stock was just upgraded from a 5 to a 6 Long Term Power Rating.  Amazingly, given the tough economic times, they just announced a 14.2% increase in autos sold in August, 2008 over August, 2007.  Their luxury division, Infiniti, grew by 8% over same time last year. Technically, the stock has been down trending since December, 2007.

Scholastic Corp (SCHL@SCHL | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) - The world's largest publisher of children's books and educational material was upgraded from a 5 to a 6 Long Term Power Rating.  Despite a series of disappointing results in first quarter of fiscal 2009, blamed on a stellar 2008 due to the popular Harry Potter, the stock appears to potentially be bottoming here around the 25 level.  They just announced their first quarterly dividend and are initiating a stock buyback plan.

Does your stock trading need a tune-up? Our highest Short Term PowerRatings stocks have outperformed the average stock by a margin of nearly 17 to 1 after five days.

Whether you have a trading strategy of your own that could use a boost or are looking for a way to tell the stocks that will move higher in the short term from the stocks that are more likely to disappoint, our Short Term PowerRatings are based on more than a decade of quantified, backtested simulated stock trades involving millions of stocks between 1995 and 2007. Click the link above or call us at 888-484-8220, extension 1, and start your free trial today.

David Goodboy is Vice President of Marketing for a New York City based multi-strategy fund.