Stock Spotlight: Clean Harbors

When it comes to glamor and stocks, it all depends on what you focus on.

For example, if you focus on the fact that Clean Harbors (CLHB@CLHB | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) - the featured stock in our Stock Spotlight for the week - specializes in non-nuclear hazardous waste treatment throughout North America, then you would probably say that the stock is not so glamorous.

However, if what drew your attention to Clean Harbors was the stock's Industry PowerRating of 7 and the stock's even better Long Term PowerRating of 9, then you might be more inclined to say that as far as "glamor" is concerned, beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

So behold Clean Harbors - a company whose shares that belong to a category of stocks which, according to our research into long term stock price behavior going back to 1995, has been both more reliable and better performers than the average stock.

How much more reliable? We found after analyzing thousands and thousands of simulated stock trades that stocks with Long Term PowerRatings of 9 have been higher one year later more than 79% of the time. Compare this to the reliability of the average stock over the same period, during which the average stock was higher one year later less than 68% of the time.

In addition to being more reliable, 9-rated stocks have dramatically outperformed the average stock in our historical testing. Compared to the average stock's one-year gain of 12-13% between 1995 and 2007, stocks with Long Term PowerRatings of 9 have tended to gain more than 18% in a year's time.

Clean Harbors, as I mentioned, is in the business of operating non-nuclear hazardous waste treatment facilities in Canada, Mexico and the United States. The company last reported quarterly earnings in May, beating analyst estimates for the third consecutive quarter.

The stock has a P/E of 30.50 and, as of this writing, is trading within one point of its 52-week high of 74.39.

As I noted above, Clean Harbors belong to an industry, Waste Management, which has an Industry PowerRating of 7. We found in our research that industry groups with PowerRatings of 7 have produced average annualized returns of 18.02% since 1995. This tops the performance of the average industry group by nearly 3.5%.

Looking for more long-term solutions to your investing problems? Don't let the volatility of this market lead you to miss out on stocks you'll be glad to have bought a year from now.

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David Penn is the Senior Editor of PowerRatings.net.