My Stock of the Day: AZO

I think many investors are scared to death of the securities markets thus far in 2013 because of all the Chicken Little warnings voiced by the marketing people who represent certain investment newsletters. After all, it’s true that doom and gloom do outsell Sweetness and Light.

I do recognize the possibility that current blather is correct from time to time, and I too cannot know the future, so I’ve searched for a benign way to hedge a positive outlook for securities when the chatter is scary.

When searching for stocks worthy of deeper study, I often look first to Value Line’s reasonably consistent gainers across the last 10 calendar years and focus on those up double digits both for average gains in those 10 years and also in terrible 2008. Examples in alphabetical order:

AZO, BCPC, EXPO, FFIN, NTES, PG, SCL, SQM, WAB. 

Also, I look to Seeking Alpha’s Top 20 Dividend Growth Stocks for 2013. Examples (same way): ADP, INTC, LMT,RTN, WAG, WM.

Thirdly, I look to Seeking Alpha’s favored ETFs for dividends (same way): DIA, EPS, IPS, PRF, RWL, SDY, SSO, XLP.

My 5-year Yahoo chart for AZO shows a relatively smooth recovery from the lows of 2009.

My 3-month chart suggests the start yesterday of a potential recovery from AZO’s sideways trend of recent weeks. 

For detailed analysis of worthy stocks and funds, I look to VectorVest.com, Nasdaq.com, and other of the excellent analytical resources I’ve mentioned in my blog posts. By now, perhaps you’ve found favorites of your own.