Navellier Growth: your source for market-beating growth stocks

The market rose nicely today on news of a better than expected retail sales report. With record-high prices at the pump, a declining housing market, as well as the ongoing credit crunch consumer spending took a hit this past year. However, with stimulus checks on their way as well as Memorial Day weekend just around the corner consumers are starting to get out of their winter-days slump and head to the mall.

Consumers have been stuck inside dealing with bad weather, poor economic news and high oil prices all winter. Now they’re itching to shake off their “winter blues” and start spending again. Today’s retail report shows that leading discount stores were more often than not the first stops for consumers. Wal-Mart’s sales exceeded expectations for this quarter, but they weren’t the only value-oriented retailer that found their aisles crowded with happy shoppers looking for a bargain. Costco Wholesale and Sam’s Club also achieved great success by providing both discount apparel and food in bulk quantities. Teen retailer Aeropostale also experienced a boost in sales, as they were aided by both the economically un-phased teenage market, as well as their mom-friendly supply of inexpensive, yet trendy, clothing.

What today’s report didn’t reveal were the many other specialty apparel and internet sales stocks that have benefited from the increasing need for entertainment, summer apparel, and necessary food products. As it happens many of these rising stocks can be found on my Emerging Growth Buy List.  Let’s take a closer look:

Bargains at the Click of a Mouse

One such example of this is Priceline.com (PCLN), a company that’s known for cheap travel. This year the company expanded into such countries as Asia, as well as expanding their current operations in Europe and the U.S. While Priceline.com has always been one to bring in nice quarterly profits, this quarter may look exceptionally strong since consumers are looking for a bargain now more than ever. Another bonus to shopping through this company is that you never have to leave your home. Gone are the days of heading out to your local travel agency to set up that all-inclusive trip. Now consumers can plop down in front of their home computer and save themselves the extra gas money while finding exactly what they need. Priceline.com has brought my Emerging Growth subscribers over 13% in profits since I first recommended it in January. But look for a nice lift in the stock as early as tomorrow.  Its first quarter earnings are expected to be announced after hours today.

The Reliable Teenage Market

While some apparel stocks aren’t quite making the cut with consumers there’s a certain consumer sector out there that I can always rely on to keep on spending even when the rest of the world has stashed their credits cards far from reach—teenagers. And if there’s two things that teenagers love to spend money on its clothes and video games. (Trust me, I’m a Dad, I know these things.) Right now teenagers absolutely love to stop by Guess (GES) for their latest styles in jeans and other trendy apparel, as well as GameStop (GME) for the most newly released video games. You guessed it; both stocks are currently on my Emerging Growth Buy List. They’ve both grown by leaps and bounds, bringing my subscribers profits of 114.27% and 32.57% respectively.

To be honest, retail stocks as a sector are hard to rely on. The trick is to find those that can make it through any economic environment. With my stock-rating tool PortfolioGrader Pro, I’ve been able to highlight these stocks for you. So remember you can search by sector and industry with just a few clicks in PortfolioGrader Pro to find the top stocks in retail—or any other sector!

My Stock of the Week

In addition to retail sales making news this week, oil prices are also making headlines with crude hitting $123 a barrel.  So before I go I want to bring one more stock to your attention. Flowserve (FLS), my Stock of the Week at NavellierGrowth.com, is one of the few companies with very in-demand products in the oil industry. This Emerging Growth stock is a manufacturer of pumps, valves, mechanical seals and other various precision-engineered flow control equipment. The stock not only has endurance because such parts are constantly being purchased, but right now they’re benefiting tremendously from the high demand for petroleum world-wide.

Just last week, Flowserve announced blow-out first-quarter earnings. The company reported $88 million in overall profits. Flowserve also announced that its profits more than doubled from a year ago, earning $1.53 per share, compared with $44.6 million, or 59 cents per share, in the same period last year. The industrial pumps and flow management producer benefited from a weak dollar and strong sales in the oil and gas market, as reflected in the company’s $993.3 million quarterly sales, up from $803.4 million last year. Flowserve’s full-year 2008 guidance earnings estimate was raised to $5.90 to $6.20 per share compared to the company’s original earnings estimate of $5.10 to $5.40 per share.

More Good News on the Way

Speaking of earnings, next week 5 more of my Emerging Growth stocks are set to report.  Typically my recommended stocks soar after earnings reports come out, so it’s not too late for you to join in on the profits!   In fact, you can try a three-month risk-free trial to Emerging Growth for only $295 today. If you’re not completely satisfied with the results you see in the next 90 days, simply let us know and I’ll give you all of your money back. That’s how much faith I have in our research and the profits still to come.

That’s all for this week. I’ll have the next issue of “What’s Working on Wall Street Now” next Thursday, May 15. 

Sincerely,

Louis Navellier

P.S. If you haven’t yet signed up, please join me at the Las Vegas Money Show, FREE. I’ll be at the show May 12 to the 15 and would love the chance to talk to you one-on-one. I love getting to meet both my subscribers and possible future subscribers. I hope to see you there!