Company name Heska Corp
Stock ticker HSKA
Live stock price [stckqut]HSKA[/stckqut]
P/E compared to competitors Fair

MANAGEMENT EXECUTION

Employee productivity Poor
Sales growth Poor
EPS growth Good
P/E growth Good
EBIT growth Good

ANALYSIS

Confident Investor Rating Fair
Target stock price (TWCA growth scenario) $108.68
Target stock price (averages with growth) $57.96
Target stock price (averages with no growth) $57.96
Target stock price (manual assumptions) $7.65

 

The following company description is from Reuters: https://www.reuters.com/finance/stocks/company-profile/hska

Heska Corporation, incorporated on March 27, 1997, sells veterinary diagnostic and specialty products. The Company operates through two segments: Core Companion Animal Health (CCA) and Other Vaccines, Pharmaceuticals and Products (OVP). The CCA segment includes, primarily for canine and feline use, blood testing instruments and supplies, digital imaging products, software and services, local and cloud-based data services, allergy testing and immunotherapy, and single use offerings, such as in-clinic diagnostic tests and heartworm preventive products. Its OVP segment includes private label vaccine and pharmaceutical production, primarily for cattle but also for other species, including equine, porcine, avian, feline and canine. All OVP products are sold by third parties under third-party labels. The Company focuses on supporting veterinarians in the canine and feline healthcare space.

 

Confident Investor comments: At this time, I think that a Confident Investor can cautiously invest in Heska Corp as long as the price is correct and the indicators that I describe in my book The Confident Investor are favorable. Most of the fundamentals of this company are good but there are some concerns. I have decided to remove Heska from my Watch List as there are better companies out there for me to invest in.

If you would like to understand how to evaluate companies like I do on this site, please read my book, The Confident Investor. You can review the best companies that I have found (and I probably invest my own money in most of these companies) in my Watch List.

How was this analysis of Heska Corp calculated?

For owners of my book, “The Confident Investor” I offer the following analysis (you must be logged in to this site as a book owner in order to see the following analysis). If you have registered and cannot see the balance of this article, make sure you are logged in and refresh your browser.
[s2If current_user_can(access_s2member_level1)]

In order to assist you in using the techniques of this book, the values that I used when calculating the Manual pricing above were:

  • Stock price at the time of the calculation: $70.35
  • Growth: 0.2
  • Current EPS (TTM): $0.55
  • P/E: 9
  • Future EPS Calc: $1.36
  • Future Stock Price Calc: $12.31
  • Target stock price: $7.64

[/s2If]
I hope that this makes you a Confident Investor.

ID-100203460We are halfway through the year! How is your portfolio doing?

I offer my 15 recommended stocks for the 3rd 3 months of 2018 – the third quarter of the year. I cannot list the worst stocks, as there are too many of those to itemize. I can at least list the 15 recommended stocks that will give you a good basis for the next three months of 2018.

Many sites do all year lists, but I am only committing to this list for the next three months. There is a great reason for this limitation. It is almost impossible to predict the market farther out than 3-6 month. In fact, it is quite possible for the market to do a massive correction and even this list would be a fallacy. There is always some risk with any investment and you are encouraged to read this site’s disclaimer before acting on this list.

I would expect all of these companies to maintain their status as Good Companies on my Watch List. I would not expect all of them to make a top 15 recommended stocks list in the last quarter of 2018. Some of them will grow a bit slower than I expect, and a couple of the 15 recommended stocks are probably going to lose money. As Peter Lynch famously said:

“In this business if you’re good, you’re right six times out of ten. You’re never going to be right nine times out of ten.”

I hope to be right on this list with 12 of these picks, but Peter says I should be happy with 9. I don’t expect all 15 recommended stocks to be massive growth stocks in the year. I also think the list is successful if the list of 15 beats the Nasdaq Composite and the Dow30. In October, I plan to publish a list for the last quarter of the year.

All of the stocks on this list are rated as Good Companies using the method that I describe in my book The Confident Investor You can purchase my book wherever books are sold such as AmazonBarnes and Noble, and Books A Million. It is available in e-book formats for NookKindle, and iPad.

The 15 recommended stocks were chosen from Good Companies on my Watch List. This means we already know they are fairly well managed and have a history of solid growth. While all of the stocks on the Watch List are well run, these 15 recommended stocks seem to be the most well set up for aggressive growth in the third quarter of 2018.

The 15 recommended stocks for the third quarter of 2018 also performed very well over the past 12 months and the past 3 years. As I have written before, the past is not a perfect indicator of the future, but it is probably the best indicator that we have to use.

To show this strong performance, I will plot the growth of these 15 companies compared to several indices. My 15 stocks significantly outperformed the Dow Jones and Nasdaq Composite. My list had an annual growth of 87.97%, while the others grew at 13.40% and 24.16% respectively.

In other words, my list beat the market in the last 12 months by over 350%! For every dollar that you could have earned in an index fund, you would have earned $3.50 (or more) with my Short Term List.

My Short Term Watch List DESTROYS The Market!!

The above chart shows what would have happened if you invested $10,000 in my Short Term list compared to investing $10,000 in an index.

I didn’t try to make this list of 15 recommended stocks to be a balanced portfolio covering multiple industries. I am happy to report that it isn’t terribly unbalanced. The reality is that if you plan to rebalance your portfolio every 3 months, then you really do not have to worry too much about industry balance.

If you want a more balanced portfolio, you should have approximately 30% of your portfolio invested in index funds. These funds should be divided by large and small-cap funds, an index bond fund, and an index international fund. This would help to balance your portfolio.

You could also look at the Watch List of stocks. These stocks have shown that they are well-run companies. If you are concerned about a balanced portfolio, I suggest that you compliment the 15 recommended stocks with a couple stocks from the Watch List.

The list of 15 recommended stocks for the first quarter of 2018

The list of 15 recommended stocks for the first quarter of 2018 sorted alphabetically by stock symbol are:

If you want to know a bit more about the companies that comprise the 15 recommended stocks for the 3rd quarter of 2018, you can read below. The descriptions primarily came from the short paragraph descriptions about the company found on Reuters. https://www.google.com/finance. You can also click on a company name on the right side of this site, under the heading of Most Reviewed Companies (you may need to scroll down) as most of the companies on this list have been reviewed here several times.

  • ABIOMED, Inc. [stckqut]ABMD[/stckqut]
    • ABIOMED, Inc., incorporated on June 4, 1987, is a provider of temporary percutaneous mechanical circulatory support devices. The Company offers care to heart failure patients. The Company operates in the segment of the research, development and sale of medical devices to assist or replace the pumping function of the failing heart. The Company develops, manufactures and markets products that are designed to enable the heart to rest, heal and recover by improving blood flow to the coronary arteries and end-organs and/or temporarily performing the pumping function of the heart. The Company’s product portfolio includes the Impella 2.5, Impella CP, Impella RP, Impella LD, Impella 5.0 and AB5000. Its products are used in the cardiac catheterization lab (cath lab), by interventional cardiologists, the electrophysiology lab, the hybrid lab and in the heart surgery suite by heart surgeons.
  • Adobe Systems Incorporated [stckqut]ADBE[/stckqut]
    • Adobe Systems Incorporated, incorporated on May 9, 1997, is a software company. The Company offers a line of products and services used by professionals, marketers, knowledge workers, application developers, enterprises and consumers for creating, managing, delivering, measuring, optimizing and engaging with compelling content and experiences across multiple operating systems, devices and media. The Company operates through three segments: Digital Media, Digital Marketing, and Print and Publishing. The Company markets and licenses its products and services directly to enterprise customers through its sales force and to end users through application stores and its own Website at www.adobe.com. It offers various products through a software-as-a-service (SaaS) model or a managed services model (both of which are referred to as a hosted or cloud-based model), as well as through term subscription and pay-per-use models.
  • Align Technology, Inc. [stckqut]ALGN[/stckqut]
    • Align Technology, Inc., incorporated on April 3, 1997, designs, manufactures and markets a system of clear aligner therapy, intra-oral scanners and computer-aided design/computer-aided manufacturing (CAD/CAM) digital services used in dentistry, orthodontics and dental records storage. The Company operates through two segments: Clear Aligner segment and Scanner and Services (Scanner) segment. The Clear Aligner segment consists of its Invisalign System, which includes Invisalign Full, Teen and Assist (Comprehensive Products), Express/Lite (Non-Comprehensive Products) and Vivera Retainers, along with its training and ancillary products for treating malocclusion (Non-Case). The Scanner segment consists of intra-oral scanning systems and other services available with the intra-oral scanners that provide digital alternatives to the traditional cast models. The Scanner segment includes its iTero scanner and OrthoCAD services. iTero scanner is used by dental professionals, and labs and services for restorative and orthodontic digital procedures, as well as Invisalign digital impression submission.
  • Arista Networks Inc [stckqut]ANET[/stckqut]
    • Arista Networks, Inc., incorporated on December 2, 2011, is a supplier of cloud networking solutions that use software innovations to address the needs of Internet companies, cloud service providers and data centers for enterprise support. The Company develops, markets and sells cloud networking solutions, which consist of its Gigabit Ethernet switches and related software. The Company’s cloud networking solutions consist of its Extensible Operating System (EOS), a set of network applications and its Ethernet switching and routing platforms. The programmability of EOS has allowed the Company to create a set of software applications that address the requirements of cloud networking, including workflow automation, network visibility, and analytics, and has also allowed it to integrate with a range of third-party applications for virtualization, management, automation, orchestration and network services. EOS supports cloud and virtualization solutions, including VMware NSX, Microsoft System Center, OpenStack and other cloud management frameworks.
  • Heska Corp [stckqut]HSKA[/stckqut]
    • Heska Corporation, incorporated on March 27, 1997, sells veterinary diagnostic and specialty products. The Company operates through two segments: Core Companion Animal Health (CCA) and Other Vaccines, Pharmaceuticals and Products (OVP). The CCA segment includes, primarily for canine and feline use, blood testing instruments and supplies, digital imaging products, software and services, local and cloud-based data services, allergy testing and immunotherapy, and single-use offerings, such as in-clinic diagnostic tests and heartworm preventive products. Its OVP segment includes private label vaccine and pharmaceutical production, primarily for cattle but also for other species, including equine, porcine, avian, feline and canine. All OVP products are sold by third parties under third-party labels. The Company focuses on supporting veterinarians in the canine and feline healthcare space.
  • LGI Homes Inc [stckqut]LGIH[/stckqut]
    • LGI Homes, Inc., incorporated on June 26, 2013, is a homebuilder and land developer. The Company is engaged in the design, construction, marketing and sale of new homes in markets in Texas, Arizona, Florida, Georgia, New Mexico, South Carolina, North Carolina, Colorado, Washington, and Tennessee. The Company operates through five segments: the Texas division, the Southwest division, the Southeast division, the Florida division, and the Northwest division. The Texas division includes homebuilding operations in Houston, Dallas/Fort Worth, San Antonio and Austin locations. The Southwest division includes homebuilding operations in Phoenix, Tucson, Albuquerque, Denver and Colorado Springs locations. The Southeast division includes homebuilding operations in Atlanta, Charlotte and Nashville locations. The Florida division includes homebuilding operations in Tampa, Orlando, Fort Myers and Jacksonville locations. The Northwest division includes homebuilding operations in Seattle location. The Company’s product offerings include entry-level homes and move-up homes sold under its LGI Homes brand, and its luxury series homes, which are sold under its Terrata Homes brand. As of December 31, 2016, the Company had 59 active communities with its LGI Homes brand and four with its Terrata Homes brand. The Company provides information regarding floor plans and pricing, credit and income qualifications and conduct tours of its homes. In addition, it provides each homebuyer with an introduction to the community and the surrounding area, providing them with information regarding utilities, schools, homeowners association dues and restrictions, local entertainment and nearby dining and shopping options. It offers a set number of floor plans in each community with features that include upgrades, such as granite countertops, appliances, and ceramic tile flooring.
  • Lululemon Athletica inc. [stckqut]LULU[/stckqut]
    • lululemon athletica inc., incorporated on November 21, 2005, is a designer, distributor, and retailer of athletic apparel. The Company operates through two segments: Company-operated stores and Direct to the consumer. The Company is also engaged in the sale from outlets, showrooms, sales from temporary locations, sales to wholesale accounts, warehouse sales, and license and supply arrangements. As of January 29, 2017, the Company had operated 406 stores located in the United States, Canada, Australia, the United Kingdom, New Zealand, China, Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea, Germany, Puerto Rico and Switzerland. Its direct to consumer segment generates revenue from its lululemon and ivivva e-commerce websites, www.lululemon.com and www.ivivva.com, and other country and region-specific websites. The Company operates and distributes finished products from its owned or leased distribution facilities in the United States, Canada, and Australia. The Company owns its distribution center in Columbus, Ohio, and leases its other distribution facilities. The Company offers a range of apparel and accessories for women, men and female youth. Its apparel assortment includes items, such as pants, shorts, tops, and jackets designed for healthy lifestyle and athletic activities, such as yoga, running, training, most other sweaty pursuits, and athletic wear for female youth. It also offers fitness-related accessories, including an array of items, such as bags, socks, underwear, yoga mats and water bottles. Most of its Company-operated stores are branded lululemon, 55 of its Company-operated stores are branded ivivva and specialize in athletic wear for female youth. Its retail stores are located primarily in street locations, in lifestyle centers, and in malls. The Company competes with Nike, Inc., adidas AG, Under Armour, Inc., The Gap, Inc. and L Brands, Inc.
  • Mastercard Inc [stckqut]MA[/stckqut]
    • MasterCard Incorporated, incorporated on May 9, 2001, is a technology company that connects consumers, financial institutions, merchants, governments and businesses across the world, enabling them to use electronic forms of payment. The Company operates through Payment Solutions segment. The Company allows a user to make payments by creating a range of payment solutions and services using its brands, which include MasterCard, Maestro, and Cirrus. The Company provides a range of products and solutions that support payment products, which customers can offer to their cardholders. The Company’s services facilitate transactions on its network among cardholders, merchants, financial institutions, and governments. The Company’s products include consumer credit and charge, commercial, debit, prepaid, commercial and digital. The Company’s consumer credit and charge offers a range of programs that enable issuers to provide consumers with cards allowing users to defer payment. The Company’s debit supports a range of payment products and solutions that allow its customers to provide consumers with access to funds in deposit and other accounts. The Company offers prepaid payment programs using any of its brands, which it supports with processing products and services. The Company focuses on segments, which include government programs, such as social security payments, unemployment benefits, and others; commercial programs, such as payroll, health savings accounts, employee benefits and others, and consumer reloadable programs for individuals and users of electronic payments. The Company also provides prepaid program management services, primarily outside of the United States, that manage and enable switching and issuer processing for consumer and commercial prepaid travel cards for business partners, such as financial institutions, retailers, telecommunications companies, travel agents, foreign exchange bureaus, colleges and universities, airlines and governments.
  • Micron Technology, Inc. [stckqut]MU[/stckqut]
    • Micron Technology, Inc., incorporated on April 6, 1984, is engaged in semiconductor systems. The Company’s portfolio of memory technologies, including dynamic random-access memory (DRAM), negative-AND (NAND) Flash, and NOR Flash are the basis for solid-state drives, modules, multi-chip packages and other system solutions. Its business segments include Compute and Networking Business Unit (CNBU), which includes memory products sold into compute, networking, graphics and cloud server markets; Mobile Business Unit (MBU), which includes memory products sold into smartphone, tablet and other mobile-device markets; Storage Business Unit (SBU), which includes memory products sold into enterprise, client, cloud and removable storage markets, and SBU also includes products sold to Intel through its Intel/Micron Flash Technology (IMFT) joint venture, and Embedded Business Unit (EBU), which includes memory products sold into automotive, industrial, connected home and consumer electronics markets. The Company’s memory solutions enable computing, consumer, enterprise storage, networking, mobile, embedded and automotive applications. The Company markets its products through internal sales force, independent sales representatives and distributors primarily to original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and retailers located around the world.
  • Netflix, Inc. [stckqut]NFLX[/stckqut]
    • Netflix, Inc., incorporated on August 29, 1997, is a provider an Internet television network. The Company operates through three segments: Domestic streaming, International streaming, and Domestic DVD. The Domestic streaming segment includes services that streams content to its members in the United States. The International streaming segment includes services that streams content to its members outside the United States. The Domestic DVD segment includes services, such as digital optical disc (DVD)-by-mail. The Company’s members can watch original series, documentaries, feature films, as well as television shows and movies directly on their Internet-connected screen, televisions, computers and mobile devices. It offers its streaming services both domestically and internationally. In the United States, its members can receive DVDs delivered to their homes. The Company had members streaming in over 190 countries, as of December 31, 2016. Its subsidiaries include Netflix Entretenimento Brasil LTDA, Netflix K.K., Netflix International B.V., Netflix Streaming Services, Inc., NetflixCS, Inc. and Netflix Studios, LLC.
  • Insperity, Inc. [stckqut]NSP[/stckqut]
    • Insperity, Inc. (Insperity), incorporated on August 9, 1995, provides a range of human resources (HR) and business solutions. The Company’s HR services offerings are provided through its Workforce Optimization and Workforce Synchronization solutions (together, its professional employer organization (PEO) HR Outsourcing solutions), which encompass a range of human resources functions, including payroll and employment administration, employee benefits, workers’ compensation, government compliance, performance management, and training and development services, along with its cloud-based human capital management platform, the Employee Service Center (ESC). In addition to its PEO HR Outsourcing solutions, the Company offers various other business performance solutions, including Human Capital Management, Payroll Services, Time and Attendance, Performance Management, Organizational Planning, Recruiting Services, Employment Screening, Financial and Expense Management Services, Retirement Services and Insurance Services, which are offered through desktop applications and cloud-based delivery models. These other products and services are offered separately, along with its PEO HR Outsourcing solutions or as a bundle, such as its Workforce Administration solution that provides a human capital management and payroll service solution.
  • NVIDIA Corporation [stckqut]NVDA[/stckqut]
    • Nvidia Corporation, incorporated on February 24, 1998, focuses on personal computer (PC) graphics, graphics processing unit (GPU) and also on artificial intelligence (AI). The Company provides service to its customers through PC, mobile and cloud architectures. The Company operates through two segments: GPU and Tegra Processor, which are based on a single underlying architecture. The Company’s processor has created platforms that address four markets: Gaming, Professional Visualization, Datacenter, and Automotive. The Company’s GPU product brands are aimed at specialized markets, including GeForce for gamers; Quadro for designers; Tesla and DGX for AI data scientists and big data researchers, and GRID for cloud-based visual computing users. The Company’s Tegra brand integrates an entire computer onto a single chip, and incorporates GPUs and multi-core central processing units (CPUs) to drive supercomputing for mobile gaming and entertainment devices, as well as autonomous robots, drones and cars.
  • TriNet Group Inc [stckqut]TNET[/stckqut]
    • TriNet Group, Inc. (TriNet), incorporated on January 26, 2000, is a provider of human resources (HR) solutions for small to medium-sized businesses (SMBs). The Company’s HR solutions include services, such as multi-state payroll processing and tax administration, employee benefits programs, including health insurance and retirement plans, workers’ compensation insurance and claims management, employment and benefit law compliance, and other services. The Company provides an HR technology platform with online and mobile tools that allow its clients and their worksite employees (WSEs) to store, view and manage their HR-related information and conducts a range of HR-related transactions anytime and anywhere. The Company’s clients are distributed across a range of industries, including technology, life sciences, not-for-profit, professional services, financial services, property management, retail, manufacturing, and hospitality.
  • WellCare Health Plans, Inc. [stckqut]WCG[/stckqut]
    • WellCare Health Plans, Inc., incorporated on February 5, 2004, is a managed care company. The Company focuses on government-sponsored managed care services, primarily through Medicaid, Medicare Advantage (MA) and Medicare Prescription Drug Plans (PDPs), to families, children, seniors and individuals with medical needs. The Company operates in three segments: Medicaid Health Plans, Medicare Health Plans, and Medicare PDPs. As of December 31, 2016, it served approximately 3.9 million members in 50 states and the District of Columbia. As of December 31, 2016, it operated Medicaid health plans in Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Kentucky, Missouri, New Jersey, New York and South Carolina. As of December 31, 2016, it offered MA coordinated care plans (CCPs) in certain counties in Arizona, Arkansas, California, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, New Jersey, New York, South Carolina, Tennessee and Texas. As of December 31, 2016, it also offered standalone Medicare PDPs in 50 states and the District of Columbia.

My typical disclaimer says that I may or may not have a holding of the stocks discussed in this article. This would be a bit misleading for this particular article. You can assume that I am currently invested in every one of these stocks at the time of this writing.

The glass globe image at the top of this article is courtesy of suphakit73 at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Company name Heska Corp
Stock ticker HSKA
Live stock price [stckqut]HSKA[/stckqut]
P/E compared to competitors Good

MANAGEMENT EXECUTION

Employee productivity Poor
Sales growth Poor
EPS growth Good
P/E growth Good
EBIT growth Good

ANALYSIS

Confident Investor Rating Good
Target stock price (TWCA growth scenario) $159.69
Target stock price (averages with growth) $235.09
Target stock price (averages with no growth) $159.69
Target stock price (manual assumptions) $157.64

 

The following company description is from Reuters: https://www.reuters.com/finance/stocks/company-profile/hska

Heska Corporation, incorporated on March 27, 1997, sells veterinary diagnostic and specialty products. The Company operates through two segments: Core Companion Animal Health (CCA) and Other Vaccines, Pharmaceuticals and Products (OVP). The CCA segment includes, primarily for canine and feline use, blood testing instruments and supplies, digital imaging products, software and services, local and cloud-based data services, allergy testing and immunotherapy, and single-use offerings, such as in-clinic diagnostic tests and heartworm preventive products. Its OVP segment includes private label vaccine and pharmaceutical production, primarily for cattle but also for other species, including equine, porcine, avian, feline and canine. All OVP products are sold by third parties under third-party labels. The Company focuses on supporting veterinarians in the canine and feline healthcare space.

 

Confident Investor comments: At this price and at this time, I think that a Confident Investor can confidently invest in Heska Corp as long as the indicators that I describe in my book The Confident Investor are favorable.

If you would like to understand how to evaluate companies like I do on this site, please read my book, The Confident Investor. You can review the best companies that I have found (and I probably invest my own money in most of these companies) in my Watch List.

How was this analysis of Heska Corp calculated?

For owners of my book, “The Confident Investor” I offer the following analysis (you must be logged in to this site as a book owner in order to see the following analysis). If you have registered and cannot see the balance of this article, make sure you are logged in and refresh your browser.
[s2If current_user_can(access_s2member_level1)]

In order to assist you in using the techniques of this book, the values that I used when calculating the Manual pricing above were:

  • Stock price at the time of the calculation: $103.56
  • Growth: 0.2
  • Current EPS (TTM): $1.79
  • P/E: 57
  • Future EPS Calc: $4.45
  • Future Stock Price Calc: $253.88
  • Target stock price: $157.64

[/s2If]
I hope that this makes you a Confident Investor.

Company name Heska Corp
Stock ticker HSKA
Live stock price [stckqut]HSKA[/stckqut]
P/E compared to competitors Good

MANAGEMENT EXECUTION

Employee productivity Fair
Sales growth Fair
EPS growth Good
P/E growth Poor
EBIT growth Good

ANALYSIS

Confident Investor Rating Fair
Target stock price (TWCA growth scenario) $123.74
Target stock price (averages with growth) $132.34
Target stock price (averages with no growth) $59.85
Target stock price (manual assumptions) $115.78

The following company description is from Google Finance: https://finance.google.com/finance?q=hska

Heska Corporation sells veterinary diagnostic and specialty products. The Company operates through two segments: Core Companion Animal Health (CCA) and Other Vaccines, Pharmaceuticals and Products (OVP). The CCA segment includes, primarily for canine and feline use, blood testing instruments and supplies, digital imaging products, software and services, local and cloud-based data services, allergy testing and immunotherapy, and single use offerings, such as in-clinic diagnostic tests and heartworm preventive products. Its OVP segment includes private label vaccine and pharmaceutical production for cattle but also for other species, including equine, porcine, avian, feline and canine. All OVP products are sold by third parties under third-party labels. It focuses on supporting veterinarians in canine and feline healthcare space. It offers a line of veterinary blood testing and other instruments. It manufactures biological and pharmaceutical products for other animal health companies.

 

Confident Investor comments: At this time, I think that a Confident Investor can cautiously invest in Heska Corp as long as the price is correct. Most of the fundamentals of this company are good but there are some concerns.

If you would like to understand how to evaluate companies like I do on this site, please read my book, The Confident Investor. You can review the best companies that I have found (and I probably invest my own money in most of these companies) in my Watch List.

How was this analysis of Heska Corp calculated?

For owners of my book, “The Confident Investor” I offer the following analysis (you must be logged in to this site as a book owner in order to see the following analysis). If you have registered and cannot see the balance of this article, make sure you are logged in and refresh your browser.
[s2If current_user_can(access_s2member_level1)]

In order to assist you in using the techniques of this book, the values that I used when calculating the Manual pricing above were:

  • Stock price at the time of the calculation: $80.21
  • Growth: 0.185
  • Current EPS (TTM): $1.9
  • P/E: 42
  • Future EPS Calc: $4.43
  • Future Stock Price Calc: $186.46
  • Target stock price: $115.77

[/s2If]
I hope that this makes you a Confident Investor.

ID-100203460The beginning of the year is when it seems like every financial website puts out its top or worst stocks. In that vein, I offer my 15 recommended stocks for 2017 – or at least the first quarter of the year. I cannot list the worst stocks, as there are too many of those to itemize. I can at least list the 15 recommended stocks that will give you a good basis for the first three months of 2017.

Many sites do all year lists, but I am only committing to this list for the first three months. There is a great reason for this. It is almost impossible to predict the market farther out than 3-6 month. In fact, it is quite possible for the market to do a massive correction and even this list would be a fallacy. There is always some risk with any investment and you are encouraged to read this site’s disclaimer before acting on this list.

I would expect all of these companies to maintain their status as Good Companies on my Watch List. I would not expect all of them to make a top 15 recommended stocks list at the end of March. Some of them will grow a bit slower than I expect, and a couple of the 15 recommended stocks are probably going to lose money. As Peter Lynch famously said:

“In this business if you’re good, you’re right six times out of ten. You’re never going to be right nine times out of ten.”

By Peter’s standards, I hope to be right on this list with 12 of these picks but Peter says I should be happy with 9. I don’t expect all 15 recommended stocks to be massive growth stocks in the year. I also think the list is successful if the list of 15 beats the S&P 500 and the Dow30. In April, I plan to publish a list for the second quarter of the year.

All of the stocks on this list are rated as Good Companies using the method that I describe in my book The Confident Investor You can purchase my book wherever books are sold such as AmazonBarnes and Noble, and Books A Million. It is available in e-book formats for NookKindle, and iPad.

The 15 recommended stocks were chosen from Good Companies on my Watch List. This means we already know they are fairly well managed and have a history of solid growth. While all of the stocks on the Watch List are Good Companies, these 15 recommended stocks seem to be the most well setup for aggressive growth in the first quarter of 2016.

The 15 recommended stocks for the first quarter of 2016 also performed very well over the past year and the past 3 years. As I have written before, the past is not a perfect indicator of the future, but it is probably the best indicator that we have to use.

I didn’t try to make this list of 15 recommended stocks to be a balanced portfolio covering multiple industries. I am happy to report that it isn’t a terrible unbalanced. The reality is that if you plan to rebalance your portfolio every 3 months then you really do not have to worry too much about industry balance.

If you want a more balanced portfolio, you should have approximately 30% of your portfolio invested in index funds. These funds should be divided by large and small cap funds, an index bond fund, and an index international fund. This would help to balance your portfolio.

You could also look at the Watch List of stocks. These stocks have shown that they are well-run companies. If you are concerned about a balanced portfolio, I suggest that you compliment the 15 recommended stocks with a couple stocks from the Watch List.

The list of 15 recommended stocks for the first quarter of 2017

The list of 15 recommended stocks for the first quarter of 2016 sorted alphabetically by stock symbol are:

  • ABIOMED, Inc. [stckqut]ABMD[/stckqut]
  • Align Technology, Inc. [stckqut]ALGN[/stckqut]
  • Applied Materials, Inc. [stckqut]AMAT[/stckqut]
  • Amazon.com, Inc. [stckqut]AMZN[/stckqut]
  • Acuity Brands, Inc. [stckqut]AYI[/stckqut]
  • China Biologic Products Inc [stckqut]CBPO[/stckqut]
  • Cirrus Logic, Inc. [stckqut]CRUS[/stckqut]
  • Domino’s Pizza, Inc. [stckqut]DPZ[/stckqut]
  • Edwards Lifesciences Corp [stckqut]EW[/stckqut]
  • Hudson Technologies, Inc. [stckqut]HDSN[/stckqut]
  • Heska Corp [stckqut]HSKA[/stckqut]
  • NVIDIA Corporation [stckqut]NVDA[/stckqut]
  • Constellation Brands, Inc. [stckqut]STZ[/stckqut]
  • Sun Communities Inc [stckqut]SUI[/stckqut]
  • Ulta Salon, Cosmetics & Fragrance, Inc. [stckqut]ULTA[/stckqut]

If you want to know a bit more about the companies that comprise the 15 recommended stocks for the first quarter of 2016, you can read below. The descriptions primarily came from the short paragraph descriptions about the company found on Google Finance. https://www.google.com/finance. The stock price charts also came from Google Finance. You can also click on a company name on the right side of this site, under the heading of Most Reviewed Companies (you may need to scroll down) as most of the companies on this list have been reviewed here several times.

  • ABIOMED, Inc. [stckqut]ABMD[/stckqut]
    • Abiomed, Inc. is a provider of temporary percutaneous mechanical circulatory support devices. The Company offers care to heart failure patients. The Company’s products include Impella 2.5, a percutaneous micro heart pump with an integrated motor and sensors; Impella CP, which is primarily used by either interventional cardiologists to support patients in the catheter lab or by surgeons in the heart surgery suite; Impella 5.0 and Impella LD, a percutaneous micro heart pumps with integrated motors and sensors for use primarily in the heart surgery suite; Impella RP, a percutaneous catheter-based axial flow pump that is designed to allow greater than four liters of flow per minute; AB5000, a circulatory support system for the temporary support of acute heart failure patients in profound shock, and Symphony, a minimally invasive implantable cardiac assist device.
  • Align Technology, Inc. [stckqut]ALGN[/stckqut]
    • Align Technology, Inc. designs, manufactures and markets a system of clear aligner therapy, intra-oral scanners and computer-aided design and computer-aided manufacturing (CAD/CAM) digital services used in dentistry, orthodontics and dental records storage. The Company operates through two segments: Clear Aligner segment and Scanner and Services (Scanner) segment. The Clear Aligner segment consists of its Invisalign System, which includes Invisalign Full, Express/Lite, Teen, Assist and Vivera Retainers, along with its training and ancillary products for treating malocclusion. The Scanner segment consists of intra-oral scanning systems and other services available with the intra-oral scanners that provide digital alternatives to the traditional cast models. The Company’s iTero scanner is used by dental professionals, and labs and services for restorative and orthodontic digital procedures, as well as Invisalign digital impression submission.
  • Applied Materials, Inc. [stckqut]AMAT[/stckqut]
    • Applied Materials, Inc. provides manufacturing equipment, services and software to the global semiconductor, display and related industries. The Company’s segments are Semiconductor Systems, which includes semiconductor capital equipment for etch, rapid thermal processing, deposition, chemical mechanical planarization, metrology and inspection, wafer packaging, and ion implantation; Applied Global Services, which provides integrated solutions to optimize equipment and fab performance and productivity; Display and Adjacent Markets, which includes products for manufacturing liquid crystal displays, organic light-emitting diodes, upgrades and roll-to-roll Web coating systems and other display technologies for televisions, personal computers, smart phones and other consumer-oriented devices, and Corporate and Other segment, which includes revenues from products, as well as costs of products sold for fabricating solar photovoltaic cells and modules, and certain operating expenses.
  • Amazon.com, Inc. [stckqut]AMZN[/stckqut]
    • Amazon.com, Inc. offers a range of products and services through its Websites. The Company’s products include merchandise and content that it purchases for resale from vendors and those offered by third-party sellers. The Company has three segments: North America, International and Amazon Web Services (AWS). The Company’s North America segment focuses on retail sales of consumer products from sellers and subscriptions, through its North America-focused Websites, such as www.amazon.com, www.amazon.ca and www.amazon.com.mx. The Company’s International segment includes export sales from its internationally focused Websites, including export sales from its sites to customers in the United States, Mexico and Canada. The Company’s AWS segment focuses on the sales of compute, storage, database and other AWS service offerings for start-ups, enterprises, government agencies and academic institutions. The Company offers Amazon Prime, which is an annual membership program.
  • Acuity Brands, Inc. [stckqut]AYI[/stckqut]
    • Acuity Brands, Inc. is a provider of lighting solutions for commercial, institutional, industrial, infrastructure and residential applications throughout North America and other international markets. The Company operates through North American segment. The Company offers a portfolio of indoor and outdoor lighting and building management solutions for commercial, institutional, industrial, infrastructure and residential applications. The portfolio of lighting solutions include lighting products utilizing fluorescent, light emitting diode (LED), organic LED (OLED), high intensity discharge, metal halide, and incandescent light sources to illuminate a number of applications. The solutions portfolio of the Company also includes modular wiring, LED drivers, sensors, glass and inverters sold primarily to original equipment manufacturers (OEMs). Its lighting and building management solutions are marketed under various brand names, including Lithonia Lighting and Holophane.
  • China Biologic Products Inc. [stckqut]CBPO[/stckqut]
    • China Biologic Products, Inc. (China Biologic) is a biopharmaceutical company. The Company is principally engaged in the research, development, manufacturing and sales of human plasma-based biopharmaceutical products in China. China Biologic has a product portfolio with over 20 different dosage forms of plasma products. The Company’s principal products are human albumin and immunoglobulin for intravenous injection (IVIG). China Biologic operates its business through two subsidiaries, namely, Shandong Taibang Biological Products Co. Ltd. and Guizhou Taibang Biological Products Co., Ltd. The Company also holds an interest in Xi’an Huitian Blood Products Co., Ltd., a plasma products company. Its products include human albumin, human immunoglobulin, IVIG, thymopolypeptides injection, human hepatitis B immunoglobulin, human rabies immunoglobulin, human tetanus immunoglobulin, placenta polypeptide, Factor VIII and human prothrombin complex concentrate (PCC).
  • Cirrus Logic, Inc. [stckqut]CRUS[/stckqut]
    • Cirrus Logic, Inc. is engaged in providing integrated circuits (ICs) for audio and voice signal processing applications. The Company develops analog and mixed-signal ICs for a range of customers. The Company offers two product lines: Portable Audio, and Non-Portable Audio and Other. The Company’s primary facility housing engineering, sales and marketing, and administration functions is located in Austin, Texas. The Company offers products through both direct and indirect sales channels across the world. The Company’s portable audio products include analog and mixed-signal components designed for mobile devices including smartphones, tablets, digital headsets, wearables, smart accessories and portable media players. Its non-portable audio and other products include analog and mixed-signal components targeting the consumer market, including smart home applications, and the automotive, energy and industrial markets.
  • Domino’s Pizza, Inc. [stckqut]DPZ[/stckqut]
    • Domino’s Pizza, Inc. is a pizza restaurant chain. The Company operates pizza stores at 12,500 locations in over 80 markets. It operates through three segments: domestic stores, international franchise and supply chain. Its Domestic Stores segment consists primarily of its franchise operations, through which it operates network of over 4,820 franchised stores located in the United States. Its International Franchise segment consists of a network of franchised stores in approximately 80 international markets. Its supply chain segment operates approximately 20 regional dough manufacturing and food supply chain centers in the United States; a thin crust manufacturing center; a vegetable processing center, and a center providing equipment and supplies to certain of its domestic and international stores. Its basic menu features pizza products in various sizes and crust types. Its stores also offer oven-baked sandwiches, pasta, bread side items, desserts and soft drink products.
  • Edwards Lifesciences Corp [stckqut]EW[/stckqut]
    • Edwards Lifesciences Corporation is focused on technologies that treat structural heart disease and critically ill patients. The Company manufactures heart valve systems and repair products used to replace or repair a patient’s diseased or defective heart valve. It develops hemodynamic monitoring systems used to measure a patient’s cardiovascular function in the hospital setting. The Company conducts operations around the world and is managed in various geographical regions, including the United States, Europe, Japan, and Rest of World. All regions sell products that are used to treat advanced cardiovascular disease. The Company’s products and technologies it offers to treat advanced cardiovascular disease are categorized into three areas: Transcatheter Heart Valve Therapy, Surgical Heart Valve Therapy and Critical Care.
  • Hudson Technologies, Inc. [stckqut]HDSN[/stckqut]
    • Hudson Technologies, Inc. is a refrigerant services company. The Company provides solutions to recurring problems within the refrigeration industry. Its products and services include refrigerant and industrial gas sales; refrigerant management services, which consist of reclamation of refrigerants, and RefrigerantSide services, which consist of system decontamination. Its refrigerant and industrial gas sales include selling of reclaimed and virgin (new) refrigerants to various customers in a range of segments of the air conditioning and refrigeration industry. It provides refrigerant management services, which also include laboratory testing through its laboratory, and banking services. It provides decontamination and recovery services that are performed at a customer’s site using its Zugibeast system under its RefrigerantSide services. The Company also participates in the generation of carbon offset projects as a component of its products and services.
  • Heska Corp [stckqut]HSKA[/stckqut]
    • Heska Corporation develops, manufactures, markets, sells and supports veterinary products. The Company focuses on the canine and feline companion animal health markets. Its segments include Core Companion Animal Health segment, which includes, primarily for canine and feline use, blood testing instruments and supplies, digital imaging products, software and services, and single use products and services, such as heartworm diagnostic tests, heartworm preventive products, allergy immunotherapy products and allergy testing, and Other Vaccines, Pharmaceuticals and Products segment, which includes private label vaccine and pharmaceutical production, primarily for cattle but also for other animals, including small mammals. It offers blood testing instruments and supplies, digital imaging products, software and services, and single use products and services, such as in-clinic heartworm diagnostic tests, heartworm preventive products, allergy immunotherapy products and allergy testing.
  • NVIDIA Corporation [stckqut]NVDA[/stckqut]
    • NVIDIA Corporation (NVIDIA) is engaged in visual computing. The Company operates through segments, including GPU and Tegra Processor. Its GPU businesses include GeForce for personal computer (PC) gaming; Quadro for design professionals working in computer-aided design, video editing, special effects and other creative applications; Tesla for deep learning and accelerated computing, leveraging the parallel computing capabilities of graphics processing units (GPUs) for general purpose computing, and GRID to provide the power of NVIDIA graphics through the cloud and datacenters. The Company’s Tegra processors are primarily designed to enable its branded platforms: DRIVE and SHIELD. Tegra is also sold to original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) for devices. DRIVE automotive computers provide supercomputing capabilities to make driving safer. SHIELD consists of a family of devices designed to harness the power of mobile-cloud to revolutionize gaming.
  • Constellation Brands, Inc. [stckqut]STZ[/stckqut]
    • Constellation Brands, Inc. is an international beverage alcohol company. The Company’s operating segments include Beer, Wine and Spirits and Corporate Operations and Other. The Company’s wine portfolio is complemented by select spirits brands and other select beverage alcohol products. It is a multi-category supplier (beer, wine and spirits) of beverage alcohol in the United States. The Company’s customers include wholesale distributors, retailers, on premise locations and government alcohol beverage control agencies. In the United States, the Company operates 19 wineries using varieties of grapes grown in the Napa, Sonoma, Monterey and San Joaquin regions of California. It also operates eight wineries in Canada, four wineries in New Zealand and five wineries in Italy. The Company’s Canadian whisky requirements are produced and aged at its Canadian distillery in Lethbridge, Alberta.
  • Sun Communities Inc [stckqut]SUI[/stckqut]
    • Sun Communities, Inc. (SHS) is a self-administered and self-managed real estate investment trust (REIT). The Company operates in two segments: Real Property Operations, and Home Sales and Rentals. The Real Property Operations segment owns, operates and develops manufactured housing (MH) and recreational vehicle (RV) throughout the United States and is in the business of acquiring, operating and expanding MH and RV communities. Real Property Operations include several home options of various sizes and designs and consist of MH communities and RV communities. The Home Sales and Rentals segment offers manufactured home sales and leasing services to tenants and prospective tenants of its communities. It is engaged in the marketing, selling and leasing of new and pre-owned homes to residents in its communities. It has regional property management offices located in Austin, Texas; Dayton, Ohio; Grand Rapids, Michigan; Traverse City, Michigan; Ft. Myers, Florida, and Orlando, Florida.
  • Ulta Salon, Cosmetics & Fragrance, Inc. [stckqut]ULTA[/stckqut]
    • Ulta Salon, Cosmetics & Fragrance, Inc. is a beauty retailer. The Company operates specialty retail stores selling cosmetics, fragrance, haircare and skincare products, and related accessories and services. The Company operates through three segments: retail stores, salon services and e-commerce. The Company also offers a full-service salon in every store featuring hair, skin and brow services. The Company offers approximately 20,000 products from over 500 beauty brands across all categories and price points, including its own private label, the Ulta Beauty Collection. The Company operates over 870 stores in approximately 50 states. The Company offers a loyalty program, Ultamate Rewards, and targeted promotions through its Customer Relationship Management (CRM) platform. It also offers promotions and coupons, in-store events and gifts with purchase. The Company’s e-commerce business, Ulta.com, provides access to product and store information, beauty trends and techniques.

My typical disclaimer says that I may or may not have a holding of the stocks discussed in this article. This would be a bit misleading for this particular article. You can assume that I am currently invested in every one of these stocks at the time of this writing.

The glass globe image at the top of this article is courtesy of suphakit73 at FreeDigitalPhotos.net