Should I Buy These Stocks ~ May 2010

I hope that my efforts both here on the web and in person begin to slowly impact the way that people think about some of the daily decisions they make in a different light. As you know, my reasoning tends to have an economical twist to it..."If it don't make dollars, it don't make sense". And the outcome doesn't always have to involve money, but it does need to make sense to you and the people you care about.

So I am glad whenever friends and readers ask me about the economy or in this case to analyze a few stocks they are interested in buying. So in this round I received four stocks from a close friend who works in real estate. Here were the stocks he presented:

• Bruker Corporation
• Reliant Steel
• British Petroleum
• Unilife

Bruker Corp (NASDAQ: BRKR) - Biotech toolmaker (X-ray, MRI,etc)
- Barrons Article, "Biotech toolmaker Bruker Corp's shares could climb as business and the economy improves this year, financial weekly Barron's said. The paper reported in its April 12 edition that Bruker shares could rise from a current $15.20 to $18 as its sales rise 10 percent a year -- twice as fast as its rivals."

- I really like the medical device segment. I have written about these types of companies and think they have room especially with the recent changes in health care. I would reference my reviews of Boston Scientific
- Recommendation: This meets some of my screening criteria, nice call. BUY @ $13.91 – 14.08

Reliant Steel (NYSE: RS) – Steel Maker
- Steel is a solid play if you are a believer that the economy, more importantly the world economy is stabilizing and rebounding. I personally and not fully sold. A good chunk of steel would need to be bolstered by China and they may be reigning in a hot economy over there. Manufacturing and real estate are at divergent ends and you may need both (i.e., signs of a growing to really buy this play)
- Dissapointing Outlook: http://www.thestreet.com/_yahoo/story/10733603/1/reliance-steels-outlook-disappoints.html?cm_ven=YAHOO&cm_cat=FREE&cm_ite=NA

- Recommendation: Not Buying

British Petroleum (BP) – Oil
- I like your enthusiasm here and slowly over the years have played the contrarian play more than any other. Buying the guy that’s down and out or that got clobbered by some negative news. Need a recent example, Boston Scientific got hammered by the FDA and I waited then bought after the story played out. The difference is this story hasn’t played out and the government needs a whooping boy and BP is it. No one is happy about what’s going on in the Gulf, even the oil lovers down in the Gulf!
- Recommendation: I personally would wait until a little more news comes out. I think it may be safe to buy at the 52 week low levels of $44, because a 7% dividend is paying you to wait for this stock to rebound. But your downside risk still exists big time…which could lead to a dividend cut and no one likes that.

Unilife – Medical Devices
- I like this sector don’t like this stock. In 5 minutes outside of the sector they are in I can’t find a reason to love this stock. Being a contrarian, I tend to want to buy these guys because it looks like they been beat down…like they stole something. But I can’t do it:
- Negative news (got sour around Apr) and changing of management and board members tells me something wasn’t going right.
- Recommendation: I personally would not buy this company, even if it was with your money. LMAO