Here Are Hot Stock Picks For 2007 And Beyond

It seems like everybody has their own hot picks these days. Watching CNBC, you are bombarded by commercials for various systems that get you the hot stock picks.

In publications such as Investors Business Daily there are typically several pages devoted to software programs and web sites that promise hot picks for quick trades.

Obviously, if all of these so-called hot stock picks were as hot as their pervaders proport, then they wouldn't need to hock them in cheesy commercials. Most of these systems and programs promise easy money, but sensible people know that nothing comes easy on Wall Street.

Instead of promising a foolproof system for chart-based trades, this article delivers truly hot picks for 2007 and beyond, based on the actual business fundamentals of the underlying companies.

A word of caution about these hot stock picks: These hot picks are solely for entertainment purposes. I mention these stocks only to offer my own thoughts and opinions, and to perhaps spark some ideas.

I am not recommending that you buy these hot stock picks without first doing substantial research and then discussing them with your financial advisor.

With that out of the way, on to the hot picks. I have broken the stocks into two groups:

Hot stock picks for companies with substantial opportunity for growth, and hot picks for companies with share prices that have recently been beaten down and may now be undervalued.

Hot Stock Picks: Growth

My hot stock picks for growth companies are EZCorp (EZPW) and Paychex (PAYX).

EZCorp is an amazing, unheard of company that has been on a path of torrid growth. The firm operates pawn shops and payday loan centers under the names EZPawn and EZMoney, respectively. Currently, the company has over 500 stores in 13 states, with plans to establish another 125 locations in the works.

What I love about this company is that its business model allows it to do well in good times and in bad. In 2005, it loaned close to $600 million to cash and credit constrained customers, and the company's earnings per share (EPS) has more than quintupled in the past four years.

With a recent P/E ratio of just 25, the price hasn't kept up with the growth of this, the first of my hot picks.

The second of my hot stock picks in the growth arena is Paychex. This is another unknown, but it shouldn't be. Paychex is the nation's second largest payroll processing firm, next to Automatic Data Processing.

It has recorded fifteen consecutive years of record profits, and it continues to diversify its business model in order to accelerate growth. Recently, it moved into benefits and human resources management. Another thing I like about this firm is that it has the small business market cornered, and has erected substantial barriers to entry for would-be competitors.

Hot Stock Picks: Value

Microsoft (MSFT) and Intel (INTC) need no introduction. They have both been beaten down badly in recent times and may have nowhere to go but up.

Microsoft's Vista operating system should be a great catalyst, and after that, the firm has room to grow in the telephony industry.

Intel has suffered from intensifying competition with rival AMD, but it certainly has the resources to engineer a turnaround. Since most Windows-based machines run with Intel chips, Vista will also be a great catalyst for Intel.

Some would scoff at the characterization of such mega firms as Microsoft and Intel as hot picks, but the fact is that people have lost their senses when it comes to these great American companies, and they are just too cheap to ignore.

Growth companies should be bought each time they reach new highs, but beaten down value stocks like Microsoft and Intel, with solid business fundamentals and great brand names and products, should be purchased on dips.

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