Restaurant stocks have been getting hammered lately, and for good reason.

Whether their results have flat lined or deteriorated, Wall Street has not taken any prisoners, for better or worse.

One of the last shoes to drop finally happened on Friday September 12 when Chipotle Mexican Grill (NYSE: CMG) (NYSE: CMG-B) had one of those nice little “Business Updates” that we’ve all come to love so much around here, whereby the company lowered Q3 guidance, and all but admitted that they are starting to really struggle as a result of outside forces.

The good news this time around was that with deteriorating macroeconomic conditions and company-specific issues, I knew we would be getting a better entry point somewhere down the line on shares of Chipotle’s stock.

So is Chipotle, a well-run, dynamic restaurant company that operationally is best-in-class, a good candidate for a rebound from here?

Does the 20% stock price plunge on Friday, and the further decline from $150 a share earlier this year to the now more reasonable $57 per share ($53.50 for the “B” shares, more below) present a great buying opportunity, or could this be just the beginning of Chipotle finally joining the recession party?

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I’ve been biding my time with uWink (NASDAQ: UWKI.OB) for the last few months or so as the price has plummeted from around $1.40 per share to the now bargain basement price of $0.55 per share.

There has been little news coming out of uWink other than their last quarterly earnings release that I wrote about extensively, which was not a pretty picture.

As I explained in my breakdown, the results need to be taken into context, and not overblown or exaggerated in their nature.

Chief among those observations is the fact that uWink is not really a restaurant company, although to this point, that’s the only way we’ve had to value them.

It seems that valued in that context alone, some out there, and for sure the culprits of the recent stock decline, have taken it upon themselves to bail on the company right at the cusp of their acceleration as a software development company.

That, I believe, is a big mistake.

In fact, the recent stock price provides us with such a compelling risk/reward scenario that it is simply too good to pass up, and needless to say, uWink definitely qualifies for my Double Thesis.

Apparently I’m not the only one that feels this way as the CFO has just purchased more shares on the open market, and both the CFO and CEO have received a generous amount of new preferred stock in exchange for some of their underwater options.

There are other reasons why I feel this is a great time to purchase shares of uWink or further cost average your position if you already have one, and I’ll go into those in detail further below.

I am initiating the Fourth (4) BUY recommendation of uWink at or around $0.55 per share.

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After tearing through AuthenTec’s (Nasdaq: AUTH) latest 10-k filing, doing some number crunching, and evaluating both the overall market and the semiconductor sector, and recent company developments at AuthenTec, I have changed my investment thesis to a HOLD for the time being.

If you own shares in AuthenTec, as do I, hang onto them.

If you don’t own shares, nibble at today’s prices, but be advised that a stagnant or declining share price could be in the cards for the next quarter or two.

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Here’s Why: Read the rest of this entry »

Well, here we go again: AAR Corp. reported earnings after the market closed on March 18th, 2008, and needless to say, my investment thesis is playing out just as expected with AAR reporting another quarter of record revenue and earnings, while beating analysts estimates on both the top and bottom line.

I’ll give a more detailed breakdown of AAR Corp.’s earnings, margins, etc., but I wanted to provide some quick numbers, and conference call and earnings highlights, as well as talk about their latest acquisition. Read the rest of this entry »

It’s now easier than ever to decide what actions to take on the stocks you currently hold, or positions you are thinking of starting based on the recommendations on PeakStocks.com.

It can be daunting deciding where to start, which stocks you should invest in right now, what price is considered a “fair” price, etc.

What if you could only buy one stock, which stock do I feel is the best place to put your money right now?

To answer all these questions, I have created a widget on the left-hand side of every page titled: “PeakStocks.com Portfolio Recommendations”.

If you are new to the site, or haven’t visited in awhile, I created this recommendation widget so you can quickly see which stocks I am currently recommending to buy, sell, or hold. Read the rest of this entry »

Awhile back I had said that uWink has been quiet for awhile, and that I expected some announcements from the company shortly.

Well, uWink certainly delivered with a couple of new deals that further strengthen their restaurant side of the business, and more importantly, their software and content side of the business.

I’ll go over these two developments as well as update you on the progress of their new restaurant openings, and important notes regarding the company. Read the rest of this entry »

Read the rest of this entry »

SoundBite Communications (Nasdaq: SDBT) reported its fiscal 4th quarter and full year 2007 earnings on Wednesday February 27th.

Not only did SoundBite post record profits and revenue and handily beat estimates, but they also raised guidance for Q1/2008, AND full-year 2008, while also announcing an acquisition that will be immediately beneficial to their platform and future product offerings to their customers. Read the rest of this entry »

When investing and trying to produce sizable gains that beat the market, there are no hard and fast rules that I play by. In fact, I don’t care where I have to look to make us money.

However, there are particular doctrines and methodologies that I adhere to that produce the most consistency and direction for my investments.

Some of these rules and methodologies that comprise my “Secret Sauce” I won’t share publicly, but others I will, as I feel it gives you a better idea of why and how I pick the stocks that I pick and what I look for in the companies that I want to make a long term commitment to.

One of these rules is what I like to call: The Double Thesis

The basic tenet of this rule is to ask myself one simple question when analyzing a company that appeals to me:

“Can this stock double in one year?” Read the rest of this entry »