Brief descriptions of Ernie's top 5 picks for your perusal

In case you are "on the go", here are some quick summaries of the top 5 for you:

FINL-Finish Line is an Indianapolis-based mall retailer of athletic items (including footwear). It has nearly 500 stores nationwide. For the last 1/2 year, they had their net income fall 5% but their net sales increased 28%. On September 24, they announced that for the second fiscal quarter, that their comparatable store net sales in fact increased 21% and earnings-wise they made 73 cents a share vs. 37 cents a year earlier.

FMAR-First Mariner Bancorp is a Baltimore-based community bank. It has now passed $1 billion in assets (not bad after 8 years). Average daily volume on this stock is under 10,000 shares.

ITIC-Investors Title is a North Carolina based title insurance company recognized earlier in the summer as one of Fortune's fastest growing small business companies. Average daily volume is fewer than 2,000 shares.

TROV-Trover Solutions reported earnings in August of 19 cents a share vs. 17 cents year ago for the quarter. Revenues went down from $17.3 million to $17.0 million. They provide health insurance recovery and other cost containment services for private healthcare payors. They were formerly known as Healthcare Recoveries, Inc.

WLS-William Lyon Homes is a single-family home builder in the states of California, Arizona, and Nevada. For their last reported quarter, their net income was up 96.1% and earnings were $1.38/share vs. 66 cents in the prior year.

Hope this helps!

[tx_damnyankee0]

Originally Posted by bec1wnbc66

In case you are "on the go", here are some quick summaries of the top 5 for you:

FINL-Finish Line is an Indianapolis-based mall retailer of athletic items (including footwear). It has nearly 500 stores nationwide. For the last 1/2 year, they had their net income fall 5% but their net sales increased 28%. On September 24, they announced that for the second fiscal quarter, that their comparatable store net sales in fact increased 21% and earnings-wise they made 73 cents a share vs. 37 cents a year earlier.

FMAR-First Mariner Bancorp is a Baltimore-based community bank. It has now passed $1 billion in assets (not bad after 8 years). Average daily volume on this stock is under 10,000 shares.

ITIC-Investors Title is a North Carolina based title insurance company recognized earlier in the summer as one of Fortune's fastest growing small business companies. Average daily volume is fewer than 2,000 shares.

TROV-Trover Solutions reported earnings in August of 19 cents a share vs. 17 cents year ago for the quarter. Revenues went down from $17.3 million to $17.0 million. They provide health insurance recovery and other cost containment services for private healthcare payors. They were formerly known as Healthcare Recoveries, Inc.

WLS-William Lyon Homes is a single-family home builder in the states of California, Arizona, and Nevada. For their last reported quarter, their net income was up 96.1% and earnings were $1.38/share vs. 66 cents in the prior year.

Hope this helps!

Very good summary.