Jan 5th - Speculative Stocks for '07 - SVNT RAD LVLT

Cramer's top 3 speculative stocks for 2007 from #3 to #1 are:

#3
Savient Pharmaceuticals Inc. (SVNT)

Closing Price: $11.66
After Hours High: $13.20
Percent Increase at High: 13.2%
After Hours Most Recent: $12.68
Percent Increase at Most Recent Price: 8.7%
Sector: Healthcare
Days to Cover: 5.3
Short %: 7.52 %
% Held by Insiders: 16.04 %
% Held by Institutions: 70.30 %
50 Day Moving Average: $10.11
200 Day Moving Average: $6.87

There appears to be some stronger hands holding this stock as can be seen with the high insider/institutional holdings combined. We have also just pushed past the 52-week high. A good opportunity for shorting here since we have a large run up and it may get "forgotten" if people are more interested in the #1 pick tonight. These 3 could all be very risky shorts since there is a lot of interest in these picks (as I can tell with the number of hits on my blog alone today that were based on "Cramer picks for 2007"). I would look at $13 being an important number and if it doesn't break it early Monday and comes close to it, there could be a drop off at the bell from there.

#2
Rite Aid Corp. (RAD)

Closing Price: $5.57
After Hours High: $5.95
Percent Increase at High: 6.8%
After Hours Most Recent: $5.78
Percent Increase at Most Recent Price: 3.8%
Sector: Services
Days to Cover: 7.3
Short %: 7.40 %
% Held by Insiders: 9.14 %
% Held by Institutions: 57.40 %
50 Day Moving Average: $4.83
200 Day Moving Average: $4.51
Average Price Drop for Sector: 2.8%

Kudos to a commenter who called RAD as one of the speculative picks (he/she is 1 for 2 and has bet on LVLT like many others as the #1). For a cheap stock, the gain is rather small. It almost touched $6, which means that will be the price to watch on Monday to see if it breaks that. Again, the hope is that the stock will come close to $6, or maybe right to $6 even and fall off as no one wants to pay more then that nice whole number. Of course, if it breaks that number during the pre-market or in the first few minutes of regular hours trading, then that means people are willing to pay over $6, and who knows how much more then that, which means I like to stay away. Another point to make, this pick has also gone past its 52-week high with this after hours push, which could be met with some resistance.

#1
Level 3 Communications Inc. (LVLT)

Closing Price: $5.93
After Hours High: $6.25
Percent Increase at High: 5.6%
After Hours Most Recent: $6.17
Percent Increase: 4.0%
Sector: Technology
Days to Cover: 2.7
Short %: 9.14 %
% Held by Insiders: 8.55 %
% Held by Institutions: 82.50 %
50 Day Moving Average: $5.51
200 Day Moving Average: $4.86
Average Price Drop for Sector: 4.3%

Well Cramer did what a lot of people were guessing (myself included) and picked LVLT. He said that he doesn't think the rise in the stock price today was from people speculating that this would be his pick, but I beg to differ. He made it rather clear about a month ago that it could be his speculative pick for 2007. LVLT has no earnings and a lot of debt, and from reading the message boards there are a lot of bears that follow this stock. A lot of good news and numbers will have to come out to warrent this stock going up like Cramer's pick of the year from last year so I think there has to be a cap on this stock in the short term. The stock was up around 6.5% today and the after hours is only going to include brokers who can trade after 6:30pm (a lot can't), so this one could be wild on Monday morning which more people trying to jump in that couldn't tonight. The last few times Cramer has recommended the stock (type in LVLT in the search box at the very top to see the other posts) the stock only went up 40-50 cents so the fact it was up that much already today in anticipation, the pop after hours is even that much more inflated in my opinion. With LVLT after previous recommendations, the stock did drop right at the opening bell, but it didn't last long and went up higher then the opening price.