Gathering New Information about Stocks, Health, and Sports

          You may have noticed the recent increase in the price of Qwest during the past 12 months. In fact, during such a volatile time period, the stock has increased near a percentage of 110%. Such activity is uncommon during such a short duration especially as telecommunication company in a sector plagued by oversold equities. Coming off surprising lows of near one dollar almost four years ago, you might be hesitant to join the bandwagon, but also note that a little bit before reaching such a low, Qwest reached a high of 30.00: a mark I believe it will attain again.
          Based with strong fundamentals, Qwest is hard to use technical analysis due to its unusual steady increase over the duration of one year. Typically I base a lot of my predictions off resistance and support levels or the head and shoulders concept, but interesting enough, this company does not experience such volatility and grows at a rate you would expect for durations of five to ten years. However, with strong cash flow (especially in the recent report of operating margins) and good guidance which should prop up earnings, Qwest still remains a strong buy. Some investors may argue that since the company has surpassed its recent 52 week high, the stock may be in for a sell off. Well characteristically I would agree with such a sentiment, but the same idea was said when Qwest was around 7.00 and again at 6.00 and 5.00. What happened during those periods? The price did not hit a resistance level and continued to growth at a fairly rapid rate. At a number around 8.50, I will not be a partisan to such a conviction again and proclaim that Qwest has the potential to reach its previous five year highs again.
          There should also be a notice that Qwest is still a relatively new company. Setting up an IPO around late 1997, Qwest provided increased competition to other such telecommunication companies. Before falling like the rest of the market in late 2001, Qwest had grown almost 300% in less than three years setting up a situation very similar to today’s value. While you might not gather the capital gains desired if you were lucky and bought the stock near 1.00, buying at a price around 8.00-9.00 for an oversold stock will still accrue large capital gains in the near future. Therefore, with such stability in terms of growth, a seemingly edge over the competition, and good fundamentals, I proclaim Qwest as a strong buy for a period of two to three years.

-Dennis Biray
August 13th, 2006