PowerRatings Best of the Requests: BNI, MO, PFE

It's always a good day to see more than a few high, Long Term PowerRatings stocks among those that investors are most interested in according to our daily Most Requested PowerRatings directory.

This listing of stocks is provided every day so that active investors and long term traders can see what other active investors and long term traders are interested in and – potentially – considering for investment or trade.

Having heard a report on Bloomberg yesterday that railroad stocks were among the best performers in 2008, it was little surprise to find a stock like Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNI@BNI | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) on the Most Requested PowerRatings list. Year to date, shares of BNI are up by more than 29%.

Burlington Northern Santa Fe

Even better, the stock has earned a Long Term PowerRating of 8. Our research, looking at thousands of simulated stock trades between 1995 and 2007, indicates that stocks with Long Term PowerRatings of 8 have been both more reliable and better performers than the average stock.

Specifically, 8-rated stocks were found to have been higher one year later more than 74% of the time. The average stock, by comparison, was higher one year later less than 68% of the time. This higher reliability factor is the first thing that distinguishes high, Long Term PowerRatings stocks from their lower PowerRating peers.

But more than that, stocks with higher Long Term PowerRatings – particularly of 8 or higher – have also outperformed the average stock based on our historical testing. We found that stocks with Long Term PowerRatings of 8 actually produced average gains of approximately 17.13% in a year's time. Contrast this with the average gain of the average stock after one year, which has been 12-13% since 1995.

All three stocks in today's discussion have Long Term PowerRatings of 8, and share these impressive reliability and performance statistics.

This includes Altria Group Inc. (MO@MO | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) which, in contrast to Burlington Northern Santa Fe, is actually down on a year-to-date basis. Altria Group sits at the top of the Cigarette industry, an industry group that also includes the 8-rated Reynolds American Inc. (RAI@RAI | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating).

Altria Group Inc.

The third and final top stock in today's Most Requested PowerRatings is Pfizer Inc. (PFE@PFE | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating). While Pfizer shares the Long Term PowerRating of 8 with Burlington Northern Santa Fe and Altria Group, Pfizer differs in coming from an industry group - Major Drug Manufacturers - that actually has a high PowerRating, as well.

Pfizer Inc.

Like Altria Group, Pfizer is also down year-to-date, having begun 2008 approximately two points higher than the level at which it is currently trading. However, one interesting difference is that while both BNI and MO hail from industries with average PowerRatings of 7 and 6, respectively, Pfizer's industry group has actually earned our highest Long Term PowerRating of 10.

Why is this significant? We found that industries that had our highest Long Term PowerRating of 10 produced average annualized returns of more than 35% from 1995 to 2007. This bests the performance of the average industry by a wide margin – given the fact that the average industry has managed average annualized returns over the same time period of just over 14%.

Looking for more long-term solutions to your investing problems? Don't let the volatility of this market lead you to miss out on stocks you'll be glad to have bought a year from now.

David Penn is Senior Editor for PowerRatings.net