Hot Stock Tip
Most folks are familiar with the story “Field of Diamonds.” For those that haven’t heard the story it’s about a young man who leaves the farm in search of his fortune. He spends his entire life searching the world for a field of diamonds that will make him rich. He returns home as a failed, old man only to discover that in his absence a field of diamonds was discovered on the land he abandoned.
The moral to the story is simple. The best opportunities are to be found in one’s own backyard. That may also be good advice when investing your nest egg or IRA.
Oshkosh Truck is one of those solid companies that doesn’t generate much excitement on Wall Street. The company manufactures heavy duty military trucks, fire trucks, cement mixers, garbage trucks and the like. It is not a “sexy” stock compared to high-tech, high fliers. It only makes money. A $10,000 investment in the company’s stock five years ago would be worth more than $50,000 today.
According to today’s Milwaukee journal-Sentinel, the company is on the verge of a major break-through in technology. Oshkosh Truck as developed a diesel-hybrid truck that has wide-spread application in both military and civilian environments. A hybrid engine operates on electricity at low speeds and on petroleum fuel at high speeds. What makes the Oshkosh technology unique is that it uses capacitors rather than batteries to store the electricity. The company quietly tested its new hybrid vehicles in New Orleans in the days following the Katrina disaster.
Companies like FEDEX, UPS and Waste Management are lining up to take a look at the new technology. Every garbage truck in the world is a candidate to be replaced by the new Oshkosh Truck. The new diesel hybrid will make an important contribution to both the energy crisis and cleaning up the air.
Take a look at the article in today’s Journal-Sentinel. Oshkosh Truck is a “diamond” in our own backyard.
Your faithful servant,
Silence
posted by Silence Dogwood @ 8:42 AM
3 comments
links to this post
3 Comments:
They quietly tested this vehicle in New Orleans? At a social function last fall, a higher up at Truck told me that the company did not send any vehicles down there even though they would have been helpful. If the Journal story is true then I guess there is at least one thing good about a company whose record profits are a direct result of an illegal war. I'd have a problem investing in their stock but not to worry as I'm a teacher in Neenah who has not had a contract for years and years and have no dollars to invest.
(Isn't is odd that uppity little Neenah has no leadership in the schools and negative leadership in the police dept.? Perhaps Neenah pride goeth before a fall.)
Anonymous-
To be sure, Oshkosh Truck is a supplier of many of the military vehicles used in Iraq. But the company is much more than just a supplier of military vehicles. It manufactures fire trucks, garbage trucks, cement trucks and the like.
The company’s latest annual report addresses the role of its military contracts and emphasizes that it is working to expand its non-military product line. The hybrid diesel apparently is a step in that direction and, if successful, has a huge market waiting for it.
I can understand your frustration of being a Neenah teacher without a contract and not having the funds need to play the market. But I will bet you a steak dinner that the Wisconsin Teachers Retirement fund holds stock in the company so like it or not, you probably are already a stockholder.
Silence
Point taken. I appreciate your thoughtful information.
Post a Comment
Links to this post:
Create a Link
<< Home