Oxford Health Should Benefit Investors

In my upcoming book, It's Earnings That Count (available in early December from McGraw-Hill), I list several ways to uncover promising new investment ideas.

For example, you may want to research companies you notice every day. Imagine you lived in Houston for the last decade and drove past Sysco's (SYY - commentary - Cramer's Take) corporate headquarters at 1390 Enclave Parkway on your way to and from work. While you were worrying about how to pay the mortgage, tuition, a new roof, etc., this distributor of food and food-related products was coining money. Will you pass by the next Sysco today?

You can also investigate companies where your friends and family work. After all, you don't want to be left behind if they get rich.

A third approach is to investigate companies that successful investors are buying. Which brings us to Oxford Health Plans (OHP - commentary - Cramer's Take), a company touted by Leon Cooperman on "Kudlow & Cramer" a few weeks back.

Cooperman, as you may know, spent 25 years at Goldman Sachs, where he rose to general partner and head of the asset management division. Also, for nine straight years he was voted the top portfolio strategist in Institutional Investor's All-America Research Team survey. In 1991, Cooperman retired from Goldman Sachs to start Omega Advisors, a $2.5 billion hedge fund based in New York.

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Hewitt Heiserman has been a financial analyst for 15 years and has worked for Fidelity Investments, Simplex Time Recorder, American Holdco and Breakaway Solutions. He is now writing a book on the Earnings Power Box, an analytical model he created to gauge the quality of a firm's profits. (The Earnings Power Box is a trademark of Hewitt Heiserman.) At the time of publication, Heiserman didn't hold any securities mentioned in this column, although positions may change at any time. Under no circumstances does the information in this column represent a recommendation to buy or sell stocks. Heiserman appreciates your feedback and invites you to send it to [e-mail].

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