This Week's 'Barron's' Roundup

Editor's note: Welcome to "Barron's Roundup." Each weekend, Stockpickr presents portfolios related to articles in the latest issue of Barron's.

Insurance Buys: This Barron's article says that shares of property-and-casualty insurers are cheap, given their strong balance sheets and solid earnings. Among the stocks mentioned are American International Group(AIG Quote), Chubb(CB Quote) and Travelers(TRV Quote).

---

Solar Energy Bear: Barron's talks with Gordon L. Johnson II, a solar-energy analyst at Israeli-based Hapoalim Securities. Johnson thinks a supply glut will put selling pressure on the solar stocks. Among the stocks mentioned are First Solar(FSLR Quote), Trina Solar(TSL Quote) and Suntech Power(STP Quote).

---

Bullish and Bearish: Each week, Barron's publishes bullish and bearish stories on a variety of stocks. We present summaries of those stories in this portfolio. This week, there are bearish stories on SAP(SAP Quote) and OptionsXpress(OXPS Quote), plus a bullish piece on Microsoft(MSFT Quote).

---

'Speaking of Dividends': This Barron's column highlights the latest dividend increases, initiations and cutbacks. This week there's information on McDonald's(MCD Quote) and Buckle(BKE Quote).

---

Latest Activist Purchases: Which companies are the top hedge funds chasing? This week's list includes names like Viacom(VIA Quote), Immersion(IMMR Quote) and Atlas Air Worldwide(AAWW Quote).

---

Top Insider Purchases of the Week: Insider purchases are a lot more predictive than insider selling. Barron's lists companies where managers are buying stock, and we build a portfolio with those companies' stocks. There has been interesting activity in Sears Holdings(SHLD Quote), Quality Systems(QSII Quote), Cousins Properties(CUZ Quote) and Synovus Financial(SNV Quote).

---

Research Reports: The latest analyst research highlighted by Barron's, including reports this week on Chesapeake Energy(CHK Quote), Principal Financial Group(PFG Quote) and Millicom International Cellular(MICC Quote).

---