5 Stocks Poised for Breakouts

Obagi Medical Products

One stock that's flirting with a major breakout trade here is Obagi Medical Products (OMPI), a specialty pharmaceutical company that develops, markets and sells, and is a provider of topical aesthetic and therapeutic prescription-strength skin care systems and related products in the physician-dispensed market. This stock is off to a strong start in 2012, with shares up over 50%.

If you take a look at the chart for Obagi Medical Products, you'll notice that this stock has been in a monster uptrend for the last six months, with shares soaring from a low of $10.05 to a recent high of $16.03 a share. During that large move to the upside, shares of Obagi Medical Products have been making mostly higher lows and higher highs, which is bullish technical price action. That move has now pushed OMPI within range of triggering a near-term breakout trade that will send the stock into new 52-week-high territory.

>>5 Health Care Stocks Setting Up to Break Out

Traders should look for long-biased traders in OMPI if it can manage to trigger a break out above some near-term overhead resistance at $16.03 a share with high volume. Look for a sustained move or close above $16.03 with volume that hits near or above its three-month average action of 199,362 shares. If we get that action soon, then OMPI should be well on its way to hitting $20 a share, or possibly even higher. Keep in mind that there's some takeover chatter surrounding this company, since shareholders just voted down a poison pill at it recent shareholders meeting.

One could be a buyer of OMPI off weakness and anticipate the breakout with a stop at around $13.50 a share. That $13.50 area sits right above its 50-day moving average, so it would be bullish for OMPI to continue to trend above that level. A better way is to just buy this stock off strength anywhere near $16.03, and then just use a stop near $15 to $14 a share. I would consider it very bullish if OMPI takes out a $16.03 soon and holds above that level.

It's worth pointing out that OMPI sports a pretty decent short interest. The current short interest as a percentage of the float for OMPI is 5%. If that breakout triggers soon, then I expect to see a decent short-squeeze develop that sends OMPI screaming higher.

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