Top Stocks for Hurricane Season, Part 2

In part one of this series, I discussed the best ways to play the hurricane season with a few "onshore stocks." Today, I am delving into the offshore sector, which is where I think there is more upside, as the baseline sector fundamentals are much stronger. All of the offshore picks are levered to the energy sector, and with today's persistent, annoyingly high energy prices; it is a good time to be operating in this field.

And let me repeat my statement from part one regarding the types of trades these are. We're looking for these stocks to have a short-term pop off of news of a storm, not as longer-term fundamentals plays, unless otherwise stated.

Any hurricane portfolio should strongly overweight the offshore plays.

Offshore Plays

Hornbeck Offshore Services (HOS Quote): Drilling rigs and platforms are not self-sustaining, especially during hurricanes. HOS provides offshore support vessels to the industry, and its services and vessels are in high demand before and after any rough weather. The company has the youngest and second-largest OSV fleet in the Gulf of Mexico. It owns 35 new-generation vessels, plus 10 older conventional non-core vessels, with plans to growth the fleet to 65 by 2010. I like this one short and long term. ...