Stock Picking Contest for 2011

Image via WikipediaOver at The Financial Blogger, there is a stock picking contest running for 2011. The official contest is between a group a 9 bloggers but Mike, The Financial Blogger, is extending the contest to his readers by allowing everyone to pick their stock for 2011. It’s a fun way to see what you would do, what others are picking.

I submitted my four picks in the comments of his post and will share them with you here. First of all, a contest without any money can be approached in many different ways since there is no chance of losing money. You can gamble or be serious with your picks. I decided to approach it with my wealth building strategy and pick dividend paying corporations that I believe have an upswing for 2011. I was tempted to pick Apple (NASDAQ:APPL) as a long shot but that’s not a company I would buy for my portfolio at the moment.

These companies have been on my watch list for a little while but I do not own any of them as of this writing. I would also like to note that the contest is based on stock appreciation as opposed to a dividend yield over the year. As such, I have picked companies that have currently been beaten by the markets.

Husky Energy (TSE:HSE). Husky is currently trading quite low from the 52-week high and provides a dividend yield of 4.52% for its investors. I intend to do a dividend yield analysis in the coming weeks as I have not done one yet.
Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO). Cisco provides the back bone of our internet and have also been frown upon by investors recently. It is currently trading in the low 20s with a 52-week high of 27$. Cisco is not currently a dividend payer so you could argue that it doesn’t fit my strategy but it is a value play and they intend to pay dividend in 2011.
Royal Bank of Canada (TSE:RY). Royal Bank is the largest bank in Canada. It has had more exposure to international markets and has been trading far away from the 52-week high as well. BMO was a contender due to the recent drop but I believe Royal Bank has more upswing in valuation due to their size and ability to leverage the beaten international markets.
Rogers Communication (TSE:RCI.B). Rogers has also dropped by over 15% since their high of October. I don’t have much of an upswing with Rogers as with the others but they should recover well. I’ll take the 15% recovery and growth from Rogers.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on those companies or others.

Full Disclosure: I do not own any of the 4 stocks as of this writing.

Readers: What would your 4 picks be?