Cramer's 2010 Counterterrorism Stock Picks (ASEI, OSIS, FLIR, COGT, NICE)

It seems every market pundit has their outlook picks for 2010, and Jim Cramer is no different.  Last night was Cramer’s “Energy Shortage Stock Picks for 2010” and on CNBC’s MAD MONEY tonight Cramer gave his featured stock picks in the Homeland Security and anti-terrorism sector.  Considering the recent failed plane bombing attempt on Christmas Day, this sector enjoyed much interest last week.  Cramer believes the real counter-terrorism stocks that are not the garbage speculative names are American Science & Engineering Inc. (NASDAQ: ASEI), OSI Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: OSIS), FLIR Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: FLIR), and Cogent, Inc. (NASDAQ: COGT).  His big feature and review stock for charts and fundamentals was in Nice Systems Ltd. (NASDAQ: NICE).  Cramer did note that some of these are still up very big from lows and might need to be bought on pullbacks.

American Science & Engineering Inc. (NASDAQ: ASEI) scans for bombs and weapons in transportation systems and it has a $150 million order backlog with a market ten-times the company’s current revenues.  OSI Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: OSIS) is a new pick from Cramer and it rose from $22.02 before Christmas and went briefly over $28.00 to new recent highs before pulling back.  Its 52-week trading range is $11.01 to $28.49.  This one screens people and can detect materials inside clothing.

FLIR Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: FLIR) is Cramer’s pick in security and surveillance that protects major companies and government facilities.  FLIR closed at $32.72 and its 52-week trading range is $18.81 to $33.35.  Cogent, Inc. (NASDAQ: COGT) is Cramer’s pick for fingerprint and palm scanning technology.  Cogent closed at $10.28 and its 52-week trading range is $7.96 to $12.92.

Cramer also featured and reviewed Nice Systems Ltd. (NASDAQ: NICE) over tracking terrorism suspects based upon software for abnormal behavior for counter-terrorism and over phone surveillance.  He then reviewed the chart.  The chart looks solid to him because of higher highs and higher lows.  The Real Money writer believes it has room to run up to $40.00 and is not really extended on its chart.  The November lows came on very high volume that shook out the sellers.  Cramer believes this one has been ignored entirely by the terrorism stocks and can have camera to camera reviewing.  It has $500 million, about $8.00 per share, is looking for more acquisitions to make, and trades cheap at 18-times earnings.

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• Cramer’s “Energy Shortage Stock Picks for 2010” can be found here.

Jon C. Ogg
January 5, 2010