10 Stocks Under $10: Medical Staffing Network Holdings (MRN)

Posted Nov 29th 2007 11:11AM by Beth Gaston Moon
Filed under: Technical Analysis, Personal Finance, Bargain Stocks, Stocks to Buy

With a name like Medical Staffing Network Holdings (NYSE: MRN), it's easy to guess what the company's core business is. MRN coordinates with temporary nurses and other medical support staff and places them where needed, such as hospitals and nursing homes. In the past 12 months, the company has posted year-over-year revenue growth of about 60%.

In terms of relative strength, MRN is among the most potent names on this grouping of single-digit stocks, especially in the short term. Compared to the broad-market-tracking S&P 500 Index, the stock has outperformed by a margin of nearly 135% in the past 20 trading days. Relative strength for the 40-day and 60-day periods is impressive as well.

The end of October marked a turning point for the stock, which began to show strength early this month. In the past three weeks, MRN has appreciated more than 30% along support from its 10-day and 20-day moving averages. The shares are now trading above their 10-month and 20-month moving averages, a pair of trendlines MRN has not closed a month above since March.

Daily chart of MRN since September 2007 with 20-day moving average

Daily chart of MRN since September 2007 with 20-day moving average

Despite this strong price action, the stock seems to fly under the radar. Just two major brokerage firms currently follow the stock, and the shares are allegedly optionable yet barely traded by the speculative crowd. One group that has paid some attention to MRN is the short-selling community; the equity's short-interest ratio (number of shorted shares compared with average daily trading volume) weighs in at 26.8, making a short-covering rally a real possibility for the short- to-intermediate term.

10 stocks under $10: Bruker BioSciences (BRKR)
10 stocks under $10: TriQuint Semiconductor (TQNT)
10 stocks under $10: CBIZ Inc. (CBZ)
10 stocks under $10: Brigham Exploration (BEXP)

Beth Gaston Moon is an analyst at Schaeffer's Investment Research.

Tags: 10 stocks under $10, 10StocksUnder$10, bargain stocks, BargainStocks, cheap stocks, CheapStocks, investing, MRN, stocks to buy, stocks under $10, StocksToBuy, StocksUnder$10

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

11-29-2007 @ 9:47AM

CRYSTAL said...

How do I invest in this stock........EXACTLY HOW?

11-29-2007 @ 12:12PM

Di said...

I'm with her. how do i invest in this stock

11-29-2007 @ 12:40PM

anette said...

I third the motion...how do i invest in this stock exactly?

11-29-2007 @ 1:06PM

Derek said...

Open a brokerage account through a company like Scottrade. Minimum investment to open an account is typically $500. Brokerage fees are $7 / transaction which is very inexpensive and your stock performance can be tracked real-time.

No....I don't work for Scottrade, but I have an account through them. Good luck!