Each year Steven Halpern, editor of TheStockAdvisors.com, surveys the leading financial newsletter advisors asking for their favorite stocks for the coming year. This article is part of his 24th annual Top Picks Report.

Cogent Inc. (NASDAQ: COGT) is a top speculative idea from Mark Mowrey, editor of the Prudent Speculator TechValue Report. He explains, "Cogent's identification technology emphasizes the uniqueness of the human fingerprint as the best method for identifying its owner.

"Other potentially more reliable technologies exist, such as retinal, facial, voice, and vascular identification, but none has proved as long-term successful in the field as fingerprint matching. Applications include the obvious, like law enforcement and access restriction, and the not so obvious, such as laptop security and fingerprint-based payment systems.

"Revenue peaked in 2005, the bulk coming from two primary customers: the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the National Electoral Council of Venezuela. Work continues with both agencies, but orders have become less predictable.

Defense giant Ratheon Company (NYSE:RTN), the world's largest manufacturer of missiles, sold its business jet unit Thursday to Onex Corporation (TSE:OCX) and Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) for $3.3 billion.

Raytheon said the deal completes an effort to focus its business on defense contracts and government work.

Raytheon, which is perhaps best known for the Tomahawk cruise missile, also cut its earnings per share guidance for the year to $2.75-2.90, down from $2.90-$3.05. Raytheon's shares were virtually unchanged Thursday at mid-day, up just 2 cents to $53.88.

Raytheon is a moderate-risk stock not suitable for conservative investors. If one's portfolio can tolerate moderate risk and someone does not already own a defense-industry stock, they could consider buying RTN on a pull-back to $53. They should then dollar-cost-average-in their position by buying 25% of their position for 4 weeks. They could buy 25 shares each time, if they typically buy a 100 shares; 100 shares each time if they buy 400. That could provide some protection against potential short-term dips.