If, as outlined in January, you took some profits off the table with enterprise software leader Oracle Corporation (ORCL) (first discussed here on April 7, 2009 at a price of $18.54) you made the correct move: the stock has pulled back slightly, to about $31.

That said, those investors who missed the the April 2009 entry point can take advantage of the recent dip to consider the shares, as it looks like Oracle's is headed to $40 and beyond.

Oracle's FY2011 revenue should surge about 30% to 35%, aided by hardware systems and support sales gains via acquisitions.

Copano Energy (NASDAQ: CPNO) - Volatility Elevated into EPS & lower energy prices. CPNO is an energy company with natural gas gathering and intrastate transmission pipeline assets and natural gas processing facilities Oklahoma & Texas Gulf coast region. WTI Crude futures are down 3.56% to $72.79 according to Track Data. CPNO will announce EPS on 8/8. CPNO August option implied volatility of 41 is above its 12-week average of 20 according to Track Data, suggesting larger risk.

Enterprise Products (NYSE: EPD) - Implied volatility of 40 above 26-week average of 17. EPD transports natural gas, NGL's and crude oil through more than 35,000 miles of onshore and offshore pipelines. EPD September put implied volatility of 40 is above its 26-week average of 17 according to Track Data, suggesting larger risk.

Kinder Morgan Energy Partners (NYSE: KMP) - September volatility Elevated. KMP owns or operates 26,000 miles of pipelines and approximately 150 terminals. KMP September option implied volatility of 50 is above its 26-week average of 14 according to Track Data, suggesting larger risk.

Daily options Update is provided by Stock Specialist Paul Foster of theflyonthewall.com.

With the price of fuel growing each week, the search for America's next energy alternative grows even stronger. WR Hambrecht looked at Clean Energy Fuels (NASDAQ: CLNE), a California-based supplier of liquid & natural gas for vehicles, and they think they found a hidden gem.

Clean Energy provides solutions for fleets to run on natural gas as an alternative to gasoline or diesel. The company currently operates in 10 states and Canada, with plans to begin operation in Peru later this year. The first quarter of 2007 was the company's first profitable quarter since 2001, generating revenues by selling compressed natural gas, liquid natural gas, and to a lesser extent, by building, operating and maintaining fueling stations. They currently serve over 200 commercial fleets with 13,000 natural gas vehicles, including Waste Management Inc (NYSE: WMI), Enterprise Rent-a-Car, UPS Inc's (NYSE: UPS) fleet in Dallas and the Port of Los Angeles.

The key to Clean Energy's success lies in the continued increase in crude prices and the public's desire for cheaper alternatives. According to Hambrecht, natural gas vehicles emit "50-70% fewer emissions, save $5,000-$17,000 in fuel costs annually and use widely distributed and domestically available natural gas" compared to the standard vehicles used to day.

Not a bad start.

Clean Energy is currently in its growth phase and Hambrecht initiated coverage of the alternative energy stock with a Buy rating and an $18 target. They project the company to earn $0.03 in 2007 and $0.23 in 2008. Hambrecht believes Clean Energy's valuation, currently up $0.12 to $13.00 in mid-day trading, doesn't take into account the upside potential from the natural gas vehicle roll-out and estimates an addressable market over $20 billion.

With gas prices rising so fast, there's no reason natural gas should not be outfitted for commercial vehicles, but for the general populace as well.

At Microsoft's Partners Conference this past Thursday in Boston, COO Kevin Turner had some fighting words to say during his closing keynote. As Brian White noted earlier today, Turner had some acerbic comments directed at Google and the topic of Enterprise search.

However beyond Google in Enterprise search, across the board in business applications at the enterprise and Small-to-Medium Business (SMB) level, Microsoft is taking a very aggressive tone as it is facing assault on all sides to two of its core bread-and-butter business lines.

Microsoft is facing rising competition from IBM, Red Hat, and Novell with regards to the software and subsequent support used by SMBs. At the most basic level, it is Linux vs. Windows as IBM, Red Hat, and Novell all produce Linux based Operating System solutions and Linux based Application suites. In past years, Linux had not been a viable alternative as stability, support, and complexity were all issues not fully addressed by vendors. However, as devlopment on the Linux Kernel has continued, the depth of applications and tools available has compounded and made Linux a viable alternative for Enterprise Computing, with Red Hat, Novell, and most notably IBM being the prime vendors for Enterprise Level Linux deployments.

Google will release a new version of the enterpise search appliance it markets to corporate customers.  The new version of the product will allow clients to more effectively search through a variety of databases in order to quickly find specific customer information among other data.

Google will look to form alliances with a number of software companies which focus on organizing data in order to enhance the user's capacity to zero in on specific information and has already announced partnerships with Cognos and SAS.

Although the Google OneBox for Enterprise will represent only a tiny fraction of revenues for the company, it does signal a continuation of increased competition between Google and Microsoft as, no doubt, Google will attempt to parlay its search based access to the computer networks of large corporate clients into their adoption of other Google products including email, calendars and the like.