For 25 years, Steven Halpern, editor of TheStockAdvisors.com, has surveyed the leading financial newsletter advisors asking for their favorite stocks for the coming year. This article is one of 100+ ideas in the Best Stocks for 2008 report.

"My favorite speculative ideas for 2008 is Ericsson (NASDAQ: ERIC)," notes John Christy, editor of The Forbes International Investment Report.

"Indeed, I now see Ericsson in a similar situation with my top pick last year, Nokia (NYSE: NOK), which has risen 67%. I am now seeing an almost identical situation unfolding with Sweden's Ericsson.

"But there are many more similarities than geography and industry affiliation. Let's take a look at some of the things I said about Nokia last year and compare them to Ericsson's situation today. Widespread skepticism among analysts: The knock against Nokia was that cell phones were becoming a saturated market. The skeptics also said Nokia would face competition from cheap upstarts in countries like China.

"The argument was that most folks who can afford phones already have them, and those who don't will probably end up buying cheaper ones than Nokia's models. Ericsson, in a slightly different way, is subject to similar skepticism. For example, analysts argue that Ericsson's telecom gear is more expensive than that of some of its upstart competitors and is therefore vulnerable to competitive pricing pressure.

"This is a valid point, but I can't imagine that the folks at Ericsson's headquarters haven't thought of all this and factored the issue of competition into the company's business plan.

"Meanwhile, Ericsson has a compelling valuation: The stock is trading at 14 times earnings and pays a 2% dividend yield. It is debt-free and consistently generates a healthy 20+% return-on-equity. Like Nokia, Ericsson will continue to benefit from booming global growth in mobile phone usage."

Best Stocks for 2008: Calling on Ericsson (ERIC) originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 18 Dec 2007 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.