It's nice to report good news: Defense contractor Raytheon (RTN) announced Thursday it is increasing its annual dividend by 21% and planning to buy back as much as $2 billion of stock.

"The Board's decision to substantially increase our dividend and to authorize additional share repurchases reflects our company's strong financial position, our continued confidence in our future and our ongoing commitment to our shareholders," William H. Swanson, Raytheon's chairman and CEO, said in a statement. Not surprisingly, RTN reached a new 52-week high of $58.30 Thursday, finishing the day at $57.26.

If you are in the right place at the right time, then you have the most opportunity. That pretty much explains why I recently bought shares of the Raytheon Company (RTN) -- and why it is one of my picks for 2010.

Raytheon (whose name means "light of the gods") is a top 10 prime contractor to the Pentagon. The list of critical systems it makes include reconnaissance, targeting, and navigation systems. It is a leader in missile defense systems, which include the Patriot, Sidewinder, and Tomahawk systems. Raytheon also makes radios, air traffic control systems and radars, satellite communications systems and provides commercial electronics products and services as well.

To arrive at this years ten picks I scoured business journals and editorials, online and off. I also ran through a series of stock screens repeatedly over the last few months filtering for five primary value metrics identifying stocks worthy of further consideration.

The 5 data points were price-to-sales (P/S), price-to-book (P/B), price-to-cash flow (P/CF), dividend yield and return-on-equity (ROE). I did look at other things but these were the subject of my initial focus.

After finding three stocks yesterday that were a good bet to beat the the S&P 500 index going forward, I decided to pursue this notion further. Each of yesterday's stocks was in a different industry that will have strong recurring revenue and pays a dividend; energy, food and booze.

Today's three stocks are in diversified mining, electric power utilities and high-tech defense. Going back ten years, they have all trounced the index and I'm betting they will continue to do so.

I made it through mid-year of tracking my 2008 picks from last December and then -- Wham! -- I went from a slight advantage to being humbled badly by the market. However difficult it is to display your failings, once again I will share all of the horrors since I posted the original story Chasing Value: Final list -- 8 stocks for 2008.

The master is still the master, Warren Buffett and his life's work Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK.B) beat me easily as well as the three indices I tracked.

For the most part, unless you started shorting stocks, there was no place to hide and most of my picks were big losers. There were two that beat Buffett and the market. The defense sector was the defensive sector it was supposed to be with Raytheon Company (NYSE: RTN) doing well on a relative scale. The other place you could have a morsel of stability was utilities and Huaneng Power International (ADR) (NYSE: HNP) lost less but not by much.

You can't put one in your holster yet, but they have done it. The Raytheon Company (NYSE: RTN) has brought H. G. Wells' science fiction invention of the ray gun to reality as an advanced missile defense system.

The first serious battlefield ray gun is now being deployed. And the next generation, now in the laboratory, is coming soon.

It was last July when I posted Chasing Value: Raytheon says 'Game on' highlighting the stock. It was one of this year's picks, and while down, it has out performed the market. I liked it last year, I liked it mid-year and I still like it. The company is a leader in missile defense systems and civilian airport radar and monitoring systems.

After five months of tracking my 2008 picks, it is rewarding to finally have a breakthrough -- topping the three major stock indices and Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK.B) too. It has been painful to have to report each month that I was being bested. However, since I have not seen anything contradicting my original rationale for my eight picks I stood my ground.

This past month saw great improvement. For the first time since I posted the original story Chasing Value: Final list -- 8 stocks for 2008, five of the eight stocks are up:

Moving into positive territory by pennies was Loews Corporation (NYSE: LTR). Among its holdings is a 51% stake in Diamond Offshore Drilling, Inc. (NYSE: DO) that has been doing well as the world remains desperate for more oil and natural gas.

Bunge Limited (NYSE: BG) was the other stock to cross the line into the black, while Valero Energy Corp. (NYSE: VLO), although improving, remains my worst performer. It is still down almost 28% after five months.

The gap between the Dow Jones Industrial Average, Standard & Poor's 500 Index and the technology heavy NASDAQ Composite Index narrowed substantially so that the three are tracking each other very closely. Stocks like Apple, Inc (NASDAQ: AAPL) and Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) continue to gain significantly and their outlooks have not been shaken amid overall pessimistic economic forecasts.

This month saw great improvement after last month's disaster. Having to conclude my findings on a specific month end day, or any day, depending on the news, sometimes distorts results. For example news on March 31 sent the market down and on April first my picks shot up an unusual amount; hopefully the trend will continue.

My riskiest stock pick Newcastle Investment Corp (NYSE: NCT) was down the most in March but recovered about 35% of the loss in April leaving Valero Energy Corp. (NYSE: VLO) the dubious honor of being my worst performer, down over 30% in the first four months of the year.

April showed improvement as many companies reported positive earnings reports or beat expectations.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained some ground in April as did the Standard & Poor's 500 Index, and the technology heavy NASDAQ Composite Index was up with stocks like Apple, Inc (NASDAQ: AAPL) and Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) improving significantly on very strong reports. Google is up over 25%.

Most of my picks improved. Higher food prices no doubt helped Bunge Limited (NYSE: BG) which recaptured losses moving up 23% from its recent bottom. My two winners Raytheon Co. (NYSE: RTN), the high tech defense contractor, and Reliance Steel & Aluminum (NYSE: RS) were joined by a third, Anglo American plc (ADR) (NASDAQ: AAUK) which had a 10% swing entering positive territory.

After three months it is time to face the facts: two of the three indices beat my picks handily. I have not made a good showing so far and unlike most investment idea sources, I feel obliged to air my dirty laundry for all to see.

My riskiest stock pick Newcastle Investment Corp (NYSE:NCT) is down almost 37% this year, and the energy stocks did almost as poorly even though fuel prices are near all-time highs. The downers were not offset by this months' repeat winners.

March was a seesaw battle, but in the end there was not much to show for it. However, unlike the last day of January (down 370 points in the Dow) and February's last trading day (down 315 points), March had a final day of plus 46.49, which is not very meaningful.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average gave some ground in March as did the Standard & Poor's 500 Index while the technology heavy NASDAQ Composite Index was marginally up with stocks like Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL) improving notably.

Most of my picks sagged a little more, while two remain in positive territory. Raytheon Co. (NYSE: RTN), the high tech defense contractor is up and Reliance Steel & Aluminum (NYSE: RS) is way up.

Earlier in the week I posted about finding the market bottom using that age-old handheld calculator, a white paper napkin. So, unfortunately it looks like I may be right again. Not exactly something I was hoping for, but if it has to be, it has to be. I wonder if my old napkin can outperform Wall Street super computers?

Is this an auction to the bottom? Are investors bidding things down instead of up? Looks like it from all the negative sentiment. Consumer sentiment is down, and short sellers are all excited, increasing their negative positions to new highs every day.

And here is the all-telling sign of capitulation: the ever-lying overly optimistic government is starting to admit how bad things are and throwing hundreds of billions of dollars at the problem. When does the turnaround come?

Two interesting bits of news were released Friday afternoon. First, our government had decided to intercept a descending spy satellite just before it re-enters the atmosphere. They said they were doing this because of "dangerous fuel" but wouldn't this burn up upon re-entry? Then the Defense Department announced that Raytheon Missile Systems, a unit of Raytheon Co. (NYSE: RTN) has won a $1 billion Missile Defense Agency contract boost to make 102 missiles for the Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense System.

Initially this was not enough missiles to help Raytheon's stock, which closed down 1% for the day to $65.65. However, when folks put the stories together in after hours trading RTN jumped 2.5% reaching $67.30 before the trading "pool" was cleared because the "lifeguards" had to go home, spoiling the late night speculators fun.

Sheldon Liber is the CEO of a small private investment company and the principal for design and research at an architecture & planning firm. To find potential opportunities and verify my track record, read Chasing Value or Serious Money. Disclosure: I do not own shares of RTN.

MOST NOTEWORTHY: China Petroleum & Chemical, Syniverse and Allegheny Tech were today's noteworthy upgrades:

• Deutsche Bank upgraded China Petroleum & Chemical Corporation (NYSE: SNP) to Buy from Hold on valuation following the recent sell-off.
• ThinkEquity upgraded Syniverse Holdings Inc (NYSE: SVR) to Buy from Accumulate citing growth from further price reductions and adoption of new technologies that will drive transaction volumes.
• Allegheny Technologies Incorporated (NYSE: ATI) was raised to Buy from Neutral at Goldman.The firm upgraded Allegheny based on valuation, low stainless steel inventories, and nickel price stabilization.

OTHER UPGRADES:

• Napster Inc (NASDAQ: NAPS) was upgraded to Outperform from Peer Perform at Bear Stearns.
• Goldman raised Raytheon Company (NYSE: RTN) to Neutral from Sell.
• Johnson Controls Inc (NYSE: JCI) was upgrade to Buy from Add at Calyon.