Barchart Stock Chart of the Day – November 12, 2008

When the market is awash in red ink as it has been recently, it’s hard to find good companies whose fortunes are improving easily. One tool that can help is the Barchart Signals page and look for stocks whose signals have recently improved. There you can find those hidden gems in the market. The signals page makes it easy to spot stocks whose signals have changed recently for the better.

Today’s Chart of the Day, Aqua America Inc. (WTR) a provider of water or wastewater services, has a clearly improving technical picture.

Since making its low on October 10th, WTR has gained over 50%and is threatening to breakout of the topside of its trading range between $19.50 and $14.00. Barchart’s technical signals for WTR were a combined 48% Sell last month, it improved to a 40% Buy last week, a 64% Buy yesterday and an 80% Buy today. Such a consistent progression of technical improvement bodes well for WTR into the future.

Barchart Opinions for WTR are:

    Short Term Indicators Average: 40% Buy
    Medium Term Indicators Average: 100% Buy
    Long Term Indicators Average: 100% Buy
    Overall Average: 80% Buy

Sector Performance: WTR is a member of the Utility - Water Supply sector, where it is the 4th best performing stock out of 15 stocks in the sector. While the sector as a whole has a weighted Alpha of -32.51%, WTR itself has a weighted Alpha of -12.20% indicating that it is modestly stronger than the sector as a whole. To learn more about weighted Alpha, visit the Barchart Learning Center .

How we spotted this chart: WTR appeared on Barchart Signals page , where we sorted by last month’s performance and scanned for stocks that had improved their composite signal strength in ever progressive time period.

Recent Developments:

On November 5th WTR reported Q3 EPS at 26 cents up 20% from the 22 cents earned last year.

The company also raised the dividend 8%. This would be the 10th straight year that WTR raised its dividend.