Earnings season is upon us once again and I thought I would highlight 3 different categories of stocks reporting during the week of April 14th through April 18th that will...

1. Likely beat earnings – the consistent money makers due to excellent management or hot global trends.

2. Remain an unknown until earnings are released – the wild cards.

3. Likely miss earnings – the gloomy short sell candidates.

Be advised, buying or selling stocks in earnings season increases your trading risk.

<u>THE MONEYMAKERS</u>

Badger Meter, Inc. (AMEX: BMI)

Maker of all things related to fluid control - water systems, sanitation systems, oil/gas/chemical plants are all in need of fluid control components. BMI manufactures and markets valves, flow meters, and other high tech toys chemical engineers love. These products are in high demand thanks to global infrastructure continuing to outperform, companies like Fluor Daniels and Shaw Group will be putting in big orders to companies like these.

BMI reports earnings on 15Apr08.

Gilead Sciences Inc. (NASD: GILD)

Makes antiviral drugs for two life threatening diseases which will remain a serious global public health issue for many years to come – HIV/AIDS & Hepatitis. Company recently received approval to treat Hepatitis, and thus will positively affect earnings when sales are being made into this new market.

GILD reports earnings on 16Apr08.

CSX Corp. (NYSE: CSX)

A coast to coast railroad company with lots of insider buying and an excellent management team. With US gas prices hovering at all time highs, more companies are seeking rail transport to offset costs. Additionally, with several US coal companies exporting coal, that coal has to be transported over the rails, and CSX will likely be a huge benefactor of global energy needs.

CSX reports earning on 15Apr08.

<u>THE WILD CARDS</u>

Cubist Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASD: CBST)

A biopharmaceutical company specializing in antimicrobial agents. Specifically, CBST has one product approved for methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), which made several newsworthy headlines in 4^th quarter 2007 and 1^st quarter 2008. Company is expected to report a YOY gain of 170%, and if met, could generate substantial upside.

CBST reports earnings on 17Apr08.

New Oriental Education & Technology Group (NYSE: EDU)

A Chinese based education service provider that teaches everything from collegiate level computer programing to primary school linguistics. With China becoming a global power more each day, it's likely that the country will see it's huge population as one of it's greatest natural resources, and choose to educate them to increase productivity as much as possible. EDU presents some risk because the Chinese market has sold off recently, and due to the cultural differences, it's a difficult trade for an American (such as I) to make without more knowledge.

Anyone have an opinion on EDU?

EDU reports earnings on 16Apr08.

Southwest Airlines Co. (NYSE: LUV)

A well known and one of the few passenger airline companies that has a history of generating profits in an industry plagued by excuses and mismanagement. With high fuel costs, the unexpected grounding of 4% of its planes for maintenance reasons, and amid an industry under constant merger speculation, it would be curious to see if LUV's management can pull off an earnings surprise.

LUV reports earnings on 17Apr08.

<u>THE SHORT SELL CANDIDATES</u>

Intuitive Surgical, Inc. (NASD: ISRG)

A maker of specialty surgical equipment that provides surgeons with a high value added micro-surgical system capable of reducing excess surgical recovery periods and hospital stays. One of Wall Street's darlings in 2007, ISRG could potentially follow the path General Electric's earnings miss last week. GE Healthcare saw profits fall 17% capital equipment purchases in 1^st quarter 2008, and could negatively impact ISRG if many private or smaller, community based hospitals are feeling the impact of the US based credit crunch. Meaning, how will ISRG's sell of surgical systems be impacted by higher interest rates on business loans?

I'm likely to take some heat for this call, but if GE is warning about a reduction in healthcare capital equipment, it's likely to turn heads. Which actually happened on Friday (04/11/08) when GE released earnings, and knocking ISRG's high flying, high P/E share price down a whopping 6%by the day's close.

ISRG reports earnings on 17Apr08

Capital One Financial (NYSE: COF)

This one is almost a no brainer. Many experts are looking for COF to announce more write downs, which will more than likely cause a drop in share price. Unless of course, they guide analysts higher for 2008 or give some mention of a bottom in financials.

COF reports earnings on 17Apr08

Washington Mutual (NYSE: WM)

New stock, same old financial stock story for WU. Avoid this stock due to an uncertain amount of write offs and general negativity in general toward the financial industry.

WM reports earnings on 15Apr08.

Disclosure:  Author owns GILD and CSX as long positions.  Other trades may be entered after publishing for short term trades.