This week at PowerRatings.net, we turned our focus to some of the less exciting, but potentially more rewarding high Long Term PowerRatings stocks that investors looking to add quality stocks to their portfolios should consider as potential candidates.

Earlier in the week, we drew investors' attention to Altria Group (MO | news | PowerRating | PR Charts ). The stock was one of the few stocks that had experienced a Long Term PowerRatings upgrade on Monday, bringing Altria Group's Long Term PowerRating up from 8 to 9.

Altria Group pulled back some on Friday after a run from about $20 a week ago to just north of $21. The stock is currently trading less than $1 below its 200-day moving average.

Click here to read our PowerRatings coverage of Altria Group.

With the per barrel price of crude oil reaching new records almost every day, investors are no doubt looking for opportunities to add oil exposure to their portfolios. One approach that is not as talked about as many others is to focus less on the companies that make up Big Oil (Exxon (XOM | news | PowerRating | PR Charts ), Chevron (CVX | news | PowerRating | PR Charts ) and ConocoPhillips (COP | news | PowerRating | PR Charts )) and more, perhaps, on the less watched oil and natural gas pipeline companies.

We looked at the Long Term PowerRatings of five of these oil and natural gas pipeline companies this week in our article, available here, "5 Top Oil Stocks for Investors."

The five stocks we presented were: Atlas Pipeline Partners (APL | news | PowerRating | PR Charts ), Enbridge Energy Partners LP (EEP | news | PowerRating | PR Charts ), Energy Transfer Equity LP (ETE | news | PowerRating | PR Charts ), NuStar Energy LP (NS | news | PowerRating | PR Charts ), and Oneok Partners LP (OKS | news | PowerRating | PR Charts ).

What is especially attractive about all five of these stocks is that not only do they provide exposure to a commodity in a massive bull market, but also these stocks have the sort of high Long Term PowerRatings that make them ideal candidates for investment and long term trade. All five oil and gas pipeline companies have Long Term PowerRatings of 9, which puts them in that category of stock that our research indicates have been higher one year later more than 79% of the time. This compares favorably to the average stock, which was higher one year later less than 68% of the time in our historic testing.

General Dynamics (GD | news | PowerRating | PR Charts ) made the headlines in Barron's last weekend, with observers suspecting there could be an opportunity in the stock if investors took a skeptical look at incoming CEO, Jay Johnson, a retired admiral.

We took a no less skeptical look at the stock of General Dynamics, and were heartened to see the stock's Long Term PowerRating move higher from a 7 rating to an 8 over the past few days. With a Long Term PowerRating of 8, General Dynamics is a member of that group of stocks that have been higher one year later more than 74% of the time. Moreover, 8-rated stocks, based on our research, have tended to gain more than 17% in a year's time. Compare this to the average stock, which tended to gain between 12-13% over the same time period.

Read our PowerRatings analysis of General Dynamics in our Featured Stock Spotlight, here.

Finally, late in the week, same stores sales preoccupied investor sentiments, especially with news that consumers were still shopping-albeit at bargain and discount locations such as Wal-Mart (WMT | news | PowerRating | PR Charts ) and Costco (COST | news | PowerRating | PR Charts ).

But of the two, it was Wal-Mart that appeared to impress investors the most, as the stock was the first to react positively to the same store sales. We decided to take a look at Wal-Mart and were pleased to see that the stock had a Long Term PowerRating of 9-making the stock one of the higher Long Term PowerRating stocks in the Dow Industrials.

Click here to read "PowerRating the News: Wal-Mart Best of an Average Bunch"

Our look at Wal-Mart also reminded us that there are plenty of stocks in the Discount/Variety Stores industry group that investors should actually steer clear of. Chief among them, as we noted in our article on Wal-Mart and the retailers, was perhaps Family Dollar Stores (FDO | news | PowerRating | PR Charts ), a discount retailer with a "Consider Avoiding" Long Term PowerRating of 3.

Stocks in the News

This week's stocks in the news include positive news from big retailers and entertainment-related companies from media and movies to video games.

Better than expected same store sales encouraged investors to bid shares of Wal-Mart (WMT | news | PowerRating | PR Charts ) higher this week.

Reporting quarterly earnings that more than tripled analyst estimates, Activision (ATVI | news | PowerRating | PR Charts ) benefited from strong sales of its popular video game, Guitar Hero.

Toyota Motors (TM | news | PowerRating | PR Charts ) surprised analysts and investors with quarterly earnings that were down 28%.

Walt Disney (DIS | news | PowerRating | PR Charts ) gained almost 3% on Wednesday in response to the company's better than expected earnings for the second quarter.

From rumors that the company might be acquired to hints that its Nextel unit might be sold or spun off as a separate entity, Sprint (S | news | PowerRating | PR Charts ) was higher on the week.

The success of blockbuster "Ironman" helped Marvel Entertainment (MVL | news | PowerRating | PR Charts ) rally by more than 9% early in the week.

American International Group (AIG | news | PowerRating | PR Charts ) announced that it would be seeking to raise more than $12 billion in capital. AIG lost nearly $8 billion in the first quarter.

What To Look For Next Week

Monday: None
Tuesday: Retail Sales / Business Inventories
Wednesday: Consumer Price Index
Thursday: Jobless Claims / Industrial Production
Friday: Housing Starts

Best Performing Stocks (PR 8-10) of the Last Five Days

Here are some of the best performing, high Long Term PowerRatings stocks of the past five days. This week, all of the listed stocks have PowerRatings of 8 or 9.

Lincare Holdings Inc. (LNCR | news | PowerRating | PR Charts ) Long Term PowerRating 9
Walt Disney Company (DIS | news | PowerRating | PR Charts ) Long Term PowerRating 8
Carolina Group (CG | news | PowerRating | PR Charts ) Long Term PowerRating 8
streetTRACKS Gold Shares ETF (GLD | news | PowerRating | PR Charts ) Long Term PowerRating 8
Altria Group (MO | news | PowerRating | PR Charts ) Long Term PowerRating 8

Worst Performing Stocks (PR 1-3) of the Last Five Days

Here are some of the worst performing, low Long Term PowerRatings stocks of the past five days. This week, all of the listed stocks have PowerRatings of 1 or 2.

American Eagle Outfitter (AEO | news | PowerRating | PR Charts ) Long Term PowerRating 2
Dynamic Materials Corporation (BOOM | news | PowerRating | PR Charts ) Long Term PowerRating 2
Yahoo! Inc. (YHOO | news | PowerRating | PR Charts ) Long Term PowerRating 1
Washington Mutual (WM | news | PowerRating | PR Charts ) Long Term PowerRating 1
UltraShort Basic Materials ProShares ETF (SMN | news | PowerRating | PR Charts ) Long Term PowerRating 1

David Penn is Senior Editor for PowerRatings.net.

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