Sonic Drive-In (SONC)

Sonic is one of my favorite places to get a hamburger and I love their TV commercials.

But I just don't think much of their stock. No dividends and way, way too much institutional ownership.

That translates into a lot of downside risk and I just don't see the upside risk.

Southwest Airlines (LUV)

I'd stay away from this one.

It's one of the few airlines that actually makes money, and they have a very low beta, seemingly immune to overall effects of the economy.

But they don't pay a dividend and they have a very high (almost 90%) institutional ownership.

UPS

I like UPS.

They have a strong dividend yield and a relatively low institutional ownership.

I recommend purchase.

Exxon-Mobil

Exxon-Mobil stock prices has fallen but not due to any significant changes in the company fundamentals. Overall fear of the global economy, recent drops in crude prices, and hurricane damage to refineries has driven the stock price drop.

But I think fear of the global economy disruptions is being oversold, crude price drops just brings the prices in line with what it was a few months ago, and hurricane risk has been with Exxon-Mobil since forever.

I think it's a solid buy. Institutional investors only hold about 1/2 of it right now, and that's mostly because of what's happening to the financial institutions, not because of Exxon-Mobil. So that's very much a good thing.