American Assets Trust and Park Electrochemical: Two Obscure Names Worth a Shot (PKE, AAT)

You can put American Assets Trust, Inc. (NYSE:AAT) and Park Electrochemical Corp. (NYSE:PKE) on your watchlist, if not in your portfolio. These two stocks are the best of the best among names you've probably not heard of. Just because you haven't heard of a stock, however, doesn't mean it can't dole out nice rewards. Indeed, I'm convinced the more obscure names like PKE and AAT are the market's best trading opportunities specifically because they're picks off the beaten path - the trades aren't crowded yet.

But how did I come up with these two oddballs? American Assets Trust and Park Electrochemical were found using a software-based scan of all the market's stocks, in search of a combination of the right technical and the right fundamentals. That's a unique approach, as most screeners either look for a certain set of technical criteria, OR a certain set of fundamental criteria. By combining both aspects, my results are limited to just the "right time, right stock" possibilities.

While Park Electrochemical Corp. won't win any value awards with its trailing P/E of 28.4, it's still an interesting buy based on the fact that its earnings are projected to get better and better through next year. Per-share earnings are expected to be flat this year, at $0.98 again for 2014, and expected to grow to $1.18 per share in 2015. Sales are expected to grow by 9.3% next year for PKE.

Thing is, it looks like the market has already started to reward PKE for that progress, pushing shares past a major resistance line at $28.60 (where it also peaked in 2006). With plenty of momentum under its belt and with no overhang left to hold it down, Park Electrochemical shares could really be at the beginning of a prolonged bullish move.

As for American Assets Trust, its technical bullish was born from a slightly different setup. Rather than a running start past a ceiling, AAT spent the last several months getting squeezed into the tip of a wedge shape framed by a falling resistance line and a rising support line. The stock actually popped above the upper boundary of that wedge about a month ago, but confirmed that bullish break this week with another move above that line.

AAT is a diversified REIT. It's not exactly a bargain either, though earnings are expected to get back on track next year after some turbulence in 2013 (the reason for the stock's turbulence then). The fact that real estate and real estates trusts as a whole are finding a tailwind now too is also going to help American Assets Trust going forward. It was downgraded by JPM Securities in late February, but - in complete seriousness - that may be the perfect contrarian buy signal. That's when the stock picked itself up by its boots and punched through the upper edge of the triangle shape.

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