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Filed under: Newsletters, Stocks to Buy

This post is part of a special annual report -- Top Stock Picks '09 -- in which TheStockAdvisors.com asked 75 leading newsletter advisors to select their favorite investment for the new year.

"Amedisys (NASDAQ: AMED), a provider of home health services," notes Richard Moroney, whose Upside Stocks newsletter uses a quantitative system to select high growth, smaller cap issues.

"The company operates more than 500 locations, focuses on Medicare-eligible patients because of favorable reimbursement rates as well as a large and growing patient base.

Filed under: Pfizer (PFE), Newsletters, Johnson and Johnson (JNJ), Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMY), Stocks to Buy, Best Stocks for 2009

Health care has long been considered a recession-resistant business. Given the current economic challenges, it's little surprise that in our survey of favorite stocks for the coming year, a number of leading advisors turned to this classic defensive sector.

Growth to PE = 1.89 > undervalued

Price / Sales = 1.3 > reasonably valued

Sales growth 60% >growth in a bad economy

Earnings yield = 7.6% >pricing power intact

 AMED operates 261 Medicare-certified home health agencies and 14 Medicare-certified hospice agencies in 19 states.

So growth is high but with only 19 states covered it can reasonably grow @ 20% for 2-3 years. They are the fastest grower in their industry.  Potential buyout cnadidate.

"Amedisys (NASDAQ: AMED), one of the nation’s leading home health care companies, is a bear-proof stock," says David Fessler, a leading stock advisor and Oxford Club Advisory Panelist. 

He explains, "The stock is defying the market. It’s one of the best non-cyclical companies on the planet, which means it’s recession proof." here's his review.

" Amedisys has more than 8,000 caregivers, working from more than 350 home health centers and hospice agencies, across more than 30 states. These centers typically serve residents within a 50-mile radius.

this afternoon and came across Amedisys (AMED) which is an old favorite of this blog. AMED is currently trading at $33.80, up $2.44 or 7.78% on the day. I do not own any shares of Amedisys nor do I have any options on this stock.

AMEDISYS (AMED) IS RATED A BUY