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A few weeks ago, I surmised that Dell is too silent regarding what it has in store for the computer reseller and system integrator market it intends to enter soon. The company has been rather quiet on that front in recent times as it entered the consumer retail market and planned other sales strategies beyond direct selling to get back in the race with competitor Hewlett-Packard Company (NYSE: HPQ). On December 5, Dell, Inc. (NASDAQ: DELL) will unleash its reseller channel industry plans after much anticipation.

After more than a decade of competing against the reseller channel, Dell now intends to partner with that segment to get more of its wares in front of more customers. Sounds like a tough proposition, right? Former competitors warming up to a new brand and product line is probably not going to be easy. The price will have to be right, the incentives better than the competition and other things will need a carefully executed strategy if Dell thinks it can just move in and displace competitors. Many channel resellers probably look forward to having another brand to offer customers, as price competition will ultimately help them. But make no mistake - it won't be some easy deal for Dell.

Trade publication Computer Reseller News (CRN) suggested 10 steps that Dell should take to ensure its new channel program doesn't begin on the wrong foot. Dell's VP of commercial channels, Greg Davis, then responded to the point-by-point steps with vigorous (and somewhat defensive) language, which says right off that Dell is not being a wimp when it comes to its critics. That is a good sign.

Stock screeners are tools that let investors filter through a large number of stocks according to chosen criteria. It is important to remember that a stock screener is just a tool and every investment should be analyzed on its own merits to make sure it fits with your personal portfolio and risk characteristics. My weekly column finds interesting investment opportunities with the help of our Stock Screener.

Since two of the stocks I covered in the Stock Screener section had such wild movements in such a short time, I've decided to quickly take a look at all the stocks I've covered here, see what major news recently affected them and how they reacted. All returns are as of May 2nd close.

Solar Energy Stocks

On March 27th, I went over some solar energy stocks. I looked at Trina Solar Ltd. (NYSE: TSL) and Suntech Power Holdings Co., Ltd. (NYSE: STP), concluding with: "I think it may not be too late to jump on the Trina bandwagon. Suntech could prove a long-term solid player as well."

Since then, TSL returned over 24% and STP returned 5.8%.
The main catalyst in the solar energy stock was a court ruling that could pave the way to more regulations and have a positive impact on alternative energy stocks.

Stock screeners are tools that let investors filter through a large number of stocks according to chosen criteria. It is important to remember that a stock screener is just a tool and every investment should be analyzed on its own merits to make sure it fits with your personal portfolio and risk characteristics. My weekly column finds interesting investment opportunities with the help of our Stock Screener.

To be honest, I decided on this stock screener quite by chance. I originally had my mind set on the Cosmetic & Skin Care industry for this week, but just above it was the Correctional Institutions industry. When prison management companies first became public I was so repulsed by the idea that I never followed up on them. Now, some ten years later, and after their performance the past year, I decided to take another look.

The four companies in the industry (in order of market capitalization) are Corrections Corporations of America (NYSE: CXW) with a $3.39 billion market cap, The Geo Group, Inc. (NYSE: GEO) with a market value of $1.22 billion, Cornell Companies, Inc. (NYSE: CRN) with a $302.52 million market cap and finally, the OTC traded (hence I won't cover it here) Avalon Correctional Services, Inc. (OTC: CITY).

Why even bother? Well, look at the year-to-date returns and decide for yourselves (the bottom, yellow line is the S&P 500), the rest, going up, are Cornell, CCA and Geo.

Better yet, one year returns are 54% for Cornell, 91% for CCA and 115% for Geo. So the question is -- have they run out of room to grow?