Stock Focus: Western Refining (WNR)
Posted on June 17, 2008 - Filed Under Stocks | Leave a Comment
Western Refining, Inc., through its subsidiaries, operates as an independent crude oil refiner and marketer of refined products. In today’s rising crude market, you would think that all refining stocks would be performing well. Western Refining is the exception.
The problem is debt. WNR debt problems have caused the stock to fall almost 80% from its July 2007 highs and it has not reached bottom yet. At $13+ a share, Western Refining still trades at a significant premium to its peers on 2008 and 2009 EV/EBITA and Wall Street expects that a debt covenant will be broken in the coming weeks.
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Stock Focus: DreamWorks Animation
Posted on June 16, 2008 - Filed Under Stocks | Leave a Comment
DreamWorks Animation summer movie Kung Fu Panda is poised to become the company’s first non-shrek movie to gross over $200 million in domestic box office receipts. Is that good news for investors?
The DWA stock price already has Kung Fu Panda’s box office results built into it , and the next event that will potentially move the stock doesn’t come until November. On November 7th, DWA releases Madagascar 2: Escape 2 Africa and we anticipate that the stock will trade at current levels until then.
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Bulls vs Bears: Financial Stocks
Posted on June 9, 2008 - Filed Under Investing, Stocks | 4 Comments
There is quite a split opinion in Wall Street on the direction of financial stocks. The S&P Financial Sector exchange traded fund (XLF) is at the lows reached in March when the Bear Sterns fire sale was taking place.
Thomas Brown of bankstocks.com had an interesting piece last week on which he stated that the subprime mortgage losses is simple: most estimates, particularly of losses on loans originated in 2006 and 2007, are significantly too high . The reason why they’re too high is simple, too. They assume that last year’s credit performance will persist far into the future. Only it won’t.
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Yahoo Board In Trouble
Posted on June 3, 2008 - Filed Under Stocks | Leave a Comment
Yahoo Inc set plans on Tuesday to hold its annual shareholder meeting on August 1 in the heart of Silicon Valley, setting the stage for a showdown with activist investor Carl Icahn, who is mounting a proxy fight for control of the company.
Earlier, The Wall Street Journal reported that Icahn, a billionaire investor, would seek to remove Jerry Yang as Yahoo chief executive, citing the company’s failure, so far, to reach a merger or partnership deal with Microsoft Corp.
Icahn has proposed an alternate slate of directors for Yahoo’s board, but had not directly targeted Yang over the breakdown in talks early this month for a $47.5 billion deal.
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Following The Money
Posted on June 2, 2008 - Filed Under Investing, Stocks | Leave a Comment
Investors Business Daily had a table over the weekend that showed the ten groups with the highest percent of their stocks at new highs. This is a pretty good indicator for where the action and momentum is in the market. The top ten groups are:
Transportation - Rail 36%
Metal Prds - Distribtr 20%
Household - Appliances 17%
Machinery - Gen Industrial 14%
Elec -Military Systems 13%
Machinery -Cnstr/Mng 13%
Containers 12%
Steel -Producers 11%
Retail/Wholesale - Food 11%
Medical-Hospitals 11%
I was shocked to see Household appliances on the list. With the economic slowdown, people, are not supposed to be buying appliances according to the media!
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Bulls and Bears Battle on Berkshire Hathaway
Posted on May 20, 2008 - Filed Under Credit Cards, Investing, Stocks | 1 Comment
I was surprised to see two different opinions this week in Barrons on the stock market performance of Berkshire Hathaway (BRK-A). In separate articles, the bulls and bears both have their opinions of where the stock was going.
The bullish opinion was provided by T2 Partners Hedge Fund. T2 points out that the value of investments of Berkshire has climbled to $90,343 in 2007 from $52,507 in 2002.
In calculating future stock growth, T2 uses a formula to calculate intrinsic value. Intrinsic value is the investment value per share + 12 times earnings per share , excluding investment income.
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Stock Focus: W.W. Grainger (GWW)
Posted on May 15, 2008 - Filed Under Stocks | Leave a Comment
For those investors looking for a stock that provides a steady divided income, W.W. Grainger is a stock they should consider.
Grainger is a stock with a stable growth pattern, Over the last three-years and five-years its earnings have grown by 17% a year and its sales by 8%.
It is this sort of stable performance that has Grainger to raise its dividend for 37 consecutive years. Only 20 companies in the S&P 500 can match or surpass that claim. After raising the dividend in April, its yield now stands at 1.8%.
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Stock Focus: Parker Hannifin (PH)
Posted on May 12, 2008 - Filed Under Stocks | Leave a Comment
The falling U.S. dollar has many investors looking for U.S. stocks with large international footprints. One such stock is Cleveland-based Parker Hannifin (PH).
Company Profile:
Parker Hannifin Corporation manufactures fluid power systems, electromechanical controls, and related components worldwide.
Background:
In 2001, international industrial sales made up about 21% of Parker Hannifin’s net sales. Today that number is 42% and some analysts think even that number is understated. North American industrial sales make up about 34% of net sales; aerospace, 15%; and climate and industrial controls, 9%.
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Stock Focus: Nabors (NBR)
Posted on May 8, 2008 - Filed Under Stocks | Leave a Comment
While the price of oil has skyrocketed over the last year, natural gas has not seen such a dramatic growth. That means that there are still opportunities for investors looking to get into energy stocks. One such stock is Nabors (NBR)
Nabors Industries, Ltd. is the largest U.S. land drilling contractor. It conducts oil, gas, and geothermal land drilling operations in the United States, Alaska, Canada, South America, Mexico, the Caribbean, the Middle East, the Far East, Russia, and Africa. As of December 31, 2007, its fleet of rigs consisted of approximately 535 land drilling rigs, approximately 564 domestic and 173 international land workover and well-servicing rigs, 35 offshore platform rigs, 12 jack-up units, and 4 barge rigs, as well as various trucks and fluid hauling vehicles.
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Stock Focus: ConocoPhillips (COP)
Posted on May 7, 2008 - Filed Under Stocks | Leave a Comment
While the price of oil has skyrocketed over the last year, natural gas has not seen such a dramatic growth. That means that there are still opportunities for investors looking to get into energy stocks. One such stock is ConocoPhillips.
ConocoPhillips trades around $84 a share which is only about 7 or 8 times 2008 estimated earnings. Among the super-major energy companies, Conoco has the lowest P/E and is the best U.S. natural gas play due to its acquisition of Burlington Resources.
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