tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-41228221785981525982011-12-30T01:41:20.579-05:00Watching stocks in the lowest quintile of (trailing) P/Es with dividend yields above the S&P 500's. Google Stock Screener is used to filter them out.Daniel M. Ryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07756525227609911646noreply@blogger.comBlogger1461100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4122822178598152598.post-26805890540358860002009-09-09T21:18:00.002-04:002010-06-01T07:39:19.606-04:00

Sorry to say so, but I've decided to wrap this blog up. As it turns out, I've bitten off more than I can chew with this approach; that's why it was turning into little more than a daily round-up. Also, I have to admit to being a writer at heart. Perhaps I veered out of my own circle of competence.I have, however, learned a lot by watching low P/E, high-yield stocks. Just below, I've got the most

Daniel M. Ryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07756525227609911646noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4122822178598152598.post-14172849504263832152009-09-09T00:42:00.000-04:002009-09-09T00:42:32.038-04:00

Once again, a non-financial company has issued plans for a secondary offering to the detriment of its stock price. Ameren, an electric utility holding company whose main operating subsidiaries are based in Illinois, has announced it will issue another 19 million shares. (With over-allottment rights of 2.85 million, the issance could be as high as 21.85 million.) Since the company plans to use the

Daniel M. Ryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07756525227609911646noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4122822178598152598.post-3252468373839796622009-09-09T00:26:00.000-04:002009-09-09T00:26:26.814-04:00

Thanks to an upgrade of the company, from J.P. Morgan, the shares of General Electric rose 4.54%. The analyst, Stephen Tusa, now rates GE as "Overweight" because the worst seems to be over for the company; even if GE ends up raising money through a secondary offering, said Mr. Tusa, it would be good for the stock because it would dispel undercapitalization doubts.Mr. Tusa could very well be right

Daniel M. Ryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07756525227609911646noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4122822178598152598.post-7082384583962442062009-09-08T20:16:00.000-04:002009-09-08T20:16:17.240-04:00

Post-long weekend, the three major averages did quite well; so far, the widely-anticipated September Effect has yet to make its appearance except for a few down days. After opening with gains averaging about 0.5%, the averages carved out a trading range; at no point were any of them down on the day. The Dow closed up 0.59%, the S&P finished up 0.88% and the NASDAQ gained 0.94%. Light sweet crude

Daniel M. Ryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07756525227609911646noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4122822178598152598.post-62857892559021969012009-09-07T21:27:00.000-04:002009-09-07T21:27:08.905-04:00

...I'd like to leave you with a trivia question. Being behind the curve as I am, I watched the Will Smith movie The Pursuit of Happyness for the first time last weekend. I spotted one anachronism in the movie, set in 1981, on first sight.Here's the question: What was the anachronism?Here's the answer: When the class for the trainees starts, the teacher/supervisor (played by Dan Castellanetta)

Daniel M. Ryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07756525227609911646noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4122822178598152598.post-3343986405311357582009-09-07T21:21:00.000-04:002009-09-07T21:21:51.967-04:00

After an end-of-summer hiatus, Enter Stage Right is back on its weekly schedule. As usual, I'm part of the line-up; this week, I center upon the current ObamaCare quagmire as an example of political cynicism gone overboard. If you're here from ESR, welcome.I have to confess to falling back into my old habits. This long weekend, I've been plowing through Pat Buchanan's revisionist work Hitler,

Daniel M. Ryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07756525227609911646noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4122822178598152598.post-25425649755967642102009-09-05T01:02:00.000-04:002009-09-05T01:02:53.013-04:00

Maybe I'm lucky, or maybe it's coincidence, but a stock I provided a rudimentary analysis for has made it into a Reuters "Buy Or Sell" feature. The stock is The Buckle, Inc., and my analysis is here. The Reuters feature on it does add some detail missing from my own work, such as the fact that the company depends on price increases to keep its margins growing. This point was made by the bear-side

Daniel M. Ryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07756525227609911646noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4122822178598152598.post-68754231248558050302009-09-05T00:58:00.000-04:002009-09-05T00:58:07.924-04:00

This time, it's Alberta phone company Telus. The company was the beneficiary of an upgrade from Merrill/Bank of America on Thursday afternoon. Initially, the stock didn't react. On Friday, though, the stock shot up 4.46% to close at a year-to-date high. 1.42% of that gain was taken away in after-hours trading.By my own reckoning, TELUS doesn't have the greatest of financials over the last ten

Daniel M. Ryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07756525227609911646noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4122822178598152598.post-38999428112246390332009-09-05T00:46:00.000-04:002009-09-05T00:46:46.816-04:00

Banco Santander stock was up 4.92% in Friday's regular trading, even though it was down 1.67% in after-hours trading. The news on the company wasn't that good: one of the items in Reuter's Key Developments for the bank was the notice that Santander, Spain's largest bank with a presence in South, Central, and even North America, was increasing its capital so as to be able to pay a dividend. It's

Daniel M. Ryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07756525227609911646noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4122822178598152598.post-82238864247125866112009-09-04T19:48:00.000-04:002009-09-04T19:48:20.440-04:00

The rally that started yesterday continued today, which lessened the averages' drop over the week. This day's favourite cause was the unemployment number, released before the bell, which came in at an above-expected 9.7%. The raw job losses shrunk, though, making the rise partially caused by previously uncounted workers returning to the workforce (including the discouraged part of it.) At first,

Daniel M. Ryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07756525227609911646noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4122822178598152598.post-39309302542848939112009-09-03T21:31:00.000-04:002009-09-03T21:31:52.576-04:00

This morning, demin, other casual apparel, and footwear vender The Buckle released its August same-store sales figure. Sent out before the bell, the release said that the chain's sales on that basis rose 3.6%.That result wasn't bad, but for a (perhaps formerly) fast grower like The Buckle, it wasn't very good either. According to the same story, the retailer's same-store sales for all of 2009

Daniel M. Ryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07756525227609911646noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4122822178598152598.post-81226007419530167042009-09-03T20:17:00.000-04:002009-09-03T20:17:08.470-04:00

Again, the macro feed was pinned as the cause of today's market action. The three major averages opened up, with about 0.4% gains for each, but their gains melted during the first fifty minutes of trading. Then, they reversed course. The cause fingered was the release of the jobless claims report, which came in at a worse-than-expected 570,000. Continuing claims kept rising. Nevertheless, the

Daniel M. Ryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07756525227609911646noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4122822178598152598.post-6412068861326386472009-09-02T21:44:00.000-04:002009-09-02T21:44:34.731-04:00

That's what Rick Clark said, according to this excerpt from a CNBC interview. His words didn't help the stock of Brookfield all that much, though. It was down 4.60% to close at $9.74.Still, that supposed doom has been very widely anticipated. A contrarian would wonder...

Daniel M. Ryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07756525227609911646noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4122822178598152598.post-22763100183681159182009-09-02T21:35:00.000-04:002009-09-02T21:35:57.528-04:00

...and later claims that the drops in their stock shows the panning was sound. The original article claimed that there was more to the gasoline consumtion drop than hard times: Americans are trading in less fuel-efficient cars for more fuel-efficient ones, a trend that the author claims is a long-term one.The two stocks mentioned as evidence were Sunoco Inc. and Tesoro. The former dropped 1.86%

Daniel M. Ryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07756525227609911646noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4122822178598152598.post-73249439154483933652009-09-02T20:12:00.000-04:002009-09-02T20:13:05.710-04:00

Today's market action seems tailor-made for the phrase "it could have been worse." Still following the macro meme, market participants ascribed today's somewhat disappointing performance to the ADP employment report. The 289,000 loss in jobs is an improvement over recent months, and it would have had a positive spin put on it a month or two ago. But, expectations are higher now and it is

Daniel M. Ryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07756525227609911646noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4122822178598152598.post-24181609781890385272009-09-01T21:39:00.000-04:002009-09-01T21:39:43.525-04:00

General Electric is the second-biggest Bin stock in terms of market cap, and probably the one best known. Like so many stocks that rocketed up in the past few months, it's been hammered recently. Today, it closed down 4.03% to reach $13.34.On the one hand, "GE exec sees another 12-18 tough months ahead." That statement comes as part of its new "framework" approach to guidance, which has replaced

Daniel M. Ryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07756525227609911646noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4122822178598152598.post-69955214014398550152009-09-01T20:47:00.000-04:002009-09-01T20:47:57.767-04:00

It's only September 1st, and they're already talking about the "September Effect." [Example.] Despite two pieces of good news, one on the home front and the other in the manufacturing arena, the three major averages went into a tailspin shortly after the items' release. The day started off unambiguously bullish, with all three averages solidly up by the 10 AM ET release time. Had the market still

Daniel M. Ryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07756525227609911646noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4122822178598152598.post-13467214937200148722009-08-31T22:48:00.000-04:002009-08-31T22:48:22.342-04:00

Example: oil/ore tanker operator Frontline Ltd. Today, it got an upgrade from "Underperform" to "Market Perform" by an analyst at FBR Capital. If this news helped the stock, it didn't help much: Frontline lost 4.26% to close at $22.27.Of course, the upgrade wasn't much of one. The analyst said that Frontline is no longer squeezed for cash, and its "above-average day rates" are making the

Daniel M. Ryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07756525227609911646noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4122822178598152598.post-13757695770399439432009-08-31T20:38:00.002-04:002009-09-01T19:58:15.345-04:00

Trading ended for August today, and the last day wasn't exactly a good day. News that the government of China is planning to cut back on bank lending sent the Shanghai market plummeting; so did the American market. On fear of interrupted global recovery, the three major averages all opened up with more than 0.5% losses. They fell further before 10 AM ET, to recover somewhat in early-mid morning.

Daniel M. Ryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07756525227609911646noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4122822178598152598.post-38788960247387392502009-08-29T19:29:00.000-04:002009-08-29T19:29:36.473-04:00

A few days ago, Jonathan Goldberg posted a bullish analysis of Lockheed Martin. He used his equity value per share model, combined with a 3% growth assumption, to come up with an intrinsic value of $108.50 per share. Since its current price of $74.95 is slightly below Mr. Goldberg's margin-of-safety entry point of $76, he concluded that it was undervalued.This post is intended to be a complement

Daniel M. Ryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07756525227609911646noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4122822178598152598.post-20788502920881668252009-08-28T22:11:00.000-04:002009-08-28T22:11:31.782-04:00

Canada has stricter anti-defamation laws and customs than the United States, so it's not that much of a surprise that a Canadian company used to Canadian norms would have its defamationesque lawsuit thrown out by an American court. That was the fate of a lawsuit launched by drug-delivery technologies maker Biovail Corp. against SAC Capital Advisors, in which Biovail accused SAC of producing

Daniel M. Ryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07756525227609911646noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4122822178598152598.post-80673537388065999762009-08-28T19:50:00.000-04:002009-08-28T19:50:48.911-04:00

The week ended with the three major averages stuck in a holding pattern. After opening with all three in positive territory, particularly the NASDAQ, the averages began a drift downwards starting at about 10 AM ET. The University of Michigan consumer confidence index, released at about that time, showed a "Consumer Mood at Four-Month Low." Quantitatively, the Reuters-University of Michigan index

Daniel M. Ryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07756525227609911646noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4122822178598152598.post-69974725326178730442009-08-27T22:50:00.000-04:002009-08-27T22:50:31.965-04:00

The article discussing it, "Ego And The CEO", comes from the Globe and Mail:Which is the biggest red flag for a potential accounting fraud: Bad corporate governance, an overinflated share price or too many stock options?None of the above, according to a new study by researchers from three Canadian universities.They argue that the biggest risk factor for fraud is a CEO with a truly oversized ego..

Daniel M. Ryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07756525227609911646noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4122822178598152598.post-10175560339347966732009-08-27T21:25:00.001-04:002009-08-27T21:26:17.504-04:00

Cracker Barrel Old Country Store, the operator of a chain of restaurants and retail stores, was the beneficiary of an upgrade eight days ago. The upgrader, Bryan C. Elliott of Raymond James, reclassified it to "Market Perform" from "Underperform." Since then, the stock has moved from $27.59 to today's $29.13. The response has been muted, but it could be argued that the upgrade was muted too.

Daniel M. Ryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07756525227609911646noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4122822178598152598.post-1094617901395404612009-08-27T20:02:00.000-04:002009-08-27T20:02:47.094-04:00

It didn't start off as a very good day, but it ended up as one. From the get-go, until about 10 AM ET, the three major averages plummeted. Then, they began a slow but durable climb that changed the losses into gains. After an aborted start between 10 and 11 AM ET, the first wave of the upswing clicked in; it took the Dow up to slightly positive territory. After a near-hour pause, the second wave

Daniel M. Ryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07756525227609911646noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4122822178598152598.post-56906666795316792592009-08-26T20:06:00.000-04:002009-08-26T20:06:23.734-04:00

For the second day in a row, a wild ride in the market ended with the three major averages virtually unchanged. Before the lastest releases, the averages opened down, and were all losing more than 0.5% by 9:50 AM ET. Then, two economic-aggregate items hit the wires. Durable goods orders for July increased 4.9% overall, but the market didn't react all that much to it. That lassitude wasn't true of

Daniel M. Ryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07756525227609911646noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4122822178598152598.post-50277554275440900152009-08-25T20:46:00.000-04:002009-08-25T20:46:56.590-04:00

This article's already been picked up by Simoleon Sense, but I'm linking to it here because I want to highlight it as an easy-to-read introduction to cognitive and emotional biases that pop in when we invest or trade. It's called "The Mistakes We Make—and Why We Make Them," and it's by Meir Statman.He spends more time on emotional biases than the usual intro. Regret is discussed thoroughly, but

Daniel M. Ryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07756525227609911646noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4122822178598152598.post-83826625148778400552009-08-25T20:03:00.003-04:002009-08-25T20:24:07.050-04:00

Thankfully for the bulls, the good-news parade continued today. The three major averages opened up about 0.4%, but they all got a real kicker with the release of the new consumer confidence index number. Rather than increase to 48, it shot up to 54.1. Last month's number was also revised upwards. This item added a kick in the pants to the averages, all of which were up by more than 1% shortly

Daniel M. Ryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07756525227609911646noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4122822178598152598.post-44365745466989782002009-08-24T22:36:00.001-04:002009-08-24T22:37:30.617-04:00

It's been up in the air for a long time, but Ben Bernanke - the experts' choice - is getting reappointed to the chairship of the Federal Reserve.I have to admit to haing doubts on the matter, prompted by the annoucement delay. For a time, I was wondering if it was to be Larry Summers who got the appointment. But no, it's "Helicopter Ben" that's going to stay in charge.In a way, it makes little

Daniel M. Ryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07756525227609911646noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4122822178598152598.post-30738509031717198692009-08-24T20:29:00.002-04:002009-08-25T19:11:17.566-04:00

It was supposed to be the start of another winning week, but an early afternoon drop put an end to that hope. The three major averages were up in the morning, continuing Friday's rise until about 11 AM ET. At that point, they were all up more than 0.5%; the S&P 500 was close to a 1% gain. Then, the decline started. Slow at first, like the first dip on a roller coaster, the slide took the averages

Daniel M. Ryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07756525227609911646noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4122822178598152598.post-55331299383515896442009-08-24T12:21:00.002-04:002009-08-24T12:27:17.775-04:00

I've veered into prognosticating this time around, about "The fall and rise of the religious right."If you're here from ESR, welcome and thanks for dropping by.

Daniel M. Ryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07756525227609911646noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4122822178598152598.post-48742644384682437672009-08-22T20:34:00.001-04:002009-08-22T20:54:19.924-04:00

When the financials of demins, tops and footwear retailer The Buckle, Inc. are gone through, the question that occurs is: "why is its P/E in the lowest quintile?" Or, why is it in the Low P/E Bin? After lackluster earnings growth from 1999-2004, the company took off. 1999-2008 growth in earnings per share, as measured by logarithmic regression, was 12.66%. Growth in net income, calculated by the

Daniel M. Ryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07756525227609911646noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4122822178598152598.post-18197739131873240352009-08-21T19:31:00.001-04:002009-08-24T19:35:41.715-04:00

[Note: Corrected number of stocks in the Bin, and added appropriate commentary.]This time, it was the latest housing figures that supplied the rationale for another big rally. The three major averages opened up with greater than 0.5% gains, and took off like a shot just before 10 AM ET. When the spurt-up was finished, they were up around 1.50%. The rest of the day saw them range-bound until Fed

Daniel M. Ryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07756525227609911646noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4122822178598152598.post-48853758702371401892009-08-20T23:17:00.000-04:002009-08-20T23:17:23.426-04:00

Fashion footware and casual-clothes retailer The Buckle, Inc. reported 2Q '09 earnings that were not only above expectations, but were also about 12% above 2Q '08's. That growth didn't come from cost-cutting, either. Revenues were up 18% in the same period, and comparable same-store sales were up smartly too. Other details can be found in this write-up.With an earnings report such as this one,

Daniel M. Ryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07756525227609911646noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4122822178598152598.post-54335484612434238512009-08-20T22:14:00.000-04:002009-08-20T22:14:44.246-04:00

...at least for the oil and gas sectors. Enerplus Resources Fund, a Canadian oil and gas income trust, announced last night that it's planning to issue an additional 9.25 million trust units at a price of C$21.65 per unit. At today's exchange rate, it amounts to US$19.88 for each unit. This financing will provide cash to acquire 30% of three companies' interests in their Marcellus shale natural

Daniel M. Ryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07756525227609911646noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4122822178598152598.post-84457968216673686292009-08-20T20:41:00.000-04:002009-08-20T20:41:18.524-04:00

Yesterday's action carried through to today's. After opening only slightly up, the three major averages climbed to over 0.50% gains for each. After sinking back a little in late morning (ET) trading, they crept up through most of the afternoon. A late-day rally kicked in about 3 PM ET, which pushed the averages up to their close for the day. The Dow was up 0.76% at the end, the S&P was up 1.09%,

Daniel M. Ryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07756525227609911646noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4122822178598152598.post-64384393331973438962009-08-19T20:57:00.000-04:002009-08-19T20:57:24.938-04:00

It took a surprise drop in crude inventories to get the market up today. The three major averages started down about 1%, due to the resumed fall in the Chinese stock market last night. That opening gap didn't last, however: by 10 AM ET, all three averages were near the break-even point. Then, the news of the surprise inventory drop was disseminated. That was enough to get all three averages

Daniel M. Ryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07756525227609911646noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4122822178598152598.post-43999523723404696292009-08-18T21:20:00.000-04:002009-08-18T21:20:16.771-04:00

Yesterday's spill was not repeated today. From the get-go, the three major averages were all up. After a slight reaction about twenty minutes after trading started, the averages kept climbing for the rest of the day. News reports like the one following attributed the rise to better-than-expected retail results, but an earlier recovery in the Asian markets had an influence too. A last-minute

Daniel M. Ryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07756525227609911646noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4122822178598152598.post-36687002293903555942009-08-17T23:00:00.001-04:002009-08-17T23:02:09.556-04:00

No, not Chubb: Cincinnati Financial. It's kept its spot in the Dividend Aristocrats list by raising its quarterly dividend 0.5 cents to 39.5 cents.Interestingly, the stock yields more than Chubb: 6.38% versis Chubb's 2.93%. Having not been the beneficiary of a recent earnings release with a positive surprise, Cincinnati's been trundling along in a range for almost a month. Perhaps it's because

Daniel M. Ryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07756525227609911646noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4122822178598152598.post-53033560662611444872009-08-17T22:39:00.000-04:002009-08-17T22:39:37.707-04:00

Telmex announced after the bell that it's repaying $1.3 bilion in debt earlier than the specified maturity date. The company committing to do so means that substantially all of its 2009 maturity commitments have been met.In these times, it would seem to be a good move. The Mexican economy ain't out of the woods, and the lesson of leverage has been well rubbed in during the past year.And yet,

Daniel M. Ryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07756525227609911646noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4122822178598152598.post-69304685702194500472009-08-17T21:10:00.000-04:002009-08-17T21:10:51.500-04:00

There wasn't any hint of an August rally today. Following in the wake of the Asian averages, particularly the Shanghai, the three major American averages plummeted about 2% right after trading began. After that plunge, they continued to drift downwards until about 11:15 AM ET. A short relief rally pushed them up somewhat, and the resultant range held until about 3 PM ET. Then, the downward drift

Daniel M. Ryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07756525227609911646noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4122822178598152598.post-55614323250528661112009-08-17T00:05:00.000-04:002009-08-17T00:05:35.289-04:00

My latest piece takes its cue from an old libertarian work by Frank Chodorov, but moves to a more pragmatic emphasis. It's called "The income tax: The grand comeuppance" and it ties the spread of the income tax to the thickening of politicians' incoming mail sacks.If you're here from Enter Stage Right, welcome. Unfortunately, you'll find fewer posts because I've had to shoulder more

Daniel M. Ryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07756525227609911646noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4122822178598152598.post-49246675276705816712009-08-14T21:05:00.000-04:002009-08-14T21:05:54.387-04:00

It was not a good day for American stocks. Despite a better than expected industrial production figure, the market took its cue from the flat CPI for July. By the time the consumer sentiment index numbers were released, the averages were flat to down. The unexpected decline in consumer sentiment was enough of a shake to get the averages tumbling down: by 10:15 AM ET, all three major averages had

Daniel M. Ryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07756525227609911646noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4122822178598152598.post-90579648559972551032009-08-14T08:54:00.000-04:002009-08-14T08:54:46.937-04:00

Yanzhou Coal Mining has been pursuing a takeover of the Australian company Felix Resources. The Yanzhou board has just given approval to the deal; Felix's board has already done so.Yanzhou's stock has been halted because this takeover represents a material change in the company's fortunes. In the Canadian markets, halting happens all the time. The stock stops trading for sufficient time to get

Daniel M. Ryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07756525227609911646noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4122822178598152598.post-89520598756265328742009-08-13T19:40:00.000-04:002009-08-13T19:40:31.533-04:00

Despite the morning news disclosing weaker retail sales and an unexpected rise in first-time jobless claims, the rally ended up continuing. After a plummet in the early morning, which took the three major averages to about a 0.5% drop on the day, they recovered and were in positive territory by 10:30 AM ET. After reaching the morning's high point at about 11 AM ET, they sunk back somewhat until

Daniel M. Ryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07756525227609911646noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4122822178598152598.post-1284955445612498012009-08-12T19:22:00.000-04:002009-08-12T19:22:42.520-04:00

The Globe and Mail has webbed an article that provides a basic introduction to behavioral finance, with four biases explained therein. It's entitled "Bad habits sow bad investments: Avoid traps created by overconfidence, herding, anchoring and regret." The four biases are explained in everyday terminology.The authority quoted is Lisa Kramer. Her University of Toronto Web page is here.

Daniel M. Ryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07756525227609911646noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4122822178598152598.post-63063690809414376202009-08-12T18:26:00.000-04:002009-08-12T18:26:59.849-04:00

It's often held that the end of a Fed meeting bodes well for stocks. Despite the iffiness of that rule, it held up once again. The three major averages started off strong, leaping up to over 1% gains by 10 AM and basically holding there. News reports, like this one, attributed the early rise to good earnings news from Macy's and Toll Brothers. A leap-up later in the day, prior to a dip staring

Daniel M. Ryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07756525227609911646noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4122822178598152598.post-83408482777737023482009-08-11T22:01:00.000-04:002009-08-11T22:01:38.027-04:00

Suburban Propane Partners announced that it will be offering 2.2 million limited partner interest units, priced at $41.50 per unit. That price would have made for an adequate discount as of yesterday's close, but today's doesn't. The stock dropped 7.47% in regular trading to close at $40.75. Given this drop, the secondary is going to be a difficult sell. It may be undersubscribed.The proceeds are

Daniel M. Ryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07756525227609911646noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4122822178598152598.post-82875859198602893822009-08-11T20:30:00.000-04:002009-08-11T20:30:59.217-04:00

Despite some good news on the economic front, the three major averages fared badly today. There wasn't a single moment when any of them were up on the day, and all three dropped by more than 1% as of the close. It was reported this morning that U.S labour costs dropped and labour productivity soared. Also reported was a drop in U.S. wholesalers' inventory levels, which could be seen as an

Daniel M. Ryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07756525227609911646noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4122822178598152598.post-79184448763375668242009-08-10T23:56:00.000-04:002009-08-10T23:57:06.152-04:00

Harvest, a Canadian oil, gas and refiner income trust, reported a $1.59 per unit loss as compared with a $1.07 unit loss in 2Q '08. The loss per trust unit for the first six months of this year was $1.28 as compared with $1.08 in the first half of '08. I didn't know that my earlier attempt to "discount doomsday" would prove to be optimistic.However, the distribution's being kept as is; the

Daniel M. Ryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07756525227609911646noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4122822178598152598.post-21882509851863754552009-08-10T23:26:00.001-04:002009-08-10T23:28:22.720-04:00

According to this Bloomberg report, futures traders expect the VIX to ramp up over the next five weeks. "Traders were betting the VIX, a gauge of expected stock swings, would increase 13 percent in the next five weeks, according to futures prices at the end of last week compiled by Bloomberg."The report does note that the VIX may be expected to rise because some call writers are buying their

Daniel M. Ryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07756525227609911646noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4122822178598152598.post-24659459334031148572009-08-10T22:54:00.000-04:002009-08-10T22:54:40.081-04:00

Cousins Properties, a REIT, has reported its results for the second quarter after the bell. This detailed report starts off by pointing out that Cousins' earnings minus certain impairment, valuation and retirement charges were up in 2Q '09 with respect to 2Q '08. Once those charges are included, though, the company posted a $1.56 per share loss; 2Q '08's EPS was a gain of 16 cents.When compared

Daniel M. Ryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07756525227609911646noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4122822178598152598.post-54185248127766723462009-08-10T20:13:00.000-04:002009-08-10T20:13:53.661-04:00

The day didn't start off all that well. The three major averages opened lower, and had scraped close to break-even territory shortly before 11 AM ET. That time marked the high of the day. The averages then sunk, but the pace of the decline was slower than some recent ones. Another late-afternoon rally partially erased the drop, and left the Dow with a loss of 0.34%, the S&P 500 with a decline of

Daniel M. Ryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07756525227609911646noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4122822178598152598.post-80138042990801826802009-08-09T22:20:00.000-04:002009-08-09T22:22:49.979-04:00

I don't quite know how, but I'm headlining this week's Enter Stage Right again. So, again, I'll shoot you to the home page. I hope you linger.And, if you're here from one of my ESR pieces, thanks for stopping by. This place is fairly far from the political hurly-burly, and arguments are few. Welcome.

Daniel M. Ryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07756525227609911646noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4122822178598152598.post-77341627478526040862009-08-08T17:20:00.000-04:002009-08-08T17:20:12.062-04:00

"Detroit R.I.P." How many times have we heard or read that? There certainly was cause, as two of the Big Three have collapsed into bankruptcy. Parts of Detroit seem to be wasteland. The June unemployment rate for Michigan was 15.2%.And yet, DTE Energy's earnings were up in the first half of 2009 as compared with the same period in 2008. DTE's an electric utility holding company for Detroit Edison

Daniel M. Ryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07756525227609911646noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4122822178598152598.post-31771382210957262552009-08-07T23:44:00.001-04:002009-08-07T23:47:22.522-04:00

When something's obvious in retrospect, it's hard to remember what things were like at the time. It's obvious that the market bottomed on March 9th, but that day was one of several plunges that took market-watchers by surprise. Back then, no-one knew what today's market would be trading at. What they did know was that the supposed November end to the bear market had turned into another vicious

Daniel M. Ryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07756525227609911646noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4122822178598152598.post-33982919489047994242009-08-07T20:37:00.000-04:002009-08-07T20:37:28.206-04:00

This time, it was different. The number that everyone was waiting for - the unemployment rate - was released before the bell, and the markets went on a tear after its release. For the first time in a long time, the U.S. unemployment rate fell: it's now 9.4%. Payrolls also decreased by far less than expected. Both number contributed mightily to a rally in all three major averages, which were

Daniel M. Ryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07756525227609911646noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4122822178598152598.post-24296240351197110542009-08-06T23:19:00.002-04:002009-08-07T00:30:10.883-04:00

In the last section of today's edition of the Casey Research Daily Dispatch, there were three different insider-transaction statistics; all of them were in bearish territory. Here they are, as copied from today's E-letter:An insider gauge tracked by Market Profile Theorems, a Seattle research shop, moved into bearish territory on July 31 – for the first time since November 2007.An insider

Daniel M. Ryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07756525227609911646noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4122822178598152598.post-2682193228213193262009-08-06T22:25:00.002-04:002009-08-06T23:51:44.204-04:00

One of the enduring themes of value investing is that what is out of favor today will be tomorrow's hot sector. David Dreman appeared on CNBC recently, advising people to load up on stocks that will likely benefit from inflation. Many of them are in currently beaten-down sectors like REITs and energy, which is currently being beaten down earnings-wise. He also recommended the strong names in the

Daniel M. Ryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07756525227609911646noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4122822178598152598.post-84324445800874770562009-08-06T21:04:00.000-04:002009-08-06T21:04:36.340-04:00

Once again, the macroeconomic news failed to impress on balance. New claims for unemployment benefits did fall, to a number lower than expected, but June same-store sales didn't offer much cause for optimism. They showed an eleventh straight monthly decline. The percentage drop was a little larger than expected, 5.1% versus the general expectation of a drop of 5%.After opening to the upside, the

Daniel M. Ryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07756525227609911646noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4122822178598152598.post-68136583207852380522009-08-05T23:51:00.000-04:002009-08-05T23:51:13.147-04:00

Olin Corporation, a company that makes chlor alkili products and owns Winchester Small Arms as a division, lowered its guidance on July 27th after the bell. The stock plummeted the next day. As of now, though, it's closed at above its July 27th high. That high was $14.26; today's close was $14.59.I offer this follow-up as grist for thought. Olin is the second Bin stock to take an earnings-related

Daniel M. Ryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07756525227609911646noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4122822178598152598.post-46776392082463022472009-08-05T22:13:00.000-04:002009-08-05T22:13:14.636-04:00

The Low P/E Bin has two REITs, one a newcomer. Both have shot up recently, as has a Canadian commercial real estate company that's also a Bin member.The two REITs are Cousins Properties, the newcomer, and Entertainment Properties Trust. The former was up 6.14% today, and there wasn't any earnings or other good news to account for it. Cousins' portfolio is a mixed bag of commercial, muti-family

Daniel M. Ryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07756525227609911646noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4122822178598152598.post-54970293448807947202009-08-05T20:34:00.003-04:002009-08-06T19:10:15.656-04:00

[Note: Corrected erroneous inclusion of GATX in Departures, and substituted proper one with appropriate commentary.]Seemingly, the down days of August are here. A lower-than-expected rise in the ISM services index created enough of a foul mood to put the three major averages down close to 1% by 10:20 AM ET. The Dow and S&P began lumbering back up, but the NASDAQ didn't join in until the afternoon

Daniel M. Ryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07756525227609911646noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4122822178598152598.post-90686825492379247602009-08-04T23:15:00.000-04:002009-08-04T23:16:00.082-04:00

Universal Corporation, a supplier of raw flue-cured, burley-leaf, oriental and dark tobacco, reported 2Q '09 diluted EPS of $1.47 per diluted share. (Full press release here.) That figure is 129.6% more than 2Q '08's diluted EPS of 64 cents. Its revenue also rose 22%, and its operating income rose 90%. 'Taint easy finding a company this quarter that's reported strong growth in both earnings and

Daniel M. Ryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07756525227609911646noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4122822178598152598.post-10125239905332114682009-08-04T22:31:00.001-04:002009-08-04T22:37:29.482-04:00

Titanium Metals released its second-quarter results this morning, and reported an EPS drop of 80.8% from the same quarter a year ago. The main reason was a drop in demand for its titanium products, which lowerd both the prices fetched and the volume sold. Demand diversion from scrap recycling was partly to blame. The company also attributed the drop to the delay in the introduction of the Boeing

Daniel M. Ryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07756525227609911646noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4122822178598152598.post-89964312709579890922009-08-04T20:17:00.000-04:002009-08-04T20:17:21.028-04:00

It was another down day that turned into an up day. The three major averages all posted modest gains at the end of regular trading, thanks to a rally in the last twenty minutes which pushed all three from negative to positive territory. The shift from watching earnings to following economic indicators was made evident. Today didn't begin all that well, because of a reported 1.3% drop in consumer

Daniel M. Ryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07756525227609911646noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4122822178598152598.post-53060593229578654682009-08-04T01:19:00.000-04:002009-08-04T01:19:34.637-04:00

Have you ever tried to play poker using a system? If so, then you know that a large component of any poker system tells you when to fold - especially, right after the ante. Another component of a good system confines heavy betting to a hand only above a specified value.One of the frustrations in using a system like that is the restraints imposed when someone else bets big with little evidence of

Daniel M. Ryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07756525227609911646noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4122822178598152598.post-35117249654858213852009-08-04T00:15:00.000-04:002009-08-04T00:15:27.989-04:00

There are four banks in the Low P/E Bin with significant exposure to Latin America. Two of them, Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria and Banco Santander, are headquartered in Spain and also have exposure to the Spanish economy. Those two banks are commercial rivals in Spain, with Santander having the bigger presence, and both stocks have taken off recently.The third is headquartered in Columbia, and

Daniel M. Ryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07756525227609911646noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4122822178598152598.post-29635124284862161992009-08-03T20:34:00.001-04:002009-08-04T18:23:13.475-04:00

[Note: Corrected a miscategorized Arrival as not being a newcomer.]It was a day of breaking round numbers for two of the three major averages. The S&P 500 closed above 1000, and the NASDAQ broke 2000. All three averages had strong gains today, leaving more than a few wondering when it'll end. Oil shot up once again, along with silver and copper, but gold barely moved. It's no wonder why basic

Daniel M. Ryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07756525227609911646noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4122822178598152598.post-3679551538314554592009-08-03T01:04:00.000-04:002009-08-03T01:04:54.962-04:00

In the blog "Reflections On Value Investing," Shai Dardashti puts forth a very good point about competitive moats that don't erode. Companies with high returns on equity, on the basis of a solid brand name, don't have their superior ROE eroded if the raw cost difference between the brand name and a cheaper alternative isn't enough to get many consumers switching. Why switch to the generic if it

Daniel M. Ryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07756525227609911646noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4122822178598152598.post-91304282655442511672009-08-02T23:17:00.000-04:002009-08-02T23:17:08.681-04:00

My latest piece is about Obama as the "permanent campaign President," and why it's hurting him in the opinion polls. Since it's the headliner, the link I'm posting is to the home page.If you're here from ESR, welcome. My other side is down below.

Daniel M. Ryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07756525227609911646noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4122822178598152598.post-63587046282745455092009-08-02T16:08:00.000-04:002009-08-02T16:08:14.695-04:00

Qwest Communications was one of those companies whose financials imploded after the dot-com crash. That implosion continued until 2002, when it climaxed with a revelation that Qwest had overstated certain items: 2002's loss per share was $10.48. As later losses showed, that climactic loss was more than Qwest taking a bath; they continued until 2005. Not until the next year did Qwest eke out a

Daniel M. Ryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07756525227609911646noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4122822178598152598.post-55138970090260694332009-07-31T23:31:00.000-04:002009-07-31T23:31:07.123-04:00

Compass Minerals closed up 5.22% today, on the strength of an upgrade from J.P Morgan. That was the same stock I analyzed night before last. I concluded that it was a speculative low P/E growth stock that could be attractive if the winter weather co-operates and farmers become more prosperous.It would take a bit of brass on my part to say that I influenced that report. It would also be somewhat

Daniel M. Ryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07756525227609911646noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4122822178598152598.post-54703711822865731242009-07-31T21:10:00.000-04:002009-07-31T23:11:45.925-04:00

[Note: Corrected oil price and associated commentary.]July is one of those months whose end coincides with the end of a week. It was a good month for the stock market, and the past five months have been great ones. Reuters put out an item entitled "S&P 500 sees best 5-month streak since 1938." Today didn't make for very much of a capper for what was a good month, though. Two of the three major

Daniel M. Ryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07756525227609911646noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4122822178598152598.post-85958309669432066052009-07-30T20:24:00.000-04:002009-07-30T20:24:37.290-04:00

The three major averages got off to a quick start after opening only with a slight gain. By 10 AM ET, all three were up well above a 1%; shortly afterwards, the S&P 500 made it above 2%. Unlike in recent days, there was no last-minute push upwards; instead, the averages fell until their gains for the day straddled 1%. Reports ascribed the leap-up to continuing good news on the earnings front;

Daniel M. Ryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07756525227609911646noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4122822178598152598.post-65537820444962838622009-07-30T01:12:00.000-04:002009-07-30T01:12:34.889-04:00

The general market may have been down yesterday, but Compass Minerals was not. It rose 5.99%, although that gain was shaved with a 1.00% decline in after-hours trading. The company reported 2Q '09 earnings after the bell two days ago that were well above 2Q '08's. That report provided the catalyst for Compass' shares to shoot up yesterday.Compass Minerals is a miner of rock salt and sulfate of

Daniel M. Ryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07756525227609911646noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4122822178598152598.post-62811739809301416382009-07-29T21:04:00.000-04:002009-07-29T21:04:23.826-04:00

In the next-before-last issue of Barron's, there was a bullish article on Banco Santander. Today, before the bell, it announced second-quarter earnings that were down 4% from 2Q '08's. An increase in provisions for non-performing loans was the drag-down. The rest of its segmentation shows profit increases.Because the number of Santander's common shares has shot up recently, EPS figures declined

Daniel M. Ryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07756525227609911646noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4122822178598152598.post-71738660796548826562009-07-29T19:37:00.000-04:002009-07-29T19:37:39.323-04:00

It was a definite down day for the three major averages. As was the case yesterday, a rally near the end of regular trading kicked in. Unlike yesterday's, though, today's was insufficient to push any of the three into a gain position. All three were in loss territory for today's entire trading session; it was the Dow that fared the best of the three. The S&P 500 fared the worst. Although a lousy

Daniel M. Ryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07756525227609911646noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4122822178598152598.post-36223731130506535882009-07-29T00:10:00.001-04:002009-07-29T00:10:21.078-04:00

Lately, I've noticed that Stock Screener is slow to react to earnings changes, and occasionally misses a stock that should be in the Low P/E Bin. I've tried to compensate by manually getting rid of any stock I've found whose P/E has expanded because of earnings drop, but my doing so only covers one part of a proper adjustment. The other part, finding stocks that have entered the Bin because their

Daniel M. Ryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07756525227609911646noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4122822178598152598.post-24244231998526965342009-07-28T23:57:00.000-04:002009-07-28T23:57:55.319-04:00

In its "Weekday Trader" feature, written by Naureen S. Malik, Barron's has panned the Low P/E Bin stock BHP Billiton. The line of reasoning goes something like this: the prices of the commodities Billiton mines and sells have been shooting up lately. So has oil, which Billiton extracts too. They've been rallying on anticipation of returning growth in world demand, as well as China stockpiling,

Daniel M. Ryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07756525227609911646noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4122822178598152598.post-74997308761575474692009-07-28T20:21:00.001-04:002009-07-28T22:16:38.688-04:00

Another mostly down day for the three major averages ended with only one of them up: this day, it was the NASDAQ that beat the other two. Both the Dow and S&P were slightly lower, although the former was down more than 1% at the day's low and the other was close to -1%. The NASDAQ was down for most of the day, but managed to rally strongly around 1 PM to push up to about a 0.50% gain by 2:30 PM

Daniel M. Ryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07756525227609911646noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4122822178598152598.post-30418258347457412062009-07-28T20:05:00.000-04:002009-07-28T20:05:09.935-04:00

CVB Financial has announced a stock offering of about $115 million, the proceeds of which are to be used to help repurchase the $130 million in TARP preferreds currently held by the U.S. government..."[s]ubject to approval from the U.S. Treasury and banking regulators" of course.After closing down 0.97% on July 20th, the stock got hammered a further 5.54% in after-hours trading. Its last trade,

Daniel M. Ryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07756525227609911646noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4122822178598152598.post-45989888717517271132009-07-27T20:38:00.000-04:002009-07-28T20:38:45.174-04:00

Olin Corporation disseminated its earnings report after the bell, which announced second-quarter EPS of 36 cents. That's down 23.4% from 2Q '08's 47 cents, but it's a result that also beat the Street consensus by three cents. Revenues for 2Q '09 were in line with expectations. Its upcoming dividend, declared Thursday, was the same as the one for the previous quarter.And yet, Olin's stock has

Daniel M. Ryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07756525227609911646noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4122822178598152598.post-28177764488424437242009-07-27T20:20:00.000-04:002009-07-27T20:20:18.726-04:00

Most of the day was a downer for the three major averages. After starting off in near-even territory, they sunk to a loss postion right after 10 AM. With the exception of the Dow, they stayed there until nearly the end. The NASDAQ continued to underperform the other two: it sunk the lowest, and barely eked out a gain right at the end of regular trading. The 11% increase in new home sales from

Daniel M. Ryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07756525227609911646noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4122822178598152598.post-23687076342754974722009-07-27T03:12:00.001-04:002009-07-27T04:15:51.840-04:00

One of the perennial issues regarding management is compensation levels, and the usual assumption is that they're way too high. Value investors tend to echo those complaints, seeing high compensation levels as evidence of management chicanery and/or fecklessness. There's also some talk about the good old days, when top management was happy to grow a public company at five figures annually.I

Daniel M. Ryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07756525227609911646noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4122822178598152598.post-64295528977868664782009-07-27T00:53:00.002-04:002009-07-27T00:59:21.799-04:00

Thnaks to a near-last-minute flash of inspiration, I have two articles posted in this week's Enter Stage Right. The first one is a critical look at the current effort to change around the health-care system in the U.S., and the second is a poke of fun at the modern education system.If you're here from either, welcome.

Daniel M. Ryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07756525227609911646noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4122822178598152598.post-85221636627640215742009-07-26T01:39:00.003-04:002009-07-26T03:06:52.126-04:00

Highlights:- CenturyTel is a communications-service company with operations in 25 states, but is concentrated in five.- CenturyTel has been an acquirer for at least nine years now. That strategy has not led to it becoming a growth company.- As of about a year ago, CenturyTel's management acknowledged such by raising the quarterly per-share dividend from 6.8 cents to 70 cents.- Recently,

Daniel M. Ryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07756525227609911646noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4122822178598152598.post-16220497452840680612009-07-24T22:29:00.000-04:002009-07-24T22:30:00.827-04:00

As part of its service, Marketocracy provides its mock-fund managers with archived Web pages showing the funds' composition as of a certain day. Perhaps unfortunately, we don't have that same capacity in our own heads. We can't shift our memories to a specific point in time and recall our mental state at that time. We can't fully recall what options we weighed at the time of an earlier decision,

Daniel M. Ryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07756525227609911646noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4122822178598152598.post-64079674303766658682009-07-24T19:14:00.001-04:002009-07-27T19:17:37.580-04:00

[Note: corrected number of stocks in the Bin.]It was a real nail-biter for the NASDAQ when Microsoft disappointed the Street. By 10 AM today, that average was down 1.81%. The other two also fell at that time, although to a much lesser extent. Since the three major averages had rallied so much yesterday, a large part of this mornings's drop can be explained by yesterday's rally going too far.

Daniel M. Ryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07756525227609911646noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4122822178598152598.post-58056365569893990472009-07-23T22:00:00.000-04:002009-07-23T22:00:48.601-04:00

There are currently four American bank stocks in the Low P/E Bin. All of them are TARP-related, but only two have actually taken TARP funds; the other two refused. These banks are:- Bank of Hawaii (refused);- CVB Financial Corp. (has applied to return TARP funds);- International Bancshares Corporation;- United Bankshares Inc. (refused).Although each company's banking operations are in different

Daniel M. Ryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07756525227609911646noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4122822178598152598.post-79287113786423876532009-07-23T21:20:00.000-04:002009-07-23T21:20:21.868-04:00

Chubb has announced its 2Q '09 EPS as $1.54, an increase of 21.3% from 2Q '08's $1.27. According to the Bloomberg write-up, Chubb managed to avoid subprime-related losses by conservatively investing in mutual bonds, Treasuries and safer mortgage bonds. Chubb is also raising its guidance for this year.The company is a Dividend Aristocrat: it has raised its dividend annually for at least

Daniel M. Ryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07756525227609911646noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4122822178598152598.post-25156116522426430052009-07-23T20:12:00.001-04:002009-07-23T21:50:07.957-04:00

[Note: Added one to Departures and corrected accordingly.]Another day of earnings season, another jump for the three major averages. Headlines are already announcing that the Dow has passed the 9,000 mark, although this particular write-up does add a caution about the present trading volume. Not all stocks are benefiting from earnings season, but many are. The financials are still under somewhat

Daniel M. Ryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07756525227609911646noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4122822178598152598.post-75302382467734977792009-07-22T23:23:00.000-04:002009-07-22T23:23:48.814-04:00

Whirlpool was one of five stocks I highlighted as trading-range breaking in a post made a week ago. From mid-May to early this month, it hovered in a range of about $40.50 to about $44. Then, it began shooting upwards, peaking at $56.34 yesterday. Today, though, it dropped 9.92% in regular trading and a further 0.49% in after-hours trading. When evening trading ended, it was at $50.50. The fact

Daniel M. Ryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07756525227609911646noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4122822178598152598.post-46455362046824913682009-07-22T22:40:00.001-04:002009-07-27T22:24:23.615-04:00

The cap-and-trade bill is being hurried through Congress; as might be expected, two electric utilities are spending millions each to lobby for changes. The Low P/E bin has six electric utilities, not including a company that's misclassified as one. All of them will potentially take a hit from the coal tax provision, although the size of the hit will vary. These six companies are:- Alliant Energy

Daniel M. Ryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07756525227609911646noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4122822178598152598.post-25848700042605668492009-07-22T20:28:00.001-04:002009-07-23T19:06:19.895-04:00

[Note: Corrected number of Bin stocks.]This day, it was the turn of the NASDAQ to have a gain well above the two other major averages. Given the anchoring effect that surfaces around earnings season, Apple's Street-beating report had an influence. It was the only one of the three major averages to close with a gain on the day. The financials are continuing to have a hard time, which is

Daniel M. Ryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07756525227609911646noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4122822178598152598.post-78834607430403360482009-07-21T21:11:00.000-04:002009-07-21T21:11:41.001-04:00

A week ago, I pointed to two stocks that shrugged off bad news. Both of them have not plummeted subsequently; in fact, both are up. One of them, Barnes Group, had gotten its earnings estimate slashed by a KeyBanc analyst. It didn't react all that much to the news, although it sunk slightly the next trading day. Today, however another analyst upgraded it. That news was enough to send Barnes up

Daniel M. Ryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07756525227609911646noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4122822178598152598.post-2674114012136923612009-07-21T19:58:00.000-04:002009-07-21T19:58:58.237-04:00

Last night's Asian rally failed to carry over to North America, except initially. Although the three averages were up at the beginning of the day, in line with the futures, the opening gain fizzled early on in the day. The Dow spent the day well above the other averages because of large leaps in two Dow stocks. Both were long-term residents of the Low P/E Bin. The first is Merck, which gained

Daniel M. Ryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07756525227609911646noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4122822178598152598.post-87110824849543306692009-07-21T00:29:00.000-04:002009-07-21T00:29:09.230-04:00

It takes only a bit of time in the stock market before the frequent disconnect between fundamentals and stock price movements become apparent. There's always a temptation to try to outguess which stocks are going to move and which aren't, using as the basis the companies' financials and combining them with news releases. Those who know about the efficient-market hypothesis should recognize it, in

Daniel M. Ryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07756525227609911646noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4122822178598152598.post-6490234124849046422009-07-20T19:45:00.002-04:002009-07-23T19:08:40.640-04:00

[Note: Corrected Bin number and Departures list for an additional Departure.]It was another up day for the averages, and explanations were once again easy to find. The company-watchers settled upon an impending private bailout of CIT Group, even if the latest rise in the leading economic indicators makes for a more logical reason. Goldman Sachs released a prediction that forecasts the S&P 500

Daniel M. Ryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07756525227609911646noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4122822178598152598.post-91370251916389946312009-07-19T23:56:00.001-04:002009-07-19T23:57:05.508-04:00

This week's is a little more relevant to this blog's genre. It's a look at why even well-promulgated and well-tended regulations don't obviate the need for us to tread carefully. Bernie Madoff makes an appearance therein.I'd like to add a postscript here, based upon my concern that Madoff has the right kind of wits to see a means for an easy ride in jail. Criminals tend to believe that they're

Daniel M. Ryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07756525227609911646noreply@blogger.com0