Analysis Topic: Companies Analysis
The analysis published under this topic are as follows.Wednesday, March 18, 2009
Two Bank Stocks to Buy Right Now / Companies / Banking Stocks
Martin Hutchinson writes: Although we're still in the middle of the worst financial crisis in decades, a few select banks are positioned to make a boatload of profits. And if you pick the right ones, gains of 100% or more are easily within reach.
The U.S. Federal Reserve's actions in cutting short-term interest rates to almost zero - together with a gentle rise in U.S. Treasury bond yields since the start of the year - have given us a steeply sloping yield curve, where long-term rates are about 3% above short-term rates.
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Tuesday, March 17, 2009
GM, Toyota, Honda, and Grocery Store Price Wars / Companies / Recession 2008 - 2010
With inventories stacking up and nowhere to put production (See Unsold Car Images From Around The World ), price wars on autos were only a matter of time. That time has arrived, and GM to cut prices to lure back US buyers .Read full article... Read full article...
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
AIG Bonuses: Legalized Theft Has Found Its New Champion / Companies / Credit Crisis Bailouts
Whatever happened to being paid for performance and rewarding competence? Have corporations and the present day slime that runs them become so corrupt that all hope for some kind of decency and moral leadership has become lost?Read full article... Read full article...
Friday, March 13, 2009
The Banking Crisis, What Really Happened from 2001 to 2007 / Companies / Credit Crisis Bailouts
MJ writes: All magic tricks have at there core simple devices to perform the illusion; mirrors, sleight of hand and misdirection. Money is a store of wealth or its worthless paper. In an electronic world it's a byte. The wealth was spent and the money gone well before late 2007 and it was spent by bankers on themselves. The rest is misdirection. The idea that Bankers create wealth or can bring productivity to the economic cycle is an illusion.Read full article... Read full article...
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Healthcare System Overhaul, Buy or Sell Biotechnology Stocks / Companies / Healthcare Sector
The tidal wave of changes driven by initiatives from the Obama administration and Congress is causing investors to abandon well thought out strategies. On Thursday, February 26, 2009, the Obama released more details of their 2010 budget proposal calling for access to cheaper generic versions of biotechnology drugs as a way to pay for an overhaul of healthcare. Investors reacted to the news by aggressively selling the biotechnology sector, with the S&P SPDR Biotechnology ETF (XBI) falling $5.07 from $51.35 to $46.28 in two days. Is this a sign of further weakness in the sector, or is it a buying opportunity for the biotechnology firms and the generic firms?Read full article... Read full article...
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Citigroup Reports Profits Whilst Banks Continue to Go Bankrupt / Companies / Credit Crisis 2009
This week Citigroup shocked Wall Street by announcing that the company would be profitable in the current quarter. At the same time, the Obama Administration indicated that it would be unlikely to nationalize American banks, preferring to provide low cost funding to encourage the private sector to buy distressed assets from the banks. The two developments sparked a vigorous rally in financial stocks, which had been drifting downward for weeks, caught in what appeared to be an unending death spiral. But have the good times really returned?Read full article... Read full article...
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Baron's Top 10 Stock Picks- A Lesson on Sheepherding / Companies / Investing 2009
The following piece is a response to SA Editor, Racheal Granby's wrap-up of a recent Barron's article titled "Ten Stocks to Hold Long-Term."
Granby writes, "With the Dow off more than 50% from its October 2007 peak, there's rarely been a better time for long-term investors to pick up stocks on the cheap. Barron's puts together a list of ten great stocks to hold for five years or longer."
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Monday, March 09, 2009
What the Citigroup Share Conversion Might Really Mean / Companies / Credit Crisis Bailouts
We learned on February 27 th of the Treasury's plan to convert up to $25 billion of their $45 billion preferred Citigroup shares to common equity. According to the company, the existing shareholders would be diluted by 74%. Thus, the taxpayers will cease collecting dividends on their holdings and they'll slide down the capital structure in Citigroup to the lowest rung on the ladder. Ostensibly, it looks like a good deal for the bank and not such a great deal for the government/taxpayer.Read full article... Read full article...
Monday, March 09, 2009
Cigarette Companies Hike Prices Despite Deflationary Recession / Companies / Sector Analysis
Most retailers have been left with little choice other than to cut prices as consumers continue to tighten their belts. One company that is going against the grain, and has the muscle to do so, is Altria (MO).Read full article... Read full article...
Saturday, March 07, 2009
Lloyds TSB Nationalisation End Game, Another £280 Billion of Tax Payer Liability / Companies / Nationalization
The government is about to announce the defacto nationalisation of Lloyds TSB as capital of £5 billion is expected to be converted / injected into the bank that takes the governments real stake to 75% (officially 65%). On top of this the government will guarantee an estimated £275 billion of the banks bad debts which will be dumped onto the tax payer by means of the Asset Protection Scheme. It was less than 2 weeks ago that the government committed £400 billion for the insurance of toxic securities, which according to my calculations has so far already committed £325 billion to RBS for its toxic securities, therefore we are well north of the £400 billion limit. The toxic debt insurance scheme is akin to getting your car insured AFTER you have crashed it.Read full article... Read full article...
Wednesday, March 04, 2009
Healthcare ETFs on Life Support / Companies / Healthcare Sector
The markets are reeling once again and there has been plenty of pain to go around amongst healthcare ETFs. So far in 2009 the Vanguard Health Care ETF (VHT), PowerShares Dynamic Healthcare Sector Portfolio (PTH) , the PowerShares Dynamic Healthcare Services Portfolio (PTJ) and the iShares Dow Jones U.S. Healthcare Provider Fund (IHF) have seen respective declines of 17.2%, 19.9%, 20.7%, and 23.1%.Read full article... Read full article...
Tuesday, March 03, 2009
GM Leads the Way with a 53% Auto Sales Plunge / Companies / US Auto's
Congratulations of sorts go to GM for its industry leading sales effort. Please consider GM's 53% U.S. Sales Decline Leads Industry's February Plunge .General Motors Corp., surviving with federal loans, said its February U.S. sales plummeted 53 percent as the recession pushed industrywide purchases toward the lowest in almost three decades.
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Tuesday, March 03, 2009
Bankrupt European Banks Sitting on $23 Trillion of Impaired Assets / Companies / Euro-Zone
This week we look at the European bank markets through the eyes of my London partner Niels Jensen, head of Absolute Return Partners. I continue to believe that this is a brewing crisis which could have far more significant implications for the global economy than the Asian Crisis of 1998. In this week's Outside the Box, Niels has compiled a sobering set of data that suggests that only massive government involvement in Europe on a scale that is unprecedented will keep the wheels from coming off in Europe and the global economy.Read full article... Read full article...
Monday, March 02, 2009
HSBC Rights Issue, is Britain's Healthiest Bank Now Also in Trouble? / Companies / Banking Stocks
We're in trouble now. Arguably the healthiest bank in the FTSE 100, HSBC, is now running to its shareholders with its palm outstretched.
The banking giant said this morning that it's looking to raise £12.5bn from shareholders. It also slashed its dividend by nearly a third. Pre-tax profit for 2008 came in at $9.3bn, down 62% on the previous year, reports the BBC.
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Sunday, March 01, 2009
Warren Buffet's Bubble Bursts as Berkshire Profits Collapse / Companies / Corporate Earnings
Bloomberg is reporting Berkshire Profit Plunges 96% on Stock Market Bets . Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc. posted a fifth-straight profit drop, the longest streak of quarterly declines in at least 17 years, on losses from derivative bets tied to stock markets.Read full article... Read full article...
Sunday, March 01, 2009
Citigroup Crashes as U.S. Tax Payers Take on $3trillion Liabilities / Companies / Credit Crisis Bailouts
Citigroup plunged 39% on Friday to $1.50, a price last seen in 1992. The plunge was in response to a Citigroup U.S. Accord on a Third Bailout that will convert the government's preferred shares to common, thereby diluting existing common shareholders and exposing US taxpayers to more losses.Read full article... Read full article...
Thursday, February 26, 2009
As General Motors Goes, So Goes the Nation / Companies / US Auto's
General Motors was founded in 1908 in Flint , Michigan and grew to be the largest corporation in the world. Its market capitalization reached $50 billion in 2000. In the past week its market capitalization dropped below $1 billion to levels last seen during the 1920's. The story of General Motors is the story of America . In 1953, at the peak of its dominance, its President Charles Wilson declared before Congress that what was good for the country was good for GM and vice versa. Its rise to power and decline towards insolvency parallel the rise and fall of the Great American Republic.Read full article... Read full article...
Thursday, February 26, 2009
Goldman Sachs and Financials XLF: A Tale of Two Charts / Companies / Banking Stocks
Generally, stocks in the same industry move together. If airline stocks are trending higher, logic would dictate each of the stocks within the group should be moving higher as well. Now, some may move faster and higher than others, those are the best in breed. Sometimes, but rarely, a stock will not move at all. These are usually the “cheap” stocks that some may call a value play.Read full article... Read full article...
Thursday, February 26, 2009
Investors Plant a Monsanto Seed for Future Portfolio Growth / Companies / Investing 2009
I have a friend who really enjoys science fiction. I asked him the other day, “Do you ever watch anything besides the SciFi Channel?” He replied, “I do. I also watch CNBC.”
I know that my friend is not much of an investor so I asked him why the heck he watches this channel.
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Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Write Covered Calls to Recoup Losses on Financial Stocks / Companies / Options & Warrants
We've spoken in this space about Wells Fargo Bank and its (relative) virtues among the financials, and recommended buying WFC on a number of occasions through the autumn of 2008. Sadly, Wells did not escape the fate of the rest of the financials, though it held out somewhat longer (cold comfort for those of us still holding). And at this point, WFC has had its skin peeled and salted, recently falling over 50% in only three weeks!Read full article... Read full article...