Barron's Online on Nomura Holdings' Comeback (NMR, MTU, GS, MER, MWD)

Barron's Online published an article today entitled, "Nomura Plots a Comeback," by Leslie P. Norton. The article provides good insight on both the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead for Nomura Holdings (ticker: NMR), Japan's most storied brokerage. Some of the key points from the article are highlighted below.

The short summary on this piece is: Nomura is optimistic and bullish and "if Japan's market keeps rising, it would be foolish to count Nomura out." The bottom line: "Nomura's stock has rallied sharply and could cool -- but only temporarily. A key beneficiary of Japan's restructuring, the broker is likely to see its earnings and shares advance."

A more detailed bulleted summary follows:

• Nomura remains the adviser of choice in Japan for everything from IPOs, takeovers, and share buybacks.

• Nomura’s shares are up 32% this year versus 23% for the Nikkei 225.

• At 24 times earnings Nomura is however looking pricey and “could well take a breather.

Comments

[Steven Towns:]

Any Mad Money followers out there? James J. Cramer says his favorite play is Mitsubishi UFJ (ticker: MTU) because, "The situation in Japan is kind of like the U.S. in 1990. Real estate has bottomed out in Japan, which is a bullish sign for the banks, because the economy is getting moving again." He also says another way to play Japan is the iShares MSCI Japan Index (ticker: EWJ). See last Friday's Mad Money Mail Bag.

2005 Nov 07 12:30 PM