Autozone Beats Estimates: Is Lampert a Genius Again?

Autozone's (AZO) earnings report sent shares up 15% yesterday (up 9% for the past year). Does Sears Holdings (SHLD) Chairman's Eddie Lampert's near 40% stake in the company now mean he is a genius again? I can't help but notice CNBC has not mentioned ONE TIME TODAY his stake in the company. Mistake? I think not.

Does anyone else find it odd that post after post has hit the blogsphere and the mainstream media bashing Lampert's investments almost hourly for the past three weeks, yet Tuesday's news has been met with a deafening silence?

Where are all the pundits? Are we done piling on? If a bad 9 months means Lampert has offically "lost it" then a 16% gain in one day by the same infantile logic must mean he is an uber-investor once again, no? This is the problem with short term thinking; it makes you stupid. Nobody is "what they did today", they are what they have achieved up until this point.

Investors like Bill Miller, Berkshire Hathaway's (BRK.A) Warren Buffett and Lampert, who have produced decades of market beating return just do not lose it. Investing is not like baseball where a power pitcher turns a certain age and the skills just go. If anything, age and the knowledge that come with it help investors.

CNBC is really disappointing me. It is one thing to bash an investor and even another to use "questionable" comparisons to make your point, but it is ethically vapid to then not be "fair and balanced" (wrong network?) when events turn. It just comes down to a credibility issue, and they are losing it.

Comments

[Rigster:]

I agree with you Todd. Cnbc just does not do any good reporting anymore.
Bloomburg LP to me is a much better channel to get the best financial programming! GREAT ARTICLE TODD!

2008 Dec 28 08:00 PM