Comments on Alex Garcia's articles RSS Syndication from SeekingAlpha.com http://seekingalpha.com/author/alex-garcia/articles http://seekingalpha.com/article/59903-vineyard-national-bancorp-all-the-characteristics-of-a-contrarian-play?source=feed#comment-119027 119027 Mon, 25 Feb 2008 22:32:27 -0500 http://seekingalpha.com/article/59903-vineyard-national-bancorp-all-the-characteristics-of-a-contrarian-play?source=feed#comment-117929 117929 Fri, 22 Feb 2008 17:22:36 -0500 I was interested in you article about Vineyard Bank. I had a casual knowledge of VNBC and began a review of the current available news and documents. After the review I also believed it was a good value play. I made a first round of investment and continued to evaluate while the stock moved up. I bought more.

Today in a bad market, and after a new investors 13d was filed, the stock again moved up. I think we have something special going on.

Alex, I owe you a dinner.

Jim Satterfield
Corona

]]> http://seekingalpha.com/article/61736-secret-to-value-investing-ignore-market-noise?source=feed#comment-113630 113630 Wed, 30 Jan 2008 08:57:53 -0500 http://seekingalpha.com/article/61102-united-rentals-currently-offers-a-margin-of-safety?source=feed#comment-112546 112546 Wed, 23 Jan 2008 21:33:11 -0500 http://seekingalpha.com/article/59903-vineyard-national-bancorp-all-the-characteristics-of-a-contrarian-play?source=feed#comment-110788 110788 Wed, 16 Jan 2008 12:27:50 -0500 http://seekingalpha.com/article/59903-vineyard-national-bancorp-all-the-characteristics-of-a-contrarian-play?source=feed#comment-109904 109904 Sun, 13 Jan 2008 09:25:36 -0500
Equity capital to assets 12.51%
Core capital (leverage) ratio 11.35%
Tier 1 risk-based capital ratio 11.28%
Total risk-based capital ratio 12.23%

The bank does seem well capitalized.

marketprognosticator.b.../]]> http://seekingalpha.com/article/38477-is-rupert-murdoch-overpaying-for-dow-jones?source=feed#comment-94077 94077 Sun, 19 Aug 2007 22:12:27 -0400
Dur. Me bee rong about stuff much times, but me always be correcting me when me kan. Aftur a long wile, me tend t2o beye mowore riyight than utherz at some stuff.]]> http://seekingalpha.com/article/38477-is-rupert-murdoch-overpaying-for-dow-jones?source=feed#comment-94075 94075 Sun, 19 Aug 2007 22:10:10 -0400 http://seekingalpha.com/article/24159-conoco-phillips-a-good-buy-once-again?source=feed#comment-89793 89793 Wed, 27 Jun 2007 12:48:31 -0400
www.whiskeyandgunpowde...

Cheers!]]> http://seekingalpha.com/article/38477-is-rupert-murdoch-overpaying-for-dow-jones?source=feed#comment-88698 88698 Fri, 15 Jun 2007 10:40:15 -0400 see:

mnrtrading.blogspot.com/]]> http://seekingalpha.com/article/23299-sears-holdings-a-baby-berkshire-in-the-making?source=feed#comment-79568 79568 Tue, 02 Jan 2007 22:06:51 -0500
-Alex
wslounge.com]]> http://seekingalpha.com/article/23299-sears-holdings-a-baby-berkshire-in-the-making?source=feed#comment-79552 79552 Tue, 02 Jan 2007 17:29:29 -0500
One problem I see with using Sears as the sacrificial caterpillar for a new wasp is whether the shareholder base is on board with the transformation. If they believe they are invested long-term in a retailer, and have sentimental ties to that image, they may resist Lampert at the point where the original Sears stores need to be shed from the holding company.

I'm also curious as to whether Goldman Sach (GS) is also working that "next Berkshire Hathaway" karma--will we see GS and SHLD shares at $10,000 by 2017? Stay tuned.

Cramer, by the way, is way high on SHLD and suggests even his small-pockets followers buy a share or two ahead of any of the small stuff he talks about on "Mad Money"...]]> http://seekingalpha.com/article/23299-sears-holdings-a-baby-berkshire-in-the-making?source=feed#comment-79535 79535 Tue, 02 Jan 2007 11:12:36 -0500 1. Credit rating. SHLD believes that it should have a better credit rating than it does. Given its cash position and net debt, it believes its cost of capital should be less. The risk is that you have to convince the credit raters that you are in a better position which is a very tough task.
2. SHLD's pension liability. There were a couple of assumptions that were in here that once again are out of the control of SHLD and relies on regulators or Congress to do the right thing with regards to pension reform. The crux of the argument has two faults, one is the belief that lower interest rates increase the liability obligation and higher interest rates lowers the obligation. I personally believe that interest rates will begin to go down before they go up. The second is that a responsible company like SHLD is having its pension insurance premiums rise due to the ineptitude of many other companies and SHLD feels that this is ripe for review so as to make pension insurance rely more on the risk of the company as opposed to the risk of everyone under defined pension arrangements. Well I think we all know that when it comes to Congress, things that should happen and things that do happen don't necessarily go hand in hand.
Like most arguments for the bull case of SHLD comes down to "Do you believe in Eddie Lampert, or not?".]]>