President and CEO of Hovnanian Enterprises (HOV), Ara Hovnanian, declared in the recent 4th-quarter conference call that his company “has the liquidity to ride through the difficult housing environment” and emerge “very well positioned to participate in the eventual recovery.” Hovnanian believes his company has the edge over other builders through “long term strategies of offering a broad product array” in nationwide markets. With over 800 million in cash and no significant debt covenants maturing over the next 3 years, Ara Hovnanian could emerge as the proverbial “Comeback Kid.”

Ara’s staunch conviction, abundant cash position, and oversold stock price makes HOV attractive. Current short positions are overdone with 40% of the float sold short. This could fuel a 2-3 day short-cover rally that could result in an abrupt upward surge. Ara has been playing his cards close to his chest and may just surprise the market as [[DHI]] did with its recent earnings surprise.

Wall Street's top ranked bank analyst, Tom Brown, says, "bank stocks have bottomed." "If you wait for the good news, you'll wait too long," says Brown of Bankstocks.com.

Brown believes many bank stocks are selling at rock bottom prices, calling them "extraordinarily undervalued." Brown thinks we are at the beginning of "the greatest financial stock bull market in our lifetime." He writes, "the bears have things all backwards. By the time their wish list happens, the stocks will be zooming"

Stealth buying intensifies as 54 new institutional investors quietly acquire shares of Washington Mutual (WM), according to NASDAQ Detailed Institutional Holdings.   That’s an astounding 567 institutional investors now holding 52% of the company.  Toscafund Asset Management LLP, a British based value player, reportedly snatched up 105.5 million shares, or a 6% interest.  Spotting stealth activity requires painstaking analysis.  The majority of investors fail to recognize stealth activity until it’s publicly disclosed.  The wholesale accumulation of WaMu shares trumpets a clear “Buy Signal.” 

WaMu used this past quarter to come clean, cleanse the books, or as Howard Shapiro of Fox-Pitt Kellton put it, “move ahead of the curve on credit, having charged off or provided for 65 % of it expected loss exposure.”  WaMu added over 17 billion dollars of fresh capital, enhancing the balance sheet with 50 billion dollars of liquidity.  This was not done out of necessity, but more in a sense to silence the mouths of its adversaries that are mostly short sellers that traffic in fear, terror, false rumors, and manipulation.   

RICO, Racketeering Influenced Corruption Organizations Act, the law Rudy Guiliani used to bring down Michael Milken, and other Wall Street crooks, could be revisited in the SEC's struggle to clean up Wall Street's growing threat to the financial markets.

The SEC's crackdown against illegal naked short selling and rumor-mongering resulted in more than 50 hedge funds being slapped with subpoenas last week, according to the Wall Street Journal. Conspiracy theorist and CEO of Overstock.com (OSTK), Patrick Byrne, has embarked on a crusade to expose the nefarious hedge funds that practice illegal short selling. Byrne's web site, Deep Capture.com, has compiled a plethora of facts documenting, names, dates, times and videos of the players and their schemes.

Ackman's smoke and mirrors ploy about his so-called bail out plan of Fannie Mae (FNM) should earn him top honors as Wall Streets best BS artist.  But could Ackman's passive arrogance backfire and become self-destructive? 

Revlon’s (REV) Chairman of the Board, Ronald Perelman, recently purchased 3.2 million shares of (REV) stock. Apparently, Perelman is convinced that drop-dead-gorgeous actress, Jessica Alba, named the "World’s Sexiest Actress" by Victoria’s Secret, and FHM’s 2007’s "Sexiest Woman", can provide the drive for increasing profits. Alba is featured in alluring print and TV ads worldwide for Revlon’s new product lines. Recently, Alba appeared in several Revlon commercials broadcast during American Idol, a show that targets the 14-30 something crowd and has an estimated 30 million weekly viewers. Actress Halle Berry is promoting Revlon’s new minerals makeup line in print and TV ads that appeal to women of all ages, but the minerals makeup stands to gain a greater market share among the 40 plus crowd.

NASDAQ filings confirmed that twenty-two (22) new institutional investors recently bought shares of Conn's, INC. (CONN), bringing the total to 126 institutional holders of more than 14 million shares, or 58%, of the company. “They are buying,” and buying big, said one investor. So, let’s take a closer look at this expanding enterprise.

When a firm like Goldman Sachs buys shares of a relatively little known company like ZVUE Corporation (ZVUE), careful consideration is warranted. A quick perusal of recent institutional investors revealed that Northern Trust Corp, and Wexford Capital also reported initiating positions in ZVUE on December 31, 2007. Look a little closer and we find the CEO and co-Founder buying shares. Now the immediate question that comes to mind is, is this a pure technical play, a value driven fundamental investment, or something else? Technical indicators reveal ZVUE to be in oversold territory. But is there more value here than a quick trade? Perhaps our focus on this YouTube want-to-be might answer these questions.