Stephen Ryan's  Instablog

I LIVE IN SOUTHIE, I AM WALKING TO THE COURTHOUSE TO CONFIRM OR DENY

WHETHER OR NOT A SUSPECT IS BEING LED INTO OUR FEDERAL COURTHOUSE. MORE INFO TO COME. THERE HAVE BEEN CONFLICTING REPORTS, SO THIS WILL BE EXCLUSIVE--AMONG US BOSTONIANS,

THE RUMOR IS THAT ARREST HAS BEEN MADE DESPITE CONFLICTING MEDIA.

It is March Madness season, and I am feeling very competitive, however; an overbought market and debt ceiling drama have been trying to rain on my parade. The past two years, my group of friends and I, all of whom work in various segments of finance have had a march madness equity quick pick contest. The rules; pick five stocks on March 1st, provide a buy-side (includes shorts) thesis, and whoever is closest to 20% wins.

We had a serious competition last spring; I had Eqinix (EQIX) and Ventas (VNTR) which were great picks, but I was narrowed out by short sales on Ambassadors Group (EPAX) and Bank of Ireland (IRE). These guys are tough to compete with, especially some of the savvy tech guys, and financial short sellers. However, this year, we are starting the contest a little late, and I have two picks I would like to share.

8X8 (EGHT) and Cyrus One (CONE) are two of my picks as I approach the final days our selection period, I have a good feeling this year. We all have skin in the game, so this should be a feisty rematch. Feel free to provide input!

While I would like to pretend I am good enough to have plucked these two out of thin air, I have been watching 8X8 (EGHT) and Cyrus One (CONE) very closely this past winter. I waited for both companies to report, and, liked what I saw. I am confident both companies should experience significant appreciation this spring.

I don't have time to write a full article. But Taubmen Centers (TCO) is way undervalued (obviously, my opinion) after a sell off last week.

I studied the trade all weekend and jumped in this morning. Lowest debt/market cap of all mall REITs, highest price/psf of all mall REITs. FFO came in the midpoint of guidance, with same store NOI way ahead of estimates, and ahead of peers. Trading at a -7% discount to NAV when its has averaged a $83.17 for the past month compared to the one year average spread of +3.668 compared to todays NAV. I am rarely excited about a trade. This is the first time it has crossed 20 RSI without the index falling in tandem all year.

In the long term, I am concerned about their Asian development plan, but overall feel good.

Very excited about this trade, I will update you guys on how it goes.

Steve

Disclosure: I am long TCO.