Q2 2009 Earnings Call

August 5, 2009 1:00 pm ET

Many of the institutional clients of The Applied Finance Group, Ltd. (AFG) tend to focus on large cap stocks and benchmark themselves against the S&P 500 Index, which is why many of the buy ideas from ValueExpectations.com usually come from the large cap index. Earlier in the week we highlighted companies from our buy/sell list both from large and small cap, as well as from growth and value style universes. We thought it would be a good follow up for some of the investors we work with who focus on small and mid cap stocks, to provide a more thorough list of companies from the Russell 2000 Index.

Below is a summary of 20 companies to watch from the Russell 2000 Index. The table highlights the 2 companies from each sector (ex. Financials) that have the most attractive Value Score (above 80) and are currently rated Neutral or higher by AFG’s buy/sell criteria. Factors used to derive an AFG recommendation include: Expected change in Economic Margins, Intrinsic Value, and Management Quality. Many classify stocks with market capitalization under $250 million as micro caps, therefore only those companies within the index that met that market cap minimum were considered for the list.

Q4 2008 Earnings Call

March 3, 2009 1:00 pm ET

The EIA currently provides monthly data on natural gas production and consumption through July. Based on the deviations in storage additions from our models, it appears that demand trends are weakening. In fact, in September our model suggests that natural gas demand fell by 1.74 BCF/d, or 2.62%. Since September, the economy has weakened substantially. For example, we had previously modeled that total 2008 electricity consumption would be slightly lower than in 2007. Recent data from the EEI shows electricity demand is down 4% YOY.

Our original estimate of –36% natural gas demand growth in 2009 now looks rather aggressive. Unfortunately, we will not have EIA demand data for October until mid-January. Based on other indicators of demand, such as capacity utilization, it is very safe to say that our previous 2009 demand projections (see our August 14th ‘Dirty Little Secret’ piece here on Seeking Alpha) are too high and future adjustments to our demand model will be to reduce estimated demand going forward.

Sticking to basics

The one bill that consumers will do everything they can to pay is their utility bill. Most people can't do without their electricity or natural gas. I previously wrote about the high yielding electric utilities; here is a list of the top natural gas utilities with high yields.

Amerigas Partners (APU) is a retail propane distributor structured as a limited partnership. The stock has a forward P/E of 10.9 and a yield of 8.6%.

Nevada is more than Las Vegas. Its banking and finance industries are very strong, as is also the construction industry, but there is yet a lot more. Check out the following interesting facts:

1. Nevada is a state without usury limits, which has attracted many credit card companies to establish in the state.
2. After California, Nevada produces the most geothermal energy in the nation.
3. Nevada produces about 10% of the world’s gold supply.
4. Nevada has no corporate income tax.
5. No franchise tax
6. The state has no personal income tax.
7. There is no state tax.
8. Nevada permits one-individual corporations.
9. There are more than 300,000 companies incorporated in the state of Nevada.
10. The state does not require that the directors of a company be stockholders.

The following companies have market caps of over $1 billion, and are headquartered in Nevada:

Many traders use a technique called dividend buying, which is the buying of stocks before they go ex-dividend and selling shortly after the ex-dividend date at roughly the same price, but receiving the dividend. This technique generally works only during a bull market. You may also want to check out the definitions of the various dividend dates.

There are over 30 stocks going ex-dividend in mid August. The following stocks all have market caps over $500 million, and yields over 1%. Several stocks have yields over 4%.

Southwest Gas Corp. (SWX)

Q4 2007 Earnings Call

Toll Brothers (TOL) and KB Home (KBH): Cramer predicts that housing has bottomed and that things will look brighter for the sector since analysts seem to have a bearish "pack mentality." He suggests taking advantage of this negativity buy picking up KBH as it prepares for Friday's earnings report which will confound analysts' dire predictions.

Data in table version -- click on a ticker for opinion and analysis of the company: