bsharvy

E*Trade: Very Undervalued

Um, hello.... leveraged 50:1 by tangible assets.

Elephant in the room....

E*Trade: Very Undervalued

The balance sheet is a mess, particularly if you focus on tangible book value. The company attributes $2 Billion in equity to goodwill. It is currently priced well above its tangible book value per share. It is leveraged a whopping 50:1 based on tangible assets.

Gross profit is very good relative to market cap. It may be a undervalued, but you have to gauge value relative to risk. How stable are its assets?

BTW, anybody know why Yahoo is reporting negative revenue? It seems to be a glitch.

The Most Expensive US Market Of All Time

The PE of the US market is around 20, not 27.

Is China Really Such a Great Investment?

Country Yield PE Ratio
Japan 2.1 30.4
India 1.0 22.8
USA 1.9 19.0
China 2.6 16.9
UK 3.4 12.1
Brazil 3.5 11.8
Russia 1.2 7.1

Interesting that the UK is so cheap.

Disclosure: Short Japan (with EWV)

Retail Firms at Risk for Bankruptcy

This article just repeats another article that was "published" last week. Sometimes I wonder what the SA editors do.

The list appear to be nothing but the results of a screener. It's really kind of silly to treat screener results as news.

A few days after this list, which includes MYL, was published, S&P boosted its rating of MYL:

"NEW YORK (AP) -- Standard & Poor's Ratings Services upgraded ratings on Mylan Inc., citing the drug developer's move to repay debt and improved margins.

S&P boosted its corporate credit rating on the Canonsburg, Pa.-based company to "BB" from "BB-." S&P also raised the senior secured rating to "BB+" from "BB," both of which are non-investment grade. The senior unsecured rating was raised to "BB-," from "B+." Also, the preferred stock rating moved up to "B" from "B-." All of the ratings are non-investment grade.

S&P said the outlook for the company is stable, based on improving operating performance that will likely be sustained.

"The upgrade of Mylan reflects its improved operating performance over the past year, success in integrating the Merck KGaA's generic business, significant reduction in leverage, and strong liquidity,"

Harman (HAR) Sounds Great

My recommendation: short at $32.50. Forget the stop-loss. Analysts are by no means enthusiastic about this stock. Credit Suisse rates it a sell. S&P rates it a sell. According to Yahoo, the forward PE is over 20. It has a fair amount of debt.

Grantham: Expect 11% Annual Return from Quality U.S. Equities, Outperformance from Emerging Market Bonds

Does he provide any criteria for identifying "high quality" equities? He distinguishes it from large-cap....

Friedman Industries: Ugly and Undervalued

Excellent article. Factually interesting and analytically convincing.

Renewed M&A Activity Boosts Profits of Some Financials, But Goldman Still Lags Morgan

GDL is another way to bet on an increase in mergers/acquistions.

Johnson & Johnson: A Buy on Early Expansion Weakness

What do you mean by "the balance sheet is unleveraged"? JNJ has debts.

20 Companies Most Likely to Go Bankrupt in Next Year

Ah, here's the source, that actually provides some vestige of reasoning:

finance.yahoo.com/tech...

They are just dividing the market cap by enterprise value. A stupid indicator of bankruptcy, since it doesn't even consider cash flow...

I thought seekingalpha had editors. What's the point of republishing something that is 1) simplistic and dumb, and 2) Yahoo has already published with more detail?

20 Companies Most Likely to Go Bankrupt in Next Year

Why was this article even published? It offers no analysis, no interesting facts...nothing but an assertion by some entity named "Audit Integrity." It's hard to see how Mylan could be anywhere near bankruptcy. It's current ratio is good, its free cash flow is good, its expected earnings are good. Is there any way to respond to this article other than just contradicting it?

Dick Fuld: My Part in His Smouldering Resentment

Fuld didn't do anything everybody else didn't do. So he was greedy, big deal. He misclaculated. So? Are we supposed to believe all those Americans who bought million-dollar homes on salaries of $45,000/year with no down payment hoping to flip them a year later were motivated by humility? Quit your pathetic whining. Fuld mostly played by the rules, and "mostly" play by the rules is what Wall Street does. It's the politicians who made the rules that allowed a financial crisis, and both the bankers and the general public who drooled their way into the crisis. The public got greedy, the public got burned, and now the crybaby public wants to blame everybody but itself. Grow up and leave Fuld alone.

CEF Investors Can't Expect Big Year-End Payouts

Yes, please check the facts. Dividends from CEF's are usually "ordinary" not "qualified." All HQL dividends last year were "ordinary." I own HQL; I pay attention.

CEF Investors Can't Expect Big Year-End Payouts

I don't think CEF distributions are ever "qualified", since the CEF doesn't pay taxes on them. All of HQL's dividends for the last year have been "ordinary."