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Seared

bulrun, you're long just because of the manager. this isn't always a great idea, as people make mistakes. ie buffett made a huge mistake in buying berkshire hathaway. lampert made a pretty big mistake in buying citicorp just recently (amazing considering he worked for an investment bank and wouldve been thought to know how to value one). buffett bought BUD I think 3 or 4 years ago and that stock is now only about 40% higher today, which is like 10% annualized. he has held wmt also for about 3 years at least and that stock has gone almost nowhere. these guys are human and make mistakes.

lampert hasn't been able to do many, many things at shld. he hasn't been able to expand the store base, as far as I know. he hasn't been able to boost operating margins. the company has $50B of sales, and if you slap an industry average operating margin on that, this is a much more valuable company, but he just hasn't been able to do it.

can you come up with a reasonable independent valuation of the company far in excess of its current market value? Im obviously no expert, but I sure cant. i think the current valuation reasonable but not extremely cheap, but that's just my opinion