stonebluff

9 Comments

    • Why Is Occidental Petroleum Undervalued? [view article]
      Why do you think the buybacks will support OXY stock? Is there any evidence of that? Most writers say just what you say, but they never say how or why. As for PBR, I've done quite well, but these big new finds look years away from any return and huge drainers of cash in the meantime. Jun 03 12:47 PM
    • How to Invest in Norway [view article]
      I have found banks to be a pretty good country proxy. Doesn't Norway have any buyable bank shares? Oil being a commodity over whose prices no one seems to have control, it strikes me as a dubious proxy for any country that has anything other than oil. Jun 03 12:38 PM
    • Massey Energy: Continuing to Expand [view article]
      Shouldn't the huge judgment against them get a mention? May 25 08:17 PM
    • Industries to Avoid, Industries to Buy [view article]
      l. It's a little naive to suppose that it's harmful to the US for foreigners to buy property from us. I represented foreigners investing here for years, and usually they seemed to me to be overpaying. We Americans do a pretty good job of pricing our stuff.

      2. How can anyone think that the interposition of an insurance company between the patient and doctor or hospital do anything but add to the costs of medical care? The first thing we should do is make medical expenses deductible for income tax calculations again. Then we should recognized that we're all going to die. Then we should recognized that medical people are humans dealing with
      mechanisms of which they have little understanding. Then one can begin to discuss healthcare rationally.       May 13 11:30 AM
    • Petrobras: Poised for Growth [view article]
      The article is about PBR, not PZE. May 12 09:35 AM
    • Why You Should Short Companies Doing Share Buybacks [view article]
      There is an elemental flaw in the concept of buybacks. They reward exshareholders, not shareholders. Buybacks may make sense for closed end funds selling at a discount, and for other companies whose assets for whatever reason are discounted in the share price.

      Money is the capital of banks, brokers and insurance companies. When they buyback shares above tangible book they actually reduce their ability to do business. Otherwise they tend to be paying $2 for $1. I hope that the management of financial institutions that squandered their capital on buybacks and now are hustling capital on outrageous terms have learned their lesson. For banks and bank holding companies, at least, the regulators should enforce restraints on buybacks that may impair the business.

      Some S & P guys recently did a study(so I read) that purported to demonstrate that buybacks rarely helped the price of a company's stock. I wish someone would do a study demonstrating the effect of buybacks on financial institutions during the current mess.

      Buybacks are so generally treated as beneficial in the financial press that is seems almost heretical to call them into question. Sajaz' article is extremely timely because it makes one at least question the alleged benefits of buybacks.

      Does anyone compile a list of companies like LUK and BRK that as a matter of principle do not do buybacks? I'd like to see it.

      will remember that.Nobody except the management of the banks and insurance companies now trying to hustle new capital because they squandered their old capital on buybacks seems to believe that.       May 09 10:24 PM
    • General Discussion on NCC
      In my anger yesterday I said that NCC bought its shares in '07 at 5 times tangible book. It was over 2 times tangible book. But my point is the same. Its still dumb to pay $2 for $1. Apr 17 01:05 PM
    • National City Just a Victim of Its Industry [view article]
      It is idiotic for a banking institution EVER to buy its own shares at 5 times tangible book. I wrote NCC in protest at the time and got a "board in its infinite wisdom" reply. NCC was not alone, of course. Banks should by law be prohibited from buyingback their stock above tangible book without regulators permission and options of bank employees should never be exercisable at a price below book (I don't say tangible book here). This crisis would be minute by comparison had this rule been in place. They should take a bank like WFSL as their model. Apr 16 10:29 AM
    • M&T Bank a Bargain at Current Levels: Low P/E, Attractive Dividend Yield [view article]
      This writer's blogs are interesting, though I doubt the wisdom of automatic investing of dividends. If you've owned a stock a while you'll have a feel for when it's cheap. Why does Pravchaw think M&T's (or any bank's) buybacks at multiples of book and high multiples of tangible book are good for M&T or shareholders? They weaken the bank. They be good for the exshareholders who bail ou into buyback programs, but I cannot see how I, a continuing shareholder am benefited. Apr 07 12:14 PM
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