The semiconductors are viewed as being tied to the economy as a whole. – Kim Caughey, Senior Investment Analyst, Fort Pitt Capital Group Another piece of news that caught my attention yesterday was Advanced Micro Device’s (AMD), the semiconductor company,…
The US economy has continued to weaken, causing a reduction in domestic package volume and a shift away from premium products. – UPS Press Release, April 8 The piece of news that most caught my attention today was UPS (UPS), the delivery…
Washington Mutual (WM) announced this morning that they raised $7 billion from private equity firm TPG and other investors, including many of WaMu’s largest institutional shareholders (WM Press Release). The company sold approximately 176 million shares at $8.75 and 55,000…
Despite the challenges, the company’s solid fundamentals make the stock especially attractive for long-term investors. The shares are trading at a historic low multiple of about 12.5 times estimated fiscal 2009 earnings…. In more normal times, the stock trades at…
The big story of the day is JC Penney’s (JCP) announcement that first quarter earnings will be much less than they previously forecast: 50 cents vs. previous forecast of 75 to 80 cents (JCP Press Release). Also being talked about…
The big story today is the potential collapse of the LBO of Clear Channel Communications (CCU), the nation’s largest radio station owner (“Major Buyout Deal Is Close To Collapse” (subscription required), The Wall Street Journal, Wednesday March 26, A1). Private…
In retrospect, the writing was on the wall: JP Morgan has increased its offer for Bear Stearns to $10 a share in stock (0.21753 shares of JP Morgan for every share of Bear). In conjunction with the increased offer price,…
The last time an opportunity of this nature existed to buy banks stocks this cheap was in 1990. The next time will be in 20 years. This is a once-in-a-generation opportunity. – Dick Bove, Financials Analyst, Punk Ziegel, “The Financial…
Borders Group (BGP), the bookstore chain, reported earnings before the open this morning. In addition, they announced that they have retained JP Morgan and Merrill Lynch to explore strategic alternatives and have arranged a special $42.5 million financing arrangement with their…
For JPM, we view the key risk to be its own balance sheet liquidity, although most of the real risk on BSC’s balance sheet has been back stopped by the Fed, thereby exposing JPM to little real risk over the…