Salary.com has set its IPO terms, and this is one we noted back in November. The company has set its indicated terms at 5 million shares for $8.00 to $10.00 per share.
We noted the filing back in November, and it isn’t as though it is a dud but it is hard to see exactly how this will be a huge win. Here is the backgrounder on it.
We’ll have to see how it comes out before making final judgements, but it doesn’t exactly seem like the type you’d want to have your retirement funds in.
Jon C. Ogg
This is a brief review that will direct you to Cramer’s comments this last week, although this is a shortened list. This is a re-run of yesterday morning’s article in case you missed it, so if you read yesterday’s article it hasn’t changed.
Forget the order of the days. He made a huge tech call that wasvery controversial all week, and this was his largest impact call in awhile. Cramer says dump tech for a while, but he does have 5 safe names for the environment. He did give a brief preview on his site and the writing was on the wall. The day before he murdered tech he went over IT outsourcing names and declared Infosys (INFY) and Accenture (ACN) as the winners. He was already leaning out against tech before the big call, but it wasn’t suggestive of the call that he would later make.
Cramer interviewed the CEO of Chipotle, and he wants you in it. Cramer also interviewed GlobalSantaFe (GSF) and likes it. Cramer has some boring yield picks as alternatives to bonds. Cramer previews AeroViroment’s IPO next week with a game plan. He believes the Deutsche Bank call for a Triad (TRI) buyout.
He has a sell list of some of his old picks, plus an apology over Coldwater Creek (CWTR). He’s still saying buy Genentech (DNA). He thinks you should keep an eye on WCI.
A couple of my BAIT SHOP watch names were discussed by Cramer as potential takeovers by Bank of America (BAC).
If you would like further updates to our free private email listregarding the BAIT SHOP for buyout candidates and other special situation investingplease send an email to jonogg@247wallst.comand title the email SUBSCRIBE. We value privacy and do not share ouremail lists with any third parties. If you already signed up and didnot get an email this week it is possible that filters screened itout and some email addresses are not immediately added to the list.
I will be updating the performance of his top 9 picks for 2007: 3 value, 3 growth, and 3 speculative at the end of the month. Here is that list if you were out and away at the beginning of the year.
Jon C. Ogg
It appears that Google (GOOG) will be buying AdScape Media which delivers ads so that they can be viewed within video games. Google has already announced plans for brokering ads into newspapers and radio using the targeting capacity it has developed for search engine text advertising.
Google’s moves into video games and other media could be viewed as a plan to fashion a larger footprint in the media buying market. But, its is also probably an unspoken acknowledgment that the the Internet text advertising business is not longer growing as fast as it was a year ago.
Google’s expansion may actually be masking a contraction.
Douglas A. McIntyre can be reached at douglasamcintyre@247wallst.com. He does not own securities in companies that he writes about.
The folks at ThinkEquity believe that TI (TXN) is in for better days. They slapped an "accumulate" on the shares after carrying them as a "sell". The reason given was that TI’s analog chip business should be getting better. ThinkEquity admits that the TI cell phone chip business is going to be rough for a long time. But, the research firm’s sources say that the analog chip pick-up is broad and sustained. They put a new price target of $30 on the stock. It already trades above $28.
Almost any other research firm on Wall St. with an opinion on TI is worried about the stock. Stifel Nicolaus thinks TI’s gross margins are down. Cathay Financial thinks that weakness in hand set chips is continuing into 2007. And, Lehman Bros. has cut its earnings estimates for the big chip firm. Part of Lehman’s analysis is that the analog business at TI is still "challenging".
Someone is right here and someone is wrong.
TI has two strikes on it. One is that it competes with Qualcomm (QCOM) in the handset chip market. QCOM has seen better days, but it has formidable market share in the handset market. In addition to that, almost no one thinks that handset giants Nokia (NOK) and Motorola (MOT) will do well in 2007. Margins are dropping because the demand for phones tends to be in emerging markets where cheap is better. Cheaper phones, cheaper chips.
Analog may do OK for TI. But, it can’t beat the devil. The handset market is in for some rough quarters.
Douglas A. McIntyre can be reached at douglasamcintyre@247wallst.com. He does not own securities in companies that he writes about.
Marketing firms Landor Associates and Penn Schoen & Berland have come out with their annual study of how consumers think certain major brands performed in 2006 and were likely to do in 2007.
This list points out the disparity between perceptions of brands and how well the brand companies do, at least in the stock market.
The first brand on the list is an exception. Google (GOOG) was ranked as the hottest brand of 2006 and was predicted to be the hottest brand this year. No one what has owned the stock would argue. Another good match between a hot brand and a stock price is the iPod, which ranked very high. Apple’s (AAPL) share price had a nice move in 2006. But, in the cases of both Apple and Google, their big moves came before last year.
Perhaps the brand perception ls an indicator that a stock’s best move up is behind it.
Ebay (EBAY) and Yahoo! (YHOO) are both on the 2006 list and make it for 2007 as well. Investors certainly wish that being high on the list would have saved them from large stock price declines over the course of last year. The same holds true for Amazon (AMZN) which made the cut of the 20 hottest brands. Sony (SNE) is on the list, too. That has not worked out too well for shareholders.
Making the top 20 list was not a disaster for all public company share prices. Verizon (VZ) is on the list and did well. The same holds true for Target (TGT). And Starbucks (SBUX).
But, brand performance and stock performance don’t match up in most cases.
End of lesson.
Douglas A. McIntyre can be reached at douglasamcintyre@247wallst.com. He does not own securities in companies that he writes about.
Mark Hurd, the CEO of Hewlett-Packard (HPQ), was asked by the House Energy and Commerce Committee why he had exercised options and sold stock on the same day as he was questioned by attorneys about the HP board spying scandal. Hurd must have known that the company would have to make public disclosures about the incident. He is also clearly bright enough to know that those revelations could move the stock price.
Mr. Hurd’s response to the committee was that HP’s lawyers told him that the sales was OK. He said little, if anything, about the extent to which is applied his own reasoning abilities to the situation. Instead of saying that he was just following orders, he declared that he was just following advice.
It is an odd and hollow excuse that may well not satisfy the members of the House committee looking into the matter. It is not likely to close the matter for Mr. Hurd, either.
Douglas A. McIntyre can be reached at douglasamcintyre@247wallst.com. He does not own securities in companies that he writes about.
Below are the largest short positions and changes in short positions for stocks traded on the NYSE. The data for January is as of January 12, 2007 as compared to December 12, 2006.
Largest Short Positions
Ford Motor (F) 175 million shares up 30 million
Qwest (Q) 130 million shares up 17 million
TimeWarn TWX) 86 million shares up 7 million
LSI (LSI) 65 million shares up 14 million
GM (GM) 58 million shares up 7 million
Exxon (XOM) 50 million shares down 8 million
Pfizer (PFE) 45 million shares down 6 million
AT&T (T) 44 million shares down 115 million
Disney (DIS) 44 million shares down 1 million
Rite Aid (RAD) 42 million shares up 3 million
Halliburton (HAL) 41 million shares down 3 million
Interpublic (IPG) 39 million shares up 3 million
EMC (EMC) 38 million shares flat
Verizon (VZ) 38 million shares down 4 million
Merck (MRK) 35 million shares up 3 million
Wal-Mart (WMT) 35 million shares up 3 million
Hewltt-Pckrd (HPQ) 35 million shares up 5 million
Largest Changes Up
Ford (F) up 30 million
Qwest (Q) up 17 million
LSI (LSI) up 14 million
TimeW (TWX) up 8 million
GM (GM) up 7 million
Hewltt-Pckrd (HPQ) up 5 million
Largest Changes Down
AT&T (T) down 115 million
Exxon (XOM) down 8 million
CVS (CVS) down 7 million
Pfizer (PFE) down 6 million
Sprint (S) down 5 million
Data from Barron’s and NYSE
Douglas A. McIntyre
This is a brief review that will direct you to Cramer’s comments this last week, although this is a shortened list.
Forget the order of the days. He made a huge tech call that was very controversial all week, and this was his largest impact call in a while. Cramer says dump tech for a while, but he does have 5 safe names for the environment. He did give a brief preview on his site and the writing was on the wall. The day before he murdered tech he went over IT outsourcing names and declared Infosys (INFY) and Accenture (ACN) as the winners. He was already leaning out against tech before the big call, but it wasn’t suggestive of the call that he would later make.
Cramer interviewed the CEO of Chipotle, and he wants you in it. Cramer also interviewed GlobalSantaFe (GSF) and likes it. Cramer has some boring yield picks as alternatives to bonds. Cramer previews AeroViroment’s IPO next week with a game plan. He believes the Deutsche Bank call for a Triad (TRI) buyout.
He has a sell list of some of his old picks, plus an apology over Coldwater Creek (CWTR). He’s still saying buy Genentech (DNA). He thinks you should keep an eye on WCI.
A couple of my BAIT SHOP watch names were discussed by Cramer as potential takeovers by Bank of America (BAC).
If you would like further updates to our free private email listregarding the BAIT SHOP for buyout candidates and other special situation investingplease send an email to jonogg@247wallst.comand title the email SUBSCRIBE. We value privacy and do not share ouremail lists with any third parties. If you already signed up and didnot get an email this week it is possible that filters screened itout and some email addresses are not immediately added to the list.
I will be updating the performance of his top 9 picks for 2007: 3 value, 3 growth, and 3 speculative at the end of the month. Here is that list if you were out and away at the beginning of the year.
Stock Tickers: DELL, CSCO, IACI, FO, VIA, CBS, CMCSA, CMCSK, NWS
This week I composed a list of highly entrenched corporate leaders, and it is the first of a multi-part series. Because of by-laws or because of multiple voting classes or just because certain CEO’s are that valuable, there are certain corporate insiders entrenched inside companies for literally as long as they want to be. Some don’t even have a majority of the shares, but they are the face of a company and the company might look entirely different without them.
When investors make decisions they are usually betting on a strong horse, but there are many companies where an investment is much more on the jockey than it is on the horse. This is no call for an ouster by any means, and most of these companies could suffer serious setbacks if the leader left the company. There is no higher or lower ranking by the order here at all, and the full articles can be accessed by clicking on the names.
Norman Wesley, Chairman & CEO of Fortune Brands (FO)
Fortune Brands has seen a range-bound stock over the last year, but their corporate figurehead is a huge plus for the company.
Michael Dell, Chairman of Dell Inc. (DELL)
No shareholder would want to see him leave. Period.
John Chambers, Chairman & CEO of Cisco Systems (CSCO)
So what if he says "caysh-flow," he has proved critics wrong. Even after the tech bubble burst in 2000 the stock drop was never blamed on him. He has orchestrated more future technology acquisitions than "secret government agencies." He’s there as long as he wants to be.
Barry Diller, Chairman & CEO of IAC/Interactive (IACI)
Many complained about the massive pay package last year, but investors have done well and he acts 20 years younger than his age when it comes to energy in being a dealmaker.
Rupert Murdoch, Chairman & CEO of News Corp. (NWS)
Could someone imagine what News Corp. would look like if Murdoch announced it was time to open up the company?
Brian Roberts, Chairman & CEO of Comcast (CMCSA)
As it has been one of the best performing media stocks out there in 2006, it would be hard to imagine who would even challenge him.
Sumner Redstone, Chairman of Viacom (VIA) and CBS Corp. (CBS)
He has been pulling out the chainsaw over key employees not doing deals, even though the resources may not be available. Some have said he is hard to work for, but trying to get an immediate replacement and trying to absorb all the shares he owns in trust would probably just let the other media companies swarm in as vultures.
There is also a brief background post ahead of this as well, because the articles would be too long to include a pre-set guideline on each one.
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