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GM Buys AmeriCredit, Taking $11.40 From Every American (ACF)

Administrator — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 13:42:38 +0000

General Motors must think that doing big deals after taxpayer bailouts does not apply to it in the new normal. Will buying a finance company really help it meet customer demand for leasing and non-prime financing for GM vehicles? The government-owned company just announced that it will acquire AmeriCredit Corp. (NYSE: ACF) in an all-cash transaction valued at about $3.5 billion. AmeriCredit shareholders will receive $24.50 in cash for each share of stock held as of the transaction closing date, which is expected in Q4-2010.

AmeriCredit is best-known for non-prime financing, which is the Street term for low credit score lending. This is a business that GM could have replicated without spending $3.5 billion.

Chairman and CEO Ed Whitacre noted, “Adding AmeriCredit to our team will improve our competitiveness in auto financing offerings…” GM feels this will give it a more complete range of financing options. After the deal closes, AmeriCredit intends to re-enter the leasing business and GM notes that this will provide expanded leasing availability for all GM customers.

AmeriCredit has relationships with about 4,000 GM dealers and it will continue to offer our loan products to more than 11,000 dealers across the country. AmeriCredit management will remain in place. The company has total assets of about $10 billion.

The boards of directors have approved the deal, but the vote will still be required by shareholders. The prior 52-week trading range is $13.48 to $26.49, and shares are up 22% at $24.03 on more than 10 million shares at the open.

This feels like a huge double-standard. GM was bailed out by the government and by taxpayers. The company went into bankruptcy. It plans to relaunch via an IPO soon. And now it wants to spend $3.5 billion to acquire a finance company that almost brings back the realm of certain aspects of GMAC and all the extended financing it had.

AmericCredit was a $30 stock less than 5-years ago and far higher before then. Some AmeriCredit shareholders may want a higher price. It won’t take too long for the law firms to file their “exploring” press releases over whether to file class action suits.

Imagine if this was a bank that was still on shaky ground doing this deal…. This just feels like a huge double-standard. Oh well, with roughly 307 million Americans, $3.5 billion means that GM is only using $11.40 per US citizen to do this acquisition.

JON C. OGG

Filed under: Autos, Banking, Financial Stocks, Mergers and Buy Outs Tagged: ACF

Top Day Trader Alerts (ACF, GDOT, ISRG, MLNX, NFLX, NOK, SWI)

Administrator — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 13:08:59 +0000

There are many stocks on the move this morning, most of which are tied to earnings. The top day trader alerts and active trader alerts are being seen so far in AmeriCredit Corp. (NYSE: ACF), Green Dot Corp. (NASDAQ: GDOT), Intuitive Surgical, Inc. (NASDAQ: ISRG), Mellanox Technologies, Ltd. (NASDAQ: MLNX), Netflix, Inc. (NASDAQ: NFLX), Nokia Corporation (NYSE: NOK), and SolarWinds, Inc. (NYSE: SWI). We have offered news or links to more detail on the news.

AmeriCredit Corp. (NYSE: ACF) is soaring after GM is paying $3.5 billion to acquire the auto-loan provider. Shares are up 22% at $24.09 on over 3.5 million shares.

Green Dot Corp. (NASDAQ: GDOT) priced its IPO at $36.00, above the $32.00 to $35.00 indicated price range. This will be its debut, with a thin float.

Intuitive Surgical, Inc. (NASDAQ: ISRG) beat earnings but shares are lower on its outlook for sales of the Da Vinci robotic system. Shares are down 4.3% at $302.50 versus $165.28 to $393.92 over the last year.

Mellanox Technologies, Ltd. (NASDAQ: MLNX) is one of the worst this morning with almost a 20% drop on active trading.

Netflix, Inc. (NASDAQ: NFLX) is getting hit after revenues failed to generate any buzz and it issued guidance very conservative guidance. The business is growing handily, but no upside was given. Shares are down 8.3% at $109.66 on over 100,000 shares.

Nokia Corporation (NYSE: NOK) is trading up 6% on very heavy volume on lackluster reports.

SolarWinds, Inc. (NYSE: SWI) was a huge earnings disappointment and we have seen 3 analyst downgrades in the name so far for the enterprise information technology management software company. Shares are down 17.7% at $13.60 on almost 100,000 shares. The 52-week range WAS $15.58 to $24.95.

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JON C. OGG

Filed under: Pre-Market Activity, Trading Alert Tagged: ACF, GDOT, ISRG, MLNX, NFLX, NOK, SWI

Top Analyst Upgrades & Downgrades (AFL, ACF, BCS, DELL, D, FDX, HES, LULU, NICE, PGI, THC, UPS)

Administrator — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 12:09:41 +0000

These are some of the top analyst research calls with upgrades, downgrades, and initiations seen from Wall Street firms this Thursday morning:

AFLAC Incorporated (NYSE: AFL) Raised to Outperform at KBW.
AmeriCredit Corp. (NYSE: ACF) Raised to Outperform at KBW.
Barclays plc (NYSE: BCS) Lowered targets by RBS.
Dell Inc. (NASDAQ: DELL) Raised to Buy at UBS.
Dominion Resources, Inc. (NYSE: D) Raised to Equal Weight at Morgan Stanley.
FedEx Corp. (NYSE: FDX) Raised to Buy at UBS.
Hess Corp. (NYSE: HES) Cut to Equal Weight at Morgan Stanley.
Lululemon Athletica Inc. (NASDAQ: LULU) Raised to Outperform at Baird.
Nice Systems Limited (NASDAQ: NICE) Raised to Outperform at Morgan Keegan.
Premiere Global Services, Inc. (NYSE: PGI) Raised to Outperform at Morgan Keegan.
Tenet Healthcare Corporation (NYSE: THC) Raised to Outperform at Wells Fargo.
United Parcel Service (NYSE: UPS) Raised to Buy at UBS.

JON C. OGG

Filed under: Analyst Calls Tagged: ACF, AFL, BCS, D, DELL, FDX, HES, LULU, NICE, PGI, THC, UPS

Leucadia Holdings More Like Buffett’s Alter Ego (LUK, BRK-B, ACF, CSWC, ENWV, IAAC, JEF, SMCG, TA)

Administrator — Thu, 13 May 2010 16:17:03 +0000

Leucadia National Corp. (NYSE: LUK) is generally touted as one of the baby Berkshires…. meaning it is treated along the same lines as Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE: BRK-B) and Warren Buffett. The problem is that Leucadia has a far, far different mix of holdings. AmeriCredit Corp. (NYSE: ACF) and Jefferies Group Inc. (NYSE: JEF) are its two giant public stakes, but there are some other interesting takes in here.

The public company stakes in the U.S. are as follows:

AmeriCredit Corp. (NYSE: ACF) 33,900,440 shares.
Capital Southwest Corporation (NASDAQ: CSWC) 19,776 shares.
Endwave Corp. (NASDAQ: ENWV) 70,000 shares; shares up over 9% today.
International Assets Holding Corporation (NASDAQ: IAAC) 1,384,985 shares.
Jefferies Group Inc. (NYSE: JEF) 48,585,385 shares.
Millennium India Acquisition Company Inc. (NASDAQ: SMCG) 120,000 shares; stock up over 30% on this today.
TravelCenters of America LLC (NYSE: TA) 275,308 shares.

This is a very eclectic mix for a company often thought of as a mini-Berkshire or Buffett mirror. If anything, this might be a more like “Buffett’s alter ego” on the surface. The company has operations in manufacturing (Idaho Timber), telecom (STi Prepaid), land based contract oil and gas drilling Keen Energy), property management and services (ResortQuest International), gaming entertainment (Premier Entertainment Biloxi), real estate activities (various), medical product development (Sangart, Inc.-hemoglobin) and it even lists winery operations (Pine Ridge, Archery Summit, Chamisal Vineyards, and development project).

As far as what else is there, Lecadia has its hands in many operations. It has the JHYH venture with Jefferies which makes markets in high yield and special situation securities and provides research coverage on these types of securities.

The company’s investment in Fortescue and its subsidiary, FMG Chichester Pty Ltd., consists of 247,986,000 common shares (about 8% o outstanding shares) and a $100,000,000 note of FMG that matures in August 2019.

Non-current available for sale investments include 5,600,000 common shares of Inmet Mining Corporation in Canada (“IMN-TSX”) with a cost of $78,000,000 and carrying values of $325,500,000.

This morning came a filing that was as follows: Asset Put Agreement by and among Berkadia III, LLC (now known as Berkadia Commercial Mortgage LLC), Capmark Finance Inc., Capmark Capital Inc., and Capmark Financial Group Inc. and, with respect to Sections 2.5, 10.5, 10.7, 10.11, 10.16 and 10.17 only, Leucadia National Corporation and Berkshire Hathaway Inc. dated as of September 2, 2009… FULL DETAILS

Leucadia shares are down almost 0.5% at $24.30 on only 150,000 shares right at Noon today. The 52-week trading range is $18.00 to $28.37 and the 52-week trading range is $5.91 billion. At the March 31 quarter, the total assets were listed as $6.988 billion versus total liabilities of $2.408 billion.

JON C. OGG

Filed under: Activist Investor, Buffett, Conglomerates, Insider Activity, Mutual Funds, Private Equity Tagged: ACF, BRK-B, CSWC, ENWV, IAAC, JEF, LUK, SMCG, TA

Top Pre-Market Analyst Downgrades (ACF, CLF, CVTX, PFE, SNY, THQI)

247wallst — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 08:08:13 +0000

These are some of the top analyst downgrades we have seen this Friday morning:

Americredit (ACF) Raised to Market Perform at FBR.
Cliff’s Natural resources (CLF) Cut to Market Perform at FBR.
CV Therapeutics (CVTX) Cut to Sell at Citigroup.
Pfizer Z(PFE) Started as Sell at Goldman Sachs.
Sanofi-Aventis (SNY) Cut to Sell at UBS.
THQ Inc. (THQI) Cut to Hold at Citigroup.

Jon C. Ogg
November 7, 2008

Posted in Analyst Calls Tagged: ACF, CLF, CVTX, PFE, SNY, THQI

High Volume Stock Tankers (GS, MS, DWT, CRDN, ACF, PRXL)

247wallst — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 10:42:22 +0000

We are seeing many high volume price drops in actively traded shares today. In most cases, the earnings are to blame, but there are other issues affecting some stocks as well. Goldman Sachs Group (NYSE: GS), Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS), Britannia Bulk Holdings Inc. (NYSE: DWT), AmeriCredit (NYSE: ACF), Ceradyne Inc. (NASDAQ: CRDN), and Paraxel International Corp. (NASDAQ: PRXL) are all being hit on strong trading volume. Below are links for a full synopsis on each.

Goldman Sachs Group (NYSE: GS) and Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) have beenbeaten and battered. Some of the drop is rumor, and some is tradersattacking what they can after determining their de-leveraged models arelikely to result in much lower income. FULL SYNOPSIS

Britannia Bulk Holdings Inc. (NYSE: DWT) looks like it is dead meat.The company got everything wrong from operations tohedges and gave a dire warning to common stock holders. Keep granny’smoney out. FULL SYNOPSIS

AmeriCredit (NYSE: ACF), Ceradyne Inc. (NASDAQ: CRDN), and ParaxelInternational Corp. (NASDAQ: PRXL) are all down sharply on earnings.FULL SYNOPSIS

Jon C. Ogg
October 28, 2008

Posted in HI/LOW, Trading Alert Tagged: ACF, CRDN, DWT, GS, MS, PRXL

Early Bird Analyst Upgrades & Downgrades (CHA, CHH, CMCSA, GOOG, ID, PAS, ACF, ERIC, NCC, NWS, NOK, PCTI, RAH, SHW)

247wallst — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 06:37:36 +0000

These are some of the top pre-market analyst upgrades and downgrades we are seeing from Wall Street firms this Tuesday morning with more than two hours to the open:

China Telecom (CHA) Raised to Buy at UBS.
Choice Hotels (CHH) Raised To Neutral From Underweight at JPMorgan.
Comcast (CMCSA) Started as Outperform at Credit Suisse.
Google (GOOG) Started as Outperform at Credit Suisse.
L-1 Identity Solutions (ID) Raised to Neutral from Underweight at JPMorgan.
PepsiAmericas (PAS) Raised to Buy at UBS.

AmeriCredit (ACF) Cut to Underperform at KBW.
Ericsson (ERIC) Cut to Sell at Goldman Sachs.
National City (NCC) Cut to Market Perform at KBW.
News Corp. (NWS) Cut to Neutral at Credit Suisse.
Nokia (NOK) Cut to Sell at Goldman Sachs.
PC-Tel (PCTI) Cut to Neutral at Baird.
Ralcorp Holdings (RAH) Cut to Neutral at Credit Suisse.
Sherwin-Williams (SHW) Cut to Neutral at JPMorgan.

Jon C. Ogg
October 28, 2008

Posted in Analyst Calls Tagged: ACF, CHA, CHH, CMCSA, ERIC, GOOG, ID, NCC, NOK, NWS, PAS, PCTI, RAH, SHW