24/7 Wall St. » ALD

Insiders Still Face Margin Calls (ALD, EXR, PDFS, TLB, TXCO)

247wallst — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 12:02:58 +0000

Margin calls from corporate insiders to pay personal obligations are still coming, although last week’s pace into this week does not look as severe as in prior periods we have covered. We have seen such filings from Allied Capital Corp. (NYSE: ALD), Extra Space Storage Inc. (NYSE: EXR), PDF Solutions Inc.’s (NASDAQ: PDFS), Talbots Inc. (NYSE: TLB), and TXCO Resources Inc. (NASDAQ: TXCO). These are likely only some of the insider sales that have gone throughas a result of the margin calls. As you can imagine, these rarelyoccur because things are going so well.

We have prepared these in alphabetical order, and you will probably besurprised at just how low some of the dollar amounts are in some ofthese margin calls.

Allied Capital Corp. (NYSE: ALD) director Robert Long has had aninvoluntary stock sale of 5,281 common shares at an average price ofabout $3.88. This is merely a total of about $20,491…. and Longdirectly held 15,005 shares after the sale.

Last week, Extra Space Storage Inc. (NYSE: EXR) Chairman and CEO,Kenneth M. Woolley, voluntarily sold 350,000 shares of the Company’scommon stock. While it was voluntary rather than involuntary, it wasnoted that proceeds were used to partially pay down the outstandingbalance on a margin loan secured by Mr. Woolley’s common shares. Whilethese sales were noted as being related to certain contractualobligations, it was also noted that there had been no default or margincall. This sale amount was roughly 15% of his total holdings.

Last week, PDF Solutions Inc. (NASDAQ: PDFS) VP Andre Hawit hadinvoluntary sales of 112,608 company shares at sale prices of $2.44 to$2.58 to meet a margin call. Hawit reported selling 67,477 shares onthat prior Monday for $177,998 to meet a margin call. It looks like hestill beneficially owned 653,194 shares after this last sale.

Last Friday, Talbots Inc. (NYSE: TLB) President & CEO TrudySullivan involuntarily sold 51,005 pledged shares to satisfy marginrequirements under a credit line. Sullivan appears to have pledged theshares as collateral against a loan with a financial institution.Sullivan appears to own 336,500 restricted shares and 108,333 vestedstock options and 292,767 unvested stock options, but it appears thatno additional shares held by Sullivan in Talbot’s are subject to pledge.

TXCO Resources Inc. (NASDAQ: TXCO) director Jon Muckleroy sold 5,000shares at $3.06 for a total gross proceeds of $15,300.00… to covermargin calls. He still holds direct ownership of 93,000 company sharesand indirect ownership of 117,000 shares. While this is a very smalldollar amount, this stock has lost some 75% over the last six weeks.

There was a much larger list of margin calls; Stock Tickers: AIV, BSX, CPE, CHK, DNR, LTM, PROV, PHM, SPA, STRL, WSM.

If the markets keep doing anything at all like they have been, get used to these margin calls against corporate insiders. There will be more.

Jon C. Ogg
November 19, 2008

Posted in Insider Activity Tagged: ALD, EXR, PDFS, TLB, TXCO

Top Pre-Market Analyst Upgrades (ALD, ADM, DLTR, MON, SINA, WFC)

247wallst — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 06:33:12 +0000

These are some of the top upgrades we have seen this Monday morning with about 2 hours until the open:

Allied Capital (ALD) Raised to Neutral at JPMorgan.
Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) Started as JPMorgan.
Dollar Tree Stores (DLTR) Raised to Overweight at JPMorgan.
Monsanto (MON) Raised to Overweight at JP Morgan.
Sina Corp. (SINA) Raised to Overweight at JPMorgan.
Wells Fargo (WFC) Raised to Market Perform at KBW.

Jon C. Ogg
October 6, 2008

Posted in Analyst Calls Tagged: ADM, ALD, DLTR, MON, SINA, WFC

Top 10 Pre-Market Analyst Calls (ALD, T, BA, NDAQ, NNI, PBT, RL, RGC, TIBX, WINN)

247wallst — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 06:11:36 +0000

These are not all of the calls we are seeing in pre-market coverage, but these are ten of the calls impacting shares this Wednesday morning:

Allied Capital (NYSE: ALD) Started as Underweight at JPMorgan.
AT&T (NYSE: T) raised to Outperform at Bernstein.
Boeing (NYSE: BA) Cut to Sell from Neutral at Goldman Sachs.
NASDAQ OMX (NASDAQ: NDAQ) Raised to Buy from Neutral at Piper Jaffray.
Nelnet (NYSE: NNI) Raised to Outperform at FBR.
Permian Basin Royalty Trust (NYSE: PBT) Raised to Buy from Hold at Citigroup.
Polo Ralph Lauren (NYSE: RL) Raised to Market Perform from Underperform at Morgan Keegan.
Regal Entertainment (NYSE: RGC) Raised to Outperform at BMO Capital.
Tibco Software (NASDAQ: TIBX) Raised to Overweight at JPMorgan.
Winn-Dixie (NASDAQ: WINN) Raised to Outperform from Market Perform at FBR.

Jon C. Ogg
June 25, 2008

Blackstone Expedites IPO Date (BX)

247wallst — Tue, 19 Jun 2007 09:32:28 +0000

Blackstone Group LP (BX-NYSE) is now expecting to price its IPO on this Thursday evening for a Friday trade date, one week earlier than originally planned. The company has apparently ended the road show on more than enough demand for its shares. The good news is that this means all that negative publicity and all of the preemptive tax issues are not killing the stock. This is also probably to stem all of the pre-IPO coverage around the company itself rather a key individual who keeps staying in the media.

The IPO is expected to be in the $4 Billion area raised as the company is selling roughly a 12% stake in partnership units at an indicated price of $29.00 to $31.00. Last week we made a note that the press media giving near-Tabloid coverage to it could affect valuations and could even impact the timing. Perhaps this will curb that notion.

Depending on how this is received, you are likely to see more private equity firms and hedge funds come public later this summer. The only ‘recent’ IPO even close to this was the earlier IPO for Fortress Investment Group LLC (FIG-NYSE). There are many other private equity and public investment firms that have been public for some time, and here is a list if you would like to review: American Capital Strategies (ACAS-NASDAQ), Allied Capital Corp (ALD-NYSE), Apollo Investment Corp (AINV-NASDAQ), and more.

Jon C. Ogg
June 19, 2007

Jon Ogg can be reached at jonogg@247wallst.com; he does not own securities in the companies he covers.

Blackstone IPO Terms Set

247wallst — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 10:14:33 +0000

The Blackstone Group L.P. has set its IPO terms for its 133,333,334 million limited partnership units in an initial range of $29.00 to $31.00 per unit. These are units rather than ‘shares’ because of the limited partner structure. Its units will trade under the ticker "BX"on the New York Stock Exchange. This also sets the final terms with the People’s Republic of China’s "State Investment Company" prior $3 billion stake of non-voting common units at a purchase price per common unit equal to 95.5% of the initial public offering price in this offering. The number of non-voting common units purchased by the State Investment Company will be reduced if necessary so that its equity interest in Blackstone remains under 10%.

A 20 million unit overallotment has been granted to underwriters, and at the high-end of the offering it would generate a $4.753+ Billion offering. Morgan Stanley and Citigroup are the lead underwriters with co-managers listed as Merrill Lynch, Credit Suisse, Lehman Brothers, and Deutsche Bank. This private equity and public equity manager has rapidly grown in recent years, as you can tell by its assets under management: $13.3 Billion in 2000, $27.0 Billion in 2003, $69.5 Billion in 2006, and $88.37 Billion as of current assets under management as of May 1, 2007.

Its 2006 revenues were $1.12 Billion plus gains of $7.587 Billion, and net income was listed as $2.266 Billion for the year. After this offering and based on the mid-point pricing of $30.00 Blackstone is indicated to have a market capitalization in excess of $32.5 Billion.

As far as some size differences, you can see Blackstone will be the horse of the public private equity, hedge fund, and alternative investment vehicles in the US: Fortress Investment Group, LLC (FIG-NYSE) $11.1 Billion market cap; American Capital Strategies (ACAS-NASDAQ) $7.8 Billion market cap; Allied Capital Corp. (ALD-NYSE) $4.9 Billion market cap. Franklin Resources (BEN-NYSE) has perhaps the highest market cap in mutual fund advisory and asset management of the public companies in its sector with a $34 Billion market cap, with traditional assets under management stated as $601 Billion.

Jon C. Ogg
June 4, 2007

Jon Ogg can be reached at jonogg@247wallst.com; he does not own securities in the companies he covers.