RailAmerica, Inc. (NYSE: RA) recently announced the redemption of $74 million in its remaining 9.25% notes due in 2017.  That is not enough to move the needle on a stock by much that is worth over $1 billion in market value.  What can move a stock this much is takeover chatter.  The Jacksonville Business Journal is quoting Trains Magazine noting that Fortress Investment Group LLC is looking to sell its majority stake in RailAmerica.

Warren Buffett was listed as on potential acquirer and RailAmerica has 45 individual railroad lines with approximately 7,500 miles of track throughout 28 states in America and another three Canadian provinces.

RailAmerica shares are up almost 6% at $22.81 against a 52-week trading range of $11.06 to $23.90.  Its market value is listed as $1.15 billion according to Yahoo! Finance.

Until news gets more concrete, we would only treat reports of this sort as a market rumor.

JON C. OGG

What is interesting here is that this suddenly makes the new portfolio management team at Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE: BRK-A)(NYSE: BRK-B) have to consider whether or not the “forever” time period applies to its relatively new investment here.

HealthCare Partners operates centers in Central Florida, Southern Nevada and also in Southern California. The outfit has just over 150 clinics, about 700 staff physicians, and it has a network comprised of over 8,300 doctors who operate independently. It provides and coordinates these services to over 667,000 managed care patients on a comprehensive capitated basis.

The terms of the deal call for DaVita to pay $3.66 billion in cash from its cash on hand and to borrow under its credit facility and to take on new debt.  The company also plans to issue almost 9.4 million shares valued at another $758 million or so before the dilution and there may be another $250 million or so in cash payments to partners if certain milestones are reached.

HealthCare Partners generated about $2.4 billion in sales and operating income was roughly $488 million in 2011.  DaVita generated $6.98 billion in sales with $1.13 billion in operating income in 2011.

Our question is whether or not this implies that DaVita is wanting to diversify further and further away from kidney care.  HealthCare Partners is called “a leader in multispecialty integrated and coordinated care delivery” and its website shows a much more general angle of care compared to DaVita.

Buffett’s most recent Berkshire Hathaway holdings shows in the filing that his 6 million shares were worth $90.17 at the March 31 cut-off date. DaVita shares are now down 1.8% at $79.35.

JON C. OGG

Ackman had pushed for replacing Green with Hunter Harrison, former CEO of Canadian National Railway Co. (NYSE: CNI), but following the coup Ackman now said not to expect a coronation, “We’re going to do a proper job, we’re going to meet all the candidates and do it the right way.”

Canadian Pacific’s problems, at least according to Ackman, are due to high operating costs and he wants to reduce those costs. Ackman’s stated goal is to lower CP’s operating ratio — that is cost as a percentage of revenue — from around 80% to 66%. That would match the operating ratio at Canadian National, Harrison’s former company. Most of the credit for CN’s success, however, is attributed to Harrison’s predecessor.

CP’s main problem is that it operates mainly in western Canada in a nasty climate with difficult topography. The company hauls mainly commodity minerals and is captive to swings in the market for those minerals. Lowering costs won’t be easy once the workforce is trimmed.

CP’s ability to compete with the likes of Union Pacific Corp. (NYSE: UNP), CSX Corp. (NYSE: CSX), Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNSF), owned by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE: BRK-A), and Norfolk Southern Corp. (NYSE: NSC) is dubious, given that CP is much smaller than any of these and that the only likely merger possibility is Kansas City Southern (NYSE: KSU). A potential merger between Canadian National and BNSF was squashed by regulators in 1999, so a tie-up with one of the larger railroads is unlikely.

What is likely is that Ackman has shaken up sleepy Canadian companies and shareholders. This was Canada’s first big, public battle over corporate direction and many observers believe that it’s just the beginning.

Who could be next? A good bet might by phone maker Research in Motion Ltd. (NASDAQ: RIMM) whose recent struggles are well documented.

CP did not get much of a share price boost yesterday, closing at $75.07 in a 52-week range of $44.74-$79.91. The stock is inactive in pre-market trading this morning.

Paul Ausick

News came on Thursday morning that Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE: BRK-B) (NYSE: BRK-A) has reached a deal with Media General, Inc. (NYSE: MEG) to buy all of Media General’s newspapers outside of the Tampa paper.  Buffett is joining a sector that has wrecked many private equity firms looking for deals over the last decade in printed news.  The price tag is listed as $142 million in cash, but Berkshire Hathaway will simultaneously issue a $400 million term loan and a $45 million revolving credit line.

Today’s news is likely to bring a focus on other newspaper outfits around the nation.  Some companies with high concentrations in newspapers are Gannett Co., Inc. (NYSE: GCI), The McClatchy Company (NYSE: MNI), Daily Journal Corp. (NASDAQ: DJCO), A. H. Belo Corporation (NYSE: BLC), Lee Enterprises Inc. (NYSE: LEE).

Berkshire Hathaway also owns 1.7 million shares of The Washington Post Company (NYSE: WPO), although Warren Buffett does not hold a board seat any longer.  Does it beg the question, “Does this increase or decrease the value of The New York Times Company (NYSE: NYT)?”…

Media General will also issue Berkshire Hathaway ‘penny warrants’ for approximately 4.6 million Class A shares and that will give Buffett the right to buy 19.9% of Media General’s existing shares outstanding. Berkshire Hathaway also has the option to nominate a director to Media General’s board of directors.

The newspaper sale includes websites and mobile applications and these outfits have commercial printing businesses as well.  These include 63 daily and weekly titles in Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Alabama.

Dare we say Buffett is back to his paper route he had as a teenager?  Mr. Buffett said, “In towns and cities where there is a strong sense of community, there is no more important institution than the local paper.  The many locales served by the newspapers we are acquiring fall firmly in this mold and we are delighted they have found a permanent home with Berkshire Hathaway.”

The move will allow Media General to focus on the broadcast television business, which accounted for some 77% of its 2011 platform cash flow in 2011.

Media General closed at $3.14 on Wednesday and its 52-week range is $1.14 to $6.84.  Its shares are indicated up about 40% around $4.75 in early indications.  With this newspaper and media outfit up so much, it may be safe to expect that other newspaper outfits could be worth more money than their battered shares indicate.

JON C. OGG

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) was a large gain by Appaloosa Management, with a gain of more than 500,000 shares up to 685,000 shares worth some $303 million. This of course was worth more in April. Farallon put up a new position of just over 192,000 worth some $116 million. Janus only lowered its stake by 0.5% and Apple is still its largest holding at over $3.8 billion, while Vanguard lifted its stake by about 5% worth over $23 billion.

Caesars Entertainment Corporation (NASDAQ: CZR) was a strange position on the surface, but easy to explain later. Paulson & Co. was shown to have lifted its stake to 12.37 million shares from NO SHARES at the end of 2011. The problem is that Paulson owned Caesars shares already before the IPO but it was not public before the end of 2011.

Computer Sciences Corporation (NYSE: CSC) was a 2.4 million share stake by Greenlight Capital (under David Einhorn) worth $72 million, and that was a new position. With an activism flare, maybe this can light some fire under what has been a dead tech-value stock. Another firm, Highbridge Capital Management LLC, added more than 1 million shares as a new position in the first quarter.

DaVita Inc. (NYSE: DVA) was a key addition of Warren Buffett’s Ted Weschler who grew his stake to 6,000,000 from almost 2.7 million shares. This was a doubling of the stake, but we would note that this stock has slid 10% since the end of the quarter. The overall position may be closer to break-even here, but this has a huge portion of the kidney dialysis market as of today.

Dollar General Corporation (NYSE: DG) was a surprise for us considering that we thought Warren Buffett’s new manager Todd Coombs would have added to this position rather than cutting it. Maybe the valuation premium just became too much. The March 31 stake was 3.63 million shares versus the 4.497 million shares at the end of 2011.

El Paso Corporation (NYSE: EP) saw more than one move higher. Farallon Capital added another 50% or so to end with 22.49 million shares worth $235 million in the first quarter; Paulson & Co. doubled its stake in the first quarter to 8 million shares worth over $118 million.

Encana Corporation (NYSE: ECA) is a standout because it looks small, but it is a good whale watching stock. BP Capital’s T. Boone Pickens initiated a new position of more than 1.13 million shares worth some $22.3 million.

Express Scripts Holding Co. (NASDAQ: ESRX) was a very large gain by Farallon Capital, where the position rose to over 5.65 million shares as of March 31 from only 1.17 million shares at the end of 2011. Paulson & Co. also doubled its stake in the first quarter to 3.24 million shares worth over $87 million shares. With the merger now closed, others have been looking at this despite Walgreen’s issues.

General Motors Co. (NYSE: GM) was another new position of 10 million shares worth more than $250 million. Frankly, we might have guess that Ford would have been chosen. Is it possible that this was a “politically motivated or influenced” as Buffett is such a supporter of Obama? That admittedly seems like a stretch, but if we were looking for auto exposure it would have probably been with Ford.

SIRIUS XM Radio Inc. (NASDAQ: SIRI) saw SAC Capital grow from only over 3 million shares at the end of 2011 to 98.2 million shares worth almost $217 million in the first quarter, SAC wheels and deals in shares all the time, so they could have been in and out of a lot more or less shares before, during, and after that point.

Skyworks Solutions Inc. (NASDAQ: SWKS) scored a new large stake in the first quarter by Maverick Capital. The new holdings came to over 5.8 million shares worth some $161 million at the end of the quarter, likely as an “Apple play.”

United Continental Holdings (NYSE: UAL) was hard not to miss in the whale hunting as well as Appaloosa grew its position by 500% or so up to over 7.9 million shares worth over $146 million.

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JON C. OGG

Also, keep in mind that portfolio managers Todd Combs and Ted Weschler are still new and those new positions of under $200 million $300 million are likely tied to them.

24/7 Wall St. has gone through line by line of each position to see which stocks have been bought and sold as new positions, as well as having added in whether or not the number of shares grew or shrank on each since the prior quarter. We had added some color in on some of the positions if applicable.

Be advised that the number of subsidiaries that this filing covers is 14 entities rather than 18 entities in the prior quarter. There is also a note in the 13F filing showing that the SEC has granted “Confidential Treatment” on some Berkshire stock holdings and that likely suggests that Buffett is still acquiring a position he does not want the public to know about yet. This filing does not signal the half-dozen or more European shares that Buffett said he bought so that remains an outstanding issue as well.

The value of the stock portfolio was $66,151,587,000 at the end of 2011 and this was listed as $75,300,250,000 at the end of March 2012.

American Express Co. (NYSE: AXP) was over 151.6 million shares, SAME AS last quarter.

Bank of New York Mellon Corp. (NYSE: BK) is now 5.6 million shares, HIGHER THAN the 1,793,915 shares last quarter.

CVS Caremark Corporation (NYSE: CVS) is the SAME SIZE at 7.106 million shares after having been a new holding in a recent quarter and having been raised one quarter ago.

Coca Cola Co. (NYSE: KO) was right at 200 million shares, SAME AS BEFORE.

ConocoPhillips (NYSE: COP) is roughly 29.1 million shares, roughly the SAME AS BEFORE but it is still lower than previous quarters in past reports.

Costco Wholesale (NASDAQ: COST) 4,333,363 Shares, SAME AS last quarter after having lowered it before.

Da Vita Inc. (NYSE: DVA) is now 6 million shares worth $541 million and that LARGER THAN BEFORE after having been a new position of 2.684 million shares.

DirecTV (NASDAQ: DTV) is a LARGER POSITION listed at 22.999 million worth over $1.13 billion. This one had been 20.348 million shares worth $870 million one quarter earlier and it had been a new position just two quarters ago at 4.249 million shares.

Read: America’s Hottest Brands

Generally, most brand analysis done by the business press is biased toward dollar valuations and contributions to corporate earnings. Obviously, financial success is one factor that demonstrates how well a brand is regarded by consumers. But brand valuation is a financial view, and not one that relies entirely on consumer perception. Based on analysis performed by brand expert company CoreBrand, 24/7 Wall St. wanted to see brands through the eyes of the consumer. For this reason, Corebrand examined brands from the standpoint of favorability and familiarity.

One of the most notable results of the analysis is the high ranking of brands not normally present on most highly valued brands list. When they are evaluated through the consumers’ eyes, however, brands that belong to companies that are struggling financially can still be high on a consumer-perception weighted list. These brands, naturally, are used by a large number of people. More than that, the consumer interaction with the product and services associated with the brand is positive.

Dell (NASDAQ: DELL) and Avon (NYSE: AVP) would not appear high on most brand valuations lists. The two have struggled too much as companies and in the stock market to be high on any business-weighted brand list. They are, however, at the top of the list of brands with high favorability and familiarity. The Avon lady and Dell laptops still carry weight with consumers.

Financial success does not exclude consumer success; they usually go together. Google (NASDAQ: GOOG), Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL), Ford (NYSE: F) and Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) do extremely well according to CoreBrand’s ranking. Each of these corporations has posted large profits over the past few years. Their shareholders have also done well. The products and services from the companies have boosted sales fairly consistently.

24/7 Wall St. examined the “hottest” brands list from independent brand valuation firm CoreBrand. CoreBrand looked at the largest brands where both favorability and familiarity increased, measured by overall reputation, perception of management and investment potential. 24/7 Wall St. then ranked the six brands with the greatest increases in favorability from the fourth quarter of 2010 to the fourth quarter of 2011.

These are America’s hottest brands.

The move joins Warren Buffett and Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE: BRK-A) (NYSE: BRK-B) because the conglomerate owns a stake of 636,000 shares of its common stock.  That Berkshire stake is still way down from prior reports but was the same stake as of the end of 2011.

Peltz said in a SEC filing that shares are currently undervalued and the fund wants to communicate its view that things could be better if the company would look at various strategic alternatives including a restructuring of its key business segments.

Ingersoll-Rand is in the design, manufacturing, sales, and servicing of a diverse portfolio of industrial and commercial products in the United States and internationally.  Under the current Euro worries, it is worth noting that the company’s official headquarters is in Dublin, Ireland.

It is interesting that the reaction is so muted, but that may be because the DJIA is down another 100 points or so and with international markets on the skid again.  The reaction has Ingersoll-Rand shares up 1.4% at $42.83 against a 52-week range of $25.86 to $52.06.

JON C. OGG

Buffett and Newspapers

Warren Buffett surprised investors when he said Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK-A) may buy more newspapers. It already owns the daily in Buffalo and recently bought the paper in Omaha, which is where his conglomerate is headquartered, for $200 million. Buffett may view newspaper ownership as an inexpensive hobby, at least inexpensive for a company the size of Berkshire Hathaway. It is just as likely that he sees a bottom in the industry. He has had a ringside view of newspapers for some time. He was an investor in the IPO of the Washington Post Company (NYSE: WPO) and sat on its board for years. Buffett also can see that revenue erosion in the industry has slowed or at some chains stopped. Cost cuts have made margins at least tolerable. Among the stocks of the largest newspaper chains, several appear to have stopped sliding. This is the case with the New York Times Company (NYSE: NYT), Gannett (NYSE: GCI) and even battered McClatchy (NYSE: MCI), which is heavily burdened with debt.

Facebook IPO Road Show

The Facebook IPO road show has begun. Based on news accounts, the most important part of the event is that CEO Mark Zuckerberg wore a hoodie, jeans and sneakers to the first large presentation to investors. The argument to set the social network company’s value at an extraordinary $96 billion must be less important. Zuckerberg and Facebook did get an early break, before their presentations even began. Stock research firms Wedbush Securities and Sterne Agee rated the shares a Buy and trumpeted Facebook’s strength — the problems of slowing growth and the lack of revenue from mobile platforms notwithstanding.

A New Lumia 900 Bug

Nokia’s (NYSE: NOK) flagship Lumia 900 had a software bug when it launched. This caused bad PR, but the problem was solved quickly. That was not the end of glitch problems. The smartphone has a second bug: its screen turns purple when its brightness is set low. The world’s second largest handset firm — which until late last year was the largest — promised to resolve the issue quickly as well. Nokia needs the product to be a success. The fortunes of the company have crumbled as Apple’s (NASDAQ: AAPL) iPhone and handsets that run Google’s (NASDAQ: GOOG) Android software have raced ahead of it in sales. The Lumia is also the first major collaboration between Nokia and its major software partner, Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT). Redmond has made a billion-dollar bet that Nokia’s broad distribution of handsets can push the Window mobile software into the market, where it currently has a single-digit market share.

Douglas A. McIntyre

It is just as likely that he sees a bottom in the industry. He has had a ring side view of newspapers for some time. He was an investor in the IPO of The Washington Post Company (NYSE: WPO), and sat on its board for years. Buffett can also see that revenue erosion in the industry as slowed, or at some chains, stopped. Cost cuts have made margins at least tolerable. Among the stocks of the largest newspaper chains, several appear to have stopped sliding. This is the case with The New York Times Company (NYSE: NYT), Gannett (NYSE: GCI), and even battered McClatchy (NYSE: MCI) which is heavily burdened with debt.