24/7 Wall St. » FCSX

The 52-Week Low Club (THC)(HLF)(HNT)(FCSX)

247wallst — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 16:01:01 +0000

Tenet Healthcare (THC) Misses numbers and forecasts. Down to $2.52 from 52-week high of $6.88.

Herbalife (HLF) Bad outlook equals three-year low. Falls to $17.23 from 52-week high of $51.09.

Health Net (HNT) Nice eight-year low on bad earnings and forecast. The daily double. Sells off to $9.57 from 52-week high of $52.96.

FCStone Group (FCSX) Last quarter hurt by commodities prices. Plunges to $2.90 from 52-week high of $53.25.

Douglas A. McIntyre

Posted in HI/LOW Tagged: FCSX, HLF, HNT, THC

Daily Slaughterhouse: FCStone Group (FCSX)

247wallst — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 10:10:53 +0000

FCStone Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: FCSX) is getting crushed after its update on liquidity, credit issues, and commodity volatility. The commodity risk management firm now expects to incur up to a $25 million pre-tax bad debt provision in the first quarter of fiscal 2009. You will see why this is now today’s worst performing stock of liquid issues.

This is in connection with losses by three domestic accounts whereFCStone acts as the clearing firm or counterparty. These losses relateprimarily to a significant energy trading account, and to a renewablefuels account and a foreign exchange account.

Its estimated bad debt provision is expected to be adequate for allknown existing credit contingencies for the first quarter of fiscal2009 and it said that it experienced no material impacts from creditissues during the fourth quarter of fiscal 2008.

FCStone said that it has no direct credit exposure to the recent bankruptcy filing from VeraSun Energy Corporation (NYSE: VSE).

The losses if realized on an after tax basis would be approximately $15million, or $0.52 per share. That is down from $0.45 of net incomeper quarter from continuing operations through the first three quartersof fiscal 2008 for a total of $1.36 per share for the nine months endedMay 31, 2008.

This has been an absolutely brutal year and you wonder how long thiscan go on before shareholders storm the Kansas City offices to seizethe company while it still has any value. Shares are down a whopping46% today at $3.31 on this news. That is just the start of theproblem. The prior 52-week trading range had been $5.26 to $53.25.

It is hard to hold a company responsible for unexpected counterpartyrisks. But there has been a long time brewing in this arena and thecompany should have demanded more collateral or been a better hedgerconsidering that this is an integrated commodity risk managementcompany. It sounds more like a risk taking operation than a riskmanagement operation.

The average daily volume is only about 520,000 shares, and we havealready almost tripled that rate in 35 minutes of trading. The marketcap is now a mere $88 million. About all the company can be thankfulfor here is that with the stock under $5.00 it is not marginable formany trading accounts.

Jon C. Ogg
November 4, 2008

Posted in Earnings Warning, Financial Stocks Tagged: FCSX

Pre-Market Analyst Calls (September 4, 2007)

247wallst — Tue, 04 Sep 2007 07:12:49 +0000

ABY raised to Neutral at UBS.
AMD raised to neutral at Credit Suisse.
AG raised to neutral at Credit Suisse.
AEO raised to Outperform at Cowen.
BLOG started as Outperform at Wachovia.
DVA raised to Buy at Deutsche Bank.
EXEL cut to Mkt Perform at Wachovia.
FCSX raised to BUy at B of A.
HOKU raised to Mkt Perform at Piper Jaffray.
HSII cut to Sell at UBS.
INFA started as Outperform at CIBC.
KFN cut to Sell at UBS.
KOP cut to Hold at Jefferies.
KPN cut to Hold at Citigroup.
KSU raised to Buy at UBS.
MNST cut to Neutral at UBS.
MXIM started as Outperform at RBC Capital.
OII started as Overweight at JPMorgan.
OTE cut to Peer Perform at Bear Stearns.
PCG raised to Overweight at Lehman.
RDS/A raised to Buy at UBS.
RHI cut to Neutral at UBS.
RIMM cut to Peeer Perform at Bear Stearns.
SMOD cut to Hold at Citigroup.
SPR started as Overweight at Lehman.
TEF cut to Hold at Citigroup.
TMA raised to Outperform at FBR.
TYC raised to Buy at Deutsche Bank.
TYPE started as Buy at B of A.
TYPE started as Buy at Jefferies.
WEC raised to Overweight at Lehman.

Jon C. Ogg
September 4, 2007

Cramer’s Russell 2000 Index Rebalance Stock Picks

247wallst — Thu, 31 May 2007 17:31:44 +0000

Cramer wanted to talk about the trade of the year that hasn’t happened: The Russell Rebalance. After the picks below is his additional commentary. The rough range expected this year for stocks to be added is a market cap of $233 million on the low-end to $3 Billion on the high-end, has to be on a major exchange, has to be a $1.00 stock, no LLC and no trusts, no ADR. He is predicting 3 of his favorite stocks that he thinks will join the Russell 2000 Index and go up ahead of it:

1) Coleman Cable (CCIX-NASDAQ) that makes electrical wiring and cable that doubled via an acquisition that only has one analyst and could become a target itself.

2) FC Stone (FCSX-NASDAQ), a commodities risk management company that came public in March that only has 2 analysts.

3) Great Lakes Dredge & Dock (GLDD-NASDAQ), a demolition and dredging services company that is protected by the Jones Act that prevents foreign competitors from taking its business with 40% market share.

The Russell 2000 has much money indexed to them and they have to berebalanced because of buyouts or because many fallout during the year.The Russell people are waiting for June 22, 2007. The ones that haveto get dumped, and the ones that need to be added get bought up. Theadditions and deletions are based on prices for TODAY’s close. Thereare many that will be added and many that will be booted. TonightCramer is working on the Russell 2000 for more smaller cap stocks.Cramer said that once these companies get added, they tend to getcovered more by analysts. The average gains of the ones that went inwas 44% for the half that went up and a 26% average loss for the onesthat went down after being added. At least Cramer told you not to buythem in after-hours today.

Jon C.Ogg
May 31, 2007

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