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Bracing For More Key Stock Splits (SIX, AMX, LULU, MMS)

Administrator — Mon, 27 Jun 2011 21:14:18 +0000

No money was injured while filming

We have noticed a near-record wave of stock splits of late despite the trend of today where companies have tended to prefer high share prices over record share prices. We also have several key splits coming up this week that investors will need to pay attention to. These are from Six Flags Entertainment Corp. (NYSE: SIX), America Movil S.A.B. de C.V. (NYSE: AMX), Lululemon Athletica Inc. (NASDAQ: LULU), and MAXIMUS, Inc. (NYSE: MMS) are all executing their splits this week.

Basic price data and an impact has been listed if applicable.

Six Flags Entertainment Corp. (NYSE: SIX) declared its 2-for-1 stock split back on May 5 and the ex-date is June 28. Shares were trading at $73.74 on the split date and they closed at an adjusted basis of $72.82 on Monday.

America Movil S.A.B. de C.V. (NYSE: AMX) is not one we routinely follow. It has already declared a 2-for-1 stock and Yahoo! Finance lists June 30 as the payable date, with July 1 as the ex-date as the data that the share price reflects the adjusted price.

Lululemon Athletica Inc. (NASDAQ: LULU) announced the yoga split of 2-for-1 back on June 9, and its payable date is June 30 with an ex-date of July 1. That means that it will reflect the split this coming Friday. Shares were at $86.14 before the split was announced, but now shares are up at $108.58 and an all-time high of $108.99 was hit Monday.

MAXIMUS, Inc. (NYSE: MMS) declared a 2-for-1 stock split back on May 9, and it has a payable date of June 30 with an ex-date that will reflect the adjusted share price of July 1. Shares were at an adjusted $79.46 before it announced the split and $83.26 after its split, but now shares are at $80.71.

As a reminder, stock splits change nothing fundamentally under the shares.

JON C. OGG

Filed under: Shareholder Issues, Stock Splits Tagged: AMX, LULU, MMS, SIX

Secondary Offerings To Watch For Impact (AEGR, DPM, SIX, WAVX, FVE)

Administrator — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 15:29:38 +0000

Secondary offerings matter. They can raise capital for a company and they can help previous investors book profits. They can also cause severe pressure on shares. We have seen either indications of a secondary or possible secondary offerings. Those still on deck or which may be coming are in Aegerion Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: AEGR), DCP MIDSTREAM PARTNERS, LP (NYSE: DPM), Six Flags Entertainment Corporation (NYSE: SIX), and in Wave Systems Corp. (NASDAQ: WAVX). If you doubt the impact these can have, look no further than recent deals in Five Star Quality Care Inc. (NYSE: FVE) and in Invesco Mortgage Capital Inc. (NYSE: IVR).

Aegerion Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: AEGR) has not been public that long, but it is expected to sell up to 3.25 million shares of its common stock and another 1 million shares by certain pre-IPO stockholders this week. The filing itself was for up to $86,606,500.00 and the book-runners are Jefferies and Deutsche Bank; co-managers are listed as Leerink Swann, Needham & Company, and Collins Stewart.

DCP MIDSTREAM PARTNERS, LP (NYSE: DPM) has filed an S-3 offering intended to raise up to $150 million accessing a “shelf registration.” The entity’s common units are listed on the NYSE, under the symbol “DPM.” At current trading levels the company’s market cap is $11.75 billion. In Tuesday trading, common units closed at 39.71. The 52-week price range is $28.82 to $44.17.

Six Flags Entertainment Corporation (NYSE: SIX) has filed an S-3 offering to cover additional shares resulting from the company’s stock split. The company’s common stock trades on the NYSE under the ticker symbol “SIX.” At current trading levels the company’s market cap is slightly in excess of $2 billion. In Tuesday trading, shares closed at 74.60, up 1% over Monday’s closing price. The 52-week price range is $31.76 to $80.50. Be advised, the shares registered may not be sold entirely or at all but they cover up to 13,569,256 shares of common stock.

Wave Systems Corp. (NASDAQ: WAVX) has filed a shelf registration that allows it to raise up to $30 million using a “shelf registration” to replace an expiring shelf registration. At current trading levels the company’s market cap is roughly $228 million. In Tuesday trading, shares closed at 2.89, up 21% over Monday’s closing price. In first-hour trading today, the shares are in decidedly volatile, trading at $2.78, down 6.7%. Its 52-week price range is $1.76 to $5.31. The reason we note this one is

Most recently, we featured this heavily discounted and huge drag of a secondary offering from Five Star Quality Care Inc. (NYSE: FVE). This one has bounced nearly 10%, and that is only about one-fourth of the share damage that came from announcing the secondary offering in the first place.

Invesco Mortgage Capital Inc. (NYSE: IVR) was another fresh secondary offering and that mortgage-REIT has a monster yield that investors have to consider against peers.

JON C. OGG

Filed under: Secondary Offering, Trading Alert Tagged: AEGR, DPM, FVE, SIX, WAVX

Key Stocks To Watch This Coming Week, The Unusual Suspects (ADP, CSX, FVE, GILD, LYV, LULU, RMBS, REGN, RIMM, SIRI, P, SIX, VRX)

Administrator — Sun, 12 Jun 2011 13:40:39 +0000

The upcoming week is not very active on the earnings front but we do have some key events to watch for individual equities and companies. This our cast of “The Unusual Suspects” for the week ahead.

We are reviewing events or ongoing news in shares of Automatic Data Processing Inc. (NYSE: ADP), CSX Corporation (NYSE: CSX), Five Star Quality Care Inc. (NYSE: FVE), Gilead Sciences, Inc. (NASDAQ: GILD), Live Nation Entertainment, Inc. (NYSE: LYV), Lululemon Athletica Inc. (NASDAQ: LULU), Rambus Inc. (NASDAQ: RMBS), Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: REGN), Research-in-Motion Ltd. (NASDAQ: RIMM), SIRIUS XM Radio Inc. (NASDAQ: SIRI), Pandora Media Inc. (NYSE: P), Six Flags Entertainment Corp. (NYSE: SIX), and Valeant Pharmaceuticals International, Inc. (NYSE: VRX).

Inside each preview we have shown what the news or upcoming event is, given price indications, and added color on each if applicable. Also, we had ten top analyst calls of the week that are carry-over events from last week and we also have a full detailed earnings calendar with previews for the top ten companies reporting earnings this coming week in separate articles.

Automatic Data Processing Inc. (NYSE: ADP) announced on Friday evening that its board of directors had raised its share buyback plan with an additional 35 million shares of common stock on top of about 15 million shares remaining under the previous buyback plan. If executed entirely, this would be about 10% of its entire stock’s float.

CSX Corporation (NYSE: CSX) is set to split 3-for-1 on Thursday after it declared that split in early May. This is one of the many pending and current splits, a trend we are seeing more of than we have in years. Shares closed at $73.48 Friday and the 52-week range is $46.51 to $80.42.

Five Star Quality Care Inc. (NYSE: FVE) is expected to have a secondary offering of up to 10 million shares mid-week, with all of the shares expected to be sold by the company. Shares were pounded on the announcement of the deal with a drop from $7.20 before to $6.27 on the day of the news and then to close out the week at $6.10. Its market cap is only about $220 million share its 52-week trading range is $2.72 to $8.95.

Gilead Sciences, Inc. (NASDAQ: GILD) disclosed a subpoena from the Department of Justice on Friday after the close, which included requests for documentation on testing of nearly all its products. The wording also noted “criminal” on top of civil in the subpoena. If Gilead was Lucille Ball, it would have “splaining” to do. Surprisingly, shares were only down a little more than 2% at $39.40 after the close on the news. Its 52-week range is $31.73 to $42.93.

Live Nation Entertainment, Inc. (NYSE: LYV) was up 6% Friday on word that Liberty’s John Malone and Live Nation CEO Irving Azoff were in talks to possibly take Live Nation private. At $10.92, its 52-week trading range is $8.17 to $12.48, but this stock stalled out at $16.00 in April-2010 and has been dead since.

Filed under: Calendar, Editor's Picks, The Week Tagged: ADP,, CSX, FVE, GILD, LULU, LYV, P, REGN, RIMM, RMBS, SIRI, SIX, VRX

The Serious Return of Stock Splits (CLH, OKS, OKE, ALXN, CERN, PLCM, CWT, OII, CSX, SIX, IIVI, FLO, CHD, PEIXD, C, AAPL, GOOG, NFLX)

Administrator — Wed, 08 Jun 2011 14:36:31 +0000

No money was injured while filming

Stock splits usually bring back memories of the old tech bubble and dot-com bubble. Fundamentally, nothing changes at the company other than that smaller investors get to invest in shares at a lower nominal share price. Now that the markets have recovered so much, with the recent weeks as an exception, we are seeing many companies with higher share prices starting to announce stock splits. There may even be more current stock splits pending and freshly affected than we can remember seeing in years.

We have seen major stock split announcements from the likes of many companies. Some of the larger splits are from the following: Clean Harbors, Inc. (NYSE: CLH); Oneok Partners LP (NYSE: OKS); Alexion Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: ALXN); Cerner Corporation (NASDAQ: CERN); Polycom, Inc. (NASDAQ: PLCM); California Water Service Group (NYSE: CWT); Oceaneering International, Inc. (NYSE: OII); CSX Corp. (NYSE: CSX); Six Flags Entertainment Corporation (NYSE: SIX); II-VI Inc. (NASDAQ: IIVI); Flowers Foods, Inc. (NYSE: FLO); and Church & Dwight Co. Inc. (NYSE: CHD). We even have a fresh reverse stock split from Pacific Ethanol, Inc. (NASDAQ: PEIXD). You might think it learned from Citigroup, Inc. (NYSE: C) but Pacific Ethanol did not have a choice if it wanted to keep its listing.

There is also no way to have an article about stock splits without pondering when or what it would take for great companies like Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL), Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) or Netflix, Inc. (NASDAQ: NFLX) to consider splitting their shares.

The road to stock splits has really become more common. We have not seen this many pending splits in years. These are not presented in any significant order.

Clean Harbors, Inc. (NYSE: CLH) announced a two-for-one stock split in the form of a dividend payable on July 26, 2011 to holders of record at the close on July 6, 2011.

On Tuesday came word from Oneok Partners LP (NYSE: OKS) that it planned to conduct a two-for-one split of its common and class-B units. This was its first split and you rarely see “units” split. It is 43% owned by its general partner, Oneok Inc. (NYSE: OKE).

In May came a biotech stock split from Alexion Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: ALXN). It previously approved a 2-for-1 stock split and shares began trading on a split-adjusted basis on May 23. Shares went from almost $100 to under $50…

Also in May came word from Cerner Corporation (NASDAQ: CERN) that its board of directors had approved a 2-for-1 stock split in the form of a dividend for holders of record on June 15, 2011. The distribution date for the new shares is June 24, 2011.

Polycom, Inc. (NASDAQ: PLCM) announced last month after its pact with H-P that its board of directors approved a two-for-one split of its stock in the form of a stock dividend for holders of record at the close of business on June 15.

Filed under: Dividend, Shareholder Issues, Stock Splits Tagged: AAPL, ALXN, C, CERN, CHD, CLH, CSX, CWT, FLO, GOOG, IIVI, NFLX, OII, OKE, OKS, PEIXD, PLCM, SIX

Nine Stocks Loving the Oil & Commodity Crash (AMR, CCL, EK, FDX, SIX, TIF, UAL, LCC, WGO)

Administrator — Thu, 05 May 2011 19:44:36 +0000

If you still believe that speculators cannot really drive markets up too far in any direction, take a look at the commodities market. The continuous raising of margins in silver has taken out all of the gas from the silver market. The rising dollar today is helping. The question now is how many more margin requirements will be hiked in commodity futures. Forget that a moment. If you are an operating company that your greatest variable cost is a commodity or energy, today is a great day. There are some obvious airline winners, but we have highlighted a few other winners who may be rejoicing today’s drop in oil and commodities after the metals sell-off this week.

Oil has fallen under $100 suddenly. Silver has crashed, and gold is selling off. Other commodities remain soft as well. If you are a commodities trader, you have to just assume that higher margin requirements are headed your way whether you think that is fair or not.

AMR Corporation (NYSE: AMR) is the parent of America Airlines and its shares are screaming today. Shares were up 7% at $6.59 on more than 22 million shares.

Carnival Corporation (NYSE: CCL) may be a floating hotel, but it has significant exposure to high oil prices. You think it is cheap powering portable islands with gas that transport thousands of tourists at a time? Shares are up 5% at $40.82 on the day.

Eastman Kodak Co. (NYSE: EK) is only up 0.7% because the company is so troubled whether silver prices are high or low. Still, this former DJIA component is up 0.7% at $2.83 when the DJIA is down over 1.25%.

FedEx Corporation (NYSE: FDX) is seeing a gain of almost 3% at $95.37 on almost 3 million shares today. It flies parcels and packages rather than passengers, but the same issue is here as in airlines when it comes to energy prices and jet fuel.

Six Flags Entertainment Corp. (NYSE: SIX) may just be up because it split its stock and raised its dividend, but what about a huge drop in the price of gasoline. It’s about to be cheaper for the family to drive 50 miles to get to the theme park. Telling the kids that you can’t afford the gas just got a bit harder. Six Flags shares are up 1.7% at $73.50 late Thursday.

Tiffany & Co. (NYSE: TIF) is up due to the drop in gold prices. After all, it’s hard to sell jewelry at 100% or more than your peers using poor metals… Shares are up 1.3% at $68.28 on the day. This one held up better than we would have expected considering the cost of its commodity inputs.

United Continental Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: UAL) is up 7.5% at $26.22 on nearly 12 million shares. US Airways Group, Inc. (NYSE: LCC) is up 8% at $10.05 on more than 10 million shares and this is the first time above $10 since mid-February.

Winnebago Industries Inc. (NYSE: WGO) may not be one you would think of at first and it is one of the very economically sensitive companies. If the economy softens, the price of gas won’t matter as much, but if you have to pay close to $5.00 a gallon for a cross-country gas guzzling machine like an RV, any big drop in the price of oil is a welcome wagon for this company. Winnebago shares are up only 0.7% at $11.80 on the day, but volume is thin at 150,000 shares or so.

When it comes to taking the air out of hot commodities, the old saying is that nothing will kill demand like high prices. When silver was approaching $50 and when West Texas Crude was at $110 per barrel, it was a demand killer. Throw in a rising dollar and these commodities just lost one more fundamental support. That was then, this is today.

JON C. OGG

Filed under: Commodities, Consumer Goods, Currency, International Markets, Oil & Gas, Transports Tagged: AMR, CCL, EK, FDX, LCC, SIX, TIF, UAL, WGO

Top Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades (ALU, ALL, AMZN, AU, CA, CHKP, COST, GE, HON, KEY, MYGN, PCLN, SIX, SFD, MMM, TYC, UTX)

Administrator — Wed, 13 Oct 2010 12:19:28 +0000

These are some of this Wednesday’s key analyst upgrades, downgrades, and initiations seen in Wall Street research calls.

Alcatel-Lucent (NYSE: ALU) Raised to Buy at Jefferies.
Allstate Corporation (NYSE: ALL) Started as Outperform at RBC.
Amazon.com Inc. (NASAQ: AMZN) Cut to Hold at Benchmark.
AngloGold Ashanti (NYSE: AU) Raised to Neutral at Goldman Sachs.
CA Inc. (NYSE: CA) Started as Outperform at Wells Fargo.
Check Point Software Technologies (NASDAQ: CHKP) Started as Outperform at Wells Fargo.
Costco Wholesale Corporation (NASDAQ: COST) Cut to Neutral at UBS.
General Electric Co. (NYSE: GE) Started as Buy at Nomura.
Honeywell International (NYSE: HON) Started as Buy at Nomura.
KeyCorp (NYSE: KEY) Cut to Perform at Oppenheimer.
Myriad Genetics inc. (NASDAQ: MYGN) Raised to Outperform at RBC.
Priceline.com Incorporated (NASDAQ: PCLN) Raised to Outperform at Morgan Keegan.
Six Flags Entertainment (NYSE: SIX) Started as Outperform at Oppenheimer.
Smithfield Foods Inc. (NYSE: SFD) Raised to Outperform at BMO.
3M Co. (NYSE: MMM) Started as Reduce at Nomura.
Tyco International (NYSE: TYC) Started as Reduce at Nomura.
United Technologies (NYSE: UTX) Started as Buy at Nomura.

You can join our free daily email distribution list to hear more about dividend trends, analyst upgrades and downgrades, top day trader and active trader alerts, news on Buffett and other investment gurus, IPOs, secondary offerings, private equity, and more.

JON C. OGG

Filed under: Analyst Calls Tagged: ALL, ALU, AMZN, AU, CA, CHKP, COST, GE, HON, KEY, MMM, MYGN, PCLN, SFD, SIX, TYC, UTX

Bill Gates & Cascade New Stock Holdings (AN, BRK-A, CNI, KOF, FSCI, FMX, GBL, TV, OTTR, PCX, LGBT, PNM, RSG, SIX, BEE)

247wallst — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 16:35:35 +0000

These are the new holdings (sans ETF and sans derivatives) for Bill Gates’ CASDADE INVESTMENT LLC As of September 30, 2008:

AUTONATION (NYSE: AN) 5,263,588
BERKSHIRE HATHAWAY (NYSE: BRK-A) 4,050
CANADIAN NATL RY (NYSE: CNI) 33,859,544
COCA COLA FEMSA S A B (NYSE: KOF) 857,128
FISHER COMMUNICATIONS (NASDAQ: FSCI) 455,700
FOMENTO ECONOMICO (NYSE: FMX) 20,966,795
GAMCO INVESTORS (NYSE: GBL) 90,845
GRUPO TELEVISA SA (NYSE: TV) 19,680,400
OTTER TAIL (NASDAQ: OTTR) 2,556,499
PATRIOT COAL (NYSE: PCX) 2,408,653
PLANETOUT (NASDAQ: LGBT) 521,739
PNM RESOURCES (NYSE: PNM) 7,019,550
REPUBLIC SERVICES (NYSE: RSG) 34,873,836
SIX FLAGS (NYSE: SIX) 10,210,600
STRATEGIC HOTELS & RESORT (NYSE: BEE) 4,190,000

You can join our open email distribution list to hear about holdings of Warren Buffett, Bill Gates, IPO’s, secondary offerings, private placements, merger, special situations, rumors, and more.

Jon C. Ogg
November 14, 2008

Posted in Activist Investor, Insider Activity Tagged: AN, BEE, BRK-A, CNI, FMX, FSCI, GBL, KOF, LGBT, OTTR, PCX, PNM, RSG, SIX, TV

Bill Gates Personal Stock Holdings (MSFT, CNI, FSCI, OTTR, LGBT, PNM, RSG, SIX, FMX, TV, BRK.A)

247wallst — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 07:41:00 +0000

Below are most of the equity holdings listed for Bill Gates’ own Cascade Investment, L.L.C. as of December 31, 2007. These were disclosed in a filing late in the week. Keep in mind that these are not tied at all to Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) and these also do not include the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation either. This also does not include any ETF holdings. These are not quite all of his holdings inside of Cascade, but these are the bulk of the holdings:

Company (Ticker)                                                 Value                Shares
Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK-A)          $573,480,000    4,050
Canadian National Rail (NYSE: CNI)          $1,589,028,000    33,859,544
Fisher Communications (NASDAQ: FSCI) $17,298,000       455,700
Fomento Econmico Mexicano (NYSE: FMX)$412,617,000       10,810,000
Grupo Televisa S.A. (NYSE: TV)                   $467,803,000    19,680,400
Otter Tail Corp. (NASDAQ: OTTR)                $88,455,000       2,556,499
PlanetOut Inc. (NASDAQ: LGBT)                   $3,240,000          521,739
PNM Resources Inc. (NYSE: PNM)             $150,569,000       7,019,550
Republic Services Inc. (NYSE: RSG)          $852,483,000       27,192,451
Six Flags, Inc. (NYSE: SIX)                            $20,728,000          10,210,600

If you want to see Mr. Gates’ new best friend’s holdings (that would be Warren Buffett) you can see all of those here for the same period.

Or you can see Carl Icahn’s top equity holdings as well.

Jon C. Ogg
February 16, 2008

The 52-Week Low Club

247wallst — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 16:01:06 +0000

Six Flags (SIX) Still moving down after announcing drop in net income. Falls to $1.98 from 52-week high of $6.80.

Avery Dennison (AVY) Company announces new financing. Market takes it badly. Down to $51.12 from 52-week high of $71.35.

Blockbuster (BBI) Renting movies at stores is dead, just no buried. Down to $3.74 from 52-week high of $7.30.

Gatehouse (GHS) Newspaper company. Bad earnings. Falls to $8.95 from 52-week high of $22.18.

Daktronics (DAKT) Bad guidance. Bad investment. Drops to $19.76 from 52-week high of $40.05.

MedCath (MDTH) Ugly results for last quarter. Falls to $21.40 from 52-week high of $34.61.

Douglas A. McIntyre

The 52-Week Low Club

247wallst — Fri, 27 Jul 2007 15:02:14 +0000

Isilon Systems (ISLN) Clustered storage systems cuts forecast. Drops to $9.47 from 52-week high of $28.50.

Sepracor (SEPR) Specialty drug maker gets competition from generic. Income drops. Shares fal to $27.56 from 52-week high of $63.24.

QLogic (QLGC) Network equipment maker hits three-year low on earnings miss. Down to $13.54 from 52-week high of $22.46.

Six Flags (SIX) Theme-park company has increase in Q2 loss. Shares fall to $3.70 from 52-week high of $6.80.