Tag: CC

WOW…….

WTS Watts Industries, Inc 26.86
WTFC Wintrust Financial Co … 34.31
WNC Wabash National Corpo … 8.04
WMG Warner Music Group Corp 9.03
WM Washington Mutual Inc 24.04
WB Wachovia Corp 42.62
TWC Time Warner Cable Inc 27.09
TLB The Talbots, Inc 13.63
RHD R H Donnelley Corp 50.50
PNRA Panera Bread Co 38.53
PMI The PMI Group, Inc 12.97
PKY Parkway Properties, Inc 39.35
MNI McClatchy Newspapers, Inc 16.13
MI Marshall & Ilsley Cor … 31.10
MHP The McGraw-Hill Compa … 46.14
MER Merrill Lynch & Co., Inc 56.30
MDC M.D.C. Holdings, Inc 38.20
MAT Mattel, Inc 20.30
LOW Lowe’s Companies, Inc 25.82
LIZ Liz Claiborne, Inc 26.40
KSS Kohl’s Corporation 52.06
KNX Knight Transportation Inc 15.09
JWN Nordstrom Inc 36.53
JOSB Jos A Bank Clothiers Inc 26.67
JMBAU Jamba Inc 6.95
JEN Jennifer Convs Inc 3.98
JCP Penney (J.C.) Company … 53.16
HD Home Depot, Inc 30.20
FNM Fannie Mae 51.84
COLM Columbia Sportswear Co 46.20
COH Coach Inc 35.02
COA Coachmen Industries, Inc 5.98
CC Circuit City Stores, … 7.37
CBS CBS Corp New 27.37
CBG Cb Richard Ellis Grou … 22.47
CALC California Coastal Cm … 8.50
CAKE The Cheesecake Factor … 21.64
C Citigroup, Inc 36.93
BPOP Popular Inc 9.50
BONT The Bon-Ton Stores Inc 16.06
AIG American Internationa … 57.84
AGO Assured Guaranty Ltd 14.89
AEC Associated Estates Re … 11.12
AEB Aegon N V 21.77

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WM Washington Mutual Inc 25.50
WLK Westlake Chem Corp 22.39
WFC Wells Fargo & Company 32.56
TRY Triarc Companies, Inc … 10.83
TR Tootsie Roll Inds Inc 24.33
SMG The Scotts Company 39.54
SHFL Shuffle Master Inc 13.00
SCA Security Capital Assu … 10.58
SAMB Sun American Bancorp 5.77
S Sprint Nextel Corporation 16.68
MTCT Mtc Technologies Inc 17.89
MTB M & T Bk Corp 94.82
HELE Helen of Troy Ltd 17.28
GYMB The Gymboree Corp 32.06
ETH Ethan Allen Interiors Inc 29.72
ENP Encore Energy Partners Lp 19.75
EKF Eksportfinans Asa 17.40
EAT Brinker International … 24.60
DSW Dsw Inc 21.75
DSL Downey Financial Corp … 35.76
CC Circuit City Stores, … 7.64
DLM Del Monte Foods Co 10.03
CXR Cox Radio, Inc 11.77
CTX Centex Corporation 23.88
CSK Chesapeake Corporation 6.69
CBS CBS Corp New 27.97
C Citigroup, Inc 38.55
BXC Bluelinx Hldgs Inc 5.04
BOBE Bob Evans Farms Inc 26.70
BAC Bank Of America Corpo … 46.24

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Here are the largest changes in increase in short positions, meaning people are betting against the stock..

Exelon (EXC)= +12,467,000

Circuit City (CC)= +11,576,000

USEC (USU)= +8,977,000

Clear Channel Communications (CCU)= +8,922,000

Standard Pacific (SPF)= +6,842,000

General ELectric (GE)= +6,134,000

EMC (EMC)= +5,618,000

AT&T (T)= +5,389,000

UPGRADES

Diamond Foods DMND BB&T Capital Mkts Hold » Buy
Buckeye Partners BPL Deutsche Securities Hold » Buy
PMI Group PMI Piper Jaffray Market Perform » Outperform
The Mosaic Co. MOS Citigroup Sell » Hold
Diana Shipping DSX Bear Stearns Peer Perform » Outperform
Mattel MAT Oppenheimer Neutral » Buy
Targa Resources NGLS Wachovia Mkt Perform » Outperform
PNM Resources PNM Jefferies & Co Hold » Buy

DOWNGRADES

SCP Pool POOL Wedbush Morgan Buy » Hold
SCP Pool POOL Morgan Keegan Outperform » Mkt Perform
Topps TOPP Morgan Joseph Buy » Hold
Sanderson Farms SAFM Stifel Nicolaus Buy » Hold
Canadian Natl Rail CNI Stifel Nicolaus Buy » Hold
Diamond Offshore DO Calyon Securities Buy » Add
Transocean RIG Calyon Securities Buy » Add
Weatherford WFT Calyon Securities Buy » Add
ExpressJet XJT Soleil Hold » Sell
Buckeye GP Hldgs BGH Deutsche Securities Buy » Hold
Circuit City CC Bear Stearns Outperform » Peer Perform
Family Dollar FDO JP Morgan Neutral » Underweight

Best Buy (BBY) released results Wednesday and a reoccurring theme popped up in them.

If you do not international exposure in today’s world, you are in trouble. We saw it this week with the investment bank as Goldman Sachs (GS) and Lehman (LEH) were able to beat estimates and Morgan Stanley (MS), whose exposure is far less than the other two did not. Now we have the electronics retailers showing this to us as Best Buy (BBY beats while Circuit City (CC) did not. Although, to be honest, Circuit City may have just missed by more if they had more international exposure but that is another story.

Anyway, Best Buy’s revenue jumped 15% and earnings 8.7% for the most recent quarter and it was lead by a 54% increase in international results. This enabled Best
Buy to predict it will meet the high end of estimates of $3.15 a share.

Another interesting item was that for the first time they broke out service (The Geek Squad) and that division saw a 5.3% increase. A note here, Best Buy is doing a lousy job of telling people what the Geek’s do. Until I saw a 60 minutes piece on them last week, I had no idea of the spectrum of help they provide people. This division could explode for Best Buy if they only better informed people of what they do and how reasonably they do it for. This would work because Best Buy just does not have any competition in this area other than smallerlocal people who just cannot match the scale and scope of services the Geek’s offer. It is a hugely underutilized asset.

How important are the Geek’s and overseas for Best Buy? If you strip them out then Best Buy sales increased 3.6%.

Another lesson for us on the need to be a player all over the world.

TWC Time Warner Cable Inc 32.10
PEIX Pacific Ethanol Inc 10.28
NTZ Natuzzi S P A 6.40
INFI Infinity Pharmaceutic … 8.66
IMN Imation Corp 24.73
ENER Energy Conversion Dev … 22.69
CZFC Citizens First Corp 12.00
CC Circuit City Stores, … 8.75

As good as Goldman’s (GS) earning were, Circuit City’s (CC) were just as momentous but for the opposite reason.

Back in May I posted “CC has appealing stores in good locations with a nice product mix, they are just abysmally run.”

The most recent quarter’s earnings release Thursday saw that same management turn what had been a $.06 profit this time last years to a whopping $.38 loss, easily beating the street’s expectations of a $.12 loss. Nice job boys, got it backwards.

In June I did an update on Circuit City and said “As a trade, any good news could vault shares up immediately. But, I do not see the conditions that could create that good news anytime soon. Maybe they could get bought out and that would cause shares to jump, but, I am reluctant to invest on the prayer someone rescues them. An Eddie Lampert, based on past history would just be as likely to wait for these buffoons to run it into bankruptcy and buy it there even cheaper than now. Why pay a premium to the current price when in bankruptcy he could get it for a fraction of it?

At their current rate CC will be out of cash before Thanksgiving and then the fun really starts. This assumes they do not start ramping up debt to pay for operations and also assumes no further economic slowdown. Should the economy slide even more, see ya…”

As of today cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments decreased by $175.2 million from a year earlier to $424.4 million (sill 1/2 of May’s levels), driven by $320.4 million in purchases of property and equipment and $194.3 million in stock repurchases and dividend payments. These uses of cash were partially offset by cash provided by operations, including a $143.5 million improvement in net-owned inventory, and cash provided by the issuance of common stock.

What to do? Stay away, far away. Circuit City has made blunder after blunder and as long as current management is still at the helm, there is no reason to expect anything different and that means things are not going to get better anytime soon.

The real shame here if you are a shareholder is that you could have received twice today’s price in 2005 in a private equity offer for the company. You will not see shares at that level for a very long time… if ever

Here are today’s cellar dwellers.. no homebuilders or financials today as they all rallied big time

WON Westwood One Inc
WMG Warner Music Group Corp
TVE Tennessee Valley Auth
TUTR Plato Learning Inc
TGEN Targeted Genetics Corp
TARR Tarragon Corp
SWX Southwest Gas Corporation
NAII Natural Alternatives
NABI Nabi Biopharmaceuticals
MYL Mylan Laboratories Inc
IKN Ikon Office Solutions Inc
DF Dean Foods Co New
DDS Dillard Department St
CC Circuit City Stores
BAMM Books-A-Million Inc

In a previous post I commented that “when you think “cheap”, you think Walmart (WMT), when you think “value”, you think Target (TGT)“ Walmart seems to be taking an interesting and to date, very effective path to altering that image, electronics.

In the last two years Walmart has added Apple (APPL) ipods, Dell (DELL) computers, Toshiba laptops, Samsung TV’s and Verizon (VZE) wireless phones to it shelves. The results has been a $1.5 billion increase in electronics sales fronm 2005 to 2006 and an expected 10% to 12% this year which is well ahead of the 7% the industry as a whole is expected to grow. These gains, it should be noted are coming at the expense of competitors like Best Buy (BBY), Radioshack (RSH) and Circuit City (CC).

What is happening out there is Walmart is now being recognized as a seller of “quality electronics at great prices”. That is a powerful combination. Personally I do not care where I get my Dell laptop from, it is the price I care about. Same thing for my ipod or any other electronic device.

Now, studies have proven time after time that once I go to Walmart to get my electronics I will invariably pick up additional items. If Walmart begins to draw people to it’s stores (clearly it is) ancillary sales will also increase (CD, DVD etc.).

Another very important point. The “quality image” is a weird thing. It is an illusion of quality, not necessarily the reality that is most important. Many designer clothes have the illusion of quality even though the reality may be very different. Now, if Walmart can get that image to stick to it and can get it to transfer to it’s apparel, watch out. It was a brilliant move to start with electronics because the brands there are the most easily recognizable by the widest audience of people and the acceptance there, unlike apparel, is instant. When people begin to go to Walmart because of their “quality” electronics or tools or sporting goods then it is only a matter of time until that shopping trip extends to clothing by association.

I have said it before and still believe it. Walmart only needs to make their clothing “good” in order to be hugely successful and these other moves they are making will dramtically help.