Category Archives: stocks

Why is Insider Trading Illegal?

Posted on May 9, 2008 by Felix

The meme of the day, as admirably summed up by Paul Murphy, is the question of why exactly insider trading is illegal, and whether it should be. I seem to recall a trenchant column by Holman Jenkins in the WSJ … Continue reading →

Posted in law, stocks | 1 Comment

Neeleman Realizes He Is a Day-to-Day Operator After All

Posted on May 9, 2008 by Felix

Do you remember David Neeleman’s ouster from JetBlue last year? He seemed happy to put a positive spin on it then: Neeleman, JetBlue’s largest individual investor, will be non-executive chairman. "I’m not a day-to-day operator," Neeleman, 47, said today in … Continue reading →

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I Guess This Means AIG Stock Will Rise 10% Tomorrow

Posted on May 8, 2008 by Felix

I’m with Megan Barnett on this one: the time to announce a 10% increase in your dividend is not when you’re simultaneously annoucing a $7.8 billion loss in a single quarter. Yes, $7.8 billion. I know we’re all getting inured … Continue reading →

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Droppe the CEO!

Posted on May 8, 2008 by Felix

Yes, there really is a company called Charming Shoppes, and it’s in the middle of a full-blown proxy war right now; it’s even managed to delay its annual meeting at the very last second because (ahem) it was having difficulty … Continue reading →

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ExpressJet: Probably Toast

Posted on May 7, 2008 by Felix

Most of the time I have relatively little sympathy for troubled companies. But sometimes they just seem to run into so many body blows simultaneously that you’ve just got to wince a little. And ExpressJet is one of those cases. … Continue reading →

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Turning Around Legg Mason

Posted on May 7, 2008 by Felix

In the world of finance, asset management is the boring-and-predictable bit. M&A revenues come and go, traders can make or lose billions, and it’s the asset managers who provide the steady earnings in good times and in bad. Unless they’re … Continue reading →

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Fannie Mae’s Weird Rally

Posted on May 6, 2008 by Felix

I’ve seen a lot of financial institutions see their stock soar on the day they release atrocious quarterly results, and in fact I had them in mind this morning when I kicked off a blog entry with the words "Fannie … Continue reading →

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Fannie Mae’s Earnings: Awful

Posted on May 6, 2008 by Felix

Fannie Mae’s stock is certain to tank today, and not necessarily for the obvious reason. Yes, its quarterly loss of $2.5 billion was much larger than expected. Yes, total shareholder equity evaporated at an even larger pace: it was was … Continue reading →

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Is Bank of America Rethinking Countrywide’s Value?

Posted on May 5, 2008 by Felix

At some point, whenever somebody is trying to value a financial institution, a term like "tangible equity" or "book value" will start being thrown around. They’re different ways of playing the assets-minus-liabilities game, but that’s where the problems start: if … Continue reading →

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Why Yahoo Shouldn’t Buy Back Its Own Stock

Posted on May 5, 2008 by Felix

Bill Miller is kicking himself this morning. The second-largest shareholder in Yahoo, he wanted $35 to sell out to Microsoft, and so he held on to his shares rather than hand them over to arbitrageurs at $29 or so. But … Continue reading →

Posted in stocks, technology | 6 Comments

Steve Ballmer, Fence-Sitter

Posted on May 1, 2008 by Felix

The WSJ is reporting that Microsoft’s board, having met to decide what to do about the Yahoo bid, has decided, um, not to decide what to do about the Yahoo bid. Instead it’s punting the decision back to Steve Ballmer, … Continue reading →

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Learning from Amex

Posted on April 25, 2008 by Felix

It’s very long (8,500 words!) but if you have some time I’d recommend reading the transcript of yesterday’s American Express earnings call. American Express is a very interesting company to watch at times like this: it’s a borrower, and a … Continue reading →

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Reporting on Stock Moves

Posted on April 25, 2008 by Felix

Many thanks to Colin Barr, who joined in the conversation after I called him out for his reporting on Merrill yesterday. My problem was with Barr saying that "shares of Merrill Lynch rose 8% after CEO John Thain said he … Continue reading →

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Causality Watch, Merrill Lynch Edition

Posted on April 24, 2008 by Felix

Colin Barr: Shares of Merrill Lynch rose 8% after CEO John Thain said he won’t entertain talk of a breakup of the brokerage firm, which has been hit hard since last summer by heavy losses on mortgage-related securities. Why do … Continue reading →

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Should CFOs be Economic Pundits?

Posted on April 24, 2008 by Felix

Kevin Kelleher, like me, listened to the Apple conference call yesterday. Both of us picked up on this exchange: Mike Abramsky – RBC Capital Markets And then final question, you haven’t said anything in your call about economic headwinds. It’s … Continue reading →

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The Semiotics of Stock Tickers

Posted on April 23, 2008 by Felix

Living in New York, one sees stock tickers quite often – crawling along the bottom of a TV screen, scrolling around a building in midtown, even crowning the burger flippers at the McDonalds at 160 Broadway. What are they for? … Continue reading →

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American Apparel Responds to WSJ Takedown

Posted on April 22, 2008 by Felix

On April 12, the WSJ published a 2,600-word front-page article on American Apparel which painted it as fiscally out of control. Not long afterwards, one of those tiny and niggly corrections appeared: American Apparel Inc.’s shares trade on the American … Continue reading →

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RBS: Getting Stronger by Raising Equity

Posted on April 22, 2008 by Felix

Even by this month’s outsize standards, the $24 billion that RBS is raising in new capital is an absolutely enormous sum. But it’s much more than a replenishment, it’s a significant augmentation: "In the light of developments during March — … Continue reading →

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Another Horrible Quarter for Citi

Posted on April 18, 2008 by Felix

Citigroup’s earnings this quarter were horrible. So what’s the reaction? Internally, it seems weak: Citi’s announced the culling of 9,000 jobs, which sounds like a lot until you step back and look at the big picture. As CFO Gary Crittenden … Continue reading →

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The Limits of Market Capitalization

Posted on April 16, 2008 by Felix

Kevin Maney today looks at the mooted $17.7 billion valuation of a merged Delta and Northwest, and contrasts it unfavorably with the market capitalization of Yahoo. "It’s almost hard to believe that all those planes, all those people, all that … Continue reading →

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Bidding Sotheby’s Down

Posted on April 14, 2008 by Felix

Robert Frank is worried about the accounts receivable at Sotheby’s, which more than doubled to $835 million in 2007. This means that the "clients of Sotheby’s appear to be falling behind on their bills," he says – which could be … Continue reading →

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Why Wachovia Needs Another $7 Billion

Posted on April 14, 2008 by Felix

Why does Wachovia need another $7 billion of equity capital, on top of the $8.3 billion it raised earlier this year? It’s not like its capital ratios are particularly gruesome: as of March 31, its Tier 1 capital ratio was … Continue reading →

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The Yahoo Yawn

Posted on April 10, 2008 by Felix

With all the news about Yahoo that emerged after the market closed yesterday – Google! Microsoft! AOL! Murdoch! – the stock today erupted in a frenzy of highly volatile trading, closing well above Microsoft’s offer price. Or, you know, it … Continue reading →

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Attractive Lenders

Posted on April 10, 2008 by Felix

If I were a chartist, which I’m not, I’m sure I would consider the chart of KKR Financial to be surpassingly ugly. But I had lunch today with Brian McMahon, the CEO and CIO of Thornburg Investment Management, and he’s … Continue reading →

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Adventures With Bear Stearns Stock

Posted on April 4, 2008 by Felix

Aren’t SEC filings fun? According to this one, On March 24, 2008, JPMorgan Chase acquired 11,500,000 shares of Common Stock in the open market. The aggregate purchase price of $140,724,350 was paid out of working capital. That works out at … Continue reading →

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