June 2008

There is an old Wall Street adage that reads "sell in May and go away."  Its based on the historical concept that stocks tend to do most of their moves from Labor Day to Memorial Day and then slow down when the weather gets nice. The credit and mortgage crisis has changed this. Investors now know that with negative headlines on housing and credit able to cross at any time, any day, its ... read more

We do this segment every Tuesday, finding companies that have been growing and posting solid sales and revenue numbers without getting a lot of attention from Wall Street or the media. Today's company: Watson Wyatt (NYSE: WW). Watson Wyatt says its focus is "human capital," which is a fancy way of saying consulting.   Whatever the focus is, it's been working.   The 3 year average ... read more

With many retailers struggling in a slowing economy, one small cap Nebraska-based retailer has been posting surging same store sales numbers. Kearney, Nebraska (population 27,341) based The Buckle (BKE) just rolled out its May numbers and they are staggering.   May same store sales (stores that have been open at least a year, this does NOT include new store openings) rose 34.7%.   No, I ... read more

You may want to file this one under the "law of unintended consequences" heading. This weekend in Washington, D.C. I hopped into a cab.   I noted to the driver that it was the first time I'd been in one with a meter (as opposed to the old, much-maligned system was that of "taxi zones" where you were charged based on which zone you went in and out of).   This opened up an energetic ... read more

Its a story that hasn't gotten much attention but should.   LandSource Development Communities, a California real estate partnership, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection this weekend.    The company was a real estate venture involving homebuilder Lennar (NYSE: LEN), a unit of private equity firm Cerberus, and MW Housing Partners. The problem is that one of the major investors in ... read more

We should place a bet on how many times the terms "tax" and "middle class" and uttered in the same sentence by Barack Obama and John McCain ahead of the November election.    My under/over on each would probably fall somewhere around 1,000.  That's 1,000 times each word is uttered, not combined. While I know what the word "tax" means (believe me, living in New Jersey you do), the problem is ... read more

A guest today on the 10am show discusses the difference between being "green" and actually being "clean." Woody Clark PhD of Clark Strategic Partners (and one of the Nobel Prize winning group of Al Gore)  makes the point that while many companies are seizing the national mood and marketing themselves as environmentally sensitive "green" companies, not much has really changed in the impact ... read more

Sitting here at Pittsburgh Airport waiting to fly home (delayed, natch) and looking around realizing it seems the airport(s) are as crowded as before gas surged to $4/gallon and jet fuel spiked.   When I left from Newark Airport on Friday the security lines snaked through the entire roped area and down into the gate area.   In fact, I have never seen a line that long in 15 years using the ... read more

Something on the lighter side this morning, courtesy of a Wired blog: http://blog.wired.com/business/2008/06/the-google-of-t.html This is more than a bit truthful.  I am sure that small tech firms are interesting in selling to "Mr Bigbyte" and entering the world of "Google high finance. ... read more

Own an offshore oil rig or jack-up and need to get men and materials to it?   You may be calling Gulfmark Offshore (NYSE: GLF). The Houston-based company hit my stock screener with 3 year EPS growth of 78.6% and 3 year revenue growth of 27.6%.    That's according to Thomson Reuters data.    It compares to 3 year revenue growth for the S&P 500 of just 10.6%.   It also has a net profit ... read more