Articles
Mailbag: The Trouble With Timocracies
Those inefficient, bureaucratic, timocracies are losing market share and closing stores due to competition from the more efficient meritocracies such as Wal-Mart, Target (TGT), Costco (COST), BJ's (BJ) and Whole Foods (WFMI).
National Grid’s Boring Little Secret
If you need words to describe National Grid, "stable," "predictable," and "unexciting" spring to mind. Reading its financials stirs so little excitement that if you can't sleep, you might want to leave a copy of its 20-F (a 10-K equivalent filed by ADRs) on the nightstand.
Lloyds Weathers the Storm
Lloyds TSB's (NYSE: LYG) recent announcement that it experienced slower growth in consumer lending and higher defaults in its consumer segment did not come as a surprise, and its stock actually went up on the news.
Sporadic Thoughts: A quick look at Symantec
Symantec (SYMC) looks somewhat alluring on the surface: it is trading at 18 times next year's earnings. It looks even more appealing if you factor in a $4 billion cash pile, which accounts roughly for 20% of the company's market capitalization.
Mailbag: Corporate Citizen
Let's say Wal-Mart becomes "a responsible corporate citizen" and starts paying $16 an hour instead. Wouldn't that be great?
Sporadic Thoughts: Retail, Consumer and First Data
Are retailers stilling their future holiday sales with early deep discounts?
Cendant: The Anatomy of Sell and More
Buying stocks is easy, selling them less so. Therefore, in light of the Cendant (CD) news today, I thought it might be helpful to briefly look at the reasons we sold Cendant stock awhile back.
Mailbag: Buybacks and Dividends
This mailbag is in response to my Nov. 4 article on Buybacks and Dividends.
Sporadic Thoughts: Aroung the Eearnings Block and Bargain Basement?
Becton Dickenson (BDX) is another darling of mine that reported 3rd quarter numbers today. Revenues grew 8% (excluding currency benefit) and performance was very solid across all segments - a sign of business quality.
Sporadic Thoughts: Consumer, Airlines Pricing Power and Google
This Quarter's Theme: Consumer Weakening I am getting the feeling that this holiday season is going to be ugly, or at least disappointing. Listening to earnings calls of companies I follow I keep hearing this "consumer weakening" justification to their poor results.
Mailbag: Wal Mart – The Capitalist Pig
Vitaliy Very interesting article on Wal Mart (WMT). Here’s my two cents. Capitalism, without a social context, is a pretty ...
Thoughts on Abbott Labs and Lloyds TSB
I was more than satisfied with Abbott Laboratories (ABT) 3rd quarter performance. Its margins were depressed in the quarter as for several reasons: It took several charges; sales of Mobic, a low margin drug, were up 146% and R&D was up 15% as ABT was ramping up spending on development of its own stent.
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly – US Bank – 3rd Quarter 2005
In the first quarter of 2005 I put US Bank (USB) stock on double secret probation. After the second quarter I took it off probation. This quarter's performance earns USB a get-out-of-jail-free card.
A Good Company Versus a Good Stock
I know very little about baseball. Football, hockey and chess are the national sports in Russia. This is a true story: about thirteen years ago I went to my first baseball game.
Show some respect for a solid British bank
Lloyds TSB is the largest UK-based, non-multinational bank but new investors outside of the country confuse the company with that icon of risk UK commercial property and casualty insurer Lloyd's of London.
Mailbag: The Russian Front: Oil, Putin and Prosperity
I am answering to questions about why I don't follow Russian markets, oil production and more.
The Russian Front: Oil, Putin and Prosperity
I don't follow Russian markets and recently I discovered that I don't understand the psyche of Russian people. I don't even have a decent inventory of hard liquor at home, a disgrace by any Russian standard. And please don't be misguided by my Russian first name.
Approach to risk management
To finish first, first you must finish. Thus looking down (for risk) often is more important than looking up (for return). In a long only portfolio there are three interrelated pillars to risk management: diversification, stock selection, and valuation.
Nokia poised to ring investors’ bells
Nokia is a perfect showcase for contrarian value investing. It is easy not to like Nokia stock, especially for US investors, as Nokia has not come up with a decent cell phone in the US for a while.
Small telecoms market means NZT is nearly alone in its field
The stocks of American local telephone companies are down substantially from their heyday of the late 1990s and they have been facing problems on many fronts, including fierce competition from cable operators.
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly – US Bank – 2nd Quarter 2005
The light at the end of the tunnel appears very bright for banking stocks as aging baby boomers will likely demand more of their products and services as they get deeper into the retirement stage of their lives. However, in the meantime the light is flickering somewhat as banks are going through some tough times with net interest margins under pressure due to the flattening of the yield curve.
