I was hoping to have a nice relaxing end to a difficult week, but Standard and Poor’s has officially downgraded the United States’ credit rating to AA+. And of course, they did it when the markets are closed for the weekend just to ensure that we’ll all be good and stressed for Monday. Obviously, one […]
I have to say that I’m surprised how quickly things happen. My comments on the Real Mex bonds, which have been up for barely two days, seem sort of quaint now that the major ratings agencies have issued a cut on the grounds that the company has announced missing an interest payment. As I stated […]
UPDATE: On the night of July 20, 2011 the company informed the major ratings agencies that it did in fact miss the latest interest payment on the bonds. As I stated below, the cash flows to the company are sufficient to support the ultimate value of the bonds, but now that value is likely to […]
Acxiom, a company that is very difficult to pronounce, is a large marketing consulting firm, with a specialty in data mining. The firm uses customer data gathered from clients, and its own proprietary database, to develop a multi-channel marketing strategy (e-mail, web advertising, mobile advertising, and direct mail, among others) for clients. Acxiom claims to […]
AMCON Distributing Co. is a wholesale distributor of consumer products, which constitutes the bulk of its business, and also runs fourteen health food stores. The wholesale segment is the 9th largest in the country and provides mainly tobacco products, but also candy, beverages, paper products, health & beauty, frozen foods, and institutional food services. It […]
It may be Stockholm syndrome, but I do think some of the criticism of Goldman Sachs regarding its subprime deals is overblown. I don’t deny that there have been apparent violations of the securities laws in terms of disclosures, but the central issue that upset Senator Levin and Matt Taibbi so much has not seemed […]
I have often found compelling values in rural telephone companies, such as Windstream and Qwest (now acquired by CenturyLink, as they throw off large amounts of free cash flows and are kind enough to produce dividends. My latest discovery in this area is Consolidated Communications (CNSL), which pays 8.4% and which has a free cash […]
Since my last foray into the paper industry with Boise Inc., I thought it would be appropriate to review the rest of the sector. After some searching, I have settled on Domtar (UFS). Domtar is the largest producer of uncoated freesheet paper in North America, and also a producer of wood pulp, with operations in […]
As I generally adopt a bottom-up investing policy, and go into investing without any preconceived notion of what sector my stocks are going to be in. As a result, I am often surprised at the odd niches where attractive stocks hide. However, Mac-Gray Inc. (TUC) is one of the more unusual ones. They operate laundry […]
One of the great debates among fundamental investors, whether they are value investors or whether they should be value investors, is the question of bottom-up or top-down. The top-down approach involves examining the economic outlook, the state of the financial markets, and the trends among the sectors, in order to determine the best stocks in […]