Stocks and Dollars

By Gerald P. Gehman:

My article “The Long Case for EZchip Semiconductor” (EZCH), which first appeared on December 22, 2011, stated that the current price of EZchip ($29.61) gave investors an “extremely attractive investment opportunity within the next year.” On March 23, 2012, EZchip closed at $44.44.

QuickLogic Corporation (QUIK) also provides an opportunity to invest before the analysts and the public jump on board. The risks are much higher, but the rewards could also be much higher.

QuickLogic has been in business since 1988, and a public company since 1999. However, for investors, it is like a “start-up” company developing new, high-volume products for Tier I customers in the exploding handheld devices market – smartphones, tablets, notebooks, pico projectors, etc.

This fabless company is a leader in developing and marketing low-powered silicon chips. Its exclusive technology is used to create specific customer applications in relatively short periods of time. Their products are just

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By David Trainer:

I recommend investors buy stock in Scripp Networks Interactive (SNI) before Mr. Buffett buys the whole company.

SNI is a modern-day example of the media/publishing companies for which Mr. Buffett has shown a long-standing interest. His interest in media/publishing stocks is grounded in the superior economic earnings these businesses can achieve. And SNI, with a 21% return on invested capital (ROIC), exhibits the kind of scale that Mr. Buffett knows leads to superior economic earnings.

In 2011, the company’s economic earnings grew nearly 50% to over $440 million compared to less than 1% growth in accounting earnings to $412 million. Figure 1 below has the details. Those are impressive economics while the accounting results are just so-so. The economic earnings are what matters, just ask Mr. Buffett.

Figure 1: Economic Earnings Are Higher than GAAP Earnings

click to enlarge

Sources: New Constructs, LLC and company filings

SNI’s impressive economics come

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By Stock Croc:

It doesn’t seem that long ago when anything solar was the hottest ticker in town. The federal and municipal renewable energy subsidies that were enacted here in the U.S., as well as in places like Germany, Spain and the U.K., led to meteoric rises in solar energy stock prices in the middle part of the last decade. It seemed as if the promise of cost-effective solar power was finally coming to fruition and that the sky-high multiples given to solar manufacturer stocks were fully justifiable. Oh, how things change.

One of the highest of the high-flying solar manufacturers, First Solar (FSLR) commanded a stock price of nearly $300 per share in 2008, and a P/E multiple north of 100. Of course this was prior to the bursting of the credit bubble and the collapse of the housing market in the U.S. and around the world. So, now that it seems

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By John Mylant:

When is the last time you traded options and lost money? No matter how many times I win, that loss still hurts. I do not think I will ever get used to losing money. And losing is such a big part of the stock market. I have come to embrace that I will lose, and I will continue to lose as long as I trade stocks and options. Embracing loss is not as easy as I write it out to be though.

Daniel Kahneman, a Princeton professor, studied the intellectual patterns of investors.

In one of his studies, he determined that people dislike losing so much that they make irrational decisions in an attempt to avoid them. Thus, a pattern emerged whereby investors would take out their winning stocks early and hold on to their losing stocks for too long. People would take the profit from a winner quickly on

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By John Mylant:

When is the last time you traded options and lost money? No matter how many times I win, that loss still hurts. I do not think I will ever get used to losing money. And losing is such a big part of the stock market. I have come to embrace that I will lose, and I will continue to lose as long as I trade stocks and options. Embracing loss is not as easy as I write it out to be though.

Daniel Kahneman, a Princeton professor, studied the intellectual patterns of investors.

In one of his studies, he determined that people dislike losing so much that they make irrational decisions in an attempt to avoid them. Thus, a pattern emerged whereby investors would take out their winning stocks early and hold on to their losing stocks for too long. People would take the profit from a winner quickly on

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By Stephen Simpson:

Being a titan always seems to come with strings attached – Atlas had to bear the weight of the world, Prometheus ended up chained to a rock, and Brasil Foods (BRFS) carries the burden of sky-high expectations. While it is indeed a good thing to be the second-largest food company in Brazil and one of the ten largest in the world, Brasil Foods’ current valuation practically demands excellence if shareholders are going to see market-beating returns from this point.

Disappointing Q4 Results Highlight A Key Vulnerability

On the whole, Brasil Foods had a pretty mixed fourth quarter. Revenue did rise 11%, but higher production costs and salaries pulled EBTIDA down 4% compared to the prior year.

Revenue broke out as 9% domestic growth and 14% export growth (on 1% volume growth); the former being slightly ahead of most projections, while export revenue missed most projections. Gross margin dropped more than

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By Stephen Simpson:

Being a titan always seems to come with strings attached – Atlas had to bear the weight of the world, Prometheus ended up chained to a rock, and Brasil Foods (BRFS) carries the burden of sky-high expectations. While it is indeed a good thing to be the second-largest food company in Brazil and one of the ten largest in the world, Brasil Foods’ current valuation practically demands excellence if shareholders are going to see market-beating returns from this point.

Disappointing Q4 Results Highlight A Key Vulnerability

On the whole, Brasil Foods had a pretty mixed fourth quarter. Revenue did rise 11%, but higher production costs and salaries pulled EBTIDA down 4% compared to the prior year.

Revenue broke out as 9% domestic growth and 14% export growth (on 1% volume growth); the former being slightly ahead of most projections, while export revenue missed most projections. Gross margin dropped more than

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By Harvard Financial Analysts Club:

By: Jared Sleeper

Xinyuan Real Estate (XIN) may well qualify as the world’s cheapest stock. Xinyuan is a real estate developer in China that builds massive housing developments in China’s tier 2 and 3 cities (not Beijing, Shanghai or Guangzhou, which are considered tier 1), selling units to China’s burgeoning middle class. The company was founded in 1997, and launched an initial public offering on the New York Stock Exchange in December of 2007, becoming the first Chinese real estate company to do so.

Xinyuan originally appeared on our radar because the stock appears cheap. Very, very cheap. The company’s market capitalization of roughly $200 million is backed up by $100 million in net income last year (and $100 million projected for next year as well), $487 million in cash and cash equivalents and $768 million in tangible assets (in this case, primarily housing inventories). This is offset by $285

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