Archive for March 5th, 2008
Filed under: Other issues, Bad news, Rants and raves, Commodities, Agriculture, Stocks to Buy, Best Stocks for 2008, Bunge Ltd. (BG)
 Brian and Andrea get up at 4:30 AM so that their customers may get steaming hot bagels and mini-pizzas every morning on their way to work. New York Bagel & Deli (NYBD) is the wake-up call for the Santa Monica neighborhood I work in, and recently we got one heck of a wake-up.
Brian informed me that “in the last two years he has seen his cost for a 50 pound bag of high gluten flour go from $8 to $16″. After that huge rise, he recently was hit with a bigger shock to his business — “the price went from $16 to $32 in just 3 weeks!”
He said “in some places in the country the price has reached as high as $36.” Brian is very sensitive to the needs and desires of his loyal customer base and feels terrible about this increase. He is struggling with how to moderate the increases and the sticker shock on the cost of a dozen bagels. This is very difficult for him. This is a major blow to the heart of his business.
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Filed under: Other issues, Bad news, Rants and raves, Commodities, Agriculture, Stocks to Buy, Best Stocks for 2008, Bunge Ltd. (BG)
Brian and Andrea get up at 4:30 AM so that their customers may get steaming hot bagels and mini-pizzas every morning on their way to work. New York Bagel & Deli (NYBD) is the wake-up call for the Santa Monica neighborhood I work in, and recently we got one heck of a wake-up.
Brian informed me that “in the last two years he has seen his cost for a 50 pound bag of high gluten flour go from $8 to $16″. After that huge rise, he recently was hit with a bigger shock to his business — “the price went from $16 to $32 in just 3 weeks!”
He said “in some places in the country the price has reached as high as $36.” Brian is very sensitive to the needs and desires of his loyal customer base and feels terrible about this increase. He is struggling with how to moderate the increases and the sticker shock on the cost of a dozen bagels. This is very difficult for him. This is a major blow to the heart of his business.
Continue reading Bagel & pizza costs skyrocket — think gas is high, read this!
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Filed under: Management, Insiders, Apple Inc (AAPL)
Fortune (which shares parent Time Warner (NYSE: TWX) with BloggingStocks) provides at least two examples which raise questions about whether Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) CEO Steve Jobs pushed the Apple board into violating the law.
Two revelations in the article — that Apple’s board decided not to disclose Jobs’s pancreatic cancer, for which he delayed surgery because he wanted to try a diet cure, and that Jobs set a backdated options date of January 16, 2001 which the board rubber-stamped, giving recipients a profit of either $1.6 million or $3.9 million — make me wonder whether Jobs convinced Apple’s board to break the law.
As I posted in 2006, Lazard, Ltd.’s (NYSE: LAZ) board may have failed to disclose the illness of its CEO, Bruce Wasserstein, when reports surfaced that he was out of the office with a heart ailment. A lawyer I spoke with said that if a CEO is unable to do his or her job due to illness, the board must disclose it. If Jobs’s pancreatic cancer surgery kept him away from doing the CEO’s job, how did Apple’s lawyers defend the failure to disclose? It surely couldn’t have been the lack of materiality — some estimated that if his illness had been disclosed, Apple stock would have lost 20% of its value.
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Filed under: Management, Insiders, Apple Inc (AAPL)
Fortune (which shares parent Time Warner (NYSE: TWX) with BloggingStocks) provides at least two examples which raise questions about whether Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) CEO Steve Jobs pushed the Apple board into violating the law.
Two revelations in the article — that Apple’s board decided not to disclose Jobs’s pancreatic cancer, for which he delayed surgery because he wanted to try a diet cure, and that Jobs set a backdated options date of January 16, 2001 which the board rubber-stamped, giving recipients a profit of either $1.6 million or $3.9 million — make me wonder whether Jobs convinced Apple’s board to break the law.
As I posted in 2006, Lazard, Ltd.’s (NYSE: LAZ) board may have failed to disclose the illness of its CEO, Bruce Wasserstein, when reports surfaced that he was out of the office with a heart ailment. A lawyer I spoke with said that if a CEO is unable to do his or her job due to illness, the board must disclose it. If Jobs’s pancreatic cancer surgery kept him away from doing the CEO’s job, how did Apple’s lawyers defend the failure to disclose? It surely couldn’t have been the lack of materiality — some estimated that if his illness had been disclosed, Apple stock would have lost 20% of its value.
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Filed under: Analyst reports, Microsoft (MSFT), Yahoo! (YHOO), duPont(E.I.)deNemours (DD), Analyst initiations
.gif) MOST NOTEWORTHY: Microsoft, IPC The Hospitalist Co and DuPont were today’s noteworthy initiations:
- Jefferies believes Microsoft’s (NASDAQ: MSFT) bid for Yahoo (NASDAQ: YHOO) and more conciliatory tone towards regulators signals a shift in strategy from defense to offense. The firm started shares with a Buy rating and $33 target.
- Wachovia believes IPC The Hospitalist (NASDAQ: IPCM) is well-positioned to gain share in the fragmented hospitalist market given its experienced management team, operating history, and proven track-record; shares were initiated with an Outperform rating at Wachovia and with an Outperform rating and $27 target at Credit Suisse.
- DuPont (NYSE: DD) was initiated with an Outperform rating and $57 target at Credit Suisse, as they believe the company’s number two seed position in North America looks secure.
OTHER INITIATIONS:
- B. Riley initiated VASCO Data Security (NASDAQ: VDSI) with a Buy rating and $18 target.
- Morgan Stanley initiated Liberty Entertainment (NASDAQ: LMDIA) with an Overweight rating; shares were also initiated with an Outperform rating at Wachovia.
- Credit Suisse added shares of Elan Corp (NYSE: ELN) to its Focus List and started shares with an Outperform rating.
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Filed under: Analyst reports, Microsoft (MSFT), Yahoo! (YHOO), duPont(E.I.)deNemours (DD), Analyst initiations
MOST NOTEWORTHY: Microsoft, IPC The Hospitalist Co and DuPont were today’s noteworthy initiations:
- Jefferies believes Microsoft’s (NASDAQ: MSFT) bid for Yahoo (NASDAQ: YHOO) and more conciliatory tone towards regulators signals a shift in strategy from defense to offense. The firm started shares with a Buy rating and $33 target.
- Wachovia believes IPC The Hospitalist (NASDAQ: IPCM) is well-positioned to gain share in the fragmented hospitalist market given its experienced management team, operating history, and proven track-record; shares were initiated with an Outperform rating at Wachovia and with an Outperform rating and $27 target at Credit Suisse.
- DuPont (NYSE: DD) was initiated with an Outperform rating and $57 target at Credit Suisse, as they believe the company’s number two seed position in North America looks secure.
OTHER INITIATIONS:
- B. Riley initiated VASCO Data Security (NASDAQ: VDSI) with a Buy rating and $18 target.
- Morgan Stanley initiated Liberty Entertainment (NASDAQ: LMDIA) with an Overweight rating; shares were also initiated with an Outperform rating at Wachovia.
- Credit Suisse added shares of Elan Corp (NYSE: ELN) to its Focus List and started shares with an Outperform rating.
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Filed under: Analyst reports, Analyst upgrades and downgrades
MOST NOTEWORTHY: Thornburg Mortgage, Whirlpool and Jackson Hewitt were today’s noteworthy downgrades:
- Jefferies downgraded shares of Thornburg Mortgage (NYSE: TMA) to Hold from Buy to reflect the ongoing dislocation of the mortgage markets and lowered their target to $3.75 from $14. While they believe Thornburg will probably survive its current liquidity crisis, they think the company’s capital structure will be impaired further.
- JP Morgan downgraded Whirlpool (NYSE: WHR) to Underweight from Neutral, citing valuation, higher steel prices, the difficult macro environment and competition.
- Stephens cut Jackson Hewitt (NYSE: JTX) to Equal Weight from Overweight to reflect the company’s recent results and concerns over the issues that have impacted the basic business.
OTHER DOWNGRADES:
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Filed under: Analyst reports, Analyst upgrades and downgrades
MOST NOTEWORTHY: Thornburg Mortgage, Whirlpool and Jackson Hewitt were today’s noteworthy downgrades:
- Jefferies downgraded shares of Thornburg Mortgage (NYSE: TMA) to Hold from Buy to reflect the ongoing dislocation of the mortgage markets and lowered their target to $3.75 from $14. While they believe Thornburg will probably survive its current liquidity crisis, they think the company’s capital structure will be impaired further.
- JP Morgan downgraded Whirlpool (NYSE: WHR) to Underweight from Neutral, citing valuation, higher steel prices, the difficult macro environment and competition.
- Stephens cut Jackson Hewitt (NYSE: JTX) to Equal Weight from Overweight to reflect the company’s recent results and concerns over the issues that have impacted the basic business.
OTHER DOWNGRADES:
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Filed under: Analyst reports, Analyst upgrades and downgrades, Citigroup Inc. (C)
MOST NOTEWORTHY: Legg Mason, Panacos Pharma and PepsiAmericas were today’s noteworthy upgrades:
- Wachovia upgraded Legg Mason (NYSE: LM) to Market Perform from Underperform citing valuation, new CEO change, and reduced Citigroup (NYSE: C) ownership.
- Bear upgraded Panacos Pharma (NASDAQ: PANC) to Outperform from Peer Perform citing renewed confidence in Bevirimat, an HIV inhibitor, following analysis of Phase IIb data. The firm expects a partnership for Bevirmat to be the next catalyst.
- Deutsche Bank raised PepsiAmericas (NYSE: PAS) to Buy from Hold shares on valuation, as they believe the recent weakness is overdone.
OTHER UPGRADES:
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Filed under: Analyst reports, Analyst upgrades and downgrades, Citigroup Inc. (C)
MOST NOTEWORTHY: Legg Mason, Panacos Pharma and PepsiAmericas were today’s noteworthy upgrades:
- Wachovia upgraded Legg Mason (NYSE: LM) to Market Perform from Underperform citing valuation, new CEO change, and reduced Citigroup (NYSE: C) ownership.
- Bear upgraded Panacos Pharma (NASDAQ: PANC) to Outperform from Peer Perform citing renewed confidence in Bevirimat, an HIV inhibitor, following analysis of Phase IIb data. The firm expects a partnership for Bevirmat to be the next catalyst.
- Deutsche Bank raised PepsiAmericas (NYSE: PAS) to Buy from Hold shares on valuation, as they believe the recent weakness is overdone.
OTHER UPGRADES:
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