Stocks

Amazon vs. the Retailers

by Glenn Busch January 6, 2012
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I hate shopping. I just want to get what I want and get out of there. I don’t want to waste my time driving, parking, wandering the store, and then having to go to another store if I can’t find what I want. I love shopping on the internet. I’m always near a computer and if I need something with just a few clicks of the mouse it is on its way. The best part is usually the things I want are cheaper online. The shipping costs may change the cost structure but I’m glad to pay the shipping costs because it keeps me away from stores and frees up my time to do something else. I’m not the only one.

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An Opportunity to Short Circuit City Again

by Glenn Busch December 29, 2011
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In the US the debate is whether the country can support one or zero highly profitable big box chains. Best Buy – the bears argue – is the showroom for Amazon. In Australia as I said we still have two chains – its as if Circuit City were still around. Moreover because Harvey Norman has a balance sheet it can survive quite a long time and Gerry Harvey is prone to say it is the competitor that will go out of business. But Harvey Norman really is losing share to JB Hi Fi and ultimately both will lose share to the internet.

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Why is Regal Entertainment Group’s Revenue Increasing When Attendance is Declining?

by Glenn Busch December 20, 2011
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The problem facing movie theaters is less people are going. As of March of this year, U.S. and Canada movie theater attendance was down 20% from 2010. The summer blockbuster season did not fare any better. About 543 million tickets were sold this summer, the lowest number since 1997 when 540 million tickets were sold. This holiday season is not off to a good start either. So how are the multiplex theater operators, who are heavily dependent on U.S. and Canada attendance like Regal Entertainment Group (RGC), increasing their revenue?

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Is Johnson & Johnson a Value?

by Glenn Busch December 12, 2011
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American Money Management’s Dividend Income Strategy involves finding high-quality companies that pay a meaningful and well-covered dividend and that are undervalued. We define high-quality as companies that can generate high returns on equity, capital, and assets and the company needs to be able to defend these returns with an “economic moat”. Johnson and Johnson is one of these companies and we added it to our Dividend Income portfolio back in the early fall.

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Digital Decimation and How I Learned to Love the Movie Theater Again

by Glenn Busch December 9, 2011
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What decimated the music business is now affecting the movie business, file size. Consumers can now stream movies, buy and store them in digital lockers, or outright steal them and it’s only going to get easier. Companies stuck in the old movie business model will lose.

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November Option Expiration and our Dividend Income Portfolio

by Glenn Busch November 28, 2011
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Option expiration for November 2011 was just over a week ago. We had four outstanding covered calls in our Enhanced Dividend Income portfolio, all expired worthless. I’ll run through each trade below.

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AIG and Sears Holdings are Top Two Positions in the Fairholme Fund

by Glenn Busch November 17, 2011
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Bruce Berkowitz is the reigning domestic equity manager of the decade as selected by Morningstar. During the decade ending December 31, 2009 his flagship mutual fund, the Fairholme Fund (FAIRX), generated annualized returns of 13.2% versus his category average of 0.01%. However, since that time the Fairholme fund is down 16.48% versus the S&P 500 which is up over 10% based on price changes.

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Apple and Amazon Remain Top Two Holdings for Tiger Management

by Glenn Busch November 16, 2011
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Legendary hedge fund pioneer Julian Robertson closed his Tiger Fund in 2000 and focused on seeding up-and-coming hedge fund managers branded as Tiger Cubs. Recently, Mr. Robertson reopened the Tiger Fund to outside investors and we get to follow his portfolio moves again through 13F filings. An added bonus of looking at Tiger Management’s 13Fs is they act as a proxy for the best ideas of Julian’s Tiger Cubs due to Julian’s constant contact with them.

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Apple and GDX Top Greenlight Capital’s Portfolio

by Glenn Busch November 15, 2011
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Today’s 13F filing will focus on David Einhorn and his hedge fund Greenlight Capital. While being extremely successful on the long side, Mr. Einhorn made his name on the short side. First it was his long and very public battle with Allied Capital, which you can read in his book “Fooling Some of the People All of the Time, A Long Short (and Now Complete) Story“, then his battle with now defunct Lehman Brothers, and now he is taking on Wall Street darling, Green Mountain Coffee Roasters (GMCR).

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BP plc and Hewlett-Packard are Top Equity Holdings for the Baupost Group

by Glenn Busch November 14, 2011
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BP plc (BP) and Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) are the top two equity holdings for the Baupost Group. BP plc was already a holding of theirs but Baupost has added to their position making BP their top equity holding. Helwett-Packard is a brand new position and their second largest holding.

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