pinti (< 20)

Bank of America a stealthy star

July 30, 2008 – Comments (2) | RELATED TICKERS: BAC

Here’s one for you look at Bank of America, if that not the biggest buy ever I don’t know what is.  [more]

Can all the Princes Horses and men Put Citi back together again?

April 14, 2008 – Comments (0) | RELATED TICKERS: C , GS , MS

2007 will certainly be a forgettable year for Citigroup, dethroned as the nation’s largest bank, drastic management changes, embarrassing Sub prime losses and the largest 4th quarter losses ($10bn) in its 196 year history, not to mention the need to call in its Arabian prince and former CEO/architect to bail it out.    [more]

Mining - following the path of Oil?

December 20, 2007 – Comments (4)

For years now, mining companies have gotten rich supplying the raw materials that have fueled consumer booms from China and India to Brazil. As commodities prices soared, these companies socked away cash and snapped up rivals. Now they are embarking on another round of deals that promises a new class of juggernauts. The resulting megaminers would have great influence over the cost of raw materials like iron ore, copper and uranium -- and, by extension, the price of consumer electronics, cars and new apartment blocks.

As recently as early this decade, the mining sector was filled with relatively small companies with minimal pull on the world economy. But the acquisitions of recent years echo the oil-industry consolidation that began in the late 1990s and produced today's "super majors" -- Exxon joining with Mobil, Chevron with Texaco, and British Petroleum with both Amoco and Atlantic Richfield.  [more]

Banking - maybe not a lost cause

December 20, 2007 – Comments (0)

After the recent run of sub prime losses the large financial institutions have reported, this has left banks such as Bank of America, Citi Group and Morgan Stanley as undervalued stocks given there industry positions and long term potential.
These are huge firms built around profitable operations however sub prime issues and lack of liquidity in the system and write downs are restricting banks ability to lend and invest in profitable operations . Industry giants Citi Group are expanding globally and should see overseas arms increase there overall profitability and Goldman Sachs who seem to have a much smaller exposure to the Sub Prime crisis are being treated by investors like that of a regular bank which leads us to believe that unecessary value has been lost from Goldman and left the stock undervalued.   

We believe certain financials have bottomed and that some of the larger and better run financial stocks are now 'Timed Buys' as the Fed get engaged and the Middle East and hedge funds such as Citadel inject funds into these firms.  [more]

Let’s go treasure hunting

December 16, 2007 – Comments (0)

I’m not sure weather it’s an ‘if’ or a ‘when’, but for arguments sake lets say when, 4th quarter credit write offs are announced of which some huge numbers from some institutions are expected ($8bn + has been talked about in relation with Citi Group).
We can expect another drop in the already fragile market, FED cuts if appropriate may go someway to lessen the fall but don’t put all your eggs in that basket as they are notorious for disappointing when cutting rates.
So if the market falls 5% back into high 12,000 territory then by my estimations it is time for some serious bargain hunting. Most people may say we haven’t hit the bottom but if the above scenario does occur I will not hesitate to jump into the market happy in the knowledge that I’m picking myself up some seriously discounted stocks. It’s near impossible to predict the absolute bottom and with the DOW yo-yoing from 12,800 – 13,500 that’s as good enough bottom as we can realistically get.
When you get such broad declines you have to sit up and take notice.
If you don’t, I know a few people who will namely the Middle East (who have already buying up the large stakes in firms who’s shares will bounce back e.g. Abu Dhabi’s 5% chunk in Citi group and AMD) Russia’s not short of a few dollars, neither is Brazil . However most scarily of all remember China has nearly 1 trillion, yes 1 trillion of our Dollars. With the Dollar seeming like it’s not even trying to hold its head above water it would not be a huge shock if they started buying large pieces of American firms (whom would accept the investments with open arms) in order to offset the diminishing value of their dollar holdings. After all they have the prospect of making much larger gains from rebounding stocks than the dollar making a miraculous recovery.
Even Europe who were exposed some what to the credit crunch mainly due to the US exporting the stuff like the plague to them have excess capital, partly again down to the weakness of the dollar. Deutsche Bank were/are in the midst of helping Virgin buyout trouble mortgage lender Northern Rock buy lending Richard Branson’s Virgin group $30bn. With their ability to loan such sums they clearly are not short of a few bucks and are willing to pick up large stakes in failing companies.
It's not easy to guess what these flush parties would buy. It is easy to guess what you should buy: companies with solid, consistent earnings whose stocks have been pushed down along with everything else even though their businesses have not lost value.
That would be everything from retailers with good fundamentals to service companies that are well off because, simply, they are U.S. stocks - particularly companies that have been buying back stock with no impact whatsoever.
So many companies make sense to buy at these levels if you are a foreigner, big brand name companies such as Motorola, Citi group, WaMu, Dell, Alcoa etc mean some thing in these countries even if they don’t to us anymore.
If you plan on playing the bargain game just make sure you keep loss aversion in mind, as a company that seems cheap and very well may be could still find its self in hot water in these market conditions.  [more]