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$86.82 0.58 (0.67%)
8/21/2008 4:00 PM

Sears Holdings Corp (SHLD)

CAPS Rating:
**

The Company is a broadline retailer. It currently conducts its operations in three business segments: Kmart, Sears Domestic and Sears Canada.

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Recs

6

Avatar kristm (99.89) Submitted: 10/27/06 10:49 PM : Underperform Start Price: $176.02 SHLD Score: 43.55

I just don't buy it. The stores are nasty and poorly run, with lesser selection (in quality and quantity) compared to WMT, TGT, and other department stores. Sears Essentials is K-Mart with a Sears logo. "Exclusive" brands like Craftsman aren't as big a deal as they used to be - hardware stores like Lowes have better ones. If Martha Stewart's brand is such a big deal, invest directly into MSO. E-Commerce efforts are very very weak compared to retail competitors. And I can't swallow the whole real estate thing. If the property is so valuable, why bother continuing to operate stores? Just liquidate the properties and show the investors what you've been promising for the last 5 years. I see a lot of vacant K-Marts in this part of the country and there's not much demand for any of them. PE of nearly 24? Time to smash this jack-o-lantern.

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Avatar Allstar13913 (99.94) Submitted: 2/10/07 8:15 PM

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You make several great points. I look at this stock much like I look at BAM. I believe Eddie Lampert intends to use it as a holding company in a Berkshire Hathaway type model.

Lampert's hedgefund is way too expensive for the average investor, so I believe many people, myself included would buy SHLD in hopes that he uses that knowledge to work here.

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Avatar kristm (99.89) Submitted: 3/08/07 6:02 PM

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BHK has investments in shoes, insurance, carpet, candy, food service, insurance, airplanes, soda, energy, and more - much of it overseas. (Did I mention insurance? I think i did.) SHLD has some arguably valuable property and a bunch of run-down domestic stores that become less popular by the quarter. I don't really see a lot of similarity here. Putting the word "Holdings" in the company name doesn't necessarily make it a holding company, much less a good one.

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Avatar kristm (99.89) Submitted: 8/04/07 6:29 PM

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If I had a dollar for every time I saw a CAPS posting comparing SHLD to BRK I could buy the company myself. Let's just get this out of the way now, once and for all: SEARS HOLDINGS IS NOT AND WILL NEVER BE ANYTHING RESEMBLING OR APPROACHING BERKSHIRE HATHAWAY.

People have speculated for years that Lambert will sell the real estate and make a profit, buy some other company and make a profit, or somehow change consumer tastes and cause sales to increase at the existing stores. But he hasn't done any of that. If he would or could, don't you think he would have by now? Commercial property prices are sliding, why sell stores now? And at this point there's so much LAMBERT MAGIC ACT expectation built into the stock it wouldn't go up by much even if he DID finally do something with it.

*whew* I feel better now.

Someone else on CAPS suggested that Lambert will wait for the market to drop and buy out another retailer to combine with SHLD. I posted this in response:

"Making acquisitions of what? More empty, undesirable, unsellable retail stores in bad locations? Maybe he should start some kind of holding company that can make a profit from the weeds growing up through cracks in abandoned K-Mart parking lots."

My left butt cheek has a better chance of being the next Berkshire-Hathaway than SHLD does.

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Avatar joeykid13 (82.07) Submitted: 1/09/08 2:18 PM

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Your left butt cheek is undoubtedly a much better investment as well.

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