Office Depot Inc (NYSE:ODP)

Think the merger of Office Max and Office Depot will help with turnaround.

Merger

Second time to the plate on this one. Office Depot has rallied sharply from under $2 over the past few months on the sale of asset and rumors of a take-private acquisition. I still think this one is destined to join Circuit City, Blockbuster, Borders and others in the retail graveyard.

Office depot is becoming more irrelevant because people can just order online for much cheaper.

Long-term debt to equity is .88.

Their pre-tax margin is .4, in an industry average of 4.7.

Also, my personal experience at these stores has always been terrible. Regardless of the area I'm in, the Office Depot is always very empty, and the employees are very unenthusiastic.

In real life I never short stocks under $10 as a risk / reward rule of thumb. This is one of those dead business model shorts (Blockbuster comes to mind) that you could see coming from a mile away and. I kick myself for missing out on this one in real life. Lets look at some numbers here

Yes they are trading for near their cash value. But they are burning through cash at an incredible rate. Where is at all that cash going? Well NASCAR sponsorships are expensive ya know?

Advertising is theoretically supposed to drive revenue. I am not seeing this NASCAR sponsorhip equating to driving the revenue line. Take a look at the sales numbers if you so desire.

Overall this is a dead long term business model. Not that I'm Mr. Amazon but as Bob Dylan Said "the times are a changing"

Keeps up to date in technological gadgets

There's something vaguely depressing about these stores.

Office Depot has a better relationship with it's customers. Just personal experience and looking at Facebook commentary for a all three -Staples, Office Max and Office Depot. People vehemently hate Staples, frustrated with Office Max, but seem to love Office Depot. At $2.13 a share, it's worth a couple hundred dollars of investment. Plus I like them. I'm always treated well when I am in the store. I like their customer loyalty program (that's why I stopped going to Staples), I always find a good deal, I like their ink cartridge recycling and refurbished ink cartridges and I'd personally like to see them succeed.

Never underestimate the power of customer satisfaction and word of mouth.

weak company, but it is priced like it is bankrupt.
Price can't stay this low forever, and at $2 it could double and still be a value stock. Heck, it could quadruple and still qualify.

Evaluating a screen. Feel free to ignore.

Soon to be added to the heaping pile of big-box carnage

Betting on election year. Bigger demand for Office
Supplies. There global enterprise will continue to grow.
I am betting price appreciation to $3.49 to $3.80 2012
by August. Looking to add 100 shares to my portfolio.
Short sweet gain. January should find a good entry point. $2.

testing louis navellier's 32 stocks to sell now.

oversold

This stock will definitely under-perform over the next 5 years. This is a dying company, anybody who buys this stock is just plain stupid. Cash flow has been decreasing significantly over the past 10 years. Debt is slowly increasing. Overall everything is getting worse and worse. Eventually the company will be bought out, or it will have to declare bankruptcy.

Tax screw-up hammered stock providing a buying opportunity. Should benefit from general recovery in economy. Stock price does not reflect value of the parts of the business, including the Mexican operations. Possible takeover target. Not too much risk at these levels.

I like the store, but like the story says, it is often empty of customers. Too bad.

strong buy

With the economy, more small businesses will need to leverage companies like this. However they need to get their customer service act together.