Friday, February 17, 2006

Sirius Satellite Radio (Nasdaq:SIRI) Masks Lack of Profits

Sirius Satellite Radio recently announced quarterly and year end results in breathless manner. The spin was all on record growth. The company has not been around long enough to bench mark records. The nitty gritty of actual profit and loss were well buried in the press release. I know it’s a big start up but when you are afraid to look at the profits you miss the necessary focus. The real question is when will profitability be achieved. Investors do not care if you have one subscriber or tens of millions. They will want profits.

Thursday, February 16, 2006

Dow & Rockwell Silent on Loss of largest Environmental Class Action Lawsuit in Colorado History

Dow (NYSE:DOW) and Rockwell (NYSE:COL) lose the largest environmental class action lawsuit in Colorado history and remain silent. The two corporate giants are now both on the hook for a cool $500 million. The plaintiff issued their press release yesterday mid afternoon. Dow and Rockwell are still silent. $500 million settlements must still fall under Reg FD. (If only to say that you will appeal in some manner.)

Applied Material (Nasdaq:AMAT) Share repurchase Program

Mark Splinter President and CEO of Applied Material announces most recent results. What is striking is the $500 million spent on share repurchase and only $48 million spent on dividends. Clearly a ten to one ratio-favoring share repurchase. Does this mean that they are afraid to commit to a real and substantial dividend?

Oracle buys Hot Sip

Thomas Kurian SVP Oracle server Technologies announces the purchase of Hot Sip a Swedish provider of Telcom Infrastructure Technologies. The deal was good enough to announce but no financial details so it is impossible to assess the impact. Even the normal superlatives were in short supply. What to make of this?

Wednesday, February 15, 2006

NYSE Upgrades Surveillance Productivity

NYSE upgrades their regulatory surveillance. Check out the article at http://www.securitiesindustry.com/midweek.cfm?articleid=16928 for more information. When you start to give regulators and surveillance staff productivity tools you know there is a problem; a really big problem.

Need to Start a Lawsuit?

Need to sue someone or better still sue a company who you feel has not acted properly. Check out www.blbglaw.com I am not necessarily plugging the firm but their web site has good links and info.

It Gets Better with Coke (NYSE:KO)

Coca Cola (NYSE:KO) It all goes better with a coke? Unions are very upset and rocking the boat. Bottlers are very upset and rocking the boat? Warren Buffet and Mr. Reinhart will be vacating their seats on the Board. Mr. Buffet says he is holding on to his investment. Both resignations probably were not surprises to Coca Cola. So why are these seats to remain vacant at this critical juncture?

Dollar Tree Guess Work (Nasdaq:DLTR)

Dollar Tree (Nasdaq:DLTR) recently issued sales and margin figures and promises to issue actual earnings in a few weeks. You can drive a truck through this process. The question will be which way is the truck headed. Releasing sales before profits only helps strategic guessing.

Tuesday, February 14, 2006

Nymox Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:NYMY) touts its own paid for research!

Nymox Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq:NYMY) recently issued a press release touting they three analysts have issued buy recommendations. Nymox neglects to point out the three analyst firms are “paid for” and therefore are not what you might expect from a third party. The issue of paid for research continues to vex the investment world. By the way Nymox some of the reports are really old anyway and its time to update them.

Monday, February 13, 2006

Weekend Follies (Feb 11-12, 2006)

Weekend follies has found eight culprits this weekend. We are skeptical of companies that issued substantive business news at odd ball hours over the weekend. The six Nasdaq stocks are Dov Pharmaceuticals (DOVP), Columbia Bank (COLB), Max Re Capital Ltd (MXRE), Abigail Adams National Bancorp (AANB), Arden Group (ARDNA), and FN Financial Services Group (FNBF). Two culprits on the NYSE Tortoise North American Energy Corp (TYN) and Unisource Energy (UNS).