Archive for April, 2014
Quick Thoughts – ENR, a Roll-Up now Rolling…Down?
In conjunction with its earnings release this morning, ENR announced its intent to separate into two, separate publicly traded companies: Consumer products (batteries and lighting products) – battery category is in secular decline, excellent free cash flow profile, capital structure
Westlake – Showing/Giving Us the Money
WLK has indicated that it will place its US ethylene and pipeline assets into an MLP and has filed a registration statement for an initial public offering of the MLP. Not surprisingly the stock has reacted very favorably to the
Quick Thoughts – ADM Q1 Results
ADM reported Q1 ’14 results that were well shy of consensus this morning ($0.55 per share, adjusted, versus expectations of $0.74 per share). While a less impactful number, revenues missed consensus estimates as well. While we like ADM’s long-term positioning
Quick Thoughts: BAC – Capital Restatement is a Bitter Pill, but Expect $15bn Stock Buyback in 2015
BAC is resubmitting its 2014 (“CCAR”) capital plan to the Fed after discovering an accounting error (related to structured notes acquired with Merrill in 2009) which reduces Tier 1 common capital at December 2013 by $3.7bn and the common-equity (“CET1”)
US Natural Gas – Not Out of the Woods Yet!
US natural gas pricing remains fairly close to its 52 week high (Exhibit 1), as the very low inventories created by the cold winter are showing limited signs of rebuild (Exhibit 2). This is happening at a time in the
SSR Health New Product Approval Portfolios & Supporting Data
Please see the SSR Health YouTube channel for podcasts of recent research Drug, biotech, and research-based spec pharma stocks tend to outperform their peers in the year or so before and after regulatory actions (‘PDUFA’ dates) on major new products,
Quick Thoughts: AMZN – Are Investors Breaking their Covenant with Jeff Bezos, and Does He Care?
– For years, investors have allowed AMZN to invest potential profits into new product development, new geographies, infrastructure deployment, and now content acquisition. – This freedom has been an enormous competitive advantage, enabling AMZN’s relentless innovation and expansion in areas
Quick Thoughts: V – Cuts 2014 Revenue Guidance and Reorganizes for Merchant “Outreach”
V traded down over 4% in extended hours after delivering in-line results but lowering growth guidance for 2014 to single-digits (10-11% in constant currency with a 2% currency headwind); the firm cited weakness in cross-border volumes and a downshift in