It has been an interesting 24 hours for fertilizer stocks, to say the least. Yesterday, Dan Loeb said in an investment letter that his firm had taken a stake in CF Industries (CF), North America’s largest nitrogen fertilizer manufacturer. The
In recent research we have discussed the problems of a too complex portfolio, in detail with regard to the difficulties investors have in understanding and valuing a complex story and in passing about the management challenge of trying to drive
We know it is the busiest day of corporate earnings, but there is more data out there than just EPS. For example, new home sales (yesterday) rose 8.3% in June versus May to 497,000, the highest level since May ’08.
Looking through a number of earnings releases and transcripts this week and listening to several of the calls, the overwhelming factor that grabs our attention is the total lack of any expectation of industrial growth anywhere in the world in
Last week, we suggested that we were having a tough time finding value in the restaurant group given what we saw as an unappealing combination of “full” multiples across the sector and aggressive revenue and EPS expectations. We also suggested
While commenting on quarterly results is something that we, as a firm, don’t do a heck of a lot of, we see value in highlighting data points from the various releases that are interesting and relevant to our broader thematic
Gross of subsidies, and controlling for medical cost inflation, 2014 individual premiums for the cheapest plan option in the California market are substantially (average 63%) higher than for the cheapest option in the current market. We believe much of the
The NY Times’ interesting expose on the Aluminum “Middle Men” and how much money they make by simply holding inventory and moving it around, illustrates a couple of things. It shows how an exchange can be misused, relative to its
We expect 3.1% (nominal) y/y growth in US health services demand during 2Q13, the product of 1.6% growth in unit demand, and 1.4% price growth. Unit demand growth remains very slow; the projected 1.6% rate is essentially equal tothe inherent
The July 17th movement in DD was driven by a disclosure that activist investor Nelson Peltz was building a stake in the company. In our research on DD earlier in the year, we highlighted a general discount in the stock
