The Talented Mr. Pastorini
Posted by Eddy Elfenbein on April 16th, 2007 at 3:01 pm

Here’s a fun story. Last week, Bloomberg reported that Edward Pastorini was planning to bid for Gold Fields (GFI). The Financial Times’ excellent Alphaville blog, raised some interesting questions. For example, who the fuck is Edward Pastorini? (They used “hell”—British, you know). Google had never heard of him. Alphaville also noticed that Edward Pastorini is an anagram for “Top Insider Award.” Clever, no?
Mr. Pastorini is apparently now quite upset. And what’s the best way to prove you exist? An email of course!

I challenge FTAlphaville to produce even one iota of irrefutable proof that I am not Edward Pastorini and that our offer for Gold Fields is not genuine. Send us your IRREFUTABLE PROOF. Now I hope you will have the decency to give us as much truthful coverage as you gave us negative coverall in your publications. You owe us a public apologiy [sic]. Just because we loathe the media and prefer to remain behind the scenes – with good reason when there are idiots like you out there – that does not mean that we are not genuine. We are waiting for your public apology and for your 100% irreefutable [sic] proof that I am not Edward Pastorini and that our offer for Gold Fields is not real. We’re waiting. Send us your NEW article now – or do you not ever admit your mistakes?

Varian Medical: A Smart Buy
Posted by Eddy Elfenbein on April 16th, 2007 at 1:05 pm

Varian Medical Systems (VAR) took a big hit on Friday, dropping 7.3% on news of lower revenue guidance. But the stock’s defenders are coming out in full force. Joshua Lipton of Forbes noted the positive views of many analysts:

In a client note, Citigroup analyst Amit Bhalla wrote that while North America has not displayed signs of weakness in past quarters, the results do appear explainable.
The North America miss, Bhalla wrote, was due to timing of customer buying patterns and had the quarter been one week longer, orders would have been $20 million higher and total North America oncology net orders would have been flat, instead of down 10%.
Bhalla said, “As was the case in Europe last quarter, the company does not believe that it has lost orders to competitors in North America and we believe this to be the case as well.”
Bhalla maintained a “buy” rating on the shares. He lowered his price target by $2 to $60.
Standard & Poor’s Equity Research analyst Robert Gold also continued to believe that Varian is a wise buy.
In a client note, Gold wrote that he was disappointed by the 10% decline in U.S. oncology orders.
“However, we believe an increased size of average orders, and a slightly more competitive market are extending the selling cycle a bit and have pushed some booking into the third-quarter,” Gold wrote.
He said that he still sees full fiscal 2007 revenues of about $1.8 billion and earnings per share of $1.83. He maintained a “strong buy” opinion on the shares.

The S&P 500 Hits 6-1/2 Year High
Posted by Eddy Elfenbein on April 16th, 2007 at 10:33 am

So much for the Shanghai Surprise from seven weeks ago. The market has now made up everything it lost, and is at a fresh 6-1/2 year high. The index is still over 4% from the all-time reached in 2000. The good news is that the S&P is inches away from being in the black for the decade (and century and millennium).

Tom Wolfe Leads Off for Portfolio
Posted by Eddy Elfenbein on April 16th, 2007 at 9:45 am

Tom Wolfe looks at the New Masters of the Universe:

While fathers all over America tend to become overzealous, even violent, these days in trying to turn their children into little sports superstars, in Greenwich a father who is one of these people will try to take control of every element in a game: his child’s teammates, their coach, the opposing team’s coach, its players, and most definitely the referees. In a famous instance, one of these people came to watch his teenage daughter play in an ice hockey game against a team from neighboring Port Chester, New York, a town known in Greenwich as the place where one’s plumbers, electricians, computer swamis, roofers, glaziers, air-conditioning mechanics, wall-to-wall-carpet humpers, and household servants live. The man began bellowing so loudly, nobody at the rink could shut out the sound. He upbraided the referees for their poor eyesight and worse judgment. He told his daughter’s coach how to play her and all her teammates and kept him abreast of his mistakes in strategy. He scolded the Port Chester coach and the players for their incessant cheating and malicious roughness. Finally a Port Chester player, a big girl, an Amazon on ice, skated to the stands, charged up the stairs on her skates, and accosted the Mouth, putting her gloved fist six inches from his face and saying, “If you don’t shut the fuck up, I’m gonna come back and beat the shit outta you!” He shut up. The tales are endless: the hedge fund founder desperate to get his son into one of Greenwich’s socially swell private schools who clips a six-figure check to the first page of the application, witlessly forcing the school to reject both his son and his check or lose all credibility—

Geoffrey Raymond’s Latest
Posted by Eddy Elfenbein on April 16th, 2007 at 9:34 am

I’m not sure what to say about this, but here’s Geoffrey Raymond describing his latest painting of Maria Bartiromo.

Happy 300th Leonhard Euler
Posted by Eddy Elfenbein on April 15th, 2007 at 3:28 pm

The Washington Post has more on the “Mozart of Mathematics.”

Fama Factors Out French: “I Did All The Work”
Posted by Eddy Elfenbein on April 15th, 2007 at 3:25 pm

At long last, we now know the truth:

After 15 years of sharing the credit for groundbreaking research with Ken French, Eugene Fama is on a mission to expose his former colleague, and himself. The result is an alarming behind-the-scenes look at how academic careers are made and broken.
“I hired Ken French in 1990 when he was a driving instructor in Winnetka. Chicago was pressuring me to partner with another researcher; I couldn’t stand the idea so I hired a stooge. The man has never contributed a single idea to my research, and yet his name is constantly mentioned in the same breath as mine. On top of it all, the American Finance Association has nominated him as president-elect! That’s a travesty and I won’t have it.”

2007 Wharton Economic Summit
Posted by Eddy Elfenbein on April 13th, 2007 at 7:58 am

Not much blogging today. I’ll be in Philadelphia at the 2007 Wharton Economic Summit.
It’s sort of like Davos, except the odds of being car-jacked are a lot higher. Wish me luck.

Brady Quinn on Power Lunch
Posted by Eddy Elfenbein on April 12th, 2007 at 12:12 pm

Sue Herera adores him.

JOSB Down 8%
Posted by Eddy Elfenbein on April 12th, 2007 at 11:10 am

JoS. A. Bank Clothiers (JOSB) is down sharply today on a poor same-store sales report:

Men’s clothing retailer JoS. A. Bank Clothiers Inc. said Thursday that its same-store sales grew 1.4 percent in March, but missed analysts’ expectations.
Analysts polled by Thomson Financial were looking for a same-store sales increase of 2.7 percent for the month.
Same-store sales, or sales at stores open at least a year, are a key measure of retailer (or restaurant) performance, because they measure growth at existing stores rather than from newly opened ones.
Total sales for the period ended April 7 climbed 10.1 percent to $45.7 million from $41.5 million in the year-ago period.
Quarter-to-date, same-store sales were up 2 percent while total sales were ahead 11.8 percent to $84.1 million versus $75.2 million in the prior-year period.