• The Hedge Fund Wives
    Posted by on April 10th, 2007 at 1:23 pm

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    Haven’t you always wondered about the wives and girlfriends of hedge fund managers? Gee, I know I have. Forunately, we have New York, the magazine, to fill us in:

    2. Anne Dias Griffin
    36, wife of Kenneth Griffin
    French-born Dias Griffin graduated summa cum laude from Harvard Business, and cut her teeth at Goldman Sachs in London before founding the $55 million Chicago-based Aragon Global Management, one of the largest hedge funds managed by a woman. She and her husband gave $19 million to the Art Institute of Chicago—the site of one of their first dates—for a modern-art wing designed by Renzo Piano.

    The FT’s Alphaville says that this comes “close to the boundaries of good taste.” Well, it’s not like they listed the boyfriends of top hedgettes.

  • NASDAQ lists most IPOs since 2000
    Posted by on April 10th, 2007 at 1:17 pm

    Interesting:

    The Nasdaq Stock Market, Inc. listed 42 initial public offerings in the first quarter, including National CineMedia Inc., the largest year-to-date U.S. IPO.
    NASDAQ recorded its strongest first-quarter performance for IPO listings since the beginning of 2000, the New York-based exchanged announced yesterday.
    In total, NASDAQ captured 73 new listings in the first quarter.

  • Seven Straight Up Days for the Dow
    Posted by on April 10th, 2007 at 11:34 am

    The Dow has risen for the last seven sessions. Today could be day #8, but we’re currently down 3.9 points.
    The Dow last had an eight-session win streak four years ago, at the beginning of the bull market. The Dow hasn’t had a nine-session win streak in over ten years.
    In1987 when the Dow rose for the first 13 trading days of the year. Of course, we know what happened later that year.
    The Dow rallied for 12 straight days twice, once in 1929 and again in 1970. The streak in 1929 came right after a six-day win streak for a combined 18-of-19 streak. Again, we know what happened later that year.
    The record is from 1897 when the Dow rose for 14 straight days.

  • Earnings Preview: Bed Bath & Beyond
    Posted by on April 10th, 2007 at 10:47 am

    Tomorrow, Bed Bath & Beyond (BBBY) reports its fourth-quarter earnings. Like many retailers, the company’s fourth-quarter ends in February so it can take in the entire holiday shopping season. That’s a big time for BBBY. Historically, more than one-third of their profits come during the fourth quarter.
    Sales have been growing in the low double-digit rate for the past few quarters, so I’m looking for a top-line number of about $1.9 billion. That works out to about 12.7% growth which should give the company a net earnings figure of about $222 million, or roughly 78 cents a share, which is exactly what the company told us to expect. It could be slightly higher or lower, but either way the company’s results are fairly easy to forecast. Despite what many people think, the slowdown in housing doesn’t affect BBBY that much.
    The company has also warned us of a $40 million charge, or about 14 cents a share, to help employees out with the tax consequences of options grants. This came about as the part of the company’s options review.
    I also expect BBBY to give us a peak at what they expect for this year. I think the company should be able to make about $2.40 a share this year. Barron’s mentioned earlier this year that if BBBY exceeds its conservative expectations, the stock can go to the upper-$40s, which certainly seems reasonable.
    On last quarter’s conference call, the company said that it’s targeting sales and EPS growth of 10% a year. I think they’re obviously low-balling, but that’s how they do things. The other thing to watch is BBBY’s number of outstanding shares. The company has been buying back its stock at a nice pace for the past few years.
    For some reason, $43 a share has been like Krypton for this stock. Let’s hope that changes in the next few weeks.
    The AP has more.

  • Wall Strip Looks at the Refiners
    Posted by on April 10th, 2007 at 9:41 am

    Here’s a trend I wish I had spotted early on. The oil refinery stocks have been spectacular for the past five years. In today’s Wall Strip, Lindsay looks at two in particularly, Valero Energy (VLO) and Tesoro (TSO).
    From its 2002 low, Valero’s stock is up more than tenfold. Tesoro’s rise has been ever more dramatic. In October of 2002, the stock closed as low as $1.33, and it’s currently over $107.
    The good times may be coming to an end. Earnings for both stocks are expected to slip this year and next. Also, the price of oil took a big hit yesterday.

  • Buffett Goes Off the Rails
    Posted by on April 9th, 2007 at 12:45 pm

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    Warren Buffett is investing in railroads:

    Warren Buffett’s company recently invested in three railroads, and in the process, Berkshire Hathaway Inc. became the largest shareholder in the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corp., according to a company filing and a media report that the company confirmed.
    The disclosure sent Burlington Northern shares up more than 7 percent in midday trading Monday.
    Omaha-based Berkshire Hathaway revealed in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission that it owned 39 million shares of Burlington Northern as of last Thursday. The cable network CNBC reported Buffett said Berkshire had also invested in two other railroads that he declined to name.

  • The Solengo Kerfluffle
    Posted by on April 7th, 2007 at 7:40 pm

    Before the suits find out, you can download the Solengo Capital marketing piece here.
    (Hat Tip: Gary Weiss).

  • Volatility Returns! Then Leaves
    Posted by on April 5th, 2007 at 2:26 pm

    Remember how volatility finally returned on February 27? Well, it turns out that it didn’t stick around for too long.
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    Following 2/27, the S&P 500 had three +1% days and one -2% day, but in the last two weeks, the market has gone back to being as dull as usual.
    For the last ten days, the S&P 500 has had an average daily swing of 0.49%, which is just about what it did for the six months prior to 2/27.
    The Volatility Index (^VIX) is back below 13 today.

  • Danaher (DHR)
    Posted by on April 5th, 2007 at 12:45 pm

    I’m surprised more people don’t know about Danaher (DHR), especially considering how many people pay 2/20 to hedge fund managers who don’t have a prayer of beating DHR.
    Earnings will come out two weeks from today. The company has already given us a range of 75 to 77 cents a share, which probably means 77 or 78 cents a share.
    For last year’s first quarter, Danaher made 66 cents a share, so were talking about pretty good earnings growth. S&P just reported that earnings growth for the S&P 500 officially came in below 10% for fourth quarter, the first time that’s happened in 18 quarters.
    Here’s a chart of Danaher (blue line is price, black is EPS and red is the forecast):
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    The right and left axes are scaled at 20-to-1, so when the lines cross, the stock has a P/E ratio of 20.

  • The Real Estate Roller Coaster
    Posted by on April 4th, 2007 at 10:17 pm