Famous Dave's of America Inc. Message Board

Excuse me? Is there something going on here that has nothing to do with growing RTRX? Based on the perspective of this post, I can't imagine anyone wanting to invest in RTRX.

"one thing he has accomplished by not spending a dime is to further the public awareness of the price hikes QCOR did". This is an accomplishment how? I can't imagine how this helps RTRX. Is this an accomplishment for "Martin" that has nothing to do with RTRX? I don't want the CEO of my stocks spending company money to do things that benefit him but not me!

"If Martin was successful to grab the synthetic ACTH and sell it at a couple hundred bucks per vial..." What kind of businessman sells a competitor to a $28,000 drug at a couple hundred bucks? A lousy one is the only answer I can come up with. Why would I want this man as the CEO of one of my investments?

I'm not sure that experience holds with a stock that has split 6:1 this year, like SBS. Particularly when that stock, even now, is up 26% since the start of 2012 while the Brazilian market (as represented by EWZ) is down 17%. Seems like there are a lot of new shares out there people can use to take profits and move into underperformers.

I have looked at ODC and HURC before, they are up quite a bit since then on faster growth than I had expected. KTCC looks especially interesting to me, good operating leverage.

It is much harder to find interesting stocks now than a year ago! I see two general types of them, slower growth companies with nice trailing earnings and good prospects, and economically-sensitive stocks with much higher projected forward earnings. In the nice trailing earnings category I like WSTG (sort of like KTCC as a microcap in a boring subsector of tech, but with a fat dividend) and DFZ. And PERI if you are willing to accept non-GAAP accounting that ignores amortized intangibles. In the economically sensitive category, stocks like VSH, HAYN and SPN.

The price looks like it jumps around because the volume is so low and so the bid/ask spread is wide. This is a stock that really demands a limit order.

WSTG is indeed seasonal, with the weakest Q in Q1 and the strongest in Q4. But the comparisons above were year over year, and YOY is where they need to show growth. I think that is an industry problem due to weak tech spending, not WSTG itself, and figure it will change eventually.

Hey algo, are you in this too? What else looks good right now?

IMHO some of both, but more due to a bounce from an oversold situation. A weaker dollar means sales and profits overseas are worth more dollars, so that would help HES. But early in the day the dollar was quite weak already, and HES was still down almost 1%. So I think the late-day rise (on low volume) is more a part of running out of selling pressure by those who were disappointed over the way the proxy fight ended.

They give out stock bonuses, options and restricted stock too, so the total expense is the combination of the three: $300,000+132,774+367,631. See 10K Note 12. That doesn't seem too bad, they do seem to have toned it down in recent years and the total stock comp expense is dropping.

A very good article. My only quibble would be the degree to which management interests are aligned with shareholders. Just because management owns a large stake doesn't make it friendly to existing shareholders.

UFPT seems to hand out options like they are candy. The CEO has amassed 13.5% of the company during his tenure, and that's not counting the options he has converted and sold. Share count has grown dramatically, by 62% in 10 years, even though none of the additional shares seem to have been used in acquisitions. Dilution of existing shareholders is not very friendly!

Something to remember here in proxy season. Average annual diluted share count:
2002 4.343M
2004 4.995M
2006 5.571M
2008 6.263M
2010 6.749M
2012 7.028M

Value Line has always underestimated BG. Look at the average PE they assign for the period 3 to 5 years out - 10?!?

The annual dividend was recently raised to $1.20/share. Tangible book value per share is $69.65, and at today's close you could buy BG for just under that. More normal crop yields after a year of drought in the US and two in Brazil should support margins in 2013. And a new CEO is taking over TONIGHT at midnight, talking about ROIC and likely to shake some of the inertia and complacency that must have set in after 15 years with the same CEO.

Held BG off and on since 2006 and it sure looks good here.

I see lots of oil and oil services stocks up today, along with WTI. This is HES-specific.

I suppose maybe if I squint a little I can see it from Elliott's perspective. John Hess has knuckled under done almost everything they wanted except admit it wasn't his idea. And if Hess' directors had been unseated then we'd have a either a CEO (if he stayed) maybe not working well with his board or an entirely new Board and management team not really that familiar with the company.

...but down in real trading. Too many handshake deals around here. I'm not sure why Elliott caved, the NY TImes story this morning for instance indicates they were ahead in the voting. Very disappointing!

1. They paid $10.75/share for 13.949M shares on May 31, 2012.
2. You call the buyback deal convoluted, I call it smart. By structuring it as they did, they saved a 35% tax on $150M of repatriated profits. That allowed them to buy an additional 4.88M shares, about 3% of the company, with the same money. Smart!
3. VSH demonstrated eps of at least $0.47/share for 4 straight quarters during the last peak (Sept 2010 through June 2011), and that was with a diluted share count as high as 193M, compared to 150.6M currently. Look at the share counts, do the math.
4. Yes, the previous cycle was short. A longer cycle should give them both a higher peak earnings than $2.30 and a higher PE ratio on peak earnings.

From your comment, would that make you a bag holder or a dog owner? A doggy bag holder?

Sounds like a great opportunity for you to short some more, then. Good luck!

Good guidance, bright future - yep, I'm laughing at shorty all right

The time to own a cyclical company is the upswing coming out of a trough. And with a 1.14 book to bill, backlog up $72M sequentially, and the midpoint of revenue guidance 6.5% higher sequentially, the upswing coming out of the trough seems to be where we are.