Barrons - 09/17/2007 notes - "A Beter Bet Than Apple"

Cover refers to Nokia (NOK) - better margins, products, cheaper, etc. But poor presence in the US contributes to it not being that loved

Health care stocks might be a good value. I already trade options on HNT, but here are a few other possibilities:

• CI - Cigna
• HUM - Humana
• MOH - Molina

Other stocks mentioned

• John Deere (DE, $147) - good corn crop
• Altria (MO, $70) - Int'l spin off sounds good. Will keep a 5%+ yield.

Put selling

• Goldman's people like selling puts on T, JNJ, PEP
• This week, big bull spread on MS - bought 6,000 Jan 65 calls and sold 12,000 Jan 70 calls
  

Speaking of Dividends:

• McDonalds (MCD, $55)
  
• boosted it to about 2.7%
• Paccar (PCAR, $90) -
  
• dividend has grown 20% annually over past 10 years
• stock has split 5x since 1997
• 13 special dividends since mid 1990 (last was $2/share in January)
• Zenith National Insurance (ZNT, $45)
  
• yielding 4.5%, 2nd boost this year
  
• 7th hike in 3.5 years

Where is Oil Headed? Contrarian say $45

• Mike Rothman ISI group
• What happens when hedge funds unwind all at once
• Demand growth is slower than we think
• Saudis can supply a lot more than we think (3 big fields coming online)
• Khursaniyah - Q3 2007
• Nuayyim - 2008
• Khurais - 2009
  

Notes from Labor Day 2007

Catching up on reading this week. Here are some things to check out

www.barrons400.com - Barrons came out w/ an index of 400 stocks they feel should do better than the market

Christopher Wood

• Writes a weekly letter called Greed & Fear, which might not be publically available, but can be found here: http://ftalphaville.ft.com/blog/?s=christopher+wood
• Called the subprime alarm in 2005.
  
• Saw the Nasdaq crest in early 2000.
  
• Currently works for CLSA (HK brokerage).
• Has a booked called "Boom and Bust: The Rise and Fall of World Financial Markets".
  

Bond Insurers might be a good buy. WSJ. People extrapolate (lack of transparency) current bad news really far into the future (similar to RE stocks after Katrina)

• Assured Guaranty (AGO)
• MBIA (MBI)
• Ambac Financial Group (ABK)

Banco Compartamos -

• Mexican bank w/ an ROE of 50%;
  
• Specializes in Microfinance
• Listed on the Mexican exchange. Maybe can be bought on pink sheets.
  

Pasadena (Lexington Heights) home tour - 5/27/07

www.historichighlands.org

6 homes on highland (between michigan and holliston; new york and washington)

ODMAX substitutions

From 8/14/06 Barrons

Substitution for ODMAX

• Opp Real Asset
• Opp Int'l Small Company
• HRTVX

Barrons - 7/24/06

From 7/24/06 Barrons

- Is it time for Large Cap Value (?)

- Monitor the P/E of homebuilders and railroads

- Watch YHOO (20% drop in one day, to $25) in one month (on 5/21/07, price is about $30, so money could be made

- www.instantbull.com (grabs headlines from the following)
- finance.yahoo.com
- ragingbull.com
- siliconinvestor.com

- freemoneyfinance.com (blog)
- diamond hill long-short fund (20% 1 yr)
- insiderscore.com (subscription)

- EGN

• Utility that owns natural gas
• Free call option on Floyd shale (Alabama)
• Authorized 15% buyback
• (on 5/12/07, up 50% - doh!)

Kiplingers 8/06

7/15/06

From 8/06 Kiplingers

www.valueforum.com

Yield stocks

• ald - allied capital
• tma - thornburg mortgage
• tankers
• atb - arlington
• dht - double hull
• gstl - genco shipping
• ssw - seaspan
• oil/gas
• bpt (bp prodhoe - doh!)
• cvx - 3.5%

FPPTX - FPA capital - no losing yr since 1984 (?)

Coal -

• - btu
• - cnx (consol)
• - nrp (natural resource partners)

5/23/06 - Barrons

From 5/08/06 Barrons
- BVN - compania de minas buenaventura (peru au/ag)
- yzc - yanzhou coal