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Posted
Sep 24 2009, 11:00 AM
by
John Reese
Money Blog: Top Stocks Blog - MSN Money
My Warren Buffett-themed Top Stocks tracking portfolio on Wall Street Survivor has been on a roll lately, having gained 9.3% in the past month (vs. 3.6% for the S&P 500) and 23.8% since I created it back in mid-June (vs. about 14% for the S&P).
A big reason why has been GPS giant Garmin (GRMN), which I wrote about in late July and which has now jumped more than 62% since joining the portfolio. But another key contributor is one you might not expect: ITT Educational Services (ESI).
Since my Buffett-based model snatched up this Indiana-based for-profit education firm in June, the stock has gained close to 20%. It is one of several for-profit education companies that have seen a major jump in profits over the past year or two, with the theory being that the deep recession and rough job market have sent many would-be job-seekers heading back to school for more training.
Now, however, fear has reared its ugly head for this industry.
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Posted
Jul 29 2009, 06:56 AM
by
John Reese
Rating:
Money Blog: Top Stocks Blog - MSN Money
 There are very few stocks that obtain 100% score based on the Warren Buffett investment model I run on Validea.com.
The strategy (outlined by Buffett's former daughter-in-law Mary in her book Buffettology) is one of the more rigorous approaches I’ve developed over the years. It combines earnings predictability measures along with balance sheet, cash flow, and expected return estimates to determine whether or not a stock gets a passing grade, and on some criteria digs back ten years into a stock's fundamentals.
The method is so rigorous that, right now, only eight of the more than 6,500 stocks that I continuously analyze on Validea.com get a top ranking of 100%. (Click here for details on Validea’s Premium Buffett screen). One of them in particular recently caught my eye -- and since I added it to my public MSN Money TopStocks Wall Street Survivor portfolio on June 15, 2009, the stock is up about 25%.
Interestingly enough, this company’s a technology firm (something that Buffett has publicly said he shies away from due to the complexities of the business and the changing competitive landscape). Given how integral a part of life technology has become, however, I let my Buffett-based algorithm roam free in search of the best ideas -- and one of those top ideas right now is Garmin (GRMN), the maker of GPS navigation, communication, and information devices and applications
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Posted
Sep 24 2008, 11:53 AM
by
Kim Peterson
Rating:
Money Blog: Top Stocks Blog - MSN Money
I thought shares of Garmin would tank today after Global Crown Capital's gloomy forecast. But no, the stock has actually risen 4% to $37.13. What gives? The Motley Fool thinks investors are zigging to GCC's zag, looking at the asset manager as some kind of contrarian indicator. Perhaps. Or maybe the forecast reminded them that Garmin's forward price-to-earnings ratio is a lowly 9, and that the stock is bouncing from a 52-week low. Here's the case laid out by Global Crown Capital
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Posted
Jul 31 2008, 10:15 AM
by
Kim Peterson
Rating:
Money Blog: Top Stocks Blog - MSN Money
Navigation device maker Garmin hit a 52-week low this week after the company said it will delay its new cell phone, called Nuvifone, until next year. Garmin had been trying to get Nuvifone out before the holidays. The company also missed expectations on quarterly sales and profit and lowered guidance for the year. As I've said before, Garmin's days as a high-flying stock are over. This company is being hammered by falling margins, economic turmoil, nimble rivals and by GPS-enabled cell phones taking away from market share. Garmin must retrench and figure out a new strategy; the question is what kind of company will it become?
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Posted
Jun 09 2008, 01:02 PM
by
Kim Peterson
Rating:
Money Blog: Top Stocks Blog - MSN Money
Why were Apple shares down Monday, with all the big iPhone news? Chalk it up to the typical storm of hype that surrounds Apple announcement. Expectations ratchet up so high that CEO Steve Jobs would have to juggle 10 iPhones on one foot to impress investors.
Apple stock was weak all day, but recovered in the final hour of trading. It closed down 2.2% on heavy volume to $181.61. Here's how Apple's news affected other stocks:
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Posted
Jun 09 2008, 10:51 AM
by
Kim Peterson
Rating:
Money Blog: Top Stocks Blog - MSN Money
The iPhone is nearly a year old, and with only 6 million sold Apple isn't close to its goal of selling 10 million this year. That's about to change, because the iPhone is getting an upgrade.
And I'm not talking about just the phone itself. Apple's building a universe of applications, games and other features that could be just as important. The company is again setting a new standard for cell phones.
Another selling point: Apple is dropping the iPhone's price to $200 for an 8GB model and $300 for a 16GB version. But the biggest news of the day is a new iPhone that runs on 3G technology, which makes Web browsing much faster. The phones also have built-in GPS, which is sending Garmin shares down 5% so far. The new iPhone is due out July 11.
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Posted
Apr 30 2008, 10:20 AM
by
Kim Peterson
Rating:
Money Blog: Top Stocks Blog - MSN Money
Garmin's days as a high-flying stock are over. Shares are down 11% today, hitting a two-year low after the company reported weak first-quarter profit and sales numbers. The quarter wasn't bad -- profit rose nearly 6% and sales were up 35% -- but analysts were simply expecting more. Garmin shares have dropped 66% in the last six months. Garmin put on a happy face with the earnings, noting that "the global economic slowdown has impacted companies across the board." Executives also said that the first quarter is usually the slowest in terms of sales. But CFO Kevin Rauckman acknowledged that economic conditions are bringing some risk to future growth. Garmin has said it expects $4.5 billion in revenue this year, which one analyst said now "looks like quite a reach at this stage."
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Posted
Apr 01 2008, 12:18 PM
by
Kim Peterson
Rating:
Money Blog: Top Stocks Blog - MSN Money
This was supposed to be a big week for Garmin. The satellite navigation leader tried to make a splash at the CTIA wireless trade show in Las Vegas yesterday by announcing big deals with MapQuest and Google. Yet investors greeted the news with a collective frown: Shares are down 10% from last week and 40% from the beginning of the year.
It didn't help that on Friday a Stanford Group analyst began covering Garmin with a "sell" rating. The analyst said something that's been weighing on investors' minds for some time: Handsets and mobile phones with GPS capabilities are a growing threat. Yes, Garmin is developing its own GPS phone, the Nuvifone, but sales may underwhelm, the analyst said. Garmin shares fell nearly 5% after the report came out.
Garmin isn't alone here. The overall navigation device market is suffering. Shares of SiRF Technology, which makes chips for navigation devices, are starting to recover after the company cut its Q1 sales forecast last week and announced layoffs. There are fears that SiRF is losing market share to Broadcom, which isn't so specialized in the GPS market. SiRF shares are down 79% from the start of the year.
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Posted
Mar 13 2008, 11:02 AM
by
Kim Peterson
Rating:
Money Blog: Top Stocks Blog - MSN Money
Jonathan Goldberg seems like a glass-half-empty kinda guy. The Deutsche Bank analyst has been checking in with retailers for weeks about consumer electronics sales, and many companies told him they "have yet to see an impact" in earnings from any economic slowdown. Sounds great, right? Nope, Goldberg interprets that to mean the worst is yet to come. "The increase in gas prices and difficulties in home financing will have to reduce consumer spending, and as this becomes apparent to companies we will face a round of missed quarters and lowered guidance," he wrote in a note to investors. Goldberg cut price targets today on four companies: GPS device maker Garmin, wireless chipmaker Atheros, wireless networking hardware maker Netgear and mobile content maker Glu Mobile. Shares of all four companies are down today, and Glu Mobile seeing the worst drop of nearly 9%.
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Posted
Feb 20 2008, 12:23 PM
by
Robert Walberg
Rating:
Money Blog: Top Stocks Blog - MSN Money
One of the most annoying, difficult-to-understand occurences on Wall Street for the average investor is when a company reports a blow-out quarter and the stock takes a dive. It goes against logic to see and hear good news about the stock you own, only to watch it take a beating from the marketplace after the release. Today's whipping boy was navigational device maker Garmin.
The stock tumbled more than 7% in active trading for the crime of beating fourth-quarter estimates by a wide margin, guiding fiscal 2008 revenue and earnings above Street projections and announcing that the board approved the repurchasing of 5 million shares. If that doesn't leave you scratching your head and wondering what on earth it takes to drive a stock higher in today's climate I don't know what will.
I mean the company sold almost as many portable navigation devices in the fourth quarter of 2007 (5.5 million) as it did in all of 2006! This is a firm with incredible sales and earnings momentum. Point in fact; the company has now beaten The Street in eight of the last nine quarters.
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