Hottest links for Wednesday November 27th, 2013 the late edition (see Tuesday’s edition of hottest links). Get our free daily newsletter (which HAS BEEN RECENTLY UPDATED) and never miss a single linkfest. Also, now if you sign up you will get our new e-book on value investing.
Top stories for today are included below. Today we’re looking at a very interesting stock, TGS Nopec, Qualcomm’s overlooked competitive advantage, more ideas about value through dividends, and of course, a couple shots at Rob Ford. Woven throughout the day’s financial narrative is talk of an impending bubble – can the past predict the future? Experts weigh in below.
Hottest Links: Stories
Value Investing
TGS Nopec – an “Outsider” Company Buffett would buy if he could?
TGS NOPEC GEOPHYSICA (OTCMKTS:TGSNY), a Norwegian/US based Oil service company is a stock which was mentioned to me by a good friend and very good investor already several times over the last 2 years. Up until now, I didn’t really had the motivation to dig into it as I do not know much about oil companies in general. [Memyselfandi, ValueAndOpportunity]
Introducing ModernGraham Stocks & Screens
You’ve read the ModernGraham Valuations, now you can easily review them and see a number of different screens! Starting this month, you can purchase a copy of ModernGraham Stocks & Screens. [Benjamin Clark, ModernGraham]
Qualcomm’s Competitive Advantages Are Too Numerous To Ignore
QUALCOMM, Inc. (NASDAQ:QCOM) is a value in plain sight because it is misunderstood by investors, and for good reason: Two thirds of its revenue comes from the semiconductor segment. [Vitaliy Katsenelson, Institutional Investor]
Risky Investment Vehicle With High Yields Gains Prominence
Despite being around for years, these companies are suddenly hot. They are essentially publicly traded private equity vehicles, but they are different than companies like the The Blackstone Group L.P. (NYSE:BX) or the Carlyle Group LP (NASDAQ:CG), where investors own shares in the management companies and not in the funds themselves. [Steven M. Davidoff, DealBook] Related; Business development companies may not get as much attention as big name stocks, but they have are an important way for investors to gain exposure to middle-market companies. [Michael Idle, ValueWalk]
Avante Logixx: Not Your Average Security Company
Avante Logixx Inc (CVE:XX) has carved out its niche in the security industry by a relentless focus on customer service and cutting-edge technology. Subscribers to Avante’s rapid response offering are serviced from a 24-hour control center from which a licensed security operative can be dispatched to their premise in 6 minutes in case of an alarm. [Mackie, Moatology]
Warren Buffett and Time-Horizon Arbitrage
Buffett must have had those words in mind when he and private-equity firm 3G Capital offered to buy out H.J. Heinz Company (NYSE:HNZ) for a hefty 20% premium to market value. At the time (not too long ago), consumer staples stocks were widely thought to be expensive. [Samuel Lee, Yahoo Finance]
Funds
A Mutual Fund That’s More Than 50% in Cash?
At 64.7% in cash, Eric Cinnamond, manager of the ASTON/River Road Independent Value Fund Class N (MUTF:ARIVX), acknowledged being “extremely frustrated,” but believes he is doing the right thing for investors in his fund. [Brendan Conway, Focus On Funds]
David Rosenberg Turns Bullish, Earns $3.1 Million
In early 2013, many were mystified when one of the most vocal deflationists, and hence stock market bears, David Rosenberg, turned furiously bullish. Just what was the motive behind this transformation many wondered? [Tyler Durden, Zero Hedge] Related; David Rosenberg: The case for staying totally invested November 25, 2013 David Rosenberg Displayed with permission from Financial Post Stop worrying about Fed tapering, says Gluskin-Sheff’s chief economist. Here’s why the conditions for a bear market are not in place. [National Post, ValueWalk]
A New Market for Hedge Funds
For individuals to be legally allowed to invest with hedge funds, they must be deemed to be “accredited investors.” The SEC estimates that approximately 8.7 million US households (or 7.4% of all US households) fall into the accredited investor category. [Sam Madden, Institutional Investor]
Bitcoin vs. South Seas Stock
This is just for fun, I have no idea if or when the bitcoin train will ever get derailed. You could compare this to any speculation that has gone parabolic, I just like ones that are over 200 years old. Chart 1 is actual bitcoin and South Sea Stock values plotted with SS peak lined up with current BC data. [Mebane Faber]
Everyone Was Talking About A Stock Bubble
We can only assume that the same pundits that somehow are getting airtime now, were the same ones who said in the summer of 2007 when the S&P had hit its prior, non-QE assisted all time high, that just because everyone is talking about a bubble there can’t possibly be a bubble… [Tyler Durden, Zero Hedge]
Greece gains
Greece gains from demotion to emerging market status [Robin Wigglesworth, FT]
Misc
Google Plus will get your children murdered
Google Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) has been busily linking all your accounts to your true identity through Google Plus and as far as they can insisting on real names. Today I was mapping out some mining operations controlled by people I believe to be fraudsters. I saved a Google map and by default Google made this public. This is (a) business critical and (b) as I may be mapping frauds conducted by organized crime might result in death threats or worse. [John Hempton, Bronte Capital]
S.E.C. Takes Aim at Swiss Company
The Securities and Exchange Commission announced a pair of enforcement actions on Tuesday, accusing a Swiss company of bribery and a Detroit money market fund of fraud. [Rachel Abrams And Ben Protess, DealBook]
How to find shares that pay a reliable dividend
The first step to finding shares from companies that can pay a reliable dividend in the future is pretty straight forward: Look for companies that already have a long and unbroken history of dividends payments in the past, backed up by consistent profits. [John Kingham, UK Value Investor]
Thoughts on Messrs. Gidfar and Hultgren
On Oct. 30, the House of Representatives passed the Swaps Regulatory Improvement Act, a bill sponsored by Representative Randy Hultgren of Illinois. The vote on H.R. 992 was not close: 292 yea and 122 nay, and the matter is now before the Senate’s Banking Committee. [Christopher Faille, AllAboutAlpha.com]
Idea Velocity. What I Learned From SAC
SAC, the infamous hedge fund led by mercurial, secretive, super art collector Stevie Cohen is legendary. They have recently been accused of insider trading and it sure looks like they are guilty. But there are a lot of very smart people that worked there that had nothing to do with this scandal. [DASAN888]
CNBC Core Viewership Drops To Fresh Two Decade Low In November
Lately, the CNBC management team and show producers, and certainly the Comcast C-suite, have been engaged in a flurry of activity: from the departure of the iconic money honey Maria Bartiromo, to the retention of virtually every nubile (and not so nubile) Bloomberg TV anchor. [Tyler Durden, Zero Hedge]
Investors Intelligence
Investors Intelligence Survey Percent Bears [Screencast] Related; Another day, another article comparing today’s lofty social media valuations to the 1999 tech stock bubble. The problem with all these articles is that the 1990s were much crazier than people remember. [Matthew Yglesias, Slate]
Paper Tiger Becomes “Tony the Tiger:” They’re Grrrreat!
What am I talking about? Well, it has been a really bad month for the global accounting firms (GAFS). First, Deloitte gained notoriety by receiving one of the largest civil penalties ever imposed by the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB). [Anthony Catanach, Grumpy Old Accountants]
Hottest Links: Not The Onion
‘This isn’t Toronto,’ sheriff says after U.S. mayor’s drug arrest
A Florida sheriff has highlighted the arrest of a local politician on drug charges with a statement that appears to reference the scandal involving embattled Toronto Mayor Rob Ford. [CBCnews]
