ValueWalk Staff

Yesterday after market close, The Procter & Gamble Company (NYSE:PG) announced A.G. Lafley is rejoining the company as Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer, effective immediately. Mr. Lafley who served in these roles from 2000 to 2009 will succeed Bob McDonald, who is retiring from the company on June 30, 2013. At this point, it is unclear to what degree Mr. Lafley will prove an interim CEO, overseeing a near-term succession plan, or if he will stay on more permanently. Investors seem happy with the move sending shares are up 3.8 percent currently. The announcement has been called a big win for The Procter & Gamble Company (NYSE:PG) investor Bill Ackman. Little insight was given about the future on the conference call, below is a transcript of the entire call on which only CFO Jon Moeller spoke. Good morning, everybody. And thanks for joining us on short notice. I want to warn you, this will be a very short call. But I felt it was important, given the announcement we made yesterday, that we, at least, touch base with you, you are obviously a very important constituency. I only have three points I want to provide you with this morning, first this
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Most investors conceive of and monitor Sears Holdings Corp (NASDAQ:SHLD) as a single unified entity. However, in reality Sears is an accumulation of many pieces, including 1,211 Kmart stores, 851 Sears stores, Lands’ End, Sears Canada, Sears Service, and brands like Kenmore, Craftsman and DieHard notes Credit Suisse in a report this morning. The analysts state ‘over the last few years Eddie Lampert has been slowly dismembering the corporation, taking pieces out much as players pull out pieces of a Jenga game, hoping the overall structure does not collapse’. Credit Suisse believe what happened this quarter, and what we are likely to see in the future, is that too many pieces have been removed, which in turn is reducing the strength of the core, and suggesting that further actions will weaken it even more. At one point, unfortunately, the volumes and productivity of the remaining stores point to margins staying weak or weakening. Further details from the Credit Suisse report below: Eddie Lampert Blames ‘Tax Refunds, Cold weather, etc.’ for Weak Sears Sales Both Sears and Kmart stores suffer from low productivity. Yes it is a large company, but sales are spread out over more than 2,500 stores and productivity is very
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Sears Holdings Corp (NASDAQ:SHLD)  reported earnings today which overall disappointed investors, and sent shares down 12 percent in after hours trading. Eddie Lampert rarely speaks, but now that he is CEO of Sears he is forced to a bit. Lampert on the conference call called the results poor and unacceptable but cited Tax Refunds, Cold weather, etc.’ as factors impacting the results.  Joining other fellow hedge fund managers, Lampert threw in a line blaming Bernanke’s low interest rates for poor returns by the company’s pension. Below we have some comments from the famous investor on Sears Holdings Corp (NASDAQ:SHLD) results for the quarter. Eddie Lampert on Sears Holdings Corp (NASDAQ:SHLD) Conference call   I would now like to turn the call over to our chairman and CEO Eddie Lampert. Eddie Lampert opening remarks Our first-quarter 2013 financial performance is not acceptable. A company of our size and with our assets should be generating a significant process profit. As an investor, I follow our industry very closely and have benchmarked our performance against our competitors. During the first quarter of 2013, many of our competitors have noticed a certain macro factors that impacted our industry, their businesses and our business. Colder weather parts of the country,
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After a long and harsh spell of winter, US investors can find solace in spring which holds nothing less than a solid promise for some retailers. Auto parts retailers such as AutoZone, Inc. (NYSE:AZO), O’Reilly Automotive Inc (NASDAQ:ORLY), and The Pep Boys – Manny, Moe & Jack (NYSE:PBY) are finding it better in spring with better than expected earnings. AutoZone (AZO) Smashed Earnings Expectations AutoZone, Inc. (NYSE:AZO) smashed earnings expectations for the latest quarter. The company recorded their 27th consecutive quarter of double digit growth in earnings per share (EPS) by registering a 6.8 percent jump in net profit to $17 million. Double digit EPS growth was made possible by its share repurchase program under which AutoZone bought back 833,000 shares during the quarter. Growth in both net income and EPS was driven by a 4.5 percent jump in revenues to $2.2 billion for the quarter ended May 4, 2013. This is on expected lines as the company earlier projected faster growth in the second half of the financial year as a severe winter was expected to drive up auto repairs. This was exactly opposite of the scenario we saw last year when warmer than usual winter caused less repairs. The
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Chris Woods of CLSA is out with his famous latest weekly commentary Greed and FEAR. Last Week, Woods discussed China and expressed doubt whether China could ever rebalance from an export oriented economy to one oriented towards the consumer. This week Woods talks about Japan, and although the report came out after the huge drop in the Nikkei that is only a side point. Below is the entire report from Greed and Fear titled Greed & Fear (More Asean and less “tapering”). Greed and FEAR Financial markets remain obsessed with the comments emanating from central bankers. Yet from the standpoint of the Federal Reserve, Ben Bernanke has not really said anything in the latest public comments to encourage hopes of normalisation of monetary policy. Rather the official line is that the pace of asset purchases under quanto easing can be both increased and reduced depending on the data. Meanwhile, real “tapering off” requires evidence of “sustained improvement” in a labour market where the major driver of the falling unemployment rate continues to be people leaving the workforce rather than jobs being generated. GREED And Fear Remains Skeptical If the above is the Fed’s official line, the ten-year US Treasury bond
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At a University of Virginia symposium in late April, Paul Tudor Jones responded to a question about why the panel only featured “rich, white, middle-aged men.” Tudor responded by saying that trading requires intense focus, which he believes many women lose when they have children. The panel featured (from left to right) U-Va. professor David Mick, Paul Tudor of Tudor Investment Corporation, Julian Robertson of Tiger Management, John Griffin of Blue Ridge Capital and moderator Jeff Walker, chairman of the U-Va. Council of Foundations. H/T LinkFest Related Paul TudorRare Interview on Philanthropy: 60 Minutes Paul Tudor Jones Rare Interview Below   'Get ValueWalk's Daily Edition By Email and Never Miss Our Top Stories'
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FOX Business Network’s (FBN) Senior Correspondent Charlie Gasparino reports that insiders from SAC Capital say that founder Steve Cohen will not be “charged criminally” and that he will “survive this” insider trading probe. Gasparino discussed further that “insiders say the fund will likely end up paying a large fine” and that’s how this investigation “might end.” One insider tells Gasparino, “things are going better than the press would have you believe.” Excerpts from the report are below. On whether SAC founder Steve Cohen will be charged criminally with insider trading: “I’ve been talking to people who deal directly with some of the senior portfolio managers in there and this is what they are telling me. They are saying that SAC -and these are from inside the company and they are telling me some investors – Steve Cohen the head of the firm the guy that received the subpoena last week the guy may face RICO charges as we’ve been reporting, will survive this. He will not – that’s the feeling internally, be charged criminally. Insiders say the fund will likely end up paying a large fine – that’s how this thing might end at least according to the insiders that
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Third Avenue on Real estate and higher interest rates A frequently asked question and topic of discussion among Third Avenue Management investment professionals is what impact rising interest rates would have on our investments and our portfolios in general. While trying to tackle this topic, as it relates to global real estate, in a single essay is a daunting task, we will attempt to explain our view on how rising interest rates might impact the global real estate markets and how some types of companies might perform in such an environment. In short, it is our view that rising interest rates would likely create some volatility in the short term (which is the friend of the value investor); but, over the long term (which is where our focus ultimately lies), could ultimately benefit certain types of companies. The big question: How will rising interest rates impact real estate values? Our answer: It depends. In fact, the impact on property values will vary greatly depending on (i) why interest rates are rising and (ii) what type of property one is talking about. If long-term interest rates spike materially due to some sort of economic crisis (e.g., a U.S. Treasury default), we have no
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Kyle Bass, Hayman Capital Management, says rational investors are starting to sell Japanese government bonds. Kyle Bass CNBC interview video and computer transcript below Transcript: holders of jgbs? again, it’s such a paradox. if the constituency believe fls the plan, which i think many people are believing. many are believing that the d.o.j. will be successful, or at least partially successful in generating some growth. then the rational investors will sell only bonds. there’s a quadrillion yen of bonds out there. it doesn’t look like the plan is big enough. so what happens from here? do you believe they will increase the plan in order to bring rates down as opposed to watching them go a bit higher. it looks like the d.o.j. had to be in the marketplace every single day trying to buy bonds to hold rates down. every day but twoe since april fourth. i think they are to make the plan bigger. kyle. youfl been talking about this for some time. the debt is 24 times the annual revenue. but in terms of your investment approach. what are you doing? where are you? what do you recommend to the viewers following you? i think the press
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Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (NYSE:GS) CEO Lloyd Blankfein sat down with Bloomberg TV anchor Erik Schatzker at the company’s annual meeting in Salt Lake City. Lloyd Blankfein said that the firm is committed to growing in China even after it ended a seven-year investment in The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (I.C.B.C.) (SHA:601398) (HKG:1398): “ICBC is not the key to our interest in China, or the big reflection of it. We’re investing in China because China — I was going to say it’s the future, but it’s a big part of the present as well.” Lloyd Blankfein said he is surprised by the lack of mergers and acquisitions this year:  “In the big transaction and M&A set, it’s still a very quiet, surprisingly quiet market…For a market in which interest rates are fairly low, rising equity prices, and as much liquidity as we know exists, deal flow is unusually low for the part of the cycle that we’re in.” Video of Lloyd Blankfein and excerpts below: Lloyd Blankfein on China and why Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (NYSE:GS) ended its investment in ICBC: “Well, first of all, catch the wave when it comes– I don’t know if you’ve been watching but there has been a
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What: FOX Business Network’s (FBN) Adam Shapiro will report live from Butner Prison in North Carolina following his exclusive pen-and-paper interview with notorious Ponzi scammer Bernard Madoff this Thursday, May 23rd starting at 11am/ET. Shapiro will go behind bars with Madoff for a two hour, off-camera, interview that will explore life in prison, bank regulations and how he conned investors out of billions. When: Thursday, May 23, 2013; starting at 11AM/ET Where: FOX Business Network (FBN) 'Get ValueWalk's Daily Edition By Email and Never Miss Our Top Stories'
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