It is all about incentives — and reining in stock buybacks. Pay executives on business — not stock — performance. Focus on gross profit and revenue goals — not earnings per share. The fact is, CEO compensation has gone completely haywire...
Johnson & Johnson is at a $317 billion market cap. Which means it might be too big to grow, having underperformed for years. The only question is will a major activist step up or will JNJ become its own activist? It appears that it wil take a major activist to shake things up at the $300 billion-plus market cap healthcare giant Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ ).
If high levels of insider selling is bad, what about high levels of insider resigning? Jack Dorsey continues to consolidate his power as CEO to run Twitter as a glorified chatroom. Twitter needs a new CEO, otherwise it’s a $12 stock. Again, Twitter (NYSE: TWTR ) needs a new CEO. As I've noted , ideally, Jack steps down (or gets fired - more likely) from TWTR in 2017 and runs Square (NYSE: SQ ) full-time. By all accounts, there's no buyout coming. But who can oust Jack Dorsey?
Yahoo and Verizon continue to jockey for position with one another after the latest data breach revelations. Sell side analysts seem to think the deal will go through, but at a lower price. We're slightly more skeptical. No matter what the outcome, Yahoo shareholders remain the losers and this entire ordeal is a great reminder of why not to own Yahoo stock now, or going forward...
President-elect Donald Trump's promised rollback of stiffer banking-industry rules implemented after the financial crisis eight years ago could easily get bogged down in regulatory agencies or Congress. European officials may erect competitive barriers that might protect the region's weakened banks from market-share intrusions by U.S. investment banks...
The pace of new consumer checking account openings continued to weaken since the company's September 8th announcement with October account openings down 27% from September and down 44% year-over-year. Balances remain fairly flat across deposit accounts (period end deposits for consumer and small business customers down 1% month-to-month but up 7% YoY) and existing customers...
With Berkshire Hathaway sitting on $85 billion in cash the street is abuzz over rumors of the Oracle of Omaha's next big acquisition. Currently, investors are betting that Mondelez is the takeover target of Kraft Heinz. However, when while such a deal might make sense from a superficial level, when you actually look at the math, it just doesn't make sense...
Praxair, Linde close in on deal Dec. 19, 2016 3:29 AM ET | About: Linde AG ADR (LNEGY) | By: Yoel Minkoff , SA News Editor According to various media reports, an agreement on their $65B merger could be announced as early as Wednesday. Initial discussions collapsed in September due to disputes over personnel, headquarters and other details, but Linde ( OTCPK:LNEGY ) is said to have revived talks after Praxair (NYSE: PX ) provided new assurances over jobs and corporate governance.
Twinleaf Management LLC will have a discussion with Truett-Hurst to return value to the shareholders. Alon Brav from Duke University explains that this activist process returns approximately 7%. The activist will work on the capital allocation and the current expenses of the company. A few changes may make the stock price recover. Introduction Truett-Hurst, Inc. (NASDAQ: THST ) was recently targeted by Twinleaf Management LLC...
Activist investor Jeff Smith of Starboard managed to insert 3 people on Depomed’s board. From his track record, he is likely trying to sell the company and make some money off of it quick. Depomed doesn’t want to sell, and is making itself unattractive with pessimistic guidance, despite the nucynta win that makes the company more valuable...
There’s no doubt that TWTR has been yearning for an activist for months. However, it might have to settle for something a bit different. Can CEO @jack become the activist we all need? Shares of Twitter (NYSE: TWTR ) are kicking around $18 a share and are well off the $25 we saw at the height of the buyout talk. Still, TWTR is trading at 5x sales, which is more like a "growth" or social media story. Yet, TWTR is much more of a media company...
Companies that regularly raise their dividend payments show confidence in future earnings growth potential. I monitor dividend increases for stocks on my watch list of dividend growth stocks to identify candidates for further analysis. This past week, 9 companies on my watch list decided to increase their dividends, including one of the stocks I own...
In the aftermath of Donald Trump's election, bank stocks have rallied in anticipation of a looser regulatory environment, driven by his incoming administration's desire to 'dismantle the Dodd-Frank Act.' To wit, the KBW Bank Index is up ...
I have, however, become concerned with some of the decisions that have been made by the Board of Directors of the company . What I believe to be ...
Activist investor Ackman signs confidentiality agreement with CMG just days after it is reported that company has hired a law firm to fend him off. We think Ackman wants to swap out some Board Members and that he may not have any additional groundbreaking plans aside from a simple turnaround of the business. Ackman knows quick serve restaurants well, but valuation would still keep us away from CMG here ...
After Q3, Gilead has $31.6B cash on hand. The company also has substantial debt and quarterly interest payments increased to $242M in Q3. Despite shares approaching a 3-year low, the buyback slows down. Gilead Sciences' (NASDAQ: GILD ) Q3 results came in more or less as expected, and shares did neither rise nor drop. This leaves a year-to-date loss of 28% while the stock continues trading in the lower seventies...
Thank you for your service on the Rave Restaurant Group (NASDAQ: RAVE) Board of Directors . I am writing this letter in hopes of starting a dialog that ...
Buffett has been taking it on the chin of late. First Wells Fargo, now DaVita Health. Is Apple next or will he be the savior activist investor Carl Icahn wasn't. For the last two years, Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL ) stock has been a so-so stock for many investors, underperforming the S&P 500 after years of outperformance ...
CMG misses on almost every data point yesterday. Guidance is the only thing that has prevented a full out stock crash, we believe. We're not sure guidance should be trusted, we think management has lack of visibility into the business. By Parke Shall While Chipotle's (NYSE: CMG ) quarterly earnings came out and disappointed many investors, the company offered guidance that was relatively optimistic sounding...
Mylan remains significantly undervalued. Post-DOJ settlement, the stock should be back near $50. Instead, it trades at $36 due to inefficient analysis of the company's situation by the market. We now believe long term 100% upside is possible given the company's reiteration of $6 EPS in 2018. By Parke Shall We honestly wouldn't be surprised if we saw somebody come in and make a bid for Mylan (NASDAQ: MYL ) at this stage in the game...
Enlight Research Summary Mylan's common stock has soared from $35.94 per share at closing on 10-7-2016 to $40.40 at the opening bell on 10-10-2016 following a $465 million settlement with the U.S. government. Although Mylan’s total returns were significantly above their peers’ returns from August 2013 until October 2015, Mylan’s performance has lagged behind that of its peers since May of 2016...
Summary Viacom appears to want a merger between it and CBS. A bigger company offers a bigger collection of platforms, and it may make the job of executives seeking overall shareholder value expansion easier. There are many risks to such a strategy: CBS is a different beast, the skills of Leslie Moonves may not translate over to the Viacom side of the equation...
Preparing analyses and information requested by the auditors, drafting and revising the 10-K, interfacing with counsel, working through issues and questions from the audit committee, securing approval to file the 10-K from the audit committee and the board, and beginning work on the 10-Q for the first quarter. It is common sense that financial executives leaving the employ of a public company early in the year generally don't want to leave their employer until after the 10-K is filed...
Mattel, America's leading toy manufacturer, limped into 2016 under a cloud of pessimism, exemplified by a massive short bet against its stock. MAT shares have rebounded strongly but remain heavily shorted. A profitable contrarian investment opportunity still exists. I examine and attempt to dismantle some of the most common bearish arguments against investing in Mattel...