Armin, yes, lot of good price movement today on several of the stocks mentioned here before. I see some exceptional upward moves in a couple that I own.
For balance, I would like to list some stocks that I've had that haven't done well. These would include:
GHV - health care for the elderly. Sold my position at 1/4. I'm too embarrassed to give the price I bought at two years ago.
USU - uranium fuel enrichment services. I gave up @ 4 7/16. They are closing plants. Their estimate of their earnings for '01 and '02 indicates to me stock is fairly priced at current levels. Anybody with better info./knowledge let me know and I'll consider reestablishing a position after 30 days (wash rule).
OWC- Owens Corning. Announced lower earnings today, but more importantly, imo, are taking a 700M-1B charge more for their asbestos liability. And they are still not finished evaluating their risk here. Well, if after all this time, they aren't (lawsuits are still coming in), then I don't want to be around. I was warned by at least one person on this thread when I posted that I was buying and also when adding to it, but I did not listen... I was wrong. (fwiw, OWC is a stock recommended by John Neff. That old war horse might make it work, but he and it are too tough for me.) I'm out today.
CCRO - ClinTrials Research does contract research on drugs. I bought the stock several years ago because of the excellent track record of the founder in building and selling a previous business. Although the stock looks okay on p/bk and p/sales and and the business may turn positive with the new management that's in, I've taken 1/2 my holdings off the table and redeployed funds elsewhere. (All the pharmaceutical contract research co's are down-- I believe I'm just losing patience with CCRO.)
Other stocks hitting new lows which I own include couple in the steel industry. Also Honeywell (HON) which continues to drift down (management credibility is shot plus fear of new earnings 'restatements') and NSI (National Service Industry. I am guessing people are selling NSI in expectation that soon-to-be-announced earnings will be lower than expected.) Imo, for value investors, NSI is a stock that does offer quite a bit of value and ought to be looked at (although maybe after earnings are announced -g-).
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Amin (and anyone else who may be interested), I've been looking at the stocks in the data storage business. I've been a follower of Storage Technology for many years. I've recently looked at it again and two others: ADIC and EXBT.
I've started a small position in EXBT because some of their new products have a potential to get them to profitability. This would do wonders for the stock (imo). Meanwhile the stock's below book value and there's not too much long term debt. OTOH, the book value has been generally decreasing, the company's had a couple of bad years already, and my record regarding data storage stock picks is worse than pathetic.
regards all,
Paul |
