Well, ahem, yes. There are 125mm shares out there which someone besides me owns. On the other hand, after 3 years without a post to this board, I don't suppose there are a lot of people who still have it bookmarked. But I do having owned the company for at least 10 years. Most recently I bought a bit more at about 17 as I recall after having sold a bit at $30+ a couple years earlier. I have been selling calls and was lucky enough to buy back all my Oct 30's for $.90 on a sudden and unexpected downdraft shortly before expiration. Currently I have $35 calls for Jan sold on 1/3 of my shares (got $3.80), $35 calls for April sold on 1/3 (got $5.10) and have an order in to repurchase the Jan. calls for $.90. Looking a bit improbable as of now, isn't it?
Guess I've discussed this stock with anyone rarely if ever. The last posts here came as the FTC came down on Mylan for what appeared to be a fairly crude attempt to get better prices. I suppose after all these years, Puskar regards the company as an extension of his own wishes and desires, and so one is not quite as surprised by the pique he displayed in challenging the industry. I also wonder how the recent resignation/firing of several top managers is tied into those events.
Personally I do not regret MYL's attempt or even the expensive consequences. It's a tough business which provides a useful product--there really should be a way to make some significant proportion of the profits which accrue to the branded pharmaceuticals, but so far the best hope for profits increases has come from the attempt to acquire our own branded division. Just not enough excitement in quality manufacturing of late. I personally love a good manufacturing company with easy to understand accounting and a PE of 10 or so. Mylan's business causes sudden excitements to that sound base which I like to take advantage of now that I have the time and computere to follow it daily.
Of course as I remember the story, Puskar himself is little more than a salesman. The perennial chairman had been a cofounder who suffered a massive stroke early in the 90's and Puskar took over without a lot of experience as top dog. So there has been quite a bit of trial and error of late. Again, my return has been adequate though it has come more from small trades on fluctuations than tremendous growth in the company.
I'll probably let each of my calls be exercised if I can't cover for less than $2.00 because I really fully expect to be able to replace those shares for under $30 some day in 02. Why not. Some bad news has always caused a sudden downdraft many times before as no one is quite sure how profitable Mylan really can remain.
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