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Strategies & Market Trends : Gorilla and King Portfolio Candidates -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Apollo who wrote (48783)	11/11/2001 11:36:01 AM
From: blankmind	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 54805

- Can anyone check out my "gorilla" pick - which meets all the criteria except the $10 bill market cap ($5 bill now) due to stock buyback & stock price drop: HEALTHSOUTH Corporation (HRC) - HRC caught my attention b/c it was on Al Frank’s newsletter & his mutual fund's #6 holding; which is good b/c his fund focuses on value has low turnover of 30% - HRC is I think the largest provider of outpatient surgery, outpatient diagnostic and rehabilitative healthcare services - w/ revenues of $4+ bill a year - profits have always been unsteady due to expansion. But expansion has quieted down. However, the earnings trend is good & getting better: - '98: +.11 '99: - +.18 '00: .71 ’01: -<.05>, .19, .20, .22 expected = +.56 - but the 1st qtr loss includes like $139 mill of one-time losses - more importantly, in the 10/25/01 press release, they projected increased profits going forward of 15%: “is comfortable with fourth-quarter earnings per share of 22 cents and sustained earnings per share growth of 15 percent” - finally, with $3.6 bill in stockholders equity/400 mill shs o/s = $9 book value. Stock at $12.20. Given its earnings, the stock is extremely cheap -

To: Apollo who wrote (48783)	11/12/2001 8:55:17 PM
From: Stock Farmer	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 54805

Appolo - I'd like to hear your cogent insight as to which "gorillas" you have determined will "die" Well, my jesting analogy about diseased Gorillas was not to imply that businesses would fail. But I see how it can be taken as such. But I was speaking from the perspective of my capital going to money heaven. It's the dollars that die in a misguided investment, not the company. We should know by now that stock price and business prospects for a company are fundamentally decoupled. Theory would have the market keep them in lock-step. But somehow they have departed, quite radically, if conventional metrics mean anything anymore. Quite a lot of G&K money could end up in money heaven. At least that's how I read the tea leaves. Things were getting closer to parity then they had been in a few years. But this recent rally has taken us too far, too fast, and in the wrong direction. IMHO. So, I have no predictions for any of these techno-moated gorillas going out of business. But the only one I've identified with a stock price close to "reasonable" is MSFT. John.