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Strategies & Market Trends : Value Investing -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: hoyasaxa who wrote (20455)	1/12/2005 11:47:02 AM
From: bozwood	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 78702

Last # of times it was roughly this cheap on a P/S basis it increased to its peak 431%, 110%, 317% respectively

To: hoyasaxa who wrote (20455)	1/12/2005 1:14:08 PM
From: Paul Senior	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 78702

WIRE: Looks like a buy to me as well. I'll take few shares in an exploratory position. Business seems heavily dependent on construction business (residential and commercial). May be late - maybe too late - to buy the stock now given where we might be in these cyclical sectors. (I don't have an opinion.) OTOH, the stock, having dropped significantly from higher valuation, may already reflect negative perceptions.

To: hoyasaxa who wrote (20455)	1/12/2005 10:21:42 PM
From: Spekulatius	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 78702

re WIRE - interesting pick. I figure that WIRE as a copper manufacturer is similar to STEEL manufacturers and distributors like MUSA, RT or IIIN. What bothers me about those stocks is that they have cashless earnings. Despite the apparently high earnings, the free cash flows are absent or even negative. it appears that the cash flow get's sucked into inventory as it rises in value due to appreciation of raw material prices. now with WIRE, the inventory is down, but receivables are up by a huge amount, i wonder why. Net effect is that they are FCF negative and of course don't pay a dividend either. As I said WIRE is interesting but one really needs to understand the balance sheet and cash flow statements before making an investment decision.

To: hoyasaxa who wrote (20455)	1/13/2005 2:12:23 PM
From: Grommit	Respond to of 78702

WIRE. This one pops up on my screens a bit. I've looked at it a few times recently. Tempting. I like the insider buying and the fundamentals, but I do not understand the profitability completely. Some profitability increase is due to higher margins, they say, but some is just an inventory write-up based on copper value increases (I think). I have no idea how much of each. I wonder if they will take an inventory hit if/when copper prices fall. It seems out of my league and more speculation than investment. But I keep watching it. Earnings should come out later this month. Maybe they will become more transparent. The link at the bottom shows 15 month copper futures a lot lower than present prices. I dunno what that means. The analysts have EPS for WIRE dropping to 80 cents next year. That's a 15 P/E at $12 per share today. Not a screaming "buy". "Although everybody expects copper prices to fall this year, nobody wants to go short because of the low stocks [inventory]," said Andrew Silver, base metals trader at Natexis Metals. The price of copper has doubled over the past two years. waiting and watching. good luck. grommit lme.co.uk