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

To: MCsweet who wrote (45505)	11/16/2011 12:50:45 PM
From: Sergio H	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 78462

WILC Their cash holding is mostly from the secondary offering. They had hired a consultant and were advised to pursue an acquisition which would give the co. and entry point into the U.S. market. Management apparently changed their mind and still have the cash. I think the main reason that it remains cheap is mistrust of management and what they will do with the cash. Buying back their own shares does not appear to me to be the best idea since their float is tiny and insiders own more than half of the shares it makes the stock more illiquid and less attractive to institutional investors. I would love to see them use their free cash flow to establish a regular dividend. There was talk at the last conference call of issuing a special dividend with the cash. I don't see much downside risk and I am willing to hold and wait.

To: MCsweet who wrote (45505)	11/16/2011 1:00:44 PM
From: Jurgis Bekepuris	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 78462

I have not followed WILC and I hate to generalize, but Israeli management decisions leave a lot to be desired. MAIL-changed-to-PERI had a lot of cash and FCF and decided to cancel a divvie and do an acquisition that may or may not work out. The stock is down ~40% since the acquisition. MNDO had the "great" investment of their cash hoard into CDOs - later refunded (?) after lawsuit with Merrill (?). Some MNDO investors made out fine, some not so... It seems that the common theme is building a successful cash-cow niche company and then having zero clue where to put the resulting cash... They need Buffett or something. ;) Disclosure: I still hold a position in PERI. I had a position in MNDO which I sold at a wash/loss.

To: MCsweet who wrote (45505)	11/26/2011 11:25:45 AM
From: Sergio H	Respond to of 78462

Jim Simon's RENAISSANCE TECHNOLOGIES has a position in WILC. I find it surprising considering how illiquid this stock is. Insider Monkey has an an article on the success of Simon's funds and his recent trades. < Jim Simons is a rock star in the finance industry. In addition to becoming one of the world’s richest men, Simons can also boast two funds that have returns over 30% so far this year. He uses computer-based models to manage his Renaissance Technologies, even going so far as to automate many of his trades, and he has done well at it. High double digit returns are no anomaly for Simons. In 2010, his Medallion fund returned 30%, compared to the S&P 500’s 15.1%. Part of Simons strategy is to exploit even the smallest market inefficiencies. As such, he has an exceptionally broad portfolio. As of the end of the third quarter, he had 2598 positions under his management, 434 of which were new positions. Jim Simons’ Top Holdings Simons’ top holding at the end of the third quarter was Apple ( AAPL). Simons decreased his position by 282,219 shares, bringing his stake in the company from $445.8 million to $398.9 million. It had been Simons’ largest position at the end of the second quarter as well. David Einhorn was also bullish on AAPL in the third quarter. Simons’ second largest position at the end of September was Philip Morris ( PM) after he increased his position in the company by 73.21%, bringing his stake in the company to 6,287,000 shares, a value of $392.2 million. Simons also upped his position in Lorillard ( LO) and McDonalds ( MCD) in the third quarter. Eli Lilly & Co ( LLY), which had been Simons’ second largest position at the end of the second quarter, fell to his fifth largest position after Simons cut his stake in LLY by 31.31%, bringing his position from 10,335,005 shares or a value of $387.9 million to 7,099,600 shares or a value of $262.5 million at the end of September. Jim Simons’ New Positions: Microsoft ( MSFT), Schlumberger ( SLB) Simons introduced several new positions during the third quarter. The largest of these new positions is Microsoft. The company was Simons’ seventh largest position at the end of the third quarter, after he bought 9,525,584 shares. Simons’ MSFT stake is currently valued at $237.1 million. Simons also initiated a large new position in Schlumberger in the third quarter. It is currently valued at $191.1 million, making it the 12th largest position in his portfolio. Simons also initiated new positions in 3M Co ( MMM), Freeport McMoRan Copper & Gold ( FCX), Halliburton ( HAL), National Oilwell ( NOV), Rio Tinto ( RIO), Peabody Energy ( BTU) and Qualcomm ( QCOM). Jim Simons’ Bearish Moves Simons sold out of several large cap companies in the third quarter. He divested his position in ExxonMobil ( XOM), Verizon Communications ( VZ), General Electric ( GE), AT&T ( T), Amazon.com ( AMZN), Research in Motion ( RIMM) and PepsiCo ( PEP). XOM had been Simons’ 9th largest position at the end of June, while GE had been his 29th largest holding. Simons reduced more than 500 positions in the third quarter. Besides AAPL and LLY, other top reductions in Simons’ portfolio during the third quarter, include Intel ( INTC), Colgate-Palmolive ( CL) and Bristol-Myers Squibb ( BMY). Jim Simons is one of our favorite hedge fund managers. We like his top picks Apple and Philip Morris a lot. We also like his new bets on undervalued technology companies and basic materials and energy stocks. It isn’t easy to deliver a 30% return in this environment. We believe investors will be able to beat the market over the long term by focusing on Simons’ top positions. >

To: MCsweet who wrote (45505)	11/28/2011 12:01:18 PM
From: MCsweet	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 78462

WILC, Well this is another case of I should have not bought much stock without understanding why the stock is cheap. That usually means someone understands something much better than I do, like margins are going way down. Note to self: If it looks too good to be true, put your hands in your pocket. That being said, there is a nice cash cushion here (they declared cash of 3.70 on the call), company is still slightly profitable and expects to be in Q4, management is buying back stock, and if they can revert to normal levels of profitability in a year or two, buys in here should be well rewarded. I will be looking to accumulate more, but with a much lower price target. If I had not position already I might step in here, but for now I'll be looking for a further drop, such as from tax loss selling. MC