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Non-Tech : Conseco Insurance (CNO) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: M.A. Miller who wrote (471)	12/8/1997 8:05:00 PM
From: JM	Respond to of 4155

Dirks must have some credibility (or friends in the right places) in order to appear on CnBC and blow his horn. Evidently, some years back he uncovered some indiscretions in another company that was committing fraud. Simply because he once had his moment in the sun, does not necessarily mean he is correct about CNC. Elaine Garzarelli predicted the 1987 crash, then went on to say sell all stocks with the dow somewhere around 6000. Did you notice that it seemed there were some buyers later in the day, which pushed the price back up a bit?

To: M.A. Miller who wrote (471)	12/8/1997 8:12:00 PM
From: The Pri	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 4155

Dirks Represents Sour Grapes--Thats All For many years Dirks was a leading bull on this stock. Now he is in litigation trying to squeeze $ 4.7 million out of the Company. We have a clean opinion from the outside auditors and the regulators and rating agencies have not objected to our accounting policies. The Company can't be involved in a public pi** ing match with a dissident individual. What it must do is to continue to lead with action. This means earnings, treasury stock buybacks and future acquisitions. Zacks reports 6 analysts with strong buy opinions, 1 moderate buy and 1 hold. We should take a long term view. This includes predictions of EPS of $3.35 in 1998 with $4.00 in 1999. Then watchout as CNC splits again and becomes the target of one of the largest mergers in history. This will occur IMHO.

To: M.A. Miller who wrote (471)	12/8/1997 11:21:00 PM
From: Pancho Villa	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 4155

>>. That's true that CNC has little internally generated growth right now. But CNC is growing faster than 15% overall growth because it's more predictable and cheaper for CNC to buy companies and reduce out the overhead, than to just sell more policies. << This is fine as long as you do not pay through the nose to buy those revenues. That is where the good will comes from. The big problem [at least mine] is that I can not analyze properly financial statements of insurance companies. They are strange animals and from all the hand waiving on this thread it is mi impression I am not the only one with this handycap. I read the RD reports and I have to admit some stuff was blown out of proportion and/or exagerated and that the guy is emotional about the issue. However, the guy seems to know the business and IMO the big picture is right CNC seems to be worrien more about revenue growth and taking advantage of accepted accounting principles to continue growing its stock price. Despite my handicap, CF statements don't lie. I recall a continued worsening picture for cash flows in DK summary data. I will check myself the SEC fillings and report back. BTW risking having done thinks backwards like someone else in the group, I decided to take a small especulative short position in the stock as IMO RD has not gone insane yet. Pancho