To: Terrapin who wrote (5156 ) 10/18/1998 12:43:00 PM From: Michael Burry Respond to of 78815
Re: ag equips, USU Barron's has a feature story on cyclicals, mentioning New Holland and Deere by name along with Agco as particularly undervalued, and citing the buybacks. Honestly, if there's a big pop in the stocks Monday - especially NH, then I'd consider selling, since the "Barron's effect" rarely holds up long (see TRC) in the face of a continued lackadaisical story. This bear market ain't over yet, and the ag equips companies are now saying that there will be a bigger falloff in 1999 even than in 1998. So if there's a pop, chances are you'll be able to buy them back cheaper at a later date. Not that I'm knocking the businsesses, see biz.yahoo.com . But yes I'm trying to time it a bit. Re: USU, this is oh so typical of Wall Street. Didn't it get down to 13 again? I didn't see it. The dividend should be safe, and you're buying it because the dividend is safe - cash flow is still tremendous, and the higher electricity costs are transient. The AVLIS expense will be capitalized in a few years, and in a few more years, electricity costs will be cut to a fraction of what they are now. So you can buy it for the dividend, and sit on it, since once the dividend is paid consistently, the stock will likely hit $18-20 or so simply on that. The rest of the story may take longer to work out, but reported earnings will jump once they capitalize AVLIS. No doubt AVLIS is a big deal, but as I understand it now they're past the research stage (courtesy of $billions and years of work from the gov't) and already for practical purposes entering the commercialization stage. That said, USU is not the world's greatest business, and truly last week there were other stocks that you should have been buying, even if it meant selling USU. If Deswell hits 6 again, or if New Holland hits 9 1/2 , or if Midway hits 9 1/4, well I won't be holding onto my USU at 16 or even 14 - it's not for margined accounts, and if stocks get down that cheap again then I'll go on margin to buy them up just like I did last week. I'm back off margin now, but when you have companies trading at 1.5X earnings net of cash and debt with 15% dividends, well I'm not gonna feel like I'm risking money by borrowing at 7-8% to buy them. Heck, I'd LBO them if could. Good investing, Mike