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Gold/Mining/Energy : Strictly: Drilling and oil-field services -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Snowshoe who wrote (35771)	1/25/1999 11:06:00 AM
From: Platter	Respond to of 95453

Screening for Bargain Stocks Analyst: Adam P. Lowensteiner (1/25/99) I created a screen that looks for cheap stocks with limited downside. Why? Because in an environment in which multiples continue to rise, exercising, at a minimum, a dollop of caution when buying stocks is reasonable to say the least. Screening Criteria The first step I took was to find stocks that have fallen 40% or more from their 52-week highs. Many money managers call this the 50% rule, believing that stocks that fall 50% or more from their highs have been beaten up too much. They obviously are talking about the large cap stocks, which can miss analyst estimates in one quarter, but stop the bleeding a lot quicker than small caps by having many sources for revenue, which can cause them to beat estimates in the next. After I found the beaten up group, I searched for those companies that as a result of the lower stock price, now pay a reasonable dividend yield. I included stocks paying 2% or more on an annual basis. I then further narrowed the field to find companies with insider buying. For the most part the list was diversified. Some of the dominating industries were oil pipelines, steel, chemicals, and hotels/REITs. I found scores of REITs that were paying north of 10% a year, but since many REITs carry certain restrictions on their dividend policies, I eliminated them from the list. Many of these industries found have been suffering from some catalyst, but the dividend yield, which provides income during the interim, and the insider buying may be the only two items that can help us envision a turn around in these stocks. For example, steel stocks are suffering from the illegal dumping from foreign countries, while oil prices have been at a low, oil stocks have followed suit. But these sectors seemed to have bottomed out, and until they turn around, you might as well play a dividend playing stock, that has its managers thinking the stock is cheap as well. There are some really interesting companies below, if you take a look. Callaway Golf (NYSE: ELY) surged earlier in the decade with the release of its 'Biggest Big Bertha' club, which is supposed to make the golf balls easier to hit, and go farther. Seventy-nine year old Ely Callaway has since come out of retirement to grab the reigns of the company bearing his name. Why? The company lost the luster it had when it invented the Big Bertha series. The stock, which has been as high as $33.94 within the last 52 weeks, recently traded at about $11. But things are looking up. The company is working on new products behind its CEO Ely Callaway, which could springboard earnings close to 60% to $0.74 a share in 1999. Investment house Dain Rauscher (NYSE: DRC) also looks very attractive, selling at a mere 1.3 times book value of $27 a share. Most investment banks go for at least two times book when taken over. This company also pays a 3% dividend. Tupperware (NYSE: TUP) has seen lots of recent insider buying, and is so beaten up that it now pays a 5.4% dividend yield. The maker of plastic containers has a great brand name, and could earn $1.36 a share this year, up 20% from $1.13 in 1998. Assuming Tupperware hits those numbers, it could be close to a double, and climb to $27 a share based on 20 times the $1.36 per share consensus estimate. Banana sales have been everything but ape, especially in Russia. The depressed economy there has caused banana producers like Chiquita (NYSE: CQB) and Dole (NYSE: DOL) to miss earnings estimates. But although the stocks are depressed, management at Chiquita, specifically CEO Carl Lindner, has stepped up to the plate, and purchased 8,700 shares. The investment might prove wise, as the stock trades at book value of $10 a share, revealing little downside to present prices. Aeroquip-Vickers Baker Hughes Callaway Golf Chiquita Brands Crown Cork & Seal Cummins Engine Dain Rauscher Foster Wheeler Heilig-Meyers Hercules Incorporated National Health Investors Olin Corporation Pennzoil Company Polaroid Corporation Stanley Works Starwood Hotels & Resorts Steelcase Timken Tupperware From IIonline

To: Snowshoe who wrote (35771)	1/25/1999 11:24:00 AM
From: Platter	Respond to of 95453

Oil at $ 12.51 down 18 cents, OSX down 1.35 points.

To: Snowshoe who wrote (35771)	1/25/1999 11:30:00 AM
From: Platter	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 95453

Greg, Here is the full story..."Hoping Against Hope with Halliburton By Mavis Scanlon Staff Reporter 1/25/99 9:00 AM ET Analysts and investors will dig through Halliburton's (HAL:NYSE) fourth-quarter earnings report today not so much to see what happened but to find clues about what will happen next. The Dallas-based oil-services company warned last month it wouldn't meet analysts' fourth-quarter earnings expectations, saying it would take a $24 million charge to lay off 2,750 workers. Halliburton said fourth-quarter earnings after the charge would amount to 14 to 16 cents a diluted share, down sharply from 58 cents a share a year earlier and far short of First Call's consensus estimate at the time of 36 cents. (The consensus dropped to 20 cents after the Dec. 28 press release.) So now most observers expect the bad news is out. Instead, analysts and investors will look to the earnings release for guidance on the future. And the tired refrain for the oil-services industry is that future earnings hinge on the fortunes of oil producers, which in turn look to crude-oil prices to determine spending levels. Investors are well aware of the oil-services industry's pricing problems and the declines in worldwide rig activity, says Cary Robinson, an analyst at Halliburton shareholder American Express Financial in Minneapolis: "What they don't know is what will happen going forward in terms of the business." Investors took a comment Thursday by Eaun Baird, Schlumberger's (SLB:NYSE) chairman, as bullish, Robinson says, and sent the company's shares up 3.2%. In an earnings release, Baird said he saw higher crude demand from Asia leading to higher oil prices and increased oilfield service activity by early 2000. But for now, oil-services companies are focusing on cutting costs. Bill Herbert, head of oil-services research at investment bank Howard Weil Labouisse & Friedrichs in Houston, expects that Halliburton executives will talk about managing the company's cash and focusing on revenue per employee. In short, they'll talk about cutting workers, which could keep revenue per employee at least flat as actual revenue falls. (Howard Weil hasn't performed underwriting for Halliburton.) Halliburton already has announced layoffs totaling nearly 11,000 workers, or about 11% of its workforce, for reasons including depressed oil prices and the need to consolidate recent acquisition Dresser Industries. Service companies are now much more willing to cut their workforces in an attempt to maintain profitability than they have during past crude-price slides, says Jim Wicklund, who follows the sector at Dain Rauscher Wessels in Dallas. Dain has not done any underwriting for Halliburton. Halliburton already has acknowledged that its projection of 10% to 15% earnings growth over the next two years was too aggressive, Herbert says. Oil company spending cuts will basically shut down the upstream oil sector, which finds and lifts oil and gas from the ground, he explains. He estimates Halliburton will earn $1.25 in 1999, 20 cents below the consensus estimate of $1.45. The 1998 consensus estimate is $1.65. "I'm expecting a contraction in earnings across the board for oil service companies," he says. Halliburton will feel it especially in its energy-services unit, which includes services such as pressure pumping, well completion systems, drilling fluid systems and well-logging systems. But he is confident Halliburton is on track to meet its goal of saving $250 million a year after its combination with Dresser, which closed in September. Meanwhile, the fourth quarter will include an after-tax charge of $24 million, or 5 cents per share, on the job cuts, and about $60 million in losses from international projects. Losses at Halliburton's Kellogg-Brown & Root unit, part of its engineering-and-construction division, worry some analysts. Engineering and construction accounted for 32% of total revenue for 1998's first nine months, and Brown & Root accounts for the lion's share of the division's profit. Losses in the fourth quarter and a continuing price squeeze may spell trouble for margin improvement in future quarters. " From TheStreet.com .....