Central European Media Enterprises Joins Russell and Receives Good News In The Czech Republic

Central European Media Enterprises (CETV) rose to a new all-time high on Friday. The shares have been unusually strong over the last few weeks even as the market has pulled back. I suspect that much of the strength is related to the fact that CETV is being added to the Russell indices on this year’s […]

Barron’s Discovers Rogers Communications

Barron’s Online gave Rogers Communications (RCI) a nice write-up yesterday, succinctly outlining the bull case. Barron’s noted the positive dynamics of the Canadian wireless market which has just 60% penetration and therefore promises several more years of well above average growth (unless Canadians end up being a lot less fond of mobile phones than the […]

Stable Pricing Bullish For Comcast

One of the reasons I remain bullish on Comcast (CMCSA/CMCSK) is that the much feared price war over the components of the triple play – cable TV, high speed internet, and telephony – has not come to pass. In fact, what has long been feared to be a fight to the death is looking a […]

Scripps Onlne Competitor Gets Bought Out

Over the weekend, the Wall Street Journal reported that Providence Equity was taking a control position in shopping comparison website Nextag.com. Nextag is the #2 shopping comparison website, trailing, Shopping.com. The #3 shopping comparison site is Shopzilla.com, owned by E.W. Scripps (SSP). SSP shares have rallied on takeover speculation due to similarities with Dow Jones […]

News On Northlake Stocks

Several stocks in the Northlake portfolio have had newsworthy items over the past week. Here is a recap of the latest news, all of which I think is positive. Disney (DIS) completed the sale of almost all of its radio operations to Citadel Broadcasting (CDL). DIS shareholders received .0768 shares of CDL for each share […]

Advertising Growth Remains Below Par

According to AdAge.com, advertising spending in the first quarter fell by 0.3% excluding paid search. The data is from a study by TNS Media Intelligence. With GDP growth in the low to mid single digits, historical correlations would suggest that advertising growth should have been closer to 3-5%. Part of the problem was a tough […]

Summer Box Office Update

The big three summer movies have now each been in theatres for more than two weeks. Together they are on track to gross about $900 million domestically, a huge number by any means (only 23 movies have ever grossed $300 million), but one that is a modest disappointment to many observers including myself. Spiderman 3 […]

Regal Entertainment Competitor Completes IPO

Yesterday several brokerage firms initiated coverage on recent IPO Cinemark Holdings (CNK), the third largest operator of movie theatres. Not surprisingly, the underwriters are providing favorable coverage including new buy recommendations. A few brokers expressed their preference for CNK over Regal Entertainment (RGC), the largest theatre operator and one of my long positions. The analysts […]

June 2007 Models

There were no changes to Northlake’s Market Cap and Style models for June. The signals remain large cap and value. The large cap signal remains very strong, while the value signal remains weak. As a result of the updated signals, there are no changes to the holdings in the portion of the portfolios I manage […]