While Apple Computer (AAPL) shares are always volatile around earnings, I think the set up heading into this quarter is unusual. On the one hand, it is AAPL. The expectations are high and the company might receive more scrutiny than any other. The stock has rallied 50% from the summer lows following the excellent June […]
E.W. Scripps (SSP) reported better than expected 3Q06 earnings driven by strong performance from the company’s cable networks and political advertising at the company’s TV stations. The shares are up sharply in a weak tape as they deserve to be. Cable Networks and Interactive (Shopzilla and uSwitch) are about 2/3rds of SSP’s EBITDA and account […]
Yesterday’s New York Times had a major article about Ronald Lauder’s investment in Central European Media Enterprises (CETV). In an odd coincidence, the Wall Street Journal had an article the same day about the attractive television markets in Central and Eastern Europe. My good friend and major CETV shareholder, Mark Riely, was mentioned in both […]
On Friday, theflyonthewall.com, citing a report in Barron’s Online, noted that there was some meaningful insider buying at Sears Holding (SHLD) recently: A director at Sears Holding (SHLD) recently bought $5.5M worth of the company’s stock just as it was climbing to an all-time high. Richard C. Perry, the co-founder and president of Perry Capital, […]
Yesterday, Merrill Lynch analyst Lauren Fine lowered her 2006 and 2007 forecasts for U.S. advertising. Lauren has been ahead of the curve this year with below consensus forecasts for advertising growth so this is a call worth paying attention to, particularly for 2007. Based upon Merrill’s forecast for nominal GDP growth of 4.5% and real […]
Time Warner (TWX) closed at a 52 week high yesterday. In fact, it was the highest close since January 2005. I suspect that investors are looking ahead to 2007 and ignoring the poor performance of the total company in 2006. In 2007, the company’s fastest growing and largest division, cable distribution, will become an even […]
I finally had a chance to review all of the news stories and analyst reports about the Dolan family’s latest attempt to take Cablevision (CVC) private. My conclusion is that I think this deal will get done with a small sweetener. On the one hand, I can see good reason for the special committee of […]
NTL Incorporated (NTLI) shares have sold off the last few days, giving back most of the gains achieved after several management presentations at media conferences in the US during September. Investors responded favorably to the presentations in which management indicated that 3Q06 results would be satisfactory. This was welcome news following published reports of the […]
Newspaper industry fundamentals continue to look pretty bleak. According to Citigroup, August was the worst month so far this year for advertising growth with industrywide year over year declines averaging 1% against an easy comp. In fact, Citigroup states that the ad revenue growth in August was the worst since 2002. Help Wanted advertising continues […]
The weak growth signal given by Northlake’s Style model for September turned into a weak value signal for October. As a result, I swapped all client holdings of the Russell 1000 Growth (IWF) into the Russell 1000 Value (IWD) at the open yesterday. The one month swap from IWD to IWF for September turned out […]
