APP reached agreement on a new amended credit agreement with its lead bank. Back in early June the stock took a dive on the day the company announced that negotiations were ongoing but that the first deadline had been missed. Not surprisingly the shares are rallying nicely today, up 6.5% right now. Volume is decently […]
The box office rose for the fourth consecutive weekend with the top 12 films up 9.7% according to BoxOfficeMojo.com. Every weekend in June has been up bringing the summer to a 2.6% gain. Quarter-to-date the box office is still down 2% due to a very weak April. Comps stiffen considerably starting this coming weekend but […]
Media stocks continue to act poorly. When I sold Northlake’s positions in Disney and News Corporation on the last trading day in May I was beginning to see more evidence that the deep recession in local advertising media like newspapers and radio was beginning to spread to national advertising such as TV. I had also […]
The weekend box office was strong again, up 25% vs. a year ago. Another good weekend brings the summer, which begins the first weekend in May in Hollywood, into positive territory, up 2%. A poor April leaves the quarterly comp still down 3% but one more weekend of easy comps will probably allow the quarter […]
An analyst I know well, Michael Morris of UBS, downgraded Dreamworks Animation (DWA) this morning driving the shares down more than 7%. I added a little to some smaller client positions on the weakness. The downgrade is based on Morris’ belief that even after after raising his outlook for Kung Fu Panda the shares are […]
I purchased Dreamworks Animation (DWA) across client and personal accounts near the open of trading on Monday. The purchase is intended as a “trading buy” which means I am expecting to be out of the position in less than one year. The holding period may be even shorter if the stock attains my target of […]
So far my sales of Disney has held up pretty well, down just a bit, while News Corp has fallen about 5%. Disney might be getting a boost from some initial reports that ABC is writing upfront business at decent CPM increases, maybe even large enough to offset potentially double digit down ratings guarantees and […]
A few brief items in the media world for this morning: Kung Fu Panda opens today. The film has received good reviews and there has not been a major child focused film in theatres since Horton Hears A Who. A strong marketing campaign, good tracking data, and the usual optimism about funny talking animals has […]
There were no changes to Northlake’s Market Cap or Style Model for June. The Market Cap model continues to flash a Mid Cap signal while the Style model remains firmly in growth mode. As a result, client positions in the S&P Mid Cap 400 (MDY) and the Russell 1000 Growth (IWF) are being maintained. The […]
On Friday, I sold all Northlake client positions in Disney and News Corporation. This is a big deal fro me as media stocks are my area of expertise and I believe that these are the two best managed, fast growing companies with the most optimistic long-term competitive positioning. I’ve owned Disney for more than three […]
