Asif

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    • Sat Nov 8th 20:08 PM
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      Suburban Propane: Attractive Ahead of Earnings
      @john: Both propane and oil were on their way to their July peaks during your April 2008 fill. I wonder if the comparison will change this winter with the recent drop in prices.

      @Huckleberry: I appreciate your comment. It was a challenge and my hope was that I would not lose readers by the time I got to SPH.
      View article »
    • Sat Nov 8th 15:38 PM
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      Sterlite Industries: Taking Advantage of the Dip
      Interesting observation Andyn. Given all the legal issues around Asarco, I would personally prefer the deal not go through.

      According to their annual report, they had $3.9 billion in cash and short-term investments. A $50 million break-up fee does not change things a whole lot.

      I agree with you that there are usually no free lunches in the market but we are in highly unusual times right now. The stock was originally dragged down when the India bubble burst in Jan, then the drop in commodity prices, then the rather complicated restructuring that they thankfully abandoned and now by a global financial meltdown. It looks like this stock just could not catch a break since the start of this year.

      The stock was trading at $26.32 when I added it to my watch list on Jan 4th and I finally got in after it had dropped over 82%.

      Can it head lower? Sure. But the risk/reward comparison at these levels makes Sterlite a compelling buy at these levels in my opinion.

      www.sinletter.com/watc...
      View article »
    • Sat Nov 1st 20:24 PM
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      Buying Aggressively, As Per Ben Graham
      @Blizzfan: My focus is indeed on the Blizzard and subscription based WOW part of the Activision Blizzard business as you can see from the following article,

      www.sinletter.com/arch...

      @nyka: Care to be my editor? :)

      @Stone Fox Capital: The IBN calls were part of a strangle as discussed in the following blog entry.

      www.sinletter.com/blog...

      Given the extreme sell-off in the shares, I was expecting a sharp movement in either direction but mostly on the upside. With the new short selling rules that SEBI has put in place, I believe appreciation in ICICI is likely to be rapid.
      View article »
    • Thu Oct 2nd 14:56 PM
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      For Bargain-Hunting in a Bear Market, Look at India
      hpski, since this post was not specifically about investing in India, I did not get into why India sounds like a good investment at this time. The original title of the post as used on my blog was,

      Capitulation or Just Another Leg Down?
      www.sinletter.com/blog...

      Here are some thoughts on the Indian economy and the political outlook.

      A no confidence vote against the current government did not go through and hence the risk of a new government and policies has been somewhat mitigated for now. The economy continues to grow rapidly with estimates of 7.5 to 8% GDP growth in 2009. By my very rough calculations, the P/E of the BSE Sensex is now under 16, a significant change from being one of the most expensive market last year.
      View article »
    • Fri Sep 26th 18:56 PM
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      The Rules of the Game Have Changed
      Thanks for helping jimmy understand the obvious. I fail to see how he interpreted year-over-year price comparisons as an apples to oranges comparison. It simply reflects the reality of a over extended system.
      View article »
    • Wed Sep 17th 12:32 PM
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      Nowhere to Turn: This Bear's Different
      @kkin: Looking at a three month chart comparing the Russell 2000 index with TWM, the Ultrashort ETF appears to be behaving as it should and you can see the inverse symmetry from the following chart,

      finance.yahoo.com/echa...=^RUT#chart2:symbol=^r...

      @rockymtnway: I do have a number of dividend paying stocks but the worry there is the potential higher taxation in case Obama wins. I agree that steel prices are likely to come down some more but SCHN is more than just steel prices and I continue to keep the company on my watch list.
      View article »
    • Mon Sep 8th 13:47 PM
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      Ride Out the Recession with Activision Blizzard
      I agree Boris that this is not just a recession play but could do well as a very long-term investment as well. With a market cap of $23 billion and projected 2009 revenue of $4.5 billion, their P/S ratio works out to 5.11, which in my opinion is not very expensive if the merger with Blizzard improves operating and profit margins.

      As I mentioned in the article, revenue could increase significantly if the company created console versions of Blizzard's franchises and/or introduced MMORPG versions of Diablo or Starcraft. It remains to be seen how the new company executes but I wanted a piece of the action while I could get it at a reasonable valuation.
      View article »
    • Mon Sep 1st 20:49 PM
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      The Latest Changes to SeekingAlpha.com
      David,

      The new changes and colors are awesome. During our last email exchange I mentioned how much I liked the dashboards but I miss the navigational drop downs. As you mentioned in your article, I now have to click twice to get to a specific area instead of just once. Was there a reason for getting rid of those drop downs beyond site load time and navigation on Blackberrys?

      Market Landscape seems to stand out as the best replacement for "Big Picture" or you could also go with Marketscape.

      Regards,
      Asif
      www.SINLetter.com
      View article »
    • Sun Aug 3rd 15:18 PM
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      WisdomTree Reports 'Improved' Losses
      George, I think the level of management talent they had to attract lead to higher operating expenses. At this stage of the business I would rather see the business spend on growth instead of focusing on profitability. It is encouraging to see operating expenses drop on a sequential quarter basis.

      Disclosure: Long WisdomTree.
      View article »
    • Mon Jun 16th 19:56 PM
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      Helicopter Shortage: An Investment Opportunity?
      You are right about Sikorsky being headquartered in Stratford Connecticut. The company was founded in Long Island, NY. Thanks for pointing that out.

      The article discussed helicopters for private/executive travel as well as for offshore commercials helicopters. I mentioned Kaman as a helicopter manufacturer (it also supplies parts for the Sikorsky Black Hawk) and not as a company that specifically caters to the offshore commercials helicopters segment.
      View article »
    • Mon Jun 9th 22:37 PM
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      Textron: Literally Firing on All Cylinders
      Interesting thoughts Saul. While I was aware of UTX's Otis division, I was not aware about the progress they were making in the fuel cell segment.
      View article »
    • Fri May 16th 15:05 PM
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      Wisdom Tree Puts Forth New ETF Shoots, But Shows Some Earnings Blight
      Thanks Ric. Now I no longer have to depend on their press releases to get AUM information.
      View article »
    • Fri May 16th 13:32 PM
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      Wisdom Tree Puts Forth New ETF Shoots, But Shows Some Earnings Blight
      Ric, since operating loss included over $3 million in stock-based compensation, you are right that actual cash burn is around $5 to $6 million and even if AUM stays the same, they should have 7 to 8 quarters provided expenses do not increase (highly unlikely).

      Tim, my table was based entirely on the numbers reported in WisdomTree press releases as I have not been able to find an alternate way to find their AUM. The gap from May 2007 to Jan 2008 was on account of the fact that I did not find AUM information in press releases during that time period.

      Ric, where did you find the $4.9 billion AUM number from yesterday.
      View article »
    • Mon May 12th 15:28 PM
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      Helicopter Shortage: An Investment Opportunity?
      Michael, I wholeheartedly agree with you that it is important to figure out the extent of shortage and what % of total business comes from choppers. I mentioned that in the case of Finmeccanica, 22% of 2007 revenue was based on helicopter sales. I have to dig deeper into Kaman and Textron to get the numbers for them. This is the key reason I have not started positions in them yet.

      As Saul mentioned, there is a good chance I might explore one of these companies in detail in the next newsletter.

      Thanks for your thoughts on Sikorsky Saul and the free plug for my website. :)
      View article »
    • Fri May 2nd 12:49 PM
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      NetSuite Beats Earnings, Stock Plunges After Hours
      Just to clarify, the price graphic is not mine and was automatically included by Seeking Alpha.

      I guess you probably did not read beyond the headline and missed the line "However it is always a good idea to go beyond the headlines (even mine) and take a deeper look.".
      View article »