Some News And Take One on Zagg

From Yahoo News: Wednesday, August 22, 2012, 7:01 AM PDT
Congressional analysts see $1.1T federal deficit for 2012, 4th straight year exceeding $1T

AM PDT
US home sales rise 2.3 percent in July to 4.47 million, latest sign of housing recovery

So some good news for the economy in house sales but bad news concerning US debt. It seems the Dow Jones decided to react to the debt news today!

As for our investments: I am considering buying Zagg along with Bryan. Here are some of my calculations (for a real summery email me for more details!)

Zaggs 52 wk low is 6.40 & 52 wk high is 15.64. So my question is: Why is price so low right now at 7.34? Let's find out! EPS is .63 and this EPS rate has doubled 3x in the last six years, so I'm guessing that Zaggs growth rate is close to 25-30%. Plugging in all the other numbers to find Zaggs'retail price' and I come up with $37. So its half price would be $18.9. We call this its MOS or "margin of safety." So to sum up and throw Bryan some questions to answer: Bryan, I came to MOS for Zagg around 18.9?! Am I in the ballpark? I see there EPS has doubled 3x in last 6yrs! Also 52wk low is 6.40 or something close - so 7.34 is great price!

PCLN's DROP!: Take TWO...

Albie's Take: Bryan was right. PCLN has dropped to support levels not seen in over a year. My question to Bryan is when do you expect it to jump?

Bryan's Take: I don't know, I never know. But if I buy at the bottom, a fundamental sort of stop loss is created. All we need is a good day in the markets.

Albie: So what was the fundamental reason PCLN dropped?

Bryan: Poor guidance for Q4 and because of Europe...and they missed revenues by about .02% The thing is, I don't even consider stocks for purchase unless they are in the top .5% of all stocks in terms of fundamentals AND they've been beaten down for a stupid reason by Wall Street. There has to be blood on the streets for me to buy because that means the stock has been oversold because of fear. At the same time, the companies I buy are like cockroaches...you can't kill them and they always come back no matter what. It's just like anything in life...if you hang out with winners YOU are going to win.

Albie: Great take Bryan! Thank you.

Take ONE: Be angry, Be VERY ANGRY!

Bryans Take:

"I just checked the balance of my 401k that I haven't contributed to in two years, but I can't withdraw unless I quit job (Otherwise I would invest it myself). Lo and behold, its exactly the same (within a few dollars) as it was two years ago! There's a moron in a tower somewhere making about half a million bucks a year getting paid to "actively manage" my portfolio. He "earns" so much because he is SUPPOSED TO outperform the overall markets (S & P 500, DOW, etc..), otherwise why would anybody in their right mind give their money to a Fund Manager right??? You could just put your money into an index fund through TD Ameritrade that mirrors the S & P 500 and get the same return as the overall market. WELLLLLLLLL.......of course he must have beaten the overall market benchmarks then....right??? WRONG. The overall market went up almost exactly 30% since two years ago today, and this Jackass (Capitalized) got me a 0% return..."