SubscribeBlackStone IPO may Be Delayed by Taxman
June 21, 2007
Waxman and Rangel are at it again….According to a news release on Reuters; “New York Democratic Rep. Charles Rangel, chairman of the powerful tax-writing panel, said, “We believe it is imperative that Ways and Means … conduct a hearing on the important issues surrounding private equity, carried interest and publicly traded partnerships.”
U.S. lawmakers are increasingly focused on taxation of the booming private-equity sector and the impending initial public offering of Blackstone Group LP [BG.UL], one of the nation’s largest private equity firms.
Citing concerns about the Blackstone IPO, Senate Finance Committee leaders last Read more
Intelligent Business with COGN
June 21, 2007
Cognos (COGN) is in a place of interest. They look to find information through mining data on all aspects of a company’s business. Their products provides coverage for production and business reporting, dashboarding, query, analysis, metrics management and interactive scorecarding, event management and data management on a services-oriented architecture. The real benefit to companies is they can easily find out information about various departments at the flick of a switch.
As businesses are cutting more of the fat, this is the type of company that will help to provide the edge in a hyper-competitive environment. This is a great business to be in right now.
There are several key players that compete with Cognos including, Oracle, Business Objects as well as Microsoft. The key benefit of ownership of COGN over the field is that they are much smaller and have better ratios. PEG is low at compared to competitors and while operating margin does not compare well to MSFT or ORCL, it is better to look at the comparison with the industry as that provides a more of a cleaner look as to how the company is valued.
From the looks of earning expectations, COGN will have to provide a good upside with guidance that surpasses as they have usually done in the past. Management seems to have a knack at giving a nice dose of earnings surprises and there is no reason to think that this time will be any different.
Analysts have a target approaching $47 with a high range of $52 and a low Read more
Quant Investing Primer
June 20, 2007
From Chapter 2 - Quantitative Investing - The Disciplined Investor
(starting on page 29)
“Momentum Earnings Up
You will undoubtedly find many stocks that you have probably never heard of within these results. Caveat emptor! Try not to let yourself get sucked into the temptation of following the historic returns. Be sure to keep a cool head and think about the company and its longer-term prospects. Contrarian plays have long been attractive strategies for those investors who do not have the stomachs for high-ratio stocks. By its very nature, this type of strategy will search for those stocks that have fallen from grace within the eyes of the markets. It will also find ones that have never caught fire while growing at rates appropriate to its underlying fundamentals.
GARP
Somewhere in between the world of growth and value investing is the GARP (growth at a reasonable price) patron.
This theory, popularized by Acorn Fund manager Ralph Wanger (also the author of A Zebra in Lion Country), focuses in finding opportunities with a modest risk within the realm of Read more
Apple iPhone Rock or Flop? POLL
June 19, 2007
[poll=2]
Stocks Mentioned: AAPL
TDI Podcast 16: John C. Dvorak Interview
June 19, 2007
Lively Discussion with John C. Dvorak about Apple and iPhone. We also talk about the massive amount of money moving into startups. We both wonder if this is a smart idea.
WOW! Excellent discussion. We covered a huge amount of tech ground. Google, Yahoo, Apple, Wikipedia, AT&T, Web 2.0, Microsoft Media Room, and even Crocs.
There is lots of money floating around to fund startups - is this just stupid or a moment of brilliance? How the web has changed.
John’s Podcast tech5.podshow.com, www.dvorak.org/blog
Stocks Discussed: GOOG, AAPL, YHOO, T, MSFT, CROX
PS. Episode 15 will be posted later this week..Day Trading 101
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