Borders Gets Some Deserved Attention

This column was originally published on RealMoney on Sept. 8 at 12:13 p.m. EDT. It's being republished as a bonus for TheStreet.com readers.

You want to read research, research as it was meant to be? You want to see some value-added and catalyst-driven research? Check out Gary Balter's upgrade of Borders Group(BGP) today. Credit Suisse's Balter recognizes risk vs. reward. More important, he's willing to make judgments about management.

He likes the new CEO, George Jones, a real merchant who cut his teeth at Target(TGT), and he likes the fact that the turn still is ahead rather than behind.

Now, no doubt about it, Borders is a tough one to turn. Comparable sales are down, international business is bad and there 's not enough cash flow here to attract the leveraged-buyout types a la Michael's Stores(MIK).

But the expectations are incredibly low, the short position is incredibly large and the comparisons are going to be downright easy. The rewards program is kicking in and Jones has some creative ideas about how to fix the business.

I spotted this one when it reported a monster shortfall and didn't go down. We saw that same game at Ford(F). When you get big shortfalls and no declines in a stock, you have to pay attention. This one got Balter's. He's going to be very right.

Random musings: You also have to check out Balter's response to a Wall Street Journal article on Circuit City(CC). It is more pointed than anything I have seen from research in a long time. Balter's a great accountant and knows a lot more than the WSJ, which he shows in correcting the methodology of the Journal and its source for the article, RateFinancials. More important, Balter points out that while the Journal piece indicates the Street has been too biased in favor of Circuit City because of corporate finance taint, the long side's been dead right here, with CC making gigantic gains during the time that Balter's been recommending it. This is a hoot!

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