The Market Update
Barron's Roundup
James Altucher
02/11/07 - 09:28 AM EST
Editor's Note: Welcome to James Altucher's "Barron's Roundup," a new feature for readers of TheStreet.com and RealMoney.com. Each weekend, James will present Stockpickr portfolios related to articles in the latest issue of Barron's.
In our Barron's Summary portfolio, we look at the stocks that received favorable and unfavorable mentions in Barron's. In this weekend's issue, there was a bullish cover story on Costco(COST Quote); a bullish mention of Wrigley(WWY Quote) in the "Speaking of Dividends" column; a look at how AMG(AMG Quote) might be similar to Fortress(FIG Quote); and bearish stories on HSBC(HBC Quote), New Century(NEW Quote) and others.
Barron's Activist Stocks: companies that had activist investors taking positions over the past week and clamoring for change. This week's picks include Flow International(FLOW Quote), MDS(MDZ Quote) and Stride Rite(SRR Quote).
Latest insider purchases: We provide a little more color on each purchase. Was it the CEO buying? Was it a director? It's also interesting to see which stocks being bought by insiders also show up on other portfolios. For instance, Gulfport Energy(GPOR Quote) had an insider purchase $6 million worth of stock this past week, but it's also on our "Dogs of the Energy Sector" list, meaning it's one of the energy stocks hit the hardest so far this year. It also has a hedge fund, Luxor Capital, as an investor.
Barron's interviews Art Smith of John S. Herold, a highly respected energy research and consulting company. Smith outlines the "exploration paradox": Even though demand for oil continues to grow, many major companies no longer believe the rewards of new exploration outweigh the risks. Many will go the acquisition route instead. He then outlines the undervalued exploration companies that could be bought.
Barron's offers several reasons why Singapore is outpacing other Asian markets, including Taiwan and South Korea. Basically, it concludes that Singapore is the gateway to the other Asian economies and then offers several ways to play Singapore.
The Third Avenue International Value Fund has an amazing 5-year annualized return of 21%. The latest Barron's interviews Third Avenue fund manager Amit Wadhwaney and showcases his top picks, including stocks from Canada, Singapore and Norway.
Regional banks are always solid performers. The John Hancock Regional Bank Fund was up 16% in 2006 and has a 5-year return of 10.89%, solidly beating the S&P 500's 5-year return of 8.3%. Jim Schmidt, the fund's manager, is retiring. Barron's interviews him and gets his favorite picks one last time.
Pershing Square Capital is going crazy over Ceridian(CEN Quote). Barron's covers Pershing's activist endeavors on Ceridian, and we update Pershing Square's portfolio accordingly.
Now that Carl Icahn is taking an activist interest in Motorola(MOT Quote), Barron's "The Strike Price" column speculates which tech companies Icahn might go after next.
Bryan Perry is the author of a newsletter about "double-digit yields" called "The 25% Cash Machine." In Barron's "Speaking of Dividends" column, Perry gives his favorite picks. Each has a yield of at least 8%.
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