James Altucher
And finally, Time Warner(TWX Quote - Cramer on TWX - Stock Picks) makes the list. The world's largest media group announced a $5 billion stock-repurchase plan last Wednesday, right on the heels of a just-completed $20 billion program. The company says half of the shares should be bought back by January, just in time for its full-year results.
On the same day, the New York-based media conglomerate also revealed solid second-quarter earnings that beat forecasts and rose 5%. From April to June, the company earned $1.07 billion, or 28 cents a share, vs. $1.01 billion, or 24 cents a share, in the same quarter last year. Revenue increased 6% to $11 billion. However, some investors expressed concerned over Time Warner's earnings. AOL could be part of that concern -- revenue fell 38% to $1.3 billion, which is due to the loss of paying Internet subscribers. Chairman and CEO Dick Parson said a slowdown is expected as AOL switches from subscription-based to an advertising revenue-based structure. Still, he is confident his business strategy will pay off. "Users usually need a little time to become accustomed to the redesigned pages, and advertisers naturally want to see how the new program performs before reinvesting significantly," Parson said. "Improvements like these to AOL's programs and products, which we're confident will yield long-term benefits, will come with some disruptions." Pali Research supports the company's business strategy and reiterated its buy rating on Time Warner shares, saying: "We were literally shocked at how positive management of TWX sounded" on its quarterly conference call. Pali raised its target price for Time Warner to $25 -- a nice premium from the stock's current price of roughly $18 a share. We were also pleased to see that Jana Partners is investing in Time Warner. The $5 billion activist fund, run by Barry Rosenstein, takes a value-oriented and research-intensive approach to investing. Some of its other positions include Mirant(MIR Quote - Cramer on MIR - Stock Picks) and Valero Energy(VLO Quote - Cramer on VLO - Stock Picks). Dodge & Cox is another legendary fund that owns Time Warner. The $100 billion-plus investment fund has a long-term focus and employs a rigorous price discipline. The firm's Stock Fund has posted an annual average return of 14.5% over the past 10 years and 14.9% over the past 20 years. Hewlett-Packard(HPQ Quote - Cramer on HPQ - Stock Picks) and Sony(SNE Quote - Cramer on SNE - Stock Picks) are some of its other core holdings. So with Time Warner, we have a large share-buyback plan, solid earnings, a CEO with a focused business turnaround strategy and plenty of noteworthy successful firms buying the stock. Another solid setup. To see the rest of this week's picks, check out Stockpickr's Top 10 Insider Purchases and Buybacks portfolio. And for more insight into Stockpickr's Guide to Insider Purchases and Stock Buybacks, you can review each of the last few weeks' picks by visiting these portfolios:- Top 10 Insider Purchases and Buybacks I
- Top 10 Insider Purchases and Buybacks II
- Top 10 Insider Purchases and Buybacks III
- Top 10 Insider Purchases and Buybacks IV
- Top 10 Insider Purchases and Buybacks V
- Top 10 Insider Purchases and Buybacks VI
- Top 10 Insider Purchases and Buybacks VII
- Top 10 Insider Purchases and Buybacks VIII
- Top 10 Insider Purchases and Buybacks IX
- Top 10 Insider Purchases and Buybacks X
- Top 10 Insider Purchases and Buybacks XI
- Top 10 Insider Purchases and Buybacks XII
- Top 10 Insider Purchases and Buybacks XIII
- Top 10 Insider Purchases and Buybacks XIV
- Top 10 Insider Purchases and Buybacks XV
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