Navistar Racing the Clock

"While there's a long line of academic literature criticizing whether poison pills are really in the shareholders' best interests, in this case we actually think it is," Bear Stearns analyst Peter Nesvold wrote late last month. "In our view, it remains very difficult to arrive at a defensible fair value for the stock, given the lack of financials and NAVZ's continued cost restructuring and military transformation."

Nesvold has a peer-perform rating on Navistar in the meantime. His firm makes a market in the company's securities. Still, he believes holding on to the stock while Navistar gets its books in order could pay off.

"We think shareholders with at least a one-year time horizon would ultimately get a higher price for NAVZ after they're provided financial transparency," he writes, "than they would currently should unsolicited interest present itself."