Top Takes From RealMoney

The RealMoney contributors are in the business of trading and investing all day on the basis of ongoing news flow. Below, we offer the top five ideas that RealMoney contributors posted today and how they played those ideas.

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1. Kraft Goes Hostile
By Sham Gad
8:32 a.m. EST

Kraft (KFT Quote) announced a hostile $16.3 billion bid for Cadbury (CBY Quote) today, the deadline for a formal deal. This is below Kraft's $16.7 billion original offer. Considering Cadbury has no other offers on the table, I wouldn't immediately dismiss Kraft's chances of success. I continue to feel that Kraft shares are undervalued and like the fact that no more stock is being given away in the deal. This deal is fantastic for both sides -- at a fair price -- and I wouldn't count out Kraft.

Long KFT.

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2. Tesoro
By Tim Melvin
10:22 a.m. EST

Not an entirely terrible report from refiner Tesoro (TSO Quote) this morning. Earnings were down substantially, falling from $259 million last year to just $33 million this year. Revenues fell by just about half in the quarter. Given the horrible conditions in the refining industry, the fact that they did not lose money is pretty impressive, in my opinion. Total system throughput was down 9% as the company adjusted production levels in the face of slower demand. Tesoro also cut the dividend in half to conserve cash.

I continue to view refiners, particularly Tesoro, as deeply undervalued assets that are almost irreplaceable. The hurdles to building new refineries in the U.S. are enormous and eventually I think the share prices will reflect this. I have not bought back into this stock yet, so the lower it goes, the more I like it.

No positions.