Wednesday, August 30, 2006

A Little More Fashion & A Bit Of Hostility

I used the proceeds from MasterCard International (Ticker: MA) and purchased more J. Crew (Ticker: JCG) @ $25.40. My total cost basis for J. Crew is $25.395. J. Crew has posted nice earnings and same store sales growth. I see this trend continuing. Retail should start perking up as we enter the holiday shopping season.

On a different note, you usually don’t see hostile takeovers in the biotech sector, but today Genzyme (Ticker: GENZ) made an unsolicited bid for AnorMED (Ticker: AOM), a small Canadian biotech company. It’ll be interesting to see how this plays out. Will there be a white knight out there to save AnorMED from Genzyme? We’ll see…

Tuesday, August 29, 2006

Sold MasterCard

I sold MasterCard International (Ticker: MA) today @ $55.38 generating a net return of 19.96% after commissions. The holding period for this position was a little over 2.5 months (purchased on 6/15/06 and sold on 8/29/06). My goal in any position is to generate a short term profit of at least 20% and if I’m wrong, I would try to cut my losses quickly and move on. Now that's the difficult part.

Rules for Biotech Investing

I stumbled onto the Motley Fool site today and they had a good write up on biotech investing. They generated pretty good set of rules for investing in biotech companies and they call it: The Commandments of Biotech Investing. Click here for the article. Still, I’m very reluctant in investing in any biotech company that is not generating a profit. The risks of failure are very high. I would wait until positive phase 3 data before speculating on the company.

Monday, August 28, 2006

Cut It Out!

In order to be a good trader, you have to cut your losses. After all these years, this is something I'm still learning to do. It's definitely not easy since you're trying to control your emotions (fear and greed). SmartMoney.com has an excellent article on this topic. Click here for the article. In order to trade at the next level, this is something you simply have to master.

Sunday, August 27, 2006

Money Book

I just picked up Inside the House of Money: Top Hedge Fund Traders on Profiting in the Global Markets by Steven Drobny. He's interviewing some of the top macro hedge fund managers. Many of the strategies employed by these managers are not complicated, just common sense. If you enjoyed reading Market Wizards: Interviews with Top Traders by Jack D. Schwager then you'll definitely like this book. Every investing geek out there should get the book!

Thursday, August 24, 2006

J.Crew, Lookin Good

J.Crew (Ticker: JCG) just reported some very nice numbers after the bell. They reported revenues of $269.2 million vs. estimates of $265 and earnings of $0.21 per share vs. $0.17. The company is forecasting earnings per share to grow ~20% over the longer term. The stock is currently trading up 3.5% in after hours. This one definitely has the momentum and is going up and up. Now if I can only find some extra $$$ to dump into J.Crew...

Valuing Biotech Companies

Here's a very good write up from The Street.com on valuing biotech companies. Click here for the article. It's not that difficult to research biotech companies if you just do a little home work.

Monday, August 21, 2006

Strata... what? S t r a t a g e n e

I usually don’t follow the single digit midget’s (also known as low priced stocks), but I am stalking Stratagene (Ticker: STGN). They’re one of the lower tier companies supplying reagents to the life science sector. They have some decent products such as their QPCR and competent cells. Most of their other products are just so so… The stock is trading at a 52 week low and is valued at only ~ 1X sales (~$100 million market cap). The company is making $$$; it's expected to earn $0.22 per share this year and $0.35 next year. This is very cheap compared to the big boys such as Invitrogen (Ticker: IVGN), Techne / R&D Systems (Ticker: TECH) and Qiagen (Ticker: QGEN). The company does have significant litigation risks, which is probably depressing the price of the stock. I don’t own any shares in this company, but when something gets this cheap; it’s very tempting. It's worth keeping a close eye on it...

Tuesday, August 15, 2006

Just One More Step, Pfizer...

Oh, so close… Yep, Pfizer (Ticker: PFE) is just inches from breaking out into a new 52 week high. We’re still in the early innings of this pharma rally. Take a look at Abbott Labs (Ticker: ABT), which just made a new 52-week high and Johnson & Johnson (Ticker: JNJ) is making its move as well. My only pharma position is Pfizer, which I acquired a long long time ago. Actually, I had a position in Warner Lambert, which was later acquired by Pfizer. So that’s how I became a Pfizer shareholder. It’s been a long, exciting and sometimes painful ride…

Saturday, August 12, 2006

What's Working?

Well, the quick answer to this question is not much. The only stock that I have strong conviction at this point is MasterCard (Ticker: MA). This stock has been acting strong relative to the overall market and continues to go up in a declining market. Once the market starts to rally, this stock will fly. I'm looking to reallocate more $$$ into MasterCard.



All of the companies in my portfolio have reported and the only disappointment is Invitrogen (Ticker: IVGN). I'm looking for this stock to retest its recent lows around $56 and that's when I will add to my position.

I'm still in a wait and see mode...

Thursday, August 03, 2006

Uh oh... There goes Invitrogen

My prediction on Invitrogen (Ticker: IVGN) beating the numbers was a bit off. Well, way off! The company reported earnings per share of $0.90 versus consensus of $0.85, but the company missed on the revenue numbers. The shares are currently trading down 9% in after hours. We’ll see what the company says on the conference call. The company is also initiating a $500 million share buy back. I still like this company and if the market over reacts to this news, I’ll pick up a few shares.

Wednesday, August 02, 2006

Charge........

Consumers definitely went on a charging binge with their credit cards in Q2. Today, MasterCard International (Ticker: MA) reported a blow out earnings report. The company reported earnings per share of $0.74, which beat the Street estimate of $0.67. The company also reported revenues of $846 million versus estimates of $802 million. Investors were very happy with this report sending the stock up 11.16%. This company is a cash generating machine. For every $100 in charges, the company pockets $0.15 to $0.20. That’s a nice little printing press. Ok tomorrow, Invitrogen (Ticker: IVGN) will report. My gut tells me that it’ll be good.