TOP 100 TRANSPORTATION AND LOGISTICS SITES
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| Brunswick: A Forgotten Recreational Vehicle Stock Coming Out from Underwater Joe Kunkle submits:Brunswick (BC) May $5 call volume is soaring with shares at $4.80 on a 9% move higher, with 3,300+ calls trading against a prior open interest of just 133. Implied volatility is down from recent highs, but is still elevated at 166%. Shares are breaking out of a consolidation area and look to target January highs near $6. Earnings are scheduled for April 30, and shares trade at just 1.2X cash value and have 10.3% of the float short after making a textbook double bottom at $2. The story is even a better one as we have seen recreational vehicle companies such as Harley (HOG), Polaris (PII), Thor Industries (THO), and Winnebago (WGO) more than double this year alone as the once-thought-of depression begins to look more like a recession, and consumer spending will return much sooner than originally expected. Complete Story » seekingalpha.com |
Porsche Still Scrambling to Raise Cash Tyler Durden submits: Zero Hedge favorite soap opera extraordinaire is about to enter the final season. Porsche, which as we noted in the past doesn't have either the cash to exercise its massively profitable Volkswagen options, nor the cash to actually stave off bankruptcy for long, has bypassed the hedge fund investor rescue route completely (no surprise there) and instead is trying to sell an unknown stake (likely at least 25%) to the Qatar Investment Authority. Quote Bloomberg: Stuttgart-based Porsche may conclude an accord with Qatar by the end of June, said the two people, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the discussions are private. Negotiations about the sale, held exclusively with the Persian Gulf state, are proceeding “in a good atmosphere,” said Porsche spokesman Albrecht Bamler. He declined to comment on a price. Complete Story » seekingalpha.com |
The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. Q2 2009 Earnings Call Transcript The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. (GT)Q2 2009 Earnings CallJuly 30, 2009; 10:00 am ETComplete Story » seekingalpha.com |
Harley-Davidson: Opportunity Exists to the Downside David White submits:HOG missed earnings estimates earlier this week. It reported EPS of $.11 vs. an estimate of $.21. Thus far on Yahoo Finance, the analysts' estimates for Q4 2009 have been lowered to -$.26 from -$.16. This means HOG now stands to earn $.43 in FY2009. This translates into a FY2009 P/E of 65 based on Friday's closing price of $27.86. This P/E is far too high for a company whose earnings and revenues seem to be going in reverse instead of growing. Earnings were down more than 80% and sales were down 21% year over year (i.e. revenues are down). HOG announced it was discontinuing two product lines -- Buell and MV Agusta -- in order to focus more strongly on the Harley-Davidson brand. We'll have to see how good a strategy this turns out to be. Many people have expressed doubts that the Harley-Davidson brand will continue to have the same appeal as the baby boomer generation ages out of the motorcycle buying demographic. Those same people have suggested that both Buell and MV Agusta had more appeal to younger generations.Complete Story » seekingalpha.com |
Daimler: Coming to America Marc Chandler submits:We have noted that the combination of the chronically weak dollar, strong productivity gains and the threat of protectionism will likely encourage foreign companies to boost their productive capacity in the United States. A couple of Japanese auto producers have already made recent moves in this direction. On Wednesday, Germany's Daimler (DAI) said it will shift some of the production of its best-selling Mercedes-Benz Class C model to its US facility.Daimler officials were quoted on the news wires indicating that the shift was part of a larger effort to bring production closer to its main sales regions and reduce exposure to the variability of currencies. According to reports, Daimler estimates that producing its car in the US saves about 2000 euros per car.In respect to its German work force, Daimler argues that because producing closer to its customers will save the company money in terms of costs and exchange rate management, it will help protect employment in Germany too, though of course German labor unions see it differently.Mercedes-Benz has one plant in the US in Alabama that opened in 1997 and produced 152.5k cars last year. The company sold about 251k vehicles in the US last year, about a 1/5 of its total global sales. By the time the shift is complete, it will hire about 4,000 US workers, up from 2,800 now.Separately, it touches on another theme we have discussed before: the real competitive pressure Detroit feels is not coming from Tokyo and Seoul as much as Alabama, Tennessee and California.It also illustrates another point about the behavior of multinational companies and foreign direct investment flows: cheap labor may not be the key attactor. Most of the US foreign direct investment, for example, is located in other high wage economies. The size of the local/regional market seems to be an important determinant as well.Disclosure: No positionsComplete Story » seekingalpha.com |