"A Penny for your thoughts about the second half of 2012. Copper is a place to park some money with the purchase of Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc. (FCX) "

Dow Jones Industrial Average 12,640.78 (Down)  Week Ending 06-22-2012

 Enough of all this EURO gloom and doom and Moody's downgrading of 15 major banks on the heels of a down 250 Dow day.

Summer has arrived!  UEFA European Football Championship, then June 30th kicks off the Tour De France, which runs through July and leads us to July 27th and the Opening Ceremonies of the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, United Kingdom. See, there is hope and fun in the world.

So no matter what happens with the Euro zone, you still need to invest your money and life will go on. Life will also continue on in China , where Reuters is reporting that Chinese Copper demand in 2012 is still running at 8.4 Millions tons a year. Also with the Chinese cutting their interest rates on June 7th , demand for Copper in China could actually rise in the second half of 2012.




Note the favorite speech of the movie "Moonstruck" plumber,  Cosmo Castorini, (played by the beloved Vincent Gardenia), who historically stated,  "Cooper, it cost money, because it saves money".   (Video above provided by RV61's Channel and Youtube.).

So what to do?  Purchase Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc. (Symbol FCX, $32.30). Freeport is a stock with a 3.97% dividend yield which is trading right now at a forward PE of 8.27.  I checked in at the sight "Guru Focus" and Ken Heebner along with Ken Fisher and Ray Dalio have taken good sized positions in the stock.  


FCX is projecting 2012 earnings of $3.97 per share and 2013 earnings of $5.06.

FCX, operates at a Net profit margin of 19.65%. Return on Equity runs at a rate of 25.35%. The PEG ratio on the stock is 1.04.  All the Copper stocks have been beaten up good this year so far and they are all presently ranked "Overweight".   This is a good timing buy and a good value with the dividend yield. The stock is currently trading below its Enterprise Value of $32.99 , (Total purchase price of a company, net of its debt and cash. Equal to market capitalization).

Also don't forget the immortal words of Rose Catorini to her husband Cosmo in the movie Moonstruck:

Rose: I just want you to know no matter what you do, you're gonna die, just like everybody else. 
Cosmo Castorini: Thank you, Rose. 

or this one:

Cosmo Castorini: I have no money. 
Rose: You're as rich as Roosevelt. You're just cheap, Cosmo. 

So you may as well invest in FCX and Copper, and make some money while your here on this earth!

 La Familia on "Moonstruck"

Ti Amo,

Freewilly 

"Greece may be coming apart at the seams, but people are still going to watch "Madmen" and the other fine shows of the AMC Networks and the Sundance Channel"

Dow Jones Industrial Average 12767.17 (UP) Week Ending  06-15-2012

Well the clock is ticking down to the Greek Election this weekend, with the G20 and world Central Banks preparing to come in and prop things up if the election does not go well. Cyprus may even jump in ahead of Greece with a plea for financial help. For my part, I moved a percentage of stock positions into some bond positions in my 401K, so that I can say that I took preparations for Armageddon.

For Y2K , I had bought lots of batteries and a Coleman Fluorescent lantern in case the power grid went down from some errant clock program in some software somewhere. At least we could play pinochle then, and contemplate our future into the beyond with the great darkness. But alas, nothing happened.

My financial bet is that no matter what happens, people are still going to keep watching the TV shows that they like,  like "Madmen", "Walking Dead", "The Killing"and "Breaking Bad", and other edgy shows that AMC produces.

So I went out this week and picked up some shares of:

AMC Networks Inc. CL. A ,(Symbol AMCX,$38.47),  the spinoff from Cablevision Systems Corp.  back in June 2011. They own the cable properties AMC Network, IFC, Sundance Channel, WE tv, and IFC films. They have been providing cable content for more than 30 years according to their website.

The stock has been beaten up a little bit here, because of a squabble with Dish Networks over the pricing of content. These things usually get settled once they get the egos backed out of it. AMCX , is projected to earn $2.41 per share in 2012 and $2.94 a share in 2013.

The company does carry substantial debt, like most cable operators do, but they have paid off 150 Million of the debt already in just one year.Long Term earnings growth is projected at 20+ %. The company operates at Gross Margins of 57.93% and has Operating margins of 29.89%. The PEG ratio on the stock is 0.86, very reasonable.

From AMC's website "Sundance Channel is the destination for What’s Next, Now.  Showcasing both today’s creative icons and the emerging talent of tomorrow, Sundance Channel tells credible, authentic, and emotionally immersive stories of invention, fashion, film, travel, design, and enterprise. Launched in 1996 and owned and operated by AMC Networks Inc., Sundance Channel provides perspectives dedicated to founder Robert Redford’s mission to celebrate creativity."

"It was a long road indeed to U.S. distribution for "On the Road," but on the eve of Cannes, the trip is finally over: AMC Networks has acquired all U.S. distrib rights to Walter Salles' adaptation of the Beat Generation tome by Jack Kerouac, to be released jointly by the company's film distribution labels IFC Films and Sundance Selects sometime this fall."

"Sundance Selects/IFC Films plans a traditional theatrical roll-out, and will handle all downstream platforms. Starring Kristen Stewart, Garrett Hedlund, Sam Riley and Kirsten Dunst, "On the Road" will world premiere in competition at the Cannes Film Festival, which starts next week."

IFC Films and Sundance Selects will release 'On the Road,' starring Kristen Stewart, sometime this fall.

Kristin Stewart's presence in "On the Road" should bring over some of her fans from the "Twilight" vampire series.  We will see how it works out.. 

The Wall Street Journal reported: "AMC Networks, which was spun off from Cablevision Systems Corp. last June, has reinvented itself in recent years with a slate of highly rated original-show successes, shedding its image as a sleepy broadcaster of independent movies and classic westerns. The transformation has come at a cost, however, as higher programming and marketing expenses to promote shows like "Mad Men" cut into its bottom line."

"AMC Networks reported a profit of $43.2 million, or 60 cents a share, up from $29.8 million, or 43 cents, a year earlier. Revenue jumped 20% to $326.2 million as the namesake channel contributed to a 30% rise in advertising revenue."

"Operating margin rose to 29.7% from 25.9%. National-networks revenue rose 21% to $304.2 million on stronger affiliate fees. Revenue from its international-and-other segment—which includes its international programming, independent film distribution and network technical-services businesses—grew 3.8% to $26.3 million."

Actors Aaron Paul, left, and Bryan Cranston in a scene from the AMC hit show 'Breaking Bad.'


You can't do better than owning stock in the fine acting crew of "Madmen". Don Draper will make it all work right, he always does.

This is kind of a hodge-podge kind of marketing deal of AMC Networks

and Sundance and their program content. Sorry , not my usual format. I had more pictures than data to put up with these guys only being spun-off for a year. But I think they are on the right track. 

Oh, and did I forget to mention that one of AMC's largest institutional investors is GAMCO Investors, a.k.a Mario Gabelli "The chairman", Barbara Marcin, and company. Not a bad endorsement.

 Mario Gabelli

Barbara Marcin

Freewilly

"Jim Cramer had the CEO of up and comer biotech company Seattle Genetics on his show this week. So I thought I would take a look at some healthcare stocks this week for investment"

Dow Jones Industrial Average 12,554.20 (UP nicely) Week ending 06-08-2012

Jim Cramer - Friend of the retail investor

Nobody outworks Jim Cramer to bring you great investment ideas from Wall Street. I do a blog once a week and it takes me 3 to 4 hours. Louis Rukeyser did a half hour show once a week.

Jimmy, brings the goods to you,  5 days a week, for 1 full hour each day. That is an unimaginable task. The amount of work to not only research and write the material,  but also present that amount of data and ideas is absolutely daunting. An incredible job, well done by this young man and his crew at Mad Money! Keep the good ideas coming and everyone diversified in their investments. 


This week the "Boooyah" kid brought us Seattle Genetics Inc. (Symbol SGEN, $23.52) company with negative earnings but very rapidly growing revenues which will bring the company rapidly to positive earnings. This set me off on a tangent to look for some other ideas for investments in this sector.


This is what I found that I like in various categories:


Aggressive Growth: 

Alexion Pharmaceuticals Inc. (Symbol ALXN, $92.43) 


Questcor Pharmaceuticals Inc. (Symbol QCOR, $43.94)





Good Solid "Meat and Potatoes " Growth Companies:


Celgene Corp. (Symbol CELG, $65.04) 
Zimmer Holdings Inc. (Symbol ZMH, $60.96) 

Local pharma company with good fundamentals but a bunch of Class Action litigation trouble.!

ViroPharma Inc. (Symbol VPHM, $20.32) - pretty good company. Presents a speculative value play here. 




Speculative - some high risk names with no earnings currently, but held by some well known mutual funds. Risky investments.

MandKind Inc. (Symbol MNKD, $1.76)  


Auxilium Pharmaceuticals (Symbol AUXL, $21.57)

Of all these stocks, I like QuestCor Pharmaceuticals the best.


Have a pleasant Sunday. A shout out to horse "Union Rags" for winning the Belmont Horse Racing Stakes.


Freewilly

"Every year the stock market in May is like the movie Groundhog Day. We repeat the same downside month, over and over again every year"

Dow Jones Industrial Average 12118.57  (Down and Ugly)  Week ending 06-01-2012

Phil Connors, the weatherman in the movie Groundhog Day has a message for you about the stock market during the month of  May, 


"It's going to be cold, It's going to be grey, and it is going to last for the rest of your life". 


 Every May, we repeat the same DOWN month over and over and over again. All we need now is the Sonny & Cher music.  Why didn't we listen to "Sell in May and go away", we knew it was going to happen, again?

Phil the GroundHog weather  prognosticator

Well , now what we need to know from Phil is if Spring is going to come back again in the next six weeks to this stock market, or will it be a "cold, grey, endless Winter of continuing stock losses? Will Phil, (the groundhog),  see his shadow and what should we take up as a strategy here? 


First, the good news is that in your 401K long term plans you are buying units at a steep discount right now and it will bring your average purchasing price down on shares. The bad news is that Greece could pull out of the Euro currency at any time and trigger a meltdown in the banks in Spain, Italy, and Portugal. So to be judicious here, you need to be thinking long term and you should only take up smaller  positions in case things really go haywire.

So let's send Phil into the dust bin for a dumpster dive and see what he can pull out for us.  


Shuffle Master Inc. (Symbol SHFL, $14.81) has some good stuff going on in Australia and the On-Line gaming industry. If you had owned this stock you would still be up 38% for the year. In the first quarter their slot machine revenues were up 104% according to IDB.

Shuffle Master is projecting 2012 earnings of .77 cents per share and 2013 earnings of .90 cents per share. It operates at 14.35% Net profit margins and revenues are growing rapidly. SHFL has a 3 year total return of 222%.


What else has Phil found down in that dumpster? 

How about Noble Corp. (Symbol NE , $30.59). This one is more of a value play on all the negative press on the Oil patch. You will need some patience with this one. Here are some items that will make you happy to wait. The current book value on the company is $29.32 per share. The PE ration is only 10.93. The PEG ratio is only 0.70. Earnings for 2012 are projected at $2.78 per share but they move to a lofty $4.40 per share in 2013. In other words Long Term earnings growth is projected at 60%. 




Phil these are great ideas at reasonable prices. You got one more before Sono & Cher Bono sings "I got you Babe"?


Well unless Apple Inc. is going out of business or slowing down dramatically, the stock of
Cirrus Logic Inc. (Symbol CRUS, $25.93) should be a good and safe place to park some money. 

CRUS is projecting 2013 earnings of $1.67 and 2014 earnings of $2.21. The 5 year sales growth here has been running 26.94% with being an Apple supplier of chips. Net Profit margins are running at 20.61%.  The PEG ratio on the stock is a very reasonable 0.74. The company has Zero Long Term debt. (I wish I could say that!) 


One year Total Return on Cirrus Logic is 61.75% . For Three years the Total Return has been an astounding 537.10 percent. No Cold and Grey here. Nothing but endless Springtime. 

Thanks Phil  ,
for  
the  great  ideas.


Adios Amigos,


Freewilly