Bill still owns 490 million shares (Yahoo finance, msft, insiders). Roughly 13 billion dollars-worth. Assuming he stays at 20m per quarter it's six-seven years..
I don't disagree with the author, and I am long MSFT but lightening up. I think there is a 600 lb pig in the parlor: Bill Gates. Poor metaphor, Bill is no pig. He earned every dime and created things like the operating system with which I am writing.
Is MSFT stock just a piggy bank for Bill? From whom are the buybacks by MSFT made? Who benefits most from dividends? Bill. Again, not to slam Bill, but until his share is wrung out of the corporation I think we have to believe in a probability that MSFT is generally being run for his personl benefit. As it should be.
But that leaves the rest of us in the cheap seats.
Even if my assertion is not true, and it may well not be true, there is a lack of distance, a lack of confidence in the evidence. As an old (very very old) attorney that bothers me and should bother the author.
Spring Cleaning My Dividend Growth Portfolio [View article]
David You're right, I think, perhaps "hope" is better. JNJ does have a habit of riding out all tempests. But we must ask if the howling mob would put JNJ's head on those damned pikes over the gates of York. So inconvenient. I hear them on the moor and the sound makes me seek to stay out of the way.
McDonald's 1Q12 Earnings Preview: Facing Macro Headwind, Consensus Estimate May Be Too High [View article]
G' Morning. TwistTie. I've been tempted at this recent blip too, was tempted to sell (to you?) at 97 and buy back at 90. But I'm not a trader. I'm almost 400 years old and not so mentally agile any more. I was burnt in the South Sea Bubble and learned my lesson about mob hysteria. (Anybody want a "plantation" on New Ireland ? I still have a spare....)
I think ("hope" might be a better word) MCD might go a bit lower than 93, but if you look hard at the charts (use the logrithmic scale) it generally doesn't flutter much more than 7%. It's very stable.
PE is bothering the institutionals and the mutuals. It smells like a fresh batch of fries to the shorts. I'm of the mind that earnings growth will pull that ratio back rather than price decline. When times get rough people everywhere head to McD for a treat. Even in China where it's Puppy McNuggets or some high margin thing you never heard of. Chez Bleu and the linen napkins (actually polyester) gets the shrug. Times are tough. Hang with the good crew.
Spring Cleaning My Dividend Growth Portfolio [View article]
I worry a bit about JNJ getting slapped around by the courts. A billion dollar fine in Arkansas, trashed in South Carolina, plaintiff's counsel (confession: I am one) circling. I fear it's just starting.
Long JNJ since 78, but lightened up 25% last year thinking the company is starting to look broken both in manufacturing quality control and in product design, both pretty fundamental. Now the exectutive executions are starting. May go all out if this continues.
McDonald's 1Q12 Earnings Preview: Facing Macro Headwind, Consensus Estimate May Be Too High [View article]
I think this article states fairly some of the problems facing companies who essentially purchase commodities, manufacture them into products and sell them directly to retail consumers. It is right insofar as it goes, dealing with possibilities in a murky crystal ball.
But I respectfully submit it is wrong and place my bet against it. And even if I am wrong, a pulldown on vagaries presents a mere bagatelle to be dipped in olive oil and nibbled.
For the article seems to fail to account for the remarkable ability of MCD to execute in a way other such companies do not. Partially this is because many people, perhaps most people, fail to comprehend exactly what it is that MCD is selling. MCD the corporation (as opposed to the place we go for an Egg McMuffin (tm)) is actually in the business of selling franchises and then supporting them. Perhaps "directing" them is a better word.
In the selling and supporting of franchises they are plus ultra. The requirements to even apply to MCD for a franchise, much less actually bring one to the point of serving hot food to real people for money, shows how thorough they are.
Do they make mistakes in Oak Brook? Sure, sometiems a real whopper (excuse me: I cannot help myself). Yet they more than others learn from those gaffes and go forward. A good boat with a solid crew can sail closer to the wind than other boats. And so they win the race. So, too, MCD, perhaps the best run commodity-to-retail business in the world, is the best designed ship with the best crew.
It may pull back a bit. Good, I'll buy some more. It may not, good, I'll sit on my dividends and do some yoga.
Long Mickey's since 1996 and always buy on down 7% flutter. That would be about 93-94 or so.
McDonald's (MCD) apologizes to Chinese consumers after a state-owned TV station accused it of selling products past their sell-by windows. The report by China Central Television offered no evidence of widespread problems with MCD's China operations, but periodic "trumped up" investigations such as this highlight the pressures foreign companies can face in China. [View news story]
McPologies. Deal with the Chicoms, behave like a Chicom. Do they even have a word for "sincere" that is not a synonym for "stupid?" The government just wants MCD to grovel in the dirt a little. It did, so everybody's happy. I applaud MCD's insight on how to get along with a medieval state.
Nice clear read off good insights. Much of this is common knowledge, but the author's presentation adds wonderful clarity. I'm long CVS (since 12/07) and am in the habit of despair over it arising mainly from the indigestion caused by swallowing Long's just as California went in the dumpster. But this gives me a refreshed eye. CVS is better than I thought. Thank you. I do believe I'd pat myself on the back excepting that self congratulatory ebullience is warning sign: (Did I just turn fat, dumb and happy? Sometimes I remind me of Cromwell, that revolting revolutionary.)
Frontier Communications' 17.5% Yield: Too Good To Be True? [View article]
Dodger
The common exit strategy for golf course ownership remains bankruptcy.
Most of them went under, again, still yet, on the five-year cycle. The business model for most of them around here is: "Two docs and a stock broker buy a golf course so they can make big money and play for free."
The model fails to consider what most of us would refer to as reality. You can't fix stupid.
Not to be outdone, the municipalities in a burst of greed are buying them up with low interest development money from guess-who-is-President, earning a slight discount on the interest, and backing the loans with general tax revenues.
Nice entry. But the exit strategy remains the same. Except it's the taxpayers who get the pointed end of the stick. All because "you can't fix...."
Frontier Communications' 17.5% Yield: Too Good To Be True? [View article]
Yes, and boy did they get whacked by the tornado last Spring. We live between Sky Valley and Scaly Mountain. Had to drive to Clayton to get a maybe signal: towers were knocked around, power was off, and all the contractors ate up the bandwidth.
It's beautiful, but in winter it's isolated. Bring books, lots of them, put your feet to the fire, glass of wine, and chill.
The United Steelworkers union last night warned of the increasing chance of a strike on Wednesday by refinery workers in one or more locations if there's no progress in contract talks for a new three-year deal. The unions have expressed concern about safety protections for workers. [View news story]
You're right on this, Harry. But the dilemma to the union worker remains: do I work at a job that doesn't give me everthing my grandparents got from it or do I refuse to work at a job and risk having have no job at all?
My 17th, 18th and 19th century ancestors refused to put up with their bosses and when the job was gone (rather summarily, sometimes with a pointy ended stick) they had a Plan B to emmigrate to the empty New World. That model is compromised. There is no New World unless it's Afghanistan where the natives (as in North America) will remonstrate.
And there's no guarantee that the federal government will bail them out as with GM.
In a dilemma? Think hard or close your eyes, wish you were in Kansas and roll the bones.
Frontier Communications' 17.5% Yield: Too Good To Be True? [View article]
Agree with you: most people do not understand rural telephony. We live in the mountain of North Georgia. You have to drive at least 7 miles to get a cellular signal, sometimes 12 miles. Something about solid granite. And driving is not always an option in the winter. Our friends from Atlanta cannot believe it and when visiting constantly try to text for the first hour or so, finally surrendering to the cruelty. After four or five hours they cannot stand the sensory deprivation and find reasons to leave.
Thus our wireline provider, Windstream (WS) can charge us anything they like for service, and do. And we pay it readily, not to say happily. We do have DSL, since you asked, a whopping 1.5 mb (250 kb upload).
The cell companies sneer at our incorporated city when we ask like so many Dickensian waifs for a signal, "please Sir."
We have even looked into Satphones as an alternative.
Money sent WS by Obama for "infrastructure telco upgrades" has been banked by WS and looks yummy on the balance sheet. They can't spend it on anything else, but they are not required to spend it at all, so it just sits there. Cash. This is a frank admission by the company.
Under these conditions, and those surrounding FTR's clientele, FTR has an excellent chance of making pots of money. Zero competition and an addictive need for the product by the consumer. The techonology is obsolescent but not obsolete, and will do just fine for the next few years.
The United Steelworkers union last night warned of the increasing chance of a strike on Wednesday by refinery workers in one or more locations if there's no progress in contract talks for a new three-year deal. The unions have expressed concern about safety protections for workers. [View news story]
Union: Go ahead and strike.
The owners will shutter the mills and buy steel from Pakistan.
Microsoft: $50 A Share By 2013 [View article]
Microsoft: $50 A Share By 2013 [View article]
Is MSFT stock just a piggy bank for Bill? From whom are the buybacks by MSFT made? Who benefits most from dividends? Bill. Again, not to slam Bill, but until his share is wrung out of the corporation I think we have to believe in a probability that MSFT is generally being run for his personl benefit. As it should be.
But that leaves the rest of us in the cheap seats.
Even if my assertion is not true, and it may well not be true, there is a lack of distance, a lack of confidence in the evidence. As an old (very very old) attorney that bothers me and should bother the author.
Spring Cleaning My Dividend Growth Portfolio [View article]
You're right, I think, perhaps "hope" is better. JNJ does have a habit of riding out all tempests. But we must ask if the howling mob would put JNJ's head on those damned pikes over the gates of York. So inconvenient. I hear them on the moor and the sound makes me seek to stay out of the way.
Stay alert!
McDonald's 1Q12 Earnings Preview: Facing Macro Headwind, Consensus Estimate May Be Too High [View article]
I think ("hope" might be a better word) MCD might go a bit lower than 93, but if you look hard at the charts (use the logrithmic scale) it generally doesn't flutter much more than 7%. It's very stable.
PE is bothering the institutionals and the mutuals. It smells like a fresh batch of fries to the shorts. I'm of the mind that earnings growth will pull that ratio back rather than price decline. When times get rough people everywhere head to McD for a treat. Even in China where it's Puppy McNuggets or some high margin thing you never heard of. Chez Bleu and the linen napkins (actually polyester) gets the shrug. Times are tough. Hang with the good crew.
I don't think there's a McD's on New Ireland yet.
Spring Cleaning My Dividend Growth Portfolio [View article]
Long JNJ since 78, but lightened up 25% last year thinking the company is starting to look broken both in manufacturing quality control and in product design, both pretty fundamental. Now the exectutive executions are starting. May go all out if this continues.
McDonald's 1Q12 Earnings Preview: Facing Macro Headwind, Consensus Estimate May Be Too High [View article]
But I respectfully submit it is wrong and place my bet against it. And even if I am wrong, a pulldown on vagaries presents a mere bagatelle to be dipped in olive oil and nibbled.
For the article seems to fail to account for the remarkable ability of MCD to execute in a way other such companies do not. Partially this is because many people, perhaps most people, fail to comprehend exactly what it is that MCD is selling. MCD the corporation (as opposed to the place we go for an Egg McMuffin (tm)) is actually in the business of selling franchises and then supporting them. Perhaps "directing" them is a better word.
In the selling and supporting of franchises they are plus ultra. The requirements to even apply to MCD for a franchise, much less actually bring one to the point of serving hot food to real people for money, shows how thorough they are.
Do they make mistakes in Oak Brook? Sure, sometiems a real whopper (excuse me: I cannot help myself). Yet they more than others learn from those gaffes and go forward. A good boat with a solid crew can sail closer to the wind than other boats. And so they win the race. So, too, MCD, perhaps the best run commodity-to-retail business in the world, is the best designed ship with the best crew.
It may pull back a bit. Good, I'll buy some more. It may not, good, I'll sit on my dividends and do some yoga.
Long Mickey's since 1996 and always buy on down 7% flutter. That would be about 93-94 or so.
McDonald's (MCD) apologizes to Chinese consumers after a state-owned TV station accused it of selling products past their sell-by windows. The report by China Central Television offered no evidence of widespread problems with MCD's China operations, but periodic "trumped up" investigations such as this highlight the pressures foreign companies can face in China. [View news story]
5 Splendid Dividend Plays [View article]
Frontier Communications' 17.5% Yield: Too Good To Be True? [View article]
Frontier Communications' 17.5% Yield: Too Good To Be True? [View article]
Dodger
The common exit strategy for golf course ownership remains bankruptcy.
Most of them went under, again, still yet, on the five-year cycle.
The business model for most of them around here is: "Two docs and a stock broker buy a golf course so they can make big money and play for free."
The model fails to consider what most of us would refer to as reality. You can't fix stupid.
Not to be outdone, the municipalities in a burst of greed are buying them up with low interest development money from guess-who-is-President, earning a slight discount on the interest, and backing the loans with general tax revenues.
Nice entry. But the exit strategy remains the same. Except it's the taxpayers who get the pointed end of the stick. All because "you can't fix...."
Frontier Communications' 17.5% Yield: Too Good To Be True? [View article]
It's beautiful, but in winter it's isolated. Bring books, lots of them, put your feet to the fire, glass of wine, and chill.
The United Steelworkers union last night warned of the increasing chance of a strike on Wednesday by refinery workers in one or more locations if there's no progress in contract talks for a new three-year deal. The unions have expressed concern about safety protections for workers. [View news story]
My 17th, 18th and 19th century ancestors refused to put up with their bosses and when the job was gone (rather summarily, sometimes with a pointy ended stick) they had a Plan B to emmigrate to the empty New World. That model is compromised. There is no New World unless it's Afghanistan where the natives (as in North America) will remonstrate.
And there's no guarantee that the federal government will bail them out as with GM.
In a dilemma? Think hard or close your eyes, wish you were in Kansas and roll the bones.
Frontier Communications' 17.5% Yield: Too Good To Be True? [View article]
Thus our wireline provider, Windstream (WS) can charge us anything they like for service, and do. And we pay it readily, not to say happily. We do have DSL, since you asked, a whopping 1.5 mb (250 kb upload).
The cell companies sneer at our incorporated city when we ask like so many Dickensian waifs for a signal, "please Sir."
We have even looked into Satphones as an alternative.
Money sent WS by Obama for "infrastructure telco upgrades" has been banked by WS and looks yummy on the balance sheet. They can't spend it on anything else, but they are not required to spend it at all, so it just sits there. Cash. This is a frank admission by the company.
Under these conditions, and those surrounding FTR's clientele, FTR has an excellent chance of making pots of money. Zero competition and an addictive need for the product by the consumer. The techonology is obsolescent but not obsolete, and will do just fine for the next few years.
Long FTR and WS.
The United Steelworkers union last night warned of the increasing chance of a strike on Wednesday by refinery workers in one or more locations if there's no progress in contract talks for a new three-year deal. The unions have expressed concern about safety protections for workers. [View news story]
The owners will shutter the mills and buy steel from Pakistan.
And you'll whine about that, too.
Why Different Stocks Are Needed For The Next 3 Years Of Low Interest Rates [View article]