In a January 18 post I listed several stocks that I had on my watch list:
Akamai Technologies Inc (AKAM) - $26.64 (01/17/08 close)
Cisco Systems, Inc (CSCO) - $24.33
3M Co. (MMM) - $74.96
Intel Corp (INTC) - $19.33
McDonald’s Corp (MCD) - $51.98
General Motors Corporation (GM) - $22.84
Starbucks Corp (SBUX) - $19.05
I subsequently took long positions in five […]

Not sure what the catalyst is, but AKAM is down about 20% over the past month - this, since rebounding 35% from the near-52 week low of $25.88 it hit back in mid-January.
We recommended taking a close look at AKAM back on January 18th, when the stock was at $26.64, and we do so again today.
* full […]

The following stocks are approaching valuation levels that I believe would make them highly attractive long term (more than one year) buying opportunities.  All of them have come down significantly from their 52-week highs (some, such as Akamai - down 55%, more than others).
Most of these companies are leaders in their field with strong balance […]

KNOT was recently trading at $13.73. At this level, the shares are starting to look pretty attractive. The Knot’s PE is now around 28x and its Enterprise Value to EBITDA is just under 14x. Given organic top-line growth in the low 20% range and projected earnings growth of 30%, KNOT’s valuation is […]

* Full Disclosure:  I own the AMZN Jan 2008 70 puts
Despite a forecast for declining margins in the 4th quarter, Amazon.com (AMZN) finished at $88.73 yesterday, down just 2.8% below the $91.28 price the stock had been at when the market opened the previous day (before surging nearly 10% that day on euphoric earnings expectations).  Further, according to MarketWatch.com, 12 of the 22 analysts […]

Omniture (OMTR), the largest pure-play web analytics company, is incredibly overvalued at its current price of $34.50 per share.
This company is the dominant player in a great space - web traffic reporting and optimization tools (recently announced a smart acquisition of a company called Offermatica).  However, a quick, back-of-the-envelope analysis shows that OMTR is worth no […]

The New York Times ran a story in its Sunday business section that reinforces the point I’ve been making about the massive valuation discrepancy between Amazon (AMZN) and Google (GOOG). In a story called The Human Touch That May Loosen Google’s Grip, Randoll Stross, a professor of business at San Jose State University, points out:
Profit margins […]

Amazon (AMZN) rose 4.6% yesterday, hitting a seven-year high of $73.65.  The reason for the surge - Jeff Bezos announced that the company plans to increase its investment in China, where its Joyo.com unit is Amazon’s fastest growing business. After a quick look at the most basic facts, you’ll see why this is completely insane:
The Wall Street Journal […]

On May 17, we recommended buying puts on Amazon (AMZN).  Since that time, the stock has traded up about 9% and the July $60 puts have gobe from $2.35 to around $1.15.
** Full disclosue - I purchased the July $60 puts at $1.70 on May 21.
Nothing has changed fundamentally with the story on Amazon, so […]

Shares of Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN) are currently trading at just above $63 per share.  That’s 55x even the most bullish estimate of $1.14 per share for 2007 earnings.  At 25% projected annual earnings growth over the next 5 years, that gives AMZN a PE/Growth ratio of 2.2x.  Sure, we all love and use Amazon to […]