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Lee Samaha

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  • What You Need to Know About This Cloud Play

    By Lee Samaha - May 19, 2013 | Tickers: AMZN, RAX, VMW

    It’s been a difficult year so far for investors in Rackspace Hosting (NYSE: RAX). While it is not alone in having delivered disappointing results in the tech world the latest earnings raise more questions than answers as to how to best evaluate this company.

    In summary, an investment decision here requires a certain amount of confidence in the future of its OpenStack public cloud project.It also requires an more »

  • Why This Financial Offers Good Upside

    By Lee Samaha - May 17, 2013 | Tickers: COF, DFS, GS, WFC

    Text books predict economies to work in concert with some kind of ideal and consistent. Unfortunately it never quite works out like that. In particular with the financial sector we have seen some unusual developments in recent years.

    On a historical basis the sector looks cheap with many of the leading lights trading at below book value however, we are living in uncertain times and the credit cycle is not more »

  • Cisco and How its Results Read Across the Tech Sector

    By Lee Samaha - May 16, 2013 | Tickers: T, CSCO, XXIA, PLCM, VZ

    Tech investors have seen a slew of warnings over the last few months so Cisco Systems'(NASDAQ: CSCO) recent ‘beat’ was always likely to be well received. As ever with bellwethers there is as much interest in what its constituent segments mean to the tech industry as there is in its own prospects. Moreover as Cisco is reporting late in the quarter there may be some indication that the tech more »

  • The Key Earnings For the Week

    By Lee Samaha - May 15, 2013 | Tickers: ARUN, ADSK, DCI, JWN, VAL

    Earnings season is starting to wind down, but we still have some interesting companies reporting this week. Since we are nearing the end of the season a lot of these companies’ peers will have already reported, so the market will be anticipating the direction of the results. I’m going to use this approach to preview what investors might expect from the results this week.

    Tuesday

    I can think of more »

  • What I Bought and Sold This Quarter

    By Lee Samaha - May 15, 2013 | Tickers: COF, CHKP, FAST, INTC, PPG

    I would rather forget last month. After nine months of gains, I hit a nasty double digit loss. In truth, this sort of thing was inevitable and the preceding months were as much a part of the process as last month was. The previous month’s write-up and links to others can be found here. I do this stuff because I happen to believe that anyone writing about investment should more »

  • Can This Company Continue its Recovery?

    By Lee Samaha - May 15, 2013 | Tickers: CAG, KR, THS

    It has been a difficult couple of years for Treehouse Foods (NYSE: THS) and the share price is only above what it was back then thanks to the recent strong run.I’m sure that part of this is due to the market’s infatuation with the food sector this year (not least sparked by Buffett’s move into Heinz) but it is also down to the company successfully reorganizing more »

  • Plenty of Growth Drivers With This Housing Play

    By Lee Samaha - May 15, 2013 | Tickers: BBBY, PIR, RH, WSM

    It’s been a pretty good earnings season for the home furnishings company and Restoration Hardware (NYSE: RH) continued the good cheer by upgrading its Q1 guidance only a few weeks after reporting an impressive set of full year results.

    The company has a number of positive drivers behind it. It marries a recovering housing market with the spending power of the high end consumer and a collection of ongoing more »

  • Three Reasons to Expect Tech to Outperform

    By Lee Samaha - May 14, 2013 | Tickers: FFIV, ASGN, RHI

    It has been a somewhat perplexing reporting season for many companies in cyclical industries. I’ve detected a recurring trend with a number of technology and industrial companies. Simply put, Q4 of last year ended quite strongly, and encouraged a sense of optimism that many companies haven't lived up to in 2013. The result is that many warned and lowered guidance.

    Is now the time to take advantage of more »

  • Why This Stock's Crash is a Buying Opportunity

    By Lee Samaha - May 13, 2013 | Tickers: AGN, NVO, REGN, VRX

    It’s been a varied reporting season with a general uptrend in markets accompanying more than a few profit warnings. If you’ve been holding some of these names before the disappointments then it has been painful. The good news is that these situations can create buying opportunities. I think Allergan (NYSE: AGN) is a case in point, and here is why.

    Allergan’s Outlook

    It was almost a tale more »

  • Is This Stock the Perfect GARP Play for 2013?

    By Lee Samaha - May 13, 2013 | Tickers: MAS, SWK, WHR

    There are three positive earnings drivers to look out for with Stanley Black & Decker(NYSE: SWK), and if they all come together in 2013, then this stock has significant upside potential. It is a nice mix of value and growth.The company offers a nice mix of improving end markets, ongoing cost savings from synergies created via acquisition integration, and it has a strategic growth initiative in place in order more »

  • Why is the Market in Love With This Beauty Play?

    By Lee Samaha - May 13, 2013 | Tickers: PG, REV, EL

    To be or not to be? To buy or not to buy? That is our question with The Estee Lauder Companies (NYSE: EL). Whether it is nobler in the mind to suffer not buying a stock that that the market loves, or to take arms against a high valuation, revenue forecasts at the bottom end of guidance, and a management initiative that thus far isn’t quite going as planned more »

  • The Latest Aerospace Play Gives Earnings

    By Lee Samaha - May 13, 2013 | Tickers: AA, BEAV, PCP, BA

    Another week and another set of earnings in the industrial space which confirms the curious bifurcation in the sector. In short, if you sell to aerospace and automotive (pretty large sectors in manufacturing) you had a good quarter, if you don’t then conditions were actually weaker. Such thoughts came to mind when looking at Precision Castparts (NYSE: PCP) latest results. In this article I want to delve into the more »

  • Nice Not to See a Tech Company Warning

    By Lee Samaha - May 10, 2013 | Tickers: IBM, NICE, TIBX, VRNT

    It’s been a disappointing earnings season for technology stocks. A marked reluctance among telcos and enterprises to sign off on big deals has caused company after company to miss earnings and lower guidance. In this environment any company that merely hits guidance is a 'winner'. With these thoughts in mind the market liked the recent results from Nice Systems(NASDAQ: NICE). In fact I got the impression from the more »

  • The Key Earnings For The Week

    By Lee Samaha - May 9, 2013 | Tickers: BECN, NICE, PCP, RAX, THS

    Earnings season is starting to wind down this week and most of the really big names have already reported. Nevertheless there are still plenty of interesting companies giving results this week and there is no excuse for not trying to unearth value when you see an opportunity.

    Tuesday

    There is a health care theme to today’s results as surgical knife company Accuray gave results. Medical distributor McKesson also reported more »

  • Can This IT Security Play Hit Guidance?

    By Lee Samaha - May 9, 2013 | Tickers: CHKP, FFIV, FTNT, PANW

    A few weeks ago IT security company Fortinet (NASDAQ: FTNT) helped kick off a pretty dismal reporting season for technology by pre-announcing a weak set of results. Since then a plethora of other companies have reported and given a myriad set of reasons and excuses for missing. I think it’s fair to conclude that there was a marked reluctance among business to sign off on large tech deals in more »

  • Is This Retailer a Good Value?

    By Lee Samaha - May 8, 2013 | Tickers: GPS, VFC

    V.F. Corp (NYSE: VFC) is one of those infuriating stocks that never seems to be cheap precisely when you want it to be. The latest set of results kept up its tradition of raising EPS guidance even if the revenue numbers were far from stellar. Indeed the key takeaway from these results was the margin improvements achieved within difficult end markets. This is one of the best run stocks more »

  • Why This Tech Stock Looks Like a Good Value

    By Lee Samaha - May 3, 2013 | Tickers: CSCO, CTXS, FFIV

    The difficult earnings season for technology continues, and Citrix Systems (NASDAQ: CTXS) didn't disappoint to disappoint. The market is in no mood to take prisoners right now with any kind of tech company that misses revenue and earnings forecasts. Consequently, the stock took a battering after it missed and guided earnings lower for Q2. On the other hand, I think there are some mitigating circumstances and this drop is more »

  • Key Earnings this Week

    By Lee Samaha - May 2, 2013 | Tickers: AGN, FB, MAS, PFE

    It’s another big week for earnings and by now investors will have formulated a thesis on the first quarter. That thesis will be put to the test this week. In my view there are some clear signs that there was a bit of caution over discretionary spending among corporations. Will it continue?

    As the weeks go by, let's recall that companies will get a bit more data on more »

  • Are Prospects Getting Better for This Industrial Stock?

    By Lee Samaha - May 2, 2013 | Tickers: CGNX, FAST, INTC

    It’s been a fascinating –if at times confusing-earnings season for the industrials. In the good old days all an investor needed to do was look at the ISM manufacturing index and generally expect his stock to trade in the direction of its trends. Not anymore. In this disjointed recovery all industrial sectors are equal, but some are more equal than others. The question is does your stock have exposure more »

  • The Five Things That Investors Fear With Google

    By Lee Samaha - April 30, 2013 | Tickers: AAPL, FB, GOOG

    It’s easy for investors to take Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) for granted. The company seems to grow seamlessly while so many others flounder amid the pressure of constantly having to deal with the challenges of technological change or even just trying to stay ‘cool’. In my view Google does these things well, and in this article I want to discuss the five reasons why the market fears certain things about more »

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