Stocks Selling for Less than Cash per Share

by Fred Fuld III

During the last six months, the stock market has taken a tumble, with the S&P 500 down almost 20% year-to-date.

Some investors and traders are now looking for bargains, hoping for a short term or even a long term bounce.

So how do you go about choosing a stock to buy in these volatile times? One strategy is to look for stocks that are not only selling below their book value, but also below their cash per share, especially if the company has low or no debt.

The cash per share is the amount of money that would be distributed for each share if the company went out of business today. In other words, if all the other company’s assets were totally worthless, how much would shareholders receive for each share, just from the cash in the bank the company has.

So if you can buy the stock for less than the cash per share, you should be getting a fairly good deal, not counting other factors.

If the company is also profitable, that is another benefit.

The following are four stocks with have low or no debt, are trading below the cash per share, and are profitable with price to earnings ratios below 32. As a matter of fact, three of the companies have P/E ratios below 15. All of the following are low cap or extremely low cap, so should be considered very, very speculative.

Atea Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (AVIR), with a market cap of $577.00 million, is a biopharmaceutical company, which is involved in the development of antiviral therapeutics for patients suffering from viral infections. The stock has a reasonable P/E of 14.02, debt amounting to 2.88 million, and is currently selling for 17% below its cash per share.

Rubicon Technology, Inc. (RBCN) is an Illinois based company, involved in the production of monocrystalline sapphire for applications in optical and industrial systems. It has a market cap of $22.61 million. The P/E ratio is 30.63 and the company has no debt. It is selling for 15% below cash.

Sesen Bio, Inc. (SESN), based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, develops targeted fusion protein therapeutics for the treatment patients with cancer. The market cap is $163.72 million and the P/E is 3.23. The company only has $100,000 in debt. The stock is selling at 4% below cash.

SunLink Health Systems, Inc. (SSY) is a provider of healthcare products and services, and is based in Atlanta, Georgia. It has an extremely low, and therefore extremely speculative, market cap of only $7 million. The P/E is 1.47 and the amount of debt is $1.31 million. The stock is selling for 1% below cash.

As previously mentioned, all these stocks should be considered extremely speculative. Remember, often stocks sell for a very low price for a reason.

Disclosure: Author didn’t own any of the above at the time the article was written. No investment recommendations are expressed or implied.

Invest in a Scottish Island with a Castle: Become a Lord

by Fred Fuld III

Have you ever wanted to own your own island? Hav you ever wanted to own your own castle? Have you ever wanted to have a title of Lord (Laird)?

How would you like to have all of the above? Well you can. An island, The Isle of Vaila, located in Walls, Shetland, Scotland, is for sale.

Isle of Vaila - Savills — Isle of Vaila – Savills

The price? Offers over $2,146,288 are being considered. The island is being offered by Savills in Edinburgh.

Here is what you get as part of the purchase price:

Approximately 757 acres
A 17th century castellated mansion with 4 reception rooms and 6 bedrooms
A 3 bedroom farmhouse
A 2 bedroom caretaker’s cottage
18th century watchtower

This island, with beautiful views, has a private shore base into a sheltered bay with a pier.

The mansion/castle has four reception rooms and is furnished with the original late 1800s furniture.

So you get an island, a castle, and because the word “Lord” or “Laird” is generally used to refer to any owner of a landed estate in Scotland, according to Wikipedia, you technically get a “title”, although that is not specified in the listing and would require further research of titles with the Lord Lyon. In the traditional Scottish order of precedence, a laird ranked below a baron and above a gentleman.

So what more could you ask for? Anyone want to go in on this island with me?

How US Gasoline Prices Compare to the Rest of the World

by Fred Fuld III

The number one financial topic that seems to be on everyone’s mind these days is inflation, and more specifically, the price of gas at the pump. Just in the last week, gasoline prices in the United States have increased by over 2.6%. That’s a lot for a one week increase!!!

The price is now around seven dollars gallon for high octane gas in California. As a matter of fact, the price oof gasoline in California is so bad, that the U.S. Energy Information Administration has two separate categories for the west coast: West Coast and West Coast Less California. I assume that the outrageously high price of California gasoline skews the west coast average.

Have you ever wondered how the US gas prices compare to other countries and how prices compare across the United States? The following is a selection of prices per gallon in US dollars from various American cities and countries around the world, based on recent averages.

Average Prices per Gallon of Regular Gasoline Around the World

Hong Kong	$11.35
Italy	$8.20
UK	$8.66
Switzerland	$8.57
Japan	$4.74
India	$5.06
US – West Coast	$5.87
Canada	$6.55
US – West Coast less California	$5.43
China	$5.66
Australia	$5.41
US – Midwest	$4.97
Mexico	$4.40
US – Rocky Mountain	$4.92
US – AVERAGE	$5.01
US – East Coast	$4.85
US – Gulf Coast	$4.63
Russia	$3.53
Saudi Arabia	$2.35
Iran	$0.20
Venezuela	$0.08

Sachin Khajuria: Founder of Achilles Management & Former Partner at Apollo: Exclusive Interview

by Fred Fuld III

The following informative interview was provided by Sachin Khajuria, the founder of Achilles Management and a former Partner at Apollo, one of the world’s largest alternative asset management firms. He has twenty-five years of investment and finance experience and holds degrees in economics from the University of Cambridge. He is also the author of Two and Twenty: How the Masters of Private Equity Always Win, which was recently released.

This interview contains a lot of great information about the private equity fund industry and the economy. Some of the topics included are as follows:

What a private equity fund is and does
How private equity funds differ from hedge funds
The possibility of a recession
The current high inflation rate
Stagflation
The current state of the stock market
Advice for someone who wants to get into the private equity field
and much, much more!

The Sachin Khajuria Interview

Enjoy listening to the great insights and information that Sachin Khajuria provides.

To stream the interview, click:

HERE

It may take a few seconds to load. You can also download the interview as an mp3 file by right-clicking (or Control clicking) HERE and choosing “save as”.

The Two and Twenty Book

The book, Two and Twenty: How the Masters of Private Equity Always Win, is available through Amazon and other book stores.

More Information about Sachin Khajuria

Additional information can be found about Sachin Khajuria and his company at Achilleslp.com.

Enjoy the interview!

All opinions are those of Sachin Khajuria, and do not represent the opinions of this site or the interviewer. Neither this site, nor the interviewer, nor the interviewee are rendering tax, legal, or investment advice in this interview.

Affiliate links are on this page

Stocks Going Ex Dividend in July 2022

The following is a short list of some of the many stocks going ex dividend during the next month.

Many traders and investors use the stock trading technique called ‘Buying Dividends,’ also commonly referred to as ‘Dividend Capture.’ This is the strategy of buying stocks before the ex dividend date and selling the stock shortly after the ex date at about the same price, yet still being entitled to the dividend.

This technique generally works in bull markets and flat or choppy markets, but you need to avoid the strategy during bear markets. In order to be entitled to the dividend, you have to buy the stock before the ex-dividend date, and you can’t sell the stock until after the ex date.

The actual dividend may not be paid for another few weeks. WallStreetNewsNetwork.com has compiled a downloadable and sortable list of the stocks going ex dividend in the near future. The list contains many dividend paying companies, lots with market caps over $500 million, and some with yields over 2%. Here are a few examples showing the stock symbol, the ex-dividend date, the periodic dividend amount, and the yield.

Company & Symbol	Ex date	Amount	Yield
Dollar General Corporation (DG)	7/1/2022	0.55	0.95%
Comcast Corporation (CMCSA)	7/5/2022	0.27	2.79%
Campbell Soup Company (CPB)	7/6/2022	0.37	3.26%
Intuit Inc. (INTU)	7/8/2022	0.68	0.74%
Oracle Corporation (ORCL)	7/11/2022	0.32	1.89%
Foot Locker, Inc. (FL)	7/14/2022	0.40	5.57%
Caterpillar, Inc. (CAT)	7/19/2022	1.20	2.49%
Colgate-Palmolive Company (CL)	7/20/2022	0.47	2.54%
Krispy Kreme, Inc. (DNUT)	7/26/2022	0.035	1.09%
Signet Jewelers Limited (SIG)	7/28/2022	0.20	1.31%
Hasbro, Inc. (HAS)	7/29/2022	0.70	3.50%

The additional ex-dividend stocks can be found HERE . (If you have been to the page before, and the latest link doesn’t show up, you may have to empty your cache.) If you like dividend stocks, you should check out some of the other high yield stock lists at WSTNN.com HERE .

Dividend definitions:

Declaration date: the day that the company declares that there is going to be an upcoming dividend.

Ex-dividend date: the day on which if you buy the stock, you would not be entitled to that particular dividend; or the first day on which a shareholder can sell the shares and still be entitled to the dividend.

Record date: the day when you must be on the company’s books as a shareholder to receive the dividend. The ex-dividend date is normally set for stocks at two business days before the record date.

Payment date: the day on which the dividend payment is actually made, which can be as long at two months after the ex date.

Don’t forget to reconfirm the ex-dividend date with the company before implementing this technique.

Disclosure: Author did not own any of the above at the time the article was written; affiliate links are on this page.

Looking for Short Squeeze Plays?

by Fred Fuld III

In case you haven’t noticed, the stock market has tanked recently, with most stocks dropping by a substantial amount. Some traders think we are due for a bounce, even if we are in a bear market (which I think we are).

If we are do for a bounce, what do you do?

Traders and investors can make money on the long side from short squeezes. One technique that stock traders utilize is buying short squeeze stocks, companies have been heavily shorted. Here is a more extensive explanation of short squeezes.

When you short a stock, it means that your goal is to make money from a drop in the price of a stock. Technically, what happens is that you borrow shares of a stock, sell those shares, then buy back those shares at a hopefully lower price so that those shares can be returned. This all happens electronically, so you don’t actually see all the borrowing and returning of shares; it just shows up on your screen as a negative number of shares.

Short sellers can be profitable, but sometimes when the stock moves against them, and begins to rise, the short sellers jump in right away to buy shares to cover their positions, creating what is called a short squeeze. When a short squeeze takes place, it can cause the share prices to increase fast and furiously. Any good news can trigger the short squeeze.

Some traders utilize this situation by looking for stocks to buy that may have a potential short squeeze. Here is what a short squeeze trader should take into consideration:

Short Percentage of Float ~ The float is the number of freely tradable shares and the short percentage is the number of shares held short divided by the float. Amounts over 10% to 20% are considered high and potential short squeeze plays.

Short Ratio / Days to Cover / Short Interest Ratio -This is probably the most important metric when looking for short squeeze trades, no matter what you call it. This is the number of days it would take the short sellers to cover their position based on the average daily volume of shares traded. This is a significant ratio as it shows how “stuck” the short sellers are when they want to buy in their shares without driving up the price too much. Unfortunately for the shortsellers, the longer the number of days to cover, the bigger and longer the squeeze.

Short Percentage Increase ~ This is the percentage increase in in the number of short sellers from the previous month.

So what stocks are heavily shorted that may be worth a closer examination? Check out the following list, but be aware, that often some stocks are heavily shorted for a reason.

All these stocks have more than 30% of their float shorted, have days-to-cover greater than 6, and all are generating earnings with trailing and/or forward price to earnings ratios less than 15.

Company	Symbol	Short % of Float	Days to Cover
Big 5	BGFV	38%	9
Big Lots	BIG	34%	5.8
Conn’s	CONN	42%	8.5
Camping World	CWH	35%	9.1
Groupon	GRPN	33%	6.2

Just keep in mind that just because a stock has good earnings ratios and are heavily shorted, doesn’t mean that the stock won’t continue to drop, especially in a bear market. Also, stocks that are significantly shorted may be shorted for a reason.

Disclosure: Author didn’t own any of the above at the time the article was written.

Why Cutting Back on Spending is the Stupidest Thing You Can Do During Rising Inflation

by Fred Fuld III

I’ve been seeing so-called experts on TV explaining about ways to survive during these inflationary times. They recommend such things as spending only the bare minimum when you go to the supermarket, buy just enough gas to get you through the next few days, and avoid going on vacation.

This is about the stupidest thing you could possibly due during a rising inflationary environment.

The best thing you can do is the exact opposite. When you shop for groceries, stock up on as many non-perishable as you can, such as canned goods (soup, vegetables, fruit, seafood), peanut butter, dried fruit, protein bars, oatmeal, honey, syrup, salt, sugar, spices, and bottled water.

Why? Because prices will continue to rise. You might as well pay lower prices now and have plenty to last you for a long while, instead of buying a little now and paying higher prices a few weeks or months from now.

You may have seen a previous post, called The Amazon Inflation Rate is Running at 68% Per Year, which showed that in a recent one-year period, the average price increases from items I ordered through Amazon increased by 68%, and even if you excluded the outliers, the items that more than doubled in price, the overall average increase was still an outrageously high 38%!!!

Inflation cannot be stopped immediately. It is not a light switch that can be turned off at any moment. It is more like turning around a giant ship, which can take a long time.

So, the same situation exists with buying gas for your car. Fill it to the maximum that the gas station has set for your credit card. (I keep hearing about people saying the pump stopped at $100 or $120.) You might as well fill your tank now instead of waiting a week, and paying 25 cents a gallon more.

As for vacations, why wait? Prices for flying will continue to rise. Airlines use petroleum fuel for their jets, and since the price of oil has been rising significantly in price, the airlines have to pass that cost along to their customers, along with all the other costs related to running an airline.

Plus, if you were considering traveling overseas, there is an additional reason to take your vacation now. The U.S. dollar is very strong compared to other currencies, so your spending will go a long way in many European and Asian countries.

Therefore, you should have no guilt about spending your money now. As a matter of fact, you would be doing yourself a financial favor.

Top Stock Market Father’s Day Gifts

by Fred Fuld III

Father’s Day is less than a week away. If you haven’t already done so, now is a great time to get a gift for your father who likes to invest or trade stocks.

The following may give you some great ideas to give as presents.

Bronze Bull and Bear Sculpture

The statue measures 10 inches wide by 9.5 inches high, and weighs 6 pounds. The state has a bronze finish with great detail.

Stock Market Wall Street Decision Maker Desk Paperweight

This is cool! A paperweight that you can spin to determine if you should buy, sell, hold, short, etc.

Wall Street Double Feature

Available in both Blu-Ray and DVD.

Stock Traders Almanac 2022

Every stock trader should have this. Filled with great information.

Bull and Bear Cuff Links

Know anyone who still wears cuff links? This would make a perfect gift.

Investment Trivia Book

This book has all kinds of trivia about the stock market, venture capital, bitcoin, and much more!

Bull Market T-Shirt

Here’s a Great Gift for Less Than 20 Bucks!
“I MADE MY MONEY BY BEING A BULL”

Bear Market T-Shirt

For those friends of yours who made their fortune by shorting the market.

Happy Father’s Day to all the fathers out there.

This page contains affiliate links.

Warren Buffett’s Portfolio Changes in Berkshire Hathaway

by Fred Fuld III

Warren Buffett has had a very long and successful career as a portfolio manager for Berkshire Hathaway. Many investors like to follow in his footsteps, at least in terms of buying the game long term investments that he is buying.

His Berkshire Hathaway stock has had an average annual return of around 20% since 1965. Not too shabby since the S&P 500 has only had a little over 10% average annual return over the same time frame.

So what has Warren Buffett been doing lately?

Warren Buffett Purchases

First, his buys. Buffett has purchased over 136 million shares of Occidental Petroleum (OXY) since the beginning of the year.

He also bought 104 million shares of HP Inc. (HPQ), and 55 million shares of Citigroup (C).

In addition, Buffett has added the following stocks to the Berkshire portfolio:

Celanese (CE)
Paramount Global (PARA)
McKesson (MCK)
Markel (MKL)
Ally Financial (ALLY)

Warren Buffett Sales

Buffett has also been liquidating some stocks in the Berkshire portfolio. These include:

Wells Fargo (WFC)
Abbvie (ABBV)
Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMY)

To see the full portfolio of Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway, click HERE.

Of course, if you really want to match the return of Berkshire Hathaway, you might as well buy the A shares (BRK-A) or the B shares (BRK-B) of the company.

Remember what Warren Buffett said:

“Don’t buy a stock unless you think it’s undervalued.”

Disclosure: Author didn’t own any of the above at the time the article was written.

Stocks Going Ex Dividend in June 2022

The following is a short list of some of the many stocks going ex dividend during the next month.

Company	Symbol	Ex Div Date	Payment	Yield
Jack In The Box Inc.	JACK	6/6/2022	0.44	2.60%
NVIDIA Corporation	NVDA	6/8/2022	0.04	0.09%
Best Buy Co., Inc.	BBY	6/13/2022	0.88	4.29%
DTE Energy Company	DTE	6/16/2022	0.885	2.67%
Canadian Pacific Railway Limited	CP	6/23/2022	0.148	0.82%
ConocoPhillips	COP	6/27/2022	0.7	1.66%
Keurig Dr Pepper Inc.	KDP	6/30/2022	0.188	2.17%

Dividend definitions:

Declaration date: the day that the company declares that there is going to be an upcoming dividend.

Payment date: the day on which the dividend payment is actually made, which can be as long at two months after the ex date.

Don’t forget to reconfirm the ex-dividend date with the company before implementing this technique.

Disclosure: Author did not own any of the above at the time the article was written; affiliate links are on this page.