Posted Apr 20th 2009 2:30PM by Zac Bissonnette
Filed under: Deals, Estee Lauder (EL), CIT Group (CIT)
Just as foreclosures account for a record share of the real estate market, foreclosed companies are also one of the few areas of activity in the private equity space.
Sun Capital Partners took Stila Cosmetics private back in 2006, but defaulted on loans from Wachovia and CIT Group (NYSE: CIT) -- leading those lenders to foreclose on the company.
Now Stila has been sold to New York private equity firm Patriarch Partners for an undisclosed sum sure to be considerably lower than what Sun Capital paid when it bought the brand from Estee Lauder (NYSE: EL), which originally purchased the company from founder Jeanine Lobell back in 1999.
Continue reading Stila Cosmetics sold again to another private equity firm
Posted Jan 6th 2009 4:30PM by Connie Madon
Filed under: General Electric (GE), Bank of America (BAC), CIT Group (CIT), Personal finance, Initial public offerings, Federal Reserve, Financial Crisis
Is the Fed's program of slashing interest rates to near zero having any beneficial effects? If we look back at the past three months investors have been running away from any investment with the least bit of risk. This is why we've seen such a massive shift into US Treasuries.
One market hardest hit by the financial crisis was the Corporate Bond Market which tumbled 35% in 2008. Now, however, with interest rates so low, investors are venturing out a bit to find investments with higher yields. In December new Corporate deals included $10 billion dollars of FDIC backed bonds by General Electric Co. (NYSE: GE), Devon Energy (NYSE: DVN) is selling five and 10 year notes, Brown and Foreman (NYSE: BF.B) is offering $250 million dollars in five year notes, and Tyco International (NYSE: TYC) offered $500 million dollars of 10 year notes. The major "active book-running" players are Bank of America (NYSE: BAC), JP Morgan (NYSE: JPM) and Citigroup (NYSE: C)
What is an interesting dynamic to watch is that investors are always looking for better deals and higher returns. It seems they are tip toeing into the Corporate markets which indicates that there is some movement at unlocking this market for further activity.
Corporate bonds and notes offer higher yields than US Treasuries. Would you invest in this market?
Posted Dec 23rd 2008 8:40AM by Jim Cramer
Filed under: Before the bell, Citigroup Inc. (C), American Express (AXP), CIT Group (CIT), Las Vegas Sands (LVS), Cramer on BloggingStocks
TheStreet.com's Jim Cramer says that CIT's approval as a bank holding company means anyone with a lending business can make it.
CIT Group (NYSE:
CIT) made it to the finish line. They became a bank. After a sickening and seemingly endless slide for this lender, to $4 from $30, the whole way down with nothing but rosy projections, the company made it to bank holding company status and now it will be able to survive. Who knows, the company might even thrive, which makes that last stock offering seem pretty delectable.
The issue for me now is you are nothing if you are not a bank. You can see the ramifications of making this reckless lender -- it can say otherwise, but aren't we tired of all the say "otherwises" at this point; it's just better to admit it -- a bank. It means that anyone, no matter how profligate, no matter how wasted, can make it, if it has some sort of lending business.
I ask, why? What is the government's interest in saving
Citigroup (NYSE:
C)? Why bother? Should we look for other companies that lend and give them protection?
How about
Las Vegas Sands (NYSE
: LVS) )? When you go there you can borrow money. Prime candidate for it, I believe.
I know I was thrilled when all of those life insurers got around the law by buying little banks. That was good judgment in action.
The real worry, of course, is that without bank status, like the status of the utilities, how can you finance your way through this period? Can we make troubled retailers banks? If someone has a retail charge card, like
Macy's (NYSE:
M) ), isn't that the same as
American Express (NYSE
:AXP). Tons of retailers have charge cards and they are all candidates for bank status as they get in trouble. Neiman Marcus should have bank status.
Continue reading Cramer on BloggingStocks: You're nothing if you're not a bank
Posted Nov 26th 2008 10:00AM by Elizabeth Harrow
Filed under: Major movement, Wal-Mart (WMT), General Motors (GM), McDonald's (MCD), H and R Block (HRB), CIT Group (CIT), Family Dollar Stores (FDO), Amer Intl Group (AIG), S and P 500, DJIA
With the end of the year fast approaching, it's time to start putting together "best of" and "worst of" lists for 2008. This entry is a little bit of both, but it's admittedly heavy on the "worst of." Among the current members of the S&P 500 Index (SPX), just 11 were sitting on a year-to-date gain as of the close of trading on Monday, November 24. Since Big Lots (NYSE: BIG) is unchanged, that means we have a whopping 488 securities sitting on a loss for the year.
Let's start with the bad news first. Among the worst-performing stocks on the SPX, the six top spots are claimed by stocks in the Insurance and Real Estate sectors. General Growth Properties (NYSE: GGP) has the dubious honor of dropping nearly 98% on the year, and -- not surprisingly -- American International Group (NYSE: AIG) isn't far behind.
Continue reading Year-to-date winners and losers of the S&P 500 Index
Posted Nov 4th 2008 4:20PM by Jon Ogg
Filed under: After the bell, Market matters, Archer-Daniels-Midland (ADM), CIT Group (CIT), MasterCard Inc'A' (MA), Valero Energy (VLO)
We don't have any official results from the presidential and congressional elections as of yet, but traders decided to keep buying stocks today despite concerns of what an Obama administration would do to equity investors. Regardless of the bad economic data, it looks and feels as though you can make actual analysis beyond the next 30-minute period again. Even a $6.00+ rally in oil prices after the Saudis cut production did not stop stocks from rallying. Here are today's unofficial closing bell levels:
DJIA: 8,625.28 (+3.28)
NASDAQ: 1,780.12 (+3.12%)
S&P 500: 1,005.73 (+4.08%)
Top Analyst Upgrades
Top Analyst Downgrades
Archer-Daniels-Midland Co. (NYSE: ADM) surged after the agricultural giant blew past earnings estimates and it is being rewarded after losing so much ground this year. Shares were up 14% at $24.13 right before the close.
CIT Group Inc. (NYSE: CIT) saw its shares surge as one of the top percentage gainers today after the company announced that it has completed a $500 million financing facility from Wells Fargo. In the final minutes of trading, shares were up over 32% at $6.00 on three-times normal volume.
Continue reading Closing Bell: Market rallies on Election Day; ADM, CIT, MA, VLO up, FCSX down
Posted Nov 4th 2008 9:13AM by Jim Cramer
Filed under: Market matters, Citigroup Inc. (C), CIT Group (CIT), Cramer on BloggingStocks, Financial Crisis
TheStreet.com's Jim Cramer says that Treasury's takeover of the banking system is working, and he's not arguing with it.. So buying troubled assets was always wrong. I got it. All of that wrangling about what to do with the $750 billion was all seat-of-the-pants nonsense. There was no plan.
But what we've been doing, just letting the U.S. own everybody and everything - like the British plan -- is working so why not run with it?
I liked the idea of the Treasury buying troubled assets because I wanted to solve the mortgage crisis. From the looks of things, we were in such bad shape post-Lehman that we couldn't even waste the time doing that. We needed to solve a situation that was about a banking shutdown and the Troubled Asset Relief Program did that. That's why the rally. And that's why the rally continues because TARP has saved the system. The rally will keep rolling until it is clear that the system was saved and everyone from
CIT (NYSE:
CIT) (
Cramer's Take) to
Citigroup (NYSE:
C) (
Cramer's Take) is alive and able to do lending. It is basically making the Treasury the biggest bank on earth and if it is working I am not arguing with it.
Continue reading Cramer on BloggingStocks: Saving the banking system
Posted Nov 4th 2008 8:13AM by Melly Alazraki
Filed under: Before the bell, Earnings reports, Analyst reports, Deals, Google (GOOG), Yahoo! (YHOO), Apple Inc (AAPL), General Electric (GE), Market matters, Viacom (VIA), Archer-Daniels-Midland (ADM), CIT Group (CIT), MasterCard Inc'A' (MA), Dean Foods (DF), Economic data, Marvell Technology Group (MRVL)
U.S. stock futures were higher Tuesday morning at the start of the election day. Overseas, markets also
edged higher ahead of the U.S. presidential election, while oil prices declined further to
below $64 a barrel. While it is uncertain yet if any of the candidates would help boost sentiments and the markets as the economy is distressed either way, some analysts say much of the bad news around the economy and corporate profits are already priced into stocks. September factory orders will be released today.
General Electric Co. (NYSE:
GE)'s arm GE Capital may be able to get some
help from the Treasury. The
Wall Street Journal reported its sources say the Treasury has been considering using more of its $700 billion rescue fund to buy stakes in a broad range of financial companies, not just banks and insurers. Apparently, initial signs show the program has been a success, and therefore might be expanded. CIT Group Inc. (NYSE:
CIT) was cited as another candidate for help. GE shares are up 2.6% in premarket trading,
MasterCard Inc. (NYSE:
MA) shares soared over 8% in after-hours trade Monday after the credit card processor has posted
better-than-expected profit (after charges) boosted by revenue growth. It has also adjusted profit better than forecast. MasterCard, however, took a charge of $515 million for settling a lawsuit with Discover Financial Services (NYSE: DFS), making its net loss $194 million.
Viacom Inc. (NYSE:
VIA) earnings, however,
dropped 37% year over year, but adjusted earnings were inline with expectations.
Continue reading Before the bell: Stocks higher on Election Day; GE, MA, VIA, ADM, DF, MRVL, AAPL ...
Posted Sep 29th 2008 6:20PM by Melly Alazraki
Filed under: Major movement, Google (GOOG), Apple Inc (AAPL), Amazon.com (AMZN), Ford Motor (F), General Motors (GM), Citigroup Inc. (C), JPMorgan Chase (JPM), Bank of America (BAC), Bank of New York (BK), Boeing Co (BA), , CIT Group (CIT), Research in Motion (RIMM), Goldman Sachs Group (GS), Morgan Stanley (MS), Nucor Corp (NUE), Freep't McMoRan Copper (FCX)
There were two big trades on Wall Street today: One was the bailout trade, which included financial stocks obviously, but other than the big banks, investors also went after the second-tier firm -- the smaller, regional banks. The other big trade was the economy. As the U.S. and global economy slows down, retailers, techs and a variety of materials and industrials will suffer. Investors showed their concerns over the economy today, hammering down many of these stocks down.
Here are a few big losers from today:
Financials - obviously, financials depended on the bailout plan more than others, at least in the immediate future:
Bank of America Corp. (NYSE:
BAC) declined 17.6%, while JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE:
JPM) slumped 15%. Citigroup (NYSE:
C) declined nearly 12%, Goldman Sachs (NYSE:
GS) sank 12.5% and Morgan Stanley (NYSE:
MS) plunged over 15%.
American Express Co. (NYSE:
AXP) was the Dow's biggest loser today with a 17.5% drop thanks to Citigroup cutting profit estimates of the credit card company.
Second-tier banks declined much more:
Bank of New York Mellon Corp. (NYSE:
BK) slipped over 27%, CIT Group Inc. (NYSE:
CIT) lost 25.5%, Fifth Third Bancorp (NASDAQ:
FITB) fell 43.6%, FirstFed Financial Corp. (NYSE:
FED) tumbled over 25%, First Horizon National Corp. (NYSE:
FHN) slipped 35.7% and National City Corp. (NYSE:
NCC) tumbled 63.3%.
Continue reading Some of today's biggest losers: BAC, AXP, BK, FITB, NCC, FHN, MT, FCX, AAPL, CC
Posted Sep 22nd 2008 8:18AM by Melly Alazraki
Filed under: Before the bell, Analyst upgrades and downgrades, Deals, Apple Inc (AAPL), General Electric (GE), General Motors (GM), Market matters, Citigroup Inc. (C), Target Corp. (TGT), JPMorgan Chase (JPM), American Express (AXP), CIT Group (CIT), Goldman Sachs Group (GS), Morgan Stanley (MS), duPont(E.I.)deNemours (DD), , Teva Pharm Indus ADR (TEVA), Wells Fargo (WFC)
After a volatile, historic week on Wall Street that featured Lehman Brothers going bankrupt, Merrill Lynch being bought and the government bailing out AIG, culminating Sunday when the last large independent brokers were granted bank status. This morning futures are lower as investors seem to be taking a breath to take it all in with a cautious eye on the government's most recently announced plan -- a
$700 billion proposal to buy a mountain of bad mortgage debt. But it is the
dollar that may get crushed following the plan.
Goldman Sachs (NYSE:
GS) and Morgan Stanley (NYSE:
MS) the last of the large independent brokers, have applied and were granted bank status Sunday. Both are down 1.7% and 1.8% respectively in pre-market trading.
According to MarketWatch, several companies left out of the short-selling ban list may
ask to be added to the list. Companies like General Electric Co. (NYSE:
GE) with its financial services unit making up 45% of its business, or American Express (NYSE:
AXP) and CIT Group (NYSE:
CIT) are a few examples.
Ambac (NYSE:
ABK) shares are down another 12% in pre-market trading after closing down nearly 42% Friday as Moody's said it
might downgrade the bond insurer's ratings.
Continue reading Before the bell: Stocks head lower; GS, MS, GE, AXP, GM, WM, AAPL ...
Posted Aug 16th 2008 10:30AM by Ted Allrich
Filed under: Dell (DELL), General Motors (GM), Sony Corp ADR (SNE), CIT Group (CIT), Amer Intl Group (AIG), , U.S. Steel (X), Deere and Co (DE), Wells Fargo (WFC), Comfort Zone Investing
Ted Allrich is the founder of The Online Investor and author of: Comfort Zone Investing: Build Wealth And Sleep Well At Night. In this weekly column, he'll offer advice to investors who are just getting started.
You may see a recommendation to "overweight" a stock or sector. An analyst is bullish on a stock or group and feels buying more than usual will be rewarded. It may or may not come true. While it's a good idea to overweight at times, it should never be done in excess, to a point where you're putting too much of your portfolio in one stock or group of stocks. That's when overweight turns into speculate.
A rational approach to building a portfolio is to have at least five different sectors, ones that aren't correlated. There are different definitions of sectors but there are usually between 10 and 15, depending on what publication or expert you use. These sectors are categorized into broad groups, such as Healthcare, Technology, Manufacturing, etc. Within each sector are many industries. Value Line defines 98 different industries, ranging from Coal to Auto Parts to Water Utility to Beverages. Healthcare, as one example of a sector, has pharmaceutical companies, hospitals, medical devices, anything associated with health. Technology has a broad spectrum as well, encompassing everything from computers to wireless communication.
Continue reading Comfort Zone Investing: Overweight doesn't mean speculate
Posted Jul 30th 2008 10:10AM by Tom Taulli
Filed under: Deals, Industry, Private equity, CIT Group (CIT),
Lately, there's been lots of dire talk about the private equity world. Returns are likely to be much lower and perhaps there will be many firms that shut down.
Indeed, such things may turn out to be true.
However, whenever there is extreme turbulence and a pervasive credit crunch, there are also big opportunities to make money. Just look at Apollo Management and Cerberus Capital. Both firms made a killing during the rough early 1990s.
Fast forward to today, and we may be seeing something similar with one of the top beneficiaries possibly being
Lone Star Funds. Yes, this week the fund purchased a collateralized debt portfolio from
Merrill Lynch & Co. (NYSE:
MER) at
22 cents on the dollar [subscription required]. The face value on it? About $30.6 billion.
This is not a one-off deal as it looks like Lone Star is hungry for high-risk debt. For example, the firm recently purchased the mortgage division of
CIT Group Inc. (NYSE:
CIT) and acquired Bear Stearn's mortgage segment. There was also the purchase of Accredited Home Lenders Holding Co. for $295 million.
Continue reading Lone Star loves toxic mortgages
Posted Jul 21st 2008 10:48AM by Tom Taulli
Filed under: Private equity, CIT Group (CIT)
It's been a brutal time for retailers. Some of the bankruptcies include: Linens 'n Things, Goody's Discount Clothing and Sharper Image.
According to a report in the
Wall Street Journal [subscription required], it looks like
Mervyn's LLC is also in trouble and may even shut down this month as a variety vendors are stopping shipments. There are also issues with financing from
CIT Group Inc (NYSE:
CIT).
Founded in 1949, Mervyn's is a low-priced retailer that's focused on young families. The typical store has 80,000 retail square feet. While there are 177 stores, they are concentrated in seven states, with a big concentration in California and Arizona -- both have suffered greatly from the real estate bust.
Back in 2004, a group of private equity firms, Sun Capital Partners Inc, Cerberus Capital Management, Lubert-Adler and Klaff Partners LP, purchased Mervyn's for about $1.2 billion, of which $400 million was in equity.
Are these folks suffering? Perhaps not. You see, the investors wanted to capitalize on Mervyn's real estate. As a result, the investment was structured into two sections. So while the retail component has lagged (and there has been lots of restructuring), the real estate component has done quite well.
Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including The Complete M&A Handbook
and The Edgar Online Guide to Decoding Financial Statements
. He also operates MergerBook.com.
Posted Jul 13th 2008 12:40PM by Trey Thoelcke
Filed under: Earnings reports, Forecasts, Citigroup Inc. (C), JPMorgan Chase (JPM), Bank of New York (BK), BB and T (BBT), CIT Group (CIT), , Comerica Inc (CMA), Wells Fargo (WFC)
After the implosion of IndyMac Bancorp (NYSE: IMB) and news of the deterioration of Fannie Mae (NYSE: FNM) and Freddie Mac (NYSE: FRE) last week, there's bound to be a certain level of trepidation as the earnings crunch begins this coming week and many big financial companies report. Here's a look at what Wall Street was expecting (see The week in preview: Expectations as the earnings crunch begins for expectations of other reporting companies.)
Analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial are expecting the following of companies to report lower earnings when compared to the same period of the previous year.
-
-
Comerica Inc. (NYSE:
CMA): 51 cents EPS (-59.2%) on sales of $680.2 million (-7.3%)
-
-
-
-
-
-
BB&T Corp. (NYSE:
BBT): 69 cents EPS (-16.9%) on sales of $1.8 billion (+5.9%)
-
U.S. Bancorp (NYSE:
USB): 60 cents EPS (-7.7%) on sales of $3.8 billion (+8.3%)
-
Continue reading Financials expected to post earnings declines, losses this week
Posted Jul 3rd 2008 9:00AM by Jim Cramer
Filed under: Ford Motor (F), General Motors (GM), Market matters, Citigroup Inc. (C), Bank of America (BAC), CIT Group (CIT), , Federal Natl Mtge (FNM), Amer Intl Group (AIG), , , , Stocks to Sell, Cramer on BloggingStocks, MBIA Inc (MBI)
TheStreet.com's Jim Cramer says he has no confidence in these hated names, and neither should you. The financials are flying -- there are finally bids for most of them underneath. Many, including
Lehman (NYSE:
LEH) (
Cramer's Take), are running. What a great time to put the negative cards on the table and put the negatives in perspective. That's right, let's look at the financial Achilles' heels. What could go wrong? In other words, here's the companion piece to Doug Kass' positive conversion. Here's what I am worried about even as Doug thinks everyone's too worried and the bottom is being put in.
To get started, let's look at what's not causing the endless declines in the stocks -- don't worry, we will get to the financial dirty dozen when I finish this preamble.
First, it ain't earnings. Earnings aren't going to be that great. But that's why the S&P is at 14 times. It can go to 12 or 11, or most likely stays at 13-14, but the E goes down (earnings).
Second, it ain't oil. The stocks sensitive to the increase in oil have room to go down, but the price of oil is being factored in slowly but surely.
Third, it isn't inflation or recession. Those two are being baked in each day.
Continue reading Cramer on BloggingStocks: Beware the financial dirty dozen
Next Page »
Soccer and professional bicycle racing fans are accustomed to advertising on team wear, but the big three U.S. pro sports have kept theirs as pure as the driven fastball. The National Football League (NFL), however, looking for new revenue streams, is about to take the first step down that slippery slope by selling ad space on team practice jerseys.
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Three All-American stocks for portfolio fireworks
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