THE FOOD FOR THOUGHT EDITION
29 JUNE 2009
FOLLOW THE TRAIL OF BREAD CRUMBS...
SC Forum Banter Provides Food For Thought
Your most enterprising reporter is, of course, privy to the latest banter on the topic of Amedisys (AMED), a company that provides home health care services. Most astute SC Member Armin Fields not only offers up diamonds in the rough on the AMED Forum, but leaves a trail of bread crumbs that, alas, lead directly to his most thorough and thought-provoking blogs and stock studies on the topic.
Check out the AMED Forum, where you will find a link to Armin's blog. And don't dare exit the Forum without leaving your own trail of insight and wisdom.
Onto this week's headlines...
SC MEMBERS DUKE IT OUT
Armin, Landers Juxtaposed on Methodology
In what has been described to your most intuitive reporter as a friendly battle of wits, your reporter has learned that stock study gurus and SC members Armin Fields and Pat Landers are indeed in agreement that AMED is worthy of considerable contemplation. That, however, is where the similarities end.
It seems these two most savvy of stock surveyors employ very different methods in reaching their well-schooled opinions. "Pat has a unique method for doing his SSGs," Armin writes. "After estimating future Sales and EPS growth, he next decides the Forecast Low Price and then uses that to estimate the Forecast Low and High PEs. In contrast, my more conventional method is to decide the Forecast Low Price as my last judgment call.
Armin extrapolates further by noting, "AMED's 2008 annual report shows that the company rates a 54 out of 100 on Bob Adams' spreadsheet (the very spreadsheet that served as the basis for the SC Ratio Analyzer tool!) with 6 red flags, 6 bullish results (good stuff), and 9 bearish results (not good stuff). The red flags include that the cost of sales is up and increasing faster than sales, and that long-term debt to equity is twice the recommended level."
FODDER INSPIRES SC MEMBERS
SC Research Links All the Rage
Speaking of research, your indefatigable reporter notes that if the friendly sparring between SC members has piqued your interest, you might be well advised to take the matter into your own hands. As an SC Member, you'll find a plethora of resources available to you.
The SC Research Links page provides a quick snapshot of any company by ticker, including Sector & Industry info as well as the most recent closing price. It also provides ticker-specific links to a myriad of other online resources. And, as a StockCentral member, you can extend your research on StockCentral with direct links to the in-depth Take Stock analysis, the Company Report, the .ssg Stock Study data file, and the Ticker Forum in the Community.
You are encouraged to return to any of the number of discussions on the SC Forum to demonstrate and offer up your new-found knowledge. Let the games begin!
Get an InvestEd SNEAK PEEK!
Conference to Feature 30 New Classes
Certain as the dog days of summer, the third annual InvestEd conference, slated for Salt Lake City Aug. 7 - 9, is just around the proverbial corner. InvestEd is a unique opportunity to gain insights into the current world economy, and learn how other long-term investors succeed even when institutional investors control so much of the market.
What's more, half of the conference's 60 sessions are brand-new, including:
- Lessons from Behavioral Finance: Avoiding Mistakes Even Smart Investors Make (Phil Keating, part of four-part series);
- Surviving Bear Markets: Invest in the Best (Phil Keating, part of four-part series);
- Become an Investing Star: Using Morningstar's Reports and Website (Shanna Rendon);
- Go Offense! Go Defense! When to Buy, Sell, or Hold with Toolkit 6 (Doug Gerlach);
- Identifying Excellence in Company Management (Doug Gerlach);
- Growth Investing with a Twist! (Lynn Ostrem)
Let InvestEd's team of star instructors show you how to avoid investing in that next company headed for a meltdown by, for example, learning to read a cash flow statement, a document that provides a useful window into the financial condition of a company. And, don't miss out on InvestEd headliners Zinc Zeenkov and Joe Craig! Register today!
TODAY'S ENTIRELY RELEVANT QUOTATION
"This asymmetry in the treatment of lenders and borrowers
is a major source of instability in the global capitalist system
and it needs to be corrected."
- George Soros, American Philanthropist and Stock Trader