This is a ChatGPT-free Zone
Biglari Holdings (BH) is a Berkshire Hathaway like investment vehicle run by a young manager named Sardar Biglari. Actually, BH is what was Steak ‘n Shake (SNS), a hamburger restaurant chain that Biglari’s hedge fund owned. After a bunch of transactions which merged the hedge funds with Steak and Shake and another restaurant chain, Western Sizzlin, SNS was…
I already wrote about what I think about gold here and here and that’s actually more than I want to say about it, but since there is more talk again about going back to the gold standard, I thought I’d make a couple of quick comments. I actually don’t care too much about this topic as I…
So like everyone else in the financial world (OK, maybe not) I went through the Facebook S-1. I don’t normally look at these internet/technology businesses especially when it is really hyped and there is no chance that this thing will come out undervalued. But I do think Facebook is an exceptional company so I decided…
I hate to post a short idea on a day when the stock is down almost 10%; it’s a bad time to sell or short something down a lot on short term news (earnings announcement). But this is something I haven’t looked at in a while so I decided to take a look (I actually…
I haven’t really followed Nintendo over the years as I really don’t like businesses that are dependent on recurring hit products. That is my reservation with Apple, too, but at least Apple is a bit more broadbased than Nintendo (Nintendo is just a game whereas the Apple has laptops, desktops, phones and iPads that function…
Last year I took a quick look at GSV Capital Corp (see here) as it was a play on Facebook. Now that the Facebook IPO is right in front of us, I thought I should take a look at this thing again and update some figures. Since the end of the September 2011 quarter, GSV…
So I listened to the second day presentation. This was more of an investor day with financial details. Much of the presentation was done by Michael Kramer, the COO of JCP. He too comes from Apple retail where he was CFO of the retail business, he became CFO of Abercrombie and Fitch and then later…
(JCP’s new logo) Ron Johnson joined JC Penny (JCP) as CEO back in June 2011 from Apple with great fanfare. He is the guru that was behind the amazing Apple stores. Ron Johnson was brought in after Bill Ackman (of Pershing Square Capital) and Steven Roth (or Vornado Realty Trust) took a large stake in…
So, I was flipping through some annual reports, catching up on the ever increasing pile of stuff to read. Occasionally, something comes out and grabs me and I have to investigate. The great thing about annual reports is that you learn all kinds of things reading them, not just about the company. This chart came…
This is how Apple described iPhone demand in China on their first quarter conference call. Demand is staggering. It’s “off the charts”. They could have sold more but were way too conservative. Apple is pretty much one of the most widely watched stocks so there is no point in my going over the details here,…