Yeah, this is how I chose to spend a free afternoon. Posing here with a monkey putting chestnuts up my ass.
This post has been censored due to my coworkers finding out where this blog is.
Labels: Disenfranchisement and Delusion within Corporate America
posted by lawryde at
8:52 PM
5 Comments:
Sounds like another day in paradise. A daily dose of Dilbert might help. You meet all kinds of hypocrites in life. They tend to be religious zealots, politicians, those in positions of wealth and influence, and people who think they are better than everybody else.
Sometimes I'll call them on it. Other times I just ignore them. Have a better than average day sir.
By
Chris, at 11:41 AM, March 14, 2005
Is "Cat" a Dog? What's the inside scoop?
Caterpillar clawed by downgrade
Legg Mason: Shares look fairly valued in the short term
By Susan Lerner, MarketWatch
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- Caterpillar Inc.'s shares slumped more than 2 percent Monday as Legg Mason downgraded the machinery maker in a valuation call amid concerns about company profit margins.
"We believe the cycle still has 'legs,' and CAT's stock could overshoot our original target price of $100 by April if the seasonal trade is upon us," analyst Barry Bannister told clients.
"But at $99 CAT stock does not offer, in our view, enough near-term upside potential to continue recommending new positions," he said in cutting his rating on the stock to "hold" from "buy."
Caterpillar (CAT: news, chart, profile) , a component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average ($INDU: news, chart, profile) , was the blue-chip gauge's worst performer, sliding $2.47, or 2.5 percent, to close at $96.53.
While acknowledging that sales are tracking at the growth rates typically seen in the second and third years of recovery in every decade since 1960, Bannister said the problem for Caterpillar lies in the company's margins.
Although Caterpillar's 2004 earnings were up 84 percent from 2003, Bannister noted that fourth-quarter earnings were below analysts' expectations. The quarterly results were marked by good margins in the company's engine business but poor margins in its steel-intensive machinery segment.
And while saying he's "pleased" with the company's two price increases since January, Bannister wonders about the motives behind the moves.
"We question whether it was done proactively with confidence or reactively with worry regarding continuing pressure from raw material and other costs," Bannister said.
Indeed, Bannister said he worries that the company's costs are still not under control.
"Based on comments by CAT's management, which we do not believe saw this commodity inflation cycle coming, the need to maintain margins via price (among other factors) is now an action rather than a reluctant promise," he said.
Meanwhile, Bannister said he's also concerned about possible long-term supply contracts for large backlogs such as mining trucks, deals for which the margin content may be disappointing.
"As a result of these considerations, the finesse of CAT's management in matching costs to pricing, and not just the degree to which sales or profits grow in a cycle, is a critical variable, in our mind's eye, for assessing performance," Bannister said.
Against that backdrop, the analyst cut his 2005 earnings-per-share estimate to $7.20 from $7.50, which he believes implies only moderate incremental margins with little net pricing.
The revised view is below the 2005 average profit forecast among analysts polled by Thomson First Call, which stands at $7.32 a share.
Looking into next year, Bannister said a potentially aggressive Federal Reserve, or alternately a hangover from the pace of equipment demand of 2004 and 2005, leaves open the possibility that he may have to revisit his 2006 earnings forecast.
"If the current pace of Fed tightening quickens as we expect in the second half of 2005, catalyzed by greater job creation and core inflation, we are wary of the effect on CAT's valuation multiple and/or sales," the Legg Mason analyst wrote.
Also contributing to his more bearish view of 2006 earnings growth is the prospective flattening of Caterpillar's machinery segment operating margin vs. expected 11 percent growth in 2005.
By
Chris, at 3:54 PM, March 14, 2005
What can I say, Wall Street is the kind of person who fucks you in the ass and doesn't give you the common courtesy of a reach around...
By
lawryde, at 4:53 PM, March 14, 2005
I think you sound lika a fucking awesome person,altough you also sound like you don't think you deserve happiness in your life. Sometimes we can be happy and sometimes not. Hopefully it will all equal out for each of us.
I agree, let the pet rock die already!
By
Anonymous, at 10:49 AM, March 23, 2005
Does anyone really deserve to be happy? I think you have to work at being happy just like everything else in life.
Thank you Anonymous... I am a fucking awesome person.
By
lawryde, at 10:54 AM, March 23, 2005
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