Company name Best Buy Co., Inc.
Stock ticker BBY
Live stock price [stckqut]BBY[/stckqut]
P/E compared to competitors Fair
MANAGEMENT EXECUTION
Employee productivity Poor
Sales growth Good
EPS growth Fair
P/E growth Poor
EBIT growth Poor
ANALYSIS
Confident Investor Rating Poor
Target stock price (TWCA growth scenario) $35.46
Target stock price (averages with growth) $42.04
Target stock price (averages with no growth) $40.92
Target stock price (manual assumptions) $42.41

Confident Investor comments: At this price and at this time, I do not think that a Confident Investor can confidently invest in this stock.

Company name Amazon.com, Inc.
Stock ticker AMZN
Live stock price [stckqut]AMZN[/stckqut]
P/E compared to competitors Fair
MANAGEMENT EXECUTION
Employee productivity Good
Sales growth Good
EPS growth Good
P/E growth Poor
EBIT growth Good
ANALYSIS
Confident Investor Rating Good
Target stock price (TWCA growth scenario) $1233.4
Target stock price (averages with growth) $1948.46
Target stock price (averages with no growth) $669.07
Target stock price (manual assumptions) $216.36

Confident Investor comments: At this price and at this time, I think that a Confident Investor can confidently invest in this stock.

Company name AT&T Inc.
Stock ticker T
Live stock price [stckqut]T[/stckqut]
P/E compared to competitors Fair
MANAGEMENT EXECUTION
Employee productivity Fair
Sales growth Good
EPS growth Poor
P/E growth Poor
EBIT growth Good
ANALYSIS
Confident Investor Rating Fair
Target stock price (TWCA growth scenario) $36.06
Target stock price (averages with growth) $30.28
Target stock price (averages with no growth) $28.01
Target stock price (manual assumptions) $20.77

Confident Investor comments: At this time, I think that a Confident Investor can cautiously invest in this stock as long as the price is correct. Most of the fundamentals of this company are good but there are some concerns.

The last time that I looked at Hewlett-Packard [stckqut]HPQ[/stckqut], I rated the company a Fair company and encouraged you not to buy it. I haven’t rechecked the numbers since then but the recent news of Hewlett-Packard buying 3-Com begs the question, does this acquisition invoke the rule of not buying a company that just recently changed its size due to acquisition or divestiture?

The quick answer is no.  According to Reuters, 3-Com had quarterly revenue of 290.5M and HP had revenue of 27,451.0M.  Since 3-Com is less than 10%, HP should have little trouble absorbing the smaller company without affecting its major operations.

Remember, the magic number is 10%. If it goes over that number, stay away for awhile.

The Wall Street Journal just wrote an article saying that more mutual fund managers are using market timing and stock timing tools to “time” the market. They are doing this to act more nimbly and get into and out of stocks that are moving up and down.

Mutual funds have a problem with this technique that doesn’t affect small investors. Mutual funds have to move much larger sums of money around and therefore can affect the market with their purchases or can incur higher management costs.

From WSJ.com:

Some of these funds have beaten the market in recent years. Ivy Asset
Strategy, for example, gained an annual 14.9% in the five years ending
Nov. 10, compared with less than 1% for the Standard & Poor’s
500-stock index.

Fund companies say investors spooked by the recent market turmoil
are demanding more-flexible products. Many investors have been
frustrated “with investment products that were not able to react to the
environment that we just went through,” says Joel Sauber, head of U.S.
products at Legg Mason. The firm’s new Legg Mason Permal Tactical
Allocation Fund can stash up to 40% in cash.

A study from New York University’s Stern School of Business suggests
market-timing can work for some mutual-fund managers. The best
stock-pickers during economic expansions also show some market-timing
ability in recessions, the study found.

So if the “big guys” are using market timing to improve their performance, why aren’t you?