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Company name Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers (USA)
Stock ticker RBA
Live stock price [stckqut]RBA[/stckqut]
P/E compared to competitors Fair

MANAGEMENT EXECUTION

Employee productivity Good
Sales growth Poor
EPS growth Poor
P/E growth Poor
EBIT growth Poor

ANALYSIS

Confident Investor Rating Poor
Target stock price (TWCA growth scenario) $13.77
Target stock price (averages with growth) $19.71
Target stock price (averages with no growth) $19.25
Target stock price (manual assumptions) $15.75

The following company description is from Google Finance: http://www.google.com/finance?q=rba

Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers Incorporated and its subsidiaries sells industrial equipment and other assets for the construction, transportation, material handling, mining, forestry, petroleum, marine, real estate, and agricultural industries at its unreserved auctions worldwide. The Company’s principal business activity is the sale of industrial equipment and other assets at auctions. Its customers are both buyers and sellers of equipment, trucks and other industrial assets. The majority of its buyers are end users of equipment (retail buyers), such as contractors, with the remainder being primarily truck and equipment dealers, rental companies and brokers (wholesale buyers). Consignors to its auctions represent a mix of equipment owners, the majority being end users of equipment, with the balance being finance companies, truck and equipment dealers and equipment rental companies, among others. On May 15, 2012, the Company acquired AssetNation LLC.

 

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

If you would like to understand how to evaluate companies like I do on this site, please read my book, The Confident Investor.

 

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While you are enjoying the beginning of summer with a 3-day weekend. Please do not forget why you are not working today.

Remember those who served. All gave some and some gave all they had.

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Company name The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
Stock ticker MHP
Live stock price [stckqut]MHP[/stckqut]
P/E compared to competitors Fair

MANAGEMENT EXECUTION

Employee productivity Good
Sales growth Poor
EPS growth Fair
P/E growth Fair
EBIT growth Poor

ANALYSIS

Confident Investor Rating Poor
Target stock price (TWCA growth scenario) $32.04
Target stock price (averages with growth) $44.91
Target stock price (averages with no growth) $41.87
Target stock price (manual assumptions) $35.84

The following company description is from Google Finance: http://www.google.com/finance?q=mhp

The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. is a global information services provider serving the financial, education, commercial and commodities markets. The Company serves its customers through a range of products, services and distribution channels, including digital data and information, integrated digital platforms, online via Internet Websites, as well as with printed books, magazines and newsletters, and conferences and trade shows. Its segments include S&P Ratings, S&P Capital IQ/S&P Indices, Commodities & Commercial (C&C) and McGraw-Hill Education (MHE). In July 2011, the Company acquired Steel Business Briefing Group. In February 2012, the Company’s S&P Capital IQ acquired R2 Financial Technologies. On July 2, 2012, S&P Capital IQ, a business line of the Company acquired London-based Credit Market Analysis Limited (CMA) from CME Group Inc. In August 2012, MHE acquired Key Curriculum. In November 2012, Platts, a division of the Company, completed its acquisition of Kingsman SA.

 

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

If you would like to understand how to evaluate companies like I do on this site, please read my book, The Confident Investor.

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This is a message to my StockTwits followers that is prompted by StockTwits’ change in policy that went into effect today, 3/1/2013.

To date, I have been communicating to my StockTwits followers primarily via Twitter. If I put a dollar ($) symbol in front of the stock symbol on Twitter, StockTwits would pick up that change and repost the tweet on StockTwits. StockTwits is a great service that is focused on stock information in its community. As of today, this linking between the Twitter and StockTwits seems to be turned off.

I have about 250 followers on StockTwits and over 15,000 followers on Twitter. I will try to cross-pollinate my comments across the two services but my first priority has to be Twitter. If you are following me on StockTwits and NOT following me on Twitter, you may wish to follow me on Twitter. I value my followers on StockTwits greatly and I will do my best to cross-pollinate posts but I am sure that some conversations will be lost.

My Twitter page is https://twitter.com/ConfidentInvest.

Here is the announcement that I received today from StockTwits:

Dear StockTwits Member,

This email contains an important product announcement that impacts your StockTwits account.

Effective today, March 1, you will no longer be able to post to your StockTwits account via Twitter by including a $TICKER or $$ in your message. All messages you want to share on StockTwits need to be posted directly to StockTwits at StockTwits.com, using our browser extensions or API partners.

We continue to work with Twitter in other ways, you can still automatically send messages you share on StockTwits to your linked Twitter account (or your linked Facebook and LinkedIn accounts).

Much has been written over the last several months about how Twitter has changed their developer rules and, like many other developers, these new rules have forced us to make changes in order to continue to deliver a great experience to you and all of our users.

We know this changes the way some of our members use our service – since we announced this change earlier this year we have helped many members set up tools like our Chrome or Firefox Browser Extensions or our HootSuite plug in to minimize any impact on the way they work, while ensuring their best stock and market ideas continue to be seen on StockTwits.

If you have any questions or we can help you please email us at support@stocktwits.com or contact any team member on StockTwits.

Sincerely,

StockTwits

 

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Jim Cramer has probably received more acclaim for helping individual investors than anyone. His show Mad Money is very popular and he gets praise for his Lightning Round segment. On that segment, callers ask him about a stock and gives a very quick answer as to his thoughts. I am not interested in criticizing Mr. Cramer for his quick appraisal as I think that this type of analysis is always a challenge. I am consistently amazed at his ability to give good advice on the fly.

I thought it would be interesting to compare my thoughts to Mr. Cramer’s Lightning Round. I am not going to do the full analysis like my traditional stock review posts but rather just say if I agree or disagree with him. Here are last weeks picks and my thoughts. If this article is well received, I may continue this as a regular feature.

The Lightning Round picks came from the Mad Money page on The Street.

Company

Date

Segment

Jim Cramer’s Call

Confident Investor Call
American Capital Agency (AGNC) 11/08

Not good enough
Align Technology (ALGN) 11/05

Not good enough
Yamana Gold (AUY) 11/05

Worth considering
Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMY) 11/09

Not good enough
Boardwalk Partners (BWP) 11/07

Not good enough
Caterpillar (CAT) 11/09

Already on Watch List
Chevron (CVX) 11/09

Worth considering
Changyou.com (CYOU) 11/08

Not good enough
CYS Investments (CYS) 11/08

Not good enough
Caesars Entertainment (CZR) 11/09

No- not profitable
Facebook (FB) 11/09

Not good enough
Frontier Communications (FTR) 11/07

Worth considering
SPDR Gold Shares (GLD) 11/05

I don’t analyze SPDR
Generac Holdings (GNRC) 11/08

Not good enough
Google (GOOG) 11/09

Already on Watch List
Harley Davidson (HOG) 11/09

Worth considering
Intel (INTC) 11/05

Worth considering
JC Penney (JCP) 11/07

No – not profitable
Nordstrom (JWN) 11/09

Worth considering
McDonald’s (MCD) 11/05

Not good enough
MGM Resorts (MGM) 11/05

No – not profitable
Microsoft (MSFT) 11/09

Not good enough
Matrix Service (MTRX) 11/05

Worth considering
Protein Design Labs (PDLI) 11/05

Worth considering
PPL Corp (PPL) 11/08

Worth considering
Sears Holdings (SHLD) 11/07

Not good enough
Skyworks Solutions (SWKS) 11/08

Not good enough
VIVUS (VVUS) 11/07

No – not profitable
Walgreens (WAG) 11/05

Not good enough
Wynn Resorts (WYNN) 11/09

Worth considering
Yahoo! (YHOO) 11/09

Not good enough

 

As you can easily see, I am a bit more conservative on my choices than Mr. Cramer.  I really want a company to be growing well and be profitable in order for them to be on my list.