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Those that have known me and listened to my advice over the years know that I am not a big fan of Palm [stckqut]palm[/stckqut].  Now it looks like the Wall Street Journal is agreeing with me that this company may be on its death bed.

Aside from the fact that they cannot generate a profit (a sin in my opinion for a public company), their lack of growth over the years is atrocious. Only a speculator or a gambler should consider this a company to invest in. For those that want a company that you can CONFIDENTLY invest in – STAY AWAY FROM PALM!

You can click here to read more (may require a subscription) but below are a few highlights:

Some investors see a buying opportunity in the stock of the mobile-device maker, after a 55% plunge over the past six weeks amid weak sales of its new Pre smart-phone. Despite doubt about Palm’s ability to gain traction in the fast-growing and increasingly competitive smart-phone market, some are betting Palm will get acquired.

Even if such a deal materializes—far from a sure thing—it would have to do so quickly to justify the current stock price of around $6. The way the business is trending, six months from now, any buyer may only pay enough to cover Palm’s $388 million debt and the $376 million in preferred stock held by Elevation Partners. Common shareholders may get next to nothing.

Of course, it would depend on how many bidders show up. Palm’s most valuable asset, particularly for a new entrant to the smart-phone industry, is arguably the research and development sunk into the webOS operating system in the Pre. It is reasonable to assume that figure is around $600 million—what Palm has spent on R&D since 2007, when it last released a phone running on its old operating system. There also are carrier relationships, and Palm’s fading brand name. But absent a competing bidder, Palm may struggle to fetch more than one-time sales, which Morgan Joseph analyst Ilya Grozovsky estimates will be $1.2 billion this fiscal year, ending in May. That translates roughly to the current stock price.

What is more, Palm’s cash reserves will likely shrink in the coming months. Palm said last week it expected to finish February with $500 million in gross cash and equivalents, down from $590 million at the end of November. Assuming it continues to burn cash at this rate, it will exhaust its reserves in 18 months. Spending more on marketing could accelerate that.

Raising more cash from the public would be tough. After all, investors won’t soon forget that Palm sold shares at $16.25 last September, shortly after issuing the fiscal 2010 revenue projection that, it is now clear, was overly optimistic.

Palm may very well get acquired. But investors shouldn’t bank on a big payday.

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Company name Chevron Corporation
Stock ticker CVX
Live stock price [stckqut]CVX[/stckqut]
P/E compared to competitors Good
MANAGEMENT EXECUTION
Employee productivity Poor
Sales growth Poor
EPS growth Poor
P/E growth Good
EBIT growth Poor
ANALYSIS
Confident Investor Rating Poor
Target stock price (TWCA growth scenario) $61.21
Target stock price (averages with growth) $77.55
Target stock price (averages with no growth) $52.68
Target stock price (manual assumptions) $60.96

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

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Company name America Movil S.A.B de C.V. (ADR)
Stock ticker AMX
Live stock price [stckqut]AMX[/stckqut]
P/E compared to competitors Good
MANAGEMENT EXECUTION
Employee productivity Good
Sales growth Good
EPS growth Poor
P/E growth Poor
EBIT growth Good
ANALYSIS
Confident Investor Rating Fair
Target stock price (TWCA growth scenario) $39.28
Target stock price (averages with growth) $38.22
Target stock price (averages with no growth) $50.1
Target stock price (manual assumptions) $45.57

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.

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Company name Aetna Inc.
Stock ticker AET
Live stock price [stckqut]AET[/stckqut]
P/E compared to competitors Fair
MANAGEMENT EXECUTION
Employee productivity Poor
Sales growth Good
EPS growth Poor
P/E growth Poor
EBIT growth Good
ANALYSIS
Confident Investor Rating Poor
Target stock price (TWCA growth scenario) $25.95
Target stock price (averages with growth) $25.56
Target stock price (averages with no growth) $27.61
Target stock price (manual assumptions) $24.65

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

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Zac Bissonnette over at Blogging Stocks has an article about Sardar Biglari of Steak ‘n Shake trying to emulate Warren Buffet and Berkshire Hathaway. He starts off the story with “done an admirable job of turning around operations at Steak ‘n Shake” which I have a hard time accepting.

By nearly every measure that matters for me to be confident in a company, SNS is bad.  I haven’t bothered to do an analysis of the company because they are at the bottom of every scale that I measure them on. In fact, as a company the only way they could score less is to not be profitable! Rather than do a reverse stock split to bump the price up to the hundreds, they should spend time running a business that is growing and profitable. While their revenue trend isn’t terrible, their earnings growth is a sin! I don’t invest in companies that cannot figure out how to grow.

Here are the first few thoughts that Zac shared. Click through to read the rest.

Sardar Biglari has done an admirable job of turning around operations at Steak ‘n Shake (SNS), but over the past few months, he’s made a few less-than-subtle efforts to imitate his idol Warren Buffett.

Back in December, he announced that he would do a 1-for-20 reverse split of the stock to boost the share price over $300 and “dissuade speculators.” “We are attempting to eliminate those who erroneously think that it is easier for a $10 stock to go to $20 than a $200 one to go to $400,” he wrote in a letter to shareholders.

The New York Post has called him a “wannabe Warren.” Last month he made headlines when he announced that he would be changing the name of the company to Biglari Holdings. C.L. King analyst Michael W. Gallo wrote that “While progress over the last couple of quarters has been encouraging, we believe the key determinant of value creation going forward will be the success of Steak ‘n Shake in transitioning into a conglomerate-like holding company similar to the Berkshire Hathaway model.”

Editor’s update: On April 8, 2010, Steak ‘n Shake changed its name to Biglari Holdings. I am not going to change the article as written but I am adding the tag for Biglari Holdings [stckqut]bh[/stckqut] so that readers can track this company. The stock symbol SNS no longer is associated with Steak ‘n Shake nor Biglari Holdings.