BloggingStocks

Insiders Snapping Up Lions Gate, Saul Centers

Wade Hansen — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 10:30:00 EST

If you are looking for clues telling you which stocks have a good chance of increasing in value, you might want consider watching what insiders are doing. After all, talk is cheap, but when insiders put their own money on the line, you should sit up and take note.

Lions Gate Entertainment Corp. (LGF) topped the insider-buying charts for the week ending July 2 as insiders snapped up 7,071,774 shares of company stock at a market value of $49,502,418. During the past six months, insiders have increased their overall holdings in the company by 15.84% and now own 7.71% of LGF stock.

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Insiders Snapping Up Lions Gate, Saul Centers originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 06 Jul 2010 10:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Lennar Corp. gets litigious with Minkow as stock's slide persists

Elizabeth Harrow — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 16:41:00 EST

Filed under: Rumors, Scandals, Lennar Corp'A' (LEN), Options, Housing

Lennar Corporation (NYSE: LEN) saw its shares plummet nearly 20% last Friday after Barry Minkow's Fraud Discovery Institute alleged that the homebuilder was improperly inflating its balance sheet, but the company isn't taking his inflammatory claims lying down. The beleaguered housing issue announced today that Minkow and his Fraud Discovery firm have been named as defendants in "a lawsuit alleging libel, extortion, and various criminal acts."

The official company statement reveals that Minkow & Co. are being added to a pre-existing lawsuit filed againt Nicolas Marsch III, who is accused of "hiring Minkow and his company to use any means available, including fraud, identity theft and manipulation of securities markets, to wrongfully and falsely harm Lennar's business and reputation because Lennar refuses to accede to Marsch's demands for tens of millions of dollars."

Unfortunately for Lennar, its dramatic rejection of Minkow's allegations isn't doing anything to boost its share price. The equity lost 8.8% today, easily outpacing the decline in the broader equities market. LEN has now shed roughly 31% since last Friday.

Meanwhile, in the options arena, put volume continues to dominate -- during the past 10 days, traders on the International Securities Exchange have bought to open 2.6 puts for every call. This ratio is hovering just 15 percentage points from an annual bearish peak.

Elizabeth Harrow is an analyst and financial writer in the research department at Schaeffer's Investment Research. She is featured in the video series Schaeffer's Daily Q&A on SchaeffersResearch.com.

Lennar Corp. gets litigious with Minkow as stock's slide persists originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 14 Jan 2009 16:41:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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News flash! Citigroup (finally) downgrades housing stocks

Eric Buscemi — Mon, 02 Jul 2007 13:56:00 EST

Filed under: Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades, Citigroup Inc. (C), D.R.Horton (DHI), KB HOME (KBH), Lennar Corp'A' (LEN), Toll Brothers (TOL), Housing

Why does it seem that Citigroup Inc. (NYSE: C) is late to the homebuilding slump? Because they are. The housing sector has been in the dumps for months now and yet only this morning did Citigroup downgrade stocks in the sector. Citigroup downgraded D.R. Horton Inc (NYSE: DHI), Hovnanian Enterprises Inc (NYSE: HOV), KB Home (NYSE: KBH), Lennar Corporation (NYSE: LEN), Pulte Homes Inc (NYSE: PHM), Toll Brothers Inc (NYSE: TOL) and The Ryland Group Inc (NYSE: RYL) to Hold from Buy as they believe "shares will remain range-bound through the rest of the year."

Let's recap:

KB Home: The company reported a second quarter loss and sales hit three-year lows. The loss was partly due to land value-related charges that highlighted the continued decay of the U.S. housing market. The company also said it was unable to provide investors with a full-year earnings forecast and couldn't say when they thought conditions would improve.

Lennar: Reported a Q2 loss. The company said market conditions had eroded so much that it's not trying to limit its losses for the year.

Pulte Homes: In response to the "challenging operating environment that continues to exist in the U.S. homebuilding industry," the company announced a restructuring plan designed to reduce costs and improve operating efficiencies in May.

Get the picture? Here's one more:

Ryland Group: Reported a Q1 loss in April and said it wouldn't be able to provide new guidance due to the slump in the housing market.

See a pattern? Homebuilder after homebuilder, it's the same story -- company faces challenging housing market, company loses money, tries to regain profitability. You'd think Citigroup would have noticed.

Aside from the companies themselves, other firms and analysts have said their piece about the sector. March data showed sales of existing homes fell to a four-year low. In April, Census Bureau data showed there were 2.5 million vacant non-seasonal housing units for sale, way over many firms' predictions. Additionally, AG Edwards said on April 30th that "it is not a good time to buy shares yet." Standard & Poor's said in May that they believed over a third of all U.S. homebuilders were "vulnerable to rating downgrades" in the midst of a "three-year downturn."

This is not news. Maybe Citigroup just missed it.

News flash! Citigroup (finally) downgrades housing stocks originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Mon, 02 Jul 2007 13:56:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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