MgicInvestment posts
FeedPosted Apr 20th 2010 4:10PM by Jon Ogg (RSS feed)
Filed under: Coca-Cola (KO), International Business Machines (IBM), Ciena Corp (CIEN), Goldman Sachs Group (GS)

Today was an up-day that started out in positive territory and stayed that way nearly the entire day. Earnings news took little out of the indexes even if there was profit taking after many individual reports. There was also no real economic data to digest, so stocks acted on their own.
Here were the official closing bell levels:
S&P 500 1,207.18 +9.66 (0.81%)
Dow 11,130.59 +38.54 (0.35%)
Nasdaq 2,500.64 +20.53 (0.83%)
Continue reading Closing Bell: Forgetting About Earnings (CIEN, KO, GS, IBM, MGM, MTG)
Posted Aug 1st 2008 6:00AM by Elizabeth Harrow (RSS feed)
Filed under: Major Movement, Bad News, S and P 500, Housing
In this series, we take a look at the 25 stocks in the S&P 500 Index (SPX) that have turned in the worst performance during the past decade -- what went wrong, and what happens next.
I'll give you just one hint at the nature of the problems MGIC Investment Corp. (NYSE: MTG) is facing: MGIC stands for Mortgage Guaranty Insurance Corporation. In other words, things were going just fine for the Milwaukee-based firm until about, oh, mid-2007, when the slime known as subprime hit the proverbial fan.
What went wrong? At number 4 on our list of SPX stragglers, MTG lost 89% of its value from June 30, 1998 through June 30, 2008. From its July 2004 peak at $78.95, the stock is down 93%, and is now trading near all-time low territory.
In the first quarter of 2007, it was business as usual for MTG. The company announced plans to acquire its sector peer, Radian Group (NYSE: RDN), for $4.9 billion in the stock. The merger would have created a massive mortgage giant with about $15 billion in assets. Unfortunately, the deal was never consummated.
Continue reading Worst 10-year performers: MGIC Investment abandons merger as mortgage losses mount
Posted Nov 1st 2007 10:10AM by Peter Cohan (RSS feed)
Filed under: Commodities, Oil, Housing
What a fantastic time to own oil, gold, or any currency other than the dollar! And what a wonderful world it must be for foreclosure lawyers! How can you profit? Buy non-dollar currencies, lock in your heating oil price, and consider shorting mortgage insurers.
The statistics are mind-numbingly awful. The price of oil hit a record $96 a barrel, up 300% from $24 in January 2001. Gold is near a record high at $800, the dollar is at record lows -- for instance it takes $2.08 to buy a British pound. Housing, which has been tumbling from its peak in August 2006, is hurting too -- with foreclosures up 100% in the last year. And the mortgage meltdown has led to big layoffs -- my firm counts 70,087 finance layoffs by 42 companies so far this year.
There are three ways you can profit from this trend. First, you can buy currencies -- like the pound and the Euro -- which are getting stronger as the dollar weakens. Second, if you heat your house with oil, you can consider locking in a fixed price -- because oil is clearly going to keep going up.
Continue reading What $96 oil, $800 gold, a 100% foreclosure spike, and a $2.08 British pound mean to you
Posted Oct 30th 2007 8:07AM by Jim Cramer (RSS feed)
Filed under: Market Matters, Federal Natl Mtge (FNM), , , , Housing, Federal Reserve, Cramer on BloggingStocks
TheStreet.com's Jim Cramer says the price of no more rate cuts from the Fed would be foreclosures. Lots of them. Have you noticed that
MBIA (NYSE:
MBI) (
Cramer's Take) and
Ambac Financial (NYSE:
ABK) (
Cramer's Take) are just being crushed today?
More important, has the Fed noticed?
Lots of people have asked me where I came up with the $500 billion loss number I've been mentioning. Here's the deal: A large group of people, 50% of the 14 million homebuyers, are going to default on their "2 and 28" adjusted-rate mortgages now that they are being reset. Many of these people paid for the 2% with home equity loans that they can't pay back.
Think of those millions of no-money-down ads. Those worked! These people can't pay now that the resets are in the house. Others, allegedly AAA borrowers, will find themselves defaulting, and the insurance won't be paid. That's horrible, but that's what the stocks are saying.
Continue reading Cramer on BloggingStocks: No rate cut? No relief
Posted Jan 18th 2007 11:16AM by Kevin Shult (RSS feed)
Filed under: Before the Bell, Applied Materials (AMAT), Analyst Initiations
MOST NOTEWORTHY: Applied Materials (AMAT) and Marvel Entertainment (MVL) were the most notable companies initiated today:
- Citing an unattractive valuation, Nollenberger initiated Applied Materials (NASDAQ: AMAT) with a Neutral rating.
- Susquehanna initiated Marvel Entertainment (NYSE: MVL) with a Positive rating, expecting strong earnings momentum for the foreseeable future driven by the success of licensed properties and the release of feature films.
OTHER INITIATIONS:
- Rochdale Research initiated shares of Callaway Golf (NYSE: ELY) with a Neutral rating and $12.50 target, citing valuation
- Prudential initiated MGIC Investment (NYSE: MTG) with an Underweight rating and $65 target; as they prefer business models that are less reliant on the U.S. mortgage insurance, the firm sees an unfavorable risk/reward.
- Merriman initiated TheStreet.com Inc (NASDAQ: TSCM) with a Buy rating. Merriman said TheStreet.com is transitioning to a Media Business model leveraging unique content assets and high organic user traffic. The firm likes the company's strategy to increase its mass market appeal towards the retail and professional investors.
Analyst summaries provided by TheFlyOnTheWall.com (subscription required).