Yesterday I half-heartedly went to see the Pixar / Disney (NYSE: DIS) movie "Ratatouille" with my 11-year-old son. To my great surprise it was fantastic. The story, quality of animation and superb writing were cleverly executed. If Pixar continues to produce this highly imaginative level of animation then the first class Walt Disney tradition lives on.

It may appear that the entertainment industry is being diluted, fragmented and slowly surrendering to the Internet via vast amounts of "product" created by amateurs and wannabees, but this is deceiving. The Web has allowed for the immediate distribution of a diverse range of ideas in new media such as YouTube (Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG). It has created a platform to launch what otherwise might be undiscovered talent. But we deceive ourselves if we think this will ever be a substitute for the top talent assembled by Pixar / Disney.

For example, we know that there are more people playing basketball then ever before and they have greater skills too. However, we still pay top dollar and flock to see Kobe and Shaq, even though they now play on opposite coasts. We want to see the best. While the web has proven to be informative, entertaining and democratizing it is not Hollywood. While it has exposed us to new ideas, (and garbage) and provided opportunity to millions of people and new artists, for the most part it is a new delivery system and a new marketing platform. It is not Disney or Dreamworks and it never will be.

Continue reading Pixar Ratatouille extends Disney magic

Pixar Ratatouille extends Disney magic originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Fri, 27 Jul 2007 14:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Whittling Away at the Dow has been my longest multi-part blog to date. This is the seventh and concluding post of the series and for those that have been following along I hope there has been something of value for you in my comments. Among my surprises have been that there was so much value still left in the Dow given it's reaching new highs almost daily; I was surprised Disney was among the stocks that made the cut, and I was surprised at how few comments I received. You might notice that all six stocks that made the cut were from the top half of the Dow 30, perhaps I became tougher as I went along, but that's how it worked out. If you want to read the previous posts the following links will get you there: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, or Part 6. So here we go, whittling the six down to three. Here are the stars:

• Alcoa Aluminum (NYSE: AA): Aluminum
• American International Group (NYSE: AIG): Insurance
• Caterpillar Inc. (NYSE: CAT): Heavy duty construction and mining equipment
• Disney (Walt) Company (NYSE: DIS): Entertainment production, media and theme parks
• Exxon Mobil (NYSE: XOM): Petroleum exploration, refining, and sales
• Home Depot (NYSE: HD): Retail and wholesale hardware and construction materials

Continue reading Serious Money: Whittling away at the Dow - best values : Part 7

Serious Money: Whittling away at the Dow - best values : Part 7 originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Fri, 08 Jun 2007 12:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Onward with my review of the Dow Jones Industrials. Ten stocks have been reviewed so far with three worth further consideration as potential value plays: Alcoa Aluminum (NYSE: AA), American International Group (NYSE: AIG) and Caterpillar Inc. (NYSE: CAT). You can link to Part 1 of this series or Part 2 if you want to catch up. Comments are always welcome.

Disney (Walt) Company (NYSE: DIS) on first glance looks like it may have some value hidden away. The raw numbers do not scream out at me but they cannot be ignored either. At a minimum this stock seems to be slightly under valued, given its strong brand and depth of content in a business where content is king, it has locked up many franchises. This includes the Pirates of the Caribbean: At the World's End now in theaters. It has an average P/E, a below average debt ratio, a modest dividend yield to go along with very low P/S 2.18 and P/B 2.36 ratios. Disney is worth consideration as a value stock.

DuPont EI De Nemours (NYSE: DD) is another mixed bag, although mostly favorable from a value standpoint. You have to like the below average P/E of 14.92, P/S of 1.77 and the generous dividend yield of 2.84%. On the other hand, it has a P/B of almost 5, which is higher than I would usually consider for a value play and the same is true for the P/CF of almost 12.29, which is a little bit pricey to me. It does report strong profit margins of 11.48% and a great ROE of 34.41. In comparing it to one of my stock picks Dow Chemical (NYSE: DOW) for 2007, which has a P/S and P/B of half of DuPont and a higher yield of 3.67% I think I will pass this one up.

Continue reading Serious Money: Whittling away at the Dow -- DIS, DD, XOM, & GE: Part 3

Serious Money: Whittling away at the Dow -- DIS, DD, XOM, & GE: Part 3 originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Thu, 31 May 2007 13:57:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

It occurred to me recently that we probably have entered a new age of ubiquitous piracy. A world that sneaked up on us quite unobtrusively, little by little permeating everything, and until recently, we did not realize we had been hijacked. There must be exponentially more pirates operating today, both in overall quantity and as a percentage of the world population, than there has ever been at any time in history.

Last week Alan Abelson wrote in his Up and Down Wall Street column (Barron's, subscription required) that 80% of the software sold in China was pirated. No kidding - and he quipped that software companies should be happy because that meant they were paying for the other 20%. Oh boy! - this is sure to please Adobe Systems (NASDAQ: ADBE), Intuit Inc (NASDAQ: INTU), and Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT). The billions of dollars lost to piracy in one year is certainly more than all the doubloons ever high-jacked on the highs seas.

Software is not the only thing being pirated, everything is being pirated. One could make the argument that in China, and even worldwide pirated goods would easily make up the largest business ever known if it was a single enterprise.

Continue reading Sunday Funnies: Pirates, Pirates and more Pirates

Sunday Funnies: Pirates, Pirates and more Pirates originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Sun, 27 May 2007 13:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.