“Apple shipped 2,496,000 Macintosh® computers during the quarter, representing 41 percent unit growth and 43 percent revenue growth over the year-ago quarter. The Company sold 11,011,000 iPods during the quarter, representing 12 percent unit growth and seven percent revenue growth over the year-ago quarter. Quarterly iPhone™ units sold were 717,000 compared to 270,000 in the year-ago-quarter. ”

http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2008/07/21results.html

“Munster thinks Apple should easily sell 4.47 million iPhones this quarter, up 9% from his previous guess of 4.1 million, and up 299% from the 1.12 million it sold during the September quarter last year.”

http://www.alleyinsider.com/2008/8/apple-s-sept-quarter-iphone-sales-to-quadruple-to-4-5-million-says-piper

“With a current annual run rate of around $360 million, it’s not out of the question that App Store could eventually become a billion dollar business for Apple, according to Jobs.”

http://www.crn.com/software/210002313

So all in all. Apple is still kicking the snot out of it. What about this “slow down” due to the crunch. I’m calling your bluff there. When a product still has lines to get it a month after its launch (http://www.nashvilleistalking.com/node/58722), I think it is safe to say that demand isn’t going to slow down soon…. in fact:

“Apple is continuing to add countries - the iPhone is available in 23 countries today, and another 50 will be added this year” and “xconn, the Taiwanese electronics giant that produces the iPhone 3G for Apple, has ramped up production to 800,000 units per week”

http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/08/04/foxconn-building-800000-iphones-a-week/

Thats looks like a “slow down” that I can get behind. Now with all that being said this does concern me:

http://www.alleyinsider.com/2008/8/apple-now-worth-more-than-google-aapl-goog-

If you compare their financial histories, Google looks like it has a much more solid track record over the last few years so we may be getting some exuberance here:
http://finance.google.com/finance?fstype=ii&q=NASDAQ:GOOG
http://finance.google.com/finance?fstype=ii&q=NASDAQ:AAPL

Honestly I’m OK with a sale. We have made some cash on it, but I wouldn’t necessarily consider them down and out.

I believe Ben Hur should purchase DOW because they have the team in place to handle the major issues of the world today.  The company culture understands challenges are to come and they will be a part of national solutions resulting in earnings for the long term.

There are not many analysts tracking this company in the US, but expect to see much better numbers then 2Q 2007.  Being the leader cable & internet provider in Brazil doesn’t have to mean increases of earnings are on the horizon.  Their current plan is short term growth, which if accomplished translates to higher revenues and a broader region of services.  The Big TV acquisition won’t have much of an effect in Q2, however their purchase of Vivax in October of 2006 should be gaining maturity.  One thing to cheer for are operating and profit margins above 8% as their current deal with Big TV comes with a $200 Million loan at 7.875%.

Ultimately I like this stock because I want to believe NETC will focus on earnings per share once they attain the region and market share desired.  Till then expect frustration in stock price.

• first 100 million sales in 2004
• broke 1 billion sales in 2006
• broke 5 billion sales in 2008

Considering the fact that iTunes began life as a way of driving sales of Apple hardware, this looks like smashing success.  Now that Apple has a dominant position in the MP3 player market (they always have 3 or more positions in the top 5 players for sales) and iTunes is a household name, their new initiatives get to launch with enormous steam behind them from day one.

I’m talking about the IPhone primarily, but the AppleTV is also a really interesting device.  Both of these are video devices, and video is definitely a growth market.  Those of you who know me know that I’m bullish on web video.  It seems clear that as the world slowly transitions from traditional television to video on all of their new devices, Apple is going to be there in spades to soak up the growth.

We have AAPL in our portfolio, should you?

But seriously, Under Armour was started in 1996 by former University of Maryland football player Kevin Plank.  Kevin wanted to design athletic apparel that would improve an athlete’s performance by wicking away the sweat from the body keeping the athlete cooler in hot weather.  From that simple plan grew an assortment of product lines such as HeatGear(R), ColdGear(R) and AllSeasonGear(R).  Over the last 5 years UA has grown its sales revenue from $50M to $600M as the Under Armour label has grown in popularity among athletes, especially youth consumers.  Under Armour is the football uniform of choice for Auburn, Maryland, Hawai’i, South Carolina and Texas Tech, and hopefully that list will grow and tap into other large fan bases.  Under Armour has now set its sights on Nike’s athletic shoe dominance.  Although, UA has had a line of cleats available, they recently made their debut in cross training footwear on May 3rd, which you might have heard about from their 1st Super Bowl ad in January, and has already become a dominant player in that area.  From here they will look to make a splash in a much larger segment, running shoes.

We purchased Starbucks back in August of 2007 at $24.42 per share. At the time SBUX had dropped 30% of its price over the previous 18 months. After a long run up during the early to middle 2000s we saw this drop as a correction. We thought that a 30% was a little excessive and that once SBUX hits a bottom a more stable stock will emerge that will continue its growth at a more realistic and steady pace. Unfortunately SBUX did not hit its bottom in August 2007. In fact, SBUX continued to drop another 30%+ to as low as $16. SBUX has since rested around $18 not knowing which way to go next. This has been one of Ben Hur’s worst performing stocks but it has provided us with good experience. We still believe in Starbucks in the long run and will continue to hold it in our portfolio.

I did not get a chance to present my stock at the last meeting, but I wanted to provide a brief explanation for my attraction to this company.

With oil prices above $120/bbl and gas prices at $4/gal coupled with a presidential election where candidates will be touting greener energies and a movement away from oil dependency, alternative energies seem like a great place to be invested.  The problem is that the industry is flooded with wannabes and only a few of the companies will actually survive.  I believe Cypress Semiconductors, yes a semiconductor company, is a safe way to play the alternative energy sector.

Cypress Semiconductors specializes in Programmable System-on-Chips (PSoC).  These little suckers are what make your mouse’s “click wheel” work so smoothly.  After several years of averaging right at $800M in revenues, they broke out in 2006 with over $1B and in 2007 then increased that 50% to $1.5B including nearly $400B in net income.

More importantly though, Cypress Semiconductors spun off SunPower Corp. (SPWR), a solar subsidiary, two years ago but they retained over 50% ownership.  SunPower makes photovoltaic cells and it’s stock has soared over the last year or so, although it’s currently down about 40% YTD do to it’s meteoric rise last year.  SunPower Corp. brought in $775M in revenue last year, up from $78M two years ago and has become profitable the last two years.  They recently gave sales guidance for 2008 of $1.3B, so they are definitely a growth stock in the solar industry.  As of the close of day on June 4, 2008 (as I write) SPWR is priced at $78.52 a share which gives it a $6.65B market cap.

Now remember that Cypress owns over 50% of SunPower which means that if Cypress’s semiconductor business unit was worth $0.00, it would still have a market cap of $3.325M based on it’s ownership of SunPower shares.  Cypress currently has a $4.18B market cap, which means that it’s semiconductor business is being valued at $800M.  Hard to imagine that a company bringing in over $1B in sales per year is only worth $800M!!  I think this is a good stock to own as it allows you to have exposure to two sectors and you have a very solid floor to limit your downside risk.

Joey

GKK - Google Finance

Chasing Value

25 Stocks Benjamin Graham would Like

Gramercy Capital Corp. is a REIT that has holdings in commercial properties. Over 50% of those are held by the like of BOA and Wachovia. Both are strong banks that are not going anywhere anytime soon.

GKK has a 14.68% Dividend Yeild.

That means if we buy $1000 in it they will pay us close to $150/year in dividends which is pretty much guaranteed and likely to increase not decrease.

On top of that we have any gains that it may achieve on the appreciation of its stock price. A year ago this stock was at $32 so it has room to grow

Over the last year GKK is down 45%, which makes it very cheap today.

It has a High sales growth rate and margin, which means its good at making money.

-Cambo