Seeing a Huge Opportunity in Bear Stearns Editor’s Note: Today, we have a very special Penny Sleuth for you. Occasionally, blue chips fall back into penny stock land. When that happens, certain intelligent investors make their move. Jonas Elmerraji, your newest contributor, is here to bring you one such case. Enjoy… A Bear of an Investment By Jonas Elmerraji March 20, 2008 Three months ago, Joe Lewis was making a shrewd bet on what looked like a great value stock. Investment banking giant Bear Stearns (BSC: NYSE) was reeling from write-downs and investors wanted no part of any company with subprime on its books. Not so for Joe — the billionaire Briton saw Bear Stearns as a chance to capitalize on investors scurrying from the stock.
He dropped $1 billion for a 10% stake… Fast forward three months, and things aren’t looking so good for Lewis (or any BSC investor, for that matter). In the course of a weekend, the stock plummeted 92% to $6.32. Just a couple weeks earlier, the stock was trading for almost $90. It became a small cap overnight. What caused one of the most prestigious investment banks in the world to fold so quickly? The name of the game is liquidity, and unfortunately for Bear Stearns, they were seriously lacking in that department — so much so that they were on the verge of insolvency. ********************************* Gold Should Soon Hit $2,138 Per Ounce Today, we have five unknown, tiny gold mining companies that should have a nice ride as gold leaps passed $2K. My question to you is: Will you own them? Until next Thursday, you can get them absolutely free… Right here… ********************************* Could Bear Stearns Mean Opportunities for Investors? We’re seeing an unheard of stock market these days — powerhouses like Bear Stearns can crumble to dust one day, while the S&P closes up 4.24% the next. Bear’s hit has certainly reverberated throughout the market, but — so far — it hasn’t taken anyone else down with it. The Bear Stearns bitedown offers more than just a “lesson learned” it offers the potential of some serious market plays for investors who are willing to put their money where their mouths are. Who’s sitting pretty from all this? JP Morgan Chase for one — you’ve probably heard that with the help of a loan from the Fed, JPM is buying up Bear Stearns at $2; that’s a number people like Joe Lewis feel is pretty paltry. JPM investors won’t tell you that though…the market pushed their stock up 10% on the news of the deal. For a company with an $80 per share book value, a $2 buyout is a bargain to say the least. That’s not just us talking — everyone from Reuters to Forbes is chiming in on what could be one of the most notorious buyouts ever. JP Morgan Chase spotted a deal in Bear and jumped at it. But, JP Morgan Chase isn’t the only one making big-time moves. Despite the battering i-banks and other financial stocks have taken lately, we’re starting to see several exceed earnings expectations and get on the road to recovery. We saw it with Lehman Brothers and Goldman Sachs on March 18, and we’ll likely see more financials in relief this earnings season. So what’s an interested investor to do? ********************************* You’d have to be NUTS to Love this Kind of Chaotic Market, Right? Yet one “secret alliance” I know of is just eating it up. Because, for over five centuries running, they've used a very simple technique to turn these kinds of crashing share prices into enormous fortunes. One “member,” an extremely powerful Hungarian financier, used this to make $1 million on a crashing blue chip stock — then did it again for over $1.1 billion. Here’s your chance to do the same… Read on… ********************************* Making a Play without Getting Played Maybe Joe Lewis was right after all — value’s the thing to look for in this market… The critical thing for companies like BSC was finding the bottom. (Hint: It wasn’t the $107 share price he bought at.) There are a few small-caps out there that might be worth looking at now that subprime has beaten down their balance sheets — Ocwen Financial (OCN: NYSE), Franklin Credit Management (FCMC: NASDAQ) and White River Capital (RVR: AMEX) are a couple of names out there if you’re looking for some high risk stocks. As with Bear Stearns, the question you have to ask is whether or not they’ve seen a bottom yet. Joe Lewis made his billions by making big bets, but this was one bet he should have stepped away from. It goes without saying that there’s money to be made in this market’s financial beat down. The question is: Are you going to be the one to make it? Sincerely, Jonas Elmerraji P.S.: If you want to “beat the beat down,” Penny Stock Fortunes is chock full of bargain investment ideas each month. If you want to get in on it, check out this report. Editor’s Note: As always, you can send any questions or concerns to jim@pennysleuth.com. |