Intel is a cyclical growth company. As such it should be bought at a discount to the S&P500. The good news is Intel currently trade at a discount with a ttm P/E of 12.46 and INTC is close to all time low valuations.

Markets hate uncertainty and Relenza provides it in spades. This could be an excellent opportunity and is worth further investigation. Downside risk is very low due to cash. Say maximum probable loss of 15 cents with upside of $1.15. That’s a preliminary risk to reward of 1/7.5. Over twice as good as I normally seek, but hey these are exceptional times and there are plenty of bargains to choose between. My initial valuation spreadsheet shows a risk/reward ratio of 1:1 to 1:5, i.e. excellent odds.

MMC Contrarian (MMA.AX) plan on paying $200,000 in costs to buy $75M in shares at above market value so they can decrease the earnings per share, how on earth can that be a sensible allocation of capital?

CVTX Looks like good value to me at the moment. An OK balance sheet with some possible upside and no need for cash, four revenue sources, three pending FDA label expansions and a value on Ranexa of only $325Mish.

Sadia (SDA) is a Brazilian based international purveyor of meat and other processed foods.
They are a classic fallen knife which fell hard and fast due to their finance department screwing the foreign exchange pooch. They were caught by both the US dollar appreciation and the fall in commodity prices. They were hedged the other way, double doh!, and the result is a massive hole in their balance sheet. the opportunity maybe that the stupidity could be a one-off thing and their core business remain strong and growing a good clip, …

With earnings looming and consumers tightening their belts is now the time to sell BWLD?
Buffalo Wild Wings is due to report Q3 earnings between 27-Oct and 3-Nov. Fear is griping the market and pundits reasoning that the first place consumers will cut back is discretionary spending and in particular eating out. So why is BWLD still trading at a premium? BWLD has had a volatile year, but it has bucked the downward trend among restaurants this year.

General Electric, GE, leads the way. I  like this writeup by Henry Blodgett.
My initial reaction, with GE futures down, is that this is a good opportunity to buy GE on tempoary weakness, though there is probably no need to rush. I continue to see the GE glass as half full. This is why I am investing. “Industrial earnings to remain strong in third quarter, up 10-15%, led by infrastructure businesses” and they say in the press release
In their press release GE state a lot, so you should probably just read …

Akamai is due to report earnings between 30-Oct-08 and 9-Nov-08.
AKAM’s stock price has been  hammered in the last four months, down from over $40 to $17. The masses are sure that competition will eat the lunch of this established leader and are pricing AKAM as if growth will be negative going forward.

View the full AKAM chart at Wikinvest

Fundamental View
Cheap on all metrics. Watch for slowing in growth.

Lowest Price to free cash flow ever. FCF has increased every year since 2000.
Lowest Price to sales since 2002.
Slowing growth more than priced in.

Worst …

Only got five minutes for your first pass? So let’s see how GE stacks up.
We’re approaching those early 2003 lows despite earnings being 54% higher. This GE 16 year BMW chart shows there is plenty of room to run when sentiment changes.
Let’s quickly check some other metrics as all of the following are at long term lows:

Price to book
Price to free cash flow
Price to earnings
Price to sales

More on this topic

(What's this?)

Is GE’s dividend safe?

(Dividend Growth Investor, 12/10/08)

GE

(Random Roger's Big Picture, 10/2/08)

GE won't raise dividend

(The Money Gardener, 9/25/08)

Read more on

General Electric …

Akamai Technologies Inc. (AKAM)
While Flight of the Choncords may be my current favourite purveyors of mirth, I do get a good laugh when I read “analysis” like this by Steve Biggs from Zacks.
Akamai is currently trading at its 52-week low price. The company’s P/E ratio of 15.2x is based on our 2008 EPS estimate of $1.29 and 4.2x our 2008 revenue estimate of $4.69 per share. Although the valuation has fallen to the low-end of historic levels, we would not be the buyers of the stock given the risk of …