Faster & Furiouser

Okay, I took a little literary license with the title. Three more of my MFI companies report this morning as I prepare to not think about stocks for two glorious weeks.

HW - they are struggling, but at least they got their earnings report out 1st. They earned 58 cents, it seems consensus was 60 cents. They said they'll likely earn between $2.00 and $2.15 for the year as section 29 (some sort of gov't subsidy) is phased out. Y'know, for a stock trading at $20.85, you'd think the bad news is priced in. But it'll probably take more lumps today. I did see last night on Kudlow that Congress is looking at an energy bill. If there is anything there to promote coal to diesel technology, HW could bounce right back towards $30. Don't count 'em out yet (Headwaters Incorporated Announces Results for Fiscal 2006 Third Quarter).

DLX - Actually did a little better than expected. More importantly, they announced a 25 cent dividend, down from the 40 cents previously, but not as bad as I had feared (Deluxe Reports Second Quarter 2006 Results; Declares Quarterly Dividend).

RAIL - Had a blowout quarter, they earned $2.86 per share vs estimates of $1.69. The backlog did drop a bit, that is what started their spiral from last quarter's earnings (FreightCar America, Inc. Reports Record Performance ).

UST - very solid quarter (UST Reports Second Quarter 2006 Diluted E.P.S. of $.83).

Well, it is midday and this will be my last posting for a bit. I gave Deluxe the lead picture today becuase (get ready for this), DLX is the leading gainer as of righ now on the NYSE, up over 20%. Now to put that in perspective, I am still down 36%. But it does appear that there is hope.

Actually, my entire MFI portfolio is smoking, perhaps the MFI gods didn't think I'd be checking in today?

DLX + 20%
ISNS +13% (I said yesterday they had good earnings)
HW +4% (see comments above)
PCU +3.3% (I felt their numbers were solid yesterday)
RAIL +13% (I hope they can hold it this time... for a company that can earn $2.80 in a quarter to be selling for $55 a share is silly).
UST +2.5% (just a solid smokeless tobacco qtr).

Here is a quick graph update.