Good News - Hooray!

IAR reported earnings this morning. And guess what? The sky didn’t fall. They made 76 cents a share versus 70 cents a year ago (Idearc Announces First Quarter 2008 Results). Revenues were down under 5%. I haven’t read their call transcript (Idearc, Inc. Q1 2008 Earnings Call Transcript), but nothing horrible must have been said as the stock rocketed over 45% today to over $4.80. Think about it. At 70 cents a quarter, that is $2.80 over a year. $4.80 still seems pretty cheap to pay for those earnings. It may take one more quarter to prove the sky is still up there, but IAR will have a chance at making up some lost ground. I also think we have a pretty good opportunity for a serious short squeeze as about 30m shares (20%) was sold short.

TRID also made up some lost ground today. Their earnings were disappointing (to some) a week ago and they sold off over 10% to $4.26. Guess what? They are back up!

SIMG has been a big winner for me. I bought them around $4.50 and was sorely tempted to sell when they crossed $5 (it had been a while since I had had a stock go up over 10%!). But I held to the formula. Today they are at $6.30 and I am sitting on a 41% gain.

KSW announced they will begin paying a 20 cent annual dividend in May (KSW, Inc. Reports First Quarter 2008 Results). They had just come up on my one year anniversary. I have “renewed” them for another year. The dividend tells me they are not just going to sit on their 50% cash pile.

ACF (a non MFI stock for me) has been en fuego. I bought them a month or two ago because Ian Cummings of Lukadia was buying them hand over fist. They are now up over 40%. I think that’ll pay for my one year membership to GuruFocus.

WH has also been a good news story. This is my Chinese Oil Pipe company that has the financials of an MFI company, but hasn’t hit the list because of some unfilled subtotals in their statements. They are up 10% since I bought them and got a good write-up recently (Getting a Fix on a Broken IPO).

PACR announced solid earnings this evening (Pacer International 1Q profit nearly doubles, beats views). I have only skimmed the announcement, but it looks tremendous to me. Revenues are up 10% over last year and income is up even more. We’ll likely see a pop in the stock tomorrow. FTO (a beaten stock if there ever was one) announces tomorrow morning. Any positive word from FTO could cause a 10% pop as they are priced for doomsday. I am a mite worried about FTO (and HOC and WNR) as TSO and ALJ both reported losses the past two days. I didn't think it was possible for a refiner to lose money.

Oh well, maybe IAR will go up more tomorrow. There is also a large short contingent on PACR. Hate to see them fork over $!