Back on the Rock

Well, I just returned from my quick weekend get-away. I flew USA 3000, I have no idea how they keep their fares so cheap. Anyway, I digress. While in the airport, I picked up a copy of Smart Money. Ironically, it was reading Smart Money 2+ years ago that I first heard about MFI. So far, that appears to have been a very expensive magazine.

They did have a couple of interesting articles. One was regarding small cap stocks (a large part of the current MFI universe). They commented how the small cap indices are down 25% from a year ago and in full bear mode. They also went on to say they were the cheapest they have been in recent history. Finally, they recommended some small cap mutual funds. I do believe that the period of massive under-performance by the smaller caps is coming to a close. Not saying they'll go into the black, but I don't think they'll drop faster than the broader market.

They had an article that correlated employee happiness with stock performance. Hard to get your arms around squishy measurements like EE happiness, but two stocks that came out of their screen were MLHR and SHW. Both have been on MFI screens for some time now, and I suspect you could do worse than to pick these stocks. At least the EEs are happy.

Finally, they had an article on cash rich companies. BA made the list of 5 companies. I do think this is a company that has dropped way too far. There is still a great deal of demand for fuel efficient airplanes and there are not many options. And the cycle to get airplanes is so long that I think it transcends one or two year downturns. I may take a real hard look at Boeing next tranche at the end of August. Off the top of my head, I also think MSFT was on the cash rich list.