March 14, 2008

Posted by Sunday Investor

March 14, 2008

I think I am noxious. The rollercoaster Mr. Market has prepared for us this week was as good as one at the Puyallup Fair, here in Washington. On the positive side, GHS reported decent Q4. Excluding goodwill and mastheads write-offs , GateHouse earned 33 cents a share, compared with 9 cents a share analysts expected. Looks like GHS might have found the bottom. Dividends for this quarter are only $0.20 per share, but still it is well above 10% yield. I say not bad. I am holding GHS.
JMBA also reported fourth-quarter earnings. Total revenue increased 9.7%, but company-owned comparable store sales decreased 3.3%. Which was expected considering the housing mess in California. People do not have money to pay the mortgage, I would expect they have no spare cache for smoothies, or do they? On the other hand, Jamba also got rid of its huge goodwill ($200.6 million) which I think is great, and they expect to end this year somewhere around break even mark. Share price went down today, but considering the market downswing it was not that bad. I am holding JMBA.

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