A former member of Pearl Jam's management team has been charged with stealing $380,000 (£242,000) from the band.
Rickey Charles Goodrich was chief financial officer with Curtis Inc, the band's management company, when he is alleged to have taken money from the band's accounts. Prosecutors say he committed the theft beween 2006 and September 2010, when he was fired. He had begun working for Pearl Jam in 2005 and joined Curtis Inc the following year.
Goodrich has been charged with 33 counts of theft, and is expected to enter a plea on 28 June at his hearing at Seattle's King County Superior Court. Prosecutors say he transferred money from company accounts to pay debts he and his wife had accrued. He is also alleged to have used company credit cards to pay for personal items, including family holidays and wine.
The charging documents claim that hired investigators found Goodrich had claimed to have paid thousands of dollars to band-members and crew that remained unaccounted for. The band's manager had reviewed areas of their cash flow after becoming concerned by Goodrich's management of their money in late 2009.
According to the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, police claim the thefts cost the management company $556,000 (£354,000), including investigative expenses. Kelly Curtis of Curtis Management said, "We are deeply saddened by this situation," but added that he is "looking forward to a resolution".
Pearl Jam are due to headline the Isle of Wight festival this Saturday.
These 10 Stocks Are Ridiculously Cheap - istockAnalyst.com (press release)
But that's not how the market works.
From day to day, overvalued stocks can climb yet higher, while undervalued stocks can fall and fall. Some of them fall so much that they move far below any logical, rational level. I'm talking about stocks that are valued well below the tangible book value that can be found on the company's balance sheet.
These stocks can stay "below book" for awhile, as many stocks did throughout 2002 and again in 2009. But eventually logic prevails.
Well, 2012 brings us another trove of "below book" value plays. I found more than 100 companies out of the 1,500 that are in the S&P 400, 500 and 600 that trade below tangible book value.
To narrow the list, I am looking at stocks that trade for less than 80% of tangible book, have seen their book value rise in each of the past three years (meaning they are actually adding value to the company), and should see book value rise even more in 2012 and 2013 because they are expected to remain profitable.
I found 20 stocks that fit the bill, and fully half of them are insurers.
Why are these insurance stocks so cheap? Because interest rates are so low and they can't generate their historical levels of profit margins. Still, all of these insurers saw book value rise, even in the last downturn, and should keep raising book value as expected profits fatten up the balance sheet even more.
You'll find another 10 deeply undervalued stocks in this table.
I've got two personal favorites here. The first is tech distributor Ingram Micro (NYSE: IM), which will admittedly never be a richly-valued stock due to its low growth and skimpy profit margins. This stock has often traded between 95% and 100% of tangible book value, however, which is why it's so appealing right now. A move back the midpoint of that range implies roughly 25% upside, and that low book value measure implies little downside. Moreover, analysts expect Ingram Micro to earn roughly $4 a share over the next 24 months, implying that tangible book value may end up around $25 a share by the end of 2013.
The forgotten upstart
A decade ago, consumers were buzzing about a new airline service called JetBlue (Nasdaq: JBLU). Consumers gave the carrier very high marks, and investors loved the fact that it had a brand new fleet of fuel-efficient airplanes. Back in 2003, this was one of the hottest stocks in the market, briefly touching $30. These days, the stock is down to $5.
What went wrong? In a nutshell, other carriers improved their operations, closing the gaps of operational efficiency and customer loyalty. And those new JetBlue planes are now a bit older and now require more maintenance than before. Still, the stock doesn't deserve to be THIS cheap. Investors are overlooking the fact that JetBlue has never generated an operating loss in its history, has a strong presence in the coveted Eastern seaboard, and is still in growth mode. Sales are expected to rise 7% in 2013, while earnings are expected to rise 25% to around $0.70 per share. Not bad for a $5 stock.
A still-strong brand, lean cost structure and valuable set of assets is why some have speculated JetBlue will end up as takeout fodder in an industry that continues to consolidate. Regardless, trading well below tangible book value, it's hard to see how shares can fall much further from here.
Risks to Consider: Even as investors have few reasons to sell these deep value stocks, it may take a firmer economy before buyers step in.
Action to Take --> You should look into this list further. Even as these stocks offer tangible downside protection, they could rebound just as sharply as higher-beta stocks, giving them a nice blend of offensive and defensive characteristics.
-- David Sterman
This article originally appeared on StreetAuthority
Author: David Sterman
US stocks edge lower in volatile trade - Sydney Morning Herald
US stocks edged lower on Wednesday after the Federal Reserve acted to aid the fragile economy with stimulus measures that were in line with market expectations but went no further.
Stocks rallied in recent days in the hope that the US central bank would extend Operation Twist, a bond-buying program designed to lower long-term rates and stimulate growth. However, investor hopes of additional Fed action went unfulfilled.
In addition, the Fed slashed its economic projections for this year and cut forecasts for the next two years as well. Taken together, it left some investors wondering why the Fed did not signal a third round of quantitative easing.
"The short-term selloff is instigated by temporary frustration that QE3 is not in the immediate future," said Chad Morganlander, portfolio manager at Stifel, Nicolaus & Co.
"In light of the Fed's forecasts, which are somewhat more disappointing, one would consider that the Federal Reserve would be much more aggressive on that front."
Concerns about weakened demand were highlighted by Dow component Procter & Gamble, which cut growth forecasts early on Wednesday. Shares of the world's largest household product maker fell 2.9 per cent to $US60.39.
Another disappointing outlook came from Bed Bath & Beyond Inc, which projected a weaker-than-expected profit for the current quarter after the market closed. Shares of the home goods chain fell 10 per cent to $US66.25 in extended trading.
Trading was volatile after the Fed announcement about midday. Declines picked up during Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke's afternoon news conference but then were mostly erased. The Nasdaq composite index even ended slightly higher.
The Dow Jones industrial average was down 12.94 points, or 0.10 per cent, at 12,824.39. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index was down 2.29 points, or 0.17 per cent, at 1355.69. The Nasdaq Composite Index was up 0.69 point, or 0.02 per cent, at 2930.45.
Operation Twist
The Fed said it will extend until the end of 2012 Operation Twist, a stimulative program aimed at lowering long-term interest rates by swapping $US267 billion in US Treasury securities. The program had been scheduled to end this month.
The benchmark S&P 500 index had risen for four days in a row and accumulated gains of about 7 per cent from a five-month low hit earlier in June as many investors anticipated some Fed action to aid the flagging recovery.
While the Fed is "willing to take action if needed, they're not giving enough detail as the market wants. There's a disconnect between what markets want and what the Fed is willing to commit to," said Alec Young, global equity strategist at S&P Equity Research in New York.
Tech stocks were the day's biggest gainers, rising 0.2 per cent. Jabil Circuit led the sector as expectations rose that it had retained a key mobile phone customer, sending shares 6.8 per cent higher to $US20.75.
Wall Street continued to keep a close watch on Europe for any development out of the region with respect to its sovereign debt issues.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel said that both of Europe's bailout funds included mechanisms for buying state debt on the secondary bond market but stressed that this was a "purely theoretical" question and was not being discussed.
Adobe Systems slid 3 per cent to $US31.99 after the maker of Photoshop and Acrobat software cut its full-year revenue outlook and warned about weak demand in Europe.
About the same number of stocks traded on the New York Stock Exchanged rose as fell on Wednesday while slightly more stocks fell on the Nasdaq than rose.
Volume was light, with about 6.57 billion shares traded on the New York Stock Exchange, the American Stock Exchange and Nasdaq, below last year's daily average of 7.84 billion.
Reuters
History points to Olympic boost for UK stocks - The Guardian
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