the point of my post is that 20 years ago fund managers and wall street looked at long term investments and the average move of money from company to company was in the years....I was told by a ceo of a well known company that 6 weeks is long for some large fund managers now..the company has very little to do with the stock price movement, it is really not the focus of the company but if the company works well it will catch the eye of now large money from hedge funds like blackwell or blackstone 15 billion etc..creating an inertial rise in price. fund managers are looking for the best today, huge bonuses and record profits for investment banking firms does cause ADD...

 

Well, you might know this but.....stock price alone cannot tell you the value of a company. You must know how many shares of stock there are. LUV has app. 780 million shares outstanding. That is a lot. 780 million shares x $15 bucks is 11.7 billion. So LUV has a market cap of almost 12 billion dollars. Now look at UAL. UAL has a stock price of $37. That is higher than LUV's $15, but UAL only has 116 million shares outstanding. 116 million x $37 bucks is 4.3 billion. So LUV 12B, UAL 4B. That is the value investors place on the two companies.

 

I'm wondering why you care what the stock price is? Are you trying to sell a bunch of it? I'm a firm believer in the "Value" method of investing. You buy stock in a great, well-run company when the stock price is low. Then you hold onto it. Warren Buffett says his "favorite holding period is forever". So, unless you want to sell, why give yourself an ulcer watching the stock price? The point is to profit from the madness in the market, not participate in it..
Good Luck,
BS

 

Southwest's stock price over the past five years


I bought some Southwest stock in March 2003 (the low point on the graph, $12 a share), and sold it for $16 a share. My net earnings was $400! Over the same time period, my Boeing stock earned me $5,200 and my Skywest stock earned me $1,700. And I only invested $5,500.

It is no secret that Southwest's gains from fuel hedges have mostly been larger than their operating profits over the past several years. However, Southwest is a good company and will probably be able to weather the storm when their fuel hedges run out. Like HSLD said, they will not improve on the cost side. They will have to improve on the revenue side. Since Southwest basically has the lowest fares in the industry, their ability to raise fares will enable the legacy airlines to raise fares, and then everyone can start making money.

 

Geez Ryan - no SWA bashing and a reasonable post to boot! You got an app in with us now?????????

 

We don't hire 15 year old boys.

 

This is always one of my favorite quotes, and it usually underlines the ignorance of whoever says it.

Ryan, if you know what fuel futures are going to do, you shouldn't be a pilot for the airlines, you should be a finanacial planner for the airlines.

All airlines will continue to hedge. Some more effectively than others. You have no idea how effective any of the airlines hedges will be at guessing the future cost of fuel, so how can you say that anyone's hedges will "run out".

SWA did a better job of hedging in the past, and I'm willing to guess they'll do a better job of hedging in the future.

 

SWA's current fuel hedges will expire. They will then purchase more, but they won't have the large advantage that they do now. SWA was able to purchase fuel hedges years ago when the Legacies could or did not, because of its superior financial condition. I'm not saying that SWA will be in trouble when the current batch of hedges runs out, but SWA will lose some competitive advantage in the near future as its current hedges expire. I'm sure SWA will be fine, since it is so well managed.

 

What about SkyBUST? Whereas SW offered "$49" flights, Skybus will offer "$10" dollar seats. SW was not open with the fact that legally only three seats had to be offered at $49 (so I've been told). At least SkyBUST is honest about offering ten seats @ $10. ALL OF US are in for a rude awakening if Diffenderffer has his way. The race to the bottom just caught its second wind.

Tom

 

No, I'm not trying to buy or sell anything. I'm trying to determine if stock price has anything to do with the company's financial health.