Pfizer appears to be in talks to acquire Astrazeneca for 100 billion dollars. Astrazeneca has sin e shot up by around 10 pct and is valued at 85 billion. So pfe willing to pay 34 pct premium based on price before talks.
Meantime Novartis Lilly BMY GSK r in talks to acquire parts of ea h a other so they can focus on core. WSJ states this may be better move.
Investors (including this old fool) must be rueing (spelling?) Selling AZN few weeks ago. That’s life.
Re: A 100 billion dollar here and a 100 billion dollar there
Back to Pfizer. Acquired Warner Lambert for abt 80 billion circa 1998? Then Pharmacies for 50 billion? Then Wyeth for upwards of 35 billion? Serial mega acquirer. Not sure if this is good. Esp when it keeps overlaying.
MEME is in order.
Re: A 100 billion dollar here and a 100 billion dollar there
Apple announced earnings I think. Heard iPhone sales were good. But that’s not the story of the day. Apple increased its previously planned buyback of 100 billion dollars to 130 billion. And also announced a 7 for 1 stock split. The split was designed to get it into the DOW 30. So more buyers of stock.
AAPL was promptly up 8%. Financial Engineering at its best (or worst) depending on your POV.
For long term investors this is bad news. Buybacks will occur at higher prices.
Re: A 100 billion dollar here and a 100 billion dollar there
But of course Wall Street was cheering. An analyst guess on CNBC was talking positive abt the stock. He said it could hit 600.
That seems like an Impressive gain. Except stock was at 562. A gain of 7 pct. Not bad. But nothing to write home abt. Won’t even get the MEME lady excited.
But that’s CNBC and Wall Street. All hype.
Re: A 100 billion dollar here and a 100 billion dollar there
Astrazeneca is playing hard to get. Want offer raised 10pct. Pfizer cost saving is nothing g but job Elimination. And ability to use some of its foreign. Cash without paying us taxes.
These companies duck taxes. Lay off people. And want safety net removed. Anything for that bottom line
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He was spot on I guess, the stock is on $597 today, who was this guest?
Re: A 100 billion dollar here and a 100 billion dollar there
No clue. That was typos guest. But yes it was simply a guess. Let us see where it ends up in a year.
Recommending a stock simply due to buyback makes no sense.
Re: A 100 billion dollar here and a 100 billion dollar there
Agreed, that simply means the company wants to push its price up because they have some cash instead of letting the market drive the price of its stock up because of its business activity/progress.
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Indeed. Also by making such fanfare out of the buyback announcement, they pushed stock price up BEFORE actual buyback. So they end up buying high.
A good company will buyback shares when they are cheap. Else better to give money back as dividends. Imo.
Re: A 100 billion dollar here and a 100 billion dollar there
Share buybacks were high Oct 2007 with mkt at peak. Bottomed out March 09. But share buybacks also were low in march 09. Buy high. Sell low.
Re: A 100 billion dollar here and a 100 billion dollar there
Warren Buffet if I recall is a proponent of buybacks when shares are cheap. And he probably would be a proponent of using shares of overpriced stocks as currency in an acquisition. For other occasions he si.ply prefers dividends as a mechanism for returning cash to investors.
Re: A 100 billion dollar here and a 100 billion dollar there
Southie bhai, I’m thinking of buying some stocks. What should I know before investing my hard earned money???
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Re: A 100 billion dollar here and a 100 billion dollar there
Ethan
Take it slow. Learn. Buying individual stocks is fraught with danger. I think you are walking in Pakistan. I don’t know anything about Pakistan stock market (or Indian stock market).
First you need to understand what is Asset Allocation. After you learn that, come back and share with us what you learnt about asset allocation.
Much learning
Such fun
Re: A 100 billion dollar here and a 100 billion dollar there
Ethan
Could you please have the asset allocation report at my desk by 6 PM?
Re: A 100 billion dollar here and a 100 billion dollar there
Apple announced acquisition of beats for 3.3 billion dollars. What does the target company do? Beats me.
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Their buy back announcement may not be as dumb as it looks. If this acquisition done by using stocks as currency. Drive stock price up. Use inflated price to acquire.
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I’ll have to look into this. I’m in UK so it will probably have to be London Stock Exchange.
Re: A 100 billion dollar here and a 100 billion dollar there
No worries.
Asset allocation: how you decide to allocate assets.
A general rule of thumb . Set aside 1 year worth of living expenses. Then from remaining money, distribute appropriate pct among stocks, bonds, real estate, gold etc.
I know Noth ing abt real estate. Or gold. I use cash instead of bonds - again due to my ignorance of bonds.
Rule of thumb 100 - age allocate to stock. Rest to bonds.
You are studying now. Probably NOT a good idea to get into stocks.
Just Google asset allocation. And u will know what I mean.
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That’s too much information. I may go for stocks in Summer. My dad new how stock market, real estate worked.
Re: A 100 billion dollar here and a 100 billion dollar there
Good luck.
For the rest who are young and studying, don’t even think of investing. The suggestion I gave Ethan holds for anyone in his age category.
Remember, there is no such thing as too much information. Do your homework. Remember Buffets two rules
And I will add my 3rd rule.
Don’t get swayed by the news of the day. It is very easy to lose money. Infinitely more difficult to make it back. Don’t be a hero.
