Starbucks steams ahead, as does Morgan Stanley, Valero
Strong growth in China keeps SBUX frothy; keep an eye on Morgan CEO John Mack.
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) - It's Valentine's Day... STARBUCKS: Howard Schultz, CEO of said coffee emporium, is in China pressing the flesh and making inroads. (I know because I was supposed to speak with him Wednesday by phone at 2 a.m. NYC time!) Starbucks, as you may have seen, is giving $1.5 million to train teachers in rural China. SBUX (Research) now has 220 stores in 18 Chinese cities. The company has been successful getting the government to shut down copycat stores that infringe on its copyright. The company says it will have thousands of stores in the land of tea at some point soon. Starbucks is an expensive stock -- it's nearly doubled over the past two years. Always has been. But ask yourself: Is the Starbucks growth story still intact? Yes it is. MORGAN STANLEY: Get it behind you! That's what CEO John Mack wants to do. Put all the bad stuff from the Phil Purcell days in the rear-view mirror. To wit: The company (Research) agreed to pay a $15 million fine in connection to deleting e-mails. This has to do with all the litigation and investigations with regard to the Ronald O. Perelman imbroglio. Meanwhile, I wonder why John Mack passed on buying Blackrock (looks like Merrill's got it), and promoting Zoe Cruz. They may be connected---is Mack tapping Cruz as a successor over Blackrock's Larry Fink? MS has gone up during Mack's reign, but I say it still has upside. He'll make at least one more big move. VALERO: Have you been paying attention to the big gasoline company? Stock's down from $63 to $50 this month! And looks to be headed lower this morning on falling crude prices. I know VLO (Research) says its cutting back on production, but this is pretty extreme. P/E is around 8! Betcha this stock is higher two years from now. Loose Change: Faithful Street Life reader Deep Blue offers these observations: We did worst album names. How about worst album covers! ...He also wonders how many stocks can you name that trade over $250 bucks. Yes Google (Research), but what else: Alleghany (Research), Markel (Research), Berkshire Hathaway, Washington Post, probably a few more... _______________________________ |
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