Items Tagged With MSFT

But with a market cap of $33 billion (minus $2 billion in cash) that doesn’t leave many potential buyers with enough market cap to swallow Yahoo. All the buyers/partners that are big enough, like Microsoft and Google, are already competing with Yahoo, so they aren't really buyers. I think the sale could happen, but at a lower price. A potential sale/merger puts a floor on the stock, but I don’t think it provides much upside.

Disclosure: I am long YHOO and MSFT. I am short 25 and 35 strike calls on YHOO.

1. Berkshire Hathaway (BRK/A - $147,500) (up from #3) - Wish I owned more.  This just keeps going up huge. The stock is benefiting from the earnings momentum in Property and Casualty insurance plus it's considered a safe place to hide given Warren Buffett's disklike of complex derivatives.

2. Chevron Corp (CVX - $89.04)  (same at #2).  Even with oil down the stock is still cheap. And since I don't like Exxon (XOM) for many reasons, Chevron and Conoco (COP) make up my oil exposure. 

3. Ishares Inflation Protected Treasuries ETF (TIP - $105.35) (down from #1) - I've sold some TIP at 106.75.  Plus some of the calls I wrote against the position have been excercised against me.  While I still think TIPS should make up an important part of any portoflio right now, I'm waiting for a pullback after my sales to pick up some more.

4. Conoco Philips (COP - $81.36 ) (same at #4) See my comments on CVX.  They have been getting some positive press because of their refineries that are projected to have better margins with oil prices falling in the last month.

5. B P Prudhoe Bay Oil RoyaltyTrust (BPT - $74.03)  (same at #5) This is an embarrassment of riches.  I wouldn't buy this now but I have so much in capital gains this year that I can't sell till 2008.  As the royalty owner of the oil under the ground in Alaska, BPT is my least socially conscious investment.

6. Citigroup (C- $33.69) (up from #7): The stock falls, I buy more.  Abu Dabi buys more.  People who average down are buying more.  I've had my fill.  Stock will rally on a CEO being chosen.  My favorite choice for CEO is my old boss at Morgan Stanley (MS), Vikram Pandit.