Be a savvy value investor!!!

To all the teachers out there:

Be a savvy value investor.

• Use timeless investment strategies to grow your savings at unbelievable rate.
• Grow your savings at a rate 10 times faster than leaving the money in your savings account.
• Plan for early retirement.
• Your route to financial freedom starts now.

Join me in a 2-day Invest with Jac's Course.
Course fee: S$400
Date of course: 31 May 2010 and 1 June 2010, 4 pm
Venue: Jac's Learning Centre @ The Jelutung CC

Send an email to admin@jlc.com.sg to book your place.
*Reservation fee of S$100 applies.

Popular Holdings Limited, is it a payback time stock?

Recently, when I was catching up with an ex-colleague and we happened to talk about Popular Holdings stocks. He said nothing buy give negative views on the company. And the reason? Well, he said that his wife bought it at $0.30 and until now has dropped to hovering around $0.155 and $0.16. So, my next question was, does she know what she is buying into? His reply, "Nope, just know that it's popular bookshop and that it's cheap at $0.30. Now, you know what I mean by know the right price to buy a stock/own a business.

Well, let's see if Popular Holdings qualifies as a payback time stock?

Level 1 Check
Does the company mean anything to me? Well, I know it sells books and properties.
Does the company has a strong moat? I know that they have 132 bookstores in Singapore, Malaysia and Hong Kong. And I also know that when people think of buying books or stationaries, they will think of Popular Bookstore.
Does the Management do a good job with investor's money? From past records, returns on Equity has been above 12%, hence I think the Management has done a good job.

Level 2 Check
Now that the company has passed the level 1 check, what should we do now?
We look at these numbers for the past 5 years. Sales, Net Profit, Equity and Debt
Sales rises from $347mil to $450mil.
Net Profit rises from $11mil to $22mil (doubles in 5 years, hence 15% compounded for past 5 years)
Equity rises from $125mil to $154mil.
Debt is currently at $19mil, where they can actually paid back within 1 year. (must be less than 3 years)

Looks like Popular Holdings is a payback stock to me.
Market Cap for Popular now is approximately $100 million (Share price x Number of shares).
Now with this $100 million and current net income of $22mil and growing at rate of 10%, the payback time is slightly less than 4 years. Wow, that's a very good business to own. Hence, it's a good company to stockpile!

Last but not least, Popular Holdings reported their 3Q results, ending 31 Jan 2010, on 12 March 2010. It's net profit soars by a whopping 47.5%. Her EPS for the first 3 quarters added up to S$0.035. Her Returns on Equity is 14.7%, according to equity of 23.75 cents per share.

Anyway, it's current price of $0.16 is already a discount compared to it's equity of 23.75 cents.

Now, you can try to buy 10,000 shares at $1,600 and see if you can double that in 4 years. Or else just let it pass.

Cheers.

Payback Time

I have just received my book Payback Time: Making Big Money is the best revenge! by Phil Town. I pre-order this book in December 2009.

I have just finished the first 2 chapters and find it very interesting. I was shock to read that how much money were actually wasted if we were to put our money with some mutual fund companies. For the past 15 years,  only 4% of the hundreds and thousands of are able to beat the S&P index each year. What happen to the 96% of them?

Hence, it is important to manage your own money and do your homework. It is not difficult to do the calculations.
There is an excel template done up. All you need is just to key in the numbers, where you can find easily on the internet, either MSN.com or Yahoo.com.

I would like to share what I have learnt, through my own reading, with any friends or relatives, for free. I would charge others for $399. From 2010 to 2015, it will really be payback time as these 5 year will be bullish.

Cheers and let's make big money.....

Goldman and Citigroup to push to higher stock price?

Goldman Sachs (US:GS) was reported to push through $200. I do agree with it. Goldman is a fundamentally sound company and has earnings of $22 per share in 2009. Multiplying that EPS by a P/E between 10 and 12, the share price should be between $220 and $262. Goldman Sachs is a steal at current P/E of only 7.73.

What about Citigroup?

Citigroup (US:C) is currently strong and healthier after restructuring by selling off assets that are not core to Citi. I believe that C will turn into black when they report their 1Q 2010 results on 19 April 2010, 8am ET.
Another reason to buy C is because George Soros, one of the investment legends, has buy in C shares in the last quarter where the price was between $3.20 to $3.40. I think that C will breakthrough $7 buy end of this year.

Quote from CNBC (Mad Money) http://www.cnbc.com/id/35732415/site/14081545

He praised the company for selling off its unessential divisions at good prices and focusing on the products that work. Cramer also commended CEO Vikram Pandit for turning the company around, something he gets little credit for. In fact, Cramer thinks Citi [C 3.56 0.06 (+1.71%) ] will reach $12 in 2012 largely because he knows Pandit is there steering the ship.


“Now that we know Pandit is here to stay,” Cramer said, “you want to buy all the Citigroup you can when the government starts selling its huge stake.”

“This may be the last great bargain left in the banking business on Wall Street,” he said. “Take it.”

Cheers!

About Goldman Sachs
Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (The). The Group's principal activities are to provide global investment banking, asset management and securities services worldwide to diversified client base that includes corporations, financial institutions, governments and high-net-worth individuals. The Group operates in three segments: Investment Banking, Trading and Principal Investments and Asset Management and Securities Services. Investing Banking segment underwrites equity and debt instrument and provides financial advisory services for acquisitions and mergers. Trading and Principal Investments and Asset Management segment facilitates customer transactions and trading of fixed income and equity products, currencies, commodities and derivatives. Asset Management and Securities Services segment provides investment strategies, advice and planning across all major asset classes and provides prime brokerage, financing and securities lending services. The Group operates offices in over 25 countries.

About Citigroup
Citigroup Inc.. The Group's principal activities are to provide financial services through five divisions: Global consumer includes consumer franchise encompassing, banking, lending, credit card services and wealth management services. The Global Cards segment is a global issuer of credit cards through the MasterCard, Visa, Diners Club, Private Label and American Express platforms. The Consumer Banking segment includes a global, full-service consumer franchise delivering a wide array of banking, lending, insurance and investment services . Institutional Clients Group segment provide corporations, governments, institutions and investors. The Global Wealth Management segment is composed of the Smith Barney Private Client businesses and Citigroup Private Bank and Corporate/Other includes net treasury results, unallocated corporate expenses, offsets to certain line-item reclassifications.

Is it a good time to buy Citigroup now?

Citi CEO says the megabank is "different," "healthier" since it needed US$45 billion bailout - CNBC

Make your choice after reading what Pandit said by clicking on the above link.