Dick’s Sporting Goods increased it guidance for the 4th quarter and FY09. The company jacked up EPS guidance to AT LEAST 54 cents from a previous estimate of 41 to 46 cents. This would bring FY09 EPS to at least $1.17 versus $1.19 last year. Given the fact that the golf business is in a cyclical recession, these are excellent results. I would not that DKS has bettered analysts’ estimates for the past 4 quarters. With this announcement we have to consider it a 5th consecutive beat.

Furthermore, same store sales are expected to decline only 2% rather than a 3 to 4% drop that was previously expected.
The company’s FY10 should return the company to the double digit growth that we were accustomed to prior to the Great Recession. DKS is the dominant independent sporting goods and apparel retailer in the country. There is still plenty of geography into which DKS can continue to expand for several years. 

I began purchasing DKS upon its IPO several years ago. I constantly add to DKS upon receiving new client assets for our accounts at LakeView Asset Management, LLC. DKS might not be as exciting as a fast growing teen retailer but it is also far more stable.

I would also point out that sales of Jets merchandise soared as the football team made its run to the AFC championship. The company has 19 stores in the states of Indiana (17) and Louisiana (2) which houses the teams participating in the Super Bowl. The company currently operated 420 stores in 40 states.

Currently, I am valuing DKS at $28.5 or 22 times my expected FY10 EPS of $1.30.

At the time of this Blog entry Scott Rothbort, his family and or clients of LakeView Asset Management, LLC was long shares of DKS --- although positions can change at any time.

For more information on investing with LakeView Asset Management, LLC please visit the company's website

Posted By Scott Rothbort at January 27, 2010

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Government is not a solution to our problem, government is the problem – Ronald Reagan

President Obama just does not get it. Does he know that Goldman Sach’s (GS) provision for income taxes in 2009 was the most that company ever recorded!

Here is the tax provision for GS retrieved from its financial statements (in $ millions):

2009:      6,444
2008           14
2007       6,005
2006       5,023
2005       2,647

Government’s view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases. If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it.  – Ronald Reagan

How many other companies pay as much income tax? There is always Exxon (XOM) but the administration loves to hate XOM as well. It certainly is not the Government Sponsored entities, AIG, Chrysler or General Motors. All of those companies are sucking the life out of successful and profitable corporations.

We need true tax reform that will at least make a start toward restoring for our children the American Dream that wealth is denied to no one, that each individual has the right to fly as high as his strength and ability will take him. . . . But we cannot have such reform while our tax policy is engineered by people who view the tax as a means of achieving changes in our social structure. – Ronald Reagan

Martin Luther King started a social dream. Ronald Reagan started an economic dream. Obama is destroying both. 

At the time of this Blog entry Scott Rothbort, his family and or clients of LakeView Asset Management, LLC was long shares of GS --- although positions can change at any time.

For more information on investing with LakeView Asset Management, LLC please visit the company's website     

Posted By Scott Rothbort at January 21, 2010

Comments [ 1 ]

This morning I had the pleasure to address the members of SCORE Chapter 24 of Morris County, NJ. Thanks again to Victor Fabry and Daniel Kaplan for inviting me to speak at their meeting.

I discussed how small businesses and individuals can use social networking, blogging and business websites to promote their products and services and expand the reach of its owners.

SCORE is known as the “Counselors to America’s Small Businesses” If you are a small business or are planning to launch one, I suggest looking up the local SCORE chapter in your locale.

Just this morning, Bloomberg TV had a report which highlighted the vast money machine that social network gaming such as Facebook's Farmville has. I can't say enough about the vast migration of advertising to social networking sites or seach engines such as Google (GOOG). This is a trend which is still in it's infancy.

For more information on SCORE I suggest looking at the chapter’s website or their page on the United Way of Greater Union County website.

At the time of this Blog entry Scott Rothbort, his family and or clients of LakeView Asset Management, LLC was long shares of MCD --- although positions can change at any time.

For more information on investing with LakeView Asset Management, LLC please visit the company's website

Posted By Scott Rothbort at November 18, 2009

Comments [ 0 ]

Rio was a great pick for the Olympics. The emergence of Latin American economies made that pick a must. I never thought Chicago had a chance. Tokyo held it before in 1964. No way was the IOC going to go back-to-back with summer games in Europe. Mark your calendar for 2014 when you should be loading up on Brazil. I already own a nice piece of iShares Brazil (EWZ) and will add incrementally over the next few years. No rush to do so yet.

The IOC had to keep a US city in the mix, just to be politically correct. Was the nix of Chicago a global statement about Obama? Should Obama have gone to the Olympic meeting while we continue to lose jobs? That will be the subject of talk on the Sunday morning political talk shows and Fox tonight.

At the time of this Blog entry Scott Rothbort, his family and or clients of LakeView Asset Management, LLC was long shares of MCD --- although positions can change at any time.

For more information on investing with LakeView Asset Management, LLC please visit the company's website

You can subscribe to The LakeView Restaurant and Food Chain Report newsletter at Restaurantstox.com

Posted By Scott Rothbort at October 2, 2009

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There was an innocuous throw-away line in the middle of the McDonald’s (MCD) conference call on Thursday. It was not about same store comp sales or margins or foreign exchange or menu changes or any other blah blah blah earnings metric. Rather it was a comment about how France is lowering its value added tax (VAT). That’s right, France. You know the country that supposedly hates everything American. Certainly MCD is one of the most American brands know to humankind. The same France that Americans – like our late evening comedians - make fun of because they eat rich foods, smoke too much, bring their dogs to restaurants and don’t share our zest for bravery on the battlefield.
Well, we have plenty to learn from the French. Apparently, in the middle of a global recession and financial crisis that requires bazillions of government dollars from all nations large and small; France is lowering its VAT for restaurant patrons from 19.6% to 5.5%. Of course MCD expects that French tax measure will spur sales and improve margins and profits for the quick service operator.

Unfortunately, our altruistic President Obama has arranged for his Department of Labor to jack up our minimum wage to $7.25 effective today, July 24, 2009. Then he plans on increasing corporate and other taxes to pay for his social programs.  The joke is on Obama because that gibberish played out better in campaign sound bites than in reality. This is becoming evident with the backlash, even from his own party, to the health care reform overhaul. You see the French get it – lower taxes, generate consumer spending, increase profits for employers and then more people will get hired. Some might even get paid higher wages without government mandates.

Of course that is not the only lesson we could take from the French. France generates a majority of its electricity from nuclear power. Why can’t we do the same? It appears that we have taken a step backward in that form of energy creation. President Obama put a nail in the coffin of the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste disposal project.

So this country voted for change. We got change for the worse.

Vive la France!

At the time of this Blog entry Scott Rothbort, his family and or clients of LakeView Asset Management, LLC was long shares of MCD --- although positions can change at any time.

For more information on investing with LakeView Asset Management, LLC please visit the company's website

You can subscribe to The LakeView Restaurant and Food Chain Report newsletter at Restaurantstox.com

Posted By Scott Rothbort at July 23, 2009

Comments [ 2 ]