The Year of the Deal Marches Forth
It's the year of the deal. People just don't recognize it. Stocks have done nothing for years. The good ones have done nothing. The bad ones have done nothing. A handful of stocks stole the spotlight, and the rest have been dogs.
That's most certainly the rationale behind the Berkshire-Hathaway (BRK.A) deal to buy Heinz (HNZ). Five years ago -- five long hard years ago -- Heinz stock was at $52. Until very recently, no doubt until talks started to occur, it stood at $55. Yet the only thing that had happened to Heinz was that it had gotten better, stronger and more powerful. Gross profit, $3.5 billion back then, was on pace to reach $4.3 billion this year. $2.60 per-share earnings then, now $3.53.Can you imagine that much more gross profit, and that kind of EPS increase, yet the stock rallied just 3 points in five years?...299 more words left in this article. To read them, just click below and try Real Money FREE for 14 days.
There’s no substitute for a trading floor to get great ideas, so Jim Cramer created a better one at Real Money and blogs there exclusively. We then added legendary hedge fund manager, Doug Kass, with his exclusive Daily Diary and best investing ideas. Staffed with more than 4 dozen investing pros, money managers, journalists and analysts, Real Money Pro gives you a flood of opinions, analysis and actionable trading advice found nowhere else, and allows you to interact directly with each expert.
Already a Subscriber? Please login.

