Adrian Gomez Investments

A quick analysis of the latest quarterly results of Sprint (NYSE: S) and more specifically of page 4 of the Third Quarter 2012 Results gave me a very disturbing image of what is actually going on with Sprint’s customers. Even though the company states on page 5 of the same report that they had a net loss of subscribers of about 423,000 and tells us is because of the shutting down of the Nextel platform that is scheduled to happen in its entirety by June 2013, I see a different picture just by reading through their report. Let me guide you through what I see; first, Sprint says on page 4 that:  “The Sprint platform added 410,000 net postpaid customers during the quarter. The Nextel platform lost 866,000 net postpaid customers in the quarter. Sprint platform postpaid net additions and Nextel platform postpaid net subscriber losses include 516,000 net subscribers from the Nextel platform acquired on the Sprint platform.” That’s an impressive wordplay from management. Th...

El Toro, a Spanish term meaning The Bull, is a wooden roller coaster at Six Flags Great Adventure in Jackson, New Jersey. The ride is wild, and not appropriate for those with a heart condition. The same applied to the shares of Deckers Outdoor Corp (NASDAQ: DECK) during 2012, where, a very good example of the effects of “Over Promising and Under Delivering” was in full display. Starting on Jan 3, 2012 when the shares were trading at $76.42 and soon after, on Feb 23, 2012 they had gone up to $90.21 rewarding investors with a nice return of 18% in less than two months’ time, it was at this point when management came out and gave full fiscal year and 1Q12 guidance. The full year guidance was in line with analysts’ estimates as reported by Reuters but the guidance given for 1Q12 was below estimates, giving the shares its first punch of the year and sending them lower. The down trend continued pretty much all year, with every quarter management coming out and lowering guidance...

Now that the so-called fiscal cliff is almost a certainty, and fear among investors is growing by the minute, should we run for the exit or should we embrace the pain and see it as a buying opportunity? About a month ago I wrote an article on Facebook (NASDAQ: FB) and listed the reasons why I thought the stock was poised to go higher. Now, after these few weeks I want to add to that article several new pieces of information and make an even stronger point about the stock soaring during 2013. Facebook Gifts. It was introduced as a prototype or beta version right by the time when the latest earnings call was released. Now, we can see it in full mode all over the social site. I find it very useful and as a matter of fact I became a happy customer a couple of days ago. Though it is true that I haven’t seen any of my friends used it so far, I think it’s just a matter of time for it to happen. It truly helps to be able to give a little something to the ones you care even with...

Image of one of the "shops" we'll see at J.C. Penney There have been many critics of the strategy that the CEO of J. C. Penney (NYSE: JCP) Ron Johnson is implementing to turn things around in a compelling effort to revive the old department store and take it back to a profitable position it once had. Herb Greenberg, an analyst for CNBC placed Mr. Johnson as the 3 rd worst CEO of 2012 saying “…over promising and under delivering” was the main reason for this uncomfortable award. If we take in consideration the fact that Mr. Johnson had said that a turnaround was not a one year deal but one that will come in different stages taking up to three years and that 2012 was the very first one for this effort, then, that statement of under delivering seems inadequate, at least for now. As I wrote in an article that was published on December 10 th we have to give management the time to get everything in place before we judge their performance. I know that JCP...

As days go by and everyone had time to learn more about the horrific events that took place last Friday at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Connecticut. We now start questioning; How did this happen? Could that be avoided? Is the second-amendment right still “right”? It is especially difficult to think about the implications that a change to our current laws about gun control (or decontrol if you ask me) will bring to our society. There are as many defenders of the right to bear arms as there are people wanting a change in the laws that control more strictly the sale of guns. As for that, there are some retailers already taking action about this; Dick’s Sporting Goods (NYSE: DKS) has put out a statement saying that “…during this time of national mourning we have removed all guns from sale and from display in our store nearest to Newtown and suspended the sale of modern sporting rifles in all of our stores chain wide.” Some other articles I read were stating that Wal-Mar...

As the year comes to an end, and I start preparing my 2013 investment strategy, one company draws my attention in a very particular way. Zipcar (NASDAQ: ZIP) is considered the world’s leading car-sharing network with more than 10,000 vehicles and 767,000 members across 20 major metropolitan areas, 300 college campuses and counting. I became interested in this company back in July of this year and decided to put it on my radar to learn more about their business model and the potential ahead. As the weeks passed and the results from operations for 2Q12 were announced, investors punished the stock sending it from $10.63 on the day before the earnings release to $6.75 just one day after. During the three following months it continued to decrease its price tag to as low as $6.00 a couple of days before the third quarter earnings release. On the 3Q12 earnings call, several good pieces of information were given. Among them; full year guidance was raised (not by much but it’s always good...