In the last year, we've seen the spinoff of Orchard Supply, a rights offering for Sears Hometown, and the partial spinoff of Sears Canada. A small handful of stores/lease-rights were sold (for almost half a billion dollars), and a number of other stores have been closed down. Sears's Chairman, Eddie Lampert, has purchased roughly 7 million shares for his personal account (representing 6-7% of the company). Yet, at the same time, we've seen the core retail operations continue to flounder, with no turnaround in sight.
Recently, in an interview with Fortune, Bruce Berkowitz (one of my favorite investors and the largest owner of Sears behind Eddie) said "the value of Sears would be over $160 a share if the land on its books was fully valued." He then went on to say "I think Eddie Lampert will end up being one of a few unbelievable case studies on what it means to be a long-term investor." Here's the link to the full interview: http://finance.fortune.cnn.com/2012/11/26/bruce-berkowitz-fairholme/?source=yahoo_quote.
Anyway, I continue to be optimistic about Sears (depending on your perspective, feel free to replace the word "optimistic" with stubborn, foolhardy, etc.). So, on Friday I took advantage of the stock's recent decline and bought 20 contracts of the Jan 2015 $85 LEAPS at $1.87. Including commissions, this cost me a total of $3,759. Wish me luck!
Questions? Comments? Email mevsemt@gmail.com
