BKS

From Whitney Tilson:

You might not believe this in light of this morning’s news (Barnes & Noble, Inc. (NYSE:BKS) has roughly doubled, but this is what I wrote over the weekend but hadn’t yet sent:

For only the fourth time in our 13+ year investing history, we’ve gone long something we were previously short.  (Given how well it’s worked out the three previous times with Fairfax, General Growth Properties and Netflix, we should do it more often!)  In the past, there’s been some period of time between our switch, but in this case we went from short to long Barnes & Noble on the same day last week.  Such a rapid shift in opinion is unprecedented for us, but when we encounter new data/analyses that convince us that we’re wrong, we act quickly.

BKS had been a profitable short for us and we were already thinking of covering when two things caught our attention: we saw that Jana, a firm we know well and respect greatly, took a big stake, and read the write-up below on our favorite value stock idea web site, Value Investors Club.  We largely agree with the analysis in the VIC write-up: that the base business is worth almost the entire current stock price, so you get a nearly free call option on the Nook, which is doing much better than we expected.  Plus with more than 2/3 of the stock controlled by insiders and, according to Yahoo Finance, 67.2% of the float is sold short (87% if you include Jana’s new stake), even a hint of good news will likely trigger the mother of all short squeezes.

Also you can find the VIC analysis here.

Why Study Warren Buffett

This author provides many reasons why study Warren Buffett. At the end, he even provides some practical way as below.

1. read his annual letters to shareholders, which are openly available at www.berkshirehathaway.com.

2. read his book, "The Essays of Warren Buffett: Lessons for Corporate America,"

3. attend annual BRK shareholders' meeting.

Lastly, enroll in the Executive MBA course on Buffett’s genius at the University of Nebraska at Omaha’s College of Business. The program opens with three consecutive days of study prior to the Berkshire annual meeting. This one-of-a-kind course is an in-depth exploration into the science of investing and, more importantly, the art of managing.

Wells Fargo Reports 13% Increase in Q1 2012 Profits

While all banks are under great distress, WFC has been grabbing the mortgage lending business from others. I will buy and accumulate during its price weakness from now on to the next few years.  JC 4/17/2012
-----------
Amid improvements in the mortgage sector, Wells Fargo & Company reported a 13 percent increase in first quarter profits, with a net income of $4.25 billion, and earnings per share at $0.75. Last year during the same quarter, the bank reported a net income of $3.76 billion, or $0.67 per share.

 Revenue increased $1 billion from fourth quarter 2011, to $21.6 billion. The $1 billion increase was driven by increases of $506 million in mortgage banking, $458 million in market sensitive revenue, and $181 million in trust and investment fees, the report stated.

Read more here.

Natural Gas Investment

Natural Gas is very low. Buy ETF ?  Watch out contango, K-1s, ....

How about find individual companies instead? 

Read the article below. You can also find out 10-year volatility of natural gas prices

The No-Brainer Natural Gas Investment?