Stocks to Sell

Most investment houses will not give you a list of stocks they are NOT recommending. This fact is true because most of these firms want to do business with public companies. They do business when the shareholder owned companies want to float more shares, sell some bonds, or issue preferred stock. So they most likely will issue a statement on a stock saying it is a "hold". "Hold" could mean anything from an actual hold to a outright sell. Investment houses have gotten better since the economic downturn, but you still have to be careful and read their fine print at the bottom of the page. Anyway I am under no obligation and can have an opinion, so here goes on an area I keep close research on. The stocks below are in my opinion "sells".

First Energy..FE...This stock has just run up too far too fast since it's merger with Alleghany earlier this year. Buy at your own risk Take a look at the chart and the 20 PE and it is obvious to anyone but the biggest fool. However that is not the real problem here. The real problem is FE now supplies electricity via Alleghany to the state of Maryland. There are not many states worse for regulated utilities than Maryland.

USA Mobility....This company provides messaging and other communications services to medical, government, and emergency personal in the country. Now again the 6.5% dividend looks sweet, but this is not your cell phone operation, this is a basically a pager service. Now I do not know about you, but with the ever evolving technology regarding smart phones I have no desire to own an outdated technology that is getting replaced daily.

PCH..Potlatch Corp...This is a timber company and they own lots of good timber in good places to grow timber. Only one problem they are not earning their dividend. Not earning your dividend is ok only in situations where your cash flow is high and is being covered by large depreciation such as legacy phone companies. In PCH's case it is selling assets such as land to cover the dividend.so sooner or later if this does not stop the company basically sells itself away.

LLY..Eli Lilly... I have liked pharmaceutical companies for many years as they are a valuable tool in combating disease and actually save health care expense. Obamacare is not a plus for these companies and I expect long term most of them will not be good stocks since the incentive to invest in new drug compounds is no longer there. However LLY has other problems, there two largest patents representing about 40% of sales, loses patent protection this year. So with no new drugs in the pipeline currently and Obamacare taking away incentive to produce more this drug company is the first to feel the effects of the new healthcare plan. Nice dividend, declining value.

BAC and C..Bank of America and Citigroup...These banks who used to be powerhouse financial operations are a shell of what they used to be. Back just three years ago both were paying nice dividends and had stock prices that were solid. Today they barely pay dividends, and buying stock in them at any price is a losers bet. This my friends is what mismanagement on a huge scale gets you. Frankly I would extend the sell rating on just about any large bank stock. For awhile this year I liked some of the smaller banks, but have decided that many small banks are going the way of the dinosaur. They have serious difficulty trying to operate profitably under the new Dodd Frank finance rules. Ten years from now there will be a handful of small banks left that will operate as boutique banks.

PDLI..PDl Biopharma...Earlier this year I thought I had found a sweet drug stock. Paid good dividends and worked the bio-med sector. One problem this company owns expiring patents. Seems drug companies sell their expiring patents to PDLI and in about three years they will have nothing to sell. Sorta a annuity that is liquidating.

MSFT... Microsoft...If there ever has been a more successful upstart in the country I do not know of it. MSFT literally owns computer operation software that runs on most of the world's computers. That is all nice, except they will not share any of their cash hoard with shareholders. Oh, they pay a dividend, but nothing like they could pay if they would. MSFT fancies itself as a technology growth company, they are not. I wish they would just accept they are to the computer industry what electric utilties are to their operating monopoly areas. A monopoly operation that should just continue to improve the software they produce and pay out a real nice dividend and be done with it. Consider the fact the US Justice Dept. just let expire any restrictions on Microsoft business agreed to back in the 1990's. Even the Justice Dept. considers this company no monopoly threat anymore.

GE...General Electric...Never in the stock market has a CEO just thrown away what was handed to him by the former CEO. Jack Welch handed to Jeffrey Immelt the best run company on the planet and in just a few years Mr. Immelt has pissed it all away. Mr. Immelt has tried to play political footsie with Barack Obama, he has tried to make GE the "ecomagination" company, and he has failed miserably as both. Get this he even needed a bailout from the government to keep in business during the downturn. What a joke, what a bad stock.

MNI...Mcclatchy Company...The CEO of this company has the worst timing of any CEO in the country. He went out and paid several billion dollars for a rival newspaper company right before newspaper stocks took a fall. MNI has suffered mightily with it's stock dropping from mid $70's to less than $5. Now yes other newspaper companies have suffered too, just not as bad as MNI. The CEO also has a tin ear, he keeps paying his mates in the corporate office big bucks, while he slashes employees in newspapers they own. Mr. Pruitt should, and would, have been fired long ago except for the fact that the founding family still controls the B shares. Let them have this dog. Full disclosure I used to work for McClatchy.

GM...General Motors...or maybe Government Motors?.. Anyway sell this baby if you own it. Ask yourself this do you want to own a stock where the employee union owns a bunch of the share float? A employee union who could care less if the company makes any profit. Where the union can vote in or vote out management that does not adhere to the union's wishes. If you do be my guest and buy it. Do not expect me to follow you. GM is where good investment money goes to die.

Airline Stocks....This little fact about airline stocks tells everything. Since the Wright Brothers first flew an airplane no airline company has ever made a single dime. Imagine if you had been there at the birth of flight, anyone would have wanted to get in on the ground floor of this business. However you would have lost big. Airlines might be the most mismanaged businesses on the planet. Bad management and unions who have squeezed the life out of any profits. I have never bought an airline stock and never will. If the market is open it is a good day to sell an airline stock.