Throughout my career, I’ve developed what I see as a habit (others may see it as a quirk) of gravitating toward genuinely un-sexy stocks while the herd seems to be chasing the sexy ones of a particular moment. As the tech boom began to strut its stuff in the mid… Read More

While other names in the energy space have run hard and fast, this well-run mid-cap name is just starting to gain momentum. In researching this article, my mind kept wandering back to Hank Hill, the main character of Mike Judge’s… Read More

Before the explosive growth of the new fangled Internet machine, apartment and house hunters relied on the classified ads in the local newspaper or the slick-paper, free real estate guides that were strategically placed outside of grocery store entrances and in other high-traffic retail areas. Well, free to the… Read More

Since the Berlin Wall came down nearly two decades ago, the former Eastern Bloc has received a crash course in the risks and rewards of Western-style capitalism. Despite the ups and downs, there’s little doubt that it sure as hell beats the previous communist system. During… Read More

About 15 years ago I was held prisoner of war in Hartford, Conn., at a large, rookie broker re-education facility. While trudging to class each day, I passed by the headquarters of quite a few famous insurance companies. All were familiar except one: Phoenix. I did some research and learned that, at the time, it was a mutual company (owned by the policy holders) and not publicly traded. However, its investment management arm did trade publicly via master limited partnership (MLP) units. They were clearly trading at a deep discount… Read More

About 15 years ago I was held prisoner of war in Hartford, Conn., at a large, rookie broker re-education facility. While trudging to class each day, I passed by the headquarters of quite a few famous insurance companies. All were familiar except one: Phoenix. I did some research and learned that, at the time, it was a mutual company (owned by the policy holders) and not publicly traded. However, its investment management arm did trade publicly via master limited partnership (MLP) units. They were clearly trading at a deep discount to their actual value, so I bought what few shares I could. In less than a year, after collecting a couple dividend payments, Phoenix bought back all of the units they didn’t own and I made a nice little profit. Fast forward to now. Phoenix (NYSE: PNX) has long since demutualized. The investment arm was spun off a couple of years ago as a free-standing entity: Virtus (Nasdaq: VRTS). Phoenix’s common shares trade at an abysmal sub-$3.00 level The company just can’t seem to get out of its own way. The… Read More