Also in the news…
Shareholders in audio accessories maker Skullcandy Inc (NASDAQ:SKUL) — and I am one — can breathe a bit easier after the company reported results for what was expected to be a dismal first quarter. Overall, revenue fell 30%, to $37.1 million, as the company lost an adjusted $0.23 per share. Revenue missed the mark by about $600,000, but the loss was $0.04 narrower than forecast by the Street. The key is that the company left its strategy and outlook unchanged moving forward. With a new CEO at the helm, and international sales growing by 18% in the most recent quarter, there’s still plenty of hope that Skullcandy Inc (NASDAQ:SKUL) will turn things around.
In this week’s episode of “Dell Inc. (NASDAQ:DELL)‘s of Our Lives,” we learned, according to a report from The Wall Street Journal, that activist investor Carl Icahn, and Dell Inc. (NASDAQ:DELL)’s second-largest shareholder, Southeastern Asset Management, could collaborate together to pick a new group of directors to Dell’s board. The skinny here is that the Dell buyout is going to be a long, drawn-out battle between numerous vocal investors, and current CEO Michael Dell, who wants to get his company away from public scrutiny. I’m still holding my shares, but expecting a topsy-turvy ride.
Finally, Arch Coal Inc (NYSE:ACI) had a good week following smaller-than-expected losses from rivals Alpha Natural Resources and Walter Energy. Natural gas prices have quietly doubled over the past year, which has drastically slowed the pace by which electric utilities have been transitioning to nat-gas powered plants. In addition, growth prospects are stabilizing in China, which should yield price and demand stabilization for metallurgical coal producers. Coal companies could wind up being quite the steal in the second-half of the year if things keep improving.
We can do better
It was certainly a good week, indeed, with Arkansas Best leading my contrarian and deep value portfolio to a better than 7% gain. I believe this was only the second week since the end of January that this portfolio has topped the performance of the S&P 500. We gained back more than two full percentage points this week, and I’ll be expecting continued strength from these deep value plays moving forward.
Check back next week for the latest update on this portfolio and its 10 components.
The article One Person’s Trash Is Another Person’s Treasure Portfolio originally appeared on Fool.com and is written by Sean Williams.
Fool contributor Sean Williams owns shares of QLogic, Dell, Skullcandy, and France Telecom, but has no material interest in any other companies mentioned in this article. You can follow him on CAPS under the screen name TMFUltraLong, track every pick he makes under the screen name TrackUltraLong, and check him out on Twitter, where he goes by the handle @TMFUltraLong.The Motley Fool owns shares of Dendreon, France Telecom, Skullcandy, and Staples. The Motley Fool recommends Exelon and France Telecom.
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