(B)(N) BLLAY Billabong International ADR

Deal Book. It’s early Monday and the market doesn’t open for another three hours so we thought to take a look at another surfer down under before Twitter shows up, if it does. Billabong International was in the news yesterday because it’s lightening up its diverse brands and focusing on what it does best “building strong global brands” says Neil Fiske, CEO (Reuters, Sydney, November 3, 2013, Billabong sells Canadian retail chain West 49 to YM Inc) .

We can’t touch the stock (please see Exhibit 1 below) and it’s trading below $1 and off from $16 two years ago.

It’s surprising to us who know nothing about the stock market that some really aggressive buying has pumped up the price now and then, and investors were still buying it at $8 and again at $4 and then a bit less at $2 but still a triumph of hope and a testament to the true believers.

Undoubtedly, what goes down might go up (as we have illustrated).

Major holders include Mr. Gordon Stanley Merchant (30%), Coastal Investment Management (15%), Macquarie Investment Management (10%), Perennial Investment Partners Limited (10%), TIAA-CREF (10%), Templeton Global Advisors (9%) and less interests but still above 5% to Baillie Gifford & Company, Maple-Brown Abbott Limited, INVESCO Australia Limited and Colonial First State Global Asset Management; so, it’s also in some popular mutual funds.

Moreover, the company is being followed by top analysts at BOFA Merrill Lynch, CBA, CITI, CLSA Australia Pty Limited, Credit Suisse-Australia, Deutsche Bank Securities, Goldman Sachs, Hunter Green, J.P. Morgan, Macquarie Research, Morgan Stanley, Nomura Securities, RBS Equities (Australia) Limited, Shaw Stockbroking Limited and UBS, any of whom would know more than we and they might give us a call later today.

They might have some ideas that we haven’t thought of. Our experience suggests only that the stock could trade between the current price of $0.75 and $0.25 to $1.25 without surprise. Nevertheless, “presentation” is important and could easily trump sales, profits and dividends.

Exhibit 1: (B)(N) BLLAY Billabong International ADR (Unsponsored) – Risk Price Chart

(B)(N) BLLAY Billabong International ADR

Billabong International Limited wholesales & retails surf, skate, snow and sports apparel, accessories and hardware. The Company’s brands include Billabong, Element, Von Zipper, Kustom, Honolua, Palmers, Tigerlily, Xcel, Sector 9, DaKine and RVCA.

(Please Click on the Chart to make it larger if required.)

From the Company: Billabong International Limited is engaged in marketing, distributing, wholesaling, and retailing apparel, accessories, eyewear, wetsuits, and hard goods in the board sports sector primarily in Australia, North America, Europe, Japan, New Zealand, South Africa, and Brazil. The company offers surf, skate, snow, and sports apparel, accessories, and hardware under the Billabong, Element, Von Zipper, Honolua Surf Company, Kustom, Palmers Surf, Nixon, Xcel, Tigerlily, Sector 9, and RVCA brand names. It is also involved in licensing trademarks. The company distributes its products through specialized board sports retailers and through its branded retail outlets. Billabong International Limited was founded in 1973 and is based in Burleigh Heads, Australia.

For more information on the Chart and references, please see our recent Post, The RiskWerk Company Glossary.

And for more on what risk averse investing has done for us this year, please see our recent Posts on The S&P TSX “Hangdog” Market or The Wall Street Put or specialty markets such as The Dow Transports & Utilities or (B)(N) The Woods Are Burning, or for the real class action, La Dolce Vita – Let’s Do Prada! and It’s For You, Dear on the smartphone business.

And for more stocks at high prices, The World’s Most Talked About Stocks or Earnings Don’t Matter – NASDAQ 100.

Postscript

We are The RiskWerk Company and care not a jot for mutual funds, hedge funds, “alternative investments”, the “risk/reward equation” and every other unprovable artifact of investment lore. We have just one product

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Investing in the bond and stock markets has become a highly regulated and litigious industry but despite that, there remains only one effective rule and that is caveat emptor or “buyer beware”. Nothing that we say should be construed by any person as advice or a recommendation to buy, sell, hold or avoid the common stock or bonds of any public company at any time for any purpose. That is the law and we fully support and respect that law and regulation in every jurisdiction without exception and without qualification to the best of our knowledge and ability. We can only tell you what we do and why we do it or have done it and we know nothing at all about the future or the future of stock prices of any company nor why they are what they are, now. The author retains all copyrights to his works in this blog and on this website. The Perpetual Bond®™ is a registered trademark and patented technology of The RiskWerk Company and RiskWerk Limited (“Company”) . The Canada Pension Bond®™ and The Medina Bond®™ are registered trademarks or trademarks of the Company as are the words and phrases “Alpha-smart”, “100% Capital Safety”, “100% Liquidity”, ”price of risk”, “risk price”, and the symbols “(B)”, “(N)” and N*.