Top 3 Reasons Why You Should Not Listen To Me
I told you that American Campus Communities (ACC) is my “Short of the Year for 2009″ but you should not listen to me because:
1) Experience. I have never worked on Wall Street in any capacity. I once interviewed for a summer internship at the SEC but I didn’t get hired. I don’t think they liked my ultra capitalist viewpoints of the Microsoft Antitrust case. Hey - they asked me for my honest opinion!
2) Education. While I have a law degree and an MBA, I had mediocre grades from a 7th tier school and a horrible attendance record. In my defense, I attended some classes only once or twice. I spent most of my time trading and learning about other things. I was also playing ball with the Alameda Knights (whatup fellas!).
3) Wall Street. While I am short on ACC, there are many “professionals” that are long on the stock. They have millions of dollars of our money invested, deposited or otherwise Entrusted to them. They might have “Buy”, ”Outperform” or “Hold” ratings on the stock. While I don’t think any of these ratings are even close to being reasonable for this rubbish, they disagree. They must know something I don’t (unless I know something they don’t).
Here is a screen grab of institutional holders of ACC from Yahoo:
CLICK TO ENLARGE
Here is a screen grab of mutual funds that hold ACC (from Yahoo):
CLICK TO ENLARGE
Here are screen grabs of the firms that cover the stock, some upgrade/downgrade history from Yahoo and some price targets:
CLICK TO ENLARGE
CLICK TO ENLARGE
CLICK TO ENLARGE
See any names you recognize? Hmmm… I wonder if any of the “completely separate divisions” of one or more of the above firms, institutions or mutual funds have, or have had, any other relationships with ACC or other stocks in the sector? Loans maybe? That would be an interesting path to travel down but I’m 110% absolutely convinced that conflicts of interest and backscratching do not exist in this world. I’m sure it would be a waste of my time to explore that line of thinking any further.
It’s obvious that there are some reputable institutions involved with ACC. When it comes to investing, they are paid the big bucks to be smarter than me and you.
When the institutions say BUY you should probably buy. When they say HOLD you probably should h0ld? When they say SELL they are already out. Only a fool would bet against them. Dorm real estate is rock solid and the financial sector is filled with integrity.
Tiger - Nooooo!!!