David Baskin
Washington Mutual Inc
WAHQE-Q2
SHORT
Sep 26, 2007
Very concerned about regional banks in the U.S. Housing situation is far from at a bottom, we’re going to see increased defaults on credit cards and on mortgages. More of a mortgage lender than more banks so will suffer more. Not a bad short. Easily go down to $20.
Coming close to some key support around $42. If it breaks through, it could potentially move back to the $35 area of October/05. Very leveraged to the mortgage market and the US housing sector is weak.
Great branch network. Because of its big concentration on home mortgages, it is not the right place to be. Wonderful dividend yield. Why be there with the currency factor?
More bullish on the brokers than on banks. T-bill market in the US has had big demand so rates have gone down about 2%. This has created value in financials. His model price is $48.33, a 26% positive differential. As the T-bill market gets back the interest rate will go up. Financials will be a hard group in the next couple of years.
Caught up in the mortgage mess in the US. Thinks it’s all right but hasn’t spent the time looking at it. You’ll have to do your work on this to see how affected their mortgage business is.
Recently went on his Stock Watch list, which has over 200 companies. Once he finds a company, he doesn't go in for at least 6 months. Could be a Buy towards the end of the year when tax loss season is down. He wants to see that there is stability in the stock price and that the company will survive.