Citigroup’s ASTA fund has nothing to do with Asta Funding, Inc. (ASFI). Two entirely separate things.

Agree with Jae. You’re posting was much too long and a link to reference what you are talking about would be appreciated. I’ve been reading their latest 10K and don’t see any reference in regards to what you are talking about.

@Jae

All I can say thus far is that the more I read their 10K, the more I like the company and how they are doing things. They are very open in their 10K which makes it really easy to place a value on the business. I’m just concerned why they don’t have a cash balance on the books. I did find out allot about their unusual expenses and I’ll share some of that info with you via email. I don’t want to disclose too much of my findings until I decide if I want to take up a position or not.

Do you have a link to the article? It is rather long….

I haven’t done any further deep analysis on ASFI yet. It’s harder for me since it is a “financial” business but I do like their business model. However the risk I see is they are trying to collect payments in a recession.

Have you gone through the reports? Any thoughts?

(deleted the text as it looked like spam)

Mark’s last blog post..Some Really Cool Momentum Charts

I’m holding KSWS, AEO, KTII, ATW, CRDN, VVTV as long holds.
GGP, IGOI as net net plays and not much else.

Looking for more good net nets.

good idea. I think you’ll bank surely if the market keeps this up. I’ve been incredibly bearish but maybe I’m wrong and the market is actually discounting the turn of the economy. Housing has been in recession so may years

Mark’s last blog post..Net-Nets Sector Rotation, Pier One ImportsPIR , PXG, & Technical Analysis

I did notice Klarman building up his stake in RHIE as I try to follow his moves but I’m sure you know that Klarman is one hard nut to figure out.

I look at his portfolio and don’t understand more than half the things he buys. Just shows how much I’ve got to learn.

I would also prefer RHIE to have a longer history so I’ll be passing this. It’s actually very similar to what I read a while back with Lions Gate Entertainment (LGF). Ichan is also a big holder trying to exert his influence.

I’m on the very conservative side which causes me to miss out on many good opportunities. The problem is while I miss so many good things, I also miss out on my targets because I’m not always in tune with the market and miss out.

VVTV has some off balance sheet obligations so its no good being liquidated but when I think about it’s worth as a business, I still think its cheap. I’ve mentioned before that a price below 50c was pricing in bankruptcy which I never believed after looking at the numbers from operations.

It’s struggling to break 70c but it’s become a long term hold for me. I don’t like the home shopping business at all but if they improve margins to where their competitors are, they surely can’t stay where they are.

Mark’s last blog post..Net-Nets Sector Rotation, Pier One ImportsPIR , PXG, & Technical Analysis

Anyway, I’m not going to actually take over any of these companies, rather, I’m just looking for what the market has given up on and try and play contrarian. I wouldn’t let prepaid expenses be the dealbreaker when other things tell me go. SPAR Spartan Motors was around approx NCAV and was a good buy at those times over the past year. You can analyze margins, return on investment, cash flows, insider buying, the moon…

“You don’t need a scale to tell if someone is overweight”

-Ben Graham

Mark’s last blog post..Net-Nets Sector Rotation, Pier One ImportsPIR , PXG, & Technical Analysis

“PIR last 10Q

$36.9 mil net current assets take net current assets and net tot liabilities

according to their last filing they had 89,265,194 shares outstanding

at .64 it is valued at $56 mil but this stock was as low as $.10 so there was an $8 million market cap priced for bankruptcy

yes this stock was at a HUGE discount to ncav and is cheap if you figure future cash generated by the business is worth more than around its hard assets

classic deep value”

And that’s where I and you apparently differ. According to my calculations, they didn’t have $36.9 Million in net asset value after discounting total liabilities. That number would be their book value. When determining net asset value you don’t include receivables and inventory at full value. You also don’t include prepaid expenses or other current assets at all. So, as I said earlier. PIR has never been a Net-Net stock.

“Pier One PIR is desperately trying to bottom. Lot of buyers at $.12. Stock is about 30% of NCAV mostly inventory. Long-term debt is stable but it’s a crap shot. I say if it gets delisted it could be a good pickup on the post delisted bounce like ARTC”

http://www.stockpursuit.com/2009/03/stock-analysis-cbou-penny-stocks_16.html

That lower indicator on that chart ROC was telling me it was bottoming and the volume but I wasnt thinking like a contrarian or i could have been up over 1,000%

Mark’s last blog post..Net-Nets Sector Rotation, Pier One ImportsPIR , PXG, & Technical Analysis