To summerize,
| 17-Jan-07 | CIBC Wrld Mkts | Initiated | Sector Perform | |
| 17-Jan-07 | JP Morgan | Initiated | Overweight | |
| 17-Jan-07 | Bear Stearns | Initiated | Outperform | |
| 17-Jan-07 | Wachovia | Initiated | Mkt Perform |
The full story is here. I would not take their ratings too seriously (I would like to read their analysis instead). The 60% sales increase in California (No. 6 economy in the world if considered as a country) in 2006 is a good sign. Is California a mature market as the analyst suggested? I don’t know.
I mean not just my Heelys shoes, but also the HLYS stocks I bought at the its IPO. I borrowed this title from Rick Munarriz at fool.com, here is his article. In summary, here are what he said:
1) Heelys is going to have a blow out fourth quarter.
2) They may guide a little higher for Q1 2007, and beat it eventually. From my observation some Sports Authority stores are low on inventory. Note Q1 is usually the slowest season for Heelys.
3) Expand into other products, helmet, T-shirts, caps, etc.
Well, Heelys (HLYS) the stock did not do much lately. But I am still doing my reality check, in the stores and on eBay. This week I am adding Crocs (CROX) because I bought some shares last December and plan to hold it for a while.
It appears my local Sports Authority(s) have sold most of Heelys, two (out of three stores) don’t have many in the shelf. On the other hand, those two stores moved Heelys back to the original “skate department”, vs. the main aisle. The other store still put it in main aisle (side by side with a knockoff product). The eBay sales are OK. Another interesting point is a “Heelys” search on flickr yields 102 results; it seems people are opening Xmas gifts now 🙂
Crocs are red hot this holiday season, despite it’s winter. I guess part of the reason is we got a relatively mild winter; and more importantly the company made a few smart decisions, such as co-branding with colleges, and opening the Kiosk in the malls (without any discount), etc. I think this is a safe bet compared to Heelys. Here are the numbers on eBay. This is mostly for fun, don’t take this too seriously.
Heelys Crocs
01Jan07 1059 2121
02Jan07 1050 1856
03Jan07 1092 1803
04Jan07 971 1423
05Jan07 964 1415
06Jan07 961 1398
(Update 09Jan): saw this post on Yahoo Message Board, it talked about the sales in Asia. Very postive.
I have the following stocks in my Scottrade account as of today Jan 3, 2007. I remember the beginning of last year I only have 200 shares of Symantec (SYMC)
Crocs (CROX): 46 shares, it seems people can not get enough of those funky shoes.
Heelys (HLYS): 62 shares, it seems everyone is skeptical of this except me 🙂
Home Inns (HMIN): 68 shares, +100% YoY growth, Chinese version of La Quita Inn (as I read the Peter Lynch book lately)
Mindray (MR): 111 shares, China’s No. 1 medical device maker, about 50% YoY growth, is opening a new facility in Nanjing, looking for expansion in the Yangtze delta region which is the economy center of China nowadays. Good move.
A thousand words 