James Awad Stock Quotations

The profit outlook is not good and is deteriorating. Profit outlook is what drives stock prices.

I think retail is going to be a very tough place to make money. What's worrying the market now is -- if the Fed is successful in slowing the economy, what does it mean for profits going forward? And that is apparent - that's more clearly an issue in retail than anyplace else. But it is an issue in the market itself that you're going into a period here where profit growth may decelerate; in fact, could flatten out as you have volume gains decelerate in a slowing economy, but cost increases embedded in from the period when you had a strong economy; and that's not exactly a great prescription for profits, and I think that's troubling the stock market,

This stock is down from over $50 a share, but is just a great long-term, growth stock, ... We think it will go back to over $50 a share, at some point, and back to almost where it came public. It may be dead money for a month or two, but I think eventually you will make three or four times your money on it.

The stock is cheap, not well followed, and I think it's undervalued, ... The stock currently trades at about $21, and I think it will earn about $2.60 a share for the year.

The stock is at $24 a share now, down from $50, ... The company is extremely well positioned, the stock could go up 10 points if there is evidence that the economy turns in third quarter.

North Fork Bancorp stock is selling at about 20. We think its fair value would be about 30. But meanwhile, you're getting a 3 percent dividend yield and it's selling at 10 times earnings. Demographically, it's a very attractive area. So, your risk in buying North Fork is that you're a little bit early and the market doesn't care about value stocks for a while. And of course, in a period of rising rates, financial stocks don't do particularly well. But, ... if you buy it and put it away, you'll end up making 50 percent from current levels over a 12 to 18 month period.

It's just a great stock to own here, ... The company is growing in excess of 20 percent. The demographics are great for education. The company is selling at about 15 times what we think they can earn next year. It's also one of the few independent publishers left and so we think it's a strategic acquisition candidate, probably worth over $60 a share, and the stock's at about $45.

The best time in the stock market is when interest rates are low and earnings are poised to grow.

Stock investors have concluded that the economy was in good shape before Hurricane's Katrina and Rita, and that it has come through the storms in reasonably good shape, with the exception of oil,

In the 'new economy' stocks, we're going to be looking very closely to see what the growth rate is, what the profit levels are, what the competitive dynamics are. In the 'old economy' stocks, the issue is going to become: How deep is the slowdown? Where does it end? And so people are going to be doing it stock by stock. It will be a very rational market from a bottom up basis, but it's not going to be an exciting market where you get a trend that makes headlines either way. So I think it'll frustrate both the bulls and the bears.

This is a low-cost way to play the eventual turnaround in technology, ... They're a very strong distributor of hardware and software products and it's gaining market share on its competitors. The stock is $25 on $2.35 of earnings and you're not taking product risk -- you're 11 times earnings on Tech Data for the company that's got a 20 percent long-term growth rate.

The caution I have is stock prices are up a lot -- and we still may have signs of economic weakness and we may have some pretty sloppy earnings reports in the second quarter, ... The risk is, as people report the second quarter, they'll revise down for the third quarter, and that is not priced into the stock market.