Welcome to Fundamental Fridays! Today, we will examine Adobe Systems (Ticker: ADBE).
According to its Yahoo! profile, Adobe Systems provides “business and mobile software and services worldwide.” The company was founded in 1982 and is headquartered in San Jose, California.
I picked Adobe because I have been having serious issues with the company’s Flash and Shockwave players all week long!

In the past 52 weeks, Adobe has moved right along with the S&P 500. ADBE has lost 47.89 percent of its value. The S&P 500 lost 47.67 percent of its value during the same period. Yesterday, ADBE closed at $16.92. Should you …read more

Since this is the final Friday of 2008, I decided to take it back to the basics…of stock valuation!
In late October I began hosting Fundamental Fridays to see if trading on the fundamentals could yield profits. So far I have used ratios like price-to-earnings (P/E), return on equity (ROE), and return on assets (ROA) to examine the valuation of four companies: Dell, Alcoa, Amazon.com and Nike.
Here are the results:

10/31: Dell (Ticker: DELL) - Recommendation: BUY, 12/24 Price: $10.65. At the time of this recommendation, shares of Dell were trading at $12.20…strike one!
11/14: Alcoa (Ticker: AA) - Recommendation: BUY, 12/24 Price: $9.39. Alcoa’s shares were trading at $11.20 …read more

This is the third installment of Techie Tuesdays.  So far we have looked at Exxon Mobil and Starbucks, today we will examine J.P. Morgan Chase.
J.P. Morgan Chase is a worldwide financial holding company with over 228,000 employees worldwide.  JPM brought in $51 billion in revenue last year.   The financials sector has been subject to much well deserved scrutiny as of late, it is time to see what the technical indicators reveal about this banking behemoth!
Simple Moving Average: JPM is currently trading at $32.14 per share.  As of today, JPM’s 5-day moving average is $34.23 and its 200-day moving average is $40.74.  Looking at the chart below, …read more

In the second installment of Fundamental Fridays, TST will examine Alcoa.
Alcoa is a big time aluminum producer operating in 44 countries.  In the past 52 weeks, shares of Alcoa (Ticker: AA)bottomed at $9 and peaked at $44.77.  Shares closed yesterday at $11.20.  Wondering what to do with Alcoa?  Let’s see what the fundamentals have to offer.
Valuation measures
Note: This week I have added average ratios for the sector.
Price-earnings - Compares the current market value per share to the earnings per share.  P/E ratio for AA: 5.34, P/E industry average: 3.09.  P/E sector average: 1.51 Signal: OVERVALUED
Price-sales – Compares the current market value per share to …read more

TST’s first Fundamental Friday will analyze Dell Computer (Ticker: DELL).

I am particularly fond of Dell, as its stock financed a portion of my college education. :)  Many years ago, my mother stumbled upon Dell Computer when it was trading around $3.  Between 1992 and 1999, Dell shot up and issued seven stock splits.  Dell’s post internet bubble performance has been pretty rough.  In 2008, the stock is down about 50 percent and is now trading just above $12 per share.  Let’s take a look at the fundamentals.
Valuation measures:
Price-earnings - Compares the current market value per share to the earnings per share.  P/E ratio for …read more