Pat & team: Could you please provide me with your brief opinion on 3 stocks that I currently hold: Direct TV, which I have held for a while and wonder how much “upside” you think this stock still has; Tyco International and Tyco Electronics Ltd. Thanks for your advice!
Direct TV, $43.54, symbol DTV on Nasdaq (Shares outstanding: 866.8 million; Market cap: $38.6 billion; www.directv.com), markets satellite-based pay-TV services through two divisions.
DIRECTV U.S., which supplies 87% of Direct TV’s revenue, has 18.6 million subscribers. DIRECTV Latin America (13% of revenue) owns PanAmericana, which has 2.7 million subscribers, as well as 74% of Sky Brazil (1.9 million subscribers) and 41% of Sky Mexico (1.9 million subscribers).
The company also owns three regional sports networks. Direct TV broadcasts through its fleet of 10 satellites.
Tyco International’s complex accounting came under scrutiny in the wake of the Enron collapse in 2001. This caused Tyco’s stock to fall from over $200 in 2002 (adjusted for a 1-for-4 consolidation in 2007) to as low as $30. Tyco realized that its diversification strategy had failed, and the heavily indebted company announced plans to break up to unlock value in its broad base of mostly unrelated businesses.
Interestingly enough, we looked at Tyco International in one of…
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