Go figure –- the stock market went up almost 1,000 points yesterday, a record, and the parent company of Dallas’ Only Daily newspaper lost almost 11 percent. If that’s not enough to roil the 401K of the remaining Belo employees, volume was very heavy, about one-half more than normal. This usually means something is up.
Belo is releasing its third-quarter results in two weeks or so. Have investors already decided the news will be bad and are selling ahead of the earnings?
Yet, no matter how bad those numbers are, they can’t be that bad. For one thing, Belo has no debt. For another, the stock is paying 12 percent in dividends. For a third, if the bosses liquidated the company tomorrow, it would probably be worth more than its market capitalization. The real estate that the News’ building sits on downtown is listed on the tax rolls at $28.2 million, which means it could be worth twice that. And none of this takes into account the possibility that management will take the company private next year.
Hey, even I see an opportunity here, and I’m just a middle-aged ex-sportswriter. It’s time to buy Belo stock, and I’ll probably get 100 shares later today. Of course, this raises the question of whether I’ll have to add one of those disclaimers –- Jeff Siegel owns shares in A.H. Belo -– whenever I write about The News.
Technorati Tags: A.H. Belo,Dallas Morning News,stock price
The Wine Curmudgeon 
Belo is not debt free. They owe over $1.2 Billion in total debt.
Actually, that’s the other Belo with the debt. The company split in two in February, one with the TV properties (Belo Corp.) and one with the print (AH Belo). The TV company got the debt.
Gee, I guess the stock dive is why they raised the subscription rates for the DMN by $1/mo.? Not only is the newspaper becoming quickly irrelevant, they can’t keep up with the costs of printing it.