Sell #1 -- Taser (TASR)
I've written over the past two days about deciding on a few stocks to sell. Today, one of them helped make the decision for me.
I had been close to ready to sell Taser anyway ... but today's notice that they have further accounting problems was enough to push me over the edge. It doesn't sound on its face as though the problems are nefarious or terribly serious, but Taser management doesn't have a huge well of trust built up that will allow me to take their word for it that the problems were minor clerical errors.
I sold Taser (TASR) this morning at $9.25 -- a bit lower than I might have sold them had I thought more quickly and put my sale through yesterday, but on the whole I'm happy to be rid of this one.
Taser was one of my smallest holdings, partly because I never put very much in and partly because it has fallen by roughly 50% from my purchase price (average cost was about $17). I wrote a few times about Taser last year when they were busy crashing and burning, and I did believe that the panic which sent shares to $6 was an overreaction.
But now shares have recovered somewhat and no longer seem like too much of a bargain to sell .. and while I think the product is valuable and I like that it's getting used instead of firearms in some situations, I don't think the growth will return to the heady days of 2004. I expect slow growth from the company as they recover from their scandals and from the bottom falling out of their market (that's if they ever recover their sales growth, who knows what will happen with this latest accounting restatement) -- but I don't think they're going to be catching lightning in a bottle again and selling hand over fist to every police department in the world.
I'm not selling this because of the nature of their product, or because I think the company is worthless ... but with a new scandal brewing (that's probably a premature thing to say, but this is definitely more evidence that management is having trouble keeping track of the business), and what I see as a period of slow growth ahead, I'm no longer willing to hold this company at a high PE that assumes dramatic future growth.
So one down, at least three to go. TASR is off the board, and I feel better for it.
I had been close to ready to sell Taser anyway ... but today's notice that they have further accounting problems was enough to push me over the edge. It doesn't sound on its face as though the problems are nefarious or terribly serious, but Taser management doesn't have a huge well of trust built up that will allow me to take their word for it that the problems were minor clerical errors.
I sold Taser (TASR) this morning at $9.25 -- a bit lower than I might have sold them had I thought more quickly and put my sale through yesterday, but on the whole I'm happy to be rid of this one.
Taser was one of my smallest holdings, partly because I never put very much in and partly because it has fallen by roughly 50% from my purchase price (average cost was about $17). I wrote a few times about Taser last year when they were busy crashing and burning, and I did believe that the panic which sent shares to $6 was an overreaction.
But now shares have recovered somewhat and no longer seem like too much of a bargain to sell .. and while I think the product is valuable and I like that it's getting used instead of firearms in some situations, I don't think the growth will return to the heady days of 2004. I expect slow growth from the company as they recover from their scandals and from the bottom falling out of their market (that's if they ever recover their sales growth, who knows what will happen with this latest accounting restatement) -- but I don't think they're going to be catching lightning in a bottle again and selling hand over fist to every police department in the world.
I'm not selling this because of the nature of their product, or because I think the company is worthless ... but with a new scandal brewing (that's probably a premature thing to say, but this is definitely more evidence that management is having trouble keeping track of the business), and what I see as a period of slow growth ahead, I'm no longer willing to hold this company at a high PE that assumes dramatic future growth.
So one down, at least three to go. TASR is off the board, and I feel better for it.
This article posted by One Guy @ 5/12/2006 10:13:00 AM 0 comments
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