Stock of the Week: Pumpkin Patch Ltd

Pumpkin Patch Ltd [PPL.NZX] shares have taken a dive over the last 2 weeks.

From $2.00 back on November 22 and off a 52 week high of $2.32 in mid April the share price closed at $1.71 yesterday. (see 2 month chart above) This is a substantial 15% fall.

The only significant news that could have impacted the share price is the resignation of Chairman Greg Muir and the sale of a 1% shareholding by Onepath on November 30. This partial sale of a round a 8% overall holding would have been made due to profit taking on a share price that has recovered substantially over the last 2 years. (see 2 year chart below)

The full year 2010 profit out late September was exceptionally good when the dire economy is taken into account but perhaps the uncertain outlook from management didn't fire the buyers of this stock.

Whatever explanation for the drop this provides a good opportunity for long term investors to put this stock on their watchlist for appraisal for their own portfolios.

Buy on further weakness if you already had this company in your sights.

Disclosure I own PPL shares in the Share Investor Portfolio.


Stock of the Week Series

Fisher & Paykel Healthcare Ltd
Sky City Entertainment Group Ltd
Reprise 4: Contact Energy Ltd
Reprise 3: Contact Energy Ltd
Delegats Group Ltd
Reprise 2 : Contact Energy Ltd
Reprise: Contact Energy Ltd
Restaurant Brands
NZ Refining
Ryman Healthcare
Mainfreight Ltd
Fisher & Paykel Healthcare
Xero Ltd
Auckland International Airport
Sky City Entertainment Group
Burger Fuel Worldwide
Michael Hill International
Contact Energy Ltd
The Warehouse Group
Fisher & Paykel Appliances
Reprise: NZ Refining Ltd


Pumpkin Patch @ Share Investor

VIDEO INTERVIEW: Pumpkin Patch CFO Matthew Washington
Pumpkin Patch Ltd: 2010 Full Year Profit Analysis

Pumpkin Patch Ltd move downmarket
Long Term View: Pumpkin Patch Ltd
Pumpkin Patch's North American Downsizing a Prudent move
Digging at Pumpkin's Profit
Long vs Short: Pumpkin Patch Ltd
Pumpkin Patch Buyback shows Confidence in the Future
Pumpkin Patch takes a hit
Pumpkin Patch ripe for the picking
What is Jan Cameron up to?
I'm buying
Why did you buy that Stock? [Pumpkin Patch]
Rod Duke's Pumpkin Patch gets bigger
Buyer of large piece of Pumpkin Patch a mystery
Pumpkin Patch a screaming buy
Broker downgrades of PPL lack long term vision
Pumpkin's expansion comes at a cost
Pumpkin Patch vs Burger Fuel
Pumpkin Patch profits flatten
New Zealand Retailers ring up costs not tills

Discuss PPL @ Share Investor Forum
Download PPL Company Reports

Buy Pumpkin Patch Clothing

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Allan Hubbard: Man Out of Time - By Virginia Green




c Share Investor 2010

Early Lessons in Saving Money

My 16 month old daughter is likely to be better off and wealthier than her dad, as I am when compared to my dear old Pa who was a truck driver who left this earth many years ago with less than zero, bar his life experiences. This seems to be the way that progressive generations develop.

I am keenly aware of money primarily because as a child we didn't have any!

This is probably (no it is definitely) why I have such an interest in investing and the stockmarket today.

As parents though we can instill in our youngsters from an early age the value of a buck, what it takes to earn one, how to hold onto it for as long as possible and perhaps most importantly, how to make it work for you rather than the other way around.

Anyone can do it too, rich or poor or in between.

My girl seems to have taken an early shine to actual physical paper money, not just because kids like to screw it up and listen to the sound it makes but because she has seen her Mum use it many times when going shopping and clearly she has figured out that this paper must be actually something of value if people use it so much!

My wife commented the other day that it must be in her DNA (mine) and I dismissed it at first but then who am I to poo poo something I have little knowledge of ?

There is something that we can all do though to help our little ones onto the ladder of financial success.

Teach then about the value of money early.

There is nothing more exciting (well there is but we are talking money here) than seeing a child excited about earning interest on the money they have in their bank account and our little girl has more money in her bank account now than I did at 15!

She has just over $1000 dollars at the ASB in a savings account, thanks to some generous relatives handing over dosh and it is likely to be a sizable sum (depending on how I invest it for her - she may have some input into this as she gets older) when she turns 21 and I "give" it to her - there will be various incentives and restrictions placed around this sum of money as I said it is likely to be a very large figure.

We are going to show our girl while money certainly isn't the most important part of life it is so integral that earning it and using it wisely will make her life better and hopefully easier in the long-run.

The earlier you start teaching them about money and how it works the better. It wont happen in schools, it is your job if you are a parent to get them to value it as a compliment to life and if you can teach them about the power of earning, saving and investing money from an early age - specifically the power of compound interest - then they will be able to take care of themselves in the future and everything else will fall into place.

I started saving money in the bank as a 5 year old from money earned collecting bottles off the street and then a job at a bakery as a 11 year old and that taught me if I really wanted something I would save most of what I needed to get it and sacrifice my short term gains for long-term ones while still having money to spend on Star Wars (The 1977 Original) Ice blocks and the luxury of a 20c can of Coke from time to time.

Go on and teach your young ones the value of money. Above all it will give them choices for the future.


Related Share Investor Reading

Stockmarket Education: How do you buy shares?
Stockmarket Education: What is a Share?
Be an active investor
Stick to what you know
Research, Research, Research
Investors can learn from my stupidity
Financial 101: Learn before you Leap

Stockmarket Education

Stockmarket Dictionary
Stockbrokers: What you should know before choosing one
10 Basic questions to ask before investing
How the Stockmarket works
Understanding Risk
Watch Your Risk Tolerance
Stockmarket Education: What is a Share?
What Moves the Stockmarket?
7 Signs of Shareholder Friendly Management
Financial Media For Investors
Dividends in detail

Related Links

NZX - How to Invest


New From Fishpond.co.nz

Allan Hubbard: Man Out of Time - By Virginia Green




c Share Investor 2010

Share Investor Portfolio: Value @ 29 November 2010

The Share Investor Portfolio trended upwards for this update after being down for the last 2 updates. This week it is up 0.6% or $1615.96 on last weeks update. Once again the rise was mainly due to a 4c rise in SKC with small rises and falls in other minor stocks in the portfolio.

Dividends from the following stocks were recently added: FPH $270.00, to take the total of unspent dividends in the bank from the 2010 earnings year to $16631.93 at close of reporting season for 2010. There are also approx $50000.00 in tax credits earned from the portfolio since it began in late 2002.

Share Investor Portfolio as at 17:30:00, Friday 26 November, 2010 (NZDT)

Stock	Quantity	Cost price	Total cost	Market price	Market value	Change	%
AIA	2,000	$1.700	$3,400.00	$2.080	$4,160.00	$760.00	22.35%
AIA	2,000	$1.510	$3,020.00	$2.080	$4,160.00	$1,140.00	37.75%
AIA	803	$2.150	$1,726.45	$2.080	$1,670.24	$56.21	3.26%
AIA	445	$0.000	$0.00	$2.080	$925.60	$925.60
AIA	64	$1.650	$105.60	$2.080	$133.12	$27.52	26.06%
ASBPB	2,946	$0.000	$0.00	$0.731	$2,153.53	$2,153.53
ASBPB	7,054	$1.000	$7,054.00	$0.731	$5,156.47	$1,897.53	26.90%
BGR	438	$0.000	$0.00	$1.420	$621.96	$621.96
BGR	2,562	$0.990	$2,536.38	$1.420	$3,638.04	$1,101.66	43.43%
FBU	266	$0.000	$0.00	$8.040	$2,138.64	$2,138.64
FBU	848	$9.750	$8,268.00	$8.040	$6,817.92	$1,450.08	17.54%
FPH	3,000	$2.350	$7,050.00	$2.900	$8,700.00	$1,650.00	23.40%
FPH	541	$0.000	$0.00	$2.900	$1,568.90	$1,568.90
FPH	1,459	$3.720	$5,427.48	$2.900	$4,231.10	$1,196.38	22.04%
FRE	1,882	$0.000	$0.00	$3.060	$5,758.92	$5,758.92
FRE	6,749	$3.630	$24,498.87	$3.060	$20,651.94	$3,846.93	15.70%
GFF	541	$0.000	$0.00	$1.780	$962.98	$962.98
GFF	1,459	$2.330	$3,399.47	$1.780	$2,597.02	$802.45	23.61%
HLG	244	$0.000	$0.00	$4.400	$1,073.60	$1,073.60
HLG	756	$2.530	$1,912.68	$4.400	$3,326.40	$1,413.72	73.91%
KIP	190	$0.000	$0.00	$1.020	$193.80	$193.80
KIP	810	$1.480	$1,198.80	$1.020	$826.20	$372.60	31.08%
MFT	1,000	$7.960	$7,960.00	$7.350	$7,350.00	$610.00	7.66%
MFT	1,838	$8.000	$14,704.00	$7.350	$13,509.30	$1,194.70	8.13%
MFT	657	$0.000	$0.00	$7.350	$4,828.95	$4,828.95
MFT	1,505	$4.200	$6,321.00	$7.350	$11,061.75	$4,740.75	75.00%
MHI	1,646	$0.860	$1,415.56	$0.800	$1,316.80	$98.76	6.98%
MHI	7,000	$0.630	$4,410.00	$0.800	$5,600.00	$1,190.00	26.98%
MHI	718	$0.000	$0.00	$0.800	$574.40	$574.40
MHI	636	$1.050	$667.80	$0.800	$508.80	$159.00	23.81%
PPG	31	$0.000	$0.00	$0.290	$8.99	$8.99
PPG	1,500	$0.440	$660.00	$0.290	$435.00	$225.00	34.09%
PPG	1,004	$0.800	$803.20	$0.290	$291.16	$512.04	63.75%
PPL	1,000	$3.090	$3,090.00	$1.700	$1,700.00	$1,390.00	44.98%
PPL	1,000	$2.870	$2,870.00	$1.700	$1,700.00	$1,170.00	40.77%
PPL	939	$4.200	$3,943.80	$1.700	$1,596.30	$2,347.50	59.52%
PPL	877	$0.000	$0.00	$1.700	$1,490.90	$1,490.90
PPL	1,184	$1.530	$1,811.52	$1.700	$2,012.80	$201.28	11.11%
RYM	459	$0.000	$0.00	$2.190	$1,005.21	$1,005.21
RYM	4,586	$1.970	$9,034.42	$2.190	$10,043.34	$1,008.92	11.17%
SKC	5,750	$7.430	$42,722.50	$3.150	$18,112.50	$24,610.00	57.60%
SKC	1,000	$7.600	$7,600.00	$3.150	$3,150.00	$4,450.00	58.55%
SKC	2,750	$7.700	$21,175.00	$3.150	$8,662.50	$12,512.50	59.09%
SKC	1,431	$8.750	$12,521.25	$3.150	$4,507.65	$8,013.60	64.00%
SKC	25,085	$0.000	$0.00	$3.150	$79,017.75	$79,017.75
SKC	899	$4.720	$4,243.28	$3.150	$2,831.85	$1,411.43	33.26%
STU	78	$0.000	$0.00	$2.180	$170.04	$170.04
STU	322	$4.740	$1,526.28	$2.180	$701.96	$824.32	54.01%
WHS	4,500	$3.730	$16,785.00	$3.750	$16,875.00	$90.00	0.54%
WHS	6,979	$6.000	$41,874.00	$3.750	$26,171.25	$15,702.75	37.50%
WHS	2,880	$0.000	$0.00	$3.750	$10,800.00	$10,800.00
WHS	641	$3.710	$2,378.11	$3.750	$2,403.75	$25.64	1.08%

15.03%

	Total cost	Market value	Change
	$278,114.45	$319,904.33	$41,789.88

Share Investor Portfolio @ Share Investor

Share Investor Portfolio: Value @ 22 November 2010
Share Investor Portfolio: Value @ 15 November 2010
Share Investor Portfolio: Value @ 8 November 2010
Share Investor Portfolio: Value @ 1 November 2010
Share Investor Portfolio: Value @ 25 October 2010
Share Investor Portfolio: Value @ 18 October 2010
Share Investor Portfolio: Value @ 11 October 2010
Share Investor Dividends

New From Fishpond.co.nz






c Share Investor 2010

Book Review: Allan Hubbard: Man Out of Time, by Virginia Green

The Allan Hubbard Bio, Allan Hubbard: Man Out of Time by Virginia Green, is really a case of two different stories.

The first story is about Allan Hubbard's life before his recent catastrophic business failures and the second story is about the aforementioned business failure.

Pre financial collapse Green gives us the story of Allan Hubbard and it is a riveting, compelling account of his life, with an almost Waltons/Disney type way of story telling that sounds too good to be true and there appears no reason as to why it wouldn't be. Allan Hubbard the son of a poor family and hopeless drunk of a dad, Allan the young scaly wag, Allan the hard worker, Allan the virtuous accountant, Allan the philanthropist and many other parts of his long productive life.

I am particularly taken by Allan's ingenuity in trying to obtain coal to heat his family home during the Great Depression.

Allan and his mates used to place objects on the rail lines and the train engineer used lumps of coal to fire at the rails to remove these objects and of course Allan and his mates would then collect up their black gold.

This kind of entrepreneurial smart was a feature of his whole life.

Post financial failure though the books last two chapters and an epilogue turn the account of Allan Hubbard's life into something else entirely.

Greens bias towards Allan is clear when she repeats the often much quoted "rescue package" that was allegedly in place just days before the collapse of SCF.

This deal may have been stitched up but it involved recapitalizing SCF and included money from the taxpayer. These kinds of deals have been put forward multiple times over the last few years in relation to collapsed finance companies and none of them have been successful, in fact they have all led to further loses for investors. The most notable failure being the Hanover/Allied Farmers recapitalisation at the end of 2009.

Green perpetuates many of the myths and rumours spread around Timaru and parts of the South Island by Allan Hubbard supporters that lack basic fact and are in many cases the tall tales of individuals with axes to grind and a propensity to over-medicate or indeed stop the meds altogether.

Green gives us a mostly uncritical account of Allan Hubbard post empire collapse that just doesn't quite gel with the earlier years of his life.

She paints him the victim of others and the victim of circumstance, something that was entirely absent from the first part of the book.

Hubbard never grew up as a victim, according to Greens account of his early life, he made the best of his circumstances and blamed himself if he did wrong.

To paint Allan Hubbard as the victim in the most recent part of his life simply doesn't do justice to an individual who clearly made his way in life in his earlier years as a man with personal responsibility at the centre of his being and an inner drive to pursue the truth when it came to his personal and business relationships and who recently suffered the ignominy of being caught forging someones else's signature to gain financially.

Verdict:

Read the first 18 Chapters, they are a good read. Ditch the fiction of the last 2.


* Thanks to Sarah Thornton from Random House for supplying a review copy.


Related Share Investor Reading

Full SFO Statement on SCF Fraud Investigation
Download Grant Thornton Report 1
Download Grant Thornton Report 2
Download Grant Thornton Report 3
Download Grant Thornton Report 4
Download Grant Thornton Report 5



Allan Hubbard Saga: VIDEO - Hubbard Biographer Virginia Green on TVNZ's Breakfast
Book Extract - Allan Hubbard: Man Out of Time
Allan Hubbard Saga: Going Feral - Part 3, The Final Cut
Allan Hubbard Saga: Going Feral - Part 2
Allan Hubbard Saga: Paul Carruthers Goes Feral... Again
Allan Hubbard: The Biography
Allan Hubbard Saga: On Forged Signatures and Uncharitable Trusts
Allan Hubbard Saga: Evidence of Fraud now Clear
Allan Hubbard Saga: NBR VS the SFO
Allan Hubbard Saga: South Canterbury Finance to be investigated by the SFO
Allan Hubbard Saga: Third Grant Thornton Report
Allan Hubbard Saga: Will He Walk?
Allan Hubbard Saga: No Longer Bothered by Botherway
Allan Hubbard Saga: 60 Minutes Interview, Sept 23 2010
Allan Hubbard Saga: Supporters head to the exit door
Allan Hubbard Saga: Threats & the Mysterious PWC Report
Allan Hubbard Supporters: Conflict of Interest
VW Veneer reveals BMW heart
VIDEO: Jenni McManus Explains Allan Hubbard Collapse
Allan Hubbard Statement on SCF Receivership
VIDEO: Sandy Maier - full news conference on SCF Receivership
Market Alert: South Canterbury Finance to be placed in Receivership
Allan Hubbard: Ignorant Supporters Blissfully Unaware
Thornton Report 2: Allan Hubbard Guilty as Charged
Allan Hubbard: Full TV3 Interview - July 16 2010
Thornton Report 1: Allan Hubbard's Aorangi Securities
Bothered by Simon Botherway




Ready Fire Aim: The Mainfreight Story by Keith Davies






c Share Investor 2010