As Sears Holding Corporation (
SHLD
) announced a loss of $489 million with sales continuing a
six-year decline, the new Sears CEO
Edward Lampert
, also manager of ESL Investments, made two adds of SHLD, 2.91%
and 0.79%, at the average price of $44.17 the first week of March
2013. Lampert now owns 43,845,246 SHLD shares. The stock price
has changed by 0%.
Lampert's company ESL Investments has a portfolio of 11 stocks
with a value of $3.8 billion and a quarter-over-quarter turnover
of 8%. Lampert's portfolio is heavily weighted in consumer
cyclical at 94.6%. Both SHLD and Sears Hometown & Outlet
Stores (
SHOS
) are in ESL Investments' portfolio.
Considered an investment savant and called "the best investor of
his generation,"
Edward Lampert
formed Sears Holdings (
SHLD
) in 2005 by joining Sears and Kmart under one umbrella. Lambert
told shareholders in his letter of Feb. 28, 2013, "We are
rebuilding Sears Holdings' culture with an acute focus on
creating 'wow' experiences for our Members and putting Members
First." In leading Sears forward, Lampert values creating and
maintaining customer relationships via interacting versus just
transacting.
In a major retail makeover, Lampert launched creative, new
ecommerce platforms more relevant to today's younger consumers
and a social shopping environment. In his chairman's letter,
Lampert stated, "Sears Holdings made progress in 2012 improving
the profitability of our business, but we know there's more work
to be done in 2013...Our focus continues to be on our core
customers, our Members, and finding ways to provide them value
and convenience through Integrated Retail and our SHOP YOUR WAY
Membership platform. We have invested significantly in our online
ecommerce platforms, our Membership rewards program and the
technology needed to support these initiatives."
As for Sears Holdings Corporation's health, GuruFocus performed a
checkup and found the company has a low Piotroski F-Score of 2,
which usually implies poor business operations. Also, the
company's gross margin has been in long-term decline; the average
rate of decline per year is 1.7%. Other warning signs: Sears
Holdings Corporation has issued new debt of $485 million over the
past three years, revenue has declined over the past 12 months
and Sears Holdings Corporation had operating loss over the past
three years.
Modeling his investment style after
Warren Buffett
, Lampert is the founder of ESL Investments Inc., a private
investment company, as well as the CEO of Sears Holdings
Corporation (
SHLD
). Since starting ESL Investments in 1988 at the age of 25,
Lampert racked up a reputation and returns averaging 29% a year.
On the Forbes list of 400 Richest Americans, Lampert is 68th.
Fortune called the billionaire "the best investor of his
generation." Although Sears is his first retail CEO role, Lampert
served as director for both AutoNation (
AN
) until 2007, and AutoZone (
AZO
) from 1999 through, during which time the company's market price
increased approximately 338%.
While Lampert hones the Sears' operation with a mission to serve,
delight and engage members while they shop
their way
, clearly he's confident about investing in his own vision and
the future of a company with some of the most recognized
proprietary brands in retailing, such as Kenmore, Craftsman,
Diehard and Land's End.
GuruFocus "Real Time Picks" reports the stock purchases and sales
that Gurus have made within the prior 2 weeks. The report time
lag can be as short as 2 days after the date of the transaction.
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