Monday, December 21, 2015

New Frontiers for FTR and Verizon VZ

Now that Frontier Communications Corp has been cleared to purchase Verizon's land line operations one would expect happier horizons for Verizon amid the new Frontier, both of which one might expect to go UP at some point in 2016. But with the laggard economy and a bearish stock market, it may take till a new political regime in 2017 to shake things up again.

disclosure: I do own shares in both FTR and VZ. One of them has to make me some money (or maybe not)

No more trust in Mesabi Trust? (Nyse:MSB)

So you think MSB might go up? Well I got news for ya, it will probably go way down!
It seems that last October the board, or others who do the financial reports to the SEC got a little behind on things and didn't quite make the deadline for filing the October dividend paperwork. Of course, that meant no October dividend and the price plunged....and plunged...and plunged...and slowly keep falling. If I had been smater then, I would have shorted MSB and made a handsome profit, but no, I merely decided it was time to bail on a once dandy dividend trust stock.
It will be interesting to see what happens in January when, I predict, the board will conveniently find another way out of paying a dividend, thus ensuring the stock value will fall further leaving hapless investors holding the "short" end of the stick.

full disclosure: I USED to have shares in MSB, but no more!