Kent Mergler
Kent Mergler
suit
This suit has been about placating competitors, not benefiting consumers.
assuming case higher problems risk seen willing worse
Assuming the problems are no worse than what we've seen to date, you can make a case for a recovery. But that's a higher risk than we're willing to take.
financing selling unusual
When you are selling a $20,000 item, it's not unusual to have financing arm,
busted companies huge market mostly relief sigh strength
The real strength in the market in 2003 was from small-cap and mostly busted companies. It was a huge sigh of relief that many unprofitable companies did not go out of business.
company decent growth potential
If we can find a company with accelerating growth potential and a decent valuation then we're happy,
curious everybody happens year
We're as curious as everybody else to see what happens when the new year starts.
pay war
It doesn't pay to go to war with the world.
action best companies finally quality recovery relief starting worst
Some of the worst companies have been the best performers. But a lot of the recovery in the poorer-quality companies was just relief that they survived. We're finally starting to see some better action in the higher-quality names.
companies figure money near people prospect trading
I can't figure out why people want to own unprofitable companies with no prospect of making money in the near future. That's just trading paper,
changes daily define future perception period trying
We're in the period when everyone is trying to define what the future is. The perception of it changes on a daily basis.
consumer evidence noise spending stopping
Most of the noise about the consumer stopping spending has been just noise. There hasn't been real evidence of it.
companies earnings growth invested likely progress selected strong tech technology until
We are not heavily invested in tech and are not likely to be so until we see fundamental progress. We've always selected companies with strong earnings growth and most technology companies don't have that at this point.
consider core expect expensive stock
The stock is expensive but you'd expect it to be expensive. We consider it a core holding.
bath bed beyond cleanest extremely fewest outlook question unique
Bed Bath and Beyond has the cleanest outlook with the fewest question marks. It is a unique retailer that's done extremely well on execution.