Blood In The Streets

Today marked one of the worst collapses in financial history as the Dow lost 778 points or almost 7% as the House failed to pass a bill for 750 billion dollars to help the credit markets. The Nasdaq had it even worse losing over 9% or 199 points! Brutal, absolutely brutal!

Now I hate to beat a dead horse, but if you are a long term investor this is not the end of the world. In fact, because in most cases the baby is getting thrown out with the bathwater there might even be some stocks worth owning that are looking very cheap. Unfortunately, this credit crisis has spread into mainstream and there is really no way to tell how long this will last. That is why it was so crucial to pass the bill that failed today. Every day that passes without a resolution will be a blood bath... sure not as bad as today hopefully, but who knows, there isn't any certainty what so ever which is very bad for stocks in general.

Now there are companies that I would still be picking up at this point. Let's all remember that there will be a tomorrow and a next week, next month and next year. The election is quickly approaching and both candidates are preaching investing in solar and wind power. So with that in mind I still like ESLR which was beaten up very badly by the fallout with Lehman Brothers and now stands at just over $6! I really can't believe it got that cheap, but the whole thing with Lehman Brothers caused a panic and the stock sold off. Another one I like at these levels is ORA Ormat technologies which today hit a fresh 52 week low at 36.39. These two companies are going to benefit from the next president, especially if it is Barrack Obama who has a real plan to change or energy structure.

I have said it before and I will say it again, Google GOOG is just an unbelievable buy at these levels. Today it fell $46 to $385, that's right $385! This gives it just a 25 P/E ratio! For a company that grows like Google this is very reasonable.

Now could everything crash again tomorrow and the next day? Sure, but how about 2-4 years down the line? The market will correct itself from time to time, this all be it is a real problem and we need congress to pass something ASAP, until then we will most likely drift lower.

As always, buy in increments and over time your investments will do fine. Good luck to all and most importantly don't panic...

Google Is A Screaming Long Term Buy

As I watched Google fall over 5% today I couldn't help but think there was some force pulling it down. I mean with the market up so much you would think that beaten down GOOG would shine, but just the opposite. Now in after hours Google announces a major partnership with NBC Universal to run TV ads. This stock has come down from $747 hard to find itself at nearly $420. With just a 27 P/E ratio this stock has literally never been this cheap! It really boggles the brain to even think about it. They have almost 13 billion in cash and are still raking in the money. Sure they are not smashing the park out of the numbers from last year, but you have to consider the law of large numbers and the fact that Google is throwing money in a lot of different places. They have the money to burn and they are taking advantage of that so they can reap the benefits in the years to come. I don't know about you, but I am going to be buying some Google, these price levels are just an unbelievable entry point.

Vasco Data Securities Reports Better Than Expected 2nd Quarter Earnings

Vasco Data Securities surprised Wall Street with a solid quarter lifting the stock almost 18% on over 8 times average volume. Here is what the big whig had to say about the quarter...

"We are pleased with the progress we saw in the business in Q2," stated
T. Kendall Hunt, Chairman & CEO. "Not only did we report a record level of
revenues for a quarter, but we also increased our deferred revenues and saw
a strong order flow throughout the quarter. The current order flow
reinforces our belief that our growth rates over 2007 will accelerate in
the second half of the year. We are, however, reducing our revenue guidance
for two primary reasons. One is to more fully consider the impact of our
business strategies where a larger portion of our business activity relates
to recurring software revenue, which may be deferred and recognized in
future periods. The second is to reflect a more conservative outlook for
the full year given the uncertainty of the world economies."

Net income for the second quarter ended June 30, 2008 was $7.5 million, or $0.20 per share, up 9% from $6.9 million, or $0.18 per share in the same period last year and exceeded the $0.15 predicted by the analysts.

Revenue grew by 9% to $35.4 million for the second quarter from $32.4 million in the corresponding period of the previous year, and topped Street analysts consensus estimate of $34.20 million.

Net income for the first six months of 2008 increased to $12.4 million, or $0.32 per share on revenues of $64.3 million from $11.8 million or $0.31 per share on revenues of $58.8 million in the year-ago period.

Here are a few more of the highlights from the quarter...

    Operational and Other Highlights:
 -- VASCO won 516 new customers in Q2 2008 (79 new banks and 437 new
    enterprise security customers).  For the first six months of 2008,
    VASCO won 1,107 new customers (150 banks and 957 enterprise security
    customers).
 -- Banco Itau (Brazil) secures more than 1.6 million end users with VACMAN
    Controller/Digipass GO3
 -- Independent Bankers' Bank (U.S.) secures online banking with VACMAN
    Controller/Digipass GO6
 -- Mizuho Bank (Japan), Intesa Sanpaolo (Italy) and Banco Itau (Brazil)
    receive VASCO's Market Vision Award
 -- Digipass integrated into SonicWall SSL-VPN
 -- VASCO opens subsidiary in Mumbai India
 -- VASCO expands US Channel Partner Program
 -- VASCO ranks 5th in Fortune Small Business Top 100 and 14th in
    BusinessWeek's Hot Growth Companies top 50.

Congratulations to all the longs... I still think that this is a great long term investment as the world turns more and more to online banking and security. Don't forget that Vasco Data Securities just jump up almost 17% on a day that all the major averages tumbled.