Jail breaks, doughnut cakes, and admired shakes colored in the week that was.
Good news, your CEO is in jail!
While Martha Stewart is no longer CEO at the company that bears her name, shareholders of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia (NYSE:MSO) will reflect fondly on the months that she spent behind bars. That's because the company has seen its shares triple over the last six months.
That may fly in the face of logic when you look over the company's latest quarterly report. Sales fell for the ninth consecutive quarter. Advertisers continue to back out of sponsoring the company's publications. Profitability has been a stranger for a couple of years now. Then again, perhaps there was too much pessimism out there when the shares bottomed out this past summer. Now just days away from her penitentiary release, Martha is going to have a busy schedule once she completes the house arrest portion of her sentence, including starring in Mark Burnett's latest version of the Donald Trump celebrity-reviving The Apprentice series.
The financials will have to eventually support the buoyant share price though. While the company does expect advertisers to come back this year -- and Stewart's prime time spotlight in two different Burnett-produced shows may produce some lucrative opportunities -- you would be right to be nervous about approaching the stock these days in the mid $30s.
At least Homer Simpson only enjoys eating doughnuts -- not investing in its makers
Before you know it, Krispy Kreme (NYSE:KKD) is going to be blamed for everything from global warming to the 1919 Black Sox scandal. It certainly feels that way after it seems as if every downtick in the troubled doughnut maker's share price invites a new depressing revelation. This week it was word that the Feds were moving in, interviewing Krispy Kreme officers and former employees in an investigation spearheaded by the U.S. Attorney's office for the Southern District of New York.
Will it uncover that the company's been hoarding uranium or plotting alongside Austin Powers nemesis Dr. Evil to take over the world? Nothing should surprise investors anymore. While Krispy Kreme still has time, creditors willing, to revive its tarnished brand, it's going to have to start producing some good news to turn that vicious sentiment tide.
Dell rhymes with swell and Wal-Mart rhymes with stalwart -- but that's merely a coincidence
In the latest issue of Fortune, the list of the country's most admired companies had some shuffling within the ranks of the prestigious. Wal-Mart (NYSE:WMT), which was on top of the list the two previous years, dropped all the way down to fourth place. Dell Computer (NASDAQ:DELL) was the new winner, with General Electric (NYSE:GE) and Starbucks (NASDAQ:SBUX) filling the gap between the direct seller of computers and the world's largest retailer. Between Wal-Mart's immigrant labor saga, confrontations with organized labor, and the company's ambitious expansion being portrayed in a negative light by many media types, it's probably easy to see why Wal-Mart fell slightly from the "Hot or Not" radar of the corporate leaders that were surveyed in compiling the list.
For those scoring at home, Microsoft's (NASDAQ:MSFT) fall from executive adulation grace finds it all the way down to eighth on this year's list. I'm reminded that those living in glass houses shouldn't throw stones at Windows.
Want to read more about the stories that rocked the week that was?
Until next week, I remain,
Longtime Fool contributor Rick Munarriz still doesn't know if Martha's growing slate of media exposure will help or hurt the company that bears her name. He does not own shares in any of the companies mentioned in this story. The Fool has a disclosure policy. He is also part of the Rule Breakers newsletter research team, seeking out tomorrow's ultimate growth stocks a day early.
