Sales and Marketing Spend Ratios

Investors express their interest in purchasing shares of the company and the underwriter uses these indications of interest to set the offering price at which the shares will be sold to the public. Usually, underwriters set the price at a level that provides the company the necessary capital but also gives investors upside on their investments. Investment in the Portfolios of the Fund may not be suitable for all investors. Investors with any doubts as to suitability should contact their independent investment advisors. Investors sell short stock when they anticipate its price going lower. Sooner or later they must cover their short sales by buying back the stock.

Investors should always research companies and securities before making any investments. Nothing herein should be construed as an offer or solicitation to buy or sell any security. Investors often use the past year’s earnings or future earnings that analysts estimate to calculate the p/e. Investment in accordance with the stock buyback theory is based on the premise that a company's management is in the best position to determine when the company stock is over or under valued. Further, it has been postulated that companies announcing a stock buyback tend to outperform the overall market.

Stocks

Stock prices tell you nothing. IBM was selling for $93.22 and Dell was quoted at $41.42.Which is the better buy? Stock based compensation as a proportion of net income is only 0.62%, which is very low, and much lower than Heisermann’s 15% maximum. Stocks weren't cheap on a historical basis in October 2002, but they were certainly better values than they were two and half years earlier.

Shareholders are investors who own shares of stock in a company. Stock shares will continue to be bought based on their value or contrarian bargain characteristics. It is looking increasingly likely, though, that in the course of 2005 investors will be given more such opportunities for low price to value purchases than were found in 2004. Stocks aren't cheap.

Stocks that have high P/Es are considered growth stocks, while those with low P/Es are considered value stocks. The growth stocks have higher expected earnings growth, while the value stocks are considered "cheap" relative to current earnings.

The markets

Market trends have both reduced the need for inventories and slowed the response of inventories to shifts in demand. At the same time, the long current expansion has strained the resources of the building industry, creating supply shortages and raising costs. Market capitalization, or "market cap" for short, is the number of shares outstanding multiplied by the per-share price. As an example, a company with a share price of $10 with 100 million shares outstanding would have a market cap of $1.0 billion. Market-Adjusted Cost Approach is the premise that a certain quality of property has a base value of X dollars per square foot, with added factors for every additional amenity. A final market adjustment is applied to each neighborhood, positive or negative, to bring the neighborhood to "market value".

Market cap is the number of outstanding shares multiplied by the per share price. If a company has 10 million shares outstanding and the per share price is $100, the market cap of the company is $1 billion.

Assessors

Assessors annually measure and monitor the quality of their appraisal work in regard to two factors: an assessment level (the overall ratio of assessments to market values) and a range of assessment uniformity (the degree to which different properties are assessed at equal percentages of market value). The legal assessment level in Minnesota is considered to be 100% of market value, but the acceptable level established by the Department of Revenue is when the overall ratio falls between 90% to 105% of market value. Assessment statutes provide taxpayers with the right to appeal their assessed values. The Assessor's office is always open to the taxpayers request to review their property value at any time of the year. Assessors annually measure and monitor the quality of their appraisal work in regard to two factors: an assessment level (the overall ratio of assessments to market value) and a range of assessment uniformity (the degree to which different properties are assessed at equal percentages of market value). The legal assessment level in Minnesota is considered to be 100% of market value, but the acceptable level established by the Department of Revenue is when the overall ratio falls between 90% and 105% of market value.

Assessments are considered to be a good estimation of fair market value if they are reasonably close to the sale prices within any given neighborhood. The ASR is derived by dividing the assessed value by the selling price.

Prices

Price to sales ratio is a good indicator of how the stock market values a company. The price to sales ratio is the stock's price divided by the latest 12 months worth of sales. This measure became popular during the dot com years when companies showed no earnings or profits. Price sales ratio is a favorable .92 and the P/E ratio is 14.6.

Price to cash flow ratio is generally less prone to manipulation. Cash flows is important to the valuation and critical for credit analysis.