AAAAAAAAGGHH!! WHEEEEEEEEE!!
Six Flags used to be based in Oklahoma City, but then Washington Redskins owner Daniel Snyder bought the company and moved it out. Consequently, we don’t write about the amusement park business much anymore.
But last week, Six Flags had a roller coaster ride of a week. The stock plummeted 44 percent one day and then recovered nearly all of the loss on the following day. So if you want the thrills and chills of an amusement park ride, but don’t like standing in line, buy a couple of thousand shares of Six Flags. And then hang on!
Don Mecoy
Business Writer
Just one thing
You remember the scene in “City Slickers” when Jack Palance tells Billy Crystal about the secret of life? “It’s this,” he said, holding up his index finger. “One thing.”
“That’s great, but what’s the one thing?” Crystal’s character asked.
”That’s what you gotta figure out.”
Aubrey McClendon has a similar theory about investing. Just one thing — Chesapeake Energy — seems to be his favorite thing to buy. On Thursday, an SEC filing showed that McClendon this week bought 750,000 shares at $57.25. That’s a cool $42.9 million.
Although McClendon has a piece of a basketball team, a private equity fund, a fondness for real estate here and elsewhere, Chesapeake appears to be his favorite place to sink cash.
Don Mecoy
Business Writer
Oklahoma is Wally World
If you don’t like the weather in Oklahoma, wait a few minutes and Wal-Mart will build a store nearby and you can go inside. Well, that’s not exactly how the saying goes, but there’s a kernel of truth in it.
If it seems like we’ve got a lot of Wal-Marts in Oklahoma, it’s because we do. After the company was founded in Arkansas, Oklahoma was one of the first states it built in. Now data analyst Nathan Yau has produced a fascinating look at the explosive growth of the world’s largest retailer.
Like Kudzu, the growth is concentrated in the South.
Other than its native Arkansas, Wal-Mart may be most closely aligned with Oklahoma.
Wal-Mart built its first Sam’s Club in Midwest City. The company employs more than 33,000 Oklahomans as associates. The average wage for Wal-Mart’s regular, full-time hourly associates in the Sooner state is $10.31. The company operates 71 Supercenters; 14 discount stores; 16 neighborhood markets, eight Sam’s Clubs and two distribution centers in Oklahoma.
In it’s most recent fiscal year, Wal-Mart spent more than $655 million on merchandise and services with Oklahoma suppliers. In that same period, the company collected more than $483 million in sales taxes in Oklahoma, and paid more than $23.1 million in state and local taxes in Oklahoma.
I would add that despite the thousands of Oklahoma associates, only about 5 percent of the cash registers seem to be in operation at any Wal-Mart I visit even during the busiest shopping times.
Don Mecoy
Business Writer
A billion here, a billion there
Forbes magazine covers the billionaire beat like a blanket. Who are the billionaires? Where are the billionaires? What do the billionaires drive? Forbes can answer those questions and more.
This week, Forbes.com offered a story on blue-collar billionaires. The photograph above of Enid’s Harold Hamm hunting with his trusty dog was featured prominently in the report. Hamm, the youngest of 13 children, was reared in a one-bedroom house. After taking his oil company public last May, Hamm’s fortune crossed that magic billion-dollar threshold.
A couple of little corrections for our Forbes friends. Hamm lives in Enid, not Oklahoma City. And his net worth now is a bit more than $4.4 billion. Just his stock holdings in Continental Resources are worth more than $9.4 billion.
The increase in the value of Hamm’s holdings combined with the recent slip in price of BOK Financial Corp.’s stock may have allowed the Enid oilman to surpass BOK Chairman and oilman George Kaiser as Oklahoma’s wealthiest citizen.
I’m sure Forbes will keep us apprised.
Don Mecoy
Business Writer
Oklahoma City’s ‘Four Star’ Research Park
One of Oklahoma City’s “must see” tourist destinations is neither the heart of Bricktown nor the Cowboy Hall. It’s the Presbyterian Health Foundation Research Park. At least, it’s the destination of choice for economic development officers and scientific researchers who often come to town just to see the park.
If office buildings were rated like hotels, the Research Park would rate four-stars in Frommers. The 27-acre campus is that nice.
Even if you’ve never set foot in the Research Park, you know it because it’s the group of buildings just east of the NE 5 Street entrance ramp to the Centennial Expressway. There are seven on campus now with at least two more planned.
And now we officially know that the Research Park is having a major impact on Oklahoma’s economy, thanks to an economic impact study commissioned by the Greater Oklahoma City Chamber of Commerce.
Economists Robert Dauffenbach and Larkin Warner concluded that the park has a direct impact of $93.8 million on the Oklahoma economy. About 1,300 people work there in 50 companies and entities that revolve around the biosciences and medical research.
Even more significant are potential impacts on the long term economic growth of the local and state economies. Nurturing new biotechnology start-up firms in the PHF Research Park’s incubator facilities has already created substantial economic value and promises to create even more in the future. — Robert Dauffenbach and Larkin Warner
Roy Williams, president of the Greater Oklahoma City Chamber of Commerce, told me that the Research Park sets Oklahoma City apart from the compeitition for research-based economic development. We have the park located adjacent to the hub of medical research in this state at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center and the Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation.
Most other cities don’t.
“They don’t have a research park where commercialization can occur and companies can start up out of that research and physically locate,” Williams said. “We have this phenomenal research park where (scientists) can go set up shop and have access to literally dozens and dozens of resources down the hall.”
If you want to gain some insight into what may be the engine that drives Oklahoma City’s economic future, click here.
Jim Stafford
Business Reporter
Oh, it’s a profit deal
I love me some bargains. When you clothe four kids, shopping can be more of a mission than a chore. So the first time my wife and I wandered into Steve & Barry’s at Crossroads Mall, we felt like we had found the Holy Grail of back-to-school savings.
Three T-shirts for $15? Sure, they were a bit thin, but the kids loved the graphics and snarky catch phrases.
A winter coat for $12? It only has to last until she outgrows it because there are no other girls to accept pink hand-me-downs.
$15 for sneakers? I think I welled up a bit when I first saw the Starburys.
But Steve & Barry’s has filed for bankruptcy, and although the company plans to reorganize, the Wall Street Journal reports that finances may force a liquidation.
The newspaper also explains how the company may have been able to sell its apparel so cheaply — they didn’t make any profit on their sales. Steve & Barry’s produced much of its revenue from incentives paid by mall owners seeking anchor clients.
For the 2003 fiscal year, which ended Jan. 31, 2004, when Steve & Barry’s had 31 stores, tenant-improvement payments totaled $17.5 million, according to documents reviewed by The Wall Street Journal. The payments jumped to $58.6 million the next year, the documents say. The peak came in the 2006 fiscal year, when the company received $122.3 million in payments, but spent only about $59 million to build out new stores, leaving about $63 million in unused cash, the documents indicate. From fiscal years 2004 to 2007, the company received $380 million of payments.
The company says it will keep its stores open for now, honor all its gift cards and continue selling the same merchandise. But if I had a Steve & Barry’s gift card, I might redeem sooner rather than later. Holy cow, the Starbury’s are marked down to $9!
Don Mecoy
Business Writer
Don’t bring me down
Local stock watcher Keith Geary told me after the market closed Friday that he was expecting some kind of response to concerns about the solvency of mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Looks like he was right:
The Federal Reserve said it granted the Federal Reserve Bank of New York authority to lend to the two companies “should such lending prove necessary.” If the companies did borrow directly from the Fed, they would pay 2.25 percent — the same rate given to commercial banks and Big Wall Street firms.
Meanwhile, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is looking into the origins of rumors like those that slashed the stock price of Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and, earlier, Bear Stearns. Frankly, there appeared to be nothing particular that sparked Friday’s sell-off since traders had been aware of the two mortgage finance companies’ debt situation for weeks.
(SEC Chairman Christopher) Cox said the investigation would provide an opportunity to make sure brokers and investment advisers have “appropriate training for their employees and sturdy controls in place to prevent intentionally false information from harming investors.”
Geary suggested that a bailout should restore some stability to the stock market. We’ll soon know if he was right about that. To hear more from Geary, the chief executive officer of Capital West Securities, check out this video.
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Don Mecoy
Business Writer
Warning: Low battery!
I’ve been surfing the Web this weekend with a new 3G iPhone that AT&T provided me so I could take it for a test ride.
After playing with it for two days, I have to tell you that if I were a new 3G iPhone owner I would be concerned. The battery was almost drained by 8 p.m. tonight after a day in which it was asked to connect to the Internet periodically and check e-mail without a single voice call made. Same thing on Saturday, except with a couple of text messages thrown in . And most of the surfing was accomplished on a Wi-Fi network, which I have read drains the battery more slowly than AT&T’s 3G network.
Conclusion: The iPhone is sort of the Swiss Army Knife of wireless devices, but it IS a battery hog. I’m afraid if I used it on a daily basis, making and receiving calls in addition to checking e-mail and surfing the Web, the battery wouldn’t make it until I could get home and charge it.
What about it 3G iPhone owners, are you running into the same issue?
Business reporter
3G iPhone launch
My day began at 6:30 a.m. Friday at the AT&T retail store on the southside of Memorial Road across from Quail Springs Mall. About 30 people were sitting in camp chairs and in cars parked outside the store that wouldn’t open until 8 a.m. They were waiting for their opportunity to buy the new 3G iPhone that promises faster Internet and GPS wayfinding technology, among other features.
Then it was across Memorial Road to the another AT&T store where more than 40 people already were gathered. Finally, we made it down to Penn Square Mall shortly after 7 a.m. to check out the lines at the Apple retail store and at the AT&T store in the mall. About 225 people were waiting in line at the Apple store when it opened at 8 a.m., and another 75 people down at the AT&T store.
I shot a few pix along the way. The top picture is of Brooke Phelps of Oklahoma City, who was first in line at the mall AT&T store, but had to wait almost an hour and a half to leave with her prize because of glitches trying to activate the phone. Meanwhile, a dozen or more other buyers were quickly serviced and walked out with their phones.
The photos below are shots taken at the Memorial Road stores and of Apple employees handing out water to those waiting in the mall line about 9:30 a.m.
Jim StaffordBusiness News Reporter
“If it doesn’t go up, don’t buy it!”
Sir John Templeton. (AP Photo)
One of the legends in investing died Tuesday. Sir John Templeton, a pioneer in international finance and mutual funds, passed away at the age of 95.
Templeton was one of the best stock-pickers of the 20th Century, and the Templeton Growth Fund he founded in 1954 provided an annual average return of 14.5 percent at the time he sold it for $913 million in 1992. He spent his later years funding and investigating spiritual matters, creating and funding a foundation to explore science and theology.
Sir John’s 1993 publication “16 Rules for Investment Success” remains a touchstone for many seeking sound investment advice. Among his recommendations:
- Remain flexible and open-minded about types of investment.
- Invest — don’t trade or speculate.
- Diversify. In stocks and bonds, as in much else, there is safety in numbers.
- Do not be fearful or negative too often.
Templeton said his investing rationale was well summed-up by Will Rogers:
“Don’t gamble,” he said. “Buy some good stock. Hold it till it goes up…and then sell it.
If it doesn’t go up, don’t buy it!”
Don Mecoy
Business Writer
