Tag: CROX

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Stocks

Crocs Knockoffs

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There are lots of Crocs Knockoffs on the market these days. I found some on Payless and Target. The price is about half as the real ones. Don’t know the quality and the customer wearing experience though.

Also, I found this CrocFan blog. I added the link under “Blogroll” at the right. And this article on seekingalpha is very bullish for the long term.

Crocs (CROX) is going to report Q4 and full year 2006 results tomorrow. The stock already  moved up last Friday, in anticipation of a blow out quarter and a positive 2007 guidance.

Disclosure: I am long on CROX.    

Categories
Web

Conference Call over the Internet

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I found a new trend about the companies’ quarterly earning Conference Call lately. Usually a company will do the conference on the Internet and on the phone at the same time. But Crocs (CROX) and Heelys (HLYS), two shoe makers (I have shares for both), lead the fashion again by doing the call exclusively over the Internet. I hope they don’t srewed up the call by technical reasons. I do notice they have two servers so in case one server is busy, the analysts and curious investors like me can still connect.

It’s amazing to think how far Internet has been in the past 10 years. It definitely changed and continue to change the way we communicate, work and entertain, etc.

(Update 16Feb07) On the other hand, Mindray (NYSE:MR), which I have a few shares, is going to announce its earning solely on the phone.

Also, cnanalyst put together an earning report table for Chinese companies listed in US. Good job cnanalyst !!!

Categories
Business

Why I Prefer Crocs over Under Armour

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I bought some Crocs stocks (CROX) a while ago; actually I looked at Under Armour (UA) at the same time and I am glad I made the correct decision (so far). Besides the difference of PE ratio, CROX is 42, UA is 76 (supposedly the lower PE means the price is cheaper). I made this decision more based on the business prospects.

From my observation, Crocs are sold in a lot more stores than Under Armour, which are only sold in Sporting Good stores. In other words, Crocs have a wider distribution channel. This is very important for consumer goods. By the same token, I found Crocs have a wider appeal to consumers, especially kids. Under Armour has made efforts to reach women and kids but they are not there yet.

Continue reading “Why I Prefer Crocs over Under Armour”
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Stocks

Swap some Heelys with Crocs

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Did a little adjustment on my portifolio today. Sold 30 shares of Heelys (HLYS) and bought 22 shares of Crocs (CROX). I saw the new product release from Crocs today.

“…the Off Road and All Terrain models in the spring and fall of 2007. The Off Road (MSRP: $39.99) is a rugged outdoor shoe with additional traction and is currently available in women’s sizes (6-12) and men’s sizes (4-13). The model is available in seven color combinations, including chocolate/chocolate and sienna/khaki, new to the shoe’s 2007 color palette. The All Terrain (MSRP: $59.99) is a weatherproof shoe for all-condition performance and stability. The shoe is available in women’s sizes (6-12) and men’s sizes (4-13) in five colors, including the new 2007 color combination of black/black…”

Continue reading “Swap some Heelys with Crocs”
Categories
Stocks

Counting Crocs CROX

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This evening when I was in the TaekwonDo class, I counted the number of Crocs in my class. Out of 12 pairs of shoes, there are 3 pairs of Crocs. Seriously, I did a little analysis on the Crocs sales number in year 2005 and 2006. The growth is very impressive, but how long will the trend last?

                   2004         2005            2005 9m 2006 9m        9m growth
Sales $13,500,000 $108,600,000 $70,741,000 $236,162,000 234%
# of pairs 649,000      6,000,000     3,908,343     13,047,624 
$ per pair   $20.80            $18.10        $18.10            $18.10 

Note: for 2006 9m number, they did not say the actual pairs sold, I assume the same unit price as of 2005, and get the unit number by dividing sales by $ per pair.

Categories
Business Stocks

Heelys and Crocs Report Week Ending 06Jan07

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Well, Heelys (HLYS) the stock did not do much lately. But I am still doing my reality check, in the stores and on eBay. This week I am adding Crocs (CROX) because I bought some shares last December and plan to hold it for a while.

It appears my local Sports Authority(s) have sold most of Heelys, two (out of three stores) don’t have many in the shelf. On the other hand, those two stores moved Heelys back to the original “skate department”, vs. the main aisle. The other store still put it in main aisle (side by side with a knockoff product). The eBay sales are OK. Another interesting point is a “Heelys” search on flickr yields 102 results; it seems people are opening Xmas gifts now 🙂

Crocs are red hot this holiday season, despite it’s winter. I guess part of the reason is we got a relatively mild winter; and more importantly the company made a few smart decisions, such as co-branding with colleges, and opening the Kiosk in the malls (without any discount), etc. I think this is a safe bet compared to Heelys. Here are the numbers on eBay. This is mostly for fun, don’t take this too seriously.

            Heelys Crocs

01Jan07 1059  2121
02Jan07 1050  1856
03Jan07 1092  1803
04Jan07  971  1423
05Jan07  964  1415
06Jan07  961  1398 

(Update 09Jan): saw this post on Yahoo Message Board, it talked about the sales in Asia. Very postive.

Categories
Stocks

My Current Holdings

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I have the following stocks in my Scottrade account as of today Jan 3, 2007. I remember the beginning of last year I only have 200 shares of Symantec (SYMC)

Crocs (CROX): 46 shares, it seems people can not get enough of those funky shoes.

Heelys (HLYS): 62 shares, it seems everyone is skeptical of this except me 🙂

Home Inns (HMIN):  68 shares, +100% YoY growth, Chinese version of La Quita Inn (as I read the Peter Lynch book lately)

Mindray (MR): 111 shares, China’s No. 1 medical device maker, about 50% YoY growth, is opening a new facility in Nanjing, looking for expansion in the Yangtze delta region which is the economy center of China nowadays. Good move.

Categories
Fun Life

Are Human Beings Usually Over Worried?

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“Over-worry” is probablly not a good word to describe the Americans because if you go to malls these days, you know why: people are shopping like everything is free. Just kidding. I do think the consumer spending of developed nations especially the US is a big driver for the economy growth in developing countries such as China. Holiday shopping in the US means millions jobs in China: from engineers to migrant workers; from Fedex to UPS; from iPod to Shoes…America is an optimistic nation and American consumers will put everything on credit card. This is good, except everything should have a limit.

But I am talking about the other extreme today: the over worry or over reaction to some new unknown phenomena. I remember before year 2000, we were all so worried about the “Y2K bug” in computers and put billions of dollars into information technology, software upgrade(a lot of Indian IT firms grew out of this Y2K scare). When Jan 1 2000 finally arrives, the planes still fly as usual, and eBay still works,…but no one questioned whether the money spent on Y2K is worth or not.

A few years ago, year 2002/3, the US economy was in recession while the real estate was flying high, people started to get nervous: housing bubble! Sell your house now! Well, the bubble last at least until 2005/6, and the real estate bubble is only seen in over heated area such as CA, NY, Boston, Vegas and Phoenix.

Back to my favorite topic, the stocks. This Feburary, Crocs, the funky footwear (for summer) company, did IPO and some “experts” started saying “stay away from the stock CROX, it’s a fad won’t last”. Well, the stock almost doubled in Nov. When I went to malls these days, I saw people buying this thing like crazy.

This remind me the word at the tower of UT-Austin: you shall seek the truth and the truth will make you free. To be honest I worried about my stocks after I bought it from time to time, the only thing I am doing now is learn more about the financials, business of the companies.