First of all, that ratio of 63.18 along w/ that $8.4B is nothing. Just Merill Lynch holds a few Trillion dollar worth of stock, what's $8.4B in a market?
Second, if I own MSFT or KSS, I would dump it too.
KSS is way too over price, not to mention it's P/E is way too high. Dept. store sales, if you read the past 2 yr. Adv. Retail Sales Report by the govt., it actually shows Dept. store sales are dropping on a year over year basis, instead of gaining. Retail sales overall is gaining, but zero in on Dept. stores, some even say in the next 10 yr. a lot of merger will desolve a big portion of these dept. store. Overall, their average profit margin is only less than 5%.
Kss has gained its share because they sold their credit card business, got a few billion back, and engage in a stock buy back, its stock current value doesn't justify their earning.
MSFT--come on, they haven't move in 6 yr., back 2 mth. ago, some airhead was interviewed by Maria Bartriromo at CNBC, that fund manager were ask what to buy, and he said MSFT. Guess what Maria said? MSFT hasn't move in years. But that airhead said w/ Vista, it's turbo charge MSFT. But that's not possible, especially w/ today's Intel earning shows a drop of 39 pt. on earning, noone is buying new PC.
For an average business, who uses WordPerfect suite or MS Office, Intenet browser, name a Pentium 3 that can't run the above. For that matter, name a Pentium II that can't run the above. AFter the Y2K upgrade, computer industry is flat. The ones buying new computers are the ones who didn't have a computer, not someone who has already own a P3. I had a P4-1.3GHZ, someone took it off my hand on Christmas 2005, got a P4-2.8GHz, zero change in performance.
So if I own MSFT, I would have dump it years ago.
Goog--it's P/E is too high, the stock has no direction, it's goes up and down all over the place, neither Greenspan or the google guys can tell the direction of the stock tomorrow. Anyone who owns, sell it for profit.
So in the end, I don't disagree w/ that article. But having said the above, Citi bank is forecast Dow hit 14K this year. As of today, Dow hit the 3rd record high again. If there is a slow down or recession during the 2008 baby boom due to early retirement, I'll buy that. IF the full force of baby boom effect kicks in at 2011, I'll buy that. But a recession this year, I can't see. A slow down in Q1 and Q2 w/ a boost in Q3 and Q4 is much more likely and consistent w/ Fed. official forecast.