Witmer in Barron's Midyear Roundtable

If you're like me, you've noticed the year is flying by. I've been told this is an occupational hazard of getting older. And it's a condition that worsens with age. ;-)

Well, the latest symptom I'm experiencing with this is that Barron's features its Midyear Roundtable this week. Regular readers know I rank Barron's tops for financial publications (not every issue is great but, heck, no one could go 52-for-52) and the Roundtables are the main reason why.

And the most valuable thing in Barron's Roundtables is getting the views and stock picks of Meryl Witmer. She and her firm keep a low profile. So Barron's is the only outlet I know of providing the investment public with her opinions. Here's what she says about the rest of 2008:

We see what everyone sees. Things are slow, particularly in retail. The consumer is squeezed, although some businesses are benefiting from exports. Over time, inventory will clear in the housing market. Oil potentially comes down if this is indeed a bubble, and things pick up. But in the near term, it's slow. Yet, we see opportunities. Generally, we're still holding the stocks we recommended in January, and finding others. They're coming our way. The market could move up 10% to 15% from current levels. A lot of stocks are washed out.

I also enjoy the thoughts of Bill Gross, Felix Zulauf and Oscar Schafer, among other participants. If you don't subscribe to Barron's, you could do worse than swinging by a newsstand twice a year to buy the Roundtable issues.

Comments

[Alex]

John,

This site lists Mrs. Witmer's recent buys and sells, per recently filed 13Fs:

http://www.mffais.com/institutions/125792/

The Tyco recommendation was interesting. It seems to have a pretty strong collection of businesses, albeit vulnerable to commodity prices, and the management appears forthright regarding potential tax liabilities inherited from Kozlowski. I don't see a big margin of safety in the price, unfortunately.

I hope you enjoy mffais, although I caution that you may want to double check their numbers.

[John]

Alex: Thanks for the mffais link. And I agree that Tyco is interesting, but not compelling.