Post Gordon ~ Thoughts, Commentary & Reflections

Ha ha. Give it up, tow. I checked in last week for about 15 minutes and that's all I plan to spend here tonight. Will check in again next week for about the same. It's nice to have my time back.

TruckDuo, you're a good guy! Thanks! Zippe1, thank you, too!

And a happy Bah Humbug to everyone.

 

Thank goodness for New Year's Eve day! Marks the coming end of the 'holiday' season. Ugh! And I could give a hoot about New Year's Eve itself or the parades and games tomorrow (sports zero, here). Can almost feel my mood starting to lift, which darkens going into the season as I turn grumpier and grumpier. Lost same girlfriend 2x over the holidays, 30 years apart.

Oh, well! Doors open and close. I'll feel a lot cheerier in a week or so. Haven't yet decided on my winter westward trip. Thought I'd be under way by now. Not. Yet. Long before I hooked up with Gordon I put three dogs in the car and tooted from here (Indiana) west, then back across the country to Florida over a span of five months, winter car camping in the car.

In Southern California, my 'base of operations' was inland and as the weather warmed up I moved further and further closer to the coast, finally winding up in Seal Beach. The whole time I interviewed trucking companies--which is why inland first. The whole trucking world has an operation in or near Ontario, CA. Never really found the 'fit' I wanted. Yeah, picky, picky.

The goal was to run Midwest to southern West Coast, dog friendly, great equipment and great CSA score as well as good pay. Man, I could hit one or two but not all. My first stops after departing Indiana were Prime and Wil-Trans in Greater Springfield. (What a joke, both, although Prime was i-m-p-r-e-s-s-i-v-e, yes, but probably not for me to drive for.)

Yuppo, I left after searching Midwestern trucking companies and with a list from CraigsList that only got longer. It was a lot like my skirt-chasing days. So many skirts, so little time. So, so, many trucking companies. Lately I've been patiently trying to get a gal to sell me one of her five water trucks. I'm just on the outside of her operating area, could assist her there and extend the business. Not sure if that will work out or not. She's fearful of a competitor. Not my intention to compete. Oh, well. Doors open and close.

The Gordons at Year End

HTLD closed yesterday at $19.56, above the $17-$19 trading range analysts had predicted as HTLD's eventual trading range as they got a handle on the Gordon acquisition. So it's fun (I think) to count their money. Here we go.

You can compare how you've done since the HTLD acquisition of Gordon and how the Gordons have done, at least on paper. The stock portion of the sale went off at $14.37, so Larry, Scott and Steve are all up $5.19 per share. But they can't sell until 2017.

Scott--at 84,796 shares--is up $440,091 since the acquisition. Not bad for the roughly six weeks since November 11. Let's see, that's $73,348 per week for six weeks. Yeah, I'd take it. In comparison, Larry and Steve hit the lottery.

Larry--at 498,465 shares--is up $2,587,033 since the November 11 acquisition. That's $431,172 per week. And, yes, you did read that correctly. Larry's up two and a half million since the acquisition. An easy big bump up compared to the way he's had to grind it out all these years.

Steve---at 606,717 shares--is up $3,148,861 since Nov 11. That's $524,810 per week. Yuppo, a half mil a week. Kinda takes your breath away, don't it?

Of course, of late analysts have put HTLD on a 'hold' rather than 'buy' recommendation as the stock price pushed above the predicted $17-$19 trading range. Okay, hang on y'all!!


/Written Dec 31, 2013 at home, six miles north of Spencer, Indiana. All rights reserved by author. Blu, the girls are fine and still laying. Won't go out if they can't see the ground rather than snow. It's about 8 am here and 23 degrees. They're really good in the cold. Will open their door to scratch area as soon as I'm off here. Until next week... Vic

 

HTLD closed at $19.68 yesterday (Jan 6, 2014), still above the predicted trading range at Gordon acquisition, 11/14/2013. Had you purchased 10 shares @ $14.37 on the announcement and sold for Xmas, you would have had $50 extra to spend on the holidays.

That is, a $144 expenditure would have brought you over $194 or so. Hold the phone, though. When guys and gals like us buy into the market it's probably too late. What's more, the announcement was made AFTER the market closed at $14.37. Done deal at that point and HTLD stock started to jump right away the next morning.

Not likely Steve Gordon's $500,000 weeks can continue. What resilience though!! When the market dropped 135 points the other day, HTLD held its ground above $19, even pushed up above $20 during the day.

It does look like the Gordons left big money on the table. Interesting how the portion of the deal they took in stock cushioned them from selling too cheap.

So far.

 

It's a little chilly here in Indiana, easily a foot of snow and 3-4 foot drifts--or more. Came down so furiously Sunday I ran the car up and down from my garage to the highway to plow out a path and it came down too fast to keep open. My little Snow Devil snowblower wasn't going to keep up with that.

Then the power was out Sunday afternoon. No heat or water with well not pumping. Spent part of that time in pee water in my crawlspace to head off some issues. State snowplows left me a heap of snow and slush up to my mailbox, which then freezes and is a bear to dig out. Too much for the Snow Devil, too. Well, if the good Lord brought it, so they say in Kentucky, he/she will take it away, too.

So last night about 11 pm I noticed the lights out again and furnace off, starting to chill. This time it wasn't a power outage, had some lights, some plugs working. Maybe a bad breaker but couldn't tell at the panel so cut off the end of an extension cord and wired it to the furnace and plugged the furnace in to a plug that was hot. All in the dark using a cordless lamp since the still-working lights were in another room. Glad it happened while I was awake and could deal with it and not as cold as would have been in the morning. Was 8 below at the time.

Have not been running for a while and have not sold the things I need sold to head westward. About this point you start to think, well, a couple more months and it'll be spring. Maybe make a quick trip west, fly instead of drive? Dunno. Chickens surprised me. At 13 below in their fully insulated coop they seemed pretty happy and the bird feeders out back had lots of customers. Hadn't seen woodpeckers since summer and these were not same ones. Even had a nuthatch inside for the afternoon. Left on his own. Brought the three girls in anyway and put them in a dog crate so I don't have to monitor that their water hasn't frozen. Got an egg yesterday and Sunday, too.

Indiana in this cold and snow still not too bad having grown up in Minnesota...

I mean, this was n-o-r-m-a-l. Winter came early (October) and stayed. Here it just stops in for visits. My good insulated monkey suit is still in back of car so iced over couldn't get to it. Oh, well.


/Posts today written Tuesday, Jan 7, 2014 at home, six miles north of Spencer, IN. All rights reserved by author. Minus 9 below right now, 8 am. For Indiana, that's cold plus has been windy.
//Advanced to 4 above just after noon. Only 28 degrees more to start defrosting. Not today. Probably not tomorrow either. Wind chill still 9 below with 12 mph wind. Got lights back on, swapped in a new breaker and moved to new spot in box. Still don't have running water due to tank pressure switch that turns well pump on and off seems to have failed--again. Every year. Every year. No big deal, just a PIA R&R. Plenty of snow outside to melt for drinking water. Not bathing in it, though.

 

Free at Last!!

With a foot of snow a week ago Sunday, followed by minus 13 degree below temps on Monday, it was Wednesday before I chopped my way through the mailbox-high iced snow and road melt pushed up by Indiana's snow plows in front of my place. The storm hammered my water piping (broken) and my electric panel (compromised) as well as some of my earth work out back--but that's not all! Has taken all week to sort out and still working on it. My trip west pushed further out.

HTLD, on the other hand, has also freed itself from the $17-$19 trading range anticipated when it acquired Gordon Trucking when it last traded at $14.37/share. In fact, while the market has bobbled some, HTLD has pushed forward or held on. Yesterday (Monday, Jan 13, 2014) HTLD closed at $20.38 and has reached above $21 briefly in day trading despite analysts' downgrades towards the end of December.

This morning HTLD opened higher than it closed yesterday ($20.42 vs $20.38) and has so far this morning pushed as high as $20.74.

Once a stock 'breaks out' of its old trading range, it typically establishes a new, higher trading range--or like Icarus, falls back below its earlier trading range. Since the 'old' trading range was $17-$19, seems safe to say that HTLD has established a new trading range $19-$21/share.

For the Gordons, that's a paper gain of $6/share ($20.38 yesterday vs $14.37 acquisition).

Steve Gordon - 606,717 shares - up $3,640,300 since acquisition.

Larry Gordon - 498,465 shares - up $2,990,740 since acquisition.

Scott Gordon - 84,796 shares- up $508,776 since acquisition.

Doesn't that make you feel a little sorry for lowly Scott? Only made a paper gain of $508,776 since the acquisition November 11.

Paltry!!!

Will be looking further into Steve Gordon's money and Mike Gerdin's. Trust me, Gerdin's money makes the Gordons look like chicken feed players. And how this acquisition has enriched him so far!

 

HTLD has broken into a new trading range and seems to just power on. Closed today (Jan 22, 2014) at $21.57, $7.20 above its acquisition price of $14.37--a walloping 50% increase since November.

Now if trucking for a driver were so simple...

 

Actually, that is pretty humorous, Blu.

A 50% run up while the market has taken frequent hits is just huge. Especially in this short time. Somebody out there with big, big bucks believes in this acquisition.

Pretty amazing.