24 August 2005

I take the 1 train to Times Square, then the shuttle to Grand Central to get to the office. Once at my desk, the first thing I do on the 'net each day is go the New York Times. No surprise that this morning, I read "New Cameras to Watch Over Subway System" right off the bat. Apparently, the MTA awarded Lockheed Martin and a group of smaller companies the contract to increase surveillance of my preferred method of transportation. After feeling hopeful about improved security, I noticed the last two paragraphs of the piece detailing the smaller companies that will work with Lockheed.

The one company that stood out for me was the Cubic Corporation which created the MetroCard system that subplanted the token. I then googled the company and found its listing on the AMEX. Cubic, as of this morning, was near its 52-week low, trading at about $17. If I were currently investing with real money, I would have placed a limit order for 100-200 shares at upwards of $17.25 as a speculative trading opportunity.

I also would have considered Lockheed Martin, but since I'm not going to be able to invest real sums for about two more months, and I had my job to attend to, I didn't pursue researching that behemoth.

At around 4pm, I put on my headphones and plugged into Cramer's radio show, Real Money. His lead story, subway surveillance. His lead stock pick, Cubic Corporation. Cramer noted that Cubic was the most interesting company among the contract winners as it was at a 52-week low and had an interesting business model combining transportation and defense, a combo that seemed ridiculous to him prior to the despicable London Underground bombings. Cramer also pointed out that the subway contract's value of $200MM would barely affect a Lockheed Martin's balance sheet, while such a contract would be significant for a smaller player like Cubic.

I popped open the one day chart for Cubic and saw the result of Cramer's spotlight: Cubic jumped at the 2 o'clock hour, when his radio show airs live, from $17 to roughly $18.50, an 8% jump in the afternoon. Lockheed, on the other hand, was down 1.2% for the day.

Would've been a nice trade. I hope I spot these when there's money on the line.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Cubic totally blew the Houston MetroRail Smart Card program. Getting their butts sued for it. Just an FYI.