Helen of Troy

No, not the lady, the company.  Helen of Troy (HELE) is the company behind such brands as Honeywell, PUR, Braun, Vicks, Revlon, Brut & Dr. Scholl's, to name a few.  In May it was below $35/share, today it's playing with $58, including a 10% gain yesterday on the news that they announced a CEO succession plan. Wow.

Looking at the quarterly revenue, it tanked in May, but has been growing like crazy since them. This is one of those "power behind the throne" type companies, you don't know their name, but you know all their subsidiaries.   In researching them, I came across this article where a product from Vicks is being used to map America's driest cities. Not the most exciting thing to hear, but that's music to an investor's ears.

I don't expect them to double in the next 6 months, but that would be nice. Realistically, I'm thinking this is a long term buy & hold.

As a side note, be sure to tune into tomorrow's Bunny Slippers Are Evil Jobseeker's podcast at 10:00AM. This week's discussion of money is joint effort between this blog and that one.

Hard to love BlackBerry. Very hard.

I came across this article today while doing some research: http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2014/01/08/blackberry-making-a-big-bet-on-physical-keyboards.aspx
I'm thinking, I must be missing something. Big. Back in 2007 when they had 2 presidents and no clue, they refused to get rid of their physical keyboard and almost got wiped off the planet. Now that that ship has sailed, they're thinking that's what will get them back in the game. Really?  Again, maybe I'm missing something, but I know personally my use of my phone is too varied to have to have a keyboard all the time.  Too many games and apps don't require one and if it's there all the time, IN THE WAY, I don't see it setting the world on fire. The BB10 was a disaster. They need to back up, look at where the market is going, and then try to be there.

What is it with companies who think they can walk into the cell phone/tablet space and unseat the 2 titans overnight? I mean, is there something in cell phones or tablet that people are begging for but not getting? I don't think so. And if they were, I doubt it would be physical keyboards.