Revlon reports smaller 1st-quarter loss

In today's headlines:

Revlon Inc. reported that it narrowed its first-quarter loss, as lower expenses offset a sales decline in the U.S. Revlon's quarterly loss shrank to $2.5 million, or break-even per share. … Analysts, on average, predicted a loss of a penny per share.

It's always good news when a company beats predictions, and the share price this week has been on the rise. I don't expect that the difference of a penny is going to send it skyward, but it's a sign that the company is headed in the right direction, faster than expected.

Krispy Kreme and Law Enforcement Officers Team Up

This is more in the nature of corporate PR than anything to do with the financial markets, but I couldn't help laughing:

Krispy Kreme Doughnuts, Inc. and local law enforcement officers have united again this year for the annual Cops on Doughnut Shops program to benefit Special Olympics. Police officers will sit on the roofs of local Krispy Kreme stores throughout the U.S. to raise funds for the Law Enforcement Torch Run and increase awareness of the Special Olympics movement.

I laud them both for supporting a worthy charity, but I can't help wondering what kind of structural damage is going to be done when the cops who usually spend their time sitting inside donut shops hoist themselves onto the rooves.

Weekly Summary

Another week has passed ...


It's pretty clear that H3 Enterprise s (HTRE) Petel (PTEI), and possibly Blue Star (BLSH) have gone sour and are unlikely to bounce back - I may dump them next week and salvage what cash is left, and start looking for another position or two to replace them.



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Slow News Week ...

The week is almost over, and there hasn't been any press at all about the companies I've invested in. I suppose that no news is good news, but it's very unusual for things to be this quiet.

Weekly Summary

In spite of improvement in the larger market, my own portfolio has lost a bit of ground this week - but then, penny stocks don't track the larger market, so that's to be expected:

Stock Holdings:	$5,231.75
Cash Balance:	$263.59
Total:	$5,495.34
Invested	$5,000.00
Difference	$495.34

Unfortunately, I was unable to upload a screenshot - Blogger is returning an "internal error" message. I tried several times and re-created the image twice. Still no luck, so what you see is what you get this week.

Revlon chairman buys 600,000 shares

In a press release today, Revlon announced:

The chairman of cosmetics maker Revlon Inc. bought 600,000 shares of Class A common stock, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

This was an AP release, not a "PR Newswire" or some other no-name source, so there's a greater chance that he's buying in because he believes he'll make a profit, rather than to bolster stockholders' waning confidence.

GOGB becomes GOIG

In a move that's all to familiar to anyone who's played with penny stocks, GoIP Global changed its trading symbol (GOGB => GOIG) and did a 200-for-1 reverse split on Friday.

Typically, companies do this when they're in danger of being delisted for falling below 0.0001 - and typically, a reverse split is followed by the company dumping tons of new shares on the market, usually before the online brokerages catch up with the name change (hence, you can't dump your shares for a couple of days after the stock is renamed) driving the stock down to its pre-split levels and screwing everyone involved, with the exception of the brokerage that makes a commission, crooked insiders, and the executives who give themselves a fat bonus for their hard work.

But oddly, this didn't happen ... GOIG slipped a bit, then bounced back up.

Granted, trading is still light (one transaction for 2500 shares today, just before the bell), and it's entirely possible that the price is being manipulated ... and there's still plenty of time for the company to dump shares ... but for the moment, it's a strange phenomenon, the likes of which I haven't seen before. There was no press release from the company to explain this - before or after - which is also quite unusual.

I suspect I'm not the only one waiting for sufficient volume to cash out and get free ... and I tend to doubt that I'm out of the woods just yet.