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Wow, that's got me convinced. I'm going to take out a mortgage on my house and put the money into ABTL.
P.S. I wonder who the half-wit was who dreamed up this stupid idea of having employees and executives buy a few piddly shares of stock. Maybe it was that guy who took about a half million dollars for moving expenses while the company was operating in the red. Of course, we all know it couldn't have been Coats. He's totally devoted to enhancing shareholder value.
stockdoc
Isn't that the most pathetic thing you've ever seen? They should all be ashamed of themselves for that.
I hope someone brings this stuff up at the next CC. ABTL management will be laughed at so hard that Coats will never show his face again at another conference of any kind.
Some of this stuff (including Coats moving expenses) should be investigated for criminal activity. It all sounds like a gang of thieves raping the company and shareholders.
stockdoc
I see that we got some more token insider buying. Why don't they just stop this nonsense of investing some piddly amount of money in an attempt to convince the public that they believe in the stock. Their buying small amounts of stock like that borders on being called a scam.
stockdoc
I know this board doesn't have a lot of followers, but if you wish to write to him regarding your concerns about Autobytel spending too much money on management and its BOD, here's his address: jeffc@autobytel.com
If you don't make your concerns heard, nothing will ever be done. At least, give it a try.
stockdoc
Coats needs some PR, and ignoring e-mails isn't particularly helpful. Maybe we should all send him a couple of e-mails and try to get something going. He obviously needs a push, and that includes explaining his moving expenses. Actually, it looks like he should be paying the company back about a half million dollars.
If anyone should be sending fruit baskets, it's Coats who should be sending them to us.
Anyone wanting his e-mail address, just let me know.
stockdoc
Mark Kaplan is the jerk who always sells his optioned stock the day after he gets it. That really shows a lot of confidence in the company.
If Coats reads my e-mail, he'll probably just tell me to stuff it if I don't like the way things are being run. There are, however, a lot of heavy-weights out there who can put pressure on ABTL to clean up its own house.
stockdoc
I sent a copy of that article off to Coats. I don't know if he reads any of my e-mail anymore, but if he does, maybe he will get the message that the shareholders aren't stupid and decide to clean up his own house. The "insider buying" was really the dumbest thing and most insulting thing that they've done.
stockdoc
As I said before: "This company is a great cash-cow for the execs". Maybe one of these institutions that have some financial influence can step in and clean out the trash at ABTL.
What I wouldn't mind seeing is a couple of the big stock owners use their stock ownership power to vote themselves onto the board of directors and straighten this company out.
The big problem is getting things rolling.
stockdoc
An excellent write-up. Any company looking at acquiring ABTL might very well consider how much money is being wasted by ABTL executives and think about what the company is really worth if all this cash wasn't being handed out needlessly.
stockdoc
It's too bad we can't make ourselves heard in regards to these salaries and compensations to the BOD. The company desperately needs the money, and to just hand it out to useless people is nothing short of thievery.
As far as a dividend is concerned, Coats isn't going to do it. He's complaining about needing the money for consolidation in the sector, and he isn't parting with any of that money, especially to shareholders. Before he complains about a small companys problems being listed on the stock exchange, may be should take a look at all the cash being handed out to company officers and the BOD.
The one thing for sure, if the opportunity comes up to vote my shares (which is a sizeable number), I'll vote for anything that helps clean out the trash.
stockdoc
After Coats' presentation, I'm surprised that more investors aren't jumping on the chance that ABTL might be sold to a much larger company. That's always a way to pick up a nice premium on your holdings.
stockdoc
The SEC only allows ABTL to buy back a certain number of shares per day, only between certain hours of trading, subject to the previous bid, etc., etc. It hasn't done any good anyways.
The only benefit that I see to this buy-back, is that it benefits ABTL to own more of its own company if they decide to sell the it.
I think the stock price was doing better before Coats gave his presentation(s). He certainly sounded more like he was putting the company down instead of trying to give the company a boost. If it wasn't for the prospect of selling the company, I was about ready to sell my holdings after listening to Coats.
stockdoc
It's interesting that he said that the company spends a lot of money just to be listed on the stock exchange and that it would better to be off the exhange and spend the money doing things for the companys future. I think we said the same thing about his salary and that of a few of his high-priced execs. $2.1 million in exec pay just to earn 2 cents per quarter....maybe.
stockdoc
The question is, can the shareholders manage to wait it out while the stock goes down everyday. I can't recall the last time it closed up with the exception of the one time it closed up .0005.
Coats tried the plain vanilla presentation, that didn't work. Now, he's tried his super candid presentation, and that didn't work. Maybe he should hire someone else to do the presentations. Preferably someone who can entertain as well as give a rousing good speech that gets everyone excited about ABTL.
stockdoc:)
One last point concerning the Riley conference. Coats was talking seriously about making additional acquisitions before selling ABTL.
Take it for what it's worth.
stockdoc
That's for sure. Coats and his high salaried help could easily buy a ton of shares in the company they want us to put our hard earned money in. Let's see some of these ABTL employees buy substantial quantities of ABTL stock and hold it for a couple of years.
stockdoc
There was some pretty blunt and open comments made by Coats. Now, I wonder if the market will take any notice and do some buying instead of jumping ship.
What I hope that will happen is that Coats' presentation a) gets around, and b) that the investors buy and get the price back over a dollar. Maybe that's too much to hope for, but it isn't unreasonable.
Since Coats has "opened the window", we should see some more inside buying.
stockdoc
You did a very good synopsis of the presentation. The only thing I would add that might be of interest is that ABTL has acquired over 600K shares of their own stock.
Coats is sure frustrated and can't understand why the stock doesn't go higher. ABTL's doing better than it had been, but the public just doesn't take much interest.
Coats really sounded unhappy. He's insisting that ABTL will be bought out eventually. I agree, ABTL would be in a lot better position to ask a higher price for the company if the stock price was $2 or $3 per share instead of being at 72 cents a share and facing delisting.
stockdoc
I missed it, and it isn't archived yet. That could have been the most important and candid of a presentation that Coats ever did. If you happen to find it some place on line, please post the address. I'll be checking periodically on the Riley site.
Let's see if it causes any activity today.
stockdoc
You're absolutely right. He wants everyone else to buy the stock and crank the price to over a dollar but won't put much of his own money into the stock. The cost of a 100K shares is nothing to Coats. He should own at least 500K shares, and not this piddly 30K shares or so that he does now. He definitely should practice what he preaches.
Likewise for the rest of ABTL management. When they just own a few thousand shares each, it makes them look like scammers trying to give the impression that they believe in the company but don't really.
stockdoc
At least ABTL gets some publicity. So far, it hasn't done any good that I can see, but it's got to help a little.
stockdoc
Don't let him get by that cheaply. 17% of 779,000 is $132,000. With that much, he could buy 165,000 shares at .80. He should own at least 300K-400K shares bought on the open market, not stock options, and he should be a long-term holder, not flipping them like Mark Ross does.
stockdoc
GM has withdrawn their advertising from FaceBook. They found that it wasn't bringing in the business thought it should. If GM management wasn't so ignorant, they would have known that before the did it. Hopefully, GM will put their advertisng in websites that relate to situations relating to autosales, not internet social media. Good news for Autobytel.
stockdoc
I got four insider trades alerts today. Maybe Coats kicked some butt and encouraged them to buy OR ELSE.
The insitutional buying is active over the last couple of days. Unfortunately, the net result is down.
stockdoc
Coats is the third ABTL CEO. You would have thought that he would have learned something about running a company from the two previous CEO's that got booted out.
Maybe he did: don't own any ABTL stock and take the money while the taking is good.
stockdoc
Well, ABTL is "poised" to take advantage of the vehicle market when it comes back. Unfortunately, the market hasn't noticed. Kind of like throwing a party and no on shows up.
Of course, as Coats said, he's definitely in line with the shareholders expectations to "enhance shareholder value". Maybe Coats should look the meaning of "enhance".
stockdoc :)
You're right about that, microcaps and smallcaps aren't what the public wants. It's been "flight to quality" for some time. Earning 2 cents per share per quarter doesn't qualify ABTL for much of anything....quality or speculation.
I don't know what Coats (at $779,000/year) is going to do, but whatever it is, it better be nothing short of miraculous. So far, all his tactics haven't impressed anyone. I am curious about what he's going to do at the Craig-Hallum conference that he hasn't done before (without any results, and nothing much to talk about).
If nothing else, ABTL's a good cash-cow for the executives.
stockdoc
What I'm concerned about at the moment is the reverse split. First of all, delisting happened before and then the stock came back well above a dollar and ABTL got relisted. No big deal, nothing bad happened.
A reverse split is usually followed by a decline in price, and it's harder to get back to where they should have been. I really think that a reverse split just is not the thing to do. Coats is over-reacting. ABTL becoming ABTLE is not a bad thing.
As far as future prospects for the company, I still can't figure out how this company managed to pull in 40 to 50 cents a share annual profit when all they can manage now figures out to 8 cents a share annual profit. They probably made a lot more money on advertising before, and ad revenues are a big profit generators with low cost to ABTL.
stockdoc
Internet brands sounds like the perfect fit. If Autobytel can't generate much more of a profit than they did last quarter, then they better start looking around for an M&A firm to link them up to another company. My only hesitation is that Coats seemed determined to hold on to the company. Of course, he's no fool, and if the opportunity comes along to make money....
Incidentally, just to show you what good publicity means, Groupon had an adjusted quarterly profit of 2 cents, and it's stock is $12. Autobytel made 2 cents, and it's going for 78 cents.
stockdoc
Actually, Autobytel is buying its own company back from the public, and at a cheap price. The original reason that I (and probably everyone else) thought that ABTL was buying its own stock on the open market, was to give the public the feeling that the stock was undervalued and wanted to show that ABTL management believed in its own future. That may be true.
However, if Autobytel also thought that that they may sell the company at, $3 or $4 a share, what better way to make more money than to buy their own stock and sell it to another company at the buyout price?
Incidentally, both Priceline and Yahoo were mentioned as potential buyers of Autobytel some time ago. Yahoo's so screwed up at the moment that I really wouldn't consider them. There is, however Kelly Blue Book.
stockdoc
This is really strange. Institutional holdings up a little more to 49.21%. It isn't much, but as I said before, it sure beats what I expected after Craig-Hallum came out with their report on ABTL.
I have no idea what's going on, but I'm certainly not giving my stock away at these levels, especially if it could turn out that I was giving it back to ABTL for cut-rate prices.
stockdoc
Yes, there was an overall increase. Not much, but it sure beats what I expected to see. Currently, the institutional holdings amount to 49.03%. That's really pretty good considering how many other stocks have a lot lower percentage of their stock held by institutions.
So, why did it go up? Can't answer that except to say that they may think that buying it in this price range, they can turn it around and sell it in the 90 cent range. Maybe, I just don't know.
Anyways, I always go to the same source for an update. Going to different sources gives you different percentages held. I figure going to the same source all the time gives a fairly accurate indication of rate of change. This source seems fairly good: http://www.nasdaq.com/symbol/abtl/ownership-summary
All comments welcome 'cause I'm not sure what to do.
stockdoc
Spartak, in case this sort of information makes any difference to you, the institutional ownership has increased since the earnings announcement. I have no idea why, but that's the way it is.
The one thing (amongst many) that I don't like about all this, is that the stock got little or no attention when the brokerage firms were all touting ABTL as a strong buy, and now that the brokerage firms are backing off, what's the public going to think and where's the stock price heading long term?
stockdoc
No answer from Coats. I've tried several times over the last month, and he no longer answers any of my questions.
I'm still holding, I just can't see that taking 80 cents or so makes any sense. Actually, I don't know what does make any sense anymore. I could sell the whole damned bunch of ABTL and just invest the money in any one of four or five stocks making 15% dividends.
Coats and ABTL just seem to be stuck in the mud going nowhere fast. If a couple cents per quarter is all we can ever hope for, investing in something else might be the better thing to do.
I just don't know what to ever hope for when it comes to ABTL. Maybe selling the company is the best thing to do.
stockdoc
I wonder if ABTL management has done any M&A inquiries yet. These guys can't be just sitting around hoping that their next quarterly report is in the black.
Just a little bit of follow-up, Coats doesn't seem to be responding to e-mail questions anymore. I may try again, and if I'm successful, I'll post.
stockdoc
With $2.1 million being payed in salaries to the top exec's, these guys might have second thoughts about selling the company. (that doesn't include benefits and stock options) Another company buying them out would probably put their own management team in place and kick the old management team out.
As far as Coats is concerned, yes, he has done a lot, but with his salary, he should know what he's doing. Actually, most of the good that was done came from the previous management team. As far as I can figure, Coats waited too long before trying to get some enthusiasm going about the company. He waited until the company was on the NASDAQ hit list and everything he did after that sounded like desparation.
One of the things I mentioned before is the possibility of a limited partnership.
stockdoc
Spartak.....I'm more discouraged than disgusted. This is what I mentioned before about the negative side of this investment. They're hitting a brick wall, and the only thing I can see in ABTL's future is more penny profits. Maybe there's a better side somewhere, somehow, but I just don't see it.
I'm holding right now. Maybe ABTL will sell out. I just don't see management sitting around indefinitely doing the same thing year after year trying to make sure that they are making a small profit.
One other thing, they may add to their current business model.
stockdoc...just holding because I'm not accepting 85 cents a share.
I got it from the Lion.com. It shows all the postings from a bunch of boards. If you can't find it, let me know and I'll post the address.
I still don't know what to do about ABTL. They really need that advertising revenue, and they aren't getting it.
stockdoc
One thing worth mentioning, is that ABTL may add another dimension to its business model. If they do, it will be a retail customer-based add-on. I don't know how seriously they're considering it, but it might happen, and it could add a considerabble amount of revenue to their balance sheet.
stockdoc
Here's the Craig Hallum commentary:
Craig Hallum downgrade:
"ABTL posted another solid quarter, adding another $1 million to their
balance sheet and repurchasing roughly 333,000 shares of stock. We
believe however, that barring more dramatic improvements to
profitability, there is little reason for a microcap investor to pay
attention. We think this could take several forms: (1) further trimming
OpEx, which even after cuts, remains at a high level by almost any
metric for a company of this size at 40% of revenue; (2) begin
generating meaningful revenue from high-margin sources such as
advertising or the sale of very valuable data, neither of which seem
imminent in the near-term; or (3) the ability to use independent data
from R.L. Polk (which demonstrates that ABTL leads cause as much
as 150% more vehicle sales than competitor leads) to gain a price hike
or greater volume commitments. We think all are doable and with a
strong balance sheet, shares likely don’t have much downside.
However, as a microcap stock, continuing to be marginally profitable
even after a big improvement in auto sales over the last couple of years
isn’t going to grab anyone’s attention, in our view. As a result, we are
downgrading ABTL to a Hold and lowering our price target to $1.25,
which is based on 10x this year’s cash EPS estimate of $0.10, plus
cash/share of $0.26.
ABTL management will be meeting with investors at the 9th Annual
Craig-Hallum Institutional Investor Conference on May 30th."