13.8

cars credit

Fairholme Capital Management raised its holdings to 31.8 million shares (24.2%), from 22.8 million (19.65%) reported in November. Fairholme in November said it was in discussions with the consumer automobile-finance company about exchange of certain debt securities held by Fairholme for additional shares.

17.9

Fairholme Capital Management said that it is in discussions with the consumer-finance company about the possibility of exchanging certain debt securities that it owns for additional Americredit shares. Fairholme is also considering buying asset-backed securities of Americredit or an affiliate. Fairholme and Americredit also are considering an agreement under which Fairholme would refrain from taking certain actions about the company for a specified period and would acquire one seat on the board. Fairholme owns about 22.85 million shares (19.6%).

Market Perform - Price 5.91 on Oct. 29
by JMP Securities

AmeriCredit reported fiscal 1Q09 EPS of minus-1 cent, versus our 1-cent estimate...evidence [of] further business contraction. Weaker consumer-credit performance could yield further challenges to ACF's business model...we believe the most critical element of ACF's operations relates to controlling net charge-offs to a level below 8.5%...We're lowering our estimates to reflect further reductions in contract purchases and margin compression resulting from more rapid balance-sheet contraction and higher borrowing costs...our FY09 earnings-per-share estimate moves from minus-13 cents to minus -25 cents, and our fiscal-year '10 EPS estimate moves from 23 cents to 8 cents. Market cap: $600 million.

Leucadia National (LUK) raised its holdings to 25.59 million shares (22.4%), from the 22.2 million (19.4%) it had reported owning on Jan. 10.

FBR said it is downgrading Americredit (ACF) to an Underperform rating as December data was significantly worse than expected.

If people buy new cars this fall then this stock should return to glory. It has been killed with the sub-prime mess.

Goldman said it is downgrading Americredit to Sell from Neutral due to difficult and increasingly expensive access to funding. See potential for EPS shortfalls if company is forced to slow origination growth in light of weak environment. Price target lowered to $17 from $21.

subprime auto loans? too good to be true for shorting