The Microcap Speculator

Over on RealMoney today (sub. req’d), James Altucher pointed out that Trident Microsystems (Nasdaq:TRID) can be had for less than half of its cash value.  He notes that the company, which trades at $1.50 per share:

is not particularly interesting, but: Trident is actually trading with a negative Enterprise Value of $135.92 million dollars. The company has $230 million dollars in cash ($3.763 per share), and zero debt; forget about the fact that the company has a stated book value of an additional $3.643 per share. The company has no meaningful expenses in its horizon, and given the massive amount of cash on the balance sheet, I simply do not see how Trident doesn’t move higher—at least in line with the cash on hand?

Get trend analysis of TRID from Ino.com

As usual, I like the way Altucher thinks.  MF Global is another stock trading well under liquidated cash value.  The trend is just plain awful, and business is not good.  However, MF Global (NYSE:MF) remains the #1 independent (not bank-affiliated) futures commission merchant in the US, and just got a legitimate CEO.  I think he leads MF Global through the abyss and into recovery.  In a conference call earlier this month, CFO Randy MacDonald said:

So said another way, if we take all the assets and liabilities and we liquidate the balance sheet, we would immediately return to our shareholders approximately $900 million in cash. Assuming 120 million of diluted shares, that’s $7.47 a share.

Get trend analysis of MF from Ino.com

I bought both this afternoon.

DISCLOSURE: Long TRID and MF.