Out Fox The $treet

Sears Holdings continues moving forward with unlocking value via the sell and leaseback of real estate assets. The stock continues trading substantially below the value of the real estate. The stock is attractively priced at $40, but the company needs to show more progress towards reducing cash burn with the Q1 earnings report on June 8. Back in April, Sears Holdings (NASDAQ: SHLD ) announced several agreements regarding selling real estate assets to a REIT and several joint venture partners. The recent S-11 filing for Seritage Growth Properties provided key details, including the stores involved and the percentage of the locations that already have non-Sears leases. Some of the details including the involvement of General Growth Properties (NYSE: GGP ) and Simon Property Group (NYSE: SPG ) in the JVs and the real estate valuations were encouraging. Read the full article on Seeking Alpha. Disclosure: Long SHLD. Please review the disclaim...

Summary Another quarter, another disappointment from Sears Holdings. Cost pressures drove losses higher. Some silver linings existed in the details of the Q2 numbers that provide opportunities for the future. Whether good or not, Sears Holdings (NASDAQ: SHLD ) finally completed a quarter where revenue wasn't the real issue at the retailer. Sure the company saw a substantial decline in sales, but the majority of that decline came from shuttering stores and spinning off Lands' End (NASDAQ: LE ) . Most of the headlines from the media focused on the declining revenue trends and not the real issue which is duplicate costs for the online and promotional strategies to transform the retailer. Read the full article at Seeking Alpha. Disclosure: Long SHLD. Please review the disclaimer page for more details. 

After another supposedly weak quarter for the company, the stock of Sears Holdings Corporation ( NASDAQ: SHLD     )  had a surprising rebound. The retailer, in the middle of a shift toward online sales and asset spinoffs, had some interesting takes that the typical bearish investor may have missed. Sure the company spent the quarter spinning off Lands End  and this, along with store closures and weak Sears Canada results, sent sales down over the prior-year period. Even worse, adjusted EBITDA declined further in the first quarter to reach a loss of $221 million, compared to a loss of $26 million last year. Despite these numbers and a horrendous domestic retail environment that resulted from weak consumer spending and bad weather, Sears Holdings had some relatively constructive numbers hidden in the details. Read the full article here . Disclosure: Long SHLD. Please read disclaimer page for more details. 

The transformation of Sears Holdings ( NASDAQ: SHLD     ) continues to progress with the recent news that the spin off of Lands' End will occur on April 4. The company will trade on the Nasdaq under the ticker symbol "LE." The move has long been speculated by investors who have been awaiting Sears Holdings' divestment of non-core retail operations stuck within the giant conglomerate. Based on Lands' End's recent results, it appears that this move isn't happening soon enough. While many investors fret over Sears unloading a profitable business unit, the stalled growth at Lands' End suggests the retailer needs to regain its own identity and capital structure to prosper. Read the full article here . Disclosure: Long SHLD. Please review the disclaimer page for more details. 

Historical analysis from Schaeffer's suggests that the annual adjustments in the NASDAQ-100 index typically provide buying opportunities for the stocks that are removed. As an example, the stocks kicked out last year averaged 57% returns for the year compared to only 34% for those added to the index last December. See the table below. The index makes a yearly adjustment at the end of December to rerank the top 100 non-financial stocks that are listed on the NASDAQ exchange. Read the full article at Seeking Alpha  Disclosure: Long SHLD. Please review the disclaimer page for more details. 

When Sears Holdings ( NASDAQ: SHLD     ) announced weak earnings after the market closed on Jan. 9, investors panicked again ignoring the facts of the company. Investors need to understand that Sears only reported the income statement numbers. If one remembers Accounting 101, the actual valuation of a company is based on the balance sheet or the assets minus the liabilities. The income level each quarter adds or subtracts from the equity on the balance sheet, but a large loss doesn't necessarily destroy assets forever. In the case of Sears, the balance sheet is littered with hidden assets that are overshadowed by these weak retail results. Read the full article here . Disclosure: Long SHLD. Please review the disclaimer page for more details. 

In a move long expected, Sears Holdings ( NASDAQ: SHLD     ) announced plans to go forward with a spin-off of Lands' End. While a timeline wasn't provided, the announcement comes after a chaotic week for the stock. News of ESL distributing shares to investors and speculation that J.C. Penny Company ( NYSE: JCP     ) is taking back market share hit the stock hard this past week. With Sears Holdings down nearly $20, or roughly 30%, in a few weeks, it is good for long-term investors to take stock of the investment thesis. The important part to be considered is whether these transactions alter the previous investment thesis or whether the moves are only noise that impacts the fringes of any decision. The market has reacted with fear of a cash crunch, but is this fear logical? Read the full article here . Disclosure: Long SHLD. Please review the disclaimer page for more details. 

Though Sears Holdings ( NASDAQ: SHLD     ) soared nearly 12% during the trading session last Tuesday on news of further transformational transactions to unlock value, investors shouldn't be surprised by the announcement. Sears is one of the largest retailers in the U.S., but most investors don't realize the numerous business units that are hidden under the surface. The media has mostly spun the plans for Lands End and Sears Auto Centers, or SAC, as "liquidation moves", but investors should note the proposals don't involve raising cash from these units. Read the article here . Disclosure: Long SHLD. Please review the disclaimer page for more details. 

Is it possible that this down and out retailer has a game plan to take on Amazon.com ( NASDAQ: AMZN     ) ? Amazon is by far the leading online retailer, but it might surprise most investors that Sears Holdings (NASDAQ: SHLD) is considerably along the path toward being a leading online retailer. No matter what investors think of the plans that CEO Eddie Lampert has undertaken by limiting spending on sprucing up stores, the company has made plans to become a leading online retailer. Sears has even recently advanced fulfillment services to include same-day delivery or in-store pickup that might offer a compelling advantage over Amazon. Read the full article here . Disclosure: Long SHLD. Please read the disclaimer page.

In a previous article focusing on the redevelopment plans for the massive real estate held by Sears Holdings ( NASDAQ: SHLD     ) , the secret plans to develop some of the less desirable stores into data centers wasn't even discussed. With so many plans under way to create value mostly unannounced by the company, it can be difficult to cover all of the opportunities in one article. The company as well has made interludes into working on big data projects further highlighting the potential of re-purposing existing real estate into highly valuable alternatives.   Read the full article here . Disclosure: Long SHLD. Please review the disclaimer page for more details. 

The main theory for years has been that Sears Holdings ( NASDAQ: SHLD     ) would eventually take the vast real estate holdings and turn the company into a profitable real estate investment trust to match the likes of General Growth Properties ( NYSE: GGP     ) or Simon Property Group  ( NYSE: SPG     ) . The shorts always focus on the weak retail operations and the longs forecast what the real estate would be worth under new tenants. Most investors might be surprised to find that Sears is further along than they think on the path to redeveloping prime mall lots. The company has new concepts that involve greatly reducing the footprint of the existing Sears or Kmart stores while attracting new tenants that General Growth and Simon can't accommodate with prime malls nearly 100% leased. Read the full article here . Disclosure: Long SHLD. Please review the disclaimer page for more detail.

Anybody following Sears Holdings ( NASDAQ: SHLD     ) over the last few years knows that several major investors have proclaimed that the value of the real estate holdings vastly exceed the current stock valuation. The rub with Sears remains that the retail operations are difficult for the average investor to separate from the valuation of the assets that go far beyond the real estate holdings. Investor after investor proclaims the company worthless due to a lack of profits from the retail operation, but the company has a vast array of assets worth billions upon billions that are hidden. Read the full article here . Disclosure: Long SHLD. Please review the disclaimer page for more details. 

Kmart is really on a roll with these commercials if they don't turn off consumers that lack a sense of humor. After the "Ship My Pants" commercial, this new "Big Gas Savings" is humorous. Now if it would only drive consumers to the stores. Remember that Kmart is an arm of Sears Holdings (SHLD) . Disclosure: Long SHLD. Please review the disclaimer page for more details. 

A recent analyst note compared the slow dismembering of Sears Holdings (NASDAQ: SHLD ) to playing the popular Jenga game. As most people know, Jenga is a game where players take out pieces of a structure hoping that the overall structure doesn’t collapse. The goal is to not be the player that causes the structure to collapse, and in the case of Sears Holdings, you don't want to be more » Disclosure: Long SHLD. Please review the disclaimer page for more details. 

Not sure this commercial adds any sales for Kmart.com , but it sure is funny. Remember that Kmart is a part of Sears Holdings (SHLD) . Any commercial that attracts users can't be bad at this point. Disclosure: Long SHLD. Please review the disclaimer page for more details. 

In his appearance on CNBC Fast Money, Laszlo Biriyini picked Sears Holdings (SHLD) as his favorite pick. Sounds like a great pick to us as well. Watch his interview below: Disclaimer: Long SHLD. Please review the disclaimer page for more details. 

In a surprising turn of events on Monday, Sears Holdings Corporation (NASDAQ: SHLD ) investors completely ignored the surprising earnings guidance in favor of the news regarding the CEO leaving. The company reported that earnings would smash the analyst estimates of $0.86, but the market focused more on the replacement of the CEO due to family health issues. The stock plunged 6.4% on Tuesday as investors became concerned that more » Disclosure: Long SHLD. Please review the disclaimer page for more details. 

This is the third part of a series on Sears Holdings (SHLD) with the focus of this part on the pending spin-offs of the Sears Hometown and Outlet Stores (SHOS) and Sears Canada (SCC.TO) . One of the opportunities of creating value for the Sears shareholders is to unload some of the assets buried on the balance sheet. How many investors that owned the stock last year even knew about the Orchard Supply Hardware Stores (OSH) stores or these spin-off properties? All of these assets have been buried and under appreciated for a long time. As mentioned, this is the third part of a series. Previously, the first part focused on the highlights of Q2 earnings while the second part focused on the case study prepared by Bruce Berkowitz and Fairholme Funds. Read the full article at Seeking Alpha. Disclosure: Long SHLD. Please review the disclaimer page for more details. 

The debate continues to rage, usually to the extremes, of whether Sears Holdings (SHLD) has no value or enormous value due to a vast array of undervalued assets. For example, the owned real estate is mostly valued at cost and not current market values leaving a wide debate on the proper valuations. See my past articles on these subjects here. The company operates as a specialty retailer in the U.S. and Canada. It operates under the Kmart and Sears segments with major brands such as Kenmore, Craftsman, DieHard, Joe Boxer, Lands End, and Jaclyn Smith. This will be the first part of a series intended at discussing the recent Q2 earnings announcement, followed by the Bruce Berkowitz case study, and finally a review of the pending spin offs. Read the full article at Seeking Alpha. Disclosure: Long SHLD, GPS, and KSS. Please review the disclaimer page fore more details. 

Never a dull moment with the Sears Holdings (SHLD) stock. As mentioned in several previous posts, Sears has finally begun the process of externalizing brands [See article: Externalizing Brands Could Be Major Catalyst For Stock ] and monetizing assets. Today came news on both fronts. First, reports began flying around that Sears has placed Lands End up for sale at a price tag of nearly $2B. Second, it announced that DieHard has finally released an alkaline version of its very popular automotive battery. Lands End Sale Of course, the market is spinning this potential sale as a desperate move for cash which couldn't be farther from the truth. In fact, shorts should be very concerned if Sears can reach any price close to $2B. Part of that cash could be use annihilate any remaining float making it impossible to cover any remaining shorts [See article: Impossible To Cover ]. According to a CNBC report , Sears would like to continue to license the retailers goods to sale at its ...