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St. Joe (JOE) |
HenryTo
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 Posted: Tue Nov 30, 2010 12:01 pm Post subject: St. Joe (JOE) |
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Morningstar on the latest going-ons at St. Joe:
| Quote: | | St. Joe JOE announced a Master Airport Access Agreement with authorities of the Northwest Florida Beaches International Airport, a facility built upon land previously donated by St. Joe. This agreement identifies the process for implementing through-the-fence access for potential tenants of the company's VentureCrossings commercial development adjacent to the airport. The new airport, with its capability to drive a step-function uptick in traffic, will likely prove a lynchpin in the successful development of the Northwest Florida region, where much of St. Joe's property sits. Early indications of the airport's prospects look positive, in our view, with total passenger traffic since its May opening already exceeding last year's totals from the old airport, and load factors running in the low 70s through August according to the most recently available FAA data. While this Access Agreement will not drive incremental near-term cash flow, we believe the news is material to our constructive thesis and fair value on St. Joe stock. By providing incremental evidence of the firm's ability to successfully negotiate with multiple government-related parties in the often difficult development process, this news reinforces our confidence in management's ability to execute on the company's major de novo real estate initiatives in the coming months and years. Further, this news adds to similar recent corroborating evidence of management's operational skill, such as last quarter's announcement of two new commercial real estate lessees and year-to-date efforts to reposition residential developments to reflect stil l challenged market conditions with broader, lower-priced offerings. Our confidence in management's prowess would be further enhanced by announcements of initial tenant signings at VentureCrossings; we suspect that could occur within the next several quarters. |
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HenryTo
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| Posted: Wed Feb 22, 2012 12:30 pm Post subject: |
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St. Joe catches a break. Following courtesy Morningstar.
| Quote: | | St. Joe Company JOE announced Tuesday that privately held Eastern Shipbuilding Group will be one of its first tenants at its nascent deep-water port in Port St. Joe, Fla. The shipbuilder will lease 20 acres from the company to locate a shipyard on what used to be the site of a seaside paper mill. The event marks the first official announcement of the resumption of maritime/industrial activity in the long-dormant deep-water port and is the first of what we believe to be at least a couple of announcements outlining future commercial tenants of the nascent port. The facility ESG plans to locate at PSJ will be in addition to its two existing shipyards in Panama City (one is 140 acres, the other 11) and is likely to contribute significantly to satisfying recently won contracts for the construction of offshore supply vessels for two separate clients. ESG has publicly mentioned that the completion of these contracts will require it to hire 500 additional workers, a couple of hundred of whom we think could end up at the PSJ facility. There was no timetable given for initial operations, but we understand the company is already hiring for the projects. For PSJ, we view this announcement as just a first step in what's likely to be a rather long progression toward large-scale commercial, industrial, and maritime activities at the brand-new port. As mentioned in our Jan. 23 report, "Value Drivers Likely to Become More Apparent for St. Joe in 2012," the port enjoys capacity for a few thousand feet of bulkhead adjacent to the ship channel and turning basin, has a clean sheet from which to draw up a master plan, and sits near several thousand potentially productive acres adjacent to the Gulf County Canal. We're told these attributes, combined with its location in the north part of the gulf and access to rail, make the port a viable candidate to compete for various industries down the road as well as becoming a cost-competitive access point for several niche products entering and leaving the region. All this means jobs and increased activity in a county that could sorely use both. Regarding St. Joe Company, the commencement of port operations signifies a complete reversal from a prior strategy (under prior management) to preserve the old mill site for eventual residential use. It should quickly become obvious that the current strategy is the right one for getting the most productivity out of what's one of only 14 congressionally mandated deep-water ports in the state (excluding Key West) as more industry arises in and around it. Investors should note that the majority of St. Joe's land sits in Gulf County, and while most of it will probably enjoy no higher or bet ter use than timber no matter how successful the port becomes, several thousand of its acres located near that port are likely to enjoy increasing value as the port grows. Florida's governor and secretary of commerce, several state and U.S. senators and representatives, and the region's economic developers all have a vested interest in the success of this port and are working with St. Joe Company and the local port authority to make it so. We're not sure to what degree this newfound cohesion and alignment increases the odds of success, but we'd have to think by more than a little. That said, the city of Port St. Joe has a long way to go before it reaches anybody's definition of economic vibrancy. The resumption of maritime activities after a several-year absence is a very productive first step. Our estimate of St. Joe's net asset value has assumed for some time that the resurrection of maritime activities in PSJ accrues modest additional value to the land in and closely surr ounding the port, so we'll not be adjusting our valuation as a result of this announcement. |
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HenryTo
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HenryTo
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| Posted: Fri Oct 14, 2011 11:33 am Post subject: |
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Morningstar's latest update on JOE:
| Quote: | | St. Joe JOE announced Thursday that it is promoting Park Brady to CEO from the COO post he'd occupied since arriving at the company earlier this year. We're not the least bit surprised by the promotion, as Brady has been running St. Joe for quite some time. Consistent with recent trends within the company, Brady's promotion comes with no increase in salary. In addition, as far as we can tell, Brady owns no shares. We'd prefer to see otherwise, for the obvious alignment benefits that material ownership would provide. In other news, Florida Gov. Rick Scott visited St. Joe's VentureCrossings construction site this week, touting his economic programs. We wouldn't take much from the visit other than the fact that he and his economic development point man, Gray Swoope, are paying attention to the region and are aware of the job creation potential in Bay County. We expect increased assistance from state coffers over the coming quarters in luring aerospace manufacturers to this nascent industrial complex. |
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HenryTo
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| Posted: Wed Sep 21, 2011 12:30 am Post subject: |
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Morningstar's latest comments on JOE:
| Quote: | Things are starting to happen in St. Joe's Northwest Florida markets.
The past several quarters have witnessed tremendous change at St. Joe. In 2010, an entirely new, more cost-conscious senior management team took charge, and the board has a new look as well. Meanwhile, northwest Florida's economic developers are finally starting to enjoy some incipient signs of success, stemming in part from a governor who has demonstrated a new commitment to attracting businesses. Collectively, these factors give us confidence that the next five years will be far more fruitful for shareholders than the last five. However, with economic conditions still in question, we counsel investors to remain patient.
Developing raw land that sits on the books at a carrying cost of just a few dollars per acre is generally a recipe for strong profits in a normalized environment. Yet normal doesn't apply to the extreme conditions that have characterized Joe's business environment, which have swung from red-hot for the first half of the last decade, to ice-cold ever since. Today, the company has very little to show in the way of revenue or profits. Its top line is now just a bit more than a fifth of 2005's $500 million, and its last GAAP profit was in 2007.
However, we believe the red ink will be much less prevalent in 2012, and perhaps eliminated after that. Fairholme Capital, which assumed operational control in early 2011, has lowered overhead costs significantly. It purged most of the highest-cost personnel from the old regime, and has either not replaced them, or done so at lower cost. In addition, it's canceled most major nonrevenue-producing spending projects--namely a new headquarters building--and instead allocated the capital toward revenue-producing projects. We expect this trend to continue, but we caution that the easy fat has already been trimmed away. St. Joe began 2011 with just 118 employees, down from more than 1,400 several years ago.
Joe stands to benefit from what we expect to be an uptick in jobs and overall economic growth in Bay County in the coming years. Simply put, the new airport is a game-changer. What used to be almost entirely an automotive commuter destination is now accessible to much broader swath of the United States (and by extension, the world) through last year's opening of the Northwest Florida Beaches International Airport. Southwest and Delta now service this facility, whereas only Delta flew regional jets into the old space-restricted airport that was located in downtown Panama City. The introduction of a new airport generally spawns and promotes new economic vitality in the surrounding region, something we've started to see in northwest Florida. Tourist activity was at near-record levels in summer 2011, due in part to an influx of more long-distance travelers, made possible by new, direct flight service from such population centers as Houston, Nashville, Washington D.C., and other markets.
Much of our optimism regarding the region's prospects derives from indigenous aspects that many aerospace businesses will probably find attractive in site selection. The region can now offer the aerospace industry a greenfield site ideally suited for aircraft assembly, maintenance repair and overhaul (MRO), or component manufacturing. Businesses that locate near the airport will have access to the runways at a facility that enjoys total around-the-clock airspace accessibility, almost limitless land for expansion, and local, regional, and state governments that are now very aggressively courting such partners. Perhaps more importantly, the thousands of retiring personnel at nearby Tyndall and Eglin Air force bases provide the highly skilled workforces such businesses need to function, and likely do so at a lower cost than some of the already established aerospace manufacturing regions. This, we believe, is a key benefit the region offers.
As a result of the dynamics mentioned above, we think the recent announcement that ITT Mine Defense Systems has selected St. Joe's VentureCrossings development for its 105,000 sq. ft. Panama City expansion is the first in more than a few positive announcements likely to come over the coming quarters. |
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HenryTo
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| Posted: Wed Sep 07, 2011 1:15 pm Post subject: |
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More positive news from JOE, courtesy of Morningstar:
| Quote: | | Tuesday's announcement confirmed weekend reports that St. Joe JOE has signed ITT as the first tenant of its nascent VentureCrossings commercial development. The deal entails ITT leasing 105,000 square feet in a building to be built and owned by St. Joe. The companies are aiming for occupancy starting slightly after mid-2012. The building will be located in Phase 2 of the development and occupy roughly 10 acres. This, along with the 60,000 square feet of flex space that St. Joe is planning to build simultaneously, will occupy about a total of 16 a cres of the several-thousand-acre development. Management tells us that the deal with ITT was struck at roughly market rates, meaning Joe is likely to enjoy an internal rate of return on the project well in excess of its cost of capital. People we've talked to indicate that some of the advantages ITT saw in the expansion was the proximity to the Northwest Florida Beaches International Airport, significant greenfield expansion opportunities, and the ability to partner with a company willing to invest significant capital in the project. According to public reports, the financial incentives ITT is receiving from the county and state are modest, giving us confidence that VentureCrossings can stand on its own merit, even in the current economic climate. Over the coming several quarters, we expect more deals at VentureCrossings, many of which will be smaller ones as an infrastructure slowly emerges around the region's only major airport. However, we aren't by any means counting ou t the possibility of bigger deals than this one in the months ahead, even though the recent economic uncertainty has probably pushed any decisions into next year. We believe there's interest in the project from other military suppliers, as well as large commercial aerospace manufacturers. In addition, conditions are improving in some of St. Joe's other formerly dormant projects. For instance, public records indicate Joe is now moving lots in its Breakfast Point primary residential development. In roughly the first half of August (through the 18th), it sold six lots at an average of about $50,000 each to two builders. With this development just getting started, we expect sales to pick up throughout the next several quarters. In July, the company sold 7.35 commercial acres in Port St. Joe for $875,000 for the site of a future Dollar General store. Though unit volume is still small, Joe's recent success in both commercial and residential land sales illustrates a continuing positive trend. |
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HenryTo
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rffrydr
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| Posted: Wed Jul 06, 2011 7:32 am Post subject: |
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Louisiana was built on just such a "fraud" (The Great Mississippi Bubble)....and was not the internet bubble of late nineties just such a fraud? Railroads were too at some point. Not that St. Joe is ever gonna be a "social good" but my feeling is Berkowitz is on to some sort of grand vision, nation building project a la Citizen Kane--or Dr. Moreau!
Maybe, in the end, California City, or Pullman Town will be the model here. 
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Last edited by rffrydr on Wed Sep 07, 2011 8:14 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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HenryTo
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rffrydr
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| Posted: Tue Jun 14, 2011 6:52 pm Post subject: |
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Florida swampland?! --that's Trump territory. Not for me.
That whole east coast north to south thing for hairy new jerseyites I'll just leave to the mafia. Seems like the market's favorite soap opera though so gotta pay attention. Pits big egos with lotsa followers and key issue of our time: property development. Within that is "dream home," "second home," "new home," "sun home;" richer rich needing "exclusivity" --the timber includes a hard asset spin; the east coast a known market. Berk looks like he's of a retiring bent and tired of all the short-termism his life has added up to. Trying to take a stand--and a turn. Dr. Moreau?
Market should be well-tuned to run-off accounting at this point and a healthy discount to that and FIVE year horizon should probably be bought. --But to be wrong on florida land being from SoCal is probably more than I could live with. 
Irish eyes are calling.
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HenryTo
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| Posted: Tue Jun 14, 2011 2:05 pm Post subject: |
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rffrydr, are you now in JOE? Following is one of the better analyses on JOE on the Motley Fool boards:
| Quote: | JUNE 03, 2011 – COMMENTS (0) | RELATED TICKERS: JOE , BRK-A
Board: Berkshire Hathaway
Author: rclosch
Below is a copy of my June Client Letter which is a review of JOE. At the annual meeting Berkowitz was quite upbeat about his ability to add to shareholder value at St. Joe, saying that in the future he would be looking at any opportunity that he felt would add value. Since the meeting he expanded on this in an interview that was posted here. He said that he will use St Joe to purchase all sorts of things that are legally barred to a mutual fund.Which produced the interviewers comment about a "Little Berkshire". in any event the prospect of Berkowitz running St. Joe as a sort of hedge fund within Fairhomne is enough to get me interested.
Anyway we shall have to wait and see (actions speak louder etc)if you are suspicious by nature you could assume that Berkowitz was just using the interview to chase out shorts.
No he wouldn't do that. Of course not. Not Bruce.
St Joe Company
This story begins last October when David Einhorn of Greenlight Capital recommended the short of St. Joe Company at the Value Investing Congress in New York. While conceding that the stock might go up in value if the company's property development plans proceeded smoothly, he used 119 slides to show that both sales and development had slowed to a crawl based on the current and foreseeable future. Einhorn’s presentation was very detailed and appeared well done. It contained all of the obvious things like the fact that lots that were selling for $350,000 in 2007 were selling for $125,000 in 2010 and with sales volume is a fraction of that in 2006.
None of this would appear particularly startling in view of what we already know about real estate in Florida. However, his main contention that St. Joe should give up the real estate development business and return to being a timber company would seem to border on being a bad joke. His contention is that it costs more to develop the real estate into buildable lots than the lots are worth flies in the face of the fact that the state has grown from nothing to 18 million people in the last sixty years.
Granted the panhandle is not South Florida, and the winters get cold; but South Florida is full, and people still like to live near the beach. St Joe owns 574,000 acres of the Florida Panhandle, 70% of which is within 10 miles of the beach, Einhorn dredges up a lot of numbers to support his contention, but the notion that growing pine trees that can be turned into pulp and 2X4s is the highest and best use of all of St. Joe’s land seems to me to be nonsense.
Bruce Berkowitz
Actually, the story starts in 2007 when Bruce Berkowitz started buying St. Joe for his Fairholme Fund. Fairholme Fund now owns 30% of St. Joe and Berkowitz has taken over as Chairman of the board of St. Joe. The Real Estate is St Joe’s only significant asset. At today’s prices Mr. Market is saying the Company’s Real estate is worth about $3,500 an acre. Einhorn says it’s only good for growing pine trees and is only worth $1100 an acre. Berkowitz is traditional value investor and bought his position at prices higher than today’s. As a value investor, he would have bought with a margin of safety so he must feel that the land is worth considerably more than $3,400 per acre. So, we have two very smart guys but they cannot both be right. St Joe is either undervalued or overvalued; it cannot be both.
While the company has shown an operating loss for the last three years, it has been able to build its cash position from $24 million at the end of 2007 to $216 million at the end of 1st quarter of 2011. At the same time, it decreased debt from $541 million to $29 million even as its annual revenue has dropped by 73%.
In 2010, St. Joe’s total revenue was about $100 million, granted a significant decline from $500 million in 2006. Still, it seems to me that St Joe would have been a better short at $85 in 2005 than it is today at $25. With a positive cash flow and a strong balance sheet in the face of a terrible real estate market, it seems like it would be easy to find a weaker company to short.
Of 2010’s $100 million in revenue only about 39% is from real estate sales with most of the rest coming from resort club revenues which have been fairly stable over the last three years, and timber sales which actually showed a small increase last year.
In the face of this, at his Value Investing Congress in early May, Whitney Tilson joined Einhorn and announced that his biggest short position was St. Joe. As a rationale for this position, he regurgitated some of Einhorn’s presentation from last fall’s Congress, outlining problems at WindMark Beach. This residential subdivision is one of fifteen subdivisions that St. Joe has developed in which they are currently selling lots. The company’s figures indicate that total revenue to St. Joe from WindMark Beach last year was something less than $150,000 or about two tenths of one percent of the company’s 2010 revenue-- not something that I would want to base any kind of investment decision on. It would like basing a decision to short Berkshire Hathaway solely on that fact that See’s Candies was having a bad year.
Growth Management Repeal
In addition to these active subdivisions, St Joe has approval from state and local authorities for thirty more subdivisions in Florida. All told St Joe has received approval for the development of 36,257 residential units and 900 + acres of commercial property. Conveniently, in this context, the Florida Legislature recently repealed Florida’s Growth Management Law. This regulation was restrictive and expensive in that it required that all Florida development plans be reviewed in Tallahassee. This repeal should have a positive impact on the intrinsic value of Florida Real Estate by making it easier and cheaper to start new developments.
While it is not clear that any of its projects is likely to generate strong cash flow in the next few years, it is clear that David Einhorn and Bruce Berkowitz have very different opinions on the Value of St Joe’s Real Estate.
First Quarter
On May 5th, the company reported first quarter results which included the sale of 22 residential lots for an average of $95,000, a 1.2 acre commercial lot for $192,000 per acre, and 98 acres of rural land for $28,000 per acre. While the company’s revenue from lot sales was a fraction of what it was three years ago, it did manage its first quarterly profit in a while. The sale of the rural land for $28,000 per acre would seem to place into question Einhorn’s $1100 per acre valuation for St Joe’s real estate. In addition, St. Joe sold timber rights in the first quarter to 40,975 acres for $1,365 per acre. For its $56 million, the purchaser gets to harvest the trees that are on the land, but once the timber is cut, the land reverts to St. Joe. While this transaction helps to establish the value of the timber on St. Joe’s property, it certainly also makes Einhorn’s estimates look silly.
St. Joe’s first quarter profit was largely the result of this onetime timber sale. As a result of the sale, the Company’s revenue for the quarter was $73.4 Million, against $13.3 million for the first quarter of last year, and $100 million for all of last year. Earnings for the quarter were $0.15 per share compared to a loss of $0.13 last year, and this marks the first quarterly profit for the company in three years.
The Annual Meeting
I attended the company’s annual meeting on May 17th at Watercolor Florida. While there was no new news at the meeting, Berkowitz did indicate that trying to value St. Joe on the basis of what was happening in one subdivision was not a proper way to value the whole company. He was generally very upbeat of the company’s prospects, and said that sales at Watercolor for the first week of May where the best in the history of the development. I took this to mean that he was referring to resort revenues, and it did appear that area was very busy. Watercolor is a very upscale beachfront resort on the Gulf of Mexico between Destin and Panama City. The resort is very nice and the beaches along the gulf in this area are among the nicest in Florida.
I spent a good deal of time driving the area and it is obvious that a lot of St. Joe’s land is very rural, and some of this has very little development potential. On the other hand, their beach front property is extremely valuable and their 70,000 acres around the new Panama City Airport has potential for commercial and industrial development. While the airport is in the country now, it is only a few miles from West Bay, a large body of water that opens to the Gulf and includes the Port of Panama City. Most of the land between the airport and the bay is owned by St. Joe.
In addition to beach front property, St. Joe appears to own quite a bit of waterfront property on this bay and around Port St. Joe. They also own lakefront and river front property throughout this area of the state. Currently they have developments open in Tallahassee and in Jacksonville. St Joe owns a lot of land, but there is a large difference in the value of different pieces of their land based on the land’s eventual highest and best use. I don’t see that Einhorn’s estimates are of any real value as they considerably understate the worst case estimates. If I had to guess I would say that Mr. Market is valuing the land at a sizable discount.
From his recent comments and action, it appears the Berkowitz is more interested in the potential for development around the new Panama City Airport than in the resort property (This may in part explain the recent changes to the board of directors). Attached is a map that shows St. Joe’s property in 2003. The airport is located in the West Bay Sector Plan, and it appears that St. Joe not only owns all the property around the airport, but most of the land between the airport and Watercolor. The State of Florida has plans to build a four lane high way to connect the airport to I 10 and the port of Panama City. The State has also spent money on converting the port of Panama City to handle container shipping.
What we can say with reasonable certainty is that the Company is at the mercy of the real estate market in Florida and so their revenue is not likely to return the level of 2005 anytime soon. But their balance sheet is solid, something that probably is not true for a good deal of their competition. Management has done a very good job of reducing the company’ debt and cutting overhead and the company seems to be in good shape to weather a prolonged slump. Real estate will recover, thought it may take longer this time. With Berkowitz in charge of St. Joe’s very valuable assets the long term prospects for this company would appear to be good. |
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rffrydr
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| Posted: Tue Jun 14, 2011 8:33 am Post subject: |
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Down 30 of 32 days. The battle of the titans continues. This one will come down to time..I predict a "win-win."
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HenryTo
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| Posted: Tue Feb 08, 2011 1:09 am Post subject: |
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Fairholme's Bruce Berkowitz taking a more activist approach to St. Joe. Following courtesy of Morningstar:
| Quote: | | CNBC reported Monday that Fairholme Capital Management will propose new directors at St. Joe's JOE 2011 shareholder meeting while also seeking the chairman and vice chairman positions for Fairholme executives Bruce Berkowitz and Charles Fernandez, respectively. CNBC said Fairholme seeks to dramatically alter St. Joe's operations and development, with plans for major expense cuts and exploration of potential acquisitions or joint ventures. Given Fairholme's deep expertise in real estate and accomplished investment record, we believe further influence by this major shareholder would probably bring net positive results to St. Joe. With about 65% of St. Joe shares held by five institutional investors, including Fairholme's 29% stake, the potential for electing an alternative board slate looks elevated, in our view. These potential changes also come with risk. To date, St. Joe management describes its dialogue with Fairholme as professional and productive. However, a shift toward more activist tacks by Fairholme could distract or alienate St. Joe's management team, bringing a potential near-term lull to the firm's current growing yet still nascent momentum following the real estate collapse of the past several years. Further, expanding St. Joe's svelte operations through ill-conceived acquisitions or joint ventures could dilute shareholder returns in the long run. With St. Joe now focused on leveraging the heart of its economic moat through long-term leasing and development of its roughly 577,000 legacy acres in Northwest Florida, we fear the firm could witness middling results if it re-embraced construction or other noncore activities. |
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HenryTo
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| Posted: Tue Jan 11, 2011 12:54 pm Post subject: |
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Morningstar's latest on St. Joe:
| Quote: | | After Monday's market close, St. Joe JOE filed a voluntary 8-K announcing the Securities and Exchange Commission's informal inquiry into the firm's "policies and practices concerning impairment of investment in real estate assets." We are not surprised by this announcement, given the recent controversy about this firm in the investment press, and suspect the SEC may be motivated to investigate St. Joe based on short-seller assertions concerning overstatement of the firm's real estate investments. One would expect a regulator to seek definitive resolution to controversy, as we believe to be the case presently with St. Joe. Our detailed analysis does not suggest any overstatement of the firm's carrying values for its development properties, though ultimately only St . Joe and its auditor, KMPG, hold enough information to exhaustively support its accounting statements. Further, the firm's voluntary disclosure of this informal inquiry and its history of open communication with public investors offer some comfort related to this news. Our concern would grow if this inquiry escalated to formal status. While we hold no reason to suspect misstatements in St. Joe's financial reports, we also stress that the hard-asset nature of the firm's business should reduce the economic impact from any potential accrual-based irregularity. We have anchored our valuation of the firm on its current and projected future land value, not its GAAP book value. This news will probably cast a pall over shares until the investigation is complete. If the SEC finds no misstatement--an outcome with substantial probability, in our view--we believe the shares could resume the rally exhibited since mid-December, with a meaty short interest providing much kindling for additional upside. |
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HenryTo
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| Posted: Fri Dec 17, 2010 2:38 pm Post subject: |
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Morningstar on St. Joe:
| Quote: | | On Thursday, St. Joe JOE announced the addition of Bruce Berkowitz and Charles Fernandez as the eighth and ninth members of the firm's board of directors, effective Jan. 1. Both men serve as key senior executives at Fairholme Capital Management, which owns 29% of St. Joe shares. In addition to a distinguished investment record that includes a total return of nearly 200% over the past 10 years at the Fairholme mutual fund FAIRX compared with flattish performance for the S&P 500, Berkowitz and Fernandez hold notable real estate expertise and include General Growth Properties GGP and Sears Holdings SHLD among the firm's top allocations. This knowledge should complement the existing skills of St. Joe's board while providing a stronger alignment of management and shareholder interests. We view this action as another positive step in St. Joe's journey of developing its Florida panhandle land holdings. Other recent notable constructive developments at St. Joe include signing of the firm's first major retail lease agreements and execution of "through the fence access" authorization with airport authorities for prospective tenants at the company's de novo Venture Crossings development. Investors also may want to note the potential tactical implications of this news on St. Joe's shares. With ongoing operating losses stemming from a weak real estate market and a vocal short interest in the stock, St. Joe shares have exhibited low momentum over the past few months, falling as low as around $17 recently. This week, rumors of a potential buyout reversed this downside trend, goosing shares to $20 as of Thursday's close. With about 50 million of the roughly 100 million outstanding shares of St. Joe held by three large mutual funds (including Fairholme) and another roughly 25 million shares sold short, this news or other future fundamental positives may begin to catalyze a short squeeze that could jolt shares meaningfully higher. |
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