RAA Group

ADA — The economy is still in the doldrums, people are losing their jobs — and conditions couldn’t be better for Ada-based Pre-Paid Legal.

At least that’s the outlook for CEO Harland Stonecipher, whose company saw net income rise 6 percent the first half of 2009 with cash flow of $35 million, up 28 percent.

“It’s just our business model,” Stonecipher said. “We’ve reported positive net income for the past 10 years. We’re an Oklahoma company, we’ve got offices in Ada, Antlers and Duncan and we’re still rural America. You get a good work ethic, attitude and lesser cost of operations.”

Tulsa financial analyst Jake Dollarhide sees the depressed economy, however, as yet another strength for Pre-Paid Legal: people need attorneys more than ever, and the company’s “pre-paid” approach is more appealing than a hefty $2,000 retainer.

“The thing about Pre-Paid is some might consider it to be a luxury item, much like Starbucks coffee,” Dollarhide said. “But it does cater to middle income or lower income level, or anybody who finds it distasteful to pay a $2,000 retainer.”

Stonecipher agrees.

“The economic downtown has not affected our company, but it has affected our Pre-Paid members,” Stonecipher said. “They need our services more now than at any other time. Foreclosures are at record highs, and, in fact, we’re told in 2010 and 2011, more than 50 percent of mortgages will be under water. Those people will need lawyers.”

Stonecipher said Pre-Paid members are already getting good use of their service, consulting with attorneys about foreclosures and having a better shot at working out an agreement to keep their homes.

“A lot of people who get into this situation can’t afford $300 to $500 an hour,” Stonecipher said. “But with Pre-Paid, they get unlimited access.”

Pre-Paid Legal is continuing with the programs it has had for years but is adding programs designed to help small businesses deal with unions and debt collection.

“Some of these small businesses are very concerned about being unionized. They know there’s a major press in that area, but they don’t know how to respond or what to do about it,” Stonecipher said. “And our lawyers can help them with that. They can also help on debt collection — these businesses need help in tough times to collect every dollar they can.”

Dollarhide said that when the economy recovers, Pre-Paid is in good position to do even better — if it can survive a recently launched Securities and Exchange Commission investigation of Pre-Paid’s marketing practices and stock repurchase program.

Pre-Paid has had a mixed bag in its dealings with the SEC. Several years ago, the company restated its earnings steeply downward after regulators disagreed with the way it booked its sales staff’s commissions. But the last time the SEC came around Ada, the end was nothing but a hit on the stock price.

“Investors hate bad headlines,” Dollarhide said. “Obviously a subpoena casts a cloud. How dark that cloud is remains to be seen. The sooner they can get through that, the better.”

Stonecipher said he was surprised, but not shocked, by the latest investigation. He suspects the probe is related to his company’s repurchase program, in which Pre-Paid has spent $421 million buying back 14 million of 24 million shares the past several years.

“We’re a public company, and that’s the price you pay when you’re a public company. It’s not the best use of our resources, not best for shareholders. It’s only in the interest of the short-sellers. The shorts don’t like our stock buyback program.”

Stonecipher’s response makes sense to Dollarhide.

“The executive founder of a company will always put something in a good light,” Dollarhide said. “And I’m sure the short-sellers don’t like it or anything that might limit them. Some blame short-sellers for the entire crash.”

Could Pre-Paid go private?

“We don’t really need to be public anymore, we don’t need the cash,” Stonecipher said. “We’re buying back one day at a time.”

via newsok.com

Lenders filed an average of 272 foreclosure actions in South Florida each day in October, an 8 percent increase from the same time last year, according to Condo Vultures report.

The October activity is also an 86 percent increase from 2007, which could mean more trouble for the residential real estate market.

But, the overall pace of foreclosures is slowing for the year, said Peter Zalewski, managing principal of Bal Harbour-based real estate consultancy Condo Vultures, which tracks sales activity in the tri-county area.

Condo Vultures projects that 2009 will log 98,000 actions this year based on the pace of foreclosure filings to date. The high volume of activity earlier in the year put the tri-county area on pace for 102,000 foreclosure filings.

“Foreclosure filings are up from last year, but beginning to slow in volume compared to a quarter or two ago,” Zalewski said.

Looking at the first 10 months of the year, lenders filed foreclosures against 75,000 properties in 2008 and 33,000 in 2007. Foreclosures through the end of October this year represent a 28 percent increase compared to the same period last year.

Broward is leading the pack, with a 21 percent year-over-year jump – with 4,002 foreclosure actions filed in October. Miami-Dade saw its foreclosure activity grow by 10 percent, and Palm Beach actually saw its numbers drop by 9 percent.

The rise in foreclosure activity does not coincide with a rise in inventory, as would be expected. In fact, South Florida’s residential resale inventory dropped 1.1 percent on a week-over-week basis on Nov. 2, to 69,342 single-family houses, townhouses, and condominium units, according to the report produced using Florida Association of Realtors data.

• Companies:

  • Amedisys Inc.
  • Google Inc.
  • Lhc Group, Inc.

Is it possible to outperform the market using a strategy that uses only two variables? On Dec. 2, 2005, I started tracking a portfolio I based on the writings of Joel Greenblatt, a strategy he called his “Magic Formula.” He described this formula — which is “magical” in that it includes only two variables — in his bestseller The Little Book That Beats the Market.

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No sophisticated investor would take a chance on a formula based on magic, and there is not much reassuring about a book that calls itself “The Little Book That Beats the Market,” but I have looked at Greenblatt’s strategy in detail and decided to include it among the other legendary strategies I offer on my site for one reason — it works.

It’s not magic, despite its name, and there is nothing little or insignificant about it. As a way to invest in the stock market, Greenblatt’s strategy sits comfortably among those of the giants of the investing world. Since I began following it, it is up 46.6%, compared to a loss of 14.5% for the S&P 500 over the same period. Year to date, the Greenblatt strategy is up a sterling 64.0%, as compared with the S&P 500′s gain of 19.7%. You can see more detailed performance for it on my model portfolio page.

Why does the strategy work? Because it looks it focuses on two variables that get to the core of successful investing — profitability and valuation.

One of the two variables used is return on capital, which measures how profitably a company is using its assets. This is similar to return on assets, but ROC uses earnings before interest and taxes instead of reported earnings (which is typically used with return on assets) because debt payments and taxes can hide how well a firm’s actual operating business is doing.

Why look at ROC? Because it is a measure of a company’s competitive advantages. Companies with high ROC tend to be able to charge more than no-name competitors — take for example Toyota vs. some of the Chinese carmakers reportedly interested in entering the U.S. market. Or perhaps the company has a strong competitive position — as is the case with Google , which can offer capabilities to customers its smaller competitors cannot.

The second variable addresses earnings yield, but again, Greenblatt has some variations on a common theme. Once more he uses EBIT rather than earnings, and divides this by the value of the company, which includes the price of the company’s shares along with the amount of debt used to generate earnings. Another way to look at this is that this variable measures the return one could expect if one bought the whole company, including its debt.

With these two variables (which he weights equally), he ranks the 3,500 largest stocks — the higher the ranking, the better.

So which stocks are now highly ranked by this strategy? One is Pre-Paid Legal Services , which provides a form of insurance that reimburses members for legal expenses, much as medical insurance reimburses members for medical expenses. Its earnings yield is 21.19%, giving it a rank of 16 out of all stocks, and its return on total capital comes to 104.42%, earning a ranking of 32. However, when combined, Pre-Paid Legal Services is No. 4 among the stocks in our database. That’s impressive.

Amedisys is another Greenblatt favorite. It provides home health care services in the Southern and Southeastern regions of the country. This company’s earnings yield is 13.82%, which garners a ranking of 98, while return on total capital is 330.65%, a return that ranks fifth among the stocks in our database. Combined, Amedisys comes in at No. 8, a very strong result.

Another company that meets these tests is LHC Group , which provides both home- and facility-based health care services primarily to Medicare beneficiaries in the Southern U.S. Earnings yield for this company is 13.89%, good for a 95 ranking, while return on total capital is 122.23%, 19th among all stocks. Combined, its ranking is No. 9 out of our total database of stocks.

The strategy also likes venerable book publisher McGraw-Hill Companies , which is in the process of selling its Business Week magazine to Bloomberg. Its earnings yield is 12.42%, ranking it 149, while its return on total capital is 149.90%, earning a 13 ranking. In total, McGraw-Hill is ranked 13th among all the stocks in our database.

Greenblatt goes out of his way in his book to point out that, like all strategies, his will not work every month or every year. And that fact is what allows it to continue to work in the long term — its strong track record and common-sense approach make this strategy one worth paying close attention to.

Please note that due to factors including low market capitalization and/or insufficient public float, we consider Pre-Paid Legal Services to be a small-cap stock. You should be aware that such stocks are subject to more risk than stocks of larger companies, including greater volatility, lower liquidity and less publicly available information, and that postings such as this one can have an effect on their stock prices.

Press Releases

Pre-Paid Legal Services, Inc. Recognizes Associates Achievement

October 22, 2009 7:00 AM EDT

ADA, Okla., Oct. 22 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — Since Pre-Paid Legal Services, Inc. (NYSE: PPD) announced the re-launch of its marketing program at the 2009 Leadership Summit, there has been a significant increase in the number of independent associates achieving senior-level recognition and earnings with the company.

“We have delivered a strong message about the growth potential at Pre-Paid Legal.”

Services and our independent sales associates are responding to this opportunity,” said Harland C. Stonecipher, Founder and CEO of Pre-Paid Legal, Inc. “For the four-week period, from September 21 through October 16, 2009, we have seen more activity at all levels within the associate network, and we are proud to announce 13 major recognition and earning awards.”

These associate recognition and earnings awards (Editors: see note below) include:

–  $100,000 Ring Earners: Michael and Lisa McCoy (Clive, Iowa), Scott and Ronda Ferguson (Houston, Texas), Ryan Sean Burns (West Jordan, Utah), Trina Robinson and Austin Kemie (Los Angeles, California)
–  $250,000 Ring Earner: Chris and Sky Hughes (Murrietta,
California)
–  $300,000 Income Earners: Frank and Theresa AuCoin (Charleston, South Carolina), Sean and Loren Mikael (Los Angeles, California)
–  $800,000 Income Earner: Mark and Tammy Smith (Mission Viejo, California)
–  $1.5 million Income Earner: Brian Carruthers (Davidsonville,
Maryland)
–  Millionaire Club Member: Kim Ferris (Amherst, New York) and Joe and Doreen Wilkinson (North Richland Hills, Texas)
–  Platinum Level Award: Danny and Charlotte Walker (South Pete Beach, Florida)

Stonecipher referenced timing as a key variable in the recent surge of associate success. “In this economy people need legal advice — they have legal issues — and they need additional income,” Stonecipher said. “Our product and opportunity provide access to legal counsel and a way to generate more cash flow, both in the form of first-year commissions and residual income in later years.”

Editors Note:

Associate earnings are either for commissions earned during a 12-month period (which includes the “corporate ring system” given at earning levels of $100,000, $250,000, $500,000 and one million dollars) or for the Millionaire Club (which includes associates who have achieved one million dollars in commissions during their association with PPD). Pre-Paid Legal recognition includes other programs, such as the Platinum awards, a network leadership designation.

About PPD

We believe our products are one of a kind, life events legal services plans. Our plans provide for legal service benefits provided through a network of independent law firms across the U.S. and Canada, and include unlimited attorney consultation, will preparation, traffic violation defense, automobile-related criminal charges defense, letter writing, document preparation and review and a general trial defense benefit. We have an identity theft restoration product we think is also one of a kind due to the combination of our identity theft restoration partner and our provider law firms. More information about our products and us can be found at our homepage at www.prepaidlegal.com.

Forward Looking Statements

Statements in this press release, other than purely historical information, regarding our future plans and objectives and expected operating results, dividends and share repurchases and statements of the assumptions underlying such statements, constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. The forward-looking statements contained herein are based on certain assumptions that may not be correct. They are subject to risks and uncertainties incident to our business that could cause actual results to differ materially from those described in the forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties are described in the reports and statements filed by us with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including (among others) those listed in our Form 10-K, Form 10-Q and Form 8-K, and include the risks that our membership persistency or renewal rates may decline, that we may not be able to continue to grow our memberships and earnings, that we are dependent on the continued active participation of our principal executive officer, that pending or future litigation may have a material adverse effect on us if resolved unfavorably to us, that we may have compromises of our information security, that during an economic downturn in the economy consumer purchases of discretionary items may be affected which could materially harm our sales, retention rates, profitability and financial condition, that we could be adversely affected by regulatory developments, that competition could adversely affect us, that we are substantially dependent on our marketing force, that our stock price may be affected by short sellers, that we have been unable to increase our employee group membership sales and that our active premium in force is not indicative of future revenue as a result of changes in active memberships from cancellations and additional membership sales. Please refer to pages 15 – 17 of our 2008 Form 10-K and pages 7 and 8 of our June 30, 2009 Form 10-Q for a more complete description of these risks. We undertake no duty to update any of the forward-looking statements in this release.

SOURCE Pre-Paid Legal Services, Inc

via streetinsider.com

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Corporate litigators may find themselves facing a dramatic upswing in business, according to a report from the law firm of Fulbright & Jaworski.

Eighty-three percent of U.S. and U.K. companies surveyed reported that new litigation has begun against their companies in the past year.

Of the companies that responded to the sixth-annual Litigation Trends Survey, 38 percent said the primary reason is the economic downturn.

Forty-two percent said they expect an increase in legal disputes in the next 12 months. The survey polled 408 company lawyers between May and July.

Respondents from large-cap companies were the most concerned about higher levels of litigation, with 52 percent saying they expect more legal disputes. In the public company segment, 47 percent of the respondents expected an upswing in litigation.

The areas likely to experience more litigation involve bankruptcy, contracts and labor-employment, the report concludeds.

Increases also have been noted in the areas of intellectual property, insurance and regulatory actions, although they are experiencing more modest increases, the report said.

The one industry that appears less impacted by the swell of litigation is health care.

Whistle-blower investigations also are about to make a comeback, the report concluded.

“Looking to 2010, 16 percent of all respondents say they expect the number of internal investigations involving their company to increase,” the report noted.

As part of the trend, more corporate in-house counsel are starting to see more active regulators and expect the number of investigations into corporate business to increase.

Pre-Paid Legal In The News

Recent US Chamber Magazine article highlights Debt Collection as leading nationwide service request among legal service plan members of Pre-Paid Legal Services, Inc., during the second quarter of 2009.  “The Pre-Paid Legal Top Five List is intended to be a snapshot of the issues that legal service plan members face today.  Given the economic hardships that so many Americans are experiencing, it’s not a pretty picture,” says Pre-Paid Legal Services Founder and CEO Harland C. Stonecipher.

Posted on October 15, 2009 Current Affairs | –>Permalink |