Sold Stocks during December 2022

 

Hmmm... In the end of November the high inflation, prices for gas an electricity was getting to me and my thoughts were as follows. I want to get rid of RWE since it has increased too much and I'm not overly joyed about their energy production so then I might as well balance the massive share price gain by getting rid of some long standing bad investments (German banks!) in my German broker account. So I did.

Secondly... The dollar is high, inflation should lead to higher prices in the fast food chains and people have less spending power meaning they should (but will they though) reduce how much they spend in the fast food chains. I should potentially not have sold off McDonalds since they are not a fast food chain, however, property prices are also going down. I'll keep an eye on McDonalds moving forward.

Restaurant brands bought for 6,438.30 € and sold for 7,580.74 € with a profit of 1,142.44 € (17.7%) and additionally I've received 85.79 € in dividends.

Yum! bought for 5,317.92 € and sold for 5,752.46 €, leaving a profit of 434.54 € (8.2%) and additionally I've received 83.58 € in dividends.

Stock Y was bought for 4,387.05 € and sold for 1,093.06 €, giving a loss of -3,293.99 € (-75.1%).

McDonalds was bought for 4,806.72 € and sold for 7,220.49 €, leaving a profit of 2,413.77 € (50.2%) and additionally 223.65 € was paid out in dividends.

RWE was bought for 4,581.29 € and sold for 13,929.30 €, with a profit of 9,348.01 € (204.1%) and additionally I've received 1,652.50 € in dividends.

VW was bought for 2,003.14 € and sold for 1,623.34 €, with a loss of -379.80 € (-19.0%) and additionally 339.96 € had been paid out in dividends.

Deutsche Bank was bought for 9,483.77 € and sold for 4,204.58 €, giving a loss of -5,279.19 € (-55.7%), over the years I've received 807.45 € in dividends. Held since 2012.

K+S was bought for 5,195.89 € and sold for 4,647.95 €, giving a loss of -547.94 € (-10.6%), additionally I've received 724.40 € in dividends. Held since 2013.

Commerzbank was bought for 7,649.76 € and sold for 5,736.56 €, causing a loss of -1,913.20 € (-25.0%), additionally I've received 905.30 € in dividends over the years. Held since 2012.

My average holding time of divested companies are now at 3.35 years.

Analysis of Coba 2020

Company: Commerzbank 

ISIN DE000CBK1001 | WKN CBK100

Business: A German bank. The now claim to have only 2 business segments: Private and Small-business customers and secondly Corporate clients. They have recently taken over comDirect to expand more into internet banking and to take over the customers.

Active: Claim presence in 50 countries. Europe with Germany and Poland the biggest.

P/E: 6.2

Here you can find the previous Analysis of Coba 2018. 

The P/E for Commerzbank is low with 6.2 and the P/B is good with 0.14 which gives an ok from Graham. Earnings to sales is at 7% which means it has improved, the ROE is poor with 2.2% and the book to debt ratio is nothing to sneer at with 0.7.

In the last two years they have showed a somewhat increase in revenue but looking back five years then the result is still negative with a yearly revenue loss of -5.5%. This gives us a motivated P/E of anything between 2 and 9 which means that Commerzbank is today fairly valued by the market.

They pay no dividends.

Future: What is the future of the old banks? Honestly I do not know. Humanity keeps over consuming by using credit, they keep buying houses with credit (fully normal). There are several clever online banks that have low overheads dealing with loans, savings and stocks and the generation that wanted and needed to step into an office are becoming fewer for each passing year. What does Commerzbank have that makes them survive?

Conclusion: Grahams formula shows a positive result. I am no longer convinced and this is one of those failed investments that was made during my first year of investing... and on top of it, it is still hanging around even after the cleanout session. I clearly need to read up on Commerzbank to find out if they have a future or not and then also decide how to move forward with this money drain.

Analysis of Coba 2018

Company: Commerzbank 

ISIN DE000CBK1001 | WKN CBK100 

Business: A German bank. Their five pillars are: Private Customers (accounts, credits, wealth management etc.), Mittelstandbank (medium sized companies as well as institutions), Central & Easter Europe (mBank big in Poland), Corporate & Markets (Corporate finance, equity, currencies etc.) and finally Non-Core Assets (Real Estate and ship-building). They actually only claim to have four pillars but I prefer to add their "bad bank", the NCA, as the fifth.

Active: Claim presence in 50 countries. Europe with Germany and Poland the biggest. 

P/E: 85

Here you can find the previous analysis of Coba 2017. 

The P/E for Commerzbank is a blast with 85 and the P/B is still good with 0.5 which, all considered, gives thumbs done from Graham. Earnings to sales is at 2% which is bad, the ROE is laughable with 0.5% and the book to debt ratio is nothing to sneer at with 0.7.

In the last five years they have kept showing a wonderful decline in revenue which by now corresponds to a yearly revenue loss of -9.6%. This gives us a motivated P/E of 8 which means that Commerzbank is highly overvalued by the market.

They pay no dividends but they keep talking about it.

Conclusion: Graham says no and so do I. Only good value is the P/B and that is just not enough. The day I step out of the German banks it will be like a stone leaving my heart. I will remain as a grumpy shareholder for now.

Coba annual report 2017

For the report in full then please click here and for the previous brief summary then please visit Coba annual report 2016 and to find out more about Commerzbank then please go to analysis of Coba 2017.

The only thing that kept entering my mind when reading the report from Commerzbank was "Ops, I did it again... etc. etc.". I seriously do not know for which year in a row that the revenue has decreased. It is a never ending story. They claim that the restructuring is now finally done. Do I believe that? No, I do not. Give them another month and it will be time for a new restructuring plan. They congratulated themselves for the growth of mBank in Poland. It grew so well during 2016 and even better in 2017 that... was only slightly hampered by the loan losses. Ok, to me that means that they are growing like crazy by giving loans and credit to people that are at high risk. So the "growth" from 2017 will be punished in 2018. It is sad, sad, sad to read these kind of things.

Looking at the financial statement below then we see that the interest income dropped, happily so did the expenses and the bottom line is a sad story of only 154 millions in profits which is 44% less than the earnings in 2016. Well done! Pad on the shoulder and all that.

Conclusion: Commerzbank have not managed to sort out their shit in pretty much 10 years now since the financial crisis. Should they be allowed to survive when they are so incompetent? Swedish banks, please step into the German market to push this German incompetence to either die or be truly forced to improve improve. I will remain a grumpy shareholder.

Analysis of Coba 2017

Company: Commerzbank 

ISIN DE000CBK1001 | WKN CBK100 

Business: A German bank. Their five pillars are: Private Customers (accounts, credits, wealth management etc.), Mittelstandbank (medium sized companies as well as institutions), Central & Easter Europe (mBank big in Poland), Corporate & Markets (Corporate finance, equity, currencies etc.) and finally Non-Core Assets (Real Estate and ship-building). They actually only claim to have four pillars but I prefer to add their "bad bank", the NCA, as the fifth.

Active: Claim presence in 50 countries. Europe with Germany and Poland the biggest. 

P/E: 42.5

Here you can find the previous analysis of Coba 2016. 

The P/E of Coba is shockingly high with 42.5 which comes from very poor earnings but either way the P/B is very good with 0.4 which gives surprisingly enough a go from Graham. The earnings to sales a very poor with 3% and the ROE is laughable with 1%. The book to debt is as always very unpleasant which is normal for the German banks by the look of things.

In the last five years they have had the indecency of showing a yearly negative revenue growth rate of -7.5%. This is of course not good at all and it gives a motivated P/E of around 8 which means that Coba is today overvalued by the market.

They pay no dividends but on the other hand since they do not manage to bring in any earnings this is also how it should be.

Conclusion: Graham kind of says yes and I say grrr. I really thought that the turn around had started but that was clearly not the case. My patience for the German banks is very low at the moment. The only value looking ok is the P/B value and every other looks today very bad. It is interesting to see how fast things can go bad again. I will remain as a grumpy shareholder.

Coba annual report 2016

For the report in full then please click here and for the previous brief summary then please visit Coba annual report 2016 and to find out more about Commerzbank then please go to analysis of Coba 2016.

In the financial statement below we can see the same trend going on as it has done from the very first day that I bought Coba back in 2012. Less income, less income, less income. Everything just keeps going down year by year quarter by quarter. It is not a happy sight to see. Their Cost to Income ratio is up at 75.5%. Their earnings are silly low with only 279 million € coming out in the end which is the equivalent of 0.22 € per share. Last year they paid out 0.2 € in dividends and this year dividends have been cancelled again. To me this clearly shows that the managers do not even have a clue how far out on the scale of trouble Coba is. The capital ratios have improved ever so slightly but the facts remain that Coba is still not a healthy bank.

Conclusion: Last year I thought that Coba had reached the turn around point which was part of the reason for why I pushed in some more money into it. Now we are back the the previous trend again and I do not see the turn around besides from in the share price that have improved significantly lately. I will remain a grumpy shareholder.

Stock bought June 2016: Commerzbank

I simply are not able to walk away from the German banks. This time I decided to push in some more money into Coba. Historically the decision is correct and I decide to look at history on this one.

I bought 200 more shares for a total value of 1,288.10 € including the fees. As always I was a bit early. I once again pushed down the price per share that I have paid in Coba and I am now down at 10.61 € per share and the total cost is up at 7,650 €.

The value today is around half of what I have invested which is annoying and the future performance needed from Coba to cover for all these poor years will be tough to reach and the likelihood that it will not increases for each passing year. That is reality and the flowers that should be sniffed.

To find out more regarding Coba please visit analysis of Coba 2016.

With the next update of the monthly report the new change will be brought in to the Stock Portfolio.

Coba report Q1 2016

The share price of Commerzbank have been drifting downwards for the last couple of weeks so I therefore assume that the expectations on Coba were higher than what they managed to deliver. What was then in the report?

Dividend from Coba: April 2016

My first ever real dividend from Coba was paid out now in April. I have previously made a "dividend" booking on it but that was a failed sale of share rights which I neither wanted to or should have done. Coba is still not out of the woods but they themselves at least consider themselves to be so close that they even decide to pay out a dividend. Personally I think/hope that they will not be forced to take any further impairment costs due to old garbage. I am however certain that the future will bring new issues.

For my 530 shares I received a total of 106 € or 0.2 € per share. I do not have to pay any taxes on that and therefore the full 106 € are paid in as cash to my broker account. This then gives me a YoC of 1.6% which is awful but at least it is a start.

To find out more about Coba then please visit analysis of Coba 2016.

To see my total dividend flow then please visit the Stock Dividends page that will soon be updated. 

Analysis of Coba 2016

Company: Commerzbank 

ISIN DE000CBK1001 | WKN CBK100 

Business: A German bank. Their five pillars are: Private Customers (accounts, credits, wealth management etc.), Mittelstandbank (medium sized companies as well as institutions), Central & Easter Europe (mBank big in Poland), Corporate & Markets (Corporate finance, equity, currencies etc.) and finally Non-Core Assets (Real Estate and ship-building). They actually only claim to have four pillars but I prefer to add their "bad bank", the NCA, as the fifth.

Active: Claim presence in 50 countries. Europe with Germany and Poland the biggest. 

P/E: 9.5

Coba annual report 2015

My second German bank arrived with their report for the full year 2015. By the look of it Coba has now managed to turn the ship around and things are looking better. Not only are they bringing home more earnings but they are even claiming to move some assets that was entered in the Non-Core-Assets (=all the dangerous high risk stuff that they had in their books) back to the normal business. I do not remember what the market response was to the report but generally banks and German banks in particular are strongly disliked by the market today.

Extra stock bought December 2015: Coba

Based on what I wrote yesterday regarding European banks this investment decision should not be a big surprise to any of you because also Commerzbank is traded at a P/B of 0.44 at this very moment. That is, frankly put, silly. It has taken a long time and obviously it will take even longer but I have no fear to be heavy into the German banks. The only thing is... missed opportunities that one have while waiting for the turn-arounds to turn around. Can one calculate that? Should one calculate that?

This then also finishes the investment round for the year 2015 since now we must wait for the final salary of the year from which we will then by stocks in January 2016. During the year around 22k € was pushed into stocks which is 10k more than my running plan but I guess I will speak more of that in another article now in the end of the year.

An additional 100 shares were bought at a total cost of 1,035 € including fees. This then gives me a total of 522 shares at a total cost of 6,362 € including fees or 12.19 € per share.

To find out more regarding Coba please visit analysis of Coba 2015.

With the next update of the monthly report the new change will be brought in to the Stock Portfolio.

Coba report Q3 2015

Commerzbank joined the club of reporting the third quarter for 2015. The report was well accepted by the market and that the chairman of the board will not extend his contract (he got around one more year of service) was also not something that caused a stir. In one years time they should be able to find a good replacement. I discussed with a colleague that said that he had done a good job... well... I can agree that he has been helpful in getting Commerzbank back on their feet again and he remained loyal and stayed with the bank during the hard times but on the other hand... he was sitting in the board (not is power though) already when the decision was made to take over the Dresdner Bank that has been the biggest cause for almost all the trouble so it is clearly a grey zone situation.

Extra stock bought October 2015: Coba

My hate affair with the German banks once again increased. I simply find that both DB and Coba have been beaten down too much to be reasonable and well... even though I wrote in the Coba report Q2 2015 that I would not buy more... I did not manage to stick to that. This investment was made due to my sale of MüRe as it were reported in stock sold September 2015: MüRe.

So I increased my holding with an additional 110 shares at a total cost of 1,028.7 € including fees or 9.35 € per share. Since I give these shares away to my nephews on their birthday my holding keeps decreasing but right now I still have around 420 shares and I have paid a total of 5,327 € or 12.68 € per share.

To find out more regarding Coba please visit analysis of Coba 2015.

With the next update of the monthly report the new change will be brought in to the Stock Portfolio.

Coba report Q2 2015

Commerzbank arrived with their quarter report and since I am less active than usual I really do not know what the market response was to it. The fact remains though that the share price have in no way gone like a sky rocket so I assume it was not well accepted.

Coba report Q1 2015

Here comes the brief summary of the Q1 2015 report Coba, which is the second largest bank of Germany that back in 208/2009 failed one step more than DB and had to get capital from the German taxpayers to survive. This they often repaid in kindness by pushing out their bad assets to the German population, often to elderly people, that trusted in that the bank they had been customers with for 30+ years would not cheat them. How wrong they were and shame on Coba and all the other banks for that matter.

Analysis of Coba 2015

Company: Commerzbank

ISIN DE000CBK1001 | WKN CBK100

Business: A German bank. Their five pillars are: Private Customers (accounts, credits, wealth management etc.), Mittelstandbank (medium sized companies as well as institutions), Central & Easter Europe (mBank big in Poland), Corporate & Markets (Corporate finance, equity, currencies etc.) and finally Non-Core Assets (Real Estate and ship-building). 

Active: Claim presence in 50 countries. Europe with Germany and Poland are biggest.

P/E: 56.9

Coba annual report 2014

Here in the end I simply downloaded the annual reports but forgot to take notice of what happened with the share price during the day. I guess the front picture as well as several pictures in the report brought up the marketing costs substantially. I do however like that Coba made advertisement also for a second company of mine namely, Adidas. In the report we could find that...

End of year overview 2014

The end of the year is near and for that reason it is a good time to look over all the investments again. The reasons for why I bought shares have not changed since last year so for all the old stocks you can go to the previous report called End of year overview of my contrarian stocks 2013. The old companies will however still be brought up with how much value they have generated (share price * shares + dividend - trading fees) and if there has been any new lesson learnt then that will also be brought up.

Commerzbank report Q3 2014

Share price was up around 1.5% on the day of publishing but has been drifting downwards ever since and generally the German banks are still being, and justifiable so, treated poorly by the stock market. Oh, and the woman is still on her bicycle so the development speed for Commerzbank have still not increased beyond bicycle speed. Where is the Ferrari I wonder?