Qube Logistics worth a buy....might surprise on the upside

Been looking through some logistics stocks and for mine, Qube logistics looks undervalued.

Currently at $2.27 but my price target is a solid $3.39 based on a fairly low cost of equity of 7% (it has a 7.1% ROE in 2013).

While it has a fairly high debt of around $700 million in total so it is looking at Debt to Equity ratio close to 0.7, it is not in the scray zone as yet.

But we will see...the Financial full year report is out in August. Might be worth while to thow some dollars in to see what happens.

Not: Not a recommendation to invest/not invest in Qube. If pain persists, please see your investment professional.

Season 2014 : Which is the most competitive league...NRL or AFL

Its all about the variance.

So far this season....

NRL - Variance between the win percentages of all 16 teams is 0.0148

AFL - Variance between the win percentages of all 18 team is 0.037

So by this rational, the NRL is at least twice as competitive as the AFL, with less teams.

So much for the draft levelling things up. It's about the Salary Cap stupid.

NRL Season 2014 Most improved, least improved Teams

Have started getting into Sports Statistics recently, probably due to my World Cup series of posts as well as my following of Nate Silvers fivethirtyeight.com statistics blog (see my link list if you would like to view)

Anyway, being also an avid NRL fan, I was wondering if we could use statistics to work out the most improved/least improved teams of the 2014 NRL season so far.

So I have calculated the last 3 year average win percentage of each team in the NRL an have used that as the baseline of what the win percentage should be in 2014. I have then compared that average with what the current win percentage is to get an idea of the percentage "improvement" or "detriment" of each team is.

And the improvers are :-

1. Parramatta: 99.3% improvement
2. Penrith: 66.4% improvement
3. Gold Coast Titans : 25% improvement
4. Sydney Roosters : 18% improvement
5. New Zealand Warriors : 15% improvement
5. West Tigers : 15% improvement
7. Bulldogs : 8% improvement
8. Dragons : 5% improvement
9. Manly: 3% improvement

On the other side are the dodgies

1. Cronulla Sharks: 49% destruction
2. Newcastle Knights: 38% destruction
3. Canberra Raiders : 27% destruction
3. Melbourne Storm : 27% destruction
5. North Queensland Cowboys: 17% destruction
6. Rabbits : 6% destruction
7. Bronco's : 4% destruction

Interesting stats really. Just goes to show how Ricky Stuart has affected the teams he has left/joined. Also, just how off field factors (peptites) and severe injury (Alex McKinnon) can affect teams performance.

Market Risk Premium for June 2014: 12.01%

Yep, its time for the all important Market Risk Premium for 30 June 2014. This is the risk premium that goes into all the valuations for stocks from the annual reports.

Using the same methodology as always...we have the capital return for the market over the trading days of the year to be 11.13% Add the average dividend yield over that period of 4.51% and you have a total market return being 15.64% (a bit down from March)

Average 10 year bond yield is now 3.63% and you have the Market risk premium of 12.01% (down from March).

So, still high but on the decline. I wonder if this is the beginning of the long awaited correction. It would not surprise.

Government Education...Growing, but not everywhere!

Based on my spreadsheets from yesterday, I was curious if Public education was growing. It is growing, up around 5% since 1999, but in a lot of states it is going backwards. Check this out