Tuesday, December 25, 2007

Excel Maritime has been volatile but profitable in the long run

Excel Maritime Carriers ltd. (EXM) is in the business of dry bulk cargo transport. Primarily coal, grain, iron and steel. They have a fleet of 15 super vessels with a combined capacity of over 950,000 dead weight tons. The company is registered in Bermuda but operates out of Greece. The chairman of the company is Gabriel Panayotides. He and his family own a controlling interest.
In january of 2003 the stock was under $5 a share. By the summer of 04 it was around $60. The next two years were awful. It slid all the way back to under $10 by the summer of 06. Since then it has recovered all its losses and more and so by October of this year it was over $80. Since October it has been doing more falling than rising and so on December 24th, 07 it closed at $40.23.
A rocky ride to be sure but in the long term it is up. Even with the steep rises and declines it has gone from $5 a share 5 years ago to over $40 now and thats not bad. Obviously this stock isint for you if you are nervous about sharp declines and you are more trader oriented than long term investor oriented. If you play that game with this stock it could go badly. If you are long term thinking it has done well over time overall.

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