Steel Wings

Sold all my shares of Ryerson, Inc. early Friday. The Chicago steel maker earned $32.4 million during the quarter, or $1.12 per share. That includes a gain on the sale of assets during the quarter. They sold a sweet little division that supplies the oil and gas industry in Texas and Oklahoma. That gain was $21 million dollars, or $0.44 cents per share.

I want to sell those press release numbers down the river, too. The one time gain of $21 million is sixty-eight percent of earnings. The one-time gain of twenty one million is more like $0.78 per share. Someone needs to check their math. This company just recovered from re-stating income statements going back years.

There were other factors in the sell. There was a poster on the Yahoo message board who woke up some fools. I listened to the conference call live, and their lack of candor made me laugh out loud. Many reasonable queries during Q & A were met with this dry, reflexive, "No." Thank God someone came up to meet my limit at $30.45, because I was ready to unload that bag with a market order, eeeech.