The change in name from "Information Handling Systems, Inc." to "IHS, Inc." may have seemed appropriate to company leaders when microfilmed catalogs for aerospace products to save storage space became obsolete by the presence of the internet. At that point, the company had to change its line of business from microfiche to publications, web-based and otherwise. Problem is that there are too many IHS's out there. We like the old name better.

There are business information systems and then there are business information systems. All purport in some degree to tell you how to run your business through some sort of software management process, or intellectual data. IHS is somewhat unique in this regard in our opinion, because it really doesn't make the decisions for a company. It simply provides a company or government agency the information necessary to make intelligent decisions on their own. The quality of the information provided in IHS's case is pretty high and specialized due to the selective nature of a large series of acquisitions made by the company over the past ten years or so.

But these acquisitions have also fueled earnings growth in a manner in which we feel is not sustainable. Stock raters looking at earnings growth rather than hard assets of a company will like the historical data on IHS's income statements, but that growth must inevitably slow down. To keep pace the company is expanding its operations worldwide.

Our article on Information Handling Systems, Inc. (IHS) is in the Archives Section immediately below.

Archive List

07-02-09: Information Handling Systems Inc. (IHS): Earnings Growth Fueled by Acquisitions

06-27-09: Actuant Corporation (ATU): Sales Weak But Stable

06-19-09: athenahealth, Inc. (ATHN): Business Software, Not Healthcare

06-15-09: BreitBurn Energy Partners Ltd. (BBEP): Oil In Los Angeles

06-11-09: Cal-Maine Foods Inc. (CALM): About the Eggs

06-02-09: Fuel Systems Solutions, Inc. (FSYS): Auto Parts or Alternative Energy?

05-29-09: Aircastle Ltd. (AYR): Equipment Leasing

05-26-09: Cabela's Inc. (CAB): Local Governments Offer Lots of Incentives

05-18-09: Temple-Inland Inc. (TIN): Returning Focus to Forest Products

05-14-09: True Religion Apparel Inc. (TRLG): Expensive Baseball Caps & Jeans

05-07-09: Central Aluminum Co. (CENX): Squeezing the Shorts

05-02-09: Textron, Inc. (TXT): Non-Core Business Hurts

04-25-09: Corrections Corp. of America (CXW): Property Management or Prison Management

04-20-09: Eagle Bulk Shipping, Inc. (EGLE): Baltic Dry Index Falls

04-14-09: Janus Capital Group, Inc. (JNS): Insider Timing Grade A

04-06-09: Big Lots, Inc. (BIG): Close-Outs Mean Bargains

03-31-09: Finish Line Inc. (FINL): Concentrating on Core Business

03-23-09: Macerich Company (MAC): Pinched by Low Retail Sales

03-19-09: Cliffs Natural Resources (CLF): Biding Its Time

03-11-09: Plum Creek Timber Co. (PCL): REIT or Forest Products Company?

03-08-09: World Fuel Services Inc. (INT): Marine and Air Niche

02-28-09: Zenith Monthly Traffic Report for February

02-27-09: CommScope Inc. (CTV): From Wired to Wireless

02-22-09: Suntech Power Holdings Ltd. (STP): Alternate Energy Out-Production

02-14-09: Bank of America Corporation (BAC): Too Big To Fail

02-09-09: Automatic Data Processing Inc. (ADP): Institutions Dumping

02-04-09: Mariner Energy Inc. (ME): Efficient Domestic Producer

01-29-09: VistaPrint Ltd. (VPRT): Best Things Are Free

01-21-09: Career Education Corp. (CECO): Enrollment, Retention, and Student Loans Difficult

01-19-09: Shaw Group Inc. (SGR): Waiting for Return of Nuclear Power

01-14-09: RPM Inc. (RPM): There Are Paints and Then There Are Paints

01-10-09: Amerisafe Inc. (AMSF): Undeterred by Unemployment

01-04-09: Wausau Paper Corp. (WPP): Does Someone Know Something?

12-31-08: Beacon Roofing Supply, Inc. (BECN): Surprising Strength During Housing Decline

12-30-08: TeleCommunication Systems Company (TSYS): Wireless Telecom Network Prospects

12-21-08: Emergent Biosolutions Inc. (EBS): Antrax Stopper

12-17-08: Leggett & Platt Inc. (LEG): GAAP / Non-GAAP Gap

12-12-08: Norfolk Southern Corp. (NSC): Crude Oil Price Collapse Reduces Load Factor

12-08-08: Bio-Rad Laboratories, Inc. (BIO): Many Test Kits

12-05-08: Emcor Group, Inc. (EME): Betting on Infrastructure

Zenith's Active List of 39 Stocks as of 07/03/2009

(Updated once a week, usually on Saturday)

Note: Zenith tries to pick only stocks which are shortable, but sometimes stocks appear afterward on the SEC Regulation SHO list of stocks which are not shortable, which is beyond our control.

On some stocks, Zenith may hold more than the number of shares it trades in its inventory. Thus the "short" sale of such a security would technically not be a "short" sale for us and not subject to SEC rules regarding selling securities which are not deliverable. Also, stocks pop on and off the list available for shorting on successive days, so the presence of a stock on the current SHO list doesn't mean it was there at the time it was shorted.

What are the last three entries in the Active Stocks chart list? These represent typical high-, low-, and mid-cap mutual funds to help us gage the tenor of the stock market as a whole.