Strictly business…
It’s been a few weeks since we last handed out a gold star. But these two sentences in the proxy that Casey General Stores (CASY) certainly seems worthy:
We own a corporate aircraft for the exclusive business use of our employees, including but not limited to the named executive officers. Personal use of the aircraft is not permitted under Company policy.
Imagine that! Personal use is not permitted! That means that CEO Robert Myers isn’t allowed to use it to travel between his home and his office, as Time Warner’s (TWX) CFO, Wayne Pace, does. Or to his beach house (assuming he has one), as the former Chairman of the soon-to-be acquired Applebee’s (APPB) used to do. Even more interesting is that a quick skim of earlier filings doesn’t turn up any mention of a corporate aircraft.
Now, Casey, which is based in a suburb of Des Moines isn’t exactly a well-known company. It operates a chain of convenience stores in Iowa, Illinois and Missouri that according to its Yahoo profile carry nouvelle cuisine like pork and chicken fritters. So it’s unlikely that this no-keys-to-the-corporate jet is likely to spread too far outside of Ankeny, IA. Still, Casey’s policy — whether it’s new or just newly disclosed — deserves a rare footnoted gold star.
Trade safe out there! And try not to obsess about it too much over the weekend!
RSS
August 10th, 2007 at 12:12 pm
It looks like they don’t even own a jet, but a Beech Bonanza (piston single) and a Piper Cheyenne (pressurized turboprop twin). N6655Y and N165KC respectively. The bonanza hasn’t flown in the last 4 months (according to flightaware), but the cheyenne is pretty active.
August 10th, 2007 at 1:09 pm
Gee another excellent litter trader. Seems to have run up against overhead resistance yet
again. Needs strong break of $30. Only 67k
insider sales past 6 months.
Income and balance sheets are positive. Cash
flow from ops is but lagging for 2007.
Large float, mainly institutional ownership.
End of April had 1463 stores, 15 were franchisees.
Gotta love their address, One Convenience Boulevard
fwiw Been following a similarly structured stock in steak restaurant biz. RARE. Had a
big saucer top then a run up lately. #29
Bit more high end than CASY so will track both
for signs of which part of consumer cracks first — the brown bagger or doggy bagger.
Enjoy a nice dry summer weekend.
August 10th, 2007 at 9:51 pm
Michelle:
I did a thorough review of this Midwestern-based convenience store operator one-year ago [when the stock was about $22]. If any of your readers are looking for a detailed analysis: http://10qdetective.blogspot.com/2006/08/caseys-general-stores-convenience.html
re: Corporate Governance: Take a look at the nice paycheck I highlighted that former CEO Lamb brings down for sitting at the head of the table at Board meetings:
$700,00 plus perk(s) plus SERP payments!
Best Regards-
David J. Phillips, Publisher
http://www.10qdetective.blogspot.com
August 13th, 2007 at 4:12 pm
Sounds like they are following in the footsteps of Sam Walton who used his plane to scope out the are to visually see where communities of a particular size were that might be well served by a Wal-Mart.
August 13th, 2007 at 10:12 pm
August Busch III uses a helicopter to fly from his home in the suburbs to AB’s HQs in downtown St. Louis. I see absolutely no need for that.