Im just happy they voted to not double to price of milk!

Score!!!!!!!!!!!

You can contribute $5500 per year to a Roth IRA now. That was a pleasant surprise. So my max has been reached for this year already. Next week I should be able to purchase the stocks. I just hope they wait til I'm on board before they take off like a rocket ship. Hey, I can engage wishful thinking, right? :D

I just received this letter from Fidelity:

12/31/12 14:07:16
CATERPILLAR INC. IS OFFERING TO PURCHASE ALL SHARES OF ITS COMMON STOCK FROM SHAREHOLDERS OWNING LESS THAN 100 SHARES (99 SHARES OR LESS) AS OF RECORD DATE NOVEMBER 26, 2012. SHAREHOLDERS WILL RECEIVE THE WEIGHTED AVERAGE MARKET PRICE PER SHARE TENDERED, THE DAY THE SHARES ARE SOLD BY THE AGENT. A PROCESSING FEE OF $2.00 PER SHARE UP TO A MAXIMUM OF $50.00 PER ACCOUNT WILL BE DEDUCTED TO DEFRAY THE COST OF THE PROGRAM.

HOLDERS ALSO HAVE THE OPTION OF ROUNDING UP THEIR HOLDINGS TO EXACTLY 100 SHARES. HOLDERS ELECTING THE ROUND-UP OPTION WILL BE CHARGED THE ESTIMATED PURCHASE PRICE OF $95.00 PER SHARE PURCHASED. A PROCESSING FEEOF $2.00 PER SHARE PURCHASED (UP TO A MAXIMUM OF $50.00 PER ACCOUNT) WILL BE DEDUCTED TO DEFRAY THE COST OF THE PROGRAM.

I'm wondering, if I don't want to sell but I can't afford to round up to 100 shares does this matter? I thought I'd ask here before I call them in the morning.

Waking up to a nice jump in the market, today is starting to look like a good day.

I can't find any news on CAT taking an action like this... And I would NEVER respond to an email sent from any financial institution. Only way I respond to a financial institution to to use my OWN links (not those in an email) and or call them using the phone numbers I have (not those in an email).

I also have no idea what - if anything - you should do - since I don't understand the "offering".

From time to time I'll have a "Call" on some senior subordinated notes etc get called away - meaning that the company has the right to pay them back early at a pre agreed price. This just happened to symbol GE-A... General Electric 6.5% notes... they did a partial call. But I've not ever had a situation where they were just taking me out of a STOCK.

Cat
 

Jose,



My guess is - there's too much bookkeeping and they (CAT) just want to take out small batch holders so they don't have to cut dividend checks and mail notices out etc.

I don't see this "program" as being legit. Not only is this weird, the $2.00 per share ($50 per account) processing fee seems to make this a pretty raw deal. Why would you go through their "program" rather than just selling in the market and paying a normal trade commission? With most discount brokerage firms this would be less than $10 total? From what I read above, it's not like they're going to pay you a premium to the fair market value, so why use the "program"...

TOTALY AGREE with this!


The whole thing sounds fishy to me.

Jose,


Hope you held that APPLE stock?????


:D

This was an email from Fidelity that required me to log into my account in a seperate action. Not through a link provided with the email. I checked my Schwab account, also containg shares of CAT (don't ask, rookie mistake) and saw no mention of this. I hope I don't have to give up my shares just because they decide to squeeze out the little guy.