How Can TheStreet.com Publish This Story?

In a piece written by Glenn Hall, TheStreet.com published an article today entitled "Today's Outrage: Sears Isn't Worth $4 Billion." I had to check my calendar to make sure it wasn't April 1st because I can't believe the editors at a prominent site would publish this nonsense.

Here is how the article begins:

"How can Sears be worth $31.84 a share? Target fetches only $29.54, and JC Penney is down to $16.55. At the other end of the retail spectrum, investors are only paying $6.41 for Macy's, and at the low end, Family Dollar Stores are only trading at $26. Wal-Mart is one of the few higher-valued competitors, with its shares at $53. So I have to ask: Who thinks Sears is better than Target or even JC Penney for that matter?"

I would expect this from a market novice who does not understand that share prices themselves do not indicate which companies are "better" than others (the number of shares outstanding, and therefore the equity market values, are different). But from TheStreet.com? I think Jim Cramer needs to have a talk with his editors over there.

I was planning on writing about Sears today, and will still do so later, but I just had to point this out for those of you who are often a little too quick to act on something you read online. It has become very easy to reach the online masses with one's views these days, given technological advances, but as a result the quality of the content is diluted, and perhaps even more so than I thought.

Full Disclosure: Peridot was long a small position in SHLD at the time of writing, but has been selling the stock steadily over the last couple of years, for reasons which will be explained in an upcoming blog post. Positions may change at any time.