Ah, Sears Holdings (SHLD). Butt of a thousand jokes. Seller of good tools and, well, other stuff.

Sears gets no respect. So why, after taking a tremendous hit in May and June, is the stock at $75 and trending up? Why is the company's forecast beating expectations even as sales drop and the competition continues to steal business?

For that answer, you need to take apart the stock a little bit. Sears is one of the most interesting stocks out there, and you'll see why in a minute. Let's get into the financials:   

Shrinking shares. Sears has been aggressively buying back its shares, and this week announced that it had snapped up 1.2 million shares in its fourth quarter for a total cost of $77 million. It has board approval to spend another $187 million on shares going forward. Post continues after video:
The share buybacks have been going strong for years. This great chart from Bespoke Investment Group shows that the number of outstanding SHLD shares has dropped from 160 million in 2007 to about 109 million today. Buybacks decrease the share portion of the earnings-per-share equation, making EPS more attractive.

Concentrated ownership. About 75% of all shares are owned by only three entities, reports Bespoke. Sears is completely tied up with Ed Lampert, a 40-something billionaire and hedge fund manager.

Lampert's hedge fund, RBS Partners, owns 48.2 million shares, and Lampert himself owns 17.1 million. Fairholme Funds is the other big owner, with 14.7 million shares.

Huge short interest. OK, so when you take out those three owners, much of the rest of SHLD is getting shorted. In fact, Bespoke reports, about 44% of the remaining shares are sold short. If the company keeps up its share buybacks, Bespoke writes, the shorts will be forced to cover -- or short interest could rise to 100%.

It's the assets, baby. Lots of articles bemoan the future of Sears, especially as Wal-Mart (WMT), Target (TGT) and other rivals steal business. Sears outlets saw a 6% drop in same-store sales in December -- yes, the December when the entire retail sector seemed to come back to life.

Mark Holder notes on Seeking Alpha that Sears will end the quarter with $1.1 billion in cash and $8.3 billion in inventories -- but the company's market cap is $8.2 billion. Those asset figures don't even include the Sears and Kmart brands, Holder notes, or the real estate holdings that could be turned into cash.

Mixed financials. Sears' quarter doesn't end until Jan. 29, so we won't get the report until next month. But this week, the company said its earnings would be $3.39 to $4.12 a share. Analysts had been expecting only $3.09.

That bright outlook is largely due to a tax rate that fell to 32% after Sears worked out some federal and state tax issues. One analyst noted that the tax benefit added some 35 cents to 42 cents to EPS.

The outlook takes some of the pain away from Sears' sales and profit numbers, which have been flat or in decline. It is simply too tough for Sears to compete with Wal-Mart and Target, and that picture doesn't look to improve anytime soon.

The future. Despite its retailing woes, Sears is definitely undervalued. As noted earlier, its market cap doesn't even equal its cash and inventories. And the company will likely continue buybacks, giving Lampert and RBS an even bigger piece of the pie. At some point, the shorts will have to cover.

If Sears can just achieve modest growth while keeping its cash flow intact, there's every reason to suspect that the share price will continue to ramp up.