"Warren Buffett makes clear that his goal is to increase the per-share value of Berkshire Hathaway," he wrote. "Similarly, our goal is to increase the per-share value of Sears Holdings."

The reclusive chairman avoids contact with analysts and reporters and declined to be interviewed for this story. But Lampert-watchers think there's more evidence than ever that the hedge-fund operator and investing whiz wants to turn the company into an investment empire along the lines of Berkshire Hathaway, taking it far beyond retail — and maybe even out of retail altogether.

"When he names Warren Buffett as a model, you've got to believe there are things he has in mind with the cash that he has and the stock price that he has," said George Rosenbaum, chairman of Leo J. Shapiro and Associates, a Chicago-based retail consulting firm. "I would think it's acquisitions. But I can't imagine what he might acquire. It may not be a retail business at all."

Lampert promised last March 24 that there would not be wholesale store closings, and there haven't been. But Rosenbaum speculated that more closings will occur in the already pruned-down Kmart chain, resulting in a smaller but more profitable group of Sears and Kmart stores.

"It's the Lampert style," Rosenbaum said. "Keep the stock high, cut spending to the bone, let sales down to levels where you're running pretty profitable stores without a lot of investments in renewing the store or improving the offering. And then take the stock price and use it in businesses that are more interesting than Sears or Kmart."

Davidowitz believes similarly. "There's got to be another act to this, because I think Eddie Lampert knows that what he's doing is unsustainable," he said.

Lampert used cost cuts and real-estate transactions to help Kmart Holding Corp., based in Troy, Mich., turn a $1.1 billion profit in 2004, a year after taking control when it emerged from bankruptcy.

That contrasts with the strategy employed at rival Penney's, where then-CEO Allen Questrom launched a turnaround by upgrading stores and merchandise and opening new off-mall stores.

Some analysts say Lampert is treading dangerously with his opposite approach.

"To claim that same-store sales is a 'vastly overrated metric' ignores every retailer's primary performance target, expense leverage tool and definition of success, and his reasoning rests more on mathematics than merchandising," said Carol Levenson, of the corporate bond research firm Gimme Credit, in a research note.