Thursday, July 3, 2014

Stocks Of The Month: GRPN, SCTY

This month's choices continue the recent trend of growth stocks. I've had my eye on both of these stocks for a while...one of them waited around for me, and I'm a little late on the other...


Groupon (GRPN)

Positives:
Decent revenue growth (26%).
Reasonable forward P/E of 26.
$1B cash, zero debt.
Positive cash flows ($189M operating, $249M free).

Negatives:
Bad margins (-5% profit, 1% operating), ROA (1%), ROE (-15%).
Negative earnings (-0.19 EPS).
Significantly shorted (12%).


SolarCity (SCTY)

Positives:
Excellent revenue growth (112%!).
Very low 5-year PEG ratio of 0.58 (if you believe in that sort of future-telling).
Positive operating cash flow ($150M).

Negatives:
Terrible margins (-20% profit, -95% operating), ROA (-5%), ROE (-32%).
$516M cash vs. $710M debt.
Negative free cash flow (-$785M).
Heavily shorted (29%).


Here's my current portfolio (growth, dividend, and speculative). As always, I believe in all of these stocks - until I sell them.

Apple (AAPL) 11.27%
Tesla Motors (TSLA) 9.96%
Google (GOOG/GOOGL) 6.98%
Baidu (BIDU) 6.29%
3D Systems (DDD) 4.87%
Amazon (AMZN) 3.33%
Under Armour (UA) 3.17%
Southern Copper (SCCO) 3.17%
Ace Limited (ACE) 2.98%
Qihoo 360 (QIHU) 2.78%
Stratasys (SSYS) 2.68%
Blackstone (BX) 2.56%
Twitter (TWTR) 2.39%
Intuitive Surgical (ISRG) 2.13%
American Software (AMSWA) 1.93%
Nike (NKE) 1.81%
Intel (INTC) 1.48%
Apache (APA) 1.45%
ExOne (XONE) 1.40%
Wynn Resorts (WYNN) 1.40%
DuPont (DD) 1.34%
Kinder Morgan Energy Partners (KMP) 1.30%
EMC (EMC) 1.28%
McDonald's (MCD) 1.26%
Las Vegas Sands (LVS) 1.23%
Prospect Capital (PSEC) 1.14%
ConocoPhillips (COP) 1.14%
American Express (AXP) 1.14%
Wells Fargo (WFC) 1.01%
Starbucks (SBUX) 0.99%
Computer Programs and Systems (CPSI) 0.96%
Canadian National Railway (CNI) 0.95%
Microsoft (MSFT) 0.91%
Cisco (CSCO) 0.90%
Hershey (HSY) 0.89%
F5 Networks (FFIV) 0.89%
Ansys (ANSS) 0.87%
BlackRock (BLK) 0.85%
Coca-Cola (KO) 0.83%
Salesforce.com (CRM) 0.77%
International Business Machines (IBM) 0.74%
iRobot (IRBT) 0.74%
Groupon (GRPN) 0.72%
SolarCity (SCTY) 0.70%
China Mobile (CHL) 0.68%
The Distressed (BEBE, GSOL, LZB, MSI, TMUS) 0.64%
Lululemon Athletica (LULU) 0.62%
Whole Foods Market (WFM) 0.46%

Tuesday, June 3, 2014

Stocks Of The Month: DDD, TWTR

As previously hinted, this month's stocks are retreads. Persistence!


3D Systems (DDD)

Positives:
Excellent revenue growth (45%).
$307M cash vs. $19M debt.
Positive cash flows ($19M operating, $27M free).

Negatives:
Absurd 118 P/E, though forward 42 P/E is slightly better.
Negative earnings growth (-17%).
Heavily shorted (35%).


Twitter (TWTR)

Positives:
Beyond excellent revenue growth (119%!).
$2B cash vs. $200M debt.
Positive cash flows ($41M operating, $194M free).

Negatives:
Beyond absurd forward P/E of 130.
Terrible margins (-94% profit, -93% operating), ROA (-22%), ROE (-41%).
Significantly shorted (10%).


Here's my current portfolio (growth, dividend, and speculative). As always, I believe in all of these stocks - until I sell them.

Apple (AAPL) 12.10%
Tesla Motors (TSLA) 9.87%
Google (GOOG/GOOGL) 7.22%
Baidu (BIDU) 5.97%
3D Systems (DDD) 4.42%
Amazon (AMZN) 3.36%
Ace Limited (ACE) 3.23%
Southern Copper (SCCO) 3.19%
Under Armour (UA) 2.98%
Qihoo 360 (QIHU) 2.82%
Blackstone (BX) 2.62%
Stratasys (SSYS) 2.34%
Intuitive Surgical (ISRG) 2.17%
Twitter (TWTR) 2.09%
American Software (AMSWA) 1.98%
Nike (NKE) 1.93%
DuPont (DD) 1.56%
Wynn Resorts (WYNN) 1.52%
Apache (APA) 1.48%
Intel (INTC) 1.45%
McDonald's (MCD) 1.41%
EMC (EMC) 1.39%
Kinder Morgan Energy Partners (KMP) 1.34%
Las Vegas Sands (LVS) 1.32%
American Express (AXP) 1.21%
ConocoPhillips (COP) 1.17%
Prospect Capital (PSEC) 1.14%
Wells Fargo (WFC) 1.08%
ExOne (XONE) 1.06%
Starbucks (SBUX) 1.03%
Computer Programs and Systems (CPSI) 1.02%
Hershey (HSY) 0.98%
Canadian National Railway (CNI) 0.98%
Cisco (CSCO) 0.97%
Microsoft (MSFT) 0.97%
F5 Networks (FFIV) 0.96%
Ansys (ANSS) 0.92%
BlackRock (BLK) 0.90%
Coca-Cola (KO) 0.90%
International Business Machines (IBM) 0.81%
China Mobile (CHL) 0.76%
Salesforce.com (CRM) 0.74%
The Distressed (BEBE, GSOL, LZB, MSI, TMUS) 0.72%
Lululemon Athletica (LULU) 0.69%
iRobot (IRBT) 0.68%
Whole Foods Market (WFM) 0.50%

Monday, May 5, 2014

Stocks Of The Month: DDD, XONE

Whenever I feel like beating myself up, I do the math pertaining to the question "What if I always bought AAPL instead of the stocks I bought in the name of diversifying my portfolio?" (Answer: I could have retired. Years ago. Comfortably.) The takeaway on the exercise isn't that I necessarily should have bought more AAPL, but, perhaps I should have stuck more closely to "obvious" investment ideas. I should have bought more TSLA and GOOG and BX and GLW too.

So I'm repeating a previous investment idea this month. I might repeat them for several months running...


3D Systems (DDD)

Positives:
Excellent revenue growth (45%).
3D printing is a hot industry (like, "electric car" hot).

Negatives:
Absurd 114 P/E, though forward 40 P/E is slightly better.
Negative earnings growth (-17%).
Heavily shorted (31%).


ExOne (XONE)

Positives:
$98M cash, $3M debt.
37% of shares owned by insiders.

Negatives:
Negative revenue growth (-16%).
No earnings as of yet; forward P/E of 128(!!).
Atrocious profit (-16%) and operating (-14%) margins.
Heavily shorted (35%).


Here's my current portfolio (growth, dividend, and speculative). As always, I believe in all of these stocks - until I sell them.

Apple (AAPL) 11.55%
Tesla Motors (TSLA) 10.44%
Google (GOOG/GOOGL) 7.16%
Baidu (BIDU) 5.99%
3D Systems (DDD) 3.49%
Amazon (AMZN) 3.46%
Ace Limited (ACE) 3.29%
Southern Copper (SCCO) 3.24%
Qihoo 360 (QIHU) 2.98%
Under Armour (UA) 2.93%
Stratasys (SSYS) 2.56%
Blackstone (BX) 2.55%
Intuitive Surgical (ISRG) 2.18%
American Software (AMSWA) 1.99%
Nike (NKE) 1.92%
Wynn Resorts (WYNN) 1.66%
DuPont (DD) 1.55%
Twitter (TWTR) 1.46%
Las Vegas Sands (LVS) 1.45%
McDonald's (MCD) 1.44%
Apache (APA) 1.43%
Intel (INTC) 1.43%
EMC (EMC) 1.39%
Kinder Morgan Energy Partners (KMP) 1.36%
Prospect Capital (PSEC) 1.30%
ExOne (XONE) 1.30%
American Express (AXP) 1.17%
ConocoPhillips (COP) 1.15%
Wells Fargo (WFC) 1.08%
Hershey (HSY) 1.02%
Computer Programs and Systems (CPSI) 1.01%
Starbucks (SBUX) 1.01%
Microsoft (MSFT) 0.98%
Canadian National Railway (CNI) 0.96%
Ansys (ANSS) 0.94%
F5 Networks (FFIV) 0.93%
Cisco (CSCO) 0.93%
Coca-Cola (KO) 0.92%
BlackRock (BLK) 0.90%
International Business Machines (IBM) 0.86%
Salesforce.com (CRM) 0.79%
The Distressed (BEBE, GSOL, LZB, MSI, TMUS) 0.75%
Lululemon Athletica (LULU) 0.75%
China Mobile (CHL) 0.74%
iRobot (IRBT) 0.71%
Whole Foods Market (WFM) 0.67%