
Buying more Tencent ADRs for my portfolios
On Monday, March 24, I’m adding these Tencent ADRs (TCEHY) TO my Jubak Picks and Volatility Portfolios.
On Monday, March 24, I’m adding these Tencent ADRs (TCEHY) TO my Jubak Picks and Volatility Portfolios.
Yesterday, February 4, after the close of trading Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) reported record revenue growth for the fourth quarter. The chipmaker even reported growth in market share at the expense of rival Intel (INTC).
Yet in after-hours reading the stock dropped 8.80%. Today’s regular session confirmed the tumble with a 6.27% tumble. The problem for AMD, revenue growth in the company’s data center unit, which competes in the market for AI chips with Nvidia (NVDA) revenue slowed. The problem for the tech sector as a whole, and especially AI stocks, is that the dip in the growth rate for data center revenue was to a “disappointing” 69% rate. That’s only disappointing in comparison to the a year-over-year growth rate of of 122% that the company reported for the third quarter of 2024. This raises the important question for AI and tech stocks: Are current valuations for the stocks predicated on unachievable exceptions for extraordinarily high growth rates for unrealistically long time periods?
Today I added CNH Industrial (CNH) as Pick #7 for my Special Report “10 new stock ideas for an old rally.” I also added the stock to my Jubak Picks Portfolio. Here’s what I wrote:
I like farm equipment maker CNH Industrial for the same reason I own Deere (DE) in my long-term 50 Stocks Portfolio. In the long term the world’s farmers are facing a huge challenge: produce more food as an increasingly chaotic climate makes growing stuff harder and harder. One important piece of the solution is a new generation of intelligent farm equipment that uses artificial intelligence to guide everything from when to plant to when to fertilize. At the moment, though, I like CNH more on price. CNH, the #2 farm equipment maker, is invitingly attractive because it is so cheap, absolutely and in comparison to Deere.
Last night I added a third potential Harris election victory winner to my Special Report “10 trump and 10 Harris winners. Here’s what I wrote about Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (TSM) in that post.
Amazon’s (AMZN) earnings report on Thursday, October 24, will start the Big Tech Earnings Parade off with a bang. Wall Street analysts are expecting the company to report earnings of $1.14 a share for the third quarter. That would be up from 85 cents a share in the third quarter of 2023. That would be a 34% jump in year over year earnings. Which would certainly be a great lead in to earnings from Alphabet (GOOG), Apple (AAPL), Microsoft (MSFT) and Meta Platforms (META) the following week.
The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index had a banner first half of 2024 with the index climbing more than 17% as of June 30. But two-thirds of that gain is attributable to just six stocks: Nvidia (NVDA), Microsoft (MSFT), Alphabet (GOOG), Amazon.com (AMZN), Meta Platforms (META), and Apple (AAPL.).Track the performance of equal-weighted version of the S&P 500–rather than the commonly tracked index where the contribution of any stock to the index is weighted by market cap–and the index was up just 3.9% in the first half of 2024. For the second half of 2024 and looking ahead to 2024, I’m not so much worried about the fundamentals of this extraordinary rally as I am by a failure of market imagination Everybody owns the same 6 stocks. Hey, I get the excitement around these stocks and the boom in Artificial Intelligence. I share it. Which is why I own shares of Nvidia, Amazon, and Alphabet in my online portfolios. But there are 494 other stocks in the S&P 500. And 2000 stocks in the small-cap Russell 2000.(Up 9% in the first half of 2024.)After a rally that has recorded 30 new record highs for the S&P 500 just the first half of n 2024, some of that other 494–or 2000–are actually better stock buys, and likely to out perform the 6 stocks everybody owns from their current record high prices. But which ones? That’s what my Special Report: “10 New Stock Ideas for an Old Rally” is all about.
I can’t give you a definitive call on the top for this stock and this rally, but I cam sure of one thing, I don’t want to sell Nvidia before the company’s new Blackwell chip architecture has hit full launch speed in late 2024 and 2025. My read is that this is the “perfect” AI chip for this moment in the AI boom.
I’d buy Broadcom even at this price as one of my three core AI stocks from the current generation of leaders. I’m adding it today to my long-term 50 Stocks Portfolio.
Today’s Quick Pick is Cloud Service Infrastructure Stocks. Normally I’ll choose a specific individual stock for Quick Picks but in this case, I thought I should highlight the entire sector. It’s impossible to overstate the importance of AI technology’s effect on the economy as a whole but it’s also important to look at the individual companies and sectors that benefit from the demand this technology brings to the market. AI has created a revival of growth in the cloud service infrastructure sector, as demand for more processing on databases to run AI programming continues to increase. The sector has seen a revenue growth of about 21% year over year in the first quarter of 2024. The sector is dominated by three companies with Amazon (AMZN) holding the largest share at 31%, and Microsoft (MSFT) with 24% and Alphabet (Google) (GOOG) with 11.5%. This is a $300 billion market, and those three companies have about 66% of it. Smaller players like Alibaba (BABA) and Oracle (ORCL) have A LOT smaller shares at 4% and 3%. However, even that 3% of the market puts Oracle’s cloud revenue at $5.1 billion in the most recent quarter. Revenue in this sector is likely to continue to grow and it looks like good news for all of these companies that set the tone for the market. This is yet another way to get in on the AI boom.
After the close today, Alphabet (GOOG) reported revenue of $80.5 billion, easily beating the consensus projection of $78.7 billion. Earning per share came in at $1.89 versus expectations for $1.50 a share. And none of the worries before the news turned out to be problems. Advertising revenue rose 13% to $61.7 billion. Ad revenue for YouTube–an area of worry rose 21% to $8.09 billion. Subscriptions, platforms and devices revenue jumped 18%.
Tuesday, April 23, after the market close Visa (V) reported adjusted net income of $2.51 a share. That ws 7 cent a share more than the consensus of estimates from Wall Street analysts. Earnings rose 7% year-over-year in the quarter. Revenue climbed 10% from a year prior to $8.8 billion, also exceeding Wall Street estimates
Today’s Hot Button Moves NOW video is Buy ASML Holding (ASML). ASML is the only global manufacturer of the most cutting-edge chip-making equipment, a technology called Extreme Ultra Violet Lithography (EUV). The equipment allows for a smaller chip, more transistors on the chip, and more power for less silicon. ASML’s earnings report on April 16 was disappointing, with fewer than expected orders, a situation that will likely continue into the next couple of quarters. This resulted in a big drop in earnings and the stock taking a big hit. But, this is the only game in town for this equipment, and anything chip that uses the new 2-nanometer, 3-nanometer, and 5-nanometer technologies will be made on ASML equipment. So orders will not stay down for long. I would use this weakness to buy ASML Holding. It’s not cheap, but it’s not likely not get much cheaper than this, and as geopolitical chip wars settle, orders for ASML will jump rebound. ASML Holding is a member of my long-term 50 Stocks Portolio.