It appeared the markets would be a bit nervous early on today
with news out of Egypt that the country's President would not be
stepping down, but as the morning went on, reports did come in
confirming he had resigned.
Following some early selling, we saw buyers coming back in. Wynn
Resorts (
WYNN
) shot higher following the casino operator's earnings results.
Analyst upgrades also pulled up shares of Waddell & Reed (
WDR
), Bunge (
BG
), and Southern Co. (
SO
). Moving lower early on are names like Kraft (
KFT
) and Expedia (
EXPE
), with both expressing cautious guidance. We recently downgraded
shares of Campbell Soup (
CPB
) and are evaluating Kraft (
KFT
) closely as we digest today's news. We did add a new name to our
recommended list this morning, so be sure to check out the
post
if you did not read the e-mail alert we sent out earlier. Speaking
of recommended names, Clorox (
CLX
) rallied nearly 8% on news Carl Icahn has taken a stake in the
company. There was also a hefty dividend raise out of
ConocoPhillips (
COP
) today, a name we currently like.
I couldn't help but comment on the latest buzz in the media
about Twitter perhaps being valued at $8-$10 billion in any
takeover talks. This is for a company that had an estimated $45
million in revenue (not sure about profits) in 2010. What investors
need to realize is that these valuations are derived from VCs
(venture capital investors) mostly. We have seen these metrics
before (early 2000s) and that party ended badly - very badly - for
many investors. Recently I commented on Jim Cramer's coming
"valuation revolution," where he thinks publicly-traded valuations
will spike higher because of what companies like Facebook, Groupon,
and Twitter are being valued at in the private markets. It's an
exciting argument, but one that could cause investors who chase the
tape up a lot of pain.
AOL (
AOL
) was the "it" name a decade ago. The company had many millions of
paid subscribers, and look at how well that has turned out for
investors that held on. Again, this is for a company that - unlike
a company like Twitter - had a real business model and provided a
service that tens of millions of people were willing to pay for.
Hype names are great for traders that are nimble and have the
stomach to ride the ups and downs, but most investors are better
off on the sidelines when it comes to those types of stocks.
Cutting through the media noise is hard for many to do, but if
you want to build long-term wealth, you'd better learn to ask
yourself a lot of questions as to why you would want to take part
in whatever the latest media "gold rush" story encompasses. You
never see Warren Buffett taking a stab at tech/new media
investments. Sure, he could have made some money if he wanted to
adopt a trader's mentality, but he doesn't. My father always told
me to focus on the bottom line when evaluating an opportunity. If
you aren't making money at what you are spending endless amounts of
time on, or are looking to buy a business that is losing money,
what the heck are you doing? Buying purely on potential rarely pays
off. I remember how vendors would come in our family food store and
would claim their product would fly off the shelves, but we would
always cut through all the hype and want to know what the bottom
line was - the margins/profit for us. My dad taught me not to buy
the hype or even believe in your own hype. Know the risk/reward of
whatever you pursue in life, whether it is investing, business,
relationships, etc.
Yesterday I was reading the local paper when I came across a
story about what psychics are being asked about these days. You
would expect most of the time the questions be centered about
relationships, but the number one thing being asked these days
involves finances and investments. I guess Wall Street pundits can
always know they have a career to fall back on!
I'll be gearing up for my first national radio appearance this
Monday night. I a confirming the details and will share the info on
Monday so if anyone is able to listen in, I'd love to hear from
you. I am ready to bring the passion and knowledge I have for
investing in the media myself in hopes of steering investors on the
right track of building wealth. No hype, no fluff!
As we look ahead to next week, earnings season continues to ease
just a bit, but there will still be plenty of big names reporting
numbers including Deere (
DE
), CF Industries (
CF
), Comcast (
CMCSA
), and more. Be sure to catch up with our latest watchlist updates
this weekend on Dividend.com Premium, including reports on
earnings/story stocks, analyst upgrades/downgrades, dividend ETFs,
and more. And as always, you can view our current recommendations
on our industry-leading
Best Dividend Stocks List
.
Thanks again for reading everybody!
Be sure to visit our complete recommended list of the
Best Dividend Stocks
, as well as a detailed explanation of
our ratings system here
.