Menu
Weekly Issue: Amid Impeachment Noise, Adding V Shares to Select List

Weekly Issue: Amid Impeachment Noise, Adding V Shares to Select List

Key points inside this issue

  • We are adding shares of Visa (V) to the Tematica Select List with a $200 price target as part of our Digital Lifestyle investing theme. 
  • We are adding to Living the Life Thematic Leader Farfetch Ltd. (FTCH) at current levels; our price target remains $16
  • We remain bullish on shares of Thematic King Amazon (AMZN) heading into the holiday season, and subscribers that are underweight AMZN should be buyers at current levels. Our price target remains $2,250.

Visa: Where we want to be for more than just the holidays

We are using the recent pullback in Visa (V) shares to add them to the Tematica Select List as part of our Digital Lifestyle investing theme given the accelerating shift to digital commerce as well as the movement away from cash and check usage.

While most tend to think of online and mobile shopping when it comes to digital commerce, we also are seeing increases in online grocery, ridesharing and ride services, digital forms of payment for metros and subways, and other changes in spending that require a debit or credit card. And while this may come as a surprise to some, roughly $17 trillion of payments were conducted in cash and by check in 2018.

To me, that means there is ample room for growth ahead and transaction share gains ahead to be had. Unlike American Express (AXP), Visa also stands to be an indirect beneficiary from consumers looking to stretch their spending dollars by shifting their payments to credit from debit or charge cards that must be paid in full. In other words, our Middle Class Squeeze investing theme. Also unlike banks such as Bank of America (BAC), Wells Fargo (WFC) and other credit card issuers, Visa is paid for each transaction and is far less susceptible by rising credit card delinquencies. Moreover, if consumers shift to debit cards, those transactions still have to be processed over a payment network.

Visa’s global scale and reach are made possible by a network of more than 15,900 financial institution clients that issue Visa-branded products. During fiscal 2018, Visa’s total payments and cash volume grew to $11.2 trillion and more than 3.3 billion cards were available worldwide to be used at nearly 54 million business and merchant locations that span over 160 currencies. For that entire fiscal year, Visa processed 124.3 billion transactions, and through the first half of 2019 those transaction volumes are up more than 11% as its install base of cards has continued to grow. As that install base grows and more physical card swipes, chip insertions and online or mobile ordering take place, Visa’s processing volumes grow.

With operating margins of more than 60%, Visa’s incremental margins on each transaction are significant. This has allowed the company to drive robust earnings growth and cash flow, all while continuing to invest in its payment network and layer on security in today’s increasingly cyber-conscious world. That cash flow has also allowed Visa to increase its quarterly dividend to the current $0.25 per share, up from $0.14 per share in late 2015, as well as fund its share repurchase program. Visa has been an active repurchase of its shares, scooping up almost 44 million shares valued at $6.5 billion. That compares to $8.7 billion in cash generated from operations over the same period. Exiting the June 2019 quarter Visa still had $6.2 billion under its current buyback authorization and $8.8 billion in cash and equivalents on its balance sheet.

And let’s not forget about holiday shopping…

While there is an ongoing shift toward non-cash, non-check transactions, there is also the seasonal nature of shopping and consumer spending that tends to rise during the year-end holidays. More transaction volume means more revenue, profits and cash flow for Visa during this time period. To that, we can add the steady year-over-year climb in online and mobile shopping as it has continued to take wallet share during the holiday shopping season. And yes, it is expected to happen once again this year. According to a new online survey from The Harris Poll and ad exchange network OpenX, shoppers are not only expected to spend more year over year but spend more digitally. Per the survey’s findings consumer expect to increase their holiday shopping by 5% more this year with 53% of their holiday shopping to be done digitally. 

These transactional shifts in how consumers around the globe are spending have enabled Visa to grow its earnings on a steady basis. Even during the financial crisis, Visa continued to grow its revenues, which in our view is evidence of the power behind those structural shifts. Over the last several years, Visa has been growing its annual EPS at a double-digit clip, with prospects for that rate to continue this year and next. By applying a price-to-earnings-to-growth (PEG) multiple of 2.0 to expected EPS growth of 16% in the coming year, where the consensus EPS forecast is $6.27 for 2020, we derive our $200 price target. That offers roughly X% upside from current levels. My recommendation would be to add to the shares at better prices, but even so, we’ll get started on this as the consumer get ready to begin shopping for not only the approaching year-end holiday season but also Halloween and Thanksgiving as well. 

  • We are adding shares of Visa (V) to the Tematica Select List with a $200 price target as part of our Digital Lifestyle investing theme. 

Adding to Living the Life Thematic Leader Farfetch Ltd. shares

Since we added shares of Farfetch Ltd. (FTCH) to the Thematic Leader board for out Living the Life investment theme, the shares have come under pressure and have entered oversold territory.

This likely has to do with the financing for Farfetch’s New Guard acquisition that will tally $675 million and be equally between cash and stock. We’ll take it as an opportunity to improve our cost basis as we get ready to move into the year-end shopping season, which as noted above will rise nicely year over year and favor digital platforms like Thematic King Amazon (AMZN) and Farfetch. 

  • We are adding to Living the Life Thematic Leader Farfetch Ltd. (FTCH) at current levels; our price target remains $16
  • We remain bullish on shares of Thematic King Amazon (AMZN) heading into the holiday season, and subscribers that are underweight AMZN should be buyers at current levels. Our price target remains $2,250.

 

WEEKLY ISSUE: Uncertainty is back, but we’re thematically prepared

WEEKLY ISSUE: Uncertainty is back, but we’re thematically prepared

Key points inside this issue:

  • The Fed, Trump, tariffs and the data bring uncertainty back to the market
  • What it means for investors
  • We will continue to hold Disney (DIS), Apple (AAPL), Amazon (AMZN) and AT&T (T) shares.
  • What to watch this week

The Fed, Trump, tariffs and the data bring uncertainty back to the market

Between the number of S&P 500 companies reporting last week to the Fed’s FOMC meeting and the pieces of economic data coming at us, we knew it was going to be a busy and potentially volatile week. What few saw coming was the attempt by Fed Chairman Powell to give the market the 25 basis point rate cut it was expecting and regain the position of the market not knowing exactly what the Fed’s next move might be. But then we received the July ISM Manufacturing Index and the July IHS PMI data for the four global economic horsemen (China, Japan, the eurozone and the US). In aggregate those data points signaled the continued slowdown in the global manufacturing economy.  

Granted, the sequential pick up in the July ADP Employment Report fostered the view the domestic economy hasn’t frozen over just yet, but Friday’s July Employment Report reveled slower job creation month over month. 

Normally, economic data like we’ve received in the back half of last week would be enough to ignite the market doves and stoke the view that another rate cut by the Fed was more likely before we exit 2019. And it was that view that led the major market indices higher on Thursday, that was until President Trump did something that arguably next to no one saw coming – announced another layer of tariffs on China that would go into effect on September 1. The implications of that move, which would likely lead to yet another trimming of forecasts for both the economy and earnings, pulled the market lower on Thursday afternoon. 

And on Friday morning, China responded by saying while it does not want a trade war, its not afraid to fight one. Soon thereafter, President Trump is “open to delaying or halting the 10% tariff on September 1” if China were to take action between now and then. Remember, we shared our concern that trade talks could devolve into playground taunting and fighting. Well, we are there and sticking with the analogy, it’s likely going to keep the stock market on the uncertainty teeter totter for the next few weeks. 

If some were hoping for a more normal August for stocks following this week’s Fed meeting, we’re sorry to say that’s not likely to happen. In the past we’ve shared several analogies about investing – it’s not crock pot cooking, you can’t fix it and forget it or investing is not a like a photo, i.e. snapshot in time, but much like a good film it’s an evolving story. As this latest chapter begins to unfold, it will be mean assessing and re-assessing expectations as new developments are had and their ripple effects determined.

What it means for investors

Odds are this will uncertainty will result in the usual back and forth for the market in the coming weeks, which will also see the usual end of summer low trading volumes. While a good chunk of Wall Street is at the beach, I’ll remain vigilant and continue to leverage our thematic lens.

More than likely, we will see the herd once again focus on domestically focused as well as inelastic business models as it looks for ports of safety. We’ve have a number of these among the Thematic Leaders and the Tematica Select List – Chipotle Mexican Grill (CMG), Dycom Industries (DY), Costco Wholesale (COST), Axon Enterprises (AAXN), AT&T (T), and USA Technologies (USAT). Unlike the shoot from the hip go to choice of the herd that tends to zero in on electric utilities that group of six have the added benefit of thematic tailwinds propelling their respective businesses.

As August drips by, I’ll continue to look for thematically well positioned companies that offer favorable risk to reward tradeoffs in terms of share prices as I look to position us for what lies ahead. In the meantime, I would recommend subscribers catch the August 5, 2019 issue of Bloomberg Businessweek as the cover story focuses the coming streaming video war that I’ve talked about both here and on the Thematic Signals podcast. The author likens it to “The Hunger Games”, and in many respects I can see why that is a good comparison.

While we were recently stopped out of Netflix (NFLX), I’ll remind you that among the Thematic Leaders and Tematica Select List we have several companies — Disney (DIS), Apple (AAPL), Amazon (AMZN), and AT&T in particular – that are focusing on this market. Each brings their own particular set of strengths ranging from content to addressable customer base, but all three have other businesses besides streaming video to drive profits and cash flow that can fund their respective streaming businesses.

  • We will continue to hold Disney (DIS), Apple (AAPL), Amazon (AMZN) and AT&T (T) shares.

What to watch this week

After all the happenings for last week that I described above, this week looks to be yet another frenetic one for corporate earnings with more than 1,100 reports to be had, but the pace of June quarter earnings begins to slow and we face a lighter economic data schedule as well. And to be clear, even though we will face a plethora of June quarter reports, let’s remember that exiting this week roughly 78% of the S&P 500 has reported and next week another 13% of that group will be doing so. What this means is the vast majority of reports next will have far less of an impact on the market. This doesn’t diminish them from an ownership of data and information perspective, but rather a smaller impact is likely on earnings revisions and trading ranges. 

Corporate earnings to watch

In terms of which reports I’ll be focusing on this week, it should come as little surprise that they are the ones touching our various investment themes. Here’s my short list:

  • Monday, August 5: Tyson Foods (TSN), International Flavors & Fragrances (IFF), Insulet (PODD) and ShakeShak (SHAK). 
  • Tuesday, August 6: Tenneco (TEN), ADT (ADT), AMN Healthcare (AMN), Comscore (SCOR), LendingClub (LC), Disney (DIS), 
  • Wednesday, August 7: CVS Health (CVS:NYSE), CyberArk (CYBR), Physicians Realty Trust (DOC), Darling Ingredients (DAR), Skyworks (SWKS), Tivity Health (TVTY), 
  • Thursday, August 8: Activision-Blizzard (ATVI:), Alarm.com (ARLM), Dropbox (DBX), Synaptics (SYNA:Nasdaq), Uber (UBER) 
  • Friday, August 9: US Concrete (USCR)

Economic data to watch

Before we tackle the coming week’s economic data, I’ll mention GDP expectations from the Atlanta Fed and New York Fed started last week off between 2.0%-2.2% and as we exited the week those expectations sat at 1.6%-1.9%. As I touched on above, the employment data we received last week pointed to a still growing economy but the take on the manufacturing economy per the July ISM Manufacturing Index and the July US IHS Markit PMI data pointed to a slowing domestic manufacturing one. 

We have only a handful of meaningful economic data coming at us this week in the form of the July inflation reports and ISM’s July reading on the US service economy. Given our pension for looking at other data set in addition to the formal economic data, we here at Tematica will be on the lookout for the last Cass Freight Index and other truck tonnage figures as well as the weekly railcar loading data. Those have been signaling the slowdown we’ve seen in the government produced economic data, and as such we’ll keep a close watch on them in order to stay one step ahead of the herd. 

Should the coming economic data be continue to disappoint relative to expectations and signal the vector and velocity of the domestic economy is down and even slower than recent revisions suggest, odds are the market will increasingly expect another Fed rate cut sooner than later. Our concern, however, is the intended effect of this week’s rate cut and another one should it come to pass on business investment could be muted by the continued trade uncertainty and weakening global economy. As we’ve seen with falling mortgage rates that didn’t stimulate demand earlier this year, in the near-term businesses may stay on the sidelines given the trade and economic uncertainties despite more favorable interest rates.


Brookdale Senior Living: are its thematic tailwinds enough to earn a buy rating?

Brookdale Senior Living: are its thematic tailwinds enough to earn a buy rating?

The following article is an excerpt from Tematica Investing, our cornerstone research publication. Tematica Investing includes original investment ideas and strategies based upon our proprietary thematic investing framework developed by our Chief Investment Officer Chris Versace. Click here to read more about our Premium Tematica Research Membership offering.

Read More About Tematica Investing

One of the great things about thematic investing is there is no shortage of confirming data points to be had in and our daily lives. For example, with our Connected Society investing theme, we see more people getting more boxes delivered by United Parcel Service (UPS) from Amazon (AMZN) and a several trips to the mall, should you be so inclined, will reveal which retailers are struggling and which are thriving. If you do that you’re also likely to see more people eating at the mall than actually shopping; perhaps a good number of them are simply show rooming in advance of buying from Amazon or a branded apparel company like Nike (NKE) or another that is actively embracing the direct to consumer (D2C) business model.

While it may not be polite to say, the reality is if you look around you will also notice that the domestic population is greying. More specifically, we as a people are living longer lives, and when coupled with the Baby Boomers reaching retirement age, it has a number of implications and ramifications that are a part of our Aging of the Population investing theme.

There are certainly the obvious issues related to this demographic shift, such as whether or not folks have enough saved and invested well enough to support themselves through increasingly longer life spans. And then, of course, there is the need of having access to the right healthcare to deal with any and all issues that one might face. That is something that shouldn’t be taken for granted, given the national shortage of nurses and health care professionals we are currently experiencing, and the reason why one AMN Healthcare Services (AMN) has been on the Tematica Investing Select List in the past.

But our Aging of the Population theme doesn’t stop there. Again, much like looking around at what people are doing at the mall, all one has to do is sit back and assess the day-to-day life of a typical octogenarian and see that we are seeing:

  • A shift in demand for different types of housing as seniors give up on the homestead and move into easier to maintain condos and townhouses.
  • An even greater focus on online retailers that will deliver purchases directly to the home, rather than having to go out and carry purchases from the store to the car and then into the home. Also driving this shift will be younger children making purchases for their aging parents and having them shipped directly to their home.
  • Fountain of Youth goods and services will be in even higher demand as Baby Boomers will not let go of their youth easily.
  • And finally, technology and services that will help maintain independence— we’re talking about robots, digital assistants, monitoring equipment and even things such as the autonomous car.

According to data published by the OECD in 2013, the U.S. expectancy was 78.7 years old with women living longer than men (81 years vs. 76 years). Cross-checking that with data from the Census Bureau that says the number of Americans ages 65 and older is projected to more than double from 46 million today to 75.5 million by 2030, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Other data reveals the number of older American afflicted with and the 65-and-older age group’s share of the total population will rise to nearly 25% from 15%. According to United States Census data, individuals age 75 and older is projected to be the fastest growing age cohort over the next twenty years.

As people age, especially past the age of 75, it becomes challenging for individuals to care for themselves, and this is something I am encountering with my dad who turns 86 on Friday. Now let’s consider that roughly 6 million Americans will have Alzheimer’s by 2020, up from 4.7 million in 2010, and heading to 8.4 million by 2030 according to the National Institute of Health. Not an easy subject, but as investors, we are to remain somewhat cold-blooded if we are going to sniff out opportunities.

What all of this means is we are likely to see a groundswell in demand over the coming years for assisted living facilities to house and care for the aging domestic population.

 

Is Brookdale Senior Living Positioned to Ride this Thematic Tailwind?

One company that is positioned to benefit from this tailwind is Brookdale Senior Living (BKD), which is one of the largest players in the “Independent Living, Assisted Living and Memory Care” market with over 1,000 communities in 46 states.

The company’s revenue stream is broken down into fives segments:

  • Retirement Centers (14% of 2017 revenue; 22% of 2017 operating profit) – are primarily designed for middle to upper-income seniors generally age 75 and older who desire an upscale residential environment providing the highest quality of service.
  • Assisted Living (47%; 60%) – offer housing and 24-hour assistance with activities of daily living to mid-acuity frail and elderly residents.
  • Continuing care retirement centers (10%; 8%) – are large communities that offer a variety of living arrangements and services to accommodate all levels of physical ability and health.
  • Brookdale Ancillary Services (9%; 4%) – provides home health, hospice and outpatient therapy services, as well as education and wellness programs
  • Management Services (20%; 6%) – various communities that are either owned by third parties.
  • In looking at the above breakdown, we see the core business to focus on is Assisted Living as it generated the bulk of the company’s operating profit stream. This, of course, cements the company’s position within the framework of Tematica’s Aging of the Population theme. However, as with all investment strategies, success with a thematic approach ultimately comes down to the underlying principle of investing: determining if a stock is mispriced or undervalued relative to the business opportunities ahead as a result of the sea change presenting itself through a theme.

And so with Brookdale, we must determine whether it is a Tematica Contender — a company that we need to wait for the risk to reward tradeoff to reach more appetizing levels -—  or is one for the Tematica Investing Select List to issue a Buy rating on now?

 

Changes afoot at Brookdale

During 2016 and 2017, both revenue and operating profit at Brookdale came under pressure given a variety of factors that included a more competitive industry landscape during which time Brookdale had an elevated number of new facility openings, which is expected to weigh on the company’s results throughout 2018. Also impacting profitability has been the growing number of state and local regulations for the assisted living sector as well as increasing employment costs.

With those stones on its back, throughout 2017, Brookdale surprised to the downside when reporting quarterly results, which led it to report an annual EPS loss of $3.41 per share for the year. As one might imagine this weighed heavily on the share price, which fell to a low near $6.85 in late February from a high near $19.50 roughly 23 months ago.

During this move lower in the share price, Brookdale the company was evaluating its strategic alternatives, which we all know means it was putting itself up on the block to be sold. On Feb. 22 of this year, the company rejected an all-cash $9 offer as the Board believed there was a greater value to be had for shareholders by running the company. Alongside that decision, there was a clearing of the management deck with the existing President & CEO as well as EVP and Chief Administrative Officer leaving, and CFO Cindy Baier being elevated to President and CEO from the CFO slot.

Usually, when we see a changing of the deck chairs like this, it likely means there will be more pain ahead before the underlying ship begins to change directions. To some extent, this is already reflected in 2018 expectations calling for falling revenue and continued bottomline losses.

Here’s the thing – those expectations were last updated about a month ago, which means the new management team hasn’t offered its own updated outlook. If the changing of the deck history holds, it likely means offering a guidance reset that includes just about everything short of the kitchen sink.

On top of it all, Brookdale has roughly $1.1 billion in long-term debt, capital and leasing obligations coming due this year. At the end of 2017, the company had no borrowings outstanding on its $400 million credit facility and $514 million in cash on its balance sheet. It would be shocking for the company to address its debt and lease obligations by wiping out its cash, which probably means the company will have to either refinance its debt, raise equity to repay the debt or a combination of the two. This could prove to be one of those overhangs that keeps a company’s shares under pressure until addressed. I’d point out that usually, transaction terms in situations like this are less than friendly.

 

The Bottomline on Brookdale Senior Living (BKD)

While I like the drivers of the underlying business, my recommendation is we sit on the sidelines with Brookdale until it addresses this balance sheet concern and begins to emerge from its new facility opening drag and digestion. Odds are we’ll be able to pick the shares up at lower levels.

This has me putting BKD shares on the Tematica Investing Contender List and we’ll revisit them for subscribers in the coming months.

The preceding article is an excerpt from Tematica Investing, our cornerstone research publication. Tematica Investing includes original investment ideas and strategies based upon our proprietary thematic investing framework developed by our Chief Investment Officer Chris Versace. Click here to read more about our Premium Tematica Research Membership offering.

Read More About Tematica Investing
WEEKLY ISSUE: Nike offers several points of confirmation; Boosting two price targets

WEEKLY ISSUE: Nike offers several points of confirmation; Boosting two price targets

Yesterday, we received the first of what is likely to be quite a bit on potential tax reform. If the efforts we’ve seen pertaining to repeal and replacing Obamacare are any indication, tax reform will take some time and call for reaching across the aisle. We’re cautiously optimistic such reform can take place in a lasting fashion as it would help give a boost to disposable incomes, which would be a boon to the consumer spending led U.S. economy. We’ll have more on this as it develops as well as implications of other happenings inside the Beltway, from more barbs with North Korea to President Trump’s regulatory reform overview to be shared next week.

 

Making some adjustments to the Tematica Investing Select LIst as we close the quarter

As the new tax policies are put forth and put under the microscope, we will soon close the books on September and 3Q 2017. With a few days left in the current quarter, the S&P 500 is up 3.3%, and we’ve had a number of positions ranging from AXT Inc. (AXTI), USA Technologies (USAT), International Flavors & Fragrances (IFF) and Facebook (FB) handily beat that index. Some of our more recently added positions, including this week’s Corning (GLW) and last week’s LSI Industries (LSI) have dipped along with the market these last few days, but our outlook for both remains undiminished.

We have seen some former stalwarts, like Amazon (AMZN) and Alphabet (GOOGL) underperform over the last few months, but we’re heading into the seasonally strongest time of the year for these two companies – we’ll continue to keep both on the Tematica Investing Select List. The same goes for Starbucks (SBUX) as it rolls out its pumpkin flavored beverages and its peppermint mocha alongside other seasonal favorites.

Our price targets remain as follows:

  • Alphabet (GOOGL) — $1,050
  • Amazon (AMZN) — $1,150
  • AXT Inc (AXTI) — $11
  • Corning (GLW) — $37
  • Facebook (FB) — $200
  • LSI Industries (LYTS) — $10

 

We are boosting our price targets this morning on International Flavors & Fragrances and USA Technologies as follows:

  • Raising our IFF price target to $150 from $145;
  • Increasing our USAT target to $6.50 from $6.00

 

These increases offer additional upside, but not enough to warrant subscribers committing new capital at this time. Rather subscribers should continue to own these positions to capture incremental upside and in the case of IFF its dividend stream.

 

Now let’s step back and take a wider view

Our position has been and remains that we are likely to see the recent bout of volatility continue as we close the books on the third quarter of 2017 and roll right into earnings season. That reporting activity will come to a head just as we get the bulk of economic data for the month of September, the proverbial icing on the 3Q 2017 GDP cake. Based on the hurricanes, odds are this data will be a bit wobbly, to say the least, and odds are we will see more GDP revisions for the three months ending in just a few days. While some may look through the economic data, the quarterly results from Darden Restaurants (DRI) earlier this week and the subsequent drop in its shares tell us the market has yet to fully price in the impact of the hurricanes.

Here’s the thing – this could lead to the stock market retrenching from current levels, and in our view letting some of the froth out of the market is a good thing. Candidly, with the market trading near 19x expected earnings – head and shoulders above the 5- and 10-year averages – it begs the question as to how much additional upside is to be had?  This is especially true for investors that are only now returning to the market.

Our strategy for the near-term will be to focus on those companies that have strong thematic tailwinds and whose shares have a more than favorable risk-to-reward tradeoff. This could be in new positions like the ones we’ve added over the last 10 days or it could be in existing ones that come under pressure this earnings season. We always like the former, but the latter is also welcome if it allows us to improve our cost basis for the long-term.

Now, let’s dig into what Nike said last night in its quarterly earnings results – the skinny is, it was reinforcing on several levels for our themes as well as our recent comments on the dollar. Here we go…

 

What’s Nike telling us this morning?

Last night athletic footwear and apparel company Nike reported better than expected quarterly results, but the shares are trading off this morning. Sifting through the results, we see the 3% decline in North American sales as offering credence to our Cash-Strapped Consumer theme, while the 9% growth year over year in China, as well as the 5% year on year improvement in Asia-Pac/Latin America for the company, reflects our Rise & Fall of the Middle-Class thematic. That mix brought Nike’s international business to more than 55% of its overall revenue, and yes during the earnings call last night the company conceded that it has indeed benefitted from the weakening dollar during the last several months.

When it offered its outlook, however, Nike quickly called out that its expected margin contraction with “FX continuing to be the single largest driver.” Yesterday we shared our view the rebounding dollar could present a renewed headwind as the investing herd adjusts it view to incorporate the Fed’s interest rate hike forecast and we see that comment by Nike as confirmation. In addition to the near-term post-hurricane economic slump, this is potentially another reason we could see earnings expectations get reset in the back half of 2017 in the coming weeks.

We’ll look for more confirmation today during Applied Material’s (AMAT) 2017 Analyst Day and tomorrow when McCormick & Co. (MKC) and reports its quarterly earnings. As a reminder, we expect Applied to deliver a favorable demand picture for both its semiconductor as well as display capital equipment businesses, with the former benefitting from ramping demand in China. With regard to McCormick, consensus expectations have the company delivering EPS of $1.05 on revenue of $1.18 billion for the August-ending quarter. As we’ve all seen of late, missing expectations by a penny or two these days is likely to lead to a 4%-8% drop in the share price, and should that happen with MKC shares we’re inclined to scale into the position near or below our original cost basis of $91.80 on the Tematica Investing Select List.

  • Our price target on Applied Materials (AMAT) shares remains $55
  • Our price target on McCormick & Co. (MKC) shares remains $110

The Impact of the Nike — Amazon Deal

Turning back to Nike’s earnings conference call, heading into it, one of the things we wanted was more color on was the company’s invigorated relationship with Amazon (AMZN). We were not disappointed. During the call, even we were somewhat surprised by how blunt Nike was about the pressures facing U.S. retail when it said:

“…a developed market like North America must embrace change to its legacy retail infrastructure. As the leader, we’re fully committed to energizing and growing the marketplace through both our own NIKE Direct businesses and with strategic wholesale partners… over the past 90 days, it has become increasingly evident to all that the North America marketplace is undergoing significant transformation. Several quarters ago, we said that the U.S. retail landscape was not in a steady state, but rather would continue to be disrupted by the accelerating consumer shift to digital and more personal brand experiences… those shifts are now profoundly impacting the more undifferentiated dimensions of retail, resulting in store closures, bankruptcies, and a promotional environment… We’ve proven, I think, through our ability to create some real great success with other consumer-oriented digital partners like Tmall and Zalando that there isn’t a real opportunity here, and we’re excited about where that can go with Amazon (AMZN).”

In our view, those comments sum up the impact on brick & mortar retail that is being had by our Connected Society investing theme. Odds are, Nike is only one of the initial branded apparel companies that will look to leverage Amazon’s logistics and related infrastructure, and this keeps up long-term bullish on AMZN shares.

  • Our long-term price target on Amazon (AMZN) shares remains $1,150.

We also clearly heard Nike is embracing several aspects of our Disruptive Technology theme when it said, “…we target doubling our direct connection to consumers, we are ramping up investment in digital capabilities ranging from data science and analytics to machine learning to augmented reality to image recognition and personalization.”

The only thing better than a company riding one of our investment tailwinds is when it is riding two or more. Over the last three months, NKE shares have underperformed the overall market falling nearly 2.5% vs. the S&P’s 3.3% climb. As the investing herd digests Nike’s comments and the shares drift lower, we’ll revisit the potential upside and downside to be had over the coming 12-18 months. If it’s compelling, we’ll be back with more on this Rise & Fall of the Middle-Class company that is looking to leverage our Connected Society and Disruptive Technology themes.

 

Lackluster Demand for the Apple iPhone 8 Puts Pressure on OLED and others

Lackluster Demand for the Apple iPhone 8 Puts Pressure on OLED and others

Yesterday we witnessed a sharp decline in technology stocks as evidenced by the declines in Facebook (FB), Amazon (AMZN), Alphabet (GOOGL), Netflix (NFLX) and Apple (AAPL). Regarding Apple shares, yesterday’s move lower simply adds to the recent pressure on the shares we’ve seen since the company’s lackluster September special event as investors question iPhone 8 model demand ahead of the early November launch of the iPhone X. Of course, snafus with the latest Apple Watch and MacOS High Sierra aren’t helping a company that seems plagued either a lack of vision or remaining trapped in a position until technology forces align for its next new product.

Pressure on Apple shares has overflowed and resulted in the same downward pressure on our Universal Display (OLED) shares, slipping from a high of $142 on September 19, down to a hair below $125 when the market closed last evening. We’ll continue to keep OLED shares on the Tematica Select List however, as Apple adopts its technology across other devices, and as demand from other devices (other smartphones, TVs, wearables, automotive interior lighting) climbs in the coming quarters. As a reminder, tomorrow brings the 2017 Analyst Day from Applied Materials (AMAT) and we expect bullish comments for both its semiconductor capital equipment business as well as its display business.

 

Other Market & FED Notes

We’ve noted that we have seen the Wall Street herd rotate sectors as of late, with water and electric utilities being strong performers of late — both part of our Scarce Resource investment theme. While the S&P 500 Volatility Index (VIX) may be near record lows, the recent performance of those safe havens signals that investors are in a wearisome mood. Another group that has performed well over the last several weeks is multinational companies, which have benefitted from the dollar’s renewed weakness in July, August and early September. We’ve seen this with our Amazon (AMZN), International Flavors & Fragrances (IFF), and Facebook (FB) shares to name a few.

More recently, however, we’ve seen the dollar rebound modestly, and with the Fed talking up several interest rate hikes in as many quarters, we are likely to see the dollar move further off early September lows. This brings Fed Chairwoman Janet Yellen’s speech this afternoon into focus. Will we get much more from Yellen on the pace of balance sheet unwinding vs. what the Fed shared last week? Probably not, but we’ll still be looking to parse her usual clear as mud words.

The expected lack of “new info” from the Fed will likely keep the market mentality fixated on the Fed’s forecasted interest rate hike timetable. We here at Tematica prefer to remain data dependent when it comes to contemplating potential Fed rate hikes. That view led Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis President Neel Kashkari to reiterate his view yesterday that raising rate now is a bad idea:

“When I look at the economy, I don’t see any signs the economy is close to overheating… I see no need to tap the brakes and attempt to moderate the economy with higher short-term rates.”

Realizing Kashkari is a lone voting wolf inside the Fed, odds are the herd view will continue to influence the prevailing narrative in the near-term. We’ll remain patient as that group will once again take some time to come around to how we see things.

In the short-term, a continued rebound in the dollar is likely to pressure multinational companies ranging from General Electric (GE) and Caterpillar (CAT) to the likes of Amazon, Facebook, Applied Materials, and even MGM Resorts (MGM) that are on the Tematica Select List. With this in mind, we’ll be closely dissecting the forward guidance to be had from Nike (NKE) later today and the Select List’s own McCormick & Co. (MKC), which reports this Thursday (Sept. 28).

As the herd continues to feel its way around, we’re inclined to re-test our thematic thesis on the stocks comprising the Select List, but given what we’ve seen in our Thematic Signals we have reason to believe our thematic tailwinds continue to blow.  As we do this, we’ll remember this week unveils President Trump’s tax reform proposal followed by the administration’s regulatory agenda that will be outlined next week (Oct. 2), not to mention all the amped-up geo-political news between the U.S. and North Korea.

Odds are the next few weeks, will be tumultuous, but let’s remember that “fortune favors the prepared” and that’s what w we aim to be. This means looking for thematically well-positioned companies that offer favorable risk-to-reward dynamics, like the recent addition of Corning (GLW) and Nokia (NOK), as well as opportunities to scale into existing positions on the Tematica Select List.

 

 

WEEKLY ISSUE: Shedding Dycom Shares, Remaining Bullish on UPS and Facebook

WEEKLY ISSUE: Shedding Dycom Shares, Remaining Bullish on UPS and Facebook

Throwing in the Cards on Dycom (DY)

Before we get things started this week, early this morning Connected Society company Dycom (DY) reported an EPS beat for the quarter but issued a weaker than expected outlook for the current quarter. Of late, we’ve noticed stock price fatigue when a company beats expectations and raises its outlook, and that likely means Dycom’s report will be met with investors shedding the shares. In recent years, we’ve seen similar reports from companies met with sharp moves lower, and given the current environment, we see the odds of that happening with DY shares rather likely.

We expect the management team to discuss the rationale and drivers behind its recast guidance on the earnings call this morning. As investors, we’ll want to cap the potential pullback in the shares on the Tematica Select List and that has us exiting the position. As Wall Street analysts parse the data and lower their EPS expectations we see target price cuts being set lower as well.

  • We are issuing a Sell rating on Dycom (DY) shares.
  • As we do this, we will shift DY shares to the Tematica Contender List because it will only be a matter of time before mobile operators pony up to expand existing network capacity and build out their 5G as well as gigabit fiber networks.

 

No Shortage of Confirming Thematic Data Points this Week

While last week ended on a high note with all the major stock indices finished higher, this week we’ve seen a return of volatility to the market thanks to North Korea at the same time Texas grapples with one of the worst hurricanes in recent memory. The people of Houston are certainly in our thoughts this week and in the coming ones as we assess the impact to be had on the both the Texas economy and that of the overall country.

Exacerbating the markets move has been the usual seasonally low trading volume we tend to find at the tail end of the summer. As we called out in this week’s Monday Morning Kickoff, there are a number of reasons to think September, which is usually one of the most volatile months for stocks, is likely to be so once again.

As we prepare that amid the usual end of the month, start of the new month data flow, we’ll continue to take our cues and investment moves from our thematic lens. Even amidst the political tension of the last few weeks, once again there has been no shortage of confirming data points for our 17 investment themes. Earlier this week we shared comments our initial findings on the Amazon (AMZN)-Whole Foods Market (WMF) tie up, but also what the Mayweather vs. McGregor bout meant for Las Vegas and our MGM Resort (MGM) shares as well as how we found positive confirmation for our Applied Materials (AMAT) shares in a filing made by Samsung.

We also shared out take on a recent upgrade to Starbucks (SBUX) shares made by Wedbush following prospects for stronger than expected U.S. same-store-sales. As temperatures start to cool, and holiday shopping season thoughts begin to form we recognize that Starbucks will once again have its semi-addictive seasonal beverage — the Pumpkin Spice Latte — and when matched with its expanded food offering we see the recent trend of better than expected same-store sales continuing.

We’ve also uncovered more signs that brick & mortar retail remains in a worrisome place. First, Simon Property Group (SPG), the nation’s largest mall operator, is asking an Indiana court to issue an injunction to put the brakes on Starbucks phasing out of its 379 Teavana locations over the coming twelve months. No doubt Simon Property Group is feeling the headwind associated with the shift toward digital commerce in a big way, but we have to say this move reeks of desperation. We certainly understand the difficult position Simon Property Group is with its business at risk as more retailers embrace digital commerce solutions on their own or pair with Amazon to leverage its logistics capabilities.

The thing is, while Simon Property Group may try to fight one set of retail closures, in reality, it is a game of “whack-a-mole” as others are popping up to take their place. Over the weekend Affordable Luxury candidate Perfumania Holdings (PERF), which sells discounted perfumes from high-end brands, such as Dolce & Gabana and Burberry, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and intends to close 64 of its 226 stores. We blame the adoption of our digital commerce aspect of our Connected Society theme not only at Amazon, but also Ulta Beauty (ULTA) and Sephora. Sephora, in particular, has focused on digital commerce and has embraced augmented reality, a component of our Disruptive Technology theme, to improve the customer experience.

Sephora is not alone in making cosmetics shopping even easier. Shopping platform FaceCake has partnered with brands like NARS Cosmetics to let online shoppers try on everything from makeup to handbags. Another example is IKEA as its new Catalog App uses augmented reality to allow customers to virtually place and view 200 different IKEA products in their homes. All you need is a smartphone (unfortunately, no Swedish meatballs are included in the online app). As more retailers embrace augmented reality in their apps, we question the need for consumers to visit physical store locations.

Connecting the dots, however, we find the growing usage of augmented reality will speed the shift toward digital commerce, and that bodes very well for our shares of United Parcel Service (UPS) as we head into the seasonally strongest time of the year for the company.

  • Our price target on United Parcel Service (UPS) shares remains $122; given the 10% move in the position, subscribers should continue to hold the share.
  • Those that missed our initial recommendation should look to revisit the shares closer to $105.

 

 

Restaurants Too Are Feeling the “Retail-Mageddon” Pinch

On a related note to the pains retailers are feeling we covered earlier, the restaurant industry is suffering from many of the same woes afflicting retailers – plain and simple, there are too many physical locations, and customers increasingly prefer to have everything delivered to their door.

That’s why pizza chains, especially Domino’s (DPZ) and Papa John’s (PAPA) have been able to gain an edge. Roughly 60% of Papa John’s orders are digital from not only its own app, but also via Facebook (FB)’s name product as well as its Messenger product. As the restaurant industry looks for solutions by leveraging our Connected Society, Disruptive Technology, and Cashless Consumption themes, we see Facebook (FB) and its multi-tiered platform offering benefitting. This along with its move into original content that bodes well for additional advertising, as well as its overall monetization efforts across those platforms keeps us bullish on Facebook shares.

  • Our price target on Facebook (FB) shares remains $200

 

Looking Ahead to the Coming Weeks

As we put the summer behind us in the coming days and absorb the litany of economic data to be had, our intention is to use whatever market volatility emerges to our advantage. This means revisiting recent additions to the Tematica Contender List like Nokia (NOK) and Innovative Solutions (ISSC), but also examining new potential positions for the select list as well.

 

No Sleepy End of  Summer in Sight

No Sleepy End of  Summer in Sight

 

We’ve survived the eclipse, and while the display was a bit underwhelming outside of the Beltway, we hope you enjoyed this rare experience that pulled 10 percent of US viewers away from Netflix while it was happening. Rest assured the consumers of streaming content that help power our Connected Society investing theme were back on board soon thereafter propelling Marvel’s The Defenders to a binge viewing pop after dropping last Friday. From time to time we may see speed bumps for our Connected Society investing theme, but much like trying to put toothpaste back into the tube, we don’t see a reversal in this tailwind or any other of those associated with our investing themes anytime soon.

If anything, as we break down the monthly retail sales data, examine data points such as the box office take and maneuverings by companies like Target (TGT) and Wal-Mart (WMT), we see that Connected Society tailwind blowing even harder as we head into the 2017 holiday shopping season. This morning it was shared that Wal-Mart is teaming with Alphabet (GOOGL) to bring Wal-Mart products to people who shop on Google Express, Google’s online shopping mall. What’s significant about this news is that it marks the first time Wal-Mart has made its products available in the U.S. on a website other than its own. Also, too, Wal-Mart is embracing aspects of our Disruptive Technology theme as it makes it products available to customers via Google Home (Google’s answer to Amazon’s Echo) as well as Google Assistant, its artificial intelligence software assistant found in smartphones powered by Google’s Android software.

Clearly, Wal-Mart is shoring up its position and investing for where retail continues to head — a path that is increasingly chartered by the Connected Society. To us, this development, along with Nike’s (NKE) recent teaming with Amazon (AMZN), is a clear signal of what’s happening in retail. It also says that lines are being drawn between those partnered with Amazon and those that aren’t. We suspect many will see this as evidence of the “retail-megeddon” that is upending the retail industry. Here at Tematica, however, our view is Amazon and Wal-Mart are in the thematic sweet spot and are positioned to become the Coke and Pepsi of retail.

We also continue to see Costco Wholesale (COST) emerging as the bronze medal winner in retail. The company’s July retail sales metrics certainly showed it is gaining consumer wallet share as it rides our Cash-Strapped Consumerand Rise & Fall of the Middle-Class tailwinds. Plus, Costco’s business model is also based on collecting membership fees, which continue to grow, and thus insulates it somewhat from the struggles of brick & mortar retail. In our view, if Costco were to acquire Boxed.com, that transaction would be a game changer for Costco’s digital shopping business.

  • We continue to have Buy ratings on Amazon (AMZN), Alphabet (GOOGL), Costco Wholesale (COST) shares with price targets of $1,150,  $1,050 and $190, respectively. 

 

 

The No Man’s Land that is the last two weeks of August. 

As we shared in this week’s Monday Morning Kickoff, trading volumes are likely to be lower these next 10 days ahead of the Labor Day weekend.  Of course, while many try to get their last bit of R&R in at a nearby beach or lake, Washington is once again taking center stage. As you have probably guessed that means some back and forth political maneuvering will push the market around over the coming weeks as renewed hopes of U.S. tax reform contend with President Trump threatening a government shutdown if Congress didn’t present him with a spending bill for the next fiscal year that included funding for a border wall. Not exactly the tone we’d like to hear ahead of the debt ceiling negotiations.

While we ultimately think the debt ceiling will be raised, we’re not looking forward to the “deadline is approaching” drama that will likely unfold. Giving us some reassurance, during a public event on Monday in Kentucky with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said there was “zero chance — no chance” that Congress would fail to raise the debt ceiling. Of course, that doesn’t mean it’s going to be a walk in the park getting there.

As we watch those developments, we’ve started to get some hints as to what tax reform might look like. Early indications suggest capping the mortgage interest deduction for homeowners, scrapping people’s ability to deduct state and local taxes, eliminating businesses’ ability to deduct interest and allowing for the “repatriation” of corporate profits from overseas. As we’ve seen with the efforts to repeal and replace Obamacare, the devil will be in the details, and more solid ones should emerge in the coming weeks.

Finally, less than a week into NAFTA renegotiations, President Trump has cast doubt on the future of the trade agreement saying, “I think we’ll end up probably terminating NAFTA at some point.” Again, the devil will be in the details, and until those emerge we’re likely to see corporate American hem and haw as it faces several new obstacles that are fanning the flames of uncertainty.

In our view, this is points to a potentially tumultuous next few weeks, low volume end of August followed by September, historically one of the worst months for the stock market. From a Tematica Select List perspective, we’ve seen the recent volatility ding some of the positions, but we remain comfortable given the confirming data points that we are seeing.

For example, during his address Monday night, President Trump announced a new strategy that calls for sending more troops to Afghanistan. Trump provided few specifics about his policy and how much the U.S. military commitment in the region would increase as a result. The decision, however, to further commit rather than withdraw equates to a tailwind for defense spending that is a part of our Safety & Security investing theme. Also, this week, security researchers have discovered several apps on the Google Play store harboring malware, another reminder of the downside to our increasingly Connected Society that provides lift for the cyber security aspect of our Safety & Security investing theme. As we look for details on incremental defense spending, we’ll continue to recommend subscribers add PureFunds ISE Cyber Security ETF (HACK) shares to their holdings if they haven’t already done so.

  • We continue to have a buy on PureFunds ISE Cyber Security ETF (HACK) shares with a long-term price target of $35.

 

 

More Tailwinds for OLEDs

Last week, as it reported a solid earnings beat and raised its outlook for the balance of the year, Applied Materials (AMAT) had several bullish things to say on organic light-emitting diode display demand:

“Display is growing even faster than wafer fab equipment as customers make multi-year investments to address large inflections in both TV and mobile. In TV, a major push to new Gen 10.5 substrates is under way. These huge, 10- square-meters substrates are ideally suited for manufacturing larger-format screens, 60 inches and bigger. We now expect 30 new Gen 10.5 factories to be built over the next several years. At the same time, mobile organic light-emitting diode (OLED) display investment is getting stronger as customers prepare for broad adoption of OLED in smartphones. OLED enables new form factors that result in a larger display area for smartphone, further expanding the overall market.”

We could not have summed it up better ourselves, and that report keeps us bullish on both AMAT and Universal Display (OLED) shares despite the recent pullback both have experienced.

  • We continue to have Buy ratings on both Applied Materials (AMAT) and Universal Display (OLED) shares with prices targets of $55 and $135, respectively

 

USAT Beats Expectations and Offers Bullish Outlook

Yesterday, shares of Cashless Consumption company USA Technologies (USAT) popped in early trading following an earnings and revenue beat for the June quarter. More specifically, the company beat bottom line expectations by $0.01 per share and topped revenues with $34.3 million, $3.2 million ahead of consensus forecasts, and up more than 55% year over year. Ticking through the press release there were a number of positive connection and customer metrics shared by the company and as expected the company offering a bullish outlook for the coming quarters.

That’s the good news.

The less good news is the company fell short when it came to discussing the impact of its recent stock offering that was completed in late July. Yes, during the current quarter, and we find that somewhat disappointing. The company did say, however, that it plans to “to take advantage of opportunities both organic and inorganic that may present themselves in this rapidly evolving landscape” and that means an acquisition or more. When peppered on the earnings conference call, USAT shared that it would seek acquisitions to “enhancing our offering with additional value-added services or allowing us to expand into additional verticals or geographies to drive further growth.”

Not a bad development by any stretch, but it is one that raises some unknowns, particularly for a small company. As we’ve heard many a banker say, the headaches associated with small acquisitions are the same ones with big ones, the only difference is the size of the fee. Given the size of the business as well as the team, the question is will USAT undertake nip and tuck acquisitions that add to its capabilities and expand its footprint or would it look to make a bolder move, potentially swallowing a larger player? We’re fans of the former, while the latter tends to result in some of those headaches such as product, facility, technology and spending integration and rationalization, as well as layoffs.

Given the global proliferation of mobile payments and the first-hand experience I had in Singapore, we’re going to stick with USAT shares for the time being. Based on any potential acquisition, we’ll look to digest the implications and what it may mean for holding the shares.

  • Our price target on USA Technologies (USAT) shares remains $6.

 

 

Disruptive Voice Technology Continues to Take Hold

Last night we shared the news that Barclays (BRC) has enabled voice payments to be made using Apple’s (AAPL) Siri functionality. This is another step forward in the disruptive use of voice technology as an interface across smartphones, intelligent speakers and soon other applications. As more and more applications come to market, we continue to be bullish on shares of Nuance Communications (NUAN) despite the slow tumble they’ve experienced over the last several weeks. As a reminder, the company has inked technology deals with Apple as well as Facebook (FB) to power their respective messaging chat bots even as the use of voice technology proliferates.

  • We remain bullish on Nuance (NUAN) shares, and our price target stands at $21.

 

 

Even Though DY Remains in Radio-Silence, We Continue to Be Patient

Next week Dycom Industries (DY) will report its quarterly results on Wednesday morning (August 30). Despite the ever-increasing need to add incremental wireless capacity and build out next generation wireline networks, in part for wireless data backhaul, to keep up with data demand, DY shares have sunk some 28% over the last three months. This equates to a round trip in the position from a high of just over $110 back to our blended cost basis of $76.68 on the Tematica Select List.

Frustrating to say the least. That frustration is compounded by the lack of news to be had from the company. Its last communique was at the Stifel Industrials Conference back in June. We know network spending at its key customers — AT&T (T), Verizon (VZ) and Comcast (CMCSA) — remains on track as they look to bring incremental 4G and gigabit internet capacity on stream, while beta-ing 5G capacity. Comcast’s recent launch of Xfinity Wireless also likely means additional wireless capital spending will be had in the coming quarters.

  • We’ll continue to be patient with Dycom Industries (DY), which is hovering in oversold territory.
  • Should the shares retreat further into the mid-$60s, we’re inclined to once again scale into the position, improving our cost basis along the way. 

 

 

WEEKLY ISSUE: A Company in Transition Can Be an Opportunity When the Time is Right

WEEKLY ISSUE: A Company in Transition Can Be an Opportunity When the Time is Right

In this Week’s Issue:

  • Updates on Tematica Select List Holdings
  • A Company in Transition Can Be an Opportunity When the Time is Right

 

We have one last major earnings hurrah in the short-term and that will hit on Thursday. From there, the pace of earnings should begin to slow, but like any lengthy meal, it means digestion will ensue. This time around the digestion phase will be the usual matching up of company reports and cross-referencing guidance, but with an eye to how realistic earnings expectations are for the back half of 2017.

In addition to doing our own work on this, as you read this Tematica’s Chief Investment Strategist is winging his way to Singapore to give a presentation on thematic investing. While the trip to and fro will be a lengthy one, including a long layover in Japan, we strongly suspect he’ll have a number of data points and insight to share in the next issue of Tematica Investing that will be published on Aug. 16. That’s right, while others may take off the last two weeks of August, we’ll be coming at you as we close the second month of 3Q 2017 and get ready for September.

Historically September has been one of the worst performing months for the market, and given our concerns about earnings expectations vs. the market’s valuation, the pending normalization of the Fed’s balance sheet and speed of the economy not to mention continued drama in DC and North Korea, we want to dress the investing table properly ahead of entering the last month of the quarter.

 

 

Updates on Tematica Select List Holdings

As we mentioned in this week’s Monday Morning Kickoff, we had a sea of more than 600 companies report their latest quarterly performance. Here are some quick highlights and corresponding actions for those Tematica Select List members that reported last week.

Following Facebook’s (FB) better-than-expected June quarter, in which advertising revenue rose 47 percent year-on-year and mobile revenue jumped 53 percent and the company trimmed back its operating expense guidance, we are boosting our price target on the shares to $200 from $165. At the current share price, we now see just over 15 percent upside to our new price target. Clearly, that is tempting. However, we’d look for the shares to settle following its earnings report and bullish commentary before revisiting the current rating on the shares.

  • We’ve increased our price target to $200 from $165 for Facebook (FB) shares, which offers 18 percent upside from current levels.
  • As we re-issue our Buy rating on FB shares, we would suggest subscribers let the currently over bought shares cool off following last week’s post earnings report climb. We see a compelling line closer to $160.

Also during the week, Amazon (AMZN) reported results that missed expectations, which we attribute to our warning over ramping expenses. Given its outlook, however, the shares finished the week down modestly. We acknowledge that quarter-to-quarter expenses can be tricky when it comes to Amazon, but there is no denying the winds that are at its back. As we enter the Back to School and soon to be upon us holiday shopping period we continue to see Amazon taking consumer wallet share. The fact that it continues to expand its offering while growing its very profitable Amazon Web Services is not lost on us.

  • Our price target on Amazon (AMZN) shares remains $1,150, which keeps the shares a Buy at current levels.
  • As we have said previously, AMZN shares are ones to own, not trade.

Buried inside the earnings report from MGM Resorts (MGM) last week was improved margin guidance, along with a strong event calendar, which in our view offsets the current disruption at its Monte Carlo facility. As a reminder, that facility is being rebranded to Park MGM. On the back of that call, Telsey Advisory Group not only reiterated its Outperform rating, but boosted its price target to $39. We’ll look to see if the near-term event calendar featuring the upcoming McGregor vs. Mayweather fight on Aug. 26 lives up to expectations, before adjusting our $37 price target for this Guilty Pleasure company.

When we added shares of AXT (AXTI) to the Tematica Select List, we knew the business would benefit from our increasingly Connected Society as well as new technologies that are part of our Disruptive Technology investing theme. Today we are boosting our price target to $11 from $9 on shares of this compound semiconductor substrate manufacturer following an upbeat 2Q 2107 earnings report. While the company’s EPS for the quarter was in-line with expectations, quarterly revenue was ahead of expectations and management confirmed the upbeat outlook by core customer Skyworks Solutions (SWKS) as it signaled continued volume gains are to be had in the coming quarters. We continue to see increasing demand for its substrates fueled by wireless and light emitting diode applications as well as the adoption of next generation technologies in data centers and other telecommunication applications. As volume improves, so to should margins and EPS generation as well.

  • We are boosting our price target on AXT Inc. (AXTI) shares to $11 from $9, which keeps a Buy rating intact.

Finally, while Applied Materials (AMAT) shares closed down 8 percent over the last several days, competitor Lam Research (LRCX) offered an upbeat view of semiconductor capital equipment demand on its 2Q 2017 earnings report. On the corresponding earnings call, Lam management shared several confirming data points behind our Applied thesis, including “Demand trends are robust, particularly in memory both in enterprise and consumer end markets. Applications such as machine learning and artificial intelligence are foundational to the next generation of technology innovation, and they are driving strong memory content growth for DRAM and NAND that offer attractive economics for our customers.”

One of the key differences between Applied and Lam is Applied’s position in display technology equipment that is benefitting from the ramp in organic light emitting diodes displays. Lam does not participate in that market and as good as its outlook is for semiconductor capital equipment, which bodes well for Applied, recent news that LG Display would invest several billion dollars to help Apple (AAPL) secure organic light emitting diode display capacity only benefits Applied.

  • We continue to be bullish on both Applied Materials (AMAT) as well as Universal Display (OLED) shares and our respective price targets remain $55 and $125.

A Company in Transition Can Be an Opportunity When the Time is Right

Often times companies that are in transition are ones that are put on the shelf that investors tend not to revisit. While that can be a good thing, there are times when it may not be and that’s the question today. Is Nokia (NOK), the former mobile phone market share leader that bungled the smartphone revolution worth taking another look at? Kind of like a bad relationship, most investors tend to walk away from a stock like a bad breakup, never looking back. But in this case, we think NOK, which was once a darling of our Connected Society investing theme a decade plus ago is showing signs it might be deserving of another chance as it morphs into Asset-lite company.

Let’s remember, Nokia shrewdly sold off its mobile phone business to Microsoft (MSFT) a few years ago fetching $7.2 billion in return. Soon thereafter Nokia sold its Here mapping and locations services business to an automotive industry consortium consisting of Audi, BMW Group and Daimler for $3.1 billion. So yes, the Nokia of today is very different than it was just a decade ago.

What’s left, is a company comprised of two businesses – Nokia Networks and Nokia Technologies. The Networks business is one that includes its mobile networks equipment — the hardware the carries all that cellular data — that is used by carriers across the globe, which are filling in some phase of expanding existing 3G or 4G LTE network coverage, building new 4G LTE networks (like in India) or prepping to test 5G networks. The Networks are a lumpy business as equipment demand peaks as a new technology is ramped and then fades as only incremental spending remains. We’ve seen this with 2G, 3G, and 4G networks, and odds are we will see this again with 5G. The Networks business also includes its services business as well as its IP/Optical Networks business, but the key mobile networks business accounts for

The issue will be one of timing – when does the ramp really begin? – and the competitive landscape, given the emergence of Chinese players like Huawei.
The simplest way to view Nokia Networks is it is one of the equipment vendors that Dycom Industries (DY) would use as it builds out a 4G, 5G or wirelines network for AT&T (T), Verizon (VZ) or Comcast (CMCSA). Its competitors include Ericsson (ERIC) as well as Alcatel Lucent (ALU), but also several Chinese vendors including Huawei and ZTE as well as Samsung.

While many may focus on that lumpy and competitive business, to us here at Tematica the far more interesting business is the company’s licensing arm called Nokia Technologies, a division that taps into our Asset-Lite investment theme that focuses on businesses that leverage intellectual property, patent portfolios and both licensing in and out models, outsourcing and similar business models. It’s an attractive investment theme because it requires little capital to operate, but often generates significant profits. Case in point, Nokia’s Technology division accounts for roughly 7 percent of overall revenue, but it generates more than one-third of the company’s overall operating profit.

Nokia Technology’s assets include the company’s vast mobile IP library, as well as developments in digital health and digital media. Given Nokia’s storied history in the phone market, many smartphone makers license the company’s patents for everything from display technology to antenna design. These licenses tend to span several years, and are extremely profitable. Moreover, Nokia is not resting on its laurels and licensing aging IP – during the first half of 2017, it spent EUR 1.9 billion ($2.2 billion) as it develops digital media, immersive virtual reality, and digital health technologies as well as builds out its mobile and wireline IP portfolio.

We’d note that Apple (AAPL) recently plunked down $2 billion to re-up its licensing agreement with Nokia, after engaging in a patent dispute when the last agreement lapsed. During 2Q 2017 Nokia also ironed out a licensing deal with Chinese smartphone vendor Xiaomi, and has its sight on not only other Chinese vendors, but also expanding its reach as connectivity moves beyond the smartphone and tablet to the home, car and Internet of Things. We see the expanded nature of Nokia’s latest licensing agreement with Apple as a potential harbinger of things to come. On the recent 2Q 2017 earnings call Nokia managements shared that, “instead of a simple patent licensing agreement, we have agreed on a more extensive business collaboration with Apple, providing potential for a meaningful uplift in our IP Routing, Optical Networks and Digital Health business units over time.” In our view, this makes Nokia a looming Disruptive Technology company mixed with a hefty dose of Connected Society.

Now here’s where things get interesting – while Nokia Technologies represented just 7 percent of overall sales in 2Q 2017, it was responsible for more than 60 percent of Nokia’s overall operating profit. Viewed from a different angle, its operating margins are more than 60 percent vs. just 8 percent or so for the Networks business. As one might suspect, the company is targeting a restructuring program to improve profitability at its Networks business, but from our perspective, the real story and the thematic tailwinds that make it attractive are the earnings leverage is tied to the Nokia Technologies business. Should Nokia begin to ink either more licensing deals with Chinese and other smartphone vendors or ones that allow it to expands its IP scope, we could see a meaningful lift in 2018 expectations. Current consensus expectations sit at EPS of 0.35 on revenue of $26.7 billion. That means NOK shares are trading at 18.3x that 2018 forecast, but the question in our mind is after two years with no EPS growth can Nokia grow actually grow its EPS by 35 percent in 2018.

As we’ve learned in the past with InterDigital (IDCC) and Qualcomm (QCOM)sometimes these licensing wins can be lumpy, taking far more time than one might expect. From time to time, it may include legal action as well, which can lead to a rise in legal fees in the short term. Given the company’s net cash position of roughly EUR 4.0 billion ($4.7 billion), we’re not too concerned about its ability to protect itself while continuing to invest in R&D or pay an annual special dividend each year.

As we look for greater near-term clarity at Nokia Technologies and as management looks to restructure Nokia Networks as well as the current valuation, rather than jump on Nokia shares trading at $6.58 at the open this morning as we head into the dog days of summer, we’re placing them onto the Tematica Contender List and we’ll watch for future IP licensing progress or for the shares at about 15% less, at the $5.50 level.

One other item… In an interesting development, a few years ago Microsoft has sold the Nokia brand in two parts to HMD and Foxconn. HMD is a company comprised of former Nokia employees in Finland and through Nokia Technologies it has licensed the sole use of the Nokia brand on mobile phones and tablets worldwide for the next decade, as well as key cellular patents. Meanwhile, Foxconn acquired the manufacturing, distribution and sales arms of Microsoft-Nokia and has also agreed to build the new Nokia phone for HMD. To us, this could be a wild card to watch, but the question will be whether or not they make the move from feature phone to smartphone and have any success? Only time will tell.

 

 

 

WEEKLY ISSUE: Confirming Thematic Data Points Coming At Us In Spades

WEEKLY ISSUE: Confirming Thematic Data Points Coming At Us In Spades

In this Week’s Issue:

  • Thematic Data Points Revealed in Earnings Thus Far
  • What We Expect from Thematic Poster Child Company Amazon
  • Shifting USAT and BETR shares to Hold from Buy
  • Some Quick Tematica Select List Hits on AXTI, MGM, OLED, AMAT and DY

 

With all many plates spinning on sticks this week, thus far we’ve seen a mixed reaction from investors on the most recent developments coming out of Washington, D.C. amid the Affordable Care Act debate and the onslaught of earnings report. As those many details are digested, the market is also weighing what the Fed will say this week when it comes to the tone of the economy as it concludes its latest monetary policy meeting.

As we shared in this week’s Monday Morning Kickoff, we see a low to no probability of the Fed boosting rates near-term, especially given the pending September unwinding of its balance sheet – something we’ve never experienced before. Given that Fed Chairwoman probably doesn’t want to be the one to send the domestic economy into a tailspin, we strongly suspect she and the rest of the Fed heads will stand pat as they offer clues for what is to be had in the coming weeks.

 

Thematic Data Points Revealed in Earnings Thus Far

As we parse through the onslaught of quarterly earnings reports coming at us this week, we continue to find confirming data points for our investing themes. We saw those in spades yesterday as we reviewed Alphabet’s (GOOGL) 2Q 2017 earnings report. If you missed that commentary, you can find it here, but the skinny is Alphabet continues to ride the tailwinds of the Connected Society investment theme and the shares are a core holding on the Tematica Select List.

We expect the same to be true when Facebook (FB) reports its quarterly results after tonight’s market close. Over the last several quarters, Facebook has been incrementally expanding its monetization efforts across all its various platforms and we see more benefits ahead. Just last week the company announced it would be expanding its advertising platform to the company’s Messenger app for smartphones. We expect more details on this, as well as its pending foray into subscription services with newspapers, magazines, and other publishers during the company’s 2Q 2017 earnings conference call. Also on that conference call and earnings release, we’ll be scrutinizing subscriber metrics as well as average revenue per user figures. One of the keys to Facebook’s continued revenue and profit growth will be monetizing non-US users in the coming quarters. Consensus expectations for 2Q 2017 sit at EPS of $1.12 on revenue of $9.2 billion.

  • Even though FB shares have moved past our formal $160 price target, we’ll be putting it under the microscope to determine potential upside to be had based on 2Q 2017 results and the company’s outlook beyond the first half of 2017.
  • Those revisions may not lead to a table pounding “buy” conclusion, but Facebook’s position in our Connected Society investing theme, along with its growing monetization efforts, keep FB shares as a must own for the foreseeable future.

 

What We Expect from Thematic Poster Child Company Amazon

Also later this week, we’ll be getting earnings from the poster child company when it comes to thematic investing – Amazon (AMZN). If you missed our latest Thematic Signals posting that explains this, you can find it here.

Where do we begin with Amazon this week? First, there was the move by Sears (SHLD) to partner with Amazon with regard to selling Kenmore appliances online (including the smart-home ones that include Amazon Alexa). Then there was Amazon debuting its Amazon Pay Places feature, which allows users to utilize their Amazon account like a mobile wallet for a real world version of one-click shopping. Or perhaps you saw the launching of Spark, which allows Prime members to shop a feed of social media-inspired product suggestions. The key takeaway is Amazon continues to flex its muscles, many of which have solid thematic drivers behind them, and it is doing so at a blistering pace. As Tematica Chief Macro Strategy Lenore Hawkins chimed in on a recent episode of Cocktail Investing, “how much coffee does Jeff Bezos drink?”

While we are on the subject of Amazon, late last week, the Federal Trade Commission announced it is investigating Amazon’s discounting policies following a Consumer Watchdog complaint. Candidly, as Amazon continues to expand its footprint, we expect more of such complaints and suspect that will serve only as a distraction. Moreover, given its balance sheet, should any fines be awarded it has ample funds to comply. More sizzle than steak, as it were.

We do NOT expect Amazon to say much with regard to this FTC non-event event when it reports its earnings tomorrow night. Consensus expectations have the company delivering EPS of $1.42 on revenue of $37.18 billion.

We would call out one key concerns ahead of that quarterly report and usually tight-lipped conference call — it seems investors think Amazon can do no wrong and that mindset can lead to excessive whisper expectations. There we said it.

Our concern in the short term remains the potential for Wall Street to have underestimated Amazon’s investment spending in the near term. As we saw above, it has a number of initiatives under way, and given the accelerating shift to digital commerce and potential partnership to be had on top of those with Nike (NKE) and Sears, Amazon may step up its investment spending ahead of the year-end holiday shopping season, thus cutting into its EPS projections.

If we are right, we could see the shares have a cool post-earnings reception. From our perspective, we see that spending as a long-term investment to grow its services and geographic footprint. Any meaningful pullback in the stock would be an opportunity for investors to increase their foothold in the stock in our view.

  • We will remain patient investors with Amazon (AMZN), especially as we enter the holiday spending filled second-half of 2017.
  • Our price target remains $1,150.

 

Shifting USAT and BETR shares to Hold from Buy

Over the last few weeks, shares of Food with Integrity company Amplify Snacks (BETR) and Cashless Consumption play USA Technologies (USAT) have been melting higher.  Amplify Snacks, on the back of merger-and-acquisition interest focused on the “food that is good for you” space, and USAT, following its recent stock offering and bullish transaction volume commentary from Visa (V), JP Morgan (JPM) and others so far this earning season.

  • Those moves either have put BETR and USAT shares over and above or very close to our price targets.
  • We will be mindful of these targets ahead of respective earnings reports, but for now, we are downshifting them to Hold from Buy on the Tematica Select List.

And as a reminder, our Hold rating, it is literally just that, a recommendation for those that own the shares to hold them for the time being. For subscribers who missed these recommendations, we’d be more inclined to revisit this BETR shares below $9.50 given our $11 price target. With USAT shares and our $6 target, we are more inclined to revisit USAT shares at lower levels, and in this case, that means closer to $5.

As we move through this earnings season over the next two weeks, we continue to think we will see opportunities emerge that allow us to capture thematically well-positioned companies at better prices.

 

Some Quick Tematica Select List Hits

 

AXT Inc. (AXTI)

Following an upbeat report for key customer Skyworks (SWKS) last week, we expect solid results this week from Disruptive Technology company AXT Inc. (AXTI). On its earnings call, Skyworks shared it is still in the early innings of a data explosion that is expected to grow sevenfold over the 2016-2021 period, which should benefit wireless semiconductor demand. Connecting the dots, this bodes extremely well for AXT’s substrate business.

  • Consensus expectations for AXTI sit at EPS of $0.05 on revenue of $22.55 million
  • Our price target remains $9 for AXT shares.

 

MGM Resorts International (MGM)

We’re happy to share that Guilty Pleasure company MGM Resorts International (MGM) will be added to the S&P 500 when that index rebalances later today. That should spur incremental buying among mutual funds as well as exchange traded funds that are based on that index.

Getting back to earnings and expectations, the consensus for MGM is EPS of 0.30 on revenue of $2.67 billion. Data of late for gaming in both Las Vegas and Macau have been quite favorable and we view the company’s recent initiation of a quarterly dividend as underscoring management’s confidence in the business over the coming quarters.

  • Given favorable prospects over the medium term, we would look to use any pronounced weakness in MGM shares following the company’s earnings report to scale further into the shares.
  • Our price target remains $37.

 

Universal Display (OLED)

Many investors are focused on Apple’s (AAPL) adoption of organic light emitting diode (OLED) displays for its next iteration of the iPhone, but as subscribers know there is far greater adoption across other smartphone vendors as well as those for TVs, wearables and other applications. That adoption, which is resulting in companies that had previously invested in liquid crystal display technologies shifting their investments to organic light emitting diodes ones.

We’ve seen the ramping demand for OLED equipment at Applied Materials (AMAT), and this week we saw another layer added to the OLED demand/capacity profile when LG Display shared its plan to invest $13.5 billion to boost output of OLED screens over the next three years. Now let’s add that context we always talk about — the investment is roughly 25 percent more than LG Display’s annual capital spending, which likely means it intends to be an aggressive force in the OLED display market. Given that LG is one of Universal’s key customers, with the other being the OLED industry leader Samsung, we see LG’s upsized commitment to OLEDs as a strong tailwind for Universal’s chemical and high margin IP licensing business.

  • Our formal price target of $125 for Universal Display (OLED) shares is under review with a bias to moving it upwards.
  • The company will report its 2Q 2017 results on August 3 and we will adjust that target after that announcement.

 

 

Applied Materials (AMAT)            

The next catalysts for Applied Materials (AMAT) will be earnings from competitor Lam Research (LRCX) later today and Intel (INTC) tomorrow. Inside Lam’s results, we’ll be watching new orders, as well as backlog levels on both a product and geographic basis. In particular, we’ll look for confirmation of data coming out of the recent SemiCon West industry event that pointed to solid memory demand, which bodes well for additional semi-cap equipment demand.

With Intel’s results, we’ll be paying close attention to its capital spending plans for the back half of 2017. Also too, as we mentioned with Universal Display above, LG’s plan to spend $13.5 billion over the next 3 years to ramp its organic light emitting diode capacity bodes rather for Applied’s order book and back log levels over the coming quarters.

  • Our price target on AMAT shares remains $55, which offers ample upside from current levels.

 

 

Dycom Industries (DY)

This week and next will see several of Dycom’s key customers report their earnings, including AT&T (T), Verizon (VZ) and Comcast (CMCSA). Inside those reports, we’ll be looking at not only overall capital spending levels, but in particular, those targeted to mobile and wireline network capacity additions.

Given the continued adoption of streaming services, audio as well as video, we see commentary that networks capacity levels are running at exorbitantly high capacity utilization levels as being very good for Dycom. While we don’t expect any specifics on 5G timetables, we do expect to hear more about testing and beta launches. As Dycom’s key customers issue their quarterly reports, we’ll have much more to say on what it means for DY shares.

  • We continue to rate Dycom (DY) shares a Buy with a $115 price target.

 

 

 

Apple’s WWDC17: An event lacking vision from a company without a visionary

Apple’s WWDC17: An event lacking vision from a company without a visionary

Yesterday, Apple (AAPL) held its annual World Wide Developer Conference (WWDC) at which CEO Tim Cook showcased a number of announcements. While we tend to be Apple devotees when it comes to the hardware and its ease of use, in taking a few steps back, our view is this year’s WWDC is it was one largely filled with refinements and incremental additions. Not entirely surprising, given the fact that Apple is now led by an expert operations manager, Tim Cook, and not a visionary like Steve Jobs. As we see it, Apple will either need to bring in some visionary expertise, or perhaps, and more likely, use it’s war chest of $250 billion to buy some vision in the form of acquisitions, but that’s another story.

We have not been buyers of Apple shares as of late — despite being avid fans, if not a lover of its products — given the transition-like nature of the product cycle that keeps Apple arguably reliant on the iPhone. Instead, for subscribers to our Tematica Research premium service, we’ve recognized the Apple-related opportunity from a different perspective – one that intersects with our tendency to “Buy the Bullets, Not the Guns” and several of our investing themes — Connected Society, Content is King, Cashless Consumption and Disruptive Technologies – with great success along the way. Examples include Universal Display (OLED), Nuance Communications (NUAN) and Applied Materials (AMAT), which are up more than 127 percent, 23 percent and 28 percent, respectively since being added to the Tematica Select List.

In our view, Apple is in a tough spot after setting the bar so high for so long. It too now has to compete with how it once wowed audiences and consumers as it updates existing products and tries to find its footing with new ones. Given its size, install base and the fact that its products are for the most part so simple to use, Apple isn’t likely to go the way of Kodak or Xerox anytime soon.

Getting back to the conference, on the smaller side, there were announcements like Amazon’s (AMZN) Prime Video coming to Apple TV and the upgrades to its Mac line. The real interest was in what the latest release of its mobile operating system iOS 11 brings, with a surprise in that this next iteration is likely to make the iPad a device to be embraced for both business as well as personal use. Perhaps the best worst kept secret heading into the event was Apple’s move into the connected speaker market, and yes Apple did take the wraps off HomePod, which looks to be Apple’s second if not a third potential hub in the home. The first two hubs being the iPhone and Apple TV, both of which connect with Apple’s HomeKit.

 

 

Interestingly, Apple is leading HomePod with music first and as a connected device with Siri second. Perhaps this is because if you’ve ever asked Siri the same questions as you might ask Amazon Alexa, one tends to realize that Siri isn’t the sharpest knife in the drawer, as it lacks the backing of Amazon’s Amazon Web Services and artificial intelligence. This strategy is also likely aiming to spur subscriptions to Apple’s Apple Music service; we can’t tell you how many times Apple shared it offers more than 40 million songs during the keynote presentations. Will this be a viable competitor to Sonos’s smart speakers when it comes to sound quality? Could the HomePod spur Amazon or Alphabet to acquire Sonos? Time will answer both of those questions.

Apple did tout Siri Intelligence several times during yesterday’s presentations, but this appears to be an area of continued investment as Apple catches up to Amazon and Google rather than leapfrogging them in the process and redefining the category. With Amazon’s strategy to make Alexa compatible with autos, the likes of Ford (F) and Volkswagen, as well as consumer appliance companies such as Whirlpool (WHR), it looks like the old OS war between Microsoft and Apple could be played out again in the voice digital assistant space. This raises several questions in our minds – Will Apple license Siri for use outside of Apple products? Will Amazon have the same issues Microsoft had with Windows and device compatibility? Fodder for thought and what it may mean for the future of these interfaces.

Yes, there was some cool new Apple stuff, like the Do Not Disturb While Driving feature, the ability to drag and drop with iOS 11, which in our view was sorely missing for the iPad and Apple’s foray into Virtual Reality (VR). But again, the head turning “wow” factor just wasn’t there. Even with HomePod, it will be interesting to see how it stacks up against Amazon’s Echo products as well as Alphabet’s (GOOGL) Google Home in the coming months. One would have to think these companies are prepping newer models, perhaps with better sound capabilities, ahead of the year-end holiday season.

The problem as we see it is Apple is trapped inside a near yearly refresh rate that makes it challenging to deliver breakthrough features each and every year. Even the new iOS name, iOS 11, is uninspiring.

Who has a blowout birthday when they turn 11?

Even the naming conventions for the new macOS and iMac were iterative in nature with Craig Federighi, Apple’s senior vice president of Software Engineering, getting a good nature laugh along the way.

Now with the WWDC keynote behind us, the next event to watch for Apple will be the unveiling of the much-discussed iPhone 8 model later this year. While Apple did sneak peek a few products yesterday, we heard nothing about the next iPhone model and as the news cycle turns away from WWDC we expect investor speculation to run rampant when it comes to this device later this summer. With 66 percent of Apple’s sales coming from the iPhone over the last two quarters, it’s the one product that Apple has to get right. Odds are it will, and that device will keep Apple as one of the key players in our Connected Society investing theme as its other initiatives – Virtual Reality, Apple Pay, Apple Watch and Apple TV – feel the lift of our Disruptive Technology, Cashless Consumption, Fountain of Youth and Content is King themes.

As these tailwinds blow, our Tematica Select List will surely continue to reap the benefits.