MELI

Visa Reports Earnings and Mildly Adjusts Guidance

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Image Shown: Shares of top weighted holding in our Best Ideas Newsletter portfolio Visa Inc continues to outperform the S&P 500. By Callum Turcan On January 30, Visa Inc (V) reported earnings for the first quarter of its fiscal 2020 (period ended December 31, 2019). While shares sold off on the news, V has since recovered some lost ground and it’s important to keep in mind Visa is up ~42% over the past year as of this writing while the S&P 500 (SPY) was up just ~19% during this period. We continue to like Visa as a top weighted holding in the Best Ideas Newsletter portfolio and given the combination of the firm’s strong long-term technical and fundamental performance (on … Read more

Resetting Your Mental Model

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Image Source: affen ajlfe A version of this article was originally published on our website October 6, 2013. Having the right mental model and using the right information can be the reason why you win or lose in investing. “What is the definition of timeliness? Many believe it is getting information to investors as quickly as possible after an event, or updating something every single day or week for immaterial information. I believe in a different definition of timeliness. I believe timeliness is using all information available in a mosaic approach to accurately predict the event before it even happens. Take Kinder Morgan as the latest example. We were the only ones predicting what was going to happen before it did. To investors, … Read more

Visa Enhances Its Long-Term Outlook

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Top weighted Best Ideas Newsletter portfolio holding Visa continues to augment its long-term outlook for the betterment of its shareholders, in our view. By Callum Turcan On January 13, top weighted Best Ideas Newsletter portfolio holding Visa Inc (V) announced it was buying financial tech company Plaid for $5.3 billion. Plaid primarily offers a network that allows consumers to connect financial accounts to apps securely and safely, meaning that when a consumer downloads a mobile financial-oriented app to their phone (for example), Plaid is the company that ensures a smooth connection between app and the relevant financial institution when it comes to transferring information and ultimately money. What’s important about this acquisition is that Visa, once again, is showcasing its … Read more

Visa Operates a Great Business

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Image Shown: Shares of Visa Inc have shot upwards over the past year and we continue to like the name as a top holding in our Best Ideas Newsletter portfolio. By Callum Turcan One of our favorite companies out there is Visa Inc (V). The company generates robust free cash flows, its outlook is supported by powerful secular growth tailwinds, the firm doesn’t take on credit risk as it doesn’t issue out credit cards (making Visa a “pure play” on the shift from cash to card around the world), and generally speaking, the company has been very shareholder friendly. We continue to like Visa as a top holding in our Best Ideas Newsletter portfolio, a position it has been for … Read more

Apple Charging Higher

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Image Shown: Shares of Apple Inc continue to climb higher and we like the name in both our Best Ideas Newsletter and Dividend Growth Newsletter portfolios. This is a long-term holding with substantial potential capital appreciation and dividend growth upside. By Callum Turcan Apple Inc (AAPL) is a top holding in both our Best Ideas Newsletter and Dividend Growth Newsletter portfolios, with shares of AAPL yielding ~1.1% as of this writing. The top end of our fair value range estimate for shares of AAPL sits at $280, decently above where shares are trading at as of this writing. Considering the favorable technicals Apple has experienced of late, we see substantial room for shares to move higher still. Please keep in … Read more

PayPal Buys Honey and We Like the Fit

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Image Source: PayPal Holdings Inc – Press release covering its acquisition of Honey By Callum Turcan A holding in our Best Ideas Newsletter portfolio, PayPal Holdings Inc (PYPL) announced on November 20 it was acquiring the shopping and rewards start-up Honey for ~$4 billion. Honey is a high-growth technology platform (delivered through a browser add-on and mobile application) that helps consumers find deals and save when they shop online. That includes finding price discounts, promotions and events, sending alerts, creating lists, and offering a rewards system known as Honey Gold to its ~17 million monthly active users. We think this deal is highly complementary to PayPal’s operations, and we continue to give shares of PYPL a fair value estimate of … Read more

Our Reports on Stocks in the Financial Tech Services Industry

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Image Source: frankieleon Structure of the Financial Tech Services Industry The financial tech services industry is primarily composed of firms that generate revenue by charging fees to customers for providing transaction processing and other payment-related services. Constituents operate in a rapidly-evolving legal/regulatory environment, particularly with respect to interchange fees, data protection, and information security. Several participants benefit from a significant competitive advantage – the network effect. As more consumers use credit/debit cards, more merchants accept them, thereby creating a virtuous cycle. The industry is one of the most attractive in our coverage. We’ve optimized our tehnology coverage. To access the reports, please select here.

Portfolio Holdings Intel and Visa Hit It Out of the Park

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Image Shown: Shares of Intel Corporation leapt higher on Friday October 25 as the market digested its solid earnings report and guidance for this quarter. By Callum Turcan Intel One of our favorite Dividend Growth Newsletter and Best Ideas Newsletter portfolios holdings, Intel Corporation (INTC), posted third quarter fiscal 2019 earnings (period ended September 28) on October 24 that handily beat consensus top and bottom line estimates. Revenue in the third quarter on a GAAP basis came in at $19.2 billion, flat year-over-year, which management noted was $1.2 billion higher than guidance issued out in July. This outperformance was driven by Intel’s ‘data-centric’ offerings, with sales up 6% year-over-year, as Intel Xeon processors for data centers sold well. Additionally, Intel … Read more

Best Ideas Newsletter Portfolio Holding PayPal Can Thrive in a Post-eBay World

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Image Source: PayPal Holdings Inc – IR Presentation By Callum Turcan We continue to like Best Ideas Newsletter portfolio holding PayPal Holdings (PYPL) as a way to gain exposure to the very attractive payment processing and financial technology industry, complementing our top-weighted Visa Inc (V) holding. Our fair value estimate stands at $125 per share of PYPL, and we love its ability to generate shareholder value (indicated by PayPal’s Very Attractive Economic Castle rating). The company does not pay out a common dividend at this time, however; if PayPal did, it could be a significant one given its strong free cash flows. From 2016-2018, PayPal’s annual free cash flows averaged $3.0 billion as the firm is very capex-lite (relatively speaking, … Read more

Why We Like BIN Holding Visa So Much

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Image Source: Visa Inc – 2018 Annual Report By Callum Turcan One of our favorite holdings in the Best Ideas Newsletter portfolio is Visa (V), which has been included in the portfolio since November 2011 (see BIN transaction log here). Visa’s growth story is straightforward. The company is a secular growth play on the emergence of a global cashless society, one that is increasingly relying on debit and credit cards for most transactions. We think there’s still an enormous amount of room left to go on this front, especially in emerging and developing markets. We assign Visa a fair value estimate of $182/share (updated in the middle of August) and the top end of our fair value estimate range sits … Read more