Online Sports Betting Surges But DraftKings’ Cash Burn Continues to Intensify; We Prefer More Conservative Gaming Plays Such as Churchill Downs

Image: Online sports betting platform DraftKings continues to burn through hundreds of millions of dollars each year. Data: SEC Filings, Seeking Alpha. By Brian Nelson, CFA Sports betting is now legal in 36 states and mobile sports betting is now legal in 26 states, and more states are expected to legalize sports betting in 2023. According to a report from Grand View Research, the global sports betting market is expected to increase at a compound annual growth rate north of 10% through 2030. In 2022 alone, it is estimated that Americans wagered roughly $80 billion betting on sports online. The NFL is among the biggest draws, and some estimate that more than 50 million American adults bet on the Super … Read more

Microsoft Is Buying Activision On Way to Becoming Video Game Giant

Image Shown: Microsoft Corporation is buying Activision Blizzard Inc, the largest buyout for a US tech firm ever. Image Source: Microsoft Corporation – January 2022 IR Presentation covering its acquisition of Activision Blizzard Inc By Callum Turcan On January 18, Microsoft Corporation (MSFT) made history by making an all-cash offer to purchase Activision Blizzard Inc (ATVI) for $95 per share. The boards of both companies have already approved the deal. Inclusive of Activision’s net cash position, the deal is worth $68.7 billion which makes it the largest buyout ever for a US tech firm according to CNBC. This deal is expected to close in fiscal 2023 (Microsoft’s fiscal year ends in June). Once it closes, assuming the deal pasts antitrust … Read more

Some Questions Answered: The Fair Value Estimate Range and ROIC

Q: In the 16-page stock reports, why doesn’t the ‘percentage undervalued / overvalued’ match up to the actual discount/premium to Valuentum’s fair value estimate of the company? A: We view the intrinsic value of a company as a Fair Value Range, not necessarily a single point estimate, so the undervalued and overvalued calculations match up to either the low fair value estimate or high fair value estimate, respectively. Within the context of a margin of safety, we wouldn’t necessarily view a company to be worth precisely $55 per share, for example; instead we’d view the company as worth between $50 (low end fair value estimate) and $60 per share (high end fair value estimate), with the low and high fair … Read more

SPACs Are Good for Markets, Not SPAC-tacular for Investors

Image: Performance of the Defiance NextGen SPAC IPO ETF (SPAK), where “a 60% weighting is applied to IPO companies derived from SPACs and 40% is allocated to common stock of newly listed Special Purpose Acquisition Companies (“SPACs”), ex-warrants” has been roughly flat since inception in October 2020.   By Brian Nelson, CFA What a time to be an investor…ehem, speculator! Cryptocurrencies, non-fungible tokens (NFTs), and now the boom in Special Purchase Acquisition Companies, more commonly known as SPACs. First, the good: We like that SPACs will create more publicly listed companies to improve investor choice because the number of publicly traded companies has been dangerously shrinking in recent years…but that’s really all we like about them. A SPAC is just … Read more

Microsoft Soars, Strong Revenue Growth Continues Unabated

Image Shown: Microsoft Corporation put up a solid fiscal third quarter earnings report and we continue to be big fans of the name. Image Source: Microsoft Corporation – Power Point Earnings Presentation Covering the Third Quarter of Fiscal 2022 By Callum Turcan On April 26, Microsoft Corporation (MSFT) reported third quarter earnings for fiscal 2022 (period ended March 31, 2022) that beat both consensus top- and bottom-line estimates. Shares of MSFT jumped higher by ~4%-5% in afterhours trading on April 26 as investors cheered on the good news and its promising near term outlook. Microsoft’s cloud-oriented products and services were a bright spot in the fiscal third quarter and underpinned its impressive pricing power. The firm was able to stay … Read more