Tuesday, March 26, 2019

Buy Microsoft (MSFT) Stock at New All-Time High, Amid Apple Downturn?

Microsoft (MSFT ) shares have surged roughly 16% in 2019 to outpace the S&P 500 and help the historic tech giant’s stock hit multiple new 52-week and all-time highs. Now, the question is should investors consider buying Microsoft stock as the company expands its cloud computing and IoT businesses, while maintaining its influence over the personal computer market?

Company Overview

Microsoft is clearly still a leader in the PC, laptop, and software space. The company’s video game unit has also grown over the years, driven by Xbox, which competes directly against Nintendo (NTDOY ) and Sony (SNE ) . MSFT hopes that its Netflix (NFLX ) -style Game Pass will help expand its reach and market share in the ever-growing video game market.

On top of that, Microsoft is already a cloud giant that boasts the second-largest market share in the industry, behind only Amazon (AMZN ) and ahead of IBM (IBM ) and Google (GOOGL ) . The company has a laundry list of major Fortune 500 clients, which includes the likes of Walmart (WMT ) and other giants.

Meanwhile, Microsoft’s ownership of LinkedIn could become even more important as Facebook (FB ) and Twitter (TWTR ) face more backlash and government scrutiny. Last quarter, LinkedIn revenue soared 29% on the back of record engagement levels. It is also worth pointing out that Microsoft recently unveiled its next-generation augmented-reality headsets known as HoloLens 2, which combine AI and mixed reality and are promoted as a way to bring companies into the future.

Microsoft has tried to position itself as a leader in an industry that some analysts expect to explode over the next 10 years. Fellow tech giants, including Apple (AAPL ) , Google, Facebook, and many others are all racing to roll out augmented reality technology that enables users to see images and holographic elements intertwined with the real world.

 

 

Valuation

As we mentioned at the top, shares of MSFT have started off the year strong and closed regular trading hours Monday at yet another new all-time high of $117.57 per share. Despite the climb, MSFT stock is currently trading at 24.3X forward 12-month Zacks Consensus EPS estimates. This marks a discount compared to its industry’s 26X average. Microsoft is also trading below its one-year high of 26.9X and almost exactly in line with its 12-month median of 24.4X.

We can clearly see that the company’s valuation picture is a bit stretched by its own historical standards. But we know that the broader Computer Software-Services Market has tracked Microsoft’s climb over this period, with MSFT always trading at a discount.

 

 

Outlook & Earnings Trends

Moving on, our current Zacks Consensus Estimate calls for Microsoft’s Q3 fiscal 2019 revenue to pop over 11% to reach $29.83 billion, which would fall just slightly below Q2’s 12% top-line growth. More specifically, Microsoft’s quarterly Intelligent Cloud revenue is projected to jump approximately 17.5% from $7.896 billion to reach $9.282 billion, based on our NFM estimate. This would mark a slowdown from last quarter’s 20% expansion.

MSFT’s current full-year revenues are projected to surge roughly 12.2% from $110.36 billion in fiscal 2018 to reach $123.87 billion. The firm’s full-year fiscal 2018 revenue popped 14%. Peeking even further down the road, Microsoft’s fiscal 2020 revenue is expected to pop 9.8% above our current year estimate to reach $136.03 billion.

At the bottom end of the income statement, the firm’s adjusted Q3 earnings are projected to climb 5.3% to hit $1.00 a share. MSFT’s current full-year earnings are projected to jump 13.7%, with 2020’s EPS figure expected to climb 11.8% above our 2019 estimate. Investors will note that the company’s earnings estimate revision activity has been mixed recently, with a larger portion of new estimates trending in the wrong direction.

 

 

Bottom Line

Microsoft is currently a Zacks Ranks #3 (Hold) based somewhat on the earnings estimate revision activity we just touched on. The company is also a dividend payer that has paid out a $0.46 per share dividend throughout fiscal 2019. This marked a 9.5% increase from the prior year’s quarterly payout and an 18% jump from fiscal 2017. Let’s also not forget that fellow tech titan Apple looks headed for a downturn, while Amazon’s revenues finally seem poised to slow down.

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Saturday, March 23, 2019

Here's What Worries Me About Boeing...

The ongoing situation with Boeing (NYSE: BA) is important for investors to watch. 

As you probably know, on Sunday, March 10, a Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft crashed just six minutes after takeoff in Ethiopia, killing all 157 passengers and crew aboard. 

Authorities have begun investigating the cause of the crash, which was the second crash involving that particular model within the span of several months. In the meantime, a number of countries issued orders to ground the Boeing model, with the U.S. following suit on Wednesday. 

Safety concerns about the airplane maker's 737 MAX aircraft are a tragedy, and I don't have any intention of minimizing them. And we don't have a clear idea of just how much this will affect Boeing just yet. But from an investment perspective, history shows that problems in a single company can spark a significant decline in an overvalued market.

Let me explain...

Historic examples include the October 1989 market crash that followed the collapse of a leveraged buyout deal for United Airlines. That crash was small, with the S&P 500 falling a little more than 6% that day, but the deal's collapse showed traders that buyouts were risky. The news pushed prices down in the junk bond market. 

In 2008, Bear Stearns imploded, and no one seemed to connect the dots to the broader problems. A few months before that crisis, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke had said that Fed officials "do not expect significant spillovers from the subprime market to the rest of the economy." 

These are two examples of how news that seemed isolated was more important than it appeared to be. I am concerned that the news about Boeing is much more significant than investors realize. 

Boeing is a large company with 153,000 employees. Having to retool operations could affect those employees and the communities they work in. And those problems are not isolated to just Boeing. Standard & Poor's identifies 316 suppliers to the company. Those companies could see downturns in sales as Boeing addresses its problems. 

In terms of the larger picture, Boeing even affects economic data. The company is the largest airplane manufacturer in the country, and the U.S. Census Bureau specifically excludes new orders for aircraft and other large transportation equipment from the durable goods orders report because a single large order of aircraft in one month can skew the monthly numbers and make it difficult to see the real trend in the economy. 

In the stock market, Boeing is the largest component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average, a price-weighted index that favors stocks with high prices. Shares have already taken a hit, and any further declines could weigh down the Dow and affect how investors perceive the overall market. I believe this stock could be the first of many to sell off. 

Another Thing You Might Have Missed...
And before we leave it at that for now, I want to share one more piece of news I think investors are overlooking... 

In New York City, the Chrysler Building was sold for $150 million. 

In 2008, a 90% stake in the building sold for $800 million. That would value the whole building at about $889 million. The sale price is about 84% less than that valuation. 

Real estate deals can be difficult to value. Reports indicate the iconic skyscraper is about 20% vacant and needs significant upgrades. But it's surprising that the building would decline in value so much while New York's economy boomed. 

Just like with Boeing, I think there is more this story than we know right now. 

Action To Take
I will be watching Boeing closely, along with other stories on the economy, in the days and weeks ahead. And I will be worrying more now than I was a few weeks ago. 

I've been warning my Profit Amplifier readers for weeks that I think there are significant bearish pressures in the market. This situation with Boeing is certainly one to add to the list.

(This article originally appeared on StreetAuthority.com.)

Monday, March 18, 2019

Retail Tech's Upcoming Revolution

In this week's episode of Industry Focus: Consumer Goods, host Nick Sciple talks with fool.com analyst Dan Kline about the coolest trends he saw at this year's Shoptalk conference -- namely, the democratization of cutting-edge retail technology.

Find out just what's available cheaply and easily to retailers across the board, what that means for players who aren't Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN), Walmart (NYSE:WMT), or Target (NYSE:TGT), and how those giants will have to respond to stay relevant. Also, the hosts talk about the ongoing drama that is Papa John's (NASDAQ:PZZA), which will hopefully be getting a lot less dramatic soon, and rumors of some spinoffs coming out of the serial brand acquirer JAB Holdings (including the potential coffee spinoff no one asked for or particularly wants). Tune in to find out more.

A full transcript follows the video.

This video was recorded on March 12, 2019. 

Nick Sciple: Welcome to Industry Focus, the podcast that dives into a different sector of the stock market every day. Today is Tuesday, March 12th, and we're talking Consumer Goods. I'm your host, Nick Sciple, and today I'm joined in studio by Motley Fool contributor Dan Kline. How are you doing, Dan? 

Dan Kline: I'm good, Nick! How are you? 

Sciple: I'm doing great, Dan! Good to have you in the D.C. area once again! You've returned from yet another trip to Vegas. How was your trip? What went on there? 

Kline: I went, as some of you Industry Focus fans know, to Shoptalk with Matt Frankel, another Industry Focus frequent guest. That's a retail show that draws some heavy hitters. A lot of the keynotes are CEOs or CFOs, COOs. It's really a showcase for technology. This year -- we'll talk about this later in the show -- I thought of it as the democratization of some pretty high-end technology, meaning that things that used to only be available to Amazon, Walmart, Target, companies that created it, now you're seeing off-the-shelf versions of it. You're starting to see technology that was once really hard to come by work a little bit like the way the cloud does. Any company can jump in. We'll talk about all the different things that are being offered, but it was a really interesting place to be. 

Sciple: Excited to hear your thoughts about these new developments in retail on the second half of the show. But first off, we're going to talk about some news particularly in the restaurant and retail space. Later on, we're going to talk about JAB Holdings, rumors that they're going to spin off their coffee and restaurant chains into two separate IPOs.

But first, we have some news out of Papa John's pizza. Papa John's has been in the news over the last year in a very public battle with their founder and largest shareholder, Papa John Schnatter. This past week, we got some news about that conflict between Papa John's and the Papa John. Dan, can you talk to us about what that news was? 

Kline: Papa John was suing his namesake company because he was somewhat forced out of his role as executive chairman and really forced out of day-to-day operations, along with things like, he was entitled to office space, he had certain levels of control -- all of those things were kicked to the side. The company had adopted, let's call it a poison pill, to make sure that he wasn't the person that bought the company when, for a while, they were looking to be sold. Now, they've taken $200 million from Starboard, and they're not so much on the market. To make this all awkward, Papa John was still on the board. Imagine, I'm sure you have someone like this in your family, someone who is suing everybody else but still comes to Thanksgiving. 

Sciple: Right. It can make the relationship extra complicated. When you have a company whose name is synonymous with Papa John, it's in the name, and with him still being the largest shareholder, agitating for changes within the company, this is a significant development. Now, Papa John no longer being on the board, no longer has a formal relationship with the business outside of his share position. 

Kline: That was the settlement. Papa John agreed to drop his lawsuit, resigned from the board. He will have a role in choosing the independent director that replaces him. They didn't quite spell it out, but I think they need to agree on whoever that person is. But Papa John owns 26% of the company, and they have removed the poison pill. So, yes, he's gone, but if the stock continues to stumble, there's every chance he tries to buy it back and it becomes a battle, but at least a battle where he has recused himself from being on the board and voting on his own proposals.

Sciple: Right. This is going to be an interesting battle. Papa John's has struggled recently out of the controversy that Papa John himself may have contributed to. We've seen EPS trade down almost 50% in the past year. You mentioned to me before the show, same-store sales have declined 8.1% in the most recent quarter and 7.3% for the full year. As we see Papa John's maybe being back on the market for sale, maybe Papa John Schnatter playing a role in this, it's going to be some near-term news around that transaction. We have to question, what's going on with the brand? 

Kline: I think the Papa John controversy just accelerated some of the brand problems. If you look, who are they competing with? They're competing with Domino's. They're competing with more expensive pizza that has moved into the better space that Papa John's is always trying to falsely stake out. Like, maybe it's better than Domino's or, I don't know, Ellio's frozen pizza. But they're facing a ton of competition. But what Domino's does exceptionally well is execute. You can get a Domino's pizza inexpensively, quickly, through a variety of different platforms. They have a really easy-to-use app, they're easy to call up and order from. Papa John's had not brought its technology about. They were relying on this, "Hey, we're better! Better pizza, better ingredients!"

What scares me is, the chairman of the board continues to say, "We want to focus on better pizza, better ingredients," though the CEO does talk about how they need to improve their app, they need to get their technology better. They need to make it as easy to get a Papa John's pizza as it is to get a Domino's pizza because you're not ordering either of those pizzas because they're good pizza, unless you're 11.

Sciple: Right. We were chatting about this before we started recording. I might get Austin Morgan to jump in and give us his thoughts on this. We've seen, in recent years, as you mentioned, Papa John's brand was built around the "better ingredients, better pizza" mentality. When we've had all these new places come in, local operators that are selling quality pizza, it's been very difficult for Papa John's to differentiate itself on quality. Meanwhile, we've seen Domino's and Pizza Hut and these others push toward the whole concept of convenience and low prices, which is going to attract customers that are buying from these large pizza chains.

Austin, when's the last time you ordered from Papa John's? How has your pizza-buying experience changed in recent years?

Austin Morgan: I think the only time I ever order Papa John's is when I'm having a bunch of people over and the Nats or Caps won by four, or whatever the deal is, to get that Caps 50, Nats 50, and I'm only paying half price. That's the only time I order Papa John's.

Sciple: Right! Because it's cheap! And when you're talking about these Papa John's and Domino's folks, throw Pizza Hut in there as well, it just seems they're all competing on the factor of convenience and price. It's really difficult to differentiate yourself from a quality perspective these days. 

Dan, what do you think Papa John himself, Papa John Schnatter, leaving his formal role with the business, and these questions around the brand? What are your thoughts on Papa John's moving forward over the next couple of years?

Kline: I would rebrand. I don't think there's any positive equity in the Papa John's name. I think as long as you can move anyone who has your app into the new name, which is obviously easy enough to do, I would focus on execution and make that part of the name. Quick Pizza! Speedy Pizza! Or whatever. Because I don't believe a $5.99 pizza or $6.99 or whatever it is can be as good as all of these 20-to-50-location, fast-casual, make-your-own-pizza. And in most cases, "Insert Town" House of Pizza is better than Domino's or Papa John's, they're just not particularly good at delivery or execution or answering the phone. So everything about this has to be making the brand something that matters to consumers.

Domino's has shown that quality is not the key ingredient. You can't go below a certain level. Maybe they should promote, "Hey, we're going to redo our pizza recipe," much like Domino's did a few years ago. I would argue they made their pizza different, not necessarily better. Then, really try to get away from this Papa John's thing. I don't think the ads they're running now, where, to combat the controversy, they're just showing all the different owners and how diverse they are, I don't think that speaks to the average consumer who just remembered that they got Domino's because they could press a button and get Domino's. They didn't follow the business-page controversy of this.

Sciple: Right. It's definitely going to be an interesting story to continue to follow for investors. Resolving this conflict with Mr. Schnatter is maybe a break in the clouds, at least from what we've seen with it tarnishing the stock over the past year. However, there are some real questions, even notwithstanding all the issues around the Papa John, about whether the brand Papa John can position its pizza and its restaurants for success moving into the future. Definitely going to be something to continue to watch.

Kline: As a final thought, we talked about this yesterday when we were preparing the show -- one of the drags on Papa John's that doesn't get talked about is, they tend to, and this is anecdotal, be in lesser locations than Domino's is. As we have this retail space crunch, maybe they were in the OK plaza that had a couple of vacancies. Now that plaza is a chiropractor and a Papa John's. Whereas Domino's is in the plaza that has the CVS and the other thriving businesses. There might just be a whole retail shakeout where they have to look at their portfolio and maybe consider relocating some stores and investing. Domino's is redoing a lot of its stores, and they look a lot nicer. Papa John's has a pretty dated look, if you visit their stores.

Sciple: Right. It's a very competitive industry, pizza. For our listeners, we've painted the picture that way, particularly when it comes to Domino's. Like you said, they've made some really significant investments, bringing up to date on their technology and their locations that, Papa John's is going to have to match that. Something to continue to follow. This is a really important brand. I don't think it's a brand that's going to disappear overnight. However, there are some real questions here in the near term.

Talking about some other brands that would be very familiar to folks, let's talk about what's going on with JAB Holdings. In the past couple of weeks, we've got some news out of JAB Holdings. For investors that may not be familiar, JAB Holdings is a private company that owns major stakes in a lot of consumer and restaurant retail brands, things like Panera, Krispy Kreme Doughnuts, Keurig Dr Pepper. They're considering, over the next one to three years, spinning out their restaurant and coffee brands into two separate IPOs. 

Dan, instant analysis when we see rumors of this news taking place, what are your thoughts? What should investors be paying attention to?

Kline: JAB has been rolling up brands and kind of doing nothing with them. They own Panera outright. They own Krispy Kreme outright. I can see the reason why they're not selling Krispy Kreme Doughnuts and Panera. On the other hand, they own, I don't know the exact number but let's call it 20 different coffee brands. Peet's, Douwe Egbert, Tassimo. And when you walk into a Panera, Panera still has generic coffee service. Do you know anyone who has the same fondness for Krispy Kreme coffee that, say, a Dunkin' fan has for Dunkin' Donuts coffee?

Sciple: No, I don't. You go to Krispy Kreme to get the doughnuts. We were talking before that they have a very narrow product offering outside of their donuts. It's coffee, milk, water, that's about it. They haven't used these opportunities to create synergies between the brands.

Kline: So, logically, even if you don't change the Krispy Kreme offering, at least brand it! Have it be Douwe Egbert beans or whatever, get that cross-branding! But, logically, Panera sort of has an espresso coffee and a fake Frappuccino, make that something. 

Now, the challenge -- and we've talked about this. In my opinion, it impacts an IPO. The value of any coffee brand that isn't Starbucks or Dunkin' Donuts is very questionable. The argument I made for this is, as some of you know, Capital One has opened cafes. Inside the Capital One Cafe is Peet's, which is a JAB Holdings brand. The Peet's Cafe is not supposed to be a moneymaker, it's supposed to drive the banking business. So at my Peet's, on Monday, Wednesday, Friday from 9 to 10, coffee is free if you have a Capital One card. What do you think a store should be like when it's three doors down from a Starbucks and it's offering free espresso-based drinks? How would you expect the store to be?

Sciple: You would hope that the company selling free coffee would have some significant traffic right next to the store selling coffee. But my guess is that the actual outcome was not consistent with that.

Kline: [laughs] There's almost never someone else in line. And on a regular day, at any point, if you have a Capital One card, it's 50% off. The prices are already a tiny bit lower than Starbucks. So, let's say, with 50% off, you're at maybe 55% or 60% compared to a Starbucks. And I have to admit, I'm guilty of this. These are stores that, you can see one from the other, more or less -- I still go to Starbucks four days out of five. [laughs] And I'm not even saying that's some sort of weird training. But there's a lot for JAB to roll up here. If they IPO, I think you'll see those brands being used smarter.

But what's interesting is doing a restaurant brand and doing a coffee brand takes away the incentive for some of those. They've been testing Einstein Brothers and Caribou Coffee, which are both their brands. The way they do it is clumsy, but at least you get the exposure for the products of both. If those are in separate IPOs...maybe they'll have similar management structures? So a lot of questions about what they're going to do.

Sciple: Right, Dan. We're not exactly sure the form this IPO is going to take. It's several years away. I will say, the purpose behind this IPO would be more to cash out for the owners of JAB, more so than to create value on the public markets. That raises the question -- if JAB is selling these to get some cash for its owners, who's going to operate these businesses? Whoever is going to operate these businesses is going to be tasked with, as we mentioned, Dan, making these brands work together in a way that they sing and create more value than each brand does by itself. And we have some question marks there.

Kline: I would think there's going to be some divestitures. On the restaurant side, Panera, Krispy Kreme, even Einstein Bros. Bagels, all serve different segments. Maybe you do some cross-pollination of those stores, where there's a nice Panera section in the Krispy Kreme. Maybe not. Maybe you sell Krispy Kreme doughnuts in your Einstein Bros. Bagels.

But on the coffee side, I would think that they can do what Starbucks did with Tazo. The say, "This is going to be our brand. These are going to be the premium. This is the consumer, this is the midlevel, this is the one we sell to restaurants, and these are the four extra we don't need." And either rebrand those products into things that they're already carrying, or sell those brands off. 

Sciple: Dan, you're a guy that really likes his coffee. Really, more so than almost anybody I know, you're passionate about it. You have all the different coffee maker products. And this this includes Keurig Dr Pepper, as well as lots of other brands that we've mentioned. As you look out, assuming this IPO takes place of the coffee brands, where are you expecting these brands to fit into the market? Are you bullish on their prospects if they do end up existing on their own, that they can carve out a niche that grow over time? What are your thoughts there?

Kline: This is theoretically the Pepsi of coffee brands. If you're going to have Starbucks, and you're going to have an alternative, Dunkin' is playing in that space, Peet's, which is a JAB brand, they're trying very hard at retail to play in that space. But would you bet on Dunkin', which already has all of these deals, which has the great retail exposure, which is in airports and convenience stores? Or would you bet on this third company? It pushes the top JAB brand into the Royal Crown position. When's the last time you went to a 7-Eleven and saw RC Cola? It's not there. It's a niche player. 

Maybe they can compete in some of the restaurants. Restaurants that compete with Starbucks are not necessarily going to want to have branded coffee. But look how many hotels and other places just reflexively are Starbucks licensees. Even if they don't have a Starbucks store, they still say, "We proudly brew Starbucks coffee." I'm not so sure they're going to be eager to replace that with, "We proudly brew Douwe Egbert," which is hard to pronounce and nobody knows what it is.

Sciple: Right. For our listeners, these brands that we're super familiar with coming onto the market can definitely create some opportunities to folks, and get us excited. I'll be excited to see, whenever we see the S-1 for these new IPOs, what the strategy is behind the companies and what opportunities they see for expansion. But there are some question marks as to how these brands are going to fit together as public companies, who's going to run them, and then, what the opportunity is for upside over the long term. Any going-away thoughts, Dan?

Kline: I will say, on the coffee side, there is the upside that it seems like their stake in Keurig Dr Pepper -- which is a controlling share, I don't remember the exact amount -- would be rolled into the, call it, its coffee platform company. So, then, they would be able to leverage the Keurig machine and all of the different things. While I don't see Keurig freezing out Starbucks anytime soon, they might not play with as many of the third-party people if they can offer a robust choice within their own brand family. 

I still think this should be one company with the best assets combined in the best ways possible instead of two companies. But I wasn't asked! [laughs] 

Sciple: [laughs] Yeah. We'll see how things play out when these companies roll off by themselves. 

Kline: Just so you know, the timing on this is one to two years. So, we are jumping the gun a little bit. 

Sciple: Yeah. Definitely something to continue to watch. It's something we're going to follow up on, I'm sure, whenever we get more details. 

Now, Dan, we teased this off the top of the show. I want to talk a little bit now about Shoptalk, where you visited in Vegas last week. First off the bat, you mentioned some of the trends coming out of the conference off the top of the show. What got you most excited that you saw at Shoptalk last week?

Kline: You can see now that the retail space has fragmented. I don't want to say winners and losers, but there's the big boys and everybody else. And by big boys, I mean there's Amazon, There's Target, there's Walmart, there's a couple of major grocery chains. There's maybe one or two outliers like Costco that don't have to play in the same sandbox as everybody else. But then, almost every other retailer lacks the resources to innovate. 

Walmart, which calls itself a technology company as often as it calls itself a retailer, can invent the in-store kiosk and play with it and test it over a year. Target can buy Shipt and figure out same-day shipping. Amazon, obviously, trying out drones and who knows what level of AI technology to predict that, you don't even know this, Nick, but tomorrow, you want blueberry scones, and one will be sitting on your desk when you get there.

So, at the show, I saw a lot of third-party technology companies that were offering technology that -- I hate to say looked at what Walmart, Target, and Amazon have done right, and they copied it. There were kiosks, white label kiosks you could buy to put in your store. I was really interested in a company that offered flexible warehousing space, sold like the cloud. Meaning, if you and I want to bring in a container of Motley Fool harmonicas to try to sell at Christmas time next year -- I'm not sure we'd be allowed to do that, but if we did -- we could rent the warehouse space and literally only pay for it while we were using it, and only for the services we needed. If we needed shipping, that would be there. If we needed unpacking or all the customs work, or if we just needed a place to put our box, you could get that sort of the same way you pay for the cloud, which is a consumption model.

I saw things like that for trucking, for payments, to give smaller players flexibility. One of the examples I'll give came from meeting with FLEX, the warehouse company. A home improvement chain, say, Ace Hardware, which is effectively a national buying group, could look and say, "I want to have a bunch of rock salt and snow blowers in New England because it's winter." And they only need those there for a few months. They're going to sell out, they know. They don't have to cram them in the back of their stores or leave tractor trailers in their parking lot or rent ridiculously expensive warehouse space. There's a lot of tools that allow mom-and-pop retailers, and Macy's, and pretty big chains, to do what Amazon and Walmart do, on a six-month trailing basis. Which, if employed correctly, could make more companies competitive, at least in some places.

Sciple: Right. This is a trend we're starting to see -- you mentioned the cloud -- where these resources, whether for cloud, it's computer operating bandwidth, or for logistics, access to trucking and warehouses, these things that, up to today, would have required a significant fixed-cost investment that blocked them off to folks outside of the largest folks in these industries. But now we're seeing these companies rise up to provide those offerings at a lower cost to the also-rans in these industries, like you mentioned. It's really exciting.

Kline: We talked about it as we prepped the show, it used to be that only a Starbucks could have an app as sophisticated as they do, that lets you order and mobile payment. Well, there's white label apps that do that now. Any restaurant can offer that. Gift cards used to be something that a regular retail store could only do in a physical format, they could not do in the digital tracking. Well, that's available. At Shoptalk, you saw very high-end trucking solutions. A company could manage all its orders, and instead of just working with three or four partners, they could find the exact best partner for every place something was going to go to, and know which of their warehouses to ship it out of, which of their stores, and do things as inexpensively as possible. You might never get as cheap as Amazon gets it. You're never going to have the scale. But if Amazon is 60% of the market and somebody can roll up through all these small companies 10%, 15%, it at least gives you the critical mass to be in the ballpark. 

Sciple: Dan, when you look at the opportunities that this new technology is going to open up and these new offerings from the start-ups that you spoke with at Shoptalk, is this something that's going to let these companies come up and challenge Amazon's position? Or is this something that's just going to let these smaller players continue to exist in this new normal of retail?

Kline: Continue to exist and in some cases compete well. I live in a market where Publix is everywhere. It's a privately held grocery store chain. There's one every mile and a half in Florida. Publix can probably not invest the same amount of money as Walmart in automating grocery delivery. They certainly aren't going to spend the money doing it to figure out if people want grocery delivery. As the bigger companies establish the market, one of the companies I saw that I know Matt talked about yesterday offered a 10,000-square-foot back-of-the-store solution where you could take existing floor space and put in this automated, cart-driven grocery picker. Some human labor, but it takes a lot of the cost out of it. And you could, from one store, service a whole region. Well, if Walmart and Target prove that this market I'm in wants two-hour grocery delivery, then that investment can be made by Publix without them having to research it, without them having to invent the wheel themselves. That is a huge way to stay competitive. 

I don't think consumers, as technology is getting tested -- I use Instacart and I get two-hour delivery all the time, but I don't think that's the norm in my market. It's not like you're going to walk into a grocery store and be like, "Ugh, you don't have two-hour delivery? I'm leaving!" But at some point, that might be the expectation, and they'll be able to offer all of these tools. 

Sciple: Sure. So, that answers the question what role these tools and these start-ups might play to the businesses that are already operating and competing against Amazon and Walmart. The follow-up question I have for you is, for these start-ups themselves and the companies developing this technology, as we look out into the future, is this going to be something that investors might have an opportunity to invest in, in the public markets? Or do you think these start-ups are going to be acquired by these middle-tier businesses and be attached onto existing businesses to make them be able to compete more closely with Amazon or Walmart? Or do you think these companies are going to exist on their own?

Kline: If I was Amazon and Walmart, I would have been walking around these start-up areas in Shoptalk -- and there were a couple of them -- with a checkbook and trying to take players out of the game, and have some of this technology, put it into my incubation system, and see what lives and what doesn't. Some of the more mature companies, like the grocery store fulfillment company that I was talking about before, which actually has customers and product in the field, I think their goal is to be bought. Ideally, they're going to be bought by one of the big boys, because that's where the biggest money is. But, if you make in-store kiosks, and the whole retail market decides that buy-online-pick-up-in-store via a kiosk is the way to go, what's your total market? Sixty thousand stores? Thirty thousand stores? A hundred thousand stores? I don't know the number, but it's a very finite market. Once you've sold that product, you become a company like Brunswick. You sell the bowling lane and then you sell them, I don't know, alley wax and repairs until you invent something else. It's a very tough business to be in. So, yes, I think they're all hoping Amazon buys them. 

Sciple: It's an exciting area of the market to watch because it's still developing. The whole idea of e-commerce and online ordering is only a little over 20 years old. We're still seeing businesses adapt to play in this market. 

Dan, based on what you've learned in the last week and your knowledge of the industry, if we come back here and have this conversation in five years, how do you think the technology that's being developed today is going to change retail in the future? How should investors think about that?

Kline: Back-end automation is a reality. You are not going to have as much or any human factor in warehousing, picking orders, all of that should be -- it's not going to be 100%. A robot is probably not going to pack your order into the final bag for, say, groceries. But they're going to do an awful lot of it. You're not going to see as much front-of-house automation as you think. Consumers have shown some reticence to self-checkout. They're fully aware of the bagger who's not getting employed with that. So, I think there's going to be limits to that. Maybe there'll be some in-store help that's automated, but for the most part, you're going to see the back-end get automated, and you're going to see some level of inventory control, move to RFID and other methods. In a big chain like Walmart, there's no human who's going, "We need more Cheerios!" You're going to see that become commonplace at pretty much every store, as that technology is baked into your Square or QuickBooks CMS, your very basic models of in-store point-of-sale system. 

Sciple: I'll say, as a consumer myself, all these developments are really exciting because to me, you look at creating all this access to delivery and convenience and reducing waste, which is probably both good for the environment and lowering prices, which is great for me as a consumer. I'm really excited about all these new developments we're seeing with both logistics and enabling online ordering. 

I will say, I'm a little bit skeptical about how much value this is going to create for investors. I think this is more going to be something that creates consumer surplus more than it is for the producers. What are your thoughts on that, Dan? 

Kline: If Amazon stamps out most of its competition, and only has to worry about Walmart, Target, and a couple of other players, they can start raising prices. You want to see the ability for, even if it's a niche player, even if it's a company that sells high-end NFL-branded cigars, if they can have efficient delivery and sourcing and all of the back-end things -- I recognize that that's a preposterous example of a company -- instead of you going to Amazon and buying a low-end version of that product, and that company doesn't have to charge you $39.99 for shipping because they can say, "You want it tomorrow? $29.99. Want it in three days? $15.99. You're willing to wait until whenever? $2.99." All of that technology was on display at this show. I think that will make the Amazons, Targets, Walmarts, work harder. They will really start to create some of the things we've talked about on this show -- better methods of sizing you, so you don't have to go into a store to buy a shirt; the ability to tell me that the outfit I'm buying online is a poor choice for me using an AI system; or whatever it is. 

If you stopped now, and only the big players have access to this technology, you'd see a lot of small players go away, and the big players would get fat and lazy. So at least this keeps it competitive.

Sciple: Right. Where competition takes place, consumers a lot of times end up being the winner there. 

Dan, thanks so much for traveling out to Shoptalk and giving us your latest thoughts! We'll have you on again soon.

Kline: I was going to say, speaking of winner, I will point out that Matt Frankel and I do a couple of these shows a year, and I have the damnedest luck of just randomly hitting a slot machine, which I almost never play. I'd be more than happy to get sent to -- as long as Matt's coming -- more of these Vegas-based shows.

Sciple: You won't have to drag my arm to get me out there, either, Dan. Maybe we'll do that one of these times and can create some nice content for our listeners.

Kline: Industry Focus: Live From Vegas.

Sciple: Exactly. Dan, thank you for joining us once again! Looking forward to having you on again soon!

Kline: Thank you!

Sciple: As always, people on the program may own companies discussed on the show, and The Motley Fool may have formal recommendations for or against the stocks discussed, so don't buy or sell anything based solely on what you hear. Thanks to Austin Morgan for his work behind the glass. For Dan Kline, I'm Nick Sciple. Thanks for listening and Fool on! 

Saturday, March 16, 2019

Biolife Solutions Inc (BLFS) Q4 2018 Earnings Conference Call Transcript

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Image source: The Motley Fool.

Biolife Solutions Inc  (NASDAQ:BLFS)Q4 2018 Earnings Conference CallMarch 14, 2019, 4:30 p.m. ET

Contents: Prepared Remarks Questions and Answers Call Participants Prepared Remarks:

Operator

Good day, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the BioLife Solutions Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2018 Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. Later, we will conduct a question-and-answer session and instructions will be given at that time. (Operator Instructions) As a reminder, this conference is being recorded.

I would now like to turn the conference over to Roderick de Greef, Chief Financial Officer. You may begin.

Roderick de Greef -- Chief Financial Officer

Thank you, Saniya. Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining us for the BioLife Solutions conference call to review the operating and financial results for the fourth quarter and full year of 2018.

This morning, we issued a press release detailing our agreement to acquire Astero Bio Corporation. And earlier this afternoon, we issued a press release, which summarizes our financial results for the three and 12 months ended December 31st, 2018. Both releases are available on the Investor Relations page of our website at biolifesolutions.com.

As a reminder, this call is being recorded and broadcast live on our website. A replay of the webcast will be available through the same link for 90 days.

Before we get started, I would like to remind everyone that during this call, we will make projections and other forward-looking statements regarding future events or the future financial performance of the Company. These statements are subject to any risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from expectations. For a detailed discussion of the risks and uncertainties that affect the Company's business and that qualify as forward-looking statements made on this call, I refer you to our periodic and other public filings filed with the SEC.

Company projections and forward-looking statements are based on factors that are subject to change and therefore, these statements speak only as of the date they are given. The Company assumes no obligation to update any projections or forward-looking statements except as required by law.

Now, I'd like to turn the call over to Mike Rice, President and CEO of BioLife.

Michael Rice -- Chief Executive Officer

Thanks, Rod. Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for joining the call. 2018 was a very strong year of execution and growth. With revenue of just under $20 million, we grew the business almost 80% over 2017 at our first full year of profitability and continue to make significant progress in driving the adoption of our proprietary biopreservation media products in the cell and gene therapy market.

I'll start with some comments about market dynamics and segment revenue, and speak about our just announced agreement to acquire Astero Bio. After that, Rod will present our Q4 and full year 2018 financial results and provide our initial guidance for 2019, including details around the expected financial impact of the Astero acquisition.

I'll begin with some comments about the regenerative medicine market segment. First, 2018 funding continued at a torrid pace with more than $13 billion invested in the space during the year. This was up 73% over 2017. There were more than 1,000 clinical trials under way at the end of 2018.

Our regen med segment revenue was $11 million, or 56% of total revenue and representing growth of 108% over 2017. We gained 84 new direct cell and gene therapy customers in 2018. We also processed 57 additional cross-reference requests for our FDA master files. This is up from 27 in 2016 and 47 in 2017. This is a mechanism for cell and gene therapy customers to notify the FDA that they plan to use our products in clinical trials.

Notable new 2018 direct customers include; Allogene, Flaskworks, Maverick, Moderna, Mustang, Poseida, Raptor (ph), Refuge, Semma, Community and Windmill. There was a new and very important dynamic occurring in the regen med space. The reimbursement environment for our prospects and customers is evolving into a pay on cure paradigm with payment predicated on a positive patient response to the therapy. We believe this dynamic will support broader adoption of our biopreservation media products, since this can derisk the potential of delivering a non-viable dose to the patient.

You've heard us say many times that dead cells don't cure cancer and the combined therapeutic and economic risk developers are facing should broaden use of our products as a best practice in the manufacture, storage, distribution and administration of time and temperature sensitive cell and gene therapies.

For the rest of 2019, some potential customer catalysts we are following include a conditional approval in Europe for Kiadis Pharma for their ATIR101 adjunctive cell therapy for hematopoietic stem cell transplantats. If approval is granted, Kiadis intends to launch ATIR101 in selected countries in Europe through its own commercial organizations starting in the second half of this year. Celgene expects to file a BLA with the US FDA for Juno's liso-cel in the second half of the year. Bellicum expects top line results from the BP-004 study in the second quarter of 2019 and intends to submit an MAA in Europe for rivo-cel in late 2019. bluebird expects European approval of LentiGlobin in patients with TDT by the end of 2019. And finally, also with bluebird, they anticipate filing for US approval of LentiGlobin in patients with TDT by the end of 2019.

Next, I will review our indirect sales channel performance. As you know, we have distribution relationships with four of the largest life science tools companies, STEMCELL Technologies, MilliporeSigma, Thermo Fisher and VWR. These four channel partners and a small group of OUS regional distributors contributed $6.4 million in 2018 revenue. This was 33% of total revenue with growth of 99% over 2017. So the indirect channel is operating efficiently and our partners are planting hundreds of seeds in the research and preclinical markets. Based on requests from distributors for end-user scientific, technical and regulatory support, we believe many end users may transition to become clinical trial stage and possibly commercial companies with approved cell or gene therapies.

Turning to our agreement to acquire a Astero Bio. Recall that in Q3 last year we articulated a strategy to identify and acquire complementary technologies used in the manufacture, storage and distribution of cell and gene therapies. Due to the fragmented tool supplier base, we believe there is a consolidation opportunity for BioLife to expand our bio production tools portfolio to gain an increased share of the spend for tools used in the space. We're very pleased to announce the first deal in this M&A strategy. Astero bio is a perfect fit that supports our goal of expanding our footprint and engagement level and our customers' manufacturing workflow.

Let me tell you about the products. The team at Astero has developed a family of automated thawing devices that replace manual water baths used to thaw frozen cell or gene therapies packaged in vials and bags. The brand is ThawSTAR. And the products reduce the risk of administering a non-viable dose by providing consistent and accurate thawing, which is a sensitive step in getting the dose ready for the patient.

Water baths are manual devices that require a user to manipulate the frozen product. There is also a contamination risk, since the water in the bath is not changed between use. Water bath users can get distracted and leave the dose in the bath longer than acceptable. This can reduce the viability of the dose. Again dead cells don't cure cancer and cell and gene therapy companies risk not getting reimbursed if the patient doesn't respond. It's the same pay-on-cure paradigm I mentioned earlier. So we see the ThawSTAR platform as a great addition to our tools portfolio that can mitigate therapeutic and economic risk for cell and gene therapy companies. We see tremendous synergies in sales and marketing, and look to leverage all of our relationships with our customers in the cell and gene therapy space to broaden awareness of ThawSTAR.

And our diligence on the deal, we received very positive feedback about automated thawing technologies from several BioLife media customers and industry consultants. Infinium Global Research estimates that the market for automated thawing devices will exceed about $150 million by 2024, driven by growth in the number of cell and gene therapy research programs, clinical trials and approvals. Our goal is to drive adoption of ThawSTAR automated thawing products to become the de facto standard in the cell and gene therapy workflow.

Finally, I'll say a few words about SAVSU, the Albuquerque-based innovative cold chain and information management company that we hold a 44% ownership stake in. SAVSU is engaged with dozens of leading cell and gene therapy companies to win start-up customers and also to convert established clinical trial stage and commercial companies from existing suppliers with less innovative cold chain solutions.

As you can imagine, the market is extremely competitive, so we can't disclose any additional customers or prospect names on this call. However, we remain very bullish on SAVSU's opportunity to capture a significant share of the market for cloud connected cold chain transport solutions. We also look forward to leveraging the respective technical experience at SAVSU and Astero to continue to develop and offer innovative products used in the cell and gene therapy workflow.

Now I'll turn the call back over to Rod to present our financial highlights for Q4 and the full year 2018 and our guidance for 2019, including the expected financial impact of the Astero transaction.

Roderick de Greef -- Chief Financial Officer

Thanks, Mike. Our biopreservation media revenue for the fourth quarter of 2018 reached a record $5.5 million representing a 74% increase over last year's fourth quarter revenue of $3.1 million. For the full year revenue grew 79% to $19.7 million, up from $11 million in 2017. The increase in revenue for both periods was primarily the result of higher sales of our CryoStor biopreservation media to our customers in the regen med space and to our distribution channel.

The gross margin for the fourth quarter of 2018 increased to 69%, compared with 59% in the fourth quarter of last year. For the full year of 2018 gross margin was 69%, compared with 61% for 2017. The increase in gross margin for both periods was primarily driven by volume-related reductions in cost of goods sold and higher blended product ASPs.

Operating expenses in Q4 totaled $2.7 million, compared with $2.1 million in Q4. For the full year of 2018, operating expenses totaled $9.9 million, compared with $7.8 million for 2017. The increase in operating expenses for both periods is primarily the result of higher performance-based compensation expense, increased sales and marketing expenditures, increased headcount to support our growth, and increased costs related to enhancing our quality management systems.

The fourth quarter's operating profit was $1 million, compared with an operating loss of $218,000 in the fourth quarter of 2017. For the full year of 2018, operating profit totaled $3.7 million, compared with an operating loss of $1.1 million for the same period in 2017. For the fourth quarter of 2018, net income attributable to common shareholders was $833,000 or $0.04 per diluted share, compared with a net loss of $664,000 or $0.05 per share in 2017. For the full year of 2018, net income attributable to common shareholders was $2.9 million or $0.14 per diluted share, compared with a net loss of $2.7 million or $0.21 per share last year.

Adjusted EBITDA for the fourth quarter was $1.5 million, compared with $132,000 in the same period last year. For the full year of 2018 adjusted EBITDA was $5.5 million, compared to $444,000 in 2017. During 2018, we redeemed all of the outstanding shares of our Series A redeemable preferred stock for $4.3 million. Eliminating these Series A share saves us $425,000 in annual cash dividend expense going forward. We ended 2018 with $30.7 million in cash, compared to $6.7 million at the end of 2017. We believe that our current cash balance, when combined with continued positive cash flow from operations throughout 2019 and subsequent years, will be more than adequate to fund both the upfront and contingent payments related to the Astero acquisition.

With respect to our outlook for the full year of 2019, the guidance I'll go through includes the impact of the Astero transaction beginning in the second quarter. We expect total revenue for 2019 will be in the range of $27 million to $30 million, reflecting year-over-year growth of 37% to 52%. And we anticipate that Astero will contribute between $1 million and $2 million in revenue this year.

Over the next several years, we believe that the Astero products could add 5 to 10 percentage points to our annual revenue growth rate, and comprise up to 15% of our total revenue. Our blended gross margin for 2019 should range between 69% to 70%. Although we expect a small reduction in our gross margin going forward as a result of the Astero product line, we believe that the impact will be approximately 100 basis points. Astero's products are manufactured by a California-based CMO and currently have gross margins in the low 60%s. With increased volumes, we believe the gross margin related to the thawing product line will climb into the mid 60%s.

2019 operating expenses are expected to be in the range of $15.5 million to $16.5 million. Approximately half the increase over 2018 is related to the Astero transaction, with the balance primarily related to increased headcount in the sales and marketing and quality areas of the Company, as well as higher performance-based compensation.

Although the Astero purchase will reduce our operating margin somewhat this year, we expect to exit the year in Q4 with an operating profit margin of approximately 20%, which is slightly higher than our full year 2018 level of 18.5%. In subsequent years, we anticipate a sustained trend of increasing operating margins with Astero providing a positive contribution to our adjusted EBITDA within 12 to 18 months.

I'd like to end my remarks with a summary of our share count. We currently have 18.7 million common shares issued in outstanding. Our non-affiliate warrant overhang was effectively eliminated during 2018 with only 208,000 of these warrants remaining. Adding insider options and warrants brings our current fully diluted share count to 26 million.

Now, I'd like to turn the call back over to Mike.

Michael Rice -- Chief Executive Officer

Thanks again, Rod. In summary, 2018 was an across-the-board success. We executed and delivered strong results. We're really excited and inspired about what we're focused on and look forward to updating you on our progress throughout the year. I'd like to thank our long-standing and numerous new shareholders for your support of BioLife.

Now I'll turn the call over to the operator to take your questions. Saniya?

Questions and Answers:

Operator

Thank you. (Operator Instructions) Our first question comes from Paul Knight of Janney. Your line is now open.

Paul Knight -- Janney Montgomery Scott -- Analyst

Hey, Rod, what do you have to do on the Astero distribution effort? Do you have to add salespeople? How easy have been the plug-in as it in general?

Roderick de Greef -- Chief Financial Officer

It's a pretty straightforward plug-in, Paul. We do expect to add several salespeople in 2019 in addition to the efforts of Sam Kent. And we also are looking to tie up with some distribution, could very well be the same kind of distributors we have. So it should be a fairly straightforward approach to the sales side of things.

Paul Knight -- Janney Montgomery Scott -- Analyst

And on that regen medicine market for the year, it looks like the data regarding people getting access to the master file. I guess you probably have better visibility than ever on some numbers. But can you talk about how many of your customers you're seeing in Phase III, Rod or Mike?

Roderick de Greef -- Chief Financial Officer

We can take an educated guess at it, Paul, but I'll have to issue the same caveat as always, because some of these customers go to the distributors has always some visibility we don't have, so it's not a complete crystal ball. But we would say that in Phase III it's probably 15 to 30, call it that range.

Paul Knight -- Janney Montgomery Scott -- Analyst

And then with Astero, when we think about what is an ultimate potential on the operating margin, I know the gross margin, you said 60%-ish. What's the level of consumables? What can this business run at on OP margin basis, do you think?

Roderick de Greef -- Chief Financial Officer

Yeah, I think Paul, the way we're looking at it is on a combined basis. Our view of this transaction is that we've purchased a product line and -- as opposed to a company per se, right. So we are going to fully integrate all of the operations into our operations. And so going forward, we're going to be looking at an operating margin as -- on a Companywide basis. So that's why I made the comment I did by referencing our Q4 -- estimated Q4 exit 20%. And then, we expect that to continue to climb subsequent years on a quarterly basis.

Paul Knight -- Janney Montgomery Scott -- Analyst

Do you think ThawSTAR is a leading technology in that market?

Michael Rice -- Chief Executive Officer

This is Mike, Paul. We see several unique and differentiating innovative features within the ThawSTAR platform, both in the algorithm, in the way that it actually works and its consistency of thawing. And we're also really excited about the bag format device ThawSTAR CB, which has some really unique competitive advantages over the other product or products that may be emerging or in the market.

Paul Knight -- Janney Montgomery Scott -- Analyst

Okay, congrats on the quarter.

Michael Rice -- Chief Executive Officer

Thank you, Paul.

Roderick de Greef -- Chief Financial Officer

Thanks, Paul.

Operator

Thank you. And our next question comes from Jason McCarthy of Maxim Group. Your line is now open.

Jason McCarthy -- Maxim Group -- Analyst

Hey, guys, thanks for the question and congrats on the quarter.

Michael Rice -- Chief Executive Officer

Thank you. Hi, Jason.

Jason McCarthy -- Maxim Group -- Analyst

All right. So I'd actually like to ask you something about the FDA policy statement from back in January 15th, the one relating to cell therapy manufacturing. Let's see if you guys can go bit more in depth on that on how it could impact you guys.

Roderick de Greef -- Chief Financial Officer

Sure. So our takeaway from that statement, Jason was really centered around the wording and the positioning coming out of FDA that if cell and gene therapy developers are in late stage, but perhaps they've identified a manufacturing gap or some process step that could be optimized, they don't necessarily have to assume that the FDA is going to require them to repeat a clinical trial. So the takeaway of that is fantastic. That could mean that with either a small briding study or some additional validation, they could make that manufacturing change in a late stage and that's great news for us.

Jason McCarthy -- Maxim Group -- Analyst

All right, that's helpful. Thank you. And then just one more quick one relating to Astero. I'd like to see if you guys could talk a bit more about how ThawSTAR interplays with the current BioLife cell therapy ecosystem?

Michael Rice -- Chief Executive Officer

You bet. So when we think about the call points and the decision makers, who use and can make decisions on which preservation media to use there's a lot of overlap, and particularly with our relationships with our cell and gene therapy customers. We've got a great marquee customer base and a number of VP and C-level and other high level relationships. So we believe that we can make an appeal to folks a little higher up in the food chains and different stakeholders to really have a more holistic view at de-risking and trying to make sure that these developers don't deliver a non-viable dose. From an altruistic sense, yes, they want to cure patients, but they want to get paid for it also. So these two technologies, preservation media in the form of CryoStor and HypoThermosol and also ThawSTAR, they're both appealing to the same pain points and the same risk mitigation. Really, really complementary in the high degree of overlap and in the value proposition.

Jason McCarthy -- Maxim Group -- Analyst

All right. Thank you very much for taking my questions.

Michael Rice -- Chief Executive Officer

Thanks, Jason.

Operator

Thank you. (Operator Instructions) Your next question comes from Suraj Kalia of Northland Securities. Your line is now open. And Suraj Kalia of Northland Securities, if your phone is on mute, please unmute. And again, our question comes from Suraj Kalia of Northland Securities. This does conclude our question-and-answer session. I would now like to turn the call back over to Mike Rice, CEO for any closing remarks.

Michael Rice -- Chief Executive Officer

Thank you, Saniya. Thanks everyone. We look forward to speaking with you when we report our first quarter results. Good afternoon.

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for participating in today's conference. This concludes today's program, you may all disconnect. Everyone have a great day.

Duration: 23 minutes

Call participants:

Roderick de Greef -- Chief Financial Officer

Michael Rice -- Chief Executive Officer

Paul Knight -- Janney Montgomery Scott -- Analyst

Jason McCarthy -- Maxim Group -- Analyst

More BLFS analysis

Transcript powered by AlphaStreet

This article is a transcript of this conference call produced for The Motley Fool. While we strive for our Foolish Best, there may be errors, omissions, or inaccuracies in this transcript. As with all our articles, The Motley Fool does not assume any responsibility for your use of this content, and we strongly encourage you to do your own research, including listening to the call yourself and reading the company's SEC filings. Please see our Terms and Conditions for additional details, including our Obligatory Capitalized Disclaimers of Liability.

Friday, March 15, 2019

Financial Survey: Akamai Technologies (AKAM) vs. Total System Services (TSS)

Akamai Technologies (NASDAQ:AKAM) and Total System Services (NYSE:TSS) are both large-cap computer and technology companies, but which is the better investment? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their institutional ownership, earnings, valuation, dividends, profitability, risk and analyst recommendations.

Dividends

Get Akamai Technologies alerts:

Total System Services pays an annual dividend of $0.52 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.6%. Akamai Technologies does not pay a dividend. Total System Services pays out 12.2% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Total System Services has increased its dividend for 2 consecutive years.

Volatility & Risk

Akamai Technologies has a beta of 0.69, suggesting that its share price is 31% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Total System Services has a beta of 1.09, suggesting that its share price is 9% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares Akamai Technologies and Total System Services’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

Net Margins Return on Equity Return on Assets
Akamai Technologies 10.99% 13.81% 8.62%
Total System Services 14.31% 30.94% 10.46%

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Akamai Technologies and Total System Services’ revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

Gross Revenue Price/Sales Ratio Net Income Earnings Per Share Price/Earnings Ratio
Akamai Technologies $2.71 billion 4.34 $298.37 million $2.76 26.15
Total System Services $4.03 billion 4.12 $576.65 million $4.26 22.00

Total System Services has higher revenue and earnings than Akamai Technologies. Total System Services is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Akamai Technologies, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current recommendations for Akamai Technologies and Total System Services, as provided by MarketBeat.

Sell Ratings Hold Ratings Buy Ratings Strong Buy Ratings Rating Score
Akamai Technologies 0 5 10 0 2.67
Total System Services 0 6 11 0 2.65

Akamai Technologies currently has a consensus price target of $81.80, suggesting a potential upside of 13.33%. Total System Services has a consensus price target of $99.07, suggesting a potential upside of 5.73%. Given Akamai Technologies’ stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Akamai Technologies is more favorable than Total System Services.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

87.0% of Akamai Technologies shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 76.6% of Total System Services shares are owned by institutional investors. 3.2% of Akamai Technologies shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 2.4% of Total System Services shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Summary

Total System Services beats Akamai Technologies on 10 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Akamai Technologies

Akamai Technologies, Inc. provides cloud services for delivering, optimizing, and securing content and business applications over the Internet in the United States and internationally. It provides cloud security solutions, including Web Application Protector to safeguard Web assets from Web application and distributed denial of service; Kona Site Defender, a cloud security solution; Bot Manager to identify bots and categorize bots based on business or IT impact; Fast DNS, which translates human-readable domain names into numerical IP addresses; Prolexic Routed to protect Web- and IP-based applications; and Client Reputation that assigns risk scores to malicious IP address and enables customers to take action on individual clients. The company also offers enterprise security solutions, including Enterprise Application Access that enables remote access to applications; and Enterprise Threat Protector to enable enterprise security teams to identify, block, and mitigate targeted attacks. In addition, the company provides Web and mobile performance solutions, such as Ion, a suite of intelligent performance optimization tools and controls; Dynamic Site Accelerator to accelerate and secure interactive Websites; Image Manager that automatically optimizes online images; CloudTest to conduct load testing and other analysis of Websites in a pre-production environment; and mPulse that provides real-time Website performance data to provide insight about end-user experiences on a Website. Further, it provides carrier solutions, including Aura Managed CDN, intelligent recursive DNS platforms, and security and personalization services; and media delivery solutions, such as adaptive delivery, download delivery, media services live, and media analytics, as well as NetStorage, a cloud storage solution. The company sells its solutions through direct sales and service organization; and channel partners. The company was founded in 1998 and is headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

About Total System Services

Total System Services, Inc. provides payment processing, merchant, and related payment services to financial and nonfinancial institutions worldwide. The company operates through three segments: Issuer Solutions, Merchant Solutions, and Consumer Solutions. It offers general purpose reloadable prepaid and payroll cards, demand deposit accounts, and other financial service solutions to the underbanked and other consumers and businesses. The company also provides third party processing and related services for credit card issuers, merchant acquirers, independent sales organizations, and financial institutions; and issuer processing services, as well as operates as a prepaid program manager. Total System Services, Inc. was founded in 1982 and is headquartered in Columbus, Georgia.

Thursday, March 14, 2019

Best Canadian Stocks To Watch For 2019

tags:BRD,ST,MMM,CM,PAA,

Let's get right to it, Village Farms International (OTCQX:VFFIF or TSE:VFF) has the potential to be the low cost producer in the Canadian medical marijuana industry. This investment is based on stages of development, which I plan to explore with readers and let you know, in likely the most transparent way possible, how I plan to "play" this player in this promising industry.

Village Farms International has been a producer of cucumbers, bell peppers and tomatoes for most of its history. The company operates in the hydroponic greenhouse's industry and has facilities all over North America. It has a profitable history but had some recent issues as pricing has been weak for its core products. The big story here is that they decided to make a major play into the marijuana industry, announcing a 50-50 partnership with Emerald Health (OTCQX:EMHTF) pharmaceuticals for conversion of one of their main greenhouses in Vancouver (with option to convert more over time) which they refer to as "Pure Sunfarms".

Best Canadian Stocks To Watch For 2019: Apollo Gold Corporation(BRD)

Advisors' Opinion:
  • [By Max Byerly]

    Bread (CURRENCY:BRD) traded 0% higher against the US dollar during the 24 hour period ending at 0:00 AM E.T. on February 12th. Bread has a market capitalization of $17.44 million and $74,926.00 worth of Bread was traded on exchanges in the last day. In the last week, Bread has traded 6.8% higher against the US dollar. One Bread token can currently be purchased for $0.20 or 0.00005397 BTC on major cryptocurrency exchanges including Cobinhood, OKEx, Tokenomy and Kucoin.

  • [By Ethan Ryder]

    Bread (CURRENCY:BRD) traded up 12.2% against the U.S. dollar during the one day period ending at 15:00 PM E.T. on September 20th. In the last week, Bread has traded 17.1% higher against the U.S. dollar. Bread has a total market capitalization of $32.97 million and approximately $760,371.00 worth of Bread was traded on exchanges in the last day. One Bread token can now be bought for approximately $0.37 or 0.00005774 BTC on major cryptocurrency exchanges including Kucoin, Tokenomy, OKEx and Cobinhood.

  • [By Joseph Griffin]

    Bread (CURRENCY:BRD) traded 2.1% lower against the U.S. dollar during the 24-hour period ending at 21:00 PM Eastern on May 27th. One Bread token can currently be bought for $0.46 or 0.00006320 BTC on popular cryptocurrency exchanges including Cobinhood, Binance and OKEx. Bread has a market capitalization of $40.78 million and $4.40 million worth of Bread was traded on exchanges in the last day. During the last seven days, Bread has traded down 28.2% against the U.S. dollar.

  • [By Ethan Ryder]

    Bread (CURRENCY:BRD) traded 20.4% lower against the US dollar during the 1 day period ending at 22:00 PM ET on September 5th. Bread has a total market cap of $25.52 million and $314,664.00 worth of Bread was traded on exchanges in the last day. During the last week, Bread has traded down 19.7% against the US dollar. One Bread token can currently be purchased for about $0.29 or 0.00004486 BTC on cryptocurrency exchanges including Tokenomy, Kucoin, OKEx and Cobinhood.

  • [By Ethan Ryder]

    Bread (CURRENCY:BRD) traded 10.1% lower against the U.S. dollar during the 24-hour period ending at 15:00 PM ET on May 6th. Bread has a market cap of $73.13 million and approximately $1.09 million worth of Bread was traded on exchanges in the last 24 hours. One Bread token can currently be purchased for about $0.82 or 0.00008683 BTC on popular exchanges including OKEx, Binance and Cobinhood. In the last seven days, Bread has traded 3.3% higher against the U.S. dollar.

Best Canadian Stocks To Watch For 2019: Sensata Technologies Holding N.V.(ST)

Advisors' Opinion:
  • [By Stephan Byrd]

    Canaccord Genuity assumed coverage on shares of Sensata Technologies (NYSE:ST) in a note issued to investors on Friday, The Fly reports. The firm set a “buy” rating on the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock.

  • [By Max Byerly]

    Sensata Technologies (NYSE:ST) issued an update on its FY19 earnings guidance on Wednesday morning. The company provided earnings per share (EPS) guidance of $3.94-4.10 for the period, compared to the Thomson Reuters consensus estimate of $4.05. The company issued revenue guidance of $3.58-3.68 billion, compared to the consensus revenue estimate of $3.63 billion.Sensata Technologies also updated its FY 2019 guidance to $3.94-4.10 EPS.

  • [By Ethan Ryder]

    News coverage about Sensata Technologies (NYSE:ST) has trended somewhat positive recently, Accern Sentiment Analysis reports. The research firm ranks the sentiment of media coverage by monitoring more than 20 million blog and news sources. Accern ranks coverage of publicly-traded companies on a scale of negative one to one, with scores closest to one being the most favorable. Sensata Technologies earned a news sentiment score of 0.15 on Accern’s scale. Accern also assigned media headlines about the scientific and technical instruments company an impact score of 47.3141406855551 out of 100, meaning that recent media coverage is somewhat unlikely to have an effect on the company’s share price in the next few days.

Best Canadian Stocks To Watch For 2019: 3M Company(MMM)

Advisors' Opinion:
  • [By Travis Hoium]

    There aren't many companies as stable as industrial conglomerate 3M Company (NYSE:MMM). It makes everything from consumer goods to electronics products and has generated cash flows so consistent that it's paid a dividend for more than 100 years. 

  • [By Paul Ausick]

    The second-worst Dow stock so far this year is General Electric Co. (NYSE: GE), which is down 19.2%. That is followed by 3M Co. (NYSE: MMM), down 15.3%, Walmart Inc. (NYSE: WMT), down 11.4%, and Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ), down 11.1%.

  • [By ]

    It'd be one thing if GE were cheap, but on many metrics, it's not. Many investors at this point would rather pay for United Technologies Corporation (UTX)  , Honeywell International Inc. (HON)  or 3M Co (MMM)  -- the last two of which are holdings in Jim Cramer's Action Alerts PLUS Charitable Trust Portfolio.

  • [By Ethan Ryder]

    Cadinha & Co. LLC increased its stake in 3M (NYSE:MMM) by 84.6% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 6,150 shares of the conglomerate’s stock after acquiring an additional 2,818 shares during the quarter. Cadinha & Co. LLC’s holdings in 3M were worth $1,350,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Best Canadian Stocks To Watch For 2019: Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce(CM)

Advisors' Opinion:
  • [By Logan Wallace]

    A number of firms have modified their ratings and price targets on shares of Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (TSE: CM) recently:

    6/6/2018 – Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce was upgraded by analysts at Citigroup Inc from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating. They now have a C$130.00 price target on the stock, up previously from C$125.00. 5/24/2018 – Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce was downgraded by analysts at National Bank Financial from an “outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating. They now have a C$124.00 price target on the stock, down previously from C$136.00. 5/24/2018 – Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce had its price target lowered by analysts at Scotiabank from C$131.00 to C$127.00. They now have a “sector perform” rating on the stock. 5/24/2018 – Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce had its price target lowered by analysts at Royal Bank of Canada from C$141.00 to C$135.00. They now have a “sector perform” rating on the stock. 5/24/2018 – Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce was given a new C$140.00 price target on by analysts at Eight Capital. 5/24/2018 – Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce had its price target raised by analysts at Barclays PLC from C$133.00 to C$138.00.

    CM traded up C$0.59 on Wednesday, reaching C$115.86. 987,570 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,290,708. Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce has a fifty-two week low of C$103.84 and a fifty-two week high of C$124.37.

  • [By Joseph Griffin]

    Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (NYSE: CM) and Foreign Trade Bank of Latin America (NYSE:BLX) are both finance companies, but which is the superior business? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their dividends, profitability, earnings, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, risk and valuation.

  • [By Max Byerly]

    Her Majesty the Queen in Right of the Province of Alberta as represented by Alberta Investment Management Corp boosted its position in Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (NYSE:CM) (TSE:CM) by 54.3% in the first quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 911,300 shares of the bank’s stock after buying an additional 320,800 shares during the quarter. Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce comprises approximately 1.0% of Her Majesty the Queen in Right of the Province of Alberta as represented by Alberta Investment Management Corp’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 19th largest position. Her Majesty the Queen in Right of the Province of Alberta as represented by Alberta Investment Management Corp’s holdings in Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce were worth $103,633,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

  • [By Garrett Baldwin]

    We're about to reveal a little wealth secret that could unlock the trade of a lifetime. Money Morning Special Situation Strategist Tim Melvin takes you inside what could easily be a 10-bagger for investors in the weeks ahead. Read more right here.

    The Top Stock Market Stories for Tuesday The Euro has plunged to its lowest point against the U.S. dollar in 2018 thanks to political problems in Europe. The breakdown of power in Italy has raised new concerns about the nation's ability to repay its debts, as the spread between German and Italian bonds has widened. Market instability has also spread to Spain where the nation's parliament is preparing to vote on whether to oust Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy and his party. Oil prices slid one news that OPEC and Russia will consider hikes in production during a meeting in Vienna, Austria on June 22nd. The news accompanied reports that U.S. production is expected to rise throughout the summer. The price of WTI oil sat at $67.20 per barrel. The Brent crude oil price recovered this morning, adding 1% to hit $76.12. Canadian banks are under pressure this morning over a major breach by cyber criminals. The Bank of Montreal (NYSE: BMO) and the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (NYSE: CM) – the two largest banking institutions in the country – announced that roughly 90,000 customers' data may have been stolen. This would be the first major cybersecurity event to happen in Canada involving financial firms. Three Stocks to Watch Today: CRM, SBUX, MOMO com (NYSE: CRM) will lead a busy day of earnings reports on Wall Street. The cloud computing giant is set to report fiscal first quarter 2019 numbers after the bell on Tuesday. The average analyst projection calls for a 46% jump in EPS of $0.46 on top of a 23% gain in revenue to $2.94 billion. Starbucks' Corporation (Nasdaq: SBUX) will temporarily close about 8,000 locations on Tuesday to train roughly 175,000 employees on racial bias. The training sessions were
  • [By Stephan Byrd]

    Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (NYSE:CM) (TSE:CM) declared a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, May 23rd, Zacks reports. Stockholders of record on Thursday, June 28th will be paid a dividend of 1.036 per share by the bank on Friday, July 27th. This represents a $4.14 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.63%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, June 27th.

  • [By Ethan Ryder]

    Sigma Planning Corp boosted its holdings in shares of Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (NYSE:CM) (TSE:CM) by 12.6% in the second quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 7,383 shares of the bank’s stock after acquiring an additional 826 shares during the period. Sigma Planning Corp’s holdings in Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce were worth $642,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Best Canadian Stocks To Watch For 2019: Plains All American Pipeline L.P.(PAA)

Advisors' Opinion:
  • [By Joseph Griffin]

    D.A. Davidson & CO. decreased its position in shares of Plains All American Pipeline (NYSE:PAA) by 13.1% during the 1st quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 14,799 shares of the pipeline company’s stock after selling 2,228 shares during the quarter. D.A. Davidson & CO.’s holdings in Plains All American Pipeline were worth $326,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

  • [By Matthew DiLallo]

    On a more positive note, pipeline companies are building new lines as fast as they can. Plains All American Pipeline (NYSE:PAA) is working to accelerate the development of its two oil pipeline projects to get them into service sooner than the current timeline of January 2019 for its Sunrise project and the early part of next year's fourth quarter for partial service of Cactus II. Plains All American Pipelines is doing that by incurring additional costs to expedite material deliveries and vendor services as well as installing temporary generators until permanent utility power is in place. However, even though pipeline companies like Plains All American are working as fast as they can, the industry's capacity problems likely won't go away until the end of next year when the first wave of new pipelines enter service.

  • [By Matthew DiLallo]

    Currently, three major oil pipelines are on pace to start service in late 2019. They include Plains All American Pipeline's (NYSE:PAA) 670,000-BPD Cactus II, the up-to-1-million-BPD Grey Oak Pipeline by Phillips 66 Partners (NYSE:PSXP) and Andeavor (NYSE:ANDV), and the private equity–backed EPIC pipeline that could move up to 675,000 BPD. Add it up, and that's more than 2 million BPD of pipeline capacity. Meanwhile, Energy Transfer and Magellan Midstream are expanding several existing lines, which could add another 400,000 BPD next year. On top of that, Plains All American Pipeline is working with oil giant ExxonMobil (NYSE:XOM) on a 1 million-BPD oil pipeline as well as expanding several other smaller pipelines as fast as it can.

Tuesday, March 12, 2019

Recent Analysts’ Ratings Changes for T-Mobile Us (TMUS)

A number of research firms have changed their ratings and price targets for T-Mobile Us (NASDAQ: TMUS):

3/8/2019 – T-Mobile Us was given a new $80.00 price target on by analysts at HSBC Holdings plc. They now have a “buy” rating on the stock. 3/6/2019 – T-Mobile Us was downgraded by analysts at BidaskClub from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating. 2/20/2019 – T-Mobile Us was upgraded by analysts at BidaskClub from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating. 2/19/2019 – T-Mobile Us had its “buy” rating reaffirmed by analysts at Argus. 2/7/2019 – T-Mobile Us had its “buy” rating reaffirmed by analysts at Royal Bank of Canada. They now have a $76.00 price target on the stock. 1/18/2019 – T-Mobile Us had its price target raised by analysts at BTIG Research to $91.00. They now have a “buy” rating on the stock. 1/16/2019 – T-Mobile Us was downgraded by analysts at BidaskClub from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating. 1/16/2019 – T-Mobile Us had its “buy” rating reaffirmed by analysts at UBS Group AG. They now have a $80.00 price target on the stock. 1/14/2019 – T-Mobile Us had its “buy” rating reaffirmed by analysts at HSBC Holdings plc. They now have a $76.00 price target on the stock.

TMUS stock opened at $71.47 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.18, a quick ratio of 0.70 and a current ratio of 0.81. T-Mobile Us Inc has a fifty-two week low of $55.09 and a fifty-two week high of $74.06. The company has a market cap of $60.19 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.27, a PEG ratio of 3.08 and a beta of 0.42.

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T-Mobile Us (NASDAQ:TMUS) last released its earnings results on Thursday, February 7th. The Wireless communications provider reported $0.75 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the Zacks’ consensus estimate of $0.69 by $0.06. T-Mobile Us had a net margin of 6.67% and a return on equity of 12.12%. The firm had revenue of $11.45 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $11.38 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $3.11 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 6.4% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts anticipate that T-Mobile Us Inc will post 3.98 EPS for the current year.

In related news, insider Thomas Christopher Keys sold 43,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $70.71, for a total transaction of $3,040,530.00. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 248,883 shares in the company, valued at $17,598,516.93. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, COO G Michael Sievert sold 10,228 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, January 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $67.90, for a total transaction of $694,481.20. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 431,890 shares in the company, valued at $29,325,331. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 55,478 shares of company stock worth $3,891,431 over the last 90 days. Insiders own 0.37% of the company’s stock.

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in TMUS. Whittier Trust Co. increased its stake in T-Mobile Us by 19.7% in the fourth quarter. Whittier Trust Co. now owns 962 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock valued at $61,000 after purchasing an additional 158 shares during the last quarter. Financial Advocates Investment Management increased its stake in T-Mobile Us by 42.0% in the fourth quarter. Financial Advocates Investment Management now owns 541 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock valued at $25,000 after purchasing an additional 160 shares during the last quarter. Daiwa SB Investments Ltd. increased its stake in T-Mobile Us by 12.2% in the fourth quarter. Daiwa SB Investments Ltd. now owns 1,560 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock valued at $99,000 after purchasing an additional 170 shares during the last quarter. Rehmann Capital Advisory Group increased its stake in T-Mobile Us by 54.8% in the fourth quarter. Rehmann Capital Advisory Group now owns 641 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock valued at $41,000 after purchasing an additional 227 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Private Advisor Group LLC increased its stake in T-Mobile Us by 4.4% in the fourth quarter. Private Advisor Group LLC now owns 6,908 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock valued at $439,000 after purchasing an additional 288 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 33.16% of the company’s stock.

T-Mobile US, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, provides mobile communications services in the United States, Puerto Rico, and the United States Virgin Islands. The company offers voice, messaging, and data services to 79.7 million customers in the postpaid, prepaid, and wholesale markets. It also provides wireless devices, including smartphones, tablets, and other mobile communication devices, as well as accessories that are manufactured by various suppliers.

See Also: Moving Average – How it Helps Investors in Stock Selection

Top Blue Chip Stocks To Buy For 2019

tags:BXP,NVRO,EVV,BF-A,MOV,

The Dow Jones Industrial Average is within striking distance of all-time high, but more than a third of its components are stuck in the mud.

Even as the blue-chip index nears its all-time high hit in January, 12 of its members are trading in a correction, or 10 percent below recent highs. The worst of the group is Intel, down 20 percent from its all-time high in early June and one of just two Dow stocks negative this quarter.

Other components in a correction include 3M, Goldman Sachs, Walmart and IBM.

Some investors believe that despite the carnage since their respective highs, several blue chips are poised to make a comeback.

Top Blue Chip Stocks To Buy For 2019: Boston Properties, Inc.(BXP)

Advisors' Opinion:
  • [By Max Byerly]

    Earnest Partners LLC raised its holdings in shares of Boston Properties, Inc. (NYSE:BXP) by 4.6% in the first quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 187,347 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after purchasing an additional 8,269 shares during the period. Earnest Partners LLC owned 0.12% of Boston Properties worth $23,085,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

  • [By Logan Wallace]

    Traders purchased shares of Boston Properties (NYSE:BXP) on weakness during trading hours on Friday. $96.18 million flowed into the stock on the tick-up and $15.73 million flowed out of the stock on the tick-down, for a money net flow of $80.45 million into the stock. Of all stocks tracked, Boston Properties had the 13th highest net in-flow for the day. Boston Properties traded down ($0.15) for the day and closed at $117.09

  • [By Stephan Byrd]

    Lourd Capital LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Boston Properties, Inc. (NYSE:BXP) during the third quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund purchased 2,129 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock, valued at approximately $262,000.

  • [By Joseph Griffin]

    OppenheimerFunds Inc. lowered its holdings in Boston Properties, Inc. (NYSE:BXP) by 18.2% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 5,669 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after selling 1,265 shares during the period. OppenheimerFunds Inc.’s holdings in Boston Properties were worth $699,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

  • [By Ethan Ryder]

    Get a free copy of the Zacks research report on Boston Properties (BXP)

    For more information about research offerings from Zacks Investment Research, visit Zacks.com

  • [By Logan Wallace]

    Boston Properties (NYSE:BXP) insider Bryan J. Koop sold 10,560 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, May 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $124.27, for a total value of $1,312,291.20. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link.

Top Blue Chip Stocks To Buy For 2019: Nevro Corp.(NVRO)

Advisors' Opinion:
  • [By Ethan Ryder]

    Nevro (NYSE:NVRO) had its price objective cut by Canaccord Genuity from $110.00 to $102.00 in a note issued to investors on Tuesday, Marketbeat Ratings reports. The brokerage currently has a “buy” rating on the medical equipment provider’s stock. Canaccord Genuity’s price target indicates a potential upside of 34.87% from the stock’s current price.

  • [By Brian Feroldi]

    Shares of Nevro Corp. (NYSE:NVRO) are falling today, down 13% as of 10:21 a.m. EDT, after an SEC filing revealed that the medical device company's VP of sales has been fired. 

  • [By Lisa Levin]

    Nevro Corp. (NASDAQ: NVRO) shares dropped 14 percent to $79.35 after reporting wider-than-expected Q1 loss.

    Shares of Hertz Global Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: HTZ) were down 11 percent to $19.77 after the company reported a wider-than-expected loss for its first quarter.

  • [By Ethan Ryder]

    Wells Fargo & Company MN lessened its holdings in Nevro (NYSE:NVRO) by 5.2% during the first quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 823,579 shares of the medical equipment provider’s stock after selling 45,510 shares during the quarter. Wells Fargo & Company MN’s holdings in Nevro were worth $71,378,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

  • [By Paul Ausick]

    Nevro Corp. (NYSE: NVRO) traded down about 19% Friday and posted a new 52-week low of $54.87 after closing Thursday at $68.04. The stock’s 52-week high is $94.34. Volume totaled around 5.7 million, close to 15 times the daily average. The company had no specific news.

Top Blue Chip Stocks To Buy For 2019: Eaton Vance Limited Duration Income Fund(EVV)

Advisors' Opinion:
  • [By Logan Wallace]

    Eaton Vance Ltd Duration Income Fund (NYSEAMERICAN:EVV) was the recipient of a large increase in short interest in September. As of September 14th, there was short interest totalling 61,700 shares, an increase of 154.4% from the August 31st total of 24,249 shares. Currently, 0.1% of the company’s shares are short sold. Based on an average trading volume of 199,358 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 0.3 days.

Top Blue Chip Stocks To Buy For 2019: Brown-Forman Corporation (BF-A)

Advisors' Opinion:
  • [By Chris Hill]

    In this episode of MarketFoolery, host Chris Hill talks with Motley Fool analyst Emily Flippen about the market's biggest news. Abercrombie & Fitch (NYSE:ANF) is up huge on a deeply lame quarter. Was there some gold hidden between the lines, or was this yet another case of bad results beating terrible expectations? Dollar Tree (NASDAQ:DLTR) saw a little pop after its earnings report, but more interestingly, the company announced some big changes regarding its Family Dollar acquisition. Brown-Forman (NYSE:BF-A) (NYSE:BF-B) fell about 7% after reporting earnings. Could it be that they just have too many brands? Chinese automaker NIO (NYSE:NIO) tanked, but investors probably want to resist the "China is too scary" narrative that's cropping up as a result. Tune in to find out more.

  • [By Dan Caplinger]

    Wednesday was a bad day on Wall Street, as most major indexes finished lower. Small-cap stocks were hit harder than their large-cap counterparts, due in part to readings on the U.S. economy that signaled the possibility of a slowdown in the future. Moreover, downward pressure from some high-profile players weighed on overall market sentiment. NIO (NYSE:NIO), Brown-Forman (NYSE:BF-A) (NYSE:BF-B), and Sarepta Therapeutics (NASDAQ:SRPT) were among the worst performers. Here's why they did so poorly.

  • [By Rich Duprey]

    Tariffs have long weighed on shares of whiskey distiller Brown-Forman (NYSE:BF-A) (NYSE:BF-B), which exports more than half of its spirits to international markets, led by its best-selling Jack Daniel's whiskey. In its most recently-reported quarter, net sales were flat at $910 million due to tariff-related inventory reductions. That followed a big sales increase in the first quarter of fiscal 2019, when customers were racing to stock up ahead of the imposition of retaliatory tariffs by Europe.

  • [By Dan Caplinger]

    The stock market did exceptionally well on Wednesday, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average climbing more than 300 points and certain other major benchmarks reaching record heights. In general, investors remained upbeat about the prospects for the U.S. economy overcoming any trade-related tensions and continuing to grow, riding the wave of lower corporate tax rates to boost profits. Yet even with a favorable mood in the market overall, some companies had bad news that sent their shares sharply lower. Ambarella (NASDAQ:AMBA), YY (NASDAQ:YY), and Brown-Forman (NYSE:BF-A) (NYSE:BF-B) were among the worst performers on the day. Here's why they did so poorly.

  • [By Rich Duprey, John Bromels, and Anders Bylund]

    Coupled with a solid business that points to their being able to raise their payout every year for years to come, Cintas (NASDAQ:CTAS), A.O. Smith (NYSE:AOS), and Brown-Forman (NYSE:BF-A)(NYSE:BF-B) are three Dividend Aristocrats that you can buy once for your portfolio and hold on to forever.

Top Blue Chip Stocks To Buy For 2019: Movado Group Inc.(MOV)

Advisors' Opinion:
  • [By Motley Fool Transcribing]

    Movado Group (NYSE:MOV) Q2 2019 Earnings Conference CallAug. 29, 2018 9:00 a.m. ET

    Contents: Prepared Remarks Questions and Answers Call Participants Prepared Remarks:

    Operator

  • [By Lisa Levin] Gainers Oragenics, Inc. (NYSE: OGEN) shares surged 66.67 percent to close at $2.00 on Wednesday after the company’s AG013 for oral mucositis in head and neck cancer patients showed favorable safety profile in mid-stage OM study. Sigma Labs, Inc. (NASDAQ: SGLB) shares jumped 49.24 percent to close at $1.97 on Wednesday. Sigma Labs demonstrated proof of concept for closed loop quality control during metal additive manufacturing. ASLAN Pharmaceuticals Limited (NASDAQ: ASLN) rose 34.45 percent to close at $9.21. BTIG Research initiated coverage on ASLAN Pharmaceuticals with a Buy rating. Dick's Sporting Goods, Inc. (NYSE: DKS) shares rose 25.82 percent to close at $38.35 after the company reported upbeat Q1 earnings and raised FY18 earnings outlook. TapImmune, Inc. (NASDAQ: TPIV) rose 24.15 percent to close at $5.09. WBB Securities upgraded TapImmune from Speculative Buy to Buy. Legacy Reserves LP (NASDAQ: LGCY) jumped 23.3 percent to close at $5.98 on Wednesday. Summer Infant, Inc. (NASDAQ: SUMR) gained 22.92 percent to close at $1.18 after announcing commitment for $60 million credit facility from Bank of America and $17.5 million term loan from Pathlight Capital. Cloud Peak Energy Inc. (NYSE: CLD) rose 21.95 percent to close at $4.00. SpartanNash Co (NASDAQ: SPTN) gained 21.4 percent to close at $22.92 after the company reported upbeat earnings for its first quarter on Tuesday. Motus GI Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ: MOTS) rose 17.14 percent to close at $5.40. Movado Group, Inc. (NYSE: MOV) gained 16.59 percent to close at $49.20 after the company reported better-than-expected Q1 results and raised its guidance. Oramed Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: ORMP) climbed 15.61 percent to close at $8.22. Oramed Pharma disclosed that its patent has been allowed in the US for oral administration of proteins. Dorian LPG Ltd. (NYSE: LPG) rose 14.89 percent to close at $8.41. Dorian LPG confirmed receipt of unsolicited proposal fr
  • [By Logan Wallace]

    Shares of Movado Group, Inc (NYSE:MOV) have earned a consensus rating of “Hold” from the six ratings firms that are currently covering the stock, Marketbeat Ratings reports. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, three have given a hold recommendation, one has given a buy recommendation and one has given a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 12 month price objective among brokers that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $39.00.