It’s been a rough year for cannabis stocks and even though Aurora Cannabis (NYSE: ACB) is one of the most notable companies in the sector, it had its fair share of struggles in 2019.
Following that yearlong downtrend, here are a few reasons to consider buying Aurora’s stock in 2020.
The Market’s Reaction To Cam Battley’s Perceived Resignation Was Misplaced
“Yes, he was quite visible with investors and spoke with retail and institutional investors, but the three key people at ACB in terms of setting strategy are Chairman Michael Singer, CEO Terry Booth, and CFO Glen Ibbott,” Cantor Fitzgerald’s Pablo Zuanic wrote in a Jan. 13 note.
The Company Could Bring In A Klein-Type CEO
In a note issued on Jan. 2, Zuanic said activist investor Nelson Peltz should help orchestrate the search for a new CEO instead of negotiating a deal to bring consumer packaged goods to the company. A new CEO should be one that “could help bring greater financial discipline to the company.”
Peltz, CEO of Trian Fund Management, was named a strategic adviser in early 2019. David Klein was named CEO of Canopy Growth (NYSE: CGC) in December.
The Selling Of Its Greenhouse Should Be Seen As Good News
“It had been planned to be a 100-ton greenhouse, but the facility was never developed and will not be necessary as the company scales back capital expenditure plans,” Zuanic said. “Net, bigger picture, the move is consistent with the company reining-in capacity expansion plans. We see this as good and not bad news.”
The Trend Hasn’t Worsened
“Management has reconfirmed December quarter guidance, is confident of a sales ramp-up in 2H (on 2.0), is bringing down capital expenditures, and we estimate the company will deliver positive EBITDA by the June quarter.”
Zuanic has a Buy rating and $3.80 (CA$5) price target on Aurora Cannabis. At time of writing, the stock traded at $1.93 per share.
Follow the key events of the Falcon 9 rocket’s ascent to orbit with 60 satellites for SpaceX’s Starlink broadband network.
The 229-foot-tall (70-meter) rocket is scheduled to lift off Monday at 9:49 a.m. EST (1449 GMT) from the Complex 40 launch pad at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.
The Falcon 9 will head northeast from Cape Canaveral over the Atlantic Ocean to place the 60 Starlink satellites into a circular orbit around 180 miles (290 kilometers) above Earth. The satellites will use their ion thrusters to maneuver into their higher orbit for testing, before finally proceeding to an operational orbit at an altitude of approximately 341 miles (550 kilometers).
The Falcon 9’s first stage will target a landing on SpaceX’s drone ship “Of Course I Still Love You” in the Atlantic Ocean nearly 400 miles northeast of Cape Canaveral.
The first stage booster launching tonight previously flew on two missions. The booster first launched from the Kennedy Space Center in March 2019 with SpaceX’s first unpiloted Crew Dragon capsule, then launched again in June 2019 from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California with the Canadian Radarsat Sonstellation Mission.
For Monday’s mission, SpaceX will also attempt to catch both halves of the Falcon 9’s payload fairing using nets aboard the ocean-going ships “Ms. Tree” and “Ms. Chief” in the Atlantic Ocean.
T-0:00:00: Liftoff
After the rocket’s nine Merlin engines pass an automated health check, hold-down clamps will release the Falcon 9 booster for liftoff from pad 40.
T+0:01:13: Max Q
The Falcon 9 rocket reaches Max Q, the point of maximum aerodynamic pressure, a few seconds after surpassing the speed of sound.
T+0:02:33: MECO
The Falcon 9’s nine Merlin 1D engines shut down.
T+0:02:36: Stage 1 Separation
The Falcon 9’s first stage separates from the second stage moments after MECO.
T+0:02:43: Stage 2 Ignition
The second stage Merlin 1D vacuum engine ignites for an approximately six-and-a-half-minute burn to inject the Starlink satellites into a parking orbit.
T+0:03:24: Fairing Jettison
The 5.2-meter (17.1-foot) diameter payload fairing jettisons once the Falcon 9 rocket ascends through the dense lower atmosphere. The 43-foot-tall fairing is made of two clamshell-like halves composed of carbon fiber with an aluminum honeycomb core.
T+0:06:41: Stage 1 Entry Burn Complete
A subset of the first stage’s Merlin 1D engines completes an entry burn to slow down for landing. A final landing burn will occur just before touchdown on SpaceX’s drone ship “Of Course I Still Love You” around 385 miles (620 kilometers) northeast of Cape Canaveral.
T+0:08:24: Stage 1 Landing
The Falcon 9 rocket’s first stage booster touches down on SpaceX’s drone ship in the Atlantic Ocean.
T+0:08:49: SECO 1
The Merlin 1D vacuum engine turns off after placing the Starlink satellites in a temporary parking orbit, beginning a 36-minute coast in space.
T+0:45:55: Stage 2 Restart
The Falcon 9’s second stage engine ignites again for a 2-second burn to circularize its orbit.
T+0:45:57: SECO 2
The Merlin 1D vacuum engine shuts down after reaching a target orbit about 180 miles (290 kilometers) high with an inclination of approximately 53 degrees.
T+1:01:48: Starlink Deployment
The 60 flat-panel Starlink satellites, each with a mass of about 573 pounds (260 kilograms) deploy from the Falcon 9 rocket’s second stage.
Financial technology start-up Currencycloud, which powers cross-border payments for a number of popular finance apps, has raised $80 million in a funding round backed by Visa.
Based in the U.K., Currencycloud sells payment software for banks and fintech firms to process their international transactions. Though not as well-known as consumer-focused peers like Monzo and Revolut, the company provides some of the crucial “plumbing” in the background for such apps to operate.
“We call the segment embedded finance,” Currencycloud CEO Mike Laven told CNBC in an interview, explaining the firm embeds its product into platforms from big banks and fintechs. “We’re probably the most important business that you’ve never heard of. But that’s conscientious on our part. We do not have a strategy where we compete with our customers.”
The firm’s latest series of funding was co-led by SAP’s venture arm Sapphire and Visa, and also attracted backing from Google, the investment arm of the World Bank, French lender BNP Paribas and Japanese bank SBI. Visa’s treasurer, Colleen Ostrowski, will join Currencycloud’s board following the deal.
Currencycloud counts Visa as a strategic investor, Laven said, and has partnered with the payments network to provide its clients access to Currencycloud’s technology. The firm also works with a number of so-called challenger banks in the U.K. — including Revolut, Monzo and Starling — which have racked up millions of users who bank with them using only an app and debit card.
“Their end-user customers, for the most part, will never see that we’re there,” Laven said. “We’re a piece of embedded finance in the tech stack. It’s not as sexy, but it’s an incredibly good business.” One of the company’s products, Spark, lets clients collect, store, convert and pay in 35 currencies.
Asia expansion
Currencycloud’s chief explained the market for business-to-business fintech — a sector that includes competing payment processors like Stripe, Adyen and Checkout.com — is “much larger than the consumer business” and “more profitable,” albeit “harder.”
Though his business is not yet in the black, Laven said “we could get there with the current round if we decided to,” but that it had more room to grow before becoming profitable. “Our emphasis right now is not on profitability, our emphasis is on the strength of our offering and an expansion into other markets,” he said.
The company’s largest market currently is Europe, Laven said, while it has been increasingly investing in North America and is now looking to expand into Asia, where fintech has seen significant adoption rates. In China, for example, mobile wallets like Alipay and WeChat Pay have become commonplace, with many Chinese consumers using their phones to pay for things.
The investment in Currencycloud comes not long after Visa’s $5.3 billion acquisition of Plaid, a company that specializes in application programming interface software to link fintech apps with people’s bank accounts. Investors have been piling into these behind-the-scenes players, with Checkout.com winning a $230 million round and Stripe raising $250 million last year.
Currencycloud has now raised over $140 million from investors and claims to have processed north of $50 billion in global payments since it was founded in 2012. The company declined to disclose its valuation.
Working up the courage to invest in the stock market for the first time can be tough. Even after the long bull market has demonstrated just how rewarding stocks can be, many people feel like they’ll just be putting their money into the market at exactly the wrong time.
Novice investors should look for companies that can stand the test of time, and that have qualities that will enable them to bounce back from any short-term hits to produce strong returns over the long run. Another solid strategy for beginners is to pick stocks that pay dividends, as those can provide extra income and offset declines or weak growth in the share price. And finally, beginning investors often feel most comfortable when they have previous connections with the companies they are buying, typically because they’ve used its products or services.
Below, we’ll look at three stocks that generally meet all three of those criteria. They won’t by themselves give anyone a diversified portfolio, but they’re a good starting point for beginners trying to get comfortable with stock investing.
PepsiCo
Beverage and snack giant PepsiCo (NASDAQ:PEP) has a history that harks back well over a century, and its unique combination of soda and beverage offerings with its Frito-Lay snack foods division makes it a diversified behemoth. Even if you don’t drink Pepsi-Cola or eat Lay’s potato chips, you might put products like Quaker Oats, Tropicana juices, or Gatorade sports drinks in your shopping cart — PepsiCo serves a wide audience.
The stock pays a dividend that yields 2.7% right now, and for 47 straight years, it has increased the size of its payout. Even though consumer products stocks have been popular with investors, PepsiCo still sports a reasonable valuation with a price-to-earnings ratio that’s lower than the market average. The company also did well by identifying early on the consumer trend toward seeking healthier snack and drink options, which allowed it to cushion itself from the declining sales of some of its less-healthy core products. Beginning investors can buy PepsiCo shares knowing that they’ll continue to see its products everywhere — and profit from them.
Disney
Media and entertainment company Walt Disney (NYSE:DIS) has been around since the dawn of the motion picture age, and it has grown from its modest beginnings as an animation studio to a powerhouse with a hand in nearly every aspect of the entertainment industry. With movie studios, television networks, retail stores, video games, and its iconic theme parks, the Disney empire is known the world over.
The company is busily forging new pathways to growth, leveraging its vast array of content production assets and creating the Disney+ streaming platform as a new way to reach viewers. Its 1.2% dividend yield does fall short of the market average, but the payout has risen tenfold in the past decade, demonstrating management’s commitment to dividend growth. No matter where you are in your investing journey, Disney should have appeal as a familiar name with strong business prospects for the long term.
JPMorgan Chase
Big banks aren’t necessarily consumer favorites, but they play a vital role in the U.S. economy, and JPMorgan Chase (NYSE:JPM) is one of the biggest. Between its JPMorgan investment arm and its Chase consumer banking division, the financial institution does everything from providing mortgages and issuing credit cards to providing high-end investment advice to investors and big corporations. With a worldwide presence, JPMorgan Chase weathered the financial crisis a decade ago quite well, and emerged stronger than ever.
From an investment perspective, JPMorgan Chase boasts a valuation that’s considerably cheaper than the market average, along with a dividend yield of 2.6%. Both earnings growth and dividend growth have been ample in recent years. JPMorgan Chase might not generate quite the same level of name recognition for beginning investors that Disney or PepsiCo do, but the bank will be able to profit from a strong U.S. economy in much the same way as those consumer giants.
Companies that have a long streak of paying dividends (think longer than 25 years) are typically managed by shareholder-friendly management teams and have a competitive advantage. If you invest in a stock with these qualities, you certainly stack the odds more in your favor.
Three dividend-paying stocks that could fit the bill are McDonald’s (NYSE:MCD), Hasbro (NASDAQ:HAS), and Procter & Gamble (NYSE:PG). Here’s why these stocks should be paying out dividends for decades to come.
1. Customers like McDonald’s new look
McDonald’s has dealt with headwinds in recent years, ranging from consumers becoming more picky about what they eat to the recent departure of CEO Steve Easterbrook. That departure might sound concerning, but McDonald’s brand is bigger than one man, and the changes Easterbrook made should serve shareholders well for a long time.
Mickey D’s has made significant adjustments in recent years to improve performance. The company’s efforts in digital ordering, delivery, and modernizing restaurants have led to notable gains in traffic and earnings growth. Comparable-restaurant sales and earnings have grown at healthy rates in recent years, despite lower-than-expected results in the third quarter.
The stock climbed 132% over the last five years, and while Easterbrook’s ability to improve the growth profile of the company will be missed, McDonald’s should remain a solid dividend stock.
The company announced an increase to its quarterly dividend of 8% in September. This marked 43 consecutive years of dividend increases since paying its first in 1976 and marks the company as a Dividend Aristocrat. This put the company on track to complete its $25 billion cash return to shareholders over three years through 2019.
The stock sports a P/E of 25 times next year’s earnings estimates, but McDonald’s currently pays an above-average yield of 2.36%. Despite shifting consumer preferences, its brand power is proving to be incredibly resilient, which I believe makes the classic restaurant chain a reliable income investment.
2. Hasbro is going digital
Hasbro has been around since 1923 and is known for classic toy brands, like G.I. Joe, Monopoly, Transformers, and its Star Wars-branded toys.
The stock has doubled for shareholders over the last five years, but Hasbro has recently wrestled with U.S.-China trade-war headwinds. Most notably, the threat of increased tariffs on Chinese imports took its toll in the third quarter, disrupting Hasbro’s ability to get inventory on store shelves. This made business slow, with sales falling 2% year over year in the U.S. and Canada in Q3.
Overall, the company is in good shape for the long term, mainly because it is seeing strong growth in digital experiences, where kids are spending more time these days. The toymaker experienced 20% year-over-year growth from its entertainment, licensing, and digital segment in the third quarter. Its latest Transformers film, Bumblebee, and Magic: The Gathering Arena digital card game have contributed to growth in the segment lately. Plus, Hasbro’s recent acquisition of Entertainment One will enhance the company’s storytelling capabilities across TV, film, and gaming.
Hasbro has been delighting children with its toy franchises since it first started selling doctor and nurse toy kits in the 1940s. Delivering fun over the years has been very profitable for the company. It has paid a dividend every year since 1981.
The stock currently trades for a forward P/E of 20.7 and pays an above-average dividend yield of 2.59%.
3. Procter & Gamble is leaner and stronger than ever
Procter & Gamble is the ultimate buy-and-hold consumer staples stock. Its products include everyday essentials like Tide laundry detergent and Crest toothpaste. People will still be buying these products no matter what the economy does.
The stock surged 36% last year after reporting balanced growth in revenue and earnings. In recent years, the company has cycled through different leadership, but current CEO David Taylor has been effective at focusing on categories where performance drives brand choice. This investment in product superiority has worked very well. Organic sales growth year-to-date in fiscal 2020 is up 6%, a slight improvement over last year’s stellar 5% growth.
P&G is a Dividend King. It has paid a dividend every year since 1890 and has increased the payout annually for 63 years straight. The stock currently has a forward P/E of 24 and pays an above-average dividend yield of 2.36%.
At the end of the day, investors want to see returns. To accomplish this goal, seasoned Wall Street observers often turn to one strategy time and time again: growth investing. A solid growth play is a name that appears poised to not only grow at an above-average rate but also reward investors handsomely over the long run.
Rolling up their sleeves, investors are pounding the Wall Street pavement in search of the tickers with impressive long-term growth prospects. However, having a target in mind is one thing, but zeroing in on these stocks primed for stellar gains in the coming years is another story entirely. This task also isn’t made any easier by the fact that 2019 saw the S&P 500 post its largest yearly gain since 2013, closing the year up 29% and starting out 2020 with an increase of 2%.
Luckily, TipRanks, a company that tracks and measures the performance of analysts, can lend investors a hand. After using the platform’s Stock Screener tool during our own search, we were able to unmask 3 Buy-rated stocks flagged by the analysts for their strong long-term growth narratives. On top of this, each boasts substantial upside potential from the current share price.
Here’s the full scoop.
Global Blood Therapeutics Inc. (GBT)
Global Blood Therapeutics is focused on developing treatments for underserved patient communities. With one therapy for sickle cell disease, a group of disorders that impacts hemoglobin in blood cells, already approved and another candidate for the disease in development, some analysts believe that its 94% gain in 2019 is just the beginning.
Back in November, the company got some good news when the FDA granted its lead candidate, Oxbryta, accelerated approval for use in adults and children 12 years and older with sickle cell disease based on the results of the pivotal Phase 3 HOPE study. In the study, the drug was able to produce a rapid, potent and durable improvement in hemoglobin. With the ruling coming three months before the original PDUFA date, it’s no wonder Wall Street pros are excited. To top it all off, the label for Oxbryta is clean and broad, and the therapy can be administered alone or in combination with hydroxyurea.
H.C. Wainwright’s Debjit Chattopadhyay does remind investors that the company is still required to continue the HOPE-KIDS 2 study to demonstrate decreased risk of stroke in children 2 to 15 years old. That being said, the four-star analyst expects the results to be similar to the HOPE Phase 3 program findings. “Additionally, because the HOPE-KIDS 2 study is enrolling patients as young as 2 years of age, data could be leveraged for label expansion to treat patients under 12,” Chattopadhyay commented.
As the analyst sees the drug’s U.S. sales reaching $1.2 billion in 2024, it makes sense that he reiterated both a Buy rating and $150 price target. Should the target be met, shares could be in for a 105% twelve-month gain.
Like Chattopadhyay, Wedbush analyst Liana Moussatos takes a bullish approach. With no price increases expected for three years and little to no competition anticipated from Novartis’ recently released ADAKVEO antibody treatment for sickle cell disease, the analyst thinks the market opportunity is large. Bearing this in mind, she bumped up the price target from $120 to $143 in addition to maintaining her bullish call.
In terms of the rest of the Street, a majority of analysts also see GBT as a Buy, 13 out of 16 to be exact. As a result, the consensus rating is a Strong Buy. Given the $102.20 average price target, the upside potential lands at 40%.
Zynga Inc. (ZNGA)
Zynga is best known for being the force behind wildly popular games such as “Words With Friends”, “Empires & Puzzles” and “Merge Dragon”. After posting an impressive 70% climb in 2019, does the video game developer still have more fuel left in the tank?
According to SunTrust Robinson’s Matthew Thornton, the answer is yes. In his initiation note, the analyst points out that the already large gaming market, which was worth about $83 billion in 2019, is still expanding, with a 5-year 2018-2023 CAGR of 9.9%. He tells investors the companies that can prosper in this competitive and fragmented environment will be those with platform-exposure to the market, publishers with unique franchises or IP, network scale and ability to fund and execute robust live services, pipeline development and M&A. Based on this, Thornton has high hopes for ZNGA.
“ZNGA provides pure-play exposure to the large and fast growing global mobile gaming market with a growing (31% pro forma in 3Q19, driven by Merge Dragons and Empires & Puzzles) and diversified existing game portfolio and highly experienced management team and Board. In addition to a healthy existing portfolio, ZNGA has a strong pipeline (at least 7 games, including FarmVille, Harry Potter, Star Wars, Game of Thrones, and others) as well as a strong balance sheet and acquisition track record to augment organic growth with M&A in what is a highly fragmented market,” he wrote.
Taking all of this into consideration, the four-star analyst puts the 2-year 2019-2021 revenue and EBITDA CAGR at 13% and 18%, respectively. Not to mention the company is also expected to surpass consensus estimates over the next few years.
In line with his bullish thesis, Thornton started his ZNGA coverage with a Buy recommendation. In addition, he set a $7.50 price target, indicating that shares could surge 23% in the next twelve months.
Looking at the consensus breakdown, 6 Buys, 1 Hold and 1 Sell published in the last three months add up to a Moderate Buy. With a $7.50 average price target, the upside potential matches Thornton’s forecast.
FTI Consulting, Inc. (FCN)
Operating as a global business advisory firm, FTI Consulting offers its clients transactional, operational, financial, legal and reputational services. In 2019, the company saw shares climb 66% higher, and one analyst is betting that this run can continue in 2020.
SunTrust Robinson’s Tobey Sommer argues that for the first time in its history, FTI has created a sustainable organic growth firm that constantly adds new employees so that it can offer “adjacent services”. Among these new services are business transformation, public affairs, cyber and global construction disputes. “We believe that FCN should be able to hire a steady stream of experienced talent from Big 4 accounting firms in Europe who are worried that emerging regulatory scrutiny will conflict them out of work from key relationships,” he noted.
Additionally, Sommer cites several key upcoming catalysts as putting FCN on an upward trajectory. He thinks that fourth quarter revenue and EBITDA should beat the Street’s estimates, with the midpoint for initial 2020 guidance falling in line with expectations.
He added, “From the initial guidance, we expect material upside results throughout the year propelled by headcount growth (year-over-year consultant headcount rose 17% in 3Q19), pricing could increase above trend and regulatory investigations into global tech firms could drive antitrust work.”
It’s no surprise, then, that the five-star analyst stayed with the bulls, leaving the Buy rating unchanged. If that wasn’t enough, he gave the price target a boost, increasing the figure from $130 to $155. This bolstered target conveys his confidence in FCN’s ability to jump 31% in the twelve months ahead.
When it comes to other analyst activity, it has been relatively quiet on Wall Street. As Sommer is the only analyst that has reviewed FCN recently, the word on the Street is that the stock is a Moderate Buy. The average price target and upside potential are also the same as the SunTrust Robinson analyst’s.
Some people may be marveling at how cloud software stocks can garner such high valuations today. These companies display very strong revenue growth but currently make little to no profit and are often valued at 15-20 times sales or even greater.
The answer may lie in the fact that these companies have early product leadership in an industry with extremely favorable long-term prospects. That combination has the potential to compound investment dollars at staggering rates for many years. In fact, if you look at the following examples of early leaders from the personal computing age in the 1970s and 1980s, you’ll find two stocks that have turned just a $500 investment into $1 million today. Here’s how they did it, and the lessons they provide for picking the next generation of world-beating tech stocks.
Adobe
Founded in 1982 by former Xerox (NYSE:XRX) employees John Warnock and Charles Geschke, Adobe (NASDAQ:ADBE) began its incredible run in computer graphics with a revolutionary programming language called PostScript. It was an important invention in that it could describe letters and shapes in mathematical terms across any type of computer. In fact, the technology was so advanced that Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) purchased an early 15% stake in 1983 and licensed PostScript for Apple products.
Adobe capitalized on its highly profitable PostScript licensing fees by developing more products that would go on to lead the market in computer-generated text, graphics, and video. These include Illustrator in 1989, one of the first computer drawing software applications, and the company’s flagship Adobe Photoshop software for graphics editing in 1989, followed by Adobe Premiere, the company’s video editing software, in 1991. And in 1993, the company introduced the portable document format (PDF), which became the standard format for digital document sharing.
Adobe went on to make a consequential acquisition in 2005, the $3.4 all-stock acquisition of its main rival, Macromedia, which brought in Shockwave and Flash, two important video player technologies that would power a lot of mobile and online video for the next decade, as well as Web authoring software in DreamWeaver. And in recent years, Adobe has expanded into marketing technology and analytics, especially with the 2018 acquisition of B2B marketing tech company Marketo. By expanding to marketing tech, Adobe grouped its digital graphics expertise with analytics to serve the digital marketing industry with a comprehensive solution.
In the 2013-2014 time frame, Adobe transitioned its business model from selling bulk software licenses to a recurring subscription model delivered through the internet. This move had the near-term effect of depressing revenue and also earnings, but this new software-as-a-service model eventually resulted in a more efficient business and high customer satisfaction. Over the next five years between 2014 and 2018, Adobe’s GAAP net income skyrocketed 10-fold from just $268 million to $2.59 billion, with Adobe’s stock rocketing 430% in that time. Since 2018, the stock has gone up another 75%.
But the long-term returns for Adobe are even more staggering. The company went public on August 22, 1986 at a price of $11, but the company has split its stock so many times that its split-adjusted IPO price is just $0.17. That means just a $500 investment in Adobe at its IPO would have gotten you 45 shares, which today would have become 2,912 shares worth a little over $1 million.
Intel
As Adobe ran with the early lead in computer graphics, Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) invented perhaps an even more consequential computing element: the microprocessor. Intel was founded in 1968 by founders Robert Noyce and Gordon Moore, who added Hungarian-born engineer Andy Grove to the roster shortly thereafter. These three would become Intel’s first chairmen and CEOs for the first era of its history, supervising some of the most groundbreaking innovations in computer hardware and manufacturing.
One of Intel’s first products was a project requested by the Japanese calculator manufacturer Busicom, which asked for 12 new chips for its upcoming calculator. Intel’s top engineers came up with a more novel solution, making one chip that did the work of 12. And with that, Intel was off to the races. Founder Gordon Moore also coined “Moore’s Law,” the theory that the number of transistors able to be fit on a silicon chip doubles every year – though in 1975, Moore revised that to every two years. Intel was able to better that threshold, doubling processor capacity every 18 months on average for the next few decades.
Believe it or not, despite basically inventing the microprocessor, a large part of Intel’s business was initially in DRAM memory, which it had also invented in the early 1970s. However, in the 1980s, competition from Japan caused this market to become less profitable, and Intel pivoted to really focus on its microprocessor lead, becoming the sole supplier to IBM (NYSE:IBM) personal computers, which, believe it or not, was the dominant personal computer brand at the time. Intel thus became a standard for PC processors much in the same way that Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) Windows did in operating systems, so much so that the combination of Intel processors and Windows became known as the “Wintel” platform.
However, the past few years have seen Intel’s dominance of processors come into question. In 2018, main competitor Advanced Micro Devices (NASDAQ:AMD) surpassed Intel in the race to produce a 7nm CPU — a rare instance where Intel’s in-house manufacturing has fallen behind AMD’s outsourced semiconductor fab Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (NYSE:TSM).
Intel has also begun venturing out of its main processor business in recent years, with a series of large acquisitions to launch itself into programmable chips (Altera), self-driving car software (Mobileye), and security software (McAfee), among others.
Despite these recent headwinds and ventures into adjacent businesses, Intel still has a large market share in processors for both PCs and data centers, which makes it hugely profitable and a steady dividend payer.
Intel went public on Oct. 13, 1971, at $23.50 per share, but it has split its stock 13 times between 1973 and 2000. These splits have lowered the company’s split-adjusted IPO price to just $0.02! That means at today’s price of $62.73 as of this writing, Intel’s stock has appreciated a miraculous 3,136.5 times, turning a theoretical $500 investment at Intel’s IPO into a small fortune of $1.57 million.
What Intel and Adobe did right
How were Intel and Adobe so successful for their shareholders? Both companies were very early innovators at the dawn of the computing age — Intel with microprocessors, and Adobe with computer graphics. Both companies were also led by incredible management teams that constantly cemented that leading position and innovated new products within their respective niches of expertise.
This may be the reason cloud software stocks trade so highly today. While not all of them will probably make it to the status of an Intel or Adobe, should any break through, the potential for absolutely massive long-term gains in these growth stocks is certainly there. Here at the Fool, we regularly investigate stocks with Intel or Adobe-like potential in our main Stock Advisor and other specialized stock-picking newsletters.
Stopping smoking at any age could add a decade to your life, but don’t bother quitting with e-cigarettes — there’s not enough evidence it works, the Surgeon General says.
In an interview before the release of the first Surgeon General report on smoking cessation in 30 years, Dr. Jerome Adams urged those as old as 85 to quit smoking and added fuel to the burning debate over the benefits and risks of vaping, which has been billed as a smoking alternative but also has led millions of young people to start using nicotine.
While nations such as Britain recommend vaping as a way to stop smoking, Adams urged U.S. consumers to try one of the many Food and Drug Administration-approved smoking cessation products instead of vaping because there isn’t “sufficient evidence” it works.
The health care field needs to do more to discourage smoking too, said Adams.
The report cited 2015 data showing four out of every nine adult cigarette smokers who saw a “health professional” in the past year weren’t given advice on quitting. Adams said he’s been to mental health and addiction clinics where clients smoked cigarettes openly.
“People don’t realize (quitting smoking) can help with mental health outcomes,” said Adams. “Whether you are 25, 55 or 85, there are still benefits to be gained.”
Is vaping safer than smoking? Depends who you ask, and what scientific study they point to
Even those who favor vaping as way to reduce the harm from cigarette smoking support much of the government’s new report on smoking.
David Abrams, a professor of social sciences in New York University’s school of public health, called it “well done and comprehensive with the data available when it was drafted.” But he noted there’s a “fast moving set of innovations” that deliver “much safer nicotine,” including Swedish Match’s new ZYN, which delivers nicotine in a pouch tucked inside the lip without the cancer causing chemicals in tobacco or inhalation. It has saved millions of Swedes lives over the last 40 years, Abrams added.
Abrams agrees with the report’s recommendation for more research to develop and better understand safe and effective stop-smoking methods that work for youth and adults, including those who vape nicotine.
“Much more resources, priority science and urgency is needed to find out how with whom and under what conditions we can use vapes to help any smokers at any age to switch if they are unable to or don’t want to stop using nicotine but don’t want to die,” said Abrams.
Dr. Harold Wimmer, president of the American Lung Association, applauded the report, adding laws and policies are needed “to prevent tobacco use and to ensure everyone has access to guidelines-based quit smoking treatments.”
‘Something has changed’: People have been vaping for years but now they’re dying. Could it be the devices?
Policies should include insurance coverage of quit-smoking treatments and sufficient funding for state prevention programs and hotlines to help people quit tobacco, he said.
“Today’s report underscores why it is so important to quit tobacco altogether and not switch to other tobacco products,” said Wimmer.
Cigarette smoking is at an all-time low, down to 14% of Americans, or about 34 million adults. Still it remains the leading cause of preventable disease, disability and death in the U.S.
Swedish and Japanese researchers have, after ten years, found an explanation to the peculiar emission lines seen in one of the brightest supernovae ever observed—SN 2006gy. At the same time they found an explanation for how the supernova arose.
Superluminous supernovae are the most luminous explosions in the cosmos. SN 2006gy is one of the most studied such events, but researchers have been uncertain about its origin. Astrophysicists at Stockholm University have, together with Japanese colleagues, now discovered large amounts of iron in the supernova through spectral lines that have never previously been seen either in supernovae or in other astrophysical objects. That has led to a new explanation for how the supernova arose.
“No-one had tested to compare spectra from neutral iron, i.e. iron in which all electrons are retained, with the unidentified emission lines in SN 2006gy, because iron is normally ionized (one or more electrons removed). We tried it and saw with excitement how line after line lined up just as in the observed spectrum,” says Anders Jerkstrand, Department of Astronomy, Stockholm University.
“It became even more exciting when it quickly turned out that very large amounts of iron were needed to make the lines—at least a third of the Sun’s mass—which directly ruled out some old scenarios and instead revealed a new one.”
The progenitor to SN 2006gy was, according to the new model, a double star consisting of a white dwarf of the same size as the Earth and a hydrogen-rich massive star as large as our solar system in close orbit. As the hydrogen rich star expanded its envelope, which happens when new fuel is ignited in the late stages of evolution, the white dwarf was caught in the envelope and spiralled in towards the centre of the companion. When it reached the centre the unstable white dwarf exploded and a so-called Type Ia supernova was born. This supernova then collided with the ejected envelope, which is flung out during the inspiral, and this gigantic collision gave rise to the light of SN 2006gy.
“That a Type Ia supernova appears to be behind SN 2006gy turns upside down what most researchers have believed,” says Anders Jerkstrand.
“That a white dwarf can be in close orbit with a massive hydrogen-rich star, and quickly explode upon falling to the centre, gives important new information for the theory of double star evolution and the conditions necessary for a white dwarf to explode.”
Intel shares climbed more than 5% in after-hours trading Thursday to the highest point in more than two decades after the chipmaker reported strong quarterly sales results and said it expects continued growth in 2020 and beyond.
At the same time, the company acknowledged it plans global reductions in its workforce. Intel said the cuts affect a relatively small portion of its workforce — fewer than 1%.
Intel employs nearly 111,000 workers globally — including roughly 20,000 in Oregon, the company’s largest site. So pending cuts could impact hundreds.
“Our ambitions have just never been greater,” CEO Bob Swan told investment analysts Thursday. “We realize it’s an increasingly competitive world and we feel like we’re well positioned to deal with it.”
The Oregonian/OregonLive and tech news sites reported over the past week that Intel plans broad – but not deep – layoffs across its business groups. Intel disclosed Thursday that its workforce had already been shrinking, declining by about 1,100 jobs in the last three months of 2019.
Intel didn’t explain the reason for those past reductions but said the additional cuts announced Thursday reflect the company’s changing business needs.
“Wherever possible, we’ve transitioned employees or teams within the company to areas of business need, and we expect this to impact less than 1% of our global workforce,” the chipmaker said in a written statement.
“We are committed to treating all impacted employees with professionalism and respect, and we continue to hire for critical skills, with more than 1300 positions open in our key locations in the US and globally,” Intel said.
The company gave no indication of what kinds of jobs it plans to cut and where it expects to grow.
Intel’s sales grew 8.3% in the last three months of 2019 and 1.6% for the entire year. The company had initially forecast a down year in 2019 but its outlook improved steadily as the year went on.
Sales totaled $72.0 billion for all of 2019, up 1.6%. Intel said it expects revenue of $73.5 billion in 2020 and issued a long-term forecast, indicating it expects annual sales around $85 billion by 2023.
Annual earnings were $21.0 billion last year, flat compared to 2018.
Fourth-quarter sales totaled $20.2 billion — including a nearly 18% jump in revenue in Intel’s highly profitable data center group.
“Intel had a great Q4 in spite of increased competition and supply challenges,” industry analyst Patrick Moorhead said in an email Thursday. He said Intel’s near term goal should be a smooth rollout of its next-generation 10-nanometer microprocessor, which has been delayed for years but began hitting the market late last year.
That long delay enabled Intel’s rivals to catch up, and perhaps surpass, Intel’s leading-edge technology. Swan said Thursday the Intel expects to return to a two-year cadence for introducing new chips and expects its forthcoming 7nm processors by the end of 2021.
Intel struggled throughout 2019 to deliver as many the chips as customers wanted, costing the company revenue and putting a ceiling on its clients’ own sales. Intel apologized for the shortages last year.
On Thursday, Swan told investment analysts that constraints remain, but he said the company intends to increase its production capacity by 25% this year and expects the shortages will end during 2020.
Earlier this week, industry research site Gartner said Intel has reclaimed its position as the world’s largest chipmaker. It’s a position Intel held for years but surrendered in 2017 amid slower sales growth and a sharp rise in demand for memory chips, a Samsung specialty.
That situation has reversed. Memory chip sales fell by an enormous 31.5% last year, according to Gartner. That stung Intel, which now has its own memory business, but the effect was much more significant at Samsung, which depends on memory chips for more than 80% of its revenue.
Intel’s shares climbed $3.38 to $66.70 Thursday afternoon in after-hours trading after Intel’s quarterly announcement. That is its highest point since the dot-com era.
