Day: November 9, 2024

The company expects consistent growth of between 20% and 30% from its gaming customers, but it has also just started piloting the platform with e-commerce. It has said early results are tracking above expectations and that it thinks this vertical can scale next year and start being a strong contributor. Moving beyond gaming is a huge potential opportunity for the company.

With its stock up about 628% year to date, the company’s forward price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio has risen to 47 based on 2025 analyst estimates. Its price/earnings-to-growth (PEG) ratio now sits at 1.28. A PEG ratio of under 1 is considered undervalued and growth stocks will often command multiples well above 1.

I’ve written favorably about AppLovin several times this year, going as far back as April, while in June I listed it as one of two stocks that I thought could go parabolic. While the stock and its valuation have greatly increased since then, I think there could still be more upside ahead.

If AppLovin can continue to grow revenue at a 30% pace while keeping expenses in check, its valuation is reasonable. Meanwhile, if it is able to move beyond gaming with Axon 2, the sky remains the limit.

While I think it is prudent for investors with big gains to take some profits, I’d still be holding onto the stock even after this incredible run in its share price.

Ever feel like you missed the boat in buying the most successful stocks? Then you’ll want to hear this.

On rare occasions, our expert team of analysts issues a “Double Down” stock recommendation for companies that they think are about to pop. If you’re worried you’ve already missed your chance to invest, now is the best time to buy before it’s too late. And the numbers speak for themselves:

• Amazon: if you invested $1,000 when we doubled down in 2010, you’d have $23,446!*

• Apple: if you invested $1,000 when we doubled down in 2008, you’d have $42,982!*

• Netflix: if you invested $1,000 when we doubled down in 2004, you’d have $428,758!*

Right now, we’re issuing “Double Down” alerts for three incredible companies, and there may not be another chance like this anytime soon.

See 3 “Double Down” stocks »

*Stock Advisor returns as of November 4, 2024

Geoffrey Seiler has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends AppLovin, Nvidia, and Palantir Technologies. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

Move Over Nvidia and Palantir, This AI Juggernaut Is Up 628% Year to Date. Can the Stock’s Momentum Continue? was originally published by The Motley Fool

Still, Barrick has faced setbacks in its attempts to match production to cost targets. Its Nevada operations, co-owned with Newmont, need significant infrastructure repairs, and labor costs have increased.

“We’re still not as efficient in Nevada as we are in some of our African mines,” Bristow said. “But we’re getting there.”

Africa is also a chief concern among investors, notably in Mali, where the military government is threatening to withdraw the company’s right to operate a mine. In the Dominican Republic, an extension to Barrick’s Pueblo Viejo mine has taken longer than expected to complete.

Operating issues at the Nevada mines and Pueblo Viejo will “persist into 2025 and are expected to have an impact on production,” Bank of Nova Scotia analyst Tanya Jakusconek wrote in a Friday note.

The setbacks have ceded territory to rivals. Newmont solidified its position as the world’s top producer with its acquisition of Newcrest Mining Ltd. last year, significantly boosting its production of gold and copper. Agnico Eagle, once a small gold producer, surpassed Barrick’s market capitalization for the first time early this year. Barrick’s annual gold output, meanwhile, is at its lowest level since 2000.

Barrick has regularly missed Wall Street’s expectations for important measures such as revenue and gold production in its quarterly results — including last week’s financial disclosures.

“Barrick has a lot of challenges to overcome,” said Rick Rule, a US investment adviser and shareholder. “At the very least, it would be useful if the quarterly performance matched guidance.”

Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek

©2024 Bloomberg L.P.

Admittedly, the release of that data led to a spike in the stock price, which may appear to bolster the argument that I made the wrong decision.

However, despite the potential of AIP, Palantir is on track for a growth slowdown. In 2025, analysts predict its revenue will grow by only 21%, less than the 26% Palantir has forecast for 2024. Such increases are bullish for Palantir stock, but they were not enough for me to justify the company’s valuation.

Remembering my Booking Holdings lesson, I will keep Palantir on my watch list, and to be honest, I still hold a bullish view of the stock over the long term. Also, one cannot time the market, forcing me to acknowledge the sale could turn into a mistake.

Nonetheless, even the most successful stocks over the last 50 years, including Nvidia and Amazon, experienced retracements of more than 50% at points in their histories, a risk that could validate my decision to book my gains.

Investors should also remember that Palantir has already experienced a decline of just over 85% in its short history. While I do not think it will fall back to its price in late 2022, its valuation increases the possibility of a massive pullback in Palantir stock.

Ultimately, the Booking Holdings mistake is still on my mind, so if Palantir’s earnings and sales multiples become more reasonable, it is highly possible that I will repurchase my shares. But with more potential downside than upside in the near term, I’m happy to stay on the sidelines for now.

Ever feel like you missed the boat in buying the most successful stocks? Then you’ll want to hear this.

On rare occasions, our expert team of analysts issues a “Double Down” stock recommendation for companies that they think are about to pop. If you’re worried you’ve already missed your chance to invest, now is the best time to buy before it’s too late. And the numbers speak for themselves:

• Amazon: if you invested $1,000 when we doubled down in 2010, you’d have $23,446!*

• Apple: if you invested $1,000 when we doubled down in 2008, you’d have $42,982!*

• Netflix: if you invested $1,000 when we doubled down in 2004, you’d have $428,758!*

Right now, we’re issuing “Double Down” alerts for three incredible companies, and there may not be another chance like this anytime soon.

See 3 “Double Down” stocks »

*Stock Advisor returns as of November 4, 2024

John Mackey, former CEO of Whole Foods Market, an Amazon subsidiary, is a member of The Motley Fool’s board of directors. Will Healy has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Amazon, Booking Holdings, Nvidia, and Palantir Technologies. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

Why I Sold All of My Palantir Stock was originally published by The Motley Fool

The way Graham put it was, “it’s more a matter of the character than of the brain.” He wanted to empower people and to communicate to them that they shouldn’t be intimidated by the fact that so many of the public figures in investing have fancy degrees and initials after their names and often seem extraordinarily intelligent.

His point was that any person of regular, above-average intelligence should be able to do well as an investor if you follow the right principles. And that’s what the book is really about.

Has the book found a new generation of investors? It was a whole different world 75 years ago?

It has because there’s so much unintelligent investing that people crave the ideas that you need to have in order to be an intelligent investor. It’s never been easier to be an investor, but it’s never been harder to be an intelligent investor because there’s so much propaganda coming from Wall Street. There’s so much garbage on social media. There’s so much pressure on your smartphone to trade, trade, trade and to follow the crowd. And it’s easier than ever to make stupid mistakes. And if the book does its job, it’ll help people avoid those errors.

How much did Buffett work with you on this edition of the book?

When I did the previous revised edition of the book in 2003, he did give me some tips on a couple of places to look and things to think about. This time he was pretty much hands-off. I think he feels that the book speaks for itself at this point.

I left the original tech text completely intact. All I did was annotate it with footnotes because some of these references are a little dated — not everybody who doesn’t play Monopoly knows what the Reading Railroad was. But I also wrote for each of Graham’s 20 chapters an accompanying commentary. So there’s 20 chapter commentaries, and those are all new for 2024. And that’s my contribution.

How does this classic advice fit into today’s market realities?

Graham teaches us a handful of basic principles that are so important for success as an investor.

One is he teaches us that we should understand that a stock is a share of ownership in a business enterprise. It’s not a blip on your cell phone screen. It’s an organic thing. You own a piece of a company that is either making its customers thrilled to be part of the community, or turning them off. And it either will generate a growing stream of cash over time, or a shrinking stream of cash.

That’s what you need to focus on to call yourself an investor in stocks. You need to understand that you’re buying a piece of a business. You are not buying a spinning slot machine reel that masquerades as a stock price.

Graham writes about being an investor and a speculator. Can you elaborate?

A speculator is somebody who cares only about what the next person thinks this thing is worth. An investor is trying to understand what it’s worth as a business rather than chasing the price of the stock.

Just because millions of strangers are also trading something, that doesn’t mean you should. It doesn’t mean they know what they’re doing. It doesn’t mean that even if they do know what they’re doing, you should try it too.

And as a result, because we live in this networked, online, totally wired world, we have to be more on our guard against the bad influences of other people and technology than ever before. And that makes his principles even more powerful.

Let’s talk about the role technology plays for the individual investor today. Good or bad thing?

When it comes to investing, we get an institutional message from Wall Street that technology has leveled the playing field. The essence of that message is that you can beat the professionals at their own game. And this is the most dangerous possible message that individual investors should get.

You can beat the professionals, but not if you play their game. One of the most commonly understood statistics about the stock market is that 80% of professional fund managers underperform the market. So why would I even want to play that game?

Graham’s message is that the basic advantage of the intelligent investor is you don’t have to care what other people are doing. You don’t have to care how they invest, or if somebody else is beating the market.

You don’t have to care if somebody else is buying a stock at stupid prices. You don’t have to do it, too. If someone else is selling in a panic, you don’t have to sell in a panic. You can ignore what everybody else is doing.

And if you organize your financial life around the principle of independence, rather than following the crowd and Wall Street and the technology that it puts on our smartphones that is designed to distract us from that idea, that’s how investors can seize control. It’s not by trading more, but by trading less and investing more smartly.

Have a question about retirement? Personal finances? Anything career-related? Click here to drop Kerry Hannon a note.

Graham draws this great distinction between defensive and enterprising investors. Can you share?

The conventional way to put investors in buckets is to call them conservative, moderate, or aggressive based on the amount of risk you think you want to take — or some goofy quiz says that you are willing to take.

Graham says, forget all that. There are two kinds of investors — defensive and enterprising — and it has nothing to do with your tolerance for risk. A defensive investor is not necessarily somebody with a conservative portfolio. It’s somebody who simply doesn’t want to be bothered putting in the time and effort and energy it takes to be an active investor.

Your objective is to have a low-maintenance investing life. And Graham says, that’s fine. There’s nothing wrong with that. If you’re a defensive investor, you could very defensively buy three to five index funds or ETFs, and hold them for the rest of your life and not really do anything else. That’s the ultimate defensive investor.

An enterprising investor is somebody who enjoys spending part of the weekend analyzing data about stocks and funds and asset allocation and global markets. And if you are the kind of person who enjoys putting some of your spare time and a lot of your mental energy into analyzing investments, you’re enterprising.

Kerry Hannon is a Senior Columnist at Yahoo Finance. She is a career and retirement strategist, and the author of 14 books, including “In Control at 50+: How to Succeed in The New World of Work” and “Never Too Old To Get Rich.” Follow her on X @kerryhannon.

Click here for the latest personal finance news to help you with investing, paying off debt, buying a home, retirement, and more

Read the latest financial and business news from Yahoo Finance

Analysts only expect MicroStrategy’s revenue to have a CAGR of 1% from 2023 to 2026, as it stays unprofitable on a GAAP basis. But the value of its Bitcoin holdings could keep growing — and its generative AI business could experience a sudden growth spurt like Innodata if it locks in more customers.

Lumen, the telecom company formerly known as CenturyLink, suffered five consecutive years of revenue declines. It was also unprofitable over the past two years and suspended its dividend in 2022. That’s why its stock price dropped below $1 this June.

Unlike many of its telecom peers, Lumen didn’t expand into the wireless market to reduce its dependence on wireline connections. Instead, it doubled down on the slow-growth wireline market and bundled more cloud, security, and collaboration services with its business wireline plans.

It also expanded into the higher-growth fiber market. Lumen originally expected to generate slow but stable growth as economies of scale kicked in, but its declining business wireline revenue consistently offset its rising fiber revenue. As a result, its rising costs overwhelmed its declining revenue and its losses widened.

But over the past few months, Lumen struck a series of AI connectivity deals worth $5 billion — including one to upgrade the data center infrastructure of Microsoft‘s Azure cloud platform to handle more generative AI applications.

Those new deals lit a fire under Lumen’s stock and drove it back to about $9. But even after that rally, its enterprise value of $25.5 billion is less than 2 times higher than its projected sales for 2024. Analysts expect its revenue to decline again in 2024 and 2025, but its new AI contracts could help it clear those low expectations. If that happens, Lumen’s stock could go parabolic as it attracts more value-seeking investors.

Before you buy stock in Innodata, consider this:

The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy now… and Innodata wasn’t one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years.

Consider when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005… if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $904,692!*

Stock Advisor provides investors with an easy-to-follow blueprint for success, including guidance on building a portfolio, regular updates from analysts, and two new stock picks each month. The Stock Advisor service has more than quadrupled the return of S&P 500 since 2002*.

See the 10 stocks »

*Stock Advisor returns as of November 4, 2024

Leo Sun has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Bitcoin, Microsoft, and Nvidia. The Motley Fool recommends the following options: long January 2026 $395 calls on Microsoft and short January 2026 $405 calls on Microsoft. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

3 Artificial Intelligence (AI) Stocks That Could Go Parabolic was originally published by The Motley Fool