Unable Investment
Club
August, 2025 Meeting Minutes
August 30, 2025
The monthly meeting of
Unable Investment Club was held Dust Bowl Brewing in Elk Grove on Thursday, August
8, 2025. The meeting commenced at 2:57
pm with KS presiding for FN. JL, PR, CX, HT and DK were also in attendance.
Unable Investment Club has 1 opening.
The Valuation and Member
Status reports were reviewed and the checks were collected.
Late: None.
Old Business:
None.
New Business:
None.
Stock News:
AMT No news.
AAPL Apple is back in the headlines because Berkshire
Hathaway pared its stake again in the June quarter -- extending a selling spree
that started in the fourth quarter of 2023 but had paused for several quarters.
The Warren Buffett-led Berkshire's latest 13F filing shows holdings of roughly
280 million Apple shares as of the end of Q2. The share count still leaves the
position as Berkshire's largest equity holding. Put differently, Berkshire
remains heavily tied to Apple even after recent sales. That context matters. Getting
right to the point, investors shouldn't ever reflexively buy or sell simply
because Berkshire is trimming. Still, some context is helpful for those who are
concerned because of Berkshire's recent move. It's important to note that
Berkshire's position in Apple has grown massively since the company started
buying shares of the tech giant in 2016. This left Berkshire's portfolio
unusually concentrated. Reducing the position recently, therefore, has helped
manage risk at the parent company level. But even after recent sales, the
position is still substantial, valued at about $64 billion as of this writing.
If anything, therefore, Berkshire's massive position is a testament for Apple
as an investment, not against it. The conglomerate is still making an enormous
bet on Apple -- just with a bit more balance. Still, there's just no way to
know the exact reasons for Berkshire's most recent sales of Apple stock. All we
can do is speculate. Left in the dark about what Buffett plans to do with his
remaining Apple stock, the best we can do is focus on fundamentals to inform
our own investment decisions. On this front, the tech company is doing great --
and it has some important catalysts that could help both top- and bottom-line
growth accelerate over the next year or two. Apple's fiscal third-quarter
results (a period that roughly lines up with the second calendar quarter) were
strong. Revenue rose 10% and earnings per share grew 12%, with its services
business hitting an all-time high. Importantly, Apple's services gross margin
is around the mid-70s, driving a greater share of the company's profitability
over time. The important segment generated $20.7 billion of gross profit versus
$23.0 billion for products (about 47% of total gross profit) despite services
representing only 29% of revenue. This is an important dynamic to understand
because Apple's service segment is not only higher margin and more recurring
than its product segment, but it is growing faster than its products business. Services
revenue rose at a rate of more than 13% year over year in fiscal Q3, while
products revenue rose 8%. Key catalysts from Apple's services segment include
higher sales from advertising, the App Store, and cloud services. These are
software- and platform-centric lines tied to Apple's ever-growing installed
base of active devices, not to the upgrade cadence of a single hardware
product. That makes cash flows sturdier through cycles. Apple stock's valuation
isn't cheap, but it's not wild for a tech company with a powerful brand and
loyal customers that is increasingly tilting toward lucrative and recurring
services. As of this writing, Apple's price-to-earnings ratio sits just below 35.
If services' contribution to profit keeps rising, and if revenue reaccelerates
as services become a larger part of the business, a valuation like this makes
sense. In addition, there are other potential catalysts that could help lift
future growth rates, including possible launch iPhones with entirely new form
factors that could drive a big upgrade cycle, or significant new artificial
intelligence integrations into its software. Of course, there are meaningful
risks to owning the stock at this valuation. If top-line growth rates
unexpectedly drop back down to mid-single digit levels or lower, the stock
could get punished. But given Apple's long history of execution and the growing
size of the company's services business, this might be a risk worth taking. While
we don't know why Berkshire sold Apple shares last quarter, we do know that
Apple remains Berkshire's largest holding, and that the tech company's own
results show a business leaning into more profitable, recurring revenue. You
should not outsource your decision-making to anyone -- even Berkshire. Do the
work: weigh Apple's Services momentum, its capital return discipline, and
today's valuation. On balance, I personally believe Apple still looks like a
high-quality compounder whose growing services engine can support a premium
valuation multiple over time.
AMAT Applied Materials, one of the world's biggest makers of
manufacturing equipment for producing semiconductors, crashed 14% August 15th
despite reporting strong earnings. Analysts forecast Applied would earn $2.36
per share on sales of $7.2 billion in its fiscal Q3. Applied actually earned
$2.48 per share, and sales were also stronger than expected at $7.3 billion. Not
all the news was good. Q3 sales grew 8% year over year, and operating profit
margin improved by almost 2 full percentage points. However, net income inched
up only 4%, although earnings per share matched sales growth at 8%. Earnings
per share as calculated according to generally accepted accounting principles
(GAAP), moreover, lagged adjusted earnings significantly, coming in at not
$2.48 but just $2.22 per share. Applied Materials' worst news, however,
concerned not Q3 profit, but Q4 guidance. Applied warned that it will earn only
about $2.11 per share, adjusted, in Q4. Furthermore, sales will decline
sequentially, falling by about 8% to perhaps $6.7 billion. Applied blamed
"a dynamic macroeconomic and policy environment, which is creating
increased uncertainty and lower visibility in the near term," for lowering
guidance in Q4. Of particular concern, management says "digestion of
capacity" in China (which stocked up on semiconductor manufacturing
equipment to hunker down for President Trump's tariffs) will weigh on Q4 sales.
Additionally, purchasing activity by other "leading-edge customers"
is looking lumpy, further disrupting sales growth rates. At 23 times trailing
earnings, Applied Materials stock may not look awfully expensive. If sales are
starting to shrink, however, looks may be deceiving -- and it may be time to
start thinking about selling.
BWXT No news.
CNI Investing in railways can be a good way to invest in
a country’s long-term growth. While there are high costs and maintenance and
disruptions which can impact its operations in the short term, a railway
operator should generally experience solid growth over longer periods, as the
economy grows. And thus, investing in one, even amid economic uncertainty, may
be a move that can pay off significantly in the future. Canadian National
Railway Company is an excellent example of that. Uncertainty around tariffs
have weighed on the stock, whose shares are down 17% in the past year. It’s not
only trading near its 52-week low, but the stock also hasn’t been this cheap in
multiple years, as it hovers around its five-year lows. It’s currently trading
at a fairly reasonable 18 times its trailing earnings, and it can make for a
good value buy. The company released its latest earnings numbers on July 22 and
they weren’t too bad with revenue down by just 1%, totaling $4.3 billion in the
most recent quarter. And its adjusted operating income was flat. The business
has been focusing on keeping its costs down to navigate what it calls a
“challenging external environment.” While the short term may indeed be
challenging, investing in Canadian National Railway at a time when the market
is bearish on the stock could set you up for some great returns down the road.
And a great incentive to simply hang on and wait is that the stock offers a
solid dividend that yields 2.7%. It may take some time for this railway stock
to recover, but now may be a great time to invest in it.
COST Costco Wholesale has been a staple in American retail,
known for its commitment to value, notably through its $1.50 hot dog and soda
combo. Despite this offer resulting in nearly $300 million in annual losses,
Costco continues this tradition, leveraging it as a strategic tool to boost
customer traffic, encourage membership renewals, and cement its standing in
retail history. Wall Street shows a positive outlook for Costco Wholesale Corp
(COST, Financial) as 29 analysts set a one-year average price target of
$1,068.45. The high estimate reaches $1,225.00, while the low point is $626.12.
This average forecast suggests a promising upside of 11.47% from the current
price of $958.54. For more comprehensive estimates, visit the Costco Wholesale
Corp Forecast page. Further bolstering investor confidence, 37 brokerage firms
provide an average recommendation rating of 2.1 for Costco, indicating an
"Outperform" status. This scale ranges from 1, representing a Strong
Buy, to 5, indicating a Sell.
EME No news.
GOOGL Alphabet has flipped the AI disruption story on its head.
Instead of AI eating into its search business, it's actually driving more
usage. Over 2 billion people now use Google's AI Overviews each month, and
global query volume has been climbing. Last quarter, search revenue rose 12% to
$54.2 billion, with the company still rolling out new features like AI Mode
that blend chatbot and search functions into one interface. Its cloud computing
segment, meanwhile, is firing on all cylinders. Google Cloud revenue climbed
32% year over year to $13.6 billion last quarter, with operating profit more
than doubling as customers turn to its Gemini foundational models and AI tools
to help create and deploy their own AI models. Demand is running so hot that
the company said capacity could outstrip demand well into next year. That's why
Alphabet recently upped its capex budget by $10 billion to $85 billion this
year to add more new data center capacity. What's overlooked is that Alphabet
isn't just a one- or two-trick pony. The company was the first to develop a
custom AI chip with the help of Broadcom, which gives it a cost and performance
advantage. Meanwhile, its Waymo robotaxis are quickly expanding to more cities,
putting distance between it and rivals like Tesla. The company also has a
quantum computing program that continues to make solid progress. With search,
cloud, and multiple bets on emerging technologies, Alphabet has more ways to
win than almost any other large-cap tech stock. And with its shares trading at
a forward price-to-earnings (P/E) multiple of 19.5 times expected 2026
earnings, investors are getting all of that at a valuation that still looks far
too cheap.
LIN No news.
MSFT Stanley Druckenmiller bought a new position in
Microsoft for his Duquesne Family Office in the second quarter. Druckenmiller
has led a successful career, previously managing billions in assets for clients
before closing his hedge fund in 2010. Other billionaire fund managers, such as
Daniel Loeb of Third Point and Chase Coleman of Tiger Global, were also adding
to their firms' stakes in the stock last quarter. There's a lot to like about
Microsoft. It has a long history of generating steady growth in revenue and
profits. Over the past year, it generated $102 billion in net profit on $282
billion in revenue. While there's talk on Wall Street of a potential AI bubble,
Microsoft continues to report strong financial results and point to
opportunities that bolster the investment case. The reason to like Microsoft
right now is that it is seeing strong demand for its Azure cloud service for
enterprise. Revenue from Azure and other cloud services grew 39% year over year
in the June-ending quarter. This is higher than the previous quarter's 33%
growth. "We will continue to invest against the expansive opportunity
ahead across both capital expenditures and operating expenses, given our
leadership position in commercial cloud, strong demand signals for our cloud
and AI offerings, and significant contracted backlog," CFO Amy Hood said
during the earnings call. What this means is that investors are likely still
underestimating the demand for AI cloud infrastructure. AI is completely
transforming how businesses operate, and we can see this in Microsoft's growing
investment in data centers and technology. Its capital expenditures have more
than doubled over the past two years to $64 billion, and Hood's statement
suggests these investments will keep growing. Importantly, Microsoft's strong
cloud growth shows that it is competing effectively with Amazon, which has led
the cloud market for many years. It's also competing against Alphabet's Google
Cloud, which has made great strides over the past year with Gemini -- one of
the best AI models out there. The dilemma for investors buying Microsoft stock
is its valuation. Its forward price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio of 32 is nearly
three times Microsoft's expected earnings growth of 12% over the long term. A
good rule of thumb is to look for growth stocks trading at a PEG ratio closer
to 1. But Druckenmiller may see Wall Street's consensus earnings estimate as
too conservative, as it reported a 24% year-over-year increase in earnings last
quarter, and management's commentary still points to a lot more growth ahead.
NU Most investors still haven't heard about Nu
Holdings. That's because the company operates in just three countries: Brazil,
Colombia, and Mexico. Despite limited awareness of it in the U.S., however, Nu
dominates its local markets. More than half of all Brazilian adults are Nu
customers, using its debit cards and banking services regularly. But there's
actually another factor that should make Nu a must-know name for investors
everywhere: Its exposure to cryptocurrencies. Nu is already a banking giant in
Latin America. But over time, it could become a crypto giant. That's because
the company is a digital-first bank. It operates no physical branches, allowing
customers to access its services purely through a smartphone. That may not seem
innovative today, but in 2013, when Nu first launched, it was a groundbreaking
concept in Latin American markets. A digital-first approach allowed Nu to shed
costs, lower prices, and iterate new products rapidly. At the push of a button,
the company could activate a new service for tens of millions of customers at
once. Nu's crypto service, for example, was launched in 2022, and generated 1
million users in its first month! Since the launch of Nu's crypto service, we
haven't received many updates with concrete subscriber numbers. But what we do
know is that Nu has gradually added more and more options to its platform.
Earlier this year, for instance, Nu added support for 11 new cryptocurrencies.
Today, its customers can seamlessly exchange fiat currencies for cryptocurrencies
at any time. This allows customers to easily pay with crypto at a restaurant or
store -- an ability that crypto optimists have long dreamed of achieving. Despite
falling sales growth rates, Nu remains a bona fide growth stock. This year,
sales are expected to grow by 35%. Next year, sales should grow by another 27%.
If crypto usage takes off, we could see Nu maintain these high growth rates for
years to come.
NVDA Nvidia is the leading supplier of advanced computing
hardware that is powering the artificial intelligence (AI) revolution. The
stock has skyrocketed over 1,300% over the past five years and currently has a
market cap of $4.4 trillion. However, there are good reasons it could be worth
even more in 10 years. The company was founded in 1993, but it's still growing
rapidly. Its trailing-12-month revenue has surged 54% to $148 billion, driven
by demand for its accelerated computing platform built for advanced AI
workloads. It's easy to be blown away by its incredible revenue growth while
missing just how profitable this company is. When you control a high percentage
of the AI chip market, you can price your products to earn high margins. Nvidia
generated $77 billion in profit over the last four quarters, and analysts
expect its earnings to grow at an annualized rate of 34% over the next several
years. The insatiable demand for more AI infrastructure should continue to
drive tremendous growth for Nvidia. Businesses are pouring billions into data
centers and AI training because this technology can save them millions, if not
billions, in costs over the long term. AI is the engine for faster research,
product prototyping, and superintelligent personalized assistants. Nvidia is
the company powering it all. Just as the internet led to new markets like
digital advertising, e-commerce, smartphones, and cloud computing, AI will lead
to new industries that could be worth trillions. Nvidia is already positioning
itself to benefit from the demand for autonomous products in the coming years.
The company just revealed its new Jetson Thor computer that brings 7.5 times
more compute for training humanoid robots. Nvidia is truly building the future,
and buying the stock could serve as the first step toward a happy retirement.
SPGI S&P Global and Maestro have forged a strategic
partnership aimed at enhancing portfolio monitoring capabilities for private
equity firms and their portfolio companies. This collaboration features a
native integration of Maestro's Value Creation Management platform with S&P
Global's iLEVEL portfolio monitoring system. This integration enables automated
data entry and streamlines the measurement of value creation initiatives,
ultimately providing private equity firms with enhanced visibility into
asset-level performance. The synergy between iLEVEL's financial data
infrastructure and Maestro's data and workflows allows firms to effectively
measure the impact of their value creation initiatives. This capability helps
identify the highest-yielding value levers and improves transparency between
sponsors and portfolio management teams. Consequently, private equity firms can
directly attribute revenue growth, cost optimization, and margin expansion to
specific value creation activities, which accelerates decision-making processes.
According to Chris Sparenberg, Head of iLEVEL at S&P Global Market
Intelligence, this partnership brings integrated solutions to the market,
increasing visibility into how value creation initiatives impact portfolio
company performance. This ultimately drives better decision-making and trusted
insights from portfolio companies to general partners (GPs) and limited
partners (LPs). Maestro's CEO, Prasanth Ramanand, highlighted the significance
of this partnership in addressing the need for end-to-end solutions that
integrate portfolio monitoring with value creation operations. Maestro clients
have demonstrated an almost four times fundraising advantage over the past two
years, with 75% raising capital compared to the 20% industry average. The
integration is already available for mutual customers and is gaining traction
among leading firms, such as Bregal Sagemount. Ben Willis, Operating Principal
at Bregal Sagemount, noted that the integration has greatly improved visibility
into operational performance across their portfolio, enabling smarter and
faster work with reduced data manipulation time. S&P Global Ventures, part
of S&P Global, is instrumental in assisting companies like Maestro with
innovative solutions to drive measurable impact and growth within the industry.
TSM Nvidia's CEO, Jensen Huang, has transformed his
company into the world's largest by identifying trends earlier than anyone
else. This is how Nvidia captured a significant portion of the AI computing
market, delivering substantial gains to its shareholders. So, when Jensen Huang
calls a company's stock a "very smart buy," investors should listen
up. What company was Huang talking about when he mentioned this? It's none
other than a key Nvidia supplier, Taiwan Semiconductor. During a visit to TSMC,
Jensen Huang stated: Well, first of all, I think TSMC is one of the greatest
companies in the history of humanity, and anybody who wants to buy TSMC stock
is a very smart person. That's huge praise from the man who leads and founded
the world's largest company. But is he right? Taiwan Semiconductor, widely
known as TSMC, is in a strong and unique position in the chip world. It's a
semiconductor foundry that produces chips for companies like Nvidia that lack
the in-house capabilities to do it themselves. This fosters a strong working
relationship, as they each depend on one another. Nvidia isn't the only company
that uses TSMC; others, such as AMD and Apple, do also. This raises a key point
about TSMC: It often produces chips for companies that are competing against
each other. AMD and Nvidia are vying for supremacy in AI computing power, and
Apple's iPhones are competing against Google's Pixel phones, which have just
started using TSMC-made chips. With TSMC remaining neutral and acting only as a
supplier to companies battling it out, it's in a position to capitalize on
several key trends without needing to develop the winning product. As long as
TSMC can stay on top with the technology it offers, it will maintain its market
leadership position. By the end of the year, TSMC's next chip node, the 2nm
(nanometer) chip, will be in production. This chip offers substantially better
power consumption (25% to 30% improvement) compared to the 3nm variety when
configured at the same speed. While concern grows about the power consumption
of AI data centers, this innovation is expected to be a massive hit among tech
companies. Additionally, TSMC has 1.6nm and 1.4nm designs in the pipeline,
which are expected to offer similar power consumption improvements. Clearly,
TSMC is one of the world's most innovative companies, and the successes of many
tech giants can be traced back to it. But is it a smart buy now? Taiwan
Semiconductor has put up jaw-dropping growth in recent quarters, with Q2's
revenue rising 44% year over year in U.S. dollars. That makes it one of the
fastest-growing big tech stocks, trailing only Nvidia. Despite that, the market
hasn't placed a premium valuation on TSMC's stock, as it only trades for 24
times forward earnings. Considering that the S&P 500 (^GSPC -0.64%) trades
for 23.7 times forward earnings, this indicates TSMC is valued about the same
as an average S&P 500 stock. With its key position in the AI arms race, as
well as its growth, I think this is a huge bargain. Therefore, Jensen Huang's
statement about how smart people are buying TSMC stock is absolutely correct.
TTD The Trade Desk is one of the most closely watched
companies in the advertising technology space. Its platform helps brands and
agencies buy digital ads across various channels, including connected TV (CTV),
audio, display, and mobile. The company has built a reputation as a disruptor,
benefiting from the secular shift away from traditional linear TV and the move
toward more automated, data-driven ad buying. However, even great companies
face risks, and investors should carefully weigh these before investing. In The
Trade Desk's case, two stand out: ongoing operational challenges that could
slow growth, and a valuation that leaves little room for error. On the surface,
The Trade Desk looks unstoppable. It continues to win share as advertisers
reallocate budgets from traditional channels toward digital and CTV. However,
beneath that momentum, the company is facing a few operational hurdles. The
biggest one involves its UID2 identity solution. With third-party cookies being
phased out by Google in 2025, The Trade Desk has promoted UID2 as an industry
standard to enable targeted advertising while preserving user privacy. Adoption
has been broad and partners such as Walt Disney, Fox, Roku, and many publishers
have integrated UID2. Still, it's far from guaranteed that UID2 will emerge as
the universal replacement. Google has its own Privacy Sandbox framework, and
other walled gardens, such as Apple, are unlikely to adopt UID2. This means The
Trade Desk's future growth in open-internet advertising depends heavily on how
well UID2 gains traction versus rival identity solutions. If adoption slows or
if regulators impose stricter privacy rules, the company's targeting
capabilities -- and therefore its value proposition to advertisers -- could
weaken. Another challenge is the competitive intensity in connected TV. While
CTV is The Trade Desk's fastest-growing segment, competition is intensifying as
streamers like Netflix, Amazon, and Disney ramp up their advertising
businesses. These platforms are building in-house tech and are under pressure
to maximize revenue per user, which could limit the scale of inventory they
make available through third-party demand-side platforms like The Trade Desk.
In other words, if major streamers decide to keep more ad buying within their
ecosystems, The Trade Desk's CTV runway could narrow. Internally, the company
is undergoing one of the most significant adjustments with significant changes
in the senior management team. For example, in the second quarter of 2025 alone,
it saw the hiring of a new CFO and a new board member with expertise in data,
AI, and advertising. Managing this transition while scaling the business is not
an easy task. Together, these operational challenges may derail The Trade Desk
from its historically high growth trajectory. The second red flag that
investors need to consider is valuation. Even after a sharp pullback in recent
months, The Trade Desk trades at approximately 63 times earnings and nearly 10
times sales. That's an expensive price tag for a company operating in a
cyclical industry where growth depends on macro ad spending trends. To be fair,
The Trade Desk has earned its premium multiple. It has consistently grown its revenue,
maintained profitability, and adjusted its strategies as the industry has
developed -- introducing platforms such as Kokai AI, UID2, and others. Additionally,
it operates in an industry with a global total addressable market (TAM) of
nearly $1 trillion. Within this industry, connected TV (CTV) is one of the
fastest-growing segments -- an area where the company has invested heavily over
the years to capitalize on the tailwind. But here's the thing. Even if The
Trade Desk continues to march ahead, sustaining its current valuation requires
near-flawless execution. Any stumble -- whether slower UID2 adoption, increased
competition in CTV, or a cyclical ad slowdown -- could trigger a sharp
contraction in multiple. That's the risk of buying in at a premium: The
business can do well, but the stock may not if expectations are too high. The
Trade Desk has undeniable strengths: It's founder-led and well-positioned for
the secular shift toward programmatic advertising. However, it's essential to
balance the bullish case with the risks. Operational challenges around identity
and CTV competition could complicate execution. And with the stock still
trading at a steep valuation, investors aren't getting much of a discount for
taking on that uncertainty. If you're considering buying The Trade Desk stock
today, the prudent move may be to wait for a better entry point or clearer
signs of UID2's industry dominance before committing your hard-earned capital.
V The Motley Fool just updated its report on the
largest financial companies in the world. The list is filled with banks, but
there are a couple of other names in the mix, including diversified
conglomerate Berkshire Hathaway, which is the No. 1 name on the list. But your
best investment opportunity might actually be No. 3, Visa. Here's why. Visa is
what's known as a payment processor. You probably think of it as a credit card
company. But it really provides the technology that allows credit and debit
cards to be safely used for payments. It connects buyers and sellers on behalf
of card issuers, which are often the banks that fill up The Motley Fool's top
financial stocks list. The interesting thing about Visa is that no single
transaction it facilitates is really all that important. That's because it only
charges a small fee for the use of its payment network. It's the volume of
transactions that flow through its network that's important. In the fiscal
third quarter of 2025, payment volume increased 10% year over year, with Visa
handling 65.4 billion transactions. On a dollar basis, volume rose 8%. These
are gigantic numbers and highlight just how deeply entrenched Visa is in the
financial markets. But it is also deeply entrenched on Main Street. You
probably have a credit card or debit card (or both) with a Visa logo on it.
Most stores you shop at likely trust Visa to act as an intermediary for them.
Don't forget online shopping, where most e-commerce sites allow Visa cards to
be used as a safe payment option. The world is increasingly moving away from
paper money and toward card and digital payments. To be fair, Visa isn't the
only company benefiting from this trend. But it is one of a very small number
of companies that have an effective oligopoly in the space. That's kind of like
a monopoly, but the industry dominance is shared across a small number of
companies. As you might expect, Visa is performing well as a business. In the
fiscal third quarter of 2025, revenues rose 14%, and adjusted earnings jumped
23%. Investors are aware of how well Visa is doing today, and the stock isn't
cheap. But the real attraction here is that Visa's shares don't look
outlandishly expensive, either. Some numbers will help here. The price-to-sales
(P/S) ratio is currently around 16.8x, versus a five-year average of 17.7x. The
price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio is 33.5x, compared to a longer-term average of
34.1x. The P/S ratio and the P/E ratio are not low by any stretch of the
imagination, suggesting that value-focused investors might want to watch from
the sidelines. But if you are a growth-minded investor, this strongly growing
business looks fairly reasonably priced, historically speaking. That puts it
into the growth at a reasonable price, or GARP, camp, which is probably a good
place to be as the S&P 500 flirts with all-time highs. Visa is doing well
as a business. Wall Street knows that and has placed a high price tag on the
shares. But that price tag isn't ridiculous when you look back at the company's
recent valuation history. Given the ongoing success of the business and the likely
future of more digital and card payments, long-term investors looking for an
investment opportunity among the largest financial companies should probably
make Visa their starting point.
VLTO No news.
WM Waste Management is a growth stock? A trash
collection and recycling specialist? Yup, it is. Consider this: Over the past
15 years, it has averaged annual gains of 14.4% -- and over the past five years
and 10 years, it has averaged more than 17%. Waste Management should be
appealing if you're at all worried about an economic slowdown or recession, as
its business is fairly recession-resistant. People might put off going on
vacation or buying a new refrigerator when they're financially stressed, but
garbage collection will go on. With a recent forward P/E of 30, a bit above the
five-year average of 27, Waste Management's stock seems only slightly
overvalued. It's not easy to catch the shares when they're undervalued, so if
you're a long-term believer, you might want to consider buying a few shares. Another
plus for the company is its dividend yield, recently 1.4%. That may not seem
like a lot, but it's been growing briskly. The total annual payout was recently
$3.15, up from $2.18 in 2020 and $1.54 in 2015. Waste Management offers both
growth and income.
Stock Picks:
LB
(via email): Rocket Labs (RKLB). Engages
in the development of rocket launch and control systems for the space and
defense industries. It operates through the Launch Services and Space Systems
segments. The Launch Services segment provides launch services to customers on
a dedicated mission or ride share basis. The Space Systems segment consists of
spacecraft engineering and design services, spacecraft components, spacecraft
manufacturing, and on-orbit mission operations.
JL:
Buy additional AMD or save this month’s cash for future investing opportunities.
CX:
Buy Tesla (TSLA). Engages in the design, development, manufacture, and sale of
electric vehicles and energy generation and storage systems. It operates
through the Automotive and Energy Generation and Storage segments. The
Automotive segment includes the design, development, manufacture, sale, and
lease of electric vehicles as well as sales of automotive regulatory credits.
The Energy Generation and Storage segment is involved in the design,
manufacture, installation, sale, and lease of solar energy generation, energy
storage products, and related services and sales of solar energy systems
incentives.
HT:
Agreed with CX, buy Tesla.
PR:
Buy additional AMD and/or BWXT.
DK:
Buy additional BWXT.
KS:
Save this month’s cash or add to existing holdings.
Because
a consensus could not be reached, it was decided to save this month’s deposits
in the club’s cash account.
No trades this month.
Meeting adjourned at 3:28
PM.
Respectfully submitted by
Ken Bauman.
Next Meeting: Thursday,
September 4, 2025 at 2:30 p.m. at:
11210
Sun Center Dr, Suite B
Rancho
Cordova, CA 95670