FINSUM

FINSUM

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(Seattle)

Tony Mitchell is a well-known fund manager in the tech space. His tech mutual fund has outperformed the market for years. However, it has done so with a very interesting quirk—it has never held Amazon, until now that is. The reason why is that its P/E ratio always seemed to high at between 190 and 400. However, recently, Amazon’s P/E ratio has fallen back to earth. Its current ~80x is not cheap by any measure, except against its own history. The company’s web services division is growing strongly, its advertising business is surging, and it has a good foothold in the gaming industry. This means it could be a good time to pick up Amazon’s stock.


FINSUM: If you believe Amazon is going to continue its growth story, then right now does seem like an ideal time to pick up shares.

(New York)

Being journalists ourselves, we are always on the lookout for the best content for our readers, including who to read for stock calls. That led us to a site, called TipRanks, which ranks all the equity research analysts on Wall Street. One of the major components of their rankings is their average market return per recommendation. The top ten analysts from returns are: Richard Davis, Cannacord Genuity (42.7% return per recommendation); Ross MacMillan, RBC Capital; Joseph Foresi, Cantor Fitzgerald; Matthew Hedberg, RBC Capital; Glenn Greene, Oppenheimer; Brian Schwartz, Oppenheimer; John Difucci, Jefferies; Brent Bracelin, KeyBanc; Gerard Cassidy, RBC Capital; and Brian Peterson, Raymond James.


FINSUM: This list, and TipRanks in general, is a great way to separate value from noise in all those equity research comments.

Tuesday, 19 February 2019 12:27

Why Moving to Florida is Harder than It Seems

(Miami)

It seems like wealthy people everywhere are talking about picking up and moving to Florida to get away from the lack of SALT deductions in so many states. However, UBS financial advisors say it isn’t as easy as it is made to sound. Firstly, there are significant residency rules—it is not as if you can just buy a place in Florida and make it your tax home without really leaving your high tax state. And secondly, even for those who do actually want to move, the issue is that the wealthy suburban home market is very soft at the moment, and these residents are having a hard time selling their primary home, which means they are stuck.


FINSUM: Moving is not nearly as simple as the idea of “retiring in Florida” sounds. We do think this will cause a migration, but it will not be a flood.

Tuesday, 19 February 2019 12:27

Bernie Sanders Announces Candidacy

(Washington)

The pool of Democrats keeps moving left. In what comes as a no surprise (but was not a sure thing), Bernie Sanders has just announced his candidacy for the 2020 election. His platform is going to be built around three pillars: free education, Medicare for all, and a $15 minimum wage. Sanders narrowly missed the Democratic nomination in 2016 and has a particularly strong following among the young.


FINSUM: Politics could not be more polarizing right now, so in many ways it makes sense that the Democratic candidates are quite far left. The difference between now and 2016 is that those leftist narratives have more popular traction than the more centrist position Hillary Clinton adopted then.

Tuesday, 19 February 2019 12:26

How Fannie and Freddie Distort Real Estate

(Washington)

We think we might have found an area when Democrats and Republicans might agree. Here is an interesting argument—Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac distort the housing market and negatively affect renters. This is a conclusion from the Wall Street Journal, which found that the subsidized loans from the agencies artificially lowered interest rates on multi-family properties (apartment buildings), which helped developers in acquiring them. The developers then go on to raise rents. In some cases, owners of big units refinance using agency mortgages and are therefore rewarded for raising rents.


FINSUM: From the left’s view, this hurts everyday Americans by raising rent prices. From the right’s view, this is an example of how big government distorts the economy. All that said, in single family housing, the agencies still seem to have benefits that outweigh their negatives.

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