Oracle (ORCL)

A big software tech company, but hasn’t grown organically. Basically, it grows by acquisition. His question is, who are they going to buy next. It is getting to the point where it has been a great rewarder for shareholders, but it needs to continue to acquire. Valuations are very rich. Pick this up when there is a little more downside on it.

It has strong seasonality from now until early January. It is forming a trading range and is breaking above it. Stick with it or buy some more.

He likes this, but doesn’t own it. A leader in databases and a number of other areas in software. They are starting to make some progress, and he would categorize this as a more conservative way to play technology. It has had a run, so he wouldn’t be a buyer here. In the lower $40, it would be quite interesting.

(A Top Pick June 24/16. Up 31.13%.) This was a sleepy, boring name. His argument was always that the company was going to do exactly what Microsoft and Adobe did successfully, trying to convert from a legacy based platform to online Cloud. They are doing that.

It recently had a pretty good earnings beat. Technically, it has broken out of a cup. Right now, the water is going against tech, and this has had a phenomenal run and valuations are very high. He would suggest moving your money to another allocation. Dividend of about 1.5%.

(Top Pick June 24/16, Up 15%) They are getting more subscriptions and more products on the cloud. There is lots of completion in the cloud space, but they have done a great job. They are still inexpensive.

Had owned this for a while, and sold it at around these levels 2 or 3 years ago. They are struggling to morph from a hardware/sales business into a software/service business. It has gotten very competitive. He is avoiding this area because it is so competitive. A lot of the big players are building a lot of the stuff internally themselves. He would rather focus on things like Facebook (FB-Q), and possibly even Google (GOOGL-Q).

This has been moving sideways for a while, although its last earnings report beat the street, and the stock popped up a little. There is more room to come. They are transitioning into Cloud very successfully, and as we increasingly use mobile devices, all the storage is up there in space. One of the few tech firms that can successfully acquire other companies. Has a very strong track record of folding other companies in, merging the culture and making money out of them.

A great company, but has made its name through big database centric applications, but other companies, such as Salesforce, have just been really beating this company to the punch, which is the Cloud, cloud-based solutions, software as a service, which is where the world is going.

This makes just as much money as semiconductor stocks, and has lagged, giving an opportunity. If the sales surge for semiconductor companies is any indication of corporate spending, the stock should do well. It is much cheaper. Dividend yield of 1.4%. (Analysts’ price target is $45.)

What he likes about this company is that they have pulled a Microsoft (MSFT-Q). They are converting all their business to the Cloud and are at an inflection point. He thinks we are going to start to see it ramp up in 2017-2018, so the time to buy this is now.

ORCL-Q Vs. IBM-N. IBM-N works hard on their balance sheet. ORCL-Q is old tech. He bought ORCL-Q at $12 a share. He likes it and it probably has the most upside. His model price is $46.11, or 0% upside, but IBM is $165.03, trading right on its model price also. He likes the diversification of both.

(Top Pick Jul 7/16, Down 3.82%) It is amongst the more steady Eddies. You can still buy and be pleased a couple of years out.

(Market Call Minute.) Cloud is getting more and more important and he likes that technology space. The stock is doing well and is breaking out.

This has done wonderfully over the years. It spiked higher around a decade ago. It has room to recover. The leadership has been very steady for years. We are at a shorter term pause where they are building out in the cloud. It is a great core holding.