Qualcomm

(A Top Pick Nov 18/18, Up 63%) Last year was in a big dispute with Apple. Qualcomm owns the technology for the cell phones. Had a nice pop. Sold it. Wouldn't feel uncomfortable owning it here at $90.

This is pricey right now. He just sold out last week around $89.50. He hopes to buy back in the low-$70s. It is a great play into 5G and autonomous driving. There are not many significant players in this space. (Analysts’ price target is $94.20)

Which 5G stock to buy? Careful with all this hype over new technology. The use could be pushed out to later. QCOM owns a lot of licensing for 5G. Long-term, they will benefit. They are fairly safe.

Qualcomm or Cisco? Qualcomm may be breaking its trendline; it's choppy and not for conservative investors. The chart is merely okay. Cisco has rolled over and has consolidated; it's rangebound. If Cisco breaks out of this range, it's very good. At least Qualcomm is in an uptrend, so he slightly favours it.

The issue was that they were accused of monopolistic activities. AAPL-Q settled with them because their switch to INTL-Q did not work out. We have to look through all this noise to realize they are the leader in 5G chips. That is the big deal. This is not an expensive stock and they are the leader in 5G.

He did own, but as the trial date with Apple approached, they decided to exit when they thought the risk became more to the downside. Now the FCC is after them for some of their business practices, so they are staying away. Too volatile for him.

He was short prior to the Apple agreement. Very expensive at 28 times earnings. He would not like it here and would take profit.

It's an excellent long-term, 5G investment, but he suspects Apple's hand was forced to settle with QCOM last week, because the 5G chip Apple was developing with Intel failed to progress. It's a great settlement for QCOM, which has shot up with room to rise even further . Further, a US-China trade deal will benefit QCOM.

A settlement with Apple was announced yesterday. He sold his QCOM shares ahead of the court battle. He is looking at it again, but is not jumping back in right away.

They are locked in a patent war with Apple. They own the CDMA technology from the original generation of cell phones in the '90s. Their patents will do okay. They have been very aggressive in collecting patent revenue. Buy in the $50s and sell in the $60s. There is a solid revenue stream and no costs in patent revenues.

Owns a small position via an ETF, SOXX. It's one of the top three holdings in SOXX. He scaled back by buying SOXX and not QCOM directly, because there are legal issues with Apple. He wants to own it outright, though.

(A Top Pick Feb 15/18, Down 10%) The XP acquisition attempt in China was a problem. There are a lot of potential levers to this story. He would get back into it.

Apple or Qualcomm? Apple will win. Qualcomm got a small victory, but then Apple worked around it. Like the royalties lawsuit, you have to pick your battles.

She used to own it. They've had issues of reinforcing royalty payments in China, and now have a dispute with Apple. Too much uncertainty over how they protect their patents.