Ian Shaffer

Markets. Buy and hold investing is no longer available. He is focused on financial analysis. He likes good fundamentals combined with a catalyst or event. This year has been a strange year so far. It is important sometimes to do nothing, but continue to validate the thesis on your stories. There are a host of Chinese online companies where their moves are not justified.

It has very compelling valuation. Health care names have underperformed in fears of who will take over as president. GILD-Q is trading at 6.5-7 times earnings. Some are saying their HEP-C drugs are being pressured by competitors. He thinks there will be an accretive acquisition in the short term.

It is not a bad company, but he is not a fan of it. He prefers Amazon. Earnings should be flat in the next quarter as they reinvest earnings to compete with Amazon. They are playing catch up. There is risk and no growth.

He endorses this name. It is attractive right now. He is surprised it has fallen as much as it has. They produce hit after hit. They have a lot of levers to move forward. People are watching ESPN online and these numbers are not included in subscriber numbers in their 10k. He thinks it is going higher from here.

It has had a host of problems in the past. This past quarter it seems like their earnings have leveled off and they are heading higher. They are in merger talks with a semiconductor company (NXPI). It will be an accretive deal.

It is a chemical company that is involved in a merger with Dow Chemical. It is a merger of equals. It should get approval by end of year. EU approval will be early 2017. They will be splitting into three separate companies soon after the merger. He expects these companies to be attractive.

It is a leader. They are a dividend payer and they have been spinning off parts of their business that are non-core. They are reducing debt and focusing on what they do best. They are trading at a very inexpensive PE. They are growing through cost cutting and sales as well as doing what they do well.

At these prices it is a gamble. They have not done a good job of monetizing this company. There is going to be someone who wants this platform and can monetize it. You could own it for the next 10-12 days then be ready to hold it for the fundamental story if no acquisition takes place.

It is a big cap name. It is in favour this year, but he does not see the growth drivers so far. They are similar to IBM. There is no lever to move higher. If you hold it, then hold it for now.

He has owned it in the past. There is pressure on their operating margins. This year you could not fault any health care name for going down. Wait for November 8^th. It doesn’t matter who gets in. He thinks they will be a strong performer in the fourth quarter of this year.

He is impressed with year over year revenue growth. He would not purchase it right now. There is typical seasonality. Buy it on a pull back.

Same store sales have been in the same range for some time and then they had a hiccup and that gave investors a scare. Their revenue and earnings stayed intact, however. Same store sales figures suffered from a change in their loyalty program.

It is a name that is in the news. There is a lot of consolidation going on in the industry. He missed this one. It has done phenomenally. Now it is a question of price. It went up too far too fast.

One of the few healthcare companies that has held up. There are no catalysts, however. It is a very solid company that pays a good dividend and has growing earnings. Stick with a winner.

They had a slip up in the last quarter. It is a name that is solid. It will always come back. Don’t buy it here because there is no catalyst.