There is a fair bit of political hair on this at the moment. He struggles with the business model. Will it be around in 10 years? He has been wrong so far, but the political issues are going to be problematic. He would stay away.

It was a great company when it went through their acquisition phase. However, about three years ago they ran out of big companies to buy. Now they have to decide if they going into other beverage markets or decide to cut costs to grow earnings. It still looks too expensive and he would stay away.

He sees them offering banks, hospitals and others outsourcing services that will grow over time. The company has performed well, but it always seems too expensive. He sees it as a buy.

The major issue is surrounding QE in the EU. It will likely take two years before interest rates will begin to rise in Europe before earnings will grow. At this point the company has done well selling off poor assets, but it will take time. He would be a buyer here. They have announced there will not be any dividend increase for a few years.

The hype around this company is disconcerting. He wonders if they will be able to execute on what they promise. At these valuations, it is not something he would recommend to clients. A company this big will have a very difficult time doubling in value. Market cap is $780 billion – bigger than the Swedish GDP.

The law of large numbers means a company of this size and valuation will struggle to double in value. There are very high expectations of future earnings growth and valuations are too expensive. This is a better trade than a buy and hold. (Analysts’ price target is $290 )

The issue is they have not recovered from issues in the US and the global 2008 financial crisis. The CEO has just been replaced. The problem is regulators have forced banks to get out of higher margins business. The Trump Administration has helped reverse some of this. If you have a multi-year hold this could be interesting.