Motley Fool Hidden Gems Investing - Disney’s Latest Magic and Year-End Financial Tips

Episode Date: December 11, 2020

Disney shares surge on big news from Disney Plus. DoorDash delivers a big IPO. Airbnb delivers an even bigger IPO. Starbucks hits an all-time high. And Chipotle serves up clothing! Motley Fool analyst...s Emily Flippen and Jason Moser discuss those stories and talk about the latest from Chewy, Costco, Lululemon, and Stitch Fix. Plus, Jason and Emily share a couple of stocks on their radar: Axon Enterprises and Qualcomm. And Motley Fool retirement expert Robert Brokamp shares some year-end financial tips. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript
Discussion (0)
Starting point is 00:00:00 Chris Hill, joining me this week, senior analysts, Emily Flippen and Jason Moser. Good to see you both. Hey, hey. Good to see you, too. We've got the latest headlines from Wall Street. we've got year-end financial tips with Robert Brokamp and we've got a couple of stocks on our radar, but we begin with the Magic Kingdom. On Thursday, Disney made a number of announcements tied to the company's Disney Plus streaming service, including new movies and shows tied
Starting point is 00:00:45 to franchises like Star Wars and the Marvel Universe. Disney Plus currently has 86 million subscribers. CEO Bob Chapek expects at least 230 million subscribers by the year 2024. Jason, investors like what they heard because on Friday, shares of Disney rose 15% and hit a new all-time high. Yeah. Listen, my kids are dancing around the house here as longtime shareholders of Disney, and I understand why. When you look at this business, when you add up all of the media related operating income. It's very meaningful to this business, basically half of it. I think the concerns for a while as we move into the streaming world were that this revenue might start disappearing, this income might start disappearing. I think what we're finding,
Starting point is 00:01:34 it's not really disappearing, it's just being essentially redistributed. They're taking more ownership of that entire media relationship and that transaction. That long-term is really what you want to see. And so, while it'll take some time for the economics to fully shake out, again, this is what you want to see. I mean, you fired in on some really big numbers there. I mean, to think that essentially just a year ago, they were calling for Disney Plus to have somewhere between 60 million and 90 million subscribers by the end of fiscal 2024. To get to 230 to 260 million is really phenomenal. And there have been some tailwinds that didn't exist back then that exists now, of course. But I think that the bottom line is, you have a company with a ton of IP,
Starting point is 00:02:21 a lot of excitement in being able to really start focusing on becoming a very modern-day media company. And it'll take a little while to shake out. But I mean, this is a shot across the bow, I think, for Netflix. Netflix, I think, is the obvious competitor here. I think they're taking note of what's going on here. But yeah, great for Disney. Sounds like things are going well. Emily, how worried should Netflix be? If I were the CEO of Netflix, I would not be losing any sleep over Disney+. Granted, take my opinion with a grain of salt. I am a 26-year-old millennial with no kids, but I have never in my life so far felt the need to sign up for a Disney Plus subscription. I think it's great for families. If you're extremely interested into science fiction
Starting point is 00:03:09 and the universes that Disney has created, that's wonderful. But I think having estimates for 230 to 260 million subscribers by fiscal 2024 is probably the most aggressive assumption I've seen Disney management make for comparison. And while I realize Disney is an international operation, that's nearly 80% of the U.S. population. So that's big assumptions being made into not just domestic, but international penetration over just a number of years. I think this is a great service, but I do not think this is a service that is as indisposable to every single household the way that Netflix is. Yeah. Jason, Bob Chapik has been in the corner office not very long. I got to say, as a Disney shareholder, pleased to see the stock
Starting point is 00:03:54 doing what it's doing. I was surprised he put that big a target out there for 2024. To be fair, that is a very big target. They're going to need to evolve this service to become a bit more of a universal offering, for sure. For context, Netflix is going to close out the year somewhere around 200 million global subs. I think that part of the aggressive assumptions here for Disney is that they continue to roll out in new markets. They just launched in Latin America, incidentally collaborating with MercadoLibre. I know a lot of Fools out there would love to hear that. They'll be launching in more markets, including Eastern Europe, South Korea, Hong Kong in 2021. I think there are a lot of markets that are really clamoring for this content.
Starting point is 00:04:35 The question I think really for Disney is, will they be able to evolve into that more universal service? Remember, they have Hulu, they have Disney+, they own FX. They're figuring out ways to integrate that stuff into their overall media landscape. Then the question for Netflix is, again, for me, it's not about Netflix being displaced. I think Netflix is just a core entertainment offering for every household. It's just going to be a matter of how much they're going to be able to raise prices from here. Because remember, Disney Plus on its own is still significantly less expensive than Netflix. Granted, they are still two fairly different services at this point. It was a big week for IPOs. We're
Starting point is 00:05:11 going to start with DoorDash. Shares of the food delivery company rose 85% on its opening day. Emily, DoorDash has the biggest market share in this industry. Are you as optimistic as Wall Street seems to be? There's a lot of things I like about DoorDash's business. And what's worth noting here is that as much as DoorDash's stock price has rised, there's also been a lot of controversy, a lot of haters out there, for lack of a better word, for people who look at the food delivery market and almost compare it to ride-sharing in the sense that there's no way these businesses can operate profitably. And yes, they're right in the sense that DoorDash is not consistently
Starting point is 00:05:51 profitable. But there were silver linings to this offering. I'm not sure if it justifies the price we're seeing today, but some of the silver linings are, Chris, you mentioned, they have the single largest market share for food delivery in the U.S. at more than 50%. And they have a big addressable market. One of the things that really surprised me from their S-1 filing was that out of the $600 billion that were spent in restaurants by Americans in 2019, so pre-pandemic, more than 50% of that was consumed off-premise, so a really large market opportunity for DoorDash to serve. But what is, in my opinion, the deal breaker with DoorDash isn't the really high valuation that we're seeing on the market today, the crazy euphoria from IPOs, but it's actually
Starting point is 00:06:36 their weaknesses in internal controls. They noted weaknesses related to both a lack of skilled staff, which is concerning for the size of DoorDash today, but also a lack of adequate processes for revenue to cash reconciliation processes. These are huge red flags. I think the best way I can relate that for individual investors who maybe don't know what internal controls mean, it's kind of like going out on a date with somebody for the first time, sitting down at dinner, and they're telling you about their life. They're telling you about their family, their job. Everything seems kind of interesting to you. And you're thinking to yourself, hey, maybe I'll give them a call after this. And then at the end of the date,
Starting point is 00:07:15 when they turn to you to say goodbye, they say, well, I think everything I told you tonight is true. What are you supposed to make of that as an investor? My short story is I'm not looking at DoorDash as an investment until I see turnarounds in their internal controls. One day after DoorDash, Airbnb had the biggest tech IPO of 2020. Shares more than doubled on its first day of trading. And Jason, Airbnb's market cap is now bigger than Marriott, Hilton, and Hyatt Hotels combined. Yeah. Yeah. And it's bigger than booking.com. That says a lot, I think. It's very difficult to rationalize these IPO reactions of late. It is what it is, as they say. But I do think with Airbnb, Airbnb is a good business
Starting point is 00:08:04 with a relatively long track record of success. They've been around for a while. And the market It tends to give these types of dominant companies a bit more wiggle room on that path to profitability, as long as there are signs that the business is growing and they're not making boneheaded investments. And I think we can make that case for Airbnb right now. I'm not justifying the reaction necessarily, but I do understand the interest in the business and the brand awareness with a business like this alone is phenomenal. Approximately 91% of all traffic to Airbnb comes through direct or unpaid channels. And in 2019, 69% of the company's revenue was generated by stays from repeat guests.
Starting point is 00:08:41 So, that tells you that they don't have to really pay up to get customers, and a lot of the customers that use the service like it and come back. I mean, those are good metrics to have, and I suspect they'll continue to get better. Emily was talking about big market opportunities, and we like to talk about that on the show a lot. Airbnb is another good example of one. They estimate their serviceable addressable market to be $1.5 trillion total between short-term stays and experiences. I think it's worth noting, too, that for younger travelers just coming into the market, new generations of younger travelers, the Airbnb way of doing things is totally normal.
Starting point is 00:09:18 For a lot of older folks, it's been a little bit of a change, a little bit of a different mindset. But for a lot of younger travelers that are just coming in, this is just the normal way of doing things. It's a really nice option for a lot of travelers out there. My point is, that's just a really long runway of opportunity. As we know, investing is all about the future. I do feel like there's a big opportunity here with this company. I understand the excitement. I can't really justify the price today. But again, it seems like a bright future for a good business. Meanwhile, shares of Costco were flat despite same-store sales in the first quarter rising 15%. And Emily, another quarter for Costco where digital sales were up big too.
Starting point is 00:09:59 Yes, digital sales did lead the net sale increase of 17% last quarter. Digital sales, e-commerce were up 86% year over year. So Costco is clearly making good on their promise to attract consumers, not just with their in-store big box offering, but also encouraging people during these times to shop online. I think shares dipped in part due to this slowing growth. It's natural that as this pandemic, I want to say comes to a close, that might be an overstatement right now, but I'll say as people are venturing out more, they're less likely to stock up on things the way they were in prior months. Growth in Costco stores has started to slow down, still keeping up in the double digits, but slowing nonetheless. But there's also something to note
Starting point is 00:10:45 here in terms of the premium that they're paying that is hitting their bottom line in terms of COVID wages. That's what they're calling it. Essentially, they're increasing the amount that their store associates are getting paid for working during this pandemic. It's great, it's important from a business and social perspective, but I do have to ask myself how many of these wages are sticky post-COVID. I think it's going to be challenging for them to come back to their associates, many of whom they're paying more over the past year to say, hey, now that there's a vaccine, now that sales have normalized, you're not getting paid as much as you were last year. If I were a betting woman, I would assume
Starting point is 00:11:22 that some of these costs are sticky post-pandemic. Coming up, we've got apparel, pet supplies, and best of all, coffee. Stay right here. You're listening to Motley Fool Money. Welcome back to Motley Fool Money. Chris Hill here with Emily Flippen and Jason Moser. Lululemon's third quarter profits and revenue came in higher than expected. Shares falling a bit this week, but still up 50% for the year, Emily. And is it just me or is Lululemon cautiously optimistic about the holiday quarter? I would almost say the word cautiously is too much of an understatement here for Lululemon. Their revenue of $1.1 billion was up 22% year over year. And this is against the backdrop of a pretty soft retail environment, especially
Starting point is 00:12:09 for clothing retailers. So Lululemon has certainly made up in terms of market share during 2020. I would encourage investors to look at the yearly price movement, not the weekly for this company, to really show the dominance that Lululemon has created over the course of this year. To further emphasize that, same-store sales were up 19%. And again, this is when most people aren't going into physical stores, they're shopping online. What I think is probably the most important aspect for Lululemon's business is their ability to reach consumers directly. These are consumers that are going direct to Lululemon's website to shop, especially as we head into the holiday season. Direct-to-consumer sales grew 94%, reaching over 43% of revenue in the last quarter.
Starting point is 00:12:56 This is important because consumers are seeking out the Lululemon brand. This is going to make the company more relevant in the future. And as somebody who is a frequent wearer of Lululemon's yoga pants and clothing. It's a trend that I can get behind. Shares of Stitch Fix up 65% this week after first quarter revenue came in 10% higher than a year ago. Jason, they reported a profit too, but this seems like a big jump in the stock price for not a very big jump in the top line. Ah, the power of low expectations, Chris. We talk about it often. You're forgiven if you're wondering why there's such a strong reaction to really what were just okay results. I think they were decent enough results, but this
Starting point is 00:13:40 bottom line was a massive short squeeze. Around 37% of the float was short, according to CapIQ data at the beginning of the week here. When you have a company that beats those expectations, and when you have a company that's guiding for 20% to 25% sales growth for the year, I understand at least the enthusiasm there. That's a significant acceleration for them from what they've been witnessing, so they better deliver. The big question for me with Stitch Fix is, will they be able to sustain the modest tailwinds for their business that COVID has created this year? I'm just not so sure. Anecdotally, I've spoken with people who've used the service and then stopped. I'm just not sure about that longer-term relationship with
Starting point is 00:14:20 the customer. That really matters for a business like this because you pay a lot to acquire them, you need to keep them. In Stitch Fix's case, due to the nature of the business, once they go, once they leave, they more than likely don't come back. So that's something really to keep an eye on. We don't get enough information, I think, regarding churn in retention from them. But let's not take anything away from them. It was an encouraging quarter. Perhaps it can shift the narrative on the business a little, and congratulations on a good week. Chewy's third quarter loss was smaller than expected, but revenue continues to grow for the pet supply retailer. Shares of Chewy up 10% this week, Emily.
Starting point is 00:14:56 Chewy might be one of my favorite investments right now. I'm a personal shareholder. In this past quarter, really just further emphasizes my enthusiasm. Net sales increased 45%, but more importantly, auto ship, which is a subscription style revenue as e-commerce retailers get. The auto ship program sales were 69% of net sales. So a lot of those sales are going to those repeat customers. The customer retention rate at Chewy is truly spectacular for an e-commerce retailer. But what really stood out for me are two aspects. First of all, not only has active customer increased by 40% over 2020, largely because of the tailwinds that the pandemic gave to the pet industry, but the engagement of these pandemic-acquired
Starting point is 00:15:41 customers is still very much tracking in line with customers acquired previously for the company. This is really important because Chewy closely tracks the customer acquisition costs to lifetime value, making sure that the customers they acquire stick with the platform will be critical for their comparables next year. So I really like that aspect. And I'll just quietly tack on, Chewy is also aggressively expanding into pharmacy. They have probably the most exciting aspect of their business right now is that Chewy expects their pharmacy business to generate over $350 million in net sales, which will be 5% of revenue this year. And further, they're expanding their relationship with local vets and encouraging trends in pet telemedicine. So there's a lot
Starting point is 00:16:27 of things that I like about this business, but to sum up, this is a business that is truly firing on all cylinders. Teladog. Teladog. I like the branding. Shares of Starbucks hitting a new high this week at its Investor Day event. Starbucks executives gave insights into how their business is rebounding. And they said they expect earnings growth in 2022 to be at least 20%. Jason, they also talked about the investments that they're making, but that 20% growth, that's another aggressive target. Well, we've got a theme going on, I think, for this show, aggressive growth targets and big market opportunities. But again, we talk about companies focused on large and growing market opportunities,
Starting point is 00:17:09 And coffee is another one. And Euromonitor sized the addressable market there at $360 billion of revenue in 2019. They expect that to grow to be roughly $450 billion in revenue by 2023. So, again, a big opportunity all over the world. And for Starbucks, it was nice to see in their investor presentation, they're trying to focus away from all of the past news with the pandemic making the troubles and the challenges and focus more on the recovery and going forward and getting back to that third place and the advantages they had built throughout the years with that third place concept. So they're calling for fiscal 2021 to be a bit of a year of recovery, but that's going to set the table for 2022 because they'll be lapping some of those recovery impacts and
Starting point is 00:17:58 that'll contribute to that earnings growth. But it was an interesting point they were making here. they've been making a big focus lately on cold. Cold beverages has grown nearly 45% in the past four years for the company alone. And the big focus on millennials and Gen Zers, they say millennials and Gen Zers under 30 are two times more likely to drink cold coffee. That all has helped drive more than $1 billion in sales over the past three years. So you're going to see this company continue to really double down on what they do well. All right, Jason Moser, Emily Flippen, and we'll see you later in the show. Robert Brokamp is up next with some financial tips to take care of before the end of the year. Stay right here. You're listening to Motley
Starting point is 00:18:39 Fool Money. Welcome back to Motley Fool Money. I'm Chris Hill. There's just a couple of weeks left in the year, which means there's still time to do things in your financial life to make the most of 2020 while you still can. Here with some ideas is Robert Brokamp. He's a certified financial planner and the Motley Fool's resident expert on retirement. He joins me now. Robert, good to see you, my friend. So good to see you too, Chris. So I know that if it's not number one on your list for things to do at the end of the year, high up on your list for people looking to make the most of their financial life is to look at your retirement account and really max that out. Absolutely. Yes. And you actually have until April 15th to contribute to your IRA for 2020.
Starting point is 00:19:41 But for most employer-sponsored accounts, 401ks, 403bs, so forth, you actually have until December 31st. Plus, many accounts don't allow you to just send in a check. The money has to come from your paycheck, which means you have to make the change usually on the 401k website a few days before the final payroll of the year. So just as an example here at The Motley Fool, if you want to max out your 401k in 2020, you have to make that change three weeks before the end of the year. So if you want to do that, contact your HR department to find out what the drop-dead date is for you. And just so everyone knows, the maximum you contribute this year, $19,500, with another $6,500 if you'll be 50 by December 31st, and those figures are staying the same for 2021.
Starting point is 00:20:29 Chris Hill In terms of employer benefits, obviously, it depends on the employer that you're working for, but there's the opportunity to max out employer benefits. I guess one of the significant new opportunities this year is tied to the CARES Act. Do I have that right? Chris Hill Yeah, there are a couple of things related to the CARES Act. And one of them is the ability to make a coronavirus-related distribution. And it actually can be from your 401k or your IRA. It's an amount, total $100,000 across all retirement accounts. Take that money out. Even if you're not 59 and a half yet, you don't have to worry about the 10% early distribution
Starting point is 00:21:12 penalty. And you have up to three years to put the money back. The great thing about this is, Unfortunately, many 401 s and 403 s are not so good. This is a way to get money out of a not-so-good plan and then put it in an IRA. The tricky part is, this is only available to people who have suffered a financial or health hardship related to the coronavirus, and there's a list of criteria on the IRS website. But if you meet those criteria and your plan allows it, it's a great way to get money out of a mediocre employer plan. It's a great reminder that not all plans
Starting point is 00:21:52 are created equally. For a lot of folks, I would argue for the majority of folks, they just want to go about their lives and do their jobs, and the 401 plan that their employer has provided, well, people at my company, they know what they're doing. But it's a great reminder, Robert, that it's always worth asking that question of your employer, of your HR team, like, hey, how good is our plan? Because I know they're not all great. Right. And here's the deal. Everyone loves HR people. They're awesome. But they may not be financial experts. They may not be expert investors. So the 401k plan may have been chosen for reasons like convenience or costs, but it may lack some important features that
Starting point is 00:22:37 are pretty easy to implement, such as the ability to buy individual stocks, the ability to contribute to a Roth account or do an in-plan Roth conversion. And sometimes all you have to do is highlight these possibilities to the HR team, they'll consider it, and then make that change to the plan. In a vacuum, what's the best version of an IRA, in your opinion? Well, so these days, the Roth is about as compelling as ever, because we are at historically low tax rates. Plus, many people have lower income this year. A recent survey from Bankrate found that about half of households took some sort of income hit. When you contribute to the Roth, you don't get a tax break today, but you get a tax break in retirement. So
Starting point is 00:23:21 if you expect to be in a higher tax bracket in the future, either because you're making more money or because you expect tax rates to be higher in the future, which to me seems likely given the fact that we have so many underfunded benefits. So, security is underfunded, Medicare is underfunded, we have huge deficits. We went into the pandemic with huge deficits, but now they're even bigger. At some point, tax rates have to go up. So, if you're in a middle-to-low tax bracket, a Roth makes a lot of sense. On the other hand, if you're in a high tax bracket, the traditional still might make sense, but only if you invest the money that you save in taxes. So, if you contribute, let's say, $10,000 to a traditional 401 and you save $2,000 in taxes,
Starting point is 00:24:03 invest that $2,000. If you instead spend that $2,000, you would have been better off in the Roth. December, from a financial perspective, is that time of year where it seems like every year I'm seeing either articles or people on financial television talking about, now's the time to look at your portfolio and think about rebalancing. For some people, it's like clockwork. They make it part of their routine. Okay, I'm going to look, I'm going to sell some of my winners. I'm also going to sell some of my losers to get the tax benefit to cancel out the taxes I would pay on the winners. Are you a fan of this strategy, doing this like clockwork every single year? Generally, not every year. Generally speaking, rebalancing is
Starting point is 00:24:53 a risk management strategy. It generally isn't a return-enhancing strategy. So, for people who are near or in retirement, or maybe you have money for college and your kids are in high school, I think rebalancing makes sense. Folks who are more than a decade or away from retirement, it's probably less important. And really, to me, the key to rebalancing is to make sure that you have enough cash. The foundation of investing for Motley Fool and everyone everywhere is that you have any money you need in the next three to five years out of the stock market. Well, maybe the last time you thought about how much cash you need was a year ago. Surprisingly, it's been an amazing year for the stock market. As of this taping, the S&P 500 is up 14%. The NASDAQ is up 40%. So if you are
Starting point is 00:25:37 in a position where you're going to need some money in the next three to five years, I think it makes sense to look at that. Whether you do it now or wait a month, it sort of depends on your tax situation. If you're going to be in a lower tax bracket this year, maybe you should rebalance now. Historically, though, December is a good month, so it might be okay to wait until next year. But to me, that's the foundation of rebalancing. Do you have enough short-term money protected? Last time you were on the show, you had some financial advice that surprised me, which was maintain your health. And what you said that surprised me was that the number one reason people retire sooner than they had planned
Starting point is 00:26:22 is due to poor health. This is also the time of the year where, I don't know about your house, but there are a lot more cookies around my house. Do you have a tip for maintaining weight gain over the holidays? Because I feel like you're really good at this. Well, thank you. Very kind of you. So, I will say, I'm going to give a recommendation for a book that's always good for this time of year when it comes to resolutions and stuff, and that is Atomic Habits by James Clear. And one thing he pointed out is that habits are enhanced by environment. So, just like your house, our house, the kids the other day made brownies and cookies and then they left them right there on the island in the middle of the kitchen.
Starting point is 00:27:08 Anytime I walk by the kitchen, I'm just going to grab them because they're there. So you either put them in a tin and put them away, or what I did is I moved them in the dining room where I don't pass through as often. If you have eggnog, I love eggnog, but I keep it out in the garage fridge, not in the main fridge, so I don't see it all the time. So one thing is removing temptation. And I would say the other thing is get involved with a group that does exercise regularly. At 2.45 every day, there's a group of us at The Motley Fool that does push-ups. I haven't been been able to do it for a while because of the back issue. But every day when you know that there are a group of people who are going to be doing pushups together, you might be more likely
Starting point is 00:27:46 to do that. Every Tuesday and Thursday, a group of us fools meet at nine o'clock and we're led by a workout by Sam, our in-house financial wellness director. So any sort of group thing kind of adds an extra layer of accountability to your exercise. Last thing, and then I'll let you go. I know you are a huge fan of holiday music. And what's great about holiday music is there's more and more of it every year. What have you heard that's new this year that caught your attention? My biggest one is Dolly Parton's new album. I mean, we all love Dolly Parton. There was a great podcast series about her. You know, she contributed money to developing the vaccine for the coronavirus. She's an American treasure. Her new playlist is wonderful. I highly recommend
Starting point is 00:28:35 that. You can listen to Robert Brokamp every week on The Motley Fool Answers podcast. You can find it wherever you find podcasts. He's a certified financial planner. He runs our Rule Your Retirement service. He's basically a superhero in disguise. Robert, happy holidays, my friend. Robert Brokamp And to you as well, and to all Fools everywhere. Chris Hilliard. Coming up, Jason Moser and Emily Flippen return with a couple of stocks for your watch list. Stay right here. You're listening to Motley Fool Money. Chris Hill. As always, people on the program may have
Starting point is 00:29:45 interest in the stocks they talk about, and The Motley Fool may have formal recommendations for or against, so don't buy or sell stocks based solely on what you hear. Welcome back to Motley Fool Money. Chris Hill here once again with Emily Flippen and Jason Moser. Our email address is radioatfool.com. Drop us a note, would you? We're lonely. Radioatfool.com. We got one from Josh Powell. He writes, I'm currently deployed in the Air Force. The military offers a savings deposit program while deployed, which guarantees a 10% annual interest rate compounded quarterly. I'm able to contribute any money made while deployed and keep it in the account for about 270 days. Do you think I'd be better off investing my money in
Starting point is 00:30:26 the stock market or taking the guaranteed return? I understand the risks in the market, but with the positive news of COVID vaccines, I don't want to miss out on a boom in the economy." It's a great question. Thank you for that, Josh, and thank you for listening. Jason, the customary preface that we can't give individual advice. Typically, when I hear about guaranteed returns for savings vehicles, sometimes it's in the neighborhood of 1% or lower. 10% annual interest rate compounded quarterly. Personally, I'd be pretty attracted by that. Yeah. Josh, thanks for the email and thank you for your service. We always use that old saw, any money that you know you're going to need within the next three to five years, you really shouldn't have it in the market. There's
Starting point is 00:31:18 this for a lot of reasons. You don't want to be stuck being a desperate seller of anything. But to the point on the guaranteed return, that exceeds, I think, the market's historical average, or if it doesn't exceed it, it's darn close to it. That's not risk-free, especially today. I think valuations are a bit more out of control today and a little bit more questionable. I wouldn't worry about that fear of missing out. The market is going to be here when you get back. It sounds like this opportunity is something that there's a time limitation to it. Personally, I would probably opt to take advantage of it as much as I could, because 10% guaranteed sounds like a really attractive offer. You can always keep investing and you
Starting point is 00:32:06 can always keep investing more when you get back. Emily, what do you think? Normally, when somebody would come to me and say, hey, I have an investment opportunity that guarantees me a 10% rate of return, I would tell them to run the other way because it is 100% a scam. But I did Google this before we got on today. And this is real. This is the first I've heard about the saving deposit program. I know what I would do personally is definitely take advantage of the 10% return, put my emergency fund in there. There's no way, in my opinion, that would be giving up that opportunity. If 2020 has proven anything, it's that you can never have too much comfortable clothing, and Chipotle is here to help. This week, Chipotle,
Starting point is 00:32:46 yes, Chipotle, unveiled a new line of clothing, including sweatshirts, long-sleeve tees, and pajamas. Emily, I got to say, I was looking at the clothing, obviously, can't touch and feel it, but it looks like quality merchandise. It looks like quality merchandise and it's stylish too. The hoodie they have is a nicely black. It has the subtle yet bold Chipotle logo. I have to admit, I was somewhat enthused, maybe I should ask for this for Christmas this year. Jason, I don't know about you, I did notice and appreciate the fact that some of the waistbands are roomy, which I think is a great amount of self-awareness on the part of Chipotle. Because if you're going to be out there slinging
Starting point is 00:33:32 extra sides of guacamole, you don't want to be selling super tight clothing. By design, I would imagine, absolutely. Listen, I agree, this stuff is pretty classy-looking, I mean, way classier than that Taco Bell stuff. Maybe this is for that more under-the-radar fan who just really is looking for a way to support their favorite brand without being too ostentatious. But hey, listen, it probably doesn't cost them much to do it and it creates a little awareness. And Chipotle has really, really done amazing things since the days of the food safety issues. So, another probably simple bet for them that likely pays off. Well, it reminded me of the first time I went into a Shake Shack. I was standing in line and
Starting point is 00:34:18 before I could even order my food, they had t-shirts for sale just like right there, right when you walk in. All kidding aside, it seems like the thing where as long as Chipotle is doing this at a modest profit, then it's free advertising for them, right? I think so. Again, anything you can do to build your brand in a positive way, and I think Chipotle has really turned a corner here. They've regained, I think, a lot of customers' trust that they perhaps lost several years ago. Let's get to the stocks on our radar. We'll bring in our man behind the glass, Dan Boyd. Emily Flippen, you're up first. What are you looking at this week?
Starting point is 00:34:58 Yes. The company on my radar this week is Axon Enterprises. The ticker is A-A-X-N. Axon, better known as their former name, Taser, provides taser and body camera equipment to the vast majority of U.S. police forces. I think they have penetration rates north of 90%. But the reason why I'm excited by the investment today is that if you look at the strategy that management is taking, they're looking at expanding into new areas like record management and dispatch. This updates a really old and outdated legacy equipment that most police forces are using. And given the world we're living in today, more accountability, more technology can only help, in my opinion. Dan, question about Axon Enterprises?
Starting point is 00:35:41 Absolutely, Chris. Emily, does Axon have any real competitors? There are some very small competitors, but as I mentioned before, they have penetration rates north of 90%. In their core business, that's Taser, the body cam, they are by far the dominant player. The issue is when you get down to price, ultimately, some police forces may be more price sensitive, in which case there are cheaper, although admittedly, worse quality alternatives on the market right now. Jason Moser, what are you looking at this week? Yeah, keeping an eye on Qualcomm, ticker is QCOM. You probably saw the headline this week that Apple is forging ahead with their plans
Starting point is 00:36:22 to develop and build its own cellular modems for use in its own devices like iPhones and iPads, and that cellular modem is necessary, it's a necessary piece of equipment. This is not something that really came as any surprise to any of us that follow these companies, but you see the reaction of Qualcomm. There's a little bit of a reaction selling off the stock. I think that's a bit short-sighted. You may remember, not all that long ago, Qualcomm and Apple were involved in a pretty long and drawn-out dispute that seemed like it would never end. Thankfully, it has ended. Both companies agreed to drop all litigation. They forged a six-year licensing agreement, including a two-year option to extend, a multi-year chipset supply agreement.
Starting point is 00:37:02 This was a really ideal resolution, and it's a long-term resolution. For me, Qualcomm is one of the most important businesses in this line of work. It holds over 140,000 patents and applications worldwide. It is the most valuable IP portfolio in this business, has over 300 licensees. As we move into 5G and even beyond into 6G, more things becoming connected, Qualcomm will remain a very important participant in that value chain. Dan, question about Qualcomm? Yeah. When I heard that you were picking Qualcomm for the show, I thought to myself, what is this, 1995? I haven't heard that name in years. I know. It's making a comeback
Starting point is 00:37:44 here. You can thank 5G for that. Qualcomm was stuck in this saturation cycle as we were waiting for this next generation of device to come out. Now that 5G is upon us, it is definitely taking advantage and utilizing all of that IP to get that business growing in the right direction again. Dan, what do you want to add to your watchlist? Well, you know what, Chris? I love a good blast from the past, so I think I'm going to go with Qualcomm this time around, even though my gut tells me maybe it's not the best idea. Thanks, Dan. Emily Flippen, Jason Moser, thanks so much for being here. Thanks for having me.
Starting point is 00:38:22 That's going to do it for this week's edition of Motley Fool Money. The show is mixed by Dan Boyd. Our producer is Mac Greer. I'm Chris Hill. Thanks for listening. We'll see you next week.

There aren't comments yet for this episode. Click on any sentence in the transcript to leave a comment.