Motley Fool Money - Apple Watch

Episode Date: March 13, 2015

Apple unveils its watch. Big banks get a passing grade. Disney announces a sequel to Frozen. And Twitter bets big on video. Our analysts discuss those stories and share some stocks on their radar. And... sports business analyst Kristi Dosh talks about the business of March Madness. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Starting point is 00:00:42 which makes it so much easier to stay on track. And you can get unlimited expert help at no extra cost, even on nights and weekends during tax season. Visit turbotax.com to get matched with an expert today, only available with TurboTax full service experts. Everybody needs money. That's why they call it money. From Fool Global Headquarters, this is Motley Fool Money. Welcome to Motley Full Money. Matt Greer stepping in for an under-the-weather, Chris Hill this week.
Starting point is 00:01:24 And I'm joined by James Early from Motley Fool Income Investor and Matt Argersinger and Jason Moser from Million Dollar portfolio. Guys, welcome. Hey, Matt. You're off to a great start, Max. So far so good. You're killing it, man. I'll try to keep it up. On today's show, we've got stress tests, Burrullion.
Starting point is 00:01:38 burger joints and the business of March Madness. But we begin with watches. Apple finally unveiled its watch this week. Comes in three models, goes on sale April 24th, and prices range from $350,000 to $17,000. Matt, what do you think? Let's start with a positive. I mean, it's, you know, I think fitness gurus are going to like this. It probably takes, you know, your Fitbit or any of the sort of precursor fitness watches to a whole new level.
Starting point is 00:02:03 It's got really, you know, the touch interface is really pretty neat, probably, you know, really high tech. Some of the apps are cool. I can open my car, maybe with my watch. I can measure my heart rate. It has Apple Pay, which I actually think is going to be huge for that, because it's one thing to wave your phone and have your phone. But if you can run into a go for a jog, go into a store, wave your watch in front of a kiosk and pay for something, I think that's a big upgrade. Oh, big bonus. It also tells time. Wow. Huge, right? But to me, I mean, the negatives to me outweigh the positives by a lot.
Starting point is 00:02:38 I mean, for a lot of the applications, you have to have your iPhone. It has to be paired with your phone. The prices you mentioned, $350 to $17,000. $350,000, it's kind of a lot to pay for a phone, especially one that I have to recharge probably every night. And apparently, if you're listening to music or doing a lot of heavy lifting on the phone or on the watch. Yeah, you've got to charge it probably every six hours. Multiple models. It just, you know, I want to be open-minded about this. I mean, we didn't know the iPod when it came out 13-odd years ago that it was going to be this big, platform for music. We didn't know how the iPad was going to do. If you look at the sales estimates for this thing, they're all over the map. Between $8 million and $41 million at the high end for 2015. But to me, I just don't think this is the next big thing that people are going to be interested in it.
Starting point is 00:03:23 And I got to complain off the bat because Apple is taking a page out of Microsoft Playbook. I'm just checking my iPhone. I noticed this Apple Watch app has popped up now. I guess it downloaded automatically, and I can't delete it. I can't. can't delete it. So automatically I made to feel like a loser for not having the Apple Watch. It's just come out. So, boo. You know, I'm a little bit with Matt. I pooh-pooed the iPad. I thought the iPad was going to flop. Just to clarify, you called the iPad the El Camino. The El Camino, the car truck, right? It's kind of like neither of either world, but people liked it. Okay? People liked it. I mean, what's the point of a watch, right? It's either fashion. We don't need a watch to tell time. Your phone tells time these days.
Starting point is 00:04:07 But, hey, people buy it, it's Apple. I think the biggest problem with the watch that I can see thus far is it doesn't really seem to do anything additive. It doesn't seem to – I don't find any reason you need to have this in addition to your phone. It's like it does what your phone does. It's just smaller now. And so for me, I mean, I wonder from that perspective, I mean, there'd be plenty of Apple fanboys that go, I can get one. I mean, I think that's fine. I think it'll probably do just OK because Apple tends to do well, regardless of whether
Starting point is 00:04:40 the product is actually worth owning or not. But I think that with a watch, I mean, you know, the phones have really benefited from this tremendous refreshment cycle, right? Every couple of years you need to buy a new phone. And I don't think they're going to be able to count on that with this watch. I mean, they haven't been able to count on it with the iPad for sure. So then if you buy this generation of Apple Watch, what's the time? to say that they're not going to have some sleek or newer, better design a year from now.
Starting point is 00:05:10 And then, you know, like James is saying, you feel like a loser because you've got the old one and you want the new one. But, you know, people can't go out there and just buy a $354,500 watch all the time. So, Jason, though, you wear a watch. I do. I don't wear a watch. I hate wearing watches. So my question is, does Apple need you to switch to the Apple watch or is the primary market people
Starting point is 00:05:29 like me who don't even like wearing watches? So I don't know. I mean, my watch, I have a Rolex that my wife gave me. This thing will never come off my arm, because it was a gift for my 40th birthday. It means a lot, and I like the watch. I'll never buy an Apple watch ever. I have zero interest in one, but I'm a traditional watch kind of guy. So I imagine that people who enjoy wearing a watch will probably not be the initial target
Starting point is 00:05:51 market for Apple. I think they're probably jumping in on the folks that don't wear a watch, and they're saying, hey, well, you can wear this watch, and this is all of the stuff they can do for you, rather than just tell time, like something like that. mind does. Yeah, I will just say, though, we just, I think right now, especially early on, it's best to be open-minded because it is an interesting new piece of hardware, a new platform that a lot of, you know, a lot of development companies are going to be making applications for us. So it could turn out that maybe, you know, six months down the road, it's like,
Starting point is 00:06:22 wow, all of a sudden, knowing now what I can do with this thing, I think a lot of people just don't know what they can do with it now. But in six months from now, a lot of people might say, gosh, I like what this thing can do. I want, I want one. I do think we have to step back and see that this discussion we're having. having is making a point by itself, which is that the lower-hanging fruit has been picked by Apple. You know, this watch is sort of iffy. I mean, where else can they go after this? I mean, like a good point. Hearing aid. I mean, it's just pacemaker. The coolest things are already taken.
Starting point is 00:06:50 Let's talk about one other place they're going. HBO. Matt, they announced a deal with HBO this week. That's right. That's right. So, well, you know, we were talking about this before the show, Jason. And, you know, so now, so with the deal is starting in April, just in time for Game of Thrones, by the way, which I'm excited about. You know, you're going to be able to, it's called HBO now. You're going to be able to subscribe to HBO, as long as you have an Apple device for the first three months. So, you know, after that, I think it's going to open up to more platforms. But to me, it's a good deal for Apple. It makes it more compelling to have an Apple device. But to me, it's a bigger deal for HBO. It's a bigger deal for the
Starting point is 00:07:24 cable industry and the entertainment industry in general, because we have, you know, this is the first big, big one, I think, big, big sort of cable brand. If that's a lot, it's a big, that's fair, to break away and become its own standalone subscription service. And so I think this is the beginning of sort of the real debundling of cable and sort of the rise of broadband, really being the only thing, the only pipes that people are really subscribing to. So I think Comcast is the one that really needs to take note here, because Comcast is even the one that doesn't allow for HBO subscribers to get HBO Go on certain devices at least.
Starting point is 00:08:00 That's right. which I find absurd. I mean, like, HBO Go is tremendous. I love it, but we have Verizon and Fios. And, Mac, I know you're having some issues with Verizon here at this customer service. I have a very unpleasant experience with Fios. And that's terrible. I found myself saying that I was going to switch back to Comcast. But it really, it places really the priority on the broadband, less priority on the cable packages that they're sending you. And, I mean, really, it just just justifies. It really just shows what Netflix and Hulu and Amazon and now HBO. are doing here. And, you know, I agree with Maddie. I think this is just the beginning,
Starting point is 00:08:36 and more will follow. Yeah, and I would just say, you know, we were talking, again, from the show, you know, it's like HBO now, right? At HBO, if ESPN ever, if Disney ever unbundles ESPN somehow, gosh, if you can get HBO, ESPN, and then you've got your Amazon, your Netflix, and your Hulu, wow, what a... There's no way I'm ever going back to cable. No way. But the flip side of that is that now you have all of the apps, the channels that you want, and you really want those channels, well, they can, probably eke those prices up over time, and then maybe that bill starts matching what you're
Starting point is 00:09:05 paying for cable already. So I'm not necessarily convinced that the long-term implications will necessarily result in a lower cable bill. Or monthly entertainment bill, I guess. Well, moving on to the exciting world of big banks and stress test, the six biggest U.S. banks all pass the Fed's stress test this week. James, most of those banks went on to increase their dividends. So what does all this mean for investors? Well, the big thing we're dealing with right now is it's a better problem than we had in 2008. That's the main thing.
Starting point is 00:09:39 That we're dealing with a hypothetical problem. Banks are saying here's what we would lose if a bad thing were to happen, which is actually better than having it be a real-life problem. The point of the stress test specifically is to decide how much capital a bank can pay out versus how much capital it has to hold. So the regulator is just more aggressive now, which reminds me of, in middle school, we had a gym teacher who would have these very aggressive athletic supporter checks before every class. And we got used to that for a while, but he was just aggressive in his job. So we're dealing with a little bit of that. That's a positive thing, though. Bank of America was the only one who didn't pass, other U.S. banks, who didn't pass with flying colors.
Starting point is 00:10:19 The other, like Citigroup, J.P. Morgan Goldman, they had to alter their dividend and payment plans, but it was a very large. I'm trying to carry on with my work. Oh, boy. How'd you get there? Yeah, I don't know where to go with this now. But, yeah, bottom line, only Deutsche Bank and Sandhender's U.S. units failed. Everyone else is okay. Except your gym teacher.
Starting point is 00:10:43 Okay, so, you know what? Let's leave it there for now. Coming up, we've got some big news from Disney. Stay right here. This is Motley Full Money. Welcome back to Motley Full Money. Matt Greer here with Jason Mozer. At Argersinger and James Early. Guys, ShakeShack reported its first quarterly earnings report
Starting point is 00:11:12 on Wednesday. Jason, I will admit to being confused. They report earnings after market on Wednesday. On Thursday, the stock falls more than 10 percent, but then it recovers all of that, and then some, what's the story here? Well, I mean, I think a lot of people are still trying to figure out exactly what the story with ShakeShack is. I mean, it is a volatile stock. It's a stock with a low float of shares trading on the open market. Which will bring you those big price swings. So that's one of the things to keep an eye on there. But I think really the two questions with Shake Shack are, number one, how big can this company get? How big can this chain get? And then number two, is it going to be able to work any pricing power into that model there? And those are questions that we just don't know yet. I mean, to me, I've never been to a Shake Shack, but it just strikes me as kind of just another burger joint. I mean, granted. Great burgers. Yeah, so great burgers, that's fine. I mean, there are. There are plenty of great burger places out there, though. They're not the first ones to do this.
Starting point is 00:12:10 And so I do question the growth there. I mean, if you look at 2015, they're talking about opening, maybe about 15 total new stores around the world. And you compare that to something like Chipotle. They're going to open about 200 this year. So the question really is one of growth, and the jury is still out. I would just say, looking at the market cap of the company, you know, 63 stores right now, they're valuing the stores right now at about $9 million each. Which is phenomenal. And half of those stores are, by the way, license or franchise. So there is a lot. I mean, 15 stores, you said 15, that is not a lot of growth, really, when you think about
Starting point is 00:12:48 it. So just something to watch out for. To put that in context, I mean, Chipotle runs about two and a half million, a little bit less than $2.5 million in sales per store annually. So you can see there's a little bit of a disconnect there with Shake Shack at this point. Twitter is making a big bet on video. They have acquired live streaming video upstart periscope. Jason, this is a $100 million deal. What do you make of it? Yeah, $100 million is a drop in the bucket for Twitter right now.
Starting point is 00:13:12 I mean, they have a lot of money on the balance sheet there. They issued some debt earlier. I like this deal. I think that live streaming video is going to be a big trend we see here in the coming years. I was tinkering around with another app out there that's doing this called Mirkat. It's really neat. I mean, you know, the basic concept is if I'm somewhere, I can actually live stream this event on my phone so that other people following can watch it. I mean, a good
Starting point is 00:13:35 example is the South by Southwest conference out there in Austin this week. You'll see a lot of people doing a lot of live streaming there. And this is one of those things, you know, Twitter's goal is to keep you in that Twitter environment for as long as possible. And this is going to be another way to do that. So I'm a fan of the deal. And Matt, a very bad week for Vera Bradley, the retailer shares hit an all-time low this week after they reported a 20% decline in same store sales for the holiday quarter. I don't follow the company, but that sounds bad. That sounds, well, you know, we, yeah, that's JCPenney-like. That's kind of the epically bad. 20% decline in same-store sales. I mean, it's just been a brutal market
Starting point is 00:14:12 for, you know, for accessories and apparel. We've seen that. We know what's happened to coach. We've seen Michael Coors, which he recently hit, I think, a two-year low. And Vera Bradley's kind of on even the low end of that market. And so this is, it's just not a great place to be. And, you know, this is a company. I was looking at this company. I was looking at this company. I don't often look at this company, but the two founders of this company are both in their late 70s. You wonder what kind of brand power this company has. I don't think it's very much. It sounds like this is stuff you can find talking to Jason at your local golf store discount, bin, at Walmart maybe. So not a strong brand and certainly a company
Starting point is 00:14:47 that is struggling. 20% drop in same store sales. Tough to recover. They describe themselves on the website as a, quote, leader in fashionable, colorful, cotton-quilted handbags and accessories. What's my wheelhouse? They certainly, that's colorful as an understatement. There's no question there. But I don't think they can call themselves a leader or necessarily fashionable, right? You don't get to decide whether you're fashionable, right?
Starting point is 00:15:10 No, and your results certainly don't make it sound like that that's the case. Okay, well, moving on to some more fashionable news. Disney, big news, James Early. At the shareholder meeting this week, Disney confirmed that, yes, there will be a sequel to Frozen. they also talked about the new Star Wars films. What do you make of it all? How was that fashionable, Mac? Have you seen Frozen?
Starting point is 00:15:29 I have not. I've not. I've not seen a movie in the theater in 10 years, actually. Do you know any girls between the ages of 6 and 16? He was trying to make a segue. Come on. I know. It's a good segue.
Starting point is 00:15:39 I'm just giving me a hard time as the guest host, although I think he's doing a great job. I have not seen it, but yeah, it's a tremendously popular animated film franchise. It's going to be a big winner if we do a Frozen 2 for Hasbro, because the merchandising rights are going to shift over in 2016 from Mattel to Hasbro for those Disney. It's been 20 years with Mattel. Now Hasbro gets that. And that's kind of the story that I take away. Bob Eiger said Frozen was going to be a big franchise.
Starting point is 00:16:09 He thinks he was going to have a lot of licensed property. He was completely right. And how about the stock here, James, because it's more than tripled since Iger became CEO 10 years ago. So are you a buyer at these levels? You know, I've said it before. Disney's a stock that makes me feel like an idiot each time I think about it. Because years ago, I looked at Disney and thought, I should buy it, but it's a little bit too expensive. And it just kept going up and up and up and up.
Starting point is 00:16:31 And it just goes to show you that it's worth it paying out for that extra quality. And you know, they just raised tickets for the parks, too. So, I mean, that's just, they have so many different ways they make money. I can't. My kids, my two girls, they were just thrilled when I told them the Frozen Two actually is a reality. Because, I mean, they can't get enough of the first. and we own it, they still watch it, they sing the music all the time, and, you know, wow, how many, how many kids during Halloween did you see dressed up as frozen characters?
Starting point is 00:17:00 You know the songs pretty well by now. I do, I hear them, I hear them daily. And would they consider it fashionable? Oh, absolutely. It dictates how they wear the, from hair to dresses. And our last story, and this is probably our favorite story of the week, everyone loves a creepy doll story. Mattel's newest Barbie, Hello Barbie, which records your child's voice,
Starting point is 00:17:20 saves it in the cloud for up to two years. And the idea here, guys, is that Hello Barbie will learn all about your child and tailor the conversation accordingly. It's not out yet, but a lot of privacy concerns here. What do we think of Hello Barbie? It's intriguing to me. At first, I wasn't worried about the privacy. I thought, oh, you know, what's the big deal of some kids going to be saying things? But certainly if some hacker got in or the company wanted to use the Barbie to ask for sensitive information, like credit card numbers. checks on or if the parent got control
Starting point is 00:17:52 and was able to communicate with a child through the Barbie like, does the mailman ever come inside the house? You know, like you could get some weird situations going. I in general don't react too much about it, but it could be a good move for Mattel because Barbie has really been struggling for them lately.
Starting point is 00:18:08 Well, Steve Broido did some crack research and actually, Steve, I think you got hold of one of the Mattel Barbies? I love Molly for Money. Oh, now I want one. Oh, that's so sweet. Okay, I get the joke. I get the show. I know I love this Barbie.
Starting point is 00:18:22 James Early is so handsome. Oh, look at that. Wow. That's great. James apparently got hold of the Hello Barbie. This thing is going to be flying off the show. Is that what you're playing for before the show? I saw you.
Starting point is 00:18:35 Yeah, it's all coming together. So looking at the Hello Barbie, does it move the needle at all for you for Mattel? Mattel is in a bind. They're going to need a lot more than a Hello Barbie to move in a needle. What is? Even one that sings your praises. I am surprised. But no, but I do, I am plattered.
Starting point is 00:18:53 That made my day, actually. James is turning her into disgruntled Barbie now. Okay, guys, thanks. We will talk to you later in the show, and we always want to hear from our listeners. If you have any thoughts on Apple, Shake Shack, Twitter, Disney, or Mattel's newest Barbie, we want to hear from you. Our email is Radio at Fool.com. Radio at Fool.com. And you can read more on all of these companies and all of these stocks on our Motleyful website.
Starting point is 00:19:17 at fool.com. But up next, who's making the big money off March Madness? Are we moving to a world where college players are going to start getting paid? And is Under Armour gaining ground on Nike? We'll tackle those questions as we talk about the big business of college sports. Barbie, you're beautiful, or just my style. I fall in love each time. Stay right here. This is Motley Full Money. Welcome back to Motley Full Money. Matt Greer is sitting in for Chris Hill this week. And yes, it's March Madness Time, so it's time to talk about the business of basketball. We're talking a lot of money for advertising, broadcast rights, and money being wagered.
Starting point is 00:20:06 So billions of dollars at stake. And earlier this week, Chris Hill had the chance to talk about the business of basketball with Christy Dash. Christy has analyzed sports business for ESPN, Forbes, and The Motley Fool. From a financial standpoint, is there one big? winner to this tournament? Is there more than one? The interesting thing I found when I started reporting on March Madness a few years back is that the same conferences that take home all the money for football, you know, the Power Five, we're always talking about how they get that biggest slice of the pie. It happens in basketball, too,
Starting point is 00:20:40 and nobody ever talks about it. No one realizes that they also take home the lion's share from the men's basketball tournament. So last year, nearly $200 million was distributed by the NCAA to all of the division. conferences for the men's basketball tournament. And the Power 5 and the Big East included with those, since they used to be kind of part of that upper echelon, they took home 62% of all of the revenue that was distributed. That left about $70 million that was split between the remaining 25 conferences.
Starting point is 00:21:13 So I don't think people realize that in terms of revenue sharing, the basketball tournament really isn't all that different than football. You know, we always talk about the Cinderella's, And it's so exciting to see them, you know, make it into the elite aid or even into the final four. But a team from outside of those six big football conferences hasn't actually won the title in basketball since UNLV did it in 1990. So it's been a long time. You mentioned the Cinderella story. And it does seem like every year there's at least one team from a small conference.
Starting point is 00:21:47 In some cases, it's a school that a lot of people haven't heard of. I mean, I'm a pretty big college basketball fan, but two years ago, when Florida Gulf Coast University made their run, I was just learning of the school's existence. Dayton made a nice run last year. If they're not getting the big money directly from the tournament, does it translate into some sort of financial gain, either through apparel sales or greater applications? It does, absolutely. So I live in Florida, and I had never heard of Florida Gulf Coast until they made it into the tournament. I'm now very aware of them. Wow, I feel better than that.
Starting point is 00:22:21 And they come up here to – I had just moved to Florida, so I will give myself that out. But they do – they come up to Jacksonville to play UNF and JU. So I'm much more aware of them now. But I don't think I was the only one in this area who had never heard of them. Younger school, you know, had a smaller student base. I think if you didn't have a kid who was looking at colleges in Florida, it was quite possible that you had never heard of them before. They saw enormous returns on that. The merchandise sales did skyrocket, especially during the tournament and immediately after.
Starting point is 00:22:51 but their application numbers really multiplied as well. And I remember them telling me that they're out-of-state applications. That was where they saw the biggest bump because there were so many people from out-of-state who had never heard of them before. And to me, that's one of the great things about college athletics, especially football and basketball because they get so much television time. And when these schools that have more of a local or a regional presence make it into a big bowl game or they make it into March Madness, that gets them.
Starting point is 00:23:21 advertising that they literally couldn't buy. They wouldn't be able to afford the millions of dollars it would cost to get that kind of time on television. And it produces great returns for about two to three years. So you've got to be prepared to capitalize on it when it happens, because it doesn't last unless you make another run in the tournament. You're listening to Motley Full Money talking with Christy Dash, sports business analyst and expert. One group that is definitely not on the list of big financial winners from the NCAA a college basketball tournament are the student athletes themselves. Where are we in the debate of paying college athletes?
Starting point is 00:23:59 Because now we're starting to see crowdfunding initiatives like fan pay pop up, which solicits voluntary contributions for players who can collect a little bit of money once they graduate and they don't have any eligibility left. If we move to a system where college athletes are going to be paid, is it going to be directly from the schools themselves? do you think it's going to be from some sort of alternative source like that? You know, that's been a really interesting development, and I can't wait to see what the NCAA is going to do about that
Starting point is 00:24:27 because I'm sure they're meeting, you know, sort of as we speak, trying to figure out how to keep down sites like that. Because I think there's a lot of room for boosters to influence where student athletes go to school. And I think that's what the NCAA wants to avoid. It's not that they want to avoid paying student athletes, although they're obviously going to talk about amateurism and that kind of thing. But I think if you could actually sit in that, offices and hear what they were talking about. It's not, you know, we have to do everything we can,
Starting point is 00:24:54 you know, to keep student athletes from ever being paid. You know, I don't think that's what they're saying. I think they're trying to figure out how do you provide better benefits and also comply with Title IX. How do you provide those benefits and not allow boosters to influence where a kid goes to school? And I think those are important things to consider. And that's what I've always really focused on in my writing. It's not this moral of argument of should they or shouldn't they be paid, but how do you do it and still create a keep a fair and sort of balance system? And, okay, people will argue there's already a lack of competitive balance, whether we're talking about football or basketball or really any of the other sports at the college level,
Starting point is 00:25:29 but you want to try to maintain it as best you can. And I think it's a dangerous situation to let fans be paying for players on sites like that. I'm not sure how they're going to prevent that from happening. They're obviously trying to provide more benefits. We've gone to cost of attendance. We've gone to unlimited meals. The O'Bannon decision, if it stands, would potentially also put a trust fund into place that could be created for these student athletes, where they would receive the money after graduation.
Starting point is 00:25:58 And the way that the O'Bannon ruling was worded, that trust fund cannot be set at less than $5,000 per student athlete if a school were to implement that. But schools aren't required to implement it. And not everyone would be able to afford that. So I think you do have to find that balance between providing them greater benefits, but figuring out also where is that money coming from? And how are you going to give it to student athletes and still comply with Title IX? Because you can't just give it to football and men's basketball players in most instances. Although people are starting to come up with really creative solutions to that. I've heard some great solutions for the trust fund idea that actually kind of avoid Title IX.
Starting point is 00:26:40 So, you know, I would say there are a lot of people out there right now working on it. and they want to find ways to provide greater benefits, but they have so many different things. They have to balance with that. All right. Let's talk about a few specific companies that are involved and certainly watching this event closely. Twitter certainly benefited greatly last summer from the World Cup.
Starting point is 00:27:00 Now, that's a month-long tournament with a global audience. March Madness isn't drawing the same worldwide audience. But how important is the college basketball tournament to social media companies like Twitter and even SNAPS? Snapchat. I think it's still huge. You know, Twitter, I followed Twitter last year, especially for the Final Four. I think I wrote a piece about what the Final Four teams were each doing on Twitter and how they were using Twitter differently for their fan bases. I think there's a lot more to gain for the schools in using, whether it's Twitter or Snapchat or Instagram or whichever social
Starting point is 00:27:34 platforms they choose to engage during March Madness, there's a great way to engage your current students, your alumni, and I think the biggest benefits are probably for the schools, not for Twitter as a corporation, but I know that Twitter and Snapchat have constantly been adding new features in the form of video updates, and I know right now Snapchat is trying to partner with some leagues and conferences to be able to provide some live feed, and I think we'll see more of that in the future. But I think the biggest benefits definitely for the schools, if they're using social media correctly into their best advantage. Twitter and Snapchat, this is sort of a one-off event for them, but for the sports apparel companies,
Starting point is 00:28:18 this is certainly big business. And earlier this week here in Virginia, Old Dominion University announced it was ending its relationship with Nike. They've signed a five-year deal with Under Armour, and the apparel will be for football, men's and women's basketball. And Old Dominion University, not the biggest name school in the country, but You look at what Under Armour has done signing similar deals with Notre Dame, Navy, Auburn, Boston College. Nike's the clear leader.
Starting point is 00:28:49 There's no question about that. But to what extent are Under Armour and Adidas chipping away at their lead? I think Under Armour especially is. Adidas, I think, is fighting to stay relevant and stay in the game. But when I talk to people at these schools that actually deal with the licensing deals, some of them are in the middle of negotiating deals right now. Under Armour is kind of the up-and-coming company. I think they're offering some interesting solutions and benefits to school.
Starting point is 00:29:17 I believe it was Notre Dame that they actually got some stock options in Under Armour. Not every school has the sort of brand value that Notre Dame has, so obviously everybody's not going to be getting that sort of deal. But I think they're willing to sort of think outside of the box. They are smaller and maybe more nimble than Nike is, and that's why they're able to offer those sorts of things. But the schools I've talked to who use Under Armour have nothing but wonderful things to say about Under Armour and about the service that they get from Under Armour.
Starting point is 00:29:44 And, again, a lot of that could be because it is a smaller company. And they're really making college athletics a big focus. I mean, Nike's in a lot of different sports. You know, they've got a huge golf presence. You know, obviously worldwide, too, they have an enormous presence. So they've kind of got their hands in a lot of different buckets. And that's not to say that Under Armour only focuses on college athletics, but if I had to pick one of the apparel companies that I'd I felt like college athletics was their point of emphasis and really a market that they wanted to be in and that they were doing a lot of innovation and thinking about how they could improve that market.
Starting point is 00:30:17 You know, Under Armour is the one I think of for college athletics. So I wouldn't be surprised to see more schools jumping to Under Armour over the next few years. All right. Last question. And then I'll let you go. I know that last year you taught a sports marketing class at the University of North Florida and the team, the mighty Osprey, and really who's not afraid of a mascot like the Osprey. They made it into the tournament this year.
Starting point is 00:30:45 Is that your pick? Is that your Cinderella pick to make a deep run into the tournament? Oh, I hope so. That would be wonderful. It's so nice to see a school from this community. I would have been happy if it was UNF or JU to see a school from this community, make it into the tournament. It's good, not just for the school.
Starting point is 00:31:00 You know, it's great for Jacksonville because Jacksonville's going to get some press out of this as well. My husband works in Sports Talk Radio here in Jacksonville, and he came home so excited because it's going to be great for the radio station because everybody in town is excited about it. And it's fun to see it happen to UNF because when I was teaching sports marketing there, I had someone from their basketball marketing team come in and talk to my class about how difficult it is to get butts in the seats and to get people excited about a team that wasn't winning because they weren't very good last year. And we talked about, you know, creative ways they could try to get people to come out. to the games and, you know, it all came back to, oh, if they were only winning, it would be so much easier. And then to see them have this kind of season this year, I was definitely not what I expected. And I think it's really exciting for the whole city and even people who normally, you know, wouldn't root for UNF or don't follow them that closely. They will during the tournament.
Starting point is 00:31:52 Absolutely going to be rooting for them, particularly if they play one of those, you know, top-seeded teams. You've got to root for the underdog in that case. Absolutely. She's the author of the book, Saturday Millionaires, about the business of college football. You can follow her on Twitter or on her website, Christy Dash.com. Christy, thank you so much for being here and enjoy the tournament. Absolutely. Thanks for having me. I need the dollar, dollar, dollar. Said, I need dollar, dollar, if I share with you to share it.
Starting point is 00:32:29 Coming up, we'll share some stocks on our radar. Stay right here. This is Motley Fool, Mike. As always, people on the program may have interest in the socks they talk about, and the Motley Fool may have formal recommendations for her again. so don't buy ourselves stocks based solely on what you're here. Welcome back to Motley Full Money. Matt Greer is sitting in for Chris Hill this week,
Starting point is 00:32:57 and I'm joined by Jason Moser, James Early, and Matt Argersinger. Guys, we're going to get to the full mailbag in a minute, but we've got some fun news, some exciting news. Go Banking Rates is an online portal for tons of banking information, mortgages, car loans, credit cards, the like. And what they've done is they've come up with a list of the best financial radio shows and podcast, and Motley Full Money made that list. So you can vote for the winner by going to go banking rates.com, and we are in great company with the likes of Dave Ramsey, Clark Howard, Freakonomics.
Starting point is 00:33:32 We've had all of those on our show, big fans of them. But, you know, I've got a suggestion on who people should vote for. And, you know, I don't want to say it, but, you know, this is motleyful money. And I agree with you. Even though I didn't know what you're saying. Yeah, make your own decisions, Molly full money. Make your own decisions. Money full money.
Starting point is 00:33:48 Okay. So now, on to the full mailbag. We've got our email address here, Radio at Fool.com, and this email comes from Nathan McNamara of the University of Wisconsin. And Nathan writes, I'm an engineering student and math tutor, and I enjoy the show whenever I have the chance to listen. A sixth grader who I tutor wears everything under armor, frequently talks of using his GoPro on his mountain bike, and his pencil box is usually decorated with Olaf stickers. He says all things I notice when thinking about today's hot brands. What really made me think of you guys was when he recently volunteered that Olive Garden is his favorite restaurant. I figured the man behind the glass would approve.
Starting point is 00:34:31 My question for Steve Broido is, with so many people posting pictures of their food on the internet, would a partnership between GoPro and Olive Garden makes sense? No, it would be totally humiliating to me, but I would love it the same. Why would it? How would it humiliate you? It's humiliating to watch people watch you eat, I think. I wouldn't want people to see me eating. I'm flattered, but I think it would be... At least not on a consistent basis.
Starting point is 00:34:58 Definitely not. Okay, well, sorry, Nathan. Thanks for taking the time to write. Buzz kill, Steve Royto. Maybe his Olive Garden really brings out the beast to see it. It does. He just wants to eat quietly. Eat his food quietly.
Starting point is 00:35:10 I understand. Okay, on that note, let's move on to the stocks on our radar. Matt, what do you got for us? Yeah, I'm going to make James a little happy today, because I think I'm taking one of your buy-first stocks in income investor. I think it's still a buy-first, Spectra Energy, which is one of the nation's biggest pipeline companies, gas pipeline. And I just look at this space, the pipeline midstream energy space, and it's been really
Starting point is 00:35:32 beaten up with the fall on oil prices and gas prices. But pipelines in particular are a little bit more immune to that, to price sensitivity. They've got long-term contracts. And I just feel like we're going to use a lot more natural gas in the future. Energy, cheap, 4% dividend yield right now, and a company that, yeah, it's showing up on my radar. Steve? When are oil prices going to come back? Because I'm getting killed.
Starting point is 00:35:55 On all my oil stocks, I'm getting killed. They will come back within the next three to five years. Boom. Excellent. James, what are you got? Well, as evidence that we literally don't coordinate our prep for the show, beforehand, I also had Spectre Energy as my stock of the day. It's written here. I'm describing it as a sort of a Swiss-Arts.
Starting point is 00:36:14 Army 9 for the midstream natural gas. These guys, they don't suck the gas out of the ground, but they do pass the gas onto the consumer. More than 30% upside by my model. And if you want a fresh name, you could look at One Oak. O.K.E. That's a sort of a spectra-like company in Oklahoma. If you want something different. But an advantage of both of these is that they're not master-limited partnerships. So you don't have that extra tax complexity. A lot of people are a little bit intimidated by that. But these are just regular C-Corps. A distance. Does that make a huge deal? I'm assuming that further away than more money these guys make? It's more complicated than that in a way. I mean, the better way to think of it is what sort of competition is serving that same route. Pipelines are sort of regulated. They're like mini-monopoly. So I can't build a pipeline right next to yours, Steve, unless I demonstrate an economic need. So if I have like kind of a lockdown on a certain area, then I'm going to benefit from that. Jason, what are you got?
Starting point is 00:37:14 I think listeners have to be very compelled by that. I mean, a double pop there? By accident, too. And there was no planning. I swear to God. No planning. That's special energy. It's on the up and up.
Starting point is 00:37:26 I'm going to go with, I'm going to talk at Maddie's Boston heartstrings today. I'm going with Boston Beer, ticker S-A-M. Y'all, baby. This is. Popping his car in the right spot right there. It is, I can't do it in an accident nearly that well. But this is a really, really well-run business. And for the longest time, it's always commanded just a really premium valuation in the market.
Starting point is 00:37:49 And so fortunately, I think for long-term investors, the company's most recent earnings quarter came out. And while it wasn't bad, it did express some headwinds, and the company is going to be investing more in the brand and supply chain as it grows. And so consequently, the stock got shellacked. And it brings it back down to reality. It's around 40 times earnings today. I think there's still a lot of growth left for these guys to have. Just in the past decade alone, they went from selling 1.3 million barrels of beer to 4.1 million barrels of beer today. They are bringing more brands under their umbrella, pursuing other avenues of growth like hard cider and flavored malt beverages.
Starting point is 00:38:31 So it's more than just Samuel Adams beer today. Love this business. I think it's certainly worth a look for investors with a longer time horizon. Okay, Steve, you have two very distinct choices here. Spectra Energy or Boston beer. I don't like beer very much, so I'm going Spectra Energy. There it is. Wow.
Starting point is 00:38:48 Kind of a man, are you? You don't like beer. I don't like Sam Adams either. He doesn't like to be filmed when he eats. He doesn't like beer. But I do like gas companies, so there you go. Do you like wine? Not so much.
Starting point is 00:39:00 What's your drink of choice, Steve? I'm a Diet Coke man. Yeah, I'm with you there. Okay, well, on that note, a Diet Coke man. Arger Singer, James Early, Jason Moser. Great to have you guys on the show. And we should say that to all of our listeners, it is great for their support, as you would say, James. That wraps up another edition of wonderful money. Nice work, Mac. The show is mixed by Dan Boyd and Steve Broido. Our engineer is Steve Broido. I'm Mack Rear. Thanks for listening, and we will see you next week.

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