Motley Fool Money - Buy, Sell, or Hold?

Episode Date: August 20, 2021

Will Amazon’s department stores be a hit with shoppers? Who is the next CEO to announce retirement? What’s the next big trend in alcohol sales? Maria Gallagher and Jason Moser tackle those questions, as well as the latest earnings from Walmart, Target, Lowe’s Home Depot, Foot Locker, Nvidia, Farfetch, and Robinhood. Plus, they discuss Chipotle’s newest menu item, share 11 stock ideas for the return of weddings and two stocks on their radar: Roblox and Elastic. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

If you're a small business owner, you already know what it takes to keep everything moving. You're juggling customers, invoices, and about 100 decisions every day. Thankfully, taxes don't have to be one more thing on that list with Intuit TurboTax. You can get your business taxes done for you with a full service expert. TurboTax matches you with your dedicated tax expert who knows your industry understands your business write-offs and gives you the personalized advice your business deserves. upload your documents right in the app, hand everything off, and still feel like you're in the loop the whole way through. You can even get real-time updates on your expert's progress right in the app,

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 Radio Show. I'm Chris Hill, joining me this week, senior analyst Jason Moser and Maria Gallagher. Good to see you both. Addy. We've got the latest headlines from Wall Street. We've got a round of buy-seller hold. And as always, we've got a couple of stocks on our radar. But we begin this week with a wide range of retail.

First up is Target. Second quarter profits and revenue were higher than expected. Same store sales rose nearly 9 percent. Target raised full year guidance. And despite all that goodness, Jason, shares have Target down about 3 percent this week. Yeah, down a little bit this week. And maybe that's a little bit of a reflection of where the stock was valued going into the week and perhaps a little bit of uncertainty for the back half of the year just based on the current situation. I wouldn't let that take away enthusiasm for what this company is doing. To me, this is one of the premier retailers in the world.

I don't think that's hyperbole. I mean, they've stuck with their plan, and it is straight up working. I mean, Omni Channel doesn't even really seem to do them full justice. And the numbers, really, I think, bear that out. In the second quarter of the comparable sales, those comps were up 8.9%. And that was on top of 24.3% a year ago, clearly a year ago, was. was a lot accelerated last year, right? So it's a difficult comp going into this year, but revenue grew 9.5% from a year ago.

So as a result, when you look at total sales for the quarter, they've grown more than 36% over the last two years alone. And that's, to me, just, it's very telling. I mean, it shows in both traffic and tickets. I mean, traffic continues to impress. I mean, traffic grew 12.7% in the quarter. Now, ticket did decline, right? The actual average ticket did decline just slightly, 3.4%. I think that's to be expected, right? We're seeing a little bit, we're not seeing the same sense of urgency on shoppers as we did a year ago. There isn't

the same level of pantry stuffing going on. But I think, you know, when you look at where the company is from an inventory perspective, inventories up 26% from a year ago. So they're in a really good position, I think, here for the back half of the year. But going to that plan, going to that Omni-Channel plan, I mean, when you look at the comparable digital sales, I mean, those grew 10% for the quarter. Now, that's on top of 1195% growth from a year ago. Again, I think a year ago isn't necessarily a fair comp, but I think it shows that they're continuing the trend of growing. But it's the same-day services, whether it's in-store pickup, the drive-up, the shipped acquisition is really proving to be a tremendous one. But,

Drive-Up has really impressed. To put it into dollar terms here, over the last two years, the second quarter sales through Drive-Up alone had increased by nearly $1.4 billion. And all along the way, they've built up this tremendous rewards program. They now have more than 100 million Target Circle rewards members now. We know how powerful those loyalty and rewards programs could be. So all things considered, I think Target continues to really, execute on their plan that they've laid out here over the last several years. Shares of Walmart were up a bit this week and close to an all-time high.

Second quarter revenue was just over $140 billion. Foot traffic is growing, and so are same store sales in the U.S., Maria. Yeah, so Walmart had their highest quarterly revenue ever for a three-month period outside of the holiday season. Like you said, total revenue was about $140 billion, up 2.4%. They grew market share in grocery. their comparable transactions were 6.1% up 6.1% led by in-store grocery transactions. Their e-commerce sales were up 6% year-over-year and 103% if you look at a two-year comp. And they're expecting global e-commerce sales to reach $75 billion for the year. In addition, Sam Club sales were up about 7.7%

and e-commerce there grew about 27%. So in general, their same store sales, gained momentum each month throughout the quarter. And their CFO, Brett Bigg, said that customers flocked to stores for items like luggage, party supplies, apparel, and they're coming as if they're coming out of hibernation. And I think as we get back into school season, as we then get into Halloween, and then it's Thanksgiving and then it's Christmas, you know, August starts propelling into fall. And fall is kind of a nonstop time to go shopping for fun things to decorate your house. So I see that continuing in the next couple quarters as well. Yeah, I'm glad you mentioned the school because Target talked about this.

And Walmart also said they're seeing good numbers already in their back-to-school sales, which is so important for any retailer. Yeah, and I think that what the beauty of places like Walmart and Target is you go in for one thing and then you leave with 900 things you didn't want. And I think you go in for a school backpack and then all of a sudden you have 30 candles and a whole new wardrobe. And that's the beauty of these big retailers. From general retail to home improvement, Home Depot and Lowe's both out with second quarter reports this week, both posting profits that were higher than expected. But while Home Depot did not offer guidance for the full fiscal year, Lowe's raised their guidance. And that may have been one of the reasons shares of lows were up 6% this week.

Home Depot down just a little bit, Jason. Yeah, well, Maria, I have that same problem of going in with the intentions of buying one thing and walking out with 500 whenever I go to a Home Depot or a Lowe's. So, yeah, I guess I'm a mark for these two stores. but it does feel like the underlying story for both businesses, right? I think both businesses recorded very good quarters. I think the underlying story really is about the pro customer. I mean, they did see some pullback and then do-it-yourself demographic there, but the pro customer really stepped up and helped bring the results for both companies.

When you look at Home Depot, again, I mean, dealing with a difficult comp given last year, But, I mean, still very respectable numbers. Their sales of $41.1 billion that was up just over 8% from a year ago. Comp sales were up 4.5%. U.S. comps were up 3.4%. Now, when you look at where margins are going with these companies, right, the margins are still, they're still a little bit challenged on the gross margin side. They saw gross margin for Home Depot down 80 basis points, and that was based really on

inflationary costs, things like lumber and whatnot. But operating expenses remain in checking. They're actually doing a very good job of dealing with this sort of new paradigm on the operating side. And so operating expenses were up. I mean, operating margin was up 20 basis points. And that was thanks, I think, to those ticket and transactions numbers, right? The average ticket grew 11.3% in the face of declining transactions. Transactions actually fell 6%.

Again, understandable. There's not that same feeling of haste or consumers rushing to get in those stores and buy the things that they need. But when you look at the big-ticket customers, I mean, again, the big-ticket customers continue to perform very well. Those transactions over $1,000, that was up 24 percent compared to a year ago. And so for me, when you look at what Home Depot is doing, inventories remain in check. The pro customer continuing to really bring results, which again, those outpace the do-it-yourself customers. But we see that ebb and flow with Home Depot, quarter in and quarter out. And so it's not really a surprise. In regard to lows, again, good numbers, sales of $27.6 billion. That was relatively flat from a year ago.

And during the quarter, they saw those comps actually decline 1.6% total and 2.2% for the U.S. Those two-year numbers obviously paint a little bit of a different picture, though. So that's encouraging. Again, I think for Lowe's, the pro customer really performed. They saw the average ticket grow also 11.3%. That offset a declining transaction count, right? Declining traffic of 12.9 percent, a little bit more exaggerated there than what we saw with Home Depot. But gross margin, I think a good story there.

Gross margin declined only 30 basis points, and they saw operating margin, on the other hand, expand 80 basis points. So, these companies are doing a very good job of handling the cost structures they've been handed given the past couple of years. And I think in Lowe's case, you look at CEO Marvin Allison. I mean, he took it. It's just been basically three years since he took the helm there. Stocks up 120 percent.

And the numbers are really, I think, bearing out the stocks performance there. So he's got to be feeling really good about what he's done. Shares of Foot Locker up nearly 10 percent on Friday after second quarter profits and revenue came in higher than expected. Street was also expecting negative same store sales. Comps were up nearly 7 percent, Maria. First of all, did you know that Falukker has almost 3,000 stores, which is just so many more than I realize they had? But their total sales were up 9.5 percent to 2.2 billion. Their comp store sales were up about 7 percent. They had strong results in women's and kids footwear business with broad

demand for apparel and accessories. And you see that trend continuing as people spend more on athletic footwear and apparel throughout the paint. pandemic and beyond. They also announced a quarterly dividend of 30 cents a share, which is about a 50% increase. And they have two recent acquisitions, which are fueling its growth in Asia with Atmos and in non-Mall presence with WSS, but still within that same category of shoe sales. So they've been capitalizing on that growth in athletic, athleisure and are attempting to kind of continue that as things get more back to normal. As people have maybe started going back to Foot Locker and they're saying, well, keep coming back, keep coming back.

Well, and it's interesting. You mentioned all the locations for the namesake brand, but those acquisitions that they made, I mean, they do seem smart in part because it's a way for Foot Locker to diversify away from malls. Yeah, and kind of growing that demographic. I know they said WSS is used by people in the Latina demographic. Atmos is in Asia. And so they're trying to kind of diversify their customer base as well. What's better than a company announcing a new product when they use the announcement as a way to take shots at other companies. Companies. Details after the break, so stay right here. This is Motley Fool Money. Welcome back to Motley Full Money. Chris Hill here with Jason Moser and Maria Gallagher.

Invidia's stock is closing in on a new all-time high after second quarter revenue came in higher than expected. Guidance for the current quarter looked good. The only downside this week came when Invidia told the financial times, they may not meet the regulatory deadline on last year's $40 billion acquisition of arm. It's a big deal, Jason, and regulators appear to be taking a long, hard look. Yeah, I mean, I know the big question for NVIDA will revolve around this RM deal, and that does make sense.

I would encourage investors to not lose sight of the fact, though. This is still a very strong business, performing quite well on its own. And to that point, revenue for the quarter, $6.5 billion up 68% from a year ago. They noted they set records for total revenue in their gaming data segment. Data Center segment and professional visualization segment. And so breaking that down, gaming revenue of $3.1 billion, grew 85% from a year ago, up 11% sequentially, benefiting from very strong laptop demand, which seems pretty reasonable, given what we know.

The data center business, which is another tremendous part of this story, the revenue of $2.4 billion, that was up 35% from the year ago quarter. And it's important to note, I mean, Nvidia is a key part of the tech that's going into these big customers' cloud offering. So when we're talking about Microsoft and Google and Amazon, I mean, Nvidia is a lot of what's making that stuff work. And there's some stickiness there. So I think that's really encouraging for investors. The pro visualization segment of the business, clearly the smaller of the three, but still, revenue $519 million up 156 percent from a year ago, benefiting from the changing work landscape. I think a need

part of the story. Look out for Nvidia Omniverse. This is an offering a platform they had. This is going to be a big piece of the development of the Metaverse. And we're going to hear more and more about this Metaverse here in the coming years of companies like Roblox and whatnot out there doing what they do. So to me, yeah, I mean, they'll continue to invest in Nvidia Inception, which is essentially their acceleration platform for AI startups. They've got funding of over $60 billion in members of 90 countries on the on the, on the, on the, on the this Inception platform. And that is really, I think, promoting strong in continuing investments in AI, which is going to be a very big story here over the coming decade. One, you continue

to see more and more throughout the quarters with NVIDIA. Farfetch, the online luxury fashion platform grew revenue in the second quarter by more than 40 percent, but shares falling by more than 6 percent this week. Maria, they're growing, their gross merchandise volume, along with their revenue, is the drive. Rob and Farfetch a buying opportunity? I think it could be. I think it's really this leader, and it kind of carved itself out in this online luxury space, which is really kind of a niche.

It has 1,300 luxury sellers, 3 million active customers. Their GMV was up over to up 40% to over a billion dollars this last quarter with that high take rate of 30%. And that revenue increased about 43% to 523 million. They also launched some really cool things on their platform. So they have an immersive 3D shopping experience. They have virtual try-on capabilities. They launched kids' wear fashion.

That's still very expensive, very luxury. And I have a note here that says, I found a candle I like, and it's only $120. And so it really has this niche on online commerce, but with retail. And when you have those brands, when you have cultivated a relationship with those brands, I think that that's a pretty valuable, intangible growth driver for them. Shares of Robin Hood falling 15% this week. The Trading App's first report as a public company came with a warning that trading activity is slowing down. Jason, trading is Robin Hood's business, so I get why the stock is down.

Yep. You said it, and they need as many transactions as they can get their hands on. They say they want to become the most trusted and most culturally relevant money app worldwide. And I don't doubt that, but they are today catering to a market where they're are going to be some big hurdles to clear. I mean, the word association, when you say Robinhood, I mean, the first couple of words that come to mind are stonks in crypto and the like memes. I mean, like, this is just not where you want to be, I think, in your first reportable quarter year, but here's where we are. Crypto revenue grew to $233 million up from just $5 million a year ago. options up, up 48% to $165 million. So you can see, I mean, this is a platform that while

it may be good at what they do, they're catering to a unique demographic. When you look at that actual demographic, net cumulative funded accounts reach 22.5 million, that's up 130% from a year ago. Monthly active users, 21.3 million. That's up 109%. Asset under custody reached 102 billion up 205%. That's all great. But what it all boils down to is you have $4,500 average account there, right? I mean, so these aren't big-ticket customers. And I would imagine the median is actually much lower than that average. These just aren't high-value clients today. And what's worse is they're trading a lot. So that can be a recipe for very lumpy business. And so they're going to have to figure out a way to reconcile that. But all things considered, I mean, it certainly

could have been worse. On Thursday, Chipotle announced it's testing a plant-based chorizo alternative in Denver and Indianapolis. The company says this new product will come from, quote, ingredients grown on a farm, not a lab. Maria, I like the innovation, but I really like the shade that Chipotle is throwing at Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods. Yeah, I think the actual, even SaaS, your part of the press release was made with ingredients you can pronounce and never frozen. And you see both of those Impossible and Beyond in the frozen aisle. And I actually looked up the ingredients for both Beyond Meat and Impossible. And Beyond Meat only has one thing I can't pronounce. And the ingredients for Impossible Foods, there are a lot of words I can't pronounce

in that ingredient list. So I think that what they say that their ingredients are going to be are chili, Chipotle peppers, tomato paste, crushed garlic, paprika, olive oil, and natural protein source from peas. And I think it's just kind of showing the shift in consumer demand where There are a lot more people who are interested in plant alternatives or they have friends who are vegetarians and they have to have options for friends when you go out to eat. So I think that that's just kind of showing a shift, a continued shift in that consumer appetite for these types of foods. Well, and it's their first plant-based protein new offerings since 2014.

So once again, Shepaulay, sort of taking their time with new offerings. Yeah, and it'll be interesting to see they're testing it out in Denver and Indianapolis. So I'd be interested to see how both of those markets kind of react to it and see if they end up rolling it out throughout the country and what that reception is. Amazon has a surprising new business line, and Hart-Seltzer may have to make way for the newest trend in alcoholic beverages. Buy-seller hold is next. Stay right here. You're listening to Motley Full Money. Welcome back to Motley Full Money. Chris Hill here with Maria Gallagher and Jason Moser. Time for a round of Buy-Seller Hold. I'll spot you up with an idea from the world of business, and you tell me that if it were a stock,

Would you be buying, selling, or holding it? And, Jason, let's start with the Wall Street Journal reporting that Amazon is planning to open several large bricks and mortar retail locations this fall, starting in California and Ohio. So buy, seller hold Amazon department stores. Well, Chris, I think I've been pretty clear through the years here that I like going to physical retail. I like that physical retail experience, about as much as I like filing my taxes at the end

of the year. It's just not something I'm gunning for as a consumer. To me, the advent of e-commerce and the convenience that it's offered has just been one of the most profound developments in my lifetime, particularly as a parent. I'm sure you feel the same way. So my first inclination here is to say sell. And I say this as an Amazon shareholder and a very happy one of that, right? I've owned those shares for a long time, and I don't have any reason to want to unload them. This isn't making me want to unload them. But I mean, I do have to ask the question. I mean, is this something that the world is really clamoring for? I mean, is this something that people want? And I'm not really sure that it is. Now, with that said, I could also see this as being perhaps some

sort of investment in fulfillment in disguise. I mean, maybe this is just something where they're like, hey, you know what? We're going to test and learn and we're going to see if there's something there. Maybe it's not your traditional retail experience. Maybe it serves some other purpose. I mean, we saw with the fire phone. I mean, it was pretty clear from the start. That wasn't going to be the greatest investment in the world, but they did learn from it. And that's one thing that Amazon is really good at doing is trying things and learning from them, whether they succeed or fail. But, yeah, I got to say sell here, man. I mean, I just, I'm not feeling it. Maria, what about you? I'm going to go a sell too. I think I actually love, I think the best part about going to these big stores is browsing, right? And I don't think that you want to go to Amazon to browse, because what you buy on Amazon are things you just need and you need them fast and you need them in the next hour today. And I don't think you're going to walk into an Amazon big warehouse and just kind of browse and find the types of paper towels you want. So I just don't know how enjoyable of a store experience it will be. And also I just think find it ironic that they've put all of these places

out of business to then create stores from their ashes. I'm going to hold, but I will say it's very odd to say the phrase Amazon department store out loud. Last month, Disney's Black Widow took in $80 million in its opening weekend, making it number one for the year so far. Maria, buy seller hold that opening weekend record standing for the rest of the year. And I will just add that we've got a couple more big Marvel movies coming later in the year, along with the next James Bond movie and the Top Gun sequel. I'm going to say, Cell, I think that they have two new marvels coming out. You have the Spider-Man. You have Shang-Chi. You have a new Wes Anderson movie coming out that I didn't realize.

That has a pretty stacked cast that has like Timothy Shalame, Elizabeth Moss, Francis McDormant. There are kids movies coming out. So I think that there's just bound to be another big blockbuster hit. Jason, what about you? Yeah, I do feel like, I mean, that's a very big. tremendous performance in a volatile time. I'm going to say sell. I think when you look at the schedule of movies that are getting ready to come out, there are just too many opportunities to beat that, to beat that number. A lot of good movies that you guys quoted there, the one that I think is actually going to really beat it, though, and this just, I don't know, this is just what I think, but Halloween kills is coming out this year. I mean, people have

been really looking forward to this sequel. And Halloween, a very, very powerful franchise through the years. I mean, you know, what the hell? Michael Myers can't die. You could just promote these movies can go on forever, right? And so, I mean, they tell an amazing story that sometimes borders on the absurd, but yet people just continue to flock to this, to this movie story. And so to me, Halloween kills is going to be the one that takes this over the top. And if for some reason I'm wrong, which certainly could be the case, Listen, Venom, right? Venom let there be carnage. I mean, just on the title alone. And I'm not the biggest going to the movie guy. I'm a little bit more of a let's watch it in the living room kind of guy. But I could see Venom pulling that off as well. And then finally, I just can't wait for the Many Saints of Newark. I'm a tremendous Sopranos fan. I feel like it's one of the best shows ever made. But even I am most likely going to stream that one on HBO when it comes out. Let me add a couple more numbers for anyone wondering, how bad is it from movie theaters out

there? Two years ago, obviously 2020 is a wash. But in 2019, the number one opening weekend at the box office was Avengers Endgame, $357 million. The $80 million opening weekend that Black Widow had this year, that would not have been in the top 10 opening weekend finishes in 2019. So, a rough road ahead for movie theaters. And I say this as someone who enjoys going to the movies. Jason, one of the big headlines from the first half of this year was Jeff Bezos announcing his retirement as CEO of Amazon. So buy seller hold, another big name CEO announcing their retirement before the end of the year.

Well, I was going to go with Johnson and Johnson, Chris. But, you know, this was, that would seem like we contrive that one. That was news that came out after we had already started kicking around. on this idea. It's just the timing was amazing. And yes, I do want to sign up for your clairvoyant investing service, by the way. But I think I'm going to go a little bit outside the top 20 largest companies, but I'm going to pull one that we're all very familiar with. And I'm sorry, Matt Greer. This is not targeted at you. I think it's totally plausible that Craig Jellinick at Costco decides to go ahead and hang it up by the end of this year.

And it's not for anything other than the fact that he's been doing this for a long time and he's done a really good job. And he's got nothing to prove. He's coming up on 70 years old. He's been with the company since 1984. He's been the CEO since 2012. He held the C-O position. I mean, he has just such a tremendous track record with this business.

It's not the most difficult business in the world to understand, right? It all boils down to just making sure that they take care of their members. and that's what they've just done for so long, so well. I think that Craig Jellonet could absolutely be on the table as one we will see hanging it up here by the end of the year. Maria, what about you? I think there's probably going to be another one. I would say maybe Jamie Diamond at J.P. Morgan.

I think he's 65. He's been the CEO for over 15 years. He's had heart problems in the past. He's openly talked about his succession plan. So that would be my guess, is I think that might happen before the end of the year. Yeah, and that sounds like a couple of buys right there from both of you. And it's interesting because, you know, those are two CEOs that if you're shareholders

of those companies, and you both sort of touched on this, you can feel really good that the succession plan is in place. And, you know, it's tough to plan and execute a really strong succession when it comes to CEOs. But, you know, Jim Sinigal did a brilliant job tapping Craig Jellanick. and I'm sure whenever Jellinick decides to step aside, he'll have his successor in place. And Jamie Diamond, yeah, Jamie Diamond is the smartest guy on Wall Street. So, yeah, he's got that plan.

The wild card that came to my head, and I'd love to get your opinions on this too, because the wild card that came to my head that I just, this is probably going to get a couple of gripes here, so don't at me, but Elon Musk. And I mean, this is nothing against Musk, right? But, I mean, I think he's publicly stated more than once that, like, his goal isn't really to be like CEO of Tesla or a company. I mean, he's got a lot going on, right? So, I mean, at some point or another, I think most of us are at least expecting him to go

ahead and step down as that CEO of Tesla to go focus on other things, maybe just really give his sole attention to SpaceX. But, yeah, it kind of makes me wonder if Musk isn't trying to sort of set the stage for him to be able to saunter off, I'm good, go do other things. I don't know. What do you guys think? I think the stock movement announcing Elon Musk move would be much more dramatic than either a Costco or a JP Morgan change just because so much of the hopes and dreams of Tesla is tied up in the hopes and dreams of what Elon Musk specifically can do. So I think that that would lead to a pretty volatile movement for Tesla if that happened.

Yeah. I don't remember what happened to shares of Congress. when Jim Senegal announced that he was stepping down. But I do remember that, and this is typical of Jim Sinigal, that it was part of their earnings press release, and it was not the headline. It was like the tenth thing in the press release. It was just like, oh, and by the way, the co-founder and longtime CEO is stepping down. All right. Last one.

Maria, in the past eight years, exports of Japanese sake have nearly tripled and now Wink, which is the big online wine membership club, has started offering sake for the first time. So buy seller hold sake becoming the new hard seltzer. I'm going to hold because I don't think I have enough knowledge of what sake tastes like to know how it can function within. I think like the beauty of hard seltzer is that it kind of just doesn't taste like anything, which is why a lot of people like it and bringing it to picnics and bringing it to outings and stuff.

But I do think it's pretty interesting. So they are saying that the sake market's growing about, to reach 10.4 billion in 2026. In comparison, the whiskey market is about 57 billion, and the beer market is about 600 billion, but beer is the most common consumed drink after tea and water. So I think that that's, it'd be hard to ever compare it to beer. But I do think it's growing pretty quickly, quicker than I would have thought. I don't know, Jason. It really seems like an opportunity for a business like Diageo or Constellation brands, add a sake brand to their portfolio? What do you think? Is this a buy, sell, or hold?

I mean, I think as far as it being the new seltzer, the new hard seltzer, I mean, I'm going to sell that. I don't know that we have quite the same market opportunity in existence for sake. But, I mean, I will say, I mean, as someone who has enjoyed the beverage before, I mean, it is, it's a unique taste. It's not for everyone. It's not for every occasion. But, To Maria's point, I mean, we have seen a lot of growth here recently, and there are currently now around 20 or so sake breweries around the country versus just, I think, around five, maybe a decade ago. So it's starting to grow in popularity. And what you're seeing now is brewers infusing sake with different flavors, fruit flavors, or even carbonating it,

or using hops in their brewing. I mean, I know that sounds crazy, but, you know, it is different. And it's something that strikes me a little bit, it's a little bit dogfish head-esque, right? I mean, that's what dogfish head has always been known. It's off center, right? And that's the whole point of their bruise. So you could certainly see these folks taking sake and experimenting with it and trying new things. I think that alone will peak a lot of folks' interests there. How sustainable it is, how sticky it is.

I'm still on the fence about that one. As far as it being a seltzer, though, I think I'd sell that concept. I can't decide which I'm less interested in, carbonated sake or Maria's $120 candle. The candle's cute. I'll send it to you and then you can decide. Up next, we've got a couple of thoughts on the business of weddings and a couple of stocks on our radar. Stay right here.

This is Motley Fool Money. As always, people on the program may have interest in the stocks they talk about and the Motley Fool may have formal recommendations for or against, so don't buy ourselves stocks based only on what you hear. Welcome back to Motley Fool Money. Chris Hill here with Maria Gallagher and Jay. Jason Moser. Our email address is Radio at Fool.com. Got an email from Eric B. He writes, I've been a fan of the show over the last few years, and you've truly helped me become a better

investor. Thanks, Eric. That's why we do what we do. He goes on to ask, what is the best way to get exposure to the wedding market slash industry? With so many weddings postponed last year due to the pandemic, I'd expect a surge in demand later this year, assuming we get a hold of the Delta variant and can resume reopening the economy. Are there any ETFs or stocks that would give me good exposure to that industry? Great question, Eric. Maria, you were saying during our production meeting earlier today that you have a bunch of weddings coming up. Yeah, I'm at the age where a lot of people I know are planning to get married, about to get married, getting married soon. And so I think I would think about it in a couple different ways, right? So first is where are they planning? The natural

place to start thinking about planning a wedding, especially as more and more of them are in 2022, 2020, 23, because all of these venues are booked up is the place to go is Pinterest. There's over 38 million Pinterest boards specifically dedicated to weddings. Then you start thinking, you know, where are they registering? Places like Target and Wayfair for more affordable options, places like restoration hardware for more high-end stuff if they're furnishing an apartment. And then how are they budgeting? How are they styling their wedding? You know, is it low-key? Is it DIY? That's a lot of people in my life. So you're looking at Etsy for ideas of things like Bachelorette party favors or ways to ask for bridesmaids or ways to decorate your wedding and make it special, but in a more of an affordable way. And then lastly, it's just where are you shopping?

Where are people buying dresses? Where are people buying suits to attend? So Anthropologies owned by Urban Outfitters. I just recently bought a maid of honor dress from anthropology. My sister bought her wedding dress from anthropology. So I think that if you look at it from all of these different angles about, you know, how are people spending their time going up to weddings? Where are people spending their monies when you're thinking about weddings? That's kind of how I would start thinking about that.

Wow. That's a six-stock basket for the comeback in weddings. What do you think, Jason? Well, you know what all of this involves, Chris? It involves spending money. Am I right? Yes. Of course, I'm right.

It involves spending money. And how is that money being spent? Say it with me, kids. Or on cash. I mean, you have to love all of these companies in this new fintech space, whether it's PayPal or Square, look at the stalwart's like Visa MasterCard, American Express. There's just a ton of it. However this money is being spent, look towards those types of businesses as well, because that money is moving from point A to point B. And that always, to me, represents a great way to capitalize on any sort of long-term market opportunity.

Thanks to Gwen again for the question. Eric and keep the emails coming to Radio at Fool.com. Let's get to the stocks on our radar, our man behind the glass. Dan Boyd's going to hit you with a question. Maria Gallagher, you're up first. What are you looking at this week? So stock on my radar this week is Roblox. They just recently announced earnings. Their revenue was up 127%. Bookings were up 35%. Their daily active users were up 29%. Their hours engaged were 9.7 billion, which is up about 13%. So I think what is really interesting with Roblox is how many people are there? How are they expanding that demographic to that above 13, continuing to expand internationally and how are people spending their money on that platform?

So digging into those numbers a little bit and understanding how people are spending their time and their money on Roblox is going to be really interesting. And the ticker symbol? RBLX. Dan, question about Roblox? You know what, Chris, we talk about Roblox so much on this show. and I have a confession. You know, I don't really know what this company does.

And at this point, I'm a little afraid to ask. They created the Metaverse. You can go in. It's kind of like a new Sims, but it's all online. So it's like you go in, you have an avatar, you interact with other avatars, and you play game. So it's kind of like the Sims, but you don't have to buy the CD to use it. Does the Roblox Metaverse have that funny language that Sims speak?

I don't have a Roblox Metaverse, but I think maybe. You just spend more money on Roblox because it's all online, as opposed to buying the Sims game. Jason Moser, what are you looking at? Yeah, taking a look at Elastic ticker is E-S-T-C, and Elastic is a company that offers at customers, the tools to perform search analysis and visualization of all of this data that is out there to help businesses achieve the best outcomes possible. They will be reporting earnings next Wednesday after the market closes. It's been just kind of a mediocre year today.

The stock is up a little bit, but when they, We just wrapped up their fiscal year here recently. They did so with over 15,000 total subscription customers and more than 730 clients with annual contract values above $100,000. Approximately 93% of Elastic's revenue is tied to subscriptions, and as customers get larger, so does their relationship with Elastic. In fact, more than 45% of customers with at least $1 million in annual contract value, subscribe to all three of the company's primary solutions. That tells us that Maybe there's some network effects of play here. There's some switching costs and some stickiness there to the business.

So I'll be interested to see what they have to say on Wednesday. Dan? Question about Elastic? Yeah. So, Jason, I got a ding you here because Elastic was brought to the table within, I want to say, the last month and a half. And, you know, aren't there other stocks we can talk about, Jason? I know that you're always talking about the we're on cash. You're always talking about your different technology stocks. Come on, Jason. Let's get a new stock in here. Listen, man, I'm not after hearts and minds here, Dan. I'm just trying to make people money. And that's what we're doing here with Elastics. So I encourage you to keep an eye on this report next Wednesday. We'll just, we'll take it from there. How about we covered on next Friday's show? We'll see how things look.

Interesting choice. You got to make here, Dan. One you want to add to your watch list. Okay. So I'm going to go with Roblox, but it's because when I was in high school, a friend of mine had the Sims. And he made a character for me in the Sims and then his dad in the Sims locked me in a bathroom and I died. So that was a somewhat formative experience for me and I'm just going to go with Roblox. What a dark way to end the show. We're out of time. Maria Gallagher, Jason Moser, thanks for being here. Thanks for listening, everyone. We'll see you next week.