Motley Fool Money - Improving Inflation, Earnings Kickoff, and "Walmart Envy"

Episode Date: April 14, 2023

Investors cheered the steadily improving inflation story. (0:21) Jason Moser and Matt Argersinger discuss: - How the current macro environment is what the Fed was aiming for - JPMorgan Chase and Well...s Fargo starting earnings season in a strong way - Boeing's latest production challenge - Key takeaways from Andy Jassy's shareholder letter - Warner Bros Discovery's confusing rebrand of HBO Max (19:11) Motley Fool senior analyst Tim Beyers weighs in on how board games and video games are finding success on the big screen, the future of movie theaters, and why "YouTube has an uncommon amount of power right now." (33:47) Jason and Matt share two stocks on their radar: Airbnb and T. Rowe Price. The new episode of Stock Advisor Roundtable, our premium podcast, is available exclusively on Spotify! For more details go to Roundtable.Fool.com. Stocks discussed: JPM, WFC, BA, AMZN, WMT, WBD, HAS, DIS, NFLX, AAPL, CMCSA, GOOG, GOOGL, ABNB, TROW Host: Chris Hill Guests: Matt Argersinger, Jason Moser, Tim Beyers Engineer: Dan Boyd Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript
Discussion (0)
Starting point is 00:00:00 Hi everyone, I'm Charlie Cox. Join us on Disney Plus as we talk with the cast and crew of Marvel Television's Daredevil Born Again. What haven't you gotten to do as Daredevil? Being the Avengers. Charlie and Vincent came to play. I get emotional when I think about it. One of the great finale of any episode we've ever done. We are going to play Truth or Daredevil.
Starting point is 00:00:18 What? Oh boy. Fantastic. You guys go hard, man. Daredevil Born Again, official podcast Tuesdays, and stream Season 2 of Marvel Television's Daredevil Born Again on Disney Plus. earning season has arrived. Motley Fool Money starts now. That's why they call it money. Cool Global headquarters. This is Motley Fool Money Radio show. I'm Chris Hill, joining me in studio.
Starting point is 00:01:13 Motley Fool's senior analyst, Jason Mosier, and Matt Argusinger. Good to see you, as always, gentlemen. Hey, Chris. Addy. We got the latest headlines from Wall Street. We will take a closer look at the business of movies. And as always, we've got a couple of stocks on our radar. But we begin with the big macro. The latest batch of data showed that in, Inflation in the U.S. has hit its lowest level in almost two years. The producer price index in March showed prices were a half percent lower than February, and the consumer price index showed an increase of just 0.1 percent, Matt. Investors welcomed the news, the S&P 500, hitting close to its highest point since last summer. I know, and I think shouldn't the Fed be welcoming this news to do?
Starting point is 00:01:56 I mean, this is what they wanted, right? I mean, inflation is rolling over. Jobless claims are ticking up a little bit. We had retail sales on Friday morning that were lower by more than twice than what was expected. We know that credit markets have tightened up. Lending, particularly, I think, from small, mid-sized banks is going to slow down if it already isn't already. We know we've talked about big risks in the commercial real estate market. And even if you look at the Fed's last – the minutes from the Fed's last meeting,
Starting point is 00:02:24 they are actually now expecting the economy to enter a mild recession later this year. So isn't this what they were aiming for? I mean, I know we don't always want to tie this to what the Fed's going to do, but I think that's what we have to talk about, because that's what the markets that some investors are focused on. All the evidence now is pointing to the fact that we probably hit this peak cycle of rates. You're absolutely right that this is not what we want to be focusing on, particularly here at the Motley Fool, where we focus on businesses,
Starting point is 00:02:53 but it has been so important, particularly over the last 18 months, Jason. And to Matt's point, yeah, I think that's part of the reaction that we saw this week in the market. Investors, both individual and on Wall Street, saying, okay, this is what they were gunning for in the first place. Yeah, I mean, it's exactly right. I mean, it's weird to say this, but you're kind of, as an investor, I mean, I'm really kind of pulling for a recession. I mean, let's get there already, right? I mean, we've been talking about this for like a year and a half. I mean, there's the question maybe a year ago as to whether we were actually in a recession,
Starting point is 00:03:26 right? We saw two consecutive quarters of contraction, and that is what we typically used to define the recession, but there were other economic indicators that sort of told us that maybe we weren't really there, and now we've got the Fed calling for a recession a little bit later this year. And, you know, I've pointed this data out before on the show. I mean, I'll point it out again because I do think it matters. It's just a reminder that on average that stocks perform worse, year before the recession, then actually during the recession. And then furthermore, for the two years following the recession, returns are actually positive, 82% of the time. So there is a light at the end of the tunnel. It's just, can we get there already? I agree. It's almost like, can you just look,
Starting point is 00:04:10 can you spot me a recession? Spot me 10% correction in the market. I'll take it right now. Let's get all the medicine that we need, and we can move on with life and stop talking about the Fed. And less about the big macro and more about the big micro with the companies we follow. It's been a very difficult year and a half for investors, right? I mean, we really, really, it's every day you're waking up. It's just like you're getting punched in the face before you can get out of bed. It feels like at some point the tide turns, right? I think everybody's kind of looking for some good news or something to be a little bit more optimistic about.
Starting point is 00:04:42 It feels like we're starting to get there. Let's get to a couple of companies then because some of the big banks kicked off earning season Friday morning. J.P. Morgan Chase and Wells Fargo, both out with first quarter reports. Wells Fargo's results were better than Wall Street expected. J.P. Morgan Chase, Jason, they probably beat their own expectations because J.P. Morgan Chase posted record revenue for the quarter, which sent the stock up 7%. Yeah. And I think the trend continues on from what we were even seeing last quarter, right? We're seeing these banks. They're taking a bit of a conservative approach, right? They're preparing for this potential downturn. They continue to boost reserves to account for that. They continue to see
Starting point is 00:05:25 benefits from these rising rates as well. We're seeing net interest income play out very positively for both of these reports. With JP Morgan, net revenue just under $40 billion, it was up 25% from a year ago. Net interest income, $20.8 billion, that was up 49% from a year ago. So clearly benefiting from these interest rate tailwinds. They built the net reserve. up $1.1 billion, right? They do see, I think, with a recession coming, I mean, credit is becoming a little bit tighter. They understand it's a little bit tough for some folks to pay those bills, and so they're building in a little bit of that reserve there. Benefitting from net inflows, now seeing assets under management of $3 trillion. I mean, this is really a bank you want to pay
Starting point is 00:06:09 attention to. Last quarter, we heard the language, Jamie Diamond last quarter, they're preparing for a mild recession. This quarter, that mild has been upgraded to moderate. it, right? So they're looking down the pike here and see definitely these conditions deteriorating a little bit in the near term. But tangible book value now up 10 percent, $76.69 cents. And that puts the shares at 1.8 times tangible book value. Now, that sounds like it might be a little expensive, but historically, it's still actually not. So even with the performance of the stock, it actually could be worth a look for investors. And I think he instills some confidence on the call, right? He did say that while these conditions are difficult to navigate,
Starting point is 00:06:54 this is not anything like we saw back in 2008, 2009, and that's encouraging, I think, for investors. I think we always, the big financials always kind of kick off earnings season, and so that's where we're starting. And I think here we expect the news to be mostly pretty good, or at least not bad. And this sets up, I think, the next week or two, when we start to get the regional banks and some of the smaller and mid-sized banks, I think that's where, I don't know, the rubber's going to hit the road in terms of how difficult conditions have become in the credit markets, because we know the TBTF, the too big to fail banks, are going to be fine throughout this. But we know where the trauma it potentially is is these smaller banks. So that's kind of
Starting point is 00:07:30 where I'm paying attention. Yeah. And I think, too, when you look at Wells Fargo, I think we talk about opportunities in the sector. And I do think there's plenty of opportunity out there in the regional side. But Wells Fargo continues, I think, to get their ducks in a row. This is a bank that's really kind of come back to life here. Revenue up 17 percent from a year ago, net interest income up 45%. And you remember, Wells recently made the strategic decision to pull back from their mortgage business, right? I mean, that's what they were known for for so long. They're seeing these lenders like Rocket Mortgage, Loan Depot, kind of saying, hey, listen, you guys take over that business. That's all right. We want to diversify a little bit, not be so
Starting point is 00:08:10 levered to one particular part of the market. Granted, it's a very big part of the market. But it's starting to work out for them, right? I mean, they resumed. They resumed, they resumed, their repurchase program, they bought $4 billion back in shares over the quarter. And with these shares now, around 1.1 times tangible book, I think it still represents a pretty good opportunity for folks looking for exposure to that banking industry. So I want to wrap this segment with something you just touched on Matt, which is what are you both going to be watching? Obviously, we've got earnings season really kicking into high gear over the next few weeks, and everyone will have their particular companies that they're interested in. But is there a broader trend that you're
Starting point is 00:08:53 watching over the next three months or so? Because it does seem, to your point, Matt, the regional banks are going to be something to watch and the data that we get from them. And the ripple effect for small businesses all over America. Yeah, that's right. I mean, I'll start with the regional banks because I think next week when I think of banks like M&T or Regents Financial are going to report next week. And these are some of the larger regional banks. That's where a lot of the commercial real estate lending, the C&I lending is happening, much so more concentrated than in the larger banks. So I'm starting there, but then as I've talked about in the past, I think real estate investment trusts, I'm really paying attention to those because
Starting point is 00:09:31 if there's any kind of trauma that's happening in the credit markets, it seems like it's already happening in the real estate sector, because you've seen REITs over the past months, especially since the SVB fallout. They've fallen dramatically more than the rest of the market. And I'm just very curious to see what some of those managers are saying about the environment. That's the second time he's used to word trauma. I've been nervous over here. What are you watching? Well, a couple of things.
Starting point is 00:09:54 Trauma. Wow. That's a bold word. A couple things. I mean, I'm looking at revenue growth. I mean, we saw Walmart recently with their Investor Day presentation. They're calling for tepid revenue growth here over the next five years. They're not really focused on revenue growth as much as they're focused on bringing things down to the bottom line.
Starting point is 00:10:10 They expect earnings growth to well outpaced revenue growth. And so I think, in line with that, too, I think let's pay attention to margins, right? And particularly when we talk about retail, we talk about consumer discretionary. Let's see what kind of pricing these companies continue to maintain. I think margins will tell us a lot. Well, and particularly when you think about not just in the last quarter, but really over the last six to 12 months, so much of what we've heard from retailers, major ones like Walmart, specialty retailers like Home Depot and Lowe's,
Starting point is 00:10:40 so much of their story over the past six to 12 months. has not been about traffic. It's been about the price increases in the stores. And, you know, if we're now in this environment where prices are coming down, you know, you can look back and say, well, it's fine that Home Depot lows, these major retailers, they're not getting people through the door because the people who are coming in are spending more money. Well, if prices are coming down, you're going to have to get more people in the door. Yeah. Well, I mean, they are, you know, we love small caps and those growth ideas and everything, but it really does, times like these really do.
Starting point is 00:11:13 shine a light on the competitive advantage that scale gives you, right? So when you look at those Walmarts and those targets and Home Depot's of the world, they may not be the most exciting ideas, but I think we're going to see over the course the next several years here. These are going to be businesses that really prosper because they are able to bring so many of those efficiencies down the bottom line. After the break, we've got a new brand to consider. It's not as historically bad as Trunk, but the early reviews are not good. Details coming up, so stay right here. to Motley Full Money. Welcome back to Motley Full Money.
Starting point is 00:11:55 Chris Hill here in studio with Jason Moser and Matt Argusinger. Shares of Boeing fell 6% on Friday after the company warned it will have to reduce deliveries of its 737 Max airplane. Boeing has run into a production problem with one of its parts suppliers. 737 Max is Boeing's most popular model of aircraft, particularly with customers like Southwest Airlines and American Airlines, Matt. Right. It's a big deal.
Starting point is 00:12:21 mentioned Boeing's down 6%. Well, Spirit Aerosystems, which is the supplier in question, they're down about 20% last I checked. So they're facing issues. Yeah, this is a big deal. You mentioned the 737 Max being their most popular model. In fact, in 2022, the 737 overall series accounted for 80% of Boeing's deliveries. And in fact, last quarter, you mentioned Southwest and American, but they got an order from United Airlines for 100, 737 max aircraft. And they had just sort of gotten, you know, their supply chain situation kind of figured out. You know, we've seen, I'm going to use the trauma again. The trauma and the supply chain, so I should stop using it. But, you know, that's been a big deal for them. They finally kind of got that sorted out, and then they run into this issue.
Starting point is 00:13:02 So it just shows you again how sensitive in a way that a lot of these supplier networks can be. If you have one, especially on an aircraft, which has, you know, a million parts, right? One or two parts aren't available or aren't up to quality. It can cause a big chain reaction throughout the supply system. On Thursday, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy published his second annual letter to shareholders. In the letter, Jassy addressed the recent challenges facing the company, the multiple rounds of layoffs at Amazon, and ultimately his confidence that these decisions will pay off down the line. Jason, let me start with you.
Starting point is 00:13:37 What stood out in Jassy's letter? Well, before we get into this, let me just, I need to reiterate, if you listen to Andy Jassy speak, right, close your eyes and listen to me. that guy sounds like you would think you're listening to Jeff Bezos. And I'm sure that's probably a product of them working for so long to the other. Oh, so you don't think Bezos cloned himself and just kept a version of himself. If you shut your eyes and listen to me, you would think that could be a possibility. It's just, it's bizarre.
Starting point is 00:14:01 But getting to your question, Chris, I think we're going to see a focus on cost control start to really benefit this company over the next couple of years, particularly new fulfillment. Something they noted, he noted in the letter, you know, they do continue to deal with the rise in cost. of this fulfillment network, ultimately getting products from the store to the consumer, and they noted they had to double the fulfillment center footprint they had built over the past 25 years. They basically had to double that within two years.
Starting point is 00:14:30 There was a lot that went into doing that. And I think what we're going to see over the next several years is the focus on really maximizing the efficiencies. There's probably a lot of waste that went into that. And they built out probably more capacity than they ultimately needed. And if you look at fulfillment, right, fulfillment represented 16.8% of total operating expenses in 2022. You go back to 2017, that number was just 14.5%. So I think they really want to focus on getting back to efficiency.
Starting point is 00:14:59 I know we always talk about AWS, and that really is the big moneymaker for this business. But let's not forget its roots, right? This is retail. It's about getting things from point A to point B as quickly as possible. They can do it. They do it very well. but I think they're really going to focus on that cost side. Yeah, for me, the latter, I always love reading it,
Starting point is 00:15:18 but there's a segment in there about grocery, the Amazon grocery business, which stood out to me. I'll just read a few sentences here because I think they're impactful. So Jesse says, well, we're pleased with the size and growth of our grocery business. We aspire to serve more of our customer's grocery needs than we do today. To do so, we need a broader physical store footprint, given that most of the grocery shopping still happens in physical venues. He goes on to say, we're working hard to identify and build the right,
Starting point is 00:15:43 mass grocery format for Amazon scale, grocery is a big growth opportunity for Amazon. This goes against what I, the conclusion I thought Amazon was going to get to. They've experimented with Amazon Fresh, the Go concept, other concepts. They've been running Whole Foods for several years. I really thought they were going to get to the point where they didn't want to push harder into grocery. They thought this, you know, it's a low margin business. It's tough to figure out. It might not fit our overall model. But no, they're going, they're going right at it. I think that that sounds out to me and my colleague in real estate winners, Anthony Schofone, pointed out, you know, there are a lot of real estate investment trusts like Kimco and Regency that are kind of grocery anchored shopping
Starting point is 00:16:19 centers. They own hundreds of them around the country. This must be music to their ears that Amazon's going to go more full-frauddle into this. You know what I think? I think they have a little Walmart envy. I think they have a little Walmart. Amazon has Walmart. I know. For the last 10 years, that conversation has been going on the other way, right? I think they actually have a little Walmart envy. They see Walmart status as the leading grocer domestically here. They realize, I mean, everybody needs grocery, right? It's the ultimate repeat purchase. They see the business that Walmart has been able to build over over the years with that. The benefits that come from that, right, the repeat traffic, I think they got a little Walmart. What's that gift where the person's mind is blowing
Starting point is 00:17:00 up? That's what mine is doing. I'm thinking that right now. Despite all of its success at producing award-winning television shows, HBO has also had its share of branding problems. Just a few years ago, the company caused confusion among subscribers by having not one, but three separate HBO-branded services. There was HBO, HBO Go, and HBO Now. They were eventually folded into HBO Max, which seemed to be just fine with everyone except the parent company, because this week, Warner Brothers Discovery unveiled a plan to reboot the streaming service with a new name, Max. It will feature the content from HBO, as well as well. as some content from the Discovery Plus streaming service. The reaction from investors,
Starting point is 00:17:47 shares of Warner Brothers Discovery down nearly 8% this week. What are they doing, man? What are they doing? Why? Why is there I'm going to actually leave that question to JMO, because I think he's got some strong opinions about the brand itself. I just wish they'd stick to HBO. I'll just leave it at that. But I get the combination. It makes sense. They're going to have a wider range of content available to subscribers. That's how you kind of keep churned You can appeal to different kinds of audiences, especially kids, with that. My one area concern is that Discovery CEO David Zazlov's prediction for 2025, 130 million subscribers, 1 billion in profit.
Starting point is 00:18:23 If I've learned anything about the streaming business, is you don't make predictions like that in the streaming business. That's part of what's confusing about this. He's done a real upfront job of trying to control costs. A rebranding like this is going to cost a lot of money. That's right. It feels like a terrible, unforced error. I mean, taking such a legacy brand HBO,
Starting point is 00:18:42 we just associate so much great content with you're changing your name to like, this might as well just be a Disney movie about some dog named Max, right? I mean, that's what comes to what I meant. It's like some Disney movie. I don't, I don't, it just feels like an unforced error. Drop us an email, podcasts at fool.com. We would like your suggestion for a really a better name. We're going to try and help out our friends at Warner Brothers Discovery.
Starting point is 00:19:07 Podcasts at Fool.com. Jason Moser, Matt Argusinger, guys. We'll see you a little bit later in the show. Up next, we're going to shift from streaming to movie theaters with senior analyst Tim Byers. Stay right here. You're listening to Motley Fool Money. Welcome back to Motley Fool Money.
Starting point is 00:19:47 I'm Chris Hill. Tim Byers is a senior analyst covering media entertainment and a host of other industries for the Motley Fool. He joins me now from Colorado. Tim, thanks for being here. Thanks for having me. I want to start with, to date, the biggest movie of the year, the animated film Super Mario Brothers. A huge opening weekend. Opening in general, the first five days, this is a movie
Starting point is 00:20:14 that did over $200 million at the box office here in the U.S. add in another 170 million internationally. And again, Tim, it's an animated movie, which means that a lot of these people seeing this movie in theater are children, and those tickets cost less. So as someone who doesn't really have a stake in this, either as a fan who's gone to see the film or anything, just from a business standpoint, this strikes me as pretty impressive. When you hear numbers like that, what goes through your mind as an analyst? I better be looking at the experiences that these movie theaters are executing here, because this is very interesting, but we had the narrative of, well, we can just deliver a movie via streaming service and we're good.
Starting point is 00:21:09 And clearly there is something to be said for some of these movies coming together as a community and watching these together. And Mario Brothers seems like a communal experience because even, you know, old guys like me, remember the do do do do do do do do do do do I mean we do that's a terrible rendition of it Chris so listener my apologies however apology not really an apology because we all know that tune and so there's something there's something to that there's something community oriented about this that we missed. And so as an analyst, I'm very curious to see, is there an emerging theme around community in movie theaters and in some of these films that we're going to see funded, like sort of tapping into the experiences either that we had as kids or things that
Starting point is 00:22:13 are very interesting to us? I think it's fascinating that movies are earned. at this level post-pandemic. It is, I don't want to say we're back to normal, Chris, because I don't think there is such a thing as back to normal. Having said that, to see movies rolling up big numbers like this again and a hit rolling up big numbers like this is a bit reassuring. I agree with that, and your terrible rendition of the song, aside, you did touch on something that I think is part of the business story.
Starting point is 00:22:47 of the business story here, which is that this is a movie based on a game that has been around for decades, and there are children who play it now, but they are also the children of parents who played it when they were children. And to a lesser extent in terms of the box office, we saw something similar play out with the Dungeons and Dragons movie, which I actually did see, not because I'm a D&D player, one of my kids is she wanted to go see it. As someone who never played the game. It was an entertaining movie, and that plus Super Mario Brothers has me wondering how much more board game and video game IP is going to get levered up in the coming months and years as the holders of these various intellectual properties are looking to monetize them
Starting point is 00:23:40 either in the form of movies in the theater or streaming TV series. If Hollywood is known for anything, Chris, it is imitation, imitation, imitation. So now that we've seen this, expect that there will be calls to give us your scripts for the games that you think you can build a story around. What is the franchise that we can build around? Name your game. I'll name one that I would expect to be coming at someone. point, Magic the Gathering, the card game. Is that come? That's got to be coming. Like, right, Chris?
Starting point is 00:24:24 That has to be coming at some point. Probably. And that's another game that's been around for decades. Right. And it has real community around it. It has real stickiness to it. So, yes, I expect, just given the nature of Hollywood, you're going to see more funding into franchises that are built around board games, built around video games, anything to build IP that is repeatable IP, because in the movie business overall, you really want IP that has a long shelf life, because you're going to have high fixed costs initially, right, to initially build out some IP. But then once you've built that IP and you've built a brand around it, and then you can start repeating it into television series, into
Starting point is 00:25:16 even podcast series or into books, into sequels at the movie theater, streaming series. It's a type of business that does best when it's built around a franchise that has some known return characteristics to it. This is why Disney has been such a great business for so long. So I think seeking the next great set of franchises around gaming
Starting point is 00:25:45 is absolutely going to be a thing, Chris. Later this month, the annual CinemaCon event is going to be taking place. Back in the day, this was called Show West. This is essentially the theater owners, movie theater owners, getting together. And as they get together, so are the studios. I'm expecting, if you're a fan of movies, we're going to get some bonus content appearing on social media and on YouTube as they start to preview what's coming later this summer and later this year. Was the funeral for movie theaters premature? Because it seemed like a few
Starting point is 00:26:29 years ago, the funeral was for all movie theaters. Right. Right. Yeah. And I do wonder, Now, to be fair, I haven't been to the theater again recently, but I will say I was enjoying the way the theater was moving towards more of the Alamo draft house model. And if you've never been to the Alamo draft house, it is a regional theater chain that's privately held in which the experience of going to the movie is part of the draw. You go and you can get drinks. You have your food delivered to you. going to the drive-in except you're going to the theater and the food you can order during the movie. It's delivered right to you. It doesn't interrupt the experience. It's actually pretty amazing. And so the experience of going to the theater is different. I don't just go for the movie.
Starting point is 00:27:28 I go for the whole experience. And so I think that is going to become a bigger part of that business, but it was way too early to write this off. Now, having said that, we did need some blockbusters. I mean, if you go back to 2022, it is probably not hyperbole, Chris, to say that Tom Cruise and Top Gun Maverick did some awfully good things for theater operators. That was a very, very, very big deal. And if just to put it in perspective here, this is from the Numbers.com. Top Gun Maverick, 2022 gross in domestic. This is just U.S. 718.7 million dollars. Number two, Black Panther Wakanda Forever at 438.3 million. That is a huge difference. So, having said all that, the numbers has for in 2022, you're talking about $14.5 billion.
Starting point is 00:28:35 worth of ticket sales. The projection for 2023 is 8.5 billion. So let's not say that everything is rosy, Chris, but let's say maybe on the right track. And there's maybe a bit of second wind for movie theaters. It gives them a chance to build an experience that people want to keep coming back to. And if the franchises show up to play in these theaters, there might be something there. This is also an example of, in the case of Paramount, a company using a blockbuster like Top Gun Maverick to get people into their streaming service. But as more people get into more streaming services, we were talking about this during the break. There's this narrative starting to build a little bit about subscription fatigue around
Starting point is 00:29:27 how many different streaming services do you need, do you want. who should be worried about this? Because I'm not at subscription fatigue just yet, but I understand the case for it. And I'm wondering who should be worried. Should Netflix should be worried? Disney with Disney Plus, Apple? I think those that don't have an inherent bundle advantage need to be a little bit worried. What I mean by that is, Disney Plus gets protection from Hulu Plus, and most importantly, both of us being sports ball fans here, Chris, ESPN Plus. Disney Plus gets cover, in my opinion, from ESPN Plus. So for those that are a little bit outside of the protection of a bundle, that is potentially problematic. And I hate that I'm going to say this because the streaming service, that I tend to depend on every weekend for Premier League soccer, Peacock, is a little bit outside of
Starting point is 00:30:38 that bundle advantage. Doesn't really have it unless you're part of the Comcast bundle. And there's real fatigue around a very expensive Comcast cable bundle. So should Netflix be worried? Yes, a little bit. But I think that Netflix is protected by franchises and by its ability to keep being a tastemaker, I think that protects them a little bit. Apple is getting a little bit of that tastemaker advantage here, but anything that is independent, so say like a Paramount Plus, what are they going to do around CBS and how is CBS going to make that work in the Viacom bundle? It seems like there ought to be something there. There's a lot to like around Paramount Plus, but anything that doesn't have the attachment to an attractive bundle,
Starting point is 00:31:31 I think is at a little bit of risk. So yeah, Netflix needs to be, we need to be cautious, we need to watch it. Disney Plus, if things get a little long in the tooth, be careful around that, but I like that they get protected by ESPN Plus. Because as the subscription fatigue narrative builds, even if it is building slowly and quietly, I'm hearing less about cutting the cord. And I know that cord cutting still goes on. But I think if you're in the cable business, you're probably happy to see, as we saw earlier this year, alphabet coming out and saying, oh, the subscription for YouTube TV is going from $65 a month to $73 a month.
Starting point is 00:32:16 Right. And you know what? Here's what's going to be really interesting. I'm glad you mentioned YouTube TV because that's a company that has an uncommon amount of power right now. And I think it's going to be really interesting. Can you imagine YouTube TV saying, hey, you know what? We have a whole bunch of ecosystem partners. We're going to let you bring in your Paramount Plus. We're going to let you bring in your peacock. We're going to let you bring in. How about this? We're going to let you bring in. How about this? We're going to let you bring in. you bring in your Netflix subscription. This is something that Amazon has been doing, by the way. This is, I'm not sure that there are a lot of people that trust Amazon to sort of aggregate all of their streaming subscriptions. And I think it's not to say that it's a bad idea that Amazon is doing this. I just don't think people trust Amazon to say, like, yeah, I'm just going to wrap everything under Prime. I don't think people are doing that. But YouTube TV is a brand that can do essentially what Amazon Prime is trying to do to become a source of aggregation for all of your
Starting point is 00:33:23 subscriptions and you just pay one bill. Honest to goodness, Chris, I think that is going to be really interesting. I expect YouTube TV to make some gains over the next two years. Tim Byers covers media, entertainment, and a bunch of other industries for the Motley Fool. Tim, always great talking to you. Thanks for being here. Thanks, Chris. Up next, Matt Argusinger and Jason Moser coming.
Starting point is 00:33:46 back with a couple of stocks on their radar, so stay right here. You're listening to 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 solely on what you hear. Welcome back to Motley Full Money. Chris Hill here in studio once again with Jason Moser and Matt Argusinger. You can hear Motley Full Money every weekend on radio stations across America. You can also listen seven days a week on your favorite podcast app. And if you're looking for even more Stock Talk, check out our premium podcast, StockAdvisor Roundtable.
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Starting point is 00:35:16 Let's get to the stock. on our radar. Our man behind the glass, Dan Boyd, is going to hit you with a question. Matt Argusinger, you're up first. What are you looking at this week? I'm going with T-R-R-Price, ticker T-R-O-W. One of the great brands in money management, going back, gosh, 90 years or so, more than $1.3 trillion in asset management as of March 31st. Track record's amazing. The vast majority of their funds outperform their benchmarks over long periods of time, 4.4% dividend yield, which the company has increased 36 consent. executive years, Dan. Most of all, I think this is a bet on at least a small return to active management.
Starting point is 00:35:53 I think especially coming out of this bear market that we just had that we might still be in. I feel like investors are looking for active strategies. This is a great brand, a great company in the industry that can, I think will attract a lot of dollars. Dan, question about TRO price? So, Maddie, you're telling you that TRO price is not just a discount broker? They are not, Dan. They're actually, they're much more a money management firm that owns dozens of funds, ETS, wealth management services, etc. I didn't realize until recently that it was the founder's name. I just assumed it was a mashup, you know, like J.P. Morgan Chase. It was like, this company merges with that one. I didn't realize Thomas Rowe Price was the founder.
Starting point is 00:36:30 All the way back to 1937, I believe. Jason Moser, what are you looking at? Yeah, well, you remember last year I got back from spring break and I kind of had my Uber awakening, right? We Ubered everywhere around France, and it was just invaluable. And for me, it immediately passed David Garder's snap test. This week, we just got back from spring break down to the beach of North Carolina, and I had another awakening here. I don't know why it took me so long, but Airbnb, ticker A, BNB. We grabbed an Airbnb down on the beach in North Carolina. Wonderful week. It's more on my radar than ever before, and I really believe this is a business
Starting point is 00:37:04 that also passes that snap test. If it went away, it would impact the world at this point, because it's not just consumers like us that benefit from it, but these are just small businesses is everywhere now. People, you know, investing in real estate and utilizing that model to make a little extra money. If you look at the last quarter, the fourth quarter of last year, and Knights and Experiences booked increased 20%. They had their highest number of active bookers ever for the quarter. If you look at this business compared to 2019 versus today, their head count is actually down 5% while revenue is up 75%. So they really are continuing to grow. And they're getting their sea legs, so to speak, as a publicly traded company. So again, you've got the benefit here
Starting point is 00:37:46 for guests. You've got the benefit for owners, creating new business opportunities. We know the opportunity in travel, just massive and it's resilient. Still a young business. Plenty of kinks to work out, but they're on their way. And I really think this is one to keep on the radar. Dan, question about Airbnb? Jason, how worried are you about the laws that could change around Airbnb short-term rentals in the future? Well, I think it was a bigger concern before than it is now. I think what we're seeing, much as like with health care and things like telemedicine, once something becomes, once it sort of hits this mass acceptance, we do see laws, regulations start to adjust. And so for me, I think that was a bigger risk in the past than it is something going forward.
Starting point is 00:38:32 Sounds like Dan might be proposing some legislation just to see where this goes. Either that or starting a little small Airbnb business, perhaps. Dan, you've got a stock you want to add to your watch list? I got to tell you, I think I'm with Jason on this one. The global impact of Airbnb cannot be downplayed. While Tiro Price, as Matt said, is a very staunch and long-term company here. If Tiro Price disappeared tomorrow, I don't think I would be scrambling to change vacation plans or anything. You know what I mean?
Starting point is 00:39:02 But I think Airbnb is this part of the conversation for everybody these days. Tough but fair, Dan. Tough but fair. Matt Argusinger, Jason Moser, guys. Thanks for being here. Thanks, Chris. That's going to do it for this week's Motley Full Money Radio show. The show is Mixed by Dan Boyd. I'm Chris Hill. Thanks for listening. We'll see you next time.

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