Motley Fool Money - Wells Fargo's Unreal Problem
Episode Date: September 9, 2016Wells Fargo is fined for fake accounts. Apple cuts the wire. Dave & Buster's dips. And Restoration Hardware rises. Plus, influence expert Robert Cialdini shares some influential insights from his new ...book, Pre-Suasion: A Revolutionary Way to Influence and Persuade. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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Everybody needs money.
That's why they call it money.
From Fool Global Headquarters, this is Motley Fool Money.
It's the Motley Fool Money Radio Show.
I'm Chris Hill joining me in studio this.
week for a million-dollar portfolio, Jason Moser, from MDP and Supernova, Simon Erickson,
and from Motley Fool 1, Ron Gross. Good to see you, as always, gentlemen.
Hey, hey, hey.
We have got the latest headlines from Wall Street. Best-selling author, Robert Chaldini,
is our guest, and as always, we'll give you an inside look at the stocks on our radar.
But we begin this week with Warren Buffett's favorite bank. Wells Fargo making headlines
because the company fired more than 5,000 employees for opening 2 million fake accounts
for existing customers. Wells Fargo was also fined $185 million by federal regulators. And Ron,
maybe the most astonishing thing is that this has all been going on since 2011.
Five years. Yeah. I'm not naive, or perhaps I am, but this actually disappointed me.
Wells Fargo was supposed to be kind of the better bank. That's really why Buffett is invested
there. Their reputation is supposed to be above the other folks, at least the other very large banks.
And to see this happen is very disappointing. And I think they're getting off quite easily.
First of all, $185 million in find is a blip. The stock has not done anything. I expected
it to sell off. I guess people just don't care about this kind of level of, can we call
it fraud? It seems like fraud to me. I'm not a lawyer.
Opening two million fake accounts? It kind of seems like fraud.
I think they're getting off easy. It's going to be interesting to see what happens in the
next couple quarters to see if business is actually impacted. Does the brand take a hit and does the
business come down as a result, I'm kind of thinking, no, because these things are very, very
sticky.
First of all, they make a ton of money in the mortgage business.
I don't think that'll stop.
Having an account, whether it's a credit card or a bank account, they're very sticky things.
It's very tough to move one.
You're paying your bills.
You've got your whole life set up.
People are like, you know what?
I'm just going to keep it.
I'm sure this is fine by now.
And so I think they're going to get away with this.
Yeah, I would say, I agree with you.
I don't think there is going to be any real bad.
backlash here. I do think this does not surprise me at all, unfortunately. It's not just because
of an inherent skepticism that I was born with. But I did work for a very big bank in America
that will remain nameless many years ago. And even back then, the incentive system,
the structure that was set up, begged for this kind of behavior. And so I understand
exactly how this happened, and it doesn't shock me at all. I think, really, really, really,
Really, the question is, I mean, what they need to do is they need to convince us as consumers
that it's not going to happen again. But based on the way these banking centers perform,
their feet are kind of held to the fire to meet these sort of sales goals, whether it's based
on accounts or credit cards or business accounts or lending. And meeting those goals results
in you getting your bonus. And so the last couple of weeks of the quarter, when you start
seeing you're a little bit light in some of those areas, they start figuring out ways to
get creative.
It's unfortunate. I hope this is something now that it's been brought to light, it stops.
But to Ron's point there, ultimately, it is so hard to change a banking account and get those things moved over somewhere else because you have so many things already coming out.
For the consumer, it's not worth it. So you may hate it, but you're still not going to change your banking account.
I'll take the other side of this coin, guys. I think that those fraudulent accounts that have been created are not as sticky as we think that they are.
The Wells Fargo, you look back at the numbers, they did $40 billion in non-interest income,
which is collecting fees from things like credit cards and from deposits on your account,
underfunded accounts and stuff like this.
And if this truly is a reputational damage to the bank, you've got to assume that some of those
are actually going to move around.
You've got to assume that this does affect consumers.
And you looked at about 12 to 13 percent of the company's total earnings coming from just
fees on deposits accounts and also on cards.
Couple that with the reputational home, I think this is a big hit for the company that we haven't
seen coming yet.
Got a lot of questions on Twitter just in regard to the fact that Buffett and Berkshire hold
a big stake in Wells Fargo. I can only imagine the sort of the dinner time conversation
between Warren and Charlie sitting over maybe a cherry coke and subpoena, but talking
about incentives, right? Because I think Charlie Munger's quote, never ever think about
something else when you should be thinking about the power of incentives. I'm sure he's
probably thinking about that right now. Let's be very careful not to be very careful.
to draw any kind of a connection here to Warren Buffett, though. I mean, this is something that
Wells Fargo is a very big bank. This is stuff that was happening. It sounds like on the consumer
level, probably the banking center level, it was a minority, obviously, the employees.
My bet is they probably take a second look here at the incentive structure and figure
out a way to avoid this problem in the future.
My bet, Ron, is that this, because reputation is so important to Warren Buffett, that
this doesn't sit well with him.
Well, that's for sure. Whether he actually takes a walk and sell
stock, I would think not. I think more, he's more likely to make a phone call and say, let's
get our ducks in a row here and make sure this doesn't happen again, but I'm sticking with
you.
This week, Apple held an event to unveil the iPhone 7 as well as an upgraded version of the Apple
watch. The iPhone 7 is water resistant, has a better camera, and no jack for headphones.
What do you think, Simon?
Well, that's the headliner of this, right? So there is no jack for the, it's going to be
wireless headphones now, basically. These are using Bluetooth technology.
technology.
Already out there.
The headphones will work with other devices.
But it's also another revenue stream for Apple, right?
This is $159 for the AirPods wireless headphones.
It'll work with your phone.
It's kind of neat, though, because they automatically pair with an iPhone.
They incorporate microphones, and they're actually communicating with Apple Siri.
So you can use your headphones and immediately start communicating with the device, ask it
to do things, everything that's already built into Siri as well.
So it's more than just what we think of as a wireless headphone.
I think more of a communication device with your mobile phone now.
It didn't really do anything to move Apple's stock, but shares of Nintendo were up nearly
30 percent on Wednesday when the company announced it's developing a game for the iPhone
called Super Mario Run.
So given all of the success they had with Pokemon Go, we had talked about how, well,
they're probably going to look to develop more games.
But I'm sorry, a 30 percent pop on a game that doesn't exist yet?
That's crazy.
It seems excessive to me.
too. But, you know, we have to keep in mind now. I read that there's 500 million downloads of
Pokemon Go now, which just blows my mind in the first place. Watch out when you're driving
now is the takeaway for me for anyone trying to pick these up out there. But now you've got
Super Mario Run, which is also another freemium model. You download it digitally. You make money
once people have downloaded the game. That's a much better business model than somebody having
to go into GameStop and physically buy the game. I'm sensing this is a buy-on-the-room or sell on the
news moment. I think we'll see the stock come back down over the next few months.
I just feel like given all these gains, I mean, this just seems like a lot of people
have way too much time on their hands. I mean, aren't we in like this situation where people
are clamoring for like jobs and money and stuff?
It's all about work-life balance, Jason. All about the balance. Shares at Chipotle
up this week on the news that billionaire activist investor, Bill Ackman, has taken a 9.9% stake
in the company through Pershing Square's, his hedge fund. Maybe I shouldn't be, Jason.
because the stock did pop a little bit. I'm a little torn on this one, though, given all we have talked about with Bill Ackman's interactions with Herbalife recently.
Yeah, I won't lie. When I read this, I mean, the thing that immediately happened, like the curb your enthusiasm music was playing in my mind because I felt immediately conflicted.
Like, we give him, I think, a very hard time for a lot of good reasons. Ultimately, I think it's great that he sees value in Chipotle. We obviously see the same value as well. We like it in MDP. We own.
I own it. I own shares personally. I think that's great. He sees value in it. I hope he chooses
to go the route of keeping his nose out of the business and just trying to participate
in the upside there.
You don't think he's going to want to sit down with Monty Moran and Stephen Ells?
Maybe he wants to have just coffee or something. I don't know. But I really, I feel like
where he gets himself into trouble is probably thinking he knows a little bit more than
he does. And I think you look at things like J.C. Penny, for example, I think there are areas where
He probably is just better on trying to participate in any upside and just let leadership do their thing.
And I think all the signs point towards Chipotle traffic coming back.
They're recovering from this holy coli crisis, I think fairly nicely.
We can't expect them to figure it all out in one day.
But there's no question, just sort of boots on the ground.
We get pictures from everybody on Twitter all over the country showing us these lines and these stores that are picking back up.
And the numbers tell the tale as well.
So I think they'll get a good little bit of a bump from the Chiptopia program this summer.
I think that will beget a longer-term sort of loyalty program that will benefit them as well.
So, again, I think it's great he sees value in there.
I hope he just sticks his nose somewhere else.
I'm not holding my breath on that one.
Restoration hardware up more than 10% this week after second quarter profits came in much higher than expected.
Ron, it's been a rough year for this stock.
But a few weeks back, you said, this thing's oversold.
There's value here.
Even a broken clock. I get them right every now and then. But this remains to be seen. This
is the expectations game. Things are still tough, but they did beat expectations. The company is
really undergoing a lot of changes here, transitioning to a membership model, redesigning the
stores. They were short on inventory for a new modern line of furniture. So they've got a lot
of things they could correct. They have a lot of potential, as my doctor once said to me.
If they can turn it, then the stock remains really cheap. It's 10 times EBITDA.
But that EBITDA, that cash flow, that income is pretty depressed because of all the things
that they're going through right now.
So this is one step.
Things are turning a little bit.
We still saw comp sales down 3%.
You can't turn a business doing business that way.
But they think they're on the right track.
And I think it's okay to take a little nibble here.
Kroger's second quarter profits came in higher than expected, but the grocery chain lowered
guidance for the rest of the fiscal year.
And it does seem like the price wars are starting to affect them just a little bit.
a little bit, Jason.
Yeah, a little bit.
But let's also remember, I mean, food price deflation is not something that is particular
to just them.
This is just one of the, it is just a nature of this business in general.
I think this really is a difficult space in which to invest.
And really, when you look at this grocery segment, scale is probably the most crucial part
of any competitive advantage than any of these operators can really gain.
And I think Kroger has that.
They're closing in on around 3,000 stores.
with a number of different brands, that I think it's good for them because they pursue a very
broad cross-section of consumer. I mean, they hit everywhere from the value side to sort of
that maybe sort of upper crust style with Harris Teeter and everywhere kind of in between.
Excluding fuel comps were up 1.7 percent. I mean, you look on the other side of that
was something like Whole Foods, for example, that's really run into a buzzsaw here.
Coms were down about two and a half percent last quarter for them, and they are still witnessing
a lot of problems there. So what we've seen, I think, with something like
Kroger sells in that 13, 14, 15 multiple, and that's okay. This is going to be a pretty
steady-80 business, a low-margin business, but they'll pay you a dividend. You can probably
see a little bit of upside in the stock price versus something like a Whole Foods or your sort
of boutique grocers that I think are really having a tougher time, and we're going to see
those multiples. They'll continue to pare back a little bit. So all in all, a difficult quarter,
but this is a business that knows how to handle it. It's still a very good long-term operator.
Coming up, we'll talk software and soft drinks. Stay right here.
This is Motley Full Money.
Welcome back to Motley Full Money.
Chris Hill here in studio with Jason Moser, Simon Erickson, and Ron Gross.
Mixed third quarter results for HP Enterprise.
Revenue was lower than expected, but the company did reach a deal to sell its software
division for nearly $9 billion.
What do you think, Simon?
It's taking out the garbage, in my opinion, Chris.
This is, HP has bloated its balance sheet in past years of big-name acquisitions for software
companies for big data announcements.
The most infamous, I guess we could call it, would be autonomy, which they bought for $11.7 billion in 2011, then wrote down more than $8.8 billion within the first year of that.
It was such a buzzword that was overhyped, didn't work out. The future of this business for big data is not on-premise big data structured like we've seen. It's unstructured in the cloud. I think that this is some of those legacy businesses that didn't work out so well. H.P.'s taking out the trash.
Dave and Buster's shares falling this week, despite a second quarter report with profits
and sales coming in higher than expected. This is a really good quarter, Jason. What's going on here?
Well, let's not go too far, Chris. I mean, it was okay. I think the market really, we know
it's forward-looking. It cares more about what's to come. And when you guide comps down
rather significantly, which Dave and Busters did, it's rarely going to go unnoticed.
And I think it's fair to question a concept like this. When you start bringing now those comp expectations,
Where's the growth going to come from? Because this is not some sort of McDonald's style or
Starbucks-style play. I mean, there is a limit to how many stores they can open. They're around
85 or 90 of them today. You look into S-1 filing before they went public. They see a market
in the U.S. and Canada of potentially over 200. I personally think that's probably a little
bit optimistic. The good thing for them is they have a very diverse revenue stream in that it's
not just food and drinks, right? But more than half of their money comes from the games and
entertainment that Ron, I'm sure, could probably shed a little light on.
Yeah, but my kids love that stuff, and you go for the beer and you stay for the ski ball,
is what we always used to say.
And I mean, yeah, you look at sort of those other entertainment concepts like Buffalo Wild Wings
facing some trouble there as well.
They're looking to gin up sales by doing a half-price wing concept thing on Tuesday nationwide.
So you can see these stores.
Hold on next Tuesday?
Well, I think it's starting next Tuesday.
If not this past Tuesday, we should be investigating this, Chris.
But I think any which way you look at it, the restaurant segment is facing.
some challenging times right now. I am a little bit concerned that Dave and Buster's getting
out there with a share buyback program this early in their life. It's not like they had the
healthiest balance sheet in the world, and if they're going to be opening new stores, they're
going to need that capital. So to me, that's a little bit of a red flag. I'd keep an eye on.
Shares of Pier 1 imports falling this week after preliminary earnings revealed the retailer will
have its fourth straight quarter of falling sales. CEO Alex Smith is stepping down at the
end of the year, and I'm sure Ron, that those two things are completely unrelated.
Of course. This is a microcap stock now, $330 million market cap.
It's not small?
At $4 a share. The company rebounded really nicely after the recession, getting the stock
up into the mid-20s, but just since then, it's been just tough, tough times. Preliminary
results down almost 7 percent, and comes down 4 percent, not profitable. There really isn't
a good turnaround scenario in sight. The search for a new CEO is a new CEO is a lot.
underway. We don't even know who that will be, so we have nothing to hang our hat on. Four
times Iva, it's cheap, but cheap is in quotes. It also could be a value trap. If you want
to take a flyer, good luck. I'd keep an eye on it before jumping in.
Do you think someone looks to take this company private?
Not if it's not profitable. No, unless you could really strip out costs or close
underperforming stores and make a difference.
All right, guys. We've talked before about how soda consumption has been steadily falling for
years in the United States. And now, for the first time in more than two decades, the most
The most popular drink in the U.S. is water. The average American now drinks nearly 60 gallons
of water a year, and bottled water has been a big part of that rise. We've got a couple
minutes left here. Okay, so let's, can we stipulate that this is a trend that we think
is going to continue for the next five, ten years, something like that? Chris, I was just
going to point out that the four of us are all drinking water at this table. There you go.
Not even knowing this story.
So we've got Coke and Pepsi, obviously have their bets on Bob.
water. You've got a company like Soda Stream out there that's more for in the home. Where
do we think the profit? Someone's going to win if this trend continues. Who are we betting on?
You have the whole differentiation between spring water and then tap water that they just
purify, which sounds like a scam to me, but I still continue to buy it every week. I think
internationally you're still going to see the rise of these sugary drinks and water
will be here to stay, as you said, for the five or ten years here.
Well, and part of this, Jason, one of these things that we're seeing now is the effects
on the environment of just so many plastic bottles of water. The University of Vermont
is now the first college in America to ban the sale of bottled water if it's under one
liter. So, you know, that's one more X factor here.
Sure. It's a really interesting dynamic there because I definitely, as a diet coat
drinker have made a point to curb my diet coke drinking. I'm drinking a lot more water.
I'm drinking a lot of celtzer that we're buying in the stores. I mean, I could tell from
the soda stream machine that we had here at full HQ, it just wasn't going to last that long,
because it's just a hassle. I mean, when that cartridge runs out, it's just changing it. It's just,
eh, it's too much work. God, you're listening.
But I think, I mean, to your point, though, a more recent day before school got started,
you know, we're going over to the school to talk about our girls' classes and whatnot.
And they were very emphatic about saying, hey, listen, make sure you pack a water bottle in your
kids book bags. Don't send them with a new bottle of water every day. Let's conserve and try
to be a little bit more green. I think this is something that a lot of places and a lot of
people are thinking about now.
Well, Chris, when Sotas was starting becoming popular, we saw all the studies come out about
how bad and dangerous it was for you, right? Are we going to see the same thing about water
now?
Don't forget that Evian is naive spelled backwards.
Isn't the human body like 99% of water?
Yeah, I'm taking the other side of that, Ben, Simon.
All right, Ron Gross, Jason Moser, Simon Erickson, guys. We'll see you later in the show. Up next,
we will talk influence and persuasion with bestselling author Robert Chaldini. Stay right here. You're listening to Motley Full Money.
This episode of Motley Fool Money is sponsored by Rocket Mortgage by Quicken Loans. And if you've ever bought a home,
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Welcome back to Motley Fool Money. I'm Chris Hill. Robert Chaldini is a best-selling author and
expert on the psychology of influence. His first book, entitled Influence, sold more than
3 million copies. His new book is Presuasion, a revolutionary way to influence and persuade.
Dr. Chaldeini, thanks for being here.
Well, I'm looking forward to the opportunity to interact with you and your listeners.
You wrote Influence in 1984, and I am pretty confident that your publisher has spent the better part of the last 30 years bugging you to write another book on your own.
So this is your first solo book in more than 30 years.
What led you to write Presuasion?
I never had an idea big enough to compete with influence.
until the idea for pre-swasion came along.
As opposed to influence, which covers what best to build into a message to get agreement,
pre-suation describes the process of gaining agreement with a message before it's been sent.
Now, that may sound like some form of magic, but it's not.
It's established science.
Now, you had a firsthand experience with some of the principles
behind your book because you had planned to work on this during a sabbatical at a university,
and you were going to have a semester on a new campus, no commitments, plenty of time to research and
write, and that plan fell apart, didn't it?
It did, because one of the principles of influence that we talk about in the first book
called reciprocity, the idea that after we receive from someone, we're very ready to
say yes to that person in return. We simply say yes to those we owe. And I was bargaining with
the associate dean at this other school where I was going to spend my sabbatical to get some
features in my office, a computer, library privileges, parking, free phone long-distance calls,
these kinds of things. And he called me and said, Bob, I've got great news. We've got you all
those things that you wanted. In fact, the computer in your office is even more powerful than you
asked for. And I said, well, thank you. I genuinely appreciate that. And he waited, he paused
a beat. And he said, well, there's something we'd appreciate, Bob. We have an emergency need
for someone to teach a marketing class,
and I wonder if you could do it,
it would mean a lot to us.
Well, I had never taught a marketing class in my life.
I had never taught in a business school.
I had never taught this particular type of individual MBAs before,
which meant that I was going to be spending period of my time there
preparing and teaching this class.
but Chris in the moment after he had done this thing for me
there was no other way for me to respond except to say yes
I can only be glad he didn't need a kidney
well that's one of the things that you really get at in this book is
the importance of timing because I think that you know for anyone who has
encountered persuasion in all its various forms, whether it's in person, whether it's an advertising
message, on television, in your email, that sort of thing. It's nothing I had really thought too
deeply about before digging into your book a little bit, but it's not just using the
principles, it's also using the correct timing because it really does seem like that dean
had a window of opportunity, and he took advantage of it. And he took advantage of it. And if you
If he had come back to you later, it wouldn't have worked.
Exactly.
And more than that, he made the moment.
He gave me these things.
And in the moment afterward, I was ready to say, yes.
He didn't just wait around for the right moment to occur.
He was a moment maker.
And in fact, the title of the book, which is now pre-suasion,
was originally to be called moments of power.
And what I recognized in researching moments of power
when you're most likely to get yes
is that those moments are the moments immediately
before you deliver your request.
You put people in a state of mind
that makes them receptive to the next thing that you say.
Well, and this is something that comes in the book.
It's not just when you're talking with someone. It can also come in written form as well.
We've talked many times on this show before about Warren Buffett. You are a Berkshire-Hathaway
shareholder. And one of the bits of data that you cite in your book is Buffett's annual
shareholder letter from 2015, the famous 50th anniversary letter. He took the opportunity to presuade shareholders
for some pretty direct news about the future of Berkshire Hathaway?
He did.
He had a section in that letter, the future, the next 50 years,
because they had just completed, he and Charlie Munger just completed 50 years as partners
at Berkshire Hathaway, taken the company to stratospheric levels of worth,
and the question was, should an investor continue to,
to invest in Berkshire Hathaway.
How can you convince someone that the next 50 years are going to be as good as the last 50 years?
And he did something that was persuasive, and I had never heard him do before.
He said, now, I'm going to tell you what I would say if I was,
speaking to my family about this issue.
Now, I'm a shareholder, and you know in that movie where Tom Cruise, Jerry Maguire,
and he walked into a room and he tried to convince his wife to be his life partner for the rest of their lives,
and she says to him, you had me at hello.
When Warren Buffett said, this is what I would say to my family, he had me at family.
He had persuaded me that the next thing he was going to say was something he would say to me if I was a family member.
and I was ready to believe it now fully and deeply as a consequence.
You're listening to Motley Full Money talking with Dr. Robert Chaldeen.
His new book is Presuasion, a revolutionary way to influence and persuade.
I'm wondering about someone reading this book and trying to put some of this science into work in their life,
whether it's with coworkers, with a boss, someone in marketing, average.
advertising, and I'm wondering if the biggest mistake someone can make in trying to influence
or persuade is coming on too strong.
Because I think that it seems like subtlety is a really important component of all of this.
Right.
So let me give you an example of subtlety by changing one word in what you ask your boss for.
When you have a new plan or an initiative or an idea that you want to do.
want support for from your superiors. So typically what we do is we develop the blueprint for our plan,
perhaps a draft of it, and then we give it to the boss and say, I'd love to have your opinion on
this. Could you give us, could you give me your opinion? That's wrong. Because psychologically,
when you ask for someone's opinion, that person takes a psychological step back from you and into him or herself.
They look inside and separate from you.
If instead of asking for an opinion, you ask for that person's advice psychologically, that individual takes a step toward you.
because advice causes people to go into a cooperative, collaborative partnership kind of mindset.
It's a teamwork kind of mindset, and that person steps towards you and your idea.
And the research shows if you ask for advice instead of an opinion, you get more support
for whatever it is that you propose.
So here's a subtle thing we can do.
You're not coming on more strongly by saying advice as opposed to opinion,
and yet it works significantly better.
Given the three decades that pass between influence and persuasion,
I'm curious if there has been any sort of significant shift in your thinking
when it comes to the psychology of influence, or even something that, as you are working on
this book, doing research, something that surprised you.
Well, yes, I mean, aside from the idea of persuasion that we can move people in our direction
before they encounter our message, there was one other thing that jumped up, and that is,
I'm going to characterize it in terms of a seventh universal principle of influence.
In the first book, Influence, I identified six, and now in pre-suation identify a seventh.
It's the concept of unity, the idea of establishing the perception of we, W.E, in the minds of the individuals you are talking to.
If you can arrange to be perceived as someone who is of your audience, not just like your audience,
but who has a similar identity as your audience, everything becomes easier with regard to the influence process.
People like us more.
They cooperate with us more.
They believe us more.
They trust us more.
So one of the things that I explore in the book is how do we arrange for people to include us inside the boundaries of we?
What is your daily life like?
Given all of your expertise, it's hard for, like, I just imagine you watching television, watching commercials, and are you able to turn off your brain at all?
or are you just watching commercials and thinking,
yep, that works, yep, well done, no, that was terrible.
I could help them fix that.
What's that like for you?
It's the latter.
I'm always like a shark through water.
I'm always taking things in and trying to digest them for what they're doing
that increases or in some cases decreases the likelihood that an audience will agree
or lend a cent to what they are asking us to do.
I even do it in an airport.
When I'm sitting waiting for the plane,
and somebody says,
you know, we've got a full plane,
and we'd like to have those of you
who would be willing to take the next flight,
offer their seats.
I've listened for what they say next.
How do they entice people to do that?
It's more than just the merits of the thing.
It's the way that the merits of the thing are presented that's so intriguing to me.
Is there any airline that's particularly good at that?
You know, I haven't identified one that's particularly good at,
but I did identify one guy who did it completely wrong.
He said, if you will give up your seat, we will offer you a $5,000,
coupon, and everybody listened, right?
And then he said, oh, just joking, it's only $300.
Well, not one person went up there.
He used $5,000 to get our attention, but then he fumbled the ball because it, compared
to $5,000, $300 seemed trivial.
He could have said something else.
He could have said, and we're going to give you a coupon for $5,000.
$5. Well, he would have gotten the same attention from it. What? Five dollars? And then he could have said, no, just kidding, $300. And I'll bet he would have gotten a crowd of people at the desk.
The book is Presuasion, a revolutionary way to influence and persuade. It is already an Amazon bestseller, and it's available everywhere. Dr. Chaldeenie. Thank you so much for being here.
I enjoyed it, Chris.
stocks on our radar. 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 or sell stocks based solely in what you hear. Welcome back to
Motley Full Money, Chris Hill, here in studio, once again with Jason Moser, Simon Erickson,
and Ron Gross. It's time to get to the stocks on our radar. And we'll bring in our
man, Steve Broido, in from the other side of the glass to hit you with a question.
And you know what? We got the time, Ron. So go ahead and fire...
Just speak slowly? No, no. I was going to say,
Go ahead and fire a question back at Steve.
You're up first. What are you looking at?
I'm looking at Buffalo Wildeings, BWLD, which is surprising for me, actually. It's not
a stock I've ever really looked at. It's down 20% over the last year, and they have been
struggling lately. For a value guy, that's where I start to get interested. The quarter
looked a little bit better lately. We'll have to see if they can continue to build on that momentum.
They're diversifying away from just the NFL, NBA, and the hockey playoffs. And they're
getting into soccer and e-sports, and they're hoping that will continue to drive people into
the store. They're playing with some price cuts on certain days of the week to help drive revenue
as well. Digital orders are growing. Higher average check orders seem to be on the horizon.
They were last quarter. So I'm taking a look. Ten times EBITDA, not the cheapest stock
in the world, but it's getting interesting to me.
Steve, question about Buffalo Wild Wings?
How many is too many televisions to have in one restaurant? If you go in there, it looks like mission control.
The over-under is 10. But my question for you is, first of all, are you a wing eater?
Not at all. No.
Okay. Well, then I have to go to Plan B. Hot dogs or hamburgers?
Definitely hamburgers.
Okay.
Jason Moser, what are you looking at?
Sure. The prompting of one of our members in MVP, taking a look at AMN Healthcare Services,
ticker is AHS. But ultimately, these guys focus on getting health care professionals in the right places at the right time.
And according to Ivis World Research, this market is...
is a big one, $15 billion in revenue annually. AMN holds about 7.5% of that market. Leadership,
CEO Susan Salka, who's been there since 2005, has really brought the goods. The stock
has performed very well. It's a multiple-time recommendation in hidden gems. A lot of qualities
you've got to like. Growing the top line, profitable, cash flow positive. This is, I think,
an MDP watch list are in the making.
Steve, question about AMN?
So explain exactly how they're getting doctors to the right place at the right time for me.
It's essentially a logistics company. They're taking the staffing that we have in this country
of trained professionals and making sure that the facilities have the right professionals where
they're needed, when they're needed.
Simon Ers. Wait a minute. Wait, wait, I got a question.
You got a question, of course.
This has been kind of weighing on my mind here a little bit because of this stock, and then
I started thinking I'm getting ready to turn 44. Steve, have you ever had a colonoscopy?
No. No, not yet. I'm looking forward to it.
Just checking.
Got to take care of your health. It's the most important thing. Simon Erickson, what are you looking at?
Thank you, Jason, for getting that dire question in there.
Appreciate it.
I'm also in the healthcare space.
Look at United Health Group.
Your ticker is UNH.
This is the United States largest health insurer cover over 132 million unique individuals with some
form of interaction and coverage.
And they're filling over 1 billion prescription drug scripts per year as well.
And this is just a company that the more data that they get, the better and more efficient they're
going to get also because they're going to get health care costs down, you know, have
accountable care organizations which are focused on outcomes rather than just reimbursements.
I think that United Healthcare is in the prime position to benefit from this.
Steve, question about United Health?
Do you think there's alignment with our health care system with companies like United?
Are they trying to get me healthier so they're spending less?
Are they just trying to spend less?
Yeah, it's actually a win-win for everyone on this one, Steve, because you're trying
to get outcomes of better health care as patients, but also the insurers are trying to get
costs down too.
So it's less about just reimbursements for going to the hospital more often and more
about the outcomes and staying a healthier lifestyle.
So win-win on that one. Steve, my question for you is, what is one thing in your life that you would personally like to have more data available to you?
Oh, wow. That is a very specific question. I would love more data on... I'm at a total loss. I have nothing for you. I have so much data accessible right now. It's a good place to be.
Buffalo Wildlings and a couple of health care stocks, Steve. You've got one you're interested in there?
I would have to go with United Healthcare.
I think we use them here at the Fool, and I've been very happy with him.
You knew he was never going to go for the Buffalo.
I did know.
I did that.
We can hope.
All right, Ryan Gross, Jason Moser, Simon Erickson.
Guys, thanks for being here.
Thanks, Chris.
You can check out past episodes of Motley Fool Money and all of our podcast.
Just go to podcast.com and subscribe on iTunes, Stitcher, Spotify, and Google Play.
That's going to do it for this week's show.
Our engineer, Steve Broider.
Our producer is Matt Greer.
I'm Chris Hill.
and we'll see you next week.
