This has been a gut wrenching time for holders-including this writer-for holders of high growth IT shares. Investing is supposed to be somewhat logical: the results of the past week or so have defied logic. Ticker Target portfolios had some significant winners but overall most high growth IT shares have fallen victim to the risk-off…
Summary Affirm’s partnerships with Amazon and Shopify have solidified its leadership position in the buy now, pay later (BN/PL) sector. The company’s use of AI technology has also helped protect it against rising delinquencies.Despite facing challenges such as interest rate increases and a slowdown in consumer spending growth, Affirm has made strides in terms improving…
Microsoft’s latest quarter: Warts on display; Opportunities on the horizon I don’t usually write about specific quarterly results for different companies. I realize that many readers are anxious to see an evaluation of quarterly results in the shortest possible time. I used to do that as part of my job as a brokerage analyst; for the most…
Affirm: Can it satisfy investors in a fraught environment Investing in the fintech space has not been good for the performance of a portfolio during the past 14+ months. Supreme understatement, I suppose. Depending on the definition of fintech, most of the group has imploded. In terms of winners, there has been Shift4 Payments (FOUR) and…
Reviewing a busted recommendation The last 13 months have been a humbling experience. I feel bloody but try to remain unbowed. It has been next to impossible to make successful recommendations-at least as I define successful. Even companies that I have recommended on SA such as Adobe (ADBE), Wix (WIX), Trade Desk (TTD) and Arista…
Taking a look at a very fallen angel Wix, (WIX) the subject of this article, is a very fallen angel. It was one of the first IT vendors to see falling growth, and it has perhaps reached something of a nadir in that category. When the company last reported in August, it commented that it had seen…
For the last several months, pundits, analysts and investors have been beating the drums about an impending recession. The recession appears to have arrived, certainly in Europe, and probably in the US as well. At the very least, bond traders, who have bid down yields on Treasury bonds the last several months are relatively convinced…
Rediscovering a reasonably valued cyber-security leader The last 7 months has been an eternity for most investors in the high-growth IT space. At first the issue driving stocks lower was valuation in an environment in which the Fed committed to raising rates to curb inflation. And then, as inflation persisted, and comments from Fed governors…
Summary Shares of High-Growth software companies have led the market down so far in 2022. The decline in valuations and absolute share prices has been at rates that rival anything in the recent past. This decline has occurred against a background of strong and growing demand in the Information Technology (IT) space. Ironically, software demand…
Last week was another week of distress for high-growth shares, although perhaps not as grim as the prior week. Most of the damage was done on Wednesday which brought substantial valuation contractions. The market for high-growth shares stabilized a bit on Friday, but overall, our high-growth portfolio lost 6% and its index value now stands…