Who Benefits From Amazon's Stock Split?

Last month, it was Alphabet. This month, it's Amazon (AMZN 3.43%) becoming the latest mega-cap company to announce a stock split. 

In this Motley Fool Money podcast, Motley Fool analysts Ron Gross and Jason Moser will join host Chris Hill to discuss how Amazon, without changing its underlying businesses, has found a way to strengthen ties with a group of its key stakeholders -- its employees. They'll also talk about:

• DocuSign's strengthening business in contrast to its declining share price.
• Enthusiasm for dating app operator Bumble.
• How Ulta Beauty continues to grow its same-store sales.
• Chipotle and Jones Soda launching very different products.
• The latest from Oracle, Stitch Fix, and Marqeta.

And Tess Vigeland, host of The Wall Street Journal's new podcast "As We Work," talks about the changing dynamics of the workplace, the rise of pay transparency, and the challenge facing companies hoping to retain employees.

And Ron and Jason share two stocks on their radar: Intellia Therapeutics and Apple.

To catch full episodes of all The Motley Fool's free podcasts, check out our podcast center. To get started investing, check out our quick-start guide to investing in stocks. A full transcript follows the video.

This video was recorded on March 11, 2022.

Chris Hill: Coming up, we've got the future of the workplace, the odds of a single-product reviving a company on the ropes, the rationale behind Amazon's latest move, and a lot more. If you're an investor, you're in the right place. Motley Fool Money starts now.

It's the Motley Fool Money radio show. I'm Chris Hill and I am joined by Motley Fool senior analyst Jason Moser and Ron Gross. Good to see you as always, gentlemen.

Jason Moser: Hey.

Ron Gross: How are you doing, Chris?

Chris Hill: We get the latest headlines from Wall Street. Tess Vigeland from The Wall Street Journal is our guest. As always, we've got a couple of stocks on our radar. But we begin with big tech. For the second month in a row, a mega-cap company is splitting its stock. In February, it was Alphabet, and on Thursday of this week, Amazon announced a 20-for-1 stock split and said it will buy back up to $10 billion worth of shares. Ron, I know this doesn't change the underlying business, and yet shares of Amazon were up 5% on Thursday because let's face it, more is better.

Ron Gross: [laughs] More is better. Yeah, as we've said many times, stock splits don't really change anything about the company. You just have more pieces of the exact same pie. But I do see three possible advantages. I think the lower price will probably be around $145, $150. That lower price will make it easier for investors that don't have brokers that offer fractional share purchases. It'll allow them to buy the stock. I think it will likely allow Amazon to enter the Dow Jones index, which will create demand from all the funds that mirror that index. Then, interestingly, it may make it easier for Amazon to offer equity to medium and lower-paid employees, because previously, one share of stock was likely too large a bonus to offer to some of those employees. But now, they will have more flexibility to use equity as a part of the compensation package.

Chris Hill: Jason, I know the price that someone pays for a single share of stock should not matter. But some people feel more invested when they have more shares. I mean, isn't that part of the attraction of penny stocks, even though they're a horrible idea?

Jason Moser: Well, I mean, let's be clear, first and foremost, Chris, I love it when we get to talk about stock splits because that means we get to talk about pizza, right? [laughs] Because that's the easiest example, that's the easiest way to explain a stock split. Same size pizza, just cut into more slices, and guess what I'm having for dinner tonight, Chris -- oh yeah, it's pizza. But now, back to Amazon. Yeah, I think you're right. There is an economic impact or lack of an economic impact from a stock split. It's interesting to see how that plays with the psychological impact because you're right, I think more is always better. At least, most consumers will tell you that, even if they're essentially not getting more. But you are getting more shares. I think that for Amazon, it makes a lot of sense. I was a little surprised at this just because there was something just... I felt like maybe that Jeff Bezos took some pride in that share price and wanted to keep growing that thing out and become more like the Berkshire Hathaway A share. But I definitely understand the perspective here as Amazon stated. I mean, it is something that will help employees. They do use equity as a form of compensation; that becomes far more difficult to do as the share price climbs. I think the more interesting part here really is the $10 billion buyback, because, on paper, it looks like a big number, and I mean, it is. But really, when you do the math, it really boils down to about 0.67% of the shares outstanding. It's not a whole heck of a lot there, but maybe it's a sign of things to come. Maybe it's the first step of many that they take in the future in returning capital to shareholders.

Chris Hill: Ron, just back to the Dow Jones Industrial Average. They've had four changes in that index in the last four years. Do you think this is likely to be the next one?

Ron Gross: Yeah. I think the times, they are a-changin'. I think we'll slowly see that industrial index become less industrial over time as some technology companies start to be included more and more often. The Dow Jones doesn't change very often over the last 100 years plus. But I think more recently, we're seeing that change more often, and that will continue.

Chris Hill: DocuSign's fourth-quarter profits and revenue came in higher than expected. But guidance for the new fiscal year sent shares of DocuSign down more than 20% on Friday, Jason.

Jason Moser: Yeah. I'm sure some probably feel like they bought the stock on Booking.com because we're looking at a round trip here, Chris, [laughs] two years ago, the company chalked up $275 million for the quarter and $974 million for the year. Today, those numbers stand at $581 million for the quarter and $2.1 billion for the year, and the price is essentially the same today as it was then. Much as the stock was clearly beyond its skis at $200, I think we can all agree, today's price does seem a little bit of a harsh reaction to the downside if you're able to take that three-year, five-year outlook. But it's worth remembering too -- I mean, the Nasdaq just hit bear market territory, so tough times are being had by all these days. In regard to the company's quarter, yes, it was a good quarter. Management met the guidance that they set with revenue up 35%, billings growth up 25%. Still not GAAP profitable, but non-GAAP earnings per share grew 30% and they added nearly 60,000 new customers. That puts them at over 1.17 million customers now in total. Net dollar retention rate, 119%, and that's down from 125% at the beginning of the year. But it's worth mentioning -- that 125% was a record performance and it wasn't normal. The realistic range is in that 110% to 120% range. I think investors need to keep that in mind.

I will give management some credit here for the past couple of years: They were thrown into the deep end as demand soared due to obvious reasons. They weren't fully prepared for that, but they did a good job of capturing that demand and bringing users in. But it took them away from the roadmap they were on in generating demand through growing relationships and cross-selling. It's understandable. But it's the fact of the matter. Now, if you believe -- as I do -- that we are indeed changing the way we are doing business and this digital transformation is real, then I still think DocuSign is still very much in a position to succeed. But management clearly has some work to do in getting the narrative back on track. As you said, the guidance for the coming year, it's not bad: 24% revenue growth for the quarter, 18% for the year. But that's obviously a significant down-slide from what we've seen in the past couple of years.

Chris Hill: From one software company to another: Oracle's third-quarter revenue came in at $10.5 billion, but overall results were brought down by a couple of the company's investments. That's one of the differences, Ron, between Oracle and DocuSign. Oracle is so big, they basically have an investment arm.

Ron Gross: Yeah, it's interesting. Profit was hurt by about five cents per share because of the stock price decline at a gene-sequencing company, Oxford Nanopore that they have an investment in, and also an operating loss of Ampere, which is a maker of server chips. So not great, but perhaps muddying the waters a little bit. I think it's more important that we focus on the operating business to see how that's doing. In this particular case, I think results were a little bit disappointing, but the guidance was strong, and typically, investors will focus more on the future than the past. The stock is reacting relatively favorably. For the quarter, revenue was just up about 4%. Again, it is a very large company and it's not the high-growth company, that perhaps it once was, so 4% isn't out of the norm. Its cloud business was strong, up about 24%. For years, you've seen Oracle try to expand their cloud business to steal share from Amazon, Microsoft, Google. They're on track to spend about $4 billion this year as they look to build out more data centers, and improve their cloud services business. That's clearly a focus, not surprising sales from their enterprise resource planning tool division. Their Fusion ERP and their NetSuite business rose 33% and 27% respectively, slower than in previous quarters. Demand leveled off from upgrades to that software. The software is used for things like accounting and procurement. We're seeing less growth there. Adjusted earnings per share, when you boil it all down, was down about 3% from last year. Nothing to get too excited about there, but guidance was good. The CEO, Safra Catz said cloud revenue would exit the fiscal year growing at a percentage rate in the mid-20s, and the total revenue in the current quarter will gain as much as 5%. That's a strong outlook. Investors are waiting to see how they digest a large $28 billion acquisition of healthcare company Cerner. We'll see how that goes as Oracle looks to really increase their business in the healthcare sector.

Chris Hill: In a conference call with analysts this week, Stitch Fix CEO Elizabeth Spaulding made the case for her company's long-term strategy still being intact. But in the short term, shares of Stitch Fix hit an all-time low after the company cut its full-year guidance. Jason, you got to believe that Spaulding and her team feel a sense of urgency because the clock really is ticking for this business.

Jason Moser: Yeah, it definitely feels like it is, as the story with many companies is these days -- and you mentioned it -- really, it's a lot about the guidance going forward. But the problem for Stitch Fix is this is the problem quarter after quarter after quarter after quarter. It's becoming a vicious cycle that they can't really escape. Revenue for the quarter of $517 million, that was up only 3%. But it's worth noting, revenue per active client topped $500 for the third quarter in a row, reaching $549. It was up 18%, so that's encouraging. Active clients now, just a tick over 4 million, and that's up 4% from a year ago as well. But the business is really having trouble boosting that top line -- they're having trouble ultimately converting that into revenue.

And the Freestyle offering is a big point of focus. This is that Direct Buy -- it used to be known as Shop, and then it was Direct Buy, and now it's Freestyle. If there's any question as to whether this is important to the company, Chris, let me just say Freestyle, the word "Freestyle" was used 103 times on the earnings call. This is something that matters a lot, and it's underperforming. They're having challenges onboarding, in converting current customers over. It is something they're going to really have to focus on here in the coming year. There are challenges that are leading them, obviously, to guide down for the year. Revenue actually now declining -- that's just what you can't see with a business like this. I guess the big question is: What do they do to staunch the bleeding? I look at this as a very different story than something like DocuSign. We've been talking about both of these businesses potentially benefiting from the tailwinds of the past couple of years. But you're seeing one business is getting stronger, one is not. Separate the business from the stock price, and it's very clear, one business is getting stronger and one is not. I'm not sure about how they really cement that longer-term relationship with the customer. They see signs of retention improving. But until that translates back into top-line growth, it's really going to be tough sledding.

Chris Hill: Coming up after the break, two companies are launching new products. Which one will do a better job of moving the stock higher? Stay right here. You're listening to Motley Fool Money.

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Welcome back to Motley Fool Money. Chris Hill here with Jason Moser and Ron Gross. Shares of online dating app Bumble rose more than 40% on Wednesday after strong fourth-quarter results. Bumble is still not profitable, Ron, but in terms of revenue and users, the numbers appear to be going in the right direction.

Ron Gross: Yes, they are. It's not been easy going. If you recall, the company went public about a year ago at $43 a share. We now stand at $21 a share. Recent weakness as a result of concern over Bumble's exposure to Russia and Ukraine, which I'll talk about in a second. But the stock, as you mentioned, was very strong on this earnings report. What really impressed investors, again, was forward guidance. We're seeing a bit of the steam come out of the stock on Friday, but still for the week -- really, really strong. For the quarter, we saw revenue growth of almost 26%. The Bumble app revenue increased 42%. Bumble app paying users increased 29%. The Badoo app and other revenue were actually down 3.5%. The Badoo, if I'm pronouncing that correctly, is the Russian app and it's part of the concern here. Total paying users increased almost 11%, and adjusted EBITDA up 24%. Margin slightly lower, as you mentioned, still not profitable. Guidance, management guidance for revenue growth of 34% to 36% in the upcoming year. They are discontinuing operations in Russia, removing the company's apps from the App Store and Google Play in Russia and Belarus. Full-year forecast includes a $20 million loss from those businesses. Combined sales from three countries -- Russia, Ukraine, Belarus -- is only 2.8% of Bumble's annual revenue. So I think investors breathed a little sigh of relief at some of those metrics.

Chris Hill: Good fourth-quarter results as well for Marqeta. The card-issuing platform ended its fiscal year with revenue coming in 76% higher than a year ago. Jason, it looks like their guidance for the current quarter isn't quite that high, but still pretty strong.

Jason Moser: Yeah. Marqeta is a cloud-based card-issuing platform. Very encouraging quarter revenue, $155 million grew 76% from a year ago. Of course, this is one of those businesses still on that path to profitability, [laughs] which makes it anathema in today's market. But the total payment volume of $33 billion, that grew 76% as well. That's an important metric, just as much of their revenue comes from interchange. But they noted a strong holiday quarter, strong overall consumer spending. The BNPL, "buy now, pay later," digital banking verticals, in particular, strong performance there. It's worth remembering with Marqeta, there is a concentration there with Square or Block today. Now, that has fallen, that revenue concentration has fallen from 68% a quarter ago down to 63%. But just worth keeping in mind, too, the Afterpay acquisition. That has closed now. Block owns Afterpay. Afterpay is also a customer of Marqeta. So that concentration risk is still there just by virtue of that merger. But again, the business is performing very well. They're calling for 50% growth for the current quarter. Feels like there's a lot of opportunity on the table here for this founder-led business. So definitely want to keep an eye on, and I'll just go ahead and get this out there. I do own shares in this business myself.

Chris Hill: Same-store sales for Ulta Beauty rose 21% in the fourth quarter. Ron, I know Ulta gets revenue from product sales, but you got to be impressed that a beauty salon chain is delivering these kinds of results when you consider how many headwinds they're facing.

Ron Gross: Totally agree. It's a very strong report with sales up over 24% on strong consumer confidence and demand. Fewer COVID-19 restrictions, absolutely helping, as you said, really strong comp sales. Those were driven by 10% increase in transactions, and a 10% increase in average ticket. You combine those, it's a nice double-whammy there. Gross margins were much wider on favorable product mix, improvement in merchandise margins. Net income up almost 50% really strong. Announced a $2 billion share repurchase authorization. Guidance was a bit a meh for 2022 [laughs] because they are lapping pretty exceptional performance. Sales growth guidance around 6%, comp sales growth guidance of 3% to 4%. But still, a company [that] continues to execute very, very well.

Chris Hill: Chipotle has been testing a new menu item, pollo asado, in Cincinnati and Sacramento. And I guess it passed the test because pollo asado is going to be rolling out nationwide in the U.S. and Canada. Jones Soda is launching a new line of cannabis-infused sodas under the brand name Mary Jones. This is going to start in California, but the company plans to offer this in states where cannabis is legal. So Jason: Which product holds greater potential for the underlying business? And I will remind you that Chipotle's market cap is $42 billion [laughs] and Jones Soda is a micro-cap -- $37 million.

Jason Moser: Yeah. If I'm looking at this practically, it feels like Jones needs the weed more than Chipotle needs the pollo asado. [laughs] Now with that said, I'm a little bit more excited about the pollo asado. [laughs] I think that Jones is obviously in a very challenged position, and hats off to them for trying something new. As far as Chipotle, I really like how they are starting to home in on these limited-time offerings. They're coming up with new recipes, but they aren't becoming standards, they are just becoming limited time. I think that really creates interest, it keeps that traffic coming back. It's very encouraging to see.

Chris Hill: Ron?

Ron Gross: I like what Chipotle is doing, some Latin flavors there. I think squeezed lime and cilantro are going to be the primary components there. We've talked about people not liking cilantro. I can't help them. [laughs] This is the flavors, either you like it or you don't. Mary Jones, really interesting, let's not forget, cannabis is still illegal at a federal level. So we'll see how that works in terms of going across state lines. For now, we're going to focus on California, and see what the sell-through looks like.

Chris Hill: Ron Gross, Jason Moser, guys, we'll see you later in the show.

Up next, a conversation about the evolving workplace with Tess Vigeland from The Wall Street Journal. Stay right here. You're listening to Motley Fool Money.

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Welcome back to Motley Fool Money, I'm Chris Hill. Since the earliest days of the pandemic, the workplace in all its forms has been in a constant state of changing dynamics as workers and employers reevaluate what life at work can or should be. This is the subject of The Wall Street Journal's new podcast As We Work and it is hosted by former Marketplace radio anchor extraordinaire Tess Vigeland, who joins me now. Good to see you.

Tess Vigeland: Hey thanks, Chris, so much. It's great to be back with you.

Chris Hill: Last week on this show, we talked about big tech companies like Apple and Google rolling out their plans to return to offices this spring, and it really seems like we're all about to learn how hybrid truly works.

Tess Vigeland: [laughs] Yeah. I don't think anybody knows, Chris. [laughs]

Chris Hill: I was just going to say it, the old saw "the market hates uncertainty." It's like, I got bad news for you. There's great uncertainty as to how this is all going to work, and work effectively, so that it benefits employers and it benefits employees too.

Tess Vigeland: Right. And there's really no roadmap for this. We've been feeling our way through it for the last two years. Obviously, there are plenty of people who still had to go to the office, still had to be in those frontline worker jobs, and are not even dealing with this question of going back to the office. But a lot of people are, and there is both fear involved -- people still feeling very uncomfortable about being in enclosed spaces where -- has the HVAC been cleaned up in the last two years, is it safer now? Then there's also this mushy "Do I really want to go back?" A lot of people have made "work from home" work for them, and it's allowed them to spend more time with their families -- even if they are working, they're still around their families. There's this hesitation, and what companies are dealing with right now is that workers are feeling their oats because the labor market is so tight. Workers are feeling they have the ability to say, "You know what? I really don't want to come in. Sorry." Workers have had to do what they've been told for time immemorial, but right now, because there are more jobs out there than people to take them, people are feeling empowered to say no. So it's going to be very, very interesting to see what percentage of the population decides, "You know what? I'm going to go ahead and go back to work because I've been asked to even if I don't want to," and what percentage really pushes back on the companies and CEOs and says, "I'm not going to do it."

Chris Hill: I was going to say, it must be a nightmare to be a hiring manager right now, because, depending on the role, it can be pretty easy to leave one job and start a new one. One of the things you delved into in the first episode of the podcast is the aesthetics of getting back together in an office. Even if you get back together in an office, do you shake hands with people? Do you high five? How do you set boundaries so that everybody feels comfortable but also productive? Because something that I think about a CEO like Satya Nadella at Microsoft, early in the pandemic talking about how crucial unplanned collaboration is, and that's something that only happens when people are together in an office.

Tess Vigeland: Yeah, but at the same time, a lot of other things happen when you have a happy workforce. So CEOs are really having to figure out what that balance is, and also think about, if that's the only thing -- that new ideas might come up in a meeting -- is that worth losing people over this issue? I don't know. I'm not a CEO, I'm glad I don't have to make the call. But you were talking about the things that could be potentially awkward for people when they come back to the office, particularly in these early days. I don't know -- can we say we're post-pandemic yet? [laughs] I'm not sure. Is the handshake dead? Are we going to elbow bump? What about conference rooms where if you're going to have a meeting, is everybody going to go in the conference room? Is everybody going to feel comfortable with that? There are just all these questions that have really come to the forefront, and I'm not sure some of the physical space aspects of it have been addressed by a majority of companies. I know that architects are working on a lot of different ways to adjust the typical American workspace, but how long that's going to take and who is going to start that experiment and what workers are going to be comfortable with starting that experiment, is again an open question as is almost everything surrounding our workplaces and our work lives right now.

Chris Hill: You used the phrase, "happy employees." There have always been businesses that are willing to pay more than other businesses. They basically say to employees, "We're going to pay you more than anybody else. You're not necessarily going to have fun while you're working here, but we're going to pay you more than anybody else." I think back to a company like Google that 20 years ago basically said, "We're going to make the workplace a lot of fun. [laughs] We're not necessarily going to pay you as much as Goldman Sachs, but you're really going to love working here." How do companies re-create those perks, so many of which require in-person gathering? How do companies do that, or is there no real way to do it, and the money that they allocated toward those programs now needs to just go plow right back into bumping people's salaries up?

Tess Vigeland: Well, I think an even more baseline question is, do workers care about those things at this point? I don't know if you've been at the Google campus. I've been there, and I've been to the famous cafeteria where you can get cereals all hours of the day, and there are all kinds of benefits and fun things all around the campus. But that doesn't really come into play if you're looking at workers who have decided that actually being in their homes is the thing that they want to do, and no amount of little work bennies at the workplace is going to replace that. Again, it is this sense of uncertainty both about what your workers want -- Do they want all that old stuff? Will that bring them back into the office? -- or do they want not only just remote work, but a flexible schedule? Do they want to be able to work 10 hours a day Monday to Thursday, and then have a three-day weekend? Do they want to work three days a week, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday? So these are all options that are being thrown around as possible ways to [laughs] bring workers back into the fold and want to come back in. But whether or not, kind of all of those Silicon Valley perks that we started hearing about a couple of decades ago are going to be the thing that brings people back? I don't know. This has been such a sea change, such a transformation in how people are thinking about the role of work in their lives that I just don't know if those are going to be the things to bring people back.

Chris Hill: The last time you were on this show was 2015, we were talking about the book you had just written: Leap: Leaving a Job with No Plan B to Find the Career and Life You Really Want. I feel like you're ahead of your time, Tess, [laughs] because you were hosting one of the most popular radio shows in America in 2012 and you just decided, "Nah, I think I'm leaving." [laughs] Just going to walk. Like, you were the precursor to the great resignation.

Tess Vigeland: Chris, I was a quitter before quitting was cool. [laughs]

Chris Hill: When the great resignation narrative started last year, really, in earnest last year maybe it was like 2020 --  time is a flat circle.

Tess Vigeland: I have no idea what day or time it is.

Chris Hill: When that started. Did you think to yourself, oh, people are going to learn what I learned, or like what went through your mind when you saw that playing out? Because clearly, some of the people who were walking away, maybe they were later in their careers and it was just like, "l have run the numbers, I'm good. I'm retiring a couple of years earlier."

Tess Vigeland: Lot of them were younger.

Chris Hill: A lot of younger people were just saying, "No, I'm not doing this right now. I'm walking away."

Tess Vigeland: Yeah. I think there is a generational difference in the reasons that people have made that decision over the last year and a half or so. I think the term, "the great resignation" came in April or May of 2021 in the wake of what seemed to be an accelerating number of people quitting their jobs. I think one really big difference in the decade since I quit my job is that there's not as much of a stigma to it now. I don't know if that was the case for kind of the vanguard of people who started quitting during the pandemic. But there really has been the sense of, "Look, I have a life too and that life can turn on a dime. It can all just stop for any reason at all. I'm going to take a second look at what work means to me, and again, the role I wanted to play in my life." And because we were all going through this collective global trauma, that decision didn't get that look askance. I certainly felt [laughs] a decade ago when I did it, for all kinds of reasons. People were like: "You're going to have a resume gap. How are you going to explain that?" "You're off ramping and you're never going to be able to get back on again." You don't hear that now. Again, part of that is because of the labor market. People are feeling the freedom to leave, I think for two reasons -- both of them monetary. One is that they were able to save money during the pandemic because they weren't commuting. They weren't buying lunches every day. They weren't doing all the things that actually cost you money when you go to work.

Second, they've found that because of the tight labor market, companies are willing to pay them more. So it's a really different scenario than the one that I leaped into. But I would say that I am heartened by the fact that there is now this sense that there's nothing wrong with it, and that there's a freedom to do it without facing the massive consequences that everybody was worried about prior to 2020. It's a little weird to watch it happen because when I did it and when I wrote my book, it seemed [laughs] crazy, frankly. But now, it's a norm. It's happening. Who knows what happens when the economy is not going the way it is right now. If inflation keeps going and all of a sudden, people don't have as much money and so they don't feel the freedom to leave their jobs, maybe that all changes. But right now, it is an opportunity for people to really take a look and say, "Is this what I want to do? Is this where I want to stay? If not, I'm going to go." Millennials have been teaching old folks like me from Gen X a lot about this, not just in the last two years, but really since they entered the workforce because they even broke the mold of the notion that you should stay at a company for a few years. They started job-hopping basically right out of college. Which again, was breaking a norm. So I think all of it is healthy, it's all change and change is hard to adjust to, both for workers and their employers. But I truly believe that work is just an element of your life. It's not the whole thing. And for that realization to have happened over the last two years, I think is personally fantastic.

Chris Hill: Last thing and then I'll let you go. The first episode of the podcast has dropped. I know you've got more to come. Thinking about your journalism background, give me a sneak preview of coming attractions. What is coming up on the podcast that you delved into and found particularly enlightening?

Tess Vigeland: The next couple of episodes -- the first one we're going to be talking about pay transparency. As you know, there are cities and states that are passing laws that require more pay transparency on the part of companies. But the really interesting part is that there are workers all over the place who are posting their salaries publicly on social media, and creating big firestorms around that from both people who think that it's totally inappropriate and people who are like, "Yes! Thank you! Let's keep going!" So we're going to talk about that in Episode 2. Episode 3, I'm really looking forward to. One of the things that has been a question over the last couple of years is: Have we lost our ambition in the workplace? Have we lost that sense that we've got to keep climbing and keep pushing for that top-level job in the corner office, that high salary, whatever it is? So we're talking with two women of color, both of whom had top executive jobs, and during the pandemic made very different decisions about whether they wanted to continue climbing a ladder or step off it, around it, over to a different ladder. So we're really trying to delve into some of the, I think, both psychological and philosophical aspects of what's been happening over the last couple of years, along with some practical advice for things like: What are you going to do when you get back in the office and say hi to somebody? [laughs] Mental health, also on the docket. We're also going to look at how the relationships with your coworkers has changed and what that means for companies as a whole. It's just weird out there right now. Everything is so weird. We're tapping into that weirdness and trying to find a place for people to come and talk about it and learn something.

Chris Hill: Podcast is As We Work, new episodes published on Tuesdays and you can find it wherever you get your podcasts. Tess Vigeland, great talking to you. Thanks for being here.

Tess Vigeland: Thanks so much, Chris. Appreciate it.

Chris Hill: Coming up after the break, Ron Gross and Jason Moser return. They've got a couple of stocks on their radar. Stay right here. This is Motley Fool Money.

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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 yourselves stocks based solely on what you hear.

Welcome back to Motley Fool Money. My name is Chris Hill. Here once again with Jason Moser and Ron Gross. Guys, it's time to get to the stocks on our radar. Our man behind the glass, Rick Engdahl, is going to hit you with a question. Ron, you're up first. What are you looking at this week?

Ron Gross: Big news, Chris, in the gene-therapy sector, specifically impacting Intellia Therapeutics, NTLA. Last week, Intellia lost a long-standing patent dispute that basically said the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT is the inventor of the CRISPR-Cas9 technology. Broad has exclusively licensed that technology to another biotech that I hold in my gene-therapy basket -- Editas, EDIT. Now, Intellia is left to scramble to appeal this decision, or perhaps to license the technology from Editas. CRISPR Therapeutics is also in the same boat. They license the technology that now no longer holds the patents, so a bit shakeup here in this industry. I'm going to hold onto these three CRISPR stocks for now. I'm going to wait to see how it shakes out. They're making progress. lntellia actually at the same time announced some positive results from a clinical trial. So again, I'm in these stocks because they are the future of medicine and I want to see what happens.

Chris Hill: Rick, question about Intellia Therapeutics?

Rick Engdahl: Geez, can't they all just get along? [laughs] So if I already own CRISPR and Editas, do I need Intellia also? Do I need a basket of gene-editing stocks?

Ron Gross: I think it's safe for don't own a basket because if you put all your eggs in one basket, Rick, it could go very badly.

Chris Hill: Jason Moser, what are you looking at this week?

Jason Moser: Well, not to be forgotten. Apple did have an event this week, ticker AAPL. There wasn't anything really mind-bendingly new, but I like to say Apple's employing the "$6 Million Man" strategy here, Chris, "better, stronger, faster." And that's ultimately what this was. It's fascinating to watch the evolution here of Apple. Because it was the iPod company. Then it was the iPhone company. Then we're talking about services. But really, now, I mean, it's becoming a chip company as well, that M1 Macs and M1 ultra chip. The M1 Ultra, they call the next giant leap for Apple silicon. The Mac Studio is a pretty amazing-looking desktop. Maybe not the biggest opportunity out there, the biggest market opportunity, but it's a nice flex. It shows you what they're capable of and I think the new iPhone SE with 5G capability, they are able to incrementally bump that price up a little bit, which is nice. Dabbling in live sports now with MLB, and now we know MLB is set to continue. Hey, you've got a stock here that's valued at 25 times full-year estimates, and that pegs earnings growing from about 10% last year. I think there will beat that. They're going to continue buying back at least $20 billion in stock quarterly. So if you're looking for some stability in an inflationary environment, I think Apple should be at the top of the list.

Chris Hill: Rick, question about Apple?

Rick Engdahl: Yeah, I'm an Apple guy, and I used to update my phone every year on their schedule and all that. I'm finding more and more that these things last. Are they too good?

Jason Moser: [laughs] They are really good. I'm with you. I want to use this phone for as long as I can. I think that's going to be one of the issues they run into, perhaps down the road. But what we've seen to this point, they've been able to cope with it by becoming more things. The services revenue, taking control of that chip dynamic. So I wouldn't sweat it too much.

Chris Hill: Where do you want to add to your watch list, Rick?

Rick Engdahl: I probably already have enough Apple. I better fill my basket. [laughs]

Chris Hill: All right, guys, we're out of time. Everyone, thanks for listening. We'll see you next time.