The turmoil in the markets makes it too easy to justify selling any stock these days. Yet, while panic never helps investors, it's still a good idea to play devil's advocate with investments.
Consider solid-state drive maker STEC (Nasdaq: STEC). Though the tech sector is making a comeback, you'll find a few of the 664 Motley Fool CAPS members weighing in on the company offering reasons to be bearish.
Here at The Motley Fool, we like to consider both the good and bad sides of an investment, so in this article, I'm highlighting three of the main bearish arguments on STEC. Be sure to read the bullish side, as well, and then weigh in with your own comments below or rate STEC in CAPS.
1. Customer concentration
Similar to chip company Rambus (Nasdaq: RMBS), STEC relies on a small amount of customers for a large portion of its business. It counts IBM (NYSE: IBM) and Hitachi among its larger customers, but its largest customer, EMC (NYSE: EMC), has increasingly made up a huge percentage of STEC's revenue, leaving it vulnerable to the woes of its customer, like the inventory pileup that EMC saw in November.
2. Walking with giants
Some investors are concerned about the future of STEC's competitive position, as an increasing number of companies are pushing for market share in the enterprise SSD market, giving companies like Hewlett-Packard and Dell (Nasdaq: DELL) a wider range of options for their servers. Companies like Intel (Nasdaq: INTC) and Toshiba have been aiming to increase their presence, and the recent entrance of others like Seagate (Nasdaq: STX) has some investors seeing the potential growing threats to STEC.
3. Uncertainty
While the solid-state drive market is expected to become a huge market someday, it has a ways to go before it becomes cost-competitive in mainstream applications. Meanwhile, that gives plenty of time for other players to jockey into the lucrative space, leaving some investors a little uncertain about STEC's dominance. Shares have also gyrated wildly due to issues like EMC's inventory overhang, lawsuits, and even buyout rumors. Some investors prefer to sit on the sidelines.
To see details of what CAPS members are saying now about STEC, just click on over to Motley Fool CAPS and have a look -- or add your own thoughts directly to this story in the comments box below.
“The Death of the Euro!”…Greece may seem worlds away, but be warned. What happens there next could reshape global finance and rattle your portfolio. On Mar. 22, The Motley Fool’s Tim Hanson heads to Greece to get the story. Follow in real time and hear how best to profit from this historic development (Hanson returned from China in July with a stock that’s up 117%!). Enter email below.
Terms & Conditions
RSS Headlines
Fool UK