A Deep Dive Into the Video Game Industry

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This video was recorded on Jan. 21, 2022.

Peloton's (PTON -3.04%) stock fell 25% on reports of halted production and potential layoffs. United (UAL -2.60%) and American Airlines (AAL -2.46%) express optimism about increased travel in the spring and summer. And for the second quarter in a row, Procter & Gamble (PG 0.27%) flexes its pricing power muscles. Motley Fool analysts Andy Cross and Ron Gross analyze those stories, talk about Amazon's new clothing store and Winnebago's new EV, and share two stocks on their radar: Restoration Hardware (RH 1.31%) and Intellia Therapeutics (NTLA -1.67%).

Motley Fool analyst Aaron Bush discusses the shifting landscape in the video game industry, the move to create ecosystems (instead of merely publishing games), and shares why he believes Roblox (RBLX -4.30%) could be one of the defining consumer companies of the 2020s.

Chris Hill: Netflix (NFLX -3.90%) takes a short-term hit as the streaming wars heat up. Our guest this week has a stock he believes could be one of the defining companies of the next decade. All that and a lot more coming up right now.

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

Andy Cross: Hi, Chris!

Ron Gross: How you doing Chris?

Chris Hill: We got the latest headlines from Wall Street. We've got a deep dive into the video game industry. As always, we've got a couple of stocks on our radar. But we begin with Netflix. Fourth quarter profits in revenue came in higher than expected for the streaming giant and they added more than eight million subscribers in the quarter, but that growth is a little bit lower than it was a year ago, and shares of Netflix fell more than 20 percent on Friday. Andy, a few things to get to here, including the fact that Wall Street freaked out over the fact that Netflix made a reference to computing streaming services in their shareholder letter.

Andy Cross: Chris, we've been talking about the competitive landscape with streaming for a while and clearly Netflix. Reed Hastings and Ted Sarandos, they're not idiots, they know the environment. What really got people, I think, essentially freaked out and it was a very drastic reaction I got to say was with the guidance Chris. The quarter was actually pretty good as you mentioned, they added almost 8.3 million new paid additions, that was a little bit lighter than the estimated 8.5 million. Revenue was up 16 percent global paid memberships, total global paid memberships at 221.8 million up almost nine percent, average revenue per member up seven percent. They said retention was strong, return was down, but on the margin we didn't quite grow the acquisitions as fast as we would've liked to, based on the large subscriber base. However, Chris it was the guidance for the first quarter of this year that really got people I think, spooked because like I said, that fourth-quarter not so bad, operating margin was actually a little bit better than what they expected to on the profit line, but it was that guidance Chris. 

I'm looking at the guidance going forward and looking at the quarter estimating to add 2.5 million global paid additions for the quarter versus a 5.8 million ad for a forecast, it's below trend compared to 2018, 2019. Revenue for the quarter expected to be up around 10 percent versus 13 percent estimates. That's the weakest gross since 2012. Chris, when you added altogether, Netflix is really now I think not in this hypergrowth cycle. We've seen the COVID period wane its way through a little bit as they talked about on the call and we're starting to seek Netflix now in a different environment. That has really gotten the markets a little bit concerned with what that might mean for the full year subscription memberships, revenue growth, and then ultimately, the profit picture. At least they expect to be cash-flow positive, which is a good sign, but clearly not nearly as much growth as a senior the last couple of years.

Ron Gross: A lot to unpack here. A lot of this boils down to not just with Netflix, but a lot of the streaming services, price and content. One reason I never really got behind Netflix was because I'd never thought they'd be able to work out the cost of content. I'm not even sure they have yet, but certainly the stock is up a trillion percent since I passed on it, it shows you what I know. But you got to be careful here when you assume you have pricing power and you act on that. Netflix, just raise prices last week, they bumped their standard plan to 1399 per month from 1399-1549. That makes their standard plan more expensive than HBO Max. You got to be careful here because there's a lot of folks, whether it's Disney Plus, Apple TV, Paramount, Peacock, we can keep on going down the list. At some point people say the content's not worth it to me. Netflix does have the content's still, it's still in high-end demand. Six of the top most searched globally, we're on Netflix in 2021, Squid Game among them, I don't think I've seen any of the top 10 most search shows. Again, take what I say with a grain of salt, but the content is good there, but you got to be careful on the pricing side.

Chris Hill: Andy, with respect to the pricing, it really seemed for consumers there are two tiers now. You've got HBO Max and Netflix around $15 a month. You've got Apple, Peacock, Disney Plus they're all single digits, less than $10 a month.

Andy Cross: Let's not forget this is Netflix's game, Squid Game, game, get it how I did here, guys. This is all Netflix does. Amazon Prime, Disney Plus even HBO Max. They have multiple [laughs] layers to their businesses. This is all Netflix does, and it's one reason why I think they've been able to spend that amount of capital on their acquisition, acquiring content and so much on content including now gaming Chris, they started their gaming little tiny gaming platform in November. If you think about Squid Game 1.65 billion hours within the first four weeks, Bridgerton 625 million hours, which are 484 million hours, Red Notice, 363 million hours. As Ron mentioned, they have the content, I think they've been very effective with it. I think they do have that little pricing power. Chris, you do mention like it is Netflix and HBO Max are there and it is remains to be seen whether members and subscribers will continue to pay up for it, but at least a churn number continues to be very impressive and I think that's a very good sticking point for investor to lock onto as they think about what the growth prospects and importantly, what the profit and cash flow prospects for Netflix looked like over the next year or so.

Ron Gross: I think it's also interesting to note that a lot of Netflix's growth seems to be now concentrated overseas in Asia and Europe, with America and Canada being somewhat more of a mature market. But coming up on the outside is Disney, which has recently formed a new international content group to expand its pipeline of content across international markets. They're looking at double the number of countries where Disney Plus is available by fiscal 2023, they've already invested in creation of content in 340 titles already in various stages of development. As we started this conversation, the competition is going to be a big part of Netflix's future.

Andy Cross: In that line that they had in the release in the call, while this added competition may be affecting our marginal growth sum, we continue to grow in every country and region in which these new streaming alternatives have launched. Now, Ron, to your point, there's global competition, 90 percent of the new additions come from outside the US and Canada for Netflix and that marginal growth, Chris, I think is what many of us are locking onto because that could be the difference really on the profit curve and the expectation. But also this is a big analysts game. Like this was a big miss from them. Lots of conversations about how they miss this much and when you look at the history of Netflix yes, in various points, they have missed along their estimates this amount on the past year or so been very volatile with all the COVID announcements, but over time they can consistently grow and return and provide that content and the experience and that experience is very valuable for the members. I think it's a winning strategy from Netflix going forward.

Chris Hill: Microsoft is making its biggest acquisition ever, buying Activision Blizzard for just under $70 billion in cash. Assuming regulators don't derail the deal, it is expected to close next year and signals Ron, among other things, Microsoft's ambitions, both for gaming and the metaverse.

Ron Gross: For sure now, I will fully admit that I didn't get the 2016 LinkedIn acquisition, I'm not even sure I still get it, I get. This one I think makes good sense, $69 billion all-cash deal Activision had been done about 40 percent from its 52-week high as it dealt with sexual harassment and misconduct allegations, Microsoft clearly taking advantage of that price weakness to, as you said, make its largest acquisition ever. CEO Bobby Kotick, who has been under pressure to resign, will remain CEO for the time being, but I wouldn't be surprised if that didn't last much longer after the deal closes. Activision as a company, will report to Microsoft Xbox head Phil Spencer. Interestingly, shares are trading well below the 95 dollar acquisition price due to, as you mentioned, antitrust concerns. I do predict this deal will ultimately go through though. Interesting to note, Microsoft's current fortunes, I say current, over the last several years have really been tied to its B2B businesses, it's business to business, business. Specifically its transformation under statute in the Della into a Cloud company. 

But it's also made investments in its consumer Xbox gaming business, which is a smaller business as when you look at the whole of their revenue, they bought Minecraft maker in 2014. The maker of Minecraft, they bought the parent company of Doom and Fallout in 2021. This acquisition will be a big help to Microsoft's plan to turn its Game Pass subscription service into what they're going to call the Netflix of gaming, or what analysts are calling the Netflix of gaming. Once the acquisition closes, Microsoft said it will be the third largest game company by sales with 30 games studios. It'll include powerhouse franchises like Call of Duty, World of Warcraft, and my, I guess favorite, Candy Crush. I never understood that one either to be honest. But listen, you want to talk about the big battles, big competition out there, this acquisition is also a shot across the bow to Facebook as the metaverse, which is currently focused largely on gaming, at least right now, that really will start to take shape. This is an interesting move from that perspective. Shares of Sony also weak as the acquisition is seen as the potential threat to its PlayStation business. Lastly I'll say, 15 percent upside to the acquisition price, with the main risk being the justice department kills the deal. I personally would take those odds, 15 percent upside looks good to me.

Chris Hill: Andy, I don't think Ron was alone in 2016, scratching his head on Microsoft buying LinkedIn for 26 billion, but Nadella and his team made that work and that business is thriving underneath Microsoft. You have to like the prospects for Microsoft's gaming division over the next 5-10 years.

Andy Cross: Well, I think what's really interesting is because gaming is becoming full on Cloud. It's really pushing to the Cloud. Ron kicked it off and teed it up very well with Satya Nadella's and his team's move to the Cloud and the importance of the Cloud. Even LinkedIn, that acquisition, that is very Cloud-based when you just think about distributed intelligence across various different data points that they have and collecting more and more data. I think the Cloud initiative, this does really tie into that. Yes, there certainly will be antitrust concerns and they're going to maybe have as much up to 15 percent of the total market as Ron alluded to and talked about. When you look at Microsoft's Xbox, the Game Pass subscription service, tie them together. The Cloud push, I think this continues to strengthen Microsoft's goal to really be distributed leader in Cloud computing in lots of different ways beyond just B2B.

Chris Hill: On Thursday, shares of Peloton fell 25 percent on reports. The company was halting production of its bikes and treadmills due to lack of demand. The stock regained some of that loss on Friday after Peloton CEO John Foley said the company is looking to right size production levels and consider layoffs. Ron, you have to think that between the prospect of layoffs and the way the stock has fallen over the past six months. Morale at Peloton has got to be low.

Ron Gross: Absolutely. This started as a leaked memo. Supposedly they have found out who the leaker is and they're taking action there, but the company was forced to come out and address what we're really rumors up until they came out to talk about the second quarter and the business in general. Listen, the business pulled forward so much demand as a result of the pandemic. It's a miss from their perspective on how much that was going to decline once the pandemic started to fade. Yes, I do believe that a lot of the information released in the memo is likely to happen. They're going to temporarily halt production, both the bikes and the treadmill. They do probably have thousands of cycles and treadmill sitting in warehouses because the demand just isn't there. Second quarter results, they were able to reiterate some guidance to, I think, calm the markets down, that's why I think we see a little bit of rebound. But they said they don't expect to be EBITDA positive until fiscal 2023. I think layoffs are on the table, Peloton's working with McKinsey & Company to look for opportunities to cut costs. Again, those could include layoffs, store closures, and some pulling back. Price is a big aspect here, those bikes are pretty expensive. The subscription monthly cost is pretty expensive, so Peloton has some work to do to right size this business.

Chris Hill: After the break, we've got the latest on airlines, consumer goods and more. Stay right here, you're listening to Motley Fool Money.

Welcome back to Motley Fool Money. Chris Hill here with Andy Cross and Ron Gross. Two major airlines out with fourth quarter results this week. American and United Airlines both wrapping up their fiscal years with a loss and shares are both down this week. Though, Andy, United's CEO Scott Kirby says he is optimistic about the spring and summer. I know airlines historically have not been the greatest investments, but when you think about how they tie into so many different industries like travel, hotels, restaurants, I really hope Kirby's right.

Andy Cross: Both United and American are fairly optimistic about what they're seeing. They're starting to see their capacity, of course, continues to not be where it is. For United specifically, capacity was down 23 percent versus the fourth quarter of 2019. They compare against 2019 because 2020 was all wacky with COVID. Operating revenues down 25 percent, available seat miles down three percent, so a little bit better. Costs continue to increase, that was up 11 percent on the seat mile basis versus 2019. Cargo for both companies continues to be a big driver and a big win. The cargo for United is now 10 percent of the revenues up from three percent in 2019, so very impressive. But like you said, the bookings and cancellation, Kirby said, starting to return back to normal. These demands still not so great, but improving. They expect capacity to be down only 16-18 percent, operating revenue to be down in only 20-25 percent in the first quarter. Available seat miles to be attractive too, so they expect to end 2022 with the available seat miles minus the fuel cost to be about at the run rate of 2019. You are seeing this optimism from United Airlines, you're seeing that the new CEO at American Airlines, Robert Isom is coming in, stepping over, taking over in March from Doug Parker. That's the largest airline they have in the world. Their cargo revenues were attractive as well, now 30 percent higher than their previous quarterly record. Capacity was down only 13 percent. Leisure travel is approaching 100 percent recovery. Both these companies are starting to see the winds of the COVID challenges starting to dissipate and they're starting to see that travel come back. Business travel continuously be the one that's still uncertain, but there's some glimmer of hopes in the forecast here.

Chris Hill: Shares of Procter & Gamble up this week after second quarter profits and revenue came in higher than expected. More noteworthy than the result is the fact that for the second quarter in the row, P&G is raising prices across a range of items from personal healthcare products to Tide detergent. Ron, we talk about pricing power. Look, this is a Staples company. You don't automatically assume they have it, but they're flexing it.

Ron Gross: Yeah, you nailed it Chris. That's the story here. The stocks trading basically at its all time high, strong business and pricing power, allowing it to deal with the higher costs across the board that have really been taking a whack at margins and will continue to, but at least their ability to raise prices mitigates that. For the quarter, sales up six percent driven by a three percent increase in shipment volumes, but three percentage points increase due to pricing. Again, that helped offset commodity and freight increases. CEO said the company has announced price increases in all of its product categories effective February 28th. The company will increase prices on the balance of its fabric care portfolio including Tide, Gain, Downy, Bounce, all your favorites. Again, they have the ability to raise prices. It'll remain to be seen if people turned to alternatives once those pricing hikes kick in, but I have a feeling they're going to make it through this. For the quarter, their healthcare segment was the strongest with an eight percent sales increase, beauty came in the weakest with a two percent increase. They've raised their revenue outlook for fiscal '22, but they only confirmed their earnings guidance of a 3-6 percent increase. That's because the guidance included 2.8 billion of after-tax headwinds due to these higher costs. But the company is doing what they need to do and it remains a strong consumer goods company.

Chris Hill: All right guys, we'll see you a little bit later in the show. Up next, Aaron Bush weighs in on the ripple effects in the video game industry after Microsoft's big deal, as well as a couple of smaller companies investors should keep their eyes on. Stay right here, this is Motley Fool Money.

Welcome back to Motley Fool Money. I'm Chris Hill. Joining me is Aaron Bush, advisor here at the Motley Fool. Thanks for being here.

Aaron Bush: Thanks for having me, Chris.

Chris Hill: I don't know anyone who studies the video game industry like you do. Earlier in the show, we had talked about Microsoft buying Activision Blizzard. What does this do to the industry landscape? There's been talk this week of smaller players in the industry, independent game creators. If you're one of them, are you excited by the growth prospects for the entire industry? Are you terrified by the behemoth that is Microsoft, or is it something in-between?

Aaron Bush: Yeah. You're definitely thinking hard about what it means for yourself. But let's zoom out for a moment really quickly. 2022 is really destined to accelerate the video game industry's consolidation that we saw pick up and break records last year. A couple of weeks ago, Take-Two acquired Zynga for about $12 billion. That was the largest video game acquisition ever. Microsoft announcing the acquisition of Activision Blizzard for about $70 billion just immediately shatters that record and hyper accelerates consolidation. There are a couple big picture reasons why that acceleration of consolidation is happening, that points toward how deals like this one are changing the industry landscape and are making, all of the companies figure out their place and its future. First, at a high level, we're seeing the increasing dominance of ecosystems. Basically, instead of game publishers like Activision or EA being the top dogs like they were over the past couple of decades, the big players going forward really are those who own multiple pieces of the value chain in one place. 

They are owning, the hardware, the storefronts, the developer tools, the Cloud infrastructure, lots of content, etc. When it comes to Activision and Microsoft, Activision is really helping Xbox bolster a key component of its broader ecosystem that's going to be harder for others to compete against unless they also bolster theirs. The second, bigger and more centralized ecosystems lead to the emergence of new business models, namely subscriptions. Like we've seen in video, where there's a flywheel between investing in content and scaling subscribers, I think, we're going to see a similar trend happen in gaming. When a company like Xbox with its Game Pass subscription or PlayStation is able to bring votes of IP under a single subscription or even a couple tiers of subscriptions, it immediately becomes more competitive, and that competition really drives even more heightened consolidation. This is something that the big platforms can do much more successfully than independent publishers, which have much smaller libraries. 

Between emerging multipronged ecosystems and shifting business models that lend themselves to consolidation, a deal like Microsoft buying Activision makes sense. It's a pretty huge deal for the industry. I really think it's a shot heard round the world that these ecosystems are stepping up in a huge way, and that consolidation is going to accelerate. If I'm an independent creator or relatively a small business, I'm not necessarily scared. There's still many ways to win, many ways to sell games. But at minimum, I'd be figuring out how to better interface with these increasingly giant ecosystems, and perhaps, even be thinking about how my business, would get consolidated into a larger player as well. We almost definitely won't see a deal surpass this one. This one was massive, and very few gaming companies are even this big. But we definitely will see increased consolidation in the console PC realm, but also, in mobile tale.

Chris Hill: If it's a shot heard round the world in video gaming, it's also seen as Microsoft increasing their shot at owning a corner of the metaverse, for lack of a better term. How soon do you see gaming fitting into the metaverse? I think, anyone who really thinks about it, there are obvious applications there. Is that going to be the first significant business industry within the metaverse?

Aaron Bush: Well, I think the metaverse is still very much a buzzword, that if you put someone like Mark Zuckerberg and Satya Nadella in the same room, they're probably not going to agree on what it means or what it's supposed to be. I think we have to keep that in mind. But really, when I think about the metaverse, it really is about an evolution of a more immersive Internet, and based on that oversimplified definition, gaming has been that for a long time. As it's grown and become more complex and more users are participating in these worlds, it certainly fits the bill in being a component of what the metaverse will entail. Gaming is not the metaverse, but I think it's going to be a subsection of it. When it comes to where a lot of the innovation is going to be, improving technology, testing new business models, I do think that gaming is going to be a place where that happens. Whether or not Microsoft and Xbox are really going to be pioneers for what the future of the so-called metaverse is going to be, that's really to be seen. I think it's just going to be something that the entire world, all of these companies together, push forward together. It's not going to be owned by a single company or a handful of companies but, it certainly is an exciting trend.

Chris Hill: Let's move away from Microsoft for a minute. What business in the gaming industry that particularly excites you at the moment, and why?

Aaron Bush: Yeah, so I am regularly impressed with Roblox, particularly, RBLX, which is a user-generated content platform that has scaled tremendously over the past couple of years. I think that Roblox could be one of the defining consumer companies of the 2020s. Roblox has really taken off with kids, first and foremost. But I'm incredibly impressed with how the company has maintained its top dog status. How we've seen tremendous growth in developer interests on the platform, how it's been working to age up the platform and expand around the world, how it's been involving big brands, and how it's heavily reinvesting to improve its platform. There are other UGC platforms out there, other virtual worlds out there. But I think that people underestimate how much of a lead Roblox has. Roblox's scale, allows it to reinvest in both creators and R&D, in a way that other smaller contenders simply can't match. As these reinvestments build, I think, that the lead over others is also going to compound. I'm really excited to see where a company like Roblox is 5-10 years from now. I imagine it's going to be both much more important as a platform, and its effect on culture in the world, than it is today. If it can pull that off, it's almost definitely going to be a much larger business tale.

Chris Hill: Last thing and then I'll let you go. This can be a CEO, this could be a game developer, a trend, a company. What is something in the industry right now that you think is not really getting as much attention as it probably deserves? As you indicated, you look at the deals earlier this month, that's taking up a lot of the oxygen. What's something that should be getting more attention?

Aaron Bush: I have my eye on the emergence of blockchain games. At their core, these games are pioneering a movement, where players actually own the assets in the game that they play with. Sometimes these games have a native cryptocurrency or two that facilitates a more open in-game economy than traditional games do. For example, you could play a card game, where you actually own and can, therefore, trade the cards in your collection, for essentially real money. Or you could play a big open-world game where your characters, armor and weapons, maybe even the character itself, is yours. If you put 100 hours into a game and win a lot, you might be able to actually benefit financially from playing. There's a lot of skepticism around this trend, I'll admit, especially around how to make games that are both fun and financialized. Most games do not need blockchains at all. But I also see pretty tremendous experimentation, game design innovation and a massive flow of talent and capital to these new studios. I think it's going to take a couple of years to really get going. But in the same way that mobile gaming brought a whole new group of players and revenue streams to the gaming industry over the past decade, and it was a tremendous source of growth for the industry, I suspect that this movement will have a similar effect in the next decade. I think that blockchain games, more than any other segment of the gaming industry, are going to push the boundaries of the ecosystem in the coming few years. This isn't really a stock market play, but a lot of these assets are still going to be traded publicly, and many already are. I think, it'll be at minimum a fun movement to watch, but potentially also, be a lucrative one.

Chris Hill: Aaron Bush, always great talking to you. Thanks for being here.

Aaron Bush: Thanks for having me.

Chris Hill: Coming up after the break, Andy Cross and Ron Gross return with a couple of stocks on their radar. 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 or sell stocks based solely on what you hear. Welcome back to Motley Fool Money, Chris Hill here, once again with Andy Cross and Ron Gross. Our new email address is [email protected]. Drop us a note if you have questions or feedback on the show, as I have said in the past, if there's something we could be doing better, please tell us. But if you like the show, please tell others, [laughs] tell a friend, post a review on your favorite podcast app. If you like the show, please spread the word and help us out, we appreciate that. Couple of stories before we get to read our stocks guys. Amazon announced it is opening its first ever bricks-and-mortar clothing store later this year, named Amazon Style. The store will be located in the greater Los Angeles area and offer fashion brands that the company says customers are familiar with. Andy, you bullish on this idea.

Andy Cross: I actually am Chris, I think it's really interesting. Ron, this is basically the metaverse in-person here for your shopping experience, you can use the app to scan a QR code to select clothing that is displayed. Again, it's all through the Amazon app. Right there they have you in there. A sales associate will then bring them to your dressing room or robots will bring them probably if not now, maybe sometime in the very near future. What's pretty cool is that inside the private dressing rooms there's a bunch of them from what I can tell. The Amazon provides these customized suggestions for you, tailored to what they know about you, tailored to where your shopping experience is right there, in a touchscreen, you can select, you can read, you can say I want this, I don't want this, I like this, I don't like this. They have it all there. Really it's bringing the physical and the virtual together in a shopping experience. Amazon Style is built around personalization, what they say are machine learning algorithms, produced tailored real-time recommendations for each customer as they shop. Pretty interesting how Amazon is really infusing their Cloud experiences, their distribution, their consumer app, and the shopping experience that many of us are looking for.

Ron Gross: I chuckled at first, but then when I dug in a little bit, I was like, that's neat. One thing I was unclear, it appears to me you don't actually leave with the clothes, you order them online once you decide what you want. If I'm right about that, that's a little weird to me.

Andy Cross: I think it's both. I think you can do both from what I can tell. What I like about it is it makes those dressing rooms that are bland and stale and very lonely, if not intimidating. It actually makes them engaging and fun.

Chris Hill: If any of our listeners in the Southern California area want to do a little boots-on-the-ground research later this year, drop us a note, let us know how that goes. This week at the RV SuperShow in Florida Winnebago unveiled its electric RV camper. Not only does it provide power to run appliances inside the vehicle, but the battery also enables the vehicle to travel a range of up to, wait for it, 125 miles. Ron, I applaud the efforts here, but I think if you're driving the highways and byways of America, aren't you looking to put more than 125 miles in a given day?

Ron Gross: Clearly, yes. I think this ERV right now it's merely a concept, and Winnebago says that, as battery technology evolves, there's a potential for additional range. I would certainly hope so, because I don't think a 125 miles is getting anyone too excited. If you look at it, it looks like a large minivan to me, not really an RV, but I'm not an RV expert. But it has a bed, a kitchenette, and a wet bath with a shower, which I didn't know gave me the scabies a little bit. But I guess [laughs] if it was bigger, maybe it wouldn't freak me out that much. It could charge in 45 minutes, supposedly, using high-speed public charging. This is the infancy, I think, of ERVs and we'll see how they evolve.

Andy Cross: Look, at least if you're stuck out in the woods someplace, when your battery dies, at least you have the amenities to take care of yourself for a couple of days in the RV.

Chris Hill: On that note, do you guys think that charging stations are going to start to be a new amenity that hotels, Airbnb's, etc. start to push from a marketing standpoint, as more people are going electric with their vehicles. That hotels and motels are saying, "Hey, we've got charging stations". It's come in handy, particularly if my Winnebago EV is only going to get me a 120 miles.

Andy Cross: Pilot J2. All those along the highway it's going to be critical, sorry Ron.

Ron Gross: I do think you'll start seeing hotels, for example, start adding that as amenities, but they're not going take the hit to margins, nothing is for free. You're going to see a slight uptake in the cost of your room, and that will include the ability to charge your car.

Chris Hill: Hey, your Tesla might be nice and stylish and sleek and all that. It doesn't have a bed in it. [laughs] Your Tesla doesn't have a kitchenette in it, does it?

Andy Cross: Not yet.

Chris Hill: If you're just starting out investing or you know someone who's looking to get started, we have a free investing starter kit. It covers everything from how to set up a brokerage account, to 401k, to buying your first stock and it includes 15 stocks and five ETFs that are selected by our investing team, and it's free. Just go to fool.com/starterkit. Let's go to our man behind the glass, Dan Boyd. He's going hit you with a question on your radar stock. Andy Cross, you're up first us this week. What are you looking at?

Andy Cross: I was looking at symbol RH, is the former Restoration Hardware store founded in 1979, provides high-end luxury housewares, operates 68 galleries, 14 waterworks stores across the US and sales online through RH.com and a few other different sites. Markup of 8.7 billion stock at $400, is at a 52-week low. Growth is very attractive, 19 percent last quarter to really redesign itself over the years. CEO Gary Friedman is a former COO of William-Sonoma, is serving this massively large and very fragmented home furnishing businesses. Excellent operating margins north of 20 percent, growing 15-20 percent per year, buys back a lot of stock at various points, EPS of around $22. That can probably grow, I think 15 percent a year or so. Stocks not very expensive at about 15 times for a pretty high-quality business Dan.

Chris Hill: Dan question about RH.

Dan Boyd: How big can the market for our age actually be, Andy? I'm a homeowner. Every time I look in their catalog, I look at those prices and I laugh out loud, [laughs] so high.

Andy Cross: By the way, those catalogs are massively thick, aren't they? Yes, it's a very large market especially when you think about the housing market and the evolving home market that were seeing in the US. It's a pretty large market and people are looking for different expressions to showcase their furniture and RH is serving it Dan.

Chris Hill: Ron Gross, what are you looking at?

Ron Gross: I'm going to start the year off by circling back to the gene therapy space I talk about from time to time on the show. These stocks have been absolutely crushed alongside other innovative tech stocks that are, let us call pre-profitability. Today I'm going to focus on Intellia, NTLA down 56 percent from it's 52-week high. I could easily talk about edit toss of 70 percent, CRISPR Therapeutics off 65 percent and many others. First off, I think I should know, I don't think these stocks should have really ever achieved those highs. The stocks got ahead of the actual progress of the companies. Based on an understandable excitement from investors that gene therapy could potentially change the face of medicine. But that world altering change isn't going to happen tomorrow. We honestly don't even know if the CRISPR-Cas9 technology is going to be the silver bullets, so buyer beware. But back to NTLA, made history last summer when it became the first biotech company to successfully edit DNA inside the human body. They've got a strong balance sheet, 1.1 billion in cash, that's essential for an early stage biotech company that is not profitable. Again, these investments, not for those that are risk averse, buy a bundle, buy any ETF, diversify your risk.

Chris Hill: Dan, question about Intellia?

Dan Boyd: Maybe not about Intellia, but I just want to congratulate all spin Dr. Ron over here in coining the phrase pre-profitable. But Ron, you're not fooling me. I know what pre-profitable means. I know it means not profitable.

Ron Gross: Not profitable, yeah. Some of these companies are actually profitable if you look at their income statement because they receive big milestone payments from partners, for example, Intellia has Regeneron as a partner, CRISPR has Vertex. But that's not real profitability, that's sustainable in my opinion. As analysts, we've got to be honest there.

Andy Cross: For profit, Dan, you got to go to homework.

Chris Hill: What do you want to add to your watch list Dan?

Dan Boyd: I think I'm going to RH Chris, the appeal of a $7,000 couch just won't go away. [laughs].

Chris Hill: Andy Cross, Ron Gross, guys, thanks for being here!

Andy Cross: Thanks, Chris!

Ron Gross: Thanks, Chris!

Chris Hill: That's going to do it for this week's Motley Fool Money radio show. The show is mixed by Dan Boyd. I'm Chris Hill, we'll see you next week!