A golf clap is in order for Apple
Though the 21 million iPods the company sold during the quarter marked a decline from the prior year, sales of iPhones and Mac computers more than made up for the drop. And for those who care about what Wall Street has to say, it may have been even more exciting to see that Apple projected earnings for the current quarter to be above what analysts had been expecting.
In the Motley Fool CAPS community, members have been somewhat hesitant on Apple's stock. Though nearly 21,000 outperform ratings is nothing to sneeze at, there have been enough bearish members to drop the stock's rating to a middle-of-the-road three stars.
But three stars or not, quite a few CAPS members have scored big points by betting on Apple's stock. TheGMaster, currently one of the score leaders on the stock, has nabbed more than 250 points from an outperform call made back in mid-2006.
TheGMaster is one of CAPS' All-Stars -- players with a rating of 80 or greater -- and has managed a stock-picking accuracy of 56% while racking up more than 1,500 points. Apple isn't this player's only great call. Here's a look at a few of the other prescient picks:
|
Company |
Date Picked |
Date Ended |
Call |
Points |
CAPS Rating
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
McDonald's |
6/15/06 |
Still Open |
Outperform |
115 |
**** |
|
Hewlett-Packard |
6/15/06 |
Still Open |
Outperform |
75 |
*** |
|
Altria |
6/15/06 |
Still Open |
Outperform |
52 |
**** |
Data from CAPS.
So what has this investor been looking at more recently? Here are a few of the most recent calls on CAPS:
|
Company |
Date Picked |
Call |
CAPS Rating
|
|---|---|---|---|
|
China Mobile |
1/13/10 |
Outperform |
***** |
|
Activision Blizzard |
12/30/09 |
Outperform |
***** |
|
Meridian Bioscience |
12/16/09 |
Outperform |
***** |
Data from CAPS.
While not all of these picks may pan out, they could be a good place to start further research. I decided to take a closer look at Motley Fool Stock Advisor favorite Activision Blizzard.
Missing out on the market's merrymaking
Back in February of last year, I added Activision Blizzard to my CAPS portfolio at a seemingly bargain price of $9.71. Since then the S&P 500 has posted a monster 47% return. Surely Activision's stock must have delivered breathtaking performance since then, right? Not so much.
With a measly 4.2% gain since my pick, Activision has sorely underperformed the rest of the market.
While that underperformance has put a dent in my CAPS portfolio, it may not be good reason to write off the stock. In fact, what drew me -- and thousands of other CAPS members -- to Activision's stock back then, is still very true today.
The company still has a stable of blockbuster games that includes Guitar Hero, Call of Duty, Tony Hawk, and World of Warcraft. It's still a leader in the video game industry. It still has a pristine balance sheet that features nearly $3 billion in cash and no debt. Plus, thanks to the stock's lackluster performance recently, it currently trades at a mere 13 times expected 2010 earnings.
Maybe the future is what investors are concerned about then? If that's the case, then they see something that the top members of the CAPS community are missing. Earlier this month, CAPS All-Star raptor69357 rated Activision Blizzard an outperformer and had this to say:
It's time to buy this stock. In fact it was time to buy it at $9 however $11 is not too late. For those not cognizant of the industry ATVI has a plethora of product on the cusp of release. Nerds can care less about the recession since they live in their mother's basement anyway. When Diablo III, WOW Cataclysm, and StarCraft II are released, allowances world wide will be plundered and reallocated to my stock portfolio. I recommend buy immediately!
The company shares this excitement about the upcoming year. When it released third-quarter results, management expressed optimism about 2010 releases that include tried-and-true favorites like Call of Duty and Guitar Hero as well as new titles like Blur and Singularity. And with the economy finally starting to show signs of life, I don't foresee this optimism waning when Activision reports fourth-quarter results in early February.
But here's the important question: What's your take? Is Activision a good bet at its current price? Get in the action by clicking over to CAPS. It's absolutely free and already has more than 145,000 stock pickers chipping in to find the best stocks out there.
Activision may be a good investment opportunity, but my fellow Fool Tim Hanson believes that he's found the biggest investment opportunity for this year.
