Remember how cool Smart Boards looked when they first showed up? Corporations bought them in the 1990s, but a lot of people discovered them years later when they started flooding school classrooms. With a Smart Board, seven-year-olds and CEOs alike can write on a screen for all the room to see.
The inventor of the boards, SMART Technologies
SMART Technologies Price Stock Chart by YCharts
There's a difference between great products and great investments. High debt, competition or just management's lack of long-term planning can turn great products into truly horrid investments. Moreover, some of the best-run of the great-product companies are dogs for investors when their share prices run up too high. It's hard, even with the niftiest gadgets, to ramp up profits fast enough to meet the expectations high valuations imply. High valuations tend to lead to big falls when the news is less than super sunny: like when a new competitor makes noise; or when the sales gain for a particular quarter isn't quite as high as promised.
Here's a look at a couple of great-product companies in today's market that seem to have less-than-great potential for today's investors. They're not necessarily Smart Techs-in-the-making, but they each have weaknesses that should make investors wary. YCharts Pro gives both companies Neutral ratings.
Shutterfly
Shutterfly Earnings per Share (TTM) Stock Chart by YCharts
IMAX
But entertainment is an expensive business, and the trends in big screen televisions are better than those in movie ticket sales. IMAX's R&D version of the business requires cash, and this company's cash figures are going the wrong direction.
Imax Corporation Cash Operations (TTM) Stock Chart by YCharts
While there's nothing horribly alarming about this picture, it's a good excuse to settle for a movie ticket instead of the shares.
Dee Gill is an editor for the YCharts Pro Investor Service which includes professional stock charts, stock ratings and portfolio strategies.