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Dana Blankenhorn

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  • In Musk We Trust?

    By Dana Blankenhorn - May 18, 2013 | Tickers: SCTY, TSLA

    This is the season when we celebrate great financiers like Warren Buffett.

    But you don't invest in the past. You invest in the future.

    Maybe we should be celebrating Elon Musk instead.

    The Fool's Jason Hall calls what is happening with Musk's stock “a bubble,”  and on an absolute valuation basis, he's right. But if you got in on Google when it started, you're more more »

  • Playing the Yahoo-Facebook Battle

    By Dana Blankenhorn - May 17, 2013 | Tickers: FB, YHOO

    Yahoo (NASDAQ: YHOO) and Facebook (NASDAQ: FB) may be about to get into a bidding war over Tumblr.

    According to Business Insider, Yahoo is in direct negotiations to buy the photo-blogging service for upwards of $1 billion. The deal would make Yahoo “cool” again, according to editor Henry Blodget.

    But Facebook has just as many reasons to buy the company, and a lot more assets with which to buy it more »

  • Best Places to Play Eagle Ford

    By Dana Blankenhorn - May 17, 2013 | Tickers: COG, CHK, EOG | Editor's Choice

    On a recent trip to South Texas the recent impact of the Eagle Ford shale oil play was obvious on every road.

    Brand-new pick-ups and SUVs, many with dealer tags, filled the roads, darting in and out of traffic, their drivers seemingly heedless of the risk of a wreck. It's something you tend to see in an economic boom, this crazy driving of new Detroit iron, and it's more »

  • Can the Office Retailers Survive?

    By Dana Blankenhorn - May 5, 2013 | Tickers: ODP, OMX, SPLS

    In a few months there will be two office “superstores” left, once Office Depot (NYSE: ODP) finishes its purchase of OfficeMax (NYSE: OMX) and begins its direct competition with Staples (NASDAQ: SPLS).

    The question for investors isn't which company will survive, but will any of them? Over the last year, five years, or 10 years, all three of these companies have been losing value and losing money.

    How can more »

  • How to Play Oil Infrastructure With Richard Kinder

    By Dana Blankenhorn - May 3, 2013 | Tickers: KMI, KMP, KMR | Editor's Choice

    If you're looking for dividend income, and if you're looking to play the explosion in U.S. oil and gas, the transformation of our country from an importer to an exporter of energy, you want to play with Richard Kinder.

    Kinder, who is worth $9.4 billion, has updated a strategy first used by old John D. Rockefeller. By controlling the infrastructure that leads to market, you can more »

  • Settlement Turns Walgreens Into A Monster

    By Dana Blankenhorn - May 2, 2013 | Tickers: CVS, ESRX, WAG

    Since settling its dispute with ExpressScripts (NASDAQ: ESRX) Walgreen (NYSE: WAG) has been on fire, with the stock rising 61% against a 20% gain for rival CVS Caremark (NYSE: CVS).

    What's going on? And can Walgreen keep it up?

    The PBM Dispute

    ExpressScripts is a Pharmacy Benefit Manager, or PBM, and the country's largest. It acts as a gatekeeper between the insurance industry and drug benefits. If you more »

  • Why the Smart Money Believes in J.C. Penney

    By Dana Blankenhorn - May 1, 2013 | Tickers: JCP, SHLD, BONT

    JCP (NYSE: JCP) is a whipped dog.

    The once proud name of American middle market retailing has had its stockholders played for suckers by a city slicker named Ron Johnson, who thought he could make the old dog cool again with some ribbons and a strategy born in Silicon Valley.

    Unfortunately, Penney's was selling knives and clothes, not iPads. The strategy was imposed from the top-down, all at once more »

  • Device Software Is All That Matters

    By Dana Blankenhorn - April 29, 2013 | Tickers: AAPL, GOOG, MSFT

    The current quarter represents the back-end of the latest cycle in the device business.

    Everyone in the space looks weak. That's because they all have to spend this quarter pretending that their products are the latest-and-greatest while, back in the lab, we all know they're coming up with something even later, and even greater.

    In deciding who to back in this race, however, there's one thing you more »

  • The Cloud Of Things

    By Dana Blankenhorn - April 29, 2013 | Tickers: EMC, GE, VMW

    When we think of cloud computing demands, we think of people behind tablets and phones, or buildings filled with office workers, or suburbs filled with teenagers merrily chatting away.

    In short, we think of people. Internet traffic is supposed to go between computers manned by people.

    But that's not where the big traffic loads are. Increasingly sensors and processors are tied to things, not people. They're in our more »

  • Tech's Biggest Reality Distortion Field

    By Dana Blankenhorn - April 24, 2013 | Tickers: GOOG, ORCL

    The late Steve Jobs was said to possess a “reality distortion field,” a charisma that got people to jump through walls for him, and drew capital to him, even when results weren't going his way.

    But who has the biggest reality distortion field today?

    It's clear that many tech companies don't have one. Microsoft doesn't have one. Intel doesn't have one. Hewlett-Packard and Dell don more »

  • Time to Seek Profit Overseas

    By Dana Blankenhorn - April 24, 2013 | Tickers: INP, EWJ, EWW, DXJ

    With the sequester taking a full bite out of the U.S. economy, it's time to look to other countries for profit.

    The “austerity fairy” does not exist, in that it does not produce growth, but it's great for wealthy bondholders, so in the wake of a crisis it's the first policy people turn to. Europe tried it, and it failed. The U.S. is trying it more »

  • Verdict on Big Tech Earnings: Buy Apple

    By Dana Blankenhorn - April 22, 2013 | Tickers: AAPL, GOOG, IBM, MSFT, YHOO

    The biggest names in technology reported earnings over the last week, and there was a theme to all of it.

    Revenue was light. Earnings were, too, or they were manipulated to look better than they were.

    The conclusion I gather from that is simple. Either spending across the board in technology was down, or there's a surprise coming next week.

    The Down

    Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) and Yahoo (NASDAQ: YHOOmore »)

  • The Car Giants Are Fully Valued, But Vehicle Values Exist

    By Dana Blankenhorn - April 22, 2013 | Tickers: CAT, F, GM

    Many investors have been waiting for Ford (NYSE: F) and General Motors (NYSE: GM) to “break out,” achieving at least a market-average PE. That ratio is currently over 18 for the S&P 500, well above long-term averages but well within those achieved by recoveries since 1990.

    Compared with that, both large car companies look dirt-cheap. Ford is trading at a multiple of 9, GM at 10.

    But don't more »

  • Investment Potential in the Public Cloud

    By Dana Blankenhorn - April 19, 2013 | Tickers: AMZN, GOOG, RAX

    The cloud is the key technology trend of our time. But finding a place to play it for profit is difficult.

    That's because the biggest public cloud providers are mainly doing other things, and are valued based on those other things. The closest to a pure play in the cloud market is, in terms of that market, lagging the pack.

    But there may be a place to play this more »

  • Investment Potential In The Public Cloud

    By Dana Blankenhorn - April 17, 2013 | Tickers: AMZN, GOOG, RAX

    The cloud is the key technology trend of our time. But finding a place to play it for profit is difficult.

    That's because the biggest public cloud providers are mainly doing other things, and are valued based on those other things. The closest to a pure play in the cloud market is, in terms of that market, lagging the pack.

    But there may be a place to play this more »

  • DISH, Sprint, and the Game of Three

    By Dana Blankenhorn - April 17, 2013 | Tickers: DISH, S

    Here is what you have to know about the DISH Network (NASDAQ: DISH) bid for Sprint (NYSE: S).

    This is a game of three thing.

    Right now AT&T and Verizon Wireless enjoy a virtual duopoly in mobile telephony. Not only do they control 70% of the market between them, but they've got the profitable end of the business lined up. Most of their subscribers are on two- or more »

  • DISH, Sprint, and the Game of Three

    By Dana Blankenhorn - April 17, 2013 | Tickers: DISH, S

    Here is what you have to know about the DISH Network (NASDAQ: DISH) bid for Sprint (NYSE: S).

    This is a game of three thing.

    Right now AT&T and Verizon Wireless enjoy a virtual duopoly in mobile telephony. Not only do they control 70% of the market between them, but they've got the profitable end of the business lined up. Most of their subscribers are on two- or more »

  • Car Giants Fully Valued, But Values Exist In Sector

    By Dana Blankenhorn - April 16, 2013 | Tickers: CAT, F, GM

    Many investors have been waiting for Ford (NYSE: F) and General Motors (NYSE: GM) to “break out,” achieving at least a market-average PE. That ratio is currently over 18 http://www.multpl.com/ for the S&P 500, well above long-term averages but well within those achieved by recoveries since 1990.

    Compared with that, both the large car companies look dirt-cheap. Ford is trading at a multiple of 9, GM more »

  • Who Gets Hit in the Cloud Hangover II?

    By Dana Blankenhorn - April 15, 2013 | Tickers: CTXS, EMC, VMW

    A recent comment on another story recently offered me some sound advice in looking at cloud companies:

    “All cloud companies are software companies, but not all software companies are in the cloud."

    The intent of cloud designers is to abstract as much of computing's complexity as possible to software, and then run that software on commodity hardware. Virtualization is one step, allowing a computer to run programs on multiple more »

  • DISH, Sprint, And The Game Of Three

    By Dana Blankenhorn - April 15, 2013 | Tickers: DISH, S

    Here is what you have to know about the DISH Network (NASDAQ: DISH) bid for Sprint (NYSE: S).

    This is a game of three thing.

    Right now AT&T and Verizon Wireless enjoy a virtual duopoly in mobile telephony. Not only do they control 70% of the market between them  but they've got the profitable end of the business lined up. Most of their subscribers are on two or more »

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