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Erick Santos, M.D., Ph.D.

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  • Lessons Learned from the Apple Debacle

    By Erick Santos, M.D., Ph.D. - April 23, 2013 | Tickers: AAPL, CRUS, MSFT

    I am not a good prognosticator. I was wrong, so very wrong, regarding Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) and its stock price. I was so sure that the company would crush its numbers in the last earnings report that I bought options contracts at the time anticipating a run-up above $600 a share. In an attempt to learn from my mistakes, I want to analyze the current situation to see if it more »

  • Retirees: Want Dividend Yield and Growth Potential? Try Tech.

    By Erick Santos, M.D., Ph.D. - April 2, 2013 | Tickers: AAPL, CSCO, INTC, MSFT

    Retirees face a tough situation these days with saving accounts and money markets yielding next to nothing. Most bonds, especially US Treasuries are not faring any better, for example a 10 year bond yields under 2%. The traditional sources of income, such as REITS and Utilities are looking expensive these days. For example, AT&T yields a juicy 4.9%, but its PE now is 30, which is about double more »

  • LinkedIn Is Poised to Deliver Outsized Returns

    By Erick Santos, M.D., Ph.D. - February 13, 2013 | Tickers: FB, LNKD | Editor's Choice

    One of the founders of The Motley Fool, David Gardner, coined the phrase “Rule Breakers” in reference to companies that innovate and disrupt the status quo of a sector. The Rule Breaker company turns the sector on its head, and gains such momentum and growth that it ends up rewarding shareholders who invested early with outsized returns.

    One of David’s early investments was Amazon, a Rule Breaker even to more »

  • Are Travel Stocks Set to Take Off?

    By Erick Santos, M.D., Ph.D. - February 13, 2013 | Tickers: EXPE, PCLN, TRIP

    There has been a real revolution in travel in the last 5 years or so. A number of companies are making it easier for travelers to schedule and purchase their trips by doing comparison shopping and taking advantage of social networks. Three companies that are in the middle of this revolution are Expedia (NASDAQ: EXPE), Priceline (NASDAQ: PCLN) and Trip Advisor (NASDAQ: TRIP). In this article I will make a more »

  • Short Hospital Systems, Buy Health Insurers

    By Erick Santos, M.D., Ph.D. - February 7, 2013 | Tickers: CYH, HCA, HUM, UNH

    As a health care provider, I see big changes coming with the implementation of the Obamacare law coming in 2014. By looking at some likely scenarios you can position yourself to benefit from the changes taking shape.

    In 2014 the individual mandate will come to fruition bringing many more clients to insurers, and this will likely manifest itself in higher deductible health insurance plans and the expansion of Medicaid enrollees more »

  • Comparing Apples to Oranges: AAPL vs AMZN

    By Erick Santos, M.D., Ph.D. - January 31, 2013 | Tickers: AMZN, AAPL

    Life isn't fair. We all have to accept that. The stock market is fickle and rewards companies on what it thinks the future will bring, regardless of what the company has done in the past in many cases. An excellent example of this is Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) compared and contrasted to Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN). Over the past 3 months, the two stocks have gone in opposite directions with Apple more »

  • Johnson and Johnson Remains Favorable Despite Liability

    By Erick Santos, M.D., Ph.D. - January 24, 2013 | Tickers: JNJ, PFE, SYK

    Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ) has been reeling recently from the scandal associated with its ASR XL hip cup system, which may bring 10,000 more lawsuits and $1 billion in potential liability. A British study of the hip socket system for hip replacements estimated more than a third of the implants failing in less than 5 years, and that figure could be as high as 50% at 6 years.

    That more »

  • Apple: Rotten to the Core or Just Bruised?

    By Erick Santos, M.D., Ph.D. - January 24, 2013 | Tickers: AAPL, GOOG

    Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) is feeling the weight of the law of large numbers after reporting earnings after hours on Wednesday. The EPS number came in ahead of diminished expectations at $13.81 per share (forecast was $13.47 for consensus and flat year over year) and the revenues were a bit light at $54.5 billion (forecast was $54.8 billion with about 18% growth).

    The miss in revenues was more »

  • Stocks for MLK Day

    By Erick Santos, M.D., Ph.D. - January 18, 2013 | Tickers: COST, GILD, GOOG, NVO, WFM

    Monday is Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, a day in which we should think of racial unity and follow Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr.’s vision for a better future. Even though MLK was not known as a stock investor, I would imagine he would have had some preference for companies that are good corporate citizens and the promise of some of the biotech companies that may help improve more »

  • Apple and the Mayan Apocalypse

    By Erick Santos, M.D., Ph.D. - December 21, 2012 | Tickers: AMZN, AAPL, CSCO, GOOG, MSFT

    Gentle reader, I know what you are thinking, yet another boring article about Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL). I want to dispel such silly notions. Yes, we are going to talk about Apple and Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) and Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) and perhaps another few companies, but this is about the end of the world as we know it coming to you on Dec. 21, 2012.

    I am writing this in the more »

  • Why Groupon Is Dying

    By Erick Santos, M.D., Ph.D. - December 18, 2012 | Tickers: AMZN, COST, FB, GOOG, GRPN

    Having been an investor during the original internet bubble (AKA Web 1.0), us the internet grizzled geezers can recognize a pretender company when one arrives on the scene. In this case the pretender is Groupon. Groupon the company should have never gone public. It should have stayed in that safe cocoon that is private investment, but instead it decided to venture into the bright lights of Mr. Market, and more »

  • AAPL Stock Yo-Yo Makes Me Dizzy

    By Erick Santos, M.D., Ph.D. - December 6, 2012 | Tickers: AMZN, AAPL, GOOG, MSFT

    Having been an owner of Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) stock since 1997, I should be used to these crazy market gyrations. The excuses vary, but a more than 6% drop on thin news is really ridiculous. Was this really about the tightening on margin requirements, in other words, a reverse short squeeze? I don't think so. This is really about uncertainty.

    Yes, you heard me right, uncertainty. The market has more »

  • Why Apple Will Be Much Higher in 6 Months

    By Erick Santos, M.D., Ph.D. - November 30, 2012 | Tickers: AMZN, AAPL, FB, GOOG

    Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) is a company I have followed for many years, since I am primarily a Buy and Hold type investor liking to buy companies and hold them for very long periods of times. I have had a chance to see AAPL grow and have been richly rewarded over the years for holding my original shares bought in 1997. The last few weeks have seen the AAPL share price more »

  • iPad Mini, Nexus 7 or Medical Tricorder?

    By Erick Santos, M.D., Ph.D. - November 26, 2012 | Tickers: AMZN, AAPL, T, CTXS, GOOG

    As a physician, part of my uniform includes a handy dandy white lab coat. The pockets of the lab coat are roughly 7.5 by 8.5 inches and they are used to carry small reference books (accessory brains) and other tools of the trade. I recently saw a colleague with a Nexus 7 Android Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) tablet which was very slick, and we were discussing the various ways more »

  • Buy This Stock With Caution

    By Erick Santos, M.D., Ph.D. - November 23, 2012 | Tickers: ARMH, DELL, HPQ, INTC, MSFT

    Intel (NASDAQ: INTC)is now selling for an almost unheard of valuation with the market basically pricing negative growth for several years into the indefinite future. While it is true that Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ) and Dell (NASDAQ: DELL) may deserve such a valuation, I will argue that Intel is different in some key aspects, and that it can survive the transition from PCs to mobile and cloud computing better than more »

  • Wintel Hegemony Is Dead

    By Erick Santos, M.D., Ph.D. - November 21, 2012 | Tickers: AAPL, FB, INTC, IBM, MSFT

    The Wintel hegemony refers to the monopoly created by IBM (NYSE: IBM) when it gave its personal computing (PC) business guts to Intel (NASDAQ: INTC) and Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT). Since those heady days of the 1980s and 1990s, IBM has mostly (and very wisely I might add) abandoned the Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) business in favor of concentrating on services and cloud computing. Intel, of course, manufactured the guts of more »

  • SolarWinds: a Growth Story at the Heart of the Cloud

    By Erick Santos, M.D., Ph.D. - November 9, 2012 | Tickers: AMZN, IBM, RAX, SWI

    I'm always looking at various stock screens for fast growing companies in good growth sectors. A company that has grabbed my attention is SolarWinds (NYSE: SWI), a midcap company based in Austin, TX, that provides IT departments with software to monitor their networks and servers. SolarWinds' philosophy is to take existing network needs and then sell software to IT professionals that meet those needs at a much cheaper price more »

  • Apple, Buy When Others are Fearful

    By Erick Santos, M.D., Ph.D. - November 9, 2012 | Tickers: AMZN, AAPL, DELL, GOOG, HPQ

    Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) is in its own private bear territory, down more than 20% from its recent high above $700 per share. Mr. Market must think Apple is in a death spiral, seeing as it is selling for a very attractive valuation at this point in time.

    Why has Apple been marked down into deep value territory? In this article I will explain what is going on, and how much more »

  • Cirrus Logic is on Sale!

    By Erick Santos, M.D., Ph.D. - November 6, 2012 | Tickers: AAPL, CRUS, TXN

    Cirrus Logic (NASDAQ: CRUS) is a chip company that supplies audio integrated circuits to Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) for their popular iPhone and iPad lines, including the latest iPad mini.

    Cirrus Logic announced earnings that beat their revenue and earnings estimate, but apparently their guidance disappointed for Q3 and thus the stock took a real drubbing. Cirrus is well off its 52-week high mark of over $45 a share, selling as more »

  • Steve Jobs' Ghost (A fictional satirical tale)

    By Erick Santos, M.D., Ph.D. - November 3, 2012 | Tickers: AMZN, AAPL, GOOG

    Steve Jobs' Ghost (A fictional satirical tale) set on November 1, 2012 (Dia de los Muertos in Mexico, all Saints Day in the U. S.)

    [Tim Cook is sleeping at his Silicon Valley abode, unsuspecting that his old friend Steve Job's spirit is about to visit him.]

    <Steve Jobs' Ghost appears, he is dressed in 60s Hippie garb including a Navajo blanket and a mariachi Mexican hat, he is more »

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