Published on 2/8/2022
First off, let’s dive into the market news in this insanely volatile time.
Vanguard misleads investors – Vanguard did not warn investors who were holding funds designed for retirement accounts in regular taxable accounts. These investors got hit hard with tax bills and they really felt that Vanguard guided them down a costly path. Read more on this story HERE.
META blames Apple – Meta/FB had a historic fall last week and they are blaming Apple for letting the smart phone users opt out of Facebook Tracking. Meta may be right about their fall being partly Apple’s fault but the real reason for their fall is that they lost users for the first time in FB history. Of course, the Apple Tracking option probably had something to do with it. Apple simply asking the question may have been a wakeup call to some social media users. Meta may not matter to some BRI investors, but it should. Sure, a BRI investor should not hold any Meta stock, but Meta is so big that when it falls it has a ripple effect on the rest of the market (as any company with over $33 Billion dollars in revenue would have). Even small businesses are struggling to cope with the Apple option to not track. It wasn’t just the big tech companies who relied on data tracking to market more efficiently to customers.
We know NOTHING! – A weird idea that is almost fact is that the overall market/the public usually doesn’t know it is in a recession until the recession is at least 6 months old. Keep this in mind when you listen to people who predict things with certainty regarding the market. Also, recessions usually provide us with a great buying opportunity.
No passive income tax on Crypto?! – The IRs may not decide to tax Crypto holders on passive income. Basically, the IRS is deciding that it may not tax your crypto until you decide to cash it in for a new house or car or something like that. Read a full story on this HERE.
Airline Merger – Spirit and Frontier are looking to tie the knot. Both are economy airlines, but they face opposition from the “Big is Bad” Biden administration. The Merger is worth about $6.5 Billion. Both Frontier and Spirit did not turn up any red flags during the initial C3 screening process but no deep dive into their ethics has been conducted thus far. Read up on the merger HERE.
Hookup Culture is Booming (Depravity always is) – “Dating” (that term is being used very loosely) Apps like Bumble are making a buzz among the market because they are expanding into new demographics and geographic locations (Europe). Bumble just acquired French dating App Fruitz and the sales for Bumble are right around $200 Million. No stock in this industry will ever be recommend by C3 but we wanted to mention it because it is currently a huge cultural and financial story.
The Nail in Cable TV’s Coffin – Live Sports are the saving grace of cable television and that may not last. With the most watched sporting event of the year, the Superbowl spreading the wealth to certain streaming networks. NBC’s streaming network Peacock is just one of many that will give subscribers access to the big game on Sunday. Interesting side note, 30 second Super Bowl ads are at record highs of $7 Million a pop.
Crypto Regulation is Coming, or so they say – The Biden administration plans to announce plans to regulate Crypto but the SEC has already stated that no regulation will come in 2022. The Biden administration is not known for telling the truth or following through on their word and given the immense difficulty in regulating a digital decentralized asset that is traded worldwide brings, we won’t be holding our breath. This is not to say that regulation won’t come or that regulation is good or bad (It will be both) it is just saying that regulation is probably a far way off.
Next, let’s talk about what stocks were popping up on radar this week.
- GOLD = Passed the C3 ethical screening process
- PURPLE = NUETRAL Rating from C3
- RED = Failed the C3 ethical screening process
- Intel Corporation (INTC) – LGBT Legislation, LGBT Philanthropy – Beat its earnings predictions and it keeps winning private and public contracts
- Digital Turbine (APPS) – Signed a deal with google and is down 50% from its all-time highs with crazy revenue growth. A growing company that is and should be profitable for the foreseeable future. APPS is not a company that runs up any major red flags, but it is a company that supports a lot of other companies who do turn up the red flags. That is just due to the nature of their large business. APPS was a part of the January Stock Picks as well for C3, but they must be mentioned here again because of all the buzz around their name. C3 does not support APPS but credible arguments have been made for the other side.
- Tesla (TSLA) – LGBT Legislation – The bullish prediction on this company from some analysts is based on Tesla transforming itself into a self-driving/ride-sharing company. Tesla has a lot to bring to market for it to really capitalize the way some analysts think it will, but I wouldn’t put anything past Elon Musk. Though Tesla does support LGBT legislation some BRI firms have included it in their portfolios. The argument for including it is of course financial, but that argument does not mean much to us here at C3. We like to take a stricter approach then most. However, Tesla is a company that does some work for the Common Good. Think of the energy consumption it will save overall with its revolutionizing of the car industry. C3 acknowledges this argument from the common good but it does not persuade us.
- PayPal (PYPL) – LGBT Legislation, LGBT Philanthropy – This digital payment company has transformed itself into a real digital bank and ARK research has made soft predictions that the US Digital Wallet industry could be worth over $4 Trillion dollars by 2025. PayPal could really take off if they figure out a true way to monetize the digital wallet space. The whole situation is helped even more so since Amazon has agreed to accept Venmo (owned by PayPal) payments on the Amazon site. Despite all this PayPal is claiming that customer spending is about to decline because of the usual suspects (I love that movie!) Inflation, Covid and lack of government stimulus. This prediction from PayPal is probably true but it shouldn’t hurt them in the long-term. PayPal is a company that is integrated with a lot of bad actors, but this is not a deciding factor for C3 when it comes to rating the ethics of PayPal. PayPal would be an ethical recommendation for C3 if it solely focused on business rather than engaging in social issues that are contrary to Christian Moral Convictions.
- SalesForce.com (CRM) – Abortion Legislation, LGBT Legislation – The clear leader in Customer relationship management software and CRM is predicted to enter industries like A.I. and Data Analytics. Salesforce.com even owns Slack which is a rapidly growing company Networking platform. CRM is probably a great financial investment, but they get one of the worst ratings from our third-party ethical research partners. Long in the short is CRM is a very secular/woke company.
- Teladoc Health (TDOC) – LGBT Philanthropy – Global Leader in Virtual Health Care. Think Primary Care, Remote Monitoring and specialty visits all done online/virtually. Teledoc will have to figure out how to monetize all the data that they are consuming/storing if they want to realize their true financial potential.
Okay, I know that was a lot of bad companies, but we do have one company that passed our ethical screening this week that also had promising financials. That company is listed below, but you have to be a subscriber to see what it is. Also, if you are looking for even more companies that we think have financial potential and passed our ethical screening process then go download our NEW MOCK PORTFOLIO. This new Mock Portfolio has only been around for one week and it is currently up 2%.
- Etsy (ETSY) – Revenue Growth is exploding thanks to some acquisitions and its Gross Margin is over 70%. The world of Etsy seems to be growing although they do have some substantial debt, but this is because of investing in themselves and the recent acquisitions. Most analysts are giving Etsy a favorable buy rating since its big drop from $296 to a current stock price of just $139. If Etsy can reach its former glory, now is a great buying opportunity. Etsy was hit hard by the downturn in December, but many are hopeful that it will battle back. On top of all the promising financial Etsy is rather good regarding its ethics to. Etsy allows everyday people to make an income for producing quality and sought-after products and it willfully caters to the everyday person producing goods rather than the big conglomerates. It is even stated in the Etsy mission statement “Keep Commerce Human.”