First Twitter is Taken Over: What Stock is Next?

by Fred Fuld III

I’m sure all of you have heard the news that Elon Musk is buying Twitter (TWTR) for $44 billion at $54.20 per share. What some investors are wondering is if there are any other companies that may be bought out.

Twitter falls into the category of Internet Content & Information. Obviously, some of these stocks are extremely large and unlikely to be bought by anyone or any company. But anything is possible. Plus, with the stock market in general, some of these companies might be reaching a favorable buy range.

The following companies are all Internet Content & Information companies, all are profitable with all but one having price to earnings ratios less than 40, all have sales growth over the last five years in excess of 5%, and all have earnings per share growth this year of over 10%.

Company Symbol Market Cap P/E
Meta Platforms, Inc. FB 552.56B 13.56
Gaia, Inc. GAIA 111.99M 28.78
Alphabet Inc. GOOGL 1742.60B 21.93
Pinterest, Inc. PINS 14.23B 39.14
Shutterstock, Inc. SSTK 2.94B 31.57
Yelp Inc. YELP 2.57B 67.07

Keep an eye on these companies during the next few weeks.

 

Disclosure: Author didn’t own any of the above at the time the article was written.

The Largest Company Right Now: Not Tesla or Apple or Amazon

by Fred Fuld III

At the time this is being written, 1:09 am PT on October 29, 2021, the largest US publicly traded company by market cap is Microsoft (MSFT) at $2.478 trillion.

In second position is Apple at $2.462 trillion.

Surprisingly, Google, I mean Alphabet (GOOGL) is ahead of Amazon (AMZN), Tesla (TSLA), and Facebook (FB), I mean Meta. Alphabet has a market cap of $1.956 trillion.

Check out the list below. Market cap values are in trillion dollars.

MSFT 2.478
AAPL 2.462
GOOGL 1.956
AMZN 1.698
TSLA 1.104
FB 0.902

Do you think we will ever see quadrillion dollar companies?

What the New Name for Facebook Will Be

In case you haven’t heard, Facebook (FB) has announced that it is planning on changing its name in order to rebrand as a met averse company. This plan is supposed to help the company distance itself from the issues that the Facebook division has been having.

Remember, that Facebook owns Instagram, WhatsApp, Oculus, and many other companies.

The announcement is expected to be made next week.

An online gambling website, SportsBetting.ag, has put together a list of potential names and their odds of being selected.

The name with the best odds on the list is Virtuel, with Connect and Horizon tied for second place.

Here is the list of possible names along with the odds:

  • Virtuel  4-1
  • Connect  5-1
  • Horizon  5-1
  • Ecoverse  7-1
  • Metabook  8-1
  • Immerse  8-1
  • Omniverse  10-1
  • Persistem  12-1
  • Ecompass  12-1
  • Metanet  14-1
  • Sodigeco  20-1
  • MetaRack  25-1
  • Openverse  25-1
  • MetaLand  33-1
  • MetaLife  33-1
  • Dataverse  33-1
  • MetaMatrix  40-1
  • WeOwn  40-1
  • MyFace  50-1
  • Lifelog  50-1
  • ZuckRack  66-1
  • Subversive  66-1
  • MetaMark  80-1
  • MetaBeast  80-1
  • Zuckers  100-1

I’m surprised that the name Zuck wasn’t;t on the list. It’s a nice short, four-letter, easy-to-remember name.

The site is also offering bets on whether Mark Zuckerberg will resign as CEO before 2023. The results are:

  • Yes 3-2
  • No 1-2
  • which implies that there is a 66.7% probability that Zuckerberg will not resign

So, what do you think would be the best name for the company?

Disclosure: Author has a long biased option position in FB.

 

Let’s Say You’re Dead: Give Your Heirs a Break

by Fred Fuld III

Most people who think about estate planning are aware of and have probably set up wills and living trusts, and possibly medical advance directives and durable powers of attorney.

However, because so much is done online, your heirs may not be aware of all your cyber accounts. Are they aware that you have PayPal (PYPL)? Do you have any savings accounts with an online bank? What about online brokerage accounts where you have opted out of paper deliveries?

There are a lot of issues to consider beyond the will and trust. Here are just some of the tasks that you should consider to make things easier for your heirs with regards to online accounts.

Keep Track of All Your Online Accounts

The first place to start is identifying all the online accounts that you have along with logins and passwords. Some people like to type out a list on a Word document or text document. I personally don’t like that idea, unless the file is well protected and encrypted. Otherwise, if your computer is hacked, the hacker will have access to everything.

Others just write down a list of all those logins and passwords on a piece of paper. I have a friend who’s list is currently three pages long. I don’t like this practice either as it takes a long time to search through, since it is not alphabetized, and find the particular website that you are looking for.

I personally like using an Email and Website Password Logbook. These journals have alphabetized pages, so that all the accounts that begin with A are in the first section, all the Bs in the second section, and so forth. That way, I don’t have to look all over the place to find the password I want.

Since everything is handwritten on a hard copy, it can’t be hacked. (Just don’t lose it.) It is also a central repository for all your online accounts, which will make it simpler for your heirs to find everything.

Requirements for Account Liquidation Upon Death

It might be helpful to make your heirs aware of the requirements to liquidate online monetary accounts and stock brokerage accounts. For example, the requirements for PayPal are:

  • A cover sheet from the Requestor (or a person who is duly appointed or authorized to administer the estate of the deceased customer) identifying the account by the primary email address and request to have PayPal account closed
  • A copy of the death certificate for the account holder
  • A copy of a government issued photo ID (such as a driver’s license, passport or state-issued ID) of the Requestor
  • Legal documentation or a copy of the will that identifies the executor of the estate
  • State issued documentation if a living will is not present

Most online bank and brokerage accounts will require similar documents.

Facebook Accounts After Death

Social media accounts have special requirements in the event of death. As an example, Facebook (FB) has two options upon the death of the accountholder.  You can either have your account permanently deleted, which you can setup now while you are still alive, or you can have a Memorialized Account and it can be controlled by a legacy contact. Your legacy contact can be identified now also.

Twitter Accounts After Death

Twitter (TWTR) allows the removal of the account of a deceased person or an incapacitated person, with the submission of appropriate documents.

LinkedIn Accounts After Death

LinkedIn has an online form that can be filled out in order to remove the profile of someone who has passed away.

Instagram Accounts After Death

Instagram has similar options to Facebook. The account can be memorialized or it can be removed. For removal, they request the following:

  • The deceased person’s birth certificate
  • The deceased person’s death certificate
  • Proof of authority under local law that you are the lawful representative of the deceased person, or his/her estate

For other social media accounts, check out their Help link.

Email Accounts After Death

In terms of the deceased emails, this can be a delicate issue. You probably want your heirs to have access to your email accounts, especially those connected to bank and brokerage accounts, and accounts that are exclusively phone app based.

If there are any emails that you are uncomfortable with your heirs seeing, they should obviously be deleted, now.

Then there is the issue of if and who to contact about your passing. A friend of mine who I hadn’t contacted for a couple months had passed away shortly after I last called him. I received no email notification about his passing or the memorial service, even though I was on his email contact list. I only found out about it a month and a half later after reaching one of his relatives when I discovered my friend’s phone was disconnected.

Therefore, it would be helpful to provide a list of who you want contacted upon your death, along with emails, and possibly phone numbers.

You probably don’t want your heirs to do a mass email of all contacts, including the plumber you emailed two years ago, all the email newsletters that you subscribe to, the restaurant that you made an online reservation with, and so forth. So some filtering will be necessary.

Online Bank Accounts and Bills After Death

If you receive many of your bills by email, your heirs will need access to both your email account and your online bank account. Many bank customers have set up their account to autopay various bills.

Heirs need to review all bills, contact the bank right away, make sure that important bills, such as mortgage payments, are continued to be paid, and determine which other accounts may need to be cancelled, such as cable TV bills.

Online Stock Brokerage Accounts After Death

Remember that some brokerage accounts may be exclusively app based, such as Robinhood or WeBull. Most brokerage account liquidations will have similar requirements for submitting documents, however, the big issue is the sale of the stocks and bonds in the portfolio; in other words, when and how it is that done, or can the existing stocks be kept and transferred to the heirs. I suggest that you contact your own broker to get the details on the requirements and policies, if you want that info available for your heirs.

Your Cell Phone After Death

If you use dual-factor identification, access to your cell phone will be necessary. But even if you don’t, you will probably want your heirs to have access to it. Important phone calls may come in for a while, and heirs may need to access some of your finance related apps.

In your central password holding resource, don’t forget to include your cell phone’s passcode. I use this Password Logbook which sells for less than $7 on Amazon (AMZN).

Living Trusts

If you haven’t already, talk to an attorney about setting up a living trust and transferring your online bank accounts and your online brokerage accounts into the trust.

Anyone who has dealt with the death of a parent or other close relative knows the hassles involved. If you want to help out your heirs, it is a good idea to be proactive, especially when it comes to online accounts.

 

 

Disclosure: Author owns PYPL, AMZN, and TWTR. Affiliated links.

Stocks of the Richest Self-Made Women

by Fred Fuld III

In the June 30, 2019 issue of Forbes Magazine, the cover feature was about America’s most successful women entrepreneurs. Several of these women have a connection to publicly traded stocks. Here are the ones that have that connection.

Meg Whitman, second wealthiest woman entrepreneur. eBay (EBAY), Hewlett Packard Enterprises (HPE), HP Inc. (HPQ).

Doris Fisher. #8. The Gap (GPS).

Johnelle Hunt. #8. J. B Hunt Transportation (JBHT).

Elaine Wynn. #11. Wynn Resorts (WYNN).

Sheryl Sandberg. #12. Facebook (FB).

Jayshree Ullal. #18. Arista Network (ANET)

Alice Schwartz. #20. Bio-Rad Laboratories (BIO)

Safra Catz. #22. Oracle (ORCL)

Weili Dai. #26. Marvell Technology (MRVL)

Christel DeHaan. #27. Resort Condominiums – Wyndham Destinations (WYND)

Young Sohn. #30. Veeva Systems (VEEV)

 

Disclosure: Author didn’t own any of the above at the time the article was written.

Are You Watching the Streaming Video Stocks?

by Fred Fuld III

Could you have imagined 15 years ago that you would have the ability to watch almost any movie or TV show whenever you want, as many times as you want, and could pause it and replay parts of it, without having to insert a disc into a player, would you have believed it?

Most major films and television programs can now be watched on your smart TV, you computer, your laptop, and even your phone. Several companies are benefiting from this major trend, providing investors with stocks that they should keep an eye on.

Amazon’s (AMZN) Prime Video is an Internet video on demand service that offers television shows and films for rent or purchase and Prime Video, a group of Amazon Studios original content and licensed acquisitions including Bosch, The Man in the High Castle, Sneaky Pete, and The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. Amazon trades at 64 times forward earnings, and revenues for the latest reported quarter jumped by almost 20% year-over-year.

Netflix (NFLX) is the biggest pure play in this arena, having around 140 million subscribers. The company also has extensive original programming including stand-up comedy specials. The stock trades at 88 times forward earnings. Sales for the latest quarter went up by over 27%.

Streaming video is a small but growing piece of Disney (DIS) which owns 60% of Hulu, in addition to its own streaming services. Like Netflix and Amazon, Hulu has its own original content. Disney has a very reasonable forward price to earnings ratio of 16, and even pays a dividend of 1.53%.

Of course, video streaming is a small part of a lot of large companies, such as Apple (AAPL), Facebook (FB), and YouTube, owned by Alphabet (GOOG) (GOOGL), better known as Google.

Let’s watch and see which company will be the best performer.

Disclosure: Author owns AMZN, AAPL, and DIS.

Invest Like a Billionaire

Did you know that ten out of the top twelve American billionaires made their money from a stock? The Forbes 400 Magazine was published about a month ago, which listed the wealthiest people in the United States.

It is interesting to note that most of the wealthiest achievements are from publicly traded companies. Maybe you can piggyback on some of these billionaires and their stocks.

Here is a list of the top dozen wealthy people with stock connections.

  1. Jeff Bezos – Amazon (AMZN)
  2. Bill Gates – Microsoft (MSFT)
  3. Warren Buffett – Berkshire Hathaway (BRKA) (BRKB)
  4. Mark Zuckerberg – Facebook (FB)
  5. Larry Ellison – Oracle (ORCL)
  6. Larry Page – Google (GOOG) (GOOGL)
  7. Sergey Brin – Google (GOOG) (GOOGL)
  8. Jim Walton – Walmart (WMT)
  9. Alice Walton – Walmart (WMT)
  10. S. Robson Walton – Walmart (WMT)
  11. Steve Ballmer – Microsoft (MSFT)
  12. Phil Knight – Nike (NKE)

How to Check if your Facebook Data was used by Cambridge Analytica

I won’t review the information about Facebook (FB) and Cambridge Analytica, as the news is all over the place. However, many users of Facebook want to find out if their Facebook data was used by Cambridge Analytica, and are awaiting for notification on their Facebook page.

No need to wait. Go to the following link with will bring you to Facebook’s Help Page on the incident, where you can find out if your info was shared.

https://www.facebook.com/help/1873665312923476

If you are not logged in to Facebook, it will give you a message asking you to log in first.

If you are logged in, you will get a screen that looks like the following:

Facebook Data Help

The bottom box will show you whether or not your data was shared.

Your Secret Data that Facebook Has On You: How to Find It

During the last week, the price of Facebook (FB) stock tanked from 177.01 to 159.39, a drop of over $17 a share or 10%. By now, everyone has heard abut the Facebook Cambridge Analytica scandal.

I check the data that the company has on me and I was shocked. They had five of my email addresses, but I had only given them one. Of course they had my date of birth, my phone number, and many of my interests.

When I ran a report, it showed everything ever entered on my timeline, all my firiends, friends sent requests, friends received requests, all my messages, pokes, events, etc, etc., etc. You get the picture.

What I found really weird was the list of 58 different advertisers that had my contact information. Another unusual thing was that they have a couple of pictures of me that I never uploaded.

If you have ever wondered what personal information Facebook has on you, here is what you can do.

Go to http://Facebook.com/settings
If you aren’t already logged in to Facebook, you will have to do so at this time.

Click on the link that says “Download  a Copy”

This brings you to another screen. Click “Download Archive”

Then it asks you for your password again:

Once it downloads, double click on the Facebook folder.

I would suggest starting out by double clicking on the Index file.

Once you do that, click on each menu item shown on the left, starting with Profile (see above).

When you click on the Ads link, you may be surprised to find out what advertisers have your contact info. My account showed dozens and dozens.

Now that you know what information is being stored about you, you can be a lot more careful about what sites you go to, what information you provide to what sites, what links you click on, and clearing your cache.

 

How to Invest Like a Billionaire

Do you want to be a billionaire? If so, maybe you should invest in the companies that made the billionaires so rich.

Forbes Magazine has just come out with its latest billionaires list. Seven out of the top ten billionaires have founded and/or are the head of companies that are publicly traded, providing investors with a selection of stocks to invest in.

The following is a list of the billionaires and their stocks.

Rank Name Net Worth Company Symbol
#1 Jeff Bezos $112 B Amazon AMZN
#2 Bill Gates $90 B Microsoft MSFT
#3 Warren Buffett $84 B Berkshire Hathaway BRKA
#4 Bernard Arnault $72 B LVMH LVMH
#5 Mark Zuckerberg $71 B Facebook FB
#7 Carlos Slim Helu $67.1 B América Móvil AMX
#10 Larry Ellison $58.5 B Oracle ORCL