Articles authored by Blake Anderson

The age-old debate between technology investors was on prime display in 2024. While both the semiconductor and software industries had stellar performance in 2024 relative to broader market-cap weighted indices, it was a tale of two halves. I’m reminded, often, how debates, such as ‘software or semis,’ surface throughout markets, but may often be distracting. …

2024 has seen continued outperformance from the ‘Magnificent 7’ group of stocks. Year to date through December 24th, an equal weight portfolio of these 7 stocks has returned 69.0% versus a gain of 26.5% for the S&P 500 (FactSet data). This year builds on years of outperformance for this group as an equal weight portfolio …

By Blake Anderson, CFA®, Senior Analyst, Investment OpenAI has recently expanded its suite of AI tools and adjusted its subscription offerings to cater to a diverse user base. The company, with a reported 500 million monthly active users, is taking bold steps to increase monetization of the company’s intelligence products while also adding capabilities. Their …

The iShares Expanded Technology Software Sector ETF (trading under IGV) has recorded a quarter-to-date gain of +21.5% as of Thursday’s close (FactSet data). The software-focused ETF is trouncing other broader ETFs over this period. It’s a welcome relief for software and technology-focused investors compared to earlier in the year, with the ETF seeing a gain …

Berkshire Hathaway’s market capitalization stands at $1,032,347,000,000 (FactSet data) as of Tuesday’s close. It is the newest addition to one of the most exclusive clubs in the world – the Trillionaire Club. Notably, it is the only financial stock so far to gain entry to this club, whose membership is largely populated by technology-related stocks. …

Nvidia delivered quarterly results largely in line with expectations. Quarterly revenue of $35.1 billion exceeded the $33.15 billion high end of guidance, earnings per share (“EPS”) of $0.81 exceeded FactSet consensus estimate of $0.75, and guidance for next quarter’s revenue of $36.8 – $38.3 billion bracketed FactSet consensus estimate of $37.1 billion. Many of these …

Since news broke on June 12, 2024, that Tesla shareholders voted to reinstate CEO Elon Musk’s pay package, Tesla stock has returned +85.3% versus a gain of +10.3% for the broader S&P 500 (FactSet data, as of 11/12/2024 closing price). The investor base has clearly been catalyzed with recent events that includes the company’s ‘We, …

Investors this week digested results from some of the world’s largest companies. Both fundamental results and price return the day after the reports were mixed, but generally positive. As I wrote about last week in my Technology Earnings Preview, I noted that investors may shift their focus away from this year’s results and concentrate on …

The ‘Magnificent 7’ group of stocks enters this earnings season with meaningfully different expectations. As represented by earnings estimate revisions thus far in 2024, investors are beginning to distinguish between perceived leaders and laggards amongst this group. Below is a chart of 2024’s earnings estimate revisions for each of the seven in this group since …

OpenAI has dazzled both ChatGPT users and investors in the past two years. The company recently achieved another milestone — closing the largest ever private market funding round for a technology company, according to the New York Times.1 OpenAI raised nearly $7 billion at a $150 billion pre-money valuation. With revenue growing and business plans …