Monday, December 31, 2012

"Freewilly's Stockpicker blog, Thirteen for 2013 stock picks. A roundtable of selections with just me at the table picking."

Dow Jones Industrial Average 12,938.11 (Down) Week ending 12-28-2012

Well, it is that time of year when we whisk together that great alchemy of prognostication that we call the "yearly stock picks".  Barron's does their Round table conversations this time of year with a bunch of the great financial investors of the world who present their ideas and picks for the new year. I have a much smaller cafe table that I work at to make my picks and I am the only one at my table making the picks. So without further ado, here are my top 13 picks to invest in for the new year.


Freewilly’s Stockpicker Blog “13 for 2013”

MasterCard Inc. (Symbol MA)
Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc. (Symbol CMG)
Facebook (Symbol FB)
PetSmart Inc. (Symbol PETM)
Whole Foods Markets (WFM)
Davita Healthcare Partners Inc. (Symbol DVA)
Phillip Morris International Inc. (Symbol PM)
Borg Warner Inc. (Symbol BWA)
Scripps Network Interactive Inc. (Symbol SNI)
Anheuser- Busch Inbev SA  (Symbol BUD)
Celgene Inc. (Symbol CELG)
Diageo Inc. (Symbol DEO)
Ebay Inc. (Symbol EBAY)


I think this portfolio has a very "Peter Lynch" flavor to it. There are a lot of high dollar trading stocks, yet these stocks seem to me to all be undervalued based on their growth.  These are stocks that have a good outlook for the next 1 to 3 years and I feel will give you the best return with no downside surprises. I think there will be many downside surprises in 2013 from all the changes that the government is making. In that sense, my picks are really defensive, because they are defended by their growth.  I think many slow growth/ high dividend stocks that have done well in 2012, will be under pressure in the new year and sell off. They seem to be trading at higher PE's than is sustainable for those type of stocks.

I also have some stocks that get honorable mention for 2013, buy could not break into the list above, and will not be counted in my tally at the end of 2013. Apple (AAPL) , Microsoft (MSFT), Nissan Motors (NSANY), Gilead Sciences (GILD), Yahoo (YHOO), Panera Bread (PNRA) , and Nam Tai Electronics (NTE). 



So get together with your friends and discuss them while your drinking your toast on New Year's Eve and then comment on the blog and offer other better ideas if you have them. (No Penny stocks please, we don't buy them at anytime!). See you on the other side, in 2013.

Freewilly





Saturday, December 22, 2012

"Time to review this past year's "12 for 2012" picks, to see how I did with my stock picks"

Dow Jones Industrial Average 13,190 (Down) Week ending 12-21-2012

Well, it is that time of year when we look to see how my 2012 "12 for 2012 stock picks" performed for this year. Many of these prices have moved quite a bit just in this last week.  YTD stats, I am taking off of the CNBC quote website. I will list them by best to worst in performance:

Lululemon (LULU)  -                    Up 61.81 %
PPG Industries Inc. (PPG) -         Up 61.80 %
Goldman Sachs  (GS)  -                Up 36.03 %
Cummins Inc. (CMI) -                  Up 22.60 %
Seadrill Inc. (SDRL) -                  Up 11.95 %
J. M. Smucker Co.  -                    Up 10.33 %
Stanley,Black& Decker (SWK)- Up  8.10 %
CSX Railroad -   (CSX)                Down (-5.41) %   
Potash Inc. (POT)                         Down (-6.31) %
Freeport McMoran (FCX)           Down (-12.55) %
Alcatel Lucent (ALU)                   Down (-15.34) %

 So if you had purchased this portfolio of 12 stocks, in equal weights of shares, you would have been up 14.42% for the year, and that does not include dividends, which would have brought you up to a 15 -16% return.  Not to bad, but I will try to improve on this next year 2013.


If you are a reader of my blog, I hope in 2013 that you will ask more questions and post more comments, good or bad on my blog. 
We can learn from each other. I do not make money from this blog. (I have a few Amazon links down the bottom of the page that I have made $1.62 cents on, yet to be paid,  because you have to get up to $10.00 before they will pay you!). 

I do this blog to help people with making stock investments. I make money by investing in my ideas. Too many times I talk to people locally and I hear of them putting money into speculative stocks priced under $5, thinking that they are investing. Speculation is Speculation, but it is not investing. It is the same as going to a casino or playing the lottery, but it is NOT INVESTING!  If there is one thing you take away from this blog, it is that buying things like penny stocks is speculation, and it is not investing for your future. Investments take time, and should be made in businesses that are growing and that will continue to grow for the next 3 -5 years. 


 Freewilly (a.k.a David Wilson)
I want to take this moment to thank my wife Deborah (picture left), for all her support with Freewilly's Stockpicker Blog, and to my daughter and Editor , Molly, (picture right), who just loves fixing all my fragmented sentences.
I most of all I want to thank my readers from all over the world, for tuning in every once in a while.

 From our family to yours, we wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy, Healthy, and Prosperous New year.

Freewilly


Thanks for stopping by and reading. My 2013 picks should be coming soon in
Blog #163.








Monday, December 17, 2012

"Follow the Yellow Brick Road to the Emerald City. You might not find the wizard there, but you will find a company stock, (ORCL), with tremendous revenues"

Dow Jones Industrial Average 13,135.01 (Down) Week ending 12-14-2012

There is a company that had the same sales and earnings dollar numbers this year as the company Google, (whose stock trades at $700.00), and yet if you follow the yellow brick road to the Emerald City, which is the headquarters of this other company , you can buy their stock for only $31.96 for a share.  Sound interesting?  The company is: 

Oracle Corp. (Symbol ORCL,$31.96)  Return on Equity 23.88% and PEG Ratio 1.01

Oracle 2012 sales $37,121 mil, (Google $37,862 mil), and Oracle Net 2012 earnings were $10,100 mil, (Google $9,737 mil). Pretty strange huh? 

Oracle Corp. is projecting 2013 earnings per share of $2.66 per share and 2014 of $2.91 per share. Oracle is only growing at half the pace that Google is growing, but still had 5 years sales growth of 13.10 % and 5 year earnings growth of 17.11%. 

Here is a really amazing stat. The 3 year total return on Oracle Corp. is 34.70% and is actually higher than Goggle's 3 year Total Return. 

I think Oracle gives you a nice safe way to get a very good return on your investment. 

Oracle is also going to benefit with the building of the infrastructure of the ObamaCare program.. ORCL is a subcontractor to help build the database software for state exchanges to facilitate the deployment of the program.


So you won't need a wizard to come from behind a curtain to give you a brain like the scarecrow to make some money.. Sometimes we look for some obscure stock to try to make money when we really need just to look at the stocks that are right in front of us.



                                                       Hopefully the Wizard will be ready with a hot air balloon for us so that we have some way to traverse over the Fiscal Cliff and get back to Kansas. 


The Wizard and Dorothy say Buy some Oracle Corp. !     Freewilly








Sunday, December 9, 2012

"Fiscal Cliff, ObamaCare, Alternative Minimum Tax, Mayan apocalypse, Governments broke, Unemployment, it's all enough to drive you to drink, and drink they do"

Dow Jones Industrial Average 13,151.13 (UP)  Week ending 12-07-2012

“In wine there is wisdom, in beer there is Freedom, in water there is bacteria.” 
― Benjamin Franklin

“Here's to alcohol, the rose colored glasses of life.” 
― F. Scott FitzgeraldThe Beautiful and Damned

Oh, will we ever make it through the next 6 months, or in the case of the Mayan calender and the pending apocalypse, the next 14 days? We can't predict what events will take place. What we can predict though is that in all cases, people will be drinking.

Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger love beverage stocks because they are great machines that generate a lot of cash.
The first stock I want to look at can also generate a great Black & Tan beer combo.

Diageo PLC ADS (Symbol DEO, $120.45)  Return on Equity 39.06%  PEG Ratio 1.47

You can see in the picture above that Diageo makes some of the great drinks of the world. DEO just squeezed in under my PEG ratio limit of 1.50 and is a little rich here but well worth it. 2013 fiscal year earnings are projected at $6.59 per share and for June 2014, $7.35 per share. Diageo, based in London, UK., has a 5 year average sales gain of 6.61% annually and 5 year earnings growth of 6.29% , not earth shattering but steady numbers. 
Projected Long-term EPS is 12.57%.

The really nice holiday cheer in this stock is the 12 Month total return of the stock of 41.17% and a 3 year total return of 87.09%.  (That will buy you a bunch of Captain Morgan Rum, Aye.)

Well, now I am off to my next pick which is:  

Anheuser-Busch InBev N.V. ADS (Symbol BUD, $87.75)  Return on Equity of 19.33% and PEG ratio of 1.25


BUD, the great American icon of beer and beer advertising, has had 5 years sales growth of 18.65%. Budweiser has merged together with dutch brewer InBev N.V. , and has continued their dominance of the US beer market. 2012 earnings are projected at $4.63 per share and 2013 earnings of $5.08. The projected long-term EPS for the company is forecasted at a very healthy 14.73%. 2011 yearly revenue sales were 28 billion for the company and looks like it will be $31-32 Billion for 2012. 

In-Bev N.V. has quickly been paying off the debt burden it took on to buy Anheuser-Busch , and the balance sheet seems to be in good shape and manageable. The most important thing though is that the 12 month total return on the stock is 47.93% and the 3 year Total return on the stock has been 72.40%. 

Both of these stocks can be purchased here and tucked away for next year.

 Two other beverage stocks you could also look at are Boston Beer Company (Symbol SAM) and Coca Cola (Symbol KO).

So don't end up like this guy on the E-Trade commercial with the surprised baby, trying to win your retirement with lottery tickets, (one of my favorite commercials by the way). Instead, buy some cash generating beverage stocks and keep them in your stock portfolio.




Freewilly


Saturday, December 1, 2012

"Get ready to take some small bites of Chipotle Mexican Grill (symbol CMG) with some pinto beans (with a little bacon), and guacamole. Buy 5 and 10 shares at a time and average in"

Dow Jones Industrial Average 13025.58 (UP) Week ending 11-30-2012


Good evening. I'm Freewilly and this is "Freewilly's Stockpicker Blog" , Welcome back. "Just remember, It's just your money. It's not your life. The figures on a broker's report mean little compared to that. The people who loved you a week ago still love you today." 

Sound familiar? It's an introduction from Louis Rukeyser's "Wall Street Week". I probably should have saved it for a January 2013 blog for when we dive over the Fiscal Cliff like Bill Murray and that groundhog in the movie, or Thelma and Louise. The compromise offered so far by the administration has been laughable and has gone in the opposite direction from compromise. The good news is that it is propelling a lot of company declared December special dividends which can be seen at this link put together by 24/7 Wall Street : "Special December dividends"  . You might want to grab one of these to get the dividend.

But, on we go to the current topic. Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc. (Symbol CMG, $263.78) is a dynamic growth company that only has 31.5 Million shares outstanding.  It has a Return on Equity of 23.70% and a PEG ratio of 1.21. The stock is actually down 18 or 19% this year so it has consolidated its gains and gives you a good entry point to start accumulating it.  I suggest buying it at 5 to 10 shares at a time to build a position over time.


5 year sales growth here has been 21.80% and the 5 year earnings growth has been a rollicking 43.55%. With 2.3 Billion in sales this company is a Mid-Cap, just in it's infancy stage. The three year Total Return on the stock has been 211%, so you had to have a little cooling off phase after such a big run up. 


Every time I go by one of their restaurants the lines are packed.
They seem to have three things going for them. The food is very good. The food is very affordable, with an average price at $6.84. Third, they move people through the line very quickly with an assembly line method. (Henry Ford would have liked it).  


..... and they have fun there!  I can see this stock being a 5 or 6 bagger from here. If Peter Lynch was still around running Magellan, it would be in his portfolio for sure.

So, start grabbing up some CMG shares in small bites, and grab your special dividends and your parachute and prepare to be ready to go over the cliff. It could be 8 weeks before you land on the ground. That is not me skydiving!





and so December trading begins ......       Freewilly    .... Catch you next week.


Sunday, November 25, 2012

"Time to recap all my investment tenets onto one blog page. Also a couple of Pharma picks"

Dow Jones Industrial Average 13,009.68  (UP) Week Ending 11-23-2012


Cornelius Vanderbilt, shipping and transportation magnate, and pictured to the left on the stock certificate of his The New York Central Railroad surely had established ideas about the best business practices to be successful. 

Over the last 157 blogs, I have worked to establish consistent best practices for stock purchasing based on fundamental analysis of businesses which will facilitate the best total return over a 1 to 3 year period. The following are my rules all together in one place for the first time:

Rule #1. Never buy a stock that is priced under $5.00. Most mutual funds have rules in their charters that do not allow them to purchase stocks under $5.00. It is very tempting to want to buy these shares.

Rule#2. If you trade a stock twice, and have gains both times, do not go back to the well and buy it a third time. 

Rule#3. Only buy stocks that have earnings above $0.10 per share annually. This will keep you out of a lot of bad places.

Rule#4. Try to buy companies that are not loaded down with debt, or even better yet, have zero debt.

 Rule#5.  Purchase only stocks with a Return on Equity of 15% or higher

 Rule#6. Purchase only stocks that have a PEG Ratio of less than 1.50 .

These are the six that are in place at the current time as of this writing and others may be added in the future. So here are a couple of pharma stocks that meet all these rules.


Shire PLC ADS (Symbol SHPG, $86.63), is a Dublin, Ireland based pharmaceutical company with very good performance numbers. It meets our criteria with a
Return of Equity of 28.01% and a PEG ratio of 1.18.

Earnings per share are projecting for 2012 at $5.92 per share and for 2013 looks like $6.54 per share. Shire PLC can be bought right here at this price, quite a bit off its 52 week high of $108.79. The company has had 5 year sales growth of 23.69% and 5 year earnings growth of 231.08% and yet only trades at a current PE ratio of 14. 


Alexion Phamaceuticals Inc. (Symbol ALXN, $94.71) feels expensive here. But the PEG ratio on the stock is 0.99, so they must be growing their business very rapidly. It also meets my criteria for Return on Equity at 15.80. 

The fact is that ALXN has had a 5 year sales growth of 199.32%. Their projected earnings growth long term is 35.5%. (All stats from Smartmoney.com). The high price for the year is $119 per share, so you probably should phase into this stock with small purchases because it could have a lot of volatility here in the next few months. This stock is no secret and there are a lot of traders in this stock that come in and out, so just be careful on your entry points.  The 1 Year Total Return on the stock is 48.29% and the 3 Year Total Return is 324.52%, so you have a good track record here with ALXN.

So if you cannot afford to start your own shipping company like the "Commodore" ,Cornelius Vanderbilt, or your own railroad like "The New York Central" ,  you can start building some capital by investing some money in these two profitable pharma companies. 


I wonder what Cornelius would be investing in now if he was still around? Maybe US Energy companies or the railroads or pipelines that transport their fuels?

 Happy Totensonntag to my German and Lutheran readers out there today. We all think about our loved ones that are gone, this time of year.

Guten Nachmittag,

Freewilly






 





Sunday, November 18, 2012

"Time to grab some Total Return with an investment in Microsoft at $26.50"

Dow Jones Industrial Average 12,588.31 (DOWN) Week ending 11-16-2012


"And you can fly, High as a kite if you want to,
Faster than light if you want to,
Speeding through the universe,
Thinking is the best way to travel"

Moody Blues ... The best way to travel

Isn't it amazing that you can move in your mind from one end of the investment universe at speculation to the far other end at very conservative in your investment thinking.  You just need to think about it. So, this week, I move back to the airspace of the very conservative stocks and will talk about a products we use everyday and don't think about much, from Microsoft Inc. Thank you to the Moody Blues for running that song through my  head , "The Best Way to Travel". (some lyrics above)


Microsoft Corp. (Symbol MSFT, $26.52) is a company that sits as we speak, with 66.6 billion dollars in cash on their balance sheet. I believe that with the tax rates changing next year here in the USA, that Microsoft may make one of those "one time" special  dividend payments. 

  So what I am looking for here is a possible special dividend, to go along with the regular dividend of 3.47%, plus the stock moving up to the $31-$32 dollar range with the new introduction of the Windows 8 operating system. You get a lot of chances for success here with this stock,  to accumulate a nice 25-30% total return.

MSFT has a PEG ratio of 0.85% and a Return on Equity of 23.99% so it fits my investment criteria parameters. 2013 earnings per share are looking like $2.92 per share and 2014 earnings of $3.25 per share. 

The company has a great balance sheet but only has 5 year sales growth of 4.39%.  Hopefully with Windows 8 we get a little more growth. Also Microsoft should take some of that cash and invest it with his friend Warren Buffett and buy some Berkshire Hathaway shares and let him invest it. Warren is just going to give his money back eventually to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation anyway!

This company did almost 74 Billion dollars in revenue last year so there is really only the risk here that nothing miraculous happens.  At some point though, someone in this company is going to start investing that money and start buying some small high technology companies and then you will get some nice earnings growth going again.

Short and sweet and now back to watching the football game.

Have a Happy Thanksgiving Day. Eat some Turkey.

Freewilly








Sunday, November 11, 2012

"Happy Veterans, Remembrance and Armistice Day to all the war veterans around the world. Looked for a defense stock and was led to this great value play."

Dow Jones Industrial Average 12815.39 (Down Big!)   Week Ending  11-09-2012       


   I tried to find a defense stock to write about in honor of Veterans Day,  but I could not find one that I was totally crazy about for a 1 to 3 year investment on fundamentals.  What I did fine though was a stock that does not fit my investment rules and it is a stock under $5.00 per share.  I feel though that this company has a very bright long term future and that as a speculation stock, I would present it to this audience.  Sometimes you just need to go off the grid when a really good value presents itself.

Bombardier Inc. CL. B
(Symbol BDRBF.PK (OTCQX exchange), $3.40 US) 
Speculation (ROE and PEG rules not applied)

Joseph-Armand Bombardier was a mechanic who dreamed of building a vehicle that could "float on snow". In 1937 he designed and produced his first snowmobile in his small repair shop in Valcourt, Quebec.
Bombardier's technological breakthrough in the design of bush vehicles came in the mid-1930s when he developed a drive system that revolutionized travel in snow and swampy conditions. In 1937 Bombardier sold 12 snowmobiles—named the B7 and, in 1942, created l'Auto-Neige Bombardier Limitée company.
The stock is currently down from the last earnings report but their are many positive developments.
Bombardier Learjet announced November 10th that its unionized employees in Wichita, members of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAMAW), have voted to accept a proposed contract agreement, ending a strike action that began on October 8, 2012. Employees may return to work as early as November 12, 2012.
2nd, Bombardier has a Strong backlog of $58.6 billion, compared to $53.9 billion as at December 31, 2011 
3rd, Their C-Series program making solid progress with first flight now scheduled by the end of June 2013 

4th, Bombardier is also opening up a new Monorail plant in Brazil
which is a great development. They also make lot's of other cool stuff like ATV vehicles. 

Actually the PEG ratio on this stock is 0.59 currently and the stock was trading above 6 dollars as recently as July 2011.  Also the Return on Equity is 41.23

CNBC shows that this stock a 0.10 cent dividend which would be a 3.06 % yield , but I would want to verify this info.2013 earnings are looking like 0.50 cents per share which would be a very reasonable PE ratio to the current price.
Bombardier Inc. is a manufacturer of transportation equipment, including business and commercial aircraft and rail transportation equipment and systems, and is a provider of related services. The Company operates in two segments: aerospace (BA) and rail transportation (BT). Aerospace is engaged in the design and manufacture of aviation products for the business, commercial, specialized and amphibious aircraft markets. Transportation is engaged in the design and manufacture and and support of rail equipment and systems, offering a range of passenger railcars, locomotives, light rail vehicles and automated people movers. It also provides bogies, electric propulsion, control equipment and maintenance services, as well as complete rail tranportation systems and rail control solutions. BA's aircraft portfolio includes a line of business aircraft, commercial aircraft, including regional jets, turboprops and single-aisle mainline jets and amphibious aircraft.
I believe that the smaller jet market should have very good growth over the next 5 years. 
I don't know if you have ever flown a short city hop in one of their jets but they ride smooth as silk , and you don't even hear the engines running.

So this is my pick for this week. What do you think?

Freewilly



Tuesday, November 6, 2012

"The trading weeks keep getting uglier, especially for the tech stocks. Time to bring on an old war horse that made it through the depression.

Dow Jones Industrial Average 13,118 (UP)  Week ending 11-02-2012


Thank you Hurricane Sandy for snapping off my 40 foot Pine tree like a twig and depositing it on my neighbors garage. They especially liked it since they have their house up for sale right now. But, I can't complain. New York and New Jersey probably have 80,000 people or more homeless from the storm between the two states. Staten Island, Long Island, NY, PA, and the New Jersey Coast communities all sustained major damage.

The stock trading week with the exception of one day was plug ugly. The NY markets were closed for two days because of flooding in New York City and Northern New Jersey with salt water flooding in the subway tunnels closing down trains. The New York Marathon an international event was first a go, then cancelled because resources were needed for the storm victims. So with all this turmoil, I turned to a stock that seems to always be steady regardless of market conditions or who is elected president.

BorgWarner Inc.  (Symbol BWA, $66.35) Return on Equity 18.76% PEG ratio 0.80

 1928 - Borg-Warner Corporation is formed. Founding companies include Borg & Beck (Holley carburetors), Marvel-Schebler, Warner Gear and Mechanics Universal Joint. The company was one of the ones that made it through "The Great Depression" of 1929 and came out on the other side to prosper.

Currently the company is projecting at $4.99 per share for 2012 and for 2013 it is looking like $5.61 per share.


Although this company's stock is down (4.81%) , the 3 year Total Return on the stock is a lofty 108.36%. The 5 year earnings growth here is a turbo-charged 16.35%  and the 5 year sales growth has been 6.71% percent which is a good pace for a company with 7.1 billion dollars in sales. 



One interesting note here for a hardware company, "Inventory Turnover" has run 11.57 turns a year, which is excellent operationally. 


Nov 6 (Reuters reported) - BorgWarner Inc will attract $2.3 billion in new business from 2013 to 2015 as automakers around the world rely more heavily on turbochargers and other fuel-saving technologies to meet stricter gas mileage and emissions requirements.

About half those sales will come from Asia, which accounted for 35 percent of BorgWarner's new business from 2010 to 2012, the U.S. auto parts supplier said on Tuesday. China, the world's largest auto market, will make up about one-third of new sales.
The largest two shareholders are:  The VANGUARD GROUP, INC. and JP MORGAN CHASE & COMPANY currently.
All in All , a good quality stock that meets our Return on Equity and Peg ratio criteria. 
Election day Tuesday , 11-6 in the USA, so lots of news to follow next week.
Make sure to vote!
Freewilly 

Sunday, October 28, 2012

"Pre-Hurricane Sandy edition - a couple stocks for you before the electricity goes away and we are in the dark"

Dow Jones Industrial Average 13,107.21 (down)  Week ending 10-26-2012                                     

 Projected path - Hurricane Sandy
Well by the looks of this map us folks in the Philadelphia suburbs will get to experience what the people in Florida and Louisiana have to face all the time. Being in the cross-hairs of a killer hurricane. 

In this case, a hurricane that is going to take a big left hook and run straight into a double Low pressure area, another words a "Perfect Storm", smack into the jaw of the Mid-Atlantic States.

 So I better getting typing quickly to get these ideas up on the web. (I have never tried to blog on my Blackberry! and I will need the power in my phone to make phone calls). The PECO emergency number is 1-800-841-4141, my public service announcement.


Resmed Inc. (Symbol RMD, $39.92) just sold off Friday, after recording another excellent and record quarter.  The San Diego designer and manufacturer of medical equipment for treating, diagnosing, and managing sleep-disordered breathing and other respiratory disorders is projecting 2013 earnings of $2.12 per share and  projecting 2014 earnings of $2.36 per share. RMD has made a steady rise with 5 year annual sales growth of 12.76% and 5 year annual earnings growth of 28.72%.


Resmed has a PEG ratio of 1.10 and does not list there Return on Equity?. The company had almost 1.4 Billion in annual sales and has had steady increase in sales growth over the last 4 years. 

The company has provided a 1 year Total Return of 37.14% and a 3 year Total Return of 62.24% which are very nice numbers.

The second offering, may be my most favorite stock play going into next year. 



MasterCard Inc. Cl A (Symbol MA, $452.98) may sound like it is an expensive stock, but in fact it is incredibly cheap at this price.

MA has a PEG ratio 0.95 and a Return on Equity of 35.36%.

2012 earnings are projected at $21.88 per share. 2014 earnings per share are projected at $25.78 per share. That is a projected forward PE of 17.57 for a company that has had 5 year earnings growth of 17.22%. The company operates at Net Profit margins of 29.76%. 

The company is sitting on 5.5 Billion dollars in cash and has a squeaky clean balance sheet with zero long term debt. 

The company has a One year Total return of 27.80% and a 3 year Total return of 107.28%.  I am pretty sure that people are going to keep using their credit cards and Mastercard with definitely benefit in the new trends of Mobile Payment now paired up with Ebay's PayPal. This is a profit machine with very little capital expenses. 
Also there is lots of room for international expansion.
Make sure that you get out there and vote this week if you are in the USA.

Time to hunker down and wait for the Hurricane Sandy to arrive. 

Wish us Luck.    Freewilly