Hopefully this is permissible on the board. Not asking for allocation or portfolio guidance, but just wondering which is the best place to deploy new cash at this time and why.
I have some new money that I’d like to put to use. My allocations in these 4 companies are somewhat small, so I have room to add more. If you had new cash to deploy, where would you put it?
Here are the companies I am looking to add to, good or bad.
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AYX, I like this company because I understand the tech a little, and feel like they have a lot of room for growth still, so I’m not too worried about enlarging this position.
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OKTA, I understand tech too, I like and I use this tech. Given the value they add to enterprises, I feel like they have a long runway too and are far from saturating the market.
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TWLO, I know less about, but everything posted here seems very positive and I can’t argue with the numbers.
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TTD, I know next to nothing about this company. I can read their financials and growth figures, but feel a little uncomfortable not really knowing what makes them so special from a tech standpoint. What is their shtick?
What is the bull case for these that would warrant putting new money into them?
I’ve shied away from MDB, mostly because from a tech standpoint I’m not confident they can really beat the market (obviously I’ve been wrong so far). My curse of being somewhat technical. What’s that expression; I know enough to be dangerous?
I ruled out ZS because I already have exposure to CYBR and CHKP.
I have a good sized position on SQ, so I’m not adding to that one.
thoughts?
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Invest wisely my friends
CMFSoloFool - Ticker Guide / Share Holder
Profile and holdings: https://goo.gl/TYTU4S
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Hi Solo, With new money I’d probably go with Zscaler or Okta of the five you mentioned. ZS is not in the same field really as other security companies, it’s replacing them. Okta is intensely ingrained in the fiber of its customers and can’t be replaced.
Just my thoughts,
Saul
15 Likes
Thanks Saul!
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Invest wisely my friends
CMFSoloFool - Ticker Guide / Share Holder
Profile and holdings: https://goo.gl/TYTU4S
Saul, just curious why, with new money, you’d probably go with Zscaler or Okta, as opposed to the other stocks Solo mentioned. Thanks
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Saul, just curious why, with new money, you’d probably go with Zscaler or Okta, as opposed to the other stocks Solo mentioned. Thanks
Hi speedy,
Well, the four companies he was looking at plus Zscaler are my top five positions and make up 78% of my portfolio, and Mongo (which he also mentioned), is my sixth largest, and if you throw that in too you have 87% of my portfolio, so I’m clearly happy with any one of them. I guess I was suggesting that ZS may take over security over the next 5 or 10 years, and Okta is an under-appreciated and misunderstood Category Crusher.
Best,
Saul
23 Likes
I would sell Checkpoint and swap in ZS at a heart beat. Checkpoint is pretty much ex growth. Cyberark is still growing at 30% so I would be less interested in selling that for ZS.
A
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I would sell Checkpoint and swap in ZS at a heart beat. Checkpoint is pretty much ex growth. Cyberark is still growing at 30% so I would be less interested in selling that for ZS.
A
I started buying CYBR a couple of months ago, with the aim to replace Checkpoint. But I’m not yet into ZS. I may revisit ZS at some point.
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Invest wisely my friends
CMFSoloFool - Ticker Guide / Share Holder
Profile and holdings: https://goo.gl/TYTU4S
“My curse of being somewhat technical. What’s that expression; I know enough to be dangerous?“
It can be a curse or a benefit in investing but we never know which one it is. Some excellent technologies have not been the best businesses, and some so-so techs have been commercial success. It is always difficult to assess market adoption curves. That does not help investing decision, does it?
Of course Lynch’s ‘buy what you know’ sounds like a good one but nowadays everyone who wants to know knows and that often doesn’t seem to be a small part of the market (the herd is bigger?). Of course we always want to think we are shrewder than the next one. Maybe the best gems are the ones that are not talked about or not talked about too much.
That said the SaaS is due for a pullback (that is the herd talking) and it seems to have begun to do just that this past week. We should see about the earnings. Most may beat but many will project weaker earnings if just on the account of an expectation of some slowing after the exceptional growth of these past quarters from the businesses talked about here. Of course this is only short term speculation. In the long term I think most of these businesses should find their way to better future.
tj
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I started buying CYBR a couple of months ago, with the aim to replace Checkpoint. But I’m not yet into ZS. I may revisit ZS at some point.
Cybersecurity is a space that allows multiple winners - I hold Palo Alto, Fortinet, Cyber Ark and am building up ZS. I’m closest to selling Fortinet now that 1) it’s growth is the slowest of all of them (~20%) and 2) it’s value has been realised and outed - just as i have done with checkpoint, qualys and imperva previously.
I really wouldn’t be in checkpoint right now (with its single digit growth it has gone sideways for years) but I would still be prepared to hold a number of players and not simply either ZS or CyberArk.
A
I really wouldn’t be in checkpoint right now (with its single digit growth it has gone sideways for years)
Are we talking at the same stock; CHKP?
CHKP stock price on 4/18/2018 was $93.76
CHKP stock price on 4/16/2019 set a new 52-week high at $132.76.
Return = 41.6%
Granted, it tanked 7% on Thursday. It beat on earnings and revenues, and subscriptions grew 13% year over year. But it fell on slightly weak guidance (which gets punished hard in this environment). But even though it dropped to $120, that still equates to 28% return.
I’ve been slowly rotating out of CHKP and into CYBR, but I can’t really complain about returns in CHKP over the past 12 months.
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Invest wisely my friends
CMFSoloFool - Ticker Guide / Share Holder
Profile and holdings: https://goo.gl/TYTU4S
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