Zombie companies – The Walking Dead?

Being dead and being alive are mutually exclusive conditions. But with stocks, there are companies that to a large extent fit into this scheme. Now facing a heavily toxic cocktail of likely higher interest rates and a slowing economy, many of these businesses will be tested for their survivability. Even if they do survive as a whole business, it is nonetheless dangerous to invest into equities of heavily indebted zombies – no matter how high the temptation might be.

Continue reading

Are farmland stocks a hedge against inflation?

If you ask people about inflation-proof investments, the answers are most likely energy, real estate, precious metals or nowadays maybe even cryptocurrencies or rare whisky bottles. What is less obvious and very underestimated is farmland. It has proven to be not only a very effective hedge against inflation, but also over the last 25 years outperformed the S&P500 while being less volatile. What about farmland stocks?

Continue reading

Is Axon Enterprise an electrifying crisis investment?

Everywhere you look, there seems to be some kind of crisis. Whether economic, health, political, financial, housing, migration or war crises – it seems as if there is no silver lining on the horizon, currently. Would it be condemnable to consider crisis investments that can even profit from such developments?

Continue reading

The last dominos to fall

There is a very high likelihood that most stock market participants will be in the red or even deep underwater so far this year. 2022 is the year of the bear market, right? Well, not quite right! What many don’t believe and can’t explain is why in many cases individual portfolios have actually lost even disproportionately more than the indexes. Today, I’ll show you how the crash proceeded, what you can learn from it, and what you might expect next.

Continue reading

Debt and high inflation – money for nothing or looming meltdown?

Who would complain being relieved of their debt burden? With inflation reaching a 40-year high in many regions, it seems that not only is the purchasing power of money eroding, but so is the burden of debt, measured in real terms. But is it really wise to buy stocks of companies with a lot of debt and hope they pay it off with cheaper money?

Continue reading

Bargain or pain? Ten dividend darlings that face painful cuts

Who doesn’t like collecting dividends? Just receiving money on a regular basis for owning a few shares and waiting for payday. In fact, as I wrote last week, dividends have historically accounted for most of the total return on stock investments. But what if I told you that there are some companies that are in danger of cutting their distributions to shareholders?

Continue reading

Is now the perfect time to buy silver again?

Precious metals are either loved or hated by most investors. After a pop in 2020, both gold and silver prices have been falling in a stretching torture for two years now. But there seems to be a silver lining on the horizon. As long as sentiment is poor, it may be time to have a look at silver again. Especially since there are fundamental tailwinds…

Continue reading

Is Uber now generating free cash flow – or just applying financial shenanigans?

After posting its Q2 results a few weeks ago, the stock of Uber jumped around 15%. The reason? Uber surprisingly disclosed a positive free cash flow. Not only that, it did so even earlier than expected. But is the business now really structurally and durably generating free cash flow?

Continue reading

Microstrategy stock: A superior way to invest in Bitcoins?

Maybe you have heard that there are companies that “diversify” their assets into Bitcoin out of “fiat money”. Will the stock of Microstrategy go up together with Bitcoin? What sounds like a good idea at first sight, however, could be a costly and dangerous adventure for inexperienced stockholders.

Continue reading