Barrons weekend update: positive feature on EXPE
* Cover story: Barron’s Roundtable participants offer big-picture views and their latest investment picks: Todd Ahlsten of Parnassus Core Equity fund (TRMB, NVDA); Rupal Bhansali of Ariel Investments (CHL, Michelin, GILD, Roche Holding, Telefonica Deutschland Holding); Scott Black of Delphi Management (USB, ABBV, DIS, LMT, HTCG, 6-month Treasury, 1-Year Treasury); Henry Ellenbogen, formerly of T. Rowe Price New Horizons fund (IT, WCN, MTN, SSNC); Mario Gabelli of Gamco Investors (BATRA, FOX, HRI, MGM, NAV, GFF, ENR); Abby Joseph Cohen of Goldman Sachs (EDU, NOC, TPR, ICLN, Recruit Holdings); William Priest of Epoch Investment Partners (CNC); Oscar Schafer of Rivulet Capital (COMM, Whitbread); and Meryl Whitmer of Eagle Capital Partners (MS, Lafarge-Holcim, FOX).
* Features: 1) The space economy, boosted by the exploits of dot-com billionaires, is taking shape. Investment opportunities are coming—Virgin Galactic plan to merge with shell company IPOA to allow it to sell shares to raise money is a case in point; 2) EXPE: Travel company faces a changing market now that Google has aggressively pushed into the sector, but while shares have lagged, they still present an opportunity for long-term investors.
* Tech Trader: A look at the big ideas coming out of storied Silicon Valley venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins, which is now focused on four areas: enterprise technology, consumer technology, financial technology, and “hard technology,” which includes companies focused on the “fundamental new building blocks that are required in different industries to take them to the next level.”
* Trader: “With the Fed clearly pessimistic about coming U.S. economic conditions, investors’ greater focus this earnings season may be on companies’ own assessment of the future”; Positive on MCRN: After a restructuring, the company is focusing on faster-growing emerging markets, closing unprofitable plants, and streamlining its structure and technologies, and its acquisition by Hillebrand should boost profit margins and clear a path to de-levering; Positive on EVR, JEf, PJC, PJT, LAZ: Smaller firms should benefit more than many large global banks from DB’s decision to exit equity sales and trading.
* European Trader: Positive on Tullow Oil: Shares of British-based, Africa-focused oil company have the potential to rise more than 40% during the next 12 months because of strong prospects in East Africa.
* Emerging Markets: Positive on FB: A successful launch of Libra, the social site’s planned cryptocurrency, could tilt the company’s future toward emerging markets, “which are leapfrogging at a breakneck pace from cash under the mattress to settlements via mobile devices.”
* Commodities: “Palladium’s record prices have grabbed the spotlight. but at nearly half the cost per ounce, platinum, its sister metal, deserves attention too.”
* Streetwise: For AMZN investors, the shift to higher-margin exclusives might be less exciting than what’s happening in cloud computing and marketing—its retail business will grow by 13% annually, compounded, over the next five years, versus 30% for Amazon Web Services and 35% for its advertising operation.