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Company name Siemens AG (ADR)
Stock ticker SI
Live stock price [stckqut]SI[/stckqut]
P/E compared to competitors Good

MANAGEMENT EXECUTION

Employee productivity Poor
Sales growth Poor
EPS growth Fair
P/E growth Good
EBIT growth Poor

ANALYSIS

Confident Investor Rating Poor
Target stock price (TWCA growth scenario) $87.91
Target stock price (averages with growth) $130.25
Target stock price (averages with no growth) $129.89
Target stock price (manual assumptions) $104

The following company description is from Google Finance: http://www.google.com/finance?q=si

Siemens AG is an integrated technology company with activities in the fields of industry, energy and healthcare. Siemens operates in six segments: Industry, Energy, Healthcare, Equity Investments, Siemens IT Solutions and Services and Siemens Financial Services (SFS). Industry, Energy and Healthcare are reported along with 14 divisions, which comprise the divisions, Industry Automation, Drive Technologies, Building Technologies, OSRAM, Industry Solutions and Mobility, belonging to the Industry Sector, the Divisions, Fossil Power Generation, Renewable Energy, Oil and Gas, Power Transmission and Power Distribution, belonging to the Energy Sector and the Divisions, Imaging and Information Technology (IT), Workflow and Solutions and Diagnostics, belonging to the Healthcare Sector. In July 2012, Wi-LAN Inc. acquired a global portfolio of more than 40 patents and applications from Siemens related to telecommunication network management and mobile multimedia.

 

 

Confident Investor comments: At this price and at this time, I do not think that a Confident Investor can confidently invest in this stock.

If you would like to understand how to evaluate companies like I do on this site, please read my book, The Confident Investor.

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Company name Ultratech, Inc.
Stock ticker UTEK
Live stock price [stckqut]UTEK[/stckqut]
P/E compared to competitors Fair

MANAGEMENT EXECUTION

Employee productivity Good
Sales growth Good
EPS growth Good
P/E growth Good
EBIT growth Good

ANALYSIS

Confident Investor Rating Good
Target stock price (TWCA growth scenario) $45
Target stock price (averages with growth) $75.42
Target stock price (averages with no growth) $73.64
Target stock price (manual assumptions) $42.36

The following company description is from Google Finance: http://www.google.com/finance?q=utek

Ultratech, Inc., develops, manufactures and markets photolithography, laser thermal processing, and inspection equipment. The Company manufactures for manufacturers of semiconductor devices, including advanced packaging processes and various nanotechnology components, such as thin film head magnetic recording devices (thin film heads or (TFHs)), laser diodes, high-brightness light emitting diodes (HBLEDs) and atomic layer deposition (ALD) for customers located throughout North America, Europe, Singapore, Japan, Taiwan, Korea and the rest of Asia. The Company supplies step-and-repeat photolithography systems based on one-to-one (1X) imaging technology to customers located throughout North America, Europe and Asia. In December 2012, it purchased certain assets of Cambridge NanoTech, Inc. (Cambridge).

 

Confident Investor comments: Ultratech is a relatively small company so you should be cautious how many small companies that you have in your portfolio. If you are looking for a small company to add though, at this price and at this time, I think that a Confident Investor can confidently invest in this stock.

If you would like to understand how to evaluate companies like I do on this site, please read my book, The Confident Investor.
 

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This is not a political site. I try very hard to avoid political issues, especially those that are controversial. The last thing I want people to do is to get bad advice on investing because of political preferences. One of my readers asked my advice on health insurance companies though. The theory was that since so many people thought that health insurance companies were making a ton of profit (one of the reasons for Obamacare), they should be great investments.

My first comment is that you should never buy the stock of a company due to an entire industry. You should evaluate the company by itself and not based on the industry. If you don’t know how to do this, I suggest that you buy my book, The Confident Investor.   You can purchase my book wherever books are sold such as Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Books A Million. It is available in e-book formats for Nook, Kindle, and iPad.

My second comment is that you should avoid sector investments. You can buy mutual funds or ETFs that follow a single sector. Avoid putting these into your portfolio. Find the best companies to invest in and then invest in them with a plan. Once again, if you don’t know how to do this, check out my book.

To answer the reader question, I started researching United HealthGroup [stckqut]UNH[/stckqut]. I went to Morningstar for my initial research and used that tool to generate the data for United HealthGroup and its top competitors. Morningstar gave me a list of companies and then I did a bit of quick analysis.

Symbol Revenue Net Income Profit Market Cap
    (M) (M) percentage (M)
UnitedHealth Group Inc UNH $113,700 $5,330 4.69% $72,879
Express Scripts ESRX $107,800 $1,418 1.32% $54,365
WellPoint Inc WLP $64,000 $2,684 4.19% $26,071
Cigna Corp CI $30,500 $1,309 4.29% $22,209
Aetna Inc AET $37,200 $1,637 4.40% $21,017
Humana HUM $39,400 $1,447 3.67% $14,030
Centene Corporation CNC $9,600 $1 0.01% $3,019
WellCare Health Plans, Inc. WCG $7,900 $155 1.96% $2,675
Health Net Inc HNT $11,300 $198 1.75% $2,640
Odontoprev S.A. ODPVY $1,000 $161 16.10% $2,276
Molina Healthcare, Inc. MOH $6,200 $21 0.34% $1,812
 Sum   $428,600 $14,361 3.35%

 

As we can see, the health insurance companies don’t generate that great of a return. These companies average out to 3.35% profit. The S&P500 averaged 16.14%! That means that health insurance companies aren’t just rolling in cash like Michael Moore implies. Taking the profit motive out of healthcare doesn’t seem to be the driving focus of Obamacare.

This article points out the fallacy of following the news to find your investments. While it is worthwhile to research companies that you hear about on the news or read about in the newspaper, just because they sound good there doesn’t make them great investments. The only sound way to make a great investment is to research the company using solid tools.

 

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Company name Peoples Bancorp Inc.
Stock ticker PEBO
Live stock price [stckqut]PEBO[/stckqut]
P/E compared to competitors Good

MANAGEMENT EXECUTION

Employee productivity Fair
Sales growth Poor
EPS growth Good
P/E growth Poor
EBIT growth Good

ANALYSIS

Confident Investor Rating Fair
Target stock price (TWCA growth scenario) $35.49
Target stock price (averages with growth) $38.39
Target stock price (averages with no growth) $30.1
Target stock price (manual assumptions) $28.57

The following company description is from Google Finance: http://www.google.com/finance?q=pebo

Peoples Bancorp Inc. (Peoples) operates through its wholly owned subsidiary, Peoples Bank, National Association (Peoples Bank). As of December 31, 2012, its other wholly owned subsidiaries included Peoples Investment Company and PEBO Capital Trust I. Peoples Bank owned Peoples Insurance Agency, LLC (Peoples Insurance) and PBNA, L.L.C., an asset management company. Peoples Investment Company owned Peoples Capital Corporation. Its financial products and services are offered through its financial service locations and automated teller machines (ATMs) in Ohio, West Virginia and Kentucky, as well as telephone and Internet-based banking. Brokerage services are offered through an unaffiliated registered broker-dealer located at Peoples Bank’s offices. On January 2, 2013, the Company’s subsidiary, Peoples Insurance Agency, LLC, had acquired a commercial insurance agency office and related customer accounts in the Pikeville, Kentucky

 

Confident Investor comments: At this time, I think that a Confident Investor can cautiously invest in this stock as long as the price is correct. Most of the fundamentals of this company are good but there are some concerns.

If you would like to understand how to evaluate companies like I do on this site, please read my book, The Confident Investor.

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Company name The Gymboree Corporation
Stock ticker GYMB
Live stock price [stckqut]GYMB[/stckqut]
Confident Investor Rating Poor

The following company description is from Google Finance: http://www.google.com/finance?q=gymb

The Gymboree Corporation is children’s apparel specialty retailers in North America, offering collections of apparel and accessories. During the fiscal year ended January 28, 2012 (2012), the Company operated a total of 1,149 retail stores and online stores at www.gymboree.com, www.janieandjack.com and www.crazy8.com. The Company also offered directed parent-child developmental play programs under the Gymboree Play & Music brand at 703 franchised and Company-operated centers in the United States and 36 other countries. In addition, as of January 28, 2012, third-party overseas partners operated 24 Gymboree retail stores in the Middle East and South Korea, and a joint venture with Gymboree (China) Commercial and Trading Co. Ltd., and Gymboree (Tianjin) Educational Information Consultation Co. Ltd. (collectively, the Joint Venture) operated Gymboree retail store in China.

Confident Investor comments: At this price and at this time, I do not think that a Confident Investor can confidently invest in this stock. It is not possible to confidently invest in a company that is not currently profitable.

If you would like to understand how to evaluate companies like I do on this site, please read my book, The Confident Investor.