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Company name Xilinx, Inc.
Stock ticker XLNX
Live stock price [stckqut]XLNX[/stckqut]
P/E compared to competitors Good
MANAGEMENT EXECUTION
Employee productivity Good
Sales growth Fair
EPS growth Good
P/E growth Poor
EBIT growth Good
ANALYSIS
Confident Investor Rating Good
Target stock price (TWCA growth scenario) $50.37
Target stock price (averages with growth) $61.87
Target stock price (averages with no growth) $44.69
Target stock price (manual assumptions) $42.48

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

Xilinx, Inc. (Xilinx) designs, develops and markets programmable platforms. These programmable platforms have components, which includes integrated circuits (ICs) in the form of programmable logic devices (PLDs), including Extensible Processing Platforms (EPPs); software design tools to program the PLDs; targeted reference designs; printed circuit boards, and intellectual property (IP), which consists of Xilinx and various third-party verification and IP cores. In addition to its programmable platforms, Xilinx provides design services, customer training, field engineering and technical support. Xilinx’s PLDs include field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) and complex programmable logic devices (CPLDs), that the customers program to perform desired logic functions and EPPs. In January 2011, the Company acquired AutoESL Design Technologies, Inc.

Confident Investor comments: At this price and at this time, I think that a Confident Investor can confidently invest in this stock.

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Company name MAKO Surgical Corp.
Stock ticker MAKO
Live stock price [stckqut]MAKO[/stckqut]
Confident Investor Rating Poor

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

MAKO Surgical Corp. (MAKO) is a medical device company that markets its advanced robotic arm solution and orthopedic implants for orthopedic procedures. The Company offers MAKOplasty, a restorative surgical solution that enables orthopedic surgeons to treat patient specific, osteoarthritic disease. MAKOplasty is performed using the Company�s RIO Robotic Arm Interactive Orthopedic system (RIO). The RIO utilizes tactile guided robotic arm technology and patient-specific visualization to offer reproducible precision to surgeons. The Company offers knee MAKOplasty which, unlike conventional total knee replacement surgery, which requires extraction and replacement of the entire joint, enables resurfacing of one or two specific diseased compartments of the joint, preserving significantly more soft tissue and healthy bone of the knee. In February 2010, the Company acquired Z-Kat, Inc. (Z-Kat).

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.

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Company name Medtronic, Inc.
Stock ticker MDT
Live stock price [stckqut]MDT[/stckqut]
P/E compared to competitors Good
MANAGEMENT EXECUTION
Employee productivity Good
Sales growth Poor
EPS growth Good
P/E growth Poor
EBIT growth Poor
ANALYSIS
Confident Investor Rating Fair
Target stock price (TWCA growth scenario) $42.43
Target stock price (averages with growth) $54.48
Target stock price (averages with no growth) $52.06
Target stock price (manual assumptions) $41.21

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

Medtronic, Inc. (Medtronic) is a medical technology company. The Company is engaged in research, design, manufacture and sale of products to alleviate pain, restore health and extend life. It manufactures and sells device-based medical therapies. It operates in two segments: Cardiac and Vascular Group which includes, Cardiac Rhythm Disease Management, CardioVascular, Physio-Control, and Restorative Therapies Group which include Spinal, Neuromodulation, Diabetes, Surgical Technologies. Its primary customers include hospitals, clinics, third party healthcare providers, distributors and other institutions, including governmental healthcare programs and group purchasing organizations. On February 25, 2011, the Company acquired Jolife, a privately-held company. On January 13, 2011, the Company acquired Ardian, Inc. In August 2011, the Company acquired PEAK Surgical, Inc. and Salient Surgical Technologies, Inc.

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.

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Motley Fool is a great website with very useful advice for investors. They recently ran an article that discussed the one investment you should make if you are a new investor and can only afford one stock. Their choice was The Procter & Gamble Company [stckqut]pg[/stckqut]. I haven’t review P&G in a long time (almost 2 years) and the EPS growth has improved slightly so it is now probably a Fair company as opposed to a Poor company back then. The article made me think – what one company would I recommend for a new investor?

Obviously, my choice would not be P&G since it didn’t make my Watch List. In fact, the stock has been fairly flat since I reviewed it 2 years ago (it is trading within 2 or 3 dollars today of what it was doing in February 2010). I have nothing against P&G as the company makes fine products. I brush my teeth and wash my body and clothes with P&G products on a regular basis. But making good products is not good enough. Motley Fool describes how P&G doesn’t surprise its investors very often and has a stable dividend. My problem with that logic is that if you are a new investor then you are likely a young investor (and by young I am saying under 60 years old) and you need your investment to accumulate for several decades.

As I pondered this question, I remembered my favorite advice to investors of all ages: don’t buy and hold rather buy and evaluate! Buying one stock and assuming you are going to keep it for decades is almost a guaranteed losing proposition compared to riding the fastest moving stock at the time.  The new investor needs to be agile with money. Buy a stock that is growing nicely and then when it starts to go flat or decrease in value, dump it and buy a different company that is hot.

Today, that one stock could be Apple [stckqut]aapl[/stckqut] or Coach [stckqut]COH[/stckqut] or Ebix [stckqut]ebix[/stckqut] since these three are all doing nice runs as I write this article (and there are others on the Watch List that are having nice runs as well.) Tomorrow is another question. I have no idea who will be having a solid run tomorrow or next week or next month. I do know that eventually all companies go flat and have a pull-back so I want to jump off the train when that happens and catch the next fast moving express.

So nothing against the good folks at Motley Fool, but I think the advice of one stock is just not good advice. I want to beat the market, not just match it with a “safe” investment.

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Company name LSI Corporation
Stock ticker LSI
Live stock price [stckqut]LSI[/stckqut]
P/E compared to competitors Fair
MANAGEMENT EXECUTION
Employee productivity Poor
Sales growth Poor
EPS growth Poor
P/E growth Good
EBIT growth Good
ANALYSIS
Confident Investor Rating Poor
Target stock price (TWCA growth scenario) $12.48
Target stock price (averages with growth) $12.51
Target stock price (averages with no growth) $5.54
Target stock price (manual assumptions) $10.12

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

LSI Corporation (LSI) designs, develops and markets storage and networking semiconductors and storage systems. LSI provides silicon-to-system solutions that are used at the core of products that create, store, consume and transport digital information. The Company offers a portfolio of capabilities, including custom and standard product integrated circuits used in hard disk drives, solid state drives, communications systems, computer servers, storage systems and personal computers. It also offers storage systems software, redundant array of independent disks (RAID), adapters for computer servers, and RAID software applications. LSI operates in two segments: the Semiconductor segment and the Storage Systems segment. During the year ended December 31, 2010, LSI introduced its PCI Express-based solid-state storage solution. In May 2011, LSI sold its external storage systems business to NetApp, Inc. In January 2012, the Company acquired SandForce, Inc.

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