Chart Breakout November 2 – More Hot Stocks

This ETF, which tracks the Nasdaq 100, rose from 17 to 513.5 between 2003 and 2021. There was a major interruption in 2008/09, which can be regarded as part of the post-2003 base-building process. The next big reaction came in 2022, as inflation spiked and interest rates soared.

Looking closely at the chart, we can see that the rate of ascent of the ETF (and the Nasdaq 100 index) steepened after 2017 and has resumed its post-2022 rise on a similarly steep incline.

Something happened in 2017. I guess that something was the dawn of artificial intelligence and we are still just beginning an incredible era of technological change. This presents a remarkable opportunity for investors because this process is being driven by increasingly gigantic corporations mostly based in North America.

As if this was not exciting enough the new president of the US is arguably the most gung-ho capitalist ever to hold the office. College-educated sophisticates are more struck by the fact that he may be the most uncouth man ever to hold the office but relax guys. You don’t have to invite him to dinner.

Share Recommendations (11 November 2024)

Credo Technology. CRDO

CSW Industrials CSWI

Cintas. CTAS

Comfort Systems FIX

Monday.com. MNDY

Sweetgreen. SG

Spotify Technologies. SPOT

Tesla. TSLA

Vertiv Holdings. VRT

Microstrategy. MSTR

Cava Group. CAVA

Fair Isaac. FICO

Intuitive Surgical. ISRG

Motorola Solutions. MSI

Oracle ORCL

Sezzle. SEZL

Upstart. UPST

Zeta Global Holdings. ZETA

Bitcoin BTCUSD

Shares in Sezzle exploded after sensational Q3 results.

Sezzle SEZL shares surged more than 43pc in recent Friday trading after the company’s Q3 adjusted net income and revenue increased year on year and beat analysts’ estimates.

The company reported Q3 adjusted net income late Thursday of $2.92 per diluted share, up from $0.21 a year earlier.

Two analysts polled by Capital IQ expected $0.89.

Revenue for the quarter ended Sept. 30 was $70.0m, up from $40.8m a year ago.

Two analysts surveyed by Capital IQ expected $52.6m.

The company also said it now expects 2024 adjusted diluted net income of $9.80, up from its $6.75 prior guidance. One analyst polled by Capital IQ expects $9.78. Revenue growth for the full year is now expected at 55pc from the previous range of 35pc to 40pc. An analyst surveyed by Capital IQ is looking for $218.7m.

Trading Views, Q3 2024, 8 November 2024

This is a business in full take-off mode. When the transcripts of the analysts’ meeting become available, I will read them with great interest.

Credo’s mission is to deliver high-speed solutions that break bandwidth barriers on every wired connection in the data infrastructure market. We provide innovative, secure, high-speed connectivity solutions that deliver improved power and cost efficiency as data rates and corresponding bandwidth requirements increase exponentially throughout the data infrastructure market. We were founded in 2008 by a seasoned team of analog, digital, and mixed-signal experts as a fabless semiconductor company and became publicly traded on the Nasdaq (CRDO) in 2022 Our innovations ease system bandwidth bottlenecks and our strong SerDes IP portfolio is the foundation for our high-performance, power-efficient connectivity solutions. Credo has a history of innovation and pioneering new technologies. We believe this positions us to deliver best-in-class products and IP solutions that address our customers’ various bandwidth, power, cost, security, reliability, and end-to-end signal integrity requirements. Our engineering-focused workforce and highly technical management team have deep industry experience and connectivity expertise. The team continues to grow with offices North America and Asia.

Credo Technologies website

The business is trading strongly.

Bill Brennan, Credo’s President and Chief Executive Officer, stated, “For the first fiscal quarter ended August 3, 2024, Credo reported revenue of $59.7m. This total included record product revenues of $57.3m, an increase of 30pc compared to the prior quarter. Our customers’ AI infrastructure deployments remain the catalyst for our recent and expected growth. Going forward in fiscal 2025 and beyond, we expect contributions from our entire suite of innovative, power and cost-efficient, high-speed connectivity solutions.”

Bill Brennan, CEO, Credo Technology, Q 1 2025, 4 September 2024

Prospects look phenomenally exciting.

The rise of generative AI is driving greater demand for cutting-edge, power-efficient, high-speed connectivity solutions and Credo is dedicated to advancing our range of solutions to address this growing demand. This month, Credo will have a strong presence at the CIOE Optical Conference in Shenzhen [the world’s largest optoelectronics exhibition], followed by the ECOC [European Conference on Optical Communication] Optical Conference in Germany.

We expect these events will add to the momentum we’ve built since OFC [Optical Fibre Cables] in March. And next month, we’ll be very visible at the OCP [Open Compute Project] conference in Silicon Valley showcasing a wide array of advanced solutions for AI clusters.

Moving forward, we continue to see an inflection point in the second half of fiscal ’25 driven by existing and new customer engagements across the entire range of our connectivity solutions.

Bill Brennan, CEO, Credo Technology, Q 1 2025, 4 September 2024

CWS Industrials is an unusual company for QV but there is no arguing with the performance.

CSW Industrials, Inc. is a diversified industrial growth company with industry-leading operations in three segments: Contractor Solutions, Engineered Building Solutions, and Specialized Reliability Solutions. CSWI provides niche, value-added products with two essential commonalities: performance and reliability. The primary end markets we serve with our well-known brands include HVAC/R [heating, ventilation and air conditioning], plumbing, general industrial, architecturally-specified building products, energy, mining, and rail.

At CSWI, driving long-term shareholder value relies on a disciplined and strategic capital allocation policy and four key pillars. First, we sustain multi-year revenue growth by consistently demonstrating growth in excess of end markets served. We have a proven history of robust profitability provided by niche products, applications, and solutions. Our strong balance sheet and financial results support incremental organic and inorganic growth. Finally, our experienced leadership team has a demonstrated track record of leading public companies.

CSW Industrials website

This a classy business.

Our approach to allocating capital, meaningfully growing revenue and profits, while maintaining a strong balance sheet, has been the foundation for the success of the company. At CSWI, our employee-centric culture helps to drive these results and the health and safety of our team members truly matter.

We also focus on serving our customers well by being their partner of choice and managing our supply chains effectively to position us for long-term growth and profitability.

Joe Armes, CEO, CSW Industrials, Q2 2025, 30 October 2024

As a result of the successful equity offering, we do have no debt and cash on our balance sheet. We did not raise that capital in light of any particular acquisition that we had identified. It was really more of a war chest for us to be in the position so that we could exploit attractive opportunities that came about.

I would say that our pipeline continues to be robust. We’re pleased with the level of activity, with the opportunities that we’re seeing, and we’re pleased with the inbound calls that we’re receiving as a result of this. We found ourselves in this position about 4 years ago when we had no debt and cash on our balance sheet, and that is when we were able to consummate the acquisition of TRUaire, which has been our largest and most successful acquisition to date.

And so we like being in that position. We like being able to provide speed and certainty to a seller. And we think it helps us in actually capturing those opportunities and also helps us and is attractive to the seller from a valuation standpoint that we can move quickly and that we don’t need to go to the market to raise financing. So robust pipeline. We intend to put this capital to work, but we will always stick to our disciplined approach and apply the same sort of rigor that we always have on evaluating these opportunities and the risk-adjusted return analysis will drive our decision making.

James Perry, CFO, Credo Technology, Q2 2025, 30 October 2024

Strategy – Plenty Of Buying Opportunities

Bitcoin looks like a breakout with a decisive move through $80,000. This could be the start of something big.

Shares generally offer plenty of excitement, both on the charts and regarding the underlying fundamentals. This is a great time to invest in US shares.

As is usual I comment further on shares that are new to the QV portfolio but the others are just as exciting.