Our Expert Weighs In On The Housing Market, Tech, Energy, And More…
Next week, we’re getting out of Dodge.
After closing on our house in Austin, we’ll pull up our stakes and make the journey out to our new little slice of heaven.
While moving can be a pain, I have to say, our timing couldn’t have been more perfect. When we listed our house, I could count on two hands the number of single family homes for sale within a five-mile radius. Sure, we’ve heard the stories of record-high demand sparking bidding wars… but we were still caught off guard by how furious it got.
What’s more, while mortgage rates had begun rising, we were able to lock in before they shot up too much. For context, Bloomberg recently reported that the 30-year fixed mortgage topped 4% for the first time since May 2019. In January of last year, savvy borrowers were able to lock in a record low 2.65%.
We were lucky, too. Since we’re moving outside of the area to a smaller town, we didn’t have to engage enter the fray on the other side. In fact, a nice little property practically fell right into our lap.
It’s been a frantic process of long hours in the car, phone calls, remodeling, and moving money around. But in the end, it will be worth it.
I know my colleague Nathan Slaughter has been in the middle of this process, too. So I thought I’d check in with him to see how things are going and get his thoughts on the market…
So Nathan, you’ve been doing a lot of running around? How’s the house hunting going? Is there any relief in sight?
It has been crazy. The area we’re looking in is about three hours away. I made that drive five times in one week. Fortunately, we have a buyer for our house and should close in about two weeks. But after all that looking, I think we’ve finally found what we want. It sits on a high ridge with a river running through the property. I’m not looking forward to moving, though.
On top of that, I made a trip out to the Miami International Boat Show. Nothing like a six-hour flight delay to make you appreciate the comforts of home. But the travails were well worth it, though, because I was there to do some scouting for one of my recent recommendations. Without going into too much detail, I’ll just say that boating is big business, and there are a couple of interesting ways investors can profit…
But as far as the housing market goes, unfortunately, the short answer is I don’t think so. There is a chronic shortage of available homes. Just look at the chart of new housing starts below. It’s been this way for years.
Source: Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
Of course, Covid only made things worse. And it goes beyond housing starts. The National Association of Realtors reports that the supply of available pre-owned homes for sale plunged 29.5% in January versus a year ago — the sharpest decline ever recorded. And the manufacturers just can’t keep up with demand.
You warned your premium subscribers early on that the tech sector had become overvalued. But you recently mentioned that you’re starting to see some values emerge.
That’s right. Now, I’m not giving a wholesale endorsement for getting back into tech. Some names out there are still overvalued. But consider this…
Video streaming equipment maker ROKU (Nasdaq: ROKU) has a consensus target of $312, almost double the current price near $125 recently. Paypal (Nasdaq: PYPL) would have to gain more than 60% from here to even come within shouting distance of its $186 target. And Shopify (Nasdaq: SHOP), which can be bought for $780, is expected to rebound to $2,090 per share.
Of course, these are just analyst estimates. So you have to take them with a grain of salt. But it’s enough to at least pique my interest. In fact, back in early February, while the rest of the tech sector was in the middle of another rout, there was a rare bright spot.
A company I’ve been watching for months rocketed 10% higher on February 14 following news of a potential $20 billion takeover bid.
I know you don’t normally share the names of your premium picks, but can you tell us a little bit about it?
Sure. I’ve been watching this company since May 2020. Back then, I detailed to my Takeover Trader readers how it’s a powerhouse in the field of machine data. The company specializes in software tools (on-premise and cloud-based) that break down mountains of “big data” to aid in cybersecurity and IT network reliability. Users span the full spectrum of industries… finance, healthcare, media, e-commerce.
I cited several promising developments at the time, including the transition to a cloud-based subscription model and a backlog that had just doubled from $380 million to $794 million. But I was also leery of the stock’s excessive valuation.
Well, that’s not an issue anymore. Like most tech stocks, it has retreated sharply over the past six months, erasing almost $10 billion in market cap. That’s quite the discount. And right on cue, an opportunistic buyer may be looking to take advantage of this overdone selloff.
So where does that leave us? I think that makes this an excellent time to pounce. Should a deal materialize, then we will likely see an even bigger reaction than what happened back in mid-February. Yet, there is little to no downside from the lack of a merger since the knee-jerk gains have already been given back.
There is an asymmetric risk/reward profile here. If nothing comes from the current offer, then another suitor might emerge. But this company is also well-positioned to stand on its own. Either way, this dominant industry leader is worth at least 50% more than where it currently sits.
Your prediction about oil prices last winter turned out to be spot-on. What’s next for this sector, and is there still time for investors to profit?
To be clear, I didn’t anticipate the current conflict in Ukraine. Geopolitical fallout from the war has driven oil prices to an 8-year high above $100 per barrel. But what I did predict was that a simple supply/demand problem would send prices spiking.
We were already seeing that play out, but now, the current headlines underscore the importance of securing our own homegrown supplies. I know I’ve thrown this number out before, but I’ll do it again…
There are roughly 4,826,000 barrels of crude are now being pulled out of the Permian Basin in a single day. For context, that’s enough to produce 212 million gallons of gasoline, diesel, and other refined products. Again, that’s the output from one day, just 24-hours.
All we have to do is get it out of the ground and have the infrastructure to get it to the refineries (a problem I talked about here).
Add it all up, and the Permian accounts for more than one-third of the nation’s total oil output. And it’s not about to run dry anytime soon. Think about that. Think about what it would mean for prices at the pump, for national security, and for investors…
Editor’s Note: Thanks to Nathan for joining me today. If you’re interested in how to play the current boom in oil prices, then you need to check out Nathan’s latest report…
Nathan and his team have found a small-cap company that’s is sitting right in the middle of the largest oil find in history… with enough “black gold” to independently power America for the next 49 years.