Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE:BRK.A)(NYSE:BRK.B) needs little introduction, but if you’re looking for the next Berkshire, you might be surprised to find it in China. Tech giant Tencent (OTC:TCEHY) has an impressive portfolio of companies that’s been valued at as much as $250 billion, and it also owns the super-app WeChat, whose competitive advantages are manifest.
In this segment of Backstage Pass, recorded on Aug. 23, Fool contributor Jeremy Bowman explains some of the surprising similarities between the two companies.
Jeremy Bowman: So Tencent is the parent of WeChat. That’s most of their business. WeChat is basically a super-app that I think does pretty much all the things we might use in apps like Facebook, or YouTube, or Uber for here. That’s all rolled into one app with WeChat. It’s really a huge business for Tencent. It pairs with other companies. Tencent, you have to think of it in two ways. It’s first the WeChat, and then secondly, they have a really prolific investment portfolio. I think you can almost compare them to something like Berkshire Hathaway in some ways.
Hot Warren Buffett Stocks To Watch Right Now: Cable One, Inc.(CABO)
Cable One, Inc., incorporated on November 16, 1994, is a provider of data, video and voice services in approximately 20 Western, Midwestern and Southern states. The Company’s products include Residential Video Services, Residential Data Services, Residential Voice Services, Business Services and Advertising. The Company provides these broadband services to residential and business customers in approximately 40 cable systems covering over 400 cities and towns. The markets it serves are non-metropolitan, secondary markets, with its customers located in approximately five states: Mississippi, Idaho, Oklahoma, Texas and Arizona. Its biggest customer concentrations are in the Mississippi Gulf Coast region and in the greater Boise, Idaho region. The Company is the cable system operator in the United States making services available to approximately 1,644,000 homes in the United States. The Company provides service to approximately 664,600 residential and business customers out of over 1,644,000 homes passed. Of these customers, approximately 501,240 subscribed to data services, over 364,150 to video services and approximately 127,090 to voice services. The Company’s billing system generally counts each unit in a multi-dwelling unit (MDU) as one home passed.
Residential Video Services
The Company offers a range of residential video services, generally ranging from a basic video service to digital service with access to hundreds of channels. Its basic video service generally consists of local networks, local community programming, such as governmental and public access, and certain other channels, such as weather, shopping and religious channels. Its digital video service includes national and regional cable networks, premium channels, music channels and an interactive, electronic programming guide with parental controls. Premium channels include networks, such as HBO, Showtime, Starz and Cinemax that generally offer, without commercial interruption, movies, original programming, live sporting events and concerts and other features. Its digital video customers may also subscribe to its advanced services. Its advanced video services include TiVo digital video recorders (DVRs), which digitally record programming and pause and rewind live programming, and high-definition set-top boxes, which provide picture quality and a wide-screen format and allow its customers to access Internet content on their televisions.
The Company’s TV Everywhere product enables its video customers to stream content on their computers, allowing them to watch its programming away from a television. Customers also have the ability to browse its program guide, search for programming and schedule DVR recordings from inside and outside the home online and through its mobile television application. Its online offerings include networks, such as HBO and Cinemax.
Residential Data Services
The Company offers multiple tiers of data services with download speeds of approximately 200 megabit per second (Mbps) to its residential customers. The Company’s data services also include its Internet portal, home.cableone.net, which provides multiple e-mail addresses.
Residential Voice Services
The residential voice service transmits digital voice signals over its network and is an interconnected Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) service. Its voice services include local and long-distance calling, voicemail, call waiting, three-way calling, caller identity (ID), anonymous call rejection and other features. Its voice services also provide international calling by the minute.
Business Services
The Company offers multiple tiers of data, voice and video services for a range of small-sized to enterprise-level businesses. Business video packages range from a basic video service tier to a video selection including variety, news and sports programming in high-definition. The Company offers its business customers a range of data services with download speeds ranging from 25 Mbps to 200 Mbps, with varying upload speed options and the ability to have a single IP address. Business voice services packages range from one line to multi-line options, including availability of calling features, such as caller ID, call waiting and call forwarding, among others. It also leases fiber-optic cable capacity on a wholesale basis to its business customers.
The Company offers dedicated bandwidth through fiber optic technology to medium-sized and enterprise-level businesses, in addition to wholesale services to other carriers. Its fiber optic-based products include Dedicated Internet Access and Ethernet Private Line with speeds ranging from 10 Mbps to 10 gigabits per second (Gbps) in scalable increments. It also offers Network to Network Interface connections to other carriers at multiple Points of Presence across the United States.
Advertising
The Company’s agreements with each of its programmers provide that it may sell a specified amount of time on its programmers’ channels, during both local and national programming spots, to its advertising customers The Company produces television commercials for these customers. It also sells advertising space on select cable network Websites.
The Company competes with CenturyLink, AT&T, Google, Amazon, Apple, Sling TV and Netflix.
Advisors’ Opinion:
- [By Logan Wallace]
Shares of Cable One Inc (NYSE:CABO) have been assigned an average recommendation of “Hold” from the eight research firms that are presently covering the company, MarketBeat Ratings reports. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company. The average 12-month target price among brokers that have covered the stock in the last year is $1,043.75.
- [By Motley Fool Transcribing]
Cable One (NYSE:CABO) Q4 2018 Earnings Conference CallFeb. 27, 2019 5:00 p.m. ET
Contents:
Prepared Remarks Questions and Answers Call Participants
Prepared Remarks:Operator
Hot Warren Buffett Stocks To Watch Right Now: BlackLine, Inc. (BL)
BlackLine, Inc. is a holding company. The Company provides cloud-based software platform that is designed to automate and streamline accounting and finance operations. The Company’s platform supports accounting processes, such as the financial close, account reconciliation, intercompany accounting and controls assurance. Its platform consists of seven core cloud-based products, including Account Reconciliation, Task Management, Transaction Matching, Journal Entry, Variance Analysis, Consolidation Integrity Manager and Daily Reconciliation. The Company’s solutions include Reconciliation Management and Financial Close Management, Intercompany Hub and Insights.
The Company’s platform integrates with a range of general ledger systems, financial systems and in-house databases, customer applications and data, and over 30 enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems, including NetSuite, Oracle and Workday. In addition, for companies with multiple systems and complex needs, the Company can connect with various general ledger systems simultaneously, resolving various issues associated with consolidating data across systems. The Company offers its customers implementation and consulting services. The Company sells its software solutions primarily through its direct sales force. Its customers include large public and private organizations, and small and medium-size businesses across a range of industries, including healthcare, technology, telecom, financial services, consumer retail and industrial equipment and services. As of June 30, 2016, the Company had over 147,000 individual users in approximately 120 countries across over 1,500 customers. The Company conducts its operations through its subsidiary, BlackLine Systems, Inc.
The Company competes with Trintech and Oracle.
Advisors’ Opinion:
- [By Matthew Cochrane]
BlackLine Inc (NASDAQ:BL) offers cloud-based accounting software-as-a-service (SaaS) to companies, giving its customers the ability to perform continuous accounting, which, as opposed to batch processing, allows companies to automate cumbersome accounting tasks, saving them time and resources. It also gives them important data in real time, rather than having to wait until the end of a month or quarter when accounts have traditionally been reconciled.
- [By Motley Fool Transcribers]
BlackLine, Inc. (NASDAQ:BL)Q4 2018 Earnings Conference CallFeb. 14, 2019, 5:00 p.m. ET
Contents:
Prepared Remarks Questions and Answers Call Participants
Prepared Remarks:Operator
- [By Shane Hupp]
Shares of BL traded up $0.79 on Thursday, reaching $49.24. The stock had a trading volume of 470,180 shares, compared to its average volume of 370,403. Blackline has a 12-month low of $33.31 and a 12-month high of $58.11. The stock has a market cap of $2.65 billion, a PE ratio of -133.08 and a beta of 1.03.
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About Blackline
Hot Warren Buffett Stocks To Watch Right Now: Prudential Public Limited Company(PUK)
Prudential plc provides retail financial products and services, and asset management services to individuals and businesses in Asia, the United States, and the United Kingdom. It offers savings, protection, investment, and unit-linked products; manages investments across a range of asset classes for internal, retail, and institutional clients; manages onshore mutual funds; and provides retirement planning, consumer and Islamic finance, and health solutions. The company also provides retirement savings and income solutions; variable annuities; fixed and fixed index annuities; term life, universal life, and variable universal life insurance; permanent individual life insurance; and institutional products, such as guaranteed investment contracts, funding agreements, and medium term note funding agreements. In addition, it offers pensions and annuities; investment plans; and car, health, home, travel, and protection insurance policies. Further, Prudential plc provides fund man agement services for individual and institutional clients. The company was founded in 1848 and is based in London, the United Kingdom.
Advisors’ Opinion:
- [By Joseph Griffin]
Prudential Public Limited (NYSE:PUK) has earned a consensus recommendation of “Hold” from the six analysts that are covering the stock, MarketBeat.com reports. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, four have assigned a hold recommendation and one has issued a buy recommendation on the company.
- [By Ethan Ryder]
Prudential (NYSE: PUK) and Reinsurance Group of America (NYSE:RGA) are both finance companies, but which is the superior stock? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, earnings, valuation, dividends, risk, profitability and institutional ownership.
