CWS Market Review – April 26, 2024
“A market downturn doesn’t bother us. It is an opportunity to increase our ownership of great companies with great management at good prices.” – Warren Buffett
This week’s issue is all about earnings. We had eight Buy List earnings reports this week, and another eight are on tap for next week. I’m happy to say that our results are quite good, so far.
Fiserv beat earnings and raised guidance. Otis beat earnings, raised guidance and hiked its dividend by 15%. Amphenol also beat consensus and announced a $2 billion share-buyback program. The stock jumped 8% in four days. Thermo Fisher beat by 40 cents per share and raised its full-year guidance. FICO also gave us a big beat and higher guidance.
Of our eight Buy List earnings reports this week, all but one beat Wall Street’s forecasts. The only one that didn’t was Rollins, which merely matched the Street’s view. Still, the bug stock rallied 3.3% for us on Thursday.
In relative terms, this was a good week for us. We’ve mostly sidestepped the worst damage in the market. Is Wall Street finally getting tired of the Magnificent Seven (AAPL, AMZN, GOOG, META, MSFT, NVDA, TSLA)? Possibly. These stocks were so strong for so long, and now they’re falling short. Ask not for whom the sector rotates, it rotates for thee. Or at least, it did for Meta on Thursday.
Warning. This is one of Eddy’s long issues. There’s a lot to get to, so let’s look at our latest batch of Buy List earnings reports.