Investment "Logic"

On November 1, Apple announced it's fourth quarter results for fiscal year 2018.  Revenue rose twenty percent to $62.9B and earnings rose forty-one percent to $2.91.  Most important in the transforming Apple story is the continued growth of the services sector, which grew twenty-seven percent YoY.  This is important, because it's this services story which I believe will change how the stock is looked at and valued more as a consumer products company than a tech provider.  Services provides an ongoing revenue stream even if phone sales are choppy or peaking out.  That said, phone sales are still looking good on the revenue front as the company reported a 29% increase YoY and per-unit prices were higher than expected at $793, meaning the higher end phones were wildly sought after.  All of these numbers beat analyst expectations, but the headline numbers aren't what has driven the stock's action since the announcement. Forward guidance was pretty much in...

Back on Tuesday, Cedar Fair announced the results of their third quarter operations.  Results were pleasantly pleasing as revenues came in at $664M, which is about 1% better YoY.  Earnings came in at $3.76 which was well in excess of analyst expectations of $3.25.  Results were bolstered by an increase of both attendance and spend coupled with cost management within the organization.  July was seen as a volatile month for the company, weather-wise, resulting in lower than expected visitation during a key portion of the year.  However, in the following two months of the quarter, attendance and spending rebounded and exceeded expectations as season pass holders returned to the facilities with better overall weather patterns.  This trend continues into October with the various Fall festivals which they hold and 2019 season pass purchases are off to a strong start - to show ongoing strength for the next year.  As a result of these patterns and how it f...

Back on October 25, Raytheon announced strong operational results for their third quarter of 2018.  Sales were up 8.3% YoY and earnings were up 14.2%.  These results were stronger than wall street expected with revenues of $6.81B beating estimates of $6.69B and earnings of $2.25 killing expectations of $1.97 per share.  Backlogs also grew to new record levels of $41.6B, increasing by almost $5B YoY.  This resulted in a guidance update for 2018 bookings to increase by $1B.  Additionally, the company provided a preview to 2019 guidance.  Within this guidance, the book to bill ratio is expected to be over 1 (more orders than output), which is bullish.  They also guided sales growth of 6%-8%, operating margins to be in line with 2018 results, a tax rate of 17%-19%, and operating cash flow of $3.8B-$4.0B. Looking for negatives to note, operating margin results were down some and guided down some on the year mainly due to Missiles, which is seeing a nu...