The Proficient Investor

Netflix reported Q3 2007 earnings that beat analyst estimates by 8 cents.  The stock rallied early at $25.05 in intraday trading.

While other financials are still experiencing problems, the brokers seem to be doing fine.  Ameritrade (AMTD) is up 18 cents at $19.30 in intraday trading while Goldman Sachs (GS) is up 52 cents at $222.70.  Consumer staple Coca Cola (KO) is up 26 cents at $59.51 just off the52 week high set last week.

Computer maker Dell is up 21 cents in intraday trading after announcing yesterday they would begin selling their systems in Staples stores in the US while Staples was down 48 cents at $21.80.

Apple continues to set a new high every day it seems.  The stock was up $11.25 in intraday trading at 185.61 on 45 million shares volume.  If you haven’t already picked up Apple (AAPL) it isn’t too late, as I think this stock goes to 200 and from there to 250.  I’ll put it this way, Apple could be the next Google.

It would seem the credit crunch and housing market woes haven’t subsided as much as investors would have liked. Major financials slide as continued sentiment in the housing market and overall performance of financials comes in below targets.

Goldman Sachs, which was at a 52 week high on October 9th at $239.70 slid 4.46% to $217.69 on Friday. Goldman, which has had a great run from a 52 week low in August couldn’t keep the momentum going last week and has been declining ever since hitting the new high. Seeing the writing on the wall, I sold my shares at $235 last week (if you had been a subscriber you would have had advance notice of this trade) .

Wells Fargo also reported lowered earnings due to mortgage problems as did E*Trade earlier this week.

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As my readers here know, I have been a long time supporter of Netflix, not just as a subscriber but also as a stockholder. This evening however, my faith in the company was completely solidified.

The only viewing market is in its infancy and yet Netflix isn’t sitting on its laurels here. Most of us are fairly busy day to day and even forget to Tivo or record our favorite programs from time to time and end up watching them on the broadcast network website a day or more after the episodes air.

Tonight, I was pleasantly surprised to see Netflix had NBCs “Heroes” Season 2 already available online. Normally you have to wait for the dvd box set of a season to be available in order to watch the episodes online with a service like Netflix, yet here they are. This is revolutionary.

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The battle rages on between Blockbuster(BBI) and Netflix(NFLX) but who is going to win in this market? My money is on Netflix, which I have supported since this whole debate began.

If you look at the growth rates of both companies, they are both stagnant but when you compare earnings projections, Netflix is the clear winner. Sure they lost about 55,000 subscribers during Blockbuster’s media blitz earlier in the year with “Total Access”, but where is Blockbuster now? Seen any ads for Total Access lately? No you haven’t because they have all but eliminated their advertising budget.

Analysts predict a loss of .87 cents per share of Blockbuster compared to an estimated gain of .15 cents a share for Netflix.

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Every year around this time I like to go down my list of investments and possible investments and pick the ones I think are going to do well during the holiday shopping season. Since many of the companies that do well are retail based, it might seem like an easy thing to do. Just pick up the phone book, open a page, point to a company and see if they are publicly traded right?

Not exactly.

Instead of just picking something at random, we want to use the same approach to our long term investments as we do with short term. Essentially, I am still looking for growth (value) but in a shorter time frame. Instead of 6-18 months we are looking at 3 months. So what can you buy that’s going to net you some profit in 3 months? The few stocks I think are worth it are below.

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