Who’s the best of the trillion dollar stocks?
Amazon became the second company to go through the US$1 trillion mark, just a few weeks behind Apple. But which tech stock looks more attractive now?
Peter Ball, a research Analyst at Craigs Investment Partners, said the rise of Amazon wouldn’t have been predicted six months ago. “If you had asked me that a couple of months ago I wouldn’t have expected Amazon to hit the trillion dollar mark. Clearly their financial performance has been phenomenal this year.”
Ball said Amazon had made a number of acquisitions which gave it growth opportunities while the tech sector had been booming with so much money pouring into it. He says he would be surprised to see another tech company get to US$1 trillion this year but can’t rule it out.
“The next potentials are Microsoft and Alphabet [Google’s parent]. But their share prices would have to increase by double.”
But despite Amazon’s growth and revenue drivers, Ball says he would choose Apple over the retail giant.
“If you look at Apple it is easy to see the valuation is not demanding.” But Amazon already has a high valuation with strong growth built into the share price and analyst expectations. Ball said he was cautious of Amazon due to its unconventional nature and because it had had such a strong run.
“If they have a strong conviction they throw a lot of money at it and it hasn’t always worked. Apple seems a lot more attractive.”
Stiassny vote delay
Vector’s board has decided to put off its annual meeting for a fortnight so it can include a resolution by controlling shareholder Entrust to dump chair Michael Stiassny rather than hold a separate event.
Entrust, which owns 75 per cent of Vector on behalf of customers of the former Auckland Electric Power Board, sought a special meeting to be held no later than October 5, at which it wanted to remove Stiassny over a relationship breakdown.
Stiassny had planned to retire at the October 29 annual general meeting after 16 years in the job, saying he no longer had the shareholder’s support.
But Entrust took umbrage over the timing of that meeting, which fell after its own trustee elections.
Vector’s board has said it would hold its annual meeting on November 12 and will incorporate Entrust’s resolution to remove Stiassny given the closeness of the two meetings.
Nominations for Vector directors now close on September 24.
The company said the later date was “in recognition and consideration of the time and process required for the Entrust trustees to take office following the Entrust election that is to be held on 26 October 2018, and to enable them to be fully prepared and informed in the performance of their duties including ASM resolutions that they will be required to vote on”.
Vector shares closed at $3.45 yesterday.
Oceania sell-down
Macquarie’s partial sell-down of its stake in Oceania Healthcare is expected to have had strong uptake from domestic and international investors.
The retirement village operator went on a trading halt on Wednesday while the block trade was completed. It offloaded 15.6 per cent or 95 million shares, retaining 42 per cent after the selldown to net in $104.5 million.
Harbour Asset Management’s Shane Solly said the selldown of the Oceania block had been well anticipated, coming around six weeks after its window of opportunity opened following its end of July result. The sale was handled by a combination of Deutsche/Craigs, First NZ Capital and Macquarie New Zealand.
A floor price of around $1.08 was set but the shares were sold for $1.10, a slight discount to the $1.14 it traded at before going into a halt.
Solly said it was a good time for the major shareholder to be selling down. “Right from the start it was expected that Macquarie would sell down.”
Oceania listed in May 2017 pricing its initial public offer at 79c per share so Macquarie should be pleased at the gains it will get for hanging on to a chunk of the business.