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"The New American Super Brand"
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The Gardners are at it again, peddling their Motley Fool Stock Advisor Newsletter with the promise of the bonus free report on the “New American Super Brand.”
Now I actually like the Motley Fool, and have paid to subscribe to some of their products in the past. But they’ve definitely perfected the insanely long advertising email, chock full of company teasers.
This latest email that was forwarded by a reader? 17 PAGES. My God, does this really work?
I guess maybe it does, because they keep doing it. So what’s this “New American Super Brand” they’re issuing a report on?
They compare it to Starbucks, Wal Mart, and Nike. Good so far.
And they provide a bunch of hints:
- “A couple of years ago, you couldn’ve gotten into this company for about a third of what it costs today” (that’s stretching it with current prices, but the email is probably a bit out of date)
- This brand made the “revolutionary” decision not to follow the industry practice of renting shelf space. (That tells you we almost definitely have a discount/department store or supermarket here)
- Sales jumped 23% in 2004, and 22% in 2005
- 3X more profitable than their major competitors
- $267 million in cash, only $15 million in debt (competitors are much more indebted).
- “international sites so far [only] in Canada and Great Britain”
- goal of $12 billion in sales in 2010
- won Fast Company’s “Customers First” award.
OK, that’s more than enough hints — ready?
——-advertisement————
$4.95 per Trade, Market or Limit. Your Source for Tools, Charts, News. www.TradeKing.com
——————————–
The New American Super Brand is Whole Foods Market Inc. (WFMI)
I’m sure the Stock Advisor service is great for some people, and that reading their analysis of the company might give you a better perspective, or more conviction if you’re wanting to buy. But if you just want to know what this company is, there you have it — thanks to your friendly Stock Gumshoe. There’s no shortage of free information available about this massive company, so don’t feel like you have to subscribe to a service to understand them.
I’ve been interested in this company for quite some time, too, though I’ve never thought it was cheap enough to buy. Now, shares are near their 52 week low and about 40% off the highs of late last fall, thanks to some disappointments and a big acquisition and, perhaps, fears of growth stocks in general — so perhaps this is your chance. It’s still not cheap, in my opinion, but if it’s the New American Super Brand it may never be cheap. Caveat emptor.
Want to keep up with the Gumshoe? Click here to subscribe now — free email alerts.
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Subjects: Motley Fool, WFMI
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27 comments for “"The New American Super Brand"”
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Thanks, am tired of the solicitation even though Motley Fool is pretty good
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Thanks for the information. It is easier to read than the huge emails I get from Motley Fool.qdshxir
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Thanks, I read that Fool email – L O N G -. Now I can watch this stock and see if a fool and his money will soon be parted, or not…
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Thanks, the curiosity and suspense were killing me. I like these guys, the Gardners, and listen to the Motley Fool’s input on NPR’s Sound Money program regularly. I also find something compelling, or at least very engaging, in the lengthy missives that come from them; their numbers certainly are impressive.
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One eventually realizes that the real way to increase wealth is to peddle a newsletter for $199/year that is filled with promises just a motivational speakers realized they could best motivate their pocketbooks
by pumping up others.
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Thanks. Got any others from Motley Fool?
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Yep, you can find the other Fool writeups t:
http://www.stockgumshoe.com/search/label/motley%20fool
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I like “the brothers” too and have enjoyed their appearances on CBNC in the past but I am somewhat suspicious of them now. Before the last big stock downturn, they were all over the media — kinda like they are now. When the stocks went south, so did they. Or so it seemed. Not too long ago, one of them picked Dell to be very hot. It’s up slightly since the pick but nowhere near “warm” let alone “very hot.” Can’t wait to see how Whole Foods does.
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“Can’t wait to see how Whole Foods does.”
It’s down from March so so far a crappy investment. Long term I expect this stock to do ok. People are so gullible though. If this stock is going to shoot to the moon over then next 10 or so years, then why don’t these brothers just put a ton of money into long positions instead of sending out spam and trying to dupe people into paying 200 bucks just to learn their stock pick?? Because that’s how these jokers make their money, not by going long WFMI.
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Boy, I can always tell when the Fool has initiated a big new email campaign — the Stock Gumshoe servers are flooded with searches for the New American Super Brand. This one has been around since I launched the Gumshoe a few months ago, and they appear to have not modified their “sell” for this stock even as it has fallen, which I guess is typical of the long-term approach the Fools advocate. Will certainly be interesting to see if the performance turns around.
SG
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That’s right, just got the spam yesterday, must have deleted or overlooked the previous long winded BS emails from them. It’s great how they make money even when WFMI drops. I was a big fan when the Fool was only on AOL’s service back in 94-96 and they didn’t charge for their “advice” or portfolio picks. Now they are like any other stock/investment scammer service out there. If they dupe just 3,000 individuals to pay the 200, that’s 600k in their pocket and probably enough to run their entire operation for a month.
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MF tends to promote stocks from their invest letters (generally not new holdings at that), getting a little extra value out of their promos. These tend to be a lot more positive, juicy, than the original write-ups in the letters.
Are they touting stocks that seem to be lagging or not fulfilling their (MF)potential?
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My guess is no, they’re using stocks in their ads that they’re convinced are long term picks and, perhaps more importantly, they’re using stocks that they can use to weave compelling ads. They’re in the business of getting your attention, I assume that’s much more important to them than using these teasers to try to boost the share price.
Most newsletter publishers, including the Fool, use the same ads, with some edits, for as long as they work — and they’re often tied to market events, so if oil goes up we see the oil sands teasers, if people are afraid we see the “what to do in a crash” teasers. The longest-lived teaser I’ve seen is the Fools “next Berkshire Hathaway” ad that has teased Markel for a few years for the Inside Value newsletter, but plenty of them have been in fairly steady use for at least six months.
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Funny thing. I got this in my inbox today, but it seems that they posted about this in March, so is it a better pick now than it was then? If you would have bout it in March, you would have lost about $7 a share right through Spetember. Only now is it over $45 again.
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Thanks for your work. I get suspicious of super long solicitations. I found your site while searching the Super American Brand. Looking at your performance charts I see all the names that clog my snail mail and e-inboxes. Thanks for the hard data without all the hype.
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They’re still sending this out – I got it in March 2008 and the email sounds largely the same as it did in March 2007 – not the kind of up to date market advice you’d want to pay $200 for….
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You, good sir, are a treasure. I subscribed to MF for information and got only hype. What you have on your site is very helpful. Thank you.
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Yes – I just realized the initial responses about this were in ‘07, for pete’s sake! What’s that all about anyway! I just got it for the first time today – so I guess the jackpot question is what’s it’s record been since there’s a year of history to go on now?!
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Holey moley! I just found a MF forum question about “The New American Super Brand” dated AUGUST ‘06!!! Needless to say the question resulted in ZERO responses. Seems like a blatant scam to me!
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The stock graphic looked like LUK……a previous MF pick.
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Thank for the info…If it is the one new superbrand then why do I need any advice from them after that.
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Thanks Charlie — don’t know what their history is with LUK, but I certainly also have some fondness for the company. If there’s one thing Leucadia is not, however, it’s a “brand” of any kind. LUK is downright secretive, and owns lots of companies that consumers have never heard of.
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Thanks for the info! Much appreciated.
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While Motley Fool has some good info, their e mails, such as the new Superbrand hype has been floating around for a few years. Seems like their motives have switched from educating “Fools” to “creating” Fools. I stopped reading their stuff quite a while ago.
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Thx..just saved me $99 ! Was just about to order..keep ip the good work, Motley Fool is good though, sure got my attn. !!
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I am an inspiring investor and want to learn more of what is out there, in making my first stock selection. I have been fumbling through various servers and have come across MF. Sure they have the numbers but they swear every stock they pick has similar characteristics as Wal-Mart, Starbucks, Nike, and AOL; after reading their emails after awhile it seems sort fishy but that’s just me.
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Dear Sir
thanks for the Motley info. There are many of these guru’s (that is another one) around that are selling information which a lot of it is crap. I tried one, called gamechanger, Yareds game changers. A lot of stories about walmart, apple, microsoft, Rim but no solid analysis on the future picture. They completely missed hedging the weak US dollar against other currencies, only recommended American stocks, They listed a stock CHIPOTLE as a must buy, really cheap they said, market advantage was excellent mexican food at a resonable price, lots of chain stores.. the next Macdonalds.. it will be great..buy at under $95. the next day or 2 days later it was on their loser list.. must sell.. it was tumbling quick, from 98 to 94 to 92.. 90 and then the tomatoe samonella poisoning happen in california happened, probably around $75 today. They missed the commodity risk, and the weak consumer support, very very poor analysis. the recommendation was based upon performance when Macdonalds did own them. The current management is not Macdonalds as they sold them, realizing, health foods was the next trend in restaurants, not mexican food, another miss by GameChangers.
Like many of these services their analysis is skimpy, sensationalistic and nothing that can’t be found anywhere on the internet or in a good financial paper.
Solid investing is built on high return dividends with companies with solid balance sheets, good market share and excellent management. Dont believe me however, google “the highest dividend companies” and you will find the wall street studies done over a 30 year period. Those are the facts Jack!
I dont need 30 percent appreciation on a stock that is volatile. I much prefer a 8 to 10% dividend, slower long term growth of 5% as a minimum giving me an annual return of 13 to 15% on dividend reinvestment. The stock is not suspectible to every political bit of bad news, holds steady thru the bad times..does subprime mortgage ring a bell?? and does very nicely in the good times. A $300,000 portfolio setup this way generates $30,000 in income or about $2400 per month and another $15,000 in growth minimum in one year. Not bad in my books.. Leave it alone for 5 years.. and see what its worth then after taking the dividends and reinvesting them in more stock. So take all these astounding growth rate stocks, the wild capital gains.. and quite frankly .. stuff them. They are in the short term a great way to lose as people panic when prices drop or they play the short term game and sell quick on a profit, but when the stock doesnt go up or when it tanks a bit, they are forced to hold it, reasoning it will come back, while in reality it keeps going down as it has no solid financial reason to appreciate.. and oh..it doesnt pay a dividend. so you lose and lose.
Create a newsletter that caters to this formula and you will get my subscription
here is my examples of not sleeping good at night
Google – P/e ratio – ridiculously high, no dividend, from $700 to $450 in 6 months, US earnings tanked, Asia saved their bacon last quarter that few predicted. Do you want to be exposed to the politics of china? india? $70,000 for a hundred shares and you can lose half of that in 6 months. Their growth rate is an exponential curve and not sustainable. First time they report a bad quarter.. watch out!
take $70,000, lets take a stock Permain Basin Royal Trust (NYSE: PBT) 1 year performance, $14 to $27 last month to about high $23. so about 75 to 80% growth. Every month you received a $.20 dividend per share.
so take $70K (5,000 shares) x 1.75 growth rate, about $122,500 in market value. Dividend was $.10 per month per share @ $14 or 8.5%, at $23.75 it is $.20/month or 10.5% which buys another 50 shares per year. Guess what.. it wont drop.. the markets wont let a stock paying a dividend of %10 do that. pretty boring stuff… but, i sleep good at night.
Apple – announces their new product, stock tanks $15 per share, no dividend, P/e ratio 35:1, good company, STeve Job is good but, reward your shareholders!!! what is there to stop this stock from going to $100 per share? If they lose one percent market share to Nokia or Rim.. just watch! nothing. A decent dividend would reward the shareholder and make the price sustainable or be a hedge if they are losing market share and prevent a drop of 40% in one week.
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