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Navellier’s “Tech Doubler: breakthrough technology that turns 50-year old coaxial cable into a 1-gigabit home networking solution”

What's being teased as a "Double in a year" stock by Navellier's Emerging Growth?

By Travis Johnson, Stock Gumshoe, February 16, 2016

We haven’t looked at a Louis Navellier pitch for a little while, and this one caught the eye of some intrepid Gumshoe readers — it is, like virtually every Louis Navellier pitch, a promise that his favorite growth stock will double this year… though he goes even further in announcing that “long term, a $1,000 investment here could grow well into six figures.”

That’s what most of us dream about when we’re summoning Plutus, Mammon or Gulveig in our sleep: the investment that grows 100 fold. Has Louis found one of those for us here?

Well, we obviously can’t answer that — not without a time machine — but we can, at the very least, toss his marketing clues into the ol’ Thinkolator and identify the stock for you. Ready?

Here’s the intro:

“Today, this breakthrough technology that turns 50-year old coaxial cable into a 1-gigabit home networking solution will soon join the long history of advancing communication technologies that you will one day take for granted

“Mark my wordsโ€”if you can get in now before Wall Street catches wind, you could reap almost obscene profits as cable companies worldwide upgrade to this companyโ€™s lightening fast, 1-gigabit technology.”

So this is something about speeding up data transmission within a network without tearing out all your coaxial cable (like your TV cable) and replacing it with fiber optics. I have no idea what the size of the demand for that is — from what I understand, he’s teasing that this technology makes the local network (like your house) faster at distributing data within the network, not a higher-bandwidth connection to the internet “grid”. Let’s see if we get any more detailed…

“The savings to the cable companies could be in the billions of dollars, as they will be able to use existing coax cable to deliver next generation high-speed, high definition video content along with multi-room DVR and superior online gamingโ€”all without hiccups, slowdowns, or buffering that comes from having multiple devices connected to the internet….

“They will be able to use existing cable lines to stream movies, watch TV, play games, and surf the Internet from dozens of connected devices without glitches, data bottlenecks, or interference from wired and wireless routers.”

OK, so that’s the basic spiel — and I’m not sure I get what the actual breakthrough is, so let’s move on. What about the company that’s making this possible, what clues do we get there?

“… the companyโ€™s sales have jumped 192% year-over-yearโ€ฆ why the stock price has climbed 78% over the past 12 months while the market is down 10%โ€ฆ and why analysts expect the company to deliver 344% earnings growth in the coming quarter.”

Ah, now that I understand. Sales growth good. Earnings growth good.

And it’s probably a small stock, this is an ad for Emerging Growth, which is generally on the “small cap” end of things and tends to look for more “breakthrough” type stocks (it’s also quite pricey, roughly $1,000/year). Here’s how Navellier describes his “mission” with this letter:

“my mission… to find companiesโ€”small, undiscovered gemsโ€”that are turning whole industries upside down. Companies that have A BETTER IDEA, a BETTER technology, or a BETTER business modelโ€ฆthat fly under the radar and are at the beginning of their greatest growth years.”

Alrighty then.

So why does he say that “the sky is the limit” For this particular stock? More from the ad:

“Two reasons:

  1. Digital home entertainment is one of the fastest growing sectors on the planet.
  2. This companyโ€™s software turns 50-year old coaxial cable into a robust, high-speed, whole-home entertainment network.

“As a result, the cable companiesโ€”nor consumersโ€”would have to replace millions of miles of existing cable for faster fiber optical lines capable of delivering seamless delivery of PC-to-TV streaming content.

“Thatโ€™s because this breakthrough technology brings you lightening fast speeds through existing coaxial cables.

“In other words, itโ€™s like turning a Model T into a Ferrariโ€”only digitally, per se.”

I’m still pretty sure that I don’t get it, but I’m closer to ID’ing the company for you. More clues:

“… big institutional investors like BlackRock, Royce & Associates, and Soros Fund management have already scooped up millions of shares of our companyโ€™s stock.”

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Any other clues? Not really, though we do get a hint as to the stock price when he calls it a “$15 Tech Doubler” … so what does the Thinkolator say?

This is, dear friends, MaxLinear (MXL).

And no, I hadn’t ever heard of them before… but we have been teased about this same technology before, because MaxLinear’s MoCA products, which is what is being teased here as enabling the next-generation 1gb home network, was acquired when they bought a little firm called Entropic last year. Entropic was teased by Chris Versace back in 2013, for much the same reasons that Navellier is pitching MaxLinear today.

For the record, Versace pitched Entropic as a takeover target — and it was taken over, but it didn’t generate much in the way of profits if you bought at $4+ when he was teasing it. Entropic shareholders got $1.20 in cash plus 0.22 shares of MXL, which was unexciting when MXL was around $8 but isn’t that much more exciting with MXL at $14 (if you bought when Versace was teasing it in the Summer of 2013 it would have cost you $4.40, today that same position would be worth $4.28).

But will MaxLinear turn this MoCA standard, and their asserted leadership as a pioneer of the standard, into profits? Analysts do see 344% growth next quarter, but they expect it to be a one-time “pop” in earnings for the quarter, their expectation for the year is 11% earnings growth, followed by another 20% jump in earnings in 2017. That means the stock is trading at a 2016 PE of about 10, which is quite low, and a 2017 PE of 8… but that 2017 number is based on just two guesses by analysts, so don’t get too excited.

So if they can really grow from here, that’s certainly a lovely valuation. Growth has come in part because of this MoCA business from the Entropic acquisition, though they have a variety of other product lines in satellite and optical communications as well. This is what they said on their conference call last week:

“Moving on to MoCA, which is our whole home broadband data and video connectivity solution, the noted revenue strength in MoCA and the fast evolving positive customer and operator dialogue has significantly elevated MaxLinear’s strategic position and value in the broadband connected home operator ecosystem.

“In January, we announced the MxL3705, the world’s first fully integrated MoCA 2.0 system solution that enables greater than gigabit per second data rates. This announcement was significant for a number of reasons. Broadband operators who were investing in platforms capable of delivering multi-gigabits per second data speeds into the home are actively seeking in-home, high-quality-of-service networking solutions to eliminate the subscriber bandwidth bottlenecks inside the home. The MxL3705 is the first MoCA device in the world capable of gigabit-plus networking speeds, and addresses these in-home bandwidth bottlenecks.”

They’re clearly excited about the MoCA business, and it’s providing a lot of their growth in the last quarter and their anticipated growth this year, but it also doesn’t seem clear to me, from skimming their quarterly results, how confident they are that their MoCA business and their new satellite products will grow fast enough to make up for falling revenue in their older video “system on a chip” products for cable boxes and similar products where sales are stalling or competition is cutting margins. You can check out their conference call here and perhaps get a sense of that for yourself.

So yes, it’s an “emerging” growth stock, and customers seem excited about their home networking equipment, and I have no idea whether they’ll really get all the big cable and satellite operators to be large customers and keep growth going into the future — kind of seems like other folks aren’t sure, either. Either that or they just haven’t noticed this small cap stock, because if the future is at all predictable and the analysts are right (a big “if”), then the stock is clearly way too cheap at about 10X expected earnings.

Which means, dear friends, that this is where I leave you — what do you think? Ready for big growth from MXL, or are you worried about competition or uptake of their new products? You probably know more about it than I do if you’ve gotten this far, so please share your thoughts with a comment below. Thanks!

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Steve
February 16, 2016 8:07 am

Wonder if you can provide any recent updates on the “WATT (Energous)” wireless charging play. So much uncertainty and claims of fraud being thrown around got my head spinning. Seems like its affecting share price but cant tell if its part of the overall bearish/correction issue or misinformation. Any input would be greatly appreciated

Andre Blanchet
February 16, 2016 11:39 am

I own a couple shares of WATT! Nick Hodges is pitching his Angel Publishing newsletter using a “wireless charging” company that just made a big deal with Apple. Is WATT the company or is it the other company I can’t remember the name of? Travis please help us out with this one…the teaser makes the stock look so tasty but I’ll only buy it if I get the OK from Mighty Master Thinkolator!

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chuck
Member
chuck
February 16, 2016 11:56 am

The bottle neck for a higher internet data rate capability to your desk top computer is seldem the cabling or the wireless in your house. For streaming video and heavy duty graphics, the your router and your internet service provider will “poop-out” long before the your internal house cabling or wireless starts to be a limiting factor. Besides, coax and copper internal cabling is essentially dead in the residential market — it is almost all wireless — much easier functionally, but harder from a security-privacy point of view — the available encryption schemes are much too weak . Opinion: another technology solution chasing a supposed technology limitation in an ineffective way.

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Sri Sriniwass
Irregular
Sri Sriniwass
February 16, 2016 12:49 pm

I second Chuck’s opinion. With the proliferation of non-traditional audio visual devices, wireless data will be the most prevalent means of connectivity throughout the home. By the time Internet providers get fiber-to-the-door, wireless technology will most likely have caught up in terms of speed.

Charlie
Guest
Charlie
February 16, 2016 7:04 pm
Reply to  chuck

Chuck is right. As an Internet and entertainment medium to the house cable is losing favor and will continue to diminish in use. Cable cannot deliver the bandwidth necessary for trunking high bandwidth on-demand services. Thus it is inevitable that its use within the home will become less common. Chuck’s assertion that it is “dead” in the residential market is an exaggeration, but it is certainly in decline. The most popular options for residential LANs are wifi, ethernet, powerline, and moca. If you already have cable to all the nodes then moca is probably the best option. Recent advances in powerline adapters are now realizing gigabit speeds at ever decreasing costs. 802.11 remains the best option for short distances. I don’t know beans about investing, but I have spent my entire 64 years in computers and networking. I wouldn’t invest a dollar of even my ex-wife’s money in this.

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Julia
Julia
February 23, 2016 8:17 pm
Reply to  Charlie

I get you are saying WATT is not viable, but could you please dumb it down for those of us that lack you very clear knowledge of connectivity. Have non-stop line issues w/TWC, hate them, their service but there aren’t many other options where I am at. I am asking what you see the future being for streaming & Verizon has fiber optic connectivity, AT&T just entered our area & watched them literally laying these big red cables & they offer wireless boxes but their Uverse service is ranked lower than TWC’s. Is there any company like RKUS, or ANET that you believe meets this need & offers disruptive technology? Would again welcome any input, thanks!

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borne0fan
borne0fan
February 16, 2016 12:29 pm

https://mocablog.wordpress.com/faq/

rhetoric reminds me of the transition between analog modems to DSL. Similar technological approach, just CATV instead of POTS. Given the large number of established mfgrs of this gear, I don’t understand how this bit player can succeed against Motorola. Perhaps the investing premise is licensing of patents?

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BJI
Member
BJI
February 16, 2016 3:47 pm

I live in a small town near Sioux City, Iowa. The cable company providing my internet and TV is embarking on completely replacing copper with fiber optic transmission lines to customers. Apparently they never heard of MoCA.

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sandy_shore
February 16, 2016 8:03 pm

OK…so their target market is people that live in homes built in the 90’s that had every room wired with coax? Then, they expect users to connect to the wall outlet with a wire to enjoy blazing speed. Yeah…good luck with that!

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bep1964
bep1964
February 22, 2016 11:21 am
Reply to  sandy_shore

I’m stuck w/it & not in the slightest loving TWC, who can’t deliver a consistent signal to save their lives, yet we struggle w/better choices as certain areas have NO other service options. Anyone wanting Navallier recs, I can get them for you, I’ll be right back to post those for you, he actually does very well. WATT was the target last week of a strong swing trader Jason Bond & it’s why it headed up higher so fast, seems $8 was the hope but looks to me like they are exiting position today, also Manny Backus lists as Top Stock to hold for 2016, but I don’t know at what entry, I too would love for someone to “dumb the technology down” for me regarding long-term success. Take a look at FE (target $44), TRP (long, liked by Barron’s w/huge pipeline projects to overcome Keystone XL Pipeline – long) & STRP ( I bought at $16, shot to $21, interim options money $1500, at $28 & growing) FE is involved in all sorts of utilities, well-diversified, see as very high growth & stable company w/consensus targets @ $44, FC given Top Honors (see $20-$22 in next few mos). Macy’s, took position at $36.25, holding for $50-$58, w/stop loss set at $37.00. As always appreciate any input, good or bad.
-Julia

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Fencer
Guest
Fencer
February 23, 2016 5:20 am
Reply to  bep1964

Jason tipped this weeks ago. Yes, it’s scalping and very profitable too. But buying now? Look at the MACD, the Williams and the Stoch. You’d be mad.
D.

Julia
Julia
February 23, 2016 8:10 pm
Reply to  Fencer

Which are you referring to? I’m assuming WATT, which I know has been out there for a long time. I don’t buy what I don’t understand, just curious what others would post, yes WATT has been posted by many but they distort gains when it was at $2, they show 1492% gains!

If you were referring to anything else, I appreciate any input that’s constructive.
Thanks!

Normally Dubious
Guest
Normally Dubious
January 17, 2017 5:40 pm

Bought 100 MXL off one of these tip disclosures and it’s now at 24.80. one of the best Navellier tips ever

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