Well, that didn't age well. Stocks are down considerably from last month.
I've never been big on picking individual stocks (or caring about short term returns). I have done extremely well with Berkshire Hathaway, but that's not really an individual stock, but a conglomerate that operates dozens of companies and owns or controls hundreds more. I'm a mutual fund guy.
Most stocks I've looked into recently are just too overpriced. My philosophy (and the way I've made money in real estate) is that you make your money on the purchase. For example, if you bought Apple stock when Steve Jobs took over, I don't even need to know how much you bought--you're a millionaire today. If you buy a share of the company today, when it is expensive, it may earn you 10% or so, but nothing like it would have performed if you bought when it was cheap.
One sector I wanted to invest in was international shipping. America is producing less and less, and as we flush our collective intellect down the drain and go all in on diversity and wokeness, I expect long term America will become more and more dependent on foreign goods. Also, as America's ability to enforce embargoes and sanctions declines, I would expect more free trade between nations over the long term. So international shipping, with its high barriers to entry with expensive vessels and lack of competitive ports to sail to, is a good niche.
The problem? The shipping world is dominated by foreign (mostly European) firms.
The only large American firm is Matson, with 29 ships and a 0.3% market share. The largest is Maersk, with over 700 vessels.
Matson would have been a good buy in 2020 at $29 / share, but the same company today at $73 is over priced.
So the only thing that leaves is foreign firms who are also traded on US stock exchanges, not something I recommend investing in.
But In my research I came across one firm that looked interesting: ZIM operates 80 shipping vessels with a 1.5% global market share.
It has only traded in the US since last year, but the company has been around since 1945.
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Look at that suspicious dividend yield of 69%.
And the P/E ratio of 0.73.
Something to raise your eyebrows at for sure.
Here's the kicker: It's an Israeli company. And the dividend and earnings numbers are just screaming "Jewish tricks."
It looks to me like they took advantage of the temporary price gouging situation available in the midst of the Ukraine war and jacked up some rates sky high and declared a huge payout.
For the insiders who were aware of this (and their NY buddies who got the stock listed on the NYSE last year) they can really make some bank. But I suspect next year we are going to be looking at earnings which are a fraction of those. If it wasn't an Israeli company I might even buy a little bit to see what happens Nov 21 with the next earnings. But I am mostly just posting this here for posterity to see what happens in a few months...