From the title, one would wonder did I change narrative of my blog and started blogging on dance style or what? Well - yes and no. I like movies, music and of course nice choreographed songs (even though personally I am absolutely not good at dancing). DISCO was one of the major trend in early 80s and gave world some of the exciting dance moves! One of the bollywood producer Karan Johar also seem to like DISCO style and tries to mix one of the song with DISCO style in his movies. Check out It's time to DISCO song in Kal Ho Na Ho.
But this blog is about investing. So let me explain what DISCO means.
DISCO is new acronym coined by me to cover stocks which are relatively old tech/media companies but doing exceedingly well especially in 2019 and would be relevant in 21st century. All of these companies with exception of one are more than 30 years old and most importantly they are also dividend paying companies with yield ranging from 1.5% to 5%. These companies (with exception of one) were written off multiple times during their lifetime and each of them reinvented. So here are these companies in DISCO!
DISNEY (DIS)
Intel (INTC)
Salesforce (CRM)
Cisco (CSCO)
Oracle (ORCL)
Let's talk about each company briefly since none of these companies need big introduction.
Disney: YTD 21%
This is the oldest company of DISCO. With it's streaming announcement, it has definitely pivoted itself to be relevant in 21st century. No company can match its creative assets with universe of Disney, ABC, ESPN, MARVEL, PIXAR, STARWARS, FOX assets (Fox studios, Hotstar, Star India), Theme parks and many more. With streaming, it will bring all of these to homes at reasonable price. Now it can hold its own against Netflix onslaught and be relevant in 21st century.
Intel: YTD 25%
Intel has transformed itself multiple times after written off by every new trend - be it mobile, alternate CPU architecture, AI, ML and so on. By making smart decisions (like getting out of 5G race or focusing on data center), it has kept with pace of innovations in its core space. It had made some smart acquisitions along the way (even though it should have acquired Nvidia few years back). Intel is here to stay no matter where Semi world goes!
Salesforce: YTD 13%
This is the youngest company in DISCO and only exception of more than 30 year old and dividend paying rules. But this company deserves to be part of DISCO. It invented how software should be delivered 20 years back and since then it has been leader. It's the leader of cloud SAAS players and even big software companies like Microsoft, Adobe and even its arch-rival Oracle is following the path.
Cisco: YTD 30%
Since I work at Cisco, I cannot write much about company to avoid conflict of interest. But as publicly available information has shown, Cisco started the journey of focusing on core and transforming itself into world of software and subscription. Credit goes to our CEO Chuck Robbins for this transformation. In terms of YTD returns, this is the leader of DISCO with 30% YTD returns
Oracle: YTD 21%
Oracle is 2nd company in software to make into DISCO. But as Marc Andreessen written in his blog "Why Software Is Eating the World" in 2011, the trend is increasing and hence it's worth to have 2 software companies in DISCO. While Salesforce is nipping on Oracle's business, almost all biggest companies run on Oracle's core product of databases. Oracle is investing heavily into moving its offerings into cloud and made decent progress. The story would play out similar to Microsoft albeit slowly.
As one can see, DISCO stocks are having a good time in 2019 and most likely continue the "dance" even though stock market music stops in 2020. Most importantly this group would be relevant in 21st century.
Happy Easter Sunday!
/Shyam
But this blog is about investing. So let me explain what DISCO means.
DISCO is new acronym coined by me to cover stocks which are relatively old tech/media companies but doing exceedingly well especially in 2019 and would be relevant in 21st century. All of these companies with exception of one are more than 30 years old and most importantly they are also dividend paying companies with yield ranging from 1.5% to 5%. These companies (with exception of one) were written off multiple times during their lifetime and each of them reinvented. So here are these companies in DISCO!
DISNEY (DIS)
Intel (INTC)
Salesforce (CRM)
Cisco (CSCO)
Oracle (ORCL)
Let's talk about each company briefly since none of these companies need big introduction.
Disney: YTD 21%
This is the oldest company of DISCO. With it's streaming announcement, it has definitely pivoted itself to be relevant in 21st century. No company can match its creative assets with universe of Disney, ABC, ESPN, MARVEL, PIXAR, STARWARS, FOX assets (Fox studios, Hotstar, Star India), Theme parks and many more. With streaming, it will bring all of these to homes at reasonable price. Now it can hold its own against Netflix onslaught and be relevant in 21st century.
Intel: YTD 25%
Intel has transformed itself multiple times after written off by every new trend - be it mobile, alternate CPU architecture, AI, ML and so on. By making smart decisions (like getting out of 5G race or focusing on data center), it has kept with pace of innovations in its core space. It had made some smart acquisitions along the way (even though it should have acquired Nvidia few years back). Intel is here to stay no matter where Semi world goes!
Salesforce: YTD 13%
This is the youngest company in DISCO and only exception of more than 30 year old and dividend paying rules. But this company deserves to be part of DISCO. It invented how software should be delivered 20 years back and since then it has been leader. It's the leader of cloud SAAS players and even big software companies like Microsoft, Adobe and even its arch-rival Oracle is following the path.
Cisco: YTD 30%
Since I work at Cisco, I cannot write much about company to avoid conflict of interest. But as publicly available information has shown, Cisco started the journey of focusing on core and transforming itself into world of software and subscription. Credit goes to our CEO Chuck Robbins for this transformation. In terms of YTD returns, this is the leader of DISCO with 30% YTD returns
Oracle: YTD 21%
Oracle is 2nd company in software to make into DISCO. But as Marc Andreessen written in his blog "Why Software Is Eating the World" in 2011, the trend is increasing and hence it's worth to have 2 software companies in DISCO. While Salesforce is nipping on Oracle's business, almost all biggest companies run on Oracle's core product of databases. Oracle is investing heavily into moving its offerings into cloud and made decent progress. The story would play out similar to Microsoft albeit slowly.
As one can see, DISCO stocks are having a good time in 2019 and most likely continue the "dance" even though stock market music stops in 2020. Most importantly this group would be relevant in 21st century.
Happy Easter Sunday!
/Shyam
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