Creative methods to analyze listed companies on Finnish and American investing-focused message boards

CREATIVE METHODS TO ANALYZE LISTED COMPANIES ON FINNISH AND AMERICAN INVESTING-FOCUSED MESSAGE BOARDS Jyväskylä University School of Business and Economics Master’s Thesis 2024 Author: Anniina Gråsten Discipline: Accounting Supervisor: Antti Rautiainen ABSTRACT Author Anniina Gråsten Title Creative methods to analyze listed companies on Finnish and American investing-focused message boards Discipline Accounting Type of work Master’s Thesis Date 06/2024 Number of pages 103 Abstract This research investigated how investors and other stakeholders on the Internet’s investor-focused message boards analyze and comment on listed companies and how accounting information is reflected in these conversations. Research material included message board conversations of eight companies listed in Nasdaq Helsinki and eight listed in the New York Stock Exchange or US Nasdaq. All of the companies operate in the consumer goods and services sector. The conversations were analyzed from three popular investing-focused internet message board services in Finland and the USA. The research material was analyzed by using qualitative and quantitative research methods. For a conclusion, accounting information appeared in conversations frequently and felt important for the users. The most frequently discussed or mentioned accounting topics on the message boards were key financial figures and information such as revenue and operating profit. In addition to traditional accounting information, nonfinancial information felt at least as important and popular as financial information. The most popular nonfinancial information topics were sector development, brand, and message board users' experiences of products and services. There were also minimal differences in how Finnish and American message board users emphasized certain topics. For example, the overall impression was that nonfinancial information was slightly more important for American message board users than Finnish users. Keywords Online forums, online investing-focused message boards, fundamental analysis, relevance of accounting information, company analysis Place of storage Jyväskylä University Library TIIVISTELMÄ Tekijä Anniina Gråsten Työn nimi Luovat tavat analysoida listattuja yhtiöitä suomalaisilla ja amerikkalaisilla sijoitusteemaisilla nettikeskustelupalstoilla Oppiaine Laskentatoimi Työn laji Pro gradu -tutkielma Päivämäärä 06/2024 Sivumäärä 103 Tiivistelmä Tässä tutkimuksessa tarkasteltiin, miten sijoittajat ja muut sidosryhmät analysoivat ja kommentoivat pörssiyhtiöitä sijoittajille suunnatuilla internetin keskustelupalstoilla ja miten yhtiöiden kirjanpitotiedot näkyvät näissä keskusteluissa. Tutkimusaineistoon kuului kahdeksan Nasdaq Helsingissä ja kahdeksan New Yorkin pörssissä tai Yhdysvaltain Nasdaqissa noteeratun yhtiön keskustelumateriaalia. Kaikki yritykset toimivat kulutustavaroiden ja - palvelujen alalla. Keskusteluja analysoitiin kolmelta suositulta sijoituspainotteiselta keskustelupalstapalvelulta Suomesta ja Yhdysvalloista. Aineistoa analysoitiin käyttäen sekä laadullisia että määrällisiä tutkimusmenetelmiä. Johtopäätöksenä voidaan todeta, että kirjanpitotietoja esiintyi keskusteluissa usein ja käyttäjät kokivat ne tärkeiksi. Keskustelupalstoilla suosituimmat kirjanpitoon liittyvät aiheet koskivat kirjanpidon keskeisiä lukuja ja tietoja, kuten liikevaihtoa ja liikevoittoa. Perinteisten kirjanpitotietojen lisäksi myös muunlainen ei taloudellinen informaatio koettiin vähintäänkin yhtä tärkeäksi ja suosituksi. Suosituimpia muita kuin talouteen liittyviä aiheita olivat toimialan kehitys, brändi ja keskustelupalstojen käyttäjien omat kokemukset tuotteista ja palveluista. Suomalaisten ja amerikkalaisten keskustelupalstojen välillä oli myös havaittavissa pieniä eroja keskustelujen painotuksissa. Esimerkiksi amerikkalaisten keskustelupalstojen käyttäjät pitivät muita kuin kirjanpidollisia tietoja hieman tärkeämpinä kuin suomalaiset. Asiasanat Online foorumit, sijoitusaiheiset nettikeskustelupalstat, fundamenttianalyysi, kirjanpitotiedon arvorelevanssi, yhtiöanalyysi Säilytyspaikka Jyväskylän yliopiston kirjasto FIGURES & TABLES Figure 1 Corporate value drivers (according Liang & Yao, 2005) ......................... 20 Figure 2 The critical factors of finance professionals to value stocks ................... 21 Figure 3 Summary of the main conversation topics ................................................ 45 Table 1 Examples of the fundamentals (Lev & Thiagarajan 1993) ........................ 17 Table 2 Companies that were included in the research. ......................................... 24 Table 3 Comment categories ....................................................................................... 25 Table 4 Examples of used keywords in the analysis ............................................... 26 Table 5 The overall picture of the valuation of conversation topics ..................... 29 Table 6 Summary of the differences between research groups ............................. 30 Table 7 The differences between Finnish and American message boards ........... 31 Table 8 The scale valuation of accounting related topics ....................................... 32 Table 9 The scale valuation of the nonfinancial information topics ...................... 36 Table 10 Background information of the companies ............................................... 40 Table 11 The valuations filtered by differences in the scores ................................. 41 Table 12 The amount of text data in the researched message boards ................... 42 Table 13 T-test & the results ........................................................................................ 43 Table 14 Summary of the scale valuation .................................................................. 44 CONTENTS ABSTRACT TIIVISTELMÄ (ABSTRACT IN FINNISH) FIGURES & TABLES CONTENTS 1 INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................ 6 1.1 Background .................................................................................................. 6 1.2 Scope of this Research & Research Questions ........................................ 7 1.3 Key Findings & Structure of the Paper .................................................... 8 2 LITERATURE REVIEW & THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK ......................... 9 2.1 Earlier Research on Investing-focused Internet Message Boards ........ 9 2.2 Key Concepts and Theories ..................................................................... 11 2.2.1 Efficient Markets Hypothesis ...................................................... 11 2.2.2 The Conventional Theory of Rational Actors & Investor Behavior .......................................................................................... 12 2.2.3 Financial Communication ............................................................ 14 2.3 Valuation Methods of Listed Companies .............................................. 15 2.3.1 The Value-Relevance of Financial Accounting Information ... 15 2.3.2 Fundamental Information Analysis ........................................... 16 2.3.3 Value of Intangible Assets & Nonfinancial Information ......... 18 2.3.4 How do Finance Professionals Evaluate Stocks?...................... 21 3 RESEARCH MATERIAL, RESEARCH PROCESS & METHODOLOGY ... 23 4 RESEARCH FINDINGS & ANALYSIS ........................................................... 28 4.1 General Findings ....................................................................................... 28 4.2 Financial Information ............................................................................... 32 4.2.1 Quantitative Findings ................................................................... 32 4.2.2 Qualitative Findings ..................................................................... 32 4.3 Nonfinancial Information ........................................................................ 35 4.3.1 Quantitative Findings ................................................................... 35 4.3.2 Qualitative Findings ..................................................................... 36 4.4 Company Specific Findings ..................................................................... 39 4.5 T-test ........................................................................................................... 42 5 DISCUSSIONS .................................................................................................... 44 5.1 Summary of the Empirical Findings ...................................................... 44 5.2 Relevance and Usefulness of the Research ........................................... 47 5.3 Reliability, Validity, & Limitations of the Study .................................. 47 6 CONCLUSION ................................................................................................... 49 REFERENCES ............................................................................................................... 52 APPENDIX 1 EXAMPLE COMMENTS ................................................................... 56 6 Excerpt of so called “parking lot analysis” from Tokmanni Plc’s message board on the Inderes message board service: “A big parking analysis performed in Sunday evening, around 7 pm: Tokmanni 25 cars, Lidl 5 cars, zero cars at Puuilo, Biltema and Motonet since they were closed already at 6 p.m." 13th December 2020 The expert serves as a prime example that the analysis in message board conversations can be rational and relevant, purely random observations, or even both at the same time. The meaning of the excerpt is left for the reader to conclude. In 2024, almost all the Finns are using the internet and social media. It feels like we are not only citizens of our countries but also part of some wider borderless community. Considering that, it is natural that investors communicate and “hang around” increasingly on social media and internet message boards. Social media platforms have allowed anyone to become an amateur stock analyst by sharing their thoughts of listed companies. This Pro Gradu approaches this theme in the perspective of accounting and finance. 1.1 Background Over the past few decades, there has been an increasing interest in researching the value of social media and internet message boards for investing. Still, there is a lot to explore as active users continuously create new material on social media platforms and a new generation of young investors who are native to social media operate in the investing markets. In earlier studies, researchers have studied if there is found a causal link between internet message boards and social media. For example, Tumarkin & 1 INTRODUCTION 7 Whitelaw (2001) found out that message board activity would not be a relevant determinant to predict stock return. “The overall conclusion is that, apparently, no causal link exists from message board activity to stock returns and volume. In fact, we found the reverse—that market information influences message board activity.” However, newer studies propose that the impact of message boards might have grown during the past few decades. For example, Gálvez & Gravano (2017) found that message board information was at least as relevant as historical accounting information when estimating future stock returns with modern prediction tools. This study concentrates on understanding investor discourse on internet message boards and social communities built online around investing topics. As an accounting master’s student, the researchers' key interest was concentrating on how accounting and business information was used in investing-focused internet message boards. The idea to conduct this study was established by the researcher's own interest in following investing-related conversations on internet message boards. The researcher also met many other message board enthusiasts during the research process. 1.2 Scope of this Research & Research Questions This master’s thesis analyzes investor communication on Finnish and American internet message boards. The research observes how financial accounting information, other fundamental business information, and intangible aspects such as brand and company image appear in conversations. In addition, it is interesting to explore how and where investors gather their information. The exact research questions are: • How do the investors and other stakeholders on internet investor-focused message boards analyze and comment on listed companies? • How is accounting information reflected in these conversations? English was chosen as the research language of this research to enable the sharing of findings from Finnish message boards with the international research community. Investing-focused message boards is shortened to message boards or internet message boards in some of the following chapters. Investors and other stakeholders are called message board users or just users. Research material includes message board conversations of eight companies listed in Nasdaq Helsinki, formerly the Helsinki Stock Exchange, and eight listed in the NYSE New York Stock Exchange, or US Nasdaq. All of the 8 companies operate in the consumer goods and services sector. Comments are gathered from three popular internet message boards in Finland and the USA. Artificial intelligence was used in this paper for proofreading and correcting texts. The applications that were used are ChatGPT and Grammarly. This research is divided into 6 chapters. This chapter introduced the motivation for this research, the studied questions, and the key findings of the research. The second chapter of this research gathers earlier research on the key subjects and theories. It starts by summarizing earlier research on online investing forums and social media. After that, the paper examines traditional investing theories such as the rational investor and efficient markets hypothesis. Lastly, the chapter dives into how listed companies could be analyzed. The third chapter of this study includes the selection of research methods, the background and scope of the data, and a description of the study process. The fourth chapter then presents the empirical findings of this research and includes practical examples of the key findings. The fifth chapter discusses the relevance of this study. Finally, the last chapter presents a conclusion that combines the research findings with the theoretical background and suggests potential future research directions. 1.3 Key Findings & Structure of the Paper This research agreed with previous research that even though nonfinancial information is increasingly relevant, traditional financial information is still important when analyzing the performance of listed companies. Interestingly, users on internet message boards seemed to value main accounting figures over smaller details. Nonfinancial information seemed to be at least as important and popular as financial information. There were also some slight variations in the way Finnish and American message board users emphasized certain topics. For example, the overall impression was that nonfinancial information was slightly more important for American message board users, and Finnish users seemed to value financial information slightly more than American users. These findings will be presented more thoroughly in the analysis and conclusion. 9 This chapter concentrates on previous research and the key theories relating to the research topic. The first under chapter summarizes earlier research on the impact of internet and social media to investing and investors. Next, the chapter explores conventional investment theories and the current discussions surrounding them. The second chapter's final section covers company valuation methods and investor decision-making. 2.1 Earlier Research on Investing-focused Internet Message Boards The relationship between internet investing-focused message boards, stock returns, and investing, in general, has only been studied for a few decades when the world has taken a huge digital leap. Despite this, a lot of research has already been produced on the phenomenon. Already in 2001, Tumarkin & Whitelaw studied the relevance of internet message boards in evaluating listed companies. They wanted to explore if the opinions presented on the internet message boards worked as a determinant of stock price and found that stock returns could not be predicted by following message board activity. Seemed evident that the future performance of a listed company could not be predicted according to the the opinions of message boards. Interestingly, they found the reverse effect: abnormal stock movement caused more activity on the internet message boards. A few years later, Antweiler & Frank (2004) research supported the theory that conversation on the internet message boards had no significant effect on stock returns. Instead, they found a link between message board activity and the volatility of the stock prices. Both the volume of messages and greater 2 LITERATURE REVIEW & THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK 16 statements. For example, Horrigan described how the current ratio was developed by comparing current assets to the company’s current liabilities. Another example is fundamental analysis as Lev & Thiagarajan (1993) practiced it by conducting “fundamentals” from figures in financial statements. This approach is described more deeply in the next chapter. Of course, changing legislation has significantly impacted the relevance of accounting information. According to Barth et al. (2001) accounting standard setters, primary focus has been on concentrating the needs of equity investors even though there are also other important stakeholders using accounting information. Additionally, their research of value relevance of accounting information concluded that accounting standards development from historical costs to fair value accounting has been seen as relevant for valuing companies; regardless, errors in fair value estimations were seen to decrease the value of information. In practice, this fair value accounting means the development of IFRS or formerly international accounting standards which Finnish listed companies have to practice in their financial announcements. In this research, the material also includes American-listed companies, which usually use US GAAP standards. These two standards have many similarities and only some differences that have been left from American politics. 2.3.2 Fundamental Information Analysis Traditionally, stocks have been evaluated using technical analysis, which explores stock price trends, or fundamental analysis, which concentrates on companies’ financial figures and business. This thesis will focus on fundamental analysis and investigate whether the elements of fundamental analysis are visible in internet message board conversations. Fundamental analysis is a method aiming to value a stock to its fair value. Based on Lev & Thiagarajan (1993), the method consists of a careful examination of key value drivers of a listed company. Those are, for example, the company’s earnings, expected future growth, risks, and market share. The research of Lev & Thiagarajan (1993) summarized and tested how accounting and business information, so-called “fundamentals,” could indicate the future development of the listed company. Examples of fundamentals are presented below in Table 1. 17 Table 1 Examples of the fundamentals (Lev & Thiagarajan 1993) Fundamental Explanation Inventory Substantial inventory increases compared to sales development usually implicate sales decrease in the future, but in certain rare situations, it implies the complete opposite. Increased inventory value could suggest a possibility for future write-downs and decreased earnings through that. Accounts Receivable An increase in accounts receivables could also signal negative earnings in the future since that could be a sign of difficulties in sales and, of course, troubles in collecting receivables. Additionally, the provision level of doubtful receivables should be considered carefully since there could be a possibility that the provision is inadequately estimated and could indicate a future decrease in earnings. Research and Development Expenses As an opposite example, research and development expenses decreasing generally implies negative future expectations. Research and development activities tend to create the basis for a company's future growth. Gross Margin Not surprisingly, a decrease in gross margin is viewed negatively since it could indicate risen costs that are not considered in pricing or a difficult competition situation. Fixed Administrative Expenses If the fixed administrative expenses increase relatively compared to sales, that is also seen negative sign of management cost control. Effective Tax Rate Since companies usually have to pay more taxes when they succeed, an unusual decrease in the effective tax rate could indicate decreasing future earnings or negative earning persistence. Order Backlog In some industries, changes in order backlog efficiently predict future sales and earnings. Analyzing order backlog changes can also help spot earnings management issues. Labor Force Labor force reductions are viewed as a positive sign of profitability and future earnings for investors. The ratio of sales divided by the number of employees informs about the company's efficiency. Inventory Valuation The inventory valuation method LIFO (last in, first out) is seen more relevant choice than FIFO (first in, first out). Audit Qualification Audit qualification was also chosen as a variable to analyze companies in the research since negative auditors’ opinions, of course, convey a negative view of the company’s future. 18 Lev & Thiagarajan's (1993) conclusion was that these tested variables estimated positive persistence and development of future earnings of tested companies. The fundamental factors presented above are just examples, and there are many ways of doing fundamental analysis. Also Abarbanell & Bushee (1997 & 1998) tested fundamental signals later in 1990s in their studies. They replicated Lev & Thiagarajan’s research and agreed that accounting based signals estimated the future developments of listed companies. Abarbanell & Bushee (1997) discovered that different fundamental indicators predict changes in future earnings over varying time periods. For example, notable capital expenses and labor force changes were connected to long-term earnings development. Inventory and receivables changes predicted earnings development from a one-year-ahead perspective and selling and administrative expenses only current returns. Another conclusion was that signals not related to near-term earnings are often ignored by investors, such as changes in the listed company's risks. Also, according to Abarbanell & Bushee, investors and analysts tend to underuse fundamental information in their estimations. As a modern way to analyze popularity and demand of listed companies, some investors have started to use the Google Trends application as an indication of companies’ future development. Laitinen et al., (2023) proved in their master’s thesis that stock prices could be predicted using Google Trends for at least three months perspective in tested market conditions. Cziraki et al. (2021) also provided an interesting perspective on investors’ preference for stocks using Google Trends as a tool in their research. They explored the relationship between local investors and local stocks and identified that more attention from local investors predicted higher future returns for a local listed company. The attention volume was measured as search volumes of different user segments in Google Trends. The research is also interesting from the perspective of internet message boards since it alludes that activity on investing-focused local internet message boards could also be an indication of future earnings. 2.3.3 Value of Intangible Assets & Nonfinancial Information The value of brand, company image, customer relationships, and other nonfinancial factors have risen to play an important role when valuing listed companies. In fairly recent study, Rautiainen & Jokinen (2022) delved deep into to the value-relevance of social media tools usage by listed companies. Their research findings indicated positive impact on stock returns if the company was popular especially in the visual social media tools such as Instagram. There are also many other studies that confirm that the value relevance of nonfinancial 19 information and intangible assets are relevant determinants of firm value (for example, Barth et al. 1998; Amir & Lev 1996 and Liang & Yao 2005). In 1998, Barth et al. studied brand values relation to capital market valuations. The basis of the research was the fact that FinancialWorld magazine as well other influencers in capital markets had started to publish surveys of brand values and they wanted to explore if those estimated values were relevant for stock prices or not. Their conclusion was that brand values were evidently reliable to be reflected in stock prices. Barth et al., (1998) also identified positive relationship between market value estimations and firm’s advertising expenses, operating margins and market shares. Why does brand value matter? Barth et al., (1998) summarised that earlier research had explained that consumers prefer products that have strong, familiar brands and are willing to pay more for those products, affecting, of course, positively the listed company’s profitability. Liang & Yao (2005) compared the impacts of financial and nonfinancial information of companies for the stock prices. In the research, they explored if the gap between the market value of a company and the book value could be explained using financial and nonfinancial information. Their conclusion was that companies’ valuations could be explained, especially by factors that impacted companies’ future growth and profitability. The research alluded that listed companies should invest in continuously improving their internal processes, feed the creativity of their research and development personnel, and also maintain good relationships with their stakeholders to be able to maintain positive future expectations of their market valuation. Liang & Yao (2005) formed a visual model to explain how the financial and nonfinancial performance of a company function as value drivers of the company (figure 1). 20 Figure 1 Corporate value drivers (according Liang & Yao, 2005) Amir & Lev (1996) also agreed that traditional financial measurements such as earnings, book values of assets, and cash flows would be irrelevant when valuing listed companies if nonfinancial information was not combined with the information. The research alluded that traditional financial reporting had begun to be inadequate for investors' needs. Still, in Lev's newer research (2019), he accuses accounting standard setters of being oblivious to taking into account intangibles increasing relevance. This could be a relevant factor when considering why internet message boards are a relevant source of information for some investors. The message boards may summarize relevant nonfinancial information that is not easily accessible elsewhere. In practice, international accounting standards (IFRS) recognize intangible assets such as brand and customer relationships in certain accounting situations (IFRS - IAS 38 Intangible Assets, n.d.). Nowadays, it is not possible to recognize all the internally generated intangible assets to the balance sheet, but when acquiring another company, acquired goodwill can be allocated more freely to intangible assets in accordance with IFRS 3. IAS 38 allows companies to activate intangible assets that are identifiable in terms of contracts, legal rights, or costs. This scope includes for example patents, licenses and various development projects of companies. As Lev (2019) summarized cleverly: “the ‘D’ of R&D – should be capitalized (and amortized) when meeting strict conditions”. Altogether, it could be concluded that earlier research shows strong evidence of the value-relevance of intangible assets and nonfinancial information. This research will explore if these themes are visible in the internet message board conversations. 21 2.3.4 How do Finance Professionals Evaluate Stocks? Earlier research suggests that the financial performance of listed companies plays a significant role in the decision-making of financial professionals even though nonfinancial information has gained relevance. Based on Memarista & Kusuwati's (2022) research, finance experts tend to value the financial performance of companies over other factors. They also identified other key factors that Indonesian finance professionals considered when investing in stocks. The research conclusions were in line with other studies already examined in this research. Finance professionals seem to value listed companies by combining financial and nonfinancial information of listed companies. The key factors tested in the study of Memarista & Kusuwati (2022) are presented in figure 2. These categories were also used as guideline to code internet message board text data in this research, but the contents of each category varied in some extent from original variables. Figure 2 The critical factors of finance professionals to value stocks Memarista & Kusuwati's (2022) research variables included: • Financial Performance: historical performance, growth of revenue and profit, historical closing rate of stock price • Comprehensive analysis: global economic condition, local macroeconomic condition, investor’s recommendations, recommendation from family and investment alternatives • Benefit signaling: daily opening price of stock and dividends policy • Company Image: fair value of a stock, financial risk, business ethics • Company Insight: company reputation, industry position, company’s product, investment fund and historical stock returns • Community Involvement: sustainability, local operations and brokerage recommedation • Investor preference: stock position, international operation and diversification need • Press coverage: press coverage of stock 22 There is also another perspective to look at professional’s analysis habits. Kumar & Mohapatra (2015) studied professional brokers’ usage of technical and fundamental analysis methods. They found that professionals prefer using technical analysis when the investing horizon is days or weeks and fundamental analysis when the horizon expands over a year. In between short and long-time horizons, professionals would combine both methods. Many famous professional investors have impacted the world of investing with their own unique strategies. This research's empiric findings also demonstrated this impact, since many users in the message boards referred to famous investors when making analysis. Especially Peter Lynch was referred to many times in the internet message board conversations. According to Investopedia (Chen 2015), Lynch is one of the most successful investors in history. He achieved early retirement at the age of 46 after a successful 13-year investing career, earning annualized returns of 29.2% with Magellan Fund. Investopedia says that he is famous for his slogan “buy what you know,” which urges investors to choose stocks of companies whose business models they understand. It could be said that Peter Lynch has a fundamental approach to company analysis with long investing horizons. Warren Buffet, the famous value investor, was mentioned many times, especially in American message board conversations, as well as rich entrepreneur Elon Musk. The researcher assumed that most investing-focused message board users were not professional investors. Professional analysts were also common visitors to these message boards. Unfortunately, there is a lack of publicly shared user research from the message boards. 23 This research was conducted using mixed qualitative and quantitative methods. The qualitative research method was used to analyze written comments with complicated semantics and nuances. In addition, a quantitative approach was added to summarize and analyze the qualitative findings. Exploring earlier research showed that there are not many earlier studies on the subject conducted using qualitative or mixed methods, and therefore, this study could provide something new and fruitful to the field of research. According to Ihantola & Kihn (2011), mixing different research methods does not automatically make a research better quality, and could even be a threat to it. In the best scenario, if this so-called triangulation is made purposefully and considered thoroughly, it can lead to a more complete picture of the researched phenomenon. Ihantola & Kihl (2011) suggested that mixed methods would make qualitative research, in some cases, more credible if it were complemented with quantitative information. In this case, the qualitative approach came first, and the quantitative approach was added to summarize and clarify the analysis. Ihantola & Kihl (2011) concluded that all the different methods should be evaluated individually by quality standards set for each research method but also together using, for example, an integrative framework by Tashakkori and Teddlie (2010). These aspects are considered in the discussion section. The research questions were determined before gathering and analyzing the research data (presented in chapter 1.2). As this master’s thesis was written for an accounting-specialized degree, the research questions reflected this approach. The target was to combine earlier research and theories with text data collected from internet message boards and explore if there were relevant findings. Research material includes message board conversations of eight companies listed in Nasdaq Helsinki or formerly Helsinki Stock Exchange and 3 RESEARCH MATERIAL, RESEARCH PROCESS & METHODOLOGY 24 eight listed in NYSE New York Stock Exchange or US Nasdaq. All of the companies operate in the consumer goods and services sector. The conversations were analyzed from three popular investing-focused internet message board platforms from Finland and the USA: Inderes (Finland), Reddit (USA), and InvestorsHub (USA). In Inderes and InvestorsHub, these companies have their own message boards, but in Reddit, wider communities are built around investing topics. The material from Reddit is gathered from r/investing, r/stocks, and r/teslainvestorsclub communities. The platforms were chosen due they are publicly available for free. The data consists of message board data from 2017 to early 2024. The time frame was chosen due to availability and relevance. During the timeframe of this research, the world of finance has turned from zero interest rate policy to a time when debt has again a price. There has been a global COVID-19 pandemic as well as an ongoing Russian attack war on Ukraine. All these global events and developments could have impacted the findings of this research. The chosen companies are large or middle-sized in their sectors and markets. The companies operate in different sectors that are categorized in Table 2 below: Table 2 Companies that were included in the research. As a limitation of this study, it must be recognized that the business logic of the listed companies varied widely even in the same sector. Additionally, the American companies were significantly larger than the Finnish comparison companies. Company name Product/theme Listed in Kamux cars Finland Tesla cars USA Marimekko fashion Finland Nike Inc fashion USA Rovio Entertaiment games Finland Electronic Arts games USA Kesko grocery store Finland Walmart grocery store USA Harvia national identity Finland Coca cola national identity USA Nokia phones Finland Apple phones USA Tokmanni retail store Finland Costco retail store USA Elisa streaming services Finland Netflix streaming services USA 25 The approach to qualitative research was taken from the Flick's (2007) book Designing Qualitative Research. The qualitative analysis of research material was content and theory-oriented according to classical principles of qualitative research. Text data from message boards was summarized by using coding and categorizing as Flick (2007) guidelines. The theories summarized in the earlier chapters were considered the basis for coding data into clear categories customized according to the research material. The findings from the conversations were first coded into categories mainly according to Memarista & Kusuwati's (2022) and Lev & Thiagarajan’s (1993) previous research but eventually complemented with other topics that appeared in conversations. See the final topics Table 3. This research excluded ratios that include share price, such as P/E and P/B ratios, which are usually seen as a part of technical analysis. Table 3 Comment categories The frequency and visibility of different topics were considered when summarizing what was relevant in the text data, but the researcher also Category Theme Accounting information Operating Profit Accounting information Equity Accounting information Revenue Accounting information Debt Accounting information Order stock Accounting information Pricing Accounting information Dividend Accounting information Cash flow Accounting information (fundamentals) Gross margin Accounting information (fundamentals) R&D Accounting information (fundamentals) Auditing Accounting information (fundamentals) Accounts receivable Accounting information (fundamentals) Fixed expenses Accounting information (fundamentals) Taxation Accounting information (fundamentals) Labor Accounting information (fundamentals) Inventories Nonfinancial information Investors preference Nonfinancial information Own experiences Nonfinancial information Brand Nonfinancial information Sector development Nonfinancial information Sustainability Nonfinancial information Press & social media Nonfinancial information Management 32 4.2 Financial Information 4.2.1 Quantitative Findings Users on internet message boards seemed to value main accounting figures such as revenue, operating profit, and operating free cash flow over smaller details (as presented in Table 8) and frequently speculated about future development for those. Many creative methods were used to estimate current sales development before publicly announcing the figures. Financial information was typically only discussed in more detail when companies faced troubles. Table 8 The scale valuation of accounting related topics 4.2.2 Qualitative Findings The overall impression from the research material was that longer conversations and debates seemed to concentrate more on nonfinancial information than Category Topic Average total USA Finland Accounting information Revenue 1,0 1,0 1,0 Accounting information Operating Profit 1,4 1,3 1,4 Accounting information Dividend 1,6 2,0 1,3 Accounting information Cash flow 1,9 2,4 1,6 Accounting information Pricing 2,0 2,4 1,7 Accounting information (fundamentals) R&D 2,0 1,6 2,3 Accounting information (fundamentals) Gross margin 2,2 1,9 2,7 Accounting information (fundamentals) Inventories 2,3 2,6 2,1 Accounting information (fundamentals) Labor 2,6 2,8 2,6 Accounting information (fundamentals) Fixed expenses 2,6 2,6 2,7 Accounting information Debt 2,9 2,9 2,9 Accounting information Equity 3,1 3,1 3,1 Accounting information (fundamentals) Taxation 3,4 3,4 3,4 Accounting information Order stock 3,5 3,6 3,3 Accounting information (fundamentals) Accounts receivable 3,7 3,5 3,9 Accounting information (fundamentals) Auditing 3,8 3,6 4,0 1 = Appeared extremely frequently in conversations and felt very important 2 = Appeared frequently in conversations and felt important 3 = Appeared rarely in conversations and did not feel especially important 4 = Never or rarely appeared in conversations 33 financial information. Financial information was often shared in the conversations via links or simply announced. Elements of fundamental information analysis as Lev & Thiagarajan (1993) described, were visible but turned into a modern perspective. For an example of using traditional inventory figures in a creative format: In Inderes’ internet message boards, it was common to analyze dealers’ webstore stock levels to predict unannounced sales figures. “I have continued this regular, irregular and unsystematic digging for information by checking out certain dealers' online shops. Findings: For a while Wayfair had some of the barrel sauna models on sale again, but now they are all "out of stock" again, as are most of the indoor saunas too. Costco: smaller selection, but exactly the same thing, the 6-person barrel is out of stock again. You can still get the bigger ones. At Home Depot, the 6-person Princeton Cedar has a "Best Seller" tag, which I don't think they had before. Unfortunately, the other models have been out of stock the entire time I've been tracking. AHS's own Labor Day Sale has now sold out of all barrel saunas, the first product line to do so. Cabin and Indoor are still available. Any impossibly far-fetched conclusions about sales numbers are probably not worth drawing from these. However, I personally think that barrel saunas in particular have sold as much as they have been able to make throughout Q3 and would probably sell more. A guess is not worth the data, but I still expect to see similar growth YoYo in North America as in Q2. Could be a little less, could be a little more. But on that plot, it could go.” 16th September 2020, Harvia Plc’s message board, Inderes, Finland Internet board users used modern tools to gather information and estimate companies' unpublished figures. As an example of modern methods, Google Trends was very often used to analyze companies’ current demand: "There might have been a small bump in Google Trends last week for Tokmanni, but nothing significant now. Interestingly, Tokmanni is clearly lagging behind Prisma. Covid-related hoarding is not raining into Tokmanni’s pocket" 26th March 2020, Tokmanni Plc’s message board, Inderes, Finland Revenue scored highest as the most frequent and important financial topic in the message boards. The revenue topic included for example conversations of sales mix, growth estimations and above presented creative analyses. Other popular topic close to revenue, was how companies managed their pricing strategies especially compared to competitors. In general, users were not eager to analyze companies’ cost structures. "Gross margin" or "margin per product" were popular financial figures used to evaluate profitability. Interestingly, in the conversations, Finnish users seemed 34 to focus more on operating profit than gross margin. Instead, on American message boards, both operating profit and gross margin appeared often and seemed equally important. Fixed expenses were not a popular topic in conversations in general. However, R&D and personnel expenses or headcount were mentioned frequently. As Lev & Thiagarajan (1993) proved in their research that a growing number of R&D activities were seen as positive for the company’s future and also in the internet message board conversations. Another perspective seemed to be that an efficient amount of R&D compared to innovations could be a good sign as a user in Tesla’s message board implied: “Tesla, as a small company, has an R&D budget of just over a billion dollars. As a percentage of turnover, this is shockingly high, but in euro terms, it's nothing compared to the competitors. At BMW, R&D seems to have been in the region of $6-9 billion. At Volkswagen it was over €14 billion. Does Tesla have such a significant first mover advantage that competitors with multiple development budgets will not be able to beat its battery or self-driving technologies in the future?” 19th May 2020, Tesla’s message board, Inderes, Finland Personnel expenses were usually brought up in relation to layoffs. While message board users seemed to value fast demand adjustment, they also seemed to see good employee satisfaction as a positive factor, especially in American boards. Example of headcount analysis from Reddit: “EA has almost 10,000 employees and $5bn in revenue. Roblox has 800 employees and did $900m last year. They’re able to generate 1/5 of the revenue using 1/10 of the workforce.” 12th March 2021, Conversation of Electronic Arts Plc, Reddit In general, users in message boards were not analyzing accounts receivables or other balance sheet items in many conversations about research data. That could be due to the long zero interest rate policy during the past decade. Cash has been easily available, and bankruptcies have been rare. Receivables and other balance sheet items seemed to be taken into conversation when tremendous changes in values occurred. Debt, equity or other key solvency figures were not very popular topics in the message boards. As mentioned before, debt interested users when there was something special, as this message board user thinks: ”Take profits here. Netflix has enormous debt Total Debt (mrq) $16.99B” 19th October 2023, Netflix Plc’s message board, InvestorsHub Income taxes and auditing topics were noticeably absent from almost every message board in the material. Instead of traditional auditing, it was visible that users in the message boards continuously evaluated if they trusted the information that companies shared and if they believed the company image created by the companies themselves. American message boards included more 35 speculations of financial fraud than Finnish message boards. That could be due to significant frauds that have happened in the American stock markets throughout history. Example of a strong opinion on Tesla’s message board: “You don't need to be an auditor to know they were fraudulent. It was obvious from the very second that moron said he was going to "out Elon Elon". 24th December 2022, Tesla’s message board, Reddit For last, companies' dividend policy was a popular topic of discussion in both Finnish and American conversations. Notable is that some of the companies in research material were not paying dividends. Some investors did not like that because then the profit for the investors has to come from market price changes: “No dividend for such an expensive stock... why own this? it will never regain its former market share” 18th October 2023, Netflic Plc’s message board, InvestorsHub Even though this research does not concentrate on share prices or technical analysis, it has to be mentioned that those were also highly popular topics on the message boards. In American message boards, it was typical to share if the investors felt bearish or bullish on a stock, meaning speculation of falling or rising stock price. The overall image was that financial information was important for investing-focused internet message board users. The most valuable information seemed to be estimations of current unannounced financial information. Users had creative and modern methods to gather this kind of information. Conversations often contained information easy for consumers to monitor, such as pricing and website stock levels. 4.3 Nonfinancial Information 4.3.1 Quantitative Findings The material of this research indicates that nonfinancial topics seemed to be more popular for message board users than traditional financial figures and other financial information. As described in the previous chapter, conversations about nonfinancial aspects seemed longer and more controversial. Message board users seemed to prefer conversations about sector development, their own experiences, and companies’ brands most (Table 9). Interestingly users’ own experiences felt more important and frequent in the American research material. Qualitative findings will explain more thoroughly these findings. 36 Table 9 The scale valuation of the nonfinancial information topics 4.3.2 Qualitative Findings Qualitative findings are explained in the order that was found in the scale analysis starting from sectors development. Sector development In the scale valuation, sector development scored as the most popular nonfinancial topic in the message boards. The topic included conversations about global economics, market trends, competitor analysis, and future scenarios for the sector. Particularly, the future performance of large global companies was estimated and analyzed in the context of the global economy. An example of market analysis in Finnish grocery store brand’s message board: "In 1990, there were just under five million Finns. In 2000, just under 5.2 million, in 2010 under 5.4 million and now over 5.6 million. It's not a huge increase, but the population is growing by 20,000 annually." 21st January 2024, Kesko Plc’s message board, Inderes Finland Investors’ experiences Internet message board conversations included many comments on message board users' experiences using goods or services of listed companies. Both positive and negative feedback was given, and investing decisions were frequently justified using those experiences. Message board users seemed to love Peter Lynch and his analysis methods, which were described further in the theoretical framework of this research. However, Finnish and American message board users had different approaches to practicing Lynches methods. In Finland, message board users were especially Theme Average total USA Finland Sector development 1,3 1,3 1,4 Own experiences 1,4 1,0 1,6 Brand 1,4 1,3 1,6 Management 2,3 2,9 1,7 Investors preference 2,4 2,1 2,7 Press & social media 2,8 2,8 2,7 Sustainability 2,9 2,9 3,0 1 = Appeared extremely frequently in conversations and felt very important 2 = Appeared frequently in conversations and felt important 3 = Appeared rarely in conversations and did not feel especially important 4 = Never or rarely appeared in conversations 37 eager to try products by themselves and observe demand on the streets in various methods. The Finnish message board users have even created a verb for practicing the Lynch method called “lyncheillä” in Finnish. American users on message boards discussed and implemented Lynch's analytical methods in a more comprehensive manner. Example from observing the current popularity of products: “I did little bit Lynch-like research and bought a few new products. The Adidas x Marimekko collection, which went on sale in Europe today, was sold out immediately, so it looks like it will be a good fit for customers. Annoyingly few products for men/unisex models, so there is room for improvement.” 1st July 2021, Marimekko Plc’s message board, Inderes, Finland An observation from American streets: “I don’t see any of my friends wearing Nike much anymore, maybe some AF1s or SBs but that’s it. Brands that have massive logos/graphics on their clothing now just aren’t in style. I always liked Peter Lynch’s philosophy on consumer stocks - buy what you see on the street.”23 December 2023, Conversation on Nike, Reddit Company image, fans, and national identity Brand and company image were popular topics to discuss and analyze on the internet message boards. It was apparent that some users were avid fans of particular brands. As a topic, the brand image seemed to win financial aspects, especially on American message boards. Finnish Marimekko was equated with religion in this comment: “Marimekko religion is a thing, just like the iPhone, you buy at a high price even though the products are not technically different.” 16th May 2019, Marimekko’s message board, Inderes, Finland For Finns, seemed like the performance of some companies was associated with national identity. This behavior occurred in practice as hype and cheering in conversations as if the company was message board users’ favorite sports team. Example from Harvia Plc’s message board: "A total of 4.8 million international internet searches on the major search engines concerning Finnish tourism were made last year 2020. The most searched content remained the same as in the previous year, but the order changed, with, among other things, sauna-related searches (+28% from the previous year) climbing to the top spot, ahead of the most searched content in previous years, northern lights (-6%)." 6th April 2021, Harvia Plc’s message board, Inderes The difference between Finnish and American companies was that many of the American companies in the research material had monetary brand valuations from independent parties. Unlike most Finnish companies, those American companies' brand values could be compared and analyzed when making investing decisions. 38 Management Management expertise seemed to be an important aspect for the Finnish message board users. Finnish users often criticized management by name. American users did not debate management as frequently as Finnish users, except when directors were celebrities like Elon Musk. “He is obviously distracted from his responsibilities at Tesla. And his comments and execution at X is hurting Tesla brand image. There is a clear conflict of interest. Tesla deserves a full time CEO.” 30th November 2023, Tesla Plc’s Message Board, Reddit Investor Preference The main reason investors use message boards seemed to be gathering diverse opinions and seeking advice. Finnish investors on message boards seemed to value foreign investments in Finnish stocks, whereas American investors seemed to value especially the opinions of well-known investors like Warren Buffet. An example of Finnish conversation: “Tokmanni Plc’s foreign monitoring has also increased. Earlier in the Tokmanni’s webcast, questions were also asked by an analyst from Erasmus Gestion. That is when I noticed that the Erasmus Small Cap fund seems to own Tokmanni Plc’s shares.” 20th November 2020, Tokmanni Plc’s message board, Inderes, Finland Example of Warren Buffet fan: “Warren Buffet loves this stock… And to take a Buffett approach to things, KO (Coca cola) has an enormous competitive moat. It is THE cola brand. When you want a cola drink you ask for a Coke. Seldom does anyone ask for a Pepsi. Seldom does a waiter ever say, “is Coke ok?” 20th November 2023, Conversation of Coca Cola, Reddit Familiarity and long-term solid performance were seen as positive when valuing stocks in both American and Finnish message boards: “Elisa Plc is a familiar and safe investment for everyone, but at least here in the Inderes community, there seems to be no interest in the company. “ 31st January 2021, Elisa Plc’s message board, Inderes, Finland Press coverage In each message board analyzed, the users reposted news of the company to aid in gathering relevant information. The reposted news were mainly articles from financial or other relevant magazines such as Talouselämä, Arvopaperi, and Kauppalehti in the Finnish context. Users in the message boards rarely mentioned or linked newer media, including Tik Tok, Instagram, and Facebook. 39 Even so, users seemed to value if some celebrity is connected with the brand of the listed company: “I highly recommend you to follow #marimekko on instagram. Good visibility for the trend setting brand. I think that couple of dudes (JVG - Finnish rap duo) flashed in the show that brought visibility to our Marimekko...” 9th September 2019, Marimekko Plc’s message board, Inderes, Finland Sustainability Overall, the conclusion from the community involvement and sustainabilityrelated topics was that users in message boards were not very enthusiastic to debate about them. Sustainability-related news and other information were usually mentioned in a positive context on the Finnish message boards. Instead, in American message boards, there was more often criticism of sustainability. The overall impression of the researcher was that both Finnish and American investor board users seemed still skeptical and pessimistic about sustainable business. An example of this phenomenon: “It is certainly true that many people have moved on from Nike in recent years, and there are definitely some appealing alternatives out there for those looking for childlabor free and vegan footwear. However, I believe that the main reason people are still interested in Nike is because of its long history as a brand associated with high-quality products. In other words, people trust Nike to deliver on its promises, even if it means paying a bit more than they would for another brand.”22nd December 2023, Conversation of Nike, Reddit 4.4 Company Specific Findings The findings at the company level support the overall picture. In almost all companies’ message board conversations, nonfinancial information was a slightly more popular topic than financial information (Table 10). As an exception, Finnish Nokia and Elisa message boards emphasized more accounting information, while Tesla and Kamux seemed to have an equal amount of conversation about both topics. This could be due to Nokia and Elisa being seen as positively boring stable companies, while Tesla and Kamux did experience big changes in their financial performance during the research time period. Tesla turned profitable, whereas the operating profit of Kamux decreased significantly from 2019 to 2022. Table 9 below shows a comparison of annual revenues and operating profits between 2019 and 2022, as well as the development of annual closing stock prices. 40 Table 10 Background information of the companies Calculated by the formula: (revenue 2022 – revenue 2019)/revenue 2019 When looking at which companies had the biggest differences in accounting information and nonfinancial information valuations (Table 11), companies with strong brands scored the highest. Tokmanni and Walmart also scored high in nonfinancial information since the users concentrated on debating sector development, competition, and their own experiences. As mentioned earlier, companies with big changes in their financial performance had the smallest differences between accounting and nonfinancial information valuations. Company name Annual revenue 2022 compared to 2019 Operating profit 2022 to 2019 Closing stock price 2022 to 2019 Accounting information Average Nonfinancial Information Average Tesla 231 % 4303 % 342 % 1,9 1,9 Apple 52 % 87 % 78 % 2,8 2,1 Harvia 133 % 161 % 69 % 2,3 1,9 Costco 49 % 65 % 55 % 2,3 2,1 Kesko 10 % 82 % 38 % 2,8 2,1 Rovio Entertaiment 10 % 58 % 38 % 2,6 2,0 Nokia 7 % 23 % 31 % 2,1 2,3 Marimekko 33 % 77 % 22 % 2,5 1,7 Walmart 11 % 18 % 19 % 2,6 1,9 Nike Inc 19 % 40 % 16 % 2,7 2,0 Coca cola 36 % 27 % 15 % 2,7 1,7 Electronic Arts 13 % 200 % 14 % 2,9 2,1 Elisa 15 % 19 % 0 % 2,8 3,0 Netflix 57 % 116 % -9 % 2,5 2,3 Tokmanni 24 % 18 % -11 % 2,5 1,7 Kamux 47 % -33 % -41 % 2,3 2,3 Total average 2,5 2,1 1 = Appeared extremely frequently in conversations and felt very important 2 = Appeared frequently in conversations and felt important 3 = Appeared rarely in conversations and did not feel especially important 4 = Never or rarely appeared in conversations 41 Table 11 The valuations filtered by differences in the scores. Table 12 shows that message board users like to discuss certain companies’ performance more, which could have affected the results of this research. Even though Tesla, Apple, and Nokia had the highest comment volumes on the message boards, the conversation emphasis on those boards differed widely. It is hard to define what makes a certain company more popular than others. In addition to emphasizing financial or non-financial information, some companies seemed less interesting to investors. For example, Finnish Elisa had a low volume of comments on its message board, and the comments did not show high enthusiasm for the company even though it performed relatively well during the research period. Table 12 summarizes the different numbers of comments in the researched message boards. The summary contains information from Inderes and InvestorsHub. Unfortunately, the same data from Reddit was not available. Company name Accounting information Average Nonfinancial Information Average Difference Coca cola 2.7 1.7 1.0 Marimekko 2.5 1.7 0.8 Tokmanni 2.5 1.7 0.8 Electronic Arts 2.9 2.1 0.7 Walmart 2.6 1.9 0.7 Nike Inc 2.7 2.0 0.7 Kesko 2.8 2.1 0.7 Apple 2.8 2.1 0.6 Rovio Entertaiment 2.6 2.0 0.6 Harvia 2.3 1.9 0.4 Netflix 2.5 2.3 0.2 Costco 2.3 2.1 0.2 Tesla 1.9 1.9 0.1 Kamux 2.3 2.3 0.0 Nokia 2.1 2.3 -0.2 Elisa 2.8 3.0 -0.3 Total average 2.5 2.1 1 = Appeared extremely frequently in conversations and felt very important 2 = Appeared frequently in conversations and felt important 3 = Appeared rarely in conversations and did not feel especially important 4 = Never or rarely appeared in conversations 48 been unclear if the quantitative evaluations and summaries were missed. The analysis methods were selected to effectively address the research questions. According to Tashakkori & Teddlie, (2010), the mixed methods research should provide generalizable conclusions, if possible. Since the analysis and conclusions of this research are subjective assessments of the researcher, the outcome could be somewhat different if another researcher replicated it. From this perspective, this research may have been more reliable if the research material had been wider and if the scale evaluations had been made by multiple evaluators. The research material included listed companies from Finland and the USA. These markets are very different, especially in terms of company size, which could have affected the results. The choice of message boards could have also affected the results. Also, the message board platforms were not completely comparable since the operating logic was slightly different. InvestorsHub and Inderes seemed quite similar when comparing the volume of comments, while Reddit seems to have much more volume than both of those. X-message service (formerly Twitter) would have been an interesting research platform since there is plenty of Finnish and English content on the subject. When thinking about the quality of the research material, unfortunately, the background of internet message board users could not be verified using public anonymous conversations as the source of this research. The users in the message boards could be investors, employees of the listed companies or anyone. Lastly, Teddlie & Tashakkori (2010) guidelines state that the results of the different methods should be integrated into a coherent conclusion. The qualitative and quantitative findings were summarized and turned into a concept in chapter 5.1. All the conclusions of this research supplemented each other, making the picture of the researched phenomenon complete, and therefore, the mixed methods could be justified as a relevant choice for this particular research. 49 This research aimed to explore how the investors and other stakeholders on internet investor-focused message boards analyze and comment on listed companies and how accounting information is reflected in these conversations. Also, nonfinancial topics such as company image and sector development were taken into account in the analysis. Both financial information and nonfinancial information appeared in conversations frequently, but both American and Finnish message board users seemed to value nonfinancial information over financial information, at least as a conversation topic. As Amir & Lev (1996) concluded, it is relevant to combine nonfinancial information with financial information to form a full picture of a listed company and its probable future performance. Some of this information was also used to evaluate if the companies shared truthful picture of their future outlooks and performance. As a minor difference, American users seemed to value nonfinancial information slightly more than Finnish users and Finnish users seemed to value financial information slightly more than American message board users. This difference was not verified by T-test, possibly due to a small amount of research material. The accounting topics most frequently discussed or mentioned in the message boards were revenue, operating profit, and dividends. From an accounting perspective, users on the message boards seemed to concentrate on analyzing and estimating the current main financial figures that were unannounced or speculating long-term performance. This result is in line with the findings of Liang & Yao (2005), who found that the gap between the market and book value of a listed company could be explained through the company’s future expectations. The message board users preferred main financial figures, such as sales, over smaller details, which was already found by Benston (1967). The methods these users practiced were many times creative and modern. For 6 CONCLUSION 50 example, Google Trends, web stores’ stocks and parking lots were used as analysis tools as described previously in this research. The most popular nonfinancial information topics were sector development, brand, and message board users’ own experiences. It was evident that nonfinancial information was at least equally important and relevant in the conversations as traditional financial information. Message board users were eager to analyze and debate future scenarios for specific business fields and evaluate the strength of brands. In addition, personal experiences of products and services were popular topics on the message boards. The biggest surprise was that sustainability did not seem to be a very important topic for the users. It has already been proved in earlier studies that nonfinancial aspects are highly relevant when valuing listed companies (for example, Bart et al., 1998; Liang & Yao, 2005 and Amir & Lev, 1996), and this research supported this theory. Considering all the findings, it becomes evident that investing-focused message boards play a crucial role in assisting their users in the analysis of the current or future performance of listed companies. This could potentially lead to the formation of more efficient markets, as, according to Fama (1970), stock prices reflect all available information, and on the message boards, investors can summarize and share information with each other. The research also sparked the question of whether some of the nonfinancial information should be transformed into mandatory financial information, as also argued by Lev (2019). For instance, brand value and other types of “goodwill” would also be relevant to calculate when they are internally generated, not just when they are acquired. Additionally, accounting information could be more relevant and effort-saving for the message board users if the most important key figures were announced more frequently, as also concluded by Chen & Yu (2022) in their research. Lastly, an individual investor could gain an advantage by thoroughly researching classical fundamental information, while most people only follow a few main financial figures as also implied by Abarbanell & Bushee (1997). In the future, there are several promising avenues for research in the field of nonfinancial information analysis on investing-focused message boards and social media platforms. One such area is the investigation of internet message boards and social media platforms as investor communities, a topic that has been largely overlooked in qualitative research. Additionally, the study of investingrelated conversations on emerging social media platforms such as TikTok or Instagram could provide valuable insights into the evolving landscape of investment decision-making. One possible approach for future research is to directly ask investors how they use investing-focused message boards when making investment decisions, as this research was conducted by observing those boards. Also, it would be relevant to study whether there is a difference between active message board users and other investors when making decisions. In other words, does active usage of the message boards affect investors' decision-making or not? 51 Another approach would be to explore further the differences in message board practices and emphasis worldwide. This research has already found differences in how American and Finnish message board users emphasize certain topics. 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Financial Analysts Journal, 57(3), 41. https://doi.org/10.2469/faj.v57.n3.2449 56 COMPANY NAME SERVICE NAME COMMENT 1 Marimekko Inderes ”Mutta Marimekko-uskontoa ilmenee, ihan kuin iPhoneen, ostetaan kovalla hinnalla, vaikka tuotteet teknisesti ei erotu edukseen.” 2 Marimekko Inderes ”Itse ajattelen muotia todella haastavana pitkän aikavälin sijoituskohteena. Maut ja tyylit muuttuu hurjaa vauhtia ja se, mikä nyt on aallonharjalla, on todennäköisesti läpikaluttua jo muutaman vuoden kuluttua - kunnes kenties nousee pinnalle taas 10-20 vuoden kuluttua.” 3 Marimekko Inderes ”Marimekon momentum alkoi näkyä katukuvassa tietynlaisen asiakaskunnan valintana vuosi sitten. He ovat valmiita maksamaan ja Marimekon kuosit ja tyyli osuu tähän hetkeen. Silloin sivelin hermostuneena ostonappia useampaan kertaan, valitettavasti toteuttamatta mutuani. Ehkä jatkopohdintani onkin luettava harmistuneen, kyydistä jääneen murinana :wink:” 4 Marimekko Inderes ”Marimekko on toki tehnyt monta asiaa fiksusti. Eivät ole tehneet Ainot&Reinot-virhettä ja lähteneet massamyyntiin Prismoihin/Cittareihin tarjouskorihinnoin, vaan hinnoitelleet itsensä luksukseksi isohkolle joukolle ja pitäneet sillä itsensä arvostettuna. Ovat osanneet valjastaa matkailun ja Suomi-boomin edukseen. ” APPENDIX 1 EXAMPLE COMMENTS 57 5 Marimekko Inderes ”Nyt on viimein Petrin mainitsemat urbaanit mutta erittäin tyylikkäät ja nuorekkaat - joskin hyvin vaihtareiltaan vajaat mallistot ulkona. Hyvin myynyt verkkokaupasta indikoiden siihen nähden että huppari on oikeasti liki tuplat GANT- huppariin nähden.” 6 Marimekko Inderes ”Meillä on jonkin verran Marimekon astioita ja muita kodintuotteita kotona, mutta vaatteet on ainakin vaimon mielestä ollut lähes koko meidän yhdessäoloajan (12 vuotta) aika lailla ”nou-nou”-kamaa. Nyt ihmettelin, kun yhtäkkiä alko vaatteita yks toisensa jälkeen löytymään rekeistä, että ”hei vitsi tää on kiva” ja ”tää on kanssa makee” ja ”Millon Marimekko on alkanut tehdä näin siistejä vaatteita?” 7 Marimekko Inderes ”Suosittelen kanssa lämpimästi kaikille #marimekko seuraamaan instassa. Hyvää näkyvyyttä trendaamiseen brändillä. Tais muuan kolppikaksikkokin (JVG) vilahtaa näkyvyyttä meiän marimekolle tuomassa tuossa koko kansan (itku)ohjelmassa…” 8 Marimekko Inderes ”Määrätietoisesti ja systemaattisesti on brändiä ja tuotteita rakennettu viime vuodet. Trakki superia. Lisäelementtinä ovat tulossa myös puupohjaiset kuitumateriaalit MM tuotteistoon. Olisikohan noissa mahdollisuuksia seuraavaan kasvupiikkiin.” 9 Marimekko Inderes ”Huomattiin kuinka hyvin joulumyynti veti ja osake +4 %. :wink: Omassa lähipiirissä ainakin Marimekon joululahjat tänä jouluna valtavan suosittuja.” 10 Marimekko Inderes ”Sattuu sitä paremmissakin piireissä, esim. LVHM ja Hermes ovat ottaneet myös osumaa. Kiinasta tulee suuri kysyntä luxustuotteille.” 11 Marimekko Inderes ”Joo, katselin samaa, 13% Marimekon valmistuksesta Kiinassa. Puhumattakaan sitten Marimekon suosiosta Aasiassa, eiköhän Koronavirus ja karanteenit vaikuta myyntiin Q1:lla. No, tilinpäätöstiedotteessa aihetta varmaan sivutaan.” 64 42 Harvia Inderes “Kansainvälisiä, Suomen matkailua koskevia internethakuja tehtiin suurimmilla hakukoneilla viime vuonna 2020 yhteensä 4,8 miljoonaa.” “Eniten haetut sisällöt pysyivät samoina kuin edellisvuonna, mutta järjestys muuttui muun muassa siten, että sauna-aiheiset haut (+28 % edellisvuodesta) kirivät ykköspaikalle ohi edellisvuosina eniten haettujen revontulten (-6 %).” 43 Elisa Inderes ”Varsin mallikas tulos nykyiseen taloustilanteeseen suhteutettuna. Yritysasiakkaat ovat olleet selvästi kulutietoisempia kuin henkilöasiakkaat, kun yritysasiakaspuolella liikevaihdon kasvu vain 0,5 % ja käyttökate supistunut 5,4 %. Henkilöasiaksapuolella liikevaihto kasvanut 2,9 % ja käyttökate kasvanut 6,3 %. Tästä voisi karkeasti päätellä, että kuluttajat ovat edelleen hyväksyneet yleiset liittymien hinnan korotukset ja kalliimmat 5G liittymät ovat edelleen suosiossa.” 44 Elisa Inderes ”Käyttökate kasvoi enemmän kuin liikevaihto.” 45 Elisa Inderes ”Kassavirta kasvoi yli 30 %” 46 Elisa Inderes ”…1. Elisan rahoituskulut tulee kasvamaan ainakin jollain aikavälillä…” 47 Elisa Inderes ”Valitettavasti kuluttajan kannalta kun vastassa on kartelli, niin vaihtaminen ei enää kannata. Aiemmin hinnoittelussa oli isoja eroja, mutta nykyään kun kaikilla samat hinnat, miksi kuluttaja vaihtaisi ?” 48 Elisa Inderes ”Vuoden johtajaksi on valittu teleoperaattori Elisan toimitusjohtaja Veli-Matti Mattila. Kauppakamari palkitsi Vuoden 2023 johtajan Johtamisen ajankohtaispäivässä 10. marraskuuta. Neljättä kertaa jaettavan tunnustuksen saajia on voinut ehdottaa kauppakamarin verkkosivujen kautta, ja lopullisen valinnan yritysten henkilöstön ilmiantojen perusteella teki Helsingin seudun kauppakamarin toimitusjohtaja Pia Pakarinen.” 49 Elisa Inderes ”Tuli ynnäiltyä Exceliin tarkemmin Elisan postpaid-liittymien vaihtuvuutta ja keskimääräistä laskutusta, kun on puhuttu suotuisasta markkinatilanteesta. Tässä grafiikassa tämä tuleekin hyvin ilmi, miten vuosina 2017-2019 laskutus junnasi paikallaan ja vaihtuvuus liikkui 20 %:ssa.” 65 50 Elisa Inderes ”Elisan osinkotuotto alkaa tosiaan olla jo houkutteleva eikä viimeinenkin osari taisi olla varsin tavanomainen.” 51 Elisa Inderes ”Elisa panostaa voimakkaasti uusiutuvan energian käyttöön ja on solminut seuraavaksi 10 vuodeksi tuulivoiman hankintasopimuksen rakenteilla olevasta Puutikankangas Wind - tuulivoimapuistosta. Sopimus kattaa allekirjoitushetkellä noin puolet Elisan Suomen mobiiliverkon sähköenergian kulutuksesta.” 52 Elisa Inderes ”Just vaihdoin 3 Elisan liittymää Telialle, 30 € säästöä per kuukausi + 90 € ostokortit Lidliin.Hetihän sieltä pukkas viestiä Elisalta,ajattelisivat aikanaan kun munklaavat sikahintoja liittymiin ja turhia Viaplay kaupantekiäisiä jotka saa ite lopettaa jos meinaa päästä eroon.Seuraavaksi siirryn savumerkkeihin jos suunta jatkuu,kuusenoksia varattu jo iso nippu tuohon tarkotukseen.” 53 Elisa Inderes ”Kokemusasiantuntijan kommentti: tosi ketteräksi on Elisan markkinointiprosessi ja tekninen toiminta viritetty, minulle soitti eilen klo 11 Elisan myyjä ja viestinä laajakaistan nopeuttaminen + uutiskanavatarjonnan laajentaminen (Viihdepaketin kautta). 2 v tarjous oli sopiva ja sanoin yes. Vain 2 tuntia myöhemmin tuli tekstiviesti että laajakaistan nopeus on nostettu ja siitä 1 h myöemmin tuli Matkahuollon viesti että Elisan lähetys on matkalla pyytämääni pakettiautomaattiin. Huhhuh, aivan kuin muurahaispesä touhuaa tuo organisaatio. Saapa nähdä onko tuote sitten odotusten mukainen. [En ylläty jos joku tämän viestin liputtaa mutta mielestäni firman palvelun laatu ja toimivuus saattaa sijoittajaa kiinnostaa]” 66 54 Elisa Inderes ”Infossa analyytikoita tuntui kiinnostavan esim. kilpailuympäristö. Liittymien vaihtuvuus laski menneellä neljänneksellä noin 16 %:iin edellisen neljänneksen 18 %:sta. Voisiko sanoa, että tyyntä ennen myrskyä, sillä vuoden viimeiselle neljännekselle osuvat sitten hullut päivät (Black Friday, Singles’ Day, veronpalautukset, joulu). Jos haluaa kilpailuttaa liittymiään, ei ole välttämättä huono hetki. :grinning_face_with_smiling_eyes: Se, että teleoperaattoreiden välinen kilpailu on tiivistä, ei ole luonnollisesti kenellekään uusi asia.” 55 Elisa Inderes ”Elisa on kaikille tuttu ja turvallinen sijoituskohde, mutta ainakaan täällä inderesin yhteisössä yhtiö ei tunnu kiinnostavan.” 56 Rovio Inderes “Ei AngryBirds ole mitä ilmeisimmin kuoleva brändi ainakaan toviin, kuitenkaan näytöt eivät osoita sen olevan myöskään kasvava. Rovion pitäisi saada aikaiseksi joitakin muitakin menestyviä tuotteita.” 57 Rovio Inderes ”Kävinpäs lataamassa tuon Darkfire Heroesin ja alkutuntuma oli yllättävän positiivinen näin core-pelaajan silmin katsottuna. Mielenkiinnolla seuraan kuinka luvut kehittyvät.” 58 Rovio Inderes ”Oon nyt pari päivää luukuttanut tuota Darkfire Heroesia (halp!) ja pakko todeta että tuo on aikamoista digitaalista koksua. Jos tällä ei Rovio saa liikevaihtoa nousuun niin ei sitten millään. Pitää varmaan ottaa pieni positio ja toivoa että tää lähtee lentoon.” 59 Tesla Inderes ”Köhii jenkeissäkin. Tästä on ollut jo aiemminkin selkeitä merkkejä. Ensiksi toimitusajat tippuivat minimiin ja backloggi alkoi tyhjentyä. Sen jälkeen tuli erinäisiä alennuksia sekä huhuja inventaarion kasvusta.” 60 Tesla Inderes ”Viimeisen viikon sisällä tulleet tiedot lisäalennuksista kaikilla markkinoilla, sekä rekryjen keskeyttämiset/henkilöstön vähentämiset kertovat yhdestä asiasta: kysyntä ei ole riittävällä tasolla taihi kasvavalla uralla.” 67 61 Kamux Inderes ”Pieni tarkennus tuohon eli mitä enemmän varastoa niin todennäköisesti sitä enemmän myös kauppaa noin yleisellä tasolla mutta rajahyöty pienenee koko ajan. Eli jos varastoa on 10 autoa niin voidaan todeta että kauppa ei varmasti käy mutta se että lisätään varastoa miljoonasta autosta miljardiin autoon ei näy kaupassa kuin marginaalisesti. Tämä näin äärimmäisesimerkkeinä.” 62 Kamux Inderes ”Mukavaa myös nähdä varaston kasvatus Q2 aikana on onnistuttu purkamaan ja vaihtoomaisuuden kierto on laskenut. =yhtiön strategia tässä on ollut onnistunut.” 63 Harvia Inderes ”Pitäisi olla kissanpäivät omistajilla muutaman hetken, sillä ainakin kauppojen varastosaldoja tutkiessa tavaraa näyttää tulevan myyntiin, mutta jatkuvasti osa tuotteista on parin kappaleen saldolla, kunnes taas tulee täydennystä. Näyttää ainakin sille, että kysyntään pystytään vastaamaan, mikä on erittäin tärkeää.” 64 Tesla Inderes ”Teslalla pienenä firmana R&D liikkuu reilussa miljardissa taalassa. Prosentuaalisesti liikevaihtoon nähden määrä on järkyttävän korkea, mutta euromääräisesti kilpailijoihin nähden täysin mitäänsanomaton. BMW:llä R&D:n osuus näyttää olleen about 6-9 miljardin dollarin luokkaa. Volkkarilla yli 14 miljardia euroa. Onko Teslalla niin merkittävä first mover advantage, etteivät kilpailijat kykene moninkertaisilla kehitysbudjeteilla tulevaisuudessakaan vastaamaan sen akku- tai self driving -teknologioihin?” 65 Kamux Inderes ”Yllä on useamman vuoden TTM trendi liikevaihdon ja käyttökatteen kehittymisestä, josta on poistettu Saksan 3.9M€ kertaerä. Käyttökate-% on nousujohteinen ja käyttökate on kasvanut nopeammin kuin liikevaihto. Viimeisin kvartaali aiheutti notkahduksen ja käyttökatteen kasvu liukuvalla 12kk periodilla laski alle liikevaihdon kasvun. Kamux ohjeisti, että kasvu kiihtyy ja kannattavuus voi kärsiä ja tämä kvartaali oli linassa sen kanssa. Trendi kuitenkin näyttää hyvältä eli en näe ongelmaa.” 68 66 Rovio Inderes ”Rubyn tiimin tuplaaminen oli itselleni ehkä pienoinen yllätys. Toisaalta kuitenkin monelle ehkä odotettu ja onhan se aivan loistava peliliike. Jos ennen tuli pelejä Rubyllä noin neljä vuodessa, niin tuo antaa mahdollisuuden julkaista 8 uutta peliä vuoteen? Voi olla, että tätä ei nyt ihan suoraan näin voi laskea, mutta kova tulee jatkossa olemaan Rovion julkaisutahti huomioiden muutkin projektit. Käyttökatetta Ruby teki H1:sellä 3,5 milliä. Eli vähän oikaisten uuden Rubyn mahdollisuudet tehdä vuositasolla käyttökatetta 14 milliä ovat ihan realistiset. Ja tosiaan, kun Turkissa työvoimakustannukset ovat pieniä, niin ei muuta kuin kasvua putkeen.” 67 Harvia Inderes ”Olen jatkanut tätä säännöllisen epäsäännöllistä ja epäsystemaattista tiedon kaivamista rapakon takaa tsekkailemalla tiettyjä jälleenmyyjien nettikauppoja. Havaintoja: Wayfairilla oli hetken taas osaa tynnyrisaunamalleista myynnissä, mutta nyt on taas kaikki “out of stock”, samoin suurin osa sisäsaunoista. Costco (pienempi valikoima), mutta täysin sama homma, 6 hengen barrel on taas loppu. Isompaa saa vielä. Home Depotilla kuuden hengen Princeton Cedar -malli on saanut “Best seller” -tagin, jota ei mielestäni ole ollut aiemmin. Valitettavasti muut mallit ovat olleet koko sen ajan kun olen seurannut out of stock. AHS:n omassa Labor Day Salessa myyty nyt loppuun kaikki tynnyrisaunat, eka tuoteryhmä jossa kävi näin. Cabinia ja indooria saa vielä.Mitään mahdottoman pitkälle vietyjä johtopäätöksiä myyntimääristä ei ehkä näiden perusteella kannata vetää. Itse luulen kuitenkin, että etenkin tynnyrisaunoja on koko Q3 mennyt niin paljon kun ovat pystyneet tekemään, ja menisi varmaan enemmänkin. Luulo ei ole tiedon väärti, mutta odotan silti näkeväni vastaavaa kasvua YoY Pohjois-Amerikassa kuin Q2:lla. Voi olla vähän vähemmän, voi olla vähän enemmän jos on edes mahdollista. Mutta sille tontille se voisi mennä.” 68 Kamux Inderes ”TJ on juuri ostellut lisää, kuten myös @Yu_Gong. Tämä tekeekin tästä mielenkiintoisen ja potentiaalisen seurattavan.” 69 69 Kamux Inderes ”En oo tätä ostanut, mutta hinnoittelu vaikuttaa kertoimien puolesta hyvin edulliselta. En tiedä huomasitteko, mutta lisäsin Kamuxin viime raportissa Verkkiksen verrokkiryhmään. Yhtiöissä on yllättävän paljon samaa molemmilla ketterä liiketoimintamalli, joka pyörii edullisten hintojen ja tehokkaan varaston kierron ympärillä sekä merkittävä osa tuloksesta tehdään rahoituspalveluillla.” 70 Kamux Inderes ”Käsittääkseni Kamuxin tuloskasvun keskeinen ajuri on juurikin volyymien kasvaminen voimakkaassa tahdissa tapahtuvan uusien myymälöiden avaamisen kautta. Kuitenkin autovarastojen kiertoaika pitää olla lyhyt, mikä voi olla selkeä riski.” 71 Kamux Inderes “Periaatteessa onhan fundamenttipuolellakin alkaa olla toteutuneet kertoimet ihan ok tasolla, joten jos kasvu tuossa jatkuu, niin hyvä tästä pitäisi kai tulla.” 72 Kamux Inderes ” Surffailin Kamuxin sivuilla tässä kun sadetta pidellyt. Täytyy sanoa, ihan hyvä kansaan menevää vaihtoautoa on paljon. Yksittäinen Kamuxin liike näyttää rupiselta ja varasto on pienehkö. Mutta kun selaa heidän koko varastoa, niin löytyyhän heiltä moneen lähtöön. 73 Kamux Inderes ”Kommenttina yleisemmin viime päivien keskusteluun ehkä se että kannattaa seurata mitä muut autodealerit Euroopassa puhuu, ja mitä autokauppaan liittyvät sivubisnekset (kuten ilmoittelu) puhuu. Käytettyjen autojen diilerit tehnyt huipputuloksia viimeiset n. 2 vuotta ympäri Eurooppaa…Pointti on lähinnä se että kun Kamuxin toimintaa tarkastelee laajemmassa kuvassa niin ei ole enää täysin selvää mikä osa on markkinan liikkeitä ja mikä Kamuxin omaa tekemistä, koska kaikkien diilereiden chartit näyttää samalta.” 74 Kamux Inderes ”Mutta Kamuxin kasvava tulovirta on rahoirussopimuksista saatava useiden prosenttien ”välistäveto”. Eli kun rahoirusyhtiö antaa Kamuksille vaikka 2% korolla rahoitusta, Kamux myy sen 6%:n korolla autonostajalle. Eli Kamuxin kassaan juoksee 4% joko sopimuksen ajan. Sopimusten määrähän vaan kasvaa kun myyvät kokoajan ja osari-haitarit kestää 3-5 vuotta.” 70 75 Kamux Inderes ”Ihmiset eivät näe kokonaiskuvaa ja keskittyvät kohinaan. Jenkeissä on joitain verrokkeja, jotka ovat vuosien varrella tehneet omistajat satumaisen rikkaiksi. Kamux kasvaa kannattavasti Ruotsissa, joka taitaa olla puolet isompi markkina kuin Suomi. Alku Saksassakin näyttää lupaavalta. Tämä tulee potentiaalisesti moninkertaistumaan tulevien vuosien aikana.” 76 Kamux Inderes ”Osinko hyvällä tasolla, velkaa ei taida olla ja huonossakin suhdanteessa kasvu rullaa?” 23. syyskuuta 2019” 77 Kamux Inderes ”Kohta saadaan vihjailuja autoverouudistuksesta ja autokauppa pysähtyy kuin seinään. Samalla varaston arvo sulaa. Eilen taas bongasin uutisen, jossa kerrottiin, ettei ennen kesää kannata autoa ostaa, kun silloin vasta selviää autoverotuksen tuleva suunta. Samalla jos keksivät vielä romutuspalkkion ottaa uudelleen käyttöön, niin voi kauppa siirtyä enemmän uusiin autoihin. Polittinen epävarmuus lisääntyy mitä lähemmäksi vaaleja mennään. Taloustilanne ollut suotuisa, niin vaikee tässä on nähdä, että olosuhteet kaupantekoon ainakaan paranisivat.” 78 Kamux Inderes ”Vastuullisuusnäkökulma jää aika pitkälti poliitikoille, autonvalmistajille ja kuluttajille. Uusien autojen keskimääräiset päästöt vähenevät koko ajan koska teknologia kehittyy ja poliittiset päätökset ohjaavat tai jopa pakottavat valmistamaan pienempipäästöisiä autoja. Ja siten, vaikka autoilu on poliitikkojen ja vihermielisten mukaan pahasta, niin siitä tulee koko ajan vastuullisempaa, kun pienipäästöisiä autoja tulee enemmän markkinoille ja autojen keskimääräiset päästöt laskevat. Siinä mielessä ajattelen, että teknologia tekee koko ajan autoilusta “hyväksyttävämpää”.” 79 Kamux Inderes ”Eikös se juuri ole Kamuxin vahvuus kilpailijoihin verrattuna, että on kolmen maan varasto mitä myydä Suomessa? Asiakkaan kannalta ero tulee vain toimitusajassa mikä on muutaman päivän pidempi. Monesti nämä autot voidaan myydä Suomessa korkeammalla hinnalla, joten on myös parempi katteista toimintaa 71 80 Kamux Inderes “Ilmaista lounasta ei ole olemassa. Kate tehdään myynti- ja ostohinnan erotuksella ja/tai rahoituksella. Joskus rahoitus voi olla edullisempi, mutta auton hinta posketon. Toisaalta hinta voi olla edullisempi, mutta rahoitus hieman kalliimpi. Kamuxin osareissa on myyntikate ilmoitettu. Oliko se jotain tonnin toista luokkaa muistaakseni.” 81 Kamux Inderes ”Marimekon vastuullisuusraportin läpi selaten silmään pisti henkilöstötyytyväisyyden mittaamisen puute vuonna 2020. Jo aiemmin ainoana henkilökohtaisena huolenaiheena Marimekon menestyksen kannalta olen pitänyt nimenomaan henkilöstön tyytyväisyyttä. Sekä Tuntopalvelun 8, että Glassdoorin 4 kautta kerätty henkilöstötyytyväisyys on jopa hälyttävän huonolla tasolla.” 82 Kamux Inderes “Itsellä ollut auton vaihto mielessä, kuten varmasti monella muullakin tilastoista päätellen… tarkoituksena ei ole millään muotoa moittia Kamuxia, mutta omalla osalla kokemus jäi varsin heikoksi. Asioin viiden liikkeen kanssa, joista osa ns merkkiliikkeitä ja osa Kamuxin kilpailijoita. Kokemukset Kamuxista (heidän isoista myymälöistä)" 83 Kamux Inderes ”Ostin Kamux-kokemuksen jälkeen toisen käytetyn auton toiselta autokauppiaalta. Pian oston jälkeen kojelautaan ilmestyi punaisia valoja ja sovimmekin hyvässä hengessä autokauppiaan kanssa että viat korjataan. Paljon myöhemmin selvisi että pari viikkoa kestänyt huolto olikin ollut vain vikakoodien nollaus ja itse ongelma oli jätetty korjaamatta. Nykyään ostan pelkästään uusia autoja tai leasaan niitä. Noihin käärmeiden pesiin mitä käytettyjen autojen kaupoiksi kutsutaan minua ei saa kirveelläkään.” 72 84 Kamux Inderes ”Oma kokemukseni oman Diesel-Volvon myymisestä toissa viikolla. Pyysin Kamuxilta hintaa ja tarjosivat autosta 19 000€ ja myyjän sanoin “hinta on tiukka, dieselit eivät ole kovin kuumaa kamaa tällä hetkellä”. Soitin paikalliseen autoliikkeeseen ja pyysin hintaa. He tarjosivat suoraan 21 000€ ja sanoivat, että “kaikkea kyllä myydään tällä hetkellä”. Oma johtopäätökseni voisi olla, että Kamux osaa käyttää tilannetta hyväksi myös ostopuolella ja saa varmasti tilannetta säikähtäneiltä kuluttajilta ainakin ostettua kohtuulliseen hintaa Dieseleitä sisään.” 85 Kamux Inderes ”Juu, noihan se ja Kamuxin heikkous on brändi. ”Arvonsatuntevat” ihmiset eivät käy Lidlissä eikä Kamuxissa. Sama porukka ajaa Ikean ohi hymyillen. Kamuxsin myymälässä on sekamelska, autot puolipestyjä ja talvirenkaat hattuhyllylllä koeajon aikana. Parannettavaa on, ole käynyt useammassa heidän myymälässä.” 86 Kamux Inderes ”On myös hyvä muistaa, että mitä isommaksi Kamux kasvaa niin sitä tunnetummaksi sen brändi tulee mikä tukee orgaanista kasvua edelleen. Vielä Kamuxin brändi ei ole edes Suomessa niin tunnettu, että pitäisin sitä kovin vahvana kilpailuetuna, mutta suunta on oikea ja yhä kasvava yhtiön koko mahdollistaa markkinointipanostusten lisäämistä samassa suhteessa vaikuttamatta suhteellisen kannattavuuteen.” 73 87 Kamux Inderes ” Mikään ei ole niin vaikeaa kuin kuluttajien mieltymysten ennakointi… näinkös buffett tai munger sanoi. Ja sama pätee myös keskusteluun siitä, miten kotimarkkinoilla Kamux / Saka / muut markkinaosuudet tulevat elämään. Asian mittaaminen on vaikeaa, mutta kasvulukujen perusteella sekä tuttavapiirin lyhyellä otannalla, Saka on nouseva ykkösbrändi tunnettavuudessa meidän perustuularien keskuudessa. Erot ovat hiuksenhienoja toki, mutta nyt pitäisi olla jo uudet erottautumistekijät olemassa. En ole havainnut mitään tällaista brändin rakentamista. En tunne kansainvälisiä markkinointa yksityiskohtaisesti, mutta asia josta olen hyvin skeptinen on mm Kamux brändin pitkäaikainen uskottavuus ja luotettavuus kansainvälisesti. Kasvua voidaan saada aikaan kovalla rahalla syöden kannattavuutta ja nostaen tunnettavuutta, mutta tekeekö Kamux tällaista panostusta riittävästi? Itselläni on kahtiajakoiset ajatukset siitä, että pitäisikö Saksan myynnin olla “kannattavaa” heti… vai pitäisikö ottaa riskisempi strategia markkinan valtaamiseen ja brändin kasvatukseen ennenkuin paikalliset Sakat ym alkaa nousta? ” 88 Kamux Inderes “Äsken tuli Kamuxin postaus vastaan instagramissa”. 89 Kamux Inderes ” Mites jos kävis Lynchmäisesti itse kyselemässä niin saisit omia kokemuksia, etkä olisi riippuvainen toisen käden tiedoista…? Varsinkin epäilevän sijoittajan tuo kannattaa tehdä, koska kynnys on niin matala. Antaisin omille kokemuksille sitten suuremman painoarvon kuin joku nettikeskustelu vuonna 2020. ” 90 Nokia Inderes ”Nokian brändin arvo on yli 9 mrd $ ja nousussa , 5G hypetuksen ja HMD:n ansiosta. Pohjoismaissa 4. arvokkain brändi IKEA:n, H&M:n ja Volvon jälkeen. Ciscon brändi-arvo on hieman yli 20 mrd USD. Lähde: Brand Finance.” 91 Nokia Inderes ”Maailman 500 johtavan brändin listan ainoa suomalainen yritys on Nokia , joka on noussut kaksi pykälää sijalle 187. Sen brändiarvo on vankistunut 17 prosenttia ja sen arvon lasketaan olevan nyt 9,8 miljardia dollaria.” 80 121 Kesko Inderes “Hautasin itse jokunen vuosi sitten haaveeni K- kauppiaan urasta, koska katsoin tulevaisuuden pakottavan Keskonkin verkkokaupan siirtymään jollain aikavälillä tällaiseen keskusvarastotyyppiseen ratkaisuun, jossa keräilyn tehokkuus on aivan eri luokkaa. Kauppiasmalli sopii tällaiseen ratkaisuun vähän huonosti. En tarkoita, että kauppiasvetoiset K- kaupat ihan heti tai vähän myöhemminkään ovat katoamassa, mutta kyllä myynnin volyymistä kasvava määrä siirtyy tällaisiin ketjuvetoisiin keskusvarastoihin ainakin isoimmissa kaupungeissa. Kauppiasvetoisista kivijaloista tulee enemmän pieniä lähikauppoja, kuten vaikkapa K-Marketit ja pienemmät K- Supermarketit tällä hetkellä.” 122 Kesko Inderes “Oma mutu on tässä ruoan jakelutoiminnassa se, että se vaatii kyllä kovaa automaatiota, että se olisi mahdollista saada kannattavaksi - varsikin siis markkinoilla missä työn kustannukset ovat kovat. On vain niin paljon halvempaa ulkoistaa kauppakassien täyttäminen asiakkaille kuin lajitella kaupan toimesta yksittäisiä tilauksia. Premiumpalveluna tuo varmaan menettelee, mutta tuskin suuria rahoja siinä liikkuu.” 123 Kesko Inderes ”Verkkokaupasta jää kuitenkin uupumaan “extrakate” jonka voi saada ylihintaisista heräteostoksista. Mielikuvamarkkinointi jää kokonaan pois, voisi kuvitella että verkkokaupasta keräiltynä tilataan vain bulkkia. Jossain vaiheessa asiakas toteaa, että ei elämän näin kuulu mennä ja siirtyy kauppaan. Ehkä markkina tulee muuttumaan sellaiseksi, että fyysiset kaupat pienenevät myymään erikoistuotteita ja massa/arkiruoka tilataan kuljetuksella. Prisma on näiden kombo, saa aika paljon erilaisia tuotteita+tuoretiskistä kalaa ja silti massapakkauksia halvalla.” 124 Kesko Inderes ”Herätty on sähkönkulutukseen. K-Kaupathan yrittäjävetoisia, joten kaikki säästötoimet on 1-1 omaan pussiin. Ko. kaupassa kulutus 30 omakotitaloa n. 30 x 25 000 kwh = 750 000 kwh 10 centin hinnalla menee. 75 000 eur/vuosi. Kauppias kärsii omassa nahoissaan / palkassa sähkökorotukset.” 8. syyskuuta 2022 81 125 Kesko Inderes ”Vastuullisuudesta peliautomaattien suhteen toivoisin kunnon grillausta - eli siihen enemmän aikaa ja kysymyksiä. Ainutlaatuinen mahdollisuus hiillostaa tuossa asemassa olevaa henkilöä, melko ajankohtaisesta ja yhteiskunnallisesti merkittävästä asiasta. Myöskin toimarilla mahdollisuus vakuuttaa sijoittajia yhtiön vastuullisuudesta, mikäli siihen kykenee.” 126 Kesko Inderes ”Kamux ketjussa tästä on ollut puhetta. Osakkeenomistajat tuppaavan ehkä jopa hieman epärationaalisesti keskittämään ostoksiaan omistamiinsa firmoihin kilpailijoiden kustannuksella. Joten osakkeenomistajien määrä vaikuttaisi positiivisesti tulokseen.” 127 Kesko Inderes “Mielenkiintoista on lisäks tuo osakekohtainen tulos Q4, joka ylitti 5%:lla ennusteet ja oli yli ennusteiden ylälaidankin: 0,40e osake. Odotukset olivat 0,36-0,39. Liekö Kesko saavan lainaa halvemmalla kuin odotettu tai sitten verot pienempiä.” 128 Kesko Inderes “Kaveri on dirikkana Keskolla ja sanoi kuulevansa usein, että kauppiailla on “vaikeuksia ymmärtää” mihin noin isoa keskusliikettä tarvitaan. Ja noh, onhan se aika iso ja saattaa elää vähän omaa elämäänsä niiden kauppiaille tärkeiden toimien ympärillä. Tai siltä se voi kauppiaalle näyttää. En tiedä paljonko keskusportaassa on ylimääräistä läskiä tai mainonta ja markkinointihenkilöstöä “creailemassa”, mutta jos pitäisi arvata niin pienemmälläkin varmaan pärjäisi yhtä hyvin.” 129 Kesko Inderes ”Kesko alkaa muistuttaa Konetta - jauhaa kovaa tulosta ja osinkoakin maksaa, mutta kurssi on jatkuvasti “liian kallis”. 130 Kesko Inderes “…jos haluaa lähinnä osinkoja, on totta, että A- osake on tällä hetkellä parempi diili. Piensijoittajan osto/myyntimäärillä (satoja osakkeita) niitä kuitenkin liikkuu tarpeeksi. Sitten jos haluat kymmeniä tuhansia lappuja niin 10000 kpl päivävaihdoilla A-osake on ikävän epälikvidi. Ja sitten jos haluat vain veivata lappua edestakaisin niin B liikkunee enemmän - tosin Kesko tuskin on päivätreidaajan pelilappulistan kärkikahinoissa muutenkaan.” 82 131 Kesko Inderes “No jaa. Kyllä Pirkka-tuotteidenkin laatu vaihtelee. Esimerkiksi S-ryhmän Kotimaistasarjan hedelmämysli on minusta paljon laadukkaampi kuin (Ruotsissa valmistettu) Pirkka-brändin Kilomysli.” 17. marraskuuta 2023 132 Kesko Inderes “Kesko on herkullisessa asemassa päivittäistavarapuolella, sillä se on brändinä ainoa premium-ruokakauppa, muut tuntuvat hakevan enemmän hinnalla sitä kilpailua.” 133 Kesko Inderes ”Samaa mieltä siitä, että Pirkka on todella onnistunut ja jaksaa vähän väliä yllättää laadukkuudellaan.” 134 Kesko Inderes ” Kävin Cittarissa Turussa aamulla ja nyt iltapäivällä. En nähnyt merkkejä lamasta tai ostovoiman hiipumisesta. Lounasravintolassa vilkasta. Kaikki “pienet kärryt” poissa telineistä. Ihmisiä jonottaa dry aged -lihaa, isot ja pienet kärryt täynnä ostoksia. Parkkipaikalla tunkua. Tuli olo, että on kuitenkin kiva olla Keskon omistaja!” 22. kesäkuuta 2023 Johon toisen sijoittajan vastaus ” Kävit Cittarissa juhannuksen alla? Normaalia juhlapyhien alla kaupassa kuin kaupassa. 135 Kesko Inderes “Keskon mobiilisovellus on mielestäni laadukas. Henkilökohtaiset tarjoukset hyviä ja kerran viikossa vaihtuvina, niistä jotkin aina osuu kohdalle. Nyt joulusesonkiin on tullut lähinpien Keskon kauppojen laajennettuja aukioloaikoja ilmoituksina. Kun aikoinaan ( muutama vuosi sitten ) lähin supermarkettimme laajensi ja uudisti koko myymälänsä ( samassa kiinteistössä toimii nykyään myös Alko, Kotipizza ja Hesburger ) tehtiin käytävät reiluiksi liikkua , myös kärryjen kanssa - Tästä pieni kilpailuetu nyt koronan myötä, kun etäisyyksiä helpompi säilyttää muihin kaupassa asioiviin. Ja vielä mainintana kaupungin tilavin parkkipaikka, ei huono sekään. Asioin kyllä tilanteen mukaan, myös kilpailijoiden putiikeissa, mutta positiivista on aina mukava jakaa. Omistan myös pienen määrän OSTilla.” 83 136 Walmart Reddit “Walmart Lays off hundreds of corporate workers - warning of falling profits going forward” “Next week's headline: "Walmart announces highest quarterly profit in 10 years, awards CEO bonus." “Layoffs happening everywhere. That's what happens in a recession.” “They do this at least once a year. I live in Bentonville. Usually the restructure is a good excuse to get rid of crappy employees. This is pretty normal.” 137 Tesla Reddit Can someone kindly ELI5 this thing about FSD revenue not being recognized? Does Tesla have a bunch of sales they can't show because they've sold FSD to people but not delivered the final product?” 25.7.2019 Teslainvestorclub à reply “Tesla can receive and use cash from selling FSD, but they can't show it on the income statement until they deliver some percentage of the product (which would then allow them to recognise that percentage of the cash as revenue). It's functionally an accounting fiction, they've made very little from FSD thus far. Some quarter at some point in the future will have an artificial boost to income from FSD. “Even after they tried everything to juice up their revenue, their income still barely cover the interest of their debt payments” 138 Tesla Reddit 5% is more than 100,000 orders off the greater than 2M preorders. Sales this year will be limited to what Tesla can produce. Nothing else. And that is before the single motor model is released, which itself will have a huge amount of orders even with the higher price tag. And later on, prices will come down 139 Tesla Reddit “What did Tesla invest $4 Billion in during Q4 2022?” “Bonds, according to Ross Gerber.” “Presumably as a place to park their cash?” 140 Tesla Reddit “$4.4b free cash flow and some folks think the sky is falling.” “It's about growth. Investors are realizing it will never have the same growth trajectory as the last few years. Not hyperbole.” 84 141 Tesla Reddit “1000 vehicles in inventory in a population of 400m people isn’t a problem that needs to be dealt with. It’s an expected side effect of having a second factory and vastly expanded production.” 142 Tesla Reddit “It's stupid how analysts get bent out of shape by Telsa's "inventory", ie production in transit not yet delivered and yet legacy automakers can stuff their sales channels with months of supply and nobody says anything about their implied demand.” 143 Tesla Reddit “Tesla Pares Gains After Einhorn Questions Accounts Receivable” – news 30.4.2020 “Who should we trust? The professional financial auditors who signed off on Tesla's 10- Q, or a man who holds a sizable short position and has vehemently claimed every quarter for the past 5 years that Tesla is falsifying their 10- Qs.” 144 Tesla Reddit ” Particularly happy with the increased R&D spending. Tesla is about the future and R&D is how to get there.” 145 Tesla Reddit “Not a very good representation of what's going on. Tesla is still ramping and their R&D per car sold is going to continue to drop.” “Definitely. A stat I would like to see, however, is how much of that R&D spend at the legacy companies is completely irrelevant to electric cars. I suspect legacy car companies currently spend huge amounts on ICE-related research and have huge numbers of researchers that know nothing else. I feel like it will be very hard for these companies to refocus their R&D. Do you do massive layoffs and hiring at R&D labs? Or try to teach your old dogs new tricks?” 146 Tesla Reddit “Tesla’s R&D is in many areas including AI, Teslabot, Energy, lithium refining etc. It wouldn’t make sense to add these expenses as COGs for vehicles. Most companies outside of the auto industry do it this way.” 147 Tesla Reddit “Tesla has 26% gross margin for year 2022. That's not a minuscule amount in the auto industry. Operating margin/profit margin aren't even close. BYD's operational costs are higher than Tesla's on a per-vehicle basis.” 85 148 Tesla InvestorsHub “Hey, guys. I just got out of a coma, I’ve been catching up on things, last time I checked Tesla financials was 2018. Wow!!! 8 billion profit! They must be mooning!!!!!”à reply “Actual profit is 2 billion. The remaining 6 billion is a one-time tax treatment. Key is ‘operating’.” 149 Tesla Reddit Uutinen: “Tesla (TSLA) to implement hiring freeze and new round of layoffs” Kommentti: ” Well, this is definitely in line with what we've been seeing out of China with the consecutive price drops. Tesla likely is about to report a poor quarter coming up.” 150 Tesla Reddit “If you actually read what I wrote, you'll see that board independence is a fugazi. Just like how external auditor independence is also bs. There can't be independence when the company literally pays the auditor to review their financials lol. It means anyone getting outraged at the lack of independence at Tesla has no idea how corporate governance actually works in reality. It's an open secret that there is no independence. Considering this is Reddit, I imagine most people here don't have an actual business management background.” 151 Tesla Reddit “E&Y have been the auditors for almost all the companies that have been plagued by financial fraud. I guess if accuracy isn’t important than E&Y is less plagued.” 152 Tesla Reddit “You don't need to be an auditor to know they were fraudulent.It was obvious from the very second that moron said he was going to "out Elon Elon". 86 153 Tesla Reddit ” China and EU both have gas vehicle sales bans in law starting in 2030 and 2035. They are the #1 and #3 largest auto markets and represent almost 50% of all automotive sales. There isn’t a world where all carmakers keep engineering departments and factories staffed for a small slice of the remaining markets where gas car sales are still allowed. Even if 30% of America’s 15% of the global auto market wanted to buy gas cars, it’s just not enough of a market to justify every OEM keeping a gas division. There will certainly be a model or two in every segment from some niche automakers - but then gas stations will start closing down and gas subsidies will go away and it’ll become less palatable over time.” 154 Tesla Reddit “There’s no question TSLA is in an outstanding position, better than all other auto companies. But teslas market cap is 660billion. Before the last drop, it was 800. All other auto companies combined, including byd, is 800 billion roughly. You don’t need to make the argument that Tesla is doing the best/has the best position for the future , the stock price currently supports that statement.” 87 155 Tesla Reddit Musk in X-service“I am uncomfortable growing Tesla to be a leader in AI & robotics without having ~25% voting control. Enough to be influential, but not so much that I can’t be overturned.”16.1.2024 “Basically "Why does Musk need another equity compensation package, he already has a lot of equity?" “But he doesn't have control. He's afraid of building a company with a powerful AI position that can be subverted by outside interests. OpenAI just a few days ago quietly deleted from their charter that their AI models cannot be used by the military. “ “He sold his control to gain twitter/x” “yeah right?!? fuck elon. He tanked our shares by doing a mass sell off. Then said he was done. Then sold even more. Fuck him. Let him lay in his bed. And we need to remove him from power so he doesnt steal IP and human capital and drop it in some other private company he owns thats not tesla 156 Tesla Reddit He is just trying to socialize his loses. Whats to stop him from then selling off even more tesla to back twitter and then whining about it again. Fuck that guy. What an ass hole “Even after they tried everything to juice up their revenue, their income still barely cover the interest of their debt payments” 157 Tesla Reddit “Elon needs to go. He’s is murdering brand image.” 158 Tesla Reddit “He is obviously distracted from his responsibilities at Tesla. And his comments and execution at X is hurting Tesla brand image. There is a clear conflict of interest. Tesla deserves a full time CEO.” 159 Tesla Reddit “Lmao TSLA pioneered sustainability before anyone in our gov + before it was cool for companies to pretend they give a shit.” 88 160 Tesla Reddit “I started renting from Hertz since they offered Teslas and paying $150 - $300/wk for the occasional trip was much cheaper than buying my own. When my renting experience sucked last month, just bought a Model Y instead. $900/month for the next 5 years, but after that will be more economical than Hertz LOL” 161 Tesla Reddit “I've owned a Tesla for 6.5 years now. Never had a bad experience at service. When shopping for the next vehicle I probably won't even consider another brand. To be fair I've also owned Honda's before Tesla, and still own a 2004 Honda CRV, but hoping to replace that with a tesla when the CRV finally dies.” 162 Tesla Reddit “Tesla Fremont Factory employee parking lot appears full this morning.” 163 Tesla Reddit “Wow. Never seen the delivery Center this busy. Q2 looking good?” 164 Tesla Reddit “Search Interest for Tesla in the US during the Super Bowl hours. [Google Trends]” 165 Nike Reddit “What are your 'secret' picks?” “I would say Nike , but it is not that secret. (still amazing company which by far out performs the sp500) …Their free cash flow was 10 million in 2019 with 16% revenue growth over 5 years.” 166 Nike Reddit “Get a pair of HOKA instead. Adidas/Nike don't make premium shoes at all. It's all marketing. For that price, you could get a way better performance shoe. Takes $5-20 for them to make the shoe. The bulk of the money goes towards marketing (paying LeBron, Jordan).” 167 Nike Reddit “I think 4Q sales will come in soft, I’m seeing a lot of inventory still available that would’ve been sold out a year ago. Dunks sitting, offwhite collabs and Jordan releases being available well after release and the constant barrage of sales is telling me that Nike sale figures are soft.” 168 Nike Reddit “Nike puts actual effort into R&D. They made a shoe so fast that some argue it should be illegal for races.” 169 Nike Reddit “That’s why they’re great investments like NIKE, low expenses, great profits. 89 170 Nike Reddit “Nike layoffs were planned years ago and the result was not Covid related. The matrix within the company became inefficient where horny leadership boomers were creating position for extremely attractive interns. Don’t believe me? Explain why 7 top executives abruptly left. There was a teammate who was responsible for our emails, PDFs and sending out daily reminders. She also filled in when someone called out.” 171 Nike Reddit “Buy quality companies that pay dividends as opposed to buying dividend payers for their yield. my yield on cost for my Nike, Oracle, and Apple is sweet, and they have all increased in value over the last decade or two.” 172 Nike Reddit “I don't really care about your personal life, but I do think that Nike is a great brand. Their products are stylish and well-made, and they have a strong reputation.” 173 Nike Reddit “It is certainly true that many people have moved on from Nike in recent years, and there are definitely some appealing alternatives out there for those looking for child-labor free and vegan footwear. However, I believe that the main reason people are still interested in Nike is because of its long history as a brand associated with high-quality products. In other words, people trust Nike to deliver on its promises, even if it means paying a bit more than they would for another brand.” 174 Nike Reddit “Nike rules, i played their earnings in December 2020 and had a similar experience. I like where this company is going especially their digital strategy, they have balls.” 96 210 Apple Reddit “Apple's recent financial performance and position in the AI industry have raised some red flags. Despite generating significant revenue, Apple's gross margin percentage has seen a decline, and its heavy spending on share buybacks might suggest a lack of better investment opportunities. Additionally, while Apple has been investing in AI, they seem to be falling behind. Their acquisitions in the field haven't yet translated into significant progress, which may suggest difficulties in integrating these acquisitions or a lack of strategic focus.” 211 Apple InvestorsHub “PE 30..... MARKET MULTIPLE 20.......SO WHY AAPL IS TRADING SO HIGH WHILE REVENUE IS FLAT ?? OVERVALUED AND OVEROWNED. FIRST TARGET IS 165.......NEXT TARGET 145 SO SELL AND PUT YOUR CASH AT 5.5% IN A MONEY MARKET ACCOUNT AND SAVE YOURSELF THIS AGONY.” 212 Apple Reddit “Apple literally has 170 billion in cash, its almost more than they know what to do with.” 213 Apple Reddit “As investors should we be concerned that AAPL’s current ratio is only 1.06? For a multitrillion dollar company, I feel this # should be higher and the firm should run mostly on equity instead of debt.” “Not at all. They have over 60B in cash and their cash flows from operations are over 100B. Pretty sure they have the best credit rating on the planet “safer” than most countries debt” “Why use its own money if Apple can borrow at 2% interest. The interest does not even cover the inflation rate... No debt concerns with credit ratings of AA1.” 214 Apple Reddit “Apple R&D spending pales in comparison to other tech giants.” “well you don't need R&D if you always produce the same thing” “I have no doubt that Apple will still be a major player 15 years from now, but this is the reason why I haven't invested in them. Their revenue is dominated by mobile phone sales, and I do not see anything else revolutionary coming out of the company, minus the random articles we hear about autonomous vehicles and electronic health record collaborations.” 97 215 Apple Reddit “NEWS: Apple to Make Small Number of Job Cuts in Some Corporate Retail Teams” “Just a couple weeks ago Apple was really stroking their own dick about how everyone else was laying off employees and they weren’t” 216 Apple InvestorsHub “Can’t decide whether I’m bullish on it or not..on one hand, this is Apple, there are more than 1 billion iPhone users worldwide, and they will probably stick to Apple devices and renew them somewhen. On the other hand, the company has lowest YoY growth compared to other companies like NFLX, MSFT, META and so on..” “You should be neither. This is one of those stocks you stop watching. It has become a forever stock, like some of the others in my portfolio.” 217 Apple Reddit “Buffett is buying Apple. What are you buying?” 218 Apple Reddit “Apple is by far Buffett's largest holding....worth $113B.” 219 Costco Reddit “Fundamentals on financial ratio comparisons with competitors seem to dispute some of the observations. COST stock possess recently a long term uptrend. Shares have fallen beneath the 200-day ma, which is rising along with the 10-day ma. Lately, it is swaying sideways like most other stocks. Comparative RSA shows it is performing better than S&P 500 which is heavily influenced by tech stocks, and financials.” 220 Costco Reddit “What are y’all thoughts on Costco? Looks super expensive at 42x Forward PE.Their forward earnings and revenue growth is 12-15% or so, but yet solid cash flow and loyal customers plus a very well run company..” 221 Costco Reddit “Costco has positive carry on their inventory with Net 30 terms” 222 Costco Reddit “While high gross margin is a good indicator, it is not always right one. It depends on the business model. Companies like Costco and Amazon (Excluding AWS) purposely have very low gross margin to solidify their moat. Had they pursuit high gross margin, they would have generated way more cash flow but also short changed their moat.” 98 223 Costco Reddit “I don't like looking at (gross) margins in isolation but they can be useful when comparing competitors or companies in the same industry. A good example is AZO at 52%, ORLY at 49%, AAP at 44% gross margins. But if you only look for high margin businesses in general you can end up missing out on some pretty solid companies like distributors or Costco.” 224 Costco Reddit “Costco essentially runs a subscription mode with it's Costco memberships. Costco marks up items only 15% and has a very small gross margin by design (cover employee expenses, utilities, other costs of business). ALL revenues come from their subscription model. Compare this to the 25-30% markup of Target/etc. Goods at competitors need to be priced higher due to the greater variety, employee costs, etc. These subscriptions have a 90+% renewal rate of subscription which gives COSTCO holders the most recession resistant earnings possible. Most users just auto-pay these subscriptions, so this is essentially a non-factor.” 225 Costco Reddit “I’m happy to invest in great companies that treat employees well like Costco.” 226 Costco Reddit “Compared to equity yes. Compared to total assets, no. Moreover, BJ is deleveraging whereas Costco is increasing debt in a rising rate environment where a super strong economy could mean rates go even higher (my thesis). Costco arguably deserves a higher multiple because of their positive brand recognition and well-known hype around employee treatment, great private labels, etc. But looking at actual growth and gross margin I am not even sure they deserve a lower multiple. It might be a wash for me personally. Certainly BJ is a better value relatively.” 227 Costco Reddit “There is a certain premium with countries that always force their PE ratios to be elevated. Costco is another example of this. I don't know if it's the brand equity, moat, or being seen as relatively safer tickers to park some cash in, but that seems to be the case.” 99 228 Costco Reddit “Costco is a subscription business that has other efficiencies built in, and an impeccable brand. That being said, there is nothing stopping anyone from replicating that model at scale.” 229 Costco Reddit “Eh, only a few things at Costco are actually cheaper anymore(comp. to Target). A lot of it is just bulk package that’s actually the same or more per unit. Their real forte is market analysis and retail management. They also get great marketing from their loss leaders like chicken and hot dogs.” 230 Costco Reddit “Costco warehouse installs off-grid solar to power its EV fleet” 231 Costco Reddit “Costco is ethical, decent dividend, and I don't expect it to go away in the next 2 decades.” 232 Costco Reddit “Buffet dumped his Costco stocks saying he sees better growth elsewhere.” 233 Costco Reddit “Now, I think COST will continue to do good. I think Walmart and Walmart's Sam's will do poorly if they don't improve the shopping experience. Although currently Costco seems expensive in P/E and dividend yield compared to Walmart, but I think in the next 2 to 5 years COST will do better than WMT.” 234 Costco Reddit “I shop at Costco but have to watch the prices there, too. It does the razzle dazzle with odd sizes (usu too big) but when you do the math, is often little different than the supermarket. All the food stores have their deals, and Costco more than most. But it shouldthey got our $60 fee up front. In general, I'm not finding Costco so especially special anymore.” 235 Costco Reddit “Which companies’ products do you use so much that you bought their stock?” “Often, it’s a high brand product at cheap prices. Sometimes… it’s a low brand product at cheap Prices. Basically Costco model at a dollar general space prize.” 236 Costco Reddit “Just looking at the Costco parking lot from a distance makes me never want to do business with them. It's like a dystopian parody. All of the NPCs being good suburbanites and slobbing the knob of Costco. Going into the store is even worse. It's like a middle-class Walmart.” 100 237 Costco Reddit ” pro tip: use google trends I foolishly did not follow my own rules! And I paid the price. I like to look up companies on "Google trends" before I decide whether to buy them or not. Analysts can talk and talk all they want, but google trends is proof in DATA and ENGAGEMENT how certain brands, stores, and items are doing. I messed this up with PayPal and Tinder (Match.com). Both have lagged considerably from a year ago, and had I followed my own guidance, would not have messed up buying them today pre earnings. especially useful for clothing stores, restaurants, apps, and anything involving pop culture. I would think bank stocks, and tech stocks are less affected by this.” 238 Costco Reddit “If I was buying individual stocks it would be the brands I like and use all the time. Starbucks, Tesla, Apple and Costco. Peter Lynch style.” 239 Walmart Reddit “Congratulations to Walmart. They grew in almost every category while other companies are laying off and imploding” 240 Walmart Reddit “Walmart contributes up to $270 per year for Walmart stock purchases by employees. The employee yearly purchase must be $1800 meaning a biweekly pay deduction of $70. So Walmart puts in an additional 15% up to $1800. The stock price is quite high now at $165 which is a dollar less than its year long high and significantly higher than its low of $136.” 241 Walmart Reddit “Walmart lays off hundreds of corporate employees amid new restructuring plan!! Tanking pre market and all day tomorrow!!” 242 Walmart Reddit “Amazon says it now has more than 1 million employees” “Doesn't Walmart also have a disproportionately large number of part-time employees to reduce other personnel related expenses ?” 101 243 Walmart Reddit “Walmart needs a new CEO and fast. Every financial institution raised their target to $166, the company announced a $20 Bil buyback and the CEO turns around dumps $272 Mil worth of stock at $152 PPS and if that was not enough he makes a public statement that he will close stores due to increased theft and shoplifting just enough to bring the stock down to $149 and ruin Call options for everyone. Who gave this dummy the keys to the Kingdom and a horn to blow in ?” 244 Walmart Reddit “If you look at other threads in other subs with retail workers discussing this, you can see how awful it actually is. Ofc that is all anecdotal, but if you do not trust the anecdotes and you do not trust the stats, then what? don’t forget that target is not some fraud small cap company that nobody analyzes and nobody audits. Hedge funds and the like will even use drones to fly over parking lots of places like walmart and target just to get an edge over other investors and traders. They wouldn’t be able to lie about this.” 245 Netflix Reddit Take profits here. Netflix has enormous debt Total Debt (mrq) $16.99B 246 Netflix Reddit “Everyone I knew (including myself) did not create a new account when they cracked down on passwords, but I understood that this was my bubble and not necessarily a reflection of totality of the world. I was leaning toward them not increasing subscribers, but I am also not surprised at all, there is a reason why Netflix is the only profitable streaming service, and it is not a stretch to argue that it is because people like the content, so yeah people didn't want to lose that.” 247 Netflix Reddit “Yeah until it isn't. Look at what's happening to Netflix, they were constantly raising subscription prices to fuel their endless string of mostly crap programs and it worked until it didn't. The worse inflation gets the more you analyze what expenses are essential and/or justified in your budget.” 102 248 Netflix Reddit “Vietnam scolds Netflix, Apple for lack of tax payments” “If companies only paid income tax at their actual headquarters I think there would be far less outrage. They're flying too close to the sun by claiming all their IP is held in Luxembourg or wherever, while painting massive targets on their backs with their labour, data, competition practices...Won't break the growth trajectories for any of these companies but will cause some minor headache as regulators starting too get big appetites looking at them. Can easily see special levies or caps on royalty payments to group companies coming in.” “…the reality is that the world is realigning to grab some money back from tech companies when they operate in the local market. It might become a cost of doing business, or the tech companies will pick and choose countries where they deliver their services.” 249 Netflix Reddit “Netflix gave a director millions of dollars to create a sci-fi series, but he squandered it on stocks, cryptocurrency, and expensive cars.” “But really how it is even possible that a producer controls money in that way? Shouldn't those transactions alert people and set off alarms immediately? And moresonot even be possible in the first place. How does a producer move many millions into trading accounts??? Don't they have any systems of checks/approvals?” “I think this was like around 2015-2016, it was wild wild west in the streaming days with every platform racing to produce content & Netflix was producing content for the first time in their company history. In the wiki article, it says that Netflix continued to send him money despite deliverables not being met. Probably was a learning experience for them and they are probably more stringent now requiring periodic audits and not releasing next instalments unless deliverables are met.” 103 250 Netflix Reddit “Their global presence has grown a ton overall. I constantly see korean, Brazilian, Indian, European and shows from turkey. While I do enjoy them sometimes I can't stand when I see a few with an English title but it's in a other language. I don't mind reading subs but it's like why put it in English.” 251 Netflix Reddit “Why can't hulu/disney plus/espn compete and catch up with Netflix?” “For me the problem is the content. Whenever I boot up Netflix, there is something new to watch on it. It might not always be the best, but there is something that grabs your interest. I boot up Disney and they don't have anything new for some time. Or it's Marvel stuff I can't bother to invest time in to know all the movies and shows anymore.” 252 Netflix InvestorsHub “No dividend for such an expensive stock... why own this? it will never regain its former market share” 253 Netflix Reddit “If Netflix focuses on fewer, higher budget, fan popular productions and stops wasting money on so much garbage no one has time to watch, they'll be great. They could start paying a dividend too." 254 Netflix Reddit “That's why I cancelled. $20for Netflix or $15 for HBO max that's a no brainer. That coupled with the fact 90% of their new material is hot garbage and when they do get a good show they cancel it after one or two seasons.” 255 Netflix Reddit “NFLX $426.00 -11.42 (-2.61%)!!!!!!! THAT'S WHAT HAPPENS WHEN WOKE CORPORATIONS TRY TO PUSH PERVERTED FILTH ON THEIR CUSTOMERS!!!!!!”