My list isn’t filled with grand pronouncements or fleeting fancies. It’s a quiet reckoning with where the real work is being done, the foundations being laid. Nvidia, Broadcom, Advanced Micro Devices, Amazon, and Alphabet – these aren’t just names on a ticker tape. They are the workshops where the future is being forged, and a man would do well to understand their craft.
This gentleman, you see, he’s not content with merely buildin’ electric carriages or stickin’ batteries in barns. No sir. He wants to conquer the heavens themselves, and colonize Mars for good measure. Lofty ambitions, I grant you. Though I reckon a fella could do a heap of good fixin’ things here on Earth first. But who am I to question a man with rockets?
Our heroine, Mistress Wood, has been particularly active of late, busying herself with the acquisition of shares in three companies most intriguing. Let us examine these ventures, not merely for their potential returns, but for the character they reveal about the modern investor – a creature driven by hope, enamored of novelty, and, dare I say, occasionally lacking in a certain… prudence.
The stock’s up 1500% since late 2022. Fifteen hundred percent. That’s… a lot. It feels less like investing and more like catching a falling meteor. Should I pile in? Should I run screaming? My therapist says I have a tendency to overthink. She’s probably right.
Investing in companies that distribute a portion of their earnings—dividends, they are called—offers a slight refinement to this rather crude calculation. These payouts, reinvested, have historically outperformed their more austere counterparts. Let us consider, then, two such concerns, Bristol Myers Squibb and Amgen, and examine their prospects for survival—and, if fortune smiles, modest prosperity—over the coming decade.
The basic idea is they own properties – shopping centers, data centers, casinos, the works – and rent them out. They’re legally obliged to hand most of their profits back to us investors as dividends. It’s almost…generous. Almost. Of course, there’s always a catch. Interest rates, naturally. 2022 and 2023 were…challenging. Higher rates meant it cost more to buy new properties, and tenants were feeling the pinch. The dividends suddenly didn’t seem so attractive when you could get a decent return from just…putting your money in a bank. The sheer mundanity of it all!
The market capitalization now hovers around $8.4 billion. Forty-nine times this year’s expected sales, if one believes the forecasts. A valuation that suggests Rigetti isn’t merely building computers; they’re minting gold from thin air. One is reminded of a certain swindler who once attempted to sell the Eiffel Tower – repeatedly. Is this a genuine leader of the quantum revolution, or a particularly polished illusion?
The so-called “experts” are droning on about “growth catalysts.” Catalysts? This isn’t chemistry class, it’s a feeding frenzy. Brookfield isn’t waiting for trends, it’s creating them. AI infrastructure? Seven TRILLION dollars, they say? Good. Let the silicon barons gorge themselves. Brookfield will be there, collecting the scraps… and building the damn servers in the first place. Aging populations needing wealth products? Don’t think of it as a demographic shift, think of it as a FLOOD of capital desperate for a safe harbor. And real estate? Forget the doom-and-gloom. Falling interest rates are a life raft for the property market, and Brookfield has enough assets under management to build an ARK. Over $272 BILLION. Let that sink in.
Let us consider two such enterprises, not as mere stocks to be traded, but as complex organisms, each with its own strengths, weaknesses, and inherent contradictions. To understand their potential, we must delve beyond the superficial metrics of yield and valuation, and examine the character of those who guide them, and the forces that shape their destiny.
Thirty-five percent. That’s what we’re talking about. From $260 to $350. Not insignificant, obviously. But Apple’s track record… it’s almost irritatingly consistent. They’ve had some stellar years – 34% in ’21, a frankly ridiculous 48% in ’23, and a respectable 30% this year. Over the decade? A 942% climb. I’m starting to feel inadequate with my own portfolio. A 26.4% CAGR… it’s almost unfair. It makes you wonder if they’re rigging the market. (I’m joking. Mostly.) And right now? It’s down 9% from its peak. A little dip. A buying opportunity? Maybe. Or maybe it’s just the universe reminding us that nothing gold can stay.