The core question isn’t if you should dabble in small-caps – because, growth potential, people! – but how. Do you want broad diversification, or a slightly more focused approach? Think of it as choosing between a buffet and a curated tasting menu. Both can be delicious, but one requires a lot more willpower (and antacids).
I’ve been tracking stocks long enough to know that chasing the hot tip is for suckers. The real money isn’t made on the leaps, it’s made on the landings. And Medtronic? This one knows how to stick the landing. There are a lot of reasons to look at this stock, but if you asked me for just one, I’d point to its dividend. Forty-eight years of increases. That’s not luck. That’s a statement.
For a while there, 2023 to 2025, the bull market was being driven by Tech and Growth stocks. Predictable, really. When everyone’s feeling optimistic, they naturally flock to the things that promise to be even more shiny and profitable. It’s the way of things. Like moths to a particularly gaudy flame. But 2026… well, 2026 is being different. The S&P 500 is still perched near its all-time highs, but the Tech sector is currently performing with all the enthusiasm of a damp squib. Instead, we’re seeing Energy, Consumer Staples, Industrials, Materials, and Utilities leading the charge.
Investors, naturally, anticipate a favourable accounting. Nvidia has, in past instances, demonstrated a pleasing aptitude for exceeding expectations, and it is generally believed that this tendency will continue. The current consensus amongst those who make such calculations predicts a revenue of some $65.6 billion, a substantial increase from the previous year’s $39.3 billion, and earnings per share of $1.52, a progression that, while commendable, is not entirely unexpected.
Figma. It sounds so chic, doesn’t it? Like a Scandinavian furniture company that also happens to make software. But lately, it’s been less “hygge” and more “huge problem.” The entire SaaS sector is having a moment—a “what was I thinking?” moment. Everyone’s suddenly worried AI will render perfectly good, expensive software obsolete. It’s the same panic we had when everyone thought calculators would make us forget how to add. Except this time, it might actually be true.
Oil, of course. The primal fluid, the lifeblood of modernity. When its price ascends, so too does the valuation of those who draw it from the earth. A simple equation, easily grasped. Brent Crude, a fickle mistress, granted a temporary favor, and ExxonMobil benefited accordingly. But to ascribe the entire advance to this single fluctuation would be a reduction, a silencing of the subtle harmonies at play. It is as if the company, a vast organism, merely exhaled in response to a warmer breeze.
Medtronic manufactures medical devices. This is not a glamorous industry, nor is it prone to sudden, disruptive innovation. It deals in the essential, the unavoidable – devices that mend, monitor, and, in many cases, sustain life. This inherent demand provides a degree of resilience uncommon in most sectors. When faced with economic downturn, individuals will postpone new automobiles or lavish holidays. They will not, however, readily forgo treatment for a failing heart or a debilitating condition.
What remains, after this trimming, amounts to a mere 325,108 shares, valued at around $12.51 million. Not a pittance, mind you, but a far cry from the nearly 1.1 million they once held. Seems they’ve decided Papa John’s wasn’t quite worth the fuss, or perhaps they simply found a shinier trinket to chase.
The numbers, of course, are merely the bones of the story. The exercise of those options, the immediate liquidation – a swift, surgical act – speaks of a deeper current. It was not simply a divestment, but a shedding of skin, a premonition of the company’s own metamorphic struggles. To understand the weight of this transaction, one must consider the slow, almost imperceptible erosion of net income – a fall of roughly 20% from the previous year’s first quarter, despite a recent reprieve from consecutive quarterly losses. A flicker of improvement, yes, but a fragile bloom in a landscape bracing for change.
Novo Nordisk, a name whispered with anticipation and a touch of unease. They offer a solution to a modern affliction – the insatiable hunger that gnaws at the soul, and the waistline. But is it truly a solution, or merely a temporary reprieve, a shifting of the burden? The advent of Wegovy, an oral formulation to quell the appetite, has stirred a tempest in the pharmaceutical world. Eli Lilly and compounding pharmacies loom as specters, threatening to erode their dominance, while governmental pressures to lower drug prices cast a long, unsettling shadow. Yet, the initial response to Wegovy – over 170,000 prescriptions in a single month – suggests a desperate need, a collective yearning for control. The irony is not lost on me – a company profiting from our collective anxieties, while simultaneously offering a means to alleviate them.