Posts tagged ‘vonage’

Nov 9

The other VoIP Play I added: magicJack (CALL)

While I was investigating Vonage I was introduced to their competitor magicJack by an acquaintance on twitter. Interestingly, in the process of talking me into magicJack he talked himself out of his own position. Let this serve as foreshadowing that this is not an investment without its warts.

The Positives

magicJack, like Vonage, provides voice over IP for telephone services for consumers. magicJack sells a little dongle like device that plugs into the USB port of your computer. You plug in the device, plug in your phone to the other end, and are off to the races. The company is best known for the incessent commercials they have pummeled at people for years. They also have a mobile app available on Android and the iPhone that allows you to make free long-distance and international calls as long as you are connected to Wifi.

magicJack has an enterprise value of about $250 million, comprised entirely of its market capitalization less $45 million of cash. In the first 6 months of the year the company generated a little over $21 million of cash, which puts the stock at an attractive 6x Enterprise Value to Free Cash Flow. If you step back to prior years, free cash flow generation as per the balance sheet was even stronger. The company has also been able to grow its customer base over the last few years, though this growth has tapered off some in the first half of 2013. A new device was launched in June that should provide a boost to growth, with the extent of that boost likely determining the stocks price in the short run. Read more

Oct 20

5 Comments

Vonage’s Free Cash Flow Story

I have a tendency to go overboard when I’m writing up a new company. There is so much to say. The business, the growth opportunities, the competitors, the financials, the risk factors, it goes on. I get half way through the write-up, look at the novel I’ve written and say, what am I doing here?

This is a blog. Its meant to be bite sized quips. Its intent is to share the investment ideas I have, discuss the reasons behind them and hopefully get feedback from others that help me distill the ideas down further and maybe get a few new ones as well. I’m not getting anything for, nor do I think anyone is looking for, an exhaustive multi-page diatribe outlining every nuisance of the idea at hand. If you are you should probably pay for it.

So after I’ve written a rambling soliloquy that no one is going to read, I take a step back and ask myself: what is the most important point here? What’s the thing that makes this investment worthwhile? Read more

Oct 13

Week 119: Getting Back on Track

Portfolio Performance

See the end of the post for the current make up of my portfolio and the last four weeks of trades.

Recent Developments

I always write words like those in the title with some trepidation. I’m never really sure if things are back on track, or just bouncing on their way to oblivion.

Nevertheless, the tangible evidence is that my portfolio has recovered and made new highs in the last month. I had a blip to the downside in August, and when I look back on that blip, I can attribute it to a few bad decisions. There was Niko Resources, Walker and Dunlop and Dex Media obviously and to a lesser extent Vitran and AMBAC. All of these stocks had flaws that I should have recognized and gave greater consideration to, and none of these stocks deserved to be allocated outsized starter positions, yet in the case of Niko and Dex Media that is exactly what I did.

I’ve gone back to the drawing board since then. I’ve tried to be more careful with my stock selection, tried to spend more time thinking through each idea before adding a position, and tried to work with the attitude that an opportunity passed up is better than one taken and lost on. Read more