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>Who is buying this stock?! and >I haven't dug deeply into their financials or anything. should be mutually exclusive, don't you think? If you haven't looked

>Who is buying this stock?! and >I haven't dug deeply into their financials or anything. should be mutually exclusive, don't you think? If you haven't looked at their financials or anything, how do you know whether it is a good investment or not? You can't just look at 'macro-trends' and determine if individual companies are a buy or not. e.g. since 1970s, cigarette industry has been in a steady volume decline. Guess which stock has been (by far) the best performing stock during since that period? Yep, Philip Morris (which recently split into Altria and Philip Morris)

objclxt 12y ago
> since 1970s, cigarette industry has been in a steady volume decline In the US - not globally. The tobacco market is growing and sales are increasing on a worldwide basis. As developed countries stop smoking, developing countries start - and developing countries often have far larger populations.
- yesiamyourdad 12y ago
  And the product is taxed heavily in the USA which gives the manufacturers cover for price increases. Tobacco is really profitable even in the US. Plus the eCig market has given them new growth prospects.
tdicola 12y ago
I'm not an expert, but by all accounts the financials for them are somewhat grim: http://www.forbes.com/sites/benkepes/2014/03/24/boxs-ipo-revenueexpenditure-mismatches-and-the-cult-of-growth-at-all-costs/ http://www.forbes.com/sites/benkepes/2014/03/24/boxs-ipo-rev... They're spending more in sales than they're making back in revenue (nevermind profit). Building a company around spending $2 to make $1 isn't good for the long term (ask Groupon how that worked out for them).
- mikeyouse 12y ago
  > (ask Groupon how that worked out for them). They're a $5B company four years after their IPO and are selling ~$2.5B annually.. not the failure that people keep representing.
  - jhonovich 12y ago
    Their revenue is flat and they make no profits. That's pretty terrible in this market. http://finance.yahoo.com/q/is?s=GRPN http://finance.yahoo.com/q/is?s=GRPN
majani 12y ago
a company feeding a strong addiction is a good long term bet, unlike box

objclxt 12y ago

> since 1970s, cigarette industry has been in a steady volume decline In the US - not globally. The tobacco market is growing and sales are increasing on a worldwide basis. As developed countries stop smoking, developing countries start - and developing countries often have far larger populations.

yesiamyourdad 12y ago
And the product is taxed heavily in the USA which gives the manufacturers cover for price increases. Tobacco is really profitable even in the US. Plus the eCig market has given them new growth prospects.

tdicola 12y ago

I'm not an expert, but by all accounts the financials for them are somewhat grim: http://www.forbes.com/sites/benkepes/2014/03/24/boxs-ipo-revenueexpenditure-mismatches-and-the-cult-of-growth-at-all-costs/ http://www.forbes.com/sites/benkepes/2014/03/24/boxs-ipo-rev... They're spending more in sales than they're making back in revenue (nevermind profit). Building a company around spending $2 to make $1 isn't good for the long term (ask Groupon how that worked out for them).

mikeyouse 12y ago
> (ask Groupon how that worked out for them). They're a $5B company four years after their IPO and are selling ~$2.5B annually.. not the failure that people keep representing.
- jhonovich 12y ago
  Their revenue is flat and they make no profits. That's pretty terrible in this market. http://finance.yahoo.com/q/is?s=GRPN http://finance.yahoo.com/q/is?s=GRPN

majani 12y ago

a company feeding a strong addiction is a good long term bet, unlike box