“Rule Breaker Investing” Market Cap Game Show: Throwdowns & Long-Term Wins
On this episode of Rule Breaker Investing, two past “Market Cap Game Show” champions, Matt Argersinger and Yasser El-Shimy, face off in a battle of wits and estimates. With 10 stocks on the line and two throwdown rounds, who will come out on top? And how will you fare against our contestants? Whether it’s semiconductors, space exploration, or the future of sound systems, we’ve got an exciting lineup of companies for you to test your market cap knowledge.
To catch full episodes of all The Motley Fool’s free podcasts, check out our podcast center. To get started investing, check out our beginner’s guide to investing in stocks. A full transcript follows the video.
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David Gardner: Price per share of a stock tells you almost nothing. It’s the price to buy one share of the stock. But how many shares does the company have outstanding? In math, we multiply two multiplicans together but the price per share is only one multiplicand. If you don’t know the other, you can’t do any meaningful math or figure out much of the world around you. Fools with the Capital F know that you need to know the shares outstanding, and then multiply that by the price per share. Now you know the actual full value of the company. It’s price tag. It’s market capitalization Market cap. Well, to teach this lesson inexorably, and unforgettably, we invented a game. That’s what I do. The date was August 9, 2017. The Market Cap Game Show was born. We’ve been playing every quarter since. You’re playing too. I designed it that way, so you can play along against my guest stars, against your spouse or partner, against your kids. Can you outscore my talented contestants? It’s that time of the quarter again, 10 new stocks, three guest stars. Matt Argersinger, Yasser El-Shimy, and you only on this week’s Rule Breaker Investing.
Welcome back to Rule Breaker Investing. This is the Market Cap Game Show, and my two guest contestants today are both past winners, and will be competing for a seat at the final four for our 2025 World Championships. Matt Argersinger helped initiate the Market Cap Game Show. Having been there with me in 2017, as we debuted the show. He is the OG. Matt currently works on the Motley Fools Dividend Investor Service. You can also catch him regularly on the Motley Fool Money podcast. He enjoys traveling, collecting vintage comic books, and most of all spending time with his wife and 5-year-old son. Yasser El-Shimy has won one, lost one and tied one Market Cap Game Show back back when we used to have ties, but just as I don’t think any national football league game show ever. In a tie, I felt the same way about our Market cap game show. That June 2022 appearance was our final tie. Yasser is a senior investment analyst at the Motley Fool working on Stock Advisor and Global Partners. He particularly enjoys studying global markets and Small and midcap. Cap growth stocks, other than that, Yasser’s a die hard AS Roma fan for those of you who follow. I know you’re out there, European soccer. Of course, the third player, and to us, the most important is you. That’s right. You our dear fellow Foolish listener, as Des begins to crank up our market cap game show music. Let me just briefly remind, especially new listeners, new players, I’ll be mentioning a stock. Neither Matt nor Yasser knows what stock is coming. They’ve been in soundproof chambers for Matt how long?
Matthew Argersinger: I’ve been stuck in here for hours, David, studying market caps of course.
David Gardner: Did we give you any refreshments?
Matthew Argersinger: I got one cup of coffee. [laughs]
David Gardner: I’ll turn to one of my all star guests here talking about a stock. He didn’t know was coming, and he will do his best to state a numerical range within which the market cap falls. The other contestant and you playing at home will simply say, I agree, meaning it’s accurate, the stocks value falls inside the stated range or I disagree. I think it’s outside that stated range. You simply not a hard game to play agree or disagree. If you get it right, give yourself a plus 1. That’s the market cap game show. We’re focused on the real market caps of real stocks. Nobody knows what’s coming. A perfect score would be 10. Stock number 1. Matt, let me turn to you first. If a stock doesn’t pay a dividend, is it dead to you?
Matthew Argersinger: It is. Look at it, Dave. Never at all
David Gardner: Now, I was actually being serious, but I think you’re being sarcastic.
Matthew Argersinger: I am being sarcastic.
David Gardner: Sarcasm is the wit of fools.
Matthew Argersinger: Yes, it is. Well, actually, I should say this. Most companies actually pay dividend nowadays. If you look at the broader indexes know that is remarkable. Now, sometimes they tend to be small. But no, there are many wonderful companies that I invest in that don’t pay dividends.
David Gardner: What if it’s from an industry that you don’t normally follow? Do you spend any time with these stocks, dividend or not? How industry concentrated are you mad in your own hunting for stocks?
Matthew Argersinger: With dividends, I’ve become a little more concentrated because you have to be in the financials, industrials, those areas to get more dividends. Dividends are found in pretty much every sector.
David Gardner: Do you have any stocks in your portfolio in industries that you don’t spend much time with?
Matthew Argersinger: I do, David. I don’t spend a lot of time looking at banks, but I do recognize there are a few banks that have a wonderful inner earnings and dividend history, and I’ve invested in a few of those.
David Gardner: Well, I don’t know if biotechnology sits on that list of things you like and follow or not, Matt. Maybe we’re about to bio-sciences. Makes medicines to help people with brain related conditions that affect how they move, think and feel. My question for you, Matt Argersinger stock number one is, what is your stated market cap range for the Neurocrine Biosciences Ticker symbol NBIX?
Matthew Argersinger: Well, here you go, Yasser. Shot in the dark here.
David Gardner: That’s the way we like. You the stock number one. [laughs].
Matthew Argersinger: I’m going to go with a range of let’s say 5 to 10 billion.
David Gardner: Five billion to $10 billion. Players at home. Yasser El-Shimy. The question is, do you agree or do you disagree?
Yasser El-Shimy: Man.
David Gardner: I like the pause, I suspect many a listener jogging or driving right now is also taking an extra breath and wondering 5 to 10 inside or outside.
Yasser El-Shimy: Neurocrine Bio-sciences, this is not your famous biotech company out there. I am actually going to agree with that range.
David Gardner: Unfortunately, it was a good range, and it sounded agreeable. To me, as well, this is a stock I picked in Motley Fool Stock Advisor five years ago. I haven’t checked in that much recently with it, but the market cap for Neurocrine Bio-sciences is 12.34 billion dollar. Outside the range, therefore, listeners at home, if you said, I disagree, give yourself a plus 1 Yasser, you had that opportunity, but Matt gets the point with his 5-10. One of the funny things about this scoring system is that Matt can be wrong and get a plus 1. That’s what I love about this game. This company, by the way, based in San Diego, California, one of their well known treatments is for a condition called Tardive Dyskinesia, which causes people to make uncontrollable movements often as a side effect of other medications. Neurocrine works on creating drugs that help people manage these health problems and improve their quality of life. As I mentioned, I picked it for Motley Fool stock advisor in October 2019, so it’s just about five years done. Stocks up 25%. The problem is, the S&P 500 is up 90%. It has been an underperformer but still a company doing good things in this world. It is up, but just not as much as I’d hoped when I picked it five years ago.
Matthew Argersinger: You could have said 500 billion market cap or 20 billion market cap, and I would’ve said, that make sense.
David Gardner: Five to 10 was not a bad call. I think in a way, you did deserve that plus 1 for being. Let’s move on.
Matthew Argersinger: I will need that.
David Gardner: Let’s move on to stock number two. Stock number two, my gosh, it’s a throw-down. Players at home, both Yasser and Matt will shortly write down their market cap range for this company. Once they’re ready, each will share their market cap range, and it’s time for you to decide which seems more plausible to you? Yasser’s or Matt’s. If you guess right, give yourself a point. Let me turn back to Yasser. Yasser, do you use the Internet to book travel?
Yasser El-Shimy: I do. All the time.
David Gardner: Favorite sites.
Yasser El-Shimy: Expedia.com, Chase travel. But I know that the question is probably going with Booking.
David Gardner: Close, but no cigar. However, I think you’ll be interested in this one. Have you ever used a travel site with a big button that says Book My Launch?
Yasser El-Shimy: No, I have never even heard of that.
David Gardner: Rocket Lab USA is in its own words quote, the End to End space company opening access to space to improve life on Earth. Now, a reminder that this is a throw down, so Pencils out, Yasser and Matt. As they choose their market cap ranges for Rocket Labs USA, ticker symbol RKLB, let me add that there’s a chance they’ll both be right. In which case, the tighter range wins the point. If they’re both wrong, if the market cap actually falls outside their two stated ranges. Well, that would never happen. But if it ever did, whoever’s closer to the actual market cap gets plus 1. Again, this is a throw-down. We do this twice every show stock number two, Ticker symbol RKLB. It’s worth reminding our players at home all you have to do is say, I agree with Yasser or I agree with Matt. If you’re right, give yourself a plus 1. Gentlemen, let me turn to Yasser first. Yasser, what is your stated market cap range for Rocket Lab USA?
Yasser El-Shimy: My market cap range for Rocket Lab is $7-$9.5 billion.
David Gardner: Seven to $9.5 billion. Matt, you’re looking down at the posted note where you wrote some scratched out some numbers, you’re laughing at yours.
Matthew Argersinger: I’m shaking my head because I know I’m gonna be way off on this one. My range is 1.5-3 billion.
David Gardner: To summarize, Matt, you said 1.5-3. Yasser, you said 7-9.5 players at home do you agree with Yasser, or did you agree with Matt? State it right now. Thank you. The market cap for Rocket Lab USA is $3.64 billion so, if you agreed with Matt, give yourself a plus 1, $3.64 billion. Now, Yasser I see you laughing, and I think I know why because full disclosure. I think this is an active recommendation in a Motley Fool service. I was looking at the buy recommendation from March 8th of last year, so 2023. It was written by Yasser Al Shimi.
Yasser El-Shimy: That is correct. Yes, and I’m way off on the market cap, so I apologize for that. I’m sorry. I don’t memorize market cap for the companies I follow.
David Gardner: Yet you’re still pretty good at this game.
Yasser El-Shimy: But here’s the thing. Learning that the market cap for Rocket Lab is 3.6 billion actually makes me feel good about that investment because I assumed it was a much bigger company that actually is. I think that’s a company with a pretty promising future.
David Gardner: Indeed, it is up 75% since your recommendation, Yasser, with the market up 40%. I will note, I haven’t been following this actively, but it was first up 80% within just months of your recommendation by the summer of 2023. Then all of a sudden, it was down. It was under water, 15% months later. It’s now back up 75% overall, and if it gets to a $7-9.5 billion market cap, Yasser it’s going to double from here. That sounds good to me.
Yasser El-Shimy: That’s correct. It’s not a stock for the faint of heart. It has significant volatility, price going up and down, but I think that the long term trajectory should hopefully look similar to how the rockets actually launch into space.
Matthew Argersinger: You were being aspirational with your market cap. I like that.
David Gardner: I do too. Now, Matt, you didn’t feel confident yet you got it. How are you feeling right now?
Matthew Argersinger: I’m feeling surprisingly good. I really thought I was own to here first, and I’m surprised to be too.
David Gardner: Rocket Lab Space Systems technology, by the way, has enabled more than 1,700 missions globally from complex interplanetary scientific spacecraft, like the James Webb Space Telescope to critical communications constellations. I think, after Space X, they’re the number two most frequently launched private company. An interesting one, certainly to follow, and one with a market cap, as it turns out, friends, of just $3.64 billion as we speak. By the way, all market caps updated as of noon yesterday, that would be Tuesday, September 17. That’s the time frame that we’re speaking to just minutes before we recorded. Let’s move on to stock number three. Matt, I noticed that you’re up to nothing. Let me turn back to you. Matt, I know you’re a sports fan. You’re involved in some rivalries. For instance, Red Sox. For instance, New England Patriots, you just throw down those names in some circles. It’s enough to excite some resentment.
Matthew Argersinger: Especially among New York fans, for sure.
David Gardner: But rivalries are fun.
Matthew Argersinger: Absolutely.
David Gardner: Ever painted your face at a game?
Matthew Argersinger: I am not a face painter or a mask wear or any super fan like that. I’m the guy who shows up with a polar shirt and cheers and takes an intellectual approach to the game.
David Gardner: Am I right? I think when you were around last year, you’d recently taken your young son to his first NFL football game. That right?
Matthew Argersinger: We actually went and saw speaking of, well, Boston sports, where I’m from. We actually we were in Tampa. We were seeing the Buccaneers play, but we were seeing one of Tom Brady’s last home games before he retired.
David Gardner: Did he win?
Matthew Argersinger: He did not win that game, but it was still exciting. My son loved it.
David Gardner: Rivalries. Now, what are some corporate rivalries that come to mind?
Matthew Argersinger: Well, probably famously Coke and Pepsi is probably a big rivalry. Domino’s Pizza Hut, though I don’t have a Pizza trade with Yum.
David Gardner: That counts.
Matthew Argersinger: Let me think. Could you say Microsoft and Alphabet, maybe to a certain extent?
David Gardner: Or certainly back in the day, Apple. I think about that PC versus Mac Guy Ads. That seemed pretty rivalry-centric.
Matthew Argersinger: Absolutely.
David Gardner: Well, this company played second fiddle in the semiconductor industry for decades to Intel. But in recent years, the tide seems to have turned, and advanced micro devices may have traded in Intel for a new rival Nvidia. That is, you’ve probably guessed by now. Stock number 3 is Advanced Micro Devices. The ticker symbol is AMD. Matthew Argersinger, what is your stated market cap range for advanced micro devices?
Matthew Argersinger: I know it’s had a nice run along with the other semiconductor companies, especially those involved in AI. I’m going to go pretty big on this one. I’m going to say, 250-300 billion.
David Gardner: Two hundred and fifty billion to $300 billion. Yasser, is this a company you’ve ever looked at?
Yasser El-Shimy: Yes, it is. You’re absolutely right that there is a pretty strong rivalry going on between AMD and Nvidia, especially when it comes to data center. Chips. Of course, NVIDIA has a lead right now with the GPU systems that they have developed. But AMD is also working on its next generation data center chips that are hopefully going to enable this coming revolution of generative AI.
David Gardner: Well said Yasser. Matt said 250 billion-$300 billion Yasser, do you want to agree or disagree with that range?
Yasser El-Shimy: I want to agree with that range.
David Gardner: You’re almost right.
Yasser El-Shimy: Two forty-nine come on [laughs].
David Gardner: You’re not right. It’s actually 246.
Yasser El-Shimy: No.
David Gardner: Three nine billion dollars [laughs] and so the correct answer was to disagree with Matt’s range. Matt did a pretty good job putting a round number right near the actual market cap. That’s hard to pick. I’m quite sure a lot of our players at home probably also agreed with Matt. It wasn’t a bad call, but it was technically the wrong call. We have to give Matt the point there. Again players at home, give yourself a plus one if you disagreed. It’s amazing to follow AMD. Lisa Su, the CEO came to the company in 2014. She’s now in her 10th year leading Advanced Micro Devices, and it’s a 40 bugger for those who bought when she took the reins. Just phenomenal performance. In fact it’s now well past Intel. Intel bouncing up a little bit this week on a couple of positive announcements, but Intel is down to a $93 billion market cap, so AMD is almost triple the market cap of Intel corporation these days, shocker.
Yasser El-Shimy: That is a shocker. I don’t know what I’m more shocked by Intel’s fall from grace, I guess or AMD’s rise probably Intel’s fall but what’s still amazing to me is even at almost $250 billion market cap. AMD’s a 10th the size of NVIDIA.
David Gardner: It is amazing to think about that. That’s part of the beauty of Market caps. The Market cap game show insights like that, an eye opener.
Yasser El-Shimy: This also shows to me the importance of management. You take a look at companies like Microsoft and AMD. They were left for dead as these like Dinosaurs. They were these big technology companies with when we thought that the Internet bubble burst in 2000 and here comes Lisa Sue with AMD and here comes Satya Nadella with Microsoft, and they just unleash incredible potential within both of these companies, and investors have been amply rewarded.
David Gardner: It is so true. I’ve often said this in the past. I will always say it in the future, the single greatest factor behind market App performance are the people running the company. Often they’re founders, but not always. Lisa Sue certainly wasn’t a founder for AMD, but she has been by far its most spectacular CEO. Really across all of American business, I’m not sure there’s been much better performance at that scale over the last ten years. By the way Matt Argersinger I do see Intel has been reducing its dividend. Intel does pay a dividend. AMD does not pay a dividend, but Intel a 1.8% yield now expected over the next 52 weeks down a bit.
Yasser El-Shimy: You know what’s amazing is we’ve done some work in Dividend investor looking back decades with data. What’s remarkable is companies that cut their dividend, and Intel first cut their dividend a while ago. It’s usually a bad sign. Sometimes you can look at it and say, well company’s going to protect their balance sheet can serve cash. That’s smart, maybe. But almost always I’d say nine out of ten times a company cuts a different end. It means it’s a bumpy road ahead and that’s what’s happened in Intel.
David Gardner: Argersinger three El-Shimy zero. Yasser, I think a lot of us are cheering you. I almost feel you’re winning this with a lot of your insights but in fact you’ve been shut out so far. Let’s go to stock Number 4. Argersinger have you ever dreamed of starting your own business and if so what would you sell?
Yasser El-Shimy: I did, actually and for a little while, I entertained the idea of opening a bakery. The reason is because I feel we don’t have fresh pastries anywhere near our ZIP code. That really rubs me the wrong way. I think every American is entitled to fresh pastry.
David Gardner: I love that line. A lot of people me included I’m enjoying their product right now. Use Starbucks often in and around breakfast, other times of the day, too, but Starbucks often gets dinged for not really having great pastries. Some of those decisions are local. For all I know at your local Starbucks dear listener, you might love the pastries. But in general, Starbucks has never gotten great ratings for its food, yet still what a great company and what a great stock pit it’s been over the years. Yasser, I love that. Did you actually incorporate? Did you open any? Are you just cooking it up at the oven and imagining, or how far did you take?
Yasser El-Shimy: I think I’ve taken as far as asking my wife to bake me stuff everyone.
David Gardner: That is an inspiring entrepreneurial story. Well this company is making commerce better for everyone, supporting the next generation of entrepreneurs, the world’s biggest brands, and everyone in between. This stock is owned by a lot of Motley Fool members, because it’s been recommended by a bunch of our services by me, by my brother, etc over the years. I just bet you already realized it’s Shopify Ticker symbol S-H-O-P. Turning now to Yasser. Let’s cut to the quick. Yasser I think a lot of us already knew the ticker symbol, probably already knew the company name. What is your stated market cap range for Shopify?
Yasser El-Shimy: I would say the stated market cap for Shopify is $90-100 billion.
David Gardner: Ninety billion to $100 billion, Matt, have you ever opened up your own business?
Matthew Argersinger: No, I haven’t. Like Yasser, I’ve asked my wife to do many things for me, though. I should have opened business.
David Gardner: I definitely know that acquiring some real estate and managing as a landlord, some properties, that’s part of a game you’re in. I don’t think Shopify really tries to empower that.
Matthew Argersinger: Not really. No. I haven’t crossed paths with Shopify yet.
David Gardner: Yasser said 90 billion to 100 billion, Matt Argersinger, players at home, would you like to agree or disagree.
Matthew Argersinger: I’m worried, it’s just outside that range, but I think I’m going to agree with Yasser in that range.
David Gardner: You were right to do so. Again the game often feels wrong, and yet so right. Somehow, Matt just acquired another point. Even though Yasser did a great job naming the market cap. In fact, Shopify is 96.16 billion.
Yasser El-Shimy: Oh wow. Nice range [laughs].
David Gardner: You pretty much put it right in the middle. Maybe you need to be a little cagier. Yasser and give it intentionally the wrong market cap range to trick Matt Argersinger and players at home. But you didn’t do at that time. You did a nice job coming the market cap and Matt simply agreed and gets a plus one. Again, players at home if you agreed with Yasser’s range give yourself a plus one. Shopify making commerce better for everyone. I would say a classic Rule Breaker of the past decade. It’s cut in half in the five months before my colleague, Carl Thiel picked it for Motley Fool Rule Breakers on February 24th, Check a 2016. When I quoted it yesterday, Shopify was up exactly 3,400% for us. That’s a 35 bagger, but even better. This is my favorite thing looking back on Shopify obeying Rule Breaker Investor habit number two.
We added up the opposite of looking to double down. The month after Carl picked it, I re upped it for Rule Breakers. Get this the stock had jumped in that month, a full 25%. But rather than say, well, we missed it I got even more bullish in my Rule Breakery way and picked it 25% higher. That one is a 28 bagger now. I already mentioned my brother, Tom picked the Stock too many Fools own this one. Tom’s done some great interviews with CEO Tobi Lütke. I don’t know him, but I know this about, Toby. He’s a gamer, which I really appreciate. I do follow him on Twitter X, and he’ll sometimes talk about tabletop board games, the kind that I love. Huge Shopify fan, guys, do you own any shop of any thoughts before we move to stock Number 5?
Matthew Argersinger: I do own Shopify’s because based largely on your recommendations, David. But I will just say, what you described about buying the stock or reopening the stock again a month later after a 25% move, that is something that is so hard for your average investor to do, and yet it is one of the most powerful things you can do as a long-term investor.
Yasser El-Shimy: I too do own Shopify and perhaps one of the reasons I got the market cap, so general, correct, is because it is my most successful investor ever as personal investment, at least, picked it in 2014 at what is now probably a cost basis of $2.71 per share.
David Gardner: Well done. Absolutely phenomenal Yasser. I’m so glad we hired you years later. Yeah, you scooped us. That’s really what we want for all of our members. You were maybe a Motley Fool member or a follower back then. We didn’t have the advice for you yet. You got in ahead of us, which we absolutely love. In fact, growing a community of people who see great things and say something. Like, I’m buying this one. If you see something, say something, I like that a lot, but I especially love it when you can go against the grain and do things people don’t expect. Add up, rather than look to double down, which is what most of the world looks to do buying low. Anyway, thank you for that, Matt. Let’s move on to stock Number 5 Matt. It’s time for you to give away a point. Maybe here. I’m rooting against you even though I need to be neutral.
Yasser El-Shimy: It’s going to happen. This is Acting four out of 10, which I’m at right now is already above my average. I’m flying on Cloud 9 here [laughs].
David Gardner: Beautiful. Matthew Argersinger what’s a parenting tip that you’ve picked up in your first five years as a dad that maybe we all could learn something from. It doesn’t even have to be your best. How about your third best tip?
Matthew Argersinger: I think letting your child no matter how young they might be. Have adult conversations, be in the room when other adults are talking. I think as parents, we tend to say, go play in your room or go play in the attic or something like that. But I think my son has really benefited from not only just listening to adult conversations, but actually engaging in adult conversations.
David Gardner: At the age of five?
Matthew Argersinger: At the age of five.
David Gardner: Love it. Yasser you are a dad, as well. I’m going to ask you the same question, so be thinking. But let me turn back to Matt, because before we came on air, you guys are having an offline conversation just about technology and how we oversee our kids in technology. There is a growing movement to move smartphones out of the schools. Some states have even stepped up at this point to ban them not because they’re evil or bad, but because they’re distracting. I will at least say, I think I’m surrounded at this table by individuals who did not have a smartphone that they were looking at during cafeteria or recess growing up as kids and yet that is not uncommon these days.
Matthew Argersinger: That’s right. I was shocked to read an article recently about how lunch rooms. You just mentioned, lunch rooms are so quiet these days because kids go to lunch sit in the cafeterias and look at their phones. I just remember growing up when I was in school. The lunch cafeteria was this cacophony of noise. It’s just trays bashing, people talking, people yelling, and to hear that it’s silent these days it’s shocking.
David Gardner: It is shocking and maybe that’s temporary. In fact, I think we might be moving back toward more boisterous, Jonathan Hight, author of the Coddling of the American Mind and other books, an academic and a real big backer of taking social media and smart phones out of our students’ lives, not altogether, but just much reduced. In ways you can control it. That includes the home, guys and I want to turn back to Matt. Do you guys have an iPad technology overall? How does it work with your 5-year-old?
Matthew Argersinger: We do. We have an iPad. It’s a family iPad, but my son uses it to do piano lessons and math games and things like that. But I tell you, it is one of those you bite your lip and hope because my son can figure out some amazing things. No matter how many restrictions we put on the iPad, he always ends up in certain places where I’m not expecting him to be, so it is a constant challenge.
David Gardner: I’m looking something up and wanting Yasser to weigh in. I’m going to throw it to you know Yasser and look my thing up as we go together so 3,2,1, go. Yasser, how does it work in the El-Shimy household? I know your kids are a little bit older, but this is very relevant.
Yasser El-Shimy: So we actually control the Internet from the source. We bought a router with parental control where my wife and I can effectively monitor and control the Internet browsing, everything that the kids can do, how many hours online they can spend on each device, and so on. This way we’re hopefully providing our kids with as much of a safe Internet as you can hopefully get. I know there is no such thing as 100% safe, but that’s what we aim for, at least.
David Gardner: Well, this company definitely is in the world of touchscreens, but also voice control in other ways that human machine interface. The company is Synaptics. When I asked ChatGPT to explain synaptics to me as if I were 5-years-old, which seems relevant to this conversation, here is the answer. Synaptics is like a helper that makes things you touch work better. You know how on phones or tablets, when you tap the screen, it knows exactly where your finger is? Synaptics makes the special parts that help devices like phones, laptops, and even car touch screens understand your touch. When I think of touch, I can’t not think of one of my favorite names, anybody’s ever named their son, Matt your son Dutch. I hope Dutch would understand the touch that we just shared.
Matthew Argersinger: I think so. He might even understand this company better than I.
David Gardner: Well, let’s turn to you, Matt Argersinger, because Synaptics, the Ticker symbol is S-Y-N-A. A little bit about its business. You may not have known 90 seconds ago. Now, what is your stated market cap range for synaptics?
Matthew Argersinger: I’m going to say it is between 6.5-8.5 billion.
David Gardner: Six and a half to 8.5 billion dollars. Yasser, is this a small to mid-cap company you’ve ever looked at?
Yasser El-Shimy: I unfortunately have not looked at it before.
David Gardner: I have and thereby hangs a tail. But I’m going to hold off on that. As I turn to you now, Yasser and say, Matt said 6.5 to 8.5 billion dollar, Yasser El-Shimy and players at home, do you want to agree or disagree?
Yasser El-Shimy: I’ll disagree.
David Gardner: Score one for the underdog right now, who’s making an epic comeback, Yasser. You were right Player.
Yasser El-Shimy: We’re delaying the inevitable.
David Gardner: Yasser, you were right, players at home. You were right, if you disagreed with Matt, Synaptics is a smaller company than that $3.12 billion is Synaptics. Here’s my quick story about Synaptics. It’s entitled “We Never Get Credit for The Ones We Don’t Pick” so 2012-2015.
This was on the Rule Breakers internal watch list, as I oversaw the service, and I never picked it. In fact, I noted, because I always wrote notes. I have all of my reactions that I kept over the years because I saved it all on Evernote, so I know what I was thinking at the time. As I wrote my final note to myself about Synaptics in August 2015, I ended with this, and I quote. I quote me, why else do we have podcasts? To quote ourselves. Here we go. “Amazing, a market up year,” so the market was up that year, “in which the company’s revenue doubled to 1.7 billion dollars, but the stock is down 5%. Gross margins lost eight percentage points, though, and Simon, that would be former Fool Simon Erickson, Simon says lower still, so the market is worried about the profitability of this business. I obviously much prefer a strong top line growth with margin expansion. So this mixed signal makes me no more than lukewarm on the stock.” I never went back and updated my notes, nor did I ever recommend the stock. From that day, August 5th, of 2015. Check it. It’s up exactly 0%. [laughs] It is right where it was with the same market cap, nine years later, the market, by the way, up 150% plus. Guys.
Yasser El-Shimy: Good call.
David Gardner: We never get credit for the ones we don’t pick. I know you both have done the same. Something to appreciate about your Motley Fool advisors are the ones they toss away. Now, sometimes we make mistakes and toss away really good fish, but often we toss away not so good fish. We do know studies show that a minority of stocks beat the market averages anyway. You’re definitely not shooting fish in a barrel when you pick stocks as an advisor here at the Motley Fool or in your own portfolio, dear listener. But give yourself credit sometimes for the ones you didn’t pick. We’re now at halftime. The score is Matthew Argersinger, four, Yasser El-Shimy one. It’s time for our halftime follies. Three months ago, Dez brought what I would describe as a pretty compelling Viola Solo for the halftime show. Dez herself is an accomplished viola player so, we get that. Violas are rarely, if ever, invited to be part of marching band halftime shows and that is a shame. I do hope and believe that Dez is about to bring us this unique and special halftime show for this our September 2024, Market Cap Game Show halftime.
[MUSIC]
David Gardner: On to stock number 6, Yasser El-Shimy, why do companies buy back their own stock?
Yasser El-Shimy: It’s often the most prudent use of capital to buy back your shares. If you deem your shares to be at attractive valuation compared to what the market is pricing in, you ultimately, as management team, you should know better than anyone what the prospects are for your business, how your customers are reacting to, let’s say new products and so on. In these cases, it would be prudent to buy back your shares. In fact, it’s a more tax efficient way for shareholders if the company buys back its own shares as opposed to handing out a special dividend. Sorry, Matt, I know you are the [laughs] dividing king here. But that’s one reason, I guess why companies tend to buy back shares. Of course, it is not always prudent, and many companies tend to unfortunately buy back their shares.
David Gardner: At the wrong time.
Yasser El-Shimy: At the wrong time.
David Gardner: Studies show that that often happens. Warren Buffett is certainly a fan of buying back stock over time. Some people don’t like it. They think that companies should be doing better things in this world than just using their capital, repurchase their own stock. There’s been some criticism in recent years of this practice, but that was well answered, Yasser, and this company announced a $60 billion buyback this week. It also announced Matt Argersinger a 10% lift in its dividend payout. Stock number 6 is Microsoft. The Ticker symbol is MSFT. There aren’t that many companies that would just blindly throw out there. We’re going to buy back $60 billion of our stock. For a lot of our market caps like Synaptics, that would be the company 20 times zero.
Matthew Argersinger: I was just going to say 60 billion is probably more than 95% of the S&P 500 companies [laughs] out there. That’s an amazing amount of capital.
David Gardner: It is, and the even more compelling question, Yasser El-Shimy is, what is your stated market cap range for Microsoft. No spoilers here. This is one of the larger companies in the world today.
Yasser El-Shimy: Absolutely, it’s in the trillion dollar market cap club, for sure. My stated market cap would be 3.17 trillion-3.27 trillion.
David Gardner: Yet, in some ways, not that tight, $100 billion between 3.17 trillion and 3.27 trillion Matthew Argersinger or players at home, do you want to agree with Yasser or disagree with his stated market cap range in the trillions this time, 3.17-3.27?
Matthew Argersinger: It’s such a tight specific range he gave. [laughs]
David Gardner: Not that tight?
Matthew Argersinger: Not that tight, but I guess.
David Gardner: Extremely tight.
Matthew Argersinger: Yeah. I would say, I’m going to agree. I think he’s right in there.
David Gardner: Positive sound Dez, because it was right to agree with what was a very narrow range based on one definition of narrow. The correct answer is $3.237 trillion, which was inside the 3.17-3.27 range. Yasser, did you look this up shortly before the show?
Yasser El-Shimy: Yes, I did.
David Gardner: Yeah. [laughs] That was an incredibly good call. It was a narrow range in the grander scheme. As a listener or Matthew Argersinger, it’s hard to agree with such a narrow range. Why did you?
Matthew Argersinger: He looked very confident. He had a very confident look in his eye [laughs] when he said that range.
Yasser El-Shimy: Remind me not to play poker with you. [laughs]
David Gardner: As I looked up the market caps yesterday in preparation for the show, I did update them at noon today, so we always have the freshest numbers. But even just from yesterday to today, the market cap for Microsoft was up $45 billion. By the way, $60 billion buyback. The scale of this company, it’s hard to understand and wrap our minds. Many human beings aren’t good at understanding trillions, that there are 1,000 billions in a trillion, let alone $3.237 trillion. I read a Motley Fool article this week. It was talking about the five biggest public companies in the world on January 1st, of 1999. Rington order they were any guesses. Microsoft was number 1. Guys want to take a shot at any of the other four?
Matthew Argersinger: I would say, probably General Electric is probably in there.
David Gardner: That was number 2. Good job, Matt.
Matthew Argersinger: ExxonMobil.
David Gardner: Was number 5.
Yasser El-Shimy: IBM.
David Gardner: Good try. We’ll end it right there. No, [laughs] but not bad Yasser. It seems like Matt scoring the points today.
Yasser El-Shimy: Yeah, I know.
David Gardner: But good calls. Microsoft, then General Electric, Intel, Walmart, ExxonMobil, were the Top 5 in 1999. Microsoft’s market cap back then, $348 billion and it dropped down to ExxonMobil at about half that 178. Those were the five largest market caps as 1999 started. Here we are 25 years later. The five today are Apple, Microsoft, Invidia, Alphabet, and Amazon. Amazon down around 1.8 trillion number 5.
Yasser El-Shimy: That’s a small cap.
David Gardner: Just really interesting to watch. [laughs] Well said. By the way, quick plug here. The Motley Fool has a new feature, which is breakfast news. If you’re a premium member, if you’re a member of the Motley Fool, you’ve probably been getting this in your inbox the last seven days or so. I think it’s fantastic. I realize I’m praising the home team here, but I really am enjoying breakfast news. If you’re a member, I totally recommend that you get each market weekday. Somewhere around 7:30 AM Eastern, you’ll get a quick recap of what happened yesterday and what’s going to happen today. That’s where this morning over breakfast, I read about Microsoft’s $60 billion buy back. The score, Argersinger five, El-Shimy one. Let’s go on to stock number 7, which is a throw down. Again, both Yasser and Matt will shortly write down their market cap range for this company. Let me turn to Matt. Matt, when it comes to managing, we talked a little bit about this earlier. The Argersinger Folio. Are you a sole proprietor here, or do you partner in any way with your wife?
Matthew Argersinger: My wife is a phenomenal source of new ideas to research.
David Gardner: That sounds awesome.
Matthew Argersinger: Yes, [laughs] because of her time during the day and everything, she has outsourced all the investment management to me.
David Gardner: That largely describes my own. Yasser, how about you?
Matthew Argersinger: My wife has no interest whatsoever [laughs] in the investing world and so it’s more than happy to delegate all of that to me.
David Gardner: That sounds great. Matt, back to your wife, does she keep her eye out for products and services? Is that what you’re describing, in the world that she finds promising and let you know?
Matthew Argersinger: She tends to, yes. In terms of either buying stuff from my son or just she has interest, she’ll say, is this a company public? I love when she ask me that, because that’s always, no, I didn’t know that. It gives me something to look at.
David Gardner: I had an experience like that with this stock, which I’ll relate in a second. But first, let’s talk about Lowe’s Companies. Ticker symbol LOW. Matt, you are up 5:1. You could almost, I think you could clinch if you get stock number 7 right. This is a throw down, though, so both you guys are going to give your ranges, but Lowe’s companies, Ticker symbol LOW, is stock number 7. As Matt and Yasser write down their ranges a reminder, player at home you’re just going to say, I agree with Matt, or I agree with Yasser. You’ll give yourself a plus one if you are right.
Pencils are down. Let me turn to Matt. Matt, what is your stated market cap range for Lowe’s companies Ticker symbol LOW.
Matthew Argersinger: This is way wider than I wanted it to be, but I’m going with 80-95 billion.
David Gardner: 80 billion to 95 billion. Yasser, what did you write down?
Yasser El-Shimy: I wrote down 90-115 billion.
David Gardner: Ninety to 115 billion. Player at home, do you agree with Matt or do you agree with Yasser, 3, 2, 1, answer? Lock it in. If you said, I agree with Yasser, give yourself a plus one, guys, you are both low. Speaking of Lowes, this company has grown quite a bit more than that. The market cap for Lowe’s companies is $146.49 billion, almost 150. You guys were both low, but Yasser, you had a 90-115, which was closer to the market cap. Therefore, we give you the point, which keeps the game interesting 5:2.
Yasser El-Shimy: If you told me that on the cards for today, I would get Lowe’s right, but Matt would get Rocket Lab right [laughs] I would have told you, you are out of your mind.
Matthew Argersinger: I would have agreed with you. [laughs]
David Gardner: I mentioned that there is a little bit of a tail there. I never did pick Lowe’s for Fool services. But in January 2013, my wife said, hey, why not Lowe’s? She’s always admired the store, she uses the store. Remember how Peter Lynch used to credit his wife for watching for stores popping up in malls. This was analogous for us, and it sounds like you’ve had some similar experiences. Matt, shout out to the distaff side of my family, because Lowe’s, since 2013, I wish I’d picked it for the Motley Fool, is a seven bugger. More than doubling up the S&P 500, truly a reminder of what Lynch advocated for so well, which is buying what you know or in this case, what your spouse knows. The score, Argersinger five, El-Shimy two. Let’s move on Yasser stock number 8. Earlier, you shared a bit about how you book travel on the Internet. You haven’t yet flown into space or booked to lodge, though?
Yasser El-Shimy: Not on the cards, unfortunately.
David Gardner: I hear you. I have a related, but different question, Yasser. How do you do Music on the Internet. Spotify, to whatever extent you’d like to share, how do tunes come to you digitally and are you paying?
Yasser El-Shimy: I am a paid subscriber to YouTube Premium, which includes YouTube music. I have found YouTube music to be more than a sufficient replacement for Spotify, which I used to use.
David Gardner: Was there a moment where you just dissatisfied, walked away from Spotify or was it maybe you kept that for a while, but then you just found YouTube taking over?
Yasser El-Shimy: It was more that I wanted to subscribe to YouTube just for the videos, but then I found they’re also giving me YouTube music for free, and it works just fine. That was like my thinking process. But I should say, I never meant to say I want to end Spotify in order to join another service. It was more that I just subscribed to YouTube and that came with that.
David Gardner: I’m so glad it’s worked for you. Let’s delve a little bit deeper here. Yasser, what about the hardware that delivers you these tunes?
Yasser El-Shimy: I usually do a lot of my listening in the car, actually. [laughs]
David Gardner: That’s some important hardware.
Yasser El-Shimy: Thankfully, I got a car with a pretty good sound system. Technically, the company that makes the speakers in the car is called JBL.
David Gardner: JBL is not stock number 8, but a lot of us, me included, have or use Sonos. Ticker symbol, SONO, a company that’s been in the headlines. It’s a well known consumer brand. It’s been in the headlines. Some negative headlines in recent months. This is a Motley Fool recommendation across a few different surfaces, I don’t think either of you has it as a ongoing recommendation. Of course, I’m always randomizing from hundreds of stocks we covered the Fool so I’m never quite sure if one of you guys already owns this or knows it or not. It’s all neutral and randomized. Yasser, what is your stated market cap for Sonos, ticker symbol SONO.
Yasser El-Shimy: My stated market cap for Sonos is between $7 billion to $10.5 billion.
David Gardner: Seven billion to 10.5. Yasser, I know as earlier you went with a flat number, and then the higher parameter you gave a dot five. Is this an El-Shimy flourish?
Yasser El-Shimy: Correct.
David Gardner: We’ll call it the El-Shimy flourish. We’ve got an El-Shimy flourish. Matt, 7-10.5 billion players at home, Matt Argersinger, do you want to agree or disagree?
Matthew Argersinger: He looks confident again, but then he could be throwing off. I’m going to say disagree on this one.
David Gardner: That is correct to disagree with Yasser’s too high estimation.
Yasser El-Shimy: Again, never play poker with Matt.
David Gardner: Yasser, this is one of the few times you were actually cut off. Every single call you made was pretty much on.
Yasser El-Shimy: I knew I was off, but if I sounded confident enough, he was going to fall for it, and I gave him a wide range.
Matthew Argersinger: David said something about it’s being in the news for the wrong reasons. I thought, maybe this is going to be smaller than Yasser thinks.
David Gardner: I never want to tilt it too much although both of you got to hear me say that along with our players at home. Speaking of which, player at home, if you said I disagree with Yasser, give yourself a plus one, Matt. I believe that technically means you may have won this Market cap game show. We still have two more questions. This isn’t for us. It’s for our players at home, but, Matt, I think I can already be inviting you to the March Market Cap madness for 2025. I think you just secured your seat. Briefly back to Sonos though the company has endured widespread criticism. I don’t know if you’re keeping up with this from its own customers due to its recent Sonos App rollout, the most recent version. It appears to have been released prematurely.
Some features bugged therefore disabled things like alarm and sleep timer functions that a lot of people liked, but they were bugged. A lot of it because it’s new Sonos Ace headphone line came out hardware, and they were trying to time up their software with that release, and they rushed the software and they’ve been backpedaling publicly ever since. The market cap, two to go, did I forget to mention the market cap? Sonos’s market cap is $1.49 billion down from where it once was, an interesting place, almost a micro cap for a well-known consumer brand and one worth following. Again, if you disagree, give yourself a plus one. The game in some ways is over, and yet the game is not over. Let’s move on to stock Number 9. Matt, how much of a fix it guy, are you?
Matthew Argersinger: Pretty big. My wife is definitely the handyman of the house, but I can certainly handle my own if it comes to small things.
David Gardner: Well, it sounds like you’re both pretty handy. Matt, have you ever tried fixing something at home, only to realize you needed a part that you didn’t have or that may not even exist.
Matthew Argersinger: One comes to mind recently, we had a problem where one of our HVAC systems was over freezing. It was running, but it would freeze over, and then would lock up and it wouldn’t cool. We actually looked it up, and it was a part that had gone bad. The problem is the system was built in around 2000, 2001, and they just didn’t make that part anymore. Unfortunately, we had to bring in a professional to replace the whole thing, which was pretty expensive.
David Gardner: Well, now connecting that Matt into stock Number 9. This company’s tag line is your challenges, our engineered solutions. This company has a role in creating Niche high tech replacement parts for airplanes and defense systems, things that you can’t just buy the local hardware store. Any guesses as to what company I’m talking about?
Matthew Argersinger: Maybe TransDigm?
David Gardner: That’s not it, but that’s a good guess. Stock Number 9 is Heico. Matt, HEI is the Ticker symbol. Is this a company you’ve ever looked at?
Matthew Argersinger: Very briefly a while ago. Because I know it’s a consistent dividend pair for one, but my research didn’t go very deep.
David Gardner: What’s your state of market cap range for Heiko?
Matthew Argersinger: I’m going to say Heiko is between 5 billion and 7.5 billion.
David Gardner: Five billion to 7.5 billion with the El-Shimy flourish, I noticed.
Matthew Argersinger: I wanted to add that at the end just for Yasser.
David Gardner: Yasser, players at home, Matt said 5-7.5 billion. Have you ever followed this company at all?
Yasser El-Shimy: I have not followed the company although it has been in the news lately with Warren Buffett or Berkshire Hathaway rather taking a stake in Heiko.
David Gardner: Seems like Yasser might know this one a little bit better than you.
Matthew Argersinger: I’m thinking it might be a lot bigger than what I think it is.
David Gardner: Do you want to agree or disagree 5-7.5.
Yasser El-Shimy: Most certainly disagree.
David Gardner: If you disagreed, along with Yasser give yourself a plus one. Matt severely under shot this company. Let me just say, I don’t follow Heiko, and I wouldn’t have known what to do with this. I didn’t know about the Buffett entrance, and it’s $36.26 billion. Heiko is a very substantial company. Fun fact about this one, my brother Tom picked the stock for Motley Fool stock advisor in April of 2012. Great call, Tom. It’s a 15 bagger since April of 2012. If it’s 36 billion today, that means it was about $2.4 billion 12 years ago. Very substantial growth. I felt embarrassed that I didn’t really know much about Tom’s 15 bagger in a company that was worth tens of billions of dollars. I went to Wikipedia, one of my favorite sites on the Internet. I assume everybody’s heard of Wikipedia before.
I read about Heiko, and one thing I picked up is where they’re based, because I thought, maybe Northern Virginia, Washington DC, a lot of big defense companies are through to go. A lot of big aerospace and defense companies are in our greater Metropolitan area here in Washington DC. This company is headquartered in Hollywood, Florida. I wanted to look up a little bit more because I love corporate histories and hearing how things started, or in this case, how a town started. Here it is in 1920, Joseph Young arrived in South Florida to create his own dream city in Florida. Joe is from Long Beach, California, and he saw what was happening 30 miles away in Hollywood, California, as the motion picture industry began to center itself there by 1912.
Joseph Young’s vision for this Miami suburb was to make the beaches of the Atlantic Ocean stretch westward with man-made lakes, infrastructure, roads, and the intracoastal waterway. He wanted to include large parks, schools, churches, and golf courses, all industries and activities that were very important to him. Young bought up thousands of acres of land around 1920 and named his Newtown, Hollywood by the Sea. That was to distinguish itself from his other real estate venture, which was Hollywood in the Hills in the Adirondacks in New York State. After Young had spent literally millions of dollars, and this is a century ago, so millions of dollars was a really big sum, constructing his city, he was elected mayor in 1925. A year later, it was devastated by the 1926 Miami Hurricane. But over time, it became home to Northerners. They’re known as snowbirds. I think that term is still used, who flee the North during the winter and then escape the South during the summer. Hollywood, Florida. Ladies, gentlemen and Fools everywhere, and that’s where Heiko is based. Six to three is the score. Yasser, it’s often pointed out on the Market Cap game show that people tend to only remember that last question, and who got that last one right? In some ways, you may have lost, but you have an opportunity to win.
Yasser El-Shimy: We’ll see about that.
David Gardner: Let’s move the stock Number 10. Yasser, I’m going to try a corporate tag line on you.
Yasser El-Shimy: Sure.
David Gardner: Now, this is dangerous because the last time I did this, I unintentionally unearth a soon to be published Motley Fool recommendation. Indeed, this is the last story, I’ll tell because this is one of my favorite stories from this podcast over the years. The tag line for this company with Bill Barker and Bill Mann three months ago was this, technology is our how, and people are our why. Now, I was really asking this of Bill Barker as a joke, because to me anyway, that tag line is pretty generic, and therefore I might say a bit lame. Technology is our how, and people are our why.
In one of the 10 most amazing moments in this podcast history, Bill, not skipping a beat said, that’s Endava Associates, Ticker symbol DAVA. A small microcap company, and Bill was absolutely right. Hilarity ensued, the reason he was right, by the way, is that that very week that our podcast was coming out, in June of this year, Bill was recommending Endava as his next pick in one of our services, but we couldn’t air that on this podcast, because the podcast would be coming prior to that premium pick coming out. Guys, as you well know, we have firewalls and other internal rules in place so that we never give away new picks prior to them being received by members. We didn’t air the Endava pick on last quarter’s game show. I slotted in a different stock. That said, I told the hilarious story in full a week later on the June 2024 Rule Breaker investing Mailbag. Endava, let it be said, is up about 20% over the past three months, so shout out to Bill Barker in every way. With the past as prologue then, Yasser, that’s probably the last time I’ll get to tell the story in this podcast, but it was absolutely hilarious. Are you ready for Stock Number 10s tag line from the home page of its website?
Yasser El-Shimy: Sure.
David Gardner: Strength in unity, purpose in progress, innovation for your future.
Yasser El-Shimy: Oh my God. That’s an awful.
David Gardner: Do you think ChatGPT came? I’m not going to accuse this company of doing that. Strength in unity, purpose in progress, innovation for your future, you want to make a guess what company? Can you Endava it?
Yasser El-Shimy: Oh my God. Danaher? I have no idea.
David Gardner: No one should have any idea. Would it help Yasser? If I let you know the text that is on the clickable button right below that text on their website? If I were to let you know that the text on that clickable button says, together let’s do great things. You can click that. Would you like to make another guess?
Yasser El-Shimy: I don’t know Matt. Oh, my guest.
David Gardner: No, I am totally stumped.
Yasser El-Shimy: Oh my God. That sounds awfully generic. It’s like, there’s no giveaway.
David Gardner: It was purposely trying to be generic.
Yasser El-Shimy: I know.
David Gardner: Together, let’s do great things, click.
Yasser El-Shimy: Intel.
David Gardner: Well, the correct answer for you and for all of us playing at home. Did anyone get this is Kforce. Ticker symbol, K-F-R-C, and no, Kforce is not a Korean Boys band. Kforce is a staffing and consulting company that helps businesses find skilled professionals, especially in areas like technology, finance and accounting. Acts as a bridge between companies that need specialized workers, and then people looking for jobs. The name Kforce, by the way, is a blend of two concepts. They say knowledge, that’s the k part, and then force. It reflects the company’s mission of providing highly skilled professionals, those with knowledge to businesses in need of talent. That’s the one form of the force. Yasser, that was quite a wind up. I’m curious what your stated market cap range is for K force, ticker symbol KFRC, not KFC, KFRC.
Yasser El-Shimy: May the force be with you. Exactly. My guess is that the market cap range of Kforce falls somewhere between two billion to $5 billion.
David Gardner: Two billion to $5 billion. Do players at home, Matt Argersinger, agree or disagree?
Matthew Argersinger: It’s a good range. I have no idea. I’m just going to say disagree, because it could be smaller than that or bigger than that.
David Gardner: It was correct to disagree. Kforce is an even smaller company than that stock. Number 10, we close out this market cap game show with a company whose market cap is just $1.22 billion, right about the same size as Endava Associates, by the way, and a funny one, therefore, to close on strength and unity, Yasser, purpose and progress, innovation for your future.
Yasser El-Shimy: Cliche.com. That’s their website. That goes to Kforce [laughs]
David Gardner: Cliche with the K, the stock by the way is up 80% over the past five years. The market is up 80%, as well over the last one week.
Yasser El-Shimy: With this score and the show, I might need their service very soon [laughs]
David Gardner: You were a very good sport, Yasser, and also very expert considering the final score. But we do give this one to Matt 7-3. The final score then, Matt Argersinger, seven, Yasser El-Shimy, three. Thank you, both. But my two all star contestants and I know that we’re not playing this game for each other. We’re playing for you. How did you score? Dear Fool, dear listener at home. We hope that you outscored all of us. The purpose of the Market Cap Game Show is to make more popular. I’m never going to say as popular as Jeopardy, but to make more popular market caps, the real value of stocks on the market that most people don’t understand, except that you do understand, because you just listened to us for about an hour. I hope you scored at least a few points this week and maybe beat one or both of our competitors.
Matt Argersinger and Yasser El-Shimy, you both distinguished yourselves and helped make the world a bit smarter, happier and richer. Next week is our September 2024 mailbag. This month featured essays from yesterday to kick off on September 4, and then last week, I talked to my friend Ran Stegan on long term leadership, business, and life. Of course, the Market Cap Game Show today, if you have any further thoughts about any of these topics, want to be on next week’s show? Just email us. RBI at full.com is our mailbag email address, you can tweet us at RBI podcast. A last line from you, Yasser El-Shimy.
Yasser El-Shimy: Despite the absolute thumping I received today, I want to congratulate you, Matt for making it to the March Madness Qualification Championship, however you I call it. It was fun. I loved it, and thanks for inviting me, David.
David Gardner: You bet, it’s always a pleasure, Yasser. Thank you. Matt, a last line from you.
Matthew Argersinger: Thank you, Yasser. It was a lot of fun. I just enjoy the show so much because there’s always at least two, if not three or four companies that I’ve never heard of. [laughs] I love learning about, so thank you, David.
David Gardner: Well, thank you again, Yasser, and Matt see you in March. Fool on.
Suzanne Frey, an executive at Alphabet, is a member of The Motley Fool’s board of directors. David Gardner has positions in Alphabet, Apple, Berkshire Hathaway, Booking Holdings, Lowe’s Companies, Starbucks, and Walmart. Matthew Argersinger has positions in Alphabet, Coca-Cola, Danaher, Shopify, and Starbucks and has the following options: short October 2024 $65 calls on Coca-Cola and short October 2024 $70 puts on Coca-Cola. Yasser El-Shimy has positions in Microsoft, Nvidia, Rocket Lab USA, and Shopify. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Advanced Micro Devices, Alphabet, Apple, Berkshire Hathaway, Booking Holdings, Danaher, Domino’s Pizza, Endava Plc, Kforce, Microsoft, Nvidia, Shopify, Sonos, Spotify Technology, Starbucks, and Walmart. The Motley Fool recommends Heico, Intel, International Business Machines, Lowe’s Companies, Neurocrine Biosciences, Rocket Lab USA, Synaptics, and TransDigm Group and recommends the following options: long January 2026 $395 calls on Microsoft, short January 2026 $405 calls on Microsoft, and short November 2024 $24 calls on Intel. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
“Rule Breaker Investing” Market Cap Game Show: Throwdowns & Long-Term Wins was originally published by The Motley Fool
