Control yourselves, lads. The final week of trade is upon us. As we regale ourselves in the splendor that was 2015, celebrating over gigantic ice buckets filled with uncorked bottles of champagne and exotic foods from the far reaches of the world, I wanted to do a quick review of this year’s best performing stocks.
The biggest winner was NFLX, up 140% for the year. Americans have become a slothful type of creature, always lounging about the living room in search for entertainment. In the old days, I had 7 channels on my television (2,4,5,7,9,11 and 13). Nowadays, kids have a thousand; but it isn’t enough. They need video on demand, which is where NFLX fits in for a very affordable $7.99 per mo. Granted, NFLX is entirely useless if you want to find new movies; but they have been producing some solid programming, like House of Cards, Marco Polo and Bloodline, which is driving subscription numbers.
CTRP was up 114% last year, after striking a deal with PCLN. To be honest, these Chinese companies baffle me. They’re all really cheap on paper, until, of course, it’s revealed that they’ve been scamming the whole time, via accounting irregularities.
AMZN was up 113%, serving as a deflationary force in retail, taking a wrecking ball to brick and mortar. I use Amazon all the time. I’m a prime member, which also gets me a NFLX quality movie streaming service for free. Over the years, Amazon has really stepped up their branded programming, with quality shows like Mozart in the Jungle, Hand of God and Man in the High Castle.
ATVI was up 95%, as kids rot their brains playing Call of Duty until their parents take a sledge hammer to their video game console.
NTES and QUNR were up 88%. More chinese trickery.
AYI was up 71%. This plays along with the gains in HD and LOW, as Americans upgrade their lighting system to LED. Although CREE has been unable to capitalize on the LED trend, AYI has been crushing it, on residential, commercial and industrial applications. This is a really interesting name.
NVDA was up 68%, one of the few semis to crush 2015. They make chips that enhance video game and editing applications for computers. Nerds love their stuff.
OA produces bullets for the military. It enjoyed a 66% surge in 2015. I wonder why?
Other winners of note include: MANH (+70%), CYT (+64%), EDU (+63%), TYL (+63%), GPN (+62%), ZNH (+61%), VLRS (+97%), SBRCY (+57%), CVC (+57%), HRL (+57%), EXR (+55%), MSCI (+54%), NTT (+54%), VRSN (+54%), YOKU (+52%), TSS (+51%), FSLR (+50%), RAI (+49%), VLO (+49%), EXPE (+49%), INCY (+49%), SBUX (+48%), ALTR (+48%), IBKR (+48%), VMC (+47%), HCC (+47%), DXCM (+47%), TMUS (+47%), AVGO (+47%), JBLU (+47%), HLF (+46%), STZ (+46%), EA (+46%), HOLX (+46%), PANW (+45%), ULTA (+44%).
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