In Search of the Perfect Investment

They downgraded CYBR on me. Here’s the story from the Boston Business Journal:

Shares of newly-public cybersecurity firm CyberArk Software (Nasdaq: CYBR) were down around 5 percent Tuesday after the company’s stock was downgraded by two separate analysts who believe it’s overvalued.

Nomura and William Blair downgraded CyberArk to neutral ratings. In addition, Imperial Capital launched coverage with an underperform rating and $40 target.

Nomura analyst Rick Sherlund said that CyberArk shares had a higher valuation than other comparable companies such as FireEye (Nasdaq: FEYE) and Palo Alto Networks (NYSE: PANW).

Shares of CyberArk are up 49 percent over the two months since its initial public offering in September. Shares have surged since early November, when the company reported reported strong-than-expected earnings and revenue for the third quarter.

Cyberark is currently around $42.60. I’m not worried. I do like the cyber-security space they’re in. They follow administrator portals — often the route in for hackers.

Suddenly, I’m inundated with some  wonderful real estate syndication deals — commercial and residential. Hard assets you can see and touch have charms over paper share certificates in private companies, which often end up on the bathroom wall.

I went shopping to Home Depot and discovered:

+ Most of the stuff they have for sale is on-line, not in their stores.

+ Their on-line delivery schedule sucks. They estimated eight days. Amazon will have a better, cheaper product here Friday. Why shop anywhere else?

+ I did buy some minor stuff at Home Depot, like picture hangers and a paintbrush. Boy, it’s hard to find anything and their super-helpful people were as lost as I was.

I’ll try Lowe’s this morning. But I’m beginning to prefer my local neighborhood hardware store for my humble needs.

I will admit to being bereft of new stock ideas this morning, though I note our portfolio (see right hand column) is doing fine this morning.

It’s Thanksgiving tomorrow. There’s a lot of be thankful for.

Happy Thanksgiving

Moishe received a parrot as a gift. The parrot had a bad attitude and an even worse vocabulary. Every word out of the bird’s’ mouth was rude, obnoxious and laced with profanity.

Moishe tried and tried to change the bird’s attitude by consistently saying only polite words, playing soft music and anything else he could think of to ‘clean up’ the bird’s vocabulary.

Finally, Moishe was fed up and he yelled at the parrot. The parrot yelled back. Moishe shook the parrot and the parrot got angrier and even more rude. In desperation, Moishe grabbed the bird and put it in the freezer.

For a few minutes the parrot squawked and kicked and screamed. Then suddenly, total quiet. Fearing he’d hurt the parrot, Moishe opened the freezer.

The parrot calmly stepped out onto Moishe’s outstretched arms and said “I believe I may have offended you with my rude language and actions. I’m sincerely remorseful for my inappropriate transgressions and I fully intend to do everything I can to correct my rude and unforgivable behavior.”

Moishe was stunned at the change in the bird’s attitude.

He was about to ask the parrot what had made such a dramatic change in behavior, the bird spoke very softly, “May I ask what the turkey did?”

Harry Newton, who’s in Indian Wells for thanksgiving and finding it increasingly difficult to fight with Time Warner Cable to get what they (Time Warner) actually promised. Maybe it’s old-age? Maybe Time Warner really is the piece of drek that everyone around here says it is?

Michael, Anne and Elanor are in town. Today we’re celebrating Eleanor’s one-year birthday with a a cup cake with one candle. I bet she’ll remember this birthday forever. I know I will.

See you Monday.