Quick update to eliminate a few more Green Screen Stocks for consideration. First, I'm passing on D-MARKET (HEPS) and Turkcell Iletisim (TKC). The former is an e-commerce operation not unlike Amazon, and the second is a leading cell service provider, both operating in the country of Turkey. I don't have any particular issue with the companies, but Turkey isn't one of my favorite countries to invest in, mainly because of a history of rampant inflation and currency depreciation, even recently. The third stock I'm passing on is Orla Mining, another gold mining stock, for the same reasons mentioned a couple weeks ago. Will continue keeping an eye out for interesting Green Screen options for the Watch List!

Adobe wrapped up its fiscal year with its usual solid results, reporting 11% revenue growth, a 3.5% share reduction, and strong free cash generation of $7.9 billion. Creative (Photoshop, etc.), its largest unit at 59% of sales, grew sales by 11% for the year. Digital Experience (marketing creation tools, accounting for 25% of revenue) was up by 10%. Document Cloud (Acrobat and e-signature offerings) saw a strong 18% increase. The backlog ended the year up 16%. While the blowup of the Figma deal certainly crimps Adobe's growth potential in the near term, the firm continues to be an incredible, predictable business that I'm happy to hold. After updating the valuation model and incorporating the latest data, I'm raising the fair value to $648. The shares represent substantial value at current prices. ADBE

The Green Screens have been a good way to tell which commodities are hot at any given point in time. A few years ago we saw a bunch of coal stocks show up as the outbreak of the Russia/Ukraine war spiked natural gas prices. That conflict also led to increases in uranium prices that led to a few of those miners getting screened. Recently, we've seen a number of gold miners (Alamos Gold, New Gold, Royal Gold, and Anglogold) show up, due to the 30% increase in gold prices this year to record highs. I've never been a fan of investing in commodity stocks, just because prices can be so volatile and unpredictable. That doesn't change now. I'm removing all 4 of these gold mining stocks from consideration today.

Impinj (PI) sells and "Internet of Things (IoT)" platform consisting of small, cheap RFID identification chips, along with the readers and software to track them. This allows customers to quickly manage large inventories of items, a key business challenge for many industries like retail, logistics, pharmaceuticals, etc. There's no doubt this is an attractive solution with a burgeoning number of use cases - Impinj should be able to grow at good rates. My issue is the business itself, which has shown little ability to eke out a profit margin or generate free cash flow for almost a decade. There is little profit in selling RFIDs or readers, and Impinj's software platform hasn't been fully realized. That makes it very difficult to pinpoint a reasonable value for the stock. For those reasons, I'm passing on it.

Hims & Hers delivered yet another blowout result for Q3 - this one the most impressive yet. Revenue growth accelerated to 77%, on the back of both the GLP-1 weight loss drug launch, and the 44% subscriber growth it helped drive. Even ex-GLP sales, revenues soared 40%. The weight loss drug launch has also supercharged the Hers brand, giving the company yet another growth avenue. The stock is up over 150% since we added it a year ago, but now looks like as good a time as ever to add. The fair value gets a substantial bump from $21 to $28. HIMS

Alphabet (i.e., Google) reported Q3 results that were strong across the board. Revenue was up 15%, led by Google Cloud growing 35% year-over-year as businesses spend to build out their AI infrastructure. The core business (search, subscriptions, platforms, YouTube, etc.) still grew a healthy 13%, and remains 87% of revenues. The company continues to expand margins (op margin up to 32.3%, vs. 27.8% a year ago) and buy back shares (down 2.2% year-over-year). Pretty much the results were are looking for from the company, but the market is still ahead of the value. I'm bumping the fair value price up a few bucks to $127. Google will remain on the Watch List. GOOG

Took a look at NAPCO Security (NSSC). The company makes alarm, access, and security systems, selling mostly to commercial customers (80% of sales). While hardware sales are still the bulk of business, recurring service fees have rapidly risen to 40% of revenues, from just 24% in 2020. Underlying markets are growing at 8-10% annually, a healthy rate, driven largely by a migration to cellular data for connected devices. I think NAPCO is a solid consideration, but a few things prevent an addition to the Watch List. For one, competition is strong, with Honeywell, United Technologies, and Siemens just a few huge competitors. Two, while the company is founder-led, most of the management team is into their 60's and 70's, making near-term transition a likelihood. Take a closer look at NAPCO if you like it, for me it's a mild pass.

ServiceNow continues its roll as a predictable, stable, rapid growth firm - and the market is rewarding it. Sales were up 22% in the quarter, with margins expanding significantly and free cash flow more than doubling from a year ago. This is an "under-the-radar" AI leader, with automated service desk actions being a fantastic use case for the technology. Current backlog grew a healthy 26%, with total backlog up 36% over last year at this point. A firm truly hitting on all cylinders, I'm hiking the fair value target up to $723. The market is way ahead of us on this one. Our position has close to tripled, and the stock now looks overvalued, but we will continue to hold it. NOW

Collegium Pharmaceutical (COLL) develops and markets medicines for pain management, focused largely on extended release formulations of addictive opioid-based drugs. Currently, the firm sells 3 drugs, each contributing about 30% of revenue. Xtampza ER is an extended release version of oxycodone. Nucynta ER is a similar formulation of tapentadol, another powerful opioid. Belbuca is a form of buprenorphine, a synthetic opioid that can also be highly addictive. I have a few concerns with investing in this one. First, after the recent purchase of Ironshore to add ADHD drug Journay ER, Collegium will have a substantial amount of debt and only about a 2x interest coverage ratio (that's risky). Second, there is board room drama, with former CEO Joe Ciaffoni forced out in May by founder Michael Heffernan. And finally, about 1/3rd of current sales are at risk in the next few years as Nucynta goes off-patent. Just too many issues with this one. I'm passing on adding it to the Watch List.

Astrana Health (ASTH) is a healthcare management company, providing a technology and solutions platform for both primary care and specialty physicians, as well as owning some of their own medical offices. The firm currently operates in 3 states (CA, NV, and TX), but is expanding into several more with the pending purchase of Collaborative Health Systems. This was a close call, as there is plenty of growth potential, the network is sticky (98% provider retention), and revenues are recurring in the "full-risk" model where coverage pays a fixed fee per patient. However, growth will largely be through acquisitions, which will (and has) result in low ROIs. I'm also not a huge fan of the 87% cut of revenue paid by Medicare and Medicaid. Astrana is largely exposed to political whims around reimbursement rates. It gets a pass, but investors could do worse, and the stock is reasonably valued right now.

Blue Bird is one of the largest makers of school buses in the U.S. Its current growth spurt is being driven by the alternative fuel bus segment (particularly electric and propane), and the government's $5 billion EPA clean bus program. School districts are jumping at this incentive to replace some of the 200,000 or so obsolete buses still in operation across the country. However, by our criteria it isn't a particularly attractive business. There is no recurring revenue, and growth is clearly coming from a limited-time (5 year) incentive. While Blue Bird is the (current) leader in the segment, there is plenty of competition and no real competitive moat. That makes it very hard to come up with a reasonable fair value, and sets the business up for considerable volatility. It gets a pass.

Adobe performed pretty much as expected in Q3, with revenues up 11% overall and double-digit growth across all of its varied business units. The firm is emerging as a leader in what I think of as "practical AI" - using the technology to assist in the workflows of its creative tools. Backlog grew 15%, a good sign for growth moving forward. Adobe continues to be a core investment option, and the stock is buyable at current prices. My fair value is $594. ADBE

Real Brokerage is another contender in the ever-expanding roster of technology-focused real estate brokerages that have proliferated over the last decade or so. The business is no different than that of a traditional brokerage - the company makes fees off commissions from sold homes, distributing a portion to agents. The angle here is that Real develops technology to improve agent's performance while avoiding brick-and-mortar operations, allowing it to expand to new markets rapidly. I'm passing on this as there is no recurring revenue model, no moat, and competition is fierce, running the gamut from traditional brokerages to direct "virtual" competitors like eXp and Fathom to self-service platforms like Redfin and Opendoor. Few stocks in this space have ever done very well over the long term.

Well-known online sports betting outfit DraftKings (DKNG) recently appeared on the Green Screens after reaching cash profitability over the prior 12 months. There are some things to like. DK has grown over 60% in each of the last 2 years, and is tracking for 30%+ growth in each of the next 2. DraftKings has fought with rival FanDuel for #1 market share for the last several years (both have 30-35% share). That said, there are more things not to like. The space is getting increasingly crowded, with aggressive entries from known entities like MGM, Caesar's, ESPN/Barstool, and others. There are no switching costs or any other kind of moat. The legalization wave has pretty much run its course, so there aren't many new states to expand into - industry growth forecasts are good but not great at 7.5% annually through 2029. And DraftKings, despite huge scale, is still only marginally cash profitable. It isn't for me, and GreenDot Stocks is passing on it.

Smartsheet, the collaborative work management software provider, reported Q2 results that were pretty much in-line with expectation. Revenues were up 17%, with average revenue per customer up 16%, and net retention of 113%. All of these are good figures, showing Smartsheet as a stable, reasonably modest growth firm. I did like that their largest cohort, customers over $100k annually, grew 23% - these are your stickiest and most-likely-to-expand clients. This continues to look like a solid choice on the Green Screens but it does trade a good bit over the (re-iterated) $45 fair value target. We will leave it on the Watch List. SMAR

GitLab, the development/security/operations (DevSecOps) platform for software development, reported a strong Q2, with revenues up 31% and impressive operating margin improvements. Growth is still looking good, with a 51% increase in total backlog, and 42% increase in current backlog (< 1 year). Also impressive was a 33% increase in customers with over $100k in annual recurring revenue - these are "sticky" customers GitLab can grow organically within. To that point, dollar-based net retention was 126%, showing both a firm that isn't losing customers and also growing over 25% within them. A good quarter, but also pretty close to my modeling. The fair value gets only a slight bump up to $45. GTLB

Zscaler reported a 30% increase in sales for Q4, with improving cash flow margins. Deferred revenue (future sales) grew 32%. The firm exceeded the high end of its guidance on all metrics. Business looks strong, with its security gateways surpassing half a trillion (!) daily transactions, and developments in AI/ML around data protection and URL categorization. The stock is down due to reduced guidance for 2025 sales - 21% growth at the high point is a drastic deceleration from 34% in 2024. Management explained this due to turnover in the sales organization and expected slow rollout of new products. I'm not too concerned (it might be a little "sand-bagged") but we will keep an eye on it. Improved cash profitability and lower dilution into the model actually leads to a rise in the fair value to $167. After the recent drop, the stock looks buyable but not cheap. ZS

CrowdStrike finally reported its Q2 results. I was curious to see any early impact the 7/19 global IT outage might have caused. Results were not affected too much, as would be expected (since it happened so late in the quarter), with revenues up 32% and strong cash profitability. Forward numbers are a mixed bag. Ending annualized recurring revenue grew 32%, so backlog growth was strong. But you can see some weakness in CrowdStrike's forward guidance, which came in about $100 million lower than before. I've updated the fair value target to assume muted growth through 2025, and rebounding afterwards. CrowdStrike stays on the Watch List, but the higher risks and lower growth here make a fair value cut warranted. The new number is $215. CRWD

Autodesk is in the portfolio due to its super-predictable results and dominant economic moat. Q2 was another case of "business as usual", with revenues up 12% and backlog up 11%, right on the modeling. The firm is still experiencing a bit of a cash flow lag as it transitions to a new transaction model in the U.S., but I expect it to work through back into the low-mid 30% free cash margin range. Management upped its revenue guidance for the year. The stock trades right in the vicinity of our $263 fair value price. ADSK

Recently re-instated watch list stock Veeva Systems reported its Q2 this week. Sales were up 15%, and profitability rose significantly. This steady and predictable provider of clinical and business software for life sciences firm has a very wide moat and is methodically expanding its product suite into new areas. I love the company but the stock is rarely inexpensive enough to buy. The fair value is $188. After earnings, the stock is trading a good bit above that. We'll leave it on watch. VEEV

Workday reported its usual steady, predictable, impressive quarter for Q2. Revenues were up about 17%, and the firm delivered both GAAP and cash flow margin improvements. Total backlog continues to grow nicely, up 21%. We're starting to see more aggressive share repurchase activity (1.4 million shares in the quarter), which is easing one of the historical challenges in the stock (dilution). Workday is about as reliable as they come. The fair value gets a slight bump up to $239. WDAY

Snowflake, our data storage and compute provider, reported what I thought was a solid Q2, with revenues up 29% and good cash profitability metrics. Net retention was 127%, roughly in line with Q1. The firm grew backlog 48% and customers over $1 million expanded to 510. Forward guidance for the year was on target. Operationally, things are progressing fine. I realized that I never updated the stock for the departure of CEO Frank Slootman back in March. Snowflake is now led by former AI chief Sridhar Ramaswamy, who only joined the firm a little over a year ago (via the Neeva acquisition). That makes leadership more of a wildcard than we initially projected. I'm holding the line on Snowflake's fair value price at $140. The stock looks decently cheap right now. SNOW

Sprout Social's Q2 was a mixed bag for me. The firm seems to be executing on its "large client" strategy, growing customers over $50k annually by 38%. Backlog growth was strong too, up 43% year-over-year. At large, the 25% revenue growth figure was better-than-expected. We still are not seeing a whole lot of cash profitability here - it's looking like a 3rd straight year of declining cash flow. With a transition away from a founder-CEO arrangement, middling cash generation (from what should be a profitable model), and a disappearance from the Green Screens, I'm going to remove Sprout Social from the Watch List for now. We may re-visit it at a later time. SPT

Global-e, the global e-commerce enabler, reported 26% revenue growth in Q2, with improved gross margins and cash flow. Several brands were onboarded, including some well known ones like Victoria's Secret, shoe maker Clark's, and famous sports franchise FC Barcelona. I'm still a fan of Global-e, but they did cut their fiscal year revenue targets as consumer spending has eased more than expected into the 2nd half of the year. This is consistent with some other reports we've seen. The profitability improvements mostly offset the growth weakness, so the fair value only gets a very small cut to $43.50. GLBE

Sea Limited, the southeast Asian e-commerce and fintech leader, reported Q2 results late last week. Shopee, the e-commerce arm, performed well, growing revenue 34%, orders 40%, and merchandise volume 29%, continuing an acceleration of growth that started late last year. Shopee accounted for 74% of total revenue. Digital financial services (mostly consumer loans) grew sales 21% and reported a reasonable 1.3% non-performing loans book. This unit was 14% of total sales. Garena, the gaming unit, saw declining revenues but good forward metrics, with bookings up 21%, active users 19%, and paying users 22%. That bodes well for future revenue results. Across the board, a good report. The fair value gets a slight bump up to $73.50. SE

Enlight's Q2 report looks good to me. Several in-development projects reached their commercial operations date (COD) in the quarter which, combined with strong spot pricing, led to a 61% increase in revenues. Management re-iterated its modeling for about 38-39% revenue growth in 2024. Its large U.S. project, Atrisco, completed construction in the quarter and will come online in Q3. Just for comparison sake, Atrisco is a 364MW solar generation plant, compared to about 180MW of new capacity that came online this quarter. Several big projects in the U.S. and elsewhere continue to progress in development. This still looks like an attractive play in the renewable energy space. I'm raising the fair value from $16 to $18. ENLT

Harmony Biosciences, the "orphan drug" maker of WAKIX / pitolisant, a leading narcolepsy treatment, reported Q2 results. Everything continues to look good here, with another 29% revenue growth quarter and strong cash flows. All of its development programs are progressing, with a new drug application for pitolisant in Idiopathic Hypersomnia (IH) scheduled for Q4, FDA approval for pediatric narcolepsy secured and commercial launch commenced, WAKIX again upheld in patent court, and good early results for a high-dose program that could extend pitolisant's contributions into the 2040's. Development of the Fragile X and epilepsy portfolios continues to progress. Everything looks on track to our thesis here. Just a small tweak to the fair value, it gets a dollar bump up to $66. HRMY

Monday.com, a SaaS provider of "Work OS" business management tools, reported another great quarter earlier this week. Revenues were up close to 35%, with expanding profitability and continued strong free cash flows. The firm is also seeing success moving upmarket to larger enterprises, with its largest ever deal closed during the quarter, and a 49% increase in customers paying over $100k annually. I've mentioned many times how larger customers in software are far stickier and far more likely to expand usage organically. Everything is looking good here, but the stock price has soared past the present value, in my opinion. The fair value is $195. MNDY

Flywire, the payments processor specializing in education and business-to-business, reported its Q2 results recently. There was some good here - 22% revenue growth on the back of 19% growth in payment volume, and improved margins. There were also a few things I didn't like - continued massive share dilution (share count was up 12%), and cash from operations sliding back into negative territory for the second quarter in a row. The company announced yet another acquisition, this one of B2B receivables platform Invoiced. A $150 million share repurchase program might take an edge out of share dilution, but it won't reduce shares. Flywire is on probation. I'm dropping the fair value to $19, and this is one that might be sold if some of these trends continue. FLYW

Coupang's Q2 results were good, with revenues up 25.4%, an acceleration from +22.6% in Q1. 18% of that growth was organic, not including the contributions from Farfetch which was acquired in late Q1. Product customers grew 12%, and Coupang's "Developing Offerings" (which includes Coupang Eats, Play, Fintech, and its Taiwanese efforts) expanded 180%. Gross margins were also good, up about 3% to 29.3%. We are still seeing the firm work through costs related to Farfetch - the quarter was just barely GAAP profitable, and cash profitability continues to trend below pre-acquisition levels. We will keep an eye on this, but I'm not overly concerned about it right now. The fair value gets a couple dollar bump up to $23.50. CPNG

Not many people talk about Fortinet, but the company is an impressive player in the cybersecurity space, one of the few that covers the gamut from traditional "perimeter security" hardware to the newer "secure access service edge", or SASE, architecture used to protect access to cloud-based applications. For some time, we've seen Fortinet shift into the latter, which makes sense as that is where the growth is. It has come at a decline in the former. Still, Q2 shows the company is executing well, with 11% revenue growth, substantial EBITDA margin improvement (9 percentage points!), and strong cash flows. The market finally took notice, bumping the stock up close to 20%. It still looks undervalued to me, with a new fair value of $93/share. FTNT

Toast, our restaurant management platform provider, reported a solid quarter on the face of it, with revenues up 27% and annual recurring revenue up 29%. Payment volume processed grew 26%, and total locations using the platform expanded 29%. These are all signs of a growing, healthy business. The firm achieved GAAP profitability for the first time, and free cash flow generation continues to strengthen. One concern is the share dilution rate - share count bloated by 11% this quarter. Investors have to be wary of this as it "waters down" the benefits of the company's growth for existing shareholders. Adjusting my model for it, I think a slight cut in the fair value is warranted. I'm lowering it by a buck down to $28.50. That said, Toast stock still looks buyable at current prices. TOST

Mercadolibre put forth another excellent quarter in Q2. Sales were up 42%, on the back of a 36% growth in total payment volume in the Fintech business, and 20% gross merchandise volume growth in the Commerce segment. The ads business, a relatively new one, was up 51%, reached 2% of GMV, and just expanded into Disney+ in Latin America. Truly the "Amazon of Latin America", and pretty much the PayPal too, Mercadolibre dominates e-commerce AND digital payments in Brazil and Mexico, and doesn't seem to be slowing down any time soon. It gets another fair value bump to $2,168. The stock continues to look like a buy. MELI

Clear Secure (YOU) has always had a puzzling valuation to me, given the firm's continued growth and voluminous cash flow generation. Q2 was another good one: revenues were up 25%, paid members grew 15%, total members (including free) were up a very impressive 39%, and platform uses grew 34%. Those last 2 numbers are a testament to some of the partners Clear is starting to add, including Public.com, Home Depot, and LinkedIn. - we're starting to see the optionality in the platform come into play. I would like to see retention start to improve (it was a bit down again at 83.7%), but price hikes are offsetting the effects of that. Overall, I still like Clear and continue to see it as undervalued, even after a big increase in the share price post-report. It gets a couple dollar fair value bump to $48. YOU

Celsius reported Q2 sales growth of just over 23%, a far cry from the 100% figures we saw last year and even the 40%+ number in Q1. The energy drink category itself has seen slowing growth as part of general consumer pullback trend being reported in Q2, and Celsius is still working through Pepsi's massive inventory channel stocking in the back half of 2023. Underlying numbers still look healthy, with end retail sales in the U.S. up 37%, and a 1.4% dollar share increase in the category. Clearly my growth expectations had gotten too high on this one, and I'll admit it is a difficult one to pin a model down on. That said, I do believe the market has over-corrected and CELH looks like a good buy at current prices. The fair value gets a major haircut down to $56. I still don't see any substantial red flags from a business perspective, this looks like more of a weakening macro story at present. CELH

Airbnb reported its Q2 results last night, and they were disappointing, with the stock falling over 15% in pre-market trading today. Revenue came in at +11%, which was a touch below the 13% figure the Street was looking for. Underlying metrics show that nights booked were up only 9%, with particular weakness in the U.S. Indeed, management mentioned that they were seeing shorter booking lead times and slowing travel demand in the U.S., a possible portent of an economic slowdown. Discretionary expenses like travel usually are the first to decline. Given this, it is prudent to pull back on near-term growth expectations for Airbnb. The fair value price gets a cut down to $162. That said, trading in the low $100's, ABNB looks like a good value for long-term holding. ABNB

Another excellent report from HIMS, which has been one of our best-performing stocks this year. Revenue growth accelerated to 52% in Q2, up from 46% in Q1, as the launch of GLP-1 weight loss drugs and continued momentum in its other categories drew users to the platform. Subscribers were up an impressive 43% year-over-year. Management continues to see opportunities in expanding its existing offerings as well as adding new health verticals. HIMS is still a great growth stock, but the market has caught up to the value somewhat. It still looks attractive at current prices. I'm raising the fair value from $17 up to $21 per share. HIMS

Like Visa, Mastercard is a predictable firm that's almost "boring" in its consistency (but great for shareholders!). In its Q2 report, the firm grew revenues 11%, on the back of a 9% increase in purchase dollar volume, 11% increase in transactions processed, and 17% increase in cross-border payment fees. The company's value-added services and solutions (non-payment processing stuff) grew 18% year-over-year. And Mastercard continues to return voluminous amounts of capital to shareholders, buying back $2.6 billion in shares (share count was down 2% year-over-year) and paying out $615 million in dividends. I'm re-iterating a $459 fair value. MA

Paycom delivered 9% revenue growth in Q2, with a solid 21.7% free cash margin. This is a pretty reliable company going through a bit of a revenue lull as its efficient BETI platform saves its customers money, but costs Paycom error correction revenue. That's ok with me - doing right by your customers at the cost of short-term sales is good business. The company also doubled its buyback authorization, a good move with the stock trading 40% under our fair value. Paycom is also back to a single founder-CEO arrangement after co-CEO Chris Thomas abruptly left in May. I'm ok with that - founder Chad Richison knows what he's doing - but it does raise a bit of concern about eventual succession. I'm raising the fair value by a few bucks to $286. PAYC

Atlassian reported 20% revenue growth in Q4, with strong cash generation. This largely cloud subscription business is predictable and incredibly sticky, creating a steady and reliable stream of business. The company rolled out new features like Rovo (an AI-driven agent), combining JIRA's project and work management tools into one, and more. Customers spending over $10,000 annually grew 18%, and those spending $1 million or more grew 48%. This is great - big customers are the "stickiest" of all. Finally, Atlassian has set itself up to enter the government markets, a nice untapped vertical. The firm continues to execute and the latest sell-off looks like a great opportunity to add. I'm raising the fair value price to $227. TEAM

Pinterest reported its Q2 results recently. Everything we see is pretty much right to our expectations, including 21% revenue growth and improving free cash flows (a margin of 24.2% vs. sub-20% for 2023). Management believes its efforts to improve ad performance are paying off, as the company continues to drive both user traffic (monthly active users up 12%), and revenue per user (up 16% in the U.S.). Pinterest is executing a nice turnaround under CEO Bill Ready. With the stock price significantly down after the quarter, the stock trades right about at our re-iterated $29 fair value. PINS

Microsoft reported its Q4 and fiscal year results this week. As usual, no big surprises here. Overall revenues were up 16%, with good results across the board but a nice bump from the Activision acquisition earlier this year. Cloud was up 19%, behind expectations of 25%+, and the company is investing in capacity to support demand. Management expects this to rebound into the high 20% growth range next quarter. Overall, a good quarter and year. Adjusting some of my assumptions, MSFT gets a meaningful fair value bump up to $516/share. The stock looks attractive at current prices. MSFT

Another strong quarter from Chipotle, with sales up 18% and gross margin growing 140 basis points. Comparable store sales were up 11.1%, with transaction count increasing 9% and average check over 2%. The firm opened 52 new stores in the quarter, right about at our expected 200-250 annual pace. A 50-for-1 stock split was completed (our target price has been adjusted accordingly). Most importantly, Chicken Al Pastor returned! The company continues to track right to our modeling and the fair value gets just a modest bump up to $33 (from $32.50). I really want to own it but the stock is still too expensive. CMG

ServiceNow is one of my favorite firms in our portfolio, that rare combo of predictability, safety, and robust growth. Sales were up 22% in the quarter, and long-term backlog growth was really impressive, up 31%. This company never seems to slow down. It is aggressively applying AI models to its myriad of service desk use cases - a perfect fit for the technology, in my opinion. I still see a ton of potential going forward for ServiceNow, and any opportunity to buy near our (slightly raised) fair value of $702 should be taken advantage of by investors. NOW

Visa is so predictable it's almost boring - a great thing in investing! Revenues were up about 10%, with a stable 7% growth in payments volume, 14% in cross border, and 10% growth in transactions. I see little reason to modify the valuation model. The fair value ticks up a couple dollars to $329. V

Alphabet's (e.g. Google's) Q2 results were strong, with a 13.5% increase in revenues and profitability improvements to boot. Cloud led the way, growing 29% year-over-year and surpassing $10 billion in a quarter for the first time. Advertising grew 11% (it remains 76% of total sales), and subscriptions/platforms/devices were up 14%. Google is a pretty steady, predictable stalwart at this point, paying a small dividend and buying back shares consistently. I'm raising the fair value a few bucks to $123, but the stock is still too expensive to buy. GOOG

Recently reviewed TSMC reported their Q2 earnings this week. Results looked good: revenue was up 40% (33% in U.S. dollars), with stable gross margins and solid cash flow. Sub 7 nanometer products accounted for 2/3rds of revenue, magnifying the firm's competitive advantages (only Samsung competes in this space). High performance computing applications (HPC) - driven by AI demand - led the way, growing 28% quarter-over-quarter and comprising 52% of revenue. The only down note was a drop in the exchange rate from New Taiwanese dollars, which is the only reason I'm dropping the fair value a few bucks to $181 from a previous $184. TSM

This week, Six Flags Entertainment (FUN) appeared on the "tortoise" side of the Green Screen. But, investors shouldn't be fooled - this is not a 25%+ revenue growth company. The 25% growth number is a byproduct of the recent merger of the legacy Six Flags and Cedar Fair, creating a single dominant player in U.S. regional theme parks. However, longer term, this is a low single-digit revenue growth company that is more like a REIT play, with the majority of returns coming from dividend payments. It is not really the type of company I'm looking for, and it gets a pass.

You've probably heard of Trex, a leading brand in composite decking and railing products. I love the product - decks are wonderful but maintaining them is not, and a composite-based deck/rail system nearly eliminates maintenance. But it is critical we separate product from business. Trex sales are large one-offs. There is no recurring revenue structure here (how many Trex decks are you going to build?). While there may be some brand recognition, there are plenty of alternatives and I don't think the firm has a meaningful moat against competitors. A great product but just a so-so business, I'm passing on adding Trex as a "green dot" stock.

There has been a major boom in running that started with the COVID pandemic and continues to this day, with all-time high levels of interest in several major marathons. ON has taken advantage, building its athletic footwear and clothing brand on the back of this boom, much like Hoka (who I reviewed with Deckers last year). Ultimately my opinion is the same with ON. Investments built on likely fads - even if they last years - are not sustainable investments. ON has no moat and competes against major players like Nike, Adidas, New Balance, Under Armour, ASICs, Brooks, Hoka, and many more. No recurring revenues, no moat, possible fad-driven growth... this one is a pass.

Moelis is a smaller investment bank, earning revenues from advisory fees to firms around mergers & acquisitions, divestitures, raising capital, and other business transactions. It also has an asset management arm that runs alternative investment funds. This is a transactional business, with revenues highly dependent around the economic environment and appetite for M&A and capital investment. The firm also competes against some major players like Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, and Morgan Stanley. I don't see the recurring revenue or moat factors we look for, so I'm passing on it as a "green dot" stock candidate.

Fluence Energy is one of a handful of stocks on both the "tortoise" and "hare" sides of the Green Screen. The company makes energy storage systems and software. I like the clean energy space but this one falls into the "too hard" bucket. It is only recently cash profitable, it relies heavily on sales to two customers (half of sales), and doesn't really have the recurring revenue model or any kind of identifiable economic moat we like to see. It gets a "pass".

Adobe reported its second quarter results recently. Revenue was up over 10% in total, with all 3 of its units (Digital Media, Creative, and Document Cloud) growing in double digits. The firm slightly raised its revenue targets for 2024. The only ding I see are seasonally weak cash flows, with trailing 12 month margins in the low 30's vs. my expectation of closer to 40%. Modeling for this, I'm dropping the fair value price a touch from $595 to $579. The stock still looks reasonably attractive here. ADBE

Took a look at BellRing Brands (BRBR), which makes protein drinks and powders under the Premier Protein and Dymatize brands. There are some good things here. The whey protein market is growing 8-10% annually, and Premier is the category leader at around 21% market share. However, this is a space with a TON of competition, from direct (like Simply Good's Quest and Atkins brands), to massive food conglomerates (like Coca-Cola's Fairlife brand), to small niche players. I don't see much of a moat here, meaning the firm is gonna have to continually spend for marketing to maintain share and will be constantly challenged on price. It is a pass for me.

Autodesk, the leader in 3D CAD modeling software, delivered its typical "predictably boring" quarter for Q1, with revenue up about 12%. Margins looked good at a glance, but free cash generation continues to trend down. The 18.7% margin in the trailing 12 months lags far behind the company's traditional 30%+ figure. The stock still looks undervalued at present, but don't expect major returns here - this is a "slow, steady, and reliable" play. I'm lowering the fair value from $284 to $269. ADSK

Smartsheet had a good first quarter, with revenues growing 20% and strong margin and cash flow performance. The firm increased customers with recurring revenue over $1 million by 50% - a nice metric, as larger customers are far stickier and easier to grow within. Net retention was 114%, also a good figure. Not much to complain about here and our fair value stays essentially unchanged. SMAR

CrowdStrike's Q1 results were excellent: revenues and annual recurring revenue up 33%, and strong cash flow trends. The Falcon platform continues to be one that large and small companies are standardizing on for security. Management is focusing on its path to $10 billion in ARR, from about $4 billion today. Still a lot of growth in this one! The stock price is a bit high though, even after a slight fair value bump to $251 (from a previous $249). CRWD

Zscaler's Q3 shows a firm continuing to operate well, with 32% revenue growth, 30%+ forward growth metrics, improved margins, and a stable balance sheet. The firm continues to be a leader in "zero trust" security access service edge (SASE) cybersecurity offerings. My one gripe is continued rapid share growth, with diluted shares increasing another 6% over last year. Incorporating the latest results and updating the model, the previous fair value looked a bit high and I'm reducing it to $151. ZS

With Q1 sales growth of almost 24%, Veeva has returned to the Green Screens and will return to the Watch List as well. This specialized pharmaceutical SaaS provider continues to have an outstanding economic moat, and growth is re-accelerating after a few slow years. My fair value estimate is $186. The stock trades a touch below that at present, making this one a close watch for Buy List addition in the near future. VEEV

Workday's Q1 was pretty much like all its other quarters - right in line with expectations, with few surprises. Revenue was up 18%, and backlog grew 24%. The firm continues to build out its AI offerings. The decline in the stock price stemmed from a slight reduction in subscription revenue guidance for the year. As is often the case, it was overdone and now Workday stock looks pretty attractive, even with a slight cut in fair value from $233 to $229. WDAY

Synopsys reported Q2 results, with sales rising 15%. The company announced it is selling its software application security business - a competitive space where it has few advantages. It is also acquiring materials simulation software firm Ansys. Weak cash flow trends lead to a fair value cut to $312 from a previous $328. SNPS