February has been a good month for me.
At the end of January, my portfolio looked like this:
Palo Alto Networks (PANW) 15.95%
Samsara (IOT) 13.9%
Nu Holdings (NU) 13.79%
CrowdStrike (CRWD) 13.78%
PureStorage (PSTG) 12.58%
The Trade Desk (TTD) 9.99%
Beam Global (BEEM) 7.08%
Remitly (RELY) 5.65%
CASH: 6.1%
I didn’t make a ton of changes this month, but I did deploy most of the cash in response to earnings.
COMMENTARY
Last month Palo Alto (PANW) was my largest position. They are restructuring their offerings as a platform, which gave them a near-term hit to earnings, for which they got slammed by the market.
The metaphor for what they’re doing is, to me, the same one I used for Pure Storage (PSTG) as they began working through something similar last quarter–a hurricane eye wall replacement cycle. The strength of the storm weakens as the eye wall restructures to become a much stronger beast.
I remain highly confident in Palo Alto and its leadership, and about half of what the market took away in the day after earnings, it has since given back. But while it was down there, I used a good chunk of my cash position and bought the dip. So my position is a similar percentage of my portfolio at the end of February, but with more shares.
Going back to Pure Storage, they confirmed my eye wall replacement theory with their earnings on Wednesday night and the stock rocketed past all-time high’s yesterday, closing up 24.67%.
They beat on top and bottom lines, but I think the pop was a combination of bad sentiment going in and strong guidance–because, you know, eye wall replacement. The replacement isn’t over and it’s already gotten much stronger. They announced an 8-figure deal that got everyone excited and had very strong growth in their new SaaS offerings (Evergreen).
Beam Global (BEEM), which I entered last month, also had a good day yesterday as they announced new sales to the city of Richmond, California, there was a positive SA article recommending the stock, and Beam was presenting at an investor conference. I haven’t added or trimmed during the month.
Several of you will be dismayed to learn that I bought back into Aehr Test Systems (AEHR) this month with a much smaller position at a much smaller price. They don’t put out a lot of news, but they did have one announcement during the month on a $23M group of follow-on orders. Just this morning they also put out this release stating that they have
“shipped the first order from a major silicon photonics customer for a new high-power configuration of its FOX-XP™ system for volume production wafer level burn-in and stabilization of next generation silicon photonics integrated circuits (ICs).”
With all the chip manufacturing euphoria, I just expect that their next report could be similar to Pure Storage–combining very low expectations with good numbers and guidance. I’ve been wrong before, but I don’t see what the company is doing wrong and think they have a lane to do very well.
After using most of my cash to increase my PANW position and add back AEHR, I used the remainder plus a small trim of Pure Storage to increase my Remitly (RELY) position, after they also had a strong earnings report.
I left Nu Holdings (NU) alone this month. It dropped a bit after earnings, which I didn’t understand. The market then decided it didn’t understand the drop either and it went back up and then some. It’s now my top position, which pretty much reflects my conviction level.
Changes in the order of other holdings are also just stock price movement across the month.
Keeping fingers crossed for CrowdStrike and Samsara next week.
Here’s where things stand as of the close on Feb. 29:
Portfolio performance was 13.35% for February and is 14.05% YTD.
Nu Holdings (NU) 15.62%
Palo Alto Networks (PANW) 15.45%
PureStorage (PSTG) 13.97%
Samsara (IOT) 13.46%
CrowdStrike (CRWD) 13.44%
The Trade Desk (TTD) 9.21%
Remitly (RELY) 6.84%
Beam Global (BEEM) 6.38%
Aehr Test Systems (AEHR) 4.05%
C3.ai (AI) (a position I hold for my brother and that also had a 24% pop after earnings Wed. night) 1.53%
CASH: 0.05%
JabbokRiver