I’ve been a reader and follower of this board for several month - thank you Saul and everyone who posts often - I’m learning so much.
Hope this isn’t OT but I’m studying and trying to learn how the best of you think and analyze these great companies we follow here. I’ve gone back through all past posts in the Knowledge base. All helpful, but some are from years back and it seems there have been some changes. So can you help me confirm the following:
I’ve summarized what I see are Saul’s guiding principles in evaluating a stock (to buy, hold, sell).
What to Buy:
-Revenue growth of 40%+
-Recurring revenue growth << What is an ideal % for this metric?
-High gross margins << What do you consider ‘high’? It seems ZM has 80%+ while FSLY is around 55% from what I see online
-Little or no debt << Is there a metric for this and what % or amount constitutes little or no debt?
-Strong moat, special niche, true specialization
-Dropping losses as a percent of revenue << Any specific #s to look for here and where do you find this?
-Rapid customer acquisition
-Improving free cash flow (FCF) << How much improvement do you look for and is this based on the previous quarter?
-Dollar-based retention rate over 110%
-Substantial insider ownership << What % is considered substantial?
When to Buy:
-Continued growth
When to Sell:
-When position gets too big (to feel comfortable with)
-If price has shot up wildly << This is interesting as so many of our stocks have shot up wildly recently - take ZM - it’s done amazing, my belief is it will continue to, but because it’s gone up so much are you pruning some at this stage?
Again, I hope this isn’t OT. I’m genuinely trying to learn how you experts think and analyze what to buy, when to buy and when to sell.
Any guidance or reading recommendations welcomed as well.