If someone appears to be repeatedly personal, lean towards patience as they might not mean offense. If you are sure, however, then do not deepen the problem by being negative; instead, simply place them on ignore by clicking the unhappy yellow face to the right of their name.
- Manlobbi
Stocks A to Z / Stocks B / Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A)
No. of Recommendations: 1
my brother is a car buff, he loves ferrari's, and was bemoaning selling his, and looking for another. he is so nuts about Ferrari he taught himself Italian by reading Enzo's autobiography years ago ,in Italian. we got to talking about the company ( he doesnt "do" stocks) ....and back in the stone age, I started my career with Ford, so I know a bit about car co cost structures.. I know TMI. just scene setting !)
anyway, I added it to my watch list about 6 months ago, then I took a small position so I could "follow along" .
If any company on the planet has a moat and a dedicated fan base, its Ferarri.
I would love to post the comparison chart on here, but take a look if you are interested... compare since 2016 against BRKB , MSFT, AMZN,Goog. see if you are pleasantly surprised as I was.
I was surprised ! 2016 chosen as my broker only goes back that far.
I read the last quarterly etc hiring 250 more engineers, extreme customization with extreme profits, and a sneaky move to try to take over the second hand Ferrai sales market.. as up till recently it was enthusiast selling to enthusiast... ie create a monopoly.Puts a higher bottom in.
any thoughts on this ? I'm already in.and will be looking at more. It also pays a small Semi annual divvy.
No. of Recommendations: 17
A couple of thoughts.
It has always seemed to me that the share price of the company reflects the fandom quotient of the buyers of the stock rather more than anything to do with the underlying business. Consequently I have stayed away. No amount of business analysis will tell you what the stock price will do next, and of course it won't be cheap so long as there are rabid fans.
Separately, I have a slight concern. There is a rule of thumb in luxury goods: never overproduce. If you bump up production you will juice the earnings an AMAZING amount...for a few years. Then the brand will be debased, and you will find yourself in the Pierre Cardin category.
Hermes understands this. For a long time Ferrari did too, vowing *never* to produce more than (IIRC) 3000 cars a year.
Then they went public. Now you can buy Ferrari branded baby buggies and a thousand other things that haven't earned the prancing horse that's stuck on them. They sold 13663 cars last year. So now that the brand management is into the "strip mining" phase--a logo that makes you think of baby buggies, not sports cars--I wonder how the brand's future will hold up. Less respect for sure, but how much less?
All that being said, I rather like the cars, if not the stock. Despite the fact that people will generally think you're a douche if you drive one, they are actually extremely good cars, since the 360 Modena. They have a truly amazing ability to square the circle: amazingly competent and exciting to drive, but at the same time also surprisingly easy to drive and comfortable.
Jim
No. of Recommendations: 0
the strip mining is def. a concern, but compared to the legal and illegal strip mining on other luxury brands from my limited observation its minimal. I recall years ago, I bought both his toddler sons ferrari racing driver suits in the store , bl**y expensive !. The illegal strip mining is still much less of a concern , compared to eg LMVH, and Burberry (esp. in asia).Fandom is fandom I guess.. eg sneakers :-)))
They still intend to limit an increased level of production, and get the margin hikes through personalized customization, so they seem cognizant of this risk.
I guess my investing thesis rests on scarcity value, margins, luxury market being recession resistant and growing.
disagree on the douchebag theory. My brother has always found that people were very respectful, wanted their photo taken.
/ or asked if they could take a picture, and the concept of "holding it in trust" for others was the underlying psycology. almost that it was too beautiful to damage...never had anyone key it, no matter where.
No. of Recommendations: 0
The current valuation makes me nervous because I own a decent amount of RACE indirectly though another holding that happens to own RACE shares (not Exor). But I was nervous about the valuation more than $100/share lower as well and it has worked out so far. I will feel relief if I see the position sold but it was added to as recently as October.
No. of Recommendations: 0
yes, I've been nervous since I got in, but it keeps on keeping on.....
