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Do you know what FANG stands for? If you don’t, you should – it makes an impact on your investments in ways you might not realize. FANG stocks mask the fact that the overall tech sector is under pressure compared to other indexes. 12/10/2015 You might have started hearing the word “FANG” thrown around in recent months and have questions on what it means. Like many terms before it, such as BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India, China), FANG is a recently-coined term associated with Facebook (NASDAQ: FB ), Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN ), Netflix (NASDAQ: NFLX ), and Google (NASDAQ: GOOG ). The performance of these stocks has been nothing short of impressive this year (avg. +87% return year-to-date), but what’s more important is the FANG’s impact on other investments, such as the NASDAQ ETF (NASDAQ: QQQ ). Though investors think they might be diversifying by owning ETFs, the FANG stocks make up about 20% of the ETF’s composition. When we include Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL ) and Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT ), that number increases to 41%. So when you think about diversification, remember that over 40% of your investment is allocated to just six companies. This has been a pretty great issue to have this year, but it’s important to realize this before choosing your investments. More importantly, this heavy allocation into six companies skews what on face value looks like relatively great performance out of the NASDAQ this year: As you can see, the NASDAQ (less the top six stocks) has significantly underperformed the other major indexes. When you consider this index is weighted more towards growth/technology companies, and that mutual funds are beginning to write down private venture investments , its paints a much bleaker picture on tech’s ability to maintain its high multiples going forward. Additionally, as ETFs become an increasing larger portion of the market, the FANG stock may begin to move based on overall market buying/selling of indexes. Just something to keep an eye on….and now you know FANG. The Actionable Insight Take : With poor performance out of recent IPOs like Square (NYSE: SQ ), the write-downs of private investments in “unicorn” stocks, and general weak performance out of the NASDAQ this year, we are growing increasingly concerned about valuation in the tech sector. If the market were to start rotating into lower-risk stocks, many of the currently unprofitable “unicorns” would probably have a high likelihood of a sell-off. On the FANG front, we tend to prefer Google for its mix of growth and value, its profitability and strong balance sheet, and its opportunities to grow new, valuable businesses in the future (Google fiber, autonomous cars, expansion of YouTube, etc.). We commend Netflix for its transition into media production to offset the risk of rising content costs, but we fear the risk of miss-hits in production (something all producers eventually face). We think NFLX could take pricing here and there is ample room to grow internationally, but at its current price we think some of that is already priced in. Next week, I’ll be skiing in Utah, so stay on the lookout for my special skiing edition of Actionable Insights Last, as a shameless plug, it was announced this morning that my recent write-up on Ross Stores (NASDAQ: ROST ) came in 4th place in Seeking Alpha’s retail ideas contest . You can find the write-up here . Actionable Insights is a daily newsletter written by Shaun Currie, CFA, which aims to provide investors with quick, educational updates on market news with insights on possible investment opportunities. Periodically, Actionable Insights will also contribute longer investment ideas that the author produces for clients and the general public. Follow me to get notified when updates and articles are posted. Scalper1 News
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