The whole series made me think what if someone had written a series like this back in 1982. Many of the names I wrote about I am sure were met with "what's this company?" or " I have never heard of these guys." Back in 1982 I am sure we would have reacted the same way, as many of the future great companies were new or unheard of ... and some did not even exist at that point. As I wrote in the introduction of this series, some of the top 25 stocks may not even be public yet, or even founded for that matter. Google ( NASDAQ: GOOG) was founded in 1998, just 9 years ago and is now a $160 billion market capitalization company!! It has been public for only 3 years.
I am not sure how many of the names I wrote about will be in the top 25 for the NEXT 25 years: only time and performance will tell. But of this I am confident: many of these companies will continue to grow and be more and more relevant in our daily lives. Many will touch us in ways we will never see or truly understand. Not many of us will deal with a large bank and wonder if Opsware (NASDAQ: OPSW) is helping them to automate its massive server farm? Or the next time we slam on our brakes to hopefully avoid an accident, will we really wonder if Wind River Systems (NASDAQ: WIND) designed the real-time operating system micro-chip that helped this automaker design the anti-lock brakes? I doubt it.
If you visit a casino in the US or any where else in the world, I doubt if you'll ask the dealer if they are employing Progressive Gaming's (NASDAQ: PGIC) casino-management software. Or if you'll ask your IT manager at work if your company is using Blue Coat Systems' (NASDAQ: BCSI) software security products. Again, many great companies work behind the scenes: they affect our lives, but we really do not interact directly with them.
On the other hand, if you are in the market for a new baseball glove, you'll love Dick's Sporting Goods (NYSE: DKS); or you might enjoy a cup of specially brewed coffee at Peet's Coffee and Tea (NASDAQ: PEET). If you get hungry, you can certainly enjoy a superb, quick meal at either California Pizza Kitchen (NASDAQ: CPKI) or at Chipotle (NYSE: CMG).
The medical world does touch us frequently and companies like Electro-Optical Systems (NASDAQ: MELA), Kyphon (NASDAQ: KYPH), SurModics (NASDAQ: SRDX) and DexCom (NASDAQ: DXCM) will have new-age medical technologies and advancements to help save lives and improve the quality of life. The great medical device and bio-tech companies of the past 25 years have served mankind first. Typically if mankind is served well, the shareholders benefit.
The beauty of investing in growth companies is watching them develop and, hopefully, succeed. Many great growth companies will have their trip-ups and can make fundamental mistakes along the way, but if management is highly talented and motivated, amazing things can happen. Look at the past 5-10 year history of Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL). Given up for dead just five or six years ago, great talent has resurrected this company to where it is now valued over $100 billion.
In 25 years I will be 77 years old, and hopefully still writing about stocks and great companies. It's a passion for me. I will follow these 25 names in the series and will provide an update about once a quarter. If something dramatic happens to one of the 25, I will write up a full article.
I hope you enjoyed reading the series as much as I enjoyed researching and writing them up. Have fun and be involved with your investments, and do not ignore some of the smaller, emerging names that will be the category dominant companies of the future. I wrote in my book Baby Boomer Investing...Where Do We Go from Here? that half the fun of investing is watching the good companies potentially become great companies.
Thank you very much ...
Georges Yared is the CIO of Yared Investment Research.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
6-15-2007 @ 5:55PM
donald william said...
Fine compilation. Thanks for all your work for the 25 stocks.