I was a finance major who has done nothing but lose money trying to make money.  I’ve essentially gotten so sick of losing money, that I don’t play the game anymore (somewhat of a lie).  I’ll make sure this doesn’t get too boring and also try to incorporate some basic numbers.  Only term you need to know is market capitalization (#of shares x share price)  which is an indicator for how valuable the company is.

Starbucks vs Dunkin Donuts

Dunkin Donuts vs Starbucks

I’m a Dunkin man myself and their coffee is addictive.  They serve a bunch of other items like donuts, bagels, and breakfast items but it’s a coffee company pure and simple.  There are 10,083 Dunkin’s out there and are relatively unheard of on the west coast.  They have a market cap of 4.84 Billion dollars with a nice 20% profit margin, and has shown a steady 100+ million dollars of net income over the past 3 years..  Franchising plays a part that I’m a bit unaware of in how this valuation occurs.  Much room for growth.

Starbucks is the largest coffeehouse in America with 23,187 stores.  I’ve never visited one personally so I can’t claim to have any knowledge of the company other than it’s overpriced, they have odd cup name sizes, and they write your name on your drink.  SBUX has a market cap of 59.18 billion and has a 1% profit margin while not making a dime last year.  It should be noted they show net income of over a billion dollars in 11′ and 12′.

Debt to Equity ratios differ amongst the companies but unless I’m missing something, a company with half as many stores is valued at 5B instead of 30B.  I’d bet on Dunkin @ 45.51 from today’s trading.

Facebook vs Twitter 

Twitter vs Facebook

The battle of social media.  I’m pretty familiar with both products here considering I use them daily.  I  would never click on an ad by either company.  I’ve ran a marketing campaign with Facebook and it was a bad experience.  I’ve seen ads on Twitter but unless you are a huge corporation, who would use it?  Gaining followers on Twitter is also a major negative of the company.  The power of these companies the amount of people who use them.  The potential value of eyeballs on information is usually difficult to quantify.

FB has a market cap of 166 billion dollars compared to TWTR of 22 billion.  FB has 12 billion in cash sitting on the sideline with no debt, 21% profit margin on revenue, and made 1.4 billion in 13′.  Twitter has a 2 billion dollars of cash vs no debt but operates at a loss (-600 million last year).

Facebook is substantiating themselves by making money while Twitter hasn’t been able to prove that it can.  I find Twitter to be the more engaging company and expect more people to start using it as time goes on.  Celebrities aren’t making messages through Facebook, they tweet.  Once Twitter starts making money, I see that market cap jumping to a more reasonable number closer to FB or at least doubling in the next 5 years.  Buy Twitter at $38.

Verizon vs AT&T

Verizon domination of wireless coverage

I use Verizon on a regular basis.  They are my ISP for work and I rely on the hardwired phones on a daily basis.  The service for work is top notch.  I also have my cell phone through them and I have no complaints aside from negotiating for a new phone when I break mine.  I don’t know much about AT&T but I hear call dropping in remote areas can happen but I think that’s everywhere.  Notice the map to the right, I get the feeling that Verizon service overall is much better.

The market cap of Verizon is 202B vs AT&T of 185B.  The two heavyweights of our wireless generation.  Verizon has 122 million subscribers vs 116 million for AT&T.  Verizon produced 4.8B dollars of net income last year and AT&T produced 18B.   Verizon operates at an 11% profit margin and has 109B dollars of debt.   AT&T has a 14% PM and 80B of debt.  They both offer high dividends (4%+) and have sporadic competition.

Judging by the numbers, I think I’d put my money in AT&T (for that awesome year last year0, although to be honest, I wouldn’t because I think the market is going to crash and it doesn’t matter what the numbers say, everything will be a bad investment.