I Like to Chortle

In April I started following the recreational vehicle market and bought Winnebago (WGO) on little more than a hunch and a quick perusal of its financial reports. I took the profits on WGO--way too soon as it turned out--and began to look for another investment based on coronavirus-changes in behavior.

Given the migration out of the cities, more time spent in the home and home office, and the defunding-of-the-police movement, it was a good bet that more businesses and individuals would be subscribing to home security service providers like ADT. A quick look at ADT's financial statements showed that it had a mundane story; on the other hand its low stock price afforded protection against the downside at roughly two times book value (book value bears a relationship to how much an investor would receive in a liquidation of the business). But enough accounting blah-blah.

I bought some ADT at $8.42/share on a hunch on June 5th. Why didn't I mention it earlier, dear reader? With WGO I sounded like a stock-pump-and-dumper--one of those unsavory characters who loads up, then sings the stock's praises hoping to jack up the price. I am also glad that I didn't mention the purchase, because the stock fell below $8 for several weeks. Nevertheless, I still thought it had good prospects because of the rising demand for home security.

This morning Google announced a $450 million investment in ADT: [bold added]

Google has agreed to buy a 6.6% stake in security-monitoring provider ADT Inc. ADT -5.27% for $450 million, as part of the search-engine company’s effort to bolster its hardware business and capitalize on growth in the market for smart-home security products...

ADT shares rocketed nearly 57% in Monday trading, to finish the trading day at $13.48. Google parent Alphabet Inc. GOOG -0.64% shares edged down 0.35% to $1,482.76.

Why do I mention ADT now, dear reader? Because this development renders my opinion worthless--speculation about Google's intentions will dominate---and because I like to chortle.