IPO Announcement
I try not to be hypocritical here at the Millionaire Nurse Blog. Sometimes I fail…. All of us have a little of the “do what I say, not what I do” gene!
Investing In Single Company Stocks
Mutual Fund investing is more conservative than single company stocks when it comes to investing in our retirement accounts. But I confess, I do own a few single company stocks, and will continue to do so.
They represent less than 5% of my net worth, and I enjoy the process of selection and following them. But studies show that it is difficult for the average investor to beat the market. And many experts recommend using index funds for the stock portion of your portfolio-and I have no problem with that!
A stock that has caught my eye this week is that of the company epocrates-( EPOC on Nasdaq) had an IPO. {If you aren’t familiar with IPO’s, please read this popular post, The Purple Haze Condom Company Goes Public!}
epocrates
I have been a customer of epocrates software since they first came out. I had a Palm Pilot PDA-(already an antique) with one of their initial versions of the now famous prescription drug database.
Before epocrates, if I wanted to check on a drug dose, side affect, drug interaction I had to look it up in the PDR, a huge book with thousands of pages. And the drug interaction information was almost impossible to find.
PDR-Old School Drug Database
Now, with epocrates on my smart phone, it takes seconds to get a huge amount of data, well organized, about the medicine. It even has information about disease diagnosis, and drug dosing calculators…
A Few epocrates Coporate Financial Highlights:
- The company has over 300,000 physician clients-some of which are like me and actually pay them for their software. They do have a free app that suffices for many of their customers.
- The company has a marketing tunnel directly to many more of us health-care types.
- It is profitible
- The money raised in the IPO will be used to pay a dividend the company is obligated to pay on preferred stock holders, and for R&D.
I think the challenge for epocrates is finding a way to monetize the relationship they have with the medical community. They are already doing so with ads directed at individual docs.
Getting the right ad in front of the right person is the whole secret to successful marketing. If epocrates does this well, they should be successful. They are also trying to grow their current business in a broader fashion by developing an Electronic Medical Record for small medical practices.
Here is link to their SEC filing prospectus, that will give you all the data you can obtain at this point to decide if this extremely speculative stock is for you. I am still in my study and think mode myself…And remember, I am not a stock adviser, just a dumb guy with an opinion!
Investor Related Blogs and Websites
I want to highlight a few fellow Yakezie personal finance writers who write frequently on investing and their latest investor related post .
Buy Like Buffett has a new series on beginning investing. I have been an admirer of Buffett, and a stockholder of Berkshire-Hathaway for many years.
Jacob at ERE has this poem that summarizes his investment strategy. Wish I had written it!
Barbara Friedberg’s Personal Finance has ten steps before investing.
Suba @WeatlhInfomatics compares Fidelity to Vanguard. Both great companies in my mind!
Young and Thrifty give advice on finding a financial advisor, or is it adwisor….
Squirrlers has an interesting post on Stock Market returns by month.
Darwin’s Money gives up on Muni-Funds-I think with careful research there are still great buys in Muni-funds.
For another Buffett oriented investment post, check out Investor Junkies review.
General investing websites
Morningstar-which you must join, but has a free service
Motley Fool is still around, but not quite as irreverent as in the old days!
Reader Questions:
Please let me know your favorite investing websites. Where do you go for investing information before you pull the trigger on an investment?
