Tech Sector Trends

Jefferies Tech, Media & Telecom conference was held in Miami, FL on May 8-10th.  Over 100 companies presented at the well-attended event.  The key themes included virtual reality, artificial intelligence, on-line advertising, and autonomous driving.  Many investors were especially interested in the rise of bots/personal assistants, such as Amazon’s Alexa or Google Home.
Biondo Investments is interested in the tech and telecom sectors as many investable themes appear to be taking form.  The continued shift of data to the cloud is presenting new technologies and investment in areas of enterprise storage and data security.   As more and more data is stored in the cloud there is an increased need for servers to house that data and the protocols to protect it.   The internet also continues to be a growth area as the so-called “FANG” stocks (Facebook, Amazon, Netflix and Google) continue to perform.
Another key area of discussion was the possibility of a tax repatriation holiday and its impact on the tech sector.  Many tech companies hold large of amounts of cash overseas.  The ability to bring this cash back into the United States with little or no tax implications would likely be a boost to the sector and the economy as a whole.  Much of the discussion was focused on the ultimate uses of this cash by these companies.   Possibilities discussed included increased M&A, investment in new technologies, or even special dividends.
As always, we are looking for companies that are involved in these technologies and have quality management teams.  In managing your portfolios, the portfolio management team has been looking to add more positions that have exposure to these technologies and