The price per share of a stock tells you almost nothing. It's the price to buy one share of the stock. But how many shares does the company have outstanding? In math, we multiply two multiplicands together, but the price per share is only one multiplicand. If you don't know the other, you can't do any meaningful math or figure out much of the world around you.
Fools with a capital f know that you need to know the shares outstanding and then multiply that by the price per share, and now you know the actual full value of the company, its price tag, its market capitalization, market cap. Well, to teach this lesson inexorably and unforgettably, we invented a game. That's what I do. The date was August ninth two thousand seventeen. The Market Cap Game Show was born, and we've been playing every quarter since. Oh, and you're playing too.
I designed it that way so you can play along against my guest stars, against your spouse or partner, against your kids. Can you outscore my talented contestants? It's that time of the quarter. Again, ten new stocks, three guest stars, Bill Barker, Bill Mann, and you. Only on this week's Rule Breaker Investing. It's the Rule Breaker Investing podcast with Motley Fool cofounder David Gardner. Welcome back to Rule Breaker Investing.
This is the Market Cap Game Show, and our first one following our first ever world championships completed during this year's March Madness, March market cap madness. And in fact, we have as one of our two guest stars today, the world champion runner-up. Bill, what's a better phrase for that? I don't know. I've looked and I've gone to the grand council to try and to figure out if there was some rule that had been violated because I lost by the thinnest It was a tie breaker ending.
It was a magical ending to our first world championship. I would describe it as slightly less magical than if I had you. Nobody asked you where you were going afterwards even though we all know Andy Cross went to Disney World. Yeah. No. You're right. You unfair. Anyway, I'm gonna call you our world runner-up. I hope that sounds like an honorific. Bill Mann back to compete, and Bill will be joined by by Bill, Bill Barker. Bill, Bill, welcome back to the Market Cap Game Show.
Thank you, David. Great to be back. Sorry I couldn't make the world championships. I was, away. I think I think you've lost. An invitation, but I lose. You have an opportunity, guys. You don't know this, but you have an opportunity to secure your seat for next year today. So whoever wins is in. If you lose, you're not necessarily out, but there's an opportunity to secure a twenty twenty five coveted seat in the final four. So there will be no excuses then, Bill.
And it's unclear which bill I was saying that to. David, the really good news is that you have brought in for this two frighteningly competitive people. Bills, welcome back to the Market Cap Game Show. I do wanna note Bill Barker last appeared here on our December twenty twenty three market cap game show just six months ago. Bill, you won six to four. So we do. We have two most worthy contestants and most competitive as well here in June twenty twenty four.
And it's worth mentioning that today's game does function, as I mentioned, as a qualifier for next year's world championships. So the winner today will have his seat on that final four guys. No pressure. Okay. Bill Barker's been with the fool for twenty five years in between stints as a trial lawyer and federal terrorist asset investigator, but is mostly known in fooledom for inflicting sporadic episodes of apropos of nothing on unsuspecting podcast listeners during the days of market foolery.
He plays little tennis and other racket sports roots for the Yankees, And by his own reckoning, sings and dresses about two standard deviations below the median. Back from helping to start up Motley Fool asset management over a decade ago, Bill Barker now writes again for The Fool working on hidden gems and firecrackers. Bill, great to have you. Great to be back.
And Bill Mann is cohost of The Motley Fool's Morning Show, lead adviser for Global Partners and Motley Fool Firecrackers and a coadvisor for Value Hunters. And, Bill, my my bio on you ends there. I feel like I feel like the other Bills was so colorful. He sounds so interesting. He's a poor dresser. Dude, you can't sing. How much more interesting can you get? I I feel like this. What what are things you do badly? Most everything. We don't have time. No. We don't have time. We're out of time.
And we're out of time. I have been known. I'm gonna just, like, drop in things that I do. I have been known if you want to know a nice place to eat almost anywhere in the world, for some reason, I have an encyclopedic knowledge. That is wonderful. Yeah. That is an asset to all of us. Just ask me. Love it. Why don't we as these companies come up and you know their headquarters, challenge Bill on that because you'll have you'll have the information as That could be awesome or distracting.
It's unclear which. We might try that once or twice. Hi. That might edit it all out. Hi. That's a terrible idea. Let's do it. And, of course, the third player, and to us, the most important is you. That's right. You, our dear fellow foolish listener. And as Dez begins to crank up our market cap game show music, let me just briefly remind, especially new listeners, new players, I'll be mentioning a stock neither Bill nor Bill knows what stock is coming.
They've been in the Soundproof Chamber for Bill how long? We've been in the soundproof chamber for about eighteen minutes at this point. I do question the fact that Bill Barker brought in his computer with him, which I did not know was part of the It is closed. Closed. Believe me. He has no idea what's coming. He's also been part of that so called soundproof chamber.
Okay. So I then turn to one of the bills here talking about a stock he didn't know was coming, and he will do his best to state a numerical range within which the market cap of that company falls. The other bill and you playing at home will simply say I agree, meaning it's accurate, the stock's value falls inside that range or I disagree, I think it's outside the stated range. So you simply agree or disagree. And if you get it right, give yourself a plus one. That's the market cap game show.
We're focused on the real market caps, real stocks. Nobody knows what's coming. A perfect score would be ten. Okay. Stock number one. I'm gonna turn to our world runner-up first, Bill Mann, and Bill, I have a phrase for you. So let's play word association. I'm gonna flash it out. You're gonna share the first thing that comes to mind. And then in a twist, you're gonna give us the second thing that comes to mind after a brief pause where you speak more thoughtfully about it upon brief reflection.
Does it sound good? It sounds like a psychological experiment that I might be signing on to, but, yes, I'm I'm here in the soundproof booth, so I guess we're gonna play along. Yes. Can you repeat back the rules? Basically, I wanna hear your first and second more thoughtful impression. Are you ready? Yes. Five g. Qualcomm. Okay. And what's the second thing that comes to mind? Doesn't work all the time. I kind of agree with you.
I mean, I I'm not gonna say it's been overhyped, but I haven't noticed this huge change in my own smartphone experience. Whether it said five g now or four g before, there were three g and two g as well. I'm not trying to be a cranky old guy about this. They need a few more g's, I think. I was gonna go with, conspiracy theory. It's one of the things that came.
The the number of conspiracy theories which seem to be out there about five g is, vastly, greater in number than the times in which I've realized five g might be intersecting in reality with my life. I don't read the same websites that you do, Bill. No. But there there's, well Barker does love a good conspiracy. I don't know what the conspiracies theories are, but they're out there for five g. Right? So this company has been behind the various g's for quite a while now.
Its most famous cofounder, Erwin Jacobs, is now ninety years old. He's the board chair, by the way, of the Salk Institute, guys, founded in nineteen sixty. You probably know this. I needed to relook it up by Jonas Salk himself, invented the polio vaccine. But, yes, when Bill's first impression came out Qualcomm, he nailed the San Diego based company that is stock number one. So turning now back to Bill Mann. Bill, what is your stated market cap range for Qualcomm, ticker symbol QCOM?
So the first year that Barker and I were working here at The Motley Fool was the year that Qualcomm first came onto the scene, and it was up in nineteen ninety nine, like, twenty six times and was pretty flat after that for a really long time. I believe that the market cap is somewhere in between eighty two billion and a hundred and twenty four billion. Eighty two billion to one hundred twenty four billion for a company that you both got to know as younger fools Yeah. In and around Fool HQ.
I had forgotten it went up twenty four bagger in one year. That's crazy. Yeah. Bill Barker, players at home. Bill just said eighty two billion to one hundred twenty four billion for Qualcomm. Bill, agree or disagree? I disagree. And you are correct. It is well more than what Bill About two twenty. Provided. Pretty good call. It is this is as of Monday's market close for all of these. It is an even two hundred forty eight point zero zero billion dollars Qualcomm.
A lot of that's been in the last nine months. Yeah. Right. I mean, your your range would have been good a year ago, I wanna say. Is this a stock that either of you are actively following or have ever recommended? Apparently not. One of you appears to follow it a little bit more than the other. We don't need to follow everything. No. No. I think I was, like, really just because of the the recent Apple news and and things like that. It it was back on the radar screen just as a, hey.
Whatever happened to that thing, moment. Yeah. I followed it for for a long time if for nothing else because my theory was in nineteen ninety nine that a whole lot of growth had been priced in. Yeah. Whenever a stock goes up twenty four times in one year. A generation's growth Yeah. Had been priced in. Okay. And it was a long, long time that it was basically it was actually below that range for a while. So I'm a little surprised that it's grown that much, but There you go.
It shouldn't be. And fun fact, guys. Spoiler alert. Qualcomm has the largest market cap of any company on this week's show. Spoiler alert. Players at home, if you said disagree, give yourself a plus one. I have it as Barker one, man. Nothing. Let's move on to stock number two. Bill Barker, cats or dogs? Both, but dogs, if I have to rank. Yeah. Do you think people should make invidious distinctions between these two very popular pets?
I mean, can't we just get along and say I like your answer both. I I mean, there's quite a distinction between them. It'd be sad if you couldn't tell the difference between them. Right? But I I mean, I had to, bring the cat into the vet yesterday for just a skin thing. And so I'm a, I've ranked cats a little bit lower because the vet bill was more than it needed to be, in my opinion, given the skin situation. I I I would have preferred the bill to be about one fifth of what it was.
Had that been the case, I might be ranking See, I think you should I think you should use a plan when you go into the vet and say something like, here's my cat. You know I'm a dog person. How much will this be? I'm gonna give you a range on what this should cost. Well, speaking of cost, Bill Barker, what is the process by which you have fed your pets? Your cat, for example.
The process is to get a well, for this cat, you know, I gotta get, like, the special food and then pour it into this big container. Where do you get the special food from? Get the special food from PetSmart. So could get it from, You could pay more. I'm I'm gonna guess. I'm gonna guess what this is leading up to is Chewy. I'm doing that. Just make a guess here. You guessed right. Alright. We didn't even have to play word association.
Chewy, ticker symbol c h w y. Of course, the online pet food retailer, a favorite among some fools. I we'll talk in a bit what you think of the stock if you think anything, Bill. But more importantly, Bill Barker, what is your stated market cap range for CHUI, ticker symbol c h w y? I'm gonna say nine to eleven billion. Nine billion to eleven billion. Sticking with round numbers makes it easy for all of us. Us. Thank you, Bill Barker. Bill Mann, players at home. It is inside of that.
And you are correct, which ties the game at one to one. Players at home, if you agreed with Bill Barker's pretty tight, very impressive range, then give yourself a plus one because nine point nine four billion, basically ten, you straddled it on either side. Bill, you know you're chewy. I I I felt good about that range. And I felt like that I I would be right, but I needed to be a lot tighter. It's true. To make it, part of the charm of the game is you can make an awesome guess and lose.
Yeah. And if you study ahead of time, if you happen to have done that, you're This is why I'm questioning the computer. Right? You're using market caps from a couple days ago, so you still might not you know, even if you had a a little bit of a lower number. Stay within nine to eleven this week. We'll see. But well done. Founded in two thousand eleven. Do you know the original name of this company? It was mister Chewy. Mister Chewy.
By two thousand seventeen, the company had about two billion dollars in revenues. Just six years later, it had fifty one percent of the online pet food sales in the US in six years. Wow. Company was initially aiming to go public. You may remember that year, but then both Petco and PetSmart approached with merger offers. And PetSmart, Bill, where you get your cat's food, the special food that you get, ultimately bought them for three point three five billion dollars.
It operated independently in twenty twenty. I had kind of lost track track of this. You guys are probably keeping up. They reorged in such a way that it could go public. And PetSmart, by the way, no longer owns any Chewy. And one of the Petco I think a Petco is well, I came really close to to going, like, below a dollar or or did get to below a dollar Down. Share or something like that. And generally speaking, we should say here on the market cap game in the United States, that's bad.
That is bad. What do you guys follow Chewy? Do you have any any opinions here? Yeah. Chewy, to me, is a is a bit of a miraculous company in that it is a company that came to be in that space after Amazon existed. Right? You're right. All of the companies that, you know, there's so many companies that that you view as being either Amazon proof or Amazon susceptible.
And you would say that having pet food and pet, you know, medications delivered to your door is highly Amazon susceptible, but they've done a great job. They've done a great job, but I I and I don't know where the market cap, compares to, like, the top market cap it had. But there was, I think, entirely too much enthusiasm that somehow everybody was going to be using Chewy because it it it was a good service.
People are already on Amazon getting the same food delivered at the same price and and had loyalty with Amazon, and there are plenty of people that'll Yeah. You know, there are plenty of, competition, for Chewy. It's done a good job, but it's it's the fact that people love their pets does not translate to loving Chewy to the degree that its supporters thought or hoped might be the case. That is certainly fair.
The stock did once touch one hundred twenty during that halcyon month of February twenty twenty one before a lot of stocks lost a lot of value, from their COVID heights. So, yes, it's a pale shadow at twenty five dollars a share of what it once was just a few years ago, but still a robust business with An impressive company. Lot of customers. So Yep. If you look think of it as a standing star from thirteen years ago, it's a remarkable story.
But more importantly, Bill Mann, you have tied up this game one to one players at home. Again, give yourself a plus one for agreeing. Let's move to stock number three. Bill Mann, do you sleep well at night? Sometimes I make a few mistakes. Do you sleep well at night even when you've picked a losing stock for our services? No. Not at all. Which means I haven't slept in years. What if like, this stock for me, what if what if it was a horrendously bad pick? Would you sleep even worse?
David, you know I I I know what you're getting at, but you know that that is actually part of the game. Like, you are when when you make a stock pick, when you invest in something, you are investing entirely in the future, and sometimes the future doesn't go the way you thought it was going to. And if that causes you to lose sleep, that's, you know, it shouldn't.
Well, a really, really bad stock pick and sleep combined very well for stock number three whose ticker symbol is S N B R. Some of us sleep on them. I don't have one sleep number, the mattress company. The I'm a sixty four. My partner is a fifteen. We've dialed the sleep number differently on our mattress. This is a company well, I'll talk about the stock pick and where it was when I made it. But more importantly, I think a lot of us will be familiar with the brand Sleep Number.
This is a company, Select Comfort, old pick back in the day from Motley Fool services that eventually rebranded itself because a lot more people would know Sleep Number than Select Comfort. Bill Mann, what is your stated market cap range these days for Sleep Number, ticker symbol SNBR? So this was a whole this was an old hidden gem company, which meant that the top market cap could be two billion dollars, but that was two thousand and four.
I am going to say, three point one billion to five point five billion. Three point one billion to five point five billion bills range. Bill Barker, players at home. Agree or disagree? This company has visited a lot of interesting market caps over the years. At one point, I remember it was down to pennies back in its sleep comfort days, and then it made one of the great comebacks in market recent market history.
Yeah. I have been flagging it as well, I won't say anything more about It it took another hit down. I I'm gonna say, it's below that. I'm gonna disagree. That is correct. If you disagreed with Bill Mann's assertion, three point one to five point five, give yourself a plus one. I hope hope I didn't tilt it there. I may have slightly hinted that I almost never do that as a host, but my apologies if anybody thought since I was talking about what a bad stock pick it was of mine.
The Grand Council is going to take is gonna be hearing from me again. I feel like, you know, the scoring here, even though I'm gonna get the point and be ahead of you and have double your score at this point in the game, that that your I mean, maybe it's maybe it it doesn't take any skill to just disagree with your range every time. Maybe that takes no more skill than you are agreeing. Outside the game.
You are agreeing with my correct ranges is easy to do, and it's easy for me to disagree with your incorrect ranges. We'll see if this holds. The game will just go five five. Somehow, you'll be tied through ineptness with my ineptness. I think I think if we're looking at Pyrrhic victories here that the most powerful play so far has been agreeing with your incredibly tight range and being correct. And I I think those are both both impressive.
And let's give Bill Barker his plus one that he's talking about. And you at home, if you disagreed with the range because I regret to say sleep number is well below even the low range of Bill Mann's market cap. It's two hundred sixty nine point nine seven million dollars. It's a sub three hundred million dollar company at this point. Now it's time for me to say that I picked the stock in February of twenty twenty one. I'll see it. Remember we talked about February twenty twenty one?
It was good for you. It was right around where Chewy was in February twenty twenty one. A hundred twenty five dollars a share right around there. Today, twelve. So That's lower. That's lower. It's a lot lower. And yeah. So the market cap actually is below three hundred million at this point. And it starts making me wonder, and this isn't my style of investing, but it's a pretty well known brand name that on its own might be worth that or more to an inquisitor potentially.
But we're not here to suggest mergers and acquisitions. We're just here to call out market caps and trash talk. But maybe they should think about it. Well, before we move on to stock number four, I will just remind listeners of one of my cardinal rule breaker investing points, and I think both bills would agree with this as well. In general, we try not to add to our losers. I much prefer to add to my winners.
So if you don't add to a stock as it goes from a hundred twenty five down to twelve, it actually becomes kind of irrelevant for your portfolio. The percentage of allocation just diminishes to the point that you're just kind of crying into your soup, laughing a little bit as you review your portfolio statement and see that you pick sleep number. I'm not going to take it personally at all that when you that when you said add to your losers that you gesticulated towards me. Not at all.
You know, people can't see that at home. This is an audio only podcast. Okay. Let's move on to stock number four, Bill Barker. When you think of hometown pride, I think you call Philadelphia your native tribal home. Yes. What what comes to mind for you? What what do Philadelphians take pride in? And and or what do you take hometown pride in? Philadelphians take pride in the Eagles. I agree that's More than more than anything, I would say. Just about the, most unifying thing in in the city.
Even more so than the cream cheese? Yes. Cheesesteak? Yes. Cheesesteak is is, number maybe number one, one a Eagles. I mean, they're they they go well together. Yeah. And and, Bill, are these things that you take hometown pride in when you think about your native tribal home? Certainly, the the the cheesesteak. Yeah. I'm I'm I'm not enough of an Eagles fan to to claim to be an Eagles fan around real Eagles fans. I do not suffer, from their losses.
I I grew up with a different, football team that I followed for reasons that are too boring to go into right now. But, I I now root for the Eagles, just because I do want good things to happen to the city, and there is nothing the city could take more more pride and and, joy from the Eagles. Winning again. Yeah. What about public companies, Bill? Hometown pride in companies. Growing up, was there a Philly company that y'all are, like, so glad they're in our city? I'm gonna think I I mean, sure.
I mean, I I know somebody who, came from the Aramark sort of side of things. So I think of that one, which was not public, I think, at the time that I, knew her and was in a play with her. But, that's the first one that came to mind. Okay. Well, obviously, Philadelphia is part of your your past. It's in your rearview mirror. You've raised your family bill in in the Washington DC metro area. What do you take pride in here? Oh, you know, our our phenomenal government. Sarcasm is the win of fools.
Good job with the data centers. I mean, we do have a lot of data centers. Well, but what about public companies? Are there any that come to mind that that you would take or maybe you pointed out proudly to your son. You know, they're in they're in our city. They started here. I'm I'm I'm Well, let me suggest one for you, Bill.
You don't have to have an answer because Kava Group, ticker symbol C A V A, was founded here in Rockville, Maryland in the greater DC area in two thousand six, and that is stock number four. I assume you've eaten there. I'm guessing. You might have ordered in Kava Group, ticker symbol C A V A, a relatively newly listed public company, Bill Barker. What is your stated market cap range for Kava Group? I'm gonna say nine point seven to ten point seven billion.
So earlier, he's at nine and eleven, and then you easily guessed it. And so now I'm getting angry with the decimals. I'm getting angrier and angrier at the fact that his computer is sitting right here. As if I can look I wanna make it very clear it's been closed the entire time. I would never ever allow that. That's why we do this in person, guys. This is not a Zoom thing. So I'm gonna set this up right now, and I'm gonna this is this is the poker play that I'm gonna use, and and I'll see it.
Just agree with it. Just agree because I'm I'm I'm nailing these. There's no way I've got this wrong. Okay. Players at home. That's your best that's your best boot. Bill Maher just stated nine point seven to ten point seven billion. Bill Mann, players at home, agree or disagree? I believe that it is just a bit outside. You know, this is why I love doing this show. Plus one for Bill Mann.
If you disagree, give yourself a plus one as well because here is literally the market cap of Kava as Monday's market close occurred. Again, Bill said nine point seven to ten point seven, then Bill Mann said, I disagree. I think it's just outside Ten point seven one billion dollars. Astonishing. I I don't I I'm I'm almost speechless at we've never had a dot zero one miss that got called saying it was just outside that rain. I I want here and Angel Hernandez was doing that a strike.
What what I want is, like, a tennis player's challenge on that. I want I want the live I want the live marketing app right now. We could play this another hundred years, and I hope we do. And that will not happen again. That is remarkable. So, yeah, the company founded in Rockville, Maryland, as I mentioned, it has a full service restaurant with a more traditional dining experience. I think that's maybe how it started, or they added it early in Rockville, Maryland.
There are a few others, Kava Metze. Well, as a DC guy, I like this company. I take some hometown pride in it, own a few shares myself as well. By the way, CEO, Brett Shulman, will be appearing at this year's Full Fest in July. So we'll get to see him. I'm not sure. Maybe one of you guys will interview Brett, but we're looking forward to that. So wow. I think the score is two to two. I think I get an extra point for that. I why should you get an extra point?
I'm I'm the one who keeps nailing the ranges. Let's move on to stock number five. Turning now back to Bill Mann. Bill, do people intentionally say things to you because of your surname, like, you the man? Are you over indexed that way? I get man, Bill, and then laughter. Yeah. I could see how that might be the case. And and when you think of American public companies that in some way include your own name, Which come to mind? There's bill dot com. Hadn't thought about that. You're right.
Mankind or dying? What are we talking about? Yep. Mankind innovative inhalable insulin. ManTech? Yeah. You know, I'm not sure I I had that one on my list. I have ManpowerGroup Yeah. Ticker symbol, man. Yeah. Just one n. Mantek, which we wrote up, in one thing, because it has the, ticker symbol, mant Yeah. Which, the MANT figured into a movie. Do you remember this movie? It sounds like a Troma movie. Mantis?
It was a it was a movie about watching a movie, and and it was a sort of an atomic creature, the man, It was a combination of I miss that one. Man and an ant. Well, there's by the way matinee. I think it was John Goodman. Matinee. Nice. I was gonna say. I still don't think I'm gonna see it. The movie within the movie was banned. Like, the only interesting thing about the movie was just spoiled. Yeah. Alright. By the way, another m a n, Man U. Manchester United, public company.
Manes Mann, the Germans. Do you own any of these, by the way? Do you have any mans in your portfolio? You know, it's so funny because I a long time ago, I read Jason Zweig's Your Money in Your Brain, and he actually made a point that people tend to be attracted to companies that have their names in them. And so I've had a little bit of I've had that in the back of my mind. Like, am I being convinced by virtue of the fact that they've named these companies after me? Yeah.
What about bill dot com? Does either of you own bill dot com? No. Maybe well, maybe maybe Zweig was overstating his point. That's well, maybe we are the counterpoint. If they David at William dot com, I I I don't think I'd be able to resist. Stock number five is one of these companies, but not one we've already named. Manhattan Associates, m a n h, man. H is a public company that helps businesses run their supply chains more efficiently.
They create software, offer services that help companies manage their inventory, fulfill orders faster, improve customer experience across different shopping platforms, Manhattan Associates. Again, the ticker symbol, m a n h. Bill Mann, what is your stated market cap range for Manhattan Manhattan Associates? With two n's. I'm going to say nine hundred and fifty million dollars to four point one billion dollars. Nine fifty sub one billion. Nine fifty million to four point one billion dollars.
Bill Barker, Players at Home. In fact, Bill, before I turn to you, any thoughts about Manhattan Associates, man, names, or Bill's call? I I decided, early on to just disagree with his range regardless of what it was given given my It's been working for me. Utter lacking knowledge about the company. And I think that's not a lot of people know this company. That's what I'm gonna, stick with. You're gonna disagree. I'm gonna disagree. Alright. Players at home, agree or disagree. Bill disagreed.
And if you disagreed with Bill Barker, give yourself a plus one. It worked again. I'm not gonna say you should keep pursuing that strategy all show long, Bill. I'm gonna say twelve billion. Fourteen point three three billion dollars. This is a company by the way, founded in nineteen ninety because I always like to check when. And also where, not Manhattan. It's based in Atlanta, Georgia, but a six bagger over the last ten years. A couple of full wrecks just this year.
I don't know if either of you guys are working behind that. You would hope that I'm not. But No. No. The answer is no. No. Awesome. It would be great if Manhattan Associates was actually from Manhattan, Kansas. And yeah. Because Kansas State University is in Manhattan, Kansas. Right? Yeah. Yeah. Alright. We're at halftime. Now, Dez, in the past for this show, we've occasionally played a halftime Follies, quick music.
I'm not gonna say you should top what Rick Engdahl has previously bought to this podcast, but if you wanted to have a very short but extremely special halftime Follies music show, now's your moment. You know what, guys? That actually kinda makes sense because Des is a very talented viola player. So, yep, they don't normally get to march with the bands though. And it's a shame that they don't.
It's it's more difficult to play some sort of wacky tune like I'm envisioning envisioning the Follies music on a viola. Yeah. You know? It's a more staid and august instrument than, you know, the Wurlitzer, which also not great for marching. Alright. That was the halftime show. Let's move on to the second half of this week's market cap game show. I showed as Bill Barker, three. Bill Mann, two. Let's turn now to Bill Barker for stock number six.
Bill, I wouldn't expect in all areas of your life, but what is an area or two where you enjoy staying ahead of the curve, knowing the latest trends and insights before they become mainstream? Hygiene? Is that it? You would hope. You would hope. I asked Bill, not Bill. Sorry. I was just trying to help. Areas where I like to stay ahead of the curve. Boy, that's that's a tough subject because I'm pretty far behind. Can you see the curve? That's part of your charm.
I'd like I'd like to be more ahead of the curve on what, you know, what Sarcasm? You're ahead of the curve on it. I would say, yeah. I mean, racket sports, getting ahead of the curve on on the newest ones and new territories. Have you been a fan of tennis basically taking out the questionable calls of the empires and making it technology driven? Yes. And I think that, you know, sooner or later, baseball will be doing that with the strike zone, you know, and and why it doesn't yet.
I mean, there there are umpires unions and reasons like that. Yeah. Yes. Tennis Tennis has paved the way for baseball to make that eventual change. In the old days, it was really annoying to have people arguing calls and there's no solution and, you know, that entertaining. John McEnroe scored some good TV ratings back in the day because he would just have this prolonged shout. Yeah. And sometimes, once he got thrown out, because he violated the rules and, Of a tennis match.
Of the Australian Open. He he was thrown out. Let's let's let's set the table here. He thought, like, the rule had changed, and there was one fewer, warning that, that was implemented in this new year. And and as soon as it was as soon as he was defaulted, he realized, oh, oh, yeah. I thought I had one more outburst permissible. I could not. Because he could re he could always reel it back in. Yeah. You know? Alright.
Well, let's forget about you for a sec because you didn't wanna go there, but let's pretend you're a company. Do you think having access to cutting edge insights and trends within your industry could give you a strategic advantage? Would that be worth paying for? It's certainly something that I would claim if I were. Well, speaking of names that resemble our own names, this public company, ticker symbol IT, has a name frighteningly similar to your host and emcees this week.
Gartner Inc has been around, yeah, for quite a long time. It's been a it's been a good stock pick. In fact, I was checking. My brother Tom picked this for Stock Advisor, March fifteenth of two thousand thirteen. Great pick, Tom. I'm not gonna say how much it's up. We'll do that in a sec. But let's go to the market cap, Bill Barker. These are the guys behind the hype cycle, which is a a good framework I've enjoyed talking to. They're the magic quadrants of the different industries.
I think a lot of us, especially if you're in the business IT world, you've heard of Gartner. It's hard they haven't spelled their name right. You know, the funny thing is that my great grandfather, who was Danish, came to this country and changed his name from Gartner to Gardener to anglicize it. So we are Gardner today, but this is actually our family name even though it's not. And I kind of wish I owned some shares of this company, but I don't.
Ticker symbol IT, Bill Barker, what is your state of market cap range for Gartner? I'm gonna say twenty to thirty five billion. Twenty billion to thirty five billion dollars. Bill Mann, Players at Home. Bill, do you do you like Gartner? Do you have any opinion about Gartner? Do you follow their stuff? Not really. Okay. Actually. Yeah. I know it would be way cooler if I did for the sake of the show. Well, I'll say one thing.
The companies that appear pop up in their magic quadrants make a lot of that. I see it often on websites. We are the we're in this. We're a leader in Gartner's quadrant around telecom. Yeah. So you may not be a huge Gartner fan or follower, but you're now under pressure to either agree or disagree with Bill's stated range. He went back to round numbers again, by the way. Twenty billion to thirty five billion players at home. Bill Mann, agree or disagree? I am going to disagree.
And, unfortunately, we have our first separation because you should have agreed. Bill did a pretty good job. It was it was tight. The market cap for Gartner is thirty four point three seven billion, right near the high end of Bill's twenty to thirty five range. Therefore, if you agreed, give yourself a plus one. Players at home, Bill Barker has four. Bill Mann has two. I hope you have six. Alright. Let's move on to stock number seven. And, oh my gosh, I was waiting for this to happen.
We have a throwdown. Players at home, both bills will now write down their market cap range for stock number seven. Of course, we're gonna talk about it first. Pencils out. And then once Bill Mann and Bill Barker state their market caps, you're gonna decide which range seems more plausible to you, Senor Manns or Senor Barkers. And if you guess right, give yourself a point. If both are right, by the way, the tighter range wins the point.
And if they're both wrong, if the market cap actually fell outside their tip, that would never happen. But if it did happen, whoever's closer to the actual market cap would get a plus one. Again, this is a throwdown. We do this twice every show. Stock number seven. Let's briefly talk about dividend yields, though, Bill Mann. Do you purpose dividends in the stocks that you pick personally or for our services? Sort of.
I mean, for certain kinds of companies, I think that there is a certain amount of discipline that comes from having a payout that goes to, goes to shareholders. And I prefer companies that do stock buybacks and reduce the overall float of the of of the shares, which is another form of return of capital, but dividends, you know, I I like getting those checks. I mean, free money.
I I I did a podcast for this podcast last week about pet perks, the things that make everything a little bit happier, the opposite of pet peeves. Dividend day. I mean, you know, oh, I got money in my account. Look, honey. Look. It's dividend day. They love me. Yeah. I mean, that's kind kinda nice. Maybe it's as we get older, we appreciate that a little bit more. Now high yields can be deceptive. Mhmm. Some stocks may offer unusually high yields due to financial distress.
They they might be unable to pay it going forward, but people see the yield and they go, wow. Others, though, other kinds of companies are designed for higher yields. Bill Mann, what specific level? This is a one zero one question. We're no longer in investing ten. We're now up to investing one zero one. What is a specific level of dividend yield that would catch your attention in today's market in a good way?
And then at what threshold would you start to question, raise your eyebrows skeptically at its sustainability? We're We're talking about the level of dividend yield where you love it and then where you wouldn't love it. So any company that have a has a dividend yield above three percent has my attention. And I understand that in this day and age, that is actually below the rate of inflation, and it is below the, you know, the prime rate that you can get in a savings account, at this point.
But it is still with with most companies, you're not counting on just the dividend. So a three percent yield, I would consider to be a well yielding company. Any company that has a yield eight percent or higher Okay. With the exception of certain types of, with A REIT, maybe? A REIT. Exactly. Real estate investment trust. I would I would assume is distressed. Okay. Well, spoiler alert, and you guys can factor this in during this throw down round.
This company's dividend yield is six point eight two percent, which is actually under the range. I thought you might Do I get a point? You don't, but you do get I feel like I need a minute. Star and a lollipop later if you remind me. But Verizon Communications is actually paying out a dividend yield these days of just over six point eight percent annually. And, gentlemen, this is the throwdown stock. So I see your pencils out.
You are thinking about your tightest, most accurate market cap range in which ticker symbol VZ Verizon Communications falls. Alright. Verizon Communications. Guys, your numbers are locked in. I do wanna mention before we find out your ranges and then ask our listeners, do you agree with Bill Mann's range or Bill Barker's range? But I do wanna point out that the S and P five hundred is up one hundred seventy five percent over the last ten years. Pretty good run last ten years.
Verizon over the last ten years wait for it. Verizon over the last ten years is down twenty three percent. This is a very large important American company that has dramatically underperformed over the last decade. Just pointing that out. Let me turn to Bill Mann. Bill, what is your market cap range for v z? I can tell looking at Bill Barker's face that we may have another unprecedented moment in which neither one of us get the actual numbers. That doesn't ever happen on this show.
That's never happened. I wrote ninety billion to a hundred and thirty billion. Ninety billion to one hundred thirty billion. Bill Barker, what is your range? I, I'd no confidence. Thirty to sixty five billion. I mean, the the the dividend being that high is deeply suspicious. Oh, yeah. Alright. Again, players at home, do you wanna agree with Bill Barker's thirty to sixty five billion or Bill Mann's ninety to one hundred thirty billion? You make the call now. Three, two, one, say Barker or Mann.
Thank you. And I may have influenced you, and in in which case, I'm glad I did because that's what we're doing. We're influencing each other all the time with fun facts like, wow. Verizon is paying six point eight percent dividend yield? And less fun facts. Like, it's down twenty three percent over a decade. And also slightly embarrassing facts that neither of you guys got this one right, which never happens on this show.
So it's true that you were both low, and I think I may partly be at fault by pointing out what an underperformer Verizon has been. But the market cap for Verizon is one hundred sixty six point one zero billion dollars at this week's Monday close, which means it exceeds both of your range more than doubling Bill Barker's bill. Apparently, you're a Verizon hater. I no. I think if you had not given that information, I would have been a lot closer.
It's just it does it sound and it's not like it's struggling to the degree that I Yeah. I mean, I like my files. Ranging. Like, it's a I'm a confident That's, you know, that I woulda, like, oh, yeah. That's that's somewhere, I don't know, hundred to two hundred billion. Yeah. Whatever. I'm not quite sure. Who knows? And, you know It's a hundred sixty six point one zero billion. But but the the dividend range, that's that's a big that's a big chunk of money I agree. That they're paying out.
I think, you know, part market cap that that, high. Part of the reason people listen is to play along with us. I think the other reason people listen is to learn about some new companies or special situations maybe like this one. I also just love hearing you guys talk about investing. And so, Bill, I appreciate your point about dividend yields, and three percent raises your interest. And eight percent, which is still well above, Verizon would start causing you to be very skeptical.
That's valuable advice. Thank you. And give yourself a plus one, Bill Mann, to make sure that you're four. Barker four, man three. Again, if you said, Bill Mann, give yourself a plus one. Bill was closer. His high end was one hundred thirty billion. Let's move on to stock number eight. Alright. On to stock number eight. Now I often mention that I randomize what stock's coming up. And let me just briefly explain that process just so people understand where these are being pulled from.
On The Motley Fool site for our members, we list stocks by various rankings. And the one that I find most interesting is just sort of the the top five hundred that are of most interest to our members. And I call them the full five hundred. There's no S and P five hundred, gamesmanship going on here. It's just five hundred is a good round number. It's a lot of different stocks. And so I just sit there and I randomize two numbers, one to five hundred.
And then I look at those two companies, number four thirty seven and number twenty eight, and I decide which would be more fun to talk about on the Market Cap Game Show. Occasionally, I get one that is so obscure, but it's the number that I came up with, and it's better than the other one that I talk about a company like the one we're about to go to for stock number eight. Bill Barker, I know you're a man of the world. You know much about the world. Do you know anything about bee cells?
Bee cells. Bee cells. As in the the the kind of thing that stings you human body. Big letter b. The letter b. Not t cells, but b cell. I obviously don't. And nor did I. Therefore, I looked it up. B lymphocytes are a type of white blood cell that plays a crucial role in our immune system. They originate and mature in our bone marrow. There's at least a mnemonic, b cells bone marrow, and are essential for the adaptive immune response.
And company number eight is a smaller, spoiler alert, though no real spoiler there, smaller biotech company focused, well, really founded with one goal in mind, to leverage scientific advances in b cell biology to develop novel treatments for patients. I saw the ticker symbol t g t x, and I thought, I Target stores with an x. I'm not really sure what this company is. This is not a hugely well known company, but it is in our full five hundred.
And TG Therapeutics, Bill Barker, is the company I'm turning to you for stock number eight asking you, what is your stated market cap range for TG Therapeutics, ticker symbol TGTX? One to three billion. Not beating around the bush there, Bill Mann. Players at home, one billion to three billion dollars. Bill, man, I know you know a lot. You're in you have an encyclopedic knowledge at least of restaurants and random calories, which we haven't even got to.
Did you know what b cells were? You can lie. No. No. You could lie. You could lie. And and and my my biology, inspired daughters would both be incredibly angry with me that I did not know. Well, you've just learned something. So now they don't need to listen to this podcast. They probably don't, so they'll never know that dad didn't know it until he did. Yeah. They are telling me right now they're both shouting the exact market cap. I'm sure. Well, Bill Barker stalling.
Bill Barker like, his hero's lost on this one as I am. As. Bill Barker has said one billion to three billion dollars. Bill Mann plays at home. Agree or disagree? It's such a good range. I am going to disagree. And, unfortunately, you should have agreed because you were right. It was such a good range. The market cap for TG Therapeutics, two point five six billion dollars.
This is a company dedicated, this is from its website, to the simple concept, the study of b cells and b cell diseases to achieve its goal. They searched the globe looking for medicines and early research that they believe could become viable treatment options for patients, b lymphocytes, two point five six billion dollars, score a point for Bill Barker. I believe that makes it five to three right now, Bill, man. Thanks for bringing that up. On the edge of elimination.
Bill Bill is pretty good at tying things up and sending us into sudden death. We'll see if he can manage that as we move on on stock number nine. Bill Mann, you start a company. I know you did this in the past. I did. And, actually, let's just say it's in the wireless communication space. Okay? You name it. Well, this kind of keys back to our conversation earlier. You name it ManVoice Solutions.
And and there's this other company that provides complimentary solutions, and we'll call it Barco Quartek. And you guys decide to merge. Bill Mann, how would you likely choose to name that new merged company? You You wanna take a shot at maybe naming it yourself, again, Manvoice Solutions merging with Barco Quartech, or would you hire a naming firm or consultant to invent you a new brand name? It's gotta be it's gotta be something like Flavity. You know?
Like, with, you know, maybe there's a couple of x's involved. Definitely weird capitalization. Is this part of your background? Were you a name a brand name firm consultant guy? No. But I did have to name a company one time, and it was a disheartening experience. Was it your own company? Yeah. Did you go with Man Voice Solutions? I did. That's exactly what it is. That's definitely news to me. No. That definitely wasn't it. So I have no strong view for or against the name chosen for this company.
But when TriQuint Semiconductor and RF Micro Devices merged in the year two thousand fifteen, combining their expertise and resources to become a leading provider in radio frequency and semiconductors, they decided their two keywords, again, triquent semiconductors, RF micro devices. Please tell me it was F Quint. There are two. I can't.
There are two keywords where core and voice, and thus, Qorvo was born, q o r v o. Almost good as having an x, as having a q with no u. No u. And I'm turning back to you, Bill Mann. Now this is a space I I I don't know if you know anything about this company. I know you know something about this this space, but more importantly, do you know the market cap of Corvo, ticker symbol q r v o? What is your stated market cap range?
It is somewhere between seventeen billion and twenty four billion dollars. Seventeen billion to twenty four billion dollars. Bill Barker, are you presently or at any time in the past, have you been a principal at Barco, CoreTech? No. No. No. I not at the I think I came up with Barco because it sound like Corvo, and it just sounds stupid. Wasn't that like a front company for your terrorist asset chasing items? Like, you had to have front companies, didn't you?
Or maybe it was his competitor to Chewy, Barco Corte. Internet for dogs. I helped, my wife name her consulting company and sort of in the process of, just sort of filling out the form. She's like, we have to have a name for this. And and so almost no thought was given to it. Just like her name and what it did. It probably saved a lot of time and maybe some money too.
But it was decided on a more expansive name for the what the services would be than she actually provides so that she could expand into that area at some point. But I think it Nice. Doesn't end up helping. It doesn't it doesn't it's not specific enough about what she actually does. So I I'm not, like, o for one, I would say, on naming. Well, let's see for the market cap of Corvo. Bill Mann said seventeen billion to twenty four billion rocking the round numbers.
Bill Barker, players at home. Do you wanna agree or disagree? I he expressed that with a confidence that I think is undeserved. I think that he was, trying to play me. And the fact that he has not gotten, I believe, a range right yet on on his, leads me to believe that disagreeing with it is my best play. Part of me wants to think that you're wrong about that, and you're being a little cocky, and you don't deserve to be right yet again.
And yet the other part of me admires that you just nailed it once again, Bill Barker, because you should have disagreed. Corbeau's market cap, ten point nine two billion dollars. That means a couple things. First of all, it means you now have a guaranteed seat in the market cap game show world championship of twenty twenty five. Yes. And you're gonna win this week, and that doesn't preclude Bill from maybe making a later appearance. But it does But it should.
Though unlikely given given how good he seems to be at this game. Seems like he'd have to be given all the chances. So let me turn back to Bill Mann. And, obviously, we're still gonna play the last one because we do this for players at home. It's not about us making it to next year or not. It kinda is. But but Bill Manchin That's the kinda attitude that cost you. If you've been thinking of the listeners the whole time, maybe you'd be in in the lead right now. This stock Probably not.
Probably not. But whatever you were doing was the wrong tactic. This stock has risen one hundred ninety percent over the past decade since that renaming. The market's up a hundred seventy five percent as I mentioned. So it's kind of a market performer just ahead. But, Bill Mann, do you know where this company is based? No. Bill, where where I I would guess California. Where'd you grow up? Raleigh, North Carolina. Close. Do you ever go over to Greensboro, spend any time at Greensboro?
Have been known to. You could co visit the Corvo headquarters. It is at Greensboro. Now I think we have to bring this back. Where should I eat right after I visited Corvo Corvo headquarters? Within two miles of the headquarters. Jeez. I got located. Yeah. That's a lot of pressure on Bill. Is do you have a place for us in Greensboro? That's my question. Stamey's Barbecue. Okay. Thank you. Yeah. That sounds great. Alright. So Corvo and Stamey's.
Stamey's a merger of two other barbecues that had totally different names. No doubt. They came up with Stamey after a long expensive consultation. I'm gonna guess Stamey was actually the nickname of a large man who cooked barbecue. Well said. I'm guessing. The very slightly built man who specialized in barbecue being rather big. Rather unique subset of the of the barbecue world. Alright. We're gonna move on to stock number ten. This is a throwdown, so we're putting that out right ahead.
So both bills have their pencils out as I turn briefly to Bill Barker and say, Bill, do you mind if I ask you a a personal question? I've done that on this show before. I well, I don't know yet. I know. I how about this? It's it's it's not so personal. Since it shows up on your driver's license, can I ask you a question? Yes. Do you intend to be an organ donor? Yes. Do you think everybody should? Yes. How militant are your views in that regard?
Everybody who's not an organ donor should be jailed. That is pretty militant. And tortured. And, obviously, we're making a lot of it somewhat, but I think I think it's a it's a nice thing to do. I also have checked that box. So I have a little red heart on my DC driver's license that says I'm an organ donor. Maybe you are too. I I can't remember. I I hope so. Yeah.
My my entire life was, just supplied by organ donation in the sense that my not that I'm the recipient of one, which would be, you know, something I've I've We would talk more about that? We talk more about that. No. My dad was an organ, transplant surgeon. Wow. So That that, funded a lot of, my education and That is so interesting. Thank you for sharing that.
And company number ten has built its business around an entire system to care for and preserve, assess organs for potential transplantation. TransMedic Group's organ care system, or OCS, if you will, is behind their fabulous first quarter twenty twenty four revenue growth. They turned in about a hundred billion dollars in revenue for the first quarter this year. That's up a hundred thirty three percent over that same quarter a year ago. The ticker symbol is TMDX. This is a full favorite.
There are a lot of full recommendations. A lot of fools listening to us right now who probably have the stock. By the way, let me briefly recall about Verizon this. I invented a fun ratio. Here it is. The number of full recommendations, official full recommendations for Motley Fool services, that's the numerator. In the denominator is the market cap of the company and one of the lowest ratios. Again, Number of full recs up top, market cap down below would be Verizon.
Verizon has received one recommendation in its history, our history of The Motley Fool, and it has a hundred sixty six billion dollar market cap. So that's a tiny, tiny number. This company is kind of the opposite. This is a smaller company with a lot of full recs. So sort of interesting, the full interest ratio, if you will. I see you guys I think you've written down your market cap. So I see you guys well, at least one of you has written down your market cap.
I was trying to stall for you, Bill, man. Get it get the pencil out. Okay. Good. And now for stock number ten, a reminder, Bill Mann, chin up because people usually only remember what happened at the end. So if you can nail it, I mean, this could really change the public's perception of this hour. So a bit of a personal story, but, my the last place my wife lived when she was in college and undergrad in Philadelphia was about three doors down from what is now the Clyde Barker,
Transplant Center at University of Pennsylvania. That's great. Yeah. I guess Bill I guess Bill wins that story. But The, I mean, the entities that have transplant centers named after them, houses that, provide, a place for families to stay when their, beloved ones are are, recovering, is is, I think, my dad and Ronald McDonald. That's what the Ronald McDonald houses got there first Wow. And and and have more of them. And and, you know, hopefully, we'll just buy buy out dads once or twice.
Dons makes a reappearance in this podcast. Okay. That's really great. Thank you, and congratulations. What a remarkable family you're from, Bill Barker. And let's hear from you first, Bill Barker. What is your stated market cap range for TransMedix? Six point two to seven point three billion. You had six point two to seven point three. Bill Mann? One point two to two point one billion. One point two to two point one billion players at home. You now need to decide.
Do you wanna go with Bill Barker, a six point two to seven point three, or Bill Mann, one point two to two point one? I'm gonna give you three seconds, and you're gonna say one of their names, Barker or Mann, three two one. You said it. Great. If you said Bill Barker, give yourself a plus one because trans medics guys, you both missed it again, but we'll forget that ever happened on this show. You weren't far off, though. It was in between. TransMedics Group is at four point seven one billion.
So in between your stated ranges, but a little closer, one and a half billion away from Bill Barker. It's just two point six away from Bill Mann. So, Bill Barker, give yourself a plus one. And players at home, if you agreed with Bill Barker, it seems like that was the way to go this particular week on the show. I know I was going with Barker on that one too. As someone who has, I don't know, recommended it a few times, I figured he might have had it in a I've I've thought about it.
And then there's the I, Barker, center and all the things. Yes. I that was probably the right bet to make. And thank you both. So the final accounting is then this Bill Barker seven, Bill Mann three. But the two Bills and I know that we're not playing this game for each other. We're playing it for you. So how did you score, dear fool? Dear listeners at home, we hope we hope you outscored all of us.
The purpose of the Market Cap Game Show is to make more popular I'm never gonna say as popular as as Jeopardy, but to make more popular market caps, the real value of stocks on the market that most people don't understand, except that you do understand because you just listened to us for an hour, and I hope you scored at least a few points this week and maybe beat one or both of our competitors, Bill Barker and Bill Mann.
You both distinguish yourselves, help make the world a bit smarter, happier, and richer. Next week is our June twenty twenty four mailbag. This month has featured chat GPT interviewing me with some of its most provocative and challenging questions about rule breaker investing. And then last week, pet perks, perks not peeves. Would love to hear further thoughts from you about these topics, including our market cap game show this week. Would you like to be on next week's show?
Email us, r b I at fool dot com. You can tweet us at at r b I podcast. Okay. A last line from you, Bill Mann. Well, I'm so glad I was here this week to make the world feel smarter, specifically smarter than than me. The good news for me is that there's no reason at all for me to consult the oracles or the grand councils. That was a thorough, thorough victory by William Barker and for which all of the plaudits that are coming his way are earned. So gracious.
Bill Barker, do you feel an instinct to be as gracious to your competitor as he just was to you? Well, I'm I'm, of course, parsing some of that and trying to think of how many plaudits there will be. What exactly did he just say? I think I think it rounds to zero. Let's get it. There's point seven plotted. Yeah. I don't know how many people will will will contact me as a result of this. Oh, wow. That was really impressive. It's already on his LinkedIn.
Yeah. No. I don't have too many other thoughts except to thank, Bill for bringing up the the Clyde Barker Transplant House. And if for any reason, any of the luster of of my father's achievements is being, reflected on me, that's wrong. Let me just disabuse all listeners of any association that I should have with his, achievements. Alright. Well, that's a wrap on the June twenty twenty four market cap game show.
I think this is, like, our twenty eighth, twenty ninth, or thirtieth consecutive quarter in a row. A delight it was. Thank you again to Bill Barker and Bill Mann and you. See you next week for our mailbag. Fool on. As always, people on this program may have interest in the stocks they talk about, and The Motley Fool may have formal recommendations for or against. So don't buy or sell stocks based solely on what you hear. Learn more about Rule Breaker Investing at r b I dot fool dot com.