Do You Have Extra Cash?

It's been an interesting day.  I got 2 emails from 2 separate readers and both were asking for help.  One was a publisher of Catholic material and one was a producer of Catholic films.  One was looking for investor capital to fund their ministry and the other was looking for contacts in starting a TV channel.  As much as I'd like to help, I'm just a young, poor Catholic guy struggling through life, but sharing my investing thoughts on this blog.  If you happen to be a super rich guy who wants to support a meaningful Catholic ministry, please let me know and I'll put you in contact with these 2 readers.  Thanks in advance!  If you are not super rich, maybe you can keep these 2 readers in your prayers and ask the Lord to bless their ministry.

I am truly amazed at what great things can be done on the web.  It really is able to connect people when used correctly.

By the way, the market has been on a tear!  If the S&P500 breaks 1150 by a good margin in the coming days/weeks, it'd be safe to say the bull market is still ON!  Keep your eyes open!

Which is Your "True Religion"?

My true religion is definitely Catholicism!  But today, I'm not talking about religion at all!  I'm talking about fashion.  As you may or may not know, True Religion (ticker: TRLG) jeans are all the rage in LA (and the entire US for that matter) these days.  They are high-end jeans that I would probably never own, but people are willing to fork over $150+ for one of them.  In Canada, you can only buy True Religion products from specialty stores that import them.  As a result of this anecdote, there's not too much exposure to the international general public, and this makes it a gem!

As my wife, Renee, will attest, I have very little fashion sense.  But I do know a good stock when I see one.  It is a small cap stock at currently $650 million market cap.  It has no debt, a trailing PE of 13.5, PEG of 0.39 (!!), and growth is estimated to be 31% over the next 5 years.  If the above acronyms have no meaning to you whatsoever, please read my fundamental analysis posts here and here.  In short, this stock looks a little undervalued for its growth potential.  As well, it had an amazing quarter in Q4 of last year and the stock jumped about 30% in the past week.  I'm watching for a pullback and will potentially stock up (no pun intended).

If True Religion becomes the next Diesel, and they are expanding into international markets (Toronto, London and Tokyo), you could see its market cap grow by many fold.  So, whip out your calculators and check this stock out.  I know I'm getting my Excel spreadsheets ready!

Update (2010-03-03): One huge point I forgot to mention is the ethical aspects of investing in True Religion.  I did some googling and found that True Religion does NOT use sweatshops!  Alleluia!

Catholic Ethical Investing - Some Resource on the Web

Perhaps you're getting fed up with reading my posts.  Perhaps you want to get a different perspective.  Whatever it is, here are some articles I found on Catholic investing at Catholic.net.  Some are more like advertisements than others, but there's some good info you can find there.

Also, here is a somewhat long list of things that you should be concerned with when investing put together by Prosperitas Wealth Management, a small Catholic investment firm in Nebraska.  After reading this list, you would begin to see how some industries are just too risky in which to invest (on the moral side of things), like defense companies, pharmaceutical companies, etc.  If you are really keen, you may want to visit the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops investment guidelines, which is where Prosperitas probably derived its page.

Anyway, enjoy all that light reading!