The digital advertising theme consists of companies that sell, buy or manage advertising spaces
on digital mediums such as mobile phones, in-apps, video, audio, written content, and any other
emerging digital channels. It also includes companies that make the buying and selling process
automated, more efficient, and easier through data, analytics, or software development. Sources

Privacy Concerns: 

• Consumers' preference to block ads and the rise of ad blocker software is one challenge.
• Regulators follow the consumers' preferences by limiting the use of 3rd party Cookie technology widely used to target users online based on their online behavior and preferences.
• Device makers follow the consumers' preferences and plan to restrict cross-app tracking through what's known as mobile ad IDs (MAIDs). In simple words, this is when you click on an Ad on Facebook on your phone, and Facebook can track the unique code associated with your device to see where you end up and what you do outside its properties. Apple was the first device-maker to prevent such cross-app tracking. Now, Alphabet announced a similar plan for its Android phones in the next two years.

Source 1. Source 2. 

Privacy Solutions:
The important question is whether consumers' concerns and regulators and device-makers responses through the elimination of the 3rd party cookies and limiting cross-app tracking are
barriers to digital advertisement growth in the coming years. Companies such as The Trade Desk have developed new solutions, and companies such as Alphabet are tweaking their
approach, and consumers may still voluntarily provide access to their information.

• Identity Innovation: Several software developers in the digital advertising space are adamant about continuing targeted advertisement possibilities without privacy concerns. Such intentions have led to various identity innovations, including The Trade Desk's investment in Unified ID 2.0 technology, an open-source ID framework. The technology hashes and encrypts a user's identifiable information and only makes the hashed ID accessible to the advertisers in the network. Source 1. Source 2. 
• From Individual Cookies to Cohort Cookies:  When Alphabet released its plan to eliminate 3rd party cookies, it introduced an alternative approach. Google's Chrome browser uses the users' recent browsing history to generate a "cohort identity" through this alternative approach. The identity is a unique identifier that associates a user to a cohort of users with similar behavior. While the ID is not uniquely identifiable to one specific person, it still represents the behaviors of such users. Source.
• The Power of Free: While regulators prevented the use of 3rd party cookies in regions such as the E.U., companies still choose to ask their users and visitors for consent to the use of Cookies. A significant portion of consumers would voluntarily accept the terms of use upon visiting a website. "Free" access is such a powerful incentive that convinces many consumers to willingly accept the terms and go back to business as usual.

There are two advantages to the blockchain platform. The first one is in its ledger structure.
This means once you spend money online, everyone in the network knows that money is being
spent. So, advertising blockchain can create more transparency on buying which ad inventory.
But a more exciting aspect is the ability to reward users for the advertisements they see
through tokens and enable them to share their profile and information only with companies
and ad providers they like. Assuming it is pretty easy for a user to set up an identity and
decide what to share and with whom to share, the platform can reward the user for watching
or interacting with specific ads with tokens. There is a blockchain project called Brave that
plans to achieve something similar, and it would be interesting to track its progress. Source.

What's Excluded:
The world of digital advertising is wide and ever-expanding. Naturally, some companies could
still be a part of the theme, but either there aren't too many of them, or their focus is too
arrow or adjacent to the core digital advertising activities that we exclude from the list.

1. list providers - Companies such as Salesforce.com or TechTarget play an important role in digital marketing, especially in the B2B segment. They curate, clean, and grow a database of business purchasers and decision-makers and sell such databases to
   advertisers. We decided to exclude them from this collection.
   
2. search engine optimization (SEO) - While many companies included in the digital
   advertising space offer search engine optimization services, we do not include it as a
   standalone sub-segment of the industry because it doesn't come across as a trend or
   functionality shaping the future of the industry anymore.
   
3. customer analytics: Without any doubt, effective digital advertising starts from an
   in-depth understanding of one's customers. However, to include an entire set of
   customer analytics providers in this collection is a bit of a stretch because the
   application of customer analytics is much broader than digital advertising. 

To create and refresh Stock Card's Digital Advertising theme, we followed a few steps:

1. Identified companies listed on all U.S. stock exchanges with more than $300M in market capitalization that use the word "advertise" in their company description. Afterward, we verified each companies' primary business and eliminated those focused on traditional or physical advertisement.
   
2. Identified the ETFs focusing on digital advertisements (e.g., MRAD and ARKW) and pulled their total holdings to verify any additional companies that focus on digital advertisement but are not included in the list created in step 1.
   
3. Looked up industry publications and research for AdTech and digital advertising and identified any publicly-traded companies that are not yet included in the list as the result of steps 1 and 2.
   
4. The final result is a list of 100 or so stocks in the digital advertising theme that you can access easily on Stock Card.

​You can also use those themes to create a digital advertising Screener of stocks or ETFs that
meet your additional fundamental or technical filters.

• The new number of jobless claims was up slightly, holding back the market.
• The pet care industry is booming and presents an exciting investment opportunity.
• A pet care stock screener on Stock Card reveals a hidden gem stock, HSKA.

The new number of jobless claims was up slightly, holding back the market.

The market indices ended the day in the red.

After quite a few days of steady upward movement, the indices pulled back as investors digested some new economic info. 

First up, the new jobless claims report came out and showed the claims were up slightly from last week, by about 4,000 cases. This didn’t entirely cause for alarm but certainly missed expectations. 

Also, the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis released the economic growth numbers today, coming in at 6.6%, which is barely above last month’s 6.5%. It’s a good sign to see that the growth stabilized despite consumer’s uncertainty.

Overall, there was enough negativity in the market to hold the market indices back from inching upward.

The pet care industry is booming and presents an exciting investment opportunity.

As an investor, my style is to invest in companies that play a significant role in my life. I believe our portfolios are the financial reflection of who we are. And as a dog mom, I'm always interested in pet-related stocks. My husband and I spoil our dog Kratos so much, and I don't believe we are the only ones. Just hear these numbers I found on Petpedia.com:

• 61% of US pet owners will pay more for foods to target pets’ dietary needs.
• Dog owners spend $73 a year on grooming.
• Cat and dog owners spend about $300 a year on pet food and treat.
• Over 50% of cat and dog owners give their pets a Christmas gift or treat.
• 69% of Millennials opt for their pets’ natural and organic products.
• 43% of dog owners and 41% of cat owners buy premium pet food.

I 100% believe all these numbers. According to the American Pet Product Association, 2020 was the first year the pet products industry generated over $100 billion in revenue. I can also see the evidence of this booming industry on Stock Card. For example, on Chewy's (CHWY) Stock Card, I noticed the pet eCommerce industry is expected to grow by more than 11%. This convinced my team and me to launch a new list of stocks on Stock Card. 

Say hello to the Pet Stocks collection. This is a list of 48 stocks that are somehow involved in servicing our furry babies. The companies range from retailers to insurance carriers. There’s a wide range of niches within the blanket term of pet care, so there are even more specific collections. Search “pet” on Stock Card, and you can see the sub-segments of the pet care industry:

• pet eCommerce
• pet food and drinks
• pet healthcare
• pet insurance 

A pet care stock screener on Stock Card reveals a hidden gem stock, HSKA.

Now, not every pet stock is worth owning, even though the industry is growing double-digit rapidly. I started a new Screener on Stock Card's Screener tool to figure out pet stocks worth buying. I added the "Pet Care" collection in the Screener's search bar and picked a few specific filters:

• Good sales growth
• High growth potential
• No cash concerns

The result was a short but sweet list of 4 pet care stocks worth considering. You can click here to get the list of Strong Pet Care stocks.

Two familiar names caught my eye first. Both Progressive (PGR) and Independence Holding (IHC) are significant players in the insurance game and have extended their services to pet owners.

The one stock in particular that interested me was Heska Corp (HSKA). I've never heard of it before. This is a pet pharmaceutical company that sells veterinary products. Its operations are split into two main divisions. With the first division, the company provides animal healthcare products to consumers. This is the front face of the business and what the brand markets itself as. The second division deals with vaccines and other animal pharmaceuticals in the agriculture industry, such as cattle medicine.

Heska’s Stock Card is looking great! It has solid green ratings for industry and sales growth alike, not to mention a positive free cash flow. The company isn’t quite profitable now, but having a positive free cash flow indicates that management is reinvesting profits back into the business. However, the industry has found a way to make its core operations run profitably. This stock has treated investors well too, just take a look at the Past Investment Return! You would have been rewarded for banking on Heska instead of the S&P 500 for the past ten years.

According to Heska's CEO, during the earnings report earlier this month, the company will continue growing steadily, raising the Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation, and Amortization (EBITDA) margin by more than 10% for the rest of the year. It’s balanced and well-managed, with a bright outlook. If you want to invest in the growing pet care sector while avoiding some of the weaker businesses, this is an outstanding stock to add to your list.

• The S&P 500 and the NASDAQ hit records once again as the trading day ends in the green. 
• Dick's Sporting Goods (DKS) beat its pre-pandemic revenue by 45%, and the stock soars thanks to investors' excitement.
• The pandemic has helped cash-rich specialty retailers (HIBB and HZO) get stronger with new online and offline experiences.

The S&P 500 and the NASDAQ hit records once again as the trading day ends in the green. 

The market indices ended the day in the green once again!

While today's gains by the indices were relatively small, they still nudged them into another record day for both the S&P and the NASDAQ.

Despite the slower growth rate, the number of COVID-19 cases continues to rise. The slower growth rate is bolstering investors' confidence that we are still on a path to reopening. Also, the market is hitting highs partially due to the possible new multi-trillion-dollar economic bill the Democrats are working on.

Overall, the market is nudging forward slowly. 

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Dick's Sporting Goods (DKS) beat its pre-pandemic revenue by 45%, and the stock soars thanks to investors' excitement. 

Today I was browsing the winner’s list of stocks, and a 4-greener stock caught my eye. Dick’s Sporting Goods (DKS) was up by over 13%! The company released its quarterly earnings report today. It beat last year's quarterly revenue by 20% and even beat pre-pandemic 2019 sales by 45%. It emerged from the retail woes of the pandemic stronger than ever! On top of this, Dicks is sharing the rewards with shareholders. The company already pays dividends to its investors, and the management raised it by 21%. For the cherry on top, shareholders were gifted a special one-off dividend of $5.50 per share.

Let’s take a look at Dick’s Stock Card to learn more. The company is doing great in terms of sales growth, profitability and generates almost $2 billion in free cash flow. The one part contradictory to such growth is the Price-to-sales ratio of nearly 1.0, which you can find under the Valuation Multiples section. 

This is again a similar story to Best Buy (BBY) that we discussed yesterday. Investors assume brick-and-mortar retail is dead. However, retailers with cash and a strong brand have managed to prove them wrong. They also, typically, pay a dividend based on their solid balance sheet and free cash flow. For DKS, you can see it score well across all 11 dividend criteria under the Our Strategy section on Stock Card. 

Pandemic has helped cash-rich specialty retailers (HIBB and HZO) get stronger with an online and offline experience.

The upward trend and good performance by Target (TGT), Best Buy (BBY), and Dick's Sporting Goods (DKS) got me thinking, what other specialty retailers are out there?

I started a new Screen on Stock Card's Screener tool, added the "Specialty Retail" collection in the Screener's search bar, and picked a few specific filters:

1. Small-Cap, Mid- Cap, and Large-Cap
2. Strong cash availability,
3. Good sales growth. 

The result was 18 stocks worth considering. You can click here to get the list of Strong Specialty Retail stocks.

Let’s take a quick look at two of the search results from this Screener:

1. Hibbett Inc (HIBB) is another sports and outdoor equipment company with around a $1 billion in market cap, much like Dick’s. It has over a thousand stores spread across 32 states. The positive numbers from Dick’s earning’s report likely warmed up investors to the possibility of similar success for Hibbett, which will release its own quarterly report on the 27th. The company's management moved quickly when lockdowns began, and the company adopted many effective online means of retaining sales, like same-day home delivery, buying online and picking up in-store, and even a mobile app where customers could browse and purchase. Its Stock Card has solid green ratings for sales growth, profitability, and cash availability. You would have made bigger returns in the past three years by investing in Hibbett Inc than the S&P 500!  

​

1. One more hidden gem that I found on our list is MarineMax Inc (HZO). This stock is another 4-greener like Dick’s. I had never heard of MarineMax before. MarineMax is a specialty retailer that deals with recreational boats, old and new. It also sells engines and other parts. MarineMax is the largest recreational boat retailer in the world! To add to its revenue streams, the company also handles plenty of boat insurance and chartering and brokering yachts, which gives its revenue some optionality. According to the Stock Card, the shares are undervalued, coming in at $50 despite great returns on investment, sales growth, profitability, and free cash flow. In its last earnings report, management raised the future guidance for the year, so I have difficulty understanding why the Stock Card shows such poor investor sentiment!

Specialty retailers like Dicks, Hibbett, and MarineMax benefit from being leaders in their niches with forward-thinking management. The past year and a half have given these cash-rich companies a chance to transition to eCommerce and still create an excellent in-store experience. The pandemic has worked wonders for them, especially retailers, and we now see them harvesting the benefits. 

You may want to have some of these solid retailers in your portfolio, especially if you look for stability and cash from dividends that most of them pay.

Your opinion can make the Daily Roll even better.

You can click on this link here to fill out our quick 2-min feedback form, or simply enter in your answers below! Your opinion means the world to us, so I would appreciate it if you can share your ideas. Thanks for taking the time to lend us feedback!

• Optimism surrounding COVID, gains for earnings reports, and rebounding Chinese stocks helped the market stay green.
• Chinese stocks begin to rebound as crackdowns slow, while Tencent (TCEHY) and JD.com (JD) post great earnings.
• Walmart’s (WMT) new business delivery service is the next step in leveling up its retail platform.

Optimism surrounding COVID, gains from earnings reports, and rebounding Chinese stocks helped the market stay green.

The market indices checked off another session in the green, but only barely.

The market is still seeing optimism related to the FDA approval of Pfizer (PFE) and BioNTech’s (BNTX) vaccine that we discussed yesterday. It also seems that the speed of growth in the new COVID-19 cases is slowing down based on a CNBC discussion with a health policy research analyst, Chris Meekins. He noted that the rate of increase in cases has slowed to 11.7%, well below its total of 32% two weeks ago.

It also didn't hurt the market to see a slight rebound in Chinese stocks and good earnings from a few companies. In the end, both the S&P 500 and the NASDAQ hit record highs by the close.

Help us make the Daily Roll even better!

Folks, real quick, just like yesterday, I have a favor to ask. Thank you to many of you who already filled out our short feedback from yesterday. We appreciate you. 

To the rest of you, please help us understand how you like the Daily Roll shows. Do you like the format? Do you want it shorter, longer, or less frequent? What's the most important thing you'd wish the Daily Roll show to share with you that you cannot get anywhere else? 

Click on this link to fill out a quick 2-minute feedback form for us! I would appreciate it if you can share your ideas. You can help us refine the Daily Roll by giving us a few pointers. You can open another tab to fill out the form, and I’ll still be here when you get back!

Chinese stocks begin to rebound as crackdowns slow, and Tencent (TCEHY) and JD.com (JD) post great earnings.

Folks, as I was browsing today’s winners’ list on Stock Card, I noticed that half of the top ten companies were Chinese stocks! We have been following the government's crackdown on major tech and education companies through investigations and new regulations. 

It seems that this is the second day of some major rebounds in Chinese stocks, particularly the ones listed in the U.S. Investors seem to have a hunch that we’re nearing the bottom of this dip and are jumping on the opportunity to ride the stocks back up to previous levels. It appears the companies themselves are beginning to set themselves up for a bull run. For example, Chinese internet giant Tencent (TCEHY), which got slapped with some government regulations, began some share buybacks this week and hit the market's estimates with its earnings report last week.

Also, some investors, such as Cathie Wood, had her fund pick up shares of the Chinese eCommerce platform JD.com (JD) after its impressive earnings report yesterday. Both of these companies impressed investors despite the regulatory challenges.

If you want to get a list of Chinese companies listed on the U.S. stock exchange,  type in China in the search bar and go to the China collection on Stock Card! Indeed, there are excellent companies on the list if you can tolerate the volatility of the ongoing regulatory changes.

Walmart’s (WMT) new business delivery service is the next step in leveling up its retail platform.

Keeping in line with our retail theme from yesterday, I have been reading up on some new developments with Walmart (WMT) that can shape the company's future for decades to come. 

The giant retailer unveiled a new service today called Walmart GoLocal. The company has been working on its shipping and delivery capabilities for a while. Previously this was primarily applicable to its online marketplace. Now, Walmart wants to provide its services to local businesses and merchants. It already has gig drivers employed to deliver groceries and other products, so it can use the same infrastructure to aid local sellers in delivering to their customers.

Looking at Walmart’s Stock Card and looking at its Price-to-Sales ratio, it seems investors don't have much hope for Walmart to grow its sales. At 0.75 times price to sales ratio, the market values Walmart as a company that hit its revenue growth potential. This is a little odd because innovations such as opening up its infrastructure to delivery by other businesses mean new platform revenue for Walmart. We've already seen Walmart succeeding at expanding its online marketplace to include other sellers and is morphing the company into a next-level retail platform, not just a simple retailer. 

This is a strategy right out of Amazon's (AMZN) growth playbook. If you think retail is dead, it might be time to reconsider. Many retailers are changing and evolving to grow. Take Best Buy (BBY), for example. Its shares jumped over 8% today from its great earnings report. According to the CEO, the company is “fundamentally in a stronger position than [they] expected just two years ago.” You can get a solid list of these forward-thinking retailers by taking a look at the Future of Shopping collection on our site, and consider stopping by Walmart's Stock Card too. 

Your opinion can make the Daily Roll even better.

You can click on this link here to fill out our quick 2-min feedback form. Your opinion means the world to us, so I would appreciate it if you can share your ideas. Thanks for taking the time to lend us feedback!

• ​FDA vaccine approval helped push the indices into the green today.
• Pfizer (PFE) had a big day between FDA approval and acquisitions.
• The Future of Retail: Should you buy into Target’s (TGT) dip?

FDA vaccine approval helped push the indices into the green today.

The market indices started the week in the green.

The market got off to a good start, boosted by the optimistic FDA approval of the Pfizer vaccine. The uncertainty surrounding the impact of the emerging delta variant has undoubtedly affected the market in the last few weeks. 

There were alsoprice rebounds in other sectors, such as oil, which was at its lowest level since May at the end of last week. The energy stock sector was up 3% throughout the trading session and contributed to today’s market’s gains.

Overall, the market had an excellent start to the week.

Pfizer (PFE) had a big day between FDA approval and acquisitions.

Vaccines have been all over the media, and it’s been no different in the financial investments communities online. You’ve probably heard plenty about Pfizer (PFE), but today was a significant milestone for this pharma company. The COVID vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech (BNTX) was given FDA approval today, the first in its class. Up until now, all vaccines had been distributed under emergency orders from governments to combat the rise in COVID cases. The FDA finally gave the green light to the company after reviewing six months of clinical data. Pfizer is up 2.5%, and BioNTech’s stock is up over 9%.

The race for vaccine development is still on, and if you’re interested in getting an overview of the companies involved, take a look at the COVID-19 Vaccine Race collection on Stock Card. 

While Pfizer stock may have been up slightly, the company was responsible for today's biggest gainer stock, Trillium Therapeutics (TRIL). Trillium topped Stock Card’s list of winning stocks with a whopping 188% jump. As it turns out, earlier today,Pfizer announced the acquisition of Trillium for $2.26 billion. Trillium Therapeutics will be a great addition to Pfizer’s efforts and research for treating cancer, making the company more robust and innovative. Both companies have been developing treatments for cancer, so it should be a smooth transition to combine operations.

Regardless of Pfizer's status among the leading vaccine developers, this latest acquisition reminds investors just how broad the company's range of products is. Looking at its Stock Card, the company is profitable and generates more than $20 billion in free cash flow. And, even with the recent price increase, the stock is still hovering in an undervalued range with a 20.9 price-to-earnings ratio and 3.9 prices to book value ratio. Pfizer scores reasonably well across 11 criteria we use to evaluate whether a stock is a good fit for a dividend portfolio. To me, this is a stock worth a spot in a dividend-seeker portfolio. 

The Future of Retail: Should you buy into Target’s (TGT) dip?

While Target (TGT) stock managed to stay just barely in the green today, it has been falling steadily from an all-time high of $267 after the company released the financial results for this past quarter. Its earnings report on the 18th beat estimates, but investors weren’t too keen on its growth outlook. 

Aside from its price action, Target is doing a great job at innovating the retail business, particularly when it comes to brick-and-mortar shopping. A story caught my eye today that is an excellent example of this. Disney (DIS) is adding over 100 new mini-stores inside Target locations, building off the 53 already operating while closing many standalone stores. If you’ve been inside a Target recently, you may have noticed Starbucks (SBUX) or Ulta Beauty (ULTA) shops as well. The company is seeing the opportunity for more profit and traffic by subleasing parts of its stores to other companies. 

This reminds me a lot of the shopping mall business model. While shopping malls are struggling, the store-in-a-store concept seems to be taking off. Target already brings traffic in for core household items and then monetizes the traffic by selling high-value items from Disney and Ulta Beauty.

Macy’s (M) is also bringing back the classic toy store Toys R Us in the same fashion, with over 400 locations planned next year. 

Both Target and Macy stocks can be found on the Future of Shopping collection on our platform, and for a good reason. Specifically, on Target's Stock Card, you can see it is now reasonably priced with a price to earnings ratio of 20 and price to sales ratio of slightly higher than 1, which is surprising for a retailer with such strong operations and new innovative ideas like the store-in-a-store idea we just discussed. Like Pfizer, Target is also a dividend-paying stock with reasonably well scores across all 11 dividend portfolio criteria. 

And, just like Pfizer, Target earns a spot on a dividend-seeker’s portfolio.