Speculative Buy: Nokia ( NOK). The other day, I logged into my DRIP (Dividend Reinvestment Plan) account for the first time in a while. I keep this one on auto-pilot in long-term heritage stocks so I choose to, for the most part, ignore it. I am glad, however, that I checked in.
I noticed that I have a small position in NOK, left over from 1999-2000. Thankfully, I sold a majority of the position back then, leaving me with only a few leftover shares.
This discovery coincided with NOK hitting my radar screen. I am an AT&T ( T) customer, who owns a Blackberry, but I am now eligible to upgrade one of my lines. I also just purchased a new Sony ( SNE) Vaio laptop. When it arrived, I realized I should have waited a few months for the release of Microsoft's ( MSFT) Windows 8.
It should be quite clear to most Windows' users that Microsoft has been "stealing," for want of a better word (maybe "borrowing?"), from Apple ( AAPL) for years.
I owned a Macbook several years ago, but gave it up and shifted back to a Windows laptop. It was incredibly frustrating to not be able to drag and drop as frequently and effectively on Windows as you could using a Mac. Fast forward to today and, at some level, there's little distinction between the two. Skip ahead to tomorrow and Windows 8 promises to make a splash with touchscreen features and inclusion not only on computers, but tablets and, possibly, smartphones.
All of this hype, much of it generated by Nokia's marketing campaign, caught my eye. Last weekend, I tried to upgrade to a Lumia, but they were sold out at AT&T. Yesterday, I had one in my cart, but thought twice about spending $142 to give my life away to AT&T for more than two more years.
No matter how it all shakes out, Nokia has something Research in Motion ( RIMM) does not in its battle for number three behind Apple and Android - a well-heeled, innovative backer that's coming back from hibernation at the right time. Between the two companies, Nokia represents the safer play, as its aggressive move into the smartphone market via Lumia appears to hold promise for the future. Nokia is not dead, despite its swooning stock price.
Now, I am not going all-in with NOK; instead, I will just send a $50 check to my DRIP each month. Given the price of the stock and the fact that Nokia, for now, pays a dividend, I should be able to accumulate a halfway decent size position over the next year or two as the stock continues to flounder and/or stay range-bound. NOK has long-term and highly speculative written all over it.
From: 3 Stocks Under $5 To Consider - Seeking Alpha |
