We like Harman International Industries (HAR). Most people know them through the Harman Kardon speakers and JBL speakers. It is a leader in that market and also in commercial and production lighting, sound, and mixing. Its biggest area, and what we like the most, is its automotive segment. It is a leader in automotive sound, but where we see the best growth opportunity is in entertainment, the touchscreen devices in the dashboard. Harman is in the midtier to luxury segment of that market, and it is a really growing trend.
You pretty much have to have one in a car that is going to cost $25,000 or more, and Harman has a new platform coming out next year that’s going to be very feature-rich, adding a lot more functionality. Typically, these touchscreens have done two things. They are in navigation and sound, but now they are going to monitor different aspects of your car. They’re going to be updatable over the air so you can download applications for them; playing into that, by 2018, every car sold in the U.S. is going to have one of those backup cameras, so there will have to be a screen on the dash. We just see that there are a lot of tailwinds that can lead to a lot of growth for Harman. barrons.com |