4 Stocks That Have Moves Like Jagger
Maroon 5's Moves Like Jagger was at the top of Billboard's Hot 100 chart last week, lighting up pop radio stations around the country as an infectious late-summer anthem.
The title conveys images of Rolling Stones front man Mick Jagger and his high-energy dance moves on stage, even if the song itself is really about -- let's face it -- hooking up.
Back to Jagger's moves: When he's gallivanting across the stage during a live performance, the spry vocalist seems much younger than his 68 years. The same can be said for many companies -- businesses that are surprisingly nimble and growing quickly, leaving young whippersnapper upstarts eating their dust.
Age is just a number, they say. Well, so is a company's earnings growth rate. Let's go over a few surprisingly seasoned companies with some refreshingly modern dance moves.
The Bubbly Centenarian: SodaStream (SODA)
Cynics may consider SodaStream's home-based water carbonators a fad, but the joke's on them. SodaStream has been around since 1903.
Sure, SodaStream has gone through several owners and incarnations over the years, but it's always been trying to introduce innovative solutions to the beverage market.
Its recent renaissance has been largely the handiwork of CEO Dan Birnbaum, who arrived at the Israeli company four years ago with the vision of expanding the company's global footprint and making its carbonation systems more stylish and easier to use.
Stateside investors may not see SodaStream as a centenarian because it didn't arrive in its present form at leading houseware retailers until late last year. It's making up for lost time. Adjusted earnings soared 161% in its latest quarter on a 38% spike in revenue.
SodaStream may never approach the kind of market penetration it has in Sweden -- where 20% of the homes there have a SodaStream carbonator -- but a strong first half of 2011 and decades of resilience show that this wasn't just some 2010 holiday novelty item.
The Bicentennial Baby: Apple (AAPL)
How old is Apple? A wave of stylish iPhones and iPads may seem to give the world's most valuable tech company a youthful glow, but keep in mind that Steve Wozniak and the now-resigned Steve Jobs were just kids when they established Apple Computer in 1976.
How is Apple doing some 35 years later? Not too shabby.
Net sales climbed 82% in Apple's latest quarter, fueled by a 142% surge in iPhones and a whopping 183% uptick in iPads. Who says large caps can't pull off this kind of speed?
Wireless Since the Roaring '20s: Motorola Mobility (MMI)
We know Motorola isn't young. It's been making wireless handsets long before the smartphone revolution and the Android platform turned the Motorola Droid into a high-tech hottie.
However, if you're going to cut through its bark expecting to find just 20 or 30 rings, you're not going back far enough. Motorola's roots go all the way back to 1928 when the company -- then known as Galvin Manufacturing -- put out a battery eliminator for radios. It introduced the portable walkie-talkie in 1940.
Motorola isn't a speedster these days the way that Apple and SodaStream are, but the company's rich patents proved to be so valuable that Google (GOOG) agreed to buy the company in a $12.5 billion deal this summer.
NYSE's oldster: Sotheby's (BID)
When Sotheby's announced that its second-quarter results were the best in company history, the auctioneer probably had to go a long way back to make sure that was the case: Sotheby's has been around since 1744.
Yes, 1744. It is the oldest company on the New York Stock Exchange.
Sotheby's certainly isn't moving like a 267-year old. Revenue climbed 31% in its latest quarter, powered by a healthy spike in private sales and strong art demand in China. Earnings popped 48% higher.
Blowing out all of the candles
The key to lasting decades -- if not centuries -- is adapting to the times.
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Folks have loved soda since the days of chemists doubling as soda jerks, but SodaStream evolved to make stylish powerless appliances that turn still water into flavor-ready fizz. Where would Apple be if it hadn't moved beyond computers this past decade? Do you even know what Motorola's original battery eliminator actually does? Oh, Sotheby's. What would someone bid for your first annual report these days?
These aren't the only companies that made the move to matter. American Express (AXP) wasn't swiping plastic when it was founded in 1850. Corning (GLW) wasn't cranking out optical fiber when it started up in 1851.
Just like Jagger, these companies kept moving when everybody was watching -- and that has made all of the difference.
Longtime Motley Fool contributor Rick Munarriz does not own shares in any of the stocks in this article. The Motley Fool owns shares of Google and Apple. Motley Fool newsletter services have recommended buying shares of Apple, Sotheby's, Corning, Google, and SodaStream, as well as creating a bull call spread position in Apple.
