Dear Mr. Berko: I’ve been a member of an eight-person investment club for 11 years that meets once a month. We get into some spirited discussions and have a portfolio of 17 stocks worth almost $210,000 and our portfolio has a cost basis of $143,000. Our biggest gainer was 150 shares of CF Industries that you recommended in December of 2006 at $26, that we sold at $301 in March 2015. Now I’m tasked with researching a company named 2U that provides online courses to colleges and universities. Please give me your thoughts on 2U.
— WT, Detroit
Dear WT: I like investment clubs. Clubs, like yours, are a wonderful way to learn about the market in a warm, companionable atmosphere of good friends.
2U (TWOU-$35) sells cloud-based software as a service (SaaS) to colleges. 2U’s SaaS platform solutions provide online campuses and web-based mobile applications that enable colleges to offer online courses in algebra, psychology, sociology, English, history, literature, physics, etc. 2U’s brilliant platform serves as a data hub for scheduling courses, course enrollment and faculty admissions review while automating the admission and online application process for prospective students. It also encourages colleges to create sterile, cheaper, digital versions of themselves. The aggressive growth of online education signals the demise of traditional professor-led courses and green, leafy university campuses with weathered, old brick buildings. The online concept acknowledges a dumbing down of the learning process and simplifies course content so students, whose high schools failed to prepare them for college, can get a diploma.
It’s obvious that traditional college courses are now too difficult for most American students. So considering the huge numbers of students who lack the skills to earn a diploma, online courses provide equal outcomes for Americans whose aptitudes preclude them from earning degrees at traditional colleges. Of course, online courses cost enormously less than a professor’s planned lecture.
