Share Investor: Peter Thiel

Friday, October 22, 2010

Stock of the Day: Xero Ltd

A significant move made today by Peter Thiel, the San Francisco based investor and Silicon Valley authority by investing $ NZ 4 million into Xero Ltd [XRO.NZX] has propelled Xero stock up by 20c or just over 13% today on higher than average volume of shares traded on a daily basis.

Peter Thiel is the founder of Paypal and one of the first investors in Facebook, so his investment in Xero and placement on the company's US Advisory Board is a positive impact for the company on the market and his involvement seems to be in terms of the expertise he can bring to growing the business in North America where it is currently relatively unknown.

The stock reached an all-time high today of $1.75 and is currently trading at $1.69. It has spent the last 2 years trading between $1.40 - $1.60, so it has bounced out of that range thanks to this latest positive news.

Investors might like to wait for tangible results from Peter Thiel's involvement before plunking down the hard earned but it looks to the outsider that this company might be starting to make a real impact within the business that it operates.

From CEO of Xero Rod Drury to me just a few minutes ago:

"With the platform investment coming together, as the market starts to build the next challenge is building US grade marketing skills. These guys will help."

Just remember investors, the market always overreacts to positive news, so if you are interested in buying you might want to leave it until the heat of this news wears off.

Of course this news is possibly materially positive for the company - someone with global influence and a penchant for picking tech winners to invest in - so it could just be the right time to take the plunge as Xero insiders have been telling me for a couple of years.

Happy investing.