Be it Apple, Android or Windows-flavoured — pick your poison — there’s little doubt that ‘mobile devices’ are at the beating heart of the online world.

You see, it’s ARM’s super-efficient, faster, smaller processor designs that put the “smart” in an incredible 95% of the world’s smartphones.

And although global smartphone sales are starting to slow after five explosive years of growth, I think buying ARM shares for your stocks-and-shares ISA right now could still be a very smart choice.

In fact, I believe next chapter in ARM’s growth story could just be getting started, thanks to the phenomenon that industry experts are dubbing ‘The Internet of Things’.

Cheaper, smaller, faster

Unlike US rival Intel, ARM makes money by charging license fees to chip manufacturers for use of its designs — receiving royalties for each device shipped using its technology. It’s a compelling business model.

But perhaps more importantly, thanks to its track record with smartphones, ARM already leads the way in the design of cheaper, smaller, more efficient microprocessors. And it’s that capability that could enable yet another revolution by unlocking the potential for manufacturers to “smarten up” our lower-end household appliances (at a cost that makes sense, too).

The dawn of a new age of connected devices

Although it might sound like something out of a science fiction movie, if this can be achieved — and industry experts will tell you this trend is already under way — then ARM’s grip on this niche market should tighten.

In fact, of the 650 billion silicon chips currently produced every year, only 27 billion currently contain a smart processor, with ARM’s designs inside around 9 billion of those.

In other words, only 4% of chips are even “smart” by today’s standards, and the other 96% that are going into appliances are actually still “fairly dumb,” according to ARM. That’s a huge market opportunity as these appliances become more advanced — and ARM sees its demand growing more than tenfold to 100 billion processors per year in the future.

And who really knows (or cares to bet) where the whirlwind consumer technology market will take us next? Could it be Google, Apple, Samsung or even Amazon? Personally have no idea, but I do believe all the big players will be paying a handsome royalty to ARM for its designs, regardless of who wins.

Valuation

Wit the shares currently trading on a forecast P/E of 41.6, there’s no getting away from the fact that ARM’s shares are fairly richly valued. 

Sometimes, however, it’s worth paying up for prospective future growth, and what you’re essentially buying here is a ‘racehorse’ — a pure and simple growth opportunity with an impressive pedigree.

ARM’s EPS growth is currently projected to grow by 16% this year, and by around 30% in 2015. However, with the shares trading at over 40 times future earnings, you’d better be prepared to shoulder a fair amount of volatility, too.

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Andrew does not own shares in any company mentioned. The Motley Fool owns shares in Apple and Google.

But large, established companies such as Glaxo often come with many interesting stories from years gone by. I’ve trawled the internet and discovered these fun facts you probably never knew about the FTSE 100 member:

As regular as clockwork…

In 1842, Thomas Beecham launched his Beecham’s Pills business. His first great success was with laxative pills made from an unpromising sounding combination of aloe, ginger and soap. Incredibly, the pills proved to be the most effective remedy on the market by far in the mid 19^th century.

By 1859 the success had led to Beecham’s opening its first factory in Lancashire, and by 1939 the company had also acquired the (now iconic) Lucozade energy drink, Macleans toothpaste and Brylcreem hair cream brands.

Glaxo Wellcome merged with SmithKline Beecham during 2000.

It was almost called LactoSmithKline…

Back in 1906, the directors of a New Zealand company selling dried milk as a baby food, realised they needed a catchier name than ‘Defiance’ for their product (smart move!).

Fortunately for us shareholders, however, the directors, having set their hearts on using Lacto as their product name, discovered similar names were already registered. But by adding and changing letters, the name ‘Glaxo’ was born. 

The baby milk product was sold under the slogan “Glaxo builds bonny babies” from 1908. Glaxo later became Glaxo Laboratories and went on to open new units in London in 1935.

The drink of top Olympic athletes… yes, it’s Horlicks!

Not only is GlaxoSmithKline’s iconic malted milk drink more than 138 year old but, unbelievably, it was used extensively during the 1948 London Olympic Games and was made available at every venue to give Olympic athletes an extra energy boost. So much for Lucozade!

What now?

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> Andrew owns shares in GlaxoSmithKline.

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Today I’m going to quickly review three figures for anyone thinking about investing in GlaxoSmithKline (LSE:GSK) (NYSE: GSK.US).

1. 13

According to chief executive Sir Andrew Witty’s second-quarter update, 13 is the number of new treatments GlaxoSmithKline is expecting to deliver Phase III trial data on during 2013/14.  

Like most pharmaceutical companies, GlaxoSmithKline has not been immune to the challenge of patent expiries eroding its profit margins over the past several years

It’s therefore vital that GlaxoSmithKline keeps continuously developing its pipeline of new treatments and ensures enough of them make it through the testing and approval stages to become fully fledged commercial products.

I’ll be watching closely to see how many of the 13 candidates make it through the Phase III stage, ready to be submitted for regulatory approval.

Not all of them will, but the higher the number, the greater my confidence in GlaxoSmithKline’s ability to keep on generating profits in the medium to long term.

2. 116.6p

That’s management’s year-end prediction for earning per share, according to its Q2 statement in July, when is said it expected core EPS growth in 2013 to be in the range of 3-4%.

With the shares currently trading at around 1,662p, that projection puts GlaxoSmithKline on a trailing P/E of 14.7 and a forecast P/E of 14.3, which is just below the FTSE 100 average of 14.8.  

But while the EPS growth is welcome, if achieved, it will only bring earnings back to a level seen in 2011.

3. 1,428p per share

That’s the average price paid by GlaxoSmithKline for the 174.5 million shares it bought back in 2012 — some £2.5bn worth.

In its Q1 statement, GlaxoSmithKline stated its intention to buy back a further £1-2bn worth of shares in 2013/14.

With the recent price at 1,661p, GlaxoSmithKline is sitting on a 16% gain on last year’s buybacks — the kind of return to shareholders that I like to see!

And just imagine how much further the share price could run up if GlaxoSmithKline delivers on its guidance to deploy a further £2bn on buybacks before the end of the year.

What next?

So there you go, three numbers that may or may not have some bearing on whether you buy shares in GlaxoSmithKline.

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> Andrew owns shares in GlaxoSmithKline. The Motley Fool has recommended shares in GlaxoSmithKline.

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The global pharmaceutical giant, which employs more than 99,000 people in over 100 countries, seems to have impressed investors with a series of resilient statements — despite the accusations of bribery within its Chinese operation emerging in early July.

Back in February, GlaxoSmithKline announced its 2012 results, which showed a 3% dip in core operating profits to £8,330m.

GSK highlighted that group sales were down by 1% and said that sales at its European operation had slipped 7% — owing to the ongoing economic uncertainty in the eurozone following the financial crisis.

The blue chip also reported that £6.3bn was returned to shareholders over the year — through £2.5bn of share buybacks and by hiking its total dividend 6% to 74p per share.

During April, GlaxoSmithKline issued a first-quarter statement that revealed “sales and earnings in line with our expectations” and “significant pipeline progress”. Group sales were down by 2% for the quarter, as expected, while core earnings per share dropped 6% to 26.9p. The Q1 dividend was increased by 6% to 18p per share.

In addition, the Q1 update disclosed that 2013 expectations for sales growth would be around 1%, and that the restructuring of the group’s European operations was “progressing well”.

Then at the end of July, GlaxoSmithKline disclosed half-year results that showed EPS increasing 4% and a 2% increase in sales.  It also announced that it had received US approval for three new treatments currently in late stage pipeline development. As in Q1, the Q2 dividend was increased by 6% to 18p per share.

Sir Andrew Witty, the chief executive of GlaxoSmithKline, said at the time:

“In the quarter, Group sales grew 2% with growth broadly based across Pharmaceuticals and Vaccines, up 1%, and a continued strong contribution from Consumer Healthcare, up 2% (5% excluding divestments).” 

“European Pharmaceuticals and Vaccines sales were flat, reflecting the annualisation of some government price cuts, but also the early results of our strategy to restructure our European operations …  we remain cautious about the outlook in Europe and expect austerity pressures to continue.”

“Going forward, we continue to expect sales to grow broadly across Emerging Markets, we are likely to see some impact to our performance in China as a result of the current investigation, but it is too early to quantify the extent of this.”

The next update from GlaxoSmithKline will be published on 23 October, which may reveal further news that can encourage investors, and how the accusations of bribery within its Chinese operation might play out.

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> Andrew owns shares in GlaxoSmithKline. The Motley Fool has recommended shares in GlaxoSmithKline.

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The group, which sells and distributes premium and luxury cars in 26 countries, said that it continued to benefit from strong sales and profit performance in its Asia Pacific and Emerging Markets — buoyed by its recently completed acquisition of Australian car-dealer group Trivett.

Combined, Asia Pacific and the Emerging Markets accounted for some 70% of Inchcape’s reported trading profits over the past six months.

The group also announced today that would be raising its interim dividend to 5.7p — a 43% increase — and revealed that it would commence a £100m share buyback programme over the next 12 months.

Commenting on the results, Inchcape’s group CEO, André Lacroix, said:

“We have delivered a robust performance in the first half of the year … despite challenging trading conditions in some of our markets…  The Group continues to benefit from strong sales and profit performance in Asia Pacific and the Emerging Markets … we continue to expect the Group to deliver a robust performance in 2013 despite competitive pressure on vehicle margins in some of our markets.

“Our confidence in the Group’s earnings potential and our highly cash-generative business model is reflected in our progressive dividend policy … and in today’s announcement of a £100m share buyback programme …”

Inchcape’s shares have risen by almost 57% over the past year and currently trade of a forward P/E of around 14 times earnings.

6 out of 10 brokers currently rate the shares as a ‘buy’, however only you can decide whether they really do represent a ‘buy’ at this price.

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> Andy does not own the shares mentioned.

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The group, which operates estate agency brands like Hamptons International, Mann and Bairstow Eves reported its strongest first-half performance since 2007, though the shares fell 2% in early trading this morning.

Operating profit (before exceptional items) increased by 47% to £22m and earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) were up by 35% to £26.4m. Total income rose by 4% to £258.8m and an interim dividend payment of 2.0p per share was proposed.

Commenting on the results, Countrywide’s Chairman, Bob Davies, said:

“We are pleased to announce encouraging results for the first half of the year, representing a positive start to our return as a listed company. Continuing improvements in the availability of mortgage finance, developing customer sentiment and the impact of Government initiatives should help to stimulate further the level of activity in the UK housing market. In this more encouraging environment, the Board remain confident in the outturn for the year.”

Countrywide’s shares have risen by almost 54% since its spring IPO and currently trade at around 600p on a fairly lofty forward P/E of 29 times earnings.

5 out of 6 brokers currently rate the shares as a ‘strong buy’, however only you can decide whether they really do represent a ‘buy’ at this price. But if you already own Countrywide shares and are looking for other opportunities, this exclusive wealth report reviews five particularly attractive possibilities. Just click here for the report — it’s free.

> Andy does not own the shares mentioned.

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The website operator said that revenue increased by 16% to £67.2m, with underlying EPS up 19% to 38.4p. Underlying operating profit also increased by 15% to £49.0m.

Website page impressions rose by 22% to 7.2bn, with the average revenue per advertiser up by 14% to £593 per month.

Rightmove also announced it would increase its interim dividend by 2p to 11p per share.  A total of £37.4m has been returned to shareholders in dividends and share buybacks during the period.

Commenting on today’s results, CEO Nick McKittrick said:

“Rightmove’s popularity continues to grow. Traffic to our website and mobile platforms is up over 20% on a year ago reflecting our ongoing investment in our brand and our technology coupled with an improving housing market. 

This has generated a record number of enquiries for our customers.  We continue to develop our services to provide the most engaging experience for home movers and the best advertising platforms for our customers to reach the UK’s largest home moving audience and to win more business.”

The property website’s shares currently trade on a lofty forward P/E of around 30 — following five years of double-digit earnings growth, with two more currently predicted.

6 out of 11 brokers are currently rating the shares as a ‘strong buy’. However, whether they really do represent a ‘buy’ at this price, only you can decide.

But if you already own Rightmove shares and are looking for other opportunities, this exclusive wealth report reviews five particularly attractive possibilities.

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> Andy does not own the shares mentioned.

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The pizza delivery group, which has core operations in Britain and Ireland as well as fledgling operations in Switzerland and Germany, currently operates some 634 stores.

In today’s half-year results, Domino’s reported a pre-tax profit of £11.6m — down £9.9m on last year’s figure of £21.5m for the same period.

It also reported sales were up 13.8% to £326.5m, and that like-for-like sales across the group had been strong. The interim dividend was increased by 7.6% to 7.1p.

In his review of today’s results, CEO Lance Batchelor said:

“Recent legislation in part of Germany to impose a minimum wage, will increase the break-even of stores and will require us to support stores for longer than originally anticipated.

The uncertainty is driven by a lack of clarity about any rollout of such new minimum wage across other German regions, the exact impact on stores, and what mitigating actions may be possible.

….As a result we have decided that we will proceed more cautiously with our German expansion, opening fewer stores in 2013 and 2014 than originally predicted. This will postpone breakeven in the German market to 2016 or 2017.”

Forecasts before today’s announcement put Domino’s Pizza shares on a forward P/E close to 26, with 3 out of 8 brokers rating the shares as a ‘buy’.

However, whether the shares really do represent a ‘buy’ at this price, only you can decide.

But if you already own Domino’s Pizza shares and are looking for other opportunities, this exclusive wealth report reviews five particularly attractive possibilities.

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> Andy does not own any of the shares mentioned in this article.

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The firm, whose brands include Wickes, Tool Station and Tile Giant, said that the past six months of trading had been tough — owing to challenging market conditions at the start of the year — and guided that prospects for the remainder of the year and 2014 were looking up.

The group reported an adjusted pre-tax profit of £136m (up 4.1% on the half year) and said that revenue growth had also increased by 1.6%.

It was also revealed that adjusted earnings per share had risen by 6% to 43.9p and a 25% increase in the interim dividend (to 10p per share) was also announced.

Commenting on the results, CEO Geoff Cooper said:

“We anticipated a poor first quarter, however this was exacerbated by the early and cold weather and Easter.  Lead indicators for the remainder of this year, and for 2014, are strengthening, with new housing leading the way.

“All four divisions are making progress with an improving trend in all markets and are flexibly managing volume, gross margin and costs so as to optimise returns.”

Travis Perkins also informed investors that Mr Cooper will retire from his position as CEO in March 2014. He will be replaced by John Carter, the group’s current Deputy CEO.

Forecasts before today’s announcement put Travis Perkins’s shares on a forward P/E close to 16, with 9 out of 20 brokers currently rating the shares as a ‘hold’.

However, whether the shares really do represent a ‘hold’ at this price, only you can decide.

But if you already own Travis Perkins shares and are looking for other opportunities, this exclusive wealth report reviews five particularly attractive possibilities.

Just click here for the report — it’s free.

> Andy does not own the shares mentioned.

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The shares gained around 7.9% on the news to trade at around the 720p mark.

Today’s update revealed that total sales for the 11 weeks to 14 July increased by 6.2%, with like-for-like sales up 3.5% — a better-than-expected performance.

The pub company stated that since the start of the financial year it had opened 29 new pubs and disposed of three, with the intention of opening a further 30 pubs in the next financial year.

It also advised investors that it was “now on track to achieve a slightly better outcome […] than previously anticipated” for the full year. But it also warned that late night levy, gaming machine duty and business rates taxes had all increased, as well its pension costs.

Full-year results are expected on 13 September.

Forecasts before today’s announcement put J D Wetherspoon’s shares on a forward P/E close to 16, with 10 out of 15 brokers rating the shares as a ‘Hold’. Whether the shares represent a ‘buy’ at this price only you can decide.

But if you already own J D Wetherspoon shares and are looking for other opportunities, this exclusive wealth report reviews five particularly attractive possibilities.

Just click here for the report — it’s free.

> Andy does not own the shares mentioned.

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