When the advertising professionals of the pre-digital age roamed the halls of Madison Avenue, the technological tools for businesses to connect with customers were a tiny fraction of what’s available today.

As depicted by the hard-drinking, chain-smoking character Don Draper in the TV show Mad Men, these ad execs used Nielsen ratings, Gallup polls and column inches to gauge the share of a brand’s voice.

In the Internet era, those measurements seem downright archaic. Not only that, but the savviest ad pros aren’t necessarily based in Manhattan anymore.

Madison Avenue on the Seine…

Which brings us to a new holding in the portfolio our flagship Personal Finance. I’m unable to share its name here out of respect to our paying members, but it’s story is worth sharing regardless.

This new portfolio holding controls proprietary ad-targeting technology that functions on any platform, whether it’s a desktop computer, laptop, tablet, or smartphone. It uses it to “re-target” online ads with pinpoint precision, predicated on a consumer’s buying habits, online surfing history, demographic profile, and expressed interests. If you’ve ever experienced an ad online that seemed TOO relevant, odds are this company was involved.

This technology is more than just a means for Internet giants to increase revenue. It’s a lasting transformation in the way companies do business online. Today, its products are used by some of the biggest ad publishers, including Facebook (NSDQ: FB) and Alphabet’s (NSDQ: GOOGL) Google.

With a market cap of $2.79 billion, our new holding occupies the “Goldilocks” middle ground in valuation, offering greater room for growth than the mega-caps but large enough to ride out the inevitable ups and downs of its volatile sector.

Eating Don Draper’s lunch…

This innovator uses technology that would astonish the ad men of the last century. The company’s campaigns include algorithms that customize advertisements to user interest by determining the specific products and services to include in the advertisement; algorithms that predict the probability and nature of a user’s engagement with a given advertisement; and a bidding engine for executing campaigns based on goals set by clients.

Its earnings momentum also bodes well for its shareholders. According to average analyst estimates, the company is on track to post earnings growth of 27.9% next quarter; 37.1% for the current fiscal year; 25.5% for next year; and 20% for the next five years on an annualized basis.

And yet the stock trades at a bargain. Its trailing 12-month price-to-earning ratio (P/E) is 35.33, compared to the staggeringly high trailing P/E of 333.6 for the industry of Internet software and services.

Let’s see what Jim Pearce, chief investment strategist of Personal Finance, predicts for this position:

“I don’t expect [this company] to be around four years from now as one of the big tech companies will snap it up long before then. Some likely suspects are Amazon, Facebook or Google, each of which spends tremendous money advertising online. Even Apple, which produces most of the mobile devices those ads appear on, is a possibility.

If the Trump administration finds a way for big tech companies to repatriate the trillions of dollars in cash they have socked away overseas, then we will see a surge in mergers as these goliaths gobble up smaller companies, like [this company], that own valuable patents.”

(If you’d like to learn more about this story, be sure to check out this detailed presentation)

Marijuana, Inc.

I received this email yesterday from a reader:

“How can I get started in the green rush with as little as $1,000? I don’t know anything about the stock market and how and where to go to invest. I don’t want to just give my money away. But I believe that this will a money maker if I make the right moves.” — Jimmy C.

Jimmy, as I explained in my previous newsletter, you should stick to the large-cap players in “canna-business.” For a novice investor such as yourself, that means the largest marijuana biotech: G.W. Pharmaceuticals (NSDQ: GWPH). With a market cap of $3 billion, GWPH discovers, develops, and markets cannabinoid prescription medicines. This stock is likely to survive the small-stock shakeout that will inevitably wrack this booming but volatile sector.

Got any questions about the, um, high potential in marijuana stocks? Drop me a line: mailbag@investingdaily.com — John Persinos