Valuentum Exclusive Analysis for the Discerning Investor

Symbol Keyword

Mar 11, 2024

How Some Members Use Valuentum’s Investment Services
We serve a wide variety of investors, including dividend growth investors, value investors, and pure Valuentum investors, among others. Many different types of investors and professionals use our research and financial analysis in a whole host of applications from individual stock-selection to the evaluation of closed-end funds to an overlay in a money-management setting and beyond. The Best Ideas Newsletter portfolio seeks to find stocks that have good value and good momentum characteristics and typically targets capital appreciation potential over a longer-term horizon. The Dividend Growth Newsletter portfolio seeks to find underpriced dividend growth gems that generate strong levels of free cash flow and have pristine, fortress balance sheets, translating into excellent Valuentum Dividend Cushion ratios. The High Yield Dividend Newsletter portfolio seeks to find some of the highest-yielding stocks supported by strong credit profiles and solid business models, but not always robust traditional free cash flow. Ideas in this newsletter offer higher-yielding opportunities, but also much higher capital and income risk. We also offer a full suite of products to financial advisers (gold level) that range from a more extensive Excel-based screening tool (the DataScreener) to 'Ideas' and 'Dividend' publications that are released on a quarterly basis. Our research product includes hundreds of stock reports, fair values, fair value ranges, associated commentary, as well as dividend reports with Valuentum Dividend Cushion ratios and expected dividend growth rates. Silver and gold-level members can add the Valuentum Exclusive or additional options commentary/ideas to their plans. The Exclusive publication is a part of the institutional (platinum) level membership.

Mar 8, 2024

Understanding Share Buybacks
Image shown: Buybacks aren't always positive for shareholders. An image showing when RadioShack bought back its own stock, just a few short years prior to filing for bankruptcy.Let’s explain how some share buybacks can be considered value-creating and some share buybacks can be considered value-destroying.

Mar 6, 2024

ESG Matters: KMB, ADM, CC
Image: Chemours stock has been pummeled recently over an accounting probe. Kimberly-Clark is facing a new lawsuit that alleges it put dangerous "PFAS" chemicals into the environment, while ADM and Chemours face serious inquiries into their accounting practices.

Jan 28, 2024

Energy Transfer Making a Comeback, Shares Yield ~8.7%
Image: Energy Transfer is working its way back after a long stretch of underperformance. On January 25, Energy Transfer raised its dividend modestly, by 0.8%, to $0.315 per share on a quarterly basis, and while Energy Transfer still has a massive net debt position to the tune of ~$47.6 billion, the firm’s traditional free cash flow of the payout suggests sustainability, absent any exogenous shocks. Standard & Poor’s recently upgraded its unsecured debt rating to BBB with a Stable outlook, and the firm’s capital spending guidance for 2023 was recently lowered, further helping free cash flow. Energy Transfer is staging a comeback, and for risk-seeking income investors, its ~8.7% dividend yield is worth a look.

Jan 17, 2024

In the News: MSFT, AAPL, SAVE, ALB
Image: Microsoft and Apple have been strong performers the past several years, with Microsoft recently surpassing Apple’s market capitalization to become the largest entity in the S&P 500. The start of trading in 2024 hasn’t been tracking the way that we like, but it’s way too early to sound the alarm on any sort of correction. The employment markets remain very healthy, both as it relates to unemployment and wage gains, while inflation looks to be largely under control, with the market expecting a number of rate cuts during 2024. We continue to like the areas of big cap tech and large cap growth in the current market environment.

Dec 11, 2023

Oracle’s “Business Is Good and Getting Better”
Image Source: Peter Kaminski. On December 11, Oracle reported mixed second-quarter results for its fiscal 2024 that showed total revenue advancing 5% on a year-over-year basis (4% in constant currency), slightly lower than expectations, and non-GAAP earnings per share of $1.34 that came in slightly ahead of what the market was looking for. The company’s non-GAAP operating margin of 43% in the quarter helped to drive non-GAAP net income 14% higher than the same period a year ago (11% in constant currency). We’re not letting the slight miss on the top line sway us from our constructive stance on shares. Our fair value estimate stands at $108 per share, about in-line with where shares are currently trading.

Dec 10, 2023

First Gene-Editing Therapy Coming to Market; Reiterating Our Positive Stance on Vertex Pharma
Credit: Darryl Leja, NHGRI. On December 8, 2023, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced that it had approved Vertex Pharma’s and CRISPR Therapeutics’ novel gene-editing therapy (“Casgevy” – exa-cel) for sickle cell disease [SCD] in patients that are 12 years of age or older. This is the first such approval of its kind in U.S. history and will likely open the door for more gene-editing therapies for other rare diseases in the future. Estimates indicate that roughly 16,000 people will be eligible for the treatment at an estimated cost of around $2.2 million each, according to Reuters. The one-time market size of roughly $35.2 billion is a needle-mover, but the pace and timing of adoption of the therapy among the eligible population is difficult to estimate at this time. Note also that the therapy is of one-time application, meaning the therapy is a functional cure and will not be a source of recurring revenue from each patient. Nevertheless, it is an exciting development for medical science.

Dec 10, 2023

ESG Matters: Applied Materials Faces Criminal Investigation
Image: Applied Materials’ shares faced considerable pressure November 17 as news that it had violated export restrictions to China came to light. On November 16, Reuters reported that Applied Materials allegedly evaded export restrictions by shipping hundreds of millions of dollars of equipment to a subsidiary in South Korea before sending it to China’s biggest chipmaker SMIC. This alleged miscue falls under the Governance (G) category of ESG investing, and shares of Applied Materials have yet to recover from the aggressive sell-off it experienced during the trading session November 17. Though the results of the Department of Justice investigation are still pending, this is quite the black eye for Applied Materials, and we view this as a serious infraction given the U.S.’s stated efforts to keep advanced chips and chipmaking equipment out of China for national security reasons. We’re keeping a close eye on this story, as further news regarding the matter comes to light.

Nov 29, 2023

3 Dividend Growth Stocks For The Long Run
We think dividend growth investors should focus on total return first, and then move on to the evaluation of a company's dividend health. We believe that total return is a function of a company's net cash position and future expectations of free cash flow, and in this article, we have highlighted three strong, net-cash-rich, free cash flow generators that also have increased their dividends consistently over the years. Though these names are not hidden by any stretch, the strong performance of the Magnificent 7 reveals that investors don't need to look very far to find some of the best-performing ideas. Make sure that you know the Dividend Cushion ratio for companies in your dividend growth portfolio!

Nov 27, 2023

How Do We Use the Valuentum Buying Index?
Image: We highlighted Exxon Mobil to start 2022, and the stock was one of the best performers in the S&P 500 last year. Exxon Mobil became a “Valuentum” stock last year, with shares being undervalued, exhibiting a strong technical breakout, and sporting an attractive dividend yield to boot. The stock became a huge winner. Note: Exxon is no longer included in the simulated newsletter portfolios. The image is an excerpt from an email sent to members January 5, 2022.We answer one of the most frequently asked questions about the Valuentum Buying Index.