Valuentum Exclusive Analysis for the Discerning Investor

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Oct 10, 2022

Stay Away from Mortgage REITs!
Image Source: Mortgage REITs have underperformed the broader stock market for years, and we don't think individual investors and financial advisors should be dabbling in the mortgage markets via these instruments. As we have said time and time again, stay away from mortgage REITs!

Jun 26, 2022

Valuentum's Dividend Growth Strategy 'Outperforming'
Image: The Valuentum Dividend Growth strategy has delivered thus far in 2022. With the S&P 500, as measured by the SPY, down 18.1% (negative 18.1%) thus far in 2022 and the S&P Dividend ETF (SDY) down 6.7% (negative 6.7%), the Valuentum dividend growth strategy, as measured by the hypothetical performance of the Dividend Growth Newsletter portfolio (as shown above), is down an estimated 4.6% (negative 4.6%) so far in 2022, all on a price-only basis. Though two percentage points better than the S&P High Yield Dividend Dividend Aristocrats Index doesn't seem like much, the large cap tilt of the simulated Dividend Growth Newsletter portfolio makes such "outperformance" significant and material. The benefits of a dividend growth strategy, in general, have also been on display so far in 2022, with the simulated Dividend Growth Newsletter portfolio "outperforming" the SPY by an estimated ~13.5 percentage points, on a price-only basis. With the half year mark of 2022 nearing, we wanted to continue to provide updates on the "performance" tracking across a variety of our publications. In case you missed them, please find the year-to-date evaluations of the simulated Best Ideas Newsletter portfolio, the Exclusive capital appreciation and short idea considerations, the simulated High Yield Dividend Newsletter portfolio, as well as our additional options commentary for your convenience. The links are provided as follows. In this article, we'll talk about the "performance" of the simulated Dividend Growth Newsletter portfolio relative to traditional benchmarks and in the context of modern portfolio theory, though we stress that our dividend growth focus is on long-term income expansion not short-term relative price performance, per se.

Jun 18, 2022

The Stock Market Is Nearing Technical Support Levels
Image: This year has been a difficult one for equity investors, but the selling pressure that has been common in the markets may start to slow as broader indices such as the S&P 500 begin to approach technical support levels. On the S&P 500, we think there is substantial technical support in the 3,200-3,500 range, which to us suggests that further near-term downside may be limited. The S&P 500 closed at 3,674.84 on Friday, June 17, and we think fair value is much higher. What might be a fair value for the S&P 500 today? Well, throwing the 10-year S&P 500 average multiple of 16.9x on 2023 expected earnings numbers of 251.76 gets to a 4,255 mark on the S&P 500, which is above the last closing level of 3,674.84 for the index. Benchmark Treasury rates remain low relative to history, and balance sheets of many S&P 500 companies are overflowing with net cash, supporting such a multiple, too. All told, investors might expect the stock market to hit technical support levels on the S&P 500 of 3,200-3,500 in the near term, but from where we stand, stocks remain an attractive proposition at the moment and a very attractive consideration over the long haul.

Mar 14, 2022

Valuentum Weekly: Yields on New Series I Savings Bonds Have Soared!
The Dow Jones, S&P 500 and NASDAQ futures are all indicated up Sunday night (March 13), but that may not mean much when trading kicks off tomorrow. The start to 2022 has been one of the worst stretches during the past decade, but broader market indexes still aren't down much, even after factoring in several expected rate hikes by the Fed and economic sanctions on Russia due to the war in Ukraine. According to data from Seeking Alpha, the S&P 500 (SPY), Dow Jones Industrial Average (DIA), and Nasdaq (QQQ) are off ~12%, ~10%, and ~19% so far this year, respectively. However, this weakness compares to (and is inclusive of) incredible 5-year price-only returns on the SPY, DIA, and QQQ of ~77%, ~58%, ~146%, respectively, so it's hard for stock investors to be disappointed in much of anything, even if all they were able to do was match the returns of the S&P 500 the past 5 years. Many, however, unfortunately, diluted those 5-year returns with hefty bond and international exposure and sometimes large AUM fees, so the weakness in 2022 is probably more painful for some than perhaps it should be. In any case, we remain bullish on stocks for the long run, with a heavy bent toward large cap growth and big cap tech with tactical overweight "positions" in big cap energy.

Mar 7, 2022

Valuentum Weekly: Outsized Energy Exposure Continues to Buoy Newsletter Portfolios
Image: Light crude oil futures once traded for roughly -$40 (negative $40) during the COVID-19 crisis, but have now rocketed to more than $120 in recent trading. Image Source: TradingView. The S&P 500, as measured by the SPY, is down 9% year-to-date, a modest pullback, in our view, particularly in light of the fantastic performance the past few years. Though not necessarily welcome, a down year every now and then for the broader market indexes and a modest bear market can only be expected, at times. The Dow Jones Industrial Average, as measured by the DIA, is down more than 7% year-to-date (not too bad), while the Nasdaq--as measured by the QQQ--and 'disruptive innovation' stocks--as measured by the Ark Innovation ETF--have fallen more than 15% and 36%, respectively, so far this year (data from Seeking Alpha). We like how the simulated newsletter portfolios are positioned. Energy resource prices continue to surge (with WTI crude oil prices skyrocketing north of $120 per barrel at last check), and they are bringing energy equities higher along with them. The simulated Best Ideas Newsletter portfolio, simulated Dividend Growth Newsletter portfolio, and simulated High Yield Dividend Newsletter portfolio are all materially overweight energy equities relative to the energy sector’s weighting in the S&P 500, and we expect to maintain such high tactical "exposure." Both the Energy Select Sector SPDR ETF and the Vanguard Energy ETF soared to 13-year highs last week. Our favorite energy ideas are the largest two energy majors, Exxon Mobil and Chevron, and both have hefty 'weightings' in each of the three aforementioned simulated newsletter portfolios. Russian equities, as measured by the RSX, are down nearly 80% so far this year, and we're pleased to say that we've largely avoided the fall out. We continue to like the broader areas of U.S.-heavy, large cap growth and big cap tech when it comes to long-term secular exposure, and we continue to like energy as a tactical overweight for the foreseeable future across the simulated newsletter portfolios, as much as we did even prior to the huge advance in energy resource prices and the invasion of Ukraine by Russia.

Nov 28, 2021

Bitcoin, U.S. Large Cap Growth, and Technology Continue to Dominate Returns
Image source: Seeking Alpha, retrieved November 28. Bitcoin (GBTC), Technology (XLK), U.S. Large Cap Growth (SCHG), Russell 1000 Growth (IWF), Consumer Discretionary (XLY) have dominated returns the past 5 years. U.S. MLPs (AMLP), Crude Oil (USO), Energy (XLE), Chinese Stocks (FXI), and various bond ETFs (JNK), (AGG), (MUB) have trailed.

Aug 7, 2021

Valuentum Weekly
Image: Bitcoin, technology and large cap growth have led the pack the past 5 years while pipeline MLPs, crude oil and energy stocks have fallen way behind. Large cap growth > small cap value. Bonds, non-US stocks continue to lag. The Valuentum Weekly is a brand-new weekly market commentary from Valuentum Securities, released each weekend in digital form. The Valuentum Weekly offers members a weekly synopsis of the markets and major events. It will be straight and to-the-point. Our goal is to deliver to you the latest information and insights. We welcome your feedback on how we can make the Valuentum Weekly as useful and as relevant for you as ever!

May 13, 2021

Markets Back on Track – Seeking Net-Cash-Rich, Free Cash Flow Generators with Pricing Power!
Image Shown: The pricing action of ideas in the Dividend Growth Newsletter portfolio May 13. Image Source: Seeking Alpha.  We remain intensely focused on the cash-based sources of intrinsic value—net cash on the balance sheet and future expected free cash flow—when it comes to identifying price-to-fair-value-estimate mis-pricings as well as in assessing long-term dividend health. We think it may be tempting to rotate into some names where fair value estimate revisions have occurred, but the margin of safety around many energy/commodity producers and banking entities may be too large even for conservative investors. We expect most energy/commodity producers to continue to endure boom-and-bust cycles, and banking entities to do the same, as the latter act more like utilities this day and age. Once implicitly nationalized during the Great Financial Crisis, and used as an extension of government programs such as the Paycheck Protection Program during the COVID-19 crisis, outsize economic profit spreads may remain limited for banks/financials given the punitive regulatory environment. Facebook, of course, remains our top idea for long-term capital appreciation potential. Newmont Mining remains our favorite dividend growth-oriented “inflation hedge” followed by garbage hauler Republic Services and its CPI-indexed contracts. AT&T remains our favorite high yield dividend idea, boasting a free-cash-flow covered ~6.5% dividend yield, and we prefer only diversified exposure to the energy and banking sectors through the Energy Select Sector SPDR (XLE) and Financials Select Sector SPDR (XLF). We’ll be looking to deploy the ~10%-20% cash “positions” in the Best Ideas Newsletter portfolio and Dividend Growth Newsletter portfolio in the coming months. The High Yield Dividend Newsletter remains “fully invested,” and Exclusive idea generation remains robust. If you haven’t already, please be sure to have a look at the video in this article to see how we assess the cash flow statement and balance sheet to uncover stocks with strong net cash positions and solid future free cash flows that handily cover expected cash dividend payments. We apply this laser-focus on financial statement analysis across our idea-generation suite of publishing products.

Sep 9, 2020

This Stock Market Doesn't Scare Me
Image Source: EpicTop10.com. Markets are forward looking, and it's very likely we'll see a nice bounce back to north of $200 in S&P 500 earnings per share in 2022 or 2023 (pre-COVID-19 numbers were an achievable $196 per share for 2021), meaning that after the next few months, with political risk now behind us at that time, too, come January 2021, the markets, today, imply they are trading at 16-17x forward earnings, a very reasonable multiple given the Fed/Treasury "put" and the implicit "backing" via equity purchases coupled with the prospect for inflation. Frankly, I'm just not understanding the bears. Right now, the market is experiencing some profit taking, some hedging, some rotation, but not much more than this.

Sep 2, 2020

ALERT: Markets Now Fairly Valued
Image Source: Sam Valadi. Long-term investing is a great proposition. You have an incredible advantage over most professional investors that have to deliver on a quarterly or annual basis. The reason is due to something called time horizon arbitrage.