Valuentum Exclusive Analysis for the Discerning Investor

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Mar 18, 2021

Cigna Is An Intriguing Health Care Idea
Image Source: Cigna Corporation –2021 Investor Day Presentation. Health care giant Cigna Corporation has a stellar cash flow profile, pristine balance sheet, promising growth outlook, and remains committed to rewarding shareholders. The company initiated a quarterly dividend at the start of 2021 and intends to continue buying back a sizable amount of its stock going forward. Management recently issued favorable guidance that indicates Cigna’s growth story is expected to continue this year as the world emerges from the COVID-19 pandemic. Cigna’s telehealth ambitions are quite intriguing as well. Recent updates at Cigna have placed the health care company on our radar.

Feb 8, 2021

Stock Market Outlook for 2021
2020 was one from the history books and a year that will live on in infamy. That said, we are excited for the future as global health authorities are steadily putting an end to the public health crisis created by COVID-19, aided by the quick discovery of safe and viable vaccines. Tech, fintech, and payment processing firms were all big winners in 2020, and we expect that to continue being the case in 2021. Digital advertising, cloud-computing, and e-commerce activities are set to continue dominating their respective fields. Cybersecurity demand is moving higher and the constant threats posed by both governments (usually nations that are hostile to Western interests) and non-state actors highlights how crucial these services are. Retailers with omni-channel selling capabilities are well-positioned to ride the global economic recovery upwards. Green energy firms will continue to grow at a brisk pace in 2021, though the oil & gas industry appears ready for a comeback. The adoption of 5G wireless technologies and smartphones will create immense growth opportunities for smartphone makers, semiconductor players and telecommunications giants. Video streaming services have become ubiquitous over the past decade with room to continue growing as households “cut the cord” and instead opt for several video streaming packages. We’re not too big of fans of old industrial names given their capital-intensive nature relative to capital-light technology or fintech, but there are select names that have appeal. Cryptocurrencies have taken the market by storm as we turn the calendar into 2021, but the traditional banking system remains healthy enough to withstand another shock should it be on the horizon. Our fair value estimate of the S&P 500 remains $3,530-$3,920, but we may still be on a roller coaster ride for the year. Here’s to a great 2021!

Jan 27, 2021

ALERT: Raising Cash in the Newsletter Portfolios
Our research has been absolutely fantastic for a long time, but 2020 may have been our best year yet. With the S&P 500 trading within our fair value estimate range of 3,530-3,920 (and the markets rolling over while showing signs of abnormal behavior), we're raising the cash position in the Best Ideas Newsletter portfolio and Dividend Growth Newsletter portfolio to 10%-20%. For more conservative investors, the high end of this range may even be larger, especially considering the vast "gains" from the March 2020 bottom and the increased systemic risks arising from price-agnostic trading (read Value Trap). The individual holdings will be reduced in proportion to arrive at the new targeted cash weighting in the respective simulated newsletter portfolios. The High Yield Dividend Newsletter and Dividend Growth Newsletter are scheduled for release February 1. We'll have more to say soon.

Jan 21, 2021

UnitedHealth Group Is a Rock-Solid Dividend Growth Opportunity
Image Shown: Shares of UnitedHealth Group Inc, which we added to our Dividend Growth Newsletter portfolio back on November 27, continue to climb higher. The top end of our fair value estimate for UnitedHealth Group sits at $401 per share. On January 20, UnitedHealth Group issued fourth quarter and full-year results for 2020 that beat both consensus top- and bottom-line estimates. The healthcare giant reported a 6% annual increase in its GAAP revenues in 2020, with its ‘Premiums,’ ‘Products’ and ‘Services’ sales all reporting meaningful increases. Its GAAP earnings from operations grew by 14% annually in 2020, though we caution there is some noise due to the deferral of certain medical procedures, a result of the ongoing coronavirus (‘COVID-19’) pandemic. UnitedHealth Group is an exciting healthcare play with substantial dividend growth upside. As global health authorities continue to work toward getting the pandemic under control, a process aided by the ongoing distribution of COVID-19 vaccines, the outlook for the healthcare sector and global economy at-large should continue to improve going forward. We like having exposure to UnitedHealth Group in the Dividend Growth Newsletter portfolio.

Jan 15, 2021

Walgreens Begins to Recover
Image Shown: Shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc are beginning to recover. Shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance are on the rise after the company recently posted a solid earnings report while also reaching a big divestment deal. As we recently covered, Walgreens is divesting most of its European-focused wholesale pharmaceutical distribution business to AmerisourceBergen. Please note Walgreens has a material strategic stake in AmerisourceBergen’s equity which will grow in terms of total shares once the divestment closes. That said, competitive headwinds are growing for Walgreens and the pharmacy space more broadly as Amazon recently launched its own online pharmacy. We are keeping an eye on the space.

Jan 9, 2021

Walgreens Sells European-Focused Wholesale Pharmaceutical Distribution Business to AmerisourceBergen
Image Shown: Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc is undergoing a major transformation. Part of that strategy involves divesting its European wholesale pharmaceutical distribution business, Alliance Healthcare, to its strategic partner AmerisourceBergen Corporation. Image Source: Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc – Fourth Quarter and Full Year Fiscal 2020 IR Earnings Presentation. On January 6, Walgreens Boots announced it had reached a deal with AmerisourceBergen Corp to sell the "the majority of” its European-focused wholesale pharmaceutical distribution business, Alliance Healthcare, for about $6.5 billion ($6.275 billion in cash along with 2 million shares of ABC). Please note that Walgreens already owns a sizable stake in AmerisourceBergen as the former owned ~28% of the latter’s outstanding shares as of August 31, 2020. The deal is expected to close by the end of AmerisourceBergen’s fiscal 2021 (at the end of September 2021). The transaction should positively benefit both parties. Walgreens gets a nice cash infusion to help upgrade its core operations while AmerisourceBergen gains significant scale and greater exposure to European markets. The existing arrangements between Walgreens and AmerisourceBergen should assist both firms in realizing their targeted synergies, at least in theory, though the healthcare sector is inherently complex. We continue to prefer exposure to the "pharmacy-oriented" space through one of our favorite dividend growth ideas UnitedHealth Group. We also include Johnson & Johnson and the Healthcare Select SPDR ETF in the newsletter portfolios.

Dec 29, 2020

GoodRx Has Potential Capital Appreciation Upside But Long-Term Threats Loom
Image Source: GoodRx Holdings Inc – December 2020 IR Presentation. GoodRx Holdings Inc is a disrupter in the US pharmacy space, and the company went public in September 2020. The firm’s digitally-oriented prescription drug pricing platform generates strong normalized operating income and allows for an impressive cash flow profile. Supported by its pristine balance sheet, GoodRx has the financial firepower to expand into adjacent businesses to further extend its growth runway. While meaningful competitive threats are a concern, such as those posed by Amazon Inc entering the online pharmacy space, GoodRx has significant competitive advantages over its peers and benefits from the network effect. The company’s active monthly user base has grown at an impressive clip during the past several years, and the firm has a number of avenues to generate meaningful upside. The company’s total addressable market is enormous.

Dec 17, 2020

UnitedHealth Group’s Dividend Growth Potential is Impressive
Image Shown: UnitedHealth Group Inc has a tremendous dividend growth runway, one that is supported by its high-quality cash flow profile, pristine balance sheet, and improving near-term outlook. Shares of UNH have staged an impressive recovery over the past several months since crashing in March 2020 due to headwinds arising from the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. We added UnitedHealth Group to our Dividend Growth Newsletter portfolio on November 27, 2020. On November 27, we added UnitedHealth Group to the Dividend Growth Newsletter portfolio. The company has an “EXCELLENT” Dividend Growth rating as the firm is well-positioned to push through meaningful dividend increases in the coming years. Additionally, UnitedHealth Group earns an “EXCELLENT” Dividend Safety rating as its Dividend Cushion ratio sits at 3.1, and please keep in mind these metrics factor in our expectations that the company will meaningfully grow its payout going forward. As of this writing, shares of UNH yield ~1.5%. We like UnitedHealth Group’s stellar cash flow profile, pristine balance sheet, improving near-term outlook and resilient business model. During the ongoing coronavirus (‘COVID-19’) pandemic, the company’s financial performance has remained rock-solid, too.

Dec 1, 2020

Walking Through the Calculation of the Dividend Cushion Ratio
Image shown: An image found on page 2 of Valuentum's Dividend Report on Kimberly-Clark. The 'Dividend Cushion Ratio Deconstruction,' shown in the image, reveals the numerator and denominator of the Dividend Cushion ratio. At the core, the larger the numerator (or the healthier a company's balance sheet and future free cash flow generation) relative to the denominator (or a company's future expected cash dividend obligations), the more durable the dividend. In the context of the Dividend Cushion ratio, KimberlyClark's numerator is larger than its denominator suggesting strong dividend coverage in the future. The 'Dividend Cushion Ratio Deconstruction' image puts sources of free cash flow in the context of financial obligations next to expected cash dividend payments over the next 5 years on a side-by-side comparison. Because the Dividend Cushion ratio and many of its components are forward-looking, our dividend evaluation may change upon subsequent updates as future forecasts are altered to reflect new information.We believe the Dividend Cushion ratio is one of the most helpful tools an income or dividend growth investor can use in conjunction with qualitative dividend analysis. The ratio is one-of-a-kind in that it is both free-cash-flow based, considers balance sheet health, and is forward looking. Since its development in 2012, we estimate its efficacy at ~90% in helping to forewarn readers of impending dividend cuts. For companies where Valuentum reports are available, the Dividend Cushion ratio can be found in a stock's Dividend Report or in the table on the company's stock landing page. We use Kimberly-Clark as an example of how we calculate the Dividend Cushion ratio and how useful it is for investors of all types.

Nov 17, 2020

Growing Competitive Pressures, Leverage Drive Our Reduced Fair Value Estimate of CVS Health (Walgreens, Too)
The rivalries in the pharmacy space continue to intensify. Just this week, on November 17, CNBC reported that Amazon was launching Amazon Pharmacy in the US, which reportedly will include free delivery for Amazon Prime members. Shares of CVS Health sold off sharply after the news broke, as did shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance. Here, we would like to highlight how recognizing competitive threats (both existing and future) represents one of the qualitative overlays we use during the enterprise cash flow analysis process to model expected future financial performance of the company. These competitive dynamics had a large influence in our decision to reduce CVS Health’s fair value estimate. Note, we also reduced our fair value estimate of peer Walgreens Boots Alliance to $43 per share from $60 per share on November 9, too.