Valuentum Exclusive Analysis for the Discerning Investor

Symbol Keyword

Jan 4, 2020

Valuentum Exclusive Success Rates Trump Even the Best Quant Hedge Funds
Image: President of Investment Research Brian Nelson, CFA. A new book, “The Man Who Solved the Market,” hit bookshelves last year, and thus far it has been a hit. The text goes into the story of quant hedge fund Renaissance Technologies and its hedge fund, the Medallion Fund, which has put up mammoth returns since inception.

Dec 12, 2019

Our Reports on Stocks in the Conglomerates Industry
We've optimized our industrials coverage.

Nov 1, 2019

Nostalgia?
Image Source: Tim Vrtiska. As I think back over the many years we've managed the Dividend Growth Newsletter portfolio, it has been an incredibly rewarding experience to be able to help so many dividend growth investors, not only in finding big winners, but also in avoiding big losers. If you recall, many dividend growth investors were swept away by the MLP craze years ago, and we saved our membership, perhaps in impeccable fashion. Who remembers? From "getting out" of General Electric near $30 per share, to warning about ConocoPhillips' and Kinder Morgan's dividend cuts far in advance years ago, we've been focused intensely on gaining your trust each and every day. Of course we've had some huge winners, too, some of them no longer in the newsletter portfolio such as Hasbro, Procter & Gamble, Medtronic, names we may add back into the future at the "right price," near the low end of our fair value estimate range on the "way up." How can we forget some of the big winners still in the newsletter portfolios! Big tech has been on fire of late with Intel and Microsoft approaching new all-time highs. You may recall these two companies were among the first stocks to ever register a 9 or 10 on the Valuentum Buying Index in 2011/2012, and their respective Dividend Cushion ratios have been fantastic for years, accompanied by strong dividend growth. How can we forget about Apple? What a call that one has turned out to be -- shares of the iPhone maker closed at ~$256 today! Microsoft is now a mid-$140 stock! A number of years ago, we traveled the country sharing our thoughts on Microsoft, pounding the table on its undervaluation and strong dividend growth prospects, saying it epitomized what Valuentum looks for in dividend growth ideas at the time. This presentation from our September 2015 trip to the Silicon Valley AAII was one of my favorites. Download that presentation to learn how we looked at Microsoft through the lens of the Dividend Cushion ratio, "Value-Focused, Momentum-Based Dividend Growth Investing (pdf)." Please go ahead. The Dividend Cushion ratio is worth the price of any membership. I'm so very proud of the Valuentum team, its methodologies, Value Trap, and what we've been able to do for investors all these years, especially dividend growth investors. I'm so grateful for you. You found us, tuned out the noise, and hopefully have made so much money these many years. Without tearing up on any further nostalgia, download the November edition of the Dividend Growth Newsletter in this article. You've earned it. I hope you enjoy this edition greatly, and thank you so much! -- Brian Nelson, CFA

Oct 30, 2019

Caterpillar Misses Estimates and Revises Guidance Downwards
Image Source: Caterpillar Inc – Third quarter 2019 IR presentation. Should the global economy show signs of stabilizing, particularly as it relates to industrial activity, Caterpillar would appear relatively cheap at ~$141 per share as of the end of the October 29 trading session. Recent signs have not been promising. Exports out of South Korea, a barometer for the global economy, continue to plummet while macroeconomic readings in the EU and North America are showing signs of a major slowdown materializing as we speak (particularly in the Eurozone, but that appears to be spreading to the US economy as well). China’s economy continues to feel the heat from the US-China trade war. The low end of our fair value estimate range stands at $125 per share of CAT, meaning that under more pessimistic assumptions, Caterpillar appears fairly valued as of this writing.

Oct 17, 2019

Honeywell’s Aerospace Division Its Crown Jewel
Image Source: 3Q 2019 Earnings Release. We’re huge fans of Honeywell. The company’s Aero operations are its crown jewel, and while Boeing is facing some troubles these days, we don’t expect much impact on Honeywell at all. In fact, we expect commercial aerospace to remain strong, even in the face of broader industrial weakness. The risks to the company’s HBT business could be starting to mount given some concerns in commercial real estate, but management isn’t really seeing any signs of yet, pointing to only moderating growth in 2020. The SPS division, while a headwind, probably won’t be a factor next year, but it could bounce back as inventories are cleared from the channel.

Oct 12, 2019

ICYMI: Interview with Valuentum's President Brian M. Nelson, CFA
Catch up with Valuentum's President Brian M. Nelson, CFA in a recent interview with dividend growth investor Arne Magnus Lorentzen Ulland of the blog stockles.

Oct 9, 2019

Fair Value Estimates Matter – Case Study: Boeing
Image Source: Boeing’s share price converged to our estimate of intrinsic value in the summer of 2019. The plane maker continues to navigate tumultuous skies with its 737 MAX. In early 2019, we thought shares of Boeing were severely overpriced, and they aggressively converged to our fair value estimate by summer, only to bounce a bit since then. We’re still huge fans of the company but working through the 737 MAX issues will take some time to get “right.” We expect more headline risk as it relates to contingent liabilities associated with the disasters, but nothing so punitive to shake the plane maker to the core. Boeing is an investment-grade credit with a huge backlog, and while we expect shares to be range-bound in the near-term, investors get to collect a nice juicy dividend as they wait for Boeing to sort things out. Shares yield 2.2% at the time of this writing.

Aug 11, 2019

In the News: Amazon, GE, Kraft-Heinz, Disney, CVS Health, Gilead
We're reiterating the large range of fair value outcomes for Amazon. We're staying far away from General Electric and Kraft-Heinz. Netflix may have its back against the ropes with Disney Plus. CVS Health and Gilead were two setbacks in the newsletter portfolios in the past, but we kept losses to a minimum and new ideas more than offset the weakness. The Best Ideas Newsletter portfolio continues to do very well.

Jul 25, 2019

Coca-Cola, Visa, and More from Valuentum
If you recall, Facebook issued a terrible outlook in mid-2018 that sent the stock tumbling. Many of our members cancelled their membership during 2018 on this decline. But we stuck with our conviction in the name. But why? How could we possibly stick with a company like Facebook all the way down and ditch entities like Kinder Morgan and General Electric, seemingly iron-clad companies, right at their tops. The answer, my dear members, is a focus on the financial statements and forward-looking analysis.

Jul 23, 2019

Roaring 20s? -- Consumer Staples Valuations Stretched
Image Source: Alan Levine. Strong outlooks for Kimberly-Clark, United Technologies, Hexcel and Lockheed Martin point to an economy that is still gaining momentum. We caution investors of consumer staples stocks, however, with many equities holding large net debt positions, and the sector trading at almost 20 times forward earnings. Learn about the difference between the Best Ideas Newsletter portfolio and the Exclusive publication and much more in this note.