Valuentum Exclusive Analysis for the Discerning Investor

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Apr 30, 2020

Alphabet Surges Higher
Image Shown: Shares of Alphabet Inc surged higher on April 29 after reporting a stellar earnings report, and we continue to like Alphabet Class C shares as a top-weighted holding in our Best Ideas Newsletter portfolio. After the market close on April 28, Alphabet reported first-quarter earnings for 2020 that beat top-line consensus estimates and missed bottom-line consensus estimates, with sales supported by the strength of its digital advertising business and its growing Google Cloud business. Alphabet’s advertising revenue (comprised of revenue from its Google Search, YouTube, and Google Network Members' properties operations) was up 10% year-over-year to $33.8 billion while Google Cloud reported 52% revenue growth year-over-year, reaching $2.8 billion last quarter. All-in-all, Alphabet’s GAAP revenues climbed higher by 13% year-over-year in the first quarter, hitting $41.2 billion. Shares of Alphabet moved significantly higher on April 29 as the firm’s outlook was better than expected, aided by management communicating that Alphabet was prepared to utilize its fortress-like balance sheet to repurchase stock at a meaningful discount to their intrinsic value.

Apr 28, 2020

Good News for Facebook Ahead of Earnings Report
Image Shown: Facebook Inc’s top-line has experienced meaningful growth in recent years. Image Source: Facebook Inc – Fourth Quarter and Full-Year 2019 Earnings IR Presentation. One of our favorite Best Ideas Newsletter portfolio holdings is Facebook, and we appreciate its pristine balance sheet (plenty of cash on hand and no debt on the books as of the end of 2019), promising growth trajectory (short-term headwinds aside, digital advertising is a secular growth market and likely to bounce back strongly once the pandemic subsides), and we would like to highlight that shares of FB trade at a meaningful discount to our fair value estimate (which sits at $234 per share) as of this writing. Recently, several things have happened that supports our thesis as to why Facebook is a stellar company which will cover in this note. The ongoing coronavirus (‘COVID-19’) pandemic will depress Facebook’s near-term performance, but the firm’s medium- and long-term outlook remains very promising.

Apr 13, 2020

Pinterest Sees Interest in its Social Media Site Grow During COVID-19 Pandemic
Image Source: Pinterest Inc – Fourth Quarter of 2019 Earnings IR Presentation. Social media firm Pinterest published an operational and financial update after the market close April 7 that caught a lot of investor’s eyes. Pinterest reported that its user base, measured by monthly active users (‘MAUs’), had continued to grow sequentially in the first quarter of 2020 on both a domestic and international basis. While the ongoing coronavirus (‘COVID-19’) pandemic has likely negatively impacted its digital advertising business, Pinterest is communicating to investors that over the longer term, its social media offering is growing in popularity which supports growth down the road.

Apr 9, 2020

Digital Realty’s Growth Outlook Improving, Shares Near All-Time Highs
Image Source: Digital Realty Trust Inc – March 2020 IR Presentation. Digital Realty Trust is a holding in both the Dividend Growth Newsletter and High Yield Dividend Growth Newsletter portfolios, and its shares have performed quite well of late with DLR trading near all-time highs as of this writing. Year-to-date, DLR is up ~26% while the S&P 500 is down ~13% as of this writing. Demand for data centers is surging as the ongoing coronavirus (‘COVID-19’) pandemic is forcing households to stay indoors, which in turn is increasing demand for video streaming services, telecommunications offerings, and other activities that are voracious consumers of data. During these harrowing times, we hope members and their loved ones are staying safe as we ride out the pandemic. Shares of DLR yield roughly 3.0% as of this writing.

Apr 3, 2020

Repub from July 2019 -- The Valuentum Economic Roundtable
We sat down with the Valuentum team to get their thoughts on the global economy and key issues that may threaten this near 10-year bull market.

Mar 20, 2020

Op-Ed: Bail Out Boeing, No Other Publicly Traded Companies
Image: Boeing B-17E Fortress 41-2599 "Tugboat Annie"; took part in the Battle of Midway in Jun '42; later ditched at sea on 16 Jan 43. Source.Dear Uncle Sam: Please stop bailing out the competition of small business. We need a changing of the guard. Let capitalism work.

Mar 17, 2020

Oracle’s Strategic Shift is Starting to Bear Fruit
Image Source: Oracle Corporation – Third Quarter Fiscal 2020 Earnings Press Release. On March 12, Dividend Growth Newsletter portfolio holding Oracle Corp reported earnings for the third quarter of fiscal 2020 (period ended February 29, 2020) which handily beat consensus expectations on the both the top- and bottom-lines. Growing subscription revenues at its cloud-based businesses were key to generating this outperformance, and most importantly in our view, Oracle showcased that its outlook is improving as it shifts away from old and stale IT infrastructure offerings (i.e. enterprise data application management) and towards the IT infrastructure of the 21st Century (cloud-based services i.e. software-as-a-service and infrastructure-as-a-service). Shares of ORCL yield ~2.1% as of this writing and our fair value estimate stands at $55 per share.

Feb 17, 2020

Amazon Contests Microsoft Winning JEDI Contract
Microsoft Corp is a longtime holding in the Dividend Growth Newsletter portfolio and on top of posting great dividend growth historically--from the start of 2010 to the start of 2020, Microsoft’s quarterly dividend rose from $0.13 per share to $0.51 per share, and we see that trajectory continuing going forward--shares of MSFT have been on an upward tear and are up ~73% over the past year as of this writing. Microsoft now trades well above the top end of our fair value estimate range. However, we let our winners run until the technicals start turning against them in a meaningful way. As of this writing, shares of MSFT yield ~1.1% on a forward-looking basis.

Feb 5, 2020

Alphabet Reports Earnings and Its Fundamentals Remain Stellar
Image Shown: Shares of Alphabet Inc Class C, a top weighted holding in our Best Ideas Newsletter portfolio, continued their upward climb in 2019 and maintained their stellar trajectory. On February 3, Alphabet reported fourth quarter and full year earnings for 2019. The firm’s bottom-line beat consensus estimates, but Alphabet’s top-line miss sent shares modestly lower the next day on Tuesday, February 4. We continue to like Alphabet’s Class C shares as a top weighted holding in our Best Ideas Newsletter portfolio with our fair value estimate sitting at $1,440 per share of GOOG (under our base case scenario) and the top end of our fair value estimate range sitting at $1,800 per share of GOOG (under our optimistic case scenario that’s still deemed reasonable, in our view).

Feb 5, 2020

Amazon Posts Blowout Earnings, Shares Back Near 2018 Highs
Image Shown: After reporting fourth quarter earnings for 2019, shares of Amazon Inc have returned to their 2018 highs as of this writing. On January 30, Amazon reported fourth-quarter earnings for 2019 that handily beat consensus expectations. Shares of AMZN are now trading back near their highs first reached in 2018. We like Amazon’s growth trajectory but don’t include Amazon in the newsletter portfolios due to the enormous uncertainty in the company’s key valuation drivers, which has a magnified impact on changes in its fair value estimate. That’s a product of its high operating leverage. Even a ~50 basis point difference in its expected gross margins versus its realized gross margins, for example, could have a profound impact on its intrinsic value and ultimately share price performance. Our fair value estimate sits at $1,972 per share of Amazon, and our fair value estimate range sits at $1,479-$2,465 per share.