Valuentum Exclusive Analysis for the Discerning Investor

Symbol Keyword

Mar 28, 2024

Micron Issues Strong Outlook, Points to Multi-Year Opportunity in AI
Image Source: Micron. Micron operates in the ultra-cyclical semiconductor industry, and while the next few quarters may be robust, we’re cautious on the sustainability of the momentum and pricing health beyond the next few quarters, despite management’s optimism in fiscal 2025. Free cash flow has also been negative during the first six months of its fiscal year, and its net debt position precludes it from being a net-cash-rich, free-cash-flow generating powerhouse like so many other companies in the technology space. All things considered, we liked Micron’s quarterly report and outlook, but it’s not enough for us to pull the trigger on the idea for the Best Ideas Newsletter portfolio.

Mar 3, 2024

Merger Mania
Image Source: Glenn Beltz. Mergers and acquisition [M&A] activity continues as the market sets new highs. Elevated borrowing costs as a result of the Fed’s aggressive rate hiking cycle in 2022 are pushing many entities to pursue all-stock transactions.

Feb 9, 2024

Earnings Roundup: PEP, DIS, ARM, PM
Image Source: Arm Holdings. Pepsi issued an outlook for 2024 that came in lower than what the Street was expecting, but we like the diversification of having a strong brand entity such as Pepsi in the Best Ideas Newsletter portfolio. Disney is working hard to get back on track, and cost-cutting efforts have significantly helped its free cash flow generation. The firm is buying back stock, too, and recently upped its semi-annual dividend payout by 50%. Arm Holdings plc surprised the market in a big way, sending shares almost 50% higher following the report. The company's lucrative royalty business model and attractive exposure to artificial intelligence has investors extremely excited. Philip Morris is targeting strong organic revenue growth in 2024 thanks in part to Zyn growth, and we like the strong foundation that its free cash flow provides in supporting its dividend.

Feb 6, 2024

Palantir’s Fourth-Quarter Results Showcase Strong Trends in Artificial Intelligence
Image: Palantir’s revenue continues to march higher, and the company’s performance continues to showcase the growing strength in artificial intelligence. Source: Palantir. We liked Palantir’s quarterly results, but we wanted to bring to members’ attention the commentary surrounding artificial intelligence [AI]: "Our results reflect both the strength of our software and the surging demand that we are seeing across industries and sectors for artificial intelligence platforms, including large language models, that are capable of integrating with the tangle of existing technical infrastructure that organizations have been constructing for years...The demand for large language models from commercial institutions in the United States continues to be unrelenting. Every part of our organization is focused on the rollout of our Artificial Intelligence Platform (AIP), which has gone from a prototype to a product in months. And our momentum with AIP is now significantly contributing to new revenue and new customers."

Jan 28, 2024

Earnings Roundup: V, INTC, HUM, PYPL
Image: Visa’s operating margins are phenomenal. Image Source: Visa. Visa's first-quarter fiscal 2024 results were solid, and the firm noted that consumer spending remains resilient, paving the way for what we think will be a strong year. Intel's outlook for 2024 left a lot to be desired, and its balance sheet coupled with free cash flow burn should give more conservative investors pause. Humana's earnings outlook for 2024 spoke of considerable cost pressures, and we think this is yet another data point that the near term will be difficult for many health insurers as pent-up demand for procedures delayed during the pandemic begin to materialize. PayPal's stock remains in the dog house, and while its recently-announced innovations are great, consumer sentiment remains poor on the name.

Oct 30, 2023

Staying Far Away from Intel; McDonald’s a Better Play
Image: Intel’s cash flow from operations is under pressure, as it continues to shell out capital expenditures, resulting in materially negative free cash flow generation. Intel's cash-based sources of intrinsic value are in a world of hurt, meaning that we won't be adding the company to any newsletter portfolio anytime soon. Instead, we prefer McDonald's, which is well-positioned for inflationary pressures as it continues to raise its payout.

Sep 13, 2023

Apple’s Big “Wonderlust” Event Is Business as Usual
Image Source: Apple. Apple Inc. hosted its widely-anticipated “Wonderlust” event. The market was anticipating several new products, and Apple delivered. The firm’s iPhone 15 Pro, iPhone 15, Apple Watch Series 9, and Apple Watch Ultra 2 will go a long way to retaining share in smartphones and wearable devices, but the company opted to leave prices unchanged. Many had been expecting a price increase, but we’re not reading too much into Apple’s decision to leave them unchanged, given economic uncertainty in the U.S., Huawei’s release of its latest phone (the Mate 60 Pro), and rising geopolitical tensions between the U.S. and China.

Sep 4, 2023

Report Updates -- Did You Throw the Baby Out with the Bathwater?
The markets are finally making sense again, and we remain huge fans of big cap tech and the stylistic area of large cap growth. Though entities are starting to register high ratings on the Valuentum Buying Index, we’re not pulling the trigger on either Alibaba or Korn/Ferry in light of the tremendous risks related to U.S-China relations for Alibaba and the lack of fundamental catalysts for Korn/Ferry. That said, should these firms’ technical and momentum indicators shape up, their equity prices could really catch a bid, in our view. The newsletter portfolios continue to deliver in a big way, not only generating outperformance relative to the market-cap weighted S&P 500 during 2022, but also positioning well for the boom in big cap tech and the stylistic area of large cap growth that has materialized in 2023. We’ve said it before, and we’ll say it again: Don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater.

Aug 23, 2023

“A New Computing Era Has Begun” -- Nvidia Delivers Yet Again
When we first wrote that Nvidia would power this market higher back in May, the firm had just put up one of the most prolific earnings beats I had ever seen. I’d have to go back almost 20 years to the invention of Apple’s iPod click-wheel technology to remember something that came close. Well, on August 23, Nvidia just put up another monster quarter, this one the second of its fiscal year 2024, beating top-line and bottom-line consensus estimates by a huge margin for the period ending July 30. We’ve raised our fair value estimate of Nvidia considerably following the blockbuster second-quarter performance and third-quarter outlook, released today, and the race is on to adopt artificial intelligence [AI].

Jun 28, 2023

The Transaction Log of the Dividend Growth Portfolio
Image Source: Numbers and Finance. View the transaction log of the Dividend Growth Newsletter portfolio in this article. The Best Ideas Newsletter portfolio and Dividend Growth Newsletter portfolio are not real money portfolios. Results are hypothetical and do not represent actual trading.