Valuentum Exclusive Analysis for the Discerning Investor

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Oct 4, 2019

PepsiCo Posts Solid Quarterly Report, Targets Powerful Long-Term Growth Trends
On October 3, PepsiCo reported third quarter earnings for fiscal 2019 (12 week period ended September 7) that were positively received by the market as the beverage and snack company beat both consensus top and bottom line estimates. PepsiCo still has its eyes on the ball in the face of exogenous shocks (i.e. the US-China trade war and the potential for an EU-US trade war) as management targets secular growth trends in emerging and developing markets, but we still think the company’s valuation is stretched after its impressive year-to-date rally. Shares of PEP yield ~2.7% as of this writing.

Sep 23, 2019

Empirical Support for Porter’s “Gospel,” Plus Comments on the “Head Fake” Rotation
“Let’s be very clear: There is strong empirical quantitative evidence that the price-to-fair value equation (“factor”) is predictive of returns, which is what matters for value investors, and in Morningstar’s case, the moat assessment is just part of that overarching conclusion (fair value estimate). Researchers continue to attack the moat “factor” on grounds that don’t make any sense, in my view, and are cherry-picking parameters to assess value investing.” – Brian Nelson, CFA

Sep 16, 2019

Economic Roundtable: Quant Quake, “Quac-cidental Correlation,” and Economic Moats
Image Source: Anders Sandberg. Last week, the markets may have revealed that internals aren’t all that healthy. Major equity markets experienced a “rotation” that reminded many investors of the “quant quake” from August 2007. As Valuentum’s Brian Nelson wrote in Value Trap, “just a few bad days in the market caused a rapid unwinding of many quant long-short strategies (back then). Goldman’s chief financial officer said at the time that the firm was witnessing ‘25-standard deviation moves, several days in a row.’” On the surface, markets last week seemed relatively calm, but as the episode in 2007 revealed the activity last week may just be the calm before the storm. Many are pointing to overcrowded trades in betting against certain factors, while others are saying that many were forced to deleverage. We’re not so sure, and we think it may be the opposite: after years of suffering from lagging “value” returns, we think several quant shops stepped in to take on leverage, betting on a return to “value.” Let's talk about last week's quant quake, spurious correlations (the “guac-cidental correlation, in fact), economic moats and much more.

Sep 11, 2019

Economic Roundtable: “Value” Versus “Growth” Rotation
“This kind of trading activity could be setting the stage for a big quant fund blow up, if the kind of leverage it takes to move the markets to this magnitude was applied. All it may take is for the B/M “value” factor to continue to suffer in the coming 12-18 months--it’s possible we could see a few quant firms go belly up. My guess is that market participants are paying very close attention to this activity, and if they “smell blood,” things could get ugly.” – Brian Nelson, CFA

Sep 5, 2019

Valuentum’s Economic Roundtable: Trade War, Factors and Beyond
The markets rallied hard September 5 on relief that the US and China will go back to the negotiations table next month. This back-and-forth news cycle is enough to give any investor whiplash. Let’s catch up with the Valuentum Team on the latest developments, not only with the trade war but also with respect to factor investing, possible bubbles and beyond.

Sep 4, 2019

The "Hierarchy" of Valuentum Idea Generation
Image: The Valuentum Buying Index rating scale.Let's talk about this hierarchy of idea generation in this note.

Aug 20, 2019

Owens-Illinois’ Debt Load Is Daunting, We Are Staying Away From This Value Trap
Image Source: Owens-Illinois Inc -- IR Presentation. Due to Owens-Illinois’ onerous leverage, guidance cut, and signs that the global economy is slowing down, we are staying far from the name. While shares of OI trade decently below the low end of our fair value estimate range we caution that the market is likely right on this one. Owens-Illinois is another example of a Value Trap.

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 24, 2019

Coca-Cola’s Valuation Is Stretched
Image Source: Broderick. While the market clearly liked Coca-Cola’s earnings report, we believe investors are getting ahead of themselves. We aren’t interested in shares of KO at these levels, and we caution readers on the stretched valuation of consumer staples companies in general.

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.