Valuentum Exclusive Analysis for the Discerning Investor

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Aug 19, 2022

Nelson: The 16 Most Important Steps To Understand The Stock Market
Image Source: Tim Green. We outline the '16 Most Important Steps to Understand the Stock Market.' We think it's important to take a read of these key stock market tenets when things are going great -- and perhaps even more important when things aren't going your way. This continues to be a working document.

Jul 11, 2022

Valuentum's Unmatched Product Suite
We continue to be huge believers in the concept of enterprise valuation, which emphasizes the key cash-based sources of intrinsic value--net cash on the balance sheet and strong and growing future expected free cash flows. Meta Platforms, Inc. and Alphabet Inc. remain two of the most underpriced ideas on the market today, and we remain huge fans of their tremendous long-term investment prospects.

Jul 4, 2022

Nelson: I Have Been Wrong About the Prospect of Near-Term Inflationary-Driven Earnings Tailwinds
"Though I have been clearly wrong on my near-term thesis for inflation-driven earnings expansion, we still did great sorting through investment idea considerations. Through late June, for example, the simulated Best Ideas Newsletter portfolio has generated 4-5 percentage points of alpha relative to the S&P 500, as measured by the SPY. The simulated Dividend Growth Newsletter portfolio is down only modestly this year, also performing better than traditional benchmarks. The simulated High Yield Dividend Newsletter is generating “alpha” against comparable benchmarks, and the Exclusive publication continues to deliver, with both capital appreciation ideas and short idea considerations generating fantastic success rates. ESG and options-idea generation have also been great. With all this being said, in the long run, I believe nominal earnings will expand rapidly from 2021 levels, which is why I remain bullish on stocks. I believe markets tend to overestimate earnings in the near term and underestimate them in the long run. The intelligent investor knows, too, that the most money is made during recessions and bear markets, where steady reinvestment and dollar cost averaging help to better position portfolios for higher returns over the longer run. The newsletter portfolios are well-positioned for continued “outperformance,” in our view, and while we may make a few tweaks to them, we’re not making any material changes at this time."

May 23, 2022

PRESENTATION: AAII Greensboro May Program -- The Ultimate Dividend Growth Investing Tool
PRESENTATION: AAII Greensboro May Program -- The Ultimate Dividend Growth Investing Tool.

May 9, 2022

Interview with SDM Investments' Kevin Truitt -- ESG in a Few Words: "Good Ethics, Honesty, Respect, and Dignity"
Image: SDM Investments' Kevin Truitt (left) and Valuentum's Brian Nelson (right) pause for a picture at the Chicago Chapter of the American Association of Individual Investors (December 2016).We talked with SDM Investments' Kevin Truitt recently, and we’d like to share our conversation with you! Learn about the critical nature of value investing and thinking about stocks as businesses, how investors should approach macro indicators, the importance of using a margin of safety, how to think about ESG investing, and why cash-based investing helps to safeguard against downside risk. Kevin also shares five of his favorite ideas!

Mar 30, 2022

WEC Energy Is a Solid Utility with a Nice Yield
Image Source: WEC Energy Group Inc – March 2022 IR Presentation. WEC Energy Group Inc is a holding company that owns electric and natural gas utilities in the Upper Midwest (Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, and Illinois), a ~60% stake in American Transmission Company (its service area is in the Upper Midwest and overlaps with the operations of WEC Energy’s other utility assets), and the merchant power firm WEC Infrastructure. WEC Energy serves roughly 4.6 million customers across its service area. Some of its electric and natural gas utilities include Upper Michigan Energy Resources Corporation, Wisconsin Public Service Corporation, Minnesota Energy Resources Corporation, Peoples Energy LLC, The Peoples Gas Light and Coke Company, North Shore Gas Company, W.E. Power, Michigan Gas Utilities, and more. The bulk of WEC Energy’s asset base is represented by regulated utility operations which have incredibly stable and predictable cash flow profiles given the regulatory environment these companies operate in.

Mar 4, 2022

NextEra Energy’s Bright Outlook
Image Shown: NextEra Energy Inc, one of our favorite utilities, owns the largest regulated electric utility in Florida and has exposure to the state’s promising population and economic growth trajectory. The utility is shifting its power generation base away from coal and towards renewable energy, leaning on natural gas and nuclear power plants to make the transition feasible. Image Source: NextEra Energy Inc – Fourth Quarter of 2021 IR Earnings Presentation. We are big fans of NextEra Energy. The utility is a cash flow generating powerhouse with a bright adjusted EPS and dividend growth outlook, underpinned by its rapidly growing renewable energy division and exposure to Florida’s promising economic growth trajectory. Shares of NEE yield ~2.2% as of this writing.

Feb 28, 2022

Our Report on Stocks in the Utilities (Large) Industry
Image Source: doggo. Our report on stocks in the the Utilities (Large) industry can be found in this article. Report includes AEP, D, DUK, ED, EIK, ETR, EXC, FE, NEE, NGG, PCG, PPL, SO, XEL.

Feb 18, 2022

Dividend Increases/Decreases for the Week February 18
Let's take a look at companies that raised/lowered their dividend this week.

Jan 22, 2022

Don’t Throw the Baby Out with the Bathwater
Image: Erica Nicol. Junk tech should continue to collapse, but the stylistic area of large cap growth and big cap tech should remain resilient. Moderately elevated levels of inflation coupled with interest rates hovering at all-time lows isn’t a terrible combination. In fact, it’s not bad at all. The markets are digesting the huge gains of the past few years so far in 2022, and the excesses in ARKK funds, crypto, SPACs, and meme stocks are being rid from the system. Our best ideas are “outperforming” the very benchmarks that are outperforming everyone else. The BIN portfolio is down 6.4% and the DGN portfolio is down 3.2% year to date. The SPY is down 7.8%, while the average investor may be doing much worse. Our timing to exit some very speculative ideas in the Exclusive publication has been impeccable. Beware of “best-fitted” backtest data regarding sequence of return risks. Research is to help you navigate the future, not the past. We remain bullish on stocks for the long haul and grow more and more excited as our simulated newsletter portfolios continue to hold up very well. Don’t throw the baby out with the bath water. Stick with the largest, strongest growth names. We still like large cap growth and big cap tech, though we are tactical overweight in the largest energy stocks (e.g. XOM, CVX, XLE). The latest short idea in the Exclusive publication has collapsed aggressively since highlight January 9, and we remain encouraged by the resilience of ideas in the High Yield Dividend Newsletter portfolio and ESG Newsletter portfolio. Our options idea generation remains ongoing.