Valuentum Exclusive Analysis for the Discerning Investor

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Dec 11, 2019

Apple Charging Higher
Image Shown: Shares of Apple Inc continue to climb higher and we like the name in both our Best Ideas Newsletter and Dividend Growth Newsletter portfolios. This is a long-term holding with substantial potential capital appreciation and dividend growth upside. We like Apple’s pristine balance sheet, top quality free cash flow profile, and decent growth outlook. The company retains an enormous amount of firepower for additional share buybacks and material dividend increases going forward. Depending on whether the US decides to impose additional tariffs on Chinese imports soon will be very material to Apple’s near-term performance, but the long-term trajectory remains the same. Beyond Apple Pay, the company has its new streaming offering (Apple TV+) which launched on November 1 to drive services-related revenue growth.

Dec 9, 2019

Health Care Sector Remains Hot
Image Shown: The Health Care Select Sector SPDR ETF, a holding in both our Best Ideas Newsletter and Dividend Growth Newsletter portfolios, has been on an upward tear over the past several years. Strong macro tailwinds combined with the ability for industries within the health care sector to generate meaningful shareholder value have been key to supporting strong capital appreciation of equities operating in the area of late. The Health Care Select Sector SPDR ETF is a top holding in both our Best Ideas Newsletter and Dividend Growth Newsletter portfolios. We like the exposure and diversification to health care equities that XLV provides. XLV yields ~1.5% as of this writing. State Street Corp acts as advisor to the fund through State Street Global Advisors, and annual fund operating expenses come out to just 13 basis points (we like the XLV ETF’s low gross expense ratio).

Dec 9, 2019

Intel’s Resilient Free Cash Flows and Improving Outlook
Image Shown: Shares of Intel Corporation have resumed their upward climb after stumbling during the middle of 2019. We continue to like the name in both our Best Ideas Newsletter and Dividend Growth Newsletter portfolios. Intel Corp is another one of our favorite companies and is included in both our Best Ideas Newsletter and Dividend Growth Newsletter portfolios. After coming under fire during the middle of 2019, INTC is back on a nice upward trajectory. The top end of our fair value range estimate sits at $61 per share of INTC, indicating there’s plenty of room for Intel to run higher. Shares of INTC yield 2.2% as of this writing, and we view the company’s dividend growth trajectory as stellar (we give Intel an EXCELLENT Dividend Growth rating which is supported by its GOOD Dividend Safety rating, a product of its 2.1x Dividend Cushion ratio).

Dec 9, 2019

Our Reports on Stocks in the Tobacco Industry
Image Source: Altria. We've reallocated our resources to cover more recession-resistant stocks.

Dec 6, 2019

Dollar General Remains in Command
Image Source: Mike Mozart. Dollar General is a holding in the Best Ideas Newsletter portfolio. The company reported strong third-quarter results December 5 that showed better performance than rival Dollar Tree. Discount retail continues to feel the ill-effects of tariffs that are raising cost of goods sold, but Dollar General is taking the headwinds in stride.

Dec 6, 2019

Dividend Increases/Decreases for the Week Ending December 6
Let's take a look at companies that raised/lowered their dividend this week.

Dec 5, 2019

Best Buy’s Rebound Continues
Image Shown: Best Buy Co Inc has staged an impressive rebound over the past few years. This rebound was aided by significant investments in its digital presence, recognizing the core markets Best Buy wanted to target, and ultimately comparable store sales growth. On November 26, Best Buy reported third quarter earnings for its fiscal 2020 (three month period ended November 2, 2019) that beat both top- and bottom-line consensus estimates. Even better, Best Buy raised its guidance for fiscal 2020, largely on the back of stronger than expected same-store sales growth. Best Buy’s update helped send shares of BBY over our fair value estimate of $76 per share, and if this outperformance is sustained, the retailer may march towards the upper end of our fair value range estimate (which currently sits at $95 per share). Shares of BBY yield 2.5% as of this writing, and we like the firm’s dividend growth prospects. However, we caution that Best Buy remains very exposed to the US-China trade war, and we don’t include shares of BBY in our newsletter portfolios in large part due to the downside risks exogenous forces impose.

Dec 4, 2019

Reflecting on Two of Our Favorite Best Ideas Newsletter Portfolio Holdings
As we get closer to finishing out 2019, let’s take a look at two of the big winners in our Best Ideas Newsletter portfolio this year: Facebook and Alphabet. What a comeback Facebook has made since the summer of 2018! On the basis of our fair value estimate, we expect the company to surpass new highs. Alphabet just hit an all-time high last month, too!

Dec 4, 2019

Cracker Barrel Doing Well Despite Industry Headwinds
Image Source: 2019 Annual Shareholder Meeting, November 21. First-quarter fiscal 2020 results at Cracker Barrel were solid, but the fiscal year is still early, and the restaurant industry backdrop for traffic isn’t as strong as it once was. That said, we expect Cracker Barrel to keep raising menu prices to drive strong comparable store sales performance, which should help the firm achieve operating-margin guidance of 9% during the fiscal year, propelling copious free cash flow generation and supporting capital-return efforts. That said, we’ll be watching traffic performance and cost pressures closely in the coming quarters, but for now, our discounted cash-flow derived fair value estimate of $168 per share stands, reflecting about 17.5x the high end of the firm’s adjusted earnings per share target during fiscal 2020. Cracker Barrel’s Dividend Cushion ratio remains a very healthy 1.5x. Shares yield 3.4% at the time of this writing, and this excludes any special dividends that shareholders have grown accustomed to during the past five years.

Dec 3, 2019

Cleveland-Cliffs Buying AK Steel Through All-Stock Transaction
Image Shown: A tale of two charts, with Cleveland-Cliffs Inc in blue and AK Steel Holding Corporation in orange, after the announcement was that that the former would acquire the latter in an all-stock deal.On December 3, Cleveland-Cliffs agreed to acquire AK Steel Holding Corporation through an all-stock deal, creating a vertically integrated producer of iron ore and steel products in the US. Cleveland-Cliffs operates three iron ore mines in Michigan and Minnesota, along with a hot briquetted iron production plant in Ohio that’s under-construction, and AK steel operates steel mills in North America along with related facilities in Western Europe.