Valuentum Exclusive Analysis for the Discerning Investor

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May 30, 2023

Paper: Value and Momentum Within Stocks, Too
Abstract: This paper strives to advance the field of finance in four ways: 1) it extends the theory of the “The Arithmetic of Active Management” to the investor level; 2) it addresses certain data problems of factor-based methods, namely with respect to value and book-to-market ratios, while introducing price-to-fair-value ratios in a factor-based approach; 3) it may lay the foundation for academic literature regarding the Valuentum, the value-timing, and ultra-momentum factors; and 4) it walks through the potential relative outperformance that may be harvested at the intersection of relevant, unique and compensated factors within individual stocks.

May 23, 2023

Call Me Unconcerned
Image: Large cap growth has dominated returns the past five years. The Best Ideas Newsletter portfolio continues to have significant exposure to this area. We’re taking it slow this time of year. With the area of large cap growth nearly doubling since the beginning of 2018, trouncing the return of the broader market, dividend growth strategies, the area of small cap value and general REIT indices, it’s just hard to find much wrong with staying pat. The proliferation of artificial intelligence will likely propel big cap tech and large cap growth to new highs, while small cap value may continue to be weighed down by the banks--and dividend-oriented strategies may face continued pressure from rising interest rates and tired real estate markets. Things were a bit murky during 2022, but thanks for keeping the faith.

May 22, 2023

Nice! -- NASDAQ-100 Follows Through on Breakout
Image: NASDAQ-100 breaks through August 2022 resistance.

May 5, 2023

Dividend Increases/Decreases for the Week of May 5
Let's take a look at firms raising/lowering their dividends this week.

Apr 25, 2023

Brief Take: Best Idea PepsiCo Hits All-Time High! Beautiful Breakout!
Image: PepsiCo, an idea in the Best Ideas Newsletter portfolio, has broken out to all-time highs. We continue to like the name. PepsiCo now expects core earnings per share to advance to $7.27 in fiscal 2023, a 7% increase (up from 6% previously). As in the case of General Mills and several consumer staples entities, PepsiCo’s price elasticities remain in its favor, and we expect a modest fair value increase upon our next report update. PepsiCo remains a key idea in the Best Ideas Newsletter portfolio.

Apr 12, 2023

Fed Winning the Fight Against Inflation, Food-at-Home Prices Easing
Image: CPI-U, not seasonally adjusted. The 12-month percent change in the pace of inflation for all items has fallen from north of 9% in June 2022 to 5% in March 2023. Image Source: BLS. The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U) on April 12, and it showed that the Fed is winning its fight against inflation. The CPI-U rose just 0.1% in March on a seasonally adjusted basis, down 0.3 percentage points from the increase in February. During the past 12 months, the all-items index has advanced 5.0% before any seasonal adjustments, a level that is still higher than the Fed’s long-term target, but not one indicative of runaway inflation or a worsening of the strain on consumer budgets. Though the news is but one data point that will influence the Fed’s rate decision next meeting, we’re viewing the news positively.

Apr 6, 2023

U.S. Economy Likely Weakened During Regional Bank Crisis; Artificial Intelligence the Next Great Platform
Image Source: Trong Khiem Nguyen. SVB Financial’s failure and the ongoing regional banking crisis has likely crimped lending activity and economic growth, a situation further exacerbating any impending effects on the broader economy from the Fed’s contractionary monetary policy, itself. With first-quarter 2023 earnings season around the corner and the potential for another shoe to drop in commercial real estate or the U.S. housing market, we’re still being patient in putting “newly-raised” capital in the newsletter portfolios to work. Our favorite areas, however, remain big cap tech and large cap growth, as we’re huge fans of their cash-based sources of intrinsic value--both net cash on the balance sheet and future expected free cash flow generation. Microsoft, an idea in both the Best Ideas Newsletter portfolio and Dividend Growth Newsletter portfolio, is one of our favorite ways to play the rise of artificial intelligence.

Apr 1, 2023

General Mills Experiencing Tremendous Pricing Power, Positive Elasticities
Image Source: Mike Mozart. Cereal maker General Mills continues to flex its pricing power. The company’s third-quarter results for its fiscal 2023, released March 23, showed a company that is raising prices almost at will and driving tremendous adjusted operating profit expansion, while organic pound volume remains essentially flat. The company continues to optimize its revenue model as it forgoes volume expansion in favor of pricing growth, and we would expect further price increases across its product line-up for some time. With adjusted operating profit surging, price elasticities remain in its favor, much to the detriment of the cash-strapped consumer, which can only expect more food-at-home inflation. Shares of General Mills yield ~2.5% at the time of this writing.

Mar 24, 2023

How the Payment of a Dividend Impacts Intrinsic Value Estimation
"Dividends are a transfer of cash to the shareholders that the shareholders already owned."In this purely educational article, using historical data from 3M, let’s walk through the mechanics of how the payment of a dividend impacts the intrinsic value of a company. The takeaways may be somewhat counterintuitive but are nonetheless very important for members to understand.

Mar 23, 2023

The Dividend Cushion Ratio: Unadjusted Is Less Subjective, Adjusted Is More Subjective
Image Source: Mike Lawrence. Question: I'm a subscriber. I'm looking at your Dividend Report for Enterprise Product Partners. It says your Valuentum Adjusted Dividend Cushion ratio for EPD is 1.8 (a ratio that includes future expected proceeds from capital raising endeavors in the coming years), but several lines below it says the Unadjusted Dividend Cushion ratio, which is your regular normal ratio (a ratio that does not include future expected proceeds from capital raising endeavors in the coming years), is 0.22. Please explain the difference between the two ratios, and what is considered a good ratio for the Unadjusted Dividend Cushion ratio, what is an excellent score, what is neutral and what is poor? Also, how much relative importance should I give to each ratio? Also, further down in the section on Unadjusted Dividend Cushion, the chart of EPD has a large negative number in the blue bar, and your text says: "Generally speaking, the greater the 'blue bar' to the right is in the positive, the more durable a company's dividend, and the greater the 'blue bar' to the right is in the negative, the less durable a company's dividend." So that means that EPD's dividend isn't durable, yet your report earlier says that EPD's Dividend Safety rating is GOOD. Can you elaborate?