Valuentum Exclusive Analysis for the Discerning Investor

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Oct 4, 2019

Economic Commentary: Apple $225+, Brokers Tumble, Auto Sales Look Tired
Image: Shares of TD Ameritrade Holdings have been punished as online trading commissions go to zero. "Though all signs point to increased volatility, we maintain our view that we’re well-positioned in the newsletter portfolios, and the ideas highlighted in the Exclusive publication consider the backdrop economic conditions we closely monitor." -- Brian Nelson, CFA

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 12, 2019

Merck Shows Impressive Margin Expansion
Image Source: Merck & Co Inc -- IR Presentation. Merck is improving its financials and we like that, but we still aren’t interested in shares after the run up during the past year and a half. The pharmaceutical giant’s net debt load is manageable given its strong free cash flows, but dividend growth will require share buybacks to be pared back first in order to make room for payout growth. It will take some time until we get an idea of how well Merck’s recent acquisitions pan out.

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 27, 2019

Elanco Buys Bayer’s Animal Health Unit, Gaining Scale and Greater Exposure to the “Humanization of Pets” Trend
On August 20, Elanco Animal Health Inc agreed to acquire Bayer AG’s animal health unit for $7.6 billion (at the time the deal was announced) through a cash and stock deal. This is a transformative deal for Elanco and one that will create a real competitor to Zoetis' and Merck’s animal health units. For Bayer, the company can now pivot to segments where it has stronger competitive advantages while also raising cash to cover potential Roundup-related legal liabilities (which could be enormous). We will be monitoring the space going forward but are staying firmly on the sidelines for now.

Aug 13, 2019

Thought Piece: The Hidden Advantage
Image Source: Kamilla Oliveira. As activist investing proliferates, investors are becoming more and more familiar with celebrity investing gurus such as Carl Icahn and David Einhorn. Let’s examine how these investing giants have carved out a unique structural advantage over mom-and-pop investors. This article was originally published in June 2014.

Jun 26, 2019

Another Pharmaceutical Giant Is Born
Image Source: AbbVie Inc – IR Presentation. The combination of AbbVie and Allergan seems to have been born out of the need to do something, anything, considering how dependent AbbVie is on Humira and Allergan is on Botox. We find the transaction interesting as it ties into our view that Big Pharma will continue getting bigger and bigger while the field gets smaller, but this doesn’t change on view on either Allergan or AbbVie. We aren’t considering shares of either company at this time.