Valuentum Exclusive Analysis for the Discerning Investor

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Feb 21, 2021

Johnson & Johnson’s COVID-19 Vaccine Candidate Nears the Finish Line
Image Source: Johnson & Johnson – Fourth Quarter of Fiscal 2020 IR Earnings Presentation. We appreciate all the hard work Johnson & Johnson and its partners have put towards developing a safe and viable COVID-19 vaccine candidate. Johnson & Johnson issued favorable guidance for fiscal 2021 when it reported its latest earnings aided by expectations that its medical devices business will recover this fiscal year along with sustained strength in its core pharmaceutical sales according to management commentary given during the related earnings call. We continue to like exposure to Johnson & Johnson in both the Best Ideas Newsletter and Dividend Growth Newsletter portfolios.

Feb 8, 2021

Stock Market Outlook for 2021
2020 was one from the history books and a year that will live on in infamy. That said, we are excited for the future as global health authorities are steadily putting an end to the public health crisis created by COVID-19, aided by the quick discovery of safe and viable vaccines. Tech, fintech, and payment processing firms were all big winners in 2020, and we expect that to continue being the case in 2021. Digital advertising, cloud-computing, and e-commerce activities are set to continue dominating their respective fields. Cybersecurity demand is moving higher and the constant threats posed by both governments (usually nations that are hostile to Western interests) and non-state actors highlights how crucial these services are. Retailers with omni-channel selling capabilities are well-positioned to ride the global economic recovery upwards. Green energy firms will continue to grow at a brisk pace in 2021, though the oil & gas industry appears ready for a comeback. The adoption of 5G wireless technologies and smartphones will create immense growth opportunities for smartphone makers, semiconductor players and telecommunications giants. Video streaming services have become ubiquitous over the past decade with room to continue growing as households “cut the cord” and instead opt for several video streaming packages. We’re not too big of fans of old industrial names given their capital-intensive nature relative to capital-light technology or fintech, but there are select names that have appeal. Cryptocurrencies have taken the market by storm as we turn the calendar into 2021, but the traditional banking system remains healthy enough to withstand another shock should it be on the horizon. Our fair value estimate of the S&P 500 remains $3,530-$3,920, but we may still be on a roller coaster ride for the year. Here’s to a great 2021!

Feb 3, 2021

Eli Lilly and Vertex Pharma Provide Promising Guidance for 2021
Image Shown: An overview of Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc’s drug pipeline and commercialized drug portfolio. Image Source: Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc – Fourth Quarter of 2020 IR Earnings Presentation. There are many attractive opportunities in the healthcare sector. Vertex Pharma is our favorite biotech play, and we are intrigued by the potential upside its strategic partnership with CRISP Therapeutics could generate. Additionally, we like the broad exposure to an attractive sector that the Health Care Select Sector SPDR ETF (XLV) provides the newsletter portfolios. The end of the COVID-19 pandemic will make conducting non-COVID-19-related clinical trials an easier task over the long haul, which supports the outlook for the pharmaceutical and biotech industries. We are also big fans of Johnson & Johnson, which is included in both the Best Ideas Newsletter and Dividend Growth Newsletter portfolios, and UnitedHealth Group, which is included in the Dividend Growth Newsletter portfolio.

Jan 15, 2021

Walgreens Begins to Recover
Image Shown: Shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc are beginning to recover. Shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance are on the rise after the company recently posted a solid earnings report while also reaching a big divestment deal. As we recently covered, Walgreens is divesting most of its European-focused wholesale pharmaceutical distribution business to AmerisourceBergen. Please note Walgreens has a material strategic stake in AmerisourceBergen’s equity which will grow in terms of total shares once the divestment closes. That said, competitive headwinds are growing for Walgreens and the pharmacy space more broadly as Amazon recently launched its own online pharmacy. We are keeping an eye on the space.

Jan 15, 2021

Steris Ties the Knot with Cantel Medical
Image Shown: Cantel Medical Corp is getting bought out by Steris PLC through a cash-and-stock deal. The image up above highlights Cantel Medical’s promising long-term growth outlook, though its performance in 2020 was subdued due to headwinds created by the coronavirus (‘COVID-19’) pandemic. In our view, Steris was attracted to Cantel Medical’s improving outlook (the latter started to stage an impressive rebound in the second half of calendar year 2020) and the ability for the combined firm to generate substantial synergies. Image Source: Cantel Medical Corp – December 2020 IR Presentation. On January 12, Steris PLC announced it had reached an agreement with Cantel Medical to buy the company through a cash-and-stock deal worth ~$3.6 billion (~$4.6 billion when including the assumption of debt and convertible notes) that valued CMD at $84.66 per share based on the closing price of STE on January 11. The deal includes $16.93 in cash and 0.33787 share of STE for each share of CMD. Steris is heavily focused on sterilization products for hospitals and laboratories (it also provides related services). The company intends to fund the cash component of its deal for Cantel Medical with new debt issuance and committed bridge financing, which will also be used to refinance most of Cantel Medical’s existing debt. Shares of Cantel Medical have advanced ~38% (as of the end of normal trading hours January 13) from when we first wrote about the idea back in early December 2020. Even before the acquisition was announced, investors started to warm back up to the company due to expectations that the headwinds that held the firm back last year would start to dissipate this year. In our view, Steris’ acquisition of Cantel Medical is highly complementary. It appears Steris was optimistic that Cantel Medical’s long-term growth outlook remained bright even though the firm had a rough 2020.

Jan 9, 2021

Walgreens Sells European-Focused Wholesale Pharmaceutical Distribution Business to AmerisourceBergen
Image Shown: Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc is undergoing a major transformation. Part of that strategy involves divesting its European wholesale pharmaceutical distribution business, Alliance Healthcare, to its strategic partner AmerisourceBergen Corporation. Image Source: Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc – Fourth Quarter and Full Year Fiscal 2020 IR Earnings Presentation. On January 6, Walgreens Boots announced it had reached a deal with AmerisourceBergen Corp to sell the "the majority of” its European-focused wholesale pharmaceutical distribution business, Alliance Healthcare, for about $6.5 billion ($6.275 billion in cash along with 2 million shares of ABC). Please note that Walgreens already owns a sizable stake in AmerisourceBergen as the former owned ~28% of the latter’s outstanding shares as of August 31, 2020. The deal is expected to close by the end of AmerisourceBergen’s fiscal 2021 (at the end of September 2021). The transaction should positively benefit both parties. Walgreens gets a nice cash infusion to help upgrade its core operations while AmerisourceBergen gains significant scale and greater exposure to European markets. The existing arrangements between Walgreens and AmerisourceBergen should assist both firms in realizing their targeted synergies, at least in theory, though the healthcare sector is inherently complex. We continue to prefer exposure to the "pharmacy-oriented" space through one of our favorite dividend growth ideas UnitedHealth Group. We also include Johnson & Johnson and the Healthcare Select SPDR ETF in the newsletter portfolios.

Nov 5, 2020

UnitedHealth Remains on Our Radar for Dividend Growth Newsletter Portfolio
Image: On a price-only basis, from the beginning of 2008, UnitedHealth’s shares have advanced ~600%, while the S&P 500 has increased ~150%. The measurement period covers both the Obama and Trump administrations. UnitedHealth offers investors defensive characteristics, and the company has revealed considerable resiliency in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as through changes in healthcare laws during prior administrations. Strong earnings momentum (i.e. the recent guidance increase), solid and growing free cash flow generation, and a very healthy balance sheet are key components to its story. The company has put up sizable double-digit dividend increases in recent years, and we believe it has the capacity to continue to do so. Free cash flow generation during the first nine months of 2020 covered dividends paid by a factor of 4.2x. At 21x expected 2020 earnings, UnitedHealth isn’t too pricey in light of its free cash flow generation and balance sheet health, and its ~1.6% dividend yield isn’t too shabby, by any stretch either. We have exposure to the company via the Healthcare Select Sector SPDR ETF, but we’re keeping UnitedHealth on our radar for addition to the Dividend Growth Newsletter portfolio at the right price.

Nov 4, 2020

Best Ideas Newsletter Portfolio Holdings Are Surging!
Image: The holdings in the Best Ideas Newsletter during the trading session November 4. We continue to pound the table on our best ideas. If you were like me, you stayed up as long as you could last night watching the U.S. election coverage before it became too difficult to keep your eyes open. When I went to sleep, it seemed as though Donald Trump would be re-elected. The only state that appeared to flip to the Democrats from the 2016 election was Arizona, meaning Trump would still retain greater than the 270 electoral votes required to gain re-election. Well, that was last night, and this is today. As more and more votes came in last night and into the morning, it became evident that the races in Wisconsin and Michigan were much tighter than the news coverage last night led to believe. In fact, with just a small percentage of the votes left outstanding to count in those states, Joe Biden appears to be running ahead of Donald Trump in those states, if only ever so slightly (~20,000-30,000 votes). Donald Trump’s huge gap in Pennsylvania--about 8.7 percentage points at the time of this writing--may also narrow when it is all said and done. The bottom line is that this election is just too early to call!

Oct 22, 2020

Overweighting Outperformers
Image: The performance of ideas in the Best Ideas Newsletter portfolio during the trading session October 21. Many of the higher-weighted ideas in the newsletter portfolio are propelling the portfolio to relative outperformance. The Best Ideas Newsletter portfolio comprises a portfolio constructed of Valuentum's best ideas. These are companies that have scored favorably on the Valuentum Buying Index (VBI) and have been included in the newsletter portfolio with consideration of sector diversification and market/economic risk. The Best Ideas Newsletter portfolio is found in the Best Ideas Newsletter, which is released on the 15th of each month. Source: Seeking Alpha.

Oct 15, 2020

Johnson & Johnson Once Again Raises Guidance
Image Shown: An overview of Johnson & Johnson’s financial performance during the third quarter of fiscal 2020. Image Source: Johnson & Johnson – Third Quarter of Fiscal 2020 IR Earnings Presentation. On October 13, Johnson & Johnson reported third quarter fiscal 2020 earnings (period ended September 27, 2020) that beat consensus non-GAAP EPS estimates and consensus GAAP revenue estimates, though its GAAP EPS fell short of consensus estimates likely due to turbulence created by the ongoing coronavirus (‘COVID-19’) pandemic. Johnson & Johnson’s GAAP revenues were up 2% year-over-year last fiscal quarter while its GAAP gross margin stayed broadly flat at 66.9%. A sharp reduction in other expenses resulted in Johnson & Johnson’s GAAP net income more than doubling year-over-year in the fiscal third quarter. The company once again raised its full-year guidance for fiscal 2020 (boosting both its top- and bottom-line forecasts) during its latest earnings report, just as it did back during its fiscal second quarter earnings report. Stronger than expected performance at Johnson & Johnson’s ‘Medical Devices’ business operating segment was largely responsible for the guidance increase according to management commentary during the firm’s latest earnings call. We continue to include shares of Johnson & Johnson in both our Best Ideas Newsletter and Dividend Growth Newsletter portfolios.