Valuentum Exclusive Analysis for the Discerning Investor

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Mar 11, 2024

How Some Members Use Valuentum’s Investment Services
We serve a wide variety of investors, including dividend growth investors, value investors, and pure Valuentum investors, among others. Many different types of investors and professionals use our research and financial analysis in a whole host of applications from individual stock-selection to the evaluation of closed-end funds to an overlay in a money-management setting and beyond. The Best Ideas Newsletter portfolio seeks to find stocks that have good value and good momentum characteristics and typically targets capital appreciation potential over a longer-term horizon. The Dividend Growth Newsletter portfolio seeks to find underpriced dividend growth gems that generate strong levels of free cash flow and have pristine, fortress balance sheets, translating into excellent Valuentum Dividend Cushion ratios. The High Yield Dividend Newsletter portfolio seeks to find some of the highest-yielding stocks supported by strong credit profiles and solid business models, but not always robust traditional free cash flow. Ideas in this newsletter offer higher-yielding opportunities, but also much higher capital and income risk. We also offer a full suite of products to financial advisers (gold level) that range from a more extensive Excel-based screening tool (the DataScreener) to 'Ideas' and 'Dividend' publications that are released on a quarterly basis. Our research product includes hundreds of stock reports, fair values, fair value ranges, associated commentary, as well as dividend reports with Valuentum Dividend Cushion ratios and expected dividend growth rates. Silver and gold-level members can add the Valuentum Exclusive or additional options commentary/ideas to their plans. The Exclusive publication is a part of the institutional (platinum) level membership.

Aug 2, 2023

ICYMI: Let’s Play Devil’s Advocate: What’s the Bear Case for Realty Income?
Image Source: Realty Income. It’s helpful to challenge one’s thesis on a favorite idea every now and then, and we’ve done just that with Realty Income in this article. We see three areas of weakness at Realty Income that could challenge our bullish take on the name: 1) its retail exposure, 2) its financial leverage and arguably unwarranted investment-grade credit rating, and 3) the current rising interest rate environment. Perhaps the most compelling component of the bear case on Realty Income is its massive net debt position and present value of future dividend liabilities that dwarf its annual operating cash flow. The REIT business model isn’t as attractive as many make it out to be.

May 14, 2023

There Are No Free 'Income' Lunches
Image Source: Jeffrey Beall. 2023 has been a great year thus far, and we continue to highlight the best areas for consideration following a great relative year in 2022. Highly-rated ideas on the Valuentum Buying Index are few and far between, but we’ll be going to “fully invested” soon enough. The regional banking crisis is having a muted impact on market sentiment at this point, and the Fed looks to be winning the battle against inflation. We’re excited about what the back of 2023 may look like, and we hope you are, too.

Jan 20, 2023

Why Are the Dividends of REITs So Risky?
REITs, as measured by the Vanguard ETF (VNQ), have generated a total return of 39.5% since the beginning of 2015 through the end of 2022, an eight-year period that has translated into a measly compound annual return of just 4.25%. This compares to a total return of the Vanguard S&P 500 ETF (VOO) of 116.3%, which translates into a compound annual return of 10.1% over the same time period. Not only have REITs underperformed terribly during the past 8 years, but there have been more than 100 dividend cuts by REITs over this time period, too. REITs just aren’t what some make them out to be. Be careful.

Dec 7, 2022

REITs May Continue to Face Pressure
Image: The Dividend Cushion ratio is one of the most powerful financial tools an income or dividend growth investor can use in conjunction with qualitative dividend analysis. The ratio is one-of-a-kind in that it is both free-cash-flow based and forward looking. Since its creation in 2012, the Dividend Cushion ratio has forewarned readers of approximately 50 dividend cuts. We estimate its efficacy at ~90%. Equity and mortgage REITs have been under considerable pressure during 2022. Institutional investors seem to be fleeing the sector, but retail investor interest still seems unusually high. We think this might be a tell-tale sign that retail investors could end up getting burned, if they haven’t been already by the terrible performance across the sector so far in 2022. Withdrawals on non-publicly traded REITs are soaring, and SL Green’s dividend cut may be the first of many in the sector to come. We only include a select few REITs across our simulated newsletter portfolios.

Nov 18, 2022

Dividend Increases/Decreases for the Week of November 18
Let's take a look at firms raising/lowering their dividends this week.

Oct 23, 2022

Must Watch: MPT Failures and High Yield Dividend Breakdown Spiral!
Valuentum's President of Investment Research breaks down what went wrong with modern portfolio theory in 2022, and why investors that have been lured into "sucker" yields may have just experienced permanent capital impairment with their retirement savings. A two-part video series.

Oct 19, 2022

High Yield Dividend Newsletter Portfolio Continues to Deliver!
Image: The year-to-date simulated performance of the High Yield Dividend Newsletter portfolio, which continues to hold up well during 2022, while offering an attractive forward estimated dividend yield. Data retrieved interim session October 19.Valuentum's newsletter product suite continues to deliver in good times and bad. For those of you interested in high dividend paying stocks, we offer a High Yield Dividend Newsletter and a simulated High Yield Dividend Newsletter portfolio, which has been holding up well amid the weakness across both the stock and bond markets this year. Based on our calculations, the simulated High Yield Dividend Newsletter portfolio now boasts an estimated forward dividend yield of ~5.44% and is down only approximately 10% on a price-only basis so far this year. Even though this year has been tough, the simulated High Yield Dividend Newsletter portfolio's track record speaks to fantastic stock selection and portfolio construction! But why: Well, the Vanguard Real Estate ETF (VNQ), which many use to approximate the performance of REITs, is down ~32.6% so far this year, while the iShares Mortgage Real Estate Capped ETF (REM) is down ~39.4%. The S&P 500, as measured by the SPY, is down ~23.3% year-to-date. The simulated High Yield Dividend Newsletter portfolio has even outpaced bonds, as measured by the AGG, which is down ~16.8% this year, data according to Seeking Alpha. Perhaps the best benchmark for the simulated High Yield Dividend Newsletter portfolio, however, is the SPDR Portfolio S&P 500 High Dividend ETF (SPYD), and this one is down ~13.6% this year, while only sporting a forward estimated dividend yield of ~4.3%, both stats according to Seeking Alpha. The High Yield Dividend Newsletter portfolio simply is delivering for members!

Jun 24, 2021

Mortgage REITs Have Underperformed Significantly the Past Several Years
Image: An ETF that tracks the mortgage REIT industry has fallen more than 31% on a price-only basis, while an ETF that tracks the S&P 500 has advanced more than 160% on a price-only basis, as measured from May 2013. The yields on mortgage REIT instruments are certainly very tempting, but the payouts just haven’t been high enough to offset their price weakness as book values continue to whipsaw around along with interest rates. We thought it time to take a victory lap on our call made years ago, and we think avoiding mortgage REITs continues to make a lot of sense for most long-term investors.

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!