Valuentum Exclusive Analysis for the Discerning Investor

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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.

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.

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

Earnings Roundup
Let's get Nelson's thoughts on five stocks recently reporting their first-quarter 2023 results: PYPL, DPZ, MNST, BKNG, TXRH.

How Do We Use the Valuentum Buying Index?
Image: We highlighted Exxon Mobil to start 2022, and the stock was one of the best performers in the S&P 500 during that year. Exxon Mobil was a “Valuentum” stock during 2022, with shares being undervalued, exhibiting a strong technical breakout, and sporting an attractive dividend yield to boot. The stock was a huge winner. We answer one of the most frequently asked questions about the Valuentum Buying Index.

Brain Teaser - Reflexive versus Reflective
Image: Amy Leonard. Valuation multiples tend to trigger the reflexive side of our brain, and we process the multiples through anchoring. On the other hand, enterprise valuation, or the process required to answer the questions (in this article) correctly, shows that our reflexive process can be quite incorrect at times. In fact, cognitive biases such as anchoring can completely trip us up into missing out on truly undervalued companies that may have high P/E ratios while baiting us into value traps with low P/E ratios.

Your Role as a Choice Architect
Image: Impact Hub Global Network. Richard Thaler in his groundbreaking book Nudge, co-written with Cass Sunstein, talked about the role of the choice architect. A choice architect is basically someone or some organization that has the responsibility for organizing the context and content in which people make decisions. At Valuentum, we can never provide personalized buy/sell advice, but in providing publishing services, we've opted for the healthy option for members, and that sometimes means you won't find a large selection of dessert options. This isn't a shortcoming of our service (i.e. we know desserts are tempting), but rather a key positive attribute. As we've shown time and time again, you don't need to look far to beat the market return (or, by comparison, to have a healthy diet). If something is not on the menu at Valuentum, it means the chef has something better cooking in the kitchen. Here's to your long-term financial health!

ICYMI: As Expected, Stock Pickers Trounce the Indexes When It Matters
Image: Charles Dickens. Image Source: Public Domain. “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of light, it was the season of darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair.” -- Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities. We are big believers in prudent and diversified stock selection more than we ever have before, and we have little confidence in applying correlations, as in traditional asset allocation, to try to achieve financial goals and manage risks. In this age of wisdom, we like to follow the data, and the data keeps pointing to prudent and diversified stock selection as one of the best risk-adjusted ways to achieve long-term financial goals. To each, their own, but we continue to like stocks for the long run, and 2022 was yet another example why!

Walmart Warns: “Prices Are Still High and There Is Considerable Pressure on the Consumer”
Image Source: Mike Mozart. Walmart’s outlook may very well be conservative, but its commentary certainly doesn’t bode well for many discretionary retailers and the broader economy. With the labor markets still strong and the producer price index still coming in hot, the Federal Reserve is not yet done raising rates. We expect the markets to test their uptrends and 200-day moving averages in the coming days to weeks, and if we break through these support levels to the downside, we won’t hesitate to “raise some cash” across the newsletter portfolios. When Walmart warns about the health of the consumer, we pay attention.

Our Reports on Stocks in the Technology Giants Industry
Our reports on stocks in the Technology Giants industry can be found in this article. Reports include META, AAPL, GOOG, AMZN, MSFT, CSCO, V, MA, PYPL, INTC, ORCL, QCOM, ADI, IBM, ADBE, NVDA, CRM, AMD, AVGO, BABA, BKNG, BIDU, TSM, TXN, EBAY, ADP, MU, KFY, MAN, KLAC, LRCX, AMAT.