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Recent Articles
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Altria Expects Modest Earnings Growth in 2025, Shares Yield 7.8%
Feb 2, 2025
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Image Source: Altria.
Altria ended the year with $3.1 billion in cash and cash equivalents and $24.9 billion in debt. Looking to 2025, Altria expects to deliver full-year adjusted diluted earnings per share in a range of $5.22-$5.37, which reflects a growth rate of 2%-5% from a base of $5.12 in 2024. Management expects 2025 capital expenditures to be between $175-$225 million. Though Altria’s 2025 outlook came in lower than expected, we like the firm’s pricing power and income generation potential with a forward estimated yield of 7.8%.
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ASML Holding’s Bookings Soar in Fourth Quarter
Feb 1, 2025
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Image Source: TradingView.
We continue to like ASML as an idea in the ESG Newsletter portfolio, and the company’s bookings number for the fourth quarter was solid, helping to alleviate some concerns that arose by its weak third-quarter bookings result. The company’s first-quarter outlook for net sales came in ahead of what the Street was looking for, and we liked that ASML reiterated its total net sales expectation for 2025 to be between €30 billion and €35 billion.
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IBM’s Generative AI Book of Business Doing Well
Feb 1, 2025
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Image Source: TradingView.
For the full year 2024, IBM generated net cash from operating activities, excluding IBM financing receivables, of $13.9 billion and hauled in $12.7 billion in free cash flow for the year, up $1.5 billion, and exceeding dividends paid of $6.1 billion. IBM ended the fourth quarter with $14.8 billion in cash and marketable securities, and debt, including IBM Financing debt of $12.1 billion, totaled $55 billion, down $1.6 billion from the end of 2023. For full year 2025, IBM expects full-year constant currency revenue growth of at least 5% and free cash flow of $13.5 billion for the full year, both measures exceeding the consensus forecast. Shares of IBM yield 2.6% at the time of this writing.
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Apple Reports Best Quarter Ever Despite Declining iPhone, China Sales
Jan 31, 2025
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Image Source: TradingView.
During the quarter, Apple returned to shareholders $3.9 billion in dividends and equivalents and $23.3 billion in share repurchases. Looking to the March quarter, management expects total company revenue to grow low to mid-single-digits year-over-year, with Services revenue to grow low double-digits year-over-year. It expects its gross margin to be between 46.5%-47.5%, about in line with the December quarter. We continue to be fans of Apple’s large installed base (2.35 billion active devices) and growing, high-margin Services business, and the company remains a key holding in the newsletter portfolios.
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