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Recent Articles
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Caterpillar's Pricing Power Remains Phenomenal
Nov 1, 2023
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Image: Price realization remains a key driver behind Caterpillar’s strong performance.
On October 31, Caterpillar reported better-than-expected third-quarter results, with revenue advancing 12% and non-GAAP diluted earnings per share handily beating the consensus forecast. Caterpillar continues to benefit from significant pricing power, but the firm is also experiencing volume increases. The firm's adjusted operating profit margin expanded to 20.8% in the third quarter compared to 16.5% for the third quarter of 2022. Caterpillar ended the third quarter with $6.5 billion in cash and cash equivalents, short-term borrowings of ~$4.2 billion, and long-term debt of ~$1 billion and ~$7.6 billion in its ‘Machinery, Energy & Transportation’ and ‘Financial Products’ divisions, respectively. Its balance sheet, while not showcasing a net cash position, remains very healthy, in our view, especially in the context of its free cash flow generation. Through the first nine months of 2023, the maker of mining and construction equipment’s cash flow from operations soared to ~$8.9 billion, as it shelled out just ~$1.06 billion in capital expenditures, a number that excludes equipment leased to others (~$1.2 billion). Free cash flow generation at the firm remains excellent, and we like that it continues to focus on dividend growth. We continue to like the pricing power witnessed within Caterpillar’s operations of late, and we’re sticking with our above-market $262 fair value estimate for now.
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Public Storage Raises Core FFO Guidance for 2023
Oct 31, 2023
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Image Source: Public Storage.
Among the REIT sub-sectors, we continue to favor the self-storage space mostly because its traditional free cash flow dynamics are much more attractive. Self-storage REITs are generally recession-resistant, too, offer high operating margins, and generally lower maintenance capital requirements. Public Storage is our favorite self-storage REIT and yields ~5% at the time of this writing. Shares of PSA have soured with the broader equity REIT sell-off this year and have declined nearly 13% year-to-date in 2023. Though we expect a challenging market environment for equity REITs, we view Public Storage as the best long-term play in self-storage.
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3 Mid Caps With Net Cash And Strong Free Cash Flow
Oct 31, 2023
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Image: Chewy's best-in-class customer service is paying off in strong free cash flow generation.
We're huge fans of companies with net cash on their balance sheet and strong free cash flow generating potential. This view has led us to favor the areas of big cap tech and the stylistic area of large cap growth in the newsletter portfolios, but there are other companies emerging with similar economics on a smaller scale. Chewy, Inc. E.L.F Beauty and DocuSign are three that come to mind, and all three of these names boast a strong balance sheet and favorable free cash flow dynamics. Each of these companies is also benefiting from secular growth trends as they seek to gain market share against rivals. Though certainly not without valuation risk as the trajectory of free cash flow expectations will certainly cause volatility in their respective stocks, we think all three may be worthy of consideration for the aggressive, risk-seeking investor targeting long-term capital appreciation.
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The Dividend Growth Newsletter Portfolio’s Outperformance
Oct 30, 2023
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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%.
Large cap growth names in the likes of Apple, Microsoft, Oracle, and Cisco form a solid foundation for continued dividend growth across the portfolio thanks in part to their fantastic Dividend Cushion ratios. Not only this, but we like the defensive characteristics of garbage hauler Republic Services and McDonald’s, and the tried-and-true dynamics of Home Depot, Honeywell and UnitedHealth, which can handle just about any economic environment that is thrown at them. Today, the 10-year Treasury rate stands at close to 5%, so while many dividend growth stocks don’t yield as much, we still like their cash-based sources of intrinsic value, as such dynamics offer substantial support to their equity prices, despite competing sources of income.
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