Goldman Posts a Blowout Quarter
July 27, 2020
While we still do not like the private ($17 billion) and public equity ($3 billion) positions on Goldman’s balance sheet, we acknowledge that the firm is working them lower through sales and that the bank is aiming to increase managed funds instead. This move is overdue and will help reduce the risk profile of the firm. Though the quarter showed the massive revenue potential of Goldman when markets are at fairly high levels and with extreme volatility, it is difficult to value these earnings streams, given the notoriously volatile nature of the key segments of investment banking and markets (trading). By Matthew Warren Goldman Sachs (GS) posted blowout second-quarter results July 15 thanks to its notoriously volatile Markets and Investment
HCA’s Latest Results Indicate Healthcare Providers Are Holding Up Better Than Expected
July 27, 2020
Image Source: HCA Healthcare Inc – Second Quarter of 2020 Earnings Press Release By Callum Turcan The ongoing coronavirus (‘COVID-19’) pandemic has had a devastating impact on the financial performance of healthcare providers (operators of hospitals and other medical facilities) due to the decline in the number of elective surgeries performed. Please note elective surgeries tend to be more lucrative for healthcare providers than the other services they provide, generally speaking. Elective surgeries in many US states were indefinitely postponed when the pandemic first hit. In late March, Congress passed the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (‘CARES Act’) which included $100 billion in emergency funding for hospitals and healthcare providers to mitigate the financial blow from the pandemic
Earnings Brief: PEP, CMG, WHR, TSLA, TWTR, KMB
July 24, 2020
Second-quarter earnings season is coming in largely as expected. Many of the firms are reporting improving demand through the course of the quarter, and entities that were facing hardship are making the necessary adjustments to improve performance. Pandemic-driven demand has been evident across the consumer staples space, and innovative entities have not stopped innovating as a result of COVID-19. We maintain our view that the world is fight back against COVID-19, and we expect fundamental performance to continue to improve across myriad sectors and a greater “return to normalcy in 2021,” which is but six months away. Accommodative Fed/Treasury policy coupled with substantial increases in money supply may keep this market moving ever-higher. This article was modified to correct the
Intel’s 7-nm Chips Behind Schedule, Free Cash Flows Remain Strong
July 24, 2020
Image Shown: Intel Corporation made waves on July 23 when it announced its 7-nm chips were well behind schedule. Image Source: Intel Corporation – Second Quarter Fiscal 2020 IR Earnings Presentation By Callum Turcan On July 23, Intel Corporation (INTC) reported second quarter fiscal 2020 earnings (period ended June 27, 2020) that beat both consensus top- and bottom-line estimates. However, shares of INTC dropped during after hours trading that day due to Intel delaying the rollout of its 7-nanometer chips. The company offered full-year guidance for fiscal 2020 that indicated its growth trajectory was continuing in the face of the ongoing coronavirus (‘COVID-19’) pandemic, though investors were largely fixated on the delay of its 7-nm chip offerings. Guidance Update In
Dividend Increases/Decreases for the Week Ending July 24
July 24, 2020
Below we provide a list of firms that raised their dividends during the week ending July 24. The dividend reports of covered firms on this list will be updated shortly with the new information. To access our dividend reports use the ‘Symbol’ search box in our website header. Firms Raising Their Dividends This Week BBX Capital Corporation (BBX): now $1.19 per share special dividend, was $0.0625. Bluegreen Vacations Corporation (BXG): now $1.19 per share special dividend, was $0.13. Bright Scholar Education (BEDU): now $0.12/ADS annual dividend, was $0.10. Bryn Mawr Bank (BMTC): now $0.27 per share quarterly dividend, was $0.26. Camping World (CWH): now $0.09 per share quarterly dividend, was $0.08. Canadian Pacific Railway (CP): now CAD 0.95 per share
Microsoft Closes Out Fiscal 2020
July 23, 2020
Image Shown: An overview of Microsoft Corporation’s financial performance during the fourth quarter of fiscal 2020. The company reported strong year-over-year revenue growth across its three main business segments. Image Source: Microsoft Corporation – Fourth Quarter Fiscal 2020 Earnings PowerPoint Presentation By Callum Turcan On June 12, 2020 (link here), we added Microsoft Corporation (MSFT) back to the Best Ideas Newsletter and the Dividend Growth Newsletter portfolios. We strongly appreciate Microsoft’s net cash position, high quality cash flow profile, and its long-term outlook, which is underpinned by secular growth tailwinds. On July 22, Microsoft posted fourth quarter fiscal 2020 (period ended June 30, 2020) that beat both consensus top- and bottom-line estimates, though its guidance for the current fiscal quarter
Earnings Update: LMT, ISRG, KO, PM
July 23, 2020
By Brian Nelson, CFA We released a few preliminary thoughts on second quarter earnings in our note here, but we wanted to elaborate on a few new reports, too. Lockheed Martin (LMT) is included in the Dividend Growth Newsletter portfolio (login required), while Intuitive Surgical (ISRG) was highlighted as a COVID-19 play during the March swoon. Coca-Cola (KO) remains an excellent bellwether on the global economy, while Philip Morris (PM) remains a holding in the High Yield Dividend Newsletter portfolio (subscribe). Let’s cover the second quarter reports from these companies in this note. Lockheed Martin Achieves Record Backlog Things are looking good for Dividend Growth Newsletter portfolio holding Lockheed Martin. The company’s second-quarter results, released July 21, showed the defense
Second Quarter Earnings Roundup
July 22, 2020
The figure above shows the performance of the simulated Best Ideas Newsletter portfolio from inception May 17, 2011, through December 15, 2017, relative to its declared benchmark, the S&P 500 (SPY), on an apples-to-apples basis, with dividends collected but not reinvested for both the newsletter portfolio and the SPY, as reported in the monthly newsletter. The simulated Best Ideas Newsletter portfolio outperformed the S&P 500, including reinvested dividends in the benchmark, since inception (May 17, 2011) and since the inaugural release of the newsletter (July 13, 2011) through the end of the measurement period (December 15, 2017). The results are hypothetical and do not represent returns that an investor actually earned. Past results are not indicative of future performance. Valuentum
IBM’s Cloud Transition Continues
July 22, 2020
Image Source: International Business Machines Corporation – 2019 Annual Report By Callum Turcan On July 20, International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) reported second quarter 2020 earnings that beat both consensus top- and bottom-line estimates. Most of the market’s excitement centered on IBM’s ‘Cloud & Cognitive Software’ segment posting year-over-year revenue growth of ~3% in the second quarter while its company-wide GAAP revenue declined by ~5% year-over-year, though initial gains in IBM’s share price faded away during regular trading hours on July 21. In the earnings press release, IBM noted its “total cloud revenue” grew by 30% year-over-year last quarter. Shares of IBM are trading near their fair value estimate of $129 as of this writing, indicating that shares of IBM
Banks & Money Centers Industry Report
July 22, 2020
Select the link to download the pdf report below. Thank you! We’ll talk about how banks make money, and the three most important costs of running a bank. The Great Financial Crisis revealed the tremendous risks of banking equities, and we’ll walk through these in depth. We’ll discuss how to conceptualize where we are in the banking cycle, and how that helps inform our valuation process for banks, which is different than traditional operating entities. The stress tests have helped many of the big banks from pursuing hazardous endeavors during the past decade, and we’ll go into how to think about the yield curve in the context of banks. Investors should expect ongoing digitalization of banks and increased M&A as
