Intel’s Stock Is Marching Ever Higher
October 3, 2017
Image Shown: Intel’s shares have been catching a bid lately. Shares of newsletter portfolio idea Intel are cheap by our estimates, and the company sports a nice dividend yield to boot. Does it have further upside potential? By Brian Nelson, CFA We finally may be redeemed on our bullish call on newsletter portfolio idea Intel (INTC). It has taken a bit longer than usual but shares of the chip giant are now nearing the $40 per-share mark, levels that we thought it had deserved a couple years ago. Here’s a little background on the story arc – an except I wrote in October 2016: It was nearing the end of 2015, and I don’t think I was more bullish on
General Motors Is Off to the Races!
October 2, 2017
Image Shown: GM’s shares are breaking out. GM’s stock has been out of favor for years, but with an attractive price-to-earnings ratio and healthy dividend yield, is the market finally coming around to the company’s tremendous potential? By Brian Nelson, CFA General Motors’ (GM) share-price performance has been an enigma. The automaker’s price-to-earnings multiple is less than half and its dividend yield is more than double that of the average S&P 500 company, and we thought it was only a matter of time that the company’s share price would break out. There can only be so much time before market anomalies are closed, and GM was a big one. We wrote the following September 7, “Why Won’t GM Break Out
Verint Systems: An Overlooked Idea on Cybersecurity
October 2, 2017
Image Source: Verint The Best Ideas Newsletter idea is trying to break through the mid-$40s level, which has been illusive since late 2015. By Brian Nelson, CFA Verint Systems (VRNT) put up a very strong fiscal second-quarter (ended July 31) in early September when it beat bottom-line expectations by $0.14 and the top line by over $5 million. Not only did the top and bottom line come in ahead of expectations, but management increased its earnings-per-share outlook for the fiscal year ending January 31, 2018, to $2.75 at the midpoint. With shares trading at ~$40 each, that means Verint sports a multiple under 15 times current-year fiscal earnings, comparatively cheap (on a forward basis, the S&P 500 is trading over
Valuentum’s October Edition of Its Dividend Growth Newsletter
October 1, 2017
Image Source: Chris Potter To download the October edition of the Dividend Growth Newsletter, please select here (pdf).
Dividend Increases for the Week Ending September 29
October 1, 2017
Below we provide a list of firms that raised/lowered their dividends during the week ending September 29. 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 American Express Company (AXP): now $0.35 per share quarterly dividend, was $0.32. BancFirst (BANF): now $0.21 per share quarterly dividend, was $0.19. Bank of South Carolina (BKSC): now $0.15 per share quarterly dividend, was $0.14. CSB Bancorp (CSBB): now $0.22 per share quarterly dividend, was $0.20. Emera (EMRAF): now CAD 0.565 per share quarterly dividend, was $0.5225. The First of Long Island (FLIC): now $0.15 per
Will Texas Tea Hit $75 Per Barrel By Year’s End?
September 30, 2017
Image Shown: The performance of the VanEck Vectors Oil Refiners ETF (CRAK) since its launch in August 2015. We’ve witnessed our fair share of fits and starts from energy resource pricing during the past few years, but could the global crude markets finally be rebalancing? Let’s talk about our thoughts on whether the outlook for energy resource pricing is improving in a sustainable way. By Kris Rosemann and Brian Nelson, CFA It may have taken longer than we initially anticipated, but crude oil prices (USO) appear to be on the verge of making a sustained recovery, though we always caution that sentiment can change on a dime, especially in the speculation-heavy commodity price markets. If you recall, we thought the
Amazon Casts a Large Shadow Over the Pharmacy Industry
September 30, 2017
Image Source: Mike Mozart It is our belief the food retailing industry is in the midst of widespread disruption with Amazon’s attempt to break into the supermarket game with its audacious purchase of Whole Foods. The Whole Foods acquisition is not likely to be an isolated one-off event; instead, it may be a harbinger of Amazon’s ambition to break into new markets, thus expanding its overall percentage of retail sales. We update our views on Amazon and how the company may eventually impact newsletter portfolio holding CVS Health. By Alexander J. Poulos Emulating the Costco Model Amazon’s (AMZN) purchase of Whole Foods (WFM) may be the initial step towards emulating the uber-successful Costco (COST) model where the bulk of profits
Our Reports on Stocks in the For-Profit Education Industry
September 29, 2017
Image Source: GotCredit Structure of the Education Services Industry The higher education industry is fragmented with no single private or public institution garnering significant market share. The for-profit education space competes primarily with traditional four and two-year degree-granting accredited colleges and universities. Industry participants are exposed to significant regulation on both the federal and state level and must maintain institutional accreditation to participate in Title IV programs. Risks to federal student funding aid programs and “gainful employment” challenges pose addition threats to the business. We don’t like the significant regulatory risks of the industry. Please click on a company name below to view the corresponding equity report: Adtalem Global Education (ATGE) << Our Dividend Reports
Boeing, Visa Top Dow Performers Thus Far in 2017
September 25, 2017
Image Source: Ken Mist Two of our favorite ideas have been leading the pack. By Brian Nelson, CFA We don’t send newsletter notifications often. In fact, they are few and far between. But when we do highlight an idea for the newsletter portfolios, we want it to be a good one. On Friday, 24/7 Wall Street reported that Boeing (BA) had increased its lead as the Dow Jones Industrial Average’s (DIA) top performer during 2017, with the year-to-date mark reaching nearly 65%, as of the end of last week. If you recall, on January 26, we “added” the idea to the Dividend Growth Newsletter portfolio at $168.44, making it perhaps one of the best large-cap ideas highlighted anywhere during 2017.
How Strong Is Caterpillar’s 2.5% Dividend Yield?
September 24, 2017
Image Shown: A 10+ year share-price chart of Caterpillar. The stock has recently set new all-time highs. Caterpillar’s stock has reached new all-time highs! How excited should income investors be? By Brian Nelson, CFA Caterpillar (CAT) is one of our favorite companies from a fundamental perspective, if we look past the cyclicality of its operations and exposure to potential weak credits at its captive finance arm. No matter how you slice it or dice it though, the company’s dealer network is a significant competitive advantage, and the executive team’s ability to manage costs through the course of the economic cycle continues to be impressive. That its shares have now surged past $120+ to all-time highs, levels that it had only
