Happy Thanksgiving! 5 Entrepreneurs To Be Thankful For!
November 27, 2014
By Brian Nelson, CFA “Global Entrepreneurship Week” was November 17-23 this year, and the U.S. Congress continues to work diligently to establish the third Tuesday in November a national holiday celebrating the contributions of entrepreneurs to the U.S. as well as “honor those entrepreneurs who ignite innovation and inspire the next generation.” Today, this Thanksgiving, we wanted to celebrate the contributions of 5 entrepreneurs to be thankful for this holiday season. Feel free to add your favorite entrepreneur to this list as well and any obscure fact you want to share about him or her. The list is not meant to be comprehensive, but entertaining and educational. Please don’t forget to answer the bonus question below. Be sure to enjoy
Highlights from Tiffany’s Third Quarter
November 25, 2014
TIFFANY REPORTS SOLID THIRD QUARTER RESULTS Key Takeaways from Tiffany’s Third-Quarter Results Tiffany (TIF) is executing fantastically, and the Americas region, where comps jumped 11% in the quarter, was the standout. We expect the US to be the bright spot in the global economy for the holiday season across the luxury goods space. The US consumer is relatively healthy (the preliminary reading for GDP in the third quarter, released today, was 3.9%, a very healthy pace). Tiffany has become a gross margin story. The firm’s gross margin increased 250 basis points in the third quarter thanks to strong pricing, better cost controls, and a mix shift to higher-margin fashion jewelry. We expect sales and margin strength to continue into the
Dividend Increases for the Week Ending November 21
November 23, 2014
Let’s take a look at dividend increases for the week ending November 21.
What a Ride! Intel Jumps Past $35 Per Share
November 21, 2014
The news flow in the markets has started to slow as third-quarter earnings season nears a close. According to FactSet, through November 14, “of the 462 companies (out of the S&P 500) that have reported earnings to date for Q3 2014, 77% have reported earnings above the mean estimate and 59% have reported sales above the mean estimate…The blended earnings growth rate for Q3 2014 is 7.9%.” It appears that even with some big disappointments from such large firms as McDonald’s (MCD), Coca-Cola (KO), IBM (IBM) and Amazon (AMZN) that third-quarter earnings season could be considered better than mixed. That said, “for Q4 2014, 62 companies have issued negative EPS guidance and 19 companies have issued positive EPS guidance.” We
Best Buy Beats in Third Quarter
November 20, 2014
Best Buy (BBY) has been marked for dead for years. The demise of Circuit City and strategic concerns about excess floor space are two of the biggest red flags for a business model such as that of Best Buy. But the dagger in the Best Buy long thesis has always been that the company is merely a showroom where consumers flock to in order to try out new gadgets only to buy them at online competitors such as Amazon (AMZN) or eBay (EBAY) for a discount. Best Buy revealed in its third-quarter results, however, that it is handling the tumultuous competitive market quite well, and we think the firm’s fundamental resilience speaks to the general health of the brick-and-mortar big
A Guide to Valuentum’s Stock Reports
November 20, 2014
Download this slide deck that walks through the 16-page stock reports. <select image to download>
Walmart and Target Both Beat Expectations
November 19, 2014
Big box retailers have showcased some resilience during the third quarter, with Home Depot (HD), Lowe’s (LOW) and Dick’s Sporting Goods (DKS) posting relatively strong results. Walmart (WMT) and Target (TGT) also followed through with respectable quarters, and we think this bodes well for most of the group heading into the holiday season. Walmart’s third-quarter results, released November 13, showed consolidated net sales advancing 2.8% with US comparable store sales increasing 0.5% for the 13-week period ended October 31, 2014. Walmart has been under competitive attack from a variety of fronts. Not only is Target its key rival, but dollar stores such as Family Dollar (FDO), Dollar General (DG) and Dollar Tree (DLTR) have been nipping at its heels through
Medtronic Surpasses $70 Per Share
November 18, 2014
Interested in what the path of Medtronic’s (MDT) equity price has been since it was added to the Dividend Growth portfolio? Incredible, no? It’s so important that we point to our favorite ideas such that you can become familiar with our track record. We don’t get everything correct, but our hit rate on new ideas has been near perfect. Unlike other research houses, we take to heart Warren Buffett’s two rules: Rule No. 1: “Never lose money. Rule No. 2: Never forget rule No. 1.” This is why it may be a few weeks or a few months between each email transaction alert we send out to members. We want to deliver only the best. If we were interested in
Home Depot, Dick’s Sporting Goods Report Strong 3Q Results
November 18, 2014
Tuesday brought a couple solid reports from the consumer discretionary sector (XLY). Home Depot (HD), which we think is a better operator than peer Lowe’s (LOW), posted an impressive comparable-store sales increase during the third quarter, while Dick’s Sporting Goods (DKS) showcased a strong high-teens pace of top-line expansion in the period. Our reasoning behind Home Depot’s operating superiority relative to Lowe’s is worth repeating. For starters, the most important metric to judge a business is return on invested capital (ROIC), or the amount of earnings (before interest) that a firm generates divided by the amount of capital that it must hold in the business in order to generate that earnings stream. Return on invested capital is not a pure
