Apple: “We’ve Got a New Watch Launch Coming in the Spring”
November 3, 2014
News leaked that the new Apple Watch will launch in the spring, an update from previous expectations of “early 2015.” Though the news is a bit inconsequential, it has shares of the Best Ideas portfolio and Dividend Growth portfolio holding approaching $110 each. To continue reading >>
How About Teva Pharmaceuticals?
November 3, 2014
We care very much about our members. We listen to every comment. We read every email. We take everything to heart. We know we’re not supposed to, but we can’t help but be passionate about our work. We strive for your success, and we take failure personally. There are some investors that want our best ideas to work out yesterday. That’s just not going to happen. Aside from yesterday being in the past, our best ideas tend to work out over a 12-24 month time period. This is a reasonable time period to expect price-to-fair-value convergence on stocks with good momentum. From our experience, this is the time period in which the Valuentum process has its greatest efficacy, and no
The November Edition of the Dividend Growth Newsletter!
November 2, 2014
Please download the November edition of the Dividend Growth Newsletter .
Dividend Increases for the Week Ending October 31
November 1, 2014
Below we provide a list of firms that raised their dividends during the week ending October 31. 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 Access Midstream Partners (ACMP): now $0.615 per share quarterly distribution, was $0.5950. AFLAC (AFL): now $0.39 per share quarterly dividend, was $0.37. Allison Transmission (ALSN): now $0.15 per share quarterly dividend, was $0.12. Associated Banc (ASBC): now $0.10 per share quarterly dividend, was $0.09. Atlas Energy (ATLS): now $0.52 per share quarterly distribution, was $0.49. Atlas Pipeline (APL): now $0.64 per share quarterly distribution, was $0.63.
We’re At New Highs Again
October 31, 2014
The taper came and went, and the markets don’t seem to care. The S&P 500 notched yet another high this week. The correction that we warned about came and went as well, almost as if market forces created such an event just to move higher. From my experience, the market, at the present moment, is trading almost purely on technicals. For example, once we touched the 10% official mark of a correction, we started to move higher, and once the markets started to move higher, the move accelerated. Consecutive gap ups following pull-backs have become the norm. This market has become almost a pure technical market, where traders and moving averages are taking precedent over fundamentals. This won’t last forever. The
Nothing Wrong at the Monthly Dividend Company
October 30, 2014
“Rule No.1: Never lose money. Rule No.2: Never forget rule No.1.” — Warren Buffett One of the most important duties of our team is to keep bad ideas from creeping into your portfolio–bad ideas like American Realty Capital (ARCP). Accounting issues at American Realty Capital have recently cost its stockholders dearly, with the REIT’s shares down 30% from the announcement. Only after the fact did brokerage houses JP Morgan, BMO Capital and Capital One downgrade the REIT’s shares. Even some of the most-read REIT authors on blogs had bought into ARCP’s hype. Not us. Realty Income (O)—nicknamed the Monthly Dividend Company–remains our standout dividend growth REIT pick, and investors have flocked to its shares amid the chaos. Realty Income’s shares
Best Ideas Portfolio Holding Visa Doesn’t Disappoint
October 30, 2014
It’s hard to find anything wrong with Visa’s (V) business model. The company offers a secure, payment network that is accepted virtually everywhere in the United States. The firm makes money every time a Visa user swipes his or her debit or credit card. The company does not take on credit risk – or the risk that users will pay outstanding balances on the credit cards. This attribute makes its business model much more attractive (less risky) than that of a Discover (DFS), for example. Visa benefits from two fantastic competitive advantages: a network effect and costly initial investment. The network effect is incredibly strong. As of its last update, the firm has more than 2 billion cards outstanding accepted
Gilead’s Revenue More Than Doubles in Third Quarter
October 29, 2014
What more can we say about Gilead (GILD)? The firm’s product line-up is so strong–namely its key hepatitis C virus drug Sovaldi–that it has the government worried about its impact on Medicare, Medicaid and other federal spending. Gilead’s primary areas of focus–HIV/AIDS, hepatitis B and C, as well as serious cardiovascular/metabolic and respiratory conditions–offer key long-term growth opportunities. The firm’s third-quarter report, released October 28, continued to showcase the firm’s expansion potential. Total revenues in the period increased to $6.04 billion compared to $2.78 billion for the third quarter of last year. Net income for the third quarter of 2014 was $2.73 billion, or $1.67 per diluted share compared to $788.6 million or $0.47 per diluted share for the third quarter
Facebook Has Increased Four-Fold Since Its September 2012 Bottom
October 29, 2014
Facebook’s (FB) share price is taking a beating after the company posted better-than-expected third-quarter results. Savvy investors know that the future is all that matters, and once a quarter is complete, the only thing that matters is what the company says about its outlook. What Facebook said about the remainder of 2014 and 2015 wasn’t great with respect to spending guidance. Wise investors, however, will look to 2016 and beyond to assess the firm’s earnings potential. Facebook’s third-quarter results were fine. In fact, they were excellent. Revenue for the third quarter totaled $3.2 billion, a near-60% increase from last year’s quarter. Mobile advertising revenue represented nearly two thirds of advertising revenue during the period, up from about half during the
Ouch…Coach. Large Cash Balance Offers Flexibility Though.
October 28, 2014
We always look for revenue expansion before diving into any idea. Such an approach is the cornerstone of avoiding falling knives (stocks that look like value but yet keep falling). For Coach (COH), we were modeling in a very difficult 2015 and 2016, but we thought 2017 and 2018 would be brighter for the handbag maker as it annualizes weak comparable sales and gets North America back on track. We also thought the firm’s ~3.8% dividend yield would act as support for the firm’s shares. Though most of this may still be true, the company’s calendar third-quarter results left much to be desired. On a constant-currency basis, revenue fell 9% in the period, while net income for the quarter totaled
