Brian Nelson

Dividend Increases/Decreases for the Week Ending April 11

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Below we provide a list of firms that raised/lowered their dividends during the week ending April 11. 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 AptarGroup (ATR): now $0.28 per share quarterly dividend, was $0.25. BNY Mellon (BK): now $0.17 per share quarterly dividend, was $0.15. Chatham Lodging Trust (CLDT): now $0.08 per share monthly dividend, was $0.07. Genesis Energy (GEL): now $0.55 per share quarterly distribution, was $0.535. Hospitality Properties Trust (HPT): now $0.49 per share quarterly dividend, was $0.48 IDEX (IEX): now $0.28 per share quarterly dividend, was $0.23. … Read more

Use a Margin of Safety in This High-Risk Market Environment

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“One major criticism that we always hear about value investing is “what’s your risk management, how do you know when you’re wrong”? Well, a great value investor gives himself a margin of safety, in other words you don’t have to know how much a fat person weighs to realize they’re overweight. Like John Keynes said “It is better to be roughly right than precisely wrong.” If you come to a conclusion that a $100 stock is trading at $65, even if you’re overestimating the stock’s value by 25%, at $81.25 there is still plenty of room for the stock to appreciate to $100.” — The Irrelevant Investor The markets faced some tough sledding this week, with the S&P 500 (SPY), … Read more

Three Charts That Make You Go Hmmm…

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We came across three fascinating charts from infamous tech-bubble analyst Henry Blodget that we wanted to make you aware of. Source: Don’t Be Surprised If This Is The Start of A Stock Market Crash…  1) The cyclically-adjusted price-to-earnings ratio of the S&P 500 (SPY) is higher than at any point in the 20th century with the exception of the peaks of 1929 (right before the market crashed) and 2000 (right before the market crashed). Image Source: Robert Shiller, Business Insider, Henry Blodget 2) Today’s profit margins are the highest in history, and investors are assigning peak-margin valuations to equities to justify prices instead of applying mid-cycle margin valuations to approximate intrinsic value. Image Source: Business Insider, St. Louis Fed, Henry Blodget … Read more

Encouraging News Regarding Worldwide PC Shipments

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You may not have noticed it, but Intel (INTC) has rallied nearly seven points since the bottom established in late 2012 – that’s roughly a 40%+ upward advance through today. On Wednesday, International Data Corp (IDC) released some very good news for the PC supply chain. Though worldwide personal computer (PC) shipments continued to decline during the first quarter of 2014, the pace of the fall was nearly a percentage point better than expected (-4.4% versus -5.3% forecast, -5.6% in the fourth quarter, and -7.3% in the third quarter). Much of the upside surprise during the period came from mature commercial markets as technical support for Windows XP expired. After eight consecutive quarters of declines in worldwide PC shipments, we’re … Read more

Alcoa’s First Quarter Results: The Most Important Slide

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Image Source: Alcoa Notes: Aerospace: 7.5% end market CAGR (2013-2016); ~8 year production backlog for large commercial aircraft Automotive: >50% CAGR for North American auto sheet (2013-2016); North American aluminum auto sheet demand by 2025 over 1 million metric tons Commercial Transportation: 3-4% heavy duty truck market CAGR (2013-2016); 40% of wheels market expected to be aluminum by 2014 Packaging: 2-3% global beverage can market CAGR (2013-2016); aluminum penetration versus steel continues in China, Asia, Europe and Africa (currently 86% globally) Continued Growth Across End Markets Alcoa is increasing its 2014 global aerospace growth expectation by one percentage point (8 percent to 9 percent, previously 7 percent to 8 percent), on strong demand for both large commercial aircraft and regional … Read more

Ford’s Opportunity in China

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Asia Pacific Africa “Ford’s strategy in Asia Pacific Africa is to grow aggressively with an expanding portfolio of global One Ford products with manufacturing hubs in China, India and ASEAN… …In the fourth quarter, wholesale volume was up 29 percent from a year ago, and net revenue, which excludes the company’s China joint ventures, grew 16 percent. Ford’s wholesale volume in China was up 45 percent in the fourth quarter and about 50 percent for the full year. The higher volume in the region mainly reflects improved market share. Higher industry volume, increasing from a SAAR of 33.1 million units to 38.1 million units and favorable changes in dealer stocks also contributed. Higher revenue primarily reflects favorable volume and mix. … Read more

Coal Industry Update

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In July of last year, Valuentum offered its comprehensive outlook for the coal and railroad industries (click here). Since that time, Union Pacific (UNP), our favorite railroad idea, has surged to $185 per share from $155 per share, while some of our biggest concerns regarding the coal miners have come to fruition. James River Coal (JRCC), one of the most indebted miners in the industry, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy Tuesday, a process that will likely result in the complete eradication of shareholders’ equity as the firm restructures: James River intends to use the Chapter 11 process to continue implementing a comprehensive turnaround plan aimed at addressing its challenges in the changing coal mining industry. James River expects its mining … Read more

eBay’s Same-Store Sales Are Accelerating

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No longer is eBay (EBAY) a simple auction website. With PayPal, eBay has become an Internet commerce powerhouse and an impressive, hard-to-duplicate payment platform. If this weren’t enough to get investors excited about the company’s stranglehold on the Internet, Carl Icahn is taking some major steps to coerce the market to recognize eBay’s true intrinsic value. The activist guru is encouraging management to conduct an initial public offering (IPO) of PayPal, a move that we think will unlock shareholder value. We’ve seen companies spin off subsidiaries many a time before, the most recent planned offering is Yahoo (YHOO) and Alibaba, for example. Yahoo has performed wonderfully in light of the monetization and increased liquidity of its investment in Alibaba, and … Read more

Dividend Increases for the Week Ending April 4

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Below we provide a list of firms that raised their dividends during the week ending April 4. 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 Ameriana Bancorp (ASBI): now $0.02 per share quarterly dividend, was $0.01. Artesian Resources Corporation (ARTNA): now $0.2119 per share quarterly dividend, was $0.2088. Bank of the Ozarks (OZRK): now $0.23 per share quarterly dividend, was $0.22. PNC Financial Services Group (PNC): now $0.48 per share quarterly dividend, was $0.44. Select Income REIT (SIR): now $0.48 per share quarterly dividend, was $0.46. TJX Companies (TJX): now $0.175 per … Read more