Brian Nelson

Our Reports on Stocks in the Mining & Chemicals Industry

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Dividend Yield: Estimated on a forward-looking annualized basis. VBI: The Valuentum Buying Index, a timeliness indicator that overlays a price-to-fair-value estimate consideration. Fair Value Estimate: Derived by Valuentum’s enterprise valuation process. Dividend Cushion ratio: A ratio assessing the health of the dividend (the higher, the better). Data as of the date of this article. Individual company reports may have been updated subsequent to the publishing of this article, so please download a company’s stock and dividend report for its latest information and data. Note: The data in the tables of each of the below companies’ respective stock pages is updated the weekend after the publishing of this update. Please click on a company name below to view the corresponding equity … Read more

Dividend Increases/Decreases for the Week of June 16

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Below we provide a list of firms that raised their dividends during the week ending June 16. 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                          Banco Bradesco (BBD): now $0.0039 per share monthly dividend, was $0.0035. Bank First (BFC): now $0.30 per share quarterly dividend, was $0.25. Caterpillar (CAT): now $1.30 per share quarterly dividend, was $1.20. CT Real Estate Investment Trust (UN:CA): now CAD 0.0749 per share monthly dividend, was CAD 0.0723. Essential Properties (EPRT): now $0.28 per share quarterly dividend, was $0.275. Host Hotels & Resorts (HST): … Read more

UnitedHealth Group’s Long-Term Story Intact

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Image: UnitedHealth Group’s shares are facing pressure as the pace of medical procedures normalizes following COVID-19. We still like shares. By Brian Nelson, CFA On June 7, UnitedHealth Group (UNH) raised its quarterly dividend nearly 14%, to $1.88 per share, which reflects a forward estimated dividend yield of 1.65%. The company remains a staple in the Dividend Growth Newsletter portfolio and is a new add in the Best Ideas Newsletter portfolio. Recent comments by UNH’s John Rex on June 14 regarding the firm’s healthcare costs during the second quarter have put shares under pressure during the trading session. Discretionary surgeries have picked back up following a lull during most of the COVID-19 pandemic as hospital capacity was largely constrained during … Read more

ESG Facing Opposition But Still an Indispensable Component of Investing

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Image: Shares of Anheuser-Busch Inbev (BUD) and Target (TGT) have fallen 16%+ and 22%+, respectively, since the beginning of April. By Brian Nelson, CFA When it comes to investing, Environmental [E], Social [S], and Governance [G] considerations are an absolute must. If a company pollutes the environment, shareholders suffer as the stock reels from fines and other liabilities. If a company doesn’t treat its workers and customers well, its culture will suffer and so eventually will its service and profits. If the company’s corporate oversight is not at or approaching best practices, wrongdoing at the top becomes much more likely. Whether investors pursue ESG investing outright, or assess such considerations indirectly outside the ESG context, the core components of ESG … Read more

Oracle Hits All-Time Highs; Larry Ellison Pumps AI Opportunity

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Image: Newsletter portfolio holding Oracle surges to all-time highs! “Oracle’s Gen2 Cloud has quickly become the number 1 choice for running Generative AI workloads. Why? Because Oracle has the highest performance, lowest cost GPU cluster technology in the world. NVIDIA (NVDA) themselves are using our clusters, including one with more than 4,000 GPUs, for their AI infrastructure. Our GPU clusters are built using the highest-bandwidth and lowest-latency RDMA network—and scale up to 32,000 GPUs. As a result, cutting edge companies doing LLM development such as Mosaic ML, Adept AI, Cohere plus 30 other AI development companies have recently signed contracts to purchase more than $2 billion of capacity in Oracle’s Gen2 Cloud.” – Chairman and CTO Larry Ellison By Brian … Read more

FDA Accepts License Application for Vertex Pharma’s and CRISPR Therapeutics’ Key Investigational Treatment

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  Image: Vertex’s pipeline is impressive. We like its areas of focus and the progress it continues to make with key therapies in CRISPR and pain management. By Brian Nelson, CFA On June 8, it was announced that the Biologics License Applications (BLAs) for the investigational treatment exagamglogene autotemcel (exa-cel) for sickle cell disease (SCD) and transfusion-dependent beta thalassemia (TDT) from two of our favorite speculative biotech entities Vertex Pharma (VRTX) and CRISPR Therapeutics (CRSP) have been accepted by the U.S. FDA. The submission received Priority Review for SCD, and exa-cel has the potential to be the first CRISPR gene-editing therapy to be approved. We continue to be huge fans of this technology and Vertex’s risk-adjusted exposure to the potential … Read more

Dividend Increases/Decreases for the Week of June 9

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Below we provide a list of firms that raised their dividends during the week ending June 9. 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                          Alexandria Real Estate Equities (ARE): now $1.24 per share quarterly dividend, was $1.21. Casey’s General Stores (CASY): now $0.43 per share quarterly dividend, was $0.38. Guess? (GES): now $0.30 per share quarterly dividend, was $0.23. Johnson Controls International (JCI): now $0.37 per share quarterly dividend, was $0.36. NetEase (NTES): now $0.465 per share quarterly dividend, was $0.435. Oil Dri (ODC): now $0.29 per share … Read more

Apple’s ‘Vision Pro’ Not in Our Valuation Model; Expect Upside

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Image: Apple released its first major product since the Apple Watch in the Vision Pro on June 5. The device opens the door to the era of spatial computing and is priced at $3,499. By Brian Nelson, CFA Apple (AAPL) unveiled its Vision Pro at the company’s Worldwide Developers Conference on June 5. We were impressed with the new major product launch, its first since the release of the Apple Watch nearly a decade ago but estimating the total market opportunity for a $3,499 device is a difficult one. The Vision Pro will be available in early 2024 and will compete in many areas with the Meta (META) Quest, and we expect Apple’s annual numbers come next year to be … Read more

ALERT: Going to “Fully Invested” in the Best Ideas Newsletter Portfolio

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Image: Since the publishing of the first edition of the book Value Trap, the stylistic area of large cap growth (SCHG) has meaningfully outperformed both the equal-weight S&P 500 (SPY) and small cap value (IWN). Summary of Best Ideas Newsletter portfolio changes UnitedHealth Group (UNH): 0% –> 4%-6% Booking Holding (BKNG): 0% –> 4%-6% Chipotle (CMG): 1%-2% –> 6%-8% Technology Select Sector SPDR (XLK): 0% –> 4%-6% By Brian Nelson, CFA With the debt-ceiling debate behind the markets, the regional banking crisis largely in the rear-view mirror, and the Fed winning the fight against inflation, a continuation of the strength in the markets as witnessed from the October 2022 lows can probably be expected. We “rode” the latest upswing with … Read more

Dividend Increases/Decreases for the Week of June 2

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Below we provide a list of firms that raised their dividends during the week ending June 2. 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                          Bruker (BRKR): now $0.06 per share quarterly dividend, was $0.05. Clearway Energy (CWEN): now $0.3818 per share quarterly dividend, was $0.3745. Golar LNG (GLNG): now $0.25 per share quarterly dividend, was $0.15. Infosys Limited (INFY): now $0.213349 per share semi-annual dividend, was $0.2005. Laurentian Bank of Canada (LB:CA): now CAD 0.47 per share quarterly dividend, was CAD 0.46. National Bank of Canada (NA:CA): now … Read more