Member Articles

Johnson & Johnson Once Again Raises Guidance

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Image Shown: An overview of Johnson & Johnson’s financial performance during the third quarter of fiscal 2020. Image Source: Johnson & Johnson – Third Quarter of Fiscal 2020 IR Earnings Presentation By Callum Turcan On October 13, Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) reported third quarter fiscal 2020 earnings (period ended September 27, 2020) that beat consensus non-GAAP EPS estimates and consensus GAAP revenue estimates, though its GAAP EPS fell short of consensus estimates likely due to turbulence created by the ongoing coronavirus (‘COVID-19’) pandemic. Johnson & Johnson’s GAAP revenues were up 2% year-over-year last fiscal quarter while its GAAP gross margin stayed broadly flat at 66.9%. A sharp reduction in other expenses resulted in Johnson & Johnson’s GAAP net income more … Read more

Our Thoughts on Apple Launching Its First-Ever 5G-Capable iPhone

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Image Shown: Shares of Apple Inc have surged higher year-to-date. By Callum Turcan On October 13, Apple Inc (AAPL) announced its first-ever lineup of 5G-capable iPhones along with a new smart home speaker offering HomePod Mini. While the 5G-capable iPhone announcement was largely expected, we appreciate the good news all the same. We include shares of Apple as a holding in both our Best Ideas Newsletter and Dividend Growth Newsletter portfolios and are big fans of the name. The HomePod Mini offering represents Apple’s way of staying competitive with similar offerings from Amazon Inc (AMZN) and Alphabet Inc (GOOG) (GOOGL). The Big News Apple’s four new iPhone offerings (iPhone 12 mini, iPhone 12, iPhone 12 Pro, and iPhone 12 Pro … Read more

JPMorgan, Citigroup Third Quarters Not Terrible, But Still No Reason to Own Financials

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Image: Banks and financials were among the most aggressively beaten down groups during the COVID-19 crash, and the sector failed to participate meaningfully in the bounce back. The leveraged and arbitrary nature of banking business models makes them much less attractive than entities with strong net cash positions on the balance sheet and solid expected future free cash flows. Source: Kastner, David, Charles Schwab. “Schwab Sector Views: Changes Are Coming.” 18 June 2020. By Brian Nelson, CFA Better-than-feared third-quarter reports are not going to change our minds on the banking and financials sector. The group has been among the worst performing sectors amid the COVID-19 market crash and failed to bounce back meaningfully since the March bottom. Banks are being … Read more

Disney Moves Higher

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Image Shown: Shares of Walt Disney Company, a holding with a modest weighting in our Best Ideas Newsletter portfolio, are recovering. The ongoing pandemic created significant headwinds for Disney, though stellar paid subscriber growth at its Hulu, ESPN+, and Disney+ video streaming services are helping offset some of those headwinds. By Callum Turcan On October 12, Walt Disney Company (DIS) announced a major restructuring that fundamentally places a greater focus on its direct-to-consumer (‘DTC’) strategy, which rests on its video streaming services. We have written about Disney’s impressive video streaming performance in the past (link here). Please note beyond Disney+ and EPSN+, Disney owns 67% of Hulu with Comcast Corporation (CMCSA) owning the remaining 33% stake. Greater Emphasis on Streaming … Read more

Great Day in the Markets!

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Image: The Invesco QQQ Trust, an exchange-traded fund based on the NASDAQ 100 index, had a great day during the trading session October 12, as it leads all major indexes on the year.  — By Brian Nelson, CFA — First of all, a warm welcome to our new members. We recently posted a website overview video on our website here, and please be sure to view our stock report walk-through . At Valuentum, we’re financial publishers, so please be sure to read through how many members use our services here. — The trading session October 12 was a sight to see. The Dow Jones Industrial Average advanced 0.88%, the S&P 500 jumped 1.64%, while the NASDAQ powered ahead an incredible 2.56%. As many of our … Read more

Dollar General’s Promising Growth Outlook

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Image Source: Dollar General Corporation – Fiscal 2019 Annual Report By Callum Turcan We are big fans of Dollar General Corporation (DG) and continue to like shares of DG as a holding in our Best Ideas Newsletter portfolio. After updating our discounted cash flow model, we increased the fair value estimate and the top end of our fair value estimate range for Dollar General. Under our “bull” case scenario, Dollar General now has a fair value estimate of $223 per share. Even if Dollar General surpasses the top end of our fair value estimate range, we prefer to let our winners run until their technicals turn against them. The latest 16-Page Stock Report covering Dollar General can be accessed here. … Read more

The Resilience of the US Digital Advertising Market and Alphabet

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Image Shown: Shares of Alphabet Inc Class C shares, a top-weighted holding in our Best Ideas Newsletter portfolio, have performed very well over the past year. Going forward, we see room for significant capital appreciation upside as the digital advertising market has proven to be very resilient of late. By Callum Turcan To ride out the ongoing coronavirus (‘COVID-19’) pandemic, we continue to prefer large-cap tech companies with pristine balance sheets, strong cash flow profiles, and promising long-term growth outlooks. Ideally, we are searching for companies with outlooks that are supported by secular growth tailwinds, allowing for several winners in their respective end markets. Digital advertising is a prime example of a resilient high-quality market that is supported by secular … Read more

Dividend Increases/Decreases for the Week October 9

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Below we provide a list of firms that raised their dividends during the week ending October 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 Alpine Banks of Colorado (ALPIB): now $18.00 per share quarterly dividend, was $16.00. Ameren (AEE): now $0.515 per share quarterly dividend, was $0.495. Aon (AON): now $0.46 per share quarterly dividend, was $0.44. Bassett Furniture (BSET): now $0.125 per share quarterly dividend, was $0.080. ConocoPhillips (COP): now $0.43 per share quarterly dividend, was $0.42. Educational Development (EDUC): now $0.10 per share quarterly dividend, was $0.06. Intuit … Read more

Nelson: I’m Not Worried About This Market

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Dear members: — First of all, I wanted to share a heartfelt thank you to all that sent kind words regarding the passing of my brother. My inbox was overflowing with your love and kindness. Len was a great person and my best friend. Without him, I don’t think Valuentum would have come into existence. Your words have been very comforting to me and my family during this difficult time. Thank you again. — With that said, I continue to be bullish on the markets over the long haul. We maintain our view that longer-duration enterprise free cash flows are worth more than they were prior to the COVID-19 market collapse, and valuation adjustments are being reset higher as a … Read more

ICYMI: Crisis Outperformance

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Hi everyone: — If you’ve read Value Trap, you know that I’m partial to the long ball in baseball. There’s nothing quite like hitting a ball square and on the sweet spot of the bat. It’s really something. You hear the crack, but you don’t really feel the contact.    It’s smooth, and your adrenaline takes over. When you know you’ve hit it well, it’s going to go. I’m actually a big fan of the bat flip, too. Sometimes, you don’t know you even did it. As the say in the south side of Chicago, “You can put in on the board! Yes!”   At Valuentum, we’ve hit some homeruns. We estimate that the Best Ideas Newsletter portfolio generated a hypothetical … Read more