Update on TikTok Saga

Image Shown: Shares of Oracle Corporation, a holding in our Dividend Growth Newsletter portfolio, have performed well recently as excitement grows over the company’s improving long-term growth outlook. Oracle may soon become a strategic shareholder in the rising social media star TikTok, alongside Walmart Inc and various US-based venture capital firms. By Callum Turcan Some big news emerged this past weekend involving TikTok that we wanted to bring to our members attention. We covered this story in detail in late-August and mid-September, and encourage our members to check out those articles for additional background information. In brief, TikTok is currently owned by Beijing-based ByteDance, a company that has been accused of being an extension of China’s central government (meaning a … Read more

Public Storage Rebounds and Its Financials Remain Strong

Image Shown: Shares of Public Storage have recovered a considerable amount of lost ground since the pandemic-induced drop in March 2020. We continue to like Public Storage as a holding in our High Yield Dividend Newsletter and are big fans of self-storage companies with significant exposure to the US. By Callum Turcan The self-storage real estate investment trust (‘REIT’) Public Storage (PSA) is included as a holding in our High Yield Dividend Newsletter portfolio. We strongly appreciate its free cash flows, which are relatively rare in the REIT industry given that the growth-related capital expenditures of most REIT’s tend to be enormous. Shares of PSA have rebounded strongly off their March 2020 lows and yield ~3.6% as of this writing. … Read more

CubeSmart Remains Rock-Solid

Image Shown: An overview of CubeSmart’s core geographical focus. We continue to like CubeSmart as a holding in our High Yield Dividend Newsletter portfolio. Image Source: CubeSmart – September 2020 IR Presentation By Callum Turcan One of our favorite industries as it relates to locating high-quality high-yielding companies with promising dividend growth runways is the self-storage real estate investment trust (‘REIT’) space, particularly companies with operations primarily (if not entirely) in the US. Within this industry, CubeSmart (CUBE) is one of our favorites and remains a holding in our High Yield Dividend Newsletter portfolio. Shares of CUBE yield ~4.0% as of this writing. The self-storage REIT continued to make good on its dividend obligations during the initial stages of the … Read more

Outperformance of Valuentum’s COVID-19 Ideas

Image: Valuentum’s COVID-19 ideas. Hypothetical returns are calculated on a price basis. — Dear members: —On March 17, Valuentum released its best ideas for the COVID-19 pandemic. The original article can be found at the following link, “Top Ten Ideas for Consideration Amid COVID-19.” The note is significant for two reasons: 1) it was released practically at the March bottom, and 2) it identified outperforming ideas, which on an equal-weight basis outperformed the S&P 500 since then by 20 percentage points, generating a hypothetical price-only return of 64.2% (the dividend adjustment is negligible since then so it was left out of the calculation). — Please note that this is the only list that we released for our top 10 ideas … Read more

Our Thoughts on Nvidia Acquiring Arm

Image Source: Nvidia Corporation – Nvidia to Acquire Arm IR Presentation By Callum Turcan On September 13, Nvidia Corporation (NVDA) announced it would acquire Arm Limited (a semiconductor company with a heavy focus on smartphones and gaming devices) from SoftBank Group Bank Corp. (SFTBY) and SoftBank’s Vision Fund through a transaction valued at approximately $40 billion. That deal will see Nvidia pay SoftBank and the Vision Fund $12.0 billion in cash (including $2.0 billion payable at signing), $21.5 billion in Nvidia stock (equal to 44.3 million shares at the time of the announcement, though that figure could change as it depends on NVDA’s average closing price over the last 30 trading days), and the deal has an earn-out component that … Read more

Microsoft Boosts Its Dividend and Announces a New Strategic Partnership

Image Shown: Shares of Microsoft Corporation are up significantly year-to-date as of this writing, and we see room for further capital appreciation upside. Shares of Microsoft are included as a holding in both our Best Ideas Newsletter and Dividend Growth Newsletter portfolios. By Callum Turcan On September 15, Best Ideas Newsletter and Dividend Growth Newsletter portfolio holding Microsoft Corporation (MSFT) announced a ~10% sequential increase in its quarterly per share dividend, boosting its payout up to $0.56 per share or $2.24 per share on an annualized basis. As of this writing, shares of MSFT now yield ~1.1% on a forward-looking basis. Furthermore, Microsoft noted its 2020 Annual Shareholders Meeting would be held on December 2 and would be conducted through … Read more

Oracle Appears to Be Front-Runner for TikTok’s US Assets, Though There Are Caveats

Image Shown: Shares of Dividend Growth Newsletter holding Oracle Corporation jumped higher on September 14 as the tech giant is reportedly getting closer to acquiring TikTok’s operations in the US and potentially elsewhere, though there are a lot of unknowns at this point. By Callum Turcan Reportedly, Oracle Corporation (ORCL) has submitted a proposal to become the “trusted technology partner” of the popular yet controversial social media app TikTok, particularly at TikTok’s US operations (and possibility some other countries as well). TikTok is currently owned by Beijing-based ByteDance. We will likely know more about a potential deal sooner rather than later, though there are a lot of unknowns at this point as it does not appear Oracle’s proposal is a … Read more

Oracle’s Transformation Continues

Image Shown: Shares of Dividend Growth Newsletter portfolio holding Oracle Corporation are on an upward trajectory after the tech giant reported that its strategic transition towards cloud-based offerings was going well during its latest earnings report. By Callum Turcan On September 10, Oracle Corporation (ORCL) reported first quarter fiscal 2021 earnings (period ended August 31, 2020) and we liked what we saw. In constant currency terms, the company’s ‘cloud services and license support’ and ‘cloud license and on-premise license’ segments reported year-over-year sales growth of 2% and 8%, respectively. We appreciate that Oracle’s cloud-oriented businesses are finally starting to gain some real traction in this lucrative and hypercompetitive market. Additionally, Oracle’s strong performance occurred in the face of the ongoing … Read more

Our Thoughts on Newmont’s Bright Outlook

Image Shown: Newmont Corporation’s gold reserves are extensive and should support the gold miner’s ability to generate meaningful cash flows over the years and decades to come. Image Source: Newmont Corporation – August 2020 IR Presentation By Callum Turcan Back on January 13, we added shares of gold miner Newmont Corporation (NEM) as a holding to the Dividend Growth Newsletter portfolio (link here). In July, we significantly increased our fair value estimate for Newmont and please note the top end of our fair value estimate range sits at $72 per share of NEM (Newmont’s 16-page Stock Report can be accessed here). We will cover why we boosted our fair value estimate in just a moment. As of this writing, shares … Read more

Dividend Increases/Decreases for the Week September 11

Below we provide a list of firms that raised their dividends during the week ending September 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 A-Mark (AMRK): now $1.50 per share special dividend, was $0.08. Agree Realty (ADC): now $0.60 per share quarterly dividend, was $0.57. American Tower (AMT): now $1.14 per share quarterly dividend, was $1.10. B2Gold (BTG): now $0.04 per share quarterly dividend, was $0.02. Calvin B. Taylor Bankshares (TYCB): now $0.29 per share quarterly dividend, was $0.26. Evertz Technologies (EVTZF): now CAD 0.09 per share quarterly dividend, was … Read more