Member Articles

Best Buy’s Rebound Continues

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Image Shown: Best Buy Co Inc has staged an impressive rebound over the past few years. This rebound was aided by significant investments in its digital presence, recognizing the core markets Best Buy wanted to target, and ultimately comparable store sales growth.  By Callum Turcan On November 26, Best Buy (BBY) reported third quarter earnings for its fiscal 2020 (three month period ended November 2, 2019) that beat both top- and bottom-line consensus estimates. Even better, Best Buy raised its guidance for fiscal 2020, largely on the back of stronger than expected same-store sales growth. Best Buy’s update helped send shares of BBY over our fair value estimate of $76 per share, and if this outperformance is sustained, the retailer … Read more

Reflecting on Two of Our Favorite Best Ideas Newsletter Portfolio Holdings

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As we get closer to finishing out 2019, let’s take a look at two of the big winners in our Best Ideas Newsletter portfolio this year: Facebook and Alphabet. What a comeback Facebook has made since the summer of 2018! On the basis of our fair value estimate, we expect the company to surpass new highs. Alphabet just hit an all-time high last month, too! By Callum Turcan Facebook Image Shown: Shares of Facebook Inc have skyrocketed over the past year as the market shrugged off near-term political/regulatory headwinds and looked out towards the future, with an eye towards Facebook’s strong free cash flow growth trajectory and pristine balance sheet. Facebook Inc (FB) is a company we’ve been pounding the … Read more

Cracker Barrel Doing Well Despite Industry Headwinds

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Image Source: 2019 Annual Shareholder Meeting, November 21. Although the restaurant business continues to face pressures, Cracker Barrel’s fundamentals have outperformed. By Brian Nelson, CFA The month of October was not kind to many in the restaurant business. While restaurant same-store sales advanced 0.06% in October, according to data from TDn2K, comparable traffic fell 3.1% during the month. While comp sales for the broader restaurant industry may remain positive through the remainder of 2019 thanks to pricing growth, the problem is that to-go and off-premise sales are hurting traffic. Here’s what TDn2K had to say about that: The erosion of guest counts remains unchanged, as restaurants rely on to-go and off-premise sales to fuel growth. Third-party delivery is playing a … Read more

Cleveland-Cliffs Buying AK Steel Through All-Stock Transaction

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Image Shown: A tale of two charts, with Cleveland-Cliffs Inc in blue and AK Steel Holding Corporation in orange, after the announcement was that that the former would acquire the latter in an all-stock deal. By Callum Turcan On December 3, Cleveland-Cliffs Inc (CLF) agreed to acquire AK Steel Holding Corporation (AKS) through an all-stock deal, creating a vertically integrated producer of iron ore and steel products in the US. Cleveland-Cliffs operates three iron ore mines in Michigan and Minnesota, along with a hot briquetted iron production plant in Ohio that’s under-construction, and AK steel operates steel mills in North America along with related facilities in Western Europe. Deal Overview Cleveland-Cliffs is offering 0.4 share of CLF for every share … Read more

McDonald’s Enters the Chicken Sandwich Wars

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Image Shown: Shares of McDonald’s Corporation have pulled back over the past couple of months after an epic run during most of 2019, which we view as the market recognizing shares of MCD had gotten way ahead of themselves. By Callum Turcan McDonald’s (MCD) is testing out a new crispy chicken sandwich offering in two US cities; Knoxville, Tennessee and Houston, Texas. This pilot project is expected to run through January 2020. While McDonald’s offers the ‘McChicken, its new chicken sandwich offering is far more substantial (the McChicken is to a chicken sandwich what the ‘McDouble’ is to a burger) and meant to compete with offerings from privately-held Chick-fil-A and Restaurant Brands International Inc’s (QSR) Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen. We still … Read more

Apache Comes Up Empty in Suriname, Shares Plummet

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Image Source: Apache Corporation – November 2019 IR Presentation By Callum Turcan On December 2, Apache Corporation (APA) announced that its first exploration well off the coast of Suriname (a small nation in northern South America) was a dud. The Maka Central-1 well was drilled to a total depth of 6,200 meters (~20,300 feet) in Block 58 and drilling activities commenced in late-September. While the well was testing two Upper Cretaceous plays, neither play appeared to have commercial level of hydrocarbons (more information will be provided by management on this issue in the near future) so Apache opted to drill down to a total depth of 6,900 meters (~22,600 feet) to test a third Cretaceous play. This news sent shares … Read more

Portfolio Newsletter Holding Digital Realty Targets Secular Growth Trends to Support Dividend Growth Trajectory

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Image Shown: Digital Realty Trust is one of our favorite ways to indirectly play several secular growth trends at once. The data center real estate investment trust (‘REIT’) pays out a nice dividend that’s supported by its investment grade credit ratings, a solid cash flow profile, and a promising growth trajectory. By Callum Turcan Happy Holidays! Callum here. I hope you are all enjoying some quality time off with your loved ones. This year, my family is happy to announce that we will be celebrating this Thanksgiving with my sister’s newborn daughter, her first major holiday. These are exciting times, and as always, feel free to check out our Best Ideas Newsletter portfolio (link here) and Dividend Growth Newsletter (link … Read more

Dividend Increases/Decreases for the Week Ending November 29

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Below we provide a list of firms that raised their dividends during the week ending November 29. 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 Becton, Dickinson (BDX): now $0.79 per share quarterly dividend, was $0.77. Deswell Industries (DSWL): now $0.08 per share semi-annual dividend, was $0.07. Dynacor Gold Mines (DNGDF): now CAD 0.015 per share quarterly dividend, was CAD 0.01. Exchange Bank (EXSR): now $1.15 per share quarterly dividend, was $1.10. Gaming and Leisure Properties (GLPI): now $0.70 per share quarterly dividend, was $0.68. Golub Capital BDC (GBDC): now $0.33 … Read more

Holiday Scheduling

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Image Source: Tim Sackton Hi everybody, It’s that time of year again, when family and friends come to visit, and everyone eats too much on Thanksgiving. I wanted to send this note to wish you a wonderful holiday and to let you know how much we appreciate your membership to our service. I’m so thankful for your interest, questions, and support, and I wanted to remind you of an important survey we’ll be releasing soon. We’re very excited about this important new initiative, and we need your feedback. Our team will be out of the office until Monday, December 2, so you should expect the December editions of the Dividend Growth Newsletter and High Yield Dividend Newsletter at that time. As … Read more

Order the Exclusive: Get Unbiased Research on IPOs and More!

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Image Source: The October edition of the Exclusive publication. Valuentum offers unbiased commentary on IPOs in its Exclusive publication (e.g. Peloton, Cloudflare). In the Exclusive publication, Valuentum highlights three new ideas each month to consider, one for income, one for capital appreciation, and a “short” idea (all three outside our existing coverage universe). Fresh, underfollowed and new ideas — outside our coverage universe — every month! Nothing is held back.  We provide insights where others cannot, and the IPO market is just one area. In the October 2019 edition, for example, our team wrote up Peloton (PTON) and Cloudflare (NET) as a short idea consideration and a capital appreciation idea, respectively. Big Winners Backed by In-Depth Theses Since the monthly … Read more