Member Articles

Happy Labor Day! Updated September Newsletter Release Dates

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Image Source: Trending Topics 2019 — Happy Labor Day! Updated September Newsletter Release Dates — Hi everyone, — On behalf of the Valuentum team, I wanted to wish you a happy and safe Labor Day weekend. — If you are taking the day off, I hope that you enjoy a break from all the hard work you do. If you are not taking the day off, I wanted to let you know that we’ll be out of the office this weekend and Monday, September 2. — We’ll be right back at work on Tuesday, September 3, and you should expect both the Dividend Growth Newsletter and High Yield Dividend Newsletter that day. The Exclusive is scheduled for release Saturday, September 7. … Read more

Dividend Increases/Decreases for the Week Ending August 30

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Below we provide a list of firms that raised their dividends during the week ending August 30. 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 Atlantica Yield (AY): now $0.40 per share quarterly dividend, was $0.39. Bank of Nova Scotia (BNS): now CAD 0.90 per share quarterly dividend, was CAD 0.87. bebe stores (BEBE): now $0.17 per share quarterly dividend, was $0.125. Canadian Western Bank (CBWBF): now $0.28 per share quarterly dividend, was $0.27. Capital City Bank (CCBG): now $0.13 per share quarterly dividend, was $0.11. Eastgroup Properties (EGP): now $0.75 … Read more

Smucker Cuts Guidance with Weakness Widespread

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Image Source: J. M. Smucker Company – IR Presentation By Callum Turcan J. M. Smucker Company (SJM) is known for its peanut butter (sold under such brands as Jif and Adams), jams (including its namesake Smucker’s offering and Knott’s Berry Farm products), coffees (such as Folgers and Café Bustelo), pet products (including Nature’s Recipe and Meow Mix), and more. The firm posted first quarter earnings for FY2020 (quarter ended July 31) on August 27 that upset the market and sent shares down more than 8% that day. Smucker’s revenue and earnings both missed estimates while management lowered the firm’s full year guidance for fiscal 2020. Smucker now expects its FY2020 EPS to come in at $8.35-$8.55/share, down from $8.45-$8.65/share previously. … Read more

Our Reports on Stocks in the Air Freight & Logistics Industry

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Structure of the Air Freight & Logistics Industry The highly competitive air freight and logistics industry is heavily tied to cyclical domestic economic expansion (primarily from retail good shipments). The international freight market remains a critical growth engine for air cargo providers, while all constituents deal with the cost of rising fuel (diesel) prices and potentially price-sensitive demand during periods of economic weakness. Firms with freight-forwarding, asset-light operations and/or large difficult-to-replicate shipping networks can carve out sustainable competitive advantages while generating high returns on investment. We generally like the group. We’ve optimized our industrials coverage. Our reports can be found here.

BP Says Goodbye to Alaska After 60 Years

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Image Source: BP plc – IR Presentation By Callum Turcan On August 27, BP plc (BP) announced it was selling its entire Alaskan operations to privately held Hilcorp Alaska (an affiliate of Hilcorp Energy Company) for $5.6 billion. BP sold Hilcorp some of its Alaskan assets five years ago and both companies have had a working relationship since then. This truly marks the end of an era as BP was long a staple of Alaska’s oil & gas industry. BP operates the Prudhoe Bay oil field, one of the largest in the world, which was responsible for over half of Alaska’s oil production in 2018. Additionally, BP is a major shareholder in the company that owns the 800-mile long Trans … Read more

Elanco Buys Bayer’s Animal Health Unit, Gaining Scale and Greater Exposure to the Humanization of Pets” Trend”

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Image Shown: Shares of Elanco Animal Health Inc (ELAN) sold off after the company announced on August 20 it was acquiring Bayer AG’s (BAYRY) animal health unit through a cash and deal stock deal worth $7.6 billion at the time the deal was announced. By Callum Turcan On August 20, Elanco Animal Health Inc (ELAN) agreed to acquire Bayer AG’s (BAYRY) animal health unit for $7.6 billion (at the time the deal was announced) through a cash and stock deal. That includes $5.3 billion in cash and $2.3 billion in stock, keeping in mind shares of ELAN initially shifted lower after the news. Bayer plans to exit its stake in Elanco over time as management seeks to rebuild the company’s … Read more

Altria and Philip Morris to Tie the Knot?

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    Altria and Philip Morris to Tie the Knot? — Hi everyone, — Trust you are doing great. In case you missed it, we wanted to make sure that you saw our team’s comments on the latest economic developments. They can be accessed at the following link, “The Valuentum Team Talks Powell Speech and Threat of Global Recession.”  — In these Economic Roundtable notes (e.g. the link above), we blend thoughts from President of Investment Research Brian Nelson, Co-editor of the Newsletters and Associate Investment Analyst Callum Turcan and Independent Financials Contributor Matthew Warren. Like Brian, Matt worked at Morningstar for many years, and he is credited with turning around the performance of the company’s equity financials team during the … Read more

The Valuentum Team Talks Powell Speech and Threat of Global Recession

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Last week, China issued retaliatory tariffs on US goods, and Trump responded in kind, escalating trade tensions. Caught in the middle of this US-China trade war is the Fed, however. Let’s sit down with the Valuentum team and kick things off with our thoughts on Fed Chairman Powell’s speech, Challenges for Monetary Policy issued August 23 in Jackson Hole, WY. Our latest Economic Roundtable can be accessed here. Matthew Warren: Powell is certainly leaving the door open for cuts if needed. To me, it’s largely pushing on a string. I don’t think cost of capital is the problem. Capital is already cheap. Mortgages aren’t even following the 10-year (TLT, TBT) down fully. Banks (XLF) won’t take credit card rates down … Read more

Not Worried About Cisco

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Image Source: Fiscal fourth-quarter 2019 press release We think the market is overreacting when it comes to Cisco’s outlook. Our fair value estimate remains in the mid-$50s, and Cisco’s Dividend Cushion ratio is still very healthy at ~2.8x. By Brian Nelson, CFA On August 14, Cisco (CSCO) reported solid fiscal fourth-quarter results (ends July 2019) that showed revenue growth of 6% on a year-over-year basis, while non-GAAP earnings per share leapt 19%. The performance was roughly in-line with the growth rates for full-year fiscal 2019, which came in at 7% and 20%, respectively. The pace of expansion was solid, its transition to a business model with software subscriptions continues nicely (now at 70% of its software revenue, up 12 points … Read more

Trump “Tweet Storm” Reveals Increased Frustration with Fed, China

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— Markets are starting to look toppy. — By Brian Nelson, CFA — The markets are under heavy pressure Friday, August 23, as China escalated the trade war with new retaliatory tariffs on $75 billion worth of U.S. goods (soybeans and autos), including a 5% tariff on U.S. crude oil prices. Removing the Energy Select Sector SPDR (XLE) from the Best Ideas Newsletter portfolio and Dividend Growth Newsletter portfolio August 14 looks to have been a savvy move. Following the much-anticipated speech from Fed Chairman Powell today, President Trump responded with a series of tweets that showed tremendous frustration with the current situation. Here is the Twitter thread, reproduced below: — As usual, the Fed did NOTHING! It is incredible that they can “speak” without knowing or … Read more