Member Articles

Dividend Increases/Decreases for the Week Ending January 18

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Below we provide a list of firms that raised their dividends during the week ending January 18. 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 Alliant Energy (LNT): now $0.355 per share quarterly dividend, was $0.335. Ally Financial (ALLY): now $0.17 per share quarterly dividend, was $0.15. Antero Midstream GP (AMGP): now $0.164 per share quarterly dividend, was $0.144. Antero Midstream Partners (AM): now $0.47 per share quarterly dividend, was $0.44. Apogee (APOG): now $0.175 per share quarterly dividend, was $0.1575. BlackRock (BLK): now $3.30 per share quarterly dividend, was $3.13. … Read more

Jack Bogle’s Work Is Not Done

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Image shown: Page 167 of Jack Bogle’s text Character Counts. Background: The cover of Value Trap.  No Changes to Simulated Newsletter portfolios Brian Nelson, CFA By now, I’m sure you’ve heard the news. Vanguard’s founder John C. Bogle passed away. I never met Jack. Many others that knew him personally can describe him much better than me. There are probably dozens of books written about him, too. I’ve watched a few of his speeches through my computer screen, and while I’ve certainly read a lot of his work and a lot about him, Jack wrote a book that inspired me greatly. If you’ve read my text Value Trap, you know the book wasn’t Common Sense on Mutual Funds. I think some of the concepts … Read more

Digital Realty 2019 Guidance Indicative of Datacenter Pricing Trends

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Image shown: Digital Realty’s top 20 customers by annualized base rent. Source: Digital Realty investor presentation. Digital Realty expects weakness in rental rates on renewal leases on a cash basis in 2019, which is indicative of negotiating power held by large cloud operators, but the REIT expects top-line growth to continue thanks in part to ongoing growth in leasing volume. By Kris Rosemann Shares of simulated Dividend Growth Newsletter portfolio idea Digital Realty Trust (DLR) faced selling pressure following the release of its 2019 guidance January 9. The update revealed expectations for a high-single-digit decline in rental rates on renewal leases on a cash basis and core funds from operations (FFO) guidance of $6.60-$6.70, the latter of which came in … Read more

Markets Still Bouncing Nicely

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Image shown: This holiday season was mighty hectic, and not many were anticipating the volatility we experienced. Here’s where the simulated Best Ideas Newsletter and simulated Dividend Growth Newsletter portfolios went to “fully invested,” reducing a 30% and 20% cash “weighting” at the high end of their respective ranges for each portfolio, respectively. Email. No Changes to Simulated Newsletter portfolios Brian Nelson, CFA After what perhaps has been the most volatile December in stock market history, the markets are off to the races in January. We continue to watch the broader equity markets closely, but directionally the call to go to “zero” in cash after the close December 26 has worked out, for anyone that received the notification after that date. … Read more

Disappointing Department Store Updates

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Traditional retail continues to face pressure via the shift of consumer shopping habits to online retailers, and the 2018 holiday season was indicative of this trend. Let’s take a look at the holiday updates of a number of key players. By Kris Rosemann Disappointing holiday sales reports have not been uncommon thus far in early 2019 with household names such as Macy’s (M), Kohl’s (KSS), and Nordstrom (JWN) all facing pressure as a result of holiday season reports coming in below prior expectations. JC Penney (JCP) was the beneficiary of clearing low expectations in its 2018 holiday update as comparable store sales continue to slide and the company remains focused on optimizing inventory and liquidity. The group may benefit in … Read more

Fed Might Slow After All, Bank Reports Just Okay

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Image shown: The yield curve is flattening. Source: Federal Reserve Bank, St. Louis. The biggest question with Fed policy is whether the FOMC will purposefully cause an inversion in the yield curve. If it thinks the market is manipulating long rates to influence its policy, it may very well go forward with rate hikes. If it doesn’t, it may very well slow the pace of rate hikes or even pause them. The behavioral implications of a yield-curve inversion may be more significant than the inversion, itself, however. No Changes to Simulated Newsletter portfolios Brian Nelson, CFA On January 10, President and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, James Bullard offered a number of perspectives on 2019 monetary policy. … Read more

In the News: Apple vs. Qualcomm, Intel and AMD, Visa in China, and Netflix’s Pricing

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Let’s take a look at some of the top stories on some of the biggest names in tech. Apple secured a legal victory in Germany, rumors swirl Intel and AMD, Visa’s efforts in China may have hit a speedbump, and Netflix is enacting its largest price hike ever on its US subscribers. By Kris Rosemann Though an end may be far from imminent, the legal battle between Qualcomm (QCOM) and simulated Best Ideas Newsletter portfolio idea Apple (AAPL) took a turn in Apple’s favor after a patent lawsuit filed by Qualcomm was thrown out by a German court. Qualcomm had previously won a case that enabled it to ban the sale of older iPhones in Germany–it also recently won a … Read more

Value Trap, More Volatility; We’re Waiting and Watching

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Image shown: The decision to remove GE from the simulated newsletter portfolios when we did may have been our best call yet.  In this note, let’s talk about the importance of reading Value Trap, learn why we’ve gone “fully invested,” talk a little bit about put options, learn some of the intricacies of the Valuentum process, find out where to find VBI rankings to download and sort, and talk about some of our recently-highlighted ideas in the simulated newsletter portfolios. No Changes to Simulated Newsletter portfolios Brian Nelson, CFA Trust you are having a wonderful Monday morning! I hope that many of you made the conference call last Thursday at 11amET, but if you didn’t, we’ll have another one coming soon. … Read more

Occidental Petroleum: Flexible Capital Allocation Strategies

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Image Source: Occidental Petroleum Corporation Occidental Petroleum laid out a plan to generate positive free cash flow at various price points in 2019, and management has shown a willingness to adjust spending levels in the past. Let’s dig into the framework Occidental has established for how it can adjust effectively to changes in raw energy resource prices. By Callum Turcan Capital Spending Changes and Dividend Coverage One of the hardest tasks raw energy resource producers face is managing their cash flow positions. Volatile operating cash flow from upstream operations makes setting capital expenditure budgets and paying out dividends a difficult task, especially if the goal is to cover those cash outlays within internally generated funds. Occidental Petroleum Corporation (OXY) offsets … Read more

We Think General Motors Is Poised for New Highs

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Simulated newsletter portfolio idea General Motors has had one choppy ride since shares were re-released onto the marketplace after the bailout some years ago. The automaker had some good news today, and shares are bouncing nicely in an otherwise weak market. This relative strength is remarkable considering concerns about China’s pace of economic expansion and potential backlash against American icons in the country. Brian Nelson, CFA We think General Motors’ (GM) shares are worth $54 each on the basis of our discounted cash-flow process, and with the company trading in the high-$30s, we think the good times are still ahead. GM is included as an idea in both the simulated Best Ideas Newsletter portfolio and simulated Dividend Growth Newsletter portfolio. … Read more