Member Articles

Strategy Versus Tactics in the Best Ideas Newsletter Portfolio

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Image Source: Anna & Michal We made a few tactical tweaks to the Best Ideas Newsletter portfolio during 2017. Let’s walk through them, and how we’re out to win the war, not win every battle. By Brian Nelson, CFA I’m not going to reference The Art of War written by Chinese military strategist Sun Tzu some time in the 5th century, nor am I going to use any quotes from the military treatise (I think it’s too well-traveled of a topic), but I do believe the approach to portfolio management is much like that of a general on a path to win the war. Now, don’t get me confused: I’m not saying that portfolio management is actually like being in … Read more

Dividend Increases/Decreases for the Week Ending November 24

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Below we provide a list of firms that raised their dividends during the week ending November 24. 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 Adams Diversified Equity Fund (ADX): now $0.08 per share quarterly dividend, was $0.05. American National Bankshares (AMNB): now $0.25 per share quarterly dividend, was $0.24. Becton, Dickinson (BDX): now $0.75 per share quarterly dividend, was $0.73. Canadian Banc Corp (CNDCF): now CAD 0.1135 per share monthly dividend, was CAD 0.10883. Core-Mark Holding (CORE): now $0.10 per share quarterly dividend, was $0.09. Exchange Bank (EXSR): now $0.90 … Read more

A “Terrible” Negative Alpha-Generating “Trade” and More

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Let’s walk through some of the news before the Thanksgiving holiday, and one of the bigger missteps we made during 2017. By Brian Nelson, CFA I’d like to run through the news before many of you take a break for the Thanksgiving holiday. Thanks again for your attention. It means the world to our team that you see and understand the things that we’re doing, the great calls we make with our top-weighted ideas (see here and here), the extensive valuation processes we perform with respect to the discounted cash-flow process (see here), and how we provide that in downloadable pdf form (see here) – and we’re here to talk about our expectations! You can get reports from anybody, of … Read more

Roche’s Hemlibra Looks Very Promising

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Image shown: Roche’s shares caught some relief recently. We’re big fans of clinical data reads. Thus far in 2017, we’ve posted updates on Roche (RHHBY), Shire Plc (SHPG) and Bioverativ (BIVV)–each with extensive aspirations in the field of hemophilia. In light of recent developments, a follow-up only seems appropriate as Roche’s Hemlibra is poised to disrupt the marketplace. By Alexander J. Poulos Hemophilia Overview Hemophilia is a genetic disorder that negatively affects the patient’s ability to clot when bleeding. Unlike other traditional genetic disorders, inheriting a defective gene is not the only cause of Hemophilia. According to the National Hemophilia Foundation, nearly one third of all cases are spontaneous, where neither parent is a carrier of the Hemophilia gene. Hemophilia … Read more

Valuentum’s “Home Runs” During 2017

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Image Source: Keith Allison By Brian Nelson, CFA We’re doing a lot of things right, but you (yes, you!) mean the world to our team. For best ideas, see the portfolio on page 8 of the Best Ideas Newsletter here (pdf). For best dividend growth ideas, see the portfolio on page 5 of the Dividend Growth Newsletter here (pdf). I want to make sure you have these at your fingertips. We appreciate your business so much! We wrote up an analysis of ideas that were included in the Best Ideas Newsletter portfolio and Dividend Growth Newsletter portfolio at the beginning of 2017. The ideas included in these respective portfolios are our best ideas for each respective strategy, with two distinctions … Read more

Valuentum’s Highest-Rated Economic Castles

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Image Source: Dunrobin Castle; Golspie, Sutherland, John Haslam More information on the Economic Castle™ rating >>  Important Note: The data provided below is current as of the date of this article. Valuentum may have updated the stock and dividend reports of companies after the published date of this article. Members should view the data in this article as a starting point for further research and always access the individual stock page of each desired company on our website for its most recent ratings, metrics, and valuation information. If you have any questions about our services, please contact us at info@valuentum.com. Company Name Symbol Sector Est Div Yield VBI Economic Castle Advanced Micro Devices AMD Information Technology 0.0% 3 Highest Rated Apple AAPL Information Technology 1.6% … Read more

How Have Our Best “Dividend Growth Ideas” Performed During 2017?

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Read about the ideas in the Best Ideas Newsletter portfolio >> We wrote recently about how well the top-weighted ideas in the Best Ideas Newsletter portfolio have performed during 2017, but what about the top-weighted ideas in the other newsletter portfolio, the Dividend Growth Newsletter portfolio? How have they performed during 2017? Please tell us you know how well the top-weighted ideas have been performing. Key Takeaways: 1) “Excluding dividends, the SPDR S&P 500 Dividend ETF has advanced less than 9% this year. Meanwhile, excluding dividends, the two top-weighted ideas in the Dividend Growth Newsletter portfolio, Johnson & Johnson and Intel, are up ~20% and ~24%, respectively, more than double that of the SPDR S&P 500 Dividend ETF.”  2) “We’re viewing … Read more

Celgene Implodes

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The pharma/biotech industry operates in a boom-bust environment where the market cap of a company can post a meteoric rise or suffer a precipitous fall based on the data published from recently completed clinical trials. The industry remains one of the most innovative fields, but the quest for new products leads to constant disruption and a subsequent spike in volatility. Of late, the volatility pendulum for Celgene has swung in favor of the bears with the company posting a costly phase 3 failure. By Alexander J. Poulos Mongersen The vitality of the clinical pipeline, in our view, is the critical differentiator in the biotech space (XBI, IBB) due to the loss of revenue once patent protection lapses on existing products. … Read more

Cisco’s Shares Are Surging!

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Image Source: Cisco We received some fantastic news from newsletter portfolio idea Cisco. Shares are surging! Please tell me you knew that Cisco was one of our favorite ideas. By Brian Nelson, CFA There aren’t many companies that fit the profile of making it into both the Best Ideas Newsletter portfolio and Dividend Growth Newsletter portfolio, but Cisco (CSCO) has been one of them. The company’s fair value estimate is $42, the high end of the fair value estimate range comes in at $50, and its 7 rating on the Valuentum Buying Index is quite promising in the context of this overheated stock market. Cisco’s Dividend Cushion ratio is an impressive 2.7, meaning that we would expect the company to … Read more