Member Articles

Seeking to De-risk the Newsletter Portfolios

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There’s never a good reason to panic in investing, but the 276-point slide in the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DIA) January 4, the worst start to a year since the credit crisis in 2008, reminded us why we hold more than a 30% cash position in both newsletter portfolios at the moment: with a US stock market still near all-time highs, we like having ample capital available to scoop up bargains as stocks inevitably give back some of their gains. The question for us is not whether the broader US stock market will decline from here but whether such a decline will be 10%, 20% or more. After all, the S&P 500 (SPY) has essentially tripled from the March 2009 … Read more

Dividend Increases/Decreases for the Week Ending January 1

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Below we provide a list of firms that raised their dividends during the week ending January 1. 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 Guaranty Federal Bancshares (GFED): now $0.08 per share quarterly dividend, was $0.05. Firms Lowering Their Dividends This Week Gold Resource (GORO): now $0.0017 per share monthly dividend, was $0.01. Newtek Business (NEWT): now $0.40 per share quarterly dividend, was $0.50. >>Last week’s dividend increases.

Dividend Increases/Decreases for the Week Ending December 25

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Below we provide a list of firms that raised their dividends during the week ending December 25. 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 8point3 Energy Partners (CAFD): now $0.217 per share quarterly dividend, was $0.2097. FelCor (FCH): now $0.06 per share quarterly dividend, was $0.04. Hanmi Financial (HAFC): now $0.14 per share quarterly dividend, was $0.11. Riverview Bancorp (RVSB): now $0.0175 per share quarterly dividend, was $0.015. Urstadt Biddle Properties (UBA): now $0.26 per share quarterly dividend, was $0.255. Urstadt Biddle Properties (UBP): now $0.23 per share quarterly dividend, … Read more

Stock Returns and Financially-Engineered Dividends

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“Business owners across the world know that their business is not more or less valuable because they paid themselves a higher distribution/dividend this quarter. In fact, the more they pay themselves in distributions/dividends, the less the franchise is worth.” – Brian Nelson, CFA Image Source: Images Money This article seeks to introduce investors to a critical concept often lost on those focused intensely on a company’s dividend payout: dividends are not an additive source to total stock returns above and beyond what a company would generate in capital appreciation. Dividends, instead, deduct from the capital appreciation a stock would otherwise have generated in the event that it did not pay a dividend. From what we can tell, this concept is not well understood. For one, widely-circulated research implies … Read more

Getting Excited About Potentially Adding Chipotle

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Sometimes some of the best franchises never really go on sale, so when they get hit with an exogenous, temporary shock such as what is currently happening with Chipotle (CMG), we pay very close attention. In our view, the market is over-reacting to transient E. coli scares that are helping to mark down the company’s equity to more palatable prices for interested “new money.” Chipotle’s shares still aren’t terribly cheap on the basis of our discounted cash-flow process, but we simply can’t ignore the price fall, which has sent the burrito-making giant’s shares under $500, breaching through our fair value estimate to the downside – remember, the Valuentum process first requires a firm’s equity to bottom, form a base and … Read more

Valuentum Applauds ONEOK; More Clarity on “FCF” Still Needed

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For beginners, Investopedia has a video about free cash flow here : cash flow from operations less all capital expenditures. It would be a huge step forward for executive teams to put this measure on all MLP press releases, in our view.  ————————- We’re very happy to announce that ONEOK (OKE/OKS) has released a form of a non-GAAP measure of free cash flow in its 2016 outlook press release. Even though we still would like more clarity around the measure (stand-alone capital spending, etc.), we applaud management’s step forward in disclosing additional information to investors. Valuentum has been calling for the disclosure of non-GAAP free cash flow, as measured by cash flow from operations less all capital spending, in press … Read more

Cash Is King: Microsoft Leading the Charge!

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It’s sometimes difficult for companies to overcome a tarnished reputation, particularly when it comes to a spotty dividend track record, but also as it relates to equity performance. The stock market is often unforgiving at times. Microsoft (MSFT) had long been viewed as “dead money,” or a term that describes an equity that languishes in a small trading range for years. For example, from 2010 to the beginning of 2013 (at the time it was added to the Dividend Growth Newsletter portfolio), Microsoft had bounced around in the mid-$20s per share. But as the chart below shows, overcoming a tarnished reputation is not impossible; in fact, Microsoft has put its “dead money” reputation behind it, powering past levels even witnessed … Read more

Looking to Trim Apple; Star Wars Mania Continues

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Let’s get this out of the way. We’re not worried about Apple (AAPL) at all. The company is sitting on a mountain of net cash and is simply a free cash flow machine. We think the iPhone-maker’s products continue to fly off the shelves, and this holiday season for Apple may be the best in its storied history. But sometimes the market is just not fair…and for a company trading at less than 10 times forward earnings, excluding net cash, is borderline an injustice. Still, we plan to take some more profits on the company in the newsletter portfolios if we catch a strong updraft in the markets. We continue to value shares north of $140 each, and as the … Read more

Focus on ETE, Not ETP; Strive for Balance and Stick to the SEC Filings

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We continue to be grateful for the favorable reception of our research and analysis. Our mission to help investors of all types remains our core focus and a cause buttressed by our independence and analytical integrity. You can read more here about Valuentum and its President of Equity Research Brian Nelson, CFA. It appears there continues to be a significant amount of confusion about the securities associated with the Energy Transfer companies, a collection of assets that includes the corporate parent Energy Transfer Equity (ETE) as well its consolidated subsidiaries: “Energy Transfer Partners (ETP), ETP GP, ETP LLC, Regency, Regency GP, Regency LLC, Panhandle, Sunoco, Inc., Sunoco Logistics (SXL), Sunoco LP (SUN), Susser and ETP Holdco (per Energy Transfer Equity, L.P, … Read more