Member Articles

Consumer Staples: Product Pricing Gains To Wane in 2017?

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Consumer staples giants Kimberly-Clark and Colgate-Palmolive are expecting product pricing growth to be less of a contributor in 2017. We think investors are wising up to the risks of consumer staples stocks, and increasing risk-free rates seem to already be complicating the investment decision-making process for many investors. Consumer staples equities in the S&P 500 are currently trading at ~19.4 times forward 12-month earnings, well above their sub-17 times 10-year trailing average. We believe investors will continue to swap out of these steady-eddy, but overpriced, gems in the near term, in favor of higher-beta commodity and energy-oriented companies as the market sets up to surge in 2017. We have been warning about the tipping point in Treasury yields and implications … Read more

How the FDA’s Delay of Baricitinib Impacts Eli Lilly and Incyte

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Image Source: Paul Sableman The FDA dealt Eli Lilly and Incyte an unforeseen blow recently by rejecting their marketing application for Rheumatoid Arthritis candidate Baricitinib. Where does the duo go from here? By Alexander J. Poulos an Kris Rosemann The drug approval process is chock full of pitfalls, and until regulators give the final okay, anything can happen. The widely held consensus was Eli Lilly’s (LLY) and Incyte’s (INCY) marketing application for Rheumatoid Arthritis candidate Baricitinib would be approved, but the FDA shocked everyone by issuing a complete response letter requesting further data. Where does the duo of Eli Lilly and Incyte proceed from here? Baricitinib We were optimistic the FDA would approve Baricitinib for the indication of Rheumatoid Arthritis … Read more

Top-Weighted Visa Leaps to Mid-$160s, More Earnings Reports

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Top-Weighted Visa Leaps to Mid-$160s, More Reports Image: Visa (V) has been the top-weighted idea in the Best Ideas Newsletter for as long as we can remember. In December 2017, when we migrated to weighting ranges for ideas in the newsletter portfolio, the company’s “weight” was 8.6%. The image above shows its performance relative to the S&P 500 (SPY) since then. Source (pdf). — In alphabetical order by ticker symbol: GOOG, LLY, GE, GM, IR, LL, MA, MCD, MRK, PFE, TXRH, WDC — Alphabet (GOOG, GOOGL): Shares of Alphabet, the parent of Google, reported first-quarter performance April 29 that may have revealed weakness in the revenue story at the search giant. The miss was rather large on the top line during the quarter, but … Read more

Vodafone’s Dividend Cut, Alibaba’s Resilience, More Reports

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Vodafone’s Dividend Cut, Alibaba’s Resilience, More Reports In alphabetical order by company name: A, BABA, PLCE, GES, M, NSANY, RL, TLRY, VOD — Good morning, — Still buying stocks immediately as they fall and on the way down? There may be no logical basis for doing so. Here’s an excerpt from Value Trap: Theory of Universal Valuation.  — Image: Excerpt from Value Trap, page 241 — Order your copy here.  — The market must eventually agree with you for your idea to work out, so why not wait until the stock starts to move higher first. Waiting a few weeks or a few months/quarters to see if the stock eventually settles and technical/momentum indicators start to improve is vital in helping … Read more

Where Are the Safe Havens?

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“We believe that staying diversified as in holding a broad swath of ideas as in either the Best Ideas Newsletter portfolio or Dividend Growth Newsletter portfolio as the equity portion of one’s allocation makes a lot of sense in any environment…High yield dividend investing may become more and more popular in coming years as rates across the globe approach 0%, and the amount of negative-yielding debt proliferates.” — Brian Nelson, CFA By The Valuentum Team The Federal Reserve is weighing all its options as it assesses how to balance global economic weakness and strong performance in the US, pressure from the White House to aggressively cut rates, and a 30-year yield that puts the federal funds rate at the highest … Read more

Analyzing Chevron and Important Updates in the Global Energy Industry

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Image Source: Chevron Corporation – November 2019 IR Presentation Summary In this note, let’s cover the current state of raw energy resource prices in North America and around the world. We’ll analyze Chevron’s 2020 capital investment and exploration budget, in particular, and the global energy industry at-large. Shares of CVX appear generously valued as of this writing given the numerous headwinds facing the energy industry going forward. By Callum Turcan The world of oil and gas equities has been battling with persistently low raw energy resource prices for some time now. Back in the middle of 2014, a barrel of light sweet crude delivered to Cushing, Oklahoma (home of the West Texas Intermediate, or WTI, benchmark), would fetch over $100. Now … Read more

Why Natural Gas Prices are So Low and Will Likely Remain So for Some Time

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