Valuentum Exclusive Analysis for the Discerning Investor

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Oct 23, 2024

Boeing Burning Through Cash
Image: Boeing’s shares have seen better days. The big red flag with Boeing is its cash flow performance. The aerospace giant burned through $1.3 billion in operating cash flow in the third quarter due to lower commercial widebody deliveries and unfavorable working capital timing, and after factoring in capital spending of $611 million in the period, cash burn in terms of negative free cash flow was roughly $2 billion in the quarter. Through the first nine months of the year, Boeing has burned through over $10.2 billion in free cash flow. Boeing’s balance sheet isn’t as strong as it once was either, with $10.5 billion in cash and marketable securities versus consolidated debt of $57.7 billion. Inventories swelled to $83.3 billion at the end of its September quarter versus $79.7 billion at the end of last year. The company does have $20 billion undrawn on its credit facilities, however. We don’t think Boeing is a top idea for investors, but we do like its total company backlog of $510.5 billion, which includes over 5,400 commercial airplanes. We prefer Honeywell as our top aerospace idea and Lockheed Martin as our top defense play.

Oct 23, 2024

Lockheed Martin Raises 2024 Guidance, F-35 Program in Focus
Image: Lockheed Martin’s shares have done well of late. We liked Lockheed Martin’s guidance revisions for 2024, but we’re keeping a watchful eye on its F-35 program revenues, which experienced lower sales in the quarter due to delays in receiving additional contractual authorization and funding under its Lots 18-19 contract. The company’s Missiles and Fire Control (MFC) segment and Rotary and Mission Systems (RMS) segment experienced sales increases of 8% and 6%, respectively, in the quarter. Operating profit growth was most pronounced in its MFC division. The high end of our fair value estimate range stands at $649 per share, and we continue to like shares as an idea in the Dividend Growth Newsletter portfolio.

Oct 4, 2024

Dividend Increases/Decreases for the Week of October 4
Let's take a look at firms raising/lowering their dividends this week.

Aug 9, 2024

Paper: Value and Momentum Within Stocks, Too
Abstract: This paper strives to advance the field of finance in four ways: 1) it extends the theory of the “The Arithmetic of Active Management” to the investor level; 2) it addresses certain data problems of factor-based methods, namely with respect to value and book-to-market ratios, while introducing price-to-fair-value ratios in a factor-based approach; 3) it may lay the foundation for academic literature regarding the Valuentum, the value-timing, and ultra-momentum factors; and 4) it walks through the potential relative outperformance that may be harvested at the intersection of relevant, unique and compensated factors within individual stocks.

Jul 23, 2024

Lockheed Martin Issues Strong Second Quarter Results, Raises Outlook
Image: Lockheed Martin’s shares have recovered nicely since their October 2023 bottom. Performance across Lockheed Martin’s Aeronautics, Missiles and Fire Control, Rotary and Mission Systems, and Space divisions continue to move in the right direction, with all four segments showcasing improved revenue and operating profit performance during the second quarter and for the first half of the year. We like that Lockheed Martin’s free cash flow covers its dividend nicely, and while the company has a net debt position, we’re not worried about the company meeting its obligations. We continue to like Lockheed Martin as a dividend growth idea, with shares yielding ~2.6% at the time of this writing.

Jul 7, 2024

Latest Report Updates
Check out the latest report updates on the website.

Jun 10, 2024

Update: Frequently Asked Questions About Valuentum Securities, Inc.
Valuentum (val∙u∙n∙tum) [val-yoo-en-tuh-m] Securities Inc. is an independent investment research publisher, offering premium equity reports and dividend reports, as well as commentary across all sectors/companies, a Best Ideas Newsletter (spanning market caps, asset classes), a Dividend Growth Newsletter, modeling tools/products, and more. Independence and integrity remain our core, and we strive to be a champion of the investor. Valuentum is based in the Chicagoland area. Valuentum is not a money manager, broker, or financial advisor. Valuentum is a publisher of financial information. We address a number of questions from both subscribers and visitors to our site.

Apr 23, 2024

Lockheed Martin’s Robust Backlog Speaks of Sustainable Strength
Image: Shares of Lockheed have been choppy, but its fundamentals remain strong. On April 23, Lockheed Martin reported better-than-expected first quarter 2024 results. The company's total backlog of ~$159.4 billion speaks to sustainable strength in its operations, and we continue to like shares.

Apr 4, 2024

Latest Report Updates
Check out the latest report updates on the website.

Mar 27, 2024

Boeing Shakes Up Executive Team
Image Source: Kanesue. We like the shake-up in the executive suite at Boeing, and while there is much work to do to get Boeing back on track to improve relations with the public regarding the safety of their planes following a number of incidents the past few years, we're optimistic the changes will be a means to that end. Boeing continues to benefit from its oligopolistic position in the aircraft making industry, and its backlog of unfulfilled deliveries remains robust. We're not changing our fair value estimate of Boeing as a result of the management shakeup, but we don't have any plans of adding Boeing to any newsletter portfolio at this time either.