Valuentum Exclusive Analysis for the Discerning Investor

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Dec 11, 2024

Toll Brothers Ends Strongest Year Ever
Image Source: Toll Brothers. Looking to fiscal 2025, Toll Brothers' deliveries are expected in the range of 11,200-11,600 units with an average delivered price per home of $945,000-$965,000 and adjusted home sales gross margin expected at 27.25%. The company’s pace of deliveries is expected to be strong, but the company’s gross margin isn’t as strong as we would like, facing pressure from last year’s adjusted mark. SG&A, as a percentage of home sales revenue is expected in the range of 9.4%-9.5%, up from last year’s measure of 9.3%. Toll Brothers ended its fiscal fourth quarter with $1.3 billion in cash and cash equivalents and $2.7 billion in loans payable and senior notes. The company continues to return cash to shareholders in the form of buybacks and dividends. Though we don’t include Toll Brothers in any newsletter portfolio, the bellwether’s fiscal fourth quarter report indicates the housing market remains healthy.

Dec 6, 2024

Dividend Increases/Decreases for the Week of December 6
Let's take a look at firms raising/lowering their dividends this week.

Aug 27, 2024

Toll Brothers Expects Demand to Remain Solid Into 2025
Image: Toll Brothers stock has done quite well during the past couple years. For its fiscal year 2024 guidance, Toll Brothers expects deliveries of 10,650-10,750 units (was 10,400-10,800) with an average delivered price per home of $975,000. Its adjusted home sales gross margin is targeted at 28.3% for fiscal 2024 (was 28%), while SG&A as a percentage of home sales revenue is expected at 9.4% for the year. Toll Brothers ended its fiscal third quarter with $893.4 million of cash and cash equivalents and $2.8 billion in total debt. Its net debt-to-capital ratio stood at 19.6% at the end of the fiscal third quarter. Though Toll Brothers’ backlog faced declines in its fiscal third quarter, we liked the increased guidance across its key homebuilding metrics.

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.

Jun 18, 2024

Lennar Navigating Fluctuating Interest Rate Environment Well
Image: Lennar has been a strong performer since the beginning of 2023. We liked the quarterly update from Lennar, and while we won’t be adding this homebuilder to any newsletter portfolio, we’re interpreting its performance as another positive data point regarding the macroeconomic environment.

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.

Mar 31, 2024

Toll Brothers Notes Strong Start to Spring Selling Season
Toll Brothers raised its full-year fiscal 2024 guidance across key metrics, and the company noted that it has seen a "marked increase in demand coinciding with the start of the spring selling season." Though we don’t include any homebuilder in the simulated newsletter portfolios, it’s good to see things are progressing well at Toll Brothers.

Dec 8, 2023

Dividend Increases/Decreases for the Week of December 8
Let's take a look at firms raising/lowering their dividends this week.

Aug 15, 2023

Home Depot’s Comparable Store Sales Continue Declines, Big Ticket Purchases Slow
Image: Our fair value estimate range of Home Depot. Shares of Home Depot are trading at the high end of the range at ~$325 per share at the time of this writing. Home Depot is one of the most resilient companies across the retail arena. The firm weathered the Great Financial Crisis [GFC] well and it handled the vicissitudes of the COVID-19 pandemic and aftermath flowingly as it juggled supply chain issues, changing consumer buying preferences, and increased demand as consumers remodeled and upgraded their working and living spaces while cocooning at home. The company’s second-quarter 2023 results, released August 15, came in better than expected, but comparable store sales fell 2% both in aggregate and in the U.S. Though comparable store sales declines improved from bigger declines in the first quarter, Home Depot’s guidance for comparable sales to fall 2%-5% for all of fiscal 2023 indicates there may be some further year-over-year weakness ahead. We’re sticking with Home Depot in the Dividend Growth Newsletter portfolio, however.

Feb 21, 2023

Home Depot’s Comps, Operating Income Fall in Q4; Hikes Dividend 10%
Image Source: Mike Mozart. On February 21, home improvement retailer Home Depot reported weak fourth quarter 2022 results that showed comparable store sales for the period falling 0.3% and operating income dropping 1.5% from the same period a year ago. Diluted earnings per share advanced 2.8% from last year’s quarter. The company is dealing with a weakened consumer spending environment and difficult comparisons from pandemic-driven demand of a year ago. Home Depot raised its dividend payout to 10%, to $2.09 per share, or $8.36 per share on an annualized basis. That translates into a forward estimated dividend yield of ~2.6%.