Valuentum Exclusive Analysis for the Discerning Investor

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Sep 1, 2020

Valuentum Website Overview
Overview of the key features of www.valuentum.com (03:55). Valuentum (val∙u∙n∙tum) [val-yoo-en-tuh-m] Securities Inc. is an independent investment research publisher, offering premium equity reports, dividend reports, and ETF 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.

Aug 28, 2020

TikTok Up for Grabs
Image Shown: ByteDance may be forced to sell the US operations of TikTok, and there are plenty of potential suitors out there with deep pockets. On August 27, Walmart announced it was in discussions with Microsoft Corp about acquiring the US operations of popular short-video-oriented social firm TikTok from Beijing-based ByteDance. Given that Microsoft noted back on August 2 it was continuing discussions concerning a potential deal for TikTok’s US, Australian, New Zealand and Canadian operations, it is likely Walmart would be interested in acquiring an economic interest in those assets as well. Additionally, a consortium led by Oracle Corp has reportedly made a $20.0 billion bid for TikTok according to The Wrap, with $10.0 billion made up in cash and $10.0 billion of Oracle stock along with a provision that would see Oracle give ByteDance 50% of the annual profits from TikTok over a two-year period. Please note that none of this is for certain, though we are intrigued by the news. Oracle is reportedly joined by General Atlantic and Sequoia Capital, two venture capital firms that are also investors in ByteDance.

Aug 23, 2020

Latest Stock Report Updates
Valuentum members have access to our 16-page stock reports, Valuentum Buying Index ratings, Dividend Cushion ratios, fair value estimates and ranges, dividend reports and more. Not a member? Subscribe today. The first 14 days are free.

Aug 21, 2020

Just How Good Have We Been?
Image: We have been absolutely pounding the table on big cap tech and large cap growth for many months now. It has been one of the rare buckets to have done well this year. By well, we mean superb. Source: Zerohedge. After capping off one of the best years in the Best Ideas Newsletter portfolio in 2019, we highlighted broad market put option ideas in late February and early March--right before the COVID-19 crash that shocked the markets. Then, just about right near the bottom, we highlighted 17 of 20 outperforming ideas--strong net-cash-rich, free-cash-flow generating powerhouses with strong secular growth tailwinds. We then went all-in in the newsletter portfolios in late April, just in time for the best 100 trading days in the S&P 500 in history. But perhaps the chart above says even more. You know that we have been absolutely pounding the table on large cap growth, big cap tech, and the NASDAQ, and the bucket of large cap growth is up 23% this year, significantly ahead of any other style. Significantly.

Aug 17, 2020

August Best Ideas Newsletter!
Image: The Best Ideas Newsletter portfolio. We migrated to weighting ranges at the beginning of 2018. The image above is as of the close April 15. Portfolio concentration among strong-performing equities has been the key to outperformance. Since the last update, we've witnessed some big moves from our top-weighted entities: Berkshire Hathaway (+10.7%), Facebook (+8.7%), and PayPal (+11.2%). These three entities comprise roughly 34% of the Best Ideas Newsletter portfolio at the high end of the weighting ranges, more than offsetting the weaker performance from lower-weighted Cisco and Intel during the month. We continue to focus on over-weighting our "best of the best" ideas within a portfolio setting, and we're hoping to get both Apple and Microsoft back near the top when the opportunity presents itself. Apple has advanced +17.6% since the last month's edition.

Aug 4, 2020

Apple Surges Higher Ahead of Stock Split
Image Shown: Shares of Apple Inc have staged an impressive rally since bouncing off their March 2020 lows, with AAPL up ~46% year-to-date as of this writing on August 3. We added shares of Apple back to the Best Ideas Newsletter and Dividend Growth Newsletter portfolios on June 12, 2020. Later on this August, Apple intends on completing a four-for-one stock split. We added Apple back to both the Best Ideas Newsletter and Dividend Growth Newsletter portfolios on June 12, 2020 (link here). Companies that are supported by secular growth tailwinds and pristine balance sheets, such as Apple, are well-positioned to deal with the ongoing coronavirus (‘COVID-19’) pandemic. Shares of AAPL have surged significantly higher since mid-June and are now trading well above the top end of our fair value range as of this writing, but we want to stress here that we like to let our winners run. It is not until after a firm’s technicals turn against it that we would consider removing shares of that firm from our newsletter portfolios. Given its stellar third quarter fiscal 2020 earnings report (period ended June 27, 2020) published on July 27, shares of Apple may have room to run further still.

Jul 31, 2020

Our Judgment for the Long Haul
As you're probably aware by now, Apple, Alphabet, and Facebook--key positions in the newsletter portfolios--put up monster second-quarter results July 30, respectively. We'll be addressing the quarterly reports more in depth on our website in the coming days, but Apple is now a ~$410 per share stock, trading up 6%+ on the session, and now Facebook is trading over $250, up 7%+ on the session. Now at all-time highs, Facebook has been one of the top weightings in the Best Ideas Newsletter portfolio for some time. Its poor performance during 2018 is now history! Alphabet, while facing some weakness today, hit all-time highs earlier this month.

Jul 28, 2020

AT&T Remains Free Cash Flow King, Though Deleveraging Efforts Are Getting Tougher
Image Shown: AT&T Inc continued to be a free cash flow cow last quarter, though the ongoing pandemic created headwinds for its various businesses. Image Source: AT&T Inc – Second Quarter of 2020 IR Earnings Presentation. The ongoing coronavirus (‘COVID-19’) pandemic has created some very serious headwinds for AT&T, but that did not stop the telecommunications and entertainment giant from being incredibly free cash flow positive last quarter. On July 23, AT&T reported its second quarter 2020 earnings report and we remain confident in the firm’s ability to keep making good on its dividend obligations going forward. Shares of T yield ~7.1% as of this writing, and we include shares of AT&T in our High Yield Dividend Newsletter portfolio.

Jul 22, 2020

Second Quarter Earnings Roundup
The figure above shows the performance of the simulated Best Ideas Newsletter portfolio from inception May 17, 2011, through December 15, 2017, relative to its declared benchmark, the S&P 500 (SPY), on an apples-to-apples basis, with dividends collected but not reinvested for both the newsletter portfolio and the SPY, as reported in the monthly newsletter. The simulated Best Ideas Newsletter portfolio outperformed the S&P 500, including reinvested dividends in the benchmark, since inception (May 17, 2011) and since the inaugural release of the newsletter (July 13, 2011) through the end of the measurement period (December 15, 2017). The results are hypothetical and do not represent returns that an investor actually earned. Past results are not indicative of future performance.

Jul 9, 2020

Update on Valuentum's Research
The markets, especially the NASDAQ, have been powering ahead, and we maintain our bullish long-term stance on equities. As you're well aware, the stock market is not the economy, and stocks are long-duration financial instruments (i.e. forecasts about the long term impact the price today). Fed and Treasury actions have inflated the longer-duration components of intrinsic value, more than offsetting in most cases the implications of a weak economy/earnings in the near term.