Valuentum Exclusive Analysis for the Discerning Investor

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Feb 16, 2022

The Castle Trumps the Moat
Berkshire Hathaway’s Warren Buffett has popularized the concept of an “economic moat,” perhaps best described in common language as sustainable competitive advantages. Whereas economic moat analysis focuses on the duration of a firm’s economic profit stream, as measured by return on invested capital less the costs of which to attain that capital, economic castle analysis focuses on the magnitude of economic profit creation over the realizable near term. Unlike the substantial duration risk inherent to predicting economic profits 20, 30 or more years into the future, the economic castle framework posits that the strongest performing companies during certain phases of the economic cycle will be those that generate the most economic value over the foreseeable future. The results in this paper showcase the aggregate outperformance of a select number of outsize economic-profit creators within the Valuentum Economic Castle Index relative to both S&P 500 firms and companies with “wide” economic moats.

Feb 10, 2022

Best Idea Disney Rebounding Nicely; Shares Look Cheap
Image Shown: Shares of The Walt Disney Company strengthened February 9 in the wake of the media and entertainment giant's latest earnings report. We include shares of DIS as an idea in the Best Ideas Newsletter portfolio. On February 9, The Walt Disney Company reported first-quarter fiscal 2022 earnings (period ended January 1, 2022) that smashed past both consensus top- and bottom-line estimates. A sharp rebound at its ‘Disney Parks, Experiences and Products’ unit impressed investors and shares of DIS are strengthening nicely in the wake of its latest earnings report. We are big fans of Disney and include shares of DIS as an idea in the Best Ideas Newsletter portfolio. Our fair value estimate stands at $179 per share of Disney with room for upside as the high end of our fair value estimate range sits at $219 per share. Shares are currently trading at ~$155 each at the time of this writing.

Jan 23, 2022

Netflix’s Subscriber Growth Is Slowing Down, Competition Heating Up
Image Shown: Netflix Inc’s paid subscriber base is expected to grow at a slower pace in the near term compared to the performance seen in recent years. Image Source: Netflix Inc – Shareholder letter covering the fourth quarter of 2021. On January 20, Netflix reported fourth-quarter 2021 earnings after the bell. The video streaming giant met consensus top-line estimates and beat consensus bottom-line estimates last quarter as original content such as the South Korean TV show Squid Game (released September 2021) proved to be quite popular in markets around the globe and helped Netflix retain interest in its service. During Netflix’s latest earnings call, management noted that the violent Squid Game TV show had been renewed for a second season when asked by an analyst about the issue. However, the near-term guidance Netflix provided in conjunction with its latest earnings update signaled that growth in its paid subscriber base was expected to slow down in the first quarter of 2022 on both a year-over-year and sequential basis. During regular trading hours on January 21, shares of NFLX were pummeled.

Jan 22, 2022

Don’t Throw the Baby Out with the Bathwater
Image: Erica Nicol. Junk tech should continue to collapse, but the stylistic area of large cap growth and big cap tech should remain resilient. Moderately elevated levels of inflation coupled with interest rates hovering at all-time lows isn’t a terrible combination. In fact, it’s not bad at all. The markets are digesting the huge gains of the past few years so far in 2022, and the excesses in ARKK funds, crypto, SPACs, and meme stocks are being rid from the system. Our best ideas are “outperforming” the very benchmarks that are outperforming everyone else. The BIN portfolio is down 6.4% and the DGN portfolio is down 3.2% year to date. The SPY is down 7.8%, while the average investor may be doing much worse. Our timing to exit some very speculative ideas in the Exclusive publication has been impeccable. Beware of “best-fitted” backtest data regarding sequence of return risks. Research is to help you navigate the future, not the past. We remain bullish on stocks for the long haul and grow more and more excited as our simulated newsletter portfolios continue to hold up very well. Don’t throw the baby out with the bath water. Stick with the largest, strongest growth names. We still like large cap growth and big cap tech, though we are tactical overweight in the largest energy stocks (e.g. XOM, CVX, XLE). The latest short idea in the Exclusive publication has collapsed aggressively since highlight January 9, and we remain encouraged by the resilience of ideas in the High Yield Dividend Newsletter portfolio and ESG Newsletter portfolio. Our options idea generation remains ongoing.

Dec 26, 2021

VIDEO/TRANSCRIPT: 2021 Valuentum Exclusive Call: Inflation Is Good
Valuentum's President Brian Michael Nelson, CFA, explains why investors should not fear inflation, why government agencies such as the Fed and Treasury are prioritizing something other than price discovery, why the 10-year Treasury rate is a must-watch metric, and why Valuentum prefers the moaty constituents in large cap growth due to their net cash rich balance sheets, tremendous free cash flow generating potential, and secular growth tailwinds.

Nov 12, 2021

Hard Work and the Trust That Binds
Image: Terry Johnson. It’s easy to forget how much we’ve been through the past two years. Often, we forget how helpful the warning that markets were going to crash was the weekend before they did on February 22, 2020, “Is a Stock Market Crash Coming? – Coronavirus Update and P/E Ratios,” how we thought dollar-cost-averaging made sense at the bottom in March 2020, and how we went “all-in” in April 29, 2020, “ALERT: Going to “Fully Invested” – The Fed and Treasury Have Your Back,” when we saw the writing was on the wall for this blow off top. If nothing else, these three moves alone during the past couple years have paid for a lifetime of subscriptions.

Sep 27, 2021

Update on High-Yielding AT&T
Image Source: AT&T Inc – Second Quarter of 2021 IR Earnings Presentation. The communications and media giant AT&T Inc is pivoting back to its roots, a strategy that we think will pay off handsomely in the long run, though there have been plenty of rough bumps along the way. Management has finally found a strategy that AT&T can stick with. We include AT&T as an idea in the High Yield Dividend Newsletter portfolio and shares of T yield ~7.7% as of this writing (note that the company will rightsize its dividend in the coming quarters, resulting in a yield adjustment lower).

Aug 16, 2021

Best Idea Disney’s Video Streaming Business Booms
Image Shown: The Walt Disney Company’s video streaming growth ambitions showed signs of significant progress last fiscal quarter. Image Source: The Walt Disney Company – Third Quarter of Fiscal 2021 Earnings Press Release. On August 12, The Walt Disney Company reported third quarter earnings for fiscal 2021 (period ended July 3, 2021) that beat both consensus top- and bottom-line estimates. Disney’s video streaming services reported a sharp uptick in paid subscribers while the financial performance of the segment that includes its theme park and resort operations staged an immense rebound. We continue to be huge fans of Disney’s capital appreciation potential and include shares of DIS as an idea in the Best Ideas Newsletter portfolio.

Jul 27, 2021

High-Yielding AT&T Remains Free Cash Flow Cow
Image Shown: AT&T Inc’s core businesses in the wireless and fiber arenas continue to gain subscribers at a rapid pace, while its HBO/HBO Max offerings are also growing at a nice clip. Image Source: AT&T Inc – Second Quarter of 2021 IR Earnings Presentation. On July 22, AT&T reported second quarter 2021 earnings that beat both consensus top- and bottom-line estimates. The company added 1,156,000 net postpaid customers to its core ‘Mobility’ business including 789,000 net postpaid phone customers, aided by its lowest churn rates ever at just below 0.7%. AT&T also added 174,000 net prepaid phone customers while its AT&T Fiber business added 246,000 net customers last quarter. We include shares of AT&T as an idea in the High Yield Dividend Newsletter portfolio (more on that here), and shares of T yield ~7.4% as of this writing.

Jul 21, 2021

Netflix’s Free Cash Flow Remains Poor While Competition Is Intensifying
Image shown: Netflix continues to experience robust growth and improvements in its operating margin, but free cash flow remains weak. Image source: Netflix’s second-quarter earnings shareholder letter. Without a doubt, Netflix has been one of the best-performing stocks the past decade, but we have a hard time making the case for the firm, especially in light of the much better balance sheets, competitive profiles and free cash flow generation at Facebook, Apple, and Alphabet. Our fair value estimate for Netflix stands just shy of $500, and we think the company’s shares will be rangebound until the next catalyst, which we think will be a negative one, given heightened competition. We remain on the sidelines.