Valuentum Exclusive Analysis for the Discerning Investor

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May 17, 2021

Best Idea Disney’s Outlook Is Bright and Getting Brighter
Image Source: The Walt Disney Company – December 2020 Investor Day Presentation. The Walt Disney Company reported second quarter fiscal 2021 earnings (period ended April 3, 2021) that beat consensus bottom-line estimates but missed consensus top-line estimates. Investors were dismayed that the company’s paid video streaming subscriber base did not grow by as much as expected. However, we are not worried as Disney’s outlook is bright and getting brighter.

Mar 29, 2021

Nothing May Derail the U.S. Economy In the Long Run
Image Source: Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. U.S. gross domestic product is back on the upswing, and we fully expect the U.S. economy to recover, and then continue its expansion in coming years. U.S. GDP, January 1947 through October 2020. Warren Buffett may have said it best in Berkshire Hathaway’s 2020 Annual Report: “Never bet against America.”

Mar 24, 2021

ViacomCBS Makes Big Bet on Streaming
Image Source: ViacomCBS Inc – Fourth Quarter of 2020 IR Earnings Presentation. After Viacom and CBS were reunited in December 2019, the new entity ViacomCBS Inc has finally started to gain some traction on the video streaming front. The service CBS All Access, which has since been rebranded as Paramount+, was largely a dud and did not gain the level of attention that Walt Disney Company’s Disney+ service, AT&T Inc’s HBO Max service, or Netflix's namesake service were able to generate. For background, ViacomCBS’s operations include various TV network and cable TV assets, TV and movie studios, various streaming services, and a book publisher. That includes various CBS networks (CBS, CBS Sports, CBS News), CBS studios, MTV, Comedy Central, Paramount, Nickelodeon, Pluto TV (another video streaming service that is free and ad-supported), BET, CMT, POP TV, half of CW (AT&T owns the remaining 50%), COLORS (focused on India), telefe (focused on Spanish-speaking content), SHOWTIME, and the book publisher Simon & Schuster. However, with ViacomCBS launching Paramount+ this month in the US and various Latin American markets, the service now has a larger slate of content than CBS All Access and is supported by ViacomCBS’ vast library (and most importantly, ViacomCBS has plans to produce dozens of original series for Paramount+ going forward). Paramount+ is leaning on properties such as Star Trek and SpongeBob SquarePants along with reboots of shows like iCarly to create engaging original content. Content is king. The combination of Viacom and CBS helped address that issue and provided the new entity with the scale required to be competitive in this business.

Mar 15, 2021

AT&T’s Video Streaming Growth Story Is Starting to Take Flight
Image Source: AT&T Inc – 2021 Investor & Analyst Day Presentation. On March 12, AT&T hosted its 2021 Analyst & Investor Day event. In conjunction with the event, AT&T issued long-term financial and operational guidance which included a substantial upward revision in its expected HBO/HBO Max subscriber growth over the coming years. We continue to be big fans of AT&T as a high yielding opportunity and include AT&T as an idea in the High Yield Dividend Newsletter portfolio. As of this writing, shares of AT&T yield ~7.0%.

Jan 25, 2021

ALERT: Bull Raids, Short Squeezes and Highly Unusual Market Activity
Image: Shares of GameStop have been on an irrationally wild ride recently driven by what looks to have been an orchestrated and highly unethical (and perhaps illegal) short squeeze on the stock. According to some reports, during the pre-market session January 25, GameStop’s shares were up ~80%, and turned red during the trading session, with no fundamental news.In late 2018, Valuentum published Value Trap, a book that warned to all that would heed its warning that a collapse in the traditional quant value factor was coming and that excessive volatility in the markets caused by price-agnostic trading--or those that aren’t paying attention to fair value estimate calculations--would only build and build to eventually reach extreme and irrational levels. The book, while hugely successful winning award after award, was largely ignored by the media, despite our best efforts to get the word out. Now, the chickens are coming home to roost.

Jan 22, 2021

We Expect Netflix to Turn Into a Free Cash Flow Generating Machine
Image Shown: Netflix Inc’s global paid subscriber base is expected to keep growing at a decent clip going forward, though at a slower pace than in the recent past. Image Source: Netflix Inc – Shareholder Letter covering its fourth quarter and full-year earnings in 2020. The video streaming services industry will continue to experience strong subscriber growth in 2021, and we see room for a number of winners in the space. Original content and scale are essential to remaining relevant, and competitive headwinds are growing as companies seek to replicate the success of Netflix. We think Netflix will eventually turn into a free-cash-flow generating machine, but at the moment, we're big fans of "new" streaming rival Disney and include the latter in the Best Ideas Newsletter portfolio. Disney is the top competitive threat to Netflix, in our view.

Dec 11, 2020

AT&T’s Outlook Is Getting Brighter
Image Shown: An overview of AT&T Inc’s capital allocation priorities over the coming years and a snapshot of its financial position at the end of September 2020. Image Source: AT&T Inc – Third Quarter of 2020 IR Earnings Presentation. The rollout of 5G wireless packages in the US combined with expected growth at its video streaming business has significantly improved AT&T’s outlook during the past few months. We include shares of AT&T in the High Yield Dividend Newsletter portfolio, and as of this writing, shares of T yield ~6.6%. Headwinds caused by the ongoing coronavirus (‘COVID-19’) pandemic weighed negatively on AT&T’s financial and operational performance in 2020, though the company remains on track to generate enormous amounts of free cash flow this year. AT&T currently expects to generate $26.0 billion or more in free cash flow in 2020, a forecast that the firm reiterated on December 8. The company has guided its dividend cash-flow payout ratio (dividend obligations divided by free cash flow) to come in near the high 50s% area this year. Please note that back in April 2020, AT&T expected its dividend cash-flow payout ratio in 2020 would be in the 60s% range, but its outlook was negatively impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Things are starting to turn around in part due to the recent successes AT&T has had at its video streaming business after things got off to a slow start.