Valuentum Exclusive Analysis for the Discerning Investor

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Oct 30, 2022

Something New!
Hi everyone: To stay true to our mission, you'll find something new regarding our methodology. In the coming weeks, you'll see this table in our work going forward.

Oct 20, 2022

Announcing Valuentum’s Customer Appreciation Day Winners!
Let's see who won an autographed copy of Value Trap and what they said about Valuentum's research! We applaud all of our members in their quest to preserve and generate long-term wealth. Keep going strong!

Oct 19, 2022

New Payment Option! Valuentum Research Update!
We're excited to say that we're adding additional payment flexibility at Valuentum. Many members have expressed interest in paying via other providers, and we have added Square to the mix. You can use credit or debit card or bank (ACH) to pay via invoice. With all of the goings-on in the financial technology and payments space, we wanted to continue to provide members options to pay their memberships how they want and through who they want. You can always reach out to us at info@valuentum.com.

Aug 19, 2022

Nelson: The 16 Most Important Steps To Understand The Stock Market
Image Source: Tim Green. We outline the '16 Most Important Steps to Understand the Stock Market.' We think it's important to take a read of these key stock market tenets when things are going great -- and perhaps even more important when things aren't going your way. This continues to be a working document.

Jul 27, 2022

Walmart’s Business Update Likely Means U.S. Is In Recession, But Near-Term Weakness Is Already Baked Into Stock Market
Image Shown: Shares of Walmart Inc dropped sharply during afterhours trading on July 25 as the retailer sharply cut its adjusted operating income and EPS guidance for the current fiscal year as inflationary pressures are taking a sizable toll on its bottom-line. On July 25, Walmart Inc issued a business update that saw the retailer sharply cut its adjusted operating income and EPS guidance for fiscal 2023 (period ended January 2023), while boosting its consolidated net sales guidance. The company also adjusted its guidance for the fiscal second quarter. Shares of WMT plummeted during afterhours trading on July 25 as investors began to price in concerns over the retailer’s deteriorating margins. We anticipated ongoing weakness in Walmart’s business. On July 4, we released an audio report, “Nelson: I Have Been Wrong About the Prospect of Near-Term Inflationary-Driven Earnings Tailwinds,” highlighting our growing concerns about consumer-tied entities in the consumer staples and consumer discretionary spaces. We continue to expect troubles at the big box retailers and across the apparel space, more generally. Here’s what Nelson had to say in early July that remains applicable today: "I simply was not expecting the magnitude of such operating-income drops across consumer-tied companies, and while I think long-term inflation will eventually help drive higher nominal earnings in the longer run when conditions reach “normalization” again, the lag will be much longer than I originally thought. The numbers out of Walmart, Target, and Nike, for example, speak not only to tremendous earnings weakness, but also to the prospect of economic recession in the U.S." A recession in the U.S. is no reason for panic, however. For starters, we believe most of the fundamental weakness across retail is baked into the stock market, but more generally, investors should not worry about recessionary trends. But why? Well, implicitly embedded within a fair value estimate of a company are expectations of a “normal” economic cycle, complete with peak and trough, with the fair value estimate driven largely by mid-cycle expectations that feed into later stages of the model. The prospects for an unexpected recession in economic activity in the near term shouldn’t cause much of a change in the fair value estimate of a company either, given not only that a recession is already implicitly embedded in the fair value estimate, as noted, but also that near-term expectations don’t account for nearly as large of a contribution to the fair value estimate as long-term normalized expectations within the valuation construct. Most of a company’s intrinsic value is driven by its performance beyond year 5 in our model, or on a mid-cycle, going-concern basis. A company’s fair value estimate range (margin of safety) also captures various scenarios regarding economic activity, including a bull and bear case. With that said, recessionary tendencies may cause pricing impacts in the market in the event that consumers/investors use the stock market as a source of income by selling stocks, causing pressure on share prices, but the discounted cash flow (DCF) model already bakes in economic cyclicality and inevitable recessions, if not directly, then implicitly by targeting long-term mid-cycle expectations and via the application of the fair value estimate range. That’s why it’s great to be a long-term investor, scooping shares up when others are forced to sell in the near term, while holding them over long periods, letting compounding work its magic.

Mar 18, 2022

Dividend Increases/Decreases for the Week March 18
Let's take a look at companies that raised/lowered their dividend this week.

Jun 25, 2021

Nike Beats Estimates Aided By Its Omni-Channel Selling Strength
Image Shown: Shares of Nike Inc popped higher after its latest earnings report. On June 24, Nike reported fourth quarter earnings for fiscal 2021 (period ended May 31, 2021) that beat both consensus top- and bottom-line estimates. Shares of NKE popped higher after the report. The top end of our fair value estimate range for Nike sits at $160 per share, meaningfully above where shares of NKE are trading at as of this writing--even after the latest bounce in its stock price.

Jun 24, 2021

Lululemon’s Growth Outlook Is Bright
Image Source: Lululemon Athletica Inc – First Quarter of Fiscal 2021 IR Earnings Infographic. Athleisure wear maker Lululemon Athletica recently reported first quarter earnings for fiscal 2021 (period ended May 2, 2021) that smashed past both consensus top- and bottom-line estimates. Its company-operated stores posted net revenue growth of 106% year-over-year as global economies began to recover from the coronavirus (‘COVID-19’) pandemic. The company’s direct-to-consumer (‘DTC’) net revenue grew 55% year-over-year (the e-commerce side of its business) last fiscal quarter, keeping in mind its DTC business more than doubled its net revenues in fiscal 2020. We were impressed with Lululemon’s latest results, and there could be room for shares of LULU to continue climbing higher. The top end of our fair value estimate range sits at $450 per share (well above where LULU is trading at as of this writing).

Jun 1, 2021

ICYMI -- Video: Exclusive 2020 -- Furthering the Financial Discipline
In this 40+ minute video jam-packed with must-watch content, Valuentum's President Brian Nelson talks about the Theory of Universal Valuation and how his work is furthering the financial discipline. Learn the pitfalls of factor investing and modern portfolio theory and how the efficient markets hypothesis holds little substance in the wake of COVID-19. He'll talk about what companies Valuentum likes and why, and which areas he's avoiding. This and more in Valuentum's 2020 Exclusive conference call.

Mar 22, 2021

Nike’s Digital Strategy Supports Its Future Revenue Growth and Margin Expansion Prospects
Image Shown: Since announcing the launch of its Consumer Direct Offense initiative in June 2017, Nike has done a stellar job building its omni-channel selling capabilities. The company’s digitally-oriented direct-to-consumer strategy offers it the opportunity to enhance both its long-term revenue growth outlook and operating margin expansion potential. On March 18, Nike reported mixed earnings though its near-term guidance indicates its financial performance will continue to rebound after taking a beating from the COVID-19 pandemic. As of this writing, shares of NKE are trading in the upper bound of our fair value estimate range, indicating shares are roughly fairly valued at this time. The coronavirus (‘COVID-19’) pandemic has made it clear that companies with strong omni-channel selling capabilities are in a much better position than their physical-store dependent peers. Home delivery, curbside pickup, and order online/pickup in-store represent some of the main ways companies are meeting demand received through their digital platforms. E-commerce demand has boomed over the past several quarters and that trajectory has legs, in our view. Though e-commerce was already steadily becoming a larger part of the global economy over the past two decades (adoption rates vary across geographical regions), the pandemic has accelerated that trend. Nike recognized the need to develop omni-channel selling capabilities earlier than most, and part of that strategy involved building out an ecosystem of mobile apps and related websites. The apparel, footwear, equipment, and accessory company announced its ‘Consumer Direct Offense’ initiative back in June 2017 and the goal is to build up a sizable direct-to-consumer (‘DTC’) business with a large e-commerce component. The company has its fitness apps Nike Run Club and Nike Training Club along with the Nike app, which supports its e-commerce operations, and its Nike SNKRS app that focuses on footwear. Its digital strategy also involved Nike parting ways with Amazon a couple of years ago so Nike could better control its digital strategy. On March 18, Nike reported third quarter earnings for fiscal 2021 (period ended February 28, 2021) that saw its ‘NIKE Direct’ sales grow by 20% year-over-year, hitting $4.0 billion.