Valuentum Exclusive Analysis for the Discerning Investor

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Aug 27, 2020

Earnings Brief: BOX, CRM, WMT, TOL, HD/LOW
Image Source: Toll Brothers. Iron Oak at Alamo Creek, Danville, CA. Let's cover some trends that may emerge out of the COVID-19 pandemic, including accelerated e-commerce proliferation and its impact on brick-and-mortar giants, as well as an increased likelihood of suburban sprawl that may propel some names while leaving others behind.

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 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 22, 2020

IBM’s Cloud Transition Continues
Image Source: International Business Machines Corporation – 2019 Annual Report. On July 20, IBM reported second quarter 2020 earnings that beat both consensus top- and bottom-line estimates. Most of the market’s excitement centered on IBM’s ‘Cloud & Cognitive Software’ segment posting year-over-year revenue growth of ~3% in the second quarter while its company-wide GAAP revenue declined by ~5% year-over-year, though initial gains in IBM’s share price faded away during regular trading hours on July 21. In the earnings press release, IBM noted its “total cloud revenue” grew by 30% year-over-year last quarter. Shares of IBM are trading near their fair value estimate of $129 as of this writing, indicating that shares of IBM appear fairly valued.

Jun 26, 2020

Update on Dell Technologies and VMware
Image Source: VMware Inc – First Quarter Fiscal 2021 IR Earnings Presentation. Dell Technologies and VMware Inc are back in the news as the WSJ recently reported the former is considering spinning off its enormous equity stake in the latter. Back in September 2016, Dell completed its ~$67 billion cash-and-stock acquisition of EMC which gave Dell a controlling equity stake in VMware (and a mountain of net debt in the process). As of January 31, 2020, Dell owned approximately 80.9% of VMware’s outstanding equity. Dell can spin off its equity stake in VMware tax-free after a five-year waiting period, though Dell would need to wait until September 2021 before that could occur (given when the EMC deal closed).

Jun 21, 2020

Why We Like Apple and Microsoft in the Newsletter Portfolios
Image Shown: Shares of Apple Inc (blue line) and Microsoft Corporation (red line) are up significantly year-to-date as of the market close on June 19, and we see room for both shares of AAPL and MSFT to continue marching higher after recently revising our fair value estimates for both companies. On June 12, we added back shares of Apple and Microsoft Corp to both the Best Ideas Newsletter portfolio and Dividend Growth Newsletter portfolio. We added Apple and Microsoft back to the newsletter portfolios using the cash position generated by removing the Vanguard Real Estate ETF and the SPDR S&P Aerospace and Defense ETF from the Best Ideas Newsletter portfolio and Cracker Barrel and Bank of America Corp from the Dividend Growth Newsletter portfolio on June 11. The Best Ideas Newsletter portfolio (link here) and Dividend Growth Newsletter portfolio (link here), as of June 15, 2020, can be viewed on our website. There are a lot of reasons to like Apple and Microsoft, especially during these turbulent times. Both firms have massive net cash positions, better positioning the tech giants to ride out the storm created by the ongoing coronavirus (‘COVID-19’) pandemic. Both companies are free cash flow cows and their growth trajectories are underpinned by secular growth tailwinds (particularly on the cloud computing and digitally-provided services side of things), further bolstering their cash flow profiles.

Jun 17, 2020

Turbulent Fiscal Fourth Quarter Aside, Oracle Paints a Promising Outlook for Fiscal 2021
Image Source: Oracle Corporation – Oracle Database Update September 2019 Presentation. On June 16, Oracle Corp reported fourth quarter fiscal 2020 earnings (period ended May 31, 2020) that beat consensus bottom-line estimates and missed consensus top-line estimates, though there is some noise given the turbulence created by the ongoing coronavirus (‘COVID-19’) pandemic. Additionally, Oracle declared a $0.24 per share quarterly dividend that is slated to get paid out in July, which was flat on a sequential basis. Shares of ORCL yield ~1.8% as of this writing, and we continue to like the idea as a holding in the Dividend Growth Newsletter portfolio. While shares of ORCL sold off on June 17, management painted a more optimistic outlook for the firm’s fiscal 2021 performance than initial trading action suggests.

Jun 16, 2020

Reiterating Our Bullish Long-Term View on Stocks
Image: The NASDAQ 100 Index remains resilient, bouncing off support, after breaking out to new highs recently. Some of our best ideas are included in the NASDAQ 100, and our favorite concentrations include exposure to big cap tech and large cap growth. We continue to be bullish on equities for the long run. In addition to unlimited quantitative easing and "whatever it takes, squared" Fed policy, today, June 16, the Trump administration announced that it is weighing a $1 trillion stimulus bill to help support the economy. While uncertainties remain regarding specifics of the bill (it might include state assistance, extension of unemployment benefits, etc.), the move is consistent with the outsize spending we expect to further bolster the bull case, "ICYMI -- Stay Optimistic. Stay Bullish. I Am." We continue to emphasize that, in light of unlimited QE and runaway fiscal stimulus, the longer-duration components of intrinsic values are expanding considerably, and as a result, fair values, themselves, are actually rising during this recession and pandemic [a good estimate of the value of the S&P 500 today may be between 3,530-3,920, as outlined in the following: "Scribbles and More Newsletter Portfolio Changes.]."

Jun 15, 2020

ICYMI: Survey Coming Later Today, More Market Volatility Expected
Image: The market's levels of volatility so far in 2020 have been among the greatest in history. Expectations for increased volatility in the marketplace as a result of the proliferation of price-agnostic trading (indexing and quantitative trading) is a key theme of Valuentum's text, Value Trap: Theory of Universal Valuation. We continue to emphasize the importance of due diligence, enterprise valuation, behavioral thinking, the information contained in prices, and stock selection across equity portfolios. Page 256. This week is setting up to be yet another volatile week of trading, but nothing too surprising. We've talked extensively about outsize levels of volatility in the book Value Trap, and many of our predictions regarding the magnitude of volatility have come to fruition, as described in this note here. But as we've also noted in Value Trap, we don't think increased volatility is a transient development. The Fed and Treasury have only further emboldened price-agnostic trading (indexing/quant) with recent bailout actions, and volatility and momentum funds, which exacerbate the swings, will only grow as a percentage of trading volumes. The magnitude of market volatility during the COVID-19 crisis has certainly been immense. During March for example, the Dow Jones Industrial Average had 8 consecutive days with a 4% move in either direction (this is the first time in history this happened--not even during the tumultuous times of the Crash of 1929 or Black Monday of 1987 or the Great Financial Crisis did this happen). Intra-day volatility has also been considerable, and it has become commonplace for equity futures to swing wildly before market open. Now, more than ever, investors need a steady hand at the wheel.

Jun 15, 2020

Reviewing Oracle’s Cloud Ambitions Ahead of Its Upcoming Earnings Report
Image Shown: Oracle Corp is seeking to take market share in the clouding computing space from Microsoft Corp and Amazon. Image Source: Oracle Corporation – September 2019 Financial Analyst Meeting. Oracle Corp is included as a holding in our Dividend Growth Newsletter portfolio. We like the firm’s high quality cash flow profile as that lends support to its Dividend Safety rating, which sits at “GOOD,” and should its Dividend Cushion ratio of 2.7 tick up slightly, Oracle would be in a position to earn an “EXCELLENT” Dividend Safety rating. Shares of ORCL yield ~1.8% as of this writing, and Oracle’s Dividend Growth rating sits at “EXCELLENT” given its promising payout growth trajectory. Please note our Dividend Cushion ratio and Dividend Safety rating are forward-looking, and we model in strong double-digit per share payout growth through the mid-2020s, though the ongoing coronavirus (‘COVID-19’) pandemic may result in management being more cautious in the near-term.