Valuentum Exclusive Analysis for the Discerning Investor

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Jan 28, 2024

What Causes Fair Value Estimates to Change?
Image: A screenshot of the discounted cash-flow learning tool for individual investors. So you noticed a fair value estimate changed, and you weren’t sure why? This article is for you.

Jul 27, 2023

“Bought” Low and “Sold” Low with Meta
Image: Shares of Meta Platforms have been on a wild ride the past few years. We didn’t do well with the stock, unfortunately. Let the good times roll in big cap tech and large cap growth! What a fantastic year 2023 is turning out to be and thank you for sticking with us. If Meta serves as any example for you, it should be that you shouldn’t expect us to get everything "right," but it should be very, very clear that we’ve gotten far more things “right” than we’ve gotten “wrong” over the years. Cheers!

Jul 6, 2023

Meta’s Threads Launch Immaterial to Meta But Tragic for Twitter
Image: Threads logo. Meta has launched a Twitter-killer with its new real-time online conversation app, Threads. Meta’s launch of Threads may not be too big of a needle-mover at Meta when it comes to new advertising dollar spending, but we like the incremental move toward creating an ecosystem of interconnected apps and properties. We think Twitter’s days are numbered, with the bird app already shedding a large percentage of its workforce just to keep the lights on. We might see a cage match between Musk and Zuckerberg after all.

Apr 27, 2023

Meta Platforms Surges Back to Fair Value Estimate
Image: Meta Platforms’ shares continue to recover from its massive fallout in 2022. We’re sticking with our $225 fair value estimate following the company’s first-quarter 2023 earnings report. Though Meta Platforms is no longer included in the newsletter portfolios, many readers know that we’ve been bullish on the areas of large cap growth and big cap tech for a long time now and that we include Alphabet, Microsoft, and Apple as core ideas in the newsletter portfolios. Year-to-date and over the past year, an ETF that tracks the area of large cap growth (SCHG) has outperformed an ETF that tracks the area of small cap value (IWN) by roughly 9 percentage points. Over the past five years, the outperformance grows to more than 70 percentage points. Without a doubt, large cap growth has been the place to be, and we’ve had a courtside view of why thanks to our fundamental, cash-flow-driven analysis. We expect large cap growth to continue to lead markets, and while we’ve grown skeptical of Meta Platforms, we like that the market is viewing its first-quarter 2023 report positively.

Jan 11, 2023

We’re Glad Microsoft Sees Promise in ChatGPT
Image Source: Mike Mozart. We’re going to be hearing a lot more about artificial intelligence chatbot technologies in the coming years, and our initial interaction with ChatGPT a month ago indicates to us that it will be a gamechanger for a lot of industries. Microsoft’s continued backing in OpenAI, the owner of ChatGPT, will likely accelerate the technology’s development, and we expect it to eventually augment Microsoft’s own search technology and ad-driven revenue opportunities. Alphabet may have a few AI tricks up its own sleeve in its ‘Other Bets’ segment, so we’re not ruling out a highly competitive environment in this area in the coming years. We like that we include both Microsoft and Alphabet in the simulated newsletter portfolios and that we’re not forced to make a decision on whether a new upstart is worthy of inclusion. Our fair value estimate for both Microsoft and Alphabet remain unchanged at this time.

Dec 5, 2022

Maintaining Our Fair Value Estimates Across Ad-Driven Social Media Equities In Light of Long Term AI-Driven Chatbot Threats
Image: ChatGPT is taking the Internet by storm. A poem generated by the AI-driven chatbot in a matter of seconds about outperforming the stock market. Image Source: ChatGPT. We weren’t just having fun when we tested a new chatbot asking it to write a poem about outperforming the market. In case you haven’t heard yet, making the rounds on social media is a new artificial intelligence [AI] tool called ChatGPT. We're not making any changes to the fair value estimates of our ad-driven social media coverage at this time, but we're taking note that AI-driven chatbots can be a game-changer for a lot of industries.

Oct 28, 2022

In the News: META, AAPL, AMZN, RSG, DLR, VRTX, XOM, CVX
Image Source: Valuentum. Readers should expect a substantial reduction in our fair value estimate of Meta Platforms on the basis of materially reduced forecasts of free cash flow. Apple’s calendar third-quarter results were good, considering that many were worried about iPhone 14 demand heading into the report. Amazon’s results support a cautious tone with respect to consumer spending, while we remain bullish on three of our best-performing ideas so far in 2022 – Vertex Pharma, Exxon Mobil, and Chevron. We didn’t see anything in the Republic Services and Digital Realty reports that would warrant any material changes to our theses at this time.

Oct 27, 2022

VBI Ratings Not as Impressive As We Would Have Liked in 2022
Image: How the VBI rating system has ranked equities so far this year. At Valuentum, we use the Valuentum Buying Index (VBI) to source ideas into diversified simulated newsletter portfolios, and the VBI may be most applicable to the simulated Best Ideas Newsletter portfolio, where we generally like to include ideas when they register a high VBI rating and remove them when they register a low VBI rating. We always use the VBI in a portfolio setting and never by itself. Let's talk more about the VBI rating system in this work.

Oct 12, 2022

Serious Question: What Are You Looking At?
Image: Stocks with the largest 52-week losses, according to YahooFinance. We've handled the worst performers of 2022 quite handily, and the simulated newsletter portfolios are showcasing the importance of our methodology and processes. We expect things to get worse in the economy before they get better, but we maintain our view that there may be nothing better out there than a subscription to Valuentum to navigate these tumultuous times.

Oct 8, 2022

Microsoft Hinted at Trouble in Calendar Q2 But AMD’s Massive $1 Billion Quarterly Q3 Revenue Miss Spells Big Problems for PC Market; Search and News Advertising Revenue Also Likely Weakening Substantially
Image Source: Fritzchens Fritz. Economic conditions have deteriorated rapidly since Microsoft warned about deteriorating PC market demand in July of this year. AMD’s preliminary third-quarter report announced October 6 showed a massive $1 billion miss relative to prior expectations, and we think this is the beginning of a vicious cyclical downturn in the semiconductor industry, with few immune to the troubles, particularly in light of Apple’s warning about iPhone 14 demand. Further, we think search and news advertising has likely deteriorated since the calendar second-quarter reporting season, too, and this doesn’t bode well for the likes of Alphabet and Meta Platforms. Recent news about the strength of Tiktok and the lack of enthusiasm by Meta Platforms’ insiders that are building the metaverse have us thinking that Meta has turned into a value trap. We won’t hesitate to drop shares if the company’s outlook in its third-quarter report comes up short.