AAPL

ALERTS: Big Changes to the Portfolios; Goodbye Apple!

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Image Source: GDS-Productions Summary Best Ideas Newsletter portfolio Remove: AAPL (7%-12%), GM (2.5%-4%) = 9.5%-16% Add to PYPL (increase weighting by 3%, to the range of 5.5%-7%), add DIS (2.5%-4%), add XAR (4%-5.5%) = 9.5%-14% Dividend Growth Newsletter portfolio Remove: AAPL (5.5%-7.5%), GM (3.5%-5.5%) = 9%-13% Add: BAC (2.5%-3.5%), NEM (2.5%-3.5%), RSG (2.5%-3.5%), LMT (2.5%-3.5%) = 10%-14% —– By Callum Turcan and Brian Nelson, CFA We are making a number of changes to the Best Ideas Newsletter portfolio and Dividend Growth Newsletter portfolio as this market continues full steam ahead. We remain near fully invested in both newsletter portfolios, but we are positioning them more defensively as we enter 2020. The following changes will be reflected in the newsletter portfolios … Read more

Capital Appreciation or Dividend Growth?

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Image source: David Mulder By Brian Nelson, CFA Hope you are doing great! We had one question why we didn’t include an evaluation of the six ideas that were closed in the Dividend Growth Newsletter portfolio during 2019. Of course, these ideas matter, but let’s walk through why. For example, one dividend growth idea that was closed during 2019 was Xilinx (XLNX), with the stock ending 2018 at a close price of $85.17 (it opened 2019 at $83.39) surging to $116.55 by February 14, 2019 (the low on the session of its close date) for a ~37% gain in a very short time (excluding the $0.36/share dividend it paid along the way). Xilinx was a huge winner in the Dividend … Read more

Valuentum Exclusive Success Rates Trump Even the Best Quant Hedge Funds

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Image: President of Investment Research Brian Nelson, CFA By Brian Nelson, CFA A new book, “The Man Who Solved the Market,” hit bookshelves last year, and thus far it has been a hit. The text goes into the story of quant hedge fund Renaissance Technologies and its hedge fund, the Medallion Fund, which has put up mammoth returns since inception. Though the book focuses more on the life and times of founder Jim Simons and dedicated only a page or two to the fall of Long-Term Capital Management (LTCM), another quant fund that went belly-up during the late 1990s, it was nonetheless a thoroughly interesting and enjoyable read. But why I am bringing up one of the most successful quant … Read more

Apple, Microsoft Dominated This Decade

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Apple, Microsoft Dominated This Decade     Note: Due to the New Year holiday, we will be releasing the January 2020 editions of the Dividend Growth Newsletter and High Yield Dividend Newsletter Thursday, January 2. The quarterly Financial Advisor Level publications will be released Wednesday, January 15.  — Top contributors to the S&P 500 return this decade Source: Marketwatch. Data by Andrea Riquier, through December 27, 2019*. — This article was released to members December 31. The email can be accessed here. — By Brian Nelson, CFA  — Hi everyone — hope you are doing great this New Year’s Eve!  —  Many of you haven’t had a chance to read about the performance of the Best Ideas Newsletter portfolio this year, or the performance of … Read more

Dividend Growth Newsletter Portfolio Delivers Again in 2019

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Dividend Growth Newsletter Portfolio Delivers Again in 2019   —  Note: Due to the New Year holiday, we will be releasing the January 2020 editions of the Dividend Growth Newsletter and High Yield Dividend Newsletter Thursday, January 2.  —  By Brian Nelson, CFA    Hi everyone!   I haven’t forgotten about you, our dividend growth friends. At Valuentum, we’re huge fans of dividend growth stocks, and we use our valuation expertise to augment a newsletter portfolio of some of the best dividend growers on the market. Unlike other shops and most blogs that focus more on dividend growth track records, we also like to look forward, not only in the application of the forward-looking Dividend Cushion ratio, but also as … Read more

5 Things We Learned in 2019

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5 Things We Learned in 2019      “The further a society drifts from the truth, the more it will hate those that speak it.” — George Orwell By Brian Nelson, CFA    I’m looking at the beautiful Smoky Mountains in Tennessee as I’m writing this piece. I hope that you and yours are having a wonderful holiday season with family and friends. I wanted to share with you a few things that I think investors learned during 2019. Before I do, however, you’re probably wondering why I decided to lead in with this particular quote from Orwell. — — The quote, in some ways, is a reflection of how I think many approach truth in finance. Maybe they don’t … Read more

2019: Another Market Beating Year for the Best Ideas Newsletter Portfolio!

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2019: Another Market Beating Year for the Best Ideas Newsletter Portfolio! — Summary: — We estimate thus far the Best Ideas Newsletter portfolio return has beat the S&P 500 by 2.8 percentage points during 2019 (34.4% versus 31.6% for the S&P 500, as measured by the SPY). — Our move to overweight Apple, Facebook, and Visa worked out wonderfully for members during 2019. We continue to overweight big winners, and we credit this to our team’s conviction in our very best ideas. —  We also made quite the savvy move in rolling over a solid gain in Chipotle (60%+) into even more shares of Apple stock during the year. We’re putting some of the best ideas right in front of … Read more

Apple Charging Higher

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Image Shown: Shares of Apple Inc continue to climb higher and we like the name in both our Best Ideas Newsletter and Dividend Growth Newsletter portfolios. This is a long-term holding with substantial potential capital appreciation and dividend growth upside. By Callum Turcan Apple Inc (AAPL) is a top holding in both our Best Ideas Newsletter and Dividend Growth Newsletter portfolios, with shares of AAPL yielding ~1.1% as of this writing. The top end of our fair value range estimate for shares of AAPL sits at $280, decently above where shares are trading at as of this writing. Considering the favorable technicals Apple has experienced of late, we see substantial room for shares to move higher still. Please keep in … Read more

Economic Commentary: Marks, Dalio, and the Discount Rate

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Image Source: Mike Cohen We sat down with the Valuentum team to discuss their latest thoughts on recent economic developments. To kick off the conversation, let’s start with the team’s views on the latest memo from Oaktree’s Howard Marks: Mysterious. For those that don’t know Howard, he is the Director and Co-Chairman of Oaktree, which managed about $122 billion in AUM, as of September 2019. The memo goes into depth on the reasons for negative interest rates, the impact of negative interest rates, and opines on whether the US will ever see negative interest rates. Then, we’ll go from there! Brian Nelson: The concept of negative interest rates is not merely academic, but they have far-reaching implications across the global … Read more

Nostalgia?

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Valuentum’s November Dividend Growth Newsletter! Image shown: Valuentum’s Dividend Growth Newsletter portfolio. Since inception, the newsletter portfolio has *never* had a constituent that experienced a dividend cut. We moved to weighting ranges beginning in 2018.— Today is Dividend Growth Newsletter day!  — As I think back over the many years we’ve managed the Dividend Growth Newsletter portfolio, it has been an incredibly rewarding experience to be able to help so many dividend growth investors, not only in finding big winners, but also in avoiding big losers. If you recall, many dividend growth investors were swept away by the MLP craze years ago, and we saved our membership, perhaps in impeccable fashion. Who remembers? — From “getting out” of General Electric … Read more