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Strategy Versus Tactics in the Best Ideas Newsletter Portfolio

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Image Source: Anna & Michal We made a few tactical tweaks to the Best Ideas Newsletter portfolio during 2017. Let’s walk through them, and how we’re out to win the war, not win every battle. By Brian Nelson, CFA I’m not going to reference The Art of War written by Chinese military strategist Sun Tzu some time in the 5th century, nor am I going to use any quotes from the military treatise (I think it’s too well-traveled of a topic), but I do believe the approach to portfolio management is much like that of a general on a path to win the war. Now, don’t get me confused: I’m not saying that portfolio management is actually like being in … Read more

A “Terrible” Negative Alpha-Generating “Trade” and More

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Let’s walk through some of the news before the Thanksgiving holiday, and one of the bigger missteps we made during 2017. By Brian Nelson, CFA I’d like to run through the news before many of you take a break for the Thanksgiving holiday. Thanks again for your attention. It means the world to our team that you see and understand the things that we’re doing, the great calls we make with our top-weighted ideas (see here and here), the extensive valuation processes we perform with respect to the discounted cash-flow process (see here), and how we provide that in downloadable pdf form (see here) – and we’re here to talk about our expectations! You can get reports from anybody, of … Read more

Valuentum’s “Home Runs” During 2017

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Image Source: Keith Allison By Brian Nelson, CFA We’re doing a lot of things right, but you (yes, you!) mean the world to our team. For best ideas, see the portfolio on page 8 of the Best Ideas Newsletter here (pdf). For best dividend growth ideas, see the portfolio on page 5 of the Dividend Growth Newsletter here (pdf). I want to make sure you have these at your fingertips. We appreciate your business so much! We wrote up an analysis of ideas that were included in the Best Ideas Newsletter portfolio and Dividend Growth Newsletter portfolio at the beginning of 2017. The ideas included in these respective portfolios are our best ideas for each respective strategy, with two distinctions … Read more

Valuentum’s Highest-Rated Economic Castles

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Image Source: Dunrobin Castle; Golspie, Sutherland, John Haslam More information on the Economic Castle™ rating >>  Important Note: The data provided below is current as of the date of this article. Valuentum may have updated the stock and dividend reports of companies after the published date of this article. Members should view the data in this article as a starting point for further research and always access the individual stock page of each desired company on our website for its most recent ratings, metrics, and valuation information. If you have any questions about our services, please contact us at info@valuentum.com. Company Name Symbol Sector Est Div Yield VBI Economic Castle Advanced Micro Devices AMD Information Technology 0.0% 3 Highest Rated Apple AAPL Information Technology 1.6% … Read more

How Have Our Best “Dividend Growth Ideas” Performed During 2017?

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Read about the ideas in the Best Ideas Newsletter portfolio >> We wrote recently about how well the top-weighted ideas in the Best Ideas Newsletter portfolio have performed during 2017, but what about the top-weighted ideas in the other newsletter portfolio, the Dividend Growth Newsletter portfolio? How have they performed during 2017? Please tell us you know how well the top-weighted ideas have been performing. Key Takeaways: 1) “Excluding dividends, the SPDR S&P 500 Dividend ETF has advanced less than 9% this year. Meanwhile, excluding dividends, the two top-weighted ideas in the Dividend Growth Newsletter portfolio, Johnson & Johnson and Intel, are up ~20% and ~24%, respectively, more than double that of the SPDR S&P 500 Dividend ETF.”  2) “We’re viewing … Read more

How Have Our “Best Ideas” Performed During 2017?

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The top-weighted ideas are getting the job done, while we avoided one of the biggest missteps in all of 2017. We’ve had better years, but 2017 was still a great one. Key takeaways: 1) “The top-weighted ideas in the Best Ideas Newsletter portfolio, Apple and Visa, performed wonderfully from the release of the December 2016 newsletter through November 13, 2017, averaging more than an increase of 45%, excluding dividends, versus a mid-teens percentage advance for the S&P 500, excluding dividends.” 2) “The weighting concept within a portfolio context is an important one because, as a portfolio manager adds more and more ideas to the portfolio, the next best idea is just that–the next best one–so the probability of diluting portfolio … Read more

Apple’s Fiscal Fourth-Quarter Report Awesome

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The newsletter portfolio idea’s stock is off to the races. By Brian Nelson, CFA What more could we say about Apple (AAPL) with its $199 fair value estimate, 7-rating on the Valuentum Buying Index, 5.2 Dividend Cushion ratio, and its position in both newsletter portfolios! We like shares! Apple reported a fantastic fiscal fourth-quarter report November 2 that beat both top and bottom-line expectations. We’re still pouring through the numbers, but the initial read is quite positive. The quarterly revenue jump of 12% and quarterly earnings-per-share advance of 24% are considerable for a company of Apple’s size. In the press release, the executive team had a lot of positive things to say about the outlook and product suite: We’re happy to … Read more

Boeing, Visa Top Dow Performers Thus Far in 2017

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Image Source: Ken Mist Two of our favorite ideas have been leading the pack. By Brian Nelson, CFA We don’t send newsletter notifications often. In fact, they are few and far between. But when we do highlight an idea for the newsletter portfolios, we want it to be a good one. On Friday, 24/7 Wall Street reported that Boeing (BA) had increased its lead as the Dow Jones Industrial Average’s (DIA) top performer during 2017, with the year-to-date mark reaching nearly 65%, as of the end of last week. If you recall, on January 26, we “added” the idea to the Dividend Growth Newsletter portfolio at $168.44, making it perhaps one of the best large-cap ideas highlighted anywhere during 2017. … Read more

Apple: Innovation Versus Improvements

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Image Source: Valuentum Apple’s 2017 iPhone event took place September 12, and it was one of the most highly anticipated of such events. Let’s take a look at what improvements are being made and how they might impact our thesis on the tech giant. By Kris Rosemann Newsletter portfolio holding Apple (AAPL) has made a spectacle of its annual iPhone event in which it reveals the most recent improvements it makes to its flagship product, as well as other new products and features across its lineup. This year’s event, which took place September 12, was one of the most highly-anticipated events in the iPhone’s 10-year history, due in large part to the anticipation surrounding the iPhone X (iPhone 10 in … Read more

Apple, Hanesbrands Power Higher

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Image shown: Performance of the S&P 500 SPDR (SPY) since the beginning of 2017. There aren’t two other companies within the Dividend Growth Newsletter portfolio that may be more controversial positions than Apple and Hanesbrands — one is on the cutting edge of technology and the other makes T-shirts and underwear, a very interesting dichotomy. By Brian Nelson, CFA The stock market continues to roar ahead, and the latest rally is starting to set some new records. According to Charlie Bilello at Pension Partners, the S&P 500 (SPY) currently has the fourth-longest streak in history without a 5% drawdown, at 275 consecutive trading days. That’s incredibly low volatility. The S&P 500 now also has had 9 consecutive months where it … Read more