AGTC

How Some Members Use Valuentum’s Investment Services

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By Brian Nelson, CFA Thank you for your membership to Valuentum. We serve a wide variety of investors, including dividend growth investors, value investors, and pure Valuentum investors, among others. Many different types of investors and professionals use our research and financial analysis in a whole host of applications from individual stock-selection to the evaluation of closed-end funds to an overlay in a money-management setting and beyond. We wanted to make sure that you know that, if you’re a dividend growth or income investor, that there are others that use our website to utilize the Valuentum process, fair value estimates and other metrics. Similarly, if you’re a practitioner of the Valuentum system, I wanted to make sure that you are … Read more

Vertex Pharma Still Extremely Healthy Even After VX-864 Disappointment

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Image Shown: Vertex Pharma has a huge net cash position on the balance sheet offering it tremendous financial flexibility. Image Source: Vertex Pharma. By Brian Nelson, CFA A broadly diversified stock portfolio of 15-25 securities or no less than 15 securities across most, if not all S&P 500, sectors may make sense for a lot of long-term investors. Included in this diversified mix of equities may be biotech exposure, and our favorite way to play the speculative biotech space, albeit in a very small allocation in the Best Ideas Newsletter portfolio, is with Vertex Pharma (VRTX). We’re not making any changes to the newsletter portfolio in light of news of a recent setback at the company. On Thursday June 10, … Read more

ICYMI: Valuentum’s Brian Nelson on the Latest Howard Marks’ Memo: “Something of Value”

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Valuentum’s President of Investment Research Brian Michael Nelson, CFA, explains why there are not really value and growth stocks, why most of the research in quantitative finance is spurious and needs to be redefined on a forward-looking basis, and why enterprise valuation (not the efficient markets hypothesis) should be the organizing principle of finance. Nelson explains his views about valuation, what it means to be a value investor, and investing in the context of Oaktree Capital Howard Marks’ latest memo, “Something of Value,” January 11, 2021. Please don’t forget to give the second edition of the book “Value Trap” a 5-star rating on Amazon here. Thank you for your membership! —– Tickerized for holdings in the IWM. Valuentum members have … Read more

Value Is Not Static and the Qualitative Overlay Is Vital to Our Process

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With prudence and care, the Valuentum Buying Index process and its components are carried out. Our analyst team spends most of its time thinking about the intrinsic value of companies within the context of a discounted cash-flow model and evaluating the risk profile of a company’s revenue model. We have checks and balances, too. First, we use a fair value range in our valuation approach as we embrace the very important concept that value is a range and not a point estimate. A relative value overlay as the second pillar helps to add conviction in the discounted cash-flow process, while a technical and momentum overlay seeks to provide confirmation in all of the valuation work. There’s a lot happening behind the scenes even before a VBI rating is published, but it will always be just one factor to consider. Within any process, of course, we value the human, qualitative overlay, which captures a wealth of experience and common sense. We strive to surface our best ideas for members.

Can Vertex Pharmaceuticals Dominate the Race to Treat Cystic Fibrosis?

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Tickerized for holdings in the XLV and IBB. Cystic Fibrosis is a rare disease that afflicts an estimated seventy-five thousand patients worldwide. Vertex Pharmaceuticals is the first to market with a combination treatment to treat a portion of the overall patient population. Will Vertex win the race to bring forth a triple therapy to treat the vast majority of those afflicted? By Alexander J. Poulos Cystic fibrosis (CF) is a recessive genetic disorder. The patient that is afflicted will carry two copies of the cystic fibrosis conductance regulator protein (CFTR) gene. The CFTR gene allows the body to produce the CFTR protein, whose function is to remove chloride from the cells. Patients that have CF will suffer from a “thickening” … Read more

Pharma, Biotech and How to Consider Investing In It

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The Valuentum analyst team digs deep into recent trends in big pharma and biotech from the lofty pricing of drugs to political and competitive pressures to ETF considerations and beyond. ~10 mins. If you cannot view the podcast below, please view the transcript below or select the link here. Tickerized for holdings in the XLV and IBB. Brian Nelson, CFA Gilead’s (GILD) hepatitis C regimen, almost a hundred thousand dollars. Vertex’s (VRTX) cystic fibrosis drug — hundreds of thousands of dollars per year. Have the drug companies lost their mind? This is Brian Nelson from Valuentum Securities, and today joining me is Mr. Kris Rosemann and Mr. Chris Araos — and we are going to talk everything healthcare, biotech… Mr. … Read more