We Remain Bullish on Disney’s Capital Appreciation Upside Potential

Image Shown: Shares of The Walt Disney Company have shifted lower over the past month, though are still bullish on its capital appreciation upside. Our fair value estimate sits at $192 per share of Disney. By Callum Turcan The Walt Disney Company (DIS) reported fourth-quarter earnings for fiscal 2021 (period ended October 2, 2021) on November 10 that missed consensus top- and bottom-line estimates. While the company’s ‘Disney Parks, Experiences and Products’ segment (includes its theme parks and resorts operations) staged an impressive turnaround last fiscal quarter, its ‘Disney Media and Entertainment Distribution’ segment (includes its video streaming businesses) grew at a slower pace than expected. Shares of Disney sold off after its latest earnings report, though we remain confident … Read more

The Valuentum Weekly Is a Hit! Only Delivered By Email!

Image: Excerpt from the November 14 edition of the Valuentum Weekly. November 14, 2021: Inflation Is Positive for Nominal Earnings While Interest Rates Remain at All-Time Lows Tickers mentioned: GOOG, FB, PYPL, DIS, JNJ, BRK.A, BRK.B, ASML, BYND, RIVN, TSLA, JD, WB, BABA, GE, TOSBF, Z, ZG, OPEN, RBLX, GLD November 7, 2021: Large Cap Growth Has More Room to Run Tickers mentioned: SCHG, GME, AMC, BBBY, CVX, XOM, XLE, MA, V, PYPL, QCOM, RSG, NEM, TSLA, PTON, Z, ZG, F, IWN, GMET October 31, 2021: Happy Halloween! Tickers mentioned: AAPL, AMZN, QQQ, SPY, INTC, FB, GOOG, MSFT, LMT, MVRS, DLR, XOM, CVX, DIS, SLB, HON, INTC, CMG, PYPL, PINS, TSLA, HTZZ, PTLO, RSG, SBUX, MCD, NEM, SCHG, IWN October 24, … Read more

Quants and High-Frequency Trading the Real Cause of the GameStop Frenzy?

  Image: The cause of the GameStop trading frenzy remains largely unclassified as it appears to us that quant and high-frequency trading played a much bigger role in the market disruption than what is being reported. By Brian Nelson, CFA Third-quarter 2021 earnings season has been thrust upon a marketplace that has been preoccupied with talk over supply chain disruptions, increasing inflation expectations, unfortunate distractions from trading activity by key officials at the Fed, and Chinese regulatory unease. We think these items had largely been the key reasons for the pullback in the markets in recent weeks. However, with news that President Biden seems to continue to support Jerome Powell as Fed Chief (we’ll know for sure in February) and … Read more

News Round Up and Some Answers

Image Shown: Wendy’s is the latest stock to be swept away by the meme-stock craze, providing further evidence that 1) markets are inefficient and 2) prices and returns are based on future expectations that may be realized or not. By Brian Nelson, CFA Hope you all are doing great. We saw a nice breakout of Facebook’s (FB) share price yesterday, June 7, and we continue to be fans of the social media giant. We view our long-term assumptions as quite reasonable and peg a fair value estimate of $413 per share for this innovative behemoth. There is considerable upside potential as Facebook continues to monetize its massive user base and pursues new initiatives including e-commerce (Shops) and dating (Dating) and … Read more

How to Navigate the Low Return Environment

Image Shown: Investors continue to gamble on meme stocks and cryptocurrencies. Image Source: QuoteInspector.com.  Modern Finance Is Dead, Long Live Value Trap By Brian Nelson, CFA At Valuentum, we don’t believe in many of the quantitative theories out there. We like to operate within the stock component of market returns, as this has historically been the strongest place to focus one’s efforts. We don’t think it makes sense to add “bad” assets to a portfolio just for the sake of diversification. Can you imagine adding pipeline MLPs to your portfolio in June 2015? If we can find great ideas within the stronger relatively performing stock market, we think we’ll be far better off than any stock/bond mix that one may choose. … Read more

How Many Stocks to Achieve Diversification?

Image: GameStop’s shares are falling like a rock after hitting euphoric levels in the mid-$400s earlier this year. Our fair value estimate stands below $10 per share. By Brian Nelson, CFA GameStop (GME) will be trading in the double digits soon enough, in our opinion. The stock’s rise caught Wall Street by surprise, putting hedge fund Melvin Capital’s back against the wall. Earlier this year, the Reddit/Robinhood (r/WallStreetBets) community aggressively bought the quant factor “short interest as a percentage of float” to drive shares of GameStop, AMC Entertainment (AMC) and others like it into a relentless short squeeze. According to reports, Melvin Capital generated a 49% first-quarter loss, which for any institution should be an unfathomable possibility in a market … Read more

Why You Need to Hire an Active Stock Manager and Ditch Modern Portfolio Theory

Image: Why You Need to Hire an Active Stock Manager and Ditch Modern Portfolio Theory. An Approximate Hypothetical representation of an active manager that charges a 2% active management fee that mirrors the S&P 500 benchmark versus an advisor that charges a 1% advisor fee that applies a 60/40 stock/bond rebalancing from 1990-2021. Approximate Hypothetical returns are based on the following extrapolation: “Since inception in November 9, 1992, returns after taxes on distributions and sales of fund shares for the [Vanguard Balanced Index Fund Investor Shares] VBINX came in at 6.5% through June 30, 2020, while the same measure since inception in January 22, 1993, for the S&P 500, as measured by the S&P 500 ETF Trust (SPY), came in … Read more

Realty Income’s Dividend Track Record Unfazed by Its Weakened Theater Exposure

Image Source: Realty Income By Brian Nelson, CFA On Monday, February 22, Realty Income (O) reported solid fourth quarter results that beat expectations. For the quarter ending December 31, 2020, net income per share came in at $0.33, adjusted funds from operations per share was $0.84, and the REIT collected 93.6% of contractual rent, a decent percentage given that the troubled theater industry comprises ~5.6% of its annualized contractual rent. Regal Cinemas and AMC Entertainment (AMC) are top-10 customers. Though Realty Income continues to face headwinds from its non-investment grade client tenant portfolio, the REIT continues to invest for the future, with over $1 billion allocated to properties and properties under development or expansion in the period. As with many … Read more

ALERT: Bull Raids, Short Squeezes and Highly Unusual Market Activity

We are putting short investors on high alert! By Brian Nelson, CFA In late 2018, Valuentum published Value Trap, a book that warned to all that would heed its warning that a collapse in the traditional quant value factor was coming and that excessive volatility in the markets caused by price-agnostic trading–or those that aren’t paying attention to fair value estimate calculations–would only build and build to eventually reach extreme and irrational levels. The book, while hugely successful winning award after award, was largely ignored by the media, despite our best efforts to get the word out. Now, the chickens are coming home to roost. Image Shown: The book Value Trap warned about the impending collapse of the value factor, … Read more

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

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