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Best Idea PayPal Soars on Very Promising Outlook

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Image Shown: Best Ideas Newsletter portfolio idea PayPal is surging after a strong outlook that speaks to underlying strength of the “new” consumer in a post COVID-19 world. By Callum Turcan On May 6, one of our favorite companies PayPal Holdings Inc (PYPL) reported first quarter 2020 earnings. While PayPal missed consensus estimates on both the top- and bottom-line, investors looked towards the future and shares of PYPL rose sharply after the report on May 7. We continue to like PayPal as a near top-weighted holding in our Best Ideas Newsletter portfolio. Please note we increased the weighting of PYPL shares in that newsletter portfolio back on January 13, 2020 (link here) and further increased PayPal’s weighting in our Best … Read more

ALERT: Going to “Fully Invested” — The Fed and Treasury Have Your Back

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Image Source: BEA. Real GDP fell at an annual pace of 4.8% in the first quarter of 2020, according to the “advance” estimate released by the Bureau of Economic Analysis. Summary For members to our new options commentary service, the second April options idea will be released tomorrow. We’re taking the Best Ideas Newsletter portfolio and Dividend Growth Newsletter portfolio to “fully invested,” scaling up our existing positions to reflect that status. We plan to consider put options to hedge against downside risk, if or when the time comes. Moral hazard continues to run rampant, and the Fed and Treasury may have no choice but to continue artificially propping up this market, even buying stocks through certain vehicles, if necessary. … Read more

Emergency Update on COVID-19

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President of Investment Research at Valuentum, Brian Nelson provides an emergency update on COVID-19. He talks about how policymakers have dropped the ball thus far, and why investors should not let their guards down, despite what has been a nice bounce from the March 23 bottom. As of April 24, the world has now borne witness to the deaths of nearly 182,000 people from Coronavirus disease, or COVID-19, with more than 2.6 million confirmed cases. The United States remains the epicenter of the global pandemic with the country confirming 830,000 cases and more than 42,000 deaths. The sad reality is that, despite the many months that have now passed, medical professionals know little more about the disease than when news … Read more

What To Do Now?

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— Dear members: — It’s Brian here. It seems like I went to bed February 22 after writing the following note to you — Is a Stock Market Crash Coming? — Coronavirus and P/E Ratios — and just woke up now. That’s how crazy the markets have been. It’s been two months of a whirlwind of a ride. For those just joining today, we recapped the events since our warning about the Great Crash of 2020 on February 22 in the following two videos — The Question Is If the Economy Can Be Held Together Without Vast Equity Dilution (April 12) and Will Hasty Policy Facilitate the Next Leg Down, or Do We Have It Coming Anyway? (April 19). — Before going on, I want to pause … Read more

Morgan Stanley Stands Out Among Peers in First Quarter

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Morgan Stanley posted difficult first-quarter 2020 results, released April 16, missing consensus estimates on both the top line and the bottom line. Return on average tangible common equity was 9.7% in the quarter, well above levels of just a few years back (and again better than large bank peers in the quarter), showing the progress that Morgan Stanley has made in improving its return profile.  By Matthew Warren Morgan Stanley (MS) posted difficult first-quarter 2020 results, released April 16, missing consensus estimates on both the top line (revenue of $9.49 missed by $330 million) and the bottom line (EPS of $1.01 missed by $0.14). With that said, the results held up fairly well as one can see in the graphic … Read more

Goldman Sachs Exposed to Too Much Risk

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Goldman Sachs posted a rough first quarter of 2020, results released April 15, just like its large bank peers. Regarding its on-balance sheet debt and equity investments, we remain very skeptical both about the marks on private equity and amortized cost debt, as well as the appropriateness of holding this size of assets on a leveraged bank balance sheet. In our view, it simply exposes the shareholders to too much risk, and we think these investments should be sold down to reduce risk. By Matthew Warren Goldman Sachs (GS) posted a rough first quarter of 2020, results released April 15, just like its large bank peers. While the firm exceeded the consensus estimate on the top line with revenue of … Read more

Citigroup Holding Up Fairly Well

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As with its large banking peers, Citigroup posted ugly performance in the first quarter of 2020, results released April 15. While there are probably more losses to come in terms of reserve build and future charge offs, especially in the company’s card business, Citigroup has held up reasonably well thus far in the early innings of this downcycle (and as compared to how poorly the bank fared during the Global Financial Crisis last time around). By Matthew Warren As with its large banking peers, Citigroup (C) posted ugly performance in the first quarter of 2020, results released April 15. While the bank beat consensus estimates on the top line with revenue of $20.73 billion ($1.75 billion better than expected), it … Read more

Bank of America Retains Earnings Power and Healthy Balance Sheet

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Growing pressure from Fed officials on banks to cut dividends, and any extremely-adverse scenario, as outlined by JPMorgan in its latest annual note, coming to fruition may suggest that no banking dividend may be completely safe in this environment. That said, assuming the US economy is able to avoid a prolonged depression-type scenario, Bank of America has the earnings power and balance sheet to withstand most probable scenarios and come out the other side continuing to nip at JPMorgan’s heels for best in class US mega-bank. We are maintaining our recently reduced $28 fair value estimate of Bank of America. By Matthew Warren Bank of America (BAC) posted ugly first-quarter results April 15. Though revenue of $22.77 billion exceeded the … Read more

JPMorgan Outlines Scenario Where Dividend Could Be Cut

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JPMorgan posted a terrible first-quarter 2020 report April 14, missing analyst expectations (which are a wild guess in times like these) by a long shot. If the economy continues to worsen, JPMorgan’s results will get uglier from here. On the earnings call, management indicated that second-quarter provisioning might be incrementally worse if the economy worsens. There is also room for deterioration in its Markets segment if trading activity dies down and one would expect the Asset & Wealth Management segment results to worsen if the markets are flat-to-down from here. The government rescue programs might also prove to be a temporary fix and consumer and business debt might just go bad later after an initial fix from stimulus funds received … Read more

Wells Fargo Faces Regulatory Pressure Amid an Enormous Bad Debt Cycle

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Wells Fargo is facing the same enormous bad debt cycle ahead just like its big bank peers, but it is also carrying a ton of its own baggage at just the wrong time. Earnings had already been under pressure before the bad debt cycle had hit, and the bank is facing a very difficult regulatory situation, with a cap on total assets that has been in place since 2018. This is causing the bank to forgo revenue growth opportunities and make difficult trade offs to help existing customers over new customers. This means that Wells is competing with one arm tied behind its back; it has also meant substantially higher costs as the bank has done a ton of hiring … Read more