BOX

Oracle Hits All-Time Highs; Larry Ellison Pumps AI Opportunity

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Image: Newsletter portfolio holding Oracle surges to all-time highs! “Oracle’s Gen2 Cloud has quickly become the number 1 choice for running Generative AI workloads. Why? Because Oracle has the highest performance, lowest cost GPU cluster technology in the world. NVIDIA (NVDA) themselves are using our clusters, including one with more than 4,000 GPUs, for their AI infrastructure. Our GPU clusters are built using the highest-bandwidth and lowest-latency RDMA network—and scale up to 32,000 GPUs. As a result, cutting edge companies doing LLM development such as Mosaic ML, Adept AI, Cohere plus 30 other AI development companies have recently signed contracts to purchase more than $2 billion of capacity in Oracle’s Gen2 Cloud.” – Chairman and CTO Larry Ellison By Brian … Read more

Adobe Acrobat Pro Prices Up 33%; Price Tag of Figma Deal Remains Overhang on Shares

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Image: Adobe’s long-term market opportunity is huge. Image Source: Adobe By Brian Nelson, CFA All things considered, fiscal 2022 was a solid year for Adobe (ADBE), as reported in its latest quarterly earnings report December 15. The company generated record revenue, operating income, and operating cash flow, and we loved that management is talking in terms of the “next decade of growth,” not next quarter or even next year. We like executive suites that are positioning their companies for the long run, and we think Chairman and CEO Shantanu Narayen has done a great job leading the charge. Adobe is among the most well-known software companies due in part to its Adobe Acrobat software. Almost anyone that has applied for a job has … Read more

Oracle Puts Up Huge Revenue Growth Number in Second Quarter Fiscal 2023 Results

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Image: Trailing four-quarter free cash flow trends at Oracle are strong but lumpy. Image Source: Oracle By Valuentum Analysts On December 12, Oracle Corporation (ORCL) reported better than expected second quarter fiscal 2023 results for the three months ended November 30. Total revenue advanced 18% in the quarter on a year-over-year basis, leaping 25% in constant currency, thanks in part to strong performance at its infrastructure and application cloud businesses. Non-GAAP operating income increased 5%–and 12% in constant currency–and its non-GAAP operating margin was 41% in the period. Fiscal second-quarter non-GAAP earnings per share of $1.21 beat the consensus estimate, despite foreign currency headwinds. We liked that we saw in the quarterly results, and we’ll be sticking with the company as one of … Read more

Oracle’s Long-Term Outlook Remains Bright

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Image: Oracle has some lofty targets for fiscal 2026, and we were encouraged by recent commentary from the firm. Image Source: Oracle By Brian Nelson, CFA Oracle Corp (ORCL) has been a strong relative performer during 2022, with shares sliding ~12% versus a market return that has been much worse during the year. Oracle recently offered an encouraging mid-cycle fiscal 2026 outlook, calling for $65 billion in total organic revenue, a 45% operating margin (including its recent acquisition of Cerner), and greater than 10% annual earnings per share growth in the coming years. At this writing, consensus expectations are for Oracle to achieve ~$49.2 billion in revenue for fiscal 2023, so this is no doubt good news, implying a strong … Read more

Dividend Growth Idea Oracle Showing Serious Growth Momentum

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Image Source: Oracle Corporation – September 2019 IR Presentation By Callum Turcan On June 13, Oracle Corporation (ORCL) reported fourth quarter earnings for fiscal 2022 (period ended May 31, 2022) that beat both consensus top- and bottom-line estimates. The tech giant also provided favorable constant currency revenue growth guidance for its cloud businesses for fiscal 2023. Shares of ORCL initially surged higher in the wake of its latest earnings report before drifting modestly lower along the decline in broader equity markets. We include Oracle as an idea in the Dividend Growth Newsletter portfolio and shares of ORCL yield ~1.9% as of this writing. Quarterly Update In the fiscal fourth quarter, Oracle’s GAAP revenues grew by 5% year-over-year and were up … 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.

Earnings Brief: BOX, CRM, WMT, TOL, HD/LOW

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Image Source: Toll Brothers. Iron Oak at Alamo Creek, Danville, CA.  By Brian Nelson, CFA Let’s cover some trends that may emerge out of the COVID-19 pandemic, including accelerated e-commerce proliferation and its impact on brick-and-mortar giants, as well as an increased likelihood of suburban sprawl that may propel some names while leaving others behind. Box, Inc. According to its website, Box (BOX) is “a leading Cloud Content Management platform that enables organizations to accelerate business processes, power workplace collaboration, and protect their most valuable information, all while working with a best-of-breed enterprise IT stack.” The company’s balance sheet isn’t as clean as we would like given its operating lease liabilities, but it does hold more than $270 million in cash … Read more

24 in a Row! Order the Exclusive Today!

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Image Source: An excerpt from the March 2020 edition of the Exclusive publication. Valuentum offers commentary across the capital stack in the Exclusive publication. In the Exclusive publication, Valuentum highlights three new ideas each month to consider, one for income, one for capital appreciation, and a “short” idea consideration (all three outside our existing coverage universe). Fresh, underfollowed and new ideas — outside our coverage universe — every month! Nothing is held back.  Big Winners Backed by In-Depth Theses Since the monthly Exclusive was first published in July 2016, Valuentum’s mission with the publication has been to produce an unmatched newsletter that delivers ideas with high success rates and ones backed by in-depth theses across the three key themes: income, … Read more

Prepared Remarks From Nelson Exclusive Conference Call June 30

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Read President of Investment Research Brian Nelson’s prepared remarks for the yearly roundup conference call, held for Nelson Exclusive members. If you would like to subscribe to the Nelson Exclusive publication, please learn more about the publication here. The Nelson Exclusive publication does not reflect real performance. Performance is hypothetical and does not represent actual trading. Ladies and Gentlemen, Thank you very much for joining us on the first conference call for members of the Nelson Exclusive publication. The first year of the publication has surely been an exciting one for all involved. When I first wrote the introductory letter of the Nelson Exclusive on July 1, 2016, we were well-aware the market had laid down the gauntlet for this publication. … Read more