CASY

Valuentum Economic Castleâ„¢ Rating Update

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Read: Keeping the Horse Before the Cart: Valuentum’s Economic Castle™ Rating The Economic Castle Focuses on the Magnitude of Economic Value Creation The Valuentum Economic Castle™ rating is an enhancement of the competitive advantage framework (commonly known as economic moat analysis) that has become widespread and ubiquitous within the investing world. Whereas an economic moat framework evaluates a firm on the basis of the sustainability and durability of its competitive advantages, Valuentum’s Economic Castle™ rating evaluates a firm on the basis of the firm’s future economic profit spread (return on invested capital less its weighted average cost of capital). The companies with the strongest Valuentum Economic Castle™ ratings are poised to generate the most economic value for shareholders in the … Read more

Surveying the Retail Landscape: Dollar General, Kroger, and Costco

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On Thursday, Dollar General (DG), Kroger (KR) and Costco (COST) reported quarterly results. Dollar General’s third-quarter report showed same-store sales advancing 4.4%, which propelled total sales 10.5% higher during its third quarter (ending November 1). Kroger’s third-quarter report showed 3.5% identical supermarket sales growth, without fuel, during the period ending November 9, while Costco’s fiscal first-quarter results (ending December 1) revealed same-store sales expansion of 3% during the quarter. Dollar General’s quarterly performance not only bested that of Kroger and Costco, but it also stood head-and-shoulders above that of Wal-Mart (WMT), which reported a comparable store sales decline in Walmart US and only a 1.1% increase at Sam’s club, and Target’s (TGT) third-quarter performance, where US comparable store sales advanced only … Read more

Surveying 3Q Performance Across the Retail Spectrum

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Sears There’s not much to say about Sears’ (SHLD) operational performance during its third quarter (results issued Thursday), except that it was atrocious. The firm lost more money in the most recently-reported quarter ($534 million) than it did through the first nine months of last fiscal year ($441 million). CEO Eddie Lampert has his hands full with the company’s multi-year transformation, but we think investors are hanging on to shares largely on hopes the firm will be able to monetize its real-estate portfolio in the future. Image Source: Sears But it seems that (lately) too many investors have been buying into this line of thinking, and the ‘real estate’ thesis continues to proliferate among investor psyches, particularly (now) with J.C. … Read more

Casey’s General Is Almost Cheap

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Convenience store chain Casey’s General (click ticker for report: ) has seen its share price take a small haircut after reporting third quarter results earlier this week. Revenue rose 5% year-over-year to $1.7 billion, falling a tad shy of consensus estimates. Earnings fell 7% year-over-year to $0.40 per share, falling well below consensus expectations. Because of its large amount of retail fuel sales, revenue itself isn’t the best metric to measure Casey’s performance, but the firm provides plenty of other useful data points. Same-store gasoline volumes rose 0.6% at an average margin 13.8 cents—just short of the firm’s targets of 1% and 14 cents, respectively. The margin was slightly ahead of last year’s pace. The price of gas went up … Read more

Dividend Increases/Decreases for the Week October 29

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Below we provide a list of firms that raised their dividends during the week ending October 29. The dividend reports of covered firms on this list will be updated shortly with the new information. To access our dividend reports use the ‘Symbol’ search box in our website header. Firms Raising Their Dividends This Week A10 Networks (ATEN): now $0.05 per share quarterly dividend. AbbVie (ABBV): now $1.41 per share quarterly dividend, was $1.30. Alliance Resource Partners (ARLP): now $0.20 per share quarterly dividend, was $0.10. Amphenol (APH): now $0.20 per share quarterly dividend, was $0.14. Arbor Realty Trust (ABR): now $0.36 per share quarterly dividend, was $0.35. Armada Hoffler Properties (AHH): now $0.17 per share quarterly dividend, was $0.16. B. … Read more

Dividend Increases/Decreases for the Week of June 14

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Below we provide a list of firms that raised their dividends during the week ending June 14. The dividend reports of covered firms on this list will be updated shortly with the new information. To access our dividend reports use the ‘Symbol’ search box in our website header. Firms Raising Their Dividends This Week                          AG Mortgage Investment Trust (MITT): now $0.19 per share quarterly dividend, was $0.18. AGNC Investment Series C Fixed-to-Floating Rate Cumulative Redeemable Preferred Stock (AGNCN): now $0.6762 per share quarterly dividend, was $0.6754. Alerus Financial Corporation (ALRS): now $0.20 per share quarterly dividend, was $0.19. Alibaba Group Holding Limited (BABAF): now $0.207 per share annual dividend, was $0.125. Banco Macro (BMA): now $1.761 per share … Read more

Nelson: The 16 Most Important Steps To Understand The Stock Market

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A previous version of this article appeared on our website July 21, 2013. Refreshed and updated throughout, as of July 2018. By Brian Nelson, CFA After earning my MBA at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and training stock and credit analysts from large organizations over the past decade or so, I have heard just about every question (though I admit I am still surprised by many things and remain a very humble student of the markets). I’ve also spent years perfecting the discounted cash flow process for large research organizations such as Morningstar and studied under one of the most famed aggressive growth investors of all time, Richard Driehaus. My knowledge runs the gamut from value through … Read more

US Congress Is Getting Ready to Pass a Massive ~$2.2 Trillion Fiscal Stimulus Bill

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Image Shown: US equities have started to recover some of their lost ground as the likelihood that the US Congress will pass a massive ~$2.2 trillion fiscal stimulus and emergency spending package, dubbed the CARES Act, has increased significantly over the past week as seen through the bounce in the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (SPY). President Trump has clearly indicated that he intends to sign such a bill into law as soon as possible, with the US House of Representatives expected to take up the legislation this upcoming Friday morning on March 27. By Callum Turcan On March 25, the US Senate worked late into the night to secure a bipartisan compromise on a massive ~$2.2 trillion fiscal stimulus … Read more

How to Think About Corporate Tax Reform

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