Dividend Increases/Decreases for the Week Ending June 5

Below we provide a list of firms that raised their dividends during the week ending June 6. 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 Agent Information Software (AIFS): now $0.03 per share dividend. Alexandria Real Estate Equities (ARE): now $1.06 per share quarterly dividend, was $1.03. CNOOC Limited (CEO): now $5.204 per share dividend, was $3.766. Diversified Royalty (BEVFF): now CAD 0.0167 per share monthly dividend, was CAD 0.0167. Sabine Royalty Trust (SBR): now $0.1556 per share monthly dividend, was $0.1517. UnitedHealth (UNH): now $1.25 per share quarterly dividend, was … Read more

Encouraging Trends at Cracker Barrel, Consumers Coming Out to Spend

Image Source: Cracker Barrel By Brian Nelson, CFA Cracker Barrel (CBRL) reported fiscal third-quarter results June 2. While we can go into the numbers, there isn’t really much to read into the reported quarterly performance, as the market continues to look forward to better times. Many readers are aware of the dividend cut at Cracker Barrel, “Jobless Claims Spike; Restaurants, REITs in Trouble,” and that it suspended its fiscal 2020 guidance (not unlike many other firms), but what we found to be most encouraging was the company commentary on the conference call. Cracker Barrel is encouraged by recent top line trends, noting that it has “seen sequential improvements in weekly comparable store sales since (it) began reopening dining rooms,” and … Read more

Dollar General Posts a Tremendous Fiscal First Quarter Earnings Report

Image Source: Dollar General Corporation – Fiscal 2019 Annual Report and Fiscal 2020 Proxy Statement By Callum Turcan Dollar General Corporation (DG) is one of our favorite retail plays given its focus on smaller cities and towns (with populations of 20,000 or less) in the US as that gives it an immense edge over e-commerce giants such as Amazon Inc (AMZN) due to the logistical hurdles involved with expanding into these regions. Shares of DG have run up above the top end of our fair value range as of this writing. However, given its strong technical and fundamental performance of late, we are keeping Dollar General as an idea in our Best Ideas Newsletter portfolio as we like to let … Read more

ALERT: Important Recap of Valuentum’s Research and Market Events

ALERT: Important Recap of Valuentum’s Research and Market Events: Unequivocally Bullish, S&P Target Range Was Withdrawn Last Month, Continued Focus on Individual Stock Selection with “Moaty” Operations, Huge Net Cash Positions, Strong Expected Future Free Cash Flows, Established Recurring Business Models, and Otherwise Attractive Economic Castles. Big Cap Tech and Large Cap “Growth” Remain Our Favorite Allocations. — Image: Breaking out to new highs, Facebook (FB) is a top weighting in the Best Ideas Newsletter portfolio (which includes our favorite capital appreciation ideas in a portfolio setting). The social media giant is surging on news of a new Shops feature, something we’ve been expecting and raving about with respect to its potential for years–as we maintain our view that, anti-trust considerations aside, Facebook … Read more

Earnings Roundup for Week Ended May 17


Image Shown: We cover several earnings reports in this article across several sectors and industries to provide an overview of how corporates performed during the early stages of the ongoing coronavirus (‘COVID-19’) pandemic. 

Reducing expenses, generating efficiency gains, and ultimately improving the cost structure of corporates appears to be a key theme during the first-quarter 2020 earnings cycle. Management teams across the board are hunkering down and preparing for the pain to continue as global economic activity is expected to grind to a halt in the second quarter of 2020, before recovering somewhat due in part to massive fiscal and monetary stimulus measures that were launched to offset the negative impact COVID-19 is having on economic activity.

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

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

COVID-19 Idea Consideration Chipotle Continues to Deliver

Image Shown: Shares of Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc have sharply rebounded over the past month as investors started to take into consideration the firm’s pristine balance sheet, ability to meet consumer demand via delivery services, and quality cash flow profile, keeping short-term headwinds in mind. By Callum Turcan On April 21, Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc (CMG) reported earnings for the first quarter of 2020 that beat both consensus top- and bottom-line estimates. Same-store sales rose 3.3% year-over-year almost entirely due to the strength of its digital business where sales were up almost 81% and represented over 26% of Chipotle’s sales last quarter. Chipotle’s GAAP revenues were up almost 8% year-over-year last quarter though its GAAP operating income fell by over … Read more

Emergency Update on COVID-19

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?

— 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

ICYMI — Video: The Question Is If the Economy Can Be Held Together Without Vast Equity Dilution

President of Investment Research at Valuentum and award-winning author of Value Trap: Theory of Universal Valuation Brian Nelson explains how the range of probable fair value outcomes of S&P 500 companies has increased as a result of COVID-19 and possible equity dilution on the downside to long-run inflationary pressures on stocks driven by runaway Fed and Treasury stimulus on the upside. — Editor’s note: Brian emphasizes the importance of “expert analysis” over “backward-looking analysis,” and we would like to clarify that he is not giving personalized advice. Valuentum members have access to our 16-page stock reports, Valuentum Buying Index ratings, Dividend Cushion ratios, fair value estimates and ranges, dividend reports and more. Not a member? Subscribe today. The first 14 days are … Read more