In the News: Dividend Growth Still on Hold at General Mills After Strong Quarter, Avoiding FedEx and BMW After Warnings on Bottom-Line Weakness, and a Biogen as a Prime Example of Risks to Avoid in Biotech

General Mills raised bottom-line and free cash flow conversion expectations for fiscal 2019, but we’re not interested in shares as it continues to prioritize deleveraging over dividend growth in a slow growth environment. International corporations continue to weigh the impact of slowing macroeconomic activity and global trade tensions, as evidenced by FedEx and BMW slashing bottom-line expectations, and shares of Biogen have been rocked by news that it terminated two late-stage studies of a key Alzheimer’s treatment. By Kris Rosemann General Mills Turns in Positive Organic Sales Growth and Operating Margin Expansion Food products giant General Mills (GIS) turned in better-than-expected results in its fiscal 2019 third quarter report, released March 20, as organic sales growth advanced 1% on a … Read more

DG Newsletter Alert, Markets on a Roll! New Highs Coming?

Image shown: We notified members December 26 that we had moved the Best Ideas Newsletter portfolio and Dividend Growth Newsletter portfolio to a “fully invested” position, from a 30% and 20% cash “weighting” at the high end of the range, respectively. It doesn’t look like the timing could have been much better.  Changes to Dividend Growth Newsletter portfolio Removing Novartis (NVS) -3.5%-5.5% Adding Health Care Select Sector SPDR Fund (XLV) +3.5%-5.5% By Brian Nelson, CFA The back half of 2018 was among the most exciting in Valuentum’s history. For one, we might have made one of our best “market-direction” calls since inception in practically calling the near-term bottom December 26. In hindsight, it’s clear the market had overreacted, but at the time, going to “fully … Read more

Valuentum’s Stock and Data Screens and Screeners

Let’s go over where to find Valuentum’s stock and data screens and screeners. We believe our stock screeners are among the most robust when it comes to providing forward-looking data, and our data comes straight from our enterprise discounted cash flow models that we use to derive a company’s fair value estimate. By The Valuentum Team In late 2017, we made the decision to transition to providing an updated Excel download each week to members in order to allow them to facilitate any combination of screening criteria they want with respect to our vast amounts of data, whether it be the Valuentum Buying Index, the Dividend Cushion ratio or other. What we’ve found out the past 15 months or so … Read more

Kraft-Heinz Blows Up, More Updates!

Image shown: The rating history of Kraft-Heinz (KHC). Valuentum members were warned in advance of this pricey equity in 2016/2017, and the VBI rating never advanced past 5 since then after registering a 1, the worst rating, on two separate occasions. Dear members, I wanted to first of all welcome our new members. There have been a lot of new ones during the past few weeks. Thank you. The buzz might be coming from the new book launch, Value Trap. If you haven’t read the book yet, please do so here. Members can get the pdf digital download today at 25% off. For new members, reading this book is simply par for the course to get a feel for how we look at … Read more

In The News: European Growth Concerns, Continued Weakness in Generic Pharma, Johnson & Johnson Enters Robotics Market

Let’s take a look at some of the top stories from February 13. Concerns over industrial production in Europe may present challenges to economic growth, generic pharma companies face material competition, and Johnson & Johnson gets into the robotics market. By Kris Rosemann Equities continue to benefit from optimism surrounding US-China trade talks, as President Trump recently stated a willingness to let the March 2 trade conflict resolution deadline slide, but industrial production in Europe, which fell at the greatest sequential rate since 2009 in December 2018, has caught the eye of many a market observer. Demand softness from China (FXI) is playing a role, and the usual suspects such as Greece, Italy (EWI), and uncertainty over Brexit (EWU) continue … Read more

Consider Selling Discipline = Systematic, Forward-looking, Repeatable

Image shown: An illustration of Valuentum’s call on Kinder Morgan during 2015. You can read about this in more detail in the Preface of Value Trap: Theory of Universal Valuation. For a consider-selling discipline to be successful, it must be systematic, forward-looking and repeatable. The Valuentum process worked equally well with General Electric during 2017 (image later in note). No changes to simulated newsletter portfolios. By Brian Nelson, CFA Good morning everyone! The markets took a shellacking yesterday with the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DIA) falling over 300 points during the trading session January 22. Had there not been a near-100 point leap in the Dow during the past few minutes of trading, the fallout may have been worse. Most are … Read more

Conference Call Coming Soon, Catch Up This Weekend

Image shown: The markets continue to rally significantly since the near-term bottom in December. Here’s the email we sent to members December 26.  No changes to simulated Best Ideas Newsletter portfolio and simulated Dividend Growth Newsletter portfolio (contact us if you missed the latest notification regarding the simulated High Yield Dividend Newsletter portfolio). This article was sent to members via email January 19. That email can be accessed at the link that follows this article. Conference Call Monday, January 28, 11amET/10amCT. We’ll talk about website navigation, how to use the stock and dividend reports, and dig deep into our capital-appreciation and dividend growth methodology. Details to follow, but add this date/time to your calendar. Read what some of our members have … Read more

Markets Continue to Recover

Image shown: The markets continue to rally significantly since the near-term bottom in December. The decision to move the cash “weightings” to zero in the simulated portfolios of the Best Ideas Newsletter and Dividend Growth Newsletter during the trading session December 27 has been quite rewarding for members that have been following our research and newsletters. The S&P 500 SPDR. No Changes to Simulated Newsletter portfolios. This article was sent to members via email January 18. The original email can be accessed via the link that follows this article. Brian Nelson, CFA The S&P 500 (SPY) continues to march higher in this young 2019, and we trust many of you are pleased with what is turning into quite a nice … Read more

Markets Still Bouncing Nicely

Image shown: This holiday season was mighty hectic, and not many were anticipating the volatility we experienced. Here’s where the simulated Best Ideas Newsletter and simulated Dividend Growth Newsletter portfolios went to “fully invested,” reducing a 30% and 20% cash “weighting” at the high end of their respective ranges for each portfolio, respectively. Email. No Changes to Simulated Newsletter portfolios Brian Nelson, CFA After what perhaps has been the most volatile December in stock market history, the markets are off to the races in January. We continue to watch the broader equity markets closely, but directionally the call to go to “zero” in cash after the close December 26 has worked out, for anyone that received the notification after that date. … Read more

Value Trap, More Volatility; We’re Waiting and Watching

Image shown: The decision to remove GE from the simulated newsletter portfolios when we did may have been our best call yet.  In this note, let’s talk about the importance of reading Value Trap, learn why we’ve gone “fully invested,” talk a little bit about put options, learn some of the intricacies of the Valuentum process, find out where to find VBI rankings to download and sort, and talk about some of our recently-highlighted ideas in the simulated newsletter portfolios. No Changes to Simulated Newsletter portfolios Brian Nelson, CFA Trust you are having a wonderful Monday morning! I hope that many of you made the conference call last Thursday at 11amET, but if you didn’t, we’ll have another one coming soon. … Read more