On Diversification

Diversification is one of the most important components of equity investing. By Brian Nelson, CFA I wanted to touch base briefly today to see how everyone is doing, and how we can continue to make our website better. We’ve been getting a lot of great feedback on the ability to download our data in Excel and create your customized screens. Instead of having to click on a number of the web pages on the website to access the screens, all you have to do is download the Excel file, and use the standard sorting functionality in it. Let us know if you think we need to host a walk through of how to use the Excel screener. We think it … Read more

Cisco Turns in Record Quarterly Revenue; Fair Value Raised

Image Source: Cisco Systems Positive momentum in simulated newsletter portfolio idea Cisco’s business transformation continued in its fiscal 2018 fourth quarter as the company turned in the highest quarterly revenue in its history and growth accelerated yet again. We’ve raised our fair value estimate for shares. By Kris Rosemann Simulated newsletter portfolio idea Cisco (CSCO) continues to make progress in its business transformation, and its fiscal 2018 fourth quarter report, released August 15, revealed another quarter of positive top-line momentum as total revenue grew 6% from the year-ago period to a quarterly company record of $12.8 billion. Highlighting the progress of the business transition in the quarter was a 1 percentage point increase in recurring revenue as a percentage of … Read more

Valuentum’s Weighted Average Cost of Capital (WACC) Distribution

The weighted average cost of capital is one of the most subjective measures in corporate finance, but it is also one of the most important ones. “The most important item over time in valuation is obviously interest rates…If interest rates are destined to be at low levels…It makes any stream of earnings from investments worth more money. The bogey is always what government bonds yield….Any investment is worth all the cash you’re going to get out between now and judgment day discounted back. The discounting back is affected by whether you choose interests rates like those of Japan or interest rates like those we had in 1982…When we had 15 percent short-term rates in 1982, it was silly to pay … Read more

What Are the Qualities of Highly-Rated Stocks on the Valuentum Buying Index?

If you were a CEO, what are the 7 most important metrics to focus on to get a rating of 10 on the Valuentum Buying Index? This is a great question because it hits at the absolute heart of the most important concept of investing. Investing may be about buying a great company with a solid and growing dividend, but it most certainly is about buying a great company at a discount to intrinsic value. The difference between what someone can pay for something and what something is worth is the most important concept of investing: price versus value. The price-versus-value component is an integral part of the Valuentum Buying Index. In fact, it is the first component. After all, … Read more

Study: Valuentum’s Best Ideas Newsletter Portfolio

To read the study, please click on the image to download the pdf document (pdf).

The Most Important Topic in Stock Investing

President of Equity Research, Brian Nelson, discusses why price vs. value is the paramount consideration in stock investing. Brian Nelson, CFA: This is Brian Nelson from Valuentum Securities. Today, I wanted to talk about a number of investment concepts that I think are absolutely paramount for every investor to know.  The very first concept is price versus value, and this one is paramount to any investment process. Now I’m not just giving this lip service–this is just one of the core concepts of investing, equity investing. The reality of stock investing is that each company has a present value of future free cash flows that it generates, and those future free cash flows roll up to a fair value, the … Read more

Cisco’s Long Term Remains Bright; Not Worried

Image Source: Ashwin Kumar Cisco’s fiscal third quarter results came in mostly as expected, but shares faced selling pressure following the release as the company’s operating margin was squeezed in the quarter. We still like Cisco a lot and are not concerned about the market’s tunnel vision. The company’s free cash flow performance and a huge net cash position are hard not to like. We’re not worried. By Kris Rosemann Networking giant and simulated newsletter portfolio holding Cisco (CSCO) showed solid progress in its ongoing transformation towards a software and subscriptions focused business model in its fiscal third quarter report, results released May 16, but shares faced selling pressure following the release as its operating contracted due in part to heavy … Read more

ICYMI: Valuentum’s Improved Stock and ETF Web Pages

Valuentum has rolled out improved stock and ETF web pages on its website valuentum.com/. Now, subscribers can access key proprietary information on the stock and ETF web pages in addition to the customary stock and ETF reports. Dear reader, We have some exciting news that we can’t wait to share with you! At valuentum.com/, we have rolled out new stock and ETF pages that conveniently include a variety of our proprietary metrics from the Dividend Cushion ratio to the Economic Castle rating and beyond! There’s even mouseover functionality so you can learn about how we define the key metrics across our stock-selection and dividend growth methodologies. You’ll still have access to the stock and dividend reports on the landing pages, … Read more

Dividend Increases/Decreases for the Week Ending April 6

Below we provide a list of firms that raised their dividends during the week ending April 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 Bank of the Ozarks (OZRK): now $0.195 per share quarterly dividend, was $0.19. BP Prudhoe Bay Royalty Trust (BPT): now $1.2748 per share quarterly dividend, was $1.23. Cisco (CSCO): now $0.33 per share quarterly dividend, was $0.29. CurrencyShares Australian Dollar Trust ETF (FXA): now $0.05599 per share monthly dividend, was $0.05154. CurrencyShares Canadian Dollar Trust ETF (FXC): now $0.01500 per share monthly dividend, was $0.01107. Dollar … Read more

Our Ideas Are Performing Awesome So Far in 2018!!! 6 of the Top 7 of the Dow!

By Brian Nelson, CFA Every day we think about how we can make things easier for our members. Instead of having to visit multiple links on our website with screens, you now have access to one downloadable Excel file where you can sort and rank how you wish. Of course, you can always find those screens in the newsletters, each and every month, too, but we think a weekly data download is a huge value add to our offering. Can you imagine getting updated data every week for 52 weeks of the year for what we charge, let alone two newsletters, hundreds of reports, commentary, and education material? Wow, right? People keep saying we do too much, but when our … Read more