There Is Milk At The Store

This article first appeared in the September edition of the High Yield Dividend Newsletter. For more information about this publication, please see here. “Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.” — Winston Churchill By Brian Nelson, CFA Very few of us could have imagined that we’d witness the bull market that began on that fateful day in March 2009 that might very well mark a generational low. In 2009, major investment banks around the globe were struggling to survive, and the fallout in the mortgage markets left the banks holding paper that nobody wanted to own, let alone buy. The global financial system … Read more

Valuentum’s Economic Roundtable: Trade War, Factors and Beyond

Tickerized for holdings in the DIA. The markets rallied hard September 5 on relief that the US and China (FXI, MCHI) will go back to the negotiations table next month. This back-and-forth news cycle is enough to give any investor whiplash. Let’s catch up with the Valuentum Team on the latest developments, not only with the trade war but also with respect to factor investing, possible bubbles and beyond. Let’s kick things off with the following prompt from ForeignPolicy.com, released August 2: Trump Hired Robert Lighthizer to Win a Trade War. He Lost. Robert Lighthizer, the U.S. trade representative, agreed to serve in President Donald Trump’s cabinet in order to test his theory: that if the United States freed itself … Read more

Dividend Increases/Decreases for the Week of February 9

Below we provide a list of firms that raised their dividends during the week ending February 9. 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                          3M (MMM): now $1.51 per share quarterly dividend, was $1.50. Allegion (ALLE): now $0.48 per share quarterly dividend, was $0.45. AllianceBernstein (AB): now $0.77 per share quarterly dividend, was $0.65. Amdocs (DOX): now $0.479 per share quarterly dividend, was $0.435. Ameren (AEE): now $0.67 per share quarterly dividend, was $0.63. American Assets Trust (AAT): now $0.335 per share quarterly dividend, was $0.330. American Financial … Read more

How to Think About Corporate Tax Reform

What the Pokémon Sensation Means

Image Source: Eduardo Woo By Jessica Bishop You might not think putting fuzzy little creatures on a map can drive a company’s market capitalization up more than $7+ billion in one single day (its highest one-day surge since 1983), but Pokémon Go did just that. Starting out as collectible trading cards in the late 1990’s and evolving into a video game franchise, Pokémon is back in the spotlight, bringing excitement to investors. Nintendo’s (NTDOY) equity has jumped 50%+ in all since the company unveiled its new game. Let’s talk about why you should care. What Is Pokémon Go? Pokémon Go is a new game (app) for the smartphone that’s been gaining momentum in the US since the morning of its … Read more

Update on Wuhan 2019 Novel Coronavirus Outbreak: 31,000+ Infections, 630+ Deaths

Image Source: 2019-nCoV, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention The number of infections and deaths related to the Wuhan 2019 Novel Coronavirus has surged since our last update, but we maintain our view that investors should keep a level head. We continue to wait to add protection to the newsletter portfolios as the market absorbs a massive liquidity injection from the PBOC. By Brian Nelson, CFA The week of trading ending February 7 was a very strange one. Last Sunday, one could have only expected that given the news related to the Wuhan 2019 Novel Coronavirus outbreak, the bad news related to airlines (JETS) and aerospace players–Boeing (BA), in particular–and the speculative frenzy associated with Tesla’s (TSLA) rise, that the … Read more

More Earnings Reports: BA, CMCSA, MCD

Image Shown: Though the past year has been brutal for the commercial airliner and aerospace industries and it will continue to be rough sledding in the near term, Boeing is optimistic that within a few years passenger traffic will return to pre-pandemic levels and resume its growth trajectory thereafter. Image Source: Boeing Company – Fourth Quarter of 2020 IR Earnings Presentation By Callum Turcan In alphabetical order by ticker: BA, CMCSA, MCD We are continuing with our coverage of key earnings reports. Ongoing vaccine distribution activities should help global health authorities bring the coronavirus (‘COVID-19’) pandemic under control, though risks remain as new variants of the virus are popping up all over the place (and then spreading aggressively). Boeing (BA) … Read more

8 Announcements and Top Research You May Have Missed

8 Announcements. This article was sent to members via email March 27. By Brian Nelson, CFA Hi everyone, Brian here. Trust you are doing great! Here are eight announcements I want you to be aware of: Everything we do is for our members. We’re very proud of the outperformance of the Best Ideas Newsletter portfolio, that we’ve never had a dividend cut in the Dividend Growth Newsletter portfolio, that our high-yield ideas are holding up very well, and the success rates of the Exclusive capital-appreciation ideas and short-idea considerations are running at approximately 80%. We’re proud to be your research partner. The odds of a Fed rate cut are going up as yield-curve inversion continues to threaten. The risks are more behavioral in … Read more

Economic Roundtable: Quant Quake, Quac-cidental Correlation

Image Source: Anders Sandberg.  Last week, the markets may have revealed that internals aren’t all that healthy. Major equity markets experienced a “rotation” that reminded many investors of the “quant quake” from August 2007. As Valuentum’s Brian Nelson wrote in Value Trap, “just a few bad days in the market caused a rapid unwinding of many quant long-short strategies (back then). Goldman’s chief financial officer said at the time that the firm was witnessing ‘25-standard deviation moves, several days in a row.’” On the surface, markets last week seemed relatively calm, but as the episode in 2007 revealed the activity last week may just be the calm before the storm. Many are pointing to overcrowded trades in betting against certain … Read more

Stock Market Outlook for 2021

By Valuentum Analysts February 8, 2021 2020 was one for the history books. We covered our thoughts and reflections on the past year in our “2020 Won’t Soon Be Forgotten” article (link here), and now we are looking towards the future. Global health authorities should be able to bring an end to the ongoing coronavirus (‘COVID-19’) pandemic sooner than many had expected as several vaccines have already been improved for emergency use and several others appear increasingly likely to get approved. Global vaccine distribution activities are currently underway, and this should allow the world to slowly return to pre-pandemic activities. Before then, immense stimulus measures launched primarily in developed nations should support global economic activities until the public health crisis … Read more