EBAY
Alerts: High-grading! GILD–>JNJ; EBAY–>FB
Pictured: The long-term view of Gilead’s Harvoni franchise has blurred. Prices updated, as of 1:36pmCT. By Brian Nelson, CFA We were very pleased by the market action of Friday, January 29, with the top weightings in each of the Best Ideas Newsletter portfolio and Dividend Growth Newsletter portfolio performing extremely well. Visa (V), the largest weighting in the Best Ideas Newsletter portfolio (7%+), is simply “on fire,” with the company trading ~5% higher on the session at the time of this writing. The high end of our fair value range of $90 per share for shares is starting to look within reach for the credit-card network, “.” Visa generates an operating margin in the mid-60% range (not a typo), and there … Read more
Giddy Up – It’s Earnings Season!
By Brian Nelson, CFA During the trading session January 27, Apple (AAPL) failed to turn the tide of a disappointing fiscal 2016 first-quarter report (calendar fourth-quarter), “Apple Will Go Lower…And It Will Be ‘Forced’ Into Acquisitions,” and coupled with a Fed statement, where the Committee left interest rates unchanged, as expected, many market observers read between the lines and hit the sell button. On the basis of some of the concerns we’ve outlined, “Not Doom and Gloom – But Just Cautious,” we can completely understand the hesitancy by participants to stay fully exposed to this tumultuous equity market. In many ways, that the Fed has hit the brakes just a few weeks after the long-anticipated rate hike means the global … Read more
Analysis: The Best Ideas Portfolio
Please select the image below to download the report. Note: The High Yield Dividend Newsletter portfolio, Best Ideas Newsletter portfolio and Dividend Growth Newsletter portfolio are not real money portfolios. Results, including those in the Nelson Exclusive publication, are hypothetical and do not represent actual trading. Past performance is not a guarantee of future results, and actual results may differ from simulated information being presented. The performance of the High Yield Dividend Newsletter portfolio, Nelson Exclusive publication, Best Ideas Newsletter portfolio and Dividend Growth Newsletter portfolio have not been externally audited. The following download of the Best Ideas Newsletter portfolio is an internal assessment. Newsletter performance figures, including those in the Nelson Exclusive publication, are prepared by Valuentum. Hypothetical results are … Read more
Leading Investors to Water…
“Entrepreneurs are never satisfied. They want to do things better. They strive for perfection and use all the ingenuity to their command to achieve it.” – J.W. Marriott Company Name Symbol YTD % Outperform? Apple AAPL 7.84 Y Alibaba BABA -18.37 N Altria MO 18.75 Y Cisco CSCO -1.2 N eBay EBAY 24.26 Y Financial Select SPDR XLF 1.52 N General Electric GE 20.66 Y Gilead Sciences GILD 10.41 Y Google (now Alphabet) GOOG 46.07 Y Google (now Alphabet) GOOGL 46.84 Y Health Care ETF XLV 6.02 Y Intel INTC -3.73 N SPDR S&P Bank ETF KBE 9.25 Y Republic Services RSG 10.09 Y Rio Tinto RIO -31.07 N Teva Pharma TEVA 16.12 Y Union Pacific UNP -32.46 N Utilities … Read more
Same Stories Prevail at Walmart and Target
When consumers think of retail, Walmart (WMT) and Target (TGT) are probably two of the biggest companies that come to mind. After all, the two big box retail giants have taken the US by storm throughout much of the 1990s and 2000s. But the shift to e-commerce with the proliferation of Amazon (AMZN) and eBay (EBAY) coupled with broad-based consumer backlash with respect to worker wages and credit card breaches, respectively, have created a whirlwind of negative public perception at the two giants as of late. Will worker unrest and Target’s failed attempt to expand beyond the borders of the US mark the generational stock price peaks at the two giants, respectively? Are both past their prime? The likelihood of … Read more
Mixed Bag at Department Stores
Where will consumers keep spending their money? This is a question that investors will always be trying to answer, no matter where we are in the economic cycle (during good times and bad). It is not always easy to predict the spending patterns of any demographic with any sort of precision, but let’s see how things shook out with some of the best-known department stores in the US during the third quarter of 2015. During the latter part of last decade, department store equities had been strong performers; shares of companies such as Macy’s (M), Kohl’s (KSS), and Nordstrom (JWC), for example, more than tripled from their respective bottoms during the Great Recession, but all three have witnessed their share … Read more
Your Payment Skipped: PayPal Has Become Mainstream
The Valuentum Best Ideas Newsletter portfolio inherited a position in PayPal (PYPL) following the online payment processor’s split from eBay (EBAY) earlier this year. PayPal’s third-quarter results, the first quarter after the separation, were good. In fact, they were great. Revenue grew 19% on a non-GAAP currency-neutral basis, and 200 basis points of non-GAAP operating margin improvement helped to drive a 31% increase in non-GAAP earnings per diluted share growth. Expectations for the top-line were a bit rough for the entity to meet, but the bottom-line exceeded consensus. The company noted that during the quarter, it “gained market share, expanded its customer base, and deepened engagement with merchants.” As a merchant, we were hit with higher fees this year, so … Read more
Alphabet (Google) and eBay Power Best Ideas Newsletter Portfolio!
It’s no secret that the Internet and the companies that operate within the Internet space are always changing. There must be continuous innovation and re-discovery to keep up with the competition to amaze society with the next great development. Consumers have become accustomed to many of the Internet giants doing just that, pushing the envelope and enriching their lives with a better, faster, or more convenient way of content consumption. One of the many struggles that Internet-based entities have is not only how to create these new products, devices, or programs, but also how to monetize such breakthrough endeavors successfully. In a fast-changing environment, it is never easy to deliver sustainable, profitable and innovative growth. Let’s take a look at … Read more
Time to Scoop Up More GE? Another Activist Stake in Yet Another Newsletter Portfolio Holding
Stocks in Valuentum’s newsletter portfolios–the Best Ideas Newsletter portfolio and Dividend Growth Newsletter portfolio–are often ones that find the greatest interest among activist investors. After all, they are generally undervalued on a discounted cash-flow basis, generate tremendous amounts of free cash flow, and have solid balance sheets, flush with cash that can be used to pay outsize dividends. This makes them ripe for shareholder activism, which so far, has been a blessing for constituents of the newsletter portfolios as share prices are driven higher. Traditionally, it has been Carl Icahn (IEP) that has taken a liking to our ideas. The activist investor, and chosen Treasury Secretary of Presidential hopeful Donald Trump, has been involved at one time or another in … Read more