EWG

Dividend Growth Idea Lockheed Martin Doing Its Best to Arm Western Allies

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Image Shown: Dividend growth idea Lockheed Martin Corporation is very shareholder friendly. The defense contractor is doing its best to arm Ukraine and other Western allies during these difficult times. Image Source: Lockheed Martin Corporation – First Quarter of Fiscal 2022 IR Earnings Presentation By Callum Turcan The Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 and simmering geopolitical tensions in East Asia between Western aligned nations and China over Taiwan and other issues have created a backdrop that is conducive to significant increases in national defense spending. Though we hope peace prevails soon, the realities on the ground in Ukraine and elsewhere call for North Atlantic Treaty Organization (‘NATO’) member nations and other Western aligned nations to ramp up their … Read more

Exxon Mobil Is Working on Boosting U.S. LNG Export Capacity

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Image Shown: Exxon Mobil Corporation is a big player in the global LNG industry. Image Source: Exxon Mobil Corporation – March 2022 Investor Day Presentation By Callum Turcan Europe’s dependence on Russian natural gas supplies has taken centerstage in the wake of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Members of the European Union (‘EU’) receive roughly 40% of their natural gas needs from Russia. In March 2022, the US and the EU announced an agreement covering energy security that among other things encouraged greater liquified natural gas (‘LNG’) exports from the US to the EU. Such an accord would require Europe to boost its LNG regassification capacity. Recent LNG News In February 2022, Germany announced plans to build two LNG import … Read more

Best Idea Alphabet Growing Global Cloud Presence

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Image Shown: Alphabet Inc Class C shares, a top-weighted idea in our Best Ideas Newsletter portfolio, are up ~65% over the past year. By Callum Turcan Alphabet Inc (GOOG) (GOOGL) has historically focused primarily on growing its digital advertising revenues since the company was founded under the Google name back in 1998. More recently, the technology giant has begun seriously seeking to broaden its revenue base, and we like what we see on this front. We include Alphabet Class C shares (ticker: GOOG) as an idea in the Best Ideas Newsletter portfolio given its immense capital appreciation upside potential as a net cash-rich, free cash flow generating powerhouse (topics that we have covered often in the past). Our fair value … Read more

Innovative Fuel Cell Company Ceres Power Has a Stellar Growth Outlook

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Image Shown: Ceres Power Holdings plc is a pioneer in the fuel cell industry. If Ceres Power and its strategic partners are successful, Ceres Power could offer investors ample capital appreciation upside though we caution that this is a highly speculative name. Image Source: Ceres Power Holdings Plc – First Half of 2021 Interim Report IR Presentation By Callum Turcan We wrote about Ceres Power Holdings plc (CPWHF), a UK-based pioneer in the fuel cell industry focused on building up a commercially viable licensing and royalty business, back in February 2021 (link here). The company is an innovator in the solid oxide fuel cell (‘SOFC’) industry, led by its SteelCell technology, and more recently started pushing into the realm of … Read more

German Industrial Conglomerate Siemens Remains an Attractive Income Generation Idea

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Image Shown: Siemens AG sees the global industrial economy staging a recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, which in turn supports the firm’s outlook. The company raised its full-year guidance when Siemens published its latest earnings report. Image Source: Siemens AG – Second Quarter of Fiscal 2021 IR Earnings Presentation By Callum Turcan The German-based industrial conglomerate Siemens AG (SIEGY) has four core industrial business operating segments that are as follows: Digital Industries (‘DI’), Smart Infrastructure (‘SI’), Mobility (‘MO’), and Siemens Healthineers. Its operations are supported by Siemens Financial Services (‘SFS’) which provides support for its industrial businesses and services to third-parties. Siemens has put up strong underlying operational and financial performance of late and remains an interesting income generation idea. … Read more

Unicredit Is Best Worth Avoiding

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The combination of revenue pressure from lower rates, a difficult operating environment, weakening efficiency metrics, one-off losses, and arguable low provisions for credit losses make for an ugly picture emerging at Unicredit at this time. We’re paying close attention to the key banking players in Europe to assess the likelihood of a global financial contagion that may accompany the global pandemic that has become COVID-19. By Matthew Warren Unicredit (UNCFF) posted dismal first-quarter results May 6 that showed revenue falling 8.2% and negative “underlying net profit” of EUR 100 million from the same period last year. Stated net profit in the period was even worse at negative EUR 2.706 billion, including integration costs in Italy (EWI), a loss related to … Read more

Deutsche Bank Suffering From Lack of Earnings Power

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On April 29, Deutsche Bank reported another measly quarter in a long string of them. While Deutsche Bank is well-capitalized with a Common Equity Tier I ratio of 12.8% and its Investment Banking segment grew earnings nicely this quarter during rapid client trading and bond origination activity as the markets melted down in March, it suffers from a lack of earnings power at this stage. We blame this on the bank itself, but also on the overcapacity in European banking in general, which pressures margins across the entire industry. By Matthew Warren On April 29, Deutsche Bank (DB) reported another measly quarter in a long string of them, with revenue in the first period of 2020 flat at EUR 6.350 … Read more

Oil Markets Get Decimated

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Image Shown: Oil prices have been decimated year-to-date. By Callum Turcan We are following up on our ‘Oil Prices Collapse, Reiterating 2,350-2,750 S&P 500 Target Range; Credit Crunch Looming?’ note (link here) published Sunday, March 8, to provide additional commentary on what’s going on in the shale patch right now. As of this writing, oil prices (BNO, USO) continue to get hammered. Here’s what we had to say in that recent note: The independent upstream producer space (XOP) is careening off a cliff, and that was before the OPEC+ cartel was unable to reach an agreement during their joint meeting (OPEC and non-OPEC members) on March 6. Due to the inability for the oil cartel to reach a deal, largely because Russia … Read more

Oil Prices Collapse, Reiterating 2,350-2,750 S&P 500 Target Range; Credit Crunch Looming?

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Image Source: Value Trap: Theory of Universal Valuation From Value Trap: “The banking sector was not the only sector that faced considerable selling pressure during the Financial Crisis of the late 2000s, of course. Other companies that required funding to maintain their business operations faced severe liquidity risk, or a situation where refinancing, or rolling over debt, might be difficult to do on fair terms, making such financing prohibitive in some cases. Those that faced outsize debt maturities during the most severe months of the credit crunch faced a real threat of Chapter 11 restructuring had the lending environment completely seized. In thinking about share prices as a range of probable fair value outcomes, equity prices tend to face pressure as … Read more

Covering Oil Markets Ahead of the Upcoming OPEC/OPEC+ Meetings

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Image Source: Exxon Mobil Corporation – 2019 IR Presentation  By Callum Turcan On March 5, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (‘OPEC’) is holding an “extraordinary” meeting in Vienna, Austria (EWO), which will be followed up by a ministerial meeting between OPEC and non-OPEC members the next day. The group had already agreed to cut oil (USO, BNO) supplies by an additional 0.5 million barrels of per day (‘bpd’) back in December 2019 through an agreement that would last through March 2020 (that was on top of an existing deal to keep 1.2 million bpd off of the market which runs through the end of March 2020 as well). As part of that deal, Saudi Arabia (KSA) offered to “voluntarily” … Read more