FITB

Dividend Increases/Decreases for the Week of September 15

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Below we provide a list of firms that raised their dividends during the week ending September 15. 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                          Absa Group Limited (AGRPY): now $0.5518 per share dividend, was $0.5416. AGNC Investment Series C Fixed-to-Floating Rate Cumulative Redeemable Preferred Stock (AGNCN): now $0.6676 per share quarterly dividend, was $0.6482. Andlauer Healthcare Group (AND:CA): now CAD 0.09 per share quarterly dividend, was CAD 0.08. Brambles (BXBLY): now $0.26 per share dividend, was $0.22. China Resources Cement Holdings (CARCY): now $0.1364 per share dividend, was … Read more

Why We Don’t Like Dividends of Banking Firms: 4 Very Good Reasons

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Untermyer: Is not commercial credit based primarily upon money or property? Morgan: No, sir. The first thing is character. Untermyer: Before money or property? Morgan: Before money or anything else. Money cannot buy it … a man I do not trust could not get money from me on all the bonds in Christendom. –Mr. JP Morgan’s testimony before the Pujo Committee (questioning from Samuel Untermyer), 1912-1913 Reason #1: A Bank Run Is Always Possible Though the history of banking dates back to as early as 2000 BC in Babylonia, the makings of the present-day banking system in the US really didn’t take hold until the beginning of the 20th century. Some financial historians may argue for a later date, but we … Read more

Dividend Increases/Decreases for the Week September 17

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Below we provide a list of firms that raised their dividends during the week ending September 17. 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 AFC Gamma (AFCG): now $0.43 per share quarterly dividend, was $0.38. AG Mortgage Investment Trust (MITT): now $0.21 per share quarterly dividend, was $0.07. American Financial Group (AFG): now $4.00 per share special dividend, was $2.24. American Tower (AMT): now $1.31 per share quarterly dividend, was $1.27. BIOQUAL (BIOQ): now $1.25 per share annual dividend, was $1.10. BRT Apartments (BRT): now $0.23 per share quarterly dividend, … Read more

Primer on the Banking Sector: Where Are We in the Cycle?

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Image Source: GotCredit Three of our favorite banks are JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, and US Bancorp. These are three very high-quality institutions which are also very well managed. They all benefit from cultures that encourage the right kind of risk/reward thinking. If these equities start to trade at a meaningful discount to our fair value estimates, they may be are worth considering as long-term investments, in our view. Summary We’ll talk about how banks make money, and the three most important costs of running a bank. The Great Financial Crisis revealed the tremendous risks of banking equities, and we’ll walk through these in depth. We’ll discuss how to conceptualize where we are in the banking cycle, and how that … Read more

American Express Carries Meaningful Credit Risk

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Image Source: American Express Company – First Quarter of 2020 Earnings IR Presentation By Callum Turcan At Valuentum, we are very bullish on the growth trajectory of high-quality payment processing, payment solutions, and financial technology firms. That’s why we include PayPal Holdings Inc (PYPL) and Visa Inc (V) as top-weighted holdings in our Best Ideas Newsletter portfolio. However, please note that what makes those firms appealing is the limited or lack of exposure to credit risk. Visa carries no credit risk and generates revenues through fees collected on transactions conducted with Visa-branded cards, and while PayPal possesses some credit risk, that risk is rather small relative to its overall business. Both firms enable investors to capitalize on the shift to … Read more

VBI Ratings Not as Impressive As We Would Have Liked in 2022

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Image: How the VBI rating system has ranked equities so far this year. By Brian Nelson, CFA At Valuentum, we use the Valuentum Buying Index (VBI) to source ideas into diversified simulated newsletter portfolios, and the VBI may be most applicable to the simulated Best Ideas Newsletter portfolio, where we generally like to include ideas when they register a high VBI rating and remove them when they register a low VBI rating. We always use the VBI in a portfolio setting and never by itself. But what about the Valuentum Buying Index ratings, themselves? How did they “perform” during 2022 in one of the worst years for stock market investors in history? Well, not as spectacular as we would have … Read more

There Is Milk At The Store

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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

VIDEO/TRANSCRIPT: 2021 Valuentum Exclusive Call: Inflation Is Good

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Valuentum’s President Brian Michael Nelson, CFA, explains why investors should not fear inflation, why government agencies such as the Fed and Treasury are prioritizing something other than price discovery, why the 10-year Treasury rate is a must-watch metric, and why Valuentum prefers the moaty constituents in large cap growth due to their net cash rich balance sheets, tremendous free cash flow generating potential, and secular growth tailwinds. Transcript: << Valuentum’s Best Ideas On behalf of the Valuentum team, I’d like to present to you our prepared remarks for the Valuentum Exclusive conference call for 2021. It is both an honor and a privilege to share our team’s work with you, and I personally am very grateful for your continued interest … Read more

Dividend Increases/Decreases for the Week of September 13

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Below we provide a list of firms that raised their dividends during the week ending September 13. 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                          Absa Group Limited (AGRPY): now $0.5992 per share dividend, was $0.5707. AFC Gamma (AFCG): now $0.33 per share quarterly dividend, was $0.15. Altria (MO): now $1.02 per share quarterly dividend, was $0.98. ANTA Sports Products Limited (ANPDY): now $3.712 per share semi-annual dividend, was $3.602. Bangkok Dusit Medical Services Public Company Limited (BDUUY): now $0.3199 per share semi-annual dividend, was $0.3095. Benchmark Electronics (BHE): … Read more