GE

GE’s and Honeywell’s Fundamentals Remain Strong

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On Friday, General Electric (GE) and Honeywell (HON) posted solid results. GE is included in both the Best Ideas portfolio and Dividend Growth portfolio, while Honeywell is worthy of keeping a close eye on as its results shed light on the industrial sector as a whole. Our coverage universe allows us to comment on a wide variety of firms that are held outside the actively-managed portfolios. The analyst team spends most of their time evaluating the fundamentals and financials of these firms. Though we consider the best ideas to be in the portfolios, we also see the tremendous value in commenting on companies that are not directly included in the portfolios. We also provide extensive valuation and dividend analysis of … Read more

There’s No Space Like Aerospace

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The recovery from the stock-market bottom in March 2009 has been five years in the making, but as the cyclical threat of an eventual global downturn looms, the aerospace industry is one of the few industries that we think will continue to be resilient in the face of such pressures. We expect commercial aircraft build rates to continue to climb at least through 2018. If the multi-year backlogs of unfulfilled deliveries at the large airframe makers aren’t enough, Boeing’s (BA) updated 20-year outlook for commercial aerospace demand, released June 10, was about as rosy as can be. The reason for such a long-range view has to do with the nature of aircraft building. When airframe makers build next-generation aircraft, they … Read more

GE ‘Wins’ Alstom’s Assets

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Over the weekend, General Electric (GE) announced that the Alstom Board of Directors has unanimously approved GE’s offer to buy the Power and Grid businesses of France-based Alstom. The US-based industrial giant’s bid prevailed over that of a convoluted offer from a Siemens (SI) and Mitsubishi consortium that had hoped to spoil the tie-up and prevent GE from strengthening its presence in Europe. Here are the details of the GE-Alstom transaction: GE’s offer to acquire the Power and Grid businesses of Alstom remains unchanged at $13.5 billion (€9.9 billion) enterprise value and $3.4 billion (€2.5 billion) of net cash, totaling $16.9 billion (€12.35 billion). The all-cash transaction is valued at 7.9 times pro-forma earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization … Read more

Valuentum Economic Castleâ„¢ Rating Update

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Read: Keeping the Horse Before the Cart: Valuentum’s Economic Castle™ Rating The Economic Castle Focuses on the Magnitude of Economic Value Creation The Valuentum Economic Castle™ rating is an enhancement of the competitive advantage framework (commonly known as economic moat analysis) that has become widespread and ubiquitous within the investing world. Whereas an economic moat framework evaluates a firm on the basis of the sustainability and durability of its competitive advantages, Valuentum’s Economic Castle™ rating evaluates a firm on the basis of the firm’s future economic profit spread (return on invested capital less its weighted average cost of capital). The companies with the strongest Valuentum Economic Castle™ ratings are poised to generate the most economic value for shareholders in the … Read more

5 Minutes with Valuentum’s Brian Nelson

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Valuentum: Brian, thanks for joining us today. Nelson: It’s my pleasure. Valuentum: So the markets continue to make all-time highs. What are you telling investors? Nelson: That depends. If you’re going to be in the market for more than 10 years, then you don’t have much to worry about. For long-term investors that are decades away from retirement and have absolutely no liquidity or income needs from their investments, one particular event resonates in my mind as to why they should have a full risk allocation to stocks. That event is the stock-market recovery from the Financial Crisis of 2008-2009 — which is the worst financial event of our generation. In just 5 or so years after the credit crunch, … Read more

Siemens-Mitsubishi Consortium Looking to Spoil General Electric’s Deal

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“A tendency for the winning bid in an auction to exceed the intrinsic value of the item purchased. Because of incomplete information, emotions or any other number of factors regarding the item being auctioned, bidders can have a difficult time determining the item’s intrinsic value. As a result, the largest over-estimation of an item’s value ends up winning the auction.” – The Winner’s Curse (Investopedia) On Friday, Reuters reported that Siemens (SI) and Mitsubishi (MSBHY) are finalizing a joint offer for Alstom’s energy operation, a unit currently under formal agreement to be purchased by General Electric (GE) for $13.5 billion (€9.9 billion) enterprise value and $3.4 billion (€2.5 billion) of net cash — totaling $16.9 billion (€12.35 billion). The news … Read more

Merger Mania: AT&T Ties the Knot with DirecTV; Pfizer Ups Offer for AstraZeneca; Siemens Complicates Matters for GE

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Over the weekend, AT&T (T) and DirecTV (DTV) entered into a definitive agreement  in which AT&T will acquire DirecTV in a cash-and-stock transaction for $95 per share on the basis of AT&T’s Friday closing price. In light of this announcement, we plan to remove DirecTV from the Best Ideas portfolio early next week, recording a significant gain from the $55 per share cost basis in the portfolio. We trust you are very happy with this news. Though some investors will choose to hang onto shares in the event that AT&T’s equity increases before DirecTV is de-listed from the exchange (thereby driving DirecTV’s shares higher), we’re comfortable taking the hefty per-share profit on the pay-TV provider very soon and not waiting … Read more

The Alstom Situation

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French energy firm Alstom has been in the news a lot recently. From General Electric’s (GE) initial interest in the firm reported April 23 to Siemens’ (SI) offering to top GE’s bid April 27 to the French government politically opposing GE’s bid for Alstom’s assets May 5, the saga continues. As of the latest information available (May 6), Alstom continues to review both GE’s and Siemens’ respective offers: The Board of Directors of Alstom announced…that it has received a binding offer from General Electric to acquire its Energy activities. The scope of the transaction includes the Thermal Power, Renewable Power and Grid Sectors, as well as corporate and shared services. With 65,000 employees, these businesses registered €14.8Bn in sales in … Read more

Another New High for GE’s Industrial Backlog!

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General Electric (GE) has taken a number of steps to position itself for future success, and reduced reliance on GE Capital Corp (GECC) remains a sound trajectory. Not only do we think that increased transparency and potential monetization of a portion of its far-reaching financial operations is a prudent idea (particularly given the recent lessons learned from the Financial Crisis), but the move also frees up the executive suite to focus on driving top-notch performance at its industrial operations. Clearly, we’re already seeing the potential of this “new GE,” and we like it very much. Image Source: GE On Thursday, GE reported excellent first-quarter results. One of the most important indicators of GE’s industrial business potential is the trend in … Read more

General Electric and Johnson & Johnson Shed Assets

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When dividend growth companies shed assets, the proceeds can be used for further dividend expansion. We like this quite a bit. General Electric (GE), a holding in both the Best Ideas Newsletter portfolio and Dividend Growth Newsletter portfolio, continues to streamline and optimize its portfolio of businesses. We’ve long held the belief that General Electric needs to simplify its business focus, a view that has been supported by its dividend cut in 2009. Global economic conditions and the credit crunch threatened GE Capital (GECC) at the time, and management’s moves since then have been to diversify away from its financial subsidiary. The industrial and finance conglomerate is far healthier than it was at the depths of the Great Recession in 2009, and the … Read more