GME

Shopping for Income Within Retail in a Digital World

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Image Source: Mike Mozart The 2017 holiday shopping season has shown that e-commerce has never been stronger and it will only continue to grow. But there is still potential for income generation among more traditional retailers. Investors must be tremendously discerning in this area, however, as margin, and ultimately free cash flow, pressures remain prevalent. We like Walmart, Target, Costco as income ideas in retail, but TJX Companies and Best Buy may be worth a look. We’re avoiding the department stores and teen retail like the plague, regardless of their Dividend Cushion ratios. By Kris Rosemann and Brian Nelson, CFA What an incredible time we’re living in. For those that study history, the US’ pressure on other countries like China … Read more

Random Musings: Retail, REITs, BlackBerry, and More

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Image shown: Best Buy’s resiliency in the face of competition from Amazon. Let’s cover some recent news. By Brian Nelson, CFA The markets have been relatively flattish the past week or so, but that may not mean much. They could still be digesting some of the big gains thus far in 2017 before potentially staging their next move. At the close June 26, the SPDR S&P 500 Trust ETF (SPY), a proxy for the S&P 500 stood at $243.29. For some reason, I felt it important to make note of this level, as if it were an important one. Things have been very quiet for a long time now, and I get the feeling that an inflection point may be … Read more

Valuentum’s 3 Breakthroughs in the Field of Finance and More

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Valuentum’s President Brian Nelson pauses for a picture before speaking at the CFA Society of Houston in March 2017. By Valuentum Editorial Staff Let’s cover Valuentum’s 3 major breakthroughs in the field of finance. The first one is big and may challenge you to rethink everything you think you know about investing. 1. On a logical framework, Valuentum has debunked John C. Bogle’s landmark syllogism that has paved the way for the concept of index investing. Index investing has been built on a logical shortcoming, whether supported by evidence or not. We think it is important that the investment community know of this. Read (pdf): The “Luck” and “Randomness” of Index Funds (2018), Brian Nelson, CFA See video documentation: /FALLACY_of_Index_Funds To … Read more

Hit or Miss in the Video Gaming Entertainment Industry

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The Valuentum analyst team talks the latest and greatest trends in the video game entertainment industry from tried-and-true titles to the financial positions of the largest players to retail big box and beyond. ~9 mins. Kris Rosemann: Welcome to Valuentum’s podcast. I’m Kris Rosemann and joining us today is Mr. Chris Araos. Chris, you have a strong background as an observer of trends in the video game entertainment industry. How would you say the world of gaming is shaping up these days? Chris Araos: Well, Kris — a lot has changed in video gaming in just the past five years thanks to the emergence of more-advanced mobile phones, which are just great devices to play games on. Unlike PCs or … Read more

Best Buy and GameStop Limp Into Holiday Season

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The seasonality of specialty retailers Best Buy (BBY) and GameStop (GME) is no secret, and both are depending on strong holiday shopping to buoy full-year results. Let’s take a look at recent performance to get a feel for how both are trending heading into the holidays. Electronic sales remain a bright spot, so we’re paying very close attention to what’s flying off the shelves and what’s not, but with all the promotional activity going on, the biggest question is whether margins will hold up. In the third quarter of fiscal 2016, ended October 31, Best Buy reported total revenue falling 2.4% from the year-ago period to ~$8.8 billion. Comparable sales grew 0.8% (down from the 2.9% pace in last year’s … Read more

Sears Has Stopped Shrinking But Is This Really Good News?

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It appears that when things at a company are so bad, any glimmer of hope can result in an outsize upside stock-price reaction that is often unjustified on the basis of fundamentals. This appears to be what happened to Sears’ (SHLD) stock last week. The company was at the center of a massive short squeeze Friday, to a magnitude we haven’t seen in some time. We don’t think fundamentals at Sears have changed all that much. The struggling retailer said that EBITDA in the third quarter of 2014 would be equally as poor as that of the same period in 2013. The measure could be a $325 million loss (-$325 million) in the quarter, and this would be worse than the $178 … 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

Dividend Increases/Decreases for the Week Ending March 7

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Below we provide a list of firms that raised/lowered their dividends during the week ending March 7. The dividend reports of covered firms on this list will be updated shortly with the new information. To access our dividend reports, please click here (or use our ‘Symbol’ search box in our website header). Firms Raising Their Dividends This Week Agree Realty (ADC): now $0.43 per share quarterly dividend, was $0.41. Altisource Residential Corp (RESI): now $0.40 per share quarterly dividend, was $0.25. Avago Technologies (AVGO): now $0.27 per share quarterly dividend, was $0.25. The Children’s Place (PLCE): now $0.1325 per share quarterly dividend (first ever). Devon Energy (DVN): now $0.24 per share quarterly dividend, was $0.22. Family Dollar Stores (FDO): now … Read more

Sony Sets Sights on Future; GameStop Shareholders Startled

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Sony (SNE) announced Tuesday that it sold 4.2 million copies of the PS4 during 2013, exceeding estimates for ~3 million sales of Microsoft’s (MSFT) Xbox One units during the year. The PS4’s lower price tag of $399 versus the Xbox One’s $499 sale price coupled with wider distribution (53 countries versus 13) helped drive the better numbers at Sony. Sales levels of each competing console, however, were fantastic, which bodes well for game developers such as Electronic Arts (EA) and Take Two (TTWO). Sony remains firmly on track to surpass its PS4 sales target of 5 million units by March 2014 and will likely turn a nice profit of about $25-$50 per unit (despite the lower price). Microsoft’s XBox sales may be … Read more