GOOGL

Pinterest Sees Interest in its Social Media Site Grow During COVID-19 Pandemic

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Image Source: Pinterest Inc – Fourth Quarter of 2019 Earnings IR Presentation By Callum Turcan Social media firm Pinterest Inc (PINS) published an operational and financial update after the market close April 7 that caught a lot of investor’s eyes. Pinterest reported that its user base, measured by monthly active users (‘MAUs’), had continued to grow sequentially in the first quarter of 2020 on both a domestic and international basis. While the ongoing coronavirus (‘COVID-19’) pandemic has likely negatively impacted its digital advertising business, Pinterest is communicating to investors that over the longer term, its social media offering is growing in popularity which supports growth down the road. Financial and Operational Update During the final three months of 2019, Pinterest … Read more

Digital Realty’s Growth Outlook Improving, Shares Near All-Time Highs

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Image Source: Digital Realty Trust Inc – March 2020 IR Presentation By Callum Turcan Digital Realty Trust Inc (DLR) is a holding in both the Dividend Growth Newsletter portfolio and High Yield Dividend Growth Newsletter portfolio (order here), and its shares have performed quite well of late with DLR trading near all-time highs as of this writing. Year-to-date, DLR is up ~26% while the S&P 500 (SPY) is down ~13% as of this writing. Demand for data centers is surging as the ongoing coronavirus (‘COVID-19’) pandemic is forcing households to stay indoors, which in turn is increasing demand for video streaming services, telecommunications offerings, and other activities that are voracious consumers of data. During these harrowing times, we hope members … Read more

Repub from July 2019 — The Valuentum Economic Roundtable

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This article was published July 23, 2019. We sat down with the Valuentum team to get their thoughts on the global economy and key issues that may threaten this near 10-year bull market. Let’s start with Valuentum’s Bank and Financials Contributor Matthew Warren, and then we’ll go around the horn. Matthew Warren: It’s interesting what’s happening at the nexus of the consumer and various retailers. It reminds me of the pockets of discretionary weakness back in 2008. I made money on Men’s Warehouse (TLRD) puts back then. Nobody is really in a rush to buy a suit, especially if they are concerned about their job prospects. At least we only have CLOs (collateralized loan obligations) and Europe/China stress to ponder … Read more

Op-Ed: Bail Out Boeing, No Other Publicly Traded Companies

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Image: Boeing B-17E Fortress 41-2599 “Tugboat Annie”; took part in the Battle of Midway in Jun ’42; later ditched at sea on 16 Jan 43. Source. Dear Uncle Sam: Please stop bailing out the competition of small business. We need a changing of the guard. Let capitalism work. By Brian Nelson, CFA Let’s get this out of the way first: The U.S. government is going to bail out everybody, and that’s just how it’s going to be. It’s what we’ve become, a Bailout Nation. However, let me give you a perspective from a business owner in the financial industry. Valuentum is an investment research publisher, and while we’re not a financial advisor or broker, our team competes indirectly with many … Read more

Oracle’s Strategic Shift is Starting to Bear Fruit

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Image Source: Oracle Corporation – Third Quarter Fiscal 2020 Earnings Press Release By Callum Turcan On March 12, Dividend Growth Newsletter portfolio holding Oracle Corporation (ORCL) reported earnings for the third quarter of fiscal 2020 (period ended February 29, 2020) which handily beat consensus expectations on the both the top- and bottom-lines. Growing subscription revenues at its cloud-based businesses were key to generating this outperformance, and most importantly in our view, Oracle showcased that its outlook is improving as it shifts away from old and stale IT infrastructure offerings (i.e. enterprise data application management) and towards the IT infrastructure of the 21st Century (cloud-based services i.e. software-as-a-service and infrastructure-as-a-service). Shares of ORCL yield ~2.1% as of this writing and our fair … Read more

Amazon Contests Microsoft Winning JEDI Contract

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By Callum Turcan Microsoft Corp (MSFT) is a longtime holding in the Dividend Growth Newsletter portfolio and on top of posting great dividend growth historically–from the start of 2010 to the start of 2020, Microsoft’s quarterly dividend rose from $0.13 per share to $0.51 per share, and we see that trajectory continuing going forward–shares of MSFT have been on an upward tear and are up ~73% over the past year as of this writing. Microsoft now trades well above the top end of our fair value estimate range. However, we let our winners run until the technicals start turning against them in a meaningful way. As of this writing, shares of MSFT yield ~1.1% on a forward-looking basis. Recent Events … Read more

Alphabet Reports Earnings and Its Fundamentals Remain Stellar

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Image Shown: Shares of Alphabet Inc Class C, a top weighted holding in our Best Ideas Newsletter portfolio, continued their upward climb in 2019 and maintained their stellar trajectory. By Callum Turcan On February 3, Alphabet (GOOG) (GOOGL) reported fourth quarter and full year earnings for 2019. The firm’s bottom-line beat consensus estimates, but Alphabet’s top-line miss sent shares modestly lower the next day on Tuesday, February 4. We continue to like Alphabet’s Class C shares as a top weighted holding in our Best Ideas Newsletter portfolio with our fair value estimate sitting at $1,440 per share of GOOG (under our base case scenario) and the top end of our fair value estimate range sitting at $1,800 per share of … Read more

Amazon Posts Blowout Earnings, Shares Back Near 2018 Highs

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Image Shown: After reporting fourth quarter earnings for 2019, shares of Amazon Inc have returned to their 2018 highs as of this writing. By Callum Turcan On January 30, Amazon Inc (AMZN) reported fourth-quarter earnings for 2019 that handily beat consensus expectations. Shares of AMZN are now trading back near their highs first reached in 2018. We like Amazon’s growth trajectory but don’t include Amazon in our newsletter portfolios due to the enormous uncertainty in the company’s key valuation drivers, which has a magnified impact on changes in its fair value estimate. That’s a product of its high operating leverage. Even a ~50 basis point difference in its expected gross margins versus its realized gross margins, for example, could have … Read more

Coronavirus May Trigger Long-Anticipated Global Recession

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Image: Wuhan New Coronavirus This was the catalyst that nobody was expecting, a novel coronavirus that nobody had in their economic models. We think global economic activity is slowing as we speak, and the spread of the virus may only accelerate in mainland China and elsewhere. Investors should keep a level head and perhaps think about adding protection to their portfolios before it becomes too expensive. By Brian Nelson, CFA How to Use Valuentum’s Investment Research Services >> We’ve walked through a number of scenarios that could trip the global economy into recession–global deflation that tips over the weakest European banks and causes contagion, global military conflict with North Korea or Iran that disrupts economic activity, increased volatility driven by … Read more

Microsoft Continues to Outperform After a Great Earnings Report

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Image Source: Microsoft Corporation – Second Quarter Fiscal 2020 IR PowerPoint Presentation By Callum Turcan A mid-weighted holding in our Dividend Growth Newsletter portfolio, Microsoft Corp (MSFT) continues to fly higher after reporting second-quarter earnings for its fiscal 2020 (period ended December 31, 2019) on January 29. Microsoft beat on both the top- and bottom-line versus consensus estimates, and shares of MSFT yield ~1.2% as of this writing. Outperformance at its cloud computing operations were largely responsible for the beat and nice forward-looking guidance. Newsletter Portfolio Commentary We continue to like Microsoft in our Dividend Growth Newsletter portfolio even though shares have run up above the top end of our fair value estimate range. The strong performance of Microsoft’s stock … Read more