HUM

Evaluating the Industry Structure of Managed Care Organizations

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Structure of the Managed Care Industry The managed care organization (MCO) and health insurance/benefits industry is concentrated, competitive, and still consolidating. The largest publicly-traded MCO by members is WellPoint (WLP), which serves more than 66.5 million individuals through its health plans, but UnitedHealth (UNH), Aetna (AET), Humana (HUM), Cigna (CI), Centene (CNC), Health Net (HNT), and WellCare (WCG) are other key players in the industry. Revenues are generated primarily from insurance premiums and, to a lesser extent, from administrative fees and net investment income. Expenses are dominated by benefit expense (the cost of health care services), though overhead (selling, general and administrative expense) is also a material portion of the cost structure of the group. Operating margins for some constituents have hit … 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 February 17

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Below we provide a list of firms that raised their dividends during the week ending February 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                          AllianceBernstein (AB): now $0.70 per share quarterly dividend, was $0.64. Allstate (ALL): now $0.89 per share quarterly dividend, was $0.85. Analog Devices (ADI): now $0.86 per share quarterly dividend, was $0.76. Annaly Capital Management 6.95% PFD SER F (NLY.PF): now $0.6076 per share quarterly dividend, was $0.5417. Auburn National (AUBN): now $0.27 per share quarterly dividend, was $0.265. Banc of California (BANC): now $0.10 … Read more

8 Announcements and Top Research You May Have Missed

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8 Announcements. This article was sent to members via email March 27. By Brian Nelson, CFA Hi everyone, Brian here. Trust you are doing great! Here are eight announcements I want you to be aware of: Everything we do is for our members. We’re very proud of the outperformance of the Best Ideas Newsletter portfolio, that we’ve never had a dividend cut in the Dividend Growth Newsletter portfolio, that our high-yield ideas are holding up very well, and the success rates of the Exclusive capital-appreciation ideas and short-idea considerations are running at approximately 80%. We’re proud to be your research partner. The odds of a Fed rate cut are going up as yield-curve inversion continues to threaten. The risks are more behavioral in … Read more

Our Thoughts on Big Pharma’s Calendar Fourth Quarter Earnings Reports

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Image Source: Merck & Company Inc – Fourth Quarter of 2021 IR Earnings Presentation By Callum Turcan In Alphabetical Order by Ticker: ABBV, GILD, LLY, MRK We include the Health Care Select Sector SPDR Fund ETF (XLV) in the Best Ideas Newsletter and Dividend Growth Newsletter portfolios to gain broad exposure to the health care sector. Instead of betting on one entity’s pipeline (which could be hit or miss), we like the exposure to lots and lots of “shots on goal” when it comes to the vast collective pipeline in the XLV ETF. We wrote up the calendar fourth-quarter results of the top two weightings in the XLV ETF, United Health (UNH) and Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) here and here, … Read more

Stock Market Outlook for 2021

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By Valuentum Analysts February 8, 2021 2020 was one for the history books. We covered our thoughts and reflections on the past year in our “2020 Won’t Soon Be Forgotten” article (link here), and now we are looking towards the future. Global health authorities should be able to bring an end to the ongoing coronavirus (‘COVID-19’) pandemic sooner than many had expected as several vaccines have already been improved for emergency use and several others appear increasingly likely to get approved. Global vaccine distribution activities are currently underway, and this should allow the world to slowly return to pre-pandemic activities. Before then, immense stimulus measures launched primarily in developed nations should support global economic activities until the public health crisis … Read more

Dividend Increases/Decreases for the Week February 18

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Below we provide a list of firms that raised their dividends during the week ending February 18. 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 Acadia Realty Trust (AKR): now $0.18 per share quarterly dividend, was $0.15. Advance Auto Parts (AAP): now $1.50 per share quarterly dividend, was $1.00. AEGON (AEG): now EUR 0.09 per share semi-annual dividend, was EUR 0.08. AllianceBernstein (AB): now $1.29 per share quarterly dividend, was $0.89. Allstate (ALL): now $0.85 per share quarterly dividend, was $0.81. American Homes 4 Rent (AMH): now $0.18 per share quarterly … Read more

Top Research and Ideas You May Have Missed

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Is Quant Value Giving Intrinsic Value Investors a Bad Name? Surely, you don’t believe Warren Buffett’s “style” is out of favor? By Brian Nelson, CFA I need to make sure that you’re aware of something very important. The media and perhaps many investment professionals define the concept of “value” as companies with low price-to-book (P/B) ratios, and the concept of “growth” as companies with high price-to-book ratios. This definition of “value” and “growth” and their corresponding returns have been magnified in writings throughout the media and across quantitative research, even in prestigious journals. Warren Buffett has been rallying against most quantitative applications and how “growth” and “value” are defined in popular media and quantitative research for decades.  Here’s one of the Oracle’s most … Read more

Dividend Increases/Decreases for the Week February 19

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Below we provide a list of firms that raised their dividends during the week ending February 19. 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 Analog Devices (ADI): now $0.69 per share quarterly dividend, was $0.62. Arbor Realty Trust (ABR): now $0.33 per share quarterly dividend, was $0.32. ARC Document Solutions (ARC): now $0.02 per share quarterly dividend, was $0.01. CAI International (CAI): now $0.30 per share quarterly dividend, was $0.25. Canadian General Investments (CGRIF): now CAD 0.22 per share quarterly dividend, was CAD 0.21. Cimarex Energy (XEC): now $0.27 per … Read more