The US Dollar, GDP Expansion, and Earnings

Investors wouldn’t think news flow is that robust given that stock market volatility in recent months has been practically nil, but news is coming in fast. Let’s check up on the performance of the US dollar, the rate of GDP growth as well as key companies reporting fourth-quarter earnings. Intel’s quarterly report was fantastic, for one!    By Kris Rosemann The US dollar (UUP, UDN, USDU) hit a three-year low against the euro, but US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin suggests a weaker dollar may be good for the US, which is a change from traditional US policy, though he was sure to note that the government is not concerned about short-term fluctuations in the currency. Meanwhile, of course, the euro … Read more

Dividend Increases/Decreases for the Week Ending January 26

Below we provide a list of firms that raised/lowered their dividends during the week ending January 26. 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 3M (MMM): now $1.36 per share quarterly dividend, was $1.17. AGCO (AGCO): now $0.15 per share quarterly dividend, was $0.14. Air Products and Chemicals (APD): now $1.10 per share quarterly dividend, was $0.95. Alaska Air (ALK): now $0.32 per share quarterly dividend, was $0.30. ALLETE (ALE): now $0.56 per share quarterly dividend, was $0.535. Alliance Data Systems (ADS): now $0.57 per share quarterly dividend, was $0.52. … Read more

The New Theorem of the Stock Market

President of Investment Research Brian Nelson talks about the new theory of the stock market and explains how syllogisms developed by Noble prize winners and the largest asset managers may not accurately reflect active management at the investor level, which Nelson argues is what matters. Running time: ~15 minutes. To view Valuentum’s updated YouTube page, please see here.  Excerpts from Value and Momentum Within Stocks, Too (Valuentum) Read the paper from the beginning here (pdf).   Tickerized for stocks in the Dow Jones Industrial Average.

Mutual Fund Tragedy, ROE, and the Time Horizon

Comparisons between growth versus value stocks may never go away, but President of Investment Research Brian Nelson explains why you should know better than to think stocks can easily be divided up as such. He talks about this, as well as the pitfalls of ROE (return on equity) and how to think about the time horizon. Running time: ~10 minutes.

Video: Quants! You’re NOT Measuring VALUE and Nelson’s Theory of Universal Value

President of Investment Research Brian Nelson defines the concept of universal value and shows how quantitative statistical methods are inextricably linked to those of fundamental, financial, business-model related analysis. Value does not exist in respective process vacuums! Value is universal. Find out why. Running time: ~10 minutes.  Tickerized for Valuentum’s stock and ETF coverage universe. Transcript Hi this is Brian Nelson from Valuentum Securities, and this is the tenth edition of a series that I call “Off the Cuff,” where I get in front of the camera and I talk for ten minutes. This is what we have to talk about today. We have to talk about this concept: The Theory of Universal Value. Value does not exist in vacuums … Read more

A “Terrible” Negative Alpha-Generating “Trade” and More

Let’s walk through some of the news before the Thanksgiving holiday, and one of the bigger missteps we made during 2017. By Brian Nelson, CFA I’d like to run through the news before many of you take a break for the Thanksgiving holiday. Thanks again for your attention. It means the world to our team that you see and understand the things that we’re doing, the great calls we make with our top-weighted ideas (see here and here), the extensive valuation processes we perform with respect to the discounted cash-flow process (see here), and how we provide that in downloadable pdf form (see here) – and we’re here to talk about our expectations! You can get reports from anybody, of … Read more

Valuentum’s “Home Runs” During 2017

Image Source: Keith Allison By Brian Nelson, CFA We’re doing a lot of things right, but you (yes, you!) mean the world to our team. For best ideas, see the portfolio on page 8 of the Best Ideas Newsletter here (pdf). For best dividend growth ideas, see the portfolio on page 5 of the Dividend Growth Newsletter here (pdf). I want to make sure you have these at your fingertips. We appreciate your business so much! We wrote up an analysis of ideas that were included in the Best Ideas Newsletter portfolio and Dividend Growth Newsletter portfolio at the beginning of 2017. The ideas included in these respective portfolios are our best ideas for each respective strategy, with two distinctions … Read more

How Have Our Best “Dividend Growth Ideas” Performed During 2017?

Read about the ideas in the Best Ideas Newsletter portfolio >> We wrote recently about how well the top-weighted ideas in the Best Ideas Newsletter portfolio have performed during 2017, but what about the top-weighted ideas in the other newsletter portfolio, the Dividend Growth Newsletter portfolio? How have they performed during 2017? Please tell us you know how well the top-weighted ideas have been performing. Key Takeaways: 1) “Excluding dividends, the SPDR S&P 500 Dividend ETF has advanced less than 9% this year. Meanwhile, excluding dividends, the two top-weighted ideas in the Dividend Growth Newsletter portfolio, Johnson & Johnson and Intel, are up ~20% and ~24%, respectively, more than double that of the SPDR S&P 500 Dividend ETF.”  2) “We’re viewing … Read more