JPM

CVS Health Story Unchanged; Still Okay with Its Removal

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Image Source: Mike Mozart CVS Health continues to face long-term threats to its business, and relatively weak near-term performance expectations have done little to inspire confidence. The company’s long-term debt load has exploded as it prepares to acquire Aetna, and we don’t expect the company to bounce back onto our radar given the materially increased financial leverage amidst other challenges. By Kris Rosemann Shares of former simulated newsletter portfolios idea CVS Health (CVS) continue to face pressure, and its first quarter 2018 report, released May 2, offered little support. Our opinion of the risks facing the company are unchanged, as threats such as Amazon (AMZN) teaming up with Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A, BRK.B) and JP Morgan (JPM) to form a new healthcare company … Read more

The Most Important Topic in Stock Investing

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President of Equity Research, Brian Nelson, discusses why price vs. value is the paramount consideration in stock investing. Brian Nelson, CFA: This is Brian Nelson from Valuentum Securities. Today, I wanted to talk about a number of investment concepts that I think are absolutely paramount for every investor to know.  The very first concept is price versus value, and this one is paramount to any investment process. Now I’m not just giving this lip service–this is just one of the core concepts of investing, equity investing. The reality of stock investing is that each company has a present value of future free cash flows that it generates, and those future free cash flows roll up to a fair value, the … Read more

ICYMI: Valuentum’s Improved Stock and ETF Web Pages

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Valuentum has rolled out improved stock and ETF web pages on its website valuentum.com/. Now, subscribers can access key proprietary information on the stock and ETF web pages in addition to the customary stock and ETF reports. Dear reader, We have some exciting news that we can’t wait to share with you! At valuentum.com/, we have rolled out new stock and ETF pages that conveniently include a variety of our proprietary metrics from the Dividend Cushion ratio to the Economic Castle rating and beyond! There’s even mouseover functionality so you can learn about how we define the key metrics across our stock-selection and dividend growth methodologies. You’ll still have access to the stock and dividend reports on the landing pages, … Read more

Bank Earnings Pour In

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The banking industry is on solid footing, and while Wells Fargo is creating negative headlines, the first quarter of 2018 was a good one for many financial institutions. Expanding revenue and net income, increased capital-return programs, solid returns on equity, and generally positive commentary, despite an increasingly competitive lending environment, were the norm. A narrowing of spreads on US Treasury instruments may pose a challenge to net interest margin expansion in the group, but there are other opportunities to capitalize on a surging LIBOR and the increasingly volatile equity market environment. All in, the performance in the first quarter of 2018 was “more good than bad” for the banks, and we continue to look for the right price to consider … Read more

Walgreens Boots Alliance Remains at the Crossroads of a Rapidly-Evolving Healthcare Landscape

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Image Source: Walgreens 2Q 2018 Earnings Release By Alexander J. Poulos The evolving healthcare landscape has been dealing with the threat of a disruptive new competitor entering the market and considerable political risk. Though the need for healthcare remains impervious to economic forces, a clear deflationary trend has descended on the industry that has affected many of the well-entrenched participants. Let’s examine Walgreens Boots Alliance for clues that a shift in sentiment may have occurred in this well known, yet beleaguered sector. We’re watching Walgreen’s equity very closely. The Consolidation Trend Continues One of the often overlooked, but in our view, key dynamics affecting the drug distributers/retailers such as Walgreens Boots Alliance (WBA) is the continued deflationary trends exhibited in … Read more

Market Overreacts to Facebook News

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Image Source: Christopher The headline news seems concerning, but we’re taking a long-term perspective with Facebook. We doubt the news will meaningfully impact the trajectory of growth of its long-term free cash flow, and we’re not reading too much into events that seem heavily-influenced by the overheated political environment. By Brian Nelson, CFA Investors are overreacting and selling shares of Facebook (FB) March 19 because they are worried about implications of a UK probe and a state investigation into the practices of Cambridge Analytica, a privately-held data mining and analysis company, and whether the way Cambridge Analytica acquired and applied data from users of Facebook was legal. The New York Times first broke the story when the paper published a … Read more

Cigna, Express, and the Unwinding of the PBM Market

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Given its track record of creative destruction, when Amazon plans to enter a particular line of business, it presents an ominous threat to incumbents. What is often overlooked, too, is that Amazon is more than willing to try new verticals—if they prove promising, additional assets will be devoted to the new line of business, often with fawning media coverage. If Amazon is unsuccessful in its endeavor, however, then it seems as though it will “fail fast” and shut down the project and move on. We found the recent announcement of a joint venture to tackle the healthcare industry as particularly noteworthy. By Alexander J. Poulos Amazon as the Great Disrupter We have marveled at Amazon’s (AMZN) rumored ambition into pharmaceutical … Read more

Our Ideas Are Performing Awesome So Far in 2018!!! 6 of the Top 7 of the Dow!

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By Brian Nelson, CFA Every day we think about how we can make things easier for our members. Instead of having to visit multiple links on our website with screens, you now have access to one downloadable Excel file where you can sort and rank how you wish. Of course, you can always find those screens in the newsletters, each and every month, too, but we think a weekly data download is a huge value add to our offering. Can you imagine getting updated data every week for 52 weeks of the year for what we charge, let alone two newsletters, hundreds of reports, commentary, and education material? Wow, right? People keep saying we do too much, but when our … Read more

The “Luck” and “Randomness” of Index Funds

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Please select the image below to download the document. Image shown, page 1 of 14. Tickerized for Valuentum’s coverage universe.

Rising Risk Free Rates Threatening Market, Removing CVS and Hanesbrands

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The most important variable to keep your eye on, the 10-year Treasury, is rising, and the long-term implications on equity values could be considerable. We don’t think the moves thus far have been too disruptive, but continued concerns over US tax receipts and infrastructure/defense spending could send sovereign yields roaring higher. As fourth-quarter earnings season marches on, let’s take a look at some meaningful recent quarterly reports. We’re also shedding two companies from the simulated newsletter portfolios. By Kris Rosemann and Brian Nelson, CFA The market continues to be on edge as it considers what the borrowing cost of US debt might be in the event of the next downturn, the timing the only uncertainty, now that it has significantly … Read more