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Berkshire Hathaway Hits All-Time Highs

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“Buffett did not become the third wealthiest person on the planet via exposure to the broader market.” By Kris Rosemann We added a 5% position in Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.B) in the Best Ideas Newsletter portfolio in April of this year at ~$146 per share with the idea of gaining exposure to high quality businesses in an overheated market, “Alerts: Adding More High-Quality Exposure.” The idea has worked out as planned, as Berkshire Hathaway has been a relatively stable holding in the Best Ideas Newsletter portfolio in a time of uncertainty in the broader market before breaking out to all-time highs following a solid third-quarter report, released November 4, and a business-friendly Presidential election. We continue to be fans … Read more

Dividend Increases/Decreases for the Week Ending August 5

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Below we provide a list of firms that raised/lowered their dividends during the week ending August 5. 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 AmTrust Financial Services (AFSI): now $0.17 per share quarterly dividend, was $0.15. Aqua America (WTR): now $0.1913 per share quarterly dividend, was $0.18. Arbor Realty Trust (ABR): now $0.16 per share quarterly dividend, was $0.15. Aviva plc (AV): now £0.0742 per share interim dividend, was £0.0675. Carlisle (CSL): now $0.35 per share quarterly dividend, was $0.30. Carriage (CSV): now $0.05 per share quarterly dividend, was $0.025. … Read more

Quick Update: Starbucks — What a Company

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Image Source: Starbuck’s 2016 Annual Meeting of Shareholders By Jessica Bishop With coffee being an integral part of so many people’s daily routine, Starbucks (SBUX) has captured the hearts of coffee drinkers everywhere and has become the face of upscale, high-end coffee with its tremendous brand recognition. Along with its brand comes its unmatched loyalty program, as people just can’t seem to get enough of Starbucks. It has taken great strides toward mobile advancements such as My Starbucks Rewards (MSR) that has gained more than 10 million active members (grew 28% in fiscal 2015 from fiscal 2014) in the US with card loads in North America alone at $5+ billion in fiscal 2015. The strength of its loyal customer base … Read more

Debt, Debt and More Debt

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Image Source: Michael Fleshman Many readers may be familiar with the rhetoric of the Presidential Election Cycle of 2016 and Democratic hopeful Bernie Sanders’ view on making “college tuition free and debt free.” You can take a read of the 6 steps Bernie will take as president to make college debt-free here. Many may find his last point rather intrusive to the heartbeat of the American economy and the driver behind innovation and standard-of-living improvements, but we’ll leave that conversation for another day. But what’s the shocking statistic, right? Get this – and I hope you are sitting down. According to an article by the Journal, “more than 40% of Americans who borrowed from the government’s main student-loan program aren’t … Read more

Part I: Nelson’s Evaluation of Berkshire’s 2015 Annual Report

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Image Source: Fortune Live Media By Brian Nelson, CFA It’s always fun to crack open the Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A, BRK.B) annual report, this year’s 2015. It reminds me of how much times have changed. For one, if Warren Buffett had been starting out in the investment business today, he simply wouldn’t have had a chance. The front page of this year’s Berkshire Hathaway shareholder letter shows that he trailed the market 33% of the time in the first 6 years in business (1965-1970), and the company lost half of its market value in 1974. Very few fund managers today, if any at all, that lose half of their market value in one year, trailing the market by 22 percentage points … Read more

Dividend Increases/Decreases for the Week Ending August 4

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Below we provide a list of firms that raised/lowered their dividends during the week ending August 4. 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 American States Water (AWR): now $0.255 per share quarterly dividend, was $0.242. Apollo Global Management (APO): now $0.52 per share quarterly dividend, was $0.49. Aqua America (WTR): now $0.2047 per share quarterly dividend, was $0.1913. Bank of Marin Bancorp (BMRC): now $0.29 per share quarterly dividend, was $0.27. Banco Santander (SAN): now $0.056 per share quarterly dividend, was $0.046. Cable One (CABO): now $1.75 per share … Read more

VBI Ratings Not as Impressive As We Would Have Liked in 2022

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Image: How the VBI rating system has ranked equities so far this year. By Brian Nelson, CFA At Valuentum, we use the Valuentum Buying Index (VBI) to source ideas into diversified simulated newsletter portfolios, and the VBI may be most applicable to the simulated Best Ideas Newsletter portfolio, where we generally like to include ideas when they register a high VBI rating and remove them when they register a low VBI rating. We always use the VBI in a portfolio setting and never by itself. But what about the Valuentum Buying Index ratings, themselves? How did they “perform” during 2022 in one of the worst years for stock market investors in history? Well, not as spectacular as we would have … Read more

2,350-2,750 on the S&P? Could the Coronavirus Catalyze a Financial Crisis?

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Image: We think a rather modest sell-off in the market to the target range of 2,350-2,750 on the S&P 500 is rather reasonable in the wake of one of the biggest economic shocks since the Global Financial Crisis. The chart above shows how far markets have advanced since 2011, and an adjustment lower to the target range of 2,350-2,750 is rather modest in such a context and would only bring markets to late 2018 levels (note red box as the target range). The range reflects ~16x S&P 500 12-month forward earnings estimates, as of February 14, adjusted down 10% due to COVID-19. When companies like Visa talk about a couple percentage points taken off of growth rates, one knows that … Read more

Nelson: The 16 Most Important Steps To Understand The Stock Market

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A previous version of this article appeared on our website July 21, 2013. Refreshed and updated throughout, as of July 2018. By Brian Nelson, CFA After earning my MBA at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and training stock and credit analysts from large organizations over the past decade or so, I have heard just about every question (though I admit I am still surprised by many things and remain a very humble student of the markets). I’ve also spent years perfecting the discounted cash flow process for large research organizations such as Morningstar and studied under one of the most famed aggressive growth investors of all time, Richard Driehaus. My knowledge runs the gamut from value through … Read more