Brace for More Volatility

Image shown: The S&P 500 ETF (SPY) since August of last year. The markets have broken through key support levels, and now support has become resistance. Volatility remains heightened since the low-vol ETN blew up in February. This article is the introduction to both the Dividend Growth Newsletter and High Yield Dividend Newsletter, both of which will be released today due to the holiday January 1. By Brian Nelson, CFA Markets are facing big pressure on the trading session January 3. There’s more to the story than rising interest rates. There’s more to the story than the US-China trade war. There’s more to the story than concerns about the political environment. Price-agnostic (indexing and quant) trading, as I outline in … Read more

Top Research and Ideas You May Have Missed

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

VIDEO/TRANSCRIPT: 2021 Valuentum Exclusive Call: Inflation Is Good

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 March 4

Below we provide a list of firms that raised their dividends during the week ending March 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      Acushnet (GOLF): now $0.18 per share quarterly dividend, was $0.17. American Financial (AFG): now $2.00 per share special dividend, was $0.56. Barclays (BCS): now GPB 0.04 per share dividend, was GPB 0.02. Best Buy (BBY): now $0.88 per share quarterly dividend, was $0.70. Black Diamond Group (BDIMF): now CAD 0.015 per share quarterly dividend, was CAD 0.013. Blackhawk Bancorp (BHWB): now $0.12 per share quarterly dividend, … Read more

Dividend Increases/Decreases for the Week of March 1

Below we provide a list of firms that raised their dividends during the week ending March 1. 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                          ADT (ADT): now $0.055 per share quarterly dividend, was $0.035. Allison Transmission Holdings (ALSN): now $0.25 per share quarterly dividend, was $0.23. Ampol Limited (CTXAY): now $1.574 per share semi-annual dividend, was $1.169. Anheuser-Busch InBev (BUD): now EUR 0.82 per share annual dividend, was EUR 0.50. ASMPT (ASMVF): now HK$ 0.26 per share final dividend. ASX Limited (ASXFY): now $0.607 per share semi-annual dividend, … Read more

Dividend Increases/Decreases for the Week of February 28

Below we provide a list of firms that raised their dividends during the week ending February 28. 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                          AerCap (AER): now $0.27 per share quarterly dividend, was $0.25. Affinity Bancshares (AFBI): now $1.50 per share special dividend. Allstate (ALL): now $1.00 per share quarterly dividend, was $0.92. American Financial (AFG): now $2.00 per share special dividend, was $0.80. AMERISAFE (AMSF): now $0.39 per share quarterly dividend, was $0.37. Anheuser-Busch InBev (BUD): now EUR 1.00 per share annual dividend, was EUR 0.82. Aura … Read more

Valuentum: Now Bearish, We’ve Been Here Every Step of the Way

Valuentum Has Been Here Every Step of the Way   From the COVID-19 top in February 2020 to the COVID-19 bottom to the massive bull run through the end of 2021, we’ve been here for you.    2022 started out to be a rough year, catching many by surprise.   But Valuentum stayed positive. When the markets headed south in June, Valuentum stood its ground. On June 14, Valuentum said that “we still believe stocks could make a “huge rebound” in the near term.   We reiterated our views a few days later and on June 19, we said that “investors shouldn’t panic during this bear market” and that “stocks remain an attractive proposition at the moment and a very attractive consideration … Read more

7 Hidden Dividend Aristocrats in Industrials

Image notes: The price-to-fair value ratio shows the relationship between the company’s stock price and our discounted cash-flow derived fair value estimate. Price is what you pay for the stock, while value is what you get. Price and fair value seldom equal. The savvy investor seeks to find stocks whose price is far below an informed forward-looking cash-flow-based fair value estimate of their intrinsic value. The Dividend Cushion ratio is a proprietary Valuentum measure that drives our assessment of the company’s Dividend Safety rating. The forward-looking measure assesses dividend coverage via the cash characteristics of the business. The Dividend Cushion is a ratio that sums the existing net cash (total cash less total long-term debt) a company has on hand … Read more

Dividend Increases/Decreases for the Week Ending March 1

Below we provide a list of firms that raised their dividends during the week ending March 1. 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 Albemarie (ALB): now $0.3675 per share quarterly dividend, was $0.335. AMERISAFE (AMSF): now $0.25 per share quarterly dividend, was $0.22. Assured Guaranty (AGO): now $0.18 per share quarterly dividend, was $0.16. Atlantica Yield (AY): now $0.37 per share quarterly dividend, was $0.36. AXA Equitable Holdings (EQH): now $0.15 per share quarterly dividend, was $0.13. Bank of Nova Scotia (BNS): now CAD 0.87 per share quarterly dividend, … Read more

Dividend Increases/Decreases for the Week January 29

Below we provide a list of firms that raised their dividends during the week ending January 29. 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 1st Source (SRCE): now $0.29 per share quarterly dividend, was $0.28. Air Products and Chemicals (APD): now $1.50 per share quarterly dividend, was $1.34. Allegiance Bancshares (ABTX): now $0.12 per share quarterly dividend, was $0.10. Anthem (ANTM): now $1.13 per share quarterly dividend, was $0.95. Apartment Income REIT (AIRC): now $0.43 per share quarterly dividend, was $0.41. Archer-Daniels-Midland (ADM): now $0.37 per share quarterly dividend, was … Read more