Dividend Increases/Decreases for the Week Ending April 7

Below we provide a list of firms that raised/lowered their dividends during the week ending April 7. 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 Bank of the Ozarks (OZRK): now $0.175 per share quarterly dividend, was $0.17. BP Prudhoe Bay Royalty Trust (BPT): now $1.0983 per share quarterly dividend, was $0.9943. Carnival (CCL): now $0.40 per share quarterly dividend, was $0.35. Chico’s FAS (CHS): now $0.0825 per share quarterly dividend, was $0.08. Cisco (CSCO): now $0.29 per share quarterly dividend, was $0.26. Constellation Brands (STZ): now $0.52 per share quarterly … Read more

Podcast: REITs, Interest Rates and Beyond!

The Valuentum analyst team talks REITs and the reasons why REIT investors should pay close attention to changes in Treasury rates. Various secular themes across the data center, healthcare, office, and mall REITs are discussed, and an explanation for the sector’s systematically poor raw, unadjusted Dividend Cushion ratios is covered. ~8 mins. Tickerized for various ETFs and the holdings in the VNQ. Brian Nelson, CFA: In September, REITs were officially broken out from the financial sector to their own sector of the S&P 500 — some 30 or so stocks with $600 billion in market capitalization, or about 3% of the S&P 500. Could this change have marked a peak in performance for equity and mortgage REIT stocks? Are investors … Read more

The Correction: Draghi; Chip, Telecom Warnings; Oil and MLPs

The equity markets have been under significant pressure the past few weeks, and we think there is further downside to come. Our view is that the equity markets will be lower than today’s levels within the next 6-18 months, if not tomorrow or next week or next month. We’ve taken profits on cyclicals, and we’ve already closed out the put option hedges in both portfolios for a substantial gain (the latest transaction alert email can be accessed here). Europe appears to be in a giant mess again. The region hadn’t been strong by any stretch of the imagination, but we recently picked up material weakness during Ford’s (F) recent analyst day, which in part prompted us to take a very … Read more

Valuentum Economic Castleâ„¢ Rating Update

Read: Keeping the Horse Before the Cart: Valuentum’s Economic Castle™ Rating The Economic Castle Focuses on the Magnitude of Economic Value Creation The Valuentum Economic Castle™ rating is an enhancement of the competitive advantage framework (commonly known as economic moat analysis) that has become widespread and ubiquitous within the investing world. Whereas an economic moat framework evaluates a firm on the basis of the sustainability and durability of its competitive advantages, Valuentum’s Economic Castle™ rating evaluates a firm on the basis of the firm’s future economic profit spread (return on invested capital less its weighted average cost of capital). The companies with the strongest Valuentum Economic Castle™ ratings are poised to generate the most economic value for shareholders in the … Read more

Stock Market Outlook for 2021

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