LTC

A Meaningful Rate Hike? No Way

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Inflation? What inflation? Crude oil prices have been cut in half, iron ore prices have absolutely been pummeled, copper has seen better days, and the last time I checked the value of my house, it is still not up to the price I bought at. What inflation, I say? For those that may not be familiar with the so-called dual mandate of the Fed, here it is: “The Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System and the Federal Open Market Committee shall maintain long run growth of the monetary and credit aggregates commensurate with the economy’s long run potential to increase production, so as to promote effectively the goals of maximum employment, stable prices and moderate long-term interest rates.” … Read more

Valuentum Economic Castleâ„¢ Rating Update

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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

Realty Income Still One of Our Favorite Dividend-Focused REITs

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On February 13, the real estate investment trust (REIT) that has a 45-year track record of providing dependable monthly income from real estate reported solid operating results for the fourth quarter of 2013. The ‘Monthly Dividend Company’ has paid an impressive 522 dividends and registered an enviable 74 total dividend increases since 1994. Though we note that the past is only as important as it informs the future, we think the future remains bright for Realty Income. Image Source: Realty Income  The Dividend Growth portfolio holding’s revenue and adjusted funds from operations (AFFO) were both impacted by acquisitive activity (its purchase of American Realty Capital Trust in January 2013), advancing significantly from the same period a year ago. We were … Read more

Surveying 3Q Performance at the Healthcare REITs

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HCP Will Remain on the Dividend Aristocrat List for Some Time to Come HCP (HCP)—4.9% annual yield—a fully-integrated REIT serving the healthcare industry, reported third-quarter results October 29. Funds from operations (FFO) advanced 9% to $0.73, while FFO as adjusted per share increased 14%, to $0.79. Funds available for distribution (FAD) jumped an impressive 22% in the period, to $0.67. The company achieved cash same-property-portfolio net operating income growth of 3.7% for the period, an acceleration from the nine-month pace of 2.8%. HCP raised its full-year guidance for FFO as adjusted to the range of $2.97-$3.03 per share, representing a growth rate of 8% based on the midpoint over 2012 FFO as adjusted per share. The REIT also raised its … Read more

Dividend Increases/Decreases for the Week Ending October 4

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Below we provide a list of firms that raised their dividends during the week ending October 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 Financial (AFG): now $0.45 per share quarterly dividend, was $0.40. Bank OZK (OZK): now $0.25 per share quarterly dividend, was $0.24. BlackRock Core Bond Trust (BHK): now $0.0676 per share monthly dividend, was $0.06. BlackRock Corporate High Yield Fund (HYT): now $0.0779 per share monthly dividend, was $0.072. BlackRock Credit Allocation Income Trust IV (BTZ): now $0.0839 per share monthly dividend, was $0.067. BlackRock Debt … 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

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

Digital Realty Is a Stellar Income Growth Idea

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Image Source: Digital Realty Trust Inc – September 2021 IR Presentation By Callum Turcan Digital Realty Trust Inc (DLR) is a carrier-neutral data center real estate investment trust (‘REIT’) that provides co-location and interconnection services. The REIT has grown its annual dividend over the past 15+ consecutive years, and we view Digital Realty as a stellar income-generation idea. As of this writing, shares of DLR yield ~2.8%. We include shares of DLR as an idea in both the Dividend Growth Newsletter and High Yield Dividend Newsletter portfolios. Investors have been steadily warming up to Digital Realty this year, with shares of DLR up ~23% year-to-date as of the end of normal trading hours on September 8 (before announcing its latest … Read more