MSFT

The Metaverse: Qualcomm Expands Partnership with Microsoft

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Image Source: Qualcomm Inc – November 2021 Investor Day Presentation By Callum Turcan A lot of attention has been directed towards the idea of a metaverse, which in short is an expansive digital universe where users can interact with one another via digital avatars of themselves (or whatever avatar the user prefers). This universe could, in theory, combine the functionality of computers and smartphones with almost every digital platform and application in existence. Users could perform both productivity-related activities (collaborating on work projects, holding team meetings, working with clients) and leisure-related activities (playing games with friends and family, meeting up with distant relatives, watching concerts, other live events, TV shows, and movies) in a seamless fashion. The user would not … Read more

Adobe Signals Near Term Growth Rate Slowing Down, Longer Term Outlook Still Quite Bright

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Image Source: Adobe Inc – December 2021 Financial Analysts Meeting IR Presentation By Callum Turcan On December 16, Adobe Inc (ADBE) reported fourth quarter earnings for fiscal 2021 (period ended December 3, 2021) that modestly beat consensus top- and bottom-line estimates. However, shares of ADBE plummeted in the wake of its latest earnings report as management signaled that the firm’s near term growth rate would slow down in fiscal 2022 versus levels seen in fiscal 2021. Investors were apparently hoping for more, though in our view, Adobe’s longer term growth outlook is still quite bright. Our fair value estimate sits at $576 per share of Adobe. Earnings Update The company’s GAAP revenues were up 20% year-over-year last fiscal quarter, reaching … Read more

Dividend Growth Stocks Soar!

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Dear members: — We’re watching one of the strongest stock market rallies we’ve seen in some time during the trading session December 7. At the time of this writing, the Dow Jones Industrial Average is up over 500 points, the S&P is up nearly 100, while the NASDAQ is up a tremendous 440+. We continue to like what we see. — Almost every idea in the Best Ideas Newsletter portfolio is up today, led by Chipotle (CMG) +5.9%, PayPal (PYPL) +3.3%, Domino’s (DPZ) +3.1%, Apple (AAPL) +2.9% and Alphabet (GOOG) +2.9%. — We’re loving the moves by Valuentum-style stocks today, and we’re even more excited to report that every idea in the Dividend Growth Newsletter portfolio is advancing today, as shown below. We know … Read more

Valuentum Weekly: Nothing Surprising, Well-Positioned!

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Image source: Cathie Wood’s flagship ETF, the ARK Innovation ETF (ARKK) has fallen more more than 40% from its 52-week high. This is nothing short of a complete and utter bloodbath for such an actively-managed fund, in our view. We note this for context. We’re not just talking about one or two or five stocks that are down 40% from 52-week highs, but the *entire fund.* Investors have to keep things in perspective. It’s perfectly reasonable within the context of a portfolio to have a few stocks off 10%, 20%, or maybe even 50% from all-time highs. However, if your entire portfolio is down 40%+ from 52-week highs, you’re doing something wrong. Hi everyone: It’s the most wonderful time of … Read more

Large Cap Growth Dominates, MLPs Have Suffered

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— Sign up to our new options commentary here. — $1,000/year. 4 ideas per month and more! — Image: Win = The options contract was closed as a win. Closed = the options contract was closed at a loss. Expired = The options contract expired worthless. Pie chart above does not consider ideas still open. Data through October 26, 2021. Results are hypothetical. No trading is taking place. Past performance is not indicative of future performance. — Please note that with options trading, investors can lose their entire premium. Don’t ever trade with money that you can’t afford to lose. Valuentum is an investment research publisher and accepts no liability for how readers may choose to utilize the content. By continuing with an … Read more

Asset Allocators Fail, Advisors Should Pick Stocks, Save Investors $34 Billion Annually

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  Image: The area of large cap growth has trounced that of the 60/40 stock/bond portfolio for more than a decade. Image Source: Morningstar. By Brian Nelson, CFA We’ve all heard the stories. Professional stock pickers can’t beat a bunch of monkeys throwing darts at the pages of the WSJ. A cows’ investment decisions are just as good as the pros’. Stock prices reflect all available information so not even professionals have an edge (e.g. the efficient markets hypothesis). Most professionals can’t outperform their respective benchmarks, so how could mom and pop? Look at this from one of today’s bloggers: The traditional argument, which you’ve probably heard many times before, goes as follows: since most people (even the professionals) can’t … Read more

Hard Work and the Trust That Binds

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Image Source: Terry Johnson By Brian Nelson, CFA We’ll have our traditional Valuentum Weekly email coming out on Sunday, and I’m excited to say our team is putting the finishing touches on our technology industry update, so we’ll have a whole bunch of fresh reports for you to look at Sunday evening/Monday morning. It’s easy to forget how much we’ve been through the past two years. Often, we forget how helpful the warning that markets were going to crash was the weekend before they did on February 22, 2020, “Is a Stock Market Crash Coming? – Coronavirus Update and P/E Ratios,” how we thought dollar-cost-averaging made sense at the bottom in March 2020, and how we went “all-in” in April … Read more

Large Cap Growth Has More Room To Run

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“The stylistic area of large cap growth has been one of our favorite areas because of the strong net cash rich, free cash flow generating, secular growth powerhouses that make up much of the space. The image is a rundown of the key Valuentum statistics for the top 15 holdings of the Schwab U.S. Large Cap Growth ETF (SCHG). We believe where large cap growth goes, so does the broader market, considering the hefty weightings of some of these stocks in other broad-based indices. Based on the high end of our fair value estimate range for this group of bellwethers, the broader U.S. markets still have room to run, to the tune of 7%+, despite the many highs already reached … Read more

Microsoft: Net Cash Rich, Free Cash Flow Generating, Dividend Growth Powerhouse

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Image: Microsoft remains one of the most attractive technology companies. Its outlook for the second quarter of fiscal 2022 came in better than expected. Image Source: Microsoft By Brian Nelson, CFA Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) reported excellent first-quarter fiscal 2022 results on Tuesday, October 26, that exceeded the consensus estimate on both the top and bottom lines. In the quarter, Microsoft’s revenue jumped an impressive 22% on a year-over-year basis, and the company was able to leverage that strong top-line growth into a year-over-year operating-income advance of 27%. Diluted earnings per share on a GAAP and non-GAAP basis increased 49% and 25%, respectively, from the same quarter a year ago – these are absolutely huge growth numbers for a company as … Read more

High-Yield Idea CyrusOne Considers Selling Itself

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Image Shown: Shares of CyrusOne, an idea included in our High Yield Dividend Newsletter portfolio, are on a modest upward climb of late. The data center real estate investment trust (‘REIT’) is reportedly considering putting itself up for sale, though we like the REIT’s income generation upside regardless of whether a sale does materialize as its outlook continues to improve after posting stellar performance during the first half of 2021. By Callum Turcan Reportedly, CyrusOne (CONE) is actively exploring a potential sale according to Reuters. We include shares of CONE as an idea in the High Yield Dividend Newsletter portfolio (more on that here). The data center real estate investment trust (‘REIT’) has experienced significant turnover in its top ranks … Read more