MWV

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

Packaging Corporation of America Bets Big on Boise

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Monday morning, Packaging Corporation of America (click ticker for report: ) announced that it will pay $12.55 per share in cash to acquire paper company Boise (BZ) for a total deal value of $1.995 billion. The deal increases PCA’s containerboard presence by 42% to 3.7 million tons, while also giving PCA a presence in the Pacific Northwest—an area previously underrepresented. Source: BZ 2012 10-K Though Boise has struggled with large amounts of excess capacity in its newsprint segment, we’ve seen the firm move capacity closer to production over the past two years, leading to stabilized profitability. Nevertheless, the small, Idaho-based player was unable to truly compete with national competitors. Further, Boise had a large net-debt position, leaving the company fairly … Read more