Best Idea Dollar General Beats Consensus Estimates and Raises Guidance in the Face of Substantial Headwinds

Image Shown: Dollar General Corporation’s GAAP net sales rose in the first quarter of fiscal 2022 on a year-over-year basis due to growth in its net store count. Image Source: Dollar General Corporation – May 2022 8-K SEC Filing  By Callum Turcan On May 26, Dollar General Corporation (DG) reported first quarter earnings for fiscal 2022 (period ended April 29, 2022) that beat both consensus top- and bottom-line estimates. Even in the face of major supply chain issues and inflationary headwinds, Dollar General modestly increased its net sales and same-store sales growth guidance for fiscal 2022 and maintained its other forecasts. We include Dollar General in our Best Ideas Newsletter portfolio as we are big fans of its resilient business model, strong cash flow … Read more

Lululemon Firing on All Cylinders; Shares Recovering

Image Shown: Shares of Lululemon Athletica Inc are recovering in the wake of the company’s recent earnings report. By Callum Turcan On March 29, Lululemon Athletica Inc (LULU) reported fourth quarter earnings for fiscal 2021 (period ended January 30, 2022) that matched consensus top-line estimates and beat consensus bottom-line estimates. Lululemon also announced it had initiated a new $1.0 billion stock buyback program after completing its previous program in the first quarter of fiscal 2022. The company issued favorable guidance for fiscal 2022 during its latest earnings update, which helped drive shares of LULU sharply higher during normal trading hours on March 30. Shares of LULU are up more than 20% during the past 52 weeks through the time of … Read more

Nike Holding Its Own Against Major Exogenous Shocks

Image Shown: Shares of Nike Inc are on an upward climb again after dropping significantly from November 2021 to March 2022. By Callum Turcan On March 21, Nike Inc (NKE) reported its third quarter earnings for fiscal 2022 (period ended February 28, 2022) that beat both top- and bottom-line estimates. Shares of Nike are trading around ~$135 as of this writing, near our fair value estimate of $139 per share, after dropping significantly from November 2021 to March 2022. The company’s stock shot up initially after its latest earnings report was made public as Nike indicated it was getting a better handle on its supply chain issues, which have made keeping up with robust consumer demand quite difficult of late. … Read more

Don’t Throw the Baby Out with the Bathwater

Image: Erica Nicol Takeaways: Junk tech should continue to collapse, but the stylistic area of large cap growth and big cap tech should remain resilient. Moderately elevated levels of inflation coupled with interest rates hovering at all-time lows isn’t a terrible combination. In fact, it’s not bad at all. The markets are digesting the huge gains of the past few years so far in 2022, and the excesses in ARKK funds, crypto, SPACs, and meme stocks are being rid from the system. Our best ideas are “outperforming” the very benchmarks that are outperforming everyone else. The BIN portfolio is down 6.4% and the DGN portfolio is down 3.2% year to date. The SPY is down 7.8%, while the average investor … Read more

Valuentum’s Brian Nelson in CFA Institute’s ‘Enterprising Investor’

From CFA Institute’s ‘Enterprising Investor’: — By Brian Nelson, CFA — “I couldn’t sleep. I knew something was wrong. The numbers just didn’t make sense. For years, pipeline energy analysts seemed to be adjusting their valuation models for pipeline master limited partnership (MLP) stocks in order to explain what was happening to the price. — But why? Why adjust the models for one set of companies and not for another? Cash is cash and value is the measure of cash going into and out of a business. There aren’t different rules for different companies. Valuation is universal.” — To continue reading >> — —– — About Brian Michael Nelson, CFA Brian Michael Nelson, CFAPresident, Equity Research & ETF AnalysisE-mail: brian@valuentum.com Brian … Read more

Nike Beats Estimates in the Face of Supply Chain Constraints

Image Shown: Shares of Nike Inc shifted higher in the wake of its latest earnings report. By Callum Turcan On December 20, Nike Inc (NKE) reported second quarter earnings for fiscal 2022 (period ended November 30, 2021) that beat both consensus top- and bottom-line estimates. The company did its best to navigate serious supply chain hurdles as efforts by public health officials and governments to contain the spread of the coronavirus (‘COVID-19’) pandemic in Southeast Asia (a major production hub for apparel and footwear) weighed quite negatively on its ability to meet demand. Earnings Update Nike’s GAAP revenues grew 1% year-over-year in the fiscal second quarter, hitting $11.4 billion, as the company, and the apparel and footwear industry at large, … Read more

Dividend Growth Idea Dick’s Sporting Goods Is Firing on All-Cylinders; Raises Guidance (Again) While Generating Gobs of Free Cash Flow

Image Source: Valuentum By Callum Turcan On November 23, Dick’s Sporting Goods Inc (DKS) reported third quarter earnings for fiscal 2021 (period ended October 30, 2021) that beat both consensus top- and bottom-line estimates. The sporting goods retailer once again raised its full-year guidance for fiscal 2021 in conjunction with its latest earnings report. Dick’s Sporting Goods also raised its guidance when reporting its fiscal second quarter earnings back in August 2021 and its fiscal first quarter earnings back in May 2021, highlighting management’s growing confidence in the company’s near term performance. Though shares of DKS sold off following its latest earnings update, likely due to concerns over inflationary pressures and supply chain hurdles, Dick’s Sporting Goods’ outlook remains rock-solid. … Read more

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

  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

The Valuentum Weekly Is a Hit! Only Delivered By Email!

Image: Excerpt from the November 14 edition of the Valuentum Weekly. November 14, 2021: Inflation Is Positive for Nominal Earnings While Interest Rates Remain at All-Time Lows Tickers mentioned: GOOG, FB, PYPL, DIS, JNJ, BRK.A, BRK.B, ASML, BYND, RIVN, TSLA, JD, WB, BABA, GE, TOSBF, Z, ZG, OPEN, RBLX, GLD November 7, 2021: Large Cap Growth Has More Room to Run Tickers mentioned: SCHG, GME, AMC, BBBY, CVX, XOM, XLE, MA, V, PYPL, QCOM, RSG, NEM, TSLA, PTON, Z, ZG, F, IWN, GMET October 31, 2021: Happy Halloween! Tickers mentioned: AAPL, AMZN, QQQ, SPY, INTC, FB, GOOG, MSFT, LMT, MVRS, DLR, XOM, CVX, DIS, SLB, HON, INTC, CMG, PYPL, PINS, TSLA, HTZZ, PTLO, RSG, SBUX, MCD, NEM, SCHG, IWN October 24, … Read more

Hard Work and the Trust That Binds

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