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

Microsoft’s Dividend Is Rock Solid But Why?

Image Shown: Valuentum’s Dividend Report on Microsoft. The Dividend Cushion Ratio Deconstruction reveals the numerator and denominator of the Dividend Cushion ratio for Microsoft. At the core, the larger the numerator, or the healthier a company’s balance sheet and future free cash flow generation, relative to the denominator, or a company’s cash dividend obligations, the more durable the dividend. In the context of the Dividend Cushion ratio, Microsoft’s numerator is larger than its denominator suggesting strong dividend coverage in the future. The Dividend Cushion Ratio Deconstruction image puts sources of free cash in the context of financial obligations next to expected cash dividend payments over the next 5 years on a side-by-side comparison. Because the Dividend Cushion ratio and many … Read more

ICYMI — Video: Exclusive 2020 — Furthering the Financial Discipline

ICYMI — Video: Exclusive 2020 — Furthering the Financial Discipline — — In this 40+ minute video jam-packed with must-watch content, Valuentum’s President Brian Nelson talks about the Theory of Universal Valuation and how his work is furthering the financial discipline. Learn the pitfalls of factor investing and modern portfolio theory and how the efficient markets hypothesis holds little substance in the wake of COVID-19. He’ll talk about which companies Valuentum likes and why, and which areas he’s avoiding. This and more in Valuentum’s 2020 Exclusive conference call.   Note: This video was originally published August 2, 2020.    To watch the video >>   The Theory of Universal Valuation —– Valuentum members have access to our 16-page stock reports, … Read more

ALERT: Raising Cash in the Newsletter Portfolios

January 27, 2021 ALERT: Raising Cash in the Newsletter Portfolios We are raising the cash position in the simulated Best Ideas Newsletter portfolio and simulated Dividend Growth Newsletter portfolio to 10%-20%. — By Brian Nelson, CFA — Our research has been absolutely fantastic for a long time, but 2020 may have been our best year yet. You can read the 2020 recap here. With the S&P 500 trading within our fair value estimate range of 3,530-3,920 (and the markets rolling over while showing signs of abnormal behavior), we’re raising the cash position in the Best Ideas Newsletter portfolio and Dividend Growth Newsletter portfolio to 10%-20%. — For more conservative investors, the high end of this range may even be larger, especially … Read more

Best Ideas Newsletter Portfolio Holding Disney Surges to All-Time Highs

Image Shown: The reach of the Disney+ video streaming service continues to grow as The Walt Disney Company keeps expanding the service into new markets. Image Source: The Walt Disney Company – December 2020 Investor Day Presentation By Callum Turcan We continue to be big fans of The Walt Disney Company (DIS) and include shares of DIS in the Best Ideas Newsletter portfolio. Back when Disney’s stock price plummeted this past March, we stuck with our capital appreciation thesis and did not panic. Since then, shares of DIS have staged an impressive comeback and are currently trading near all-time highs. Shares of Disney are up ~22% year-to-date as of this writing, significantly outperforming the S&P 500 (SPY) which is up … Read more

Shares of Disney are Now Surging Towards the Top End of Our Fair Value Estimate Range

Image Shown: Shares of The Walt Disney Company are steadily climbing towards the top end of our fair value estimate range, which sits at $153 per share of DIS. By Callum Turcan After the market closed on November 12, The Walt Disney Company (DIS) reported its fourth quarter and full-year earnings for fiscal 2020 (period ended October 3, 2020). Its latest results beat both consensus top- and bottom-line estimates. Though Disney’s financials took a big hit from the coronavirus (‘COVID-19’) pandemic, as expected (with an eye towards the enormous headwinds facing its ‘Parks, Experiences and Products’ business segment), the company’s outlook has improved considerably as its various video streaming services continue to outperform. We include shares of Disney in our … Read more

Disney Is One Of Our Favorite Streaming Companies

Image Shown: Shares of The Walt Disney Company continue to recover from the pandemic-induced crash in March 2020. By Callum Turcan One of our favorite companies with significant exposure to the video streaming arena is the entertainment behemoth The Walt Disney Company (DIS). The company’s various streaming services include ESPN+, Disney+, Hulu, among others. On October 12, Disney announced a major restructuring which effectively reorganized several of its business operating segments around supporting its video streaming ambitions, with an eye towards ensuring sizable investments in original content would be put towards good use. Overview of Disney’s Historical Video Streaming Performance To set the stage, let us first cover Disney’s historical performance to highlight why we view the company’s growth outlook … Read more

Our Thoughts on Netflix’s Latest Earnings

Image Shown: An overview of Netflix Inc’s historical financial and operational performance and a snapshot of its outlook for the fourth quarter of 2020. Image Source: Netflix Inc – Letter to shareholders covering the third quarter of 2020.  By Callum Turcan On October 20, the video streaming giant Netflix Inc (NFLX) reported third quarter 2020 earnings after the market close that underwhelmed lofty investor expectations and saw shares of NFLX move lower the next day. We recently updated our cash flow models for the Discretionary Spending industry, and our current fair value estimate for NFLX sits at $488 per share, near where Netflix is trading as of this writing (Netflix’s latest 16-page Stock Report can be viewed here). The recent … Read more

3 Lessons in Portfolio Management Over 10 Years

Dear members: — We’re finally getting a pause in the rapid ascent of the markets on September 3rd. Though headlines may look scary and momentum/volatility investors could start to pile on to the downside, a modest retracement is actually a good thing. We continue to focus on the long haul with our processes, and we’re viewing the sell-off as profit taking, for the most part. — In the near term, the markets will also have to digest some speculators betting on mean reversion between “value” (cyclical) versus “growth” (secular), but we maintain the view that the value-versus-growth conversation is largely nonsense (see block quotes below), and mean reversion is something akin to the gamblers’ fallacy, in my humble opinion. Investors should also continue … Read more

Valuentum Website Overview

Overview of the key features of valuentum.com/ (03:55). Valuentum (val∙u∙n∙tum) [val-yoo-en-tuh-m] Securities Inc. is an independent investment research publisher, offering premium equity reports, dividend reports, and ETF reports, as well as commentary across all sectors/companies, a Best Ideas Newsletter (spanning market caps, asset classes), a Dividend Growth Newsletter, modeling tools/products, and more. Independence and integrity remain our core, and we strive to be a champion of the investor. Valuentum is based in the Chicagoland area. Valuentum is not a money manager, broker, or financial advisor. Valuentum is a publisher of financial information. The Benefits of Premium Membership >> Subscribe Now!