OPEN

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

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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

SPACs Are Good for Markets, Not SPAC-tacular for Investors

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Image: Performance of the Defiance NextGen SPAC IPO ETF (SPAK), where “a 60% weighting is applied to IPO companies derived from SPACs and 40% is allocated to common stock of newly listed Special Purpose Acquisition Companies (“SPACs”), ex-warrants” has been roughly flat since inception in October 2020.   By Brian Nelson, CFA What a time to be an investor…ehem, speculator! Cryptocurrencies, non-fungible tokens (NFTs), and now the boom in Special Purchase Acquisition Companies, more commonly known as SPACs. First, the good: We like that SPACs will create more publicly listed companies to improve investor choice because the number of publicly traded companies has been dangerously shrinking in recent years…but that’s really all we like about them. A SPAC is just … 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

Braintree Is an Intriguing Acquisition for eBay

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Thursday morning, Best Ideas Newsletter portfolio holding eBay (click ticker for report: ) announced the acquisition of Chicago-based payment platform Braintree for $800 million in cash. Braintree is best known for accepting mobile transactions, and it is currently on pace to process $12 billion in net payment value for 2013. What is Braintree? Braintree is a fairly straightforward payment processing platform. While some processors demand variable fees and certain payment thresholds, Braintree is a simple 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction. Importantly, the transactions process in just two days, allowing small or capital hungry firms to access cash at a quick pace. Of the forecast for net payment volume of $12 billion in 2013, the firm expects $4 billion to be … Read more

Open Table Reveals Strong Growth in its Second Quarter, Shares Slightly Expensive

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Open Table (OPEN), which provides online restaurant reservation services, reported solid second-quarter results Tuesday that showed a 50%-plus increase in revenue, installed restaurants and seated diners from the same period a year ago. North American results were solid, with adjusted EBITDA jumping nearly 70% from last year’s quarter. The firm’s international results also revealed improvement. Open Table’s installed restaurant and seated diners base outside of North America more than tripled, and the company reduced its EBITDA loss for this segment to $0.5 million from $1.2 million in the same period a year ago. Subscription, reservation, and installation (other) revenues jumped 20%, 70%, and 172% in the quarter. Consensus had been looking for better performance from subscription and international expansion, but … Read more