PFE

Dividend Increases for the Week Ending December 19

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Below we provide a list of firms that raised their dividends during the week ending December 19. The dividend reports of covered firms on this list will be updated shortly with the new information. To access our dividend reports use the ‘Symbol’ search box in our website header. Firms Raising Their Dividends This Week 3M (MMM): now $1.025 per share quarterly dividend, was $0.855. AES (AES): now $0.10 per share quarterly dividend, was $0.05. Amgen (AMGN): now $0.79 per share quarterly dividend, was $0.61. Andersons (ANDE): now $0.14 per share quarterly dividend, was $0.11. Apollo Residential Mortgage (AMTG): now $0.45 per share quarterly dividend, was $0.44. AT&T (T): now $0.47 per share quarterly dividend, was $0.46. Balchem (BCPC): now $0.30 … Read more

Price Is Almost Always Different Than Value

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It was January 10, 2000. America Online had just announced that it would acquire Time Warner to create the largest media company. The purchase price amounted to more than $160 billion, and the combined entity was estimated to have a market capitalization of ~$350 billion. The deal was the biggest corporate merger to that date and was expected to launch the next Internet revolution, according to then-CEO of AOL Steve Case. The transaction valued Time Warner at about $108 per share, a huge premium over its price of $64.75 per share the trading session before. AOL’s shares closed at $72 the day of the announcement. Just a couple years later, things were quite different. When it reported full-year 2002 results, … Read more

Big Pharma Round Up

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Though much has been made about the patent cliff—shorthand for the expiration of the patents of a large number of drugs over a short period of time—we continue to believe that pipelines across much of the pharmaceutical space are flush with new drugs and therapies. Readers may have an individual favorite or two (or three) within the space (and there’s nothing wrong with that), but we think one of the best ways for investors to play the strong pipelines across the healthcare sector—and ongoing consolidation—is through the Health Care Select SPDR ETF (XLV), a holding in the Best Ideas portfolio. The ETF boasts Johnson & Johnson (JNJ), Pfizer (PFE), Merck (MRK), Gilead Sciences (GILD), and AbbVie (ABBV) as its top … 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

Firms Leaving United States for More Reasonable Tax Rates Elsewhere

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Considering Walgreen’s (WAG) and its plans to move to Switzerland, Pfizer’s (PFE) failed bid for UK-based AstraZeneca (AZN), and now Medtronic’s (MDT) acquisition of Ireland-based Covidien (COV), it’s very clear to us that many US-based companies want to escape the tax burden of the US. We have no interest in generating a political stance for or against tax inversion (i.e. re-incorporating overseas to reduce taxes), but Dividend Growth portfolio holding Medtronic is the latest to pursue such a strategy. The medical technology firm announced June 15 that it will acquire Covidien in a cash-and-stock transaction valued at ~$93 per share. According to the terms of the transaction, each outstanding ordinary share of Covidien will be converted into the right to … Read more

Merger Mania: AT&T Ties the Knot with DirecTV; Pfizer Ups Offer for AstraZeneca; Siemens Complicates Matters for GE

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Over the weekend, AT&T (T) and DirecTV (DTV) entered into a definitive agreement  in which AT&T will acquire DirecTV in a cash-and-stock transaction for $95 per share on the basis of AT&T’s Friday closing price. In light of this announcement, we plan to remove DirecTV from the Best Ideas portfolio early next week, recording a significant gain from the $55 per share cost basis in the portfolio. We trust you are very happy with this news. Though some investors will choose to hang onto shares in the event that AT&T’s equity increases before DirecTV is de-listed from the exchange (thereby driving DirecTV’s shares higher), we’re comfortable taking the hefty per-share profit on the pay-TV provider very soon and not waiting … Read more

Teva Pharma: Underpriced and Misunderstood

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One of the key benefits of using a discounted cash-flow model is that it allows the user to adequately price a variety of businesses, irrespective of where they are in the economic or product cycle or whether they are engaged in a turnaround or reaching peak levels of operating performance. Unlike a forward price-to-earnings (PE) ratio or even a price-earnings-to-growth (PEG) ratio, where near-term performance can cause mis-valuations at times, the DCF allows the user to forecast fundamentals through the course of the business cycle or through the course of the product cycle in order to arrive at mid-cycle profit projections, which remain critical within the framework of intrinsic value estimation. Though Big Pharma continues to steal headlines via Pfizer’s … Read more

Big News in Big Pharma

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Pfizer Held Talks to Acquire AstraZeneca “Pfizer Inc. (PFE), the world’s biggest drugmaker, held informal, now-discontinued talks with AstraZeneca Plc (AZN) about buying the London-based maker of asthma and heart drugs, said two people familiar with the matter… …The companies aren’t currently negotiating, said the people, who asked not to be identified. One said the talks happened several months ago and there are no plans to resume. The discussions were first reported yesterday by London’s Sunday Times, whose unnamed bank and industry sources said New York-based Pfizer made a tentative approach about a takeover valuing AstraZeneca at more than 60 billion pounds ($101 billion).” (Source: Bloomberg) To continue reading >> Valeant and Activist Investor Bill Ackman Pursue Allergan “Canada’s Valeant … Read more

Update: Digging Into the Valuentum Dividend Cushion

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Sign Up to Receive our Dividend Growth Newsletter! Add the High Yield Dividend Newsletter to Your Membership! History has revealed that the best performing stocks during the previous decades have been those that shelled out ever-increasing cash to shareholders in the form of dividends. In a recent study by Ned Davis Research, S&P 500 stocks that initiated dividends or grew them over time registered roughly a 9.6% annualized return since 1972 (through 2010), while stocks that did not pay out dividends or cut them performed poorly over the same time period.  Such analysis is difficult to ignore, and we believe investors may be well-rewarded in future periods by finding the best dividend-growth stocks out there. As such, we’ve developed a rigorous dividend investment … Read more

Thank you…

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By Brian Nelson, CFA Earlier this week, I received an email from a colleague and valued member of our services. I wanted to share it here for others to read. I haven’t included his name, but if he wants me to, I can add it in. It is filled with wisdom, experience and kindness. And it really made my year to read his words. The Valuentum community, I believe, is the best community of investors out there. Sir, if you do happen to read your own email on our site, we very much have appreciated your feedback, and we hope to continue to live up to your praises. We are dedicated, and our team has been rejuvenated by your words. … Read more