QQQ

Congress Seeks to Strike a Deal

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Image Shown: The S&P 500 (SPY) is trading near all-time highs as of December 16, but political risk could cause some choppiness in the near term. The potential for yet another government shutdown is upon us, but according to key leaders on both sides of the aisle, a deal appears to be within reach. Certain provisions may be left out in order to reach an accord sooner rather than later, however. In any case, we remain bullish long term, as the world continues to work to put the COVID-19 pandemic behind it. By Callum Turcan and Brian Nelson, CFA Funding for most US federal government agencies may run out by the end of this week if both sides of the … Read more

Best Ideas Newsletter Portfolio Holdings Are Surging!

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Image: The holdings in the Best Ideas Newsletter during the trading session November 4. We continue to pound the table on our best ideas. By Brian Nelson, CFA If you were like me, you stayed up as long as you could last night watching the U.S. election coverage before it became too difficult to keep your eyes open. When I went to sleep, it seemed as though Donald Trump would be re-elected. The only state that appeared to flip to the Democrats from the 2016 election was Arizona, meaning Trump would still retain greater than the 270 electoral votes required to gain re-election. Well, that was last night, and this is today. As more and more votes came in last … Read more

Our $140 Fair Value Estimate of Apple Remains Unchanged

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Image Shown: Apple Inc maintained its enormous net cash position at the end of fiscal 2020. In the graphic up above, Apple’s cash-like items are underlined in red and its debt-like items are underlined in blue. Image Source: Apple Inc – 8-K SEC filing covering the fourth quarter of fiscal 2020 with additions from the author. By Callum Turcan On October 29, Apple Inc (AAPL) reported fourth quarter and full-year earnings for fiscal 2020 (period ended September 26, 2020). Its fiscal 2020 GAAP revenues and GAAP operating income were up 6% and 4% year-over-year, respectively. Growth was driven by its Mac, iPad, ‘Wearables, Home and Accessories,’ and ‘Services’ offerings while its iPhone revenues dropped somewhat. Longer term, we are optimistic … Read more

We’re Still Huge Fans of Microsoft

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Image Shown: A snapshot of Microsoft Corporation’s first quarter fiscal 2021 performance. We continue to be huge fans of the cash-rich tech giant. Image Source: Microsoft Corporation – First Quarter Fiscal 2021 IR PowerPoint Presentation By Callum Turcan On October 27, Microsoft Corporation (MSFT) reported first quarter fiscal 2021 earnings (period ended September 30, 2020) that blew past both consensus top- and bottom-line estimates. Its GAAP revenues were up 12% year-over-year, hitting $37.2 billion, while its GAAP diluted EPS jumped 32% higher on a year-over-year basis, hitting $1.82 last fiscal quarter. Leading the charge was Microsoft’s cloud-computing Azure segment, which reported 48% year-over-year sales growth, and its Dynamics 365 segment (includes offerings that meet enterprise resource planning and customer relationship … Read more

Our Thoughts on Apple Launching Its First-Ever 5G-Capable iPhone

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Image Shown: Shares of Apple Inc have surged higher year-to-date. By Callum Turcan On October 13, Apple Inc (AAPL) announced its first-ever lineup of 5G-capable iPhones along with a new smart home speaker offering HomePod Mini. While the 5G-capable iPhone announcement was largely expected, we appreciate the good news all the same. We include shares of Apple as a holding in both our Best Ideas Newsletter and Dividend Growth Newsletter portfolios and are big fans of the name. The HomePod Mini offering represents Apple’s way of staying competitive with similar offerings from Amazon Inc (AMZN) and Alphabet Inc (GOOG) (GOOGL). The Big News Apple’s four new iPhone offerings (iPhone 12 mini, iPhone 12, iPhone 12 Pro, and iPhone 12 Pro … Read more

Microsoft Boosts Its Dividend and Announces a New Strategic Partnership

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Image Shown: Shares of Microsoft Corporation are up significantly year-to-date as of this writing, and we see room for further capital appreciation upside. Shares of Microsoft are included as a holding in both our Best Ideas Newsletter and Dividend Growth Newsletter portfolios. By Callum Turcan On September 15, Best Ideas Newsletter and Dividend Growth Newsletter portfolio holding Microsoft Corporation (MSFT) announced a ~10% sequential increase in its quarterly per share dividend, boosting its payout up to $0.56 per share or $2.24 per share on an annualized basis. As of this writing, shares of MSFT now yield ~1.1% on a forward-looking basis. Furthermore, Microsoft noted its 2020 Annual Shareholders Meeting would be held on December 2 and would be conducted through … Read more

Oracle’s Transformation Continues

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Image Shown: Shares of Dividend Growth Newsletter portfolio holding Oracle Corporation are on an upward trajectory after the tech giant reported that its strategic transition towards cloud-based offerings was going well during its latest earnings report. By Callum Turcan On September 10, Oracle Corporation (ORCL) reported first quarter fiscal 2021 earnings (period ended August 31, 2020) and we liked what we saw. In constant currency terms, the company’s ‘cloud services and license support’ and ‘cloud license and on-premise license’ segments reported year-over-year sales growth of 2% and 8%, respectively. We appreciate that Oracle’s cloud-oriented businesses are finally starting to gain some real traction in this lucrative and hypercompetitive market. Additionally, Oracle’s strong performance occurred in the face of the ongoing … Read more

This Stock Market Doesn’t Scare Me

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Dear members:   It’s amateur hour at Seeking Alpha, it seems. Most have been calling for a market crash the past week or so, but it’s hard for me to take many writers over there too seriously. Neither should you. We had the crash in February/March of this year, and the Fed/Treasury will do what it takes to prevent another one, in my view. Let me say it for the first time: This stock market doesn’t scare me.  The reality is that we finally bumped up into fair value range. It wasn’t a day or two after I sent out a market alert to you to let you know that markets are now fairly valued when we started to see some … Read more

Apple Reportedly Launching 5G iPhone Soon

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Image Shown: Shares of Best Ideas Newsletter and Dividend Growth Newsletter portfolio holding Apple Inc have continued to surge higher this year. The tech giant is supported by strong demand for its hardware offerings, the launch of new services, and growing demand for its existing services. We are intrigued by the upcoming launch of its first 5G-capable iPhone, which is reportedly due to be released this Fall. By Callum Turcan Very recently, Bloomberg reported that Apple Inc (AAPL) is asking its suppliers to get ready to deliver at least 75 million 5G iPhones later this year, which may grow as high as 80 million. What makes these targets particularly noteworthy is that it appears Apple is expecting demand for its … Read more

ALERT: Markets Now Fairly Valued

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Hi everyone: — Long-term investing is a great proposition. You have an incredible advantage over most professional investors that have to deliver on a quarterly or annual basis. The reason is due to something called time horizon arbitrage.  — For example, where most professionals are focused on near-term economic data or near-term earnings, you can focus on how the broader earnings trajectory might look like in 2022 and beyond. I think we’d both agree that the economic data or earnings performance for the remainder of 2020 won’t matter much when we turn the calendar to 2021 in just a few months–and in 2021, the market will be looking at 2022 numbers.  — Markets will always be forward-looking, and stocks are long-duration … Read more