RLD

Looking to Trim Apple; Star Wars Mania Continues

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Let’s get this out of the way. We’re not worried about Apple (AAPL) at all. The company is sitting on a mountain of net cash and is simply a free cash flow machine. We think the iPhone-maker’s products continue to fly off the shelves, and this holiday season for Apple may be the best in its storied history. But sometimes the market is just not fair…and for a company trading at less than 10 times forward earnings, excluding net cash, is borderline an injustice. Still, we plan to take some more profits on the company in the newsletter portfolios if we catch a strong updraft in the markets. We continue to value shares north of $140 each, and as the … 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

Fourth of July Weekend Highlights the New Norm for Disney

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The recently passed Fourth of July weekend once again brought moviegoers several new films to watch. Disney (click ticker for report: ) and Comcast’s Universal (click ticker for report: ) went head-to-head with The Lone Ranger and Despicable Me 2, respectively. The results are in, and the clear winner was Comcast’s Despicable Me 2, which earned a record $142 million during its first five days. The Lone Ranger wasn’t even close, grossing $48.9 million over its first five days—a number that wouldn’t look so bad, except that the film cost Disney an estimated $375 million to create and market. An Uneven Track Record Although we like Disney’s future prospects–given its robust pipeline of films related to The Avengers and Star … Read more