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Hi everyone! — We continue to be huge believers in the concept of enterprise valuation, which emphasizes the key cash-based sources of intrinsic value–net cash on the balance sheet and strong and growing future expected free cash flows. Meta Platforms, Inc. (META) and Alphabet Inc. (GOOG) remain two of the most underpriced ideas on the market today, and we remain huge fans of their tremendous long-term investment prospects. — There are a couple things worth reminding readers, however. A good relevant rule of thumb I learned early in my career working for my first portfolio manager is that a stock’s return in the near term is driven roughly 40% by the market, 30% by the industry it operates in, and 30% … Read more

Nelson: I Have Been Wrong About the Prospect of Near-Term Inflationary-Driven Earnings Tailwinds

Transcript During the past several weeks, we’ve grown increasingly concerned about the health of consumer-tied entities across not only the consumer staples but also the consumer discretionary spaces. Many consumer staples entities, while raising prices, aren’t raising them fast enough to drive operating-income and bottom-line expansion, while many consumer-discretionary companies are facing higher freight and logistics costs and weaker performance in China, perhaps best revealed by Nike’s most recently-reported quarter, where inventory advanced 23% compared to the prior-year period. The tell-tale sign about the health of the consumer may be Amazon (AMZN) Prime Day, which is coming up on July 12-13, but based on many of the reports we’ve monitored this past earnings season, even if sales are strong on … Read more

Valuentum’s Dividend Growth Strategy ‘Outperforming’

Image: The Valuentum Dividend Growth strategy has delivered thus far in 2022. With the S&P 500, as measured by the SPY, down 18.1% (negative 18.1%) thus far in 2022 and the S&P Dividend ETF (SDY) down 6.7% (negative 6.7%), the Valuentum dividend growth strategy, as measured by the hypothetical performance of the Dividend Growth Newsletter portfolio (as shown above), is down an estimated 4.6% (negative 4.6%) so far in 2022, all on a price-only basis. Though two percentage points better than the S&P High Yield Dividend Dividend Aristocrats Index doesn’t seem like much, the large cap tilt of the simulated Dividend Growth Newsletter portfolio makes such “outperformance” significant and material. The benefits of a dividend growth strategy, in general, have also … Read more

Dividend Growth Idea Honeywell Capitalizing on Recovering Aerospace Industry

Image Shown: Dividend growth idea Honeywell International Inc increased its full-year guidance for 2022 during its first quarter earnings update. We continue to be big fans of the name as the aerospace industry steadily rebounds. Image Source: Honeywell International Inc – First Quarter of 2022 IR Earnings Presentation By Callum Turcan On April 29, Honeywell International Inc (HON) reported first quarter 2022 earnings that beat both consensus top- and bottom-line estimates as its business continues to rebound from the worst of the coronavirus (‘COVID-19’) pandemic. Due to its strong performance, management raised the company’s full-year sales and earnings guidance for 2022 in conjunction with its latest earnings update. We continue to like Honeywell as an idea in the Dividend Growth … Read more

Newsletter Portfolio Idea Republic Services Holding Up Quite Well in the Face of Major Headwinds

Image Shown: Shares of Republic Services Inc have held up quite well over the past several months while equity markets swooned lower. By Callum Turcan On May 5, Republic Services Inc (RSG) reported first quarter 2022 earnings that beat both consensus top- and bottom-line estimates. The waste management firm is benefiting from its immense pricing power and volume growth. We continue to like Republic Services as an idea in both the Dividend Growth Newsletter and ESG Newsletter portfolios. Shares of RSG yield ~1.4% as of this writing. Earnings Update In the first quarter, Republic Services generated $3.0 billion in GAAP revenues (up 14% year-over-year). Please note that Republic Services defines its average yield “as revenue growth from the change in … Read more

Ameresco Posts Solid First Quarter Earnings Update

Image Source: Ameresco Inc – First Quarter of 2022 Earnings Press Release By Callum Turcan The rise of ESG investing and the political shift towards encouraging developments within the realm of green energy–from renewable energy projects to efforts to reduce water consumption and much more–has created numerous opportunities for investors. Ameresco Inc (AMRC) offers energy efficiency solutions, infrastructure upgrades, and renewable energy solutions to its customers. The company also operates some of the renewable energy facilities it helps develop such as solar farms and biogas plants. Ameresco provides its services all over the globe though the US remains its most important market (and the source of over 90% of its revenues). In the US, Ameresco will often help its clients … Read more

Interview with SDM Investments’ Kevin Truitt — ESG in a Few Words: “Good Ethics, Honesty, Respect, and Dignity”

Image: SDM Investments’ Kevin Truitt (left) and Valuentum’s Brian Nelson (right) pause for a picture at the Chicago Chapter of the American Association of Individual Investors (December 2016). Brian Nelson, CFA: We’d like to introduce Kevin Truitt, manager in charge of the equity investments at SDM Investments, an investment management firm based in Merrillville, Indiana.  Kevin and I have been friends for more than a decade now, and he’s even written an article about combining value and momentum investing in the AAII Journal a number of years ago, “Investing’s Odd Couple: Value and Momentum.”  Kevin, thanks for sharing your knowledge, wisdom, and experience with us. With that said, let’s get right into the questions. Can you provide some background about … Read more

Dividend Growth and ESG Favorite Republic Services Is Buying U.S. Ecology

Image Shown: Republic Services Inc is one of our favorite waste management companies. On February 9, the company announced it was acquiring US Ecology Inc through an all-cash deal. US Ecology provides specialized waste management services and has an asset base that is nearly irreplaceable. We like the deal as it could generate meaningful cost saving and revenue synergies. Image Source: Republic Services Inc – February 2022 Infographic By Callum Turcan On February 9, one of our favorite waste management companies, Republic Services Inc (RSG), announced a deal to acquire U.S. Ecology Inc (ECOL) through an all-cash deal worth about $2.2 billion when including net debt considerations. Republic Services is paying $48 per share in cash to take over U.S. … Read more

Don’t Throw the Baby Out with the Bathwater

Image: Erica Nicol Takeaways: Junk tech should continue to collapse, but the stylistic area of large cap growth and big cap tech should remain resilient. Moderately elevated levels of inflation coupled with interest rates hovering at all-time lows isn’t a terrible combination. In fact, it’s not bad at all. The markets are digesting the huge gains of the past few years so far in 2022, and the excesses in ARKK funds, crypto, SPACs, and meme stocks are being rid from the system. Our best ideas are “outperforming” the very benchmarks that are outperforming everyone else. The BIN portfolio is down 6.4% and the DGN portfolio is down 3.2% year to date. The SPY is down 7.8%, while the average investor … Read more

Dividend Growth Stocks Soar!

Dear members: — We’re watching one of the strongest stock market rallies we’ve seen in some time during the trading session December 7. At the time of this writing, the Dow Jones Industrial Average is up over 500 points, the S&P is up nearly 100, while the NASDAQ is up a tremendous 440+. We continue to like what we see. — Almost every idea in the Best Ideas Newsletter portfolio is up today, led by Chipotle (CMG) +5.9%, PayPal (PYPL) +3.3%, Domino’s (DPZ) +3.1%, Apple (AAPL) +2.9% and Alphabet (GOOG) +2.9%. — We’re loving the moves by Valuentum-style stocks today, and we’re even more excited to report that every idea in the Dividend Growth Newsletter portfolio is advancing today, as shown below. We know … Read more