Dividend Increases/Decreases for the Week of October 17

Below we provide a list of firms that raised their dividends during the week ending October 17. 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                          A.O. Smith Corporation (AOS): now $0.36 per share quarterly dividend, was $0.34. Agree Realty (ADC): now $0.262 per share monthly dividend, was $0.256. Banner (BANR): now $0.50 per share quarterly dividend, was $0.48. Canadian Apartment Properties Real Estate Investment Trust (CAR.UN:CA): now CAD 0.1292 per share monthly dividend, was CAD 0.1291. Citizens Financial Group (CFG): now $0.46 per share quarterly dividend, was $0.42. DBM … Read more

Dividend Increases/Decreases for the Week of April 4

Below we provide a list of firms that raised their dividends during the week ending April 4. 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                          Adecoagro (AGRO): now $0.175 per share semi-annual dividend, was $0.174. Banco Santander (SAN): now EUR 0.1100 per share final dividend, was $0.1152. Bank OZK (OZK): now $0.43 per share quarterly dividend, was $0.42. Brookfield Renewable Power Preferred Equity Inc. PREF SHS CL A 2 (BRF.PR.B:CA): now CAD 0.3318 per share quarterly dividend. Compass Diversified Holdings Non-Cum Red Pfd Registered Series A (CODI.PR.A): now $0.4532 … Read more

Dividend Increases/Decreases for the Week of March 14

Below we provide a list of firms that raised their dividends during the week ending March 14. 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                          Acer (ACEYY): now NT 1.70 per share annual dividend, was NT 1.60. Afya (AFYA): now R$1.348923 pare share dividend. Aker Carbon Capture (AKRCY): now NOK 4.82 per share dividend. Altius Minerals Corporation (ALS:CA): now CAD 0.09 per share quarterly dividend, was CAD 0.08. Annaly Capital Management (NLY): now $0.70 per share quarterly dividend, was $0.65. Applied Materials (AMAT): now $0.46 per share quarterly dividend, … Read more

Things Are Bad Out There

“I don’t like this market one bit, but we have to endure. Markets will rise again, but there will be a lot more pain to come in the near term. We think the base case is that we get a very bad recession in 2023. We’ve yet to pull the trigger on put option ideas in the simulated newsletter portfolios, but we expect things to get worse before they get better. For readers seeking ongoing option ideas each month, please consider subscribing to our options commentary here.” – Brian Nelson, CFA By Brian Nelson, CFA Things are bad out there, and there’s probably no better way to say it. On September 28, Bloomberg reported that Apple Inc. (AAPL) is now … Read more

U.S. Housing Market Showing Signs of Weakness

Image Shown: The US housing market is starting to show signs of weakness. Companies involved in the home building business in the US are starting to feel the heat, with the iShares US Home Construction ETF down ~30% year-to-date as of early September 2022 on a price-only basis. By Callum Turcan The national U.S. housing market has been on fire during the past few years. Sharp increases in U.S. housing prices are now contending with rising mortgage rates, which is prompting the question, are U.S. housing prices heading for a crash? Affordability issues are rampant, with many households now priced out of the market, and signs of weakness are emerging in the U.S. housing market. Background The Federal Reserve is … Read more

Our Report on the Banks & Money Centers Industry

Image Source: Ethan Stock  Banks & Money Centers Industry Report – select the link below to download the pdf Summary We’ll talk about how banks make money, and the three most important costs of running a bank. The Great Financial Crisis revealed the tremendous risks of banking equities, and we’ll walk through these risks in depth. We will also cover how the COVID-19 pandemic impacted capital markets and the banking industry, and what to expect going forward. We’ll discuss how to conceptualize where we are in the banking cycle, and how that helps inform our valuation process for banks, which is different than traditional operating entities. The stress tests have helped many of the big banks from pursuing hazardous endeavors during … Read more

Free Cash Flow Machine Visa Remains One of Our Best Ideas

Image Shown: Visa’s ability to generate sizable free cash flows continues to impress. We are big fans of the payment processing giant. Image Source: Visa Inc – First Quarter of Fiscal 2021 IR Earnings Presentation By Callum Turcan We’re huge fans of Visa Inc’s (V) business model. The credit card network’s free cash flow generating abilities are impressive, aided by its low capital expenditure requirements. We view Visa’s long-term outlook quite favorably and include the company in the Best Ideas Newsletter portfolio as a top-weighted idea. The top end of our fair value estimate sits at $263 per share of Visa, materially above where V is trading at as of this writing. Overview Visa benefits from the network effect, which … Read more

Unicredit Struggles to Demonstrate Earnings Power

When one looks at individual bank interests and also the national champion nature of many banks that are closely tied to their home countries, it becomes difficult to picture how the overtraded European banking landscape will resolve itself. One scenario is perhaps by smaller banks coming together, though that might not really move the needle that much. We generally dislike the banking industry due to the arbitrary nature of its cash flows, weak economic returns, and highly-regulated nature, and we think Unicredit may be one to avoid, in particular. By Matthew Warren Unicredit (UNCRY) put up another measly quarter, results released August 6, this time with small positive underlying net profits of EUR 0.5 billion. Revenues were down 7.7% compared … Read more

BNP Paribas is One of the Stronger Banks in an Overtraded European Landscape

While some of the stronger global banks like BNP Paribas are showing that they can take the economic fallout from COVID-19 on the chin while maintaining some degree of earnings power and protecting strong capital levels, other banks with lesser earnings power and balance sheets are falling prey to this cycle with losses and lower capital levels. From our perspective, it is simply easier to find non-bank operating companies with strong moats, sound balance sheets, and visible free cash flow growth into the future. Be careful investing in banks! By Matthew Warren On July 31, BNP Paribas (BNPQF) put up a reasonable set of results in the second quarter, considering the global pandemic’s substantial impact on the economy. As you … Read more

Santander Working Its Way Through the Pandemic

The underlying first-half results from Banco Santander are quite reasonable. We are impressed by how well the South American, Corporate & Investment Banking, and Wealth Management & Insurance segments are holding up in such a tough environment. In its large European operations, pressures that come from the whole continent being overbanked were evident, however. By Matthew Warren On July 29, Banco Santander (SAN) reported first-half 2020 results. The bank is working its way through the pandemic, with total income down 8% in the first half and underlying attributable profit down 53%. While it took massive goodwill write downs in the quarter, these do not affect its capital levels, which are healthy and growing since last quarter end. As one can … Read more