STX

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

Encouraging News Regarding Worldwide PC Shipments

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You may not have noticed it, but Intel (INTC) has rallied nearly seven points since the bottom established in late 2012 – that’s roughly a 40%+ upward advance through today. On Wednesday, International Data Corp (IDC) released some very good news for the PC supply chain. Though worldwide personal computer (PC) shipments continued to decline during the first quarter of 2014, the pace of the fall was nearly a percentage point better than expected (-4.4% versus -5.3% forecast, -5.6% in the fourth quarter, and -7.3% in the third quarter). Much of the upside surprise during the period came from mature commercial markets as technical support for Windows XP expired. After eight consecutive quarters of declines in worldwide PC shipments, we’re … Read more

PC Shipments Expected To Stabilize

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According to data released by the International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide Quarterly PC Tracker on December 2, personal computer (PC) shipments are now expected to drop more than 10% in 2013, slightly below the previous projection of -9.7%. Though 2013 will be the most severe yearly contraction on record, this news wasn’t the key takeaway. Instead, it was expectations for stabilizing demand by 2015 that provided a shot of optimism to the PC supply chain (see image below). Image Source: IDC The commentary provided by IDC was not terribly exciting, but market expectations are closer to the PC going the way of the dodo than stabilizing at just over 300 million units (roughly 2008 levels). We continue to believe that … Read more

With M&A Popping, We Think More Deals Lie Ahead

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Monday morning, Barnes and Noble’s (BKS) Chairman Leonard Riggio announced that he will finance a bid to take the company’s retail operations private. This comes after the announcement of several other major deals, including the OfficeMax/Office Depot Merger, Berkshire (BRK.A) and 3G Capital’s acquisition of Heinz (HNZ), and Michael Dell’s bid for Dell (click ticker for report: ). Let’s take a look at some potential targets. Apollo Group Results in the for-profit education space have experienced significant downward pressure during the past few years. Apollo Group (click ticker for report: ), owner of the University of Phoenix, has seen its share price cut by 64% during the past year, after being a cash-generating darling just a few years ago. The … Read more

How to Think About Corporate Tax Reform

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Nelson: The 16 Most Important Steps To Understand The Stock Market

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A previous version of this article appeared on our website July 21, 2013. Refreshed and updated throughout, as of July 2018. By Brian Nelson, CFA After earning my MBA at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and training stock and credit analysts from large organizations over the past decade or so, I have heard just about every question (though I admit I am still surprised by many things and remain a very humble student of the markets). I’ve also spent years perfecting the discounted cash flow process for large research organizations such as Morningstar and studied under one of the most famed aggressive growth investors of all time, Richard Driehaus. My knowledge runs the gamut from value through … Read more