Roundy’s: A Cheap Stock in a Terrible Industry

After going public in early 2012, we profiled Midwestern grocery chain Roundy’s (click ticker for report: ). Earnings momentum has moved materially against the company, and as we predicted, the firm had to slash its enormous dividend payout. In a typical post-IPO period, management was optimistic about future prospects, and competition in the firm’s core Wisconsin market looked weak at best. What CEO Bob Mariano didn’t see coming was that Wal-Mart (click ticker for report: ) would enter Wisconsin in a big way, Woodman’s would keep growing, and Roundy’s-owned Copps would be thrown into a major price war, crushing same-store sales and margins. Our initial thesis included a stable, or even slightly declining core business, but not the 3.6% decline … Read more

Dear Valuentum Member

In such a short time that you’ve known us, you have seen us do so much: from generating more than 25 percentage points of outperformance in our Best Ideas portfolio since inception (May 2011) to delivering on our high-single-digit return goal of our Dividend Growth portfolio during 2012 to the Valuentum Dividend Cushion score predicting the dividend cuts of JC Penney (JCP), SuperValu (SVU), Roundy’s (RNDY), and others. You’ve seen us identify a triple in EDAC Tech (EDAC) and predict the bankruptcy of the parent of American Airlines (AMR). These are tremendous accomplishments. There’s an old saying in the market that if your winners are outperforming your losers, you’re doing a great job. Through November of last year, 87% of … Read more

Are Any Rumored Buyouts Worth Betting On?

Buyouts and private-equity acquisitions can provide powerful stock moves and often act as the catalyst to drive stock prices to intrinsic value. In the portfolio of our Best Ideas Newsletter, we had held shares of Collective Brands. We liked the company’s valuation, relatively small size, and its attractiveness to other companies (among other things). And while we’d never own a stock solely on speculation of M&A activity, a buyout turned out to be the catalyst for our call on Collective Brands to work out for members. Shares proceeded to appreciate over 35% on our cost basis! In recent months, we’ve heard rumors of cash-heavy companies and private equity funds interested in several different deals. Let’s take a look at a few higher-profile names. … Read more

Why Dividend Growth Investing Needs to be Forward Looking

Shares of Exelon (click ticker for report: ) have been tumbling lately due to the possibility of a dividend cut. The utility company needs rates to increase in order to keep up its current payout. That may not occur, and CEO Chris Crane noted that the firm may have to cut its dividend in order to keep its strong credit rating standing, which is fundamental to running Exelon’s business. In the aftermath of the announcement, both Jefferies and Argus cut the ratings on the stock, but we think both firms were a bit late to the party. Inside our Valuentum Dividend Report for Exelon, we can see what we thought about Exelon on October 30. The fact that Exelon’s dividend … Read more

Safeway’s Earnings Beat But the Grocer Remains Weak

Grocery store chain Safeway (click ticker for report: ) reported soft third-quarter results Thursday morning. Revenue slipped 0.2% year-over-year to $10 billion, slightly worse than consensus expectations. Earnings from operations grew 18% year-over-year to $0.45 per share, a few cents better than consensus estimates. As we’ve noted several times, and specifically with respect to Supervalu (click ticker for report: ), the grocery segment remains under intense pressure from warehouses and discounters. Same-store sales in the quarter ticked-up 0.1%, compared to the 6% same-store sales growth we saw from Costco (click ticker for report: ) yesterday. However, the firm noted that same-store sales in the fourth quarter are currently running at 1%, driven by the popularity of the “just for U” … Read more

Search Dividend Reports by Company Name: Q to Z

Going forward, please use the ‘Symbol’ search box to download stock and dividend reports of companies you are interested in. The ‘Symbol’ search box can be found in our website header. Image shown from above. Use the active search box in the website header above. Learn more about your membership >>  Note: We have now discontinued this list. Please use the ‘Symbol’ search box in the website header for stock and dividend reports. Please read about our Valuentum Dividend Cushion score (ratio) here. Just having access to this valuable metric alone could save your income portfolio thousands of dollars! The past meets the future as we showcase the Valuentum Dividend Cushion scores of Dividend Aristocrats in this article (click here). The dividend reports below … Read more