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Internet Sales Taxes and Restructuring the U.S. Post Office

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The Supreme Court has been active in creating revenue opportunities for states, as in legalizing sports betting and most recently in facilitating the collection of online sales taxes. The White House has floated the idea of reorganizing the U.S. Postal Service, but we think this endeavor represents more of a tail risk for Stamps.com than anything else. Though we expect smaller online retailers to feel some pressure as a result of the online sales tax ruling (Amazon already collects online sales taxes), we don’t think the ruling, while leveling the playing field for some brick-and-mortar retailers, will change the fate of many aging department stores such as J.C. Penney and Sears, both of which may not make it to the … Read more

Visa!

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Image shown: The performance of Visa since it was added to the Best Ideas Newsletter portfolio. The Best Ideas Newsletter portfolio has a habit of identifying outperforming stock ideas. By Brian Nelson, CFA The Valuentum team has put together an incredible track record during the past several years, and frankly, if you haven’t already, you have to read through the analysis of the history of the simulated Best Ideas Newsletter portfolio. It goes into why we think the way we do and provides a variety of references to our processes and methodology. The analysis can be downloaded at the following link (pdf): https://valuentum.com/downloads/20180530/download For the team to achieve what it was able to do, despite a ~25% cash “position” in … Read more

Study: Valuentum’s Best Ideas Newsletter Portfolio

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To read the study, please click on the image to download the pdf document (pdf).

The Most Important Topic in Stock Investing

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President of Equity Research, Brian Nelson, discusses why price vs. value is the paramount consideration in stock investing. Brian Nelson, CFA: This is Brian Nelson from Valuentum Securities. Today, I wanted to talk about a number of investment concepts that I think are absolutely paramount for every investor to know.  The very first concept is price versus value, and this one is paramount to any investment process. Now I’m not just giving this lip service–this is just one of the core concepts of investing, equity investing. The reality of stock investing is that each company has a present value of future free cash flows that it generates, and those future free cash flows roll up to a fair value, the … Read more

PayPal Grows Stronger

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PayPal scooped up assets that will help it better compete against Square, and we think both entities have a bright future regardless of the increased competition. Brian Nelson, CFA It’s no secret that PayPal (PYPL) generates a considerable amount of free cash flow and boasts a very strong net cash position that allows it to scoop up assets that it deems worthy of the long-term picture. Many have been concerned about PayPal’s expected loss of its contract with eBay (EBAY) in 2023, and it was quite the blow, but the entire relationship merely amounts to a few months of organic growth at the payment-processing giant. We also view Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies as more of an opportunity than a threat for … Read more

A Trifecta of Good Reports: Visa, Facebook, PayPal

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We continue to like the long-term potential at Visa and absolutely love the level of its operating margins. Facebook is going to continue to get bad press, but fundamentally, we think the company is going to make it through to shine once again. PayPal had a nice first-quarter report, and while we would like to see more security with respect to its relationship with eBay, the company’s pace of growth suggests it could easily grow out of its early ties with the auction website. By Brian Nelson, CFA There were three notable reports after the close April 25: Visa (V), Facebook (FB), and PayPal (PYPL). We continue to be huge fans of Visa’s long-term potential, and its level of operating … Read more

ICYMI: Valuentum’s Improved Stock and ETF Web Pages

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Valuentum has rolled out improved stock and ETF web pages on its website valuentum.com/. Now, subscribers can access key proprietary information on the stock and ETF web pages in addition to the customary stock and ETF reports. Dear reader, We have some exciting news that we can’t wait to share with you! At valuentum.com/, we have rolled out new stock and ETF pages that conveniently include a variety of our proprietary metrics from the Dividend Cushion ratio to the Economic Castle rating and beyond! There’s even mouseover functionality so you can learn about how we define the key metrics across our stock-selection and dividend growth methodologies. You’ll still have access to the stock and dividend reports on the landing pages, … Read more

Portfolios: Dividend Growth Versus Best Ideas

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Let’s talk about the difference between the Dividend Growth Newsletter portfolio and the Best Ideas Newsletter portfolio. Hi folks, I wanted to post a short note because it’s important that we continue to explain the difference between the two newsletter portfolios that we provide as part of the individual membership. We publish a Dividend Growth Newsletter and a Best Ideas Newsletter, the former delivered on the 1st of the month and the latter delivered on the 15th of the month. We also cover and provide reports on over 1,000 stocks and dividends on our website, as well as provide quarterly publications like the Dividend100 publication, for example. We cover the bases. We also provide the monthly Nelson Exclusive publication, which by … Read more

Avoiding Troubled Equities Such as General Electric

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The Valuentum process waits for a stock’s price to be moving higher before it is considered. The stock must not only be undervalued on both a discounted cash-flow basis and relative value basis, in our view, but the market must also believe that its true intrinsic value should be higher, too, as evidenced by a rising share price. The process is symmetrical. We also would wait for a company’s share price to break down before we may consider removing an overpriced stock. In some cases, the information contained in prices can even provide clues when to remove an underpriced stock, as in the case of General Electric. By Brian Nelson, CFA There should be no confusion. General Electric (GE) was … Read more

Our Ideas Are Performing Awesome So Far in 2018!!! 6 of the Top 7 of the Dow!

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By Brian Nelson, CFA Every day we think about how we can make things easier for our members. Instead of having to visit multiple links on our website with screens, you now have access to one downloadable Excel file where you can sort and rank how you wish. Of course, you can always find those screens in the newsletters, each and every month, too, but we think a weekly data download is a huge value add to our offering. Can you imagine getting updated data every week for 52 weeks of the year for what we charge, let alone two newsletters, hundreds of reports, commentary, and education material? Wow, right? People keep saying we do too much, but when our … Read more