Intel’s Huge Expected Capital Spending Gives Dividend Growth Investors Pause

Image: Intel has advanced nicely during the past several years, but more recently, its choppy stock behavior is reflective of the market having trouble figuring out the future direction of this tech behemoth, particularly in light of encroaching competition and huge expected capital spending growth. Shares offer investors a healthy 2.8% dividend yield, however, which gives the stock a sturdy foundation for the time being. By Brian Nelson, CFA As we noted in our prior update on Intel (INTC) earlier this year, we removed the tech giant from the Best Ideas Newsletter portfolio and Dividend Growth Newsletter portfolio in late October 2020, almost a year ago to the date. Since that time, shares of Intel, on a price-only basis, have … Read more

ICYMI — Video: Exclusive 2020 — Furthering the Financial Discipline

ICYMI — Video: Exclusive 2020 — Furthering the Financial Discipline — — In this 40+ minute video jam-packed with must-watch content, Valuentum’s President Brian Nelson talks about the Theory of Universal Valuation and how his work is furthering the financial discipline. Learn the pitfalls of factor investing and modern portfolio theory and how the efficient markets hypothesis holds little substance in the wake of COVID-19. He’ll talk about which companies Valuentum likes and why, and which areas he’s avoiding. This and more in Valuentum’s 2020 Exclusive conference call.   Note: This video was originally published August 2, 2020.    To watch the video >>   The Theory of Universal Valuation —– Valuentum members have access to our 16-page stock reports, … Read more

ALERT: Raising Cash in the Newsletter Portfolios

January 27, 2021 ALERT: Raising Cash in the Newsletter Portfolios We are raising the cash position in the simulated Best Ideas Newsletter portfolio and simulated Dividend Growth Newsletter portfolio to 10%-20%. — By Brian Nelson, CFA — Our research has been absolutely fantastic for a long time, but 2020 may have been our best year yet. You can read the 2020 recap here. With the S&P 500 trading within our fair value estimate range of 3,530-3,920 (and the markets rolling over while showing signs of abnormal behavior), we’re raising the cash position in the Best Ideas Newsletter portfolio and Dividend Growth Newsletter portfolio to 10%-20%. — For more conservative investors, the high end of this range may even be larger, especially … Read more

Following Up on Leading Semiconductor Equipment Supplier ASML Holding N.V.

Image Source: ASML Holding NV – Fourth Quarter and Full-Year 2020 Earnings IR Presentation By Callum Turcan Shares of Netherlands-based ASML Holding NV (ASML), which supplies lithography systems and services to the semiconductor industry, have done incredibly well since we published our ASML Holding Is an Impressive Enterprise with a Pristine Balance Sheet and Rock-Solid Growth Trajectory article back on April 8, 2020 (link here). From April 8 to January 22, shares of ASML more than doubled. We strongly encourage members that have not done so to check out that article, as we laid out how ASML Holding’s lithography systems are an essential part of the semiconductor industry along with our reasoning behind why we view the company’s long-term outlook … Read more

News Brief: We Like Large Cap Growth, Big Cap Tech, and the NASDAQ

Image: Since 2010, a large cap growth ETF has outperformed the S&P 500 by nearly 150 percentage points (15,000 basis points). Since 2010, a large cap growth ETF has outperformed a small cap value ETF by over 275 percentage points, or 27,500 basis points (image not shown). We expect continued outperformance from companies within the large cap growth bucket. By Brian Nelson, CFA The markets have been see-sawing the past couple weeks as the global economy continues to recover and much of the world awaits the outcome of the 2020 US Presidential election. We think the equity markets have largely factored in the forecasted epidemiology curve with respect to COVID-19, including infection spikes across the world, so recent market volatility … Read more

ALERT: Removing Intel (INTC) from the Newsletter Portfolios

ALERT: Removing Intel (INTC) from the Newsletter Portfolios Image: Intel’s share price performance since the inaugural edition of the Dividend Growth Newsletter portfolio. We’re removing shares of Intel from both the Best Ideas Newsletter portfolio and Dividend Growth Newsletter portfolio. — By Brian Nelson, CFA — Today, we are removing Intel (INTC) from both the Best Ideas Newsletter portfolio and Dividend Growth Newsletter portfolio. Intel has been a part of both newsletter portfolios for a long time. The stock was included in the September 2011 edition of the Best Ideas Newsletter with a ~2% weighting in the portfolio at $19.89 per share, and it was included in the inaugural edition of the Dividend Growth Newsletter (January 2012) with a large 7% weighting … Read more

Our Thoughts on Intel’s Latest Earnings Report

Image Shown: An overview of Intel Corporation’s performance during the first nine months of fiscal 2020. Image Source: Intel Corporation – Third Quarter of Fiscal 2020 IR Earnings Presentation By Callum Turcan On October 22, Intel Corporation (INTC) reported third quarter fiscal 2020 earnings (period ended September 26, 2020) that largely matched consensus expectations. Intel boosted its full-year outlook for fiscal 2020 on a net basis (which included an increase in its expected free cash flows this fiscal year) during its latest earnings update, though management reduced its forecast for Intel’s expected operating margins versus previous expectations. We continue to like Intel’s ability to generate sizable free cash flows, though we are concerned with its rising net debt load of … Read more

Our Thoughts on Intel’s Big Divestiture Ahead of Its Earnings Report

Image Source: Intel Corporation – Second Quarter of Fiscal 2020 IR Earnings Presentation By Callum Turcan On October 20, Intel Corporation (INTC) and South Korean-based SK Hynix announced a major transaction that will reshape the global NAND flash memory market. For reference, NAND flash memory is used in smartphones, personal computers, and other digital devices. Intel will receive $9.0 billion in cash that will be paid out in two phases, assuming everything goes as planned. In return, SK Hynix is receiving “Intel NAND memory and storage business, which includes the NAND SSD business, the NAND component and wafer business, and the Dalian NAND memory manufacturing facility in China” though Intel will retain its Intel Optane business, which caters to both … Read more

Our Thoughts on Apple Launching Its First-Ever 5G-Capable iPhone

Image Shown: Shares of Apple Inc have surged higher year-to-date. By Callum Turcan On October 13, Apple Inc (AAPL) announced its first-ever lineup of 5G-capable iPhones along with a new smart home speaker offering HomePod Mini. While the 5G-capable iPhone announcement was largely expected, we appreciate the good news all the same. We include shares of Apple as a holding in both our Best Ideas Newsletter and Dividend Growth Newsletter portfolios and are big fans of the name. The HomePod Mini offering represents Apple’s way of staying competitive with similar offerings from Amazon Inc (AMZN) and Alphabet Inc (GOOG) (GOOGL). The Big News Apple’s four new iPhone offerings (iPhone 12 mini, iPhone 12, iPhone 12 Pro, and iPhone 12 Pro … Read more

Outperformance of Valuentum’s COVID-19 Ideas

Image: Valuentum’s COVID-19 ideas. Hypothetical returns are calculated on a price basis. — Dear members: —On March 17, Valuentum released its best ideas for the COVID-19 pandemic. The original article can be found at the following link, “Top Ten Ideas for Consideration Amid COVID-19.” The note is significant for two reasons: 1) it was released practically at the March bottom, and 2) it identified outperforming ideas, which on an equal-weight basis outperformed the S&P 500 since then by 20 percentage points, generating a hypothetical price-only return of 64.2% (the dividend adjustment is negligible since then so it was left out of the calculation). — Please note that this is the only list that we released for our top 10 ideas … Read more