High Yielding Philips 66 Has a Solid Plan in Place to Reward Its Shareholders

Image Shown: An overview of Phillip 66’s expansive asset base. Image Source: Phillips 66 – November 2021 IR Presentation By Callum Turcan Demand for diesel and gasoline has largely recovered from the worst of the coronavirus (‘COVID-19’) pandemic, though kerosene demand (jet fuel) has a way to go given depressed levels of international travel. The refining giant Phillips 66 (PSX) took advantage of the rebound seen over the past year to pare down its debt levels on a consolidated basis. At the end of December 2020, Phillips 66 had $13.4 billion in net debt (inclusive of short-term debt) on a consolidated basis, which fell down to $12.0 billion in net debt (inclusive of short-term debt) at the end of September … Read more

Dividend Growth Stocks Soar!

Dear members: — We’re watching one of the strongest stock market rallies we’ve seen in some time during the trading session December 7. At the time of this writing, the Dow Jones Industrial Average is up over 500 points, the S&P is up nearly 100, while the NASDAQ is up a tremendous 440+. We continue to like what we see. — Almost every idea in the Best Ideas Newsletter portfolio is up today, led by Chipotle (CMG) +5.9%, PayPal (PYPL) +3.3%, Domino’s (DPZ) +3.1%, Apple (AAPL) +2.9% and Alphabet (GOOG) +2.9%. — We’re loving the moves by Valuentum-style stocks today, and we’re even more excited to report that every idea in the Dividend Growth Newsletter portfolio is advancing today, as shown below. We know … Read more

Valuentum Weekly: Nothing Surprising, Well-Positioned!

Image source: Cathie Wood’s flagship ETF, the ARK Innovation ETF (ARKK) has fallen more more than 40% from its 52-week high. This is nothing short of a complete and utter bloodbath for such an actively-managed fund, in our view. We note this for context. We’re not just talking about one or two or five stocks that are down 40% from 52-week highs, but the *entire fund.* Investors have to keep things in perspective. It’s perfectly reasonable within the context of a portfolio to have a few stocks off 10%, 20%, or maybe even 50% from all-time highs. However, if your entire portfolio is down 40%+ from 52-week highs, you’re doing something wrong. Hi everyone: It’s the most wonderful time of … Read more

Hard Work and the Trust That Binds

Image Source: Terry Johnson By Brian Nelson, CFA We’ll have our traditional Valuentum Weekly email coming out on Sunday, and I’m excited to say our team is putting the finishing touches on our technology industry update, so we’ll have a whole bunch of fresh reports for you to look at Sunday evening/Monday morning. It’s easy to forget how much we’ve been through the past two years. Often, we forget how helpful the warning that markets were going to crash was the weekend before they did on February 22, 2020, “Is a Stock Market Crash Coming? – Coronavirus Update and P/E Ratios,” how we thought dollar-cost-averaging made sense at the bottom in March 2020, and how we went “all-in” in April … Read more

ALERT: High Yield Dividend Newsletter Portfolio Changes

Image: Mike Cohen Summary of Changes AT&T (T) – remove Global X SuperIncome Preferred ETF (SPFF) – to 5% from 10% Vanguard Real Estate ETF (VNQ) – to 5% from 10% Chevron Corporation (CVX) – initiate at 5% ExxonMobil Corporation (XOM) – initiate at 5% Magellan Midstream Partners, L.P. (MMP) – to 5% from 2.5% Enterprise Products Partners L.P. (EPD) – to 5% from 2.5% By Brian Nelson, CFA We released the Valuentum Weekly last night, which can be accessed here , but we saved our note regarding the High Yield Dividend Newsletter portfolio changes as well as portfolio updates to today, November 8. A few weeks ago, we mentioned that we had a change of heart with AT&T (T). … Read more

Our Favorite Energy Giants Chevron and ExxonMobil are Focused on Returning Cash to Shareholders

Image Shown: Shares of Chevron Corporation (blue line) and ExxonMobil Corporation (orange line) are both up sharply year-to-date as of this writing. By Callum Turcan Two of our favorite energy companies, Chevron Corporation (CVX) and ExxonMobil Corporation (XOM), recently reported their third quarter 2021 earnings reports. We include Chevron and ExxonMobil as ideas in both the Best Ideas Newsletter and Dividend Growth Newsletter portfolios given their ample capital appreciation upside and promising dividend growth trajectories. The top end of our fair value estimate range for Chevron and ExxonMobil stands at $144 per share and $110 per share, respectively, well above where each company’s shares are trading as of this writing. Shares of CVX yield ~4.7% and shares of XOM yield … Read more

Schlumberger Recovering, Outlook Bright

Image Shown: Shares of Schlumberger NV are on the upswing, though the company’s stock price remains far below levels seen before the COVID-19 pandemic. By Callum Turcan On October 22, the oilfield services giant Schlumberger NV (SLB) reported third-quarter 2021 earnings that missed consensus top-line estimates and matched consensus bottom-line estimates. The company’s business continues to recover as oil & gas investment activity is picking up steam around the globe after getting decimated last year in the face of the coronavirus (‘COVID-19’) pandemic. Looking ahead, Schlumberger expects significant improvement in its mid-cycle financial performance from current levels, aided by major cost structure improvements embarked on last year. Financial Snapshot The firm’s GAAP revenues grew by 11% year-over-year due to growth … Read more

Putting the Environmental in ESG

Valuentum’s ESG newsletter helps identify which stocks have strong ESG scores, and which ones come up short. Subscribe to the monthly Valuentum ESG Newsletter today by selecting the ‘Subscribe’ button below (12 editions, $1,000/year).   —– By Valuentum Analysts There is no single definition for ESG investing beyond the words that make up the acronym – Environmental, Social, and Governance. Investors looking at ESG may be doing so for a variety of reasons with a variety of different needs. But for every investor, a focus on ESG allows for a fuller consideration of the company, as a whole, as well as how that company impacts the 21st century landscape, as it relates to rewarding social responsibility by investing in companies … Read more

Booming Natural Gas Prices Great News for Chevron and ExxonMobil

Image Shown: Chevron Corporation – August 2021 IR Presentation By Callum Turcan Natural gas prices in the US measured by the Henry Hub benchmark (UNG) based in Erath, Louisiana, have surged higher over the past several months. This is partially due to the slowdown in domestic oil & gas development activity that occurred back in 2020 in the wake of the coronavirus (‘COVID-19’) pandemic and low crude oil prices. Though crude oil prices, measured by the domestic WTI (USO) and international Brent (BNO) benchmarks, have since recovered, that has not resulted in domestic drilling activity returning to levels seen in 2019, though development activity has recovered somewhat. Henry Hub futures are trading north of $5 per million British thermal units … Read more

ExxonMobil Continues to Optimize Its Asset Base

Image Source: ExxonMobil Corporation – Second Quarter of 2021 IR Earnings Presentation By Callum Turcan According to Reuters, ExxonMobil Corporation (XOM) is in the process of divesting its Fayetteville shale play position in Arkansas, which ExxonMobil’s spokeswoman Julie King confirmed according to the news outlet. This is an upstream asset focused on the extraction of natural gas from the ground via “fracking” techniques (combing horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing to unlock raw energy resources from the ground). Divestment Overview The Fayetteville shale play was once touted as a major part of America’s way to become “energy independent” during the early days of the fracking boom. However, the play soon lost favor with energy firms large and small due to the … Read more