Archive for May, 2015

  • Wabtec Raises Dividend by 33%
    , May 13th, 2015 at 4:26 pm

    Good news for Wabtec (WAB):

    Wabtec Corporation (WAB) today increased its regular quarterly dividend to 8 cents per share, from 6 cents per share. The new dividend rate will be payable initially Aug. 31, 2015 to shareholders of record Aug. 17, 2015.

    Raymond T. Betler, Wabtec’s president and chief executive officer, said: “Based on our current financial performance and future outlook, the company has ample financial strength to invest in growth opportunities and to return a greater portion of our cash flow to shareholders. We intend to continue to review our policies periodically based on Wabtec’s ongoing performance and growth prospects.”

    This is a pretty tiny dividend for the company. WAB is expected to earn $4.13 per share this year. The annual dividend of 32 cents works out to a payout ratio of less than 8%. The yield is now 0.32%.

  • Another Poor Retail Sales Report
    , May 13th, 2015 at 10:42 am

    Today we got another poor retail sales report. April sales were unchanged from March. In the last 12 months, retail sales were up a scant 0.9%. One bright spot is that the numbers for February and March were revised higher. When you exclude gasoline, retail sales were again unchanged, and without autos, sales were up 0.1%.

    The market is holding onto early gains this morning. Tech stocks are doing especially well. The Tech ETF (XLK) is up 0.77%. That’s good for our Buy List. Qualcomm (QCOM) is up more than 2.2% and Microsoft (MSFT) is up close to 1.5%.

    The Dow is trailing due to a big drop at DuPont (DD). The company appears to have won its fight against Nelson Peltz who was trying to get on DuPont’s board. It’s interesting how the company won, but the stock is down more than 6% today.

  • Morning News: May 13, 2015
    , May 13th, 2015 at 7:14 am

    Bank of England Cuts Growth Outlook, Backs Market’s View on Rates

    U.S. Set to Rip Up UBS Libor Accord, Seek Conviction

    Greece Back in Recession as Bailout Impasse Drains Economy

    China’s Economy Not Getting High on Stimulants

    Global Bond Market Suffers From Erratic Swings Amid Liquidity Drought

    Oil Glut Worsens as OPEC Market-Share Battle Just Beginning

    Oil Prices Rise on Weaker Dollar

    Moody’s Investors Service Downgrades Chicago’s Credit Rating to ‘Junk’ Category

    AOL Valued at a Fraction of WhatsApp Tells 15 Years of Messaging

    Facebook Begins Testing Instant Articles From News Publishers

    Tencent Profit Slows Significantly in Latest Quarter

    AP Moller-Maersk’s $1.57 Billion Q1 Net Profit Beats Expectations, Lifts 2015 Forecast Slightly

    Japan’s Three Top Carmakers to Expand Recalls By Millions

    Joshua Brown: How Many Active Mutual Funds Have Beaten the S&P 500 in 8 Consecutive Years?

    Cullen Roche: Felix Salmon is Right – Stocks Are Consistently Overhyped

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  • FactSet Raises Dividend by 13%
    , May 12th, 2015 at 2:26 pm

    One of my former Buy List stocks, FactSet Research Systems (FDS), just raised its dividend by 13%. The quarterly dividend increase from 39 to 44 cents per share.

    The company is expected to earn $5.60 per share, so it pays out a relatively small amount of profits, just over 30%.

    FactSet is a wonderful company. Unfortunately, it’s one of those companies that I believe is consistently over-valued. The problem is that it never seems to revert to its fair price. It’s hard passing on stocks like that. The longer I invest, the more leeway I’ve learned to give high-quality stocks.

    As Warren Buffett has said, “It’s far better to buy a wonderful company at a fair price than a fair company at a wonderful price.”

  • Verizon to Buy AOL
    , May 12th, 2015 at 8:23 am

    Verizon (VZ) announced that it’s buying AOL (AOL) for $4.4 billion in cash.

    Verizon Communications on Tuesday said it would acquire AOL for $4.4 billion in an all-cash deal that will see today’s king of mobile phones acquire the one-time king of media.

    Verizon is the largest mobile phone operator in the country, and has growing lines of business offering high-speed Internet, as well as business and streaming video services.

    AOL, which acquired Time Warner for $165 billion in what is broadly regarded as a debacle and the high-water mark of the dot-com bubble, is now a shadow of its former self, managing a small collection of media and technology properties.

    Verizon is billing the deal as a way for the company to expand its video offerings. Already a leader in distributing mobile video through its robust national mobile phone network, Verizon is making a push to become a leader in so-called over-the-top video, shorthand for television content distributed through the Internet.

    Verizon is offering $50 per share. That’s a 17% premium over yesterday’s close.

  • Morning News: May 12, 2015
    , May 12th, 2015 at 7:07 am

    Greece Dodges Economic Bullet With Progress Toward Deal

    China Swap Rate Drops to Four-Year Low on Easing Speculation

    OECD Says Signs of U.S. Economy Flagging, China Loses More Steam

    Chinese Smartphone Makers Try to Make Inroads In India

    Fed’s Dudley Says Interest Rate Increases Will Mark Regime Shift

    Verizon Communications to Buy AOL for $4.4 Billion

    Court Finds Nomura and RBS Misled Investors

    Carlsberg Committed to Russia Despite Struggling for Profit

    Castleton Joins Oil Trade Titans With Morgan Stanley Deal

    Drillers Answer Low Oil Prices With Cost-Saving Innovations

    Alibaba Rolls Out Three-Hour Delivery Service for Healthcare Goods

    DTZ Agrees to Buy Cushman & Wakefield for $2 Billion

    Bill Gross: The Amount of Money I’ll Give Away ‘Is Staggering, Even to Me’

    Roger Nusbaum: Juuuuuuust Right

    Jeff Carter: Want to Try and Understand Venture Capital? Read This

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  • Morning News: May 11, 2015
    , May 11th, 2015 at 7:16 am

    Greece Weighs on Europe, China Cut Keeps Shares Steady

    Bank of England Holds Rates Steady

    India’s KV Kamath to Head New Brics Bank

    China’s Smartphone Market Contracts For The First Time In 6 Years

    Oil Falls Below $65 on Signs of U.S. Shale Oil Revival

    The $900 Billion Influx That’s Wreaking Havoc in U.S. Bills

    Apple Working With WWF China to Manage Sustainable Forests

    Volvo Cars Picks South Carolina to Supply Toughening U.S. Market

    Fiskars Agrees to Buy Owner of Wedgwood and Waterford

    Airbus Committed to Military Cargo Plane Despite Fatal Crash

    Dish Continues to Lose Subscribers, Though Profit Doubles

    Sharp Shares Plunge Ahead of Restructuring

    SoftBank CEO Taps a Future Successor in Nikesh Arora

    Cullen Roche: Is A Fiscal Deficit Really “Austerity”?

    Joshua Brown: Observations From The Mission

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  • 70 Years Ago Today; “We May Allow Ourselves a Brief Period of Rejoicing”
    , May 8th, 2015 at 10:09 am

  • April NFP +223,000
    , May 8th, 2015 at 8:48 am

    The Labor Department said the U.S. economy created 223,000 net new jobs last month. That was pretty close to what analysts had been expecting. The unemployment rate fell to 5.4% which is a seven-year low. The jobless rate is now lower than it was at any time between July 1974 and March 1988.

    The NFP figure for March was revised lower by 39,000. That was weak to begin with and it got weaker. The number for February was revised higher by 2,000.

    Average hourly earnings rose just 0.1%, and the March figured was revised down from 0.3% to 0.2%.

  • CWS Market Review – May 8, 2015
    , May 8th, 2015 at 7:08 am

    “The stock market is going to fluctuate. Sometimes it will
    fluc down; other times it will fluc up.” – Louis Rukeyser

    This week, Fed Chairwoman Janet Yellen spooked Wall Street when she said, “I would highlight that equity market valuations at this point generally are quite high.”

    Uh-oh. Look, I’ve got nothing against Dr. Yellen. She’s a first-rate economist. But I’ll point out that Fed Chairs don’t exactly have a sterling record with their market calls. Remember when Alan Greenspan famously warned of the market’s “irrational exuberance” in 1996? The market doubled over the next three years. Just last summer, Yellen warned us that valuations for social media and biotech stocks were “substantially stretched.” The Nasdaq Biotech ETF (IBB) is up a cool 33% since then. I won’t even go into their dismal economic projections.

    In one sense, Yellen is correct that valuations are high, if we assume that the strong dollar’s hit to earnings is going to last. But if the strong greenback’s damage is temporary, which the market’s betting on, then I don’t think we have anything to worry about.

    With high valuations, the question that must always be asked is, compared to what? With bond yields so low, stocks need to be higher to compete for investors’ money. The difference now is that the bond market has recently started to turn south.

    In this week’s CWS Market Review, we’ll take a closer look at the bond market’s recent grumpiness. I’ll also cover our recent Buy List earnings reports. Moog (MOG-A) pulled back on poor guidance, but both Cognizant (CTSH) and Fiserv (FISV) jumped higher on their strong earnings reports. I’ll have details in a bit. But first, let’s look at what’s got the bond market so annoyed.

    Whither the Bond Market?

    Suddenly, everyone’s worried about the bond market. The yield on the 10-year Treasury rose seven times in eight days. On Wednesday and Thursday, the yield got to 2.25%, which is the highest in two months.

    Of course, some of this needs to be put in context. Bond yields are hardly high; they’re just higher than where they were a few weeks ago, and that was pretty darn low. The 10-year yielded 3% in early 2014, and we’re still well below that.

    The 10-year yield gained 31 basis points in eight sessions. That’s enough to get people’s attention. This may sound like blasphemy, but I think some of the strength in bonds is due to a stronger economy. The evidence isn’t in just yet, but I suspect the bond market is already placing its bets.

    GDP for Q1 was bad. This week’s trade data indicates that the revisions will be even worse. In fact, it’s very likely that Q1 was negative. But that data is already somewhat aged. The first quarter ended more than five weeks ago. The recent initial jobless claims have been quite strong. These are some of the lowest numbers we’ve seen in decades.

    We’re also seeing that commodity prices are on the rise. Oil, in fact, has been hot. On Wednesday, West Texas Intermediate got as high as $62.58 per barrel. That’s up $20 per barrel from the March low. (Anyone else remember in February when Citigroup said oil could fall to $20 per barrel? Yeah, me neither.)

    The sour mood for bonds has been mirrored in the stock market by an increase in cyclical stocks. The chart below shows how the relative strength of Tech Stocks (XLK, black line) has closely followed the path of the 10-year Treasury yield (blue line). You can see it’s a pretty close fit.

    sc05082015

    I think this suggests some hidden strengths in the economy. Or at least, that it`s stronger than people currently expect. It also means that investors are willing to leave safe havens behind and dip their toes in riskier areas of the market. It’s interesting to see that the safe and secure Utility Sector (XLU) has lagged of late.

    I doubt the change in risk perception has much, if anything, to do with the Fed and the endless guessing about interest rates. The dollar’s been trending down, and gold hasn’t done much.

    My advice is to ignore the bond worries. That could be an issue at some point, but we’re still a long way away. A red flag is when the 2-year yield exceeds the 10-year. The 10-year still beats the 2-year by more than 150 basis points. The smart companies are taking advantage of low yields. Just this week, Oracle (ORCL) floated $1.25 billion in 40-year bonds. Microsoft (MSFT) floated $2.25 billion of 40-year paper in February.

    Investors should continue to focus on high-quality stocks like you’ll find on our Buy List. I think growth stocks will be more in favor over the next few months. Some names I especially like right now are Ford Motor (F), Ross Stores (ROST) and Wells Fargo (WFC).

    Moog Beats Earnings but Lowers Guidance Again

    Last Friday, Moog (MOG-A) reported fiscal-Q2 earnings of 96 cents per share. That was five cents more than estimates. Revenue came in at $637 million, which was down 2% from last year’s Q2.

    Frankly, this wasn’t a good quarter. As in Q1, Moog was hurt by currency. In particular, sales dropped 15% at their Industrial Systems segment. Moog’s CEO, John Scannell, noted that the company had some unusual charges last quarter: “Excluding these charges, our underlying business performed well in the face of an adverse shift in our aircraft sales and on-going macroeconomic headwinds. As we navigate through these challenges, we continue to focus on operational improvements, strong cash flow and allocating capital to create value for our shareholders.”

    In January, Moog lowered its full-year guidance from $4.25 to $3.85 per share, but that`s potentially $3.95 with share buybacks. They just lowered it again. Moog now sees full-year earnings of $3.55 per share. That includes 24 cents in special adjustments.

    The market didn’t like this news at all. The shares were over $72 last week. This week, they dropped under $66. I’m not pleased with Moog’s performance this year. I’m lowering my Buy Below to $72 per share.

    Cognizant Technology Solutions Earned 71 Cents per Share

    On Monday, Cognizant Technology Solutions (CTSH) released a very good earnings report. The IT outsourcer earned 71 cents per share last quarter, one penny more than estimates. Their guidance had been for EPS of at least 69 cents. (CTSH is a fan of using “at least” in their forecasts.) Revenue rose 20.2% to $2.91 billion. Guidance had been for at least $2.88 billion.

    For Q2, Cognizant forecasts earnings of at least 72 cents per share on revenue of at least $3.01 billion. For the whole year, they see earnings of at least $2.93 per share. That’s an increase of two cents per share from their earlier guidance. They also increased their revenue guidance from at least $12.21 billion to at least $12.24 billion.

    big05082015a

    The stock reacted very well to the earnings report. Bear in mind that CTSH had been weak going into the earnings, despite a strong year overall. I think some traders were worried that CTSH was about to drop an earnings dud. They were wrong. The stock gapped as much as 11% higher on Monday and reached a new 52-week high. The stock pulled back later in the week but finished the day on Thursday at $61.31 per share. It’s our top performer this year, with a gain of 16.43%. Not bad for early May! Cognizant remains a strong buy up to $66 per share.

    Fiserv: 30 Straight Years of Double-Digit Earnings Growth

    After the closing bell on Tuesday, Fiserv (FISV) reported Q1 earnings of 89 cents per share. That’s a very good number. That’s a 9% increase over last year’s Q1, and it’s three cents better than expectations. Adjusted revenue grew by 4% to $1.19 billion.

    “We are pleased with our strong start to the year,“ said Jeffery Yabuki, President and Chief Executive Officer of Fiserv. “Results for the quarter were consistent with our full-year expectations, highlighted by strong operating performance and excellent growth in free cash flow.”

    Fiserv reiterated their revenue and earnings forecasts for this year. They expect internal revenue to grow by 5% to 6% and EPS to range between $3.73 and $3.83. Since Fiserv made $3.37 per share last year, this year’s guidance works out to an earnings-growth rate of 11% to 14%. If that’s right, this will be Fiserv’s 30th-straight year of double-digit earnings growth. That’s simply amazing.

    The shares gapped up in early trading on Wednesday. At one point, FISV hit $80.79 per share, which is just shy of a new 52-week high. I like this stock a lot, but I urge investors not to chase Fiserv. Be patient and let good stocks come to you. Fiserv is an excellent buy up to $80 per share.

    Buy List Notes

    That’s the end of earnings season for our 16 Buy List stocks that have quarters ending in March. We have two Buy List stocks, Hormel Foods (HRL) and Ross Stores (ROST), which ended their quarters in April. Hormel will report Q2 earnings on Wednesday, May 20th, and Ross Stores follows the next day. I’ll have more details in next week’s issue.

    I also wanted to comment on last Friday’s big spike in Wabtec (WAB). The shares jumped more than 6.1%. The reason for the rally was new rules out of Washington. As it turns out, Wabtec is one of only two companies that make electronically controlled pneumatic (ECP) brakes for trains. The Department of Transportation said that trains with more than 70 tank cars will have to have ECP. If not, they can’t go more than 30 mph.

    The back story is that shipping oil by rail has skyrocketed in recent years. This year, it’s projected that 374 million barrels of oil will be shipped by rail. That’s up from 30 million in 2010. More shipments means more accidents, so the Feds are trying to improve safety—and that means ECP. Wabtec is a good buy up to $103 per share.

    That’s all for now. Earnings season winds down next week. There will be a few key economic reports coming our way. The retail sales report is on Wednesday. Wholesale inflation follows on Thursday, and industrial production is on Friday. Industrial production has been in a troubling downward trend since November. The March report was especially poor. I’m curious to see if this continues. Be sure to keep checking the blog for daily updates. I’ll have more market analysis for you in the next issue of CWS Market Review!

    – Eddy