Category: INO.com Contributors

Disney Quietly Retreats - Buying Opportunity

Posted on by Noah Kiedrowski

Noah Kiedrowski - INO.com Contributor - Biotech


The Quiet Buying Opportunity

The Walt Disney Company (NYSE:DIS) has quietly retreated from its recent highs of $116 to sub $104 thus presenting a buying opportunity in this media juggernaut heading into earnings. We’ve all heard the endless bickering over its slumping ESPN franchise. Although ESPN makes up a disproportionate amount of the company’s revenue, all of its other franchises are posting healthy growth hence Disney will be relying less and less on its ESPN franchise over the coming years. Disney’s perpetual stock slump leading up to its recent resurgence was almost entirely attributable to the decrease in ESPN subscribers and subsequent revenue and profit declines from that franchise. The ESPN franchise within the Media Networks segment generates revenue/operating income that is disproportionate to the amount of the company’s overall revenue and operating profit. Thus, one can see why investors were spooked after consecutive significant declines in ESPN subscribers and thus financial numbers over the past three years. Excluding ESPN, Disney has been executing well and reporting record numbers throughout all of its other business segments. Disney has a deep and diversified enough entertainment portfolio that makes a compelling case that these ESPN fears are overblown. Disney offers a compelling long-term investment opportunity considering the growth, pipeline, diversity of its portfolio, share repurchase program and dividend growth in light of this recent retreat.

Long-Term Narrative and Positive Analyst Sentiment

I’ve been a long bull of Disney (DIS) stock, particularly since the post-ESPN induced sell-off throughout 2016. Since the lows of October 2016, Disney has seen a huge appreciation in stock price, breaking out to above $116 per share before this current downtrend. This upswing has been on the heels of multiple catalysts such as of reporting record annual results, breaking the all-time worldwide box-office record, witnessing a slew of analyst upgrades, Iger extending his contract as CEO, ESPN woes subsiding, Shanghai Disney opening and Disney’s movie line-up announced through 2020. This inflection point coincided with Doctor Strange, Moana and Star Wars Rouge One in calendar Q4 of 2016 followed by record openings for its live action film, Beauty and the Beast and Guardians of the Galaxy 2. The stock fell from the $120s in late 2015 to the high $80s and had been stuck in the $80-$90 range all throughout 2016. That stock slump offered investors an opportunity to purchase a high-quality company at a significant discount. Continue reading "Disney Quietly Retreats - Buying Opportunity" →

Exchange Traded Funds Are Becoming More Popular Because of This One Undeniable Benefit

Posted on by Matt Thalman

Matt Thalman - INO.com Contributor - ETFs


The vast majority of American investors do so through mutual funds, but that trend seems to be changing for the better because investing for the masses is getting a lot cheaper.

Data from 2016 indicated that over half of U.S. households invested in mutual funds and the industries total assets under management were $16.34 trillion at the end of the year. Over the past few years net cash inflows to mutual funds have been shrinking and even turned negative in 2015. In 2007 cash inflows to mutual funds hit an all-time high at $879 billion, which makes sense because this was the peak of the market before the crash caused by the housing crisis. In 2009, 2010, and 2011 cash inflows were negative, -$146 billion, -$282 billion and -$96 billion respectively.

In 2012 cash in-flows returned positive and hit $200 billion, but the industry has seen declining in-flow ever since; $177 billion in 2013, $104 billion in 2014, a negative $101 billion in 2015 and even worse a negative $229 billion in 2016.

It was easy to see and understand why mutual funds experienced cash flow decline in 2008, 2009, and 2010 as the market was falling and investors were scared. But the fact that less money is moving into mutual funds while the stock market in general has increased the past few year's means there is likely a larger force at play. Continue reading "Exchange Traded Funds Are Becoming More Popular Because of This One Undeniable Benefit" →

Is Amazon Threatening CVS Health?

Posted on by Noah Kiedrowski

Noah Kiedrowski - INO.com Contributor - Biotech


Introduction

CVS Health Corporation (NYSE:CVS) has been stuck in a sideways trend since selling off over 24% from August through November 2016. CVS fell from an all-time high of ~$112 per share in 2015 to ~$70 in November of 2016 wiping out 38% of its enterprise value. Since its high of $112 in 2015, a slew of issues negatively impacting its growth and marketplace have plagued the stock. Firstly, the political backdrop was a major headwind for the entire pharmaceutical supply chain from drug manufacturers to pharmacies/pharmacy benefit managers (i.e. CVS and Walgreens) and the drug wholesalers in-between (i.e. McKesson and Cardinal Health). Secondly, recent marketplace trends forced CVS to cut guidance for Q4 2016 and the full-year 2017 numbers. CVS stated that “unexpected marketplace actions that will have a negative impact on our Q4 2016 results and a more meaningful impact on our outlook for 2017”. Thirdly, CVS lost a contract with the Department of Defense which carries tens of millions of prescriptions on an annual basis. A new restricted network relationship between Prime Therapeutics and Walgreens impacts CVS Pharmacy’s participation in selected fully-insured networks in several key states and in many cases make CVS Pharmacy a non-preferred provider for Medicare Part D as well. These prescriptions tend to be the most profitable prescriptions as well. Lastly, Amazon’s purchase of Whole Foods has incited rumors that Amazon is looking to gain entry into the pharmacy space via leveraging the Whole Foods physical footprint of store fronts. I’ve written several articles contending that CVS presents a compelling investment opportunity in the ever expanding healthcare space. My investment thesis was based on proposed sector consolidation (Rite Aid and Walgreens), aging population and growth in long-term care facilities and the pharmacy benefit management segment. All of this in a backdrop of CVS being highly acquisitive, continuing to deliver robust earnings growth, revenue growth, growing dividends and has an aggressive share buyback program in place. It’s a matter of time before CVS will trend higher and in the meantime investors will be paid to wait via dividends and share buybacks. The wildcard may be the Amazon threat with its first real pivot after acquiring Whole Foods with subsequent potential in entering the pharmacy space as well. Continue reading "Is Amazon Threatening CVS Health?" →

The Gold Clone: Time's Up

Posted on by Aibek Burabayev

Aibek Burabayev - INO.com Contributor - Metals


Last week time ran out for the clone of the previous consolidation in the gold chart that I posted in April. I’ve updated the chart with a snapshot of the experiment’s result.

Snapshot Of The Experiment’s Results: Good, But Not Ideal

Gold
Chart courtesy of tradingview.com

All experiments are some sort of magic as we have an idea in our mind and try to apply it in the real world through an uncountable series of experiments to reach the desired result. But any result is a step forward to better understand what is going on in the real world. And the many side effects can bring us something genuinely new, especially when the experiment brings you an unexpected result. Continue reading "The Gold Clone: Time's Up" →

Janet From Another Planet

Posted on by George Yacik

George Yacik - INO.com Contributor - Fed & Interest Rates


For most of the past 10 years the financial markets have been led if not actually directed by the all-knowing, all-seeing Federal Reserve. But over the past year or so the roles have changed, or at least the markets have basically stopped listening to the Fed.

Case in point: Last week the Fed, largely as expected, voted 8-to-1 to raise short-term interest rates by another 25 basis points; Minneapolis Fed President Neel Kashkari, who wanted to keep rates unchanged, was the lone dissenter. The Fed has now raised its benchmark federal funds rate three times since last December.

Normally, that move should have induced long-term rates – which are set by traders and investors in the bond market, not the Fed – to rise, too. But that hasn’t happened. In fact, long-term rates have gone in the other direction, falling to their lowest levels since last November, to the point where the yield curve – the difference between short-term and long-term rates – has flattened out to a point we haven’t seen in years.

Last week the yield on the U.S. Treasury’s benchmark 10-year note ended at 2.15%, which is down nearly 50 basis points from a recent high of 2.63% three months ago. Over that same period, the yield on the three-month T-bill has risen by about 25 bps, from 0.75% to 1.01%. That means the difference between the two has been cut to about 115 bps from 188 bps in just three months.

Why the disconnect between what the Fed is doing, and thinks is happening, and what the bond market perceives is really happening? Continue reading "Janet From Another Planet" →