Category: INO.com Contributors

Visa: The Valuation Conundrum In A Frothy Market

Posted on by Noah Kiedrowski

Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) continues to deliver phenomenal shareholder returns year after year, and thus far 2018 is no exception. Over the past year, Visa has appreciated 45% and currently sits at a 52-week high. Visa has become a top-performing perineal large-cap growth stock that continues to deliver despite emerging threats in the digital payments space, blockchain technology and maturing markets in the traditional payments space leading to slower growth prospects. I’ve been reluctant to get behind the stock of Visa considering its valuation, slowing growth and trends away from the traditional credit card space among the younger demographics that embrace PayPal (PYPL) and PayPal’s Venmo for payment options and exchanging payments between multiple parties.

Furthermore, Amazon (AMZN) may be disrupting the credit card transaction space with its potential launch of Amazon financial services and Amazon Pay. Despite Visa’s massive move over the past year, growth has become worrisome and touched down to single digits before bouncing back to double digits over the last two quarters. I feel that shareholders have become overly enthusiastic about Visa’s growth prospects. The stock has appreciated over 45% during the past year, boasts a P/E of over 35 and a PEG of over 2.0 in the midst of a frothy market. This scenario doesn’t provide a great benefit-reward profile at these levels in my opinion. Continue reading "Visa: The Valuation Conundrum In A Frothy Market" →

Oil Market Scenarios And Risks: 4Q18

Posted on by Robert Boslego

Major uncertainties loom toward the end of the year when sanctions are currently scheduled to go into effect by the U.S. regarding Iran. The range of potential outcomes is large, as it is possible that a deal may be reached with Iran which avoids sanctions (Iranian President Hassan Rouhani in a speech Sunday did not rule out peace between the U.S. and Iran), or Iran increases its exports to China and India, offsetting decreases to European countries. But the base case should assume some loss, on the order of 600,000 b/d.

President Trump has a few policy options to manage the size of the loss:

  • Pressuring the Saudis and other Gulf producers to maximize their output
  • Granting waivers so that more exports can flow
  • Ordering drawdowns of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, potentially coordinated with the International Energy Agency

But Iran’s production is not the only risk. Venezuela’s production is in a meltdown and production may drop to just one million barrels per day by the end of the year. Whether it could stabilize at that level is an open question and is sure to provide a risk premium to oil futures prices.

I created three scenarios to develop a range of likely global inventory levels and future oil prices. The base case “demand for OPEC crude” is from OPEC’s own July Monthly Oil Market Report. In all three scenarios, I assume production in Venezuela drops to one million barrels per day (mmbd) by 1Q19 and stabilizes there. I also assume that Saudi production rises to 11 mmbd and remains at that level and production increases in the UAE and Kuwait. Continue reading "Oil Market Scenarios And Risks: 4Q18" →

Should The Fed Be Above Criticism?

Posted on by George Yacik

I suppose it was just a matter of time, but Trump Derangement Syndrome (TDS) finally hit the bond market last week.

According to some experts, last week’s nearly 10 basis point jump in long-term Treasury bond yields was at least partially due to the president’s unprecedented and impertinent statement that he didn’t like the fact that the Federal Reserve was raising interest rates.

For the past two years, the financial markets have been an island of blissful ignorance, totally disregarding all of the nonsense swirling around the White House, whether real or invented. The S&P 500 has risen about 30% since Donald Trump’s election despite all of the clouds hanging over his presidency, from alleged collusion with the Russians to the Paul Manafort thing to Stormy Daniels to surrendering American sovereignty to Vladimir Putin.

But now apparently the president has finally stepped in it deep enough to rattle the markets.

Last week the yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note rose seven basis points to close the week just below 2.90%, its highest weekly close in a month. The yield on the 30-year bond jumped 10 bps to 3.03%, its highest level since June 26. According to the Wall Street Journal, some of that rise was due to Trump’s comments about Fed policy, neglecting to mention that the yield on the 10-year German government note – the European benchmark – was also up sharply last week, up nine bps on the week to 0.37%, its highest level since June 20.

So what did Trump say about the Fed that was so disturbing that it led some bondholders and traders to dump Treasury bonds and German Bunds? Continue reading "Should The Fed Be Above Criticism?" →

S&P 500: Not A Rocket!

Posted on by Aibek Burabayev

Back in May, I posted the alert about the upcoming rally of the index in case of the breakup of the triangular consolidation. Indeed, the S&P 500 already booked more than a 100 points gain from that day ($2679) but what I see in the chart now is not inspiring me these days.

Below is the new daily chart where I made the annotations to express my concerns.

S&P 500 Daily Chart: The Index Loses Steam Within A Possible Large Complex Correction

S&P 500 Daily Chart
Chart courtesy of tradingview.com

First of all, let me tell you why I gave the title “Not A Rocket” to this post. Usually, a good rally has a sharp angle of the trend, and anyone could easily identify it with the naked eye. This is what I was looking forward to giving the title for the earlier post using the proverbial phrase “Fasten Your Seatbelts.” Continue reading "S&P 500: Not A Rocket!" →

AMC Looks Compelling With Record-Setting Box Office Numbers

Posted on by Noah Kiedrowski

Introduction:

AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc. (AMC) is looking compelling in the midst of record-setting box office numbers, a robust slate of movies thus far in 2018 and through 2019, strong consumer demand, dividend yield of over 5% and accelerating revenue and EPS growth. AMC’s stock price is nearly 30% below its 52-week high despite coming off record first quarter numbers across all categories. Additionally, AMC is reengaging the consumer via digital, mobile and loyalty program options, reformatting theaters to enhance the user experience and international expansion augmented by a healthy share buyback program. AMC will report its Q2 earnings in early August, and the stock looks very attractive considering its depressed valuation, industry strength forecasted through the remainder of 2018 and through 2019 coupled with a slew of company initiatives to drive the consumer experience.

2018 Record-Setting Box Office Numbers:

Major theatrical releases continue to break U.S. box office revenue records thus far in 2018. Yearly box office revenue already topped $6 billion outpacing 2017 by 10% and the 2016 record year by 11%. Thus far 2018 has posted the second largest first quarter and record second quarter at the box office. U.S. box office revenues hit a record $3.3 billion in the second quarter due in large part to Disney’s (DIS) “Avenger’s: Infinity War” and “Incredibles 2” with domestic grosses of $673 and $440 million, respectively. The previous record was set in the second quarter of 2015 when the domestic box office drew $3.1 billion in revenue. It’s noteworthy to point out that April and June were record months at the box office and revenue from April to June was up ~23% compared to the same period in 2017 ending the second quarter on a strong foot. Furthermore, summer 2018 is currently pacing 19% ahead of 2017 with the third largest summer on record at the same point in the season. Overall, June brought in a record $1.269 billion in domestic box office receipts besting the previous record set in 2013 at $1.246 billion. Translating these numbers into actual ticket sales to normalize for inflation and actual demand, 2018 has seen the most ticket sales since 2010. Ticket sales for 2018 are estimated to be 675 million through the end of June, and compared to the previous two decades this is the seventh largest number of tickets sold and the most since 2010 when the number of tickets sold was 679.7 million. Continue reading "AMC Looks Compelling With Record-Setting Box Office Numbers" →