Week 317 - 2017 Barron’s 500 List: A-rated “Growth” Companies That Moved Up In Rank During The Commodity Recession

Situation: If you’re a stock-picker, your job description and mission is to beat the lowest-cost S&P 500 Index ETF (SPY) by ~3%/yr over 5 years. Why? To overcome the frictional costs of do-it-yourself investing, mainly transaction costs and erratic capital gains taxes. In last week’s blog, we highlighted hedging, i.e., over-weighting “defensive” stocks. This week we highlight growth, i.e., picking stocks that grow fast enough to compensate for the drag created by defensive stocks. You should do fine most years, if you invest in 15-20 companies from each category, follow their quarterly reports, and track industry trends. You’ll have to trade often, so find a way to keep trading costs down (~1% of Net Asset Value). 

Commodities anchor the economy, so the recent Commodity Recession (7/14-7/16) made it easy to see which companies are efficient, i.e., their “cash-flow-based return on investment” grew during that period. The Barron’s 500 List ranks companies by tracking that growth over the most recent 3 years.

Mission: Identify companies that moved up in rank last year. 

Execution: Eliminate companies that do not have S&P bond ratings of A- (or better) and S&P stock ratings of A-/M (or better). In the Table, emphasize Balance Sheet metrics (see Columns P-S). In the evaluation of Net Present Value (Columns V-Z), use a Discount Rate of 9%/yr and a Holding Period of 10 years. Assume that the investor pays the average transaction cost when buying or selling stock (2.5%). Highlight potential money-losing issues in purple.

Administration: This is where you come into the picture. You need to assemble information and make a choice. The Table has only 27 Columns of metrics, but it’s a start. Column Z (NPV) is a convenient summary of the combined effects of the current dividend, its rate of growth (using the past 4 years), and the approximate capital gain that would be realized upon selling the stock ten years from now (which is arrived at by extrapolating the 16-Yr CAGR in Column K). That NPV estimate is only as good as management’s ability to build the company’s Brand while maintaining a clean Balance Sheet. 

Bottom Line: The list has the names of only 9 companies. You’ll need to invest in more than 50 growth companies (to avoid Selection Bias). But these 9 are about as problem-free as any you’ll find. Why is it so difficult to identify reliably growing companies? Because growth never lasts. It has a beginning, a middle, and an end--when sales grow only as fast as the population in the company’s “catchment area.” Competition and innovation are huge factors. One cancels out the other over time.

Risk Rating: 6 (where 10-Yr Treasury Notes = 1, S&P 500 Index = 5, and gold = 10)

Full Disclosure: I own shares of TJX.

Post questions and comments in the box below or send email to: irv.mcquarrie@InvestTuneRetire.com

Week 316 - 2017 Barron’s 500 List: A-rated “Defensive” Companies That Moved Up In Rank During The Commodity Recession

Situation: A stock-picker can’t beat the market, given that transaction costs and tax inefficiencies reduce returns by 1-3%/yr compared to the lowest-cost S&P 500 Index fund  (VFINX), which returns 7-8%/yr. To effectively compete with that, stock picks would need to return 9%/yr. That’s one of the reasons why we use a discount rate of 9% when calculating Net Present Value. 

In business school, I was taught that there are only two ways to beat the market: Plan A is to trade on “insider information” (patently illegal); Plan B is to take outsize risks (i.e., run a portfolio where the capitalization-weighted 5-Yr Beta is greater than 1.0). Those of us who are employed full time in Financial Services may become good stock-pickers because we know a particular industry very well, the result being that we overweight our picks in that industry. In other words, we’re engaged in a legal form of insider trading. For example, doctors and dentists are often savvy traders of health-care stocks. 

The stock-picker who had the longest run beating the S&P 500 Index was Peter Lynch, who managed Fidelity’s Magellan Fund from 1977 through 1990. He relied on diversification, running ~1000 stocks with the help of a dozen analysts, but focussed on retail stocks. He claimed that the insights his wife shared with him after a day of shopping were pivotal to his success. You get the point: Invest in what you know.

But what about Plan B (risk taking)? Like Plan A, that approach requires you to run a portfolio concentrated in particular industries. But unlike Plan A, those stocks have to be in boring “Defensive” industries, i.e., the ones where sales grow only as fast as the population grows (Consumer Staples, Healthcare, Communication Services, and Utilities). By overweighting defensive industries, you insulate your portfolio. When the market crashes, those industries tend to keep on growing their earnings. Than means you’re following Warren Buffett’s Rule #1: Never Lose Money.

Mission: Analyze the recent Commodity Recession (see Column D at Line 26 in the Table), which was almost severe enough to keep both GDP and the S&P 500 Index from growing. 

Execution: see Table.

Administration: Commodities are a key driver of the economy, so the Commodity Recession gave us a rare opportunity to see which companies out-perform without that key driver. You’ll need some background information. Of the 22 commodity futures contracts that compose the Bloomberg Commodity Index, the 5 classified as “Energy” are strongest, with a combined weight of 30.57% (Natural Gas, Brent Crude Oil, West Texas Intermediate Crude Oil, Ultra-Low Sulfur Diesel, and Unleaded Gasoline). When those are down ~20%, the S&P 500 Index will barely rise even though GDP might keep going up. Whether we like it or not, the prices of petroleum products will be the best predictors of the stock market for the next 10+ yrs. To be successful, a stock-picker has to anticipate the ups and downs in prices for energy commodities, and be positioned to reap good returns from stocks of A-rated S&P 500 companies that maintain or improve their valuation metrics during a commodity recession. 

Key metrics relate to cash-flow based ROIC, specifically the most recent year vs. the 3-Yr median, as well as sales growth for the most recent year. The Barron’s 500 List (published each May) ranks the largest 500 companies on the New York and Toronto stock exchanges in terms of those 3 metrics. We’re interested in knowing the names of ALL the A-ranked S&P 500 companies that moved up in rank. Most of those will be in “Defensive” industries. The few that are in “Growth” industries either have a business plan that allows them to be “hardy perennials,” or enjoy a special situation that allows them to take advantage of a Commodity Recession. This week we cover “Defensive” industries. Next week we’ll cover the few “Growth” industry out-performers.    

Bottom Line: The costs associated with owning the Vanguard 500 Index Fund (VFINX) are nil, whereas, the costs of owning (and trading) stock in a few dozen companies are substantial. And, the capital gains taxes that you’ll pay each year for trading those stocks are erratic and immediate vs. what you’ll pay upon eventually selling your VFINX shares. Your stock portfolio has to outperform the S&P 500 Index by 2-3%/yr to equal the returns you’d realize from owning VFINX shares. Invest smart, by knowing that the market goes down eventually and doing something about it ahead of time. Either stick to industries you know, or hedge by overweighting the stocks of companies in “Defensive Industries.” The 14 shown in the Table are a good place to start your research. Pay close attention to Columns P-S because even these companies can swoon in a market crash if they have messy Balance Sheets (messiness is highlighted in purple).

Risk Rating: 6 (where 1 = 10-Yr Treasury Notes, 5 = S&P 500 Index, 10 = gold)

Full Disclosure: I dollar-average into JNJ and KO, and also own shares of HRL and WMT.

Post questions and comments in the box below or send email to: irv.mcquarrie@InvestTuneRetire.com

Week 315 - High-quality Dividend Achievers That Beat The S&P 500 For 30 Years With Less Risk

Situation: The S&P 500 Index has risen faster than underlying earnings for the past 8 years. The main reason is that the Federal Reserve purchased over 3 Trillion dollars worth of government bonds and mortgages (including “non-conforming” private mortgages that carry no government guarantee). As intended, this flooded our economy with money that could be borrowed at historically low interest rates. Now the Federal Reserve is looking to start bringing that money back, by accepting the repayment of principal when loans mature instead of renewing (“rolling over”) the loans. This will result in a balance sheet “roll-off” that reduces the amount of money in circulation. Think of it as a “bail-in” to rebalance Treasury accounts, which will reverse the “bail-out” of Wall Street in 2008-9. Interest rates will slowly rise. Investors will once again have to consider the attractiveness of owning bonds in place of stocks. “Risk-on” investments, i.e., growth stocks and stocks issued by smaller companies, will be less sought after but “risk-off” investments (defensive stocks and corporate bonds) will be more sought after. Most of the stocks that have outperformed the S&P 500 over the past 25 years (see Week 314) and 35 years (see Week 313) have been issued by companies in “defensive” industries. 

Mission: Look at 30 year statistics by using the BMW Method, to possibly find more stocks that outperform the S&P 500 Index while taking on less risk.  

Execution: see Table. 

Bottom Line: We have turned up 3 new companies: two from defensive industries (Archer Daniels Midland “ADM” and Kimberly-Clark “KMB”) and one from a growth industry (WW Grainger “GWW”). That makes a total of 11 companies from the 4 S&P “defensive” industries (Utilities, Healthcare, Consumer Staples, and Communication Services): CHD, MKC, BDX, WTR, ED, GIS, CVS, PEP, PG, ADM, KMB. And, 5 from the 6 S&P “growth” industries (Consumer Discretionary, Industrials, Information Technology, Materials, Energy, and Financial Services): APD, MMM, MCD, GPC, GWW. 

In other words, the companies that make really good long-term investments are twice as likely to be from “risk-off” defensive industries than from “risk-on” growth industries. But think about what that implies, given that 2/3rds of the companies in the S&P 100 Index represent growth industries. If you want to beat the S&P 500 Index long-term, you’ll have to reverse that ratio and have 2/3rds of your money in defensive stocks. 

Risk Rating: 5 (10-Yr Treasury Note = 1, S&P 500 Index = 5, Gold = 10)

Full Disclosure: I own shares of MCD, MMM, GIS, MKC.

Post questions and comments in the box below or send email to: irv.mcquarrie@InvestTuneRetire.com

Week 314 - High-quality Dividend Achievers That Beat The S&P 500 For 25 Years With Less Risk

Situation: See last week’s blog (Week 314 - High-quality Dividend Achievers That Beat The S&P 500 For 25 Years With Less Risk). 

To “buy-and-hold” a stock, we want the underlying company to have a long record of stable price growth that outperforms the lowest-cost S&P 500 Index fund (VFINX). Otherwise, we would simply invest in VFINX and forget about picking stocks. We would also like those companies to have had less stock price volatility than VFINX over a long period of time. The necessary statistical data is found at the BMW Method website. 

Mission: For this week’s blog, we’ll look at how publicly-traded stocks have performed over 25 year holding periods. 

Execution: see Table.

Administration: We exclude companies that do not have high ratings from S&P on their stocks and bonds. We also exclude companies that S&P hasn’t designated as Dividend Achievers. “Less risk” is defined as a statistically lower risk of loss at 2 standard deviations below trendline than that for the S&P 500 Index (see Column M in the Table, where red highlights denote more risk).

Bottom Line: After analysis, we are not surprised to find that 5 of the 8 companies also starred in last week’s blog, where we used a 35 year holding period as opposed to this week’s 25 year period. The newcomers are Procter & Gamble (PG), Genuine Parts (GPC) and PepsiCo (PEP). Six of the 8 companies represent “defensive” industries, while in last week’s blog, 7 of the 10 companies were from those industries (consumer staples, utilities, healthcare, and communication services). Now we know why investors don’t overweight their portfolios with relatively safe (i.e., defensive) stocks, i.e., the ones that have a better chance of outperforming the S&P 500 Index simply because they rarely fall in price. Defensive stocks are boring! Yes, growth stocks are more likely to zip upward in price. But that comes with a statistically equal chance of zipping downward. Most of us pick stocks because we like to see that upward zip once in awhile, not because we hew closely to a disciplined approach for beating the S&P 500 long-term. 

Risk Rating: 6 (where 10-Yr Treasury Notes = 1, S&P 500 Index = 5, and gold = 10)

Full Disclosure: I dollar-average into PG and own shares of GIS and MKC.

Post questions and comments in the box below or send email to: irv.mcquarrie@InvestTuneRetire.com

Week 313 - High-quality Dividend Achievers That Beat The S&P 500 For 35 Years With Less Risk

Situation: Most investors don’t like to micromanage their stock holdings, preferring instead to “buy-and-hold.” But we occasionally lose money because we haven’t been paying adequate attention. Deciding when to sell is much harder than deciding when to buy. The basic rule is to buy stocks with an ROIC (Return On Invested Capital) that is more than twice their WACC (Weighted Average Cost of Capital), then sell when they no longer meet that standard. But that approach doesn’t work for technology stocks, where the ROIC is many times greater than the WACC, or for many stable and/or slowly growing companies. For example, Berkshire Hathaway (BRK-B) has had an ROIC that is only a little higher than its WACC for long periods.

If we are to “buy-and-hold” a stock, the underlying company needs to have a long record of stable price growth that outperforms the lowest-cost S&P 500 Index fund (VFINX). Otherwise, we would simply invest in VFINX and forget about picking stocks. We would also like those companies to have had less stock price volatility than VFINX over a long period of time . . . decades. The necessary statistical data is found at the BMW Method website.

Mission: For this week’s blog, we’ll look at how publicly-traded stocks have performed over 35 year holding periods. Next week, we’ll run the same spreadsheet for 25 year holding periods and the following week we’ll look at the 30 year period.

Execution: see Table.

Administration: We exclude companies that do not have high ratings from S&P on their stocks and bonds. We also exclude companies that S&P hasn’t designated as Dividend Achievers. “Less risk” is defined as a statistically lower risk of loss at 2 standard deviations below trendline than that for the S&P 500 Index (see Column M in the Table, where red highlights denote more risk).

Bottom Line: After analysis, we find that all 10 companies had better price returns than our benchmark (VBINX) over the two year correction in commodity prices from July of 2014 to July of 2016. Most of these companies showed unusually strong performance, meaning investors chose to shunt money away from commodity-related companies and into these companies. It is instructive to get an idea as to why these company’s products and services seemed more valuable to investors. Yes, it was a “risk-off” decision. This is because investors know that the best way to make money is to avoid losing money. Of the 10 stocks highlighted here, only 3 (MCD, MMM, APD) are in “growth” industries; the others are in “defensive” industries (healthcare, consumer staples, and utilities) where earnings tend to hold up better in a downturn. But why not build a portfolio of “risk-off” investments in the first place, given that those appear to outperform the S&P 500 Index over long periods? We’ll check that theory out at 25 and 30 year holding periods, to see how well it holds up. In the meantime, remember Warren Buffett’s Rule #1: “Never lose money.”

Risk Rating: 6 (where 10-Yr US Treasury Notes = 1, S&P 500 Index = 5, and gold = 10)

Full Disclosure: I own shares of GIS, MCD, MKC, and MMM.

Note: We use discounted cash flow from dividends and sale of the stock (after a 10-Yr holding period) to estimate Net Present Value; see Columns U-Y in the Table. The exponential growth rate in stock price over the next 10 years is estimated to be an extrapolation of the growth in stock price over the past 16 years. The Discount Rate is set at 9%, meaning that a stock with a positive NPV would return more over 10 years than a 10-Yr US Treasury Note paying 9%/Yr. Dividend Growth over the next 10 years is extrapolated from Dividend Growth over the past 4 years. Be aware that our NPV calculation is for comparative purposes only. Any rise in the rate of interest paid by 10-Yr Treasury Notes would diminish stock NPVs, provided that those Notes continue to carry a AAA credit rating from S&P.

Red highlights in the Table denote underperformance relative to our benchmark: Vanguard Balanced Index Fund (VBINX) at Line 18. Purple highlights denote metrics of concern.

Post questions and comments in the box below or send email to: irv.mcquarrie@InvestTuneRetire.com