Wednesday, June 25, 2014

Warren Wednesday: H2 1962

Warren's letters are starting to grow in size and you can tell with his writing that he is getting used to reporting and giving updates...

H2 1962
Written: January 18, 1963
Length: 13 pages
SourceRPCPA.com
S&P return for 1962: -11.81%
Buffett's return for 1962:  +13.9%
Major events: Marylin Monroe dies. Nelson Mandela is arrested for incitement to rebellion. Cuban Missile Crisis.

I find it humorous that Warren talks about people wanting his annual letter to be shorter. I guess 7 pages a year is too much to read for someone making you ridiculously rich especially this year where he absolutely demolishes the markets. Tripling them over a 6 year average

He goes over (again) some basics that there are no guarantees of returns, problems of taking out monthly payments etc. The same warnings he gives each year. He also reviews his numbers compared to two big investment funds which he also beats handily. He talks about the power of compounding interest which after having read the Snowball where he tells his kids not to sell their shares, I have to take this as a warning to the monthly payment partners.


Alright now for something we in the 21st century can use... how he breaks down his portfolio.

1: "Generals":  Regular investments where Buffett has no say on the boards.
5-6 positions of 5%-10% each
10-15 positions of smaller size. 
But isn't Warren famous for saying only invest in your 6 best ideas because the 7th one won't make as much money. THIS is exactly why I wanted to read his letters. Separate the sound bites and quotes he gives to general public. What is he thinking and do with his own money.

2: "Work Outs": Companies that take some corporate action to be profitable. Selling of assets, merger and acquisition, spin off.

5-10 positions.
Interesting comment her by Warren...
I believe in using borrowed money to offset a portion of our work-out portfolio, since there is a high degree of safety in this category in terms of both eventual results as well as intermediate market behavior.
He will borrow 10%-20% of the partnership's assets up to 25% maximum. He mentions 5% interest rates. Boy who wouldn't kill for some of that right now in ZIRP.
I don't know if this strategy would work in this day and age. Taking a loan to buy stock with the hope of them being bought out or spinning off a new company. To me it seems way to risky in this day and age.

3: "Control" Companies that he is working on buying out or just activist investing in. The smallest category and one where he says will take years to play out.


     Next he talks about the highlight of 1962, Dempster Mill Manufacturing Company. Dempster made farming instruments, water supplies, and well equipment and Buffett owned 73% of the company. His dollar cost average was $28 and he calculated book value as being $35. You really aren't going to find many companies under book these days but I think we can do something similar with P/E ratios in evaluating undervalued companies. I've owned a few 3 P/E ratio companies in the past.

     So Warren tried to work with management to get them to start being profitable instead of lagging sales and low inventory turnover. They didn't so he put a man named Harry Bottle in charge. By the end of the year the book value had risen to $51.
     I am not entirely sure but from the sound of it he turned the financials around and got an unsecured loan. Still had $16 a share worth of manufacturing but the $35 left over was financial which they then used to by more "generals" stock of other companies. 

He repeats a section that he had in a previous year that I think is critical and will repost it...

You will not be right simply because a large number of people momentarily agree with you. You will not be right simply because important people agree with you. In many quarters the simultaneous occurance of the two above factors is enough to make a course of action meet the test of conservatism.
You will be right, over the course of many transaction, if your hypotheses is correct, your factors are correct, and your reasoning is correct. True conservatism is only possible through knowledge and reason
He next goes into discussion of total return isn't his goal but in beating the market. He did have one section of wording that really stuck out to me...
Our job is to pile up yearly advantages...
Note he didn't say his goal or job is to make a lot of money. Or buy cheap undervalued companies. Its to get advantages. This pleases me because its something I have tried to focus on in my own investing. An advantage to me is a reason why the company will outperform others. 
It could be a 5%-10% yearly share buyback rate that gives management a big cushion in growing EPS. (SWY, AAPL, STX)
It could be hugely undervalued (CIG, AFL, AFSI)
It could have a high but staple yield that you can get profit from that regardless of what the share price does (ARCP, PSEC).
Though I am in no way comparing myself to Buffett, just that I am happy to be thinking along similar lines as he did.

Warren ends his letter with some personal call outs and general miscellaneous discussion.



Disclaimer: The investments and trades discussed are not recommendations for others. I am not a financial planner, financial adviser, accountant, or tax adviser. The financial actions I talk about are for my own portfolio and money and only suited for my own risk tolerance, strategy, and ideas. Copying another person's financial moves can lead to large losses. Each person needs to do their due diligence in researching and planning their own actions in the financial markets.

Sold Cemig (CIG)

Just a quick update. I went and sold Cemig (CIG) @ $8.10. The more I looked at it the more I had to realize why I got into the position in the first place. Capital gains. Its a utility company with less then 2% EPS growth and their dividend policy is they will pay out 50%. There is no growing dividend stream here with this one.

They changed their dividend policy to have 1 ex-dividend date for the entire years of dividends and will make one payment in June vs half June and half December so I do not have to hold for the rest of the year.
CIG could well keep on going up but I decided to sell because I know there is a 5% drop whenever it goes ex-div. The U.S. exchanges just haven't realized it yet.
If something happens and I do not get the dividend? Then I am glad I am out because their policy is too odd and confusing for me to be comfortably

I ended up with a +41% gain for a 4 month position so I really can't complain about how much I might have left on the table if only I risked some more. Thats a sure way to blowing up your account.

Disclaimer: The investments and trades discussed are not recommendations for others. I am not a financial planner, financial adviser, accountant, or tax adviser. The financial actions I talk about are for my own portfolio and money and only suited for my own risk tolerance, strategy, and ideas. Copying another person's financial moves can lead to large losses. Each person needs to do their due diligence in researching and planning their own actions in the financial markets.

Saturday, June 21, 2014

Going a little defensive.

The market's seem a little, well odd at the moment. For the past several years no bit of bad news has shaken equities out of their bull market. Not Crimea, NSA, China slowdown, quantitative easing, Iraq, Turkey, nothing. Every bear case has been ignored and pushed onwards. We are starting to get into high valuations of the market. Note I am not saying we prices. High prices mean NOTHING. Its all about the valuations of price to the fundamentals of an asset and market.

Money seems to be coming back everywhere AFTER a 5 year equity bull market with S&P 500 +7%. Emerging markets are rising with EEM +8.4%. Other assets too are rising, GLD +7%, TLT +9.4%. Normally something should be dropping as money is coming from one asset class to another. All this money seems to be cash that has been idle on the sidelines for years. That's concerning to me as its so late in the game this could be "dumb money" chasing profits and jumping in at the wrong time as its oft to do.

The VIX measures volatility of the S&P500. How fast and how far is it moving. Its at record lows and could dip below 10. During 2008 and 2009 it was in the 60-80 range. Things are quiet out there. Perhaps too quiet.

At this time of year we have "Sell in May and go away" where the volume in the markets drops off for the summer until fall picks up again.

All this can breed complacency which I have come to learn is right when something goes wrong with the markets and people's portfolios. I'm not wanting to flat out sell my positions. Many of them are income that I want to keep for years. However where I will differ from most of my dividend investing brothern is that I don't want to completely ignore my capital gains. I am also seeing things way overvalued in my portfolio that looks like its running out of steam. I'm not ready to put on some SPY puts for defensiveness. I see no reason for the market to go down. All I am acknowledging is that we are in an environment where we have an increased chance of something stupid happening.

I have stop losses on the following positions so that in the case of a general market reversal, drop, crash, freak out, whatever you want to call it, I am ready.

Cemig (CIG) @ $7.99: I am looking at a 45% gain on this one. As you can see from fastgraphs, their EPS is dropping. I'm not worried about that but I am worried about Brazil and their inflation and economic problems. Brazil (EWZ) is up 25% since March. Maybe its on fire and will continue, maybe its going to need a break. CIG has announced their entire yearly dividend will be paid soon vs installments. The exchanges are terrible at recording CIG ex-div dates. I already qualify for the 5% payment but the price has not dropped down. I can get the dividend and the full share price. I'm debating selling it first thing Monday as this is one of my more complex positions and I don't fully understand it.
Not knowing your position, in a foreign market, when you know a 5% price drop is coming with all the above oddities in the markets I am seeing? I don't know if I am willing to risk 45% gains on all that uncertainty.


Coca-Cola (KO) @ $39.59: Every time it rises this far above its P/E it pulls back. 22 P/E.

Potash (POT) @ $33.40 (below the 200 day SMA): Their earnings are a mess due to the breaking up of the potash cartel and I bought after that crash in 2013. I added in later as it looked like the cartel would recombine. Now with Russian potash deals with China and problems in the Ukraine, I don't know anymore. Fastgraphs is showing some big valuation problems. Where it once was undervalued its not getting over its historic P/E range.


Seagate (STX) @ $48.90 (below its recent low): I've enjoyed a beautiful multi-year run with them and have 120% return. But I see its tired and failed 3 times to break and hold $60 range this year. I got into them because of their share buyback program which ends this year. As we can see with fastgraphs, It never really gets to its valuation potential. Most tech companies do not so I am seeing how far it is above its historic P/E range (blue line) and thinking overvalued.


Prospect Capital (PSEC) @ $8.83: PSEC recently had some SEC concerns that they were not reporting earnings correctly. It had to do with how they were reporting their subsidiary profits. PSEC appealed and the SEC withdrew their complaint. There is some concerns that PSEC cannot maintain the dividend and for business development companies? The dividend is everything and I would expect a massive drop to equal the dividend cut.
Note: Fastgraphs doesn't do BDCs because fastgraphs does not report NII, they only do EPS and FFO for reits.

ConocoPhillips (COP) @ $77.90. I'm looking at 50% capital gains and then I look at their valuation on fastgraphs and its looking dangerous.


McDonald's (MCD) sold @ $99.90. This stop got triggered and I am out. I have been with MCD for several years and enjoyed a nice gain. They are having problems breaking through and holding $110. Yes their valuation are rising but I have other places for money then things going sideways.



I don't like trying to time the markets. Nobody can do that consistently and it causes missed opportunities and drag on your portfolio from transaction fees and taxes. However given the environment we are in, the time of the year, and the valuations of the above positions I am comfortable with becoming "defensive".

Disclaimer: The investments and trades discussed are not recommendations for others. I am not a financial planner, financial adviser, accountant, or tax adviser. The financial actions I talk about are for my own portfolio and money and only suited for my own risk tolerance, strategy, and ideas. Copying another person's financial moves can lead to large losses. Each person needs to do their due diligence in researching and planning their own actions in the financial markets.

Friday, June 20, 2014

My updated Lending Club screen

I have updated my Lending Club screening process in how I find notes in the secondary market. As Lending Club is becoming a bigger and bigger part of my portfolio, I have created its own page. Of course it'll have its own spreadsheet. You guys know how I love my spreadsheets!

I actively avoid the normal platform. The place where people can fund brand new loans. We have over 5 years of data that Lending Club provides us and I found that about 80% of all defaults occur within the first year. If I can avoid this time frame I can give myself a huge edge. So I invest on the trading platform where I buy existing notes. After a loan is funded everyone gets a note with a principal value of whatever they contributed. This is now a financial asset and can be bought and sold in an over the counter market.
The advantage here is there is a lot of screening tools available to pick what type of loan I want.

The following is my screening process.

1: 700+ credit score. I want to focus in on the people who have made good past financial choices and are just needing help to get out of debt.
2: Rising credit score trend. Are they making good choices outside of their Lending Club loan in turning their finances around or are they just using me as another stop gap to bankruptcy?
3: Never late or missed a payment.
4: 40-50 payments remaining. I want to avoid most of the first year default range but I want enough time to work with a solid borrower to make interest from.
5: 4% maximum markup by the seller. I understand they want to make an extra payment or two and am willing to work with them but I won't be gouged. A couple months of interest is what I will give up.
6: 16%+ net interest. Lending Club tells you the interest after fees and seller mark up. I want to be sure I hit a nice level.

After the screen is ran then I screen further manually
7: "Credit Card Consolidation" or "Debt Consolidation". I want to work with people who understand they made mistakes and wanting to get out of debt. I have no interest in giving you a 20% loan for a motorcycle or 25% loan to cover your margin call in the commodities market (I have seen those!).
8: Debt-to-Income < 20%. I hold myself to a high standard of keeping my expenses down so that I have room to absorb emergencies in my life. I expect my borrowers to do the same. Emergencies will always come up and we have to be prepared for them.
9: Revolving Line Utilization < 90%. Along the same line, I want my borrowers not to have used me as their lender of last resort and have wiggle room for emergencies in their life if they need additional credit. I'd prefer a 60% or 70% but I do have to understand most people coming to Lending Club are at the end of their rope.

With these requirements I hope to avoid the majority of defaults and allow me to hit high net yields. I will still get some defaults, Lending Club gets their cut, the seller of the note will get their cut, and there will be taxes. My goal is to have a 12%+ net interest yield after taxes.
Right now I have 11.97% pre taxes but it is drifting higher.

Disclaimer: The investments and trades discussed are not recommendations for others. I am not a financial planner, financial adviser, accountant, or tax adviser. The financial actions I talk about are for my own portfolio and money and only suited for my own risk tolerance, strategy, and ideas. Copying another person's financial moves can lead to large losses. Each person needs to do their due diligence in researching and planning their own actions in the financial markets.

Monday, June 9, 2014

Dividend CCC Review: May 2014

Getting back on track with my screens at the beginning of the month. Change things up this month as usual. I feel its important to change the screen slightly or you'll keep getting the same ones and not many new ones

Dividend Score: Yield, 5 year dividend growth rate, and Payout Ratio
Fundamental Score: P/E, Graham Valuation, and the % below the 200 day simple moving average (SMA)
My thought is this time around I'd see if I couldn't buy something on a nice pullback.

Name Symbol Industry Div Fund Score
Horace Mann Educators  HMN Insurance 5 4 9
ACE Limited ACE Insurance 3 4 7
PennyMac Mort Inv Tr PMT REIT-Residential 2 5 7
Western Union Co WU Financial Services 5 1 6
BOK Financial Corp. BOKF Banking 4 2 6
BHP Billiton plc BBL Mining/Oil&Gas 4 2 6
Chevron Corp. CVX Oil & Gas 4 2 6
Textainer Group Hold TGH Transportation 4 2 6
Rent-A-Center Inc. RCII Retail-Specialty 2 4 6
SeaDrill Limited SDRL Oil&Gas Drilling 2 4 6
Monarch Fin Hold Inc. MNRK Banking 2 4 6
Bar Harbor Bankshares BHB Banking 2 4 6
Hanover Insnce Group THG Insurance 2 4 6
Old Republic Internati ORI Insurance 2 4 6
Travelers Companies TRV Insurance 2 4 6
Principal Financial Gr PFG Financial Services 4 1 5
Frisch's Restaurants Inc. FRS Restaurants 3 2 5
TAL Int Group Inc. TAL Rental/Leasing Services 2 3 5
PartnerRe Limited PRE Insurance 2 3 5
Territorial Bancorp TBNK Banking 1 4 5
Triangle Capital Corp. TCAP BDC-Financial Services 1 4 5


Companies quick to cross off...
ACE: Previously crossed off
PMT: Previously crossed off
WU: Previously crossed off
BBL: Previously crossed off
TGH: Previously crossed off
RCII: Previously crossed off
SDRL: Previously crossed off
THG: Previously crossed off
TRV: Previously crossed off
PFG: Previously crossed off
TAL: Previously crossed off
PRE: Previously crossed off
TCAP: Previously crossed off


New companies for possible review...
HMN: Horace Mann Educators Corp: Thought it would be something with education but its a holding company for insurance companies. I'm long AFL and AFSI, I need another like I need another goldbug telling me the stock market is going to crash.

BOKF: BOK Financial Corp: A holding company of small regional banks covering 8 states. Fastgraph's is showing they are down EPS for the past two years and they are now at fairvalue. Think this one falls under the too late category.

MNRK: Monarch FInancial Holdings: A regional bank of Virginia. I didn't recognize them so wanted to take a peak. Not sure what happened in 2013 share price wise but I want none of that.

BHB: Bar Harbor Bankshares: A holding company of banks. Fastgraphs shows that the share price really hugs the historic P/E of 7.6 which its at now. This really doesn't increase in share price and a 5% dividend growth rate and 5% EPS growth rate means thats all I will get. I want my potential to be more than that.

ORI: Old Republic International: An insurance holding company. This is one of the scariest Fastgraph's I have seen. Overvalued, dropping EPS currently, and it goes to 0 EPS for 4 straight years.

FRS: Frisch's Restaurants: A restaurant chain of "Frisch's Big Boy". About 110 or so locations. They had a huge dividend in 2012 but nothing really gets me excited about this one.

TBNK: Territorial Bancorp Inc: A holding company for a Hawaii regional bank. What is it with holding companies this month? Its share price has dropped this year on expected lower EPS. I want a pullback with increased EPS as safety I don't want to gamble on something silly happening to go against bad fundamentals.


This month's research screen winner...
CVX: Chevron: So almost every month this comes up and I write it off because I already own COP. But I have a 60% total return with COP. Seeing as how COP currently has a -1, its time I look to rotate out. Usually my pick of the month looks really good or is some exotic off the wall stock I have never heard of. CVX is probably about as big a company as I am going to find on my monthly screen. I'm concerned that its above its historic P/E level but its not dangerously high. I will research them to keep as a backup.


I have a stop loss order with COP to exit when it goes against me. It's really taken off and its dividend yield is now equal to CVX while giving up a lot of fundamental safety in the price.





For you capital gains investors who like to buy on the dips, here are the companies that are 5% or more below their 200 day SMA
Name Symbol Industry Div Fund Score
Rent-A-Center Inc. RCII Retail-Specialty 2 4 6
Marketing Alliance Inc. MAAL Insurance 2 2 4
Sturm Ruger & Co RGR Firearms 3 1 4
Coach Inc. COH Apparel 2 1 3
Best Buy Corp. BBY Retail-Electronic 1 2 3
Nu Skin Enterprises Inc. NUS Personal Products 1 1 2
TESSCO Technologies TESS Technology-Hardware 1 1 2
Family Dollar Stores FDO Retail-Discount 3 -1 2
Armanino Foods of Dist AMNF Food Processing 3 -1 2
PetSmart Inc. PETM Retail-Specialty 0 1 1
Target Corp. TGT Retail-Discount 3 -2 1
Brady Corp. BRC Business Services 0 1 1
Infinity Property & Cas IPCC Insurance 1 0 1
Core Laboratories NV CLB Oil&Gas Equip/Svcs 2 -2 0
Stepan Company SCL Cleaning Products 0 0 0
TJX Companies Inc. TJX Retail-Apparel 1 -1 0
PetMed Express Inc. PETS Drugs-Animal 0 0 0
Ralph Lauren Corp. RL Apparel 1 -1 0

Disclaimer: The investments and trades discussed are not recommendations for others. I am not a financial planner, financial adviser, accountant, or tax adviser. The financial actions I talk about are for my own portfolio and money and only suited for my own risk tolerance, strategy, and ideas. Copying another person's financial moves can lead to large losses. Each person needs to do their due diligence in researching and planning their own actions in the financial markets.