Category: Daily in Portfolio Management

April 28th, 2024 - After the challenges of the year 2022 as a whole, digital ad companies finally succeeded in not only recovering but mostly exceeding the expectations analysts had for the first months of 2024, reporting strong achievements and wonderful results for their investors this week, publishing their first-quarter results.  Companies have gone through tough times due to the crazy inflation of 2022 and the subsequent measurements of cutting costs and layoffs, mainly spread across 2023. Another major challenge digital companies had to face was the one of Apple's IOS privacy changes, which obviously made it harder for ads to track users and to “popup” anytime. Both the macroeconomic context and policy-making entities have played a significant role in hindering the giants but, efficient strategies, reallocations of investments and…

24 April 2024- One of our portfolio holdings, Boeing (BA) (Purchased 0.15 units @ $248.79) announced its first fiscal quarterly results better than expected. The analysts were expecting the adjusted loss per share to be $1.76 compared to $1.13 declared. The company also shared its revenue which is slightly above the expectations. $16.57 billion compared to the $16.23 billion estimated. Boeing had a tough year starting with their 737-MAX incident, followed by the FAA putting a restraint on the company’s output due to some issues of noncompliance in the supply chain. They lost almost 35% in value year to date. Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun, who announced that he will step down at the end of the year, expressed that their priority is to address safety concerns and that they started…

April 19th, 2024 - Netflix reported better-than-expected revenue and earnings for the first quarter of 2024 thanks to subscribers growth of 16% YoY. The streaming company posted an EPS of $5.28 and a 14% revenue growth to $9.37 billion, and they both have beaten analysts’ expectations. The company struggled in premarket because of a poor revenue guidance for the full year, compared to what analysts’ were expecting.  Paramount is in talks with Skydance Media for a merger, but as the New York Times reported, there is a potential opportunity of a takeover by Sony Pictures Entertainment and Apollo Global Management, which are in discussion for a potential joint all-cash bid to acquire the media and streaming company. Apollo already tried to acquire the company in the last months, but Paramount’s…

April 17th,  2024- One of our portfolio holdings, purchased recently, United Airlines (UAL) (1 unit @$41.78) announced its quarterly result after markets closed on Tuesday. United Airlines reported first-quarter revenue of $12.5 billion, compared to the consensus estimate of $12.4 billion. And an adjusted quarterly loss of 15 cents per share, outperforming analyst estimates of 57 cents per share. They also increased their capacity by %9 despite their projected fleet orders partly not coming due to Boeing’s halt in production of Boeing’s MAX 737. They announced that they expect to add 61 planes to their fleet revised from their previous 101 estimate, plus they are planning to lease 35 Airbus A321 in 2026 and 2027. The company CEO Ed Bastian said they had a good quarter driven by the increased…

April 16th, 2024 - Today, Bank of America (BAC) released an important statement in which it disclosed its disappointing  Q1 2024 profits, which marked a decrease of around 18% compared to their 2023 Q1.  The factor that determined this very poor performance was the huge difference  between the deposits’ costs and the combination of assets’ yields and loans’ growth, with the interest  paid on deposits exceeding BoA’s earnings. At the same time, other US financial giants like JP Morgan  Chase, Wells Fargo and Citigroup reported negative results because of the same trend experienced by  BoA. To have a clearer idea of how bad the situation is for Bank of America, it is sufficient to look at  the increase in the interest rate paid on US interest-bearing deposits, which rose from…

April 15th, 2024 - In the first quarter, Goldman Sachs witnessed a 28% increase in profits, well beyond what analysts expected, as a result of their strong performances in these months. Bloomberg’s compiled analyst forecasts were nearly $1 bln short for the bank’s reported net income for the first three months of the year, which actually amounted to $4.1 bln, up from $3.2 bln a year earlier. The reason for this memorable achievement lies into the refocus led by the CEO David Solomon: he decided that it was time for Goldman Sachs to “play to their core strengths”, that is to say centering again on investment banking and trading businesses, asset and wealth management and slightly “put aside” the concern upon consumer business. Investment banking experienced its most successful quarter…

April 11th, 2024 - Tech giants led a stock rally on Thursday as investors weighed encouraging wholesale inflation data against yesterday’s harrowing price report. The Nasdaq surged 1.7%, while the S&P 500 gained 0.7% and the Dow Jones ended the day flat. Nike (NKE) have been under fire in the past months, with shares plummeting 25.34% in the past year. However, several BB (Bulge Bracket) analysts are currently reporting the probability for a pivot in the green. Today shares of the company increased 3% after the stock was upgraded at Bank of America. The last few years were quite rough for the company as it lost almost half of its value since mid-2021, but this might be the sign that better days are waiting ahead for the company and its…

April 8th, 2024 - It is thought by many that good times for always increasing gold prices may have come to an end and the price of the commodity could experience a downturn shortly. The spot yellow metal price has hit a fresh record of $2,375.5 per ounce on Monday confirming the positive trend of the “safe haven” in times of uncertainty like these. Notwithstanding that, there are strong beliefs that it could be the moment for the ongoing growth to cease, therefore for prices to decrease as several other factors come into the game.  The first among them is the so-called “catch-up effect”: investors think gold has to catch up with other assets and keep investing in it, as a consequence of actually projecting such expectations as reality, they…

6th April, 2024 - The financial guru from CNBC, Jim Cramer, had brought into the notice the rosy prospect of microcap stocks, particularly in healthcare as one of the best investment options for the year 2024. Stating that the most notable effect is the revival of the smaller companies, Cramer indicated five companies that though seem to be less known, still have the potential for great growth. Among the listed companies is Integer Holdings, a popular medical-device manufacturer which is in the sector of product design. Cramer noted the company's favorable standing due to the constant health-care occupation rates and the fact that there is a backlog of patient procedures that had been postponed during the pandemic. Another stock that Cramer advises is Progyny, a fertility benefits management firm which…

April 4th, 2024 - Stocks tumbled on Thursday in a session of volatile trading ahead of the March jobs report. The Dow Jones lost 530.16 points, 1.35%, to close at 38,596.98, suffering its worst session since March 2023. The S&P 500 dropped 1.23% to end at 5,147.21 and Nasdaq dipped 1.40% to close at 16,049.08. Levi Strauss (LEVI) stock jumped over 20% on Thursday after the company reported solid first quarter results and enjoys added exposure through a new Beyonce song. The results came in with a revenue of $1.56 billion against an estimate of $1.55 billion and adjusted earnings per share resulting at $0.26 versus an analyst estimate of $0.21. At the end of the day the growth settled at 12.38%. Shares of Conagra Brands (CAG) closed on Thursday…