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Stock Pick of the Week: Buy Schiff Nutrition Intl (WNI) — Very Attractive Rating – Small Cap Special

HIDDEN GEMS: 1. Our dis­counted cash flow analy­sis shows that WNI’s cur­rent val­u­a­tion (stock price of $7.89) implies that the company’s prof­its will decline by 25% and never grow again. 2. The com­pany grew its economic earnings more than its reported earnings. Economic earnings rose by $9.1mm (506% increase) while Net Income rose by only $8.1mm (79% increase) during its last fiscal year. 3. The com­pany has $42mm in Excess Cash, which we remove from our Invested Cap­i­tal cal­cu­la­tion. $42 mil­lion is 20% of WNI’s mar­ket cap.
by David Trainer, Founder & CEO
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Rite Aid Corp (RAD) — Dangerous Rating, free report for Ask Matt Readerss

Rite Aid Corp (RAD) gets a Dan­ger­ous Rat­ing because of these RED FLAGs: 1. Very Expen­sive val­u­a­tion: cur­rent stock price implies the com­pany will grow revenues and NOPAT at 6% com­pounded annu­ally for the next 15 years while also more than doubling ROIC from 6.1% to 13.7% within the same time frame. 2. Off Balance-Sheet debt: of $5,502mm or 93% of "Reported" Net Assets 3. Asset-write-offs: $3,417mm or 58% of "Reported" Net Assets
by David Trainer, Founder & CEO
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Buy MSFT: Goldman Downgrade Presents Opportunity

We reiterate our pick for last week's Stock Pick of the Week: Buy Microsoft Corp (MSFT) — Very Attractive Rating. We consider the recent downgrade from Goldman an investment-banking driven head fake. Because MSFT is not a good investment banking client (very little merger or stock offering activity), investment banks have little to lose by downgrading or putting a sell rating on the this stock.
by David Trainer, Founder & CEO
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Drugstore.com Inc (DSCM) — Dangerous Rating, free report for Ask Matt Readers

Drugstore.com (DSCM) gets a Dan­ger­ous Rat­ing because of these RED FLAGs: 1. Very Expen­sive val­u­a­tion: cur­rent stock price implies the com­pany will grow rev­enues at 20% com­pounded annu­ally for the next 15 years while also improv­ing ROIC from –2.3% to 10.9% within the same time frame. 2. Off Balance-Sheet debt: of $15mm or 15% of Net Assets 3. Asset-write-offs: $210mm or 206% of Net Assets
by David Trainer, Founder & CEO
New Constructs
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Stock Pick of the Week: Buy Microsoft Corp (MSFT) — Very Attractive Rating

HIDDEN GEMS: 1. Our dis­counted cash flow analy­sis shows that MSFT’s cur­rent val­u­a­tion (stock price of $24.73) implies that the company’s prof­its will decline by 20% and never grow again. 2. The company has $43,292mm in Excess Cash (over 20% of the market cap), which we remove from our Invested Capital calculation and which helps drive a whopping 61.6% ROIC. 3. Our eco­nomic earn­ings mod­els shows prof­its are grow­ing, not declin­ing, which makes the Risk/Reward for MSFT Very Attractive.
by David Trainer, Founder & CEO
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Stock Pick of the Week: Sell/Short CBS Class B (CBS) Very Dangerous Rating

CBS’s get our Very Dan­ger­ous Rating. There is lots of down­side risk given the Mis­lead­ing Earn­ings and there is lit­tle upside reward given the already-rich expec­ta­tions embed­ded in the stock price. RED FLAGS: 1. Mis­lead­ing Earn­ings: CBS reported a $11,899mm increase in GAAP earn­ings while our model shows eco­nomic earn­ings declined by $548mm. 2. Underfunded Pensions of $2,239mm (20% of market value) 3. Asset-write-offs of $10,559mm in asset write-offs (50% of Net Assets and nearly 100% of the market value) 4. High Valuation: market price implies CBS must grow its revenue at 10% com­pounded annu­ally for 23 years and increase its ROIC from 2.4% to 6% over the same time frame.
by David Trainer, Founder & CEO
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icad Inc (ICAD) — free report for Ask Matt, Dangerous Rating

icad (ICAD) gets a Dan­ger­ous Rat­ing because of these RED FLAGs: 1. Very Expensive valuation: current stock price implies the company will grow revenues at 20% compounded annually for the next 10 years while also improving ROIC from -3.7% to 1.5% within the same time frame. 2. Option Liabilities: of $2.1mm or 3% of the current market value 3. Asset-write-offs: $4.4mm or 7% of Net Assets
by David Trainer, Founder & CEO
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Stock-Picking Matters More Than Ever

As follow-on to my 3-part Market Outlook series of posts, I am highlighting a quote from GaveKal research's Daily note today which supports my assertion that the "Easy Money Days Are Over" and that success in stock-picking will rely on superior analytical skills as opposed to the market-timing skills that have predominated most of the past 25 years (see Market Outlook Part 1: Rise of the Speculative Movement).
by David Trainer, Founder & CEO
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Stock Pick of the Week: Sell/Short Capital One Financial (COF)

The Risk/Reward of invest­ing in Capital One’s stock looks Very Dan­ger­ous to me. There is lots of down­side risk given the Mis­lead­ing Earn­ings and there is lit­tle upside reward given the already-rich expec­ta­tions embed­ded in the stock price. RED FLAGS: 1. Mis­lead­ing Earn­ings: COF reported a $399mm increase in GAAP earn­ings while our model shows eco­nomic earn­ings declined by $1,783mm. 2. The company’s ROIC is in the Bot­tom Quin­tile of all the com­pa­nies we cover. 3. Stock price of $40.69 implies COF must grow its NOPAT at 15% com­pounded annu­ally for 15 years.
by David Trainer, Founder & CEO