This integrated energy firm is positioned to meet growing global demand for energy and has a management compensation structure aligned with the interests of shareholders.
The more investors understand about how GAAP net income omits valuable information, the better equipped they are to find truly hidden gems, or those companies with growing economic earnings and undervalued stock prices.
To derive economic earnings, 30+ adjustments must be made to accounting earnings. These adjustments remove items hidden in the footnotes and MD&A of annual filings and close loopholes within GAAP accounting.
We calculate NOPAT in two ways, from an operating and financing perspective. See Figure 1. Figure 1 shows the basic calculations. On page 2, we share the complete calculations for specific companies.
While most earnings manipulation is not as blatant as the recent Valeant revelations, the fact remains that investors have to be on the lookout for earnings management at all times. To be properly vigilant, it’s important to understand why executives misstate earnings. When you understand the why, you’ll have a better sense of what you need to look for.
The Energy sector ranks eighth out of the ten sectors as detailed in my Sector Rankings for ETFs and Mutual Funds report. It gets my Dangerous rating, which is based on aggregation of ratings of 19 ETFs and 87 mutual funds in the Energy sector as of April 3, 2014.
Value investing is a tried and tested approach that has worked wonders for investors in the past. However, in today's world, executing this strategy can be a daunting task, given the complexity of the annual reports that companies file. Even professional investors have a tough time understanding the profitability and valuation of companies due to the lengthy and convoluted filings they receive. With stocks becoming more volatile and earnings estimates less precise, investors could be misled into thinking they're making a wise investment when, in fact, there's another side to the coin they've not seen.
Picking from the multitude of sector ETFs is a daunting task. In any given sector there may be as many as 45 different ETFs, and there are at least 183 ETFs across all sectors.
The Energy sector ranks eighth out of the ten sectors as detailed in my Sector Rankings for ETFs and Mutual Funds report. It gets my Dangerous rating, which is based
Picking from the multitude of style mutual funds is a daunting task. In any given style there may be as many as 949 different mutual funds, and there are at least 6,260 mutual funds across all styles.
Income statement adjustments include financing items like interest expense/income, preferred dividends and minority interest income. These items are related to the financing of a company’s operations, not the operations themselves. We always calculate NOPAT on an unlevered basis.
Why are there so many mutual funds? The answer is because mutual fund providers are making lots of money selling them. The number of mutual funds has little to do with serving investors’ best interests.
Fund holdings affect fund performance more than fees or past performance. A cheap fund is not necessarily a good fund. A fund that has done well in the past is not likely to do well in the future. 3Q13
The Large Cap Blend style ranks first out of the twelve fund styles as detailed in my Style Rankings for ETFs and Mutual Funds report. It gets my Neutral rating, which is based on aggregation of ratings of 31 ETFs and 955 mutual funds in the Large Cap Blend style as of July 11, 2013.