Tobacco

Morningstar author P. Gorham writes about tobacco and sees value in shares like Philip Morris International Inc (PM), Altria Group Inc (MO), Imperial Brands PLC (IMBBY), British American Tobacco PLC (BTI) despite possible vaping regulation.

Link: https://www.morningstar.com/articles/946743/article

An open question remains whether it is ethical to invest in tobacco.

Dorfman - Robot Portfolio

From time to time I read articles of John Dorfman who writes in a very readable form about stocks. Sometimes, I write a short blog post about it, e.g. here or here or here.

In a new article from 2nd Jan. John Dorfman writes about his robot model portfolio which consists of stocks that have the following criteria:
1) US 2) market value > 500 mn. 3) debt less than shareholders' equity
From these stocks the 10 cheapest ones are selected based on PE-ratio.

Stocks John Dorfman  selected for this model portfolio for 2018:

1. Alliance Resource Partners (ARLP) 
2. Peabody Energy Corp. (BTU)
3. Linn Energy Inc. (LNGG)
4. SandRidge Energy Inc (SD)
5. Schneider National Inc. (SNDR)
6. Ichor Holdings Ltd. (ICHR)
7. Kemet Corp. (KEM)
8. Micron Technology Inc. (MU)
9. GameStop Corp. (GME)
10. Bed Bath & Beyond Inc. (BBBY)

He uses this model portfolio as source of ideas which seems to me to be a good approach to find interesting stocks.
Link: http://dorfmanvalue.com/these-are-the-stocks-that-nobody-wants/
Disclaimer: This is no recommendation to buy or sell any stock, as always, please do your own research!

Norway Oil Fund rises above $1 Trillion

The value of the Government Pension Fund Global increased yesterday over 7813 billion NOK (1 trillion USD) positively influenced by rising stock prices.

Some facts:

1. Invests in 77 countries
2. Investsment in ca. 9000 companies
3. Holds ca.  1.3% of listed companies worldwide
4. Investment return from the start 1998 till 2nd quarter 2017 was 5.9%
5. In 2016 212.5 billion NOK (ca. 27 billion USD) were transfered to the state budget.

Links:
https://www.nbim.no/en/the-fund/
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-09-19/norway-wealth-fund-says-reached-1-trillion-in-value

A presentation on the responsible investment for year 2016 with interesting details about their investment philosophy, goals and principles can be found on the homepage:
Presentation "Responsible Investment 2016"

Bloomberg Article - Forecast on Decline in Oil Demand

An intersting view on the oil demand which could be - depending on the point of view - positively/negatively impacted impacted from the following changes:

1. efficiency improvements, i.e. for engines
2. electrical cars, some oil companies like Shell plan hydrogen cars from natural gas
3. biofuels could replace oil

Some Companies mentioned: Peabody (coal), Statoil ASA (Norway), Exxon Mobil.


Link: https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2017-oil-projections/

On the Statoil ASA webpage I found some details about new energy solutions like offshore wind parks. Link: https://www.statoil.com/en/what-we-do/new-energy-solutions.html

Eric Cinnamond

Thanks to csinvesting I learned about Eric Cinnamond who is -according to his website- a portfolio manager for an absolute return strategy and writes about this on the blog. There is also a podcast conversation on The Felder Report.

Links:
Homepage of Eric Cinnamond
http://ericcinnamond.com/
Podcast on the Felder Report
https://www.thefelderreport.com/2017/05/30/podcast-eric-cinnamond-on-the-value-of-absolute-return-investing/

Financial Priorities - Pyramid - Morningstar

Ms. Benz from Morningstar proposes an investment pyramid which has as basis "having a goal" and only at the top the "investment selection".

So the ranking in terms of priorities are as follows:

1. The Basis: Setting and Prioritizing Your Financial Goals 
2. Managing Your Saving and Spending Rate
3. Your Asset Allocation
4. Your Own Behavior 
5. Managing for Tax Efficiency   
6. The Top: Making Investment Selections
   

Food for thought... although turning stones to find interesting companies and stocks is more fun😉
I would also add Risk and Money Management as important topics in this process.

Link to the article:
http://news.morningstar.com/articlenet/article.aspx?id=789005

Schroders Blog - Value Investing Strategy Works Also in Emerging Markets & Sectors

Schroders writes about value investing in China and mentions Chinese distiller Kweichow Moutai and Russian utilities like Inter RAO as examples working in the past.

Links:
Schroders articles:

http://www.schroders.com/en/uk/the-value-perspective/blog/all-blogs/a-value-strategy-works-in-emerging-markets-as-much-as-developed-ones/

http://www.schroders.com/en/uk/the-value-perspective/blog/all-blogs/why-whole-sectors-being-tarred-with-the-same-brush-is-good-news-for-value-investing/

Interesting statement from 2nd article:
"...Regular visitors to The Value Perspective will be well aware of our view that some parts of the stockmarket – particularly the supposedly stable, low-volatility, ‘safe-haven’ sectors, such as food, beverages and tobacco – are historically very expensive while others, such as financials and mining, remain historically cheap...."

Company info on FT:
Kweichow Moutai: https://markets.ft.com/data/equities/tearsheet/summary?s=600519:SHH
Inter RAO: https://markets.ft.com/data/equities/tearsheet/summary?s=IRAO:MCX