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Executive Summary December 6, 2013

The Economy

For long time now, we've been hearing about the U.S.'s "anemic" economic recovery. But as 2013 draws to a close, there is some good evidence that the recovery is gathering strength.

News on the jobs front, for example, has been quite positive. Private payroll processor ADP said the private sector added 215,000 jobs in November, the highest tally in a year. It also revised its October jobs-added figure to 184,000, up sharply from an original estimate of 130,000. The Labor Department's November jobs report is out today. We'll see how its data matches up vs. ADP's.

New claims for unemployment fell in each of the past two weeks. They now stand a whopping 37.2% below where they were a year ago. That may be skewed, however, by the fact that Thanksgiving was nearly a week later this year than it was last year. If we compare the most recent claims number to the year-ago figure from one week earlier -- perhaps a more fair comparison -- claims were 12.5% lower last week, still a very healthy improvement.

The good jobs data seems to be supported by data from the Institute for Supply Management. ISM said manufacturing activity increased in November for the 6th straight month, and did so at the fastest pace in two years. The group's manufacturing sub-indices for both new orders and employment rose significantly, with new orders remaining at a particularly high level.

ISM also said the service sector expanded in November for the 47th straight month, though at a slightly slower pace than it did in October. The service sector employment sub-index declined but remained in expansion territory. New orders also increased at about the same strong rate they did in October.

The housing market also provided solid data. After declining 6.6% in September (which put them 10% below year ago levels) new-home sales jumped 25.4% in October, according to a new government report. That put them more than 20% ahead of their year ago level. Permit issuance for new home construction rose 6.2% in October, meanwhile, according to another government report. That put them 16% above where they stood a year ago. Data on October housing starts still hasn't been released, thanks to delays caused by the partial government shutdown.

The Commerce Department also said that third-quarter growth was significantly better than previously estimated. Gross domestic product grew at a 3.6% pace in the quarter, up from initial estimates of 2.8%.

Third-quarter earnings also ended up pretty solid. With all but seven of the S&P 500 companies having reported, about 66% had beaten expectations, a figure in line with what we've seen throughout the recovery.

Since our last newsletter, the S&P 500 returned -0.6%, while the Hot List returned -0.7%. So far in 2013, the portfolio has returned 32.6% vs. 25.2% for the S&P. Since its inception in July 2003, the Hot List is far outpacing the index, having gained 259.6% vs. the S&P's 78.4% gain.

Portfolio Update

While the economic data has by and large been good, it's been an up-and-down fortnight for the stock market and the Hot List. Part of that is due to the strange, likely irrational mentality on Wall Street that sees good economic data as a bearish sign, because it means the Federal Reserve will be more likely to begin tapering its giant asset purchasing plan. As I noted in our last newsletter, I think there is a good deal of evidence suggesting that the taper fears are overblown and that the economy won't sink or swim just because the Fed starts to take the training wheels off. For now, however, the taper fears mean we could be in for some continued volatility.

In terms of the Hot List holdings' performance, the top performer since our last newsletter was USANA Health Sciences, which was up nearly 7% (all performance data as of late afternoon trading on Dec. 5). Some of the stock's biggest up days recently came after the firm issued a press release guaranteeing that its labels match what's inside its products. The company said that a recent Canadian study found that many popular supplements contain fillers, such as soybeans, wheat, and even weeds, which were not listed on their labels. But the company assured the public that its products go through stringent testing processes. It wasn't clear whether that was the reason for the stock's strong performance, however; a valuation driven rebound also might have been in play, as shares continue to bounce back from some big declines in October. Overall, USANA has been a tremendous performer for the portfolio, having gained 123% since joining the Hot List late last December. Another good performer for the portfolio over the past couple weeks: Bridgepoint Education, which gained about 2%.

On the negative side, Stamps.com has taken some lumps over the past two weeks, losing about 8%. There was no clear catalyst for the declines. The stock has had a great run throughout much of 2013, so perhaps investors were taking profits, or maybe it was just some of the short-term noise that smaller stocks are subject to. Whatever the case, we'll see if my models still think the stock is worthy of remaining in the Hot List in two weeks, when we perform our next scheduled rebalancing.

 
Editor-in-Chief: John Reese










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Guru Spotlight: Joel Greenblatt

Anyone who has ever put cash in the market knows that making money in stocks is hard. But what a lot of investors don't realize is that while it is difficult, it doesn't have to be complicated. You don't need incomprehensible, esoteric formulas and you don't need to spend every waking hour analyzing stocks -- Joel Greenblatt has proved that.

Back in 2005, Greenblatt created a stir in the investment world with the publication of The Little Book that Beats The Market, a concise, easy-to-understand bestseller that showed how investors could produce outstanding long-term returns using his "Magic Formula" -- a purely quantitative approach had just two variables: return on capital and earnings yield.

Greenblatt's back-testing found that focusing on stocks that rated highly in those areas would have produced a remarkable 30.8 percent return from 1988 through 2004, more than doubling the S&P 500's 12.4 percent return during that period. Greenblatt also posted impressive numbers in his money management experience, with his hedge fund, Gotham Capital, producing returns of 40 percent per year over a span of more than two decades.

Written in an extremely layperson-friendly manner, Greenblatt's "Little Book" -- it's only 176 pages long and small enough to fit in your jacket pocket -- broke investing down into terms even an elementary schooler could understand. In fact, Greenblatt said he wrote the book as a way to teach his five children how to make money for themselves. Using several simple analogies, he explains a variety of stock market principles. One of these he often returns to involves Jason, a sixth-grade classmate of Greenblatt's youngest son who makes a bundle selling gum to fellow students. Greenblatt uses Jason's business as a jumping off point to explain issues like supply, demand, taxation, and rates of return.

In reality, the "Magic Formula" is less about magic than it is about simple, common sense investment theory. As Greenblatt explains, the two-step formula is designed to buy stock in good companies at bargain prices -- something that other great value investors, like Warren Buffett, Benjamin Graham, and John Neff also did. The return on capital variable accomplishes the first part of that goal (buying good companies), because it looks at how much profit a firm is generating using its capital. The earnings yield variable, meanwhile, accomplishes the second part of the task -- buying those good companies' stocks on the cheap. The earnings yield is similar to the inverse of the price/earnings ratio; stocks with high earnings yields are taking in a relatively high amount of earnings compared to the price of their stock.

The Details

To choose stocks, Greenblatt simply ranked all stocks by return on capital, with the best being number 1, the second number 2, and so forth. Then, he ranked them in the same way by earnings yield. He then added up the two rankings, and invested in the stocks with the lowest combined numerical ranking.

The slightly unconventional ways in which Greenblatt calculates earnings yield and return on capital also involve some good common sense -- and are particularly interesting given the recent credit crisis. For example, in figuring out the capital part of the return on capital variable and the earnings part of the earnings yield variable, he doesn't use simple earnings; instead, he uses earnings before interest and taxation. The reason: These parts of the equations should see how well a company's underlying business is doing, and taxes and debt payments can obscure that picture.

In addition, in figuring earnings yield, Greenblatt divides EBIT not by the total price of a company's stock, but instead by enterprise value -- which includes not only the total price of the firm's stock, but also its debt. This give the investor an idea of what kind of yield they could expect if buying the entire firm -- including both its assets and its debts. In the past few months, we've seen how misleading conventionally derived P/E ratios and earnings yields could be, since earnings had been propped up by the use of huge amounts of debt. Greenblatt's earnings yield calculation is a way to find stocks that are producing a good earnings yield that isn't contingent on a high debt load.

In my Greenblatt model, I calculate return on capital and earnings yield in the same ways that Greenblatt lays out in his book.

We added the Greenblatt portfolio to our site in January of 2009, but have been tracking its performance internally for several years, and its underlying model has factored into our Hot List selections for the past five years or so. So far, the model has been a strong performer, with some big ups and downs. Since we began tracking our 10-stock Greenblatt-based portfolio in late 2005, the S&P 500 has gained just 41.7%; the Greenblatt-based portfolio has gained 114.9% -- that's 10.0% annualized, vs. 4.4% annualized for the S&P (all performance data through Dec. 4). The portfolio beat the market in 2006 and 2007, and then did what few funds have done: limit losses in what for stocks was a terrible 2008, and handily beat the market in the 2009 rebound. It fell 26.3% in '08 -- not good, but much better than the S&P 500's 38.5% loss -- and surged 63.1% in 2009, vs. 23.5% for the S&P. After beating the market again in 2010, it struggled in 2011 and 2012, however. But Greenblatt stresses that the strategy won't beat the market every month or even every year, which is important to remember. In fact, during that stellar 17-year period he covered in his book, there were even times when it lagged the market for three straight years. But that, he says, is why it works over the long haul: Undisciplined investors bail on the strategy, allowing those who stick with it to pick up the exceptional bargains they leave behind.

Indeed, in 2013, the Greenblatt-based portfolio has bounced back strong, returning more than 50%. Below is a look at its current holdings.

One note: Because of the way financial and utility companies are financed (i.e. with large amounts of debt), Greenblatt excludes them from his screening process, so I do the same. He also doesn't include foreign stocks, so I exclude those from my model as well.

EBIX Inc. (EBIX)
Western Refining, Inc. (WNR)
DirecTV (DTV)
ITT Educational Services (ESI)
Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC)
Weight Watchers International, Inc. (WTW)
ConocoPhillips (COP)
AmSurg Corp (AMSG)
PDL BioPharma, Inc. (PDLI)
AFC Enterprises Inc. (AFCE)





News about Validea Hot List Stocks

Chevron Corporation (CVX): Chevron said its Rosebank oil project north of Scotland may be too costly to be viable, MarketWatch reported. The firm cited rising production costs as the key reason for re-evaluating the project, estimated at $10 billion. It said Rosebank "does not currently offer an economic value proposition that justifies proceeding with an investment of this magnitude". Chevron expects a final investment decision is next year, the company said.



The Next Issue

In two weeks, we will publish another issue of the Hot List, at which time we will rebalance the portfolio. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us at hotlist@validea.com.


Current Portfolio






Detailed Stock Analysis

Disclaimer: The analysis is from Validea's selection and interpretation of content from the guru's book or published writings, and is not from nor endorsed by the guru. See Full Disclaimer

HCI   |   USNA   |   LUKOY   |   HFC   |   LEA   |   CVX   |   AFSI   |   BPI   |   STMP   |   PZZA   |  



HCI Group Inc, formerly Homeowners Choice, Inc., is a holding company. The Company, through its subsidiaries, is engaged in the property and casualty insurance business. Through Homeowners Choice Property & Casualty Insurance Company, Inc. (HCPC) and subsidiaries, primarily Homeowners Choice Managers, Inc. (HCM), Southern Administration, Inc., Claddaugh Casualty Insurance Company, Ltd., and its subsidiary, HCPCI Holdings LLC, it provides property and casualty homeowners' insurance, condominium-owners' insurance and tenants' insurance to individuals owning property in Florida. Its subsidiaries also include TV Investment Holdings LLC, which owns and operates a marina facility located in Florida; Unthink Technologies Private Limited. During the year ended December 31, 2011, it organized TV Investment Holdings LLC, HCI Holdings LLC and HCI Technical Resources, Inc.





USANA Health Sciences, Inc. develops and manufactures science-based nutritional and personal care products. The Company has operations in 15 markets worldwide, where it distributes and sells its products by way of direct selling. The Company reports operations in two geographic regions: North America and Asia Pacific, which is further divided into three sub-regions; Southeast Asia/Pacific, Greater China, and North Asia. North America includes the United States, Canada, Mexico, and direct sales from the United States to the United Kingdom and the Netherlands. Southeast Asia/Pacific includes Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Malaysia, and the Philippines; Greater China includes Hong Kong, Taiwan and China; and North Asia includes Japan and South Korea. The Company's customer base consists of two types of customers: Associates and Preferred Customers. As of December 31, 2011, the Company had 222,000 active Associates and 64,000 active Preferred Customers worldwide.





NK Lukoil OAO (Neftyanaya Kompaniya LUKOIL OAO or NK LUKOIL OJSC) is a Russia-based integrated oil and gas company. The Company is engaged in the business of oil exploration, production, refining, marketing and distribution. It is an owner of refineries, gas processing, petrochemical plants and gas stations network located in Russia, Eastern and Western Europe, as well as Africa. The Company's petroleum products are sold in the Russian Federation, the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) countries, Eastern and Western Europe, Asia and the United States. NK Lukoil OAO operates through numerous subsidiaries and affiliated companies. In April 2013, the Company acquired a 100% of Samara-Nafta ZAO and completed acquisition of CJSC Kama-Oil. In June 2013, it sold a 99.57% stake in Lukoil Odes'kyi NPZ PAT. The Company's major shareholder is NKO ZAO NRD with a stake of 91.60%.





HollyFrontier Corporation (HollyFrontier), formerly Holly Corporation, is a petroleum refiner, which produces light products, such as gasoline, diesel fuel, jet fuel, specialty lubricant products, and specialty and modified asphalt. HollyFrontier operates in two segments: Refining and Holly Energy Partners, L.P. (HEP). The Refining segment includes the operations of its El Dorado, Tulsa, Navajo, Cheyenne and Woods Cross Refineries and NK Asphalt. The HEP segment involves all of the operations of HEP. As of December 31, 2011, it operated five refineries having a combined crude oil processing capacity of 443,000 barrels per day that serve markets throughout the Mid-Continent, Southwest and Rocky Mountain regions of the United States. The Company merged with Frontier Oil Corporation (Frontier), on July 1, 2011. On November 9, 2011, HEP acquired from the Company certain tankage, loading rack and crude receiving assets located at its El Dorado and Cheyenne Refineries.





Lear Corporation is a tier 1 supplier to the global automotive industry. The Company supplies its products to automotive manufacturers with automotive seat systems and related components, as well as electrical distribution systems and related components. The Company has two segments: seating and electrical power management systems (EPMS). The seating segment includes seat systems and related components, such as seat frames, recliner mechanisms, seat tracks, seat trim covers, headrests and seat foam. The EPMS segment includes electrical distribution systems for traditional powertrain vehicles, as well as for hybrid and electric vehicles. As of December 31, 2011, it had 20 joint ventures located throughout Asia, as well as five in North America, two in Europe and Africa and one with operations in all three regions.





Chevron Corporation (Chevron) manages its investments in subsidiaries and affiliates and provides administrative, financial, management and technology support to the United States and international subsidiaries that engage in fully integrated petroleum operations, chemicals operations, mining activities, power generation and energy services. Upstream operations consist primarily of exploring for, developing and producing crude oil and natural gas; processing, transportation and regasification associated with liquefied natural gas; transporting crude oil by international oil export pipelines; transporting, storage and marketing of natural gas, and a gas-to-liquids project. Downstream operations consist primarily of refining crude oil into petroleum products; transporting crude oil and refined products by pipeline, marine vessel, motor equipment and rail car, and manufacturing and marketing of commodity petrochemicals, plastics for industrial uses and fuel and lubricant additives.





Amtrust Financial Services, Inc. is a holding company. The Company is a multinational specialty property and casualty insurer focused on generating consistent underwriting profits. The Company operates in four segments: small commercial business, specialty program and personal lines reinsurance. In January 2013, the Company acquired First Nonprofit Companies, Inc. In February 2013, its subsidiary acquired Car Care Plan (Holdings) Limited from Ally Insurance Holdings, Inc. In April 2013, it acquired Sequoia Insurance Company and its subsidiaries, Sequoia Indemnity Company and Personal Express Insurance Company. In May 2013, the Company acquired Mutual Insurers Holding Company (MIHC) and MIHC's subsidiary, First Nonprofit Insurance Company.





Bridgepoint Education, Inc. (Bridgepoint) is a provider of postsecondary education services. The Company's academic institutions include Ashford University and University of the Rockies. Its institutions deliver programs primarily online, as well as at their traditional campuses. As of December 31, 2011, the Company had 86,642 total students enrolled in its institutions. Bridgepoint's institutions conduct ongoing faculty and student assessment processes and provide a range of student services. The Company is also focused on developing new technologies, such as through Waypoint Outcomes, Constellation, and the development of its institutions' mobile learning platforms. The Company has developed Constellation to replace third party textbooks with digital course materials. Constellation materials are displayed in a browser-based platform. In January 2012, Bridgepoint introduced Thuze.





Stamps.com Inc. is a provider of Internet-based postage solutions. The Company's customers use its service to mail and ship a variety of mail pieces, including postcards, envelopes, flats and packages, using a range of United States Postal Service (the USPS) mail classes, including First Class Mail, Priority Mail, Express Mail, Media Mail, Parcel Post, and others. Its customers include individuals, small businesses, home offices, medium-size businesses and enterprises.





Papa John's International, Inc. (Papa John's) operates and franchises pizza delivery and carryout restaurants and, in certain international markets, dine-in and restaurant-based delivery restaurants under the trademark Papa John's. The Company operates in six segments: domestic Company-owned restaurants, domestic commissaries (Quality Control Centers), North America franchising, international operations, variable interest entities (VIEs) and all other business units. Its Company owned restaurants includes 182 restaurants operated under four joint venture arrangements. The Company also owns and operates restaurants in Beijing and North China. In April 2012, it acquired 56 franchised Papa John's restaurants in the Denver and Minneapolis markets.





Watch List

The Watch List contains the highest scoring stocks according to our guru consensus system that are not currently in the Hot List portfolio. We provide this list both for informational purposes and for investors who are not comfortable with a portfolio of ten stocks.





Disclaimer


The names of individuals (i.e., the 'gurus') appearing in this report are for identification purposes of his methodology only, as derived by Validea.com from published sources, and are not intended to suggest or imply any affiliation with or endorsement or even agreement with this report personally by such gurus, or any knowledge or approval by such persons of the content of this report. All trademarks, service marks and tradenames appearing in this report are the property of their respective owners, and are likewise used for identification purposes only.

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Performance results are based on model portfolios and do not reflect actual trading. Actual performance will vary based on a variety of factors, including market conditions and trading costs. Past performance is not necessarily indicative of future results. Individual stocks mentioned throughout this web site may be holdings in the managed portfolios of Validea Capital Management, a separate asset management firm founded by Validea.com founder John Reese. Validea Capital Management, which is a separate legal entity and an SEC registered investment advisory firm, uses, in part, the strategies on the web site to select stocks for its clients.