Category Archives: stocks

Best And Worst Q2’16: Telecom Services ETFs, Mutual Funds And Key Holdings

The Telecom Services sector ranks eighth out of the ten sectors as detailed in our Q2’16 Sector Ratings for ETFs and Mutual Funds report. Last quarter , the Telecom Services sector ranked eighth as well. It gets our Dangerous rating, which is based on aggregation of ratings of six ETFs and 15 mutual funds in the Telecom Services sector. See a recap of our Q1’16 Sector Ratings here . Figure 1 ranks from best to worst the five Telecom Services ETFs that meet our liquidity standards and Figure 2 shows the five best and worst rated Telecom Services mutual funds. Not all Telecom Services sector ETFs and mutual funds are created the same. The number of holdings varies widely (from 24 to 59). This variation creates drastically different investment implications and, therefore, ratings. Investors should not buy any Telecom Services ETFs or mutual funds because none get an Attractive-or-better rating. If you must have exposure to this sector, you should buy a basket of Attractive-or-better rated stocks and avoid paying undeserved fund fees. Active management has a long history of not paying off. Figure 1: ETFs with the Best & Worst Ratings – Top 5 Click to enlarge Sources: New Constructs, LLC and company filings Figure 2: Mutual Funds with the Best & Worst Ratings – Top 5 Click to enlarge * Best mutual funds exclude funds with TNAs less than $100 million for inadequate liquidity. Sources: New Constructs, LLC and company filings Five funds are excluded from Figure 2 because their total net assets are below $100 million and do not meet our liquidity minimums. State Street SPDR S&P Telecom ETF (NYSEARCA: XTL ) is the top-rated Telecom Services ETF and Fidelity Select Wireless Portfolio (MUTF: FWRLX ) is the top-rated Telecom Services mutual fund. Both earn a Neutral rating. iShares Global Telecom ETF (NYSEARCA: IXP ) is the worst rated Telecom Services ETF and Fidelity Advisor Telecommunications Fund (MUTF: FTUAX ) is the worst rated Telecom Services mutual fund. IXP earns a Dangerous rating and FTUAX earns a Very Dangerous rating. 45 stocks of the 3000+ we cover are classified as Telecom Services stocks, but due to style drift, Telecom Services ETFs and mutual funds hold 59 stocks. Atlantic Tele-Network (NASDAQ: ATNI ) is one of our favorite stocks held by Telecom Services ETFs and mutual funds and earns an Attractive rating. Over the past five years, Atlantic Tele-Network has grown after-tax profit ( NOPAT ) by 13% compounded annually. The company has improved its return on invested capital ( ROIC ) from 5% in 2010 to 10% in 2015 while NOPAT margins have increased from 5% to 17% over the same time period. This impressive fundamental growth could help explain why ATNI is up over 90% over the past five years. However, shares remain undervalued. At its current price of $73/share, ATNI has a price-to-economic book value ( PEBV ) ratio of 1.1. This ratio means that the market expects ATNI’s to grow its NOPAT by only 10% over its remaining life. If Atlantic Tele-Network can grow NOPAT by just 10% compounded annually for the next five years , the stock is worth $98/share today – a 36% upside. CenturyLink (NYSE: CTL ) is one of our least favorite stocks held by FTUAX and earns a Dangerous rating. CenturyLink was placed in the Danger Zone in February 2015 . CTL at one point was down over 40% since the Danger Zone was published, but has since rebounded and has become significantly overvalued again. Over the past decade, CenturyLink’s economic earnings have declined from -$152 million to -$1.2 billion. In fact, the company has never generated positive economic earnings in any year of our model, which dates back to 1998. The company’s ROIC peaked in 2009 at 7% and has since fallen to a bottom-quintile 4%. Despite the deterioration of CenturyLink’s business, the stock is priced for impressive profit growth. To justify its current price of $33/share, CTL must grow NOPAT by 8% compounded annually for the next 11 years . Given the decline in CTL’s operations, this expectation seems overly optimistic. Figures 3 and 4 show the rating landscape of all Telecom Services ETFs and mutual funds. Figure 3: Separating the Best ETFs From the Worst ETFs Click to enlarge Sources: New Constructs, LLC and company filings Figure 4: Separating the Best Mutual Funds From the Worst Mutual Funds Click to enlarge Sources: New Constructs, LLC and company filings D isclosure: David Trainer and Kyle Guske II receive no compensation to write about any specific stock, sector or theme. Disclosure: I/we have no positions in any stocks mentioned, and no plans to initiate any positions within the next 72 hours. I wrote this article myself, and it expresses my own opinions. I am not receiving compensation for it. I have no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article.

Baidu, Tencent May Rule Digital Ads In China, Like Facebook, Google

Baidu ( BIDU ) and Tencent ( TCEHY ) will dominate digital advertising in China, much as Alphabet ’s ( GOOGL ) Google and Facebook ( FB ) do in the U.S., says Goldman Sachs. Facebook and Google combined are “implied to represent” around 70% to 80% of the U.S. digital ad market’s dollar growth in 2016 and 2017, Goldman Sachs said in its research report. “ Consistent with the rest of the world, China’s digital advertising continues to take a growing share of total media ad spend,” wrote Goldman analyst Heather Bellini. “China total online spending was $33 billion in 2015, or 45% of total media spending, and is on track to exceed more than half of total ad spend in China in 2016. “Tencent and Baidu, principally the leading social and search engine in China, respectively, contributed 56% of the ad revenue growth among the major Chinese online market companies that are covered by (Goldman Sachs).” Goldman Sachs says the “Seven Pillars” of China’s Internet market are games, online advertising, e-commerce, travel, local services, finance and cloud computing. Tencent, a rival of Alibaba Group ( BABA ), has the dominant gaming platform in China, while Baidu is the search leader. Baidu is ramping up its Internet finance arm and making efforts in autonomous vehicles. Alibaba and Tencent lead in cloud computing. “Social advertising, online video and search will be the three growth drivers for the online advertising industry into 2020,” Goldman Sachs said. “For search, Baidu has demonstrated consistent paid click and cost-per-click trends with market leaders Google and (top Russian search provider)  Yandex ( YNDX ). Baidu looks primed for better mobile monetization as the gap between mobile and desktop cost-per-click narrows. “Given China’s large social media user base, we expect mobile ad spending to become an important theme in advertising. Applying Facebook’s successful social mobile monetization, we believe Tencent could benefit most, given its powerful social asset, Weixin. Online video is the fastest growing vertical and major driver of traffic in China. Baidu-owned  iQiyi, Alibaba’s Youku  and Tencent are the top three players in mobile online video.” In the U.S., meanwhile, the online ad market grew by $23.5 billion in 2015, Goldman Sachs said. Google’s net advertising revenue increased by $6.9 billion, while Facebook’s ad revenue increased by $5.6 billion.