Prospect Capital: Declining Distributable Income
This article is a follow up to “Upcoming Dividend Cuts For BDCs: Part 3” linked below that discussed upcoming dividend coverage for Prospect Capital (NASDAQ:PSEC). However, this article focuses on distributable income (rather than GAAP income) from its collateralized loan obligations (“CLOs”) that has been declining and over the last two quarters and GAAP NII... Read More →
Nick’s Micro-Cap Fund: The Evolution Of An Investor, 2 New Positions And Other Updates
Once you adopt a value-investment strategy, any other investment behavior starts to seem like gambling.– Seth Klarman In contrast to the speculators preoccupation with rapid gain, value investors demonstrate their risk aversion by striving to avoid loss.– Seth Klarman A margin of safety is achieved when securities are purchased at prices sufficiently below underlying value... Read More →
Nick's Micro-Cap Fund: The Evolution Of An Investor, 2 New Positions And Other Updates
Once you adopt a value-investment strategy, any other investment behavior starts to seem like gambling.– Seth Klarman In contrast to the speculators preoccupation with rapid gain, value investors demonstrate their risk aversion by striving to avoid loss.– Seth Klarman A margin of safety is achieved when securities are purchased at prices sufficiently below underlying value... Read More →
5 Utility Closed End Funds You Can Still Buy At A Discount
In my last article, “BUI: Take Profits Off The Table,” I provided an update to one of our best performers year to date and our decision to now sell the fund. As described I liked the BlackRock Utility&Infrastructure Trust (NYSE:BUI) because: BUI is an investment in one of my favorite asset classes (utilities and infrastructure),... Read More →
MetLife: Valuation Appeals Here, But Is That Enough?
2Q Earnings Recap: MET’s results were disappointing MetLife (NYSE:MET) reported 2Q16 operating EPS of $0.83, well below consensus of $1.35. Adjusted for a range of one-time items, core EPS was $1.26, still short of market expectations. The earnings shortfall was driven by weakness in the retail life, P&C, Latin America, and corporate segments, which offset... Read More →
Wall Street: How To Beat The Big Con
– Famed research professor and criminologist Edwin H. Sutherland established the concept of “white collar crime” in his 1937 book The Professional Thief. In his book, he established the 7 Steps to creating a con, centered around the concept of underground horse racing betting arenas controlled and operated by The Mob. This is known as... Read More →
Flaherty & Crumrine Preferred Income Fund: A Good Or Bad Investment?
For those of you unfamiliar with this series of articles, they’re basically an approximate five-year profit and loss review of a number of Exchange-Traded Funds (ETFs) and Closed-End Funds (CEFs) that primarily invest in and, hopefully, profit from dividends earned from their investments in preferred securities, which they then distribute to shareholders. This link will... Read More →
Flaherty & Crumrine Preferred Income Fund: A Good Or Bad Investment?
For those of you unfamiliar with this series of articles, they’re basically an approximate five-year profit and loss review of a number of Exchange-Traded Funds (ETFs) and Closed-End Funds (CEFs) that primarily invest in and, hopefully, profit from dividends earned from their investments in preferred securities, which they then distribute to shareholders. This link will... Read More →
Best And Worst Q3’16: Large Cap Value ETFs, Mutual Funds And Key Holdings
The Large Cap Value style ranks second out of the twelve fund styles as detailed in our Q3’16 Style Ratings for ETFs and Mutual Funds report. Last quarter, the Large Cap Value style ranked first. It gets our Neutral rating, which is based on an aggregation of ratings of 45 ETFs and 891 mutual funds... Read More →
Best And Worst Q3'16: Large Cap Value ETFs, Mutual Funds And Key Holdings
The Large Cap Value style ranks second out of the twelve fund styles as detailed in our Q3’16 Style Ratings for ETFs and Mutual Funds report. Last quarter, the Large Cap Value style ranked first. It gets our Neutral rating, which is based on an aggregation of ratings of 45 ETFs and 891 mutual funds... Read More →