Cambria CEO Marty Davis has successfully asked the U.S. government to put tariffs on quartz. His business competitors are crying foul. (Image credit: Richard Tsong-Taatarii/Star Tribune via Getty Images)
Cambria CEO Marty Davis has successfully asked the U.S. government to put tariffs on quartz. His business competitors are crying foul. (Image credit: Richard Tsong-Taatarii/Star Tribune via Getty Images)
StevanZZ/iStock via Getty Images Chord Energy ( CHRD ) is not just a shale driller; it is also a disciplined free cash flow compounder. Management is explicitly refusing to chase aggressive production growth or large acquisitions - as it says, it is "avoiding pro-cyclical buying" while "favoring share buybacks." Excess cash generated is going into repurchasing its own stock aggressively. At the sa...
StevanZZ/iStock via Getty Images Chord Energy ( CHRD ) is not just a shale driller; it is also a disciplined free cash flow compounder. Management is explicitly refusing to chase aggressive production growth or large acquisitions - as it says, it is "avoiding pro-cyclical buying" while "favoring share buybacks." Excess cash generated is going into repurchasing its own stock aggressively. At the same time, it is maintaining a conservative balance sheet and improving operational efficiency. Management buying back at such levels clearly shows that they believe the stock is cheap - that the market is undervaluing the business. Since the end of 2023, Chord has reduced its fully diluted share count by a massive 12%. They have still managed to improve capital efficiency, lower breakevens, and expand long-lateral development across the Bakken. Despite all that, the stock still trades at only around 3x EV/EBITDA, below many peers. Investors should pay closer attention if management is aggressively (and structurally) buying back its own stock. I rate CHRD a Buy because management's capital allocation strongly suggests it sees value in the shares. Overview: A Different Kind of Shale Operator Chord Energy is one of the largest pure-play shale operators in the Williston Basin. Geographically, they have over 1.3 million net acres. Production-wise, their FY26 guidance is ~161 MBopd of oil. Most revenue comes from oil, so they remain sensitive to crude prices. However, Chord maintains a relatively conservative balance sheet, with net leverage around 0.4x. An important strategic development is that despite the recent high market demand, Chord no longer focuses on maximizing absolute production growth. Instead, management's focus is on improving free cash flow per share. This is a far different story from traditional shale companies, which typically have to reinvest capital continuously because shale wells lose production quickly. Chord's strategy is to allow each well to produce mor...
Naegohyang FC due to play Suwon FC in semi-final of Asian Women’s Champions League on Wednesday A North Korean women’s football club has arrived in South Korea for an AFC Women’s Champions League semi-final, marking the first visit by athletes from the isolated state to the South in eight years. The delegation of 27 players and 12 staff entered the country on Sunday before Wednesday’s match betwee...
Naegohyang FC due to play Suwon FC in semi-final of Asian Women’s Champions League on Wednesday A North Korean women’s football club has arrived in South Korea for an AFC Women’s Champions League semi-final, marking the first visit by athletes from the isolated state to the South in eight years. The delegation of 27 players and 12 staff entered the country on Sunday before Wednesday’s match between Naegohyang FC and South Korea’s Suwon FC Women in Suwon. Continue reading...
North Korean women’s soccer club Naegohyang FC arrived in South Korea on Sunday for an Asian Women’s Champions League semi-final, marking the first visit by athletes from the isolated state to the South in eight years. The delegation of 27 players and 12 staff entered the country ahead of Wednesday’s match against South Korea’s Suwon FC Women in Suwon. The visit has been approved under the inter-...
North Korean women’s soccer club Naegohyang FC arrived in South Korea on Sunday for an Asian Women’s Champions League semi-final, marking the first visit by athletes from the isolated state to the South in eight years. The delegation of 27 players and 12 staff entered the country ahead of Wednesday’s match against South Korea’s Suwon FC Women in Suwon. The visit has been approved under the inter-Korean exchange law and covers their stay through next weekend, though the team could leave earlier...
When the Social Security Administration announced last year that benefits would get a 2.8% cost-of-living adjustment, or COLA, in 2026, many retirees were disappointed. And many are holding out hope for a more generous COLA in 2027. Of course, Social Security recipients will have to sit tight a bit longer to get word of an official 2027 COLA. That's because COLAs are based on third-quarter inflati...
When the Social Security Administration announced last year that benefits would get a 2.8% cost-of-living adjustment, or COLA, in 2026, many retirees were disappointed. And many are holding out hope for a more generous COLA in 2027. Of course, Social Security recipients will have to sit tight a bit longer to get word of an official 2027 COLA. That's because COLAs are based on third-quarter inflation changes. And since no one can see into the future, no one can say with certainty what 2027's raise will amount to. Image source: Getty Images. Continue reading
Sinenkiy/iStock via Getty Images Root ( ROOT ) is a car insurance company that uses a data-driven process to reduce risk and provide fairer prices to customers domestically. As the company focuses on expanding nationally over the next 12-24 months and gains further scale, margins will continue to improve and revenue growth rates will be in the low-double digit region, in my opinion. After further ...
Sinenkiy/iStock via Getty Images Root ( ROOT ) is a car insurance company that uses a data-driven process to reduce risk and provide fairer prices to customers domestically. As the company focuses on expanding nationally over the next 12-24 months and gains further scale, margins will continue to improve and revenue growth rates will be in the low-double digit region, in my opinion. After further analysis, Root seems deeply undervalued and not getting credit for being a profitable standout against its peer set, creating asymmetric upside here. Business Profile Root is a digitally native car insurance company. The company is trying to take the approach of more modern technology and data science to offer better rates to drivers. The company defines its competitive edge as the ability to efficiently and effectively bind auto insurance policies quickly with segmented individual risk so everything comes out fair. Root shares insurance risk through reinsurance to help keep the balance sheet stable and offload risk. If we think about the scale of the business, the company has a gross written premium size of over $1.5 billion in the last twelve months, is growing policies in force at 9%, and has nearly 36 billion miles of driving data that they use to perform a better risk analysis. This data bank has scaled, too. In 2017 the company only had 100 million miles worth of data. As more data comes in, the better risk assessment the company can provide to individuals looking for car insurance. The company currently operates in 36 states across the United States and has plans to increase more nationally. The company operates in a larger TAM for insurance with auto net premiums totaling $346 billion as of 2024, according to the company. If we just think about this company's gross premiums only totaling $1.5 billion, Root is not yet a key market leader, but that doesn't mean they can't grow into being one. On top of having a clear, data-driven process, the company prides itself on ...
Dragon Claws/iStock via Getty Images Since I wrote my last article about Celestica ( CLS ) in February, the shares have risen almost 25%, well above the 7.5% growth of the S&P 500 ( SP500 ). I wrote that article to analyze the drop in the shares after the Q4 2025 results, and I understood it was a Strong Buy opportunity. With Q1 2026 results, which surpassed expectations and improved guidance, I s...
Dragon Claws/iStock via Getty Images Since I wrote my last article about Celestica ( CLS ) in February, the shares have risen almost 25%, well above the 7.5% growth of the S&P 500 ( SP500 ). I wrote that article to analyze the drop in the shares after the Q4 2025 results, and I understood it was a Strong Buy opportunity. With Q1 2026 results, which surpassed expectations and improved guidance, I still believe the same. Data by YCharts But Celestica is one of those companies you can hold in your portfolio and sleep well at night. It plays a key role in the AI value chain, and although it rose 240% in the last year, I believe there is still some distance left. I believe all of this because I studied the reasons why Celestica is so important in the AI value chain. It is not just a simple manufacturer or a semiconductor designer. It's also not a producer of memory or data infrastructure. Both semiconductor stocks, memories, and other key AI sectors have risen a lot in the last few weeks, pushing the NASDAQ Composite Index ( COMP:IND ) ( QQQ ) significantly higher, with some notable exceptions like Advanced Micro Devices ( AMD ), Intel ( INTC ), Micron Technology ( MU ), and Datadog ( DDOG ). Data by YCharts Celestica rose less, but its business isn't less important. That's why I wanted to update my thesis with a more detailed explanation of the company's business. Basically, Celestica produces connectors (switches) which allow AI chips to work at full speed in data centers. That's why I liked CEO Rob Mionis's idea that his company is like the railroad tracks during the height of the railway boom. If AI is a speeding freight train, we’re laying the tracks ahead of the freight. Source: CNBC Celestica in the AI Value Chain: High-Speed Networks and Specialized Hardware Let's imagine the railway tracks of the 19th century, when the first trains traveled at a speed of 50 kph. Back then, many steel manufacturers for the tracks profited from the railway boom. But today's trai...
iQoncept/iStock via Getty Images This monthly article series offers a top-down analysis of the industrial sector based on value, quality and momentum metrics. It may also help analyze sector ETFs such as the Industrial Select Sector SPDR ETF ( XLI ) and iShares US Industrials ETF ( IYJ ), whose holdings are used to calculate these metrics. Shortcut The next two paragraphs in italics describe the d...
iQoncept/iStock via Getty Images This monthly article series offers a top-down analysis of the industrial sector based on value, quality and momentum metrics. It may also help analyze sector ETFs such as the Industrial Select Sector SPDR ETF ( XLI ) and iShares US Industrials ETF ( IYJ ), whose holdings are used to calculate these metrics. Shortcut The next two paragraphs in italics describe the dashboard methodology. They are necessary for new readers to understand the metrics. If you are used to this series or if you are short of time, you can skip them and go to the charts. Base Metrics I calculate the median value of five fundamental ratios for each subsector : Earnings Yield ("EY"), Sales Yield ("SY"), Free Cash Flow Yield ("FY"), Return on Equity ("ROE"), Gross Margin ("GM"). The reference universe includes large companies in the U.S. stock market. The five base metrics are calculated on the trailing 12 months. For all of them, higher is better. EY, SY and FY are medians of the inverse of Price/Earnings, Price/Sales and Price/Free Cash Flow. They are better for statistical studies than price-to-something ratios, which are unusable or non available when the "something" is close to zero or negative (for example, companies with negative earnings). I also look at two momentum metrics for each group: the median monthly return (RetM) and the median annual return (RetY). I prefer medians to averages because a median splits a set in a good half and a bad half. A capital-weighted average is skewed by extreme values and the largest companies. My metrics are designed for stock-picking rather than index investing. Value and Quality Scores I calculate historical baselines for all metrics. They are noted respectively as EYh, SYh, FYh, ROEh, GMh, and they are calculated as the averages over a look-back period of 11 years. For example, the value of EYh for transportation in the table below is the 11-year average of the median Earnings Yield in transportation companies. The Va...
Broadcom is surging, and now, private credit behemoths are reportedly in talks to extend funding. See the potential implications of a massive debt deal.
Broadcom is surging, and now, private credit behemoths are reportedly in talks to extend funding. See the potential implications of a massive debt deal.