Marketplace Roundtable

Robert Hauver joins the Marketplace Roundtable Podcast to discuss his investing experience as reflected in the Hidden Dividend Stocks Plus service.
Hauver looks for "under-valued, under-covered dividend stocks," mainly by pursuing ideas through macroeconomic or lifestyle trends. This may include "sub sectors or niche industries, such as -- believe it or not -- salmon farming."
Indeed, one of his core portfolio positions is Marine Harvest (OTCPK:MHGVY), the world's biggest salmon farmer. "The ongoing healthy eating trend is a boon to salmon farmers," says Hauver. "We're all going to keep eating more fish. That industry has been expanding for years."
Patience is a virtue for income investors. It is no longer a game of buying and selling for capital gains, but producing income, which requires a different perspective -- and different rules for success.
Topics Covered

2:00 - Investing strategy

3:15 - How do you research investing ideas?

4:00 - Key lesson learned

5:00 - Anything specific you learned this year in the markets?

6:30 - Sector advice, alternative means to gain income from non-dividend paying companies

10:00 - Exciting sectors

13:45 - What scares you about the markets right now?

16:00 - Something that gives you confidence in your approach

17:50 - What data made you look into the salmon thing? (OTCPK:MHGVY)

21:45 - Additional favorite ideas? (BANX)


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Richard Berger joins the Marketplace Roundtable Podcast to discuss his investing experience as reflected in the Engineered Income Investing service. Berger's goal is to produce "a nice, healthy high yield with as low a risk as possible." To do that he first identifies high-quality companies to invest in, such as dividend aristocrats. In the next step he appraises fair value through a variety of tools. Then it's a simple matter of looking at the current market price to determine whether it presents an opportunity to invest. Options strategies provide further boosts to income.
The biggest lesson Berger has learned in his investing career is "it is absolutely impossible for anybody to predict the future." The key is to make sure one is paid for taking on risk and can monitor the holdings on an ongoing basis. "Avoid trying to seek out home runs," he says. "They're few and far between and for every home run you do hit, you'll have far too many failures."
For the immediate future, Berger expects interest rates to remain low, which should help risk assets. Investors should take advantage of this to allocate to securities that offer income and the possibility of capital gains. Berger likes consumer staples such as General Mills (GIS), Clorox (CLX), Procter & Gamble (PG). Some industrials companies should also do well and an options strategy can hedge out a lot of the risk. The options strategy has come in particular use where the merger between Sprint (S) and T-Mobile US (TMUS) merger is concerned. Berger explains this on the podcast.
Topics Covered

2:30 minute mark - Investing strategy

5:15 - What type of screening do you do?

7:45 - Something you've learned from investing

9:15 - What is something you learned over the past year?

12:30 - Prediction for coming months

16:00 - How did you get into investing given your background?

22:15 - Can lower interest rates help oil prices?

26:00 - What sectors do you like right now?

29:30 - Cash secured put strategy


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We spoke with J Mintzmyer about the shipping sector in June, when sentiment was at a low. There's been quite a turn since then, and after another Marine Money event we speak with him about what's changed and where investors' focus is. ESG (Environmental, Social, and Corporate Governance) investing was a major topic, but as a positive driver for the sector in the way that IMO 2020 has been, rather than as a problem. You can read J's full write-up of the conference here.
Topics Covered

2:00 minute mark - The turnaround in shipping sector sentiment and optimism over pending regulations

5:00 - Shipping companies role in innovation

8:00 - Divestment pressure and the Poseidon Principles

14:00 - IMO 2020's impact and what it means for future regulations

20:00 - Consolidation in the sector

25:30 - LNG as a bridge fuel - yea or nay?

29:00 - Names that stood out - Star Bulk Carriers (SBLK), Dorian LPG (LPG), and Scorpio Tankers (STNG)


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Eric Basmajian rejoins the Marketplace Roundtable Podcast to discuss his investing experience as reflected in the EPB Macro Research service.
Basmajian's approach is to separate the economy into two main phases: periods where growth is accelerating versus periods where growth is decelerating. "What's nice about that approach is it's pretty objective," says Eric. "There's no opinion in an acceleration or a deceleration; it's more of a fact-based characterization."
During periods when growth is decelerating, his approach is to adopt a defensive investment posture characterized by an overweight allocation to fixed income and defensive stocks such as utilities, health care, and consumer staples. When growth accelerates, Eric over-allocates to more cyclical, risk-sensitive stocks and away from fixed income.
How to correctly identify the inflection points in the economic cycle? EPB uses a process of leading indicators and then adopts its investment approach based on these metrics. Right now, "the market is starting to try to shift to a stage of acceleration," marked by an outperformance of cyclical assets.
But the leading indicators do not corroborate this sentiment. "We still have an industrial slowdown," which carries its own sets of risks, specifically employment. Here, leading indicators "are actually moving to the lowest growth rate since 2009." The loss of jobs, particularly in manufacturing, is preventing EPB from assigning the "all clear" signal for buying risk assets.
To navigate these risks, investors should allocate to the short-end of the yield curve. There are several short-term Treasury ETFs that can accomplish this. Industrial and material stocks should best be avoided, as should shares of cyclical companies.
Contents:

2:15 - Discuss your approach to investing

4:00 - What's our status in the current cycle?

6:45 - What about the argument that manufacturing is not as important anymore?

9:45 - Is there any hope for a resurgence in manufacturing?

11:30 - Important leading indicators

17:00 - Outlook for interest rates and global growth

24:15 - Concerns about the market/portfolio

29:45 - Recommended investments


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Joe Albano rejoins the Marketplace Roundtable Podcast to discuss his investing experience as reflected in his Tech Cache service.
Albano's strategy is a hybrid of fundamental and technical methods. He focuses mostly on technology stocks, an industry he knows well from his life pre-Seeking Alpha. Albano has a university degree in computer and electrical engineering but says he is mostly self-taught when it comes to understanding chips and software.
Favorite ideas include Nvidia (NVDA) and other semiconductors, as well as Snapchat (SNAP).
Topics Covered

2:15 - Investing strategy

5:30 - What did you do before you started writing for SA?

7:15 - How did you get into investing?

9:00 - Key lesson learned

10:00 - Something new learned this year

11:45 - Technology forecast

14:00 - AI discussion

16:30 - Something that worrisome about the market right now

17:45 - What give you confidence in your approach?

19:00 - View on GoPro (GPRO)

20:15 - Favorite ideas - Nvidia (NVDA) and Snap Inc. (SNAP)


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Michael Wiggins de Oliveira rejoins the Marketplace Roundtable Podcast to discuss his investing experience as reflected in his Deep Value Returns service.
As the name of his research service suggests, Wiggins de Oliveira specializes in deep value, focusing on companies that generate strong free cash flow. His model is Warren Buffett's run from 1956 to 1969 when Buffett generated 30% annual returns for his partnership. The idea is to buy companies that are out of favor and cheap.
This is difficult to accomplish today when most equity markets are richly valued. This requires investors to even more selective than usual. It is important to scrutinize a company's balance sheet carefully and think about the business' long term prospects. "You need to know that the business itself, the enterprise, should have a huge staying power, three, five, 10 years down the road," Wiggins de Oliveira says.
The boom in passive investing funds is one item of concern at present. The result of the proliferation of passive funds is that a lot of companies' shares get purchased by virtue of inclusion in an ETF or index, and not because of the underlying value of its business. "At some point when this bubble pops and a lot of retail investors come out of passive funds it's going to be a difficult environment with mass selling," Wiggins de Oliveira says. While passive funds are certainly important in many ways, "I'm not sure retail investors are going to be able to withstand the downturn when it comes. And it will come."
For his part, Wiggins de Oliveira, has "stuck to my guns" and doing his utmost to be very careful with capital deployment. Even cheap value stocks can go down in price but at some point they do hit a bottom. 
Topics Covered
2:00 minute mark - Investing strategy

3:45 - Important lesson learned about investing

7:00 - View of the current market and outlook

11:00 - Are there many companies that don't pay dividends and also don't repurchase shares?

14:45 - Concerns about the market/portfolio

18:00 - What gives you confidence in your approach?

21:30 - Favorite ideas (BBBY) (IPI)


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Bill Gunderson, founder of Gunderson Capital Management, joins the Marketplace Roundtable Podcast to discuss his investing experience as reflected in the Best Stocks Now! Premium service.
Gunderson has been a professional money manager for 22 years and finds investors generally fall into one of two camps: value investors or "more from the cam, slam, momentum" school of thought. Gunderson finds himself "right in the middle," combining value with "momentum, alpha, and performance."
One integral lesson he's learned in his career is that "stocks and indexes follow earnings." This explains why the market has gone up for 10 years and counting. This year the S&P 500 is on track to make $165 per share, compared to $58 in 2009 when the rally began. Next year the consensus is for $180 per share, or 9% higher than this year, which according to Gunderson's expectations should translate into a level above 3,200 for the S&P 500 in coming months.
As earnings season kicks off, he is keeping an eye out for companies that begin to stray from the course that was projected. Last earnings season it was Netflix (NFLX), which caused Gunderson to sell his shares in the streaming services company. China trade talks are "the biggest cloud hanging over the market," but Gunderson expects a resolution by the end of the year or sooner. "It's just gotta happen," he says. "Not getting a resolution or some real big question mark over the election coming up -- I think those are the biggest factors."
Favorite ideas include Charter Communications (CHTR), "a cable company so disliked by their customers they had to change their name." Gunderson has a big position in CHTR and remains bullish as earnings expectations increase. He recently wrote about Lululemon Athletica (LULU), which has "a very strong history of beating earnings," and likes Chipotle (CMG), Dexcom (DXCM), and Insulet Corp (PODD), among others.
Topics covered:

2:00 - Describe your investing style

3:15 - Key lesson learned

4:00 - Assessment of current market, particularly in light of earnings

7:15 - Any sector you focus on?

10:00 - Anything that currently scares you about the markets?

11:00 - Thoughts on Zuckerberg vs. Warren

12:30 - Favorite stock ideas. (CHTR) (LULU) (CMG) (DXCM) (PODD) (BX)


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Today's guest on The Marketplace Roundtable Podcast is the Founder, President and Director of Research & ETFs at Hoya Capital Real Estate, Alex Pettee. Hoya Capital Real Estate is a Connecticut-based registered investment advisor that is working to make real estate investing more accessible to all investors. In that vein, Hoya Capital advises ETFs and individual accounts by investing in portfolios of publicly traded commercial and residential real estate companies.
Alex also goes by the moniker Hoya Capital Real Estate here at Seeking Alpha. He’s been a contributing author since 2015 - around the time he founded Hoya Capital - building up a following of more than 12,000 investors with his unparalleled analysis of the U.S. real estate market. In August, he joined the team at the iREIT on Alpha marketplace service, run by Brad Thomas, to provide the macro side of the real estate investing equation.
In March of this year, Alex launched the Hoya Capital Housing ETF (HOMZ), which is really the first fund to offer exposure to the entire U.S. housing market in a single fund. Alex and I cover the U.S. housing market from both a top-down and bottom-up perspective including how the macro analysis he provides to iREIT on Alpha is a great compliment to the single name analysis Brad Thomas specializes in.
Topics covered:
2:45- Hoya Capital’s Backstory: How did Alex become “obsessed” with real estate as an asset class and come to launch the Hoya Capital Housing ETF.5:30 - A year of firsts: Alex joins the iREIT on Alpha Seeking Alpha Marketplace service as the “Macro real estate” specialist.10:15 - Lower rates vs. recession concerns: Which trend has the upper hand in the U.S. housing market?18:00- When will the backlog of “deferred household formations” among Gens X and Y finally enter the housing market?22:00 - Viewing current homebuilder valuations in light of the massive run-up YTD (XHB) (ITB).25:00- Current dynamics in the rental market (REZ).29:30- HOMZ - The entire U.S. housing market in a single ETF.32:30- Looking under the hood: Understanding sector caps and weightings within HOMZ.37:00 - HOMZ: More of a capital appreciation or an income play?40:15 - Creating an ex-U.S. equivalent to HOMZ is harder than it seems.43:00 - In search of a higher quality higher-yield real estate product.
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Michael Kramer, founder of Mott Capital Management, joins the Marketplace Roundtable Podcast to discuss his investing experience as reflected in the Reading the Markets service.
On the whole, he is "very bullish on the equity market," believing another up leg to be imminent that will be reminiscent of the late 2016 to early 2018 period. For 2020, he has a target valuation of 3,400 for the S&P 500, corresponding to an increase of about 10% to 15% from current levels. He also shares some of his top picks.
Topics Covered:2:00 - Investing strategy/key lesson6:15 - Something new learned over the past year8:15 - View of macro picture15:00 - Thoughts on equity market sectors19:45 - Anything that scares you about the markets or your portfolio?20:45 - Something that gives you confidence23:00 - Concerns about recession, inflation, manufacturing?25:00 - Favorite ideas (DIS) (NFLX) (T) (SQ) (AMD)
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Thomas Lott, an adherent to Graham and Dodd/Buffett style investing, joins the Marketplace Roundtable Podcast to discuss his strategy as reflected in the Cash Flow Compounders service.
Lott seeks companies that have the ability to compound earnings per share better than market rates over an extended period of time. In this case at least 8%, which is more than the 6% annual average in the S&P 500 since 2015.
It's not just about earnings growth, however. Investment-grade balance sheets, higher return on equity, high margins, and stocks that didn't lose material value during the Great Recession are additional factors that go into Lott's screen. Right now he has a list of "about 100 names" that he considers "best in class" and an additional list of 200 second-tier stocks.
The critical decision is choosing an entry point for investing. Here Lott tracks prices to identify when stocks trade cheaply "to their typical trading patterns." He ranks the 100 names on a daily basis using "four or five metrics" and then does more fundamental work "to figure out if this is something I want to own."
Right now, Lott sees markets "kind of at an inflection point" where there could soon be a shift from growth back to value stocks. One of his favorite ideas right now is Wabtec Corp. (WAB), a manufacturer of locomotives and locomotive parts that recently acquired GE Transportation. There are several factors that go into his thesis, all of which are discussed on the podcast starting around 19:31.

Topics Covered

2:00 minute mark - Investing strategy7:00 - How much does balance sheet factor in to your analysis?8:15 - What have you learned during your investing career that you find valuable right now?10:30 - Lessons from the past year13:45 - Something that scares you about markets/portfolio right now?15:15 - Something that gives you confidence?17:00 - Are you concerned that "safer" stocks could also be punished in a recession related sell-off?19:30 - Favorite ideas. (DELL) (WAB) (CMCSA) 
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