Portia Capital Management

05/01/2024

As many of you are aware, our firm has managed the investments for a Louisiana private foundation for many years. Last week, I finally got the chance to see some of the ways that their yearly distributions have impacted their community.

The first three pictures are of the FIRST preschool in their community. Within a short period of time, the preschool was full. So many small children are on the waiting list, that another building is being constructed. The foundation paid for both buildings, as well as a playground. (Approximately $400,000).

The last two pictures were taken at a youth center that the foundation established several years back, and continues to fund. This facility provides a supportive after-school environment for teenagers. Open year-round, the kids participate in athletic and artistic activities. In addition, much-needed meals are provided. For many, the center is the only place where they are listened to and encouraged.

These examples are just a few of the organizations that the Louisiana foundation funds. Each year, their distributions also support nine elementary schools, a technical school, community outreaches, churches and municipal support. To say that this foundation is the lifeblood of its community is not an understatement.

02/16/2024

On Tuesday, February 13th, The Markets Group out of NYC held their 10th Annual Private Wealth Texas Forum in Dallas.

The forum is for family offices, RIAs, wealth managers, private banks, and asset managers in the region. It provides an opportunity for investors to hear what other professionals are thinking about current markets, as well as learn about timely investment opportunities for private and institutional clients.

I had the privilege of moderating two panel discussions on alternative investments. One of the panels discussed how alts, including private equity, private debt and hedge funds, can be used to generate meaningful risk adjusted returns for clients. The panelists for this panel were:
Rich Castleberry, Vice President of Alternatives, BOK Financial, Jason Mussetter, Regional Director of Investments, BMO Wealth Management Jay Ripley, Head of Investments, Global Endowment Management, Mike Perkins, Senior Vice President, Private Equity Specialist, Voya, Luke Oliver, Head of Climate Investments, KraneShares.

Thank you, Adena Baichan, Program Manager & Investor Relations for Markets Group, for continuing to ask me back to participate in this informative investment event.

01/25/2024

With the S&P 500 up over 27% since the beginning of last January, most would argue that things are priced to perfection and maybe it's time to sit on the sidelines. However, one could counter that within the stock market, there are still individual stocks that potentially could reward investors with upside of 10-15% over the next 12 to 15 months.

Many attractive industries outside of technology did not participate in the last 13 to 14 months upside. One of these is aviation.

The aviation industry is interesting due to the strong demand for commercial air travel and military defense.

My colleague, Paul Dykewicz of StockInvestor.com, featured aviation stocks in his January 16th column. I contributed one of my favorites, Textron Inc. (TXT), to Paul's article.

TXT is a market leader of defense and aerospace technologies and services. In addition to its leadership position, they also possess two things that are imperative for investment: strong cash flow and low leverage (or debt).

Today, January 24th, the company reported strong results and an additional $780 million in backlog/orders. In response, TXT is up over 8% today.

As I think TXT will continue providing robust revenues and earnings, the stock could be interesting on a pullback or as a candidate for averaging in.

https://loom.ly/QF8q4H4

Three aviation stocks to buy as ways to diversify offer alternatives to Boeing (NYSE: BA) amid its quality control concerns after a Jan. 5 mid-air

01/12/2024

Call it an act of serendipity or call it bad luck, but I was recently asked to contribute to a few investment columns covering defense and aerospace names.

Given the high demand for air travel as well as escalating geopolitical crises, investors may have been considering the defense and aerospace industries as sound investments.

Then the fuselage door plug on one of Boeing's 737 MAX 9 aircrafts blew out over Portland, Oregon on January 5th.

Would you have invested in Boeing before this latest tragedy? Or were you wary about wading into an already punch-drunk company? (Look at the January 3rd article in this post. Some professional analysts had Boeing rated as a "buy" before the Alaska Air tragedy.)

Maybe you were considering to "play it safe" by purchasing an aerospace and defense ETF? Are you aware that some of these ETFs own very large percentages of names like Boeing and other potential "blow-ups?" (For example, IShares US Aerospace and Defense owns over 19% of Boeing and over 17% of RTX Corporation, another bullet-ridden stock. The fund owner holds almost 40% of these two perilous stocks.)

What should an investor do now?

As always, before you buy any stock or mutual fund, know the risks and "what's under the hood." Mutual funds can lose just as much value as an individual stock.

AND, especially given the current rich market valuations, don't buy a lot of any individual stock.

It's the beginning of the earnings season.

Be careful out there!

Three National Defense Equities To Consider For 2024:
https://loom.ly/KypG5M8

Three Aerospace Investments To Avoid After Boeing 737 MAX 9 Malfunction:
https://loom.ly/zWqATIA

Three Defense And Aerospace Stocks To Buy As Wars Rage:
https://loom.ly/N7LK2Xs

Three National Defense Equities to Consider for 2024 Three national defense equities to consider for 2024 feature an exchange-traded fund (ETF) that

12/01/2023

Wednesday was earnings day for A LOT of cloud computing companies.

I gave my opinion on the upcoming results of two of them, OKTA and Salesforce (CRM), on Wednesday's Oliver Renick's Show on the Schwab Network.

Other than OKTA, most cloud computing companies' stocks have had a great 2023, and many have continued to do well in November.

The question is whether their stock prices are too optimistic, given that a potential recession could lead companies to cut their spending on technology.

Is it time to take profits in these names before the holiday season goes into full swing, or are there better ways to make money in this sector's names?
https://loom.ly/0TJX004

Cloud stocks are in focus after Okta’s (OKTA) 3Q earnings. Michelle Connell discusses the takeaways from OKTA’s most recent earnings. Its adjusted EPS came in at $0.44 versus an estimated $0.30 and revenue came in at $584M versus an estimated $559.76M. She also previews Salesfor...

10/03/2023

Have you checked your investment portfolio lately? Your bond funds have probably lost money this year. (Remember? Last year was also horrible for bonds.)

A 60/40 portfolio (60% equities, 40% bonds) is no longer the answer. More professional investors and clients realize that an allocation to alternative investments is necessary to meet investment goals.

On October 4th, I will be speaking on a panel at Financial Advisor Magazine's 11th Annual Inside Alternatives event. My fellow panelists include Matthew Andrulot of Verdence Capital Advisors and Meghan Pinchuk of Morton Wealth. We will be discussing how alternative investments can be utilized to lower risk and increase investment returns.

Thank you, Evan Siminoff, editor of Financial Advisor Magazine, for inviting me to participate.

08/18/2023

This week, I helped Paul Dykewicz of StockInvestor.com with his column focusing on defense stocks.

I selected Lockheed Martin (LMT) as my investment idea for the sector.

While the United States may want to invest less in defense, there are a few factors that are preventing significant spending cutbacks:

Technology's rapid advances require our country's defense systems to have continual upgrades and replacements.
As geo-political tensions rise, the ability to defend our country as well as our allies increases.
Recently, Jamie Dimon, the CEO of JPMorgan, was quoted as saying, "The (Ukraine) war is the most serious thing since World War II."
Lockheed Martin's F-35 Lightning is considered the best military aircraft in the United States. The company is also well known for its other defense products, including space systems. While the US government is the company's largest customer, other countries are also increasing their military spending. This will greatly benefit LMT.

Lockheed Martin's management has said that 2023 is a transition year. They are currently building a significant backlog of their products. This large backlog of orders will be manufactured, and its revenue will begin to be recognized next year.

The company stock has a dividend yield of almost 2.7%. The dividend payout has increased a healthy 8% over the last three years.

A significant upside for LMT will probably not happen until next year. Positions should be built in the stock on price weakness. In the meantime, shareholders can bank some healthy dividend payments.

https://loom.ly/Ij2Q92g

Three defense stocks to consider buying as Russia continues to wage war in Ukraine feature of the of the industry’s giants. The three defense stocks to

08/10/2023

After taking some time off, I restarted my contributions to Paul Dykewicz's StockInvestor.com column this week.

Paul's topic this week is oil and gas stocks.

As it looks like the Ukraine war will not be ending soon, price pressure on these commodities may continue in the near term. Concerns regarding Europe's ability to meet its winter energy needs are reigniting. Oil and natural gas are starting to come under some price pressure.

While the energy stocks did well in 2022, they have failed to participate this year. Some of these companies look to be poised for some upside over the next twelve to eighteen months. In the meantime, they are generating healthy dividends.

My stock pick for Paul's column was Exxon. Exxon is smart enough to diversify away from its dependence on fossil fuels. In July, the company purchased Denbury, a $4.9 billion alternative energy company based in Dallas. Denbury's focus is carbon capture and oil recovery. This purchase will not only decrease Exxon's dependence on oil but will also help smooth out the cash flow volatility that can plague the sector. The company is already a strong generator of cash flow, but Danbury should enhance this characteristic.

Stockholders of Exxon get rewarded with a healthy dividend yield of 3.4%. The company is working towards increasing this to 4% over the next few years.

https://loom.ly/ELrGARA

Three oil and gas stocks to buy as energy prices climb offer investors a way to profit as they pay increased amounts for fuel at the pump. The three oil

07/20/2023

As the earning season continues, many companies continue to show strength in revenue and profits. And this strength is not limited to the technology sector.

This leads to the following questions: Has the Federal Reserve pulled off its goal of a "soft landing" (i.e., lower inflation without losing jobs)? Is the Fed close to being finished with raising rates? As the market keeps grinding higher, one gets the impression that investors think the increase is finished or nearly finished—more news on that next week when the Fed meets Wednesday, July 26th.

This week, Oliver Renick of TD Ameritrade Network interviewed me regarding the earnings announcements of Bank of America (BAC) and Lockheed Martin (LMT). Both of these companies provided support for my thesis that the economy, in general, remains robust. (Both companies beat their revenue and earnings estimates.) However, what caught my interest were the details of Bank of America's earnings announcement. While the bank's customers are starting to slow the pace of their spending, the level of spending remains strong. Also, like the rest of the nation's largest banks, Bank of America is profiting from the higher interest rates that it can charge customers. While regional banks still have problems, the big banks are doing quite well.

Recently, it was reported that consumers' wages are now rising faster than the inflation rate. This should support continuing consumer spending on services-like travel, restaurants, and other leisure activities.

Maybe the Fed DID get it right this time...Let's hope so for job holders' sake!

Thank you, Oliver Renick and TD Ameritrade Network, for having me back. My opinion is one of many investment professionals.

&

https://loom.ly/czlfWww

Bank of America (BAC) earnings were released today, July 18th, premarket. Its adjusted EPS came in at $0.88 versus an estimated $0.84 and revenue came in at $25.20B versus an estimated $24.97B. Michelle Connell discusses this as BAC's 2Q net interest income came in at $14.2B, which is up 8%...

06/14/2023

The AI "performance train" continues, and Oracle wants to be the "Netflix of AI."

Oracle reported their earnings this week, and they handily beat their estimates. Their stock is now up 50% year-to-date and 15% in just the past week!

Two-thirds of Oracle's revenues come from their cloud infrastructure products. Companies that use AI or make AI software review millions of pieces of data. Having the ability to store that data in the "cloud" is critical, and companies are bulking up on their capacity. Oracle is thought to have the most economic cloud infrastructure platform for AI.

I provided my commentary on Oracle's results on TD Ameritrade Network on Monday, June 12th.

Thank you, Oliver Renick, for asking me back to your show!

https://loom.ly/DKlpgIc

Oracle (ORCL) has turned around with their cloud business, notes Michelle Connell. She discusses what to watch for in ORCL earnings. She talks about how ORCL's cloud infrastructure now represents 2/3 of its revenue. She mentions that Nvidia (NVDA) selected ORCL's cloud infrastructure to del...

06/09/2023

This week I was confined at home with an illness and needed a delivery from Instacart. When I answered the knock at the door, I was surprised to find two women over 70 struggling to place the bags on my doorstep. . I quickly found some cash for a tip. As I handed it to them, I commented that I admired them for doing this together. The women told me they were doing this because they needed the money. My heart sank for both.

I believe we are going to see more people over 70 working. While some may be doing it to remain active, most will be doing it out of necessity.

If clients are going to meet their retirement goals, financial advisors need to address this current economic environment of uncertainty.

I am pleased to announce that I've been asked to be one of the speakers at financial advisor magazines inside retirement conference next week.
Wednesday, June 14, I will discuss how rising interest rates and continued inflation will continue to challenge advisers as they prepare clients for retirement.

Yes, U.S. inflation rates are declining. However, the era of free money for companies and individuals is over.

This will squeeze retirees and US workers preparing for retirement on two sides: how much they can contribute and how much investment portfolios can grow.

Advisors need to help their clients reevaluate their contributions and retirement expectations.

They also need to be more defensive in their allocation strategies for clients' retirement.

Thank you, Evan Simonoff, the editor of FA-Magazine, for inviting me to speak.